Since it is popular to post "Thanks to TSA, I now drive instead of flying", I will point out that the House and Senate are currently in a showdown that likely will result in a cutoff of federal highway funding.
So I've heard all sorts of irrelevant or just plain wrong complaints about Austin.
Austin is a great place -- it has a great climate, wonderful food (especially BBQ) and beer, fun women, great live music and lots of other things to do.
The only thing wrong with Austin is that it’s surrounded by Texas.
You know, as someone who lost someone on 9/11, I disagree with your generalization that the TSA isn't viewed as having a purpose. Their skill and efficacy may be in question, but their purpose is to keep idiots from using our airlines as missiles again.
I do not intend any offense to you AC, but IMHO, your contention that we need TSA in order "to keep idiots from using our airlines as missiles again" is an incredibly offensive insult to the crew and passengers of Flight-93. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93)
The article tells us that this event happened to a railroad that (1) is in the Northwest, (2) runs scheduled trains during the workweek (Dec 1 was a Thursday) and (3) has frequent enough service that a 15 minute delay would be noticed.
It appears to me that the railroad described is either Washington State's Sounder Train (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounder_commuter_rail) or Oregon's Westside Express Service (WES) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westside_Express_Service).
They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.
Senator Paul was apparently on his way to Washington, where the Senate has votes scheduled for this afternoon. It appears that the Executive Branch (TSA) just violated Article I section 6 of the Constitution.
If photographers still see value in what Kodak offers then why aren't they buying their product?
I would be buying, but Kodak discontinued production of their wonderful Kodachrome-25 way back in 2001. Worse, the quality of the processing declined back in the late 90s.
Nobody says, "Sure, it's alright to have a cheeseburger, fries and that orange cream shake (McD's are AWESOME) every once in a while; just not everyday.
Nobody?
Here is a USA Today item titled Nutritionists salute first lady's occasional burger splurge:
Then there is the TSP which is like a very basic 401k. There are about 5 funds you can put money into. You get 1% of salary for nothing and then are matched 100% on the next 4%.
If you believe in the philosophy of index investing (wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_fund), the Thrift Savings Program (TSP) that AC mentions is a huge benefit of being a federal employee. There are only five funds to pick from, but their overhead costs are incredibly low - an order of magnitude lower than even the fees charged by Vanguard! You can kick $16,000 a year, plus another $5000 a year if you're over 55.
Since you're sharing, do you mind telling us how much vacation you get?
If all 20 years of AC's experience were in federal service, then the AC should be receiving 8 hours of vacation for every two weeks of work. Here's the link to annual leave entitlements on the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website: http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/html/annual.asp
Those 8 hours per two weeks are just for vacation/personal use; AC should also receiving sick leave accruals each pay period.
You should try heading over to Dell's website and clicking on their enterprise laptops.
Their E5420 with DVD+/-RW *starts* at $1325...and that is only with 2GB ram and 320 GB drive.... add a usable amount of RAM, a bigger HD, a second monitor for the office, bump up the battery so that our staff can stay in communication during a full cross-country flight (Delta has wifi on all its planes now), add the 5 year ProSupport with limited onsite service (+ $379), add protection for accidental damage (+ $139), add "Keep Your Hard Drive" for security reasons (+ $30), add Office Professional (+$349), add encryption software for the disk, add the anti-virus software and other security stuff we use, a VPN license, add some additional productivity software we use, etc., and we end up with a $5k laptop.... and that is before we factor in the cost of IT-salaries.
I do IT support for a company of about 800-1000 people. All of our executives and corporate staff wanna use their goddammed iPads, iPhones, Androids, and other personal wotsits or doo-dads to do their work. Enough is a-freakin-nuff! We're a corporation and we need to maintain stability and compatibility over fancy and chic. You get a laptop. With Windows. And a BlackBerry... if you're lucky.
Here's the deal: Those "goddammed iPads" and other "doo-dads" are stable and allow their users to be productive. The windows laptops and crapberries are neither stable nor do they allow the user to be as productive as do the personal "doo-dads".
More and more of the decision-makers in your company are letting their Windows laptops sit unused while they turn out productive work using their personal "doo-dads". Many of those users whom you say are "lucky" enough to be issued a Crapberry are also carrying a personal iPhone or Android for their personal calls and other personal business; they're not happy about having to carry a Crapberry because their other phone is so much more useful.
Eventually, one of those decision-makers is going to realize that their unused laptops cost your organization $5k each. They will then multiply that $5k cost per laptop by 800 to 1000 users, a lightbulb is going to go off in their head and you're going to be looking for another job.
Slashdot Mirror
Since it is popular to post "Thanks to TSA, I now drive instead of flying", I will point out that the House and Senate are currently in a showdown that likely will result in a cutoff of federal highway funding.
Here is a CNN article about the situation: http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-21/politics/politics_congress-transportation-bill_1_committee-chairman-john-mica-highway-bill-senate-democrats
And a FoxNews article: http:/// www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/24/obama-urging-congress-to-end-transportation-standoff/
And a Politico article: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74498.html
Facebook isn't the only option.
The Committee on Oversight and Reform's webpage, linked to in the article, says otherwise:
Members will solicit questions from the public via their Facebook pages to ask TSA officials at the hearing.
and do the nude-o-scopes detect hot grits poured down ones pants?
(Reminder: Congress wants to know what you really want to ask TSA.)
It should read:
Pay the TSA $100 and Bypass Airport Security Theater
Yes yes but how does it taste?
like Kermit
So I've heard all sorts of irrelevant or just plain wrong complaints about Austin.
Austin is a great place -- it has a great climate, wonderful food (especially BBQ) and beer, fun women, great live music and lots of other things to do.
The only thing wrong with Austin is that it’s surrounded by Texas.
FoxNews is covering the story:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/08/blogger-shows-world-how-to-sneak-anything-past-tsas-nude-body-scanners/
I'm impressed.
How well does Marina Sirtis hold up in the remastered version?
Then it just becomes a circular pissing contest: "The federal government withdraws all funding for interstate highways".
That's not really a threat, given that the highway trust fund is effectively bankrupt!
You know, as someone who lost someone on 9/11, I disagree with your generalization that the TSA isn't viewed as having a purpose. Their skill and efficacy may be in question, but their purpose is to keep idiots from using our airlines as missiles again.
I do not intend any offense to you AC, but IMHO, your contention that we need TSA in order "to keep idiots from using our airlines as missiles again" is an incredibly offensive insult to the crew and passengers of Flight-93. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93)
The article tells us that this event happened to a railroad that (1) is in the Northwest, (2) runs scheduled trains during the workweek (Dec 1 was a Thursday) and (3) has frequent enough service that a 15 minute delay would be noticed.
It appears to me that the railroad described is either Washington State's Sounder Train (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounder_commuter_rail) or Oregon's Westside Express Service (WES) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westside_Express_Service).
US Constitution Article I section 6
They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.
Senator Paul was apparently on his way to Washington, where the Senate has votes scheduled for this afternoon. It appears that the Executive Branch (TSA) just violated Article I section 6 of the Constitution.
If you're getting frisked, we're no longer talking about "law abiding citizens".
You just outed yourself as a white person, Azuaron.
If photographers still see value in what Kodak offers then why aren't they buying their product?
I would be buying, but Kodak discontinued production of their wonderful Kodachrome-25 way back in 2001. Worse, the quality of the processing declined back in the late 90s.
WOW,
you posted that entire comment in under 1 minute. You sir win an internet.
He could be a subscriber or saw the article in the firehose.
Vote for Ron Paul. End the TSA
If Ron Paul had been a competent Congressman, TSA would have never been created.
why are we reading stories about Nasa on some shitty "network" splog laden with adverts ?
Because we want to slashdot the shitty "network" splog, not NASA!
Thanks for pointing out that the splog was laden with adverts. Most of us wouldn't have noticed.
Nobody says, "Sure, it's alright to have a cheeseburger, fries and that orange cream shake (McD's are AWESOME) every once in a while; just not everyday.
Nobody?
Here is a USA Today item titled Nutritionists salute first lady's occasional burger splurge :
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/diet-nutrition/story/2011/07/Nutritionists-salute-first-ladys-occasional-burger-binge/49314238/1
I have also heard that her husband drinks a beer every so often...
That salary is peanuts.
The salary is for a "Graduate Assistant to Stephen Hawking".
Most Graduate Assistants don't make 38k...
Then there is the TSP which is like a very basic 401k. There are about 5 funds you can put money into. You get 1% of salary for nothing and then are matched 100% on the next 4%.
If you believe in the philosophy of index investing (wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_fund), the Thrift Savings Program (TSP) that AC mentions is a huge benefit of being a federal employee. There are only five funds to pick from, but their overhead costs are incredibly low - an order of magnitude lower than even the fees charged by Vanguard! You can kick $16,000 a year, plus another $5000 a year if you're over 55.
Thanks to the TSP, I'm getting rich slowly.
I am 40 years old with almost 20 years experience
Since you're sharing, do you mind telling us how much vacation you get?
If all 20 years of AC's experience were in federal service, then the AC should be receiving 8 hours of vacation for every two weeks of work. Here's the link to annual leave entitlements on the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website: http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/html/annual.asp
Those 8 hours per two weeks are just for vacation/personal use; AC should also receiving sick leave accruals each pay period.
Those GPS spoofers got to Slashdot too, apparantly, fooling the editors into thinking that the drone landed in Iraq.
Don't blame the editors for that one - the article submitter, McGruber, is an idiot American.
H2o. Need at least one uppercase, one lower case and one non-letter.
They should change it to H2Oiswater, in order to meet the new 10-character minimum requirement.
$5K per laptop?
What world are you living in?
Try an order of magnitude less.
You should try heading over to Dell's website and clicking on their enterprise laptops.
Their E5420 with DVD+/-RW *starts* at $1325...and that is only with 2GB ram and 320 GB drive.... add a usable amount of RAM, a bigger HD, a second monitor for the office, bump up the battery so that our staff can stay in communication during a full cross-country flight (Delta has wifi on all its planes now), add the 5 year ProSupport with limited onsite service (+ $379), add protection for accidental damage (+ $139), add "Keep Your Hard Drive" for security reasons (+ $30), add Office Professional (+$349), add encryption software for the disk, add the anti-virus software and other security stuff we use, a VPN license, add some additional productivity software we use, etc., and we end up with a $5k laptop.... and that is before we factor in the cost of IT-salaries.
I do IT support for a company of about 800-1000 people. All of our executives and corporate staff wanna use their goddammed iPads, iPhones, Androids, and other personal wotsits or doo-dads to do their work. Enough is a-freakin-nuff! We're a corporation and we need to maintain stability and compatibility over fancy and chic. You get a laptop. With Windows. And a BlackBerry... if you're lucky.
Here's the deal: Those "goddammed iPads" and other "doo-dads" are stable and allow their users to be productive. The windows laptops and crapberries are neither stable nor do they allow the user to be as productive as do the personal "doo-dads".
More and more of the decision-makers in your company are letting their Windows laptops sit unused while they turn out productive work using their personal "doo-dads". Many of those users whom you say are "lucky" enough to be issued a Crapberry are also carrying a personal iPhone or Android for their personal calls and other personal business; they're not happy about having to carry a Crapberry because their other phone is so much more useful.
Eventually, one of those decision-makers is going to realize that their unused laptops cost your organization $5k each. They will then multiply that $5k cost per laptop by 800 to 1000 users, a lightbulb is going to go off in their head and you're going to be looking for another job.