Similarly, if you are a closeted homosexual and some random pollster calls you on the phone and asks you what your sexual affiliation is, what would your answer be?
Sad? Perhaps. But it certainly is not the OP's fault any more than it is mine or yours. It's part of living in our modern, western civilization.
Thousands of people will die today and odds are I will not know any of them. What is the difference whether or not we have passed near each other at some point or even exchanged pleasantries over the years?
The OP never said that they were glad every one of them died or even that these people weren't important. Only, that they would not notice their absence. Just because you would recognize someone if you saw them again doesn't mean that you would notice if you didn't.
If the person who picked the tomato you have with your lunch today or sewed you slacks dies today, would you know? These people are feeding and clothing you after all, but you won't notice because you never knew them. Is it sad that they are gone? Sure, but what can your reaction be when you are not even aware of it. At the end of the day there are still tomatoes, there are still slacks, and there are still people on the sidewalk that you don't know.
Does the IOC maintain a list of the "Official ____ of the Olympics" products?
I want to be on the winning team and buy all of the products that our fine athletes will be pimping non-stop between now and the next Olympics.
Specifically, I need to know which companies they have chosen for the "official" toilet paper, ball-point pen, aerosol cheese product and galvanized roofing nails.
How many versions of the Memory Stick did Sony wind up making?
Depending on how you look at it they either made too little or too many to ruin their reputation amongst some consumers.
Interesting little story. I bought my dad a point-and-shoot camera for Christmas this year. He has a Canon DSLR but doesn't want to haul that around everywhere and was looking for something very small but with good picture quality. I got him a Sony Cyber-Shot camera because A) it got good reviews and B) I got a great deal on it.
So, on Christmas morning when he opens it up the first thing he does is looks at me, grimaces, and asks, "Does this camera take those memory-stick things?" I said no, it works with common SD media. After hearing that he was happy/relieved. It is a nice camera despite the name "Sony" on it.
So, my father, a relative Luddite compared to most of us here, knew enough about Sony to know that memory stick = overpriced, hard-to-find, proprietary equipment. That is how bad Sony f'd up. My dad was consciously avoiding Sony products because he figured they all (still) used memory sticks. Who knows how many others out there have similar beliefs -- and share them with others?
Yup. I didn't even know Nest existed until it appeared on Slashdot a few months back in regards to this lawsuit.
I now own one.
Now, anything the Nest can do other thermostats can do arguably better and certainly cheaper but they cannot do it with as much style. So we're definitely in Apple territory here. But when I buy any Honeywell thermostat it feels like a static, WYSIWYG device (well, because usually it is). The Nest feels more like a dynamic, evolving machine. They just released a new update the other day which added a few new (mostly useful) features. I like that, it's like someone else said in a blog post the other day, "I never thought I'd be getting excited about a firmware update for my thermostat!"
I can't really justify the purchase however, other than the fact that I like gadgets and I don't mind being a guinea pig.
I think there are plenty of interesting jobs out there, it's just that finding the boring ones are so much easier. I live in a midwestern town of less than 150K people. I've worked here for 17 years (2 different jobs) both doing embedded work, both small companies. There are also a few large engineering firms in the area, almost everyone goes to work for them because they are always hiring (and firing).
Most people (especially newbies) that work for the large firms end up mainly doing (my idea of) grunt work: testing, database coding and documentation. With my employers everyone codes. And, in the embedded world, code is (almost) always interesting IMHO. And there are sooo many places that need embedded developers. Any manufacturer of any electronic device needs embedded developers -- and we are surrounded by electronic devices. Yes, most of that stuff is not made in America, but enough still is that it provides plenty of jobs even here in the states. Also, embedded code now-a-days is pretty much the same as coding for the desktop. It's not like you'll being doing everything in assembly. Most use Linux or a Windows variant (CE, XP embedded, etc).
I guess my point is: Don't just apply to the big engineering/computer firms that everyone applies to. Look around in the nooks and crannies for software jobs. You'll have better odds of having much more job security, flexibility and satisfaction. And, the big firms are always your safety net if you can't find a job somewhere interesting.
It's a double-edged sword. Someone skimmed my credit card several months ago and my number went on a shopping spree at some retailers in my area. The merchants visited all had self-service terminals so the card would never have to be handed to the merchant. This way the criminal can just take a random card, reprogram it and not even bother with making sure that the name, bank, card number, etc. actually reflect what's on the stripe. Yes, having your average sales person look at a card doesn't guarantee they'll notice it's a fake but It definitely makes the criminal's life easier when it's not even part of the equation.
I will never hand a debit card (tied to my checking/savings account) to any human. I even avoid using it at self-service terminals. I use it at my bank and at my bank's ATMs and only after I've done my best to check for any 3rd party contraption attached to the ATM's card reader. While the credit card fraud has been rather painless for me, I rather not find out how long it will take to get my cash back after someone wipes out my checking account.
The American credit card system needs a serious security overhaul. The amount of money lost to fraud each year is staggering.
The popularization of curated computing... And that's all Apple's fault
Except that curated computing is exactly what game console manufacturers have been doing for the last 30+ years. This "popularization" hasn't had any negative impacts on any of my other computing platforms.
Apple is now abusing patents worse than IBM or MS ever did
I'd say that's pretty arguable. Even if it is true -- why get mad at Apple? Get mad at our joke of a patent system. Get mad at the lawyers. Get mad at our legislators. Get mad at yourself. Apple is just playing by the rules that you and I enabled by voting greedy, short-sighted morons into office.
... currently the #1 employer of ethically questionable labor.
Hmm, would like to see a source for that. Those titles are usually held by garment manufacturers and mining operations. Still, not good company to be in, eh?
The way I see it if you hated MS in the 90's you should sure as hell hate Apple now.
Fair enough. Though, personally, I was much more worried about Microsoft litigating Linux out of existence than I am about Apple getting an injunction to bar the sale of some random Samsung tablet with round corners in Lithuania.
Exactly. We use it to exert our will over every other nation on earth and then we punish them with sanctions and war if they violate any of the resolutions. When other nations try to use the U.N. to exert their influence over us or hold us to prior agreements, we just ignore them with virtually no consequences. It's a pretty sweet deal.
Thanks, that's good to know. It is interesting that UV protection has not been in there since day one (although, I imagine cataract surgery has been around for quite a while). It seems like common sense to me that if UV damages your skin that it probably isn't good for your retina either. Perhaps it was not technologically feasible at the time?
Regardless, hopefully I never need any IOLs in the first place. I was looking at a blue light product to help correct my circadian rhythm (maybe it's all snake oil, I don't know) and that's where I came across this issue with blue (high intensity) light. I'm afraid to try one of the devices out now. To me it's not worth even a 1% chance of additional eye damage just so I would (possibly) have a bit more energy in the afternoons. I guess it's something I'll talk to my eye doctor about during my next appointment.
UV light and even blue light are damaging to the retina and UV light is a major contributor to cataract formation. The replacement lens you get after surgery may not block UV light at all (currently some replacement lenses do offer UV & blue light protection).
Cataract surgery patients are advised to avoid blue light therapy products and, obviously, direct sources of UV radiation. Of course, protecting your eyes from UV radiation is generally a good idea for everyone.
As someone who has a has a Grandfather with AMD (age-related macular degeneration) and I myself have, according to a genetic test, factors that make it more likely that I too will experience AMD, I try to protect my eyes as much as possible from both UV and blue light.
Why in God's name would people shop like this at a bookstore? I mean, I can kind of understand shopping like this for furniture or appliances where you want to get a better idea of the size or quality of a product that maybe could not be gleaned from pictures. But books?? What is the advantage of browsing for books at a store (and then buying online) when you can browse online, still preview the item (albeit in a more limited fashion) and then order it from your recliner. I guess people must really like the coffee or leering at the other customers.
My problem with book stores is half the time I go look for a book they don't have it in stock anyway (granted it's usually technical stuff). "Sorry sir, we don't have that in stock but we can order it for you." Seriously, I appreciate the help, but do I look like I'm 75? (answer: no) We came to the store because we wanted it now, otherwise I would have saved myself the hassle and ordered it myself.
me: *dials ISP* isp: Hello, blah blah blah, may I have your account number? me: Yeah, blah blah blah isp: How can we help you today Mr. Blah? me: Well, I've got a bit of an emergency here, I need you to look through my web usage history and tell me what site I was on yesterday at 11:47 PM. isp: I'm sorry Mr. Blah, I don't... me: See, I'm not at my computer right now, I'm on the bus surfing from my phone and I'm trying to remember who the fine ass b*tch was that I was jerking it to last night. isp:... me: I know it was around a quarter till midnight because the rebroadcast of Charlie Rose was on the TV in the room and couldn't masturbate with Charlie Rose in my field of vision, so I had to turn the TV off. isp:... isp: I'm sorry Mr. Blah but we do not have access to that information. Is there anything else I can help you with today? me: Well, I was really hoping to get that URL before my stop which is about 5 minutes away. But, while I've got you on the line, you know, uh, I don't know if anyone has ever told you this, but you've got a really pretty voice..
Just so you know, some of these file sharing services block IPs coming from well known (often commercial) proxies. There are, of course, other sites that block IPs from proxies too which may or may not adversely affect your Internet experience while using said proxy.
The main reason to use a proxy when doing things like file sharing is to avoid detection by your ISP. Some ISPs are quite nosy and will block you from file sharing sites especially if they notice you are consuming "too much" bandwidth transferring data from those sites. In cases where your ISP is the only broadband game in town you may want to add an extra layer in between what you are doing online and the ISP and a proxy can be useful to that end. When the copyright owner complains they will complain to the operator of the proxy which then may terminate your (proxy) service but hopefully your ISP is kept out of the loop.
I would never trust a proxy to make me completely anonymous no matter where it was physically located. If you commit a serious enough crime no proxy will protect you.
Getting all money out of politics (except the news) would just mean more media-types controlling what you find out about your politicians, and therefore more politicians doing more favors for media-types.
That's why we should just pick random citizens (from the appropriate congressional districts of course) to be congressmen. No need to finance a campaign. Think of it like the draft or jury duty. I'd make the senate term 2 years like the house.
Then the president is picked randomly from the pool of retired congressmen. One 4 year term and then you are done and go back to your life.
I'd keep the Supreme Court as it is -- nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Members of congress and the President would be compensated much better than we currently pay our congress and President. This would be the incentive to take the job more seriously and not view it as such an interruption or burden.
Yeah, you would probably get some crazies in there. I'd even open it up to those with criminal records (lest 99% of the population suddenly become "criminals"). I suppose that means we could have a rapist/pedophile for a President.
I should tell you, I just came up with this idea, so, um, it's probably got at least one flaw (other than the rapist/pedophile president thing).. It would sure make politics interesting and it couldn't be much less effective (from the point of view of the people) than it currently is.
That's why connections are so important. Completely skip HR and go straight to management, you know, the people that actually put in the hiring requisition.
At my current job I knew several people that worked in the company. They talked to their manager, passed along my resume (no HR required) and the manager arranged for an interview with me. The interview went well and the manager told HR to hire me. If I went through HR I never would have got the job. I could tell HR wasn't even too thrilled with me when they did my orientation. F*ck 'em.
Speaking of HR... Today if we want to hire someone we pretty much have to go out and do it ourselves. HR barely even attends to the needs of the currently employed (question about your 401k? vacation policies? medical insurance coverage? -- we'll get back to you on that), I'm not sure if they even have the ability to interview potential new-hires.
I worked at a small (~120 employees) engineering company in the Midwest. Our building was in a new industrial park on the outskirts of a small metropolitan area. I can't remember the exact date this happened but it would have been near 2000.
Apparently someone from California (well, that is where the call came from) was hacking PBXs and he got into ours (which had no security in place -- no, I wasn't IT). Instead of milking it for free calls he (I'm assuming a male) decided to call in a prank office shooting. He called 911 from our system and told the dispatcher that someone or some group were in the building shooting people. He even played clips of screaming and gunshots in the background.
Needless to say, the entire police force showed up to our industrial park. One officer was in such a hurry that his "brakes went out" when he tried to corner and instead ended up in the glass-enclosed display area of a nearby home remodeling outfit.
The police observed the building for a while (we had a large, open 2 story glassed-in reception area) and noticed that everything seemed normal. The sent an officer up in full swat gear to the door and the receptionist was quite surprised to see him. Eventually, they figured out that there were no shooters and that someone outside of the building had made the call.
Of course, I was told all of this after the fact as I was in my cubicle with headphones on and didn't know any of this had happened.
Not sure if they ever caught the people responsible but it is a good story.
What I wouldn't have given to have my parents let an Atari 2600, an NES, or an Apple II babysit me. No, instead I had go outside and do chores, do dishes, clean my room, clean everyone else's room, do my homework, finish eating my food, monitor the reactor core, etc. Seriously, In the summer I had to go to bed when it was still light outside (and no, I didn't live in Alaska). Do kids even have bedtimes anymore?
Oh to be left alone by my legal guardians to sit and veg in front of an electronic device... We are chastising these parents?! These parents are heroes!
Well, not much. This is primarily going to hurt German retailers which is why you probably will not see an outright ban on the sale of iPhones and iPods. If you don't think people will be driving to, riding to, flying to, or ordering from other countries to get their Apple gadgets, think again. Apple products draw a lot of water and it's something people are buying regardless of the relatively poor state of the western economy.
I am sure he meant that he tried to build a computer and it came out looking like something that does not resemble a computer. Instead of saying, "something that does not resemble a computer," he said, "skateboard." In other words, he was intimating that he sucked at it.
I really liked, but never owned, the RX-7. I thought I'd get an RX-8 when they were announced. Call me shallow but I just didn't like the look of the car. I really don't like the protruding front fenders. Actually, I really don't like the whole front end. From an aesthetic point of view I prefer the RX-7 (3rd gen) over the RX-8 but to each his own.
I can't wait until Rev. Phelps dies. Hopefully his funeral will be the party all others will eventually be judged by. I hope it's like Mardi Gras, the NYC gay pride march and burning man rolled into one. I've already got vacation and airfare set aside for it.
And before you say that Jobs contributed more than any individual one of them, let me ask: do you really even know how many of his contributions were truly his, and not his underlings'?
Doesn't matter. Being a great leader or CEO isn't about coming up with great ideas, it's about recognizing them.
I can't trust the code that I did totally create myself, either.
When was the last time any of us totally created code? I've been coding to various operating system APIs for a long, long time. Even back in the DOS days I made quite a few DOS and BIOS calls. We use(d) lots of 3rd party libraries for various things. Not to mention the libraries that come with your compiler/IDE.
I'm pretty sure I've never totally created any runtime code. Maybe some useless crap I did back in an assembler class would count?
I did have a radio-shack 8-bit processor kit when I was a kid though. That was all machine language (there was no ROM or non-volatile storage). However, I still had to trust that the opcodes did what they were supposed to do. Intel (and others) have shown us you can't even count on that all of the time.
No, licensed engineers just cover their asses better.
Or do you think the engineer should be held liable when someone parks a 30 ton vehicle on a bridge rated for 10 tons and the bridge fails? Well, then why should a software developer be held liable when the software asks you to enter your name and, instead, you feed it data which causes a buffer overrun which allows you to root the database server and steal everyone's credit card numbers? If you would have just entered your name correctly that never would have happened. A clear case of misuse if I ever saw one.
I think software developers should be liable but the liabilities need to be defined first. And if someone hacks the software outside of the scope of the security standards and practices that have been set by the government, put in place correctly by the developer and verified by the assigned regulatory bodies then there is no liability if something goes wrong.
Meanwhile the cost and time required to develop software will skyrocket. If you need any evidence of that, just look at how much time and money it takes to build a bridge these days.
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Similarly, if you are a closeted homosexual and some random pollster calls you on the phone and asks you what your sexual affiliation is, what would your answer be?
Sad? Perhaps. But it certainly is not the OP's fault any more than it is mine or yours. It's part of living in our modern, western civilization.
Thousands of people will die today and odds are I will not know any of them. What is the difference whether or not we have passed near each other at some point or even exchanged pleasantries over the years?
The OP never said that they were glad every one of them died or even that these people weren't important. Only, that they would not notice their absence. Just because you would recognize someone if you saw them again doesn't mean that you would notice if you didn't.
If the person who picked the tomato you have with your lunch today or sewed you slacks dies today, would you know? These people are feeding and clothing you after all, but you won't notice because you never knew them. Is it sad that they are gone? Sure, but what can your reaction be when you are not even aware of it. At the end of the day there are still tomatoes, there are still slacks, and there are still people on the sidewalk that you don't know.
Does the IOC maintain a list of the "Official ____ of the Olympics" products?
I want to be on the winning team and buy all of the products that our fine athletes will be pimping non-stop between now and the next Olympics.
Specifically, I need to know which companies they have chosen for the "official" toilet paper, ball-point pen, aerosol cheese product and galvanized roofing nails.
TIA!
How many versions of the Memory Stick did Sony wind up making?
Depending on how you look at it they either made too little or too many to ruin their reputation amongst some consumers.
Interesting little story. I bought my dad a point-and-shoot camera for Christmas this year. He has a Canon DSLR but doesn't want to haul that around everywhere and was looking for something very small but with good picture quality. I got him a Sony Cyber-Shot camera because A) it got good reviews and B) I got a great deal on it.
So, on Christmas morning when he opens it up the first thing he does is looks at me, grimaces, and asks, "Does this camera take those memory-stick things?" I said no, it works with common SD media. After hearing that he was happy/relieved. It is a nice camera despite the name "Sony" on it.
So, my father, a relative Luddite compared to most of us here, knew enough about Sony to know that memory stick = overpriced, hard-to-find, proprietary equipment. That is how bad Sony f'd up. My dad was consciously avoiding Sony products because he figured they all (still) used memory sticks. Who knows how many others out there have similar beliefs -- and share them with others?
Yup. I didn't even know Nest existed until it appeared on Slashdot a few months back in regards to this lawsuit.
I now own one.
Now, anything the Nest can do other thermostats can do arguably better and certainly cheaper but they cannot do it with as much style. So we're definitely in Apple territory here. But when I buy any Honeywell thermostat it feels like a static, WYSIWYG device (well, because usually it is). The Nest feels more like a dynamic, evolving machine. They just released a new update the other day which added a few new (mostly useful) features. I like that, it's like someone else said in a blog post the other day, "I never thought I'd be getting excited about a firmware update for my thermostat!"
I can't really justify the purchase however, other than the fact that I like gadgets and I don't mind being a guinea pig.
I think there are plenty of interesting jobs out there, it's just that finding the boring ones are so much easier. I live in a midwestern town of less than 150K people. I've worked here for 17 years (2 different jobs) both doing embedded work, both small companies. There are also a few large engineering firms in the area, almost everyone goes to work for them because they are always hiring (and firing).
Most people (especially newbies) that work for the large firms end up mainly doing (my idea of) grunt work: testing, database coding and documentation. With my employers everyone codes. And, in the embedded world, code is (almost) always interesting IMHO. And there are sooo many places that need embedded developers. Any manufacturer of any electronic device needs embedded developers -- and we are surrounded by electronic devices. Yes, most of that stuff is not made in America, but enough still is that it provides plenty of jobs even here in the states. Also, embedded code now-a-days is pretty much the same as coding for the desktop. It's not like you'll being doing everything in assembly. Most use Linux or a Windows variant (CE, XP embedded, etc).
I guess my point is: Don't just apply to the big engineering/computer firms that everyone applies to. Look around in the nooks and crannies for software jobs. You'll have better odds of having much more job security, flexibility and satisfaction. And, the big firms are always your safety net if you can't find a job somewhere interesting.
It's a double-edged sword. Someone skimmed my credit card several months ago and my number went on a shopping spree at some retailers in my area. The merchants visited all had self-service terminals so the card would never have to be handed to the merchant. This way the criminal can just take a random card, reprogram it and not even bother with making sure that the name, bank, card number, etc. actually reflect what's on the stripe. Yes, having your average sales person look at a card doesn't guarantee they'll notice it's a fake but It definitely makes the criminal's life easier when it's not even part of the equation.
I will never hand a debit card (tied to my checking/savings account) to any human. I even avoid using it at self-service terminals. I use it at my bank and at my bank's ATMs and only after I've done my best to check for any 3rd party contraption attached to the ATM's card reader. While the credit card fraud has been rather painless for me, I rather not find out how long it will take to get my cash back after someone wipes out my checking account.
The American credit card system needs a serious security overhaul. The amount of money lost to fraud each year is staggering.
The popularization of curated computing ... And that's all Apple's fault
Except that curated computing is exactly what game console manufacturers have been doing for the last 30+ years. This "popularization" hasn't had any negative impacts on any of my other computing platforms.
Apple is now abusing patents worse than IBM or MS ever did
I'd say that's pretty arguable. Even if it is true -- why get mad at Apple? Get mad at our joke of a patent system. Get mad at the lawyers. Get mad at our legislators. Get mad at yourself. Apple is just playing by the rules that you and I enabled by voting greedy, short-sighted morons into office.
Hmm, would like to see a source for that. Those titles are usually held by garment manufacturers and mining operations. Still, not good company to be in, eh?
The way I see it if you hated MS in the 90's you should sure as hell hate Apple now.
Fair enough. Though, personally, I was much more worried about Microsoft litigating Linux out of existence than I am about Apple getting an injunction to bar the sale of some random Samsung tablet with round corners in Lithuania.
Exactly. We use it to exert our will over every other nation on earth and then we punish them with sanctions and war if they violate any of the resolutions. When other nations try to use the U.N. to exert their influence over us or hold us to prior agreements, we just ignore them with virtually no consequences. It's a pretty sweet deal.
Thanks, that's good to know. It is interesting that UV protection has not been in there since day one (although, I imagine cataract surgery has been around for quite a while). It seems like common sense to me that if UV damages your skin that it probably isn't good for your retina either. Perhaps it was not technologically feasible at the time?
Regardless, hopefully I never need any IOLs in the first place. I was looking at a blue light product to help correct my circadian rhythm (maybe it's all snake oil, I don't know) and that's where I came across this issue with blue (high intensity) light. I'm afraid to try one of the devices out now. To me it's not worth even a 1% chance of additional eye damage just so I would (possibly) have a bit more energy in the afternoons. I guess it's something I'll talk to my eye doctor about during my next appointment.
UV light and even blue light are damaging to the retina and UV light is a major contributor to cataract formation. The replacement lens you get after surgery may not block UV light at all (currently some replacement lenses do offer UV & blue light protection).
Cataract surgery patients are advised to avoid blue light therapy products and, obviously, direct sources of UV radiation. Of course, protecting your eyes from UV radiation is generally a good idea for everyone.
As someone who has a has a Grandfather with AMD (age-related macular degeneration) and I myself have, according to a genetic test, factors that make it more likely that I too will experience AMD, I try to protect my eyes as much as possible from both UV and blue light.
Why in God's name would people shop like this at a bookstore? I mean, I can kind of understand shopping like this for furniture or appliances where you want to get a better idea of the size or quality of a product that maybe could not be gleaned from pictures. But books?? What is the advantage of browsing for books at a store (and then buying online) when you can browse online, still preview the item (albeit in a more limited fashion) and then order it from your recliner. I guess people must really like the coffee or leering at the other customers.
My problem with book stores is half the time I go look for a book they don't have it in stock anyway (granted it's usually technical stuff). "Sorry sir, we don't have that in stock but we can order it for you." Seriously, I appreciate the help, but do I look like I'm 75? (answer: no) We came to the store because we wanted it now, otherwise I would have saved myself the hassle and ordered it myself.
me: *dials ISP* ... ...
isp: Hello, blah blah blah, may I have your account number?
me: Yeah, blah blah blah
isp: How can we help you today Mr. Blah?
me: Well, I've got a bit of an emergency here, I need you to look through my web usage history and tell me what site I was on yesterday at 11:47 PM.
isp: I'm sorry Mr. Blah, I don't...
me: See, I'm not at my computer right now, I'm on the bus surfing from my phone and I'm trying to remember who the fine ass b*tch was that I was jerking it to last night.
isp:
me: I know it was around a quarter till midnight because the rebroadcast of Charlie Rose was on the TV in the room and couldn't masturbate with Charlie Rose in my field of vision, so I had to turn the TV off.
isp:
isp: I'm sorry Mr. Blah but we do not have access to that information. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
me: Well, I was really hoping to get that URL before my stop which is about 5 minutes away. But, while I've got you on the line, you know, uh, I don't know if anyone has ever told you this, but you've got a really pretty voice..
Just so you know, some of these file sharing services block IPs coming from well known (often commercial) proxies. There are, of course, other sites that block IPs from proxies too which may or may not adversely affect your Internet experience while using said proxy.
The main reason to use a proxy when doing things like file sharing is to avoid detection by your ISP. Some ISPs are quite nosy and will block you from file sharing sites especially if they notice you are consuming "too much" bandwidth transferring data from those sites. In cases where your ISP is the only broadband game in town you may want to add an extra layer in between what you are doing online and the ISP and a proxy can be useful to that end. When the copyright owner complains they will complain to the operator of the proxy which then may terminate your (proxy) service but hopefully your ISP is kept out of the loop.
I would never trust a proxy to make me completely anonymous no matter where it was physically located. If you commit a serious enough crime no proxy will protect you.
Getting all money out of politics (except the news) would just mean more media-types controlling what you find out about your politicians, and therefore more politicians doing more favors for media-types.
That's why we should just pick random citizens (from the appropriate congressional districts of course) to be congressmen. No need to finance a campaign. Think of it like the draft or jury duty. I'd make the senate term 2 years like the house.
Then the president is picked randomly from the pool of retired congressmen. One 4 year term and then you are done and go back to your life.
I'd keep the Supreme Court as it is -- nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Members of congress and the President would be compensated much better than we currently pay our congress and President. This would be the incentive to take the job more seriously and not view it as such an interruption or burden.
Yeah, you would probably get some crazies in there. I'd even open it up to those with criminal records (lest 99% of the population suddenly become "criminals"). I suppose that means we could have a rapist/pedophile for a President.
I should tell you, I just came up with this idea, so, um, it's probably got at least one flaw (other than the rapist/pedophile president thing).. It would sure make politics interesting and it couldn't be much less effective (from the point of view of the people) than it currently is.
That's why connections are so important. Completely skip HR and go straight to management, you know, the people that actually put in the hiring requisition.
At my current job I knew several people that worked in the company. They talked to their manager, passed along my resume (no HR required) and the manager arranged for an interview with me. The interview went well and the manager told HR to hire me. If I went through HR I never would have got the job. I could tell HR wasn't even too thrilled with me when they did my orientation. F*ck 'em.
Speaking of HR... Today if we want to hire someone we pretty much have to go out and do it ourselves. HR barely even attends to the needs of the currently employed (question about your 401k? vacation policies? medical insurance coverage? -- we'll get back to you on that), I'm not sure if they even have the ability to interview potential new-hires.
I worked at a small (~120 employees) engineering company in the Midwest. Our building was in a new industrial park on the outskirts of a small metropolitan area. I can't remember the exact date this happened but it would have been near 2000.
Apparently someone from California (well, that is where the call came from) was hacking PBXs and he got into ours (which had no security in place -- no, I wasn't IT). Instead of milking it for free calls he (I'm assuming a male) decided to call in a prank office shooting. He called 911 from our system and told the dispatcher that someone or some group were in the building shooting people. He even played clips of screaming and gunshots in the background.
Needless to say, the entire police force showed up to our industrial park. One officer was in such a hurry that his "brakes went out" when he tried to corner and instead ended up in the glass-enclosed display area of a nearby home remodeling outfit.
The police observed the building for a while (we had a large, open 2 story glassed-in reception area) and noticed that everything seemed normal. The sent an officer up in full swat gear to the door and the receptionist was quite surprised to see him. Eventually, they figured out that there were no shooters and that someone outside of the building had made the call.
Of course, I was told all of this after the fact as I was in my cubicle with headphones on and didn't know any of this had happened.
Not sure if they ever caught the people responsible but it is a good story.
..are living in some sort of F'ing fantasy land!
What I wouldn't have given to have my parents let an Atari 2600, an NES, or an Apple II babysit me. No, instead I had go outside and do chores, do dishes, clean my room, clean everyone else's room, do my homework, finish eating my food, monitor the reactor core, etc. Seriously, In the summer I had to go to bed when it was still light outside (and no, I didn't live in Alaska). Do kids even have bedtimes anymore?
Oh to be left alone by my legal guardians to sit and veg in front of an electronic device... We are chastising these parents?! These parents are heroes!
Well, not much. This is primarily going to hurt German retailers which is why you probably will not see an outright ban on the sale of iPhones and iPods. If you don't think people will be driving to, riding to, flying to, or ordering from other countries to get their Apple gadgets, think again. Apple products draw a lot of water and it's something people are buying regardless of the relatively poor state of the western economy.
I am sure he meant that he tried to build a computer and it came out looking like something that does not resemble a computer. Instead of saying, "something that does not resemble a computer," he said, "skateboard." In other words, he was intimating that he sucked at it.
I really liked, but never owned, the RX-7. I thought I'd get an RX-8 when they were announced. Call me shallow but I just didn't like the look of the car. I really don't like the protruding front fenders. Actually, I really don't like the whole front end. From an aesthetic point of view I prefer the RX-7 (3rd gen) over the RX-8 but to each his own.
I can't wait until Rev. Phelps dies. Hopefully his funeral will be the party all others will eventually be judged by. I hope it's like Mardi Gras, the NYC gay pride march and burning man rolled into one. I've already got vacation and airfare set aside for it.
And before you say that Jobs contributed more than any individual one of them, let me ask: do you really even know how many of his contributions were truly his, and not his underlings'?
Doesn't matter. Being a great leader or CEO isn't about coming up with great ideas, it's about recognizing them.
I can't trust the code that I did totally create myself, either.
When was the last time any of us totally created code? I've been coding to various operating system APIs for a long, long time. Even back in the DOS days I made quite a few DOS and BIOS calls. We use(d) lots of 3rd party libraries for various things. Not to mention the libraries that come with your compiler/IDE.
I'm pretty sure I've never totally created any runtime code. Maybe some useless crap I did back in an assembler class would count?
I did have a radio-shack 8-bit processor kit when I was a kid though. That was all machine language (there was no ROM or non-volatile storage). However, I still had to trust that the opcodes did what they were supposed to do. Intel (and others) have shown us you can't even count on that all of the time.
No, licensed engineers just cover their asses better.
Or do you think the engineer should be held liable when someone parks a 30 ton vehicle on a bridge rated for 10 tons and the bridge fails? Well, then why should a software developer be held liable when the software asks you to enter your name and, instead, you feed it data which causes a buffer overrun which allows you to root the database server and steal everyone's credit card numbers? If you would have just entered your name correctly that never would have happened. A clear case of misuse if I ever saw one.
I think software developers should be liable but the liabilities need to be defined first. And if someone hacks the software outside of the scope of the security standards and practices that have been set by the government, put in place correctly by the developer and verified by the assigned regulatory bodies then there is no liability if something goes wrong.
Meanwhile the cost and time required to develop software will skyrocket. If you need any evidence of that, just look at how much time and money it takes to build a bridge these days.