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  1. Re:I don't get it... on Prank Calls Brought ICE Hotline To a Standstill, Internal Emails Show (theverge.com) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Thousands of Middle Easterners and Africans have entered the U.S. via the southern border. What's up for debate is how many of them have ties to terroristic organizations. But the existence of Arabs and other non-Hispanics among the migrants is hardly up for debate.

    It's likely and possible that a handful of the current caravan are of Middle Eastern origin. How can one say for certainty that there aren't, when there is a history of such migrant behavior?

    Regarding the funding and leadership of this group, it is also highly likely that someone with an interest in undermining the Trump Administration would at least be supportive of the caravan if not actively funding and guiding it. The obvious benefit is to create some nasty optics right before the November 6 elections: evil fascist ICE thugs gunning down helpless migrants, separating children from parents, etc.

    The Mexicans have little interest in stopping them, even though actually Mexico has very strong trespassing laws of their own and normally will arrest and hold interlopers in prison, sometimes for years. In this case, they hardly even tried. Clearly, they would like to see the U.S. embarrassed.

    It would appear that the scenario has somewhat backfired; the Republicans have seized on it as an example of Latin America's corruption and Democrat inability to formulate and support effective immigration law.

    https://www.reuters.com/articl...

  2. Crazy on Reddit CEO Ellen Pao Bans Salary Negotiations To Equalize Pay For Men, Women · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I thought she was a little off, because of her battle with her previous employer. But this is ridiculous. According to the WSJ, she is personally vetting potential candidates for their attitudes on diversity, and if a candidate says "I am not concerned about diversity" or "I don't consider diversity important" then they don't get hired. And now this salary non-negotiation thing. No one of any value is going to interview there.

    I suppose the ones who are already there are safe because if she starts firing, say, white men, she's going to eventually have a nasty lawsuit to deal with. But I know her type. She probably won't fire anyone; she'll just harass and hound them into quitting.

    I can't believe Reddit wants this person as their CEO; she's going to destroy the company.

  3. Re:I've hired people with misdemeanors before on Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT? · · Score: 1

    I was implying nothing of the sort. I was just asking a yes-no question.

    In fact I believe in giving people a second chance. However, there's a big difference between a felony and a misdemeanor, depending on the crime. A felony could be car theft (although it's classified as a misdemeanor in some states) or rape or assault.

    A misdemeanor might mean a threat of violence that was not carried out. A felony might mean a threat of violence that was carried out. Would you want to hire someone who was convicted of violent assault?

    I'm not discounting every possible person, but when you compare someone who has no record of violence with someone who has a record of violence, there's a clear distinction and an obvious preference to go with the non violent person.

    Drugs frankly are a completely different category from what I consider real crimes. We should just decriminalize or legalize drugs completely, and stop wasting time and resources on it.

    That said, if someone is a cocaine addict I definitely wouldn't want him or her in my organization, especially if he had access to valuable information or resources that he could sell to pay for his next week of fixes.

  4. Start your own business. on Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You really have very few choices. There are employers out there who actually seek out people with priors, but for the most part you're going to be frustrated in your attempts to land a job.

    Your best bet is to start your own business, for example web design or outsourced PC network maintenance. There are lots of people making a good living as free lancers.

    Once you have gotten established, which admittedly may take a couple of years of networking and marketing efforts, you may not wish to be an employee again anyway. You can set your own hours, choose your own customers, and take full charge of your life. It's not easy, and requires more skills than just showing up and doing a specific task from 9 to 5, but much more fulfilling in the long run, and few will run background checks.

    You're still going to have trouble getting loans; just work hard and build up equity, and the rest will follow. Best of luck.

  5. Re:I've hired people with misdemeanors before on Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT? · · Score: 1

    Your drug example is understandable, but would you hire a convicted felon as well?

  6. Re:Freelance/Consulting on Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT? · · Score: 2

    This is absolutely not true. Any respectable broker will thoroughly vet their contractors.

  7. Re:Clearance on Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT? · · Score: 0

    What ignorance. He's never going to get a federal security clearance.

  8. Why California? on California In the Running For Tesla Gigafactory · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised California would even be in the running. Land is expensive, taxes are high, and cost of living is among the highest in the country.

    By contrast, Arizona and Nevada have cheap land, low taxes, and low cost of living plus low labor costs.

    California's main asset is its technology population, plus access to sea ports.

    Should be interesting to see who wins. I would have thought that Mr. Musk would prefer to place his plant in a low cost region like Malaysia or south China, but I guess there are logistical and political reasons to keep it in the home country.

  9. Re:I think this is bullshit on Brendan Eich Steps Down As Mozilla CEO · · Score: 1

    Eich (and a majority of the voters in California) advocated defining marriage in the California constitution as a union between a man and woman. This would prevent same sex marriages from having the same legal standing as trad marriages, at least with regard to hospital visitation rights, next of kin status, and taxation. Neither Eich, nor the majority of people who voted yes, said anything about opposing the gay lifestyle or seeking to limit the human rights of gay people, discrimination in the work place, etc. Eich has stated that he opposes such discrimination, but obviously that wasn't sufficient for the thought police.

    The fact is, if someone like Eich can be forced to resign, then anyone is vulnerable. Some dirt digger can find something on you or me, expose it to the world virally, and you or I would be out of a job and branded for life. Be careful what you wish for.

  10. Re:Gays must stop using JS on Brendan Eich Steps Down As Mozilla CEO · · Score: 1

    Well, any person, gay or not, who agreed that Eich should quit. Lots of gay people are not OK with how he was treated.

  11. Re:I think this is bullshit on Brendan Eich Steps Down As Mozilla CEO · · Score: 1

    I am a lesbian and I still think hounding Eich for standing for Prop. 8 and threatening to boycott a cornerstone of the internet and internet development if he was CEO of the Mozilla foundation is complete and utter intolerant bullshit. I am very disappointed with people doing such things and disappointed he caved to such.

    I agree with Samantha. They hounded a good man out of their organization and now the entire community suffers, not just from the loss of his knowledge and experience but also the loss of moral high ground. This had nothing to do with gay rights. No one is against gay rights. This is about political correctness.

    I'm not likely to donate any money or time to Mozilla in the future. Lots of luck to them; they're going to need it.

  12. Re:Standing room only on Redesigned Seats Let Airlines Squeeze In More Passengers · · Score: 1

    Actually, a private tube similar to the Tokyo tube hotels would be awesome. Crawl in, close the door, and sleep or read for the entire flight. I'd take a "coffin" any day over the crappy seats they offer which are getting worse every day.

  13. Every boy used to do this on Florida Teen Expelled and Arrested For Science Experiment · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was in school, it was basically a full time job for many of us boys to figure out ways to make ever larger and more dramatic explosions happen. We used to fill trash bags full of methane from the lab, seal them with tape, then release them with a lit fuse and watch this huge fireball in the sky (I stopped before the principal took notice, so I didn't get caught:). I mean, kids just do stuff like that.

    The difference today is the zero-tolerance rules in many public schools where even a little 6-year-old boy making a shape of a gun with his hand and going "bang!" at another kid is grounds for suspension.

    As usual, bureaucracy gets it wrong. That girl should be reinstated and an apology should be issued, otherwise she'll be barred for life from many professions (albeit, as a minor theoretically her record is sealed, but in reality she's screwed).

    And racism? That was just an extra little tidbit the OP added to spice things up. Ridiculous.

  14. Re:It's a pretty neat little gadget on Review: Make: Raspberry Pi Starter Kit · · Score: 1

    It works on my desktop running OpenSuse. I went ahead and ordered an EMU XMIDI adapter from Amazon for $40. The cheap adapters seem to get overwhelmed very easily especially when sustain is on.

  15. It's a pretty neat little gadget on Review: Make: Raspberry Pi Starter Kit · · Score: 2

    I got one about a month ago from Newark. I got a ($12) case too, and that came much sooner; the Pi took about two weeks to arrive.
    Setting it up was pretty straightforward. I installed the Raspbian image to an 8gb Sd card (about $7 from Amazon), plugged the Pi directly into my router, and powered it up using one of my various microUSB chargers I have lying around.

    Then I was able to get in easily using ssh. I updated the OS, added a few utilities, and started vncserver. From that point, I could access the graphical UI from a window on my Suse desktop. SSH is faster, however; the board isn't that fast.

    I plugged in a spare bluetooth dongle that was not recognized by my Suse desktop, but the Pi recognized it properly and could see other bluetooth devices around the house. Neat!

    I then plugged in a USB wireless dongle that I had lying around, and it came right up. Now it's completely portable around the house, no longer tied to the router. I attached a cheap webcam I had gotten a while back on ebay, and I installed motion, as per a nice how-to, and immediately the Pi became a surveillance system.

    I was going to set it up in front of the house, but then I got the idea I wanted to interface it to my electronic piano in the living room. I got a $6.75 MIDI-to-USB cable and attached the Pi to the piano. Previously I had an identical cable working nicely with a midi keyboard and my Suse desktop. This one did not seem to register as a midi device; I'm going to have to find a driver, or else write some software of my own. My goal is to have a tablet-controlled midi sequencer, so that I can record midi to the Pi and play it back through the piano. A bigger project than I've had time for up to now, but I hope to get to it soon.

    It's a fun little board and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys hacking around with Linux and automating things around the house. There's probably fifty other uses for it that I haven't thought of yet.

  16. Re:Cars produce more on State Rep. Says Biking Is Not Earth Friendly Because Breathing Produces CO2 · · Score: 1

    can't edit, dammit. You are correct that eliminating CO from the atmosphere will *probably* not affect our health negatively; but I'm not sure even about that.

  17. Re:Cars produce more on State Rep. Says Biking Is Not Earth Friendly Because Breathing Produces CO2 · · Score: 1

    That's true... but the CO your cells manufacture has a very different pathway.

  18. Re:Cars produce more on State Rep. Says Biking Is Not Earth Friendly Because Breathing Produces CO2 · · Score: 1

    Perhaps you're right; I haven't read his other comments;

    Now, with regard to carbon monoxide, I was joking, myself. In fact, CO is thought to play a role in biochemical pathways, as a neurotransmitter and as an immune response. We'd be dead without it. But, I guess most people don't know that :)

  19. Re:Cars produce more on State Rep. Says Biking Is Not Earth Friendly Because Breathing Produces CO2 · · Score: 1

    I'm fairly sure that crazy jj was joking.

    Me, I'm in favor of eliminating all the CO from the atmosphere. It's just nasty.

  20. Re:Goal: A whole company of Mayers? on Mayer Terminates Yahoo's Remote Employee Policy · · Score: 2

    A seagull manager: someone who flies in, shits over everything, and leaves.

    I wonder if Mayer will end up being one of these.

  21. Re:bullet in the head on Mayer Terminates Yahoo's Remote Employee Policy · · Score: 1

    Your point is taken, but it might be better worded: "After years of watching Yahoo twitching on the gurney, Mayer is finally putting a bullet in their head."
    Otherwise, it sounds as though Mayer is the one doing the twitching on the gurney. Which I suppose she was, back in October when she was delivering her baby boy. Could have been done on a gurney.

  22. Re:Why not popular? on Wirelessly Charged Buses Being Tested Next Year · · Score: 1

    Are you figuring in the $16,000 to $18,000 cost of an economy sedan?

    Or the $24,000 for an SUV or more option-laden vehicle that many opt for (on monthly payments)?

    Even if you're paying $100 for a public transport monthly pass, it would take around 15 years to make up for purchasing a vehicle, and that's not even counting fuel, insurance, and maintenance costs. Then there's the risk to life and limb that is much lower for bus/train riders.

  23. Re:How was it broken into again? on Ask Slashdot: Inexpensive SOHO Crime Deterrence and Monitoring? · · Score: 1

    What if they're wearing ski masks or stockings over their faces? So much for high def cameras.

    The question in my mind is, what is motivating these crooks to break into this office? If it's such a lean, barebones kind of operation, I wonder what it is that makes thieves think, this room must have valuable stuff that is worth the risk?

    Maybe they should move their office to a safer neighborhood. Or, remove all the bars and obvious theft-deterrence stuff (keep the hidden cams and alarms, if they're already in place) and take the hard disks home at night. Lock down the gear such as monitors and CPUs with cables strong enough to satisfy the insurance company, don't keep a box of petty cash, empty the filing cabinet and make the company files virtual, and leave it at that.

    Or maybe let your friend's Rottweiler sleep in the office every night for a few months. The gang that's working that neighborhood will get the message and stay away.

  24. Re:maybe they read xkcd on Layoffs Hit Washington Post Mobile Team · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually that's pretty spot-on. I hate how every news organization today has to have its own downloadable app. "Welcome to the South Butt-hole Sentinel! Click OK to download our app! Or [typesize=0.001]click here to continue to site."

    I don't want to have a whole menagerie of single-site news apps of varying quality and usability. Aggregator apps such as Currents and Flipboard are a step in the right direction, but they leave me cold as well; they're weird, they pick and choose articles they think I want to see (usually off the mark) and a lot of the periodical's value is lost in translation. Among other things, the talkbacks are stripped out and these days, I find the talkbacks more entertaining and, sometimes more informative, than the original article.

  25. "nowadays"? How old are you? This has always been the way of the world. Ideals and outliers aside, journalism is not about telling the complete truth and nothing but the truth. It's about making a name for oneself, influencing decisionmakers, having power over people.

    As for "justice", this too has always been an arbitrary, agenda-driven kind of goal. This poor, depressed kid was obviously victimized by an abusive DOJ prosecutor trying to make a name for herself. His conviction would not have brought any kind of justice. All he did was unlock something that millions of college students and professors and affiliated academics already have full access to. Thirty-five years! This Ortiz is the one who should go to prison.