It sounds like you're not really saying Rock Star so much as pretentious developers. In a free-market a person with extraordinary skills is entitled to be paid accordingly, but that doesn't make them a jerk.
Intelligence is part nature and part nurture. Barring a global school system where everyone is taught perfectly designed curriculums along with ideal emotional environments while growing up, it'll be impossible for an entire world of identically super-intelligent people to exist.
I've very, very briefly worked with government-employed sysadmins. They're forced to adhere to many rules and regulations, and while those procedures might keep things organized day-to-day, during an emergency troubleshooting the guy doing the fix has to be able to operate freely and quickly.
I'll put my money on any civilian systems administrator to do a better job than a DHS "administrator" any day.
This has cropped up on slashdot before. Can't find the article, but it was more hand-wringing about the vulnerabilities of the American network infrastructure to enemy attack.
Granted, the nature of the Internet is to provide information access from any point in the world, and because of that it can be so easily exploited, commandeered, or broken. But I believe if the $hit ever hit the fan and the Tubes were threatened, those of us who hack and build and kludge the Code would come to its defense. Hundreds of thousands strong, I would wager a citizen-soldier army of l33t coders could well defend this country from its script-kiddie foreign enemies.
Very good point; the best system is one which a computer is a backup, a failsafe in case a human being *doesn't* react fast enough.
But at the crux of the issue, a Manual Override is *always* important. To depend on your pilots is the whole reason they're there, and if the automatic issue was why the plain went down, you need manual controls. To do otherwise smacks of distrust of pilots, which means training at large could be a widespread problem.
The term "directives" gave me a chill of terror down my spine. In "Atlas Shrugged" ludicrous anti-capitalism restrictions were enacted, ones that would never make it through congress. How? Because they weren't laws, they were "directives", basically laws that could be enacted *without* democratic process.
Let's hope this ruling get the directive off the books.
I don't usually rant, but when I see the ham-fisted arm of the Old World lashing out, my blood boils.
Authority doesn't understand group consciousness on the 'net, how it can group people together. They glom it with the 60's protest groups or terrorist cells, not seeing them as concerned groups of people protesting within the laws of the U.S.
They fear it because they don't understand it, they can't stop it or control it. They're the Old World, and can't understand the New one, so they fear it, try to find some way to control it or mitigate it.
Soon things will grow beyond their ability to control, the protests will expand beyond Scientology and attack other memes that we cannot tolerate. THAT will be when the Old world will lash out at us, when they are wounded and their ultra-conservative way of life ebbs.
We have a leader who understands that, who is aware of the internetworked world, but a conservative Republican party that is writhing as it dies and becomes confused old men. I worry about how they shall lash out when their death-knell comes, when the Young supplant the Old more drastically than ever before.
I installed Silverlight and never noticed any problems; I haven't used WMP on my laptop since I bought it. I think I've even turned off all the services that run it.
It is a sad thing when competent, faithful service is rewarded in this manner. That you've been a productive and effective member of their development group is more than evident by the fact they don't want you to leave, and your own dedication by giving them three weeks notice (something I myself have done in the past).
Such an action smacks of immaturity and short-sightedness; even after you muster out of the job, on their terms or yours, they'll probably need to ask you questions about your past projects when new developers work with them. And you won't be inclined to help.
Consider this: because of their own juvenile attempt at manipulation, if you push back they could very well fold and give in, letting you have your 3 weeks.
However considering their antics you should get a Letter of Rec *before* agreeing to anything; quitting in three weeks or three months, they'll have to provide one no matter what. And if they decide to give you a bad verbal rec, you'll always have the letter to fall back on (not to mention a good story to tell).
I was listening to the Atlas Shrugged audio book last night, and the unfettered economic chaos it warns about started just like this.
The people who could build things well, the craftsmen that created useful, necessary things, had their profit siphoned off via taxes to those who put out shoddy and useless products.
'feels right' is an arbitrary term. I base my opinion (yes, an opinion, I make no assertion to my comments being anything more than just that, personal comments) on the volume and quality of educational institutions, technology firms, and just general programming houses out there.
And I make no claim they must all be Americans; those living there and working in the technology firms would no doubt pick up arms if their Home were threatened.
As I think about it more, a True Cyberwar would most likely polarize the world the same way any world war has in the past, although there were probably be schism along political lines, i.e. China may pay some American hackers to fight for them, and perhaps some private citizen Chinese hackers would fight for other countries operating against their own government.
Forgive me if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but do any of these "pundits" realize that the Hacker citizen-soldier army of America is second to none?
And I mean Hacker in its proper form, the programmer who builds and creates and slaps code together to get the job done. China can use all the malicious code they want, pay freelancers to strike the Tubes for them, but they'll be bottom-feeders using what little crumbs of innovation drift down from real programmers.
The novel I cite in my subject heading is a science fiction story, but the ending is what I sometimes find most memorable: When the Internet comes under attack, in this scenario Mankind's last communication link, a battle cry goes out across America, the world, to gather together and fight to keep it safe.
I think that's what would happen, and when people start hemming and hawing about how vulnerable the 'Net is to attack, I remember who's out there, the people I've met on and offline.
For a sec there my eyes drifted down to the equal sign before I read the author name of the article. I thought they were comparing Walt Disney and Apple, and Microsoft with crappy animators.
At first, I was going to say just put in an micro-SD card, because it's bleeding edge tech, it's going to be increasing in data density for a long time, and you're probably not going to see anything smaller due to the limitations of the human fingers to grip things.
But then I realized: There are people still using *slide projectors*, the Cream of *1960* technology. We put a selection of slides into our class time capsule, and initially I was concerned we wouldn't be able to find a carousel slide projector for the 20th reunion, and I don't think it'll be a problem.;)
So what I'm saying is: use the most current tech there is now, and don't worry about it being completely unrecognizable in 25 years. You might need some "old" tech, but you'll most likely be okay. Especially if eBay is still around.;)
I've actually heard quite a bit about Lithium-Polymer batteries that sounds promising. I first saw one in my old Erisson T-28 cellphone, and it made the thing light as a feather.
More recently Apple is using them in the AirBook to cut down on weight. 2 big advantages of Li-P: during the construction phase you can literally pour the material into any shape you want. Also ounce for ounce it is (or was, before I heard about the Sulfur batts) the lightest battery out there.
There were some drawbacks, namely if a powerful current is accidentally sent through one the polymer explodes, not unlike juicing a capacitor. Also I heard some sketchy science about battery life, but my Ericsson battery never had to be replaced in 3 years of usage; I ended up replacing the phone first!
So are you saying that small ISPs are the victims here? If we wanted to maintain Net Neutrality, would it be best to petition them or the providers they get their bandwidth from?
I like this guys attitude. Even a guy like Branson has to accept that he answers to his customers. No matter how much money he has, make a part of his company unprofitable by jumping ship, and he'll have to cut it loose, or make changes so it'll make him money again.
Also, this brings up a very good point regarding the validity of EULAs in the face of service changes; Net Neutrality wasn't taking place at the time of service initiation, so the ISP *is* basically changing the terms of the contract.
One more grrrreat way to force them to put back the Neutrality.;)
The trick here is the 'Net was originally created as a public communications tool, funded by the *taxpayers*. It's doesn't fall to specific corporations to control how quickly data gets from point a to point b.
Since all the added components to the Internet were done by different countries around the world, it makes more sense that whomever owns the servers controls how fast data runs across those links, and most of those are government owned, funded by the *people*, so neutrality should be gaurenteed.
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like you're not really saying Rock Star so much as pretentious developers. In a free-market a person with extraordinary skills is entitled to be paid accordingly, but that doesn't make them a jerk.
>“There was no intentional, reckless or negligent misconduct by XTO.”'
Do they realize that just leaves stupidity?
> I don't want one to own me.
Did anyone check to see if he was Don Draper?
Could it be they're all being stretched as they're attracted towards one black hole?
If you can't be the best at something, screw over everyone who's better! That's the American Way!!
Intelligence is part nature and part nurture. Barring a global school system where everyone is taught perfectly designed curriculums along with ideal emotional environments while growing up, it'll be impossible for an entire world of identically super-intelligent people to exist.
"If you can put music on a compact disk, why can't you put a persons consciousness?"
-Cave Johnson
I've very, very briefly worked with government-employed sysadmins. They're forced to adhere to many rules and regulations, and while those procedures might keep things organized day-to-day, during an emergency troubleshooting the guy doing the fix has to be able to operate freely and quickly.
I'll put my money on any civilian systems administrator to do a better job than a DHS "administrator" any day.
This has cropped up on slashdot before. Can't find the article, but it was more hand-wringing about the vulnerabilities of the American network infrastructure to enemy attack.
Granted, the nature of the Internet is to provide information access from any point in the world, and because of that it can be so easily exploited, commandeered, or broken. But I believe if the $hit ever hit the fan and the Tubes were threatened, those of us who hack and build and kludge the Code would come to its defense. Hundreds of thousands strong, I would wager a citizen-soldier army of l33t coders could well defend this country from its script-kiddie foreign enemies.
Very good point; the best system is one which a computer is a backup, a failsafe in case a human being *doesn't* react fast enough.
But at the crux of the issue, a Manual Override is *always* important. To depend on your pilots is the whole reason they're there, and if the automatic issue was why the plain went down, you need manual controls. To do otherwise smacks of distrust of pilots, which means training at large could be a widespread problem.
The term "directives" gave me a chill of terror down my spine. In "Atlas Shrugged" ludicrous anti-capitalism restrictions were enacted, ones that would never make it through congress. How? Because they weren't laws, they were "directives", basically laws that could be enacted *without* democratic process.
Let's hope this ruling get the directive off the books.
Wow, you possess such a fundamental misunderstandings of the world. astounding.
Uh, okay. So what am I misunderstanding?
I don't usually rant, but when I see the ham-fisted arm of the Old World lashing out, my blood boils.
Authority doesn't understand group consciousness on the 'net, how it can group people together. They glom it with the 60's protest groups or terrorist cells, not seeing them as concerned groups of people protesting within the laws of the U.S.
They fear it because they don't understand it, they can't stop it or control it. They're the Old World, and can't understand the New one, so they fear it, try to find some way to control it or mitigate it.
Soon things will grow beyond their ability to control, the protests will expand beyond Scientology and attack other memes that we cannot tolerate. THAT will be when the Old world will lash out at us, when they are wounded and their ultra-conservative way of life ebbs.
We have a leader who understands that, who is aware of the internetworked world, but a conservative Republican party that is writhing as it dies and becomes confused old men. I worry about how they shall lash out when their death-knell comes, when the Young supplant the Old more drastically than ever before.
I installed Silverlight and never noticed any problems; I haven't used WMP on my laptop since I bought it. I think I've even turned off all the services that run it.
It is a sad thing when competent, faithful service is rewarded in this manner. That you've been a productive and effective member of their development group is more than evident by the fact they don't want you to leave, and your own dedication by giving them three weeks notice (something I myself have done in the past).
Such an action smacks of immaturity and short-sightedness; even after you muster out of the job, on their terms or yours, they'll probably need to ask you questions about your past projects when new developers work with them. And you won't be inclined to help.
Consider this: because of their own juvenile attempt at manipulation, if you push back they could very well fold and give in, letting you have your 3 weeks.
However considering their antics you should get a Letter of Rec *before* agreeing to anything; quitting in three weeks or three months, they'll have to provide one no matter what. And if they decide to give you a bad verbal rec, you'll always have the letter to fall back on (not to mention a good story to tell).
I was listening to the Atlas Shrugged audio book last night, and the unfettered economic chaos it warns about started just like this.
The people who could build things well, the craftsmen that created useful, necessary things, had their profit siphoned off via taxes to those who put out shoddy and useless products.
Eerie.
'feels right' is an arbitrary term. I base my opinion (yes, an opinion, I make no assertion to my comments being anything more than just that, personal comments) on the volume and quality of educational institutions, technology firms, and just general programming houses out there.
And I make no claim they must all be Americans; those living there and working in the technology firms would no doubt pick up arms if their Home were threatened.
As I think about it more, a True Cyberwar would most likely polarize the world the same way any world war has in the past, although there were probably be schism along political lines, i.e. China may pay some American hackers to fight for them, and perhaps some private citizen Chinese hackers would fight for other countries operating against their own government.
Forgive me if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but do any of these "pundits" realize that the Hacker citizen-soldier army of America is second to none?
And I mean Hacker in its proper form, the programmer who builds and creates and slaps code together to get the job done.
China can use all the malicious code they want, pay freelancers to strike the Tubes for them, but they'll be bottom-feeders using what little crumbs of innovation drift down from real programmers.
The novel I cite in my subject heading is a science fiction story, but the ending is what I sometimes find most memorable:
When the Internet comes under attack, in this scenario Mankind's last communication link, a battle cry goes out across America, the world, to gather together and fight to keep it safe.
I think that's what would happen, and when people start hemming and hawing about how vulnerable the 'Net is to attack, I remember who's out there, the people I've met on and offline.
And I don't worry.
For a sec there my eyes drifted down to the equal sign before I read the author name of the article. I thought they were comparing Walt Disney and Apple, and Microsoft with crappy animators.
Need more coffee. Funny tho. :)
Does anyone remember the posting from a looong time ago that showed a webserver that ran off a potato? The slashdot article was at http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/21/1947222
But that turned out to be a joke. The real deal can be seen at http://d116.com/spud/
At first, I was going to say just put in an micro-SD card, because it's bleeding edge tech, it's going to be increasing in data density for a long time, and you're probably not going to see anything smaller due to the limitations of the human fingers to grip things.
But then I realized: There are people still using *slide projectors*, the Cream of *1960* technology. We put a selection of slides into our class time capsule, and initially I was concerned we wouldn't be able to find a carousel slide projector for the 20th reunion, and I don't think it'll be a problem. ;)
So what I'm saying is: use the most current tech there is now, and don't worry about it being completely unrecognizable in 25 years. You might need some "old" tech, but you'll most likely be okay. Especially if eBay is still around. ;)
I've actually heard quite a bit about Lithium-Polymer batteries that sounds promising. I first saw one in my old Erisson T-28 cellphone, and it made the thing light as a feather.
More recently Apple is using them in the AirBook to cut down on weight. 2 big advantages of Li-P: during the construction phase you can literally pour the material into any shape you want. Also ounce for ounce it is (or was, before I heard about the Sulfur batts) the lightest battery out there.
There were some drawbacks, namely if a powerful current is accidentally sent through one the polymer explodes, not unlike juicing a capacitor. Also I heard some sketchy science about battery life, but my Ericsson battery never had to be replaced in 3 years of usage; I ended up replacing the phone first!
So are you saying that small ISPs are the victims here? If we wanted to maintain Net Neutrality, would it be best to petition them or the providers they get their bandwidth from?
I like this guys attitude. Even a guy like Branson has to accept that he answers to his customers. No matter how much money he has, make a part of his company unprofitable by jumping ship, and he'll have to cut it loose, or make changes so it'll make him money again.
;)
Also, this brings up a very good point regarding the validity of EULAs in the face of service changes; Net Neutrality wasn't taking place at the time of service initiation, so the ISP *is* basically changing the terms of the contract.
One more grrrreat way to force them to put back the Neutrality.
The trick here is the 'Net was originally created as a public communications tool, funded by the *taxpayers*. It's doesn't fall to specific corporations to control how quickly data gets from point a to point b.
Since all the added components to the Internet were done by different countries around the world, it makes more sense that whomever owns the servers controls how fast data runs across those links, and most of those are government owned, funded by the *people*, so neutrality should be gaurenteed.