Let me add to that. If you're an IT type, AND have a Windows or Cisco or CISSP or GIAC certification, AND have a Security Clearance, you'll get even more headhunters pinging you every day. And the higher the clearance, the more call/email. For some odd reason, though, Unix/Linux skills, while valuable, are nowhere in as much demand.
Unix/Linux + any of the above and a clearance. . . more calls than you'll know what to do with.
Of course, you'll have Government customers renown for their pointy-headedness. ..but you'll have a fairly well-paying, stable job. . .
Re:Sensationalist Journalism?
on
A Flu Pandemic?
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· Score: 1
And if you read the literature, on the hypervirulent flus, there's also a tendency towards viral pneumonias as a secondary effect. And in any case, even a bacterial infection can be rough, or even fatal, when the body has been substantially weakened by a serious flu. . .
Re:Sensationalist Journalism?
on
A Flu Pandemic?
·
· Score: 1
Aqua OS X intoned:
That being said, healthy people who have been infected with avian flu were treated with antibiotics, and the virus has still proved to be quite fatal.
That just might be because antibiotics, while generally quite effective on bacterial infections, are useless against viral infections. And the Flu is most definitely viral. . .
Re:Sensationalist Journalism?
on
A Flu Pandemic?
·
· Score: 1
Seumas intoned:
In the second place, people like me aren't stupid enough fuckheads to go into work or school or the general population when we are sick and put dozens or hundreds of other people who are forced to be confined in the same place at risk of catching it.
It must be nice to have the ability to totally disengage from the rest of humanity. Unfortunately, not everyone has that sitiuation. Kids go to school. People run out of sick leave(and many at the lower end of the economic spectrum HAVE no sick leave. . . ), or worse, are infectious when the symptoms are still non-existent or minor. Or you catch the bug while out getting groceries.
Sometimes getting and/or spreading the flu or any other bug isn't being a "stupid enough fuckhead". Sometimes, it's just bad luck, or even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. . .
IF he portrayed it as evil. . . it wouldn't be a true simulation. Back then, racism wasn't something to be fought, it was pretty much a fairly basic assumption of the culture in question. . .
You want to accurately simulate a period, you're pretty much going to have to get your head LIVING in that period. The current predjudices and assumptions of early 21st Century America are likely to be questioned. ..and considered questionable. . . in the decades and centuries to follow. . .
I was thinking along the lines of reducing the truly HUGE radar cross-section of the B-52, which, depending on aspect, ranges anywhere from 1000 to 100,000 square meters. Composite skin would drop it to under a few thousand at max.
As for the missiles. . . a few AMRAAMS and Sidewinders on the wingtip will do wonders for replacing the Guns we retired after the Gulf War. ..
The point being, the bomb truck ALSO has some sharp teeth. ..
There's a LOT wrong with the B-52 airframe: I know, I flew them. Not that it couldn't be fixed, but I'd suggest, instead, an upgrade of B-52-proven technologies for the 21st Century. No, I'm not talking a Dale-Brown-esque XB-52Z Megafortress. .
But updating the basic airframe, changing the wing and main wing spar for bigger, more efficient engines (modern CFM56's would tear themselves right off the jet, just as the turbofans on the B-52 H also are prohibited from more than roughly 80% of rated thrust. ..). Increased use of composite materials, and at least SOME stealthing.
And then a total re-do of aircraft avionics and ECM gear. Replace the tip tanks with additional fighter-type radars, and give the plane some counter-air capability (we once speculated that a B-52, loaded with AIM-54C Phoenix missiles, and perhaps a means of launching more of them from the bomb bay. . . could make a single B-52 into a flying SAM site. ..).
Make the ECM roughly equivalent to the ALQ-161 used in the B-1. And add some protection to the crew compartment . ..)
Incorrect. You take a sizeable portion of the non-defective physical specimens, and place them in an environment where death is possible, and generally more likely than the norm. And in the process, usually some gene-shuffling goes on, either by romance with the locals, or the occaisional rape.
Modularize passenger/luggage compartments: when a module is filled, the next module is loaded. Say, 2 first class rows, 3 business rows, a small kitchen module, a 6-7 rows of cattle class, with bathrooms fore and aft.
Zero hijack potential(after all, the cockpit is TOTALLY inaccessible...). Efficiencies of loading and unloading, INCLUDING luggage (Your luggage is with you in your module...). Safety in case of airborne accident
Yes, we'd have to build a whole new class of jetliners, and this would only be efficient for trans-continental and oceanic runs, but this idea has promise. . .
Piracy ? Funny, until the tracker went down, Demonoid was where I generally downloaded the latest.ISOs of Mandrake. I wasn't aware Free Software was piracy. .
And, of course, 30-40 years ago, there were alarming predictions of a new Ice Age.
News flash to those who haven't been watching closely for the past 4 million years or so: we've BEEN in an Ice Age for ~4 million years, we're merely between glaciations at the moment.
Historically, actually, geologically speaking, we're FAR more likely to have another continental glaciation coming, than to do Global Warming sufficent to return us to the extensive jungle/swamp/shallow seas of the Paleozoic Era. ..after all, THAT was the natural condition and climate of Earth for over half a billion years: the current, more moderate temperatures are the product of a MUCH shorter period of time. . .
. . . Nope, no MCSE, just an ancient NT 4.0 MCP, with background in Windoze, Unix, and Linux. Some Cisco experience. Quite a bit of security experience, especially firewalls. And yes, a security clearance, but only a SECRET. But I ALSO do documentation, have experience in structured CMMI-compliant engineering processes, and can translate techspeak to management.
In other words, I'm NOT a one-trick pony. I style myself a "Network and Systems Admin", NOT a Unix admin or a Windoze admin. Flexibility is the key word here: pick up new skills as you go along, blend them in to the portfolio. And, unlike a lot of people, it wasn't "below me" to work for Club Fed during the go-go Dotcom days.
I've worked for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and TSA. Both are BADLY in need of expertise, but both are also run badly by their main IT contractors: in ICE's case, Northrop-Grumman IT, and at TSA, Unisys Federal.
But the REAL problem in DHS, is the bureaucratic infighting, which will take YEARS to settle down. OTOH, get lucky on the right program and program manager, and you can ride it to the top. . ..
INS, ICE's predecessor has NEVER renewed a 5-year IT support contract, and the contract is just about over. But UNISYS has 3 years left, and is looking hard for talent: mostly Windows environment, but some Solaris and RedHat Fedora is picking up, heavy CISCO, and heavy on security skills. And they CAN hire you without a clearance, if you're good enough. Send me email if interested, I know a few hiring managers over there. . . . .
Re:back to their previous jobs of course
on
Massive Layoffs At AOL
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Yep. ..the article said mostly "new technology" and "marketing". . . my buds at AOL said it's MOSTLY marketeers, they're just also shutting down some of the R&D shops. . .
Assuming you have real skills, not a problem at all. . . I routinely ignore 2-3 pings from headhunters a day here in NoVa. ..and I'm mostly a Windoze admin these days.
Admittedly, as I'm cleared, I have a far easier time finding work in DC Metro, but this area is about as recession-proof as it gets. . .
Yeah, clearances help, but Homeland Security is hiring people, either directly or as contractors, by the metric butt-load. DOD is growing, as are some new dot-coms in Northern Virginia.
Now, if you're in Marketing or Biz Dev, it may be another story. . . .
. ..like Rob Carlson's, gaming the "saver cards" right back.
Me, I have 5-6 cards from each store. ..registered to one of our cats, our dog, or one of our ferrets.
All at an old address, which no longer exists. And we choose a card at random.
Unlike the average user and spam, it's EASY to game the cards. . . .
My Elementary school ALSO abutted a National Guard Armory. But, I guess we weren't as priviledged: it was a Transportation Company and an Engineer Company, so all WE saw were Army trucks and Army-green Bulldozers. ..
And the local Army Reserve Center was right next to the local college's Stadium and Fieldhouse.
So what's the big deal ? Citizen-soldiers, local facilities.
Except you'll need SOME sort of industrial base there already to support the hotels, the tourist traps, the passenger spaceports, the multi-lingual hookers, etc. ..
Your idea only holds for a "cruise ship" type experience: see Jupiter and Saturn's Rings!
They also card you for ANYTHING coded "Mature", and will not sell it to anyone under 18. The business model seems to work for them.
As for the "developing artists", Wal-Mart isn't a specialty retailer, it's a mass marketer. It's not the kind of merchandise I'd be looking for at a Wal-Mart in the first place: for THAT, I'd be looking online, because the local record stores also shill a slightly-larger number of "established" acts and genre CDs (i.e. Folk, Jazz, Soundtracks, and back catalog items) that don't move as quickly as the latest top 40 trash. . .
Except the "CD"s sold at "stores" are produced and distributed by the evil cartel "RIAA" which claims the vast majority of the proceeds for itself, and occaisionally pays the artist a pittance. ..when it bothers to go looking for them. .
Slashdot Mirror
Unix/Linux + any of the above and a clearance. . . more calls than you'll know what to do with.
Of course, you'll have Government customers renown for their pointy-headedness. . .but you'll have a fairly well-paying, stable job. . .
And if you read the literature, on the hypervirulent flus, there's also a tendency towards viral pneumonias as a secondary effect. And in any case, even a bacterial infection can be rough, or even fatal, when the body has been substantially weakened by a serious flu. . .
That being said, healthy people who have been infected with avian flu were treated with antibiotics, and the virus has still proved to be quite fatal.
That just might be because antibiotics, while generally quite effective on bacterial infections, are useless against viral infections. And the Flu is most definitely viral. . .
In the second place, people like me aren't stupid enough fuckheads to go into work or school or the general population when we are sick and put dozens or hundreds of other people who are forced to be confined in the same place at risk of catching it.
It must be nice to have the ability to totally disengage from the rest of humanity. Unfortunately, not everyone has that sitiuation. Kids go to school. People run out of sick leave(and many at the lower end of the economic spectrum HAVE no sick leave. . . ), or worse, are infectious when the symptoms are still non-existent or minor. Or you catch the bug while out getting groceries.
Sometimes getting and/or spreading the flu or any other bug isn't being a "stupid enough fuckhead". Sometimes, it's just bad luck, or even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. . .
Well, he COULD be considered a Rodent of Unusual Size. . .
Bruce Campbell as Doctor Strange
By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, indeed !!!
IF he portrayed it as evil. . . it wouldn't be a true simulation. Back then, racism wasn't something to be fought, it was pretty much a fairly basic assumption of the culture in question. . . You want to accurately simulate a period, you're pretty much going to have to get your head LIVING in that period. The current predjudices and assumptions of early 21st Century America are likely to be questioned. . .and considered questionable. . . in the decades and centuries to follow. . .
As for the missiles. . . a few AMRAAMS and Sidewinders on the wingtip will do wonders for replacing the Guns we retired after the Gulf War. . .
The point being, the bomb truck ALSO has some sharp teeth. . .
But updating the basic airframe, changing the wing and main wing spar for bigger, more efficient engines (modern CFM56's would tear themselves right off the jet, just as the turbofans on the B-52 H also are prohibited from more than roughly 80% of rated thrust. . .). Increased use of composite materials, and at least SOME stealthing.
And then a total re-do of aircraft avionics and ECM gear. Replace the tip tanks with additional fighter-type radars, and give the plane some counter-air capability (we once speculated that a B-52, loaded with AIM-54C Phoenix missiles, and perhaps a means of launching more of them from the bomb bay. . . could make a single B-52 into a flying SAM site. . .).
Make the ECM roughly equivalent to the ALQ-161 used in the B-1. And add some protection to the crew compartment . . .)
It'd be lovely to have, a B-52I or J model. . .
. . . besides, in the future, Ipods look like Wurlizter jukeboxes. And play Earth's finest classical music, like "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell . . .
Incorrect. You take a sizeable portion of the non-defective physical specimens, and place them in an environment where death is possible, and generally more likely than the norm. And in the process, usually some gene-shuffling goes on, either by romance with the locals, or the occaisional rape.
. . .The Secret Masters
Modularize passenger/luggage compartments: when a module is filled, the next module is loaded. Say, 2 first class rows, 3 business rows, a small kitchen module, a 6-7 rows of cattle class, with bathrooms fore and aft.
Zero hijack potential(after all, the cockpit is TOTALLY inaccessible...). Efficiencies of loading and unloading, INCLUDING luggage (Your luggage is with you in your module...). Safety in case of airborne accident
Yes, we'd have to build a whole new class of jetliners, and this would only be efficient for trans-continental and oceanic runs, but this idea has promise. . .
Piracy ? Funny, until the tracker went down, Demonoid was where I generally downloaded the latest .ISOs of Mandrake. I wasn't aware Free Software was piracy. .
News flash to those who haven't been watching closely for the past 4 million years or so: we've BEEN in an Ice Age for ~4 million years, we're merely between glaciations at the moment.
Historically, actually, geologically speaking, we're FAR more likely to have another continental glaciation coming, than to do Global Warming sufficent to return us to the extensive jungle/swamp/shallow seas of the Paleozoic Era. . .after all, THAT was the natural condition and climate of Earth for over half a billion years: the current, more moderate temperatures are the product of a MUCH shorter period of time. . .
In other words, I'm NOT a one-trick pony. I style myself a "Network and Systems Admin", NOT a Unix admin or a Windoze admin. Flexibility is the key word here: pick up new skills as you go along, blend them in to the portfolio. And, unlike a lot of people, it wasn't "below me" to work for Club Fed during the go-go Dotcom days.
But the REAL problem in DHS, is the bureaucratic infighting, which will take YEARS to settle down. OTOH, get lucky on the right program and program manager, and you can ride it to the top. . . .
INS, ICE's predecessor has NEVER renewed a 5-year IT support contract, and the contract is just about over. But UNISYS has 3 years left, and is looking hard for talent: mostly Windows environment, but some Solaris and RedHat Fedora is picking up, heavy CISCO, and heavy on security skills. And they CAN hire you without a clearance, if you're good enough. Send me email if interested, I know a few hiring managers over there. . . . .
Yep. . .the article said mostly "new technology" and "marketing". . . my buds at AOL said it's MOSTLY marketeers, they're just also shutting down some of the R&D shops. . .
Admittedly, as I'm cleared, I have a far easier time finding work in DC Metro, but this area is about as recession-proof as it gets. . .
Yeah, clearances help, but Homeland Security is hiring people, either directly or as contractors, by the metric butt-load. DOD is growing, as are some new dot-coms in Northern Virginia.
Now, if you're in Marketing or Biz Dev, it may be another story. . . .
. . .like Rob Carlson's, gaming the "saver cards" right back.
Me, I have 5-6 cards from each store. . .registered to one of our cats, our dog, or one of our ferrets.
All at an old address, which no longer exists. And we choose a card at random.
Unlike the average user and spam, it's EASY to game the cards. . . .
My Elementary school ALSO abutted a National Guard Armory. But, I guess we weren't as priviledged: it was a Transportation Company and an Engineer Company, so all WE saw were Army trucks and Army-green Bulldozers. . .
And the local Army Reserve Center was right next to the local college's Stadium and Fieldhouse. So what's the big deal ? Citizen-soldiers, local facilities.
Except you'll need SOME sort of industrial base there already to support the hotels, the tourist traps, the passenger spaceports, the multi-lingual hookers, etc. . .
Your idea only holds for a "cruise ship" type experience: see Jupiter and Saturn's Rings!
They also card you for ANYTHING coded "Mature", and will not sell it to anyone under 18. The business model seems to work for them. As for the "developing artists", Wal-Mart isn't a specialty retailer, it's a mass marketer. It's not the kind of merchandise I'd be looking for at a Wal-Mart in the first place: for THAT, I'd be looking online, because the local record stores also shill a slightly-larger number of "established" acts and genre CDs (i.e. Folk, Jazz, Soundtracks, and back catalog items) that don't move as quickly as the latest top 40 trash. . .
. . . I need mod points NOW!!!!!!
Except the "CD"s sold at "stores" are produced and distributed by the evil cartel "RIAA" which claims the vast majority of the proceeds for itself, and occaisionally pays the artist a pittance. . .when it bothers to go looking for them. .