Meanwhile, I don't mind the love that is caffeine and a constant sugar high. The trick is to continuously work out your pancreas, so diabetes never has a chance to develop.
Ah, but to people who aren't programmers / IT / other disciplines that benefit immensely from such things, it is a perk! Welcome to 2013, where companies are only beginning to realize the level of self-sabotage they've been doing to themselves. "It's the economy, we need to cut back on 'perks': code quality drops 10%, deadlines become more difficult to reach...and the companies are left scratching their heads as to why nothing gets done after they implemented all of these great cost-cutting measures.
In a few years, companies will suddenly realize the value of actually paying their employees for their time, and suddenly relish the productivity gains. An extra $10K to Bob isn't so much when he ends up shipping an extra $$ million units.
Ah, but to have been born when society decided that it wanted to renegotiate employer / employee relations...this is sad. A decade of productivity ultimately lost, worldwide, because of stupidity.
Hmm, that seems to be the mode of many companies today, to cut costs, I suppose. All attempts to get access to someone useful are routed to Mars.
My own personal flavor of recent dissatisfaction lies with Kyocera. I have a minor project to convert paper to PDFs (ultimately), and it is made more difficult by their Taskalfa machine, one of those expensive all in ones. Why, you ask? Well, get this: when you are scanning several tens of papers at once, if it jams during this continuous scan, the process for continuing consists not of removing the offending piece of paper and continuing from said paper, but by removing said offending piece of paper, then replacing all originals in the document feeder, so that it can (for reasons only God knows) quickly count through the previously scanned pages, then begin scanning again when it gets up to where it jammed. This has the lovely side effect, on particularly troublesome sets of irregular paper, of inducing paper jams during the count...which results, I imagine, in some sort of nasty recursion, whereby it asks you to replace the originals, so it can count them again...
Attempts to contact Kyocera Global were, sadly, less than useful. What I wanted was a firmware upgrade, or hidden switch, to turn off what I consider....*#@&$(*....behavior for a scanner. What I got was an email telling me to contact my local Kyocera document solutions provider whatever....as if what I really needed was the toner changed. It's like guys, I'm a tech, IT & full CS, if I am going to trouble of writing you an email (I rarely do social calls), it's because I've typically run out of other options...and giving me the run around is the quickest way to find yourself on the equipment maker's black list. Help me out, even if it's something obvious,and we are all friends; heck, there are even times when what I am asking for is something that the rest of your customers want, but simply haven't found a way of saying it. And yes, since I'm a tech, my requests tend to run on the reasonable side of things...
The other source of my disflavor in recent months would be, I think, HGST / Intel / HP. I purchased a SATA-3 7200 RPM 1TB hard drive, and it's showing up as a SATA-2 drive....which has me very unhappy. It should be showing up as SATA-3, yet HGST has no answers, Intel's chipset (which is handling the SATA) gives no hints, and HP, of course, is the manufacturer of the laptop. Actually, hmmm, I need to double-check something. Fairly certain the serial number was for the right drive, and that HGST consider this....on the other hand, perhaps a SATA-2 drive was sent to me....at which point, I will need to drown a vendor, for sending the wrong model.
And if they're okay with that, are you? Or is this a stilted argument, where certain assumptions are being made, and only the uneducated in matters of rhetoric would be so easily persuaded?
The problem you are suffering from is one of being the kid that no one wants to hang out with, for various reasons, and yet, using whatever power / money / influence to compel others to hang out with you. You remind me of some kid's dad who, when his son has had enough of his BS, flings open the door, and says "Leave"; then, right as his son walks out, his father hits him over the back of his son's head with a 2x4, then taunts him as he lies on the ground; "You see there, son? You couldn't leave. Now go up to your room."
Indeed. It's almost like there's a certain amount people are willing to pay, tax-wise, before more and more of them begin employing trickery to get around their burden. For some it's a tax burden of zero, for others, the tax burden could be everything they own, and they'd be totally cool with that. Lots of complaints about the former group, very few about the latter.
Hmmm, 'tis hard to discuss corporate stuff these days, given that there are so many shenanigans going on in back alley ways...but for the sake of argument, we aren't running Apple, so who knows what their interests might be in Europe. Keeping a stockpile of cash in a local currency can be useful, especially when remitting those sums back to the homeland means hitting the currency exchange (which is a tax unto itself). No sense sending it back to the US if you are going to open a new factory, or buy several properties, or whatever in the EU, and get hit going from EU -> US, then hit again going from US -> EU.
Granted, given that the Euro itself is having so many problems these days, it's difficult to argue that another currency wouldn't be wiser to hide in, but on the other hand, if Greece, or France, or Ireland have a fire sale in the near future, Apple could conceivably do well. They could play the Japanese game, and buy real estate, then sell it off after the currency bounces. The cost of keeping that money in the local currency may be outweighed by actually having that money in the local currency, as when a fire sale happens, it's unlikely that the exchanges would be able to process that kind of flow.
Nice, that would actually be kind of fun. Always make reference to some member ("Dave") of your group who is the real mastermind behind all of your acts of infamy, then take turns performing various actions in his name. When they come to arrest all of you, offer to turn King's Evidence, and help them catch "Dave," who, after they read through your logs, etc. they will really want. In the final scene, lead them to an apartment filled with weaponry, half-finished pamphlets calling for a revolution against the host government, and a recently eaten dinner on a work table. "You just missed him."
The trick is to make sure they really believe that they just missed catching him, and that Dave really is still out there, somewhere...the group walks free, thanks to the deal, and disappears into the sunset.
But, but...criminals like to brag! And return to the scene of their crimes! And leave really cryptic riddles that give clues to where they will strike next / who they really are!
Allow me: the economic depression, coupled with state / federal governments having grown far too large for the country / tax base to support them, are having to resort to cannibalism to keep themselves going. The state government doesn't want to starve anymore than the federal government...and probably reasons that it's better to eat them first, than be eaten later.
Bob, we don't target people for tax audits and third-degree checks on the singular basis of the words with which they choose to identify their group. To argue otherwise is to open the door to some of the greatest evils in mankind's history.
Simple really: things look as different from the bottom as they do from the middle and the top. Your poor hate being poor, your middle class are typically striving to make it up another rung, and your rich don't want to fall from their perch. Your poor work with the idea of 'making it,' so that they can be free of the mentality of being poor, as well as the belief that with moving up the ladder means less problems; it does not, it just means different problems. When you're poor, you think as soon as you get another $10K, you'll pay back all your friends, be extra nice, relax, etc.: the reality is, when that $10K comes, your friends will find you, and any voluntary remembrance for their aid becomes an involuntary shakedown, during which the worst of humanity is shown to you. The middle class want to move up, going from middle middle class to upper middle class, or whatever; they try to curry favor on both sides: they want rich friends, the right connections, etc., but they also want to 'remember where they came from' with the poor, as some sort of pride of having worked their way up. The rich want to avoid becoming poor or middle class; it's one thing to be down several million from the fortune you inherited, it's another to not be able to afford to visit Europe whenever the whim strikes you.
Each class has certain 'requirements' as far as being a part of it. This is why someone who acquires a fortune through a lottery is not suddenly thought of as being a part of the upper class; chances are, that money will be gone in a few year's time, and no attempt at understanding the change in class occurs.
As for why everyone hates the government, why, that's simple: your host government is typically the one wielding the most amount of power over your life (save yourself, or your deity), and as such, is the scapegoat for everything that does wrong in your life during your day, from the stubbed toe you got rolling out of bed, to the parking ticket you received. He who has the power, gets the blame! It sucks, but it seems to hold true. Heck, the upper class has worked for ages on how to displace power from blame...that's why you have 'management' running companies, instead of the owners themselves. And their successes have been...somewhat lackluster, to be honest. Lately they've been getting nailed for it...see how many companies have gone tits up, and how the political class is basically losing any semblance of currency with the populace.
Exactly. Using token based systems, or really anything with any kind of security increases costs. And a lot of businesses are operating in reactive mode when it comes to IT...you will get what you need only after there is a clear and present need for it. So...upgrades / fixes only happen after a giant leak, or multiple giant leaks, occur. It's all taken from the 'if it isn't broken, don't fix it' ideology.
Yeah, half the time the Bible is talking about Man (as in mankind, sorry ladies). Some people want to make the earth gentler for humans, some people miss the trees that used to be a part of their neighborhoods growing up. There's also a set of (seemingly) contradictory 'orders': subdue nature (terraform the earth) and at the same time, do not destroy the earth. I imagine that makes four groups: some people leaning towards the former, some leaning towards the latter, some preferring a course of moderation, and people who do not ascribe to the Bible.
But in this case, I highly doubt these ants pose a challenge. Remember, the human race, when ant-agonized (lol) enough to see something as a problem, tends to go nuclear on it...which means either bringing back DDT if the ants suddenly start eating people, or having scientists formulate something in labs that will probably make DDT look like a fire-cracker in comparison (and result in substantial loss of wildlife...). Thankfully, we aren't anywhere near that point. Removal methods are purely mechanical, and someone will probably start spraying the normal ant-removal chemicals with, I don't know, sugar, which will have them start working again.
Still, humanity....curious what happened here to breed such psychopaths. You'd think that the Earth had gone to great lengths to make the angriest, most genocidal species it could breed...
Mental note: if / when I go totally insane, and need some quick cash to jump start my career in super villainy, purchase near-field scanner & Raspberry PI model B unit with battery, as well as directional antenna and signal booster. Then hide it in the bushes across the way from where the postal workers unload the trucks, and stop by daily to pick up the 'leads.'
Actually, disperse several units at foreign postal offices, and employ WAP signals to push data to the internet. Use PGP to encrypt packages, and post to NNTP servers, in some alt.binaries.* group for later retrieval. No sense getting caught.
Hmm. Might take some work to perfect....but I think I can work out a plan good enough to purchase a small island, and possibly get started on a hidden base. Still, airfields are expensive, yo.
Nonsense. They don't want control, they want to make a mockery of life. And they've been succeeding at it.
Who the f*ck needs half this sh*t anyways? Every metric in the universe says it's increasing complexity, increasing costs, decreasing happiness, shortening lifespans, and overall sucking. What do I really want in life, my own tropical island filled with attractive girls around my own age who think I am awesome, or the ability to read serial numbers off a discarded piece of paper at 30 feet? Because I know which one I am likely to have, and the girls are not it. And I like technology. But this is an idiotic application of it.
Go find out what's lurking on Titan's surface. That's a good use of technology. Then find a way to transport humans there without killing them, destroying the planet, or spending a decade or so each way. We need to search the entire universe for life before we start worrying about this kinds of things.
The funny part is thinking that there are only three possible states of society: moving towards something better, stagnating, and regressing towards something less palatable. Very black and white thinking, to put your mind in a box, and believe that only one outcome is possible for the future.
Even more so to believe that there are not, in theory, several very different and not at all connected models for what a future society could look like.
The new police vehicles, with all the trimmings, would argue otherwise. Tax-wise, the population density of the local area is sky-rocketing, and I believe the local government continues to rake in a fortune. The Lexus dealership down the way, and the giant Roman Catholic church (and I mean big) seems to indicate that not only are people flush with money, but they are parting with it.
On the other hand, this particular local government is responsible for, as I said, attempting to use eminent domain for some back-alley deal with a developer, said attempt resulting in the descent of a fair portion of the populous upon the local government to 'voice their opinions.' Somehow the idea of selling off the fair grounds used for horse shows did not go over well with the local population, of which a frightening number seem to own horses. My personal belief is that the local government was imported from somewhere else, and that they are acting as they would anywhere else, power-grabbing, philandering, lying, grafting, etc. and that it's only when they manage to bump into something that they stop. I do not think I am alone in this belief, and their actions seem to provide plenty of evidence to support it: they are, frankly, not representative of the people they are, for lack of a better word, ruling. That eminent domain action, a minor thing anywhere else, is a huge red card in this area.
Well, that depends on where you want to be. Do you want to be on the bleeding edge of technology, the leading edge of technology, the middle of technology, the 'value' of technology, or behind the curve of technology? Each position requires different investments.
Bleeding edge means you are using stuff that probably no one else is using, and can rock the market / world / whatever, but you are also bleeding cash like a hemophiliac who has been hit by by a cannon.
Leading edge means you are using stuff that only a handful of others are using, and others look to you being now where they want to be in the future if only they had the money / talent / executives with vision / techs with the rights skills.
The middle of technology means you are not quite leading the pack, but you are also not in the value area either. If the value people were running Windows 2000, you'd be running Windows XP, the leading edge people would be running Vista, and the bleeding edge people would be running 7 betas.
The value people are in the proverbial sweet spot, but also dangerous place, of getting really great deals on hardware / software for pennies on the dollar, but being incapable of moving out of there without paying a lot. They are also in danger of becoming obsolete very easily.
And then there's the behind the curve people who are behind the curve. These are the people still running Windows 98 SE, and do not see the utility in upgrading. They may realize excellent ROIs, but their skills are not being upgraded, and if / when the hardware / software they rely on proves inadequate, they may have a steep learning curve / bill ahead of them.
Don't believe me? Look at Google, Microsoft, etc. -> these companies bleed cash at times. Their employees are given access, if stories are correct, to the tech armory and the company safe, and told to, within certain guidelines, be on the bleeding edge. If they want a SSD, chances are they will have one. If they want the latest video card, it's there. And so on.
As for you, perhaps the best recommendation might be a LUG. Social groups, even for techs, allow for updates of methods and designs.
No, no, no. You need to be heavy with faux rage about 'those speeders driving nicer cars than you who need to be punished' and how clipping the yellow lights to sub-microsecond timings somehow accomplishes this. It's best if you work the jealousy in by invoking some sort of inner strike present during someone's long forgotten high school years: "Those rich bastards driving their BMWs and Benzs totally deserve to get hit for driving through yellow lights. They could have hit someone! I was once out, minding my own business, and this guy, in a BMW, drive through a yellow light, and almost hit me!" - include a non-verifiable personal anecdote that no one will question, but many people will quietly side with, with because it confirms their bias.
But on a non-sarcastic note, yes, in PA, as well as other places, the yellow light timings are insane. Some days, it really does seem like your local government is waging war on the populace, a veritable Napoleon hell-bent on uncovering every pet peeve of the citizenry and mandating its usage 3 times a day.
Not really. Think about it: businesses want website work done by the cheapest bidder. Who are the cheapest bidders? Well, there are hobby programmers, professional programmers doing some moonlighting, and a mega-ton of amateur / foreign programmers. The amateurs are unaware of the legal issues surrounding repurposing an image from Google Images...and foreign programmers do not care, as their country probably laughs at the idea of copyright violations. All this so some business, that 'really is going to make it big, honest,' can have a 40-page eCommerce website with the latest wizbang technologies for under $200.
It's kind of like when that guy offers to sell you a new Apple MacBook Air for only $200...and you buy it. You know that there's something funny about the situation, you know that $200 is awfully low for a website / new MacBook Air, but you figure, hey, I'm getting a great deal, and if I don't ask any questions, maybe I can get away with this. But deep down inside, you know that what you bought is probably 'hot' or that someone got royally screwed to get you that deal. But better them than you, right?
So where does this leave this company? Well, if the police are involved, they're going to get fined. They're protesting that they didn't know...but like a 'hot' MacBook Air, chances are they 'knew,' but chose not to 'know.' I believe there is actually something...some law...that the police have that covers this situation...doesn't come immediately to mind, but it does cover these kinds of circumstances.
Now, I could be wrong. They could have paid top dollar over what the local professional firms are charging, and got screwed. Or they could have just relied on it being a common business practice (safety in numbers) as a defense if it ever came up.
Disclaimer: I am a deeply bitter web developer, who has seen idiocy both in my own work, and in the actions of others.
Perhaps I should have been clearer -> it's easier for two parties to whip up a means of encryption than it is for a third party to decrypt it.
At the end of the day, brute-forcing one-time pads with predictive heuristics still requires some time; mutate the encryption fast enough, and by the time the message is decrypted, it's worthless.
Now of course, you're going to point out, what about keyloggers, telepaths, aliens, double-agents, etc. Which mean nothing if two parties are actually honestly trying to keep communication encrypted.
All this without touching on the idea that censorship is dumb. It's a bad idea, embraced by bad people, to do horrible things, to other bad people.
What's the perfect way, of course, to get around any encryption? Well, log everyone's thoughts since child-birth; lie to them about being free, and when they discover the truth (they will), deep hypnosis to have them lie to themselves about the truth. You have the key, since you have all of their thoughts, right there, on the proverbial paper, but chances are, when they discover the truth, they'll probably kill themselves; the execution planned for them is probably sweetly embraced at that point, as the totality of their life being an utter lie is too much to take.
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Meanwhile, I don't mind the love that is caffeine and a constant sugar high. The trick is to continuously work out your pancreas, so diabetes never has a chance to develop.
And yet the person who negotiated that contract was, no doubt, given a promotion.
Ah, but to people who aren't programmers / IT / other disciplines that benefit immensely from such things, it is a perk! Welcome to 2013, where companies are only beginning to realize the level of self-sabotage they've been doing to themselves. "It's the economy, we need to cut back on 'perks': code quality drops 10%, deadlines become more difficult to reach...and the companies are left scratching their heads as to why nothing gets done after they implemented all of these great cost-cutting measures.
In a few years, companies will suddenly realize the value of actually paying their employees for their time, and suddenly relish the productivity gains. An extra $10K to Bob isn't so much when he ends up shipping an extra $$ million units.
Ah, but to have been born when society decided that it wanted to renegotiate employer / employee relations...this is sad. A decade of productivity ultimately lost, worldwide, because of stupidity.
Hmm, that seems to be the mode of many companies today, to cut costs, I suppose. All attempts to get access to someone useful are routed to Mars.
My own personal flavor of recent dissatisfaction lies with Kyocera. I have a minor project to convert paper to PDFs (ultimately), and it is made more difficult by their Taskalfa machine, one of those expensive all in ones. Why, you ask? Well, get this: when you are scanning several tens of papers at once, if it jams during this continuous scan, the process for continuing consists not of removing the offending piece of paper and continuing from said paper, but by removing said offending piece of paper, then replacing all originals in the document feeder, so that it can (for reasons only God knows) quickly count through the previously scanned pages, then begin scanning again when it gets up to where it jammed. This has the lovely side effect, on particularly troublesome sets of irregular paper, of inducing paper jams during the count...which results, I imagine, in some sort of nasty recursion, whereby it asks you to replace the originals, so it can count them again...
Attempts to contact Kyocera Global were, sadly, less than useful. What I wanted was a firmware upgrade, or hidden switch, to turn off what I consider....*#@&$(*....behavior for a scanner. What I got was an email telling me to contact my local Kyocera document solutions provider whatever....as if what I really needed was the toner changed. It's like guys, I'm a tech, IT & full CS, if I am going to trouble of writing you an email (I rarely do social calls), it's because I've typically run out of other options...and giving me the run around is the quickest way to find yourself on the equipment maker's black list. Help me out, even if it's something obvious,and we are all friends; heck, there are even times when what I am asking for is something that the rest of your customers want, but simply haven't found a way of saying it. And yes, since I'm a tech, my requests tend to run on the reasonable side of things...
The other source of my disflavor in recent months would be, I think, HGST / Intel / HP. I purchased a SATA-3 7200 RPM 1TB hard drive, and it's showing up as a SATA-2 drive....which has me very unhappy. It should be showing up as SATA-3, yet HGST has no answers, Intel's chipset (which is handling the SATA) gives no hints, and HP, of course, is the manufacturer of the laptop. Actually, hmmm, I need to double-check something. Fairly certain the serial number was for the right drive, and that HGST consider this....on the other hand, perhaps a SATA-2 drive was sent to me....at which point, I will need to drown a vendor, for sending the wrong model.
And if they're okay with that, are you? Or is this a stilted argument, where certain assumptions are being made, and only the uneducated in matters of rhetoric would be so easily persuaded?
The problem you are suffering from is one of being the kid that no one wants to hang out with, for various reasons, and yet, using whatever power / money / influence to compel others to hang out with you. You remind me of some kid's dad who, when his son has had enough of his BS, flings open the door, and says "Leave"; then, right as his son walks out, his father hits him over the back of his son's head with a 2x4, then taunts him as he lies on the ground; "You see there, son? You couldn't leave. Now go up to your room."
Indeed. It's almost like there's a certain amount people are willing to pay, tax-wise, before more and more of them begin employing trickery to get around their burden. For some it's a tax burden of zero, for others, the tax burden could be everything they own, and they'd be totally cool with that. Lots of complaints about the former group, very few about the latter.
Hmmm, 'tis hard to discuss corporate stuff these days, given that there are so many shenanigans going on in back alley ways...but for the sake of argument, we aren't running Apple, so who knows what their interests might be in Europe. Keeping a stockpile of cash in a local currency can be useful, especially when remitting those sums back to the homeland means hitting the currency exchange (which is a tax unto itself). No sense sending it back to the US if you are going to open a new factory, or buy several properties, or whatever in the EU, and get hit going from EU -> US, then hit again going from US -> EU.
Granted, given that the Euro itself is having so many problems these days, it's difficult to argue that another currency wouldn't be wiser to hide in, but on the other hand, if Greece, or France, or Ireland have a fire sale in the near future, Apple could conceivably do well. They could play the Japanese game, and buy real estate, then sell it off after the currency bounces. The cost of keeping that money in the local currency may be outweighed by actually having that money in the local currency, as when a fire sale happens, it's unlikely that the exchanges would be able to process that kind of flow.
Mmmm, vegemite....so tasty, so good, so impossible for me to find when I actually have a spare dollar.
What is a bot?
Nice, that would actually be kind of fun. Always make reference to some member ("Dave") of your group who is the real mastermind behind all of your acts of infamy, then take turns performing various actions in his name. When they come to arrest all of you, offer to turn King's Evidence, and help them catch "Dave," who, after they read through your logs, etc. they will really want. In the final scene, lead them to an apartment filled with weaponry, half-finished pamphlets calling for a revolution against the host government, and a recently eaten dinner on a work table. "You just missed him."
The trick is to make sure they really believe that they just missed catching him, and that Dave really is still out there, somewhere...the group walks free, thanks to the deal, and disappears into the sunset.
But, but...criminals like to brag! And return to the scene of their crimes! And leave really cryptic riddles that give clues to where they will strike next / who they really are!
Allow me: the economic depression, coupled with state / federal governments having grown far too large for the country / tax base to support them, are having to resort to cannibalism to keep themselves going. The state government doesn't want to starve anymore than the federal government...and probably reasons that it's better to eat them first, than be eaten later.
Bob, we don't target people for tax audits and third-degree checks on the singular basis of the words with which they choose to identify their group. To argue otherwise is to open the door to some of the greatest evils in mankind's history.
Simple really: things look as different from the bottom as they do from the middle and the top. Your poor hate being poor, your middle class are typically striving to make it up another rung, and your rich don't want to fall from their perch. Your poor work with the idea of 'making it,' so that they can be free of the mentality of being poor, as well as the belief that with moving up the ladder means less problems; it does not, it just means different problems. When you're poor, you think as soon as you get another $10K, you'll pay back all your friends, be extra nice, relax, etc.: the reality is, when that $10K comes, your friends will find you, and any voluntary remembrance for their aid becomes an involuntary shakedown, during which the worst of humanity is shown to you. The middle class want to move up, going from middle middle class to upper middle class, or whatever; they try to curry favor on both sides: they want rich friends, the right connections, etc., but they also want to 'remember where they came from' with the poor, as some sort of pride of having worked their way up. The rich want to avoid becoming poor or middle class; it's one thing to be down several million from the fortune you inherited, it's another to not be able to afford to visit Europe whenever the whim strikes you.
Each class has certain 'requirements' as far as being a part of it. This is why someone who acquires a fortune through a lottery is not suddenly thought of as being a part of the upper class; chances are, that money will be gone in a few year's time, and no attempt at understanding the change in class occurs.
As for why everyone hates the government, why, that's simple: your host government is typically the one wielding the most amount of power over your life (save yourself, or your deity), and as such, is the scapegoat for everything that does wrong in your life during your day, from the stubbed toe you got rolling out of bed, to the parking ticket you received. He who has the power, gets the blame! It sucks, but it seems to hold true. Heck, the upper class has worked for ages on how to displace power from blame...that's why you have 'management' running companies, instead of the owners themselves. And their successes have been...somewhat lackluster, to be honest. Lately they've been getting nailed for it...see how many companies have gone tits up, and how the political class is basically losing any semblance of currency with the populace.
Exactly. Using token based systems, or really anything with any kind of security increases costs. And a lot of businesses are operating in reactive mode when it comes to IT...you will get what you need only after there is a clear and present need for it. So...upgrades / fixes only happen after a giant leak, or multiple giant leaks, occur. It's all taken from the 'if it isn't broken, don't fix it' ideology.
Yeah, half the time the Bible is talking about Man (as in mankind, sorry ladies). Some people want to make the earth gentler for humans, some people miss the trees that used to be a part of their neighborhoods growing up. There's also a set of (seemingly) contradictory 'orders': subdue nature (terraform the earth) and at the same time, do not destroy the earth. I imagine that makes four groups: some people leaning towards the former, some leaning towards the latter, some preferring a course of moderation, and people who do not ascribe to the Bible.
But in this case, I highly doubt these ants pose a challenge. Remember, the human race, when ant-agonized (lol) enough to see something as a problem, tends to go nuclear on it...which means either bringing back DDT if the ants suddenly start eating people, or having scientists formulate something in labs that will probably make DDT look like a fire-cracker in comparison (and result in substantial loss of wildlife...). Thankfully, we aren't anywhere near that point. Removal methods are purely mechanical, and someone will probably start spraying the normal ant-removal chemicals with, I don't know, sugar, which will have them start working again.
Still, humanity....curious what happened here to breed such psychopaths. You'd think that the Earth had gone to great lengths to make the angriest, most genocidal species it could breed...
Mental note: if / when I go totally insane, and need some quick cash to jump start my career in super villainy, purchase near-field scanner & Raspberry PI model B unit with battery, as well as directional antenna and signal booster. Then hide it in the bushes across the way from where the postal workers unload the trucks, and stop by daily to pick up the 'leads.'
Actually, disperse several units at foreign postal offices, and employ WAP signals to push data to the internet. Use PGP to encrypt packages, and post to NNTP servers, in some alt.binaries.* group for later retrieval. No sense getting caught.
Hmm. Might take some work to perfect....but I think I can work out a plan good enough to purchase a small island, and possibly get started on a hidden base. Still, airfields are expensive, yo.
Nonsense. They don't want control, they want to make a mockery of life. And they've been succeeding at it.
Who the f*ck needs half this sh*t anyways? Every metric in the universe says it's increasing complexity, increasing costs, decreasing happiness, shortening lifespans, and overall sucking. What do I really want in life, my own tropical island filled with attractive girls around my own age who think I am awesome, or the ability to read serial numbers off a discarded piece of paper at 30 feet? Because I know which one I am likely to have, and the girls are not it. And I like technology. But this is an idiotic application of it.
Go find out what's lurking on Titan's surface. That's a good use of technology. Then find a way to transport humans there without killing them, destroying the planet, or spending a decade or so each way. We need to search the entire universe for life before we start worrying about this kinds of things.
The funny part is thinking that there are only three possible states of society: moving towards something better, stagnating, and regressing towards something less palatable. Very black and white thinking, to put your mind in a box, and believe that only one outcome is possible for the future.
Even more so to believe that there are not, in theory, several very different and not at all connected models for what a future society could look like.
The new police vehicles, with all the trimmings, would argue otherwise. Tax-wise, the population density of the local area is sky-rocketing, and I believe the local government continues to rake in a fortune. The Lexus dealership down the way, and the giant Roman Catholic church (and I mean big) seems to indicate that not only are people flush with money, but they are parting with it.
On the other hand, this particular local government is responsible for, as I said, attempting to use eminent domain for some back-alley deal with a developer, said attempt resulting in the descent of a fair portion of the populous upon the local government to 'voice their opinions.' Somehow the idea of selling off the fair grounds used for horse shows did not go over well with the local population, of which a frightening number seem to own horses. My personal belief is that the local government was imported from somewhere else, and that they are acting as they would anywhere else, power-grabbing, philandering, lying, grafting, etc. and that it's only when they manage to bump into something that they stop. I do not think I am alone in this belief, and their actions seem to provide plenty of evidence to support it: they are, frankly, not representative of the people they are, for lack of a better word, ruling. That eminent domain action, a minor thing anywhere else, is a huge red card in this area.
Well, that depends on where you want to be. Do you want to be on the bleeding edge of technology, the leading edge of technology, the middle of technology, the 'value' of technology, or behind the curve of technology? Each position requires different investments.
Bleeding edge means you are using stuff that probably no one else is using, and can rock the market / world / whatever, but you are also bleeding cash like a hemophiliac who has been hit by by a cannon.
Leading edge means you are using stuff that only a handful of others are using, and others look to you being now where they want to be in the future if only they had the money / talent / executives with vision / techs with the rights skills.
The middle of technology means you are not quite leading the pack, but you are also not in the value area either. If the value people were running Windows 2000, you'd be running Windows XP, the leading edge people would be running Vista, and the bleeding edge people would be running 7 betas.
The value people are in the proverbial sweet spot, but also dangerous place, of getting really great deals on hardware / software for pennies on the dollar, but being incapable of moving out of there without paying a lot. They are also in danger of becoming obsolete very easily.
And then there's the behind the curve people who are behind the curve. These are the people still running Windows 98 SE, and do not see the utility in upgrading. They may realize excellent ROIs, but their skills are not being upgraded, and if / when the hardware / software they rely on proves inadequate, they may have a steep learning curve / bill ahead of them.
Don't believe me? Look at Google, Microsoft, etc. -> these companies bleed cash at times. Their employees are given access, if stories are correct, to the tech armory and the company safe, and told to, within certain guidelines, be on the bleeding edge. If they want a SSD, chances are they will have one. If they want the latest video card, it's there. And so on.
As for you, perhaps the best recommendation might be a LUG. Social groups, even for techs, allow for updates of methods and designs.
My apologies for grammar / spelling. Haven't had the morning tea yet.
No, no, no. You need to be heavy with faux rage about 'those speeders driving nicer cars than you who need to be punished' and how clipping the yellow lights to sub-microsecond timings somehow accomplishes this. It's best if you work the jealousy in by invoking some sort of inner strike present during someone's long forgotten high school years: "Those rich bastards driving their BMWs and Benzs totally deserve to get hit for driving through yellow lights. They could have hit someone! I was once out, minding my own business, and this guy, in a BMW, drive through a yellow light, and almost hit me!" - include a non-verifiable personal anecdote that no one will question, but many people will quietly side with, with because it confirms their bias.
But on a non-sarcastic note, yes, in PA, as well as other places, the yellow light timings are insane. Some days, it really does seem like your local government is waging war on the populace, a veritable Napoleon hell-bent on uncovering every pet peeve of the citizenry and mandating its usage 3 times a day.
Not really. Think about it: businesses want website work done by the cheapest bidder. Who are the cheapest bidders? Well, there are hobby programmers, professional programmers doing some moonlighting, and a mega-ton of amateur / foreign programmers. The amateurs are unaware of the legal issues surrounding repurposing an image from Google Images...and foreign programmers do not care, as their country probably laughs at the idea of copyright violations. All this so some business, that 'really is going to make it big, honest,' can have a 40-page eCommerce website with the latest wizbang technologies for under $200.
It's kind of like when that guy offers to sell you a new Apple MacBook Air for only $200...and you buy it. You know that there's something funny about the situation, you know that $200 is awfully low for a website / new MacBook Air, but you figure, hey, I'm getting a great deal, and if I don't ask any questions, maybe I can get away with this. But deep down inside, you know that what you bought is probably 'hot' or that someone got royally screwed to get you that deal. But better them than you, right?
So where does this leave this company? Well, if the police are involved, they're going to get fined. They're protesting that they didn't know...but like a 'hot' MacBook Air, chances are they 'knew,' but chose not to 'know.' I believe there is actually something...some law...that the police have that covers this situation...doesn't come immediately to mind, but it does cover these kinds of circumstances.
Now, I could be wrong. They could have paid top dollar over what the local professional firms are charging, and got screwed. Or they could have just relied on it being a common business practice (safety in numbers) as a defense if it ever came up.
Disclaimer: I am a deeply bitter web developer, who has seen idiocy both in my own work, and in the actions of others.
Perhaps I should have been clearer -> it's easier for two parties to whip up a means of encryption than it is for a third party to decrypt it.
At the end of the day, brute-forcing one-time pads with predictive heuristics still requires some time; mutate the encryption fast enough, and by the time the message is decrypted, it's worthless.
Now of course, you're going to point out, what about keyloggers, telepaths, aliens, double-agents, etc. Which mean nothing if two parties are actually honestly trying to keep communication encrypted.
All this without touching on the idea that censorship is dumb. It's a bad idea, embraced by bad people, to do horrible things, to other bad people.
What's the perfect way, of course, to get around any encryption? Well, log everyone's thoughts since child-birth; lie to them about being free, and when they discover the truth (they will), deep hypnosis to have them lie to themselves about the truth. You have the key, since you have all of their thoughts, right there, on the proverbial paper, but chances are, when they discover the truth, they'll probably kill themselves; the execution planned for them is probably sweetly embraced at that point, as the totality of their life being an utter lie is too much to take.