Few people are more shortsighted than those who believe that our current condition is fixable by a single solution. Sadly, people like you are extremely numerous. Almost as sad is that the solutions to the problem require far more that most people can understand.
I'm convinced that there isn't an ideal setup. I will say that in my current setup, I have an expensive chair (Steelcase Leap) and that it is most definitely more comfortable that the common $100 office chair, and I have not had any back/leg issues from it since I started using it a year ago. I won't lie that it's a cool looking chair, and there's something nice about a pleasant aesthetic, but the real advantage is that it offers adjustments to the seat (depth, primarily) which properly supports my legs. The back is nice, but I'm glad I didn't get a head rest - I tend to sit upright most comfortably and it would have been a waste. I rest my forearms on the desk so that I'm not holding the weight of my arms in the air while I type. I use a wireless mouse that is a bit larger than normal and has a high-dpi count so that the entirety of my three screens (yes - two 1600x1200 20" portraits flanking a 2560x1200 30" center on a single Ergotron stand) can be traversed without the pad of my thumb/palm ever moving from a single spot.
Note that I've tried using a balancing-type chair, but find that they lack the ability to "sit back and relax" for short periods every so often. Also, I tend to get up and walk around every hour, two at the most. Whether to answer natures call, grab another drink, chat, or grab a bowl of munchies, it helps give me a physical reset.
I have toyed with a standing desk, but haven't really tried it as the monitor stand I have is about 9" short of what would be ideal.
Seriously - if your help desk is so incompetent, antagonistic, and/or slow that they can get faster or more helpful answers from Google or a co-worker, it doesn't mean that your system isn't necessary - it means that the people you are hiring are no-fucking-good at their job. Time to turn your position over to someone who can run your department properly.
You don't know that. How could you, since it will likely make them unreadable. For all you know, you may have increased the available density by more than 5X. The heads would simply not be able to read them.;-)
He's a geek, and geeks love tech toys. The Segway was doomed because the hype leading up to it was utter bullshit, but the whole self-balancing thing really is (if you let your inner geek have a say) pretty cool.
Woz is a geek's geek. He doesn't play by corporate rules. He's a regular guy who has money, but hasn't forgotten that he's human. Its actually quite refreshing.
Woz has two phones, one black and one white. They phone numbers end with 1 and 0, and the color of the phone corresponds to the standard resistor color stripe numbering. He is the ubergeek.
The best thing to do is to become a member of NAR or Tripoli (the two hobby/amateur rocket associations) and pick up some magazines on design and finishing from their resources. For a cheaper route, go read a bunch of the back articles at The Rocketry Forum or Rocketry Planet (which may not be around long) or the other rocket places on the net (Ye Olde Rocketry Forum is another, I think). For an old reference, pick up the book by Tim Milligan (Apogee, Inc. - he's online).
Then, start building a couple of larger kits - Aerotech sells "big estes" kits that are still cardboard, but are 2-6" in diameter and up to 8' tall (give or take), as do others . Then take a look at Wildman Rocketry to go up to fiberglass and carbon fiber kits, then on to building your own from scratch (Giant Leap rocketry has lots of supplies).
Through NAR/Tripoli, work your way through the High Power certifications to get incremental experience - and hands on or remote help - in understanding what is needed to fly big birds.
If you're interested in making your own motors, the same forums above have information and discussion. You'll need to look into BATFE regulations (as well as town/city/county/state fire marshall regulations, much of which are based on NFPA) to make sure you stay fair of the law. Manufacturing your own motors starts you walking the line of explosives manufacturer, both legally and practically. That's going to take some serious thought about safety. It's not impossible, or even difficult, but it's worth asking yourself if you have the discipline to stay safe. Making your own motors will not save you money - ever. The number of shots you would have to make to compensate for the manufacturing tools, supplies, time, and space necessary is far more than any part-time hobbiest will ever shoot. Nonetheless, if you're in it for the thrill of the chase, or to make the next great propellant, it can be fun.
No, you have to read between the lines. It's clear that he is trying to pander to his audience with the promise (or admonishen) that, had they patented it, they would all be taking treasure baths right now. And he justifies it by saying that proper management would have fleeced every single user on an ongoing basis in an amount that was small enough that everyone would be willing and able to pay it.
It's classic evil genius. Just remember - the easiest way to tell if a lawyer is lying is if his lips are moving.
This. The adoption of the internet was, in part, because it was practically free advertising. Businesses are acutely aware of return on investment, and the early internet was not an obvious play to many conservative types. Still, when getting a presence on was a few hundred dollars and the IT guy was so jazzed about it he would do the coding as part of his regular job, the response often was "why not?" The acceleration of relevance of the internet was staggering.
Not a troll at all. I do have an advanced degree, and the time spent pursuing it (as with my undergrad work) took energy but produced nothing valuable in society, just as with countless others. What I do now that I'm out in the world and apply that knowledge - now that's work. To hang out in a classroom all day, doing homework and writing term papers, and feeling you should get paid for it...well, that's just plain fucking lazy*.
*Note: I'd love to do that - I enjoy learning. Hell, I made a business out of learning things, and then selling the application of that knowledge by the hour to people who need it. Without the latter, though, I can't pay for my groceries - no matter how smart I am.
Here's the thing about reduced services - people generally point to services they don't use as a good place to "trim the fat," but never ask to pay the full price on the services they use. You may not need a 911 operator in your home town, but while you're on vacation in the country with your bride-to-be, it would suck to have something life threatening happen to her, and you not know the phone number. Or school - I rarely hear public school students (or their parents) asking to be directly billed the $160,000-$200,000 that will be spent by taxpayers on their education. People who ride bikes often complain about lack of bike lanes, but rarely ask for an annual assessment on bicycles to cover the cost of those lanes and maintenance.
I happen to like trash service, by the way, as the cost of my weekly service is lower - and far more convenient - than my taking a load of trash to the dump each month. It sounds like your landfill service might be free by your post so I presume you're okay with everybody paying to keep the landfill open for you.
I hope not. Part of the usefulness of research and trials is to avoid bias by letting your subjects know what is being tested.
I and, however, surprised that nobody is screaming "Racial Profiling" when the system uses ethnicity as a tracking factor, unless it's used to simply filer out societal norms.
What I find funniest is that this is EXACTLY what every law enforcement and security guard is trained in for crowd surveillance and operations. These are the clues a human looks for in determining which people might be a problem. If I were smart, I'd file a patent for this ASAP, and then add "by a computer" to make it a novel idea.
Part of it comes down to whether you will enjoy what is offered in the "new" job. If you like where you area and are just going for the money, it's a bad move.
Alternately, if the outsourced code is a bad as you say it is, you could be in for a lot of uncomp'd overtime fixing problems and keeping that new product from crashing and burning with your employer's clients. Consider what your job might be like in a year when comparing it to what you are considering.
And, to add to an earlier post - consider consulting. If they truly love you, and you value the project but have two guys who can start to fill your shoes, they'll be happy to have an emergency outlet. Plus, if you keep them running, they shouldn't harbor ill will.
You're reading it wrong, to a certain extent. The reason the subsidies exist is not to line the pocket of the corporations, but to pay them to put in service where it would otherwise be impractical (from a business standpoint). Call it welfare or socialism or whatever you want - it's there to make the financial burden of "necessities" on the far-flung communities in the US less onerous.
If you want to make the argument that if you live out in the sticks, you should pony up the $50,000 to string a telephone line and $10,000 a year to maintain that line on your own, then we're talking about something of substance. Otherwise, you're just twisting the facts to suit your view of the universe.
Actually, much of the "taxes" on the bills are "regulatory recovery fees." It's a dodge by the phone and elec companies to make their services look cheaper and to blame to government for making them do the right thing.
Imagine if the local Walmart started charging you a fee for the merchandise, then a 3% "regulartory recovery fee" for having to install stormwater management so the neighboring property didn't flood, plus a 4% "federal corporate tax" fee, and a 6% "Local Property Tax recovery fee". It's a cost of doing business and gets built into the price of the goods.
Some of the taxes are real, like the 911 fee which (surprise) pays for a 911 operator to be standing by waiting to get your emergency call and route it to the appropriate emergency service provider (police, fire, rescue, etc.)
Everyone seems to be down on taxes, but nobody wants reduced services.
People for whom time is worth nothing find piracy valuable.
I would gladly pay for content. Problem is, I can't. I've tried Roku, WMC, and AppleTV, Netflix, and HuluPlus and guess what - they don't fucking work. In fact, they're so limited that I finally gave up and went to Usenet. Problem is - it takes time to maintain and manage it. I've got about 350 DVDs and BR discs in my closet. And yet it's a pain in the ass to watch them. I can stream my music all over the house, but to rip the video I had to buy a program from overseas. And I still can't watch it all easily on all my TVs.
Right now I've got a usenet account, sickbeard, couchpotato, sabnzbd, and Plex. Finally, I get all my shows, easily, and accessible on every TV that has an AppleTV puck (no thanks to Steve for having to jailbreak the ATV) and on my iPad. And sometimes things still don't come through correctly. I'd pay to NOT have to manage all of that and get what I want. But I can't.
The studios are so afraid of letting their content go that they make it impractical to get legally. Yes, there will be piracy - it takes nothing to reproduce (a key economic item which is not lost on the public). But for some of us, we just want to watch what we want. If I were king, part of the copyright law I would re-write would be statutory pricing for practically everything that gets copyright protection, similar to mechanical licensing, and allow on-demand collection so that there could be lots of competing players in the market. Sadly, I'm not king.
Slashdot Mirror
Inquiring minds need to know how this stuff happens!
Few people are more shortsighted than those who believe that our current condition is fixable by a single solution. Sadly, people like you are extremely numerous. Almost as sad is that the solutions to the problem require far more that most people can understand.
I'm convinced that there isn't an ideal setup. I will say that in my current setup, I have an expensive chair (Steelcase Leap) and that it is most definitely more comfortable that the common $100 office chair, and I have not had any back/leg issues from it since I started using it a year ago. I won't lie that it's a cool looking chair, and there's something nice about a pleasant aesthetic, but the real advantage is that it offers adjustments to the seat (depth, primarily) which properly supports my legs. The back is nice, but I'm glad I didn't get a head rest - I tend to sit upright most comfortably and it would have been a waste. I rest my forearms on the desk so that I'm not holding the weight of my arms in the air while I type. I use a wireless mouse that is a bit larger than normal and has a high-dpi count so that the entirety of my three screens (yes - two 1600x1200 20" portraits flanking a 2560x1200 30" center on a single Ergotron stand) can be traversed without the pad of my thumb/palm ever moving from a single spot.
Note that I've tried using a balancing-type chair, but find that they lack the ability to "sit back and relax" for short periods every so often. Also, I tend to get up and walk around every hour, two at the most. Whether to answer natures call, grab another drink, chat, or grab a bowl of munchies, it helps give me a physical reset.
I have toyed with a standing desk, but haven't really tried it as the monitor stand I have is about 9" short of what would be ideal.
Seriously - if your help desk is so incompetent, antagonistic, and/or slow that they can get faster or more helpful answers from Google or a co-worker, it doesn't mean that your system isn't necessary - it means that the people you are hiring are no-fucking-good at their job. Time to turn your position over to someone who can run your department properly.
You don't know that. How could you, since it will likely make them unreadable. For all you know, you may have increased the available density by more than 5X. The heads would simply not be able to read them. ;-)
Absolutely true...but the exceptions make for great headlines!
He's a geek, and geeks love tech toys. The Segway was doomed because the hype leading up to it was utter bullshit, but the whole self-balancing thing really is (if you let your inner geek have a say) pretty cool.
Woz is a geek's geek. He doesn't play by corporate rules. He's a regular guy who has money, but hasn't forgotten that he's human. Its actually quite refreshing.
If I had mod points, you'd get them - dead on.
(+1 funny, and...)
Woz has two phones, one black and one white. They phone numbers end with 1 and 0, and the color of the phone corresponds to the standard resistor color stripe numbering. He is the ubergeek.
The best thing to do is to become a member of NAR or Tripoli (the two hobby/amateur rocket associations) and pick up some magazines on design and finishing from their resources. For a cheaper route, go read a bunch of the back articles at The Rocketry Forum or Rocketry Planet (which may not be around long) or the other rocket places on the net (Ye Olde Rocketry Forum is another, I think). For an old reference, pick up the book by Tim Milligan (Apogee, Inc. - he's online).
Then, start building a couple of larger kits - Aerotech sells "big estes" kits that are still cardboard, but are 2-6" in diameter and up to 8' tall (give or take), as do others . Then take a look at Wildman Rocketry to go up to fiberglass and carbon fiber kits, then on to building your own from scratch (Giant Leap rocketry has lots of supplies).
Through NAR/Tripoli, work your way through the High Power certifications to get incremental experience - and hands on or remote help - in understanding what is needed to fly big birds.
If you're interested in making your own motors, the same forums above have information and discussion. You'll need to look into BATFE regulations (as well as town/city/county/state fire marshall regulations, much of which are based on NFPA) to make sure you stay fair of the law. Manufacturing your own motors starts you walking the line of explosives manufacturer, both legally and practically. That's going to take some serious thought about safety. It's not impossible, or even difficult, but it's worth asking yourself if you have the discipline to stay safe. Making your own motors will not save you money - ever. The number of shots you would have to make to compensate for the manufacturing tools, supplies, time, and space necessary is far more than any part-time hobbiest will ever shoot. Nonetheless, if you're in it for the thrill of the chase, or to make the next great propellant, it can be fun.
Spin baby, spin!
No, you have to read between the lines. It's clear that he is trying to pander to his audience with the promise (or admonishen) that, had they patented it, they would all be taking treasure baths right now. And he justifies it by saying that proper management would have fleeced every single user on an ongoing basis in an amount that was small enough that everyone would be willing and able to pay it.
It's classic evil genius. Just remember - the easiest way to tell if a lawyer is lying is if his lips are moving.
This. The adoption of the internet was, in part, because it was practically free advertising. Businesses are acutely aware of return on investment, and the early internet was not an obvious play to many conservative types. Still, when getting a presence on was a few hundred dollars and the IT guy was so jazzed about it he would do the coding as part of his regular job, the response often was "why not?" The acceleration of relevance of the internet was staggering.
No, the difference is that doctors are licensed and can lose a license if they do something exceptionally negligent. This guy has no backstop.
I find it highly unlikely that Google actually bought 1023 patents from IBM. I suspect they actually bought 1024, but are counting the first one as 0.
Not a troll at all. I do have an advanced degree, and the time spent pursuing it (as with my undergrad work) took energy but produced nothing valuable in society, just as with countless others. What I do now that I'm out in the world and apply that knowledge - now that's work. To hang out in a classroom all day, doing homework and writing term papers, and feeling you should get paid for it...well, that's just plain fucking lazy*.
*Note: I'd love to do that - I enjoy learning. Hell, I made a business out of learning things, and then selling the application of that knowledge by the hour to people who need it. Without the latter, though, I can't pay for my groceries - no matter how smart I am.
Here's the thing about reduced services - people generally point to services they don't use as a good place to "trim the fat," but never ask to pay the full price on the services they use. You may not need a 911 operator in your home town, but while you're on vacation in the country with your bride-to-be, it would suck to have something life threatening happen to her, and you not know the phone number. Or school - I rarely hear public school students (or their parents) asking to be directly billed the $160,000-$200,000 that will be spent by taxpayers on their education. People who ride bikes often complain about lack of bike lanes, but rarely ask for an annual assessment on bicycles to cover the cost of those lanes and maintenance.
I happen to like trash service, by the way, as the cost of my weekly service is lower - and far more convenient - than my taking a load of trash to the dump each month. It sounds like your landfill service might be free by your post so I presume you're okay with everybody paying to keep the landfill open for you.
As soon as you find three people with reliable precognition abilities. I'm betting in "not in the next two hundred generations".
This is observation, and nothing more. They're just teaching a computer how to do what every good cop does.
Call me when they find reliable precognitives; until then, don't call it pre-crime detection.
I hope not. Part of the usefulness of research and trials is to avoid bias by letting your subjects know what is being tested.
I and, however, surprised that nobody is screaming "Racial Profiling" when the system uses ethnicity as a tracking factor, unless it's used to simply filer out societal norms.
What I find funniest is that this is EXACTLY what every law enforcement and security guard is trained in for crowd surveillance and operations. These are the clues a human looks for in determining which people might be a problem. If I were smart, I'd file a patent for this ASAP, and then add "by a computer" to make it a novel idea.
That's some good stuff from an AC.
Part of it comes down to whether you will enjoy what is offered in the "new" job. If you like where you area and are just going for the money, it's a bad move.
Alternately, if the outsourced code is a bad as you say it is, you could be in for a lot of uncomp'd overtime fixing problems and keeping that new product from crashing and burning with your employer's clients. Consider what your job might be like in a year when comparing it to what you are considering.
And, to add to an earlier post - consider consulting. If they truly love you, and you value the project but have two guys who can start to fill your shoes, they'll be happy to have an emergency outlet. Plus, if you keep them running, they shouldn't harbor ill will.
I think the creationists have already taken over that stance, why not the economists?
You're reading it wrong, to a certain extent. The reason the subsidies exist is not to line the pocket of the corporations, but to pay them to put in service where it would otherwise be impractical (from a business standpoint). Call it welfare or socialism or whatever you want - it's there to make the financial burden of "necessities" on the far-flung communities in the US less onerous.
If you want to make the argument that if you live out in the sticks, you should pony up the $50,000 to string a telephone line and $10,000 a year to maintain that line on your own, then we're talking about something of substance. Otherwise, you're just twisting the facts to suit your view of the universe.
Actually, much of the "taxes" on the bills are "regulatory recovery fees." It's a dodge by the phone and elec companies to make their services look cheaper and to blame to government for making them do the right thing.
Imagine if the local Walmart started charging you a fee for the merchandise, then a 3% "regulartory recovery fee" for having to install stormwater management so the neighboring property didn't flood, plus a 4% "federal corporate tax" fee, and a 6% "Local Property Tax recovery fee". It's a cost of doing business and gets built into the price of the goods.
Some of the taxes are real, like the 911 fee which (surprise) pays for a 911 operator to be standing by waiting to get your emergency call and route it to the appropriate emergency service provider (police, fire, rescue, etc.)
Everyone seems to be down on taxes, but nobody wants reduced services.
People for whom time is worth nothing find piracy valuable.
I would gladly pay for content. Problem is, I can't. I've tried Roku, WMC, and AppleTV, Netflix, and HuluPlus and guess what - they don't fucking work. In fact, they're so limited that I finally gave up and went to Usenet. Problem is - it takes time to maintain and manage it. I've got about 350 DVDs and BR discs in my closet. And yet it's a pain in the ass to watch them. I can stream my music all over the house, but to rip the video I had to buy a program from overseas. And I still can't watch it all easily on all my TVs.
Right now I've got a usenet account, sickbeard, couchpotato, sabnzbd, and Plex. Finally, I get all my shows, easily, and accessible on every TV that has an AppleTV puck (no thanks to Steve for having to jailbreak the ATV) and on my iPad. And sometimes things still don't come through correctly. I'd pay to NOT have to manage all of that and get what I want. But I can't.
The studios are so afraid of letting their content go that they make it impractical to get legally. Yes, there will be piracy - it takes nothing to reproduce (a key economic item which is not lost on the public). But for some of us, we just want to watch what we want. If I were king, part of the copyright law I would re-write would be statutory pricing for practically everything that gets copyright protection, similar to mechanical licensing, and allow on-demand collection so that there could be lots of competing players in the market. Sadly, I'm not king.