Man, where do you live? In the few places I've been (including MD, VA, and CA) property taxes are based on a percentage of the home value. Othewise, you would never be able to predict what your taxes would be. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but the mortgage companies, who hold escrow for most people with mortgages, are quite keen to make sure they have you have enough in escrow to cover your taxes (and then some). Having been involved with several local governments and budgeting, I have yet to come across a "floating" tax system like this.
It melts, and then makes a huge mess if the bag is paper. I'd recommend picking up the ice with your hands or a paper towel, and throwing it in the sink to melt. Using a vacuum is just asking for trouble.
You obviously don't work for the federal government. 5.2 weeks of vacation and 2.6 weeks of sick leave every year (note: 12 years tenure required, you only get 3.8 weeks/2.6 weeks if you've been in for 3-12 years). Sick leave accumulates without bounds, and you can carry over 6 weeks of vacation every year.
Don't worry, I'm sure there will be press release that Gnerd News site won't compete with Slashdot.
Besides, their not set up for ignoring dupes. Their search engine already checks for "xxx number of sites similar to those above," and that will be incoporated into the Gnerd submission engine. We will always have slashdot for dupes.;-)
I don't know how much time is wasted on spam, but iirc it took a couple hours of tech time to remove the rootkit. Well, if you were to figure 4M copies of albums x 2 hrs x $125/hr (the rack rate for onsite tech work) + 4 hours of lost productivity at $50 avg billed rate (even your bulldozer operator bills at $80/hr), I get 1.8 Billion Dollars of "cost" due to Sony's boneheaded move.
Now, I've tried to do the calculation the same way the $6.5M was likely calculated, but I'm willing to say I might be off by a factor of 2. I'd say Sony should be in a lot more trouble for $1B than a cracker with a 1/19th share of $6.5M. But, hey, that's why America loves corporations.
Actually, I get nearly all (no sense fibbing) of my content legally. Would you consider BMG (the music house which presses its own discs and sells them under its own packaging) to be a producer or a distributer. I dare say the RIAA would consider them a distributer, not a producer.
Ah, but what if you got in their system twice, say with a misspelling of an address or middle name? Then you'd have two id numbers, and the world would end (well, at least from the view of the marketing department). SSNs avoid that, and there's no having to mess with being careful - the governement does the job for them (in most cases).
The IT department exists to make sure they have regular, gainful employment. They do NOT exist to make your job easier, or anyone's for that matter, who does not have direct or closelly indirect firing power over them. There are mouths to feed, mortgages to pay, colleges funds to fund, retirement to dream about.
Cynical? Yes, but also very true. The above is the root of the issue. I'll put it in the terms that IT would:
ITs job is to keep the servers running, smoothly, with as little interruption to daily work as possible. As with any complex undertaking, different users have different priorities. CxOs come first. Period. Internal needs come next (see: "servers running, smoothly," above). High profile departments are next - marketing, sales, accounting. The last one is mostly because it comes under a CxO (F - you can choose what it stands for) who is intimitely involved with the month-to-month operation, and through which everyone gets their pay checks (including previously mentioned CxOs). Development is pretty far down, as you can see. You must understand - you don't bring cash into the organization (sales), nor do your efforts directly affect the price of company stock (marketing), both of which are of top importance to the CxOs.
That does not mean that you are not essential. But you are essential in a way that is ongoing - like the janitorial staff. If they lose development, things will slowly start to degrade, but it will be a while before there is a crisis. Either way, its an expensive mess to clean up, but if you throw some cash at it, you can bring things back to livable.
Now, lets look at the flip side. If IT goes down for a day, there will be hell to pay, and heads may roll. Every IT person knows this. Anyone who has dealt with complex modern systems knows that it's a house of cards. There are so many things that can go wrong. One failure, if not just costing your job, is certainly going to make for a long night getting things back in order. That would be uncompensated overtime, remember. Also, ten years without a single failure will not make you a hero, like landing a new sales client, or scoring a great marketing campaign which lifts the stock price or sales. It will make the company think you're reliable, but boring. Bonus aren't given out for boring. One failure, on the other hand, makes you a villain.
Now, if you've made it this far, how much value is there - for the IT professional - in helping you get your job done faster. In case you've skimmed, I'll tell you: none. It's like playing russian roulette for fun. Unless you just happen to like the life-or-death thrill, or have nothing to live for, it's a fools game.
I wish I had better news for you, but if you have a large corporation, than you have an ingrained corporate culture, and IT subculture. And they don't drift your way.
Oh, I've never been in IT. They piss me off 'cause I'm an engineer and just want to get shit done, and they want to worry about making sure the CEO's internet never goes down. I've learned over the years that, in effect, that is their job. I've stopped fighting them and learned to either (a) work with them or (b) work around them. The latter is done carefully to avoid stepping on toes. Just as they are under the thumb of uper management, they like to exert their power where they can. That would be against you and me. You don't tunnel under a mountain if there's a reasonable way to pass around it.
Oh, come on. How many "Presidents" are there in the world that would get headlines by suggesting a ban on human-animal hybrids? You've got to take it in context!;-)
I missed where buying and selling of embryos is bad. There will be supply and demand for such scientific items, and remuneration when such property transfers ownership. Organs are sold right now, though it's not called that. It's merely a fee for the cost of the service of human organ transfer, but it's no different than any other raw material with a zero material cost and a high man-hour / processing equipement cost. Call me cynical, but there are real costs associated. If there is no remuneration, research will be hindered (which is the point GWB is getting at, I believe).
Patents on the human genome - or any genome - should be banned, along with a great deal of other information patents. Now, if you'd like to create a novel implementation of a device which uses the knowledge gained, go for it. Make sure you make up a 12x12x12 scale model and have the capability to manufacture your patent in commercial quanitities, or we'll send the mandatory licensing police after you (in my ideal world).
As for the rest, I'm not sure politics is going to do complex scientific matters much justice.
That's because your social security number is a general purpose number used to identify you from everyone else, and is highly unlikely to be duplicated by another person. The fact that it was used on your mailing label is so that they can have all the tracking information. The others are probably non-identity specific (region, income level, marital status, sexual preference, etc.).
What you should be wondering is why it's not illegal for anyone but the social security administration to use your number for any reason whatsoever.
Just lost my mod points. The parent is right - most of billy boy's fortune is in stock that doesn't pay dividends, and probably doesn't for just the tax reason the GP posted. Even a small dividend would mean a whopper of a tax bill. Billy takes a small salary (that's "small" in CEO terms), and cashes out for the big spending sprees, where his money is taxed at cap gain rates.
Let me know when you've got AutoCAD, WoodWorks Sizer, RAM SBeam and RAMSS, AdvanSE and RetainPro working seamlessly and with automatic updates on your non-XP OS of choice.
Sorry, the gp was right. A distributer makes copies of a work and sells them (ideally) for profit. A producer actually creates the content. You would think that on slashdot the distinction would be particularly clear. I suppose the question may come down to "did he create the content, or was he licensing the work". The former would be the producer, the latter a distributer.
I anticipate it will get overtuned on appeal. Hopefully he'll rot in a small cell forever eiher way.
Sadly, unless you are both indespensible and underpaid for the market (sound's like your case), these types of raises tend to be merely advances on your next couple of annual review raises.
Ah, but a network is costly to deploy and maintain on the level necesary for streaming video and snazzy flash animations. So the commercial ventures who took over from the unis and DARPA had a choice - make it robust or make it cheap. We knew the answer before they even picked up the knife and fork.
They're platinum coated silver, damnit, and of course their frakin' unidirectional. I even conditioned them for 10 days straight with a balanced pink noise signal before I even listened to them. I think it may take another couple of months before they reach their spectral peak, but they're acceptable for now.
I can't even tell you how mad I'll be next year when I find out that - after raving over them at the local stereophile group - that some bastard replaced the entire speaker cable set with zip cord and I never even realized it.
...is that the company lied to get shareholders to buy stock. The evaluation of risk was based on financial information (among others) provided by - and falsified by - the company. The executives should be held accountable for the losses sustained, as, probably, should the auditing firm. It's individuals who did the lying, not the corporation.
Now, had the fall in stock price been for some exterior means. For example, all the virus writers in the world burst into flame and the viruses in the wild mysteriously disappear. Or, just as likely, MS produces a secure OS. Then the stock falls because there is no demad for the product. Then, I don't feel bad for the investors - they knew the they took a chance. Nobody lied to them about revenue numbers.
It's for your own protection. Besides, you wouldn't want to see pure digital HD converted to an analog signal before it gets to your TV and...um...gets converted to analog so that you can see it. Oh well, the screwing of the early adopters continues.
Actually, they'd better get cracking on some HDMI swithcers and HDMI-switching capable amplifiers, 'cause if I'm going to hook up my HD Tivo, a HD-DVD, a DVD jukebox, and my HTPC DVI->HDMI I'm going to need either more TVs in the living room, or a few more input jacks!
Slashdot Mirror
Man, where do you live? In the few places I've been (including MD, VA, and CA) property taxes are based on a percentage of the home value. Othewise, you would never be able to predict what your taxes would be. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but the mortgage companies, who hold escrow for most people with mortgages, are quite keen to make sure they have you have enough in escrow to cover your taxes (and then some). Having been involved with several local governments and budgeting, I have yet to come across a "floating" tax system like this.
It melts, and then makes a huge mess if the bag is paper. I'd recommend picking up the ice with your hands or a paper towel, and throwing it in the sink to melt. Using a vacuum is just asking for trouble.
You obviously don't work for the federal government. 5.2 weeks of vacation and 2.6 weeks of sick leave every year (note: 12 years tenure required, you only get 3.8 weeks/2.6 weeks if you've been in for 3-12 years). Sick leave accumulates without bounds, and you can carry over 6 weeks of vacation every year.
Don't worry, I'm sure there will be press release that Gnerd News site won't compete with Slashdot.
;-)
Besides, their not set up for ignoring dupes. Their search engine already checks for "xxx number of sites similar to those above," and that will be incoporated into the Gnerd submission engine. We will always have slashdot for dupes.
But his patent lives on. Remind me how NTP winning this lawsuit will assist this man, again?
Yeah, they should get busted. But...
I don't know how much time is wasted on spam, but iirc it took a couple hours of tech time to remove the rootkit. Well, if you were to figure 4M copies of albums x 2 hrs x $125/hr (the rack rate for onsite tech work) + 4 hours of lost productivity at $50 avg billed rate (even your bulldozer operator bills at $80/hr), I get 1.8 Billion Dollars of "cost" due to Sony's boneheaded move.
Now, I've tried to do the calculation the same way the $6.5M was likely calculated, but I'm willing to say I might be off by a factor of 2. I'd say Sony should be in a lot more trouble for $1B than a cracker with a 1/19th share of $6.5M. But, hey, that's why America loves corporations.
Actually, I get nearly all (no sense fibbing) of my content legally. Would you consider BMG (the music house which presses its own discs and sells them under its own packaging) to be a producer or a distributer. I dare say the RIAA would consider them a distributer, not a producer.
Ah, but what if you got in their system twice, say with a misspelling of an address or middle name? Then you'd have two id numbers, and the world would end (well, at least from the view of the marketing department). SSNs avoid that, and there's no having to mess with being careful - the governement does the job for them (in most cases).
The IT department exists to make sure they have regular, gainful employment. They do NOT exist to make your job easier, or anyone's for that matter, who does not have direct or closelly indirect firing power over them. There are mouths to feed, mortgages to pay, colleges funds to fund, retirement to dream about.
Cynical? Yes, but also very true. The above is the root of the issue. I'll put it in the terms that IT would:
ITs job is to keep the servers running, smoothly, with as little interruption to daily work as possible. As with any complex undertaking, different users have different priorities. CxOs come first. Period. Internal needs come next (see: "servers running, smoothly," above). High profile departments are next - marketing, sales, accounting. The last one is mostly because it comes under a CxO (F - you can choose what it stands for) who is intimitely involved with the month-to-month operation, and through which everyone gets their pay checks (including previously mentioned CxOs). Development is pretty far down, as you can see. You must understand - you don't bring cash into the organization (sales), nor do your efforts directly affect the price of company stock (marketing), both of which are of top importance to the CxOs.
That does not mean that you are not essential. But you are essential in a way that is ongoing - like the janitorial staff. If they lose development, things will slowly start to degrade, but it will be a while before there is a crisis. Either way, its an expensive mess to clean up, but if you throw some cash at it, you can bring things back to livable.
Now, lets look at the flip side. If IT goes down for a day, there will be hell to pay, and heads may roll. Every IT person knows this. Anyone who has dealt with complex modern systems knows that it's a house of cards. There are so many things that can go wrong. One failure, if not just costing your job, is certainly going to make for a long night getting things back in order. That would be uncompensated overtime, remember. Also, ten years without a single failure will not make you a hero, like landing a new sales client, or scoring a great marketing campaign which lifts the stock price or sales. It will make the company think you're reliable, but boring. Bonus aren't given out for boring. One failure, on the other hand, makes you a villain.
Now, if you've made it this far, how much value is there - for the IT professional - in helping you get your job done faster. In case you've skimmed, I'll tell you: none. It's like playing russian roulette for fun. Unless you just happen to like the life-or-death thrill, or have nothing to live for, it's a fools game.
I wish I had better news for you, but if you have a large corporation, than you have an ingrained corporate culture, and IT subculture. And they don't drift your way.
Oh, I've never been in IT. They piss me off 'cause I'm an engineer and just want to get shit done, and they want to worry about making sure the CEO's internet never goes down. I've learned over the years that, in effect, that is their job. I've stopped fighting them and learned to either (a) work with them or (b) work around them. The latter is done carefully to avoid stepping on toes. Just as they are under the thumb of uper management, they like to exert their power where they can. That would be against you and me. You don't tunnel under a mountain if there's a reasonable way to pass around it.
You forgot marketing budgets. ;-)
Oh, come on. How many "Presidents" are there in the world that would get headlines by suggesting a ban on human-animal hybrids? You've got to take it in context! ;-)
I missed where buying and selling of embryos is bad. There will be supply and demand for such scientific items, and remuneration when such property transfers ownership. Organs are sold right now, though it's not called that. It's merely a fee for the cost of the service of human organ transfer, but it's no different than any other raw material with a zero material cost and a high man-hour / processing equipement cost. Call me cynical, but there are real costs associated. If there is no remuneration, research will be hindered (which is the point GWB is getting at, I believe).
Patents on the human genome - or any genome - should be banned, along with a great deal of other information patents. Now, if you'd like to create a novel implementation of a device which uses the knowledge gained, go for it. Make sure you make up a 12x12x12 scale model and have the capability to manufacture your patent in commercial quanitities, or we'll send the mandatory licensing police after you (in my ideal world).
As for the rest, I'm not sure politics is going to do complex scientific matters much justice.
That's because your social security number is a general purpose number used to identify you from everyone else, and is highly unlikely to be duplicated by another person. The fact that it was used on your mailing label is so that they can have all the tracking information. The others are probably non-identity specific (region, income level, marital status, sexual preference, etc.).
What you should be wondering is why it's not illegal for anyone but the social security administration to use your number for any reason whatsoever.
I misread the last sentense as "What better could you do with that strong an AI?"
;-)
The military ramifications are significant, of course. I see luctrative contracts in their future.
For the good guys, of course.
...and I'm not a flaming liberal, or even close.
Just lost my mod points. The parent is right - most of billy boy's fortune is in stock that doesn't pay dividends, and probably doesn't for just the tax reason the GP posted. Even a small dividend would mean a whopper of a tax bill. Billy takes a small salary (that's "small" in CEO terms), and cashes out for the big spending sprees, where his money is taxed at cap gain rates.
Let me know when you've got AutoCAD, WoodWorks Sizer, RAM SBeam and RAMSS, AdvanSE and RetainPro working seamlessly and with automatic updates on your non-XP OS of choice.
Sorry, the gp was right. A distributer makes copies of a work and sells them (ideally) for profit. A producer actually creates the content. You would think that on slashdot the distinction would be particularly clear. I suppose the question may come down to "did he create the content, or was he licensing the work". The former would be the producer, the latter a distributer.
I anticipate it will get overtuned on appeal. Hopefully he'll rot in a small cell forever eiher way.
Sadly, unless you are both indespensible and underpaid for the market (sound's like your case), these types of raises tend to be merely advances on your next couple of annual review raises.
Ah, but a network is costly to deploy and maintain on the level necesary for streaming video and snazzy flash animations. So the commercial ventures who took over from the unis and DARPA had a choice - make it robust or make it cheap. We knew the answer before they even picked up the knife and fork.
One of the statistitions from the LA Kings once told me that their mottowas "We may not be right, but we're official."
They're platinum coated silver, damnit, and of course their frakin' unidirectional. I even conditioned them for 10 days straight with a balanced pink noise signal before I even listened to them. I think it may take another couple of months before they reach their spectral peak, but they're acceptable for now.
I can't even tell you how mad I'll be next year when I find out that - after raving over them at the local stereophile group - that some bastard replaced the entire speaker cable set with zip cord and I never even realized it.
...is that the company lied to get shareholders to buy stock. The evaluation of risk was based on financial information (among others) provided by - and falsified by - the company. The executives should be held accountable for the losses sustained, as, probably, should the auditing firm. It's individuals who did the lying, not the corporation.
Now, had the fall in stock price been for some exterior means. For example, all the virus writers in the world burst into flame and the viruses in the wild mysteriously disappear. Or, just as likely, MS produces a secure OS. Then the stock falls because there is no demad for the product. Then, I don't feel bad for the investors - they knew the they took a chance. Nobody lied to them about revenue numbers.
How is counting every infringing download of a song equivalent to purchasing the album at full retail? You've got to pick a number somewhere.
I think they should have cut his nuts off instead.
It's for your own protection. Besides, you wouldn't want to see pure digital HD converted to an analog signal before it gets to your TV and...um...gets converted to analog so that you can see it. Oh well, the screwing of the early adopters continues.
Actually, they'd better get cracking on some HDMI swithcers and HDMI-switching capable amplifiers, 'cause if I'm going to hook up my HD Tivo, a HD-DVD, a DVD jukebox, and my HTPC DVI->HDMI I'm going to need either more TVs in the living room, or a few more input jacks!