Regarding law clean-up, I know it's a bit off-topic, but I know my favorite law STILL on the books is one in northern Wisconsin wherein if you are driving an automobile that scares a horse (presumably this law was made a LONG time ago) you have to pull your car over, disassemble it COMPLETELY to the best of your ability, and then you were allowed to reassemble it and be on your way.
This was presumably to give the horse a sense that the car was no danger, time to calm down and be on his way before you got going again and scared him again.
So, count yourself lucky that they don't enforce this still legal consequences...
If the authorities do take some time to investigate the ads (ie actually try phoning the numbers and try to buy the products would be a start)
Yeah, actually...I would say RTFA, but it's the first time I actually read one in five years - I sorta had to to submit it - but it says that the police personally verify all numbers by calling them first before turning this thing on, and even then, a senior administrator has to personally vouch for the number.
It finally came out the other guys had done this, but the other store decided to make a promo out of it and honor the coupons anyways...backfiring on the others.
Jesus Christ!...And totally mangling the English language and all common sense in the process.
I, too, have been an SQA lead at a bevy of companies. I agree with most of your earlier comments, but I gotta call bullshit on some of them.
something people that don't/can't code should aspire to.
Baloney. Most of the best QA Engineers I know are also decent coders. I have a BSCS, and can code fine, but I know there are WAAAY too many mediocre coders in the world, and I'm not looking to be one of them.
It's a pretty noble profession in the software world.
Again, don't believe it. It's NOT a noble profession. If you're REALLY good and have a good reputation as being easy to work with and efficient, you can get respect at your job, but that's true for any job. Usually, as you say, QA is a battle against bad program schedules, crappy design and poor (or non-existant, in most cases) unit design. You were right on the money. Don't change your mind.
most companies these days don't want really good SQA Engineers. They'd rather pay minimum wage for drones
Again...BZZZZT!! Most companies want EXCELLENT QA Engineers. They Don't want "drones". But they want to pay the Engineers minimum wage and treat them like drones.
I guess I see QA as tedious, but fun. Nitpicky sometimes, always on the verge of an argument to back up your position, and it's fun to find bugs. Especially when you know how to fix them. It's nice to get respect for a job well done anywhere, and though the market sucks, I haven't been wanting for a job (*knock, knock, knock*) because good QA Engineers are not only hard to find, they help make a bad product better. And, hopefully, an excellent product better. It can be boring and tedious and full of paperwork and recordkeeping and constant meetings and communication...but it's still fun.
It sounds to me like the main selling points of AOP are that you don't have to design things well in the first place, because if you missed something, well then you can change how your objects behave without redesigning them.
Just out of curiosity...isn't this a "Good Thing"(tm)?
I mean, where I work, we've got 25+ year-old legacy code that is at the heart of our stuff, and it gets built on each year. Because of expanding features, new products, etc., we rely on the fact that we also have legacy programmers here that understand it.
If we had the time and money to re-architect/re-design/re-code each release, we'd be in hog heaven when it comes to having a great opportunity to "design things well in the first place", because we could. But something designed well in the first place can't POSSIBLY make up for future enhancements and even really core code changes, because if you had the time to do such a good job in the first place, you usually lost money and went out of business. The attitude (and I don't support this, but it seems true) is "Make it work now, make it work better later" so that money can be made. Then, later really never rolls around, and it's ALWAYS there looming in the distance.
...will we look back at this and scoff? Well, not scoff, just admire wistfully what we thought was amazingly fast?
Just curious. It seems that NASA computers that launched Apollo were amazing at the time - the cream of the crop - yet we have far surpassed that computing power, speed, storage in even laptops 30 or 40 years later.
I mean, you don't know what the Jackass Police Department's letterhead looks like. And I sign it as the chief of Jackass Police Department. You don't know what his signature looks like either.
I'm gonna go out on a limb, here...
I would guess that most people (yes, EVEN student records workers) would question even a formal letter from Jackass PD.
Wait... Trying to be funny aside, now that I think of it, if they can't (or won't) sell it to me, does that constitute theft, piracy, or lost sale numbers in Hilary's eyes?
I did this same thing for a DAY in Fort Dodge, Iowa, back in 1990, when I was in need of money. It was SO sad. They gave us STACKS of printouts with lists of people who had been sent a complimentary copy of "Heavy Truck & Machine Trader".
It was just cold-calling, for the new guys like me. The subscription cost was $390 a year, and it was just like the Auto Trader you see at the Stop-n-Robs these days.
The sad thing was that they got their lists from DMV of people or organizations who had a semi or trailer combo registered. So, this got me into lots of screaming tirades from "customers" who were people like the church with the old broken down church bus in back that hadn't run in years or Goodwill, for crying out loud, because of their trailers. On my first day, though, I got 17 subscriptions filled. My boss was FLOORED. A good day was like...2 subscriptions. You got a $50 bonus for every subscription. So, when I handed her all the subscription cards, she flipped, and demanded to know why I was lying and forging subscription slips.
Oh, dear. So, I get escorted from the room with security while she calls each and every one of my "subscribers" to very rudely verify ("Do you realize HOW MUCH THIS WILL COST YOU every year??!" to the customers) each of them. Turns out that when she called them, they were each pissed about getting two calls in one day from someone they didn't want to talk to in the first place, and they all cancelled except two of them. Then, they played back the recordings of some of my conversations and discovered that I used the word "renew" with each of the customers, which, apparently we weren't EVER supposed to do... I was fired for "not being copmpletely honest". So, there is some honesty amongst telemarketers, and I got screwed out of any commission - even the ones who really did want the subscription, which is totally understandable. I screwed the pooch a bit on that one, but I found the language that made people buy, and used it.
The only fun thing I did in my work day was when I realized that I was calling an area in Washington State in which I had an uncle I hadn't talked to in awhile. He was a cabinet maker, and I had worked for him for a few months in the summers, so I knew his shop and his machinery, well. I called and his wife (the nicest lady you'd ever meet) answered. I gave her my usual droning speech from my card, and she politely refused, but thanked me. Then she hung up. I called back, and, determined to have some fun, started pointing out that we had his records and knew what machinery he had (started listing them for her) and that several were in need of updating (which they were) and wouldn't this be "lovely" gift for her husband. She again refused and hung up.
I gave it about 30 seconds, and called back. She was starting to get steamed when I started talking about how they could extend the shop past that apple tree in the back and put in some newer compressors and that we had that 36" sander he'd been looking for in our magazine. She started getting nervous, and didn't even reply when she slammed the phone down.
On the FOURTH call, she REALLY showed her true colors. She cussed like a sailor, threatened to call the cops, threatened my life, called me all sorts of names, and screamed like a banshee until I said, "Hey, Aunt Patty. It's me!" She choked her fury down enough to call me a couple of choice names and then hung up on me.
No problem. I'm not arguing the definition, just that I've never known a lawyer or a pettifogger that calls himself an attorney.
And, for the record, I was going from this definition:
attorney : A person legally appointed by another to act as his or her agent in the transaction of business, specifically one qualified and licensed to act for plaintiffs and defendants in legal proceedings.
lawyer : One whose profession is to give legal advice and assistance to clients and represent them in court or in other legal matters.
I've always heard lawyers correct me and be very VERY specific about the fact that a lawyer is a profession : e.g. "I work as a lawyer." or "I am a lawyer." and that an attorney is only a lawyer that's been hired to represent someone : e.g. "I am his attorney" or "My attorney is raping me with hourly costs".
So I can just buy from a Canadian e-retailer. Or a Mexican.
Sorry, I can't resist sounding like a jerk, here. Mexican products that attempt to compete with US or EU or Japanese products have (in my limited experience) proven to me to be cheap knock-offs or poorly produced versions of what we have here. You know...the Mexican Strat, the Mexican Vee-Dub, "Mexican Labor", etc. I'm not thinking that they'll be a big player in online sales in the near future, 7% knock-off and NAFTA or not.
What's that you say? You bought a Mexican book? Not English, is it? Some Mexican Hard drives? What was the last great technological innovation to come out of Mexico? I'm seriously interested. I live in a very highly Hispanic area, and have lots of Hispanic and Latino friends...they never talk about things like, "Yeah, back home, we REALLY knew how to build [insert product here]" They talk about missing the food, the people, the atmosphere, but not the products or the GNP or living standards...
I wish this didn't come off sounding so racist, but if you replace the above with Canadian and don't replace all the products with "singers", it just sounds stupid.
Perhaps I swung too far the other way to make my point though.
Naah. In fact, I broke two fingers and gave myself whiplash typing the response.:)
I think the guy got screwed, royally, and I agree totally that his "crimes" didn't amount to much. I'd rather see all first-offense drunk drivers do his time than get a slap on the wrist. They have the potential to do way more damage to human life than someone like Mitnick. Besides...he was very careful not to intentionally disturb anything. Gotta admire that whatever morals fled him during his ramblings about Cyberspace, he still kept that one.
Slashdot Mirror
My dad swears he met you in the late 70's. It's his only claim to fame.
So...is it true? Did you meet him?
Thanks.
Well, y'know at least we'll all be safe.
Slashdotters won't ever get sued for infringement
Get it?
Slashdotters...no sex...
Awww, never mind.
This was presumably to give the horse a sense that the car was no danger, time to calm down and be on his way before you got going again and scared him again.
So, count yourself lucky that they don't enforce this still legal consequences...
Next Year? Ha!
I'm betting on tomorrow.
Yeah, actually...I would say RTFA, but it's the first time I actually read one in five years - I sorta had to to submit it - but it says that the police personally verify all numbers by calling them first before turning this thing on, and even then, a senior administrator has to personally vouch for the number.
So, I guess it's his ass if they goof.
There you go, using your outdoor voice again....
Jesus Christ! ...And totally mangling the English language and all common sense in the process.
something people that don't/can't code should aspire to.
Baloney. Most of the best QA Engineers I know are also decent coders. I have a BSCS, and can code fine, but I know there are WAAAY too many mediocre coders in the world, and I'm not looking to be one of them.
It's a pretty noble profession in the software world.
Again, don't believe it. It's NOT a noble profession. If you're REALLY good and have a good reputation as being easy to work with and efficient, you can get respect at your job, but that's true for any job. Usually, as you say, QA is a battle against bad program schedules, crappy design and poor (or non-existant, in most cases) unit design. You were right on the money. Don't change your mind.
most companies these days don't want really good SQA Engineers. They'd rather pay minimum wage for drones
Again...BZZZZT!! Most companies want EXCELLENT QA Engineers. They Don't want "drones". But they want to pay the Engineers minimum wage and treat them like drones.
I guess I see QA as tedious, but fun. Nitpicky sometimes, always on the verge of an argument to back up your position, and it's fun to find bugs. Especially when you know how to fix them. It's nice to get respect for a job well done anywhere, and though the market sucks, I haven't been wanting for a job (*knock, knock, knock*) because good QA Engineers are not only hard to find, they help make a bad product better. And, hopefully, an excellent product better. It can be boring and tedious and full of paperwork and recordkeeping and constant meetings and communication...but it's still fun.
Just out of curiosity...isn't this a "Good Thing"(tm)?
I mean, where I work, we've got 25+ year-old legacy code that is at the heart of our stuff, and it gets built on each year. Because of expanding features, new products, etc., we rely on the fact that we also have legacy programmers here that understand it.
If we had the time and money to re-architect/re-design/re-code each release, we'd be in hog heaven when it comes to having a great opportunity to "design things well in the first place", because we could. But something designed well in the first place can't POSSIBLY make up for future enhancements and even really core code changes, because if you had the time to do such a good job in the first place, you usually lost money and went out of business. The attitude (and I don't support this, but it seems true) is "Make it work now, make it work better later" so that money can be made. Then, later really never rolls around, and it's ALWAYS there looming in the distance.
So, this seems like a great idea, to me.
Just curious. It seems that NASA computers that launched Apollo were amazing at the time - the cream of the crop - yet we have far surpassed that computing power, speed, storage in even laptops 30 or 40 years later.
I can't wait to see my grandkids' pc!
I'm gonna go out on a limb, here...
I would guess that most people (yes, EVEN student records workers) would question even a formal letter from Jackass PD.
This is a trick question.
Everyone knows that WVMS running within WVMS would create, as authorities put it, "A Great Deal of Fire".
Have you tried Kazaa?
:)
Wait... Trying to be funny aside, now that I think of it, if they can't (or won't) sell it to me, does that constitute theft, piracy, or lost sale numbers in Hilary's eyes?
Or heroin for that matter!
Actually, I had pr0n ask me to say heroin once...
It was way weird.
Any Tech Geek worth his salt burns his OWN CDs with a modified laser pointer, some chewing gum, a lighter, and Duct Tape.
The good ones don't even need the CD.
Amateurs.
They don't?
Oops.
click
It was just cold-calling, for the new guys like me. The subscription cost was $390 a year, and it was just like the Auto Trader you see at the Stop-n-Robs these days.
The sad thing was that they got their lists from DMV of people or organizations who had a semi or trailer combo registered. So, this got me into lots of screaming tirades from "customers" who were people like the church with the old broken down church bus in back that hadn't run in years or Goodwill, for crying out loud, because of their trailers. On my first day, though, I got 17 subscriptions filled. My boss was FLOORED. A good day was like...2 subscriptions. You got a $50 bonus for every subscription. So, when I handed her all the subscription cards, she flipped, and demanded to know why I was lying and forging subscription slips.
Oh, dear. So, I get escorted from the room with security while she calls each and every one of my "subscribers" to very rudely verify ("Do you realize HOW MUCH THIS WILL COST YOU every year??!" to the customers) each of them. Turns out that when she called them, they were each pissed about getting two calls in one day from someone they didn't want to talk to in the first place, and they all cancelled except two of them. Then, they played back the recordings of some of my conversations and discovered that I used the word "renew" with each of the customers, which, apparently we weren't EVER supposed to do... I was fired for "not being copmpletely honest". So, there is some honesty amongst telemarketers, and I got screwed out of any commission - even the ones who really did want the subscription, which is totally understandable. I screwed the pooch a bit on that one, but I found the language that made people buy, and used it.
The only fun thing I did in my work day was when I realized that I was calling an area in Washington State in which I had an uncle I hadn't talked to in awhile. He was a cabinet maker, and I had worked for him for a few months in the summers, so I knew his shop and his machinery, well. I called and his wife (the nicest lady you'd ever meet) answered. I gave her my usual droning speech from my card, and she politely refused, but thanked me. Then she hung up. I called back, and, determined to have some fun, started pointing out that we had his records and knew what machinery he had (started listing them for her) and that several were in need of updating (which they were) and wouldn't this be "lovely" gift for her husband. She again refused and hung up.
I gave it about 30 seconds, and called back. She was starting to get steamed when I started talking about how they could extend the shop past that apple tree in the back and put in some newer compressors and that we had that 36" sander he'd been looking for in our magazine. She started getting nervous, and didn't even reply when she slammed the phone down.
On the FOURTH call, she REALLY showed her true colors. She cussed like a sailor, threatened to call the cops, threatened my life, called me all sorts of names, and screamed like a banshee until I said, "Hey, Aunt Patty. It's me!" She choked her fury down enough to call me a couple of choice names and then hung up on me.
Hey, I was 18. We all laugh about it, now...
...Arrested for Typos.
Sigh.
And, for the record, I was going from this definition :
attorney : A person legally appointed by another to act as his or her agent in the transaction of business, specifically one qualified and licensed to act for plaintiffs and defendants in legal proceedings.
lawyer : One whose profession is to give legal advice and assistance to clients and represent them in court or in other legal matters.
Both are from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company
So, a lawyer is a person of profession, and an attorney is a legal appointee.
Not to get all nitpicky, but Christ, man, you're a pettifogger!!
:)
Attorney?
I've always heard lawyers correct me and be very VERY specific about the fact that a lawyer is a profession : e.g. "I work as a lawyer." or "I am a lawyer." and that an attorney is only a lawyer that's been hired to represent someone : e.g. "I am his attorney" or "My attorney is raping me with hourly costs".
Are you the exception? Or just not a lawyer?
I'll go with Bruce van Natta too, then.
Touche.
Sorry.
Sorry, I can't resist sounding like a jerk, here. Mexican products that attempt to compete with US or EU or Japanese products have (in my limited experience) proven to me to be cheap knock-offs or poorly produced versions of what we have here. You know...the Mexican Strat, the Mexican Vee-Dub, "Mexican Labor", etc. I'm not thinking that they'll be a big player in online sales in the near future, 7% knock-off and NAFTA or not.
What's that you say? You bought a Mexican book? Not English, is it? Some Mexican Hard drives? What was the last great technological innovation to come out of Mexico? I'm seriously interested. I live in a very highly Hispanic area, and have lots of Hispanic and Latino friends...they never talk about things like, "Yeah, back home, we REALLY knew how to build [insert product here]" They talk about missing the food, the people, the atmosphere, but not the products or the GNP or living standards...
I wish this didn't come off sounding so racist, but if you replace the above with Canadian and don't replace all the products with "singers", it just sounds stupid.
Naah. In fact, I broke two fingers and gave myself whiplash typing the response. :)
I think the guy got screwed, royally, and I agree totally that his "crimes" didn't amount to much. I'd rather see all first-offense drunk drivers do his time than get a slap on the wrist. They have the potential to do way more damage to human life than someone like Mitnick. Besides...he was very careful not to intentionally disturb anything. Gotta admire that whatever morals fled him during his ramblings about Cyberspace, he still kept that one.
Kudos for your comments, anyhow.