Their testimony basically told us that their mergers aren't going to harm competition. I'm sure a lot is bull, but please listen to the testimony first. It's interesting if you have a fetish for networks, redundancy and interconnectedness like I do. Plus loving gov't in action helps.
There were a lot of good questions and some pressure for honest answers. Listening is better than reading because you can get tone and inflection. Good thing too because the transcript isn't up yet, all you have is Real Audio.
Yeah, you are right. I run Apache and should know this.
No matter Apache alone can't setup and index billions of files between users worldwide and track users logins and so forth. Really, it's the software that you use with it.
Alone, Apache and IIS are efficient label killing machines.
Again though, let me state: I'm not even really against piracy. I've downloaded and uploaded my share (and yours) since BBS's and USENET (still do actually) but I'm against all of these folks doing this so openly and getting off on technicalities. It really looks as if Kazaa could win and that kinda scares me. That is really it. It's sick that they've made money off of record labels' property and now a tragedy. Their "100% legal" campaign twists my stomach because they seem to just be slapping the **AA in the face. I see them like I see the **AA: Record labels haven't changed so they use the law to fight technology and Kazaa uses shell games and legal loopholes to continue to enrage the **AA. I'd like to see more for-pay mp3's and less blatent piracy. I'm sorry - I'm a pirate with a heart. I sure wouldn't copy what I do if I could afford any of it. (Which still doesn't absolve me or give me the right to do wrong. See being mature is knowing when you are doing something wrong and feeling bad about it.)
Too bad this insight is buried so deep in the discussion.
the sole purpose of Kazaa was to help people trade copyrighted works and to make money off of that trend. Why are people against seeing this?
Kazaa did nothing to help Indie artists, did nothing to stop piracy (required to or not, a gesture of goodwill would have been a start) and let's mention again Kazaa isn't just a piece of software.
"Kazaa" is a service, a profit model. I'm not running Kazaa on my machine, they are operating indexing servers out of Denmark... if I fire up the software or not "Kazaa" lives.
I understand that people are afraid that their rights are under attack, but they aren't. I assume that is why you try to attack my points with semantics - but you don't need to.
Once you admit that Kazaa was nothing more than a bunch of fucktards who wanted to get rich off of the explosion in illegal activity on the Internet by the normal user you can realize they are out for no one but themselves. If Kazaa cared about your "rights" they'd be responsible. They wouldn't install Spyware on machines and so forth.
Now, Apache and IIS weren't written to trade media files between millions of users
Of course they were.
No, they weren't. What are you smoking? Apache and IIS can only have a one-to-many relationship with users. What we are talking about is a many-to-many relationship which causes millions of illegal transactions per second. Again though, there was no reason for Apache or IIS to be brought into the conversation. Everyone's far reaching metaphores make the argument a wash...
BTW, Sharman stole millions from people hiding behind a Red Cross scam... that is what started this topic. If this were a trial I'd use that fact as a character witness.
Now we are just getting a little too out of touch. Kazaa was used for the sole purpose of trading copyrighted works! Not linux iso's, not royalty free work, Britney Spears songs...
Then again, the phone, bars and the such weren't invented for the sole purpose of breaking the law... Kazaa was!
Anyone who doesn't admit this to themselves is delusional.
After they had cashflow they had one of two responsiblities: Either filter owned works or pay up for those works.
They have no such responsibility, any more than Microsoft has a responsibility to build filters into IIS to stop people from putting copyrighted works on websites without permission.
I don't know how people can be suprised or offended when Kazaa or Napster gets sued.
Because this software is just another way of copying files. You don't see the Apache Foundation get sued, or Microsoft for Windows file sharing, or AT&T for writing 'cp'.
Well now that is about as dumb as it gets. First let me say that IIS or Apache running on my server makes me responsible, not Microsoft or the Apache Foundation. If my site was discovered I'd expect to be shut down and sued, if not imprisoned - because I broke the law.
Now, Apache and IIS weren't written to trade media files between millions of users and neither organization operates servers which make it easier to do so. Sharman actually helps you break copyrights by providing indexing and other central services and they track every file traded on their network.
Gnutella is a tool. It is software written to trade files, but no one is sitting in the middle making money off of it. There is no possible way to stop piracy on such a network - but most important someone isn't getting rich off of someone else's work.
Shit, you want to go out on a limb? Well, guns are legal. Tools even. But there are laws that keep you from taking one into the courthouse or a school because the tool can be used for other things than defense and hunting. Felons can't have guns, and so forth. Why? Because we know the potential for harm.
Basically though my problem isn't with the software. It is with the service that a bunch of theives provided. They knew, because they log activity and they operate a central set of servers, that people were using the service to trade in illegal files. Once they collected one dime they had a responsibility to fork over the cash. Even if that would have made them operate at a loss they were bringing in money because someone else produced work which Kazaa/Sharman doesn't own the rights to.
Whoa... no one is actually getting down on copyright infringment. We are down on it being in the open.
It ends up giving everyone a bad name and is bad for open and fair business. Because of Kazaa and ilk we now are operating under a guilty until proven innocent system.
I say go back to the days when it wasn't in the open and so easily done. Giving the ability to everyone is what is hurting us all. Now we are going to be legislated back into the stone age.
Please copy but don't promote fucktards like these making a quick buck off of it.
Well, considering that Kazaa (Sharman) operates out of Vanuatu I wonder why you bring America into it. I mean they moved from Europe because they were breaking the law.
Considering they log activity they are in big trouble as well:
Remember "bongs" are illegal now because they help break the law. Tommy Chong can attest to that (not even that I agree with that, but it's precedent).
Well, let's look at the situation. When the pager companies set up shop they never ran ads that read "Get a pager and never miss a drug deal!!!!".
Even if it was assumed that many customers were drug dealers none of the messages (in the 1980's) were specific enough to filter out illegal activity. Kazaa has a central server where searches like "Britney Spears - Toxic", or "Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here" pass through. They made a point where it could be filtered but they didn't use it to protect themselves and others.
But alas, as another has pointed out telcos did investigate when asked to.
My point is that you could sell drugs - I'm fine with that. But the system has already made it hard for you being illegal and all. People who want drugs have to know you or someone you know to get them.
It makes breaking the law harder if we don't accept those who do it...
Considering this company makes money off of bootlegging and piracy it makes sense.
But before you fly off the handle, look at it this way: They took software for trading files and turned it and it's abilities into a profit machine, stooping so far as to load users with spyware to further that profit (remember: Kazaa Lite has no connection to Sharman). All the time we all knew that Kazaa was used 99% of the time for retrieving copyrighted works people had no rights to. This isn't Bittorrent where many files are free.
After they had cashflow they had one of two responsiblities: Either filter owned works or pay up for those works. They made information trade their business and they didn't own the information they were "brokering".
I don't know how people can be suprised or offended when Kazaa or Napster gets sued. I don't work for the **AA, and am not Dr. Dre, just not suprised at this. I'm not suprised if they get there asses handed to them. (I'm not counting on them getting off on any technicalities, I'm just saying they have it coming.)
Napster and Kazaa with websites is tantamount to a drug dealer on the corner with a sign and them turning a profit is as disgusting as it gets. I've bootleged and pirated quite a few things but I nor anyone else should be making money off of that.
From another poster: "thrashing.. and it is when the OS has to pull so much info from swap (and move info from RAM to swap to make room) that it temporarily locks up. It can affect any OS that uses swap.
In fact I do use FAT with XP. My second drive is partitioned into several FAT drives, one for "Temp", one for the pagefile, and one for the system catalog....
FAT needs to access the disk a quarter of the amount of times for each read/write operation. It only makes sense to take all of these "extra" I/O operations and off-load them onto another drive. After I learned about this little trick (which is centered around the original strategy of moving the swap off the main drive) I've been a Windows user again in fact. I've setup and forgot about two Win2K machines with this strategy because they _never_ crash. [Of course you've got to admit that people get click happy and say the PC is frozen when Windows enters "trashing" mode and they reboot that bad mo-fo..]
Can't customers make choices on their own? Make it available and if it sucks we won't use it, problem solved.
"We are currently evaluating making the WinFS storage subsystem available on this platform and [We, at Microsoft] will make the decision based on what is best for customers." a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews.
Thank you...
...and please order those Microsoft WinVoting units, I don't want to do any thinking come the begining of November anymore.
Personally, I like their selection and lay out but I'm glad to see Best Buy go down. They have the worst "practices" in the industry and just push other retailers to do the same stupid things (like not taking back unopened items, etc).
I didn't want to make my post any longer but I've had success with drugs. Lithium didn't do it, or enough to keep my life stable enough to keep my head on straight, but Depakote did. (In fact, Depakote got me off caffine because it treated the migraines that also runs in my family). Then again, there was little (no) attempt to educate me in my illness. I've suffered for 8+ years before I really knew what I was up against (like the life sentence and the chance of more episodes as time goes on, no one told me the extremes I would face until it was too late.)
However, the system I had to deal with to get those drugs was horrible. I know for a fact that it is easier to secure pain medications (doctor friend sees "drug seekers" a lot) and lie your way into a Methadone prescription in this town. Our public health system is in shambles from my point of view.
My illness, if not properly treated, can be a even larger burden on everyone as a whole. Tax dollars are already being put aside - they told you it was for people who are sick and poor or that it would go to people who can't work and need to take medications daily...
Well, you were lied to. Even worse than the fact that the money never made it into my hands is the fact that these programs are labeled failures. The main barrier to my medication is the price tag of the pills along with the price of doctor visits (and now we are talking hundreds of dollars an hour). Once you lose everything it's hard to come up with thousands of dollars to invest in yourself. Meanwhile everyone else in society, even my close friends and family, see my life as a wash. No matter the fact that I rarely even intrude into their lives.
Medicaid, rather my local outlet actually cut off my benefits because I didn't make it to their 5-sec, prescheduled, mandatory, "walk through the metal detectors and back onto the bus because we don't actually need anything we like to do this so that we can cut off benefits for no reason, I'm sure you understand with so many minorities on it we couldn't let them live off of us tax payers" routine...
So in the matter of weeks I was back to square one. I've since received my Associates Degree and really can't do anything with it because I can't even live by a hour to hour schedule.
At this point I don't support Medicaid. Bush has won, I'm going to become a terror^H^H^H^H^HRepublican now so that I can experience what it is like to take millions of peoples lives and loved ones away!
I'm now 24 and have suffered with BipolarDisorder (Rapid Cycling, or Ultra-Ultra-Rapid Cycling Bipolar according to this page) since I was about 13 or 14 and officially diagnosed at 16 years old. As a consequence of my illness, which includes episodes of depression, I dropped out of school and seriously messed up.
I lost all of my friends and ruined relationships I thought would, and might have, lasted forever and have pretty much retreated from the world. For about two years I went through a severe depressed episode, the whole time almost getting help here and there. I truely thought all things were lost and started to slowly kill myself with any type of controlled substance I could get my hands on.
Ok, that was a severe exaggeration, but I was binging on everything. I started to do stupid (fun) things that would later set me up for a lot of trouble until something changed. I didn't get help, I just had a conversion. It happened to be a religious conversion but it wasn't religion that saved me. Well, I went through three religions before I settled on one I liked and incorporated everything else I learned.
During all of this I realized on the side that I was going to face bad days. I was going to be depressed and that my life wasn't going to end up the way I had always dreamed (which is a understatement-I barely function). But you know, I realized that hurting everyone else was pretty petty considering if I waited it out I would feel better some day. My chance of feeling like that forever was zero; so why not just say "Fuck it" and move on?
Not only is suicide the worst way to treat depression it is never the answer to any problem. Drugs, crime, shame, anything.... it's happened to someone before, lots of people. Some of them made it out. Shit, even if you are on crack - smoke that and say fuck it and live. You won't get a chance to do it again. I'm not even going to get on a high horse and tell you to quit the pipe - that is something to live for, it's a start.
I'll feel like no one if you don't mod this up, of course. And if you have any empathy and would like to help my situation support mental health parity in the insurance industry (which would help afflicted minors in the transition to adulthood). Please also oppose cuts to the nations Medicaid system at a time when it's imperative it reach out more to mentally ill citizens.
QA, in other industries....
on
QA != Testing
·
· Score: 1
My grandfather worked in QA for 25 years at Drackett testing products such as Drano, Windex, various Glade cleaning and scent products, mops, cleaning cloths and so forth.
From what I could gather about their work environment, it was middle-managed, and led to promoting the ones with the most ambition (as opposed to know-how). But then again the company was sold to MeadJohnson and restructured. But products weren't rushed and often "bugs" were discovered before shipments arrived.
As far as Quality Assurance, it was serious business. A cleaning product that produces it's payload via a spray bottle can run into loads of problems. Incorrect pressure can cause weak or excessive sprays and nozzles made out of the wrong plastics can break down after a few uses. Trust me, we saw a lot of products that did and didn't make it to market (including Nutrament which sadly did, although I hated it). In fact I've later cursed "OrangeClean" because their spray mechanism suffers from a problem I've heard of plenty of times. Every product truely had a story and everything had been thoroughly tested - we all made sure that happened. Before working in QA my gp worked as a chemist so he's pretty smart too. He really had the ability to look at the entire project and seeing possible conflits - a knack he still has.
My point is that if you call yourself QA you need to have some know-how and you need to truely test everything. Not every software project needs to meet governement software guidlines but QA should be your bug testers, anyone brave enough to run the software in a production (like) environment. Project managers should be heading up things like compliance, if I'm not mistaken. It makes more organizational sense. Teams should be formed around their functions, eliminating management levels and unneeded personnel.
Let your "QA" team work on things like sending design considerations back to the project managers/leaders and alerting them to potential breakdowns. QA == Testing, it does, it does, it does. I'm sorry but the process includes a lot of testing. They don't have to test the final product, they can test prototypes and then the final product - but they should never make the business decision. (Never)
Slashdot Mirror
Others have commented to the point that their pricing makes it hard to compete, but I know nothing of Verizon pricing.
I do however know that the four big telcoms testified in front of Congress recently and their testimony might be of interest in this discussion. I watched it on C-SPAN and liked what I heard for the most part.
Their testimony basically told us that their mergers aren't going to harm competition. I'm sure a lot is bull, but please listen to the testimony first. It's interesting if you have a fetish for networks, redundancy and interconnectedness like I do. Plus loving gov't in action helps.
There were a lot of good questions and some pressure for honest answers. Listening is better than reading because you can get tone and inflection. Good thing too because the transcript isn't up yet, all you have is Real Audio.
Yeah, you are right. I run Apache and should know this.
No matter Apache alone can't setup and index billions of files between users worldwide and track users logins and so forth. Really, it's the software that you use with it.
Alone, Apache and IIS are efficient label killing machines.
Again though, let me state: I'm not even really against piracy. I've downloaded and uploaded my share (and yours) since BBS's and USENET (still do actually) but I'm against all of these folks doing this so openly and getting off on technicalities. It really looks as if Kazaa could win and that kinda scares me. That is really it. It's sick that they've made money off of record labels' property and now a tragedy. Their "100% legal" campaign twists my stomach because they seem to just be slapping the **AA in the face. I see them like I see the **AA: Record labels haven't changed so they use the law to fight technology and Kazaa uses shell games and legal loopholes to continue to enrage the **AA. I'd like to see more for-pay mp3's and less blatent piracy. I'm sorry - I'm a pirate with a heart. I sure wouldn't copy what I do if I could afford any of it. (Which still doesn't absolve me or give me the right to do wrong. See being mature is knowing when you are doing something wrong and feeling bad about it.)
Too bad this insight is buried so deep in the discussion.
Once more...
.
the sole purpose of Kazaa was to help people trade copyrighted works and to make money off of that trend. Why are people against seeing this?
Kazaa did nothing to help Indie artists, did nothing to stop piracy (required to or not, a gesture of goodwill would have been a start) and let's mention again Kazaa isn't just a piece of software
"Kazaa" is a service, a profit model. I'm not running Kazaa on my machine, they are operating indexing servers out of Denmark... if I fire up the software or not "Kazaa" lives.
I understand that people are afraid that their rights are under attack, but they aren't. I assume that is why you try to attack my points with semantics - but you don't need to.
Once you admit that Kazaa was nothing more than a bunch of fucktards who wanted to get rich off of the explosion in illegal activity on the Internet by the normal user you can realize they are out for no one but themselves. If Kazaa cared about your "rights" they'd be responsible. They wouldn't install Spyware on machines and so forth.
Now, Apache and IIS weren't written to trade media files between millions of users
Of course they were.
No, they weren't. What are you smoking? Apache and IIS can only have a one-to-many relationship with users. What we are talking about is a many-to-many relationship which causes millions of illegal transactions per second. Again though, there was no reason for Apache or IIS to be brought into the conversation. Everyone's far reaching metaphores make the argument a wash...
BTW, Sharman stole millions from people hiding behind a Red Cross scam... that is what started this topic. If this were a trial I'd use that fact as a character witness.
Some people?
Now we are just getting a little too out of touch. Kazaa was used for the sole purpose of trading copyrighted works! Not linux iso's, not royalty free work, Britney Spears songs...
Then again, the phone, bars and the such weren't invented for the sole purpose of breaking the law... Kazaa was!
Anyone who doesn't admit this to themselves is delusional.
I'm all for software as tools and all but they provided a service which enhanced the ability to break the law...
And they tracked usage which makes them responsible. They were to greedy and it caught up to them.
Or you could get that CSI technology and pick the plate number off of 160x160 webcam images...
unless he/she gets pissed and just starts trashing your stuff....
I know when you secure car stereo equipment frustrated theives end up cutting speakers and ruining wire runs.
...or MacOS 9 as I meant...
It did say "or greater" right? OSX 9 should work...
[rimshot]
Bold = me
After they had cashflow they had one of two responsiblities: Either filter owned works or pay up for those works.
They have no such responsibility, any more than Microsoft has a responsibility to build filters into IIS to stop people from putting copyrighted works on websites without permission.
I don't know how people can be suprised or offended when Kazaa or Napster gets sued.
Because this software is just another way of copying files. You don't see the Apache Foundation get sued, or Microsoft for Windows file sharing, or AT&T for writing 'cp'.
Well now that is about as dumb as it gets. First let me say that IIS or Apache running on my server makes me responsible, not Microsoft or the Apache Foundation. If my site was discovered I'd expect to be shut down and sued, if not imprisoned - because I broke the law.
Now, Apache and IIS weren't written to trade media files between millions of users and neither organization operates servers which make it easier to do so. Sharman actually helps you break copyrights by providing indexing and other central services and they track every file traded on their network.
Gnutella is a tool. It is software written to trade files, but no one is sitting in the middle making money off of it. There is no possible way to stop piracy on such a network - but most important someone isn't getting rich off of someone else's work.
Shit, you want to go out on a limb? Well, guns are legal. Tools even. But there are laws that keep you from taking one into the courthouse or a school because the tool can be used for other things than defense and hunting. Felons can't have guns, and so forth. Why? Because we know the potential for harm.
Basically though my problem isn't with the software. It is with the service that a bunch of theives provided. They knew, because they log activity and they operate a central set of servers, that people were using the service to trade in illegal files. Once they collected one dime they had a responsibility to fork over the cash. Even if that would have made them operate at a loss they were bringing in money because someone else produced work which Kazaa/Sharman doesn't own the rights to.
Whoa... no one is actually getting down on copyright infringment. We are down on it being in the open.
It ends up giving everyone a bad name and is bad for open and fair business. Because of Kazaa and ilk we now are operating under a guilty until proven innocent system.
I say go back to the days when it wasn't in the open and so easily done. Giving the ability to everyone is what is hurting us all. Now we are going to be legislated back into the stone age.
Please copy but don't promote fucktards like these making a quick buck off of it.
Well, considering that Kazaa (Sharman) operates out of Vanuatu I wonder why you bring America into it. I mean they moved from Europe because they were breaking the law.
Considering they log activity they are in big trouble as well:
http://www.kazaa.com/us/privacy/privacy.htm
They can't say they had no idea.
Remember "bongs" are illegal now because they help break the law. Tommy Chong can attest to that (not even that I agree with that, but it's precedent).
Well, let's look at the situation. When the pager companies set up shop they never ran ads that read "Get a pager and never miss a drug deal!!!!".
Even if it was assumed that many customers were drug dealers none of the messages (in the 1980's) were specific enough to filter out illegal activity. Kazaa has a central server where searches like "Britney Spears - Toxic", or "Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here" pass through. They made a point where it could be filtered but they didn't use it to protect themselves and others.
But alas, as another has pointed out telcos did investigate when asked to.
Well, I didn't say anything about kids but, Ok!
My point is that you could sell drugs - I'm fine with that. But the system has already made it hard for you being illegal and all. People who want drugs have to know you or someone you know to get them.
It makes breaking the law harder if we don't accept those who do it...
Considering this company makes money off of bootlegging and piracy it makes sense.
But before you fly off the handle, look at it this way: They took software for trading files and turned it and it's abilities into a profit machine, stooping so far as to load users with spyware to further that profit (remember: Kazaa Lite has no connection to Sharman). All the time we all knew that Kazaa was used 99% of the time for retrieving copyrighted works people had no rights to. This isn't Bittorrent where many files are free.
After they had cashflow they had one of two responsiblities: Either filter owned works or pay up for those works. They made information trade their business and they didn't own the information they were "brokering".
I don't know how people can be suprised or offended when Kazaa or Napster gets sued. I don't work for the **AA, and am not Dr. Dre, just not suprised at this. I'm not suprised if they get there asses handed to them. (I'm not counting on them getting off on any technicalities, I'm just saying they have it coming.)
Napster and Kazaa with websites is tantamount to a drug dealer on the corner with a sign and them turning a profit is as disgusting as it gets. I've bootleged and pirated quite a few things but I nor anyone else should be making money off of that.
That is the point isn't it?
Well, it's Japan and they like many types of pr0n... cartoon pr0n, bukkake, schoolgirl pr0n...
From another poster:
"thrashing.. and it is when the OS has to pull so much info from swap (and move info from RAM to swap to make room) that it temporarily locks up. It can affect any OS that uses swap.
Someone replied saying I meant "hanging" but I meant "thrashing" all the way...
We've all seen it. It happens in other operating systems as well. In fact they actually call it by it's name: Disk Trashing.
It's when the drive is constantly trying read and/or write at the same time and it basically gets stuck, leaving the entire system in deadlock.
In fact I do use FAT with XP. My second drive is partitioned into several FAT drives, one for "Temp", one for the pagefile, and one for the system catalog....
FAT needs to access the disk a quarter of the amount of times for each read/write operation. It only makes sense to take all of these "extra" I/O operations and off-load them onto another drive. After I learned about this little trick (which is centered around the original strategy of moving the swap off the main drive) I've been a Windows user again in fact. I've setup and forgot about two Win2K machines with this strategy because they _never_ crash. [Of course you've got to admit that people get click happy and say the PC is frozen when Windows enters "trashing" mode and they reboot that bad mo-fo..]
Can't customers make choices on their own? Make it available and if it sucks we won't use it, problem solved.
From the posting, my emphasis:
...and please order those Microsoft WinVoting units, I don't want to do any thinking come the begining of November anymore.
"We are currently evaluating making the WinFS storage subsystem available on this platform and [We, at Microsoft] will make the decision based on what is best for customers." a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews.
Thank you...
Actually my AG (Ohio) has moved on a few people, even going after what I've always called "Bust Buy".
Personally, I like their selection and lay out but I'm glad to see Best Buy go down. They have the worst "practices" in the industry and just push other retailers to do the same stupid things (like not taking back unopened items, etc).
I didn't want to make my post any longer but I've had success with drugs. Lithium didn't do it, or enough to keep my life stable enough to keep my head on straight, but Depakote did. (In fact, Depakote got me off caffine because it treated the migraines that also runs in my family). Then again, there was little (no) attempt to educate me in my illness. I've suffered for 8+ years before I really knew what I was up against (like the life sentence and the chance of more episodes as time goes on, no one told me the extremes I would face until it was too late.)
However, the system I had to deal with to get those drugs was horrible. I know for a fact that it is easier to secure pain medications (doctor friend sees "drug seekers" a lot) and lie your way into a Methadone prescription in this town. Our public health system is in shambles from my point of view.
My illness, if not properly treated, can be a even larger burden on everyone as a whole. Tax dollars are already being put aside - they told you it was for people who are sick and poor or that it would go to people who can't work and need to take medications daily...
Well, you were lied to. Even worse than the fact that the money never made it into my hands is the fact that these programs are labeled failures. The main barrier to my medication is the price tag of the pills along with the price of doctor visits (and now we are talking hundreds of dollars an hour). Once you lose everything it's hard to come up with thousands of dollars to invest in yourself. Meanwhile everyone else in society, even my close friends and family, see my life as a wash. No matter the fact that I rarely even intrude into their lives.
Medicaid, rather my local outlet actually cut off my benefits because I didn't make it to their 5-sec, prescheduled, mandatory, "walk through the metal detectors and back onto the bus because we don't actually need anything we like to do this so that we can cut off benefits for no reason, I'm sure you understand with so many minorities on it we couldn't let them live off of us tax payers" routine...
So in the matter of weeks I was back to square one. I've since received my Associates Degree and really can't do anything with it because I can't even live by a hour to hour schedule.
At this point I don't support Medicaid. Bush has won, I'm going to become a terror^H^H^H^H^HRepublican now so that I can experience what it is like to take millions of peoples lives and loved ones away!
U! S! A!, U! S! A!, U! S! A!, U! S! A!...
I lost all of my friends and ruined relationships I thought would, and might have, lasted forever and have pretty much retreated from the world. For about two years I went through a severe depressed episode, the whole time almost getting help here and there. I truely thought all things were lost and started to slowly kill myself with any type of controlled substance I could get my hands on.
Ok, that was a severe exaggeration, but I was binging on everything. I started to do stupid (fun) things that would later set me up for a lot of trouble until something changed. I didn't get help, I just had a conversion. It happened to be a religious conversion but it wasn't religion that saved me. Well, I went through three religions before I settled on one I liked and incorporated everything else I learned.
During all of this I realized on the side that I was going to face bad days. I was going to be depressed and that my life wasn't going to end up the way I had always dreamed (which is a understatement-I barely function). But you know, I realized that hurting everyone else was pretty petty considering if I waited it out I would feel better some day. My chance of feeling like that forever was zero; so why not just say "Fuck it" and move on?
Not only is suicide the worst way to treat depression it is never the answer to any problem. Drugs, crime, shame, anything.... it's happened to someone before, lots of people. Some of them made it out. Shit, even if you are on crack - smoke that and say fuck it and live. You won't get a chance to do it again. I'm not even going to get on a high horse and tell you to quit the pipe - that is something to live for, it's a start.
My grandfather worked in QA for 25 years at Drackett testing products such as Drano, Windex, various Glade cleaning and scent products, mops, cleaning cloths and so forth.
From what I could gather about their work environment, it was middle-managed, and led to promoting the ones with the most ambition (as opposed to know-how). But then again the company was sold to MeadJohnson and restructured. But products weren't rushed and often "bugs" were discovered before shipments arrived.
As far as Quality Assurance, it was serious business. A cleaning product that produces it's payload via a spray bottle can run into loads of problems. Incorrect pressure can cause weak or excessive sprays and nozzles made out of the wrong plastics can break down after a few uses. Trust me, we saw a lot of products that did and didn't make it to market (including Nutrament which sadly did, although I hated it). In fact I've later cursed "OrangeClean" because their spray mechanism suffers from a problem I've heard of plenty of times. Every product truely had a story and everything had been thoroughly tested - we all made sure that happened. Before working in QA my gp worked as a chemist so he's pretty smart too. He really had the ability to look at the entire project and seeing possible conflits - a knack he still has.
My point is that if you call yourself QA you need to have some know-how and you need to truely test everything. Not every software project needs to meet governement software guidlines but QA should be your bug testers, anyone brave enough to run the software in a production (like) environment. Project managers should be heading up things like compliance, if I'm not mistaken. It makes more organizational sense. Teams should be formed around their functions, eliminating management levels and unneeded personnel.
Let your "QA" team work on things like sending design considerations back to the project managers/leaders and alerting them to potential breakdowns. QA == Testing, it does, it does, it does. I'm sorry but the process includes a lot of testing. They don't have to test the final product, they can test prototypes and then the final product - but they should never make the business decision. (Never)
I'd say it's Spyware when you are a user who installs it by clicking an ad stating that said program will "protect" your machine.