As long as UCITA doesn't threaten gun ownership and doesn't tighten existing marijuana laws I doubt the libertarian party will care. They have nothing to do with freedom, just with shooting things and smoking dope. gid-fu
Don't forget about the firearm that you're required to have before you're allowed to enter the country. After all an armed society is a polite society. gid-fu
It's funny, as an American I've always felt the same way about Europe. I worked for a bit in London last year (4 months) and was stunned by European prices. I don't understand how you folks can afford to live there. Especially England. And the salaries seemed crap. 20-25k pounds per year isn't all that good when studios in London cost around 600 pounds (at least compared to Portland, OR - which rules by the way). Although if I can find some nice consulting company to pay me $150-$200 an hour I'd be more than happy to work there again. Excellent beer, fun people and lots of k-rad stuff to be done.
For five weeks of vacation I almost don't care what the tax rate is. Norway, Sweden and Denmark seem like they would be k-rad places to live. For my last company I did a brief engineer tour of the switch rooms of europe and Denmark (Odense) was just awesome. Plus it can't be any worse than California. Let's see Silicon Valley: crappy engineers because most companies will hire anyone who walks through the door, insane housing costs, insane commuting, shitty engineers trying to pretend they know what they're doing, managers who are more worried about saving their own ass then having a decent engineering team, no-nothing engineers, people not giving a shit about what they do because no matter how stupid they are they can get a job at the massive campus across the street. And you get massive taxes and huge gas costs, no bike lanes any where and lots of unfriendly people. Hmmmmm no thanks, I'll take the taxes.
Now I just need to find some kind of telecom who will hire me, sponsor me and pay me huge dollars. (hint hint). gid-fu
What I want in a PDA is this: Paging capability (both from a normal paging aspect and a voice-mail short message service type thing), email header info auto forwarded periodically, all the normal goodies (calendar, to-do list, random notes, etc), and good syncing (over the wireless connection if the computers are remote.
I've been looking at the VII but am bummed about the palm.net proprietary service. I want standard pager/wireless sms service. If I could just get e-mail I could set up my linux box as a pager/voicemail/email header forwarder. gid-fu
" as does the easy access to a huge labor pool of highly-trained workers... "
I think this should be changed to read: "easy access to generally inept employees who will threaten to walk everytime you ask them to do anything involving 'thinking' or 'working'." I work and live in Portland, but have to work for and with companies in San Jose. I've never met a shittier bunch of engineers in my life. Everytime we go to a manager and ask why they seem to hire 1980's CS rejects and they all say that silicon valley engineers are "different." As far as I can see the only reason a good engineer would remain in silicon valley is: a) The gravy train atmosphere rewards anyone with a modicum of ability since most engineers are crappy and actually wanna be PHBs.
b) They got lucky and found a tiny company that actually managed to hire decent engineers.
c) They like paying outrageous sums of money to live within 3 feet of their unfriendly neighbors and drive 10 miles in 4 hours to their campus every morning. Where they are surrounded by "c-experts" asking what malloc does and "unix gurus" who have never heard of shared memory (exotic technology that it is). Or "telephony experts" who think that a single signalling link is fine for a switch (who needs redundancy)... AHHHH I hate this job! Sorry gid-fu
I imagine you have a car, well you're welcome I subsidized that steel with my tax dollars. You want your damn car go pay for the damn steel mill. Get you and your car driving friends together and pay for the resources you use. (Maybe me and my friends would buy some to make some bikes).
Maybe you eat meat, well you're welcome again. I subsidized that damn meat industry (although I am hoping that all the steroids will make most people go sterile...;). You can get your meat eating friends together and all go pay for the cattle ranches and while you're at it buy your own land, stop using the public land to feed those bovines.
So let's see your tax dollars can go to those things you like and I, with other interested parties can support libraries (of course it would be nice if we could prevent you and your friends from using them, just like I wouldn't eat meat or drive a car...). Since I am paying taxes just like you champ it is my right to call my reps and get them to put my money to whatever use I want. This "it is not your right to have a meaningful voice" argument makes no sense. It reminds me of the old "America, love it or leave it." A way of shouting out meaningless garbage instead of actually having something meaningful to say. This is a "democracy," that means we get a say in how our money and government are used. Welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay.
It's not about porn. Although I think my tax money speaks just as loudly as the next persons and I want mine to go to Libraries that do NOT censor. But it's about the sites that are not porn but judged by the software to be harmful, anything gay related, stuff related to abuse issues (sexual or physical domestic abuse), why not stuff related to police brutality or stuff like that (the "community" decides). Now stuff related to chemistry that could possibly be harmful (although since it's software it would just be chemistry..), anything related to alternative lifestyles. As we slowly crumble into a police state (more prisons! more police on the streets! less social programs!) we can kiss our freedoms goodbye. As a side note I want a tax form where I can select what my dollars go to. No more military industrial complex subsidy, no more subsidizing agro-business or guerrilla warfare in foreign countries.
The problem as I see it isn't with filtering out porn, although I don't support that either, but with the filtering of sites that have content that doesn't support "good christian values in the heartland of America." (Whereever the hell that is). I'm specifically thinking of sites which provide support for gay teens and those which air "alternative" voices. This whole morals thing is a crock anyways, who's freakin morals are you going to uphold? And why is everyone yammering on about them. I'm sick of Jesse Helms and these other bozos jumping in and trying to tell me how to behave. And I'm sick of hearing the stupid word, it's the same as all that market speak that many of us here everyday ("synergize", "all on the same page"); a bunch of hand waving with no support. gid-fu windowlicker.
Where are you in Portland? I'm in the SE area (right near the CO on Morrison and ~19th) and I just go hooked up. The DSLAM was out of capacity when I initially ordered in January and they just attached another to the CO a week or two ago. Copper doesn't necessarily solve your problem if there are load coils or an older DLC in the way you might not be able to get the service. They sent this CISCO 675 modem that's pretty fun to play with. It's got the serial hook up and runs CBOS. The only set up that aracnet and us west support is RFC 1483 AAL5 style bridging but apparently this modem will do NAT and other goodies (in non-bridging PPP mode). gid-fu
I would also recommend a book called "The Engaged Bhuddist Reader" which is a collection of essays by a number of Bhuddist activists (the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Han etc). There are a couple of essays on nonviolent protest which go into some of the actions by Vietnamese Bhuddist monks and nuns during the Vietnam war. I doubt any individuals are interested in setting themselves on fire in an attempt to awaken the country to the social problems that are manifesting in high schools. I do however think that what these kids have done in Colorado should be a wake up call to all of us to re-examine some of the ideals on which we base our national character. Violence is an American tradition; it is generally portrayed as a trump card response (my sawed off shotgun beats all your blathering attempts at diplomacy) and a valid means of expressing oneself. I think we teach our kids and ourselves that this kind of behavior is correct and at times necessary.
As adults we have a responsibility to help out kids who are coming up through the system. This bullshit concentration on tests and scores in our academic institutions is just resume building crap for administrators. It does nothing for the kids. We need a system that helps kids develop respect for themselves and each other not for the gun the teacher or a fellow student might have. Nor should we be teaching our students that violence is a valid means to the respect of those around you. How any of this would happen is beyond me. I just program computers.
I have another lines of code which seems indicative of this totally bogues thinking. The group I work in was hired to work on some networking code (Telephony stuff) when we came in we inherited piles and piles of code. A lot of this came from the days when the raises were based upon lines of code checked in. There was crazy code bloat. One particular piece of code had a massive switch statement where most of the cases were duplicates, instead of just falling through into a single case the programmer had cut and pasted (every decent programmers enemy) the same piece of code into each case. I practically cried when I saw the code (I thought I was walking into a job with great engineers where I would be learning from my betters - what do you know it's a farm for cubicle monkeys seeking to develop bigger bottoms).
I must agree with the sentiment that if you're putting out tons of code every day it's probably crap and it's most definitely not going to be well organized. Code less, think more. gid-fu
It's the May issue, look on the very last page for the opinion piece. It's only a page but worth checking out (better than the poorly written, long-winded, no point, pieces they often have in the particular column).
Slashdot Mirror
As long as UCITA doesn't threaten gun ownership and doesn't tighten existing marijuana laws I doubt the libertarian party will care. They have nothing to do with freedom, just with shooting things and smoking dope.
gid-fu
Don't forget about the firearm that you're required to have before you're allowed to enter the country. After all an armed society is a polite society.
gid-fu
It's funny, as an American I've always felt the same way about Europe. I worked for a bit in London last year (4 months) and was stunned by European prices. I don't understand how you folks can afford to live there. Especially England. And the salaries seemed crap. 20-25k pounds per year isn't all that good when studios in London cost around 600 pounds (at least compared to Portland, OR - which rules by the way).
Although if I can find some nice consulting company to pay me $150-$200 an hour I'd be more than happy to work there again. Excellent beer, fun people and lots of k-rad stuff to be done.
gid-fu
For five weeks of vacation I almost don't care what the tax rate is. Norway, Sweden and Denmark seem like they would be k-rad places to live. For my last company I did a brief engineer tour of the switch rooms of europe and Denmark (Odense) was just awesome.
Plus it can't be any worse than California. Let's see Silicon Valley: crappy engineers because most companies will hire anyone who walks through the door, insane housing costs, insane commuting, shitty engineers trying to pretend they know what they're doing, managers who are more worried about saving their own ass then having a decent engineering team, no-nothing engineers, people not giving a shit about what they do because no matter how stupid they are they can get a job at the massive campus across the street. And you get massive taxes and huge gas costs, no bike lanes any where and lots of unfriendly people. Hmmmmm no thanks, I'll take the taxes.
Now I just need to find some kind of telecom who will hire me, sponsor me and pay me huge dollars. (hint hint).
gid-fu
What I want in a PDA is this: Paging capability (both from a normal paging aspect and a voice-mail short message service type thing), email header info auto forwarded periodically, all the normal goodies (calendar, to-do list, random notes, etc), and good syncing (over the wireless connection if the computers are remote.
I've been looking at the VII but am bummed about the palm.net proprietary service. I want standard pager/wireless sms service. If I could just get e-mail I could set up my linux box as a pager/voicemail/email header forwarder.
gid-fu
" as does the easy access to a huge labor pool of highly-trained workers... "
I think this should be changed to read: "easy access to generally inept employees who will threaten to walk everytime you ask them to do anything involving 'thinking' or 'working'."
I work and live in Portland, but have to work for and with companies in San Jose. I've never met a shittier bunch of engineers in my life. Everytime we go to a manager and ask why they seem to hire 1980's CS rejects and they all say that silicon valley engineers are "different."
As far as I can see the only reason a good engineer would remain in silicon valley is:
a) The gravy train atmosphere rewards anyone with a modicum of ability since most engineers are crappy and actually wanna be PHBs.
b) They got lucky and found a tiny company that actually managed to hire decent engineers.
c) They like paying outrageous sums of money to live within 3 feet of their unfriendly neighbors and drive 10 miles in 4 hours to their campus every morning. Where they are surrounded by "c-experts" asking what malloc does and "unix gurus" who have never heard of shared memory (exotic technology that it is). Or "telephony experts" who think that a single signalling link is fine for a switch (who needs redundancy)... AHHHH I hate this job!
Sorry
gid-fu
I imagine you have a car, well you're welcome I subsidized that steel with my tax dollars. You want your damn car go pay for the damn steel mill. Get you and your car driving friends together and pay for the resources you use. (Maybe me and my friends would buy some to make some bikes).
Maybe you eat meat, well you're welcome again. I subsidized that damn meat industry (although I am hoping that all the steroids will make most people go sterile...;). You can get your meat eating friends together and all go pay for the cattle ranches and while you're at it buy your own land, stop using the public land to feed those bovines.
So let's see your tax dollars can go to those things you like and I, with other interested parties can support libraries (of course it would be nice if we could prevent you and your friends from using them, just like I wouldn't eat meat or drive a car...).
Since I am paying taxes just like you champ it is my right to call my reps and get them to put my money to whatever use I want. This "it is not your right to have a meaningful voice" argument makes no sense. It reminds me of the old "America, love it or leave it." A way of shouting out meaningless garbage instead of actually having something meaningful to say.
This is a "democracy," that means we get a say in how our money and government are used. Welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay.
gid-fu
It's not about porn. Although I think my tax money speaks just as loudly as the next persons and I want mine to go to Libraries that do NOT censor. But it's about the sites that are not porn but judged by the software to be harmful, anything gay related, stuff related to abuse issues (sexual or physical domestic abuse), why not stuff related to police brutality or stuff like that (the "community" decides). Now stuff related to chemistry that could possibly be harmful (although since it's software it would just be chemistry..), anything related to alternative lifestyles.
As we slowly crumble into a police state (more prisons! more police on the streets! less social programs!) we can kiss our freedoms goodbye.
As a side note I want a tax form where I can select what my dollars go to. No more military industrial complex subsidy, no more subsidizing agro-business or guerrilla warfare in foreign countries.
gid-fu
windowlicker
The problem as I see it isn't with filtering out porn, although I don't support that either, but with the filtering of sites that have content that doesn't support "good christian values in the heartland of America." (Whereever the hell that is). I'm specifically thinking of sites which provide support for gay teens and those which air "alternative" voices.
This whole morals thing is a crock anyways, who's freakin morals are you going to uphold? And why is everyone yammering on about them. I'm sick of Jesse Helms and these other bozos jumping in and trying to tell me how to behave. And I'm sick of hearing the stupid word, it's the same as all that market speak that many of us here everyday ("synergize", "all on the same page"); a bunch of hand waving with no support.
gid-fu
windowlicker.
Where are you in Portland? I'm in the SE area (right near the CO on Morrison and ~19th) and I just go hooked up. The DSLAM was out of capacity when I initially ordered in January and they just attached another to the CO a week or two ago. Copper doesn't necessarily solve your problem if there are load coils or an older DLC in the way you might not be able to get the service.
They sent this CISCO 675 modem that's pretty fun to play with. It's got the serial hook up and runs CBOS. The only set up that aracnet and us west support is RFC 1483 AAL5 style bridging but apparently this modem will do NAT and other goodies (in non-bridging PPP mode).
gid-fu
I would also recommend a book called "The Engaged Bhuddist Reader" which is a collection of essays by a number of Bhuddist activists (the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Han etc). There are a couple of essays on nonviolent protest which go into some of the actions by Vietnamese Bhuddist monks and nuns during the Vietnam war. I doubt any individuals are interested in setting themselves on fire in an attempt to awaken the country to the social problems that are manifesting in high schools. I do however think that what these kids have done in Colorado should be a wake up call to all of us to re-examine some of the ideals on which we base our national character. Violence is an American tradition; it is generally portrayed as a trump card response (my sawed off shotgun beats all your blathering attempts at diplomacy) and a valid means of expressing oneself. I think we teach our kids and ourselves that this kind of behavior is correct and at times necessary.
As adults we have a responsibility to help out kids who are coming up through the system. This bullshit concentration on tests and scores in our academic institutions is just resume building crap for administrators. It does nothing for the kids. We need a system that helps kids develop respect for themselves and each other not for the gun the teacher or a fellow student might have. Nor should we be teaching our students that violence is a valid means to the respect of those around you. How any of this would happen is beyond me. I just program computers.
Gideon
I have another lines of code which seems indicative of this totally bogues thinking. The group I work in was hired to work on some networking code (Telephony stuff) when we came in we inherited piles and piles of code. A lot of this came from the days when the raises were based upon lines of code checked in. There was crazy code bloat. One particular piece of code had a massive switch statement where most of the cases were duplicates, instead of just falling through into a single case the programmer had cut and pasted (every decent programmers enemy) the same piece of code into each case. I practically cried when I saw the code (I thought I was walking into a job with great engineers where I would be learning from my betters - what do you know it's a farm for cubicle monkeys seeking to develop bigger bottoms).
I must agree with the sentiment that if you're putting out tons of code every day it's probably crap and it's most definitely not going to be well organized. Code less, think more.
gid-fu
It's the May issue, look on the very last page for the opinion piece. It's only a page but worth checking out (better than the poorly written, long-winded, no point, pieces they often have in the particular column).
gid-fu