and do we trust a guy who's supposed to be looking at OUR medical images while he's listening/looking at OTHER SHIT? Keep you mind on your job, it's life critical. When your done looking at the other stuff is soon enough to look/listen to DRM content
RE Use of Credit cards I'll agree with you except for ONE very specific set of people (which the credit card companies love/hate) - if you pay you balance - IN FULL, every month - aka use it like the concept of a "charge card" vs a "Credit Card"
IF you have the discipline to do that - you probably are not the target for your simple rules;) You CAN actually make money. I think in 20+ years of having credit cards, I've paid intrest 2 months - and I felt bad about that. That said, I've done better with the cash back than I've paid out. How do you do it? Simple - as you said - don't buy what you can't afford
when you "into" flashlights, you'll find out that 1)Maglights are NOT that good - their beam quality sucks 2)Maglight is the Microsoft of flashlights - they use lawsuits to prevent a LOT of competition
I've worked for a LOT of places - some were banks. My wife works for a brokerage. Trust me, for every one of those jobs, we not only had a regular background check, but were fingerprinted, and the prints run
They actually called my wife back on one of them - at out old house, there was a woman with the same name 1 block away, so our addresses were 1 digit different. That woman had "problems". This has actually turned up 2-3 times, including at our house closing - we had to certify that my wife was NOT the other woman - they took our word, but had to sign a paper
I've held security clearences - they don't prove that you won't do something wrong too - BUT they do tend to get rid of SOME of the chaff - yeah, you lose some wheat too, but...
40 hours was NOT totally arbitrary - the rallying cry was "8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours for what I do for me"
BTW we can stop this crazyness quite simply. Did you know that there is a MINIMUM salary you can earn before you can be an exempt employee? Did you also know that the number hasn't changed in a LONG time (if I remember right, 1958 or so) Just adjust that number to a 2006 number, and tag it to inflation. It'd be up in the 400K range or so if I remember correctly.
Exempt employment was meant to be a rareity - for the very few at the top of the company.
Because 1)The boss would fire you at work (hostile workplace laws) 2)Your wife would object 3)Having pre-teen children running around at home
Other than that?
I have a nice, non stretched photo of my cats on my desktop, and have for YEARS. My wife came to vist my office for the first time in years - and she said "Oh, I see you still have the same cat photo on the desktop" (yes - same one for about 14 years).
I believe that the desktop in ANY OS has 2 roles - when your new, to "suck you in", and then once you know what your doing, to be easy to get out of the way. I have my windows boxes all configured as close as possible to one another - same keyboards, same mice, same colors, same backgrounds, same icons in the same places, etc. My Linux boxes are setup in a similar way. I don't want to have to think about desktops, OSes, skins etc. They are "background noise" - the contents in the various windows are what counts, and frankly, for about 90% of what I do, that can be summed up as Internet, email and a text editor.
Speaking of text editors - I'm cursed - years ago, I got used to the Micorsoft keystrokes, and I always find Linux hard because of this. I use "Textpad" in windows, and it's "native" to me - I understand the why and power of VI/EMACS, but they require me to think - I guess sooner or later, I'll be biligual, but having to use the MS keystrokes at work prevents the changeover
probably werehouse a lot of them - mail boxes DO wear out, get destroyed - pull one of the old ones out of stock, put in in the place of the one that just got creamed by the car....
actually, they spent a LOT of time cleaning as best as they could, and spent a LONG time looking for the "3rd bomb" - it fell in the ocean. They found it - it's where the submersible "Alvin" first came to real fame
BTW the empty shell of the bomb is on display at the National Atomic Museaum in NM
Well, it's actually more interesting than that. MOST video running around in stations today is component video, and is only brought down to NTSC at the end - also remember, particularly if you have more than ONE playback device, they need to be SYNCed, so that you don't get glitches when you cut, and you can do things like fades/wipes. I'm quite sure that there are PC video cards that take SYNC, but frankly, I've never gone over to the guys in BO&E (Broadcast Ops and Eng) and asked
To go one step further - of course you can - If your in the industery, you've probably heard of Avid. Guess what platform their servers run on (at least their iNews platform - not sure of their editing suite)
No love of their backtimer (understatement), and they have a very limited api that they are willing to publish
for those lurking:
Your BIG issues are going to be "Hard Hits" (particularly if you are an affliate)
Hard Hits are the timing of commercials/ends of shows/ starts of feeds that have to run at a particular time - and I mean NOW (you might get away with a couple of frames of black/over, but it is sub second, the commercial systems will time to the frame, or even 1/2 frame)
Other issues will be things like getting video cards that support sync pulse (assuming NTSC signals)
Really comes down to - how good a signal do you want to put on the air, and how fancy does your low power station need to be? Let's face it, if your one of the big 3 networks and your worried about "broadcast quality" and "HD quality", down to the frame accurate level, with data going out in the VBI, your playing a different game than a small stand alone station
You pay your money, you take your choice...
(and yeah, I've worked on near broadcast quality encoding systems - but not playback, and have written code to interface with 2 different "newsroom systems")
Where do air rights stop? Gee don't you remember the big deal about Spaceship One last year, and 50 miles being "space"? The legal definition is 50 miles, and everything above that is OPEN and non territorial, by treaty.
The rules on spy sats were set in the 1950s - Effectivly, if not legally in 1957 with the launch of Sputnick, when NO country objected
to quote the FAS
"The United States operates on the premise that any activity pursued in the national interest is permitted save for those specifically prohibited by the U.N. Charter or the treaties to which it is a signatory such as the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972."
Ah, anyone with a space program than can launch a spy satelite CAN spy on the USA that way. Russia does, I'm fairly sure China does. The French do. NOTHING stops them from doing it
If you built a satelite, and had a way to launch it, and orbit over the USA, guess what? More power to you. In fact, that was the big stink over the various GEOS and other sats. You know those 1m resolution web sites out there? WHAT do you think that is? TRUST me, the people who launched those sats have a LOT more current data than what is on line
Heh - I had a hayes direct connect - darn, remember what those things COST!! A 1200baud Hayes cost more than a computer costs now. I had a 300 baud at home, and a 1200 at the lab. Remember having to order data grade lines?
I remember when modens came DOWN to the 200 dollar or so price mark - what a breakthrough - and remember - if you were GOOD, you could actually speedread a 300 baud text data stream - without X-on X-off
Yeah folks - there are some OLD geeks here - I actually worked with punch cards (still have a couple of boxes of them - use them as note paper when feeling geeky) Gettting a terminal was COOL - even a 75 baud teletype. If you had a DEC Flexwriter, you were BIG time..
Sigh
I'll bet that I've offically been a programmer (aka getting paid for it) longer than MOST people on/. are alive (anyway by the last poll I saw)
Gahhh - can't believe I said that - man I'm feeling like an old fart today. Ran into a YL yesterday who recognized me - and she said "hi" and offerered me her cheek - took me a few seconds to realize it was a friend's daughter who I have not seen in 2 years. I remember holding her while she was in diapers.
Originaly, the F-14 could NOT drop bombs (read the F-14A)
What MOST folks here are calling the F-14A is actually F-14A+ (upgraded F-14As), and the F-14D. There WERE B-C prototypes/proposals that never went anywhere (actually I think the A+ was originally called Bs for a VERY short period of time)
It was not until the avionics computers were changed in the 80s sometime when the bomb drop ability was added. They became known as "Mudcats" (after the F-15E "Mudhen")
I worked for a VERY small defence contractor that had almost nothing to do with the F-14 (we built some ground support stuff, and some battery boxes used to supply backup power), but I was at a lab doing some equipment quals while the displays for the mudcat were being qualified, so I got to see some of that
Slashdot Mirror
and do we trust a guy who's supposed to be looking at OUR medical images while he's listening/looking at OTHER SHIT? Keep you mind on your job, it's life critical. When your done looking at the other stuff is soon enough to look/listen to DRM content
RE Use of Credit cards
;) You CAN actually make money. I think in 20+ years of having credit cards, I've paid intrest 2 months - and I felt bad about that. That said, I've done better with the cash back than I've paid out. How do you do it? Simple - as you said - don't buy what you can't afford
I'll agree with you except for ONE very specific set of people (which the credit card companies love/hate) - if you pay you balance - IN FULL, every month - aka use it like the concept of a "charge card" vs a "Credit Card"
IF you have the discipline to do that - you probably are not the target for your simple rules
Have not had any luck getting dimmable R30s or R40s there, and I have asked
where did you find the dimmable R-30s (and do they have r-40s) I've been looking to replace the 7 in this room and the ones in the living room
Actually, MANY police departments have actually baned things like 5 D Mag-lights for that exact reason
Go get a nice streamlight, or a Pelican - not too expensive, and great lights. Surefire? Nice lights (I have 2) - but IMHO, a tad overpriced
when you "into" flashlights, you'll find out that
1)Maglights are NOT that good - their beam quality sucks
2)Maglight is the Microsoft of flashlights - they use lawsuits to prevent a LOT of competition
I've worked for a LOT of places - some were banks. My wife works for a brokerage. Trust me, for every one of those jobs, we not only had a regular background check, but were fingerprinted, and the prints run
They actually called my wife back on one of them - at out old house, there was a woman with the same name 1 block away, so our addresses were 1 digit different. That woman had "problems". This has actually turned up 2-3 times, including at our house closing - we had to certify that my wife was NOT the other woman - they took our word, but had to sign a paper
I've held security clearences - they don't prove that you won't do something wrong too - BUT they do tend to get rid of SOME of the chaff - yeah, you lose some wheat too, but...
I'd class it under the "Good" = best phone for the time I got it, EVER - I WISH todays phones were as good
40 hours was NOT totally arbitrary - the rallying cry was "8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours for what I do for me"
BTW we can stop this crazyness quite simply. Did you know that there is a MINIMUM salary you can earn before you can be an exempt employee? Did you also know that the number hasn't changed in a LONG time (if I remember right, 1958 or so) Just adjust that number to a 2006 number, and tag it to inflation. It'd be up in the 400K range or so if I remember correctly.
Exempt employment was meant to be a rareity - for the very few at the top of the company.
Because
1)The boss would fire you at work (hostile workplace laws)
2)Your wife would object
3)Having pre-teen children running around at home
Other than that?
I have a nice, non stretched photo of my cats on my desktop, and have for YEARS. My wife came to vist my office for the first time in years - and she said "Oh, I see you still have the same cat photo on the desktop" (yes - same one for about 14 years).
I believe that the desktop in ANY OS has 2 roles - when your new, to "suck you in", and then once you know what your doing, to be easy to get out of the way. I have my windows boxes all configured as close as possible to one another - same keyboards, same mice, same colors, same backgrounds, same icons in the same places, etc. My Linux boxes are setup in a similar way. I don't want to have to think about desktops, OSes, skins etc. They are "background noise" - the contents in the various windows are what counts, and frankly, for about 90% of what I do, that can be summed up as Internet, email and a text editor.
Speaking of text editors - I'm cursed - years ago, I got used to the Micorsoft keystrokes, and I always find Linux hard because of this. I use "Textpad" in windows, and it's "native" to me - I understand the why and power of VI/EMACS, but they require me to think - I guess sooner or later, I'll be biligual, but having to use the MS keystrokes at work prevents the changeover
Heh - I'm a developer -I really don't don't care - I never have to recover email from servers
Yes - correct, you have a way of recovering mailboxes, or passwords, but NOT getting a specific message
and the reply in a secure system is "Nope - I can't help you because I can not read the contents of any email"
It was Impossible Mission - Not Mission Impossible
"aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh"
probably werehouse a lot of them - mail boxes DO wear out, get destroyed - pull one of the old ones out of stock, put in in the place of the one that just got creamed by the car....
You are correct - I should have phrased it.
The Navy found it. The search and recovery is where the submersible "Alvin" first came to real fame
actually, they spent a LOT of time cleaning as best as they could, and spent a LONG time looking for the "3rd bomb" - it fell in the ocean. They found it - it's where the submersible "Alvin" first came to real fame
BTW the empty shell of the bomb is on display at the National Atomic Museaum in NM
Well, it's actually more interesting than that. MOST video running around in stations today is component video, and is only brought down to NTSC at the end - also remember, particularly if you have more than ONE playback device, they need to be SYNCed, so that you don't get glitches when you cut, and you can do things like fades/wipes. I'm quite sure that there are PC video cards that take SYNC, but frankly, I've never gone over to the guys in BO&E (Broadcast Ops and Eng) and asked
To go one step further - of course you can - If your in the industery, you've probably heard of Avid. Guess what platform their servers run on (at least their iNews platform - not sure of their editing suite)
/ends of shows/ starts of feeds that have to run at a particular time - and I mean NOW (you might get away with a couple of frames of black/over, but it is sub second, the commercial systems will time to the frame, or even 1/2 frame)
No love of their backtimer (understatement), and they have a very limited api that they are willing to publish
for those lurking:
Your BIG issues are going to be "Hard Hits" (particularly if you are an affliate)
Hard Hits are the timing of commercials
Other issues will be things like getting video cards that support sync pulse (assuming NTSC signals)
Really comes down to - how good a signal do you want to put on the air, and how fancy does your low power station need to be? Let's face it, if your one of the big 3 networks and your worried about "broadcast quality" and "HD quality", down to the frame accurate level, with data going out in the VBI, your playing a different game than a small stand alone station
You pay your money, you take your choice...
(and yeah, I've worked on near broadcast quality encoding systems - but not playback, and have written code to interface with 2 different "newsroom systems")
Where do air rights stop? Gee don't you remember the big deal about Spaceship One last year, and 50 miles being "space"? The legal definition is 50 miles, and everything above that is OPEN and non territorial, by treaty.
The rules on spy sats were set in the 1950s - Effectivly, if not legally in 1957 with the launch of Sputnick, when NO country objected
to quote the FAS
"The United States operates on the
premise that any activity pursued in the national
interest is permitted save for those
specifically prohibited by the U.N. Charter
or the treaties to which it is a signatory such
as the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972."
for more details see
http://www.space.edu/projects/book/chapter30.html
Ah, anyone with a space program than can launch a spy satelite CAN spy on the USA that way. Russia does, I'm fairly sure China does. The French do. NOTHING stops them from doing it
If you built a satelite, and had a way to launch it, and orbit over the USA, guess what? More power to you. In fact, that was the big stink over the various GEOS and other sats. You know those 1m resolution web sites out there? WHAT do you think that is? TRUST me, the people who launched those sats have a LOT more current data than what is on line
Heh - I had a hayes direct connect - darn, remember what those things COST!! A 1200baud Hayes cost more than a computer costs now. I had a 300 baud at home, and a 1200 at the lab. Remember having to order data grade lines?
/. are alive (anyway by the last poll I saw)
I remember when modens came DOWN to the 200 dollar or so price mark - what a breakthrough - and remember - if you were GOOD, you could actually speedread a 300 baud text data stream - without X-on X-off
Yeah folks - there are some OLD geeks here - I actually worked with punch cards (still have a couple of boxes of them - use them as note paper when feeling geeky) Gettting a terminal was COOL - even a 75 baud teletype. If you had a DEC Flexwriter, you were BIG time..
Sigh
I'll bet that I've offically been a programmer (aka getting paid for it) longer than MOST people on
Gahhh - can't believe I said that - man I'm feeling like an old fart today. Ran into a YL yesterday who recognized me - and she said "hi" and offerered me her cheek - took me a few seconds to realize it was a friend's daughter who I have not seen in 2 years. I remember holding her while she was in diapers.
Mistyped - was thinking "Mud-hens" when I was typing about the F-14 - NOT Mudcat - "Bombcat"
Originaly, the F-14 could NOT drop bombs (read the F-14A)
What MOST folks here are calling the F-14A is actually F-14A+ (upgraded F-14As), and the F-14D. There WERE B-C prototypes/proposals that never went anywhere (actually I think the A+ was originally called Bs for a VERY short period of time)
It was not until the avionics computers were changed in the 80s sometime when the bomb drop ability was added. They became known as "Mudcats" (after the F-15E "Mudhen")
I worked for a VERY small defence contractor that had almost nothing to do with the F-14 (we built some ground support stuff, and some battery boxes used to supply backup power), but I was at a lab doing some equipment quals while the displays for the mudcat were being qualified, so I got to see some of that
You a VASTard?
I worked on both the VAST and Mini-VAST systems in a past life