So you're OK with the fact that Microsoft will bypass your settings and download 6 GB without prompting you?
This - especially this! For the majority of rural Internet users, 6GB represents roughly 50-60% of their monthly bandwidth allotment - and it ain't cheap ( a typical 12GB monthly plan runs around $50-60 or so.)
I wonder if anyone has tried to sue Microsoft yet over being shorted on bandwidth? On my part (yeah, I live in the sticks), I have only Linux and OSX at home, and given Microsoft's recent intrusions, I've become rather happy with my OS choices...
Note this up front: Vaccines are good for you. I have zero problems with vaccination as it is beneficial to humanity individually and overall.
Now - about this article: Way the hell too much sensationalism, too much flamebait imputed, and IMHO way too much of this attitude: '...this study is right so I am right and therefore fuck you! Get right with us or else you are not worthy of life you troglodyte!' Seriously... is this what Salon has fallen to? Well, okay, I know they've always been a bit partisan (okay, quite partisan), but TFA and summary alike are indicative of what's wrong these days - too much sturm un drang, not enough persuasion.
Interestingly enough, Slate leans a bit to the left... and most anti-vaxxers lean very much to the left, so why was the bile necessary? You'd think that instead of turning it into a contest that hardens opinions (on both sides), that they'd try to at least be a little persuasive about it....or has science degraded into an echo-chamber shouting match these days?
I'm expecting dell itself was breached, or one of its support contractors.
I wouldn't be surprised if it were a contracted help desk monkey who harvested the info off his little cubicle machine and sold the list. That, or a 'partner' company bought the list legitimately for marketing purposes, and someone working for (or formerly working for) that 'partner' peeled off a copy of the DB for his own uses.
As much as anything, SpaceX is a monument to Musk's ego.
...and if his little venture is sufficiently successful in getting mankind into space on a regular basis, let alone as permanent residents, I honestly don't give a damn if it pumps his ego or not.
Agreed, though it's most likely because for the vast majority of what a CMS does with a DB, MySQL is Just Good Enough(tm), which is why most CMS users just plop in a MySQL instance (and then promptly ignore it save for the occasional backups).
We use it a *lot* - and it's great for what we use it for.
Now if they can only get active-active working at the same level as an Oracle RAC server? Just maybe we can all listen to the sweet, sweet sound of Larry Ellison howling in existential agony.
Now if they found a way to practically combine RAM and disk into one unified whole, and made the two faster than frig (and able to reallocate on-the-fly w/ minimal disruption as the workload changed, maybe on a curve or as load >= n )? That would be news.
TFA... TFA has a lot of stuff to sift through to get anything of note out of it at all, and it wasn't much.
What I don't understand is why the union-company relationship in the US seem to be so adversarial compared to other countries.
They not always adversarial. I'll explain:
The union I was a member of (Ironworkers, Local 493) and the company I worked for at the time (Pittsburgh-DesMoines Steel, Heavy Bridge Division) actually worked very tightly together. Never saw a single strike, or even talk of one. A union rep/steward almost always sat in on board meetings and gave input, while managers/engineers were, more often than not, invited to the shop meetings to provide perspective and answer questions. The union handled all of the on-site (and/or in-plant) safety monitoring (and did all of the apprentice training), while the company handled the sales, engineering, and scheduling. It was rather advantageous all around for both workers and management.
The job was damned exiting, fun, and satisfying all at once - it's not every day you get to, say, fix a balky welding rig while having way too much open air between you and the ground (or water). I daresay the only reason I stopped doing it is because now, almost 30 years on, I can more easily get out of bed without my joints and back going into a painful revolt (it's rather demanding and dangerous work, and thus a young man's job. Few folks stick with it to retirement.)
We're not "special" - our circumstances and mechanisms just happen to be unique. Just the way it is.
Yup - there's outsourcing, but 9/10 times, it comes back to bite the corporations that do it, and bites them right in the ass... usually in a spectacularly expensive way. Outsourcing is often touted as a big, bad boogeyman, but it has been around for what, 10-15 years now? Given that amount of time, you'd think that the entire global tech industry would be based in Mumbai or Hyderabad by now - yet it isn't. That's why I'm not too worried that the next 20 years would somehow magically drain all the available work to India (or wherever).
Fact is, when comparing unions to corporations, there are no angels.
Unions are quite prone to using dues-money for self-enrichment, power-playing, politicking... and even today, some unions are not above using violence and intimidation (on the down-low of course) to get their way among their membership, 'potential' members, and basically anyone who gets in their way or frustrates them. For example, the 'scab' who dared to cross picket lines, usually because he needed the income that damned badly.
Mind, I'm not picking on either one - just providing perspective and balance here.
I know of honorable and good unions (and had once been a member of one - the Ironworkers). I know of honorable and good corporations run by honest men. Problem is, they both sit on the bright side of a very long and subtly graduated scale that runs all the way down to some downright evil shit.
Unions do have a place and need in certain industries... it's just that tech isn't one of them. Anyone sufficiently competent in the tech industry can improve him/herself and get a better income over time - far faster than the typical Union could ever get you. There is a sufficient amount of work to be had out there for those who know what they're doing and can prove it... I think that only a brief 2-3 year period during the dot-bust was the main exception, in a field that has technically existed since the 1950's.
Overall, why would I (for example) want to chain myself down to the disadvantages of a Union (seniority-over-merit, cronyism, locked/lockstep wage growth and scheduling, monthly dues, aforementioned dues going to politicians and causes I do not support, being forced to join in some states even if I didn't want to, etc)... but little-to-none of the advantages? My own wage growth has far outstripped anything that any union could provide, and has done so for 20 years now. If I don't like my employer, I can have at least two job interviews scheduled by the end of the day, and interviews/screens lined up by end-of-week.
Depends (err, again)... sometimes 'premium' numbers are 1-866 or 1-877, and internally shift to a 1-900 (though your phone wouldn't see that happen). I only pointed out 1-900 for clarity/shorthand more than anything else.
Depends on another factor entirely - the destination phone number (e.g. if that phone # begins with 1-900 ).
A dialer that surreptitiously dialed a cost-per-minute "premium" phone number would be a way for a black hat to make money. Doesn't have to be more than a minute or two a week per phone, say $2.50/call per week per phone ($10 per month would be small enough to pass muster for most users, who would pay it without a second thought, if they even checked their phone bill). $10/mo multiplied by N victims would net a tidy amount of cash for someone who was moderately successful at it.
As long as they got warrants (even if they're "John Doe" warrants), they're in the clear, methinks.
I suspect that it would pretty much follow the same legal framework as wiretapping, albeit the 'tap' is put directly in the 'phone', without knowing fully who owns said phone.
If this is indeed the case, I have zero problems with it - covertly swipe a website/host via legal means, and use it as a honeypot to catch/trap offenders, using a modified wiretap warrant/framework to 'tap' the computers that connect to said site. Assuming everything is properly documented and that the procedure is transparent enough to stand up in court, you then monitor that user's activities to not only collect evidence but to identify the user behind it.
The only real problems would be with computers used by multiple individuals, in which case you'd have to suss out which user is responsible. Another problem would be to have a procedure (and malware) in place that doesn't give a defense attorney enough credible ammunition to claim his client was framed, or that evidence was 'planted'. This is why the procedure(s) would have to be transparent to all (it would become that way anyway come the first court case, if the prosecution wanted any hope of winning a conviction.)
If you're truly setting out to off yourself, I doubt that the absence of a gun will change your mind, or even slow you down all that much. See also Robin Williams.
A lot of that depended on your AFSC - if you were Security Police or aircrew, you pretty much got the same qual training that any other branch gets. If you were a PJ or worked with (or were) CA, you *really* spent time at the range.
Meanwhile, Flightline AFSCs (myself among them) used to get a bit more than the minimum with actual M-16s after BMTS (dunno if that's still true or not). Everyone else (I believe nowadays the term for such folks would be "nonners") did the bare minimum in BMTS with an M-16... chambered down to.22 LR.
If you have ever had to care for aged parents or aunts or uncles or grandparents, you quickly realize many can get along just fine as long as the little details of life can be managed for them. You have a choice, you can buy in-home care to do this for you.
...or you can, you know, visit them at least once a week and take a peek in the fridge? Of course there are going to be edge cases where said parents/in-laws live out-of-state, but in the vast majority of cases it would be no big deal to stop by and sort the little stuff out, if it's truly the case that it's all they need done.
Okay aside from my biggest peeve ("a bigger, badder death star that can inexplicably be destroyed in way less time!") was the lack of balance between character development and action.
Sure, they did try (well, sort of) to develop most of the individual new characters, but really - why would any of the new characters give a flying frig about each other? That aspect of the plot barely held together, with a few split seams showing here and there (enough to disturb the experience).
Example of a 'split seam': They spent so little time on the Kylo Ren dude (okay, they just flat-out set him up wrong), that he was less of a badass, and more like a bipolar emo kid with daddy issues. I mean, Vader had a fucking *presence* about him when he walked into the room - enough to see palpable fear emanating from all the other actors in the room. You knew right up front that he was a badass. Even in the misbegotten eps I-III, you still had a sufficient-if-not-quite-Vader level of badassery going on w/ Maul. But Kylo Ren? The phrase "punk bitch trying to prove himself on day one in prison" kept popping up. Sheesh. (okay, rant over on that one...)
But yeah - the whole thing came off as less of a movie and more of a fanfic, truth be told.
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So you're OK with the fact that Microsoft will bypass your settings and download 6 GB without prompting you?
This - especially this! For the majority of rural Internet users, 6GB represents roughly 50-60% of their monthly bandwidth allotment - and it ain't cheap ( a typical 12GB monthly plan runs around $50-60 or so.)
I wonder if anyone has tried to sue Microsoft yet over being shorted on bandwidth? On my part (yeah, I live in the sticks), I have only Linux and OSX at home, and given Microsoft's recent intrusions, I've become rather happy with my OS choices...
Note this up front: Vaccines are good for you. I have zero problems with vaccination as it is beneficial to humanity individually and overall.
Now - about this article: Way the hell too much sensationalism, too much flamebait imputed, and IMHO way too much of this attitude: '...this study is right so I am right and therefore fuck you! Get right with us or else you are not worthy of life you troglodyte!' Seriously... is this what Salon has fallen to? Well, okay, I know they've always been a bit partisan (okay, quite partisan), but TFA and summary alike are indicative of what's wrong these days - too much sturm un drang, not enough persuasion.
Interestingly enough, Slate leans a bit to the left... and most anti-vaxxers lean very much to the left, so why was the bile necessary? You'd think that instead of turning it into a contest that hardens opinions (on both sides), that they'd try to at least be a little persuasive about it. ...or has science degraded into an echo-chamber shouting match these days?
That depends - does it rely on him putting on his Wizard Hat and Robe?
I'm expecting dell itself was breached, or one of its support contractors.
I wouldn't be surprised if it were a contracted help desk monkey who harvested the info off his little cubicle machine and sold the list. That, or a 'partner' company bought the list legitimately for marketing purposes, and someone working for (or formerly working for) that 'partner' peeled off a copy of the DB for his own uses.
As much as anything, SpaceX is a monument to Musk's ego.
...and if his little venture is sufficiently successful in getting mankind into space on a regular basis, let alone as permanent residents, I honestly don't give a damn if it pumps his ego or not.
Forget Java...
Visual Basic jumped up - from #17 to #13, which leads me to ask one small question...
Agreed, though it's most likely because for the vast majority of what a CMS does with a DB, MySQL is Just Good Enough(tm), which is why most CMS users just plop in a MySQL instance (and then promptly ignore it save for the occasional backups).
We use it a *lot* - and it's great for what we use it for.
Now if they can only get active-active working at the same level as an Oracle RAC server? Just maybe we can all listen to the sweet, sweet sound of Larry Ellison howling in existential agony.
Same here.
Now if they found a way to practically combine RAM and disk into one unified whole, and made the two faster than frig (and able to reallocate on-the-fly w/ minimal disruption as the workload changed, maybe on a curve or as load >= n )? That would be news.
TFA... TFA has a lot of stuff to sift through to get anything of note out of it at all, and it wasn't much.
What I don't understand is why the union-company relationship in the US seem to be so adversarial compared to other countries.
They not always adversarial. I'll explain:
The union I was a member of (Ironworkers, Local 493) and the company I worked for at the time (Pittsburgh-DesMoines Steel, Heavy Bridge Division) actually worked very tightly together. Never saw a single strike, or even talk of one. A union rep/steward almost always sat in on board meetings and gave input, while managers/engineers were, more often than not, invited to the shop meetings to provide perspective and answer questions. The union handled all of the on-site (and/or in-plant) safety monitoring (and did all of the apprentice training), while the company handled the sales, engineering, and scheduling. It was rather advantageous all around for both workers and management.
The job was damned exiting, fun, and satisfying all at once - it's not every day you get to, say, fix a balky welding rig while having way too much open air between you and the ground (or water). I daresay the only reason I stopped doing it is because now, almost 30 years on, I can more easily get out of bed without my joints and back going into a painful revolt (it's rather demanding and dangerous work, and thus a young man's job. Few folks stick with it to retirement.)
You won't ever get bigger raises than 2.5-3%.
If you stay at the same employer you might not... jumping ship on the other hand is hella profitable.
We're not "special" - our circumstances and mechanisms just happen to be unique. Just the way it is.
Yup - there's outsourcing, but 9/10 times, it comes back to bite the corporations that do it, and bites them right in the ass... usually in a spectacularly expensive way. Outsourcing is often touted as a big, bad boogeyman, but it has been around for what, 10-15 years now? Given that amount of time, you'd think that the entire global tech industry would be based in Mumbai or Hyderabad by now - yet it isn't. That's why I'm not too worried that the next 20 years would somehow magically drain all the available work to India (or wherever).
Fact is, when comparing unions to corporations, there are no angels.
Unions are quite prone to using dues-money for self-enrichment, power-playing, politicking... and even today, some unions are not above using violence and intimidation (on the down-low of course) to get their way among their membership, 'potential' members, and basically anyone who gets in their way or frustrates them. For example, the 'scab' who dared to cross picket lines, usually because he needed the income that damned badly.
Mind, I'm not picking on either one - just providing perspective and balance here.
I know of honorable and good unions (and had once been a member of one - the Ironworkers). I know of honorable and good corporations run by honest men. Problem is, they both sit on the bright side of a very long and subtly graduated scale that runs all the way down to some downright evil shit.
Actually, it's a wash.
Unions do have a place and need in certain industries... it's just that tech isn't one of them. Anyone sufficiently competent in the tech industry can improve him/herself and get a better income over time - far faster than the typical Union could ever get you. There is a sufficient amount of work to be had out there for those who know what they're doing and can prove it... I think that only a brief 2-3 year period during the dot-bust was the main exception, in a field that has technically existed since the 1950's.
Overall, why would I (for example) want to chain myself down to the disadvantages of a Union (seniority-over-merit, cronyism, locked/lockstep wage growth and scheduling, monthly dues, aforementioned dues going to politicians and causes I do not support, being forced to join in some states even if I didn't want to, etc)... but little-to-none of the advantages? My own wage growth has far outstripped anything that any union could provide, and has done so for 20 years now. If I don't like my employer, I can have at least two job interviews scheduled by the end of the day, and interviews/screens lined up by end-of-week.
Depends (err, again)... sometimes 'premium' numbers are 1-866 or 1-877, and internally shift to a 1-900 (though your phone wouldn't see that happen). I only pointed out 1-900 for clarity/shorthand more than anything else.
Depends on another factor entirely - the destination phone number (e.g. if that phone # begins with 1-900 ).
A dialer that surreptitiously dialed a cost-per-minute "premium" phone number would be a way for a black hat to make money. Doesn't have to be more than a minute or two a week per phone, say $2.50/call per week per phone ($10 per month would be small enough to pass muster for most users, who would pay it without a second thought, if they even checked their phone bill). $10/mo multiplied by N victims would net a tidy amount of cash for someone who was moderately successful at it.
As long as they got warrants (even if they're "John Doe" warrants), they're in the clear, methinks.
I suspect that it would pretty much follow the same legal framework as wiretapping, albeit the 'tap' is put directly in the 'phone', without knowing fully who owns said phone.
If this is indeed the case, I have zero problems with it - covertly swipe a website/host via legal means, and use it as a honeypot to catch/trap offenders, using a modified wiretap warrant/framework to 'tap' the computers that connect to said site. Assuming everything is properly documented and that the procedure is transparent enough to stand up in court, you then monitor that user's activities to not only collect evidence but to identify the user behind it.
The only real problems would be with computers used by multiple individuals, in which case you'd have to suss out which user is responsible. Another problem would be to have a procedure (and malware) in place that doesn't give a defense attorney enough credible ammunition to claim his client was framed, or that evidence was 'planted'. This is why the procedure(s) would have to be transparent to all (it would become that way anyway come the first court case, if the prosecution wanted any hope of winning a conviction.)
If you're truly setting out to off yourself, I doubt that the absence of a gun will change your mind, or even slow you down all that much. See also Robin Williams.
A lot of that depended on your AFSC - if you were Security Police or aircrew, you pretty much got the same qual training that any other branch gets. If you were a PJ or worked with (or were) CA, you *really* spent time at the range.
Meanwhile, Flightline AFSCs (myself among them) used to get a bit more than the minimum with actual M-16s after BMTS (dunno if that's still true or not). Everyone else (I believe nowadays the term for such folks would be "nonners") did the bare minimum in BMTS with an M-16... chambered down to .22 LR.
Pretty sure they pocket at least 5-10x that $100k for every sale they make to a governmental organization...
Funny thing - never thought the Okidata 830 chassis would live that damned long. But then, carbon copies aren't dead yet either. :)
If you have ever had to care for aged parents or aunts or uncles or grandparents, you quickly realize many can get along just fine as long as the little details of life can be managed for them. You have a choice, you can buy in-home care to do this for you.
...or you can, you know, visit them at least once a week and take a peek in the fridge? Of course there are going to be edge cases where said parents/in-laws live out-of-state, but in the vast majority of cases it would be no big deal to stop by and sort the little stuff out, if it's truly the case that it's all they need done.
I think we've reached (or about to reach) a tipping-point when it comes to novelty and CE...
Okay, say 'duh' all you want, but damn, a camera to watch the contents of your fridge from your smartphone? Really?
This! A zillion times this!
Okay aside from my biggest peeve ("a bigger, badder death star that can inexplicably be destroyed in way less time!") was the lack of balance between character development and action.
Sure, they did try (well, sort of) to develop most of the individual new characters, but really - why would any of the new characters give a flying frig about each other? That aspect of the plot barely held together, with a few split seams showing here and there (enough to disturb the experience).
Example of a 'split seam': They spent so little time on the Kylo Ren dude (okay, they just flat-out set him up wrong), that he was less of a badass, and more like a bipolar emo kid with daddy issues. I mean, Vader had a fucking *presence* about him when he walked into the room - enough to see palpable fear emanating from all the other actors in the room. You knew right up front that he was a badass. Even in the misbegotten eps I-III, you still had a sufficient-if-not-quite-Vader level of badassery going on w/ Maul. But Kylo Ren? The phrase "punk bitch trying to prove himself on day one in prison" kept popping up. Sheesh. (okay, rant over on that one...)
But yeah - the whole thing came off as less of a movie and more of a fanfic, truth be told.
So you're saying that a reimplementation of tools such as Solaris' svcadm is the new-shiny-never-been-done-before?
Think very carefully before you answer. ;)