I've been doing this for a while now for files that I back up to CD or DVD, just in case the media doesn't have that long a life. I've actually had much more problem with sectors going bad on hard drives than on CD or DVD, but that could change. I really hate that I lost an irreplaceable movie file I took when I was in Japan, because a sector went bad on my server (long since gone now) that kept me from even copying the good sectors from it. I couldn't even run fsck or anything since it was a leased server and I couldn't ever get the remote console to work. Ever since then I've become PARanoid...
Wish I had mod points and hadn't already commented. I'm working as part of the O&M team at a big gov't project, and I enjoy the hell out of it. Over the past 25 years I've done development, I've used the latest "cutting edge" silver bullet language/OS/paradigm, and it seems to have given me the ability to ferret out, diagnose and fix problems that I find with software of whatever age. I find I like things like police procedurals and real mysteries much more than I did when I was younger, and it may be related. Finding the solution to an intermittent bug, or one that's deep in some legacy function is kind of like being in CSI unit, except the strangeness of the code is more like being in a real-life X-files episode...
"Sorry, Scully, no human being could have written code like that..."
I've noticed in some places the traffic lights have embedded halogen flash bars in front of the red light that flash when the light turns red. I wasn't sure why but it makes sense to alert color-blind and inattentive drivers.
Maryland only this year started talking about requiring lane-changers to signal. I've been living in the DC area long enough to recognize when someone is going to change lanes in front of me by the way they drive next to me as they pass. I also learned early enough to assume everyone who drives around me is going to act in the most massively, dangerously stupid way possible, and prepare accordingly. If someone is in the far left lane of 4 and they slow down, that means they're about to cross all 4 lanes to take the exit in a couple hundred feet. I've also noticed distinct differences in the types of stupidity the drivers in the two states display. Marylanders hate the concept of any car being in front of them for more than a few feet, and if they are unable to pass, they must tailgate. Once they pass you, they can get in front of you at any point greater than 4 inches ahead of you, without signalling, because you're now behind them and no longer exist. Basically, Maryland drivers assume there is nothing important behind them, and nothing should be in front of them.
Virginians drive with the basic concept that red lights have a "freshness time" on them, so that if a light is "fresh red" it can be safely run, because everyone who has a "fresh green" light knows they can sit and wait for 5 or 10 seconds before they have to pull out, especially for left turn lanes. Virginia has a whole lot of left-hand exits off the Interstates, which is great because you can take an exit at the highest speed possible, or because you can piss off all the Maryland drivers by slowing down the fast lane in order to take the exit safely. Oh, and Marylanders will stop at a light with at least one car length of space between them and the car stopped ahead of them.
I used to tell people who don't live here that using a turn signal is a sign of weakness, because you're submitting to the other drivers' authority, you can be safely ignored, and actively prevented from merging, changing lanes, or turning, by any means necessary.
Unfortunately all the trendy cool kids are using Java these days, and only web-based applications are worth working on if you want to keep up with the times. The days of small, simple client-server apps are over, old hat, out of date, archaic. Nowadays you need to implement a web application using AJAX, web services, Struts and Spring and Hibernate, and you have to do it using Agile methodology. If you aren't linking in at least 100 Java class libraries, you don't have a "real" application.
My current employer in the US has a similar benefit, I signed up for something like an HSA to which my employer contributes $500/year on top of what I pay into it from withholding from my salary. The insurance part kicks in after I meet the $2000 deductable and the maximum I have to pay is $3500 in any year. I found this out because I had to spend nearly a week in the hospital for a ruptured appendix.
Slashdot Mirror
(one emergency lobotomy later) "Right, I'm inspector Lookout of the Yard, I understand there's been a murder."
I've been doing this for a while now for files that I back up to CD or DVD, just in case the media doesn't have that long a life. I've actually had much more problem with sectors going bad on hard drives than on CD or DVD, but that could change. I really hate that I lost an irreplaceable movie file I took when I was in Japan, because a sector went bad on my server (long since gone now) that kept me from even copying the good sectors from it. I couldn't even run fsck or anything since it was a leased server and I couldn't ever get the remote console to work. Ever since then I've become PARanoid...
(sorry, couldn't resist...)
Wish I had mod points and hadn't already commented. I'm working as part of the O&M team at a big gov't project, and I enjoy the hell out of it. Over the past 25 years I've done development, I've used the latest "cutting edge" silver bullet language/OS/paradigm, and it seems to have given me the ability to ferret out, diagnose and fix problems that I find with software of whatever age. I find I like things like police procedurals and real mysteries much more than I did when I was younger, and it may be related. Finding the solution to an intermittent bug, or one that's deep in some legacy function is kind of like being in CSI unit, except the strangeness of the code is more like being in a real-life X-files episode...
"Sorry, Scully, no human being could have written code like that..."
"Mulder..."
Sounds like the difference between software engineering and computer science, in a nutshell.
You try to tell the kids today that, and they'll never believe you.
I thought Canadians had Chesterfields...
I've noticed in some places the traffic lights have embedded halogen flash bars in front of the red light that flash when the light turns red. I wasn't sure why but it makes sense to alert color-blind and inattentive drivers.
Vista is generating Higgs bosons which travel back in time to cause disruptions 30 years in the future.
Or something like that.
Maryland only this year started talking about requiring lane-changers to signal. I've been living in the DC area long enough to recognize when someone is going to change lanes in front of me by the way they drive next to me as they pass. I also learned early enough to assume everyone who drives around me is going to act in the most massively, dangerously stupid way possible, and prepare accordingly. If someone is in the far left lane of 4 and they slow down, that means they're about to cross all 4 lanes to take the exit in a couple hundred feet. I've also noticed distinct differences in the types of stupidity the drivers in the two states display. Marylanders hate the concept of any car being in front of them for more than a few feet, and if they are unable to pass, they must tailgate. Once they pass you, they can get in front of you at any point greater than 4 inches ahead of you, without signalling, because you're now behind them and no longer exist. Basically, Maryland drivers assume there is nothing important behind them, and nothing should be in front of them.
Virginians drive with the basic concept that red lights have a "freshness time" on them, so that if a light is "fresh red" it can be safely run, because everyone who has a "fresh green" light knows they can sit and wait for 5 or 10 seconds before they have to pull out, especially for left turn lanes. Virginia has a whole lot of left-hand exits off the Interstates, which is great because you can take an exit at the highest speed possible, or because you can piss off all the Maryland drivers by slowing down the fast lane in order to take the exit safely. Oh, and Marylanders will stop at a light with at least one car length of space between them and the car stopped ahead of them.
I used to tell people who don't live here that using a turn signal is a sign of weakness, because you're submitting to the other drivers' authority, you can be safely ignored, and actively prevented from merging, changing lanes, or turning, by any means necessary.
So, what weapon do we have against unchecked government power? Or does that never happen in representational democracies?
Yeeeeeaaaaaahhh...
Only every 11 years, apparently, and only if the Earth is fertile enough...
Who doesn't?
Irradiated butterfles?
(which, BTW, would be a great name for a rock band)
(so would "Galactic Cosmic Rays". Just sayin'.)
Unfortunately all the trendy cool kids are using Java these days, and only web-based applications are worth working on if you want to keep up with the times. The days of small, simple client-server apps are over, old hat, out of date, archaic. Nowadays you need to implement a web application using AJAX, web services, Struts and Spring and Hibernate, and you have to do it using Agile methodology. If you aren't linking in at least 100 Java class libraries, you don't have a "real" application.
C++? Too simple.
I have a used book store on Amazon, you insensitive clod!
Of course, I'm not allowed to post the link here, but still...
You can either know where you are or how fast you're going, but not both.
That's subtle, man. Wish I had mod points...
NAFTA = Free trade?
HAHAHA hold on while I wipe the tears of laughter from my face.
The facts and logic you display in your rebuttal are fascinating. Do you have a newsletter I may subscribe to?
Somebody will probably experiment with this sometime in December, 2012...
G(T,p) = U + pV â' TS
A(T,V) = U â' TS
What else is there to figure out?
What the â' sign is.
"â'pocalypse", apparently...
I wonder if they'll have CCTV cameras in the bathrooms...
"It's a fair cop..."
My current employer in the US has a similar benefit, I signed up for something like an HSA to which my employer contributes $500/year on top of what I pay into it from withholding from my salary. The insurance part kicks in after I meet the $2000 deductable and the maximum I have to pay is $3500 in any year. I found this out because I had to spend nearly a week in the hospital for a ruptured appendix.
Oh noes, a lethal grammar ray burst!
But would they have to pronounce it "Frahnkensteenium"?
And why not "igorium"?
"It's pronounce 'eyegorium'!"