...world wide synchronised hype then disappointment, if the last one is anything to go by, followed by huge bad karma on the net as everyone writes their reviews.
As I mentioned the last time identity theft was discussed, we DO shread all private documents. They then go to into a large box at the local pet store, along with other people's, and are used as bedding for the cats, dogs, rabbits etc. It would have to be a determined thief to go through that lot when the animals have finished with it.
""entry level" jobs being $50/hr or $50k/yr"... for a graduate programmer...?!
Please press your "Reality Check" button.
Given the current IT slump in Oz, I think you're reading the wrong papers or sites. I know of contracters with 10+ years experience, west and east coast, who would current kill for those rates - there is a glut of developers across Oz and it is therefore a employer's market. Perhaps, once your finished college, the market may have improved but I think you'll find it a whole lot harder to tie down anything that good as a graduate programmer - get used to that term too, 'cos that's how you'll be labelled.
Perhaps you might manage to get fair rates continuing in your current business model but when it comes to formalising the relationship as a real job, you'll find a whole heap of other considerations (including other job applicants) will bring your figures tumbling down. Sorry, but the adverts are just there to tempt prospectives, the real jobs are rarely that good.
One of the most difficult things to learn is how to accurately estimate a piece of work, it cannot be taught because it is defined by your own skills and changes as they change; my estimating is still not great after 20 years at this lark! If your estimating is poor, odds on you will under estimate and sell yourself short for piece work; alternatively you may wildly over estimate to compensate and the company will baulk at the quote. In either case an hourly rate might be the better way to go, if the company will wear it.
Assuming the company does permit an hourly rate, then how much? You've said that you would do the work anyway, albeit more slowly, so it comes down to what cost for your commitment.
By accepting money for your sevices, you are agreeing to commit a (probably) larger amount of your own time to the project - what is going to lose out as a result and how much is that worth to you? The benefits to you are (aside from the money) the formalisation of the experience gained - the work will have far greater credance on your resume as a paid job than as a 'hobby' (that's how it will be seen, it's wrong but that's life).
Most contractors I've known in Oz and the UK will go for an hourly rate (in 15min increments), occasionally a daily/half daily, but rarely piece work because there's always the unforeseen to consider. I've been contracting for 17 years and always use hourly figure based on the project duration (shorter = expensive), my skill suitability (am I the guru?), opportunities to reskill (saves on training costs) and role responsibilities (I just wanna code, not manage!).
In your position I would recommend an hourly rate which is fair to both sides (I can't give a figure but don't be greedy) and which reflects both the benefits to you of the formal relationship and which compensates you for the lost 'free' time you would otherwise use for other activities. Sorry if it sounds waffly but it's what I live by and I'm happy with the result.
The same applies whether you have a road side mail box or letter box - the slot is the same size roughly, so if it won't fit in one it won't fit in the other. We used to live in a village on the Yorkshire Moors, I appreciate your pain on the larger deliveries - fortunately, we could make arrangements with the neighbours, even for signing.
My brother-in-law is a London postie. Apparently they can 'boycott' properties where there is personal risk from animals. He also has a large number of flats on his walk and says they're easier to deliver to than the normal houses since generally they either have sets of boxes or the doors are straight on the ally.
At the end of the day, it's a case of getting your post delivered somewhere safe, whether via a third party or not. If you can't secure it at your residence then you should send it elsewhere, hence the flaw in the original post's idea.
sender > secure > unsecure == sender > unsecure. QED
The source of the identity theft problem as I see it is permitting third-parties to gain access to credit cards, bank statements, credit offers and so forth. As I said, this is secure in the box which would require significant effort to open. I don't receive enough junk snail-mail of that sort to warrant a waste paper bin, never mind a " trashcan/dumpster".
As for the "mail drop-boxes", I presume you mean post boxes (where you send the mail). Fortunately in Perth, these are plentiful and the post is only delivered to, not collected from, the public so the unlocked box issue doesn't arise.
Sounds dumb. In the U.K., nearly everyone has a letterbox (mail slot) in the front door (or similar place) - once the mail is delivered it's as secure as anything else in the house. Here in Oz, we have the (IMHO) lazier mail box by the road system. My solution to identity theft - a bloody great brick mailbox with a padlock on its door. It might not stop the determined thief (what would?) but I'd have a pretty big clue if the thing is broken into.
Besides which, the scan process still has to send to the originals to you somewhere - if that place is secure why not send the stuff there in the first place. When I'm overseas I far prefer to have the relatives open anything questionable/official and advise me/handle it themselves.
I appreciate that the printing doesn't define the keycode and that the keyboard driver is responsible for the key mapping. That said, in the UK under W3.1 and DOS (the last time I remember trying this out and finding the AltGr didn't behave the same as Alt), the right alt key would not produce a ctrl-alt-del sequence, only the left.
Perhaps they've changed the drivers since to map the keys equally, but the original keyboards would produce different keycodes for the left and right Alt keys (and I believe the Ctrl keys also), both on XT and AT keyboards, and only the left worked originally even though either Ctrl key could be used.
To those who are saying that they can press the Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence with one hand...
Don't forget that on the earlier PC keyboards, the right Alt key used to be marked "Alt Gr" and did not function the same as the left Alt key (some foreign keyboards still are, I believe). It was therefore almost impossible to reach all three keys with one hand since the left Alt key was the one required.
I recall seeing an article about this on the ABC (Australian) about a year ago - the program was one in a series, I believe, called Wild World or Wild Planet which discussed various environmental things like the ocean jet streams and so on, concentrating on one aspect of the weather each week.
The program hypothosised that the weekend weather phenomina was due primarily to exhaust fumes of the commuters. The emissions would build up in the atmosphere during the week, with increasing cloud formations, and 'overflow' at the weekend - the rain.
The program was admittedly light on fine detail but there is a certain logic in the idea.
[FourYorkshiremenSketchMode]Eee, ah rememba when ah were a nippa...[/FourYorkshiremenSketchMode]
During the industrial year of my degree (mumble) years ago, my first task was to modify a Fortran 77 engineering program which calculated intersection points between two pipes, so the correct cuts could be made and the pipes joined. We're talking big pipes here - the company built the Syney Harbour Bridge and the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank building in Hong Kong.
Lacking the modern tools we all love, debugging tended to be done by printing values at pertinent points. When the code was correct, I removed them all... and it broke; I put them back in and it worked; commented them out and it still worked; deleted the comments... and it broke again! These were basic, fundamental print statements, no fancy function calls with side effects. I eventually ended up with two 100+ page listings of the object code (working and non-working) side by side on the floor and had to compare the lot by hand until I found the difference, near the bottom of course!
It turned out to be a bug in the PDP Fortran compiler. It was incorrectly generating two identical labels in the same code block, but for whatever reason they were together in the working version and had a register being reset to zero between them in the broken version - the JMP was going to the second and therefore not resetting the register.
As an undergraduate at the time, I was in despair... my first 'real' job and I couldn't fix a simple program - little did I know what the final cause would be - nearly put me off software development for life! Bloody DEC and their shonky compiler, they didn't even give the company a free upgrade when the fix came out!
Mod me down if you like (0 Troll, hah!), but that doesn't changes the facts that the vast majority of internet users are not computer literate and they're using MS IE and OE which help to propagate the problems associated with viruses and the likes. If the software were better designed or the users better trained, the internet would be far better to use - the dependance on this perceived intelligence at the ends is therefore fundamentally flawed.
My ISP provides spam and virus filtering on my e-mail which I can configure via a web page, I'm also behind a NAT DSL modem but I still run AV and firewall software. Why? Because Joe Public is not interested in protecting me from his failure to take resposibility for his (in)action. It's generally those who are computer literate or have learnt the hard way that take the necessary precautions, the rest all believe it won't happen to them.
Most of the general public on dial-up don't run firewall (or antivirus) software - it's too hard or costs too much (a false economy!) With this mentality and the proliferation of insecure OSs, I'd love the ISPs to act as firewall for the inept masses, as long as they permit those of us who know what we're doing to configure it to our needs. When you sign up for an ISP, everything should be defaulted to protect 'the system' from the naive user, those with brains can then reconfigure it.
Sure, it'd be a bit inconvenient at the start but it would centralise the effect of battling these sort of security issues to those who know what's required and would ensure it got done.
Looking in the mirror, huh? Had you taken the time to read both all the article ("...I gave up") and the majority of the responses, I think you'd find that the author makes a very valid point and your "hornet's nest" is fairly empty of "shut-ins".
Besides making a person feel a whole lot better for having a go, it's people like this making this sort of protest that eventually get things changed. If everyone blindly accepts this sort of crap without making any protest it won't stop and sooner or later someone's going to get burnt as a result.
I for one think the guy did the right thing both in badgering the Dell staff and posting the result here. It's the narrow minded bigots like you that lead to all Linux users bring tarred with the same brush and maintain the stereotype.
Great, that means it just needs to be able to draw on the walls, leave toys scattered ererywhere and refuse to do at least half what it's told to. Oh yeah, and stuff crushed chocolate biscuits down the back of the chairs (house and car).
The vocabulary will be simple too... "No!", "Why?", "Are we there yet?" and "Not fair!" occupying 95% of it's speech capabilities.
"The UN, the one world body which might have the ability to lean on the US and make things better for Iraq"
The US completely ignored the UN and everybody else in the international community before the war and will continue to do so, so long as it remains the only bully in the playground. There is currently no other world power to keep Bush in check and his administration is determined to take over the world, at almost any cost.
I get more an more concerned every day when I hear those chilling phrases such as "the American Century" and "Homeland Security" and "Patriot Act". It's getting like the McCarthy era with the "reds under the beds" - genuine, peaceful Americans are becoming more afraid to speak out in case they're labelled as unpatriotic or supportive of terrorists - is that freedom?
The only phrase I'm still waiting to hear Bush come out with is "the final solution", then I know we're all going straight to hell.
More than that, if the virus attacks only on the 16th, the duration of the attack will be closer to 48 hours, since it will start at the first country crossover into Saturday and continue until the last country hits Sunday. Remember the duration of all the 'new millenia' parties - same principle.
Either way, I'm glad I've got my NAT modem, firewall software and patches in place. That said, my work place got hit bad yesterday - they forgot to guard against a laptop from outside bringing the thing in straight past the firewall - oops.
Well we had it tough. We used to have to get the data out of the server at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the screens clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of floppy disks, typed twenty-four hours a day on support for four mouse mats every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would make us use XP...
...but you try and tell the young people today that, and they won't believe ya'.
I'd just love to see someone try to reconstruct all my account shredding. It all goes into a very large box at the local pet store (with everyone else's for security) and then they use it to put in all the kennels/hutches for the kittens, puppies, gerbils, etc.
You would really have to be desperate to go through that lot once it gets to the waste bin - phew!
Slashdot Mirror
...world wide synchronised hype then disappointment, if the last one is anything to go by, followed by huge bad karma on the net as everyone writes their reviews.
As I mentioned the last time identity theft was discussed, we DO shread all private documents. They then go to into a large box at the local pet store, along with other people's, and are used as bedding for the cats, dogs, rabbits etc. It would have to be a determined thief to go through that lot when the animals have finished with it.
Please press your "Reality Check" button.
Given the current IT slump in Oz, I think you're reading the wrong papers or sites. I know of contracters with 10+ years experience, west and east coast, who would current kill for those rates - there is a glut of developers across Oz and it is therefore a employer's market. Perhaps, once your finished college, the market may have improved but I think you'll find it a whole lot harder to tie down anything that good as a graduate programmer - get used to that term too, 'cos that's how you'll be labelled.
Perhaps you might manage to get fair rates continuing in your current business model but when it comes to formalising the relationship as a real job, you'll find a whole heap of other considerations (including other job applicants) will bring your figures tumbling down. Sorry, but the adverts are just there to tempt prospectives, the real jobs are rarely that good.
Assuming the company does permit an hourly rate, then how much? You've said that you would do the work anyway, albeit more slowly, so it comes down to what cost for your commitment.
By accepting money for your sevices, you are agreeing to commit a (probably) larger amount of your own time to the project - what is going to lose out as a result and how much is that worth to you? The benefits to you are (aside from the money) the formalisation of the experience gained - the work will have far greater credance on your resume as a paid job than as a 'hobby' (that's how it will be seen, it's wrong but that's life).
Most contractors I've known in Oz and the UK will go for an hourly rate (in 15min increments), occasionally a daily/half daily, but rarely piece work because there's always the unforeseen to consider. I've been contracting for 17 years and always use hourly figure based on the project duration (shorter = expensive), my skill suitability (am I the guru?), opportunities to reskill (saves on training costs) and role responsibilities (I just wanna code, not manage!).
In your position I would recommend an hourly rate which is fair to both sides (I can't give a figure but don't be greedy) and which reflects both the benefits to you of the formal relationship and which compensates you for the lost 'free' time you would otherwise use for other activities. Sorry if it sounds waffly but it's what I live by and I'm happy with the result.
My brother-in-law is a London postie. Apparently they can 'boycott' properties where there is personal risk from animals. He also has a large number of flats on his walk and says they're easier to deliver to than the normal houses since generally they either have sets of boxes or the doors are straight on the ally.
At the end of the day, it's a case of getting your post delivered somewhere safe, whether via a third party or not. If you can't secure it at your residence then you should send it elsewhere, hence the flaw in the original post's idea.
sender > secure > unsecure == sender > unsecure. QED
The source of the identity theft problem as I see it is permitting third-parties to gain access to credit cards, bank statements, credit offers and so forth. As I said, this is secure in the box which would require significant effort to open. I don't receive enough junk snail-mail of that sort to warrant a waste paper bin, never mind a " trashcan/dumpster".
As for the "mail drop-boxes", I presume you mean post boxes (where you send the mail). Fortunately in Perth, these are plentiful and the post is only delivered to, not collected from, the public so the unlocked box issue doesn't arise.
Which parts? The "BA..." or the "...NG!" or the "What the f**k was that?" 8-)
Besides which, the scan process still has to send to the originals to you somewhere - if that place is secure why not send the stuff there in the first place. When I'm overseas I far prefer to have the relatives open anything questionable/official and advise me/handle it themselves.
Perhaps they've changed the drivers since to map the keys equally, but the original keyboards would produce different keycodes for the left and right Alt keys (and I believe the Ctrl keys also), both on XT and AT keyboards, and only the left worked originally even though either Ctrl key could be used.
Don't forget that on the earlier PC keyboards, the right Alt key used to be marked "Alt Gr" and did not function the same as the left Alt key (some foreign keyboards still are, I believe). It was therefore almost impossible to reach all three keys with one hand since the left Alt key was the one required.
Just hook the thing up to one of the TZero's Range extending trailers and the problem's solved. Hell, you might even get the thing up above 15mph! ;-)
The program hypothosised that the weekend weather phenomina was due primarily to exhaust fumes of the commuters. The emissions would build up in the atmosphere during the week, with increasing cloud formations, and 'overflow' at the weekend - the rain.
The program was admittedly light on fine detail but there is a certain logic in the idea.
Offer the lawyers $5.52M and see if they accept that, then give them $5,520,000!
During the industrial year of my degree (mumble) years ago, my first task was to modify a Fortran 77 engineering program which calculated intersection points between two pipes, so the correct cuts could be made and the pipes joined. We're talking big pipes here - the company built the Syney Harbour Bridge and the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank building in Hong Kong.
Lacking the modern tools we all love, debugging tended to be done by printing values at pertinent points. When the code was correct, I removed them all... and it broke; I put them back in and it worked; commented them out and it still worked; deleted the comments... and it broke again! These were basic, fundamental print statements, no fancy function calls with side effects. I eventually ended up with two 100+ page listings of the object code (working and non-working) side by side on the floor and had to compare the lot by hand until I found the difference, near the bottom of course!
It turned out to be a bug in the PDP Fortran compiler. It was incorrectly generating two identical labels in the same code block, but for whatever reason they were together in the working version and had a register being reset to zero between them in the broken version - the JMP was going to the second and therefore not resetting the register.
As an undergraduate at the time, I was in despair... my first 'real' job and I couldn't fix a simple program - little did I know what the final cause would be - nearly put me off software development for life! Bloody DEC and their shonky compiler, they didn't even give the company a free upgrade when the fix came out!
Mod me down if you like (0 Troll, hah!), but that doesn't changes the facts that the vast majority of internet users are not computer literate and they're using MS IE and OE which help to propagate the problems associated with viruses and the likes. If the software were better designed or the users better trained, the internet would be far better to use - the dependance on this perceived intelligence at the ends is therefore fundamentally flawed.
"designed with all the intellegence at the ends"
Unfortunately they forgot to factor in the general public, MS, IE and OE.
Most of the general public on dial-up don't run firewall (or antivirus) software - it's too hard or costs too much (a false economy!) With this mentality and the proliferation of insecure OSs, I'd love the ISPs to act as firewall for the inept masses, as long as they permit those of us who know what we're doing to configure it to our needs. When you sign up for an ISP, everything should be defaulted to protect 'the system' from the naive user, those with brains can then reconfigure it.
Sure, it'd be a bit inconvenient at the start but it would centralise the effect of battling these sort of security issues to those who know what's required and would ensure it got done.
"All else is puerile posturing."
Looking in the mirror, huh? Had you taken the time to read both all the article ("...I gave up") and the majority of the responses, I think you'd find that the author makes a very valid point and your "hornet's nest" is fairly empty of "shut-ins".
Besides making a person feel a whole lot better for having a go, it's people like this making this sort of protest that eventually get things changed. If everyone blindly accepts this sort of crap without making any protest it won't stop and sooner or later someone's going to get burnt as a result.
I for one think the guy did the right thing both in badgering the Dell staff and posting the result here. It's the narrow minded bigots like you that lead to all Linux users bring tarred with the same brush and maintain the stereotype.
"We are the Spray-On-Borg, raise your arms and lower your shorts, we will add your biologically distinctive odour to our own, you will be deodourised"
The vocabulary will be simple too... "No!", "Why?", "Are we there yet?" and "Not fair!" occupying 95% of it's speech capabilities.
"The UN, the one world body which might have the ability to lean on the US and make things better for Iraq"
The US completely ignored the UN and everybody else in the international community before the war and will continue to do so, so long as it remains the only bully in the playground. There is currently no other world power to keep Bush in check and his administration is determined to take over the world, at almost any cost.
I get more an more concerned every day when I hear those chilling phrases such as "the American Century" and "Homeland Security" and "Patriot Act". It's getting like the McCarthy era with the "reds under the beds" - genuine, peaceful Americans are becoming more afraid to speak out in case they're labelled as unpatriotic or supportive of terrorists - is that freedom?
The only phrase I'm still waiting to hear Bush come out with is "the final solution", then I know we're all going straight to hell.
/*
*/
{
}
Shit, looks like a load of my code at work is in breach of their copyright too. Damnit I'm gonna sue college for teaching me how to steal IP!
Either way, I'm glad I've got my NAT modem, firewall software and patches in place. That said, my work place got hit bad yesterday - they forgot to guard against a laptop from outside bringing the thing in straight past the firewall - oops.
...but you try and tell the young people today that, and they won't believe ya'.
I'd just love to see someone try to reconstruct all my account shredding. It all goes into a very large box at the local pet store (with everyone else's for security) and then they use it to put in all the kennels/hutches for the kittens, puppies, gerbils, etc.
You would really have to be desperate to go through that lot once it gets to the waste bin - phew!