Yeah, you are probably right about the number of "entitled" pricks who to go to private schools just so they can wear those funny outfits and brag about being elite on their college resumes. Unfortunately, the cost of private education is pretty high and this brings us back to the public school system where something has to be done. I am sure it is possible to find some decent private schools that are not made for the cream of the crop.
Not having to listen to the gov't is one of the major advantages of private schools. I recall that my HS had to take enormous efforts to kick some kid out just because he was of a certain race. Nobody wanted to turn things into a Civil Rights Movement and people had to go around in circles before something outrageous happened to give them enough ground for expulsion. In a private setting things are better. If there is an asshat that causes too much trouble, you can kick him or her out w/o Uncle Sam coming in and telling you to pay $1 million for a civil case that you just lost based on XYZ... If a private school does not want to teach a kid, they have a full right to stop doing that.
I am definitely going to find a nice private setting for my kids based on whatever they're good at. Public schools can put their cameras and hire bodyguards for all I care.
Let's face it: American system is so fucked up beyond belief that we must have cameras in schools. Don't like it? Find a private school for your ankle biter and STFU.
I remember studying in Soviet Russia where kids fell into two categories: The ones who kicked ass (literally) and the ones who got the sorry end of that stick (but only for a short period of time). Eventually, things worked out pretty well because bullies always got what they deserved and normal kids learned how to stand up for themselves (or change schools). If there was an annoying kid calling your mother a whore, you could get up during the class, punch the a-hole in the mouth and go back to your desk. Of course, you'd see the principal later on, but overall things were okay. Once you kicked some ass, people would typically not touch you at all. Kids who had notoriously bad habits learned to keep their mouths shut quite fast. Is this my idea of a perfect school? Of course not. Is it better than what we have in the U.S.? I think so.
The problem that we have here is that kids are never given any opportunity to stand up for themselves. If a bully is picking on you, you can't just kick the kid in the balls and flush his face down the toilet w/o facing some serious charges. In Soviet Russia, you could simply say "Look, he shook up my younger brother for lunch money and I stepped in." Most of the principals would tell you not to do it again and let you go, especially if you were a good student who did a right thing. Not in the U.S. There are fucking rules that you must obey and even if you did a wrong thing for a right reason, you'll pay. And so we breed pussies until the point where some clown decides to bring a nine to school and spray some bullets to show people who is who. Spent $500 at Wal-Mart and you're a fucking Rambo!
What should we do about it? Should we let school shootings happen here and there and accept some collateral damage? Should we finally scratch the whole system and start from scratch? I don't advertise violence by any means, but as I can see it now we either have to get cameras or let our kids be kids and accept politically incorrect statements and random acts of minor violence. If more kids can stand up for themselves in a case-by-case basis, nobody would get so freaking pissed of a turn into an A-bomb.
Sarcasm does not show well in Slashdot posts...
Guilty as charged. I do not like violins that much, but I know several people who could play that pretty well. I heard it live in my living room and it was fun-fucking-tastic. Now, Toyota has spent how much money on this? I bet it cost them a nice penny. Yet I still cannot find a suitable 'yota SUV produced in the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, I believe that teaching a robot how to play anything other than 'play dead' is an awesome achievement. I just wish they Toyota spent more time on designing cars like FJ80.
The Flight of the Bumblebee? Until then, I would rather see Toyota focusing on bringing back trucks like FJ80 instead of the scum infested soccer-mom mobiles they tend to produce now.
Sorry, but this sounds like a personal problem to me. If you can get a license at the age of 16, if you want to go to college, if you want to make something out of yourself, then getting an e-mail and keeping the address for lousy several years should not be a problem. Then again, given the quality of U.S. public schools you may be right...
If people trust a company with the data, then I can blame nobody but them. During the past years there was so much information about data loss and security breaches that it makes me want to un-plug my computer when I am not at home. Given the fact that Google, Yahoo, Comcast and other big companies constantly play favorites and bend over in front of foreign governments, I do not and will not utilize their services for any serious business.
I trust only myself or dead people. If you need space, get an external hard drive or two. Store data there, encrypt, remove all old stuff that is no longer need and repeat. Your habit will save you in a long run. There is an article on Slashdot about YouTube's refusal to publish information from one of the bloggers who exposes controversial subjects. "Don't tase me, bro" has been sitting on 'tube for weeks now while this poor guy from Egypt cannot publish his material online. Does this sound right to you? Is this a company that you would like to support? Is this ethics? What do you think Google is going to do if Chinese government asks it to provide data stored on your hard drive given the fact that you may be in charge political opposition? I hope that it is not that complex to figure this out...
Do not be hard on yourself. Soviet propaganda managed to taint the image of Americans quite well:) However, I did have higher expectations for the United
States because this was the leader of the free world.
You did not have to go far enough to realize that Soviet Union had issues. Food shortages, poor housing management and never ending agricultural dilemmas were hidden behind clever marketing of the Communist Party. Despite all of that, the Soviets still managed to put a man in space and run a successful weapons program. Overall the country managed to achieve certain success and I could only wonder what the United States could do given the fact that every American family have an opportunity to buy a house, a car and have a swimming pool in the backyard. I thought that Americans would be the first ones to get flying cars and definitely make it to Mars by the year 2000. It took about a year of living in the U.S. to prove this otherwise. While pro-Soviet propaganda blasted us from the early age, in the back of my mind I've always held the States to a higher standard. Americans had Levi's, Fords and vacations in Hawaii while most of the Soviet citizens would consider themselves to be lucky to go abroad to one of the bordering countries.
I hope that his is behind us. If there is a new Cold War I'd like to stop the Earth and get off it.
Why not require a valid e-mail address before the first day of school or during the admission process? I did not benefit from my university's privacy policies and I just got as much spam as the next guy. To collect e-mail addresses all one had to do was to login to a server and type 'cd $HOME; cd..; ls'; then add @.'. The downside of using non-school e-mail is that if something happens to Gmail, then students with Gmail accounts may be left out from grades, memos, etc. If a school's system goes down, you know that everybody lacks new information and there is no confusion:)
Universities should focus on what they do best: teach. Stop excessive focus on sports or social clubs. In today's world things like e-mail are almost granted and there is no reason for wasting student's money on what they can get for free otherwise. If you want to have an e-mail server at school, then by all the means do it and provide optional services that is ran by students. At least that way somebody will benefit from hands-on experience. No offense to college IT workers, but sometimes I wondered what was their purpose. Fix printers?
I have been living in the States for many years and one thing still puzzles me: Americans know so little about their former enemy. Why is this space art is such a surprise? Do you really believe that all Soviets did was related to drinking vodka and breaking backs in Gulag? Soviet Union had art, music and science. Are you aware of the fact that most Soviet high schools taught organic chemistry in the 10th and 11th grades? Please spare me "but what about the food lines" statements. The system screwed the people beyond belief and there was little that even smart people could do about the political aspect of the country.
Years ago I recall a question from one of American high school students, "Do bears run on streets in Russia?" I thought that the person was kidding. No, this was a serious question. Apparently the student thought that Soviet/Russian cities (the terms that he used as synonyms) were full of bears and vodka drinking hunters with bad manners. The insulting part was that this question came from somebody who knew nothing about chemistry, physics or calculus in his junior year of high school. We did not have bears, but we had Z80s, programmable calculators, home grown vector processors (Elbrus) and enough nukes to destroy the world. You know, the usual items found in half-way houses:)
Those who are interested in the subject of art and space may want to read up on Alexey Leonov. He summarized his experiences in space in a book and many drawings. Check out the wiki. I am not sure if any copies of Technical Molodezhi (Technology of the Youth) were translated into English, but it was a really neat magazine. I started reading it as soon as I could read and understand some of the basic concepts. Think of Popular Science + Popular Mechanics + various news articles related to physical sciences combined in one package.
I do not do consulting work, but I am in a related field. Most of the problems and road blocks that I have seen are not from the technology that is used, but from people who are in charge of this technology. Fewer managers combined with a bunch of qualified (and creative) engineers can achieve what large companies can only dream of. We constantly run into this problem because somewhere there is a person who just loves to do things the old way or the hard way. On top of that many people simply lack certain skills or personality traits in order to lead technical organizations. Most of us would not want uncertified engineers to work on our cars, yet companies have no problems putting wrong people in charge of IT resources that cost millions of dollars. I see this at work every freaking day:(
While I am not sure about the number of Ukranians who die in car accidents, there is scientific evidence on the extreme increase in thyroid cancer rate in kids in the areas close to Chernobyl. This includes Belarus, the state that received most of the fallout, northern Ukraine and some parts of Russia.
The problem related to the fallout is in the elements. Essentially, you get alpha, beta and gamma rays -- the whole nine yards. Add anywhere from 600,000 to 800,000 Chernobyl liquidators (members of clean-up crews) and the fact that most of them were young males at the time of the catastrophe and you get a whole new dimension to the problem. The Soviet Union had special Army units called chem-bats (chemical battalions) and many of the guys who went to Chernobyl were regular soldiers serving their two years of mandatory services (ages 18-20). It is too late for me to dig into the net to get citations and scientific terms, but from what I remember there were certain chemicals causing recessive DNA damage. This means that while you may be okay, your kids will get some problem. Nothing too serious (no extra limbs or brain damage), but Thyroid cancer is one of the many effects on the population. It is the most studied one because there are numbers due to some registries like the one in Belarus. However, nobody tracks weak immune systems unless they deal with cases of extremes. I know a child of a liquidator; the kid has to go to a hospital every time he catches a cold. The doctor's response is simple, "Well, your dad did go Chernobyl and you're paying for it..." We are not talking about weak immune systems that can be fixed with vitamins and appropriate diets. It is something that is in your DNA and you just have to stick with it. Cases like this are extremely hard to track and this is what makes the problem more complex.
Then you have nuclear industries and their representatives who want to put a positive spin on the events. Caesium isotopes tend to stay in the ground and render it useless for years to come. This means pollution of otherwise useful lands. Economic impact anybody? In countries that struggle economically, more sick kids and contaminated areas that cannot be used for living mean more economic strain. If this sounds like a stretch, take a look at the area of Belarus contaminated by the disaster and you'll see that it is a significant percentage of the total are of the country. The area that cannot be safely used for many years.
Of course, there are reports that show different side of the effects. I am sure a report released by Greenpeace will have information contradictory to what you can find in a paper published by a some agency protecting the rights of nuclear power plants. There were several reports based on long-term study and so far there is no conclusion. Finally, you have to realize that you are dealing with the former USSR. This is not Norway, the U.K., Canada or some other developed region of the world. What you have is a group of countries where studies have been bribed and fixed. Sorry, but if this is not the U.S. where one can criticize the official study released by some group. HBO has relatively good movie, PU-239, that will tell you how a nuclear accident can be patched without issues. The flick is NOT a documentary, but I don't doubt that his has happened sometime somewhere. When jobs and Wester aid are on the line, people will cross the numbers forget the names and cases just to make things right. The world is not perfect, especially in many newborn countries. The results of studies that mean something may not be available to general public. Even if they are present most people will be confused thinking that this can happen only overseas. Where the hell are places like Semipalatinsk anyway? That's another good one, by the way. Check it out and you'll see what the Soviets managed to do to Kazakhstan (spare me a Borat joke, please) and how its population is still affected by former nuclear testing.
I may sound like some eco-nut, but I am not one. In
Ah yes, the old anonymous coward post. That never gets old. These studies have been done and re-done many freaking times. If you're into statistics, look into the WHO studies related to thyroid cancer in pre- and post-Chernobyl Belarus.
Yeah... Disability papers are not enough? Milk? Tablets? I hope you are joking... If you could choose life with thyroid cancer as opposed to one without, what would you choose?
I don't know if I would trust the state of NJ more than I would trust the Soviet government that was present in 1986. To be honest with you, may be in 50 years we will know 1% of the true effects. Remember how cocaine was legal in the United States?
One of my most exciting moments of my childhood was the rain of April 26th, 1986. I was walking from the hospital when it started raining and I got soaked by the time I got home. Several days later we were told to throw away the clothing used on that day and take a long shower because a chemical plant not so far away had a problem. Cool huh? As somebody who was under 10, it was "it!" I was a part of something that the government asked me to do. It felt great until my mom got a call from my grandmother: My uncle was traveling to Belaja Tserokv' (White Church) with a his chem-bat (chemical forces battalion). My grandma was a nurse and she suspected that something was going on since they tons of firefighters were shipped to the area. It was highly unusual to send that many people for a small chemical spill at a nuclear plant. I will skip you the stories about carefully re-adjusted radiation meters given to the soldiers and other tricks that were used to keep public away from the information about the real aspects of the accident. Everything was "peaches and cream" according to the top brass. My uncle delivered cement to the reactor thinking that they were putting down some important fire. Only later we were told about the nuclear disaster and its impact. During the times of Perestroika this became more public and we finally realized what has hit, but it was too freaking late.
I would like to come back and visit the ghost areas. Many areas of Belarus and the Ukraine (Belarus was hit the hardest due to the North-Western winds) became ghost towns. It is a lot like what you can find in the prominent historic parks of the U.S.: Whole towns are there, but no people want to live there for the exception of an occasional squatter. You may see a Western tourist here and there and that is about it. Whoever thinks that radiation is not damaging needs to get their head examined. Yes, a direct death from the exposure may be unlikely, but I'd rather not wait for the long term effects. Honestly, I have seen that stuff and it is not pretty. I'd take a bullet over slow death any time.
This reminds me of that news program where the journalist debunked 10 common myths like "underpaid teachers" and "Chernobyl was not so bad." I don't remember the name of the guy, but he runs a regular show on one of the major TV stations. I only wish I could send this report to many Chernobyl veterans and their kids who would say otherwise.
My uncle was in Chernobyl right after the crap hit the fan in 1986. He went in a young man with good health and came back on a partial disability due to radiation. No, radiation did not kill him but it rendered his eyesight useless. When my cousin was born it was found that he lacked a good immune system due to effects of radiation as well. With all this crap my family considers itself to be lucky. We did not have to watch our loved ones dying from the inside. The Soviets did a great cover-up preventing most Western media from accessing the people and the territory until things were hanky panky. What many people did not see was the kids born after the disaster and increasing cancer rates. You know things are pretty crappy when you have routine cancer checks in middle schools. How many American schools consider this to be yearly procedure? I remember a woman telling a story about her husband. She had to spent all of her savings on vodka and moonshine in order to calm her husbands pain and let him die without screaming. Oh yeah, save those jokes about drunk Russians: The guy did not drink until his muscles started to fall of the bone. Finally you may take a look at the effects of radiation on Kazakhstan. After years of being used as a Soviet nuclear testing ground, the country has plenty of polluted land. Perhaps the authors of this report want to buy some prime real estate in the land of Borat?
I don't doubt that we will find out more about radiation as we go on; however, it is silly to think that nukes (be it peaceful or military) are a joke. It is a serious business with serious side effects.
If you are reading this thread at work, you're probably violating the policy as well. Has anybody actually read the employee handbooks given out on your first day of work?
I have never worked for a company where IT stuff did not violate policies to a greater degree. Sure, soccer mom / accountant Jane may look at the news site or shop at gap.com during work hours, but Billy, the director or IT, can run as many P2P applications from the QA lab. I have constantly heard IT engineers bragging about yet another wonderful Quake 3 lunch. It is nothing wrong to have some fun at work, but ordering extra-beefy hardware only for specific individuals so they can play Quake may not sit right with a CFO. What about all that licensed software that magically ends up being installed at home? The about box reads that it is licensed to Some Company while it is being used for personal purposes. Things like this happen all the time. Hell, I had a co-worker who did not mind browsing pr0n and personals online at work. He even bragged about it. Noticed how I stated things in the past tense:)
Stupid policies make people break the laws. Just like teenagers love liquoring up despite the fact that it is illegal, white collar professionals like their news sites and forums. There is nothing you can do about it. In fact, if I were a boss, I would encourage people to relax and take breaks once in a while. I seriously see no harm if Johnny-work-all-night-to-meet-deadline takes 10 minutes and reads his Slashdot. As long as work is getting done, who gives a shit about what people do when they have a spare minute.
Given the history of Soviet nuclear testing (or perfection), I am happy that they managed to find a remote spot and not blow up their own like they did in Kazakhstan. Also, I am thankful that this "my penis is bigger than yours" race is over. Things could have been a lot worse.
Well, I have not met a user who switched from Windows to Mac and who actually bashed Apple in a sense that the switch was not worth it. I think Apple's hardware restriction is governed by one thing: Money.
Think about it. A limited set of applications and architecture gives you more control. It took Apple released several major OS releases while MS was working on Vista. At this point Apple's stock is going through the roof and they are making tons of profit on iPods and other nice accessories which have a decent level of sex appeal. Steve's developers can bang up a new OS within months, QA it on two laptop and three desktop models, ensure that iPhone and iPod integrate w/o issues and the whole thing is done.
Now imagine exactly the same cycle when multiple PC vendors are involved. They have to extend QA, R&D and PR costs associated with marking and fighting Microsoft. At this point Apple is enjoying being the only player in its own little world that screams of style, quality and price. They are not interested to bring Mac OS X to the masses because people who want this product will get it anyway and become Mac converts. Why spend money on a battle that you're likely to lose when you can enjoy a certain level of superiority. If Apple dumps some cash into Open Office (or Neo Office) projects, it will have a suitable application that can replace Microsoft Office. Then they can use re-phrase Sony's slogan and say "Suffer in their world, enjoy life in ours."
Perhaps my post can be summarized by my recent similar experience. I was shopping for an off-road / expedition vehicle and my journey brought me to a Land Rover dealership. I test drove several cars and asked the sales person questions about the competition. His reply was along the following lines:
"You know, the questions about quality and prices are valid. We represent a well-known company that made vehicles for the British Army and Camel Trophy rallies. If you want to find something more reliable, get a Toyota. If you want to find something that can be fixed for nothing, get a Jeep. We are simply in a slightly different league because we offer a luxury car that can go places. You pay for heated seats, awesome drivetrain capabilities and everything else, including limitations and poor gas mileage. If these things concern you, then this car is not really for you. We offer what we offer because we want to stand out."
When I thought about it, I realized that some companies like Apple and Land Rover want to stand out from the crowd by being different and exclusive. They have their little planets where they dominate certain things and they have no interest to spread out to the rest of the world because it is going to cost them money. Take all the extra bling out of Land Rovers and you got competition with Jeep. Take Mac OS X and make it available on every PC and you enter a tough battle with Dell, Microsoft and other vendors.
It does not work this way. First of all, check the company's financial reports and press announcements. Gateway has been ranked #1 in customer service satisfaction by corporate users. Here:
IRVINE, Calif., June 1/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gateway, Inc. today
announced that it's won the leading position in Technology Business
Research's (TBR) Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction
Study for Corporate Desktops in the first quarter of 2007.
A company with thousands of customers has one unsatisfied customer for every hundred of happy ones. Gateway has enough financial power to sue and fight in courts and unfortunately this guy is bound to lose the legal battle in the future. Then Gateway will become a sponsor and donate some hardware to a good cause and make a TV commercial out of this.
Finally, corporate and gov't business are extremely important to companies like Gateway, HP and Dell. As long as they have large customers, they will should be more or less okay. Sad but true.
When I go shopping, I have a simple rule: If I have to check the balance of all my accounts in order to purchase something, then I cannot afford it. Period. However, if I like something and if I can afford it, then who cares? All of us are going to die at some point of time. That is why I never understood people who argue about some small and useless crap like what computer is cheaper and better. Who gives a damn?
Apple's products are pricey and so are BMWs. I know some folks who will never buy a new car not because they cannot afford, but because they simply do not see a need to have a nice ride. Also, there are some people who will not buy a used car. It is all about personal choices. And while I do not doubt that you can save money by getting a Dell, I do not really care about it:) It is your money. If you want to have Linux and FreeBSD and two buttons and a blow job machine, then Mac is not for you -- do not buy it. This is a free society for crying out loud:)
Please see this article. According to Fortune, in some areas hiring in the tech sector has been increased by a substantial number. Companies are out on a hunt for college grads and overall the picture does not look bad at all. Of course, there is no such thing as job security, but I'd rather work in IT than for an American auto company.
The glass is always half full:)
I agree with you. Linux works out of the box and I have been extremely happy with the latest Linux distributions. However, it still requires administration and certain tech skills.
As somebody who deals with IT crap for living on a daily basis, the last thing I want to do at home is to configure and get things to work. Seriously, I spend 60 hours per week 'getting thigs to work' at work. Linux and Windows have different needs and for a user who does everything from development to digital photography to music. Macs are setup to do everything out of the box without any major input from me. I'd rather pay for a more expensive computer that works with everything...
Khrushchev and Kennedy are talking about freedom of expression. Kennedy says, "In United States, anybody can come out and scream 'Kennedy sucks!' Nothing will happen to that person because we have freedom of expression in the United States." Khrushchev smiles and says, "So what? If a person goes to the Red Square and shouts 'Kennedy sucks!' nothing will happen to that person too!"
We have a bunch of folks who resigned because of the censorship. That is awesome! At least they did not up in Siberia like my ancestors. I bet writing a letter and saying "I do not work here anymore." was easier than living on a bread-and-water-and-beatings diet in prison. I am not going to engage into a debate on us-vs-them because every governmentt in the world has a dark side.
In the past, way too many Russian journalists died under interesting circumstances. These guys are alive, so the country is heading somewhere when compared to its neighbor, Belarus.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, you are probably right about the number of "entitled" pricks who to go to private schools just so they can wear those funny outfits and brag about being elite on their college resumes. Unfortunately, the cost of private education is pretty high and this brings us back to the public school system where something has to be done. I am sure it is possible to find some decent private schools that are not made for the cream of the crop.
Not having to listen to the gov't is one of the major advantages of private schools. I recall that my HS had to take enormous efforts to kick some kid out just because he was of a certain race. Nobody wanted to turn things into a Civil Rights Movement and people had to go around in circles before something outrageous happened to give them enough ground for expulsion. In a private setting things are better. If there is an asshat that causes too much trouble, you can kick him or her out w/o Uncle Sam coming in and telling you to pay $1 million for a civil case that you just lost based on XYZ... If a private school does not want to teach a kid, they have a full right to stop doing that.
I am definitely going to find a nice private setting for my kids based on whatever they're good at. Public schools can put their cameras and hire bodyguards for all I care.
Let's face it: American system is so fucked up beyond belief that we must have cameras in schools. Don't like it? Find a private school for your ankle biter and STFU. I remember studying in Soviet Russia where kids fell into two categories: The ones who kicked ass (literally) and the ones who got the sorry end of that stick (but only for a short period of time). Eventually, things worked out pretty well because bullies always got what they deserved and normal kids learned how to stand up for themselves (or change schools). If there was an annoying kid calling your mother a whore, you could get up during the class, punch the a-hole in the mouth and go back to your desk. Of course, you'd see the principal later on, but overall things were okay. Once you kicked some ass, people would typically not touch you at all. Kids who had notoriously bad habits learned to keep their mouths shut quite fast. Is this my idea of a perfect school? Of course not. Is it better than what we have in the U.S.? I think so. The problem that we have here is that kids are never given any opportunity to stand up for themselves. If a bully is picking on you, you can't just kick the kid in the balls and flush his face down the toilet w/o facing some serious charges. In Soviet Russia, you could simply say "Look, he shook up my younger brother for lunch money and I stepped in." Most of the principals would tell you not to do it again and let you go, especially if you were a good student who did a right thing. Not in the U.S. There are fucking rules that you must obey and even if you did a wrong thing for a right reason, you'll pay. And so we breed pussies until the point where some clown decides to bring a nine to school and spray some bullets to show people who is who. Spent $500 at Wal-Mart and you're a fucking Rambo! What should we do about it? Should we let school shootings happen here and there and accept some collateral damage? Should we finally scratch the whole system and start from scratch? I don't advertise violence by any means, but as I can see it now we either have to get cameras or let our kids be kids and accept politically incorrect statements and random acts of minor violence. If more kids can stand up for themselves in a case-by-case basis, nobody would get so freaking pissed of a turn into an A-bomb.
Sarcasm does not show well in Slashdot posts... Guilty as charged. I do not like violins that much, but I know several people who could play that pretty well. I heard it live in my living room and it was fun-fucking-tastic. Now, Toyota has spent how much money on this? I bet it cost them a nice penny. Yet I still cannot find a suitable 'yota SUV produced in the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, I believe that teaching a robot how to play anything other than 'play dead' is an awesome achievement. I just wish they Toyota spent more time on designing cars like FJ80.
The Flight of the Bumblebee? Until then, I would rather see Toyota focusing on bringing back trucks like FJ80 instead of the scum infested soccer-mom mobiles they tend to produce now.
Sorry, but this sounds like a personal problem to me. If you can get a license at the age of 16, if you want to go to college, if you want to make something out of yourself, then getting an e-mail and keeping the address for lousy several years should not be a problem. Then again, given the quality of U.S. public schools you may be right...
If people trust a company with the data, then I can blame nobody but them. During the past years there was so much information about data loss and security breaches that it makes me want to un-plug my computer when I am not at home. Given the fact that Google, Yahoo, Comcast and other big companies constantly play favorites and bend over in front of foreign governments, I do not and will not utilize their services for any serious business.
I trust only myself or dead people. If you need space, get an external hard drive or two. Store data there, encrypt, remove all old stuff that is no longer need and repeat. Your habit will save you in a long run. There is an article on Slashdot about YouTube's refusal to publish information from one of the bloggers who exposes controversial subjects. "Don't tase me, bro" has been sitting on 'tube for weeks now while this poor guy from Egypt cannot publish his material online. Does this sound right to you? Is this a company that you would like to support? Is this ethics? What do you think Google is going to do if Chinese government asks it to provide data stored on your hard drive given the fact that you may be in charge political opposition? I hope that it is not that complex to figure this out...
Do not be hard on yourself. Soviet propaganda managed to taint the image of Americans quite well :) However, I did have higher expectations for the United
States because this was the leader of the free world.
You did not have to go far enough to realize that Soviet Union had issues. Food shortages, poor housing management and never ending agricultural dilemmas were hidden behind clever marketing of the Communist Party. Despite all of that, the Soviets still managed to put a man in space and run a successful weapons program. Overall the country managed to achieve certain success and I could only wonder what the United States could do given the fact that every American family have an opportunity to buy a house, a car and have a swimming pool in the backyard. I thought that Americans would be the first ones to get flying cars and definitely make it to Mars by the year 2000. It took about a year of living in the U.S. to prove this otherwise. While pro-Soviet propaganda blasted us from the early age, in the back of my mind I've always held the States to a higher standard. Americans had Levi's, Fords and vacations in Hawaii while most of the Soviet citizens would consider themselves to be lucky to go abroad to one of the bordering countries.
I hope that his is behind us. If there is a new Cold War I'd like to stop the Earth and get off it.
Why not require a valid e-mail address before the first day of school or during the admission process? I did not benefit from my university's privacy policies and I just got as much spam as the next guy. To collect e-mail addresses all one had to do was to login to a server and type 'cd $HOME; cd ..; ls'; then add @.'. The downside of using non-school e-mail is that if something happens to Gmail, then students with Gmail accounts may be left out from grades, memos, etc. If a school's system goes down, you know that everybody lacks new information and there is no confusion :)
Universities should focus on what they do best: teach. Stop excessive focus on sports or social clubs. In today's world things like e-mail are almost granted and there is no reason for wasting student's money on what they can get for free otherwise. If you want to have an e-mail server at school, then by all the means do it and provide optional services that is ran by students. At least that way somebody will benefit from hands-on experience. No offense to college IT workers, but sometimes I wondered what was their purpose. Fix printers?
I have been living in the States for many years and one thing still puzzles me: Americans know so little about their former enemy. Why is this space art is such a surprise? Do you really believe that all Soviets did was related to drinking vodka and breaking backs in Gulag? Soviet Union had art, music and science. Are you aware of the fact that most Soviet high schools taught organic chemistry in the 10th and 11th grades? Please spare me "but what about the food lines" statements. The system screwed the people beyond belief and there was little that even smart people could do about the political aspect of the country.
Years ago I recall a question from one of American high school students, "Do bears run on streets in Russia?" I thought that the person was kidding. No, this was a serious question. Apparently the student thought that Soviet/Russian cities (the terms that he used as synonyms) were full of bears and vodka drinking hunters with bad manners. The insulting part was that this question came from somebody who knew nothing about chemistry, physics or calculus in his junior year of high school. We did not have bears, but we had Z80s, programmable calculators, home grown vector processors (Elbrus) and enough nukes to destroy the world. You know, the usual items found in half-way houses :)
Those who are interested in the subject of art and space may want to read up on Alexey Leonov. He summarized his experiences in space in a book and many drawings. Check out the wiki. I am not sure if any copies of Technical Molodezhi (Technology of the Youth) were translated into English, but it was a really neat magazine. I started reading it as soon as I could read and understand some of the basic concepts. Think of Popular Science + Popular Mechanics + various news articles related to physical sciences combined in one package.
You nailed it.
I do not do consulting work, but I am in a related field. Most of the problems and road blocks that I have seen are not from the technology that is used, but from people who are in charge of this technology. Fewer managers combined with a bunch of qualified (and creative) engineers can achieve what large companies can only dream of. We constantly run into this problem because somewhere there is a person who just loves to do things the old way or the hard way. On top of that many people simply lack certain skills or personality traits in order to lead technical organizations. Most of us would not want uncertified engineers to work on our cars, yet companies have no problems putting wrong people in charge of IT resources that cost millions of dollars. I see this at work every freaking day :(
No. I think it was from hard work related to beating Americans in the space race :)
While I am not sure about the number of Ukranians who die in car accidents, there is scientific evidence on the extreme increase in thyroid cancer rate in kids in the areas close to Chernobyl. This includes Belarus, the state that received most of the fallout, northern Ukraine and some parts of Russia.
The problem related to the fallout is in the elements. Essentially, you get alpha, beta and gamma rays -- the whole nine yards. Add anywhere from 600,000 to 800,000 Chernobyl liquidators (members of clean-up crews) and the fact that most of them were young males at the time of the catastrophe and you get a whole new dimension to the problem. The Soviet Union had special Army units called chem-bats (chemical battalions) and many of the guys who went to Chernobyl were regular soldiers serving their two years of mandatory services (ages 18-20). It is too late for me to dig into the net to get citations and scientific terms, but from what I remember there were certain chemicals causing recessive DNA damage. This means that while you may be okay, your kids will get some problem. Nothing too serious (no extra limbs or brain damage), but Thyroid cancer is one of the many effects on the population. It is the most studied one because there are numbers due to some registries like the one in Belarus. However, nobody tracks weak immune systems unless they deal with cases of extremes. I know a child of a liquidator; the kid has to go to a hospital every time he catches a cold. The doctor's response is simple, "Well, your dad did go Chernobyl and you're paying for it..." We are not talking about weak immune systems that can be fixed with vitamins and appropriate diets. It is something that is in your DNA and you just have to stick with it. Cases like this are extremely hard to track and this is what makes the problem more complex.
Then you have nuclear industries and their representatives who want to put a positive spin on the events. Caesium isotopes tend to stay in the ground and render it useless for years to come. This means pollution of otherwise useful lands. Economic impact anybody? In countries that struggle economically, more sick kids and contaminated areas that cannot be used for living mean more economic strain. If this sounds like a stretch, take a look at the area of Belarus contaminated by the disaster and you'll see that it is a significant percentage of the total are of the country. The area that cannot be safely used for many years.
Of course, there are reports that show different side of the effects. I am sure a report released by Greenpeace will have information contradictory to what you can find in a paper published by a some agency protecting the rights of nuclear power plants. There were several reports based on long-term study and so far there is no conclusion. Finally, you have to realize that you are dealing with the former USSR. This is not Norway, the U.K., Canada or some other developed region of the world. What you have is a group of countries where studies have been bribed and fixed. Sorry, but if this is not the U.S. where one can criticize the official study released by some group. HBO has relatively good movie, PU-239, that will tell you how a nuclear accident can be patched without issues. The flick is NOT a documentary, but I don't doubt that his has happened sometime somewhere. When jobs and Wester aid are on the line, people will cross the numbers forget the names and cases just to make things right. The world is not perfect, especially in many newborn countries. The results of studies that mean something may not be available to general public. Even if they are present most people will be confused thinking that this can happen only overseas. Where the hell are places like Semipalatinsk anyway? That's another good one, by the way. Check it out and you'll see what the Soviets managed to do to Kazakhstan (spare me a Borat joke, please) and how its population is still affected by former nuclear testing.
I may sound like some eco-nut, but I am not one. In
Ah yes, the old anonymous coward post. That never gets old. These studies have been done and re-done many freaking times. If you're into statistics, look into the WHO studies related to thyroid cancer in pre- and post-Chernobyl Belarus.
Yeah... Disability papers are not enough? Milk? Tablets? I hope you are joking... If you could choose life with thyroid cancer as opposed to one without, what would you choose?
Yep! That's the mo-fo. His special that day made laugh... I stopped watching ABC since then :)
I don't know if I would trust the state of NJ more than I would trust the Soviet government that was present in 1986. To be honest with you, may be in 50 years we will know 1% of the true effects. Remember how cocaine was legal in the United States?
One of my most exciting moments of my childhood was the rain of April 26th, 1986. I was walking from the hospital when it started raining and I got soaked by the time I got home. Several days later we were told to throw away the clothing used on that day and take a long shower because a chemical plant not so far away had a problem. Cool huh? As somebody who was under 10, it was "it!" I was a part of something that the government asked me to do. It felt great until my mom got a call from my grandmother: My uncle was traveling to Belaja Tserokv' (White Church) with a his chem-bat (chemical forces battalion). My grandma was a nurse and she suspected that something was going on since they tons of firefighters were shipped to the area. It was highly unusual to send that many people for a small chemical spill at a nuclear plant. I will skip you the stories about carefully re-adjusted radiation meters given to the soldiers and other tricks that were used to keep public away from the information about the real aspects of the accident. Everything was "peaches and cream" according to the top brass. My uncle delivered cement to the reactor thinking that they were putting down some important fire. Only later we were told about the nuclear disaster and its impact. During the times of Perestroika this became more public and we finally realized what has hit, but it was too freaking late.
I would like to come back and visit the ghost areas. Many areas of Belarus and the Ukraine (Belarus was hit the hardest due to the North-Western winds) became ghost towns. It is a lot like what you can find in the prominent historic parks of the U.S.: Whole towns are there, but no people want to live there for the exception of an occasional squatter. You may see a Western tourist here and there and that is about it. Whoever thinks that radiation is not damaging needs to get their head examined. Yes, a direct death from the exposure may be unlikely, but I'd rather not wait for the long term effects. Honestly, I have seen that stuff and it is not pretty. I'd take a bullet over slow death any time.
This reminds me of that news program where the journalist debunked 10 common myths like "underpaid teachers" and "Chernobyl was not so bad." I don't remember the name of the guy, but he runs a regular show on one of the major TV stations. I only wish I could send this report to many Chernobyl veterans and their kids who would say otherwise.
My uncle was in Chernobyl right after the crap hit the fan in 1986. He went in a young man with good health and came back on a partial disability due to radiation. No, radiation did not kill him but it rendered his eyesight useless. When my cousin was born it was found that he lacked a good immune system due to effects of radiation as well. With all this crap my family considers itself to be lucky. We did not have to watch our loved ones dying from the inside. The Soviets did a great cover-up preventing most Western media from accessing the people and the territory until things were hanky panky. What many people did not see was the kids born after the disaster and increasing cancer rates. You know things are pretty crappy when you have routine cancer checks in middle schools. How many American schools consider this to be yearly procedure? I remember a woman telling a story about her husband. She had to spent all of her savings on vodka and moonshine in order to calm her husbands pain and let him die without screaming. Oh yeah, save those jokes about drunk Russians: The guy did not drink until his muscles started to fall of the bone. Finally you may take a look at the effects of radiation on Kazakhstan. After years of being used as a Soviet nuclear testing ground, the country has plenty of polluted land. Perhaps the authors of this report want to buy some prime real estate in the land of Borat?
I don't doubt that we will find out more about radiation as we go on; however, it is silly to think that nukes (be it peaceful or military) are a joke. It is a serious business with serious side effects.
If you are reading this thread at work, you're probably violating the policy as well. Has anybody actually read the employee handbooks given out on your first day of work? I have never worked for a company where IT stuff did not violate policies to a greater degree. Sure, soccer mom / accountant Jane may look at the news site or shop at gap.com during work hours, but Billy, the director or IT, can run as many P2P applications from the QA lab. I have constantly heard IT engineers bragging about yet another wonderful Quake 3 lunch. It is nothing wrong to have some fun at work, but ordering extra-beefy hardware only for specific individuals so they can play Quake may not sit right with a CFO. What about all that licensed software that magically ends up being installed at home? The about box reads that it is licensed to Some Company while it is being used for personal purposes. Things like this happen all the time. Hell, I had a co-worker who did not mind browsing pr0n and personals online at work. He even bragged about it. Noticed how I stated things in the past tense :)
Stupid policies make people break the laws. Just like teenagers love liquoring up despite the fact that it is illegal, white collar professionals like their news sites and forums. There is nothing you can do about it. In fact, if I were a boss, I would encourage people to relax and take breaks once in a while. I seriously see no harm if Johnny-work-all-night-to-meet-deadline takes 10 minutes and reads his Slashdot. As long as work is getting done, who gives a shit about what people do when they have a spare minute.
Given the history of Soviet nuclear testing (or perfection), I am happy that they managed to find a remote spot and not blow up their own like they did in Kazakhstan. Also, I am thankful that this "my penis is bigger than yours" race is over. Things could have been a lot worse.
Well, I have not met a user who switched from Windows to Mac and who actually bashed Apple in a sense that the switch was not worth it. I think Apple's hardware restriction is governed by one thing: Money.
Think about it. A limited set of applications and architecture gives you more control. It took Apple released several major OS releases while MS was working on Vista. At this point Apple's stock is going through the roof and they are making tons of profit on iPods and other nice accessories which have a decent level of sex appeal. Steve's developers can bang up a new OS within months, QA it on two laptop and three desktop models, ensure that iPhone and iPod integrate w/o issues and the whole thing is done.
Now imagine exactly the same cycle when multiple PC vendors are involved. They have to extend QA, R&D and PR costs associated with marking and fighting Microsoft. At this point Apple is enjoying being the only player in its own little world that screams of style, quality and price. They are not interested to bring Mac OS X to the masses because people who want this product will get it anyway and become Mac converts. Why spend money on a battle that you're likely to lose when you can enjoy a certain level of superiority. If Apple dumps some cash into Open Office (or Neo Office) projects, it will have a suitable application that can replace Microsoft Office. Then they can use re-phrase Sony's slogan and say "Suffer in their world, enjoy life in ours."
Perhaps my post can be summarized by my recent similar experience. I was shopping for an off-road / expedition vehicle and my journey brought me to a Land Rover dealership. I test drove several cars and asked the sales person questions about the competition. His reply was along the following lines:
"You know, the questions about quality and prices are valid. We represent a well-known company that made vehicles for the British Army and Camel Trophy rallies. If you want to find something more reliable, get a Toyota. If you want to find something that can be fixed for nothing, get a Jeep. We are simply in a slightly different league because we offer a luxury car that can go places. You pay for heated seats, awesome drivetrain capabilities and everything else, including limitations and poor gas mileage. If these things concern you, then this car is not really for you. We offer what we offer because we want to stand out."
When I thought about it, I realized that some companies like Apple and Land Rover want to stand out from the crowd by being different and exclusive. They have their little planets where they dominate certain things and they have no interest to spread out to the rest of the world because it is going to cost them money. Take all the extra bling out of Land Rovers and you got competition with Jeep. Take Mac OS X and make it available on every PC and you enter a tough battle with Dell, Microsoft and other vendors.
It does not work this way. First of all, check the company's financial reports and press announcements. Gateway has been ranked #1 in customer service satisfaction by corporate users. Here:
IRVINE, Calif., June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gateway, Inc. today
announced that it's won the leading position in Technology Business
Research's (TBR) Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction
Study for Corporate Desktops in the first quarter of 2007.
Here is alink to the full story.
A company with thousands of customers has one unsatisfied customer for every hundred of happy ones. Gateway has enough financial power to sue and fight in courts and unfortunately this guy is bound to lose the legal battle in the future. Then Gateway will become a sponsor and donate some hardware to a good cause and make a TV commercial out of this.
Finally, corporate and gov't business are extremely important to companies like Gateway, HP and Dell. As long as they have large customers, they will should be more or less okay. Sad but true.
When I go shopping, I have a simple rule: If I have to check the balance of all my accounts in order to purchase something, then I cannot afford it. Period. However, if I like something and if I can afford it, then who cares? All of us are going to die at some point of time. That is why I never understood people who argue about some small and useless crap like what computer is cheaper and better. Who gives a damn?
Apple's products are pricey and so are BMWs. I know some folks who will never buy a new car not because they cannot afford, but because they simply do not see a need to have a nice ride. Also, there are some people who will not buy a used car. It is all about personal choices. And while I do not doubt that you can save money by getting a Dell, I do not really care about it :) It is your money. If you want to have Linux and FreeBSD and two buttons and a blow job machine, then Mac is not for you -- do not buy it. This is a free society for crying out loud :)
Please see this article. According to Fortune, in some areas hiring in the tech sector has been increased by a substantial number. Companies are out on a hunt for college grads and overall the picture does not look bad at all. Of course, there is no such thing as job security, but I'd rather work in IT than for an American auto company. The glass is always half full :)
I agree with you. Linux works out of the box and I have been extremely happy with the latest Linux distributions. However, it still requires administration and certain tech skills. As somebody who deals with IT crap for living on a daily basis, the last thing I want to do at home is to configure and get things to work. Seriously, I spend 60 hours per week 'getting thigs to work' at work. Linux and Windows have different needs and for a user who does everything from development to digital photography to music. Macs are setup to do everything out of the box without any major input from me. I'd rather pay for a more expensive computer that works with everything...
Khrushchev and Kennedy are talking about freedom of expression. Kennedy says, "In United States, anybody can come out and scream 'Kennedy sucks!' Nothing will happen to that person because we have freedom of expression in the United States." Khrushchev smiles and says, "So what? If a person goes to the Red Square and shouts 'Kennedy sucks!' nothing will happen to that person too!"
We have a bunch of folks who resigned because of the censorship. That is awesome! At least they did not up in Siberia like my ancestors. I bet writing a letter and saying "I do not work here anymore." was easier than living on a bread-and-water-and-beatings diet in prison. I am not going to engage into a debate on us-vs-them because every governmentt in the world has a dark side.
In the past, way too many Russian journalists died under interesting circumstances. These guys are alive, so the country is heading somewhere when compared to its neighbor, Belarus.