Your wind park looks to be in the Netherlands, where they've been a fixture for centuries. But over here, in America (i.e. USA), we absolutely cannot have the plebs capable of generating their own electricity, much less have them use corners between farm-fields to generate excess electricity!!!
That would completely disrupt the State-sponsored monopoly that the dinosaur-burning power plants currently enjoy. It would be chaos. Cats marrying dogs. People wearing hats on their feet. This energy independence must be stopped at all costs!
Could we find a way to keep this wonderful planet surface beautiful? Dig down power cables, make generators inconspicuous. And leave airspace free to birds, manned and RC aircraft.
It is hard to make a coal-fired generating plant inconspicuous. They are typically a square mile or two of blackened earth. And the garbage they spew into the air. . . Do you really want them to 'make it inconspicuous', or would you rather be able to see you major source of particulates, heavy metals, radioactive particulates (yes, on average, more than nuclear)?
In California, the wind-farms are primarily in the desert – usually in a pass between a couple of mountains. That is, they are far away, and no one ever sees them unless they drive through the desert to Vegas or whatever. Even then, it's just briefly.
Power-lines are often buried already. It's the legacy ones that remain—Replacement costs money. Those 4 kV trunk lines? They are cut through forests and such, and are kept above ground for maintenance and security purposes.
And as for birds. . . Well then: * Domesticated cats kill more birds than wind turbines. * Air pollution from coal-fired power plants kills more birds than wind turbines. * Power-lines, especially those away from cities, and on moonless nights, kill far more birds than do wind turbines. Why is this issue of bird being brought up about a century too late? * Once we stopped spraying DDT along the sides of roads, the wildlife came back. I see hawks in my urban neighborhood and along the interstates frequently now. In the 1970's, I never did. * Oh, pigeon-poop buildup occasionally causes a short and explodes a transformer, sometimes killing some wildlife in the process. * Last, skyscrapers kill tons of birds. Every morning at 5:00 am, every skyscraper has someone pick up the dead birds before people arrive for work. At night, they are dark. Or would you rather that they keep the lights on (using more electricity) 24/7?
Ironically, I was open to the idea of upgrading until I saw how bizarrely insistent MS was about the upgrade. When I began to hear stories of stealth upgrades, I ran, not walked, to the "GWX Control Panel" app and installed it. Anything that MS is this crazy insistent about has to be up to something very, very bad behind the scenes.
Yes, this!!!
Note the language of any Microsoft quote or press release regarding Win10. Every time, there is a buried snippet of language softening "FREE" by instead saying "...currently FREE...", or "...FREE for a certain period...", and so on.
Nowhere have I seen them say "always FREE". It will not be. Just like Adobe moving from 'selling' copies of software to 'rental' agreements with their "Creative Cloud" crap – this is a FORCED RENTAL SCHEME –and has been from the start.
How else can they retain a Monopoly on the desktop, now that their IBM agreement is no longer in-force? This is so clearly a grab at condor lock-in that I am surprised that few else have mentioned it.
I would not recommend doing anything in this post.
...
1. Talk to your boss privately, one-on-one. Not via email, not via text. Face to face. Tell them that you are unhappy with the situation.
The company DOES NOT CARE that your boss is pulling shit like demanding you to work 80 hours a week. The company DOES NOT CARE. ..
You missed my point. The company DOES NOT CARE about you (We agree). Make your departure an economic fuck-up by your 'bad boss' for not retaining talent—That might get your old boss into trouble. It will at least cause him stress.
And the one-on-one conversation thing. Yeah, I've tried that. They will say anything, knowing that it is not on-the-record. And they will hate you for taking up their time bringing up facts like the CPI relative to your puny "raise". In a verbal meeting, they will try any means possible to get you to say something that is by appearance, incriminating.
Last, that one-on-one meeting, is something that they will never let happen. There will always be another manager, a secretary, anyone who can be a willing (false) 'witness' to statements that you did not make. Verbal discussions are just asking for the deck to be stacked against you.
Patents are about how you do something, not what it does. The idea has been in sci-fi forever, of course, but sci-fi novels are not engineering manuals. They assume that some current (at writing) technological capabilities exist, and go from there. That is how all fiction works.
I agree with your broad-brush statement about a new wave of dot-coms that are going to save the world. They tell the same old story, but never give a hint as to how they are going to achieve it.
Back to the topic to-hand; I had the how. I still do. No one has filed for the how, so it is still out there for grabs. I will let it die in a locked safe, to be opened 30 years after my death. To a yawn, yes, but during my life I will sleep well at night knowing that I am not being intellectually raped (yet again). It is a "fuck you" to all of humanity.
A mentor of mine, consummate if ever there was one, had worked 45 years at The Aerospace Corporation. Over his career, he had saved numerous satellite programs well over a billion dollars in total. He worked long, hard hours, dedicating every ounce of energy to The Aerospace Corporation.
He was the tops. He'd call me near the end of a fiscal year, and ask if I could spend-out $250k on supplies or equipment, for my own projects, within two or three weeks. "Spend!" one of his emails stated. That level of power, combined with the above-described level of dedication and supreme engineering insight and service.
Then he had a stroke. Within less than two months, he had been forced into retirement (no 6-month Disability leave for you!). Seriously, two months! That is the thanks that he got for saving innumerable satellite programs $100M's, amounting to over $1B in his career. A little vascular oopsie suddenly ended it all, and he was unceremoniously kicked out the door. There was a tiny, awkward "retirement" party, where he was presented with a wooden box of artifacts from his greatest satellite program achievements –worthless to him in a nursing home.
I noticed that while he was examining this 'treasure-box' to the sound of fake-happy applause from everyone at The Aerospace Corporation, no one, not even his attendant nurse, bothered to take a moment to wipe away the huge, gross erupted boil on his left temple. Its core was about 3/4-inch long, and was just lolling there on his face, while everyone took pictures and pretended that it was a celebration.
That is what you get for dedication to a corporate entity such as The Aerospace Corporation. No bonuses. No overtime. And when your body has a little glitch, you are yesterday's garbage.
All companies are like this.
PS — I cannot tell you the name of the company I worked for, but perhaps you can figure it out from the hints.
what's really fun is when the Sheriff is used to intimidate the employees into signing their rights away. I saw a lot of that when the outsourcing started and companies didn't want to pay unemployment. You'd be put in a room with two mean looking guys with guns and not allowed to leave until you signed a paper saying you voluntarily quit.
Said it before, say it again: Vote Left. Vote for the most left leaning candidate you can get your hands on. Bernie. Trump. Hilary if you have to ( not that she's Left, but she's not Cruz/Rubio/Jeb). Join a Union. Start a Union. Vote in your State elections.
That is a crime – kidnapping. You should have gone straight to the Police (to file a report, but don't expect them to do anything). Then lawyer-up.
Install your State ACLU's iPhone or Android app that records all audio (&/or video), but leaves the screen blank. These apps, if anyone tries to operate the phone, immediately upload the whole recording to ACLU servers for safe-keeping. keep it in your shirt-pocket to capture good audio – especially the audio where the goons tells you to turn your cell phone off. And where you protest the kidnapping. And warn them that if they try to operate the phone that the recording will automatical... Then lawyering-up will be much easier.
In some States, if they threaten to withhold your last paycheck or severance, it is a crime. In Illinois, it is a crime with 3x damages. I know.:-)
At only 300 Hertz this doesn't seem to be happening with high frequency.
That could easily become a meme –earning Hertz a pernicious slam that pops up every time another company pulls this.
Go post it on FARK! Now, or as soon as this news is posted there (and it will be). Someone might even come up with another layer of pun, or even Photoshop a graphical meme.
Or use a photo + text "Meme generator" site and slap that sucker up on FARK, and especially FB (just make the post totally public, not just friends).
...that comment about "work/life balance" sacrificed. There was a great article recently about how one-sided the employee/corporate relationship really is. One side of the relationship has emotions; the others' basically a machine, a mechanism devised by stockholders to increase their investment - when it screws up and has an emotion because one of the parts (your boss) has one, that is corrected ASAP....... NONE of this spirit of teamwork and sacrifice applies to the other side of the relationship. All those emotional, devoted-to-work, sacrificing employees are sacrificed for in turn when their utility falls below zero.
Just don't mention this sentiment to your boss when s/he uses it to twist your arm into giving up a weekend.
At least, unless you have an offer in your back pocket.
Actually, that would be a great way to depart from a bad boss – if you could time it right. Better yet, do it in a meeting where such BS is thrown at you. Raise the issue right there and then, in front of all of your co-workers. Don't let him defer the conversation. That will really embarrass the boss, and perhaps get him incensed and emotional, so that he turns out making a scene, thereby more clearly being the bad guy, and planting some seeds in the minds of your co-workers. Continue to engage the boss. Don't drop the topic, but keep it live for as long as you can without getting yourself to insubordination—Be only factual and unemotional. Mention compensation for extra work. Co-workers will all look down at the table during such a scene, but they will be listening. Intently.
Entering fantasy territory: Carefully remember everything the boss says, noting if any threats or outside-of-contract demands are made. Once the exchange is halted by thee boss, or is just about to be halted by the boss, announce your departure, using the boss's words in your preamble sentence before quitting.
And if the boss did break any laws or corporate rules, be sure to document them immediately after, and make sure that HR and three levels in that boss's management chain also receive the letter (add legal if you don't plan to sue—legal will certainly take internal action). If anyone does take action, it will include private interviews by every co-worker that was preasant. This will provide them opportunities to privately convey anything they might want to say. At the least, the boss will be punished – not for breaking rules – but for pushing so hard that someone publicly quits.
He was born rich, and hasn't actually done well in increasing his personal wealth. He just buys big to show off. Any actual increase in wealth, or prevention of decrease, would be due to a wealth management team who handles his actual investments.
Dropbox was the worst battery hog I have ever seen. Constantly updating active folders and wasting battery and bandwidth.
There are other well-known reasons to not use Dropbox. (HINT: They index every file that passes through their system. And so many businesses share pre-Patent-Disclosure stuff for their projects there. Not to mention many other sensitive documents.)
My University has banned any and all Faculty use of DropBox for anything Uni-related.
The El in Chicago is LOUD. The Red Line and Blue Line especially, at least the parts underground. Maybe the Red gets quieter up North—I know the stop where he got on.
Outside the train, an over-passing El will stop conversation for a good 20 seconds or more. The Loop is quite loud, but the loudest stop is the Brown Line at Diversey. It's overhead, most of the support is painted steel, and there are brick buildings directly adjacent to the track on all four sides. It's a deafening echo-chamber.
The cell phone situation in London is much better, at least on the tube. Compared to Chicago's, that thing is VERY LOUD. The Regional trains, well, it's a mixed bag. But they do have a "Quiet Car" on many of the lines (no cell phones allowed).
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, the Hussars looked pretty silly. I guess they wanted to be seen from far-away when approaching.
And the British Re-coats. Standing in lines. And both sides have muskets... Silly silly silly. Stop that right now.
Or do both :), a pic of our local windfarm, with 53 meter blades these are presently among the largest:
http://www.windparknoordoostpo...
Oh no. Oh no, no, no.
Your wind park looks to be in the Netherlands, where they've been a fixture for centuries. But over here, in America (i.e. USA), we absolutely cannot have the plebs capable of generating their own electricity, much less have them use corners between farm-fields to generate excess electricity!!!
That would completely disrupt the State-sponsored monopoly that the dinosaur-burning power plants currently enjoy. It would be chaos. Cats marrying dogs. People wearing hats on their feet. This energy independence must be stopped at all costs!
The Sun has been using it for some years now...
Could we find a way to keep this wonderful planet surface beautiful? Dig down power cables, make generators inconspicuous. And leave airspace free to birds, manned and RC aircraft.
It is hard to make a coal-fired generating plant inconspicuous. They are typically a square mile or two of blackened earth. And the garbage they spew into the air. . . Do you really want them to 'make it inconspicuous', or would you rather be able to see you major source of particulates, heavy metals, radioactive particulates (yes, on average, more than nuclear)?
In California, the wind-farms are primarily in the desert – usually in a pass between a couple of mountains. That is, they are far away, and no one ever sees them unless they drive through the desert to Vegas or whatever. Even then, it's just briefly.
Power-lines are often buried already. It's the legacy ones that remain—Replacement costs money. Those 4 kV trunk lines? They are cut through forests and such, and are kept above ground for maintenance and security purposes.
And as for birds. . . Well then:
* Domesticated cats kill more birds than wind turbines.
* Air pollution from coal-fired power plants kills more birds than wind turbines.
* Power-lines, especially those away from cities, and on moonless nights, kill far more birds than do wind turbines. Why is this issue of bird being brought up about a century too late?
* Once we stopped spraying DDT along the sides of roads, the wildlife came back. I see hawks in my urban neighborhood and along the interstates frequently now. In the 1970's, I never did.
* Oh, pigeon-poop buildup occasionally causes a short and explodes a transformer, sometimes killing some wildlife in the process.
* Last, skyscrapers kill tons of birds. Every morning at 5:00 am, every skyscraper has someone pick up the dead birds before people arrive for work. At night, they are dark. Or would you rather that they keep the lights on (using more electricity) 24/7?
So, will Netflix pro-rate my monthly bill for time I spend on travel to foreign countries?
I'm kind of doubting it.
"Please state the nature of the financial emergency."
"You have selected 'Regicide'. Press 1 if the Monarch is a King. Press 2 if the Monarch is a Queen. . . "
Thankfully this will be over in late July when the free upgrade offer ends.
THANKS. You bring up two points.
1. Update != Upgrade != Security Patch
2. I have no doubt that the "FREE upgrade period" will be extended "...due to overwhelming consumer response..."
* Note that I used the word 'response' and not 'demand'.
Ironically, I was open to the idea of upgrading until I saw how bizarrely insistent MS was about the upgrade. When I began to hear stories of stealth upgrades, I ran, not walked, to the "GWX Control Panel" app and installed it. Anything that MS is this crazy insistent about has to be up to something very, very bad behind the scenes.
Yes, this!!!
Note the language of any Microsoft quote or press release regarding Win10. Every time, there is a buried snippet of language softening "FREE" by instead saying "...currently FREE...", or "...FREE for a certain period...", and so on.
Nowhere have I seen them say "always FREE". It will not be. Just like Adobe moving from 'selling' copies of software to 'rental' agreements with their "Creative Cloud" crap – this is a FORCED RENTAL SCHEME –and has been from the start.
How else can they retain a Monopoly on the desktop, now that their IBM agreement is no longer in-force? This is so clearly a grab at condor lock-in that I am surprised that few else have mentioned it.
I think I know. Was it The Apocryphal Aerospace Corporation?
FTFY
www.aero.org
Yep.
So, have you ever visited this mentor in his nursing home?
If not, you're part of the problem.
Sorry, but I am contractually forbidden by an out-of-court settlement from responding to your comment.
Oh, I forgot to mention, your REFERENCES are past customers.
A former 'Bad Boss' will never provide you with a recommendation. If they flout the accepted rules of common decency, then why shouldn't you?*
* With regard to the bad boss. Retain your integrity.
I would not recommend doing anything in this post.
1. Talk to your boss privately, one-on-one. Not via email, not via text. Face to face. Tell them that you are unhappy with the situation.
The company DOES NOT CARE that your boss is pulling shit like demanding you to work 80 hours a week. The company DOES NOT CARE. . .
You missed my point. The company DOES NOT CARE about you (We agree). Make your departure an economic fuck-up by your 'bad boss' for not retaining talent—That might get your old boss into trouble. It will at least cause him stress.
And the one-on-one conversation thing. Yeah, I've tried that. They will say anything, knowing that it is not on-the-record. And they will hate you for taking up their time bringing up facts like the CPI relative to your puny "raise". In a verbal meeting, they will try any means possible to get you to say something that is by appearance, incriminating.
Last, that one-on-one meeting, is something that they will never let happen. There will always be another manager, a secretary, anyone who can be a willing (false) 'witness' to statements that you did not make. Verbal discussions are just asking for the deck to be stacked against you.
Patents are about how you do something, not what it does. The idea has been in sci-fi forever, of course, but sci-fi novels are not engineering manuals. They assume that some current (at writing) technological capabilities exist, and go from there. That is how all fiction works.
I agree with your broad-brush statement about a new wave of dot-coms that are going to save the world. They tell the same old story, but never give a hint as to how they are going to achieve it.
Back to the topic to-hand; I had the how. I still do. No one has filed for the how, so it is still out there for grabs. I will let it die in a locked safe, to be opened 30 years after my death. To a yawn, yes, but during my life I will sleep well at night knowing that I am not being intellectually raped (yet again). It is a "fuck you" to all of humanity.
A mentor of mine, consummate if ever there was one, had worked 45 years at The Aerospace Corporation. Over his career, he had saved numerous satellite programs well over a billion dollars in total. He worked long, hard hours, dedicating every ounce of energy to The Aerospace Corporation.
He was the tops. He'd call me near the end of a fiscal year, and ask if I could spend-out $250k on supplies or equipment, for my own projects, within two or three weeks. "Spend!" one of his emails stated. That level of power, combined with the above-described level of dedication and supreme engineering insight and service.
Then he had a stroke. Within less than two months, he had been forced into retirement (no 6-month Disability leave for you!). Seriously, two months! That is the thanks that he got for saving innumerable satellite programs $100M's, amounting to over $1B in his career. A little vascular oopsie suddenly ended it all, and he was unceremoniously kicked out the door. There was a tiny, awkward "retirement" party, where he was presented with a wooden box of artifacts from his greatest satellite program achievements –worthless to him in a nursing home.
I noticed that while he was examining this 'treasure-box' to the sound of fake-happy applause from everyone at The Aerospace Corporation, no one, not even his attendant nurse, bothered to take a moment to wipe away the huge, gross erupted boil on his left temple. Its core was about 3/4-inch long, and was just lolling there on his face, while everyone took pictures and pretended that it was a celebration.
That is what you get for dedication to a corporate entity such as The Aerospace Corporation. No bonuses. No overtime. And when your body has a little glitch, you are yesterday's garbage.
All companies are like this.
PS — I cannot tell you the name of the company I worked for, but perhaps you can figure it out from the hints.
what's really fun is when the Sheriff is used to intimidate the employees into signing their rights away. I saw a lot of that when the outsourcing started and companies didn't want to pay unemployment. You'd be put in a room with two mean looking guys with guns and not allowed to leave until you signed a paper saying you voluntarily quit.
Said it before, say it again: Vote Left. Vote for the most left leaning candidate you can get your hands on. Bernie. Trump. Hilary if you have to ( not that she's Left, but she's not Cruz/Rubio/Jeb). Join a Union. Start a Union. Vote in your State elections.
That is a crime – kidnapping. You should have gone straight to the Police (to file a report, but don't expect them to do anything). Then lawyer-up.
Install your State ACLU's iPhone or Android app that records all audio (&/or video), but leaves the screen blank. These apps, if anyone tries to operate the phone, immediately upload the whole recording to ACLU servers for safe-keeping. keep it in your shirt-pocket to capture good audio – especially the audio where the goons tells you to turn your cell phone off. And where you protest the kidnapping. And warn them that if they try to operate the phone that the recording will automatical... Then lawyering-up will be much easier.
In some States, if they threaten to withhold your last paycheck or severance, it is a crime. In Illinois, it is a crime with 3x damages. I know. :-)
At only 300 Hertz this doesn't seem to be happening with high frequency.
That could easily become a meme –earning Hertz a pernicious slam that pops up every time another company pulls this.
Go post it on FARK! Now, or as soon as this news is posted there (and it will be). Someone might even come up with another layer of pun, or even Photoshop a graphical meme.
Or use a photo + text "Meme generator" site and slap that sucker up on FARK, and especially FB (just make the post totally public, not just friends).
...that comment about "work/life balance" sacrificed. There was a great article recently about how one-sided the employee/corporate relationship really is. One side of the relationship has emotions; the others' basically a machine, a mechanism devised by stockholders to increase their investment - when it screws up and has an emotion because one of the parts (your boss) has one, that is corrected ASAP. ... ...
NONE of this spirit of teamwork and sacrifice applies to the other side of the relationship. All those emotional, devoted-to-work, sacrificing employees are sacrificed for in turn when their utility falls below zero.
Just don't mention this sentiment to your boss when s/he uses it to twist your arm into giving up a weekend.
At least, unless you have an offer in your back pocket.
Actually, that would be a great way to depart from a bad boss – if you could time it right. Better yet, do it in a meeting where such BS is thrown at you. Raise the issue right there and then, in front of all of your co-workers. Don't let him defer the conversation. That will really embarrass the boss, and perhaps get him incensed and emotional, so that he turns out making a scene, thereby more clearly being the bad guy, and planting some seeds in the minds of your co-workers. Continue to engage the boss. Don't drop the topic, but keep it live for as long as you can without getting yourself to insubordination—Be only factual and unemotional. Mention compensation for extra work. Co-workers will all look down at the table during such a scene, but they will be listening. Intently.
Entering fantasy territory: Carefully remember everything the boss says, noting if any threats or outside-of-contract demands are made. Once the exchange is halted by thee boss, or is just about to be halted by the boss, announce your departure, using the boss's words in your preamble sentence before quitting.
And if the boss did break any laws or corporate rules, be sure to document them immediately after, and make sure that HR and three levels in that boss's management chain also receive the letter (add legal if you don't plan to sue—legal will certainly take internal action). If anyone does take action, it will include private interviews by every co-worker that was preasant. This will provide them opportunities to privately convey anything they might want to say. At the least, the boss will be punished – not for breaking rules – but for pushing so hard that someone publicly quits.
One can dream...
they no longer need to show there are no qualified Americans. The law was very quietly changed to allow them to replace American workers. ...
Can you provide a source for that?
I know the cap increased. What were the other changes?
I'd like to read the actual rule changes, or better an analysis of it by someone who is a Lawyer.
Trump is a businessman through and through...
More of a salesman.
He was born rich, and hasn't actually done well in increasing his personal wealth. He just buys big to show off. Any actual increase in wealth, or prevention of decrease, would be due to a wealth management team who handles his actual investments.
If it is in my pocket, no Government authority has the Constitutional right to access it without my express permission, or actual probable cause.
Obama, why do you hate the US Constitution?
Exactly, and there's other apps too.
Dropbox was the worst battery hog I have ever seen. Constantly updating active folders and wasting battery and bandwidth.
There are other well-known reasons to not use Dropbox. (HINT: They index every file that passes through their system. And so many businesses share pre-Patent-Disclosure stuff for their projects there. Not to mention many other sensitive documents.)
My University has banned any and all Faculty use of DropBox for anything Uni-related.
The El in Chicago is LOUD. The Red Line and Blue Line especially, at least the parts underground. Maybe the Red gets quieter up North—I know the stop where he got on.
Outside the train, an over-passing El will stop conversation for a good 20 seconds or more. The Loop is quite loud, but the loudest stop is the Brown Line at Diversey. It's overhead, most of the support is painted steel, and there are brick buildings directly adjacent to the track on all four sides. It's a deafening echo-chamber.
The cell phone situation in London is much better, at least on the tube. Compared to Chicago's, that thing is VERY LOUD. The Regional trains, well, it's a mixed bag. But they do have a "Quiet Car" on many of the lines (no cell phones allowed).
I knew I should have filed for USPTO protection when I was proposing this back in 2007.
Ah well. There are too many good ideas, so one has to cull them at some point.
Critically important to handling multiple research projects, especially ones that stretch over a long period.