That was a better approach when people worked a full career with one company. These days, the only companies that survive that long are the parasitic ones, and those tend to absorb the symbiotic ones...
In all likelihood, the old system is primarily suffering from the complexity of many thousands of modifications that make it hard to maintain with current changes needed, as the original coders have (I'm sure) long since retired. The COBOL is not bad in and of itself, but code maintenance in the face of new requirements is probably a pretty big issue.
They just won't be having any fun, and will have to keep a lower profile this year unless their goal is to literally destroy the event. Which is a distinct possibility. The threat this poses to our freedom of association is more deeply concerning to me than any specifics of what they might do.
I'm not saying that you're wrong in spirit, but I don't know that in practice there are many other agencies that can get away with the procurement policies that lead to spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a simple hammer or toilet seat. And that's not even counting the other policies that force their contractors to inflate prices just to comply with policy. Someone once told me about a bad policy that mandated a specific and subpar method for applying a decal which resulted in something like an 80% failure rate for the application of said decal. There's a reason that such situations inflate the charges given to military contracts compared to what anyone else would be charged.
Quite so. It's necessary to understand that to accomplish what you want, you have to involve the right people and give them what they need, and take their word for it when they tell you what they need.
a billion dollars to replace an antiquated program and the project fails. This is why our military is the most expensive in the world, and why I've argued for years that comparing military spending between nations is only apples to apples if each nation is competently spending what they are given.
The problem with the way our automotive industry is regulated is that it mandates so many specifics that many new developments are basically a bad investment for manufacturers. And it's not just limited to automotive.
Boeing had to submit requests for all kinds of exemptions for its 787, having to explain why requirements that assume a metallic fuselage were not relevant to the composites used in their new jet.
Similarly, I see all sorts of vehicles which are allegedly non-road that upon a quick smell test reveal themselves to be every bit as much of a car as any other. They don't call them cars, of course, that would make them illegal. Sooner or later, we must as a society step back and decide if all these well-meaning regulations are what we really want.
The superiority of a drone is in its cheap and disposable nature. You can develop all the stealth planes you want, but when it comes down to it, isn't it just easier to overwhelm an enemy with quantity?
Sure, a handful of fighters would be useful for escorting questionable aircraft (hijackings/airspace violations/radio failure) where destroying a target was not necessary, but even our forty-year-old designs can handle that. Dogfights are obsolete, and the idea that we need the vehicle for carrying bombs or performing surveilance to actually get home is pretty much nonsense at this point.
It's hard for me to be this objective as an avgeek myself, but honestly, I can't justify developing new generations of aircraft that we just don't need and exist only to boost the Air Force's egos.
I see all these posts on here attacking OSC and it's clear to me that he's a target of convenience for certain political views, but in the end, he's of no significant consequence. Sure, he's loud, but he's preaching to the choir. Those who agree with him will nod, and those who disagree will yell.
The MPAA, on the other hand, has the ear of lawmakers, law enforcement, treaty-signers, and judges.
This is one of the most level-headed posts I've seen in this thread. Thank you.
Personally, I have repeatedly tried to enjoy his books, and with the exception of Ender's Game, I always finish the book wondering why I finished it. But I'll see Ender's Game, like most movies I see, once it's on Netflix or TV.
I'm sorry if you misunderstood my meaning. It's not the workers I'm calling lazy. It's the government bureaucracy and their methods for dealing with problems that I'm calling lazy.
I basically believe the information presented here, but the source could be anyone. It could be a complete work of fiction, and even if that is the case, it may still all be accurate. If someone asked me to come up with a laundry list of things that in all likelihood the feds have, I'd have easily come up with everything listed here.
While I agree with you regarding primaries, even with earnest effort, many primaries are too corrupt for it to work. This isn't to discourage the effort, of course. It's just a reminder that if you want primaries to work, you've got to get a lot of people interested enough. Otherwise, the cronies and sock puppets still win.
You make a lot of interesting points here, I was never much of a note-taker. I have always found such multitasking difficult and end up missing half the meeting/lecture and the notes are effectively useless as a result. But I can see where you're coming from. Now, this on the other hand:
The grammar/spelling correction features of this pen don't sound that useful for me, since when I want prefect writing, I use a computer.
when I saw the first part of the blurb, I thought, "the least they could do is publicize the security hole by announcing the zombie apocalypse." Guess they beat me to the punch.
Believe me, I'm as un-thrilled as you are, but it is what it is. If you give your information to Google, you're a fool to assume Google doesn't know what you told Google.
Slashdot Mirror
That was a better approach when people worked a full career with one company. These days, the only companies that survive that long are the parasitic ones, and those tend to absorb the symbiotic ones...
In all likelihood, the old system is primarily suffering from the complexity of many thousands of modifications that make it hard to maintain with current changes needed, as the original coders have (I'm sure) long since retired. The COBOL is not bad in and of itself, but code maintenance in the face of new requirements is probably a pretty big issue.
They just won't be having any fun, and will have to keep a lower profile this year unless their goal is to literally destroy the event. Which is a distinct possibility. The threat this poses to our freedom of association is more deeply concerning to me than any specifics of what they might do.
I'm not saying that you're wrong in spirit, but I don't know that in practice there are many other agencies that can get away with the procurement policies that lead to spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a simple hammer or toilet seat. And that's not even counting the other policies that force their contractors to inflate prices just to comply with policy. Someone once told me about a bad policy that mandated a specific and subpar method for applying a decal which resulted in something like an 80% failure rate for the application of said decal. There's a reason that such situations inflate the charges given to military contracts compared to what anyone else would be charged.
Percentagewise, that's still a ridiculous amount of waste.
Quite so. It's necessary to understand that to accomplish what you want, you have to involve the right people and give them what they need, and take their word for it when they tell you what they need.
It's pretty much the only way. push through and pull off the unreasonable, especially repeatedly, and you just poison your own future.
a billion dollars to replace an antiquated program and the project fails. This is why our military is the most expensive in the world, and why I've argued for years that comparing military spending between nations is only apples to apples if each nation is competently spending what they are given.
They might find the lack of communications coming from those locations to indicate suspicious activity...
The problem with the way our automotive industry is regulated is that it mandates so many specifics that many new developments are basically a bad investment for manufacturers. And it's not just limited to automotive.
Boeing had to submit requests for all kinds of exemptions for its 787, having to explain why requirements that assume a metallic fuselage were not relevant to the composites used in their new jet.
Similarly, I see all sorts of vehicles which are allegedly non-road that upon a quick smell test reveal themselves to be every bit as much of a car as any other. They don't call them cars, of course, that would make them illegal. Sooner or later, we must as a society step back and decide if all these well-meaning regulations are what we really want.
The superiority of a drone is in its cheap and disposable nature. You can develop all the stealth planes you want, but when it comes down to it, isn't it just easier to overwhelm an enemy with quantity?
Sure, a handful of fighters would be useful for escorting questionable aircraft (hijackings/airspace violations/radio failure) where destroying a target was not necessary, but even our forty-year-old designs can handle that. Dogfights are obsolete, and the idea that we need the vehicle for carrying bombs or performing surveilance to actually get home is pretty much nonsense at this point.
It's hard for me to be this objective as an avgeek myself, but honestly, I can't justify developing new generations of aircraft that we just don't need and exist only to boost the Air Force's egos.
I tried, I genuinely did. It suffered from what most Linux desktops do. Mediocrity. There was nothing about it that I actually liked.
It always feels to me as if the teams finish what they want for themselves and then just stop trying.
For me, the enemy is the MPAA.
I see all these posts on here attacking OSC and it's clear to me that he's a target of convenience for certain political views, but in the end, he's of no significant consequence. Sure, he's loud, but he's preaching to the choir. Those who agree with him will nod, and those who disagree will yell.
The MPAA, on the other hand, has the ear of lawmakers, law enforcement, treaty-signers, and judges.
This is one of the most level-headed posts I've seen in this thread. Thank you.
Personally, I have repeatedly tried to enjoy his books, and with the exception of Ender's Game, I always finish the book wondering why I finished it. But I'll see Ender's Game, like most movies I see, once it's on Netflix or TV.
you don't succeed as a novelist by being unable to see where things are headed.
I'm sorry if you misunderstood my meaning. It's not the workers I'm calling lazy. It's the government bureaucracy and their methods for dealing with problems that I'm calling lazy.
I basically believe the information presented here, but the source could be anyone. It could be a complete work of fiction, and even if that is the case, it may still all be accurate. If someone asked me to come up with a laundry list of things that in all likelihood the feds have, I'd have easily come up with everything listed here.
While I agree with you regarding primaries, even with earnest effort, many primaries are too corrupt for it to work. This isn't to discourage the effort, of course. It's just a reminder that if you want primaries to work, you've got to get a lot of people interested enough. Otherwise, the cronies and sock puppets still win.
I'll forward your remarks to some veteran friends of mine. I'm sure they could use a good laugh.
No, the sensible party doesn't stand a chance. We only elect Republicans and Democrats to the presidency these days.
Sometimes, but given who "in house" would be in this case, they might be better off with a group of enthusiastic 13-year-olds.
but this is just lack of effort.
You make a lot of interesting points here, I was never much of a note-taker. I have always found such multitasking difficult and end up missing half the meeting/lecture and the notes are effectively useless as a result. But I can see where you're coming from. Now, this on the other hand:
I can't help with that one ^_^
when I saw the first part of the blurb, I thought, "the least they could do is publicize the security hole by announcing the zombie apocalypse." Guess they beat me to the punch.
Believe me, I'm as un-thrilled as you are, but it is what it is. If you give your information to Google, you're a fool to assume Google doesn't know what you told Google.