What's surprising? My sales for the last 3 years running have exceeded my annual reach goals and has brought in over 102 million dollars over that period. If there is any reason my employer keeps me, it is because I produce.
So you're a salesperson. Fine. Why insist that engineers be salespeople as well? And if you're NOT a salesperson, and you're selling, who's doing the engineering?
Believe me, there are a lot of people employed as engineers who should *never* be allowed to meet customers.
There used to be this concept called 'division of labor'. Some people were good at engineering, not so good at talking to customers. You hired them to do engineering. Some people were better at talking to customers, you hired them to do sales or marketing or some other customer-facing task. Now the standard line is that to get hired as an engineer you have to be able to do everything. Well, gee, boss, if I could do it all, what do I need you for? I'll start my own damn business.
At the same time, no one is demanding the salespeople troubleshoot network issues or write code.
The record industry executives immediately pointed out that they HAVE no souls of their own, and would the company accept souls they had collected from musicians and filesharers? They were told in no uncertain terms that third party souls would NOT be accepted.
The tracking devices of choice today are cellphones. With built-in GPS (with easy law enforcement override if you shut it off), and procedures from all the major carriers for law enforcement tracking--it's a no-brainer.
Yeah, but it's so much of a no-brainer even criminals and terrorists can figure out to use prepaid phones.
Ideally, if they install one, they'll put it somewhere that you'll never see it. There are plenty of wonderful places to hide objects on cars. Ask any mechanic if they've ever lost a tool in a car. If they say "no", they haven't been doing the job very long, or they're lying. Those are just the places that things can fall to.
Plenty. But a lot of them aren't so good for a tracking device which must get GPS input. Lots of wonderful places to lose hardware and tools under the engine and accessories will simply have no GPS reception, for instance. Similarly for most places in the passenger compartment unless it's a convertible; a metal roof is effective at blocking GPS signals.
Under the bumper cover is a good choice for a battery powered device. It's often reachable (though not visible) from the outside, and the plastic doesn't attenuate GPS much. Under the dash among the instruments is another good spot, but accessible only from the inside. I'm sure there are others.
Um, that's the case with ALL the patents Slashdot has covered. Everybody cries 'obvious' when they oversimplify the task, nobody cites elements of the patent and says 'prior art!'
Yes, we do. For instance, I did exactly that with a patent which covered gaming techniques which netrek had included years before.
One problem is that one need merely make one minor variation for a patent to not be covered by prior art. You'd think that the patent would then be totally hemmed in by the prior art and cover only the one specific implementation, but that's not how it works; once the patent is granted it stands on its own, and the patent holders use the doctrine of equivalents to basically bypass the restriction.
I wonder if, as a more tangible example, you could get away with patenting space elevators and launch loops.
Try to patent space elevators and the ghost of Arthur C. Clarke will haunt you forever. And he'll bring references to all the work which went before his. Keith Lofstrom is still alive so he will not be able to do similar about launch loops.
But today, we have companies who have the ability to patent "pull-down menus" or whatever other lame-ass, self-evident idea that comes their way.
My favorite was one of Apple's, which described a typical GUI with hierarchical menus, "on a limited resource computing device". Evidentally "forgetting" that the "limited resource computing device" in question was a lot less limited in resources than an Apple//gs or an early Mac.
That can happen here too; we call it "Eminent Domain". The thing is that one needs the local gummint in one's pocket. Sounds like Apple didn't have it or didn't want to use it.
The local government probably cost more than $1.7 million, and doing it that way would have taken longer.
Mine is 1) Walk two blocks to the bus stop 2) Ride the bus for 15 minutes 3) Take the train for 45 minutes 4) Walk 15 blocks (3/4 mile)
I can also take a subway instead of walking the last two blocks, but it's costly. Can't drive to the train station because the wait for a parking permit is more than 5 years.
allowing people to have all of the safety and free time benefits of riding the bus or subway without the efficiency or social stigma of... riding the bus or subway
The problem isn't social stigma. The main problem is mass transit takes you not from where you are to where you want to be, but rather from where you aren't to where you don't want to go. And often, not when you want to.
Miniaturized relays are interesting, but an inverter which operates at 0.0005 Ghz is less interesting. Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing this replace electronics anytime soon. (well, except in lithium battery microcontrollers:-) ). Although it would be interesting technology for a steampunk novel.
The drug trade's pretty violent right now, and the theory is that legalizing marijuana will undercut the cartels, forcing them to calm down and act like legitimate businesspeople instead of terrorists.
Key word, of course, is "act". If it becomes bad for business to act like terrorists, they likely will cease doing so, even if they're the same sociopathic thugs they've always been. They're not ideologically or religiously motivated, after all; they're just in it for money.
I have my doubts about this theory (it's not like the 21st Amendment magically got rid of organized crime in the U.S.), but it's not WTF-worthy.
We had drugs just about ready and waiting for organized crime to move into. Get rid of drug laws (by which I mean legalizing use and sale for all the major categories of recreational drugs, including opiates, cocaine, and amphetamines, and keeping any taxes on same reasonable) and you'll push organized crime back to their roots as protection rackets and smugglers. Which won't eliminate them but should reduce their reach.
(For a creature with a generational reproductive rate of about a month or two to take over 30 years to become a problem requires a bit more evidence than 'blame'.)
It's not just DDT. A lot of effective pesticides have been banned and/or regulated into ineffectiveness. While the bedbugs are dining on you, the termites are feasting on your home's structural members, thanks to the chlordane ban. Chlordane kills bedbugs too, and it's quite persistent, so the 1988 ban may well have something to do with the recent resurgence.
I was in a store recently, and my eye caught a cheap DECT phone, and I was thinking of buying it, but decided I should research DECT first. Turns out it has weak encryption which has already been broken. So, you should just throw that phone away anyhow. *grin* Well, at least, don't use it for any sensitive communications.
If you've got enemies sophisticated enough to break the encryption, you probably should stick to either corded phones or a whole-house faraday cage. Because an enemy sophisticated enough to break the encryption is probably sophisticated enough to pick up the incidentally radiated conversation in the clear.
Better yet, end-to-end strong encryption. Because picking up the conversation in the clear off the phone line isn't hard either, if you don't have FTTH.
I'm not questioning that it happens, but it seems more likely to be
1) legitimate claims where BMI-licensed music was played in a place without a license, and they legitimately need to pay (according to law, not me) 2) a number of anecdotes of intimidation without any actual legal action, where either nothing happens or the owner gives up
Businesses shut themselves down out of ignorance. BMI and ASCAP are some shady bastards who need to be beaten with pillows until bruised at the very least, but business does this to itself.
If you put a gun to someone's head and tell them they can jump off a building or you'll shoot them in the head, and they jump and are injured, they have not done it to themselves.
After we paid once, ASCAP came sniffing around for more money. They assume they are underbilling and you're guilty of underpaying.
"And that is called paying the Dane-geld; but we've proved it again and again, that if once you have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane. " -- Rudyard Kipling
At least Liu Xiaobo did more to earn his Nobel Peace Prize then just not being Bush.
Heh, that was my thought too... I couldn't figure out why the Chinese government wouldn't want people to find out that Liu Xiaobo wasn't George W. Bush. I mean, surely, they knew that already.
If I found one on my car I don't know if I'd disassemble it just for the heck of it, drop it on a road and run it over, or stick it on someone else's car.
My most evil thought would be to cause it to fall off my car in one of the New York/New Jersey tunnels. "FBI tracker bomb scare shuts down Lincoln Tunnel for hours"....
I don't understand that mentality of the business world toward IT/IS employees. Don't they want to keep the people around who have product knowledge and a history at the company?
No, because engineers are interchangeable monkeys. At least to management's eyes.
Why don't they give raises?
Because they don't have to. It's certainly been true since I started working that the best way to increase your salary was to move to another company.
Also, unlike many other categories of employees, engineers are unlikely to ask for a raise, and if they do, they're unlikely to be able to get past the usual standard refusals.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the NSA only has two words in their entry on /.: Mostly harmless.
So you're a salesperson. Fine. Why insist that engineers be salespeople as well? And if you're NOT a salesperson, and you're selling, who's doing the engineering?
There used to be this concept called 'division of labor'. Some people were good at engineering, not so good at talking to customers. You hired them to do engineering. Some people were better at talking to customers, you hired them to do sales or marketing or some other customer-facing task. Now the standard line is that to get hired as an engineer you have to be able to do everything. Well, gee, boss, if I could do it all, what do I need you for? I'll start my own damn business.
At the same time, no one is demanding the salespeople troubleshoot network issues or write code.
...was set at THEIR SOULS.
The record industry executives immediately pointed out that they HAVE no souls of their own, and would the company accept souls they had collected from musicians and filesharers? They were told in no uncertain terms that third party souls would NOT be accepted.
Yeah, but it's so much of a no-brainer even criminals and terrorists can figure out to use prepaid phones.
Plenty. But a lot of them aren't so good for a tracking device which must get GPS input. Lots of wonderful places to lose hardware and tools under the engine and accessories will simply have no GPS reception, for instance. Similarly for most places in the passenger compartment unless it's a convertible; a metal roof is effective at blocking GPS signals. Under the bumper cover is a good choice for a battery powered device. It's often reachable (though not visible) from the outside, and the plastic doesn't attenuate GPS much. Under the dash among the instruments is another good spot, but accessible only from the inside. I'm sure there are others.
Some locksmiths will refuse to copy a key which says "DO NOT DUPLICATE". Others will ask if you want the copy stamped "DO NOT DUPLICATE" as well.
Yes, we do. For instance, I did exactly that with a patent which covered gaming techniques which netrek had included years before.
One problem is that one need merely make one minor variation for a patent to not be covered by prior art. You'd think that the patent would then be totally hemmed in by the prior art and cover only the one specific implementation, but that's not how it works; once the patent is granted it stands on its own, and the patent holders use the doctrine of equivalents to basically bypass the restriction.
Try to patent space elevators and the ghost of Arthur C. Clarke will haunt you forever. And he'll bring references to all the work which went before his. Keith Lofstrom is still alive so he will not be able to do similar about launch loops.
Because the super powers only help with the first part.
My favorite was one of Apple's, which described a typical GUI with hierarchical menus, "on a limited resource computing device". Evidentally "forgetting" that the "limited resource computing device" in question was a lot less limited in resources than an Apple //gs or an early Mac.
Not on sale of your primary residence. It's tax free. (though there might be a cap on that, I don't know)
The local government probably cost more than $1.7 million, and doing it that way would have taken longer.
Mine is
1) Walk two blocks to the bus stop
2) Ride the bus for 15 minutes
3) Take the train for 45 minutes
4) Walk 15 blocks (3/4 mile)
I can also take a subway instead of walking the last two blocks, but it's costly. Can't drive to the train station because the wait for a parking permit is more than 5 years.
Net road miles travelled: 17.
The problem isn't social stigma. The main problem is mass transit takes you not from where you are to where you want to be, but rather from where you aren't to where you don't want to go. And often, not when you want to.
Uh, TFA is referring to a logic inverter, not that kind of inverter.
Although a miniaturized electromechanical SMPS would be interesting.
Sniper fire from a .38 Special revolver? Not likely. Doesn't even sound similar.
It's more likely they fired because they were ordered to.
Miniaturized relays are interesting, but an inverter which operates at 0.0005 Ghz is less interesting. Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing this replace electronics anytime soon. (well, except in lithium battery microcontrollers :-) ). Although it would be interesting technology for a steampunk novel.
Key word, of course, is "act". If it becomes bad for business to act like terrorists, they likely will cease doing so, even if they're the same sociopathic thugs they've always been. They're not ideologically or religiously motivated, after all; they're just in it for money.
We had drugs just about ready and waiting for organized crime to move into. Get rid of drug laws (by which I mean legalizing use and sale for all the major categories of recreational drugs, including opiates, cocaine, and amphetamines, and keeping any taxes on same reasonable) and you'll push organized crime back to their roots as protection rackets and smugglers. Which won't eliminate them but should reduce their reach.
It's not just DDT. A lot of effective pesticides have been banned and/or regulated into ineffectiveness. While the bedbugs are dining on you, the termites are feasting on your home's structural members, thanks to the chlordane ban. Chlordane kills bedbugs too, and it's quite persistent, so the 1988 ban may well have something to do with the recent resurgence.
If you've got enemies sophisticated enough to break the encryption, you probably should stick to either corded phones or a whole-house faraday cage. Because an enemy sophisticated enough to break the encryption is probably sophisticated enough to pick up the incidentally radiated conversation in the clear.
Better yet, end-to-end strong encryption. Because picking up the conversation in the clear off the phone line isn't hard either, if you don't have FTTH.
If you put a gun to someone's head and tell them they can jump off a building or you'll shoot them in the head, and they jump and are injured, they have not done it to themselves.
"And that is called paying the Dane-geld; but we've proved it again and again, that if once you have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane. " -- Rudyard Kipling
Heh, that was my thought too... I couldn't figure out why the Chinese government wouldn't want people to find out that Liu Xiaobo wasn't George W. Bush. I mean, surely, they knew that already.
If I found one on my car I don't know if I'd disassemble it just for the heck of it, drop it on a road and run it over, or stick it on someone else's car.
My most evil thought would be to cause it to fall off my car in one of the New York/New Jersey tunnels. "FBI tracker bomb scare shuts down Lincoln Tunnel for hours"....
No, because engineers are interchangeable monkeys. At least to management's eyes.
Because they don't have to. It's certainly been true since I started working that the best way to increase your salary was to move to another company.
Also, unlike many other categories of employees, engineers are unlikely to ask for a raise, and if they do, they're unlikely to be able to get past the usual standard refusals.