Yes, those SF dot-commers with more money than brains. The awful, evil, totalitarian "tolerant, open-minded" SF stuporvisors won't them ride their overpriced toy on the sidewalks. Boo hoo.
On my final project for the weed-out^H^H^H^H^H^H^H introductory programming course at my old school, a couple of times I would get something to work, then say, "why did I do that?" Inevitably, I would bollocks it up, then spend hours putting it back right by the same seemingly odd method I used to get it to work originally. Finally, I'd just write this comment:
argc = 1;/*Makes sure program does not repeatedly load saved game. Don't fuck with this line.*/
And the often hysterical denunciations coming from the corporate world of the techie work culture at the time shows how seriously the suits take this threat to their power . . .
You hit the nail squarely on the head. Especially in the tech sector, much of the outsourcing and importing of workers isn't about wanting cheap labor. It's about a lust for power and control. Despite the rhetoric of the HR flacks, most companies aren't interested in smart, creative, individualistic people. In most large companies, you get along by going along. Truly, the nail that stands up is hammered down. Groupthink and mediocrity are encouraged. Smart, creative people are denounced as "HR issues" or "not a team player."
Now, keep in mind the conditions H1Bs labor under. If they quit or are fired, they have ten (10) days to find a new job. Failing that, they must leave the country for some months or years. H1Bs, then, are a PHBs dream - the boss has got 'em cheap, but most important, the boss has them by the balls. "If you don't go along with the program, you go back to the shithole from whence you came."
For my chosen profession, law, where you went to school makes all the difference in the world - and it matters not a hill of beans.
If your goal is to end up on the U.S. Supreme Court, well, five of the nine current justices went to Harvard Law (Darth Bader graduated from Columbia but went to Harvard), two went to Stanford, and the other two went to Northwestern and Yale. Roughly the same goes for most federal district and appellate judges.
Want to work for Bill's daddy at the 213-attorney Seattle home office of Preston, Gates and Ellis? Ask yourself, where do they do on-campus interviews? Aside from the local schools (Seattle U. and the Universities of Washington and Oregon), PG&E recruits from Bezerkely, Columbia, U of Chicago, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, NYU, Penn, Stanford, UVA, and Yale. Only about a third of their hires come from the local schools, and most of those are from the ultra-super-mega-hyper-prestigious (just ask 'em, they'll tell ya) UW. In other words, your chances of being hired by them are about zero if you did not attend any of those schools - and this firm is based in Seattle. I would submit that most large law firms have similar hiring practices.
Before giving up hope, though, consider what it's like to work there. Sure, the pay is good and the resources are near infinite, but the hours are long - 100 hour weeks are the norm rather than the exception. What are you doing then, practicing real law, representing real clients? Hardly. Most of the work involved is adding a few more zeroes to the end of some already-obscenely-wealthy white guy's bottom line. Finally, the careers there are generally quite short - a select few make partner, but most are cut loose after a few years.
Okay, so what's a young non-Ivy JD grad to do? Practice real law, of course. Represent ordinary people in real-world disputes and actually go to court once in awhile. Most attorneys make their living this way and their clients don't much care where they went to law school.
In sum, the black-and-white answer is that there is no black-and-white answer.
Indeed. One of our thanksgiving rituals in my family is to get a whole bunch of firearms and shoot up some targets. I don't even have to think about it anymore... my finger isn't on the trigger when I'm not ready for the rifle to fire.
Dayam! I know where I'm going for Thanksgiving next year.:)
Indexing gets to be a habit after awhile. On a pistol, all you have to do is snap your finger down and you're on the trigger anyway.
Oh, and a friend brought over his Thomson submachine gun... complete with drum magazine... wow that was fun to shoot. It's heavy... I can see why guys like Al Capone would fire it from the hip.
Lucky bastard! Even more so if it was full auto. If so, hope your friend has Class III paperwork on it. How many rounds in that drum mag?
Drill sergeants never like to make that distinction, though, and you're better off just calling them all weapons, to avoid unnecessary push-ups.
Drill sergeants don't like to make many distinctions, now do they?:) I've often wondered if there's a section called "How to Torture Unsuspecting Privates" in Drill Sergeant School. I swear, one of my drill sergeants could say it in one word - DROPSONBEATCHAFACE!
Trouble is, if you get tripped up on weapon vs. gun, you have to chant "this is my rifle, this is my gun . . . " at the top of your lungs while doing the push-ups or, worse, the "Dying Cockroach." This is most disconcerting as your platoon mates will likely "volunteer" to join you." In that case, don't be surprised if they let you know they disapprove of your use of the term "gun."
If you're still on active duty, and get the chance, I strongly recommend the Unit Armorer's Course... Not that you want to be your Unit Armorer (the job sucks, and never passes command inspection with good marks) but the course sections on weapons is really nice.
I heard that. You couldn't pay me enough to be an armorer. Having to clean those bastards sucks already - and God help you if something, anything comes up missing. I can only imagine being an armorer during, say, a full-blown IG inspection. That's when you just pray his wife gave it to him last night. (Incidentally, my gunsmith wants $50 to clean my AR-15 to IG inspection standards.) I'd like to take the CJTC's Pistol Instructor's Course, but since I'm not affiliated with a law enforcement agency, that doesn't appear to be in the cards. Looks like I'll just have to settle for the NRA training.
What's your MOS? I was a 13F for 8 years up until earlier this month.
I'm not on active duty. [sigh] I was but a Weekend Warrior, a No-Go, one of the Nasty Guard. My MOS was 95B (Of the Troops, and For the Troops . . . riiiight! Truth is, MPs now are basically One-One Boogaloo, what with the government giving so many former military jobs to civilians. Don't get me started.) You seem to have gotten out after eight years, how come? And refresh my memory as to what 13F is - Bradley crewman? TOW gunner?
The problem is with slam-fire, and the fact that the firing pin in these rifles and similar models is "loose." The sudden stop of the bolt moving forward can cause firing pin to strike the primer with enough force that it can fire the round, a condition called "slam fire."
I didn't know that could actually cause a slam-fire. I suppose it could if, say, a primer was grossly defective. I am very familiar with the "loose" AR-15 firing pin. It's held in there with a cotter key and rattles between the 1/2" or so of slop in the "nail head" of the firing pin. I'm looking at the bolt carrier assembly from my personal AR-15 as I type this.
This is why Colt switched the firing pin from steel to titanium early on with the AR-15.
Yes, one of many design changes they had to make, along with the barrel twist, the bullet weight and type, and the powder. These design defects probably contributed to not a few names on "the Wall."
Note that this is an extremely rare event, and not something one needs to worry about!
Very true. Since this topic was about handguns, I was thinking of a handgun slam-fire scenario. I honestly can't think of one right off hand. You? You seem more knowledgeable about these things than I. However, I did read about a Glock slam-firing once, but I chalked that up to "one of those things you read on the Internet." Given the design, I really cannot see how that could happen.
If there is a defect that prevents complete chambering, and a "slam fire" occurs, the nasty explosion thing can happen, though it won't usually send shrapnel in your direction, just in the direction away from the ejection port.
Again, I was thinking of a handgun scenario. Firing any weapon not fully in battery can cause undesirable side effects. In this case, if the bolt doesn't lock all the way, you can get gas release and ka-blammo. That's why the same D.S. Hixon also drilled into my head not to forget the bolt retainer pin - the AR-15/M-16 will blow up if you forget that due to gas escaping past the bolt. That's also why you wear eye protection when exercising your Second Amendment rights, that and hot brass (I still have the scar from a brass-down-the-shirt incident.)
Now, I can tell you about catastrophic weapon failures... at Fort Drum we had a guy with some sand in the barrel of his M16. He squeezes the trigger for the first round when zeroing... KABOOOM! The rifle cracks all over the place, and this guy got one hell of a jolt. (but no injury.)
10th Mountain Div., huh?
Hope his sergeant wasn't standing next to this ate-up (sp?) when his weapon blew. Gack, think of the push-ups!
I know exactly what you're talking about - sand caused the bullet to squib out. A variation of this causes the Glock kB! Lead, i.e., non-jacketed bare lead, ammo galls up the octagonal rifling in Glock barrels. This is why Glock warns against using lead ammo in their pistols - it has nothing to do with reloading. (It should be noted that tests showed the weapon didn't fail until chamber pressure > 90,000 PSI, or almost 3x design maximum, a testament to Herr Glock's over-engineering.)
The soldier got an article 15 for failing to maintain his equipment.
If not a field grade Article 15, he got off light. I'll bet he had to sign a Statement of Charges for the weapon on top of the loss of a stripe/pay and a month or so of "extra duty" (read: KP.)
I REALLY shouldn't feed this troll, but here goes . . .
What defect would cause such a "misload"? What do you mean by a "misload," anyway? The round not chambering? What would the bolt hit to cause this "nasty explosion"?
Rule #3: Keep your finger OFF the trigger until you're on target and ready to fire. I had to say this because I just finished watching a cop show where these guys run around with their fingers on the trigger all the time. Idiots!
It should be noted that most ammo manufacturing defects, rare as they are, involve things like bad primers or inadequate powder charges (e.g., squib loads.) In other words, defective ammo will likely render your weapon (Drill Sergeant Hixon very quickly taught me not to call it a "gun") inoperative. I cannot think of a scenario where defective ammo would result in an accidental discharge.
The same is generally true for the weapons themselves, particularly in a design like the [PLUG] Glock, [/PLUG] but true for nearly any reputable modern firearm (yes, even the "dangerous" M1911 - see #3 above.)
No, Southwest shows that Americans like freedom of choice. When I fly Southwest, if I don't want to sit next to some sweaty 400-pounder who hasn't bathed in a month, I don't have to. If some woman with a litter of bratty, ill-mannered, obviously undisciplined "because-we-don't-believe-in-striking-children" screaming brats sits down next to me, I can (and do) move.
Friend, if it's so horrible, fly somebody else! There are lots of airlines out there that offer assigned seating.
Some years ago, there was talk of Boeing selling the Commercial Airplane Group and just concentrating on defense contracts. That would be appropriate because, let's face it, Boeing is hardly a lean, mean, corporate machine. To the contrary, Boeing is basically a government agency and it's run like one.
That was supposed to read, "a modicum of intellectual honesty." Maybe I shouldn't type before I think.:)
And I'd say the same thing to the dimwit who leaked MS secretsa as I did to this boob: "You screwed up pal. Big time."
Agreed, except that I would also ask this putz whether or not his mama taught him to read something before he signs it.
Sure, the Anti-Micro$h!t Linux-Uber-Alles geeks might rant like mad, but they are also taking Apple to task for this right now.
I disagree. A lot of the posts are defending Apple. Be that as it may, my point is they would not be so quick to defend similar conduct by/.'s justifiably favorite whipping boy, Microsoft. Many of those people believe Apple to be as pure as the driven snow when their actions show that such is not the case by any stretch of the imagination. Let's face it, Apple's history of Gatesian behavior out-Gateses Gates.
Which is the only Amazon.bomb is going to make a dime. This is a desperation move - Wal-Mart is the about the only profitable retailer in this economy, Jeff sees the writing on the wall, the game is almost up. People aren't buying his funny money^W^Wstock anymore, so maybe he can force them to buy his technology. This is the last gasp of a failed businessman in a business he can't make money in.
Not only is Apple a failed Microsoft, Apple owes it very existence, and lil' Stevie his paltry $372 million annual paycheck to Microsoft, a fact forgotten by most of/.'s Macaholics.
Steve Jobs, who still can't market his way out of a wet paper sack, had five years ago run Apple into the ground a second time.
Had the evil, hated Microsoft not bailed them out, Apple would have gone Chapter 11 and been chopped up. Having put Apple through two near-death experiences, Jobs now makes a paltry $372 million a year on top of the $90 million Gulfstream the board gave him. Nice work, if you can get it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, those SF dot-commers with more money than brains. The awful, evil, totalitarian "tolerant, open-minded" SF stuporvisors won't them ride their overpriced toy on the sidewalks. Boo hoo.
On my final project for the weed-out^H^H^H^H^H^H^H introductory programming course at my old school, a couple of times I would get something to work, then say, "why did I do that?" Inevitably, I would bollocks it up, then spend hours putting it back right by the same seemingly odd method I used to get it to work originally. Finally, I'd just write this comment:
Quoth the poster:
And the often hysterical denunciations coming from the corporate world of the techie work culture at the time shows how seriously the suits take this threat to their power . . .
You hit the nail squarely on the head. Especially in the tech sector, much of the outsourcing and importing of workers isn't about wanting cheap labor. It's about a lust for power and control. Despite the rhetoric of the HR flacks, most companies aren't interested in smart, creative, individualistic people. In most large companies, you get along by going along. Truly, the nail that stands up is hammered down. Groupthink and mediocrity are encouraged. Smart, creative people are denounced as "HR issues" or "not a team player."
Now, keep in mind the conditions H1Bs labor under. If they quit or are fired, they have ten (10) days to find a new job. Failing that, they must leave the country for some months or years. H1Bs, then, are a PHBs dream - the boss has got 'em cheap, but most important, the boss has them by the balls. "If you don't go along with the program, you go back to the shithole from whence you came."
For my chosen profession, law, where you went to school makes all the difference in the world - and it matters not a hill of beans.
If your goal is to end up on the U.S. Supreme Court, well, five of the nine current justices went to Harvard Law (Darth Bader graduated from Columbia but went to Harvard), two went to Stanford, and the other two went to Northwestern and Yale. Roughly the same goes for most federal district and appellate judges.
Want to work for Bill's daddy at the 213-attorney Seattle home office of Preston, Gates and Ellis? Ask yourself, where do they do on-campus interviews? Aside from the local schools (Seattle U. and the Universities of Washington and Oregon), PG&E recruits from Bezerkely, Columbia, U of Chicago, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, NYU, Penn, Stanford, UVA, and Yale. Only about a third of their hires come from the local schools, and most of those are from the ultra-super-mega-hyper-prestigious (just ask 'em, they'll tell ya) UW. In other words, your chances of being hired by them are about zero if you did not attend any of those schools - and this firm is based in Seattle. I would submit that most large law firms have similar hiring practices.
Before giving up hope, though, consider what it's like to work there. Sure, the pay is good and the resources are near infinite, but the hours are long - 100 hour weeks are the norm rather than the exception. What are you doing then, practicing real law, representing real clients? Hardly. Most of the work involved is adding a few more zeroes to the end of some already-obscenely-wealthy white guy's bottom line. Finally, the careers there are generally quite short - a select few make partner, but most are cut loose after a few years.
Okay, so what's a young non-Ivy JD grad to do? Practice real law, of course. Represent ordinary people in real-world disputes and actually go to court once in awhile. Most attorneys make their living this way and their clients don't much care where they went to law school.
In sum, the black-and-white answer is that there is no black-and-white answer.
A computer-science professor in California has statistics to show that programmers have careers not much longer than pro-football players.
Putting aside the issue of programmers versus engineers, Professor Norm Matloff finally gets some credit, albeit indirectly, on the /. homepage.
This is not legal advice. You are not a client. I am not an attorney.
The real question is, what has happened? Have you gotten a letter in the mail? Have you been served with papers?
Nice for home defense, but try carrying a shotgun on your hip while you run errants.
SHIT! I really shouldn't post this late.
Indeed. One of our thanksgiving rituals in my family is to get a whole bunch of firearms and shoot up some targets. I don't even have to think about it anymore... my finger isn't on the trigger when I'm not ready for the rifle to fire.
Dayam! I know where I'm going for Thanksgiving next year. :)
Indexing gets to be a habit after awhile. On a pistol, all you have to do is snap your finger down and you're on the trigger anyway.
Oh, and a friend brought over his Thomson submachine gun... complete with drum magazine... wow that was fun to shoot. It's heavy... I can see why guys like Al Capone would fire it from the hip.
Lucky bastard! Even more so if it was full auto. If so, hope your friend has Class III paperwork on it. How many rounds in that drum mag?
Drill sergeants never like to make that distinction, though, and you're better off just calling them all weapons, to avoid unnecessary push-ups.
Drill sergeants don't like to make many distinctions, now do they? :) I've often wondered if there's a section called "How to Torture Unsuspecting Privates" in Drill Sergeant School. I swear, one of my drill sergeants could say it in one word - DROPSONBEATCHAFACE!
Trouble is, if you get tripped up on weapon vs. gun, you have to chant "this is my rifle, this is my gun . . . " at the top of your lungs while doing the push-ups or, worse, the "Dying Cockroach." This is most disconcerting as your platoon mates will likely "volunteer" to join you." In that case, don't be surprised if they let you know they disapprove of your use of the term "gun."
If you're still on active duty, and get the chance, I strongly recommend the Unit Armorer's Course... Not that you want to be your Unit Armorer (the job sucks, and never passes command inspection with good marks) but the course sections on weapons is really nice.
I heard that. You couldn't pay me enough to be an armorer. Having to clean those bastards sucks already - and God help you if something, anything comes up missing. I can only imagine being an armorer during, say, a full-blown IG inspection. That's when you just pray his wife gave it to him last night. (Incidentally, my gunsmith wants $50 to clean my AR-15 to IG inspection standards.) I'd like to take the CJTC's Pistol Instructor's Course, but since I'm not affiliated with a law enforcement agency, that doesn't appear to be in the cards. Looks like I'll just have to settle for the NRA training.
What's your MOS? I was a 13F for 8 years up until earlier this month.
I'm not on active duty. [sigh] I was but a Weekend Warrior, a No-Go, one of the Nasty Guard. My MOS was 95B (Of the Troops, and For the Troops . . . riiiight! Truth is, MPs now are basically One-One Boogaloo, what with the government giving so many former military jobs to civilians. Don't get me started.) You seem to have gotten out after eight years, how come? And refresh my memory as to what 13F is - Bradley crewman? TOW gunner?
The problem is with slam-fire, and the fact that the firing pin in these rifles and similar models is "loose." The sudden stop of the bolt moving forward can cause firing pin to strike the primer with enough force that it can fire the round, a condition called "slam fire."
I didn't know that could actually cause a slam-fire. I suppose it could if, say, a primer was grossly defective. I am very familiar with the "loose" AR-15 firing pin. It's held in there with a cotter key and rattles between the 1/2" or so of slop in the "nail head" of the firing pin. I'm looking at the bolt carrier assembly from my personal AR-15 as I type this.
This is why Colt switched the firing pin from steel to titanium early on with the AR-15.
Yes, one of many design changes they had to make, along with the barrel twist, the bullet weight and type, and the powder. These design defects probably contributed to not a few names on "the Wall."
Note that this is an extremely rare event, and not something one needs to worry about!
Very true. Since this topic was about handguns, I was thinking of a handgun slam-fire scenario. I honestly can't think of one right off hand. You? You seem more knowledgeable about these things than I. However, I did read about a Glock slam-firing once, but I chalked that up to "one of those things you read on the Internet." Given the design, I really cannot see how that could happen.
If there is a defect that prevents complete chambering, and a "slam fire" occurs, the nasty explosion thing can happen, though it won't usually send shrapnel in your direction, just in the direction away from the ejection port.
Again, I was thinking of a handgun scenario. Firing any weapon not fully in battery can cause undesirable side effects. In this case, if the bolt doesn't lock all the way, you can get gas release and ka-blammo. That's why the same D.S. Hixon also drilled into my head not to forget the bolt retainer pin - the AR-15/M-16 will blow up if you forget that due to gas escaping past the bolt. That's also why you wear eye protection when exercising your Second Amendment rights, that and hot brass (I still have the scar from a brass-down-the-shirt incident.)
Now, I can tell you about catastrophic weapon failures... at Fort Drum we had a guy with some sand in the barrel of his M16. He squeezes the trigger for the first round when zeroing... KABOOOM! The rifle cracks all over the place, and this guy got one hell of a jolt. (but no injury.)
10th Mountain Div., huh?
Hope his sergeant wasn't standing next to this ate-up (sp?) when his weapon blew. Gack, think of the push-ups!
I know exactly what you're talking about - sand caused the bullet to squib out. A variation of this causes the Glock kB! Lead, i.e., non-jacketed bare lead, ammo galls up the octagonal rifling in Glock barrels. This is why Glock warns against using lead ammo in their pistols - it has nothing to do with reloading. (It should be noted that tests showed the weapon didn't fail until chamber pressure > 90,000 PSI, or almost 3x design maximum, a testament to Herr Glock's over-engineering.)
The soldier got an article 15 for failing to maintain his equipment.
If not a field grade Article 15, he got off light. I'll bet he had to sign a Statement of Charges for the weapon on top of the loss of a stripe/pay and a month or so of "extra duty" (read: KP.)
Nice for home defense, but try carrying a shotgun on your hip while you run errants.
Got karma to burn, fuggit.
1. Pass law.
2. Don't enforce the law
3. Pass another law.
4. Don't enforce it.
5. Pass asinine new law.
5. ?????
6. Less crime!
I REALLY shouldn't feed this troll, but here goes . . .
What defect would cause such a "misload"? What do you mean by a "misload," anyway? The round not chambering? What would the bolt hit to cause this "nasty explosion"?
See my post below, there are several cases holding that police have a duty to protect no one in particular.
Rule #3: Keep your finger OFF the trigger until you're on target and ready to fire. I had to say this because I just finished watching a cop show where these guys run around with their fingers on the trigger all the time. Idiots!
It should be noted that most ammo manufacturing defects, rare as they are, involve things like bad primers or inadequate powder charges (e.g., squib loads.) In other words, defective ammo will likely render your weapon (Drill Sergeant Hixon very quickly taught me not to call it a "gun") inoperative. I cannot think of a scenario where defective ammo would result in an accidental discharge.
The same is generally true for the weapons themselves, particularly in a design like the [PLUG] Glock, [/PLUG] but true for nearly any reputable modern firearm (yes, even the "dangerous" M1911 - see #3 above.)
(with individual servers named Faust, Mephisto, Lucifer, Phil, ect...ect...)
Don't forget, Phil carries a spoon and is not from Hell, but only Heck, where they handle the small stuff.
And name the servers "Anthem," "Atlas_Shrugged," "Fountainhead," and so on?
Especially if it's a Microsoft shop.
I can't be the only one to have thought of either "The Bridge" or "Ten Forward."
What's wrong with using the (sort of) tried-and-true MAPS RBL+?
They WERE doing pretty well, until they murdered 88 people with pencil-whipped maintenance records.
No, Southwest shows that Americans like freedom of choice. When I fly Southwest, if I don't want to sit next to some sweaty 400-pounder who hasn't bathed in a month, I don't have to. If some woman with a litter of bratty, ill-mannered, obviously undisciplined "because-we-don't-believe-in-striking-children" screaming brats sits down next to me, I can (and do) move.
Friend, if it's so horrible, fly somebody else! There are lots of airlines out there that offer assigned seating.
Some years ago, there was talk of Boeing selling the Commercial Airplane Group and just concentrating on defense contracts. That would be appropriate because, let's face it, Boeing is hardly a lean, mean, corporate machine. To the contrary, Boeing is basically a government agency and it's run like one.
Beyond that, "what is their strategy?" is a very good question. It very likely does not include remaining in the state of Washington.
That was supposed to read, "a modicum of intellectual honesty." Maybe I shouldn't type before I think. :)
And I'd say the same thing to the dimwit who leaked MS secretsa as I did to this boob: "You screwed up pal. Big time."
Agreed, except that I would also ask this putz whether or not his mama taught him to read something before he signs it.
Sure, the Anti-Micro$h!t Linux-Uber-Alles geeks might rant like mad, but they are also taking Apple to task for this right now.
I disagree. A lot of the posts are defending Apple. Be that as it may, my point is they would not be so quick to defend similar conduct by /.'s justifiably favorite whipping boy, Microsoft. Many of those people believe Apple to be as pure as the driven snow when their actions show that such is not the case by any stretch of the imagination. Let's face it, Apple's history of Gatesian behavior out-Gateses Gates.
Or, they can charge people to use the tech.
Which is the only Amazon.bomb is going to make a dime. This is a desperation move - Wal-Mart is the about the only profitable retailer in this economy, Jeff sees the writing on the wall, the game is almost up. People aren't buying his funny money^W^Wstock anymore, so maybe he can force them to buy his technology. This is the last gasp of a failed businessman in a business he can't make money in.
Not only is Apple a failed Microsoft, Apple owes it very existence, and lil' Stevie his paltry $372 million annual paycheck to Microsoft, a fact forgotten by most of /.'s Macaholics.
Steve Jobs, who still can't market his way out of a wet paper sack, had five years ago run Apple into the ground a second time. Had the evil, hated Microsoft not bailed them out, Apple would have gone Chapter 11 and been chopped up. Having put Apple through two near-death experiences, Jobs now makes a paltry $372 million a year on top of the $90 million Gulfstream the board gave him. Nice work, if you can get it.