I remember reading an article about a house like that in San Francisco. It wasn't just a death, though-- the previous owners had been into bondage & satanism, and had a secret room in the basement with torture equiment where at least one person had met his end. The article interviewed the woman who had bought the house, and she described the interesting time she was having cleaning it up.
Yours is an interesting situation. Without knowing much about you, I'd say: play to your strengths. English is definitely not the forte of most programmers, and so you may be able to carve out a new space for yourself. Off the top of my head, grammar checkers are pretty lousy, even in Word. Make a good grammar checker (genetic learning algorithms maybe?), and you'd probably have a great product for all those asian companies who'd like to present a good image to customers in the US and elsewhere but write in atrocious english.
The only reason it's one piece is because it couldn't float otherwise (Lego brick joints are tight, but not that tight). Nowadays, I've seen boat hulls which are made from 4-5 big, curved pieces, which can't even float.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned though, is that the proliferation of large single pieces is probably an attempt at cost-cutting. For instance the tolerance of large pieces without many connectors (e.g. palm tree leaves) are probably lower, making them cheaper, which makes it possible to "bulk out" sets and cut costs.
Quite true: Lego parts have a tolerance of 0.005 mm-- 5 microns!
I've run across some generic Lego-compatible "construction bricks", and they have been simply -bad-. Most of the time I spent was finding a brick which would connect without just slipping off. No fun at all.
It's tragic, really. Like others, I disagree with the directions the company has chosen recently (excepting, of course, Mindstorms). Still, I don't know what they -can- do. We live in the age of the relentless cost-cutting of Walmart, and the quality Lego produces may not have a market.
What would I like to see them do? Obviously, the brand is very strong (Toy of the Century, etc.) and so this makes them a prime target of a takeover. I would hate to see this happen. I think they scale back production, cut any unprofitable new ventures, and focus on staying profitable.
Never saw it. My point is, though, that someone in the FBI has probably also seen it. Any law requiring agents to "disconnect (or ditch-and-not-listen-to any recording)" is only a sop to civil-liberties advocates, because the FBI never can be sure if a conversation really is innocent or is simply well-encoded.
A scheme like that could be used by civil-liberties advocates to "check up" on the agency-- if someone comes knocking on your door, you'll know that they're trolling voip connections without warrants (or, if you have a criminal record for, say, civil disobedience, you would know that they consider that sufficient grounds to monitor you calls).
Hey, you just invented a way for any terrorist to have an unmonitored phone call. All they have to do is talk about how their mother's doing for a bit, and they can be sure that any agent listening in will have disconnected.
That is to say: even if the spooks are required to ditch any unrelated conversation, I doubt you can rely on them doing so, because I'm sure they've already thought of this scenario.
I've always thought Stockholm would make an excellent layout. Tunnels, bridges, interesting geography, multi-level streets... It has everything you could wish for in GTA, aside from an airport.
what we contribute out strips the rest of the world put together.
This is simply not true. In 2001, the US spent about $10 billion in foreign aid, out of $50b worldwide. However, as a fraction of our GDP, our contributions are the smallest of any of the OECD countries, and as little as a tenth of the northern european countries.
This year, of course, we have an $87b spending spree. Only $20b of that is going towards reconstruction, though (the rest pays for the military). As for whether that's foreign aid or payment for damages is up to you.
Private aid might even score somewhat-- counting foundations, NGOs, private people sending money to their families, etc., the US sends $35b abroad every year. I can't find any equivalent statistics for other countries, though.
About 2% of charitable donations in the US leave the country.
I think this is a good example of the point others have made before me-- if all he did was monitor a bunch of dials, something which could be done by a computer, why didn't they have some low-paid private do this, instead of your friend? Probably because they needed someone who could not only monitor dials, but who knew what was going on behind the dials and could react intelligently when a situation arose.
I'm not saying there's no place for computers, but there are a lot of concerns that need to be taken into account.
Gardening? You mean, using an analog method to bypass Mom's Friendly Food Co's copyright on the products of their patented Food(r) process? You're lucky I don't notify the FBI!
I've always thought one of the main functions of sf is to present ideas in a way that makes you look at them from a different angle than you had before. Slavery, for instance. I'd say that it doesn't affect most people-- it's a relic of the past, and everyone knows it's evil, and that's that. But after watching Blade Runner, you not only gain appreciation for its evils, but you also understand why it existed in the first place and why it was attractive to so many. I suppose it could be set in 1840 just as well as 2017, but I think setting it in the future makes it much more immediate and urgent to us, since it can't be dismissed as a historical curiosity.
Does anyone know if I could use this to talk to someone who doesn't have one? I.e., can I use this unit while the other person uses software and a mike?
It's a competitive economy. The company that's not as efficient goes under. You think the temp agency should give benefits? Sure it can, and then HP will contract out to another company which doesn't offer them and is cheaper. The workers won't have their benefits anyway, since they'll be out of job. Should they go somewhere else? The same principle applies everywhere.
Now, whose fault is this? That of Ana (the supervisor in the article)? She's expendable too. If her supervisors decide she's not pushing her underlings as hard as they think she can, she's not doing her job, and she will be reprimanded and/or fired. Are the decision-makers and CEOs at fault? They are answerable to the stockholders. If they fail to cut their costs and increase profits, while their competitors do, then their stock price will fall, and they will have failed at their jobs.
Is it the stockholders who are at fault? What do the stockholders care about the company's policies? The ROI is what matters. And yes, there are "consciencious investor" funds-- and how popular are those?
Sure, there must be people in this system who are cruel and amoral. But those are the people required and promoted by the system. If you want to be ethical, you can be ethical on welfare.
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Friend of mine's named Mike Olin...
Did they last, though? I imagine that in that sort of situation they wouldn't blink twice at replacing the engine every other race.
I remember reading an article about a house like that in San Francisco. It wasn't just a death, though-- the previous owners had been into bondage & satanism, and had a secret room in the basement with torture equiment where at least one person had met his end. The article interviewed the woman who had bought the house, and she described the interesting time she was having cleaning it up.
Yours is an interesting situation. Without knowing much about you, I'd say: play to your strengths. English is definitely not the forte of most programmers, and so you may be able to carve out a new space for yourself. Off the top of my head, grammar checkers are pretty lousy, even in Word. Make a good grammar checker (genetic learning algorithms maybe?), and you'd probably have a great product for all those asian companies who'd like to present a good image to customers in the US and elsewhere but write in atrocious english.
The only reason it's one piece is because it couldn't float otherwise (Lego brick joints are tight, but not that tight). Nowadays, I've seen boat hulls which are made from 4-5 big, curved pieces, which can't even float.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned though, is that the proliferation of large single pieces is probably an attempt at cost-cutting. For instance the tolerance of large pieces without many connectors (e.g. palm tree leaves) are probably lower, making them cheaper, which makes it possible to "bulk out" sets and cut costs.
Quite true: Lego parts have a tolerance of 0.005 mm-- 5 microns!
I've run across some generic Lego-compatible "construction bricks", and they have been simply -bad-. Most of the time I spent was finding a brick which would connect without just slipping off. No fun at all.
It's tragic, really. Like others, I disagree with the directions the company has chosen recently (excepting, of course, Mindstorms). Still, I don't know what they -can- do. We live in the age of the relentless cost-cutting of Walmart, and the quality Lego produces may not have a market.
What would I like to see them do? Obviously, the brand is very strong (Toy of the Century, etc.) and so this makes them a prime target of a takeover. I would hate to see this happen. I think they scale back production, cut any unprofitable new ventures, and focus on staying profitable.
Never saw it. My point is, though, that someone in the FBI has probably also seen it. Any law requiring agents to "disconnect (or ditch-and-not-listen-to any recording)" is only a sop to civil-liberties advocates, because the FBI never can be sure if a conversation really is innocent or is simply well-encoded.
A scheme like that could be used by civil-liberties advocates to "check up" on the agency-- if someone comes knocking on your door, you'll know that they're trolling voip connections without warrants (or, if you have a criminal record for, say, civil disobedience, you would know that they consider that sufficient grounds to monitor you calls).
Hey, you just invented a way for any terrorist to have an unmonitored phone call. All they have to do is talk about how their mother's doing for a bit, and they can be sure that any agent listening in will have disconnected.
That is to say: even if the spooks are required to ditch any unrelated conversation, I doubt you can rely on them doing so, because I'm sure they've already thought of this scenario.
Yeah, but I wouldn't expect the map in GTA to encompass much more than the central islands and a bit of the surrounding city.
I've always thought Stockholm would make an excellent layout. Tunnels, bridges, interesting geography, multi-level streets... It has everything you could wish for in GTA, aside from an airport.
Debt-free in two thousand and four doesn't quite have the same ring to it, though, does it? :)
This is simply not true. In 2001, the US spent about $10 billion in foreign aid, out of $50b worldwide. However, as a fraction of our GDP, our contributions are the smallest of any of the OECD countries, and as little as a tenth of the northern european countries.
This year, of course, we have an $87b spending spree. Only $20b of that is going towards reconstruction, though (the rest pays for the military). As for whether that's foreign aid or payment for damages is up to you.
Private aid might even score somewhat-- counting foundations, NGOs, private people sending money to their families, etc., the US sends $35b abroad every year. I can't find any equivalent statistics for other countries, though.
About 2% of charitable donations in the US leave the country.
References--
1, 2, 3
Sorry, that's incorrect. Cache is pronounced the same way cash is.
I think this is a good example of the point others have made before me-- if all he did was monitor a bunch of dials, something which could be done by a computer, why didn't they have some low-paid private do this, instead of your friend? Probably because they needed someone who could not only monitor dials, but who knew what was going on behind the dials and could react intelligently when a situation arose. I'm not saying there's no place for computers, but there are a lot of concerns that need to be taken into account.
Probably has to do with that physically, the outer part of the CD will tend to get scratched more than the inner part.
Gardening? You mean, using an analog method to bypass Mom's Friendly Food Co's copyright on the products of their patented Food(r) process? You're lucky I don't notify the FBI!
Re. your first comment: it's 50 hours.
I've always thought one of the main functions of sf is to present ideas in a way that makes you look at them from a different angle than you had before. Slavery, for instance. I'd say that it doesn't affect most people-- it's a relic of the past, and everyone knows it's evil, and that's that. But after watching Blade Runner, you not only gain appreciation for its evils, but you also understand why it existed in the first place and why it was attractive to so many. I suppose it could be set in 1840 just as well as 2017, but I think setting it in the future makes it much more immediate and urgent to us, since it can't be dismissed as a historical curiosity.
Does anyone know if I could use this to talk to someone who doesn't have one? I.e., can I use this unit while the other person uses software and a mike?
I disagree.
It's a competitive economy. The company that's not as efficient goes under. You think the temp agency should give benefits? Sure it can, and then HP will contract out to another company which doesn't offer them and is cheaper. The workers won't have their benefits anyway, since they'll be out of job. Should they go somewhere else? The same principle applies everywhere.
Now, whose fault is this? That of Ana (the supervisor in the article)? She's expendable too. If her supervisors decide she's not pushing her underlings as hard as they think she can, she's not doing her job, and she will be reprimanded and/or fired. Are the decision-makers and CEOs at fault? They are answerable to the stockholders. If they fail to cut their costs and increase profits, while their competitors do, then their stock price will fall, and they will have failed at their jobs.
Is it the stockholders who are at fault? What do the stockholders care about the company's policies? The ROI is what matters. And yes, there are "consciencious investor" funds-- and how popular are those?
Sure, there must be people in this system who are cruel and amoral. But those are the people required and promoted by the system. If you want to be ethical, you can be ethical on welfare.
--Alexei