In that case they can't afford to have him leave to a new job, or get sick, or suffer from an accident. Unfortunately for them, there's little they can do about most of those situations, and chances are they they can afford to hire somebody else to help with those other little tasks.
Nothing wrong with setting the boxes passwords to "password" or something easy-to-remember. I would just make damn sure to set the password to expire after the very first login. Allows the client to login easily, and forces them to implement security on their end.
... My first thought was that they were probably there so that when a user complains about a forgotten password they could be reminded of what it was, rather than changing it to something else that will be easily forgotten. I've been in plenty of places where the same users constantly can't login because of "system issues" when it's really a forgotten password.
That being said, I don't keep user passwords on-hand, but if I did they would be in a secure encrypted file.
I know people in various industries who consider obscure hacks, lack of documentation, etc "job security."
To me, being the guy who can do it all is great for job security, but the flip-side is that if you're the *only* guy that can handle things... sure, you're semi-irreplacable, but that applies equally to being fired as when you want to take a day off or holiday. Personally, I prefer work-competence as a reason for not being fired, and documentation/standardization as a way to ensure that somebody else can back me up when I want to take a few weeks off (real time off, as in not near a computer and not "on call" with a pager/cellphone going off in my pants pocket next to the pool).
Seems to me that in many cases, the IT department may be rather grossly understaffed (either in terms of # of staff, or # of experienced staff).
Many places I've worked end up with a Lord-of-all-IT situation simply because they haven't got anyone who can replace him* or back him up, or weren't willing to pay for backup/additional/experienced staff.
Yup. There may be a particular reason that two arms are somewhat optimal. But then again, why not have arms/legs more interchangeable, with just four arms, and the feet replacements being usable both for mobility or appendages as needed (monkeys make quite a lot of use of feet sometimes).
For that matter, while most humans tend not to have tails, vestigial tails aren't that uncommon, and they seem like they could be rather useful in many cases...
Ummm... actually you'd be hurting your future employer, the college, and your co-workers.
a) Future employer: for spending time+money advertising for and interviewing somebody who turns out to be wholly unqualified because they cheated their way through class
b) College: For the loss of reputation due to the above (however, I'd say that this to a good extent is their own damn fault if they don't have at least some level of monitored testing).
c) Co-Workers: For having to compensate for a useless cheater who can't do the job properly.
In the end,. having a cheater who passes the course but can't cut it at work is going to cause problems for a lot of people.
OK, but it seems to me that being "bipedal with two arms and skin" is a serious limitation.
OK, to make tools, maybe they need something akin to a hand/arm. Maybe a complex trunk/tentacle will do too (or a hand with tentacles instead of fingers), but let's say for the sake of arguement that a hand is necessary. OK, so why only two? Why does the only other intelligent race we meet have the same basic physiology as us, instead of having something more useful such as more limbs, or armored skin, etc?
I'd definitely agree that we *all* share the blame in many of these cases.
Who buys the products made in the smog-spewing factories of China? We do
Who wants the cheap merchandise made by poorly-paid Chinese workers? We do
Yes, their government is responsible, but so are our own governments and citizens. It somewhat burns my ass to hear that often the same people who bitch about the "pollution in China" or "treatment of workers in China" also bitch about the fact that their made-in-China products starting to rise in price.
Yes, some of the crap that happens in China wouldn't necessarily happen over here, but we're still happy to farm out all the low-paid backbreaking work to "somewhere else" so we can have cheap commodity goods.
The racist overtones (Egg Foo Young?) are unnecessary.
Well, being that the common expression is "egg on their face", and "egg foo young" is a common dish at a Chinese restaurant, it seems more an attempt at humour than racism.
Where would put it? The cowel doesn't cover his mouth.
not a schemer or a planner
on
Batman Discussion
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
And for all the talk about being "not a schemer," the setup with the bomb-in-stomach in the police office, as well as the two ferries, obviously took a fair bit of forethought and planning.
Maybe with all the baby boomers come into old age, we'll start seeing a "seniors' lane" or "seniors' highway" emerge. Maximum limit 55, minimum age 55, lane required for all those whom the DMV has found acceptable to drive at lower limits but not on the regular roads.
Auto-revocation of a driver's license due to age would be discriminatory and wrong. Assessment and retesting of various factors (especially vision) past a certain age wouldn't be any stupid or discriminatory that having a minimum driving age.
If grandpa passes his tests, that's great. If they find his vision is not so hot anymore, but with glasses he sees fine, then make glasses a requirement for driving (around here you can do that, don't know about the US). If he can't pass with or without the specs on, or his reaction speed is just too slow these days, then it's time to hand in the keys. If that's still to harsh for everyone, how about a when/where restriction similar to what young drivers often get. No driving past dark and/or on roadways with a limit over 60.
Ever drive the highway in a big city? If you happen to be going around the limit and/or giving a safe following distance, I almost guarantee that at some point you'll encounter the asshat who will zoom past and then cut in front of you, cutting your SFD in half, then realize the cars in front are suddenly slowed/stopped and slam on the brakes.
I try to drop back as much as possible when somebody does that, but sometimes it's not so easy to do so promptly without cutting the SFD of the guy behind you down.
In fact, teens have about as high a death rate as the elderly from traffic accidents
Inexperience and a sense of invincibility is pretty much on par with age and a sense of privilege in this case for accidents, but I'd tend to agree that the speeding teenagers are more likely to cause a possibly more damaging accident due to speed. However, over the last few years I'd have to say that I'm rather disconcerted to see that a number of those who are traffic dodging and passing me at 30 clicks over the limit are quite often seniors.
A lot of people argue against a black-box in cars, but a system that records the last 5 minutes of hairpin turns (gyroscope), throttle-to-the-ground acceleration with pedal-to-the-floor braking (accelerometer), and others might be useful in warning drivers of their own idiotic driving, and making them accountable in case of an accident. The trick would be to keep us from having to submit a report from the damn thing every time we renew our insurance etc because I *know* that those buggers would love to raise our rates based on whatever data they can exploit.
What the author probably intended was something along the lines of either:
Using unproven technology in an attempt to compensate for human frailty is asking for trouble
or
Using technology in to partially compensate for deficiencies is asking for trouble
Now, if this is a new wonder-tech that works excellently and reliably, great. However, it seems to me that there are too many variables to account for in this situation, which may lead to either missing important details, or false positives (or the thing might just be a distraction overall). Glasses, helmets, protective clother and windscreens are fairly simplistic in their function. Power steering is perhaps a bit more complicated, but not nearly so much as a system which would have to account for unexpected situations such as this. Hell, if this thing worked perfectly 99% of the time, then GM should license it out, and *everyone* should have it, but frankly even it was functionally capable I've seen plenty of GM vehicles where the power windows and locks and other such systems break down regularly, nevermind something like this.
Now to add another point:
if they can't strain hard enough naturally without having a stroke
It's funny that you mention the stroke and whatnot. Failing bodies in general - not just eyesight - are another reason that age can be a dangerous thing for those behind the wheel. Concentration lapses, medical issues, and other such things all tend to become more prominent with age. I know people with major epileptic conditions that are not allowed to drive, but have seem plenty of elderly people with medical conditions that can strike just as suddenly and dangerously who still drive.
For myself, I'd love it if all these human frailties could be fixed or compensated for in a manner that was reliable and efficient by the time I am getting too old to drive, but otherwise hopefully I'll be man enough to hang up the keys and take the next bus on my flight to the grocery store.
OK, the flying bus is still rather unlikely, but we can dream, right?
why aren't all suspects always followed by the court
If you're referring to "the court" as the baliff, judge, jury, etc, then they aren't.
As for the prosecutors, they're human, and subject to the normal deviations as such. Different people will have different methods or levels of thoroughness in pursuing prosecution.
Maybe a good actor can con his/her way out of a higher sentence. For that matter, so can a good lawyer. Maybe this guy might have even been a good actor in putting up a show of "remorse" in front of the court. However, the prosecuting investigator(s) in this case was good at the job, and managed to pull up some pretty damning evidence that the accused wasn't feeling very guilty about his actions.
I suppose if somebody was accused and didn't want to end up getting similarly nailed, then even if they weren't feeling regretful at the very least not being obvious about it would be a good idea.
Or maybe it's because many of us have seen manage management-types that similarly demonstrate pathologically dishonest or even criminal behavior, especially when it comes time for somebody to take the blame for a given situation?
This is sick, people. This means you're not only judged for what you do but also for what you feel.
Ummm, you realize that this isn't a new thing, right? The facebook part might be, but many lawyers have often pushed for lenience in cases where clients have shown true remorse for their actions, and vise-versa for the prosecutors against those who don't.
Feeling sad for your actions and being willing to change is part of the reformation process, which is part of what the justice system is about. A kid that's partying it up 2 weeks after killing somebody isn't feeling remorse, and isn't so likely to reform after a slap-on-the-wrist or token sentencing.
Newgroups are still a great way for spreading (legal, though often disliked by various governments) information as well. That being said. one thing I've rather missed in linux is finding a good newgroup reader that has SSL capabilities. Anyone know of one?
Slashdot Mirror
In that case they can't afford to have him leave to a new job, or get sick, or suffer from an accident. Unfortunately for them, there's little they can do about most of those situations, and chances are they they can afford to hire somebody else to help with those other little tasks.
Nothing wrong with setting the boxes passwords to "password" or something easy-to-remember. I would just make damn sure to set the password to expire after the very first login. Allows the client to login easily, and forces them to implement security on their end.
... My first thought was that they were probably there so that when a user complains about a forgotten password they could be reminded of what it was, rather than changing it to something else that will be easily forgotten. I've been in plenty of places where the same users constantly can't login because of "system issues" when it's really a forgotten password.
That being said, I don't keep user passwords on-hand, but if I did they would be in a secure encrypted file.
I know people in various industries who consider obscure hacks, lack of documentation, etc "job security."
To me, being the guy who can do it all is great for job security, but the flip-side is that if you're the *only* guy that can handle things... sure, you're semi-irreplacable, but that applies equally to being fired as when you want to take a day off or holiday. Personally, I prefer work-competence as a reason for not being fired, and documentation/standardization as a way to ensure that somebody else can back me up when I want to take a few weeks off (real time off, as in not near a computer and not "on call" with a pager/cellphone going off in my pants pocket next to the pool).
Seems to me that in many cases, the IT department may be rather grossly understaffed (either in terms of # of staff, or # of experienced staff).
Many places I've worked end up with a Lord-of-all-IT situation simply because they haven't got anyone who can replace him* or back him up, or weren't willing to pay for backup/additional/experienced staff.
* male gender used for convenience purposes.
Yup. There may be a particular reason that two arms are somewhat optimal. But then again, why not have arms/legs more interchangeable, with just four arms, and the feet replacements being usable both for mobility or appendages as needed (monkeys make quite a lot of use of feet sometimes).
For that matter, while most humans tend not to have tails, vestigial tails aren't that uncommon, and they seem like they could be rather useful in many cases...
but they'd be specialised ones for the disabled
That's assuming they treat disabilities in the way we do. For all we know they might *eat* their disabled :-)
Ummm... actually you'd be hurting your future employer, the college, and your co-workers.
a) Future employer: for spending time+money advertising for and interviewing somebody who turns out to be wholly unqualified because they cheated their way through class
b) College: For the loss of reputation due to the above (however, I'd say that this to a good extent is their own damn fault if they don't have at least some level of monitored testing).
c) Co-Workers: For having to compensate for a useless cheater who can't do the job properly.
In the end,. having a cheater who passes the course but can't cut it at work is going to cause problems for a lot of people.
OK, but it seems to me that being "bipedal with two arms and skin" is a serious limitation.
OK, to make tools, maybe they need something akin to a hand/arm. Maybe a complex trunk/tentacle will do too (or a hand with tentacles instead of fingers), but let's say for the sake of arguement that a hand is necessary. OK, so why only two? Why does the only other intelligent race we meet have the same basic physiology as us, instead of having something more useful such as more limbs, or armored skin, etc?
For any "online" institution I've known, the tests need to be done at an approved institute under supervision, and after presenting proper ID, etc.
You might be able to fob off assignments on somebody else, but in a real school institution you could do this anyhow after classes.
I didn't know that Michael Jackson had a slashdot account?
In the case of some slashdotters, that would make them more manly than they currently are now :-)
I'd definitely agree that we *all* share the blame in many of these cases.
Who buys the products made in the smog-spewing factories of China? We do
Who wants the cheap merchandise made by poorly-paid Chinese workers? We do
Yes, their government is responsible, but so are our own governments and citizens. It somewhat burns my ass to hear that often the same people who bitch about the "pollution in China" or "treatment of workers in China" also bitch about the fact that their made-in-China products starting to rise in price.
Yes, some of the crap that happens in China wouldn't necessarily happen over here, but we're still happy to farm out all the low-paid backbreaking work to "somewhere else" so we can have cheap commodity goods.
Fah.
The racist overtones (Egg Foo Young?) are unnecessary.
Well, being that the common expression is "egg on their face", and "egg foo young" is a common dish at a Chinese restaurant, it seems more an attempt at humour than racism.
Where would put it? The cowel doesn't cover his mouth.
And for all the talk about being "not a schemer," the setup with the bomb-in-stomach in the police office, as well as the two ferries, obviously took a fair bit of forethought and planning.
Maybe with all the baby boomers come into old age, we'll start seeing a "seniors' lane" or "seniors' highway" emerge. Maximum limit 55, minimum age 55, lane required for all those whom the DMV has found acceptable to drive at lower limits but not on the regular roads.
Auto-revocation of a driver's license due to age would be discriminatory and wrong. Assessment and retesting of various factors (especially vision) past a certain age wouldn't be any stupid or discriminatory that having a minimum driving age.
If grandpa passes his tests, that's great. If they find his vision is not so hot anymore, but with glasses he sees fine, then make glasses a requirement for driving (around here you can do that, don't know about the US). If he can't pass with or without the specs on, or his reaction speed is just too slow these days, then it's time to hand in the keys. If that's still to harsh for everyone, how about a when/where restriction similar to what young drivers often get. No driving past dark and/or on roadways with a limit over 60.
Ever drive the highway in a big city? If you happen to be going around the limit and/or giving a safe following distance, I almost guarantee that at some point you'll encounter the asshat who will zoom past and then cut in front of you, cutting your SFD in half, then realize the cars in front are suddenly slowed/stopped and slam on the brakes.
I try to drop back as much as possible when somebody does that, but sometimes it's not so easy to do so promptly without cutting the SFD of the guy behind you down.
In fact, teens have about as high a death rate as the elderly from traffic accidents
Inexperience and a sense of invincibility is pretty much on par with age and a sense of privilege in this case for accidents, but I'd tend to agree that the speeding teenagers are more likely to cause a possibly more damaging accident due to speed. However, over the last few years I'd have to say that I'm rather disconcerted to see that a number of those who are traffic dodging and passing me at 30 clicks over the limit are quite often seniors.
A lot of people argue against a black-box in cars, but a system that records the last 5 minutes of hairpin turns (gyroscope), throttle-to-the-ground acceleration with pedal-to-the-floor braking (accelerometer), and others might be useful in warning drivers of their own idiotic driving, and making them accountable in case of an accident. The trick would be to keep us from having to submit a report from the damn thing every time we renew our insurance etc because I *know* that those buggers would love to raise our rates based on whatever data they can exploit.
What the author probably intended was something along the lines of either:
Using unproven technology in an attempt to compensate for human frailty is asking for trouble
or
Using technology in to partially compensate for deficiencies is asking for trouble
Now, if this is a new wonder-tech that works excellently and reliably, great. However, it seems to me that there are too many variables to account for in this situation, which may lead to either missing important details, or false positives (or the thing might just be a distraction overall). Glasses, helmets, protective clother and windscreens are fairly simplistic in their function. Power steering is perhaps a bit more complicated, but not nearly so much as a system which would have to account for unexpected situations such as this. Hell, if this thing worked perfectly 99% of the time, then GM should license it out, and *everyone* should have it, but frankly even it was functionally capable I've seen plenty of GM vehicles where the power windows and locks and other such systems break down regularly, nevermind something like this.
Now to add another point:
if they can't strain hard enough naturally without having a stroke
It's funny that you mention the stroke and whatnot. Failing bodies in general - not just eyesight - are another reason that age can be a dangerous thing for those behind the wheel. Concentration lapses, medical issues, and other such things all tend to become more prominent with age. I know people with major epileptic conditions that are not allowed to drive, but have seem plenty of elderly people with medical conditions that can strike just as suddenly and dangerously who still drive.
For myself, I'd love it if all these human frailties could be fixed or compensated for in a manner that was reliable and efficient by the time I am getting too old to drive, but otherwise hopefully I'll be man enough to hang up the keys and take the next bus on my flight to the grocery store.
OK, the flying bus is still rather unlikely, but we can dream, right?
why aren't all suspects always followed by the court
If you're referring to "the court" as the baliff, judge, jury, etc, then they aren't.
As for the prosecutors, they're human, and subject to the normal deviations as such. Different people will have different methods or levels of thoroughness in pursuing prosecution.
Maybe a good actor can con his/her way out of a higher sentence. For that matter, so can a good lawyer. Maybe this guy might have even been a good actor in putting up a show of "remorse" in front of the court. However, the prosecuting investigator(s) in this case was good at the job, and managed to pull up some pretty damning evidence that the accused wasn't feeling very guilty about his actions.
I suppose if somebody was accused and didn't want to end up getting similarly nailed, then even if they weren't feeling regretful at the very least not being obvious about it would be a good idea.
Or maybe it's because many of us have seen manage management-types that similarly demonstrate pathologically dishonest or even criminal behavior, especially when it comes time for somebody to take the blame for a given situation?
This is sick, people. This means you're not only judged for what you do but also for what you feel.
Ummm, you realize that this isn't a new thing, right? The facebook part might be, but many lawyers have often pushed for lenience in cases where clients have shown true remorse for their actions, and vise-versa for the prosecutors against those who don't.
Feeling sad for your actions and being willing to change is part of the reformation process, which is part of what the justice system is about. A kid that's partying it up 2 weeks after killing somebody isn't feeling remorse, and isn't so likely to reform after a slap-on-the-wrist or token sentencing.
Newgroups are still a great way for spreading (legal, though often disliked by various governments) information as well. That being said. one thing I've rather missed in linux is finding a good newgroup reader that has SSL capabilities. Anyone know of one?