I m now almost 46 years old. I worked as a Unix Sys Admin for many years. Since January 2008, got laid off with my previous employer (major DoD company based out of Maryland), did some part time teaching with a local university and still doing it today and now work for a DB company now. What caught my eye in this article is someone older is not willing to relocate. I have lived in Colorado since 1995 and there are very few places I would consider living elsewhere. Top of my list is New Zealand and then West Coast.
My previous employer came to me one day and told me I had to relocate to the Washington DC area for the same pay, barely enough money to rent a moving truck and I had to take vacation time to move. When I asked for more, I was told either move to Virginia or it was the door. I took the door. A month after I got laid off, I got a part time teaching position and still doing it to this day and really like it and would eventually like to get out of the corporate world for good and do teaching full time.
Relocation to the East Coast especially the Washington DC area doesn't "float my boat". Totally different lifestyle there where putting in 40 hours is considered slacking off, you are expected to attend company sponsored community events outside of your work hours and you are expected to like dressing up as well.
First, I don't want to say to much on the location. It was a Civilian Agency/Research Facility located within an Air Force Base in Colorado's front range. The CIO of the facility has a Ph.D. also graduated from West Point and retired as an Army Colonel. He was considered a "ring knocker".
When he took over when he was an Army Colonel, he cracked down on various items. When he retired from the Army, a slot was made for him to remain there. Below are the list of various items he did:
Implemented a strict dress code including NO casual Fridays and no blue jeans, period rule
Cracked down on hours you put in where they wanted you to be there basically from 8 to 5 and to make it difficult to work alternative hours
Implemented strict rules on your desktop PC such as not allowing for alternative web browsers like Firefox. You were required to use Internet Explorer. Also, you could not change the settings either such as being able to block pop-up ads
Implemented a highway traffic safety program where there is cooperation between the local police and the facility. If you get stopped for speeding going to/from work, you are reported to your workplace. Within several days of getting stopped, you get an e-mail directing you to report to the Deputy Program Manager's office to explain yourself.
On the dress code aspect, when he took over as colonel, he made an example out of a couple of Sys Admins when they showed to a meeting in blue jeans and sandals. He had them fired on the spot and escorted of the premises and off the base. A friend who worked there prior to when he showed up mentioned the place was fun to work at. When he did nights and weekends, they didn't care if you showed up dressed for comfort. When the colonel showed up that changed ! He also took away the traditional Hawaiian Shirt Friday as well. He also cracked down on people who left early on Friday, another "tradition" in the DoD contracting world.
When the colonel took over, he didn't consider the culture of the place at the time plus the culture of Colorado which is considered very casual like in dress. One thing not mentioned until now, his additional degrees are from East Coast schools like U. of Virginia. With formal rules being more important than getting the job done, the dynamic changed for the worst. I really don't to go back to that facility as long as he is there. I still keep in contact with some people who still work there. One day, there was a water problem where all the bathrooms were shutdown but people were told they could NOT leave for home early and to keep working. The basement of the building has been converted to "cube farms" from basically storage. One thing not included was more bathrooms. Even for the men you have to wait 5 or 10 minutes for a toilet stall to open up. A lot of times there are several people waiting for each stall. Complaints have so far been ignored.
I use to work at this gov't facility. The CIO is something like a "perfumed prince". Retired Army Colonel who graduated from West Point, got his Ph.D. from U. of Virginia. East Coast bred and pedigree. Even though it was before my time to work in the place, he implemented some morale reduction edicts. He is still there today. It was not a fun place to work in considering the petty rules.
Implemented a strict dress code that applies at all times including weekends and nights. Facility operates on a 24/7 schedule
Not allow for Hawaiian shirts on Fri even though it is a military tradition
Not permit flex scheduling like leave early on Friday's
Schedule an all-hands meeting for 3 or 4 on Friday afternoon and did that routinely.
Implement strict rules on Internet surfing such as not allowing you to change options on IE. Firefox and Netscape not allowed. The options does not allow you to bypass pop-up commercials.
Put in a boat load of offices and cubicles in the basement but did not put in matching capacity for bathrooms. People complained and his response that if you didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes to use the toilet, then it is considered sufficient.
On the subject of bathrooms, when he went to use the toilet, he would kick everyone else out.
Implemented a traffic safety hotline where you can get reported for speeding and then get disciplined when you got into work. He tried to implement a vehicle inspection program since he complained about modified vehicles such as trucks and his pet peeve was dark window tinting. Luckily he was shot down on that.
I remembered getting on the Internet back in 1994. The browsers available was Mosaic and Netscape 1.0 with the "beating" N. This was on Windows 3.1 with a dial-up connection. There no screen backgrounds yet and the best of all, no annoying pop-up ads. Web pages actually had useful information instead of useless marketing drivel especially looking for technical information on company web sites.
Around the time of Jul 1995, I left Indiana and took a job at MCI in Colorado Springs, CO. We had Sun Solaris machines running Solaris 2.4 and I ran Netscape on the machine. It was Netscape 0.94. At home, I ran Win 3.11 WFW and Linux with kernel 1.1.59. I downloaded a copy of Netscape but the version was 0.94. I didn't quite have Linux working with a dial-up Internet connection yet so I was stuck running Internet on Windows.
I remembered when Netscape got bought out by AOL, it was a sad day. In my mind, I knew that AOL was going to ruin it and in some ways, they did and now, Netscape is no more. Before Netscape got bought out, I would have enjoyed working for them especially at the start of the Dot-Com era.
I went to college in the last half of the 1980's for my undergrad. At the time, the RIAA was working very hard to push for the tax on blank cassette tapes. Fliers were frequently posted around campus strongly urging students to write to gov't officials to bring in the tax. The school administrators would frequently mention that the RIAA needed our support and to write our letters. Most students saw it for what it was, bullshit.
At the time also, Digital Audio Tape (DAT) was in its infancy and there was a lot of discussion concerning it especially implementing copy control. The DAT players were too expensive to become a concern to school administrators unlike the music downloads of today.
My personal connection. I bought the CD's but I made cassette tapes off the CD's for use in my car since CD players were very expensive at the time and if CD's are left in the car, they were subject to wide temperature variations or being stolen. I made copies to Metal (Type IV) tape. The pre-recorded tapes were of cheap materials and were subject to becoming breakfast to the tape player.
I actually thought of applying for jobs where I would some work related to the South Pole which includes going there. What not too many people know is the NY National Guard fly through Christchurch, New Zealand. Having been to NZ, I am interested in doing a job where I can go there several times each year, of course on the company dime instead of my own. I have been looking at the Raytheon Polar Services web site for positions.
If you haven't been to NZ, once you been there, you don't want to leave.
When the legislation for the Real ID Act was crafted back in 2005, it was the same language that was passed by the House in 2004 concerning intel reform. It was known as the 9/11 Implementation Act of 2004 (HR10). One of the clauses required states to sign the Driver License Agreement (DLA) which states had to share their driver license databases not only between the states but also jurisdictions in Canada and Mexico. The Real ID Act language was crafted by bureaucrats within the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). When the Intel Reform legislation went to conference committee in the Fall of 2004, the biggest pissing match concerned the Real ID Act language.
Representative Sensenbrenner fought hard to retain this but lost the battle. He allowed the Intel legislation to go forward based upon a promise of a vote on his bill in 2005 which he got. It passed the house without discussion and without debate. It got over to the Senate and it sat. It got railroaded through on the Iraq War funding and tsunami bill which was a must pass bill. Sensenbrenner mentioned that even though no one wanted this, it was going to be a rider on a must pass bill and it will "ride as a passenger" on the train out of the house and be passed. He got his way !
The best thing is to toss this bad piece of law into the trash.
Now concerning the DLA, it is another badly written piece of law. Only a couple of states has signed this - CT, AR that I know of. This DLA should suffer a death as well especially with the database sharing requirement. States that are signatory to the DLA must share their DL data with all jurisdictions, not just only other DLA jurisdictions but also non-DLA jurisdictions as well. Corrupt officials in Mexico would have a field day especially if they deal with a person on vacation who happens to be licensed in a DLA state. Identity theft would be a big thing !
Both the Real ID Act and the DLA deserve a quick death. Rebellion by the states will help this greatly.
One thing that has to be considered on cross country trips is the ramifications of traffic violations in the different states and what is does to your license back at home. Today, almost all states communicate with each other on traffic violations committed by non-residents. There are only 3 states in the Union that don't consider minor offenses from other states - CO, NY, PA (no points, no record - NY will assess points for Ontario and Quebec Tickets by special agreement). A few states (MD, WI, NV) will post the violation to your record but assess no points and most states will assess points for out of state offenses. Major offenses would be a different issue such as alcohol related. The offenses that could be written up include reckless driving and I am not sure how those states that don't assess points for out of state offenses would deal with reckless driving.
There are a few states that treat speeding very harshly such as Virginia (automatic reckless driving over 80 mph or greater than 20 over the limit), North Carolina (over 80 mph or greater than 15 over the limit earns a form of license suspension) to name a few.
Assuming Alex has a NY driver's license, he would not to worry too much especially if he has an attorney to plead down major charges. I myself have a CO license and have a share of out of state tickets but not doing something like 120 mph but doing something like up to 25 mph over the limit. In fact my last two speeding tickets were something like 10 mph over the limit in Missouri and Indiana. I have family back in the midwest such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois so usually my tickets are received between CO and Ohio. We even got pulled over in Ohio for tinted windows.
On the reciprocity part especially with today's computers, if you get your license suspended in a different state, more than likely, you will get suspended at home. Your name will be posted on the National Driving Registry/Problem Driver Pointer System (NDR/PDPS) if you get suspended by your home state or a differnt state. The NDR/PDPS would be a tool to prevent you from getting a license in a different state. For myself, I have points in Missouri for a ticket I got more than a year ago (May 2006). Some states in addition to reporting the ticket to your home state will also open up a point file on you as well. This can snare poeple like out of state college students. Ohio does this as well. My brother went to school in Ohio, held an Indiana license back in the early 1980's. Ohio at the time didn't report tickets to other states. He was a ticket away from being suspended in Ohio but he had a clean record in Indiana. I got a speeding ticket myself in Ohio back in 1986 right before Ohio joined the compact.
Coming down the pipe unfortunately and the Real ID Act has something to do with this is the requirement that states communicate with each other - share databases. Don't know how extensive this will be yet since it is still being worked out. Another item is the Driver License Compact (DLC) and Non-Resident Violator Compact (NRVC) will be replaced by the Driver License Agreement (DLA) which is more harsher. The DLA will require states to share their whole databases not only with other US juridictions but also must share with Canadian and Mexican jurisdictions as well. In addition, there are no loopholes for blowing off parking violations unlike today with the NRVC. The sharing with foreign countries combined with identity theft was why the DLA was the most controversial element of the Real ID Act. The mandate for states to sign the DLA was removed from the final bill that was signed into law. Connecticut has signed the DLA and they will pull your license for blowing off an out of state parking ticket. In addition, some states don't like tinted windows
The same thing was done with the Real ID Act. I tried to ask some questions on why include the Driver License Agreement which would put traffic tickets and driver records on a North American "Ledger" where records can be accessed ranging from Nunavut all the way down to Cancun and farther. When I contacted the House Judiciary which was chaired by Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr, I was told in no uncertain terms that it was none of my g------d business. Seems like the sunshine laws from the 1960's/1970's are being eroded away. Even some states want to jump on the secrecy bandwagon as well.
Kind of funny that I don't quite agree totally with the Republican or Democrat side on these issues.
I am in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration - not here legally, leave the country and go back home and apply to immigrate here. However, Real ID is not needed and it is a de-facto National ID card, plain and simple. There is no place for it here in the USA. There is no need for linking driver databases or the Tri-National Driver License Agreement. The Real ID should be repealed and anyone and everyone should Contact Congress and demand its repeal and do it while the Democrats control Congress. Rather than having laws that curtail civil liberties of US citizens, we need to first enforce the laws on the books instead of the typical attitude of looking the other way. Each time the gov't has a shortcoming of enforcing their laws, they pass more laws and we citizens get punished for it. This vicious cycle needs to end.
On the legal immigration issue, I have expressed interest in leaving the USA such as go live in New Zealand. However, I would do ths the legal way though. I went there after Christmas for vacation and when I went through immigration, my passport was stamped with a 3 month visitor permit with an expiration 3 months after the date of the stamp which is the arrival date. The stamp mentioned that if I was in NZ after 3 months (past the expiration date), I was subject to being deported from the country. If I wanted to be there longer than 3 months, I would have to go to NZ immigration and ask for an extention of the permit. At that point, they would extend it or not. If not, I have to leave before the expiration date. Simple rules. It is something we should expect of those who visit the USA or any other country. BTW, the permit did not allow me to earn an income there. That is a different permit which takes paperwork to get. I am too old (older than 30) to get a Working Holiday Permit like many young people get such as college students and recent graduates.
I took 3 weeks off from work and went backpacking in New Zealand. I took my iBook with me but I got a used one. I stayed in YHA Hostels for the whole trip. Something to check is if the hostels has some good lockers. The Christchurch City Hostel had good lockers. Pay a few dollars, drop you laptop and other valuables especially Passport for the day/night and not worry. I was discreet of making sure no one saw me drop anything into the locker so as not to draw attention. The only Hostel I couldn't find a locker was in Rotorua.
I have this idea of "Management makes a difference". I worked for managers that I liked and respected. For those people, I went out of my way to help them out and to make them look good. I had a few managers that were total jerks and I would only put in the minimum necessary.
My line of work is being a Unix Sys Admin. One of the jerks was so bad, I was responsible for many different things but yet, I was not permitted to make the decision to decide the course of the outcomes. My hands were tied so his favored boys can look good. They could do no wrong. I had to constantly deal with their screw ups.
My last several months in the place got so bad that when I went to go to the bathroom (#2), when I get finished, I get hassled such as being asked, "where were you". It was then followed by, "let me know where you are at if it is more than 5 minutes and I want to know what you are doing". I basically told him it was none of his business when I went the the bathroom. I then said, "do I need to raise my hand like in grade school so I can go take a dump ?"
I had an opportunity to interview at a different job, same company, I took a Thursday afternoon off. We have flex time. He found out and mentioned to me that I had to ask his permission to take time off for the interview. When I got an offer, I was out of there ! Right before I left, he tried to sabotage my departure. A "contact" told me that he tried to find some adverse paperwork on me. The paperwork was luckily withheld.
The gist of it was, why didn't I pull something like this ? Well, there is integrity even dealing with the biggest asshole manager. I respected my co-workers and didn't want them to have to deal with a mess. When I left, I mentioned to my co-worker that if he needed anything, give me a call directly and not go through my former manager. I told him if my former manager wanted anything, his request would be flatly be denied.
Downside, you also got Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr - the sponsor the the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act as well. People are now becoming aware of the Real ID Act and it will get ugly ! I hope the 110th Congress will have enough sense to repeal the damn thing ! Even though I side more with Republican when it comes to financial freedom (low taxes) and true support of smaller gov't, I would vote for his Democratic opponent and even give money to him just to get rid of Sensenbrenner if I lived in the district. I have been thinking of ignoring the Republicans and voting for 3rd parties like Libertarian or Constitution.
I will support Rep. Ron Paul for President if he is in the primary.
The controversial section required states to sign a new compact as written by the AAMVA which is composed of high level executives from law enforcement and motor vehicle agencies. The compact is called Driver License Agreement (DLA). The AAMVA is pushing the DLA pretty hard and we need to keep an eye on state legislatures to make sure it does not pass. The AAMVA is even using Federal money from NHTSA to get states to sign it. NHTSA is an organization in the Federal Gov't that supported draconian enforcement of traffic laws and are big proponents of a 55 mph speed limit. They also refuse to change regulations to allow our headlights to be improved and get to the level of the European spec headlamps.
In addition to the data sharing from the agreement, it would require traffic violations to be reported and ant state who has signed it MUST put it on record with POINTS. Even down to the in-consequential minor violation such as no front license plate. Most states do not put equipment, registration and parking violations on a driver's record. With the DLA, they MUST put it on.
Unlike the Driver License Compact (DLC) and the Non Resident Violator Compact (NRVC) which was written with imput from State Legislatures, the DLA was written without their input. Most states that sign those two compacts pretty well follow the views of them but some states like Colorado and a few others do not assign points for minor out of state traffic offenses. On the NRVC, another state cannot ask your home state to pull your license for blowing off such minor tickets such as parking or registration violations and it is mainly aimed for moving violations such as speeding.
The AAMVA is a Non-Governmental Organization that proposes and pushes policy very hard but yet, they are not subject to open door laws. If you go to their web site, many items related to the DLA are locked out with a Username/Password combination. When Rep. Sensenbrenner pushed the Real ID Act back in 2005, I inquired about the DLA and in no uncertain terms, I was told that is was none of my business !
If Congress refuses to significantly change the Real ID Act, then rebellion is the way to make it fail. The Act is built on a flimsy deck of cards. If a few of the most populated states like CA, NY, IL, MI, TX decide to blow it off. The Federal Gov't would be in a bind. On one hand, if they enforce it, it will kill the airline industry. On the other hand, if they don't enforce it, they are disobeying the law that Congress passed.
It needs to be completely repealed. It was passed without discussion, without debate. It became law as a "rider" on a must-pass piece of legislation. With the Democrat Congress, its demise is more likely. We should contact Contact Congress and ask the law be repealed completely concerning the driver's license provisions.
Very few people remembered the incentive licensing debacle of around 1963. For those who were licensed, after a certain date, you lost privileges such as frequencies to operate on unless you moved up to higher classes by taking the exams. The "Extra" ticket was one of the items from incentive licensing. Another effect from it was a lot of the ham radio stores went out of business and companies like Hallicrafters, Hammerlund, National lost business and ended up folding.
Japan for many years did not require code even contrary to old ITU regulations. Because of this, they have many Hams and as a result, a good electronics industry.
Seems like in the USA, the politicians keep making policies where we keep screwing ourselves. We outsourced manufacturing - a place where a blue collar workers can make a decent living and live a decent lifestyle. We are in the process of outsourcing our computer industry which provides good income for many people. Just for a short term buck, we f*ck ourselves in the long run !
This change in policy is forward thinking for once. I got my General Class license back in 1983 (with 13 wpm) and Advanced in 1993. I thought about the Extra ticket but haven't had the time. One guy I remembered from grad school got his Extra ticket right before the 13 & 20 wpm exams went away permanently back around 2000.
In my job, technically our company has core hours from 9am to 3pm but on Friday, management basically looks the other way. The place is a ghost town before 12 Noon. Occasionally, we have executives who like doing a 3pm Fri afternoon meeting and management has to go aorund the day before and threaten us if we don't show for the meeting. I still ignore the meeting since I have other plans and they usually announce the meeting the day before. I use "kids" as an excuse to blow off the meeting.
Being originally from Indiana and the formerly well known Coach Bobby Knight, his unadultered commentary shows up as well. I looked his name up on YouTube. One of them is a half-time tirade in the locker room.
Here is the link. Hilarious to listen to but BE FORWARNED, his speech will make a sailor blush. If Coach Knight found about this audio being posted, the team will catch hell even if this was recorded a few years ago !
If this case is found in favor of Ms. Foster, Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organization (RICO) charges and lawsuit should be filed against the RIAA.
An interesting item, since I am into Japanese Anime, there is an interesting movie called Interstella 5555 where a record executive kidnaps a rock group from another planet and then brings them to Earth and makes a lot of money off of them.
In my opinion, many of the Netscape users have converted to Firefox.
In my own experience, two years ago I have been a Netscape user and in fact, remember version 1.0 with the "beating N" and even version 0.94 beta at work on a Sun Solaris machine. I made the switch to Firefox at the time and one item that got me to switch was the built-in pop-up blocker. A big item in my book especially with the in your face obnoxious marketing.
I remember a few years back when AOL bought out Netscape, in my opinion, that was the start of Netscape going downhill especially all the extra crap such as inserting their crap into your bookmarks with useless links. Even if you remove it, it was placed back in there the next time you run it.
I plan on staying with Firefox for now. I am looking at the new "SeaMonkey".
Here is an interesting problem. You as a telecommuter live about at least 200+ miles from the nearest work center. Will the company pay for the expense of you to move in closer plus the cost of housing ? Some people might choose to live in rural areas since cost of living such as property is much cheaper than living in a big city.
In my experience. I live in Colorado. In my old job with a manager who was an asshat, it mentioned to me that if I wanted to continue to work, I should consider jobs in the Washing DC area. I asked if there would be relocation reimbursements. He told me of course not. With my refusal to move to the East Coast, he told me it would be detrimental to my career. I am still paying for my refusal such as getting turned down for a promotion. The company I work for, if you are turned down for a promotion, you cannot apply for another one for at least 2 years.
Over the years, I have always been an independent thinker and has many times got me in trouble with those in position of authority especially in the corporate world.
Looking back on my education, I went to a well known Jesuit H.S. in Indianapolis back in the early to mid 1980's. It was the best education I ever had especially with the good teachers I had. At least 70% of the teachers I had encouraged you to think and question what was going on including the rules. The administration took the questioning in stride. But also in that day, we didn't live in a zero tolerance mindset either.
I have been working in the corporate world for about 16 years. The people I have encountered there especially those "in charge" have not been so enlightening. These experiences are similar to those experiences when I went to public schools through 8th grade. In the job I had up until last October, I don't know how many times I have been called to my manager's office and taken to task for violating some ridiculous rule. I also got in trouble for things I have done outside the office even such as getting an out-of-state speeding ticket while on vacation or speaking against the Real ID Act.
I got fired from one job for voicing my opinion on the Internet against political correctness back in the 1990's. The company will remain unnamed but it filed a lawsuit which helped break up the AT&T monopoly and it went bankrupt back in 2002 during the corporate scandals. It was a major telecom company.
Remember, the Real ID Act was passed as a rider on a must-pass bill. It was never discussed or debated ! It is a bad law that was insisted on by Rep. Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr. He is heir to Kimberly-Clark fortune. Ironic, the company bought another company that makes RFID devices. Kind of a conflict of interest.
Anti Real ID items can be found at WikiPedia Real ID Act. There are some items concerning activism to kill the act. One of them is getting states to refuse to go along, therefore, causing the whole deck of cards to fall.
Since I have been in the wonderful world of DoD contracting, SS#'s are quite popular to use even down to compliance training for a long time. Our company is now starting to get away from using that number. Now, you have an employee number. My Emp # is 002xxx. Easier than a SS#. It should be that only Payroll has you SS# and no one else. A year ago, my manager from my old job demanded my SS# which I refused to give. I got a pretty nasty reprimand for it. I basically as ked him why and then mentioned that he didn't need the number. It pissed him off !
Now dealing with the gov't, they are pretty insistent on that number.
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I m now almost 46 years old. I worked as a Unix Sys Admin for many years. Since January 2008, got laid off with my previous employer (major DoD company based out of Maryland), did some part time teaching with a local university and still doing it today and now work for a DB company now. What caught my eye in this article is someone older is not willing to relocate. I have lived in Colorado since 1995 and there are very few places I would consider living elsewhere. Top of my list is New Zealand and then West Coast.
My previous employer came to me one day and told me I had to relocate to the Washington DC area for the same pay, barely enough money to rent a moving truck and I had to take vacation time to move. When I asked for more, I was told either move to Virginia or it was the door. I took the door. A month after I got laid off, I got a part time teaching position and still doing it to this day and really like it and would eventually like to get out of the corporate world for good and do teaching full time.
Relocation to the East Coast especially the Washington DC area doesn't "float my boat". Totally different lifestyle there where putting in 40 hours is considered slacking off, you are expected to attend company sponsored community events outside of your work hours and you are expected to like dressing up as well.
When he took over when he was an Army Colonel, he cracked down on various items. When he retired from the Army, a slot was made for him to remain there. Below are the list of various items he did:
On the dress code aspect, when he took over as colonel, he made an example out of a couple of Sys Admins when they showed to a meeting in blue jeans and sandals. He had them fired on the spot and escorted of the premises and off the base. A friend who worked there prior to when he showed up mentioned the place was fun to work at. When he did nights and weekends, they didn't care if you showed up dressed for comfort. When the colonel showed up that changed ! He also took away the traditional Hawaiian Shirt Friday as well. He also cracked down on people who left early on Friday, another "tradition" in the DoD contracting world.
When the colonel took over, he didn't consider the culture of the place at the time plus the culture of Colorado which is considered very casual like in dress. One thing not mentioned until now, his additional degrees are from East Coast schools like U. of Virginia. With formal rules being more important than getting the job done, the dynamic changed for the worst. I really don't to go back to that facility as long as he is there. I still keep in contact with some people who still work there. One day, there was a water problem where all the bathrooms were shutdown but people were told they could NOT leave for home early and to keep working. The basement of the building has been converted to "cube farms" from basically storage. One thing not included was more bathrooms. Even for the men you have to wait 5 or 10 minutes for a toilet stall to open up. A lot of times there are several people waiting for each stall. Complaints have so far been ignored.
- Implemented a strict dress code that applies at all times including weekends and nights. Facility operates on a 24/7 schedule
- Not allow for Hawaiian shirts on Fri even though it is a military tradition
- Not permit flex scheduling like leave early on Friday's
- Schedule an all-hands meeting for 3 or 4 on Friday afternoon and did that routinely.
- Implement strict rules on Internet surfing such as not allowing you to change options on IE. Firefox and Netscape not allowed. The options does not allow you to bypass pop-up commercials.
- Put in a boat load of offices and cubicles in the basement but did not put in matching capacity for bathrooms. People complained and his response that if you didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes to use the toilet, then it is considered sufficient.
- On the subject of bathrooms, when he went to use the toilet, he would kick everyone else out.
- Implemented a traffic safety hotline where you can get reported for speeding and then get disciplined when you got into work. He tried to implement a vehicle inspection program since he complained about modified vehicles such as trucks and his pet peeve was dark window tinting. Luckily he was shot down on that.
Overall, this person thought he was so important.I remembered getting on the Internet back in 1994. The browsers available was Mosaic and Netscape 1.0 with the "beating" N. This was on Windows 3.1 with a dial-up connection. There no screen backgrounds yet and the best of all, no annoying pop-up ads. Web pages actually had useful information instead of useless marketing drivel especially looking for technical information on company web sites.
Around the time of Jul 1995, I left Indiana and took a job at MCI in Colorado Springs, CO. We had Sun Solaris machines running Solaris 2.4 and I ran Netscape on the machine. It was Netscape 0.94. At home, I ran Win 3.11 WFW and Linux with kernel 1.1.59. I downloaded a copy of Netscape but the version was 0.94. I didn't quite have Linux working with a dial-up Internet connection yet so I was stuck running Internet on Windows.
I remembered when Netscape got bought out by AOL, it was a sad day. In my mind, I knew that AOL was going to ruin it and in some ways, they did and now, Netscape is no more. Before Netscape got bought out, I would have enjoyed working for them especially at the start of the Dot-Com era.
I went to college in the last half of the 1980's for my undergrad. At the time, the RIAA was working very hard to push for the tax on blank cassette tapes. Fliers were frequently posted around campus strongly urging students to write to gov't officials to bring in the tax. The school administrators would frequently mention that the RIAA needed our support and to write our letters. Most students saw it for what it was, bullshit.
At the time also, Digital Audio Tape (DAT) was in its infancy and there was a lot of discussion concerning it especially implementing copy control. The DAT players were too expensive to become a concern to school administrators unlike the music downloads of today.
My personal connection. I bought the CD's but I made cassette tapes off the CD's for use in my car since CD players were very expensive at the time and if CD's are left in the car, they were subject to wide temperature variations or being stolen. I made copies to Metal (Type IV) tape. The pre-recorded tapes were of cheap materials and were subject to becoming breakfast to the tape player.
I actually thought of applying for jobs where I would some work related to the South Pole which includes going there. What not too many people know is the NY National Guard fly through Christchurch, New Zealand. Having been to NZ, I am interested in doing a job where I can go there several times each year, of course on the company dime instead of my own. I have been looking at the Raytheon Polar Services web site for positions.
If you haven't been to NZ, once you been there, you don't want to leave.
When the legislation for the Real ID Act was crafted back in 2005, it was the same language that was passed by the House in 2004 concerning intel reform. It was known as the 9/11 Implementation Act of 2004 (HR10). One of the clauses required states to sign the Driver License Agreement (DLA) which states had to share their driver license databases not only between the states but also jurisdictions in Canada and Mexico. The Real ID Act language was crafted by bureaucrats within the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). When the Intel Reform legislation went to conference committee in the Fall of 2004, the biggest pissing match concerned the Real ID Act language.
Representative Sensenbrenner fought hard to retain this but lost the battle. He allowed the Intel legislation to go forward based upon a promise of a vote on his bill in 2005 which he got. It passed the house without discussion and without debate. It got over to the Senate and it sat. It got railroaded through on the Iraq War funding and tsunami bill which was a must pass bill. Sensenbrenner mentioned that even though no one wanted this, it was going to be a rider on a must pass bill and it will "ride as a passenger" on the train out of the house and be passed. He got his way !
The best thing is to toss this bad piece of law into the trash.
Now concerning the DLA, it is another badly written piece of law. Only a couple of states has signed this - CT, AR that I know of. This DLA should suffer a death as well especially with the database sharing requirement. States that are signatory to the DLA must share their DL data with all jurisdictions, not just only other DLA jurisdictions but also non-DLA jurisdictions as well. Corrupt officials in Mexico would have a field day especially if they deal with a person on vacation who happens to be licensed in a DLA state. Identity theft would be a big thing !
Both the Real ID Act and the DLA deserve a quick death. Rebellion by the states will help this greatly.
One thing that has to be considered on cross country trips is the ramifications of traffic violations in the different states and what is does to your license back at home. Today, almost all states communicate with each other on traffic violations committed by non-residents. There are only 3 states in the Union that don't consider minor offenses from other states - CO, NY, PA (no points, no record - NY will assess points for Ontario and Quebec Tickets by special agreement). A few states (MD, WI, NV) will post the violation to your record but assess no points and most states will assess points for out of state offenses. Major offenses would be a different issue such as alcohol related. The offenses that could be written up include reckless driving and I am not sure how those states that don't assess points for out of state offenses would deal with reckless driving.
There are a few states that treat speeding very harshly such as Virginia (automatic reckless driving over 80 mph or greater than 20 over the limit), North Carolina (over 80 mph or greater than 15 over the limit earns a form of license suspension) to name a few.
Assuming Alex has a NY driver's license, he would not to worry too much especially if he has an attorney to plead down major charges. I myself have a CO license and have a share of out of state tickets but not doing something like 120 mph but doing something like up to 25 mph over the limit. In fact my last two speeding tickets were something like 10 mph over the limit in Missouri and Indiana. I have family back in the midwest such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois so usually my tickets are received between CO and Ohio. We even got pulled over in Ohio for tinted windows.
On the reciprocity part especially with today's computers, if you get your license suspended in a different state, more than likely, you will get suspended at home. Your name will be posted on the National Driving Registry/Problem Driver Pointer System (NDR/PDPS) if you get suspended by your home state or a differnt state. The NDR/PDPS would be a tool to prevent you from getting a license in a different state. For myself, I have points in Missouri for a ticket I got more than a year ago (May 2006). Some states in addition to reporting the ticket to your home state will also open up a point file on you as well. This can snare poeple like out of state college students. Ohio does this as well. My brother went to school in Ohio, held an Indiana license back in the early 1980's. Ohio at the time didn't report tickets to other states. He was a ticket away from being suspended in Ohio but he had a clean record in Indiana. I got a speeding ticket myself in Ohio back in 1986 right before Ohio joined the compact.
Coming down the pipe unfortunately and the Real ID Act has something to do with this is the requirement that states communicate with each other - share databases. Don't know how extensive this will be yet since it is still being worked out. Another item is the Driver License Compact (DLC) and Non-Resident Violator Compact (NRVC) will be replaced by the Driver License Agreement (DLA) which is more harsher. The DLA will require states to share their whole databases not only with other US juridictions but also must share with Canadian and Mexican jurisdictions as well. In addition, there are no loopholes for blowing off parking violations unlike today with the NRVC. The sharing with foreign countries combined with identity theft was why the DLA was the most controversial element of the Real ID Act. The mandate for states to sign the DLA was removed from the final bill that was signed into law. Connecticut has signed the DLA and they will pull your license for blowing off an out of state parking ticket. In addition, some states don't like tinted windows
The same thing was done with the Real ID Act. I tried to ask some questions on why include the Driver License Agreement which would put traffic tickets and driver records on a North American "Ledger" where records can be accessed ranging from Nunavut all the way down to Cancun and farther. When I contacted the House Judiciary which was chaired by Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr, I was told in no uncertain terms that it was none of my g------d business. Seems like the sunshine laws from the 1960's/1970's are being eroded away. Even some states want to jump on the secrecy bandwagon as well.
Kind of funny that I don't quite agree totally with the Republican or Democrat side on these issues.
I am in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration - not here legally, leave the country and go back home and apply to immigrate here. However, Real ID is not needed and it is a de-facto National ID card, plain and simple. There is no place for it here in the USA. There is no need for linking driver databases or the Tri-National Driver License Agreement. The Real ID should be repealed and anyone and everyone should Contact Congress and demand its repeal and do it while the Democrats control Congress. Rather than having laws that curtail civil liberties of US citizens, we need to first enforce the laws on the books instead of the typical attitude of looking the other way. Each time the gov't has a shortcoming of enforcing their laws, they pass more laws and we citizens get punished for it. This vicious cycle needs to end.
On the legal immigration issue, I have expressed interest in leaving the USA such as go live in New Zealand. However, I would do ths the legal way though. I went there after Christmas for vacation and when I went through immigration, my passport was stamped with a 3 month visitor permit with an expiration 3 months after the date of the stamp which is the arrival date. The stamp mentioned that if I was in NZ after 3 months (past the expiration date), I was subject to being deported from the country. If I wanted to be there longer than 3 months, I would have to go to NZ immigration and ask for an extention of the permit. At that point, they would extend it or not. If not, I have to leave before the expiration date. Simple rules. It is something we should expect of those who visit the USA or any other country. BTW, the permit did not allow me to earn an income there. That is a different permit which takes paperwork to get. I am too old (older than 30) to get a Working Holiday Permit like many young people get such as college students and recent graduates.
I took 3 weeks off from work and went backpacking in New Zealand. I took my iBook with me but I got a used one. I stayed in YHA Hostels for the whole trip. Something to check is if the hostels has some good lockers. The Christchurch City Hostel had good lockers. Pay a few dollars, drop you laptop and other valuables especially Passport for the day/night and not worry. I was discreet of making sure no one saw me drop anything into the locker so as not to draw attention. The only Hostel I couldn't find a locker was in Rotorua.
I have this idea of "Management makes a difference". I worked for managers that I liked and respected. For those people, I went out of my way to help them out and to make them look good. I had a few managers that were total jerks and I would only put in the minimum necessary.
My line of work is being a Unix Sys Admin. One of the jerks was so bad, I was responsible for many different things but yet, I was not permitted to make the decision to decide the course of the outcomes. My hands were tied so his favored boys can look good. They could do no wrong. I had to constantly deal with their screw ups.
My last several months in the place got so bad that when I went to go to the bathroom (#2), when I get finished, I get hassled such as being asked, "where were you". It was then followed by, "let me know where you are at if it is more than 5 minutes and I want to know what you are doing". I basically told him it was none of his business when I went the the bathroom. I then said, "do I need to raise my hand like in grade school so I can go take a dump ?"
I had an opportunity to interview at a different job, same company, I took a Thursday afternoon off. We have flex time. He found out and mentioned to me that I had to ask his permission to take time off for the interview. When I got an offer, I was out of there ! Right before I left, he tried to sabotage my departure. A "contact" told me that he tried to find some adverse paperwork on me. The paperwork was luckily withheld.
The gist of it was, why didn't I pull something like this ? Well, there is integrity even dealing with the biggest asshole manager. I respected my co-workers and didn't want them to have to deal with a mess. When I left, I mentioned to my co-worker that if he needed anything, give me a call directly and not go through my former manager. I told him if my former manager wanted anything, his request would be flatly be denied.
Downside, you also got Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr - the sponsor the the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act as well. People are now becoming aware of the Real ID Act and it will get ugly ! I hope the 110th Congress will have enough sense to repeal the damn thing ! Even though I side more with Republican when it comes to financial freedom (low taxes) and true support of smaller gov't, I would vote for his Democratic opponent and even give money to him just to get rid of Sensenbrenner if I lived in the district. I have been thinking of ignoring the Republicans and voting for 3rd parties like Libertarian or Constitution.
I will support Rep. Ron Paul for President if he is in the primary.
The controversial section required states to sign a new compact as written by the AAMVA which is composed of high level executives from law enforcement and motor vehicle agencies. The compact is called Driver License Agreement (DLA). The AAMVA is pushing the DLA pretty hard and we need to keep an eye on state legislatures to make sure it does not pass. The AAMVA is even using Federal money from NHTSA to get states to sign it. NHTSA is an organization in the Federal Gov't that supported draconian enforcement of traffic laws and are big proponents of a 55 mph speed limit. They also refuse to change regulations to allow our headlights to be improved and get to the level of the European spec headlamps.
In addition to the data sharing from the agreement, it would require traffic violations to be reported and ant state who has signed it MUST put it on record with POINTS. Even down to the in-consequential minor violation such as no front license plate. Most states do not put equipment, registration and parking violations on a driver's record. With the DLA, they MUST put it on.
Unlike the Driver License Compact (DLC) and the Non Resident Violator Compact (NRVC) which was written with imput from State Legislatures, the DLA was written without their input. Most states that sign those two compacts pretty well follow the views of them but some states like Colorado and a few others do not assign points for minor out of state traffic offenses. On the NRVC, another state cannot ask your home state to pull your license for blowing off such minor tickets such as parking or registration violations and it is mainly aimed for moving violations such as speeding.
The AAMVA is a Non-Governmental Organization that proposes and pushes policy very hard but yet, they are not subject to open door laws. If you go to their web site, many items related to the DLA are locked out with a Username/Password combination. When Rep. Sensenbrenner pushed the Real ID Act back in 2005, I inquired about the DLA and in no uncertain terms, I was told that is was none of my business !
If Congress refuses to significantly change the Real ID Act, then rebellion is the way to make it fail. The Act is built on a flimsy deck of cards. If a few of the most populated states like CA, NY, IL, MI, TX decide to blow it off. The Federal Gov't would be in a bind. On one hand, if they enforce it, it will kill the airline industry. On the other hand, if they don't enforce it, they are disobeying the law that Congress passed.
It needs to be completely repealed. It was passed without discussion, without debate. It became law as a "rider" on a must-pass piece of legislation. With the Democrat Congress, its demise is more likely. We should contact Contact Congress and ask the law be repealed completely concerning the driver's license provisions.
Very few people remembered the incentive licensing debacle of around 1963. For those who were licensed, after a certain date, you lost privileges such as frequencies to operate on unless you moved up to higher classes by taking the exams. The "Extra" ticket was one of the items from incentive licensing. Another effect from it was a lot of the ham radio stores went out of business and companies like Hallicrafters, Hammerlund, National lost business and ended up folding.
Japan for many years did not require code even contrary to old ITU regulations. Because of this, they have many Hams and as a result, a good electronics industry.
Seems like in the USA, the politicians keep making policies where we keep screwing ourselves. We outsourced manufacturing - a place where a blue collar workers can make a decent living and live a decent lifestyle. We are in the process of outsourcing our computer industry which provides good income for many people. Just for a short term buck, we f*ck ourselves in the long run !
This change in policy is forward thinking for once. I got my General Class license back in 1983 (with 13 wpm) and Advanced in 1993. I thought about the Extra ticket but haven't had the time. One guy I remembered from grad school got his Extra ticket right before the 13 & 20 wpm exams went away permanently back around 2000.
In my job, technically our company has core hours from 9am to 3pm but on Friday, management basically looks the other way. The place is a ghost town before 12 Noon. Occasionally, we have executives who like doing a 3pm Fri afternoon meeting and management has to go aorund the day before and threaten us if we don't show for the meeting. I still ignore the meeting since I have other plans and they usually announce the meeting the day before. I use "kids" as an excuse to blow off the meeting.
Being originally from Indiana and the formerly well known Coach Bobby Knight, his unadultered commentary shows up as well. I looked his name up on YouTube. One of them is a half-time tirade in the locker room.
Here is the link. Hilarious to listen to but BE FORWARNED, his speech will make a sailor blush. If Coach Knight found about this audio being posted, the team will catch hell even if this was recorded a few years ago !
If this case is found in favor of Ms. Foster, Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organization (RICO) charges and lawsuit should be filed against the RIAA.
An interesting item, since I am into Japanese Anime, there is an interesting movie called Interstella 5555 where a record executive kidnaps a rock group from another planet and then brings them to Earth and makes a lot of money off of them.
5: The City Attorney should be disbarred - have his law license permanently pulled.
In my opinion, many of the Netscape users have converted to Firefox.
In my own experience, two years ago I have been a Netscape user and in fact, remember version 1.0 with the "beating N" and even version 0.94 beta at work on a Sun Solaris machine. I made the switch to Firefox at the time and one item that got me to switch was the built-in pop-up blocker. A big item in my book especially with the in your face obnoxious marketing.
I remember a few years back when AOL bought out Netscape, in my opinion, that was the start of Netscape going downhill especially all the extra crap such as inserting their crap into your bookmarks with useless links. Even if you remove it, it was placed back in there the next time you run it.
I plan on staying with Firefox for now. I am looking at the new "SeaMonkey".
Here is an interesting problem. You as a telecommuter live about at least 200+ miles from the nearest work center. Will the company pay for the expense of you to move in closer plus the cost of housing ? Some people might choose to live in rural areas since cost of living such as property is much cheaper than living in a big city.
In my experience. I live in Colorado. In my old job with a manager who was an asshat, it mentioned to me that if I wanted to continue to work, I should consider jobs in the Washing DC area. I asked if there would be relocation reimbursements. He told me of course not. With my refusal to move to the East Coast, he told me it would be detrimental to my career. I am still paying for my refusal such as getting turned down for a promotion. The company I work for, if you are turned down for a promotion, you cannot apply for another one for at least 2 years.
Over the years, I have always been an independent thinker and has many times got me in trouble with those in position of authority especially in the corporate world.
Looking back on my education, I went to a well known Jesuit H.S. in Indianapolis back in the early to mid 1980's. It was the best education I ever had especially with the good teachers I had. At least 70% of the teachers I had encouraged you to think and question what was going on including the rules. The administration took the questioning in stride. But also in that day, we didn't live in a zero tolerance mindset either.
I have been working in the corporate world for about 16 years. The people I have encountered there especially those "in charge" have not been so enlightening. These experiences are similar to those experiences when I went to public schools through 8th grade. In the job I had up until last October, I don't know how many times I have been called to my manager's office and taken to task for violating some ridiculous rule. I also got in trouble for things I have done outside the office even such as getting an out-of-state speeding ticket while on vacation or speaking against the Real ID Act.
I got fired from one job for voicing my opinion on the Internet against political correctness back in the 1990's. The company will remain unnamed but it filed a lawsuit which helped break up the AT&T monopoly and it went bankrupt back in 2002 during the corporate scandals. It was a major telecom company.
Remember, the Real ID Act was passed as a rider on a must-pass bill. It was never discussed or debated ! It is a bad law that was insisted on by Rep. Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr. He is heir to Kimberly-Clark fortune. Ironic, the company bought another company that makes RFID devices. Kind of a conflict of interest.
Anti Real ID items can be found at WikiPedia Real ID Act. There are some items concerning activism to kill the act. One of them is getting states to refuse to go along, therefore, causing the whole deck of cards to fall.
Since I have been in the wonderful world of DoD contracting, SS#'s are quite popular to use even down to compliance training for a long time. Our company is now starting to get away from using that number. Now, you have an employee number. My Emp # is 002xxx. Easier than a SS#. It should be that only Payroll has you SS# and no one else. A year ago, my manager from my old job demanded my SS# which I refused to give. I got a pretty nasty reprimand for it. I basically as ked him why and then mentioned that he didn't need the number. It pissed him off !
Now dealing with the gov't, they are pretty insistent on that number.