Negative option exists in varying degrees of 'scammy'. When I was a kid, my friends and I would join Columbia House or BMG, get our 12-for-a-penny, buy four more, cancel, rinse, repeat. We were high-school kids and we knew the 'negative option' part of it was BS. But the 16 for the cost of 4 was a good deal.
It was a good deal for the record company, too. The albums we received were 'special' labeled ones--it was obvious they were not the same as you'd get off the shelves at a record store. Our theory was that BMG or Columbia would just run off ten or twenty thousand more than they expected to sell once the machines were set up. Pure profit for them; probably didn't pay the artists either. No way of knowing if this was true; this was just our guess.
Anyhow, there you have it--it was very clear up front what the deal was, we all agreed to it and we all got what we expected.
This surprise negative option--this is sneaky and deceptive. To me it smells fishy, and I know if it smells fishy, don't eat it. I bought 'USB3' memory sticks from Amazon because they were a good brand at a good price and they were "USB3" sticks. Oh, in my hurry I didn't read the review--They're USB2, but they work in USB3 ports. Well, hell, all USB2 works in USB3 ports. Oops. Well, shit. They got me.
Blaming the victim is self-delusion. "They won't get me because I'm smart. Those people were dumb. Or greedy. Or whatever...." Awareness means knowing I might not smell the next one; the scammers do this all day every day and they're good at it.
How much time and attention do I need to devote to not getting ripped off? It's fucking exhausting. Sometimes the scammers win. Sometimes they miss. A number of times, the scammers simply get thrown into a wood chipper feet first.
Had the same problem--the thing leaked like a sieve. OK, I know it's supposed to do that as it *is* a sieve...but it leaked clear water everywhere, not coffee out the bottom.
Turns out there's supposed to be an O-Ring in a groove in the lid. Bought a 6-pack of new ones from aliexpress or amazon (forget which); they all had the rings intact. Now all the coffee goes in the coffee cup.
Here's a picture you can see where the ring goes. (This isn't the one we use and I have no idea if this one is worth a darn. But it's orange & you can see the black O-ring easily in the pic)
Hmmm... I think TSA outrage in this one is unwarranted.
The visible bullets in the "ammo-belt" are pretty hokey looking, but if you were trying to sneak in some live ammo, just spray paint a couple of rounds & swap 'em out. Hiding a grain of sand at the beach.
with not necessary. You gotta have the skills to do the job.
And if you look around for two seconds you'll also see that technical skills alone can be sufficient--in sufficient force.
If your technical skills in *any* profession--musician, carpenter, race car driver, professional athlete, and even engineer--are good enough, you can be an asshole and still keep your job.
BUT--that doesn't mean that if you're a nice enough person they'll let your incompetence slide.
Has seen them naked. How is this news for nerds or anyone else for that matter? Or are you just trying to say 'you know, we could have let it slip that you're into...'
Everyone already knows cops have the best dope & it has the best porn.
At RPI (a geek school), whenever Star Trek was on they put it up on the big TV in the student union. If you pass through the first floor of the union between classes and see a hundred people all looking at the TV, that's what you expect to see. They weren't watching Star Trek.
I still remember those demon horns curling into the sky and thinking WTF is this? For a while the fear was that we'd build something so complex that we couldn't maintain it for long enough to use it. still get a chill thinking about that day
Testing software on a Sunday and posting on/. while I wait on the testbed...
It's because when there's work to do somebody needs to do it. If we're flexible, then we get to be those people.
Anyhow my employer's policy is--If you're willing to give +40, you're asked to do it when things are busy. Some folks that *will* not work more than 40. Those folks aren't asked to. As long as you say what you will do and do what you say, nobody here has a problem with it. Enough of us are willing so that when things are slack he doesn't have to lay people off. OBTW--someone who works for no money is called a slave. We get paid for every hour we put in.
When things got really bad in our industry around 2008, we took pay cuts (boss cut his pay to zero first--really zero, not bogus boss zero with stock options).
In 20 years of working for this company we have never had to let someone go due to lack of available work.
BTW, if you know ControlLogix programming, give me a shout. It's pretty busy 'round here!
Rather than "heavy" hydrogen, (one neutron) you'd do better with two of them (heavy, heavy...) Less velocity (lower temperature) is required to overcome the EM force and get close enough for the strong force to take over. Of course, acquiring it is more problematic than the regular "heavy" stuff. But once you're producing a good flux of neutrons you could shield with water then refine and extract the fuel.
It took about 5 minutes for me, but had to be *total* dakness. So dark I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or shut. This was in a lab where we were doin nuclear emission spectroscopy (just gas discharge tubes). Any outside light would pollute the results, so the lab was really dark until we turned on the juice. During that period I could see as clearly as i'm seeing this screen flowing sheets of glowing pastel paint sliding down a wall that wasn't there. Not true hallucinations of course--by definition if you know it's not real it's not a hallucination. Phosphenes I think they were called.
Anyhow, very beautiful and unusual. I don't think my lab partners saw anything--at least they didn't say they did. Or they were afraid people would think they were nuts.
Later i blacked out my dorm room & reproduced the effect. And learned it's really hard to produce absolute darkness. Tinfoil is *full* of tiny holes! And black paint is not as opaque as it seems.
Psychology is today where Medicine was 200 years ago. There's nothing inherently wrong with treating behavioral maladies, and such treatment could eventually be classified as medicine. It's just not there yet.
(He also didn't have a very high opinion of chiropractors...)
Ignorance is perceived as "deviant" rather than normal? That is the most absurd concept I've come across in a long time, but it explains a *LOT*.
Look, knowing what you don't know is pretty fscking precious. I love my ignorance. It's how I learn something! I'm at my boss's house fixing his network because I missed something when setting it up. Before I left to go here he told me 'Well, you'll learn something when you're done'. And I did and it works now!
Now you tell me that the "norm" (and the Cliff, too apparently) is to deny your own ignorance? How do you learn anything? How else do you try to integrate all the things you know and throw out the stuff that's obviously wrong? Apparently critical thought is dead except for those that actually have to get things done!
Go in a factory where parts need to come off of the line and be correct and saleable--and if you screw something up people can lose fingers, eyes, or lives. Managers can BS people, but debating against reality is pretty ineffective! Trades & Techs--the ones that have stuck around for a while, at least--are pretty damned happy when they know they don't know something--there's not much other way to find where to look in order to get the machines running and running safely!
I guess Lovecraft was right all along:
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
Not Mercenaries--we have those; just call them "private contractors" e.g. Blackwater. Just draw up a list of "enemies" and authorize anyone who asks to attack them.
Only difference now is you don't have to be on a ship to attack a foreign power--you don't even have to leave your house! You keep the booty as compensation for your risk & expense.
He never got to the moon, but he found a way to make the trip profitable--thereby assuring that *someone* would go. By the time the technical problems were solved and commercial tickets were available, he was too frail to make the trip.
Friends, I am hear to bear witness! Once I lived in darkness and sin, and I have suffered the pain of my transgressions.
I kept one copy--yes friends--one copy only-- of data I believed was important. One fateful day Providence saw fit to show me the error of my ways. The foundation of rust on which my data was build collapsed into the sea of oblivion and the data thereon was lost forever to the void. Yes, Lost! Lost and without hope of salvation! But this was a blessing, Friends, a blessing and a revelation for it was at that moment of humiliation and regret that the truth was shown to this poor sinner!
(cue rising electric organ chord)
That data is gone and despite our mournful remembrance of our departed files, they can never be brought back from their eternal sleep. But, friends, that data was not important. For verily it is written that none may know the hour that the data will be lost, only that the data will be lost. And it is also written that data of which there is only one copy is not important data.
Brethren (and Sistren...) do not repeat my error and sin! Learn from my sin and my shame and join me in salvation!
Use ye a robust and mature filesystem with many protective features as self-checking, and multiple parity. Yea, I say unto you multiple parity. Spend ye a small sum today for truly I say to ye that if ye are afraid to purchase an additional drive, then surely professional data recovery is beyond your means! Trust not in single parity for it is written that filesystems have grow huge in our greed for virtual machines, high resolution, and hoarding. Yea, though RAID5 was once a stalwart guardian against the failure of a single drive, RAID5 is dead and its promises are vanity for surely on the day the first drive fails thou shalt begin to rebuild thy array and before thou canst complete thy task the second drive shall fail and on that day there will be no salvation but only the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Scrub ye regularly thy filesystem and furthermore perform regular smart long tests, but never at the same time, for it is written that a scrub and a long test shall persist unto eternity and never complete. Implement well thy automated email notices and read thoroughly thy notices every week. When thy status report does not arrive at the appointed hour and when thy daemon sends thee an unexpected email, remain not idle but take action to investigate and resolve thy anomalies.
When thee hast constructed and filled a robust and well-monitored filesystem name it thy primary file server and do not rest in false security, but instead do the same a second time call this thy secondary file server. Locate ye thy secondary server in a place separate and apart from thy primary server and schedule ye regular backups from the primary to the backup filesystem. Monitor ye well the status of the backups and should the report of successful replication fail to arrive at the appointed time, investigate thy primary and secondary servers and all the links between. For in truth it is written that RAID is not a backup.
Go forth in peace my brothers and sisters in the knowledge that while it is inevitable that thy data will still someday be lost, this day will come to pass after all else has been lost and on this day the data will truly not be important.
Even if the "Smart" tv were open to modify I wouldn't buy it. I *like* the display and the cpu being in different boxes.
The TV needs to show me a decent watchable image. The htpc needs to fetch the video and turn it into something the TV can show me. With some pretty htpc skin if I want it.
If I want some new feature or to use some new codec that needs a bigger cpu I can get a 'new' $100-200 junkpile computer. That seems to be plenty to watch tv do low end web & email stuff from 10 feet away. You know--a smart TV.
Slashdot Mirror
Negative option exists in varying degrees of 'scammy'.
When I was a kid, my friends and I would join Columbia House or BMG, get our 12-for-a-penny, buy four more, cancel, rinse, repeat.
We were high-school kids and we knew the 'negative option' part of it was BS. But the 16 for the cost of 4 was a good deal.
It was a good deal for the record company, too. The albums we received were 'special' labeled ones--it was obvious they were not the same as you'd get off the shelves at a record store. Our theory was that BMG or Columbia would just run off ten or twenty thousand more than they expected to sell once the machines were set up. Pure profit for them; probably didn't pay the artists either. No way of knowing if this was true; this was just our guess.
Anyhow, there you have it--it was very clear up front what the deal was, we all agreed to it and we all got what we expected.
This surprise negative option--this is sneaky and deceptive. To me it smells fishy, and I know if it smells fishy, don't eat it.
I bought 'USB3' memory sticks from Amazon because they were a good brand at a good price and they were "USB3" sticks.
Oh, in my hurry I didn't read the review--They're USB2, but they work in USB3 ports. Well, hell, all USB2 works in USB3 ports. Oops.
Well, shit. They got me.
Blaming the victim is self-delusion. "They won't get me because I'm smart. Those people were dumb. Or greedy. Or whatever...."
Awareness means knowing I might not smell the next one; the scammers do this all day every day and they're good at it.
How much time and attention do I need to devote to not getting ripped off? It's fucking exhausting. Sometimes the scammers win. Sometimes they miss.
A number of times, the scammers simply get thrown into a wood chipper feet first.
Had the same problem--the thing leaked like a sieve.
OK, I know it's supposed to do that as it *is* a sieve...but it leaked clear water everywhere, not coffee out the bottom.
Turns out there's supposed to be an O-Ring in a groove in the lid. Bought a 6-pack of new ones from aliexpress or amazon (forget which); they all had the rings intact. Now all the coffee goes in the coffee cup.
Here's a picture you can see where the ring goes.
(This isn't the one we use and I have no idea if this one is worth a darn. But it's orange & you can see the black O-ring easily in the pic)
http://www.aliexpress.com/item...
https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc35...
Hmmm... I think TSA outrage in this one is unwarranted.
The visible bullets in the "ammo-belt" are pretty hokey looking, but if you were trying to sneak in some live ammo, just spray paint a couple of rounds & swap 'em out.
Hiding a grain of sand at the beach.
with not necessary.
You gotta have the skills to do the job.
And if you look around for two seconds you'll also see that technical skills alone can be sufficient--in sufficient force.
If your technical skills in *any* profession--musician, carpenter, race car driver, professional athlete, and even engineer--are good enough, you can be an asshole and still keep your job.
BUT--that doesn't mean that if you're a nice enough person they'll let your incompetence slide.
Has seen them naked. How is this news for nerds or anyone else for that matter?
Or are you just trying to say 'you know, we could have let it slip that you're into...'
Everyone already knows cops have the best dope & it has the best porn.
To gain your confidence.
That's why it's called 'conning' someone.
Meet the new boss.
At RPI (a geek school), whenever Star Trek was on they put it up on the big TV in the student union.
If you pass through the first floor of the union between classes and see a hundred people all looking at the TV, that's what you expect to see.
They weren't watching Star Trek.
I still remember those demon horns curling into the sky and thinking WTF is this?
For a while the fear was that we'd build something so complex that we couldn't maintain it for long enough to use it.
still get a chill thinking about that day
Testing software on a Sunday and posting on /. while I wait on the testbed...
It's because when there's work to do somebody needs to do it.
If we're flexible, then we get to be those people.
Anyhow my employer's policy is--If you're willing to give +40, you're asked to do it when things are busy.
Some folks that *will* not work more than 40. Those folks aren't asked to.
As long as you say what you will do and do what you say, nobody here has a problem with it.
Enough of us are willing so that when things are slack he doesn't have to lay people off.
OBTW--someone who works for no money is called a slave. We get paid for every hour we put in.
When things got really bad in our industry around 2008, we took pay cuts (boss cut his pay to zero first--really zero, not bogus boss zero with stock options).
In 20 years of working for this company we have never had to let someone go due to lack of available work.
BTW, if you know ControlLogix programming, give me a shout. It's pretty busy 'round here!
cybertank. Bleah. Touch screen at half past 5. Time to get up and walk dogs.
lenny has better things to do (or worse things to not do)
No dinochrome brigade...for now.
ok i read my sig. It's the same as before.
do you know what that 'whoosh' sound you heard was?
Geez, i even gave you a link.
Rather than "heavy" hydrogen, (one neutron) you'd do better with two of them (heavy, heavy...)
Less velocity (lower temperature) is required to overcome the EM force and get close enough for the strong force to take over.
Of course, acquiring it is more problematic than the regular "heavy" stuff. But once you're producing a good flux of neutrons you could shield with water then refine and extract the fuel.
Ref the 1991 publication by Knopfler et. al., wherein the hypothesis is presented.
It took about 5 minutes for me, but had to be *total* dakness. So dark I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or shut. This was in a lab where we were doin nuclear emission spectroscopy (just gas discharge tubes). Any outside light would pollute the results, so the lab was really dark until we turned on the juice.
During that period I could see as clearly as i'm seeing this screen flowing sheets of glowing pastel paint sliding down a wall that wasn't there.
Not true hallucinations of course--by definition if you know it's not real it's not a hallucination. Phosphenes I think they were called.
Anyhow, very beautiful and unusual. I don't think my lab partners saw anything--at least they didn't say they did. Or they were afraid people would think they were nuts.
Later i blacked out my dorm room & reproduced the effect. And learned it's really hard to produce absolute darkness. Tinfoil is *full* of tiny holes! And black paint is not as opaque as it seems.
Best yet, the Chinese are keeping their end up. So, you know...Firefly...
Psychology is today where Medicine was 200 years ago.
There's nothing inherently wrong with treating behavioral maladies, and such treatment could eventually be classified as medicine.
It's just not there yet.
(He also didn't have a very high opinion of chiropractors...)
Ignorance is perceived as "deviant" rather than normal?
That is the most absurd concept I've come across in a long time, but it explains a *LOT*.
Look, knowing what you don't know is pretty fscking precious.
I love my ignorance. It's how I learn something! I'm at my boss's house fixing his network because I missed something when setting it up.
Before I left to go here he told me 'Well, you'll learn something when you're done'.
And I did and it works now!
Now you tell me that the "norm" (and the Cliff, too apparently) is to deny your own ignorance? How do you learn anything? How else do you try to integrate all the things you know and throw out the stuff that's obviously wrong?
Apparently critical thought is dead except for those that actually have to get things done!
Go in a factory where parts need to come off of the line and be correct and saleable--and if you screw something up people can lose fingers, eyes, or lives. Managers can BS people, but debating against reality is pretty ineffective! Trades & Techs--the ones that have stuck around for a while, at least--are pretty damned happy when they know they don't know something--there's not much other way to find where to look in order to get the machines running and running safely!
I guess Lovecraft was right all along:
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
Not Mercenaries--we have those; just call them "private contractors" e.g. Blackwater.
Just draw up a list of "enemies" and authorize anyone who asks to attack them.
Only difference now is you don't have to be on a ship to attack a foreign power--you don't even have to leave your house!
You keep the booty as compensation for your risk & expense.
There's certainly precedent for it.
That's not rhetorical. She isn't posting this; you are, and there's a reason.
You've already established that your wife doesn't want a 'job' in IT.
Go listen to her and find out what she wants. If she wants your help, help her.
"...it's relatively easier to find a job in IT than starting a new career..."
comes off a "IT folks and my wife can handle jobs, not careers".
Look for a big stone obelisk.
There's a guy named Kirok who knows some folks that can get it working.
You are absolutely correct and thank you!
I vaguely recalled reading that story, but couldn't find a reference to it, so thought I'd imagined it.
He never got to the moon, but he found a way to make the trip profitable--thereby assuring that *someone* would go.
By the time the technical problems were solved and commercial tickets were available, he was too frail to make the trip.
Friends, I am hear to bear witness! Once I lived in darkness and sin, and I have suffered the pain of my transgressions.
I kept one copy--yes friends--one copy only-- of data I believed was important.
One fateful day Providence saw fit to show me the error of my ways. The foundation of rust on which my data was build collapsed into the sea of oblivion and the data thereon was lost forever to the void. Yes, Lost! Lost and without hope of salvation!
But this was a blessing, Friends, a blessing and a revelation for it was at that moment of humiliation and regret that the truth was shown to this poor sinner!
(cue rising electric organ chord)
That data is gone and despite our mournful remembrance of our departed files, they can never be brought back from their eternal sleep.
But, friends, that data was not important. For verily it is written that none may know the hour that the data will be lost, only that the data will be lost. And it is also written that data of which there is only one copy is not important data.
Brethren (and Sistren...) do not repeat my error and sin! Learn from my sin and my shame and join me in salvation!
Use ye a robust and mature filesystem with many protective features as self-checking, and multiple parity.
Yea, I say unto you multiple parity. Spend ye a small sum today for truly I say to ye that if ye are afraid to purchase an additional drive, then surely professional data recovery is beyond your means! Trust not in single parity for it is written that filesystems have grow huge in our greed for virtual machines, high resolution, and hoarding. Yea, though RAID5 was once a stalwart guardian against the failure of a single drive, RAID5 is dead and its promises are vanity for surely on the day the first drive fails thou shalt begin to rebuild thy array and before thou canst complete thy task the second drive shall fail and on that day there will be no salvation but only the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Scrub ye regularly thy filesystem and furthermore perform regular smart long tests, but never at the same time, for it is written that a scrub and a long test shall persist unto eternity and never complete.
Implement well thy automated email notices and read thoroughly thy notices every week. When thy status report does not arrive at the appointed hour and when thy daemon sends thee an unexpected email, remain not idle but take action to investigate and resolve thy anomalies.
When thee hast constructed and filled a robust and well-monitored filesystem name it thy primary file server and do not rest in false security, but instead do the same a second time call this thy secondary file server. Locate ye thy secondary server in a place separate and apart from thy primary server and schedule ye regular backups from the primary to the backup filesystem. Monitor ye well the status of the backups and should the report of successful replication fail to arrive at the appointed time, investigate thy primary and secondary servers and all the links between. For in truth it is written that RAID is not a backup.
Go forth in peace my brothers and sisters in the knowledge that while it is inevitable that thy data will still someday be lost, this day will come to pass after all else has been lost and on this day the data will truly not be important.
Which *I* control.
Even if the "Smart" tv were open to modify I wouldn't buy it. I *like* the display and the cpu being in different boxes.
The TV needs to show me a decent watchable image.
The htpc needs to fetch the video and turn it into something the TV can show me. With some pretty htpc skin if I want it.
If I want some new feature or to use some new codec that needs a bigger cpu I can get a 'new' $100-200 junkpile computer.
That seems to be plenty to watch tv do low end web & email stuff from 10 feet away. You know--a smart TV.
http://popehat.com/2009/01/06/...
And decided to make a factory out of his one-man operation.
Hey, maybe he'll sue them for infringing on his copyrighted business model.