If you aren't going over the limit, don't sweat it. If you are going over the limit and have access to an ISP that offers a business or telecommuter plan with no limits, go ahead and make the switch.
AT&T lost me as a 15+ year ISP customer inherited from Bellsouth because their overage charges at 6 Mbps put my monthly bill within $20 of a Comcast business plan at 22 Mbps and no cap.
You can probably cover about 2/3 of the games in the market with one hand. Just about anything that runs turn-based should be fun, even without a hardware upgrade. This covers everything from a large swathe of the 4x strategy games, to most Rogue-like games to puzzlers.
If you add a new multi-button mouse or other OTS capability enhancers, racing games (limited control set) and single player RPGs (those that pause when you bring up inventory or other data screens) come into play. RTS may also work, but could cause trouble if some of the game actions aren't accessible from mouse menus.
For an RPG, you'd need that tab button, plus buttons for forward and backward movement, and a button to pick up things, when you add in the 2 standard buttons and the wheel, you're probably looking at an 8-button mouse as a minimum (you'll turn your facing to move sideways, unless you add more buttons). Some RPGs that require you to use keystrokes to enable special attacks could be problematic. You won't be taking on the really combat-oriented RPGs here.
MMOs and FPS are probably the last thing you'll be able to take on and feel competitive - they'll probably require a prosthetic or some alternate control mechanism to provide a full substitution for the "lost" hand. And whether you elect to go with additional hardware or not, the learning curve will hurt your gameplay for a while.
Finally, if your other arm has any useful movement that can be restored with PT, there's a good chance it can still be used for mashing the spacebar or a virtual equivalent. And best of luck to you dealing with this IRL as well as from a gaming perspective.
In selected cases where the patent is obvious or duplicated by prior art, yes a lawsuit is still trolling even if you actually make use of the invention..
Plenty of other sources for both the FBI and Anon: wireless carriers, Databases owned by Apps that harvest the UDIDs (now a banned practice, but whatever), malware on jailbroken devices.
Also, perhaps the data actually came from another federal agency such as NSA, or said agent was moonlighting for another agency?
Every party in this mystery has reason to be secretive, so it's fertile ground for every type of conspiracy theory: Anon in league with FBI??
On the other hand it is quite easy to find non-work topics for chat that don't involve sex, religion or race. Politics for example. No one gets offended by that, right?
Or try sports. Maybe you're a Yankee fan and your co-worker is a Red Sox fan!
And even if they do get offended, the good news is political or sports harassment isn't prohibited by law, so if you feel the need to slight or bully your libtard or reactionary co-worker, go for it. Be careful of those corporate policies, though. They can bite you in the ass.
Informal survey: How many here were offended/not offended by that phrase?
The guy who simmers quietly is a lot more likely to go on a shooting rampage in response to the idiocy around him than the guy who files a complaint. Be careful what you wish for.
For some folks, "That's what she said" jokes are offensive.
Bottom line: be damn careful to know your audience if you're going to say anything regarding gender, race or religion, in general or about an individual. The person who reports you may not even be part of the group that was the target of your stupidity.
I once started a comment about "too many chiefs" being on a project in a meeting with a Native American in the room before my brain caught up with my mouth, and I made damn sure I apologized to him the same day, just on the off chance.
On the downside, I now find it uncomfortable to watch "Blazing Saddles".
No way to figure this one out until you find out how sensitive she is to geek male stupidity.
If she's sensitive about anything like offensive language or bad jokes, she'll probably want you to report everything formally.
On the opposite end she could be a geek girl herself and know even "better" jokes than the guys.
Most likely somewhere in the middle.
The problem is, without knowing her personality, your only safe route is to handle it by the letter of the law, case law and company policy. And even knowing her personality, if you make minor offenses subject to informal punishment you are basically saying "yes these are offenses, but we elected not to follow the company rules for reporting this type of offense." That sounds like something that can get you fired or reprimanded just as severely as if you made an offensive remark yourself.
Depending on what your lawyer says about your existing obligations, this could be an opportunity to sell the client an annual support contract with monthly billing, rather than paying by the hour. 2 months of "warranty period" support seems a tad low -- if the application is of any size or complexity. It could take that long just to train the users. Which means no one on the client side has actually spent any time uncovering the bugs before the free support expires. Also, socking the client with hourly rates right after a free support period can induce sticker-shock. That can be alleviated by a support contract, too.
The other advantage of offering standardized support contracts is that it makes it VERY clear that there is no such thing as eternal free support in your offering.
No short term or medium term ROI for sure. And until commodity prices skyrocket on earth, not enough ROI to ship down to earth under any circumstances.
But the cost of shipping large masses from earth to moon is huge, so they can probably compete in the lunar market vs. resources shipped up from earth. Same for anything further out like Mars, etc. Of course, right now, there is no lunar market to speak of.
Another ROI could be acquisition of mineral rights in the asteroid belt. Buy them now and sell them high once there actually is a viable market. But to acquire the mineral rights they probably have to demonstrate at least a rudimentary capability to actually extract something from the minerals.
So bottom line is that an ROI is not impossible, but this is about as speculative as it gets. It's not just about a technological breakthrough revolutionizing an existing market, it's about multiple technological breakthroughs required to create a market that doesn't even exist yet.
I think that's part of their real business model here. They aren't going to make money shipping asteroid materials down to earth. Their best sources of revenue are either 1) acquiring vast swathes of asteroid mineral rights cheap and then selling them on markup once the technology matures and 2) becoming the prime supplier for any lunar base that gets built. the one area where they can compete on cost is the cost of lifting mass quantities UP earth's gravity well vs. the cost of lobbing mass quantities DOWN the sun's/moon's gravity well.
"...lost significant portions of its outer skin..." So were the forces involved higher than expected in the design, or was this a manufacturing defect? Seems like the key question is "why did the skin peel off", not "why did it lose stability".
If we figure google gets about 1/2 billion searches per day world-wide and each search conservatively takes about 5 seconds to type in and view results, we get a global savings of nearly 2,300 kW-h per day. Typical US household usage is on the order of 1000 - 2000 kW-h per month, so this is enough energy to power about 50 US homes and nearly double that number of homes in more conservation-oriented places like Europe. I would consider this number to be on the low end of the actual global power savings, as some sources show google serving 3 billion searches per day (http://www.quora.com/How-many-search-queries-does-Google-serve-worldwide-every-day) , and the watts used will be 5x higher for CRTs.
In the grand scheme of world wide energy usage, this is an insignificant amount, but on the other hand, the effort required to make the switch from white to black background is pretty low compared to other energy-saving efforts, too. What's the saying? "Once you go black, you never go back." Check out HP's corporate site (hp.com) for a sample of how this might look. ( 3.3w*5s/search*500*(10^6) search per day = 16.5*500*(10^6) watt-seconds= 8.25 (10^6) kW-s=2,292 kW-Hours)
Actually yes, he is naive. From the pitcher's point of view they can't tell the con-man from the legit, honest programmer. They can't just reveal the family jewels without some assurance. Plus, considering how so many of the industry giants got to be industry giants, it's a legitimate fear.
But in general, the guys that an entrepreneur needs to sign the NDA and the no-compete with are the money guys more than the tech guys. They're the ones who have the real ability to take your idea, run somewhere else with it, AND hire that freelance programmer that is ambivalent about the NDA.
From a programmer's point of view, I'm OK with a limited term NDA.
Yeah, where have these guys been since XP first came out? The security nightmare of XP has been going on for years, simply because it makes it too easy for users to make stupid decisions about securing their system.
Yes, it's a generalization. Generalizations only have to satisfy the 80-20 rule. I'm sure there are a few people out there or even a sizeable minority who do their best to be secure but don't have the time or budget to upgrade. But an OEM disk of Windows 7 Home premium is under $100. The XP users who are security conscious have probably spent more on anti-virus and security software over the past few years since Win 7 came out than they would spend on an updated OS. Penny-wise and pound foolish?
Maybe because there is XP code still in Vista and later versions? Maybe because it would just encourage the people who are still using XP to continue using the "Open Source" version?
Anyone still running XP at this point probably hasn't been patching the OS anyway. Not to mention using an admin account as their primary login ID. Not to mention the parts of the XP architecture that make it more vulnerable even if it IS fully patched.
The XP security nightmare began in 2002. A few remaining machines left in 2 years won't make the problem any worse.
Yes, every system has a way to game it. Under your scheme probably nothing would get into the queue at all because each party would be trying to be the one to get the last amendment in before it was frozen. Once that last poison pill gets in, it could be forced into the queue and screw the opposition completely..
I suppose there's a chance the parties would eventually collaborate on necessary legislation like the budget and taxes, but that cooperation would probably be of the "I'll vote for the bridge to nowhere in your district if you vote to open a new military base in mine." type.
Even if the computer belongs to the school, student has a case. Schools provide computers to students who can't afford their own, or perhaps to ensure that only standardized computers can access the school network. But unless a student can afford their own computer that means their online speech is completely limited by the school's policies because the school computer is the only one they have. So by its policies the school is creating a system where only the wealthy and middle class have freedom of speech online, while the poor do not.
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If you aren't going over the limit, don't sweat it. If you are going over the limit and have access to an ISP that offers a business or telecommuter plan with no limits, go ahead and make the switch.
AT&T lost me as a 15+ year ISP customer inherited from Bellsouth because their overage charges at 6 Mbps put my monthly bill within $20 of a Comcast business plan at 22 Mbps and no cap.
You can probably cover about 2/3 of the games in the market with one hand. Just about anything that runs turn-based should be fun, even without a hardware upgrade. This covers everything from a large swathe of the 4x strategy games, to most Rogue-like games to puzzlers.
If you add a new multi-button mouse or other OTS capability enhancers, racing games (limited control set) and single player RPGs (those that pause when you bring up inventory or other data screens) come into play. RTS may also work, but could cause trouble if some of the game actions aren't accessible from mouse menus.
For an RPG, you'd need that tab button, plus buttons for forward and backward movement, and a button to pick up things, when you add in the 2 standard buttons and the wheel, you're probably looking at an 8-button mouse as a minimum (you'll turn your facing to move sideways, unless you add more buttons). Some RPGs that require you to use keystrokes to enable special attacks could be problematic. You won't be taking on the really combat-oriented RPGs here.
MMOs and FPS are probably the last thing you'll be able to take on and feel competitive - they'll probably require a prosthetic or some alternate control mechanism to provide a full substitution for the "lost" hand. And whether you elect to go with additional hardware or not, the learning curve will hurt your gameplay for a while.
Finally, if your other arm has any useful movement that can be restored with PT, there's a good chance it can still be used for mashing the spacebar or a virtual equivalent. And best of luck to you dealing with this IRL as well as from a gaming perspective.
True "fact": He also invented the Musk Ox.
In the first case: Not just prior art. Unclean hands and a few other "technicalities" come to mind. (IANAL)
In the second case: offense can be defense. One way to force someone to the settlement table on the original suit is with counterclaims.
In selected cases where the patent is obvious or duplicated by prior art, yes a lawsuit is still trolling even if you actually make use of the invention..
Plenty of other sources for both the FBI and Anon: wireless carriers, Databases owned by Apps that harvest the UDIDs (now a banned practice, but whatever), malware on jailbroken devices.
Also, perhaps the data actually came from another federal agency such as NSA, or said agent was moonlighting for another agency?
Every party in this mystery has reason to be secretive, so it's fertile ground for every type of conspiracy theory: Anon in league with FBI??
On the other hand it is quite easy to find non-work topics for chat that don't involve sex, religion or race. Politics for example. No one gets offended by that, right?
Or try sports. Maybe you're a Yankee fan and your co-worker is a Red Sox fan!
And even if they do get offended, the good news is political or sports harassment isn't prohibited by law, so if you feel the need to slight or bully your libtard or reactionary co-worker, go for it. Be careful of those corporate policies, though. They can bite you in the ass.
Informal survey: How many here were offended/not offended by that phrase?
The guy who simmers quietly is a lot more likely to go on a shooting rampage in response to the idiocy around him than the guy who files a complaint. Be careful what you wish for.
For some folks, "That's what she said" jokes are offensive.
Bottom line: be damn careful to know your audience if you're going to say anything regarding gender, race or religion, in general or about an individual. The person who reports you may not even be part of the group that was the target of your stupidity.
I once started a comment about "too many chiefs" being on a project in a meeting with a Native American in the room before my brain caught up with my mouth, and I made damn sure I apologized to him the same day, just on the off chance.
On the downside, I now find it uncomfortable to watch "Blazing Saddles".
No way to figure this one out until you find out how sensitive she is to geek male stupidity.
If she's sensitive about anything like offensive language or bad jokes, she'll probably want you to report everything formally.
On the opposite end she could be a geek girl herself and know even "better" jokes than the guys.
Most likely somewhere in the middle.
The problem is, without knowing her personality, your only safe route is to handle it by the letter of the law, case law and company policy. And even knowing her personality, if you make minor offenses subject to informal punishment you are basically saying "yes these are offenses, but we elected not to follow the company rules for reporting this type of offense." That sounds like something that can get you fired or reprimanded just as severely as if you made an offensive remark yourself.
Depending on what your lawyer says about your existing obligations, this could be an opportunity to sell the client an annual support contract with monthly billing, rather than paying by the hour. 2 months of "warranty period" support seems a tad low -- if the application is of any size or complexity. It could take that long just to train the users. Which means no one on the client side has actually spent any time uncovering the bugs before the free support expires. Also, socking the client with hourly rates right after a free support period can induce sticker-shock. That can be alleviated by a support contract, too.
The other advantage of offering standardized support contracts is that it makes it VERY clear that there is no such thing as eternal free support in your offering.
A few folks have alluded to Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" reg. lobbing asteroids at earth.
I think a more interesting/pertinent reference is to Delos Harriman in "The Man Who Sold the Moon"
No short term or medium term ROI for sure. And until commodity prices skyrocket on earth, not enough ROI to ship down to earth under any circumstances.
But the cost of shipping large masses from earth to moon is huge, so they can probably compete in the lunar market vs. resources shipped up from earth. Same for anything further out like Mars, etc. Of course, right now, there is no lunar market to speak of.
Another ROI could be acquisition of mineral rights in the asteroid belt. Buy them now and sell them high once there actually is a viable market. But to acquire the mineral rights they probably have to demonstrate at least a rudimentary capability to actually extract something from the minerals.
So bottom line is that an ROI is not impossible, but this is about as speculative as it gets. It's not just about a technological breakthrough revolutionizing an existing market, it's about multiple technological breakthroughs required to create a market that doesn't even exist yet.
I think that's part of their real business model here. They aren't going to make money shipping asteroid materials down to earth. Their best sources of revenue are either 1) acquiring vast swathes of asteroid mineral rights cheap and then selling them on markup once the technology matures and 2) becoming the prime supplier for any lunar base that gets built. the one area where they can compete on cost is the cost of lifting mass quantities UP earth's gravity well vs. the cost of lobbing mass quantities DOWN the sun's/moon's gravity well.
"...lost significant portions of its outer skin..."
So were the forces involved higher than expected in the design, or was this a manufacturing defect? Seems like the key question is "why did the skin peel off", not "why did it lose stability".
If we figure google gets about 1/2 billion searches per day world-wide and each search conservatively takes about 5 seconds to type in and view results, we get a global savings of nearly 2,300 kW-h per day. Typical US household usage is on the order of 1000 - 2000 kW-h per month, so this is enough energy to power about 50 US homes and nearly double that number of homes in more conservation-oriented places like Europe. I would consider this number to be on the low end of the actual global power savings, as some sources show google serving 3 billion searches per day (http://www.quora.com/How-many-search-queries-does-Google-serve-worldwide-every-day) , and the watts used will be 5x higher for CRTs.
In the grand scheme of world wide energy usage, this is an insignificant amount, but on the other hand, the effort required to make the switch from white to black background is pretty low compared to other energy-saving efforts, too. What's the saying? "Once you go black, you never go back." Check out HP's corporate site (hp.com) for a sample of how this might look.
( 3.3w*5s/search*500*(10^6) search per day = 16.5*500*(10^6) watt-seconds= 8.25 (10^6) kW-s=2,292 kW-Hours)
I think you may be confusing (or at least conflating) non-compete with non-disclosure...
Actually yes, he is naive. From the pitcher's point of view they can't tell the con-man from the legit, honest programmer. They can't just reveal the family jewels without some assurance. Plus, considering how so many of the industry giants got to be industry giants, it's a legitimate fear.
But in general, the guys that an entrepreneur needs to sign the NDA and the no-compete with are the money guys more than the tech guys. They're the ones who have the real ability to take your idea, run somewhere else with it, AND hire that freelance programmer that is ambivalent about the NDA.
From a programmer's point of view, I'm OK with a limited term NDA.
Yeah, where have these guys been since XP first came out? The security nightmare of XP has been going on for years, simply because it makes it too easy for users to make stupid decisions about securing their system.
At which point they will just close your plant and move production to China, Mexico, or whereever costs are the "cheapest" at that time.
Yes, it's a generalization. Generalizations only have to satisfy the 80-20 rule. I'm sure there are a few people out there or even a sizeable minority who do their best to be secure but don't have the time or budget to upgrade. But an OEM disk of Windows 7 Home premium is under $100. The XP users who are security conscious have probably spent more on anti-virus and security software over the past few years since Win 7 came out than they would spend on an updated OS. Penny-wise and pound foolish?
"Why not liberate the source?"
Maybe because there is XP code still in Vista and later versions?
Maybe because it would just encourage the people who are still using XP to continue using the "Open Source" version?
Anyone still running XP at this point probably hasn't been patching the OS anyway. Not to mention using an admin account as their primary login ID. Not to mention the parts of the XP architecture that make it more vulnerable even if it IS fully patched.
The XP security nightmare began in 2002. A few remaining machines left in 2 years won't make the problem any worse.
Yes, every system has a way to game it. Under your scheme probably nothing would get into the queue at all because each party would be trying to be the one to get the last amendment in before it was frozen. Once that last poison pill gets in, it could be forced into the queue and screw the opposition completely..
I suppose there's a chance the parties would eventually collaborate on necessary legislation like the budget and taxes, but that cooperation would probably be of the "I'll vote for the bridge to nowhere in your district if you vote to open a new military base in mine." type.
Even if the computer belongs to the school, student has a case. Schools provide computers to students who can't afford their own, or perhaps to ensure that only standardized computers can access the school network. But unless a student can afford their own computer that means their online speech is completely limited by the school's policies because the school computer is the only one they have. So by its policies the school is creating a system where only the wealthy and middle class have freedom of speech online, while the poor do not.