This is exactly what I discovered. By the time I got the streaming services to replace everything I had with cable and paid the higher price for not bundling cable with my internet, I was saving something like $5 a month. But that didn't even include the up front cost of buying streaming devices and an OTA antenna for local stuff.
At the moment I have a pretty sweet deal on cable so cord cutting isn't worth it. I image that one day it will though, so I keep an eye on the cost every year just in case it starts to make sense.
Because everybody wants something to complain about. It's human nature. I hear nothing but complaining from my friends on Facebook about how their friend is a hardcore and does nothing but spew propaganda all day and how much they hate it. I ask them why they don't block them and they usually say "but how will I know what terrible things they're saying?". It's as if they want to be upset so they can either respond with a witty comeback or just so they have something to stew over. I've never understood that mentality but it exists.
The homeless I can understand, where else are they supposed to poop? Not that I'm happy about it, but it's not like there are a lot of options for them.
I think part of the problem is cultural. I know they've had PSAs about not pooping in the streets (the whole 'Take your poo to the loo' thing), but when you see it happening so often you stop thinking that there's something wrong with it. Then again, it's not like there are a bunch of public toilets for the dirt poor in India to use either.
Sounds similar to my experience. I've dealt with several Indian teams over my career and they ran the gamut of talent. A few were REALLY good, I often wondered why they were wasting their time working for us honestly. Most were average at best, but at least they didn't cause much if any harm. Some were freaking dangerous and shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near a computer. You'd think that these guys would be the first to get let go, but they always seemed to hang around the longest. The dumbest one I ever met turned out to be married to a higher up's daughter which explained a lot (glad to see that giving cushy jobs to idiot relatives isn't just a US thing).
The biggest issue I ran into when dealing with Indian teams is the complete lack of problem solving. If something didn't go exactly according to script, they were lost. We once lost a whole week's worth of work because the India team ran into a text prompt that wasn't 100% the same as the one in the instructions and instead of either contacting us immediately or putting two and two together and figuring out that the gist of the prompt was the same, they sat there twiddling their thumbs until the next weekly status meeting so they could ask us about it. Sadly this is a reoccurring theme with most of our Indian people.
>>You can make your racist jabs about people defecating in the street, and while it's not uncommon to see someone urinating against a wall outdoors in Bangalore, I can also go to almost any city in Europe and find people urinating in alleys there too. I've never seen anyone defecating in public in Bangalore or any of the other places I've been in India, both in and away from big cities.
I have colleagues who have seen it first hand. One just got back from Chennai and said that the hotel was nice enough but the smell was godawful because he was watching people shitting in the street right outside the hotel. I've heard similar things from other friends who have traveled to India on business. And yes I've seen drunks peeing on walls all over the so called civilized world, but I've never seen anyone shit in the streets other than in India. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's not nearly as prevalent in the US.
That happens in the country too. I know my neighbors names and have established a basic relationship with them in case I need to get a hold of one of them in an emergency, but other than that I don't really have much contact with them. Maybe it's different in a tiny little town or something, but I'm not in a town.
Some of us just want to be left alone. We don't want to be cheek to jowl with our neighbors. We want a nice little quiet place to escape to, a place to do our thing without being bothered. I'm out in the country and I love it. I'm still in a subdivision, but they're large lots so you have some privacy. I can work out in my back yard and tend to my little garden. The hand full of problems I've had with neighbors (such as one who kept letting her dog poop in my yard and not clean it up) were quickly handled by the HOA. I don't know what HOA's others belong to, but my fees are only $500 a year and most of that is for road maintenance.
There are some advantages to city life for sure. I'd love to be closer to those nice farmers markets and little coffee and book shops, but it's not worth the expense and hassle to me. I couldn't afford a place a quarter of the size of my house in the big city. I'm quite happy being out in the country and being left alone.
I really haven't had a boss that was as bad as most of the posts here, but what I have encountered is 'overseas boss'. My current boss is over in India so getting in touch with him is nearly impossible most of the time. Normally this would mean that I'd go to his boss for emergency approvals and other things that can't wait, but his boss is also in India. This makes getting anything approved in a timely fashion nearly impossible. Thankfully the US office has learned to manage themselves to the point that one of my co-workers just pretends to be our boss when it comes to approving things. Our real boss doesn't seem to care and we can actually get stuff done.
Morale is definitely suffering though as the US team seems to be getting left out of more and more decisions. I'm guessing I'll be training my replacement how to kindly do the needful in a few years.
>>I'm guessing they'll find a gifted hacker who's name is "Wot" (hopefully I don't have to point out that's an anagram of "two") and played by Alex Winter.
Upper management at my office read whatever trendy report that started this whole open office debacle and decided that it would be the greatest thing ever. They went whole hog and got the long single desks with itty bitty dividers between them and 'chairs' that look like overgrown foot stools. Everyone in the office absolutely HATES the new floor plan. They went from moderate sized half-wall cubicals that provided a bit of privacy to a four foot desk with a foot high dividers. Not only is there almost no place to put anything (the computer and phone take up 75% of the desk) there's absolutely zero privacy. When they first proposed the idea they pretended to ask for employee input (which was overwhelmingly negative) but we all knew it was a farce since they already had all the new desks ordered and stored away.
Thankfully I'm in a locked and secure lab, so when they came around to see if they could put the new desks in the lab we sent them packing (the same morons wanted to rip out our network closet and turn it into a managers office). Now everyone suddenly wants to be on our team just to be back in a cubical. I seriously think that I would have looked for a new job if I was forced into one of those open desks.
That's a good point. It's not like there isn't ample evidence (video evidence even) that the holocaust happened. It's kind of hard to refute that kind of evidence. But when you start making laws saying that denying it is illegal, people begin to wonder why. "If it really happened, why are you punishing people who say otherwise?" "What are you trying to hide?" "Is there something you don't want us to find out?" Etc.
I've always been curious about this. It's a dumb thing to do, and makes the person look foolish, but beyond that why is this actually a crime in some places? I mean I can pretend that Obama was never president, but that doesn't make it so and it makes me look really stupid, but they would never make that a crime (Note to Self: Check back in 10 years and see if they did indeed make this a crime). Just ignore the morons and let them play in their little pretend world.
But that's how it's been with the Democrats for the last 8+ years. Anything bad that happened under Obama was Bush's fault, even after he had been out of power for almost 8 years and of course everything that was good was all his doing. Now it appears that anything good that happens under Trump is Obama's doing and of course anything bad is all his doing as well. It's a no win situation, and people will do some serious mental gymnastics to try and prove it no matter what the evidence says.
When I was interviewing for my current job I got asked one of these types of questions. I was honest with the interviewer, I told them I had a vague understanding of the concept, but I'd have to look up or ask someone how to actually implement it since it's not something that I'd ever done before. I figured I had nothing to lose by being honest since I wasn't going to be able to BS my way to a solution anyway. The interviewer appreciated my honesty and said that collaboration and being able to find solutions to problems you don't have the immediate knowledge to do were important and I eventually ended up getting the job. I'm not sure if that's what they were actually looking for or if they liked my other skills so much that they were willing to overlook it. To this day I've never come close to having to program what they were asking me to do in that interview.
I guess I'm below average as we only have two: one in the family room and one in the bedroom. Technically we have a third one in the game room, but it's not hooked up to cable so you can't watch TV on it and it's just for playing games. We used to have one in each room, but we realized that we rarely watch TV anymore so we just got rid of them to make more room and we haven't bought a new TV in almost ten years. Heck, the one in the family room is a 36" HD CRT and it works great. We just don't see the need to drop money on a 50"+ 1080p TV since there's nothing worth watching anyway.
It's the damn weirdest thing though. My friends never used to be like this, but something about Facebook twisted them. I'm starting to think FB is some sort of curse that was unleashed on humanity by an ancient evil or something.
I think the big problem is that everyone seems to want to use social media to shout their political and social beliefs constantly and non-stop. Before the rise of social media I had a pretty good idea of where my friends were in the political/social spectrum, but we never really discussed it. Now it seems that everyone must not only tell you where they stand on issues, but they have to tell you why you're wrong for not taking the same stance. Day after day with the smug condescending memes, fake news pieces from whacked out websites, pointless hoaxes that Snopes debunked years ago ad nausem. After a while it just gets on your nerves and you either join them, drop out, or go insane. I've pretty much filtered or unfollowed just about everyone on Facebook because I'm tired of it (whether I agreed with them or not). If it wasn't for some of the computer groups I follow I'd probably never log into FB anymore.
Some of use retro computer enthusiasts actually collect and will pay money for CRTs and monitors. Of course they have to be certain kinds, but there's gold in some of them dar monitors. A high quality CRT will also fetch some decent money.
Driving a U-Haul across country isn't something I really want to do, but I'd do it if I had to. The wife would want to hire movers for most things, but we'd also probably get rid of a bunch of stuff that wasn't absolutely needed (sigh, goodbye classic computer collection). Still, it's going to be a pricey prospect no matter what we do.
I wouldn't expect a potential employer to pay for the entire move, but I'd hope for some sort of moving stipend. I actually never thought of telling a company I was actively trying to move while I was interviewing, that might help. Still, how many companies are even willing to fly you out for an interview unless you're something special? Back when I got out of college in 2000, I had multiple companies fly me out for interviews. Those days are long gone I'm afraid.
Slashdot Mirror
Who decides what's fair? Fairness is usually in the eye of the beholder.
I thought prostitution was illegal?
This is exactly what I discovered. By the time I got the streaming services to replace everything I had with cable and paid the higher price for not bundling cable with my internet, I was saving something like $5 a month. But that didn't even include the up front cost of buying streaming devices and an OTA antenna for local stuff.
At the moment I have a pretty sweet deal on cable so cord cutting isn't worth it. I image that one day it will though, so I keep an eye on the cost every year just in case it starts to make sense.
Because everybody wants something to complain about. It's human nature. I hear nothing but complaining from my friends on Facebook about how their friend is a hardcore and does nothing but spew propaganda all day and how much they hate it. I ask them why they don't block them and they usually say "but how will I know what terrible things they're saying?". It's as if they want to be upset so they can either respond with a witty comeback or just so they have something to stew over. I've never understood that mentality but it exists.
The homeless I can understand, where else are they supposed to poop? Not that I'm happy about it, but it's not like there are a lot of options for them.
I think part of the problem is cultural. I know they've had PSAs about not pooping in the streets (the whole 'Take your poo to the loo' thing), but when you see it happening so often you stop thinking that there's something wrong with it. Then again, it's not like there are a bunch of public toilets for the dirt poor in India to use either.
Sounds similar to my experience. I've dealt with several Indian teams over my career and they ran the gamut of talent. A few were REALLY good, I often wondered why they were wasting their time working for us honestly. Most were average at best, but at least they didn't cause much if any harm. Some were freaking dangerous and shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near a computer. You'd think that these guys would be the first to get let go, but they always seemed to hang around the longest. The dumbest one I ever met turned out to be married to a higher up's daughter which explained a lot (glad to see that giving cushy jobs to idiot relatives isn't just a US thing).
The biggest issue I ran into when dealing with Indian teams is the complete lack of problem solving. If something didn't go exactly according to script, they were lost. We once lost a whole week's worth of work because the India team ran into a text prompt that wasn't 100% the same as the one in the instructions and instead of either contacting us immediately or putting two and two together and figuring out that the gist of the prompt was the same, they sat there twiddling their thumbs until the next weekly status meeting so they could ask us about it. Sadly this is a reoccurring theme with most of our Indian people.
>>You can make your racist jabs about people defecating in the street, and while it's not uncommon to see someone urinating against a wall outdoors in Bangalore, I can also go to almost any city in Europe and find people urinating in alleys there too. I've never seen anyone defecating in public in Bangalore or any of the other places I've been in India, both in and away from big cities.
I have colleagues who have seen it first hand. One just got back from Chennai and said that the hotel was nice enough but the smell was godawful because he was watching people shitting in the street right outside the hotel. I've heard similar things from other friends who have traveled to India on business. And yes I've seen drunks peeing on walls all over the so called civilized world, but I've never seen anyone shit in the streets other than in India. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's not nearly as prevalent in the US.
Am I the only one who likes Unity? Eh, probably.
That happens in the country too. I know my neighbors names and have established a basic relationship with them in case I need to get a hold of one of them in an emergency, but other than that I don't really have much contact with them. Maybe it's different in a tiny little town or something, but I'm not in a town.
Some of us just want to be left alone. We don't want to be cheek to jowl with our neighbors. We want a nice little quiet place to escape to, a place to do our thing without being bothered. I'm out in the country and I love it. I'm still in a subdivision, but they're large lots so you have some privacy. I can work out in my back yard and tend to my little garden. The hand full of problems I've had with neighbors (such as one who kept letting her dog poop in my yard and not clean it up) were quickly handled by the HOA. I don't know what HOA's others belong to, but my fees are only $500 a year and most of that is for road maintenance.
There are some advantages to city life for sure. I'd love to be closer to those nice farmers markets and little coffee and book shops, but it's not worth the expense and hassle to me. I couldn't afford a place a quarter of the size of my house in the big city. I'm quite happy being out in the country and being left alone.
>>mah freeze peach
This is sooo going to be my signature line
I really haven't had a boss that was as bad as most of the posts here, but what I have encountered is 'overseas boss'. My current boss is over in India so getting in touch with him is nearly impossible most of the time. Normally this would mean that I'd go to his boss for emergency approvals and other things that can't wait, but his boss is also in India. This makes getting anything approved in a timely fashion nearly impossible. Thankfully the US office has learned to manage themselves to the point that one of my co-workers just pretends to be our boss when it comes to approving things. Our real boss doesn't seem to care and we can actually get stuff done.
Morale is definitely suffering though as the US team seems to be getting left out of more and more decisions. I'm guessing I'll be training my replacement how to kindly do the needful in a few years.
>>I'm guessing they'll find a gifted hacker who's name is "Wot" (hopefully I don't have to point out that's an anagram of "two") and played by Alex Winter.
Stop stealing my fan fiction!
Upper management at my office read whatever trendy report that started this whole open office debacle and decided that it would be the greatest thing ever. They went whole hog and got the long single desks with itty bitty dividers between them and 'chairs' that look like overgrown foot stools. Everyone in the office absolutely HATES the new floor plan. They went from moderate sized half-wall cubicals that provided a bit of privacy to a four foot desk with a foot high dividers. Not only is there almost no place to put anything (the computer and phone take up 75% of the desk) there's absolutely zero privacy. When they first proposed the idea they pretended to ask for employee input (which was overwhelmingly negative) but we all knew it was a farce since they already had all the new desks ordered and stored away.
Thankfully I'm in a locked and secure lab, so when they came around to see if they could put the new desks in the lab we sent them packing (the same morons wanted to rip out our network closet and turn it into a managers office). Now everyone suddenly wants to be on our team just to be back in a cubical. I seriously think that I would have looked for a new job if I was forced into one of those open desks.
>>The problem is that here Google searches are seen by today's youth what a library search was in mine.
That is sad on many levels.
That's a good point. It's not like there isn't ample evidence (video evidence even) that the holocaust happened. It's kind of hard to refute that kind of evidence. But when you start making laws saying that denying it is illegal, people begin to wonder why. "If it really happened, why are you punishing people who say otherwise?" "What are you trying to hide?" "Is there something you don't want us to find out?" Etc.
I've always been curious about this. It's a dumb thing to do, and makes the person look foolish, but beyond that why is this actually a crime in some places? I mean I can pretend that Obama was never president, but that doesn't make it so and it makes me look really stupid, but they would never make that a crime (Note to Self: Check back in 10 years and see if they did indeed make this a crime). Just ignore the morons and let them play in their little pretend world.
But that's how it's been with the Democrats for the last 8+ years. Anything bad that happened under Obama was Bush's fault, even after he had been out of power for almost 8 years and of course everything that was good was all his doing. Now it appears that anything good that happens under Trump is Obama's doing and of course anything bad is all his doing as well. It's a no win situation, and people will do some serious mental gymnastics to try and prove it no matter what the evidence says.
That would be I *bless* the rains down in Africa.
When I was interviewing for my current job I got asked one of these types of questions. I was honest with the interviewer, I told them I had a vague understanding of the concept, but I'd have to look up or ask someone how to actually implement it since it's not something that I'd ever done before. I figured I had nothing to lose by being honest since I wasn't going to be able to BS my way to a solution anyway. The interviewer appreciated my honesty and said that collaboration and being able to find solutions to problems you don't have the immediate knowledge to do were important and I eventually ended up getting the job. I'm not sure if that's what they were actually looking for or if they liked my other skills so much that they were willing to overlook it. To this day I've never come close to having to program what they were asking me to do in that interview.
I guess I'm below average as we only have two: one in the family room and one in the bedroom. Technically we have a third one in the game room, but it's not hooked up to cable so you can't watch TV on it and it's just for playing games. We used to have one in each room, but we realized that we rarely watch TV anymore so we just got rid of them to make more room and we haven't bought a new TV in almost ten years. Heck, the one in the family room is a 36" HD CRT and it works great. We just don't see the need to drop money on a 50"+ 1080p TV since there's nothing worth watching anyway.
It's the damn weirdest thing though. My friends never used to be like this, but something about Facebook twisted them. I'm starting to think FB is some sort of curse that was unleashed on humanity by an ancient evil or something.
I think the big problem is that everyone seems to want to use social media to shout their political and social beliefs constantly and non-stop. Before the rise of social media I had a pretty good idea of where my friends were in the political/social spectrum, but we never really discussed it. Now it seems that everyone must not only tell you where they stand on issues, but they have to tell you why you're wrong for not taking the same stance. Day after day with the smug condescending memes, fake news pieces from whacked out websites, pointless hoaxes that Snopes debunked years ago ad nausem. After a while it just gets on your nerves and you either join them, drop out, or go insane. I've pretty much filtered or unfollowed just about everyone on Facebook because I'm tired of it (whether I agreed with them or not). If it wasn't for some of the computer groups I follow I'd probably never log into FB anymore.
Some of use retro computer enthusiasts actually collect and will pay money for CRTs and monitors. Of course they have to be certain kinds, but there's gold in some of them dar monitors. A high quality CRT will also fetch some decent money.
Driving a U-Haul across country isn't something I really want to do, but I'd do it if I had to. The wife would want to hire movers for most things, but we'd also probably get rid of a bunch of stuff that wasn't absolutely needed (sigh, goodbye classic computer collection). Still, it's going to be a pricey prospect no matter what we do.
I wouldn't expect a potential employer to pay for the entire move, but I'd hope for some sort of moving stipend. I actually never thought of telling a company I was actively trying to move while I was interviewing, that might help. Still, how many companies are even willing to fly you out for an interview unless you're something special? Back when I got out of college in 2000, I had multiple companies fly me out for interviews. Those days are long gone I'm afraid.