Of course, an SUV isn't even the best thing for towing a boat, or going camping: that would be a pickup truck. Pickup trucks generally have more power, a lower center of gravity, a wider stance, and get better gas mileage (because all those SUV windows and the frame for them add up to around 1500 pounds of dead weight). An additional bonus is that pickup trucks are safer: while SUV's use unibody construction, most pickups use the stiffer, more durable ladder frame.
I think it's more like:
Scripting languages = inexpensive little coupe, maybe a saturn. Quick, fuel efficient, pleasant to drive and low maintenance. People who drive them tend to be happy and relaxed.
VB.Net and similar.Net type languages = luxury sedan, pricy and full of features, but faster and more stable than the SUV's. Softer ride, too. Still fairly easy to drive, but require a little more up-front manual-reading.
Java = SUV; Big, slow, difficult to drive without rolling the car, guzzles gas and takes up most of the road. People buy it because they fantasize about going "off road" but they mostly do the same thing as the sedan and economy car drivers, only less pleasantly. Sedan and economy car drivers are vaguely annoyed by SUV drivers.
C/C++ = Ford F-350 with duallies and four wheel drive, faster, stronger, more stable than SUVs but still requires more skill to drive than a sedan. Gets about the same gas mileage as the sedan, but can be used for much more demanding tasks (e.g. construction, wilderness rescue). Mostly used for work, not really a pleasure vehicle. "rides like a truck". Ignored by most other drivers, who don't often venture onto construction sites or off-road.
Assembly: A McLaren race car. Fast as hell, not street legal, rarely seen up close, and not just anyone can drive one. Special training required, drivers occasionally make an error and kill themselves in a fiery crash. Not used as often as it used to be.
Lisp and similar languages: captured alien hovercar. Runs on weird green glowing rocks, flies fast and silent, can't be taken out on the road because it inspires conspiracy theories and tends to get shot at by the Barney Fifes of the world. Rumored to be used in academic environments by nefarious researcher types. Rarely seen by the public, could be fictional or part of a government coverup.
William said: "Your comment was moderated flamebait but i think it should have been funny... I'm the one who is anti-microsoft and I was replying to your (IMO) pro-microsoft comment!"
That's cool... Actually, I have mixed feelings about Microsoft. I think their products kinda suck, actually; I'm just forced to use them through economic necessity (as in: program or starve). The only good thing is, I think their developer's tools aren't bad. Although, Visual Studio.Net has some really weird bugs in it...
(about the expertise comment) I know exactly what you mean -- yeah, it's true, I was bullshitting about the expertise thing. I'm not actually an expert in anything, except maybe bullshitting. But, doesn't it just roll off the tongue?..."But it is even better business to use your quasi-monopoly to shut out competition"
Well, that's true of course. And, we ARE talking about Microsoft. But I think that they're on the fence when it comes to web services. I don't think they want to get locked out, I think they want to poach on everyone else's property. Which means they want their tools to be able to use everyone else's stuff. Of course, I didn't say I think that's going to be a two-way street! You see where I'm going with this. "We can read yours but you can't read ours, nyah nyah" is entirely possible. It doesn't exactly shut out competition, but it's not exactly fair play either.
(about markets) Well, I don't think they care about Mozilla and Linux, other than to say that IF large numbers of people end up using Linux on the desktop at home, Microsoft has a definite interest in making its server products Linux friendly. They don't ever want to hear "Well, we were thinking about getting Windows Server 2003, but a lot of our customers are linux geeks, so we're going to go with FreeBSD instead". No, Microsoft wants to be able to retort, "But Windows 2003 works just fine with Linux clients!". As I said, it's about not getting shut out. I think they're acknowledging (at least internally) that Linux/Mozilla has to be supported, or Microsoft will lose customers.
(about the EU) well, of COURSE I know that. I'm delighted by it. Here in the US, at least until the next election, we're stuck with a government which blows kisses to big business, ok? Our hands are tied. European officials, on the other hand, still remember the French Revolution and the whole "Let them eat cake" / "Off with her head" thing. They're just a teensy bit more sensitive about popular opinion than we are over here. So, who knows? Maybe the EU will do something about the Beast from Redmond. It could happen...;)
Re:While I remain unemployed.....since January.
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Check out Honda and Saturn. Both have plants in the U.S. which are staffed by Americans. I think Honda did it to lighten their tarriff costs and make it easier to deliver the cars they were selling...
I'd have to agree... I don't think they're really comfortable with the whole "compete fairly and win based on product quality" thing. 'Course, I wasn't trying to imply that this *wouldn't* happen, just that the interoperability angle would have been attractive to them.;)
Ah, Slashdotland... The straw man every MS-man on Slashdot trots out to try and discredit anti-microsoft opinions (and in this case, a pro-microsoft opinion you didn't read all the way through). Finger pointed, you say "Only you freaky Slashdotters in Slashdot land feel this way" (actually it's halfway between straw man and ad hominem). Funny. But, let's calm you down a little; maybe then you'll go back and read my post.
First of all, I'm not entirely anti-Microsoft. I work with Microsoft tools all day, and have a windows machine at home for development. I program using Visual Studio.Net, so I do happen to have some expertise in the area we are discussing. And, what I've been programming lately is -- surprise! -- Web services.
IF you take the two minutes it'll take even a slow reader to read my post, and RTFP, you'll see the point I was trying to make, you big dummy.
That point is: it is GOOD BUSINESS to interoperate. So, Microsoft is going to interoperate because Microsoft doesn't like getting shut out of markets.
Yes, but they'll see it as good business to preserve the ability to use their competitor's stuff. They'll use it as a selling point for Windows: "You'll be able to use their stuff but they still can't use ours except in certain defined ways, so buy Microsoft, it's more powerful". As an example, they'll set up systems that'll let you communicate with, say, a database server from another vendor, but they won't let you do all the cool stuff you could do *with a Microsoft database* (like, for instance, insert data to a BLOB using a SQL insert statement). All very hypothetical... Oh, wait...
Bill Gates (to himself): "Hmm... Everyone hates me, and everyone is aligned against me, creating their own web services standards and ensuring that I won't completely capture the market. Let's see... This implies that they might take a significant part of the market, and if I'm not interoperable, I'll be essentially locked out. Ah, well, screw it."
(calls up Ballmer)
Bill Gates: "Hey, Steve -- do me a favor, would you? Round up some of our better R+D guys, and have them work up a system that lets us totally interoperate with all the other, competing web services systems out there, wouldja?"
Ballmer: "WTF???"
Bill Gates: "Why lock ourselves out of a big chunk of the market? We've got our section, now we can play with their section too."
Ballmer: "Ok, I'm on it..."
This is strictly hypothetical, but I bet it's pretty close.
Yeah... But what really got me was how cool they all were. Every single one seemed to actually, genuinely LIKE guys! No hostility, no brooding mistrust, no assumptions about how guys are all just perverts waiting to drag girls into the sack... Just plain, old, friendliness and respect. You don't see that around here that much. Girls around here are so hostile! I gave up on 'em, I haven't been on a date in two and a half years. No, wait -- longer than that.
If I didn't love New York so much, I'd move to Toronto, pronto.
An A/C said: "'Taxes are slightly higher...' I believe you mean MUCH higher. Sales tax varies by province but runs abut 15 freakin' percent (my state is 5 percent, 1/3 of that... Delaware and N.H. are zero). Income tax is much higher, alcohol taxes are astronomical, tobacco taxes are sky high (well, I do agree with that last one)."
Well, I live in NY, where there's an 8% sales tax on just about everything, with additional taxes on cigarettes (the price of a pack is several dollars). A jump up to 15% isn't so bad, and it funds social programs, so I'm okay with that. The thing about Canada is, you seem to get so much for your money. Maybe they tax you more aggressively, but they spend the money on Canadians. Sometimes I get the sense that here in the U.S. our tax dollars are being redirected to political friends of whatever administration is in office at any given time (usually something weapons related, unfortunately).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-USA. I love my country (although I'm praying daily that Bush gets voted out by a massive landslide in the next election -- maybe if the republicans get really humiliated, they'll learn something about priorities). But you have to admit, Canada has a whole lot going for it. And, it seems to me that Canada is pretty top-shelf as far as countries and governments go.
Now, I never played "Magic, the Gathering" because I never got into the card games and could never figure out the attraction (I'm more of a first person shooter kinda guy). But their commercials were hilarious.
There was one where a bunch of scientists are looking down on a lawyer type through a set of high-set glass windows. He was in the middle of a big, roundish room with huge steel doors in the back, and he was basically sitting around, fiddling with his watch, etc. So one of the scientist types says, "Ok, bring in the troll." They press a button and open the doors, and a huge, at least fifteen foot tall troll with a huge club comes in and roars. The lawyer shrieks, and the next thing you see is a view through the windows over the scientist's shoulders, as the lawyer flies up into the air, spilling papers all over the place. A scientist takes a note down on a pad, saying, "Troll beats lawyer..." (or words to that effect).
The thing about Canada is, there are almost no reasons NOT to live there. Taxes are slightly higher, but look at what you get for the money: free, national health care and a *real* pension system. The cities look pretty nice, the country is gorgeous, the people are all pretty laid back as far as I can tell, and the government tries to take care of its people (that's a shocker for us South of the border, where the government is more interested in yelling at us and locking us up than in actually DOING anything for us). I've read a lot about Canada and from what I can see it's practically the promised land.
Even the chicks are great up there. I'm serious! I belong to a few personals sites, and it seems as though all the women posting from Canada are A)HOT, and I mean like FIRE, B)intelligent, C)genuinely fond of guys, and D)like sex. It just blows me away. They're all so normal, so... COOL. It's weird, it's like all the cool, hip chicks up and moved to Toronto.
Where I live, all the personal ads are of one of these varieties:
A) "I'm a lesbian, and I'm looking for a girl. No hard feelings, guys, right? But no interest either." (actually, I kinda like these, they're usually kinda sweet in a "phil not required" way).
B) "I'm extremely bitter, and I won't tell you what terrible and sadistic things my ex boyfriend did to me to make me this way, but I'm going to take it out on you. If you even so much as MENTION sex, I'll castrate you on the spot -- look, I've got the rubber gloves, rubber band, and scalpel right here. No anasthetic, though; I'm on a budget."
C) "I've got several kids and I need some HELP! Please, GOD, marry me so I can get some goddamn rest! Oh, and NO SEX. Look what happened last time!"
D) "I'm actually four hundred pounds, but that didn't sound good in the ad, so I'm putting up this picture of a girl I knew in college. I'll explain everything in the coffee shop when we meet."
E) "If you want to meet me, and boy, do I look luscious, go to this website and pay a bunch of money!"
F) "I'm married, and I want to sneak around with you on the side. My husband, a six foot four inch, three hundred and twenty pound patrol cop, said he'd kill the next guy I sleep with, but he's just kidding... He's just a big, ex-Green-Beret teddy bear and his gun collection isn't THAT large."
G) "I'm completely normal, very attractive, and intelligent. However, I'm the only one like this here, so I'll have to sift through five hundred emails to see yours. Gee, sorry. Raw deal."
The true value of articles like this is they show us just how little the leadership of corporate America cares about their fellow Americans, their country, and their staff. All that really matters to them is their bottom line. Issues about fair play, about maintaining American core skill sets, about not destroying the lives of millions of people for an extra buck or two on the share price, just don't exist. In short, the rich and the corporate *don't care* about the rest of us, and never will (other than to caution that there might be a backlash, so offshoring efforts should be as under the table as possible, at least until it picks up momentum and the risk of bad PR is minimized).
I think it's useful for the rest of us to understand this about Big Business(tm). It prevents us from romanticizing it, or from accidentally sympathizing with it when (inevitably) all that foreign infrastructure Big Business is creating turns on a dime and eats Big Business alive.
It also helps us choose NOT to waste our time in corporate jobs we'll "inevitably" lose. Perhaps now more of us will choose strictly-local, civil-service and union jobs and avoid corporate work entirely. My advice, brothers, is to eschew all corporate work entirely, and do your best to live without their shitty products. Really, you'd be better off building your own PCs anyway. It's cheaper, and you can pick and choose the (probably Taiwanese or Chinese)motherboard / graphics card / etc that will work the best. And, it'll feel better morally -- you don't see the Chinese outsourcing their people's jobs overseas. Just a thought...
It's true that a technically minded person can have more success trying to track someone, but with a few simple precautions, you can make it extraordinarily difficult for such a person. For starters, avoid publishing resumes. Send them only to companies, directly. If you do publish a resume, only publish phone number and email address. Remember, things like resumes get cached on google when you put them on your web page! Other things you can do include using a phony birthdate for website registration, refusing to supply a home address, etc. As long as you're not putting your info out publicly, you're probably going to make it really hard on nosy (or psychotic) people. And, remember, a crazy person rarely has the patience or technical knowledge to get at non-published info.
One important thing -- possibly the MOST important -- is to pay the buck or so and have the phone company leave your number unlisted. This keeps you off ALL of the reverse lookup phone books and such (which use published white pages as their data source). This one precaution can save you SO much grief...
When people say the Internet "isn't anonymous" they mean that your ISP, the police, the federal government, and all other interested agencies can track you wherever you browse. Joe Sixpack with a chip on his shoulder does NOT have the all-reaching power of the government, or even an ISP sysadmin, ok? We're talking apples and oranges here. I really don't think someone from the FBI is going to come after me because I say something online about, say, the separation of church and state. But if I put my home address online for all to see, it's entirely possible that some hyper-religious type might try something. Do you see the distinction? In order for this non-governmental person to be able to come after me, I have to have willingly GIVEN OUT MY ADDRESS, because he is NOT a cop and therefore, cannot just go look me up.
And, before you say, "that's what private investigators are for", realize that a private eye is going to ask you WHY you want my address and if he doesn't think you have a legitimate reason, he's going to kick you out of his office. A P.I. cares about his livelihood. No P.I. is going to want to risk losing his license because Joe Nutjob dislikes someone's politics and wants to have a face-to-face with them, ok? Let alone the chance of a lawsuit if Joe Nutjob gets caught and spills the beans about just how, exactly, he found his victim. P.I.s are generally pretty careful about the work they take on for this specific reason... Hell, half of them are ex-cops anyway, and they know all about this kind of thing.
Anyway, see what I mean? I think that not everyone understands this. There's a big difference between not being able to prevent the government from snooping on you and not being able to prevent random individuals from coming after you because of what you put on your website.
To fend off individuals, all you have to do is NOT put your address on the web. And, that's easy.
Wow... It's just lucky that the person wasn't out for blood. This is what I'm talking about. I think most people don't realize that it only takes one person to cause all hell to break loose -- and when you create a website, you reach millions, so statistically, you're bound to offend at least a couple of wing-nuts on any given day. It's just a matter of luck as to whether they decide, "Hey, here's his address. Let's go get him".
The difference, of course, is that no matter how much of a clod I am as a person, I can only irritate so many people during the course of one day. Also, the chances of my irritating someone who is actually dangerous is fairly low -- most people are mostly sane.
On the internet, you reach potentially millions of people, so your chances of irritating someone dangerous are markedly higher. With a statistical population of, say, possibly hundreds of millions of people, your chances of finding those few thousand truly dangerous people and irritating them are actually fairly good.
The point you're missing is, all they need is CONTACT info. Contact info is email address and maybe phone number. There is no reason whatsoever for them to have your home address publicly displayed. In fact, it is very dangerous and sooner or later there will be some kind of tragedy and/or lawsuit, and this whole situation will come to a head.
All it'll take is some blowhard out on the net (and you know from being on Slashdot that there are plenty of them) to get pissed off at something someone posts on their web page. It might not even be anything really bad, people get pissed off over the stupidest things. Joe Blowhard decides to look up Jane Somebody's home address on whois, then goes over her house and kills her. Or kicks her ass. Or rapes her. Or robs her. But you get the idea.
Currently, the anonymity you have on the web is the only thing protecting you from all the crazies out there. Put your address on a website, and you take your chances. Not wanting to risk possible red death should NOT ban you from having a website, and that's what this is really all about.
Identity theft is one thing. Getting your ass beaten by some lunatic who didn't like your website (maybe he thinks you're not religious enough, maybe he doesn't like your politics, whatever) is quite another.
I don't have a problem with them posting my email address and phone number... But I do have a problem with them posting my home address. Who wants to worry about some wacko deciding he wants to pay you a visit because he didn't like what you wrote on your blog? Identity theft is one thing... I'm worried about murder, beatings, harassment, vandalism, robbery...
Spend any time on slashdot and you get the idea that there are some really psycho people out there, who can get bent out of shape over the stupidest things. Now add in your home address, publicly available to all, and you've got a nice little shit + fan situation.
I say, LIE. Don't put your real address, ever. If you have to use an address, use a P.O. box. Or make something up, like "Penthouse suite, Eisengard, third tower". What are they going to do, check every single home address? Mail everyone a postcard and hope they return it? Hell, you can put ANYTHING down.
Wow... you took a relatively interesting premise and went kinda loopy with it. That's cool, though, I'm hip... But let me voice my take on this idea:
First of all, DON'T quit your job. You need a job. But do try and find a less stressful job with reasonable (i.e. 9-5, 40h/wk) working hours. All you need vis-a-vis benefits is health insurance, really, anything else is gravy. Preferably, take a job where there's not too much risk of physical injury and there aren't many environmental hazards. Civil service is pretty cool (go county or state).
Second, pay off all your debts but keep one small credit card around "just in case", either a 500.00 or a 1000.00 card. Maybe have a department store card in case you have to pick up some clothes in a hurry (you never know what could happen). But don't USE the cards unless you need to, and pay them off asap.
Third, yes, live simply but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD don't drop your internet connection!!! I pay 112/month for internet and cable, and I love it. It keeps me connected and informed, and I wouldn't want to live without it. Another tip is, keep the cell phone and drop the land-line. Cell phones are more useful and you usually get free long distance. It's a better deal.
Grocery shop instead of eating out, etc, etc, don't get sucked into the whole consumerist thing, it'll bleed you dry, ignore Greenspan, he's there for corporations, not you... Um... That's about it, I guess.
Basically, live frugally, spend minimally, take it easy and don't wear yourself out. That's my point of view...
Hooking up a game console to a cat works fairly well, it reduces the need for a sound system so it speeds up gameplay. But trying to interperet the yowls and screeches of the cat and build the visuals in your mind's eye -- now, THAT is challenging. I went through three cats and over four hundred alligator clips before I started making progress in Metal Gear: Solid.
And, then, there's the side bonus: when the PETA people come for you, the first person shooter action is so realistic! I used the "super shotgun" (10Ga double barrel, 000 Buck magnum rounds -- WOOT!) to great effect, but I hear you can use just about anything on most of them. Only the boss battle was tough. Three hundred and fifty pounds of non-bathing, non-shaving butch bull hippie is nothing to sniff at! She almost got me, but I distracted her with a veggie burger and escaped through my kitchen window...
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Of course, an SUV isn't even the best thing for towing a boat, or going camping: that would be a pickup truck. Pickup trucks generally have more power, a lower center of gravity, a wider stance, and get better gas mileage (because all those SUV windows and the frame for them add up to around 1500 pounds of dead weight). An additional bonus is that pickup trucks are safer: while SUV's use unibody construction, most pickups use the stiffer, more durable ladder frame.
.Net type languages = luxury sedan, pricy and full of features, but faster and more stable than the SUV's. Softer ride, too. Still fairly easy to drive, but require a little more up-front manual-reading.
I think it's more like:
Scripting languages = inexpensive little coupe, maybe a saturn. Quick, fuel efficient, pleasant to drive and low maintenance. People who drive them tend to be happy and relaxed.
VB.Net and similar
Java = SUV; Big, slow, difficult to drive without rolling the car, guzzles gas and takes up most of the road. People buy it because they fantasize about going "off road" but they mostly do the same thing as the sedan and economy car drivers, only less pleasantly. Sedan and economy car drivers are vaguely annoyed by SUV drivers.
C/C++ = Ford F-350 with duallies and four wheel drive, faster, stronger, more stable than SUVs but still requires more skill to drive than a sedan. Gets about the same gas mileage as the sedan, but can be used for much more demanding tasks (e.g. construction, wilderness rescue). Mostly used for work, not really a pleasure vehicle. "rides like a truck". Ignored by most other drivers, who don't often venture onto construction sites or off-road.
Assembly: A McLaren race car. Fast as hell, not street legal, rarely seen up close, and not just anyone can drive one. Special training required, drivers occasionally make an error and kill themselves in a fiery crash. Not used as often as it used to be.
Lisp and similar languages: captured alien hovercar. Runs on weird green glowing rocks, flies fast and silent, can't be taken out on the road because it inspires conspiracy theories and tends to get shot at by the Barney Fifes of the world. Rumored to be used in academic environments by nefarious researcher types. Rarely seen by the public, could be fictional or part of a government coverup.
William said: "Your comment was moderated flamebait but i think it should have been funny... I'm the one who is anti-microsoft and I was replying to your (IMO) pro-microsoft comment!"
.Net has some really weird bugs in it...
..."But it is even better business to use your quasi-monopoly to shut out competition"
;)
That's cool... Actually, I have mixed feelings about Microsoft. I think their products kinda suck, actually; I'm just forced to use them through economic necessity (as in: program or starve). The only good thing is, I think their developer's tools aren't bad. Although, Visual Studio
(about the expertise comment) I know exactly what you mean -- yeah, it's true, I was bullshitting about the expertise thing. I'm not actually an expert in anything, except maybe bullshitting. But, doesn't it just roll off the tongue?
Well, that's true of course. And, we ARE talking about Microsoft. But I think that they're on the fence when it comes to web services. I don't think they want to get locked out, I think they want to poach on everyone else's property. Which means they want their tools to be able to use everyone else's stuff. Of course, I didn't say I think that's going to be a two-way street! You see where I'm going with this. "We can read yours but you can't read ours, nyah nyah" is entirely possible. It doesn't exactly shut out competition, but it's not exactly fair play either.
(about markets) Well, I don't think they care about Mozilla and Linux, other than to say that IF large numbers of people end up using Linux on the desktop at home, Microsoft has a definite interest in making its server products Linux friendly. They don't ever want to hear "Well, we were thinking about getting Windows Server 2003, but a lot of our customers are linux geeks, so we're going to go with FreeBSD instead". No, Microsoft wants to be able to retort, "But Windows 2003 works just fine with Linux clients!". As I said, it's about not getting shut out. I think they're acknowledging (at least internally) that Linux/Mozilla has to be supported, or Microsoft will lose customers.
(about the EU) well, of COURSE I know that. I'm delighted by it. Here in the US, at least until the next election, we're stuck with a government which blows kisses to big business, ok? Our hands are tied. European officials, on the other hand, still remember the French Revolution and the whole "Let them eat cake" / "Off with her head" thing. They're just a teensy bit more sensitive about popular opinion than we are over here. So, who knows? Maybe the EU will do something about the Beast from Redmond. It could happen...
Check out Honda and Saturn. Both have plants in the U.S. which are staffed by Americans. I think Honda did it to lighten their tarriff costs and make it easier to deliver the cars they were selling...
I'd have to agree... I don't think they're really comfortable with the whole "compete fairly and win based on product quality" thing. 'Course, I wasn't trying to imply that this *wouldn't* happen, just that the interoperability angle would have been attractive to them. ;)
Ah, Slashdotland... The straw man every MS-man on Slashdot trots out to try and discredit anti-microsoft opinions (and in this case, a pro-microsoft opinion you didn't read all the way through). Finger pointed, you say "Only you freaky Slashdotters in Slashdot land feel this way" (actually it's halfway between straw man and ad hominem). Funny. But, let's calm you down a little; maybe then you'll go back and read my post.
.Net, so I do happen to have some expertise in the area we are discussing. And, what I've been programming lately is -- surprise! -- Web services.
First of all, I'm not entirely anti-Microsoft. I work with Microsoft tools all day, and have a windows machine at home for development. I program using Visual Studio
IF you take the two minutes it'll take even a slow reader to read my post, and RTFP, you'll see the point I was trying to make, you big dummy.
That point is: it is GOOD BUSINESS to interoperate. So, Microsoft is going to interoperate because Microsoft doesn't like getting shut out of markets.
Now, run along and RTFP.
Yes, but they'll see it as good business to preserve the ability to use their competitor's stuff. They'll use it as a selling point for Windows: "You'll be able to use their stuff but they still can't use ours except in certain defined ways, so buy Microsoft, it's more powerful". As an example, they'll set up systems that'll let you communicate with, say, a database server from another vendor, but they won't let you do all the cool stuff you could do *with a Microsoft database* (like, for instance, insert data to a BLOB using a SQL insert statement). All very hypothetical... Oh, wait...
Bill Gates (to himself): "Hmm... Everyone hates me, and everyone is aligned against me, creating their own web services standards and ensuring that I won't completely capture the market. Let's see... This implies that they might take a significant part of the market, and if I'm not interoperable, I'll be essentially locked out. Ah, well, screw it."
(calls up Ballmer)
Bill Gates: "Hey, Steve -- do me a favor, would you? Round up some of our better R+D guys, and have them work up a system that lets us totally interoperate with all the other, competing web services systems out there, wouldja?"
Ballmer: "WTF???"
Bill Gates: "Why lock ourselves out of a big chunk of the market? We've got our section, now we can play with their section too."
Ballmer: "Ok, I'm on it..."
This is strictly hypothetical, but I bet it's pretty close.
Yeah... But what really got me was how cool they all were. Every single one seemed to actually, genuinely LIKE guys! No hostility, no brooding mistrust, no assumptions about how guys are all just perverts waiting to drag girls into the sack... Just plain, old, friendliness and respect. You don't see that around here that much. Girls around here are so hostile! I gave up on 'em, I haven't been on a date in two and a half years. No, wait -- longer than that.
If I didn't love New York so much, I'd move to Toronto, pronto.
Ah... Well, it's been a long time, I'm working from memory here... But you have to admit -- it WAS funny... ;)
An A/C said: "'Taxes are slightly higher...'
I believe you mean MUCH higher. Sales tax varies by province but runs abut 15 freakin' percent (my state is 5 percent, 1/3 of that... Delaware and N.H. are zero). Income tax is much higher, alcohol taxes are astronomical, tobacco taxes are sky high (well, I do agree with that last one)."
Well, I live in NY, where there's an 8% sales tax on just about everything, with additional taxes on cigarettes (the price of a pack is several dollars). A jump up to 15% isn't so bad, and it funds social programs, so I'm okay with that. The thing about Canada is, you seem to get so much for your money. Maybe they tax you more aggressively, but they spend the money on Canadians. Sometimes I get the sense that here in the U.S. our tax dollars are being redirected to political friends of whatever administration is in office at any given time (usually something weapons related, unfortunately).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-USA. I love my country (although I'm praying daily that Bush gets voted out by a massive landslide in the next election -- maybe if the republicans get really humiliated, they'll learn something about priorities). But you have to admit, Canada has a whole lot going for it. And, it seems to me that Canada is pretty top-shelf as far as countries and governments go.
What's that? Some kind of judge wapner kinda thing?
Now, I never played "Magic, the Gathering" because I never got into the card games and could never figure out the attraction (I'm more of a first person shooter kinda guy). But their commercials were hilarious.
There was one where a bunch of scientists are looking down on a lawyer type through a set of high-set glass windows. He was in the middle of a big, roundish room with huge steel doors in the back, and he was basically sitting around, fiddling with his watch, etc. So one of the scientist types says, "Ok, bring in the troll." They press a button and open the doors, and a huge, at least fifteen foot tall troll with a huge club comes in and roars. The lawyer shrieks, and the next thing you see is a view through the windows over the scientist's shoulders, as the lawyer flies up into the air, spilling papers all over the place. A scientist takes a note down on a pad, saying, "Troll beats lawyer..." (or words to that effect).
Those commercials were FUNNY.
The thing about Canada is, there are almost no reasons NOT to live there. Taxes are slightly higher, but look at what you get for the money: free, national health care and a *real* pension system. The cities look pretty nice, the country is gorgeous, the people are all pretty laid back as far as I can tell, and the government tries to take care of its people (that's a shocker for us South of the border, where the government is more interested in yelling at us and locking us up than in actually DOING anything for us). I've read a lot about Canada and from what I can see it's practically the promised land.
Even the chicks are great up there. I'm serious! I belong to a few personals sites, and it seems as though all the women posting from Canada are A)HOT, and I mean like FIRE, B)intelligent, C)genuinely fond of guys, and D)like sex. It just blows me away. They're all so normal, so... COOL. It's weird, it's like all the cool, hip chicks up and moved to Toronto.
Where I live, all the personal ads are of one of these varieties:
A) "I'm a lesbian, and I'm looking for a girl. No hard feelings, guys, right? But no interest either." (actually, I kinda like these, they're usually kinda sweet in a "phil not required" way).
B) "I'm extremely bitter, and I won't tell you what terrible and sadistic things my ex boyfriend did to me to make me this way, but I'm going to take it out on you. If you even so much as MENTION sex, I'll castrate you on the spot -- look, I've got the rubber gloves, rubber band, and scalpel right here. No anasthetic, though; I'm on a budget."
C) "I've got several kids and I need some HELP! Please, GOD, marry me so I can get some goddamn rest! Oh, and NO SEX. Look what happened last time!"
D) "I'm actually four hundred pounds, but that didn't sound good in the ad, so I'm putting up this picture of a girl I knew in college. I'll explain everything in the coffee shop when we meet."
E) "If you want to meet me, and boy, do I look luscious, go to this website and pay a bunch of money!"
F) "I'm married, and I want to sneak around with you on the side. My husband, a six foot four inch, three hundred and twenty pound patrol cop, said he'd kill the next guy I sleep with, but he's just kidding... He's just a big, ex-Green-Beret teddy bear and his gun collection isn't THAT large."
G) "I'm completely normal, very attractive, and intelligent. However, I'm the only one like this here, so I'll have to sift through five hundred emails to see yours. Gee, sorry. Raw deal."
The true value of articles like this is they show us just how little the leadership of corporate America cares about their fellow Americans, their country, and their staff. All that really matters to them is their bottom line. Issues about fair play, about maintaining American core skill sets, about not destroying the lives of millions of people for an extra buck or two on the share price, just don't exist. In short, the rich and the corporate *don't care* about the rest of us, and never will (other than to caution that there might be a backlash, so offshoring efforts should be as under the table as possible, at least until it picks up momentum and the risk of bad PR is minimized).
I think it's useful for the rest of us to understand this about Big Business(tm). It prevents us from romanticizing it, or from accidentally sympathizing with it when (inevitably) all that foreign infrastructure Big Business is creating turns on a dime and eats Big Business alive.
It also helps us choose NOT to waste our time in corporate jobs we'll "inevitably" lose. Perhaps now more of us will choose strictly-local, civil-service and union jobs and avoid corporate work entirely. My advice, brothers, is to eschew all corporate work entirely, and do your best to live without their shitty products. Really, you'd be better off building your own PCs anyway. It's cheaper, and you can pick and choose the (probably Taiwanese or Chinese)motherboard / graphics card / etc that will work the best. And, it'll feel better morally -- you don't see the Chinese outsourcing their people's jobs overseas. Just a thought...
It's true that a technically minded person can have more success trying to track someone, but with a few simple precautions, you can make it extraordinarily difficult for such a person. For starters, avoid publishing resumes. Send them only to companies, directly. If you do publish a resume, only publish phone number and email address. Remember, things like resumes get cached on google when you put them on your web page! Other things you can do include using a phony birthdate for website registration, refusing to supply a home address, etc. As long as you're not putting your info out publicly, you're probably going to make it really hard on nosy (or psychotic) people. And, remember, a crazy person rarely has the patience or technical knowledge to get at non-published info.
One important thing -- possibly the MOST important -- is to pay the buck or so and have the phone company leave your number unlisted. This keeps you off ALL of the reverse lookup phone books and such (which use published white pages as their data source). This one precaution can save you SO much grief...
When people say the Internet "isn't anonymous" they mean that your ISP, the police, the federal government, and all other interested agencies can track you wherever you browse. Joe Sixpack with a chip on his shoulder does NOT have the all-reaching power of the government, or even an ISP sysadmin, ok? We're talking apples and oranges here. I really don't think someone from the FBI is going to come after me because I say something online about, say, the separation of church and state. But if I put my home address online for all to see, it's entirely possible that some hyper-religious type might try something. Do you see the distinction? In order for this non-governmental person to be able to come after me, I have to have willingly GIVEN OUT MY ADDRESS, because he is NOT a cop and therefore, cannot just go look me up.
And, before you say, "that's what private investigators are for", realize that a private eye is going to ask you WHY you want my address and if he doesn't think you have a legitimate reason, he's going to kick you out of his office. A P.I. cares about his livelihood. No P.I. is going to want to risk losing his license because Joe Nutjob dislikes someone's politics and wants to have a face-to-face with them, ok? Let alone the chance of a lawsuit if Joe Nutjob gets caught and spills the beans about just how, exactly, he found his victim. P.I.s are generally pretty careful about the work they take on for this specific reason... Hell, half of them are ex-cops anyway, and they know all about this kind of thing.
Anyway, see what I mean? I think that not everyone understands this. There's a big difference between not being able to prevent the government from snooping on you and not being able to prevent random individuals from coming after you because of what you put on your website.
To fend off individuals, all you have to do is NOT put your address on the web. And, that's easy.
Whatever.
Wow... It's just lucky that the person wasn't out for blood. This is what I'm talking about. I think most people don't realize that it only takes one person to cause all hell to break loose -- and when you create a website, you reach millions, so statistically, you're bound to offend at least a couple of wing-nuts on any given day. It's just a matter of luck as to whether they decide, "Hey, here's his address. Let's go get him".
I'm glad no one was hurt.
The difference, of course, is that no matter how much of a clod I am as a person, I can only irritate so many people during the course of one day. Also, the chances of my irritating someone who is actually dangerous is fairly low -- most people are mostly sane.
On the internet, you reach potentially millions of people, so your chances of irritating someone dangerous are markedly higher. With a statistical population of, say, possibly hundreds of millions of people, your chances of finding those few thousand truly dangerous people and irritating them are actually fairly good.
Your analogy, therefore, is really poor.
The point you're missing is, all they need is CONTACT info. Contact info is email address and maybe phone number. There is no reason whatsoever for them to have your home address publicly displayed. In fact, it is very dangerous and sooner or later there will be some kind of tragedy and/or lawsuit, and this whole situation will come to a head.
All it'll take is some blowhard out on the net (and you know from being on Slashdot that there are plenty of them) to get pissed off at something someone posts on their web page. It might not even be anything really bad, people get pissed off over the stupidest things. Joe Blowhard decides to look up Jane Somebody's home address on whois, then goes over her house and kills her. Or kicks her ass. Or rapes her. Or robs her. But you get the idea.
Currently, the anonymity you have on the web is the only thing protecting you from all the crazies out there. Put your address on a website, and you take your chances. Not wanting to risk possible red death should NOT ban you from having a website, and that's what this is really all about.
Identity theft is one thing. Getting your ass beaten by some lunatic who didn't like your website (maybe he thinks you're not religious enough, maybe he doesn't like your politics, whatever) is quite another.
I don't have a problem with them posting my email address and phone number... But I do have a problem with them posting my home address. Who wants to worry about some wacko deciding he wants to pay you a visit because he didn't like what you wrote on your blog? Identity theft is one thing... I'm worried about murder, beatings, harassment, vandalism, robbery...
Spend any time on slashdot and you get the idea that there are some really psycho people out there, who can get bent out of shape over the stupidest things. Now add in your home address, publicly available to all, and you've got a nice little shit + fan situation.
I say, LIE. Don't put your real address, ever. If you have to use an address, use a P.O. box. Or make something up, like "Penthouse suite, Eisengard, third tower". What are they going to do, check every single home address? Mail everyone a postcard and hope they return it? Hell, you can put ANYTHING down.
Just a thought.
Wow... you took a relatively interesting premise and went kinda loopy with it. That's cool, though, I'm hip... But let me voice my take on this idea:
First of all, DON'T quit your job. You need a job. But do try and find a less stressful job with reasonable (i.e. 9-5, 40h/wk) working hours. All you need vis-a-vis benefits is health insurance, really, anything else is gravy. Preferably, take a job where there's not too much risk of physical injury and there aren't many environmental hazards. Civil service is pretty cool (go county or state).
Second, pay off all your debts but keep one small credit card around "just in case", either a 500.00 or a 1000.00 card. Maybe have a department store card in case you have to pick up some clothes in a hurry (you never know what could happen). But don't USE the cards unless you need to, and pay them off asap.
Third, yes, live simply but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD don't drop your internet connection!!! I pay 112/month for internet and cable, and I love it. It keeps me connected and informed, and I wouldn't want to live without it. Another tip is, keep the cell phone and drop the land-line. Cell phones are more useful and you usually get free long distance. It's a better deal.
Grocery shop instead of eating out, etc, etc, don't get sucked into the whole consumerist thing, it'll bleed you dry, ignore Greenspan, he's there for corporations, not you... Um... That's about it, I guess.
Basically, live frugally, spend minimally, take it easy and don't wear yourself out. That's my point of view...
They're working on technology that'll be used for the defense of their people, a very patriotic endeavour;
They're making much more money than they'd make doing less "sexy" research;
They get a security clearance, which is a very valuable thing these days;
And, the work is probably a whole lot less dry than plain-old "basic research".
Where's the downside?
Hooking up a game console to a cat works fairly well, it reduces the need for a sound system so it speeds up gameplay. But trying to interperet the yowls and screeches of the cat and build the visuals in your mind's eye -- now, THAT is challenging. I went through three cats and over four hundred alligator clips before I started making progress in Metal Gear: Solid.
And, then, there's the side bonus: when the PETA people come for you, the first person shooter action is so realistic! I used the "super shotgun" (10Ga double barrel, 000 Buck magnum rounds -- WOOT!) to great effect, but I hear you can use just about anything on most of them. Only the boss battle was tough. Three hundred and fifty pounds of non-bathing, non-shaving butch bull hippie is nothing to sniff at! She almost got me, but I distracted her with a veggie burger and escaped through my kitchen window...
Ah, fuck you you pansy bedwetter. Go lick a dog's ass 'til it bleeds.