If you are like me you probably are wired to the max whether employed or not anyhow. If it is your stuff you are effectively autonomous and a free agent relative to much of the needed equipment. Consider acting as such. Let those who want to use your stuff for their purposes pay for the privilege and for your time and input accordingly.
As people learn to augment their abilities using computational devices of increasingly greater power and smaller size, corporations will have the choice of either having full powered employees or having their abilities and knowledge toned down to attempt to satisfy company paranoia. What no one seems to get yet is that we are fast approaching a time when it must be assumed that everyone has the equivalent of an eidetic memory in full fidelity for everything they are ever present to. I think we need to work with this instead of attempting to fight it.
This is moronic. I am paying for email service. I am not paying for them to read my email for whatever reason or no reason whenever they wish. That it is their machine hasn't anything at all to do with it. They are providing a service that I pay for. They have already received compensation for use of their resources as per the contract. They have no justification for also mining the email they contracted to service. And no, it is very much NOT like renting a house. Please don't use worthless analogies. You may hurt yourself.
I don't think it can be stopped in the name of privacy. Privacy is considered too much of a feel-good thing today without much substance. It should be stopped for the same reason that the USPS is not allowed to read the smail it temporarily stores before delivery. I should have the right to securely communicate with whomever I wish without 3rd party snoops intercepting the communication. If the laws will not guarantee it then we must move quickly to encrypt everything and tell the government where to go if they insist on having the keys.
Anyone, not even having to be a PI, can get their hands on much of this information about anyone who hasn't taken a lot of steps to avoid leaving so many cookie crumbs. That it has been organized for more convenient access was just a matter of time. We need to insure some things:
a) that the information is accurate; b) that we can examine our information for accuracy and there is a way to correct it; c) that there are stringent laws governing the use of this information; d) that there are workable procedures for reporting abuse and taking legal remedies against abuse.
The above will not make us completely safe of course. But they are necessary steps in the right direction in this world of dense information flows.
Yeah, you have to admit that few countries have done as much as Israel to have good reason to fear that those they oppress will resort to extreme measures to fight back. Of course the US is challenging them for the #1 position. Ah, I forgot. Those would be terrorist simply hate us because we are so very, very good. Sure. Good at invading their country, good at arranging puppet regimes, good at supporting and international outlaw country as our best bud, good at doing everything necessary with no hold barred to insure no one can ever be a real challenge to US. Yep they really hate us for being so "good".
Hey, maybe we could concentrate on stopping people when they act mad and dangerous instead of presuming everyone is mad and dangerous until we satisfy ourselves otherwise. The security hassles at the airport aren't about making us safe. They are about making us accustomed to the notion that the authorities have the right to demand whatever they want from us and that we must always assume they know best and that it is somehow for our own good.
This is but a step removed from requiring all persons to fully id with biometrics in order to travel anywhere and eventually to do much of anything. Notice the progression. Something scary and awful happens. Airlines practice indiscriminate and largely meaningless hugely harrassing and disruptive "security measures". People complain. Airlines allow bypassing largely meaningless levels of hassle if you go through special screening and provide precise identification when you travel. The message is that everyone is a suspect until proven likely innocent, everyone is assumed guilty unless suitably examined, branded and stamped. Freedom? Surveillance is freedom. Mandatory id is freedom. Restriction of travel on arbitrary and unquestionable say-so of unreachable committees is freedom. Go to sleep little sheep. Here, have some more HDTV.
Well, why not contribute to OS projects? For that matter, if ambitious, start one. These things look good on a resume. Experience doesn't have to be from paid employment.
Uh huh. This is the human body or more specifically, its skin. It has been known to be able to carry signals and even some amount of power for some time. Exactly what physical device did M$ invent here? It can legitimately patent devices to take advantage of this capability. But it cannot patent the very idea of using the skin in this manner any more than someone could at one time have patented running power through a conductor.
I would be much more impressed by a voice navigation interface to the ipod that does not require you to own any particular high end car. But that would make too much sense and wouldn't nickel and dime us to death.
a) do not under any circumstances take the advice of the/. crowd. Most of them know less than you do and all of them know you less well than you do.
b) find something that you have love and some gifts for that you believe will make a real difference in the world. Do that with all your heart.
c) don't be surprised when you find you are bright enough to find out how dumb you really are - where your limits are and how unfortunately soon you run into them. You may be brighter than most but that isn't saying very much. Even the brightest person on earth is quite limited relative to some of the things worth doing out there.
d) Find your uniqueness and develop it. Don't become some "safe" and "conventional" kind of nerd.
e) push yourself to your limits. It is the only way you'll grow. You may be bright enough to coast through. Don't do it or at least do some things other than the norm that you don't coast on but tax yourself to the max.
f) don't assume college is like HS. Some of it unfortuantely is but much isn't. Take hard stuff you find interesting. Stick it out. Get the boring "rounding" krap done as soon as you can.
g) work at getting over the incredible dumbing down which most HS is. congrats on surviving it. Work at finding and healing the wounds it imposed.
Even bothering to say something is "conservative" or "right wing" exposes rather limited thinking. These categories are impossibly limiting. About all that can be set of "right wing" is "not leftist". A linear scale to describe politics is amazingly simplistic. At least go to full 2D and preferably at least 3D.
It is even more inane in the context of the book because the book is not about politics nor does it often touch on politics.
then the US Patent System and the courts will attempt to shut it down. Since we privatize spectrum at high price every player needs to recoup their costs. This generally means that you and I will get nickel and dimed to death for one little bitty service slice at a time. It is against the interest of all these players if anyone offers too much for too little or, in other words, actually begins to bring more of the full benefit of wireless connectivity to the users.
What little experience I have had with SAP is that it is the king of archaic over-priced bloatware. Microsoft would have choked and died attempting to absorb it. This would have gotten rid of two ugly giant blights on the industry at once. Too bad it didn't go through.
He did not mention the work of Lessig and others on using the spectrum as a commons and how that may be done with no real interference or problems and why that is better. A useful URL leading to some links is at http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/spectrum/
The FCC has a hand in far too many things that could be done as well or better (to the extent they need doing) by the private sector and the courts. In particular neither the FCC or any other part of government has and right to determine what is "decent" a la a simple breast being viewed. Only in America (and other backwards fundie dominated countries) could such a furor arise over so little.
a) Modern broadcast techniques exist that allow a nearly unlimited number of broadcasts simultaneously on the same spectrum. Interference issues are not what they used to be.
b) "They knew the rules" is a friggin' lame excuse for bullying by a governmental body over things government has no business sticking its nose in.
It was along the lines of "the capitalist countries will sell us the rope the hang them with". Those driven to financial gain eschewing possible ethical concerns will at best impose a lot of friction and drag on the system. They may end up poisoning the internet sufficiently to end a lot of net freedom we take for granted. I am sure China is more than happy to take our money as we bury ourselves.
Mr Bunsucker is pleased to have raked in the cash for harming the community he turns around and pretends to be a contributing part of. This is below contempt. Folks, do not hire anyone ever who is still part of SCO. All that is necessary for evil to win is for good people to do nothing.
Just wave around the "safety" word or the big T and everything else is trivial stuff that of course the powers that be should take away and of course the people should love it and agree with it. Taking away the technological extensions of 21st century citizens is Assault on our persons. Until people look at it as such and treat it as such we are all simply consumer peons whose lives, tools, abilities are at the mercy of our "public servants".
It is not "just life". It exists because we agree to live and work that way. It is a common mistake/excuse to assume that things that are in reality the results of human decisions and acceptance are immutable facts of nature. They are not.
While you were putting in your four years I was right there beside you in all the tech courses. I was there in some of the courses you might have taken if you went to grad school. The difference is that while I was doing that I was employed putting the theory to work on real-life projects. I didn't take all the general-ed requirements to become "well-rounded" as a person. So the schools weren't willing to give me the degree. I didn't have time to. I was producing stuff that was too fascinating and I already had dependents to support.
In many of my jobs my peers had PhDs. Generally speaking they did far better literature searches and wrote better white papers and presentations. But over and over again I produced better designs, faster and convinced them of benefits of what I proposed. I have done things that are world class and have pushed state of the art a surprising number of times for being a non R&D, commercial hacker. Theory you say? I am usually the one who brings in theory and makes it real even when the PhDs don't think they can get it past management.
In a different world, back when big iron still ruled, I had that same low-pay job. I was the tech support for a bunch of PhD reservoir engineer types. I was the one who wrote much of the code to produce and help process their data. In those days in that place that made me slightly more acceptable than the cleaning crew. What got me out of that and jump started my career was writing something so useful and technically challenging that several sane managers refused to let me attempt it or to ask the "real programmers" to do so. When I delivered it, done in my spare time and over convalesence from an accident, and it worked and was hugely useful, the tune changed. I had a team built around me and my ideas. I took a couple of years and answering a manager's claim that I was not a real programmer without a couple of degrees by presenting him with an outside job offer claiming I was indeed a "real programmer" and for 60% more than he was paying "real programmers" to boot. To get there I read every manual I could get my hands on, force-fed myself theory and practice at the MS level and dared to hack big.
Go for it! Make yourself stand out. Don't just be another specialist weenie. Show them guts, skill, determination and spirit. Even in a down market that gets noticed.
Slashdot Mirror
If you are like me you probably are wired to the max whether employed or not anyhow. If it is your stuff you are effectively autonomous and a free agent relative to much of the needed equipment. Consider acting as such. Let those who want to use your stuff for their purposes pay for the privilege and for your time and input accordingly.
As people learn to augment their abilities using computational devices of increasingly greater power and smaller size, corporations will have the choice of either having full powered employees or having their abilities and knowledge toned down to attempt to satisfy company paranoia. What no one seems to get yet is that we are fast approaching a time when it must be assumed that everyone has the equivalent of an eidetic memory in full fidelity for everything they are ever present to. I think we need to work with this instead of attempting to fight it.
This is moronic. I am paying for email service. I am not paying for them to read my email for whatever reason or no reason whenever they wish. That it is their machine hasn't anything at all to do with it. They are providing a service that I pay for. They have already received compensation for use of their resources as per the contract. They have no justification for also mining the email they contracted to service. And no, it is very much NOT like renting a house. Please don't use worthless analogies. You may hurt yourself.
I don't think it can be stopped in the name of privacy. Privacy is considered too much of a feel-good thing today without much substance. It should be stopped for the same reason that the USPS is not allowed to read the smail it temporarily stores before delivery. I should have the right to securely communicate with whomever I wish without 3rd party snoops intercepting the communication. If the laws will not guarantee it then we must move quickly to encrypt everything and tell the government where to go if they insist on having the keys.
Anyone, not even having to be a PI, can get their hands on much of this information about anyone who hasn't taken a lot of steps to avoid leaving so many cookie crumbs. That it has been organized for more convenient access was just a matter of time. We need to insure some things:
a) that the information is accurate;
b) that we can examine our information for accuracy and there is a way to correct it;
c) that there are stringent laws governing the use of this information;
d) that there are workable procedures for reporting abuse and taking legal remedies against abuse.
The above will not make us completely safe of course. But they are necessary steps in the right direction in this world of dense information flows.
Yeah, you have to admit that few countries have done as much as Israel to have good reason to fear that those they oppress will resort to extreme measures to fight back. Of course the US is challenging them for the #1 position. Ah, I forgot. Those would be terrorist simply hate us because we are so very, very good. Sure. Good at invading their country, good at arranging puppet regimes, good at supporting and international outlaw country as our best bud, good at doing everything necessary with no hold barred to insure no one can ever be a real challenge to US. Yep they really hate us for being so "good".
Hey, maybe we could concentrate on stopping people when they act mad and dangerous instead of presuming everyone is mad and dangerous until we satisfy ourselves otherwise. The security hassles at the airport aren't about making us safe. They are about making us accustomed to the notion that the authorities have the right to demand whatever they want from us and that we must always assume they know best and that it is somehow for our own good.
This is but a step removed from requiring all persons to fully id with biometrics in order to travel anywhere and eventually to do much of anything. Notice the progression. Something scary and awful happens. Airlines practice indiscriminate and largely meaningless hugely harrassing and disruptive "security measures". People complain. Airlines allow bypassing largely meaningless levels of hassle if you go through special screening and provide precise identification when you travel. The message is that everyone is a suspect until proven likely innocent, everyone is assumed guilty unless suitably examined, branded and stamped. Freedom? Surveillance is freedom. Mandatory id is freedom. Restriction of travel on arbitrary and unquestionable say-so of unreachable committees is freedom. Go to sleep little sheep. Here, have some more HDTV.
Well, why not contribute to OS projects? For that matter, if ambitious, start one. These things look good on a resume. Experience doesn't have to be from paid employment.
Uh huh. This is the human body or more specifically, its skin. It has been known to be able to carry signals and even some amount of power for some time. Exactly what physical device did M$ invent here? It can legitimately patent devices to take advantage of this capability. But it cannot patent the very idea of using the skin in this manner any more than someone could at one time have patented running power through a conductor.
I would be much more impressed by a voice navigation interface to the ipod that does not require you to own any particular high end car. But that would make too much sense and wouldn't nickel and dime us to death.
a) do not under any circumstances take the advice of the /. crowd. Most of them know less than you do and all of them know you less well than you do.
b) find something that you have love and some gifts for that you believe will make a real difference in the world. Do that with all your heart.
c) don't be surprised when you find you are bright enough to find out how dumb you really are - where your limits are and how unfortunately soon you run into them. You may be brighter than most but that isn't saying very much. Even the brightest person on earth is quite limited relative to some of the things worth doing out there.
d) Find your uniqueness and develop it. Don't become some "safe" and "conventional" kind of nerd.
e) push yourself to your limits. It is the only way you'll grow. You may be bright enough to coast through. Don't do it or at least do some things other than the norm that you don't coast on but tax yourself to the max.
f) don't assume college is like HS. Some of it unfortuantely is but much isn't. Take hard stuff you find interesting. Stick it out. Get the boring "rounding" krap done as soon as you can.
g) work at getting over the incredible dumbing down which most HS is. congrats on surviving it. Work at finding and healing the wounds it imposed.
Even bothering to say something is "conservative" or "right wing" exposes rather limited thinking. These categories are impossibly limiting. About all that can be set of "right wing" is "not leftist". A linear scale to describe politics is amazingly simplistic. At least go to full 2D and preferably at least 3D.
It is even more inane in the context of the book because the book is not about politics nor does it often touch on politics.
then the US Patent System and the courts will attempt to shut it down. Since we privatize spectrum at high price every player needs to recoup their costs. This generally means that you and I will get nickel and dimed to death for one little bitty service slice at a time. It is against the interest of all these players if anyone offers too much for too little or, in other words, actually begins to bring more of the full benefit of wireless connectivity to the users.
What little experience I have had with SAP is that it is the king of archaic over-priced bloatware. Microsoft would have choked and died attempting to absorb it. This would have gotten rid of two ugly giant blights on the industry at once. Too bad it didn't go through.
He did not mention the work of Lessig and others on using the spectrum as a commons and how that may be done with no real interference or problems and why that is better. A useful URL leading to some links is at http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/spectrum/
The FCC has a hand in far too many things that could be done as well or better (to the extent they need doing) by the private sector and the courts. In particular neither the FCC or any other part of government has and right to determine what is "decent" a la a simple breast being viewed. Only in America (and other backwards fundie dominated countries) could such a furor arise over so little.
a) Modern broadcast techniques exist that allow a nearly unlimited number of broadcasts simultaneously on the same spectrum. Interference issues are not what they used to be.
b) "They knew the rules" is a friggin' lame excuse for bullying by a governmental body over things government has no business sticking its nose in.
The only thing I really liked about the PM was the floating display with infrared hand position sensors. Give me that to play with and toss the rest.
The Volta, now that's another story! Way cool!
It was along the lines of "the capitalist countries will sell us the rope the hang them with". Those driven to financial gain eschewing possible ethical concerns will at best impose a lot of friction and drag on the system. They may end up poisoning the internet sufficiently to end a lot of net freedom we take for granted. I am sure China is more than happy to take our money as we bury ourselves.
Time to start a project on SourceForge that does backup via GMail. There is certainly more than enough space for it.
Mr Bunsucker is pleased to have raked in the cash for harming the community he turns around and pretends to be a contributing part of. This is below contempt. Folks, do not hire anyone ever who is still part of SCO. All that is necessary for evil to win is for good people to do nothing.
Just wave around the "safety" word or the big T and everything else is trivial stuff that of course the powers that be should take away and of course the people should love it and agree with it. Taking away the technological extensions of 21st century citizens is Assault on our persons. Until people look at it as such and treat it as such we are all simply consumer peons whose lives, tools, abilities are at the mercy of our "public servants".
It is not "just life". It exists because we agree to live and work that way. It is a common mistake/excuse to assume that things that are in reality the results of human decisions and acceptance are immutable facts of nature. They are not.
Dear little one,
While you were putting in your four years I was right there beside you in all the tech courses. I was there in some of the courses you might have taken if you went to grad school. The difference is that while I was doing that I was employed putting the theory to work on real-life projects. I didn't take all the general-ed requirements to become "well-rounded" as a person. So the schools weren't willing to give me the degree. I didn't have time to. I was producing stuff that was too fascinating and I already had dependents to support.
In many of my jobs my peers had PhDs. Generally speaking they did far better literature searches and wrote better white papers and presentations. But over and over again I produced better designs, faster and convinced them of benefits of what I proposed. I have done things that are world class and have pushed state of the art a surprising number of times for being a non R&D, commercial hacker. Theory you say? I am usually the one who brings in theory and makes it real even when the PhDs don't think they can get it past management.
So be very careful with your assumptions.
In a different world, back when big iron still ruled, I had that same low-pay job. I was the tech support for a bunch of PhD reservoir engineer types. I was the one who wrote much of the code to produce and help process their data. In those days in that place that made me slightly more acceptable than the cleaning crew. What got me out of that and jump started my career was writing something so useful and technically challenging that several sane managers refused to let me attempt it or to ask the "real programmers" to do so. When I delivered it, done in my spare time and over convalesence from an accident, and it worked and was hugely useful, the tune changed. I had a team built around me and my ideas. I took a couple of years and answering a manager's claim that I was not a real programmer without a couple of degrees by presenting him with an outside job offer claiming I was indeed a "real programmer" and for 60% more than he was paying "real programmers" to boot. To get there I read every manual I could get my hands on, force-fed myself theory and practice at the MS level and dared to hack big.
Go for it! Make yourself stand out. Don't just be another specialist weenie. Show them guts, skill, determination and spirit. Even in a down market that gets noticed.