The last time I was asked to sign one of these (SAIC), there was a section at the bottom where they wanted me to list all on-going concerns that I felt should be an exception to the "we 0nwz joo" principle. It's a lot easier for them to except things that aren't directly related to your new job. Like I listed a game I had designed and programmed, and it was not an issue.
If they've made an offer, and you've gotten to the point of signing a contract, then they want you. Don't assume that if you want a modification of the contract then they'll simply go elsewhere. Propose a modification that protects their side to. They will be most interested in making a distinction between the two domains of the two businesses. If the domains overlap you've got a problem.
When it comes to writing the language, though, they will have a lawyer. You get one too.
As an aside, it may come down to whether the law considers that you were "work for hire" or "professional services". One way to distinguish (in terms of the law) is whether you used company equipment to do your work for them. I always try to use my own computer and software, and only asking them to buy software that others use. I look at it as providing a professional service. In that case, my other pursuits are protected. Only my hours for them are subject to review.
However rough it might be now, I predict they'll become the best of friends.
There's nothing innately aggresive toward cats in a puppy - they have to be taught. And cats (kittens, anyway) need someone to play with. If not another cat then a puppy will do just fine.
Don't make the mistake of trying to enforce a truce or settlement. They'll work it out on their own.
I live in Atlanta too and have the same opinion of the broadcast spectrum as you do. I also know that the problem isn't limited to Atlantis.
But you're wrong on judging that satellite radio is going to end up in the same place. While XM has commercials and is trending to have more, Sirius has NONE (on the music streams; re-broadcast streams like CNN has whatever commercials CNN puts in them). Even XM will end up better than FM because there's a lower tolerance factor on paid media.
Besides, burning MP3s costs time - lots of time. My time is worth $$. Isn't yours?
And how will you ever be exposed to new music? One of the coolest things about satellite radio is that you have finger-tip access to 70 flavors of music, most that you never had a chance to listen to before. Most that the current broadcast sources won't play. That alone makes it worthwhile to me.
BTW, be aware that the review itself and the last post in this area is mid-2002. Most of the info is still applicable, but there have been several changes. Eg.
XM now has >1M subscribers, about half of those due to trial subscriptions in XM-equipped new GM cars.
Sirius is about 180,000 subscribers; Ford et al start making OEM gear available in the 2005 model year (not sure about the Daimler-Chrysler deployment schedule)
about half of XM music streams now have commercials, reportedly averaging 6 minutes per hour
Sirius music streams are still commercial-free and shows no signs of changing
Sirius and the NFL have just announced a 7-year deal to have Sirius host the 24/7 NFL Channel and broadcast all NFL games live starting next season
Sirius now has NFL, NBA, NHL, and is rumored to be pursuing MLB
XM has NASCAR
both services are still losing $$ and both have similar market caps at about $2.7B
but the future is rosy: satellite radio itself shows the fastest take-up of *any* consumer product in history
XMFan.com is a good forum for XM listeners
siriusbackstage.com is a good forum for Sirius listeners
I have Sirius. I listen an hour a day in the car, and several hours a day when I sit in front of the computer soaking in the music streams available to subscribers at no extra cost.
Actually, what's shown in the mirror is not the Scouring. It's what would happen after the final victory of evil.
Sharky's men were an evil looking bunch, but those were orcs in the mirror. And Sharky's men intimidated and controlled the population. They didn't enslave them wholesale and burn the Shire. Nor was Sam ever captured.
A couple shots were similar, but no, those were the things that "might happen".
How could he cut out the Palantir? Easy. It's primary purpose in the plot is to reveal the True King to Sauron, making him believe that the Ring is at Minas Tirith with the King.
This has been replaced by Frodo showing the Ring to the Nazgul in Osgiliath. Sauron at least knows the Ring is Gondor. Maybe they'll find some way to make him think it is in MT. (The presence of Gandalf?)
Lose the Palantir, and with the Scouring of the Shire already gone, there is no need to give Sharky any screen time. I look forward to the EE.
Freedom of choice (if there really is such a right) is inherent in (and thus guaranteed to) an individual, not a government or agency.
It is actually a government's job to make policy, and in so doing eliminate much of its supposed "choice". Hopefully that policy benefits the citizen, and in this case I believe that it does.
The article was a bit (well, a lot) weak, but the link to Siemons was of interest.
The line about choosing the same manufacturer at both ends of the run is bogus. The integrated junction box idea is not. I think the Siemons boxes look very useful.
But when I installed I rejected the Siemons plates (and terminators) for exactly the reason that they liked them: the labelling. I wanted my plates to be as inconspicuous as possible. First off, you don't have to label the wallplate end; a simple layout map (and labels) at the junction box will do the job. If you must label, they can just as easily go behind the plate. To distinguish the phone and Ethernet (both cat5) I simply used an odd color for the Ethernet terminator.
For my own project I chose to go with the Leviton QuickPort line. Back then I had to go to a commercial supply to get it. On a larger project I still would, but now Home Depot carries most of what a HomeNet project needs. The Leviton catalog is pretty informative, too. Here's a link to their integrated network product page.
I brought the star configuration back to a small room on one end of the basement. In order to get there all the cables had to go behind a nest of air ducts, over a finished room, and around a jog in the wall. Solution? CONDUIT Not wimpy-assed lv conduit, either, but 2" 600V industrial PVC. The biggest stuff they had. Bolted it to the joists above the finished room and jogged it around the corner with some elbows. It was easily the most labor-saving effort of the project! It is much easier to pull through conduit than through a crowded environment.
Used a snake to run a pull string. Tied off both ends with wooden handles, and pulled nearly 1000' of cat5 and coax through the ceiling without having to get on a ladder. (Did have to get on a ladder to feed down into the junction box and drill up into the walls.)
So don't dismiss conduit. In the right places it can make life much easier.
12. Construction.... This Agreement represents the wording selected by the Parties to define their agreement and no rule of strict construction shall apply against either Party.
In other words, "This Agreement means what we intend it to mean, and not what it actually says."
I wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft pole.
{Not that I actually have a 10 ft pole, and I didn't intend to imply by listing a 10 ft pole in the text that the text has anything to do with an actual 10 ft pole, and you agree that... bleh)
This movie does to you the viewer what it claims the Videodrome does to James Wood. A great demonstration that what you see - even on an artificial medium - is real.
The IBM guys changed Deep Blue's parameters half way through the competition, and it started playing differently that it did the last game. I understand that humans can do this too, but IIRC, they stated before the matches started that they would not do this.
They did change the parameters. It is allowed under the rules, and common practice. If they ever stated "that they would not", please provide a citation.
Also, they would not give Gasparov transcripts of the previous matches that Deep Blue had played.
Accurate, but irrelevant since Deep Blue had played in no previous matches. DB's precursors *had* played in matches, and those transcripts are public record. If Kasparov didn't have them it was because he didn't look.
The thing that GK complains so much about is that they refused to provide the evaluation logs. Big difference! The logs describe the *reasons* that DB played or rejected certain moves. Kasparov is no more entitled to them than any human player is to have his opponent sit down after the match and descript why he played each move. No professional player would ever give *or ask for* such a thing.
Frankly, I think this is why IBM disassembled Deep Blue and will never sponsor or play in another such match. Kasparov poisoned the well. The payoff for IBM is in the public relations, and for GK to accuse them of cheating seriously detracts from the PR value. And there's no way to disprove the charges. (BTW, the match jury *was* given the logs, and after examing them they cleared the Deep Blue team of any wrongdoing.)
Actually, Hsu (hardware designer of Deep Blue) himself suggests that Kramnik would be a more difficult opponent for any computer (including Deep Blue) because his genius is in positional play where Kasparov's seems to be in tactical play. Computers have more difficulty recognizing and extrapolating patterns (positions) than moves.
And Kramnik might be willing to do it for less than the $700,000 guarantee to Kasparov. OTOH, it would be more difficult to find a sponsor since Kramnik is hardly the household name that GK is.
The difference... is that Fritz 6, 7, and 8 as well as all the other ChessBase engines are now vastly stronger at positional play
Well if they are, Game 1 certainly didn't show it! It looked like Fritz... er... "Deep Junior" was playing completely on predictive tactics the whole time, trying to oppose all possibilities rather than recognizing the strategy. (Or always assuming that the strategy is a fortress assault.) How else do you explain the rook sac, or the knights shoved in a corner and left to oppose an attack that wasn't forming?
I predict that Garry will use the same technique in upcoming games. Make a feint against the king's fort, then clean up the back half while Deep Fritz worries about it.
The programmer/operator did not have the option; that would go directly against the rules! The computer indicates its move on the screen, and the 'operator' pushes the piece on the board. In fact, there is an example in Hsu's book (I believe it was in the first Kasparov match) where the operator moved the wrong piece (not the move that Deep Thought had directed). The referee was called, the move put back, and the clocks reset.
The *only* "evidence" of human intervention is Kasparov's claim that moves 35 and 36 (?) of Game 2 in the second match "don't look like computer moves". Hsu himself said that both were "mistakes" by DB, and identified the bug that caused one.
If we are to rely on Kasparov's "understanding" of how a computer plays to identify points of human intervention, then we should be able to establish that GK understands computer play very well. Yet in the match in which he lost to DB, he uses the "anti-computer" style which failed utterly, thus disproving that he has that understanding (at least of Deep Blue).
Therefore, the is no credible evidence of any dishonesty on the part of IBM or the Deep Blue team, and to continually assert that there is is to insult the team and degrade the perveyor.
> > If compaq would have had a clue, I'd have a box probably 4x more powerful today with win2k support and good driver support for about the same price... shame.
Ever consider that the *real* problem here might be Microsoft not producing an Alpha binary any more?
Re:Negative review, but not (intentional) flamebai
on
LOTR: The Two Towers
·
· Score: 1
I thought about Aragorn's use of the (ex-)Othanc palantir after I posted eariler. Very important in the book, but in terms of the screenplay, I don't think that's important enough to force them to write in the entire visit to Orthanc.
Especially given Frodo's encounter with the Nazgul in Osgiliath, I predict that they are dropping the whole thing about duping Sauron into thinking that Aragorn has the Ring (and will use it as soon as he figures out how). Rather than a cunning evil, they will give us the more familiar blindly prideful evil.
"Couldn't Faramir have turned down the ring and shown his wisdom and strenght and then, for example, have the close encounter with the nazgul almost unchanged (location wasn't important in that scene)?"
While I'm not sure I like the changes to Faramir, the Nazgul trying to snatch the Ring is to me the biggest plot boo-boo of all. It means that the Nazgul (and thus Sauron) know exactly where the Ring is at that point in time.
Wouldn't Sauron *immediately* launch an assault on Osgiliath (or at the very least sortie beyond the mountains) to try to seize it?
And the entire end of the book depends on Sauron believing that the Ring is in Gondor. That the Ring was *ever* in Osgiliath implies that the good guys intended for it to be somewhere other than Gondor. Where else but the Cracks of Doom?
No, the scene with the Nazgul undermines the entire ending.
Re:Negative review, but not (intentional) flamebai
on
LOTR: The Two Towers
·
· Score: 2, Informative
"(leading me to believe that we won't get to see the hobbits return to the Shire after the fall of Sauron.)"
In fact PJ states in one of the sections of the extended FoTR DVD (I think it was in the voice-over when he was explaining why they showed XYZ in Galadriel's mirror) that the "Scouring of the Shire" is not part of the movie trilogy. That would explain why Sam got the rope instead of the box of dirt and the mallorn seed.
Lose the "Scouring of the Shire" and you can lose the scene where Gandalf evicts Saruman and Grima, and maybe the entire visit to (wrecked) Orthanc. What actually happens there besides the eviction? The comrades are reunited (other ways to accomplish that). And the Palantir zaps Merry (or was it Pippin?). The appearance of the Palantir has no other plot purpose. World around that and there's no point to the side trip.
IOW, I don't expect to see the visit to Orthanc in RotK, and I expect it will end with the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen, with perhaps a postlogue about Gandalf and the Ringbearers eventually passing over the sea with the Elves.
I just love how people spout off without having much of a clue. E.g. there is absolutely no motivation for Sauron to run! In fact, his entire motivation is exactly the opposite.
Further, as for taxing etc, he probably does that (and worse) in lands that he does control. But at the time of TTT, Sauron's power is still goring. He does not control the valley of the Anduin, although he has raided into it and driven most of the permanent residents across the bridges. In TRotK he does take the bridges and Osgiliath and lay seige to Minas Tirith, exaclty as you recommend.
As to guarding his realm, he does that just fine. The two known routes in, through the Iron Gate and through Morgulvale, are impenetrable. And even Cirith Ungol, which is 1) secret, and 2) full of Shelob, is garrisoned and patrolled.
Read the Appendices. Sauron accounts for all potential reinforcements. Assaults are made into Rivendell, Mirkwood, and Lothlorien (and against the Lonely Mountain and Dale if I recall correctly) to keep the Elves et al busy. Saruman does a pretty good job of keeping the Rohirrim tied down.
The day has to be saved by two armies which didn't actually exist as armies - the Army of the Dead, and the Trees. Are you blaming Tolkien for not having Sauron account for *them*?
And in the strategic sense, until the time of the destruction of the Ring, Sauron hasn't suffered a strategic defeat in the Third Age! He's lost a bishop (Saruman) and a knight (the Witch King), but the other side is clean out of miracles and nearly out of moves.
Tolkien did just fine with his strategic plotting. Try reading before criticizing.
Slashdot Mirror
The last time I was asked to sign one of these (SAIC), there was a section at the bottom where they wanted me to list all on-going concerns that I felt should be an exception to the "we 0nwz joo" principle. It's a lot easier for them to except things that aren't directly related to your new job. Like I listed a game I had designed and programmed, and it was not an issue.
If they've made an offer, and you've gotten to the point of signing a contract, then they want you. Don't assume that if you want a modification of the contract then they'll simply go elsewhere. Propose a modification that protects their side to. They will be most interested in making a distinction between the two domains of the two businesses. If the domains overlap you've got a problem.
When it comes to writing the language, though, they will have a lawyer. You get one too.
As an aside, it may come down to whether the law considers that you were "work for hire" or "professional services". One way to distinguish (in terms of the law) is whether you used company equipment to do your work for them. I always try to use my own computer and software, and only asking them to buy software that others use. I look at it as providing a professional service. In that case, my other pursuits are protected. Only my hours for them are subject to review.
However rough it might be now, I predict they'll become the best of friends.
There's nothing innately aggresive toward cats in a puppy - they have to be taught. And cats (kittens, anyway) need someone to play with. If not another cat then a puppy will do just fine.
Don't make the mistake of trying to enforce a truce or settlement. They'll work it out on their own.
I live in Atlanta too and have the same opinion of the broadcast spectrum as you do. I also know that the problem isn't limited to Atlantis.
But you're wrong on judging that satellite radio is going to end up in the same place. While XM has commercials and is trending to have more, Sirius has NONE (on the music streams; re-broadcast streams like CNN has whatever commercials CNN puts in them). Even XM will end up better than FM because there's a lower tolerance factor on paid media.
Besides, burning MP3s costs time - lots of time. My time is worth $$. Isn't yours?
And how will you ever be exposed to new music? One of the coolest things about satellite radio is that you have finger-tip access to 70 flavors of music, most that you never had a chance to listen to before. Most that the current broadcast sources won't play. That alone makes it worthwhile to me.
Here is a link to the area in the new forums.
BTW, be aware that the review itself and the last post in this area is mid-2002. Most of the info is still applicable, but there have been several changes. Eg.
I have Sirius. I listen an hour a day in the car, and several hours a day when I sit in front of the computer soaking in the music streams available to subscribers at no extra cost.
Actually, what's shown in the mirror is not the Scouring. It's what would happen after the final victory of evil.
Sharky's men were an evil looking bunch, but those were orcs in the mirror. And Sharky's men intimidated and controlled the population. They didn't enslave them wholesale and burn the Shire. Nor was Sam ever captured.
A couple shots were similar, but no, those were the things that "might happen".
How could he cut out the Palantir? Easy. It's primary purpose in the plot is to reveal the True King to Sauron, making him believe that the Ring is at Minas Tirith with the King.
This has been replaced by Frodo showing the Ring to the Nazgul in Osgiliath. Sauron at least knows the Ring is Gondor. Maybe they'll find some way to make him think it is in MT. (The presence of Gandalf?)
Lose the Palantir, and with the Scouring of the Shire already gone, there is no need to give Sharky any screen time. I look forward to the EE.
In other words, they believe in the right of governments to keep and bear arms.
Oh yeah. These are the guys I want protecting my rights. I mean, even Lawrence Tribe has repudiated this POV.
Thought:
Freedom of choice (if there really is such a right) is inherent in (and thus guaranteed to) an individual, not a government or agency.
It is actually a government's job to make policy, and in so doing eliminate much of its supposed "choice". Hopefully that policy benefits the citizen, and in this case I believe that it does.
They burned it.
The article was a bit (well, a lot) weak, but the link to Siemons was of interest.
The line about choosing the same manufacturer at both ends of the run is bogus. The integrated junction box idea is not. I think the Siemons boxes look very useful.
But when I installed I rejected the Siemons plates (and terminators) for exactly the reason that they liked them: the labelling. I wanted my plates to be as inconspicuous as possible. First off, you don't have to label the wallplate end; a simple layout map (and labels) at the junction box will do the job. If you must label, they can just as easily go behind the plate. To distinguish the phone and Ethernet (both cat5) I simply used an odd color for the Ethernet terminator.
For my own project I chose to go with the Leviton QuickPort line. Back then I had to go to a commercial supply to get it. On a larger project I still would, but now Home Depot carries most of what a HomeNet project needs. The Leviton catalog is pretty informative, too. Here's a link to their integrated network product page.
I brought the star configuration back to a small room on one end of the basement. In order to get there all the cables had to go behind a nest of air ducts, over a finished room, and around a jog in the wall. Solution? CONDUIT Not wimpy-assed lv conduit, either, but 2" 600V industrial PVC. The biggest stuff they had. Bolted it to the joists above the finished room and jogged it around the corner with some elbows. It was easily the most labor-saving effort of the project! It is much easier to pull through conduit than through a crowded environment.
Used a snake to run a pull string. Tied off both ends with wooden handles, and pulled nearly 1000' of cat5 and coax through the ceiling without having to get on a ladder. (Did have to get on a ladder to feed down into the junction box and drill up into the walls.)
So don't dismiss conduit. In the right places it can make life much easier.
Not entirely. I don't recall the division, but parts went to SAIC, renamed as BellCore. I think SAIC still holds it as a wholey-owned subsidiary.
In other words, "This Agreement means what we intend it to mean, and not what it actually says."
I wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft pole.
{Not that I actually have a 10 ft pole, and I didn't intend to imply by listing a 10 ft pole in the text that the text has anything to do with an actual 10 ft pole, and you agree that
Gratuitous John Lee Hooker !!
REAL penguins !!
Cop cars tumbling under the el like waves breaking under a pier!
REAL penguins !!
This should be the
This movie does to you the viewer what it claims the Videodrome does to James Wood. A great demonstration that what you see - even on an artificial medium - is real.
Also gratuitous Debbie Harry.
If you've ever seen it, you know.
They did change the parameters. It is allowed under the rules, and common practice. If they ever stated "that they would not", please provide a citation.
Accurate, but irrelevant since Deep Blue had played in no previous matches. DB's precursors *had* played in matches, and those transcripts are public record. If Kasparov didn't have them it was because he didn't look.
The thing that GK complains so much about is that they refused to provide the evaluation logs. Big difference! The logs describe the *reasons* that DB played or rejected certain moves. Kasparov is no more entitled to them than any human player is to have his opponent sit down after the match and descript why he played each move. No professional player would ever give *or ask for* such a thing.
Frankly, I think this is why IBM disassembled Deep Blue and will never sponsor or play in another such match. Kasparov poisoned the well. The payoff for IBM is in the public relations, and for GK to accuse them of cheating seriously detracts from the PR value. And there's no way to disprove the charges. (BTW, the match jury *was* given the logs, and after examing them they cleared the Deep Blue team of any wrongdoing.)
Actually, Hsu (hardware designer of Deep Blue) himself suggests that Kramnik would be a more difficult opponent for any computer (including Deep Blue) because his genius is in positional play where Kasparov's seems to be in tactical play. Computers have more difficulty recognizing and extrapolating patterns (positions) than moves.
And Kramnik might be willing to do it for less than the $700,000 guarantee to Kasparov. OTOH, it would be more difficult to find a sponsor since Kramnik is hardly the household name that GK is.
Well if they are, Game 1 certainly didn't show it! It looked like Fritz... er... "Deep Junior" was playing completely on predictive tactics the whole time, trying to oppose all possibilities rather than recognizing the strategy. (Or always assuming that the strategy is a fortress assault.) How else do you explain the rook sac, or the knights shoved in a corner and left to oppose an attack that wasn't forming?
I predict that Garry will use the same technique in upcoming games. Make a feint against the king's fort, then clean up the back half while Deep Fritz worries about it.
No.
The programmer/operator did not have the option; that would go directly against the rules! The computer indicates its move on the screen, and the 'operator' pushes the piece on the board. In fact, there is an example in Hsu's book (I believe it was in the first Kasparov match) where the operator moved the wrong piece (not the move that Deep Thought had directed). The referee was called, the move put back, and the clocks reset.
The *only* "evidence" of human intervention is Kasparov's claim that moves 35 and 36 (?) of Game 2 in the second match "don't look like computer moves". Hsu himself said that both were "mistakes" by DB, and identified the bug that caused one.
If we are to rely on Kasparov's "understanding" of how a computer plays to identify points of human intervention, then we should be able to establish that GK understands computer play very well. Yet in the match in which he lost to DB, he uses the "anti-computer" style which failed utterly, thus disproving that he has that understanding (at least of Deep Blue).
Therefore, the is no credible evidence of any dishonesty on the part of IBM or the Deep Blue team, and to continually assert that there is is to insult the team and degrade the perveyor.
>
> If compaq would have had a clue, I'd have a box probably 4x more powerful today with win2k support and good driver support for about the same price... shame.
Ever consider that the *real* problem here might be Microsoft not producing an Alpha binary any more?
I thought about Aragorn's use of the (ex-)Othanc palantir after I posted eariler. Very important in the book, but in terms of the screenplay, I don't think that's important enough to force them to write in the entire visit to Orthanc.
Especially given Frodo's encounter with the Nazgul in Osgiliath, I predict that they are dropping the whole thing about duping Sauron into thinking that Aragorn has the Ring (and will use it as soon as he figures out how). Rather than a cunning evil, they will give us the more familiar blindly prideful evil.
"Couldn't Faramir have turned down the ring and shown his wisdom and strenght and then, for example, have the close encounter with the nazgul almost unchanged (location wasn't important in that scene)?"
While I'm not sure I like the changes to Faramir, the Nazgul trying to snatch the Ring is to me the biggest plot boo-boo of all. It means that the Nazgul (and thus Sauron) know exactly where the Ring is at that point in time.
Wouldn't Sauron *immediately* launch an assault on Osgiliath (or at the very least sortie beyond the mountains) to try to seize it?
And the entire end of the book depends on Sauron believing that the Ring is in Gondor. That the Ring was *ever* in Osgiliath implies that the good guys intended for it to be somewhere other than Gondor. Where else but the Cracks of Doom?
No, the scene with the Nazgul undermines the entire ending.
"(leading me to believe that we won't get to see the hobbits return to the Shire after the fall of Sauron.)"
In fact PJ states in one of the sections of the extended FoTR DVD (I think it was in the voice-over when he was explaining why they showed XYZ in Galadriel's mirror) that the "Scouring of the Shire" is not part of the movie trilogy. That would explain why Sam got the rope instead of the box of dirt and the mallorn seed.
Lose the "Scouring of the Shire" and you can lose the scene where Gandalf evicts Saruman and Grima, and maybe the entire visit to (wrecked) Orthanc. What actually happens there besides the eviction? The comrades are reunited (other ways to accomplish that). And the Palantir zaps Merry (or was it Pippin?). The appearance of the Palantir has no other plot purpose. World around that and there's no point to the side trip.
IOW, I don't expect to see the visit to Orthanc in RotK, and I expect it will end with the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen, with perhaps a postlogue about Gandalf and the Ringbearers eventually passing over the sea with the Elves.
I just love how people spout off without having much of a clue. E.g. there is absolutely no motivation for Sauron to run! In fact, his entire motivation is exactly the opposite.
Further, as for taxing etc, he probably does that (and worse) in lands that he does control. But at the time of TTT, Sauron's power is still goring. He does not control the valley of the Anduin, although he has raided into it and driven most of the permanent residents across the bridges. In TRotK he does take the bridges and Osgiliath and lay seige to Minas Tirith, exaclty as you recommend.
As to guarding his realm, he does that just fine. The two known routes in, through the Iron Gate and through Morgulvale, are impenetrable. And even Cirith Ungol, which is 1) secret, and 2) full of Shelob, is garrisoned and patrolled.
Read the Appendices. Sauron accounts for all potential reinforcements. Assaults are made into Rivendell, Mirkwood, and Lothlorien (and against the Lonely Mountain and Dale if I recall correctly) to keep the Elves et al busy. Saruman does a pretty good job of keeping the Rohirrim tied down.
The day has to be saved by two armies which didn't actually exist as armies - the Army of the Dead, and the Trees. Are you blaming Tolkien for not having Sauron account for *them*?
And in the strategic sense, until the time of the destruction of the Ring, Sauron hasn't suffered a strategic defeat in the Third Age! He's lost a bishop (Saruman) and a knight (the Witch King), but the other side is clean out of miracles and nearly out of moves.
Tolkien did just fine with his strategic plotting. Try reading before criticizing.