A thirst for knowledge and having a passion for what you strive for means far more than a "proper education". A "proper education" that adheres to a rigid format could stifle the creative juices. And a "formal education" that costs tens of thousands of dollars in student loans could kill that passion, when the job HAS to pay off the student loans AND doesn't encourage those creative juices (brings to mind the previous posts about the code-monkeys at EA).
I salute Ms. Ellsworth. Her quest for knowledge has brought her some well deserved success, and her passion for things geeky is inspirational.
(1) Buy a MacIntosh computer w/ OSX (2) Set up administrator AND user accounts (3) Remove ALL MS S/W from the computer (4) Install F/OSS FireFox & Thunderbird (5) Profit (from not wasting time every week
cleaning viruses & spyware from your Mac
OR
(1) Talk geeky friends into scrubbing your
current computer's hard disk of all
semblance of Microsoft (for gaming,
buy that PS2 or Xbox with savings) (2) Install a current F/OSS GNU/linux OS (3) Lock it down pretty tightly (4) Profit (even more than above solution)
OR
(1) Scrub hard disk free of all Microsoft OS (2) Reinstall current MS OS (3) Download all new security patches (before
MS starts charging for them) (4) Install 3rd party firewall & anti-virus &
anti-spyware packages (5) Install F/OSS FireFox & Thunderbird S/W (6) Profit (a bit from not buying a new
computer, but spend hours a week D/Ling
new anti-virus & anti-spyware updates)
Thanks, Bill. Option #1 or option #2 sounds like they are way more productive. So much for all your fake TCO studies that neglect weekly security maintenence drugery.
One might suppose that SCO's internal IT staff (or contractors) MIGHT arguably have mistakenly posted confidential information on THE internet, as opposed to THEIR intranet.
The public, visiting this site and reading confidential information, or perhaps D/Ling F/OSS packages from their FTP site, would have absolutely NO WAY to have prior knowledge of the difference. The responsibility (IANAL) would/should fall upon SCO for due diligence of their(?) IP, and not upon the public at large.
While I did not RTFA (yet), it would appear that SCO's corporate officers (and lawyers?) have been partying a wee bit too much lately (possibly even with illegal or controlled substances), judging by their arguement.
Microsoft's attempt to leapfrog into the Internet age by closely integrating IE into the OS has been an unmitigated security (and PR) disaster for Microsoft. It did, however, do two important things for Microsoft: (1) it destroyed the market leader Netscape, and (2) staved off a DoJ split of Microsoft into
bits and pieces.
No doubt that Microsoft considers the "gain" much greater than the "pain", since most of that PAIN is borne by their "captive & loyal" customers. I have yet to see a TCO analysis that "spanks" Microsoft for the continuous spate of viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware that infect their customers' computers.
There are already available external HDs that have their own power supply (rechargable battery pack). They have a USB and/or Firewire interface and are marketed for use as portable video storage.
It would seem that a RAID(5) or RAID(10) array built from these drives for the same application, with the same I/O, would make a great product.
I, for one, would welcome a battery powered portable RAID for video applications and for my laptop (on the road).
AFAIK, momory for the Indy is still available from 3rd parties like Kingston. The Indy's memory can be expanded out to 256 MB, which will make it "sing".
You can still find SGI IRIX OS boxed sets on eBay -- you don't have to go to SGI for them. With the Indigo workstation series, having the original OS and driver CDs is useful. The best bet is an IRIX 6.5.x boxed set, and D/L the latest "maintenence" release directly from SGI (free SupportFolio registration required).
F/OSS is available precompiled from SGI's website, for nearly any IRIX workstation. If you are looking for "free" SGI branded software, you are out of luck. But with a fully functional GCC, you can build from source nearly any F/OSS package that isn't already available in binary from them.
I must disagree with you regarding value in the hobbyist market -- any time I want to check my code against the OpenGL standard, all I have to do is recompile it on the SGI.
You don't really "need" an SGI contract, if you don't mind buying off of eBay. Of course, this does impact one of SGI's revenue streams. If you do get the IRIX 6.5.x CD set from eBay, install "only" from the "maintenence" stream and NOT from the "feature" stream. The "feature" stream was designed for support of new H/W, and will FUBAR your software installation.
The "Indy" is a somewhat older SGI workstation that shipped with IRIX 5.2. It uses a 32-bit MIPS processor of varying cache sizes that were designated R4000, R4000SC, R4400, etc. Given enough disk space (Indy has 2 narrow SCSI bays), it will happily run IRIX 6.5.x in 32-bit mode. SGI made their OS the right way, with the 32-bit and 64-bit libraries in separate directory structures. Frequently, a 32-bit application would run faster on a 64-bit machine than the 64-bit equivalent, and the 64-bit machines have little problem running either.
As far as putting another OS on the Indy, you might find OpenBSD or NetBSD more suited to the machine than Debian. Even with memory maxed out on the Indy, more current releases of GNU/linux suck the life out of the machine. Personally, I prefer IRIX on it, but YMMV.
and you should be able to download the latest "maintenence" release (NEVER EVER use the "feature" release) of IRIX, sans any speciallized drivers. The last time I did (about 2 years ago), the gzipped archive was about 950 MB. If you unpack it on another *nix machine, you could do a remote install easily enough (presuming you have the needed disk space free for the new OS). In my experience, each new iteration of IRIX has consumed more disk space, which might be a consideration.
IRIX is/was the very best *nix I ever used. A sane "init" procedure, absolutely tight integration between the OS and the GUI (unlike CDE), and outstanding filesystems (XFS is now available on GNU/linux thanks to SGI). There is even a slew of F/OSS available for D/L from SGI, precompiled.
Oh, sure. But the "Webb Space Telescope", was to be a "trophy" for this administrator, and became more important than maintaining the Hubble Space Telescope. They are NOT the same. Webb Telescope is a near-IR array telescope that cannot obtain more than about 1/3 the data that Hubble is capable of (IR through to UV). O'Keefe (and co.) had been touting Webb as the Hubble replacement, which it is not. The recent commission report not only put the kabash on that notion, but also of the real feasability of the use of a robotic servicing mission to Hubble Telescope. It would have failed (spectacularly), but would have met the current DoD mission of robotic repair of surveillance satellites (and maybe some "anti-satellite" black ops work). Killing 2 birds (sorry for the pun) with one stone is a government beauracrat's wet dream. And, of course, dovetails nicely with the agenda that the new NASA head (from USAF Space Command?) is likely to be tapped.
If you read previous posts about USAF intentions for militarizing NEO, having a director drawn from Space Command makes sense. NASA will not likey survive as a civilian agengy, though.
TCO studies are always based upon conditional variables that can diverge widely across different companies. They were designed for PBHs who can't figure out their own company requirements. And like any "economic" study these days, those that sponser the study expect to see a specific resultant conclusion.
Depending upon which side of the F/OSS line that you are standing on, TCO studies all boil down to being "Faith-Based".
So, AOL is going to "hijack" Mozilla FireFox browser and make it theirs. Considering AOL's success with other alternative (not IE) browsers, I fear for the future of Mozilla.
AOL could really do the online community a big favor, and devise a way to completely remove MS IE from the OS -- something that Microsoft cannot do without revealing perjury in their DoJ anti-monopoly lawsuit. That would be one AOL CD that I would actually welcome.
So O'Keefe is on his way out of NASA. Great! Never has a bean-counter done so much for the devolution of a government agency. He spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars at NASA on video conferencing equipment, but wouldn't spend the 1/2 million dollars for an independent safety study regarding the deblating of shuttle foam insulation. And so risk averse that he would rather send an untrained robot to do an astronaut's job (- repair Hubble Space Telescope) at the cost of billions directed to defense contractors. Of course, in the grander scheme of things, the DoD would much prefer advancing robotic technology, rather than the "pure space science" that the HST represents. I fear that NASA's days as a civilian space agency are truly numbered.
I will be curious to see how quickly O'Keefe can run LSU into the ground, judging by his track record. IMHO, just more proof that the "Peter Principle" is still alive and well.
In point of fact however, illegal aliens ARE a drain on society. All the border states with Mexico have a serious financial drain on their Medicare/Medicaid funds -- hospitals are required by law & regulation not to turn away patients just because they are illegal aliens. The state of California alone has determined that more than 2 billion USD per year is spent on healthcare for illegal aliens.
Why should the USA accept nearly 2 million illegal aliens entering this country each year, when the backlog of persons trying to do the right thing and enter the USA legally may wait for 8 - 10 years or more for their green card?
If they are in this country illegally, then they have already flagrantly broken the law. Many use forged or illegally obtained documents in order to stay in this country. It is a big part of the problem with identity theft in this country, not just scam artists. Quite a few illegal aliens become virtual slaves until their "fee" has been paid to their smugglers. Others pay their way by smuggling illegal drugs or weapons across the borders. IMHO, ID theft and similar document fraud should be treated as a serious felony, with at least 10 years in prison for the first count. Gangs that provide fraudulent documentation to illegal aliens should be charged the same as terrorists, since they are facilitators. Life in prison would be an appropriate penalty.
Until such time as there is a cryptographically secure biometric national ID card, the borders and seaports are properly secured, and the current immigration laws are actually enforced uniformly, this country is at risk for yet another 9-11-2001. Not so very long ago, a Pakistani woman with ties to al Qaeda swam across the Mexican border and was heading for NYC. She was traveling on a fraudulent South African passport and made her way to Mexico. The only reason she was caught (at Midlands, TX airport) was because her clothing was still wet from the swim. If she has opted for taking a bus to NYC instead of flying there, she would never have been caught.
If you want to check out a balanced overview of the immigration situation in the USA, both legal and illegal, a good place to start is at "www.cis.org".
The 9-11-2001 terrorists that needed to have driver's licenses got real ones from the Commonwealth of Virginia. At that time, VA didn't even require proof of residence in the state. This has subsequently changed in VA.
However, ID fraud is still prevalent in the Metro DC area. There have been employees of the Social Security Administration (in Baltimore) who were finally arrested for selling SSNs. Employees of DMVs in both Virginia and Washington DC have been arrested for selling legitimate drivers licenses to persons without proper identification (just cold hard cash). And the FBI and DHS/INS recently raided a home in NoVA where more than 1,900 sets of forged IDs (BCs, drivers licenses, and other documents had been created for illegal aliens from Indonesia. This illegal enterprise had been on-going for more than 3 years, and generated more than 2-1/2 million USD in revenue for the perpetrators.
I, for one, would welcome a national ID card that used photo, blood type, fingerprint(s), and DNA sequence. I don't much care for the notion of an embedded RFID that broadcast this data, but using adequate encryption that requires an official scanner to read (like Minnesota) does sound pretty reasonable.
There is no such thing as a "citizenship card". (Too bad, too, because that is part of what prompted passage of Arizona's "Prop 200" -- non-citizens participating in local, state, and national elections w/o even a driver's license.)
Minnesota's new driver's license is a move in the right direction, although IMHO it should include blood type, thumbprint, and DNA sequence. If Minnesota is anything like the Metro DC area, most of the local police couldn't be bothered less about whether an immigrant's visa has expired (let alone whether they entered legally or not.) They consider good public relations with the immigrant community to be much more important than enforcing Federal laws -- they leave it to DHS/INS to do the investigative work as well as taking them into custody. More like Clinton's "don't ask - don't tell" policy about gays in the military than anything remotely resembling enforcement, unless a felony has occurred. And the DHS/INS is still largely adopted the environmentalist-fisherman policy of "catch and release" regarding illegal aliens. They don't have the manpower or the detention facilities to properly enforce the law.
We are just waiting for the fusion reactor technology to arrive back from the future.
I, for one, can't wait for production of that snazzy SS DeLorean to start up again. No doubt the Renault drivetrain will be replaced with TDI/electric hybrid for around town...
BTW: My system is a bit non-standard: for
years I have made the entire MS_JAVA
tree non-executable, since the browser
makes use of its own java distribution.
First, the "braincap" must be made to be bi-directional, with a low power RF link (like BlueTooth). The age old issue of processing power/bandwidth versus the power requirements will be a problem. Without the bi-directional communication, it would be a non-starter.
Second, those "complex algorythms" mentioned in the BBC article will need to be improved for adaptive mapping to the brainwaves. Not having I/O access to the "pleasure" and "pain" centers of the brain, as well as to the 5 senses, would be detrimental to widespread adoption of the technology.
With the advent of VoIP with broadband access, just think of the possibilities for phone sex.
Also, the current incarnation of the "braincap" leaves a lot to be desired (please forgive the pun). I envision a "next gen" version of this with at least 1024 sensors, perhaps arranged stylistically into a nice S&M leather skull-cap.
You seem make a compelling argument for unionizing the American IT workforce, if only as a counter to the apparently inexorable flight of IT jobs overseas. Then the IT worker might actually have something to show for a retirement fund, instead of worthless stock in a company that goes belly up when their "profit through layoffs" finally becomes known for the Ponzi scheme it is.
But you really must define "shareholders". The corporate officers in a company are shareholders, too, and frequently rather large shareholders at that -- part of their compensation package. The current US MBA standard apparently is based upon avarice, not good governance. Employees provide either a direct or indirect benefit to the company -- that's why they were hired to begin with. But if the company's earning look to be flat or decreasing for the fiscal quarter, the corporate officers will not get their bonuses. By slashing the workforce, they immediately see a short term improvement in their bottom line. Usually this is enough for them to qualify for their bonuses. The longer term financial impact on the company, however, is frequently negative because they have RIFfed many of the higher salaried workers who know the company and the product line the best. The outside shareholders (mostly mutual funds) don't know the inner workings of the company and base their decisions only on the quarterly financials. So long as that looks great, the mutual funds will not apply pressure on the corporate officers for better (long term) management decisions. When things go wrong (very wrong, like Enron or WorldCom) everyone holding their stock is surprised except for the corporate officers. And nobody takes care of their own like corporate officers -- the high salary and fat bonuses are exceeded only by their generous "golden parachute" when they decide to bail out.
A prime example that was in the news this year: Grasser bailed out of the SEC (a proportdly non- profit organization whose corporate officers' salaries are supposed to be regulated (by law). After 3 plus years of service (and some really shady regulatory dealings), he bailed out (early) with a compensation package worth $245M USD. NY State AG Spitzer had been trying to get a partial refund of that very generous package, but I don't think he will be very successful.
That is the current state of affairs with much of corporate America these days -- and with offshore outsourcing promulgated by a tax system that rewards them for moving overseas, even for relocating their corporate offices offshore to avoid paying ANY US taxes (Tyco comes to mind here). It is corporate welfare at the expense of the average American taxpayer, and especially the shrinking middle class (whose jobs shipped overseas).
Re:If they have skills, they'll find jobs in NoVA
on
Massive Layoffs At AOL
·
· Score: 1
It has been said (not sure where): "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics".
The statistics that you quote are a bit mis- leading, since once off the unemployment rolls you aren't counted anymore. And if you were in IT, and your new job is a part-time McJob you aren't counted anymore.
I don't mean to be snide or sarcastic, but the ex-AOL staffers might not be able to get a construction job in NoVA. At least not without being fluent in Spanish -- even the construction foremen and site managers are Hispanic these days. IMHO, the complaints from construction companies is a smokescreen for "the man" for when INS agents start checking documentation. It is still "illegal" for companies to hire illegal aliens, although it isn't actually enforced (apparently anywhere).
VA Gov. John Warner was the one making the big announcement. The jobs are with DHS, and will require TS or better security clearances. If you are exiting the military with a TS clearance, are in IT, and have an MSCE (DHS is MS OS-centric), then NoVA is the place for you. I seriously doubt that the ex-AOL staffers that just got RIFfed would be likely to have that particular "skill set".
It is my understanding that a TS security clearance might take 18 - 24 months these days, particularly if it's Poly/LifeStyle. Generally, it is the employer (read here government contractor) that picks up the cost for the background investigation -- often as much as $50K USD. That contractor has got to want you pretty bad to put you on the payroll for that period of time, and incur that expense, without having you doing the work their contracted for. I believe that that is why I have seen the exact same job postings on "WPost.com" for the past 1 to 1-1/2 years. If you have the security clearance, then everyone is knocking on your door. But if you don't have one, you are SOL. What it really works out to is a Catch-22 Scenario. And when the employers advertise for a "transferable" security clearance, I think they are blowing smoke -- the clearance is for a specific employer and specific function.
This story reminds me (okay, so I am long in tooth) of Kaypro (back in the day). They announced a new "transportable" with a lot of cool new features way too early -- it destroyed their current H/W sales as people held onto their money until the new products arrived. The drop in sales destroyed the company.
I can imagine that corporate buyers are either rushing to purchase the last remaining stock of IBM's laptops & workstations, or are quietly kicking themselves for believing that old adage that "nobody gets fired for buying IBM", and now looking at Dell and HP as the alternative vendors of choice.
Re:Tech jobs in Northern Virginia ??
on
Massive Layoffs At AOL
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Oh yeah, right!
Let's see. You are a Windows administrator (probably with an MSCE cert), and have a security clearance. Guess what? Since DHS has settled on MS OSes (read some irony here), AND you have a security clearance, then I wouldn't wonder that you are getting calls from headhunters every day. I have been staring at the VERY SAME "WP" job postings from government contractors for the past 1-1/2 years: the same title, job code, location, and scope of duties == same job, which cannot get filled because they are looking for current active TS/Poly/Lifestyle security clearances. These contractors will not hire uncleared personnel and "park" them somewhere until they get vetted for the security clearance (in 1-1/2 years and $50K USD later).
If you are a "*nix" administrator w/o a security clearance, you are SOL. I should know. While I did come from desktop & server support, I had spend 7+ years on various "*nix" (HP, SGI, SUN, linux) servers and workstations as SA (plus CM and Deployment). Those jobs ARE NOT here anymore.
I don't know what the RIFfed AOL employees will wind up doing for employment, but at least they have some breathing room with the 4 months pay. They could make a gamble and go into debt to go back to school, but I wouldn't recommend that personally. IMHO, the IT job situation is ONLY going to get worse (along with any high tech or many manufacturing positions.) And between the growing national debt and the horrendous balance of trade deficit, I expect the the old halcion days of the Carter administration will come back to haunt us -- with the state of the economy measured as the "misery index" (of unemployment rate, interest rates, and inflation rate). The Federal government has embraced outsourcing as "good for the economy", with a corporate tax structure that encourages moving jobs offshore. The destruction of trade unions, as well as forcing USA wages lower, appears to be the agenda.
BTW: When the unemployment runs out, the jobless do stop getting counted. And one part-time McJob is just as good statistically as the IT job lost. What we are witnessing is the slow disintegration of the USA's middle class.
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A thirst for knowledge and having a passion
for what you strive for means far more than
a "proper education". A "proper education"
that adheres to a rigid format could stifle
the creative juices. And a "formal education"
that costs tens of thousands of dollars in
student loans could kill that passion, when
the job HAS to pay off the student loans AND
doesn't encourage those creative juices (brings
to mind the previous posts about the code-monkeys
at EA).
I salute Ms. Ellsworth. Her quest for knowledge
has brought her some well deserved success, and
her passion for things geeky is inspirational.
Right-O, Bill.
(1) Buy a MacIntosh computer w/ OSX
(2) Set up administrator AND user accounts
(3) Remove ALL MS S/W from the computer
(4) Install F/OSS FireFox & Thunderbird
(5) Profit (from not wasting time every week
cleaning viruses & spyware from your Mac
OR
(1) Talk geeky friends into scrubbing your
current computer's hard disk of all
semblance of Microsoft (for gaming,
buy that PS2 or Xbox with savings)
(2) Install a current F/OSS GNU/linux OS
(3) Lock it down pretty tightly
(4) Profit (even more than above solution)
OR
(1) Scrub hard disk free of all Microsoft OS
(2) Reinstall current MS OS
(3) Download all new security patches (before
MS starts charging for them)
(4) Install 3rd party firewall & anti-virus &
anti-spyware packages
(5) Install F/OSS FireFox & Thunderbird S/W
(6) Profit (a bit from not buying a new
computer, but spend hours a week D/Ling
new anti-virus & anti-spyware updates)
Thanks, Bill. Option #1 or option #2 sounds
like they are way more productive. So much
for all your fake TCO studies that neglect
weekly security maintenence drugery.
One might suppose that SCO's internal IT
staff (or contractors) MIGHT arguably have
mistakenly posted confidential information
on THE internet, as opposed to THEIR intranet.
The public, visiting this site and reading
confidential information, or perhaps D/Ling
F/OSS packages from their FTP site, would
have absolutely NO WAY to have prior knowledge
of the difference. The responsibility (IANAL)
would/should fall upon SCO for due diligence
of their(?) IP, and not upon the public at
large.
While I did not RTFA (yet), it would appear
that SCO's corporate officers (and lawyers?)
have been partying a wee bit too much lately
(possibly even with illegal or controlled
substances), judging by their arguement.
Microsoft's attempt to leapfrog into the
Internet age by closely integrating IE into
the OS has been an unmitigated security (and
PR) disaster for Microsoft. It did, however,
do two important things for Microsoft:
(1) it destroyed the market leader Netscape,
and
(2) staved off a DoJ split of Microsoft into
bits and pieces.
No doubt that Microsoft considers the "gain"
much greater than the "pain", since most of
that PAIN is borne by their "captive & loyal"
customers. I have yet to see a TCO analysis
that "spanks" Microsoft for the continuous
spate of viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware
that infect their customers' computers.
There are already available external HDs that
have their own power supply (rechargable battery
pack). They have a USB and/or Firewire interface
and are marketed for use as portable video
storage.
It would seem that a RAID(5) or RAID(10) array
built from these drives for the same application,
with the same I/O, would make a great product.
I, for one, would welcome a battery powered
portable RAID for video applications and for
my laptop (on the road).
AFAIK, momory for the Indy is still available
from 3rd parties like Kingston. The Indy's
memory can be expanded out to 256 MB, which
will make it "sing".
You can still find SGI IRIX OS boxed sets on
eBay -- you don't have to go to SGI for them.
With the Indigo workstation series, having
the original OS and driver CDs is useful. The
best bet is an IRIX 6.5.x boxed set, and D/L
the latest "maintenence" release directly from
SGI (free SupportFolio registration required).
F/OSS is available precompiled from SGI's website,
for nearly any IRIX workstation. If you are
looking for "free" SGI branded software, you
are out of luck. But with a fully functional
GCC, you can build from source nearly any F/OSS
package that isn't already available in binary
from them.
I must disagree with you regarding value in the
hobbyist market -- any time I want to check my
code against the OpenGL standard, all I have to
do is recompile it on the SGI.
You don't really "need" an SGI contract, if
you don't mind buying off of eBay. Of course,
this does impact one of SGI's revenue streams.
If you do get the IRIX 6.5.x CD set from eBay,
install "only" from the "maintenence" stream
and NOT from the "feature" stream. The "feature"
stream was designed for support of new H/W, and
will FUBAR your software installation.
The "Indy" is a somewhat older SGI workstation
that shipped with IRIX 5.2. It uses a 32-bit
MIPS processor of varying cache sizes that were
designated R4000, R4000SC, R4400, etc. Given
enough disk space (Indy has 2 narrow SCSI bays),
it will happily run IRIX 6.5.x in 32-bit mode.
SGI made their OS the right way, with the 32-bit
and 64-bit libraries in separate directory
structures. Frequently, a 32-bit application
would run faster on a 64-bit machine than the
64-bit equivalent, and the 64-bit machines have
little problem running either.
As far as putting another OS on the Indy, you
might find OpenBSD or NetBSD more suited to
the machine than Debian. Even with memory
maxed out on the Indy, more current releases of
GNU/linux suck the life out of the machine.
Personally, I prefer IRIX on it, but YMMV.
and you should be able to download the
latest "maintenence" release (NEVER EVER
use the "feature" release) of IRIX,
sans any speciallized drivers. The last
time I did (about 2 years ago), the gzipped
archive was about 950 MB. If you unpack
it on another *nix machine, you could do
a remote install easily enough (presuming
you have the needed disk space free for
the new OS). In my experience, each new
iteration of IRIX has consumed more disk
space, which might be a consideration.
IRIX is/was the very best *nix I ever used.
A sane "init" procedure, absolutely tight
integration between the OS and the GUI (unlike
CDE), and outstanding filesystems (XFS is now
available on GNU/linux thanks to SGI). There
is even a slew of F/OSS available for D/L from
SGI, precompiled.
Oh, sure. But the "Webb Space Telescope",
was to be a "trophy" for this administrator,
and became more important than maintaining
the Hubble Space Telescope. They are NOT
the same. Webb Telescope is a near-IR
array telescope that cannot obtain more
than about 1/3 the data that Hubble is
capable of (IR through to UV). O'Keefe
(and co.) had been touting Webb as the
Hubble replacement, which it is not. The
recent commission report not only put the
kabash on that notion, but also of the
real feasability of the use of a robotic
servicing mission to Hubble Telescope. It
would have failed (spectacularly), but would
have met the current DoD mission of robotic
repair of surveillance satellites (and maybe
some "anti-satellite" black ops work). Killing
2 birds (sorry for the pun) with one stone is
a government beauracrat's wet dream. And, of
course, dovetails nicely with the agenda that
the new NASA head (from USAF Space Command?)
is likely to be tapped.
If you read previous posts about USAF intentions
for militarizing NEO, having a director drawn
from Space Command makes sense. NASA will not
likey survive as a civilian agengy, though.
TCO studies are always based upon conditional
variables that can diverge widely across
different companies. They were designed for
PBHs who can't figure out their own company
requirements. And like any "economic" study
these days, those that sponser the study expect
to see a specific resultant conclusion.
Depending upon which side of the F/OSS line that
you are standing on, TCO studies all boil down
to being "Faith-Based".
YMMV (drastically!)
So, AOL is going to "hijack" Mozilla FireFox
browser and make it theirs. Considering AOL's
success with other alternative (not IE) browsers,
I fear for the future of Mozilla.
AOL could really do the online community a big
favor, and devise a way to completely remove
MS IE from the OS -- something that Microsoft
cannot do without revealing perjury in their
DoJ anti-monopoly lawsuit. That would be one
AOL CD that I would actually welcome.
So O'Keefe is on his way out of NASA. Great!
Never has a bean-counter done so much for the
devolution of a government agency. He spent
tens of millions of taxpayer dollars at NASA
on video conferencing equipment, but wouldn't
spend the 1/2 million dollars for an independent
safety study regarding the deblating of shuttle
foam insulation. And so risk averse that he
would rather send an untrained robot to do an
astronaut's job (- repair Hubble Space Telescope)
at the cost of billions directed to defense
contractors. Of course, in the grander scheme
of things, the DoD would much prefer advancing
robotic technology, rather than the "pure space
science" that the HST represents. I fear that
NASA's days as a civilian space agency are truly
numbered.
I will be curious to see how quickly O'Keefe
can run LSU into the ground, judging by his
track record. IMHO, just more proof that the
"Peter Principle" is still alive and well.
In point of fact however, illegal aliens ARE
a drain on society. All the border states
with Mexico have a serious financial drain on
their Medicare/Medicaid funds -- hospitals
are required by law & regulation not to turn
away patients just because they are illegal
aliens. The state of California alone has
determined that more than 2 billion USD per
year is spent on healthcare for illegal aliens.
Why should the USA accept nearly 2 million
illegal aliens entering this country each
year, when the backlog of persons trying to do
the right thing and enter the USA legally may
wait for 8 - 10 years or more for their green
card?
If they are in this country illegally, then they
have already flagrantly broken the law. Many
use forged or illegally obtained documents in
order to stay in this country. It is a big part
of the problem with identity theft in this
country, not just scam artists. Quite a few
illegal aliens become virtual slaves until their
"fee" has been paid to their smugglers. Others
pay their way by smuggling illegal drugs or
weapons across the borders. IMHO, ID theft and
similar document fraud should be treated as a
serious felony, with at least 10 years in
prison for the first count. Gangs that provide
fraudulent documentation to illegal aliens should
be charged the same as terrorists, since they
are facilitators. Life in prison would be an
appropriate penalty.
Until such time as there is a cryptographically
secure biometric national ID card, the borders
and seaports are properly secured, and the
current immigration laws are actually enforced
uniformly, this country is at risk for yet
another 9-11-2001. Not so very long ago, a
Pakistani woman with ties to al Qaeda swam across
the Mexican border and was heading for NYC. She
was traveling on a fraudulent South African
passport and made her way to Mexico. The only
reason she was caught (at Midlands, TX airport)
was because her clothing was still wet from the
swim. If she has opted for taking a bus to
NYC instead of flying there, she would never
have been caught.
If you want to check out a balanced overview
of the immigration situation in the USA, both
legal and illegal, a good place to start is at
"www.cis.org".
Damn right, they didn't!
The 9-11-2001 terrorists that needed to have
driver's licenses got real ones from the
Commonwealth of Virginia. At that time, VA
didn't even require proof of residence in the
state. This has subsequently changed in VA.
However, ID fraud is still prevalent in the
Metro DC area. There have been employees of
the Social Security Administration (in Baltimore)
who were finally arrested for selling SSNs.
Employees of DMVs in both Virginia and Washington
DC have been arrested for selling legitimate
drivers licenses to persons without proper
identification (just cold hard cash). And the
FBI and DHS/INS recently raided a home in NoVA
where more than 1,900 sets of forged IDs (BCs,
drivers licenses, and other documents had been
created for illegal aliens from Indonesia. This
illegal enterprise had been on-going for more
than 3 years, and generated more than 2-1/2
million USD in revenue for the perpetrators.
I, for one, would welcome a national ID card
that used photo, blood type, fingerprint(s),
and DNA sequence. I don't much care for the
notion of an embedded RFID that broadcast this
data, but using adequate encryption that requires
an official scanner to read (like Minnesota) does
sound pretty reasonable.
There is no such thing as a "citizenship card".
(Too bad, too, because that is part of what
prompted passage of Arizona's "Prop 200" --
non-citizens participating in local, state, and
national elections w/o even a driver's license.)
Minnesota's new driver's license is a move in
the right direction, although IMHO it should
include blood type, thumbprint, and DNA sequence.
If Minnesota is anything like the Metro DC area,
most of the local police couldn't be bothered
less about whether an immigrant's visa has
expired (let alone whether they entered legally
or not.) They consider good public relations
with the immigrant community to be much more
important than enforcing Federal laws -- they
leave it to DHS/INS to do the investigative
work as well as taking them into custody.
More like Clinton's "don't ask - don't tell"
policy about gays in the military than anything
remotely resembling enforcement, unless a felony
has occurred. And the DHS/INS is still largely
adopted the environmentalist-fisherman policy
of "catch and release" regarding illegal aliens.
They don't have the manpower or the detention
facilities to properly enforce the law.
I know, I know!
...
We are just waiting for the fusion reactor
technology to arrive back from the future.
I, for one, can't wait for production of
that snazzy SS DeLorean to start up again.
No doubt the Renault drivetrain will be
replaced with TDI/electric hybrid for
around town
The correct Citibank page was displayed.
This was with Netscape 7.1, on Win2kPro SP4.
BTW: My system is a bit non-standard: for
years I have made the entire MS_JAVA
tree non-executable, since the browser
makes use of its own java distribution.
Youbetcha!
First, the "braincap" must be made to be
bi-directional, with a low power RF link
(like BlueTooth). The age old issue of
processing power/bandwidth versus the
power requirements will be a problem.
Without the bi-directional communication,
it would be a non-starter.
Second, those "complex algorythms" mentioned
in the BBC article will need to be improved
for adaptive mapping to the brainwaves. Not
having I/O access to the "pleasure" and "pain"
centers of the brain, as well as to the 5
senses, would be detrimental to widespread
adoption of the technology.
With the advent of VoIP with broadband access,
just think of the possibilities for phone sex.
Also, the current incarnation of the "braincap"
leaves a lot to be desired (please forgive the
pun). I envision a "next gen" version of this
with at least 1024 sensors, perhaps arranged
stylistically into a nice S&M leather skull-cap.
Today's sci-fi is tomorrow's reality.
So, it really is just business, right?
You seem make a compelling argument for
unionizing the American IT workforce,
if only as a counter to the apparently
inexorable flight of IT jobs overseas.
Then the IT worker might actually have
something to show for a retirement fund,
instead of worthless stock in a company
that goes belly up when their "profit
through layoffs" finally becomes known
for the Ponzi scheme it is.
But you really must define "shareholders".
The corporate officers in a company are
shareholders, too, and frequently rather
large shareholders at that -- part of their
compensation package. The current US MBA
standard apparently is based upon avarice,
not good governance. Employees provide
either a direct or indirect benefit to the
company -- that's why they were hired to
begin with. But if the company's earning
look to be flat or decreasing for the fiscal
quarter, the corporate officers will not get
their bonuses. By slashing the workforce,
they immediately see a short term improvement
in their bottom line. Usually this is enough
for them to qualify for their bonuses. The
longer term financial impact on the company,
however, is frequently negative because they
have RIFfed many of the higher salaried workers
who know the company and the product line the
best. The outside shareholders (mostly mutual
funds) don't know the inner workings of the
company and base their decisions only on the
quarterly financials. So long as that looks
great, the mutual funds will not apply pressure
on the corporate officers for better (long term)
management decisions. When things go wrong (very
wrong, like Enron or WorldCom) everyone holding
their stock is surprised except for the corporate
officers. And nobody takes care of their own
like corporate officers -- the high salary and
fat bonuses are exceeded only by their generous
"golden parachute" when they decide to bail out.
A prime example that was in the news this year:
Grasser bailed out of the SEC (a proportdly non-
profit organization whose corporate officers'
salaries are supposed to be regulated (by law).
After 3 plus years of service (and some really
shady regulatory dealings), he bailed out (early)
with a compensation package worth $245M USD.
NY State AG Spitzer had been trying to get a
partial refund of that very generous package,
but I don't think he will be very successful.
That is the current state of affairs with much
of corporate America these days -- and with
offshore outsourcing promulgated by a tax system
that rewards them for moving overseas, even for
relocating their corporate offices offshore to
avoid paying ANY US taxes (Tyco comes to mind
here). It is corporate welfare at the expense
of the average American taxpayer, and especially
the shrinking middle class (whose jobs shipped
overseas).
It has been said (not sure where): "There are
lies, damn lies, and statistics".
The statistics that you quote are a bit mis-
leading, since once off the unemployment rolls
you aren't counted anymore. And if you were
in IT, and your new job is a part-time McJob
you aren't counted anymore.
I don't mean to be snide or sarcastic, but
the ex-AOL staffers might not be able to get
a construction job in NoVA. At least not
without being fluent in Spanish -- even the
construction foremen and site managers are
Hispanic these days. IMHO, the complaints
from construction companies is a smokescreen
for "the man" for when INS agents start
checking documentation. It is still "illegal"
for companies to hire illegal aliens, although
it isn't actually enforced (apparently anywhere).
Right!
VA Gov. John Warner was the one making the
big announcement. The jobs are with DHS,
and will require TS or better security
clearances. If you are exiting the military
with a TS clearance, are in IT, and have an
MSCE (DHS is MS OS-centric), then NoVA is
the place for you.
I seriously doubt that the ex-AOL staffers that
just got RIFfed would be likely to have that
particular "skill set".
It is my understanding that a TS security
clearance might take 18 - 24 months these
days, particularly if it's Poly/LifeStyle.
Generally, it is the employer (read here
government contractor) that picks up the
cost for the background investigation --
often as much as $50K USD. That contractor
has got to want you pretty bad to put you
on the payroll for that period of time, and
incur that expense, without having you doing
the work their contracted for. I believe
that that is why I have seen the exact same
job postings on "WPost.com" for the past
1 to 1-1/2 years. If you have the security
clearance, then everyone is knocking on your
door. But if you don't have one, you are SOL.
What it really works out to is a Catch-22
Scenario. And when the employers advertise
for a "transferable" security clearance, I
think they are blowing smoke -- the clearance
is for a specific employer and specific function.
This story reminds me (okay, so I am long in
tooth) of Kaypro (back in the day). They
announced a new "transportable" with a lot of
cool new features way too early -- it destroyed
their current H/W sales as people held onto
their money until the new products arrived.
The drop in sales destroyed the company.
I can imagine that corporate buyers are either
rushing to purchase the last remaining stock
of IBM's laptops & workstations, or are quietly
kicking themselves for believing that old adage
that "nobody gets fired for buying IBM", and
now looking at Dell and HP as the alternative
vendors of choice.
Oh yeah, right!
Let's see. You are a Windows administrator
(probably with an MSCE cert), and have a
security clearance.
Guess what? Since DHS has settled on MS
OSes (read some irony here), AND you have
a security clearance, then I wouldn't wonder
that you are getting calls from headhunters
every day.
I have been staring at the VERY SAME "WP" job
postings from government contractors for the
past 1-1/2 years: the same title, job code,
location, and scope of duties == same job,
which cannot get filled because they are
looking for current active TS/Poly/Lifestyle
security clearances. These contractors will
not hire uncleared personnel and "park" them
somewhere until they get vetted for the security
clearance (in 1-1/2 years and $50K USD later).
If you are a "*nix" administrator w/o a security
clearance, you are SOL. I should know. While
I did come from desktop & server support, I had
spend 7+ years on various "*nix" (HP, SGI, SUN,
linux) servers and workstations as SA (plus CM
and Deployment). Those jobs ARE NOT here anymore.
I don't know what the RIFfed AOL employees will
wind up doing for employment, but at least they
have some breathing room with the 4 months pay.
They could make a gamble and go into debt to go
back to school, but I wouldn't recommend that
personally. IMHO, the IT job situation is ONLY
going to get worse (along with any high tech or
many manufacturing positions.) And between the
growing national debt and the horrendous balance
of trade deficit, I expect the the old halcion
days of the Carter administration will come back
to haunt us -- with the state of the economy
measured as the "misery index" (of unemployment
rate, interest rates, and inflation rate).
The Federal government has embraced outsourcing
as "good for the economy", with a corporate tax
structure that encourages moving jobs offshore.
The destruction of trade unions, as well as
forcing USA wages lower, appears to be the agenda.
BTW: When the unemployment runs out, the jobless
do stop getting counted. And one part-time
McJob is just as good statistically as the IT
job lost. What we are witnessing is the slow
disintegration of the USA's middle class.