Given the size of the US government, there have to be documents that no-one alive knows about anymore, because everyone who had access died before they should have been released. Locked somewhere in a poorly marked filing cabinet, the combination or key lost decades ago. Even if found, since there's nobody left who understands the document, it would remain classified. (Or does the Government automatically declassified information it doesn't understand, or does it just destroy the document?)
I imagine in the Pentagon, there are entire rooms that have been lost for awhile.
What happens if a Pentagon archivist finds media in an unknown (to him) format, like a weird sized mag tape. If it's undated, and currently undecipherable, what to do? If he doesn't have the budget to transcode it, most likely it goes back in the hole.
It's not. Suppose you buy a piece of property, that because of your insight, or dumb luck, turns out to be the best property for some activity. Think oil well, or prime seafront property.
You have a monopoly on that property, and control over it. That's ok. What's not ok is when you start to tell your customers that you won't deal with them at all if they ever use a competitor's product.
Excellent legal hackers can invent ways that are just this side of monopoly practices, but effectively give you control over your customers. Sometimes they go too far, and the FTC has to step in. Sometimes your competitors cry foul to their congresspeople, just to get you to back off. But, it's unlikely that any large business is 100% free of monopolist practices.
No, but if they use that monopoly to gain an unfair advantage, it is. (i.e. Microsoft)
e.g. If they tell someone who uses Google that they can only use Google, and any radio, newspaper or Bing advertisements will result in them being banned for life from Google, that would be unfair. A natural monopoly just because no-one else is as smart as you is ok.
Okay, this is total bullshit...that's exactly what fighter pilots are trained for; that's why so few people who apply are accepted, and why so few who are accepted make the grade...
<Tinfoil Hat Mode>
"Died during training (or testing)" is a military euphemism for "Died on a secret mission". At least they didn't say he "Rolled a Jeep"
</Tinfoil Hat Mode>
Imperfect Laws vs. Imperfect Enforcement. That's been the balance we've always had. Now, there's the possibility that we will have the same imperfect laws, but with near perfect enforcement. Eventually we're all convicts.
The US government, has been self-assembling and self-defining ever since the original construction documents were approved. (The Constitution)
Despite that document describing that certain rights were to be retained by the people in clear language, the government has been constricting and restricting what those rights mean. By changing the meaning of the words, they can change the document w/o any additional discussion.
There is no legal problem with having cops walking 100% of the legally public beats 100% of the time. Economically, though, there just aren't enough cops to do that. In practice, one of the major protections from the state historically enjoyed by most people is not law; but simple lack of resources.
Yes, but many, if not most Americans don't seem to know or care why you don't want 100% police coverage. There are two problems they don't realize. 1) Most people break a law or two every waking hour. 2) With any test, there will be a false positive rate.
What if each and every time you went 56 mph in a 55 you got a ticket? Did you share your wife's prescription allegra because yours ran out? Is it even possible for any citizen to even know every law that might apply to them?
"According to Andrew S. Erickson at the US Naval War College, China's long term strategic dilemma is whether to focus on large-deck aviation or on submarines "
Does it really matter? Are we expecting WW3 anytime soon?
It's the job of the US military to prepare for just about anything. We've even got plans for war against England and France. They'd be completely derelict if they didn't have information about what the world's 2nd or 3rd superpower is up to.
During World War II, Churchill ordered English ships to fire upon French ships because they didn't want them to be captured by the Germans, and the French commander didn't want to turn them over, even to an ally.
/bin/true works pretty well. It's only been through a few dozen implementations.
On the Suse linux machine I have handy,/bin/true --version reports: true (GNU coreutils) 5.93
Back in the day, the BSD version was a shell script. I know IBM had to update it for licensing reasons. As far as I know, all the bugs have been removed. (But there's still a chance someone will introduce on with an update)
I thought most larger balloons were neoprene, which is more resistant to ozone and UV. Metalized Mylar holds gas even better, but they cost more, and might anger various governments agencies.
Authors are required to give Amazon an exclusive on any title in the program. That means they're giving up the rest of the ebook market.
Does the agreement preclude any physical book being made? Or does Amazon also have exclusive rights to the hardcopy, and what happens if Amazon chooses not to publish a physical book? Does the copyright revert after a time?
Just because the car won't explode doesn't mean you won't die from the fire. Just a few months ago, near where I live, a family was roasted alive when a drunk rammed their stopped Jeep Cherokee from behind at about 40mph.
Several commentators have mentioned that you might have a second computer nearby for the non-work stuff. But, what happens when you've programmed that computer to do your job for you? Is it still ethical to charge by the hour, when a computer is doing most of the work?
Taken a step further. A contracting firm is charging a client for 1000 heads, but there's only 100 real heads and 900 virtual people doing the work. As long as the quotas are being filled, is there a problem? (Side question. If you are being paid by the hour, but there is a quota to fill to keep your job, are you really being paid by the piece?)
they're also completely trashing their backs and hands in the process. If you really want to invest in a growth industry, think about "physical therapy".
Or adjustable standing desks. Supposed to be great for your back.
Don't want to move, don't want to extend my commute. Also, they pay me too much, and are very flexible with the hours. That causes a lot of inertia. (I could make more, if I took a pay cut in a new job, then worked my way higher, but I value my time too much)
...A "talented" coder is like a UFO. Everyone talks about them. Some of them say the place in the other business park has one. But no one's really sure what one looks like, or how to tell if one's real when it comes time to interview people for a position.
You're just not looking in the right places. Once you've found one, you're certainly not going to tell the world about it. But, you're right that they can be difficult to control and even downright dangerous when spooked.
The industry standard when I was in school, was that the average programmer could churn out 10 debugged lines of code a day. I know I could run at 300 lines of C a day if distractions were minimized and the coke machine didn't run out. I had friends that could do 600 without too much trouble. (none of us got good grades, because we were writing too much code.)
These days the company I work for keeps the phones ringing, cube noise up, and enough meetings that I'm lucky to write a few lines. Some days go by without any objective measure of success.
... In an overheated market, when hiring managers have to take what they can get if they want to fill a position at all... it is STUNNINGLY easy for workers with zero aptitude to jump in.
It's often easier for the worker with near-zero aptitude. Someone who's spent time studying how people interact will always get ahead of someone who's only studied how *things* work.
Most employers are looking for Rumplestiskin employees. "If we just had people that could spin straw into gold, we'd rule the world." Then they either wait for Mr. R. to apply, or they take the first smooth talking huckster that claims to be able to spin gold. This is especially bad at the 'C' level.
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Given the size of the US government, there have to be documents that no-one alive knows about anymore, because everyone who had access died before they should have been released. Locked somewhere in a poorly marked filing cabinet, the combination or key lost decades ago. Even if found, since there's nobody left who understands the document, it would remain classified. (Or does the Government automatically declassified information it doesn't understand, or does it just destroy the document?)
I imagine in the Pentagon, there are entire rooms that have been lost for awhile.
What happens if a Pentagon archivist finds media in an unknown (to him) format, like a weird sized mag tape. If it's undated, and currently undecipherable, what to do? If he doesn't have the budget to transcode it, most likely it goes back in the hole.
It's not. Suppose you buy a piece of property, that because of your insight, or dumb luck, turns out to be the best property for some activity. Think oil well, or prime seafront property.
You have a monopoly on that property, and control over it. That's ok. What's not ok is when you start to tell your customers that you won't deal with them at all if they ever use a competitor's product.
Excellent legal hackers can invent ways that are just this side of monopoly practices, but effectively give you control over your customers. Sometimes they go too far, and the FTC has to step in. Sometimes your competitors cry foul to their congresspeople, just to get you to back off. But, it's unlikely that any large business is 100% free of monopolist practices.
No, but if they use that monopoly to gain an unfair advantage, it is. (i.e. Microsoft)
e.g. If they tell someone who uses Google that they can only use Google, and any radio, newspaper or Bing advertisements will result in them being banned for life from Google, that would be unfair. A natural monopoly just because no-one else is as smart as you is ok.
Okay, this is total bullshit ...that's exactly what fighter pilots are trained for; that's why so few people who apply are accepted, and why so few who are accepted make the grade...
<Tinfoil Hat Mode> "Died during training (or testing)" is a military euphemism for "Died on a secret mission". At least they didn't say he "Rolled a Jeep" </Tinfoil Hat Mode>
Right, plus I'm sure the tax software companies already have multiple tables drawn up, one for each proposal.
This is not a Y2K type issue. Unless Congress develops something truly weird, there will be no problem.
What might be a problem is if congress doesn't get it's rear in gear until March, then passes a retroactive tax cut.
Imperfect Laws vs. Imperfect Enforcement. That's been the balance we've always had. Now, there's the possibility that we will have the same imperfect laws, but with near perfect enforcement. Eventually we're all convicts.
The US government, has been self-assembling and self-defining ever since the original construction documents were approved. (The Constitution)
Despite that document describing that certain rights were to be retained by the people in clear language, the government has been constricting and restricting what those rights mean. By changing the meaning of the words, they can change the document w/o any additional discussion.
There is no legal problem with having cops walking 100% of the legally public beats 100% of the time. Economically, though, there just aren't enough cops to do that. In practice, one of the major protections from the state historically enjoyed by most people is not law; but simple lack of resources.
Yes, but many, if not most Americans don't seem to know or care why you don't want 100% police coverage. There are two problems they don't realize. 1) Most people break a law or two every waking hour. 2) With any test, there will be a false positive rate.
What if each and every time you went 56 mph in a 55 you got a ticket? Did you share your wife's prescription allegra because yours ran out? Is it even possible for any citizen to even know every law that might apply to them?
Definition of MILITARY a : of or relating to soldiers, arms, or war
Anybody on the planet who can order the launch of nuclear missiles is military in my book. He doesn't even have to get Congress's approval.
"According to Andrew S. Erickson at the US Naval War College, China's long term strategic dilemma is whether to focus on large-deck aviation or on submarines "
Does it really matter? Are we expecting WW3 anytime soon?
It's the job of the US military to prepare for just about anything. We've even got plans for war against England and France. They'd be completely derelict if they didn't have information about what the world's 2nd or 3rd superpower is up to.
During World War II, Churchill ordered English ships to fire upon French ships because they didn't want them to be captured by the Germans, and the French commander didn't want to turn them over, even to an ally.
Lincoln wasn't really even in the military service...
From the constitution, section 2:
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States,
He picks up the marines through the Navy, but you could, I guess, argue that Lincoln was never in the Air Force.
/bin/true works pretty well. It's only been through a few dozen implementations.
/bin/true --version reports: true (GNU coreutils) 5.93
On the Suse linux machine I have handy,
Back in the day, the BSD version was a shell script. I know IBM had to update it for licensing reasons. As far as I know, all the bugs have been removed. (But there's still a chance someone will introduce on with an update)
I thought most larger balloons were neoprene, which is more resistant to ozone and UV. Metalized Mylar holds gas even better, but they cost more, and might anger various governments agencies.
Good point. I would also add that any new COBOL programs at going to look like the old programs, but only the ones that survived.
The average COBOL programmer is also much older than the average Java programmer.
If they gain enough market share from it they could be looking at a Anti Trust suit.
Already there: http://www.dailytech.com/US+Justice+Department+Climbs+Aboard+EBook+Antitrust+Investigation+/article23466.htm
Authors are required to give Amazon an exclusive on any title in the program. That means they're giving up the rest of the ebook market.
Does the agreement preclude any physical book being made? Or does Amazon also have exclusive rights to the hardcopy, and what happens if Amazon chooses not to publish a physical book? Does the copyright revert after a time?
Just because the car won't explode doesn't mean you won't die from the fire. Just a few months ago, near where I live, a family was roasted alive when a drunk rammed their stopped Jeep Cherokee from behind at about 40mph.
Several commentators have mentioned that you might have a second computer nearby for the non-work stuff. But, what happens when you've programmed that computer to do your job for you? Is it still ethical to charge by the hour, when a computer is doing most of the work?
Taken a step further. A contracting firm is charging a client for 1000 heads, but there's only 100 real heads and 900 virtual people doing the work. As long as the quotas are being filled, is there a problem? (Side question. If you are being paid by the hour, but there is a quota to fill to keep your job, are you really being paid by the piece?)
The ghost of Richard Nixon will turn up in many strange places...
they're also completely trashing their backs and hands in the process. If you really want to invest in a growth industry, think about "physical therapy".
Or adjustable standing desks. Supposed to be great for your back.
Location, location, location.
Don't want to move, don't want to extend my commute. Also, they pay me too much, and are very flexible with the hours. That causes a lot of inertia. (I could make more, if I took a pay cut in a new job, then worked my way higher, but I value my time too much)
...A "talented" coder is like a UFO. Everyone talks about them. Some of them say the place in the other business park has one. But no one's really sure what one looks like, or how to tell if one's real when it comes time to interview people for a position.
You're just not looking in the right places. Once you've found one, you're certainly not going to tell the world about it. But, you're right that they can be difficult to control and even downright dangerous when spooked.
The industry standard when I was in school, was that the average programmer could churn out 10 debugged lines of code a day. I know I could run at 300 lines of C a day if distractions were minimized and the coke machine didn't run out. I had friends that could do 600 without too much trouble. (none of us got good grades, because we were writing too much code.)
These days the company I work for keeps the phones ringing, cube noise up, and enough meetings that I'm lucky to write a few lines. Some days go by without any objective measure of success.
... In an overheated market, when hiring managers have to take what they can get if they want to fill a position at all... it is STUNNINGLY easy for workers with zero aptitude to jump in.
It's often easier for the worker with near-zero aptitude. Someone who's spent time studying how people interact will always get ahead of someone who's only studied how *things* work.
Most employers are looking for Rumplestiskin employees. "If we just had people that could spin straw into gold, we'd rule the world." Then they either wait for Mr. R. to apply, or they take the first smooth talking huckster that claims to be able to spin gold. This is especially bad at the 'C' level.