...Except that there are very clear procedures that said lawyer is supposed to follow as an employee of the United Stated Government, plenty of which deal with things such as turnover of staff, virus infections, etc. He wasn't operating in a vaccuum. In fact, he should be at the very least *reprimanded* for not following said procedures. Allowing a private party access to those laptops, I was under the impression, is strictly prohibited unless they have a contract to do so...and the company representative stated that they've never done that before, so...
but...he also had them wipe the drives of several underling's laptops as well...and if he really had a virus, why not just call his own IT (the one's that said, "we don't do a level-7 for viruses we just reimage")...?
Thirty years ago, there was a huge uproar about some guy erasing a few minutes of tape. Nowadays, politicians get away with destroying evidence while under investigation...and the media doesn't even raise a stink. He who controls the media, indeed.
Fantastic idea; a seti-at-home app that anyone can download (not just the Linux savy) and run on their Win32/64 boxes that sends results to a central location, just like Seti. Unfortunately, the EFF got a lot of press today with PR that says, "EFF releases tool for users". My wife emailed me with, "this isn't for users, it's for you network and Linux people". We need lots of automated samples that are effortless for the users to submit -THAT would be a tool for users".
To both of you with "I can't learn another [spoken,written] language" complaints:
I have it, too; back in college I spent a 10-hour day undergoing testing after failing Foreign Language for the fourth time. It was really dragging down my GPA, and guess what? It turns out that there are actual, testable 'disabilities' (carefull, now...) associated with this problem. In my case, the key attribute was a measurable delay between 'hearing' a word and 'processing' it into an abstracted object or concept despite most other scores being at the top of the charts. If you are so afflicted, essentially you would have to replace, your English word for, say, 'apple' with the Spanish/French/German word (note that those are all Latin based; I have no idea what would happen with say, Chinese). Chances are if you moved to that country and only spoke that one you'd do just fine after an adjustment period, but you'd lose English. I got extremely lucky; the Dean of Sciences had the same limitation. It's a SWAG, but perhaps the problem doesn't exist for programming 'languages' because a.) they are all typed in your native tounge or b.) they are not spoken.
To bring this back on topic, I had previously been told that I "obviously I just wasn't trying hard enough"...implying that I had the ability and just wasn't using it due to laziness.
No, I could see a cube-farm of 6-foot by 5-foot holodecks. You still have to come into work, you see, it just doesn't *look* like the warehouse that costs less to lease per square foot than a fancy office building. Damn managers.
Actually, it's like saying if we had the "flux capacitor"...well, that and 1.21 gigawatts of power. You see, then all you have to do is go into the future, when the Mr. Fusion device has already been invented. Better yet, just keep going back into the past to the point in time when the crappy rechargeable batteries that you mention have yet to be discharged!
...but could it be that you assume a healthy economy for the next five or ten years?
What if jobs start to get a bit harder to find? What if most people (perhaps even those that are highly skilled) will end up gladly taking whatever job they can get? Let's just say for sake of argument that we haven't even seen the bulk of the iceberg yet in the repercussions of the subprime problem...let's say that a number of very large corporations either fail or dump tens of thousands of jobs or more each in the same quarter. At that point, it will be an employers' job market and I don't believe they will care about how much your commute costs you, only that you're either 1.) the best of the best, in which case they might offer you a better cube or 2) willing to work cheap and not complain too much.
What are these "India" and "America" of which you speak? With cheap enough instant transportation, could Nation States become completely irrelevant? And I thought that when a truly disruptive technology comes along, standards of living tend to go up after a re-adjustment period. Yes, some of those that based their livelihood on the old technology suffer, but plenty also thrive; a new industry needs new bodies, after all. That guy that used to get $18/hr USD carefully turning the slow/stop sign at a road construction site can likely easily be retrained to check transporter clearances, too. You also assume that the increase in efficiency due to cheap transportation won't have ripple effects that may well benefit the entire uniconomy (only one economy once the nations become blurred). Fascinating stuff; how long would it take to blur into a single language, culture, phenotype?
Or, have I completely misunderstood you? Are you saying that the inevitable result will be as I extrapolated, but that everyone will live at a standard of living that is equal to that of the average of all people now living on the planet (plus of course, the aforementioned increase in efficiencies realized through the lower cost of just about everything) and that that average will be much lower than we enjoy today, with our SUV's, McMansions (well, till that adjustable rate kicks in), Pre-prepared dinners, Cable TV, Wii's, etc., etc.?
That's fantastic! Put the solar powered office buildings out in the desert and unpave the farmland. While we're at it, move the housing to somewhere with great views but impractical for old-style transportation. Suddenly, with all that rich loamy soil once again freed up (assuming you can transport food and water, since we're not using magic here), food prices drop, too! Greenhouse gasses? Annoying politicians? Transport them away!
Then, things really start to get interesting. Why were television and radio created originally? Partially to allow information and entertainment to be available to folks outside the more dense cities. No longer a problem, just teleport to live shows rather than watch pre recorded stuff -take that, RIAA! Wait; do they get to collect royalties on my pattern even if I'm not registered with them? And another thing; who controls the teleportation? Who tracks where I go? We're assuming benevolent dictatorship -I mean, a benevolent Commander in Chief, here...but what if that weren't so?
Why would my employer care how much it costs me to get to work? That expenditure is on my shoulders. Despite the 'discount' of owning the lines and services (up to a point), I wonder what the cost breakdown is for AT&T's remote workers. Could this be a cost saving measure, ignoring the quit-vs-fire argument? Do they have lot's of spare office space? It just doesn't make sense, like GM telling all their employees to go drive Hondas...isn't 'coming into the office' the opposite of what AT&T sells?
I completely agree with your sentiment. Cheap goods plus cheap disposal plus marketing to provide dissatisfaction with the current model = huge waste. But...we tried charging for disposal. Lots and lots of CRT's and other nasties dumped into ditches instead of recycled or 'properly' disposed of (partial reclaimation).
Out in California you get a chance to see and feel the various levels of road quality that very nicely prove your point. Up in the Sierras, I-80 is concrete due to the winter conditions and chains. Wonderful to drive on any time of year. Down in Sacramento, and around the Bay Area, the freeways are often asphalt (asphalt concrete, not mastic asphalt) over dirt, baby. Great if a little slippery when it's brand new, just adequate when it's mature and really bad when it's still five years out from being replaced. At the local street level all the money from the boom years has been spent so it s gravel-over-tar every five years. Cars go through windshields at an alarming rate, but hey it was the cheapest bid. Interestingly, the decreasing level of quality is also mirrored in the reduced level of traction, so not only are better roads nicer to drive on, they're safer, too.
I'm afraid this is what happens when there just isn't enough cash to go around. The amount the States get from the Federal taxes in various forms is reduced and so local infrastructure expenditures drop. However, it's not like the Federal government is spending more than it takes in on something that benefits only a select few and has quietly hidden the true costs here and there. There is a war going on; how can we complain about the state of our roads when on the other side of the world there are roads actually getting blown up daily? We have to rebuild those first, along with the electrical distribution, water supplies, schools and hospitals...the list goes on and we haven't even started. Once we have rebuilt Iraq in our image, then and only then can we talk about fixing things here with a clean conscience.
Never gonna happen, not so long as the Generals are still human. You don't get ahead in the armed forces commanding a bunch of autonomous or semi-autonomous machinery; you get ahead by commanding large numbers of troops willing to lay down their lives for God and Country. It'a all about the Surrogate Warrior.
And if you only do it once in a blue moon or don't have access to 'proper' equipment you can make a true DIY reflow air gun for about $20. I used it to reflow the solder on a Sony POS laptop sodimm socket; it's just barely 'good enough', especially if you are away from your normal workbench, but it works. http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/07/how-to-make-a-surface-mount-soldering-iron/
The tube's output does reduce over time, so there is an instant reward when buying a new microwave oven. That said, I've replaced 3 or 4 fuses and a fan...
Regarding Meteor Crater, I recall seeing good sized chunks of mostly Iron-Nickel displayed in the MC museum that had been recovered from the bottom center of the crater. Not gas samples; mostly-iron-nickel rock.
However, your point is well taken: Consider the debris field from the shuttle explosion; now bring it a bit closer to the ground. You are still talking about a massive debris field and as you pointed out, an impact footprint so large and dissipated that perhaps the downed trees *are* the crater...
Much as I like some of the things you can do with PS, it is bloated and slow; it is the CLI version of Aero. After you use it a bit it seems like it's nothing more than a CLI that is layered on TOP of the GUI, not the other way 'round...I expect my CLI's to be fast and lean, not slow and massive.
Naw; it's the ones who aware that they are biased about their own biases -and then change their biases, however painful that might be. I've met maybe two, and one had to be tricked into it.
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What is this 'tape' of which you speak? Is it like a podcast, or sumthin'?
Brilliant! Bond with your co-workers and then take them down with you when your PHB finds out how (all of) you were using company time and bandwidth!
...Except that there are very clear procedures that said lawyer is supposed to follow as an employee of the United Stated Government, plenty of which deal with things such as turnover of staff, virus infections, etc. He wasn't operating in a vaccuum. In fact, he should be at the very least *reprimanded* for not following said procedures. Allowing a private party access to those laptops, I was under the impression, is strictly prohibited unless they have a contract to do so...and the company representative stated that they've never done that before, so...
Thirty years ago, there was a huge uproar about some guy erasing a few minutes of tape. Nowadays, politicians get away with destroying evidence while under investigation...and the media doesn't even raise a stink. He who controls the media, indeed.
Fantastic idea; a seti-at-home app that anyone can download (not just the Linux savy) and run on their Win32/64 boxes that sends results to a central location, just like Seti. Unfortunately, the EFF got a lot of press today with PR that says, "EFF releases tool for users". My wife emailed me with, "this isn't for users, it's for you network and Linux people". We need lots of automated samples that are effortless for the users to submit -THAT would be a tool for users".
I have it, too; back in college I spent a 10-hour day undergoing testing after failing Foreign Language for the fourth time. It was really dragging down my GPA, and guess what? It turns out that there are actual, testable 'disabilities' (carefull, now...) associated with this problem. In my case, the key attribute was a measurable delay between 'hearing' a word and 'processing' it into an abstracted object or concept despite most other scores being at the top of the charts. If you are so afflicted, essentially you would have to replace, your English word for, say, 'apple' with the Spanish/French/German word (note that those are all Latin based; I have no idea what would happen with say, Chinese). Chances are if you moved to that country and only spoke that one you'd do just fine after an adjustment period, but you'd lose English. I got extremely lucky; the Dean of Sciences had the same limitation. It's a SWAG, but perhaps the problem doesn't exist for programming 'languages' because a.) they are all typed in your native tounge or b.) they are not spoken.
To bring this back on topic, I had previously been told that I "obviously I just wasn't trying hard enough"...implying that I had the ability and just wasn't using it due to laziness.
No, I could see a cube-farm of 6-foot by 5-foot holodecks. You still have to come into work, you see, it just doesn't *look* like the warehouse that costs less to lease per square foot than a fancy office building. Damn managers.
Actually, it's like saying if we had the "flux capacitor" ...well, that and 1.21 gigawatts of power. You see, then all you have to do is go into the future, when the Mr. Fusion device has already been invented. Better yet, just keep going back into the past to the point in time when the crappy rechargeable batteries that you mention have yet to be discharged!
What if jobs start to get a bit harder to find? What if most people (perhaps even those that are highly skilled) will end up gladly taking whatever job they can get? Let's just say for sake of argument that we haven't even seen the bulk of the iceberg yet in the repercussions of the subprime problem...let's say that a number of very large corporations either fail or dump tens of thousands of jobs or more each in the same quarter. At that point, it will be an employers' job market and I don't believe they will care about how much your commute costs you, only that you're either 1.) the best of the best, in which case they might offer you a better cube or 2) willing to work cheap and not complain too much.
Or, have I completely misunderstood you? Are you saying that the inevitable result will be as I extrapolated, but that everyone will live at a standard of living that is equal to that of the average of all people now living on the planet (plus of course, the aforementioned increase in efficiencies realized through the lower cost of just about everything) and that that average will be much lower than we enjoy today, with our SUV's, McMansions (well, till that adjustable rate kicks in), Pre-prepared dinners, Cable TV, Wii's, etc., etc.?
Then, things really start to get interesting. Why were television and radio created originally? Partially to allow information and entertainment to be available to folks outside the more dense cities. No longer a problem, just teleport to live shows rather than watch pre recorded stuff -take that, RIAA! Wait; do they get to collect royalties on my pattern even if I'm not registered with them? And another thing; who controls the teleportation? Who tracks where I go? We're assuming benevolent dictatorship -I mean, a benevolent Commander in Chief, here...but what if that weren't so?
1. Watch 'The Road Warrior' (a.k.a. Mad Max 2)
2. Email boss regarding latest project
3. Watch 'Waterworld'
4. Answer coworkers emails re: latest project
5. Ponder just how much of Waterworld was lifted straight out of The Road Warrior.
6. Return boss' email, give daily status of your work on assigned module
7. Watch Mad Max for closure.
8. Call it a day.
Why would my employer care how much it costs me to get to work? That expenditure is on my shoulders. Despite the 'discount' of owning the lines and services (up to a point), I wonder what the cost breakdown is for AT&T's remote workers. Could this be a cost saving measure, ignoring the quit-vs-fire argument? Do they have lot's of spare office space? It just doesn't make sense, like GM telling all their employees to go drive Hondas...isn't 'coming into the office' the opposite of what AT&T sells?
I completely agree with your sentiment. Cheap goods plus cheap disposal plus marketing to provide dissatisfaction with the current model = huge waste. But...we tried charging for disposal. Lots and lots of CRT's and other nasties dumped into ditches instead of recycled or 'properly' disposed of (partial reclaimation).
1) Do I look good in it?
2) ????
3) Can I afford it?
I'm afraid this is what happens when there just isn't enough cash to go around. The amount the States get from the Federal taxes in various forms is reduced and so local infrastructure expenditures drop. However, it's not like the Federal government is spending more than it takes in on something that benefits only a select few and has quietly hidden the true costs here and there. There is a war going on; how can we complain about the state of our roads when on the other side of the world there are roads actually getting blown up daily? We have to rebuild those first, along with the electrical distribution, water supplies, schools and hospitals...the list goes on and we haven't even started. Once we have rebuilt Iraq in our image, then and only then can we talk about fixing things here with a clean conscience.
Never gonna happen, not so long as the Generals are still human. You don't get ahead in the armed forces commanding a bunch of autonomous or semi-autonomous machinery; you get ahead by commanding large numbers of troops willing to lay down their lives for God and Country. It'a all about the Surrogate Warrior.
And if you only do it once in a blue moon or don't have access to 'proper' equipment you can make a true DIY reflow air gun for about $20. I used it to reflow the solder on a Sony POS laptop sodimm socket; it's just barely 'good enough', especially if you are away from your normal workbench, but it works. http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/07/how-to-make-a-surface-mount-soldering-iron/
The tube's output does reduce over time, so there is an instant reward when buying a new microwave oven. That said, I've replaced 3 or 4 fuses and a fan...
Regarding Meteor Crater, I recall seeing good sized chunks of mostly Iron-Nickel displayed in the MC museum that had been recovered from the bottom center of the crater. Not gas samples; mostly-iron-nickel rock. However, your point is well taken: Consider the debris field from the shuttle explosion; now bring it a bit closer to the ground. You are still talking about a massive debris field and as you pointed out, an impact footprint so large and dissipated that perhaps the downed trees *are* the crater...
google 'picoPSU' and your dreams will come true.
4. Profit!!!! (See? No '????' needed with politics; there's always profit to be had when you control everything!)
Much as I like some of the things you can do with PS, it is bloated and slow; it is the CLI version of Aero. After you use it a bit it seems like it's nothing more than a CLI that is layered on TOP of the GUI, not the other way 'round...I expect my CLI's to be fast and lean, not slow and massive.
Ah, but you see, i AM God.
Naw; it's the ones who aware that they are biased about their own biases -and then change their biases, however painful that might be. I've met maybe two, and one had to be tricked into it.