Thinking of companies that contact you and then do stupid things reminds me of an interview at a company I will not name.
They emailed me and asked me to come and meet with them for an interview. I'd never heard of them before let alone applied for a position there, so I did some research on them. The projects looked interesting enough, so I said yes.
I was told it would be from about 10am till no later than 3pm and that the interview would consist of a campus tour, lunch, an HR portion, a programming test, a computer skills test (why I have no idea. it was laughably easy), and a meeting/interview with one of the managing developers It's a 3+ hour drive from where I was, so I spent the night at a friend's.
The morning of the interview, I arrive about 10 minutes early. I have to wait around for half an hour before the person in charge comes down for the tour. They take us (more on the plurality later) around the corporate campus and then into a meeting room which is to serve as our base of ops for the rest of the day.
We sit through a relatively short speech by one of the higher ups and lunch is brought in. Along with lunch, they bring in the programming tests. In addition to the lunch and the tests, they bring in sets of developers to speak to us and answer questions (all of this while we are supposed to be taking the programming tests). It should also be mentioned that the building was being worked on at the time, so we also had to deal with the sounds of jackhammers and construction on the far end of the building.
To make it even more fun, they randomly pull us out of the chat-interrupted lunch/testing in order to do the other interviews, bringing us back to the meeting room between interviews.
The last two nails in the coffin were the facts that they kept me waiting for an hour after everyone else had left because one of the people that was supposed to interview me "got sidetracked" and the other people there were all there for co-op positions (they called me in as a full time prospect and scheduled me for that day).
It was insane and infuriating. Frighteningly enough, there were two decent parts of the day-long interview: The HR portion (the HR person was actually extremely cool and a fellow alum. We emailed back and forth before and after the interview), and the fact that the one person who brought in the lunch thought I was "really cool" and hoped I got the job (This according to the HR person. Her opinion was fine by me because she was extremely cute).
I was actually relieved that they thought we would not be a good match for each other, because I would have probably killed someone there. They encuoraged insane overtime according to a couple of people I ran into while I slipped out of the meeting room in addition to the fun things that I learned about them from the interviews.
If a judge is unaware of what is typical or acceptable use, they should not be allowed to rule on it or issue a warrant concerning it until they *do* know.
Any judge who does issue a warrant or pass sentance without knowledge of what is typical or acceptable (assuming that the judge, and not a jury, makes the ruling) should loose his or her job on the spot, be disbarred, and subject to prosecution him/herself.
If you think that sounds harsh, think about the boneheaded and, frankly, illegal rulings which have been made concerning computers and "computer crime".
There is no shame in saying "I don't know *yet*." However, "authority figures" tend to loathe saying that they don't know everything.
The trial of several of the members of MOD comes to mind off the top of my head. The EFF, shortly after it was formed, promised to help them legally and even set them up with their legal council initially.
They then decided that they wanted to be a political lobby group and that they should distance themselves from overly controversial issues least they become associated with them (The government was extremely hot to prosecute the kids. The FBI, Secret Service, and NYPD were fighting each other tooth and nail to get the credit).
They pulled their legal support.
The lawyer decided to help the kids anyway and the EFF talked to his bosses, getting him removed from their practice because they didn't want to be associated with the controversy (after they had already promised to help and then backed out). The guy was finally given back his job after he agreed to stop providing council for the kids.
The EFF is a lobying organization. They don't want to get involved in anything that may paint them in a bad light to legislators (who receive large contributions from companies like HMS).
They're notorious for dropping people like hot potatoes if they think there is a chance that it will negatively impact their political lobying.
some of the lines didn't seem to scan as well as they could (at least in my head), but very cool:)
I'm glad you enjoyed the song. I don't have a problem singing the song and making it sound right. Like most songs, the inflection and cadence of the words changes a little on occasion. That lets it still fit in with the music.
I actually had to stop writing after an hour because it was starting to turn into an epic heh
On a related note, I should be finishing a few other parodies that I started working on a while back and those will be posted to my website.
Actually, where I am it's not uncommon to sweat quite a bit just puttering around in the yard during the summer because we get high humidity and temps in the 90-100 degree range.
Age of Wonders is a truly addictive strategy game that has a play by email option. It's not free, but it's pretty cheap now and isn't horrible as far as system requirements go.
Records for arrests, etc when you are under the age of 18 (assuming that you are not emancipated before that age or that you're not tried as an adult) are *supposed* to be either sealed or expunged after you reach adulthood.
Technically, the only people that should ever be able to see them after that point are the ones that issue Secret and higher security clearance.
In practice, however, that is often not the case because the court orders concerning the records are "forgotten about" or just plain not carried out.
Students will be required to use the school district issued laptop for school purpose
That says that the only use for the laptops is for school purposes, does not say that the only computers allowed for the purpose of school work are the school issued computers. That's a reversal of the logic sequence. P -> Q != Q -> P.
Actually, if you read it, it *does* say that the students are "required to use the school district issued laptop for school purpose". *you're* the one with the flawed logic.
In that sentence, it doesn't say that the laptop must be *only* used for school work. It says that it *must be used for school work* and then states things which it may *not* be used for.
Believe it or not, now schools tend to punish *both* parties involved in a fight even if one of them was just defending themselves. I know - I got nailed with it a few times. I didn't start the fights, but the only cheek that was turned was the other guy's when it hit the floor. (The joys of being martially trained as a kid)
So, *yes* it really is like punishing the student for not turning the other cheek, and personally, I think it's bullshit.
Yes, by all means punish the person who started it, but leave the one who was just standing up for himself alone. Thankfully my teachers decided not to go along with the administration and didn't take points from my grades.
It ended quite a while ago. He's now a security consultant.
It is true that among the terms of his probation were stipulations that he could neither own nor operate a computer or cell phone until the end of said probation. His parole officer, however, let him slide on the cell phone portion as long as he showed his calling records because the man realized that he'd be using it for legitimate purposes.
Welcome to the fun that was unleashed by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (1986) among other pieces of legislation and hyped through the roof by the FBI and Secret Service in the late 80's and early 90's.
That sort of thing set all of the precidents for the insane rulings that you see for this now.
And, for the record, GPA, etc are *not* public record. The school has to be authorized by the student (or the student's parents/guardians) to release that information.
This new plan would give them that.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
There is one major problem with mercenary forces - for the most part, they're just in it for the money. Their loyalty lies where the cash is.
Pay them more and they're suddenly yours.
This is one reason why most governemts have never relied too heavily on mercenary forces. At most, they use them to suppliment their own existing forces so, if the mercs turn, they don't loose *everything*.
In my case, I like to work in the park. It gets me out of the house for a while and then I'll take a break and go wander around for a while. Frightningly enough, I tend to prefer doing my initial UI design outside.
I don't currently have an office, however, as I am doing contract work while looking for something more permanant.
I spent a fair chunk of my childhood on a farm. My family owns a few hundred acres (vegetables, cows, etc. We even used to grow a fair amount of tobacco) Comparing the two, smithing tends to be more difficult.
Smithing is a very complex art. Think of it as a combination of applied physics, chemistry, and engineering.
A good smith had to know the use of a great deal of tools(many of which he had to make himself), how hot to heat the metal he was working with, what to cool it in (salt water, molten lead, or any number of other things), how metals could be made into alloys, how to pattern weld (which is a heck of a lot harder than it looks), how to properly shape metal, and in some cases how to get metal from raw ore.
On top of all of this, the smith had to know at least the basics of *using* the things which he made in order to make them properly.
You haven't had fun untill you've had the entire village rolling on the ground with laughter as the three blacksmiths (me, the joureyman, and the master) did an improv version of The Anvil Chorus (hammer, anvil, and voice).
To the blacksmithing, add skills in carpentry, wood carving, and martial arts and you've got a small chunk of my past and present hobbies =]
Slashdot Mirror
Thinking of companies that contact you and then do stupid things reminds me of an interview at a company I will not name.
They emailed me and asked me to come and meet with them for an interview. I'd never heard of them before let alone applied for a position there, so I did some research on them. The projects looked interesting enough, so I said yes.
I was told it would be from about 10am till no later than 3pm and that the interview would consist of a campus tour, lunch, an HR portion, a programming test, a computer skills test (why I have no idea. it was laughably easy), and a meeting/interview with one of the managing developers It's a 3+ hour drive from where I was, so I spent the night at a friend's.
The morning of the interview, I arrive about 10 minutes early. I have to wait around for half an hour before the person in charge comes down for the tour. They take us (more on the plurality later) around the corporate campus and then into a meeting room which is to serve as our base of ops for the rest of the day.
We sit through a relatively short speech by one of the higher ups and lunch is brought in. Along with lunch, they bring in the programming tests. In addition to the lunch and the tests, they bring in sets of developers to speak to us and answer questions (all of this while we are supposed to be taking the programming tests). It should also be mentioned that the building was being worked on at the time, so we also had to deal with the sounds of jackhammers and construction on the far end of the building.
To make it even more fun, they randomly pull us out of the chat-interrupted lunch/testing in order to do the other interviews, bringing us back to the meeting room between interviews.
The last two nails in the coffin were the facts that they kept me waiting for an hour after everyone else had left because one of the people that was supposed to interview me "got sidetracked" and the other people there were all there for co-op positions (they called me in as a full time prospect and scheduled me for that day).
It was insane and infuriating. Frighteningly enough, there were two decent parts of the day-long interview: The HR portion (the HR person was actually extremely cool and a fellow alum. We emailed back and forth before and after the interview), and the fact that the one person who brought in the lunch thought I was "really cool" and hoped I got the job (This according to the HR person. Her opinion was fine by me because she was extremely cute).
I was actually relieved that they thought we would not be a good match for each other, because I would have probably killed someone there. They encuoraged insane overtime according to a couple of people I ran into while I slipped out of the meeting room in addition to the fun things that I learned about them from the interviews.
Besides, swords are more fun and a lot more stress relieving =]
If a judge is unaware of what is typical or acceptable use, they should not be allowed to rule on it or issue a warrant concerning it until they *do* know.
Any judge who does issue a warrant or pass sentance without knowledge of what is typical or acceptable (assuming that the judge, and not a jury, makes the ruling) should loose his or her job on the spot, be disbarred, and subject to prosecution him/herself.
If you think that sounds harsh, think about the boneheaded and, frankly, illegal rulings which have been made concerning computers and "computer crime".
There is no shame in saying "I don't know *yet*." However, "authority figures" tend to loathe saying that they don't know everything.
Evidence?
The trial of several of the members of MOD comes to mind off the top of my head. The EFF, shortly after it was formed, promised to help them legally and even set them up with their legal council initially.
They then decided that they wanted to be a political lobby group and that they should distance themselves from overly controversial issues least they become associated with them (The government was extremely hot to prosecute the kids. The FBI, Secret Service, and NYPD were fighting each other tooth and nail to get the credit).
They pulled their legal support.
The lawyer decided to help the kids anyway and the EFF talked to his bosses, getting him removed from their practice because they didn't want to be associated with the controversy (after they had already promised to help and then backed out). The guy was finally given back his job after he agreed to stop providing council for the kids.
The EFF is a lobying organization. They don't want to get involved in anything that may paint them in a bad light to legislators (who receive large contributions from companies like HMS).
They're notorious for dropping people like hot potatoes if they think there is a chance that it will negatively impact their political lobying.
Not to mention that a lot of the travel in Europe is done via trains.
I love the "I don't think about it, so it doesn't matter" mentality.
some of the lines didn't seem to scan as well as they could (at least in my head), but very cool :)
I'm glad you enjoyed the song. I don't have a problem singing the song and making it sound right. Like most songs, the inflection and cadence of the words changes a little on occasion. That lets it still fit in with the music.
I actually had to stop writing after an hour because it was starting to turn into an epic heh
On a related note, I should be finishing a few other parodies that I started working on a while back and those will be posted to my website.
You'll be revived by the last remaining living people who have somehow managed to avoid the zombie dogs and their humanoid zombie pets.
:P
Save yourself the trouble and start memorizing the lyrics to my zombie song (posted on my journal)
Baldrick, do you know what irony is?
Yes, it's like bronzy and goldy but made out of iron.
Blackadder
it's in unairy.
Somehow I think my journal entry should be pointed out again for this article =]
If memory serves, there *is* a way to compile java into a native windows binary. I'd have to look to find it again, but i do believe it's there.
Actually, where I am it's not uncommon to sweat quite a bit just puttering around in the yard during the summer because we get high humidity and temps in the 90-100 degree range.
Age of Wonders is a truly addictive strategy game that has a play by email option. It's not free, but it's pretty cheap now and isn't horrible as far as system requirements go.
Records for arrests, etc when you are under the age of 18 (assuming that you are not emancipated before that age or that you're not tried as an adult) are *supposed* to be either sealed or expunged after you reach adulthood.
Technically, the only people that should ever be able to see them after that point are the ones that issue Secret and higher security clearance.
In practice, however, that is often not the case because the court orders concerning the records are "forgotten about" or just plain not carried out.
Oh jesus, time for a little logic.
Students will be required to use the school district issued laptop for school purpose
That says that the only use for the laptops is for school purposes, does not say that the only computers allowed for the purpose of school work are the school issued computers. That's a reversal of the logic sequence. P -> Q != Q -> P.
Actually, if you read it, it *does* say that the students are "required to use the school district issued laptop for school purpose". *you're* the one with the flawed logic.
In that sentence, it doesn't say that the laptop must be *only* used for school work. It says that it *must be used for school work* and then states things which it may *not* be used for.
I graduated high school in 1998.
Believe it or not, now schools tend to punish *both* parties involved in a fight even if one of them was just defending themselves. I know - I got nailed with it a few times. I didn't start the fights, but the only cheek that was turned was the other guy's when it hit the floor. (The joys of being martially trained as a kid)
So, *yes* it really is like punishing the student for not turning the other cheek, and personally, I think it's bullshit.
Yes, by all means punish the person who started it, but leave the one who was just standing up for himself alone. Thankfully my teachers decided not to go along with the administration and didn't take points from my grades.
It ended quite a while ago. He's now a security consultant.
It is true that among the terms of his probation were stipulations that he could neither own nor operate a computer or cell phone until the end of said probation. His parole officer, however, let him slide on the cell phone portion as long as he showed his calling records because the man realized that he'd be using it for legitimate purposes.
Welcome to the fun that was unleashed by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (1986) among other pieces of legislation and hyped through the roof by the FBI and Secret Service in the late 80's and early 90's.
That sort of thing set all of the precidents for the insane rulings that you see for this now.
And, for the record, GPA, etc are *not* public record. The school has to be authorized by the student (or the student's parents/guardians) to release that information.
This new plan would give them that.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
There is one major problem with mercenary forces - for the most part, they're just in it for the money. Their loyalty lies where the cash is.
Pay them more and they're suddenly yours.
This is one reason why most governemts have never relied too heavily on mercenary forces. At most, they use them to suppliment their own existing forces so, if the mercs turn, they don't loose *everything*.
In my case, I like to work in the park. It gets me out of the house for a while and then I'll take a break and go wander around for a while. Frightningly enough, I tend to prefer doing my initial UI design outside.
I don't currently have an office, however, as I am doing contract work while looking for something more permanant.
I spent a fair chunk of my childhood on a farm. My family owns a few hundred acres (vegetables, cows, etc. We even used to grow a fair amount of tobacco) Comparing the two, smithing tends to be more difficult.
Okay, time to put on my smith's hat.
Smithing is a very complex art. Think of it as a combination of applied physics, chemistry, and engineering.
A good smith had to know the use of a great deal of tools(many of which he had to make himself), how hot to heat the metal he was working with, what to cool it in (salt water, molten lead, or any number of other things), how metals could be made into alloys, how to pattern weld (which is a heck of a lot harder than it looks), how to properly shape metal, and in some cases how to get metal from raw ore.
On top of all of this, the smith had to know at least the basics of *using* the things which he made in order to make them properly.
It's *really* not as simple as most people think.
You haven't had fun untill you've had the entire village rolling on the ground with laughter as the three blacksmiths (me, the joureyman, and the master) did an improv version of The Anvil Chorus (hammer, anvil, and voice).
To the blacksmithing, add skills in carpentry, wood carving, and martial arts and you've got a small chunk of my past and present hobbies =]
I miss the forge, though.