I already wrote my representatives a couple days ago about both crypto and allowing law enforcement carte blanche to monitor US citizens. Obviously I oppose both. If we create crypto controls in the US the Internet revolution will come to a grinding halt. I tried to couch in terms that they would care about, which in this case is about business and the economy. I can't mention how important it is to write your representatives and convince them how dangerous it is to try and take up this kind of flawed encryption system...
Sadly the most important part is neglected.
on
Make Your Own DSL
·
· Score: 1
The broadband/internet connection is really the most important part and is usually what you get charged an arm and a leg for. The wires for the T1 and the circuit cost usually run a couple hundred dollars depending on where you are... The bandwidth is what you get truly bent over for...
More details on that end strike me as more interesting than the ability to set up networking between places... since that's relatively easy. Hell run fiber... it's getting cheap.
I've been a telocity customer for over half a year now. While my initial install was horrific. Bad wiring in my building combined with an incompetent installer left me calling tech support for a month and a half before they would send someone out to re-check the install. However once a new (competent) installer was sent out I was fixed immediately as he found my problem instantly and spent a lot of time wondering what the other installer was doing. After that my gateway hasn't gone down once and I'm running a few hundred days uptime on the gateway.
BTW the $500 charge thing is listed pretty clearly a lot of places if you bothered to read any of their documentation.
The movie stunk. It was slow, and lacking plot, and the padding destroyed even the minor joys of being able to oggle Angelina.
However I noticed that there was a save point in the movie, when she meets her father's unknown Buddhist friend with magical powers. Many times I was left thinking, where's the controller.
You know... I have a very vital roleplaying hobby... I've been doing it since I was 5 and got sucked into a D&D game with the baby-sitters son. I'm very happy about starting so early. It's become a life long hobby.
LARPing seems to be the main place that I meet other gamers these days. It's become the de-facto way to meet other gamers. However through it I have met enough other gamers of all ages, such that I now play tabletop on a weekly basis again.
As for WotC owning D&D... they're actually not bad. I grudingly admit that those that brought us Crack:The Addiction(tm), have actually done a very good job on the re-write. It is consistent (for once), and well thought out. It is a huge departure from previous editions, but keeps the flavor alive. d20 system is open so things like White Wolf releasing Ravenloft is happening.
Sadly a lot of gaming companies are going out of business, cause while Role-players are a fanatical bunch and will stick with a game once they grow to love it, they usually aren't rich and can't afford to buy all 2,000 supplements that come out.
I would vote for bad luck, or not reading the instructions carefully enough. I've always gotten my money back on all the rebates that I've sent. However I've sometimes had to spend more than three seconds reading the fine print. Rebates are obviously offered on the thought that people won't bother to cash them in. Same as the lifetime warranty on under $30 items. Where it's cheaper and easier for you to just go buy a new one than send a letter and/or the item to the company to get a new one.
But on principle I always fill out rebate forms even if it is for a piddling amount of money. I've found that the only lists that my info ever gets "sold" to is usually that companies marketing department, and I really don't mind throwing away Quicken stuff frequently.;)
I would be dead in the water without flex time. It's one of the few things that I require at a job. Thankfully the boss at my company is also a programmer who functions best late at night. It's not unusual to see a lot of the tech people rolling in around 9:30 to 10:30. Of course we're usually here well after all the morning risers are long gone, but quite frankly I wouldn't have it any other way.
As for reasons to give to management. My best recomendation is explain to them how you can come in the morning on a fixed schedule, but that they will garner the most productive work from you if they let you have flex time. If that isn't enough also be willing to negotiate "core business hours" when you will be in so that everyone can get in touch with you. Also be consistent in the times that you show up. If you do all of those, unless your company is completely overrun with bureaucracy you should be able to sway your supervisor, who should be the only one that matters, and/or their superiors.
Remember stress productivity for the company, especially with the japanese. They may not like the individuality, but if you're gaijin they may overlook it.
It's really an awful state that we're descending into in the US these days. We stuck with a system where politicians are no longer in contact with their constituency and Special Interest Groups (SIG) are able to purchase laws. It's not that the politicians are all evil people, it's just when you have a group of reasonably (however misguided) informed people constantly telling you that something is good, unless you are already against it... the repetition will get you. The SIGs are winning because they can hold the ear of the our representatives. Hell/. could start a SIG about this and try and reverse the effect.
Problem is that this (forming our own SIG) is the only way I see things getting turned around short of mass revolution. People lose interest in politics, because it is by and large legal wrangling. I feel my eyes glazing over whenever I try to read this stuff, and I like to consider myself very concerned and reasonably intelligent. Which makes me wonder how anyone who is either less concerned or less intelligent could even have a vague hope of wading through this without being a lawyer.
Additionally politicians seem to have to make massive compromises just to get any legislation passed. So instead of well thought out and agreed upon legislation we have a state where poorly written legislation is accepted because it will get ironed out in courts. Mind you this is the huge problem...
Bad legislation leads to lots of lawsuits by companies attempting (rightly or wrongly) to keep a hold on the IP, works, property, revenue sources against consumers or groups. These laws are now generally only overturned by very very blatant unconsitutionality, or at considerable cost to unsung martyrs willing to sacrifice for what they feel is right. Witness the MPAA/DVD/DeCSS debacle.
The problem is that a lot of these suits are such flagrant violations of the basic rights that we have come to expect. However we are at a loss to defend ourselves from these changes without some kind of activisim. So for your own sake please go vote. Vote your conscience and most specifically for someone who will listen to you. Then make sure that you write them about your opinions, because if you never tell them they will vote their own conscience and that of the stories that they have heard the most. (SIGs)
I find it interesting that there is this constant repeat of raging over censorware, yet I have heard very little about Apple's Kidsafe program. See their press release.
I find this to be a much more intelligent way to implement "safe" viewing. By having teachers and other educational professionals approve sites. That way you can have children be able to read sites that have things like penis, quake, and republicans on them.;)
I think it qualifies as a much better way to have "approved" content for children. It also allows libraries etc the ability to keep out pr0n sites and other such objectionable material.
All in all... why try to filter content, when you can simply approve sites that show acceptable content.
Why bother changing your password? It just means that you'll have another unencrypted plain-text password laying around... Besides who really cares if your/. account gets hacked? What are they going to do? Kill your Karma?
Bah! Wait until they get the Slashcode 2.0 up and can affirm that encrypted passwords are being used.
Slashdot Mirror
I already wrote my representatives a couple days ago about both crypto and allowing law enforcement carte blanche to monitor US citizens. Obviously I oppose both. If we create crypto controls in the US the Internet revolution will come to a grinding halt. I tried to couch in terms that they would care about, which in this case is about business and the economy. I can't mention how important it is to write your representatives and convince them how dangerous it is to try and take up this kind of flawed encryption system...
The broadband/internet connection is really the most important part and is usually what you get charged an arm and a leg for. The wires for the T1 and the circuit cost usually run a couple hundred dollars depending on where you are... The bandwidth is what you get truly bent over for...
More details on that end strike me as more interesting than the ability to set up networking between places... since that's relatively easy. Hell run fiber... it's getting cheap.
I've been a telocity customer for over half a year now. While my initial install was horrific. Bad wiring in my building combined with an incompetent installer left me calling tech support for a month and a half before they would send someone out to re-check the install. However once a new (competent) installer was sent out I was fixed immediately as he found my problem instantly and spent a lot of time wondering what the other installer was doing. After that my gateway hasn't gone down once and I'm running a few hundred days uptime on the gateway.
BTW the $500 charge thing is listed pretty clearly a lot of places if you bothered to read any of their documentation.
The movie stunk. It was slow, and lacking plot, and the padding destroyed even the minor joys of being able to oggle Angelina.
However I noticed that there was a save point in the movie, when she meets her father's unknown Buddhist friend with magical powers. Many times I was left thinking, where's the controller.
You know... I have a very vital roleplaying hobby... I've been doing it since I was 5 and got sucked into a D&D game with the baby-sitters son. I'm very happy about starting so early. It's become a life long hobby.
LARPing seems to be the main place that I meet other gamers these days. It's become the de-facto way to meet other gamers. However through it I have met enough other gamers of all ages, such that I now play tabletop on a weekly basis again.
As for WotC owning D&D... they're actually not bad. I grudingly admit that those that brought us Crack:The Addiction(tm), have actually done a very good job on the re-write. It is consistent (for once), and well thought out. It is a huge departure from previous editions, but keeps the flavor alive. d20 system is open so things like White Wolf releasing Ravenloft is happening.
Sadly a lot of gaming companies are going out of business, cause while Role-players are a fanatical bunch and will stick with a game once they grow to love it, they usually aren't rich and can't afford to buy all 2,000 supplements that come out.
I would vote for bad luck, or not reading the instructions carefully enough. I've always gotten my money back on all the rebates that I've sent. However I've sometimes had to spend more than three seconds reading the fine print. Rebates are obviously offered on the thought that people won't bother to cash them in. Same as the lifetime warranty on under $30 items. Where it's cheaper and easier for you to just go buy a new one than send a letter and/or the item to the company to get a new one.
;)
But on principle I always fill out rebate forms even if it is for a piddling amount of money. I've found that the only lists that my info ever gets "sold" to is usually that companies marketing department, and I really don't mind throwing away Quicken stuff frequently.
I would be dead in the water without flex time. It's one of the few things that I require at a job. Thankfully the boss at my company is also a programmer who functions best late at night. It's not unusual to see a lot of the tech people rolling in around 9:30 to 10:30. Of course we're usually here well after all the morning risers are long gone, but quite frankly I wouldn't have it any other way.
As for reasons to give to management. My best recomendation is explain to them how you can come in the morning on a fixed schedule, but that they will garner the most productive work from you if they let you have flex time. If that isn't enough also be willing to negotiate "core business hours" when you will be in so that everyone can get in touch with you. Also be consistent in the times that you show up. If you do all of those, unless your company is completely overrun with bureaucracy you should be able to sway your supervisor, who should be the only one that matters, and/or their superiors.
Remember stress productivity for the company, especially with the japanese. They may not like the individuality, but if you're gaijin they may overlook it.
It's really an awful state that we're descending into in the US these days. We stuck with a system where politicians are no longer in contact with their constituency and Special Interest Groups (SIG) are able to purchase laws. It's not that the politicians are all evil people, it's just when you have a group of reasonably (however misguided) informed people constantly telling you that something is good, unless you are already against it... the repetition will get you. The SIGs are winning because they can hold the ear of the our representatives. Hell /. could start a SIG about this and try and reverse the effect.
Problem is that this (forming our own SIG) is the only way I see things getting turned around short of mass revolution. People lose interest in politics, because it is by and large legal wrangling. I feel my eyes glazing over whenever I try to read this stuff, and I like to consider myself very concerned and reasonably intelligent. Which makes me wonder how anyone who is either less concerned or less intelligent could even have a vague hope of wading through this without being a lawyer.
Additionally politicians seem to have to make massive compromises just to get any legislation passed. So instead of well thought out and agreed upon legislation we have a state where poorly written legislation is accepted because it will get ironed out in courts. Mind you this is the huge problem...
Bad legislation leads to lots of lawsuits by companies attempting (rightly or wrongly) to keep a hold on the IP, works, property, revenue sources against consumers or groups. These laws are now generally only overturned by very very blatant unconsitutionality, or at considerable cost to unsung martyrs willing to sacrifice for what they feel is right. Witness the MPAA/DVD/DeCSS debacle.
The problem is that a lot of these suits are such flagrant violations of the basic rights that we have come to expect. However we are at a loss to defend ourselves from these changes without some kind of activisim. So for your own sake please go vote. Vote your conscience and most specifically for someone who will listen to you. Then make sure that you write them about your opinions, because if you never tell them they will vote their own conscience and that of the stories that they have heard the most. (SIGs)
I find it interesting that there is this constant repeat of raging over censorware, yet I have heard very little about Apple's Kidsafe program. See their press release. ;)
I find this to be a much more intelligent way to implement "safe" viewing. By having teachers and other educational professionals approve sites. That way you can have children be able to read sites that have things like penis, quake, and republicans on them.
I think it qualifies as a much better way to have "approved" content for children. It also allows libraries etc the ability to keep out pr0n sites and other such objectionable material.
All in all... why try to filter content, when you can simply approve sites that show acceptable content.
Why bother changing your password? It just means that you'll have another unencrypted plain-text password laying around... Besides who really cares if your /. account gets hacked? What are they going to do? Kill your Karma?
Bah! Wait until they get the Slashcode 2.0 up and can affirm that encrypted passwords are being used.