Anyone running a startup, especially a startup with slim chances (and that doesn't take 20/20 hindsight to say) is going to be operating in a reality distortion field, it is practically a requirement of the job. Such fields are good when you need to motivate people to do the otherwise impossible, but they can easily get out of hand, and often do. So, it really is no surprise that the guy continues to live in his own surreal world.
Strawman is right. But guess what, even though you thought the extremes in your strawman were completely impossible in the land of the free, you are wrong. Here's the proof you asked for:
Where are the telescreens?
FBI and CIA spyware in the forms of Magic Lantern,
Carnivore and
Echelon just for starters. Your computer may not be forced to be on all the time, but it sure is two-way and it sure is possible for it to be used to spy on you and probably is via carnivore every time you send or receive email.
The secret police everywhere?
The most obvious example of the increased powers of the secret police is the mendaciously named "USA PATRIOT Act" which has been criticized from the
right, the
left and just about every
otherleaning
as well.
The cameras that monitor my every move?
Tampa, Boston, Orlando, Washington DC are all places with
cameras
in public areas like sports arenas, streets and airports watching and recording everyone that passes in their field of view. Then there are the traffic cameras that have been installed all across the nation from DC to Hawaii. Plus, don't forget, big business's contribution to Big Brother's campaign - the survelliance camera which you can count on recording your every move inside (and out) of almost any corporate owned retail establishment. That one doesn't even need a link they are so ubiquitous.
So, you see see, even your vain attempt to set up a strawman does not do the problem justice. We are a nation of cowards who long ago sacrificied our liberties for a few ineffective promises of security - if anything the terrorist attack on 9/11 is proof of that. So what do we let our government do? Even more of the same ineffective, yet terribly stiffling, practices that hurt the common man and do so very little to prevent further attacks. Previously each sacrifice was just one small change, hardly anything to be concerned about, but since 9/11 in the degree of the slope has taken a huge curve downward.
P.S. If you think the class of politicians and lawyers are even close to being equal citizens of the state with the average Joe, you are the raving lunatic. Either that, or a member of the privilged elite yourself with a blind eye towards the real state of the nation. If you can't believe that, just take a look at the benefits of being a member of the ruling class in Washington - no mandatory social security - they have their own plan with better returns and more guarantees - they are exempt from the federal fair labor practices laws - they have (good!)health insurance for life as well as a huge pension for life, even after serving only one term. It's a nice gig if you can get it.
Yes, you too can be a part of turning our country into a Big Brother state. No longer the home of the brave and land of the free, America is now home of the sheeple and land of scared shitless.
Good luck. That dillweed hasn't even released Star Wars on DVD, much less hi-def. As far as I can tell, he is as much a part of the problem as all the other hollywood bigshots. It is going to take producers who are not in the current mainstream to catalyze the migration to hi-def.
The point of this bill is not to provide broadband content, it's to stop piracy.
Tell that to Eisner and his lackeys, tell it to the PR people from all the major studios. These people have all been saying that they are unable to release high resolution (not necessarily high quality) digital content unless their markets are assured through digital copy prevention measures. They constantly harp about there being no way they will release content in HDTV forum unless they have complete control over it.
This bill is all about content - that is the stick the megalocorps are using to beat it through congress (and the carrot is the trivially small sums of money they use to bribe our elected representativs). Without the explicit threat of withholding digital content, this bill would never have made it out of Fritz's office.
Now to go a bit further, that threat is a complete and utter fallacy and here's why - as long as the megalocorps are not producing hi-def content, the market is open for new competitors to move in and fill the market need. Once you get a couple of little guys making a profit by servicing the pent-up demand for hi-def content, sooner or later one of the big studios will break ranks and jump in with their own product. It will not be long after that before all of the megalocorps have caved and are producing hi-def content without any sort of hyper-intrusive legislation or technology.
It is merely a case of who blinks first and the longer we wait, the harder it is for them to keep from blinking.
That proxy machine or machines would make a great target for the script kiddies out there. Imagine if it were cracked open and reconfigured to return porn pictures for every tag proxied through it. Something like that would be such a great meta-hack.
So what happened to this guy? Did 9-11 take him out, or something before that? His web page hasn't been updated since late 2000. First he's talking about taking the course a third time in October and then nothing for almost a year and a half. Kinda spooky.
Lie. Dumb-down your resume. Your resume is a marketing tool, not an application for a security clearance. The reason they say you are over qualified is that they are afraid you will get bored with a menial job and take off as soon as you find something better. While probably true, you don't have to make it any easier for them to figure out.
When having a job is the difference between keeping food on the table and a roof over your head versus starving on the street, things like being totally honest and upfront don't matter as much anymore.
Unless you work in a very small market the chance of being blacklisted is minimal. There is little to no collusion between recruiters from different headhunting agencies. Also, turn over in such jobs is very high, especially during the dot-com years - this week's headhunter was last week's stripper. So it is hard for the kind of behind the scenes network that would enable blacklisting to ever get created in the first place.
I'm not saying blacklisting isn't possible, just that is highly unlikely. Without some direct evidence, like a borker at a new agency telling you that you are blacklisted, I would tend to blame the problem on other events like, say, the dot-bomb effect. Huge numbers of us lost gigs and struggled (and still struggle) to find anything. The market is saturated with talent, lots of it desperate. It is only those in the selective niches who are still able to command high (or in some cases only just decent) rates today.
Sadly lots of employers seem to prefer people with "sucker" stamped across their forehead.
Re:HAHA - What was he doing in 1991?
on
Andreesen "Grows Up"
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Yes it was his posting. The guy was a kid on the net back then, he wasn't worried about some future database cataloging all of his usenet postings to embarass him ten years later. Besides, he's probably not embarassed today either.
Except that the only kind of "fun" you are allowed to have on your "fun" computer is that which is sanctioned by the United States of Hollywood. Any homebrew developments with "fun" will be impossible. For an idea of the enormous and thriving homebrew world of entertainment on a PC, doing things that hollywood doesn't like (like scaling DVD video beyond 480p) see places like http://www.avsforum.com/ and the various htpc related discussions.
Cloud 9 is right - unemployment taxes are specifically taken out of your paycheck (and the employer's half too) until you reach a certain limit each year. You and your employer have been forced to put that money aside, there is nothing morally wrong, ESPECIALLY from a Libertarian point of view, with attempting to recoup as much of that money as possible.
Even independent consultants have to pay unemployment taxes, you can bet your patootie that I'm going to file for unemployment between gigs in order to get as much of those taxes back as I can.
Slashdot Mirror
So, does it rhyme with Lavoris?
Damn you bin Laden, you are every control freak's wet dream.
Swallowing colors of the sound I hear, am I just a crazy guy?
A little LSD should take care of that problem right off.
Anyone running a startup, especially a startup with slim chances (and that doesn't take 20/20 hindsight to say) is going to be operating in a reality distortion field, it is practically a requirement of the job. Such fields are good when you need to motivate people to do the otherwise impossible, but they can easily get out of hand, and often do. So, it really is no surprise that the guy continues to live in his own surreal world.
Don't underestimate the bandwidth of a VW Van filled with refrigerated test tubes.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I've even seen it. It is one whacked out movie, I tell you what.
Where are the telescreens?
FBI and CIA spyware in the forms of Magic Lantern, Carnivore and Echelon just for starters. Your computer may not be forced to be on all the time, but it sure is two-way and it sure is possible for it to be used to spy on you and probably is via carnivore every time you send or receive email.
The secret police everywhere? The most obvious example of the increased powers of the secret police is the mendaciously named "USA PATRIOT Act" which has been criticized from the right, the left and just about every other leaning as well.
The cameras that monitor my every move?
Tampa, Boston, Orlando, Washington DC are all places with cameras in public areas like sports arenas, streets and airports watching and recording everyone that passes in their field of view. Then there are the traffic cameras that have been installed all across the nation from DC to Hawaii. Plus, don't forget, big business's contribution to Big Brother's campaign - the survelliance camera which you can count on recording your every move inside (and out) of almost any corporate owned retail establishment. That one doesn't even need a link they are so ubiquitous.
So, you see see, even your vain attempt to set up a strawman does not do the problem justice. We are a nation of cowards who long ago sacrificied our liberties for a few ineffective promises of security - if anything the terrorist attack on 9/11 is proof of that. So what do we let our government do? Even more of the same ineffective, yet terribly stiffling, practices that hurt the common man and do so very little to prevent further attacks. Previously each sacrifice was just one small change, hardly anything to be concerned about, but since 9/11 in the degree of the slope has taken a huge curve downward.
P.S. If you think the class of politicians and lawyers are even close to being equal citizens of the state with the average Joe, you are the raving lunatic. Either that, or a member of the privilged elite yourself with a blind eye towards the real state of the nation. If you can't believe that, just take a look at the benefits of being a member of the ruling class in Washington - no mandatory social security - they have their own plan with better returns and more guarantees - they are exempt from the federal fair labor practices laws - they have (good!)health insurance for life as well as a huge pension for life, even after serving only one term. It's a nice gig if you can get it.
Yes, you too can be a part of turning our country into a Big Brother state. No longer the home of the brave and land of the free, America is now home of the sheeple and land of scared shitless.
Good luck. That dillweed hasn't even released Star Wars on DVD, much less hi-def. As far as I can tell, he is as much a part of the problem as all the other hollywood bigshots. It is going to take producers who are not in the current mainstream to catalyze the migration to hi-def.
Tell that to Eisner and his lackeys, tell it to the PR people from all the major studios. These people have all been saying that they are unable to release high resolution (not necessarily high quality) digital content unless their markets are assured through digital copy prevention measures. They constantly harp about there being no way they will release content in HDTV forum unless they have complete control over it.
This bill is all about content - that is the stick the megalocorps are using to beat it through congress (and the carrot is the trivially small sums of money they use to bribe our elected representativs). Without the explicit threat of withholding digital content, this bill would never have made it out of Fritz's office.
Now to go a bit further, that threat is a complete and utter fallacy and here's why - as long as the megalocorps are not producing hi-def content, the market is open for new competitors to move in and fill the market need. Once you get a couple of little guys making a profit by servicing the pent-up demand for hi-def content, sooner or later one of the big studios will break ranks and jump in with their own product. It will not be long after that before all of the megalocorps have caved and are producing hi-def content without any sort of hyper-intrusive legislation or technology.
It is merely a case of who blinks first and the longer we wait, the harder it is for them to keep from blinking.
Q: What's the difference between a used car salesman and a computer salesman?
A: The used car salesman knows when he is lying.
That proxy machine or machines would make a great target for the script kiddies out there. Imagine if it were cracked open and reconfigured to return porn pictures for every tag proxied through it. Something like that would be such a great meta-hack.
So what happened to this guy? Did 9-11 take him out, or something before that? His web page hasn't been updated since late 2000. First he's talking about taking the course a third time in October and then nothing for almost a year and a half. Kinda spooky.
Forget about mechanics. Just let us telnet into the engine and we can fix it ourselves.
Lie. Dumb-down your resume. Your resume is a marketing tool, not an application for a security clearance. The reason they say you are over qualified is that they are afraid you will get bored with a menial job and take off as soon as you find something better. While probably true, you don't have to make it any easier for them to figure out.
When having a job is the difference between keeping food on the table and a roof over your head versus starving on the street, things like being totally honest and upfront don't matter as much anymore.
http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_pop.htm
Unless you work in a very small market the chance of being blacklisted is minimal. There is little to no collusion between recruiters from different headhunting agencies. Also, turn over in such jobs is very high, especially during the dot-com years - this week's headhunter was last week's stripper. So it is hard for the kind of behind the scenes network that would enable blacklisting to ever get created in the first place.
I'm not saying blacklisting isn't possible, just that is highly unlikely. Without some direct evidence, like a borker at a new agency telling you that you are blacklisted, I would tend to blame the problem on other events like, say, the dot-bomb effect. Huge numbers of us lost gigs and struggled (and still struggle) to find anything. The market is saturated with talent, lots of it desperate. It is only those in the selective niches who are still able to command high (or in some cases only just decent) rates today.
No, salary is paid second. The IRS is ALWAYS first in line in a bankruptcy. The Man makes the laws, the Man gets what he wants.
Sadly lots of employers seem to prefer people with "sucker" stamped across their forehead.
Yes it was his posting. The guy was a kid on the net back then, he wasn't worried about some future database cataloging all of his usenet postings to embarass him ten years later. Besides, he's probably not embarassed today either.
Yeah, it was a much smaller net back then. Of course it was even smaller ten years before that...
Uh, the plural of mongoose is mongooses, not mongeese.
They spelled it wrong, it is Disneycrat. The party of the big mouse.
Except that the only kind of "fun" you are allowed to have on your "fun" computer is that which is sanctioned by the United States of Hollywood. Any homebrew developments with "fun" will be impossible. For an idea of the enormous and thriving homebrew world of entertainment on a PC, doing things that hollywood doesn't like (like scaling DVD video beyond 480p) see places like http://www.avsforum.com/ and the various htpc related discussions.
Cloud 9 is right - unemployment taxes are specifically taken out of your paycheck (and the employer's half too) until you reach a certain limit each year. You and your employer have been forced to put that money aside, there is nothing morally wrong, ESPECIALLY from a Libertarian point of view, with attempting to recoup as much of that money as possible.
Even independent consultants have to pay unemployment taxes, you can bet your patootie that I'm going to file for unemployment between gigs in order to get as much of those taxes back as I can.