Re:You need to clarify your question
on
Ethics In IT
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
This is why I now refuse to do work for public companies (I am self-employed). Once a company becomes a public entity, all motives except the profit motive go by the wayside. Employees and suppliers become numbers on a balance sheet.
Private companies, on the other hand, are free to have other motives in addition to profit such as providing employment etc. In my experience, private companies are much more likely to actually give a shit about their employees and suppliers. Of course there are private companies out there that are purely profit motivated, but it's not all of them.
I don't think this has a cat in hell's chance to take off in the USA - I think the biggest problem for small/electric/economy cars in the US is the deeply-ingrained public perception that they are unsafe/crap/effeminate.
However, I could certainly see this being a useful addition to a household as a second or commuter car. For example, in our household, my gf drives 30 or so miles each way to work every day on the freeway and likes to have decent size car for that (not an SUV, btw, just a car). I work from home and do maybe a total of 10-20 miles a day running errands and driving to the golf course and back - something like this car could work quite well in that situation.
Having said that, what I really want is one of these
[courtesy of bash.org] #104052 +(9700)- [X] <NES> lol <NES> I download something from Napster <NES> And the same guy I downloaded it from starts downloading it from me when I'm done <NES> I message him and say "What are you doing? I just got that from you" <NES> "getting my song back fucker"
It may technically create more traffic, but it's *not all at the same time*, so it tends to spread the traffic out during the day. I work from home and I do run errands during the day, but never at rush hour.
Durable - it needs to be able to withstand small nuclear explosions and/or an Irish Wedding. My cellphone is my ONLY phone, for both business and personal calls Bluetooth - When I'm working and am using both hands to type etc, I need to be able to use a wireless BT earpiece Internal Antenna - Don't want that antenna catching on my pocket when I'm trying to answer a call Quad-band GSM - I need to be able to use my phone world-wide, so no crippled, USA only CDMA crap, please
Things I like in a phone:
Flip-phone style, with external display Smallish size, but this is no biggie
Things I don't need/Hate:
Camera Music Games Internet Goofy colors (yes, that includes fake-metal silver paint that wears off after 10 minutes) Goofy keypad styles
It seems that there are a decreasing number of phones that fit the bill for me... most of the new phones coming out seem to be focusing on goofy features rather than making a better, more durable phone. I understand why the manufacturers do this, but I wish they would put out more basic phones - although a lot of the basic phones that are out now omit the Bluetooth:/
Distance from work is not the only factor. I have lived on both sides of the Atlantic, and most Americans don't even THINK about walking as an option, even when it's a sensible one. It seriously doesn't occur to most of them as a method of getting from A to B.
I used to have a long commute in the UK (63 miles each way) and I STILL walked more than any of my US co-workers ever did. I used to walk out to lunch, even when it was raining; walk to the pub in the evening; walk to and use public transport on weekends etc.
These days I work from home and I have to CREATE opportunities to walk somewhere, and I do; I walk every day. This is why I got a dog:)
Yeah, debit cards are a different animal. I've never come across a retailer that actually stored the PIN in transaction data, although it certainly sounds like there are some out there.
Most of the retailers I work with use pinpad terminals that have firmware encryption built in - the PIN is only ever sent to the debit provider in encrypted form and never leaves the hardware device as unencrpyted data. The PIN never makes it into the POS system transaction data at all - just the card info (number/expiration date) and the approval code. I guess I wrongly assumed that ALL providers would be somewhat sensible and do this. I guess not.
I hate to tell you this, but the store has saved your credit card information almost EVERY TIME you have ever used a credit card in a retail store in recent years. The reason? They HAVE to, otherwise they would never get paid.
What happens is this: at the end of the day, the store (often from the store, but sometimes it's done from the corporate office) and the credit provider perform a process called Settlement, where they compare a log of the credit card transactions for the day. The retailer does not get paid for the credit card sales until the transactions are reconciled.
If the retailer and the credit provider are smart, the data is held and transmitted using encryption, but I know for a fact that this is not always so - I write Point Of Sale/credit authorization systems for a living.
My problem is not so much pants or jeans, but shirts. Dress shirts that are big enough around the neck and shoulders for me are made for fat guys and fit me like a small tent. I've taken to wearing athletic clothes because I can get stretchy t-shirts that fit better than anything else. Thankfully I work from home, so there is no dress code, but dressing up for a date or a client meeting is still problematical.
I've known people (humanities) who had a telecommuting job, and they dressed up in work clothes before walking across the hall to their office. It was part of the whole mental-prep to do work. Personally, I think it has some effect. I used to seem to get underway in the lab faster when wearing my lab-coat.
I think it's important to do *something* to get into a work frame of mind when you work from home. I do it not by clothes but by making coffee. Seriously, that's what puts me into work-mode in a morning.
What do you think is going to happen if you go into photography? You'll end up fetching coffee in a studio for five years with promises of one day actually being allowed to take a photograph.
I started my own consulting/programming business after I was laid off from my last job.
I plan on never having another "real" job again. I don't do much in the way of long-term contract work - most of my work is on a freelance basis out of an office in my house.
Things I love: - My 15ft commute - Better coffee - The dress code (camo shorts and a "Parental Advisory: Atheist" t-shirt) - I get to play waaay more golf - All sorts of cool techy toys now become tax-deductible - The boss actually gives a sh*t about the employee
Things I'm not so keen on: - You have to make an *effort* to interact with other carbon based lifeforms. This is important. - A certain amount of uncertainty over the regularity of income. Keep a savings buffer! - Trying to explain what I do to women in bars
Things my friends point out: - "But you have no job security"... Answer: "Neither do you:P"
concentrate on making the cars it already has work properly first. I've never seen such shoddy workmanship as I have on GM dealer lots these days. They're starting to make Kias seem like good quality.
Oh, and then they could do with maybe making them look a little less like Ass.
Retailers are *requiring* Chip and Pin support from all vendors these days (particularly in Europe), since the credit card companies (and governments) are making it so that the CC company is only responsible for fraud prevention when C&P is used on a transaction - if the mag stripe is used, the RETAILER bears all fraud risk.
It will soon become very difficult to sell a POS system that only supports mag stripe reading for credit cards.
As an English expatriate living in the US (Arizona, to be precise), here's my take:
1. Yes, a lot of American food is truly awful, and fattening - but like anywhere, if you seek it out, wonderful, healthy food can be found.
2. I agree - On the whole I find most American women to be either a) overweight and sow-like breeders or b) fake tits, fake teeth, fake personality.
Like the food, there are gems out there, though - they're just hard to find (and most of the good ones are taken).
3. I've travelled to large parts of the US (34 states now, I think) and large parts of it have *horrible* weather - too cold and snowy in winter, too hot and sticky in summer. I do, however, like the weather here in AZ, largely because of the lack of humidity.
4. It's odd, I've never had much of a problem with immigration people - and never had a wait longer than an hour (this is over the course of 15 years going back and forth).
Slashdot Mirror
This is why I now refuse to do work for public companies (I am self-employed). Once a company becomes a public entity, all motives except the profit motive go by the wayside. Employees and suppliers become numbers on a balance sheet.
Private companies, on the other hand, are free to have other motives in addition to profit such as providing employment etc. In my experience, private companies are much more likely to actually give a shit about their employees and suppliers. Of course there are private companies out there that are purely profit motivated, but it's not all of them.
...While Vista is indexing. :/
I think those people are nuts to begin with, religion just gives them an excuse for their nuttiness.
At least it's not Vogon Poetry...
I don't think this has a cat in hell's chance to take off in the USA - I think the biggest problem for small/electric/economy cars in the US is the deeply-ingrained public perception that they are unsafe/crap/effeminate.
However, I could certainly see this being a useful addition to a household as a second or commuter car. For example, in our household, my gf drives 30 or so miles each way to work every day on the freeway and likes to have decent size car for that (not an SUV, btw, just a car). I work from home and do maybe a total of 10-20 miles a day running errands and driving to the golf course and back - something like this car could work quite well in that situation.
Having said that, what I really want is one of these
Yeah, kinda like:
[courtesy of bash.org]
#104052 +(9700)- [X]
<NES> lol
<NES> I download something from Napster
<NES> And the same guy I downloaded it from starts downloading it from me when I'm done
<NES> I message him and say "What are you doing? I just got that from you"
<NES> "getting my song back fucker"
It may technically create more traffic, but it's *not all at the same time*, so it tends to spread the traffic out during the day. I work from home and I do run errands during the day, but never at rush hour.
Almost. The RAZR has a camera, which means I can't take it into some of the jobsites I work at, where camera-phones are prohibited.
Also, from friends I know that have the RAZR, it's not very durable - the hinges get sloppy very quickly. It also fails the "goofy keypad" test.
Things I need in a phone:
:/
Durable - it needs to be able to withstand small nuclear explosions and/or an Irish Wedding. My cellphone is my ONLY phone, for both business and personal calls
Bluetooth - When I'm working and am using both hands to type etc, I need to be able to use a wireless BT earpiece
Internal Antenna - Don't want that antenna catching on my pocket when I'm trying to answer a call
Quad-band GSM - I need to be able to use my phone world-wide, so no crippled, USA only CDMA crap, please
Things I like in a phone:
Flip-phone style, with external display
Smallish size, but this is no biggie
Things I don't need/Hate:
Camera
Music
Games
Internet
Goofy colors (yes, that includes fake-metal silver paint that wears off after 10 minutes)
Goofy keypad styles
It seems that there are a decreasing number of phones that fit the bill for me... most of the new phones coming out seem to be focusing on goofy features rather than making a better, more durable phone. I understand why the manufacturers do this, but I wish they would put out more basic phones - although a lot of the basic phones that are out now omit the Bluetooth
"Mom's Basement of Starcraft", to better appeal to the target demographic...
Distance from work is not the only factor. I have lived on both sides of the Atlantic, and most Americans don't even THINK about walking as an option, even when it's a sensible one. It seriously doesn't occur to most of them as a method of getting from A to B.
:)
I used to have a long commute in the UK (63 miles each way) and I STILL walked more than any of my US co-workers ever did. I used to walk out to lunch, even when it was raining; walk to the pub in the evening; walk to and use public transport on weekends etc.
These days I work from home and I have to CREATE opportunities to walk somewhere, and I do; I walk every day. This is why I got a dog
Yeah, debit cards are a different animal. I've never come across a retailer that actually stored the PIN in transaction data, although it certainly sounds like there are some out there. Most of the retailers I work with use pinpad terminals that have firmware encryption built in - the PIN is only ever sent to the debit provider in encrypted form and never leaves the hardware device as unencrpyted data. The PIN never makes it into the POS system transaction data at all - just the card info (number/expiration date) and the approval code. I guess I wrongly assumed that ALL providers would be somewhat sensible and do this. I guess not.
I hate to tell you this, but the store has saved your credit card information almost EVERY TIME you have ever used a credit card in a retail store in recent years. The reason? They HAVE to, otherwise they would never get paid.
What happens is this: at the end of the day, the store (often from the store, but sometimes it's done from the corporate office) and the credit provider perform a process called Settlement, where they compare a log of the credit card transactions for the day. The retailer does not get paid for the credit card sales until the transactions are reconciled.
If the retailer and the credit provider are smart, the data is held and transmitted using encryption, but I know for a fact that this is not always so - I write Point Of Sale/credit authorization systems for a living.
Where did you find one of those wife things? I've been looking and I found some by mail order, but the shipping costs are exorbitant. :/
...when I misread the post as "In the last reality show on British TV". Now I have realised my mistake and am depressed.
I'm in a similar boat to you, although for different reasons:
Chest: 48", waist: 34", inseam: 31", shirt collar: 18"
My problem is not so much pants or jeans, but shirts. Dress shirts that are big enough around the neck and shoulders for me are made for fat guys and fit me like a small tent. I've taken to wearing athletic clothes because I can get stretchy t-shirts that fit better than anything else. Thankfully I work from home, so there is no dress code, but dressing up for a date or a client meeting is still problematical.
What do you think is going to happen if you go into photography? You'll end up fetching coffee in a studio for five years with promises of one day actually being allowed to take a photograph.
I don't think it's that sensational really, is it? 100% of the people who drink decaf will, in fact, die.
"You pay more taxes"... more taxes? - I find I pay significantly less taxes since starting my own business, since so much more is tax deductible.
I started my own consulting/programming business after I was laid off from my last job.
:P"
I plan on never having another "real" job again. I don't do much in the way of long-term contract work - most of my work is on a freelance basis out of an office in my house.
Things I love:
- My 15ft commute
- Better coffee
- The dress code (camo shorts and a "Parental Advisory: Atheist" t-shirt)
- I get to play waaay more golf
- All sorts of cool techy toys now become tax-deductible
- The boss actually gives a sh*t about the employee
Things I'm not so keen on:
- You have to make an *effort* to interact with other carbon based lifeforms. This is important.
- A certain amount of uncertainty over the regularity of income. Keep a savings buffer!
- Trying to explain what I do to women in bars
Things my friends point out:
- "But you have no job security"... Answer: "Neither do you
concentrate on making the cars it already has work properly first. I've never seen such shoddy workmanship as I have on GM dealer lots these days. They're starting to make Kias seem like good quality.
Oh, and then they could do with maybe making them look a little less like Ass.
Retailers are *requiring* Chip and Pin support from all vendors these days (particularly in Europe), since the credit card companies (and governments) are making it so that the CC company is only responsible for fraud prevention when C&P is used on a transaction - if the mag stripe is used, the RETAILER bears all fraud risk.
It will soon become very difficult to sell a POS system that only supports mag stripe reading for credit cards.
As an English expatriate living in the US (Arizona, to be precise), here's my take:
1. Yes, a lot of American food is truly awful, and fattening - but like anywhere, if you seek it out, wonderful, healthy food can be found.
2. I agree - On the whole I find most American women to be either a) overweight and sow-like breeders or b) fake tits, fake teeth, fake personality.
Like the food, there are gems out there, though - they're just hard to find (and most of the good ones are taken).
3. I've travelled to large parts of the US (34 states now, I think) and large parts of it have *horrible* weather - too cold and snowy in winter, too hot and sticky in summer. I do, however, like the weather here in AZ, largely because of the lack of humidity.
4. It's odd, I've never had much of a problem with immigration people - and never had a wait longer than an hour (this is over the course of 15 years going back and forth).
Steve in AZ