I'm a retired military communications officer who put 20 years into the Air Force. I retired two years ago. Also, I started out as an enlisted guy (4 years), so I've seen the view from the bottom, too.
There's a lot of opportunity, both personally and professionally, if you can stomach the military long enough to make it a career. The pay and perks are better as an officer, but even an enlisted career offers certain benefits if you make it to retirement:
1. Income at 50% (or more) of your base pay for the rest of your life.
2. The best medical plan in the world. It's free for you and your family while you serve, and goes up to $460 per year for your entire family once you retire. (I've seen plans that charged more than that for a single month.)
3. Lot's of opportunities for education. Granted the tech schools can be pretty primitive, but the military will pay up to 95% of your tuition for any college courses you take. If you're an officer, there are programs where they will send you to graduate school *and* pay you your full salary while you're there. (I did it. There's nothing better than getting paid to go to school.)
On the downside, you can be moved anywhere, any time, with or without your family. You have to follow dress and personal appearance rules, and be nice to people who outrank you regardless of your opinion of them.
(These are not all bad. See the world while it's still there. And many people would benefit from not having to make their own fashion choices, take regular baths, and lose a little arrogance.)
Yes, there are a lot of contractors. However, that only makes the few remaining military people who understand technology even more valuable, as they become essential to managing the contractors.
The military runs some of the largest networks in the world. Even if you don't plan to go 20 years, spending 4-8 years in that environment will set you up for whatever else you may want to do with your life.
Another advantage of having some military service is that you can qualify for Veteran's Preference if you want to apply for a civil service job. I'm currently a regional telecommunications manager in DHS. I made the "top 3" on the list for this job partly because of veteran's preference. Every position I've hired for has included a majority of veterans on the candidate list largely because of the extra points they get just for having served in the military.
Government is not the place to be if you want to invent warp drive, but there are opportunities around if you can resist the urge to lecture the scum that rise to the top what idiots they are and eventually live long enough to replace them.
There was a report on Marketplace (public radio show) this morning that raised an interesting issue related to the melting ice caps. Less ice will make it easier for oil companies to explore the Arctic for new oil sources.
Maybe all this global warming is just part of a plot by the energy industry to melt the ice caps so they can find more oil?
Ladyhawke, with Rutgar Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and a young Matthew Broderick (whose one-sided conversations with God were inspired) is my favorite all-time fantasy movie.
Ralph Bakshi's Wizards (which I think someone mentioned earlier) is still my favorite animated movie of all time. (Sorry, Disney.)
And Vincent Price's Dr. Phibes movies are the best old campy horror movies ever!
1. We'll understand more about how to slice information for the size of the real estate it's displayed on. You'll be able to receive content on everything from your 61" wide-screen TV down to your wristwatch, and the sites you'll visit will know which is which.
2. More of our lives will be stored and recorded on computers, both at home and on the Web. How we sort this out will define how much privacy we have in the future. If we allow corporations or the government to give us an easy, convenient (or invisible) way of storing our preferences and historical files on their servers, we will sacrifice a significant amount of privacy. If we want privacy, we'll need to find a way (and a will) to store and protect our personal data on our personal computers and still have it accessable remotely for use.
3. We will be forced to have a "digital identity" to participate in the mainstream cyberworld in much the same way that you need a picture ID to buy beer. There will still be places that will allow anonymity, but commercial and other "official" transactions will increasingly require something like PKI based on common standards. Of course, dependency on this raises the spectre of identity theft (or erasure) at a level never seen to date, so we must ensure that we still have "human" ways of verifying who we are.
4. Either:
a. Microsoft will have taken over the Internet and are our bases will belong to them, or...
b. Microsoft will have been made obsolete by open standards and formats.
Unfortunately, since the cells contain methanol, they would probably be banned from airplanes for security reasons. So much for flying with your laptop.
I remember some very vivid descriptions in the Gil Hamilton stories about organ bootleggers, a.k.a. organleggers. Now we seem close to a point where if we need a new organ we can grow a clone to provide it instead of kidnapping someone and stealing their organs, providing someone more enlightened than the U.S. House of Representatives has some say in the matter.
What do you think about the current debate over the ethics and morality of cloning?
My question for Barry:
How can we reconcile our belief in a personal right to privacy and anonymity online with the natural desire to tag and bag the scum-sucking weasel spammers who use that same anonymity to hide from the righteous beatings they so richly deserve?
I haven't had any trouble with the two pieces of Sony gear (a CD player and a DVD player, both 5-disc platters) in the last 3 years. My problems have been with an RCA DVD (died 18 months after purchase, non-reparable) and a Panasonic VHS VCR (piece of crap).
So much for anti-theft technology. I just paid a visit to the Anti-Theft home page, which promptly tried to pop up an ad. Popup Stopper killed it dead. If they're using their own technology, it's not working. Maybe it's just another brand of Internet snake-oil for gullible Web site owners?
(Who are already suckers for believing that popup ads actually sell anything in the first place.)
I've been lurking for a bit and watching the discussion. Perhaps some of you could tell me what the MS DDNS means for the following implementation:
We're currently installing an Oracle workflow system that relies on LDAP to grab user information from our e-mail server to populate the workflow system directory. The Oracle system is hosted on a Unix box, but most of the user information comes from our e-mail servers, which are all MS Exchange. We also use NetWare.
If the directory services in Win2k are all one-way into the MS directory and we migrate to Win2k, will it prevent our Oracle WF system from pulling user data from the DDNS to populate its own LDAP directory?
Thanks in advance. And if I've phrased the question incorrectly (or cluelessly), please give me a clue.
(Pulling on reflective armor and awaiting response to my first-ever Slashdot post!)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a retired military communications officer who put 20 years into the Air Force. I retired two years ago. Also, I started out as an enlisted guy (4 years), so I've seen the view from the bottom, too.
There's a lot of opportunity, both personally and professionally, if you can stomach the military long enough to make it a career. The pay and perks are better as an officer, but even an enlisted career offers certain benefits if you make it to retirement:
1. Income at 50% (or more) of your base pay for the rest of your life.
2. The best medical plan in the world. It's free for you and your family while you serve, and goes up to $460 per year for your entire family once you retire. (I've seen plans that charged more than that for a single month.)
3. Lot's of opportunities for education. Granted the tech schools can be pretty primitive, but the military will pay up to 95% of your tuition for any college courses you take. If you're an officer, there are programs where they will send you to graduate school *and* pay you your full salary while you're there. (I did it. There's nothing better than getting paid to go to school.)
On the downside, you can be moved anywhere, any time, with or without your family. You have to follow dress and personal appearance rules, and be nice to people who outrank you regardless of your opinion of them.
(These are not all bad. See the world while it's still there. And many people would benefit from not having to make their own fashion choices, take regular baths, and lose a little arrogance.)
Yes, there are a lot of contractors. However, that only makes the few remaining military people who understand technology even more valuable, as they become essential to managing the contractors.
The military runs some of the largest networks in the world. Even if you don't plan to go 20 years, spending 4-8 years in that environment will set you up for whatever else you may want to do with your life.
Another advantage of having some military service is that you can qualify for Veteran's Preference if you want to apply for a civil service job. I'm currently a regional telecommunications manager in DHS. I made the "top 3" on the list for this job partly because of veteran's preference. Every position I've hired for has included a majority of veterans on the candidate list largely because of the extra points they get just for having served in the military.
Government is not the place to be if you want to invent warp drive, but there are opportunities around if you can resist the urge to lecture the scum that rise to the top what idiots they are and eventually live long enough to replace them.
There was a report on Marketplace (public radio show) this morning that raised an interesting issue related to the melting ice caps. Less ice will make it easier for oil companies to explore the Arctic for new oil sources.
Maybe all this global warming is just part of a plot by the energy industry to melt the ice caps so they can find more oil?
Ladyhawke, with Rutgar Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and a young Matthew Broderick (whose one-sided conversations with God were inspired) is my favorite all-time fantasy movie.
Ralph Bakshi's Wizards (which I think someone mentioned earlier) is still my favorite animated movie of all time. (Sorry, Disney.)
And Vincent Price's Dr. Phibes movies are the best old campy horror movies ever!
1. We'll understand more about how to slice information for the size of the real estate it's displayed on. You'll be able to receive content on everything from your 61" wide-screen TV down to your wristwatch, and the sites you'll visit will know which is which.
2. More of our lives will be stored and recorded on computers, both at home and on the Web. How we sort this out will define how much privacy we have in the future. If we allow corporations or the government to give us an easy, convenient (or invisible) way of storing our preferences and historical files on their servers, we will sacrifice a significant amount of privacy. If we want privacy, we'll need to find a way (and a will) to store and protect our personal data on our personal computers and still have it accessable remotely for use.
3. We will be forced to have a "digital identity" to participate in the mainstream cyberworld in much the same way that you need a picture ID to buy beer. There will still be places that will allow anonymity, but commercial and other "official" transactions will increasingly require something like PKI based on common standards. Of course, dependency on this raises the spectre of identity theft (or erasure) at a level never seen to date, so we must ensure that we still have "human" ways of verifying who we are.
4. Either:
a. Microsoft will have taken over the Internet and are our bases will belong to them, or...
b. Microsoft will have been made obsolete by open standards and formats.
Pick one. I know my preference.
Unfortunately, since the cells contain methanol, they would probably be banned from airplanes for security reasons. So much for flying with your laptop.
I remember some very vivid descriptions in the Gil Hamilton stories about organ bootleggers, a.k.a. organleggers. Now we seem close to a point where if we need a new organ we can grow a clone to provide it instead of kidnapping someone and stealing their organs, providing someone more enlightened than the U.S. House of Representatives has some say in the matter. What do you think about the current debate over the ethics and morality of cloning?
My question for Barry: How can we reconcile our belief in a personal right to privacy and anonymity online with the natural desire to tag and bag the scum-sucking weasel spammers who use that same anonymity to hide from the righteous beatings they so richly deserve?
I haven't had any trouble with the two pieces of Sony gear (a CD player and a DVD player, both 5-disc platters) in the last 3 years. My problems have been with an RCA DVD (died 18 months after purchase, non-reparable) and a Panasonic VHS VCR (piece of crap).
So much for anti-theft technology. I just paid a visit to the Anti-Theft home page, which promptly tried to pop up an ad. Popup Stopper killed it dead. If they're using their own technology, it's not working. Maybe it's just another brand of Internet snake-oil for gullible Web site owners?
(Who are already suckers for believing that popup ads actually sell anything in the first place.)
I've been lurking for a bit and watching the discussion. Perhaps some of you could tell me what the MS DDNS means for the following implementation:
We're currently installing an Oracle workflow system that relies on LDAP to grab user information from our e-mail server to populate the workflow system directory. The Oracle system is hosted on a Unix box, but most of the user information comes from our e-mail servers, which are all MS Exchange. We also use NetWare.
If the directory services in Win2k are all one-way into the MS directory and we migrate to Win2k, will it prevent our Oracle WF system from pulling user data from the DDNS to populate its own LDAP directory?
Thanks in advance. And if I've phrased the question incorrectly (or cluelessly), please give me a clue.
(Pulling on reflective armor and awaiting response to my first-ever Slashdot post!)