I don't know about you, but my thumb print is all over my id cards. When ever someone asks to see my id I pull it out of my wallet without first putting gloves on. So now we get a id card with my thumb print on. Now all the theif needs is to finish the job is to lift the print, and put it on a false print. (See some recient stories on this, though I don't have the link)
Biometric sounds good, and is a part of security, but it is fairly easy to fake if you want to. (Want a retnia scan, just scan the victums retna and past a picture on your forehead. Blood sample, no problem, they sample comes from a bag, not the theif, gathered earlier, until we figgure out how to create DNA.) Note that implimentation is left to the user, but a good thief will have no problem getting his own copy of the biometric data.
That isn't to say biometric is useless. However the best security relys on something you carry (your id card), something you are (biometrics), and something you know (a pin, password, or passphrase). All 3 should be stored in a trusted location that uses security to aduit the machine wanting to identify someone before accepting data. (This security is not easy to impliment correctly! For example the machine must destroy itself before allowing someone to access data, which means that you have to renew your id every few years so the new machines know your id)
However how much do you really need. My credit card is just one of the above: the card I carry, or the number if I memorise it. They use insurance and legal action to make sure fraud isn't a problem for the end user. My ATM card worries me more because if someone gets both my card and my pin they can get my money, and it is up to me to prove that I didn't withdraw all my cash. Even though it is more secure, I prefer not to use it because there isn't the other protections against fraud.
Not only that, but mention it to their lawyers too!
Seriously, anyone who has taken psycology101 knows that the power we give police officers is not only easially abused, but humans tend to abuse that power. The public needs to be constantly aware of what the police are doing.
That isn't to say that all police are bad. Most are trying to do what is right, however the nature of their job (and the bad people they have to work with) makes going over the line too tempting.
Before you make your decision to go for the regular job, or on your own, do the following two things:
First of all, go to the library, and find where they have the books on starting a business, business plans, sales, and marketing. Get some of each, and plan to read them all in the next few weeks. Take advantage of inter library loan to get more books. While your at it, resume/job hunter books are in the same area, so get them too just in case. Skip TV and movies at home, read these books. Note which are good, and buy them.
Second, but at the same time, build your contacts. Go to church, most people at church would prefer to hire an honest Christian (jew/muslum/whatever you are) to whoever they know, take advantage of this. (Be careful though, church is for God, not advertiseing, but the socal hour is a great way to mention your business ideas in passing and get opinion, which you follow up on afterwards) Like to drink in a bar? All your drinking buddies have jobs, find out what their companies needs. Like to play sports, you teammates are contacts. Just mention that you are considering starting a comptuer company, and see what they come up with. Most will know nothing now, but one or two will come back in a couple weeks with some things their company needs improved, and you have a contact. You don't have to take it, but you have it.
Remember, the plan is important. However make sure that plan is woth it. I planed to be a millionare by 30, until I realized I didn't want to do the work (not nessicarly all honest) to do that. So get the plan right, it isn't to make a lot of money, it is to pay your bills first. Then it is to get some luxeries, but make sure there is time to enjoy the luxeries.
Good luck. I'm considering must the same thing as you are.
Uh, yes and no. You don't talk to small one man mechanics in a suit, you wonder in, and while talking up the benifits of your software, guide the transmission while he lowers the jack so it comes out faster. You will have much better luck if you can speak the language. (Warning, do not try this unless you actually know how to do it right. The salesmen that wonders in and helps do a task that should have two people can get a sale, but the salesmen that turns a $200 job into a $2000 job with one wrong move not only loses the sale, but all chance of others in the industry) In reality you will never touch a car when you talk to the mechanic, since it looks like you are pushy, and trying to take the job, you just need to have the ability.
Don't even look at a bank without your suit. Make sure when you go to a dry cleaners make sure you have it starches perfectly. When you mail to an envlople company spend as much effort on the envelope than you do on the rest of the presentation. You can wear jeans into most (but not all) computer companies, but the suit is better until you are sure. With some clients the suit will hurt you, with most you can't get by without.
That is not true. My brother, dad, and I all lost our jobs this past year, and our expirence is across the board. My Dad is an expert, 30 years expirence with computers and programing. My brother grew up on computers, but has no education to back it with. (they seemed to have loved him at his last job until they ran out of money) I have the Degree, and 5 years expirence (not much I know), I know something. None of us know it all.
If it is difficult to find someone good it is either because you aren't looking, or more likely you don't want good, you want someone who has put in a lot of time with your specific problem. Sort of like the Java programer ads I saw that wanted 5 years expirence within a year of Java being released. Or lastly, you are unwilling to pay the prices good workers demand, and unwilling to take those who will work for less to become good.
Mind you, finding someone who is good, and then knowing they are good is extreemly difficult. Nobody can get along with everyone, HR won't let bosses talk, and only the best references are choosen; so how to you know if someone is good or bad?
Yes it is unethical to claim to be more than you are. However a consultant with 0 years of expirence is still a consultant, and might be better than the consultant with 15 years. (Generaly 15 years means something, but some people have 1 year expirence repeated 15 times) With no expirence you are worth less money, and are not bogged down with the old way of doing things, either of which appeals to some people.
Be honest. Refuse the jobs you know you can't do well, and if you accept one you find out you can't do, hire someone else to help you, and eat a loss. (since you thought you could do it you ought to have made some progress so most likely you end up making $5/hr for the part you did)
Note, that word of mouth is the best reward is a two way street. When someone mentions they are looking for X, pull out the buisness cards of all your clients in X, and give them out. And tell your contact the next day you did so (if they are good salemen they will call right away to see if your friend is serious)
Referals are a two way street, if your customers find out that you don't refer people back to them when the opertunity comes up they will drop you (and perhaps activly refer others to your compitition). You can only contact a few people a day, and not all are interested in your business, but if you work for all your customers and suppliers they will work for you a little, and you contacts will go way up.
Eventially you hope to hire salesmen who do this, and love the doing the referal game, but even then you should refer when the oportunity comes up. Your pocketbook will thank you.
PS, always make sure your referals are to good companies. If you know one of your customers does cheap work, don't refer them except when cheap is the only consideration, and then make it clear that cost is the only reason to consider them. In general you should refer people to the best.
Before you work on your home's heating system make sure you insulation is up to date. A 90+ furnance will emit more polutants in a 100 year old leakly home and a 40% 1950's furnance in a house insulated to modern standards. (Well not quite, the 90+ will have more complete combustion, but there will be more fuel burned in any case) Modern windows and insulation are very good.
Before you buy a Hybrid car, consider a VW TDI, which is pretty good emmissions wise, and better for fuel consumption for long trips. For the short trips where the Hybrid shines you should get a bicycle. (With a trailer - see kid trailers, which work for shopping too) A SUV is nice to have when you need to haul people, but a van hauls more people in comfort, on less fuel (get a diesel), the times where you need the additional abilities of a SUV are times where you should stay home anyway.
You don't need air conditioning on most days. Learn to live with the heat as long as possible. Open the windows at night, close them (and the curtians) during the day.
It is best to start at home. Show people that they can live a better life by doing it yourself. Once you have done it to your house, tell your neighbors. Get them to follow in your footsteps because the bottom line pays off.
There is a lot of debate over enviormental issues. There are too many variables to come to conclusions (like the Earth's tempature is colder than normal right now if we read the fosile record correctly, so is global warming a problem or a normal cycle) with absolute certianly, either way. However even if everything the enviorments think turns out to be false, you will be better off not paying high fuel bills, and that is the worst case, while more likely you have done something useful instead of chancing your money on polititions.
Music lessions might be a good idea. Start with something like violin (Guitar, Mandolin, piano, flute, tuba), where you don't have to speak. It gets your ear and mind used to hearing sounds. Listen to your instructor play, and practice playing what he plays. Get a tape recorder and re-play your lessions. Once you are used to listening to people take voice lessions. I'm sure after 33 years of deafness you have trouble making yourself understood, and voice lessions are a good way to help. Many adults take voice lessions in music, so there is no embarressment in getting professional help, like there would be with a theropist. (If you won't be embarresed get the theropy now, music lessions is second to theropy, but easier to admit)
Most of all, the more your practice, the better you will be. If you discover you can't stand music, then music is worthless. However most people enjoy it, and many can turn that enjoyment into motivation to practice, which is really what I'm getting at.
I'm serious, start two years ago. In most states you can skip your last two years of high school to take college classes for NO COST!. I know several people who got their 2 year degree 2 weeks before they got their high school diploma. So for all your geeks looking over this early, see the consoler and DEMAND to get into this program. You have to be firm, schools lose money when you opt for this so they try to talk you out of it, but it is your future that you make better by ignoring them! That way when you finially get out on your own you only have to pay for 2 years of school instead of 4, and you have expirence. Likely you pay for 3 years because geeks tend to want a technical eduactaion, and you get a libral arts education, but that is ok. You will be dealing with libral arts people all your life (many of whom are smart anyway) so get used to it now.
For the rest, study the theory. Thats what I regret now, even though it is harder to study the theory, everything else changes. With the theory you can at least work out how things really work no matter how they change.
And who owns the mutual funds? You and I. (again not everyone, but most US people reading this own at least one). Most of the money in the US is in the hands of the middle class. If your mutual fund isn't doing their job of voting, there is a problem. John Bogle (founder of Vanguard, on of the largest fund coporations), in his book Common Sense on Mutual funds said that he is surprized how few funds vote against management. He strongly recomends that you put your money with funds that will watch management. (Of coures by which he means his company, unless you can change your own. Good book though, you should read it)
Only because the shareholders allow it, and guess who the share holders are: you and me. Do you vote your proxies? Most/. readers (at least in the US) own stock in some form, often in their 401k funds. Make sure you vote. In most of the proxies I've recived, from both funds and stocks I've found something that when I read closely was an attempt by management to screw me over. However because it was management, they recomended I vote for it, and many sheep just up and did that. It is amazing how few things that management requests gets voted down. Please, I know there are many share holders reading this, so make sure you vote. Your vote isn't much, but it counts.
I think that more than just coming back, most of these people want to come back with their memories and knowledge.
How would you like to be told all your life that you are geneticaly the same as J.P.Morgon? The banking world isn't the same, and the tricks he used to get rich won't work. Worse yet, everyone knows it, so they will be watching it. In the end people expect things from you that you can't deliver, and you end up middle class despite the great start in the previous life. (identical twins raised apart is probably a good place to start with guesses of what will happen, but only a start)
Depends on what you want to do. Online is better when you are at a computer (with net access) and know what you want to know about. Paper is better when you just want to learn something interesting. I have not yet found a good way to skim online documentation and when something catches my eye drill down deep. Scrolling doesn't seem to work that way for some reason. An index is worse, it doesn't tell you if something is useful, so you have to look, which means wait for page loading times. After a few misses you give up.
Both types have their place. I wouldn't want to be without my printer, even though I haven't turned it on in several weeks. There will never be a paperless office because when the problem gets really tough I print out everything, and then (as Fred Brooks said) take to the floor to figgure things out. Don't try to get rid of paper, use both paper and the computer to compliment each other.
No, if you are smart you will get spam. Stupid people obficate their email address before posting to USENET, and interesting people who they would want to contact them get frusterated and give up, and valuable communication is lost. Stupid people obficate their mailto: link on their webpage, and many people who want to contact them can't because their browser works slightly different, and valuable communication is lost.
Sure, you can be spam free. You can't use the internet correctly in these days though and be spam free. The internet is about communications.
No, that was not a pyramid scheme. A pyramid scheme requires you to get more people signed up under you. With friends and Family even if you were the last in the family/friend circle to sign up you got the better rates. A pyramid collappes as eventially there is nobody to sign up. Friends and family doesn't have to collapse, eventially everyone is saving money on the plan. A rather cool marketing scheme.
Mind you MCI wasn't always the best deal, and there are plenty of reasons to hate MCI. That scheme wasn't one (unless you got asked to switch and didn't want to).
Have you asked for the all american meal lately? Many items stay on the till for years without being sold. You might luck out and get someone who knows what it is. Alternativly, the all american meal is easially ordered as a "happy meal", and it comes with a toy. Most of the time the toy has cool little moving parts that geeks will enjoy playing with, trying to figgure out how it works, and how they would better it.
What nobody knows though is if error is good or bad. If Miller-Rabin says a number is prime, and you use it for an application that requires a prime number, the application will still work. At least that is true for all the applications I know of that require a prime number (Public Key Encryption), there are probably others.
I've speculated that the existance of non-primes that work is one of the things that makes public key encryption hard enough to be useful. I can't prove it though, and offer it only as an interesting (but likely wrong) point to consider.
Re:SpamCop does more harm than good.
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Meet the Spammers
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If a spammer is forging my domain name in a from header I want to know about it. They are forging my good name, and abusing my trademark. There are probably legal actions I can take. Next time you get a spam report that didn't go through you, contact a lawyer about suing this spammer for using your name fraudlantly. Please, for the sake of the rest of us.
No, fedral laws are laws that must be the same for all states. Uniform state laws are laws that it would be nice if they were the same in every state, but they don't need to be.
Note the difference. If it is fedral law it is the same. State laws allow for differences when either residents disagree, or there is a compelling difference between states.
I belive the fedral goverment has taken far too much power in the name of keeping things the same between states when in fact there is no need to keep the the same, it is just nice.
After some thought I realised that for old houses without modern insulation programable thermostats might make sense. On a modern house the difference between leaving the thermostat in a comfortable setting, and changing it (automaticly) isn't that much - it will take years to pay for a even a cheap thermostat.
My parents used to heat with wood, it didn't take long to learn that getting an old house up to 75 in the morning was enough that the house would still be comfortable most days when we got home. Most of your heat loss is and night.
Are you sure it is the thermostat and not the insulation? Modern houses that are well insulated need much less energy than old houses. I know people who spent $300/month in heating costs last winter. I spend about $30/month. (highest gas bill was $45 in winter, $12 last month) I don't have a programable thermostat, I have a well insulated house.
I always laugh at people complaining about the greedy oil companies making their heating bills so high, the problem isn't the oil company, it is the house, and a programable thermostat will not help them.
Yeah, that sounds good, but it doesn't work so great in practice. If it did I'd be in close to perfect health. I don't smoke, drink, in fact I avoid all drugs, and not easially stressed. About those drugs, that includes legal drugs (caffine, asprin) when I can. (I'm not stupid enough to not take those that will help a specific problem when I need it, but I avoid it when I can). I don't snake between my 3 healthy balanced meals. I exercise. I brush and floss regularly. I'm not perfect about any of the above mind you, but I do a fairly good job.
I'm not in perfect health though. My back is sore, my knees sometimes hurt. Once in a while my bad ankle twists. I have a couple moles to keep an eye on because they could be cancer. I've had my teeth filled. I have several other problems that frankly you aren't that interested in me anyway.
It is all a normal part of aging. People get older and their bodys degrade. I can still do everything I could when I was 20, but some of it hurts. Experience of others suggests that in a few years that won't be true, and some more years after that I will have to stop doing things I want to do.
Sure it would be nice if I had done something a few years ago for my knees and back, but both those problems are genetic, others in my family have similear problems. It would be nice if I didn't have a bad ankle, but how was I to know that I would twist it that one day? It is worse to not exercise than to not twist your ankle.
I don't need a wonderpill, I need something that will work. They could do a knee replacement, but the replacement only lasts a few years, and then they do it again. The second replacement has to last a lifetime though because today's technology won't allow a third. So lets see more research. Not all of it will pan out, but each problem solved leaves me with a working body part that I can use for other things.
I'm not saying prevention is a bad idea. I suspect I'm healthier than the average person my age. Prevention cannot solve the basic problem of normal wear and tear, but prevention is a excellent part of the solution.
Last I checked, most experts expect the population will start shrinking within 50 years. Briths are down, in many countries to below the replacement rate.
China has had a one child per family policy for years now. Enough for the 3rd generation to start thinking about kids. When the grandparents start dieing in a few years their population will implode (8 great grandparents for every kid, figgure it out) China sill has the largest population, though India isn't far behind.
Many "first world" countries are already shrinking before immigration.
Of course the counter argument is nobody knows what will happen. China is the only one who forces population control. If big families suddenly became fashionable things would change.
True, but like everything, the earths rotation is more complex. Every once in a while a storm get enough wind to speed things up. (And presumably the reverse happens too) Thats why the leap seconds don't happen with any pattern.
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I don't know about you, but my thumb print is all over my id cards. When ever someone asks to see my id I pull it out of my wallet without first putting gloves on. So now we get a id card with my thumb print on. Now all the theif needs is to finish the job is to lift the print, and put it on a false print. (See some recient stories on this, though I don't have the link)
Biometric sounds good, and is a part of security, but it is fairly easy to fake if you want to. (Want a retnia scan, just scan the victums retna and past a picture on your forehead. Blood sample, no problem, they sample comes from a bag, not the theif, gathered earlier, until we figgure out how to create DNA.) Note that implimentation is left to the user, but a good thief will have no problem getting his own copy of the biometric data.
That isn't to say biometric is useless. However the best security relys on something you carry (your id card), something you are (biometrics), and something you know (a pin, password, or passphrase). All 3 should be stored in a trusted location that uses security to aduit the machine wanting to identify someone before accepting data. (This security is not easy to impliment correctly! For example the machine must destroy itself before allowing someone to access data, which means that you have to renew your id every few years so the new machines know your id)
However how much do you really need. My credit card is just one of the above: the card I carry, or the number if I memorise it. They use insurance and legal action to make sure fraud isn't a problem for the end user. My ATM card worries me more because if someone gets both my card and my pin they can get my money, and it is up to me to prove that I didn't withdraw all my cash. Even though it is more secure, I prefer not to use it because there isn't the other protections against fraud.
Not only that, but mention it to their lawyers too!
Seriously, anyone who has taken psycology101 knows that the power we give police officers is not only easially abused, but humans tend to abuse that power. The public needs to be constantly aware of what the police are doing.
That isn't to say that all police are bad. Most are trying to do what is right, however the nature of their job (and the bad people they have to work with) makes going over the line too tempting.
Before you make your decision to go for the regular job, or on your own, do the following two things:
First of all, go to the library, and find where they have the books on starting a business, business plans, sales, and marketing. Get some of each, and plan to read them all in the next few weeks. Take advantage of inter library loan to get more books. While your at it, resume/job hunter books are in the same area, so get them too just in case. Skip TV and movies at home, read these books. Note which are good, and buy them.
Second, but at the same time, build your contacts. Go to church, most people at church would prefer to hire an honest Christian (jew/muslum/whatever you are) to whoever they know, take advantage of this. (Be careful though, church is for God, not advertiseing, but the socal hour is a great way to mention your business ideas in passing and get opinion, which you follow up on afterwards) Like to drink in a bar? All your drinking buddies have jobs, find out what their companies needs. Like to play sports, you teammates are contacts. Just mention that you are considering starting a comptuer company, and see what they come up with. Most will know nothing now, but one or two will come back in a couple weeks with some things their company needs improved, and you have a contact. You don't have to take it, but you have it.
Remember, the plan is important. However make sure that plan is woth it. I planed to be a millionare by 30, until I realized I didn't want to do the work (not nessicarly all honest) to do that. So get the plan right, it isn't to make a lot of money, it is to pay your bills first. Then it is to get some luxeries, but make sure there is time to enjoy the luxeries.
Good luck. I'm considering must the same thing as you are.
Uh, yes and no. You don't talk to small one man mechanics in a suit, you wonder in, and while talking up the benifits of your software, guide the transmission while he lowers the jack so it comes out faster. You will have much better luck if you can speak the language. (Warning, do not try this unless you actually know how to do it right. The salesmen that wonders in and helps do a task that should have two people can get a sale, but the salesmen that turns a $200 job into a $2000 job with one wrong move not only loses the sale, but all chance of others in the industry) In reality you will never touch a car when you talk to the mechanic, since it looks like you are pushy, and trying to take the job, you just need to have the ability.
Don't even look at a bank without your suit. Make sure when you go to a dry cleaners make sure you have it starches perfectly. When you mail to an envlople company spend as much effort on the envelope than you do on the rest of the presentation. You can wear jeans into most (but not all) computer companies, but the suit is better until you are sure. With some clients the suit will hurt you, with most you can't get by without.
That is not true. My brother, dad, and I all lost our jobs this past year, and our expirence is across the board. My Dad is an expert, 30 years expirence with computers and programing. My brother grew up on computers, but has no education to back it with. (they seemed to have loved him at his last job until they ran out of money) I have the Degree, and 5 years expirence (not much I know), I know something. None of us know it all.
If it is difficult to find someone good it is either because you aren't looking, or more likely you don't want good, you want someone who has put in a lot of time with your specific problem. Sort of like the Java programer ads I saw that wanted 5 years expirence within a year of Java being released. Or lastly, you are unwilling to pay the prices good workers demand, and unwilling to take those who will work for less to become good.
Mind you, finding someone who is good, and then knowing they are good is extreemly difficult. Nobody can get along with everyone, HR won't let bosses talk, and only the best references are choosen; so how to you know if someone is good or bad?
Yes it is unethical to claim to be more than you are. However a consultant with 0 years of expirence is still a consultant, and might be better than the consultant with 15 years. (Generaly 15 years means something, but some people have 1 year expirence repeated 15 times) With no expirence you are worth less money, and are not bogged down with the old way of doing things, either of which appeals to some people.
Be honest. Refuse the jobs you know you can't do well, and if you accept one you find out you can't do, hire someone else to help you, and eat a loss. (since you thought you could do it you ought to have made some progress so most likely you end up making $5/hr for the part you did)
Note, that word of mouth is the best reward is a two way street. When someone mentions they are looking for X, pull out the buisness cards of all your clients in X, and give them out. And tell your contact the next day you did so (if they are good salemen they will call right away to see if your friend is serious)
Referals are a two way street, if your customers find out that you don't refer people back to them when the opertunity comes up they will drop you (and perhaps activly refer others to your compitition). You can only contact a few people a day, and not all are interested in your business, but if you work for all your customers and suppliers they will work for you a little, and you contacts will go way up.
Eventially you hope to hire salesmen who do this, and love the doing the referal game, but even then you should refer when the oportunity comes up. Your pocketbook will thank you.
PS, always make sure your referals are to good companies. If you know one of your customers does cheap work, don't refer them except when cheap is the only consideration, and then make it clear that cost is the only reason to consider them. In general you should refer people to the best.
Before you work on your home's heating system make sure you insulation is up to date. A 90+ furnance will emit more polutants in a 100 year old leakly home and a 40% 1950's furnance in a house insulated to modern standards. (Well not quite, the 90+ will have more complete combustion, but there will be more fuel burned in any case) Modern windows and insulation are very good.
Before you buy a Hybrid car, consider a VW TDI, which is pretty good emmissions wise, and better for fuel consumption for long trips. For the short trips where the Hybrid shines you should get a bicycle. (With a trailer - see kid trailers, which work for shopping too) A SUV is nice to have when you need to haul people, but a van hauls more people in comfort, on less fuel (get a diesel), the times where you need the additional abilities of a SUV are times where you should stay home anyway.
You don't need air conditioning on most days. Learn to live with the heat as long as possible. Open the windows at night, close them (and the curtians) during the day.
It is best to start at home. Show people that they can live a better life by doing it yourself. Once you have done it to your house, tell your neighbors. Get them to follow in your footsteps because the bottom line pays off.
There is a lot of debate over enviormental issues. There are too many variables to come to conclusions (like the Earth's tempature is colder than normal right now if we read the fosile record correctly, so is global warming a problem or a normal cycle) with absolute certianly, either way. However even if everything the enviorments think turns out to be false, you will be better off not paying high fuel bills, and that is the worst case, while more likely you have done something useful instead of chancing your money on polititions.
Music lessions might be a good idea. Start with something like violin (Guitar, Mandolin, piano, flute, tuba), where you don't have to speak. It gets your ear and mind used to hearing sounds. Listen to your instructor play, and practice playing what he plays. Get a tape recorder and re-play your lessions. Once you are used to listening to people take voice lessions. I'm sure after 33 years of deafness you have trouble making yourself understood, and voice lessions are a good way to help. Many adults take voice lessions in music, so there is no embarressment in getting professional help, like there would be with a theropist. (If you won't be embarresed get the theropy now, music lessions is second to theropy, but easier to admit)
Most of all, the more your practice, the better you will be. If you discover you can't stand music, then music is worthless. However most people enjoy it, and many can turn that enjoyment into motivation to practice, which is really what I'm getting at.
I'm serious, start two years ago. In most states you can skip your last two years of high school to take college classes for NO COST!. I know several people who got their 2 year degree 2 weeks before they got their high school diploma. So for all your geeks looking over this early, see the consoler and DEMAND to get into this program. You have to be firm, schools lose money when you opt for this so they try to talk you out of it, but it is your future that you make better by ignoring them! That way when you finially get out on your own you only have to pay for 2 years of school instead of 4, and you have expirence. Likely you pay for 3 years because geeks tend to want a technical eduactaion, and you get a libral arts education, but that is ok. You will be dealing with libral arts people all your life (many of whom are smart anyway) so get used to it now.
For the rest, study the theory. Thats what I regret now, even though it is harder to study the theory, everything else changes. With the theory you can at least work out how things really work no matter how they change.
And who owns the mutual funds? You and I. (again not everyone, but most US people reading this own at least one). Most of the money in the US is in the hands of the middle class. If your mutual fund isn't doing their job of voting, there is a problem. John Bogle (founder of Vanguard, on of the largest fund coporations), in his book Common Sense on Mutual funds said that he is surprized how few funds vote against management. He strongly recomends that you put your money with funds that will watch management. (Of coures by which he means his company, unless you can change your own. Good book though, you should read it)
Only because the shareholders allow it, and guess who the share holders are: you and me. Do you vote your proxies? Most /. readers (at least in the US) own stock in some form, often in their 401k funds. Make sure you vote. In most of the proxies I've recived, from both funds and stocks I've found something that when I read closely was an attempt by management to screw me over. However because it was management, they recomended I vote for it, and many sheep just up and did that. It is amazing how few things that management requests gets voted down. Please, I know there are many share holders reading this, so make sure you vote. Your vote isn't much, but it counts.
I think that more than just coming back, most of these people want to come back with their memories and knowledge.
How would you like to be told all your life that you are geneticaly the same as J.P.Morgon? The banking world isn't the same, and the tricks he used to get rich won't work. Worse yet, everyone knows it, so they will be watching it. In the end people expect things from you that you can't deliver, and you end up middle class despite the great start in the previous life. (identical twins raised apart is probably a good place to start with guesses of what will happen, but only a start)
Depends on what you want to do. Online is better when you are at a computer (with net access) and know what you want to know about. Paper is better when you just want to learn something interesting. I have not yet found a good way to skim online documentation and when something catches my eye drill down deep. Scrolling doesn't seem to work that way for some reason. An index is worse, it doesn't tell you if something is useful, so you have to look, which means wait for page loading times. After a few misses you give up.
Both types have their place. I wouldn't want to be without my printer, even though I haven't turned it on in several weeks. There will never be a paperless office because when the problem gets really tough I print out everything, and then (as Fred Brooks said) take to the floor to figgure things out. Don't try to get rid of paper, use both paper and the computer to compliment each other.
If you are stupid, you will get spam.
No, if you are smart you will get spam. Stupid people obficate their email address before posting to USENET, and interesting people who they would want to contact them get frusterated and give up, and valuable communication is lost. Stupid people obficate their mailto: link on their webpage, and many people who want to contact them can't because their browser works slightly different, and valuable communication is lost.
Sure, you can be spam free. You can't use the internet correctly in these days though and be spam free. The internet is about communications.
No, that was not a pyramid scheme. A pyramid scheme requires you to get more people signed up under you. With friends and Family even if you were the last in the family/friend circle to sign up you got the better rates. A pyramid collappes as eventially there is nobody to sign up. Friends and family doesn't have to collapse, eventially everyone is saving money on the plan. A rather cool marketing scheme.
Mind you MCI wasn't always the best deal, and there are plenty of reasons to hate MCI. That scheme wasn't one (unless you got asked to switch and didn't want to).
Have you asked for the all american meal lately? Many items stay on the till for years without being sold. You might luck out and get someone who knows what it is. Alternativly, the all american meal is easially ordered as a "happy meal", and it comes with a toy. Most of the time the toy has cool little moving parts that geeks will enjoy playing with, trying to figgure out how it works, and how they would better it.
What nobody knows though is if error is good or bad. If Miller-Rabin says a number is prime, and you use it for an application that requires a prime number, the application will still work. At least that is true for all the applications I know of that require a prime number (Public Key Encryption), there are probably others.
I've speculated that the existance of non-primes that work is one of the things that makes public key encryption hard enough to be useful. I can't prove it though, and offer it only as an interesting (but likely wrong) point to consider.
If a spammer is forging my domain name in a from header I want to know about it. They are forging my good name, and abusing my trademark. There are probably legal actions I can take. Next time you get a spam report that didn't go through you, contact a lawyer about suing this spammer for using your name fraudlantly. Please, for the sake of the rest of us.
No, fedral laws are laws that must be the same for all states. Uniform state laws are laws that it would be nice if they were the same in every state, but they don't need to be.
Note the difference. If it is fedral law it is the same. State laws allow for differences when either residents disagree, or there is a compelling difference between states.
I belive the fedral goverment has taken far too much power in the name of keeping things the same between states when in fact there is no need to keep the the same, it is just nice.
After some thought I realised that for old houses without modern insulation programable thermostats might make sense. On a modern house the difference between leaving the thermostat in a comfortable setting, and changing it (automaticly) isn't that much - it will take years to pay for a even a cheap thermostat.
My parents used to heat with wood, it didn't take long to learn that getting an old house up to 75 in the morning was enough that the house would still be comfortable most days when we got home. Most of your heat loss is and night.
Are you sure it is the thermostat and not the insulation? Modern houses that are well insulated need much less energy than old houses. I know people who spent $300/month in heating costs last winter. I spend about $30/month. (highest gas bill was $45 in winter, $12 last month) I don't have a programable thermostat, I have a well insulated house. I always laugh at people complaining about the greedy oil companies making their heating bills so high, the problem isn't the oil company, it is the house, and a programable thermostat will not help them.
Yeah, that sounds good, but it doesn't work so great in practice. If it did I'd be in close to perfect health. I don't smoke, drink, in fact I avoid all drugs, and not easially stressed. About those drugs, that includes legal drugs (caffine, asprin) when I can. (I'm not stupid enough to not take those that will help a specific problem when I need it, but I avoid it when I can). I don't snake between my 3 healthy balanced meals. I exercise. I brush and floss regularly. I'm not perfect about any of the above mind you, but I do a fairly good job.
I'm not in perfect health though. My back is sore, my knees sometimes hurt. Once in a while my bad ankle twists. I have a couple moles to keep an eye on because they could be cancer. I've had my teeth filled. I have several other problems that frankly you aren't that interested in me anyway.
It is all a normal part of aging. People get older and their bodys degrade. I can still do everything I could when I was 20, but some of it hurts. Experience of others suggests that in a few years that won't be true, and some more years after that I will have to stop doing things I want to do.
Sure it would be nice if I had done something a few years ago for my knees and back, but both those problems are genetic, others in my family have similear problems. It would be nice if I didn't have a bad ankle, but how was I to know that I would twist it that one day? It is worse to not exercise than to not twist your ankle.
I don't need a wonderpill, I need something that will work. They could do a knee replacement, but the replacement only lasts a few years, and then they do it again. The second replacement has to last a lifetime though because today's technology won't allow a third. So lets see more research. Not all of it will pan out, but each problem solved leaves me with a working body part that I can use for other things.
I'm not saying prevention is a bad idea. I suspect I'm healthier than the average person my age. Prevention cannot solve the basic problem of normal wear and tear, but prevention is a excellent part of the solution.
Last I checked, most experts expect the population will start shrinking within 50 years. Briths are down, in many countries to below the replacement rate.
China has had a one child per family policy for years now. Enough for the 3rd generation to start thinking about kids. When the grandparents start dieing in a few years their population will implode (8 great grandparents for every kid, figgure it out) China sill has the largest population, though India isn't far behind.
Many "first world" countries are already shrinking before immigration.
Of course the counter argument is nobody knows what will happen. China is the only one who forces population control. If big families suddenly became fashionable things would change.
True, but like everything, the earths rotation is more complex. Every once in a while a storm get enough wind to speed things up. (And presumably the reverse happens too) Thats why the leap seconds don't happen with any pattern.
No you did not. You solved them in your mind, for you. There are enough people who disagree with your statement that you cannot get an agreement.