And in some way, that sort of undercuts the american system of arguing vehemently in one context and then working (or fighting) side by side at other times.
Computers have made this data much more "mine-able" than it used to be.
While I'm for gay marriage (tho not a right to a gay catholic marriage or a gay "X" marriage of a religion that opposes gay marriage), i see that the petition signature is almost like a vote.
Besides, how would gay senators sign these petitions if they couldn't be anonymous?;-)
I trust microsoft to scam, try to build monopolies, try to kill opposing software - even if it is better, try to steal opposing software, lie under oath in court. I trust these things implicitly.
I also trust that they have good support*, their products work well enough (but are overpriced unless you are getting a deal through your company). *sometimes you have to agree to pay the support fee but when you do, all the stops come out- they had 5 people on the line including a couple deep level developers to solve my problem- I was very impressed- and in the end they didn't even charge me the fee.
Google... I didn't really trust to begin with.. well I trusted them to betray their stated identity... which they did very quickly. I trust them to discriminate against people over 40. I trust them to release a lot of fairly nice free tools with zero support.
Apple, I trust to build a closed hardware system that works awesomely well but which may arbitrarily deny me software they don't like.
I trust all corporations to use employees as batteries, dump costs off to the state, export jobs to the lowest areas while trying to continue selling to more expensive areas and paying executives premium dollars (they never export the executive jobs to those indian executives making $500k and doing just as good a job as the multi billion dollar american ceos).
Businesses coordinate too well and in many cases it's illegal (both at the "small" and "large" government levels).
Labor has lost tons of power.
Don't get me wrong- I don't want to live in france (and I think the french are getting a bit tired of the strikes over the last few years).
There is a glut of labor. You quit, you may not work again. Without a social net that means eventually you are that married couple robbing people at walmart last week. Then we all get to spend $30,000 a year supporting you. That's clearly not going to fly either so I think prison is going to get pretty miserable as funding dries up.
AC said this: I had recently started at & was on my 1st on-call week for a major.com when I started feeling sick. I'd be DAMNED if I was going to call in sick 3 days into my 1st on-call so just tried to gut it out (pun pending). by Wed I finally called my Dr who basically said: you have APPENDICITIS, you F-tard! drop what you're doing & get to the nearest ER _NOW_!!!. after they took it out the surgeon told me it had "perforated" (analogous to running over nail vs having blow-out) & that I was lucky I didn't have peritonitis/wasn't looking at a much longer recovery or worse. I'm pretty sure they don't name buildings after or make holidays in memory of people who (literally) get themselves killed for their jobs...
---
Notice- he almost died young for a company that probably no longer exists. Don't give your loyalty or love to a company. ANY given day, your manager, (and their managers) can change and the company you knew is gone. Everyone upstairs walks out with tons of money and you get laid off as a cost cutting measure.
No, without the presence of a large government, the businesses run hog-wild over labor and reduce them to a status just above slavery.
I'm a former libertarian. I read and was propagandized by the hienlien's magical sf libertarian worlds and it took me years to realize reality doesn't work the way he asserted it does. As soon as people get power, most abuse it, they abuse as often as they can and as much as they can.
The only thing that keeps them in check is a government strong enough and willing enough to punish them.
When I went to college, rates had gone up and it cost me $1500 a semester for a full load. This was about 20 years ago. College rates have gone up insanely fast compared to everything else except medical care.
I graduated college debt free. without student loans. I didn't have to do any of that crap because college used to be affordable. It's not any more.
I read about students graduating with $50k, $100k, and even $550k in debt and it makes me really sad for the kids today.
If you have a health problem, you are free to work or die.
If you don't come from a wealthy family who can support you in hard times, you are free to work or starve on the streets.
"Choice. The problem is choice." Neo
When the program later known as the Oracle aided the Matrix by adding to its programming the power of choice, human minds connected to the Matrix were not only able to accept the artificial reality as their only reality, but feel enabled to make decisions that affected palpable changes in their existence, even if the minds were only vaguely aware of their options. (Matrix Wiki)
Every system collapses on its own waste. Capitalism is a system that contains the seeds of Oligarchy and Facism. It's impossible to keep them from growing over time and eventually, as with the matrix, there must be a revolution to reboot the system. To remove the 99.999% of wealth from the.1% of the population who are letting everyone else starve. Because anyone who gains an edge, can build on that edge until they have a complete lock on their position, including passing it to their children, eventually a tiny group of society comes to have most of the wealth and power.
Communism starts out as a nice dream of fairness and eventually turns into a dictatorship. Because no one in the center is smart enough to determine the needs of the many, it is increasingly inefficient.
There is a LOT of propoganda around capitalism in america. the basic idea of capitalism is sound (if hot dogs are $3.25 here and $6.25 two blocks away- somehow those prices are going to arbitrage. Either people will start going to the $3.25 hot dog place or people will start carrying the $3.25 hot dogs to the $6.25 place).
But then, in our system, the $6.25 hot dog place has laws passed which prevent the $3.25 hot dogs from being sold or carried to the $6.25 place. Then that extra money is used to further prevent the $3.25 hot dogs from being sold within 20 blocks of the $6.25 hot dog's "exclusive" territory. And so on.
And for the same reason, no other Matrix movies will be made. Only the creators could make other Matrix movies, and fortunately they realized they couldn't do a decent job and just stopped at #1.
All you have to do is spend less than you make consistently.
I make about 60k after all taxes are taken out. I spend about $36k a year. This includes a couple decent $1k vacations. Every year I basically build up a half year's retirement even without any return on the investment. Besides that, my car and house will be paid for in about 4 years and then my spending drops to $24k a year.
I drive a new car, with a warranty plan (so no unexpected bills for 7 years) and I have a warranty repair plan on my house (so no unexpected bills period). I dress well. I eat well (if I ate out less I could spend $30k now- I probably blow $500 a month on food).
I have one pet. When it dies, this will save me another $1k a year, until I replace it when I retire.
I suppose I could be blowing that $14k. I lived that life for about 6 years. It was fun-- but after a hiccup in the job market, I opened my eyes and said, "this is stupid".
I'm on track to be able to retire in about 8 years. Basically I have 4 years living expenses now- every year that grows by another 9 months worth (and if it starts growing from investments again like it did from 2000-2003, I could see 2 year increases each year).
On top of that I have social security- which currently would provide all my living expenses but which I may never see. On top of that I have a pension which will be about the same as social security.
In some ways, once I finally start saving and retire- my spendable income will go up.
Unfortunately, I may have to work longer than I want due to medical issues but only about 15% of the population has to deal with that.
Funny thing about that. We are doing an SAP conversion and one of the principles on the project is in his 60's and outworking the consultants who are working obscene hours because they are paid hourly. Many of the other developers in their 50's are putting in 60+ hour weeks (and have been for several months).
But generally, it's not a question of "too tired" as much as "too smart".
Pay me hourly and I'll work the hours you want.
Why should I work 60+ hours a week for a 10% bonus?
Why is your emergency an emergency? Sure an emergency can go on for a few weeks but if you are talking 18 months-- you are understaffed. It's not an emergency. You are using me as a slave and a battery to toss away when I get to be "old" at 40.
Especially when I know the managers are going to be getting 33% bonuses if the project goes in?
Also, the younger people get 30 years of career payoff for (in some cases literally) killing themselves. On our last big push 10 years ago we had a fairly young developer die when an other wise mild virus wasn't taken as sick time and he worked and worked and finally it crossed the blood brain barrier. The doctors apparently said he was so worn down he couldn't fight the illness.
Given everything I'm hearing about BP's higher than average safety violation problems, I know they may talk the talk, but apparently they do not walk the walk.
Companies SAY things all the time that they really do not mean.
For example at my company we have three status rankings for projects.
GREEN YELLOW RED
In three years, for projects which were cancelled, which were late, which were horrible failures, guess which status rankings were NEVER USED.
I foolishly used yellow once and the reaction was strong. I said it was yellow because it was going to miss its date and needed more resources. Not a good idea.
I have to agree-- more than one studio chain has chased me out with their volume. They don't seem to care.
The occasional crying baby is not preferred but I can deal with it as a trade off for 500 people going "OOOOO" or laughing or clapping as a group.
I'm lucky that my NON movie tavern (I really don't like them-- it's hard to deal with a WAITER walking by during the film- esp the last 30 minutes when you must pay DURING the movie).
I go to an old fashioned Cinemark theater which charges $6 for night time and $4 for day time showings in comfy seats in a real theater.
If you mean writes code fast, cool. If you mean writes code that can be debugged by other people later, better. If you mean code that performs well underload, cool. If you mean code that can be maintained coo.
And then Does the person arrive on time (how do you balance, arrives late, leaves early but writes great code on deadlines-- most managers will spike this person so they don't upset the average programmers who have to work 8 hours to get the job done).
Continuing that thought-- does the great programmer piss off other good programmers, customers, users, or executives?
etc.
This type of approach will probably find a certain kind of "best" programmer. Tho it would be fooled if one programmer got sick. Another programmer performed this way only for function point 1 (and lazed off once they got the job).
Slashdot Mirror
I guess it's the breakdown of civility (using these petition lists as a basis for threats or attacks).
But I suppose that assumes people were civil in the past and they probably were not.
I like your point about the declaration of independence, btw!
And in some way, that sort of undercuts the american system of arguing vehemently in one context and then working (or fighting) side by side at other times.
Computers have made this data much more "mine-able" than it used to be.
While I'm for gay marriage (tho not a right to a gay catholic marriage or a gay "X" marriage of a religion that opposes gay marriage), i see that the petition signature is almost like a vote.
Besides, how would gay senators sign these petitions if they couldn't be anonymous? ;-)
Well... it's actually a lightly retuned quote from Dr. Strangelove.
I trust microsoft to scam, try to build monopolies, try to kill opposing software - even if it is better, try to steal opposing software, lie under oath in court. I trust these things implicitly.
I also trust that they have good support*, their products work well enough (but are overpriced unless you are getting a deal through your company). *sometimes you have to agree to pay the support fee but when you do, all the stops come out- they had 5 people on the line including a couple deep level developers to solve my problem- I was very impressed- and in the end they didn't even charge me the fee.
Google... I didn't really trust to begin with .. well I trusted them to betray their stated identity ... which they did very quickly. I trust them to discriminate against people over 40. I trust them to release a lot of fairly nice free tools with zero support.
Apple, I trust to build a closed hardware system that works awesomely well but which may arbitrarily deny me software they don't like.
I trust all corporations to use employees as batteries, dump costs off to the state, export jobs to the lowest areas while trying to continue selling to more expensive areas and paying executives premium dollars (they never export the executive jobs to those indian executives making $500k and doing just as good a job as the multi billion dollar american ceos).
The deciding factor was when we learned that china and iran were working along similar lines, and we were afraid of an internet killswitch gap.
I know it's preposterous and the president would never approve of anything like this.
Could you tell me more about the whisker fix for NiZn?
Anything commercial?
You can't realistically go on strike any more.
Businesses coordinate too well and in many cases it's illegal (both at the "small" and "large" government levels).
Labor has lost tons of power.
Don't get me wrong- I don't want to live in france (and I think the french are getting a bit tired of the strikes over the last few years).
There is a glut of labor. You quit, you may not work again. Without a social net that means eventually you are that married couple robbing people at walmart last week. Then we all get to spend $30,000 a year supporting you. That's clearly not going to fly either so I think prison is going to get pretty miserable as funding dries up.
I downloaded this and flash 10.1 last night.
Farmville (which had become unplayable and killed my browser so bad I was using a second computer) became playable again.
So I'm happy- I suppose. May have to quit farmville soon because of work tho. Lots of very intense weeks and months coming up.
Wish I could mod you up.
AC said this: .com when I started feeling sick. I'd be DAMNED if I was going to call in sick 3 days into my 1st on-call so just tried to gut it out (pun pending). by Wed I finally called my Dr who basically said: you have APPENDICITIS, you F-tard! drop what you're doing & get to the nearest ER _NOW_!!!. after they took it out the surgeon told me it had "perforated" (analogous to running over nail vs having blow-out) & that I was lucky I didn't have peritonitis/wasn't looking at a much longer recovery or worse. I'm pretty sure they don't name buildings after or make holidays in memory of people who (literally) get themselves killed for their jobs...
I had recently started at & was on my 1st on-call week for a major
---
Notice- he almost died young for a company that probably no longer exists.
Don't give your loyalty or love to a company. ANY given day, your manager, (and their managers) can change and the company you knew is gone. Everyone upstairs walks out with tons of money and you get laid off as a cost cutting measure.
Most people choose poorly and then try like hell to make it work.
No, without the presence of a large government, the businesses run hog-wild over labor and reduce them to a status just above slavery.
I'm a former libertarian. I read and was propagandized by the hienlien's magical sf libertarian worlds and it took me years to realize reality doesn't work the way he asserted it does.
As soon as people get power, most abuse it, they abuse as often as they can and as much as they can.
The only thing that keeps them in check is a government strong enough and willing enough to punish them.
Son,
When I went to college, rates had gone up and it cost me $1500 a semester for a full load. This was about 20 years ago.
College rates have gone up insanely fast compared to everything else except medical care.
I graduated college debt free. without student loans. I didn't have to do any of that crap because college used to be affordable.
It's not any more.
I read about students graduating with $50k, $100k, and even $550k in debt and it makes me really sad for the kids today.
Open your eyes, they are taking you for a ride.
Capitalism- like libertarianism- never exists for long in it's true form.
Capitalism always corrupts to oligarchy, corporatism, and fascism.
Yup.
If you have a health problem, you are free to work or die.
If you don't come from a wealthy family who can support you in hard times, you are free to work or starve on the streets.
"Choice. The problem is choice." Neo
When the program later known as the Oracle aided the Matrix by adding to its programming the power of choice, human minds connected to the Matrix were not only able to accept the artificial reality as their only reality, but feel enabled to make decisions that affected palpable changes in their existence, even if the minds were only vaguely aware of their options. (Matrix Wiki)
Every system collapses on its own waste. Capitalism is a system that contains the seeds of Oligarchy and Facism. It's impossible to keep them from growing over time and eventually, as with the matrix, there must be a revolution to reboot the system. To remove the 99.999% of wealth from the .1% of the population who are letting everyone else starve. Because anyone who gains an edge, can build on that edge until they have a complete lock on their position, including passing it to their children, eventually a tiny group of society comes to have most of the wealth and power.
Communism starts out as a nice dream of fairness and eventually turns into a dictatorship. Because no one in the center is smart enough to determine the needs of the many, it is increasingly inefficient.
There is a LOT of propoganda around capitalism in america. the basic idea of capitalism is sound (if hot dogs are $3.25 here and $6.25 two blocks away- somehow those prices are going to arbitrage. Either people will start going to the $3.25 hot dog place or people will start carrying the $3.25 hot dogs to the $6.25 place).
But then, in our system, the $6.25 hot dog place has laws passed which prevent the $3.25 hot dogs from being sold or carried to the $6.25 place. Then that extra money is used to further prevent the $3.25 hot dogs from being sold within 20 blocks of the $6.25 hot dog's "exclusive" territory. And so on.
And for the same reason, no other Matrix movies will be made. Only the creators could make other Matrix movies, and fortunately they realized they couldn't do a decent job and just stopped at #1.
gmail works... but gmail chat is blocked.
Well that's true.
I'm single and have a few girlfriends and a ton of gaming buddies.
But no wife. And the kid is all growned up.
You can work 40 hours and retire well.
All you have to do is spend less than you make consistently.
I make about 60k after all taxes are taken out. I spend about $36k a year. This includes a couple decent $1k vacations. Every year I basically build up a half year's retirement even without any return on the investment. Besides that, my car and house will be paid for in about 4 years and then my spending drops to $24k a year.
I drive a new car, with a warranty plan (so no unexpected bills for 7 years) and I have a warranty repair plan on my house (so no unexpected bills period). I dress well. I eat well (if I ate out less I could spend $30k now- I probably blow $500 a month on food).
I have one pet. When it dies, this will save me another $1k a year, until I replace it when I retire.
I suppose I could be blowing that $14k. I lived that life for about 6 years. It was fun-- but after a hiccup in the job market, I opened my eyes and said, "this is stupid".
I'm on track to be able to retire in about 8 years. Basically I have 4 years living expenses now- every year that grows by another 9 months worth (and if it starts growing from investments again like it did from 2000-2003, I could see 2 year increases each year).
On top of that I have social security- which currently would provide all my living expenses but which I may never see.
On top of that I have a pension which will be about the same as social security.
In some ways, once I finally start saving and retire- my spendable income will go up.
Unfortunately, I may have to work longer than I want due to medical issues but only about 15% of the population has to deal with that.
Funny thing about that. We are doing an SAP conversion and one of the principles on the project is in his 60's and outworking the consultants who are working obscene hours because they are paid hourly. Many of the other developers in their 50's are putting in 60+ hour weeks (and have been for several months).
But generally, it's not a question of "too tired" as much as "too smart".
Pay me hourly and I'll work the hours you want.
Why should I work 60+ hours a week for a 10% bonus?
Why is your emergency an emergency? Sure an emergency can go on for a few weeks but if you are talking 18 months-- you are understaffed. It's not an emergency. You are using me as a slave and a battery to toss away when I get to be "old" at 40.
Especially when I know the managers are going to be getting 33% bonuses if the project goes in?
Also, the younger people get 30 years of career payoff for (in some cases literally) killing themselves. On our last big push 10 years ago we had a fairly young developer die when an other wise mild virus wasn't taken as sick time and he worked and worked and finally it crossed the blood brain barrier. The doctors apparently said he was so worn down he couldn't fight the illness.
Couldn't find the whisker fix for NiZn.
But there is one for NiCad.
http://www.sentex.net/~mec1995/gadgets/rejuv.html
The ZAP-Adaptor, rejuvenates DEAD NiCads
More on NiZn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel-zinc_battery
interesting limitation: Currently, only Sub C and AA NiZN cells are available
Wonder why?
Given everything I'm hearing about BP's higher than average safety violation problems, I know they may talk the talk, but apparently they do not walk the walk.
Companies SAY things all the time that they really do not mean.
For example at my company we have three status rankings for projects.
GREEN
YELLOW
RED
In three years, for projects which were cancelled, which were late, which were horrible failures, guess which status rankings were NEVER USED.
I foolishly used yellow once and the reaction was strong. I said it was yellow because it was going to miss its date and needed more resources.
Not a good idea.
I have to agree-- more than one studio chain has chased me out with their volume. They don't seem to care.
The occasional crying baby is not preferred but I can deal with it as a trade off for 500 people going "OOOOO" or laughing or clapping as a group.
I'm lucky that my NON movie tavern (I really don't like them-- it's hard to deal with a WAITER walking by during the film- esp the last 30 minutes when you must pay DURING the movie).
I go to an old fashioned Cinemark theater which charges $6 for night time and $4 for day time showings in comfy seats in a real theater.
Yes but the pigeon protocol is very vulnerable to hawking.
And the latency on resends is painful.
wave blocked at work.
As are all chat formats.
What I need is something like a chat client that uses emails as a basis for the chat.
Also... "best" is a relative term.
If you mean writes code fast, cool.
If you mean writes code that can be debugged by other people later, better.
If you mean code that performs well underload, cool.
If you mean code that can be maintained coo.
And then
Does the person arrive on time (how do you balance, arrives late, leaves early but writes great code on deadlines-- most managers will spike this person so they don't upset the average programmers who have to work 8 hours to get the job done).
Continuing that thought-- does the great programmer piss off other good programmers, customers, users, or executives?
etc.
This type of approach will probably find a certain kind of "best" programmer.
Tho it would be fooled if one programmer got sick. Another programmer performed this way only for function point 1 (and lazed off once they got the job).
etc.
It's a valid comment.
I'll be spending 10 days at the beach in july.
I used to play sports twice a week til the knee went.
I spent the evening swimming friday night.
But it's hot where I am this time of year. This is our TV season-- 8 months of great outdoors weather and 4 months of indoor weather.
And then what do you mean by real?
Art at the museum? That's just another form of entertainment.
A friend's singing recital- same.
Going to the park? Well okay but it's hot.
I play D&D with friends. I enjoy the message boards within limits. I downhill ski.
But some folks do not watch TV. They spend 95% of their time without watching TV shows.
Maybe you are one of them. There's a balance for me.