He's making a legitimate point. Animal activist groups have been threatening scientists for decades. And some of the very ecologists who are crying foul over this today were once advocating blowing up dams because hydroelectricity interfered with their utopian vision of nature.
The relative taxes we pay compared to the 50's is irrelevant. People only think in terms of "Well, I'm paying this now, and they WANT ME TO PAY MORE!" Anytime taxes go in any direction but down, voters will be pissed. The only way to overcome that is to have a leader capable of selling people on sacrifice (usually during wartime or crisis). And FDR and Dwight Eisenhower were the last leaders we had in the U.S. who could pull something like that off.
It's not about science, it's about sacrifice. People are perfectly fine with science, as long as it either benefits them or is neutral. But the second some government talks about asking them to pay higher taxes, forgo some luxury, sacrifice jobs, etc. based on some scientific finding (legitimate or not)--well, WATCH OUT!
Not as in "computer program," as in "New company program that I need to put up some basic informational pages about." Even a simple task like that was a nightmare. More than once they tried to claim that I needed to have my html pages vetted by an outside security consultant before they could be posted to the company website. We're talking basic html pages.
Oh man, you have no idea. Our CEO ultimately fired almost the entire IT department in the end (and it was a beautiful day indeed). It was so bad that the first thing any manager told a new employee was "DO NOT EVER call the IT help desk." Seriously, if you called the IT help desk and asked for anything (or, even worse, dared to complain about something), they would run an "security audit" on your department and basically leave you without computers for at least a day or two. They were that bad. My first week on the job, they threatened to permanently ban me from the network because I missed a one-hour mandatory IT orientation class (and I only missed it because of an emergency that the CEO himself had ordered me to prioritize). I had to get the fucking CEO to call them and *order* them to put me back on the network.
Comparing something that's just stupid with something *illegal* is just...well...stupid.
A company exists to make money. If an IT department is not helping to support that goal in some way, they need to be shown the door. I too have worked with IT departments who thought the company existed to serve them, not the other way around. And one of the finest moments in my career came a few years ago, when I got to watch a whole IT department take the "walk of shame" after the frustrated CEO finally cleaned house of the worthless lot of them. Almost the entire company turned out to watch them go. It was all we could do not to burst out into applause.
Seriously, I would rather pull my own teeth than deal with my last company's IT people. Getting anything done through them was a nightmare. "Customer service" wasn't even a concept on their radar. "No" was the only word in their vocabulary. They had perfected a variation on "security through obscurity," which could best be characterized as "security through inaction." By not allowing anyone or anything on the system, they kept it secure. Here was a typical exchange:
Me: We've got a new program that's going to make the company a lot of money Them: We can't do anything to help you. And if you try and go around us, we'll try to stop you. Me: I just want to put up a simple html webpage with information on it. Them: Can't do it. It's a security risk.
Having been caught in a few sports riots myself back in the day, I can tell you alcohol is the real root cause of every one I've ever seen. I went to a college that won several national titles and every time we had a riot afterward, it always started at the corner of campus where all the bars were. You take a normal guy, put a bunch of tequilla shots in him, then throw him into a wild crowd of revelers, and pretty soon he'll think it's perfectly reasonable to overturn a car and jump up and down on it.
As Homer Simpson once said "To alcohol--the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!"
I really wish we could have more discussions where MS is mentioned that don't immediately devolve into "MS is teh E V I L !!! Anything they say or do is wrong!"
Actually, in all fairness, they oppose humans in general. In an ideal environmentalist's world, every human would just commit suicide and return earth to the pristine paradise that it was before our evil presence--a world where no species ever goes extinct (because only mankind causes animals to go extinct), the weather is always mild (because all bad weather is caused by the global warming that we are solely responsible for), and peace and kindness rule the land.
First of all, these aren't grants or direct money (as the summary seems to imply), they're loan guarantees. And if you read the press release, it's pretty clear this is a helluva lot less about producing clean energy than producing jobs in California.
Like so many government-funded and government-backed programs these days (NASA, I'm looking in your direction), this is basically a just a jobs program. Some Senator gets to go back to his district and say he created jobs. Whether these plants actually ever create any energy is anyone's guess.
If the Apple iOS/app store model is any indication of things to come, pretty soon PC's will be as locked down as consoles and cellphones. You won't have to worry about running any unauthorized code because the good folks at Apple, Dell, etc. will force you to get all your software through their app store.
Slashdot Mirror
It appears that this move isn't meddling from Redmond
There must be SOME way I can blame this on evil Microsoft. Were the fired execs open source, by any chance?
And I suppose they sent the alcoholics to Ireland?
He's making a legitimate point. Animal activist groups have been threatening scientists for decades. And some of the very ecologists who are crying foul over this today were once advocating blowing up dams because hydroelectricity interfered with their utopian vision of nature.
The relative taxes we pay compared to the 50's is irrelevant. People only think in terms of "Well, I'm paying this now, and they WANT ME TO PAY MORE!" Anytime taxes go in any direction but down, voters will be pissed. The only way to overcome that is to have a leader capable of selling people on sacrifice (usually during wartime or crisis). And FDR and Dwight Eisenhower were the last leaders we had in the U.S. who could pull something like that off.
It's not about science, it's about sacrifice. People are perfectly fine with science, as long as it either benefits them or is neutral. But the second some government talks about asking them to pay higher taxes, forgo some luxury, sacrifice jobs, etc. based on some scientific finding (legitimate or not)--well, WATCH OUT!
That's why we hosted public webpages on an outside server, off the network.
But this time he said he's really changed.
Not as in "computer program," as in "New company program that I need to put up some basic informational pages about." Even a simple task like that was a nightmare. More than once they tried to claim that I needed to have my html pages vetted by an outside security consultant before they could be posted to the company website. We're talking basic html pages.
Oh man, you have no idea. Our CEO ultimately fired almost the entire IT department in the end (and it was a beautiful day indeed). It was so bad that the first thing any manager told a new employee was "DO NOT EVER call the IT help desk." Seriously, if you called the IT help desk and asked for anything (or, even worse, dared to complain about something), they would run an "security audit" on your department and basically leave you without computers for at least a day or two. They were that bad. My first week on the job, they threatened to permanently ban me from the network because I missed a one-hour mandatory IT orientation class (and I only missed it because of an emergency that the CEO himself had ordered me to prioritize). I had to get the fucking CEO to call them and *order* them to put me back on the network.
Comparing something that's just stupid with something *illegal* is just...well...stupid.
A company exists to make money. If an IT department is not helping to support that goal in some way, they need to be shown the door. I too have worked with IT departments who thought the company existed to serve them, not the other way around. And one of the finest moments in my career came a few years ago, when I got to watch a whole IT department take the "walk of shame" after the frustrated CEO finally cleaned house of the worthless lot of them. Almost the entire company turned out to watch them go. It was all we could do not to burst out into applause.
Seriously, I would rather pull my own teeth than deal with my last company's IT people. Getting anything done through them was a nightmare. "Customer service" wasn't even a concept on their radar. "No" was the only word in their vocabulary. They had perfected a variation on "security through obscurity," which could best be characterized as "security through inaction." By not allowing anyone or anything on the system, they kept it secure. Here was a typical exchange:
Me: We've got a new program that's going to make the company a lot of money
Them: We can't do anything to help you. And if you try and go around us, we'll try to stop you.
Me: I just want to put up a simple html webpage with information on it.
Them: Can't do it. It's a security risk.
Having been caught in a few sports riots myself back in the day, I can tell you alcohol is the real root cause of every one I've ever seen. I went to a college that won several national titles and every time we had a riot afterward, it always started at the corner of campus where all the bars were. You take a normal guy, put a bunch of tequilla shots in him, then throw him into a wild crowd of revelers, and pretty soon he'll think it's perfectly reasonable to overturn a car and jump up and down on it.
As Homer Simpson once said "To alcohol--the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!"
I really wish we could have more discussions where MS is mentioned that don't immediately devolve into "MS is teh E V I L !!! Anything they say or do is wrong!"
Mr Jeffries, for the last time, if you don't take your meds you don't get TV time tonight.
Actually, in all fairness, they oppose humans in general. In an ideal environmentalist's world, every human would just commit suicide and return earth to the pristine paradise that it was before our evil presence--a world where no species ever goes extinct (because only mankind causes animals to go extinct), the weather is always mild (because all bad weather is caused by the global warming that we are solely responsible for), and peace and kindness rule the land.
Well, at least it's warm.
I'd hesitate to say from those specs alone that it's outright faster than a PS3.
Don't worry, this is Nintendo we're talking about. They'll find a way to gimp it.
They put him in the secret freezer next to Walt Disney and the real Mikhail Gorbachev.
Good luck finding a target slightly smaller, that the fish have been chewing on.
Hey, I still watch my HD-DVD's, thank you very much. You can buy them for dirt cheap too.
No, translation: "Try to pirate THIS, motherfuckers!"
Don't worry, your Uncle's credit card is still valid...for now.
Depends. Since 1972, or before?
A link to the actual press release
First of all, these aren't grants or direct money (as the summary seems to imply), they're loan guarantees. And if you read the press release, it's pretty clear this is a helluva lot less about producing clean energy than producing jobs in California.
Like so many government-funded and government-backed programs these days (NASA, I'm looking in your direction), this is basically a just a jobs program. Some Senator gets to go back to his district and say he created jobs. Whether these plants actually ever create any energy is anyone's guess.
If the Apple iOS/app store model is any indication of things to come, pretty soon PC's will be as locked down as consoles and cellphones. You won't have to worry about running any unauthorized code because the good folks at Apple, Dell, etc. will force you to get all your software through their app store.