Places like that hire salesmen, not programmers. They WANT programmers, mind you. They even ADVERTISE for programmers. But in the end, they hire the first good-looking slick guy who comes through the door and gives them a great sales pitch on himself. Then two years later, the project has never materialized, the slick salesman has long since moved on to his next mark, and they're wondering why it failed.
Yeah, okay, that was a cheap shot. But I couldn't resist. And while the U.S. is certainly no Iran when it comes to repression, it is good to keep in mind that there is a slippery slope that's all too easy to slide down into once you get going. Right now the government/coporatocracy in the U.S. doesn't face any real threats, so it's easy to be generous with freedoms. But what would happen if something like the Occupy movement really started to gain ground and actually started shutting down cities and firebombing corporate HQ's? Would the powers-that-be hesitate to start using some of that power we've given them to start suppressing internet access here? It's already happened here at least once, on a smaller scale.
In some parts of the world, such as Canada and the US, the term resume is used to the exclusion of CV
Actually, CV is used almost exclusively in academia in the U.S. If you apply for a serious academic position, they will ask for a CV, not a resume. They're actually different things, with different formatting. Having worked in both private industry and academia, I have both. For example, my CV has sections for things like academic articles and papers that you won't find on my resume.
I honestly can't tell you if my current TV even has picture-in-picture, because AFAIK, I've never once actually used it on any TV I've owned. But I can remember when it was touted as this "must have" feature by the industry. So it got added to the new TV's. The general public was at first kind of interested. Then after the hype died down and users actually got to try it out a few times and realize that it wasn't really all that useful, it quickly became a "Who gives a shit?" feature.
the user would need to buy additional content to enhance their experience. The content that can be purchased includes aircraft as well as new environments
Flap your arms all you want, cowboy, you're not leaving the ground.
Don't worry, President Gingrich won't need to wait for them to blockade anything. He'll just say "Well, they're developing nukes," deliver a "They're going to nuke us all!!!!!" scare speech to the public, and ask for the money for the war from Congress (knowing the Democrats will be too cowardly to say no). And we'll be right back in it--guaranteeing him 4-8 years of passing totalitarian legislation under the guise of "Don't worry. These are just wartime powers."
When I got my VIC-20, it was down to $200 (seem to recall that my dad paid about $300 for my C-64 a couple of years later). But my memory could be wrong. My friend definitely claimed that his dad had spent $2000 on his Apple II. Not sure what the configuration was (he could have been bragging a bit).
The problem with the VIC-20 was that paltry 5k of memory. The Commodore 64 became dominant because of that 64k, which put it on par with the big boys (and for a fraction the cost).
It may be hard for kids today to believe, but there was a time when home computers were WAY out of the price range of anyone below the HIGH upper middle class. In the early 80's, I had a friend whose dad was a yuppie who actually had an Apple II. All the kids used to go over to his house and marvel at Zork and all the neat stuff it could do. But it was a $2000 computer, and that was in early-80's dollars too (that would be about $5000 today). As much as we marveled at it, we all knew that one of those amazing machines would never sit in our homes.
So when the VIC-20 and Commodore 64 came out right about that time, it was like a godsend to those of us whose parents worked for a living. $200 for a computer that could do almost as much as that fancy $2000 Apple?!? Suddenly computers and programming didn't just seem like something for the yuppie kids, it was within reach of all of us. And the Commodores even came with BASIC built in (my Apple-user friend had to load his from a disc).
And you could get free games by typing them in from magazines! You could learn to do you own graphics by learning peeks and pokes. It's because of my Commodore 64 that I first made the connection between programming and mathematics (wait, I can draw this line a lot easier using a simple equation!). It's how I learned the importance of an if...then conditional.
10 Print " It's where I learned that even us nobodies could one day grow up to be computer programmers." 20 Goto 10
Average length of job: Half a day Average pay of job: $12
So if you live in China, India, Nigeria, etc. and would love to work for $24 a day, great news! And for those you who live in the first world, well, enjoy the continued outsourcing that's going to have us all living in a goddamned Mad Max dystopia by the end of the century. Buy your Chinese-made shouldpads and dune buggies now.
Also, who the hell was storing any significant customer data on the ATMs in the first place?
That's exactly what struck me about the summary. What's "novel" about an ATM being networked into a central server where the data is stored? I thought they were ALWAYS like that (long before the modern consumer internet even existed). Even back in the 70's I remember them being networked to the bank's central server.
Slashdot Mirror
I always wondered what they were up to.
Places like that hire salesmen, not programmers. They WANT programmers, mind you. They even ADVERTISE for programmers. But in the end, they hire the first good-looking slick guy who comes through the door and gives them a great sales pitch on himself. Then two years later, the project has never materialized, the slick salesman has long since moved on to his next mark, and they're wondering why it failed.
If someone is giving you one, they're probably not very intelligent.
Yeah, okay, that was a cheap shot. But I couldn't resist. And while the U.S. is certainly no Iran when it comes to repression, it is good to keep in mind that there is a slippery slope that's all too easy to slide down into once you get going. Right now the government/coporatocracy in the U.S. doesn't face any real threats, so it's easy to be generous with freedoms. But what would happen if something like the Occupy movement really started to gain ground and actually started shutting down cities and firebombing corporate HQ's? Would the powers-that-be hesitate to start using some of that power we've given them to start suppressing internet access here? It's already happened here at least once, on a smaller scale.
creating new blocks against foreign content and stepping up surveillance of browsing habits
Sounds familiar for some reason.
But in practice, if a slave in e.g. ancient Rome went up to a centurion and spoke his mind, bad things would happen to him.
Try going up to a cop alone in the U.S. sometime and tell him you hate cops and see what happens.
Government: Here's your plane ticket. Get out.
Dissenter: Screw you, man! I'm standing up for FREEDOM!!
Government: We could shock your balls instead.
Dissenter: Which flight was that again?
It's probably best not to write bad things about the Emperor.
And if you do, you had better be the mad Jester in the court. Otherwise don't get too attached to that whole "breathing" thing.
In some parts of the world, such as Canada and the US, the term resume is used to the exclusion of CV
Actually, CV is used almost exclusively in academia in the U.S. If you apply for a serious academic position, they will ask for a CV, not a resume. They're actually different things, with different formatting. Having worked in both private industry and academia, I have both. For example, my CV has sections for things like academic articles and papers that you won't find on my resume.
I honestly can't tell you if my current TV even has picture-in-picture, because AFAIK, I've never once actually used it on any TV I've owned. But I can remember when it was touted as this "must have" feature by the industry. So it got added to the new TV's. The general public was at first kind of interested. Then after the hype died down and users actually got to try it out a few times and realize that it wasn't really all that useful, it quickly became a "Who gives a shit?" feature.
I hear Houghton Mifflin has goons who break legs. When you make $150 profit on a simple 600-page textbook, you can afford the muscle.
I certainly didn't buy one in France at those crazy prices.
the user would need to buy additional content to enhance their experience. The content that can be purchased includes aircraft as well as new environments
Flap your arms all you want, cowboy, you're not leaving the ground.
the only question would be who drops the first bomb; Israel or the US?
Which will lead to the question "How did World War III begin?" on some history student's pop-quiz 50 years from now.
Don't worry, President Gingrich won't need to wait for them to blockade anything. He'll just say "Well, they're developing nukes," deliver a "They're going to nuke us all!!!!!" scare speech to the public, and ask for the money for the war from Congress (knowing the Democrats will be too cowardly to say no). And we'll be right back in it--guaranteeing him 4-8 years of passing totalitarian legislation under the guise of "Don't worry. These are just wartime powers."
I played lots of Zork on that machine! Making paper maps, etc. to defeat the awful "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike."
Oh, if I had a nickel for all the hours put into playing The Bards Tale series on that wonderful machine.
When I got my VIC-20, it was down to $200 (seem to recall that my dad paid about $300 for my C-64 a couple of years later). But my memory could be wrong. My friend definitely claimed that his dad had spent $2000 on his Apple II. Not sure what the configuration was (he could have been bragging a bit).
Disc notcher? Save your money, Mr. Fancy Pants. Just use a hole punch.
The problem with the VIC-20 was that paltry 5k of memory. The Commodore 64 became dominant because of that 64k, which put it on par with the big boys (and for a fraction the cost).
It may be hard for kids today to believe, but there was a time when home computers were WAY out of the price range of anyone below the HIGH upper middle class. In the early 80's, I had a friend whose dad was a yuppie who actually had an Apple II. All the kids used to go over to his house and marvel at Zork and all the neat stuff it could do. But it was a $2000 computer, and that was in early-80's dollars too (that would be about $5000 today). As much as we marveled at it, we all knew that one of those amazing machines would never sit in our homes.
So when the VIC-20 and Commodore 64 came out right about that time, it was like a godsend to those of us whose parents worked for a living. $200 for a computer that could do almost as much as that fancy $2000 Apple?!? Suddenly computers and programming didn't just seem like something for the yuppie kids, it was within reach of all of us. And the Commodores even came with BASIC built in (my Apple-user friend had to load his from a disc).
And you could get free games by typing them in from magazines! You could learn to do you own graphics by learning peeks and pokes. It's because of my Commodore 64 that I first made the connection between programming and mathematics (wait, I can draw this line a lot easier using a simple equation!). It's how I learned the importance of an if...then conditional.
10 Print " It's where I learned that even us nobodies could one day grow up to be computer programmers."
20 Goto 10
Average length of job: Half a day
Average pay of job: $12
So if you live in China, India, Nigeria, etc. and would love to work for $24 a day, great news! And for those you who live in the first world, well, enjoy the continued outsourcing that's going to have us all living in a goddamned Mad Max dystopia by the end of the century. Buy your Chinese-made shouldpads and dune buggies now.
Also, who the hell was storing any significant customer data on the ATMs in the first place?
That's exactly what struck me about the summary. What's "novel" about an ATM being networked into a central server where the data is stored? I thought they were ALWAYS like that (long before the modern consumer internet even existed). Even back in the 70's I remember them being networked to the bank's central server.
Sometimes you work with the bet maid you can get. And you can't argue with success.
If you've never heard of a Honey Trap Operation, you would make a really shitty spy. It's one of the basic tactics of any good intelligence agency.
I wish they taught that in Civics courses. The Library of Congress serves Congress, which in turn serves corporations.
In ten years, we won't need roads.