You make a good point about how something which seems obvious and clear now is not several months down the line. I think everyone needs to have the experience of reading code they wrote a year or more ago (and adding features or fixing bugs).
In the past, the US government has meddled in the political affairs of Iran, apparently out of fear of communism. (?) I don't even quite understand why we did, but basically we helped depose an elected leader, installed a government that we liked but the citizens didn't, and which was later overthrown by the precursors of the current regime. Our (US) meddling left a very sour taste in their mouth.
To dismiss that as saying, "well you guys (Iran) were only one pawn of many that we did that to" belittles the fact that if you are an Iranian citizen, you have a pretty concrete set of nearly indefensible offenses that the US has done to your country. Don't claim that that's irrelevant, because for the people that live there (Iran) it's very relevant. We should not forget that it matters to them, because their feelings in the matter are a core reason for some of the ways they (and others) behave towards us (the US).
For that pawn (or, more accurately, the citizens living in it), the degree of hurting is absolutely relevant to them, and their opinion of us as a nation.
What is so special about Kodachrome that makes things (as you say) look better? Is that any film process, or Kodak's in particular? This is a genuine question, not a "You're full of it" response, because I am not familiar enough with film to even have remembered the name Kodachrome, let alone know why it's good (if it is). Could we just print our digital photos on that? Please elaborate on why Kodachrome is awesome.
I'd like to add that v1 above made a great comment too, namely that in addition to the crucial steps you mentioned, it's also important to keep management informed of your task list AND your progress on it, since often your fixes will be behind-the-scenes things that they may not notice. Make sure they know you're working hard to make their system better and more robust, do NOT assume that anyone else notices what you're doing.
It's not worth the challenge to get proper budgeting to get the right tools in place or the organization as a whole wouldn't let things get how they are in the first place.
I haven't been there, but it sounds like it would be very beneficial to learn to present the business case for upgrades and budgeting. Explain the difference in downtime that it would entail, and the benefits the company will get. From what I've seen our previous IT guy do, it seems that bosses are NOT opposed to spending money, as long as you can make a good case for why it's necessary. Put it in terms of dollars that it will save you and that will go a long way.
While you're likely to meet some badge-carrying officers of the law in such a meeting, the one advantage this has is that you have the potential for a polite forum with the company where they can ask you questions, and you can get PERMISSION to demonstrate the flaw to them. As Kevin Mitnick said, everything changes when you get permission.
I'd much rather see a Just Plain Wrong Post with one or more replies with a refutation that is both well written and strongly linked to more details, rather than have that Just Wrong post merely get downmodded.
I'd much prefer that their database never gets hacked. As effective as that might be at causing change, I don't relish the idea of all of that customer data in the open.
How does a crashed computer equate to blowing up a house or office and killing who knows how many innocents in the process?
While I see what you're getting at (Christianity promoting forgiveness, which seems at odds with air strikes), I believe the point is that it's not merely "a hacked computer" that is considered harmful. What matters is what the computer is connected to:
A hack of a SCADA system at some important facility could harm all sorts of stuff. A hack of a power grid or air traffic control system would surely injure many, and probably kill quite a few as well. A hack of the control systems for flood protection systems, tornado warning systems, and so on could be pretty devastating.
There are many systems where we use computers to monitor things or control them, and have to take various precautions to ensure that User Error doesn't hurt anyone. That's much harder to safeguard if the computer's been altered to lie to you ("Oh, yes, temperatures in reactor three are totally normal!"), or even directly control things.
If some black hat (or script kid?) out in upper Elbonia is trying to influence systems like that, I can understand how our government would consider that an aggressive act, and respond with force.
If you blow the whistle on specific crimes to your superiors (and all the way up the chain as necessary), you're protected. If you just dump a database of classified information, only some of which pertains to specific crimes, you've done more than blow the whistle, and are likely going to be nailed to the wall for that.
If Manning had wanted to blow the whistle, he could have collected evidence of those specific crimes and alerted his superiors. He might even have been protected if he had leaked ONLY those (but would almost certainly would go through a court martial). If he did leak the stuff that is claimed (and, sadly, the evidence against him seems pretty damning), I imagine that he's pretty much screwed.
To elaborate, TSA is afraid that people could bring separated liquid components of a binary explosive, mix them together in flight, and end up with an explosive. Mixing TATP on an airplane would be very challenging, and likely to arouse suspicion before it could actually explode:
If you're paranoid enough to have this scheme in place (which seems very clever), you're probably patient enough to wait for your friend to send you the list of bits via fedex so that you can image edit it back onto the drive. If I had this in place, I think I could wait a day or three to access my lolcats and WoW.
I love my Nook Color -- mostly I end up playing Sudoku while falling asleep, but it supports Pandora and web browsing too. I've read a bunch on it, and it's a very good experience; I especially like it when reading at night or on the couch. The e-ink screen is neat on the older Nook, but I can't read in the dark with it.
If you were choosing a Nook now, the Color is a very powerful cheaper option. If you're after the best toy, the newer Tablet looks better, but you mainly get things like HD video and netflix streaming. (oooooh. I do want that.)
The Nook Tablet is like the Nook Color, but adds: - Same size screen - faster processor (it's never seemed slow) - double the RAM - HD video, better battery life while playing video - A bit more battery life while reading, but not enough for me to care. (11h vs 8h) - Hulu/Netflix integration.
The greyscale Nook (Touch) doesn't have the bells and whistles, but for READING is likely better. It's lighter, and has a six month battery life, which is practically forever compared to the Color/Tablet. If someone in your family really likes reading, and not so much on the other stuff (or already has a laptop), you might get them the cheaper reader.
I mainly use my Nook Color for Sudoku right now, as I really like their app for it (bundled with it for free), and do most of my reading in the dark, so I am glad I got the Color last year.
Thank you for your incisive and informative argument. Next time, if you feel he has it wrong, please actually contribute something other than "you're an idiot", so that we can all benefit from your knowledge. The Wikipedia article notes that it was discovered in 1999 by some Creative engineers (why were they stenciling shadow volumes? I have no idea), presented at a conference, and then subsequently patented. It also notes that Carmack independently invented it in 2000.
I can certainly see how Carmark might consider it something "obvious" to a skilled professional (of which he is the very definition), but kudos to him for (yet again) doing awesome stuff, and taking time to clean up things he's built in order to better share it with the community. I suppose that having earned as much money as he has lends a bit of flexibility to his work schedule.
Slashdot Mirror
You make a good point about how something which seems obvious and clear now is not several months down the line. I think everyone needs to have the experience of reading code they wrote a year or more ago (and adding features or fixing bugs).
I'm not saying that the idea didn't make sense at the time, merely that it's rather silly for us to be wondering why they hate us. :)
To clarify:
In the past, the US government has meddled in the political affairs of Iran, apparently out of fear of communism. (?) I don't even quite understand why we did, but basically we helped depose an elected leader, installed a government that we liked but the citizens didn't, and which was later overthrown by the precursors of the current regime. Our (US) meddling left a very sour taste in their mouth.
To dismiss that as saying, "well you guys (Iran) were only one pawn of many that we did that to" belittles the fact that if you are an Iranian citizen, you have a pretty concrete set of nearly indefensible offenses that the US has done to your country. Don't claim that that's irrelevant, because for the people that live there (Iran) it's very relevant. We should not forget that it matters to them, because their feelings in the matter are a core reason for some of the ways they (and others) behave towards us (the US).
For that pawn (or, more accurately, the citizens living in it), the degree of hurting is absolutely relevant to them, and their opinion of us as a nation.
I realize you're likely joking, but I bet Nike (the shoe company) is named after Nike, the goddess of victory. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_(mythology) )
What is so special about Kodachrome that makes things (as you say) look better? Is that any film process, or Kodak's in particular? This is a genuine question, not a "You're full of it" response, because I am not familiar enough with film to even have remembered the name Kodachrome, let alone know why it's good (if it is). Could we just print our digital photos on that? Please elaborate on why Kodachrome is awesome.
I'd like to add that v1 above made a great comment too, namely that in addition to the crucial steps you mentioned, it's also important to keep management informed of your task list AND your progress on it, since often your fixes will be behind-the-scenes things that they may not notice. Make sure they know you're working hard to make their system better and more robust, do NOT assume that anyone else notices what you're doing.
It's not worth the challenge to get proper budgeting to get the right tools in place or the organization as a whole wouldn't let things get how they are in the first place.
I haven't been there, but it sounds like it would be very beneficial to learn to present the business case for upgrades and budgeting. Explain the difference in downtime that it would entail, and the benefits the company will get. From what I've seen our previous IT guy do, it seems that bosses are NOT opposed to spending money, as long as you can make a good case for why it's necessary. Put it in terms of dollars that it will save you and that will go a long way.
While you're likely to meet some badge-carrying officers of the law in such a meeting, the one advantage this has is that you have the potential for a polite forum with the company where they can ask you questions, and you can get PERMISSION to demonstrate the flaw to them. As Kevin Mitnick said, everything changes when you get permission.
I'd much rather see a Just Plain Wrong Post with one or more replies with a refutation that is both well written and strongly linked to more details, rather than have that Just Wrong post merely get downmodded.
I'd much prefer that their database never gets hacked. As effective as that might be at causing change, I don't relish the idea of all of that customer data in the open.
How does a crashed computer equate to blowing up a house or office and killing who knows how many innocents in the process?
While I see what you're getting at (Christianity promoting forgiveness, which seems at odds with air strikes), I believe the point is that it's not merely "a hacked computer" that is considered harmful. What matters is what the computer is connected to:
A hack of a SCADA system at some important facility could harm all sorts of stuff.
A hack of a power grid or air traffic control system would surely injure many, and probably kill quite a few as well.
A hack of the control systems for flood protection systems, tornado warning systems, and so on could be pretty devastating.
There are many systems where we use computers to monitor things or control them, and have to take various precautions to ensure that User Error doesn't hurt anyone. That's much harder to safeguard if the computer's been altered to lie to you ("Oh, yes, temperatures in reactor three are totally normal!"), or even directly control things.
If some black hat (or script kid?) out in upper Elbonia is trying to influence systems like that, I can understand how our government would consider that an aggressive act, and respond with force.
Thecameraismightier just doesn't have the same ring to it, but at least it's harder to throw back at poor Mr. Trebek.
If you blow the whistle on specific crimes to your superiors (and all the way up the chain as necessary), you're protected. If you just dump a database of classified information, only some of which pertains to specific crimes, you've done more than blow the whistle, and are likely going to be nailed to the wall for that.
If Manning had wanted to blow the whistle, he could have collected evidence of those specific crimes and alerted his superiors. He might even have been protected if he had leaked ONLY those (but would almost certainly would go through a court martial). If he did leak the stuff that is claimed (and, sadly, the evidence against him seems pretty damning), I imagine that he's pretty much screwed.
When the only people who want to visit you manage to ensure they are never again allowed on a Military base, they won't be visiting you again
Please link a citation for this, as I've never heard that.
Your optimism is amusing. Has that started happening in France yet?
To elaborate, TSA is afraid that people could bring separated liquid components of a binary explosive, mix them together in flight, and end up with an explosive. Mixing TATP on an airplane would be very challenging, and likely to arouse suspicion before it could actually explode:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/
http://threatpost.com.nyud.net/en_us/blogs/hacker-says-texas-town-used-three-digit-password-secure-internet-facing-scada-system-112011
If you're paranoid enough to have this scheme in place (which seems very clever), you're probably patient enough to wait for your friend to send you the list of bits via fedex so that you can image edit it back onto the drive. If I had this in place, I think I could wait a day or three to access my lolcats and WoW.
I can't believe you left off Project Gutenberg, as they even let you download ISO images of their collection.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_CD_and_DVD_Project
I love my Nook Color -- mostly I end up playing Sudoku while falling asleep, but it supports Pandora and web browsing too. I've read a bunch on it, and it's a very good experience; I especially like it when reading at night or on the couch. The e-ink screen is neat on the older Nook, but I can't read in the dark with it.
If you were choosing a Nook now, the Color is a very powerful cheaper option. If you're after the best toy, the newer Tablet looks better, but you mainly get things like HD video and netflix streaming. (oooooh. I do want that.)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Compare-NOOKs/379003181
The Nook Tablet is like the Nook Color, but adds:
- Same size screen
- faster processor (it's never seemed slow)
- double the RAM
- HD video, better battery life while playing video
- A bit more battery life while reading, but not enough for me to care. (11h vs 8h)
- Hulu/Netflix integration.
The greyscale Nook (Touch) doesn't have the bells and whistles, but for READING is likely better. It's lighter, and has a six month battery life, which is practically forever compared to the Color/Tablet. If someone in your family really likes reading, and not so much on the other stuff (or already has a laptop), you might get them the cheaper reader.
I mainly use my Nook Color for Sudoku right now, as I really like their app for it (bundled with it for free), and do most of my reading in the dark, so I am glad I got the Color last year.
That was inspiring and cool. I can't wait until I can let my son near something like that and have him be interested in more than destroying it. :)
So ... what do you think of Skyrim? ;-)
Thank you for your incisive and informative argument. Next time, if you feel he has it wrong, please actually contribute something other than "you're an idiot", so that we can all benefit from your knowledge. The Wikipedia article notes that it was discovered in 1999 by some Creative engineers (why were they stenciling shadow volumes? I have no idea), presented at a conference, and then subsequently patented. It also notes that Carmack independently invented it in 2000.
I can certainly see how Carmark might consider it something "obvious" to a skilled professional (of which he is the very definition), but kudos to him for (yet again) doing awesome stuff, and taking time to clean up things he's built in order to better share it with the community. I suppose that having earned as much money as he has lends a bit of flexibility to his work schedule.
Obey the judge, unless it's something whose punishment is worse than indefinite incarceration for contempt. (So clearly, don't kill anyone.)