My organization a while ago saw significant issues with untested fixes being deployed and similar bad practices (undocumented configurations, lack of integration testing, etc.). The thing that did it for us was seeing our up-time drop below 99% in production systems. It became downright embarrassing and started costing us real $.
So our then-CIO froze all production changes for 90 days. In that time, we instituted a change review board. They now approve all production changes. Without the culture change that came with the culture freeze, the new process might have failed. But we bought into it. And by putting them in as the gate-keeper, we now require documented QA approvals.
So in your case, a Change Management process like this would help. But you'll also need to change the way people care about your production environment. You'll need both, but take heart - it can be done.
This just goes to show that getting cryptography right can be just as hard for the bad guys as the good guys. There are so many ways to get it wrong. Just ask Bruce: https://www.schneier.com/essay...
We have our legacy system "Theseus" that has been running since the early '80s. Sure the hardware it runs on has changed three times and we've re-written it four times, but it's still the same legacy system we've always had.
In deciding to cut a new path with Unity, Ubuntu had some good reasons to break with Gnome as its primary UI layer. Gnome caused about as much stir with its initial 3.0 release as Ubuntu did with Unity. If Gnome, KDE, or other UI technologies are able to fix the issues that drove Canonical to create Unity, would they get more official, supported status than they now have? In other words, would Canonical ever consider moving away from Unity?
I like the sound of this initially. One drawback to current App stores is they are locked to a single platform (ie. OS). Apple's App store only works on Apple devices. Android's various marketplaces only work on Android devices. the Windows App store apps will work only on Windows devices.
Here Steam has the chance to let the same apps work on any OS you want as long as the app developers will support it. Login to your Steam account anywhere and install that must-have-software on any machine no matter where you are or what you have. And if your application can be easily distributed through one channel to all your users, so much the better for you! I hope Steam finds success here.
While I'm not an expert in fashion for males or females, you don't have to look far to notice that there are lots of tech CEOs that just throw a sports coat or blazer on top of their t-shirt and jeans. No one questions their authority or style, and it projects the confidence of a real owner. You already have the jeans and t-shirt, so I'd suggest picking up a few sport coats or blazers to wear with them. It adds that aura of authority, and is easily removed/swapped.
What I want to know is how will the Obama Administration actually pick the top 2,500 or 10,000 teachers for the program. What criteria or measurements will they use to select them? Is it a subjective measure? We've had fights in all 50 states about measuring teacher performance, But the Obama plan seems to gloss over that problem. I could see whatever process used to select the cream of the crop also used to justify salaries for the n - 2500 teachers.
My guess is the lender. And in the vast majority of cases these days, the lender is the government. The school doesn't have an incentive to hurt the success of their alumni, and the only party gaining from forcing (former) students to pay up is the government.
Sounds like Universities are now becoming lackeys for the Federal government. These days, the vast majority (80% - 90%) of student loans come directly from the Federal government. Private lenders were taking advantage of students, so the government stepped in and pretty much owns the market. And the government won't generally let you off the hook for these loans -- even through bankruptcy. The government wants its money back.
The same government that subsidizes student loans also sends grant money to the Universities. I'd bet dollars to donuts that the government is willing to put the squeeze on universities to find some way to force students to pay. It shouldn't surprise anyone to find out that the Feds might withhold funding from Universities if their students don't pay back loans.
Like the summary, and others, have pointed out: there's no good incentive for Universities to not send transcripts for students behind on their loan payments. So why else but pressure from the Federal government would Universities do something that harms their alumni and their reputation?
I had a fight with my dad, and it got pretty heated. He ended up cutting off my hand, and I dropped it. I felt really shafted. It was a traumatic experience for me. It worked out in the end, as it turned out it was his lightsaber anyway, and I built my own shortly thereafter. I also got a new hand (you can't really build a lightsaber with just one hand -- I should know!)
My wife was allowed to take her yogurt through security in her carry-on, even though it was more then 3oz of yogurt. The reason was she had put it in the freezer before the trip. Since it was still frozen, it didn't count as a liquid, and therefore wasn't subject to the usual rules.
Your TSA experience may vary, since there's certainly inconsistency in how rules are applied.
Honestly, I wish I understood the filesystem better.
I came from the Windows world with very little programming experience. Even though I've used Ubuntu as my other OS since 10.04 (and experimented before then), I still don't understand the filesystem beneath it. Everything is in something like/bin,/etc,/lib/home, or some other very short folder. I could at least make the connection that/home is for my stuff, because that's where all my stuff is saved by default. But just about everything else is a mystery.
When I install a program, where does it go? In Windows, I've been trained to look in the "Programs" folder. In Linux, I have no idea where it went. Did it go into/bin or/lib? Or somewhere else? What are those separate directories for? Why is the.conf in a different place than the program? If I want to install something myself before it hits the distro's repository, where do I put it?
What Ubuntu lacks (along with just about every other distro aiming to convert Windows users) is some built-in way to teach users how to do the things they used to do in Windows. I don't mean things like "how to open a Word doc" -- if you can't find LibreOffice in the menu or use an online doc-editing tool, Linux is beyond you. But advanced users of Windows could use the boost to get them on the same level as beginner-to-normal Linux users.
I have thought of writing some kind of book or website tutorial on just this topic several times, but I can't -- I don't know the answers to these questions. If someone or some group did this, that would help make Ubuntu a more mainstream desktop OS.
An article I keep bookmarked for these occasions: Divided Government Is Best For the Market by Donald Luskin. He basically does the analysis and comes to the same conclusion you drew anecdotally. When government is divided and gridlocked, the economy does best.
I have really enjoyed reading/. and all the realms it opened my eyes to, from Linux to patent trolls to politics to OMG Ponies!!!.
The thing I will probably.miss the most is being able to reply to Anonymous Coward who bothers to question, "Is this News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters????" Pointing out that it was your post on your site and you can post whatever you want always had some sweet justice to it. Now I'll just have to stop feeding the trolls.
Because these people represent a minority of the overall public. Yet they are exercising disproportionate control over critical government decisions. They have a right to their opinions and to represent those who voted for them. However, they've found a procedural tactic to put our society and the world in general at financial risk so that they can ram their beliefs down the throats of the majority. These people made promises that don't stand up to the real world. I don't really mind and often expect this from politicians but it is scary when people care more about re-election than maintaining the financial credibility of the United States of America during one of the greatest recessions in history.
Everything that you said could be used, word for word, to argue against the Democrats pushing through what many now call "ObamaCare". Based on opinion polls, a majority of American voters was against this change. Procedural tactics were used to squeeze the legislation into something that could get enough votes to pass, and out-right bribery in some cases (See "Louisiana Purchase"). The promises made to the elderly through Medicare don't stand up the liabilities we now owe. The debt incurred by these changes is perhaps not as great a financial risk as defaulting on the debt, but we've yet to see just what will happen if it does. You could easily argue that those voting in favor cared more about re-election (or were retiring and hence wouldn't be held accountable in an election) than ensuring financial stability in the US.
Your language could also apply to a number of other causes, though we'd stretch the "financial risk" side in doing so: Environmentalists, Defense Hawks, Warmongers, Unions, Corporations, "Big" Industries, Wall Street, etc. All of these in some fashion end up "ramming" (and jamming) things through Congress and down our proverbial throats.
What you want, but don't yet know you want, is more limited government. Take the power away, and the abuse of that power is also removed. If that power remains in Congress, it will be abused in Congress.
The Tea-Party Republicans ran on platforms of cutting spending and lowering the debt. Can you blame them for not turning on their constituents and breaking promises to pass legislation their home districts are against? I thought we were tired of politicians making campaign promises, then breaking them in office.
Some conservative opinions do find an open audience on Slashdot. Now, if we had another evolution/creationism thread, you would see very few pro-creationism comments modded up. But in a lot of political threads, any comment on how awesome Ron Paul is will get modded up. Then again, Ron Paul isn't "conservative", he's libertarian. Libertarian views certainly get mod points.
While its nice to see Lenovo offering those higher resolutions, neither HD+ nor FHD is available for under 1000 quid. Considering he used have better than FHD before, it sure would be nice if new computers weren't a downgrade.
I absolutely feel your pain. When purchasing a new laptop, I was coming from a 14.1" Thinkpad T43 with a resolution of 1400 x 1050 (it went higher, but you had to scroll). I wanted something better than 1366 x 768 resolution, but with every manufacturer I had to go to a 17.3" screen to get it. I ended up with a huge "laptop" just to get 1600 x 900. It is frustrating to lose so much vertical space to gain some horizontal that I really don't need anyway (few web pages actually use that wide screen space well). Some games will leverage it, but I'd have been much happier with a 4:3 ratio with better resolution.
I think it only fair to also present similar definitions for what a Republic is.
Personally, I feel that Republic is more accurate given the historical meaning of democracy, but that the meaning of "democracy" has changed since 1787 to basically include what the United States is now. The founders generally thought of direct democracy (think Athens) rather than today's broader definitions. Perhaps the most-encompassing term may be that the United States is a Constitutional Democratic Republic?
Definition of REPUBLIC (from Merriam Webster) 1
a (1) : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1) : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.
Or from Dictionary.com: republic /rpblk/ Show Spelled[ri-puhb-lik] Show IPA
–noun
1. a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.
2. any body of persons viewed as a commonwealth.
3. a state in which the head of government is not a monarch or other hereditary head of state.
While I too have issues with Corporations being treated like people, your analogies are all very dramatic and unsubstantial.
Corporations are free to merge with many other corporations, while polygamy is still illegal for 'people' in most states.
Polygamy is not a merger. Mergers turn multiple entities into one single thing. Polygamy still retains the individual people. The appropriate analogy would be cannibalism, and even that is wrong since mergers are usually mutually beneficial.
Corporations are allowed to have business practices such as "cutting off the competitor's air supply" while murder is still illegal for 'people'.
As long as their business practices are legal, it is nothing like murder. If the business practices are illegal, then there is no argument.
Corporations are allowed to be dissolved yet Suicide is illegal for 'people' to commit.
Corporate dissolution is not like suicide. Suicide destroys the value inherent in the person, whereas dissolution only destroys the company's name. The better analogy would be more like a divorce, where the parents split up the property and change their names. Again, that's all quite legal and isn't special treatment for corporations.
Corporations can have 'hostile takeovers' of other weaker corporations, but armed robbery, slavery, and blackmail are all still illegal for other categories of 'people'.
Robbery is theft. A hostile takeover isn't theft. It is a purchase of ownership. The two are not alike at all. As for slavery, a hostile takeover has nothing like it. Slavery doesn't apply because you aren't allowed to treat people like property. Company ownership is property and is traded every day. And blackmail doesn't even apply.
You also ignore that there are many laws that apply only to businesses and not to people. When was the last time you:
filed with the SEC?
submitted paperwork to the FDA?
Had a visit from OSHA?
Ensured your family was compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley?
Had your marriage certificate inspected by the FTC?
etc...
There are lots of problems with how we treat companies like people -- we agree on that. But your analogies don't add to that argument.
Sprint is upgrading to 4G on WiMax technology, and fast. They're pushing their EVO and such pretty heavily, along with their generous $70 talk-text-web plans. They're not likely to be interested in an iPhone unless its 4G, which just doesn't seem to be the case.
To boot, Sprint's 3G network is even less capable of handling the traffic than AT&T's, so I doubt their eager for the extra data the iPhone will bring.
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My organization a while ago saw significant issues with untested fixes being deployed and similar bad practices (undocumented configurations, lack of integration testing, etc.). The thing that did it for us was seeing our up-time drop below 99% in production systems. It became downright embarrassing and started costing us real $.
So our then-CIO froze all production changes for 90 days. In that time, we instituted a change review board. They now approve all production changes. Without the culture change that came with the culture freeze, the new process might have failed. But we bought into it. And by putting them in as the gate-keeper, we now require documented QA approvals.
So in your case, a Change Management process like this would help. But you'll also need to change the way people care about your production environment. You'll need both, but take heart - it can be done.
In other news...
This just goes to show that getting cryptography right can be just as hard for the bad guys as the good guys. There are so many ways to get it wrong. Just ask Bruce: https://www.schneier.com/essay...
We have our legacy system "Theseus" that has been running since the early '80s. Sure the hardware it runs on has changed three times and we've re-written it four times, but it's still the same legacy system we've always had.
In deciding to cut a new path with Unity, Ubuntu had some good reasons to break with Gnome as its primary UI layer. Gnome caused about as much stir with its initial 3.0 release as Ubuntu did with Unity. If Gnome, KDE, or other UI technologies are able to fix the issues that drove Canonical to create Unity, would they get more official, supported status than they now have? In other words, would Canonical ever consider moving away from Unity?
I like the sound of this initially. One drawback to current App stores is they are locked to a single platform (ie. OS). Apple's App store only works on Apple devices. Android's various marketplaces only work on Android devices. the Windows App store apps will work only on Windows devices.
Here Steam has the chance to let the same apps work on any OS you want as long as the app developers will support it. Login to your Steam account anywhere and install that must-have-software on any machine no matter where you are or what you have. And if your application can be easily distributed through one channel to all your users, so much the better for you! I hope Steam finds success here.
While I'm not an expert in fashion for males or females, you don't have to look far to notice that there are lots of tech CEOs that just throw a sports coat or blazer on top of their t-shirt and jeans. No one questions their authority or style, and it projects the confidence of a real owner. You already have the jeans and t-shirt, so I'd suggest picking up a few sport coats or blazers to wear with them. It adds that aura of authority, and is easily removed/swapped.
What I want to know is how will the Obama Administration actually pick the top 2,500 or 10,000 teachers for the program. What criteria or measurements will they use to select them? Is it a subjective measure? We've had fights in all 50 states about measuring teacher performance, But the Obama plan seems to gloss over that problem. I could see whatever process used to select the cream of the crop also used to justify salaries for the n - 2500 teachers.
Who is muddying these waters?
My guess is the lender. And in the vast majority of cases these days, the lender is the government. The school doesn't have an incentive to hurt the success of their alumni, and the only party gaining from forcing (former) students to pay up is the government.
Sounds like Universities are now becoming lackeys for the Federal government. These days, the vast majority (80% - 90%) of student loans come directly from the Federal government. Private lenders were taking advantage of students, so the government stepped in and pretty much owns the market. And the government won't generally let you off the hook for these loans -- even through bankruptcy. The government wants its money back.
The same government that subsidizes student loans also sends grant money to the Universities. I'd bet dollars to donuts that the government is willing to put the squeeze on universities to find some way to force students to pay. It shouldn't surprise anyone to find out that the Feds might withhold funding from Universities if their students don't pay back loans.
Like the summary, and others, have pointed out: there's no good incentive for Universities to not send transcripts for students behind on their loan payments. So why else but pressure from the Federal government would Universities do something that harms their alumni and their reputation?
I've also lost a lightsaber in the past.
I had a fight with my dad, and it got pretty heated. He ended up cutting off my hand, and I dropped it. I felt really shafted. It was a traumatic experience for me. It worked out in the end, as it turned out it was his lightsaber anyway, and I built my own shortly thereafter. I also got a new hand (you can't really build a lightsaber with just one hand -- I should know!)
--Luke S.
Anecdote:
My wife was allowed to take her yogurt through security in her carry-on, even though it was more then 3oz of yogurt. The reason was she had put it in the freezer before the trip. Since it was still frozen, it didn't count as a liquid, and therefore wasn't subject to the usual rules.
Your TSA experience may vary, since there's certainly inconsistency in how rules are applied.
It's funny that you ask this, because the Supreme Court just heard a case on precisely this topic. Read the ScotusBlog analysis on what the Justices argued below:
http://www.scotusblog.com/2011/11/argument-recap-for-gps-get-a-warrant/
Honestly, I wish I understood the filesystem better.
/bin, /etc, /lib /home, or some other very short folder. I could at least make the connection that /home is for my stuff, because that's where all my stuff is saved by default. But just about everything else is a mystery.
/bin or /lib? Or somewhere else? What are those separate directories for? Why is the .conf in a different place than the program? If I want to install something myself before it hits the distro's repository, where do I put it?
I came from the Windows world with very little programming experience. Even though I've used Ubuntu as my other OS since 10.04 (and experimented before then), I still don't understand the filesystem beneath it. Everything is in something like
When I install a program, where does it go? In Windows, I've been trained to look in the "Programs" folder. In Linux, I have no idea where it went. Did it go into
What Ubuntu lacks (along with just about every other distro aiming to convert Windows users) is some built-in way to teach users how to do the things they used to do in Windows. I don't mean things like "how to open a Word doc" -- if you can't find LibreOffice in the menu or use an online doc-editing tool, Linux is beyond you. But advanced users of Windows could use the boost to get them on the same level as beginner-to-normal Linux users.
I have thought of writing some kind of book or website tutorial on just this topic several times, but I can't -- I don't know the answers to these questions. If someone or some group did this, that would help make Ubuntu a more mainstream desktop OS.
An article I keep bookmarked for these occasions:
Divided Government Is Best For the Market by Donald Luskin. He basically does the analysis and comes to the same conclusion you drew anecdotally. When government is divided and gridlocked, the economy does best.
I have really enjoyed reading /. and all the realms it opened my eyes to, from Linux to patent trolls to politics to OMG Ponies!!!.
.miss the most is being able to reply to Anonymous Coward who bothers to question, "Is this News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters????" Pointing out that it was your post on your site and you can post whatever you want always had some sweet justice to it. Now I'll just have to stop feeding the trolls.
The thing I will probably
The best of luck to you in whatever you do.
Because these people represent a minority of the overall public. Yet they are exercising disproportionate control over critical government decisions. They have a right to their opinions and to represent those who voted for them. However, they've found a procedural tactic to put our society and the world in general at financial risk so that they can ram their beliefs down the throats of the majority. These people made promises that don't stand up to the real world. I don't really mind and often expect this from politicians but it is scary when people care more about re-election than maintaining the financial credibility of the United States of America during one of the greatest recessions in history.
Everything that you said could be used, word for word, to argue against the Democrats pushing through what many now call "ObamaCare". Based on opinion polls, a majority of American voters was against this change. Procedural tactics were used to squeeze the legislation into something that could get enough votes to pass, and out-right bribery in some cases (See "Louisiana Purchase"). The promises made to the elderly through Medicare don't stand up the liabilities we now owe. The debt incurred by these changes is perhaps not as great a financial risk as defaulting on the debt, but we've yet to see just what will happen if it does. You could easily argue that those voting in favor cared more about re-election (or were retiring and hence wouldn't be held accountable in an election) than ensuring financial stability in the US.
Your language could also apply to a number of other causes, though we'd stretch the "financial risk" side in doing so: Environmentalists, Defense Hawks, Warmongers, Unions, Corporations, "Big" Industries, Wall Street, etc. All of these in some fashion end up "ramming" (and jamming) things through Congress and down our proverbial throats.
What you want, but don't yet know you want, is more limited government. Take the power away, and the abuse of that power is also removed. If that power remains in Congress, it will be abused in Congress.
The Tea-Party Republicans ran on platforms of cutting spending and lowering the debt. Can you blame them for not turning on their constituents and breaking promises to pass legislation their home districts are against? I thought we were tired of politicians making campaign promises, then breaking them in office.
Some conservative opinions do find an open audience on Slashdot. Now, if we had another evolution/creationism thread, you would see very few pro-creationism comments modded up. But in a lot of political threads, any comment on how awesome Ron Paul is will get modded up. Then again, Ron Paul isn't "conservative", he's libertarian. Libertarian views certainly get mod points.
While its nice to see Lenovo offering those higher resolutions, neither HD+ nor FHD is available for under 1000 quid. Considering he used have better than FHD before, it sure would be nice if new computers weren't a downgrade.
I absolutely feel your pain. When purchasing a new laptop, I was coming from a 14.1" Thinkpad T43 with a resolution of 1400 x 1050 (it went higher, but you had to scroll). I wanted something better than 1366 x 768 resolution, but with every manufacturer I had to go to a 17.3" screen to get it. I ended up with a huge "laptop" just to get 1600 x 900. It is frustrating to lose so much vertical space to gain some horizontal that I really don't need anyway (few web pages actually use that wide screen space well). Some games will leverage it, but I'd have been much happier with a 4:3 ratio with better resolution.
I think it only fair to also present similar definitions for what a Republic is.
/rpblk/ Show Spelled[ri-puhb-lik] Show IPA
Personally, I feel that Republic is more accurate given the historical meaning of democracy, but that the meaning of "democracy" has changed since 1787 to basically include what the United States is now. The founders generally thought of direct democracy (think Athens) rather than today's broader definitions. Perhaps the most-encompassing term may be that the United States is a Constitutional Democratic Republic?
Definition of REPUBLIC (from Merriam Webster)
1 a (1) : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president
(2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government
b (1) : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.
Or from Dictionary.com:
republic
–noun
1. a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.
2. any body of persons viewed as a commonwealth.
3. a state in which the head of government is not a monarch or other hereditary head of state.
In an increasingly crowded world, wasted space and getting away from people is the height of luxury.
Corporations are free to merge with many other corporations, while polygamy is still illegal for 'people' in most states.
Polygamy is not a merger. Mergers turn multiple entities into one single thing. Polygamy still retains the individual people. The appropriate analogy would be cannibalism, and even that is wrong since mergers are usually mutually beneficial.
Corporations are allowed to have business practices such as "cutting off the competitor's air supply" while murder is still illegal for 'people'.
As long as their business practices are legal, it is nothing like murder. If the business practices are illegal, then there is no argument.
Corporations are allowed to be dissolved yet Suicide is illegal for 'people' to commit.
Corporate dissolution is not like suicide. Suicide destroys the value inherent in the person, whereas dissolution only destroys the company's name. The better analogy would be more like a divorce, where the parents split up the property and change their names. Again, that's all quite legal and isn't special treatment for corporations.
Corporations can have 'hostile takeovers' of other weaker corporations, but armed robbery, slavery, and blackmail are all still illegal for other categories of 'people'.
Robbery is theft. A hostile takeover isn't theft. It is a purchase of ownership. The two are not alike at all. As for slavery, a hostile takeover has nothing like it. Slavery doesn't apply because you aren't allowed to treat people like property. Company ownership is property and is traded every day. And blackmail doesn't even apply.
You also ignore that there are many laws that apply only to businesses and not to people. When was the last time you:
There are lots of problems with how we treat companies like people -- we agree on that. But your analogies don't add to that argument.
Sprint is upgrading to 4G on WiMax technology, and fast. They're pushing their EVO and such pretty heavily, along with their generous $70 talk-text-web plans. They're not likely to be interested in an iPhone unless its 4G, which just doesn't seem to be the case.
To boot, Sprint's 3G network is even less capable of handling the traffic than AT&T's, so I doubt their eager for the extra data the iPhone will bring.