Problem is, that really only works with cars that not enough people are buying, and will be sitting around on the lot. Anything where they know a sucker will come in within the week and buy it, they'll just ignore you.
I buy cars very infrequently, which means I can usually pay cash. This gives a few interesting options. My favorite was doing enough homework to figure out what a good "all-in" price was (includes all the fees, etc.) for a specific car in inventory. Then wait till the end of their month (or quarter, if you can figure that out).
Get your test drive out of the way somewhere else. Get a cashier's check for the "all-in" price made out to Dealer's Name OR Your Name (so you can easily re-deposit it). Go in, find a sales individual, give them the inventory # and show them the check, and let them know a) you have no checkbook/credit card/cash with you, and b) if they say anything other than "yes, we have a deal," you're leaving.
As long as they aren't losing money on the deal, and that model hasn't been selling for high prices because it's popular, they have little reason to refuse.
Boo hoo, teh Russians are going to spy on us the same way we spy on everyone else. Waahh, how unfair.
Well, at least most of what the US intercepts this way, it would probably keep to itself. Anything Russia gets that's economically valuable (ID theft, etc.), I'd expect to end up in the hands of organized crime.
Not to mention bombs make noise, which carries for a long way under water. You'd probably attract a lot of unwanted attention very quickly if you started that.
If I were trying to cut cables on purpose in deep water, I would probably go for a sled designed to be dragged across the sea floor with a hooked blade that penetrated a foot or so down. Maybe with some lights/cameras to verify a good cut.
Then all you have to do is drive back and forth across the cable's known route until you snag it. Bonus if you can grab one of the cut ends and drag it miles away from the cut to make it harder to find and repair.
I think relationships between people of differing means can be challenging no matter where they are on the spectrum.
If you're doing comfortably well, you'll probably want to go out to eat occasionally, or do things that have some cost attached to them that you can afford. Your friend who's just scraping by will either have to decline to join you, put themselves in a bad situation by spending what they can't afford, or rely on you to pay for them (which YOU may not be able to afford). Uncomfortable all around. Even if you're willing to go do things your friend can afford, they might still feel bad about it.
Your friend who's doing a little better than you may put you in the opposite situation.
Thus, you'll naturally end up spending more time with people of similar means, just because it's easiest.
It could just be that the people with experience (and wisdom to go with it) want nothing to do with Silicon Valley.
In the IT dept I'm in here in the Dallas area, I would say the average age is somewhere between 40-45.
Funny thing... our EVP came from a place that hired a lot of those cheaper people and outsourced/off-shored a lot. He was absolutely boggled that our department managed to successfully complete over 40 major "combined arms" projects in a year (with barely that many employees), where the places he'd been previously could barely manage 4 with a similar number of people. So they're paying maybe 50% more, and getting 1000% more.
Oh, and we're all generally able to keep it to between 7-9 hrs/day, too.
I'm not sure what Dell or EMC would gain out of this merger, if it is even true. Dell already owns Equallogic which covers the low to mid-range of the storage market pretty well in Dell's offerings.
Well, the merged company would be "DMC," which would allow them to make storage that sends IO requests back in time, resulting in their completing instantly in the present. Should reduce latency considerably.
Volvo is offering to indemnifying individual owners against flaws in the self-driving system. Of course, you'd have to prove somehow that the self-driving system was responsible, and do it by going up against a massive corporation's legal department.
On the other hand, if your self-driving car has a crash, who do you think people are more likely to sue? You, or the corp with deep pockets? Lawyers will probably be lining up for contingency fees to go after the corp.
Yeah, everyone wants minute by minute logging of their Coolant Temperature and Throttle Position.
Porsches (at least the Boxsters, Caymans, and 911s) get driven on track a lot. People spend a lot of money on after-market systems that track those things. Having it built in would be nice, if it wasn't sending it all to a mother ship somewhere.
This being the internet, and specifically Slashdot, I look forward to a well-mannered, reasonable discussion about the event and surrounding possibilities with absolutely no moderator bias intervention, political fervor, or anyone being referred to as a "fuckwad".
Slashdot has been designated as a "fuckwad-free zone," so of course, there's nothing to worry about!
So from what I gather, you need a Facebook account to join, and you need to know someone's cell # to add them.
I wonder if it's using Facebook's record of people's cell #s through their API in order to verify this. If so, just don't add your cell # to your FB (who the hell would do that, anyway)? Or put one on there (set so no one can see it) that's fake?
... She'll be doxxed and harassed to no end before this thing leaves Beta. Once it goes live, it will be battered with intrusion attempts. I cannot wait to see how it all goes down.
If she's lucky. If she's not, someone that gets pushed into being suicidal by this might decide to take her with them.
The faces on the standard ASCII table serve a very important purpose: to let you know that your C/C++ code is outputting garbage, and you need to check your pointers.
If a malicious user gain physical access to your network, a high-voltage attack is the least of your worries. Network sniffers and other tools can quickly own your entire network doing far more monetary damage then some fried networking equipment.
The thing is that this kind of attack can be done quickly and un-detectably. Some access-layer switch hardware has hundreds of ports. Ten seconds unobserved in a cubicle would be all you need to plug a cable with a mains plug at one end, and RJ45 at the other into the relevant ports, pull it back out, and stuff it back in your laptop bag. $1k per work area x 400 switch ports (plus the expensive switch) is a lot of money to go poof with 10 seconds of effort, not to mention the 400 people that will now be sitting around doing nothing for several weeks while their stuff is fixed/replaced, and the data from their devices that wasn't backed up.
Even places that x-ray or search bags probably wouldn't find that kind of device in the usual tangled mess of cables in a computer bag.
Driving around with a known polluting car is awful. You are a jerk for suggesting folks just ignore their cars being 40x out of compliance. Diesel particulate emissions are a major contributor to diseases like lung cancer, asthma, etc. Eff you.
I couldn't easily find if VW is just going to update the software, or what?
No, VW are the jerks. If there ends up being a noticeable negative impact on performance, the only fair thing for VW to do is offer full refunds (including tax, and everything) for those who want it, and take the cars back. Otherwise, how are people jerks for wanting to keep what they paid for? Even compensating people a few hundred dollars isn't enough to make up for being stuck with a multi-thousand-dollar asset you no longer enjoy using.
Use strong encryption end-to-end, encrypt any data on the servers, give your clients/customers their keys, and make certain you don't have a back door.
And then wait until the NSA or local equivalent shows up with a demand to add a back door and a gag order, at which time your only options are to comply or close up shop.
I'll tell you upfront, very very few major game developers are considering Linux yet. They won't until the crowd is there and proves that people are willing to pay money for games.
IMO, very very few "major" game developers are putting out anything worth buying anymore, anyway. All of the AAA titles seem to be watered down for the lowest common denominator, and riddled with bugs that never get fixed. I spend way to much time gaming, and have been exclusively playing indie titles or games from smaller studios for the last 2-3 years now, and still have a "waiting list" because there's just so much good stuff out there if you care to look. Not all of them support Linux, but enough do.
Wouldn't it be easier to TURN OFF the gaming computer when you're not using it?
Turning my PC off at night would save me *maybe* $40-$50 per year over running it 24/7. The cost of higher component failure rates due to thermal cycling (vs. heating up and staying that way) would probably end up costing me more than that (I try to keep a PC for 4-5 years).
One tip for efficiency that I think a lot of people miss is properly sizing the power supply. They run most efficiently when you're around 50% or so of max load, and terrible efficiency under 20% load. People with the "bigger is better" mindset using 200W of a 1200W PSU will be wasting a lot of power vs. properly sizing the supply at 400-500W.
PS/ what's he bitching and whining about women for? he can afford any (set of) pornstar(s) he wants now!!:D
If you flaunt your wealth, I think you get what you deserve in woman department.
As a single guy, if I was in a similar situation, and was actually serious about finding a good girl, I'd put the money away and just pretend I'm living on $100k/yr or whatever until I find the right girl.
Whether the marriage will survive the shock of her finding out she's now a billionaire, well, that's another question.:)
I think whether or not the world knows who you are makes a big difference. If everyone knows you've got that kind of money, you're kind of stuck surrounding yourself with "flappers" in order to maintain some amount of peace and quiet.
In my case, my first priority would be to stay anonymous.
After that... Well, relatively small amounts of money can make a *huge* difference for some people. A $200 million lottery payout at even a crappy rate of return still gives you a five-figure PER DAY budget without touching the principal. I would make it my mission to give away at least 90% of that, daily and personally. Impossible, perhaps, but probably way more fulfilling than anything else I could do with it.
Ultimately, Heinlein was right when Jubal (in A Stranger in a Strange Land) pointed out that people want to SPEND money, not HAVE money.
You didn't read the rest of the story, which states "In order to make the comparison fair, the A10 will be fuelled with paraffin wax and weedkiller, have a large number of anvils bolted to it, and will be dragging a large boat anchor. 'We hope this at least evens the odds a bit so the F35 will look OK', a Pentagon spokesthing was quoted as saying".
Sadly the A-10 will still come out on top as it can probably run on paraffin. It's also maneuverable enough that the pilots will turn the boat anchor into a weapon and swat enemy fortifications with it just before purging the boiling wax on their position. And still have enough fuel to loiter longer than the JST.
You forgot its ability to use the weedkiller in the exhaust to defoliate the target area so it can see better.
Lazy Linux administration can lead to a similar fate
I'm not sure why you are calling it "Lazy" for a Linux admin?? even a competent and proactive linux admin would still be thoroughly vulnerable if his credentials were compromised.
I mean things like using the same password for root on every server. I've even seen places that had admin users' usernames all given UID 0, so they didn't have to bother with sudo or su. So no, Linux isn't invulnerable by any means, but you can certainly make it much worse.
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Problem is, that really only works with cars that not enough people are buying, and will be sitting around on the lot. Anything where they know a sucker will come in within the week and buy it, they'll just ignore you.
I buy cars very infrequently, which means I can usually pay cash. This gives a few interesting options. My favorite was doing enough homework to figure out what a good "all-in" price was (includes all the fees, etc.) for a specific car in inventory. Then wait till the end of their month (or quarter, if you can figure that out).
Get your test drive out of the way somewhere else. Get a cashier's check for the "all-in" price made out to Dealer's Name OR Your Name (so you can easily re-deposit it). Go in, find a sales individual, give them the inventory # and show them the check, and let them know a) you have no checkbook/credit card/cash with you, and b) if they say anything other than "yes, we have a deal," you're leaving.
As long as they aren't losing money on the deal, and that model hasn't been selling for high prices because it's popular, they have little reason to refuse.
Boo hoo, teh Russians are going to spy on us the same way we spy on everyone else. Waahh, how unfair.
Well, at least most of what the US intercepts this way, it would probably keep to itself. Anything Russia gets that's economically valuable (ID theft, etc.), I'd expect to end up in the hands of organized crime.
Not to mention bombs make noise, which carries for a long way under water. You'd probably attract a lot of unwanted attention very quickly if you started that.
If I were trying to cut cables on purpose in deep water, I would probably go for a sled designed to be dragged across the sea floor with a hooked blade that penetrated a foot or so down. Maybe with some lights/cameras to verify a good cut.
Then all you have to do is drive back and forth across the cable's known route until you snag it. Bonus if you can grab one of the cut ends and drag it miles away from the cut to make it harder to find and repair.
I think relationships between people of differing means can be challenging no matter where they are on the spectrum.
If you're doing comfortably well, you'll probably want to go out to eat occasionally, or do things that have some cost attached to them that you can afford. Your friend who's just scraping by will either have to decline to join you, put themselves in a bad situation by spending what they can't afford, or rely on you to pay for them (which YOU may not be able to afford). Uncomfortable all around. Even if you're willing to go do things your friend can afford, they might still feel bad about it.
Your friend who's doing a little better than you may put you in the opposite situation.
Thus, you'll naturally end up spending more time with people of similar means, just because it's easiest.
It could just be that the people with experience (and wisdom to go with it) want nothing to do with Silicon Valley.
In the IT dept I'm in here in the Dallas area, I would say the average age is somewhere between 40-45.
Funny thing... our EVP came from a place that hired a lot of those cheaper people and outsourced/off-shored a lot. He was absolutely boggled that our department managed to successfully complete over 40 major "combined arms" projects in a year (with barely that many employees), where the places he'd been previously could barely manage 4 with a similar number of people. So they're paying maybe 50% more, and getting 1000% more.
Oh, and we're all generally able to keep it to between 7-9 hrs/day, too.
I'm not sure what Dell or EMC would gain out of this merger, if it is even true. Dell already owns Equallogic which covers the low to mid-range of the storage market pretty well in Dell's offerings.
Well, the merged company would be "DMC," which would allow them to make storage that sends IO requests back in time, resulting in their completing instantly in the present. Should reduce latency considerably.
Volvo is offering to indemnifying individual owners against flaws in the self-driving system. Of course, you'd have to prove somehow that the self-driving system was responsible, and do it by going up against a massive corporation's legal department.
On the other hand, if your self-driving car has a crash, who do you think people are more likely to sue? You, or the corp with deep pockets? Lawyers will probably be lining up for contingency fees to go after the corp.
Yeah, everyone wants minute by minute logging of their Coolant Temperature and Throttle Position.
Porsches (at least the Boxsters, Caymans, and 911s) get driven on track a lot. People spend a lot of money on after-market systems that track those things. Having it built in would be nice, if it wasn't sending it all to a mother ship somewhere.
This being the internet, and specifically Slashdot, I look forward to a well-mannered, reasonable discussion about the event and surrounding possibilities with absolutely no moderator bias intervention, political fervor, or anyone being referred to as a "fuckwad".
Slashdot has been designated as a "fuckwad-free zone," so of course, there's nothing to worry about!
What about the rights of the 100's of thousands of people that have been murdered by gun in America - what about them?
They have the right to bear arms in defense of themselves and their loved ones, just like everyone else.
Many people just don't want the responsibility.
So from what I gather, you need a Facebook account to join, and you need to know someone's cell # to add them.
I wonder if it's using Facebook's record of people's cell #s through their API in order to verify this. If so, just don't add your cell # to your FB (who the hell would do that, anyway)? Or put one on there (set so no one can see it) that's fake?
... She'll be doxxed and harassed to no end before this thing leaves Beta. Once it goes live, it will be battered with intrusion attempts. I cannot wait to see how it all goes down.
If she's lucky. If she's not, someone that gets pushed into being suicidal by this might decide to take her with them.
The faces on the standard ASCII table serve a very important purpose: to let you know that your C/C++ code is outputting garbage, and you need to check your pointers.
And indicate where your dwarves are...
If a malicious user gain physical access to your network, a high-voltage attack is the least of your worries. Network sniffers and other tools can quickly own your entire network doing far more monetary damage then some fried networking equipment.
The thing is that this kind of attack can be done quickly and un-detectably. Some access-layer switch hardware has hundreds of ports. Ten seconds unobserved in a cubicle would be all you need to plug a cable with a mains plug at one end, and RJ45 at the other into the relevant ports, pull it back out, and stuff it back in your laptop bag. $1k per work area x 400 switch ports (plus the expensive switch) is a lot of money to go poof with 10 seconds of effort, not to mention the 400 people that will now be sitting around doing nothing for several weeks while their stuff is fixed/replaced, and the data from their devices that wasn't backed up.
Even places that x-ray or search bags probably wouldn't find that kind of device in the usual tangled mess of cables in a computer bag.
This sounds like something ripped right from the BOFH stories...
That was certainly the first place I read about splicing mains plugs onto Ethernet cables... :)
And the radio won't get any reception when you hold the steering wheel at the 9 & 3 o'clock positions.
Driving around with a known polluting car is awful. You are a jerk for suggesting folks just ignore their cars being 40x out of compliance. Diesel particulate emissions are a major contributor to diseases like lung cancer, asthma, etc. Eff you.
I couldn't easily find if VW is just going to update the software, or what?
No, VW are the jerks. If there ends up being a noticeable negative impact on performance, the only fair thing for VW to do is offer full refunds (including tax, and everything) for those who want it, and take the cars back. Otherwise, how are people jerks for wanting to keep what they paid for? Even compensating people a few hundred dollars isn't enough to make up for being stuck with a multi-thousand-dollar asset you no longer enjoy using.
Use strong encryption end-to-end, encrypt any data on the servers, give your clients/customers their keys, and make certain you don't have a back door.
And then wait until the NSA or local equivalent shows up with a demand to add a back door and a gag order, at which time your only options are to comply or close up shop.
Any non-famous/non-rich private individual using this tech would just be thrown in jail for destruction of evidence.
I'll tell you upfront, very very few major game developers are considering Linux yet. They won't until the crowd is there and proves that people are willing to pay money for games.
IMO, very very few "major" game developers are putting out anything worth buying anymore, anyway. All of the AAA titles seem to be watered down for the lowest common denominator, and riddled with bugs that never get fixed. I spend way to much time gaming, and have been exclusively playing indie titles or games from smaller studios for the last 2-3 years now, and still have a "waiting list" because there's just so much good stuff out there if you care to look. Not all of them support Linux, but enough do.
Wouldn't it be easier to TURN OFF the gaming computer when you're not using it?
Turning my PC off at night would save me *maybe* $40-$50 per year over running it 24/7. The cost of higher component failure rates due to thermal cycling (vs. heating up and staying that way) would probably end up costing me more than that (I try to keep a PC for 4-5 years).
One tip for efficiency that I think a lot of people miss is properly sizing the power supply. They run most efficiently when you're around 50% or so of max load, and terrible efficiency under 20% load. People with the "bigger is better" mindset using 200W of a 1200W PSU will be wasting a lot of power vs. properly sizing the supply at 400-500W.
PS/ what's he bitching and whining about women for? he can afford any (set of) pornstar(s) he wants now!! :D
If you flaunt your wealth, I think you get what you deserve in woman department.
As a single guy, if I was in a similar situation, and was actually serious about finding a good girl, I'd put the money away and just pretend I'm living on $100k/yr or whatever until I find the right girl.
Whether the marriage will survive the shock of her finding out she's now a billionaire, well, that's another question. :)
I think whether or not the world knows who you are makes a big difference. If everyone knows you've got that kind of money, you're kind of stuck surrounding yourself with "flappers" in order to maintain some amount of peace and quiet.
In my case, my first priority would be to stay anonymous.
After that... Well, relatively small amounts of money can make a *huge* difference for some people. A $200 million lottery payout at even a crappy rate of return still gives you a five-figure PER DAY budget without touching the principal. I would make it my mission to give away at least 90% of that, daily and personally. Impossible, perhaps, but probably way more fulfilling than anything else I could do with it.
Ultimately, Heinlein was right when Jubal (in A Stranger in a Strange Land) pointed out that people want to SPEND money, not HAVE money.
You didn't read the rest of the story, which states "In order to make the comparison fair, the A10 will be fuelled with paraffin wax and weedkiller, have a large number of anvils bolted to it, and will be dragging a large boat anchor. 'We hope this at least evens the odds a bit so the F35 will look OK', a Pentagon spokesthing was quoted as saying".
Sadly the A-10 will still come out on top as it can probably run on paraffin. It's also maneuverable enough that the pilots will turn the boat anchor into a weapon and swat enemy fortifications with it just before purging the boiling wax on their position. And still have enough fuel to loiter longer than the JST.
You forgot its ability to use the weedkiller in the exhaust to defoliate the target area so it can see better.
Lazy Linux administration can lead to a similar fate
I'm not sure why you are calling it "Lazy" for a Linux admin?? even a competent and proactive linux admin would still be thoroughly vulnerable if his credentials were compromised.
I mean things like using the same password for root on every server. I've even seen places that had admin users' usernames all given UID 0, so they didn't have to bother with sudo or su. So no, Linux isn't invulnerable by any means, but you can certainly make it much worse.