This site, www.suespammers.org, outlines existing state laws regarding spam. If you're lucky and live in a state like Iowa, for example, that denotes specific fines, you could potentially sue or at least threaten to sue for civil damages.
I'm not normally one to jump on the "sue everyone" bandwagon, but since Sandbox is a reasonably reputable company and not some random, faceless spam operation, pointing this out to them might at least get them to sit up and take notice. You can also complain (or threaten to) to the relevant Attorney General. Actually, that might not be a bad idea anyway, since if they get enough complaints about a company they will look into their practices.
If you want out, it's worth trying something like Geekfinder or Monster.com. Specify that you're only looking for work in your metro area, or South Dakota, or the Midwest, or whatever distance you'd be willing to move. No harm in seeing what's out there. I think you'd be surprised how many tech companies there really are in the Midwest. They're just not as vocal as the ones in the valley. IMHO, they're also a bit more stable.
I did a major project on this topic a few years ago, and can send you my list of references if you like. Heck, you can have the whole paper. The assertions being made were along the lines that the probability of anything surviving was so low that we should stop "wasting money" on complicated sterilization procedures that could be spent elsewhere. A lot of people were making this claim.
Also, I didn't mean "have they thought of that" in terms of "have they thought of sterilization". I meant "have they thought of the specific implications of this hardy mold on that". Most of what I've read WRT this mold focuses on preventing damage from it, and says nothing about the issues raised here.
Seriously, if you want my references, let me know.
This pretty much refutes the past assertion among the space community that space is too hostile (radiation, extreme heat & cold) to support microbial/fungal life. If fungi, bacteria, etc can survive (thrive!) on the exterior of Mir, why not on Mars? Are the environments really all that different?
This has two separate but related implications on the search for microbial life (live, remains, fossils) on Mars. First, it opens the possibility that some area of Mars that we haven't explored closely (ie, a lot) may contain evidence of past/present life. Second, what if a probe (or people, someday) sent to Mars isn't properly sterile, and we expose the surface to mold/bacteria from Earth? That would confuse and cast doubt on any findings regarding Mars' biology. Suppose we did find evidence of mold on Mars. How do we know it originated there, and didn't just hitch a ride from Earth?
..is that I know any number of people, including myself, who have left an internship and their employer blithely continues to pay them. Some are more honest than others in reporting the error. Interesting when you consider how tight a grip most companies keep on the $$$ while you're there. (God forbid you lost the receipt for dinner on a business trip.) Makes you wonder what else they've forgotten to stop (like the aforementioned account privileges).
Note to self: try sending email to old address, see if it bounces....
I have found that unless I know the exact name of the package I want, dselect is the way to go. Search for a substring of something you want (ie. mp3 to find mp3 players/recorders) and jump through the instances of it. And, it tells you all the dependencies related to a package you're installing/uninstalling/upating. If you know the exact name of what you want and don't want to bother with the menus, apt-get is more robust than dpkg.
I have always wondered what was the idea behind those temporary work cards. I mean, if the person is skilled in a domain that your country badly needs, why would you not want to try to keep that person for as long as possible?
I believe that the purpose is to bring in temporary workers to fill a temporary skill need. Six years later, the field might not be in such high need anymore. That would make the supplemental foreign workers extraneous. Not saying it's fair or I agree, but it's a reason. If a non-citizen is holding a job that a citizen could be, that's seen as a bad thing.
Also, as has been stated in earlier posts, it is possible to go to permanent status from H1B if the process is started soon enough, or if you marry/start a family. So the opportunity does exist for people who are motivated to do so.
If you think about it, that's not much bigger than any other major home appliance. A furnace is pretty darn big, so is a washer & dryer. So this isn't really that big, especially if you can combine it with your water heater and/or furnace and eliminate or reduce the space taken up by those.
True, it would be interesting to find a place for it in an already-existing home, but the garage would be a reasonable option. Apartment-dwellers may be SOL.
There has been a similar service from Mastercard for some time. It works sort of like an online gift certificate, except that instead of a certificate # that can only be redeemed at certain retailers, the recipient is given a number and expiration date to enter in any online purchase form just like any other credit card purchase. So you can use it anywhere online.
The only way the AmEx method is different is that the numbers are only good one time, rather than being good until the amount of the gift is used up.
There are any number of companies that will issue a physical card with the same characteristics (set balance to debit from) with the difference being that you can use it in non-online transactions as well.
If anyone has the URL of the site where they offer the online-only version, I'd love to have it, as I lost my bookmark file a while back.
It's been said before, but bears repeating: it doesn't matter much what specific technologies you know. Any company is just going to train you in their methods/tools anyway. Instead, focus on the basics that stay constant; good program design/coding, principles of operating systems, designing and analyzing algorithms. Everything else is bonus.
That said, I think the best CS education comes from hands-on projects, working both alone and with others to design and produce a product that meets specific requirements. This is the sort of thing that is more relevant than any specific technical class. Problem-solving is key; memorizing every intricacy of the C language is not. You should be able to look at a problem and not only come up with a solution, but be able to argue why the approach you used was better than another approach. I was disappointed that my CS degree did not involve a "senior project" as part of the curriculum, for these reasons.
Outside of technical classes, take courses that broaden your basic knowledge, or help your problem-solving ability, or even just give you something interesting to talk about at an interview. Technical/business writing, public speaking, graphic design, literature are all good ideas. Even physics can be useful. Anything that teaches you to think through your approach.
The security system would be useful if, for example, your hard drive contained private information or company trade secrets of some sort. Then, yes, you could prevent access to that information. But, if someone stole a computer, wouldn't the first thing they did be to wipe the hard drive so it couldn't be traced? And the computer wouldn't even get the email unless they downloaded your mail and your mailer was set up to save your password.
I would think some sort of GPS transmitter or other device such that you could track the thing would be more helpful.
I am currently working with the Linux/PA-RISC project, a native port of Linux to PA. The kernel is still definitely "developer-release," but I can boot it on my 712/80 and do some basic stuff. If you'd like to try it out and/or contribute to the project the web site is www.thepuffingroup.com/parisc. Lots of info there.
Agreed. We did a chat-program project in a VB class, and I was surprised how simple it was. Yet it was one of the more interesting things we did because it's something most people actually use. And it's somewhat enlightening as to how simple the basic parts of AIM, ICQ, et al really are.
I am glad to see that NASA is moving forward towards a Mars trip, testing equipment, etc. I have no doubt that the technical know-how is there to put this together. I wonder, though, how thoroughly they are researching the psychological and group-dynamics aspects of having a crew stuck together in space for months on the trip there with little to do and even less contact with home. Keeping any group of people in a confined space for such an extended period is bound to cause problems.
I assume there have been studies based on scientists in the Antarctic, oil-rig workers, MIR Astronauts, etc., but even those people have relatively easy contact with human civilization compared to the relay time associated with travel to Mars. And if an emergency occurred, help could be summoned within a reasonable amount of time. In space, those reassurances aren't there. Anyone know of any studies that would really compare to these conditions?
This is very interesting, and a really cool project, but man, for what they spent on parts/coolant you could get a pretty sweet new mobo and chip. That's not the point, of course; this was more for entertainment and geek-one-upping:-)
They don't say anything about whether the iMac's fanless cooling system can handle this speed upgrade. Not quite such a good deal if you fry the new processor or some other part. I wonder if they've done any testing along those lines; anyone have any information about cooling issues with this?
It has been my experience that they normally disallow electronics like cd players, video games, tape players, et al during takeoff and landing, but they are OK once the plane reaches cruising altitude. Cellphones, radios, tv's, RC cars, anything with an antenna, is banned for the whole flight.
The regs about cell phone/radio/tv use in airplanes were put in years ago. True, it is good to see a scientific study confirming the anecdotal evidence, but frankly, if the pilot says something's messing with the controls/readouts, I'm inclined to believe it. Aircraft controls are just not something you want to mess with.
If I had a fleet of these, I'd deploy one in every computer lab in every university, to inform people when they need to spend more time in the shower and less time in front of a computer....
Perhaps then I could breathe and code at the same time....
I would like to see this technology used in the reverse; that is, using tech-industry materials to test for and identify viruses. Potential for chemicals-free disease testing, with quick results, say, a test unit that could be used repeatedly? I wonder about the technical feasibility of something like that.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not normally one to jump on the "sue everyone" bandwagon, but since Sandbox is a reasonably reputable company and not some random, faceless spam operation, pointing this out to them might at least get them to sit up and take notice. You can also complain (or threaten to) to the relevant Attorney General. Actually, that might not be a bad idea anyway, since if they get enough complaints about a company they will look into their practices.
I have had that experience though, having a brilliant answer but then realizing that the function I wanted to use didn't exist.
Also, I didn't mean "have they thought of that" in terms of "have they thought of sterilization". I meant "have they thought of the specific implications of this hardy mold on that". Most of what I've read WRT this mold focuses on preventing damage from it, and says nothing about the issues raised here.
Seriously, if you want my references, let me know.
Space Fungus: A Menace to Orbital Habitats
with pictures of damage. Also somewhat more informative.
This has two separate but related implications on the search for microbial life (live, remains, fossils) on Mars. First, it opens the possibility that some area of Mars that we haven't explored closely (ie, a lot) may contain evidence of past/present life. Second, what if a probe (or people, someday) sent to Mars isn't properly sterile, and we expose the surface to mold/bacteria from Earth? That would confuse and cast doubt on any findings regarding Mars' biology. Suppose we did find evidence of mold on Mars. How do we know it originated there, and didn't just hitch a ride from Earth?
I wonder if they've really thought about that.
Note to self: try sending email to old address, see if it bounces....
Just throwing in my $0.02...
I believe that the purpose is to bring in temporary workers to fill a temporary skill need. Six years later, the field might not be in such high need anymore. That would make the supplemental foreign workers extraneous. Not saying it's fair or I agree, but it's a reason. If a non-citizen is holding a job that a citizen could be, that's seen as a bad thing.
Also, as has been stated in earlier posts, it is possible to go to permanent status from H1B if the process is started soon enough, or if you marry/start a family. So the opportunity does exist for people who are motivated to do so.
True, it would be interesting to find a place for it in an already-existing home, but the garage would be a reasonable option. Apartment-dwellers may be SOL.
The only way the AmEx method is different is that the numbers are only good one time, rather than being good until the amount of the gift is used up.
There are any number of companies that will issue a physical card with the same characteristics (set balance to debit from) with the difference being that you can use it in non-online transactions as well.
If anyone has the URL of the site where they offer the online-only version, I'd love to have it, as I lost my bookmark file a while back.
ISU Library Special Collections Dept.
Iowa Computer Science and Math History Links
Also, IBM has an extensive collection of historical items about its own systems, you may have luck there.
That said, I think the best CS education comes from hands-on projects, working both alone and with others to design and produce a product that meets specific requirements. This is the sort of thing that is more relevant than any specific technical class. Problem-solving is key; memorizing every intricacy of the C language is not. You should be able to look at a problem and not only come up with a solution, but be able to argue why the approach you used was better than another approach. I was disappointed that my CS degree did not involve a "senior project" as part of the curriculum, for these reasons.
Outside of technical classes, take courses that broaden your basic knowledge, or help your problem-solving ability, or even just give you something interesting to talk about at an interview. Technical/business writing, public speaking, graphic design, literature are all good ideas. Even physics can be useful. Anything that teaches you to think through your approach.
I would think some sort of GPS transmitter or other device such that you could track the thing would be more helpful.
Agreed. We did a chat-program project in a VB class, and I was surprised how simple it was. Yet it was one of the more interesting things we did because it's something most people actually use. And it's somewhat enlightening as to how simple the basic parts of AIM, ICQ, et al really are.
I assume there have been studies based on scientists in the Antarctic, oil-rig workers, MIR Astronauts, etc., but even those people have relatively easy contact with human civilization compared to the relay time associated with travel to Mars. And if an emergency occurred, help could be summoned within a reasonable amount of time. In space, those reassurances aren't there. Anyone know of any studies that would really compare to these conditions?
This is very interesting, and a really cool project, but man, for what they spent on parts/coolant you could get a pretty sweet new mobo and chip. That's not the point, of course; this was more for entertainment and geek-one-upping :-)
Here is the official FAA regulation on electronic devices in flight.
Perhaps then I could breathe and code at the same time....
I would like to see this technology used in the reverse; that is, using tech-industry materials to test for and identify viruses. Potential for chemicals-free disease testing, with quick results, say, a test unit that could be used repeatedly? I wonder about the technical feasibility of something like that.
The Aura looks like it dropped out of a Star Trek episode. Mmmm...I could definitely handle putting in overtime with one of those.