Hell, I'd be willing to develop a mine-hunting drone that doesn't work for *half* that price. I'll even throw in a few extra features like "not even waterproof" for no additional charge.
My main issue with the M9 is it's an incredibly bulky and heavy handgun for a 9mm (terrible for CCW as well, not that the Army should care about that). For a compact, 9mm makes sense. For a full size handgun... why?
That said, I bought one a few years ago (it's currently my 'nightstand' weapon), mostly because it's the handgun I'm most familiar with (I was in the Army).
This. I only recently started using ad blockers. I truly didn't mind a reasonable amount of non-obtrusive advertising, but the recent trend toward throwing 42 javascript-heavy ads in your face on each page load and freezing your browser for 30 seconds (or crashing it), turned me into a uBlock user. I'm not going back.
Much of the distribution infrastructure will likely be automated in the coming years. I suspect long-haul trucking will be the first widespread use of self driving cars. "Full employment" is just not going to be possible. When automation knocks out the bottom third of the entire labor force, what are you going to do with all those people? It's not an easy question to answer, but just ignoring them to fend for themselves would invite huge amounts of crime and civil unrest. Herding them all into ghettos doesn't sound very cool either.
This more affects folks who built their businesses around aggregating and analyzing data from various social media services. Sucks to be them, I guess.
The concept behind the H1-B program sounds reasonable. Bring in highly skilled experts from overseas that we can't find here. However, since it's now been thoroughly demostrated that:
1) Employers can't be trusted to act ethically and honor both the letter and spirit of the law, and
2) The government has been steadfastly failing to monitor the program and enforce the rules
The entire program needs to be scrapped. No H1-Bs, period. We apparently can't handle it, so employers need to find the talent here, or do without (or, you know, invest in employee development/training again).
Well, I used to work for Boeing (on satellites, not commercial aircraft), and they sold bumperstickers/t-shirts/etc. in the company store with cute anti-Airbus epithets on them. I distinctly remember "Scarebus" and "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going."
I don't think I've ever heard a non-Boeing employee use them, however.
Considering how many times my identity has been "compromised" by organizations I've entrusted with my PII (Insurance companies, banks, and several different government agencies), I don't know why I even bother trying to maintain a credit rating at all.
I'm sure I've been bought and sold a dozen times by now. My kids probably have a few defaulted mortgages on their records that they'll get to discover when they apply for student loans in 10 years or so.
the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which called the ITA expansion 'great news for the American workers and businesses that design, manufacture, and export state-of-the-art technology and information products, ranging from MRI machines to semiconductors to video game consoles.'
And which do you think came first, eh? Employers treating developers like interchangeable cogs, or developers treating employers like interchangeable paycheck providers?
There's a reason previous generations stayed in their jobs longer, and it has nothing to do with the current generation's lack of work-ethic/loyalty/etc., and everything to do with the changes employers have been making over the last couple of decades: No more pensions, no more promoting from within the ranks (You're either management caste or you're not), constant cost-cutting (what training budget?), layoffs at the drop of a hat, etc..
Employers have been systematically training any sense of loyalty out of the workforce, don't complain that you've been successful.
You have got to be kidding me. Eclipse is a giant, steaming pile of poop. I've used a lot of development environments over the years (including a lot of obscure ones like Rational APEX and GPS), and words can not describe the anguish of being forced to work on a huge codebase in Eclipse (mandated by management, along with a long list of plugins that had to be installed). I actually quit my job because I couldn't take the project mismanagement and the horrible dev environment anymore.
Now, during interviews I ask what IDE the team uses. The correct answer is "Whatever you want", though I might also accept IntelliJ, Netbeans, vim, etc. If I hear "We're an Eclipse shop" I run away screaming (Or I say, "Sorry, not interested" and then walk away).
In addition to being expensive as hell, the new HFA inhalers SUCK. They don't work as well (it takes 5-10 mintues for my lungs to open up after a puff... it is NOT immediate) and they clog constantly. Of course, the FDA will have you believe that the transition has gone smoothly and that we asthmatics are pleased with our new inhalers.
At least I'm not actively allergic to the new propellant like some asthmatics are. Those folks just get to die I guess. Thanks, hippies.
I've been programming a long time, am in my mid-30s, and have never attended one of these conferences. In fact, I've never attended any sort of employer-sponsored training whatsoever. Companies just don't pay for this sort of thing any more (I've had several employers over the course of my career, ranging from small businesses to mega corps -- all have been identical in their lack of training budget). In fact, I wonder how in the world conferences manage to fill their seats -- your average middle-class software engineer is not going to be willing/able to cough up several thousand $$ of his own money to attend a three day conference.
Now, I have certainly asked to attend conferences in the past, and even for local conferences I was always told "Nope, not in the budget. Feel free to pay the $2000 registration fee yourself and take vacation time to attend." Gee, thanks.
I avoided iMacs altogether until the PPC -> x86 switch because Apple used to provide an entry-level PowerMac tower. That went away with the Mac Pro. Since I'd never had a problem with any of my previous Macs (excepting the iBook I spilled Jack Daniels' all over), it honestly didn't occur to me that I'd need to be cracking the thing open. Since I am no longer a gamer, I don't have much of a need to constantly tweak/upgrade my system.
Of course I always knew an all-in-one wouldn't be serviceable. Until my recent troubles that was always only a theoretical concern (in theory, if something breaks, fixing it will suck)...
The iMac was the first (and last) all-in-one desktop I've ever owned. All the disadvantages of a laptop, combined with all of the disadvantages of a desktop. Had Apple sold a reasonably priced desktop machine, I might still be on OS X. .
Oh come on. Are you suggesting I can walk into a local computer parts shop, pick up a replacement part for my iMac, then follow some painstaking procedure to disassemble the thing and be back up in running in a matter of a few hours? I've replaced a hard drive on an iMac before, it is not the quick swap out you seem to be suggesting.
I used to love to tinker with this sort of thing when I was younger, but these days I'm busy doing actual, real work on my machines and just don't have the time. Using a machine made up of standard parts helps me minimize down time. Not to mention the parts are significantly cheaper (Apple is really proud of their replacement parts, have you ever seen a price list? Oh I know, go to eBay, because that's fast, esp, when you're in the middle of a project, approaching a deadline, and need to get back up and running right now) and readily available from a local source.
I moved from Linux to Mac OS X back in the days of OS X 10.1. I bought myself a PowerMacintosh G3 (Beige desktop) when I was in college on ebay and thus begun my Apple fanboydom (as an aside, spell check wants me to change 'fanboydom' to 'bondwoman').
Over the years, as my income increased, I began buying myself brand new Macs from Apple - A PowerMac G4, A PowerMac G5, various PowerBook/Macbooks and finally iMacs. My experience with my 27" iMac finally did it for me. I had, against my better judgement, bought an all-in-one because the Mac Pro was just too dang expensive.
I quickly learned the hard way that all-in-ones are NOT user-serviceable. Power supply go bad? No, you can't slap another one in your tower, you get to lug your big iMac into an Apple Store, walk past all of the hipsters fondling their iDevices, and up to the "genius" bar and leave it there for a week. A week during which, btw, you're not getting any work done. I was so mad, I blogged: http://jamesadam.me/blog/why-im-switching-from-mac-to-linux/
So, the hardware situation, combined with the whole iOSification thing you mentioned, has driven me back into the clammy arms of the penguin. I tried a handful of distributions, and finally settled on Xubuntu, because I hate Gnome 3.
Perhaps you're thinking of Titan. Another good possibility for colonization. Actually probably in the top 3 (along with the moon and mars).
Though, you'd need a really good winter coat. Really good.
I once worked on simulation software for a new satellite that could be patched on-orbit (an orbiting satellite might as well be on Mars -- if you break it, it's going to stay broken). One of the main purposes of the software simulator, which ran the actual flight code that was on the bird, was to test new patches before they were pushed to the vehicle (and the vehicle itself did some validation of the patch after the upload was complete before applying it). Of course, hardware-in-the-loop testing using a duplicate test satellite on the ground was also done as a final step. In addition to a software simulator, I'm sure NASA has a duplicate rover or two in their labs for testing. The amount of testing done on these programs would drive you insane.
As a software developer, I have yet to hold a job where I felt as though I was being paid to produce quality software.
Me: "In order to implement the new functionality I've had to rewrite the entire module"
PM: "Ooooh, what's the SLOC?"
Me: "It's decreased by about 2000."
PM: "WTF?! How am I supposed to report that on my weekly metrics spreadsheet?"
So if I'm hired, either on a contract basis or as an employee, to write a software application for someone else and that person takes the product of my labor (for which he paid and owns the copyright) and makes millions with it, how did I get screwed?
Many years ago, when I was working on a large govt contract, one of the GS civilian managers got caught messing around with his secretary in one of the stairwells (security cameras? where?) and was not fired. He was instead 'promoted' into some position that, best I could tell, involved organizing social events and morale/team building activities. Since he couldn't be fired, he was placed in a slacker, low-stress position where he wouldn't be entrusted with anything that was actually important.
I've always wondered why we don't have a massive geothermal power-generating complex sitting on top of Yellowstone.
I remember visiting the park several years ago and as I watched Old Faithful erupt, I couldn't shake the thought that we really ought to be exploiting the awesome potential of this place.
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Hell, I'd be willing to develop a mine-hunting drone that doesn't work for *half* that price. I'll even throw in a few extra features like "not even waterproof" for no additional charge.
My main issue with the M9 is it's an incredibly bulky and heavy handgun for a 9mm (terrible for CCW as well, not that the Army should care about that). For a compact, 9mm makes sense. For a full size handgun... why?
That said, I bought one a few years ago (it's currently my 'nightstand' weapon), mostly because it's the handgun I'm most familiar with (I was in the Army).
This. I only recently started using ad blockers. I truly didn't mind a reasonable amount of non-obtrusive advertising, but the recent trend toward throwing 42 javascript-heavy ads in your face on each page load and freezing your browser for 30 seconds (or crashing it), turned me into a uBlock user. I'm not going back.
Much of the distribution infrastructure will likely be automated in the coming years. I suspect long-haul trucking will be the first widespread use of self driving cars. "Full employment" is just not going to be possible. When automation knocks out the bottom third of the entire labor force, what are you going to do with all those people? It's not an easy question to answer, but just ignoring them to fend for themselves would invite huge amounts of crime and civil unrest. Herding them all into ghettos doesn't sound very cool either.
This more affects folks who built their businesses around aggregating and analyzing data from various social media services. Sucks to be them, I guess.
The concept behind the H1-B program sounds reasonable. Bring in highly skilled experts from overseas that we can't find here. However, since it's now been thoroughly demostrated that:
1) Employers can't be trusted to act ethically and honor both the letter and spirit of the law, and
2) The government has been steadfastly failing to monitor the program and enforce the rules
The entire program needs to be scrapped. No H1-Bs, period. We apparently can't handle it, so employers need to find the talent here, or do without (or, you know, invest in employee development/training again).
Well, I used to work for Boeing (on satellites, not commercial aircraft), and they sold bumperstickers/t-shirts/etc. in the company store with cute anti-Airbus epithets on them. I distinctly remember "Scarebus" and "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going." I don't think I've ever heard a non-Boeing employee use them, however.
Wow. Lighten up, Francis.
Considering how many times my identity has been "compromised" by organizations I've entrusted with my PII (Insurance companies, banks, and several different government agencies), I don't know why I even bother trying to maintain a credit rating at all.
I'm sure I've been bought and sold a dozen times by now. My kids probably have a few defaulted mortgages on their records that they'll get to discover when they apply for student loans in 10 years or so.
That certainly smells like BS.
And which do you think came first, eh? Employers treating developers like interchangeable cogs, or developers treating employers like interchangeable paycheck providers?
There's a reason previous generations stayed in their jobs longer, and it has nothing to do with the current generation's lack of work-ethic/loyalty/etc., and everything to do with the changes employers have been making over the last couple of decades: No more pensions, no more promoting from within the ranks (You're either management caste or you're not), constant cost-cutting (what training budget?), layoffs at the drop of a hat, etc..
Employers have been systematically training any sense of loyalty out of the workforce, don't complain that you've been successful.
You have got to be kidding me. Eclipse is a giant, steaming pile of poop. I've used a lot of development environments over the years (including a lot of obscure ones like Rational APEX and GPS), and words can not describe the anguish of being forced to work on a huge codebase in Eclipse (mandated by management, along with a long list of plugins that had to be installed). I actually quit my job because I couldn't take the project mismanagement and the horrible dev environment anymore.
Now, during interviews I ask what IDE the team uses. The correct answer is "Whatever you want", though I might also accept IntelliJ, Netbeans, vim, etc. If I hear "We're an Eclipse shop" I run away screaming (Or I say, "Sorry, not interested" and then walk away).
In addition to being expensive as hell, the new HFA inhalers SUCK. They don't work as well (it takes 5-10 mintues for my lungs to open up after a puff... it is NOT immediate) and they clog constantly. Of course, the FDA will have you believe that the transition has gone smoothly and that we asthmatics are pleased with our new inhalers.
At least I'm not actively allergic to the new propellant like some asthmatics are. Those folks just get to die I guess. Thanks, hippies.
I've been programming a long time, am in my mid-30s, and have never attended one of these conferences. In fact, I've never attended any sort of employer-sponsored training whatsoever. Companies just don't pay for this sort of thing any more (I've had several employers over the course of my career, ranging from small businesses to mega corps -- all have been identical in their lack of training budget). In fact, I wonder how in the world conferences manage to fill their seats -- your average middle-class software engineer is not going to be willing/able to cough up several thousand $$ of his own money to attend a three day conference.
Now, I have certainly asked to attend conferences in the past, and even for local conferences I was always told "Nope, not in the budget. Feel free to pay the $2000 registration fee yourself and take vacation time to attend." Gee, thanks.
I avoided iMacs altogether until the PPC -> x86 switch because Apple used to provide an entry-level PowerMac tower. That went away with the Mac Pro. Since I'd never had a problem with any of my previous Macs (excepting the iBook I spilled Jack Daniels' all over), it honestly didn't occur to me that I'd need to be cracking the thing open. Since I am no longer a gamer, I don't have much of a need to constantly tweak/upgrade my system.
Of course I always knew an all-in-one wouldn't be serviceable. Until my recent troubles that was always only a theoretical concern (in theory, if something breaks, fixing it will suck)... The iMac was the first (and last) all-in-one desktop I've ever owned. All the disadvantages of a laptop, combined with all of the disadvantages of a desktop. Had Apple sold a reasonably priced desktop machine, I might still be on OS X. .
Oh come on. Are you suggesting I can walk into a local computer parts shop, pick up a replacement part for my iMac, then follow some painstaking procedure to disassemble the thing and be back up in running in a matter of a few hours? I've replaced a hard drive on an iMac before, it is not the quick swap out you seem to be suggesting.
I used to love to tinker with this sort of thing when I was younger, but these days I'm busy doing actual, real work on my machines and just don't have the time. Using a machine made up of standard parts helps me minimize down time. Not to mention the parts are significantly cheaper (Apple is really proud of their replacement parts, have you ever seen a price list? Oh I know, go to eBay, because that's fast, esp, when you're in the middle of a project, approaching a deadline, and need to get back up and running right now) and readily available from a local source.
I moved from Linux to Mac OS X back in the days of OS X 10.1. I bought myself a PowerMacintosh G3 (Beige desktop) when I was in college on ebay and thus begun my Apple fanboydom (as an aside, spell check wants me to change 'fanboydom' to 'bondwoman').
Over the years, as my income increased, I began buying myself brand new Macs from Apple - A PowerMac G4, A PowerMac G5, various PowerBook/Macbooks and finally iMacs. My experience with my 27" iMac finally did it for me. I had, against my better judgement, bought an all-in-one because the Mac Pro was just too dang expensive.
I quickly learned the hard way that all-in-ones are NOT user-serviceable. Power supply go bad? No, you can't slap another one in your tower, you get to lug your big iMac into an Apple Store, walk past all of the hipsters fondling their iDevices, and up to the "genius" bar and leave it there for a week. A week during which, btw, you're not getting any work done. I was so mad, I blogged: http://jamesadam.me/blog/why-im-switching-from-mac-to-linux/
So, the hardware situation, combined with the whole iOSification thing you mentioned, has driven me back into the clammy arms of the penguin. I tried a handful of distributions, and finally settled on Xubuntu, because I hate Gnome 3.
Perhaps you're thinking of Titan. Another good possibility for colonization. Actually probably in the top 3 (along with the moon and mars). Though, you'd need a really good winter coat. Really good.
The global marked placed
You know how I know you posted from a mobile device?
I once worked on simulation software for a new satellite that could be patched on-orbit (an orbiting satellite might as well be on Mars -- if you break it, it's going to stay broken). One of the main purposes of the software simulator, which ran the actual flight code that was on the bird, was to test new patches before they were pushed to the vehicle (and the vehicle itself did some validation of the patch after the upload was complete before applying it). Of course, hardware-in-the-loop testing using a duplicate test satellite on the ground was also done as a final step. In addition to a software simulator, I'm sure NASA has a duplicate rover or two in their labs for testing. The amount of testing done on these programs would drive you insane.
As a software developer, I have yet to hold a job where I felt as though I was being paid to produce quality software.
Me: "In order to implement the new functionality I've had to rewrite the entire module"
PM: "Ooooh, what's the SLOC?"
Me: "It's decreased by about 2000."
PM: "WTF?! How am I supposed to report that on my weekly metrics spreadsheet?"
Yes, Forever War is my all-time favorite sci-fi novel. Can't wait for the movie, hopefully it doesn't get the Starship Troopers treatment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War#Film
So if I'm hired, either on a contract basis or as an employee, to write a software application for someone else and that person takes the product of my labor (for which he paid and owns the copyright) and makes millions with it, how did I get screwed?
Many years ago, when I was working on a large govt contract, one of the GS civilian managers got caught messing around with his secretary in one of the stairwells (security cameras? where?) and was not fired. He was instead 'promoted' into some position that, best I could tell, involved organizing social events and morale/team building activities. Since he couldn't be fired, he was placed in a slacker, low-stress position where he wouldn't be entrusted with anything that was actually important.
I've always wondered why we don't have a massive geothermal power-generating complex sitting on top of Yellowstone. I remember visiting the park several years ago and as I watched Old Faithful erupt, I couldn't shake the thought that we really ought to be exploiting the awesome potential of this place.