1. Unless you live in an open-carry state and literally have your firearm visible to the whole world, I doubt a would-be phone thief is going to have any idea that you're packing heat. 2. Such a thief that would steal a phone might see a firearm as an even more valuable item to fence at his favorite pawn shop, and might go for that, especially if it's just hanging there on your right hip while your distracted with a cell phone in your right hand. 3. What are you going to do in a crowded subway with the doors about to close after you've just been pushed to the ground as a thief is running away with your phone? How many passengers and pedestrians are you willing to hit in the hopes that you will shoot your moving target?
Concealed weapons might provide some comfort in a dark and lonely alley, but not so much help fighting petty theft in a crowded gathering spot.
I think what's worse is that most people just look at the runner and do nothing while the victim yells.
No offense, but what do you expect most people to do? Chase after the bastard and take him down like Chuck Norris or something? It's not like they're just standing there watching you getting beaten or raped. How are they going to know the other guy didn't track you down using a GPS app after you stole his phone?
That's why I wired my phone's flash circuit to an alternating stack of my grandma's nitro-glycerin patches and vintage cinema film soaked in 100% proof rubbing alcohol and stuffed between the lithium battery and the phone. Obviously I never use my flash when I take pictures, but I wrote my own self-destruct app that can only be activated by a text message from my other cell phone number, which I will not reveal for privacy and safety reasons.
The hardest part of the project was building the miniature spark plug to ignite the whole thing. I can't wait to get my phone stolen so I can try it out and see if it works.
You are advocating this now, but you know full well that when this law goes into affect everybody who wants to have a phone will have to first go in person to a government office downtown, stand in line for 43 minutes, then find out that they filled out the application for the wrong type of phone, then stand in line 54 minutes behind a mother and her crying infant, then have their form stamped and validated, but with your name spelled wrong, which you won't notice until you drive 16 miles to the county office where you get your sim card issued. But since your name was printed incorrectly on the application you will have to drive back to the office downtown to fill out a new application. At the end of the day you will talk about the glory days before phone registration when you could buy the phone on the free market, buy insurance for the phone if you chose to do so, set up passwords, block international calling (if you don't make such calls), and even download apps to remotely delete your info from your phone if you ever lose it, or apps to see what your camera sees, listen in on the microphone, and track the GPS location for some old-fashion vigilante justice (which I do not advise).
If the person you are mad at gave you their cellular service account number, then they deserved to get their phone bricked. Otherwise, how is calling the service provider (presuming you know who they get service from), going to result in their phone being reported as stolen? Not to mention that the service providers would probably require a police report before bricking the phone. So now you are going to be charged with filing a false police report as well as wire fraud with malicious intent, depending on your jurisdiction. Smart move.
You could just as easily call the police and say that your car was stolen and give them the license plate of the person you are mad at so that they get pulled over then next time they pass a squad car. How many days have you spent in jail each time you got mad at someone? Maybe you should just stay in your mother's basement.
You Slashdotters just don't get it. If these wifi connections are left unprotected it will be the end of the world as we know it. Communists will start abusing these connections to access the internet WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT! Consider the long term ramifications! The dismantling of the international banking system! Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria!
BTW, freeing the slaves was never a bad idea, but many freed slaves suffered horribly after emancipation. Not that their living conditions were that great before hand, but after the Civil War there were many known cases of entire communities of plantation owners who hired freed slaves on the condition that the freed slaves would be paid after the harvest. But after the harvest, instead of paying what they promised, the ex-masters drove the workers off their land by force and it is believed that thousands starved to death during this time.
And in the case of China, if the "free world" were to ban Chinese imports, China would fall into a severe depression. Unemployed workers would be very angry, as would the Chinese government. There's a slim chance this could lead to a general uprising that could lead to democracy, but more likely is that an over populated and well armed China with nothing to lose would absorb the unemployed men of fighting age into their armed forces, direct the anger of their masses toward the West, and obtain by military force what they could not obtain through commerce. Even in full scale war, such as an invasion of Japan and Taiwan, coupled with supporting N. Korea against the South, the US would likely not be the first to strike with nuclear weapons. And with an expanding military that has been growing more technologically adept, China probably would not see any reason to use their own nuclear weapons unless their home territory came under heavy bombing or invasion.
As an anecdote to support my position, during WWII the WMD of the time was poison gas, which both the Allied and Axis powers possessed in significant quantities, yet neither side resorted to using gas in spite of the scale and devastation of the war. So I don't believe that America's nuclear deterrence would be enough to prevent a conventional war with China.
So, the only option left for those of us who care about human rights and the treatment of workers who make the goods we consume, is we need to proactively seek out products that are manufactured and marketed in an ethical manner. Just as "organic" has become trendy to the point that well-to-do consumers will pay three or four times as much money for pesticide free vegetables, we need to make ethical and sustainable business practices just as "trendy". Kind of like the parable of the contest between the wind and the sun to see who could take the jacket off from a pedestrian. The wind blew harder and harder, but could not blow it off, but the sun just stood still and effortlessly warmed the path of the pedestrian until the pedestrian decided to take off his jacket. In time perhaps "ethically and sustainably manufactured in China" will be the new trendy "organic" label that Yuppies will wear with pride.
I have a hard time understanding why a single recent graduate with no family responsibilities and a high-enough salary wouldn't be able to handle more than 40 hours per week continuously. When I was at that stage I would have taken the higher-paying job even if it required 60 hours per week, and maybe more. But if your peers are making about the same as you are and going home at 5pm every single day it leads you to wonder if the grass may be greener at the other companies pasture. Things change once you add a spouse, kids, and the responsibilities of home ownership. Again, if salary is high enough to afford a nanny, lawn mowing crew, and prepared dinners, then long hours might still be manageable and possibly attractive if the salary minus these personal expenses still leaves you with a net gain. The problem is that unless you are a high paid consultant working your own hours or the boss of your own company with the potential reward of windfall profits, it can be hard to find the 60-70 hr/wk job that really pays substantially more than the 40 hr/wk alternative. And you still need time out of the office for your own professional development, continuing education, staying fit, and managing your finances.
There's also the importance of having flexible time that you hold in reserve, the same way that a military commander keeps some of his forces held from battle so he can deploy them to mitigate an unexpected threat or exploit an opportunity. Anybody can have personal problems pop up, and these are usually manageable at 40 hr/wk, but not so easy when you constantly work longer hours. If you're already expected to work 60 hours each week, then you may burn out fast if a short term crisis pops up at work. How many weeks will you work 100 hours each week for $0 in additional pay when your peers are going home at 5pm and apparently take home a relatively close salary to what you already make? The 40 hr/wk worker will likely be more willing to work 60-80 hrs/wk to overcome a short term crisis as long as it doesn't interfere with his family responsibilities.
Finally, quality of life is an important factor. Some people are happy living their lives without children, or in some cases, even without a spouse or similar close relationship. Some careers, such as medicine or public service, may have intrinsic rewards and something that a person can devote their lives to and be passionate about. Their work may be the reason they get up in the morning. But after years and years, even these types of jobs can wear you down if you don't have a personal outlet. Even then, may people can sustain 50-60 hours continuously. There is also the possibility of working a high-pressure job in your early years while you build a nest egg or establish yourself into the fast track for executive promotion, with the intent of slowing down and enjoying life later. But for most of us, while we may "enjoy" what we do, we do not derive our life's purpose from our work. Even those of us who enjoy working with technology need some personal time to enjoy it our own way rather than following the schedules, deadlines, and division of labor handed down by management. So for the average person 40 hours per week is probably ideal. Expecting everyone to happily work longer hours will lead at least a significant portion of your work force to resent the hours you require. Some of us are not convinced that we will live until retirement or that we will be healthy enough to enjoy retirement. Myself, I would rather work 40hrs/wk on average for the rest of my career and retire when I can't work anymore. I have a spouse, kids, and a home to maintain. I have the occasional personal crisis (health, legal, etc.), but I am also willing to put in more hours during the short term when the company needs it.
Sooner or later, more and more "advanced" products that depend on advanced production systems will eventually lead to a "technology crash." Consider that up until the semiconductor era, most manufactured devices could be replicated, customized, modified, and even produced in small quantities by an experienced, knowledgeable, and determined hobbyist working out of his garage. Even more complicated manufactured goods could still be completely fabricated by a relatively small group of workers operating from a single location. Granted, a majority of raw materials has never been universally available in any particular location in the world, but ever since the industrial revolution the availability of scrap material made it possible for an individual hobbyist or small group of workers to build just about anything imaginable, with only the scale of the product being a limiting factor (for instance, heavy-cargo ship building requires more workers and materials than what might be available in a small town, and same can be said for mass-production of any product).
But most of the "high tech" products of our modern time depend on semiconductor materials and the massive infrastructure, logistics, and manpower to produce these materials and configure them for their final application. Once in the hands of a hobbyist or developer, there is no limit to what products can be produced from semiconductor devices such as transistors, integrated circuits, microprocessors, FPGAs, and so on. But the hobbyist cannot produce these components "from scratch". If necessary it is possible to build your own resistors, inductors, capacitors, transformers, etc. There are hobbyists today who continue to practice the ancient arts of blacksmithing and glassblowing, but the exotic and dangerous chemicals, as well as the very precise and high-energy equipment required to produce even a basic integrated circuit is way beyond what is doable on the local level. And unlike metal or glass, semiconductors do not tend to hold up well in a scrapyard environment, and most semiconductor products are too specific to be easily adapted for alternative purposes.
So a horrendous global economic event, wide-scale natural disaster, severe energy shortages, or world war that leads to the closure of semiconductor foundries could make much of the products we use on daily basis virtually unrepairable and replaceable. As for the developing world, especially in Africa, which still lacks much of the heavy infrastructure available in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the focus should be on developing "appropriate technology" that allows the local population to grow economically without being entirely dependent on a constant flow of high-tech imports. Because of the lack of wealth in many parts of African nations, relying on imported products that must be maintained with imported parts and often imported expertise, this approach is simply not sustainable and leads to increasing debt, which is already a major obstacle for most of the developing countries in Africa. Bringing tools and technology to the local populations that allow them to develop their own internal local expertise, and their own systems for distribution and service, and the independence to locally produce and maintain their own tools, up to and including developing their own improvements to these tools and technologies may be the best way for these areas to develop. I'm not saying deprive them of computing power or specialized tools, but the "gizmos" they need to use on an everyday basis should be easily user-serviceable with locally available materials. The complexity of the devices may be able to increase as the infrastructure, technological savvy, and wealth of the local population improves over time.
I believe that people in developed nations would also do well to possess and be familiar with tools and technology that are not entirely dependent on semiconductors and other advanced technology for some of the same reasons I have already mentioned. The dependence on semiconductors is p
Such a powerful jamming device would be relatively easy to home-in on. However, for a short duration such jamming would be useful during a bank heist. Given all the people in direct view of the crime would be calling 911, jamming all signals might buy enough time for a quick getaway.
If anyone has doubts about whether jamming would really work or not, consider that SWAT teams employ such jammers during hostage situations to isolate the perpetrators, but these jammers specifically target the frequencies the perpetrators would be expected to use, like cell phones and maybe handheld HAM radios.
For greatest effectiveness of jamming the widest range of RF frequencies for the widest radius, use a spark-gap generator. These were the earliest form of wireless communication but banned in 1916 because they interfered with all other frequencies. They were used during WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to jam radio communication, and they tended to jam all signals indiscriminately.
One episode of Burn Notice involved using a spark gap generator as part of a trap to make a group of Westin's adversaries appear to be planning a bank heist. The prop used in the show however looked more like a "Jacob's Ladder" from a middle school science project.
Sorry, I was trolling. I just don't understand the real reason why the Swiss or any other nation would want to pay to clean up the mess left by the Russians and USA. Usually we sue to punks responsible or impose sanctions until they pay for or repair the damages. It might make sense if the Swiss had actual intentions for getting deeply involved in space exploration and development, but I don't think we should expect that from such a small country. As for the Swiss military, I think they have mastered the concept of "peace through superior firepower" while also understanding why "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". The USA and many other countries could learn a lot from the Swiss.
One point off-topic: Wikipedia needs to update their Swiss Army entry.
Clearly this is an act of aggression of the Swiss as an insult to the pioneers of space travel, Russia and USA, and to undermine the cooperation between Russia and USA to install more facilities in space. But perhaps the real and treacherous purpose of this mission is to acquire military technology from the Eastern and Western powers to use for their own insidious plan to spread the concept of peace and neutrality throughout the world. The Swiss cannot be trusted to launch even one rocket into space. They may even go as far as to capture defunct commercial satellites to violate and exploit the intellectual property and trade secrets developed by private space faring corporations. This unjust enrichment cannot be allowed to stand!
Perhaps you say I am a shrill and making mountains out of mole-hills, but then answer this: Why does Switzerland, even today, still enforce compulsory military service for males 19 years of age and older? Why does a neutral "non-aggressive" nation have an army so large that during the 20th century it had the second largest armed force per capita after the Israeli Defence Forces? Why would a nation of peaceful citizens REQUIRE their soldiers to keep their assault rifles IN THEIR HOMES like red-necks from Texas? Why does the Swiss military maintain the Onyx intelligence gathering system for spying on both civil and military communications, such as telephone, fax or Internet traffic, carried by satellite? Why do Swiss building codes require radiation and blast shelters, and why does every family or rental agency have to pay a replacement tax to support these shelters, or alternatively own a personal shelter in their place of residence? Why does Switzerland claim to be a "neutral" country when they engage in "peace keeping" operations? Why is "the peaceful coexistence of nations" one of the five goals of Swiss foreign policy when, for such a small country, they are the 13th largest arms exporter in the world, including some of the finest weapons ever made?
The problem with recycling in space is that machines must be brought up into space to harvest the materials, then other machines would be needed to manufacture items using the recycled objects. Just think of a mother board yes you can get the elements back but creating a new processor takes very specialized machinery that needs upgrading every 5 years or so. For this to even be remotely possible there would all ready have to be a manufacturing facility in space, the up front cost to achieve something like this are hard to fathom and it probably would not be economically feasible to achieve due to the need to upgrade manufacturing facilities to keep pace with facilities on earth.
You forgot the China factor. Now that China has entered the space race, expensive and complicated machines will not be necessary to recycle the space material. Chinese laborers will process the debris manually at a cost savings of 10 to 1. Material too complicated to be processed by hand, such as motherboards, will simply be re-purposed, such as to serve as wall tiles for the new orbiting shanty towns that will house the workers. I think Foxconn is already bidding on the contract. As safety of the workers will not be a concern, the budget for the entire program will be only a fraction of a single NASA launch.
Are the juries in East Texas biased, or do the petitioners know that most East Texans are simple, shoot-from-the-hip, straight talking, honest, hard working, family oriented men and women who aren't going to be easily bedazzled by some legalize gobbledygook that Ivy League Yankees like to throw over the heads of their working-class inferiors?
Agreed. And can we stop referring to judges with the mandatory "honorable". US military officers still expect to be referred to as "sir" by their enlisted counterparts. It's about time that these terms be abolished. A simple "comrade" should be sufficient for all citizens.
But this is AMERICA, dammit, and we don't care about ice packs on the other side of the world. What about OUR ice? That's what we should be concerned about! Are we going to be able to ski in Colorado next year or not? Somebody answer! If the answer is yes then I am going to rip the catalytic converter off my SUV tomorrow to cash in the Palladium value.
(and yes, I was trying to be over-dramatically satirical).
I'm not believing it until I hear from the boots on the ground that the ice and snow is legit, and not that Styrofoam and glitter they use in Hollywood.
That's a good point. I don't know why you got a score of 0. People see a clause in a contact that they would normally object to, but then they say to themselves "well I'm sure they wouldn't go so far as to do what their contract says they can do." This line of thinking is what gets people "legally" scammed out of hundreds of dollars. Just go to www.ripoffreports.com and read about all the little people who didn't think that such tiny print could have such a big bite.
Please tell me how can I as an hypothetical employer access that information about a person without her or his consent.
They same way employers ALWAYS do, they hand you a consent form, either during the hiring process after you've been given an offer, and often after you have accepted the offer and tendered your resignation to your current employer, or after years of working with no problems your employer hands you a consent form to sign and tells you firmly that your consent to [drug test, background search, cavity search, etc.] is a "condition of your employment and refusal to consent will be grounds for disciplinary action, including termination of employment."
If the data didn't exist then there is nothing your employer can force you to consent to, but now with the data residing on a Google server, should Google make that data available then employers may very likely take advantage of the chance to take a peak. And given the vicarious liability employers have for their employees, there is a powerful incentive for employers to learn as much of this information as possible.
There are countless examples of services people pay for that could leave them high and dry if they are not careful:
1. Gift Cards. Often have expiration dates or monthly service fees that eat away the value of the card even though the card has been paid for with real cash and the company keeps, and usually reinvests, this cash. And the card is no longer redeemable if the company goes bankrupt. 2. Overpayments on credit card balances. Just before the banking crisis and TARP bailout, a group of executives at one of the largest banks debated on whether overpayments on credit cards would be a monetary asset belonging to the individual, or free cash for the bank. The executives concluded that they had the full legal right to re-appropriate any overpayments to the corporate asset sheet, but backed away from this plan just before it was about to go forward because of fears about public backlash. 3. Obsolete products. Think about the 1.3 million customers who bought HD-DVD players and drives. They cannot play their HD-DVD movies on Blu-Ray players and they cannot play Blu-Ray discs on their HD-DVD players. So many of them are stuck with two players and a movie collection divided into two completely different incompatible formats. Over the span of a single lifetime a movie aficionado might have to buy the same movies in five or six different formats just to be able to view their favorite movies with current technology. And support for obsolete technology (such as media, spare parts, repair services) fades quickly. 4. Legal tender. Want to talk about fake money? How about the US Dollar, which is a FIAT currency backed up with no physical or practical value other than the "full faith and credit" of the US Government. Same can be said as well for most government bonds, certificates of deposit, and other instruments. The potential for a collapse in "real" currency value or a default on government bonds is just as real as the discontinuation of SuperPoke gold. 5. Coupon books and discount memberships. Do I need to elaborate? 6. Insurance. Even though there are some government regulations in place and most insurance companies are insured by an even bigger company, like AIG, there is no absolute guarantee that insurance will be available to bail you out when you really need it. If they don't find some way to categorize your claim into one of their many and ambiguous exclusions, there is still the potential that an insurance company and it's backer could both go bankrupt at the same time, leaving you on your own without compensation for your losses. Government may bail you out, as happens with some natural disasters, but this has not always been the case. 7. Warranties, guarantees, service contracts, and other contractual provisions. Again, if the company goes out of business none of these "fake" products are likely to be available to you. In some cases, even your contractual rights can be violated. If the company you buy from has agreed by contract not to share your personal information with outside parties, that contact can be (and in some instances has been) nullified in bankruptcy. In one recent case the personal information collected under such terms was sold to another company for top dollar in a corporate bankruptcy auction. 8. Your rights in general. There are no guarantees that your rights, statutory or constitutional, cannot be revoked at any time, either by the legal procedures that already exist, or by illegal actions taken by powerful dictators, corrupt bureaucrats, or foreign invaders. Your rights in a court of law are also hindered by the practical reality that holding your ground and defending your rights in court involves court costs, attorney's fees, legal services (such as process servers or expert witnesses), and potentially a truck load of office supplies, stamps, and clerical services, not to mention your limited time that you might need to earn a living to support a family. Getting help from law enforcement or an attorney general is apparently possible fo
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Problems with your presumption:
1. Unless you live in an open-carry state and literally have your firearm visible to the whole world, I doubt a would-be phone thief is going to have any idea that you're packing heat.
2. Such a thief that would steal a phone might see a firearm as an even more valuable item to fence at his favorite pawn shop, and might go for that, especially if it's just hanging there on your right hip while your distracted with a cell phone in your right hand.
3. What are you going to do in a crowded subway with the doors about to close after you've just been pushed to the ground as a thief is running away with your phone? How many passengers and pedestrians are you willing to hit in the hopes that you will shoot your moving target?
Concealed weapons might provide some comfort in a dark and lonely alley, but not so much help fighting petty theft in a crowded gathering spot.
I think what's worse is that most people just look at the runner and do nothing while the victim yells.
No offense, but what do you expect most people to do? Chase after the bastard and take him down like Chuck Norris or something? It's not like they're just standing there watching you getting beaten or raped. How are they going to know the other guy didn't track you down using a GPS app after you stole his phone?
That's why I wired my phone's flash circuit to an alternating stack of my grandma's nitro-glycerin patches and vintage cinema film soaked in 100% proof rubbing alcohol and stuffed between the lithium battery and the phone. Obviously I never use my flash when I take pictures, but I wrote my own self-destruct app that can only be activated by a text message from my other cell phone number, which I will not reveal for privacy and safety reasons.
The hardest part of the project was building the miniature spark plug to ignite the whole thing. I can't wait to get my phone stolen so I can try it out and see if it works.
You are advocating this now, but you know full well that when this law goes into affect everybody who wants to have a phone will have to first go in person to a government office downtown, stand in line for 43 minutes, then find out that they filled out the application for the wrong type of phone, then stand in line 54 minutes behind a mother and her crying infant, then have their form stamped and validated, but with your name spelled wrong, which you won't notice until you drive 16 miles to the county office where you get your sim card issued. But since your name was printed incorrectly on the application you will have to drive back to the office downtown to fill out a new application. At the end of the day you will talk about the glory days before phone registration when you could buy the phone on the free market, buy insurance for the phone if you chose to do so, set up passwords, block international calling (if you don't make such calls), and even download apps to remotely delete your info from your phone if you ever lose it, or apps to see what your camera sees, listen in on the microphone, and track the GPS location for some old-fashion vigilante justice (which I do not advise).
If the person you are mad at gave you their cellular service account number, then they deserved to get their phone bricked. Otherwise, how is calling the service provider (presuming you know who they get service from), going to result in their phone being reported as stolen? Not to mention that the service providers would probably require a police report before bricking the phone. So now you are going to be charged with filing a false police report as well as wire fraud with malicious intent, depending on your jurisdiction. Smart move.
You could just as easily call the police and say that your car was stolen and give them the license plate of the person you are mad at so that they get pulled over then next time they pass a squad car. How many days have you spent in jail each time you got mad at someone? Maybe you should just stay in your mother's basement.
You Slashdotters just don't get it. If these wifi connections are left unprotected it will be the end of the world as we know it. Communists will start abusing these connections to access the internet WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT! Consider the long term ramifications! The dismantling of the international banking system! Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria!
BTW, freeing the slaves was never a bad idea, but many freed slaves suffered horribly after emancipation. Not that their living conditions were that great before hand, but after the Civil War there were many known cases of entire communities of plantation owners who hired freed slaves on the condition that the freed slaves would be paid after the harvest. But after the harvest, instead of paying what they promised, the ex-masters drove the workers off their land by force and it is believed that thousands starved to death during this time.
And in the case of China, if the "free world" were to ban Chinese imports, China would fall into a severe depression. Unemployed workers would be very angry, as would the Chinese government. There's a slim chance this could lead to a general uprising that could lead to democracy, but more likely is that an over populated and well armed China with nothing to lose would absorb the unemployed men of fighting age into their armed forces, direct the anger of their masses toward the West, and obtain by military force what they could not obtain through commerce. Even in full scale war, such as an invasion of Japan and Taiwan, coupled with supporting N. Korea against the South, the US would likely not be the first to strike with nuclear weapons. And with an expanding military that has been growing more technologically adept, China probably would not see any reason to use their own nuclear weapons unless their home territory came under heavy bombing or invasion.
As an anecdote to support my position, during WWII the WMD of the time was poison gas, which both the Allied and Axis powers possessed in significant quantities, yet neither side resorted to using gas in spite of the scale and devastation of the war. So I don't believe that America's nuclear deterrence would be enough to prevent a conventional war with China.
So, the only option left for those of us who care about human rights and the treatment of workers who make the goods we consume, is we need to proactively seek out products that are manufactured and marketed in an ethical manner. Just as "organic" has become trendy to the point that well-to-do consumers will pay three or four times as much money for pesticide free vegetables, we need to make ethical and sustainable business practices just as "trendy". Kind of like the parable of the contest between the wind and the sun to see who could take the jacket off from a pedestrian. The wind blew harder and harder, but could not blow it off, but the sun just stood still and effortlessly warmed the path of the pedestrian until the pedestrian decided to take off his jacket. In time perhaps "ethically and sustainably manufactured in China" will be the new trendy "organic" label that Yuppies will wear with pride.
I have a hard time understanding why a single recent graduate with no family responsibilities and a high-enough salary wouldn't be able to handle more than 40 hours per week continuously. When I was at that stage I would have taken the higher-paying job even if it required 60 hours per week, and maybe more. But if your peers are making about the same as you are and going home at 5pm every single day it leads you to wonder if the grass may be greener at the other companies pasture. Things change once you add a spouse, kids, and the responsibilities of home ownership. Again, if salary is high enough to afford a nanny, lawn mowing crew, and prepared dinners, then long hours might still be manageable and possibly attractive if the salary minus these personal expenses still leaves you with a net gain. The problem is that unless you are a high paid consultant working your own hours or the boss of your own company with the potential reward of windfall profits, it can be hard to find the 60-70 hr/wk job that really pays substantially more than the 40 hr/wk alternative. And you still need time out of the office for your own professional development, continuing education, staying fit, and managing your finances.
There's also the importance of having flexible time that you hold in reserve, the same way that a military commander keeps some of his forces held from battle so he can deploy them to mitigate an unexpected threat or exploit an opportunity. Anybody can have personal problems pop up, and these are usually manageable at 40 hr/wk, but not so easy when you constantly work longer hours. If you're already expected to work 60 hours each week, then you may burn out fast if a short term crisis pops up at work. How many weeks will you work 100 hours each week for $0 in additional pay when your peers are going home at 5pm and apparently take home a relatively close salary to what you already make? The 40 hr/wk worker will likely be more willing to work 60-80 hrs/wk to overcome a short term crisis as long as it doesn't interfere with his family responsibilities.
Finally, quality of life is an important factor. Some people are happy living their lives without children, or in some cases, even without a spouse or similar close relationship. Some careers, such as medicine or public service, may have intrinsic rewards and something that a person can devote their lives to and be passionate about. Their work may be the reason they get up in the morning. But after years and years, even these types of jobs can wear you down if you don't have a personal outlet. Even then, may people can sustain 50-60 hours continuously. There is also the possibility of working a high-pressure job in your early years while you build a nest egg or establish yourself into the fast track for executive promotion, with the intent of slowing down and enjoying life later. But for most of us, while we may "enjoy" what we do, we do not derive our life's purpose from our work. Even those of us who enjoy working with technology need some personal time to enjoy it our own way rather than following the schedules, deadlines, and division of labor handed down by management. So for the average person 40 hours per week is probably ideal. Expecting everyone to happily work longer hours will lead at least a significant portion of your work force to resent the hours you require. Some of us are not convinced that we will live until retirement or that we will be healthy enough to enjoy retirement. Myself, I would rather work 40hrs/wk on average for the rest of my career and retire when I can't work anymore. I have a spouse, kids, and a home to maintain. I have the occasional personal crisis (health, legal, etc.), but I am also willing to put in more hours during the short term when the company needs it.
Sooner or later, more and more "advanced" products that depend on advanced production systems will eventually lead to a "technology crash." Consider that up until the semiconductor era, most manufactured devices could be replicated, customized, modified, and even produced in small quantities by an experienced, knowledgeable, and determined hobbyist working out of his garage. Even more complicated manufactured goods could still be completely fabricated by a relatively small group of workers operating from a single location. Granted, a majority of raw materials has never been universally available in any particular location in the world, but ever since the industrial revolution the availability of scrap material made it possible for an individual hobbyist or small group of workers to build just about anything imaginable, with only the scale of the product being a limiting factor (for instance, heavy-cargo ship building requires more workers and materials than what might be available in a small town, and same can be said for mass-production of any product).
But most of the "high tech" products of our modern time depend on semiconductor materials and the massive infrastructure, logistics, and manpower to produce these materials and configure them for their final application. Once in the hands of a hobbyist or developer, there is no limit to what products can be produced from semiconductor devices such as transistors, integrated circuits, microprocessors, FPGAs, and so on. But the hobbyist cannot produce these components "from scratch". If necessary it is possible to build your own resistors, inductors, capacitors, transformers, etc. There are hobbyists today who continue to practice the ancient arts of blacksmithing and glassblowing, but the exotic and dangerous chemicals, as well as the very precise and high-energy equipment required to produce even a basic integrated circuit is way beyond what is doable on the local level. And unlike metal or glass, semiconductors do not tend to hold up well in a scrapyard environment, and most semiconductor products are too specific to be easily adapted for alternative purposes.
So a horrendous global economic event, wide-scale natural disaster, severe energy shortages, or world war that leads to the closure of semiconductor foundries could make much of the products we use on daily basis virtually unrepairable and replaceable. As for the developing world, especially in Africa, which still lacks much of the heavy infrastructure available in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the focus should be on developing "appropriate technology" that allows the local population to grow economically without being entirely dependent on a constant flow of high-tech imports. Because of the lack of wealth in many parts of African nations, relying on imported products that must be maintained with imported parts and often imported expertise, this approach is simply not sustainable and leads to increasing debt, which is already a major obstacle for most of the developing countries in Africa. Bringing tools and technology to the local populations that allow them to develop their own internal local expertise, and their own systems for distribution and service, and the independence to locally produce and maintain their own tools, up to and including developing their own improvements to these tools and technologies may be the best way for these areas to develop. I'm not saying deprive them of computing power or specialized tools, but the "gizmos" they need to use on an everyday basis should be easily user-serviceable with locally available materials. The complexity of the devices may be able to increase as the infrastructure, technological savvy, and wealth of the local population improves over time.
I believe that people in developed nations would also do well to possess and be familiar with tools and technology that are not entirely dependent on semiconductors and other advanced technology for some of the same reasons I have already mentioned. The dependence on semiconductors is p
Such a powerful jamming device would be relatively easy to home-in on. However, for a short duration such jamming would be useful during a bank heist. Given all the people in direct view of the crime would be calling 911, jamming all signals might buy enough time for a quick getaway.
BTW - even commercially available cell-phone jammers can potentially disrupt police digital radios, as described in this article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2134869/posts
If anyone has doubts about whether jamming would really work or not, consider that SWAT teams employ such jammers during hostage situations to isolate the perpetrators, but these jammers specifically target the frequencies the perpetrators would be expected to use, like cell phones and maybe handheld HAM radios.
For greatest effectiveness of jamming the widest range of RF frequencies for the widest radius, use a spark-gap generator. These were the earliest form of wireless communication but banned in 1916 because they interfered with all other frequencies. They were used during WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to jam radio communication, and they tended to jam all signals indiscriminately.
One episode of Burn Notice involved using a spark gap generator as part of a trap to make a group of Westin's adversaries appear to be planning a bank heist. The prop used in the show however looked more like a "Jacob's Ladder" from a middle school science project.
Judging from most Slashdot posts it looks like reading the summary or TFA is just an optional "academic" exercise.
Sorry, I was trolling. I just don't understand the real reason why the Swiss or any other nation would want to pay to clean up the mess left by the Russians and USA. Usually we sue to punks responsible or impose sanctions until they pay for or repair the damages. It might make sense if the Swiss had actual intentions for getting deeply involved in space exploration and development, but I don't think we should expect that from such a small country. As for the Swiss military, I think they have mastered the concept of "peace through superior firepower" while also understanding why "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". The USA and many other countries could learn a lot from the Swiss.
One point off-topic: Wikipedia needs to update their Swiss Army entry.
Clearly this is an act of aggression of the Swiss as an insult to the pioneers of space travel, Russia and USA, and to undermine the cooperation between Russia and USA to install more facilities in space. But perhaps the real and treacherous purpose of this mission is to acquire military technology from the Eastern and Western powers to use for their own insidious plan to spread the concept of peace and neutrality throughout the world. The Swiss cannot be trusted to launch even one rocket into space. They may even go as far as to capture defunct commercial satellites to violate and exploit the intellectual property and trade secrets developed by private space faring corporations. This unjust enrichment cannot be allowed to stand!
Perhaps you say I am a shrill and making mountains out of mole-hills, but then answer this: Why does Switzerland, even today, still enforce compulsory military service for males 19 years of age and older? Why does a neutral "non-aggressive" nation have an army so large that during the 20th century it had the second largest armed force per capita after the Israeli Defence Forces? Why would a nation of peaceful citizens REQUIRE their soldiers to keep their assault rifles IN THEIR HOMES like red-necks from Texas? Why does the Swiss military maintain the Onyx intelligence gathering system for spying on both civil and military communications, such as telephone, fax or Internet traffic, carried by satellite? Why do Swiss building codes require radiation and blast shelters, and why does every family or rental agency have to pay a replacement tax to support these shelters, or alternatively own a personal shelter in their place of residence? Why does Switzerland claim to be a "neutral" country when they engage in "peace keeping" operations? Why is "the peaceful coexistence of nations" one of the five goals of Swiss foreign policy when, for such a small country, they are the 13th largest arms exporter in the world, including some of the finest weapons ever made?
Don't believe what I'm saying? It's all here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_army
The problem with recycling in space is that machines must be brought up into space to harvest the materials, then other machines would be needed to manufacture items using the recycled objects. Just think of a mother board yes you can get the elements back but creating a new processor takes very specialized machinery that needs upgrading every 5 years or so. For this to even be remotely possible there would all ready have to be a manufacturing facility in space, the up front cost to achieve something like this are hard to fathom and it probably would not be economically feasible to achieve due to the need to upgrade manufacturing facilities to keep pace with facilities on earth.
You forgot the China factor. Now that China has entered the space race, expensive and complicated machines will not be necessary to recycle the space material. Chinese laborers will process the debris manually at a cost savings of 10 to 1. Material too complicated to be processed by hand, such as motherboards, will simply be re-purposed, such as to serve as wall tiles for the new orbiting shanty towns that will house the workers. I think Foxconn is already bidding on the contract. As safety of the workers will not be a concern, the budget for the entire program will be only a fraction of a single NASA launch.
Are the juries in East Texas biased, or do the petitioners know that most East Texans are simple, shoot-from-the-hip, straight talking, honest, hard working, family oriented men and women who aren't going to be easily bedazzled by some legalize gobbledygook that Ivy League Yankees like to throw over the heads of their working-class inferiors?
Agreed. And can we stop referring to judges with the mandatory "honorable". US military officers still expect to be referred to as "sir" by their enlisted counterparts. It's about time that these terms be abolished. A simple "comrade" should be sufficient for all citizens.
But this is AMERICA, dammit, and we don't care about ice packs on the other side of the world. What about OUR ice? That's what we should be concerned about! Are we going to be able to ski in Colorado next year or not? Somebody answer! If the answer is yes then I am going to rip the catalytic converter off my SUV tomorrow to cash in the Palladium value.
(and yes, I was trying to be over-dramatically satirical).
I'm not believing it until I hear from the boots on the ground that the ice and snow is legit, and not that Styrofoam and glitter they use in Hollywood.
I, for one, welcome our new Hispanic entrepreneurial overloads and their shit-ton pumping lawnmowers.
That's a good point. I don't know why you got a score of 0. People see a clause in a contact that they would normally object to, but then they say to themselves "well I'm sure they wouldn't go so far as to do what their contract says they can do." This line of thinking is what gets people "legally" scammed out of hundreds of dollars. Just go to www.ripoffreports.com and read about all the little people who didn't think that such tiny print could have such a big bite.
Please tell me how can I as an hypothetical employer access that information about a person without her or his consent.
They same way employers ALWAYS do, they hand you a consent form, either during the hiring process after you've been given an offer, and often after you have accepted the offer and tendered your resignation to your current employer, or after years of working with no problems your employer hands you a consent form to sign and tells you firmly that your consent to [drug test, background search, cavity search, etc.] is a "condition of your employment and refusal to consent will be grounds for disciplinary action, including termination of employment."
If the data didn't exist then there is nothing your employer can force you to consent to, but now with the data residing on a Google server, should Google make that data available then employers may very likely take advantage of the chance to take a peak. And given the vicarious liability employers have for their employees, there is a powerful incentive for employers to learn as much of this information as possible.
So for Google, "if they build it they will come."
There are countless examples of services people pay for that could leave them high and dry if they are not careful:
1. Gift Cards. Often have expiration dates or monthly service fees that eat away the value of the card even though the card has been paid for with real cash and the company keeps, and usually reinvests, this cash. And the card is no longer redeemable if the company goes bankrupt.
2. Overpayments on credit card balances. Just before the banking crisis and TARP bailout, a group of executives at one of the largest banks debated on whether overpayments on credit cards would be a monetary asset belonging to the individual, or free cash for the bank. The executives concluded that they had the full legal right to re-appropriate any overpayments to the corporate asset sheet, but backed away from this plan just before it was about to go forward because of fears about public backlash.
3. Obsolete products. Think about the 1.3 million customers who bought HD-DVD players and drives. They cannot play their HD-DVD movies on Blu-Ray players and they cannot play Blu-Ray discs on their HD-DVD players. So many of them are stuck with two players and a movie collection divided into two completely different incompatible formats. Over the span of a single lifetime a movie aficionado might have to buy the same movies in five or six different formats just to be able to view their favorite movies with current technology. And support for obsolete technology (such as media, spare parts, repair services) fades quickly.
4. Legal tender. Want to talk about fake money? How about the US Dollar, which is a FIAT currency backed up with no physical or practical value other than the "full faith and credit" of the US Government. Same can be said as well for most government bonds, certificates of deposit, and other instruments. The potential for a collapse in "real" currency value or a default on government bonds is just as real as the discontinuation of SuperPoke gold.
5. Coupon books and discount memberships. Do I need to elaborate?
6. Insurance. Even though there are some government regulations in place and most insurance companies are insured by an even bigger company, like AIG, there is no absolute guarantee that insurance will be available to bail you out when you really need it. If they don't find some way to categorize your claim into one of their many and ambiguous exclusions, there is still the potential that an insurance company and it's backer could both go bankrupt at the same time, leaving you on your own without compensation for your losses. Government may bail you out, as happens with some natural disasters, but this has not always been the case.
7. Warranties, guarantees, service contracts, and other contractual provisions. Again, if the company goes out of business none of these "fake" products are likely to be available to you. In some cases, even your contractual rights can be violated. If the company you buy from has agreed by contract not to share your personal information with outside parties, that contact can be (and in some instances has been) nullified in bankruptcy. In one recent case the personal information collected under such terms was sold to another company for top dollar in a corporate bankruptcy auction.
8. Your rights in general. There are no guarantees that your rights, statutory or constitutional, cannot be revoked at any time, either by the legal procedures that already exist, or by illegal actions taken by powerful dictators, corrupt bureaucrats, or foreign invaders. Your rights in a court of law are also hindered by the practical reality that holding your ground and defending your rights in court involves court costs, attorney's fees, legal services (such as process servers or expert witnesses), and potentially a truck load of office supplies, stamps, and clerical services, not to mention your limited time that you might need to earn a living to support a family. Getting help from law enforcement or an attorney general is apparently possible fo
You also bought the Sharper Image gift card?
I thought the courts were bad for the free market since left wing radical activist judges were legislating from the bench.
I think you meant rhinoceros, not elephant, to prevent wild fires.