Is it just me or are legislators and government officials all nuts.
While they're at it, why not just criminalize the use of ANYTHING that could be used for less than honest purposes...
Let's start with any programming language that is used to write the tools that are available to the bad guys. hmmm... that would potentially be all of them... so we may as well just ban computers in general... and cell phones, PDAs and anything with microchips... There goes my new toaster... Can't let the bad guys get my toast.
But... wait there's more. Why not ban anything that could lead to the knowledge of how to do this crap in the first place? TV and radio are gone because of the whole microchip thing. Burn the books and close the schools. That way the kids don't learn about technology that may lead to tools that might be used by bad people for possibly malicious puproses...
And just to make sure that no one ever learns about it again, let's "silence" all programmers, scientists, researchers, teachers, librarians, hobbyists, and anyone who's ever operated a computer or even entered a Radio Shack.
I'm still not sure why vehicles are allowed on the road considering all the contraband and stolen possessions they could be used to transport. Coat hangers, hair pins, and any sharp tool. Instuments of evil, all of them.
Next up: Legislating the use of whatever part of the brain is the basis for the formation of new thoughts and notions.
That said, I still suffer from blood clots and have been taking warfarin for over 3 years now. I can say with some certainty that if he got a clot after sitting for eight hours, it actually only revealed itself then. He's been clotting for a while.
I'm more active now, cycling minimum 100km a week and lots of walking at work and at home... but I still sit for many hours.
I recommend to anyone who works as I do, even with breaks and regualr exercise, watch yourself. Not to be an alarmist but be wary of any pain or inflammation in your calves and thighs. The alternative just ain't worth not taking precautions.
It's a shame we can't be friends, but I have enjoyed our discussion. Though I'm not sure where the martyr bit comes from. I was just explaining myself, as were you.
Although I admit to having a bit of fun at your expense (for which I apologized), I was trying to have a reasonable conversation with you. I felt you were a bit opinionated so I pointed it out. So what? I'm opinionated too. We all are. It's Slashdot.
Take it easy... (As in, "see ya later". Not, "chill". I'd never tell you what to do.)
But in the spirit of one-upmanship, my chip is equally as large as yours.
As for my attack, consider it stuck. This is Slashdot after all. You can't expect to give without a little take.
So I take it back. You're not lazy. The energy you've devoted here proves that. And I'm certain you're not spoon fed. That was a cheap shot. I mean, at one point you were. We all were. But not now. Anyone as articulate as you appear to be must be more than capable of feeding themselves. With spoons or any other utensil you choose.
I'll stick with my assessment of the opinion thing though.
But seriously, values and consumer elitism aside, considering that the Archos JBR was one of the first of its kind, the fact that the firmware is both user upgradable and programmable means that it is well designed and well engineered. The original firmware worked just fine. I liked what I had, I just wanted more of it. I chose to upgrade the firmware. It wasn't necessary. But it was easy to do, which is more than I can say about customizing some of the devices out there.
I also add aftermarket products to my car. Is it necessary? No. The original wheels looked and performed just fine. But I wanted more. Were they poorly designed and engineered? For NASCAR, yes... fotunately I don't race much, but when I want and need that extra bit more that they can provide, the new wheels and tires are there for me. I pay for the ability and choice to do what I want, how I want, with my purchase. And if it's well designed and well engineered, I'll even pay extra.
So while you push your opinion I'll continue to stand up for mine.
I've never wondered why you switched to Macs... but if the haughty tone of your post is any indication, I'd say it was because you're lazy, like to be spoon fed, and just generally like to push your opinion on others. Perhaps you meant it differently?
I never said it was better than an Ipod, just that it did everything I need. I replaced the firmware because something better was available. I'm guessing you're using OSX. Do you even miss OS9? Hard drives die and music collections grow. It's one of the bittersweet facts of life. Upgrading/replacing the HD is a viable and inexpensive solution for those who who either prefer to do it themselves / can't afford to replace the whole unit / are too cheap to lay out the cash. There's nothing wrong with any of those reasons.
There's also nothing wrong with going out and buying the latest and greatest either, but spare me your contempt because I chose to continue using a device which still serves me well and allows me to get under the hood a bit. I like to tinker with my stuff. I use Linux. I don't care if people wonder why.
I just checked the specs. It uses a 1.8" drive. They're not quite up to the performance of a newer 2.5" but it should be doable. And just imagine the sense of satisfaction you will feel by increasing the longevity of your favorite device.:)
I was under the impression the H320 used a standard laptop HD. The latest models even sport 7200rpm and 16mb buffers that might breath some new life into it... unless you're looking for an excuse to get something different. I'm not judging, but I just dropped a Hitachi 100GB 7200rpm w/8mb into my old Archos JBR, and haven't looked back. Not as sleek or shiny as a new Ipod, but with the Rockbox firmware does everything I need.
I came to RoR with the same questions, having used Smarty for everything I did in the past. It took a couple of online tutorials before I came to the conclusion that Smarty-like templating isn't really necessary, or even helpful, with RoR.
I realized that the views themselves are the templates, and that I could get the same Smarty functionality, without having to learn new syntax, because you can use Ruby as the templating language as well. If I'm not mistaken there's a templating system for PHP (fasttemplate rings a bell) that does the same thing.
It's not too difficult to adapt to, unless you're a little slow like me...:)
I'm the sole developer on a fairly elaborate project. Everything tech related is my responsibility. Site design and architecture, development, support, training, hardware, software, security, everything.
Early on, it wasn't so bad. Then a year went by. Then two. The third has now completed and I'm entering the fourth. Some days I sit at my desk staring at the screen. In my mind, I'm running through everything I should be doing, but I can't seem to get my fingers to do the typing or my legs to move me to the other side of the room to the desk where I work on hardware.
I almost didn't bother typing this... but it's kind of theraputic in a way.
Anyway, lately I seem to find all kinds of 'filler' activities to consume my time. Reading up on the latest changes to the various software we use, keeping up with/. , or browsing forums for new knowledge. All (mostly) legit use of my time, but it's starting to feel like it is all I can, or want, to do. The worst part is, nothing seems to stick anymore. I'll read some info on a site and not remember it a day later.
Sure, I can probably remember most of the topics on/. but ultimately who cares about that. I sit, frustrated at myself and the amount of mounting work... a pile that grows exponentially it seems... Yet I can't seem to motivate myself to change it. I recognize that it's happening... I see the crash ahead of me. It's not that I'm apathetic or lazy, but I sure seem to be behaving that way. Is this a symptom of depression?
I've never really thought of myself as someone who gets depressed. Maybe that's denial talking. How does one check for that?
More importantly, how does one go about kick-starting their motivation again? I've tried little side projects that are related to what I do already, in the hopes that will gain me some momentum and I can then change lanes and keep working, but I can't even seem to build up any steam.
Even as I type I'm getting bored. Could be because I figure nobody will even care what I'm typing in the first place. Then again, if it helps someone else, or someone with insight can explain it then maybe it was worth it.
I wonder if there's anything good on tv right now?
I am currently on medication for DVT. As somebody already mentioned, it is not just from the computer, but sitting in general.
I program long hours. I'm generaly considered to be fit and healthy. I've gained a few pounds since I got married a few years ago, but I'm certainly not overweight.
I started a company last year that relies heavily on my development efforts. I knew better, but I still spent 15-20 hours, 7 days, every week for three months. That gradually dropped to 12 hours a day, but no less.
In October 2002, I went to the ER for some pain in my calf. They did an ultrasound on my leg and then decided that they would hospitalize me for three days to see how I would respond to high amounts of Coumadin they then gave me. The injections made my stomach look like someone beat me repeatedly with a crowbar. Pricks. According to my doctor, if I'd left it any longer, I risked death, plain and simple.
The Coumadin I take now is in pill form, and the doctor says I will be on it for another six months or so. I get blood tests weekly (and I am so sick of being poked and prodded) but my INR is steady, though I think kept balanced only by the meds.
These days I walk more. I code just as much, but until my company can afford to hire someone to replace me, there's no way around that... But I've managed to train myself to at least stand up and stretch every 20-30 minutes, and I move about every hour or so.
It sucks. Period. I recommend just avoiding it in the first place.
I've been using @home (now Shaw) in Vancouver for about 5 years. The last 2 years, I've also had ADSL. They are both business packages, but Shaw couldn't offer any kind of uptime guarantee.
In my area cable is twice as fast as DSL, but Shaw enforces download limits strictly, whereas Telus (phone co.) doesn't... at all. This is important to me for both my business and my personal usage/surfing habits.
When you're supporting clients remotely, telling them that you can't do much (or anything) for them because your connection is down doesn't cut it. When you're in the middle of a remote backup, VNC or SSH session adminning a client's box and all of a sudden everything stops, they don't care. They want the job done.
As fast as the cable is, it is also down more frequently than DSL. Here anyway. So I let my wife and kid run their boxes off it while I run primarily off DSL, switch or sharing as the need arises.
For what it's worth, I run 2 seperate trimmed down linux boxen as router/firewalls with SSH tunneling VNC for remote admin when I'm out, as well as NATing to internal boxes for web and mail services. Box A: Cable: 2 NICs, 1 in, 1 out. Box B: DSL: 3 NICs, 1 in, 1 out DSL, 1 out to 2nd Cable IP. Dlink 10/100 24port Switch in the middle.
Since neither Shaw nor Telus have dropped simultaneously, I haven't been down in close to 2 years.
In this posting earlier today, someone commented about being able to run distinct desktops on each monitor hooked up to his PC on linux.
I've never tried it, but it seems to me that if you only need 7 or 8 monitors, setup a box running Linux, with 4 Matrox G450 PCI cards. 7 heads for them, one for you (or 8 for them, and you get one running off the AGP slot), A bunch of USB keyboards and mice (unless anyone knows of a better way of connecting that many input devices), and you have the added benefit of having a single box to maintain. Few if any licensing issues, add Wine or VMware, depending on your needs, and you can run the occasional windows app. This'll keep hardware costs down overall, but your box had better be pretty fast and robust.
Plus, using some creative monitoring you can watch exactly what each of your students are doing on the system and the net and easily curb their activities as required without having to run to each PC or run additional software (VNC, comes to mind).
Call me spoiled... I've been using more than 1 monitor for over 4 years. The last 2 years I've been using 3. I do a lot of web app development and network admin, mostly simultaneously, and I can honestly say that I don't know how I ever got on with a single display. My current setup is a Matrox G550 Dualhead with a 32MB Diamond Stealth3 running 17",15",15". My 17" just recently died and for the last week I've been down to 2 and I find it very frustrating. Keeping aside the fact that most people who are unfamiliar with the MM configuration find using my system intimidating... Let face it, we've all got one thing or another on our systems that we don't want people seeing... People like kids and spouses mostly... but nosey friend and guests also. Not that I permit people as a rule to use my system, but I'm not always around. In terms of actual practicality, which, BTW, my wife does not believe for a second, I have to say that 2 monitors was and is a great efficiency booster. Editors on one screen, debuggers and other output on another. Browser on 1, email or editor on 2, DVD on 1, Browser/email/editor/other on 2. Go for 3 and your world changes. I go for hours a day now never having to tab to, or flip through, different windows. Shangri-la, baby. I estimate I save myself about an hour a day, by not having to flip about looking for a window I've covered with another. My holy grail is actually a 2x3 screen config. Set up like that, I'd even take all 15", but 6-17" screens would be best. I'd never have to tab through windows again. woohoo.
but I gotta be honest. I took computer science and engineering. I've worked in the industry for over ten years in tech-support, network admin, system admin, and programming. Outside of basic diagramming and very basic programming concepts that you will find in the first few chapters of any programming language text book there is very little that I learned there that I've had to use in my carreer.
I used to wonder if the $50K (cdn) I spent going to school was worth it... and then I remembered all the stuff I did outside of class...
I am just in the middle of putting up some pages describing a cabinet I have customized for this exact purpose.
The cabinet I bought from an office furniture auction house for $150. They had 20 of them, so I know they are quite common. I bought a window mount dual fan from Home Depot for $50 and used a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade to do the mods. It tooks 3 hours from start to finish.
It's not up yet, but check back tuesday night. I should be done it by then.
Designed for the power user and totally ergo. They had a display at Comdex West in Vancouver. If I could have fit it in my pocket, I would have taken it home right there.
Generally my week is around 60 hours. At peak it hit upwards near 100, and the worst it ever got (two week period and 6 all nighters) was just over 120 hours/week. So now my great job pays around $7.50 an hour. whoopie. Is it good? No. Does it pay well? Occasionally, but not often. Does it make a difference in the end? Ultimately no, I don't think so. In respect to my health, definitely not. And my family life... no help there either. Do I enjoy it? The content and results sure... the time involved, no way. Do I plan on changing it? If I can guarantee the same income elsewhere with less responsibility... (that'll happen, not) And yet I press on. It doesn't help that I actually am interested by most of what I'm required to learn about and report on... nor that I'm driven to prove myself and provide for my family... and provide well. Bottom line is, my wife misses me, my daughter misses me, my ass is getting larger daily, and the longer I go, the more I feel stuck there.
I do research for a tech company and get a lot of seeming non-related information passed my way. I use Slashdot, Wired (for what it's worth) and other sources to keep things from getting too monotonous. A lot of this stuff goes in and out real quick, but over the last few months some things have started to show a pattern. If not for that, I think it would be real easy to dismiss this as a case of short sightedness.
That they know not what they do, that they don't realize what a Pandora's box they're opening now seems too easy an answer. They have scores of sociologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists at their beck and call. Is it possible that of the presumably many involved with creating this profile, none thought this might be a bad idea, or what the future implications might be, or what kind of precedent it may set?
So what? So what if... the FBI knows exactly what they are doing.
Perhaps I've seen one too many episodes of the x-files, but I think there is perhaps another explanation for this test and why it has been released to American AND Canadian schools. (Since when has the US Gov. cared about Canadian social issues anyway?)
This may well be a small piece to a very large picture. I can only see a portion, but who else has heard or seen things that are seemingly silly, stupid, even idiotic, but appear to be isolated events. How many of them actually fit together in some bizarre scheme that we as yet cannot comprehend?
Part of the picture involves this profile, or more specifically what affect this profile will have. Think about it. A simply test from a respected government agency for educators as an early warning system. Sounds more like a tagging system. Hmmm... Why apply labels to kids based on a number of factors largely out of their control, and for what little they do control they are generally ill prepared socially to deal with it at that point in their life. Bottom line. They are not yet what they may become, good or bad. But hey, let's force it on them anyway.
That brings me to Self-fulfilling prophecy. In Sociology 101 I learned about a concept called 'Self-fulfilling prophecy'. It's been 10 years since I took the class, but basically it claims that things like labels and names have certain behaviors associated to them, and by applying them to someone, that will be how an individual begins to define his identity. This identity begins to define his thoughts, and his thoughts define his actions and behavior. This behavior is categorized by some label and the whole thing comes full circle.
Last week the FBI had some ISP shut down the site of a guy who had made a movie showing the government causing a Y2K riot so that they could declare martial law. See Wired and Slashdot. For decades movies have shown government abusing its power... why this one? Why him? Perhaps because it hit too close to home for certain elements with this sort of thing in mind.
For months, I understand, the US has been preparing their National Guard for deployment in the event of some kind of Y2K disaster. Good planning to be sure, but let's face it, one word from the government and sand bags by a river bank quickly become tear gas canisters in the middle of a crowd.
I don't really know much about economics, so I let someone else describe the potential impact of this but recently I read that the government has recently given/sold/invested a ton of cash in/to the financial institutions to give them (and citizen) piece of mind. Source anyone? I appreciate the thought, but I can't believe it is a good idea to encourage people to remove their money by making it available for everyone to do so.
This is all off the top of my head, but let's recap... Create a subculture of deviants from all the kids who fit the profile. That's a lot of kids. As a result of years of labeling, prejudice and discrimination, you have an army of intelligent, but socially undesirable people. Oh, did I mention that they're angry? Angry people tend to be apathetic about issues not directly involving themselves and are probably easier to shepherd than others. Control the majority and many of the minorities will follow suit. A government agency prevents the electronic mass distribution of film that describes a government plot, in an attempt to keep even the thought of such a thing from the masses. Out of sight, out of mind. The National Guard is on standby. Power failures, riots, same difference. The government purposely enables its citizens to hoard cash and thereby leaving large amounts of cash available for theft/loss/destruction, you pick.
Anyone else have a piece to add?
So... is it just me or is something is about to unfold... or is this all in preparation for something much bigger?
Slashdot Mirror
Is it just me or are legislators and government officials all nuts.
While they're at it, why not just criminalize the use of ANYTHING that could be used for less than honest purposes...
Let's start with any programming language that is used to write the tools that are available to the bad guys. hmmm... that would potentially be all of them... so we may as well just ban computers in general... and cell phones, PDAs and anything with microchips... There goes my new toaster... Can't let the bad guys get my toast.
But... wait there's more. Why not ban anything that could lead to the knowledge of how to do this crap in the first place? TV and radio are gone because of the whole microchip thing. Burn the books and close the schools. That way the kids don't learn about technology that may lead to tools that might be used by bad people for possibly malicious puproses...
And just to make sure that no one ever learns about it again, let's "silence" all programmers, scientists, researchers, teachers, librarians, hobbyists, and anyone who's ever operated a computer or even entered a Radio Shack.
I'm still not sure why vehicles are allowed on the road considering all the contraband and stolen possessions they could be used to transport. Coat hangers, hair pins, and any sharp tool. Instuments of evil, all of them.
Next up: Legislating the use of whatever part of the brain is the basis for the formation of new thoughts and notions.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/29/043425 4
0 099
These were my comments:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=52201&cid=518
That said, I still suffer from blood clots and have been taking warfarin for over 3 years now. I can say with some certainty that if he got a clot after sitting for eight hours, it actually only revealed itself then. He's been clotting for a while.
I'm more active now, cycling minimum 100km a week and lots of walking at work and at home... but I still sit for many hours.
I recommend to anyone who works as I do, even with breaks and regualr exercise, watch yourself. Not to be an alarmist but be wary of any pain or inflammation in your calves and thighs. The alternative just ain't worth not taking precautions.
Weren't they warning us just the other day that we don't have enough copper? http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/ 18/1623244
And now they want to go shooting a bunch of it into space?
:) I haven't laughed that hard in a while. *wipes a tear* Touché.
So we're good now?
Wow. You're really very angry, aren't you?
It's a shame we can't be friends, but I have enjoyed our discussion. Though I'm not sure where the martyr bit comes from. I was just explaining myself, as were you.
Although I admit to having a bit of fun at your expense (for which I apologized), I was trying to have a reasonable conversation with you. I felt you were a bit opinionated so I pointed it out. So what? I'm opinionated too. We all are. It's Slashdot.
Take it easy... (As in, "see ya later". Not, "chill". I'd never tell you what to do.)
Hello Pot? This is the Kettle. You're black.
But in the spirit of one-upmanship, my chip is equally as large as yours.
As for my attack, consider it stuck. This is Slashdot after all. You can't expect to give without a little take.
So I take it back. You're not lazy. The energy you've devoted here proves that. And I'm certain you're not spoon fed. That was a cheap shot. I mean, at one point you were. We all were. But not now. Anyone as articulate as you appear to be must be more than capable of feeding themselves. With spoons or any other utensil you choose.
I'll stick with my assessment of the opinion thing though.
But seriously, values and consumer elitism aside, considering that the Archos JBR was one of the first of its kind, the fact that the firmware is both user upgradable and programmable means that it is well designed and well engineered. The original firmware worked just fine. I liked what I had, I just wanted more of it. I chose to upgrade the firmware. It wasn't necessary. But it was easy to do, which is more than I can say about customizing some of the devices out there.
I also add aftermarket products to my car. Is it necessary? No. The original wheels looked and performed just fine. But I wanted more. Were they poorly designed and engineered? For NASCAR, yes... fotunately I don't race much, but when I want and need that extra bit more that they can provide, the new wheels and tires are there for me. I pay for the ability and choice to do what I want, how I want, with my purchase. And if it's well designed and well engineered, I'll even pay extra.
So while you push your opinion I'll continue to stand up for mine.
I've never wondered why you switched to Macs... but if the haughty tone of your post is any indication, I'd say it was because you're lazy, like to be spoon fed, and just generally like to push your opinion on others. Perhaps you meant it differently?
I never said it was better than an Ipod, just that it did everything I need. I replaced the firmware because something better was available. I'm guessing you're using OSX. Do you even miss OS9? Hard drives die and music collections grow. It's one of the bittersweet facts of life. Upgrading/replacing the HD is a viable and inexpensive solution for those who who either prefer to do it themselves / can't afford to replace the whole unit / are too cheap to lay out the cash. There's nothing wrong with any of those reasons.
There's also nothing wrong with going out and buying the latest and greatest either, but spare me your contempt because I chose to continue using a device which still serves me well and allows me to get under the hood a bit. I like to tinker with my stuff. I use Linux. I don't care if people wonder why.
I just checked the specs. It uses a 1.8" drive. They're not quite up to the performance of a newer 2.5" but it should be doable. And just imagine the sense of satisfaction you will feel by increasing the longevity of your favorite device. :)
I was under the impression the H320 used a standard laptop HD. The latest models even sport 7200rpm and 16mb buffers that might breath some new life into it... unless you're looking for an excuse to get something different. I'm not judging, but I just dropped a Hitachi 100GB 7200rpm w/8mb into my old Archos JBR, and haven't looked back. Not as sleek or shiny as a new Ipod, but with the Rockbox firmware does everything I need.
I came to RoR with the same questions, having used Smarty for everything I did in the past. It took a couple of online tutorials before I came to the conclusion that Smarty-like templating isn't really necessary, or even helpful, with RoR.
:)
l s.html and http://rails.homelinux.org/
I realized that the views themselves are the templates, and that I could get the same Smarty functionality, without having to learn new syntax, because you can use Ruby as the templating language as well. If I'm not mistaken there's a templating system for PHP (fasttemplate rings a bell) that does the same thing.
It's not too difficult to adapt to, unless you're a little slow like me...
Take a look at http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/20/rai
I've also really enjoyed http://poignantguide.net/ruby/
I've been experiencing this 'effect' lately.
/. , or browsing forums for new knowledge. All (mostly) legit use of my time, but it's starting to feel like it is all I can, or want, to do. The worst part is, nothing seems to stick anymore. I'll read some info on a site and not remember it a day later.
/. but ultimately who cares about that. I sit, frustrated at myself and the amount of mounting work... a pile that grows exponentially it seems... Yet I can't seem to motivate myself to change it. I recognize that it's happening... I see the crash ahead of me. It's not that I'm apathetic or lazy, but I sure seem to be behaving that way. Is this a symptom of depression?
I'm the sole developer on a fairly elaborate project. Everything tech related is my responsibility. Site design and architecture, development, support, training, hardware, software, security, everything.
Early on, it wasn't so bad. Then a year went by. Then two. The third has now completed and I'm entering the fourth. Some days I sit at my desk staring at the screen. In my mind, I'm running through everything I should be doing, but I can't seem to get my fingers to do the typing or my legs to move me to the other side of the room to the desk where I work on hardware.
I almost didn't bother typing this... but it's kind of theraputic in a way.
Anyway, lately I seem to find all kinds of 'filler' activities to consume my time. Reading up on the latest changes to the various software we use, keeping up with
Sure, I can probably remember most of the topics on
I've never really thought of myself as someone who gets depressed. Maybe that's denial talking. How does one check for that?
More importantly, how does one go about kick-starting their motivation again? I've tried little side projects that are related to what I do already, in the hopes that will gain me some momentum and I can then change lanes and keep working, but I can't even seem to build up any steam.
Even as I type I'm getting bored. Could be because I figure nobody will even care what I'm typing in the first place. Then again, if it helps someone else, or someone with insight can explain it then maybe it was worth it.
I wonder if there's anything good on tv right now?
I am currently on medication for DVT. As somebody already mentioned, it is not just from the computer, but sitting in general.
I program long hours. I'm generaly considered to be fit and healthy. I've gained a few pounds since I got married a few years ago, but I'm certainly not overweight.
I started a company last year that relies heavily on my development efforts. I knew better, but I still spent 15-20 hours, 7 days, every week for three months. That gradually dropped to 12 hours a day, but no less.
In October 2002, I went to the ER for some pain in my calf. They did an ultrasound on my leg and then decided that they would hospitalize me for three days to see how I would respond to high amounts of Coumadin they then gave me. The injections made my stomach look like someone beat me repeatedly with a crowbar. Pricks. According to my doctor, if I'd left it any longer, I risked death, plain and simple.
The Coumadin I take now is in pill form, and the doctor says I will be on it for another six months or so. I get blood tests weekly (and I am so sick of being poked and prodded) but my INR is steady, though I think kept balanced only by the meds.
These days I walk more. I code just as much, but until my company can afford to hire someone to replace me, there's no way around that... But I've managed to train myself to at least stand up and stretch every 20-30 minutes, and I move about every hour or so.
It sucks. Period. I recommend just avoiding it in the first place.
It's also about staying connected.
I've been using @home (now Shaw) in Vancouver for about 5 years. The last 2 years, I've also had ADSL. They are both business packages, but Shaw couldn't offer any kind of uptime guarantee.
In my area cable is twice as fast as DSL, but Shaw enforces download limits strictly, whereas Telus (phone co.) doesn't... at all. This is important to me for both my business and my personal usage/surfing habits.
When you're supporting clients remotely, telling them that you can't do much (or anything) for them because your connection is down doesn't cut it. When you're in the middle of a remote backup, VNC or SSH session adminning a client's box and all of a sudden everything stops, they don't care. They want the job done.
As fast as the cable is, it is also down more frequently than DSL. Here anyway. So I let my wife and kid run their boxes off it while I run primarily off DSL, switch or sharing as the need arises.
For what it's worth, I run 2 seperate trimmed down linux boxen as router/firewalls with SSH tunneling VNC for remote admin when I'm out, as well as NATing to internal boxes for web and mail services.
Box A: Cable: 2 NICs, 1 in, 1 out.
Box B: DSL: 3 NICs, 1 in, 1 out DSL, 1 out to 2nd Cable IP.
Dlink 10/100 24port Switch in the middle.
Since neither Shaw nor Telus have dropped simultaneously, I haven't been down in close to 2 years.
In this posting earlier today, someone commented about being able to run distinct desktops on each monitor hooked up to his PC on linux.
I've never tried it, but it seems to me that if you only need 7 or 8 monitors, setup a box running Linux, with 4 Matrox G450 PCI cards. 7 heads for them, one for you (or 8 for them, and you get one running off the AGP slot), A bunch of USB keyboards and mice (unless anyone knows of a better way of connecting that many input devices), and you have the added benefit of having a single box to maintain. Few if any licensing issues, add Wine or VMware, depending on your needs, and you can run the occasional windows app. This'll keep hardware costs down overall, but your box had better be pretty fast and robust.
Plus, using some creative monitoring you can watch exactly what each of your students are doing on the system and the net and easily curb their activities as required without having to run to each PC or run additional software (VNC, comes to mind).
Call me spoiled... I've been using more than 1 monitor for over 4 years. The last 2 years I've been using 3. I do a lot of web app development and network admin, mostly simultaneously, and I can honestly say that I don't know how I ever got on with a single display.
My current setup is a Matrox G550 Dualhead with a 32MB Diamond Stealth3 running 17",15",15".
My 17" just recently died and for the last week I've been down to 2 and I find it very frustrating.
Keeping aside the fact that most people who are unfamiliar with the MM configuration find using my system intimidating... Let face it, we've all got one thing or another on our systems that we don't want people seeing... People like kids and spouses mostly... but nosey friend and guests also. Not that I permit people as a rule to use my system, but I'm not always around.
In terms of actual practicality, which, BTW, my wife does not believe for a second, I have to say that 2 monitors was and is a great efficiency booster. Editors on one screen, debuggers and other output on another. Browser on 1, email or editor on 2, DVD on 1, Browser/email/editor/other on 2.
Go for 3 and your world changes. I go for hours a day now never having to tab to, or flip through, different windows. Shangri-la, baby.
I estimate I save myself about an hour a day, by not having to flip about looking for a window I've covered with another.
My holy grail is actually a 2x3 screen config. Set up like that, I'd even take all 15", but 6-17" screens would be best. I'd never have to tab through windows again. woohoo.
I used to wonder if the $50K (cdn) I spent going to school was worth it... and then I remembered all the stuff I did outside of class...
The cabinet I bought from an office furniture auction house for $150. They had 20 of them, so I know they are quite common.
I bought a window mount dual fan from Home Depot for $50 and used a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade to do the mods. It tooks 3 hours from start to finish.
It's not up yet, but check back tuesday night. I should be done it by then.
The URL will be http://www.goldrick.net/cabinetsolution/
Designed for the power user and totally ergo. They had a display at Comdex West in Vancouver. If I could have fit it in my pocket, I would have taken it home right there.
Generally my week is around 60 hours. At peak it hit upwards near 100, and the worst it ever got (two week period and 6 all nighters) was just over 120 hours/week. So now my great job pays around $7.50 an hour. whoopie. Is it good? No. Does it pay well? Occasionally, but not often. Does it make a difference in the end? Ultimately no, I don't think so. In respect to my health, definitely not. And my family life... no help there either. Do I enjoy it? The content and results sure... the time involved, no way. Do I plan on changing it? If I can guarantee the same income elsewhere with less responsibility... (that'll happen, not) And yet I press on. It doesn't help that I actually am interested by most of what I'm required to learn about and report on... nor that I'm driven to prove myself and provide for my family... and provide well. Bottom line is, my wife misses me, my daughter misses me, my ass is getting larger daily, and the longer I go, the more I feel stuck there.
That they know not what they do, that they don't realize what a Pandora's box they're opening now seems too easy an answer. They have scores of sociologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists at their beck and call. Is it possible that of the presumably many involved with creating this profile, none thought this might be a bad idea, or what the future implications might be, or what kind of precedent it may set?
So what? So what if... the FBI knows exactly what they are doing.
Perhaps I've seen one too many episodes of the x-files, but I think there is perhaps another explanation for this test and why it has been released to American AND Canadian schools. (Since when has the US Gov. cared about Canadian social issues anyway?)
This may well be a small piece to a very large picture. I can only see a portion, but who else has heard or seen things that are seemingly silly, stupid, even idiotic, but appear to be isolated events. How many of them actually fit together in some bizarre scheme that we as yet cannot comprehend?
Part of the picture involves this profile, or more specifically what affect this profile will have. Think about it. A simply test from a respected government agency for educators as an early warning system. Sounds more like a tagging system. Hmmm... Why apply labels to kids based on a number of factors largely out of their control, and for what little they do control they are generally ill prepared socially to deal with it at that point in their life. Bottom line. They are not yet what they may become, good or bad. But hey, let's force it on them anyway.
That brings me to Self-fulfilling prophecy. In Sociology 101 I learned about a concept called 'Self-fulfilling prophecy'. It's been 10 years since I took the class, but basically it claims that things like labels and names have certain behaviors associated to them, and by applying them to someone, that will be how an individual begins to define his identity. This identity begins to define his thoughts, and his thoughts define his actions and behavior. This behavior is categorized by some label and the whole thing comes full circle.
Last week the FBI had some ISP shut down the site of a guy who had made a movie showing the government causing a Y2K riot so that they could declare martial law. See Wired and Slashdot. For decades movies have shown government abusing its power... why this one? Why him? Perhaps because it hit too close to home for certain elements with this sort of thing in mind.
For months, I understand, the US has been preparing their National Guard for deployment in the event of some kind of Y2K disaster. Good planning to be sure, but let's face it, one word from the government and sand bags by a river bank quickly become tear gas canisters in the middle of a crowd.
I don't really know much about economics, so I let someone else describe the potential impact of this but recently I read that the government has recently given/sold/invested a ton of cash in/to the financial institutions to give them (and citizen) piece of mind. Source anyone? I appreciate the thought, but I can't believe it is a good idea to encourage people to remove their money by making it available for everyone to do so.
This is all off the top of my head, but let's recap...
Create a subculture of deviants from all the kids who fit the profile. That's a lot of kids. As a result of years of labeling, prejudice and discrimination, you have an army of intelligent, but socially undesirable people. Oh, did I mention that they're angry? Angry people tend to be apathetic about issues not directly involving themselves and are probably easier to shepherd than others. Control the majority and many of the minorities will follow suit. A government agency prevents the electronic mass distribution of film that describes a government plot, in an attempt to keep even the thought of such a thing from the masses. Out of sight, out of mind. The National Guard is on standby. Power failures, riots, same difference. The government purposely enables its citizens to hoard cash and thereby leaving large amounts of cash available for theft/loss/destruction, you pick.
Anyone else have a piece to add?
So... is it just me or is something is about to unfold... or is this all in preparation for something much bigger?