Maine, one of the poorest States yet has one of the highest per-capita firearm ownerships. No need for a permit to conceal carry. The lowest firearm (including theft) crime rate, per capita, in the country according to Wikipedia the last time I checked which was about two weeks ago. I, err, I kind of skew that number a bit but, really, that's only the firearms that they *know* about. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have a firearm in their home but I'm sure there's someone. I have an obscene number so I make up for them. No, really, they keep mating and I end up with more and more. I have firearms that I've never even fired - collectible antiques and the likes.
On the other hand, I have a whole room, lined with safes, that's concrete on all four sides, and has a steel door that's embedded into the concrete. I own two select fire firearms and am obligated to ensure they're kept in a safe condition. It's part of my moral code to ensure that I do my best to keep my collection secure. It would be unfortunate for some of them to be out on the street.
This is one of the reasons why, regardless of the expense, I charter every time it is feasible. Why yes, yes I have had very high powered firearms on an airplane. In fact, I've been in the midst of a whole bunch of us who had high powered firearms in an airplane - and we didn't even have to land in the plane. Each and every one of us was carrying a firearm. Some of us carried more than one, or at least parts to more than one. Shit, we had enough firearms - with live ammo - to put enough holes in the plane so we'd have had fresh air. Of course, we eventually got plenty of fresh air.
On a more serious note, I charter when possible. It's a bit more expensive but no TSA and I can take my hunting equipment right in the cabin with me if there's no room elsewhere. They might even let me fly the plane. However, I think you might be projecting a bit with that "gun kooks" thing. There are some gun nuts, granted, but they're a very, very tiny majority. Hell, I own more firearms than 1000 people will ever need (I've got a very nice collection - I've even posted some pics here before) assuming they only need one. And even *I* support reasonable regulation. Though we'd probably argue what is reasonable. I can assure you, I do not donate a nickel to the NRA and I do not like them one bit. I do donate to the local and national ACLU however.
I know it's not JavaScript but, damn it, I'm waiting for a resurgence in Java applets in the browser. I shit you not, I seriously expect to see this happen in the not-to-distant-future. Why? Someone will think it's a grand idea, all over again.
Could you imagine if a two-week-old hire had told the boss, the owner, the code author (but bad, bad code), and the absolute authority what that programmer told me, today? I mean, I can only go by what I read from posts from people like you. Can you imagine what would have happened had they told the boss that code comments go in the code and not on a coffee soaked index card and referred to the boss as an asshole?
Eventually, I had lots of proprietary data housed which meant I had security on staff. I can only imagine that, today, they'd have emptied his desk for him, changed/deleted his accounts (if they're smart), and had him in the parking lot waiting in less than 30 minutes. I don't know if they're worse but I do think I see more bugs. I also know there's a lot more code now.
That and, I have too much respect for you to argue with you unless I can point out an unreasonable conclusion. It's possible to use logic to reason your way to a completely backwards result. It's never been anything *that* bad so I've never felt obligated to bring it up. I just view it as an alternative conclusion and one that I disagree with. I think I have, at one point, when you were painting Libertarians with a large brush. (I think that was you.)
You're one of the people who still posts here who has value. You're one of the ones that are left here that I still respect their opinions. You're one of the ones that I know I can ask a question and you'll do your best to answer it. You're one of the ones who could call me an idiot and, frankly, I'd certainly look to see where I'd made the mistake as opposed to just assuming the name caller was just not smart enough to understand what I was saying.
Yeah, I'd have loved to have hired you back in the day. Early 1990s, starting at 120 with benefits and two weeks plus two weeks personal time. It was hard back then. They didn't really have programmers who were traffic modelers. It just didn't exist like it does now. What did exist was trains, fleet management, plane scheduling, cargo ships, and that was pretty much it. I was, literally, the entire industry for a long time.
Hell, I cheated. I paid a university to do some research. We were going to build out a lab for modeling pedestrian traffic - specifically stores of varied types (you should note a general layout change in many store starting in 1999-2001, by the way. So, I paid a local university, got the data, built the lab, and hired the researchers before they even got their degree. I paid for them to take a few different courses in programming AND computer science (there's a difference, damn it - but you know that.)
Traffic modelers didn't exist, really. Traffic engineers were a thing, barely. Err... If you get really curious and spend some time in the archives - you might find out how some of the curriculum changed and why it changed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
I suspect you'd have loved it. Just from our conversations here. It was the cusp of a new technology. I had an employee ask why I was building out a research lab when we didn't have any competition. I was building it because I knew we *would* be having one. (It was just a warehouse with movable partitions, various stage settings, lighting changes, and some very, very, expensive cameras that were not just high speed but high definition and could track pretty much everything. We did stuff like setup up a [redacted] convenience store and then paid people to shop there. For a while we worked for [redacted] and we actually ran live data collection.
What we did is we had the models but we went out to get real world data. With that data, we looked to see if the models matched the data. If it didn't, we collected more data. If it still didn't then we fixed the models. Then, and only then, do I feel you can make accurate predictions. I'm fine with changing a model, massaging data, and all that but it has to be done right. There's a reason the company, with a new name, is still considered the best in the industry. There are some fly-by-night
Sadly, you missed the point entirely. I am in a small minority but recent stats, cited with proof and everything, showed that even the US millionaires were almost all self made. Now, honestly, I certainly exceed that amount and largely due to luck, being able to take risks, and having the good fortune to be able to hire very smart people - it's not something great that I did on my own.
But, as I said, you missed the point entirely and proved my point exactly. Don't paint with that large brush. You miss the finer details. There are people who assume that I committed untold crimes to get what I have. There are people who think that all I want is money. There are people who think I'm just trying to accumulate as much as I can so that I have a high score.
I'll give you an example... I purposely did not lie but I did not reveal my financial status to my girlfriend until it reached the point where we had pretty much figured out we were going to end up stuck with one another.
It's not my story to tell but, I have her permission. She's almost 40 years my junior. She was taking care of her younger brother but the State moved him in with relatives who could barely afford it. She was one day away from living on the street as the hotel bill was not paid for beyond one last night when I first met her. She assumed that the charity had found the money to keep her in the hotel. Her parents are in jail, going to prison for a while, for manufacturing meth.
Her brother and those relatives have a bank account that delivers an extra $3500/month now.
She will never have to work a day in her life - she's already worked harder than most people ever will.
The reason I made it a point to avoid conversing about my accumulation of bits of paper was because people can be pretty shitty and money can change them. She, her brother, and the relatives that took him in (and had no room nor money for her) were straight up fucked. They were below the poverty line and they worked, well - my girlfriend didn't, she was finishing a couple of classes to get her diploma and her highest hopes was to get a job at FUCKING BURGER KING.
Please, please don't paint with such a broad brush. She's the most beautiful (physically and mentally) person you'd ever meet. Some Slashdotters met her over the weekend after NYE. She'd never held a $100 bill. She'd taken care of her brother since she was five.
They are anecdotes, but do you know what anecdotes are? They're data points. Don't paint with such a large brush. Really, you do yourself a disservice by doing so. Have you ever seen someone who's never once, in their entire lives, had nothing to worry about - be absolutely free of all worries? I gave her a debit card, it get topped up automatically by my accountant back in Maine. There's only $10,000 on it at a time. I think she's spent less than $500 since September and that's the richest she's ever been. She had no idea. None. She had tears in her eyes when I showed her a couple of my balances and my trading accounts. Then she wiped them away and asked if we could still go to dinner.
She'd never owned a pair of properly fitted shoes. She'd never had her hair done professionally. She'd never had a manicure. Shit, sometimes she didn't even have tampons.
It's not just an anecdote, it's a real person and I love her and she loved me when she thought I was pretty damned poor and "just out looking to see what life had to offer." She didn't realize the car was as expensive as it was. I wore jeans and t-shirts from L.L. Bean. I looked, dressed, and acted like normal - just didn't allow the conversation to turn to income.
You go ahead, you call her an anecdote. I'll watch and listen. Seriously, do you want a phone number or do you want to call her an anecdote in person? I'm in Panama City Beach, Florida at the moment. Not just one but several Slashdotters can tell you how to get to my house here. You tell her bother that he's an anecdote. You tell his family that can now take care of him that they're an anecdote. You
I already have a place in Florida and Nevada. I'm actually thinking about having a friend go to my house and pick up a few firearms and take them out to Nevada before I return home to Maine. There's also a few good "machine gun shoots" in Nevada. I own two classed firearms. Well, I own more but two that would be typically considered classed by non-experts. I have an AK47 which is technically an M22 from China - meant for the NVA during Viet Nam, we think. The paperwork is legal but the history is pretty sketchy. It was NIB when I bought it. Yes, yes it was expensive. (I've probably talked about that particular "friend" enough. He's a gunsmith who actually retired to Maine before I did but he was in Winston-Salem too.) I also own an M14.
I'm a firearm aficionado, like automobiles, I appreciate the labor, the mechanics, the utilitarian nature, and the constant improvement that you can apply to yourself while attempting to master the operation of both. I'm not a 2nd Amendment jackass - I'm kind of fond of all the Amendments. Well, except the ones that have been negated. I think "arms" should include anything that is not a weapon of mass destruction, I have owned (licensed) real hand grenades. Yup, they were legal. Yup, there was a $500 tax on each and every single one of them. I gotta tell you, it was worth the ~$1500 each - they were the pineapple grenades from WWII. I had a full dozen. I have exactly zero. It was a lot of fun.
Because I have classed firearms, I must be able to account for them at all times. Not even at 'reasonable' times (so far as my lawyer tells me). They can knock and demand an accounting at 0400 on a Sunday. Failure to provide that accounting means prison, or so I understand. I'm okay with that - I have dangerous weapons. I understand that that places my burden on a different level than Joe Average with his shotgun. I accept the differences in paperwork, costs, and accountability.
This is where I differ and I think I mentioned this earlier. If it's shot larger than.410 or fires a single projectile larger than.221 (call it.22 LR) then I think mandatory training, proficiency, should not be beyond the discussion. That's something we should discuss. That's a reasonable conversation to have. We can make it a class if school. I had my own firearms at school. I had four match pistols, three match rifles, and one hunting rifle in the head master's closet. The closet wasn't even locked. I always got permission but I was on the rifle and pistol teams. I have my big and little pizza boxes as awarded by the USMC (not bragging but I shoot that well).
I do not donate to the NRA. I have some serious cash - mostly due to some hard work, long hours, but more accurately due to good luck and having the ability to hire smart people. I retired at 50. I sold my business for a fairly good sized 9 digit sum. It's a matter of public record and I guess this thread is old enough so that nobody will see it so I feel that I can comfortably share the numbers with you and you'll understand that it's not bragging but just to give insight as to why I am able to be who I am.
I'm assuming you're seated. I sold my business to a company that does almost nothing but fulfill government contracts. I did traffic modeling, specialized in vehicular traffic but we'd branched out and even built a research lab for pedestrian traffic modeling. If you know any history, you'll remember the "shovel ready jobs" and how many of those were highway jobs? Yeah... I sold for 98m in cash and 120m in stocks. It took six months to finalize the sale - I could not divest myself of the shares until after six months has passed or the SEC would have put me in prison. So, I sold in 2007 but it was really finalized.... Wow, it will be 8 years ago as of tomorrow.
I've never sent the NRA a dime. I imagine that might seem strange to you but, well, by now you might understand my outlook a bit better than most. I've literally tried to by an MRAP. They will not sell me one. But
I think I may give it a shot - if you're interested in a preview drop me an email. I'll eventually set up a site for it as well. I have an idea - you gave it to me. It will be written like a work of fiction, not as a text book. It will be based on reality though - and it will probably be completely true. I'm just not going to tell them that.
Did you ever read the book Cheaper By The Dozen? The movies sucked - the book was actually really good. I almost wanted to become and efficiency engineer based on that book alone. It's funny because, in a way, I did. I made vehicular traffic more efficient. I made shopping in stores less efficient for the customer but more effective for the company. I made exit routes for arenas, should they have emergencies, both indoors and outdoors. (I even got to go to the UK and get out of my comfort zone with football/soccer hooligans.) In fact, if one were careful you could actually find a younger me in a documentary about that. But, I shan't tell tales out of church.;-)
I was, technically, credited but I don't believe the documentary is on IMDB and it sure as hell wasn't famous. I did get paid a small sum. It actually cost me more money to take part in the documentary than they paid me. I had to pull up old code, I had to get the guys to add graphics (we didn't really use much in the way of graphics - it's VERY compute intensive in some areas but compute cycles got cheaper but they weren't in 1999-2000) and then make it play more or less as a movie while I pretended to do stuff - more or less I was just talking while the graphics played and I pretended to do stuff. It was silly but it's what the producer/director wanted.
So, I'm thinking some sort of novel. I value your views, opinions, and insight. I'd also be honored if you took the time to drop me an email letting me know (if you want) when to notify you as it has reached the point of some value. I've got some spare time actually - I was going to dedicate it to relearning some programming but this could actually be better for the world than yet another calculator application.
The email address is real and checked on a semi-regular basis and I'm starting to feel better already. We may have poor health care in America overall but, truth be told, if you can afford it (and that's a big if) then we have some of the best care in the world. As I can afford it, they brought two specialists in from hospitals a couple hundred miles away. Just for pneumonia... But, I didn't want to be held down for too long while on wanderlust and I'm still, technically, bed-ridden but I was out on the beach today.
Thank you for sharing. I have one further question, if you don't mind. What might the penalty be, say for someone who's traditionally a bit of a trouble maker but not a violent criminal nor trying to overthrow the country, to own a copy of The Animal Farm? Maybe a couple of questions - what might the penalty have been for distributing that work? Perhaps on a larger scale?
Sorry for my naive questions but I'm truly curious and I appreciate your knowledge, candor, and general ability to fill in details that one may have forgotten to ask. If, perhaps, you do not wish to be open about this then email is available. The email listed with this account is valid and checked on a regular bases. The concept of a book being prohibited isn't so foreign that I can't understand it but it is foreign enough that there are aspects that make me curious.
One example would be, would the book have been available (without being too specific, in order to protect yourself - if required) to those who wanted to read it bad enough? Were there clandestine printing presses? Black market shops? Underground lending libraries?
I know that some old Soviet Bloc countries had people who would literally fashion the computers out of not just parts but often out of handmade parts. I think that, at least by itself, is awesome.
Again, thank you for sharing. Your insight is valued and I truly appreciate any effort you make at helping me understand better. In my country, the United States of America or Canada (I'm a citizen of both countries) there are classified documents but if, for some reason, they ended up leaked then we'd certainly be free to publish them, read them, loan them, sell them, gift them, and do things like mark them up for context and greater understanding. Seriously, thanks for explaining. I, for one, truly appreciate it.
About a month ago I followed someone's signature to a thread that I actually recall reading - and laughing - as we were doing something, kinda sorta, similar in ways that I am not at liberty to speak about. I sold my company for a healthy sum.
I shan't be specific but it was a not-bad 9 digit sum mostly because the economy was in a slump and there were "shovel ready jobs" for new highways - few people ever put the timing together and I know you're not dumb or two nosy so I feel comfortable sharing that with you - I believe that you'll know that I share it as an example and not as an effort to brag.
So, by the end of the 1990s we were using clustered computers and had disk arrays that would make a mere mortal poop. There were a few years where we nearly (gross revenue) hit the 10 digit numbers.
This, it's kind of an appeal to authority... But, I also bring a citation.
Yeah... That was 1999 - I had an old account then and I'm almost positive one of those comments is mine - I'd have been the one mentioning how important it was and how much potential that I could see in it - even though I'm about as creative as a brick. By the late 1990s were were working with data sets that were nearly a full terabyte in size. We were not just clustering servers but we were using multiple OSes on the same service (they were blade servers, of course). Hell, we had a wizard, I've described him often. He was the guy with the shock of red hair, bad hygiene, cross-dressed, and was an absolute master at database administration. The thing is, he most always just used older, re-purposed, equipment after we got him his own rack - just one. He was a genius, bar none. He still works there and I know, for a fact, that I split my "winnings" (sale price) up fairly well and gave a lot of the old-timers enough money to retire. Literally, 7 digit sums, the least anyone person got was a 6 figure sum and they were a secretary.
But, like normal, I digress. We were never good.;-) See the link - it is absolutely fantastically funny. It also pre-dates The Great Database Happening so everyone's comments are attributed to AC. It's a great read if you've got a few hours. I'm not positive but I think I've one or two comments in their expressing how much of a change this *could* be but even I thought it would be a niche product.
Once upon a time, I had an old user account. I forgot the name and lost the email address associated with it but I think it might have even been a four digit UUID. It's probably for the best as I'm quite positive that I said my share of retarded shit back then.;-)
But, only through rose-tinted glasses were we ever good.
Just because I am peppy (artificially, that is) and knew I'd seen it before I went and dug out this link for you. http://www.linux.org/threads/o...
I have no idea if it's deleted but, at one time, I did have a VM of OS/2 Warp and (I think it was called OS/2 Connect - but don't quote me on that.) I went through a phase where I'd install every OS I could find (and I had an MSDN subscription at the time as an award gift from Microsoft - even though I don't usually use their products except a phone). I have Solaris, OpenIndian, MINIX, Free-Open-GhostBSD (I like the GhostBSD - a lot and want to put it on bare metal but I can't figure out how to get Linux software to work on it though they tell me I can), every single one (all of them - literally) that is listed as active at DistroWatch, and more.
I seed about 160 distros now (I added some more - I can do it from remote and that connection is on it's own isolated, disparate, DSL connection.)
Didn't this Matt guy stomp off in a huff to fork the kernel on his own?
That said, I'm tired and still ill. If I wasn't, I'd write a novella. Suffice to say, I see Linux (as a group, not just a kernel) us is changing directions. I won't say going downhill but it might be. I'll need to watch for longer.
I am worth a very, very nice median 9 digit number - or close enough, counting assets what would be difficult to liquidate. I've not only spent a weekend in jail, I've paid my pot taxes (fines) more times than I can count.
However, I own a whole stable full of automobiles. I never, ever get stopped (no matter how fast I'm going) in some of those cars. That could be preferential treatment or it could be that I live in an area with a beautiful highway that sees almost no traffic but is kept in good repair for the logging trucks. (I've also rally raced, raced on a track - dirt and asphalt, and spent more time in various driving schools than some lots of people have spent in college.)
Hell., I want and took professional lessons, hired a coach on top of that, and spent the next week driving rented exotics around Nuburgring but I'm pretty sure the cops don't know this. Yet, I've blown by cops where the speedometer was pegged at 140 and been let off with a warning.
No, I'm not white. I don't think I can even pass as white - though I do have some in me. This would be a great Grandpa Story but I am sick. Damned pneumonia.
Check the Census folks to see what they consider urban. 1500 people in a town is urban. 2500 if they have a residential institution like a nursing home or jail.
I see this quite a bit. Urban is not what you think it is.
In that same vein, I'm a secular Buddhist. I even go on refuge, describe my path, and take advice on how to walk it. I've not been allowed back into Nepal in about three years but I'm hoping I can go back soon.
I once spent a little over six months driving (completely drunk) around the US. I really would have liked an app that told me if I was headed into a dry county. I've since stopped drinking. Somehow, I avoided every OUI - with numerous stops. Man, I was shitfaced the whole time. I visited a large tree in Kansas only it turned out to be dead from a lightning strike. I later got kicked out of Kansas. I gotta say, the parts I remember are kind of funny but, in hindsight, I do regret it. Thus, I no longer drink. I'm just too good at drinking. I gave it a 40 year run and I retired to let someone else take my place.
Oddly, and I've still not quite figured out how, I was a perfectly functional alcoholic until I retired. Then something ticked. I didn't drink more, I just got sloppy drunk. I have no idea how that happened. My headshrinker has given me some ideas but they don't seem to quite fit.
I try to share because I know my methods worked - for me. Humans are assets, not just "resources." I can imagine that a fairly new employee calling the boss (and owner) of a company who was, rough guess, doing about 1.2m per year in business would have been fired on the spot. I swallowed my pride and learned something new. Someday, maybe, I'll write a book but nobody will read it - it'll just sit on a shelf somewhere. Nobody every listens to KGIII.
That is a given. If you can convince the majority to side with you, you pretty much win by default. It's that getting them to agree with you that is the problem. Beer and circuses goes a long ways.
I don't have that much money but, and this is a bit embarrassing, I sold my company for a 9 digit sum back in 2008 - when there were "shovel ready jobs." (I did traffic modeling - including pedestrian but that's not important for today.) I gave away, counting taxes, over half of that amount - it was a HUGE sum of money. Yet, I now have more money than I had before. How? Well, I like to invest in small, novel, or interesting things. A good example (and you can do the math yourself) is that I bought 2000 shares of Tesla when they were $24 each.
Point? Don't paint with such a broad brush. You'll miss the finer details. You'd shit a brick if you knew how much I donated each year - and yet I still keep making money faster than I can reasonably spend it. So, I find what looks like a good cause and figure out how to make a semi-anonymous donation (I ask to not be included by name) and call it good. Hell, I've even donated to NASA.
Your program doesn't work with my OS. I do, technically, still use hosts - they're an option in uMatrix. Grab a copy of uMatrix and look in the settings. They're there but *specifically* only browser oriented. As I let my machine only do what I instruct it to do, I'm okay with that. With HTML5, I'll probably end up going back to managing the damned hosts file again. I really, really, with we had Outpost Personal Firewall (now sold and to be closed at the end of 2016) for Linux. I also wish hosts supported wild cards. I prefer a much more refined blocking.
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Maine, one of the poorest States yet has one of the highest per-capita firearm ownerships. No need for a permit to conceal carry. The lowest firearm (including theft) crime rate, per capita, in the country according to Wikipedia the last time I checked which was about two weeks ago. I, err, I kind of skew that number a bit but, really, that's only the firearms that they *know* about. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have a firearm in their home but I'm sure there's someone. I have an obscene number so I make up for them. No, really, they keep mating and I end up with more and more. I have firearms that I've never even fired - collectible antiques and the likes.
On the other hand, I have a whole room, lined with safes, that's concrete on all four sides, and has a steel door that's embedded into the concrete. I own two select fire firearms and am obligated to ensure they're kept in a safe condition. It's part of my moral code to ensure that I do my best to keep my collection secure. It would be unfortunate for some of them to be out on the street.
This is one of the reasons why, regardless of the expense, I charter every time it is feasible. Why yes, yes I have had very high powered firearms on an airplane. In fact, I've been in the midst of a whole bunch of us who had high powered firearms in an airplane - and we didn't even have to land in the plane. Each and every one of us was carrying a firearm. Some of us carried more than one, or at least parts to more than one. Shit, we had enough firearms - with live ammo - to put enough holes in the plane so we'd have had fresh air. Of course, we eventually got plenty of fresh air.
On a more serious note, I charter when possible. It's a bit more expensive but no TSA and I can take my hunting equipment right in the cabin with me if there's no room elsewhere. They might even let me fly the plane. However, I think you might be projecting a bit with that "gun kooks" thing. There are some gun nuts, granted, but they're a very, very tiny majority. Hell, I own more firearms than 1000 people will ever need (I've got a very nice collection - I've even posted some pics here before) assuming they only need one. And even *I* support reasonable regulation. Though we'd probably argue what is reasonable. I can assure you, I do not donate a nickel to the NRA and I do not like them one bit. I do donate to the local and national ACLU however.
I know it's not JavaScript but, damn it, I'm waiting for a resurgence in Java applets in the browser. I shit you not, I seriously expect to see this happen in the not-to-distant-future. Why? Someone will think it's a grand idea, all over again.
Could you imagine if a two-week-old hire had told the boss, the owner, the code author (but bad, bad code), and the absolute authority what that programmer told me, today? I mean, I can only go by what I read from posts from people like you. Can you imagine what would have happened had they told the boss that code comments go in the code and not on a coffee soaked index card and referred to the boss as an asshole?
Eventually, I had lots of proprietary data housed which meant I had security on staff. I can only imagine that, today, they'd have emptied his desk for him, changed/deleted his accounts (if they're smart), and had him in the parking lot waiting in less than 30 minutes. I don't know if they're worse but I do think I see more bugs. I also know there's a lot more code now.
That and, I have too much respect for you to argue with you unless I can point out an unreasonable conclusion. It's possible to use logic to reason your way to a completely backwards result. It's never been anything *that* bad so I've never felt obligated to bring it up. I just view it as an alternative conclusion and one that I disagree with. I think I have, at one point, when you were painting Libertarians with a large brush. (I think that was you.)
You're one of the people who still posts here who has value. You're one of the ones that are left here that I still respect their opinions. You're one of the ones that I know I can ask a question and you'll do your best to answer it. You're one of the ones who could call me an idiot and, frankly, I'd certainly look to see where I'd made the mistake as opposed to just assuming the name caller was just not smart enough to understand what I was saying.
Yeah, I'd have loved to have hired you back in the day. Early 1990s, starting at 120 with benefits and two weeks plus two weeks personal time. It was hard back then. They didn't really have programmers who were traffic modelers. It just didn't exist like it does now. What did exist was trains, fleet management, plane scheduling, cargo ships, and that was pretty much it. I was, literally, the entire industry for a long time.
Hell, I cheated. I paid a university to do some research. We were going to build out a lab for modeling pedestrian traffic - specifically stores of varied types (you should note a general layout change in many store starting in 1999-2001, by the way. So, I paid a local university, got the data, built the lab, and hired the researchers before they even got their degree. I paid for them to take a few different courses in programming AND computer science (there's a difference, damn it - but you know that.)
Traffic modelers didn't exist, really. Traffic engineers were a thing, barely. Err... If you get really curious and spend some time in the archives - you might find out how some of the curriculum changed and why it changed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
I suspect you'd have loved it. Just from our conversations here. It was the cusp of a new technology. I had an employee ask why I was building out a research lab when we didn't have any competition. I was building it because I knew we *would* be having one. (It was just a warehouse with movable partitions, various stage settings, lighting changes, and some very, very, expensive cameras that were not just high speed but high definition and could track pretty much everything. We did stuff like setup up a [redacted] convenience store and then paid people to shop there. For a while we worked for [redacted] and we actually ran live data collection.
What we did is we had the models but we went out to get real world data. With that data, we looked to see if the models matched the data. If it didn't, we collected more data. If it still didn't then we fixed the models. Then, and only then, do I feel you can make accurate predictions. I'm fine with changing a model, massaging data, and all that but it has to be done right. There's a reason the company, with a new name, is still considered the best in the industry. There are some fly-by-night
Sadly, you missed the point entirely. I am in a small minority but recent stats, cited with proof and everything, showed that even the US millionaires were almost all self made. Now, honestly, I certainly exceed that amount and largely due to luck, being able to take risks, and having the good fortune to be able to hire very smart people - it's not something great that I did on my own.
But, as I said, you missed the point entirely and proved my point exactly. Don't paint with that large brush. You miss the finer details. There are people who assume that I committed untold crimes to get what I have. There are people who think that all I want is money. There are people who think I'm just trying to accumulate as much as I can so that I have a high score.
I'll give you an example... I purposely did not lie but I did not reveal my financial status to my girlfriend until it reached the point where we had pretty much figured out we were going to end up stuck with one another.
It's not my story to tell but, I have her permission. She's almost 40 years my junior. She was taking care of her younger brother but the State moved him in with relatives who could barely afford it. She was one day away from living on the street as the hotel bill was not paid for beyond one last night when I first met her. She assumed that the charity had found the money to keep her in the hotel. Her parents are in jail, going to prison for a while, for manufacturing meth.
Her brother and those relatives have a bank account that delivers an extra $3500/month now.
She will never have to work a day in her life - she's already worked harder than most people ever will.
The reason I made it a point to avoid conversing about my accumulation of bits of paper was because people can be pretty shitty and money can change them. She, her brother, and the relatives that took him in (and had no room nor money for her) were straight up fucked. They were below the poverty line and they worked, well - my girlfriend didn't, she was finishing a couple of classes to get her diploma and her highest hopes was to get a job at FUCKING BURGER KING.
Please, please don't paint with such a broad brush. She's the most beautiful (physically and mentally) person you'd ever meet. Some Slashdotters met her over the weekend after NYE. She'd never held a $100 bill. She'd taken care of her brother since she was five.
They are anecdotes, but do you know what anecdotes are? They're data points. Don't paint with such a large brush. Really, you do yourself a disservice by doing so. Have you ever seen someone who's never once, in their entire lives, had nothing to worry about - be absolutely free of all worries? I gave her a debit card, it get topped up automatically by my accountant back in Maine. There's only $10,000 on it at a time. I think she's spent less than $500 since September and that's the richest she's ever been. She had no idea. None. She had tears in her eyes when I showed her a couple of my balances and my trading accounts. Then she wiped them away and asked if we could still go to dinner.
She'd never owned a pair of properly fitted shoes. She'd never had her hair done professionally. She'd never had a manicure. Shit, sometimes she didn't even have tampons.
It's not just an anecdote, it's a real person and I love her and she loved me when she thought I was pretty damned poor and "just out looking to see what life had to offer." She didn't realize the car was as expensive as it was. I wore jeans and t-shirts from L.L. Bean. I looked, dressed, and acted like normal - just didn't allow the conversation to turn to income.
You go ahead, you call her an anecdote. I'll watch and listen. Seriously, do you want a phone number or do you want to call her an anecdote in person? I'm in Panama City Beach, Florida at the moment. Not just one but several Slashdotters can tell you how to get to my house here. You tell her bother that he's an anecdote. You tell his family that can now take care of him that they're an anecdote. You
I already have a place in Florida and Nevada. I'm actually thinking about having a friend go to my house and pick up a few firearms and take them out to Nevada before I return home to Maine. There's also a few good "machine gun shoots" in Nevada. I own two classed firearms. Well, I own more but two that would be typically considered classed by non-experts. I have an AK47 which is technically an M22 from China - meant for the NVA during Viet Nam, we think. The paperwork is legal but the history is pretty sketchy. It was NIB when I bought it. Yes, yes it was expensive. (I've probably talked about that particular "friend" enough. He's a gunsmith who actually retired to Maine before I did but he was in Winston-Salem too.) I also own an M14.
I'm a firearm aficionado, like automobiles, I appreciate the labor, the mechanics, the utilitarian nature, and the constant improvement that you can apply to yourself while attempting to master the operation of both. I'm not a 2nd Amendment jackass - I'm kind of fond of all the Amendments. Well, except the ones that have been negated. I think "arms" should include anything that is not a weapon of mass destruction, I have owned (licensed) real hand grenades. Yup, they were legal. Yup, there was a $500 tax on each and every single one of them. I gotta tell you, it was worth the ~$1500 each - they were the pineapple grenades from WWII. I had a full dozen. I have exactly zero. It was a lot of fun.
Because I have classed firearms, I must be able to account for them at all times. Not even at 'reasonable' times (so far as my lawyer tells me). They can knock and demand an accounting at 0400 on a Sunday. Failure to provide that accounting means prison, or so I understand. I'm okay with that - I have dangerous weapons. I understand that that places my burden on a different level than Joe Average with his shotgun. I accept the differences in paperwork, costs, and accountability.
This is where I differ and I think I mentioned this earlier. If it's shot larger than .410 or fires a single projectile larger than .221 (call it .22 LR) then I think mandatory training, proficiency, should not be beyond the discussion. That's something we should discuss. That's a reasonable conversation to have. We can make it a class if school. I had my own firearms at school. I had four match pistols, three match rifles, and one hunting rifle in the head master's closet. The closet wasn't even locked. I always got permission but I was on the rifle and pistol teams. I have my big and little pizza boxes as awarded by the USMC (not bragging but I shoot that well).
I do not donate to the NRA. I have some serious cash - mostly due to some hard work, long hours, but more accurately due to good luck and having the ability to hire smart people. I retired at 50. I sold my business for a fairly good sized 9 digit sum. It's a matter of public record and I guess this thread is old enough so that nobody will see it so I feel that I can comfortably share the numbers with you and you'll understand that it's not bragging but just to give insight as to why I am able to be who I am.
I'm assuming you're seated. I sold my business to a company that does almost nothing but fulfill government contracts. I did traffic modeling, specialized in vehicular traffic but we'd branched out and even built a research lab for pedestrian traffic modeling. If you know any history, you'll remember the "shovel ready jobs" and how many of those were highway jobs? Yeah... I sold for 98m in cash and 120m in stocks. It took six months to finalize the sale - I could not divest myself of the shares until after six months has passed or the SEC would have put me in prison. So, I sold in 2007 but it was really finalized.... Wow, it will be 8 years ago as of tomorrow.
I've never sent the NRA a dime. I imagine that might seem strange to you but, well, by now you might understand my outlook a bit better than most. I've literally tried to by an MRAP. They will not sell me one. But
I think I may give it a shot - if you're interested in a preview drop me an email. I'll eventually set up a site for it as well. I have an idea - you gave it to me. It will be written like a work of fiction, not as a text book. It will be based on reality though - and it will probably be completely true. I'm just not going to tell them that.
Did you ever read the book Cheaper By The Dozen? The movies sucked - the book was actually really good. I almost wanted to become and efficiency engineer based on that book alone. It's funny because, in a way, I did. I made vehicular traffic more efficient. I made shopping in stores less efficient for the customer but more effective for the company. I made exit routes for arenas, should they have emergencies, both indoors and outdoors. (I even got to go to the UK and get out of my comfort zone with football/soccer hooligans.) In fact, if one were careful you could actually find a younger me in a documentary about that. But, I shan't tell tales out of church. ;-)
I was, technically, credited but I don't believe the documentary is on IMDB and it sure as hell wasn't famous. I did get paid a small sum. It actually cost me more money to take part in the documentary than they paid me. I had to pull up old code, I had to get the guys to add graphics (we didn't really use much in the way of graphics - it's VERY compute intensive in some areas but compute cycles got cheaper but they weren't in 1999-2000) and then make it play more or less as a movie while I pretended to do stuff - more or less I was just talking while the graphics played and I pretended to do stuff. It was silly but it's what the producer/director wanted.
So, I'm thinking some sort of novel. I value your views, opinions, and insight. I'd also be honored if you took the time to drop me an email letting me know (if you want) when to notify you as it has reached the point of some value. I've got some spare time actually - I was going to dedicate it to relearning some programming but this could actually be better for the world than yet another calculator application.
The email address is real and checked on a semi-regular basis and I'm starting to feel better already. We may have poor health care in America overall but, truth be told, if you can afford it (and that's a big if) then we have some of the best care in the world. As I can afford it, they brought two specialists in from hospitals a couple hundred miles away. Just for pneumonia... But, I didn't want to be held down for too long while on wanderlust and I'm still, technically, bed-ridden but I was out on the beach today.
Thank you for sharing. I have one further question, if you don't mind. What might the penalty be, say for someone who's traditionally a bit of a trouble maker but not a violent criminal nor trying to overthrow the country, to own a copy of The Animal Farm? Maybe a couple of questions - what might the penalty have been for distributing that work? Perhaps on a larger scale?
Sorry for my naive questions but I'm truly curious and I appreciate your knowledge, candor, and general ability to fill in details that one may have forgotten to ask. If, perhaps, you do not wish to be open about this then email is available. The email listed with this account is valid and checked on a regular bases. The concept of a book being prohibited isn't so foreign that I can't understand it but it is foreign enough that there are aspects that make me curious.
One example would be, would the book have been available (without being too specific, in order to protect yourself - if required) to those who wanted to read it bad enough? Were there clandestine printing presses? Black market shops? Underground lending libraries?
I know that some old Soviet Bloc countries had people who would literally fashion the computers out of not just parts but often out of handmade parts. I think that, at least by itself, is awesome.
Again, thank you for sharing. Your insight is valued and I truly appreciate any effort you make at helping me understand better. In my country, the United States of America or Canada (I'm a citizen of both countries) there are classified documents but if, for some reason, they ended up leaked then we'd certainly be free to publish them, read them, loan them, sell them, gift them, and do things like mark them up for context and greater understanding. Seriously, thanks for explaining. I, for one, truly appreciate it.
/b like Slashdot, was never good. :P
About a month ago I followed someone's signature to a thread that I actually recall reading - and laughing - as we were doing something, kinda sorta, similar in ways that I am not at liberty to speak about. I sold my company for a healthy sum.
I shan't be specific but it was a not-bad 9 digit sum mostly because the economy was in a slump and there were "shovel ready jobs" for new highways - few people ever put the timing together and I know you're not dumb or two nosy so I feel comfortable sharing that with you - I believe that you'll know that I share it as an example and not as an effort to brag.
So, by the end of the 1990s we were using clustered computers and had disk arrays that would make a mere mortal poop. There were a few years where we nearly (gross revenue) hit the 10 digit numbers.
This, it's kind of an appeal to authority... But, I also bring a citation.
Take a look at how Slashdot interpreted VMWare.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
Yeah... That was 1999 - I had an old account then and I'm almost positive one of those comments is mine - I'd have been the one mentioning how important it was and how much potential that I could see in it - even though I'm about as creative as a brick. By the late 1990s were were working with data sets that were nearly a full terabyte in size. We were not just clustering servers but we were using multiple OSes on the same service (they were blade servers, of course). Hell, we had a wizard, I've described him often. He was the guy with the shock of red hair, bad hygiene, cross-dressed, and was an absolute master at database administration. The thing is, he most always just used older, re-purposed, equipment after we got him his own rack - just one. He was a genius, bar none. He still works there and I know, for a fact, that I split my "winnings" (sale price) up fairly well and gave a lot of the old-timers enough money to retire. Literally, 7 digit sums, the least anyone person got was a 6 figure sum and they were a secretary.
But, like normal, I digress. We were never good. ;-) See the link - it is absolutely fantastically funny. It also pre-dates The Great Database Happening so everyone's comments are attributed to AC. It's a great read if you've got a few hours. I'm not positive but I think I've one or two comments in their expressing how much of a change this *could* be but even I thought it would be a niche product.
Once upon a time, I had an old user account. I forgot the name and lost the email address associated with it but I think it might have even been a four digit UUID. It's probably for the best as I'm quite positive that I said my share of retarded shit back then. ;-)
But, only through rose-tinted glasses were we ever good.
Just because I am peppy (artificially, that is) and knew I'd seen it before I went and dug out this link for you.
http://www.linux.org/threads/o...
I have no idea if it's deleted but, at one time, I did have a VM of OS/2 Warp and (I think it was called OS/2 Connect - but don't quote me on that.) I went through a phase where I'd install every OS I could find (and I had an MSDN subscription at the time as an award gift from Microsoft - even though I don't usually use their products except a phone). I have Solaris, OpenIndian, MINIX, Free-Open-GhostBSD (I like the GhostBSD - a lot and want to put it on bare metal but I can't figure out how to get Linux software to work on it though they tell me I can), every single one (all of them - literally) that is listed as active at DistroWatch, and more.
I seed about 160 distros now (I added some more - I can do it from remote and that connection is on it's own isolated, disparate, DSL connection.)
Nah, I've seen enough of is posts. It was probably not meant to be AC but a statement attributed to him.
Didn't this Matt guy stomp off in a huff to fork the kernel on his own?
That said, I'm tired and still ill. If I wasn't, I'd write a novella. Suffice to say, I see Linux (as a group, not just a kernel) us is changing directions. I won't say going downhill but it might be. I'll need to watch for longer.
If I recall correctly, you come from a ex-Soviet Bloc country. Was that book available, read in school, digested, or?
That's 'cause Bill's a Back Door Man.
I am worth a very, very nice median 9 digit number - or close enough, counting assets what would be difficult to liquidate. I've not only spent a weekend in jail, I've paid my pot taxes (fines) more times than I can count.
However, I own a whole stable full of automobiles. I never, ever get stopped (no matter how fast I'm going) in some of those cars. That could be preferential treatment or it could be that I live in an area with a beautiful highway that sees almost no traffic but is kept in good repair for the logging trucks. (I've also rally raced, raced on a track - dirt and asphalt, and spent more time in various driving schools than some lots of people have spent in college.)
Hell., I want and took professional lessons, hired a coach on top of that, and spent the next week driving rented exotics around Nuburgring but I'm pretty sure the cops don't know this. Yet, I've blown by cops where the speedometer was pegged at 140 and been let off with a warning.
No, I'm not white. I don't think I can even pass as white - though I do have some in me. This would be a great Grandpa Story but I am sick. Damned pneumonia.
In addition, should I plug away at a book?
Check the Census folks to see what they consider urban. 1500 people in a town is urban. 2500 if they have a residential institution like a nursing home or jail.
I see this quite a bit. Urban is not what you think it is.
No, not always but it's fine for a general rule at least in common times. I'm speaking of now - not of history.
In that same vein, I'm a secular Buddhist. I even go on refuge, describe my path, and take advice on how to walk it. I've not been allowed back into Nepal in about three years but I'm hoping I can go back soon.
I once spent a little over six months driving (completely drunk) around the US. I really would have liked an app that told me if I was headed into a dry county. I've since stopped drinking. Somehow, I avoided every OUI - with numerous stops. Man, I was shitfaced the whole time. I visited a large tree in Kansas only it turned out to be dead from a lightning strike. I later got kicked out of Kansas. I gotta say, the parts I remember are kind of funny but, in hindsight, I do regret it. Thus, I no longer drink. I'm just too good at drinking. I gave it a 40 year run and I retired to let someone else take my place.
Oddly, and I've still not quite figured out how, I was a perfectly functional alcoholic until I retired. Then something ticked. I didn't drink more, I just got sloppy drunk. I have no idea how that happened. My headshrinker has given me some ideas but they don't seem to quite fit.
I try to share because I know my methods worked - for me. Humans are assets, not just "resources." I can imagine that a fairly new employee calling the boss (and owner) of a company who was, rough guess, doing about 1.2m per year in business would have been fired on the spot. I swallowed my pride and learned something new. Someday, maybe, I'll write a book but nobody will read it - it'll just sit on a shelf somewhere. Nobody every listens to KGIII.
That is a given. If you can convince the majority to side with you, you pretty much win by default. It's that getting them to agree with you that is the problem. Beer and circuses goes a long ways.
I don't have that much money but, and this is a bit embarrassing, I sold my company for a 9 digit sum back in 2008 - when there were "shovel ready jobs." (I did traffic modeling - including pedestrian but that's not important for today.) I gave away, counting taxes, over half of that amount - it was a HUGE sum of money. Yet, I now have more money than I had before. How? Well, I like to invest in small, novel, or interesting things. A good example (and you can do the math yourself) is that I bought 2000 shares of Tesla when they were $24 each.
Point? Don't paint with such a broad brush. You'll miss the finer details. You'd shit a brick if you knew how much I donated each year - and yet I still keep making money faster than I can reasonably spend it. So, I find what looks like a good cause and figure out how to make a semi-anonymous donation (I ask to not be included by name) and call it good. Hell, I've even donated to NASA.
Your program doesn't work with my OS. I do, technically, still use hosts - they're an option in uMatrix. Grab a copy of uMatrix and look in the settings. They're there but *specifically* only browser oriented. As I let my machine only do what I instruct it to do, I'm okay with that. With HTML5, I'll probably end up going back to managing the damned hosts file again. I really, really, with we had Outpost Personal Firewall (now sold and to be closed at the end of 2016) for Linux. I also wish hosts supported wild cards. I prefer a much more refined blocking.
And it is tasty.