That is, indeed, an excellent book. I have a copy and (I'm not certain) I think I also have a "pocket" version of that book. As I'm retired now, I don't always have something keeping me busy. I often look at things I didn't get to when I was younger and work on accomplishing those goals today. One of those things is writing in an acceptable manner at a reasonable speed. I don't demand perfection from myself but I do try to write as well as I can in most situations. On the rare times that I visit an IRC channel it's amusing to the others that I use proper spelling and punctuation. I also insist on doing so with text messages. Things written by hand are fair game, however. Nobody can read them except me (and even I have trouble) so I don't much worry about it there.
I am not sure if it has reached that level, at this time. At this point I'd like to see more non-typical politicians taking actions to serve their fellow citizens and I'd like to see more informed voters given the incentive to help others learn. The current process is a lazy sideline show that is more akin to team sports fans than a system of governance. I'd like to try that before we get violent. If that doesn't work, and it needs to be on a larger scale, then I'm willing to accept violence as a solution.
I'd never had it happen before and I've done it before (even though I know better). It was a beautiful blue spark and the magic smoke escaped from the power supply. It was a fairly new system and I usually toss in a large spinning platter drive for backups just as a habit - which is, IIRC, what I was doing. I just popped the side off, tossed a cable in (the others are SATA so I need to add the cable), plugged the cable in and attached power. SNAP! And out goes the magic smoke...
I didn't even run a power supply tester - the smoke's source was pretty evident. I was a little worried that the short had jumped and done damage to other components but I was all good there.
And yeah, we all know we shouldn't do this but we do it. At least I do it. I've done it countless times and this was the only time it had happened. I kind of think there might have been some weak component or maybe some other issue in the power supply? The drive was fine after, by the way.
Hmm... Actually? I think it was me wanting to get something off the drive that motivated me. I dunno. It was maybe a month or two ago. It took a few minutes to toss in a new power supply and all was good after that. Like you said, I'd never had anything like that happen to me before (or since). I mean, yeah, we're not supposed to do that but I'm pretty sure we all do. It's not like I was stuffing RAM sticks into the slots. I'd done it before and all was well - I'd even done it and not had to reboot to have the hardware recognized.
So, yeah, I kind of wonder if there was something else wrong with the power supply. Nothing else was damaged. I didn't take it apart or anything, I just tossed it in the trash. I'm assuming it was just a short. Now I'm a bit curious as to if there was something wrong in the supply and specifically to that power cable. It was a whitebox from NewEgg and I don't even recall who made the power supply or anything. Ah well... I never would have RMAed it or anything. I was the one who connected it with live power. I am curious if it would have happened even if I'd shut the system down now that I think about it more because I'd never had that happen before.
I'll give you the benefit of doubt. It's tempting to just retort but, instead, I'll reply with a question.
How, in the name of all that is good, did you manage to write that sentence without snorting a beverage out through your nose? There's no way, really, that you can conclude that without some serious brain damage or in an attempt to be funny. Hmm... That kind of violates my objective.
Yes, yes it is illegal - even in UK laws, surely.
Let's put this another way, shall we? If you live in a city where they have a water provisioning monopoly (some are even privately held) and have a well of your own dug that might be okay and I'd be on your side for the most part and assuming it was healthy and for personal use only. What you can't do is drill that well and then proceed to sell the water or pipe the water to your neighbors and operate an illegal water company. In fact, by the very definition, it is illegal.
If you break the law it is an illegal act. Even if you break the law for just reasons it is still illegal. We can say that it is not immoral and we could even say we're duty bound to do so. However, it is still very much illegal and, by definition, will always be illegal to break the law.
I can't decide if you're saying that tongue in cheek (Poe's Law, anyone?) or if you're really that confused.
The end result is almost certainly the destruction of an entire business model by reducing it to the lowest common denominator and the future will almost certainly be lower quality, fewer services, and greater expense. To be honest, I can see benefits to both sides - assuming that this is done properly and doesn't result in the negatives. However, I can easily conclude that this is not going to be done properly as they've already failed to do this properly. What they should have done is work to get the laws changed and they should follow the laws until those laws are changed.
It is not civil disobedience to violate laws you just don't like. Civil disobedience implies there's an injustice, typically of the human rights nature, and this almost certainly doesn't qualify.
Here's where the split is for me...
Unfortunately, I think it will end up being the drivers that take the heat for this - maybe not in the UK but, when the levy breaks, it will end up being the drivers that are fined, arrested, and subjected to scorn. While that's true that they are, indeed, violating the law this is a situation that I can only liken to entrapment. No, not entirely the legal definition but it's similar enough for my purposes. The responsible party is the giant, greedy, illegally operating, business behind this. Yes, yes I am quite literally opposed to unethical businesses - having owned, run, and sold a successful business I can tell you - with complete certainty - that it is possible to be ethical even when dealing with government contracts.
So, it will be the 'little people' who are subjected to punishment while those who have enticed and provisioned are free to do it again in another sphere of business. I'd actually be in favor of an end where the drivers are given little or no punishment and the people in charge are subjected to fines and restrictions. (I am not in favor of jailing them at this point.) And this will never happen...
These drivers, while not innocent, are enticed, probably out of a need and not for greed, by Uber who seemingly imply that they're either legal or able to protect the drivers by nature of their being open for business. They then act on that, again because of needing the additional income, and violate the law. I can't blame them. If I were hungry and unable to lawfully earn food then I'd certainly steal it and that would be even easier to do if I had a family to feed.
The key here is: I don't blame them.;) The freedoms belong to the individual. There's a lot of room for varied interpretations but this is what I've concluded. I'm open to alternative views if the information changes or someone has a logical rebuttal. This is also why the moniker Classic Libertarian is going to have to be used. If you scroll up the thread you'll see a few folks who self-identify as libertarians who are really anarcho-capitalists or free market types. Those are both beautiful ideologies but entirely unrealistic. They also tend to be zealots who are unwilling to understand the need for moderation.
Anyhow, I figured I'd chime in. There were a number of places to interject but I'm kind of, sort of, tired from the effort, a very small voice in the crowd, and it's an exercise in futility.
Heh. I noticed the term and I like it. I put it into the mighty Google and it turns out, it's actually in fairly common use in that arena. I think it might qualify as a portmanteau but I'm not 100% of the definition and I am too lazy to look. I like the word well enough that I have decide it needs to make its way into my lexicon. Hopefully it makes its way past all the damage done by alcohol and drugs and remains there. Stupid beer... Even a few years after quitting I still feel like my memory is impaired. I guess that's what happens when you drink daily for 35 years.
Anyhow, the word is awesome and I figured I'd chime in to share that I agreed entirely. I'd never heard it before. That's actually a little strange as the advertising industry is something that I give a passing notice to as a bit of a hobby or at least a subject of interest. I end up reading a lot about it and, as mentioned, I'd never seen the word before. Nifty.
While I'm opposed to violence, as a general rule, I suspect you might be right. The government should be afraid of the populace. If it is the other way around then you're doing it wrong. Currently, it is the other way around. While I am not, by any means, advocating a revolution (I think we should exhaust all other options and there should be a rising organically - even if people are too stupid) as a means to an end at this point in time, I do feel it is important to send those in power a reminder that we are ruled by consent.
Things like this (there's an interesting documentary about Space City being built that shows the impending doom for the area albeit betwixt the lines) and an earlier story about TPP being completed are just today's examples of reasons why we might want to consider being truly outraged. I'm all for private space access. I'm not a fan of you paying for my ride, however. Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure I can already pay for a ride to space if I want. It's expensive but I can pay for it and have the means to pay for it. There's no reason for you to be burdened for my amusement. With today's story about the TPP, I'm forced to think and realize that I've not yet seen a single, nary a one, bit of evidence that there's a single good thing about it for the average citizen. Not one single thing...
I am tired so I'm sure the above reads like it was written by a drunken monkey (I also have an attractive female, nearly forty years my junior, who's tiring me out but no - probably not like you may be thinking) but I hope it's still able to be parsed. It's high time they learn that we, the citizens, have the power. What's funny (sad, actually) is that there are so many people in favor of disarming the populace. I'm too tired to get into it so let it suffice to say that I simply can not comprehend the thinking process that leads otherwise rational people to reach conclusions such as those.
You don't just get to personally redefine the definitions of words you don't like. Also, I'd submit that heroin is an excellent method for pain control or for escaping reality for a time. I'd further submit that it could also probably be considered a tool. The 'no reasonable' person bit of your attempt at logic was amusing, so there's that. It was childlike but amusing. No, no reasonable person would attempt to redefine the word tool simply because they felt they had an inferior point and were unable to substantiate it.
LOL Sorry - my reply was meant to be more tongue-in-cheek than it looks like, in hindsight. I am, indeed, trying to improve my writing skills because they're not very good. Anyhow, I've already bookmarked the book on Amazon and will grab it when I'm home and able to actually receive it. Your suggestion was my motivation - I've seen it mentioned a few times here and elsewhere. It's high time I read it.
If you kill the people in charge there is no money. No, really. There will be no money. There will be assets but the money will just be paper at that point. It's an important concept.
Wow. That's pretty good then. That whole wall of text and only one, fairly trivial, complaint about grammar? Sweet. I'm getting better. Yes, yes it is something I work on and thank you for bringing it to my attention. Unfortunately, I type faster than I think. I do make mistakes and I don't always see them when I use the preview function.
Seriously, this is something that I work on and a reason that I force myself to share as much as I do. I've never been very good at grammar and my spelling is even worse. I'd like to change this and have been actively working on it for years. If you'd seen my posts from just a half-dozen years ago then you'd actually see how far along I have come. To be honest, I'm quite pleased that you found and commented on only one mistake. It's even more impressive considering the level that I try to achieve and the volume that I do achieve.
While this might be an internet forum, I still feel that it's kind of important to at least make an effort to write in a manner that can be easily understood. A post that size and containing so few errors is pretty good, for me.
I'll spare you the embarrassment of reviewing your reply, however. You may want to look at that. I'm assuming that, since you've read this book, you're also trying to improve your writing skills? If not then you may want to consider it. I don't really have the time or initiative to correct all the errors made by anonymous cowards so you'll have to rely on your peers. I wish you luck and am grateful for you having taken the time out of your busy day to critique my grammar.
It is threads like this that make me realize how disconnected I am. I don't recognize or even know most of the references. I'm not actually sure why I'm reading the thread except I was curious.
There are a couple of interesting documentaries on the subject. PBS did Radioactive Wolves and another is Chernobyl Wolfpack from National Geographic. The PBS production is actually quite well done. The second isn't bad but it's not my favorite. They make for interesting viewing for those who are interested. I believe they can both be found on YouTube.
It was probably either "jerk" or "asshole" and I'm guilty of both. A fool, on the other hand, I am not (usually). I tend to believe that one of the biggest reasons that my business was successful was because I was smart enough to know when to shut the hell up and listen to those who knew better than I.
I've never understood why people would hire experts and then not listen to them. There are many things that I do not know or do not know well enough. I'm comfortable enough admitting that I'm wrong but I prefer to admit that I am not sure and would like to ask somebody who knows more than I.
Can I configure, secure, and manage servers? Absolutely. Can I program in a few different languages? Certainly. I'm probably 'pretty good' at it. However, my degree is in applied mathematics. I'm neither a programmer nor an admin. I did both because that was what the job required and I ended up learning a lot by doing both. When it came to doing it at a greater level, I was simply out of my league.
Sure, I learned a lot and was able to do a lot but nowhere near as well or as quickly as the professionals could. Being able to shut the hell up and listen (as well as, hopefully, knowing when to do so) is important. If I'd tried to help then I'd have slowed them down and reduced the quality of their work. That's not a good business model yet I see it is fairly common. I'm not sure how those businesses remain open - I can only assume it is momentum. I didn't have momentum (the market was fairly young - traffic modeling "on a computer") so I'm pretty convinced we'd have never had the success we did have if I'd been much different.
I didn't hire people to work for me. I hired people to work with me. I may be mistaken but, to me at least, there's a huge difference between the two and there's also a huge difference in the quality of the end product and culture. If I didn't need their help then I'd have not hired them. I hired them so it would be really stupid of me to not allow them to do the work they were hired to do.
Sometimes it helps to just shut the hell up and learn something.
I got lucky. I wasn't quite 50 when I sold my business for a rather high sum (it was about eight years ago) and retired. We'd accumulated a great value on paper and had great future business lined up so I ended up quite happy with the results. The company that is the parent company does almost nothing but fill a variety of government contracts (from information management to food services to even security services) and has left much of the culture in place so there are still some of the same views even though I am gone.
Sometimes I miss the place. Then, well, I realize I can do almost anything I want (within reason) and find something to distract me. Currently I'm stopped in Buffalo, New York as I'm out engaging in wanderlust. I do expect to stop in down at the old office and see a few friends on my trip but it's actually a little hard to do so as it's sometimes tough to leave.
I had an OCed K6-2 at almost 500 MHz - up from the 350. It was an Acer, of all things, and came with Windows ME. Strangely enough, it was the only system on the entire planet that was actually stable with ME on it. Well, there were three others but they didn't talk about it.
Anyhow, I had 256 MB of RAM and it was OCed. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was as far as I could overclock it. Anything higher and it would pop an IRQ error on boot or something along those lines. Some 0x0xxxxxx type of error, at least, and a not so very fancy blue screen. I tried all sorts of ways to get it to run - I even tried Slackware (I think it was Slack) that had come with a book. Alas, it was not to be. I might have stuck with Slack back then but, for the life of me, I couldn't get the damned thing to see my modem. It wasn't even a win modem. I sort of think it might have been a Lucent or something similar.
Hard to believe that was like 15 years ago almost. The heady days of 256 MB of RAM and ~500 MHz...
Not that long ago, I opened a live box and proceeded to connect a new hard drive to it. I have no idea why. I do not even know what I was thinking. I just opened it up and plugged it in and then plugged in the power. Yes, yes I did blow the power supply. Fortunately that was the only thing that broke and it only took a few minutes to replace it with one from another system that had already been partially cannibalized. Like any self-respecting geek, I don't think there's an actual chance of me not being able to build a new computer out of just my spare parts. I could probably build quite a few.
Either way, I absolutely know better than to do that. This was a desktop system - it doesn't have hot swappable bays in it and, while it could, I don't actually own one with hot swappable drive bays. The worst part is that I don't even usually store anything on my drives - they all go into the NAS for the most part. While that does, indeed, have hot swap it was not what I was working on. I wasn't even high...
I've since gone 'on vacation.' I realized that I was just too occupied with thoughts and had done a few similarly stupid things. A few days later I decided it was time to hit the road and that my wanderlust was too strong. My head is a little more clear at this point but is being hindered by something else which is a long subject and I'll spare folks the details.
Anyhow, the most interesting "hack" was a router (with a small cache, thank you) that allowed us to pipe output through the network and directly into the plotter. We were able to pipe inputs from multiple networks and it would even queue as well as hold some data in cache. (I don't recall how much but it was a trivial amount compared to today.) This was not done entirely by myself or even mostly done by myself. We had multiple people on the project as it didn't do much other than save people from going to the plotter, print, and blueprint room to hit a switch. It almost certainly took more time than it saved. A large plotter was expensive back then. However, we'd decided we wanted to build one so we did. It took skills from all sorts of us and actually was a pretty good process that helped us learn to work together even though it didn't do a whole lot, saved trivial amounts of time, and was replaced with an actual product just a few years later.
I didn't have nearly as much to do with the project as I'd have hoped. We were growing at the time as the industry was really starting to expand and this was around the time that I moved more into the management aspect than dealing with hands-on things. It was just around the time that we'd opted to hire a couple of programmers and not long before they told me to stop helping. (I listened, they were much better at programming than I could ever be. Which is why I'd hired them.)
As an aside, it was a few years later when we got an actual IT staff (and before we hired the database wizard) who kicked out of my own server room. Again, I listened. That was why I'd hired them too. They, like the programmers, could do the job faster and better than I. I mean, yeah, I could make it work and did make it work but they were far more adept than I. Also, I code like I write. It's not pretty. I've some pretty convoluted logic. It works but it's not pretty or efficient.
My favorite real life quote? Almost verbatim... "Code comments go in the code asshole, not on coffee soaked index cards." Yes, there's a reason I hired them. And no, I wasn't offended at all at being called an asshole. We actually had a pretty good relationship and had many spirited conversations. But, we worked hard and played hard and had a hell of a good time. There are, indeed, times that I miss it. They're now owned by a much larger parent company but I'm told the culture hasn't changed a whole lot except they have a real HR department now, no more pool table, and a bunch of new people but I guess they still call the boss an asshole when he's being an asshole.
Four of them escaped the clutches of the evil tyrannical chicken at the neighbor's house and sought asylum at my house. One of them must have been an asshole because my dog chased it into the woods and it has never been seen again - he doesn't mind the rest of them. Since then three more have arrived - each separately. I am at a loss to explain how they know to come to my house, why they moved in, or why they've never returned.
I didn't feed them at first but they stayed long enough so that I felt compelled to ensure they were kept alive. I don't want to be taken in front of the UN for failing to provide for asylum seekers and committing a chickenside.
I don't know much about chickens but, as near as I can tell, every one that's at the house is a female. I've yet to have a rooster come. The neighbor's only have one rooster and he's definitely not the cock of the walk. No, he's a cowardly little braggart who talks a big talk but then runs and hides behind the hens who then treat him like the sissy he is. I can't say that I understand the social dynamics in chickendom but he is definitely not the reason that the hens have left and expatriated to the CCCR (Communist Chicken Coop Rebels).
They arrived in late spring, not too long after the snow was melted from the woods. I've questioned my neighbors who tell me that I'm quite welcome to keep them, which is how they got the house that they don't live in. There are an amazing number of chicken house plans online. I am not sure why, it appears chickens don't like them. I appreciated the style and put the labor (and money) into building them the house. At best they sit atop it and shit over the eves. It even has lights in it to give them some heat during the winter, I'm assuming they will be there in the winter as they've showed no inclination to return to their motherland.
I do have one other theory but it's a bit of a stretch. They could be troublemaker chickens (they did kill some plants and didn't show a single sign of remorse) and the neighbor just might have some unknown chicken herding skill and used that to send them to live at my house. They say this isn't so and I'm inclined to believe them but it is a possibility. They've never lied to me, that I know of, but they did get rid of some plant-murdering chickens.
Again, I don't know much of anything about chickens - just the little I've learned from Google. They do seem to have some sort of 'pecking order' (pardon the pun) and are constantly socializing. I must assume there's cliques within this hierarchy but I'd need to study more chickens to come to any conclusions. When I question the original guardians of the chickens they don't give much insight and wonder why I'm so curious about the ways of the fowl. I've made some casual observations of their remaining chickens (still a greater number than those who've exited) and I do not understand the social dynamics in play. They seem like stupider chickens than those who populate my lawn.
I didn't even realize that chickens had much of anything going on in their heads. I figured they just hung around being chickens but they do seem to have a dynamic social life and a structured hierarchy. I've not given them names because I like to give things descriptive names and these names would mostly consist of vulgarities. "Chicken that Shat on my Car" and "Bastard Bird Get out of my Way" are not, in fact, acceptable chicken names. As they are refugees and seeking to be free from tyranny it's not acceptable for me to heap my scorn on them - even if one shit on the seat of my tractor.
Anyhow, they're far more interesting than I'd have expected. I do, at times, enjoy their limited company - they're great vocalists but not great conversationalists. They also don't crow at dawn or anything - they'll do that at any time. Well, cluck and screech I guess, crowing hasn't really been actually accomplished. They were probably afraid to speak out in their old country so aren't yet quite acclimated to having the freedom of speech.
I was very fortunate and sold my business after the growth and maturation of said business so I could, quite easily, fund a number of lives. In fact, with investing, I make more now than I ever did and I only invest as a hobby or have a financial manager who invests my real asset portfolio for me. I do pretty well at it, too. The funny part is that I haven't a clue what I'm doing. For instance, I bought 2000 shares of Tesla when they were 1/10 their current value. (I just spend a lot of time reading and looking for trends - people liked Tesla and so I bought a bunch.)
So, yeah, I can. I don't really want to live too long and I surely don't want to live forever. I'm already a grouchy old man. I'd hate to see me in 100 years. It might be interesting but I'd expect I'd hate everything and everybody.
I'm completely and totally baffled - to the point of commenting.
I mean, yes, Japan has universal health care. That's true. Is this the only fact you know about Japan or something? I guess my point is that I'm not seeing what their health care system has to do with the comments made by the parent poster. You might well have just said that, "Japan is an island nation near China."
Maybe I am missing something? If so then please enlighten me. Perhaps it's a koan and I need to meditate on it.
Slashdot Mirror
That is, indeed, an excellent book. I have a copy and (I'm not certain) I think I also have a "pocket" version of that book. As I'm retired now, I don't always have something keeping me busy. I often look at things I didn't get to when I was younger and work on accomplishing those goals today. One of those things is writing in an acceptable manner at a reasonable speed. I don't demand perfection from myself but I do try to write as well as I can in most situations. On the rare times that I visit an IRC channel it's amusing to the others that I use proper spelling and punctuation. I also insist on doing so with text messages. Things written by hand are fair game, however. Nobody can read them except me (and even I have trouble) so I don't much worry about it there.
I am not sure if it has reached that level, at this time. At this point I'd like to see more non-typical politicians taking actions to serve their fellow citizens and I'd like to see more informed voters given the incentive to help others learn. The current process is a lazy sideline show that is more akin to team sports fans than a system of governance. I'd like to try that before we get violent. If that doesn't work, and it needs to be on a larger scale, then I'm willing to accept violence as a solution.
That is an interesting theory. Maybe there should be a healthy respect on both sides? I don't see that happening but we're talking hypotheticals here.
I'd never had it happen before and I've done it before (even though I know better). It was a beautiful blue spark and the magic smoke escaped from the power supply. It was a fairly new system and I usually toss in a large spinning platter drive for backups just as a habit - which is, IIRC, what I was doing. I just popped the side off, tossed a cable in (the others are SATA so I need to add the cable), plugged the cable in and attached power. SNAP! And out goes the magic smoke...
I didn't even run a power supply tester - the smoke's source was pretty evident. I was a little worried that the short had jumped and done damage to other components but I was all good there.
And yeah, we all know we shouldn't do this but we do it. At least I do it. I've done it countless times and this was the only time it had happened. I kind of think there might have been some weak component or maybe some other issue in the power supply? The drive was fine after, by the way.
Hmm... Actually? I think it was me wanting to get something off the drive that motivated me. I dunno. It was maybe a month or two ago. It took a few minutes to toss in a new power supply and all was good after that. Like you said, I'd never had anything like that happen to me before (or since). I mean, yeah, we're not supposed to do that but I'm pretty sure we all do. It's not like I was stuffing RAM sticks into the slots. I'd done it before and all was well - I'd even done it and not had to reboot to have the hardware recognized.
So, yeah, I kind of wonder if there was something else wrong with the power supply. Nothing else was damaged. I didn't take it apart or anything, I just tossed it in the trash. I'm assuming it was just a short. Now I'm a bit curious as to if there was something wrong in the supply and specifically to that power cable. It was a whitebox from NewEgg and I don't even recall who made the power supply or anything. Ah well... I never would have RMAed it or anything. I was the one who connected it with live power. I am curious if it would have happened even if I'd shut the system down now that I think about it more because I'd never had that happen before.
...circumventing a legal monopoly is not illegal.
I'll give you the benefit of doubt. It's tempting to just retort but, instead, I'll reply with a question.
How, in the name of all that is good, did you manage to write that sentence without snorting a beverage out through your nose? There's no way, really, that you can conclude that without some serious brain damage or in an attempt to be funny. Hmm... That kind of violates my objective.
Yes, yes it is illegal - even in UK laws, surely.
Let's put this another way, shall we? If you live in a city where they have a water provisioning monopoly (some are even privately held) and have a well of your own dug that might be okay and I'd be on your side for the most part and assuming it was healthy and for personal use only. What you can't do is drill that well and then proceed to sell the water or pipe the water to your neighbors and operate an illegal water company. In fact, by the very definition, it is illegal.
If you break the law it is an illegal act. Even if you break the law for just reasons it is still illegal. We can say that it is not immoral and we could even say we're duty bound to do so. However, it is still very much illegal and, by definition, will always be illegal to break the law.
I can't decide if you're saying that tongue in cheek (Poe's Law, anyone?) or if you're really that confused.
The end result is almost certainly the destruction of an entire business model by reducing it to the lowest common denominator and the future will almost certainly be lower quality, fewer services, and greater expense. To be honest, I can see benefits to both sides - assuming that this is done properly and doesn't result in the negatives. However, I can easily conclude that this is not going to be done properly as they've already failed to do this properly. What they should have done is work to get the laws changed and they should follow the laws until those laws are changed.
It is not civil disobedience to violate laws you just don't like. Civil disobedience implies there's an injustice, typically of the human rights nature, and this almost certainly doesn't qualify.
Here's where the split is for me...
Unfortunately, I think it will end up being the drivers that take the heat for this - maybe not in the UK but, when the levy breaks, it will end up being the drivers that are fined, arrested, and subjected to scorn. While that's true that they are, indeed, violating the law this is a situation that I can only liken to entrapment. No, not entirely the legal definition but it's similar enough for my purposes. The responsible party is the giant, greedy, illegally operating, business behind this. Yes, yes I am quite literally opposed to unethical businesses - having owned, run, and sold a successful business I can tell you - with complete certainty - that it is possible to be ethical even when dealing with government contracts.
So, it will be the 'little people' who are subjected to punishment while those who have enticed and provisioned are free to do it again in another sphere of business. I'd actually be in favor of an end where the drivers are given little or no punishment and the people in charge are subjected to fines and restrictions. (I am not in favor of jailing them at this point.) And this will never happen...
These drivers, while not innocent, are enticed, probably out of a need and not for greed, by Uber who seemingly imply that they're either legal or able to protect the drivers by nature of their being open for business. They then act on that, again because of needing the additional income, and violate the law. I can't blame them. If I were hungry and unable to lawfully earn food then I'd certainly steal it and that would be even easier to do if I had a family to feed.
The key here is: I don't blame them. ;) The freedoms belong to the individual. There's a lot of room for varied interpretations but this is what I've concluded. I'm open to alternative views if the information changes or someone has a logical rebuttal. This is also why the moniker Classic Libertarian is going to have to be used. If you scroll up the thread you'll see a few folks who self-identify as libertarians who are really anarcho-capitalists or free market types. Those are both beautiful ideologies but entirely unrealistic. They also tend to be zealots who are unwilling to understand the need for moderation.
Anyhow, I figured I'd chime in. There were a number of places to interject but I'm kind of, sort of, tired from the effort, a very small voice in the crowd, and it's an exercise in futility.
Heh. I noticed the term and I like it. I put it into the mighty Google and it turns out, it's actually in fairly common use in that arena. I think it might qualify as a portmanteau but I'm not 100% of the definition and I am too lazy to look. I like the word well enough that I have decide it needs to make its way into my lexicon. Hopefully it makes its way past all the damage done by alcohol and drugs and remains there. Stupid beer... Even a few years after quitting I still feel like my memory is impaired. I guess that's what happens when you drink daily for 35 years.
Anyhow, the word is awesome and I figured I'd chime in to share that I agreed entirely. I'd never heard it before. That's actually a little strange as the advertising industry is something that I give a passing notice to as a bit of a hobby or at least a subject of interest. I end up reading a lot about it and, as mentioned, I'd never seen the word before. Nifty.
#kernelgate!!!
Hmm... That was the first time I've ever written a hashtag. I do apologize, I'm gonna submit it anyhow. I like feeling dirty.
While I'm opposed to violence, as a general rule, I suspect you might be right. The government should be afraid of the populace. If it is the other way around then you're doing it wrong. Currently, it is the other way around. While I am not, by any means, advocating a revolution (I think we should exhaust all other options and there should be a rising organically - even if people are too stupid) as a means to an end at this point in time, I do feel it is important to send those in power a reminder that we are ruled by consent.
Things like this (there's an interesting documentary about Space City being built that shows the impending doom for the area albeit betwixt the lines) and an earlier story about TPP being completed are just today's examples of reasons why we might want to consider being truly outraged. I'm all for private space access. I'm not a fan of you paying for my ride, however. Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure I can already pay for a ride to space if I want. It's expensive but I can pay for it and have the means to pay for it. There's no reason for you to be burdened for my amusement. With today's story about the TPP, I'm forced to think and realize that I've not yet seen a single, nary a one, bit of evidence that there's a single good thing about it for the average citizen. Not one single thing...
I am tired so I'm sure the above reads like it was written by a drunken monkey (I also have an attractive female, nearly forty years my junior, who's tiring me out but no - probably not like you may be thinking) but I hope it's still able to be parsed. It's high time they learn that we, the citizens, have the power. What's funny (sad, actually) is that there are so many people in favor of disarming the populace. I'm too tired to get into it so let it suffice to say that I simply can not comprehend the thinking process that leads otherwise rational people to reach conclusions such as those.
That is probably true, unfortunately. I realized that there was at least one person who didn't understand the difference so I figured I'd mention it.
You don't just get to personally redefine the definitions of words you don't like. Also, I'd submit that heroin is an excellent method for pain control or for escaping reality for a time. I'd further submit that it could also probably be considered a tool. The 'no reasonable' person bit of your attempt at logic was amusing, so there's that. It was childlike but amusing. No, no reasonable person would attempt to redefine the word tool simply because they felt they had an inferior point and were unable to substantiate it.
LOL Sorry - my reply was meant to be more tongue-in-cheek than it looks like, in hindsight. I am, indeed, trying to improve my writing skills because they're not very good. Anyhow, I've already bookmarked the book on Amazon and will grab it when I'm home and able to actually receive it. Your suggestion was my motivation - I've seen it mentioned a few times here and elsewhere. It's high time I read it.
Welcome to America, can I take your order please?
If you kill the people in charge there is no money. No, really. There will be no money. There will be assets but the money will just be paper at that point. It's an important concept.
Wow. That's pretty good then. That whole wall of text and only one, fairly trivial, complaint about grammar? Sweet. I'm getting better. Yes, yes it is something I work on and thank you for bringing it to my attention. Unfortunately, I type faster than I think. I do make mistakes and I don't always see them when I use the preview function.
Seriously, this is something that I work on and a reason that I force myself to share as much as I do. I've never been very good at grammar and my spelling is even worse. I'd like to change this and have been actively working on it for years. If you'd seen my posts from just a half-dozen years ago then you'd actually see how far along I have come. To be honest, I'm quite pleased that you found and commented on only one mistake. It's even more impressive considering the level that I try to achieve and the volume that I do achieve.
While this might be an internet forum, I still feel that it's kind of important to at least make an effort to write in a manner that can be easily understood. A post that size and containing so few errors is pretty good, for me.
I'll spare you the embarrassment of reviewing your reply, however. You may want to look at that. I'm assuming that, since you've read this book, you're also trying to improve your writing skills? If not then you may want to consider it. I don't really have the time or initiative to correct all the errors made by anonymous cowards so you'll have to rely on your peers. I wish you luck and am grateful for you having taken the time out of your busy day to critique my grammar.
It is threads like this that make me realize how disconnected I am. I don't recognize or even know most of the references. I'm not actually sure why I'm reading the thread except I was curious.
There are a couple of interesting documentaries on the subject. PBS did Radioactive Wolves and another is Chernobyl Wolfpack from National Geographic. The PBS production is actually quite well done. The second isn't bad but it's not my favorite. They make for interesting viewing for those who are interested. I believe they can both be found on YouTube.
It was probably either "jerk" or "asshole" and I'm guilty of both. A fool, on the other hand, I am not (usually). I tend to believe that one of the biggest reasons that my business was successful was because I was smart enough to know when to shut the hell up and listen to those who knew better than I.
I've never understood why people would hire experts and then not listen to them. There are many things that I do not know or do not know well enough. I'm comfortable enough admitting that I'm wrong but I prefer to admit that I am not sure and would like to ask somebody who knows more than I.
Can I configure, secure, and manage servers? Absolutely. Can I program in a few different languages? Certainly. I'm probably 'pretty good' at it. However, my degree is in applied mathematics. I'm neither a programmer nor an admin. I did both because that was what the job required and I ended up learning a lot by doing both. When it came to doing it at a greater level, I was simply out of my league.
Sure, I learned a lot and was able to do a lot but nowhere near as well or as quickly as the professionals could. Being able to shut the hell up and listen (as well as, hopefully, knowing when to do so) is important. If I'd tried to help then I'd have slowed them down and reduced the quality of their work. That's not a good business model yet I see it is fairly common. I'm not sure how those businesses remain open - I can only assume it is momentum. I didn't have momentum (the market was fairly young - traffic modeling "on a computer") so I'm pretty convinced we'd have never had the success we did have if I'd been much different.
I didn't hire people to work for me. I hired people to work with me. I may be mistaken but, to me at least, there's a huge difference between the two and there's also a huge difference in the quality of the end product and culture. If I didn't need their help then I'd have not hired them. I hired them so it would be really stupid of me to not allow them to do the work they were hired to do.
Sometimes it helps to just shut the hell up and learn something.
I got lucky. I wasn't quite 50 when I sold my business for a rather high sum (it was about eight years ago) and retired. We'd accumulated a great value on paper and had great future business lined up so I ended up quite happy with the results. The company that is the parent company does almost nothing but fill a variety of government contracts (from information management to food services to even security services) and has left much of the culture in place so there are still some of the same views even though I am gone.
Sometimes I miss the place. Then, well, I realize I can do almost anything I want (within reason) and find something to distract me. Currently I'm stopped in Buffalo, New York as I'm out engaging in wanderlust. I do expect to stop in down at the old office and see a few friends on my trip but it's actually a little hard to do so as it's sometimes tough to leave.
I had an OCed K6-2 at almost 500 MHz - up from the 350. It was an Acer, of all things, and came with Windows ME. Strangely enough, it was the only system on the entire planet that was actually stable with ME on it. Well, there were three others but they didn't talk about it.
Anyhow, I had 256 MB of RAM and it was OCed. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was as far as I could overclock it. Anything higher and it would pop an IRQ error on boot or something along those lines. Some 0x0xxxxxx type of error, at least, and a not so very fancy blue screen. I tried all sorts of ways to get it to run - I even tried Slackware (I think it was Slack) that had come with a book. Alas, it was not to be. I might have stuck with Slack back then but, for the life of me, I couldn't get the damned thing to see my modem. It wasn't even a win modem. I sort of think it might have been a Lucent or something similar.
Hard to believe that was like 15 years ago almost. The heady days of 256 MB of RAM and ~500 MHz...
Not that long ago, I opened a live box and proceeded to connect a new hard drive to it. I have no idea why. I do not even know what I was thinking. I just opened it up and plugged it in and then plugged in the power. Yes, yes I did blow the power supply. Fortunately that was the only thing that broke and it only took a few minutes to replace it with one from another system that had already been partially cannibalized. Like any self-respecting geek, I don't think there's an actual chance of me not being able to build a new computer out of just my spare parts. I could probably build quite a few.
Either way, I absolutely know better than to do that. This was a desktop system - it doesn't have hot swappable bays in it and, while it could, I don't actually own one with hot swappable drive bays. The worst part is that I don't even usually store anything on my drives - they all go into the NAS for the most part. While that does, indeed, have hot swap it was not what I was working on. I wasn't even high...
I've since gone 'on vacation.' I realized that I was just too occupied with thoughts and had done a few similarly stupid things. A few days later I decided it was time to hit the road and that my wanderlust was too strong. My head is a little more clear at this point but is being hindered by something else which is a long subject and I'll spare folks the details.
Anyhow, the most interesting "hack" was a router (with a small cache, thank you) that allowed us to pipe output through the network and directly into the plotter. We were able to pipe inputs from multiple networks and it would even queue as well as hold some data in cache. (I don't recall how much but it was a trivial amount compared to today.) This was not done entirely by myself or even mostly done by myself. We had multiple people on the project as it didn't do much other than save people from going to the plotter, print, and blueprint room to hit a switch. It almost certainly took more time than it saved. A large plotter was expensive back then. However, we'd decided we wanted to build one so we did. It took skills from all sorts of us and actually was a pretty good process that helped us learn to work together even though it didn't do a whole lot, saved trivial amounts of time, and was replaced with an actual product just a few years later.
I didn't have nearly as much to do with the project as I'd have hoped. We were growing at the time as the industry was really starting to expand and this was around the time that I moved more into the management aspect than dealing with hands-on things. It was just around the time that we'd opted to hire a couple of programmers and not long before they told me to stop helping. (I listened, they were much better at programming than I could ever be. Which is why I'd hired them.)
As an aside, it was a few years later when we got an actual IT staff (and before we hired the database wizard) who kicked out of my own server room. Again, I listened. That was why I'd hired them too. They, like the programmers, could do the job faster and better than I. I mean, yeah, I could make it work and did make it work but they were far more adept than I. Also, I code like I write. It's not pretty. I've some pretty convoluted logic. It works but it's not pretty or efficient.
My favorite real life quote? Almost verbatim... "Code comments go in the code asshole, not on coffee soaked index cards." Yes, there's a reason I hired them. And no, I wasn't offended at all at being called an asshole. We actually had a pretty good relationship and had many spirited conversations. But, we worked hard and played hard and had a hell of a good time. There are, indeed, times that I miss it. They're now owned by a much larger parent company but I'm told the culture hasn't changed a whole lot except they have a real HR department now, no more pool table, and a bunch of new people but I guess they still call the boss an asshole when he's being an asshole.
Hmm... I need to get a life. I didn't actually preview and then I saw how long that post was. Well, have a novel about David's Life With Chickens.
Four of them escaped the clutches of the evil tyrannical chicken at the neighbor's house and sought asylum at my house. One of them must have been an asshole because my dog chased it into the woods and it has never been seen again - he doesn't mind the rest of them. Since then three more have arrived - each separately. I am at a loss to explain how they know to come to my house, why they moved in, or why they've never returned.
I didn't feed them at first but they stayed long enough so that I felt compelled to ensure they were kept alive. I don't want to be taken in front of the UN for failing to provide for asylum seekers and committing a chickenside.
I don't know much about chickens but, as near as I can tell, every one that's at the house is a female. I've yet to have a rooster come. The neighbor's only have one rooster and he's definitely not the cock of the walk. No, he's a cowardly little braggart who talks a big talk but then runs and hides behind the hens who then treat him like the sissy he is. I can't say that I understand the social dynamics in chickendom but he is definitely not the reason that the hens have left and expatriated to the CCCR (Communist Chicken Coop Rebels).
They arrived in late spring, not too long after the snow was melted from the woods. I've questioned my neighbors who tell me that I'm quite welcome to keep them, which is how they got the house that they don't live in. There are an amazing number of chicken house plans online. I am not sure why, it appears chickens don't like them. I appreciated the style and put the labor (and money) into building them the house. At best they sit atop it and shit over the eves. It even has lights in it to give them some heat during the winter, I'm assuming they will be there in the winter as they've showed no inclination to return to their motherland.
I do have one other theory but it's a bit of a stretch. They could be troublemaker chickens (they did kill some plants and didn't show a single sign of remorse) and the neighbor just might have some unknown chicken herding skill and used that to send them to live at my house. They say this isn't so and I'm inclined to believe them but it is a possibility. They've never lied to me, that I know of, but they did get rid of some plant-murdering chickens.
Again, I don't know much of anything about chickens - just the little I've learned from Google. They do seem to have some sort of 'pecking order' (pardon the pun) and are constantly socializing. I must assume there's cliques within this hierarchy but I'd need to study more chickens to come to any conclusions. When I question the original guardians of the chickens they don't give much insight and wonder why I'm so curious about the ways of the fowl. I've made some casual observations of their remaining chickens (still a greater number than those who've exited) and I do not understand the social dynamics in play. They seem like stupider chickens than those who populate my lawn.
I didn't even realize that chickens had much of anything going on in their heads. I figured they just hung around being chickens but they do seem to have a dynamic social life and a structured hierarchy. I've not given them names because I like to give things descriptive names and these names would mostly consist of vulgarities. "Chicken that Shat on my Car" and "Bastard Bird Get out of my Way" are not, in fact, acceptable chicken names. As they are refugees and seeking to be free from tyranny it's not acceptable for me to heap my scorn on them - even if one shit on the seat of my tractor.
Anyhow, they're far more interesting than I'd have expected. I do, at times, enjoy their limited company - they're great vocalists but not great conversationalists. They also don't crow at dawn or anything - they'll do that at any time. Well, cluck and screech I guess, crowing hasn't really been actually accomplished. They were probably afraid to speak out in their old country so aren't yet quite acclimated to having the freedom of speech.
I've thought abo
I was very fortunate and sold my business after the growth and maturation of said business so I could, quite easily, fund a number of lives. In fact, with investing, I make more now than I ever did and I only invest as a hobby or have a financial manager who invests my real asset portfolio for me. I do pretty well at it, too. The funny part is that I haven't a clue what I'm doing. For instance, I bought 2000 shares of Tesla when they were 1/10 their current value. (I just spend a lot of time reading and looking for trends - people liked Tesla and so I bought a bunch.)
So, yeah, I can. I don't really want to live too long and I surely don't want to live forever. I'm already a grouchy old man. I'd hate to see me in 100 years. It might be interesting but I'd expect I'd hate everything and everybody.
WOOHOO!!! I'm going to live forever!
I'm completely and totally baffled - to the point of commenting.
I mean, yes, Japan has universal health care. That's true. Is this the only fact you know about Japan or something? I guess my point is that I'm not seeing what their health care system has to do with the comments made by the parent poster. You might well have just said that, "Japan is an island nation near China."
Maybe I am missing something? If so then please enlighten me. Perhaps it's a koan and I need to meditate on it.