Posts by Mark 85 12884 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012
Until those of us who remember their crimes are gone they can beg, whine, scream, threaten or corrupt as much as they like but they will be fighting the population.
Let's not give the powers that be any ideas, shall we? I can see here in the US that the "purge/gulag" mentality is rising. It appears to be that getting way in Blighty, also. Not too many countries that aren't pushing things that direction in the name of "security".
Well.... DevOps was my "answer". We've been playing Agile with the usual stand-ups even though I'm 250 miles from the main office. I was told to get on a plane for last Friday's stand-up. Did it and in walked some dweeb with a projector and laptop and started extoling DevOps.
After 10 minutes I headed for the door. The boss stopped me and asked where I was going... "To HR" I replied. "I've decided to retire..". "When?" she said. "In about 15 minutes." says I. I had a nice chat with HR and this morning at home I got a call from the Boss... "come back.... DevOps won't apply to your office.".
Meh... 401k is good. Retirement payout plan is good. Social Security is good. Now why should I go back?
I'm guessing it was some lowly clerk in HR or Payroll who had access to that info. Probably got fired. It's pity that the firings won't go up the corporate food chain over these types of things as there is obviously no training. And obviously some atmosphere of fear that no one bothered to check with a higher up if this would be kosher.
I'm still not sure what that means but it smells like a bit of blackmail money. Pay the money and you can delete (maybe) or at least find out who's stalking/bad-mouthing/etc. you.
The sad part is, there will be people paying those scum* just to see who is bad mouthing them or praising them.
*I used to think pond scum was the lowest form of life... but this is lower.
Hmm.. interesting concept. The crater seems round indicating a direct hit where I'd think an angled hit would leave an oblong crater. Unless it hit and displaced something under the surface upwards.
Maybe it was a "trough and through"? Hit the other side and started to come out this side but left a mountain?
Nah... not about free trade.. the government wants a piece of the action and a cut for this. I doubt the processing costs have doubled so they're following the lead set by business... increasing income without increasing cost.
Indian technology companies have complained long and loud about the cost of H1-B visas, arguing that they need to bring workers from India to the USA to grow their businesses. US businesses retort that Indian companies could hire locals with comparable skills, but prefer to import people who they pay lower wages.
So India complains that they need to put workers in US companies that need to "grow". And the US says the Indians could hire local US residents. Hmm... maybe the US companies ought to just cut out the middle man and hire workers from the US? Oh wait.. still cheaper to import... profit... all that.
If you think about it, isn't that exactly what FB, Google and their ilk do? Let zillions of devices connect, process lots and lots of personal information in real time and provide "solutions" which in their case are ads. Change out "ads" there to "allow/deny entry" and you have the same thing.
Maybe the wrong companies are bidding for this. Maybe FB should? They could then tie all this info together, push some more ads and profit!
Oracle's represented the closure of in-country phone support as a consolidation that will enable better support. Support provided by teams in Egypt, Romania, India and the United States.
I would imagine that the US support group is small and getting smaller. The rest are script monkeys at best. This boggles the mind and given the way companies are cutting costs, it's not surprising. I wonder how many customers will now run for another vendor? And that's probably only if there's another vendor who can provide support and/or a compatible product to transition to.
They might very well be incompetent in this case. However, instead of stupidity, let's consider "forethought".
It's been mentioned that one of the conditions is that the iCloud password NOT be reset for Apple to be able to help. Suddenly we have a phone in a well-publicized case that had it's iCloud password reset. No real answers but fingers pointed at different people... the FBI, the County office where he worked, and the local cops have all had the finger pointed at them for resetting the password. This is perfect case (due to publicity and well... terrorism) for them to push the envelope.
I'm guessing they know full well that there's nothing of value on that phone and that this is a test case to see how far they can push the envelope.
Of all the arguments I've heard, both for Apple and for the FBI's case, you've said it best. Governments by nature are corrupted by the power they hold. Originally, in some countries, this power was granted with restrictions by the citizens. But as always, the power corrupts.
And here I was just being fat, dumb, and happy that Musk is still trying to land the thing. I guess I should clammer for a full 360 degree live feed video with surround sound.. and of course, since it's Friday, a free beer.
I've come to prefer them over paper books for pure convenience, even though I still buy books because I like books,
I tend to go the other way. I prefer the paper and given the way the market is, ebooks have a habit of disappearing or changing formats. I want my reading material to be mine, not some profit based company that's renting me the book for only as long as they are in business.
I note from the article that hard copy sales are up but the ebooks business is what's killing them. It makes me think that there's a lot of folks who feel the way I do...
They do seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Machismo seems to really come out in forums and sites that have anonymous posters. For example, too many of Linux forums are really abusive to newbies. Part of knowledge is knowing that you don't know and asking questions. The abusive types seem to think that they discovered all knowledge and through some cosmic quirk, everyone else suddenly has that same level.
I've found that to ask usually takes more balls than to blast someone for not knowing. Want to be a human being... help instead of toasting everyone in sight. There's more power in sharing knowledge than lambasting.
My observation is that his not unique but seems to be worldwide. The telcos I've had issues with here in the States required some screaming, choice words, and several calls to get to someone who had some knowledge, i.e.: someone in country, at tier2 or higher, and not a script monkey with a language barrier problem.
If someone followed the money, they would probably find that the FDA is following the advice(?) of the pharmaceutical companies.
At one point, the DEA was investigating doctors for prescribing habits and pharmacies for distributing. Some patients were flagged as "taking too many"... like they knew the pain level. I think the DEA still monitors but isn't as active in this as they once were.
And let's not get me started on the Medicare stance that artificial limbs are a luxury item....
Logic? Yeah.. Logic and government. Damn near an oxymoron.
Actually, the FBI has been investigating and destroying privacy for many decades. Go back an look at Hoover and McCarthy and the crap they pulled. The NSA lads are amateurs next to those two. And Hoover's history well after McCarthy was gone. Anybody and everybody was fair game to his mind. I shudder to think where we'd be now if there had been an NSA and an Internet with him around.
It seems rather murky at best just like the tax thing they and other are running into. FB is US, the servers for Germany apparently are in Ireland. Three countries' laws... who's applies? I think most of us would agree to the local country where the services are used. But...BS politics and chest thumping take precedence.
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