Posts by skeptical i 1194 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Aug 2007
re: "how in the hell are they allowing tests to be skipped on a $1 Trillion project?"
By the time something goes horrifically wrong (see icon), those who OK'ed the test skipping will have retired, changed jobs, or otherwise moved on and away leaving the pail of fail to some hapless successor.
That's what I was thinking, that either the Oompa-Loompas could do it as part of their online digitizing/ archiving work, or else somewhere there's likely some D&D devotees who've already scanned their books and parked them in an online Cloudy Stash of Lore for their local comrades' use.
re: "we now know where Trump gets his hair from"
Someone on his hairdressing staff misunderstood the joke about how the "this is a crock of poop and it stinks" comment on the assembly line became mistranslated every step up the food chain to become the CEO's new "this is powerful stuff that promotes growth" policy directive.
re: Dan 55 and "Later on in your career you might need skills outside of coding."
I'd change "might" to "will undoubtedly", if the past decade or so of industry slice-and-ice is any indication; no matter what you know or how well you perform, jobs will move overseas or otherwise disappear, careers will abruptly halt, and "reinventing oneself" (back when I was a boy this was called "job-hopping", now it's a feature and not a bug) is what keeps food on the table. Learn a little bit of everything, learn how to learn/ think/ analyze/ problem-solve, and any job-specific training will (should) more or less take care of itself. Employers truly looking out for a company's best interests will hire for attitude, knowing that training (for the job and how this company specifically does it) needs to happen anyway. (This from a creaky grey curmudgeon who says "kids these days" more than I ever thought I would, so plz to consider the source.)
Judging by the support presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is getting, I'd say many Americans are fairly torqued off by the economic situation so Inder Parmer is in good company (for whatever that's worth). When municipalities are officially gleeful to land a(nother) big box store that pays minimum wage for scut workers to flog future landfill crap from China -- instead of being vaguely ashamed in a "is this really the best we can do?" bit of reflection -- I don't expect much to change, R.I.P. America's middle class. I hope I'm wrong.
If user experience is UX, I'm guessing most websites are aiming for a Fabulous User Experience and fall woefully short. What works fine one month is hopelessly and irretrievably broken because some bright spark wants to lard the site with pointless whizz-bangery that only the latest and shiniest browsers can parse, and one spends more time trawling the source trying to find any useful links in the mess.
Maybe that's why I leave the "big picture" to someone else, any "big idea" I have is immediately followed by "and how, exactly, would you do this and what would it actually achieve?" There should be a law that all marketing/ management/ soi-disant "visionaries" should have to do some years' time trying to make other people's crackpot ideas work before they start spewing their own rainbows- and- lollipops "concepts". (And, in fairness, there are some who worked in the trenches before rising to the pretty office and have a grasp on the nuts and bolts needed to get from A to B.)
Yay, real typewriters! Except my Hermes 2000 does not have a separate '1' (digit one) key, the lowercase 'l' (ell) does double duty. Also does not have a '!' (bang), one must type an apostrophe, back up, and type a period. Fine for most writings, but 1234 != l234. Might be easier to only use passwords with no ones, ells, capital eyes, zeros, or capital ohs.
we can not grow enough real food fast enough or reliably enough to keep everyone nutritionally sound, there are already not enough jobs to go around, and yet some folks still think that adding even more population to the equation is a good idea. Generally this "new" population does not include people whose cultures and lifestyles leave a relatively small footprint on Earth's resources, but the offspring of people who can afford the Motörsperm treatment and comparatively much more resource-intensive lifestyles. Yay for the engineering involved, and perhaps a use will be found for it that is beneficial, but for now ... hmmm.
re: "Nett result: the good [developers] leave, the bad ones who can't find new jobs stay." That would explain why yahoo's tech support (which might not have been the best but at least existed, and at one point had some good staffers) now consists of a user "forum" that contains more "why isn't [yet another problem] fixed?" posts than solutions. And explain why every new iteration of yahoomail has a part that is broken, no option to keep using any previous versions that DID work, and of course no tech support people to offer workarounds or, heaven forfend, FIX the problems with the mandatory new versions. If this is how yahoo approaches all of its products, no wonder they're losing relevance.
re: "Harry Potter was demonised for promoting magic and witchcraft, which apparently prevent kids from learning about Christianity." Right. Because there's nothing supernatural or woo-woo whatsoever about turning water into wine, creating a boatload of bread and fish from nothing, bringing Lazarus back from the dead, walking on water, and so on, izzere. [*rolls eyes*]
Actually, Daniel, I agree with you: "if ya' can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em" should apply everywhere, not just in the "over there" places. That said, there are some challenges with this:
- Many places "over there" were fairly self-regulating until The Empire Builders discovered oil/ gold/ resources and plundered the bejabbers out of the place, disrupting family/ clan farming and other lifeways that had served reasonably well for centuries if not millenia. Pretty hypocritical to go somewhere, take all the resources, run the place to ruin, and then tell the occupants they shouldn't breed because they have no resources. That said, breeding beyond carrying capacity helps no one. Not sure how to square this circle.
- Many cultures still hold a "many children = much status" belief. This is useful in farming communities -- more able bodies to work the farm -- but in urban ones? Again, not sure how to address this.
- There has been progress made in areas where women are given/allowed more education. Most women "over there" bear the brunt of having more kids than the family can raise, but often do not have much control over the situation (hubby = final word). Education to grow skills to bring in more income (to sustain more kids) and/or to acquire birth control (to limit the number of kids in the first place) works and we need more of it. Not more fecebook.
Why design it? Someone has an old copy of Fontographer and nothing better to do.
Why have it? It's free.
Why use it? When put into a customer's advert, poster, tee-shirt, or other promotional product that needs a "cool" headline to draw in da yoofs, customer will say "oooooh, I like it!".
re: "at the WSJ Magazine's Innovator Awards right before De Niro was slated to present another award to friend Angelina Jolie", not to disparage Ms. Jolie or her work, but for what project was she being given an "innovator" award? Celebs dropping money into tax deductions, er, charities is not particularly new.
re: "fill paperwork for a background check before the dealer can even consider a sale" -- This is true if the individual buys from a dealer. In some states, if the background check results do not come back within $num_hours (varies by state) the dealer shall sell the firearm. In some states, background checks are not required for private (person-to-person) sales or sales at gun shows. Then there's the issue of when states with VERY different approaches to firearms share a border and visitors don't know the differences, or where exactly the border is in the rural areas.
Most kids in Amurka know the shape of a gun, and most (I hope) are taught to stay away and notify an adult when they find one (and/or proper handling when they are old enough). Aside from "innocent bystander", I think we'll see "child" and "accident" when this goes to market.
How does it benefit Microsoft in the long term to have a EULA that essentially says "the floor will be shifting, the rug likely yanked out from under your operation as we see fit, and any bad outcomes are your problem to solve"? I hear time and again how the business community wants "predictability", this magic fun house forced update regime sounds exactly like what the corporate sector would run screaming from. Unless it's Microsoft's next extortion venture: "That's a nice business you got there, it'd be a shame if anything were to happen to it, wouldn't it? For a small fee, Guido here will see to it that no unfortunate ... upgrade ... befalls your business ...."
I'm sure AVG and everyone else already pad their data, but slurping additional "real" data adds a veneer of truthiness to the sell. If I'm flogging widgets using company XYZ's user data to find my target audience, I have no idea what to expect: if I sell stuff, great; if not, is it because the data is flawed or because my product is crap? Commence finger-pointing in five... four... three....
re: "we need to boost the great American auto industry"
True, but with Toyota and other non-Merkin manufacturers having set up plants (with the always- politically- defensible JOBS!) on U.S. soil, the rally round the flag might not be as fervent as it would have been in decades past.
So, will people who fit their performance to pass a test be accused of V-Dub'ing it?
Sample usage:
"Dude, how did you pass the urine test to get your new job after having smoked bales of reefer last month?"
"Easy, I got some of that detox-in-a-bottle at the head shop and V-Dub'ed the test."
re: "' ..."original" birthday songs at many chain eateries' ... But that was not a bad thing!"
The dishwashers, waitstaff, and captive audience at the perpetrating chain slop buckets would likely have a different opinion. See what happens when labour unions lose power?
Back towards the beginning, before world+dog discovered fecebook, ISTR a thumbs up/ thumbs down combo, or like/ dislike buttons. The reason for removing the 'dislike' button was something about it being used to bully people; offering only a 'like' button has clearly since then made the world a happier friendlier place and we must now put a stop to that. Zuckerworld, what a strrange place.
re: "Friend of mine has her WORK SCHEDULE (and crucially, any changes thereof) posted on Farcebook by her boss."
I am horrified, but I guess that just shows my ignorance of what kids is doing these days. I wonder how the boss would feel if your friend's house got burglarized because perps knew when she wouldn't be there -- sued, perhaps?
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