Posts by a_yank_lurker 4138 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2013
She apparently egged him on with numerous texts. She partially culpable for his suicide. This is a much a legal issue (what is the state law on the point) as it is a ethical/moral one. He probably was either suffering from depression or mental illness which did not help.
The more defined the environment the device operates in the easier it is to understand the edge cases. And thus to write software that will be able handle the edge cases. Cars, however, do not operate in a well defined environment. It is likely there are the situations that either not considered or badly handled. Tbe examples you noted either fairly well defined or still have a human in the loop.
The H-1B program has been used to fraudulently replace US workers with lower paid, less skilled workers. US workers displaced by this fraud are angry. But what is often overlooked is the imported workers are held in conditions that resemble indenture servitude or about half a step above outright slavery. They are often grossly underpaid particularly in high cost areas and are beholden to their employers/owners. The only ones who get any advantage are the PHBs whose bonus went up because of their false economy.
First, one will be collaborating with others around the world and will need to talk with them. For example I have been on conference calls with colleagues in Scotland and South Africa and I am in the US. Obviously, no competent manager is going to authorize travel when 30 - 60 minutes on WebEx gets the job done. Where I was sitting does not matter (office or home office) only that I have access to the right tools.
Second, morale is critical to any organization but especially to one that is struggling. High morale is probably as important if ignored part of any turnaround. The staff has to buy in to what needs to be done. Treating them as children is not going to cut it.
Third, many above have pointed out the inherent flexibility the home workers have. If they need to step out or do an errand they can plus not worrying about traffic means they are more relaxed and can easily work over without a major problem.
Fourth, companies that are too concerned about where one physically is have serious mismanagement problems at the top. They should be concerned about the amount and quality of work being done not where the arse is.
Can not commit on your question. But over here Discover has been running ads for years now about how all their customer service reps are US based. They are also advertising that these reps are will not up sell you and you will reach one relatively quickly. Since I do not have a Discover Card I have no reason to find out how accurate the ads are. Their most famous series were the 'Peggy' ads showing a hapless overseas CSR who barely spoke English.
I was talking to one of my managers about outsourcing. He said that the company prior to my joining did use an outsourcing outfit but found it was not worth the theoretical savings. So now all core programming is done in house by employees with some effort to have regional balance (some in all areas so someone is available during the work day to answer questions).
Barrel wear or the equivalent will be a problem. The question is how many shots can be fired before replacing the barrel couple with how easy is to replace the barrel. Note many modern machine guns have a field replaceable barrel that takes may be a minute to change. So if the barrel can be swapped at sea reasonably quickly by the crew it might not be take big an issue. You would consider the barrel a part of your normal supplies and make sure the ship has a couple of spares.
Note barrel wear has been a problem for all rifled guns to some degree. The WWI Paris Gun had severe problems with barrel wear. If I remember correctly each round was slightly larger than the previous round and they had to be fired in the correct order to even hit Paris.
Given she emailed herself from work with the goodies and printed the goodies on a work printer one has to wonder about her intelligence or lack thereof. Working assumption on any work computer going through the company servers - all emails and websites are logged in case anyone needs to check on activity.
@Alistair - First an upvote. The problem is the local Stasi are too lazy and bloated with donuts to fill out the necessary paperwork to get warrant. If they have the phone, it's not going anywhere. If they can convince a judge they need a warrant, which more like a speed bump, they are in.
@kain preacher - I do not the hazardous shipping regulations very well any more but I doubt consumer quantities will require any special endorsements or training. The CDL is not for commercial delivery but to drive certain types of vehicles such as semis. Otherwise your pizza delivery driver would need a CDL. However there are issues such as insurance and liability to consider.
Also, Wally World is concerned about Amazon taking away more business. One point about Amazon, etc. is they are basically giant catalog operations without the need to print and mail a catalog. As a catalog operation their limits are from whether they want to be in a niche market (LL Bean) or a 'general store' (Amazon). Catalog operations have been successful in the US for a long time. Wally World has not run a catalog operation nor do to they properly advertise their website (a common failing for many B/M retailers is the website is an afterthought).
The information being asked for is not unusual for a US security clearance. When I saw the list, it looked like some security clearance paperwork I have seen in the past in scope and detail. My question is how are they planning to verify this information given that the ferals will need to get help from foreign governments.
@ Tim - In theory the key is recoverable. But the question is how much time and how big a computer do you need to do it. Ciphers and codes are not unbreakable in the strict sense but may take a long, long, long time to crack. But if the coders made a bunch of blunders then it might be easy to crack. The post notes that many have found major coding errors in WannaCrypt that makes file recovery possible without paying the ransom.
The problem is not that any computer system is hackable under some scenario but whether the scenario is likely to occur. I doubt the 'authors' really know much about how to hack RN or USN shipboard software so their imaginary scenario is not likely to be an real issue. I would be more worried about someone who is selling secrets to whomever (you can pick your favorite villain) than some more typical cyber attack. The seller is in a better position to harm you.
My irritation is with the tendency of many sites to hype the problem without giving sufficient details to a reader to figure out if they are even remotely affected. At the Lurker's household we have Android phones. But none have any of these apps. But a couple of members, half panicked by the hysterical hype on some sites (not El Reg) were asking what to do. Since we were unaffected (none of the apps were ever installed) my answer was nothing.
More of a question, what were the titles? I have seen a lot of ink on this but no one has stated what the apps were.
I know I am being lazy but the headlines indicate it is much more serious than it is as the posts do not mention what it does (bogus ad clicks) or what the apps are (games it looks like in this case). I hate the sky is falling particularly when I find out I am completely unaffected.
Lexmark could lose twice now. First, they can not control the refill market like they tried. Thus, some will decide to buy lower cost refills putting pressure on Lexmark to lower prices. Second, if my personal usage is typical, I suspect most people do not print as much as they did several years ago. Even allowing for the cartridges to dry out, Lexmark is not selling as many as they used to. I have a few ink jets that have not been turned on for several years (I think they work). What printing I do is done on a laser printer (2 years old and on the original toner cartridges). The laser printer might get used a couple of time a month.
"I do - and, I suspect, so do you." - I have banished Bloat from all web facing boxes. They all run Linux (Mint on some and Manjaro on others). If possible all new kit will never have Bloat or it will be replaced ASAP.
The real problem for most people, they buy what is readily available which is Bloat, ChromeOS, or MacOS. The low price (aka cheap) will be Bloat or ChromeOS.
The Vought XF5U (aka the 'Flying Flapjack') was a WWII era project that had some very unusual flight characteristics. It was know to take off in a moderate breeze with virtually no run. It had a very low landing speed while having an estimated top speed of ~480 kts (550 mph). In still air it required a very short distance to get safely airborne (I believe the distance was less than 100yds/m). This might be a better project for a flying car than the current misbegotten designs.
@Ken Hagan - You are correct. If it can not be defined or measured properly how can it be modelled? AI is supposedly modelling human intelligence.
I have heard there are two definitions of: engineer's and AI. To an engineer, the problem is building a device capable reducing the amount of physical effort and repetitive drudgery required. This has been and is an achievable goal in many areas. This model does not require a self-aware intelligence only good mechanical and software design. The other model tries to mimic something we do not understand or can properly define.
The engineering model will continue to produce devices that may appear to be intelligent but are really have very clever programming only capable of handling a limited set of circumstances. So of those devices will make certain jobs obsolete but not all jobs.
Where I grew up, the donkeys were well known for their ballot box stuffing and election manipulations (think Boss Tweed, et. al.). With paper ballots, there is a physical trail that can be checked even if some 'voted early and often'. But with electronic voting there is no paper trail and it is possible for the vote totals to be manipulated particularly by an insider (think a modern day Boss Tweed).
The problem with FL in 2000 was that the donkeys tried to get a recount in only a few counties using different rules than how the ballots were counted in the rest of the state. If the donkeys had asked for a recount using the same rules for handling certain ballots of the entire state Gore still loses but he looks a lot better. There was a statewide recount by the media and they found Bush wins by about the same number of votes. It was not widely announced.
Gartner's 'analysis' is not based on reality. The PC market is a mature market for both hardware and software and has been for several years. Many home users will reduce the number of PCs with time as they often do not need to use one; a phone or tablet is more than adequate. The market is recalibrating to a lower unit sales per year. But if one wants to play in the market one must introduce new kit to peak people's interest. The PC market is much like the appliance or auto markets. New models are introduced all the time to grab market share from the competitors.
Target has suffered reputation damage coupled with a very competitive retail market though they seemed to have recovered from it. The problem for all US retailers is B&M retail is overbuilt and very competitive so mismanagement coupled with stupidity could suddenly take a company down. Many well-known US retailers are going permanently TITSUP and are being put out their misery.
I don't doubt they have invoked another plan that is currently under the radar. The trick is make it harder for them to find accomplices and easier for whistleblowers to come out of the shadows. The next whistleblower will be believed while the earlier ones were often ignored.
There are 2 basic types of creditors in a US bankruptcy: secured and unsecured. The secured have a lien against some asset such as real estate or equipment that they will likely own. They tend to recover a higher percentage of the debt. Unsecured get paid with what is leftover after all the secured creditors have been dealt with. Slurp is probably one of the unsecured creditors. Also, the court can force a creditor to maintain an asset until the case is resolved; the trustee has to ask the court to do this as it is not necessarily automatic.
Having dealt with EPA regulations many years ago one item that always struck me is how badly written they are many areas. This leads to frustration as to what to do and how to do it. Couple with the EPA's notorious refusal to commit to any sensible interpretation makes many areas a morass. I have not read their regulations in this area, never dealt with it, but if they are true to form is a morass of shyster, double-talk, and outright illiteracy.
I can see someone thinking their interpretation of the morass is reasonable. But because they have no first hand dealings with the frauds they do not realize they have literally hung themselves.
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