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hippiechick

hippiechick Avatar

Location: topsy turvy land
Gender: Female

Posted: Feb 19, 2009 - 2:36pm
n4ku wrote: Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party How disgusting!

n4ku

Location: --... ...--

Posted: Feb 19, 2009 - 2:35pm
Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

kimyo

Location: new rochelle, ny

Posted: Feb 19, 2009 - 12:54am

chris hedges on truthdig (re: us army war college report from november 08)

The specter of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College in November in a monograph titled "Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development." The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a "violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States," which could be provoked by "unforeseen economic collapse," "purposeful domestic resistance," "pervasive public health emergencies" or "loss of functioning political and legal order." The "widespread civil violence," the document said, "would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security."

"An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home," it went on.

"Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance," the document read.

In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of Defense. They are considering it. So should you.

kimyo

Location: new rochelle, ny

Posted: Feb 19, 2009 - 12:48am
Alchemist wrote: She'd probably rather have an iPod nah, i only chase linux-wielding babes now, their only use for ipods and iphones is as ammo in their homebuilt neo-steampunk/pirate spaghetti ship fusion/plasma cannons.

Alchemist

Alchemist Avatar

Location: San Jose, CA
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 18, 2009 - 10:23pm
kimyo wrote: i'd rather own three el-cheapo $40 mp3 players than a single ipod. i could lose one, and give one away to a girl that catches my fancy, and still have one left over. She'd probably rather have an iPod

cc_rider

cc_rider Avatar

Location: Bastrop
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 18, 2009 - 10:06am

Danimal174 wrote:

How about Meltdown Tuesday?

You know what I love? Co-workers that want IT projects to get done without them giving you the specifics behind the project.

Them - "So, we think this is what we want. Something like this, anyway."
Me - "When you say you want this, what exactly is it that you want? Can you be more specific?"
Them - "Well, we don't know exactly yet. We'll get back to you."
Me - "I can't get this done without the specifics."
Them - "What do you mean? If this doesn't get done, then you're not doing your job, since it's your responsibility to get it done."

AAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
{#Wall}

I have a description for that phenomenon:

FIRE!

READY.

AIM.

kimyo

Location: new rochelle, ny

Posted: Feb 18, 2009 - 9:54am

Danimal174 wrote:

You know what I love? Co-workers that want IT projects to get done without them giving you the specifics behind the project.

Them - "So, we think this is what we want. Something like this, anyway."
Me - "When you say you want this, what exactly is it that you want? Can you be more specific?"
Them - "Well, we don't know exactly yet. We'll get back to you."
Me - "I can't get this done without the specifics."
Them - "What do you mean? If this doesn't get done, then you're not doing your job, since it's your responsibility to get it done."

that made me think of this:

How to shoot yourself in the foot: A guide to programming languages

C: You shoot yourself in the foot.

C++: You accidentally create a dozen instances of yourself and
shoot them all in the foot. Providing emergency medical assistance
is impossible since you can't tell which are bitwise copies and which
are just pointing at others and saying, "That's me, over there."

Forth: Foot in yourself shoot.

Basic: Shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol. On large
systems, continue until entire lower body is waterlogged.

370 JCL: You send your foot down to MIS and include a 400-page
document explaining exactly how you want it to be shot. Three
years later, your foot comes back deep-fried.

(the whole thing is here)

hippiechick

hippiechick Avatar

Location: topsy turvy land
Gender: Female

Posted: Feb 18, 2009 - 9:44am

kimyo wrote:

(ducking to avoid the incoming rotting fruit and vegetables)

i really don't see apple as an innovative company. clearly, they have been one of the most successful technology firms, i acknowledge that without restraint.

but, they don't make 'crucial' technology, ie: when people say 'you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands', it is their blackberry, not their i-phone or i-pod that they are referring to.

(just for the record, i abhor the blackberry's design, typing more than half a sentence is an ergonomic nightmare)

back to the i-phone - i find the interface to be imprecise, i prefer buttons and the ability to operate a device without looking at it. i prefer not to gum up my screen with fingerprints. i can't own a device which has no copy and paste function, what 'gifted' technology designer could possibly release such a product for shipment?

apple's business model is kaput, their entire product line is overpriced, their customer base no longer has 'mad money' burning a hole thru their pockets.

really, should people have ever paid $599 for a cell phone? did they obtain $599 worth of value? likewise, $1,500 for a laptop worth $1,000? i'd rather own three el-cheapo $40 mp3 players than a single ipod. i could lose one, and give one away to a girl that catches my fancy, and still have one left over.

they have no respect for their customers (see the simpsons, and reality too - google apple/benzene, remember all those ipod battery horror stories).

(please don't hit me back with 'microsoft this, microsoft that, microsoft sucks worse', microsoft's many failings don't make apple's technology any better or worse)

You must not be talking about me!

http://www.koolbadges.co.uk/images/thumbnails/i%20love%20my%20ipod-150x150.jpg

kimyo

Location: new rochelle, ny

Posted: Feb 18, 2009 - 9:40am

Alchemist wrote:

Huh? Innovative companies making new products that sell like hot cakes around the world are exactly what we need more of! You don't see Apple asking for bailouts or laying off people.

Alchemist

Alchemist Avatar

Location: San Jose, CA
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 18, 2009 - 12:47am
kimyo wrote: we need to recognize that it was all a ponzi scheme (the stock market, the real estate market, for that matter, the i-phone) Huh? Innovative companies making new products that sell like hot cakes around the world are exactly what we need more of! You don't see Apple asking for bailouts or laying off people.

Servo

Location: Down on the Farm
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 4:26pm

Danimal174 wrote:

I've been there!

During my corporate career, the standard way of handling such a situation was to buy a seven-figure "turnkey" software product, a six-figure per year maintenance contract, and a couple of five-figure per year consultants to "work on it". Everybody gets to show off impressive statistics to their masters, despite the fact that absolutely nothing is happening. {#Roflol}

One day, out of desperation, my boss and the developers' boss decided to allow me to act as translator, essentially turning business-speak business rules into logical structures that the programmers could understand. It worked brilliantly!

But because it had a true web interface (it worked with any browser, and without any additional client software), the users, who were IT professionals BTW, not regular lusers, didn't understand hyperlinks and other non-MFC widgets, they almost never used the app. This led to a lot of friction. The developers left en masse, and I quit shortly afterward. The morons who couldn't even use a web browser, yet worked on computers, got promotions...

The moral of the story is that if you value your career, never ever try to save your company's money and/or streamline operations...ever!

Danimal174

Danimal174 Avatar

Location: Upstate South Carolina
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 2:45pm
phineas wrote: If they tell you what they want, and you do it, who are they going to blame if it doesn't work? Yep. Apparently, the qualifications for Systems Analyst includes the ability to read others' minds...

phineas

phineas Avatar

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 2:18pm

Danimal174 wrote:

If they tell you what they want, and you do it, who are they going to blame if it doesn't work?

Danimal174

Danimal174 Avatar

Location: Upstate South Carolina
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 2:10pm

kimyo

Location: new rochelle, ny

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 4:27am
NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: Well that was cheery news to start the day on. stops work, picks up guitar that's gonna be my new slogan: 'stop work, play guitar!' and i've been practicing what i preach.

kimyo

Location: new rochelle, ny

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 4:20am

Alchemist wrote:

Hmm, what business owner would actually believe that a one-time handout will actually have any lasting impact.

the idea was more to prevent/delay a wave of layoffs, especially by small business owners. it is clearly not a permanent fix.

There needs to be a PLAN for recovery - one that outlines HOW we can emerge from this mess.

and, in order to plan properly, we must diagnose accurately. we're still locked into bush/paulson's 'liquidity' problem, we need to grow up now, and face the fact that the 6 largest u.s. banks are insolvent.

we need to recognize that it was all a ponzi scheme (the stock market, the real estate market, for that matter, the i-phone)

we need to reboot our society. while we're rebooting (and there's absolutely no guarantee that this fucker is going come back up) we had better make sure that people have enough food to eat, water to drink, meds to pop. otherwise the riots (can't happen here? have you read about greece, iceland, russia, or china recently) will overwhelm the gov't ability to maintain order.

NoEnzLefttoSplit

NoEnzLefttoSplit Avatar

Gender:

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 12:52am

kimyo wrote:

Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown (the uk telegraph)

If Deutsche Bank is correct, the economy will have shrunk by nearly 9pc before the end of this year. This is the sort of level that stokes popular revolt.

The implications are obvious. Berlin is not going to rescue Ireland, Spain, Greece and Portugal as the collapse of their credit bubbles leads to rising defaults, or rescue Italy by accepting plans for EU "union bonds" should the debt markets take fright at the rocketing trajectory of Italy's public debt (hitting 112pc of GDP next year, just revised up from 101pc – big change), or rescue Austria from its Habsburg adventurism.

So we watch and wait as the lethal brush fires move closer.

If one spark jumps across the eurozone line, we will have global systemic crisis within days. Are the firemen ready?

Well that was cheery news to start the day on.

*stops work, picks up guitar*

Alchemist

Alchemist Avatar

Location: San Jose, CA
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 - 12:18am

kimyo wrote:

A Way To Revive Spending (washington post)

Last weekend, I stood outside the shuttered doors of a favorite local restaurant. As a small-business owner myself, I can only imagine how hard it was for those people to hang that out-of-business sign. I can also imagine the owners of that business sharing my opinion on what America needs most, and that surely isn't tax cuts.

...

A better choice would be something Americans are likely to spend, and without huge logistical headaches: a gift card. By sending every taxpayer a $2,000 debit card, the government stimulates spending directly.

Hmm, what business owner would actually believe that a one-time handout will actually have any lasting impact.

What is needed is something to give confidence in the future, otherwise customers will hoard their money and businesses will refuse to invest to grow and hire.

There needs to be a PLAN for recovery - one that outlines HOW we can emerge from this mess. Then private enterprise can participate with the confidence they aren't just being shined on by those in Washington. The plan has to make sense, or no one will believe it. It has to encourage beneficial behavior throughout the economy (ours and our trading partners). It should discourage harmful behavior. It doesn't have to be complicated or detailed, just lay out the basics.

We need to get serious about stable fiscal and monetary policies and an attractive tax environment. Absent a safe environment, the money will continue to hide.

kimyo

Location: new rochelle, ny

Posted: Feb 16, 2009 - 11:24pm

Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown (the uk telegraph)

If Deutsche Bank is correct, the economy will have shrunk by nearly 9pc before the end of this year. This is the sort of level that stokes popular revolt.

So we watch and wait as the lethal brush fires move closer.

If one spark jumps across the eurozone line, we will have global systemic crisis within days. Are the firemen ready?

Danimal174

Danimal174 Avatar

Location: Upstate South Carolina
Gender: Male

Posted: Feb 12, 2009 - 6:04am
Is there such a thing as a Meltdown Thursday? I came in around an hour early this morning to work, due to a four-hour (!) training session that had been scheduled, only to find that it was now rescheduled. So, essentially, I came in early for nothing. The kicker is that the session is just a re-hash of something my department just went through around a year ago.

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