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Comment All of the efficiency concerns aside... (Score 1) 166

If this were to actually work (big if, I get that) isn't there a non-zero change that we're driving additional energy into the planetary budget? This energy when used will produce some sort of thermal energy and won't that take a while to escape back whence it came? Or are we talking about energy that would have been incident on the planet anyway?

Comment This is why we don't use it. (Score 1) 92

Specifically for anything sensitive.

It would be fine if we could host it, so the unencrypted bits were in our enterprise (a feature once promised but I think gone from the roadmap.) Also fine would be an option to encrypt the store on their end for just our bit (the encryption doesn't need to be mandatory.)

Comment Productivity hit... (Score 1) 405

Employees should be mostly focused on their role while at work. This assumes you're in a job where you're required to be on the clock during a certain timeframe. But whether you're hourly or salaried, you are to be focused on work while at work. While I understand there are slow times, and occasional needs to tend to personal issues, by working on a side project you are changing your personal frame of reference. You will be slow to return to the actual work. I've asked some employees to avoid multitasking to avoid the same problem between multiple actual work projects.

While you're off working on your side-thing, what initiative aren't you taking in your job? What problem aren't you pondering to solve at work? What project that you've been procrastinating on are you avoiding by doing your own thing?

I support employees being empowered to do things like this by their employers and managers, it can be part of good management, but never assume.

As far as compensation, you're paid whatever you negotiated for whatever you produce. If you are unhappy with your compensation because you think it doesn't reflect your potential, go get a job that will allow you to realize your potential. I don't owe anyone for their potential if I don't plan to use it. Again, good managers will, but no one owes it to you.

Comment Practicalities... (Score 1) 284

Aside from the abominable intrusion of privacy this amounts to (because an action is a crime, not a belief of a sympathy)...

I work in security for a large company that uses gmail as its corporate email.

When we receive phishing or malware-containing emails, along with a robust response, we work with our admins to have the emails removed from the mailboxes of the recipients (better safe than relying on every user to not be an idiot.) This is enormously time-consuming, difficult, and all this on what one can only assume is a tiny fraction of over-all gmail. So let's call it impractical.

So where do we go from there? Well, naturally if you'd like better searching capabilities, we should index all the email, all the files. "Pre-search," as it were. I'm sure we'd all be happier with that.

Wait. That's what the NSA was already tasked to do by the US government. And we all lost our shit about it. And for good reason. (And BTW, the NSA, who has a ton of experience and lots of very smart people in this area, never managed to make this terribly illuminating.)

Comment How about the ethics of the economics? (Score 1) 487

Drugs are costly to develop and then Big Pharma are large corporations who want to make money. If they can market these drugs to larger populations (say the smart-drug set as well as patients with degenerative diseases) the costs may come down substantially, and they may be more likely to develop more of these drugs.

Comment Modern Stack (Score 5, Interesting) 360

I think you just need to add a modern stack to your resume and put out an example project on github, you'll be ready to find work. The stacks that people are hiring for right now:

  • Python -- tornado -- mysql / nosql (mongo or redis experience)
  • Ruby -- Rails -- mysql / nosql
  • Haskell/Erlang/Functional Insanity -- I have no idea how these people deal with data
  • Javascript/ Nodejs -- mongo probably
  • IOS Development

A solid web application based on bootstrap.js in any of the first four frameworks will get you an interview. A sample application for IOS should as well, at probably any one of your local agencies / design firms / app shops.

If I were in your shoes, I'd skip the big enterprise languages, like Java / C# -- if you like Perl, you're going to hate working in those languages, and much of the work in those languages sucks, to be honest.

My money-shot idea: learn kdb+ and q and go pull in $250k a year working for a hedge fund / investment bank. Also, it's fun and brain-bending.

Comment My favorite charities... (Score 1) 263

I am a huge fan of the Heifer Project. Feeds people and provides sustainable lifestyles for them. Geeky in a maker-type, back to basics sort of way.

And Johnny deserves a plug, too, though he's a fairly small-scale charity. But he sets the standard for going and doing for others: Hackers for Charity.

Comment You may not always be a programmer... (Score 1) 1086

Yes, you need a strong grounding in Math to ensure you understand all of the underlying concepts, even if you don't need to implement them yourself. Like learning the CLI before falling back to the user-friendly GUI. Eventually you want to do something the GUI can't, and you're back at the command line.

Besides, most programmers son't spend their whole life as professional programmers. In fact, some who start out in that direction end up elsewhere. Why limit your choices later in life by short-cutting now? If nothing else, the rigor provided by math will suit you well whereever you go. And while you're at it, please take a statistics class. About 85% of americans couldn't tell you what 85% actually means.

Comment A more reasonable question... (Score 1) 338

Does anyone have a less malicious, less illegal, less profit-driven way to do this at a level that doesn't violate civil liberties?

I have kids who are well-internet-educated. I trust them. But I also want to be able to see what's trying to leave my network. I'm a hardcore security guy, but I have better things to do than spend my free time setting up netflow on my Tomato-USB router. I use OpenDNS as a first line of defense (kids are still young enough to be more likely to find porn by accident rather than on purpose, but I know that won't last.) and I have their internet connections cut off at night so they'll go the hell to bed.

I don't want to spy on my kids conversations, but I reserve the right (and make this abundantly clear to them) to see where they're going and what they're doing. As they get older that will fade a little, especially if we can maintain the level of trust we have today. I want non-intrusive but effective ways to keep tabs on goings on without being a dick.

Thoughts?

Comment Re:It has to be? (Score 1) 381

Bitcoin is fundamentally backed by public key cryptography and computational power. That proof-of-computation done is real and valuable, for instance, you can currently 'safely' transact thousands of dollars in a single bitcoin block without worrying about forks or cheating. Two years ago, you could only transact 10 or 20 dollars without worrying about forks or cheating. The difference is that it is FAR more expensive to cheat the bitcoin network now, coming on to non-feasible.

This is a real increase in value, and it's because of the computational resources thrown into the system.

Comment If you have skills, you'll be fine. (Score 1) 504

But if you have all these other interests, one does wonder why you didn't pursue them at school too. I'm not denying the value of knowledge gained in a psych program, but knowing that it's one of the worst degrees for post-degree employment and underemployment? I coupled my English Lit degree with one in Math, and lots of physics, chem, comp sci and engineering.

If you continue your education (either with training or a degree program) in whatever field you pursue, you'll end up a better, more well-rounded employee for having the psych degree, but as you can tell it's a bit up hill to start.

Where are you located? I could stand to hire someone like you.

Comment Legislation moving through Maryland state house... (Score 1) 550

2 bits, written poorly and so problematic on that basis, but with the right idea at their heart:

1) To protect students from having to provide their personal login info for social networks to coaches or administrators. This is in response to NC State (or is it UNC?) requiring exactly that, after the NCAA faulted them for NOT doing it after some NCAA student-booster violation of some sort. Nothing illegal mind you, but they broke NCAA rules.

2) To protect employees (or prospective ones) from having to turn over these credentials.

I say they're poorly written because they are too specific, and somewhat inaccurate, in their technical prohibitions. The university system testified that they were problematic because they would potentially prohibit US from requiring students use antivirus programs or other security measures when on our networks. We hope they're fixing that bit.

Comment Re:Translation? (Score 1) 148

I'm pretty sure that it says that exercise ramps up your metabolism, and so does caffeine, but exercise is less likely to kill you in the process. That this happens isn't even remotely surprising, nor a new development. What seems new is that it is taking place at such a low level in the metabolic process (i.e. at the genetic level.) I think.

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