This. Period. Why for the love of sanity would ANYONE be like "hey, you, mr gobment! Can you come dictate how we live our lives, pleeeeease?"

Yeah, no. Kids *should* be raised rather than babysat by the TV. Yes. But making laws that dictate things like this is a step in the wrong direction; for so many reasons. Instead what we ought to be asking for is new laws that limit the amount an employer can ask of employees. I personally like the Austrailian over-time laws, as a start. They allow for occasional OT without penalty to the company, but NOT constant life-sucking that is the modern "at least you have a job" motivator for increased margins - at the cost of increased unemployment rates, and your personal time. Then people might actually have the time to watch and spend with their kids. It's at least a step in that direction. Incentives for telecommuting would be ideal as well. There is little reason it isn't done more extensively. Mostly petty bickering and fear that employees wont actually work. But... how about you actually measure them based on performance?

I want to avoid going on a full blown tirade here. I've personally had several jobs that demanded 60+ hour weeks from its salaried staff, and acted as if it was not only normal, but anything less made you a slacker. Even if for only a week. And I'm maybe overly bitter about it. But my point is, there are many things like these that could be done to accomplish the desired effect (plus many other positives) without giving the government intimate control over our lives. How about we do them instead.. thanks.

well, AFAIK they no longer provide support for installing from boot strap. They have an installer and pretty much insist that you use it. I would imagine you could probably find the old docs and files, but getting people to help you (and you WILL need help) may be challenging.

When I decided to learn linux I knew no better; and started with gentoo. Mind you, they lacked an installer at the time, and I decided to start from boot strap. Again, I knew no better. But jesus did I learn about linux and computers in general. Gentoo has (had?) one of the most amazing communities I've ever encountered. Later on I switched to ubuntu, and played around with various flavors like knoppix and mint. But these days I pretty much stick with centos - and prefer OSX merely for bash.

The test was written. Multiple choice.... And yes, I considered it to be severely flawed. At the end of the day I didn't care much that I didn't get the job. I was just a college student looking for pretty much any job at the time, and found one shortly after regardless.

I was once asked (on a formal test, the last hoop) in a job interview for a big box store whether I would turn my mother in if I caught her stealing.
I was entirely unsure of what answer they were looking for. On one hand you would think they would want employees to be that dedicated to protecting their assets. But lets be real, is ruining your family worth your part time job, over a petty theft? Bitch at them and return the item to the store, yes...
I can't imagine anyone (who is 100% sane) would. This would indicate that anyone who answers yes is either a damned liar or not mentally stable. But by saying "no" means you may be immoral (yet, honest?).... so... which was correct? I answered "no" for the sake of honesty. And did not get the job. Not sure if that is why or not, but still wonder.

I commit everything to an SVN, then use jenkins to manage updates. Once you create the jenkins job all you have to do in the future is run it. and you can string jobs together to that if the change needs to be pushed to a number of servers it is still one click.

You know, I almost wonder if anyone has ever sat on a phone conference and just parroted whatever comes up on that thing. I think with a typical non-technical tech PM talking to another non-technical tech PM (something I've actually seen a lot) this could actually fly. Would be at least fun to try!

42 has geeky significance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#The_Hitchhiker.27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy). That is why you see it here a lot. as for 12... i dunno.

pfffft.

Yes.... but I think from the very lengthy debate that follows your post it's clear that everyone agrees we need to start launching less from earth and more from orbit.
The problem I see with this is that we still have to launch from earth to get there. I think eventually we will be able to mine and manufacture in space, limiting the need to launch from earth to only getting people or specific/complex devices up there. Ultimately allowing us to build much bigger and better space "stuff" . And IMO starting the first steps of this process are more important than trying to leap frog it. And we'll never get to a point where it is economically feasible if we don't start putzing with it to figure out how to get there.

I want to say that considering people often go for what is popular (rather than considering features and whatnot) that this surge in sales is simply a matter of spite; people buying samsung simply because they dislike apple's behavior - and chose to support samsung.
But I wont, because I have virtually no evidence to support that theory, and the thought that people behave that way makes me a little sad. (Not the supporting part, but the buying whatever is popular and arbitrary spending out of spite parts. )

yeah, the wording could be better. But I think in the business world it's more important to sound smart and say things in ways that are less likely to confuse people, (even if it doesn't actually make any sense)... and thanks for catching the logical error I made (20 v 10) running on ~4 hours sleep atm =/

You most certainly can. I'm not an MBA, so I may be talking out of my ass here. But here is what I've always understood synergy to mean:
Take a program that will require half C and half SQL. The C guy could certainly of the whole thing. say in 25 hours; 5 for C and 20 for SQL. Or, for the SQL guy 5 for SQL and 20 for C.
If you put two C guys together the job should (in theory) take half the time. so 12.5 hours. But you are still looking at 25 man-hours here.
But if you put a the C and SQL guys together the job should take 5+5=10. Thus only 20 man-hours. That is what is meant by synergy. Putting the right teams together to maximize productivity.

Hmm, the teller's drawer would indicate that the store was locked and the owners felt it to be secure. Maybe if you add "in the tellers drawer, but the door was left open every night" then maybe we are closer.

regardless, my point wasn't so much to debate to what degree sony is culpable, just that they are. And considering that (afaik) the thieves didn't actually use the data they stole, and effectively caused no real harm to anyone (except that people had to bother closing accounts and the likes) and based on that 15 years seems extreme. Had they actually used the data to capture $millions and ruin many lives in the process... shit yeah. 15 easy.

So, if your bank left your money sitting out front and people took it, you wouldn't blame the bank? That's effectively what sony did. Even better, they were WARNED they had left your money out. http://www.justpushstart.com/2011/02/is-your-private-information-safe-with-sony/

In my mind they are most definitely responsible. More so than the kids who took it (and apparently did nothing with it).