Considering that most companies these days hire contractors, almost exclusively, it really should be easier to replace the ones who don't pull their weight.

Unfortunately, this is where policies and politics screw up the whole point of hiring contractors. Once a butt is in a chair, I've gotten answers ranging from "no, we would risk losing the headcount" to managers who are reluctant to hurt anyone's feelings. Only in cases of outright fraud (person who showed up isn't the one we interviewed - the risk of phone-only interviews) could we get someone kicked out the door. I recently had to deal with someone who was going out of his way to sabotage the project to create more work for himself, but we had to wait for him to leave on his own. When it comes to firing people, many think about the feelings of the one who needs to go, and completely ignore the feelings of everyone else who is left behind to clean up after their retarded incompetence. Nothing demoralizes better than forcing everyone to work with the lowest common denominator.

There's nothing wrong with having high standards. Most people who apply for any job are totally unqualified. That doesn't mean that there isn't place for those people, just that they're not right for particular roles right now. Some people will go their whole career never being able to be that A player in anything they do. Others need to hone their skills so they can become that person in a future role, which means working in less senior roles to get that experience.

Unfortunately, not all companies recognize the value of mentoring people to become those future high performers. This is the danger of the short term/right now frame of thought prevalent in many US companies. Will our kids have the same opportunities as they grow up that we did? If all of the entry level jobs leave, who will be the only applicants for the junior roles that will later lead to the senior engineers and leaders of the future? I'm glad the company I work for is actually looking at developing recent college graduates as an investment in our collective future.

Invention and adoption are two totally different animals. There are plenty of examples where inferior technologies succeed or superior technologies fail.

In this case, it sounds like the original technology was good, but for it to be useful, it needs an implementation in a larger framework. Just like the best tires in the world aren't all that useful without an appropriate vehicle to mount them on.

In all fairness, the car is probably very safe as it leaves the assembly line. It's the irresponsible prick who puts gasoline in it that makes it dangerous.

I'm sure it does meet all of the basic safety standards. The legal requirements are the bare minimum - things like traction control are not legally required. The reason traction control exists on many sports cars is to prevent the investment banker or dentist buying the Corvette or Ferrari from dying and not being able to purchase another car from them in the future. But that doesn't mean there isn't a market for cars that allow this to be disabled or don't even have it in the first place.

This is no different than people who get a 1000+cc sport bike as their first motorcycle. It's not uncommon that they crash in the dealers parking lot or soon after. People who grossly overestimate their skills make poor decisions that can be fatal. I'm sure that well over 50% of licensed motorcycle riders would be in over their head if they got on my bike. 0-60 in 2.5 seconds makes it easy to get into trouble faster than some people can react.

Stupid hurts.

There's only one use of linked in that I care about from a hiring perspective - are you known by or worked with someone whose judgement I trust? Direct work experience is far more valuable than any interview.

You can control what information people get from your linked in profile by limiting job history, not posting a pic or one that doesn't make your age obvious, etc. I suspect the older you are, the harder that is to disguise, but employers worth working for aren't going to expect senior level experience and fresh out of college to go hand in hand.

Agreed, the tags seem subject to interpretation since it's basically a behavior instituted to inform others that a warrant has been served.

Other solutions, such as a digitally signed message saying that they have not been served any warrants that would provide the government with their customer data is a different case since it's a positive affirmation. The court would have to officially come out and say that a business is required to provide falsified information to its customers, potentially in direct violation of their contracts with those customers, leaving the business open to substantial financial damages. I don't think the court is going to say the government will be responsible for unlimited financial impact in order to make the business comply.

In reality though, those companies that have the resources to fight these kangaroo court orders seem to be leaving a lot of precedents behind in their wake that the orders themselves are fundamentally illegal. Now if only we had a way to prosecute the people who commit crimes under the color of law.

It's not "brave" in the dictionary or traditional sense of the word. The guys in the bunkers are more of a "Facebook brave", like the people who have the balls to post private messages critical of the current administration or any of its criminal policies.

After hearing of the guy who was left alone because he wasn't working for the TSA, it seemed like this guy wasn't just out for a killing spree or some anti-government nut job, but had a very specific reason to hate the TSA.

I can't help but wonder if he was molested as a child and the TSA's enhanced screening procedures set him off. The TSA's official training materials specifically give tips on how to handle young children. It's interesting to contrast it with the training given to parents who participate in cub/boy scout events, so they know how to recognize inappropriate behavior and potential risks from pervs. Having done the scout training first and seen some of the TSA materials after, it really stands out as a how-to program for pedophiles.

Each senator and congress vermin takes the oath of office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_office#United_States):

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

This must fall under the category of ceremonies with no legal consequences for overt violation.

That's great that he came up with the idea. Introduce him to LEDs as networks and see if that sparks some more creative ideas:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57579312-76/led-lights-could-become-network-devices-too/

Yes, the choice is easy. Don't trust anything the NSA says. They can lie to congress with impunity, what does that tell you?

If Bruce thinks elliptic curve encryption is suspect due to the NSA's statements, I'll defer to his experience and expertise.

There are plenty of encryption algorithms that are considered secure by the security community and non-NSA affiliated cryptographers. Those are all perfectly good choices based on their own merits.

Vote for a third party. Takes very little time, has no risk, but if enough people did it, we could have an alternative to the national socialist party (red or blue hats, they're all the same).

I've heard that there are many prominent parties in India, none of which can get enough votes on their own, so they have to work together to get anything done. That's a much more realistic solution to our problem than hoping that one party will match all or even most of your views.

Our federal-government-heavy system can't cope with the idea that people in California may have different views and want different laws than people in the bible belt. That's the whole idea with states rights - everyone doesn't have to agree or live with one set of standards.

And if that doesn't work, vote for me for supreme emperor. I promise to prosecute everyone who violated their oath to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. =)

Sorry, I forgot one other possible, obvious reason - the person licked a 9V battery instead of handing over their wallet during a mugging, and was shot. Cause of death is the gunshot wound, but how negligent would the coroner be if they did not conclude that licking the 9V battery was the proximate cause of death?

We're not talking rocket surgeons here. It's simple, these people had alligator clips, swallowed one end, had it tear through the esophagus, got wedged near the heart, then the battery contacted the tongue on one side and the other alligator clip on the other side, making the heart part of the path of least resistance. It's Occam's razor here - the simplest, most obvious answer is probably correct.