I propose that all robocalls use an unused audio frequency to indicate whether the call had been placed with malicious intent, thus making call blocking an easy problem -- simply block any calls with the evil tone set.
DOES NOT COMPUTE
Wait! & vs. &?!
Word for word, I thought your submission was something I wrote. I've been there, done that, so it is possible. The mess I inherited took me 6 MONTHS to fully comprehend and formulate all plans of attack. Meanwhile, I was trying to fix and maintain what I could.
To tackle the whole problem, where did I start? Everywhere, frankly. There was no one starting point. Everything was affecting everything else. I did my best to get written down exactly what was running on each server, including running daemons, system crontab, and all user crontabs. Basically, build a list of what exactly you can determine. Then, try to get into the mindset of your predecessor and try to understand why (as best you can) to see if that sheds some light on what else may be lurking out there.
I didn't get bogged down in formal documentation because I knew I would have to rebuild everything. I took copious notes and drew pictures of what I thought were the processes of the system, but this documentation was just for my own benefit. Once I could identify unneeded processes, I shut them down or side-stepped them and hoped I didn't break anything; if I did, that was just more information at my disposal. Other processes I simplified and consolidated where I could. Eventually, the system got more and more comprehensible.
Once I "got" everything that was going on, I built a fresh new setup that focused on simplicity and efficiency. This is when I focused on documentation. I kept the legacy system dormant but available, just in case.
Now, we have a darn good system in place. I used virtualization to segregate different services and to enhance security. Maintenance is now preventative. Management is happy because they can now grow the business without everything imploding. The focus of my work today is building new products and services. I hope my successor doesn't complain.
If our moon weren't tidally locked, would early cultures have entertained sooner the idea the Earth is round?
What if the aliens are just waiting for us to go all digital before they deal with us?
The hunt for that Earth-like planet around Alpha Centauri B is now underway in Chile.
According to the NASA/JPL website Planet Quest:
At a little over four light years from Earth, the sunlike star Alpha Centauri B — actually a member of a three-star system — is our sun's closest neighbor and practically a stone's throw away in celestial terms.
[The] planet-hunting team is using a telescope in Chile to keep an eye on the star for the next three years, in order to collect enough data to determine whether or not the next Earthlike planet lies next door.
Such a planet would be too small to see, but its gravity will pull on its host star, making it rock back and forth in a way that the telescope can detect. With NASA funding, they're also working on simulations that may be able to predict how a solar system could have formed around our cosmic neighbor.
I wish them success. Other searches for a planet around the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, have so far yielded nothing — but the quest continues.
You can read the full Planet Quest article here.
There is an assumption of privacy at universities; however, the university I worked for was subject to the public's open records requests. When requested, our IT department had to hand over the email of any employee (maybe student?). I believe this is a federal law (in the US).
Expanding on that concern, I wonder if online services allow IT departments to perform what is necessary for open records requests, or would that be a violation of TOS?
Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?
