This thing.

Think simply about the ongoing recent improvements to deployment strategies. In the web development world, you used to just load up Filezilla and copy files over to a server. Running a website required a single environment. When you wanted to launch a new website, you created a new server environment and that was it.

In 2015, there is now Docker, Vagrant, Jenkins, VCS, Ansible, Node, Bower, Composer, (and really this list just continues forever) ... It's not a matter of simply installing Apache and having a fine day. The infrastructure has grown in complexity to such a degree that every software component ends up running inside a container.

It's a total pain in the ass and it requires more infrastructure to support all this stuff. Why do people do it? Because it improves other business processes after N amount of time.

I think there's a few problems with that.

First, consumers are already hard-wired to detest shipping fees. As a result, retailers will often simply add the shipping cost to the sticker price (or a reasonable estimation). On some items they lose a little, and on some items they get a little back. Doing this has its merits. One of them is that it greatly simplifies your shipping logistics. For complex catalogs composed of highly variable item dimensions, this is a god send. On the other hand, it does tend to limit you in what shipping options you offer customers.

Another thing is simply that USPS is late to the game. USP and FedEx have been operating their APIs successfully for quite awhile. They are integrated in many software packages already. USPS also has an API, but it I find it is less commonly integrated into various software tools. This leaves retailers with a series of tools, all of which support UPS or FedEx while a couple of the tools don't have USPS functionality. These tools are usually legacy and are just not practical to update.

On top of all this is the fact that APIs change over time and the service you used yesterday might not work today. In the past I have accessed several of USPS' APIs with little more than signing up for a key. Now, however, when I have gone to get new keys for the very same thing, I am rejected for one nebulous reason or another.

Pretty much this. Also keep in mind that many businesses are still running old software that might need a terminal/emulator to run on modern hardware.

As a developer myself, I feel the need to stand up on this statement.

I have built numerous e-commerce sites. Every one of them performed well and care was taken to reduce HTTP requests, optimize images, minify assets, etc. I do this because it's the right thing to do and I take pride in building something that works well.

Then the site gets turned over to the client and gets managed by SEO and marketing people. I will usually check the site out or show it to a friend or something a month or two after launch. I am disgusted (but never surprised) to see the slow page loads and poor response times that are a result of all the additional tracking garbage they stuff in the header.

I see a lot of people blame web developers for sites that perform poorly. Every single time I have had a hand in building one of those sites, the developer was never the person responsible for that stuff.

Of course, it's certainly much better odds than that if you're running a network simulation and have several ?'s on the topo for things running proprietary protocols you likely know not much about.

Is there a logical separation at the switch? Sounds likely. What about the switch, does it have an admin login/password? If that switch is crackable, then the logical separation of the network is hosed.

There's still the matter of crafting those packets so they are heard, and while I have little idea how to do it, it's not something that can't be done.

I don't think whatever hack Roberts came up with work work in the wild. In a simulation it works great because it's a damn simulation*.

I'd be curious, then, to know your explanation why the US hops farmers all got screwed when AB and InBev consolidated? AB had been propping up the farmers by purchasing hops even when they didn't need them and stockpiling the reserves. InBev came in and saw a chance to save a bunch of money by using the stockpile, causing farmers to go out of business.

I have one circle key ring that is bent and works poorly. It's attached to some liquor store quality carabiner where the latch just kinda flops because the spring is also bent and working poorly.

Attached to the ring is a house key and a key for a Land Cruiser that is not running. Actually, it's at the shop, so the key isn't there right now.

Attached to the rest of it is a self-made Gorilla tape thing that holds my key for my bike lock. That key's little lanyard was broken long ago leaving it not attachable to a key ring.

The whole thing has lasted quite some time, but it clearly showing age. The interesting thing is that most reliable component of the whole arrangement is the fucking Gorilla tape. That shit is barely even fraying at the edges.

Makes ya wonder what the point of the "chain" is.

I keep trying to play this new PC game, and it just throws an error that says, "Terminate all TSRs and try again".

WTF, this PC gaming shit is stupid.

The most meaningful discussion this post generated was one regarding the flatness of the state of Kansas.

With all due respect to Ms Knightly, her lack of buxomness while exercising is about the least interesting thing to discuss at this point.

I have a grandfathered Clear (now Sprint) plan. $55/mo for unlimited data. Speeds used to be in the 10-12 Mbps range, now they are usually in the 3-5 Mbps range.

The device goes with me if I move ... or if I simply want to bring it with me if I go somewhere.

It is the best performing, best priced, and most convenient ISP I have ever used. That said, it's so great it's no wonder it's now grandfathered and you can't start a new plan. The industry simply cannot afford even a single happy customer.

This is an odd statement. You intend to stay in California until the bitter end despite all the awful problems currently happening there. That is an acceptable trade-off for never signing a non-compete?

You fear employers so much that you are unwilling to leave your cozy little nest even though it might be filled with fire ants and is no longer actually cozy.

It's amazing the things one can be blind to if they never step out of their comfort zone.I hope you have fun sitting in traffic on 880 this summer.

Maybe their incentive will be that if they don't upgrade, someone will just crash their server.

I deal with the same thought pattern at work on a daily basis. I develop on a very popular e-commerce platform that is notorious for being difficult to update due to poor compatibility with various customizations done to the application code. Clients come to me with problems their store is facing, and I tell them the fix is to update to a newer version. I then tell them that it may cause problems with all the extensions they've installed and that it takes time to get things all sorted out. This quickly puts them into "not enough incentive" mode.

What that really means is they value running their day-to-day business more than they value the sustainability of their business. They'd rather make $1 a day than save $365 a year.

That, and apparently according to the PMs around the office, lots of checklists.

Do you genuinely believe it necessary for someone who smokes pot on a regular basis to check into NA?

Many people use cannabis for various reasons. Sure, some people use it to "get stupid" as you so eloquently put it. Some people might use it because they think it's a form of enlightenment. Both of these types of users are the same and don't really represent the majority of users who smoke cannabis simply to make their bodies less uncomfortable. In this regard, its use is therapeutic.

Prohibitionists just want to enforce their theories of "acceptable therapy" on others, mainly because they have been led to believe cannabis is something different than what it really is.

Otherwise known to the rest of us civilized folks as "next game".