that should include piss-tests, too.

that is absolutely a violation of your privacy. if you have a problem with an employee's performance then you deal it then. you dont' start off assuming that all potential employees are 'bad guys' until proven otherwise.

pre-employment testing is bullshit. this also need to be prohibited by law. problem is, its the US (!) that is kind of forcing and encouraging companies to do this shit! "to get a government contract, you must ensure all your employees, yadda yadda yadda". the US is what started this; companies would generally rather NOT foot the expensve of hair and piss tests, but they are forced to (one way or another) by the government! not all companies seem to let themselves get put into this situation but quite a lot still are on that bandwagon.

if an employee is able to balance his lifestyle outside of work - and if only a chemical test is how you would ever find out - how is this not a violation of his privacy?

% ps auxw|grep -i systemd
root 9394 0.0 0.0 51136 3480 ? Ss May04 0:00 /lib/systemd/systemd-udevd --daemon
root 18897 0.0 0.0 43456 2664 ? Ss Apr08 0:00 /lib/systemd/systemd-logind

there are some systemd procs on my system. how did they get there, then? it may not be a full suite, but that udevd thing was what went cpu bound.

I'm on ubuntu 14.04 and a few times now, systemd of some kind (udev, I think) went cpu bound on me. my fan started spinning like crazy. kill -9 fixed that (the systemd proc). afaict, nothing else went wrong after I killed that proc.

its still not ready for production use. give it 2 years AT LEAST. if I was sysadmin at a place that needed reliable linux, I'd stay back on a non-sysd system for about that long, if not longer.

the under 30 crowd cannot survive without checking their PHONES every few minutes.

it sort of reminds me of pidgeons and how they move their necks back and forth as they walk. would they be able to walk if you put a neck brace on them? ;)

would the younger crowd even be able to function if you took their phones away?

I know its a generalization, but it still strikes me as strange, every time I see someone walking down the street, face pointing downward, absorbed in some text or IM. its never an older person.

your whole post is akind to "who would win: spiderman or superman, in a fight?"

to start with fiction and treat it as non-fiction will lead you nowhere.

I find it really funny that people argue about myths as if they had any shred of truth to them.

all the religion books are works of pure fiction. its really absurd to try to 'argue' about the correctness of, or meaning of fiction!

I think you're right.

at best, the data copying will happen on the sly and we will be 100% lied to about it.

the world (everyone, this is about human nature) has a craving for spying. we love gossip and rumors and knowing the dirt on people. its a sad but true fact about human beings.

given that, and given the fact that, once out of the bottle the genie is not going back - we now have to assume all data is being mined, stolen, taken, whatever word you want to use.

politicians will say things. they will always lie about this.

the only thing we can do is engage in the chilling effect and 'watch what we say and write'. which is NOT what the internet was supposed to be about!

thanks government goons. you ruined one of mankind's BEST achievements in all of earth's history.

the moldy old texts DO have relevance today!

the need to control, scare and dominate people has never changed; we needed it thousands of years ago and we still 'need' it today.

at least, that's WHY religion has not died. its the great lie told to the poor to stop them from overtaking the rich. "you'll get yours later; just let us have what we have and you'll be rewarded later."

mankind's biggest lie, I think. meant only to control and keep people in their place.

its not useful as a book of fact, but as a book of scary stories, its as 'relevant' today as it ever was.

an old saying goes "if you are right 95% of the time, why argue about the other 3%?"

math: "its hard!"

I'm not sure why so many of you think that the fbi (etc) actually CARE about solving crimes.

lets be honest, these jobs attract sociopaths. funny (yeah, right) that these are the very people we have trusted to catch those very kinds of people.

quick question: what's the diff between a cop and a thug? ans: one has the legal right to bash your head.

these 'folks' all entered for the wrong reason. if you have any experience with human pyschology you know this. authority jobs attract the worst kinds of people. they enter the field to abuse their power. and they do a 'good job' of it, in almost all cases.

so, they are there to enjoy their power and to watch citizens suffer and plead with them for their freedom and lives. super power trips.

whatever makes them MORE powerful is what they seek. that's why they are all so totally for any kind of spying. it does not save us, it has never helped us but they all seem to enjoy their little LOVEINT spying and all the rest.

and so, when they ask for 'stop using encryption' its not because they think it helps bad guys; it basically stops them from having THEIR FUN at your expense.

everyone here has run into bullies who simply enjoy knocking heads and punching people (or worse). I submit that 90% of the staff of any of those three letter agencies all share the same sociopathic personality trait. they may not be physically big guys or big bullies but they all have the bully 'respect mah authority!' attitude and would simply love to make trouble for you if you don't cower in their presence.

the whole lot of them should be hanged as traitors. and then we can rethink what kinds of people we should HAVE in positions of high authority. what we have now is all the wrong people with all the wrong reasons for being there.

sounds like you prefer a hot cup of beard-coffee in the morning?

me, I like my coffee whisker-free.

(whiskey is ok, on occasion, though).

and yet, since I'm in the job market (I'm over 50, btw) and I see the ads in the bay area, I notice that quite a few 'meat and potatoes' jobs (ie, common, everyday things, not rocket science) 'require' a phd or a masters at least.

I have 25+ years but, technically, no degree (long story; did go to college - several - but never got the paper).

I don't list my education on my resume (don't say anything one way or another) but I certainly do NOT have a phd or anything like it. if I did, I would list it, at least for those jobs!

yeah, running regression tests on hardware (spi is soooo hard! ouch, the pain, the paaaaiiiin!) requires a phd.

in a pigs eye, it does. or maybe that's a phd's eye.

I have too many years in software engineering - no degree - but what kills me is having too many YEARS in software engineering. if I don't trim my resume, they know my age range.

between the h1b problem and the age problem, I'm finding it pretty hard to just stay afloat, here ;(

Well, I think ONE thing is pretty clear.

Don't RUN from the cops. The one common denominator from most of the recently publicized cop shootings of citizens, is that the citizen generally ran from the officer.

wait, are we talking cops here, or are we talkin' rhinoceros'es[es?]

I know at least one of those things does not like it. maybe its both? I guess it could be both. so, when you see a wild animal OR a scared cop, don't run, don't charge them. maybe put your hands up right high so that they think you are taller than you are. I've heard that helps, sometimes.

ianal, but I think 'free to go' means free to move about. it does not mean you have to change (x,y) locations right there at that moment.

well, it would certainly make finding a seat on the bus easier.

and now, sun and DEC are both long gone and one of them, nearly entirely forgotton. (sad, I worked at both of those fine companies and was lucky to have had the chance to work at such places).

linux is here, but vax and vms and alpha (and ultrix; I ran ultrix for a while) are all pretty much unknowns today.

wonder how long linux still remain relevant? I don't see it going away, but then again, I said the same of sun and DEC (and SGI, lets throw them in there, too. yeah, I was there, too, lol.).