Of course not, but let me put it in sysadmin terms:
System a is having a problem
System b with a slightly different configuration is avoiding the problem
When trying to solve the "problem" the normal way (Documentation, Google) fails usually you start making "a" look more like "b" until the problem goes away. Or are you saying that finding a working example of what you are trying to accomplish is not extremely valuable?
That's what we do with Oracle and we're actually doing pretty well with them. We only let them build the dev environment, train our staff, and create documentation. The other environments are built entirely by the people they trained using the documentation provided, and once we are confident we can rebuild the system even if Oracle vanished off the face of the earth, we send the consultants on their way. This approach should be done with *any* vendor though.
The config overwriting used to annoy me as well, but the universal solution is to chattr +i the file that keeps getting overwritten. There's often an added bonus that whatever keeps overwriting it generates an error logged to the console or syslog whenever it tries again, providing a nice breadcrumb to figure out what's overwriting it.
Maybe they were doing it wrong but it was easy to get freecell to run by copying the
1/2: It's more expensive and behind schedule *because* of the red tape and NIMBYism.
3: Certainly feasible, considering they built highways to connect these same cities. Also, it will be popular considering the pokey slow train and megabuses that connect the same cities sell out regularly.
4: You know that the money would never go to that purpose. And in 20 years when this thing is finally done, the cost of air travel will undoubtedly have gone up. So what you are essentially arguing here is that the poor should be priced out of speedy transportation within their own state.
A *properly run* government office will use the work from home days and other perks that are not in the union contract as incentives to keep employees working at a decent pace. If they have to re-apply for those perks every quarter, and poor performance means denial, people won't slack.
Some places will use desk locations and shift hours as other motivators... to find the competent employees, look for the ones with a desk by the window or who's hours begin before 8.
I recall one small agency had an entire floor where they sent all of the problem employees, assigned to do only unrewarding repetitive work. Work that provided no useful or transferable experience. Bad managers were sent there to manage the bad employees. They even had a few nicknames for the floor, names that when spoken would immediately get a slacker back to work.
Bottom line: creativity is required on management's part but as long as there is wiggle room, what happened at the USPTO can be prevented without any drastic changes to the actual rules.
Similar anecdote here, but a DOT engineer in our state was forced out when he complimented his agency on their response to a major storm. After the (predictable) public outcry, along with some lawyers offering to take up the case as he may not have even violated the rules, they doubled-down on ruining this guy's life by revealing things from his past disciplinary record that had already been addressed in order to try and vilify him in the press.
Moral: Even if you have only nice and helpful things to say, don't say anything at all.
Your taxes will pay for a road somewhere that you are not using. Similarly, while you wouldn't use *your own* hotspot's free wifi, you could use someone else's while away from home, and they could use yours.
My Japan wifi experience was: amazing speeds, 20 hours a day, completely unusable for 4 hours a day. Fortunately there was an ethernet port - far more valuable to me than wifi.
The wifi on Southwest may be a joke but the free DirecTV is good enough IFE for me... I can go without email for 5 hours.
We have a lot of "fallen rock zones" and deer along our highways - if someone is following too closely at night it means they are stupid and the safest response is to immediately change the situation by gradually slowing down to the point where they pass you (unless you're illegally driving in the passing lane, in which case someone following closely means gtf out of the way).
Hit submit too early: if jaywalkers start getting hit by autonomous vehicles, they'll probably require a driver in the driver's seat to periodically hit some sort of deadman's button at random intervals, or restrict autonomous vehicles to 15 MPH or some such nonesense...
Not if places take New York city's approach - when the number of jaywalkers killed on a road gets to be what local politicians deem "excessive", they have either:
1 - The speed limit reduced
2 - A traffic lane converted to either parking or a bicycle lane
3 - Fences installed in the middle of the roadway, such that the jaywalkers now spend more time in the roadway walking around the fence
Recently they successfully managed to get the state to allow the city's "default" (unposted) speed limit to become 25 instead of the statewide minimum default of 30. In light traffic most cars go 40.
But they're not doing it for all cars, just *specific* cars. When there's a $1 off coupon on Coke products available, does Pepsi suddenly cost $1 more? No, but Pepsi now has to try harder to match.
Similarly, all this does is knock $20k off the price of the fuel efficient car, making the $20k Gas Guzzlers and $45k alternate fuel cars closer in price.
I had a silly idea regarding this while visiting California last year. If you've ever walked the streets of either SF or LA at night, you will undoubtedly have found an experience with the homeless similar to that of a zombie movie, except instead of chanting "brains" they're chanting "change". So, once the war on drugs has been ended, some prisons could be converted to compulsory overnight housing: if you do not have a permanent address, and are found unconscious in a public location (either due to sleep or whatever), you get a free bus ride to a former prison for a good night's sleep. The same buses could take you back to the city you were picked up in the morning if you so desire, or you can stick around for 3 hots and a cot (maybe some job counseling and medical care), grab a later bus, whatever. The only prison industry jobs lost would be guard-related. All the administrative, catering, medical, and transport jobs would be retained. Some homeless people have a slightly better life (many of them are too proud/stupid/mentally ill to ask for help but if forced, they'd accept it), and American cities would have an overall better quality of life for all involved.
If all else fails, lower your standards.
