USA goes and polices and we get chastised for it. We don't police and keep countries in check and we get chastised for it.


What we need is the EU/UN to actually get off their asses and do something. This is happening right next door to them but they just don't want their oil and gas disrupted. The only country that is moderately energy independent of Russian gas/oil would be the UK and they are not going to go in it alone. We really need the France, UK, and Germany to step in if we want to see Putin stopped.

I encountered this with sub-1MB computers with RAM. They'd basically do the same thing and make a 120 ns RAM chip 80 ns RAM chip. The difference for most, unless you were a total geek/nerd type, was negligible if even detectable on this low speed machines. In the DC area there were gabillions of little mom and pop style stores that would pop up in office parks and the many strip malls here. They would pawn these re-branded video cards, HDDs, CPU's etc. How they pulled it off I still don't exactly know how but they knew that it would be months before someone would fill up a HDD to capacity and just made sure that they sold to consumers and not businesses.


Just set the price point low-enough to be believable and tantalizing and they will come in droves.

Is it education? Plenty of HS offer CS classes, are enough of the "under represented demographic" (URD) starting here? With the quota system in place at most state colleges, if you happen to be an URD you have a higher degree of chance of getting into the program you want. There are also plenty of solid CS programs that are available via online delivery and then you have to start in the field.

Is it the "field" that is hard to get into? I'd say yes. I have a Masters in Information Assurance and a CISSP and I have been fielding interviews left and right to land an IA gig. They just don't want anybody and you have to find your niche and develop it. Do the URD perceive this as racist/sexist behavior when really its just the way the game is played?

Is it the "scene"? Are the URD not aware that just about everyone in IT is a bit of a weirdo and have a hard time socializing with ourselves let alone someone new? We all just basically ignore and avoid one-on-one and intra-personal communication unless we absolutely have too. Very common to have one-way conversations. Not normal just the way a lot of us are.

Is it "cultural"? Is there some barrier that makes a segment of the URD simply not want to pursue it? At either a cultural, societal, human level? Considering that you can do a lot of this work from home, it'd be ideal for working mothers, or, the disabled. But, where are they?


I just know of so many positions for all aspects within the IT field that they'll take anyone. I'm listening to interviews for a network engineer at my current company that can do modeling. They are willing to take me and my experience with OpNet is strictly from an academic stand point via my class labs. I just have another full-time commitment so I can't. A PM was walking around begging for security engineers. They don't care who, they just want a body that can do the work.


What is it exactly?

But, I don't think this will happen as a billions of dollars of industry, on both sides of the law, has been built. You have the drug cartels used to the market price and then you have the DEA, etc. who are used to the funding provided by the USG. You legalize the drugs and *POOF* goes the market value of the drugs and the funding to the DEA and all the companies that are fed off via contracts. The majority of the money is now going to the local and state governments in the form of taxes like with cigarettes and alcohol.

I should say, former Eastern Block, that is. But, this is nothing new and has been known for some time now. They have these huge deployable radar arrays that operate in the VHF and UHF bands. Originally, it was due to their limited technology capability but then it was realized that there was specific advantages to using those bands. Notably, no one else is looking for radar in VHF and UHF so you could be being tracked and have no idea.


This is also how they took down a stealth fighter over Kosovo, they used 900MHz-band cell towers, tuned ground radar station to look for the return, and then manually guided the missiles until they were close enough (probably for the heat signature to become evident) to lock on.


I really hope this was all factored into the design of these multi-billion money pit of an aircraft.

20 gallon tank, let's say at highway speed you get 25 MPG... that's quite a distance if you pass out on the highway. Those super-comfy seats and climate control, one drink too much, some nice music... you just might be out for 4-6 hours... 100-150 miles away from where you last remember. Heh.

That's what the security process is about. They know they can never know everything but they can make an informed "best-guess". Someone who has engaged in illegal/immoral behaviors in a consistent manner over time is a risk. Someone who has never done anything and has references is less of a risk. Most people though have done stuff in HS and maybe college but no longer partake in said behaviors, this is documented, and an interview is conducted to make a risk assessment on the individual. If you are low enough on the scale then you get the clearance. As you deal with different clearances/jobs/roles there may be actual personality/behavior tests, etc.

For the US you can look this up, the manual is published and freely available.

Yes, yes, yes, the system can be gamed but that's a different topic.

Wow, they really need to clean up their storage lockers more often. That being said, I don't know how they lost track of them unless it was a specific person doing research at both places and they moved their materials. I wouldn't be surprised if there are/were reams of related research materials.

How is it the fault of the US Government when news agencies are going at each other neck-and-neck, to have the latest, sensationalist story (to drive up ad revenue)? There may be some underlying Interpol related stipulation or other legal framework that has to be followed first before any details can be released. The Secret Service HQ is in DC, Maldives are in the Pacific, factor in time zones, operatives working, relaying info, people having to sleep, etc. So, the timeline makes sense. Having a PR statement is important but not as important as other legal things that need to be taken care of first.

After all, Obama imposed financial sanctions against Russian officials and Putin's inner circle, can't even use MasterCard or VISA. So, it's only a matter of time before the hard currency those guys have dries up or they get tired of money laundering. Probably won't be a direct trade, some political savvy will be applied to make it look like neither bowed to pressure, etc. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...

BlackBerry might be a day late and a dollar short on them realizing that have a diminished market share, but they are trying!

Is it too hard to believe that they could not reinvent themselves as an Android device with a robust enterprise capability set? That market still exists and that's what made them viable originally.

In retrospect they should have been thinking of this awhile back as more and more organizations simply want a better smartphone. The iPhone is the most appealing due the sandbox nature of its design and Apple has been steadily been working on enterprise specific improvements. I don't think Apple wanted to fully commit to that as BB had a sizeable market share, factor in risk, ROI, it probably did not make sense, back then. Now, different story, waning of BB hardware and software and I know the USG is looking at iPhones.

An agreement to use Ikea or its likeness (which is what this is about) might be percieved as the allowed use of Ikea products in the manner which they have not designed to be used as such (which is probably another issue at hand).

When I say designed, I mean in terms of safety and expected useful life, etc. All you need is that "one guy" who modifies a table or chair and their is a catasrophic failure that results in personal injury.

The cost of drawing up such an agreement that is valid across all Ikea sectors and all locations throughout the world is going to be very very expensive. I work at a multi-national company and there is a whole lot of work involved on any multi-national activity. It costs a lot of time and money. Way more than what IkeaHackers.net is making in ad revenue.

Lawyers cost money and it will cost more than $1/year in order to have a lawyer even pay part-time attention to ikeahackers.net in order to maintain any agreement between the two. Typically, a company pays a firm to protect its trademarks, the upfront cost for a lawayer, who is a patent attorney, who will specialize in protecting an international "brand", will be quite expensive.

The costs to have someone can be rougly broken down as so: their hourly rate, benefits (health/dental, retirment, education, etc), mandated yearly compliance training (if any), administation fees (HR, mangment), office space (if they are not located at the customer site), IT and telco services, and finally, profit.

As you can see, that is way more than $1/year. You simply can not make money if you do stuff for free. You have to charge in order to make ends meet and retain talent.

No, really, you should take the same amount of time it took you to type that sentence, scan the article, and you'll find the name of the company:

MegaBigPower with a PO Box in Silvana, WA

I ask as if you can get away with a sound card based O-Scope that's a cheap way, and, you can also find software for spectrum analyzer use as well. Quite possibly, repurpose old PC hardware laying around the school, any laptop will do and would do nicely.

This could be combined with a auto shop for car audio stuff so now you have a blending of science with a hobby/fascination that is very common to high school students.