Oracle's pricing is predatory nonsense. Anyone worth their salt has moved to MySQL, postgresql and most importantly NoSQL databases. Only old school IT is likely to put up with 23K per processor in today's multicore and highly distributed environment. And the last time I worked with Oracle RDBMS it still had a large number of the same warts I hated in their product way back in the 80s.
Just say NO!
They already do. They are called white Dodge vans without back windows.
Let me guess, you live in the city?
Crossovers and SUVs have definitely taken from the minivan market but there's no question that minivans are going to be here for a while. They are very convenient and IMO more comfortable than the SUVs we tried, especially at the price. The minivan we got was at least 10-15k less than a comparable SUV, plus fuel economy is better and IMO the interior is so much more comfortable for long trips than other vehicles.
The biggest disappointment has been fuel effiency. The minivans in general have done very little in the Hybrid space, you don't really get your money's worth if you want a Hybrid minivan. Guess what? The vast majority of SUVs have worse fuel efficiency.
I've got a Sienna with a V6, it has some sweet power and acceleration. Not to mention the car has been around forever so there are very few major issues with it. My only major concern is front passenger side safety, which is not as good as the rest of the car.
I'm not bothered by that soccer mom bullsh*t. In fact I typically drive an older Camry and I'd gladly get in the minivan over that thing.
If you live or work in the city though, minivans are far less convenient - they are big, hard to park, and not hipster enough for you. In the suburbs, they are perfect.
If I were Boeing I would not be surprised if passengers start asking for planes to be sold to another airline.
"There is always going to be a conflict of interest between a company's needs and your needs as a user or customer. Who has control? It should be you, rather than the company that made the software or a government that tells them what to put in it as the U.S. Government did with RSA Security."
Why should I have any conflict of interest with my customers? I make software of type X that I enjoy making and am good at. My customers who want this type of software buy it from me or subscribed to some SaaS arrangement. Where is the conflict of interest? We have largely the same interest. I want to produce this software and keep them as my customers by satisfying their needs and desires for this type of software.
Why should my users control what I produced? I understand it far better than they do after all. Not to mention that I created it and should get some say in its continued existence, form and evolution. If the users could produce and control this software then they wouldn't need to buy it from me in the first place. They would just have done it themselves.
Governments telling producers what to put in their products is indeed a very large problem. But it is not solved by claiming the producer has no rights and that once a product is offered at all then the consumers should have control over it in contradistinction to its producers.
...you deserve what you get, and any liability for a resulting "security breach" should be on you-- not on someone who can find a copy of a user's manual online.
Like previous commenters have said, these kids are damn lucky they're in Canada. In the US they'd have been fucking crucified.
DRM and other content whoring practices limiting the effect of the computer age on us all LOVE streaming. You never own the bits. There is no danger you will rip that DVD. You may be able to rip the box if your are clever enough with whatever encryption protocols are on the stream. And if they don't want you to have anything you have bought they just remove it from the cloud or remove your permission to see it. I love streaming in some ways, don't get me wrong. But I think it has a dark side.
I have actually had hiring managers try to claim they want people with no more than 5 years experience because that codes for how up to date their skills are. No, it doesn't. Some colleges teach little but Java for instance. If the first job or two after was mandating and existing Java stack then it is guaranteed the developer is no more up to date than a more seasoned developer that has seen more environments and has had to learn many more new things. With greater breadth learning new languages and APIs is easier, not harder. You understand more general patterns and abstractions that can be applied to the next thing to learn.
And yes, after a couple of decades proving myself (multiple times) in the trenches of Silly Con Valley I am not going to work as cheaply as a person without as much experience.
But the managers read the latest buzz feed and thing it looks easy and as long as they get a young person who hasn't learned better they will get their project done in super record time with said latest buzz. After a while you have seen that pattern repeat over and over again. With silver hair you have deflected a lot of silver bullets until you no longer expect them to be efficacious.
It very much depends on what it is you are learning. There is no way you are going to be a reasonably proficient scala programmer in less than 3 months. Frankly I find that until I work with a language full time for a year I certainly cannot claim to be expert in it. Also there is time needed to learn the new gig software stack and its history which is non-zero. It usually takes 1-2 months depending on body of code to have some idea what one is talking about. People that say they can do it faster almost never can. They cut and paste what the find on google and hope the hell it doesn't blow up too badly.
Examine these charts and point to where there is any real evidence of weather extremes due to climate change or anything else.
It has been widely acknowledged for some time that we are NOT experiencing abnormally extreme weather of any kind. Not from climate change or otherwise.
You are in your forties? When I was 45 I joined the most interesting start up and did some of the best work of my career. They were much smaller too, only a bit over 40 people in total. I was probably the oldest there at the time. It was absolutely not a problem. 40s is nothing. It is very common is the valley. Including many start ups started by people in their 40s and 50s. Why on earth would you even worry about it. Be yourself, kick butt, take names.
If you want to put yourself on the map, publish your own map.
