But cells are not what they are recommending for replacing POTS service -- it is IP phone service (like MagicJack), which relies on internet service being functional, which takes more power than POTS lines, but, with ADSL, is prone to many of the physical service issues (how far from the next hub, how many squirrels have gnawed on the not-yet-replaced copper cables, etc.).

When you hit 60, tell me the same story. There is extreme age discrimination. A friend my age survived 5 yrs of wiping the butts of 20 somethings for whom the notion of testing code before going live was a novelty. Oh, and once we hit 65, we are a lot cheaper to insure.

Stupid -- the same way I did. You continue to work (if you are lucky enough to be healthy throughout), take a few weeks off, then maybe work from home if you need or want to, then go back to work. OOOOHHH, here's something you clearly never considered -- one of those woman things might actually earn more than you and you can stay home with the child until you can earn more than child care costs.

Someone in the family with a chronic illness, a house? Burying your parents or making sure they are taken care of? And you will not necessarily continue to get that money for as long as you need it.

I had to fight my mother's newest doctor to get him to comply with her living will. I am still angry 15 yrs later. He had not been through the 4-5 hospitalizations a year for failing lungs. My poor mother had. Not his call to intubate when the ICU nurses could clearly tell this was a final time. I am still grateful for their discreet and gentle support. I helped my best friend from college to pass. She had horrible, "at home" hospice with no training for her husband in how to roll her to avoid bedsores or how to keep her clean or comfortable and a nurse who came for an hour every other day. Those last weeks were hideousness I do not want imposed on me. My son has clear, written instructions and people with medical training identified and enlisted to help him understand and make decisions.

Yes. And don't try to survive in an HMO if you have anything atypical. Oh, and if they have just started teaching it in medical schools, you are likely more screwed than before they taught it.

For both the flu shot and the MRI, there is risk to the patient. From the flu shot -- allergic reactions are rare, but you need someone to notice it and do something. For MRIs, someone needs to know whether the image is sufficient for what is being looked at and you have the need to be able to deal with people who are having claustrophobia reactions to the machine. Finally, there is a comparatively limited number of diabetics from whom potentially infected used sharps need to be collected. Expand that to the general public, which includes people who cannot be bothered to put cigarette butts in trash containers or pick up their dogs' feces, and you have a serious public health issue.

It has been standard in law that any work done with tools (including systems) that belong to an employer belongs to the employer. When you start a job, you should be given a form to sign that you acknowledge that any and all work done for the employer or using the employer's systems belong to the employer and announcing that you have no reasonable expectation of privacy when using the employer's systems. Now, if the City of SF wanted his personal password to systems he owned, supported, and housed, that would be an invasion of property. If you put anything on the systems owned by your employer, they are no longer exclusively yours. Use your own damned server to store your own things. And assume that you must hand over passwords, encryption keys, data on your phone, and any damned thing else you grabbed or created on their systems. Oh, and read the play "The Water Engine" if you think this is something new.

It sounds easy, but try to do the audit that will give you that number. I guarantee they keep very "complex" books and records that can prove just about anything. The fine needs to cover more than what they (and the companies that knowingly hired from them) underpaid the individual workers. it needs to cover the economic damage caused by depressing salaries in those fields, as well. There are major employers in the tech field known to pay "wages only immigrant will take." They need to feel that pain as well.

It is sexist (but, yes, more in extremely bad taste and juvenile in the extreme, and unprofessional) because it further contributes to the hostile environment in the tech world. It says "NO GURLS ALLOWED. HYUCK, HYUCK. YOU HAVE TITTIES AND COOTIES" to any woman who is interested in working in tech. If that is not the intended message, then I suggest some of these emotionally 12yo gomers talk to some marketing people about branding and crafting their message. If this is the only way you know how to do business or to demonstrate a project or idea, then you need to go home and grow the hell up And here's the thing -- I am visibly 60, dress very conservatively, and will still have my breasts "accidentally" groped and stared at. I am not responsible for the actions of others, including those who will not see me as a person. It is not my job to make these sorts of men behave like adult humans in a business environment, And, yeah, it should be safe (if boring) to take a 9 yr old to a business conference. There should be nothing there, unless it is a medical application, that should be inappropriate for him or her to see. If there is, you are doing it wrong. Write your fake apology in advance. It would be easier to take this as ironic if this were not the same as the rest of the toxic stew that women who want to work in tech swim in daily.

Thank you. Increases my bafflement at whether the folk promulgating "he had to be brilliant to do what he did" story line are ignorant or bought.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You have clearly never run security apps (AV, IPS) on user systems or, for that matter, more than 1K user systems. There are constant departmental, special user, and monitoring apps that need to be added and configured. It seems the only thing constant about core builds is that they will need to be modified for business reasons. Did I mention HAHAHAHA!

I am old enough that I have heard that the Social Security Trust Fund is going dry since the 70s. Hasn't yet. There are lots of easy fixes that don't hurt the poor. They could even up the payments (and not make people work until they are 70 to get a full pay-out), improve the economy, and not drain the trust fund.

You left out whether the job is one that is permanently open, round after round, as though new, uniquely qualified, dirt cheap talent is going to suddenly appear out of nowhere. After the third try, go back to the folk you rejected because they are female, possibly disabled, even possible an old, and stop wasting money and people's time.

Not to mention the eagerness of every right wing republican to increase the age at which one gets Medicare or the full payment of social security (it's at 70, now). If you younger types want the jobs you keep trying not to hire us boomers for, talk with your elected representatives and make retirement a bit less of a beg-for-healthcare, eat dog food (if one retires at 55 and lives to 85... or longer......) situation, lots of us would be able to take our eagerness to step off the treadmill with our box of tchotchkes out the door.