Use of the term "denier" with it's association to "holocaust denier" tells you just how political this debate has become. Politicized science is very, very dangerous. Here is a link to a short excerpt from a book by the philosopher Karl Popper, a man all too aware of how dangerous science in the service of governments can be. He set for himself the question of "What is a scientific theory?" I wish everyone would read the first four pages of this excerpt. It would tone down the rhetoric of the global warming debate and send the creationists back to their pews. http://keck.ucsf.edu/~craig/Ka...

US companies have been engaged in a race to the bottom for some time now. Laying people off and borrowing money to buy back stock and keep the price up (and fatten that bonus). The constant layoffs and off-shoring have really eaten into the company's abilities to support or even produce quality goods. I used to work with an "enterprise" product for which we paid millions in licensing fees (yes, millions). The support was awful and the product quality seems to be constantly eroding. I don't know what replaces the old model. Perhaps a community based tool set. Whatever the solution, those companies that provided "enterprise" products at huge prices will not be a part of it.

I think we are basically in agreement; there really are no free markets in any meaningful sense. Simple bartering (which doesn't even require money) is about it. My main point is that when people are pushing for free markets; take a careful look. Don't be surprised if you find a frustrated would-be monopolist. Free markets are one of the great myths of our current political environment and the people pushing free (i.e. unregulated) markets have been largely destructive to society as a whole. Not completely destructive; you can definitely overdue regulation but some of the deregulation has been terribly destructive. I am thinking here of the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

Can you name me a market that has no controlling authority? Unless you are restricting your definition of controlling authority to government agencies only, I can't think of any markets without controlling authorities. Illegal drug markets are a good example. Controlling authorities all over the place; from the cartels that produce and import to the drug gangs that murder the people who attempt to steal market share (i.e. encroach on turf).

Really? There is an open air drug market in DC. Try selling illegal drugs on that piece of real estate. There are bunch of highly armed guys who will show you what real market regulation looks like.

A simple four minute conversation should take about say four minutes assuming the AI is keeping up with the person.

I spent a lot of years working for a company with a very structured tech environment. In all fairness to the company, they work in an industry that is heavily regulated. That said, it was a highly competent development team of SAs that decided what should be on the servers. A bunch of managers on a CAB will not be able to replicate that. With a single SA and only 50 servers, you have a pretty small shop. Sounds like maybe they have plans to grow the business? It sounds like there is no process in place right now except what is inside your head. Hope you never get hit by a bus! Servers are too important to the functioning of a modern business to leave things to that kind of chance. I think the company is doing the right thing but they are attempting too much too soon. Try to help them but start small; maybe define a standard build of each type of server and then use one of the automation tools to keep each server in conformance with the defined standard build. You might even then use one of the tools like to Tripwire to notify you when someone or something makes an unauthorized change in your servers. Basically, work with your management to improve the situation. The upside of all this for you is that the management in your company will realize that your job is a lot more complicated then they ever imagined..

So he wants to determine whether or not the temperature increases since 1880 are part of the normal fluctuations in climate and he only goes back to 1500 for data to analyze? As part of normal fluctuation in earths' climate, Manhattan Island and New England were underneath a glacier (the Wisconsin Ice Sheet). At another point in earths history, tropical plants grew inside the arctic circle. Again, all part of the normal fluctuation of earths' climate. I was very disappointed in this study because this is question I would like to have answered. We have seen periods in earths' past where the concentration of carbon dioxide increased rapidly and then reversed itself. I mean really reversed itself; all the way to an ice age. What is the mechanism for the reversal? Some have suggested the increase in CO2 caused more plant growth which soaked up the extra CO2. OK, but why didn't the CO2 level stabilize? Why was the decrease so dramatic? Is it possible earths' climate is fundamentally a chaotic system?

It seems to vary a lot state to state, but in Maryland the prices under the Affordable Care Act are not too bad. I just got laid off and the 18 months I can get under COBRA are just enough to get me to Medicare. One thing you might check is any lifetime caps on payouts. That seems to be one item that distinguishes the cheap plans from the good ones.

None of the politicians can really stop this surveillance state. If some politician had the courage to stop it and then some terrorist incident, however minor, were to happen, the opposing party would absolutely crucify him. They all know this. This is why both parties are behaving in the same way. Something really scary happened on 9/11. The politicians promised security in exchange for freedom and people happily agreed. Nothing new there at all. The difference was that this time around, computer technology allowed the creation of a perfect police state. All police states in the past have had a fundamental problem; a society can support only so many secret policemen. Not enough secret policemen to create the perfect police state. With computer technology, that limit is erased. I am afraid this is going to become quite dystopian.