What happened to hiring the best person for the job?

I used to work for a state agency that was under-represented in black employees when compared to the surrounding population. It was a matter of some concern until HR did an audit and found the percentage of African-American employees at the agency was proportional with the number of applicants. There was no systematic discrimination against blacks, they simply weren't applying for the jobs in the same numbers. So then HR switched to having job fairs in African-American communities and encouraging more people of color to apply for jobs. That didn't work, either. HR, which was by far the most racially diverse department in the agency, finally just said the bureaucratic version of "fuck it" and went back to business as usual. All that shit storm and concern over nothing.

We lost our ad account when Google accused us of hosting porn. The "porn" they pointed out were links to fairly vanilla pictures posted by some of our long-time forum members. We weren't even hosting it. I appealed, they pointed out two more links like that one. Links.

I refused to remove content that really wasn't that offensive, posted by members and complied with our forum rules. It did open my eyes to how Google could be a giant, inflexible jackass.

If we were going to contaminate the Martians we should do it right and send them blankets laced with smallpox. Hey, it worked before.

Navy says that it envisions such systems having extensive use in first-response, search-and-rescue missions, or medical applications.

Just like drones were first used for intelligence gathering, search and rescue and communications relays.

I'm pretty sure that Adobe has had this in the works for over a decade now

I'm sure you're right. Just amazing too how customers, who might have otherwise used the same version of software for five or six years, suddenly warmed up to the idea of paying $600 a year, every year, year after year, and not really getting much in return for it. The video editors dropping Premiere is more than a minority. Sony and Avid have been gratefully accepting that new business. Since Apple tanked FCP with FCPX that leaves Avid, Vegas and a couple others to take up the slack.

This might be Corel's opportunity to kick up the functionality in PaintShop Pro.

the tech to make a "smart gun" just isn't there yet.

That's not what the manufacturers say, even companies that make both types of guns. They're well aware of what the stakes are when you need a firearm to work. Like you said, a lot of people are dismissing the technology without any actual data or experience with it.

I used to shoot competitively and any gun can fail, even my Sig. When they test those system they put thousands of rounds through those guns under highly variable shooting conditions. Yet people who shoot maybe once a month can somehow divine from a distance that the technology isn't good enough. Amazing that we have complete rubes with such astounding insight.

I've been trying to teach my dad how to use email on a tablet and the Android app is an exercise in frustration. It will present two different ways and dad gets confused. It's not like an interface that looks the same every time you approach it, so the less technically inclined can learn where the function buttons are located. It's a nightmare.

This may sound crass, but this is a problem that'll solve itself in a couple of decades

It's not crass, it's just a biological fact. That's what pisses me off about people attacking social security and medicare, that problem will solve itself over time. Expenses will climb to a peak and then level off as the population declines. By 2035 that big, fat swath of baby boomers will start running into the meat grinder of old age.

Focus on cost control and the actuarial tables will take care of the rest.

“Essentially I am in trouble for posting all of the stuff on Twitter,”

You're in trouble for bragging about it. It's amazing how many criminals get caught because they can't keep their mouth shut. To me that seems like Crime 101. The first rule of black hat hacking is you don't talk about black hat hacking.

When ever there is a radical shift in a large employment industry, there is economic devistation for a lot fo families

That's been true with every economic shift in history. The steel industry, automotive industry, that's just life. The transition to clean energy is going to devastate coal country. Too bad coal country wasn't working on developing a broader jobs base during the transition. Instead of building for the future, they wanted to score political points for keeping taxes low. Can't have it both ways.

If people stick with the coal industry when it's apparent to anyone with two neurons left to make a spark that it's a dying industry, then whose fault is that? We should hold up the march of technology and green energy for a handful of rubes living in the butt-crack of civilization? Yeah, we're not doing that.

Team up to create the pie, then fight for your pieces. I'm actually shocked Microsoft is participating. It's a good move and I'm not used to seeing Redmond do the smart thing. Maybe their collective IQ went up now that Ballmer is out of the picture.

Scalia never met a search he considers unreasonable. Assuming 911 calls can be tracked and callers identified assumes the caller is not actively avoiding identification. There are lots of ways to game the phone system but Scalia seems pretty ignorant when it comes to technology. The biggest favor he could do the country is choking on his lunch.

If they're counting the carbon to harvest the stalks, then the comparison for gasoline should include the carbon from oil extraction, transportation and refinement. The article also doesn't state if the carbon reduction from plant uptake is offsetting the carbon emissions of burning biofuels. Sounds like they're saying, look at the carbon you get from burning ethanol, add in the diesel to run the tractor, worse than gasoline!

I remember a study by the airline industry trying to claim air transportation was more efficient than high speed trains. This study reminds me of that kind of science.

I think what this boils down to is you want to punish DropBox for some things that Rice did 10 years ago that you disagree with.

Rice was part of criminal administration. We aren't talking about philosophical differences, they were crimes. Rice may not have been robbing the bank but she was still part of the gang.

Any company putting Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld or Rice on their board is going to lose my business.

Maybe you missed it but she was also the National Security Advisor at the helm when the US was attacked on 9/11. If that represents the clarity and competence she brings to her job on the board, this is not a positive development for Dropbox.

Microsoft: Yesterday's Technology Next Week

They always reminded me of Yoyodyne Industries from Buckaroo Banzai, where the future begins tomorrow.