The best developer is one who puts stuff together that 'ops' people (users, admins, etc.) can work with. And the best way to get such developers trained is to give them some experience on the other side of the fence. Yes, in a large organization there is going to be less crossover. But its still a good idea. Some people won't like being admins. Some will really take to it. Its up to management to properly allocate resources and keep their people trained and familiar with adjoining organizations needs.

If you absolutely don't want to do any administration tasks, that's fine. But its a rare developer who doesn't throw a fit when management takes their admin/root privileges away on their own workstation.

Public or private? That makes a lot of difference. Public utilities tend to take more responsibility for the collateral aspects of their mission than private organizations.

My local power company was a publicly traded corporation. That was bad for anything they didn't consider to be a 'profit center'. But then they fell on hard times and were taken private by a consortium of utility service providers (contractors, outside IT and engineering outfits). The core utility profit margins are kept tight by the state regulators. But the pass through charges from the contractors (unregulated) is still highly profitable. The utility is being kept on life support for the benefit of the contractors.

The remaining shell company may in fact take their security responsibilities seriously. But they are being squeezed between regulators trying to keep prices down and their vendors who sell them old technology, insecure systems. Because the new ones are expensive when provided by the vendors and there isn't enough utility staff left to do the job in house.

After listening to the kids for a while, all she says is, "Don't make me pull over and come back there!"

Try days or a week out where I live*. Nobody riots. Everyone has a camp stove and supplies. Many of us have gensets and don't even notice the flicker when the power goes down.

The local power company no longer has the staff to maintain their own system. Its all done by contractors or surrounding utilities sending in help. And I don't live in some backwater hick town. I can spit on Bill Gates' house** from my place.

*No cyber attack required. Rotten poles fall over. In fact, we could never tell the difference between a major terrorist attack and normal utility operations.

**Having worked for electric utilities in the past, I am shocked and surprised at the poor shape their systems are in. Even right out in front of Mr. Gates modest hovel.

Many SCADA systems are inherently bi-directional. Some controller monitors system parameters. It then returns feedback to control the processes. Or it forwards them upstream for human attention and intervention.

You could try to 'air gap' such a system from the Internet. But the guy carrying a laptop around to update PLC firmware is going to use it to check his company e-mail. And eventually, the CEO is going to send out one of his/her missives company-wide over the cocktail lounge WiFi at the golf course. Now you're screwed.

Air gaps didn't do Iran much good against StuxNet.

Companies want to concentrate on their core competencies. To an electric utility, IT isn't a core competency.

My power company can't be bothered to trim trees and replace rotten poles. That's all contracted out. Their core competency is collecting bills. Heck, they don't even read their own meters. That's contracted out.

So good luck with the whole 'secure the system' idea. Outages are all classified as 'Acts of God'. Maybe. I guess God has it in for corporate morons.

Let's see: Full moon, lunar eclipse, tax day. I'm thinking of dropping my return off wearing a werewolf mask.

I think some thought went into keeping the two dates far apart. They say you have to discipline a dog as soon as you catch them doing something or they won't learn. Smacking Congress with a rolled up ballot comes to mind.

I used to fly a lot when I worked for Boeing (commercial, not gov't contract). We had an entire travel department that arranged trips and accomodtions. And they prided themselves on finding the cheapest (crappiest, that is) deals that they could. One time, when I had to fly from Seatle to New York, I just called travel and said, "You find me the flight that meets your cost requirements. I'll upgrade to first class out of my own pocket." They practicaly shit themselves. It wasn't about the cost, it was about the perception of being tight with a dollar. While actualy wasting buckets of money*.

One time when a group of us had to spend a week in Cincinnati, Boeing travel booked rooms at a flea-bag airport motel which was about 30 miles from the vendor we were working with. I fought that one and found a cheaper (and much nicer) extended stay motel a few miles from the vendor. From that point on, I was on the travel department's shit list.

*I suspect that certain members of the travel department get some frequent flyer miles in their own accounts for steering business toward certain airlines and hotel chains. And for missing the actual lowest cost deals when planning company trips.

Wider seats in first class. Sometimes business class is a rip-off (same seats, better snacks). But on long trips, first class seating is much more comfortable.

I could care less about leg room (I'm only 4' 18" tall). But I'm built like a tank and my arms hang into the aisle or across the shared armrest in economy class seating.

Yeh, but duct tape?

Better that taxes cause a little pain. It reminds me once a year how screwed up our tax system is. If they make it too eay, people wil forget about how much is beng skimmed off their paychecks.

We have automatic witholding as well. And the system could be made simpler. But I like the fact that once a year, I'm getting pissed off at a seriously broken system.

IRS Motto: We've got what it takes to take what you've got.

Ah yes. The two line tax form.

1. How much did you earn las year? _________
2. Send it to us.

We already have retroreflective paints. Road markings and signs illuminated by headlights are clearly visible. On the other hand, some things (like animals and pedestrians) require some means of illumination at night. Streetlights are OK, but headlights are better. An animal or other obstruction will only appear as a shadow against a glowing roadway.

This. And large windmills are already required to be equipped with anti-collision lights and, if large enough, be included on air navigation charts, NOTAMS, etc.

Your drone has to navigate within the constraints of existing marking and mapping regulations and right-of-way rules.

The difference being that every time someone uses Metro, Ballmer gets the banana.