I feel kids should at least be familiar with coding. Learning how computers execute instructions and do what they do is akin to learning about how oxygen combines with fuel in combustion in a science class, or how cells divide in a biology class.

They don't have to know extreme detail, just have a basic idea of how the world works. And in today's world that includes computers.

The language doesn't even matter. Even old-school BASIC is a good language to use for the class, because it's easy to understand and the results are instant. Just enter some lines and type RUN.

It's not like we have to each the kids all about complex APIs, GUI programming, networking and so on. Just teach them enough to get rid of the feeling that the computer is a "magic box" that they have no idea how it works.

>as such the computer would only do the one function that we were to engage in.

Then you had kids like me, who would hit CTRL-RESET to drop to BASIC, then write amusing programs to pass the time. :)

I know right??? :)

Nevermind. My math is wrong and I am an idiot. :) I forgot to multiply by 30 in there...

Another thing that baffles me. The article says the bill for the month was $15687. There are 1440 minutes in a month TOTAL. That's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week connected.

A simple division makes this work out to over $10 a minute. What kind of "long distance" call these days costs $10 a minute?

Something fishy is going on here.

"long distance"

What is this, 1997?

A recent of example I had that made me dislike systemd was a prototype RHEL7 system here that has ZFS-on-Linux support installed on it.

When you boot it up, there's around a 50/50 chance whether the ZFS filesystems will be mounted after boot. This is an inconsistency that, as a long time sysadmin, REALLY BOTHERS ME.

Yes, I realize the root cause. ZFS has some dependency that is not starting before it. The dependency has to be declared in the appropriate service. However, with systemd we introduce the concept of "just because it came up correctly on this boot doesn't mean it will on the next one."

And that is supremely frustrating. What if it weren't 50/50? What if the likelyhood it didn't come up was 1/100? Suddenly a routine reboot becomes a debugging mission, and I reboot again and it works. "Eh, must have been a transient problem." No it wasn't.

With classic init you were fairly sure that the system's state was the same on every boot. Now it's a gamble. Good luck with that! This is why we're sticking with RHEL6 for the moment on production systems.

iOS won't attempt to join a Wi-FI network until you enter your passcode. Seems like a good protection against this would be to have a passcode and control panel enabled from the lock screen.

Phone boots up after crashing; DON'T unlock it, just swipe up the control center, turn off Wifi, then unlock.

I'm driving a Chevy Traverse SUV as a rental while my car is in the shop, and the handling is crap, it's a pain to move and park and I can't wait to get rid of it and get my car back!

It's mind blowing that these lumbering beasts are so popular. Give me a nimble sporty car any day!

This actually sounds like a great idea. Whitelist all the executables on your system. Then, if something tries to execute that's not whitelisted, throw up a dialog explaining what's going on. This would catch sneaky attempts to execute trojans in a lot of cases.

One downside is it probably wouldn't work with interpreted languages, and those can be fairly powerful. But it's a start.

A lot of CEOs (a good example was Steve Jobs) will take token small salaries because most of their income is from their ownership in the company.

If he's pulling down $5 million a year from company stock dividends, is giving up a $1 million salary that big a deal?

Yet. :(

This is kind of equivalent to hiring a locksmith, then noticing that he copied one of your keys and it's on his personal keychain.

There is no reason to ever trust this locksmith again. Some institutions, like certificate authorities and locksmiths, are sacred. The whole POINT of their existence is to be an entity you can trust to keep things secure. If they are irresponsible and let this happen, then there's no reason to trust them.

Ever again.

This is a wonderful why to treat someone you've likely worked with for years, and would put in a good word for you should you be looking for a job in the future.

Seriously? He's resigning willingly. He's not being fired. Don't be an asshole.

He's leaving willingly. Why be an asshole? It's not like he's being fired.

See my other post "Don't be an asshole". If someone wanted to wreck the house, they'd do it without a resignation letter.