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Comment Re:Spending cuts one way or another (Score 1) 431

When you have a run on the banks, it is too late for spending cuts to fix the problems. The stupidity here was that the debt repayment is unsustainable at 1.8x GDP. Greece got themselves into this, with the willing help of the EU, ECB, & IMF. All players are going to have to figure out a way to fix this... and of course the real problem isn't Greece but how the entire European Union functions.

Quite honestly, I can't see any good resolution coming from this. If Greece is pushed out, the other PIIGS might end up the same way, and the Euro starts to look more like a currency shared by France and Germany, with a whole lot of angry people around them.

Comment All depends on your body (Score 2) 340

I am mid-40's with back and sciatica problems and also recovering from recent laparoscopic surgery. I have been using a balance ball as my chair for 8 years, which worked for me pretty well up until a few months ago. (Now sitting hurts.)

I find I lose my ability to concentrate while standing-- I don't have the deep-focus time I used to get. I also need to have something to lean on periodically (bar height chair from ikea works). For me, the "zero-g" chairs aren't any good; not sure if it is a height thing or what. Locking your knees defeats the benefits of standing to some degree, and you really need to properly contract your abs to brace your spine. A treadmill would not help me personally.

The best advice seems to be to be at a healthy weight, have a strong core and actively engage it in whatever position you are in, change positions regularly, and find an excuse to walk around regularly throughout the day. There is no substitute for excercise though.

Comment Spending $400 instead of $4,000. (Score 1) 377

Bought a Buffalo Terrastation. Went on vacation a year later to a country with limited internet access. On trip, one-year warranty expired and it died the next day, taking all data with it.

Fortunately, I had a copy of the server with me on a portable hard drive, so I could work remotely. That was our only backup. Sending the accounting database back to the office via GPRS was a lot of fun, but mailing that drive back to the office (after duplicating it of course) scared me to death.

The solution at the time was the right one; we didn't have the money for anything more. Ever since we have a hot backup server synchronized to the primary, for a small business. Like most screw-ups, what is important is how you move forward.

Comment Re: Routing around (Score 3, Informative) 198

A ways back a broker got us a diagrammatic fiber map for a region (200x200 miles) so we could review options for siting a data center. With the limited level of detail and some driving around you can quickly detail things out. If you understand how common-trench utilities work, it isn't hard to determine sensitive areas.

Just saying it doesn't take much inside information if you are willing to open a set of manholes in two locations and cut everything in and out at the same time.

I am surprised though that more of the manholes aren't alarmed though. It is relatively easy to do, and for meet-me manholes we always had them on each bolt.

Comment Re:Nope! (Score 1) 409

It seems to be a lot like the U.S.-Cuba situation from my perspective, with the glaring exception being repression of religious minorities. Iran needs to have greater compassion for all its people with a goal of coexisting and prospering to succeed. If they get that far, maybe the exiles can allow relationships to normalize rather than saying we are best off just nuking the region and trying to start over in a few thousand years.

Comment Re:Odd how little criticism they get (Score 1) 112

Quite honestly, I think a lot of people understand they are complete, overpriced shit. Unfortunately, the competitors appear to be mainly moderately or reasonably priced shit from a security perspective. The question comes down to accountability for the person purchasing/configuring it: can you at least say it was a best-of-breed device and was properly configured for an appropriate level of security, or will you need to say that the purchasing decision was made to save $400 and buy something else...

It seems the only solid approach now is security in depth... which gets expensive quickly. I can just imagine my small business trying to manage our network like a fortune-500 company (should). There are limits as to what you can do, and you hit them quickly when the vendors you select are inept.

Comment Re:Uber is a Proxy for Progress (Score 1) 333

Unfortunately, that isn't really true. In my area, flagging a taxi on a Friday night was no big deal. Weekends were "gravy" for taxi drivers, so they busted their asses to get fares and actually earn a few bucks. Uber absorbed 80% of the weekend evening traffic within 12 months, making it difficult to actually find a taxi willing to do a $10 fare.

Some of the taxi drivers figured out that they were in trouble quickly, and couldn't afford the gate fees from the taxi company, so they went from Taxi drivers to the Town Car Program (TCP). With TCP they needed to buy their own commercial liability insurance, but they eliminated the taxi company's cut-- the only limitation is they cannot take flag fares anymore, but they had their own unofficial network of drivers that effectively made them a taxi company.

About half those people have since given up. Uber has pulled too much of the money from the equation to make driving a taxi work anymore. Going from earning $150/day after costs down to $100/day is only a solution if you are truly desperate. (Many days aren't that good.)

While Uber might have a few things right, their system is gamed as much as the taxi system-- only now they are able to take 20-30% of the cash out of the pot for "arranging rides."

Comment Re:Salaries should be limited (Score 1) 381

The number of studies done over the years all agree. Manual labor is more pronounced (limited IIRC to 10%), and youth have a less pronounced immediate impact (but a more dramatic long-term impact). I personally haven't seen studies with regards to accuracy, although I think something was done among medical residents.

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