As another commenter put it, trading one currency they can't control with another? And somebody decides to use some large clusters, or large cloud, to generate money and devalue it, or another what-was-it that just collapsed, with a hundred million or so Bitcoin money *missing"?

Fiat money that is *completely* under the control of the elected government seems to work for most nations.

            mark "oh, and how many fiat USD is that Bitcoin worth?"

That's absurd, that people "aren't bothered by ads". They take bathroom breaks, they get food or drinks, but... the top poster of this thread is absolutely correct. As someone older than you, let me tell you that in the sixties and seventies, the FCC-mandated limit was, I believe, 6 minutes an hour, and that *included* station breaks.

Then came cable, and the biggest thing they promised you - ALL of them - was "no more commercials, ever".

When we started taping in the nineties, it was about 18 min of commercials per hour on cable. The last time we regularly taped, maybe 10 years or so ago, it was ->22 minutes of commercials- per hour.

So tv is weaning itself from commercials? They'd *have* to, because a "one hour show" that was 50% commercials will have the number of viewers approaching zero as a limit.

                    mark

Background checks. SKILLS CHECKS - isn't that what the hiring manager is supposed to ascertain via the a) resume, b) phone interview, c) personal interview?

This, actually, points directly to where the problem is: HR, who DO NOT KNOW what they company does or what they're hiring someone to do, AND DON'T CARE TO LEARN. To paraphrase the old line from SN, they're ignorant sluts, Jane".

Here's another point: it takes 35 days (is that business days, or calendar?). Then, in a lot of cases, they'll be there 3 years (oh, unless they're contractors, and so many big companies, like AT&T, say two years), and they're out the door, let go, or off to a new job.

HR: a waste of space and money.

                mark

So many people in the US South, whose cooking and tastes are high on both, keep voting against their own self-interest....

              mark, wondering what the average diet of a libertarian is

Social media? Is that like, asking for answers or help on Facebook, with a CMU logo?

And for the folks who think hiring teachers costs too much... try looking at all the articles about the war on tenure, and how most course (that is, > 65%) are taught by "adjuncts", with no chance of tenure, and lucky if they don't need food stamps, they earn so little.

I need to make sure my stepson does *not* consider CMU for starting college next year.

                mark

When I worked for Ameritech (a Baby Bell, since swallowed), in two years I heard that a number of times. If I ever hear it again (unlikely), I'm going to find the exec in upper management who ordered it, pick them up by their fucking lapels, and shove their head through the wall.

There was recently an article in Salon? The Atlantic? entitled "Your HR Department Hates You", and it's true. You're a "resource", not "personnel", and if you think you're "valued personnel", try negotiating how much vacation time you get, comp time, or salary (and I assume that, like me, the regulations are written by the big companies so I *can't* join a union).

                  mark

You do not spec for "average" usage; you spec for *max*. You also have to spec for how many machines (when we're talking about thousands, or tens of thousands of servers) are going to fail today, to be picked up by the "zombie" machines that are, in fact, hot spares.

And then there's the Big Events, like the shooting in Charleston, or when the SCOTUS announces about gay marriage or the ACA - how many of those "zombie" machines are going to go live to help carry the traffic load?

                  mark

Been done. In the mid-fifties, Lionel got the idea that, wow, I mean, *girls* might like to play with train sets. So they made one for girls

I add the link (I searched on lionel girls train), to prove just how sexist, not to say simply outright *stupid* they were about it. And yes, as you might guess, girls who wanted to play with trains wanted trains that looked like *real* trains, not "girl trains", and yes, Lionel dropped this dumb crap within a year or so.

Boys are not from Mars, girls are not from Venus. They're all humans from Earth - deal with it.

                    mark "and one of my daughters is a better programmer than you are"

Let's start out with how they choose what exchanges to poll. Until I moved into a specific neighborhood in a city I used to live in, I'd *NEVER* been called, which told me that "likely voters" mean "don't call any exchange where it's heavily black or 'ethnic'".

Second, I have *real* trouble with the idea that 1k or 2k people will give an accurate view of how half a million folks are going to vote; rather, that kills excellent candidates who don't have big money backers from getting to be voted on.

Finally, there are the polls - I'd say at least half of the national ones - that will be sure to do their best to come up with the numbers that the folks paying them want to see. I mean, show me a poll that Faux News uses that doesn't show what they want their audience to hear?

                  mark

... have that jack installed in my head behind my ear? Cool, I can do without surgery....

                mark "other than behind the ear is, of course, crude, which means a lot of slashdotters would do it...."

I wish the report would relate it to *height*.

I mean, height of men going into the US army:
      WWI: 5'6"
      WWII: 5'8"
      Vietnam: 5'10"

Though I will say that a high percentage of folks *are* a lot heavier than when I was younger.

                        mark

When I get on, I tell them I need Tier 2 support. They'll ask what the issue is, and I'll be completely technical... so much so that they know some of the words, but are overwhelmed. If that doesn't do it, ask for a manager.

I pay hostmonster for hosting. I now have a direct Tier 2 email address for some issues.....

It's all a case of proving your bonafides. Did you offer to send them logfiles? And what o/s are you running? It frequently gets me past the calltaker when I tell them I run Linux.

                  mark

Then I could send him a check, so a) I could say he was working for me, and b) he could argue that he was not doing espionage, but legitimately working for US citizens.....

            mark "all you millenials: go read about the Church Commission, in the '70's"

We'll ignore the NIMBY huge issue of what the hell we do with the long-lived wastes; this is in France. In the US, with the GOP and the libertarians wanting ever-less regulation, I say, with a 99.44% confidence, that the private sector will cut corners as far as they can go, and with a nuclear plant, the results are far more widespread and longer lasting than other power plants.

So, who here actually lives near a nuclear plant?

                mark

Of course, there are folks who appear to be *terrified* of actually talking to another person over a telephone, and ignore their voicemail all the time.

So,turn off voicemail... and then set up your phonemenu system so that there's almost no way to get to an actual person.... It took me a while for just that reason when I was putting in a tech support call from work to HP.

Anything other than have enough staff to respond to your customers.

                  mark