Good luck with that. If your business allows for it then great. Too many people get hung on process for process sake. However, those processes might not allow for change. Ever deal with government regulations? You can't just say "well, we'll streamline our processes to simplify IT upgrades by ignoring all those pesky government regulations. HIPAA? More like NoThankYa!"

Sorry to hear that. At my undergrad CS program, it was actually the other way around. It was VERY HEAVY on the CS, and we were expected to learn the software engineering and programming as a matter of course on the side.

That's not always the case. Look at workplaces that fall under HIPAA regulations. That last thing IT wants is for developers to start up their own app projects in the cloud, whereby their apps start accessing PHI/PII. The moment that PHI goes from the local intranet and those bits go onto a 3rd party cloud service, the company will shit a brick because the developer's just violated regulations. There's a reason IT and security requires oversite of app development.

I agree. It's about increasing the layers of abstraction.

You must be fun at parties...

A lot of health insurance companies will reimburse you for your gym membership. Look into what your health plan covers. With cheaper gyms it can be a wash, so you get a gym membership for free.

Even the teenagers at my local range can outshoot any local cop by leaps and bounds. Factor in the usual self defense scenario, and the local guys have more and better training shooting under duress than most cops.

I would strongly encourage you to talk to your local police about the effectiveness of pepper spray. It's not something you bet your life on, and doesn't work on some people. It's a good tool in the toolkit, but you need a backup plan if that doesn't stop them. Or just look at the armed defense literature or take a local defense class. Pepper spray is great and has it's use, but not as your only armed option. Yeah, I bolt it all down. Amazes me to see small safes in peoples' homes that aren't bolted. A burglar doesn't need to break the safe, just take it away to break later. Someone this is over peoples' heads. haha

Points to you, good sir!

You said guns are a prime target of thieves. That's true. It's why us gun owners keep them in big heavy safes. The one's that don't are negligent.

Pepper spray as your home defense option? *eye roll*

Tell that to this mother: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1-Kz3vU5DY

People miss under the stress of a life or death situation. The LAPD fired 120 rounds into that truck recently and missed all of them. Remember the Empire State building? They fired plenty of rounds and all they hit were bystanders. Same goes for most police shootings. People miss when shooting under stress. Why would you bet your life on not making a common mistake? It's negligent.

And training. Why oh why do so many people forget that part?

Low resolution is what makes so many cheap security systems worthless. The much pricier commercial systems are very high res, and have the accompanying hardware to process and store it. Those $300 systems at Costco aren't worth it for a burglary. If you just want to prove that the neighbor's kid keeps swimming in your pool while you're at work, then it'll suffice.

I have renter's insurance and for $200/year you get practically nothing. None of your high value items will be covered, you'll have little overall coverage, and your liability protection will be low. If you're 20 in an apartment with nothing of value beyond a laptop, it's ok. But if you have a few nice things like jewelry, watches, AV equipment, computers, etc. then you'll be paying closer to $500/year and above.

And what about safes? Kinda undermines the whole argument doesn't it.