I worked as a network engineer/contractor near 2001 for Dow when they were merging with Cargill - trying to mix an OSPF and ISIS network and they ran DecNet - good times

the big Computer tournaments are run by TCEC at chessdom.com - there it would be paired against other engines, of whom Komodo and Stockfish have been pretty much dominating every year since season 2 -

truth is, all computer chess is computer vs. computer nowadays - the losses come from different evaluations of positions - then the programmers try to correct it, etc - but since all engines are running the same hardware with resources, the best performers should win -

you can follow Season 8 (round 1b right now) here

http://tcec.chessdom.com/live....

I will get the PFD this year - I've been here since April of 2013 but was only eligible after my full year of residency in 2014 - and there's a lot of conditions (like shipping your passport in) - so don't expect to park a tent behind Carrs/Safeway and get it down the line

This is a kickback from our natural resources - it's also cyclical based on I think a 5 year average of the price of oil - that means it's going to start going down next year as gas starts to plummet

We do have issues with finance in the state - no state income tax is fine but everything is about 15% more expensive (more so on Kodiak or in the Bush) - so it def. balances out - the PFD makes it a little easier for lower income workers to make it up here where the cost of living is higher. A recent poll suggested residents would rather start paying a state tax than tap the PFD for infrastructure - so we'll see how much longer we go without a sales or state income tax - (and some of the more touristy spots DO have a sales tax)

As it turns out my wife got a job up here and my boss lets me Telecommute in my job as a Network Engineer - the GCI fiber just went in so I get 100mb download and 5mb upload but a 300gb cap - however I have a verizon hotspot the company got me for emergencies. I can get 100ms response to Minneapolis - so it's pretty well connected at least in the big cities along the underwater fiber. Out in Nome and most of the bush, they're running Microwave/Fiber to get them some better response but wouldn't be good for low latency/high bandwidth stuff

RB

don't forget the October sales that spring up - I remember two years ago - the pfd was low (like 724 or something) - and some Tactical Shop had a deal where you could buy any gun of combo of guns up to $750 for $724 :)

word came down a few months ago from on high - we need to learn how to do SDN and become experts at it - we have none of it in our environment and no one knows how to support it or what our use for it would be - and we're the network guys but Cisco must be trying to sell us something

or Somewhere...someone...got their hands on a Network Week magazine - one of our dumbass Level 1 phone dorks musta left it in the john.

I live in AK now and have been to Nome where gas is $6 a gallon

Why? Because there's no ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE to Nome

You not only have to build a bridge to one of the most remote parts of the Seward Peninsula - You have to then build an entire road for hundreds of miles down the Seward Peninsula to Fairbanks over land that is varying between Permafrost and regular road - (and you can build for one or the other but the permafrost is changing) - Sure, you could build an "Ice Road" but same situation -

I'm not saying it's the WORST idea in the world - Anchorage has the 2nd busiest Air Cargo terminal in the US - (Nashville is 1st I think) and we're ideally situated for Air over the North Pole, and maybe Naval thru the Northwest passage, - but there's no Rail line - and no Road from the Seward Peninsula to the Lower 48 - Hell, half the villages out there are still on the honey bucket system. The Bridge would probably come ashore at Wales, and you can drive to Nome - but from there you're back to Cargoship - so will the US create that kind of Infrastructure in AK? We can't even get the broken stuff fixed so I don't foresee new stuff.

FYI - the Road to Nome has been tossed back and forth but there's no palate in AK right now for new Infrastructure since the budget deficit caused by dropping oil prices.

RB

they may be able to source say, something like network support overseas, but at the end of the day, when hardware fails or need replacement or new installs in data centers in the US, you still need those guys who can do cabling, swap 6509's and so forth -

I think the idea of a overseas proof career in IT are over, however. Ensuring you are always at the top of your game and being up on the latest skills even if it eats some of your personal time can go a long way though

RB

komodo won but it has been the main contender with stockfish for a while. I think it has been number two in the last two or three tourneys

I could see a story where as a Replicant, his cells were programmed to appear to age as the years went by for the same reason they would implant false memories - to keep the unit thinking it was human and able to do it's job

OR they could ditch that train of thought and just say he was never a Replicant in the first place like most of non-geek America believes, but making him one gives a lot of room for the plot to be better than him just coming back out of retirement to hunt more skinjobs

this was probably the hardest game I played in the old days - it took me a month to figure out all it's secrets and figure out how to get the Ark of the Covenant - (the final tricky point was snagging a parachute on a branch that dragged you into the mesa the Ark was buried in) -

but man when I beat it - holy crap - also the first Atari game I recall where you needed to play it with both joysticks - one to select items and one to move the guy

RB

when I got the MSCE in the late 90's, there was a TCP/IP test - my friends recommended (correctly) that I take it first - it was the toughest but if you don't know that you're hurting on the other 5 - but that was years and years ago

Billy, with GNS3 and IOU integration in a Virtualbox, you can recreate enough routing and switching topologies to pass the CCNA without buying any hardware - I would argue it's much easier now than when I got my ccna (1999) and folks had to buy 2500's used for 500 bucks each to get the hands on

of course, you could read Todd Lammle's CCNA book back then and pass it but I digress

RB

I've been a Cisco networking guy for 10+ years - the 6500 series is a Distribution/Core technology for the LAN - it's definitely been milked over the years but the 4500 series is basically designed to phase it out

some of the 7600 routers (the older bricks) - I can also understand - but seriously - if you are a core internet provider, why the hell are you using a 6500 router for the BGP routing table of the internet? Put that thing in a dorm room and buy yourself an ASR 9000

RB

in AK, GCI - the broadband provider, has caps and I've gotten a 250gb cap - since I telecommute, I couldn't risk being slowed down but our Internet essentially comes in via underwater cable from Seattle

Actually, I usually only hit 60% of it even downloading 1-2gb a day of stuff like linux distros, tv torrents, and so forth - but it's a pain when your pc crashes and you blow 20% of your bandwidth redownloading your games

it would burn someone hosting 50TB of ripped mp3's on torrents - but meh

in my field - (network operations/engineering) - my skillset has to essentially rotate out every few years - a CCIE told me if we weren't learning whole new skillsets, we were obsolete in 5 years -

having said that, being in a huge company with a complicated network gives one a bit of security from knowledge of where things work, but several old timers I knew grinding till retirement let their skills go - and as the legacy technology went out, they became less and less useful till they were basically 1st level techs

RB