Tag: Uncategorized

It’s not as disturbing as 2G1C, but could be if you think about it enough.

I tweeted this earlier, and said I’d say more about it.

For the 1970s Business School Republicans, lots more immigrants and fresh STEM graduates means that they can drop wages as the labor pool expands.

For the paid-for Democrats, STEM keeps graying college professors employed until they finally decide they want to quit, teaching outdated technology and methods for a ton of money. The immigration side of it doesn’t enter the equation, there, though, because pretty much everybody in their base would be negatively affected by lower salaries. No worries, though, since all the new folks will come vote Democrat, anyway.

Still, the larger point is: what’s passing as STEM education really tends to teach nothing useful. Ask an MCSE to explain how email works. Yes, you can do it without Microsoft Exchange. In fact, it’s a fuckton more secure if you omit Exchange. You also don’t need to buy an aftermarket appliance to sit between every SMTP server and the Internet to prevent spam. Really.

You can communicate over SMTP using telent if you know how it works. Bubuhbut there’s no more HYPTERTERMINAL, ANYMORE.

*HEADDESK*

SMDH over the responses I’ve been seeing to the FCC’s Net Neutereality rules.

The three Democrats on the panel supported the rule, while the two token Republicans opposed it.

Ultimately, it says that providers can do whatever the hell they want. If they’re being paid by content providers for preferred access, so be it.

Cluestick: they already had the authority to do this. The FCC ruling just codifies it. Had the FCC ruled the other way, the big telecommunications companies would have filed suit over the rules. These new rules are akin to a state government giving permission to a neighboring state to do something they’re already permitted to do. The Virginia General Assembly could pass a bill saying it’s okay for North Carolinians to root for Duke. (We’ll set aside, for a moment, the fact that Duke sucks, and if you have the misfortune of residing in North Carolina, you could root for something a little better, like UNC or NC State….)

Congress could have given the FCC the power to regulate in 2009-2010, but they chose not to. Even if they had gotten a NN bill through the House in 2010, it likely would have died in the Senate at the hands of people like Mark “Nextel” Warner.

Since the bill never got to him, he can run and say he supports it. O.o And the NoVA Hipster Democrats will totally believe him for saying it. (And ignore the fact that come election day, he’ll have passed only two yearly budgets during his six-year term.)

On a somewhat-related note, interesting Sweeps reporting from WTKR about getting rid of cable. Naturally, they omitted the part about how the broadcasters are actually charging the cable companies money to carry a freely-available signal, but, this is what my wife and I tried to do last winter during my last period of goverment-inflicted unemployment. FORWARD. Unfortunately, that experiment didn’t work as planned to the incompetence of the local phone company, and its wonderful “employees.”

I’m getting a bit off-point; the reason the FCC can’t do anything about providers giving priority (or throttling) to content providers isn’t because of Republicans in the House. The Hipster Dems would prefer despotic action to get whatever it is that they claim to want. Nobody in Washington is willing to go through the processes to do things the right way.

It’s sad.

Much like what I’ve faced lately with my work prospects, doing the wrong thing faster doesn’t make it the right thing. That you’re authoritative, either by your office, or by the store-bought letters after your name, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to abide by the processes in place to get things done.

Listen, I understand that you’re awesome. I get it. You still have to follow the rules. (And that’s why I’m not linking to my new stuff. 1. It’s not ready for public-consumption. 2. I haven’t finished the necessary paperwork to make it legitimate. So it goes….)

when do they finally land on small and mid-sized businesses?

How many small and mid-sized companies are doing things in-house that could be done cheaper and more efficiently by a network utility company? (Note the phrasology there…)

For a few years now, I’ve contemplated how to send Nick Burns back to selling the latest Android devices at the Verizon Wireless store. Where I was getting hung up is that as my business idea succeeded, the customer base would almost disappear.

I’m not sure that’s that important, now. Yes, there is opportunity in transition operations, but there’s a lot of messes to clean up that Nick Burns, MCP+, Net+, Sec+, CCNA, RHCE, etc. created.

After the transition work, there’ll be places where you’d need to convince the 1970/80s MBA that he doesn’t need to run everything in-house to be zomgsekur.

What’s the 4191 on Win XP?

I’ve gotten probably five phone calls from some Asian company (I’m guessing India or Pakistan) about my PC being infected with spyware.

The senior technician wanted me to download a program called “teamview” so he could diagnose my problem.

I asked for their information. Here is what he gave me:

Computer Maintenance Company
Frank Rogers
800.778.8162

Call and ask for Martin.

The 800notes info on this number.

Since it appears that barfing out WHOIS information willy-nilly might get me in trouble, I’ll leave this so others can look it up, themselves.

http://www.teamviewer.com
http://www.ammyy.com/en/

I called the 800 number Frank Ro/d/gers gave me, and got a completely different company name.

I really don’t know how much of their time I wasted, butl…..

“What version of Microsoft Windows is my PC running?”
“Open Internet Explorer, and go to…”
“I don’t have Internet Explorer>’
“…”

I think I’ve managed a promise that they won’t again call my cell number. I’m skeptical.

In line with what I was bitching about last week, my friend Mike posted this to Facebook. (I met Mike through Orkut, which, amazingly, Google has let survive.  I guess it’s still big in Brazil and India….  I’ll post this to G+, but I don’t know who’ll notice., or how long it’ll be there)

Much like the endless collapsing malls, this is something else where nobody will assign responsibility for allowing it to collapse.

My wife read me a story yesterday from a British publication about how bad the bridges into New York City were getting.  That’s been news in Tidewater for years.

I’m starting to think the world actually did end sometime around 1994.  Nobody got the memo, thouh.

I’d say this would pair nicely with Matt Sharp’s Thoughts From A Slow Train, but that’s not available on YouTube…..

Sunday afternoon, we were watching some of Bourdain’s Parts Unknown best-of episode. He had some interesting things from Detroit last season. Much has been made of the deterioration of Detroit, but little seems focused on how to actually bring it back. I have my own ideas about how to revive urban life, but they’d require changes even the politicians who run on CHANGE are unwilling to consider.

Still, it’s not just the industrial-era bastions of American might that are collapsing. There’s plenty of nasty suburbia that people have let die the last couple of decades. Who’s overseen that? Your kids are busy occupying Wall Street, when you’re grinning mightily at how your 401k is doing.

Rest comfortable in that, y’all. Thinking of what you’ve let slide into ruin might give you a headache. No, you can’t have your Aleve back. Not yours, desipite whatever the commercial on NBC Nightly News says. Oh, but the 1964 World’s Fair was so neat! yeah, about that.

Taking the time to investigate why things are the way they are is too tough. Better break out the Tylenol, again; you switched to that today, remember?  Cluetick:  it’s not the CEOs.  Yes, they’re getting incredibly rich.  Why?  You own the shares, and every time they tick up a penny unexpectedly, they get paid — outrageously, in some cases.

Do I really have a point with this? Yes, but I don’t think most people would care. Oh well. So, I’ll just go away, and leave whoever’s reading with this…..

I’ve been looking around, applying for work, and so on. It’s Sunday, I’m by myself. And maybe that’s why I’m mildly amused that my CMS tells me, “howdy.” (It’s a bit like it sent me a smiley. I LOVE smileys.)

Part of what I’m working through in figuring out what I want work-wise, is health care. Part of my frustration recently has been dealing with having to change insurers as I involuntarily change employers. Because I was sick of paying an incredible amount for COBRA from the last company’s plan, I bought private insurance. So far, I’m happy with it. I don’t have to go on whatever “employer-sponsored” program whenever I do find a gig.

I also looked at private plans on the individual market, and ones offered through my auto and property insurance company. I ended up choosing something else due to local ubiquity, and, ultimately, cost. (To speak to that, the plans I ultimately ended up choosing for health, dental, and vision were cheaper than just health and dental from my auto and property insurance company.)

I’ve long speculated that the PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) aka “Obamacare” (what a terrible abbreviation, and nickname, by the way) would ultimately result in the death of “employer-sponsored” coverage. This implies that’s already happening. So, my calculation is to find a company paying into a private exchange that offers my insurer, or pay out-of-pocket until I can choose a plan offered in an exchange whoever I’m working for that week pays in to.

In the meantime, if I land on with a company that doesn’t pay into an exchange that offers my plan, or retains an old-school setup, I’ll have to try to see if I can get some sort of salary increase to support my decision not to use their benefits.

Also, if there’s something where I don’t need to work full-time, the employer can pay in proportionally based upon how much I’m working. (If I’m only working half-time, the employer only contributes half of what they’d normally contribute….)

Decisions, decisions.

What else have I been doing? Learning about Linux KVM, and trying to decide how to address this site, and HR Geeks.

Speaking of which, I should go put up the meeting info on 757.org.