Published at 08:45 on 29 April 2016
I’m not going to much blame the specific claimed recruiter (Arun Kumar), because I strongly suspect he might not be an actual person. These slime are running address and phone number harvesting bots and ever since yesterday have been repeatedly spamming and robo-calling me about a job I am at best minimally qualified for.
Gotta love the mangled English, too. Realize that there’s plenty of well-educated people in India and Pakistan who have no difficulty using proper English grammar, and who thanks to the low standard of living in either country can be hired for a song compared to Western salaries. But of course if you’re a total sleaze outfit you can hire someone less educated in English for a song compared to them, so that’s what you’ll do.
From: ArunKumar <arun.r@krgtech.com>
To: xxxxx@xxx.com
Subject: Arun KRG Tech - Full Time (Permanent) - .NET Developer/Support - Redmond, WA
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 08:38:46 -0700
Hi,
Greetings!! We KRG Technologies star partner of HCL America recruiting for
.NET Developer/Support - Redmond, WA. If you are interested with the below
job description kindly share your updated resume, comfortable rate with tax
term to <mailto:arun.r@krgtech.com> arun.r@krgtech.com or call us to 661
367 8000 ext. 207. Also Please share this requirement to your friends, who
are looking for job change.
Published at 10:16 on 18 April 2016
It’s going to be closed while Bertha tunnels under it, and given that there already have been subsidence and sinkhole issues caused by the tunneling, the chance of collapse-inducing damage is greater while at the same time the chance of the collapse actually hurting anyone is far lower.
Given that the Viaduct is on its last legs anyhow, it’s either going to collapse before it is demolished or be demolished before it collapses. And given how it’s already in territory that was previously proclaimed to be unsafe, but retroactively claimed to be safe, because the state doesn’t want to tear it down without a replacement in place, its best that the procrastinating be ended now.
And given that the tunnel project was always an unrealistic boondoggle, it’s better that it be cancelled sooner rather than later, as a result of its subsidence damaging an obsolete viaduct as opposed to a perfectly good and non-obsolete downtown building or two.
And once the viaduct is out of service for good, Seattle will then be compelled get busy with the process of figuring out how to live without it.
Published at 17:19 on 15 April 2016
(This is the second of two posts which I had written down intending to repost here long ago, and only just recently rediscovered.)
… huge ones, in fact. But it is still the economic system of classic liberalism, based on the pro-freedom insight that letting people do as they choose need not create chaos and dystopia and can in fact create peace and self-organizing order.
Its biggest failure is in its indvidual-rewards mechanism. In attempting to reward valuable and useful effort, it ends up handing out privileges and creating a ruling class that subjugates others. The problem is not the rewarding of individual effort, but the way it is done. Rewards that create authoritarianism are anti-freedom and should be opposed.
But back to my first paragraph. That pro-freedom nature makes opposing capitalism tricky. One can’t simply get into the mindset that one is an anti-capitalist and then just oppose whatever the capitalist way of doing things is, all the time. If one does, one will often end up opposing freedom.
It’s part of the reason (only part, it was a feudalistic society with no tradition of nor much respect for freedom) the Soviet experiment went so badly for freedom. It’s also a reason to eschew the term “anti-capitalist,” which leads to just the wrong mindset when it comes to opposing and replacing capitalism.
I’ve never liked “anti-capitalist” much because it’s negative. I’d rather use labels based on what I am for, not what I am against. Now I have another reason to dislike the term.
Published at 08:04 on 14 April 2016
This is the first of two posts which I had written down intending to repost here long ago, and only just recently rediscovered.
Any organization the size of Google, Microsoft, GM, Exxon Mobil, etc. should have its autonomy significantly curtailed and restricted by some form of public participation. Only relatively small organizations are deserving of autonomy. And all economic organizations should be non-authoritarian.
That latter one in particular is an ideal that would take serious time to implement throughout society. But the former part would be quite a bit easier. It need not take the traditional state socialist form of nationalization. In fact, in a world of increased globalization, traditional nationalization is less and less relevant.
Requiring such participation will inevitably bog down and restrict large economic players. That’s not a problem; in fact, that’s a large part of the point. Innovations are decisions about the future and such things are too important to be decided by unaccountable authoritarian power structures. The proper role of large organizations is in overseeing and coordinating established economic activities that cannot practically be undertaken by smaller organizations.
Small organizations would still have the autonomy to innovate under this proposal. That is the proper place for innovation to take place, where it subsequently has to prove itself to larger society via competition and other means, rather than having an authority structure clear an artificially easy path for it.
Squaring this with traditional anarchism might not always be easy. In particular the part about the large organizations might be tricky. Autonomy for smaller ones isn’t that different from what anarchism has always proposed.
Published at 17:34 on 5 April 2016
Not much happened as a result of my having the discussion with my boss. They may have other projects I can work on which are a better match. On the other hand, they may also end up deciding I’m just too poor a match.
So while I remain employed I am also very much am back in the job market at this point.
Published at 17:55 on 4 April 2016
The title of this post describes my current job. It’s still going strong, as far as my boss is concerned (so far as I can tell), but it’s winding down so far as I am concerned, and I plan to announce this to my boss at tomorrow’s regularly-scheduled meeting.
When I took it, I had my qualms that it might not be the best of matches. The screening process contained a surprising amount of front end Javascript questions (such coding is not my strong suit). Plus the more I heard about it, the more I had doubts the position could furnish the sort of engrossing challenges I need. I mentioned these concerns and was assured that my impressions were incorrect.
The past six months have served to convince me that I was in fact correct. It’s getting to the point where I dread new assignments. It’s clearly time to start thinking about moving on if things can’t change dramatically (and I frankly doubt they can).
The only real question is what kind of ending can be worked out, which largely depends on their needs (if they only or mostly have a need for someone to do the sort of work I regard as unpleasant drudgery, the end will come sooner rather than later).
Published at 08:22 on 24 March 2016
The new light rail extension to the University of Washington hasn’t even been open for a week and it’s already subject to a problem that the experts hadn’t foreseen (but which I predicted but alas can’t find the entry predicting it): crowding due to unexpectedly high demand. So they’re having to make plans to add extra cars to the trains already.
It’s the induced demand I talked about when I made my prediction. It’s now very much easier to travel between the neighborhoods where the new stations are. It used to take at least 20 minutes and often 50 to get between the University of Washington and Downtown. It now takes eight. So of course people are starting to make trips they never would have considered before (such as going from the UW campus to Capitol Hill for lunch).
Published at 08:53 on 12 March 2016
So, after trying a cheap RTL2832 dongle for a month or two, I’ve decided that throwing more money at software defined radio at the present moment would be a waste of same.
The reason is Microsoft Windows. I still hate using it as much as ever, and if you don’t run Windows, your options for SDR software are extremely limited at the present time.
Given that this is all a hobby for me, “I hate using it” is the kiss of death. So I’ve basically given up on SDR for the time being.
It was of very little loss. The software was free and my hardware investment cost under $10.
Published at 08:02 on 4 March 2016
I’ve been using Boingo for internet access on the ferry since moving to Bainbridge Island about three years ago.
It’s reasonably priced (about $10 a month), but it’s never been fast. Three years ago, it was easily good enough for reading email with IMAP and sometimes a bit of light web usage. (Pages that had lots of Flash or Javascript never worked well, but simpler ones often worked slow but passably.)
Since then, it’s gotten progressively slower. I long ago given up using a web browser on the ferry and relegated it to IMAP-only use. Then it got harder and harder to even do that; it would take half the trip just to get Boingo to allow me to connect, and it would frequently drop out altogether and make my e-mail client fail.
The exception has been when I tried it on trips other than those at peak commute times. Boingo is surprisingly fast and reliable then (which is mostly irrelevant, since most of my trips are at peak hours). So clearly it’s an issue of capacity and overloading.
One day, while Boingo was giving me the usual frustrations, a new open access point popped up in my Wi-Fi drop-down menu: “Karma Wi-Fi.” It turned out to be a novel marketing strategy by a company that sells cellular internet modems. The connection was faster and more reliable than Boingo had ever been. But the monthly cost was significantly more, so I held off.
Then one evening I did some back of the envelope calculations based on how much my time is worth, and it was clear that the costs of the more expensive service would pay for themselves in about a fortnight. So I’ve taken the plunge, and it’s been as reliable as my free trial was. Time to call Boingo and cancel my service.
Published at 11:04 on 11 February 2016
I was worried about David Fry trying to have a heroic last stand which ended up with him and possibly a law enforcement officer getting shot and killed. But despite some militant last-minute rhetoric, the FBI managed to talk him into ending the standoff without further loss of life.
