Cody Jackson’s Techdirt Profile
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About Cody Jackson
I'm currently at my 12 year mark in the US Navy. I worked as a nuclear chemist, radcon technician, and nuclear mechanic on submarines before I was medically disqualified; now I work as an IT technician.
Prior to the Navy I worked at Gateway computers as a Senior Lab Technician, providing customer support for issues that couldn't be resolved by the phone support technicians.
I've spent 13+ years in the IT field performing technical support, training, programming, and advice. My supervisors have considered my strongest abilities to be my technical competence and my ability to discuss topics with people at a level they are comfortable with.
I have an AAS in Electromechanical Technology, BS in Computer Engineering Technology, and an MS in IT Management.
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Noteriety brings money; money doesn't bring noteriety
Money is a one-time thing. Yes, you can always make more, but in and of itself, money doesn't bring more money. Reputation, noteriety, fame, whatever you want to call it can bring more money. As said on this blog before, obscurity is more detrimental than lack of money. If people don't know about you, you can't parlay that into payments.
For me, when I self-published my programming book, I made sure to offer it in as many versions as I could. So, people can buy a physical book or one of a multitude of ebook formats. I also offer it for free from my web site (multiple formats) and via torrent.
I make about $100 a month in sales, which isn't much but the topic is in a niche area and it is $100 more than I had before. But establishing myself and getting my name out there is more important, as I can put it on my resume, attempt to get writing contracts, or whatever. Basically, I consider it as investing in my future, rather than an immediate money-grab.
Re: Re: I can only say two words...
Considering that it takes ten years or so for any developments the government/military is working on to come to light, e.g. the Stealth fighter, I'm sure there's some pretty scary stuff on the horizon.
Patents != Innovation
One thing I always found funny when Steve Jobs talked about the number of patents they had on the iPad/iPhone (I don't remember which). For several minutes in his keynote speech, he talked about the dozens of patents Apple applied for/received on the device, and people made a big deal of it both at the speech and in the media.
Prior to getting hooked on TechDirt, I probably would have been like "Hmm, impressive but irrelevant". Now, I realize that it is completely meaningless, especially with the number of lawsuits by other companies that these patents were supposed to protect Apple from.
If you are still sued even though you have patents, what is the point of spending all the time and money to get patents?
Re: The article presupposes...
Just because they are network-enabled doesn't mean the manufacturer is smart enough to make it upgradable. Nor would they necessarily want to; making people upgrade their TV for the latest and greatest features is their business model.
Even if they are upgradable, how long will that support last before they say you have to buy a new TV because the software won't work on the "old tech"?
Re: Re: Math and science dropouts
I wonder if educators are too close to the problem to properly identify it and possible remedies. The solutions discussed in the article seem pretty obvious to me yet they took decades to implement, even accounting for lack of money.
Math and science dropouts
Reading the article, it is surprising that educators are so dim when it comes to education.
I'm working on a Ph.D. in IS/IT Management and have read many studies that talk about getting people more involved in "stuff" (whatever the study is concerned with) inevitably leads to better results. Whether it is a company that gets employees involved in rolling out a new computer system or a classroom that has more student participation an fewer lectures, the more involved people are the more likely they are to succeed.
Empowering people and giving them a stake in an outcome encourages them invest more in a situation. Traditional classroom teaching has been shown to be ineffective in the vast majority of situations, whether it is in a school or a business training session.
Re:
Online retailers have to pay bandwidth costs, servers and storage, webmasters, software licenses, etc. So realistically the costs have just shifted.
I'm all for these taxes...
if they mean that people can "infringe" on whatever copyrighted works they want without ever being hassled by the RIAA, MPAA, and associated organizations.
But these organizations want these "you must be a pirate" taxes and still won't allow people to infringe on their copyrights. How does that work?
You pay a tax because of the possibilty that you may infringe on copyright, but if you are caught infringing, then you are taken to court. Yet, you've essentially already payed for the infringing content, right?
Re:
"A majority of TSA screeners are Veterans and have college degrees or are working on college degrees..."
Proof? Just because you say it doesn't make it true, unless there is evidence to back it up.
"...TSA uses the latest technology to adapt and keep up with the threat."
Yet, they are always looking at the last "threat", not being proactive and using the advice of non-government security experts to anticipate future threats.
"You can complain all you want but there hasn't been another 9/11 since TSA has taken over security at the airports."
Yes, but correlation does not mean causation. Just because the TSA is in charge of security doesn't mean it is solely responsible for preventing another 9/11. If you consider the shoe bomber and others, airport security didn't stop them from getting on the plane. It was the passengers that prevented them from doing any damage. Personally, I think the reason another 9/11 hasn't happened is because passengers are more inclined to deal with threats themselves nowadays, not increased airport security.
Finally, if a terrorist really wanted to make a statement, he would be better off targetting the security chokepoints rather than the airplane itself. That would shutdown the entire airport, and possibly surrounding area, rather than taking out a single plane. And it would show that the security theater from the government is ineffective at protecting people.
Re: And this is why...
+1. Regardless of what copyright maximalists, lawyers, and legislators want to believe, the reality is that all of these works are either now, or soon will be, available to the public on the Internet.
However, as I understand it, no one can _make use_ of these items in a commercial, and often non-commercial, way. So while the public may be able to read/watch/listen to these works, they can't use them to make new works.
But my question is, if other countries have allowed them to become public domain, they can make new works from them, right?
Ah, that is why the US is trying to get every other country to have the same copyright extensions the US has. It's also why, whenever one country extends its copyright, others are brought along so everyone "plays fair".
Got it!
LiveCDs
For the truly paranoid (or just serious privacy-minded), simply use a LiveCD version of an OS and boot from that. Everything is kept in RAM so once you exit the computer, nothing is left behind. As long as you aren't logging into search engines, you are just another person on the 'net. If you really want to be safe, use TOR and encryption during your surfing.
I remember reading a book in the Shadowrun RPG that was a neat suggestion, for rich people. Have your computer memory (RAM, ROM, etc.) put on EPROM chips and do your work in a dark room. Replace the lights with UV lights. When someone busts down your door and turns on the lights, the UV rays automatically erase the chips and there goes any evidence of wrong-doing. :) (Impractical, but an interesting thought.)
Re: Re: FPO/APO
Okay, but as you said, not every company has to follow the customs process. So either the Post Office can make the rules Amazon follows apply to everyone else or at least streamline the customs process so companies won't be reluctant to send overseas.
FPO/APO
If the USPS wants to make money, and maintain relevance, make it easier for companies to send packages to military overseas.
I can't tell you the number of times I have tried to order something online and receive a response that, because my address is FPO (Navy overseas), I am unable to receive the package via the Postal Service. I can spend the extra money for UPS or FedEx, if that option is available.
I don't know how the FPO/APO rules are set up, but apparently they must be strict (and stupid) because it is no different sending mail to military overseas than sending it to someone in the States, yet a lot of companies refuse to use it.
Fail
I noticed this a while back, when I wanted to incorporate the "Send to" feature of Google Reader with Google+. In the settings, there are many different social media sites available, except Google+. Sure, you can attempt to configure it manually, but it's a Google product. I shouldn't have to.
If Google can't even get it's own products communicating with each other, its relevance in the world will decline. Sure, Gmail is awesome and I use Google Reader every day, but other companies will pass them by.
Google can make great products, but the company seems to forget that we live in an interconnected age now. Like Sun used to advertise, "The network is the computer." If Google's products can't communicate with each other, and they don't provide the tools for others to do the work for them, then Google fails. Now is the time to start looking for the next Google.
Minimal FB user
I have an FB account but I rarely use it. I mostly have it just to find old high school friends and for networking purposes. Of course, with LinkedIn, Google+, et al., there is little need to have an FB account for networking.
I guess the big question is: what is FB doing with all this data? Selling it, using it for data mining, improving the user experience? I can't help but think that there is a sinister, ulterior motive for keeping deleted items.
Best practice is to simply anticipate that FB and other sites are a "permanent record", except that most of the information is what you provide. Thus, think twice about what you post and question if there's a possibility for it to come back and haunt you.
Wikileaks FTW!
It's this type of censoring that Wikileaks et al. are highly prized. If someone can't report the truth, or material that others are scared about, then at least post it anonymously.
On a related note, if someone is scared about repurcussions and writes a book under a psuedonym, can that person be charged? Is an anonymous book considered plausible deniability?
Re:
With the number of available streaming software tools available, there is very little need to use a music locker, especially one you have to pay for.
Heck, even the Opera web browser has built-in streaming capabilities. And I believe there are even iPod-radios on the market that allow streaming.
Re: Even corporations get this
Unfortunately, the government has created a buearacracy (sp?) out of classified material. There are whole organizations whose sole purpose is to create classification policies.
When they have that much invested, people are not willing to face reality. Obviously, if the information is leaked elsewhere, there is no justification for it to remain classified. But the paperwork required to get a security clearance for the government explicitly states that any classified information the individual has access to remains classified until official declassified.
A Navy message was sent out telling everyone that we could not access Wikileaks using government computers on the unclassified network because it would be considered a "spill" (unauthorized release of classified material). Everyone laughed, but it isn't worth losing your security clearance and facing prosecution to violate a government NDA.
It could have been worse
Honestly, I didn't see anything wrong with the pat-down, per se. It looked like a standard pat-down that is done all the time on adults.
My only complaint is that, based on the pat-down procedures I learned as part of private investigation training, the back of the hand should be used. This is to prevent accusations of inappropriate contact and to protect the inspector's hands in case something dangerous, e.g. fishhooks in a seam, are found.
That all being said, I do think it is inappropriate to pat-down children. Well, I think the pat-downs are stupid period but doing it to children could conceivably be traumatizing, especially if they equate it to being under arrest or some similar situation.
Although, it does give children a good argument when "playing doctor": I was only giving a pat-down, Mom, honest! (Do kids play doctor anymore?)
Why I want a Kindle
This is the exact reason why I want a Kindle. I have many books that my wife has been telling me to go through every time we move. I have tossed many books that I would have liked to keep but simply couldn't justify keeping. (I'm in the military so we move often).
Now that Kindle prices have dropped to under $200, I plan on buying one and scanning the books I currently own but don't want the physical book to carry around.
There are some books that simply work better in the dead-tree format but other books would work just as well in electronic form.
That way, I can have all my books but only move the ones I want to.