The Comms Room

Michael Hampton

12:58 AM

@Zoredache Somebody did it. bitquestion.com

HopelessN00b

Oh good. I've always wanted to earn 1/10,000th of a BC for answering a banal question about BitCoins.

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton Where there is exactly 1 question available

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson True. And I already implemented that, so I'll be claiming that money. :)

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton I still don't understand Bitcoin

But I still don't understand Twitter either, so meh

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson bitcoin.SE :)

39

Q: What is a good way to concisely explain Bitcoin?

Often I'm asked to explain Bitcoin to someone and occasionally I come up with something stellar that really nails it, but most times it's a rambling incoherent mess. What I would like to see is a short and simple explanation of what Bitcoin is that is suitable for someone non-technical to under...

marketing

Mark Henderson

1:07 AM

What. The. Fuck. that actually exists.

24

A: What is a good way to concisely explain Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a new kind of money. It's the first decentralized electronic currency not controlled by a single organization or government. It's an open source project, and it is used by more than 100,000 people. All over the world people are trading hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin ...

Michael Hampton

Yes, it does. Interestingly it's how I found Stack Exchange and wound up here.

Mark Henderson

and it is used by more than 100,000 people

- So... I can use real money that's accepted in a roundabout way by 7 billion people.. or bitcoin for 100,000 people...

And after reading that answer, I still don't get it

How do you generate money?

How do i get me some bitcoins? Do i trade real money for them?

Journeyman Geek

You can

or you spend a lot of power solving useless equations to 'generate' them

Michael Hampton

Yes, both ways. mtgox.com is the usual first stop for that.

Journeyman Geek

/me really thinks a bitcoin type currency needs to based off actual work. Not using your video card as a space heater

Mark Henderson

1:09 AM

@MichaelHampton Sounds like a great scam. Give me your money and I'll give you a digital signature that almost nobody accepts...

Journeyman Geek

lol

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson If nobody accepted it, it would be a scam.

Mark Henderson

And how does generating money by wasting electricity and buying expensive video cards work?

Normal currency works because I provide something of value to the community and I am rewarded in money for my work

Journeyman Geek

@MichaelHampton: its supposed to work?

Mark Henderson

I'm not sure what sort of value throwing 5 GTX 520's in and spending $1000/month on electricy provides...

Journeyman Geek

1:11 AM

Thats the EXACT problem I have with bitcoins. Its a fiat currency with no actual backing

Michael Hampton

Transaction processing is based on the concept of proof-of-work, which you can Google. The reason isn't directly to generate money, but to prevent double-spending.

@JourneymanGeek So are those dollars in your pocket.

Mark Henderson

I really want to understand, but if a reasonably intelligent, rational person like myself can't understand then I don't see it getting much traction...

Journeyman Geek

@MichaelHampton: there's a government backing it, and if nothing else, they can back it with force of law or arms.

Michael Hampton

@JourneymanGeek Not a very solid backing there.

HopelessN00b

@MichaelHampton So? Problem being that Bitcoins are a lateral move, not a significant improvement. The fiat dollars in my pocket are universally accepted. the fiat bits in BitCoins are not.

Michael Hampton

1:13 AM

Journeyman Geek

@MichaelHampton: it mostly works tho

Michael Hampton

@JourneymanGeek Yeah, until you get somebody like Ben Bernanke.

Journeyman Geek

and if my money lost value, I could sell it for metal, or such

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson The real killer app right now is sending money across international borders. This is MUCH cheaper with Bitcoin, even with currency conversions factored in.

HopelessN00b

@MichaelHampton Don't try to pretend BitCoins aren't subject to the same market forces either. They've had a couple large devaluations, and a number of prominent BC banks and currency exchanges have been hacked.

Journeyman Geek

1:14 AM

@MichaelHampton: An old person once told me, an economist who dosen't know the price of eggplant is utterly pointless.

Michael Hampton

@HopelessN00b Nope, it certainly is volatile. Not unexpected for something as new as it is.

Journeyman Geek

(old indian chap, substitute eggplant for any other trivial good)

Michael Hampton

@JourneymanGeek I don't know the price of eggplant, but I do know the price of eggs. Does that count?

Journeyman Geek

@MichaelHampton: same idea ;p

You can't set effective economic policy from an ivory tower

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton - so, does this mean that early adopters hold all the money?

HopelessN00b

1:18 AM

@MichaelHampton So again, not an improvement over the fiat crap in my pocket everyone accepts as money.

I'm not arguing that fiat currency is anything but horrible, I'm just pointing out the BitCoins aren't a significant improvement on what we have now. A good proof-of-concept, and will hopefully lead to a functional crypto-currency, but this particular implimentation is going the way of Flooz and all that e-money crap did after the dotcom bubble burst.

@MarkHenderson It does. There's one guy alone who has over 2 million out of them.

Michael Hampton

@HopelessN00b If it were going to fail, it would have already. You're looking at the crypto-currency you're talking about.

@MarkHenderson Probably the early adopters have large amounts of money. Who cares?

HopelessN00b

And as they get exponentially more difficult to produce, the early adopters really have all the power. One guy, alone, with 1/12th of total number of Bitcoins that can EVER be produced? Yeah, good system.

Michael Hampton

21

Q: Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

Some people believe that hoarding hurts the Bitcoin economy. But are they really right? As long as corresponding goods vendors and services will be here to stay and reinforce people's faith in Bitcoin, hoarded bitcoins simply do not take part in daily business and do not hurt anyone. Quite the...

money-supply trading economics

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton If a few people horde a finite currency, then it falls traps to the same problems current currency does

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson Eh, they have to spend it sooner or later.

HopelessN00b

1:21 AM

@sysadmin1138 THANK YOU. That guy was really starting to piss me off.

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton Not really, they have real money to spend instead. I could claim 50% of that bitcoin stock and then figuratively set fire to it

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson Eh? If somebody destroyed some coins, the better for all the rest of us.

Journeyman Geek

or dump it all on the market at once.

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton I'm just pointing out that it seems to have the same issues that the current currency system has

@JourneymanGeek Exactly

HopelessN00b

@MichaelHampton Later, though, which is the problem. Not only is it deflationary, which encourages hoarding, but having someone control that large a portion of the currency does too. If it takes off and becomes a universal currency, that one guy has 1/12th of the world's total wealth by hoarding it, and he knows that.

Mark Henderson

1:23 AM

It's cheaper for international transfers, which I can accept. But it seems incredibly inconvenient if I want to send to anyone except those 100,000 current bitcoin users

Michael Hampton

@HopelessN00b And what's the problem with "hoarding"?

HopelessN00b

@MichaelHampton I'm not an economics textbook. But read one of those, and you'll know. :p

Michael Hampton

@HopelessN00b I have. "Hoarding" means there's an economist who is trying to screw you.

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton If I hold $10 billion in gold bullion and take it off the market for 25 years, the price of gold will adjust for the fact that a shitload of it is gone so it becomes more valuable. Then I dump the entire 10 billion back onto the market (except it's now worth 30 billion because gold has become 3x the price), and all of a sudden there's so much of it that nobody pays top dollar for it and it goes back to being $12 billion worth

ewwhite

1

Q: Migrating to Amazon AWS etc: What key statistics/questions should be analyzed and asked?

I searched SOverflow pretty extensively for something similar to this set of questions. BACKGROUND: We are a growing 'big(ish)' data chemical data company that are outgrowing our lab and our dedicated production workhorses. Make no mistake, we need to do some serious query optimization. Our da...

mysql amazon-web-services database-migration

Mark Henderson

1:26 AM

Hell thats basically the whole story of Die Hard III

HopelessN00b

So again, lateral move.

Just another fiat currency with an entrenched group in control based on factors other than merit, and a massive hurdle to adoption. Sounds like *the king is dead, hail to the king* to me.

Shane Madden

@MichaelHampton But it's a lot different for a limited-quantity currency than every real economy, right?

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson Are we doing movie-plot threats, then?

Mark Henderson

@MichaelHampton The idea behind the movie has merit :P

Journeyman Geek

o0 was that a monkey?

oh, no, just a kid. same difference

HopelessN00b

1:27 AM

@ewwhite Close/nuke from orbit, right? I'm not the only one thinking that, am I?

ewwhite

good be an okay discussion...

Michael Hampton

Kill it with fire.

HopelessN00b

@ewwhite It would be a good question if it wasn't such a painfully obvious do my job for me for free question. And if we weren't a Q&A format. :)

Michael Hampton

@ShaneMadden The problem with deflation is that the money supply shrinks and there simply isn't enough money in circulation. This isn't a problem with Bitcoin since it's infinitely divisible.

HopelessN00b

@MichaelHampton Actually, that's only one of the problems with deflation.

Journeyman Geek

1:31 AM

@MichaelHampton: actually, no, the whole idea behind it is there's only X amount of currency floating around, which is why it gets harder and harder to 'mine'

Michael Hampton

1:52 AM

Oh god, it's a developer.

2

HopelessN00b

Where? Kill it quick, before it breeds!!!

(Well, you never know... anything's possible, and better safe than sorry.)

Joel E Salas

@MichaelHampton Don't let him get away or he'll spread his devops mumbo jumbo all over twitter and you'll never see the end of him

Michael Hampton

That guy whose question got locked and just complained on meta.

Mark Henderson

0

A: Unable to connect to Postgres on Vagrant Box - Connection refused

chech out https://github.com/rogelio2k/vagrant-postgresql

@HopelessN00b - that signup link is a github signup link, not actually related to the thing he linked to

Michael Hampton

im am primmarily a programmer - so admittably my questions are not typical SA scenarios - but the connecting to exchange via IP is genuine - i programme sockets and servers all the time and am still sure there must be a way — markmnl 14 mins ago

Mark Henderson

1:55 AM

@MichaelHampton Ugh yeah I'm not arguing with him.

We've all told him the Gods honest truth, that'll be enough

WesleyDavid

@MichaelHampton I saw the question and clicked on it solely to downvote it.

My conscience would have been clean if things had stopped there, but I read on and wished I could downvote a second time.

@MarkHenderson Herrow, dewdrop! ^_^

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Snugglebums!

lick

WesleyDavid

I hear someone has volunteered to clean our litterbox whilst naked.

Mark Henderson

Wicked. Let's play with his scrotum

WesleyDavid

So I have to do this to get OS X to backup to a network drive: code.stephenmorley.org/articles/time-machine-on-a-network-drive

The hell.

HopelessN00b

2:04 AM

@MarkHenderson Oh, cool., just set of alarm bells with me being a new user, link-only late answer.

Michael Hampton

I cleaned it up a bit and added the missing disclosure.

WesleyDavid

Absurd. $300 for a 2TB Time Capsule.

HopelessN00b

@MichaelHampton I had to restrain myself form outright calling him a lying sack. First he's mostly a programmer, then the DNS server is on the other side of the world, then he's an SA for a small business who, incidentally, doesn't know the difference between "host" and "domain."

I think he's one of those users they'd by prying me off of with a crowbar, in actuality.

WesleyDavid

I was hoping to avoid hanging a USB drive off of this thing and use a network drive / wireless backup.

But noooo.

IT'S @JCOLEBRAND!!!

Who is not lazy.

jcolebrand

It is no such thing ... oh yes it is

HopelessN00b

2:07 AM

Oh right, and given that he didn't understand my C++/web analogy on meta, I don't think he's a developer.

WesleyDavid

@jcolebrand Your facial hair makes me feel inadequate.

jcolebrand

I shaved recently, see the past week or so in the Tavern on the Meta (I think is where I posted)

chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/89/2012/8/26

Michael Hampton

@HopelessN00b You're right. His SO profile indicates he's doing all his "developing" in WinForms.

WesleyDavid

You look like Russel Crowe

Is your mind purdy?

@MarkHenderson You know what time it is?

@MarkHenderson It's roadtrip time!

markmnl, Perth, Australia

295 1 1

discussion

jcolebrand

@WesleyDavid I've heard that before

WesleyDavid

2:11 AM

You need to have a heart-to-heart with him.

Wait, is Warren Guy on SF? HE's in Perth.

HopelessN00b

@MichaelHampton WinForms, really? Now I gotta look. By the way, how many levels below "Excel developer" is "WinForm" developer?

Michael Hampton

@HopelessN00b I've never stared that far into the abyss.

rnxrx

Woohoo! Excel developer!

WesleyDavid

I develop visual basic GUIs to track people's IP addresses.

HopelessN00b

@rnxrx I know how pathetic Excel developer sounds, but I know guys who actually do that for banks. One of them makes $70,000 and works 4 months a year (January through April). I wanted to kill myself when I found out what his salary was, really.

Mark Henderson

2:17 AM

@WesleyDavid Haha Perth is a big road trip

Equivalent of driving from NY to LA

@WesleyDavid I've been meaning to research how to Time Machine onto a NAS. Same as you I'm not forking out a billion dollars for an Apple-sanctioned drive

rnxrx

@HopelessN00b We had a guy build a patch cable inventory app for a data center that included gui, relational queries, bar coding, etc.. All Excel, all the time. Six figure contract. Patch cables... Yep.

HopelessN00b

@rnxrx Yup, and I've been working for a living my whole life. What a sucker. I should just do a hard reboot and remember these things for the next life. :(

And on that happy thought, I gotta get off to bed so I can make it to work tomorrow. >:/

Mark Henderson

Cya @HopelessN00b

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson I'm just going to dangle a USB drive off of it for now. sigh My desk was so minimalist. :'(

@MarkHenderson I first read that sentence as if you said "I'm not fonking out a bazillion dollars..." and I thought "Fonking?" Must be an Australian thing.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid I feel your pain. You can hardly see it in the background, but this is our desk:

WesleyDavid

2:29 AM

That's the great thing about being outside of the culture of the person you're having a conversation with. You can say any batshit crazy thing you want and as long as you have a handsome accent, they'll think you're brilliant.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Haha, fair dinkum!

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson Very nice, all built-in and custom.

Mark Henderson

What an ocker

@WesleyDavid Exactly. No way I'm spoiling that with an ugly NAS

Anyway we've sold that apartment and we're buying a house, so I'll get a 2nd chance to make a kickass office in the new house

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson Lizard's drinking long paddock koala shrimp on the barby OY OY OY!!!

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Foshizzle my nizzle

WesleyDavid

2:31 AM

@MarkHenderson I've still got junk on my desk as I clean off my old laptop and prepare for selling it. I have only one thing left to do and that's clear out Quicken and put it into Mint.com

I'm going balls to the wall with Mint. Gonna take the plunge.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid I fucking hate Quickbooks

MYOB Motherfuckers!

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson QuickBooks is pretty wretched.

I run my business on it.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid You should see its API

WesleyDavid

Suxors.

Well, Mint is a distant relative of Quicken/QuickBooks, so I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that.

Mark Henderson

In that its API consists of shovelling a single ASCII file that contains every piece of information into its inner workings via ODBC

WesleyDavid

2:33 AM

Except it was bought in 2009 from Web 2.0 agile devop entrepreneurs so it can't be all that bad.

2

That would be awesome to have your entire dataset in one row, in one table.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid I think that sentence sets a new record for the highest number of bullshit words in a row and still forming a sentence

WesleyDavid

17,000 columns.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Sounds reasonable

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson Nah, @Joel won that contest long ago.

Mark Henderson

Everyone knows that seeking through tables taks time. So let's just have a single row! Problem fixed

You know what we haven't had in a while? A Star Wesley day

John K

2:35 AM

@MarkHenderson Just logged in for some laughs - goal achieved haha

WesleyDavid

Aug 10 at 18:01, by Joel E Salas

@ewwhite Senior DevOps Agile ScrumMaster Cloud Ninja Pirate Rockstar Engineer wanted to troubleshoot Outlook, set up WiFi, and take the blame for things out of their control!

2

Stop starring me.

21

Mark Henderson

@JohnK Sometimes this place descends into the unhealthy bowls of actual conversations. Its depressing.

WesleyDavid

Bastards.

2

Scott Pack

@Wes!

John K

@MarkHenderson Haha, tell me about it, durign the day, I just assume we're all robots. Love that apt setup by the way - not to be a creeper

WesleyDavid

2:37 AM

@ScottPack MY SNOOSNOO-WIGGINS!!

Mark Henderson

@JohnK Nah no worries. My wife spent about 3 weeks cleaning non stop before the real estate agents photographer came

Scott Pack

swoon

I remember when the wife was the real estate photographer.

John K

@WesleyDavid Haha, yeah, I'd probably need months for my place haha

Scott Pack

For a brief moment I could look at ads that weren't terrible.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid WHAT. THE. FUCK. Are you cheating on me you... you... TOM

WesleyDavid

2:39 AM

@ScottPack "Real estate photographer? That's my wife!!"

Scott Pack

Our relationship is getting much too complicated for my current BAC.

Mark Henderson

@ScottPack Having a good photographer makes a big difference. So many places have such shit photos, or photos of the strangest things, like the patch of dirt in the back corner of the yard

John K

Wow, this place get's awesome after 5:00

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson Now if I abused you with a cell phone and blogged about it on a custom Python CMS I'd be a Two-Timing-TomTom-Tom

3

John K

@MarkHenderson I swear when I look at pictures of places online, it's the same damn photo every time of the same room from the same corner

Mark Henderson

2:41 AM

@JohnK domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/Apartment-Unit-Flat/NSW/Telopea/…

I think our guy did a really good job

The photographer who did our apartment was $150, and that included post-processing to make it brighter or more natural

$150 well spent

John K

@MarkHenderson Haha, THATS how you do real estate photos :D that place looks awesome great

Mark Henderson

@JohnK Well it sold very quickly and for much higher than we expected, so good marketing makes all the difference

Plus we have a signboard that's about 3m tall. I don't quite know how helpful that's been but it's damn impressive.

John K

@MarkHenderson Man, that's awesome, sounds like you guys did it right! How do you like the new place?

Mark Henderson

@JohnK Havent' bought anything yet

We have a 12 week settlement period in which to purchase another place, or find somewhere to rent

John K

@MarkHenderson Ahhh gotchya

Scott Pack

2:46 AM

@Mark Step 1) Photo the house level, don't lean. Step 2) Make sure you can't see soiled toiletries in the pictures.

Mark Henderson

We're going to start negotiations on a place next week, but we feel they over-priced by $50,000 so we'll see how it goes

@ScottPack Oh god, yes the toilet! At least close the goddamn lid so we can't see the skid marks

John K

Cool coo, good luck!

Scott Pack

Or take nout the trash so we can't see the tampon.

Mark Henderson

And if the house is tenanted during the open house, I swear they do their best to make the places as hideous as possible. One place we went to you had to step over wet towels in the corridors and avoid piles of laundry in the bedrooms

@ScottPack And don't leave your stubble in the sink

Seriously basic stuff that you should probably be doing anyway, even if you're not having an open home

Scott Pack

I've heard horror stories about scheduling viewings of rentals.

John K

2:52 AM

I live with 3 other guys in a rental house right now, and I will, unfortunately admit, I feel bad for the first group of people coming through for a showing :S

Mark Henderson

@ScottPack When we were renting, the market was so bad that literally 50 groups of people would turn up to every single open house

And you can guarantee that at least 5 of those would be perfect applicants, and the owner will just flip a coin

So unless you could get in that pile of perfect applicants (we had never rented before, fresh out of home), you may as well not even bother trying

@JohnK Hah I bet it smells manly in there

Like beer and farts

John K

@MarkHenderson So many farts

Mark Henderson

@JohnK Gross fact for the day: Farts smell worse in the shower not because they're wet, but because your nose becomes much more sensitive in warm humid environments.

John K

That's crazy though - I never know what kind of ground I'm on these days as far as other people's perspective on the US - but man, during the crisis .here you could buy a house in Detroit for jsut about as much as it costs to rent

Mark Henderson

So you're smelling the same fart, but with hypersensitivity

John K

3:00 AM

@MarkHenderson Haha, that's fascinating

Scott Pack

Gnight gents.

Mark Henderson

@JohnK But isn't that because Detroit is a shithole with no industry? (no offense, I just know what i see on TV)

John K

Ciao

Mark Henderson

Cya

John K

@MarkHenderson Oh none taken - that's pretty accurate - auto industry tanked, everyone got laid off, no one could afford their homes - when everyone's selling at once prices tend to be pretty crazy

Mark Henderson

3:01 AM

@JohnK Here, you can get $410/week for renting a 2br apartment in the suburbs, or about $600/week for a 4br house. Or you can buy an apartment for $350-400k in the suburbs or a house for about $550k+

John K

But it was like that in soo many places

Oh man, $410 a week??

MikeyB

The 2nd last house we rented, we lived in a house with a mould problem. The landlords had promised to fixed it, but they never did.
When it came time for the open house, they arranged with us to start at 8PM. They showed up with the first people to whom they were going to show at 7:45 asking to come in. We made them wait until 8PM, by which time there was a backlog of people to show.
We helped. We very enthusiastically showed off all the warts of the house and explained how the landlords had told us they were going to fix the mould but never did. We explained very strongly to the pregnant w…

John K

Jeez we have it so easy here

Scott Pack

Lots of places. DetroiDetroit

Mark Henderson

@JohnK Yep. If we had rented our place instead of selling thats what we could have got for it.

Scott Pack

3:02 AM

Detroit, Youngstown....Detroit....

Mark Henderson

@MikeyB Whoah. Who has an open house at 8pm?

And whats the bet that next time htey have an open house the agent kept you away ;)

John K

@MarkHenderson Trying to do the math - a place like yours, basedo nt hose pics, in a nice area, would probably (real ballpark guess here) be about $800-1200 a month on this side of the lake

Mark Henderson

If you get a 4br house in the outer suburbs for < $500k then you've done very well

John K

@MarkHenderson Man, that's crazy expensive

Relative to what I'm used to

Mark Henderson

@JohnK It's a 45-60 rail commute to the city from our place too, which is also fairly typical

@JohnK You're telling me. Sydney is more expensive than NY

John K

3:04 AM

whistle Hey, it's a beautiful city from what I can tell, can't say I'm surprised

Mark Henderson

And I did a lot of serious maths on moving to NY 6 months ago, and in terms of cost of living, NY was cheaper than Sydney. But the salary package also reflected that

John K

Aye

Mark Henderson

Here we got paid more for the same work and have fewer "other" expenses. For example, if you choose to get health insurance, it's about $2000/year for the whole family, and even if you don't have it, you still get good public health care

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson Except here we can download entire movies on the same night we want to watch them. Take that you smug public-health-care ninny.

Mark Henderson

We also pay about $6.00/gallon for petrol (except we measure it in $/l whcih is about $1.60/l)

MikeyB

3:07 AM

@MarkHenderson Well it wasn't an open house, it was arranged visits. And the times may be ±2h or so, but you get the idea

John K

@MarkHenderson Ah yeah, that's pretty good. Haha, as I'm sure you're aware, health insurance here is a bit different. If you're lucky as hell like me with a good company, you pay nothing, if you're unlucky, you're looking at abotu $2000 a year and no good public options

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Hey, the place we want to buy I can get 100Mbps HFC! I will be signing up for that the DAY we sign the contract if we buy it

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson I didn't know high fructose corn syrup came in 100Mb varieties.

3

John K

!!!!! HCF! Daaaaaaaamn, I'm moving Sidney

@WesleyDavid ROFL

Michael Hampton

@WesleyDavid Yes, but 1Gbit high fructose corn syrup is better for new deployment. or 10Gbit if you can afford it.

Mark Henderson

3:09 AM

@WesleyDavid Hybrid Fibre Cable. 100Mbps coax

And as I've mentioned before, we are getting FTTP but it won't be finished for about 5 years

Hybrid fibre-coaxial

Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) is a telecommunications industry term for a broadband network which combines optical fibre and coaxial cable. It has been commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s. Description The fiber optic network extends from the cable operators' master headend, sometimes to regional headends, and out to a neighborhood's hubsite, and finally to a fiber optic node which serves anywhere from 25 to 2000 homes. A master headend will usually have satellite dishes for reception of distant video signals as well as IP aggregation routers. Some...

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson Wow, File Transfer Telepathy Protocol. Now your thoughts can be MITM attacked along with your ten-day-downloading-movies. You Australians are living the dream... BRB, ARP poisoning your brainz.

3

AHM IN UR SYNAPSES, HIJAXING UR AXONS

Mark Henderson

Fiber to the x

Fiber to the x (FTTX) is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to replace all or part of the usual metal local loop used for last-mile telecommunications. The term is a generalization for several configurations of fiber deployment, ranging from FTTN (fiber to the neighborhood) to FTTD (fiber to the desk). Definitions The telecommunications industry differentiates between several distinct configurations. The terms in most widespread use today are: *FTTN/FTTLA (fiber-to-the-node, -neighborhood, or -last-amplifier): Fiber is terminated in a street cabin...

MikeyB

@MarkHenderson FTTM / FTTMM (Fibre to the MAX! / Fibre to the MAX, Motherfucker!)

Mark Henderson

@MikeyB That would be FTTMM? I like it

Should propose it as an ISO standard

MikeyB

Hmmm… ginger tequila jello shooters…

John K

3:17 AM

Welp, it's getting late over here, you guys have a good night/day

Mark Henderson

Cya @JohnK

@WesleyDavid - how did your contract work go?

WesleyDavid

3:29 AM

@MarkHenderson Still going.

Streaming media is fun!

And it's paying.

I'm seeing an end to this in September. Then I can get back to focusing on an office in Colorado that I have a retainer with. I've been letting them slide a bit.

I could still take on more work after that though, so if you know of anyplace that needs an infra guy on contract basis.

MikeyB

Oh that's sweet: http://lmmtfy.net/
http://lmmtfy.net/?q=ls

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid thats a lot of work for 25 hours a week

Are you an employee or a contractor?

WesleyDavid

Indeed. That's exactly what I thought too.

Contract only, not employed.

Mark Henderson

As an employee I'd be wanting $75-$100/hr, and as a contractor, $120+

Sounds like it would be a very steep first few months, loads of work, but if you could get it all documented and controlled, then it could be very easilly managed

@WesleyDavid wtf? I think they get paid more than that at McDonalds here

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson I know, right? But it's like that all over here. I'm seeing contract jobs that are pretty intense, and the dollar amounts for contractors never get over $75 an hour. Ever.

$35 to $50 is the norm.

And that's contractor. Not employee. Not placement agency. No benefits, no middleman.

Pure cash from them to me.

Mark Henderson

3:37 AM

@WesleyDavid - that's robbery

Especialyl for someone with a degree and experience

JMeterX

@MarkHenderson where do you live?

WesleyDavid

So I'm happy to have the two places that I'm working with now, but wow is it discouraging to see what people want to pay out there. When this one place dries up in September, I'm probably going to either go full-force into a monthly hosted service offering that I could probably afford to kickstart or I'll just grit my teeth and do a $35 an hour job for a while.

Mark Henderson

And as a contractor you have to pay your own tax, insurances, equipment, etc

@JMeterX Sydney, Australia

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson ...and training, and transportation. Don't I know it. =/

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Exactly. Thats why they get paid more

WesleyDavid

3:38 AM

I have no degree. =(
Although my certifications do get attention.

Mark Henderson

At the end of the day they're probably not earning much more than an employee

JMeterX

@MarkHenderson that's unbelievable...though I am just one year out of college around $35 seems to be our standard

WesleyDavid

Except my certs don't reflect my current skillset that well, which sucks.

Mark Henderson

@JMeterX When I was first taken on here as a trainee here, I was billed out at $75/hr, and that was in 2006

WesleyDavid

My quoted rate is $150, and places have paid me that, but it seems to be a huge barrier to entry.

Mark Henderson

3:39 AM

In 2007 I was billed out at $100 and now it's $150

Don't be fooled though, as an employee I'm lucky to get 1/3 of that in my pay cheque

WesleyDavid

Which is good. Plenty of places have come to me and said "Hey, we'd like to use your services!" and then saw my hourly rate and back pedalled pretty fast. I guess that's good though. Do you really want to work for a place that's that cheap? Prolly not.

@MarkHenderson I'm lucky to get a quarter of that.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Exactly. We sort of use it as a way of weeding out people we don't want to work for

WesleyDavid

Doesn't your workplace take care of benefits and stuff though?

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Yes. I get lunch, phone, home internet, and recently a car

JMeterX

@MarkHenderson so what do you think better to be a contractor or an employee?

WesleyDavid

3:41 AM

@MarkHenderson One place was pretty cool looking though. Streaming video company overseas. I thought they'd have no issues. They were VC backed and everything. Quoted my rates -- they disappeared.

They even said "Wow, that's a lot more than we usually pay for things like that..."

So... whatevs.

Mark Henderson

@JMeterX Depends on your lifestyle. I like being an employee because it gives me a safety net and someone else (my employer) carries all the risk, and as a man with a young family, I need that

If I had my time over again, I might have gone into more contracting work after getting real experience

I do some contracting work after hours and on weekends, but I keep it ti a minimum

WesleyDavid

@JMeterX As a contractor, if anyone relies purely on contract work to support them, they're insane. You need to make up 1/3 to 1/2 of your needed income on recurring, monthly services. Either hosted services or retainer contracts that are hard for peopel to back out of.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid I wonder if they regret taking someone at a lower rate. maybe they got lucky and got a good admin that was just starting out, but chances are they got a crap admin and spent more time fixing everything

WesleyDavid

I have one open account that I can always get hours from, which is nice. No hosted services though. No recurring income for hosted services.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid Retainers are good. Especially for low maintenance companies. Even just a small number of $150/month retainers are worthwhile

WesleyDavid

3:44 AM

And it's legit work that needs to be done. It's not like I'm bleeding people dry just because I want money.

JMeterX

@MarkHenderson @WesleyDavid As someone just out of college I came out with an aim to gain as much experience as possible, getting my masters in sept. and wish to do a little consulting on the side but will be getting married and starting a family very soon...I imagine work life balance will be difficult

WesleyDavid

@JMeterX Yeah, you're screwed. =P

JMeterX

@WesleyDavid hahaha love the speed in that comment

Mark Henderson

@JMeterX Personally I'd be finding a stable job at somewhere you like and digging in for the long haul

Because a contractor only works if you have relevant experience

JMeterX

@MarkHenderson yeah I have been with my current company for a little over a year now they are paying for my Masters so I will be with them for the very least 4 years

Mark Henderson

3:46 AM

And if while you're getting that experience your wife squeezes a baby out, well, thats the most amazing thing you'll ever experience, but you'll be fucked (figuratively, not literally, not literally for a very, very long time) and will need an understanding employer

JMeterX

My ultimate goal was to obtain my CISSP during this time to consult on the side

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson I think they got a decent admin that was of a cultural background where working for low wages over long hours is more accepted.

Mark Henderson

@WesleyDavid So, indian?

WesleyDavid

@MarkHenderson Either that or he was Chinese. I'm not sure which.

JMeterX

@MarkHenderson I am enjoying the laughs, couldn't agree more as soon as a child comes out she won't be allowing me to do anything

Journeyman Geek

3:46 AM

lol

WesleyDavid

@JourneymanGeek Err... did I offend?

Mark Henderson

@JMeterX Good news is, if it's a boy, her testosterone levels will skyrocket and you get to have sex very regularly. And it's not like she can get pregnant again!

So you take those opportunities and you seize them and you savour them because it will take every ounce of strength in your body to get through the next 12 months

I remember when my wife was pregnant, she actually said to me "OMG is this what it's like to be a man? To be horny this often? How do you survive?"

JMeterX

@MarkHenderson Yeah I can only imagine, wouldn't trade any of the pending experiences for the world.

At least she finally understood

And let alone admitted it

Takes guts there

Journeyman Geek

lol

@WesleyDavid: eh, Singapore, right?

Its something I'm familiar with

WesleyDavid

@JourneymanGeek Yeah, you remember that one?

Journeyman Geek

3:51 AM

yup ;p

online TV company

WesleyDavid

@JourneymanGeek That's the one.

I didn't expect my quote to startle them. It kinda deflated me. Especially since my already published written work online helped them solve part of their problem.

So it's not like I was being approached by them sight unseen.

JMeterX

You all have a good night/day getting late

WesleyDavid

But yes, I got the impression, based on the admin I emailed once or twice, that the job went to someone who was happier to work for much lower wages than I would have been. So... dunno. Mebbee I'm a spoiled American.

Journeyman Geek

@WesleyDavid: not hugely suprising. One reason I think my education in the management side of IT might be useful

WesleyDavid

@JMeterX Get sleep while you can, oh childless one.

JMeterX

3:53 AM

@WesleyDavid haha thanks

WesleyDavid

@JourneymanGeek Hope so. How's your degree coming along?

Journeyman Geek

Halfway done :)

is at the point where I need to look at certs, almost

After the last fuck up tho, I don't want to rush things.

Michael Hampton

So I register at Juniper's web site. They say they're going to email me a password. An hour later... guess what I haven't gotten.

WesleyDavid

@JourneymanGeek Awesome. So when is your graduation date approximately

@JourneymanGeek Err... I didn't hear about that one.

Journeyman Geek

sepember next year

Oh, I was doing computer security before. I had a nervious breakdown

Mark Henderson

4:04 AM

@MichaelHampton Better than VMWare. They never sent me a license key after billing me, and after contacting their support asking for my money back, no response

Michael Hampton

@MarkHenderson Fortunately I haven't bought anything yet.

Mark Henderson

wtf? Another rush of upvotes on this one:

1141

Q: Our security auditor is an idiot. How do I give him the information he wants?

A security auditor for our servers has demanded the following within two weeks: A list of current usernames and plain-text passwords for all user accounts on all servers A list of all password changes for the past six months, again in plain-text A list of "every file added to the server from re...

security security-policy pci-dss

@JourneymanGeek A real nervous breakdown? What was the cause?

1

A: data protector red tapes

As someone who has to work with what HP thinks passes as backup software (for another couple weeks at least), I can attest that you don't need to worry about what Data Protector says about your media state. It doesn't know what the hell it's talking about. that particular tape got marked bad a...

@HopelessN00b - +1 for As someone who has to work with what HP thinks passes as backup software

MikeyB

@MarkHenderson Nice!

Stack Exchange

factory --- spire --- onslaught --- extractor --- judge

Journeyman Geek

4:38 AM

@MarkHenderson utterly fucked up relationship I suspect.

and the whole pressure of switching countries with that

Mark Henderson

@JourneymanGeek Which countries did you switch from? And I sympathise on the relationship thing. I had a really fucked up relationship when I was younger.

(it was a combination of being desperate, taking the first thing on offer, then being lonely and too scared to end the relationship when it turned sour)

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