xradionut

Scanning radio waves is fairly cool in the first place. Most people really don't have a clue what's going on and it's fascinating. There's an plethora of various services and devices in this area of spectrum.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/2011/united-states-frequency-al...

Some uses I would consider besides general scanning and exploration would be: amateur radio (multiple bands), NOAA weather stations and satellites, various aviation services, device monitoring and prototype assistance, etc....

No.

And you don't need to be an jerk and interfere with broadcasts. It's an antisocial activity frowned on by 99.99 percent of the public and hardware hackers. There's plenty of good science that can be done in all aspects of RF experimentation for a small investment of time and little money.

That's the nature of the RF business. Most folks are interested in one (<= HF), or the other (> HF), or have money for equipment that handles both. Building good equipment that handles the full spectrum is challenging.

Easier and more money by breaking them down for parts. Strip it and abandon it.

Here's a colleagues blog post on the issues:

http://www.midnightdba.com/DBARant/?p=894

It describes a significant percentage of doctors, lawyers and airline pilots I've coded for...

Sounds like it's the paperwork/bureaucracy, not necessary the software that struggles to keep up with red tape.

My doctor had to sell her private practice and join a medical business group, just to keep up with the new insurance/government regulations. Healthcare in the US is insane...

"Meanwhile, your doctor in the hospital is stuck using some 1980's software, which drains the very life-force out of him by the amount of pain it inflicts with every use..."

Most of the problems with medical software is the doctors and medical administrators themselves. They get so used to be worshiped as Gods That Save Lives, they assume that they Know Everything About Everything. I've seen more software and business talent quit the medical software field than any other....

You have to be a DBA to properly use SQL Server too.

Yes you can stumble your way through wizards and SSMS, but you will get tripped up eventually if you don't spend some serious time hitting the books and blogs. (Recovery model, what's a recovery model? Why's my disk space gone?)

Chances are you are not dealing with banking, insurance or medical data while running on Azure. After the last several weeks, we had to assure clients, that none of the data is stored on Azure. Plus with the standard version of SQL Server or Azure you don't get full auditing or encryption.

Most servers aren't serving a single large database, but multiple databases with multiple applications. Plus you add some ETL via SSIS, some reporting, a few ad-hoc queries, etc and memory goes like Doritos and beer at Mississippi Super Bowl party. My smallest test SQL Server for development that isn't virtualized has 32GBs and we are considering changing it's role to something less taxing...

We were skeptical of Azure before NSA revelations, but now; "Hell No!".

Besides that, Microsoft has pretty well pissed off all but the most entrenched developers.

This reads more like an ad for DataNitro, instead of a cool way to get part information. Couldn't the same API be used with a different process?

This growth affects more than just Silicon Valley and California. Take any area that's boomed in the last 4 decades and you will find something similar. I'm sitting in a office building on what used to be some of the most productive farm land in Texas. Now Collin County is exburbia and corporate headquarters. Most of the residents are originally from other states, countries or 1st generation Texans.

USA

I've posted the names of a few of the lawyers that have made 8 and 9 figures from this practice and nothing happens. They don't care, it's legal, and they are in the .1 percent...

Plus the folks at PASS and local chapters aren't usually anal drones from Redmond.

Considering this Russia, what about polonium poisoning?

Yes.

Consider the high costs of health care, security and such. Also consider that you may want residences in different nations due to the uncertain in the political climate.

95% of the people I've worked with or met in startups aren't financially better after the process. But most did leverage the experience to find better jobs/careers...

As for money there are various sums of riches that lead to various life scenarios. At 6 million, I could take a few years off, switch careers and "retire" with a careful eye to expenses. At 10 million, no real job necessary beyond hobbies. At 40 million, I could really invest in projects I believe in and make big differences in many peoples lives. (I currently do assist people and contribute time and resources to various communities, but having serious capital would allow for economy of scale...)

All said, I don't want money, I want the security and the leverage to do good for myself and others. No bling or bottle popping wanted...

I'd rather have an updated version of the MintBox. Imagine having a decent portable, powerful enough Linux workstation/router that can be deployed anywhere, home, office or in the field.

Economic wars can be just as destructive in an insidious way...

As someone that works with financial institutions, good luck! the problem isn't technology, it's getting good technically qualified people to work for the small salaries that most banking institutions and their software vendors employ.

I wouldn't call this "Hillbilly Tracking", since it's the roughly same process many amateur radio and astronomy enthusiasts have been using to track satellites and other objects. But it is a cool build and hack...

My only concern is that some ongoing identification/verification takes place so the degree doesn't get "gamed" by being on line, thusly lowering it's value.

Here's another factor to consider: Sometimes crime is under reported or covered up or not acted on.

I've known of property and other crimes that did not show up in the statistics/annual reports of a particular city. The city in question was/is known for low crime and used that as a selling up point to attract businesses and home buyers. I'd be surprised if this was the only municipality that "fudged" their numbers.

I also think dashboard cameras, Russian style, would help in documenting accidents and curbing aggressive and substandard drivers. As a automotive commuter I'd gladly send videos of the dangerous crap that nearly kills me daily to a central insurance agency.

And Python and other OSS conventions and projects are adopting Codes of Conduct and working through these pains.

Linus might want to consider that Intel is playing the salaries of professionals that are dealing with some tough hardware driver challenges. If he feels that unpaid volunteers can commit the same level of quality while enduring four letter words, more power to him.

Linux may be OSS, but pull the corporate support and see what happens over time. Corporations are currently willing to deal with these small issues of personality because they are mostly isolated from them and having Linux around is good for business.

This is why Linus may want to consider toning it down or fin another way to make his point:

"But 80 percent of the kernel contributors are paid by companies. So that means that the Linux kernel really has a lot of people from corporations on there. Some of them, like Linus, are paid by nonprofits. But it’s still becoming more of a corporate environment, and a lot of corporations have codes of conduct. And those codes of conduct often say things about how you conduct yourself on public forums or social media. The code of conduct for those companies also applies to the [Linux Kernel] mailing list.

So we need to figure out how to be respectful and civil to each other in the mailing list because this is no longer a volunteer project. People are paid to work on this. This is about making a workplace more civil and more respectful."

It's not just a good ole boy OSS project anymore.

I don't know about "The Tech Community", but better, cheaper places to live elsewhere do attract individuals that don't seen to be hung up on SF and SV. You can code anywhere and find fellow geeks that don't waste money on crazy rents.