Welp...

I got a gig with TAG... Just have to go pee in a bottle tomorrow morning. I'll be starting there The Monday after my last Friday at my current gig. (3/31 is the new start date). Not bad, a way to keep some pocket change until I get slid into a more comfy position. There are a gazillion tech support and sales gigs out there, but I really prefer to program and work inside an industry with decent pay. Despite my usually gentle nature and ability to schmooze, my tolerance for evil and mean spirited folks is really minimal. Looks like Mr. Oracle is the way to go!

I'm still really disappointed in Nordis's level of professionalism regarding calling me back.

So many Miami positions require you to be bilingual! I'm amazed that a non-public interaction post would require such stuff.

That's a price of the melting pot. Folks that don't want to learn English start a business, it becomes a success, and potential employees have to bow to that person's desires.

(no subject)

Lovely walk home from the terminal tonight. Warmish, but comfortable.

Thought about walking with my sweetheart under the dim city lights, through the part of town that's safe, yet unattended at that time of the evening. From federal all the way to twelfth there's a movie-set aspect of walking home. It can be odd, walking through an area that has so much activity until about six pm two hours or so after the fact. You can still sort of feel that folks were inside and outside recently, but they've all departed for regions west. It's not spooky like three blocks in, though those three blocks are also safe... just no street lamps to keep things visible. Something special and private that I'd like to share with her... walking, holding hands, and feeling like we're the only two people on the planet, at least for a little bit. We can accomplish that indoors, certainly.. but outside, in a city... it's different. I look forward to doing that very thing... hopefully sometime soon.

A scientist (Larry Linville) subjects unwitting Rockford to a complex stress experiment.

Following up an entry by pserv about Feds Testing Air Passengers Check System

No-Delta Force

Consumer activist Bill Scannell is organizing a boycott of Delta Airlines because of their participation in the government's prototype Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II).

The system purports to spot potential terrorists by requiring a background check on passengers purchasing a ticket and by classifying them into categories of perceived threat. The system is meeting with protests by privacy advocates for its imprecision and use of unspecified classification methods.

Among other factors, Delta may, without your permission or knowledge,

• Check your credit rating


• Check your banking history


• Run a criminal background check

But according to Scannell,

All the information gathered will be stored for fifty (50!) years on computers that may or may not be safe from malicious hackers out to steal your identity. Airlines can barely be trusted with luggage. Do you really want to trust Delta with your bank account, SSN, mother's maiden name, and credit rating? By their own admission, Delta's computer servers are attacked over 500 times a day.

According to Wired, not all passengers are concerned.

"How can you stand here in New York City and question any attempt to make travel safer?" said Herman Velldor, a New York resident waiting to board a Delta flight. "Shame on you -- the airlines and the government only want to make sure 9/11 never happens again."

"Whatever works, hon," said Beth Ehlers from North Carolina. "I'm willing to give up a little privacy so that we're never attacked again. Besides I have nothing to hide."

Proving once again that, in the eyes of some citizens, anything the government wants to do is okay, as long as they think it will stop terrorism. This is exactly the sentiment that drives Scannell nuts. Fittingly, he closes the front page of his web site with this oft-quoted observation from Benjamin Franklin...

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.