Ski

Poison is not a good idea due to the possibility of collateral damage. You might want to look up "bird scare flash tape". You hang it near the areas which you want the bird to avoid. I like that idea better than putting decals on your windows.

I'm glad to hear you're finally getting some satisfaction.

  This story says that a woman at his home indicated that he is indeed mentally ill.  I thought I heard that his mother is hacked off that his name was released since he does suffer from mental illness, but this story doesn't include that detail (or even identify the woman at his home). http://www.fox13memphis.com/news/marcus-donald-the-armed-man-behind-sundays-bellevue-baptist-incident/184000745

You would hope the police would report which it was accurately, but that might be too much to ask, too. I certainly didn't see a stock, so I would guess it's a pistol. But, as you noted, it's hard to rule out a disassembled rifle without a better view.

I didn't expect to see this detailed of an account. As I thought, part of the handgun was protruded from his pocket. I wonder if we'll hear any more about this. It is suspicious that he would run toward the sanctuary after the security director called for help. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/crime/bellevue-man-was-legally-armed-officials-say-2f21532b-bd88-3a02-e053-0100007ffaf4-373765921.html

I have followed this story through the afternoon and evening, and I was surprised to see this quote. Fox 13 videoed some of the doors and pointed out repeatedly that it's not posted. None of the other outlets have report the gun ban, either. If the pistol was in his pocket and the rifle in a backpack, I wonder how they knew he had guns. Was the butt sticking out of his pocket? Was the rifle not a "take down" and partially sticking out of the backpack? This is definitely an odd story. I wonder if we'll hear the rest of the story.

That's fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

  It's a shame when someone is shot to death, but my sadness is tempered by aggravation and maybe even anger when you read something like this.   “You have to look at it from every child’s point of view that was raised in the hood,” said Harris. “You have to understand… how he gonna get his money to have clothes to go to school? You have to look at it from his point-of-view.”

Perhaps they will also reconsider their somewhat anti-gun stance. http://www.ammoland.com/2012/11/wounded-warrior-project-is-anti-gun/

If you want to plant a cool season grass like fescue, then planting in the later summer or early fall is the way to go (along with frequent watering until shortly after germination). Another thing to think about is moss. It is an alternative to grass if you're just worried about erosion and muddy shoes/boots/feet. http://www.gardensalive.com/product/should-your-lawn-be-made-of-moss

That's pretty scary. Debtor's prison was outlawed in this country well over a century ago. I found one the links (see below) from that article interesting. Since it's not unheard-of for process servers to lie, it's not that far fetched that an honest person misses a court date for a civil offense. I would expect the complainant to win a default judgement, but that would be subject to reversal if the defendant can demonstrate lack of personal service. IANAL, but that article was the first I've ever heard for someone being jailed for failure to appear for a civil mater. Of course willful defiance might warrant a contempt of court charge, but it's not going to help pay the debt if the debtor is in prison. All of that said, federally backed student loans seem out of control. I don't know what the cap is, but federally backed student loans should probably be capped at a lower amount than is current. Let them find a private lender that's willing to take the risk and knock their socks off. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/02/24/debtors-prisons-then-and-now-faq#.kF513uZ6g

The scenario you are describing is called a "zero-sum game", and that is true for options trading. However, investing in individual stocks (and most equity based mutual funds) is not a zero-sum game. If a stock goes up, wealth is created. Everyone that owns that stock makes money. If a stock goes down, everyone that owns that stock loses money (and wealth is destroyed).

According to the settlement website there was a continuation. The new date for final approval is July 18, 2016. https://www.tauruscartersettlement.com/

Thanks and welcome aboard!

That is a bizarre and creepy situation. My first thought would be that it's someone that's been to, or even in, the house before--or a friend of one of those people. Maybe a delivery person or service tech of some type... Did the police indicate that the repeatedly "borrowed" van MO was not new to them?

Has anyone heard if the settlement received final approval? The hearing was supposed to be last week. Thanks https://www.tauruscartersettlement.com/

It really seems to be vary from job to job. Yahoo is a good example. They were apparently quite accommodating of telecommuting, but when the current CEO took over she ordered the telecommuters back into the office. I had a manager that really didn't like the idea, but we had an employee reorg'd into our group that lived in another state and worked out of his house. During that guy's tenure in our group, he so impressed the boss with his availability and responsiveness that the boss seemed to soften to the idea. I'm sure it didn't hurt that the guy seemed pretty bright, too. I would say that if it's not offered as part of the job, it might be a limiting factor in career progression if you were hired. You might find that that even varies from team to team within a company. Obviously, career progression may not matter if you view the opportunity as a stepping stone and not a "destination" job.

Their website says weapons are prohibited, but I'm curious if they are posted. And, what are their current security practices? From this somewhat dated post, it sounds like they may be screening for guns. http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/27189-can-you-get-in-trouble-if-you-forget-your-hcp-at-home/page-2 Thanks

That's true for some of those disciplines more than others. I wanted to make sure he had an idea of the breadth of opportunities within InfoSec. You may find some very specialized shops that use Hyper-V or one of the Linux based hypervisors like KVM, but I recommend focusing on VMware if virtualization interests you. I've had a little experience with a couple of the VMware platforms and Oracle VirtualBox. I like VirtualBox for running VMs on my main workstation at home, and it's also fairly similar to the older VMware platforms with which I'm familiar. It runs VMware VMs with little to no effort. However, I don't know that there are many companies that use VirtualBox for large server farms. EDIT: Added VM info and then clarified VM info

Corporate InfoSec positions can include policies/standards/awareness/compliance as well as more hands on areas like identity and access management, network security, endpoint security, perimeter security, and data protection (think encryption). If you're interested in encryption algorithms, you might consider majoring in math. I didn't see my old boss today, so I don't have any feedback from him to offer, yet.

Hopefully there's a recruiter in our midst that can provide some useful feedback on that. Without at least an Associates, a contracting company might be your best bet. Sometimes corporations can find a permanent spot for the right "vendor" that comes in through an IT contracting company. A general staffing agency is probably just going to be dead end assignments. But, that model may not be promising anymore with the advent of "managed services"--think companies that bring in folks from other countries and outsource internationally. If I get a chance to talk to my previous manager in the next couple of days, I'll see what he thinks of your situation. He was in the army and served in Kosovo amoung other spots. When we heard he was going to be our new manager, the feedback from almost everyone we asked was negative. However, he turned out to be well liked by our team (at least the half that work at my location). I'm not sure what that says for the folks from which we got opinions on him. :-)

The importance of degrees and certs will vary from employer to employer. I think you'll generally find that the certs are more important to get your foot in the door than they are once you're hired. A Bachelor's degree can definitely help, and some employers will be a stickler for that--probably less so in the private sector than the public. But, an Associate's and experience can get you further than you might think. Your desire to go into management will likely be influenced heavily by the corporate culture and your assessment of the technical career track available. In the right situation building a reputation for being bright and working hard can go a long way.

I don't think that figure will be a problem, but I'm not really sure. I haven't looked for a job outside of my current employer for quite a while. If you're open to working from home, there might be more opportunities open to you. The pros are generally fairly apparent, but there are some cons that might not be obvious. The biggest thing is to be sure that that is an entrenched part of the company's culture (and the team's culture). Otherwise, it can be hard to form the relationships to help get things done and to move up. Information Security is certainly a hot area if that interests you. I am not sure if software defined networking is really going to deliver on all the hype, but it's likely to change quickly and provide you an opportunity to gain a hot skill if you're up for it.

I'll second the recommendation regarding local government jobs. If you can deal with an income on the low side, they can be good stepping stone jobs. I worked for one of the largest local governments in the state, and I was able to get exposure to a nice variety of technologies. That experience put me ahead of most of my peers when I got a LAN support job at a large corporation. I am not sure if the same opportunities would exist at a mid-sized local government, but it is worth some consideration. While educational institutions need some of the same infrastructure as everyone else, they seem to represent a pretty distinctive niche. With your background you're probably better prepared to deal with the frustrations of a corporate IT job or an IT shop as discussed above. A mid-sized company has advantages, but beware of getting into a situation where one (1) or two (2) folks have a lot of power and want to hold on to it at your expense. I ran into that at my local government job, but I had a boss that handled him very well. I'd like to think she was that good, but she may have just been "lucky" that her approached worked. I think a lot of it will come down to how patient you're willing to be and how much you want to get away from the culture you're in now.

  Imagine my disappointment when I clicked on the link and it wasn't a revolver with a 75" barrel.  :-)