balderdash

I didn’t work on it, but from afar it was a mission critical in-production system (with multiple modules / services like data collection, interpretation, visualization, etc) with minimal documentation and numerous other software dependencies. A lot of the work was understanding exactly how it worked and what/how it interacted with other systems. “Re-writing it” want the hard part, making sure nothing downstream broke was a lot of the work.

We have an embedded system in one of product offerings that was largely developed using a bunch of “antiquated” technologies (over the past twenty years) and over the past year the two software devs that maintained it have retired. This normally would have big problem, but the entire codebase was re-written, documented, and modernized in a matter of about 3 months (for about $20k in tokens, and a mid level developer spending 50% of their time on it over that period). So it doesn’t surprise me to think a company like Cisco has piles of situations like this.

I think there are several interrelated factors at play here

1) is the dilution of the “college” degree in terms of quality - an online degree does not generate the same outcomes as from a highly selective institution.

2) value for money for a college degree keeps declining (unless you get it for free) - tuitions have gone up astronomically and colleges have spent lavishly on administrators, student housing and sports complexes, all without improving or changing the core product for which they are charging (education).

3) too many / the wrong people are going to college - just look at the universities that will basically take anyone, less than a third graduate, and they borrow / are in debt at graduation, and they have starting salaries that no better than highschool grads (say USC - Aiken)

4) students pursuing expensive degrees for jobs that do not pay / low ROI (we need techers and social workers but spending $200k-$400k to become a social worker that pays $45k/yr doesn’t seem to be the winning proposition).

5) if you’re somewhat mechanically minded, are willing to travel and work outside, and can pass a background check / drug screen you can earn $75k/yr inside of two years working a blue collar job.

Given these elements - it seems unsurprising that more and more people don’t see college as the answer.

The distinction I suspect is targeted spying vs mass spying. I don’t think anyone is going to get upset about a targeted counter espionage operation, but spying on the public at large with no evidence of suspicion of wrongdoing is another matter.

I think the most charitable argument for keeping it secret is: “it would expose capabilities and methods that if made public would allow our adversaries to avoid detection / change their methods”

I don’t agree with this rationale. On the other hand there is a tension between operating effective counter intelligence operations against nation state actors operating against your interests within your borders and free and open society. I’m not sure where the line is but my perception is we’re way beyond it.

My small town newspaper had a police blotter - almost all the dui arrests the pretext is failure to stay in lane (eg they touched either the yellow line or the white line on the right, the town is on the country and it is practically (if not literally) to never touch a line driving (sometimes I try it just for fun and it takes an insane amount of concentration on winding roads)

Point being is that if you drive there is a pretext for a stop.

Either a) your company will reimburse you for your costs incurred and give you a different week off, or b) they don’t need you there that badly.

Lapin à la moutarde (Rabbit in a mustard sauce - Burgundian dish) - not sure you can say the rabbit is as front and center as you’d like - but my favorite preparation served with a starch - get the boneless loin.

Honestly fried rabbit legs (southern style fried chicken but rabbit essentially) is also pretty good.

One to add on here (which goes to going to a top tier hospital in the field) is you want doctors that are perform this procedure / surgery / diagnosis multiple times a day / week, not once every few months or years. most of the medical medicine is definitely a field where consistent exposure / practice makes a huge difference. (and yes there is a caveat that to a hammer everything looks like a nail).

this goes for everything not just cancer, orthopedic surgery, cardiology, neurology, etc.

Just take the mindset of - if this gets screwed up, where do i get sent to deal with the screw up, and just go there first.

the crazy thing is, as mentioned above, they probably take your insurance and your not going to end up paying more to be at a top notch facility.