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What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

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Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#231

Post by coin »

adrusi wrote: post #49
kylelibra wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you disable pinchzoom?

it makes the page less sluggish. it's impossible to disable double tap zoom without disabling pinch zoom, and while double tap is enabled, browsers have to insert a tap delay. this is because every single tsp could be the beginning of a double tap, so the browser waits until 300ms after a single tap to respond to it. this delay isn't perceptible as a delay, but it does make the entire page feel less responsive. disab…

Why would a text article webpage care about tap delay?

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#232

Post by jsmthrowaway »

jahaja wrote: post #198
gst wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know in the US such records never disappear. Also, it seems common that for most tech jobs a criminal background check is done (I don't know how it's in other areas outside of tech).

I just can't understand why a criminal background check is relevant for a tech job..

Risk management. A three-time embezzlement convict applying for work at Stripe is an example of something a criminal background check should catch. The downside is (a) how easy it is to pick up a felony and (b) the number of hiring managers that immediately dismiss any felony.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#233

Post by jsmthrowaway »

warmwaffles wrote: post #205
jahaja wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just can't understand why a criminal background check is relevant for a tech job..

It's relevant for most jobs. In America it's considered bad to hire a felon. It's really bad. IMO everyone deserves a second chance if they make the effort to better themselves. However, my in laws and parents do not agree with this. Once damned, you are damned forever. Though I want to know about those who were former felons in the US and leave the country and pick up citizenship else where. I'd really like to hear…

You'd hear "I'm still working on getting a work visa. Damn, it's tough."

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#234

Post by wyager »

fjhqjv wrote: post #213
maratd wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's awful that our justice system creates this sort of mentality Oh, certainly, but it's not exactly the worst part about our system. I'm guessing a bit here, but I don't get the feeling the gentlemen stepping forward are of the violent variety? Why are we putting non-violent individuals in prisons? Just a thought.

What recourse would you have for someone repeatedly walking into your house at night to steal your stuff? That's a non-violent crime, but it's still deeply disturbing for the victim.

I'm pretty sure we're talking about "violence" in the abstract/legal context here. Or at least, that's how I think about it. I would say that stealing from someone is "violent".

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#235

Post by llamataboot »

mjolk wrote: post #8

"I learned that you should go straight to the person you're upset with rather than go to authorities." This is bullshit and dumb advice. If someone steals my bike and I find out who it is, I'm not going to go to his apartment and beat him to death in the middle of the day (smart money on confronting a scumbag not leading to a productive conversation). Fuck that. The reason we have "authorities" is because we have peo…

Let's take one situation as an example. You're a woman experiencing domestic abuse in a mandatory arrest jurisdiction (means if the cops get called for a DV case, somebody is getting arrested). Your abuser also happens to be charismatic. You call the cops, your abuser cuts his own hand with the knife and convinces the cop that you were the aggressor, you're going to jail. Also, maybe you have trivial amounts of drugs in the house. Etc.

Google: "net widening effect"

--

Hell, I'm white and middle class, but I used to look like a hooligan and the one time I called the cops (when someone I invited over to the house stole all of our laptops and a bunch of cash) I ended up spending the day locked in an interrogation room under suspicion for being an accomplice to the person that robbed me. (Somehow the cops became convinced that I arranged the robbery of myself to pay off a drug debt that I owed this person, because he was a known drug dealer and I invited him into my house)

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#236

Post by johnjlocke »

jahaja wrote: post #198
gst wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know in the US such records never disappear. Also, it seems common that for most tech jobs a criminal background check is done (I don't know how it's in other areas outside of tech).

I just can't understand why a criminal background check is relevant for a tech job..

Because a person with a felony background or very bad credit has access to trade secrets and information which they can sell for money at a tech job. Plus, it's hard to sell yourself as a culture fit, as most geeks have never done time in jail, mush less prison.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#237

Post by deftnerd »

justin66 wrote: post #109
deftnerd wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, I gave a ride to a couch-surfer that ended up committing a robbery. Instead of turning them in when I found out, I just kicked them out... but the police said that made me an accomplice so I went to prison for 6 months and was on probation for 10 years. I was charged as an adult, so it can't be sealed. Even if I managed to get the records expunged by donating enough money to $partyInPower, it wouldn't matt…

> it wouldn't matter much because all the data brokers have already bought that information and are under no obligation to remove the information from their databases. That's actually not right. If you get a criminal record expunged, the FCRA requires those data brokers to not release those records ever again to whoever runs a background check on you. If they do it, they're in violation of the FCRA. The thing that su…

This is very useful information, thank you. One concern though is that, from what I've read recently, a lot of the data brokers refuse to let citizens view their own records so I would be unable to know what they say about me.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#238

Post by deftnerd »

aspensmonster wrote: post #155
deftnerd wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a shy person about personal details. They were threatening to give me 99 years in prison for Aggravated Robbery, which is a Class 1 felony, merely because of my inadvertent involvement in the crime. That's on the same level as murder and all of those frightening things. The Jurisdiction was Williamson county, a neighboring county of Austin, TX. They are well-known for their no leniency attitudes.

Oh God Wilco. Why am I not surprised.

Yep. Williamson County. Come on vacation, leave on probation!

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#239

Post by deftnerd »

6d0debc071 wrote: post #200
deftnerd wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a shy person about personal details. They were threatening to give me 99 years in prison for Aggravated Robbery, which is a Class 1 felony, merely because of my inadvertent involvement in the crime. That's on the same level as murder and all of those frightening things. The Jurisdiction was Williamson county, a neighboring county of Austin, TX. They are well-known for their no leniency attitudes.

Did you have a lawyer? Not criticising here, honestly curious. Lawyer should have shown you sentencing guidelines and talked about averages and probability.

My family hired a lawyer for me. Unfortunately, it was a "good ol boy" lawyer who was more concerned with her relationship with the prosecutors office. They told her to accept the plea bargain, and she told me to take it since it's the best that I'll ever get. I was young and impressionable and didn't even think of getting another lawyer.

To this day, I do everything within my power to avoid that County. Anecdotal evidence among my friends indicates that I'm not the only one that avoids Williamson County, the county just to the North of Austin, because of a fear of the unchecked legal system there

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#240

Post by deftnerd »

fragsworth wrote: post #134
deftnerd wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have, but I'm the kind of developer who thinks up the big ideas and can build to 95% but I'm not great at grinding away at that last 5% of bugs. We're valuable, but by no means a rare breed. The rarer breeds are the work-horses that you can throw the results of a QA check to and they work on everything to completion. In startups, it's the founders that typically have the rights to do the planning and core developme…

So you want to do all the fun work, and pass off the grindy boring shit to someone else, most of which probably results from your "core" coding? I think I would hate working with you and you're bringing this on yourself. You might have an inflated idea of how good you are at this shit. If you are really good, you won't have much grindy boring work to do. If you're not taking a major part in the final tasks of a proje…

I respect your opinion, but as some other commentators have pointed out, there is nothing wrong with people knowing their own weaknesses. In fact, my core strength isn't development. I'm good at it, but I'm not great. The 100% guys are great.

My core strength is systems administration and building resilient infrastructure. That's my 100% skill.

The development stuff is just what I'm doing for my side projects.

I dev to 95% minimum-viable-product state and then launch and look at the reaction and shake out the bugs. If the service has no traction, I move on. If it has a customer base, then I slog through the tedious 5% (that takes just as much time) to try to perfect the product... but if I don't need to do it, I won't, because I find it too mind-numbing.

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