My experience has been that my imagination fails me. This means that I have not been successful in imagining how [the 'collection' of info] might be bad for me, my family, my community, peers or country. ----- It is good to live your life without fear. Perhaps your question should be turned inward ... explain to us why you are not afraid.

What and how? Requirements have 2 attributes: 1. They are statements of form, fit, and/or function. 2. They are testable (by inspection, test, etc.) Specifications are documents. They collect the known and derived requirements. In a formal environment, there may be documents addressing software requirements, hardware requirements, and / or operation requirements. Specifications contribute (as a precursor) to test plans, procedures, and reports. As a former system's engineer, I have not seen a 'specification' that describes 'how'.

Here in Dallas, Tx, there has been a real growth in free over-the-air broadcast TV over the last decade. All the major networks, and lots of quirky wanna-be's. Even though there are no cable-only channels, there are more than 75 free channels! (I need to count them again, seems to be more every month.) Several of the new channels are foreign language, which I generally skip (none are Klingon, or C++, or even Ada). But I am surprised that I enjoy several forms of 'bolly-wood', especially when surprise English phrases occur in an otherwise non-English feature. I wonder if the language used somehow can not express "Hey, You!". Interesting. For the American English channels there is still far too much advertising, maybe 15 min each hour, and apparently growing. For this I can recommend time shifting with a skip-15-seconds feature. My adult children have told me (more than once) that TIVO is life altering. I agree. BUT, you do not need that annual fee to achieve it. Right now, I can record 2 channels while watching a 3rd (total equipment cost $50, one time). I plan to expand (with fancier equipment) to time shift a total of 4 to 5 channels. Should be far more TV than I need or want to watch. I use VUDU for movies on my PS2. I used to enjoy Netflix (grumble). I have Verizon FIOS for internet, but have not yet bought into their cable bundle. FIOS has been good, but I think, too expensive. I, too, am searching for internet tv channels so that I can void that fee. Hope you get some good recommendations.

pfn - i.e. path file name fn - file name path Examples from function/method declarations:

    std::string slurp(const std::string aPfn);

    void A::B::startApp(const char\* app\_fn);   // activate threads

     void Filter(std::string a\_localAppPfn,    // argv\[0\] - where app resides on this system
                 std::string a\_peerAppPfn,     // argv\[1\] - where to store app on peer system

FredWi wrote:

Please tell me that this isn't normal.

Sorry, I believe it is. I have had more software engineering jobs than most (and I'm not bragging). While I find cubicles acceptable, the lab where integration occurs is always loud with cooling fans. (hmmm .. but perhaps your kind of software is not 'embedded' in noisy telecom equipment.) I recommend you deal with noise directly. The other respondents have mentioned noise-cancelling headphones, buy good comfortable ones. I got a Bose. One solution(?) no one mentioned ... start a rumor. I once worked in cubes way too close to an obnoxiously noisy mechanical device, some sort of mechanical small component sorter. The team complained to our supervisor. And though he was competent and professional, he later shared something about brick wall, and nothing happened. Later, with no supervisor's permission, one of our team suggested we start a rumor. In 5 minutes of discussion, and a one time walk about in all the buildings we had access to, we found a good location (away from us) for that noisy machine (out by the shipping docs). It turned out that robots delivered the machine output, so no human would be inconvenienced by the location. Note that 'good' rumors are easy to start. Simply share with anyone, "hey I heard ...". In this case, the noisy machine was gone within two weeks. I suppose it could have been a coincidence.