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See also: Jennifer Government

I seriously, seriously hope that someone out there isn't taking Jennifer Government for an instruction manual.

Or be required to change their surname to indicate their sponsor. Speaker: "We will now hear from Pete Microsoft."

Company:

"Not to mention the Golden Handcuffs. You know about Golden Handcuffs?"

Jones nods. "Sure, the bonus an executive gets when he leaves the company."

"No, no, that's a Golden Parachute."

"Oh--right. The signing bonus, then."

"That's the Golden Handshake. Golden Handcuffs are what they get for working in a company with low morale. First they screw up the company, then because it's hard to attract good staff, they pay themselves more."

"But that's wrong!" Jones says, shocked. "Did somebody take this up with Daniel Klausman?" Freddy cracks up again. Even Holly smiles. "Remember when you first started here, Freddy, and you thought everyone was clever and helpful and only wanted to do what's best for the company?"

"Yeah. I used to shine my shoes."

It reminds me of a book called "Jennifer Government". It's one of my favorite books, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Not that this law isn't bat-shit stupid, but kids-need-access-to-myspace-so-they-can-be-cool isn't anywhere on my list of reasons to do anything.

If that's the justification for providing kids computers, why not just buy them all a pair of Nike Mercuries instead?

(Heck, I thought the O.P. was joking until some one modded him "insightful".)

You can read the first chapter for free from Max Barry's website, which is exactly where you'll see this.

• Max Barry, unlike Accord MT, has an actual sense of humor
• Mr. Barry used to work in marketing, so he really knows what he is talking about
• you will develop a totally new outlook on the xbox 360 shortage
• Jennifer Government is not in the public domain -- so you get to ironically spend $12 on a work of anti-consumerist satire

Heh. This reminds me of the opening scene in Max Barry's novel, Jennifer Government. In it, some (fictional) Nike executives get together and decide that they're going to:

a) restrict supply of their new super-super-hot Nike Mercury shoes to a trickle, so the kids go *nuts* for them, then:

b) unload a few hundred thousand on the market at a hugely inflated price, and THEN:

c) since Nike knows they'll lose that "can't-find-'em-anywhere, selling-like-hotcakes" prestige once people realize they can get Mercuries anywhere, they start shooting a few of the people who buy them to further build street cred.

d) PROFIT!

So, uh, if you're lining up to buy a 360, just watch out for snipers.

I was just wondering if anyone out there had read "Jennifer Government" by Max Barry http://www.maxbarry.com/jennifergovernment/ . In that book, Nike released like 2 or three pairs of their new shoe line in order to drum up insane demand and charger whatever they want. Then, when they flood the market they stage shootings in order to display the lengths people are going to go to get them. Now I'm not saying M$ is going to go out and get some hired guns, but this cycle of fiddling with supply in order to bring demand to a boil could definatly spiral out of control. Playing with people's material wants and needs can lead to some seriously unexpected consequences. And on a less serious note, what do you expect from X-Box factories in Mexico?

This story reminds me of a book written by Max Barry, titled Jennifer Government...
In that book, there are 2 major customer loyalty programs with all big brands participating in one of them. The world is run by the corporations, employees take on the name of their employer and the police is now a publicly owned security firm (participating in one of said programs) which only investigates crimes if they can bill the investigation (on the victim of course)

This story reminds me of a book written by Max Barry, titled Jennifer Government...
In that book, there are 2 major customer loyalty programs with all big brands participating in one of them. The world is run by the corporations, employees take on the name of their employer and the police is now a publicly owned security firm (participating in one of said programs) which only investigates crimes if they can bill the investigation (on the victim of course)

Anyone here ever read Jennifer Govenment by Max Barry?

It's a crime drama/thriller set in a future where People take the name of the company they work for as their surname (John Nike, Ken Wal-Mart, etc.); and customer loyalty cards and brand recognition inpsire riots, war and murder.

I read it the same month I read Farenheit 451, (which might be the single best book I ever read.)

*THAT* was a fun month for paranoia, I can tell you.

All y'all that haven't read those two books need to go out and do so IMMEDIATELY. Thank you, Public Library for having them on the shelves.

* Most corporations are corrupt

Which will happen when you set up an environment where anything goes as long as it increases shareholder value. For a funny satire on this, try reading Jennifer Nation.

* All governments are corrupt

I don't think the British government is corrupt, even though I don't agree with many of their policies. I guess with governments it doesn't matter how many bad apples there are, just how high up they get?

* Individuals are powerless when the two get together, unless they get together, too

Some look at the Internet today as some kind of lucky accident, but one has to wonder if nature was trying to find some kind of balance ;-)

* Resistance is not futile, but is bloody

And produces some unlikely heros. Take for instance the McLibel case.

* You will be assimilated quicker if you buy Nikes, eat at McD's, use MS products ...

See book mentioned at top of post...

Phillip.

Yes, but this time they are going to take hype to a new level. I just got a contract from Bill Microsoft to kill 6 customers as they wait in line to pick up their pre-orders.
http://www.maxbarry.com/jennifergovernment/

not to Max Barry.

http://www.maxbarry.com/jennifergovernment/
Welcome to paradise! The world is run by American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; and the U.S. government only investigates crimes it can bill for.

Hack Nike is a Merchandising Officer who discovers an all-new way to sell sneakers. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker with a death-wish. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn't all snappy uniforms and code names. And Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is the consumer watchdog from hell.

Economic coercion is still coercion. If Intel made better chips, they wouldn't need to cut off the competition's balls. If economic coercion becomes accepted as standard business practice, it will be VERY detrimental to marketplace competition (which is to say, competition based on the merit of the actual product and not consumer loyalty) and therefore VERY detrimental to real Capitalism.

Film at 11.

This remind me of Jennifer Government -
http://www.maxbarry.com/jennifergovernment/

One of the characters writes a trojan that works by exploiting a buffer overflow in the virus scanner (thus running even if the user never ran it, without needing bugs in further products), and also adds itself to central AV servers' virus signatures, which causes it to infect all AV clients when they update the signatures.

BTW, great book, and the "big companies taking over the world" theme is very Slashdot style .

(a) If you're newfangled enough to figure out the bold tags, you should be able to figure out the italic ones too. <i> isn't so much harder to do than <b>

(b) You called him an idiot first, what the Hell.

Who gives half a crap if they have managed to get notepad to run on their POS

Ummmm.., do you have 2 brain cells or 3? Did you even _read_ my post? I was talking about a FIREFOX toolbar that was _NOT_ made by MS. What the _hell_ does that have to do with MS or MSN? Damn, please tell me people are not this stupid. Please tell me you are just joking. Please tell me people have better reading comprehension that what you have shown.

The choose one thingy doesn't always work very well does it.
For item #1, how do you know this? Has Bill G told you this? No. MS has patented _plenty_ of software and where is all the Open stuff from them? Item #2 is just stupid and unfounded. Copyright and/or a license/NDA agreement is _plenty_ to protect a company. How many competitors would get away with copyright violation against MS once they let loose their lawyers?

As was pointed out in the rebuttal (which you probably didn't read), just don't release _any_ source until you get your product with new features X, Y and Z out to market. Once your product is out, then release the code. You already have the head start and it will take a while for competitors to play catch up. Also as the rebuttal pointed out and that I can personally attest to as a senior programmer of 8 years is that is is _far_ easier to implement a feature for scratch then pick up someone else code. The worst projects I get are where I have to pick up someone else code and fix it or add new features.

MythTV remains out of reach for me as I would have to build a machine specifically for it that is 100x more powerful than my current fastest machine.

Police force based on capitalism?

Ever read Jennifer Government by Max Barry? (yay Australians) It has a government and a Police force run on capitalism. Before they can chase a criminal or investigate a crime they have to ask the victims for money to fund the hunt. Scary.

Jennifer Government.

Read it. It will happen (or something like it). It IS happening. Futurama was NOT at all wrong when it depicted advertisers beaming their crap into people's brains while they dreamed. Every successful marketing/sales droid I know would have zero second thoughts about anything which can increase revenue. Among those people, there are no morals. I mean, Pepsi has already tried to pollute the night sky. Pizza Hut is slapping their logo on the side of spaceships. This has been going on for years. There's nowhere they won't try to go.

Max(x) Barry's Syrup has a character named 6.

At least they haven't yet decided to kill a dozen kids to promote sneakers.

thought maybe a sequel to this great book.

My vote for best book of the year would be Jennifer Goverment by Max Barry.

I thought this quote from an interview with the author Max Barry (about his book Syrup) was fitting:

I heard Syrup is a thinly-veiled description of your time at Hewlett-Packard.

That's a filthy lie. Why, if HP was like Syrup, it would be a seedy den of politics and corporate back-stabbing, brimming with sexual tension. That is absolutely not true. There was very little sexual tension.

Author Max Barry of Jennifer Government fame has an article on his site that takes these ideas further, extrapolating the file-sharing trend to its logical(?) conclusion: the end of copyright as we know it.

Interesting to see another content provider on this subject... like Card, he doesn't seem especially worried about people pirating his books.

Author Max Barry of Jennifer Government fame has an article on his site that takes these ideas further, extrapolating the file-sharing trend to its logical(?) conclusion: the end of copyright as we know it.

Interesting to see another content provider on this subject... like Card, he doesn't seem especially worried about people pirating his books.

Life imitating art?

This sounds like something that would have been in Jennifer Government, a book by Max Berry. The book is set in a world where capitalism has run totally amuck. And is centered on an outlandish marketing scheme where Nike has orchestrates some killings to heighten "street cred" for their new line of shoes. It is a good read, so is Syrup by the same author.

This sounds like something that would have been in Jennifer Government, a book by Max Berry. The book is set in a world where capitalism has run totally amuck. And is centered on an outlandish marketing scheme where Nike has orchestrates some killings to heighten "street cred" for their new line of shoes. It is a good read, so is Syrup by the same author.

This sounds like something that would have been in Jennifer Government, a book by Max Berry. The book is set in a world where capitalism has run totally amuck. And is centered on an outlandish marketing scheme where Nike has orchestrates some killings to heighten "street cred" for their new line of shoes. It is a good read, so is Syrup by the same author.

If you try 2, watch out for Sneaky Pete!!!

Syrup, by Max Barry

Jennifer Government by Max Barry.

You can even play the game, Nation States.

Stay tuned for the movie.

I HIGHLY recommend everyone check out 'Jennifer Government' and the related simulation website 'NationStates'
An exerpt follows:

"Welcome to paradise! The world is run by American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; and the U.S. government only investigates crimes it can bill for.

Hack Nike is a Merchandising Officer who discovers an all-new way to sell sneakers. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker with a death-wish. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn't all snappy uniforms and code names. And Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is the consumer watchdog from hell."

Jennifer Government