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Of course unions, etc have not been a traditional alliance for geeks. I can just imagine the flamewars over this.

The proposed reforms validate many if most of the concerns of IT workers, but I am not sure if these are the best solutions. I have seen suggestions that advocate the all out abolition of the H1B program. This might be the way to go, if the the thing H1B fixed did not in fact fix anything in the first place.

The last thing we need is the US to become the equivalent of Detroit with urban burnout across the whole country.

http://www.radiofreenation.net/article.pl?sid=02/1 2/03/0426254
also at: http://www.altnewsring.com/jobs.html

Essentially, if all of the H1B visas were revoked, you could have jobs for all of the unemployed tech workers.

Story telling time:

Back when Henry Ford was starting to build cars, one of the famous things he did was to yes, work his workers hard, but he also gave them wages far above what was normal for the day and age. This was to help prime the pump of demand for his product. If you had a country of poor people, then no-one could really buy your expensive product, and you would never have a mass market. Thus it was in his long term interest to pay his workers well.

Fast forward to the present day, where you have this quote: "We're trying to move everything we can offshore," HP Services chief Ann Livermore told Wall Street analysts.

And you wonder what will be left in the USA if everyone is working in MacDonalds. The USA is the Greatest Market in the World, but not if everyone is reduced to flipping burgers because of the lack of anything better.

The SeeSaw of Economic forces may take centuries to balance out. In the meantime, all we have is the great sucking sound of jobs getting sucked out over seas.

http://www.radiofreenation.net/article.pl?sid=02/1 2/03/0426254
also at: http://www.altnewsring.com/jobs.html

Essentially, if all of the H1B visas were revoked, you could have jobs for all of the unemployed tech workers.

Story telling time:

Back when Henry Ford was starting to build cars, one of the famous things he did was to yes, work his workers hard, but he also gave them wages far above what was normal for the day and age. This was to help prime the pump of demand for his product. If you had a country of poor people, then no-one could really buy your expensive product, and you would never have a mass market. Thus it was in his long term interest to pay his workers well.

Fast forward to the present day, where you have this quote: "We're trying to move everything we can offshore," HP Services chief Ann Livermore told Wall Street analysts.

And you wonder what will be left in the USA if everyone is working in MacDonalds. The USA is the Greatest Market in the World, but not if everyone is reduced to flipping burgers because of the lack of anything better.

The SeeSaw of Economic forces may take centuries to balance out. In the meantime, all we have is the great sucking sound of jobs getting sucked out over seas.

This public apology is featured on their news page. See the press release here

Just another example of how timely /. can be at times

;-)

heck even RFN has followed this

;-)

I can see someone deciding to make all TV shows, as presented by the networks, complete with commercials, as a separate copyrightable object. This would mean that no one could skip the commercials.

But this would lead to other copyright issues with the show's producers, and with the advertising agencies, especially when they went into syndication.

all of which is sheer madness, but that never stopped anyone before. (nb - link to another example of marketing mayhem)

actually, there is some evidence that oil reserves may be self replenishing if you wait a reasonable period of time.

The source would be microbes buried deep in the hot rocks of the earth.

"a senior Microsoft Corp. executive [who] told a federal court last week that sharing information with competitors could damage national security and even threaten the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. He later acknowledged that some Microsoft code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed."

Which would be a national security threat?

And they wonder why the Pentagon is Doubtful?

It certainly doiesn't sound like something worthy of milspec regulations.

I mean, what does it take to get the attention of some folks?

This is sure to open a can of worms.

Of course it got pirated so quickly because it is huge, but you know this will feed arguments in other forums.

There is an article at Radio Free Nation about creating and using collaborative spaces (wikis) to wrest control away from the media giants who want to destroy fair use, individual's copyright and access to unfettered media.

This might be a way to do it and it uses the same "waste not want not" approach as Seti@home. Wikis set up to serve an artistic community using only excess capacity.

Got a some disk space and some bandwidth to spare on a Linux box with a DSL link? You can be a benevelent media mogul helping the creative community in your area.

http://www.cordis.lu/telematics/tap_transport/rese arch/projects/cromatica.html

Their other projects are also interesting as well

heck, there was a recent Duke university study, where if you looked closely into the results, placebos did better than the standard psych drug for treatments

This was a study into the effectiveness of St. John's wort and they were using a placebo and a standard med for comparison.

Drug companies get all kinds of things approved all the time. Doesn't mean that they know what they are doing besides running a profit.

This is very useful. Damn Useful.

here is part of the info from the RFN story:

Here is Bruce Schneier's five step process, in brief.

This five-step process works for any security measure, past, present, or future:

1. What problem does it solve?
2. How well does it solve the problem?
3. What new problems does it add?
4. What are the economic and social costs?
5. Given the above, is it worth the costs?

Take step one above, for example. Here is part of Schneier's comment on it:

Step one: What problem does the security measure solve? You'd think this would be an easy one, but so many security initiatives are presented without any clear statement of the problem. National ID cards are a purported solution without any clear problem. Increased net surveillance has been presented as a vital security requirement, but without any explanation as to why.

but I thought that part of the spectrum under consideration had also been set aside for wireless.

I know there was a small flap on something like this back last October, while everyone had their attention elsewhere.

Greed moves on

[...] in most counties the local Democratic party is run by just a few people, 'cause most people would never think of showing up. Go to the next county or town Party Meeting, and bring ten friends. In most cases, your bunch will constitute a majority. Use the rules and state party by-laws (which can often be found on the Web) and seize control.

[...]

The one think you should definitely run for is precint delegate. Every precint in America elects delegates from each party. It may be the lowliest office, but it is the foundation on which the whole house of cards is built. Selected delgates attend the national party conventions to nominate the presidential candiidates. You should be among them.

But it would take more dedication then the usual chit chart you see in online forums, etc.

In Washington state there is an initiative petition to require all state and local polititions to take the state wide education test, and then to have the info made public and posted in the official voter guides.

you can see that story here.

Given the usual hassles and cluelessness with polititions, I like this.

Here in the link, for example, to the CIA College Intern Page.

so basically, sounds like non news item.

Maybe these are the guys who bugged a student press office at Quaker Campus a while back? Although i mention this with a something of a tongue in cheek spirit, to be serious, that incident does seem to be more of a local job using radio shack parts.

Spending six months to a year or more in isloation, especially in a very small room no bigger than, and maybe smaller that a college dorm room, with only the food and entertainment you brought with you, can be very stressful.

Heck, for the nearest current equivalent look at antarctica, where they get snowed in for the winter, and thay have much larger facilities. While now they have email, etc, they are still pretty isolated, and start to get a little wacky after just the few months of social isolation. The culture starts to evolve and drift based on the unique events on the base.

It is sort of like a bunch of geeks working at a big company. The geeks form their own culture, and are somwhat isolatedfrom the main body of people, even when bumbing into a ton of people in the hall way. Who are the aliens there? the geeks or the working stiffs?

heck, you even see this in religion, those isolated communities off in the desert, etc.

Former Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is planning a chain of "orbiting hotels" cruising perpetually between the Earth and Mars. [...] The main trick to the operation is to have the main ships in a constant regular solar orbit so that no fuel is ever needed to keep going, just enough for boosters, manuvering, etc. The estimated trip time between the Earth and Mars is 8 Months.

(more links in the original story)

Maybe he might want to pick up some of the surplus items?

[smile]

There has to be a use for a lot of this surplus stuff for business.

Former Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is planning a chain of "orbiting hotels" cruising perpetually between the Earth and Mars. [...] The main trick to the operation is to have the main ships in a constant regular solar orbit so that no fuel is ever needed to keep going, just enough for boosters, manuvering, etc. The estimated trip time between the Earth and Mars is 8 Months.

(more links in the original story)

Maybe he might want to pick up some of the surplus items?

[smile]

There has to be a use for a lot of this surplus stuff for business.

He is probably trying to be too clever by half. Sounds like he is trying to apply elite hacker techniques to the legal system. And screwing up.

when you are hacking a system, mistakes like that are not going to any great harm, usually "access denied" or something like that.

hmmmm, never mind, he is in court because of hacking, anyhow. Maybe he is not so smart after all. maybe a slight bit of idiot savant.

Speaking of mind altering substances, the only one I know of who definitely less smart is this guy, who is currently facing a pakistani jail sentence.

RFN had links to other research sites, some of which have pics every week or two for the past two months.

it is expanding because of the dummies series.

Actually it is expanding due to the Dummies series, and due to things like educational feel good agendas. Shear speculation, but most likely in the midwest the basics of education, especially in rural areas, are still being used, while in the cities all of the latest theories are being used, changing from year to year. or you have a system where the city with the most money per student has the worst scores in the State (*cough*Boston*cough*)

Money is not the answer, but methodology is.

As far as throwing money at the problem, check this out.

This was on RFN at the beginning of the week.

according to the article, the simple formal features of television - cuts, edits, zooms, pans, sudden noises - activate an instinctive response, a normal visual or auditory reaction to any sudden or novel stimulus, a built-in sensitivity to movement and potential predatory threats. Thus, it is the form, not the content, of television that is unique, and contributes to the impulse to keep attention on the screen.

But addicts will tend to try to explain away their impulses as normal rational behavior.

"Just watch, I can quit any time I want ..."

And the conclusion you cite are not really the main thrust of the article, unless you happen to be hypersensitive to the issue.

I understand he was held under lock and key, but he must of had a good lawyer and made bail. Although He'll now be in trouble for fleeing the jurisdiction.

Also, Futurist Paul Saffo had the idea that "As some people wring their hands about the invasion of privacy and civil liberty, a whole other generation is going to go, 'Cool! I've always wanted to embed technology in my body.' It's going to be fashion. One sure sign that teenagers will love it is if it terrifies their parents.' "

It was posted elsewhere, where I saw it.

So remember, as with any other computing problem, the results you get are entirely dependant on the quality of your data. Propanganda is concerned with making sure that the data you think with generates the results that the propogandists want.

Fortunately, even compared to the Gulf War, the availability of alternate data is much more open than it was back then. The main problem seems to be that perpetual problem of the criminals trying to intimidate the ethical with concerns and worries of un-ethical actions against themselves, the criminals.

It is like saying that police cannot do their job because of the possibility of upsetting the neighbors, etc. You have to be able to take effective action. The caveat is that once you step in, you got to clean up the mess you made after the fact.

Of course, at that time, almost everyone was shell shocked, and it was not on the radar yet

In this situation, war has not been formally declared. Usually, in a war, such laws are "for the duration". Since we are not "formally" at war, there is no such limitation.

Freedoms lost may likely be a permanent loss, unless people strive to make sure otherwise.

don't worry, someone else is working on making those rights obsolete right now.

I saw first this on Radio Free Nation

The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), is set to be introduced by Senator Fritz Hollings this fall. It makes it a civil offense to create or sell any kind of computer equipment that "does not include and utilize certified security technologies" approved by the federal government. It also creates new federal felonies, punishable by five years in prison and fines of up to $500,000. Anyone who distributes copyrighted material with "security measures" disabled or has a network-attached computer that disables copy protection is covered.

As noted there, the Long Line of Idiots Theory is looking better all the time.

They Gotta lose that disclaimer on that site of theres.. Sheesh. A like bazzillion page legal document to be agreed to before entering sure seems excessive and is probably going to relegate the site to major league obscurity. Trust me . It ain't necesarry. And many, maybe even most , people balk at agreeing to something like that just to look at the site.

And btw... The sites pretty colourblind too.

Nice Idea tho. Just a bit paranoid.

If someone wants to see the site without agreeing to the disclaimer, I gather they should just go to The .net prefixed site instead so as to avoid needing to agree to a stupid disclaimer.