Slashdot Mirror
Layoffs Hit Washington Post Mobile Team
imac.usr writes "The Huffington Post is reporting that The Washington Post has gone through yet another round of layoffs, but this time instead of cutting editorial positions, they're apparently cutting IT positions, specifically in the mobile applications department. According to Washington, DC media blog FishbowlDC, 54 people, including the General Manager of Mobile and Director of Mobile Products, were given the axe on Valentine's Day. A particularly damning quote from the FishbowlDC article: '"[CIO and VP Shaliesh] Prakash thinks these are 'inefficiencies' – that is the exact word he uses for human beings who are not useful according to him," said a source who spoke only on condition of anonymity. "Get rid of experienced people to save money, under the garb of streamlining is the new trend inside the Post."' Given that mobile products seem somewhat more likely to succeed than printed newspapers, this seems a strange decision at best."
in always capitalist America. I wish it was like that here in Russia.
... and you're fired.
I don't know... If you were the boss and you found out you were paying for dozens of inefficiencies to come to work and sit in their cubicles every day, what would you do?
I wonder if CmdrTaco is the source.
http://xkcd.com/1174/
Was Malda given the chop? He was supposed to be some kind of Web 2.0 guru for them/ If they gave up on that mirage, his position is precarious. He's unlikely to be welcomed back here as editor. Though we will probably see more of him as a contributor as you cant spend all your life consuming drugs and hookers..
Here's the result cascading into anything connected with it & the "holy dollar" in publicly held companies (no small wonder Micheal Dell's attempting to BUY BACK the company he started - my guess is, even HE realizes it's a road to eventual ruin, & allows the WORST "virus of the spirt" as I call it, in greed, to take over everything).
* "Welcome to the WORLD, in 2013", folks...
APK
P.S.=> Worst still, is seeing things like this -> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dmv-project-20130215,0,7011139.story in MY field (computer sciences, mostly programming)... when that "profit motive" becomes the mantra, that's what you get, every single time! Screw hiring those that CAN & WILL "get the job done" & right, in experienced devs who yes - cost more but have done it before successfully vs. the std. modus operandi of "let's hire on "noobz" fresh outta academia with no experience since they cost less & who have NEVER gotten a large-scale job done who will, odds are, SCREW IT UP LARGE"
Talk about STUPID & bad business period (proving the dolts running the show @ the HIGHEST LEVELS aren't even good @ what they themselves claim to do being "masters of the universe", lol) - then again - they aren't there to do a good job & put out solid product (I learned that from mechanical & electrical engineers in fact, who are TOLD to keep making a product cheaper, at ANY cost, even to the point of shoddy/faulty workmanship, creating lawsuits that cost later too - bad business in the long haul)... these execs aren't THERE FOR THE LONG HAUL, this shows it. They're there for a "quick & dirty buck", no better than thieves robbing a bank in the dead of night imo.
Dumb - it ends up eroding any profit gains (the end-all/be-all goal) & costing not only the company itself millions (or more), but also taxpayers footing the bill. Worse yet? Seeing this happen also -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3468517&cid=42927255 because that also "passes the buck" right back to you, the taxpayers as well (via corporations evading their share in the corporate taxbase, via blatant OWNERSHIP imo of the politicians in office passing bills written by corporate execs who own those politicians essentially)...
... apk
I'd say not very. For example, one of the most popular things on the Post's site, the Capital Weather Gang (weather nerds), doesn't have any sort of mobile app, when it would be perfect for it. You bundle their forecast, commentary, forecasts, etc, into a nice little app, and you'd be pulling in lots of views.
I love how people try to construe meanings and project their own feelings from one word or quote. "Inefficiencies" is exactly the right word when there is more money going out than coming in. He is referring to the positions, not the human beings themselves.
I am a manager and layoffs are not easy, but some pruning here and there must be done from time to time. Sometimes people need to be laid off for the betterment of a company. Sorry, but that is the real world we are living in.
If you can fire 54 people from your blog and still have enough to operate, then you really do have too many employees.
There are many things in Net 2.0 that are very popular, but that do not necessarily have utility or profitability.
For example, just about everyone and their dog (on the internet, no one can tell you're a werewolf) uses Facebook, and before it MySpace, Friendster, Digg, Reddit, etc. But do these services have a working business model? It seems they all flounder at that point.
It seems to me that most Net 2.0 firms have an unsustainable business model, which is:
1. Get really popular.
2. ???
3. Sell company -> Profit!
In the same way, we know we've got a lot of people who like using their phones to tweet, click, troll, sext, etc. But is this actually useful? And other than the cell phone providers, is anyone making money off this with a sustainable model?
Futurist Traditionalism
Removing the need for expensive mobile teams and relying on mobile app stores since 2012.
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
Agree that if WaPo decided that it's future wasn't in mobile, that would be a strange decision. But I'm reading it as, our mobile operation hasn't been successful and we're bleeding cash as a company. Let's fire the guy in charge of that and all the folks he brought on board, and maybe start again a few months down the road with a different guy, or maybe partner with a tech company.
The true inefficiency, is you & yours, and you KNOW it. You're, @ best, radically overpaid babysitters, where the funniest part's usually that you're the babies instead of the adult in that case (and the results in business + the economy worldwide, show it clearly - argue with the results)
Fact is, I doubt you've even done the job hands-on yourself, & your MBA, which is complete bullshit, since I have a full B.S. business degree (from a top-notch school in it) combined with MIS minor & CSC AAS ontop of that along with decades of experience professionally beforehand doing the job successfully in the computer sciences myself & helped my brother get his no less where he was astounded I still recalled most of the formulas & principle goals of them decades later!
I told him I was further exposed to them in practice, & not with "widgets" as in academia, but the REAL world in motion in business by building tools stooges such as yourself couldn't build themselves, to "empower" you?
For what??
Shit like this???
No thanks!
(I can only thank God above I don't have to deal with that anymore, & have worked for MYSELF for many years now instead (I finally wised up in my 40's), taking all of the profits possible instead of crumbs from the table for paying babysitters like yourself)).
In fact, I saw so many of "your kind" fire away guys that "cost more" that can and DID get the job done (vs. your "helpless henry" type that clearly can't) & product finished solidly too!
Now, you'll PROBABLY tell me "I was executing policy handed down to me, merely orders" yea, well... you STILL had the responsibility of executing them, possibly against your conscience too, now live with it.
I've seen SO many guys with actual skills that better products, if not the world, get fired that can do the job whereas your "illustrious ilk" 9/10 times can't even load an Operating System properly (a child's play level task).
Who the HELL are you to judge anyone you fire?
Question - Have YOU done their job for years-on-end to know it end to end in process + data and principle goal yourself?? Doubt it.
"Leadership" (what a truckload of bullshit, either you ARE a good leader, or you're not, & someone who's never done the job of a subordinate themselves, "walking many a mile in their shoes" doesn't qualify, & that MBA isn't going to give you innate leadership abilities, + certainly NOT the skills of your subordinates either).
"I am a manager and layoffs are not easy, but some pruning here and there must be done from time to time. Sometimes people need to be laid off for the betterment of a company. Sorry, but that is the real world we are living in." -
Yea? How about "PRUNING" the 100 "VP's" corporate bodies in the USA have instead?? WTF do radically overpaid dolts (related to top stock holders on the "boards of directors" many times, or family members) really offer except a HUGE OVERPAID DRAG ON STOCKHOLDERS?
Hmmm??
I don't give a flying "F" what your comeback is, since I can easily point to the economic situation out there, knowing you & yours (& your paymasters) created it... after all:
With great power comes great responsibility, & argue with the results.
Point-blank: You, & YOURS? Can't... period. You're a DRAG ON SOCIETY and yes, business.
APK
P.S.=> Now, if you're the RARE kind of mgt. I have run into in the art & science of computing (or whatever field YOU are in) that actually "came up from within the ranks" & in a HARD PRODUCTIVE SCIENCE (not 'marketing' b.s. artist 1/2 truth spouting thieves & hustlers + blatant liars who since I've seen MANY a Fortune 100/500 payroll nationwide in my time as a coder around them in business)? I take it back... since I too, was mgt. @ times (successfully too, chain wide leading), I can state this validly from experience (& IF you're like that, you KNOW what I mean - too many "fake it till you make it" types that are quick buck artists in it to rip off a company blind, & "do unto others & SPLIT" types/crooks that are RUINING this nation)...
... apk
I'm sure those newly unemployed people could sure find their next career on dice.com!
The source is unhappy they were let go. The 'inefficiencies' terminology was not attributed in the original source article, which includes a copy of the memo; I'm surprised no one has posted a link to the source article yet, so here it is:
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/washington-post-layoffs-valentines-day_b96626
According to the original source article, more people than just the mobile team were let go.
I can understand them doing this, particularly since they referenced Web 2.0 in their hiring of Rob Malda (cmdrtaco), HTML5 is enough along that it can be used to deliver the content in a reasonable way, using a centralized paywall, and trying to maintain 7 iOS apps and 100's of Android apps, due to minor variations in platform, makes a browser-based experience a no-brainer, in terms of the money they spend on development.
Overall, I think this does not bode well for non-game, non-vertical market app writers, so for all the people who are thinking that going to app writing is going to be a really lucrative payoff, this is probably the beginning of a trend, and they should consider some other line of work.
Is it a big assumption that mobile will do better than newspapers in the future? News on paper exists today only because of inertia.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
1. Start something not so new and not too old.
2. Get really popular.
3. ???
4. Sell company -> Profit!
5. Go to 1
THIS is a sustainable model!
tens of millions of layoffs as "inefficient" workers are replaced by computers.... maybe they should get a hearty welcome to the real world.
Appointed almost a year ago as the newsroom's "Senior Digital Editor", This is the man who was able to loose a circulation war to the Denver Post and close the Rocky Mountain News, yet he still finds employment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ask-the-post/post/john-temple-appointed-a-managing-editor-of-the-washington-post/2012/03/29/gIQAF0mriS_blog.html
obligatory:
xkcd
heck, even slashdot does this, to some degree...
Facebook made $1 billion in profit last year, so I'm not sure how your argument holds water.
Facebook has a market cap today of over 65 billion. There profit margin was less than 1%. So not sure why you raised them as a counter example as so far they have failed miserably to return value for investment
Is it a big assumption that mobile will do better than newspapers in the future? News on paper exists today only because of inertia.
Yes, it's BIG assumption. Making money on news delivery is hard.
Historical models for making money on news delivery:
Methods of news delivery that remain unproven as money-makers:
It has been bandied about for over a decade by consulting agencies who have been hired by corporations who have already decided to downsize.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Whether you know it or not, especially in media today: They're DYING as are any printed publications, vs. the web (where you CAN'T suppress or manufacture "false 1/2 truths" since others can immediately 'sound off' directly vs. them).
Control the presses - that's 1 of the 1st things a 'conqueror' does, seize communications to "sway the masses" which unfortunately, when you only had a few EXTREMELY buyable (via the stock market) outlets of "news" (fabricated quite often to 'make a point' in favor of said 'controllers'), you could pull that shit & get away with it... not anymore.
As to it "being how it is"? You're right & a realist... however, it took me into my 40's to realize it & I escaped it coming up on a decade now in fact, thank the merciful lord. I saw it coming, anyone with any sense would.
I work for ME, now... instead of funding maniacs @ the wheel & empowering them too (developing apps for them to HOPEFULLY do a better job, so much for that, when I look around me the past 5++ yrs. now).
APK
P.S.=> As to your last paragraph... well, here's my reply, in short? That kind, is killing themselves, with what I call a "virus of the spirt", in greed (and being mere mouthpieces for the REAL crooks, the 1% trust-fund babies out there for whom "enough is NEVER enough" & the "ends justify the means"!
Oh sure "We're only executing policy"... lol, what a COP OUT, when they're in it up to their NECKS by being stockholders (the market is the ROOT of it, money being the root of all evil? No, greed is) or boards of director types themselves, or just quick buck scam artists that come in, often via connections & the "revolving door" (politics to business & back out again to reap the benefits of bills they themselves write to change the rules in THEIR favor only via being politicians themselves, or owning those that are (Mr. Cheney)).
History, unfortunately, backs me & that's what spooks me most & makes me lose faith in humanity, because "those who don't know history are bound to repeat it" as the old adage goes... then, why the "F" do we keep repeating the SAME mistakes, & NOT curbing that greed bug I noted above then? Easy - it's used against you IF you don't know it is why BY those that learn it as a "primary skill" (leaders & ivy league types) to pull the same shit, again & again, waiting a generation or two if need be so the current generation forgets or wasn't told what to watch for is why, & by those that "lead" us (into ruination).
Ok/yea... well: LOOK @ THE ENDS ECONOMICALLY then!
That's all I have to say, & further, I do blame those "in charge", after all - it's THEIR JOB to make it run right & better, & they are NOT doing a good job, & it's why I posted this to a "PHB" I strongly suspect based on his utter BULLSHIT & what he represents -> http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3468321&cid=42927543 a GIANT DRAG on business, & by 'osmosis' (for lack of a better expression, perhaps "trickle down economics" & keynsian theory would be a BETTER more apt one) + yes, the nation of the USA...
... apk
You can deliver television-like content via mobile.
Getting paid delivering news works for a lot of sites, which are ad-supported. Or slashvertisement-supported.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This sounds like a typical outsourcing job.
Outsourcing whole IT operations is becoming more and more common now a days. Not just projects and support. But the whole package.
Even local management is now a viable candidate.
I guess top level management is the next big thing.
Anything to make a small short term gain. Including the same last centuries management that was once imposed out there, in the third world.
Is time to take your own medicine?
Nah? F..that
My boss is looking for capable developers (of ANY kind from VBA to C++) and cannot find them:
www.vacos.de
We are based in Stuttgart/Germany and we work for the automotive industry, which is doing very well.
Send your application to dirk.vialkowitsch@vacos.de
Stopped looking at WaPo front page some time ago because of the horrible stories there, but would read stories in it on occasion if linked or sent to me. Stopped reading WaPo entirely after this complete junk free internet story. I live in DC and local blogs are better news sources than WaPo for local news, and for national news there are plenty of other sources. WaPo is never anything but an utter waste of time. Too bad--newspaper of Woodward and Bernstein and all that.
Penny - plain text accounting
Move to Germany, we have not destroyed our industry as you did.
My boss can't find any developers at the moment.
www.vacos.de
Send application to dirk.vialkowitsch@vacos.de. Don't worry about no (yet) speaking German. 50% of English words are (essentially) the same as German words. Almost everybody speaks English here (at least in engineering and sw development). We are based in Stuttgart and so are many American soldiers a. You can meet them in Böblingen in the Irish Bar, if you like to chat to a native American speaker.
Yeah, pretty much that. As much as I don't ever like to hear of technology people possibly getting the shaft because of management idiots, there always exists another possibility. It is just perhaps maybe vaguely possible that "mobile", being the current management fad du jour, is full of promises that will never be delivered, and equally full of overpaid people who have no idea how to deliver what management expects. Now, to come full circle, what management expects is instant sources of ever increasing revenue for free, which is mostly why IT people hate them, but we do always approach these things with a certain idea of our own usefulness in a given situation. Sometimes it's not that way.
Wow, you're obviously a kook. Were you always that way or did you have to work at it?
You're arguing the wrong question.
For example, just about everyone and their dog (on the internet, no one can tell you're a werewolf) uses Facebook, and before it MySpace, Friendster, Digg, Reddit, etc. But do these services have a working business model?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Yes, they are overvalued, but that doesn't mean they don't have a working business model, it just means that the people holding Facebook shares probably paid too much for the shares.
But do they pay for researching and writing stories? Sites break down, from what I've seen, into two major categories: (1) adjunct outlets for newspaper, broadcast and cable news outlets (2) aggregator and commenting sites like (majors like Google or Yahoo, mid-rank like DrudgeReport or HuffPost and minor league like slashdot).
The latter category are parasitic, including slashdot. They feed off news content generated by newspapers, television and radio news and contribute little or nothing to news content, although they do arguably help inform the public. But with each such service having a self-selected audience attuned to their sitegeist, they tend not to expand the horizons of your knowledge like a general news service or a local/regional newspaper is likely to do.
I'm not saying WashPost shouldn't have a web and mobile presence. They probably should, but if they can't build it into their dominant source of cash, they have to devote the bulk of their staff to print journalism.
As a local (northern Virginia) I read the Washington Post online. I also have an Android phone. I have not used the Post's mobile apps. Not even once. Before reading this article, it had not even occurred to me that I might want to.
This says something about the value of the post's mobile apps and, by extension, the 54 (54!!) people hired to build and maintain them.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
There are many under/unemployed developers for the formerly industrialised central USA who can't easily move for family reasons, but you could pay them probably 35% less than in Stuttgart.
Newspapers are struggling everywhere. People are so used to free content (which is available) they aren't willing to pay for it. At the same time, with the Internet, why would you need so many newspapers, which are getting their stories from the same international news agencies anyway.
In Finland, we have this unpopular scheme (which I happen to like): every resident of Finland who has income pays a media tax (up to €140 per annum) to support the government media company. They do radio and TV broadcasting but also produce Internet content including news. It's nice to know there's at least one news media organization that can concentrate on its information and culture mission without staring at its balance sheet.
With off topic illogic ad hominem attacks?? "Rinse, Lather, & Repeat" troll -> http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3468321&cid=42928711
APK
P.S.=>
"Wow, you're obviously a kook. Were you always that way or did you have to work at it?" - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17, @11:41AM (#42928483)
Again - better than being a weak illogical off-topic ad hominem attack utilizing troll, which you evidence yourself to be to all viewing... fact!
(Thanks for making my point on that note, with that trolling WEAK statement of yours quoted above!)
Since in case you hadn't noticed, that only reinforced my point(s) for me!
Yes, I have it figured out now - You're also one of the "geniuses" that are 1 of our "fearless leaders" doing such a "fine job" of things!
Mere puppets of KORPORATE AMERIKA with no minds, or merely undereducated dolts making a mess of things!
(It's that or tremendous criminals, take your pick) that are TRULY "the best money can REALLY buy").
Your 1 reprehensible 'skill' = an ability to "play ball" (yea, lol... go fetch once your paymaster overlords toss the ball & you wag your tail, chasing it on command... lol!).
(Since only intelligence (or rather lack of it) of that "magnitude" could manage such a lousy result economically!)...
... apk
A few facts to clarify things here.
The Post isn't getting rid of their entire mobile division. Basically, there was a product management team that collaborated with the news room and developers to build these products.
It seems that once the core products were built, it was decided that the news room would just take over maintenance of these products and the people who created them were thanked with a pink slip in order to cut costs.
Washington Post is a print-first company with absolutely no true desire to go mobile. It threatens their core (and dying) business model: maintaining circulation of a newspaper with overpriced ads.
3. Sell company -> Profit!
Call it "chasing the eyeballs", it's just tech harvesting p/r and ad money. It's really funny like a dog chasing its tail.
They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
There are many things in Net 2.0 that are very popular, but that do not necessarily have utility or profitability.
For example, just about everyone and their dog (on the internet, no one can tell you're a werewolf) uses Facebook, and before it MySpace, Friendster, Digg, Reddit, etc. But do these services have a working business model?
That's so 1980's of you. Current trend is to cry poor and get subsidised by the government at the expense of some lame nerd scientists who are wasting time discovering things and shit. Yesterday's cool kids haven't outgrown beating up the smart kid for his lunch money.
Re: with each such service having a self-selected audience attuned to their sitegeist. they tend not to expand the horizons of your knowledge ... /., every now and then, some of the technically literate (and literally expositorially literate) posters here will write some apropos content in response to an article (e.g. explaining the ins and outs of an airplane's fly-by-wire control system software, or the electrical engineering of a radio system and the underlying carriers, or the arcane but relevent portions of some biomedical system's interacting parts) that actually adds to the information that could not be carried or published in a general news product like a newspaper or magazine. Those kinds of responses make this place worthwhile, as long as the slashvertisements don't get in the way too much.
.
I like your neologism "sitegeist", which I presume to mean the "zeitgeist" of the website. Was that intentional or a homonymnal-typo?
;>)
btw, I also agree with your assessment. I've randomly followed a few newslinks to the washingtonpost and been rebuffed with the "this content is for paying subscribers only". But I can see their point also when aggregators like yhoo and google eat and regurgitate the washpo's work product and give enough of a taste that people don't even want or need to click through.
.
As for
I have just experienced this at my current company. They are just cutting many experienced development positions and then outsourcing those jobs to India. This is for a large thriving ecommerce company.
Or some people just like the way it feels when held in one hand, reading an article, while eating their breakfast with the other.
Holding a tablet, no matter how light, just isn't the same.
Plus anyone will annoy someone else while holding a tablet; they may not do so while reading a newspaper ("Talking to me during newspaper time is expressly forbidden"). With a tablet, well, they may not know when you are or are not reading the online newspaper, so they will inevitably interrupt you.
On that note, I miss the old Wall St. Journal. I liked the wider paper, among other things. Now I have to find a way to get a daily delivery of Le Monde to my door-step, and it appears to be something of a trial.
I am John Hurt.
But the keep adding "services" to there site. Someone said that corporations get "addicted" to making more money. Why would FB add MORE to their site? To make more. I am beginning to think most "non physical things" are going to do this. You keep making more and more until you die to your bloat. Just hope you jump ship at profit and not die state. I am starting to wonder how MOST the internet can do anything? If you use it as a store front, and have something "physical" it works.
Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
"Go away alex, not everybody can suck on the government teat of social security disability due to his obvious mental shortcomings." - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17, @11:26PM (#42932583)
Not on SS Disability pal, & quit "projecting" your own faults onto me, ok? Ad hominem attacks of that nature are merely that - you don't know me, thus, you project your own issues onto others... that IS, how it works.
I run my own show now & it keeps things going + I work when necessary & IF a job I can handle & will be interested in presents itself!
(Just doing what I've been doing professionally for decades now in computing (mostly coding, but also networking & techie stuff when/if necessary as well - all fronts/"polymath" of sorts here & I ought to be after that much time poured into it)).
---
"Some of us have jobs." - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17, @11:26PM (#42932583)
Then, you're a fool & too bad for you!
(That, or you're not smart enough to realize you're selling the MOST precious element there is, giving it away for PEANUTS to some fool, making HIM rich with YOUR EFFORTS, instead of yourself OR you're just too poor to do it any other way - I was the same for TOO long is all I was stating)
Point-blank - 1 day, you'll realize this once you start THINKING FOR YOURSELF, pal, *IF* you ever do & are capable of it
Same here though in my time as a younger man!
So - not saying I was any better when I was younger, didn't have a choice...
I did too & had to, in working for others making THEM wealthy while I was paid peanuts by comparison!
(Took me nearly 30 yrs. of doing what YOU are, just to make it so I don't HAVE to anymore... I just FINALLY "snapped out of it"... & got smart!).
---
Going to quote some famous figures on THAT very note:
Jim Morrison: "YOU'RE ALL SLAVES!"
&
Brad Pitt (portraying Achilles): "Don't spend your life following some fool's orders..."
---
(BOTH = correct...)
Going to close this for you with another language: "Abres Los Ojos" - wake up, you're a "wage-slave"...
... apk
It's from 1 of your fellow /. peers no less -> http://slashdot.org/journal/317313/fk-computer-programming-as-a-career & one who worked @ Microsoft no less.
* Personally, I don't get along w/ him since he's a known & admitted troll - one who has trolled myself but many respect him here so... there ya are!
(I have to admit, like he does in that journal of his, that occasionally? The guy makes a STRONG point, & he's making MINE for me, in what I said to you, troll!)
APK
P.S.=> Like I did YEARS ago? I *think* JC is finally "waking up" & smelling the coffee... a bit later than I did, & we're about the same age, iirc, but, he's doing it imo!
All I can tell you, or anyone - Do the same, & "abres los ojos", because otherwise, you're making others richer with YOUR efforts, time, youth & LIFE (by being a wage slave for others)...
... apk
Holding a tablet, no matter how light, just isn't the same.
OK, so when the current generation of news readers dies, we can finally stop killing trees so that people can have outdated, noninteractive news?
Plus anyone will annoy someone else while holding a tablet; they may not do so while reading a newspaper ("Talking to me during newspaper time is expressly forbidden"). With a tablet, well, they may not know when you are or are not reading the online newspaper, so they will inevitably interrupt you.
OK, so when the current generation of people who hassle people reading tablets dies...
On that note, I miss the old Wall St. Journal. I liked the wider paper, among other things.
Well, I hate everything about printed newspapers, and to me they can't go away fast enough.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yea, & it was bankers extending loans pell-mell indiscriminately in loan officers WITHOUT being SURE THEY COULD PAY UP TOO (just for the paycheck/bonus - they are NOT that stupid, but did it anyhow).
Then, they *tried* to pass the buck & say it was Mr. Clinton PUSHING them, well... nobody pushed them THAT hard, to make STUPID mistakes like that & banks LOVE when you FAIL!
Especially when you're RIGHT near the finish line so they can repo your home & what-not - they keep it all, you get "f'd" &, that IS that, then the taxman can do the same...!!!
Now, THAT really bugs me: IF You have paid your stuff off, & are FREE from mortgages/banks clutches? It's yours... right? WRONG!
Skip a few quarters of tax, see what happens... all gone. Even if you're say, 10g's behind/1 yr. which is the typical mark they will drag you into courts for, that's NOT FULL VALUE OF YOUR HOME.
Sure, they'll put you on a payment plan, that's a fucking sham too - once you're that far back, & OUTTA WORK due to the billionaire boys club "fine engineering" (more on THAT later) causing it?
Good luck EVER making the mark & breaking free... numbers, are FUNNY like that, especially percentages (bigger the number, the HARDER YOU FALL).
So... bankers?
Hey - No love for them here, far, Far, FAR from it.
Especially from the IMF on downwards, right into the "FED" which is about as Federal as Federal Express is (private consortium of banks that have us TRAPPED @ a national level since you can't ever payup a debt with money that has MORE DEBT attached when it's borrowed, which of course, the gov't. does trying to pay down the national debt!).
It's ALL bullshit. Bullshit a kid could see thru once shown how it all works.
Why do you *think* Andrew Jackson wrote "I killed the bank" on his gravestone? He did.
See - The 1st central banks were RUINING this nation with the SAME BASIC TRAP as noted above, & the wealthy (I am SURE of this in fact) CREATE & ENGINEER these "recessions/depressions" as is needed!
Additionally:
Yes, that same 'game' is being played once again (due to Woodrow Wilson's fuckup, & he even SAID "I made a pact with the devil" in doing so in his memoirs iirc later). They used J.P. Morgan (smart guy, but only a puppet the bankers KNEW everyone listened to, to do the typical "'let's use an authority figure & spread what WE want in the presses to 'stir up the sheep' to do a bank run & bust the smaller bankers - we'll turn around, buy them up for pennies on the dollar & GET RICHER!"... that type of shit is VERY apparent, & yes, goes on today via "FUD" etc./et al, too!)
Jackson, however & bless his soul & it took BALLS to do went @ them!
(He ended assasinated iirc, & most likely by YOU KNOW WHO since he hit them where it hurts in what they value - just like JFK was, what a shame... the good ones get taken out & made examples of imo)
Anyhow/anyways - That depression few talk of nowadays since it was over 100++ yrs. ago?
We got out, quickly too, once they were shutdown + shunned!
YES - It'd happen NOW too (if they did a few things, like legalize & tax pot, + bring back offshored jobs - nobody would be 'out' a job, a GOOD paying job, & STOPPED THE STUPID WARS only the wealthy war-profiteers + their crony stooges profit by).
Yes, the economic motor would start "purring" again, smoothly.
See - I figure it this way - MOST folks, once they put aside a security "nest-egg"? Start burning ca$h which IS GOOD - it feeds Peter, & his suppliers Paul, + comes back ALL THE WAY AROUND back to home/you to roost since it's a symbiotic circle in economics essentially from the micro to macro level (the whole being a sum of its part)...
Only makes sense to prudently reward yourself in whatever makes you happy & can be done with "the holy dollar" that is, or you'll pop (go postal) from the futility of it!) - people WILL do it (unless they're one of those money
I am a DC refuge and was a dedicated Post dead-tree reader for decades. These days, I primarily access the Washington Post through their website (which I would happily pay for, by the way). As an avid consumer of online media, I can personally attest that the Post's implementation of "mobile" content is just abysmal. Their iPad app was, until a few months ago, a total embarassment. Many of their "special" mobile features (of which I have downloaded and deleted more then one within minutes of downloading them) crash more often then they work. Frankly, if I were the editor-in-chief, I would have fired the mobile division staff for sheer incompetence long ago.
I have no inside information -- but I wonder if there's a positive take from all of this: the Washington Post has long been behind the curve in reaching out on mobile devices. Perhaps this isn't the end of their efforts to improve their web presence, but the beginning of a more serious effort. Just a thought. Time will tell.
"There is no way in hell you are working as some sort of contractor and making enough of a living to have an abode anywhere other than a van down by the river. Your psychotic ramblings and brain damaged writing 'style' would preclude any employment beyond the level of McDonald's fry cook. You do recognize that writing as you do is an embarrassment to yourself, those of your profession, race, country, and really, a poor example of humanity?" - by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18, @07:54PM (#42940367)
See subject-line above, "Rinse, Lather, & Repeat", troll!
* I mean, seriously - Is THAT type of off-topic stale failing TROLL b.s. "the best you got", as the saying goes?
Please... lol! Why'd I even BOTHER asking it of you - obviously, it is, since you're reduced to it!
You just don't get it, do you?
I don't even HAVE to work anymore, I did that for 32++ yrs. & set myself up well enough via various investments that I am PAST that crap in my life, for the most part!
(Well, that is, unless an interesting programming job pops up that pays pretty good that is, that I know I'll be "into" - then, I'll go make an extra buck!)).
Lastly - for the sake of others here:
Do *try* to be on topic for once - or is the scope of the discussion beyond your limited brain? Must be... lmao!
APK
P.S.=> Your trolling me by AC posts further illustrates that as well, & you doubtless HAVE a "registered 'luser'" account here as well but are afraid to use it when replying to me...
Thus?
I have to make a NEW TERM for you & "your kind" (lol):
You & "your kind" are henceforth known as "UNREGISTERED 'lusers'", due to the above & your puny 'tactics, rotflmao...
... apk
Is the day you can talk to me that way, & as a peer (if not superior). So, show us you've done MORE, BETTER, & EARLIER (perhaps most importantly, so I know I am speaking to a peer in years, instead of some child) than I have in the art & science of computing:
---
"My Name is Ozymandias: King of Kings - Look upon my works, ye mighty, & DESPAIR..."
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Windows NT Magazine (now Windows IT Pro) April 1997 "BACK OFFICE PERFORMANCE" issue, page 61
(&, for work done for EEC Systems/SuperSpeed.com on PAID CONTRACT (writing portions of their SuperCache program increasing its performance by up to 40% via my work) albeit, for their SuperDisk & HOW TO APPLY IT, took them to a finalist position @ MS Tech Ed, two years in a row 2000-2002, in its HARDEST CATEGORY: SQLServer Performance Enhancement).
WINDOWS MAGAZINE, 1997, "Top Freeware & Shareware of the Year" issue page 210, #1/first entry in fact (my work is there)
PC-WELT FEB 1998 - page 84, again, my work is featured there
WINDOWS MAGAZINE, WINTER 1998 - page 92, insert section, MUST HAVE WARES, my work is again, there
PC-WELT FEB 1999 - page 83, again, my work is featured there
CHIP Magazine 7/99 - page 100, my work is there
GERMAN PC BOOK, Data Becker publisher "PC Aufrusten und Repairen" 2000, where my work is contained in it
HOT SHAREWARE Numero 46 issue, pg. 54 (PC ware mag from Spain), 2001 my work is there, first one featured, yet again!
Also, a British PC Mag in 2002 for many utilities I wrote, saw it @ BORDERS BOOKS but didn't buy it... by that point, I had moved onto other areas in this field besides coding only...
Being paid for an article that made me money over @ PCPitstop in 2008 for writing up a guide that has people showing NO VIRUSES/SPYWARES & other screwups, via following its point, such as THRONKA sees here -> http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=ee926d913b81bf6d63c3c7372fd2a24c&t=28430&page=3
It's also been myself helping out the folks at the UltraDefrag64 project (a 64-bit defragger for Windows), in showing them code for how to do Process Priority Control @ the GUI usermode/ring 3/rpl 3 level in their program (good one too), & being credited for it by their lead dev & his team... see here -> http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/handbook/Credits.html or here http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2993462&group_id=199532&atid=969873
AND lastly: http://g-off.net/software/a-python-repeatable-threadingtimer-class where I got other programmer's work WORKING RIGHT (in PyThon no less, which I just started learning only 2 week ago no less) by showing them how to use a "Dummy Proxy Function" as I call it, to make a RepeatTimer class (Thread sub-class really) to take PARAMETERIZED FUNCTIONS, ala:
def apkthreadlaunch():
getnortonsafeweb(sAPKFileName = "APK_1_NortonSafeWeb360Extracted.txt".rstrip())
a = RepeatTimer(900, apkthreadlaunch) # 900 is 15 minutes... apk
Where it was NOT working for many folks there, before (submitted to the maker of the RepeatTimer class no less, & yes, it WORKS!)
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What do I have to say about that much above? I can't say it any better, than this was stated already (from the greatest book of all time, the "tech manual for life" imo):
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upo
Let me guess: the jobs that were just eliminated will be sent to India. Based on the CIO's surname, it wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what happens.
Still "eating your words" here (digesting them must be hard) -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3417867&cid=42756893 ?
You'll die of malnutrition (lol), since that's poor diet, if not a cowards death (1000 times vs. 1 normal guy's one) via your reprehensible actions online vs. myself, & doubtless others out of your "geek angst" & constant failures + STALKING others online via AC posts afterwards in 'effete retaliation'!
QUESTION: How'd your words taste since you had to eat them flavored with "the bitter taste of SELF-defeat" & your FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH?
APK
P.S.=> I just HAD to 'toss that in for good measure" since you're the ONLY 1 that does that to me (for weeks on end, with you stopping posting for 10 days or so @ a time to collect up mod points - yes I know the game, to downmod my posts with as well & troll me by AC posts afterwards... transparent/easily seen thru, troll! "I see you"...)
... apk