C'mon, mods, this ain't a troll or offtopic post...actually George Lucas should be commended for making sure his stuff is released on the best media possible. That and he has made a lot of contributions to the industry in general. But ya just know Star Wars 1-6 is coming out again, and soon!:)
"I think he was refering to the argument that without a copyright (which is a monopoly, by definition) there would be little incentive to invest in a large 'creative' project."
That part is true. We would never have had music if it weren't for copyright. Or books, for that matter.
Property is property, is it not? And when we are talking about property that is worth as much as IP, we're talking about something far in excess of cars, boats or even large homes.
We're talking about companies fighting for, bidding for and suing over millions of dollars' worth of patented or trade secreted algorithms.
If you can make so much money and hold so many people hostage over intellectual property, then by God, states can tax it.
Of course, corporate campaign contributors and slick campaign ads will ensure this logical consistency is never brought to the light of day for long.
There was an episode where a near-light speed object was headed toward earth and America and Russia panicked, until Russia saw that it was about to hit the moon instead. Even Russia thanked God for the moon's very existence when the end-of-the-world thingie actually did hit the moon and not Earth.
(Of course, an alien intelligence intentionally fired it at the moon, but still)
It's not a matter of if some highly annoying rocks have been intercepted by the moon... it's more a matter of how many.
I for one am shaking my telescope with joy at my lunar masters.:D
[Oh, for Christ's sake. Morality says you do what you've agreed to do, you don't steal, you don't commit fraud, etc. This has nothing to do with any assumed duty of "loyalty" that isn't in the agreement.]
You're totally wrong about that. Loyalty is important in all aspects of things. It is a cornerstone of honor and personal integrity. Sadly, all you care about is contracts and dollars. Once the world of business - employment included - degenerates to that, you have descended into a level of decadence that is irretrievable.
There's more to life, and business, than just agreements. Go look up "social contract" and get back to me.
"ID theft happens far more often in the US/Australia than at some foreign call/data center."
"Internet ID theft is far more prevalent"
etc.
Just so you're well armed for these responses...
Here is the tale of two data centers, one in Australia and one in India.
In Australia, a data center manager and its employees are paid more than people overseas; consider what it would cost to bribe them a year's salary. And moreover, they are under the relatively watchful eye of law enforcement. If they steal personal information, they're within the jurisdiction of people who can arrest them and put them away for a long, long time. This makes bribing these workers a lot harder.
In India, a data center manager and its employees are paid a fraction of what Australians get paid for the same work; consider what it would for the Russian Mafia or Al Qaeda to bribe them a year's salary. And moreover, they are not under the relatively watchful eye of Australian law enforcement. If they steal personal information, they're not within the jurisdiction of people who have any reason to arrest them. This makes bribing these workers a lot easier. Plus, it is easier for a bribed worker to disappear within India, or even move out of the country, than Australia. (Aside from the water surrounding Australia, India's borders aren't exactly locked up.)
Now some people will tell you that India data center workers aren't allowed to bring in potential tools for stealing data. But here's the kicker. I can memorize your name, SSN and mother's maiden name, and tell it back to you in a day. If I can do it, others can probably remember several for a long period of time. It's nothing for the mafia or Al Qaeda to train people to do that. And again, if you're paid a year's salary to cough up so many names, and you're a low paid shill in a piece of shit job, you'll do it for that kind of money. And if the data center manager gets tapped, all security is moot. You can also bribe the security workers, considering how poorly they're paid. Once they're paid off, anyone can walk in and out of there with tools to steal data.
The problem here is, the price for owning the person who has the keys to a data center's hidden treasures, is very low.
Thus, you now not only have domestic ID theft, internet theft, and dumpster diving, but you can also add offshore theft - which is far harder for your country to prosecute - to the mix.
[A company is not a country. When you work for a company, you're making a free exchange of your services for their money, and either of you is fully entitled to stop that relationship whenever you want, unless there are additional contract terms that apply.
If the main thing that you have to offer is "loyalty", well, I'll hire the guy with skills over you, every time.]
Why can't a person be both skilled and loyal? Going by your morality, a person skilled enough to work for you, might instead start their own company, hire people away from you, and put you out of business. And if your response is, "I don't care if I get run out of business" then you're either a fortune 500 CEO planning to cash out big from a sinking ship, or someone utterly clueless about owning a business. Me? I'm betting you're not the former.
Oh and thank you very much for demonstrating to us how some people want morality and humanity to be stripped from business.
Contrary to your demonstrated labor-as-commodity approach to things, business cannot survive for long without morality - including loyalty. This is why companies are not loyal to the country and the workers that made them, customers cannot afford to be loyal to you, and so on. Your ideology is part of what is poisoning this country, from end to end, destroying the entire fabric of loyalty in what is now becoming a mad race to the bottom by a bunch of mice fighting over a rapidly dwindling share of the cheese.
When you poo poo loyalty in one area, you're a total fool to believe it won't spread to everything else. Our nation is suffering because of a collective ignorance of that fact.
[To add insult to injury, Americans companies are not willing to train people on the job. There is no job training, nor employee loyalty in the US tech sector.] Oh, that is very true. I've interviewed many people to work for me and my boss has ordered me to turn them down in favor of waiting for more experienced people to come along. When that doesn't happen, THEN we hire the best inexperienced one in the bunch.
But now, as far as I've seen, this is true of all sectors.
Any job, even retailers like Target, demand years of experience first. Even if you have a degree, they want experience, too. Having a degree only means you are more competitive with other experienced workers.
No job except the lowest end of food service will ever hire someone without experience now.
complains about the lack of programmer graduates from the US.
Does anyone wonder why few Americans want to take up programming any more as a career? There's no jobs for them - the corporations crying about a lack of programmers refuse to look to the US to hire any.
And when BPO hits the banking sector, you can kiss the security of your identity goodbye.
[I'm in India, and no I don't see any reason to be even slightly concerned because we're supposedly taking away your God-given right to technology jobs.]
You keep taking away our good paying jobs and we won't have money to buy your stuff, or identities for your thieves to steal.
Then your god given right to profits will go right down the toilet.
When offshoring drains the last of America's middle class jobs and our consumer spending collapses, you will not go to outer space.
Russia has had quite a good track record with their space program. The ESA wants control over Russia's program and they can't have it, so they're taking their ball and leaving.
I'm not sure if this is a bad move or a good move, but the motivations as stated sound really stupid. If you can't control it, don't be involved in it? That doesn't make sense. There's got to be more to this. Does anyone know?
Customers didn't have a choice. The zero crashes a year thing only started happening since after 2001. Until then, while flying was safer than driving, you had no idea which plane was poorly maintained.
Such safe quality of service is expensive, and this is one of the reasons airlines are going out of business now.
Go do a google on GM - their CEOs actually found it was cheaper to eat a bunch of lawsuits over defective and dangerous cars than to recall them, or make them safer. You can betcha the same rule will apply to private space transport.
And big business would love to get rid of the FAA. Failing that they'll look for ways around it. Like flying cargo out of another country...
You can expect a lot more accidents in the private sector. Unless the evil red communists step in and enforce strong safety and quality control regulations...
After these private space companies get done offshoring work to some underpaid unsafe work environment-friendly country using cut rate parts made in China, their stuff will start falling out of the sky by the tons. It'll make NASA look saintly in comparison.
And when one of those parts falls on our houses we won't be able to sue for damages because of Bush's new laws regarding lawsuits; and if a lawsuit is allowed, those bought and paid for Federal judges will throw them out.
In unrelated news, housing properties anywhere beneath the flight paths of these private ships will mysteriously plumett in value.
I guess this means nurses own the media, universities and every other organization that has measured nurse to patient ratios in hospitals, too. Either that or the people who work there have been in the hospital at some time and have been blackmailed with the option of printing the nurses' side of the story or dying from poor care (how wude!).
In either case you'd be better off shaking your appendix with joy and welcoming your registered nurse mistresses, than claiming there isn't a shortage...
Unbelievable. I should have paid attention when/. hit that iceberg.
Has sulli ever been to a hospital and seen how long it takes for a nurse to get to a patient now? I've been there and seen it in person. These nurses aren't lazy, there simply are too few of them for all the patients on a given floor.
Now, as for IT security, may sulli's credit card data be guarded by companies run by execs who follow his/her line of reasoning. Not mine.
How could such an utterly factually wrong and trollish post get a +1? The credibility of moderation on here is shot to crap with pluses being given to such intentionally stupid comments.
[There is no need of government police. Private security works well for the few malcontents.]
Oh yes, private security which is accountable to whom? What happens if they shoot to kill both thieves and kids who trespass? Who is around then to say that is wrong and prevent it from happening? Oh yeah, I forgot, that would never happen in America.
[Haven't you heard? Locks keep out honest people.]
Show me how much you trust your neighbor. Take the locks off your house. And your fence, too.
[Ah! But the right to keep and bear arms respects your neighbors as responsible individuals. It is those that advocate disarming people who are doing the projecting and fearing their neighbors.]
Excuse me? I see the right to keep and bear arms as protection from my neighbors in case they become covetous of my possessions. I'd say that implies a fear of my neighbors far more than any respect of their responsibility. In fact it says I don't trust their sense of civility at all.
Gun control advocates are saying that unarmed people are more civil people, and it is stupidity like that which makes me willing to be fight and die for my gun rights.
Folks who talk about deregulation or decriminalization being "dangerous" do so because they fear their neighbors. They project that because some "government" wouldn't be holding a gun to other peoples heads, those people will act in irresponsible and evil ways. It is a very pervasive irrational belief.
Oh God, this is so hilariously wrong that I laughed myself into a coma and 160 posts passed before the paramedics could revive me.
If no one had a good reason to fear their neighbors:
a) there would be no need for cops. b) or fences c) or guard dogs d) or the right to keep and bear arms
Dude, there are more holes in your reasoning from the get go than swiss cheese.
"Only the Government can do Prohibition! Corporations can't prohibit anything! Long live the private market! Long live DRM and TCPA! Long live the RIAA!"
Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars: Episodes 1-6 on HD-DVD, coming soon!
:)
C'mon, mods, this ain't a troll or offtopic post...actually George Lucas should be commended for making sure his stuff is released on the best media possible. That and he has made a lot of contributions to the industry in general. But ya just know Star Wars 1-6 is coming out again, and soon!
My "sarcasm" tag got lost. Probably because I used the the things...
"I think he was refering to the argument that without a copyright (which is a monopoly, by definition) there would be little incentive to invest in a large 'creative' project."
That part is true. We would never have had music if it weren't for copyright. Or books, for that matter.
for the intellectual property industry.
Property is property, is it not? And when we are talking about property that is worth as much as IP, we're talking about something far in excess of cars, boats or even large homes.
We're talking about companies fighting for, bidding for and suing over millions of dollars' worth of patented or trade secreted algorithms.
If you can make so much money and hold so many people hostage over intellectual property, then by God, states can tax it.
Of course, corporate campaign contributors and slick campaign ads will ensure this logical consistency is never brought to the light of day for long.
There was an episode where a near-light speed object was headed toward earth and America and Russia panicked, until Russia saw that it was about to hit the moon instead. Even Russia thanked God for the moon's very existence when the end-of-the-world thingie actually did hit the moon and not Earth.
:D
(Of course, an alien intelligence intentionally fired it at the moon, but still)
It's not a matter of if some highly annoying rocks have been intercepted by the moon... it's more a matter of how many.
I for one am shaking my telescope with joy at my lunar masters.
Actually, it violates the 4th and 5th amendments to the US Constitution and some of it has already been thrown out by judges.
D eclawed
http://www.devshed.com/showblog/1305/PATRIOT-Act-
Sadly, it takes nothing short of this kind of calamity to cleanse some people of their he-man wannabe ways.
[Oh, for Christ's sake. Morality says you do what you've agreed to do, you don't steal, you don't commit fraud, etc. This has nothing to do with any assumed duty of "loyalty" that isn't in the agreement.]
You're totally wrong about that. Loyalty is important in all aspects of things. It is a cornerstone of honor and personal integrity. Sadly, all you care about is contracts and dollars. Once the world of business - employment included - degenerates to that, you have descended into a level of decadence that is irretrievable.
There's more to life, and business, than just agreements. Go look up "social contract" and get back to me.
"ID theft happens far more often in the US/Australia than at some foreign call/data center."
"Internet ID theft is far more prevalent"
etc.
Just so you're well armed for these responses...
Here is the tale of two data centers, one in Australia and one in India.
In Australia, a data center manager and its employees are paid more than people overseas; consider what it would cost to bribe them a year's salary. And moreover, they are under the relatively watchful eye of law enforcement. If they steal personal information, they're within the jurisdiction of people who can arrest them and put them away for a long, long time. This makes bribing these workers a lot harder.
In India, a data center manager and its employees are paid a fraction of what Australians get paid for the same work; consider what it would for the Russian Mafia or Al Qaeda to bribe them a year's salary. And moreover, they are not under the relatively watchful eye of Australian law enforcement. If they steal personal information, they're not within the jurisdiction of people who have any reason to arrest them. This makes bribing these workers a lot easier. Plus, it is easier for a bribed worker to disappear within India, or even move out of the country, than Australia. (Aside from the water surrounding Australia, India's borders aren't exactly locked up.)
Now some people will tell you that India data center workers aren't allowed to bring in potential tools for stealing data. But here's the kicker. I can memorize your name, SSN and mother's maiden name, and tell it back to you in a day. If I can do it, others can probably remember several for a long period of time. It's nothing for the mafia or Al Qaeda to train people to do that. And again, if you're paid a year's salary to cough up so many names, and you're a low paid shill in a piece of shit job, you'll do it for that kind of money. And if the data center manager gets tapped, all security is moot. You can also bribe the security workers, considering how poorly they're paid. Once they're paid off, anyone can walk in and out of there with tools to steal data.
The problem here is, the price for owning the person who has the keys to a data center's hidden treasures, is very low.
Thus, you now not only have domestic ID theft, internet theft, and dumpster diving, but you can also add offshore theft - which is far harder for your country to prosecute - to the mix.
How many straws can a camel carry on its back?
[A company is not a country. When you work for a company, you're making a free exchange of your services for their money, and either of you is fully entitled to stop that relationship whenever you want, unless there are additional contract terms that apply.
If the main thing that you have to offer is "loyalty", well, I'll hire the guy with skills over you, every time.]
Why can't a person be both skilled and loyal? Going by your morality, a person skilled enough to work for you, might instead start their own company, hire people away from you, and put you out of business. And if your response is, "I don't care if I get run out of business" then you're either a fortune 500 CEO planning to cash out big from a sinking ship, or someone utterly clueless about owning a business. Me? I'm betting you're not the former.
Oh and thank you very much for demonstrating to us how some people want morality and humanity to be stripped from business.
Contrary to your demonstrated labor-as-commodity approach to things, business cannot survive for long without morality - including loyalty. This is why companies are not loyal to the country and the workers that made them, customers cannot afford to be loyal to you, and so on. Your ideology is part of what is poisoning this country, from end to end, destroying the entire fabric of loyalty in what is now becoming a mad race to the bottom by a bunch of mice fighting over a rapidly dwindling share of the cheese.
When you poo poo loyalty in one area, you're a total fool to believe it won't spread to everything else. Our nation is suffering because of a collective ignorance of that fact.
[To add insult to injury, Americans companies are not willing to train people on the job. There is no job training, nor employee loyalty in the US tech sector.]
Oh, that is very true. I've interviewed many people to work for me and my boss has ordered me to turn them down in favor of waiting for more experienced people to come along. When that doesn't happen, THEN we hire the best inexperienced one in the bunch.
But now, as far as I've seen, this is true of all sectors.
Any job, even retailers like Target, demand years of experience first. Even if you have a degree, they want experience, too. Having a degree only means you are more competitive with other experienced workers.
No job except the lowest end of food service will ever hire someone without experience now.
complains about the lack of programmer graduates from the US.
Does anyone wonder why few Americans want to take up programming any more as a career? There's no jobs for them - the corporations crying about a lack of programmers refuse to look to the US to hire any.
And when BPO hits the banking sector, you can kiss the security of your identity goodbye.
[I'm in India, and no I don't see any reason to be even slightly concerned because we're supposedly taking away your God-given right to technology jobs.]
You keep taking away our good paying jobs and we won't have money to buy your stuff, or identities for your thieves to steal.
Then your god given right to profits will go right down the toilet.
When offshoring drains the last of America's middle class jobs and our consumer spending collapses, you will not go to outer space.
You
will
starve.
Russia has had quite a good track record with their space program. The ESA wants control over Russia's program and they can't have it, so they're taking their ball and leaving.
I'm not sure if this is a bad move or a good move, but the motivations as stated sound really stupid. If you can't control it, don't be involved in it? That doesn't make sense. There's got to be more to this. Does anyone know?
Customers didn't have a choice. The zero crashes a year thing only started happening since after 2001. Until then, while flying was safer than driving, you had no idea which plane was poorly maintained.
Such safe quality of service is expensive, and this is one of the reasons airlines are going out of business now.
Go do a google on GM - their CEOs actually found it was cheaper to eat a bunch of lawsuits over defective and dangerous cars than to recall them, or make them safer. You can betcha the same rule will apply to private space transport.
And big business would love to get rid of the FAA. Failing that they'll look for ways around it. Like flying cargo out of another country...
Private airlines aren't safe because they're private. They're safe because of a slew of regulations.
That's not a troll post, it's very true.
Cost cutting and cutting corners - ethically included - is a major part of any outsourced operation.
You can expect a lot more accidents in the private sector. Unless the evil red communists step in and enforce strong safety and quality control regulations...
After these private space companies get done offshoring work to some underpaid unsafe work environment-friendly country using cut rate parts made in China, their stuff will start falling out of the sky by the tons. It'll make NASA look saintly in comparison.
And when one of those parts falls on our houses we won't be able to sue for damages because of Bush's new laws regarding lawsuits; and if a lawsuit is allowed, those bought and paid for Federal judges will throw them out.
In unrelated news, housing properties anywhere beneath the flight paths of these private ships will mysteriously plumett in value.
Fair enough.
e s/main536999.shtml. shortage/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/17/60minut
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/05/07/nursing
I guess this means nurses own the media, universities and every other organization that has measured nurse to patient ratios in hospitals, too. Either that or the people who work there have been in the hospital at some time and have been blackmailed with the option of printing the nurses' side of the story or dying from poor care (how wude!).
In either case you'd be better off shaking your appendix with joy and welcoming your registered nurse mistresses, than claiming there isn't a shortage...
Unbelievable. I should have paid attention when /. hit that iceberg.
2 001/08/16/ED211776.DTL
Has sulli ever been to a hospital and seen how long it takes for a nurse to get to a patient now? I've been there and seen it in person. These nurses aren't lazy, there simply are too few of them for all the patients on a given floor.
Here's some information for sulli to read and be educated.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
Now, as for IT security, may sulli's credit card data be guarded by companies run by execs who follow his/her line of reasoning. Not mine.
How could such an utterly factually wrong and trollish post get a +1? The credibility of moderation on here is shot to crap with pluses being given to such intentionally stupid comments.
[There is no need of government police. Private security works well for the few malcontents.]
Oh yes, private security which is accountable to whom? What happens if they shoot to kill both thieves and kids who trespass? Who is around then to say that is wrong and prevent it from happening? Oh yeah, I forgot, that would never happen in America.
[Haven't you heard? Locks keep out honest people.]
Show me how much you trust your neighbor. Take the locks off your house. And your fence, too.
[Ah! But the right to keep and bear arms respects your neighbors as responsible individuals. It is those that advocate disarming people who are doing the projecting and fearing their neighbors.]
Excuse me? I see the right to keep and bear arms as protection from my neighbors in case they become covetous of my possessions. I'd say that implies a fear of my neighbors far more than any respect of their responsibility. In fact it says I don't trust their sense of civility at all.
Gun control advocates are saying that unarmed people are more civil people, and it is stupidity like that which makes me willing to be fight and die for my gun rights.
When IT workers unite, the employers take the work offshore and workers' rights go right into the toilet with their jobs.
And then these same employers quickly learn that offshoring is to data security what Al Qaeda is to peace, freedom and tolerance.
Ask Cisco and Citibank how they feel about that...
Oh God, this is so hilariously wrong that I laughed myself into a coma and 160 posts passed before the paramedics could revive me.
If no one had a good reason to fear their neighbors:
a) there would be no need for cops.
b) or fences
c) or guard dogs
d) or the right to keep and bear arms
Dude, there are more holes in your reasoning from the get go than swiss cheese.
"Only the Government can do Prohibition! Corporations can't prohibit anything! Long live the private market! Long live DRM and TCPA! Long live the RIAA!"