"What this leads to over time is people in these third-world countries, as well as the people who are hiring them from around the world, gradually having a better life than they did before."
Your recipe for mutual edification leaves out one group: the American workers whose wages will be eliminated or drastically reduced. This is all fine and well if the products being produced in Africa are being sold in Africa, but in reality they are being sold in the States at an inflated price (it's cheaper and cheaper to make, but with ever higher and higher price tag in the States).
Your recipe also leaves out something else: There are Y (the IT workers in America) number of people competing for X number of IT jobs out there. Foreign outsourcing means there are Y*(between 2 and 4) workers competing for X number of jobs. Maybe, if you're lucky, X+2 or thereabouts. More likely it is now straight Y competing for nearly 0 jobs.
You're also leaving out one other important factor: customer data and personal information will be processed in Africa. That means your bank account number, SSN, credit card info, and all that, will be processed in a foreign country, which means inherently a) you've created a 10,000 mile data pipeline which can at any point along the way be pinched by an outside, unauthorized entity b) you've got your data stored and processed in a country whose privacy laws, are different, and perhaps nonexistent. c) your data is being stored and processed in a nation whose laws for compensating you in case someone steals your data, are different, and perhaps nonexistent.
A woman in Pakistan already threatened to post the medical information of UCSF patients online because she wasn't paid for her work. Foreign criminal interests have already offered bounties for call center workers to surrender customer personal information that they get a hold of. Both of these incidents are documented.
Give our current scenario, with all the facts above, about 5 years and take a nice big guess what's inevitably going to happen in that time period.
I mean, aside from the fact that Linux is my primary OS... if I get a new service pack for XP I intend to back up my XP partition via the PARTIMAGE utility. If it doesn't boot up again, whammo, restore the partition and life goes on.
They'll take all these copyrights and apply them to ebooks, too, so that everyone has to have a yearly subscription to read them.
Check out "The Right to Read" by Richard Stallman... http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=the+ right+to+read/v=2/SID=w/l=WS1/R=1/H=0/SHE=0/*-http://www.gnu.or g/philosophy/right-to-read.html
and also this Slashdot article: http://slashdot.org/yro/00/08/28/1158221 .shtml
Indeed that may be true... but Ford now will be unable to make any business in China selling that car, now that someone in China has copied it with impugnity.
from Chinese workers stealing their intellectual property and using it in China, or worse, in a Chinese company coming back to compete against Oracle in the States?
So explain why it is that bankruptcies are at an all time high.
Lemme guess... people aren't using debt wisely, right?
Wow, whodathunkit...
Here's a clue.. debt is being handed out like candy now. People have to go into debt now just to make ends meet. When did we see that before? Hmmmmm... I believe we saw that back when people started emigrating from England to America. I believe the term "indentured servitude" described their condition.
For the most part, debt is a sign that people are not making ends meet and that they're sinking into insolvency in a dying economy. Or, at least, that is what the bankruptcy rate is telling us.
The Enormous All Powerful Stealth Bomber-wielding US Military has a critical weakness that is far greater than the opposition leveled against them by squirt gun (relatively speaking) wielding citizens in rebellion:
Some of those rebels will be spouses parents
and children.
For sure, that will splinter the All Powerful US Military to where they are at odds with each other. Knock down, drag out, bada bing bada BOOM!!! odds, that is...
He called me twice. I took him to small claims court in Northern Cal and shook him out in front of a judge for a cool 750. I also got 500 from another TMer for calling my company's cell phone (my employer sued him).
It's been FOREVER and a day since any TMer has ever called me. That list works TOO darned well.
Suppose a patch is released for the Xbox. What if Ion Storm goes out of business and the patch for Thief isn't available anymore? I as a PC user can burn my copy of the patch to CD-rom... what can Xbox owners do to archive patches for their games?
if they did release PC games that were, by a rule, as well tested and debugged as console games are, PC games would top out well above the $49.99 hard limit I have seen so far for PC games.
I've rarely seen a post as ignorant as this. "Companies can't censor anything." That's wrong on far too many levels.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=censor censor (n): # A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
That makes no distinction between a Government employee or a corporate employee.
Yes, but you can't download or create mods, no single player cheats, and you can't get online afterwards and post about it in forums (consoles don't have keyboards or mice to browse the web). You will never play UT2004 Jailbreak on a console. Due to the inherent architecture and draconian control console producers inflict upon their systems, superpopular mods like Counterstrike would have never been available on a console until the standalone was released.. have they even released the CS standalone for any console?
Consoles are horrible for RTS and FPS games, and all games produced on consoles require a large amount of simplification (a severe reduction of complexity and therefore depth: see Deus Ex IW). Consoles are great for fight games like Tekken, though.
PCs are flexible. The bugs take a lot away from it, but flexibility will always win in the end, and due to the console makers' need to control how the users use their products, they will never have flexibility.
Slashdot Mirror
"What this leads to over time is people in these third-world countries, as well as the people who are hiring them from around the world, gradually having a better life than they did before."
Your recipe for mutual edification leaves out one group: the American workers whose wages will be eliminated or drastically reduced. This is all fine and well if the products being produced in Africa are being sold in Africa, but in reality they are being sold in the States at an inflated price (it's cheaper and cheaper to make, but with ever higher and higher price tag in the States).
Your recipe also leaves out something else: There are Y (the IT workers in America) number of people competing for X number of IT jobs out there. Foreign outsourcing means there are Y*(between 2 and 4) workers competing for X number of jobs. Maybe, if you're lucky, X+2 or thereabouts. More likely it is now straight Y competing for nearly 0 jobs.
You're also leaving out one other important factor: customer data and personal information will be processed in Africa. That means your bank account number, SSN, credit card info, and all that, will be processed in a foreign country, which means inherently
a) you've created a 10,000 mile data pipeline which can at any point along the way be pinched by an outside, unauthorized entity
b) you've got your data stored and processed in a country whose privacy laws, are different, and perhaps nonexistent.
c) your data is being stored and processed in a nation whose laws for compensating you in case someone steals your data, are different, and perhaps nonexistent.
A woman in Pakistan already threatened to post the medical information of UCSF patients online because she wasn't paid for her work.
Foreign criminal interests have already offered bounties for call center workers to surrender customer personal information that they get a hold of.
Both of these incidents are documented.
Give our current scenario, with all the facts above, about 5 years and take a nice big guess what's inevitably going to happen in that time period.
I mean, aside from the fact that Linux is my primary OS... if I get a new service pack for XP I intend to back up my XP partition via the PARTIMAGE utility. If it doesn't boot up again, whammo, restore the partition and life goes on.
You know what the sad part is?
+ right+to+read /v=2/SID=w/l=WS1/R=1/H=0/SHE=0/*-http://www.gnu.or g/philosophy/right-to-read.html
1 .shtml
They'll take all these copyrights and apply them to ebooks, too, so that everyone has to have a yearly subscription to read them.
Check out "The Right to Read" by Richard Stallman...
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=the
and also this Slashdot article:
http://slashdot.org/yro/00/08/28/115822
Ick.
(D) for Disney and (R) for RIAA has gotta be worth at least 2 extras right there :)
the Feds should go all out after identity thieves..
oh wait, that would help the people of America and not the corporations...
Indeed that may be true... but Ford now will be unable to make any business in China selling that car, now that someone in China has copied it with impugnity.
That means something.
from Chinese workers stealing their intellectual property and using it in China, or worse, in a Chinese company coming back to compete against Oracle in the States?
Just a question.....
"use it or lose it" applies equally to academics (math, especially) as it does to athletics.
Muscles strengthen with use or atrophy with non-use, as do brain cells.
So which Olympic sports are offensive and defensive in nature?
Gymnastics is not offensive or defensive. Nor is the 100 yard dash. Or several others. They are competitive but not offensive and defensive.
Math olympics can be and is very competitive.
You can exercise the brain just as much as the biceps.
So explain why it is that bankruptcies are at an all time high.
Lemme guess... people aren't using debt wisely, right?
Wow, whodathunkit...
Here's a clue.. debt is being handed out like candy now. People have to go into debt now just to make ends meet. When did we see that before? Hmmmmm... I believe we saw that back when people started emigrating from England to America. I believe the term "indentured servitude" described their condition.
For the most part, debt is a sign that people are not making ends meet and that they're sinking into insolvency in a dying economy. Or, at least, that is what the bankruptcy rate is telling us.
versus the RIAA who can contribute millions...
Who are the politicians likely to listen to?
I find myself saying this a lot......
The Enormous All Powerful Stealth Bomber-wielding US Military has a critical weakness that is far greater than the opposition leveled against them by squirt gun (relatively speaking) wielding citizens in rebellion:
Some of those rebels will be
spouses
parents
and children.
For sure, that will splinter the All Powerful US Military to where they are at odds with each other. Knock down, drag out, bada bing bada BOOM!!! odds, that is...
We should wait until AFTER the Government has seriously abused the USAPATRIOT Act before we start complaining.
After all this is GW Bush and John Ashcroft, everyone knows these two won't abuse our civil liberties. Nor would any future leader, either!
That sounds like they're operating like a bank.
I wonder if that kind of behavior is regulated as such, or not?
grand theft auto?
He called me twice. I took him to small claims court in Northern Cal and shook him out in front of a judge for a cool 750. I also got 500 from another TMer for calling my company's cell phone (my employer sued him).
It's been FOREVER and a day since any TMer has ever called me. That list works TOO darned well.
Until the third world workers flood the industry.. or everyone out there is replaced by machines...
+4 funny, Please. :)
That's interesting, actually.
Suppose a patch is released for the Xbox. What if Ion Storm goes out of business and the patch for Thief isn't available anymore? I as a PC user can burn my copy of the patch to CD-rom... what can Xbox owners do to archive patches for their games?
if they did release PC games that were, by a rule, as well tested and debugged as console games are, PC games would top out well above the $49.99 hard limit I have seen so far for PC games.
double times zero is zero :)
All your Student Info Are Now Belong To India!
Remember this when someone from abroad starts ruining your credit with SSN data stolen from outsourced student records.
Pray that East India doesn't treat you the way Dow treated those East Indian citizens during that little chemical accident a few years back...
I've rarely seen a post as ignorant as this.
"Companies can't censor anything." That's wrong on far too many levels.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=censor
censor (n):
# A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
That makes no distinction between a Government employee or a corporate employee.
Yes, but you can't download or create mods, no single player cheats, and you can't get online afterwards and post about it in forums (consoles don't have keyboards or mice to browse the web). You will never play UT2004 Jailbreak on a console. Due to the inherent architecture and draconian control console producers inflict upon their systems, superpopular mods like Counterstrike would have never been available on a console until the standalone was released.. have they even released the CS standalone for any console?
Consoles are horrible for RTS and FPS games, and all games produced on consoles require a large amount of simplification (a severe reduction of complexity and therefore depth: see Deus Ex IW). Consoles are great for fight games like Tekken, though.
PCs are flexible. The bugs take a lot away from it, but flexibility will always win in the end, and due to the console makers' need to control how the users use their products, they will never have flexibility.