It's a nice thought. But we're mostly talking about people playing Madden and Halo all day on a console, and watching YouTube and texting other people with similar interests on their phone.
The other thing is, the whole concept of what's "wasted." If you're 8 years old, your mom is either always on pot, crack, or hanging out with the new boyfriend of the week, if you live in a neighborhood where going outside is dangerous, and nobody but Elmo or Cookie Monster ever gave enough of a shit about you to contribute to helping you learn to read, be creative, or anything else, then why wouldn't you spend your time playing Xbox? If that were me, I'd welcome the escapism it offered. Playing XBox may well be the single best part of your life.
In order to tell me that time was wasted, you have to tell me the opportunity cost of what (realistic, achieveable) activity could otherwise have been done.
Even if it is true that the H1B system has been bought by business, it seems to me that it's still a market dynamic. In the end, they can't force anyone to leave India, or China, or any of those places and come over here. It seems to me that if anything, the fact that there is an H1B system, and immigration system at all, is actually a barrier to trade which overvalues American talent versus equivalent talent from other places.
In the end, as we move to a more and more global economy, the relative value of a certain labor skill will equalize across the globe. The American manufacturing worker has already had to deal with this. I don't see why it won't work it's way up the economic ladder. Basically, it feels to me like the economic equivalent of the Universe's natural tendency to want to disipate any differential of anything.
As Americans, we've had a good run. We were early into the Industrial Revolution, and blessed with abundant natural resources relative to our population. We had an optimisim and risk tollerance that was derived from our immigrant origin. This lead to both a capital and skills gap compared to the rest of the world, which gave us a phenomical standard of living. But today capital moves fluidly to where it is the most effective, and the skills gap is easier to narrow than it once was. This will continue into the future. It's a tough medicine to swallow, but it's true.
What laws do you think have been bought here that are causing this dynamic? Not being snarky, just asking. This really does seem to me like a case of people not being willing to what they feel is too high, and workers not taking jobs that they feel pay too low...
Who's going to flag copyrighted material? Most people want to watch copyrighted material, not have it removed. Except for the stakeholders. Who have people who watch for the content, then flag it for removal.
What you've just described is, in theory, pretty much how the DCMA works.
But I never understood the emphasis on credentials. Having a particular degree doesn't make you a good rocket builder. Launching rockets that work is a much more credible indicator of your capabilities. Musk and his amazing team have achieved that bit.
Often, the importance of credentials is that you've had formal training. Formal training doesn't tend to give you great new ideas. It doesn't give you vision. It won't make you a genius. It may not even increase your capabilities. But it does wonders, (assuming you studied) to make sure you don't fuck up some mundane detail that has been well understood by the community for some time.
As an example, any idiot can build a lamp that works. But having some formal training can teach you why you hook up the hot to one terminal, and the neutral to the other, despite the fact that it appears to work good both ways.
Stupid questions like this are the backbone of the 24 hour news cycle (on which Slashdot, along with lots of other aggregators, feed). This is just a slight variation on the same question they're asking right now on ESPN: "Does the Miami Heat have the experience necessary to bring home a championship?". Take a complicated situation, incorrectly boil it down to just one question, then have "experts" yammer on at length. Repeat every 30 minutes.
The funny thing is, I think even porn used to be more social. When I started college, the only porn you could get off the internet was either text, or uuencoded binaries on usenet, and you had to do it on the downlow from a terminal in the lab, then ftp them to a floppy through a handful of DOS machines that had network access.. Decoding them was a major pain at the time. The moving porn in the dorm was all on video tape. And there weren't that many, even in the whole dorm, so you passed them around.
This is a "transistors are crappy now vs vacuum tubes working great" argument.
No, it's a 'flash is running into fundamental laws of physics' argument.
I suspect another SSD technology will come along to replace it, but flash probably can't go much further unless you add a large oversupply of cells to replace those which die.
I don't think so. I think that eventually, people will stop buying storage all together, and just put their data in the cloud.
pff...
BA HA HA HA HA HA!
Oh, shit. I'm sorry. I tried to say it with a straight face. I really did. But I just can't do it.
Agreed. What you actually want is a business landscape that atracts the occasional new competitor. That's what drives innovation. Look at the fire the Athlon lit under Intel 10 years ago.
I doubt it. They're corporations. What they really want is return on investment. They're unlikley to have any great religion with regard to a specific technology. If HDD's do that, then thats what they want to push. If SSDs, then that's what they'll push. And what is in the manufacturer's best interest may not be the same as what's in the retailer's best interest.
On top of this, add the fact that what the consumer wants may or may not be the most profitable product, and may or may not be what's actually in the consumer's best interest.
Frankly, at this point, I'm not sure what point I'm even trying to make.
Please explain instead of assuming you are right and we'll all see how right you are if only we were as smart as you.
My cousin was on crank for a while. One time he was tweaking for about 3 days straight. And about halfway through, his sentences sounded just like that.
You do realize that GPS signals are completely passive, yes? The whole system works by computing your location relative to the GPS transmitters whose location are well known - it's impossible to hack something through the GPS signal.
That was really good. But can you say it again, this time maybe using the voice from the Simpson's Comic Book Guy? That would be epic.
Seriously. The P/E was stupidly high before. Now, even under the revised projections, it's slightly stupidly higher. The stock was due to tank in any case. As we used to say on the playground, "NO DO-OVERS!"
Except that they're not selling the word of God, but a translation that has taken hours and hours of careful work. And just like you expect to be paid to work, these people need to feed their families too. So before telling someone that they shouldn't eat, perhaps you should work for free first.
Who do you think you're talking to around here? Slashdot is crawling with people who create software, documentation, and a variety of other products that take hours and hours of careful work. Then we give it away. We work for free. And we have a day job to pay the bills as well. Eating and giving away as well don't have to mutually exclusive.
Translating the word of God, if that's your thing, seems like it would be best done by the people with the same sort of attitude that the open source community does. Let it take as long as it takes, and let people release it when they're satisfied with it. This seems much more appropriate to me than a profit based enterprise where the quality of the translation is partially constrained by the amount of funds and callendar schedule availible to do it.
Or, alternatively, translating the Bible is really no different than translating stereo instructions. Either way.
Slashdot Mirror
It's a nice thought. But we're mostly talking about people playing Madden and Halo all day on a console, and watching YouTube and texting other people with similar interests on their phone.
The other thing is, the whole concept of what's "wasted." If you're 8 years old, your mom is either always on pot, crack, or hanging out with the new boyfriend of the week, if you live in a neighborhood where going outside is dangerous, and nobody but Elmo or Cookie Monster ever gave enough of a shit about you to contribute to helping you learn to read, be creative, or anything else, then why wouldn't you spend your time playing Xbox? If that were me, I'd welcome the escapism it offered. Playing XBox may well be the single best part of your life.
In order to tell me that time was wasted, you have to tell me the opportunity cost of what (realistic, achieveable) activity could otherwise have been done.
Even if it is true that the H1B system has been bought by business, it seems to me that it's still a market dynamic. In the end, they can't force anyone to leave India, or China, or any of those places and come over here. It seems to me that if anything, the fact that there is an H1B system, and immigration system at all, is actually a barrier to trade which overvalues American talent versus equivalent talent from other places.
In the end, as we move to a more and more global economy, the relative value of a certain labor skill will equalize across the globe. The American manufacturing worker has already had to deal with this. I don't see why it won't work it's way up the economic ladder. Basically, it feels to me like the economic equivalent of the Universe's natural tendency to want to disipate any differential of anything.
As Americans, we've had a good run. We were early into the Industrial Revolution, and blessed with abundant natural resources relative to our population. We had an optimisim and risk tollerance that was derived from our immigrant origin. This lead to both a capital and skills gap compared to the rest of the world, which gave us a phenomical standard of living. But today capital moves fluidly to where it is the most effective, and the skills gap is easier to narrow than it once was. This will continue into the future. It's a tough medicine to swallow, but it's true.
What laws do you think have been bought here that are causing this dynamic? Not being snarky, just asking. This really does seem to me like a case of people not being willing to what they feel is too high, and workers not taking jobs that they feel pay too low...
Who's going to flag copyrighted material? Most people want to watch copyrighted material, not have it removed. Except for the stakeholders. Who have people who watch for the content, then flag it for removal.
What you've just described is, in theory, pretty much how the DCMA works.
But I never understood the emphasis on credentials. Having a particular degree doesn't make you a good rocket builder. Launching rockets that work is a much more credible indicator of your capabilities. Musk and his amazing team have achieved that bit.
Often, the importance of credentials is that you've had formal training. Formal training doesn't tend to give you great new ideas. It doesn't give you vision. It won't make you a genius. It may not even increase your capabilities. But it does wonders, (assuming you studied) to make sure you don't fuck up some mundane detail that has been well understood by the community for some time.
As an example, any idiot can build a lamp that works. But having some formal training can teach you why you hook up the hot to one terminal, and the neutral to the other, despite the fact that it appears to work good both ways.
Maybe instead of trying to find a coding job, find a job along the lines of "conversational english for IT type people"...
Help your fellow coders bring up their communication skills...
I don't know about Canada, but I find that we could use a class like that right here in the US.
All your cheeseburgers are belong to us
Huh. Apparently it still needs some work.
Stupid questions like this are the backbone of the 24 hour news cycle (on which Slashdot, along with lots of other aggregators, feed). This is just a slight variation on the same question they're asking right now on ESPN: "Does the Miami Heat have the experience necessary to bring home a championship?". Take a complicated situation, incorrectly boil it down to just one question, then have "experts" yammer on at length. Repeat every 30 minutes.
RIP Mike Wallace. I miss your questions.
The funny thing is, I think even porn used to be more social. When I started college, the only porn you could get off the internet was either text, or uuencoded binaries on usenet, and you had to do it on the downlow from a terminal in the lab, then ftp them to a floppy through a handful of DOS machines that had network access.. Decoding them was a major pain at the time. The moving porn in the dorm was all on video tape. And there weren't that many, even in the whole dorm, so you passed them around.
No. We are in more peril than ever. Did you look at the photo of this so-called psychologist? You're not foolling anyone, General Zod! We know you've come back to conqueor earth! http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120523013536-zimbardo-nikita-story-body.jpg
This is a "transistors are crappy now vs vacuum tubes working great" argument.
No, it's a 'flash is running into fundamental laws of physics' argument.
I suspect another SSD technology will come along to replace it, but flash probably can't go much further unless you add a large oversupply of cells to replace those which die.
I don't think so. I think that eventually, people will stop buying storage all together, and just put their data in the cloud.
pff...
BA HA HA HA HA HA!
Oh, shit. I'm sorry. I tried to say it with a straight face. I really did. But I just can't do it.
Agreed. What you actually want is a business landscape that atracts the occasional new competitor. That's what drives innovation. Look at the fire the Athlon lit under Intel 10 years ago.
I doubt it. They're corporations. What they really want is return on investment. They're unlikley to have any great religion with regard to a specific technology. If HDD's do that, then thats what they want to push. If SSDs, then that's what they'll push. And what is in the manufacturer's best interest may not be the same as what's in the retailer's best interest.
On top of this, add the fact that what the consumer wants may or may not be the most profitable product, and may or may not be what's actually in the consumer's best interest.
Frankly, at this point, I'm not sure what point I'm even trying to make.
I feel like perhaps you would be a less angry person if you had an iPad. Have you considered getting an iPad? Also, decaf. Decaf is good.
What other gaping holes did they leave open?
Everyone is advised to be very, very careful what links they click on from this parent post. You guys know what I'm talking about....
Please explain instead of assuming you are right and we'll all see how right you are if only we were as smart as you.
My cousin was on crank for a while. One time he was tweaking for about 3 days straight. And about halfway through, his sentences sounded just like that.
...this is the group of clowns I want developing my browser extensions for me. Amiright?
It'll be fine. They all have computer science degrees. They said so on their resumes.
Glaring errors.
You do realize that GPS signals are completely passive, yes? The whole system works by computing your location relative to the GPS transmitters whose location are well known - it's impossible to hack something through the GPS signal.
That was really good. But can you say it again, this time maybe using the voice from the Simpson's Comic Book Guy? That would be epic.
+1 subtle analogy.
Seriously. The P/E was stupidly high before. Now, even under the revised projections, it's slightly stupidly higher. The stock was due to tank in any case. As we used to say on the playground, "NO DO-OVERS!"
Except that they're not selling the word of God, but a translation that has taken hours and hours of careful work. And just like you expect to be paid to work, these people need to feed their families too. So before telling someone that they shouldn't eat, perhaps you should work for free first.
Who do you think you're talking to around here? Slashdot is crawling with people who create software, documentation, and a variety of other products that take hours and hours of careful work. Then we give it away. We work for free. And we have a day job to pay the bills as well. Eating and giving away as well don't have to mutually exclusive.
Translating the word of God, if that's your thing, seems like it would be best done by the people with the same sort of attitude that the open source community does. Let it take as long as it takes, and let people release it when they're satisfied with it. This seems much more appropriate to me than a profit based enterprise where the quality of the translation is partially constrained by the amount of funds and callendar schedule availible to do it.
Or, alternatively, translating the Bible is really no different than translating stereo instructions. Either way.
I didn't say it was bad. I said it was "funny" and "ironic". These words do not mean the same thing. You don't find any irony there?
Wow, Doc. Your hourly rate is really, really expensive. Would you consider payment in Legos? I have some Star Wars ones...
If so, she's got blinders on. If I were her:
"So, Thomas, I think it's time we have a little talk about why you have 200 boxes of Lego Millenium Falcon..."