part of my point was that I AM INVESTED HERE. its my culture, my people, my land, my origin. I'm from the US and the bay area has been my home for a few decades now.
I'm living in the bay area, been here over 20 yrs and I'm a software (and sometimes hardware) engineer. I rent and my lease is up in a few months from now. I lost my job several months back (large layoff at work) and I've not found a job, yet. I have savings to last me a while, but the big fear for me right now: how the hell am I going to find a new place to live (I have to leave where I'm at right now, when the lease is over) if I don't have a job at the time? and enough income shown via 'paystubs' to make a landlord want to pick me for a renter?
in the bay area, things really can suck if you end up unemployed at the time that you choose (or are forced) to move. even with good savings and a great past history, landlords will simply pass you by! its absurd, but they all demand to see 3mos of income (at least) or they won't consider you.
you can be good - and just a bit unlucky for a short while - and end up nearly homeless or actually homeless. its frightening. as of right now, I don't have a job and while I'm trying my best, I don't know what's going to happen when the lease time is up.
I've lived in the US all my life and I've contributed (well, I think) to the companies I've worked for. but the past 10 years or so, I've found that its extremely hard to find jobs and everyone I'm being interviewed by is from another country. there are not a lot of americans being hired and working in the bay area and its not something that I'm imagining, either. its real. and its affecting me and my ability to keep a roof over my head; quite literally, in this case.
we owe more to our own people - ones that were born and raised here - than we do for others. I'm sorry, but that's just how I feel. every other country has a 'take care of our own, first' ethic. I don't know why we don't also prefer to take care of our own, first.
part of your value is being experienced in a language. you can't do that if you are spread thin amongst too many.
yeah, we can all -learn- new languages. sometimes its fun, but it stopped being fun for me decades ago (I'm a greyhair). at this point, its more of a headache to have to support this or that fad language if someone decides to write some key bit of code in his favorite. I was just thru this a few months ago, having to support a guy's code in a fad language and no one else in the company had any time spent on this language; yet this fix needed to be done yesterday.
I'd error on having 3 languages in the shop and that's about all that you'd need for most things. beyond that, you really fragment people, support and everything suffers.
I've had enough bad luck with so-called 'valid' chinese ebay sellers. 98% of bottom feeders who buy from taobao and just resell. they know nothing (or care nothing) about what they sell. in the US, we call those folks 'flippers' and they are pond scum of the lowest kind. they add no value and in fact, take value away by inflating prices and gobbling up special deals just to resell later on.
recently I bought a circuit board from china and asked the seller for the schematic (it was diy oriented) and while I did get A schematic, it was for another product. I pointed this out and his reply was 'sorry, its all I have'.
this is so typical of ebay china sellers. once they have your money, they could really care less, OTHER than the fear they have of you giving them less than '5 stars'. that's all they care about. once they get their rating, you could cease to exist in their eyes.
now, this is the GOOD side of china buying. it only goes downhill from this.
and so, once enough americans experience 'china customer service' this will fail so fast, it will either turn itself around or become the new bottom feeder that everyone in-the-know avoids.
right - no sensible or aware person would willingly choose to get involved in yet another google boondoggle product.
privacy is NOT what they exist for; in fact, they exist for 100% the opposite! to collect, sort, analyse and market your info to their real customers.
businesses that choose to get in bed with google 'data' are either ignorant or on the take, one way or another. no one with any respect for users will ever voluntarily choose to do business with google ever again.
its true, though, that the republicans are the main force in the 'culture of fear' that we are stuck in the middle of.
republicans are the owners of the military machine. that exists only when there is fear in us of some foreign boogeyman.
the dems are in the pockets of entertainment (as a contrast) and that's not that much of a fear-based business (other than the threat of suits from mpaa/riaa).
fear of terrorism is mostly an invention of the republicans, though. they love to see us all cower and do whatever they say.
dems are shit-fucks, too; but their main business is not about controlling people by fear of terrorism. there is some of that, but its not their main party platform like it is for the R's.
I'll give you that both parties suck shit so bad, we need to dissolve them both. but one is most certainly a lot more evil than the other.
tell that to folks who could NOT get insurance NO MATTER WHAT. I know lots of folks (i'm older) who have pre-existing conditions and they were LOCKED OUT of insurance. 100% locked out. could not get it even if they paid $2k/mo.
so, for those folks (and it COULD happen to you later on) its a godsend.
cost is not great but do you think that the american system will EVER get lower in cost? I don't think it will be allowed; too many interests in keeping cost too high and not insuring everyone (the conservatives really hate spreading common things around to everyone; they think that only some people 'deserve' healthcare and the rest can go rot in hell).
turning a profit? NEVER. no fucking way. its not what anyone would have wanted when this country was being 'designed'.
adding profit to law enforcement (of ANY kind!) is bad. look at our forfeiture laws. LE's make serious money stealing from citizens. they have legal theft now, in case you didn't hear, and sending someone to prison with the goal of making that 'prison company' profit makes me sick to my stomach. its not what the US was ever about and its a perversion if there ever was one.
this is why we don't see any real diff between criminals and law enforcement, these days. both are thugs, but one class of them wear badges. beyond that, I see little real difference anymore. they are both gangs and are both totally untrustworthy and out of control.
there has been enough talk about the US 'losing the cloud' and this hurts BUSINESS. that finally got their attention.
now, if they will do anything real about our national conversation about online privacy, that I kind of doubt. we are essentially having the conversation amongst ourselves, but no one who can make laws is really stepping up to meet us and talk honestly about this.
so, we're at step-1, I guess. we admit there is a problem (ie, loss of business revenue, now and in the future) and they are scrambling how to best 'fix' this and yet not really fix it where it counts.
we don't trust you and we may never trust you again. but lets see if anything does change. maybe economics, over a long enough time, could course-correct us and put us back on the freedom track again.
it could be easily solved by having a 'simple' and an 'expert' view paradigm.
if they want to have a simple minded audience, fine, define what things you want to drop or show differently and if the user selected 'simple', replay it that way.
if the user selected 'expert' or advanced or some other word like that, then they'd get the non-dumbed down version.
a lot of apps have this dual view kind of mode set. I don't see why this couldn't also be done, here.
the two are entirely different. you don't shout and concentrate as much with a real person there vs the phone. the phone will cut in and out and distract you; people won't. and finally, the passenger will see that an 'issue' is coming up and probably be quite (or tell you there is a problem ahead). the cell phone will have no idea what your environment is like and they'll continue on blathering while you rear-end the guy who stopped short, in front of you.
I generally won't even answer my phone if I'm driving, hands free or not. the call can wait and if it can't, I'll pull over!
Slashdot Mirror
they are 'evolutionarily challenged', that's all.
why should I leave?? this is my home, dammit!
part of my point was that I AM INVESTED HERE. its my culture, my people, my land, my origin. I'm from the US and the bay area has been my home for a few decades now.
you suggest I leave? really? that's your answer?
I find that insulting, to be honest.
you are hitting home with me.
I'm living in the bay area, been here over 20 yrs and I'm a software (and sometimes hardware) engineer. I rent and my lease is up in a few months from now. I lost my job several months back (large layoff at work) and I've not found a job, yet. I have savings to last me a while, but the big fear for me right now: how the hell am I going to find a new place to live (I have to leave where I'm at right now, when the lease is over) if I don't have a job at the time? and enough income shown via 'paystubs' to make a landlord want to pick me for a renter?
in the bay area, things really can suck if you end up unemployed at the time that you choose (or are forced) to move. even with good savings and a great past history, landlords will simply pass you by! its absurd, but they all demand to see 3mos of income (at least) or they won't consider you.
you can be good - and just a bit unlucky for a short while - and end up nearly homeless or actually homeless. its frightening. as of right now, I don't have a job and while I'm trying my best, I don't know what's going to happen when the lease time is up.
I've lived in the US all my life and I've contributed (well, I think) to the companies I've worked for. but the past 10 years or so, I've found that its extremely hard to find jobs and everyone I'm being interviewed by is from another country. there are not a lot of americans being hired and working in the bay area and its not something that I'm imagining, either. its real. and its affecting me and my ability to keep a roof over my head; quite literally, in this case.
we owe more to our own people - ones that were born and raised here - than we do for others. I'm sorry, but that's just how I feel. every other country has a 'take care of our own, first' ethic. I don't know why we don't also prefer to take care of our own, first.
not when you start to have too many tools.
part of your value is being experienced in a language. you can't do that if you are spread thin amongst too many.
yeah, we can all -learn- new languages. sometimes its fun, but it stopped being fun for me decades ago (I'm a greyhair). at this point, its more of a headache to have to support this or that fad language if someone decides to write some key bit of code in his favorite. I was just thru this a few months ago, having to support a guy's code in a fad language and no one else in the company had any time spent on this language; yet this fix needed to be done yesterday.
I'd error on having 3 languages in the shop and that's about all that you'd need for most things. beyond that, you really fragment people, support and everything suffers.
I've had enough bad luck with so-called 'valid' chinese ebay sellers. 98% of bottom feeders who buy from taobao and just resell. they know nothing (or care nothing) about what they sell. in the US, we call those folks 'flippers' and they are pond scum of the lowest kind. they add no value and in fact, take value away by inflating prices and gobbling up special deals just to resell later on.
recently I bought a circuit board from china and asked the seller for the schematic (it was diy oriented) and while I did get A schematic, it was for another product. I pointed this out and his reply was 'sorry, its all I have'.
this is so typical of ebay china sellers. once they have your money, they could really care less, OTHER than the fear they have of you giving them less than '5 stars'. that's all they care about. once they get their rating, you could cease to exist in their eyes.
now, this is the GOOD side of china buying. it only goes downhill from this.
and so, once enough americans experience 'china customer service' this will fail so fast, it will either turn itself around or become the new bottom feeder that everyone in-the-know avoids.
right - no sensible or aware person would willingly choose to get involved in yet another google boondoggle product.
privacy is NOT what they exist for; in fact, they exist for 100% the opposite! to collect, sort, analyse and market your info to their real customers.
businesses that choose to get in bed with google 'data' are either ignorant or on the take, one way or another. no one with any respect for users will ever voluntarily choose to do business with google ever again.
Hell I even ordered Comcast just so I could return the equipment the next day and keep the batteries. Comcast is the Edith Keeler of the internet.
and you are the jack benny of slashdot.
(goml)
its true, though, that the republicans are the main force in the 'culture of fear' that we are stuck in the middle of.
republicans are the owners of the military machine. that exists only when there is fear in us of some foreign boogeyman.
the dems are in the pockets of entertainment (as a contrast) and that's not that much of a fear-based business (other than the threat of suits from mpaa/riaa).
fear of terrorism is mostly an invention of the republicans, though. they love to see us all cower and do whatever they say.
dems are shit-fucks, too; but their main business is not about controlling people by fear of terrorism. there is some of that, but its not their main party platform like it is for the R's.
I'll give you that both parties suck shit so bad, we need to dissolve them both. but one is most certainly a lot more evil than the other.
tell that to folks who could NOT get insurance NO MATTER WHAT. I know lots of folks (i'm older) who have pre-existing conditions and they were LOCKED OUT of insurance. 100% locked out. could not get it even if they paid $2k/mo.
so, for those folks (and it COULD happen to you later on) its a godsend.
cost is not great but do you think that the american system will EVER get lower in cost? I don't think it will be allowed; too many interests in keeping cost too high and not insuring everyone (the conservatives really hate spreading common things around to everyone; they think that only some people 'deserve' healthcare and the rest can go rot in hell).
I actually have a pre-release copy of windows 9. don't ask where I got it from.
when I played it backwards, it kept flashing some message on my screen about paul being dead. no idea what the fuck that was all about.
quite unreasonable.
don't you know the drill, by now?
if this competes with the existing power-brokers (and yes, it does) then it can't be allowed.
to stop things we don't like, we label them as child pron or terrorism.
nothing new about this; we've seen this old play redone hundreds of times during the last 10+ yrs.
this is just about controlling currency and stopping anonymity. has absolutely nothing to do with 'terror'. only an moran would buy that story.
uhm, voting republican?
covering costs, maybe.
turning a profit? NEVER. no fucking way. its not what anyone would have wanted when this country was being 'designed'.
adding profit to law enforcement (of ANY kind!) is bad. look at our forfeiture laws. LE's make serious money stealing from citizens. they have legal theft now, in case you didn't hear, and sending someone to prison with the goal of making that 'prison company' profit makes me sick to my stomach. its not what the US was ever about and its a perversion if there ever was one.
this is why we don't see any real diff between criminals and law enforcement, these days. both are thugs, but one class of them wear badges. beyond that, I see little real difference anymore. they are both gangs and are both totally untrustworthy and out of control.
google (et all) are the government's bitch.
they will do as they're told.
or else.
what do you expect them to do or say?
there has been enough talk about the US 'losing the cloud' and this hurts BUSINESS. that finally got their attention.
now, if they will do anything real about our national conversation about online privacy, that I kind of doubt. we are essentially having the conversation amongst ourselves, but no one who can make laws is really stepping up to meet us and talk honestly about this.
so, we're at step-1, I guess. we admit there is a problem (ie, loss of business revenue, now and in the future) and they are scrambling how to best 'fix' this and yet not really fix it where it counts.
we don't trust you and we may never trust you again. but lets see if anything does change. maybe economics, over a long enough time, could course-correct us and put us back on the freedom track again.
eh, it looks like fake grey, to me. I can tell by the pixels.
"look, johnny, there is no such thing as 'phone cops'."
its also not likely you'll ever see that creedence tape again, either.
we have a for-profit private prison INDUSTRY in the US.
anyone who thinks this is a good idea, raise your hand.
Law enforcement is supposed to cause less harm than criminals.
as we've come to LEARN, LE is not about protecting or serving anyone other than the rich and powerful.
you and I don't enter into this.
not. one. bit.
the sooner folks 'cop' to this fact, the sooner we might be able to actually fix this age-old problem.
regional dialects, my ass!
well, bless their hearts.
it could be easily solved by having a 'simple' and an 'expert' view paradigm.
if they want to have a simple minded audience, fine, define what things you want to drop or show differently and if the user selected 'simple', replay it that way.
if the user selected 'expert' or advanced or some other word like that, then they'd get the non-dumbed down version.
a lot of apps have this dual view kind of mode set. I don't see why this couldn't also be done, here.
I've been told that this is known as a 'shit sandwich'.
good, good, good, bad, good, good, bad, good, good.
try to lose the 'bad' in the apparent majority of 'good' things on a list.
and so, this has its own name, a shit sandwich.
"he's the hero you need, even if he's not the hero you deserve."
or something like that.
the two are entirely different. you don't shout and concentrate as much with a real person there vs the phone. the phone will cut in and out and distract you; people won't. and finally, the passenger will see that an 'issue' is coming up and probably be quite (or tell you there is a problem ahead). the cell phone will have no idea what your environment is like and they'll continue on blathering while you rear-end the guy who stopped short, in front of you.
I generally won't even answer my phone if I'm driving, hands free or not. the call can wait and if it can't, I'll pull over!