And YOU have left out a ton of others. My personal favorites are
+ Finally giving the UN's 1441 "serious consequences" Bark a little bit of Bite.
+ Libya sees the business end of the "Big Stick", and decides to give up it's WMD without a single foreign military boot on their soil.
It is depressing how many seem to want jump on the "US is the root of all evil" bandwagon. Look at the geopolitical "big picture". You think Iran really wants a piece of this? How important is a non-nuclear Iran to you? Sure US foreign policy is not error-free, but at least they are making an effort, and from my POV having a lot more success than failure.
Also interesting how no comments on this article make any reference whatsoever to TFA.
We know from the letter, that the devices will be shipped with Mandriva Pre-installed. And that Mandriva has already been paid. It also seems likely that money has already changed hands in favor of the Nigerian government to support this "sudden change of heart".
Now, suppose you are one of the teachers that evaluated, and "qualified" the mandriva solution that comes pre-installed on the laptops, and you get this CD that says "Take 200 hours and install this untested, mystery OS on all 200 of your schools laptops, destroying the one you are already familiar with." How likely are you to actually comply? Will it come to MS deploying goons to ensure the software gets installed?
From a country that specializes in "Wire us some $$$ and you will be rich", it may be the case that MS marketing drones may be experiencing the joys of an industrial-scale 419 scam.
The problem with this issue is that it is actually two issues: 1) Global warming 2) increase in [man-made] atmospheric C02
While #1 is easy to demonstrate, and clearly true, #2 harder to prove due to the noise in the system (the earth produces a lot of C02 from a lot of sources, and has been doing it for long before the 20th century).
The key problem, though is, even assuming #1 and #2 to be incontravertible, proving a link between the two is virtually impossible with current scientific methods. We have no control group, it's too large and chaotic to accurately model (if it could be modeled accuratly, scientists would have no problem raising research dollars by predicting the outcome of a state lotto drawing, a vastly simpler problem, dynamically).
Whether man-made C02 causes global warming is, in fact true, or untrue, we are going to have to decide on a course of action the dark, because we will never know with enough accuracy to guide that decision, and trying to "prove" one way or the other to others, based on what we know, is simply a waste of time.
The beauty of modern warfare is very few people die relative to former wars
I'll bet I could find 65M corpses from WW-I[I] that would take issue with that. I think the key ingredient to low US losses Iraq is overwhelming advantage in virtually every tactical category (which, interestingly, used to be the definition of "winning"). For those on the business end, casualties are relatively light due to judicious use of that advantage. Remember that there were those at the beginning of the war that called for reducing the US's nuclear arsenal, one warhead at a time, if you know what I mean. Fortunately, so far, much cooler heads have prevailed, but I wouldn't be lulled into thinking that technology has done anything but maximize the efficiency of the mass-death process.
One other little tid-bit, the CIWS is unloaded every time a ship enters port and it may not be loaded again until you have crossed a specific distance marker outside of a port.
Hear that Al-Qaida? Isn't there some sort of classification on military SOPs?
Kudos to you for not putting up with the injustice, but "[Your] parents were making [you] pay for your own food"? Your first call should have been to social services, not the school cafeteria.
There's more to business then you saving $0.04 on a DVD player when you hand your credit card to the clerk earning $8/hour with no health insurance.
That's always the crux of the "Walmart is Evil" theory. Wah, wah, they don't pay enough!, Wah, wah, no health insurance. Walmart doesn't owe these people crap, nor does it owe the suppliers anything. Nobody is working with Walmart at gunpoint. At the same time, we don't owe anything to Walmart. Many people, perhaps yourself, don't shop there. It's a free market called capitalisim. Lots of other models have been tried, but they've always ended up with bread lines (which I would argue is somewhat worse than no health insurance)
If these people are unhappy with $8/hr, perhaps they should work on developing a skill that is worth more. If you think $8 is an unfair unskilled wage, wait until global trade barriers are removed and 1 billion 2nd and 3rd world human beings finally have the opportunity to earn more than $8/wk.
IIRC, "Prodigy" on-line service had a vector-based graphical interface for their on-line service back in 1992, before the web was a twinkle on ol' Tim's eye. It's what set them apart from the other big on-line presence: Compuserve. (I'm not sure AOL was even a thing in those days)
VRML (3D SVG) came on the scene several years ago, but for some reason, it too fell on it's face. What is the big aversion to scaleable [e.g. useful] image formats? For crying out loud, I'd even settle for <img type="pdf"> or <img type="eps">, just to get something out there.
I've got no mod points, but I'd mark this "+5 Amen my brother"
I think this is one of the pillars that props up the whole closed-source un-free broken-software cabal.
Anybody who reads more than two issues of that trash should automatically receive a free T-shirt reading "Luser". They'll write any article their advertiser will pay them to, no matter how ridiculous and fact-free... "Punch Cards: The Future of NAS for the Enterprise"
Also, try declining the "Professional Courtesy" rate of $0.00, these guys are like telemarketers. Two years later, and they are still filling my recycle bin...
Personally, I think that communism has some good points
Absolutely, I agree 100%, in fact, the only bad point to communisim is that it doesn't work. The main hangup is that "Product" (e.g. GDP) can not be replicated at 0 cost.
Enter FOSS. It's communisim with the key missing ingredient. You can make a bazillion copies for nothing. "It's communisim that works(tm)"
40 hours week --- Nope note likely Who wants to work 40hrs/week? I work 20-30, but since most companies pay 1st tier vendors $100/hour (what you get of that depends on how well you can negotiate), that's more than enough
programming --- Not likely, running the business will take a majority of his time Well, this is a PITA, but if I weren't so cheap, there are people who would take care of this for me. Even so, I spend 80-90% of my time coding
Steady work --- Not likely, small business has to constantly seek work and anytime there is a fluctuation in the economy you may face a slowdown in work. How is this different from any other job? Besides, have you looked at Dice.com lately?
Job Security --- See steady work... This is the biggest red-herring. Nobody owes anybody a job, as anyone laid off from fortune-100 corps can tell you. The only real job security is having a skill that someone is willing to pay for. Fortunately, programming is one that is currently in HUGE demand.
Generally, I would agree with you about the risks of starting your own business if it were a specialty clothing store, Hardees, or "beanie-baby" trade shoppe, but becoming an independent programmming consultant, If you have any useful skills at all, I don't see how you can miss. No startup costs (beyond the computer and Broadband you already have), pay a lawyer $600 to draw up a corporation, get a tax planner to keep you square with the IRS, and start paddling the 1099 job sites that are teeming with people begging to have critical work done.
Sure I'm oversimplifying somewhat, because I'm not writing a start-your-own-business book, but not working W-2 is not really rocket science (especially if I can figure it out:). Can any other 1099s back me up on this?
The bad news: Computer programming, by it's very nature, is a temporary position. The programmer's task is to direct a computer to do a repetitive job automatically. If a programmer does his job well, there is no need for him once the computer has these directions. The concept of a "full-time programmer" is an oxymoron to me.
The good news: If you know how to program a computer, there is a virtually endless supply of jobs that need automating, but you can't get to them working for only one company. You will need to become an independent contractor. Since, as you have probably already discovered, 90% of the people in these "Full-time" IT jobs don't have the skills they need to complete the task they are assigned (maybe that's why they are "full-time"), there is a huge demand for contract programmers. Plus, if you don't like a job, you will have a different one in a number of months anyway. And, the more and various jobs you complete, the more current and in-demand you become.
It takes a little confidence in yourself to take the leap of faith, but if you know what you are doing behind a keyboard, it is the only way to go!
56% of Americans have either seen the film or plan to see the film
<propaganda style="michael moore">
A recent poll also shows 56% of Americans said they are planning to vote for George W. Bush in November.
</propaganda>
Given the track record for technical knowledge of our goverment representatives (DCMA, CSS), I appreciate a little push-back from the FTC before everyone stampedes off to draft new laws, and way overshoots to a conclusion like "all software that communicates over a network is bad".
With the single exception of SPAM (because it is abusing the persistent naivite of the oldest network service ever), I think less legislation over new technology is more in the interest most people here, at least in the short term.
Whenever someone brings up the topic of offshoring, there seem to be two refrains:
Evil corporations are taking our jobs
Who's watching out for the little guy?
Well, the little guy is technically the family man in India, China, Eastern Europe, etc. that is trying to make his way through life earning a mere fraction of the income that workers in the US make. So, I guess it's the "Evil Corporation" that is looking out for "The Little Guy."
Now, I'll be the first to admit that the corporation (which is an orgaization of people) is not offshoring out of some sense of moral obligation, but is in fact the capitalistic system at work, albeit on a newly global scale.
Let's be clear, offshoring is not "taking away jobs", but is simply employing people willing to do the job for less than US workers like to be paid. If US workers were willing to be paid the same as what workers in India are willing to work for, this "Offshoring problem" would magically solve itself. To suggest anything else seems to me like greed of the most misanthropic sort.
If you are against "Sweat Shops", and for "The Little Guy.", you should be 100% behind getting higer-paying, competitive, skilled jobs to people even though they don't live within some arbitrary boundary, and hence fully support the Offshoring movement.
Disclaimer: I'm in the US and an IT worker. If "my" job ends up going to someone with the same skills willing to do it for less money, then I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well, let's get rid of the consumer too, then since the Corporation is really the consumer's representative a the "bargaining table".
An economic model that [proposes to be] looking out for the needs of just the worker? That's the model of Soviet communisim since 1917. Maybe they didn't deploy it well, but that model seems to have been a bust.
All this national DNC list buisness is an epilogue. The real meat-and-potatoes is in a 1991 law making all but the most carefully scripted and trained telemarketing campaigns illegal (only about 2% of calls I received last year could be considered legal). Best of all the law provides a minimum of $500 per call to the consumer that falls victim.
Don't believe me? Google for Telephone Consumer protection Act, or TCPA, you will find dozens of how-to sites, and even some lists of cases sucessfully collected. (I'm still working on my site, someday appearing at noroutetohost.net) Cases can be filed in small claims for usually less than $50 (which is added to the judgment anyway), and by filling out a simple one-page form.
I have already deposited $4,500 and am in the process of collecting $9,000 more, for what I can't imagine is more than about 40 hours of research/filing/court appearances total ( > $100/hour!). You might be suprised how satisfying it is to watch a telemarketer cut you a check right in the courtroom...
These calls are illegal, but they make them anyway, because the law is written so that only the consumer with the phone can take any action to enforce the law (e.g. collect money), and almost no consumers do. If you don't like these kinds of calls you might consider changing that.
I for one will NOT be signing up for the national list. I enjoy collecting the $500-$1500 PER CALL from these morons. Of the 80 or so telemarketing calls I have answered, only 3 have been legal. All the others have been actionable. It is quite a gauntlet that telemarketers have to navigate to comply with the law:Junkbusters
Very few of them know about the requirement for a WRITTEN do-not-call policy and/or the need to provide it to the consumer on request. Even if they do, just not knowing about it violates the law.
My results have been very similar (although I have a little bit better collection record, for whatever reason).
Do your checking account, and more importantly, your fellow consumers a favor, and enforce the law congress enacted, as only you can.
Slashdot Mirror
And YOU have left out a ton of others. My personal favorites are
+ Finally giving the UN's 1441 "serious consequences" Bark a little bit of Bite.
+ Libya sees the business end of the "Big Stick", and decides to give up it's WMD without a single foreign military boot on their soil.
It is depressing how many seem to want jump on the "US is the root of all evil" bandwagon. Look at the geopolitical "big picture". You think Iran really wants a piece of this? How important is a non-nuclear Iran to you? Sure US foreign policy is not error-free, but at least they are making an effort, and from my POV having a lot more success than failure.
Also interesting how no comments on this article make any reference whatsoever to TFA.
Anyway, I give this whole article "-1 Offtopic".
We know from the letter, that the devices will be shipped with Mandriva Pre-installed. And that Mandriva has already been paid. It also seems likely that money has already changed hands in favor of the Nigerian government to support this "sudden change of heart".
Now, suppose you are one of the teachers that evaluated, and "qualified" the mandriva solution that comes pre-installed on the laptops, and you get this CD that says "Take 200 hours and install this untested, mystery OS on all 200 of your schools laptops, destroying the one you are already familiar with." How likely are you to actually comply? Will it come to MS deploying goons to ensure the software gets installed?
From a country that specializes in "Wire us some $$$ and you will be rich", it may be the case that MS marketing drones may be experiencing the joys of an industrial-scale 419 scam.
The problem with this issue is that it is actually two issues:
1) Global warming
2) increase in [man-made] atmospheric C02
While #1 is easy to demonstrate, and clearly true, #2 harder to prove due to the noise in the system (the earth produces a lot of C02 from a lot of sources, and has been doing it for long before the 20th century).
The key problem, though is, even assuming #1 and #2 to be incontravertible, proving a link between the two is virtually impossible with current scientific methods. We have no control group, it's too large and chaotic to accurately model (if it could be modeled accuratly, scientists would have no problem raising research dollars by predicting the outcome of a state lotto drawing, a vastly simpler problem, dynamically).
Whether man-made C02 causes global warming is, in fact true, or untrue, we are going to have to decide on a course of action the dark, because we will never know with enough accuracy to guide that decision, and trying to "prove" one way or the other to others, based on what we know, is simply a waste of time.
I'll bet I could find 65M corpses from WW-I[I] that would take issue with that. I think the key ingredient to low US losses Iraq is overwhelming advantage in virtually every tactical category (which, interestingly, used to be the definition of "winning"). For those on the business end, casualties are relatively light due to judicious use of that advantage. Remember that there were those at the beginning of the war that called for reducing the US's nuclear arsenal, one warhead at a time, if you know what I mean. Fortunately, so far, much cooler heads have prevailed, but I wouldn't be lulled into thinking that technology has done anything but maximize the efficiency of the mass-death process.
Hear that Al-Qaida? Isn't there some sort of classification on military SOPs?
Way to slash-dot your way into a court-martial.
Kudos to you for not putting up with the injustice, but "[Your] parents were making [you] pay for your own food"? Your first call should have been to social services, not the school cafeteria.
Now, we can't even spell it.
Oh, sorry was that a troll?
That's always the crux of the "Walmart is Evil" theory. Wah, wah, they don't pay enough!, Wah, wah, no health insurance. Walmart doesn't owe these people crap, nor does it owe the suppliers anything. Nobody is working with Walmart at gunpoint. At the same time, we don't owe anything to Walmart. Many people, perhaps yourself, don't shop there. It's a free market called capitalisim. Lots of other models have been tried, but they've always ended up with bread lines (which I would argue is somewhat worse than no health insurance)
If these people are unhappy with $8/hr, perhaps they should work on developing a skill that is worth more. If you think $8 is an unfair unskilled wage, wait until global trade barriers are removed and 1 billion 2nd and 3rd world human beings finally have the opportunity to earn more than $8/wk.
You! You with the mixed metaphor! My [boot/talon] will make you use better grammar!
VRML (3D SVG) came on the scene several years ago, but for some reason, it too fell on it's face. What is the big aversion to scaleable [e.g. useful] image formats? For crying out loud, I'd even settle for <img type="pdf"> or <img type="eps">, just to get something out there.
I've got no mod points, but I'd mark this "+5 Amen my brother"
I think this is one of the pillars that props up the whole closed-source un-free broken-software cabal.
Anybody who reads more than two issues of that trash should automatically receive a free T-shirt reading "Luser". They'll write any article their advertiser will pay them to, no matter how ridiculous and fact-free... "Punch Cards: The Future of NAS for the Enterprise"
Also, try declining the "Professional Courtesy" rate of $0.00, these guys are like telemarketers. Two years later, and they are still filling my recycle bin...
How do you mark an entire article "-1 Troll"?
Absolutely, I agree 100%, in fact, the only bad point to communisim is that it doesn't work. The main hangup is that "Product" (e.g. GDP) can not be replicated at 0 cost.
Enter FOSS. It's communisim with the key missing ingredient. You can make a bazillion copies for nothing. "It's communisim that works(tm)"
Who wants to work 40hrs/week? I work 20-30, but since most companies pay 1st tier vendors $100/hour (what you get of that depends on how well you can negotiate), that's more than enough
programming --- Not likely, running the business will take a majority of his time
Well, this is a PITA, but if I weren't so cheap, there are people who would take care of this for me. Even so, I spend 80-90% of my time coding
Steady work --- Not likely, small business has to constantly seek work and anytime there is a fluctuation in the economy you may face a slowdown in work.
How is this different from any other job? Besides, have you looked at Dice.com lately?
Job Security --- See steady work...
This is the biggest red-herring. Nobody owes anybody a job, as anyone laid off from fortune-100 corps can tell you. The only real job security is having a skill that someone is willing to pay for. Fortunately, programming is one that is currently in HUGE demand.
Generally, I would agree with you about the risks of starting your own business if it were a specialty clothing store, Hardees, or "beanie-baby" trade shoppe, but becoming an independent programmming consultant, If you have any useful skills at all, I don't see how you can miss. No startup costs (beyond the computer and Broadband you already have), pay a lawyer $600 to draw up a corporation, get a tax planner to keep you square with the IRS, and start paddling the 1099 job sites that are teeming with people begging to have critical work done.
Sure I'm oversimplifying somewhat, because I'm not writing a start-your-own-business book, but not working W-2 is not really rocket science (especially if I can figure it out
The bad news: Computer programming, by it's very nature, is a temporary position. The programmer's task is to direct a computer to do a repetitive job automatically. If a programmer does his job well, there is no need for him once the computer has these directions. The concept of a "full-time programmer" is an oxymoron to me.
The good news: If you know how to program a computer, there is a virtually endless supply of jobs that need automating, but you can't get to them working for only one company. You will need to become an independent contractor. Since, as you have probably already discovered, 90% of the people in these "Full-time" IT jobs don't have the skills they need to complete the task they are assigned (maybe that's why they are "full-time"), there is a huge demand for contract programmers. Plus, if you don't like a job, you will have a different one in a number of months anyway. And, the more and various jobs you complete, the more current and in-demand you become.
It takes a little confidence in yourself to take the leap of faith, but if you know what you are doing behind a keyboard, it is the only way to go!
HTH,
Good Luck!
Since when was the number of lines a measure of productivity?
As for myself, I have only written 3 lines of code in my carrer, but man, you should see them!
<propaganda style="michael moore">
A recent poll also shows 56% of Americans said they are planning to vote for George W. Bush in November. </propaganda>
Draw your own conclusions. :)
Given the track record for technical knowledge of our goverment representatives (DCMA, CSS), I appreciate a little push-back from the FTC before everyone stampedes off to draft new laws, and way overshoots to a conclusion like "all software that communicates over a network is bad".
With the single exception of SPAM (because it is abusing the persistent naivite of the oldest network service ever), I think less legislation over new technology is more in the interest most people here, at least in the short term.
Well, thank you John Henry for that insight on progress.
Absolutely. Because the US Labor laws are broken and force the outsourcing. Think about that next time you are at the "Bargaining table"
- Evil corporations are taking our jobs
- Who's watching out for the little guy?
Well, the little guy is technically the family man in India, China, Eastern Europe, etc. that is trying to make his way through life earning a mere fraction of the income that workers in the US make. So, I guess it's the "Evil Corporation" that is looking out for "The Little Guy."Now, I'll be the first to admit that the corporation (which is an orgaization of people) is not offshoring out of some sense of moral obligation, but is in fact the capitalistic system at work, albeit on a newly global scale.
Let's be clear, offshoring is not "taking away jobs", but is simply employing people willing to do the job for less than US workers like to be paid. If US workers were willing to be paid the same as what workers in India are willing to work for, this "Offshoring problem" would magically solve itself. To suggest anything else seems to me like greed of the most misanthropic sort.
If you are against "Sweat Shops", and for "The Little Guy.", you should be 100% behind getting higer-paying, competitive, skilled jobs to people even though they don't live within some arbitrary boundary, and hence fully support the Offshoring movement.
Disclaimer: I'm in the US and an IT worker. If "my" job ends up going to someone with the same skills willing to do it for less money, then I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well, let's get rid of the consumer too, then since the Corporation is really the consumer's representative a the "bargaining table".
An economic model that [proposes to be] looking out for the needs of just the worker? That's the model of Soviet communisim since 1917. Maybe they didn't deploy it well, but that model seems to have been a bust.
can't remember why I felt compelled to look this up, but I did discover there are people in the US with the misfortune to be named Seven Ates
All this national DNC list buisness is an epilogue. The real meat-and-potatoes is in a 1991 law making all but the most carefully scripted and trained telemarketing campaigns illegal (only about 2% of calls I received last year could be considered legal). Best of all the law provides a minimum of $500 per call to the consumer that falls victim.
Don't believe me? Google for Telephone Consumer protection Act, or TCPA, you will find dozens of how-to sites, and even some lists of cases sucessfully collected. (I'm still working on my site, someday appearing at noroutetohost.net) Cases can be filed in small claims for usually less than $50 (which is added to the judgment anyway), and by filling out a simple one-page form.
I have already deposited $4,500 and am in the process of collecting $9,000 more, for what I can't imagine is more than about 40 hours of research/filing/court appearances total ( > $100/hour!). You might be suprised how satisfying it is to watch a telemarketer cut you a check right in the courtroom...
These calls are illegal, but they make them anyway, because the law is written so that only the consumer with the phone can take any action to enforce the law (e.g. collect money), and almost no consumers do. If you don't like these kinds of calls you might consider changing that.
Very few of them know about the requirement for a WRITTEN do-not-call policy and/or the need to provide it to the consumer on request. Even if they do, just not knowing about it violates the law.
Here's just one active consumer's results: smallclaim.info
My results have been very similar (although I have a little bit better collection record, for whatever reason). Do your checking account, and more importantly, your fellow consumers a favor, and enforce the law congress enacted, as only you can.