You're an idiot. The company probally operates a call center, and they are probably moving to a call-center VoIP solution that will save them thousands of dollars.
- If they use UN documents as a guide, the Google MT engine will be excellent at translating bureaucratese between languages. I'm not sure if that's a good thing!
- Its obvious that the US Gov't is dumping money into Google -- I often wonder if Google is a front for some US gov't agency.
I'm in a public employee union as well that's pretty similar to yours. I think the main purpose it serves is to keep political hacks and appointees from taking over the civil service any more than they do already.
While where I work has alot of problems, its also a fairly collegial atmosphere and most people enjoy their jobs. That is what IT folks should be fighting for. The insanity that many development shops enforce with defensive management and organizations designed to fail has destroyed alot of lives and marriages.
I can understand why alot of IT folks are anti-labor... unions make for alot of hassle and there's a huge cost in flexibility and seniority becomes important instead of a liability.
The best model for IT would be the skilled tradesmen model that plumbers and electricians use -- but that's a blue collar thing that most snobby IT people would cringe at.
On the other hand, corporate governance and management is almost universally flawed and many IT organizations are designed to burn through workers.
"Remember, I didn't use the card, someone else did (and it wasn't even my card, assuming a physical card was even involved)."
Sure you did. Unless the thief somehow conjured up your card number & pin, they obtained your information from some sort of rigged device somewhere.
I use my ATM card at banks only -- I don't use random ATMs in malls and such. Many banks consider pin-based transactions inviolate, so I treat my ATM card with care!
"I'm not an expert, but I hear the chances of a cc number being stolen over an open phone line are greater than it being stolen over a secure transaction on the internet. If anyone has more info on that, I'd be interested in hearing it."
That's true -- if you are talking about someone trying to intercept your communications by tapping into a network.
The real dangers in internet commerce are in the backend systems. Online merchants may be using insecure means to store cc information (like text files and easy to exploit databases) or may keep transaction logs on easily accessible web or ftp servers!
Also consider that smaller online merchants don't always own or physically control their equipment. Workers or intruders at a hosting company can easily access all of the vendors records!
Unless you have really crappy credit, you can get credit cards that give you 2-5% of every purchase back in the form of points, rewards or frequent flyer points.
If you aren't smart or disiplined enough to avoid buying everything in sight on credit, don't bother.
I bought a notebook computer & lawn tractor from Amazon.com and got about $125 in Amazon Gift Cards because I used the Amazon credit card. When I travel, I tend to frequent Hilton or Hampton Inn hotels and use their american express card, or use an AMEX blue card to get membership points for various places.
There's alot of good reasons to use credit cards:
- Use the bank's money for a month - Affinity programs (like I described above) - The ability to get chargebacks from the credit card if the merchant provides you with poor service - Extra warranties at no cost on anything you buy - Free car rental insurance
Debit cards are a crappy deal... if there is a billing error or fraudulent activity, the onus in on you to keep track of your checking account. If someone charges hundreds of dollars on your debit card and your rent check bounces, fraud protection isn't going to pay for the fees and the hassle.
Are we blaming Boeing for the 9/11 tragedy too? Or blaming Kabar for making high-quality blades, because someone killed with one?
In the US, this is a pretty common occurance. Victims of gun crime are now suing gun manufacturers and there have been a few cases against hunting knife makers that have been settled out of court.
The situation that you're describing in India is a textbook of what happens when companies and governments throw millions of dollars somewhere without a means to audit and check up on where it's spending. In other words, corruption.
If I was in India at one of these outsourcing companies, I'd hire as many of my family members as possible to feed off the stupid American dole. I'd bet that huge numbers of projects being outsourced get cancelled and delayed anyway, so a skilled operator could easily bilk millions from these companies and retire on some grand estate somewhere over there.
If you're not "doing it for the money" than work for free.
IT people are being screwed hard by outsourcing and such because asshats like YOU are so "superior" and indispensable are willing to work insane hours for free. Just because your old buddy had a blue collar job and got his hands dirty a bit doesn't mean that he's some sort of idiot.
Indeed, the idiots are the white-collar IT types who become burnouts at 28 after working 80 hour weeks for a few years. Those inferior landscapers, plumbers and carpenters easily bank 2.5 times more than you working 60 hours a week -- and are paid for every minute that they work.
Microsoft software enables spywhere, but Google software IS spyware. Google reads your email via GMail, monitors your browsing behavior via search history & Google Web Accelerator, and likely logs searches for data on your own PC with Desktop search!
Since you can get swill like Miller Genuine Draft or Red Dog in any college town for $5 all you can drink from 9-1, Guinness should be available at a bulk discount as well.
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That's what I said, asshat.
If your future wife doesn't care about the diamond, get something else. Manufacturing diamonds isn't something that you can do.
My wife was cool about my objections to diamonds, so I get a really nice sapphire and put it on a very unique setting.
We've been playing with some IBM tools at work that automate server setup and provisioning... its pretty amazing stuff.
You can basically retask servers in something like 10-60 minutes depending on what you are doing, and its a completely automatic process.
I agree with the other dude... you gotta respect someone who can say "maybe I was wrong" on a forum like this.
You're an idiot. The company probally operates a call center, and they are probably moving to a call-center VoIP solution that will save them thousands of dollars.
- If they use UN documents as a guide, the Google MT engine will be excellent at translating bureaucratese between languages. I'm not sure if that's a good thing!
- Its obvious that the US Gov't is dumping money into Google -- I often wonder if Google is a front for some US gov't agency.
I'm in a public employee union as well that's pretty similar to yours. I think the main purpose it serves is to keep political hacks and appointees from taking over the civil service any more than they do already.
While where I work has alot of problems, its also a fairly collegial atmosphere and most people enjoy their jobs. That is what IT folks should be fighting for. The insanity that many development shops enforce with defensive management and organizations designed to fail has destroyed alot of lives and marriages.
I can understand why alot of IT folks are anti-labor... unions make for alot of hassle and there's a huge cost in flexibility and seniority becomes important instead of a liability.
The best model for IT would be the skilled tradesmen model that plumbers and electricians use -- but that's a blue collar thing that most snobby IT people would cringe at.
On the other hand, corporate governance and management is almost universally flawed and many IT organizations are designed to burn through workers.
Yeah, but you need to spend like $7,000 to get 1%... Most good reward cards give you at least 3%.
"Remember, I didn't use the card, someone else did (and it wasn't even my card, assuming a physical card was even involved)."
Sure you did. Unless the thief somehow conjured up your card number & pin, they obtained your information from some sort of rigged device somewhere.
I use my ATM card at banks only -- I don't use random ATMs in malls and such. Many banks consider pin-based transactions inviolate, so I treat my ATM card with care!
"I'm not an expert, but I hear the chances of a cc number being stolen over an open phone line are greater than it being stolen over a secure transaction on the internet. If anyone has more info on that, I'd be interested in hearing it."
That's true -- if you are talking about someone trying to intercept your communications by tapping into a network.
The real dangers in internet commerce are in the backend systems. Online merchants may be using insecure means to store cc information (like text files and easy to exploit databases) or may keep transaction logs on easily accessible web or ftp servers!
Also consider that smaller online merchants don't always own or physically control their equipment. Workers or intruders at a hosting company can easily access all of the vendors records!
Why would you go through all of that hassle when you can just use a credit card? Then the bank's money is exposed!
Unless you have really crappy credit, you can get credit cards that give you 2-5% of every purchase back in the form of points, rewards or frequent flyer points.
If you aren't smart or disiplined enough to avoid buying everything in sight on credit, don't bother.
I bought a notebook computer & lawn tractor from Amazon.com and got about $125 in Amazon Gift Cards because I used the Amazon credit card. When I travel, I tend to frequent Hilton or Hampton Inn hotels and use their american express card, or use an AMEX blue card to get membership points for various places.
There's alot of good reasons to use credit cards:
- Use the bank's money for a month
- Affinity programs (like I described above)
- The ability to get chargebacks from the credit card if the merchant provides you with poor service
- Extra warranties at no cost on anything you buy
- Free car rental insurance
Debit cards are a crappy deal... if there is a billing error or fraudulent activity, the onus in on you to keep track of your checking account. If someone charges hundreds of dollars on your debit card and your rent check bounces, fraud protection isn't going to pay for the fees and the hassle.
Q: And what is linux?
A: A knockoff of Unix loosely based on POSIX
All of those other projects exist due to the charity of corporations that need those projects so they can make money in other areas.
How many true volunteers are there in the Mozilla project? Few -- most work for companies like Sun or IBM.
The difference is that "computer" people are stupid, and refuse to organize.
The problem is that informing all of these derivative projects of the security breach, and consulting or assisting them just doesn't scale.
Galeon, Epiphany, etc will always be playing catch-up because their code is based on Mozilla... that's the nature of the beast.
Remember how nobody here could understand why Apple wouldn't use Gecko as the basis of their browser?
This is precisely why -- Apple didn't want to be playing catch-up every few weeks/months.
In the US, this is a pretty common occurance. Victims of gun crime are now suing gun manufacturers and there have been a few cases against hunting knife makers that have been settled out of court.
I used to be a lonely nerd, but thanks to Spotlight I can:
- Run Faster
- Jump Higher
- Score with the chicks
- Regrow lost hair!
Even more disturbing than obnoxious practices like this are the other "updates" applied.
For example, when you update iTunes, you must accept retroactive licensing changes to all of the music that you have purchased.
The situation that you're describing in India is a textbook of what happens when companies and governments throw millions of dollars somewhere without a means to audit and check up on where it's spending. In other words, corruption.
If I was in India at one of these outsourcing companies, I'd hire as many of my family members as possible to feed off the stupid American dole. I'd bet that huge numbers of projects being outsourced get cancelled and delayed anyway, so a skilled operator could easily bilk millions from these companies and retire on some grand estate somewhere over there.
The funny thing is that our centrally-planned (by commercial interests) economy is going down the same toilet that the Soviets did.
Keep making fun of the Russians, but don't look at Gary, Indiana, Detroit or any other large city in the US.
If you're not "doing it for the money" than work for free.
IT people are being screwed hard by outsourcing and such because asshats like YOU are so "superior" and indispensable are willing to work insane hours for free. Just because your old buddy had a blue collar job and got his hands dirty a bit doesn't mean that he's some sort of idiot.
Indeed, the idiots are the white-collar IT types who become burnouts at 28 after working 80 hour weeks for a few years. Those inferior landscapers, plumbers and carpenters easily bank 2.5 times more than you working 60 hours a week -- and are paid for every minute that they work.
The real trick is actually knowing wtf you are doing, instead of flailing around like a tipped turtle.
Microsoft software enables spywhere, but Google software IS spyware. Google reads your email via GMail, monitors your browsing behavior via search history & Google Web Accelerator, and likely logs searches for data on your own PC with Desktop search!
Since you can get swill like Miller Genuine Draft or Red Dog in any college town for $5 all you can drink from 9-1, Guinness should be available at a bulk discount as well.