I am concerned that if the US makes it a crime to publish classified information obtained from sources, it will basically end investigative journalism and take the US one step closer to being like Russia or China.
I am not sure if that makes sense. Do you know what "classified" means?
Some degree of government secrecy has always been needed. Government secrecy was as essential during the revolutionary war, as it is today.
No, Virginia, publishing classified information is absolutely not the same as investigative journalism.
There always have been good reasons for government secrecy. Exposing certain secrets really can cost lives, don't kid yourself. This was true during WWII, and during the revolutionary war, and it's still true today.
That said, it's also true that governments will keep secrets for the wrong reasons. But, I am not sure we should applaud every person who exposes secrets.
Disclosure: US military vet, and have worked for major defense contractors. Hold a current DoD secret clearance, and have held an SSBI top secret clearance.
How will this narrow patent law? I don't think that MS is arguing against the patent system. If anything, MS is arguing against this one particular patent. Whatever the outcome, it will have no effect on the patent system, or MS's future behavior.
MS bullying does not depend on the final outcome of a court's decision. Lawsuits are so expensive that, once a company like MS sues you, you have already lost. You will eventually have to settle because the settlement is so much less than the cost of litigation.
Where do you get this BS? Need I remind you of the all amazing accomplishments in science and technology that have come the US? Need I further remind you that essentially nothing comes these 3rd world nations that the US uses for cheap labor?
Name me a major computer software company from India, or even China?
Compare that to the US: Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc.
My first guess is that MS will do what it always does: file nuisance lawsuits against MS competitors, by proxie. For example: scox vs ibm, or acacia vs redhat. My guess is that MS's next target will be google.
The scox scam, which will be in it's ninth year this March, is about 200 lines of code.
MS does not have to own all of UNIX to file a lawsuits against Linux companies.
What is to stop MS from filing a lawsuits against Redhat, Oracle, or Google? Or even the customers of those MS competitors? Even if the lawsuits were completely bogus, MS could send a warning that Linux is minefield of legalities - so smart companies had better stay away from Linux.
Novell bought some UNIX copyrights from AT&T. But, AT&T could not transfer all UNIX copyrights, because AT&T did not own all UNIX copyrights - see: AT&T vs BSD.
The deal was: AT&T gave Novell whatever copyrights AT&T owned. Where those copyrights begin and end, is a matter for speculation, since the AT&T vs BSD decision is closed.
It make also be worth noting that popular UNIX versions such as AIX, and Solaris, do not have much of that ancient UNIX code anyway.
I read this on another site. I have not yet checked for myself.
NOVL has now filed its 8K. The IP deal is for 882 patents.
A quick search of the Patent-Pair Assignment database indicates that this likely every "friggin" patent Novell owns. That is Patent-Pair has 1711 entries with Novell as an assignee, but since these include duplicate application and granted patents, as well as other stuff, the total patents sold down the river to Redmond likely represents everything touched by Novell.
So, let me see if I got this right: you're -against- allowing educated college graduates to stay in the US and perhaps immigrate because they're merely generic graduates not ivy league graduates?
US companies claim they need more H1Bs because the H1Bs are the "best and brightest." In fact, they use that very expression in practically propaganda article that they use to flood the pop-media. But, now it seems that the truth is: H1B's are just ordinary people, doing ordinary jobs - jobs that could be done by US STEM workers.
BTW: if the H1B nations are so full of geniuses, then why don't they have anything to show for it? Are why isn't the O-1 visa enough for the H1B hogs?
I'm sorry, but the only explanation is that you don't want to pay enough. The idea of a *constant* shortage makes no sense. It defies the basic laws of economics.
If there was a real shortages, then wages would spike up sharply (which has not happened since 1999 btw), that would attract more people to field, and everything would normalize.
I don't think there is a single qualified and skilled American who is unemployed in sectors where H1Bs are applicable.
You clearly do not know what you are posting about. I could introduce you to a woman who has twice had to train her H1B replacement, even though nobody denied that she was doing a good job. Now, she is unemployed again because her entire department was offshored - which is the end game to all this H1B non-sense.
And in case you have not heard, US tech workers were laid off by the hundreds of thousands in 2009. Practically every major tech employer laid off thousands of US workers. And the USA is suffering it's worse unemployment since the great depression.
We couldn't count on obtaining an H1-B and had to turn down a few very talented people. And, no, at the time we did not find as many U.S. citizens available.
Maybe that is because smart American's would have to stupid to study for a STEM career. US companies are offshoring as many STEM jobs as they can, and what jobs can not be offshored, are being filled by guest workers. Do you really expect that Americans would get an MSEE, only to train his/her H1B replacement two years later?
When US companies stop offshoring/inshoring at furious pace, and start hiring Americans, then maybe the field will be attractive to Americans again.
You are complaining about a situation that you are helping to create.
FACT: less the 25% of IBM employees were born in the USA.
No offense, but it seems to me the real question is: why should you be working in the US at all? Here you are, in the USA, taking a job from a US citizen, and bitching about it.
Supposedly the H1B is supposed to be for jobs where no US worker exists. But clearly, that is not the case. Indians would not tolerate this in their own country. Indians would be out protesting in the streets. I know this because it has already happened.
If you hate working in the USA, feel free to leave. I am sure that one of the thousands of employed US workers would be happy to take your place.
Because, while some jobs leave our country, goods made in their country are cheaper. If shipping a job to India lowers the average wage here by 10% but the price of goods goes down by 20%, that's a net gain.
1) Is that really true? Remember the Micheal Moore movie "Roger and Me?" When GM offshored all those jobs, did the price of US cars really fall dramatically? Or did GM execs just get bigger bonuses? According to the movie, the Mexican workers were only paid $0.35 an hour.
2) Is that really relevant? Major expenses for most Americans are: income tax (by far the biggest), education, health care, and housing. The cost of manufactured things are small a small part of the budget. Sure I would rather pay $30 for a toaster oven, instead of $40 - but not if that savings is costing a US worker his/her job. And not if the toaster oven is made by slave labor at Foxconn.
There are annual limits on the number of H-1Bs that the US hands out. That number is 65k plus an additional 20k for people with masters degrees.
Let's not forget that number was 195K, not long ago, and those workers are still here. Also, that 85K number does not include the unlimited OPT visas. That number also does not include the dozens of other visas such as L-1 and J-1.
Anyway, H-1Bs are good for 3 years, extendable up to an additional 2. This means that the theoretical maximum number of legal H-1Bs in the US at any one time is 5 * 85k = 425k. That's less than 0.2% of the population and seems unlikely to me to significantly affect the unemployment rate.
I think that's 3 years + an additional 3 years. Also, the cap used to be much higher. Also, don't forget about all the other visas. Also, don't forget that the H1B is hugely disproportionately targeted to US STEM jobs, especially IT. And let's not forget that in 2009, US IT jobs were absolutely slaughtered. Practically every major US IT employer announced major layoffs - i.e. 10,000 layoffs from IBM, 6,000 layoffs from MS, etc.
Another point is that H-1B workers are required, by law, to be paid at least the "prevailing wage" based on their work and geographical location. While this is by no means perfect, it does provide some protection against wage depression.
"Less the perfect" hardly describes the situation. In some career fields, jobs are very well defined, in IT it is just the opposite, i.e. a sysadmin may also be the DBA and/or a developer; or a developer may work as an admin, or a network engineer. In IT, the phrase "prevailing wage" is completely meaningless.
And there are more undocumented workers than H-1B holders, too. Lots more.
It is a very different problem. Undocumented workers do hold jobs that US workers typically aspire to have. But, what happens to the US technological lead when Americans say themselves "why study for a STEM career, just to get replaced by an H1B worker?
Therefore, my point is that while the H-1B program is not perfect and is certainly abused, I am dubious of kneejerk claims that it is this fraud that in any way hurts "most Americans". With millions of jobs being lost every year due to the economy, there simply aren't enough H-1B workers to account for very much of it.
You are dead wrong. The number of H1Bs is extremely significant. In many IT departments, the H1Bs have completely taken over.
Because H1Bs can not easily quit. A US worker can go to his/her boss and say "I'm way over due for a raise, either increase my salary, or I will be forced to look for work elsewhere." If an H1B does that, he/she is on the next airplane back to India.
There is nothing US employers hate worse than "training somebody for his/her next job."
I do not see anything trollish in that statement. Love MS all you want, but MS behavior over the years has been well documented. MS anticompetitive behavior has been recognized by the US DoJ, the EU, and other official governing bodies. Ballmer is hardly even shy about MS war on F/OSS. I think Ballmer is on record threatening to ruin linux with patent lawsuits.
Slashdot Mirror
There have been no charges for rape in Sweden as far as I'm aware, but still that's what all newspapers are touting.
What exactly are the charges against him?
I am concerned that if the US makes it a crime to publish classified information obtained from sources, it will basically end investigative journalism and take the US one step closer to being like Russia or China.
I am not sure if that makes sense. Do you know what "classified" means?
Some degree of government secrecy has always been needed. Government secrecy was as essential during the revolutionary war, as it is today.
No, Virginia, publishing classified information is absolutely not the same as investigative journalism.
I knew it, Springfield is in Kentucky.
Barney: What about us brain-dead slobs?
Lyle Lanley: You'll be given cushy jobs.
There always have been good reasons for government secrecy. Exposing certain secrets really can cost lives, don't kid yourself. This was true during WWII, and during the revolutionary war, and it's still true today.
That said, it's also true that governments will keep secrets for the wrong reasons. But, I am not sure we should applaud every person who exposes secrets.
Disclosure: US military vet, and have worked for major defense contractors. Hold a current DoD secret clearance, and have held an SSBI top secret clearance.
How will this narrow patent law? I don't think that MS is arguing against the patent system. If anything, MS is arguing against this one particular patent. Whatever the outcome, it will have no effect on the patent system, or MS's future behavior.
MS bullying does not depend on the final outcome of a court's decision. Lawsuits are so expensive that, once a company like MS sues you, you have already lost. You will eventually have to settle because the settlement is so much less than the cost of litigation.
It's not as if the patent system is on trial.
MS will continue scamming, bullying, and extorting; regardless of the outcome of this trial.
Other companies will also attack MS, but MS has the upper hand, because MS has more money.
Microsoft was also behind that Acacia suing Redhat.
Just buy their oil, and that's it. Really, what other business does the US have over there?
Don't even support Israel, we have enough problems of our own.
So that would give the mid-east crazies nothing to complain about, right?
Pull US troops out of Asia, and Europe, also. As long as we can get one nuclear missile to their capital, they won't do anything.
Maybe the US should clean up it's own back yard, and guard it's own borders for a change?
Just ask Microsoft, Apple, The SCO Group, RIm, Paul Allan, . . .
Why bother creating new, or better, products, when you can patent troll?
Where do you get this BS? Need I remind you of the all amazing accomplishments in science and technology that have come the US? Need I further remind you that essentially nothing comes these 3rd world nations that the US uses for cheap labor?
Name me a major computer software company from India, or even China?
Compare that to the US: Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc.
My first guess is that MS will do what it always does: file nuisance lawsuits against MS competitors, by proxie. For example: scox vs ibm, or acacia vs redhat. My guess is that MS's next target will be google.
The scox scam, which will be in it's ninth year this March, is about 200 lines of code.
MS does not have to own all of UNIX to file a lawsuits against Linux companies.
What is to stop MS from filing a lawsuits against Redhat, Oracle, or Google? Or even the customers of those MS competitors? Even if the lawsuits were completely bogus, MS could send a warning that Linux is minefield of legalities - so smart companies had better stay away from Linux.
Maybe if US companies hired more Americans, more Americans would train to engineers?
Also, where do you get that insane "information" about there not being enough home grown engineering talent?
This story come right on the heals of that other slashdot story: "Malaysian Indicted After Hacking Federal Reserve."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/22/1446256/Malaysian-Indicted-After-Hacking-Federal-Reserve
I guess US companies are saving a bundle by putting so much trust in foreign nationals.
These two stories are hardly unique.
Sure, offshoring jobs has ruined the careers, and lives, of countless Americans, but look at the money that the US companies are saving!
As I understand it.
Novell bought some UNIX copyrights from AT&T. But, AT&T could not transfer all UNIX copyrights, because AT&T did not own all UNIX copyrights - see: AT&T vs BSD.
The deal was: AT&T gave Novell whatever copyrights AT&T owned. Where those copyrights begin and end, is a matter for speculation, since the AT&T vs BSD decision is closed.
It make also be worth noting that popular UNIX versions such as AIX, and Solaris, do not have much of that ancient UNIX code anyway.
I read this on another site. I have not yet checked for myself.
NOVL has now filed its 8K. The IP deal is for 882 patents.
A quick search of the Patent-Pair Assignment database indicates that this likely every "friggin" patent Novell owns. That is Patent-Pair has 1711 entries with Novell as an assignee, but since these include duplicate application and granted patents, as well as other stuff, the total patents sold down the river to Redmond likely represents everything touched by Novell.
So, let me see if I got this right: you're -against- allowing educated college graduates to stay in the US and perhaps immigrate because they're merely generic graduates not ivy league graduates?
US companies claim they need more H1Bs because the H1Bs are the "best and brightest." In fact, they use that very expression in practically propaganda article that they use to flood the pop-media. But, now it seems that the truth is: H1B's are just ordinary people, doing ordinary jobs - jobs that could be done by US STEM workers.
BTW: if the H1B nations are so full of geniuses, then why don't they have anything to show for it? Are why isn't the O-1 visa enough for the H1B hogs?
There is a *constant* shortage of good people.
I'm sorry, but the only explanation is that you don't want to pay enough. The idea of a *constant* shortage makes no sense. It defies the basic laws of economics.
If there was a real shortages, then wages would spike up sharply (which has not happened since 1999 btw), that would attract more people to field, and everything would normalize.
I don't think there is a single qualified and skilled American who is unemployed in sectors where H1Bs are applicable.
You clearly do not know what you are posting about. I could introduce you to a woman who has twice had to train her H1B replacement, even though nobody denied that she was doing a good job. Now, she is unemployed again because her entire department was offshored - which is the end game to all this H1B non-sense.
And in case you have not heard, US tech workers were laid off by the hundreds of thousands in 2009. Practically every major tech employer laid off thousands of US workers. And the USA is suffering it's worse unemployment since the great depression.
We couldn't count on obtaining an H1-B and had to turn down a few very talented people. And, no, at the time we did not find as many U.S. citizens available.
Maybe that is because smart American's would have to stupid to study for a STEM career. US companies are offshoring as many STEM jobs as they can, and what jobs can not be offshored, are being filled by guest workers. Do you really expect that Americans would get an MSEE, only to train his/her H1B replacement two years later?
When US companies stop offshoring/inshoring at furious pace, and start hiring Americans, then maybe the field will be attractive to Americans again.
You are complaining about a situation that you are helping to create.
FACT: less the 25% of IBM employees were born in the USA.
No offense, but it seems to me the real question is: why should you be working in the US at all? Here you are, in the USA, taking a job from a US citizen, and bitching about it.
Supposedly the H1B is supposed to be for jobs where no US worker exists. But clearly, that is not the case. Indians would not tolerate this in their own country. Indians would be out protesting in the streets. I know this because it has already happened.
If you hate working in the USA, feel free to leave. I am sure that one of the thousands of employed US workers would be happy to take your place.
Because, while some jobs leave our country, goods made in their country are cheaper. If shipping a job to India lowers the average wage here by 10% but the price of goods goes down by 20%, that's a net gain.
1) Is that really true? Remember the Micheal Moore movie "Roger and Me?" When GM offshored all those jobs, did the price of US cars really fall dramatically? Or did GM execs just get bigger bonuses? According to the movie, the Mexican workers were only paid $0.35 an hour.
2) Is that really relevant? Major expenses for most Americans are: income tax (by far the biggest), education, health care, and housing. The cost of manufactured things are small a small part of the budget. Sure I would rather pay $30 for a toaster oven, instead of $40 - but not if that savings is costing a US worker his/her job. And not if the toaster oven is made by slave labor at Foxconn.
There are annual limits on the number of H-1Bs that the US hands out. That number is 65k plus an additional 20k for people with masters degrees.
Let's not forget that number was 195K, not long ago, and those workers are still here. Also, that 85K number does not include the unlimited OPT visas. That number also does not include the dozens of other visas such as L-1 and J-1.
Anyway, H-1Bs are good for 3 years, extendable up to an additional 2. This means that the theoretical maximum number of legal H-1Bs in the US at any one time is 5 * 85k = 425k. That's less than 0.2% of the population and seems unlikely to me to significantly affect the unemployment rate.
I think that's 3 years + an additional 3 years. Also, the cap used to be much higher. Also, don't forget about all the other visas. Also, don't forget that the H1B is hugely disproportionately targeted to US STEM jobs, especially IT. And let's not forget that in 2009, US IT jobs were absolutely slaughtered. Practically every major US IT employer announced major layoffs - i.e. 10,000 layoffs from IBM, 6,000 layoffs from MS, etc.
Another point is that H-1B workers are required, by law, to be paid at least the "prevailing wage" based on their work and geographical location. While this is by no means perfect, it does provide some protection against wage depression.
"Less the perfect" hardly describes the situation. In some career fields, jobs are very well defined, in IT it is just the opposite, i.e. a sysadmin may also be the DBA and/or a developer; or a developer may work as an admin, or a network engineer. In IT, the phrase "prevailing wage" is completely meaningless.
And there are more undocumented workers than H-1B holders, too. Lots more.
It is a very different problem. Undocumented workers do hold jobs that US workers typically aspire to have. But, what happens to the US technological lead when Americans say themselves "why study for a STEM career, just to get replaced by an H1B worker?
Therefore, my point is that while the H-1B program is not perfect and is certainly abused, I am dubious of kneejerk claims that it is this fraud that in any way hurts "most Americans". With millions of jobs being lost every year due to the economy, there simply aren't enough H-1B workers to account for very much of it.
You are dead wrong. The number of H1Bs is extremely significant. In many IT departments, the H1Bs have completely taken over.
Because H1Bs can not easily quit. A US worker can go to his/her boss and say "I'm way over due for a raise, either increase my salary, or I will be forced to look for work elsewhere." If an H1B does that, he/she is on the next airplane back to India.
There is nothing US employers hate worse than "training somebody for his/her next job."
I do not see anything trollish in that statement. Love MS all you want, but MS behavior over the years has been well documented. MS anticompetitive behavior has been recognized by the US DoJ, the EU, and other official governing bodies. Ballmer is hardly even shy about MS war on F/OSS. I think Ballmer is on record threatening to ruin linux with patent lawsuits.