Qantas went on strike in Australia a couple of years ago. As in, the company temporarily ceased to trade and banned their workers from entering the premises, because they weren't happy with how the employment negotiations were proceeding.
It's all the worse when a business does something like that; regulators should actively prevent it, in order to protect consumers. The company should pay fines and required to compensate passengers stranded by such an act in the amount 10x the damages with a minimum of AUD $ 2000 per passenger, in addition to a repayment of travel expenses; with regulators handling the prosection.
The fines should exceed any benefit hoped to be gained by the unannounced disruption.
Processor helps with VMs, but the limit on how many you can run is usually RAM.
Hey... you can overcommit RAM; on the kind of VMs likely to run on a desktop; it should be fine,
just be sure there is some decent SSD storage with high write durability backing the swap cache:)
This fire is burning right next to actual people, not sure why we need to worry about SF 200 miles away.
The loss of power and water supplies to metropolitan San Francisco; is a potentially more serious event; not that a wildfire destroying homes isn't serious.
Where will you evacuate all the inhabitants of San Francisco to, who haven't stocked up on potable water, and how will you keep them alive?
On the other hand... if they allow power to be not operating in San Francisco for a significant length of time;
global warming could be reduced due to reduction in capacity requirements from power plants in the area, resulting in more generators being turned off.
The average person just buys another one anyway when it stops working. If the average components last 3- 5 years by the time you shell out parts you might as well have gotten a new machine anyways.
Yes... if you can swap memory chips and hard drive and fans, without too much trouble: I think for most people, that should be enough.
The problem is of course... mechanical hard drives frequently fail, and so do mechanical fans.
Easy DIMM swapping is necessary for memory upgrades.
6GB of RAM might be great today; in a few years, you need 32GB or 64GB.
The article says they have gone on strike. Which means they banded together with their union buddies, and all agreed to suddenly stop working without notice.
Employees at the world's largest radio telescope have gone on strike after failing to reach agreement over pay and conditions.
In other words: their employer expected them to be working as agreed, but they stopped; without each person providing the proper warning.
I was corrected by a collegue which says 'we have two bathrooms, one is broken, and the other is only for 'number 1', so if you have to 'number 2' , then you are
Aww hell... why didn't they say that in the article?
If that's the case, then... that would be one of the few reasonable reasons for a strike.
An employer does have to provide reasonable facilities, so employees don't experience unreasonable risk or discomfort.
Not providing a usable bathroom for #2 doesn't pass muster.
Dude, i invite you to work in ALMA for a month, a 16,000 ft, with temps as low as 14 F , and winds of 32m/s for $12.50 per our on 12 hour shift with out bathroom or a descent place to eat.... then we can talk
Maybe. If you give me a brand new Macbook Pro, high-speed unmonitored internet access, free high-quality lodging on-site with private room private bathroom, electricity, etc, a company vehicle, with free fuel; 3 high-quality meals a day company paid for; a company paid steak dinner every night, and 12 weeks of paid vacation leave every year.
Obviously; we'd have to do an onsite inspection and further review of the conditions before we consider making an offer to actually work there.
Except that it's not really minimum wage work. Keeping a radio telescope working properly is very much skilled labor. In fact, each of those grad students necessarily already has a 4 year degree
Well; I can think of a few reasons a grad student might want such a job -- there could be opportunities they want in the future that they have to take this job to get. In that case, they are getting value from the job besides the wage paid They are receiving Wage + Experience + Years of Resume history. As long as the sum of the 3 of these is better to them than other options, and exceeds the utility cost to them of Labor performed, then the worker is receiving a good deal.
If there are enough grad students who want to take that path, then from a market perspective: they are providing a supply surplus of labor.
As a fact of the matter: a surplus of labor suppresses prices; the very people who are suddenly going back on their promises, and not providing the proper notice expected of preffesionals -- are the same people who caused the wage to be so low.
That is: they were willing to take the job on those terms, and the existence of prospective skilled hires willing to take the job at such low wages, is the reason they get paid that.
Arguably, they agreed to the job, because they felt the arrangement would be beneficial to them, but now their feelings have changed.
They should do what any honest responsible employee should do in this situation: demand more money, and turn in their two weeks notice, when they don't get it.
Let's assume we can't touch Costs without hurting the company. That still leaves everything in the Profit section open to negotiation
ALMA is UN-funded. There is no profit. The closest thing to proft for a non-profit; is getting more donations or being a separate company paid to be a contracter for a non-profit due to close friendship or family ties with those in charge of the non-profit.
The only real profit for a company in the scientific fields, is if you get to patent something; and observatories don't really have any intellectual property associated with them, except perhaps copyright: but in general, the images taken are in the public domain.
All employees should unite and strike until paid enough to balance the distribution of wealth.
And logically speaking.... it's in Employer's best interests to fire any employee that agrees to do work, and then starts striking,
and share a strike-history blacklist with other Empoloyers; so prospective hirers know who is likely to take a job, and
then without notice, suddenly refuse to work the job until something is changed to greater benefit them.
So would you get minimum wage technicians to operate a state-of-the-art gear like are these telescopes?
Minimum wage workers operate all sorts of technology that costs more than they do all the time; if they break it, it comes out of their pay.
If their skill was in market demand; it's the worker's failing in accepting an offer that doesn't make sense for them.
It is perfectly sensible for the worker to refuse an offer because it doesn't fairly compensate them, and inform the hirer to contact them when they have a better offer --- when all prospective hires do that, the employer will have no choice but to pay a market wage.
Again, what's cheating is taking the job; promising to do the work; and then striking without warning that you will stop working.
There is probably a whole slew of people who want that job, but didn't take the job, because they were unhappy with the arrangement --- you by accepting the low wage denied them employment; and now you're trying to have your cake and eat it too, by being dishonest, and intentionally failing to fulfill an agreement you made.
I'm all for you turning in your 2 weeks notice, and finding a better arrangement: halting an important project, without the proper notice, for the employer to find a replacement or agree to new terms, because you're suddenly not happy with what you already agreed and promised to do: is what I call cheating.
How is that cheating? I thought that is a simple demand and supply rule.
No. The cheating part is the accepting the offer and then refusing to do the work; without advance notice.
I am all well and good with interviewing with the employer, and then refusing the offer by telling the prospective employer that it's not enough -- and you'd love to work for them if they'd increase teh amount.
It's called blackmail. "I'm going to suddenly stop doing this thing that I promised to do"
It sounds like they're trying to take advantage and cheat their employer, because they're in a remote area -- making them harder to fire and replace; because they see there is a good bit of money to the project --- but the management still has a fiduciary duty to spend it appropriately.
Just because the project has a $1 billion budget; does not mean the facilities workers, janitors, techs, etc, get six figure salaries that are out of line with the market rate of the work to be done, and the employee's work experience.
Workers say they are not sufficiently compensated for isolation and high altitude.'. The strike started on Thursday, and the telescope is currently not operating. Although the project's budget is $1.1 billion, an ALMA technician earns less than $2.000 per month. How does this compare with people working at observatories in the U.S., Japan, or the European Union?"
Wait.... they're essentially getting $12.50 an hour for a minimum wage technician job, And they're saying their $5.25 (a huge premium) isn't compensation for high altitudes and isolation, after considering their opportunity for adventure?
Perhaps they should not have taken on that work then.
There are plenty of cook jobs at fast food restaurants that are not on the mountain.
The 30 second rule is based upon some case law (numerous cases here) that have basically said that 30 seconds or 10% of a work clearly is on the righteous side of fair-use.
Nonetheless... a 20 second clip can fail to be fair use -- due to what it contains and its use;
meanwhile, a 90 second clip for the right purpose can be fair use.
Do you think this could be the NSA snooping on my facebook and pushing me to buy audiobooks that will contain subliminal messages to hate Snowden and freedom?
You're starting to sound angry again. Maybe you need another treatment.
Back to re-education camp; to write lines; repeat after me. "Terrorists want to kill us. The NSA protects our freedom. Without NSA snooping, Snowden, the 9/11 hijackers, and other terrorists will destroy America."
Where does this come from and why can't it ever be debunked once and for all?
I would call it a Meta Rule. A rule that is not what copyright says; but was proposed once as a guideline, and took on a life of its own through the power of word of mouth -- with various institutions codifying it.
With various degrees of strictness --- if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and use 31 seconds of a media recording; I suppose you might get expelled from some school, because you're over the limit.
Music: Up to 10% of a copyrighted musical composition may be reproduced, performed and displayed as part of a multimedia program produced by an educator or student for educational purposes. ---- Authorities site a maximum length of 30 seconds. See notes by congressman below.
Temple University: College of Liberal Arts: Fair Use Policy: Educators
May use their projects for teaching, for a period of up to two years after the first instructional use with a class.....
Music, Lyrics, and Music Video
Up to 10% but no more than 30 seconds from any single musical work
Any alterations shall not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work..... Motion Media
Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less
WILEY: Permission requirements.... . A single quotation or several shorter quotes from a full-length book, more than 300 words in toto...... A single quotation of more than 50 words from a newspaper, magazine, or journal..... Material which includes all or part of a poem or song lyric (even as little as one line), or the title of a song....
4.2.3: Music, Lyrics and Music Video : Up to 10%, but in no event more than 30 seconds, of the music and lyrics from an individual work. No alteration(s) of the music and/or lyrics are allowed.
In comparison to all those heavy vehicles driving around, traffic lights aren't even a drop water in the sea in terms of energy use.
It's not in particular about the energy drawn by the light; it's about the energy wasted by cars idling; or speeding up, only to have to stop.
With intersection pre-clearing; the central computer can minimize the total energy consumption of the overall road system.
As per pedestrians.... they're only allowed on the crosswalks; not all intersections necessarily have a crossing.
For the ones that do, the central computer has to take that into account -- and pedestrian, but not vehicle signals are needed.
Pedestrian Walk/Don't Walk signs, which pedestrians must strictly obey, or they will automatically be cited, fined, and have to compensate drivers for the extra fuel cost resulting from the emergency I-section interruption;
probably a few bucks for every vehicle pre-clearing that had to be cancelled as a result of their unauthorized entry into the road.
The pedestrians don't need the state of the intersection; and no mechanism can provide prior knowledge of what vehicles were pre-cleared for the intersection.
Pretty much the only reason to 'force' manual driving out is if you want to bring in more efficient, but complex, automated junctions which a human couldn't accurately use.
How about if you want to save on energy costs by replacing high-wattage traffic lights with "data transmission nodes";
where a central computer will "clear" certain vehicles to enter certain intersections at a certain timestamp?
How many people have died crashing into a telephone pole?
Apparently workers who died laying comms cable or building wired comms infrastructure because they got hit by a car, don't count as accidents attributed to wired technology: whereas, falling off a wireless tower does count as accidents attributed to wireless.
You were on to something there, but made the wrong point I think. I would the driver experience is a major factor that changes over miles more so than mechanical issues.
That's possible.
Another thing to consider; is the person who has driven 500,000 miles,
is probably about Age 49; the person who has driven 800,000 miles is probably in their 80s.
While they get more experience; at some point, the driver's increasing age is going to create a risk increase that overwhelms any risk reduction caused by lesser experience.
As people age; reaction times decrease, and therefore, after sufficient miles driven, on average, accident rates should increase.
So it's not like miles driven to change in rate of accidents is a monotonically decreasing function.
No offense, but that technology is at least possible. Imaginary promises OTOH just aren't that useful.
You apparently doubt God's power to follow through on the promises, which might mean fire and brimstone for you,
but the promises are not the least bit imaginary.
Slashdot Mirror
The US has veto power against any resolution the UN might pass against the US. Nothing to worry about...
They could probably declare it a conflict of interest, and by brute force: ignore the US supposed invalid attempt to veto.
The NSA shjouldnt be fucking monitoring the UN. I really hate how everyone thinks it is okie dokie to spy all they want. Spying is an act of WAR.
Perhaps the UN should have sanctions against any member found to be spying on them.
Although, frankly... the UN as an organization with rampant corruption deserve to be spied upon, almost as much as the EU deserves to be spied upon.
As far as i'm concerned: it's individuals that have a right to keep secrets, not foreign governments.
Qantas went on strike in Australia a couple of years ago. As in, the company temporarily ceased to trade and banned their workers from entering the premises, because they weren't happy with how the employment negotiations were proceeding.
It's all the worse when a business does something like that; regulators should actively prevent it, in order to protect consumers. The company should pay fines and required to compensate passengers stranded by such an act in the amount 10x the damages with a minimum of AUD $ 2000 per passenger, in addition to a repayment of travel expenses; with regulators handling the prosection.
The fines should exceed any benefit hoped to be gained by the unannounced disruption.
Processor helps with VMs, but the limit on how many you can run is usually RAM.
Hey... you can overcommit RAM; on the kind of VMs likely to run on a desktop; it should be fine, just be sure there is some decent SSD storage with high write durability backing the swap cache :)
This fire is burning right next to actual people, not sure why we need to worry about SF 200 miles away.
The loss of power and water supplies to metropolitan San Francisco; is a potentially more serious event; not that a wildfire destroying homes isn't serious. Where will you evacuate all the inhabitants of San Francisco to, who haven't stocked up on potable water, and how will you keep them alive?
On the other hand... if they allow power to be not operating in San Francisco for a significant length of time; global warming could be reduced due to reduction in capacity requirements from power plants in the area, resulting in more generators being turned off.
The average person just buys another one anyway when it stops working. If the average components last 3- 5 years by the time you shell out parts you might as well have gotten a new machine anyways.
Yes... if you can swap memory chips and hard drive and fans, without too much trouble: I think for most people, that should be enough.
The problem is of course... mechanical hard drives frequently fail, and so do mechanical fans.
Easy DIMM swapping is necessary for memory upgrades.
6GB of RAM might be great today; in a few years, you need 32GB or 64GB.
i7s should only be used if you have specific purpose in mind that will leverage the hyperthreading like video encoding etc
Running some virtual machines would fall into this category.
What do you think they're doing?
The article says they have gone on strike. Which means they banded together with their union buddies, and all agreed to suddenly stop working without notice.
Employees at the world's largest radio telescope have gone on strike after failing to reach agreement over pay and conditions.
In other words: their employer expected them to be working as agreed, but they stopped; without each person providing the proper warning.
I was corrected by a collegue which says 'we have two bathrooms, one is broken, and the other is only for 'number 1', so if you have to 'number 2' , then you are
Aww hell... why didn't they say that in the article?
If that's the case, then... that would be one of the few reasonable reasons for a strike.
An employer does have to provide reasonable facilities, so employees don't experience unreasonable risk or discomfort. Not providing a usable bathroom for #2 doesn't pass muster.
Dude, i invite you to work in ALMA for a month, a 16,000 ft, with temps as low as 14 F , and winds of 32m/s for $12.50 per our on 12 hour shift with out bathroom or a descent place to eat.... then we can talk
Maybe. If you give me a brand new Macbook Pro, high-speed unmonitored internet access, free high-quality lodging on-site with private room private bathroom, electricity, etc, a company vehicle, with free fuel; 3 high-quality meals a day company paid for; a company paid steak dinner every night, and 12 weeks of paid vacation leave every year.
Obviously; we'd have to do an onsite inspection and further review of the conditions before we consider making an offer to actually work there.
Except that it's not really minimum wage work. Keeping a radio telescope working properly is very much skilled labor. In fact, each of those grad students necessarily already has a 4 year degree
Well; I can think of a few reasons a grad student might want such a job -- there could be opportunities they want in the future that they have to take this job to get. In that case, they are getting value from the job besides the wage paid They are receiving Wage + Experience + Years of Resume history. As long as the sum of the 3 of these is better to them than other options, and exceeds the utility cost to them of Labor performed, then the worker is receiving a good deal.
If there are enough grad students who want to take that path, then from a market perspective: they are providing a supply surplus of labor. As a fact of the matter: a surplus of labor suppresses prices; the very people who are suddenly going back on their promises, and not providing the proper notice expected of preffesionals -- are the same people who caused the wage to be so low.
That is: they were willing to take the job on those terms, and the existence of prospective skilled hires willing to take the job at such low wages, is the reason they get paid that.
Arguably, they agreed to the job, because they felt the arrangement would be beneficial to them, but now their feelings have changed. They should do what any honest responsible employee should do in this situation: demand more money, and turn in their two weeks notice, when they don't get it.
Let's assume we can't touch Costs without hurting the company. That still leaves everything in the Profit section open to negotiation
ALMA is UN-funded. There is no profit. The closest thing to proft for a non-profit; is getting more donations or being a separate company paid to be a contracter for a non-profit due to close friendship or family ties with those in charge of the non-profit.
The only real profit for a company in the scientific fields, is if you get to patent something; and observatories don't really have any intellectual property associated with them, except perhaps copyright: but in general, the images taken are in the public domain.
All employees should unite and strike until paid enough to balance the distribution of wealth.
And logically speaking.... it's in Employer's best interests to fire any employee that agrees to do work, and then starts striking, and share a strike-history blacklist with other Empoloyers; so prospective hirers know who is likely to take a job, and then without notice, suddenly refuse to work the job until something is changed to greater benefit them.
So would you get minimum wage technicians to operate a state-of-the-art gear like are these telescopes?
Minimum wage workers operate all sorts of technology that costs more than they do all the time; if they break it, it comes out of their pay.
If their skill was in market demand; it's the worker's failing in accepting an offer that doesn't make sense for them.
It is perfectly sensible for the worker to refuse an offer because it doesn't fairly compensate them, and inform the hirer to contact them when they have a better offer --- when all prospective hires do that, the employer will have no choice but to pay a market wage.
Again, what's cheating is taking the job; promising to do the work; and then striking without warning that you will stop working.
There is probably a whole slew of people who want that job, but didn't take the job, because they were unhappy with the arrangement --- you by accepting the low wage denied them employment; and now you're trying to have your cake and eat it too, by being dishonest, and intentionally failing to fulfill an agreement you made.
I'm all for you turning in your 2 weeks notice, and finding a better arrangement: halting an important project, without the proper notice, for the employer to find a replacement or agree to new terms, because you're suddenly not happy with what you already agreed and promised to do: is what I call cheating.
How is that cheating? I thought that is a simple demand and supply rule.
No. The cheating part is the accepting the offer and then refusing to do the work; without advance notice. I am all well and good with interviewing with the employer, and then refusing the offer by telling the prospective employer that it's not enough -- and you'd love to work for them if they'd increase teh amount.
It's called blackmail. "I'm going to suddenly stop doing this thing that I promised to do"
It sounds like they're trying to take advantage and cheat their employer, because they're in a remote area -- making them harder to fire and replace; because they see there is a good bit of money to the project --- but the management still has a fiduciary duty to spend it appropriately. Just because the project has a $1 billion budget; does not mean the facilities workers, janitors, techs, etc, get six figure salaries that are out of line with the market rate of the work to be done, and the employee's work experience.
Workers say they are not sufficiently compensated for isolation and high altitude.'. The strike started on Thursday, and the telescope is currently not operating. Although the project's budget is $1.1 billion, an ALMA technician earns less than $2.000 per month. How does this compare with people working at observatories in the U.S., Japan, or the European Union?"
Wait.... they're essentially getting $12.50 an hour for a minimum wage technician job, And they're saying their $5.25 (a huge premium) isn't compensation for high altitudes and isolation, after considering their opportunity for adventure?
Perhaps they should not have taken on that work then.
There are plenty of cook jobs at fast food restaurants that are not on the mountain.
The 30 second rule is based upon some case law (numerous cases here) that have basically said that 30 seconds or 10% of a work clearly is on the righteous side of fair-use.
Nonetheless... a 20 second clip can fail to be fair use -- due to what it contains and its use; meanwhile, a 90 second clip for the right purpose can be fair use.
Do you think this could be the NSA snooping on my facebook and pushing me to buy audiobooks that will contain subliminal messages to hate Snowden and freedom?
You're starting to sound angry again. Maybe you need another treatment.
Back to re-education camp; to write lines; repeat after me. "Terrorists want to kill us. The NSA protects our freedom. Without NSA snooping, Snowden, the 9/11 hijackers, and other terrorists will destroy America."
Where does this come from and why can't it ever be debunked once and for all?
I would call it a Meta Rule. A rule that is not what copyright says; but was proposed once as a guideline, and took on a life of its own through the power of word of mouth -- with various institutions codifying it. With various degrees of strictness --- if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and use 31 seconds of a media recording; I suppose you might get expelled from some school, because you're over the limit.
Examples:
Halldavidson: This copyright chart form was designed to inform teachers what tehy may do under the law
Music: Up to 10% of a copyrighted musical composition may be reproduced, performed and displayed as part of a multimedia program produced by an educator or student for educational purposes. ---- Authorities site a maximum length of 30 seconds. See notes by congressman below.
Temple University: College of Liberal Arts: Fair Use Policy: .... .... Motion Media
Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less
Educators May use their projects for teaching, for a period of up to two years after the first instructional use with a class.
Music, Lyrics, and Music Video Up to 10% but no more than 30 seconds from any single musical work Any alterations shall not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work.
WILEY: Permission requirements .... . A single quotation or several shorter quotes from a full-length book, more than 300 words in toto. ..... A single quotation of more than 50 words from a newspaper, magazine, or journal. .... Material which includes all or part of a poem or song lyric (even as little as one line), or the title of a song. ...
The Law of Fair use and the Illusion of Fair use Guidelines
Pikes Peak Community College: Copyright Portion Limits; Rules of the road: Music, lyrics, music video - Up to 10%, but no more than 30 seconds Arlington Independent School District: Copyright: Portion Limitations
CCSJ: Copyright Fair Use: 'Allowable portion for fair use'
Public Schools of North Carolina: Copyright in an Electronic environment:
St. Olaf College: Copyright guidelines
Music, lyrics, music video: up to 10% but in no event more than 30 seconds of an individual work
MolStead Library; North Idaho College The amount of work to be copied is based on the “portion limit” set for that “medium.” [....] In general, you should never use more than 30 seconds or 10 percent of a piece of recorded music. Ball State University, guidelines for educational media:
4.2.3: Music, Lyrics and Music Video : Up to 10%, but in no event more than 30 seconds, of the music and lyrics from an individual work. No alteration(s) of the music and/or lyrics are allowed.
In comparison to all those heavy vehicles driving around, traffic lights aren't even a drop water in the sea in terms of energy use.
It's not in particular about the energy drawn by the light; it's about the energy wasted by cars idling; or speeding up, only to have to stop.
With intersection pre-clearing; the central computer can minimize the total energy consumption of the overall road system.
As per pedestrians.... they're only allowed on the crosswalks; not all intersections necessarily have a crossing. For the ones that do, the central computer has to take that into account -- and pedestrian, but not vehicle signals are needed.
Pedestrian Walk/Don't Walk signs, which pedestrians must strictly obey, or they will automatically be cited, fined, and have to compensate drivers for the extra fuel cost resulting from the emergency I-section interruption; probably a few bucks for every vehicle pre-clearing that had to be cancelled as a result of their unauthorized entry into the road.
The pedestrians don't need the state of the intersection; and no mechanism can provide prior knowledge of what vehicles were pre-cleared for the intersection.
Pretty much the only reason to 'force' manual driving out is if you want to bring in more efficient, but complex, automated junctions which a human couldn't accurately use.
How about if you want to save on energy costs by replacing high-wattage traffic lights with "data transmission nodes"; where a central computer will "clear" certain vehicles to enter certain intersections at a certain timestamp?
How many people have died crashing into a telephone pole?
Apparently workers who died laying comms cable or building wired comms infrastructure because they got hit by a car, don't count as accidents attributed to wired technology: whereas, falling off a wireless tower does count as accidents attributed to wireless.
That's not really fair, now is it.
You were on to something there, but made the wrong point I think. I would the driver experience is a major factor that changes over miles more so than mechanical issues.
That's possible.
Another thing to consider; is the person who has driven 500,000 miles, is probably about Age 49; the person who has driven 800,000 miles is probably in their 80s.
While they get more experience; at some point, the driver's increasing age is going to create a risk increase that overwhelms any risk reduction caused by lesser experience.
As people age; reaction times decrease, and therefore, after sufficient miles driven, on average, accident rates should increase.
So it's not like miles driven to change in rate of accidents is a monotonically decreasing function.
No offense, but that technology is at least possible. Imaginary promises OTOH just aren't that useful.
You apparently doubt God's power to follow through on the promises, which might mean fire and brimstone for you, but the promises are not the least bit imaginary.