My specific comment to this news article and your response is that third party objects always reduce security as they increase features and that is a constant and yes that is not new.
A slight side-note...
You must be new here. Welcome to Slashdot.org where you can get news of many varieties. Some is stale dated, some is duplicated but it's all kinda interesting to talk about and that is why most of us like it here.
Because even if the news is old, the discussion at Slashdot is always new! (well at least the higher rated discussions)
Microsoft has launched a new video download service for playing back television content on Windows Mobile devices
What the detail page doesn't say is whether there are commercials in the video you are paying to download (we're paying them to sell us stuff?). Commercial-free television shows would be a huge feature, so if they did not include a statement about it, then you are paying to watch/download commercials. Yikes! If it *is* commercial-free, and they did *not* mention it -- what are we missing? I see TiVo is involved with this project, so I'm guessing it's commercial-free television. But I could of course be mistaken because nobody seems to be talking about it!
The suspect worked for an insurance agency, but it would not be difficult to find this information through other means. I agree. What is worse is that there is this system out there where joe black-hat can crack and steal a shitload of valid SS#s... not what I would call smart overhead for the school. They should make it all anonymous. Forget your passwords, click to reset and validate through email. Fsk private information! It's stupid.:-)
The least she could have done was use Tor and Privoxy. Oh well. So much for changing her grade. Now that she's going to be a bonified convict, she can pull down the six figures like Mitnick.
Agreed. But that still leaves a large portion of people who never lie, do their taxes on time, go to church, and always inform perfect strangers of their inner-most secretive information, especially if they are filling out contest sheets. If a healthy profit margin is 10% and above for any company, accurate results over 50% are a huge winfall for identity thieves. What are the spam stats again? 2 in 10 or something buy from spammers? That's still a huge ROI for thieves.
Speaking of Robots... Alan Watts, the famed PHD Buddhist, before he died, spoke of the potential for a future where we live in a society with robots serving us instead of us serving the machine. He looked at it as an escape from a puzzle, to some extent, and that humanity is destined to escape from our confines and expand our knowledge into new areas of human development. When I read "The Book - On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are", I thought he was an insightful visionary. Funny thing is, he spoke of this future with Zen in mind and spoke of it as somewhat inevitable. I think it's great that these robots keep improving. I just wish we could spread these improvements uniformly over corporate structure, so that we don't have to keep serving the machine -- it should be serving us.
Yes, USA... please make the competition for new technologies easier for other countries, while slowing down your own technologists and innovators. That's so smart. But did it work for the T-Rex?/rant
This reminds me of a little Slashdot article about CSS, plus the ongoing Slashdot forum about redoing Slashdot in XHTML and CSS. Now that PSP has browser functionality, I think it's imperative for web developers to examine their sites for usability. I would be interested to see how DHTML is handled on the PSP, for example, by testing the Milonic package. I seriously doubt it would work very well on PSP, but you never know.
This raises the issue of UserAgent sniffing. Right now I'm developing an Open Source CMS called Gemsites (link in sig), and I'm considering supporting cut-down templates for PocketPC, Palm and (now) PSP. I've got the code set up to sniff the UserAgent and make a decision on it, thanks to php.net's user-assist messages in the function database. But now I'm wondering if my whole CMS will stand up to the more compact screens used by PSP et al. I guess what I'm saying is that if you're a developer and you know CSS/XHTML and/or PHP, I would like to talk to you about usability.
Still a little stereotypical and offensive for my taste
You know, I thought about that when I wrote the article. From my experience, being a little stereotypical when you are trying to get a good business going can actually save you money by preventing distaster and draining business entanglements. Look at the examples as triggers -- if someone you know hits a trigger, then maybe it's best not to involve them with your finances.
Maybe I can rewrite the article to give examples of how to deal with each negative stereotype? That's something I've thought about, but have not yet pursued, because I figured it would be best not to deal with these types of people. However it might be interesting to develop methods for dealing with someone who has hit a trigger, to ensure that things run smoothly.
RTFA: Answer these questions about each potential customer, or even your managers or coworkers:
1. Are you stupid? 2. Are you evil natured? 3. Are you disorganized? 4. Are you unsuccessful? 5. Do you have no budget? 6. Are you a stinking liar? Weasel? 7. Are you a know it all? 8. Are you a control freak? 9. Do you have mental problems? 10. Are you superstitious?
1. Stupid people will cause your project to fail. By this, I don't mean computer-smarts. This is general intelligence and you can't have too much of it. It's okay to have a really smart person who is computer-illiterate; they generally aren't a problem because they can understand someone who is reasoning with them. A really stupid person will do the same thing even when it's not working and that's why you want to be really careful of stupid people. Repeating something over and over that is not working will kill a project.
A good way to tell if someone is stupid or not is to tell them a little story about yourself and see if they understand you. Frequent spelling mistakes are not necessarily a good way to tell if someone is stupid. Some stupid people are meticulous at covering it up -- I mean, it's their livelihood so they have to be cautious. Overcautious people might be stupid. Tell them a joke that makes no sense -- if they laugh, they might be stupid. If they laugh and say that makes no sense, they are good hearted. If they look at you like you're on mars, then they are smart but possibly bad natured.
2. Evil people will screw you over and love it -- it's part of their plan and you can't change their nature. The biggest mistake people make is thinking they can outwit or change an evil person. It's impossible, and as futile as arguing on the internet.
To find out if someone is evil, you will have to talk to other people around them. Examine their policies. Examine how they deal with difficulties. Look past marketing propaganda and get to the roots. Evil people will stop you from getting to the truth about anything.
Chances are, if you hear someone say something mean spirited, they are either evil or disgruntled, and dealing with either will render the same result.
Evil people are always thinking about being compensated and they will sue you if they can, even if they don't deserve it. They might leave you holding the bag on some bad business deal. Usually the best way to see if someone is evil is to notice how other people react to them. There are degrees of evil, but any amount of it will cause you some serious problems. Obviously in an email-only business relationship this kind of customer filtering is tough. But it's not impossible. Evil people are often disguised as zealous do-gooders, but sometimes they come equipped with Satanic garb and scythes.
3. Disorganized people will not pay you on time. By far the worst of all offenders, the disorganized customer is a time killer. Your budget for $1k will dwindle in the first week and you'll have nothing to show for it. You'll be promised something but a week later the customer will say they forgot. Disorganized people actually do forget things -- all the time. And this is why you keep a verbose log record when you are forced to deal with these people. The sad truth is -- only bankers and programmers are organized. Okay librarians too. But that's pretty much about it. Everyone else is a shade of disorganized.
The way to handle disorganized people is to have a verbose set of terms and conditions and refuse to do any work for them until they sign on the dotted line. Even then, it may be smart to have them work with you on retainer only.
Do not enter an escrow agreement with a disorganized customer. You'll never see the money and neither will they, so it's lose/lose. Prepaid in full is the way to go, so you can be sure to live up to your part of the bargain. A disorganized customer may offer you half now and half on completion -- don't take it. That's a sure fire way to give them 50% off when they refuse to pa
Corporate Culture You can tell a *lot* about a company by it's corporate culture. I remember a post I made a while ago to my weblog, before I did a domain change. It's about PHP Consulting but it really applies to this SCO article because of the no-good-theivery going on at SCO. I think SCO certainly faults on each and every one of the following:
Answer these questions about each potential customer, or even your managers or coworkers:
1. Are you stupid? 2. Are you evil natured? 3. Are you disorganized? 4. Are you unsuccessful? 5. Do you have no budget? 6. Are you a stinking liar? Weasel? 7. Are you a know it all? 8. Are you a control freak? 9. Do you have mental problems? 10. Are you superstitious?
I took a peek at the screenshot of Aero. The UI looks clean and shiny, but I'm noticing a lot of little widgets have been taken out of the right-click menu and stuck above -- such as Share and Send To. I wonder how much of this is a GFX upgrade and how much is a code upgrade, because I'm not seeing anything really new -- just a polished-looking old idea.
They are just following IBM and yet somehow I don't think Sun is grasping the true sense of Open Source. IBM's 500 out of 40000 patents is a good start, and the fact they are open to anyone doing open source is right where the spirit of open source remains fixed.
Sun's trying to grab the brass ring without really putting their best foot forward, IMHO. This is a ploy to get people using Solaris, and therefore I think it's stupid.
I'm not really sure what you meant by the last run-on-sentence, but I'll give you some advice. If you have carpal tunnel you can't be a good programmer, so you will have to plan an exit strategy from your current occupation. You can shift into management or systems design capacity, where the need to code is replaced with the need to plan and execute. The most secure way to successfully make this move, is to move up in the company you are in, and failing that you'll have to find a way to get into a management position somewhere else, or start your own business.
I'm not sure if it's wise or not, but maybe you could get a doctor's note and take it to your boss. Explain to them that you have a lot of experience and that due to your carpal tunnel you must become less of a programmer and more of a designer and manager. Obviously you run the risk of losing your job if you go this route, so get all your ducks in a row if that happens -- because you could likely win a wrongful dismissal suit if they fired you for health reasons. IANAL, so talk to one before you decide to go this route.
If you want to start slow, begin by taking assignments that are management related or assignments that can prove your leadership potential. Rack these assignments up and get letters from your boss that show what you have been doing for them. Get it in writing. You can start by suggesting a new policy that will provide more employee feedback. This will create a paper trail that can work for you.
Eventually you will have a stack of papers proving your worth. Then you can either take this stack to management, or you can take it to another company.:-)
I might also add that if you start your own business, it's obviously tough but you are at the right age to do it -- if you're ever going to.
The nice thing about being in business for yourself is that you don't have to do anything you don't want to -- you can simply delegate. But if you fail in business at your age, it's very difficult to start again.
Weigh your options and make a decision. No matter what slashdotters say, it's more important that you accept responsibility for your career direction. You've voiced that you are not satisfied with your current role, so it's likely time for a change. Maybe you could retrain? Maybe you can switch capacity due to health reasons (with a doctor's note), or maybe you are SOL. This all depends on your organization's ability to retain human capitol, and if you have become unsatisfied and they are clueless about it, maybe you should start looking for work elsewhere. The choice is yours, but you should really set down an exit strategy from your current role and play Devil's Advocate with each option.
I've marked you as a friend previously. Email me and I'll send you an invite if you don't already have one! Although at this point I will have to stipulate that I take no responsibility for you using the system as a condition of you accepting my invite.
Is it just me or do you find it strange that in the list of known Gmail bugs, there is no catagory for Security? I'm trying to find out if this bug is one of the known bugs, but I'm guessing it's not? And I'm also guessing that Security is not a concern for Google at this point, which is a very bad thing, IMHO. People are relying on Gmail because of its awesome features, but if someone can read insecured data directly from memory, it's a really big problem -- perhaps even a global design flaw of the system. No wonder Google plays their cards so close to their chest... I just hope they take some amazing measures to prevent these types of bugs in the future... like when somone does >>> or >>>> etc...
I use Gmail and this bug sort of disturbs me. Aren't they using a proper preg check to see if the fields are enclosed with < > ? I'm not even sure how this bug could exist in any normal computing system. I guess the gmail system is a hybrid of some kind? This is indeed very telling...
But it doesn't make me want to stop using Gmail. It's a random security breech that looks like they could fix it in an hour if they wanted to. Time to stop checking my email for a while until this is fixed...
He does try to exercise, but it's difficult when physical stress causes him to have seizures.
I wonder if there is a connection between siezures and OSA? Isn't the other type of sleep apnea caused by siezures? Your husband might not have OSA... he might have the more severe apnea.
In this book, Watts goes into great detail about robotics and the social implications of them, and how we live in a time that could easily make life totally fun and easy for everyone, regardless of nation/race/culture/creed. He says that the development of robotics will achieve this someday and that the ramifications of doing so could only be positive if applied correctly. The book is not specifically about this topic, but he does tap into some really cool ideas that made total sense to me when I read it in my first year of university.
To answer your questions; It is not ethical to make people work harder to achieve less in life. It is not ethical to work so hard you never see your children. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind... it's called telecommuting and if you're in an employment sector that supports it, there are plenty of jobs on the net that will let you work from home and actually make a living wage.
Watts suggests that some day, we could all be in a telecommuting situation, which would be great for the environment and for our mental, emotional and physical health. After you telecommute, you can spend quality time working for your customers/employers, instead of quality time with your kids. You can do this and still keep your job and make lots of money, and advance your career. It's the way of the future! The bottom line with any career is that an employee has to make a difference to the company and telecommuters really can do this because they can apply their knowledge towards a positive direction without wasting money on commuting to work (ie auto expenses, wardrobe expenses...etc) and they can divert that savings to their families needs and wants.
The flipside to telecommuting is that you'll likely put on weight and you'll get kinda gross from working in your underwear all day, but at least you'll be really happy!:-)
Watts, FYI, was a very well educated Budhist, who had a real knack for understanding what could be possible in this day and age. The nice thing is that his theories do not contradict natural progress (like many folks do of his background). It's all very possible that robots could serve humanity in a very positive way, making our lives easier and making our way on earth more enjoyable.
Slashdot Mirror
My specific comment to this news article and your response is that third party objects always reduce security as they increase features and that is a constant and yes that is not new.
A slight side-note...
You must be new here. Welcome to Slashdot.org where you can get news of many varieties. Some is stale dated, some is duplicated but it's all kinda interesting to talk about and that is why most of us like it here.
Because even if the news is old, the discussion at Slashdot is always new! (well at least the higher rated discussions)
Both Heaven and Hell have gates. Not sure which one I'd prefer. Have to let you know.
Microsoft has launched a new video download service for playing back television content on Windows Mobile devices
What the detail page doesn't say is whether there are commercials in the video you are paying to download (we're paying them to sell us stuff?). Commercial-free television shows would be a huge feature, so if they did not include a statement about it, then you are paying to watch/download commercials. Yikes! If it *is* commercial-free, and they did *not* mention it -- what are we missing? I see TiVo is involved with this project, so I'm guessing it's commercial-free television. But I could of course be mistaken because nobody seems to be talking about it!
First new and improved script-kiddie exploits available in 3...2..1...
The suspect worked for an insurance agency, but it would not be difficult to find this information through other means. :-)
I agree. What is worse is that there is this system out there where joe black-hat can crack and steal a shitload of valid SS#s... not what I would call smart overhead for the school. They should make it all anonymous. Forget your passwords, click to reset and validate through email. Fsk private information! It's stupid.
The least she could have done was use Tor and Privoxy. Oh well. So much for changing her grade. Now that she's going to be a bonified convict, she can pull down the six figures like Mitnick.
Changing do=>does is not going to fix that statement. In fact, the whole article needs to be retooled with some critisism. (apply within)
you'll have 25% techices that give you 100% BS
Agreed. But that still leaves a large portion of people who never lie, do their taxes on time, go to church, and always inform perfect strangers of their inner-most secretive information, especially if they are filling out contest sheets. If a healthy profit margin is 10% and above for any company, accurate results over 50% are a huge winfall for identity thieves. What are the spam stats again? 2 in 10 or something buy from spammers? That's still a huge ROI for thieves.
Speaking of Robots... Alan Watts, the famed PHD Buddhist, before he died, spoke of the potential for a future where we live in a society with robots serving us instead of us serving the machine. He looked at it as an escape from a puzzle, to some extent, and that humanity is destined to escape from our confines and expand our knowledge into new areas of human development. When I read "The Book - On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are", I thought he was an insightful visionary. Funny thing is, he spoke of this future with Zen in mind and spoke of it as somewhat inevitable. I think it's great that these robots keep improving. I just wish we could spread these improvements uniformly over corporate structure, so that we don't have to keep serving the machine -- it should be serving us.
Yes, USA... please make the competition for new technologies easier for other countries, while slowing down your own technologists and innovators. That's so smart. But did it work for the T-Rex? /rant
But how the hell do you type anything on that?
It says that a keybord API pops up when you're in an input box (like Google's Search).
This reminds me of a little Slashdot article about CSS, plus the ongoing Slashdot forum about redoing Slashdot in XHTML and CSS. Now that PSP has browser functionality, I think it's imperative for web developers to examine their sites for usability. I would be interested to see how DHTML is handled on the PSP, for example, by testing the Milonic package. I seriously doubt it would work very well on PSP, but you never know.
This raises the issue of UserAgent sniffing. Right now I'm developing an Open Source CMS called Gemsites (link in sig), and I'm considering supporting cut-down templates for PocketPC, Palm and (now) PSP. I've got the code set up to sniff the UserAgent and make a decision on it, thanks to php.net's user-assist messages in the function database. But now I'm wondering if my whole CMS will stand up to the more compact screens used by PSP et al. I guess what I'm saying is that if you're a developer and you know CSS/XHTML and/or PHP, I would like to talk to you about usability.
Still a little stereotypical and offensive for my taste
You know, I thought about that when I wrote the article. From my experience, being a little stereotypical when you are trying to get a good business going can actually save you money by preventing distaster and draining business entanglements. Look at the examples as triggers -- if someone you know hits a trigger, then maybe it's best not to involve them with your finances.
Maybe I can rewrite the article to give examples of how to deal with each negative stereotype? That's something I've thought about, but have not yet pursued, because I figured it would be best not to deal with these types of people. However it might be interesting to develop methods for dealing with someone who has hit a trigger, to ensure that things run smoothly.
RTFA:
Answer these questions about each potential customer, or even your managers or coworkers:
1. Are you stupid?
2. Are you evil natured?
3. Are you disorganized?
4. Are you unsuccessful?
5. Do you have no budget?
6. Are you a stinking liar? Weasel?
7. Are you a know it all?
8. Are you a control freak?
9. Do you have mental problems?
10. Are you superstitious?
1. Stupid people will cause your project to fail. By this, I don't mean computer-smarts. This is general intelligence and you can't have too much of it. It's okay to have a really smart person who is computer-illiterate; they generally aren't a problem because they can understand someone who is reasoning with them. A really stupid person will do the same thing even when it's not working and that's why you want to be really careful of stupid people. Repeating something over and over that is not working will kill a project.
A good way to tell if someone is stupid or not is to tell them a little story about yourself and see if they understand you. Frequent spelling mistakes are not necessarily a good way to tell if someone is stupid. Some stupid people are meticulous at covering it up -- I mean, it's their livelihood so they have to be cautious. Overcautious people might be stupid. Tell them a joke that makes no sense -- if they laugh, they might be stupid. If they laugh and say that makes no sense, they are good hearted. If they look at you like you're on mars, then they are smart but possibly bad natured.
2. Evil people will screw you over and love it -- it's part of their plan and you can't change their nature. The biggest mistake people make is thinking they can outwit or change an evil person. It's impossible, and as futile as arguing on the internet.
To find out if someone is evil, you will have to talk to other people around them. Examine their policies. Examine how they deal with difficulties. Look past marketing propaganda and get to the roots. Evil people will stop you from getting to the truth about anything.
Chances are, if you hear someone say something mean spirited, they are either evil or disgruntled, and dealing with either will render the same result.
Evil people are always thinking about being compensated and they will sue you if they can, even if they don't deserve it. They might leave you holding the bag on some bad business deal. Usually the best way to see if someone is evil is to notice how other people react to them. There are degrees of evil, but any amount of it will cause you some serious problems. Obviously in an email-only business relationship this kind of customer filtering is tough. But it's not impossible. Evil people are often disguised as zealous do-gooders, but sometimes they come equipped with Satanic garb and scythes.
3. Disorganized people will not pay you on time. By far the worst of all offenders, the disorganized customer is a time killer. Your budget for $1k will dwindle in the first week and you'll have nothing to show for it. You'll be promised something but a week later the customer will say they forgot. Disorganized people actually do forget things -- all the time. And this is why you keep a verbose log record when you are forced to deal with these people. The sad truth is -- only bankers and programmers are organized. Okay librarians too. But that's pretty much about it. Everyone else is a shade of disorganized.
The way to handle disorganized people is to have a verbose set of terms and conditions and refuse to do any work for them until they sign on the dotted line. Even then, it may be smart to have them work with you on retainer only.
Do not enter an escrow agreement with a disorganized customer. You'll never see the money and neither will they, so it's lose/lose. Prepaid in full is the way to go, so you can be sure to live up to your part of the bargain. A disorganized customer may offer you half now and half on completion -- don't take it. That's a sure fire way to give them 50% off when they refuse to pa
You can tell a *lot* about a company by it's corporate culture. I remember a post I made a while ago to my weblog, before I did a domain change. It's about PHP Consulting but it really applies to this SCO article because of the no-good-theivery going on at SCO. I think SCO certainly faults on each and every one of the following:
Read on...
I took a peek at the screenshot of Aero. The UI looks clean and shiny, but I'm noticing a lot of little widgets have been taken out of the right-click menu and stuck above -- such as Share and Send To. I wonder how much of this is a GFX upgrade and how much is a code upgrade, because I'm not seeing anything really new -- just a polished-looking old idea.
... it will be double the fun, legally, targeted against 12yr old children, for half price!
... but why can't it dispense Pez too? Wait for the Slashdot hacks article on that one, I suppose... expect the Tron Guy to come up with something!
They are just following IBM and yet somehow I don't think Sun is grasping the true sense of Open Source. IBM's 500 out of 40000 patents is a good start, and the fact they are open to anyone doing open source is right where the spirit of open source remains fixed.
Sun's trying to grab the brass ring without really putting their best foot forward, IMHO. This is a ploy to get people using Solaris, and therefore I think it's stupid.
I'm not really sure what you meant by the last run-on-sentence, but I'll give you some advice. If you have carpal tunnel you can't be a good programmer, so you will have to plan an exit strategy from your current occupation. You can shift into management or systems design capacity, where the need to code is replaced with the need to plan and execute. The most secure way to successfully make this move, is to move up in the company you are in, and failing that you'll have to find a way to get into a management position somewhere else, or start your own business.
:-)
I'm not sure if it's wise or not, but maybe you could get a doctor's note and take it to your boss. Explain to them that you have a lot of experience and that due to your carpal tunnel you must become less of a programmer and more of a designer and manager. Obviously you run the risk of losing your job if you go this route, so get all your ducks in a row if that happens -- because you could likely win a wrongful dismissal suit if they fired you for health reasons. IANAL, so talk to one before you decide to go this route.
If you want to start slow, begin by taking assignments that are management related or assignments that can prove your leadership potential. Rack these assignments up and get letters from your boss that show what you have been doing for them. Get it in writing. You can start by suggesting a new policy that will provide more employee feedback. This will create a paper trail that can work for you.
Eventually you will have a stack of papers proving your worth. Then you can either take this stack to management, or you can take it to another company.
I might also add that if you start your own business, it's obviously tough but you are at the right age to do it -- if you're ever going to.
The nice thing about being in business for yourself is that you don't have to do anything you don't want to -- you can simply delegate. But if you fail in business at your age, it's very difficult to start again.
Weigh your options and make a decision. No matter what slashdotters say, it's more important that you accept responsibility for your career direction. You've voiced that you are not satisfied with your current role, so it's likely time for a change. Maybe you could retrain? Maybe you can switch capacity due to health reasons (with a doctor's note), or maybe you are SOL. This all depends on your organization's ability to retain human capitol, and if you have become unsatisfied and they are clueless about it, maybe you should start looking for work elsewhere. The choice is yours, but you should really set down an exit strategy from your current role and play Devil's Advocate with each option.
... oh, maybe I shouldn't say exactly what it means. :/
I've marked you as a friend previously. Email me and I'll send you an invite if you don't already have one! Although at this point I will have to stipulate that I take no responsibility for you using the system as a condition of you accepting my invite.
Is it just me or do you find it strange that in the list of known Gmail bugs, there is no catagory for Security? I'm trying to find out if this bug is one of the known bugs, but I'm guessing it's not? And I'm also guessing that Security is not a concern for Google at this point, which is a very bad thing, IMHO. People are relying on Gmail because of its awesome features, but if someone can read insecured data directly from memory, it's a really big problem -- perhaps even a global design flaw of the system. No wonder Google plays their cards so close to their chest... I just hope they take some amazing measures to prevent these types of bugs in the future... like when somone does >>> or >>>> etc...
I use Gmail and this bug sort of disturbs me. Aren't they using a proper preg check to see if the fields are enclosed with < > ? I'm not even sure how this bug could exist in any normal computing system. I guess the gmail system is a hybrid of some kind? This is indeed very telling...
But it doesn't make me want to stop using Gmail. It's a random security breech that looks like they could fix it in an hour if they wanted to. Time to stop checking my email for a while until this is fixed...
He does try to exercise, but it's difficult when physical stress causes him to have seizures.
I wonder if there is a connection between siezures and OSA? Isn't the other type of sleep apnea caused by siezures? Your husband might not have OSA... he might have the more severe apnea.
I wish you guys all the best.
You raise a couple of really good points. If you haven't, I suggest you read Alan Watts, The Book : On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.
:-)
In this book, Watts goes into great detail about robotics and the social implications of them, and how we live in a time that could easily make life totally fun and easy for everyone, regardless of nation/race/culture/creed. He says that the development of robotics will achieve this someday and that the ramifications of doing so could only be positive if applied correctly. The book is not specifically about this topic, but he does tap into some really cool ideas that made total sense to me when I read it in my first year of university.
To answer your questions; It is not ethical to make people work harder to achieve less in life. It is not ethical to work so hard you never see your children. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind... it's called telecommuting and if you're in an employment sector that supports it, there are plenty of jobs on the net that will let you work from home and actually make a living wage.
Watts suggests that some day, we could all be in a telecommuting situation, which would be great for the environment and for our mental, emotional and physical health. After you telecommute, you can spend quality time working for your customers/employers, instead of quality time with your kids. You can do this and still keep your job and make lots of money, and advance your career. It's the way of the future! The bottom line with any career is that an employee has to make a difference to the company and telecommuters really can do this because they can apply their knowledge towards a positive direction without wasting money on commuting to work (ie auto expenses, wardrobe expenses...etc) and they can divert that savings to their families needs and wants.
The flipside to telecommuting is that you'll likely put on weight and you'll get kinda gross from working in your underwear all day, but at least you'll be really happy!
Watts, FYI, was a very well educated Budhist, who had a real knack for understanding what could be possible in this day and age. The nice thing is that his theories do not contradict natural progress (like many folks do of his background). It's all very possible that robots could serve humanity in a very positive way, making our lives easier and making our way on earth more enjoyable.