Note that the book's author, Martin Seligman, has apparently provided assistance to the CIA in the development of their torture programs. So, that might make the book more or less relevant, depending on your point of view...
About 7 years ago I started working in craft, with tile laying (bathrooms etc), and I never had a bad day.
Intriguing. I work as a programmer, but on bad days I find myself reminiscing about my old days flipping burgers at Burger King. It was a humble job, but I didn't worry too much about whether or not my work was generally worthwhile (the nutritional qualities of fast food notwithstanding). I'm sorry to say that the majority of what I've done as a programmer has apparently been for naught.
I enjoy programming, but it's difficult to find programming work that actually makes people happy, I think.
The paper itself was published in Science, but you'll need a subscription to read more than the abstract.
It's ironic that of all of the ways that we as a society could choose to fund our primary scientific journal, the method we did choose is based on keeping scientific results away from people who are interested in science.
Although coming up to speed technically can involve a lot of work, it is at least a fairly predictable process. The larger and more mysterious challenge is figuring out how to get things done within a project's culture and bureaucracy. This entails figuring out who the powers-that-be are for different aspects of the project, what their preferences are (whether justified or capricious whim), and what kinds of submissions they will accept.
Recall, for example, the Linux CML2 fiasco. Eric Raymond is a bit on the obnoxious and arrogant side, IMO, but even without looking closely at CML2, I'm ready to believe that it was probably a worthy improvement to the Linux kernel. But nonetheless it got nixed, and apparently not for technical reasons. I'm sure he found this quite frustrating.
In my experience with Open Source projects, I notice that I often have luck getting patches that fix clearcut bugs in. Patches that fix broken design points, even exceedingly minor ones, are more problematic, perhaps because they're not seen as worth the bother, or because the PTB are simply used to the way things are, NIH syndrome, etc.
Major changes are even worse, as they present a serious challenge to the self-evaluation of the people that created the system being changed. I'm reminded of a quote: Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to shove them down people's throats.
Briefly, in general the main use I've seen for patents is to convince investors that a startup has "something", when in fact they do not, or as a stick to beat other companies with, when they've got nothing else (like a viable product or even a great idea). Basically, in my mind, based on my experience, software patents are guilty until proven innocent.
You say a generous H-1B program would "create an underclass of workers" -- but a truly open border would be even worse in this respect, since it would drastically increase the number of U.S. resident programmers willing to work for bottom dollar.
What you're missing--or studiously ignoring--is that workers on visa are in an extremely weak position relative to non-visa workers. This is bad for them, and it's also bad for the workers they're competing with. Both eliminating H-1B's altogether and opening the borders entirely would be superior to the current system, in this regard.
Yes, but they generally don't involve your personal life, what you can't talk about is work material and you're not allowed to make official company statements. Hobbies are part of your personal life...
I'm not sure about this. The "intellectual property" terms of my current employer stipulate that they own everything that I produce, regardless of whether it's during off hours, etc. So, for example, all of the family pictures I've taken since I started here are technically owned by them.
Now, as a practical matter, AFAIK they haven't taken any interest in exercising these rights, and in fact they're reasonably generous about releasing Open Source software, etc. But still, I consider it to be one of the worst parts of my job.
I may be unusual, but I often pay or offer to pay money to amateur musicians (like yourself?) that create music that I like. I suspect that there are a lot of other people that would do this if the transaction could be streamlined. This would require several things:
Some way for me to efficiently find music that I like.
Some way for me to estimate reasonable compensation for that music. (Reasonable compensation for Madonna would be $0.01, for example, because she has millions of fans and she doesn't need any more money.)
Some way for me to easily offer payment for music, knowing that a fair proportion would always go to the artist. (Something like PayPal, but without the evil.)
If someone can crack this nut, a lot of money would flow to non-mainstream music, without need for live concerts, etc.
Before I tell my ATT horror story, I'll cut to the chase: for people like me that just want basic voice service for a few thousand minutes per year or less, T-Mobile prepaid seems to have the best deal around right now. If you buy $100 at a time, you get 1000 minutes that don't expire for a year. You get voicemail/etc. There are probably text messages, but I don't know how much that costs you--Internet access likewise, because I don't use these. You can probably get a deal on a cheap phone as well--I got one for $5 and one for $25. And best of all, there are no hidden fees--it's all wrapped into that.10/min charge.
Now, on to ATT. I've been annoyed with them over a period of time as they tried to hoodwink me on their DSL plans, and they lied to my wife about the cost of caller ID, etc., but the last straw was what happened when we recently moved. Up to that point, all of our various ATT services arrived on one bill, which I faithfully paid on time every month. When we moved, we called in advance to have everything moved to our new address. Inexplicably, they stopped billing us for our cellphone service, although I did not immediately realize this, as I was still getting and paying one bill each month.
Then, one day, they cut our cell service off. I called to ask, and they explained that we had not been paying our bill. I pointed out that I'd been paying my ATT bill each and every month, as always. They told me that they'd split my bill in two, and were sending my cell bill to an email address or something, which of course I wasn't paying attention to, since I'd always paid the paper bill, which covered my entire service. At this point, they refused to turn on my phone service again.
Needless to say, I was furious. So, I got on my knees and coughed up a credit card number to enable service just long enough switch carriers. We do T-Mobile prepaid for cell service, and I switched my landline, long distance, and Internet to a local outfit. It's *way* cheaper and better in every way.
So, to ATT I say, "Thanks for pushing me to find a better and cheaper alternative, but beyond that fuck you--I will never do business with you again as long as I live."
In my experience, it's a rare company indeed whose managers can fathom the implications of a situation like this. In general, I'm unable to get management to even understand Rule Zero of system administration. Which is: Do everything you need to do to be drop dead certain that you always have a reasonable backup of your important systems. This doesn't sound too difficult, but in practice it's difficult to convince managers that an event that could happen with probability == 0.01 could ever happen...
I seem to recall an April Fool's prank post from the 80s, in which someone "discovered" that he could store his backups "for free" on other people's systems by uucp'ing it via a circuitous path that would bring it back to him two weeks later. (Sort of like a big, slow ring buffer.)
For some reason, this scheme reminds me of that...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes.
Now tell me, why weren't Democrats who won that election able to do all you cited? Ever heard of filibustering?
They didn't even try. They could have succeeded just by not getting out of bed for two years...
In 2000, I went idealism and voted Nader. I won't be making that mistake this time around.
In 2004, I went pragmatism and voted Kerry. I won't be making that mistake this time around.
Not all of us grew up in wealthy families. For me, $10 per article might as well have been $10000 per article...
Note that the book's author, Martin Seligman, has apparently provided assistance to the CIA in the development of their torture programs. So, that might make the book more or less relevant, depending on your point of view...
About 7 years ago I started working in craft, with tile laying (bathrooms etc), and I never had a bad day.
Intriguing. I work as a programmer, but on bad days I find myself reminiscing about my old days flipping burgers at Burger King. It was a humble job, but I didn't worry too much about whether or not my work was generally worthwhile (the nutritional qualities of fast food notwithstanding). I'm sorry to say that the majority of what I've done as a programmer has apparently been for naught.
I enjoy programming, but it's difficult to find programming work that actually makes people happy, I think.
If the only alternative is McCain and $haircut, then Obama and LITERALLY WHOEVER gets my vote.
This is the power and the glory of the two party system at work.
You should note that when you vote for the (slightly) lesser of two evils, you are voting for the two-party system by doing so.
The paper itself was published in Science, but you'll need a subscription to read more than the abstract.
It's ironic that of all of the ways that we as a society could choose to fund our primary scientific journal, the method we did choose is based on keeping scientific results away from people who are interested in science.
DVD-Audio has no killer features to balance its killer flaw: copy protection.
Although coming up to speed technically can involve a lot of work, it is at least a fairly predictable process. The larger and more mysterious challenge is figuring out how to get things done within a project's culture and bureaucracy. This entails figuring out who the powers-that-be are for different aspects of the project, what their preferences are (whether justified or capricious whim), and what kinds of submissions they will accept.
Recall, for example, the Linux CML2 fiasco. Eric Raymond is a bit on the obnoxious and arrogant side, IMO, but even without looking closely at CML2, I'm ready to believe that it was probably a worthy improvement to the Linux kernel. But nonetheless it got nixed, and apparently not for technical reasons. I'm sure he found this quite frustrating.
In my experience with Open Source projects, I notice that I often have luck getting patches that fix clearcut bugs in. Patches that fix broken design points, even exceedingly minor ones, are more problematic, perhaps because they're not seen as worth the bother, or because the PTB are simply used to the way things are, NIH syndrome, etc.
Major changes are even worse, as they present a serious challenge to the self-evaluation of the people that created the system being changed. I'm reminded of a quote: Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to shove them down people's throats.
Briefly, in general the main use I've seen for patents is to convince investors that a startup has "something", when in fact they do not, or as a stick to beat other companies with, when they've got nothing else (like a viable product or even a great idea). Basically, in my mind, based on my experience, software patents are guilty until proven innocent.
the patent - it's actually good for your resume no matter how you slice it
Actually, I generally view these as a strike against the candidate.
You say a generous H-1B program would "create an underclass of workers" -- but a truly open border would be even worse in this respect, since it would drastically increase the number of U.S. resident programmers willing to work for bottom dollar.
What you're missing--or studiously ignoring--is that workers on visa are in an extremely weak position relative to non-visa workers. This is bad for them, and it's also bad for the workers they're competing with. Both eliminating H-1B's altogether and opening the borders entirely would be superior to the current system, in this regard.
Is that a carrot in your pocket, or...
Naturalist writes...
Speaking as an American, why should I care about the opinions of someone who plays volleyball naked?
Yes, but they generally don't involve your personal life, what you can't talk about is work material and you're not allowed to make official company statements. Hobbies are part of your personal life...
I'm not sure about this. The "intellectual property" terms of my current employer stipulate that they own everything that I produce, regardless of whether it's during off hours, etc. So, for example, all of the family pictures I've taken since I started here are technically owned by them.
Now, as a practical matter, AFAIK they haven't taken any interest in exercising these rights, and in fact they're reasonably generous about releasing Open Source software, etc. But still, I consider it to be one of the worst parts of my job.
I may be unusual, but I often pay or offer to pay money to amateur musicians (like yourself?) that create music that I like. I suspect that there are a lot of other people that would do this if the transaction could be streamlined. This would require several things:
If someone can crack this nut, a lot of money would flow to non-mainstream music, without need for live concerts, etc.
to help the City of San Francisco look stupid.
Apple doesn't want me to program their hardware. I hear and will obey...
Comfort women?
Before I tell my ATT horror story, I'll cut to the chase: for people like me that just want basic voice service for a few thousand minutes per year or less, T-Mobile prepaid seems to have the best deal around right now. If you buy $100 at a time, you get 1000 minutes that don't expire for a year. You get voicemail/etc. There are probably text messages, but I don't know how much that costs you--Internet access likewise, because I don't use these. You can probably get a deal on a cheap phone as well--I got one for $5 and one for $25. And best of all, there are no hidden fees--it's all wrapped into that .10/min charge.
Now, on to ATT. I've been annoyed with them over a period of time as they tried to hoodwink me on their DSL plans, and they lied to my wife about the cost of caller ID, etc., but the last straw was what happened when we recently moved. Up to that point, all of our various ATT services arrived on one bill, which I faithfully paid on time every month. When we moved, we called in advance to have everything moved to our new address. Inexplicably, they stopped billing us for our cellphone service, although I did not immediately realize this, as I was still getting and paying one bill each month.
Then, one day, they cut our cell service off. I called to ask, and they explained that we had not been paying our bill. I pointed out that I'd been paying my ATT bill each and every month, as always. They told me that they'd split my bill in two, and were sending my cell bill to an email address or something, which of course I wasn't paying attention to, since I'd always paid the paper bill, which covered my entire service. At this point, they refused to turn on my phone service again.
Needless to say, I was furious. So, I got on my knees and coughed up a credit card number to enable service just long enough switch carriers. We do T-Mobile prepaid for cell service, and I switched my landline, long distance, and Internet to a local outfit. It's *way* cheaper and better in every way.
So, to ATT I say, "Thanks for pushing me to find a better and cheaper alternative, but beyond that fuck you--I will never do business with you again as long as I live."
In my experience, it's a rare company indeed whose managers can fathom the implications of a situation like this. In general, I'm unable to get management to even understand Rule Zero of system administration. Which is: Do everything you need to do to be drop dead certain that you always have a reasonable backup of your important systems. This doesn't sound too difficult, but in practice it's difficult to convince managers that an event that could happen with probability == 0.01 could ever happen...
Never worked for the government, have you? ;)
Believe me--it's every bit as bad in the private sector...
(nod to George Carlin)
I seem to recall an April Fool's prank post from the 80s, in which someone "discovered" that he could store his backups "for free" on other people's systems by uucp'ing it via a circuitous path that would bring it back to him two weeks later. (Sort of like a big, slow ring buffer.)
For some reason, this scheme reminds me of that...