1) It is against unwritten network rules to write something above an eight year old reading level (they figure that by doing so, you risk losing a sizable chunk of the TV viewing population who don't have a high literacy and will switch off)
2) Computer programming/hacking doesn't involve smoke, explosions, fractal 3D patterns that escape the computer monitor and chase you down corridors, and especially not jiggling bits of
female anatomy.
3) RE the above: a chess match is high drama for those in the know: but to a channel surfer flipping through the channels looking for some light entertainment between "Survivor" and "WWF Raw", it's terrifically boring. Ditto software development or hacking.
4) Keeping things bleeding edge is difficult with the writing/editing/shooting cycle, so either set it so far in the future you just plug your cyberBorg headset into the computer and stare steelily into the Federation flat-panel screen, or risk people laughing their ASSES off at "yeah! This state of the art 486 is k-Rad!" (especially when the show goes into reruns).
5) Biggest hurdle: most geeks can't write. Those who do are VERY BORING WRITERS. "Hey dutch! When are you going to finish the script!" "Quiet! I'm working out the physics of the alien lifeform given a planet 1.4 x Earth's gravity with a methane atmosphere!". Most writers are cocaine snorting media whores. Write to spec as fast as possible. Open up the template, stick in some stock characters, sell the script, move on.
Hence, any "geek" oriented show will have to by definition not work. Hence the inclusion of jiggling women, dumb jokes, offensive stereotypes, and unrealistic, stupid storylines.
RE: "If you have problems getting the computers to work, do what I do. Look around the room for the youngest person, and ask them for help."
It's a good job he didn't teach English grammar.
Looking around the room for a person who knows correct English, and asking him or her how to construct a proper sentence would be more advisable.
I myself have been known to make nasty comments about Bangalore-based body shops. I want to make it clear, FOR THE RECORD, that my opposition to same is NOT that I don't want non-whites coming in and taking all the jobs unquote, I don't care what colour you are... I oppose exploitation of any kind, whether it's caning a Vietnamese girl to make sneakers faster, or certain large Canadian companies deciding to save a few bucks by paying a tenth of the going rate to Third Worlders, cause they've no leeway to complain.
This might blow your mind, but once you leave the haven of the United States, you start to realise that certain things other people are annoyed about actually really do apply to you.
Under NAFTA, if you go from the USA to Mexico or Canada to work, your spouse and children can also work. If you go to the USA from these other countries, the same courtesy is not applied to you.
Just because American business can't compete on softwood lumber, they're going to tax incoming Canadian softwood over 100%, because it isn't fair this is costing a few American jobs. The fact that many Canadian industries have been decimated by US business who can do it better? Well, that's the deal, jack. Don't you dare erect your own tariffs.
Under NAFTA, BTW, if you enact a law costing a NAFTA country business, you're liable to pay damages. In fact, when Canada banned a certain substance the US company that created it petitioned for damages, and was paid. California just banned a gasoline additive of which it originally legislated the use. The Canadian company that produces it is entitled to damages. Is it getting any? No way. "Why should we pay them for this product? Rant rant rant this is about American interests rant"
Try dealing with customs if you're coming in to work. Many border guards are outright hostile; and the system treats "guest workers" as anything but. It's the fervent hope of many that this wide-eyed innocent who seems to think other countries should let him come and work with open arms look at the policies of his own country, and realise how good he's got it.
Oh I'm so terribly sorry. That's right, Europe should just remember dammit that John Wayne singlehandedly won WWII and shut its hole, right? Though we were infinitely glad that you came in at the last minute to make it 4-1 rather than 3-1 (mostly in the Pacific Theater), remember, half the problem was that your industries funded the Nazis for most of the war, and enjoyed greatly profiting from death. The same way that *ahem Vietnam ahem* *ahem Gulf War ahem* you've done before and since.
I think if we'd realised you'd use your involvement as an excuse to treat Europeans the way they do, we'd have killed Hitler all by ourselves and left you to Jerry Springer.
No no no no no. You don't understand. The American going to Europe to work cause he can't find Web work in his home country isn't an opportunistic economic migrant leech, he's an adventurer spreading prosperity and capitalism. The European in the same situation who would like to work in the US is an invader, threatening job security and mom and apple pie, and should be given lip service and treated like crap.
And I moved to the United States and ended up making far far more than that, especially considering the taxes.
You wanna be a Chretien slave, all the more power to you.
Re:Well, I see the usual anti-union bushwah
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At that point, supply and demand curves will drive salaries down, sure. Having a union around isn't going to magically create job security or wages. It'll freeze out new grads and talent and make it an exclusive club. That goes against the kind of spirit that made IT what it is.
But you can't dictate economy any more than you can dictate physics. "Let's all vote to repeal gravity!" Sure.
Re:IT Union men... true story
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If you got paid more for whining rather than being more productive, wouldn't YOU buy into a system that'll pay an uneducated lever jockey $85K+ per year?
Wonder why cars cost so much? Guess how much people in the plant get paid. Look at how much education they have.
IT Union men... true story
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When I was getting certification (which I paid for), some of the people there were doing certification as part of their "you're unemployed - hey maybe we can retool your 45 year old plumber self into a programmer" Unemployment Insurance benefit.
I was reading a C++ book at lunch, and this former machinist comes up to me and says "hey, zat book on thuh curriculum?" I said, "no, but I want to learn about this." He looked at me like I was from space. I told him that if he wanted to do IT, he was going to have to spend the rest of his life keeping his skills up, researching new and better opportunities, etc. He was flabbergasted. I mentioned the words "work hard" and he just about cacked his trolleys right then and there. HIS game plan was to take his 4 month "intro to programming" certificate, go to Nortel, and tell them to give him a job for $85,000 per year (this was mid-90s Canada, where entry level, you'd be lucky to score $35,000/yr CDN). Cause he got 4 kids un a morgidge, eh. And then spend the rest of his life goin to the plant as a C programmer, punchin a clock, writin some C code, gettin cost of living raises per year, etc.
I told him his skills'd probably be obsolete or needing upgrade within 18 months.
He went ballistic. "So what are they doin this training fer, then?" I replied, "to get you started. You're looking at long hours, spending your own money and time on textbooks and training just to stay ahead, and you can honestly forget ordering Nortel to pay you that kind of money."
"I don't wanna do that kind of thing. I just wanna do C programming. What's union scale for a job like that?"
I laughed him out of the room. Suggested he drop out and take something else. He asked me why it wasn't unreasonable to ask for 85,000/yr cause that was what HE needed. I suggested to him that they could get people with DEGREES AND EXPERIENCE for less. And if they went to other countries, they could get a Ph.D from Bangalore for that.
After a slew of trailer park racist garbage and anti-boss invective, he walked out and never came back.
We have enough idiots in IT management keeping their jobs through back-office politics. We don't need more - and I certainly don't want to pay for that kind of crap. Not out of my paycheque, and not in terms of increased software prices, either.
The KKK have this policy where they decide to go out and have a "peaceful demonstration". The police oblige by putting riot troops between them and the people who show up to demonstrate. A few
off-camera sly comments here and there by the protestors, and the protestors go nuts, hurling stuff at police and the Klan, while the Klan, cameras rolling, just stand there trying to look angelic. The spin? "Well, we're just here exercising our constitutional rights. It's those animals who were the problem."
Microsoft is trying to provoke the same in the Open Source community. "Hey, we're just the most successful and useful software company ever, while they're a bunch of unwashed, unshaved rabble."
I bought a piece of software called Bodycraft, which is supposed to generate a workout and eating plan appropriate to your wants/needs (e.g. gain muscle, lose weight, stay same weight)
I bought it, and installed it on a computer, and called for the code to unlock the stupid software dongle, and everything went relatively well: although the program was buggy, I could hack it to work.
Moved to a different computer some time later - whoops! Need to re-register. The phone was disconnected when I tried to call back for a re-registration (some stupid software dongle).
Contacted the big name fitness guru who's name is all over the box - who said "I can't help you, that's the company, they screwed me too, yadda yadda yadda - but you know what, with this new company I'm working with, you can buy the same program AGAIN for $30 more!"
RE: I'm Canadian, and have had enough international experience to know
Translation: I went hostelling in Europe once, but being Canadian, I'm a goddamned know-it-all.
We all know that China and the socialist Canadian government are in cahoots. The present PM is a disciple of Trudeau, who was a card-carrying member of the Communist party. Canadians are taught since birth to avoid conflict at all costs and capitulate to any unreasonable demand. I wouldn't trust Canada to have an objective view of this given Chretien's big crowing success speech on selling nuclear secrets to China on a "Team Canada" let's-get-business-in-Asia-cause-we-hate-the-ameri cans trip.
Yeah. But how is Paul Allen going to make that building in Alberquerque or wherever it is look like a pile of multicolored sheet metal bent into the shape of a melted wax candle?
Um, keep in mind Canada is where they tax blank computer media to hand over to Celine Dion, prevent free speech, prevent the right to self-defence, have reverse onus crimes (e.g. you are guilty until proven innocent). In Canada you do NOT have the right to remain silent... and if you mail someone something there's a chance it might be opened, photocopied with a copy to be sent to the Government Department that interfaces with that big Big Brother database... just for the hell of it. Keep in mind you aren't allowed to own property of any kind in Canada, not even the shirt you wear, but you ARE forced to pay more than 50% of your income on taxes for it. The Prime Minister can hand himself $215,000 of public money through a shady hotel deal in backwoods Quebec, and is above the law if caught.
Don't assemble and protest peacefully, you might get maced and beaten.
And you wouldn't move to Canada because of canola seeds??????
A brilliant experiment by Corel to produce interactive multimedia game sensory artificial intelligence cyberpunk buzzword buzzword buzzword something or other. It even has the patented, ground breaking MOOD TECHNOLOGY BAR, whereby you drag a little bar towards the left or the right indicating how warm or hostile you want to react to people, and get one of three responses based on the one of three movie clips that gets played back.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sorry I couldn't say that with a straight face.
Slow as hell, buggy in places, pretentious and overblown, a pure example of everything that was wrong with the mid 90s multimedia craze. This was post shark-jumping attempts at art-student-turned-Macintosh-"content developer" cleverness. And considered THE WORST videogame of all time. And it's Canadian, too, so you know it's GOTTA suck.
RE: That's being changed. Slowly... For now just take a trip to the US. If you have the hundreds of thousands private care is going to cost, a $1000 First Class ride shouldn't concern you.
Or, you can take out health insurance, and have it not cost hundreds and thousands should something happen.
RE: European Union,
And what's wrong with that?
RE: prices, crime,
Prices relate to too many people, not enough land.
RE: Hoof and Mouth / Mad Cow disease,
E-coli outbreaks in Ontario...
RE: Never, ever, have I witnessed an attempted murder anywhere in Canada, and certainly not on a golf course.
Go to any Canadian city, at night.
RE:No disagreement here. It's hard to close that loophole, though, because there seems to be a lot of resistance to the idea in Canada (why, I can't figure).
The concept of entitlement: those who work should pay for us who don't. It's the biggest threat of socialism.
RE: Fine. You don't like Europe and think the US is the best place to live on Earth
I'm trying to point out differences in similar areas. Comparing France to Vietnam - there's too many variables. France to Spain, OK you can do that. You want to compare the problems of a frozen vast wasteland to a tiny island. Well duh land is gonna be cheaper in the former. That doesn't make the country BETTER.
RE: It isn't all roses there. Things can cost you. But, fine, if you _want_ to live in the projects, sure, you'll find housing extremely affordable (probably under 1/3 our usual prices).
Salaries are better, though.
RE: Did I mention Canada doesn't have "the projects"?
Little Burgundy in Montreal. Parts of Toronto where Jamaicans shoot the place up. Elmvale Acres in Ottawa, as well as the nastier parts around Bayshore. Hastings, in the Vancouver area is considered nastier to live in than many 3rd world slums.
RE: It's _because_ Canada is that nice that when you go to other countries you get the royal treatment.
Thanks for the free ride! Here's your UN pin. Yay.
RE: Guns don't kill people. People kill people. With weapons. Like guns.
People kill people. The gun is immaterial.
RE: I can't even fathom why anyone would want handguns on our streets after seeing a few episodes of cops. Aren't the episodes where one kid kills the other with the handgun because they got in an argument sad enough?
The parents should be charged, not have everything blamed on the gun. I don't see Canadians banning alcohol and/or cars when there's a drunk driving death.
RE:For crying out loud man! They are still SENDING PEOPLE TO THE GAS CHAMBER there. And you think that place is the best to live in?
And in Canada, they give Karla Homolka a cottage to live in, with makeup, birthday cakes, etc. when what she DESERVES is to die like her victims.
RE: Yes, you can. In Canada, people would say you have free speech. Yet we still ban certain books.
Oh, OK you have free speech, just so long as it's free speech the government agrees with.
RE: If welfare is the gravy train everyone thinks it is, why don't they try it for themselves? Oh yeah, because it SUCKS to get that paltry sum of money.
Then why do entire families enroll for generations? In Ontario under Rae, you got more in welfare than you did in many jobs.
RE: That doesn't mean we shouldn't give them the bare minimum and not a dollar more, but really, no welfare at all and you'll quickly see what problems occurr when people burgle your house for food.
Anything rather than work, huh.
RE: Then they should be in jail.
Go suggest that to the people investigating Mr. Lai.
RE: You don't get welfare in jail. And if you think that costs too much, and that they should all fry, that's just too much. Killing a man doesn't fix the crime. It makes us a country of murderers.
No, but it prevents recidivism better than any egghead professor saying all we need to do is give them this and that and the other.
RE: That's Quebec.
Canada. Ya can't vote in a PM who doesn't speak French.
RE: And your beloved United States is Biligual too! Didn't you notice all the government made Espanol signs all over?
Yeah, they have the RIGHT to do that. You can't say people can't work cause they can't speak Spanish, nor do they make English illegal in Florida.
RE:Because the US economy WAS hot, and therefore naturally paid better. I say WAS. You watch the Americans complain about the brain drain to Canada now.
Still won't happen. Canada's economy will suck harder. Socialist countries always do.
RE: I see a lot of skilled immigrants out there, considering all Canadians, other than Natives, are immigrants.
I'm referring to the targets they set each year.
RE: If you're talking about Bill C-68, I'm mad too. But I'm not going to dismiss our entire country on the basis of this one piece of legislation.
What about you not having the right to own property? The tilted-to-the-east voting? The enforced socialism? The civil service based on race?
RE: If you don't like welfare then I hope you are on tenure.
RE: And the UK, and Finland, and God knows how many other counties. With great success.
Actually, UK, Finland etc have full two tier health care (not just a clinic in Ontario for the elite). Canada, China and Cuba remain the only places where it's illegal to pay for better service.
RE: It's such an eye opener to see a totally different set of problems. Makes you really appreciate what you have at home.
I've lived in Canada 19 years and spent 4 years in the UK. What are you talking about?
RE: People have been delivering their own babies for years. Why the heck do we have to pay for people to deliver what doctors have previously said are going to be perfectly healthy babies in a hospital? That's what midwives are for! Hospitals are for sick people...
Tell that to the welfare hordes in Canada who think just because the system is free, they should go every time their toddler has a cough.
RE: Our taxes put our tax freedom day on June 30th, the UK (for example, since I've lived a total of a year there) has a tax freedom day of June 10th. Yes, I suppose one might say we have higher taxes.
That would be like saying Chretien is a liar.
RE: Now look at the prices compared to wages and taxes.
Given the exchange rate...What's the $CDN at, $0.50?
RE: They own 1/3 the house and land (thrice our prices), half the car (twice our prices), and drive diesel manual transmission cars to eke out the last drop of their $2/litre gas. Even food bought at a supermarket, which was once competitive with Canadian prices, is higher. You can't have a decent meal out for less than $15. Property taxes are insane (ahem... poll tax anybody?).
Now compare to the USA. Ah, right. You don't like that comparison. Just comparisons to Bangladesh and crowded Europe.
RE: Their wages are not three times ours. They aren't even twice ours.
Why the brain drain to the USA then? I'm waiting. If the taxes are so low and the wages so high and everything's so cheap, why are people bailing for much greener pastures?
RE:Before you say the best is in other countries, see this:
Ah, the UN. Given that every time the UN says "jump" Canada says "how high"? And agrees to take in every "refugee" that wants a free ride, and agrees to disarm every Canadian in the name of the Global New World Order, is it any wonder that we're #1 in "human development"? Yay, so people serving coffee in Starbucks have two degrees each. They're so actualised. The fact remains though that Canada's richest provinces still have a lower standard of living than Mississippi.
RE:Canada is multicultural, we pick and choose what's best for this country.
So long as everything's in French, and you don't ask too many questions about the warlords, drug smugglers, murderers and other scum you give haven, welfare and everything else to.
RE:Parts of American idealism (free economy, free speech [sorta])
You can't have "sorta" free speech. And BTW a government policy of taking money from where it's being made and transferring it to welfare provinces isn't a free economy.
RE:That is what keeps our country strong, and the #1 best place to live on earth.
Then why is there a brain drain? Why can't Canada attract the skilled immigration it wants? Cause people aren't buying into the "pay taxes for more than half a year on half of what you could make in the USA" crap. Nor the Lieberal spin on some UN document.
RE: Canada's good. Canada could be better. I'd like it to be better, but not at the expense of our culture and lifestyle.
And how would you like it better? What more freedoms do you want curtailed? How many more giveaways to the usual suspects?
RE: And you would suggest "free" charity hospitals in other countries without any healthcare system are better?
Canada's health care system rates REAL low on the international standards list, by the way. And BTW only Canada and Cuba have communist medicine. With roughly equal success. Hope you enjoy delivering your OWN BABY in hospital, or dying on a waiting list.
Your choice. Live fast, die young. Pay high taxes, live forever. We have lower taxes than most every 1st world country.
Wrong. Canada's got the highest taxes in the G-7.
Seriously. Don't believe me, take a trip to Europe!
I'm not interested in how Canada relates to Sweden or Communist Russia. Canada should be setting its targets at the best. e.g. USA. You must come from the Liberal standpoint of "if you don't like the test results, lower the standards."
Slashdot Mirror
Is nigh on impossible for several reasons
1) It is against unwritten network rules to write something above an eight year old reading level (they figure that by doing so, you risk losing a sizable chunk of the TV viewing population who don't have a high literacy and will switch off)
2) Computer programming/hacking doesn't involve smoke, explosions, fractal 3D patterns that escape the computer monitor and chase you down corridors, and especially not jiggling bits of female anatomy.
3) RE the above: a chess match is high drama for those in the know: but to a channel surfer flipping through the channels looking for some light entertainment between "Survivor" and "WWF Raw", it's terrifically boring. Ditto software development or hacking.
4) Keeping things bleeding edge is difficult with the writing/editing/shooting cycle, so either set it so far in the future you just plug your cyberBorg headset into the computer and stare steelily into the Federation flat-panel screen, or risk people laughing their ASSES off at "yeah! This state of the art 486 is k-Rad!" (especially when the show goes into reruns).
5) Biggest hurdle: most geeks can't write. Those who do are VERY BORING WRITERS. "Hey dutch! When are you going to finish the script!" "Quiet! I'm working out the physics of the alien lifeform given a planet 1.4 x Earth's gravity with a methane atmosphere!". Most writers are cocaine snorting media whores. Write to spec as fast as possible. Open up the template, stick in some stock characters, sell the script, move on.
Hence, any "geek" oriented show will have to by definition not work. Hence the inclusion of jiggling women, dumb jokes, offensive stereotypes, and unrealistic, stupid storylines.
It's coming.
I'm sure the mod is being coded by the troll hordes as we speak.
RE: "If you have problems getting the computers to work, do what I do. Look around the room for the youngest person, and ask them for help."
It's a good job he didn't teach English grammar. Looking around the room for a person who knows correct English, and asking him or her how to construct a proper sentence would be more advisable.
Yup. *shakes head sadly*
I myself have been known to make nasty comments about Bangalore-based body shops. I want to make it clear, FOR THE RECORD, that my opposition to same is NOT that I don't want non-whites coming in and taking all the jobs unquote, I don't care what colour you are... I oppose exploitation of any kind, whether it's caning a Vietnamese girl to make sneakers faster, or certain large Canadian companies deciding to save a few bucks by paying a tenth of the going rate to Third Worlders, cause they've no leeway to complain.
This might blow your mind, but once you leave the haven of the United States, you start to realise that certain things other people are annoyed about actually really do apply to you.
Under NAFTA, if you go from the USA to Mexico or Canada to work, your spouse and children can also work. If you go to the USA from these other countries, the same courtesy is not applied to you.
Just because American business can't compete on softwood lumber, they're going to tax incoming Canadian softwood over 100%, because it isn't fair this is costing a few American jobs. The fact that many Canadian industries have been decimated by US business who can do it better? Well, that's the deal, jack. Don't you dare erect your own tariffs.
Under NAFTA, BTW, if you enact a law costing a NAFTA country business, you're liable to pay damages. In fact, when Canada banned a certain substance the US company that created it petitioned for damages, and was paid. California just banned a gasoline additive of which it originally legislated the use. The Canadian company that produces it is entitled to damages. Is it getting any? No way. "Why should we pay them for this product? Rant rant rant this is about American interests rant"
Try dealing with customs if you're coming in to work. Many border guards are outright hostile; and the system treats "guest workers" as anything but. It's the fervent hope of many that this wide-eyed innocent who seems to think other countries should let him come and work with open arms look at the policies of his own country, and realise how good he's got it.
Oh I'm so terribly sorry. That's right, Europe should just remember dammit that John Wayne singlehandedly won WWII and shut its hole, right? Though we were infinitely glad that you came in at the last minute to make it 4-1 rather than 3-1 (mostly in the Pacific Theater), remember, half the problem was that your industries funded the Nazis for most of the war, and enjoyed greatly profiting from death. The same way that *ahem Vietnam ahem* *ahem Gulf War ahem* you've done before and since.
I think if we'd realised you'd use your involvement as an excuse to treat Europeans the way they do, we'd have killed Hitler all by ourselves and left you to Jerry Springer.
No no no no no. You don't understand. The American going to Europe to work cause he can't find Web work in his home country isn't an opportunistic economic migrant leech, he's an adventurer spreading prosperity and capitalism. The European in the same situation who would like to work in the US is an invader, threatening job security and mom and apple pie, and should be given lip service and treated like crap.
It's funny - there's a group even more loserish than people who sit around arguing over who 0wns wh0 on f1rs+ p0s+....
Guys, if ya wanna pose, buy a skateboard.
I'm just waiting for the first "it's all them damn H1B's taking all our jobs rant rant rant" post in response to this...
And I moved to the United States and ended up making far far more than that, especially considering the taxes.
You wanna be a Chretien slave, all the more power to you.
At that point, supply and demand curves will drive salaries down, sure. Having a union around isn't going to magically create job security or wages. It'll freeze out new grads and talent and make it an exclusive club. That goes against the kind of spirit that made IT what it is.
But you can't dictate economy any more than you can dictate physics. "Let's all vote to repeal gravity!" Sure.
If you got paid more for whining rather than being more productive, wouldn't YOU buy into a system that'll pay an uneducated lever jockey $85K+ per year?
Wonder why cars cost so much? Guess how much people in the plant get paid. Look at how much education they have.
When I was getting certification (which I paid for), some of the people there were doing certification as part of their "you're unemployed - hey maybe we can retool your 45 year old plumber self into a programmer" Unemployment Insurance benefit.
I was reading a C++ book at lunch, and this former machinist comes up to me and says "hey, zat book on thuh curriculum?" I said, "no, but I want to learn about this." He looked at me like I was from space. I told him that if he wanted to do IT, he was going to have to spend the rest of his life keeping his skills up, researching new and better opportunities, etc. He was flabbergasted. I mentioned the words "work hard" and he just about cacked his trolleys right then and there. HIS game plan was to take his 4 month "intro to programming" certificate, go to Nortel, and tell them to give him a job for $85,000 per year (this was mid-90s Canada, where entry level, you'd be lucky to score $35,000/yr CDN). Cause he got 4 kids un a morgidge, eh. And then spend the rest of his life goin to the plant as a C programmer, punchin a clock, writin some C code, gettin cost of living raises per year, etc.
I told him his skills'd probably be obsolete or needing upgrade within 18 months.
He went ballistic. "So what are they doin this training fer, then?" I replied, "to get you started. You're looking at long hours, spending your own money and time on textbooks and training just to stay ahead, and you can honestly forget ordering Nortel to pay you that kind of money."
"I don't wanna do that kind of thing. I just wanna do C programming. What's union scale for a job like that?"
I laughed him out of the room. Suggested he drop out and take something else. He asked me why it wasn't unreasonable to ask for 85,000/yr cause that was what HE needed. I suggested to him that they could get people with DEGREES AND EXPERIENCE for less. And if they went to other countries, they could get a Ph.D from Bangalore for that. After a slew of trailer park racist garbage and anti-boss invective, he walked out and never came back.
We have enough idiots in IT management keeping their jobs through back-office politics. We don't need more - and I certainly don't want to pay for that kind of crap. Not out of my paycheque, and not in terms of increased software prices, either.
The KKK have this policy where they decide to go out and have a "peaceful demonstration". The police oblige by putting riot troops between them and the people who show up to demonstrate. A few off-camera sly comments here and there by the protestors, and the protestors go nuts, hurling stuff at police and the Klan, while the Klan, cameras rolling, just stand there trying to look angelic. The spin? "Well, we're just here exercising our constitutional rights. It's those animals who were the problem."
Microsoft is trying to provoke the same in the Open Source community. "Hey, we're just the most successful and useful software company ever, while they're a bunch of unwashed, unshaved rabble."
Which waste of skin modded this up as "funny"?
Nazi skinheads have more hair than brains
I might be able to, genius, but a lot of other people can't.
Nor should I have to break into a program whose license I paid for.
I bought a piece of software called Bodycraft, which is supposed to generate a workout and eating plan appropriate to your wants/needs (e.g. gain muscle, lose weight, stay same weight)
I bought it, and installed it on a computer, and called for the code to unlock the stupid software dongle, and everything went relatively well: although the program was buggy, I could hack it to work.
Moved to a different computer some time later - whoops! Need to re-register. The phone was disconnected when I tried to call back for a re-registration (some stupid software dongle).
Contacted the big name fitness guru who's name is all over the box - who said "I can't help you, that's the company, they screwed me too, yadda yadda yadda - but you know what, with this new company I'm working with, you can buy the same program AGAIN for $30 more!"
RE: I'm Canadian, and have had enough international experience to know
i cans trip.
Translation: I went hostelling in Europe once, but being Canadian, I'm a goddamned know-it-all.
We all know that China and the socialist Canadian government are in cahoots. The present PM is a disciple of Trudeau, who was a card-carrying member of the Communist party. Canadians are taught since birth to avoid conflict at all costs and capitulate to any unreasonable demand. I wouldn't trust Canada to have an objective view of this given Chretien's big crowing success speech on selling nuclear secrets to China on a "Team Canada" let's-get-business-in-Asia-cause-we-hate-the-amer
NOTA: How to join one of these if there's one starting up in your area?
Yeah. But how is Paul Allen going to make that building in Alberquerque or wherever it is look like a pile of multicolored sheet metal bent into the shape of a melted wax candle?
Um, keep in mind Canada is where they tax blank computer media to hand over to Celine Dion, prevent free speech, prevent the right to self-defence, have reverse onus crimes (e.g. you are guilty until proven innocent). In Canada you do NOT have the right to remain silent... and if you mail someone something there's a chance it might be opened, photocopied with a copy to be sent to the Government Department that interfaces with that big Big Brother database... just for the hell of it. Keep in mind you aren't allowed to own property of any kind in Canada, not even the shirt you wear, but you ARE forced to pay more than 50% of your income on taxes for it. The Prime Minister can hand himself $215,000 of public money through a shady hotel deal in backwoods Quebec, and is above the law if caught. Don't assemble and protest peacefully, you might get maced and beaten.
And you wouldn't move to Canada because of canola seeds??????
http://home.achilles.net/~jgreen/mode.html
A brilliant experiment by Corel to produce interactive multimedia game sensory artificial intelligence cyberpunk buzzword buzzword buzzword something or other. It even has the patented, ground breaking MOOD TECHNOLOGY BAR, whereby you drag a little bar towards the left or the right indicating how warm or hostile you want to react to people, and get one of three responses based on the one of three movie clips that gets played back.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sorry I couldn't say that with a straight face.
Slow as hell, buggy in places, pretentious and overblown, a pure example of everything that was wrong with the mid 90s multimedia craze. This was post shark-jumping attempts at art-student-turned-Macintosh-"content developer" cleverness. And considered THE WORST videogame of all time. And it's Canadian, too, so you know it's GOTTA suck.
RE: That's being changed. Slowly... For now just take a trip to the US. If you have the hundreds of thousands private care is going to cost, a $1000 First Class ride shouldn't concern you.
Or, you can take out health insurance, and have it not cost hundreds and thousands should something happen.
RE: European Union,
And what's wrong with that?
RE: prices, crime,
Prices relate to too many people, not enough land.
RE: Hoof and Mouth / Mad Cow disease,
E-coli outbreaks in Ontario...
RE: Never, ever, have I witnessed an attempted murder anywhere in Canada, and certainly not on a golf course.
Go to any Canadian city, at night.
RE:No disagreement here. It's hard to close that loophole, though, because there seems to be a lot of resistance to the idea in Canada (why, I can't figure).
The concept of entitlement: those who work should pay for us who don't. It's the biggest threat of socialism.
RE: Fine. You don't like Europe and think the US is the best place to live on Earth
I'm trying to point out differences in similar areas. Comparing France to Vietnam - there's too many variables. France to Spain, OK you can do that. You want to compare the problems of a frozen vast wasteland to a tiny island. Well duh land is gonna be cheaper in the former. That doesn't make the country BETTER.
RE: It isn't all roses there. Things can cost you. But, fine, if you _want_ to live in the projects, sure, you'll find housing extremely affordable (probably under 1/3 our usual prices).
Salaries are better, though.
RE: Did I mention Canada doesn't have "the projects"?
Little Burgundy in Montreal. Parts of Toronto where Jamaicans shoot the place up. Elmvale Acres in Ottawa, as well as the nastier parts around Bayshore. Hastings, in the Vancouver area is considered nastier to live in than many 3rd world slums.
RE: It's _because_ Canada is that nice that when you go to other countries you get the royal treatment.
Thanks for the free ride! Here's your UN pin. Yay.
RE: Guns don't kill people. People kill people. With weapons. Like guns.
People kill people. The gun is immaterial.
RE: I can't even fathom why anyone would want handguns on our streets after seeing a few episodes of cops. Aren't the episodes where one kid kills the other with the handgun because they got in an argument sad enough?
The parents should be charged, not have everything blamed on the gun. I don't see Canadians banning alcohol and/or cars when there's a drunk driving death.
RE:For crying out loud man! They are still SENDING PEOPLE TO THE GAS CHAMBER there. And you think that place is the best to live in?
And in Canada, they give Karla Homolka a cottage to live in, with makeup, birthday cakes, etc. when what she DESERVES is to die like her victims.
RE: Yes, you can. In Canada, people would say you have free speech. Yet we still ban certain books.
Oh, OK you have free speech, just so long as it's free speech the government agrees with.
RE: If welfare is the gravy train everyone thinks it is, why don't they try it for themselves? Oh yeah, because it SUCKS to get that paltry sum of money.
Then why do entire families enroll for generations? In Ontario under Rae, you got more in welfare than you did in many jobs.
RE: That doesn't mean we shouldn't give them the bare minimum and not a dollar more, but really, no welfare at all and you'll quickly see what problems occurr when people burgle your house for food.
Anything rather than work, huh.
RE: Then they should be in jail.
Go suggest that to the people investigating Mr. Lai.
RE: You don't get welfare in jail. And if you think that costs too much, and that they should all fry, that's just too much. Killing a man doesn't fix the crime. It makes us a country of murderers.
No, but it prevents recidivism better than any egghead professor saying all we need to do is give them this and that and the other.
RE: That's Quebec.
Canada. Ya can't vote in a PM who doesn't speak French.
RE: And your beloved United States is Biligual too! Didn't you notice all the government made Espanol signs all over?
Yeah, they have the RIGHT to do that. You can't say people can't work cause they can't speak Spanish, nor do they make English illegal in Florida.
RE:Because the US economy WAS hot, and therefore naturally paid better. I say WAS. You watch the Americans complain about the brain drain to Canada now.
Still won't happen. Canada's economy will suck harder. Socialist countries always do.
RE: I see a lot of skilled immigrants out there, considering all Canadians, other than Natives, are immigrants.
I'm referring to the targets they set each year.
RE: If you're talking about Bill C-68, I'm mad too. But I'm not going to dismiss our entire country on the basis of this one piece of legislation.
What about you not having the right to own property? The tilted-to-the-east voting? The enforced socialism? The civil service based on race?
RE: If you don't like welfare then I hope you are on tenure.
Actually, I work for a living. Surprising, huh?
RE: And the UK, and Finland, and God knows how many other counties. With great success.
Actually, UK, Finland etc have full two tier health care (not just a clinic in Ontario for the elite). Canada, China and Cuba remain the only places where it's illegal to pay for better service.
RE: It's such an eye opener to see a totally different set of problems. Makes you really appreciate what you have at home.
I've lived in Canada 19 years and spent 4 years in the UK. What are you talking about?
RE: People have been delivering their own babies for years. Why the heck do we have to pay for people to deliver what doctors have previously said are going to be perfectly healthy babies in a hospital? That's what midwives are for! Hospitals are for sick people...
Tell that to the welfare hordes in Canada who think just because the system is free, they should go every time their toddler has a cough.
RE: Our taxes put our tax freedom day on June 30th, the UK (for example, since I've lived a total of a year there) has a tax freedom day of June 10th. Yes, I suppose one might say we have higher taxes.
That would be like saying Chretien is a liar.
RE: Now look at the prices compared to wages and taxes.
Given the exchange rate...What's the $CDN at, $0.50?
RE: They own 1/3 the house and land (thrice our prices), half the car (twice our prices), and drive diesel manual transmission cars to eke out the last drop of their $2/litre gas. Even food bought at a supermarket, which was once competitive with Canadian prices, is higher. You can't have a decent meal out for less than $15. Property taxes are insane (ahem... poll tax anybody?).
Now compare to the USA. Ah, right. You don't like that comparison. Just comparisons to Bangladesh and crowded Europe.
RE: Their wages are not three times ours. They aren't even twice ours.
Why the brain drain to the USA then? I'm waiting. If the taxes are so low and the wages so high and everything's so cheap, why are people bailing for much greener pastures?
RE:Before you say the best is in other countries, see this:
Ah, the UN. Given that every time the UN says "jump" Canada says "how high"? And agrees to take in every "refugee" that wants a free ride, and agrees to disarm every Canadian in the name of the Global New World Order, is it any wonder that we're #1 in "human development"? Yay, so people serving coffee in Starbucks have two degrees each. They're so actualised. The fact remains though that Canada's richest provinces still have a lower standard of living than Mississippi.
RE:Canada is multicultural, we pick and choose what's best for this country.
So long as everything's in French, and you don't ask too many questions about the warlords, drug smugglers, murderers and other scum you give haven, welfare and everything else to.
RE:Parts of American idealism (free economy, free speech [sorta])
You can't have "sorta" free speech. And BTW a government policy of taking money from where it's being made and transferring it to welfare provinces isn't a free economy.
RE:That is what keeps our country strong, and the #1 best place to live on earth.
Then why is there a brain drain? Why can't Canada attract the skilled immigration it wants? Cause people aren't buying into the "pay taxes for more than half a year on half of what you could make in the USA" crap. Nor the Lieberal spin on some UN document.
RE: Canada's good. Canada could be better. I'd like it to be better, but not at the expense of our culture and lifestyle.
And how would you like it better? What more freedoms do you want curtailed? How many more giveaways to the usual suspects?
RE: And you would suggest "free" charity hospitals in other countries without any healthcare system are better?
Canada's health care system rates REAL low on the international standards list, by the way. And BTW only Canada and Cuba have communist medicine. With roughly equal success. Hope you enjoy delivering your OWN BABY in hospital, or dying on a waiting list.
Your choice. Live fast, die young. Pay high taxes, live forever. We have lower taxes than most every 1st world country.
Wrong. Canada's got the highest taxes in the G-7.
Seriously. Don't believe me, take a trip to Europe!
I'm not interested in how Canada relates to Sweden or Communist Russia. Canada should be setting its targets at the best. e.g. USA. You must come from the Liberal standpoint of "if you don't like the test results, lower the standards."