initially concluded that Uncle Satan had merely invented a bigger & badder conventional firebomb.
Uncle Satan? As if the Japanese were innocent angels that hadn't done anything.
It's fine to be anti-American--that's the "in" thing these days. But to talk about the U.S. as "Uncle Satan" when talking about WWII Japan is silly to a very extreme degree.
The sheer devastation of the bomb defies any kind of real description and I defy anyone to go there and not be affected in some way by it
Maybe so. On your way be sure to stop by the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii to put in perspective the act that was the root cause of it all. Sure, the bombs were ugly but you don't kick a dog and not expect to get bit.
Ironic, however, that they seem to have dedicated themselves to peace. If that's the end result of using a nuclear weapon on a city, that almost makes the case for using them in a few more places around the world.
Now if you go turn that meter on, are you just "using the emissions already on your property" or are you illegally using service?
Turning on your electricity (or stealing it directly by bypassing "the box") isn't using the emissions already on your property. It's not the emissions from the electricty that are useful, it's the electricity itself. And tapping into and making use of the force being pushed down a cable has a direct cost to the provider and also means they have less product available to supply to other paying customers.
If you can somehow make use of the emissions from a dead-end electrical connection without even touching the box or property belonging to the electric company, I'd support your right to do so.
The same holds true for most utilities such as water and gas, where in most residential neighborhoods the tap is controlled by a valve on your property. Doesn't mean you get to jack around with it though
Heck, look at your freaking mailbox -- it's paid for by you, installed by you (or by a contractor), and on your land. Destroy it, or contents within, and it's a federal violation. You don't own it.
Yes you do. And you may destroy your own mailbox or its contents. You just can't destroy others' mailbox or contents. Which is true of any property owned by others--just in the case of mailboxes it is a federal crime.
Doing so to cellular telephones is illegal, as are military channels.
Both are silly laws. You shouldn't say anything over a cell or cordless phone that you don't want heard. And the military better be using some friggin' powerful encryption because if a private citizen can decode and listen to it then you better believe foreign governments with cooler toys than I have are doing the same thing and will put the knowledge to much more destructive use.
The Supreme Court ruled against police using passive detection methods such as heat radiation without a search warrant. By your logic, they should have been able to - since if you didn't want them to use such a method you should've prevented the heat from irradiating out from your walls.
On one hand, someone doing something that they don't want known should make an effort to conceal that activity. On the other hand, the government is held to a different standard when doing something that is potentially illegal search and seizure.
but the whole "quit beaming at me" argument is absolutely absurd.
No it's not. They (satellite TV) chose what they thought to be the cheapest delivery method considering the benefits (no need to wire everybody) and the costs (signal sent to everyone). They decided the benefits were worth it. Now they want government or law enforcement help to eliminate their cost? Sorry, it shouldn't be the function of government or law enforcement to reduce the costs of doing business using a flawed delivery mechanism.
Do I think these people are guilty? Sure, they appear to have been making big money by selling devices that only serve an illegal purpose. Do I think the users of these devices or home-grown hackers that intercept and use satellite TV signals without paying for them are guilty of anything? No...
That's why you use two sensors. You know how far apart they are, so you simply time how long it takes for the second sensor to be triggered after the first.
Sure, if you want two sensors and it's in budget you can certainly get better results with twice as many sensors. That said, you can get pretty darned good results with a single sensor if you know the average mix of cars/trucks on the highway.
But agreed, if you can put two sensors about 10 to 20 feet apart that'd be best.
A simple car count will yield garbage data because it is the speed of the cars that passes a given point that really matters.
If it's a car counter, yes. But if you can measure how long the car is above the sensor then you can distinguish between light traffic and stalled traffic. A typical car traveling 60mph will be over a sensor for about 1/4h to 1/5th of a second. If the car is over the sensor for 2 seconds you know a typical car is going about 7mph.
Sure, you'll get a little messed up by long cars or trucks, but for the most part it will work given the proportion of trucks to cars in most major cities.
RTFA. The companies in question are going to pay sales taxes in the states where they have brick and mortar establishments. I.e., Walmart is just about everywhere but WalMart.com, technically a different company, is only in a few states. This is just Walmart saying, "Yeah, ok, we made another company just so we wouldn't have to collect sales taxes in the place that we're already located. We'll go ahead and pay sales taxes for those states we are physically in." They're essentially agreeing to close a loophole.
We're not talking about a company that only exists in Texas having to charge taxes in other states in which they have no physical presence.
If your sole reason for shopping online is only due to the lack of sales tax on your online sales, then this is reason enough for online sales to be taxed.
By the same thinking, if your sole reason for shopping online is only due to the lack of sales tax on your online sales, then this is reason enough for OFFLINE sales to NOT be taxed.
Let trade compete on value, price, and service, not just the distorting effects of various taxing schemes.
Unfortunately, taxes are a part of the "price" to the end user--just as "shipping" is. What good does it do me as a consumer if a product that costs $100 down the street costs $1 online, if the online source charges $20 in taxes and $79 for shipping? Yes, the tax and shipping "disorted" the decision, but yet my final decision is based on that distortion--and fairly so.
I'm in favor of the status quo. My company charges sales tax on in-state business which, in all honesty, is a very small percentage of our sales. If we have to charge sales tax on every sale I will not complain that much as long as the sales tax is OUR STATE SALES TAX and the revenue goes to OUR STATE. I don't want to have to keep track of 50 different sales taxes around the country, forwarding payments to each state, etc. If someone from Texas comes to me personally in Colorado and purchases something, they pay Colorado sales tax. Likewise, if someone buys something online the tax--if there is going to be one--should be based on the state tax rate in the state of the business doing the selling.
Plus if out-of-state sales are subject to local state taxes, that's an incentive for local governments to reduce sales tax rates so that more businesses operate out of their state.
That's true. Especially about a president just taking over. President Bush took over in January 2001. His first budget was for 2002 the effects of which are just being felt right about now. At best, it can be said that Clinton "effected" the 1994-2002 economy while Bush will effect the 2002-2006 economy (or hopefully 2002-2010).
The thing that strikes me is funny is there are still people who think there was actually a budget surplus under Clinton. Funny, I don't see a single year where the debt went down. Smoke and mirrors... Smoke and mirros...
I had wondered about that too. They were asked several times by the press what they could have done had they suspected tile damage after liftoff. The NASA guy didn't want to answer it directly, but eventually said, in effect, they have no way to fix under-ship tile damage while in space, so why bother checking?
That's when I, too, wondered whether it would have been possible to check the tile and if it was in bad shape maybe trying to offload some or all of the people to the ISS. However, I read on CNN yesterday that Columbia was the only shuttle in the fleet that did NOT hae a docking port that was compatible with the ISS. So in that case I guess there truly was no reason to check. They can't fix the tile and have no way to transfer to the ISS. So it truly didn't matter.
Re:You're right, I don't see it.
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Giant Sucking Noise
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I think you underestimate alot of ANGRY individuals in this economy.
Angry != Rational. If they are angry, they are bitter. I could understand "frustrated."
I understand the posters feelings exactly. I know 100's of college students who graduated with degrees and cant find jobs in *any* field let along their own field...
It's a tough economy right now. There are people with decades more experience than your 100's of college students that are also looking for jobs.
This is also due to the bubble that exploded a couple of years ago. Too much unneeded help was hired, too many students saw $$$ in the industry and started studying that. Now the bubble has popped, all the "extra" IT people that were unnecesarily hired during the bubble are being shed, and those that studied IT expecting a lot of high-paying jobs miscalculated.
They are delivering pizzas and living with their parents and they are *livid* that they paid their dues, played the game, did what they were supposed to, and are being shit on, disrespected, and told they are worthless by corporate america.
Oh come on... Some college students that have spent 4 years in college, probably having some amount of fun along the way, think they have paid their dues? They think they're being shit on because they happened to graduate in the middle of a recession? They think they for some reason *deserve* a job when they have 4 years of college and no experience when their resumes are being compared to professionals with decades of experience AND college? Come on...
They aren't worthless, but they aren't unique. Many others have their skills and if Corporate America needs exactly 100 of them, why should Corporate America hire 120? Even if we agree that the executives are earning too much, if you reduce their salary is there still any reason to hire 120 of them? They only NEED 100. Such is reality in a recession.
If this trend continues, there really will be a "revolution."
Sounds to me like spoiled college kids raised in sheltered homes listening to too much rap music and wanting to rebel against anything given the opportunity. Sounds like kids that truly don't know what "hard times" are. Luckily, I don't have any first-hand experience either. But the fear during the Cuban Missile Crisis... the rationing of goods during WWII... Surviving the Great Depression. THOSE were bad times. We aren't in bad times now, we just got used to an inflated bubble of fake growth--and that bubble burst. Sorry.
Tell your college friends to get a grip. Delivering pizzas and living with their parents IS part of their "dues."
You forgot something: American companies don't need high-cost burger-flippers with a PC, they need effective, efficient IT professionals that can justify their salary with corresponding efficiency... and who are willing to work for $7.01 an hour, or less!
Yeah, right. Less than $14,560/year? I don't even think you'll find that in Alabama or Arkansas...
For all the complaining of American workers about greedy corporate executives, we continue to be the highest paid in the world. God forbid that instead of making 20 times the worldwide average income we only make, say, 18 or 19 times the average...
That said, keep in mind that a burger-flipper in Denver Colorado makes more than an averge college graduate in Mexico. Even as a burger-flipper in the U.S. you'll make much more than most of the people in the world.
You may feel good about helping some Indian programmers while you're flipping burgers, but I actively resent it.
Sir, if you lose your current IT job--for whatever reason--and your only option is to flip burgers then it is painfully clear why someone in India got your job instead of you. American companies don't need high-cost burger-flippers with a PC, they need effective, efficient IT professionals that can justify their salary with corresponding efficiency.
One of the differences I've always noted between Latin America and the US, is that in Latin America people build and rely on relationships with other people, especially family.
Yeah, like here in Mexico where a child (even if that child is, say, 25, 30, 35) often continues to live with his parents until he or she gets married. Or parents have lots of kids with the assumption that you have more kids so that all those kids in the future can maintain you when you are done working at the end of your life.
Sure, it's a different frame of thought. I'd argue whether or not it's necessarily better.
In the US, there's an ongoing illusion that you can trust money - that money is secure and will take care of you and all you have to do is make more of it. Countries that have experienced hyperinflation somewhere along the line know better than to trust money more than people.
You can't trust money, and you can't trust people. That's not because people are bad--especially your family--but if the economy crashes and your savings are worthless, is the rest of your family going to be any better off and in a position to help you? Unless one of your relatives were spectacularly wealthy I don't see how "depending on people" is going to get you anywhere since they, ultimately, depend on money too.
You can't depend on money. Having lived in Mexico for the last 8 years I know how it is. Inflation is much less now than it was when I moved here, but the peso continues to lose ground against the dollar. When I got here in 1996, one dollar purchased about 6.7 pesos. Now it purchases 11! So obviously I keep all my money in dollars. But now the dollar is losing ground against the Euro. This is probably temporary due to the Iraq thing, but long-term over a life of 50 years we can't be sure *any* currency isn't going to devalue.
The only thing you can trust is REAL ESTATE. Buy your house, PAY IT OFF ASAP, then worry about retirement savings. The economy can crash but your house is still yours. And as it turns out, once you don't have a mortgage or rent payment the rest of your expenses turn out to be quite manageable, even if the economy crashes.
That would explain all the crap that comes out of those Indian "programming" farms. They don't produce anything worthwhile, but they suck funds real quick. Kind of like accountants, actually.
Actually, I'd say most successful consultants *DO* have regular customers. Once you've been in the market for awhile and done work for a series of companies you find that some of the people you've already worked for will call you up for their next project, assuming you did a good job the first time around.
I've been a full-time consultant for about 4 years and I've observed that 50% of my work is from repeat customers. Hopefully the other 50% later *become* repeat customers.:)
Whether you are a prostitute or not depends on the kind of work you do, not whether or not you move around. A prostitute takes any work that comes along. Unfortunately, in 2002 I became a "consulting prostitute," so to speak, as I've taken projects that didn't really interest me other than the money because things were tight last year. 2003 is looking up, though, so hopefully I can stop being a consulting prostitute this year.
Hahah. Not sure if that was "humerous" or a troll...
Re:Not to be a troll here but...IN SOVIET RUSSIA
on
Superbowl XXXVII
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· Score: -1, Offtopic
That's just the US view. In most of the world "America" is a continent that comprises North, Central and South America.
Yeah, yeah, and that makes as much sense as calling "Eurasia" all of Europe and Asia.
Please read, travel, and try to see beyond your bellybutton.
Actually, I am an American that lives OUTSIDE of the country, read: not in America. I've seen this argument from time to time and it's always silly. The post a few posts up regarding South Africa and Central Africa is right on the money.
People that acuse the U.S. of "hijacking" the name of a continent are truly clueless, just have an anti-U.S. agenda, and generally have too much time on their hands. It's like my name being Robert but having people call my Bob, then accusing me of hijacking the name Bob. Get a clue.
Re:Not to be a troll here but...IN SOVIET RUSSIA
on
Superbowl XXXVII
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· Score: 1, Offtopic
Living in both Europe and now in the US (oh yeah "America" is a continent; not a country)
No, "America" is short for "United States of America" just as "Mexico" is short for "United States of Mexico."
If you want to refer to a continent you may refer to either North America or South America. There is no continent called "America", although the two continents together are often called "The Americas."
If you had been paying any attention whatsoever for the last 3 years you would have noticed that most of the websites that were 100% advertising are now out of business.
Actually, it wasn't and isn't a matter of depending totally on advertising. My website still exists and is funded by banner ads. I haven't increased my rates in a year and a half, but I haven't lowered them either.
The whole "dot com" implosion was more about businesses that had a 50-employee staff of people doing busy work and buying cool chairs instead of two web developers and a single salesperson that could have probably done the same thing than it was about depending on advertisements.
My website could not have sustained a 50-employee company in 1999 just like it can't today. The difference is that I recognized that and didn't try to get VC funding, hire an army, and go with an IPO. Those that did are out of business, the rest of us are still here earning money on a CPM basis.
32kg of potable water is a significant amount. When you take into consideration the upheaval that water shortages are having in the southwestern united stats.
If these 32kgs of potable water to make chips are in Asia I fail to see how water shortages in the southwestern United States have anything to do with the discussion. If there are people dying of thirst in Asia and they're using their water to make chips, ok... But unless you're proposing that the water be shipped from Asia to the U.S. I fail to see the connection.
PS--When "potable water" is consumed--be it by human consumption, animal consumption, or making chips, it's not like it's gone for good and we're "using it up." It'll enter the environment, evaporate, and before too long be falling to the ground as potable water again. Unless, at this moment, there's a better or more urgent use for thsoe 32kg of potable water, I'd rather they use it to make chips then just let it flow unused to become salt water in the ocean.
You expect me to belive the Chinese government buys our old computers, pays to ship them over there, trucks them out to the back country and dumps them in the river? What, are computers cheaper than cement and they need a new dam? At least give me some reference if you want me to buy into this bunk.
There was an article on Slashdot about this a few months ago. Feel free to search.
Basically what it amounts to is that we in the U.S. supposedly want to recycle. So recycling companies gather our old computers and sell them to a Chinese company. The transaction happens and the computers are on a boat to China where they eventually are taken to someplace where local folk dismantle PCBs to strip the gold and copper (or whatever) which is supposedly valuable enough to justify the labor. These people then, intelligently, throw discarded computers into their own rivers after they're done extracting what they can from the units.
And somehow this is OUR fault.
BS. If the Chinese don't want contaminated rivers, they shouldn't throw their computers into them. If they have too many computers and the only place for them is rivers, they should stop buying them from us.
It's a matter of responsibility, and the U.S. can't be expected to solve China's environmental problems. If China says "Stop shipping that crap to us" and we still do THEN the envirowackos can complain. Until then, tell China to improve their used computer processing operations.
I think someone already pointed it out, but hey, I've got karma to burn. DVDs have an additional income that CDs don't...cinema.
Sure they do: concerts. Musicians should make their money from concerts. If they happen to sell some CDs (perhaps at the concerts themselves!), well, that's just gravy. If they don't, their tracks floating around P2P networks are free advertising for their concerts.
That this model only requires musicians and listeners and doesn't require an RIAA-style cartel doesn't bother me at all.
When was the last time you baked a loaf of bread? You know it only takes a few minutes, right? Less time than it would take going to the store to buy it.
It only takes a few minutes? When was the last time YOU baked a loaf of bread? I'll tell you what... we can both start in my fully-stocked kitchen. On the count of 3 I'll walk to 7-11, buy a loaf of bread, come back and be eating my sandwhich before you even get your "loaf" in the oven. Not sure how you conclude that you can bake a load of bread faster than you can buy it, moreso when you consider the time to clean up the kitchen afterwards.
It's not hard to shoplift, either. Just walk into the grocery store, pick up a loaf of bread, and walk back out again.
Two things:
1. Try doing that. You'll get caught. The bubble-gum example was more appropriate because you can perhaps hide that in a pocket. It's kind of hard to conceal a load of bread in your pocket unless you like totally compressed bread.
2. I'm opposed to stealing. I've never physically stolen everything, not even candy when I was a kid. And I never would regardless of how much it costs or how badly I want it. But I won't hesitate to download an MP3. If I steal candy, the store no longer has the candy. If I download the MP3, no-one has lost possession of anything.
In fact, I'd be willing to bet you'd pay a quarter for gum even if it came out of your computer for free. Why? Because $.25 = about.5-1 minute of most Americans' time.
Like the parent post said, he can do something else while he waits for the gum. If I could get a free stick of gum but bad to wait idle for 10 minutes to get it, I would rather walk to 7-11, buy the gum for 25 cents, and walk back. But if I could order the gum for free, continue working, and have the gum pop out in 5 minutes, yeah, I'd do it. At least if it doesn't short someone else their legitimate stick of gum.
There's almost no way the effort of pirating something you can get for $.50 is ever worth it. Only if you're extremely poor, extremely bored, or just plain vindictive.
You're dreaming. If I have the choice of logging on to Kazza, finding the song I want, and downloading it for free and listening to it in less than 5 minutes OR going to a music site, hopefully finding the song I want, downloading it for 50 cents after identifying myself and my credit card number and be listening to it in 7 minutes (call it 2 minutes for giving CC info, etc.), guess what, I'll choose the no-hassle, no-risk, completely-anonymous approach every time.
Reading a barcode on a wheel going 70 mph is quite possible? You, sir, have no clue. But thanks for playing.
If you choose to respond, please include a link to a scanner capable of reading a barcode at 70mph from a distance of about 8-50 feet (from the side of the highway to the furthest lane), at a height of between 2 inches and, say, 30 inches (possible variations in tire size and considering barcode could be at the "top" side of the tire as it passes the scanner), in rain or in broad daylight. You said it mostly varies on price, so we won't limit your choices there. Pick the most expensive one you want and tell us which one is capable of the above requirements.
Slashdot Mirror
Uncle Satan? As if the Japanese were innocent angels that hadn't done anything.
It's fine to be anti-American--that's the "in" thing these days. But to talk about the U.S. as "Uncle Satan" when talking about WWII Japan is silly to a very extreme degree.
Maybe so. On your way be sure to stop by the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii to put in perspective the act that was the root cause of it all. Sure, the bombs were ugly but you don't kick a dog and not expect to get bit.
Ironic, however, that they seem to have dedicated themselves to peace. If that's the end result of using a nuclear weapon on a city, that almost makes the case for using them in a few more places around the world.
Turning on your electricity (or stealing it directly by bypassing "the box") isn't using the emissions already on your property. It's not the emissions from the electricty that are useful, it's the electricity itself. And tapping into and making use of the force being pushed down a cable has a direct cost to the provider and also means they have less product available to supply to other paying customers.
If you can somehow make use of the emissions from a dead-end electrical connection without even touching the box or property belonging to the electric company, I'd support your right to do so.
The same holds true for most utilities such as water and gas, where in most residential neighborhoods the tap is controlled by a valve on your property. Doesn't mean you get to jack around with it though
Heck, look at your freaking mailbox -- it's paid for by you, installed by you (or by a contractor), and on your land. Destroy it, or contents within, and it's a federal violation. You don't own it.
Yes you do. And you may destroy your own mailbox or its contents. You just can't destroy others' mailbox or contents. Which is true of any property owned by others--just in the case of mailboxes it is a federal crime.
Doing so to cellular telephones is illegal, as are military channels.
Both are silly laws. You shouldn't say anything over a cell or cordless phone that you don't want heard. And the military better be using some friggin' powerful encryption because if a private citizen can decode and listen to it then you better believe foreign governments with cooler toys than I have are doing the same thing and will put the knowledge to much more destructive use.
The Supreme Court ruled against police using passive detection methods such as heat radiation without a search warrant. By your logic, they should have been able to - since if you didn't want them to use such a method you should've prevented the heat from irradiating out from your walls.
On one hand, someone doing something that they don't want known should make an effort to conceal that activity. On the other hand, the government is held to a different standard when doing something that is potentially illegal search and seizure.
but the whole "quit beaming at me" argument is absolutely absurd.
No it's not. They (satellite TV) chose what they thought to be the cheapest delivery method considering the benefits (no need to wire everybody) and the costs (signal sent to everyone). They decided the benefits were worth it. Now they want government or law enforcement help to eliminate their cost? Sorry, it shouldn't be the function of government or law enforcement to reduce the costs of doing business using a flawed delivery mechanism.
Do I think these people are guilty? Sure, they appear to have been making big money by selling devices that only serve an illegal purpose. Do I think the users of these devices or home-grown hackers that intercept and use satellite TV signals without paying for them are guilty of anything? No...
Sure, if you want two sensors and it's in budget you can certainly get better results with twice as many sensors. That said, you can get pretty darned good results with a single sensor if you know the average mix of cars/trucks on the highway.
But agreed, if you can put two sensors about 10 to 20 feet apart that'd be best.
If it's a car counter, yes. But if you can measure how long the car is above the sensor then you can distinguish between light traffic and stalled traffic. A typical car traveling 60mph will be over a sensor for about 1/4h to 1/5th of a second. If the car is over the sensor for 2 seconds you know a typical car is going about 7mph.
Sure, you'll get a little messed up by long cars or trucks, but for the most part it will work given the proportion of trucks to cars in most major cities.
We're not talking about a company that only exists in Texas having to charge taxes in other states in which they have no physical presence.
I.e., nothing to see here, move along.
By the same thinking, if your sole reason for shopping online is only due to the lack of sales tax on your online sales, then this is reason enough for OFFLINE sales to NOT be taxed.
Let trade compete on value, price, and service, not just the distorting effects of various taxing schemes.
Unfortunately, taxes are a part of the "price" to the end user--just as "shipping" is. What good does it do me as a consumer if a product that costs $100 down the street costs $1 online, if the online source charges $20 in taxes and $79 for shipping? Yes, the tax and shipping "disorted" the decision, but yet my final decision is based on that distortion--and fairly so.
I'm in favor of the status quo. My company charges sales tax on in-state business which, in all honesty, is a very small percentage of our sales. If we have to charge sales tax on every sale I will not complain that much as long as the sales tax is OUR STATE SALES TAX and the revenue goes to OUR STATE. I don't want to have to keep track of 50 different sales taxes around the country, forwarding payments to each state, etc. If someone from Texas comes to me personally in Colorado and purchases something, they pay Colorado sales tax. Likewise, if someone buys something online the tax--if there is going to be one--should be based on the state tax rate in the state of the business doing the selling.
Plus if out-of-state sales are subject to local state taxes, that's an incentive for local governments to reduce sales tax rates so that more businesses operate out of their state.
The thing that strikes me is funny is there are still people who think there was actually a budget surplus under Clinton. Funny, I don't see a single year where the debt went down. Smoke and mirrors... Smoke and mirros...
That's when I, too, wondered whether it would have been possible to check the tile and if it was in bad shape maybe trying to offload some or all of the people to the ISS. However, I read on CNN yesterday that Columbia was the only shuttle in the fleet that did NOT hae a docking port that was compatible with the ISS. So in that case I guess there truly was no reason to check. They can't fix the tile and have no way to transfer to the ISS. So it truly didn't matter.
Angry != Rational. If they are angry, they are bitter. I could understand "frustrated."
I understand the posters feelings exactly. I know 100's of college students who graduated with degrees and cant find jobs in *any* field let along their own field ...
It's a tough economy right now. There are people with decades more experience than your 100's of college students that are also looking for jobs.
This is also due to the bubble that exploded a couple of years ago. Too much unneeded help was hired, too many students saw $$$ in the industry and started studying that. Now the bubble has popped, all the "extra" IT people that were unnecesarily hired during the bubble are being shed, and those that studied IT expecting a lot of high-paying jobs miscalculated.
They are delivering pizzas and living with their parents and they are *livid* that they paid their dues, played the game, did what they were supposed to, and are being shit on, disrespected, and told they are worthless by corporate america.
Oh come on... Some college students that have spent 4 years in college, probably having some amount of fun along the way, think they have paid their dues? They think they're being shit on because they happened to graduate in the middle of a recession? They think they for some reason *deserve* a job when they have 4 years of college and no experience when their resumes are being compared to professionals with decades of experience AND college? Come on...
They aren't worthless, but they aren't unique. Many others have their skills and if Corporate America needs exactly 100 of them, why should Corporate America hire 120? Even if we agree that the executives are earning too much, if you reduce their salary is there still any reason to hire 120 of them? They only NEED 100. Such is reality in a recession.
If this trend continues, there really will be a "revolution."
Sounds to me like spoiled college kids raised in sheltered homes listening to too much rap music and wanting to rebel against anything given the opportunity. Sounds like kids that truly don't know what "hard times" are. Luckily, I don't have any first-hand experience either. But the fear during the Cuban Missile Crisis... the rationing of goods during WWII... Surviving the Great Depression. THOSE were bad times. We aren't in bad times now, we just got used to an inflated bubble of fake growth--and that bubble burst. Sorry.
Tell your college friends to get a grip. Delivering pizzas and living with their parents IS part of their "dues."
Yeah, right. Less than $14,560/year? I don't even think you'll find that in Alabama or Arkansas...
For all the complaining of American workers about greedy corporate executives, we continue to be the highest paid in the world. God forbid that instead of making 20 times the worldwide average income we only make, say, 18 or 19 times the average...
That said, keep in mind that a burger-flipper in Denver Colorado makes more than an averge college graduate in Mexico. Even as a burger-flipper in the U.S. you'll make much more than most of the people in the world.
Sir, if you lose your current IT job--for whatever reason--and your only option is to flip burgers then it is painfully clear why someone in India got your job instead of you. American companies don't need high-cost burger-flippers with a PC, they need effective, efficient IT professionals that can justify their salary with corresponding efficiency.
Yeah, like here in Mexico where a child (even if that child is, say, 25, 30, 35) often continues to live with his parents until he or she gets married. Or parents have lots of kids with the assumption that you have more kids so that all those kids in the future can maintain you when you are done working at the end of your life.
Sure, it's a different frame of thought. I'd argue whether or not it's necessarily better.
In the US, there's an ongoing illusion that you can trust money - that money is secure and will take care of you and all you have to do is make more of it. Countries that have experienced hyperinflation somewhere along the line know better than to trust money more than people.
You can't trust money, and you can't trust people. That's not because people are bad--especially your family--but if the economy crashes and your savings are worthless, is the rest of your family going to be any better off and in a position to help you? Unless one of your relatives were spectacularly wealthy I don't see how "depending on people" is going to get you anywhere since they, ultimately, depend on money too.
You can't depend on money. Having lived in Mexico for the last 8 years I know how it is. Inflation is much less now than it was when I moved here, but the peso continues to lose ground against the dollar. When I got here in 1996, one dollar purchased about 6.7 pesos. Now it purchases 11! So obviously I keep all my money in dollars. But now the dollar is losing ground against the Euro. This is probably temporary due to the Iraq thing, but long-term over a life of 50 years we can't be sure *any* currency isn't going to devalue.
The only thing you can trust is REAL ESTATE. Buy your house, PAY IT OFF ASAP, then worry about retirement savings. The economy can crash but your house is still yours. And as it turns out, once you don't have a mortgage or rent payment the rest of your expenses turn out to be quite manageable, even if the economy crashes.
I've been a full-time consultant for about 4 years and I've observed that 50% of my work is from repeat customers. Hopefully the other 50% later *become* repeat customers. :)
Whether you are a prostitute or not depends on the kind of work you do, not whether or not you move around. A prostitute takes any work that comes along. Unfortunately, in 2002 I became a "consulting prostitute," so to speak, as I've taken projects that didn't really interest me other than the money because things were tight last year. 2003 is looking up, though, so hopefully I can stop being a consulting prostitute this year.
Yeah, yeah, and that makes as much sense as calling "Eurasia" all of Europe and Asia.
Please read, travel, and try to see beyond your bellybutton.
Actually, I am an American that lives OUTSIDE of the country, read: not in America. I've seen this argument from time to time and it's always silly. The post a few posts up regarding South Africa and Central Africa is right on the money.
People that acuse the U.S. of "hijacking" the name of a continent are truly clueless, just have an anti-U.S. agenda, and generally have too much time on their hands. It's like my name being Robert but having people call my Bob, then accusing me of hijacking the name Bob. Get a clue.
No, "America" is short for "United States of America" just as "Mexico" is short for "United States of Mexico."
If you want to refer to a continent you may refer to either North America or South America. There is no continent called "America", although the two continents together are often called "The Americas."
Actually, it wasn't and isn't a matter of depending totally on advertising. My website still exists and is funded by banner ads. I haven't increased my rates in a year and a half, but I haven't lowered them either.
The whole "dot com" implosion was more about businesses that had a 50-employee staff of people doing busy work and buying cool chairs instead of two web developers and a single salesperson that could have probably done the same thing than it was about depending on advertisements.
My website could not have sustained a 50-employee company in 1999 just like it can't today. The difference is that I recognized that and didn't try to get VC funding, hire an army, and go with an IPO. Those that did are out of business, the rest of us are still here earning money on a CPM basis.
If these 32kgs of potable water to make chips are in Asia I fail to see how water shortages in the southwestern United States have anything to do with the discussion. If there are people dying of thirst in Asia and they're using their water to make chips, ok... But unless you're proposing that the water be shipped from Asia to the U.S. I fail to see the connection.
PS--When "potable water" is consumed--be it by human consumption, animal consumption, or making chips, it's not like it's gone for good and we're "using it up." It'll enter the environment, evaporate, and before too long be falling to the ground as potable water again. Unless, at this moment, there's a better or more urgent use for thsoe 32kg of potable water, I'd rather they use it to make chips then just let it flow unused to become salt water in the ocean.
There was an article on Slashdot about this a few months ago. Feel free to search.
Basically what it amounts to is that we in the U.S. supposedly want to recycle. So recycling companies gather our old computers and sell them to a Chinese company. The transaction happens and the computers are on a boat to China where they eventually are taken to someplace where local folk dismantle PCBs to strip the gold and copper (or whatever) which is supposedly valuable enough to justify the labor. These people then, intelligently, throw discarded computers into their own rivers after they're done extracting what they can from the units.
And somehow this is OUR fault.
BS. If the Chinese don't want contaminated rivers, they shouldn't throw their computers into them. If they have too many computers and the only place for them is rivers, they should stop buying them from us.
It's a matter of responsibility, and the U.S. can't be expected to solve China's environmental problems. If China says "Stop shipping that crap to us" and we still do THEN the envirowackos can complain. Until then, tell China to improve their used computer processing operations.
Sure they do: concerts. Musicians should make their money from concerts. If they happen to sell some CDs (perhaps at the concerts themselves!), well, that's just gravy. If they don't, their tracks floating around P2P networks are free advertising for their concerts.
That this model only requires musicians and listeners and doesn't require an RIAA-style cartel doesn't bother me at all.
It only takes a few minutes? When was the last time YOU baked a loaf of bread? I'll tell you what... we can both start in my fully-stocked kitchen. On the count of 3 I'll walk to 7-11, buy a loaf of bread, come back and be eating my sandwhich before you even get your "loaf" in the oven. Not sure how you conclude that you can bake a load of bread faster than you can buy it, moreso when you consider the time to clean up the kitchen afterwards.
It's not hard to shoplift, either. Just walk into the grocery store, pick up a loaf of bread, and walk back out again.
Two things:
1. Try doing that. You'll get caught. The bubble-gum example was more appropriate because you can perhaps hide that in a pocket. It's kind of hard to conceal a load of bread in your pocket unless you like totally compressed bread.
2. I'm opposed to stealing. I've never physically stolen everything, not even candy when I was a kid. And I never would regardless of how much it costs or how badly I want it. But I won't hesitate to download an MP3. If I steal candy, the store no longer has the candy. If I download the MP3, no-one has lost possession of anything.
In fact, I'd be willing to bet you'd pay a quarter for gum even if it came out of your computer for free. Why? Because $.25 = about .5-1 minute of most Americans' time.
Like the parent post said, he can do something else while he waits for the gum. If I could get a free stick of gum but bad to wait idle for 10 minutes to get it, I would rather walk to 7-11, buy the gum for 25 cents, and walk back. But if I could order the gum for free, continue working, and have the gum pop out in 5 minutes, yeah, I'd do it. At least if it doesn't short someone else their legitimate stick of gum.
There's almost no way the effort of pirating something you can get for $.50 is ever worth it. Only if you're extremely poor, extremely bored, or just plain vindictive.
You're dreaming. If I have the choice of logging on to Kazza, finding the song I want, and downloading it for free and listening to it in less than 5 minutes OR going to a music site, hopefully finding the song I want, downloading it for 50 cents after identifying myself and my credit card number and be listening to it in 7 minutes (call it 2 minutes for giving CC info, etc.), guess what, I'll choose the no-hassle, no-risk, completely-anonymous approach every time.
If you choose to respond, please include a link to a scanner capable of reading a barcode at 70mph from a distance of about 8-50 feet (from the side of the highway to the furthest lane), at a height of between 2 inches and, say, 30 inches (possible variations in tire size and considering barcode could be at the "top" side of the tire as it passes the scanner), in rain or in broad daylight. You said it mostly varies on price, so we won't limit your choices there. Pick the most expensive one you want and tell us which one is capable of the above requirements.