You believe that independent contractors are covered by typical site license agreements? Or are you saying that these foreign sweatshops actually _employ_ the foreign workers? Either seems unlikely to me.
US companies employing coding sweatshops doesn't count
Actually, it does. If these coding shops had to fill the full bill for their setup, they wouldn't be as competitive and then would have less to discriminate themselves.
"If you invented a better moustrap and GPL'd the design, then MSFT wouldn't be able get a patent on it,..."
This actually isn't true. If you really want to protect yourself, you need to file for a patent. If you can't foot that expense, it's essential you widely disseminate your work so that it becomes a well-known piece of prior art. Even then, it's quite possible some third party could get a patent on it; if you don't have one yourself, you're effectively fucked unless you have $1-2M buckaroos to caugh up.
I've predicted this several times on Slashdot, only to be publicly ridiculed. It's simply this: either the intellectual property system goes tits up, or the government (or some industry-sponsored organization) has to start going after IP offenders very aggressively. This will probably eventually include fragant willful violators who are simply downloading stuff (like hundreds/thousands of illegal copies of music, ala Napster and so on).
Corporations patent things largely because they fear just these things--so everybody sets up a system where they think they can scare everyone else from suing them because they might also be sued for some obscure patent. In effect, they don't expect anyone to NOT violate their patents--they just want it to make sure you can't sue them over one of yours.
Yes. This is exactly why I started filing software patents for the company I work at. If we don't, some unscrupulous operator will. Having patents serves us two primary functional purposes: 1) We're protected, 2) Our patent portfolio looks good in marketing presentations. We don't actually license anything or try to.
Look at their net income. Whatever else is true, SUNW really isn't earning any money. Their peak quarter last year was $136M whereas MS had several $1-2B net income quarters.
I was going by market capitalization, which is about 10:1. MSFT has enough cash and short term investments to sneeze away SUNW. So does IBM. Wasn't there some speculation that IBM might be attempting to either corner Java or perhaps buy SUNW outright?
Anyway, last year (2001) Microsoft had several quarters where it's *quarterly* net income was $1 or $2 billion dollars. Sun's best quarter was a measely $136M. Without FTC intervention, MSFT could easily squash SUNW like a bug.
Well, _supposedly_.NET makes all that seamless and easy. Looking at the C# standards, it's prety clear to me that Microsoft has at least in _theory_ created a COM-friendly virtual machine. Forgetting the evils of the involved parties:), it's not a bad idea.
Not anger. I simply don't tolerate forced entry into my home. It wouldn't matter who they were. If they force entry, there will be immediate violence. Followed after that with an arrest.
I think they mean "above and beyond their current Federal salaries". I'm not sure, but I believe that they mean the Fed is going to _pay_ for these employees when they are in the private sector. The private sector will then _supplement_ their salaries.
Not necessarily _idiots_, but sometimes pretty lazy. Government IT research facilities aren't filled with _idiots_. But after a while, even the "moderately intelligent" can get complacent.
In my area, a cable modem costs $40 on top of cable, but a very nice DSL feed with 5 static IP's is only $65. This is only a 25 dollar difference monthly. If the differences closes up any, I'll simply switch. 5 static IP addresses are in and of themselves worth quite a bit to me. TW only offers static IP's with their business class service, which, IIRC, is $150 monthly.
It's an interesting idea, but offers no explanation of how it is that the universe reaches out Deus Ex Machina and forces outcomes on future arrangement of particles and probabilities in the universe. These future probalistic arrangement of particles are really very important: at least in part, they govern what people in the future _think_.
C//
Re:The best he can build is a disintegration chamb
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: 2
IF it is truly the case that you branch into a parallel universe...
I read a sci fi book that dealt with that in a very novel fashion: transmissions from the future came into the device on a probabilistic fashion. It was really very interesting. Wish I could remember the book...
imagine that in this universe Bill Gates is a Luke-Skywalker kind of figure at the head
Hey, that's a really good analogy. Billy is such a whiner, and so was Luke! "Oh, gee Obi-wan, they just killed my parents, and I'm really bummed out. Whah." LOL.
Where I work, techies and management dual-track all the way to the top. Furthermore, the higher-echelon techies earn significantly more than middle to senior management, except for those management personnel in executive tracks.
For example, we have "division engineers" and "division scientists" and "principal engineers", "distinguished engineers", and so on. These are all very high-level high-paid technical positions. In these top tracks, you usually have additional responsibilities to your organization above and beyond simple coding, but you are still not a manager. You are likely a tech lead; you probably help write proposals; you likely contribute to organization-wide technical decisions, and so on. But you're still not a manager, and generally speaking, people don't report directly to you.
Most every one of our larger efforts has one manager and one senior technical person who run the project bicamerally. This is a very good model, IMO.
Even if you tell most people what I just told you, they would not believe me after...
Don't take this wrong, but I'm not sure I believe you. How can I verify through independent and objective sources that only Jews can be citizens/vote in Israel? How can I verify through independent and objective sources what I suspect is true: that Palestinians have been nothing other than systematically interned?
In the _Wall Street Journal_ some pro-Israel group occasionally runs these full page pro-Israel ads, loudly espousing the status of Israel as the sole democracy in the Middle East. Well and good, I say. I'm all for democracy and economic success.
But why is it that Israel's opposition isn't doing more in the American media to discuss the 20:1 rule? The internments? The lack of ability to vote? The general pattern of disenfranchisment? These are not things that would sit well with the American people if the American people regarded them as true.
I'm genuinely confused and don't know what to believe. The Arab press itself waxes towards the blatantly delusional some of the time. I can't read that; who could? Allegations that the WTC was blown up by Israel itself? Come now. That's hysteria, not objectivity.
Will the _WSJ_ simply not sell ad space to a well-reasoned counterpoint to the current Israeli ads that it runs? Is there no way that the opposing interest groups can reasonably expect to deliver their message?
The only ones who can vote in Israel are the Jews...
Is this really true? I tried to search through their Constitution to see who could vote, but couldn't figure it out. Are you saying there are no voting Arabs in Israel?
Why doesn't the U.S. and other first world countries look at this situation skeptically? If what you are saying is true, do you realize that the average U.S. citizen is simply not aware of that?
The U.S. is a nation of many minority interests. We have asians, hispanics, africans and men of african ancestry, and a vast spectrum of expatriates from all over the world. If the truth is as you say, the belly of America would quiver if it understood. Franchise, the simple concept of having a voice in your government, is the foundation of America.
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone's talking about Jim Henson as if he were alive, some guy reminds everyone that he isn't, and he gets modded to "flamebait"? What the fuck?
C//
You believe that independent contractors are covered by typical site license agreements? Or are you saying that these foreign sweatshops actually _employ_ the foreign workers? Either seems unlikely to me.
C//
US companies employing coding sweatshops doesn't count
Actually, it does. If these coding shops had to fill the full bill for their setup, they wouldn't be as competitive and then would have less to discriminate themselves.
C//
"If you invented a better moustrap and GPL'd the design, then MSFT wouldn't be able get a patent on it,..."
This actually isn't true. If you really want to protect yourself, you need to file for a patent. If you can't foot that expense, it's essential you widely disseminate your work so that it becomes a well-known piece of prior art. Even then, it's quite possible some third party could get a patent on it; if you don't have one yourself, you're effectively fucked unless you have $1-2M buckaroos to caugh up.
C//
I've predicted this several times on Slashdot, only to be publicly ridiculed. It's simply this: either the intellectual property system goes tits up, or the government (or some industry-sponsored organization) has to start going after IP offenders very aggressively. This will probably eventually include fragant willful violators who are simply downloading stuff (like hundreds/thousands of illegal copies of music, ala Napster and so on).
C//
Corporations patent things largely because they fear just these things--so everybody sets up a system where they think they can scare everyone else from suing them because they might also be sued for some obscure patent. In effect, they don't expect anyone to NOT violate their patents--they just want it to make sure you can't sue them over one of yours.
Yes. This is exactly why I started filing software patents for the company I work at. If we don't, some unscrupulous operator will. Having patents serves us two primary functional purposes: 1) We're protected, 2) Our patent portfolio looks good in marketing presentations. We don't actually license anything or try to.
C//
Look at their net income. Whatever else is true, SUNW really isn't earning any money. Their peak quarter last year was $136M whereas MS had several $1-2B net income quarters.
C//
I was going by market capitalization, which is about 10:1. MSFT has enough cash and short term investments to sneeze away SUNW. So does IBM. Wasn't there some speculation that IBM might be attempting to either corner Java or perhaps buy SUNW outright?
Anyway, last year (2001) Microsoft had several quarters where it's *quarterly* net income was $1 or $2 billion dollars. Sun's best quarter was a measely $136M. Without FTC intervention, MSFT could easily squash SUNW like a bug.
C//
Well, _supposedly_ .NET makes all that seamless and easy. Looking at the C# standards, it's prety clear to me that Microsoft has at least in _theory_ created a COM-friendly virtual machine. Forgetting the evils of the involved parties :), it's not a bad idea.
C//
.NET doesn't have anything that comes close.
.NET is at least in part an integration technology for COM. That's quite a large body of components you are blithely dismissing.
Careful, there.
C//
A quibble: compared to Microsoft, Sun is no heavyweight. They're what? 10 times smaller?
C//
-1 Troll
C//
Not anger. I simply don't tolerate forced entry into my home. It wouldn't matter who they were. If they force entry, there will be immediate violence. Followed after that with an arrest.
C//
I am surprised that there has not be a huge class-action age-bias lawsuit about this.
Suing the government isn't as easy as it sounds. In many cases, a judge must give prior approval to sue a government entity.
C//
However, when two of them pushed into my my living room without my invitation, I...
That's funny. I would have started breaking bones and gouging eyes. On the spot.
C//
I think they mean "above and beyond their current Federal salaries". I'm not sure, but I believe that they mean the Fed is going to _pay_ for these employees when they are in the private sector. The private sector will then _supplement_ their salaries.
C//
Not necessarily _idiots_, but sometimes pretty lazy. Government IT research facilities aren't filled with _idiots_. But after a while, even the "moderately intelligent" can get complacent.
C//
With _Time Warner_ isn't hosting a server like that against your contract?
C//
In my area, a cable modem costs $40 on top of cable, but a very nice DSL feed with 5 static IP's is only $65. This is only a 25 dollar difference monthly. If the differences closes up any, I'll simply switch. 5 static IP addresses are in and of themselves worth quite a bit to me. TW only offers static IP's with their business class service, which, IIRC, is $150 monthly.
C//
It's an interesting idea, but offers no explanation of how it is that the universe reaches out Deus Ex Machina and forces outcomes on future arrangement of particles and probabilities in the universe. These future probalistic arrangement of particles are really very important: at least in part, they govern what people in the future _think_.
C//
IF it is truly the case that you branch into a parallel universe...
I read a sci fi book that dealt with that in a very novel fashion: transmissions from the future came into the device on a probabilistic fashion. It was really very interesting. Wish I could remember the book...
C//
imagine that in this universe Bill Gates is a Luke-Skywalker kind of figure at the head
Hey, that's a really good analogy. Billy is such a whiner, and so was Luke! "Oh, gee Obi-wan, they just killed my parents, and I'm really bummed out. Whah." LOL.
C//
Where I work, techies and management dual-track
all the way to the top. Furthermore, the higher-echelon techies earn significantly more than middle to senior management, except for those management personnel in executive tracks.
For example, we have "division engineers" and "division scientists" and "principal engineers", "distinguished engineers", and so on. These are all very high-level high-paid technical positions. In these top tracks, you usually have additional responsibilities to your organization above and beyond simple coding, but you are still not a manager. You are likely a tech lead; you probably help write proposals; you likely contribute to organization-wide technical decisions, and so on. But you're still not a manager, and generally speaking, people don't report directly to you.
Most every one of our larger efforts has one manager and one senior technical person who run the project bicamerally. This is a very good model, IMO.
C//
Even if you tell most people what I just told you, they would not believe me after...
Don't take this wrong, but I'm not sure I believe you. How can I verify through independent and objective sources that only Jews can be citizens/vote in Israel? How can I verify through independent and objective sources what I suspect is true: that Palestinians have been nothing other than systematically interned?
In the _Wall Street Journal_ some pro-Israel group occasionally runs these full page pro-Israel ads, loudly espousing the status of Israel as the sole democracy in the Middle East. Well and good, I say. I'm all for democracy and economic success.
But why is it that Israel's opposition isn't doing more in the American media to discuss the 20:1 rule? The internments? The lack of ability to vote? The general pattern of disenfranchisment? These are not things that would sit well with the American people if the American people regarded them as true.
I'm genuinely confused and don't know what to believe. The Arab press itself waxes towards the blatantly delusional some of the time. I can't read that; who could? Allegations that the WTC was blown up by Israel itself? Come now. That's hysteria, not objectivity.
Will the _WSJ_ simply not sell ad space to a well-reasoned counterpoint to the current Israeli ads that it runs? Is there no way that the opposing interest groups can reasonably expect to deliver their message?
C//
The only ones who can vote in Israel are the Jews...
Is this really true? I tried to search through their Constitution to see who could vote, but couldn't figure it out. Are you saying there are no voting Arabs in Israel?
Why doesn't the U.S. and other first world countries look at this situation skeptically? If what you are saying is true, do you realize that the average U.S. citizen is simply not aware of that?
The U.S. is a nation of many minority interests. We have asians, hispanics, africans and men of african ancestry, and a vast spectrum of expatriates from all over the world. If the truth is as you say, the belly of America would quiver if it understood. Franchise, the simple concept of having a voice in your government, is the foundation of America.
C//