The problem is, Slashdot isn't exactly like a store. In fact at the time that particular incident happened I don' think anyone over at VA Software was even trying to make money from ad impressions. If you remember most of the banner ads were from VA related websites instead of from advertisers from other companies. In order for you to have been the equivalent to a "paying customer" at the time they would have been trying to monetize your eyeballs, which is something they've only recently tried to do.
So its kind of a hollow point (threat?). One upset geek really isn't going to make a difference in the long run. Not even 25 upset geeks. Hell when someone tried to organize a Slashdot boycott recently that fell thru shamelessly. Did you see the people with the Blackout sig posting when the blackout was supposed to occur? Basically you need leverage to bitch, and individual posters just don't have that leverage.
I never knew simply wanting to make money was evil. Anyways, did you know that a significant amount of capital is held by regular workers in their pension funds, mutual funds and 401k plans? So... when you say you don't give a crap about investors you mean you really don't give a crap about Americans in general. Of course you don't have to care about them, you simply need them. Without their capital you won't have a job. Even if you work for a private company it probably has public companies as customers or suppliers. Either way you need to take the needs of investors into account. And investors always seek to maximize profits and minimize costs. If that means outsourcing programming jobs then so be it. Its not the end of the world after all, just the exporting of one particular industry.
What about the cases where it does work out? How does that make you feel? What about Microsoft's, IBM's, Oracle's, Intel's and Sun's Indian labs? Hmmmmm?
The "problem" isn't companies who place their money in foreign labor. The "problem" in the tech sector was the overwhelming surplus of hype and shortage of real products that people actually wanted to buy. Couple that with the dot.coms which had no business plans going out of business, they made up a huge bulk of the customerbase of companies that bought all those IT products int he first place. Do you get it NOW?
What? You think only people working in the IT industry buy and use IT products? Are you that stupid or something? Thats like saying only autoworkers buy cars thus moving auto production overseas would result in cars not being bought anymore.
Indeed it may have, but there are still more American autoworkers today than they thought there would be. Its just most of them are now non-union workers working for foreign companies such as Nissan, Toyota, Honda....etc.
You seem to think its the company's job to bring the tech sector back. Isn't that the responsibility of the industry to make products that people will buy once again?
Do you honestly believe that only Americans can produce good software today or are you just blinded by your patriotic rage? I'm an American too and I've seen this type of thinking before, when the Asian automakers took over the US markets. Now Toyota's vehicles are the standard of reliability "Camry, Corrola...etc" while anything that comes out of Detroit is found.....lacking.
You're over-reacting just a bit there don't you think? Everytime an industry's jobs gets moved overseas a segment of the worker population claims the sky is going to fall and civilization will come to an end. The Detroit autoworkers said the same thing.
Chicago just began an experiment with privitizing most of their school system. That means schools are being run by corporations now. Should this prove to produce results expect the concept to spread all over the nation eventually affecting you.
You make it sound way too simple. You think that as long as an American company hires local Americans instead of foriegners then thats the best decision for the country, right? Well what about the American shareholders vs. the American workers? If the company outsources to India or China, it will save money thus increasing profits for the American shareholders. Not so simple anymore is it......?
Bleh. What really pisses me off are folks who call everyone apathetic simply because Joe Sixpack doesn't give a rats ass about their particular small political cause or movement or niche sized beliefs.
You don't need a lawyer to tinker with anything as long as you don't make your work available to the world at large. In short, keep it on your own computer.
I know we're all laughing at how stupid the RealNames business plan is but I can remember a company that had a worse one.
I can't remember the name of the company but their plan was to give each individual website and webpage its own phone number. They claimed it would be simpler for people to remember phone numbers for websites than URL's. Each extra page on a site would be like an extension to the phone number. Needless to say this company soon went out of business.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is, Slashdot isn't exactly like a store. In fact at the time that particular incident happened I don' think anyone over at VA Software was even trying to make money from ad impressions. If you remember most of the banner ads were from VA related websites instead of from advertisers from other companies. In order for you to have been the equivalent to a "paying customer" at the time they would have been trying to monetize your eyeballs, which is something they've only recently tried to do.
So its kind of a hollow point (threat?). One upset geek really isn't going to make a difference in the long run. Not even 25 upset geeks. Hell when someone tried to organize a Slashdot boycott recently that fell thru shamelessly. Did you see the people with the Blackout sig posting when the blackout was supposed to occur? Basically you need leverage to bitch, and individual posters just don't have that leverage.
Is it at all possible to simply enjoy a movie without over analyzing it like you're some sort of Harvard educated sociologist?
I never knew simply wanting to make money was evil. Anyways, did you know that a significant amount of capital is held by regular workers in their pension funds, mutual funds and 401k plans? So ... when you say you don't give a crap about investors you mean you really don't give a crap about Americans in general. Of course you don't have to care about them, you simply need them. Without their capital you won't have a job. Even if you work for a private company it probably has public companies as customers or suppliers. Either way you need to take the needs of investors into account. And investors always seek to maximize profits and minimize costs. If that means outsourcing programming jobs then so be it. Its not the end of the world after all, just the exporting of one particular industry.
What happened to Pro-Free Trade US Capitalism?
If the programmers were as critical as you claim then situations like this could never possibly arise.
...are you EVER or did you already get over Michael calling you a kid for posting so many comments to Slashdot?
What about the cases where it does work out? How does that make you feel? What about Microsoft's, IBM's, Oracle's, Intel's and Sun's Indian labs? Hmmmmm?
The "problem" isn't companies who place their money in foreign labor. The "problem" in the tech sector was the overwhelming surplus of hype and shortage of real products that people actually wanted to buy. Couple that with the dot.coms which had no business plans going out of business, they made up a huge bulk of the customerbase of companies that bought all those IT products int he first place. Do you get it NOW?
It costs less money.
Does the company have more of a duty to its American workers or its American shareholders?
What? You think only people working in the IT industry buy and use IT products? Are you that stupid or something? Thats like saying only autoworkers buy cars thus moving auto production overseas would result in cars not being bought anymore.
Indeed it may have, but there are still more American autoworkers today than they thought there would be. Its just most of them are now non-union workers working for foreign companies such as Nissan, Toyota, Honda....etc.
Why? Well because if we don't do it first an European, Asian or Canadian company will put that company out of business perhaps?
A very interesting post on such a Pro-"Free Software" website. Are you trying to tell us even more than you think.....?
You seem to think its the company's job to bring the tech sector back. Isn't that the responsibility of the industry to make products that people will buy once again?
Do you honestly believe that only Americans can produce good software today or are you just blinded by your patriotic rage? I'm an American too and I've seen this type of thinking before, when the Asian automakers took over the US markets. Now Toyota's vehicles are the standard of reliability "Camry, Corrola...etc" while anything that comes out of Detroit is found.....lacking.
You're over-reacting just a bit there don't you think? Everytime an industry's jobs gets moved overseas a segment of the worker population claims the sky is going to fall and civilization will come to an end. The Detroit autoworkers said the same thing.
Chicago just began an experiment with privitizing most of their school system. That means schools are being run by corporations now. Should this prove to produce results expect the concept to spread all over the nation eventually affecting you.
The only problem with that is that programmers ARE interchangeable like lego blocks.
You make it sound way too simple. You think that as long as an American company hires local Americans instead of foriegners then thats the best decision for the country, right? Well what about the American shareholders vs. the American workers? If the company outsources to India or China, it will save money thus increasing profits for the American shareholders. Not so simple anymore is it......?
Who matters more? They're both Americans.
If the US economy is in decline then how can we have a rising GDP even during a downturn? Or are you just being a troll again?
Bleh. What really pisses me off are folks who call everyone apathetic simply because Joe Sixpack doesn't give a rats ass about their particular small political cause or movement or niche sized beliefs.
You don't need a lawyer to tinker with anything as long as you don't make your work available to the world at large. In short, keep it on your own computer.
Maybe the poster should have added "good" to his comment. As in IP makes good software development possible.
I know we're all laughing at how stupid the RealNames business plan is but I can remember a company that had a worse one.
I can't remember the name of the company but their plan was to give each individual website and webpage its own phone number. They claimed it would be simpler for people to remember phone numbers for websites than URL's. Each extra page on a site would be like an extension to the phone number. Needless to say this company soon went out of business.