For a not-brief-enough period of time I worked for a large computer retailer (I won't won't say which, but it rhymes with CompUSA). Customers that tried to haggle were surprised to find out that the retailer only made about $45 for each PC and that was the systems with larger margins. It was even less with printers. Everyone was catching on to the ink cartridge strategy, but they didn't realize was that the the super-duper, IEEE, bi-directional printer cable was priced at an obscene $45, compared to a cost of $2. Most retailers still sell the shortest ethernet cables and USB cables for $10.
A non-techie mother on a Christmas shopping mission is not going to risk damaging a $400 game system and hundreds of dollars worth of games and accessories by going cheap instead of springing for the branded $30 cable.
Hell, even some techies will insist that the premium on Monster cable is justified... (ducks and runs)
I don't know anyone with an XBox who doesn't have a Live account.
I don't have an account. I haven't even used the free trial that came with the system. It's not that I have anything against the service, but I never felt inclined to use it.
I can't think of a single occasion where someone was kept because of fears of maintaining their code, nor where someone was brought back to maintain their 'unmaintainable' code.
I can. In fact, I can think of two people at two different companies.
One kept the only copy of his source code on a laptop that he carried with him. The code was so horribly unmaintainable that none of us would touch it, though it was hardly an issue since we rarely got more than the pre-compiled libraries from him. The boss was so scared that he would lose the source that he falsified and submitted timecards for almost three months when the guy decided he was "unappreciated" and stopped coming to work. It goes without saying, but this manager was just as incompetent. In fact, I'm convinced the only reason either one survived as long as they did was through their symbiotic, parasitic relationship.
The other guy put his code through an obfuscator, literally, that removed all the indentation, carriage returns, and comments, meanwhile renaming all of his class, method, and variable names to random strings of the characters n, e, and w. It also added random comments made up of the same random strings sprinkled with semicolons. Yeah, cute. During the unemployment interview, he stated that he had fulfilled his requirements, the code compiled and worked, there was never a formal standard for the format, and he couldn't be held responsible for the additional work of his former co-workers. I think what clinched his unemployment benefits was stating he had no hard feelings and maintaining that he was available for consulting work if the company had acted too quickly.
With the exception of the sterotypical dot-com, every job I have had listed their dress as "business casual" and most employees have worn khakis and a button-up or polo shirt. Invariably, I try it for a few months, make my reputation by my work ethic, and slowly revert back to jeans and sneakers. Only once has a supervisor (actually, a program manager above my boss) made mention of the dress code. I told him, frankly, "I can be productive or I can attempt to look productive. I don't get paid enough to do both and we have more than enough people that are focused on their image." He stared at me for a second and said, "Fair enough."
I wouldn't recommend this strategy to everyone, but my work speaks for itself and I was in the enviable position of being able to quit my job and be employed elsewhere the next day. When interacting with clients that may not be intimately aware of your work ethic, professional first impressions are important, but I didn't interface with them and spent most of my day in my own office.
The reality, I think, is that some employees can perform their duties with little direction, but most employees still need structure to operate efficiently. A dress code, like a whiteboard full of employees' tasks or a timecard, is something that reminds the less-driven people that there are expectations of productivity.
Walmart has had a demo machine for over a week and I just saw one in Target. The graphics are damn sweet and I'm sure it will be a fantastic platform. That, alone, won'tmake the games better, but I can see myself buying one when the library is built up and the prices drop a little.
Charity should be anonymous, not plastered all over a hugely popular website in a grandiose display of self-back-patting.
You're right. Perhaps, it should be plastered all over a hugely unpopular site where it's sure to generate all those donations in a more appropriate manner.
While I find it touching that you want to give games to kiddies, I think it would be far more beneficial to make donations to pay for actual treatment.
Gabe's comment:
These hospitals obviously receive plenty of donations year round but what we learned is that the money they get for the most part is spent on things much more important than toys. Things like medicine and equipment are a bigger priority than say Crash Bandicoot.
These Kids need toys though. They need games to play and crafts to make in order to take their minds off their situations. Something as simple as a Game Boy can make the stay in one of these Hospitals much more bearable for a kid. That my friends, is where we come in.
The fact of the matter is that most people that read PA aren't going to donate money to a charity simply because Gabe or Tycho mentions it. This, however, is a gift that many of the readers can connect with. You give someone $50 and you have no idea where your donation was spent. You give someone a Gameboy and you know that somewhere, in some hospital, a kid is playing a video game because you cared enough to get involved.
My Dad has a picture of some dirty guys with chainsaws and shovels that he feels sums up his civic organization. An elderly lady in the community had a stream that backed up several times a year and flooded her backyard and basement. Instead of reaching for their paychecks, so she could hire someone, they got their tools, showed up the next Saturday, and cleared out the area. Problem solved.
Anyone can write a check and pat themselves on the back, but no amount of money is going to solve every problem. It takes a special person to see a specific problem, create a solution, and take the initiative to implement it. That's exactly what the PA guys are doing and they're doing it extremely well.
Obviously, I'll take just about anything that can resurrect some of the money I pissed away on them.
Don't get me wrong, I love TiVo. I have the HD DVR, several DirecTV DVRs, and some standalone boxes in my closet. I can't imagine not having it. Myth, Freevo, and all the other clones are ok, but you can't beat TiVo for simplicity.
However, TiVo is dying and will soon be dead. For the average person, the DRM isn't as bad as some other posters have pointed out and will be temporarily viewed as a nuisance until the behavior is commonplace. The nail in the coffin will come when the DirecTV contract expires and they're dropped as the sole DVR. DirecTV is sending up new satellites for local HD channels, they'll push HD harder than ever, new equipment will be necessary, and even the current HD TiVo will be incapable of taking advantage of the new signals. When the push comes, DirecTV would be crazy not to have a new, non-TiVo DVR and not a damn thing will save TiVo, then.
Remember when Saturn started making cars and they were on top of the game with their no-haggle, reliable, safety-first, "made in the USA" reputation? They got complacent, cranked out the same boring cars year-after-year, and now even their sweet, new roadster can't pull them from a destiny of medocrity. That's TiVo, now.
Re:Blizz should've taken a page from id's book
on
Blizzcon Writeup
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I thought the same thing. I could easily afford the entrance fee, but there's a consistent, monthly charge on my account that already shows my support for their product (not to mention the new recruits dragged into that world). The conference already had a lot of big-name sponsors. Asking for additional money from their customers to be part of an event that furthers the community aspect of their own game is somewhat shameful.
I have to give them some credit. Essentially, they had a giant press conference and people paid to get in and hear their news. Most companies can't buy the kind of publicity they just got.
Idiot! This country and the corporations that control it are simply importing poverty. Can't you even read, moron?
I think the ability to convey an opinion throught text, regardless of the subject matter, would indicate that I am quite capable of reading. Reading is generally a prerequisite to writing.
H1-B visas aren't generally used for fruit pickers and gardeners. Quite frankly, the H1-B holders I know are usually much better-educated than their American counterparts and they seem to be doing just fine. I would hesitate to call some of them middle-class, as most middle-class Americans would be thrilled to have their salaries (and they earn them). When I see unsubstantiated statements like yours, emphasized with childish name-calling, it leaves little wonder that sometimes we have to go outside of the country to get reasonable employees.
These companies do not want to deal with the free market as it's currently structured.
If you're requiring a certain structure, it ceases to be a free free market. What you're attempting to do is prop up the economy by limiting the number of competent workers that can come in and work here. This mindset has failed miserably in the past. It happened to the textile industry. It happened to the steel industry. It's happened to the automotive industry. Now, it's hitting the IT industry. The standard of living will go down (or, more likely will remain stagnant until the rest of the world catches up). You simply don't get it. It will happen and there isn't a damn thing that you can do about it.
* You can blame evil corporations all you want. There isn't a single one that can steer a global market. They aren't looking at controlling things. They're worried about survival in a future that you are incapable of picturing.
That means the largest concentration of H-1B workers make less than [the] highest 75 percent of the U.S. wage earners
Yet, the oppressed foreigners keep taking advantage of the visas. Shame on the evil corporations for taking advantage of these poor people. To think, they could be spending more on their own countrymen and supporting their grossly disproportionate wages.
Rather than say, "Hey, you're trying to pay less for programmers!" we should be saying "Hey, are we getting paid too much? Are we pricing ourselves out of positions?"
Don't get me wrong. I've been a programmer for quite some time and it sucks, but supply and demand concepts aren't limited to one country. The world is getting smaller and more connected. National economies are merging into a world economy. No amount of artificial propping-up by local governments is going to keep it from happening. Get used to it.
a boy, aged 12... had to research... on his Windows 95 operating system
That would make you 23.
One year later he's been out of high school for a year
Ouch.
I'm just giving you a hard time, but as someone who has been in the industry for a while, I can tell you a couple things. First, game companies are not the norm for computer science, as far as employment opportunities or salaries. I would love to work in gaming, but I make far too much doing "boring" stuff to make the switch (maybe, when I "retire"). Second, the availability of IT jobs is location- and field-dependant. The guy who bemoans the lack of jobs in San Francisco isn't looking at the market in DC, where there are so many government contractors that they're forced to constantly steal employees from each other. Third, experience is generally preferred, but there are plenty of positions for entry-level programmers. You probably won't get rich, but you could intern or take a low salary for a year and make more in the subsequent few than you will working on games in the same period. If you're as devoted as you describe, you will have no problem.
Last, people who make $100k do not drive $250k cars. That's like saying that every QA guy pulling in $30k is driving a Viper.
if the breathalyzer's accuracy has been tested and verified
I'm not typically one to side with the conspiracy theorists, as I tend to believe the police, and I believe the breathalizer is probably very accurate, but...
The question is not the accuracy of the device, but who gets to verify that accuracy. In a murder trial with witnesses, the prosecution would be required to present them, the defense would be able to cross-examine, and the jury could make their own evaluation. It's the defendant's constitutional right. If the prosecution came forward and said only, "We talked to Joe and he saw the defendant do the murder. We've talked to Joe before and he's always been right, so we know the defendant is guilty." The defendant doesn't get to ask Joe questions, the jury never sees Joe or knows anything about him, and worse, all past juries have taken Joe's word as absolute truth.
Until the inner-workings of the breathalizer are openly known, we can only assume that there's a little guy named Joe who lives in there and makes the call.
You know what goes hand-in-hand with high IT salaries? High IT prices.
Besides the obvious, financial hurdles when factoring in the lower density of population, you have the much less apparent cost of building and maintaining anything in the US. The same factors that send white-collar jobs overseas make it easier to provide services overseas. We're a country based on capitalism, so we better get used to it.
The gist of this is not that people can't make products for the iPod or can't use the phrase "for the Apple iPod" but rather that there's a special connector with a proprietary protocol. To get the information for interacting with the iPod, you have to pay to be part of the program. Car stereo manufacturers have been doing this for years (Alpine's Ai-net or Sony's S-Link). Most third-party groups might complain about the price, but paying it puts them in a position to have few competitors. The complaint isn't about the 'tax'. Rather, they're annoyed by the bump in price. An open protocol would make the iPod more popular with end users, but saturate the market with alternative accessories. If the accessory manufacturers can afford to buy in, it's in their best interest to do so and hope the other guy doesn't.
Nobody is telling the manufacturers that they can't develop and sell products for the iPod. Apple just won't help them without compensation. Besides, while popular, Apple hardly has a monopoly on mp3 players.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a feeling there's a DMCA lawsuit in their future.
Fat people need prosthetics, too.
This is certainly not limited to Microsoft.
For a not-brief-enough period of time I worked for a large computer retailer (I won't won't say which, but it rhymes with CompUSA). Customers that tried to haggle were surprised to find out that the retailer only made about $45 for each PC and that was the systems with larger margins. It was even less with printers. Everyone was catching on to the ink cartridge strategy, but they didn't realize was that the the super-duper, IEEE, bi-directional printer cable was priced at an obscene $45, compared to a cost of $2. Most retailers still sell the shortest ethernet cables and USB cables for $10.
A non-techie mother on a Christmas shopping mission is not going to risk damaging a $400 game system and hundreds of dollars worth of games and accessories by going cheap instead of springing for the branded $30 cable.
Hell, even some techies will insist that the premium on Monster cable is justified... (ducks and runs)
I don't know anyone with an XBox who doesn't have a Live account.
I don't have an account. I haven't even used the free trial that came with the system. It's not that I have anything against the service, but I never felt inclined to use it.
I can't think of a single occasion where someone was kept because of fears of maintaining their code, nor where someone was brought back to maintain their 'unmaintainable' code.
I can. In fact, I can think of two people at two different companies.
One kept the only copy of his source code on a laptop that he carried with him. The code was so horribly unmaintainable that none of us would touch it, though it was hardly an issue since we rarely got more than the pre-compiled libraries from him. The boss was so scared that he would lose the source that he falsified and submitted timecards for almost three months when the guy decided he was "unappreciated" and stopped coming to work. It goes without saying, but this manager was just as incompetent. In fact, I'm convinced the only reason either one survived as long as they did was through their symbiotic, parasitic relationship.
The other guy put his code through an obfuscator, literally, that removed all the indentation, carriage returns, and comments, meanwhile renaming all of his class, method, and variable names to random strings of the characters n, e, and w. It also added random comments made up of the same random strings sprinkled with semicolons. Yeah, cute. During the unemployment interview, he stated that he had fulfilled his requirements, the code compiled and worked, there was never a formal standard for the format, and he couldn't be held responsible for the additional work of his former co-workers. I think what clinched his unemployment benefits was stating he had no hard feelings and maintaining that he was available for consulting work if the company had acted too quickly.
With the exception of the sterotypical dot-com, every job I have had listed their dress as "business casual" and most employees have worn khakis and a button-up or polo shirt. Invariably, I try it for a few months, make my reputation by my work ethic, and slowly revert back to jeans and sneakers. Only once has a supervisor (actually, a program manager above my boss) made mention of the dress code. I told him, frankly, "I can be productive or I can attempt to look productive. I don't get paid enough to do both and we have more than enough people that are focused on their image." He stared at me for a second and said, "Fair enough."
I wouldn't recommend this strategy to everyone, but my work speaks for itself and I was in the enviable position of being able to quit my job and be employed elsewhere the next day. When interacting with clients that may not be intimately aware of your work ethic, professional first impressions are important, but I didn't interface with them and spent most of my day in my own office.
The reality, I think, is that some employees can perform their duties with little direction, but most employees still need structure to operate efficiently. A dress code, like a whiteboard full of employees' tasks or a timecard, is something that reminds the less-driven people that there are expectations of productivity.
Walmart has had a demo machine for over a week and I just saw one in Target. The graphics are damn sweet and I'm sure it will be a fantastic platform. That, alone, won'tmake the games better, but I can see myself buying one when the library is built up and the prices drop a little.
The probe was named Minerva, after the Roman goddess of wisdom and skill. The mothership is named Hayabusa, after the world's fastest flying bird.
Unfortunately, the mission controller was named Bob, after the Roman god of lazy eyes and uncoordinated pitching.
Charity should be anonymous, not plastered all over a hugely popular website in a grandiose display of self-back-patting.
You're right. Perhaps, it should be plastered all over a hugely unpopular site where it's sure to generate all those donations in a more appropriate manner.
Your comment:
While I find it touching that you want to give games to kiddies, I think it would be far more beneficial to make donations to pay for actual treatment.
Gabe's comment:
These hospitals obviously receive plenty of donations year round but what we learned is that the money they get for the most part is spent on things much more important than toys. Things like medicine and equipment are a bigger priority than say Crash Bandicoot.
These Kids need toys though. They need games to play and crafts to make in order to take their minds off their situations. Something as simple as a Game Boy can make the stay in one of these Hospitals much more bearable for a kid. That my friends, is where we come in.
The fact of the matter is that most people that read PA aren't going to donate money to a charity simply because Gabe or Tycho mentions it. This, however, is a gift that many of the readers can connect with. You give someone $50 and you have no idea where your donation was spent. You give someone a Gameboy and you know that somewhere, in some hospital, a kid is playing a video game because you cared enough to get involved.
My Dad has a picture of some dirty guys with chainsaws and shovels that he feels sums up his civic organization. An elderly lady in the community had a stream that backed up several times a year and flooded her backyard and basement. Instead of reaching for their paychecks, so she could hire someone, they got their tools, showed up the next Saturday, and cleared out the area. Problem solved.
Anyone can write a check and pat themselves on the back, but no amount of money is going to solve every problem. It takes a special person to see a specific problem, create a solution, and take the initiative to implement it. That's exactly what the PA guys are doing and they're doing it extremely well.
Now, I have a mental picture of that skinny banshee screaming off the front of a cruise ship, again.
Obviously, I'll take just about anything that can resurrect some of the money I pissed away on them.
Don't get me wrong, I love TiVo. I have the HD DVR, several DirecTV DVRs, and some standalone boxes in my closet. I can't imagine not having it. Myth, Freevo, and all the other clones are ok, but you can't beat TiVo for simplicity.
However, TiVo is dying and will soon be dead. For the average person, the DRM isn't as bad as some other posters have pointed out and will be temporarily viewed as a nuisance until the behavior is commonplace. The nail in the coffin will come when the DirecTV contract expires and they're dropped as the sole DVR. DirecTV is sending up new satellites for local HD channels, they'll push HD harder than ever, new equipment will be necessary, and even the current HD TiVo will be incapable of taking advantage of the new signals. When the push comes, DirecTV would be crazy not to have a new, non-TiVo DVR and not a damn thing will save TiVo, then.
Remember when Saturn started making cars and they were on top of the game with their no-haggle, reliable, safety-first, "made in the USA" reputation? They got complacent, cranked out the same boring cars year-after-year, and now even their sweet, new roadster can't pull them from a destiny of medocrity. That's TiVo, now.
I thought the same thing. I could easily afford the entrance fee, but there's a consistent, monthly charge on my account that already shows my support for their product (not to mention the new recruits dragged into that world). The conference already had a lot of big-name sponsors. Asking for additional money from their customers to be part of an event that furthers the community aspect of their own game is somewhat shameful.
I have to give them some credit. Essentially, they had a giant press conference and people paid to get in and hear their news. Most companies can't buy the kind of publicity they just got.
Idiot! This country and the corporations that control it are simply importing poverty. Can't you even read, moron?
I think the ability to convey an opinion throught text, regardless of the subject matter, would indicate that I am quite capable of reading. Reading is generally a prerequisite to writing.
H1-B visas aren't generally used for fruit pickers and gardeners. Quite frankly, the H1-B holders I know are usually much better-educated than their American counterparts and they seem to be doing just fine. I would hesitate to call some of them middle-class, as most middle-class Americans would be thrilled to have their salaries (and they earn them). When I see unsubstantiated statements like yours, emphasized with childish name-calling, it leaves little wonder that sometimes we have to go outside of the country to get reasonable employees.
These companies do not want to deal with the free market as it's currently structured.
If you're requiring a certain structure, it ceases to be a free free market. What you're attempting to do is prop up the economy by limiting the number of competent workers that can come in and work here. This mindset has failed miserably in the past. It happened to the textile industry. It happened to the steel industry. It's happened to the automotive industry. Now, it's hitting the IT industry. The standard of living will go down (or, more likely will remain stagnant until the rest of the world catches up). You simply don't get it. It will happen and there isn't a damn thing that you can do about it.
* You can blame evil corporations all you want. There isn't a single one that can steer a global market. They aren't looking at controlling things. They're worried about survival in a future that you are incapable of picturing.
That means the largest concentration of H-1B workers make less than [the] highest 75 percent of the U.S. wage earners
Yet, the oppressed foreigners keep taking advantage of the visas. Shame on the evil corporations for taking advantage of these poor people. To think, they could be spending more on their own countrymen and supporting their grossly disproportionate wages.
Rather than say, "Hey, you're trying to pay less for programmers!" we should be saying "Hey, are we getting paid too much? Are we pricing ourselves out of positions?"
Don't get me wrong. I've been a programmer for quite some time and it sucks, but supply and demand concepts aren't limited to one country. The world is getting smaller and more connected. National economies are merging into a world economy. No amount of artificial propping-up by local governments is going to keep it from happening. Get used to it.
So, he should get two hours removed from his sentence as time served.
will feature... will consume 25 watts
versus
far less than the single-core Power chips... on the market today
You be the judge.
I did not see this technology coming.
That would make you 23.
One year later he's been out of high school for a year
Ouch.
I'm just giving you a hard time, but as someone who has been in the industry for a while, I can tell you a couple things. First, game companies are not the norm for computer science, as far as employment opportunities or salaries. I would love to work in gaming, but I make far too much doing "boring" stuff to make the switch (maybe, when I "retire"). Second, the availability of IT jobs is location- and field-dependant. The guy who bemoans the lack of jobs in San Francisco isn't looking at the market in DC, where there are so many government contractors that they're forced to constantly steal employees from each other. Third, experience is generally preferred, but there are plenty of positions for entry-level programmers. You probably won't get rich, but you could intern or take a low salary for a year and make more in the subsequent few than you will working on games in the same period. If you're as devoted as you describe, you will have no problem.
Last, people who make $100k do not drive $250k cars. That's like saying that every QA guy pulling in $30k is driving a Viper.
if the breathalyzer's accuracy has been tested and verified
I'm not typically one to side with the conspiracy theorists, as I tend to believe the police, and I believe the breathalizer is probably very accurate, but...
The question is not the accuracy of the device, but who gets to verify that accuracy. In a murder trial with witnesses, the prosecution would be required to present them, the defense would be able to cross-examine, and the jury could make their own evaluation. It's the defendant's constitutional right. If the prosecution came forward and said only, "We talked to Joe and he saw the defendant do the murder. We've talked to Joe before and he's always been right, so we know the defendant is guilty." The defendant doesn't get to ask Joe questions, the jury never sees Joe or knows anything about him, and worse, all past juries have taken Joe's word as absolute truth.
Until the inner-workings of the breathalizer are openly known, we can only assume that there's a little guy named Joe who lives in there and makes the call.
You can order a prototype kit, including Linux on a Gumstix, through the E-Ink website. Provided, you've got a spare $3,000 lying around.
If you have a spare $6,000, let me know. I'd love to try it out, too.
You know what goes hand-in-hand with high IT salaries? High IT prices.
Besides the obvious, financial hurdles when factoring in the lower density of population, you have the much less apparent cost of building and maintaining anything in the US. The same factors that send white-collar jobs overseas make it easier to provide services overseas. We're a country based on capitalism, so we better get used to it.
The gist of this is not that people can't make products for the iPod or can't use the phrase "for the Apple iPod" but rather that there's a special connector with a proprietary protocol. To get the information for interacting with the iPod, you have to pay to be part of the program. Car stereo manufacturers have been doing this for years (Alpine's Ai-net or Sony's S-Link). Most third-party groups might complain about the price, but paying it puts them in a position to have few competitors. The complaint isn't about the 'tax'. Rather, they're annoyed by the bump in price. An open protocol would make the iPod more popular with end users, but saturate the market with alternative accessories. If the accessory manufacturers can afford to buy in, it's in their best interest to do so and hope the other guy doesn't.
Nobody is telling the manufacturers that they can't develop and sell products for the iPod. Apple just won't help them without compensation. Besides, while popular, Apple hardly has a monopoly on mp3 players.
I saw that, too, and have two theories:
1. Jack Thompson is missing his target audience.
2. Jack Thompson is the only person interested in his book and he's getting a little Hot Coffee of his own.