She couldn't manage her own campaign team, yet we are expected to believe that she could run the entire US Executive branch?
Let me guess - you voted for Gary (Aleppo) Johnson? - I'm a Libertarian and even I couldn't pull the lever for him after he threw Austin Peterson's gift pistol into the trash.
Musk is an entrepreneur and a bonafide tech geek. The new guy running Ford is neither of those.
Musk knows the money isn't in electric cars - those are relatively easy to make. Elon has placed his long bets on electric storage and charging infrastructure.
Even if the big 3, the Germans and the Asians all get off their asses and produce actual electric cars people want to buy in significant volumes they will, most likely be buying batteries and charging facilities from Musk.
The legacy auto industry is asleep at the wheel - they are 5 years late to this game and it will cost them a fortune to catch up - and I'm not even talking about autonomous driving. For risk-averse legacy automakers, that technology may be even further out.
"Thanks to the massive migration to the cloud, listings for jobs that involve maintaining IT infrastructure, like network engineer or system administrator, are trending downward"
There are many businesses that will never be in the cloud. Many companies are not comfortable putting their data on someone else's computer. Also some companies are legally required to keep their data local.
Finally, even businesses that have embraced the cloud (my organization is one of those) still have local infrastructure that needs support - switches, firewalls, telephones, security systems, building access systems - etc. Those simply can not be put in the cloud - the devices need to be local - and those devices still need to be managed.
Does Google sell school or student data to third parties? No. We don’t sell your G Suite data to third parties, and we do not share personal information placed in our systems with third parties, except in the few exceptional circumstances described in the G Suite agreement and our Privacy Policy, such as when you ask us to share it or when we are required to do so by law.
Sometimes charity really is nothing more than charity - this seems to be the case here.
Ubiquiti makes some really nice stuff - yes it is "enterprise lite", but for most schools, their network gear has the bases covered.
After deploying TONS of UAP-AC-PROs ($130 each) and replacing lots of Meraki/Aruba/HP/Cisco gear - it's pretty hard to justify $800 to $1200 for an access point.
Their EdgeMax series of products is also very impressive for the money.
Brocade and Cisco have their place - but public education can get by with quite a bit less.
Call me when renewables make a dent in their existing carbon based energy sources.
Before anyone accuses me of working for the carbon-based energy folks - I have a Model 3 on order - but I have no illusions as to what will be generating the electricity that I will use to charge it. In my area it's mostly Nuclear and Coal.
I expect more critical thought from Slashdot readers.
Government increasing the supply of workers via a guest visa program is the exact opposite of a free market. This is a manipulated market where private industry influences government immigration policy to artificially increase a labor pool and suppress wages.
In a "free market" both labor and capital would be free to go where the most productive opportunities exist.
This fantasy land does not exist anywhere on planet earth. Many countries protect their native industries and workforces. Just try to get an IT job in Brazil or China.
America is not required to look after the standard of living of emerging nations - that is for the people and governments of those nations to do.
The influx of H1B visa guest workers is clearly hurting American workers and enriching a select few. Our current administration is committed to fixing this problem - and I applaud that.
I have zero issue with my nexus devices and my MacBook - both use USB-C and I have yet to find a cable or device that doesn't perform as intended on any of the devices.
The various flavors of USB are enough to drive someone to drink. USB-C is a welcome change that actually fulfills the promise of the word "Universal" in USB.
Clearly Microsoft is chasing Google again in a half-assed way.
The draw of Chromebooks was not simply cheap laptops. Schools (like us) are drawn to the fact that the supporting cloud infrastructure is stupidly easy to manage.
Local apps don't matter. The few people in our school that need local apps get by on Mac OS or Windows. Everyone else gets a chromebook - their data and apps live in the cloud.
Even if Microsoft built a robust App Store - it wouldn't matter as that's not what draws schools to Chromebooks in the first place.
"the push to keep the ACA around would have made it clear that "progressives" want everyone to live regardless of personal wealth"
That may have been how it was sold to the poor electorate, but not how it worked out in reality.
Every single person I know that bought an ACA plan complained about the deductibles. Sure, the monthly premiums were within reach, but $6000 to $10000 per year in deductibles ensured that the policy was never used.
Sure, some things were covered by the ACA, but if you talked about any other health issues during your "healthy visit" those became billable expenses that hit your annual deductible.
For those that could afford the premiums, the ACA became medical disaster insurance. Many could not even afford the premiums and opted to take their chances on the penalty at tax time.
The ACA was doomed in a couple of ways - it was a financial disaster for insurers, and it did not really help poor people get continual basic care - the stuff that prevents expensive diseases later on.
Then government should get off its duff and build them.
So long as muti-billion dollar multinational companies are building these networks, don't be surprised when they want to extract every last nickel from them.
Russia, facebook, alt-right (whatever that is). The excuses just keep coming.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Winston Churchill
I don't think Winston had Facebook to blame when he made his observation about the average voter.
The sad fact is that Hillary Clinton was a highly unlikeable candidate. Even if we could fix the "fake news" problem, it would not have changed the fact that she was a terrible candidate.
You could just as easily blame the election results on the DNC for the way they treated Bernie as you can the Russia-Facebook-Alt-right boogyeman.
The DNC needs to take a long hard look in the mirror - that's where the blame for the election results lie.
Microsoft learned nothing from their "RT" experiment.
If it's labeled "Windows" people expect to be able to run windows apps - yeah like that copy of Photoshop you got a few years ago. Windows customers buying Windows 10 S devices will find out the hard way that their desktop computing experience is now limited to the Windows App store - probably the most sparse app store on the planet.
For schools deeply entrenched in the G Suite ecosystem, there is no benefit to switching to Microsoft's "Windows Lite" platform - only the drawbacks of running a windows based product - without the application compatibility benefits.
Finally, in the 3 years that we've been on G Suite we've become dependent on apps that only run in G Suite. Moving away at this point would be painful.
There have been accusations by many that some outsourcing firms do not adequately vet the credentials of the candidates they bring over on an H-1B visa.
I suspect a credentials audit of the visa holders would find that some do not possess the credentials they claim to have earned.
Are you certain all the employees of these outsourcing companies have valid credentials?
Are you certain these workers were not displacing American workers at lower wages?
Are you certain all these workers were either as qualified or better qualified than the workers they replaced?
Are you certain all these workers were working in the locations specified on the visa?
If not, then these companies were violating the law. It is the H-1B holder's responsibility to verify and validate these terms. Your defense of "we just responded to an RFP" will not defend you in a court of law.
These companies hold the visas - it is their responsibility to ensure the hiring company is not using them to violate labor laws.
"Just following orders" is not a good defense in court.
If these companies broke US employment and immigration laws, then they need to be banned from operating in the US.
These guys are attempting to save their businesses - nothing more.
Tata, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant and all the other body shops need to be taught a lesson - break the law and there will be real consequences to your businesses.
I was a network manager for a community bank years ago - we had software that could evaluate consumer and business loan applications and decide whether or not the applicant was a high or low risk candidate.
We didn't lay off any loan officers - the software made the humans more accurate and productive - but did not replace the humans.
We also had machines to take deposits and give out cash - yet our branches were still staffed by tellers and branch managers.
The pharmaceutical industry has robotic dispensers that outperform human pharmacists in speed and accuracy - yet we still have humans dispensing prescription drugs.
After 9-11 commercial aircraft manufacturers and the government became very interested in autonomous and remote control aircraft. I'm sure pilotless aircraft could be here today - if we wanted it.
The issue is not AI - but the public acceptance of AI. AI will move faster than the public will accept it.
AI will not disrupt the world quickly simply because humans will take a long time to trust AI for business critical or safety related tasks.
Finally, for AI to succeed the "EULA" as we now know it will need to die. No one is going to put AI in a critical role unless there is some human willing to take responsibility for adverse consequences that may occur.
AI has a long road to climb - don't believe the AI salesmen when they say they will run the world in 10 years - humans move way too slowly for that to be the case.
Slashdot Mirror
Hillary blamed her campaign team (as well as the Russian boogeyman) for her loss - she blamed her team for not getting her message out:
http://www.businessinsider.com...
She couldn't manage her own campaign team, yet we are expected to believe that she could run the entire US Executive branch?
Let me guess - you voted for Gary (Aleppo) Johnson? - I'm a Libertarian and even I couldn't pull the lever for him after he threw Austin Peterson's gift pistol into the trash.
http://www.washingtontimes.com...
It's easy to find fault in President Trump, but stop acting like we passed over Einstein,The Dalai Lama, and Mother Teresa to elect him.
So the US intelligence community can't keep a secret, but they want backdoors in all IT gear and encryption algorithms.
Yeah, that will end well...
Musk is an entrepreneur and a bonafide tech geek. The new guy running Ford is neither of those.
Musk knows the money isn't in electric cars - those are relatively easy to make. Elon has placed his long bets on electric storage and charging infrastructure.
Even if the big 3, the Germans and the Asians all get off their asses and produce actual electric cars people want to buy in significant volumes they will, most likely be buying batteries and charging facilities from Musk.
The legacy auto industry is asleep at the wheel - they are 5 years late to this game and it will cost them a fortune to catch up - and I'm not even talking about autonomous driving. For risk-averse legacy automakers, that technology may be even further out.
"Thanks to the massive migration to the cloud, listings for jobs that involve maintaining IT infrastructure, like network engineer or system administrator, are trending downward"
There are many businesses that will never be in the cloud. Many companies are not comfortable putting their data on someone else's computer. Also some companies are legally required to keep their data local.
Finally, even businesses that have embraced the cloud (my organization is one of those) still have local infrastructure that needs support - switches, firewalls, telephones, security systems, building access systems - etc. Those simply can not be put in the cloud - the devices need to be local - and those devices still need to be managed.
If H-1B visas really are used to hire the best, brightest, and most rare talents - then a minimum wage of $150k/year should be no problem.
This would solve the problem instantly.
However, I suspect that instead of asking for larger H-1B visa caps, most H-1B visas would go unused.
We've been using G Suite for Education at our school for a few years now, and it has been fantastic. It's exactly what schools need.
Google clearly publishes a privacy policy here:
https://edu.google.com/trust/
Does Google sell school or student data to third parties?
No. We don’t sell your G Suite data to third parties, and we do not share personal information placed in our systems with third parties, except in the few exceptional circumstances described in the G Suite agreement and our Privacy Policy, such as when you ask us to share it or when we are required to do so by law.
Sometimes charity really is nothing more than charity - this seems to be the case here.
Ubiquiti makes some really nice stuff - yes it is "enterprise lite", but for most schools, their network gear has the bases covered.
After deploying TONS of UAP-AC-PROs ($130 each) and replacing lots of Meraki/Aruba/HP/Cisco gear - it's pretty hard to justify $800 to $1200 for an access point.
Their EdgeMax series of products is also very impressive for the money.
Brocade and Cisco have their place - but public education can get by with quite a bit less.
Turns out Germany uses a shit-ton of carbon based energy sources:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/ho...
Call me when renewables make a dent in their existing carbon based energy sources.
Before anyone accuses me of working for the carbon-based energy folks - I have a Model 3 on order - but I have no illusions as to what will be generating the electricity that I will use to charge it. In my area it's mostly Nuclear and Coal.
I expect more critical thought from Slashdot readers.
Many countries have mandatory retirement ages around 65 - for one huge reason:
To make room in the workforce for new workers and to give them a path to building a career.
For every 70 year old that is working a job there is, most likely, a young person underemployed trying to pay off education debts.
A sensible retirement age has social benefits far beyond the elderly enjoying their golden years.
Do we really need to work everyone until they are dead?
Government increasing the supply of workers via a guest visa program is the exact opposite of a free market. This is a manipulated market where private industry influences government immigration policy to artificially increase a labor pool and suppress wages.
In a "free market" both labor and capital would be free to go where the most productive opportunities exist.
This fantasy land does not exist anywhere on planet earth. Many countries protect their native industries and workforces. Just try to get an IT job in Brazil or China.
America is not required to look after the standard of living of emerging nations - that is for the people and governments of those nations to do.
The influx of H1B visa guest workers is clearly hurting American workers and enriching a select few. Our current administration is committed to fixing this problem - and I applaud that.
The DNC gave Bernie a good fucking - that undoubtedly helped put Trump in the White House
Eh - water under the bridge at this point.....
I have zero issue with my nexus devices and my MacBook - both use USB-C and I have yet to find a cable or device that doesn't perform as intended on any of the devices.
The various flavors of USB are enough to drive someone to drink. USB-C is a welcome change that actually fulfills the promise of the word "Universal" in USB.
I think Microsoft is just chickening out here.
Clearly Microsoft is chasing Google again in a half-assed way.
The draw of Chromebooks was not simply cheap laptops. Schools (like us) are drawn to the fact that the supporting cloud infrastructure is stupidly easy to manage.
Local apps don't matter. The few people in our school that need local apps get by on Mac OS or Windows. Everyone else gets a chromebook - their data and apps live in the cloud.
Even if Microsoft built a robust App Store - it wouldn't matter as that's not what draws schools to Chromebooks in the first place.
"the push to keep the ACA around would have made it clear that "progressives" want everyone to live regardless of personal wealth"
That may have been how it was sold to the poor electorate, but not how it worked out in reality.
Every single person I know that bought an ACA plan complained about the deductibles. Sure, the monthly premiums were within reach, but $6000 to $10000 per year in deductibles ensured that the policy was never used.
Sure, some things were covered by the ACA, but if you talked about any other health issues during your "healthy visit" those became billable expenses that hit your annual deductible.
For those that could afford the premiums, the ACA became medical disaster insurance. Many could not even afford the premiums and opted to take their chances on the penalty at tax time.
The ACA was doomed in a couple of ways - it was a financial disaster for insurers, and it did not really help poor people get continual basic care - the stuff that prevents expensive diseases later on.
Then government should get off its duff and build them.
So long as muti-billion dollar multinational companies are building these networks, don't be surprised when they want to extract every last nickel from them.
Russia, facebook, alt-right (whatever that is). The excuses just keep coming.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Winston Churchill
I don't think Winston had Facebook to blame when he made his observation about the average voter.
The sad fact is that Hillary Clinton was a highly unlikeable candidate. Even if we could fix the "fake news" problem, it would not have changed the fact that she was a terrible candidate.
You could just as easily blame the election results on the DNC for the way they treated Bernie as you can the Russia-Facebook-Alt-right boogyeman.
The DNC needs to take a long hard look in the mirror - that's where the blame for the election results lie.
Sorry - I meant to say 40 Macbooks.
In our school's experience, Apple products have a very long useful life - far greater than other manufacturers of technology.
Most of our current fleet of iPads is over 5 years old. We also have around 4 MacBooks that are at the 7-8 year mark - and still going.
We are easily getting 30% longer life out of Apple products than we do other technology vendors.
That results in less stuff in the landfill - and that fact is frequently ignored by Apple's detractors.
I don't mind if manufacturing comes back to the US in the form of automated factories.
Those factories still need bodies to keep them going. Someone has to build the factory, network it, install the machines, and keep them going.
Also, someone is delivering raw materials to the factory, and someone is shipping finished goods away from the factory.
Those factories are also tax ratables that help offset the cost of police, fire, and public education.
If automation is an unavoidable trend, I'd rather it be here than there.
Microsoft learned nothing from their "RT" experiment.
If it's labeled "Windows" people expect to be able to run windows apps - yeah like that copy of Photoshop you got a few years ago. Windows customers buying Windows 10 S devices will find out the hard way that their desktop computing experience is now limited to the Windows App store - probably the most sparse app store on the planet.
For schools deeply entrenched in the G Suite ecosystem, there is no benefit to switching to Microsoft's "Windows Lite" platform - only the drawbacks of running a windows based product - without the application compatibility benefits.
Finally, in the 3 years that we've been on G Suite we've become dependent on apps that only run in G Suite. Moving away at this point would be painful.
The qualifications issue is one of false or unequal credentials. Diploma mills are a problem in many parts of the world:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes...
There have been accusations by many that some outsourcing firms do not adequately vet the credentials of the candidates they bring over on an H-1B visa.
I suspect a credentials audit of the visa holders would find that some do not possess the credentials they claim to have earned.
Are you certain all the employees of these outsourcing companies have valid credentials?
Are you certain these workers were not displacing American workers at lower wages?
Are you certain all these workers were either as qualified or better qualified than the workers they replaced?
Are you certain all these workers were working in the locations specified on the visa?
If not, then these companies were violating the law. It is the H-1B holder's responsibility to verify and validate these terms. Your defense of "we just responded to an RFP" will not defend you in a court of law.
These companies hold the visas - it is their responsibility to ensure the hiring company is not using them to violate labor laws.
"Just following orders" is not a good defense in court.
If these companies broke US employment and immigration laws, then they need to be banned from operating in the US.
These guys are attempting to save their businesses - nothing more.
Tata, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant and all the other body shops need to be taught a lesson - break the law and there will be real consequences to your businesses.
I was a network manager for a community bank years ago - we had software that could evaluate consumer and business loan applications and decide whether or not the applicant was a high or low risk candidate.
We didn't lay off any loan officers - the software made the humans more accurate and productive - but did not replace the humans.
We also had machines to take deposits and give out cash - yet our branches were still staffed by tellers and branch managers.
The pharmaceutical industry has robotic dispensers that outperform human pharmacists in speed and accuracy - yet we still have humans dispensing prescription drugs.
After 9-11 commercial aircraft manufacturers and the government became very interested in autonomous and remote control aircraft. I'm sure pilotless aircraft could be here today - if we wanted it.
The issue is not AI - but the public acceptance of AI. AI will move faster than the public will accept it.
AI will not disrupt the world quickly simply because humans will take a long time to trust AI for business critical or safety related tasks.
Finally, for AI to succeed the "EULA" as we now know it will need to die. No one is going to put AI in a critical role unless there is some human willing to take responsibility for adverse consequences that may occur.
AI has a long road to climb - don't believe the AI salesmen when they say they will run the world in 10 years - humans move way too slowly for that to be the case.
The law prohibits using the H-1B visa to replace American workers with foreign workers.
Put a few decision makers in prison and watch how fast this stops.