And yet you are spreading lies as well. Quoted in Full from your link....
The current law limits to 65,000 the number of aliens who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-1B status. (The numerical limitation was temporarily raised to 195,000 in FY2001, FY2002 and FY2003.) In addition, excluded from the ceiling are all H-1B non-immigrants who work at (but not necessarily for) universities and non-profit research facilities. [4] This means that contractors working at, but not directly employed by the institution may be exempt from the cap. Free Trade Agreements allow a carve out from the numerical limit of 1,400 for Chilean nationals and 5,400 for Singapore nationals. Laws also exempt up to 20,000 foreign nationals holding a masterâ(TM)s or higher degree from U.S. universities from the cap on H-1B visas.
The Department of Homeland Security approved about 132,000 H-1B visas in 2004 and 117,000 in 2005.[5]
Visa renewals do not count towards the annual limits. Transfers among employers only count when changing jobs from an employer exempt from the limits (academia or research) to one that is not exempt.
I'm ignoring the 2001-3 years, because they were temporarily applied when there was a (presumed) labor shortage. In any event, I tend to doubt that those exceptions will be reinstated or made permanent -- that's an argument for another day.
Secondly, I believe that the 132,000 and 117,000 figures include renewals, and would be included in my 390,000 figure (which I guess might be a bit higher thanks to the extra workers brought in between '01 and '03)
In any event, the elephant in the room is the 11.6 million unemployed workers (ie. those currently seeking work). Even if we raise the estimate, and assume that there are 500,000 Americans who can fill the job of every single H1-B worker presently in the US, 11 million individuals are still unemployed.
That all said, there likely is a significant portion of H1-B workers whose experience/skillset cannot be matched by a domestic worker. Given that state governments are currently taking the "slash and burn" approach to university budgets, we're going to have to look somewhere to find skilled workers.
Re:This is excellent news
on
BASH 4.0 Released
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It's gotten a lot better, but there are still gaps that need to be filled in.
Today, I had to enable printer sharing (via Samba for Windows clients) on my parents' computer, which is running Ubuntu.
Although the majority of the desktop is very well-integrated, the process for doing this was *extremely* non-obvious.
If you're going to be a xenophobe, you might as well come out and say it, rather than blaming all of our economic woes on foreigners.
The number of H1B workers is a drop in the bucket in the context of the national economy.
The number of H1-B visas that can be issued in a given year is limited to 65,000 by law.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the total size of the American workforce was approximately 153.7 million last month (with unemployment at a troubling 11.6 million).
An H1B worker is typically limited to a 6-year stay, unless the worker is applying for permanent residency. Assuming that all 65,000 workers stay each year, we have 390,000 H1B workers in the country at the present (I'd guess the actual number is somewhat less than that).
At the very worst, H1-Bs might represent 0.25% of the national workforce.
Microsoft employs 3,517 H1-B workers (the 3rd most of any American firm), out of 89,809 total employees, or just about 4%. This number might be a little high, although 4 percent doesn't strike me as being particularly alarming.
Microsoft's recent round of layoffs (the first in the company's history) let go about 5,000 workers. Although I suppose these could have largely been avoided by eliminating all of the H1-B workers, that still leaves 1,500 workers, and assumes that every single H1-B worker was worthless to the company (which is somewhat doubtful).
To summarize: Stop complaining about the H1-B workers. Although it's not a good idea to begin hiring foreign workers during a recession, the current crop of H1-B workers is simply too small to be having any substantial effect on the economy.
Actually, 4 of the 5 films nominated for best picture went relatively unnoticed in the US, despite all being critical successes. Only 'Benjamin Button' received a widespread release, or could have been considered a "blockbuster" by any measure.
If nothing else, this makes this year's ceremony a bit more noteworthy than years past. Even the industry seems to acknowledge that the films that did well at the box office this past year were by and large awful, in spite of there being some legitimately good films to choose from.
Something as severe as a night in jail might be enough to make some people think twice before having "one too many."
Similarly, CCTV doesn't seem to be so much of a deterrent as it is an additional piece of evidence to be used in court.
A convenience store clerk who "swears he remembers" the face of the guy who robbed the register cannot provide a convincing eyewitness account (there are thousands of scientific studies to back this up). However, a CCTV image that shows the guy robbing the register is pretty damning, and rather difficult to refute.
The cops also get watched on the CCTV cameras -- this can go a long way toward ensuring that they stay in line, given that virtually all of their actions are going to be under intense scrutiny. I think we can all agree that the dashboard cameras placed in most cop cars are a fantastic idea, as they protect both the police and the citizens.
My (completely unscientific) observation was that Netflix HD streaming is about on par with a DVD. Because it presumably uses VBR encoding, some scenes are better than what you'd see on a DVD, and some are a bit worse.
Overall, however, the quality's considerably better than what you'd see via a analogue SD broadcast, comparable to a DVD, but worse than a true 1080i HD broadcast. Given the convenience, this is "good enough" for me, especially considering that it's fairly easy to bump up the video quality without having to change the hardware.
1. Richer countries like the US and UK are subsidizing this drug program. You don't honestly think GSK is going to give up its profits now do you...
No profits are being sacrificed. You sell your product at the price that people are willing/able to pay for it. This is nothing more than a sane business practice.
I'd feel more sympathy for this position if 75% of drugs being marketed weren't designed directly to compete against another companies drugs. Viagra vs Cialis for example.
Is that such a bad thing? Although healthcare is by no means a "free market," competition should in theory drive prices down, assuming all else is equal.
Of course, all else is NOT equal. If a new drug wants to compete with an already-existing product, it's got to have some sort of competitive advantage.
If a new cholesterol-reduction drug works 10% better, and with fewer side-effects, it is indeed competing with an already-existing product. However, it's directly benefitting the patient by doing so. Without competition, there is no progress.
Similarly, having multiple drugs on the market to treat the same condition can be extremely beneficial. If a patient is allergic to, or doesn't respond to the first medication, it's nice to have a second alternative.
(Also, can you provide a citation for the allegation that Marketing outweighs R&D? Although I agree with your sentiment, most marketing is directed at physicians in the form of educational materials, rather than patients)
That's because it was a pathetic attempt to Extend to the free software community and gain some brownie points with the snowballing number of people who think they're evil. In this case it's someone legitimitely interested in giving freedom and flexibility to his clients but not giving up his business by just giving his product away.
I thought it was for 'academic' purposes, to demonstrate how real operating systems worked.
Sure, it might be somewhat nefarious to indoctrinate the youth and academics... however, the Extend/Embrace/Extinguish accusation always struck me as being completely paranoid, as the same logic could just as easily be applied to any good deed, regardless of what the motivation might have been.
Occam's Razor would most naturally lead to the conclusion that Microsoft wanted to clean up its image by making a few small concessions that wouldn't hurt its overall business.
Although lingin-based plastics may be something new, bioplastics are by no means new.
By pure and honest coincidence, I have a disposable cup made out of a plant-based bioplastic sitting on my desk that I got from a restaurant along with some take-out earlier today.
It's virtually indistinguishable from a normal plastic cup, and actually looks a bit nicer than your typical disposable drinkware -- the crystal-clear bioplastic is sturdy and has a nice 'shine' to it. It's biodegradable, and contains no oil-based inputs, although you'd never guess it by looking at it or handling it.
The manufacturers of the biopolymer claim that it can be adapted to all sorts of other products, at what seem to be fairly reasonable prices (~$1/kg). What's not to love?
Can we please, for the love of God, pass something resembling the Read the Bills act.
Although I don't necessarily agree with its libertarian ideological roots, it's absolutely absurd that a 600 page bill can be proposed and voted on before sufficient time has been given to read over and debate the entire thing.
The 7-day comment also sounds like a good idea, as long as there's a provision for emergency action.
Yea, but most of us make our livelihoods by using closed source proprietary code at our places of business. Realistically, open source creates fewer jobs than a closed source solution. Not that I'm complaining, I am all for open source, but for that just doesn't seem to fit in my book for maximizing job creation...
This is true. However, as it stands, the healthcare industry in the US is massively bloated and inefficient. Increasing the efficiency of the system should reduce costs, prevent mistakes, and allow doctors to spend more time with patients.
Healthy people are good for the economy.
Of course, this all lines up nicely with the Dem's vision for universal healthcare. If the government's going to be paying for it, they're going to want things to be as streamlined and inexpensive as possible.
One of my grandmother's siblings died as an infant, due to a severe case of the measles. It happens.
Autism has a well-known incidence of about 1-2 people per 10,000.
From a statistical standpoint, the odds that those 10,000 individuals studied were all free of autism simply due to "the luck of the draw" is easily within the realm of possibility.
That all said, it certainly is an interesting statistic. The Amish way of life is extremely different than what most of us are used to. It's certainly possible that other aspects of their lifestyle are responsible for the (alleged) reduced incidence of the disease.
Really? What would you call the parents that fought against the HPV vaccination that had barely been tested yet has been made mandatory in places where the drug lords making it have the local officials in their back pocket?
IIRC, the most commonly offered objection to the HPV vaccine was that HPV is typically transmitted via sexual intercourse, and there's no sex in the USA.
Honestly, I find it a bit revolting that a cure to cancer is being ascribed to malice and greed.
27% of Americans have HPV (45% among those aged to 20-24). Even though only a small percentage of those infected will develop cancer, other forms of HPV can display a variety of symptoms. Vaccination seems like a pretty damn good idea.
Nobody ever said vaccinations are harmless. There are numerous clinical studies to back this up -- any medication will have side-effects of some sort.
This article, however, discusses the specific case of autism caused by vaccinations. There has been virtually no scientific evidence to support this claim, and plenty to the contrary. The court's ruling shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody.
The administration of vaccines can easily be justified by the fact that you're far less likely to die from an MMR vaccine than you are to die from mumps, measles, or rubella.
Unlike the republicans, the democratic party has a lot of people with their own views.
Right... Because Republicans are just mindless automatons while the Democrats are the epitome of critical thought and non-partisanship.
I'd normally agree with you, except that influential conservatives are vowing to destroy the political careers of any republican senator who votes in favor of the economic stimulus.
Regardless of your opinions on the stimulus, this is dirty politics at their worst. I have an extremely difficult time supporting any sort of party or politician who would openly condone these sort of practices.
They do a damn good job for a mere pittance. $0.42 to mail an envelope anywhere in the country within 1-3 days is an absolute bargain, considering what's involved.
They are dominating the high-end console space, with Wii dominating the low-end. The PS3 is a clear 3rd, and will probably not catch up. It might all change with the next generation, though.
That's a dubious distinction, if they're not making any money by doing so. The number of warranty repairs they've had to make is astounding.
And who cares about high or low-end? A 360 is barely more expensive than a Wii, and should theoretically be capable of everything that the Wii is, if it's a "high-end" machine (it's not, but that doesn't change the fact that neither Sony nor Microsoft have even attempted to capture part of Nintendo's marketshare). From the investor's point of view, the Wii has completely dominated anything that Microsoft or Sony have been able to conjure up.
Slashdot Mirror
(can you believe we actually have platform stacks now? Geez...)
Yes. Easily.
IBM have been doing it for as long as they've been selling "computers."
And yet you are spreading lies as well. Quoted in Full from your link....
The current law limits to 65,000 the number of aliens who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-1B status. (The numerical limitation was temporarily raised to 195,000 in FY2001, FY2002 and FY2003.) In addition, excluded from the ceiling are all H-1B non-immigrants who work at (but not necessarily for) universities and non-profit research facilities. [4] This means that contractors working at, but not directly employed by the institution may be exempt from the cap. Free Trade Agreements allow a carve out from the numerical limit of 1,400 for Chilean nationals and 5,400 for Singapore nationals. Laws also exempt up to 20,000 foreign nationals holding a masterâ(TM)s or higher degree from U.S. universities from the cap on H-1B visas.
The Department of Homeland Security approved about 132,000 H-1B visas in 2004 and 117,000 in 2005.[5]
Visa renewals do not count towards the annual limits. Transfers among employers only count when changing jobs from an employer exempt from the limits (academia or research) to one that is not exempt.
I'm ignoring the 2001-3 years, because they were temporarily applied when there was a (presumed) labor shortage. In any event, I tend to doubt that those exceptions will be reinstated or made permanent -- that's an argument for another day.
Secondly, I believe that the 132,000 and 117,000 figures include renewals, and would be included in my 390,000 figure (which I guess might be a bit higher thanks to the extra workers brought in between '01 and '03)
In any event, the elephant in the room is the 11.6 million unemployed workers (ie. those currently seeking work). Even if we raise the estimate, and assume that there are 500,000 Americans who can fill the job of every single H1-B worker presently in the US, 11 million individuals are still unemployed.
That all said, there likely is a significant portion of H1-B workers whose experience/skillset cannot be matched by a domestic worker. Given that state governments are currently taking the "slash and burn" approach to university budgets, we're going to have to look somewhere to find skilled workers.
It's gotten a lot better, but there are still gaps that need to be filled in.
Today, I had to enable printer sharing (via Samba for Windows clients) on my parents' computer, which is running Ubuntu.
Although the majority of the desktop is very well-integrated, the process for doing this was *extremely* non-obvious.
If you're going to be a xenophobe, you might as well come out and say it, rather than blaming all of our economic woes on foreigners.
The number of H1B workers is a drop in the bucket in the context of the national economy.
The number of H1-B visas that can be issued in a given year is limited to 65,000 by law.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the total size of the American workforce was approximately 153.7 million last month (with unemployment at a troubling 11.6 million).
An H1B worker is typically limited to a 6-year stay, unless the worker is applying for permanent residency. Assuming that all 65,000 workers stay each year, we have 390,000 H1B workers in the country at the present (I'd guess the actual number is somewhat less than that).
At the very worst, H1-Bs might represent 0.25% of the national workforce.
Microsoft employs 3,517 H1-B workers (the 3rd most of any American firm), out of 89,809 total employees, or just about 4%. This number might be a little high, although 4 percent doesn't strike me as being particularly alarming.
Microsoft's recent round of layoffs (the first in the company's history) let go about 5,000 workers. Although I suppose these could have largely been avoided by eliminating all of the H1-B workers, that still leaves 1,500 workers, and assumes that every single H1-B worker was worthless to the company (which is somewhat doubtful).
To summarize: Stop complaining about the H1-B workers. Although it's not a good idea to begin hiring foreign workers during a recession, the current crop of H1-B workers is simply too small to be having any substantial effect on the economy.
Actually, 4 of the 5 films nominated for best picture went relatively unnoticed in the US, despite all being critical successes. Only 'Benjamin Button' received a widespread release, or could have been considered a "blockbuster" by any measure.
If nothing else, this makes this year's ceremony a bit more noteworthy than years past. Even the industry seems to acknowledge that the films that did well at the box office this past year were by and large awful, in spite of there being some legitimately good films to choose from.
Something as severe as a night in jail might be enough to make some people think twice before having "one too many."
Similarly, CCTV doesn't seem to be so much of a deterrent as it is an additional piece of evidence to be used in court.
A convenience store clerk who "swears he remembers" the face of the guy who robbed the register cannot provide a convincing eyewitness account (there are thousands of scientific studies to back this up). However, a CCTV image that shows the guy robbing the register is pretty damning, and rather difficult to refute.
The cops also get watched on the CCTV cameras -- this can go a long way toward ensuring that they stay in line, given that virtually all of their actions are going to be under intense scrutiny. I think we can all agree that the dashboard cameras placed in most cop cars are a fantastic idea, as they protect both the police and the citizens.
Really? The vast majority of built-in video cards that I've seen come from Intel.
I'll concur with this.
My (completely unscientific) observation was that Netflix HD streaming is about on par with a DVD. Because it presumably uses VBR encoding, some scenes are better than what you'd see on a DVD, and some are a bit worse.
Overall, however, the quality's considerably better than what you'd see via a analogue SD broadcast, comparable to a DVD, but worse than a true 1080i HD broadcast. Given the convenience, this is "good enough" for me, especially considering that it's fairly easy to bump up the video quality without having to change the hardware.
So we've switched to fluorescent blue, with lots of identical-looking blue icons?
But the potential is enormous.
Pun Intended?
I'd rather have them put down because they're expensive to keep and likely to perform similar crimes in the future.
Hold on.... that doesn't even remotely apply in this case. Do you really expect the government to let them back on the bench after they're released?
1. Richer countries like the US and UK are subsidizing this drug program. You don't honestly think GSK is going to give up its profits now do you...
No profits are being sacrificed. You sell your product at the price that people are willing/able to pay for it. This is nothing more than a sane business practice.
I'd feel more sympathy for this position if 75% of drugs being marketed weren't designed directly to compete against another companies drugs. Viagra vs Cialis for example.
Is that such a bad thing? Although healthcare is by no means a "free market," competition should in theory drive prices down, assuming all else is equal.
Of course, all else is NOT equal. If a new drug wants to compete with an already-existing product, it's got to have some sort of competitive advantage.
If a new cholesterol-reduction drug works 10% better, and with fewer side-effects, it is indeed competing with an already-existing product. However, it's directly benefitting the patient by doing so. Without competition, there is no progress.
Similarly, having multiple drugs on the market to treat the same condition can be extremely beneficial. If a patient is allergic to, or doesn't respond to the first medication, it's nice to have a second alternative.
(Also, can you provide a citation for the allegation that Marketing outweighs R&D? Although I agree with your sentiment, most marketing is directed at physicians in the form of educational materials, rather than patients)
That's because it was a pathetic attempt to Extend to the free software community and gain some brownie points with the snowballing number of people who think they're evil. In this case it's someone legitimitely interested in giving freedom and flexibility to his clients but not giving up his business by just giving his product away.
I thought it was for 'academic' purposes, to demonstrate how real operating systems worked.
Sure, it might be somewhat nefarious to indoctrinate the youth and academics... however, the Extend/Embrace/Extinguish accusation always struck me as being completely paranoid, as the same logic could just as easily be applied to any good deed, regardless of what the motivation might have been.
Occam's Razor would most naturally lead to the conclusion that Microsoft wanted to clean up its image by making a few small concessions that wouldn't hurt its overall business.
Although lingin-based plastics may be something new, bioplastics are by no means new.
By pure and honest coincidence, I have a disposable cup made out of a plant-based bioplastic sitting on my desk that I got from a restaurant along with some take-out earlier today.
It's virtually indistinguishable from a normal plastic cup, and actually looks a bit nicer than your typical disposable drinkware -- the crystal-clear bioplastic is sturdy and has a nice 'shine' to it. It's biodegradable, and contains no oil-based inputs, although you'd never guess it by looking at it or handling it.
The manufacturers of the biopolymer claim that it can be adapted to all sorts of other products, at what seem to be fairly reasonable prices (~$1/kg). What's not to love?
Can we please, for the love of God, pass something resembling the Read the Bills act.
Although I don't necessarily agree with its libertarian ideological roots, it's absolutely absurd that a 600 page bill can be proposed and voted on before sufficient time has been given to read over and debate the entire thing.
The 7-day comment also sounds like a good idea, as long as there's a provision for emergency action.
Yea, but most of us make our livelihoods by using closed source proprietary code at our places of business. Realistically, open source creates fewer jobs than a closed source solution. Not that I'm complaining, I am all for open source, but for that just doesn't seem to fit in my book for maximizing job creation...
This is true. However, as it stands, the healthcare industry in the US is massively bloated and inefficient. Increasing the efficiency of the system should reduce costs, prevent mistakes, and allow doctors to spend more time with patients.
Healthy people are good for the economy.
Of course, this all lines up nicely with the Dem's vision for universal healthcare. If the government's going to be paying for it, they're going to want things to be as streamlined and inexpensive as possible.
It's time to vote for the Pirate Party
Last time I checked, the Pirate Party's performance in elections was on par with the American Communist Party (about 0.6% of the vote).
Good luck with that.
One of my grandmother's siblings died as an infant, due to a severe case of the measles. It happens.
Autism has a well-known incidence of about 1-2 people per 10,000.
From a statistical standpoint, the odds that those 10,000 individuals studied were all free of autism simply due to "the luck of the draw" is easily within the realm of possibility.
That all said, it certainly is an interesting statistic. The Amish way of life is extremely different than what most of us are used to. It's certainly possible that other aspects of their lifestyle are responsible for the (alleged) reduced incidence of the disease.
Really? What would you call the parents that fought against the HPV vaccination that had barely been tested yet has been made mandatory in places where the drug lords making it have the local officials in their back pocket?
IIRC, the most commonly offered objection to the HPV vaccine was that HPV is typically transmitted via sexual intercourse, and there's no sex in the USA.
Honestly, I find it a bit revolting that a cure to cancer is being ascribed to malice and greed.
27% of Americans have HPV (45% among those aged to 20-24). Even though only a small percentage of those infected will develop cancer, other forms of HPV can display a variety of symptoms. Vaccination seems like a pretty damn good idea.
Nobody ever said vaccinations are harmless. There are numerous clinical studies to back this up -- any medication will have side-effects of some sort.
This article, however, discusses the specific case of autism caused by vaccinations. There has been virtually no scientific evidence to support this claim, and plenty to the contrary. The court's ruling shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody.
The administration of vaccines can easily be justified by the fact that you're far less likely to die from an MMR vaccine than you are to die from mumps, measles, or rubella.
Having perused the Topix forum for my local community, I'm honestly not surprised.
Literally half of the posts there are personal attacks, bigoted remarks, or slander of some kind.
My first time reading \b was less harmful to my outlook on humanity...
Unlike the republicans, the democratic party has a lot of people with their own views.
Right... Because Republicans are just mindless automatons while the Democrats are the epitome of critical thought and non-partisanship.
I'd normally agree with you, except that influential conservatives are vowing to destroy the political careers of any republican senator who votes in favor of the economic stimulus.
Regardless of your opinions on the stimulus, this is dirty politics at their worst. I have an extremely difficult time supporting any sort of party or politician who would openly condone these sort of practices.
How about the Postal Service?
They do a damn good job for a mere pittance. $0.42 to mail an envelope anywhere in the country within 1-3 days is an absolute bargain, considering what's involved.
They are dominating the high-end console space, with Wii dominating the low-end. The PS3 is a clear 3rd, and will probably not catch up. It might all change with the next generation, though.
That's a dubious distinction, if they're not making any money by doing so. The number of warranty repairs they've had to make is astounding.
And who cares about high or low-end? A 360 is barely more expensive than a Wii, and should theoretically be capable of everything that the Wii is, if it's a "high-end" machine (it's not, but that doesn't change the fact that neither Sony nor Microsoft have even attempted to capture part of Nintendo's marketshare). From the investor's point of view, the Wii has completely dominated anything that Microsoft or Sony have been able to conjure up.