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User: BVis

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  1. Re:Wow on Google's Security Guards Are Now Officially Google Employees · · Score: 1

    What you're saying makes sense. However, despite the logic, it costs money. As such, no big company will do it. In Big Business, it's always better to save money today, even at the expense of losing tons of money later. Gotta keep those quarterly numbers up.

  2. Re:so what? on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    No you can't.

  3. Re:It's time to throw out the entire college syste on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    Citation needed. All the information I have is that young doctors don't make "doctor money" anymore, especially in primary care. Don't forget the $100,000+ a year that MDs need to pay for malpractice insurance, more or less depending on how 'high-risk' your specialty is. (Neurosurgeons and OB/GYNs pay a lot more, primary care docs a little less.) Salaries for primary care doctors can be as little as $85,000 depending on location. The top 10% of primary care doctors make about $238,000 a year, which, when you take into account the vastly higher cost of living in the areas where they command those salaries, isn't really 'doctor' money, and certainly not the $500k you suggest. Where I live, you need a household income of $100k or more just to break even, if you have typical expenses that include a mortgage. You can live on less, but then you're talking about renting a fairly shitty apartment and a clunker, not owning a home and driving a doctor-esque Mercedes.

    The way doctors get paid these days by the insurers is through pre-negotiated contracts. If you're a primary care doctor, you need to be able to accept patients from the big insurers in order to stay in business. Your options are to take what the insurers offer or get nothing. They've got the whole damn system over a barrel. Providers have to beg for scraps, patients have their care arbitrarily denied, employers pay the higher premiums every year. Insurers can even get you fired if they decide you're costing them too much money.

  4. Re:so what? on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    What color is the sky on your planet? Just because you DO something doesn't mean you have an advantage. You can DO all kinds of things, if you don't get credit for them, or someone else who's sneakier takes credit for what you do (see Steve Jobs, who didn't actually create anything himself, he just took credit) you not only don't have an advantage, your lack of deviousness and dishonesty puts you at a disadvantage to those who have less of a problem being assholes to get ahead. You can cure cancer, if you don't tell anyone, or you do, but have your idea stolen, you get nothing.

    You need go no further than upper management at any company of consequential size. These people don't DO anything, they delegate and take credit for others' hard work, and they're the ones who get the nine-figure golden parachutes, while the people who actually DID something to generate that revenue get a 2% raise each year and more hard work as a reward for their hard work.

  5. Re:so what? on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    Again, if life were fair, you'd be right. Life isn't fair.

  6. Re:Here's another perspective on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    Even worse. Community college isn't "real" college, it's where poor/stupid people go (as far as anyone in a position to determine the opportunities given to you are concerned).

    The only way you can really get away with CC without the "resume stain" factor is to get accepted to the 'good' school but defer enrollment for two years while you take all those useless cash-cow "general education" courses for pennies on the dollar at a community college, but get the degree from the 'good school' and, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, tell anyone that you didn't go there for the full four years. Be careful not to lie about it if asked (since that would get you fired later if it comes out), but do NOT volunteer the information, and be VERY DAMN SURE to not put it on your resume.

  7. Re:so what? on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    Because life isn't fair? Because being smart, unfortunately, is not enough? Because those with money frequently think that they're better than everyone else, and are threatened by those of higher intelligence? Because, while the smarter you are, the less critical it is for you to have the same qualifications as a C student in reality, the C students in HR only know how to tick off boxes and not how to look beyond the keywords?

  8. Re:so what? on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    That's not the full picture. The successful startups are the only ones you hear about; for every Facebook there's 1000 failed startups, for every Steve Wozniak there's 10,000 dropouts that are flipping burgers despite being just as smart.

  9. Re:Here's another perspective on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    Go to a community/state college.

    You seem to imply, at least in the case of a state university, that the application process is any different or easier than a private school. Many state colleges are as selective as private schools; in some cases, more so. And the days when state schools represent an enormous bargain as compared to private schools are over; my state university is now $20,000 a year for in-state students. Better than the $50k/year that some private schools get, but not the kind of thing you can work your way through with part time work.

    Much better to have a degree from a state school than to flunk out of the university, right?

    You'd think so, wouldn't you. There's a reason my state university degree is the last thing I list on my resume. Despite being a highly competitive school (even as compared to many private schools), there is still the perception that it's a 'safety school' and your degree will be worth just slightly more than toilet paper to anyone in a position to require that you have a four-year degree (read: it doesn't help you get a job, and in some cases it actually hurts your chances.) Listing credit hours earned towards a degree from a top-tier private university may actually help you more than a completed degree from a state school. The perception is that a cabbage can get admitted to a state school and most of the students can drink their way to a degree, because academic standards are so low. It's not completely inaccurate, but many (if not most) students at a state school work just as hard as their contemporaries at private schools.

    I do not have the answer for distinguishing ones-self if they go to a "lesser" school except by contributing to existing projects, starting your own, and becoming active in Phi Beta Kappa, student government, etc in order to network.

    That sounds good in theory, but the bottom line is that you started a project at a state school. You were active in PBK at a state school. You were in the student government at a state school. All that means so much less than the equivalent effort at a private school.

    The problem is that weeding out applicants based on 1) 4-year degrees and then 2) more prestigious schools is easy for the C students who end up working in HR. I don't have an answer for that other than asking IT who the most incompetent workers are in HR (usually all of them) and firing people accordingly.

  10. Re:so what? on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 1

    No, but you do need a degree when you go to ask rich people to invest in your idea. None of them are going to give you the time of day without that paper on your wall.

  11. Re:It's time to throw out the entire college syste on Is It Time To Throw Out the College Application System? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Could the fact that they spend a few too many years in College be one partial reason healthcare is so overpriced in this country?

    If doctors could set prices, you would be onto something. Unfortunately the big insurers dictate to providers how much they will get paid for a given service. Ever wonder why your primary care doctor only spends 6 minutes with you when you go for a checkup? It's because he/she needs to see 10 patients an hour to get enough payment from the big insurers to keep the lights on, let alone pay off their six-figure education debt.

    Hearing the insurers complain about the high cost of healthcare can be used as a calibration for your bullshit meter. They could easily reduce costs by 25% or so by not existing (15% "overhead", they mean profits, and probably 10% or more of all costs to a practice is paying clerical staff to keep all the billing straight, due to the hundreds of insurers who all have their own billing systems with unique quirks that you ignore at your peril).

  12. It's pretty simple, actually on Ask Slashdot: Software Issue Tracking Transparency - Good Or Bad? · · Score: 1

    If Marketing/Sales wants to do it, 99 times out of 100 it's a bad idea. Don't let the C students run the world.

  13. Re:So-to-speak legal on Comcast Allegedly Asking Customers to Stop Using Tor · · Score: 1

    CO2 may not be "clean" but its not as bad as the boogie men are making it out be. the fact is CO2 is a vital part of the circle of life.

    Not if there's too much of it. We're pumping it into the atmosphere faster than nature can reclaim it. Global warming is a measurable fact. CO2 acting as a greenhouse gas is a measurable fact.

    Ok, good for you, and when poor people cant buy food because it has to pass 100 regulations before it hits the shelf what about them? How about we continue the "choice" thing, as long as items are properly marked whats the issue? Or as for your last point on there, at what point is it "safe enough" people have made it thousands of years without the government telling people what they can and cant eat.

    You're exaggerating to make your position sound more reasonable. Regulation on food safety is necessary because if they weren't forced to follow sanitary procedures, the factory farms would cut every corner they could and we'd all get sick. For-profit companies don't do anything that costs them money unless it would cost them MORE money to not do it. The regulations provide a level playing field; they all have to follow the same rules.

    Next you are going to tell us that every building with a drive up ATM should have braile on it as well for all those blind drivers out there because.. the law! A little common sense goes along way, regulations leave little room for common sense. If the ramp is 1 degree off, is it stopping people from using it? If no WHO THE FUCK CARES???

    Drive-up ATMs have braille on them because it's cheaper to mass produce just one model of ATM with braille on it than to produce two models, one with braille and the other without. And if we tolerate a ramp being 1 degree off, how far do they push it in the name of saving money? 15 degrees? 45? The angle is specified to avoid that kind of nonsense. And if you were in a wheelchair, I'd bet you'd be grateful for the legislation that allows you to live an independent life. Without that legislation, mobility impaired people would be unable to live without constant assistance. If I were designing that ramp, I'd be grateful for a spec there, since I have no clue what angle most wheelchair users can use.

  14. Re:So-to-speak legal on Comcast Allegedly Asking Customers to Stop Using Tor · · Score: 1

    Clean Air becomes "Carbon Tax" (CO2 is clean), and regulations regarding all sorts of things not related to "clean air", and is just a means to totalitarian controls set by people like Al Gore.

    CO2 is clean? Please tell me you're joking. CO2 in the atmosphere makes the planet warmer. That's not an opinion, it's a well-established scientific fact. Don't believe me? Put two bottles of water in the sun, with thermometers in both. Drop an Alka-Seltzer into one of them. That one will get hotter than the other.

    Safe Food becomes So many regulations and costs that while food is safe, it is so expensive that most people cannot eat it.

    I'll pay more for food that has stricter controls on quality. You're taking the argument to an irrational extreme; "Safe Food" is unattainable. What we can do is make it safer through reasonable regulation and testing. Which is where we are now.

    Safe Working Conditions becomes OSHA regulations so deep and thick that on any given day your company probably violates a number of "safe working condition" regulations. Not to mention big fines for violations like your 3 foot barrier being only 2'11" tall, or your wheelchair ramp being 1 degree off.

    Then they should fix them. The specs are freely available and attainable by any competent company. What you're bitching about is companies cutting corners and getting called on it. Anyone with a working tape measure can determine if something is 3 feet tall; someone who builds that stuff for a living has no excuse for that.

    But then again, your comment is so ridiculous that it's probably sarcasm....

  15. Re:Absolutely correct; but what's the reason? on Is There a Creativity Deficit In Science? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hmm, maybe that's because the taxpayers' money was used to fund bizarre, esoteric research that nobody would use in a million years

    Are you qualified to make that determination? Have you read any of these papers beyond the sensationalized headline on some hideously inaccurate post on some web site? Is it possible that these "bizarre, esoteric" topics have more relevance to scientific inquiry than you think? Can you really look at one of these studies and say "well, no useful research here whatsoever"?

    When you take money, you owe something in return.

    Congratulations, you're part of the problem. It seems that you expect all research funded in this way to have immediate, practical applications. Science does not work that way. All scientific research builds on the work that has gone before it; it's possible that studying the mating habits of gibbons will aid in finding a cure for cancer in some way. I think the point here is that the (relatively) uneducated people are making the decisions about what to fund and what not to fund, and it should be scientists who are in a position to know what the fuck they're talking about that should be making that call. Yes, sometimes these studies fail, and nothing is accomplished. Welcome to science, where failure is not only a fact of life, it's necessary for the process to succeed. Without the freedom to fail, we may as well just let the evangelists take over and abandon science altogether.

  16. Re: Au contraire - INDEED on The Frustrations of Supporting Users In Remote Offices · · Score: 1

    I counted 5 terminable offenses at most sane companies in this comment. IT policies are not there to impede you or just annoy you; they are there because assholes like you think you know IT's job better than they do. If you are not getting the answers or support you need from IT, or you don't like a decision they make, the answer is not to break policy and work around it. The answer is to escalate the problem up the chain and lay out very clearly and patiently what you are asking for and why it's important to the company. If a million-dollar deal is being impeded by IT, they will either require an exception or explain why making that exception would either be unlawful or potentially cost the company more than that due to increased liability.

    You wouldn't tell accounting how to file their paperwork or what information to require to do their jobs. You wouldn't go over to Sales and tell them how to sell things. You wouldn't go over to Payroll and demand to be paid earlier than everyone else. Why is IT different? Why is it OK to ignore THEIR rules if you don't like them? They know their jobs MUCH better than you do. And the reason those requests make it to the bottom of the pile is because being an asshole to the people whose help you need is pretty much the best way to ensure you don't get it.

  17. Re:Au contraire - INDEED on The Frustrations of Supporting Users In Remote Offices · · Score: 1

    If you are in "support", your job is to "support" these people. If you can't handle that, it's time for a new job.

    You sound like a real treat to work with. Issues like yours mysteriously found their way to the absolute bottom of my list, because when you treat people whose assistance you need to do your job like shit, they react accordingly. Tech support is not your personal abuse sponge. And you don't need to be a fucking "computer professional" to remember an 8-character password, or to know that you should try rebooting your system before you call.

  18. Re:Show Users some love! on The Frustrations of Supporting Users In Remote Offices · · Score: 1

    They could do that, but their whiny lazy asses would want the company to pay for the training. Paying for training literally makes you Hitler.

  19. Re:So... outsource ALL OF IT on UK Prisons Ministry Fined For Lack of Encryption At Prisons · · Score: 1

    I like how he/she automatically assumes private business doesn't have incompetent can't-be-fired-because-they're-the-boss'-son-in-law idiots working for them that make the average civil servant look like Albert Einstein..

  20. Re: Automated notice not necessary here on Comcast Drops Spurious Fees When Customer Reveals Recording · · Score: 1

    It makes perfect sense if you don't think about that part.

  21. Re:IRS on Ask Slashdot: Datacenter HDD Wipe Policy? · · Score: 1

    Take some personal responsibility. Pay your taxes like everyone else and that won't happen.

  22. Flaw in the model on MIT Considers Whether Courses Are Outdated · · Score: 2

    Even if you were to adopt this more modular structure (which just seems to me like you'd be picking 12 'things' a semester instead of 4-5), the business model breaks down if you use it universally. After all, the student might not have to waste two years taking all these classes they don't want to (that are irrelevant to their major). Mechanical Engineering major? Go take Accounting 101 with all the morons from the football team. Business major? You certainly need two semesters of chemistry. Unemployab^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Art history major? Go take Rocks for Jocks.

  23. Re: Code the way you want... on 'Just Let Me Code!' · · Score: 1

    And my insurance company gets to pay for it. Money extraction.

  24. Re: Code the way you want... on 'Just Let Me Code!' · · Score: 2

    What's your point? The main theory behind being an employee or a consultant (doing work for others in exchange for compensation) is to get paid as much as possible while doing as little work as possible. (The opposite is true for your employer/client; they pay you as little as possible while getting as much work as they can out of you.) Consultants extract money from the "job creators" and return it to the economy. Even if they did no work at all, that extraction justifies their existence.

  25. Re:H-1b should not be used for lower-level workers on VP Biden Briefs US Governors On H-1B Visas, IT, and Coding · · Score: 1

    Now maybe if there was say very high H-1b min wage say 100K + COL and forced OT pay (so they can't get the work 2-3 people out of 1 h-1b) that would get rid of a lot of the abuse of the system.

    Why do you hate America? Go back to your wage slave job and serve your "job creator" masters before we fire you for something like taking vacation time that you've earned.