All this has been tried and tested: welcome to the European Union.
People in rich countries used to say pretty much the same as you uninformed rant, what happened is that after an initial influx from people from richer countries (both skilled and unskilled, because people don't move because they are "losers", they move because the incentives elsewhere are better, hardly a losers' attitude), the flux died out, immigrants became wealthier and were able to support the economy back home.
Free movement of people paired with free trade made poorer countries richer, up to the point that there is no immigration to former richer countries anymore.
The UK, Germany and France were not overrun by Spanish, Portuguese and Greek immigrants, nowadays these countries are prosperous and have now an "immigration problem" of their own.
Many people would be very happy to keep their citizenship, but that would mean an eternal threat of deportation, specially during xenophobic fests (like during recessions).
If bad mortgages had collapsed, banks would have taken the hit and we all would have moved on.
Enter synthetic financial instruments, that do all this financial nonsense using the bad mortgages as the core of the investments.
Then enter even more whiz kids that provided insurance against defaults of those mortgage based investments.
Then mix and sell all of the above in the expectation that previous performance predicts future performance.
Your assessment is very simplistic and parochial, you are just using the crisis to justify your political biases instead of analyse the whole situation dispassionately.
Languages that allow you to do stupid stuff are less secure than the ones that don't.
It is that simple really.
Some languages were designed with expediency above any other concern (security included), so it is a fair assessment to make that there are some languages more secure than others.
What workers labour is worth is determined by the markets, not by a conspiracy of business owners.
Of course in a political system where workers have no rights the employers can actually act like cartels and impose a general level of salaries, but even then what helps them is that skilled people can become a dime a dozen (something IT workers should have learned already, but that they blissfully forget as soon as India and outsourcing hit the front page of this veritable website).
There you have it. You would not have all the resources necessary to provide for all your needs.
That is why societies formed in the first place: the bigger and more organized a group of individuals was, the better chances of prosperity and survival for all its members.
What you seem to forget is that no human is an island, there is such a thing as society, irrespective of what Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher said.
That does not mean there is no work for programmers, what it means is that the days of doing one piece of programming and sit down for 100 years waiting for the royalties are over.
There are plenty of jobs for programmers doing customized work for clients, work that most likely will never be published. There is your incentive to keep programming: find where the real money is instead of keep looking for it by means of wishful thinking.
That is 4 out of 100 Japanese people buying a phone, chose to buy an Apple phone. Hardly earth shattering success if you ask me.
Keeping in mind Apple exclusivity deals, we can be pretty certain about these numbers, keeping in mind that Apple partnered with the 3rd biggest company in Japan, who holds around 15% of the market at most, not all of them are iPods of course.
At this point, after looking at the hard facts, I can almost see the replies using the characteristic market speak Apple fans are so fond of ( you know, "paradigm shifting phone", "intuitive", "elegant", etc, etc, etc, all soft words devised to remove our attention from the real issues and faults of the gadget, in spite of the numbers which are telling us the iPhone is nothing but an expensive niche product which most people, sensibly, chose to steer clear from)
"It's easy for us in the west to ignore this, particularly in America, and I'm not saying that to say I regret what the United States did, because I don't."... even if it was the only viable option.
I would regret to kill somebody, even if it was in self defence.
As somebody from a "third world country" living in Europe I do lots of IT work and contribute to some FOSS projects, the minority you refer to has not many programmers, so the rest of us will keep programing and promoting FOSS, but thank you for your kind concern anyway, it seems to be misplaced.
"In times of abundance, companies can justify spending on open source positions for a variety of reasons.."
You make it sound like FOSS is a flight of fancy done as some kind of charity.
Companies that rely on FOSS just can't decide all of the sudden to stop buying, providing services or contributing to FOSS because it is actually what brings business home.
So you may want to clarify which dire situations you have in mind in which companies will change such an important strategic decision....
"you cannot afford to let your involvement with an OSS project or community affect your job in this economy"
If you job has not being affected before, why should it be affected now all of the sudden?
Is the economic situation like voodoo, or what exactly is your point?
If the only thing you can do is flipping burgers I find very unlikely you will find a job in IT, or that you held one that gave you the skills to contribute to any serious FOSS project anyway.
... first.... solid... usable... viable... end all be all... good... the best... slightly above average,.. (personally)....
With exception of the "first" adjective, all the rest of adjectives that you use to describe this marvel phone are completely subjective judgements.
In other words you drank the KoolAid and instead to look at hard objective facts you are just using the same market speech used to promote this gadget.
The marketing people at Apple should really give themselves a pat in the back.
Me: "No, it isn't" (after checking connectivity from the command line in Windows, argh she is hot).
Friend: "Yes, it is" (opens IE, which is infected with some virus that stops all browsing activity"
Me "Uhm, er, uhmmm" (never seen such a thing. I use Linux, have never faced these problems, so proceed to download Opera in my Ubuntu machine while lovingly staring at her, and install it on the infected Windows machine, then with Opera unaffected proceed to download new antivirus software, etc. Although I know machine is compromised and it would be better to do a reinstall at least they can do some work).
Unless you worked there all your life then there is no reason you should put them on your CV.
You could put that you were unemployed or at home during that period for personal reasons.
You could also ask the old company to substantiate those claims, otherwise they could be in hot water for defamation.
As others have indicated you should have blowed the whistle any way. Talk to a lawyer, they will sort out the bad references and advice you how to engage with the respective authorities in order to prosecute your former employer.
Slashdot Mirror
All this has been tried and tested: welcome to the European Union.
People in rich countries used to say pretty much the same as you uninformed rant, what happened is that after an initial influx from people from richer countries (both skilled and unskilled, because people don't move because they are "losers", they move because the incentives elsewhere are better, hardly a losers' attitude), the flux died out, immigrants became wealthier and were able to support the economy back home.
Free movement of people paired with free trade made poorer countries richer, up to the point that there is no immigration to former richer countries anymore.
The UK, Germany and France were not overrun by Spanish, Portuguese and Greek immigrants, nowadays these countries are prosperous and have now an "immigration problem" of their own.
Many people would be very happy to keep their citizenship, but that would mean an eternal threat of deportation, specially during xenophobic fests (like during recessions).
If bad mortgages had collapsed, banks would have taken the hit and we all would have moved on.
Enter synthetic financial instruments, that do all this financial nonsense using the bad mortgages as the core of the investments.
Then enter even more whiz kids that provided insurance against defaults of those mortgage based investments.
Then mix and sell all of the above in the expectation that previous performance predicts future performance.
Your assessment is very simplistic and parochial, you are just using the crisis to justify your political biases instead of analyse the whole situation dispassionately.
Languages that allow you to do stupid stuff are less secure than the ones that don't.
It is that simple really.
Some languages were designed with expediency above any other concern (security included), so it is a fair assessment to make that there are some languages more secure than others.
Not everybody can afford specialists (yeah, sure, how did they become one...) so a comprehensive good practice guide will always be welcome.
"I don't currently use MacOS day-to-day"
I think we all can guess that one ....
Long answer: Hell, yes.
Mate, the artists are not the ones suing.
But nice rant.
What workers labour is worth is determined by the markets, not by a conspiracy of business owners.
Of course in a political system where workers have no rights the employers can actually act like cartels and impose a general level of salaries, but even then what helps them is that skilled people can become a dime a dozen (something IT workers should have learned already, but that they blissfully forget as soon as India and outsourcing hit the front page of this veritable website).
Check this website for the article....
... Sun's hard times started when they made peace with MS....
There you have it. You would not have all the resources necessary to provide for all your needs.
That is why societies formed in the first place: the bigger and more organized a group of individuals was, the better chances of prosperity and survival for all its members.
What you seem to forget is that no human is an island, there is such a thing as society, irrespective of what Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher said.
That does not mean there is no work for programmers, what it means is that the days of doing one piece of programming and sit down for 100 years waiting for the royalties are over.
There are plenty of jobs for programmers doing customized work for clients, work that most likely will never be published. There is your incentive to keep programming: find where the real money is instead of keep looking for it by means of wishful thinking.
Lets look at this:
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/july-sales-figures-show-iphone-fourth-in-japan-458742
So Apple is selling 4% of the overall market.
That is 4 out of 100 Japanese people buying a phone, chose to buy an Apple phone. Hardly earth shattering success if you ask me.
Keeping in mind Apple exclusivity deals, we can be pretty certain about these numbers, keeping in mind that Apple partnered with the 3rd biggest company in Japan, who holds around 15% of the market at most, not all of them are iPods of course.
At this point, after looking at the hard facts, I can almost see the replies using the characteristic market speak Apple fans are so fond of ( you know, "paradigm shifting phone", "intuitive", "elegant", etc, etc, etc, all soft words devised to remove our attention from the real issues and faults of the gadget, in spite of the numbers which are telling us the iPhone is nothing but an expensive niche product which most people, sensibly, chose to steer clear from)
"It's easy for us in the west to ignore this, particularly in America, and I'm not saying that to say I regret what the United States did, because I don't." ... even if it was the only viable option.
I would regret to kill somebody, even if it was in self defence.
Sometimes I really wonder if they understand at all how FOSS works.
With friends like these .... gee....
As somebody from a "third world country" living in Europe I do lots of IT work and contribute to some FOSS projects, the minority you refer to has not many programmers, so the rest of us will keep programing and promoting FOSS, but thank you for your kind concern anyway, it seems to be misplaced.
"In times of abundance, companies can justify spending on open source positions for a variety of reasons.."
You make it sound like FOSS is a flight of fancy done as some kind of charity.
Companies that rely on FOSS just can't decide all of the sudden to stop buying, providing services or contributing to FOSS because it is actually what brings business home.
So you may want to clarify which dire situations you have in mind in which companies will change such an important strategic decision....
"you cannot afford to let your involvement with an OSS project or community affect your job in this economy"
If you job has not being affected before, why should it be affected now all of the sudden?
Is the economic situation like voodoo, or what exactly is your point?
If the only thing you can do is flipping burgers I find very unlikely you will find a job in IT, or that you held one that gave you the skills to contribute to any serious FOSS project anyway.
Your plentiful free time, which was used previously to work, can now be used to find a new job.
You can continue your contributions as usual after that.
In other words, for unemployed people their new job is to find a new job.
... first .... solid ... usable ... viable ... end all be all ... good ... the best ... slightly above average, .. (personally) ....
With exception of the "first" adjective, all the rest of adjectives that you use to describe this marvel phone are completely subjective judgements.
In other words you drank the KoolAid and instead to look at hard objective facts you are just using the same market speech used to promote this gadget.
The marketing people at Apple should really give themselves a pat in the back.
Last week's chat with a friend:
Friend: "My internet is broken"
Me: "No, it isn't" (after checking connectivity from the command line in Windows, argh she is hot).
Friend: "Yes, it is" (opens IE, which is infected with some virus that stops all browsing activity"
Me "Uhm, er, uhmmm" (never seen such a thing. I use Linux, have never faced these problems, so proceed to download Opera in my Ubuntu machine while lovingly staring at her, and install it on the infected Windows machine, then with Opera unaffected proceed to download new antivirus software, etc. Although I know machine is compromised and it would be better to do a reinstall at least they can do some work).
Friend "What is that Opera icon?"
Me "I can explain it over dinner..."
In the same datacentres as the production servers.
Or something like that.
Why do you quote that company in your CV?
Unless you worked there all your life then there is no reason you should put them on your CV.
You could put that you were unemployed or at home during that period for personal reasons.
You could also ask the old company to substantiate those claims, otherwise they could be in hot water for defamation.
As others have indicated you should have blowed the whistle any way. Talk to a lawyer, they will sort out the bad references and advice you how to engage with the respective authorities in order to prosecute your former employer.
People here most likely have something useful to say because they have been in similar situations.