People need to stop treating Sarah Palin as a target. I know all this stuff anonymous does seems all funny and all, but you people don't know the kind of affect it has on people.
This topic uses a poor choice of source material to discuss the subject. The article does not go into detail about the metabolic affects of exposure for the water bears, or the fundamental changes that were observed after their return to the lab. There were significant fundamental reactions the sample set had to exposure to space which was observable immediately upon their return to Earth, as detailed in other articles on the subject.
Scientists were surprised to observe the exterior of several of the water bears to be covered by a mineral substance and the creatures appeared to demonstrate increased resillence realitive to their size and mass. Several of the other specimens demonstrated exothermic reactions when exposed to air, a reaction that was described as actually burning the air around them. Other members of the specimen set were observed stretching to lengths beyond their normal length / width, in order of several magnigtudes, without any negative biological affects. Others developed a transparent biology when observed under an electron microscope, which appearently is not permanent in nature.
Attempts to observe the creatures in detail were complicated by some sort of field irradiating the slide, which was thought to possibly be magnetic.
No joke. When did South Central police tactics become apros po for college kids and uppity hippies pushing 60? Easy must be having a laugh right now.
Something important to remember here is that the some of the groups being raided are the same ones who, in 2006, helped overturn over 400 bogus arrests where video directly conradicted sworn police testimony.
It's the cameras, and the citizen journalists, and the people on the Internet who the police are afraid of. I don't presume to judge every John Law out there but this is really bad what they are doing in MN.
I concur. My bedroom, dining room, living room, and several closets were filled with artifacts of the 90s, and I recently purged all of them.
The key is to be selective about what you want to keep. I bought 4 bins from Ikea and decided that would be enough, it would only fill the bottom half of a small closet.
I kept all of the power chargers for everything because those always become handy someday. Also saved all usb cables but not ethernet, since it's still easy to just put something together. Together these filled one bin.
Kept one Cisco router and one Big IP load balancer since I may want to sell them someday. Both fit into one crate with room to spare, which I filled with an N64, a business card scanner, and various little bits I didn't want to throw away.
Managed to fill the other crates with all sorts of other small stuff I just did not want to throw away. Tossed everything else.
Most COBOL applications can be thought of as traditional 3 tier applications that rely heavily on syntax for progress through the application.
Most of the business logic is addressed through conditional statements like those in pascal or C. IF, THEN, GO TO, all those sorts of constructs are in traditional COBOL applications.
Most of the presentation layer is controlled by data fields, like modern form fields, and input control is achieved through the use of semicolons. Lots and lots of semicolons.
Most of the data access logic is... well, it's done a number of ways depending if we are dealing with a mainframe or a flat file database.
I think, if they offered 10 smart developers a 2 week course in COBOL, this could be done in 4 weeks.
The irony about this is that a CAPTCHA is a Turing test, a form of authentication designed to prove that a human is making the request. Given that some CAPTCHAs are rapidly becoming too hard for people to read, the outcomes of the tests are reversed - humans cannot win the test, only computers.
I have CAPTCHAs on my blog, but only deny posters who actually fill them in. Goes a long way to deterring spammers.
Since Hummers were classifed as light trucks in 2003 by the Bush administration, I could get a write off for my business far in excess of what I could get for a car. Having one would have saved about $12k in taxes the first 2 years I owned it.
Of course, the additional amount I would have paid in gas would have offset that figure considerably. How much, I don't know, I bike wherever I can.
How about "Jack Thompson, Homeless Ex-Attorney," where the goal is to panhandle for enough money to get online, then solicit donations from old ladies to keep up your crusade against video games?
Or "Jack Thompson's Texas Hold Em," where you play the game by arguing with the dealer about signing loyalty oaths and get up from the table every other hand until the other players have you escorted from the casino?
Or "Jack Thompson's Civilization," where you attempt to remove art, commerce and government systems from a modern society in favor of strict 18th century morality?
Or "Jack Thompson's Wild Filings," which would be an ARG, where you would try to win legal cases by posting the wildest photos from the Internet instead of written arguments and solve puzzles through the use of ancient christian symbology?
Or "Jack Thompson's Hentai Explosion," where a fully rendered 3D Jack Thompson wanders the streets of Tokyo looking for chances to score with big breasted anime characters in school uniforms, then execute successful finishing moves on the characters and their worldly possessions?
Or "Jack Thompson's Battleship," where you shoot your own boats out of the water and win by accusing the other side of cheating so much they get pissed off and refuse to play anymore?
Or "Jack Thompson's Punch Out," where the only character you can fight is Jack "Glassjaw" Thompson, there are no TKOs, and you basically get to beat on Jack for hours?... the list goes on...
The federal government only exists for the regulation of interstate trade, per the Constitution. It is a well established legal principle that law enforcement authority is a necessary derivative of that mandate, which would be the basis of an argument to respond to your specific question.
But the broader point is one of utility and fair governance, that having individual jurisdictions set standards for law enforcement, the collection of evidence, etc. on matters that are impacted by forces outside their domain introduces chaos into the process of enforcing the law. Certainly criminal investigations into activities connected to the Internet can be considered a world wide matter, thus the need for a more universal set of standards pertaining to the proper procedures and licensure for those connected to the process.
It is a little silly to say that the state of Texas is the only place in the US where people must have a license for collecting evidence in criminal cases involving technology. A PI's license does nothing to educate the holder in the real issues involved in IT that should instruct the policy behind that licensure. Having a CISSP would likely be more authoritative in terms of establishing someone's expertise, and my greatest concern is that having a PI license will be viewed by the courts as legitimate grounds for providing expert testimony in technology matters. The text of the law makes this a legitimate possibility.
The case of Julie Amero comes to mind, and the abuses of logic involved in her prosecution, as does the state's history of ineffective public defence procedures and unaccountable courts. People's right to a fair trial is a constitutional guarantee.
You know what, you are right, this really only applies to a small segment of the population that is going to be involved in forensics work.
For right now, that is exactly correct, and sounds like a good idea.
The thing about the law and technology is neither stays the same very long, and judges are not famous for getting the facts right with regards to technology issues. The first time evidence seized from a computer is dismissed because a person did not have a PI license (such as one involving someone from a state without such a licensing requirement), this is going to look less like good governance and more like a fustercluck. Conversely, the first time some yahoo with a PI license acts as an expert in a case and gets someone convicted on scurlulous facts, we are going to be shaking our heads.
Forensic procedures for technology in law enforcement are well established, have nothing to do with those of private investigation, and are better administered at a national level where standards can be imposed across jurisdictions. The idea that Texas needs more licensure in this area than every other state is as absurd as the fact there are more licensure requirements for a hairdresser than a gunowner. Licensure should serve some purpose in order to be meaningful, and I am curious to hear what objective standards this one was meant to satisfy that are not already being addressed by other groups.
It is about time some state stood up and took the initiative for issuing standards amongst the people responsible for fixing, administering and maintaining computer equipment. This has been a long time coming.
Texas has traditionally been very progressive in this area. They also require food safety handling licenses for grocery clerks, beverage licenses for neghborhood lemonade stands, contractor licenses for anyone owning a shovel and pilot licenses for amusement park ride operators on rides that elevate beyond 6 inches. There is legislation requiring fireworks handling licensure for anyone possessing snappers before their legislature right now.
It just makes sense to license these people, dang it.
I am very interested in seeing how actual game genre affects the placement of ads in games.
Diablo III is an excellent place to start this discussion because it is set in a time and place where modern advertising does not exist.
People would have to be very clever to put ads in this place without detracting from the game experience. Online marketers, being distinct from people, are not known for being very clever (think popunders, interstials, spywear, and Bonzai Buddy). Something tells me we are not going to be seeing labels on barrels subtly placed in clever spots throughout the game, we are going to see full screen takeovers telling you game will start after a word from our sponsors.
Starcraft III, on the other hand, could include hyperadvertising throughout the game. Ad boards appearing on the surface of the game world. Vehicles produced by specific real world manufacturers. Humans trapped in Zerg cocoons emerging to state their devotion to their favorite fast food restaurants.
Drawing a line between strategy and tactics in this case is really just semantics.
We've all ready the classic 'Chess Traps and Tricks' and come into most situations ready to spring out a knight in exchange for a castled rook, force an opponent into leaving hanging pawns scattered all over the place, or control the center through a complicated network or interdependent pieces.
How much of that is a result of careful planning and how much is a result of tactical tricks sprung at opportune times really depends on how you look at the game.
I get into a good game and I am dreaming that night about what I should have done or did well. It becomes part of my thinking during my next outing whether I get into certain situations or not.
Knowing how to recognize certain situations and respond to them automatically certainly is a strategy.
The chess part is speed chess, which can be quite difficult and heavily favors those who are well practiced in strategy and able to make decisions faster.
Players are given 1 - 5 minutes each to win a game, which generally does not result in a checkmate outcome. Rather, the person whose time expires first loses. The best strategy is to set up complex positions on the board that require ample thought on the part of your opponent and watch his or her time expire.
I would put my money on the chess player who can roll with the punches and make effective 1 second moves on the board. You can do rope a dope sometimes by letting other players move very quickly and eating up their major pieces when they make a mistake.
Yeah, we have something like that at my company called codeboxing.
Developers receive documentation and go off to work on something. The moment they run into an ambiguous or poorly defined requirement, they jump into the ring with the person who wrote it for up to 6 rounds of boxing. Between rounds, they refine the language of the requirement. The match is decided by a panel of managers, agreement between the two parties, or knock out.
People are going to have a lot of responses that are focused solely on jobs in the IT world.
I suggest you skip IT entirely. There are 3 things every IT person needs to know something about: server administration, programming and databases. If one of these doesn't appeal to you at all (and you are honest with yourself and know this for a fact), then you are setting yourself up for a natural limit in how far you can go.
Possession of a college degree itself is proof you are capable of something for most employers. There is nothing about your choice of academic major that locks you into a career path. I studied English and Philosophy, was a programmer for about 10 years, and now own a political technology company.
Look into marketing or business management jobs, you do not necessarily need more than a college degree to get started there. Some of the most successful managers I ever had never went to college, or studied something unrelated to what they were doing at that time.
If you look at it like you would be throwing out your degree, consider banking jobs. You will be working with a bunch of systems and your background in CS will serve you well.
Try not to get too stressed out about it. Your future is going to happen no matter what you do, and all you are trying to do is find something you are going to be happy doing for a long time to come.
Yeah, that's just it. These guys are not taking Unreal Tournament, Diablo, et. al. and passing it off as their own, they are taking some of the visual game elements and incorporating them into a new game.
They are kind of dishonest about where the visual elements came from, and no one likes a shady dealer.
It's clear the modelling they took from other games took time to produce and has value in the marketplace, and I am not saying it's fair or anything. I just don't get why people are so vexed by the idea of plagarism, this is something that has been coming for a long time.
"With a few exceptions, Shakespeare did not invent the plots of his plays. Sometimes he used old stories (Hamlet, Pericles). Sometimes he worked from the stories of comparatively recent Italian writers, such as Boccaccio - using both well-known stories (Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing) and little known ones (Othello). Shakespeare has been proven, by many authors, to have borrowed from the Arts, the Histories and the Sciences."
This is not even the earliest example of game plagarism. Think about Space Invaders, Galaga and Galaxian - same gameplay, different sprites.
Not saying what anyone did here was right, but the only difference between these examples and the one mentioned in the story is the 3D graphics. Not sure why people are in such a tizzy over this.
Get everyone organized on the way out and leave a lasting impression! Organize the workers in your workplace. Technology workers are the least represented sector in the US and should be able to reap the benefits of collective bargaining.
Highlight unfair labor practices, working conditions, unsavory boss types, gender inequality in pay scales, and anything else that brings pain to people's lives. Gender inequality is a great one, because it exists almost everywhere. Distribute pamphlets, circulate emails, stick things up on whiteboard, announce your demands loudly.
If you can get 75% of the workers there to sign a petition to join a labor union the organization has to deal with the union by law. Offer people a cookie to sign the petition and you will hit that number. An affiliated union can get an organizer in there after you leave to keep things going.
Have done the same thing with every computer I have ever owned (except the ones I built myself). Never had to do it at a Dell, Gateway, IBM, Amstrad or Amiga store.
Enjoyed all the benefits you mentioned, plus:
- Enjoyed the competitive pricing because I was not locked into a monopolistic supply chain.
- Enjoyed being able to pick my own components and build something the way I want.
- Enjoyed not being bothered by a bunch of know-it-alls calling themselves Geniuses when all they know about is a single manufacturer's system.
WTF is so special about being able to go to a store where everything has the same logo? I mean, that's what car dealerships do, and when was the last time you ran into an honest car dealer? Why is the only choice of system really how much you are prepared to spend? Why can you get a better price online than in the stores for every computer in the world except for Apple?
More importantly, what does this mean about the people lining up there and what they are there to buy. Someone answer me.
Slashdot Mirror
People need to stop treating Sarah Palin as a target. I know all this stuff anonymous does seems all funny and all, but you people don't know the kind of affect it has on people.
http://www.eonline.com/videos/v31601_Chelsea_Lately_Leave_Sarah_Alone.html
M
This topic uses a poor choice of source material to discuss the subject. The article does not go into detail about the metabolic affects of exposure for the water bears, or the fundamental changes that were observed after their return to the lab. There were significant fundamental reactions the sample set had to exposure to space which was observable immediately upon their return to Earth, as detailed in other articles on the subject.
Scientists were surprised to observe the exterior of several of the water bears to be covered by a mineral substance and the creatures appeared to demonstrate increased resillence realitive to their size and mass. Several of the other specimens demonstrated exothermic reactions when exposed to air, a reaction that was described as actually burning the air around them. Other members of the specimen set were observed stretching to lengths beyond their normal length / width, in order of several magnigtudes, without any negative biological affects. Others developed a transparent biology when observed under an electron microscope, which appearently is not permanent in nature.
Attempts to observe the creatures in detail were complicated by some sort of field irradiating the slide, which was thought to possibly be magnetic.
M
No joke. When did South Central police tactics become apros po for college kids and uppity hippies pushing 60? Easy must be having a laugh right now.
Something important to remember here is that the some of the groups being raided are the same ones who, in 2006, helped overturn over 400 bogus arrests where video directly conradicted sworn police testimony.
It's the cameras, and the citizen journalists, and the people on the Internet who the police are afraid of. I don't presume to judge every John Law out there but this is really bad what they are doing in MN.
Of course the networks pay it no heed :)
M
Tell them no and strike a blow for Net Neutrality!
M
I concur. My bedroom, dining room, living room, and several closets were filled with artifacts of the 90s, and I recently purged all of them.
The key is to be selective about what you want to keep. I bought 4 bins from Ikea and decided that would be enough, it would only fill the bottom half of a small closet.
I kept all of the power chargers for everything because those always become handy someday. Also saved all usb cables but not ethernet, since it's still easy to just put something together. Together these filled one bin.
Kept one Cisco router and one Big IP load balancer since I may want to sell them someday. Both fit into one crate with room to spare, which I filled with an N64, a business card scanner, and various little bits I didn't want to throw away.
Managed to fill the other crates with all sorts of other small stuff I just did not want to throw away. Tossed everything else.
M
Most COBOL applications can be thought of as traditional 3 tier applications that rely heavily on syntax for progress through the application.
Most of the business logic is addressed through conditional statements like those in pascal or C. IF, THEN, GO TO, all those sorts of constructs are in traditional COBOL applications.
Most of the presentation layer is controlled by data fields, like modern form fields, and input control is achieved through the use of semicolons. Lots and lots of semicolons.
Most of the data access logic is... well, it's done a number of ways depending if we are dealing with a mainframe or a flat file database.
I think, if they offered 10 smart developers a 2 week course in COBOL, this could be done in 4 weeks.
M
The irony about this is that a CAPTCHA is a Turing test, a form of authentication designed to prove that a human is making the request. Given that some CAPTCHAs are rapidly becoming too hard for people to read, the outcomes of the tests are reversed - humans cannot win the test, only computers.
I have CAPTCHAs on my blog, but only deny posters who actually fill them in. Goes a long way to deterring spammers.
M
I had my accountant do the math...
Since Hummers were classifed as light trucks in 2003 by the Bush administration, I could get a write off for my business far in excess of what I could get for a car. Having one would have saved about $12k in taxes the first 2 years I owned it.
Of course, the additional amount I would have paid in gas would have offset that figure considerably. How much, I don't know, I bike wherever I can.
M
Other ideas for Jack Thompson video games:
How about "Jack Thompson, Homeless Ex-Attorney," where the goal is to panhandle for enough money to get online, then solicit donations from old ladies to keep up your crusade against video games?
Or "Jack Thompson's Texas Hold Em," where you play the game by arguing with the dealer about signing loyalty oaths and get up from the table every other hand until the other players have you escorted from the casino?
Or "Jack Thompson's Civilization," where you attempt to remove art, commerce and government systems from a modern society in favor of strict 18th century morality?
Or "Jack Thompson's Wild Filings," which would be an ARG, where you would try to win legal cases by posting the wildest photos from the Internet instead of written arguments and solve puzzles through the use of ancient christian symbology?
Or "Jack Thompson's Hentai Explosion," where a fully rendered 3D Jack Thompson wanders the streets of Tokyo looking for chances to score with big breasted anime characters in school uniforms, then execute successful finishing moves on the characters and their worldly possessions?
Or "Jack Thompson's Battleship," where you shoot your own boats out of the water and win by accusing the other side of cheating so much they get pissed off and refuse to play anymore?
Or "Jack Thompson's Punch Out," where the only character you can fight is Jack "Glassjaw" Thompson, there are no TKOs, and you basically get to beat on Jack for hours? ... the list goes on ...
M
The federal government only exists for the regulation of interstate trade, per the Constitution. It is a well established legal principle that law enforcement authority is a necessary derivative of that mandate, which would be the basis of an argument to respond to your specific question.
But the broader point is one of utility and fair governance, that having individual jurisdictions set standards for law enforcement, the collection of evidence, etc. on matters that are impacted by forces outside their domain introduces chaos into the process of enforcing the law. Certainly criminal investigations into activities connected to the Internet can be considered a world wide matter, thus the need for a more universal set of standards pertaining to the proper procedures and licensure for those connected to the process.
It is a little silly to say that the state of Texas is the only place in the US where people must have a license for collecting evidence in criminal cases involving technology. A PI's license does nothing to educate the holder in the real issues involved in IT that should instruct the policy behind that licensure. Having a CISSP would likely be more authoritative in terms of establishing someone's expertise, and my greatest concern is that having a PI license will be viewed by the courts as legitimate grounds for providing expert testimony in technology matters. The text of the law makes this a legitimate possibility.
The case of Julie Amero comes to mind, and the abuses of logic involved in her prosecution, as does the state's history of ineffective public defence procedures and unaccountable courts. People's right to a fair trial is a constitutional guarantee.
M
You know what, you are right, this really only applies to a small segment of the population that is going to be involved in forensics work.
For right now, that is exactly correct, and sounds like a good idea.
The thing about the law and technology is neither stays the same very long, and judges are not famous for getting the facts right with regards to technology issues. The first time evidence seized from a computer is dismissed because a person did not have a PI license (such as one involving someone from a state without such a licensing requirement), this is going to look less like good governance and more like a fustercluck. Conversely, the first time some yahoo with a PI license acts as an expert in a case and gets someone convicted on scurlulous facts, we are going to be shaking our heads.
Forensic procedures for technology in law enforcement are well established, have nothing to do with those of private investigation, and are better administered at a national level where standards can be imposed across jurisdictions. The idea that Texas needs more licensure in this area than every other state is as absurd as the fact there are more licensure requirements for a hairdresser than a gunowner. Licensure should serve some purpose in order to be meaningful, and I am curious to hear what objective standards this one was meant to satisfy that are not already being addressed by other groups.
M
It is about time some state stood up and took the initiative for issuing standards amongst the people responsible for fixing, administering and maintaining computer equipment. This has been a long time coming.
Texas has traditionally been very progressive in this area. They also require food safety handling licenses for grocery clerks, beverage licenses for neghborhood lemonade stands, contractor licenses for anyone owning a shovel and pilot licenses for amusement park ride operators on rides that elevate beyond 6 inches. There is legislation requiring fireworks handling licensure for anyone possessing snappers before their legislature right now.
It just makes sense to license these people, dang it.
M
I am very interested in seeing how actual game genre affects the placement of ads in games.
Diablo III is an excellent place to start this discussion because it is set in a time and place where modern advertising does not exist.
People would have to be very clever to put ads in this place without detracting from the game experience. Online marketers, being distinct from people, are not known for being very clever (think popunders, interstials, spywear, and Bonzai Buddy). Something tells me we are not going to be seeing labels on barrels subtly placed in clever spots throughout the game, we are going to see full screen takeovers telling you game will start after a word from our sponsors.
Starcraft III, on the other hand, could include hyperadvertising throughout the game. Ad boards appearing on the surface of the game world. Vehicles produced by specific real world manufacturers. Humans trapped in Zerg cocoons emerging to state their devotion to their favorite fast food restaurants.
There are a lot of options here...
M
Drawing a line between strategy and tactics in this case is really just semantics.
We've all ready the classic 'Chess Traps and Tricks' and come into most situations ready to spring out a knight in exchange for a castled rook, force an opponent into leaving hanging pawns scattered all over the place, or control the center through a complicated network or interdependent pieces.
How much of that is a result of careful planning and how much is a result of tactical tricks sprung at opportune times really depends on how you look at the game.
I get into a good game and I am dreaming that night about what I should have done or did well. It becomes part of my thinking during my next outing whether I get into certain situations or not.
Knowing how to recognize certain situations and respond to them automatically certainly is a strategy.
M
The chess part is speed chess, which can be quite difficult and heavily favors those who are well practiced in strategy and able to make decisions faster.
Players are given 1 - 5 minutes each to win a game, which generally does not result in a checkmate outcome. Rather, the person whose time expires first loses. The best strategy is to set up complex positions on the board that require ample thought on the part of your opponent and watch his or her time expire.
I would put my money on the chess player who can roll with the punches and make effective 1 second moves on the board. You can do rope a dope sometimes by letting other players move very quickly and eating up their major pieces when they make a mistake.
M
Yeah, we have something like that at my company called codeboxing.
Developers receive documentation and go off to work on something. The moment they run into an ambiguous or poorly defined requirement, they jump into the ring with the person who wrote it for up to 6 rounds of boxing. Between rounds, they refine the language of the requirement. The match is decided by a panel of managers, agreement between the two parties, or knock out.
M
People are going to have a lot of responses that are focused solely on jobs in the IT world.
I suggest you skip IT entirely. There are 3 things every IT person needs to know something about: server administration, programming and databases. If one of these doesn't appeal to you at all (and you are honest with yourself and know this for a fact), then you are setting yourself up for a natural limit in how far you can go.
Possession of a college degree itself is proof you are capable of something for most employers. There is nothing about your choice of academic major that locks you into a career path. I studied English and Philosophy, was a programmer for about 10 years, and now own a political technology company.
Look into marketing or business management jobs, you do not necessarily need more than a college degree to get started there. Some of the most successful managers I ever had never went to college, or studied something unrelated to what they were doing at that time.
If you look at it like you would be throwing out your degree, consider banking jobs. You will be working with a bunch of systems and your background in CS will serve you well.
Try not to get too stressed out about it. Your future is going to happen no matter what you do, and all you are trying to do is find something you are going to be happy doing for a long time to come.
M
Whew... someone mod this guy up.
Seriously, if the counter position to the threat of global warming has changed from denial to apathy, that's pathetic.
M
Yeah, that's just it. These guys are not taking Unreal Tournament, Diablo, et. al. and passing it off as their own, they are taking some of the visual game elements and incorporating them into a new game.
They are kind of dishonest about where the visual elements came from, and no one likes a shady dealer.
It's clear the modelling they took from other games took time to produce and has value in the marketplace, and I am not saying it's fair or anything. I just don't get why people are so vexed by the idea of plagarism, this is something that has been coming for a long time.
M
Plagarism has always been with us in literature and it is no surprise it is making it's way into video games.
http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=37713
"With a few exceptions, Shakespeare did not invent the plots of his plays. Sometimes he used old stories (Hamlet, Pericles). Sometimes he worked from the stories of comparatively recent Italian writers, such as Boccaccio - using both well-known stories (Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing) and little known ones (Othello). Shakespeare has been proven, by many authors, to have borrowed from the Arts, the Histories and the Sciences."
This is not even the earliest example of game plagarism. Think about Space Invaders, Galaga and Galaxian - same gameplay, different sprites.
Not saying what anyone did here was right, but the only difference between these examples and the one mentioned in the story is the 3D graphics. Not sure why people are in such a tizzy over this.
M
+1. They are too cool to live on much longer.
M
Get everyone organized on the way out and leave a lasting impression! Organize the workers in your workplace. Technology workers are the least represented sector in the US and should be able to reap the benefits of collective bargaining.
Highlight unfair labor practices, working conditions, unsavory boss types, gender inequality in pay scales, and anything else that brings pain to people's lives. Gender inequality is a great one, because it exists almost everywhere. Distribute pamphlets, circulate emails, stick things up on whiteboard, announce your demands loudly.
If you can get 75% of the workers there to sign a petition to join a labor union the organization has to deal with the union by law. Offer people a cookie to sign the petition and you will hit that number. An affiliated union can get an organizer in there after you leave to keep things going.
Coders of the world unite!
M
Informed consumers know the actual prices of component parts.
M
Have done the same thing with every computer I have ever owned (except the ones I built myself). Never had to do it at a Dell, Gateway, IBM, Amstrad or Amiga store.
Enjoyed all the benefits you mentioned, plus:
- Enjoyed the competitive pricing because I was not locked into a monopolistic supply chain.
- Enjoyed being able to pick my own components and build something the way I want.
- Enjoyed not being bothered by a bunch of know-it-alls calling themselves Geniuses when all they know about is a single manufacturer's system.
WTF is so special about being able to go to a store where everything has the same logo? I mean, that's what car dealerships do, and when was the last time you ran into an honest car dealer? Why is the only choice of system really how much you are prepared to spend? Why can you get a better price online than in the stores for every computer in the world except for Apple?
More importantly, what does this mean about the people lining up there and what they are there to buy. Someone answer me.
M
Median US household income is $43,318.
Pre tax, that's $3,609 monthly earnings.
Subtract 30% for federal, state and local, that's around $2,526.
The shinier the Mac, the higher above that number it goes. They make the cheapest models black for a reason.
M