It's probably worth pointing out at this juncture that one of the things that spurs competition, growth and new technology is the fact that stuff is sold for a profit--sometimes a really huge one.
There would be far less drive to push further and further if it were not for the profit carrot being dangled... if everyone were buying from a municipal ISP for just about break-even costs, we might end up stagnating.
The few times I've been forced to use valet parking I will usually hand the guy taking the car $2 or something... the idea is that you're saying, hey I'm giving you $2 so that you'd don't destroy my car. It makes no sense to be honest because anyone in that type of a job should want to do a good job in order to keep the job itself--either because of the paycheck or access to other tips.
But I also drive an 11 year old Honda Civic that has smelled like spoiled milk for the past 2 years that I've owned it, so honestly, there's not much you can do to it that will make me upset...
I assume you're not in the US? Never heard of a rental agency in the US with manual transmission, at least not mainstream rental within the past 20 years.
As a person who has rented many cars and had a share of problems, I have never had to pay for a mechanical breakdown--including flat tires or batteries--in the 50+ rentals I've done over the past many years. I've only had a dead battery once though, but I called the rental agency and they sent a tow truck to jump the car. I had a flat once they sent a guy out with a different rental car, I took the new one and he presumably changed the tire on the old one and drove it back to their lot...
So I'm surprised to hear that someone had to pay for a dead battery--the exception of course would be if the rental returned the car and left a light turned on or something, in that case I could potentially understand them trying to hit the renter for a fee...
Why would a rental car company charge you, the renter, for a dead battery in their vehicle as a result of equipment they allowed to be installed? Further, I seriously doubt a dead battery in a rental car would be considered "damage", I've needed a jump in a rental before, they usually apologize profusely and send a tow truck to get you going again.
AT&T hot spots exist on Boston's commuter rail trains... AT&T also has hot spots in cafes which are at the train stations... The routers are inside the train vehicle and the signal is generally not that strong outside of it. I would guess a bus will be similar. I think the likelihood of a bus driving by you kicking you off your existing connection is pretty low. Or at least, that's been my experience using AT&T hot spots while trains pull up, passengers exchange happens, and they pull away...
I suppose MAYBE if you're sitting right next to the bus and using one of the Xfinity outdoor hotspots the bus' signal could rival it so you might end up with a hiccup, maybe...
The problem I have with Android is the multiple ways and places you might be backing up data...
There's Google holding all my email, contacts, calendars...
Drop Box get's all my photos...
Those are the choices I made, but then I have a T-Mobile branded backup application, one from "Locate", and another from HTC... where does this data end up? I have no idea... it's not obvious so I don't want to use it.
I suppose if you consider the time before humans and the time after humans, then OK sure it's zero sum I suppose because we're all going to be heatless dust one day.
But in the meantime, looking at the era of human existence, I don't think life has ever been a zero sum game. We create and capture things from what was previous useless... that alone makes it not zero sum.
Attempts to apply military methods to civilian business tend to fail dramatically, because:
1. Business is not war.
2. Corporations are not armies.
3. Corporate imitations of military training are almost invariably done by and for spoiled brat MBA types who love to think of themselves as macho warriors, but wouldn't last five minutes humping a pack and a rifle.
#1 is all you need for this argument.
In the US, and most of the western world, there is no reason to allow yourself to be brutalized mentally and physically for a job unless that job is saving lives (either your own or others).
But having it do to you while working to make Ford vehicles slightly faster so that the company can turn a (larger) profit? No thanks.
I could see something like this working if they tied incentives to both your individual performance and the performance of your "unit", people might be willing to deal with this if it means a 20-30% larger pay check week to week...
You mean because GM, Ford, Chrysler (the companies) will be given contracts to build the tanks/etc, or do you mean because we need skilled/experienced workers, factories and other infrastructure?
If it's the latter, I'd argue that bailing out the domestic auto industry is not required. The government could seize any of the foreign factories operating in the US--you think the average line worker at the Hyundai factory in Tennessee is going to say no when he's told he's building tanks now for the US military instead of mini-vans?
If you're saying we need the companies, well, I think the government would be better off just starting their own factories and design centers--between local police forces, national guard, army, navy, air force, nasa, DHS, etc you think they can't drum up enough internal business to keep things rolling at the various levels needed? Of course they can...
the amount of useful knowledge and skills gained in such positions is pretty negligible
Don't underestimate the value of learning how to work in a professional environment, labs, etc... There is a difference between a grocery job and a professional job... there is a difference between a school lab and a professional lab. I think a 3-4 month job is an excellent length of time to help absorb both.
I also learned quite a lot about using different equipment as my school was using only HP equipment, at my first job I was using Tektronics and a few other brands... yes it doesn't take much to figure it out, but it does take time to get comfortable.
Necessity is also the mother of invention, I found that solving real world problems was more satisfying than solving artificial problems presented by a professor.
You ought to be required to work for free before you can get a job? Sounds a bit like bullshit protectionism to me.
He didn't say free, he said co-op and internship. In some majors an internship may be free, but in engineering it's often paid (unless you're working at a company where the payment is being able to say you worked for THAT company... i.e. making contacts and references).
My school required two 3-month co-op jobs, with a third optional job. The lowest offer I received during my search was for 2X minimum wage. The job I went with paid about 2.5-3X minimum wage. I was ultimately hired by them when I graduated and was earning about 3.5X minimum wage, which may not sound like much but I was being paid more than the majority of people I knew, including many adults, when at that level.
I graduated in 2001, so I'm about 12 years out. My first job, which lasted 14 months, was a contractor for a semiconductor manufacturer. They eventually hired me full time (with a pay cut vs. the contracting pay).
The odd part is that for the past 10 years I've been doing work that represented very basic EE activity. Now I'm starting to get into the heavier stuff and realizing that I've forgotten most of what I learned in school... it just represents familiar words and concepts, but the details are missing and must be re-learned.
I am graduating from a masters in computer science program now (it seemed like a good idea at the time, in hindsight I think I'd have preferred to get a EE masters and may work on that next)--I have no experience with professional software development. I have decided that if I were to make a change to that career path I'd be looking at "starting over" from a salary point of view. I'd be looking for a college hire or entry level position (with that level of pay).
I think in any skilled or professional roll there a "pay your dues" period where you are being underpaid for the work you may be doing. You need to take that time and leverage it to increasing responsibility and pay.
That is put perfectly, and matches my own experience.
I'm out of school for 12-13 years and my salary is just barely 50-60% higher than starting, which was exceptional at the time. If you don't make the move to marketing, sales or management you will stagnate. The exception of course is for anyone who is above average and performing company critical functions (but then you need to constantly apply pressure to see increases).
I'm not complaining, I like the work and I still get paid very well compared to the average person...
Umm... I think his point is that as a 5 year old you, if you tossed a frisbee on the roof that didn't me that YOU were on the roof. It means you threw something on the roof.
YOU were on to the roof until you were "6 or 7" and expended your time and resources to physically move your body up to that place.
So going back to the original post... the 5-year old you is like the Russian's--Not on the moon, just tossing stuff up there... The "6 or 7" year old you is like the US American's--Actually on the moon in person.
Do we really know enough about the moon to positively say there is very little value in returning? That is based on established knowledge and (relatively) superficial observation. It's like saying there is little value in exploring the deeper recesses of the ocean's on Earth because there's nothing left unknown. The truth is that we don't necessarily have ALL the knowledge there is know about these places--and so in that case return trips to the moon, for research and study, could potentially yield some yet-unknown caches of valuable information.
Observing the Earth from orbit you'd have no idea about the details and histories that can be discovered by literally scratching away the surface. I understand it's unlikely the moon holds the same types of secrets, but until we start to check, how can we truly know?
The moon is also a fantastic way to start our efforts for settlement and permanent research on other planets... it's extremely close by (in astronomical standards), and it represents a very harsh environment (in human life standards)... so why not use it as a test bed? That alone makes it a worthwhile effort to return.
Even as an American, the AC's sentiment was the exact one I had... Who the fuck is US House of Representatives to have any say over some junk they left on the moon?
Unless the UN recognizes it, it's completely meaningless... and even in then it's still only slightly less meaningless.
Land is owned by whoever has the power to conquer/discover it and then defend/control it. The United States of all places should know that since it was originally created by displacing many native peoples.
Even today all claims over land are only based on the ability to defend those claims, ultimately with force.
Availability, quality and ease of installation for applications has always been the problem for Linux and it continues to be that to this day. In general LInux has far too many choices for mundane things. Anyone with a kid knows you need to limit the choices you present to them--sometimes to as little as one option--otherwise you often get nowhere, they get confused and frustrated. In this case the average user is the kid.
You can tweak the GUI all you want, but the average user needs it to be simple to find, install and start a program. Whether the means moving towards a phone/tablet "app store" model (which most distros have the start of) or moving towards windows where apps are required to have a GUI based "setup" is up for debate. But that is what the average user wants and needs--simplicity.
Hell, most people aren't even willing to see a 1% increase in their taxes in order to fix this nation's problems.
It's not that most people aren't willing to give another 1%, it's that we're so pissed off with how wasted and mismanaged the first 20-40% are being handled we can't bare to just heap more on and have it be wasted yet again.
I'm in the US, when I add up my federal and state income taxes, property tax, sales tax, meal tax, fuel tax, excise tax, as well as all the other little misc. taxes and fees mandated by the government it ends up about 40% of my gross income.
The government will ALWAYS want just one more percent...
So please don't confuse people not wanting to pay more taxes with not loving their country, USA or otherwise.
How can any CEO keep their job after their stock value was chopped in half in less than a year?
The value of the stock, particularly stocks for companies such as Apple, is often based on sentiment with crystal-ball-esque predictions of future earnings and performance. It can take a long time for reality to set in. Frankly the price was too damn high, it was all based on euphoria of Apple producing a never ending stream of must-have products and the idea that the stock will continue to increase... and it did, for the same reason reason people kept buying houses even when the housing market was clearly over-valued.
A solid company, with a good CEO, management and vision, will not start chopping heads just because the stock price is varying. That's just wanting scapegoats and blood.
You don't throw the captain overboard when the seas get rough unless you are certain they steered you into the storm... this is not that case.
Agreed. I don't want a plumber who is plumbing because he makes a good amount of money at it. I want one that actually enjoys it... the ones who get excited about the idea of troubleshooting a problem, stepping back and looking a the completed job and taking pride in it.
I've met tradesman of both type. You can always tells the ones who are doing the job because of the pay.
I had a rough carpenter whose final result was work of beauty... this is stuff that is getting covered up... but he took so much pride in doing things just right to make easier... from adding bracing for future grab bars in the bathroom, to not wasting space, and minimizing scraps. The plumber who installed the boiler in my last apartment created a veritable work of art in copper, black pipe and PEX.
Everyone needs to pick a job that pays... but I'd take lower pay for doing something I enjoyed over not. I could have been a dentist, or a lawyer, and been paid more... but I simply would not being enjoying my life as much as I do now.
If judgments only made me pay for what I stole, there'd be no incentive NOT to steal! It would become a "catch me if you can, then I'll make good" game.
All judgements should provide, at a minimum, restitution for the injured party. In some cases more is needed to benefit the injured and/or act as a deterrent.
However the other side of this is that we're not JUST talking "$10 vs $7500"... The $10 is what it could have cost these individual people to buy the movie, but there is no way to know how many OTHER people didn't pay $10 to see the movie because they got a copy for free as a result of these people's actions.
I'm not defending the way these studios have been acting, but they do have a point---which is that if piracy is allowed to occur with either no punishment, or under punishment, then it will become rampant. Sure the vast majority would pay a few bucks to see a movie when it's easy to do and legal, but if piracy is just as easy will they still pay it? If your set top box could open a torrent and start playing media as it downloaded? The studios will lose massive amounts of money and they know it which is why they are so aggressive--they recognize the foot in the door, this isn't about protecting something illegal they are doing, it's about protecting a legitimate revenue stream that produces huge excesses--those excesses are what translate into the volume and scope of the titles we see today.
That programmers after 35 or so begin to decline and even lose their jobs, or at least part of their wages
This is FUD spread by people who are covering because they are not (and probably never were) very good at their jobs... or by people who are young and can't really say for sure... or who knows who else. I personally know several guys in their 40s/50s who have been making better strides then myself (20s/30s)... it comes down to experience, personality and capability.
Employees and careers are not square pegs to be fit only in square holes. Everything is fluid and flexible. Are the IDEAL candidate if you are starting a career in development at age 40? No... but then again, are you literally out there, at age 40, seeking a new college hire position? I'd argue you'd be considered less than ideal for ANY career if that is how you are approaching it.
There is no reason you cannot build your personal portfolio by volunteering, writing your own free/pay apps, working open source, etc...
I'm all for equal rights, and in the case of adoption I think there is absolutely no reason not to have parity between the genders...
However if we're talking about mom's giving birth vs. dad's, then I think there is some legitimacy to the mom getting more time.
Perhaps they can come up with something to make it seem more fair... 8 weeks leave for any new parent + 8 weeks additional granted to ones that physically gave birth?...actually 4 months seems pretty damn long now that I think about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Too much government control is bad.
Too much corporate control is bad.
Now let's sprinkle in corporate control of government through lobbying dollars and astronomical consultancy fees for former government officials...
People suck.
It's probably worth pointing out at this juncture that one of the things that spurs competition, growth and new technology is the fact that stuff is sold for a profit--sometimes a really huge one.
There would be far less drive to push further and further if it were not for the profit carrot being dangled... if everyone were buying from a municipal ISP for just about break-even costs, we might end up stagnating.
The few times I've been forced to use valet parking I will usually hand the guy taking the car $2 or something... the idea is that you're saying, hey I'm giving you $2 so that you'd don't destroy my car. It makes no sense to be honest because anyone in that type of a job should want to do a good job in order to keep the job itself--either because of the paycheck or access to other tips.
But I also drive an 11 year old Honda Civic that has smelled like spoiled milk for the past 2 years that I've owned it, so honestly, there's not much you can do to it that will make me upset...
I assume you're not in the US? Never heard of a rental agency in the US with manual transmission, at least not mainstream rental within the past 20 years.
As a person who has rented many cars and had a share of problems, I have never had to pay for a mechanical breakdown--including flat tires or batteries--in the 50+ rentals I've done over the past many years. I've only had a dead battery once though, but I called the rental agency and they sent a tow truck to jump the car. I had a flat once they sent a guy out with a different rental car, I took the new one and he presumably changed the tire on the old one and drove it back to their lot...
So I'm surprised to hear that someone had to pay for a dead battery--the exception of course would be if the rental returned the car and left a light turned on or something, in that case I could potentially understand them trying to hit the renter for a fee...
WTF are you talking about?
Why would a rental car company charge you, the renter, for a dead battery in their vehicle as a result of equipment they allowed to be installed? Further, I seriously doubt a dead battery in a rental car would be considered "damage", I've needed a jump in a rental before, they usually apologize profusely and send a tow truck to get you going again.
AT&T hot spots exist on Boston's commuter rail trains... AT&T also has hot spots in cafes which are at the train stations... The routers are inside the train vehicle and the signal is generally not that strong outside of it. I would guess a bus will be similar. I think the likelihood of a bus driving by you kicking you off your existing connection is pretty low. Or at least, that's been my experience using AT&T hot spots while trains pull up, passengers exchange happens, and they pull away...
I suppose MAYBE if you're sitting right next to the bus and using one of the Xfinity outdoor hotspots the bus' signal could rival it so you might end up with a hiccup, maybe...
The problem I have with Android is the multiple ways and places you might be backing up data...
There's Google holding all my email, contacts, calendars...
Drop Box get's all my photos...
Those are the choices I made, but then I have a T-Mobile branded backup application, one from "Locate", and another from HTC... where does this data end up? I have no idea... it's not obvious so I don't want to use it.
I suppose if you consider the time before humans and the time after humans, then OK sure it's zero sum I suppose because we're all going to be heatless dust one day.
But in the meantime, looking at the era of human existence, I don't think life has ever been a zero sum game. We create and capture things from what was previous useless... that alone makes it not zero sum.
2. Corporations are not armies.
Would it really be such a bad thing to view them as such?
Uhh, yeah, kind of...
I'm not going to the stockade because I decided to quit my job in the middle of a project.
I'm also not going to risk my life for the success of a project.
Attempts to apply military methods to civilian business tend to fail dramatically, because:
1. Business is not war.
2. Corporations are not armies.
3. Corporate imitations of military training are almost invariably done by and for spoiled brat MBA types who love to think of themselves as macho warriors, but wouldn't last five minutes humping a pack and a rifle.
#1 is all you need for this argument.
In the US, and most of the western world, there is no reason to allow yourself to be brutalized mentally and physically for a job unless that job is saving lives (either your own or others).
But having it do to you while working to make Ford vehicles slightly faster so that the company can turn a (larger) profit? No thanks.
I could see something like this working if they tied incentives to both your individual performance and the performance of your "unit", people might be willing to deal with this if it means a 20-30% larger pay check week to week...
You mean because GM, Ford, Chrysler (the companies) will be given contracts to build the tanks/etc, or do you mean because we need skilled/experienced workers, factories and other infrastructure?
If it's the latter, I'd argue that bailing out the domestic auto industry is not required. The government could seize any of the foreign factories operating in the US--you think the average line worker at the Hyundai factory in Tennessee is going to say no when he's told he's building tanks now for the US military instead of mini-vans?
If you're saying we need the companies, well, I think the government would be better off just starting their own factories and design centers--between local police forces, national guard, army, navy, air force, nasa, DHS, etc you think they can't drum up enough internal business to keep things rolling at the various levels needed? Of course they can...
the amount of useful knowledge and skills gained in such positions is pretty negligible
Don't underestimate the value of learning how to work in a professional environment, labs, etc... There is a difference between a grocery job and a professional job... there is a difference between a school lab and a professional lab. I think a 3-4 month job is an excellent length of time to help absorb both.
I also learned quite a lot about using different equipment as my school was using only HP equipment, at my first job I was using Tektronics and a few other brands... yes it doesn't take much to figure it out, but it does take time to get comfortable.
Necessity is also the mother of invention, I found that solving real world problems was more satisfying than solving artificial problems presented by a professor.
You ought to be required to work for free before you can get a job? Sounds a bit like bullshit protectionism to me.
He didn't say free, he said co-op and internship. In some majors an internship may be free, but in engineering it's often paid (unless you're working at a company where the payment is being able to say you worked for THAT company... i.e. making contacts and references).
My school required two 3-month co-op jobs, with a third optional job. The lowest offer I received during my search was for 2X minimum wage. The job I went with paid about 2.5-3X minimum wage. I was ultimately hired by them when I graduated and was earning about 3.5X minimum wage, which may not sound like much but I was being paid more than the majority of people I knew, including many adults, when at that level.
I graduated in 2001, so I'm about 12 years out. My first job, which lasted 14 months, was a contractor for a semiconductor manufacturer. They eventually hired me full time (with a pay cut vs. the contracting pay).
The odd part is that for the past 10 years I've been doing work that represented very basic EE activity. Now I'm starting to get into the heavier stuff and realizing that I've forgotten most of what I learned in school... it just represents familiar words and concepts, but the details are missing and must be re-learned.
I am graduating from a masters in computer science program now (it seemed like a good idea at the time, in hindsight I think I'd have preferred to get a EE masters and may work on that next)--I have no experience with professional software development. I have decided that if I were to make a change to that career path I'd be looking at "starting over" from a salary point of view. I'd be looking for a college hire or entry level position (with that level of pay).
I think in any skilled or professional roll there a "pay your dues" period where you are being underpaid for the work you may be doing. You need to take that time and leverage it to increasing responsibility and pay.
That is put perfectly, and matches my own experience.
I'm out of school for 12-13 years and my salary is just barely 50-60% higher than starting, which was exceptional at the time. If you don't make the move to marketing, sales or management you will stagnate. The exception of course is for anyone who is above average and performing company critical functions (but then you need to constantly apply pressure to see increases).
I'm not complaining, I like the work and I still get paid very well compared to the average person...
Umm... I think his point is that as a 5 year old you, if you tossed a frisbee on the roof that didn't me that YOU were on the roof. It means you threw something on the roof.
YOU were on to the roof until you were "6 or 7" and expended your time and resources to physically move your body up to that place.
So going back to the original post... the 5-year old you is like the Russian's--Not on the moon, just tossing stuff up there... The "6 or 7" year old you is like the US American's--Actually on the moon in person.
Do we really know enough about the moon to positively say there is very little value in returning? That is based on established knowledge and (relatively) superficial observation. It's like saying there is little value in exploring the deeper recesses of the ocean's on Earth because there's nothing left unknown. The truth is that we don't necessarily have ALL the knowledge there is know about these places--and so in that case return trips to the moon, for research and study, could potentially yield some yet-unknown caches of valuable information.
Observing the Earth from orbit you'd have no idea about the details and histories that can be discovered by literally scratching away the surface. I understand it's unlikely the moon holds the same types of secrets, but until we start to check, how can we truly know?
The moon is also a fantastic way to start our efforts for settlement and permanent research on other planets... it's extremely close by (in astronomical standards), and it represents a very harsh environment (in human life standards) ... so why not use it as a test bed? That alone makes it a worthwhile effort to return.
Even as an American, the AC's sentiment was the exact one I had... Who the fuck is US House of Representatives to have any say over some junk they left on the moon?
Unless the UN recognizes it, it's completely meaningless... and even in then it's still only slightly less meaningless.
Land is owned by whoever has the power to conquer/discover it and then defend/control it. The United States of all places should know that since it was originally created by displacing many native peoples.
Even today all claims over land are only based on the ability to defend those claims, ultimately with force.
Availability, quality and ease of installation for applications has always been the problem for Linux and it continues to be that to this day. In general LInux has far too many choices for mundane things. Anyone with a kid knows you need to limit the choices you present to them--sometimes to as little as one option--otherwise you often get nowhere, they get confused and frustrated. In this case the average user is the kid.
You can tweak the GUI all you want, but the average user needs it to be simple to find, install and start a program. Whether the means moving towards a phone/tablet "app store" model (which most distros have the start of) or moving towards windows where apps are required to have a GUI based "setup" is up for debate. But that is what the average user wants and needs--simplicity.
Hell, most people aren't even willing to see a 1% increase in their taxes in order to fix this nation's problems.
It's not that most people aren't willing to give another 1%, it's that we're so pissed off with how wasted and mismanaged the first 20-40% are being handled we can't bare to just heap more on and have it be wasted yet again.
I'm in the US, when I add up my federal and state income taxes, property tax, sales tax, meal tax, fuel tax, excise tax, as well as all the other little misc. taxes and fees mandated by the government it ends up about 40% of my gross income.
The government will ALWAYS want just one more percent...
So please don't confuse people not wanting to pay more taxes with not loving their country, USA or otherwise.
How can any CEO keep their job after their stock value was chopped in half in less than a year?
The value of the stock, particularly stocks for companies such as Apple, is often based on sentiment with crystal-ball-esque predictions of future earnings and performance. It can take a long time for reality to set in. Frankly the price was too damn high, it was all based on euphoria of Apple producing a never ending stream of must-have products and the idea that the stock will continue to increase... and it did, for the same reason reason people kept buying houses even when the housing market was clearly over-valued.
A solid company, with a good CEO, management and vision, will not start chopping heads just because the stock price is varying. That's just wanting scapegoats and blood.
You don't throw the captain overboard when the seas get rough unless you are certain they steered you into the storm... this is not that case.
Agreed. I don't want a plumber who is plumbing because he makes a good amount of money at it. I want one that actually enjoys it... the ones who get excited about the idea of troubleshooting a problem, stepping back and looking a the completed job and taking pride in it.
I've met tradesman of both type. You can always tells the ones who are doing the job because of the pay.
I had a rough carpenter whose final result was work of beauty... this is stuff that is getting covered up... but he took so much pride in doing things just right to make easier... from adding bracing for future grab bars in the bathroom, to not wasting space, and minimizing scraps. The plumber who installed the boiler in my last apartment created a veritable work of art in copper, black pipe and PEX.
Everyone needs to pick a job that pays... but I'd take lower pay for doing something I enjoyed over not. I could have been a dentist, or a lawyer, and been paid more... but I simply would not being enjoying my life as much as I do now.
If judgments only made me pay for what I stole, there'd be no incentive NOT to steal! It would become a "catch me if you can, then I'll make good" game.
All judgements should provide, at a minimum, restitution for the injured party. In some cases more is needed to benefit the injured and/or act as a deterrent.
However the other side of this is that we're not JUST talking "$10 vs $7500" ... The $10 is what it could have cost these individual people to buy the movie, but there is no way to know how many OTHER people didn't pay $10 to see the movie because they got a copy for free as a result of these people's actions.
I'm not defending the way these studios have been acting, but they do have a point---which is that if piracy is allowed to occur with either no punishment, or under punishment, then it will become rampant. Sure the vast majority would pay a few bucks to see a movie when it's easy to do and legal, but if piracy is just as easy will they still pay it? If your set top box could open a torrent and start playing media as it downloaded? The studios will lose massive amounts of money and they know it which is why they are so aggressive--they recognize the foot in the door, this isn't about protecting something illegal they are doing, it's about protecting a legitimate revenue stream that produces huge excesses--those excesses are what translate into the volume and scope of the titles we see today.
That programmers after 35 or so begin to decline and even lose their jobs, or at least part of their wages
This is FUD spread by people who are covering because they are not (and probably never were) very good at their jobs... or by people who are young and can't really say for sure... or who knows who else. I personally know several guys in their 40s/50s who have been making better strides then myself (20s/30s) ... it comes down to experience, personality and capability.
Employees and careers are not square pegs to be fit only in square holes. Everything is fluid and flexible. Are the IDEAL candidate if you are starting a career in development at age 40? No... but then again, are you literally out there, at age 40, seeking a new college hire position? I'd argue you'd be considered less than ideal for ANY career if that is how you are approaching it.
There is no reason you cannot build your personal portfolio by volunteering, writing your own free/pay apps, working open source, etc...
I'm all for equal rights, and in the case of adoption I think there is absolutely no reason not to have parity between the genders...
However if we're talking about mom's giving birth vs. dad's, then I think there is some legitimacy to the mom getting more time.
Perhaps they can come up with something to make it seem more fair... 8 weeks leave for any new parent + 8 weeks additional granted to ones that physically gave birth? ...actually 4 months seems pretty damn long now that I think about it.