I call BS. I had a timing belt done on my Toyota SUV at the dealer not 5 weeks ago for $390. I can't see it being any more expensive unless you actually waited for it to break.
It's funny how those things persist. Years ago, I took over a mainframe data processing department. Every month I would be sent a fan-fold report on that old school tractor fed paper that took up a whole copy paper box. It literally was a 50 pound report. I had no idea what it was for, nor did anyone else. It went straight into the shredder. Every month a new bundle would show up. I sent it straight to the shredder. Didn't even look at it. The box came interoffice mail with no return address and there wasn't any identifying information on the report for me to figure out where it came from or how to get it shut off. Not even a report identifier I could look for in the mainframe. I can't imagine how much time, paper, and impact printer ribbon went into it. I mean, how would you even look for anything on that report? Kept coming every month for the whole 4 years I managed that department. I hear it finally and mysteriously, stopped showing up a year or two ago. The new manager has no explanation for it's demise but it was a good thing./Shrug
Choice quotes from a recent article on H1B visas I read over at Cringley...
"There is a misconception about the H-1B program that it was designed to allow companies to import workers with unique talents. There has long been a visa program for exactly that purpose. The O (for outstanding) visa program is for importing geniuses and nothing else. Interestingly enough, the O visa program has no quotas. So when Bill Gates complained about not being able to import enough top technical people for Microsoft, he wasn’t talking about geniuses, just normal coders."
and on later......
"Last year, nearly half of the H-1B visas went to companies like Infosys and Wipro, not marquee companies like Google and Microsoft. Companies such as Infosys are the workhorses of Silicon Valley, large IT firms that churn out the industry’s unglamorous connective tissue: things like boilerplate coding, user support, and network maintenance.
So, why does the US need to import labor for this lower-skilled work? Matloff says it has to do with wages and immobility. He argues that since employers sponsor H-1Bs visas, foreigners have a limited ability to negotiate higher salaries or switch jobs. If they do manage to change employers, it means they must restart any green card applications. Matloff says these realities “handcuff” H-1B visa holders to their employers. "
and further on...
"There are a number of common misunderstandings about the H-1B program, the first of which is its size. H-1B quotas are set by Congress and vary from 65,000 to 190,000 per year. While that would seem to limit the impact of the program on a nation of 300+ million, H-1B is way bigger than you think because each visa lasts for three years and can be extended for another three years after that.
At any moment, then, there are about 700,000 H-1B visa holders working in the USA.
Most of these H-1B visa holders work in Information Technology (IT) and most of those come from India. There are about 500,000 IT workers in the USA holding H-1B visas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 2.5 million IT workers in America. So approximately 20 percent of the domestic IT workforce isn’t domestic at all, but imported on H-1B visas."
Here's the thing though.... according to the Dept of Education, the average American citizen only has a high school education, and graduated with a 2.8 GPA. It only gets worse if you look at the south, or seniors in the midwest. With only 27% of Americans holding a bachelor or better... I'd say that meme is rapidly becoming spot on.
I've been burned by too many "non-core" Google applications to even be bothered to try this. I mean, look up the old Google Notebook. Basically the same thing. If it ain't search, advertising, or social.... it's only a matter of time till you get scroogled. (Funny I thought that was the dumbest MS campaign ever....but it's starting to grow on me).
Grrrrr.... I am SO TIRED of all the apps I use integrating with Google products that later get canceled. I was using NetNewsWire on my iPhone until the new version practically forced me to sync with Google Reader. I resisted for a long time, but I really liked that app so I grudgingly setup a google account and sync'd with google reader to make the app happy and work right again. Now they're pulling the plug. *Sigh*
Exactly. My drivers training included not just looking at the green light but also glancing at the "walk/don't walk sign" once it came into view. If you still had the solid white walk sign you knew the green would stay long enough for you. If "don't walk" was already flashing, the light was a 'stale green' meaning it was just about to turn yellow and you should prepare to stop... NOT GUN THE ENGINE through the forthcoming yellow.
Exactly. I couldn't watch the new Star Trek due to all the artificially inserted lens flares. And after I pointed them out to my roommate, they insisted we shut off the movie. It's like the first time someone points out blocky compression artifacts in dark colors to you on your new big screen pumping out "HD" cable. It's all you can see after that.
After reading world war z, and hearing about their "landwarrior" system - I'm inclined to think maybe we don't want soldiers to have this technology.:-)
"Hewlett-Packard is now run by Meg Whitman, who during her failed campaign for governor in 2010 promised to save California money with better computer technology."
Well considering they only offer 4 classes, and have 6 more pending approval.... that's a very, very limited audience available. I mean, one of the classes offered is "The Joy of Computing". Really? I actually would be interested in this sort of thing, as an adult college student with my employer picking up a lot of the tab. The class selection really leaves something to be desired though! If I could really knock out most of my degree online thru them I'd be interested. Having 4 weird elective classes online isn't going to attract anyone.
^^ This is a good plan. Transfer credits are a big plus.
FWIW, I think you need to keep looking. Here in Minnesota I'm enrolled in a nights and weekends college program for working adults at Augsburg College (no online though I'm afraid), and it's a real, accredited, 4 year school. Getting my company to pay for it too through tuition reimbursement.
Already moderated in this forum... but posting anyway.
That is NOT what the jury said if you read the full statement. Your as bad as fox news with taking a snippet and carrying on with it, totally out of context. The jury said they took the easy questions first, that could be agreed upon with only a small amount of discussion. And saved the ones where people were really far apart and divided and saved those for later discussion. This is the same way you take standardized tests. You knock out the easy questions first. When this person said they skipped prior art... they didn't disregard it or refuse to consider it. They tabled it for the lengthier discussion due to its complexity (skipped it from the initial discussion) and did indeed discuss it in quite a bit of detail. Please quit putting your faux-news tidbit spin on this. That's been discredited several times. Go read up on it.
Well, I think part of it is that the money he's 'giving' away is used to fund programs that help his investments. For example, from what I've seen in news coverage, the vaccine programs they set up buy drugs from Merck. Sure, the foundation goes in there and sets up a program and buys the first round of vaccines for children. Now the program is up and running. The foreign government keeps it going (or other aid organizations do with monetary contributions) and continue to buy discounted drugs for the program from Merck. This earns the Gates Foundation a return.
Same with crops. They are heavily invested in Monsanto. Particularily GMO crops (a whole 'nother debate on the wisdom of that). They go in and buy seeds and agricultural equipment from Monsanto and give it to foreign farmers. As you may know though, these seeds have to be repurchased every year. It's not like traditional seeds that can be harvested and replanted. So the farmers become dependent on Monsanto, again earning the foundation a return.
I really hope the news reports and blog posts are wrong, and that the foundation really is doing good in the world. All that money could do amazing things. A lot of sites though have demonstrated how the foundation could just be a huge tax shelter for the Gates' wealth. I suppose if they donate it all when they die, it doesn't matter..... but we don't know how serious this 'pledge' is 10 or 20 years down the road.
I would have recommended a Roku or AppleTV with Netflix and Hulu Plus.... but Hulu Plus just started running political ads. Arrrgghh. Amazon Prime is a nice to have, but not needed. I rarely find something there that Netflix doesn't have.... unless you want reality tv stuff or those "dirty job" type shows. Amazon Prime streaming seems to have those in spades.
I did a holiday stint at clothing retailer last year for the discount and to make some holiday cash. Cashier's were required to finagle 11 new emails - that's new, never before collected emails, and 2 approved credit cards per shift. Those that made the goal got to stay on permanently. Those that did not were not offered a permanent position. The store was going to try again with the next batch of temp workers around easter, than again during back to school.
Customer survey scores only mattered if you routinely got negative scores. Bagging well didn't matter. Speed at the register didn't matter, in fact you were encouraged to slow down the line and were trained with all kinds of "countering" sales lines to say to people that declined the credit offer. Going slower gave you more time to work them over. You were supposed to keep trying until the customer firmly said no (basically when they reached the point of being pissed). They even had little charts and tables taped to the cash register so you could quickly estimate they 15/20/25% off so you could tell the customer that even just applying for the store credit card would save them 'x' amount of dollars right now on this purchase. The store talked a lot about advancement opporunity and growth through store provided training, but it was all just sales hype videos.
So don't get mad when they hound you at the register.... their job depends on it. Even if it is exactly the opposite of what you actually want in a retail experience.
I bought it for my new laptop but hate the ribbon. However, the huge student discount was very alluring, and they don't sell Office 2007 anymore and I like to stay legit. Plus, on the Mac, at least you still get the menus in conjunction with the ribbon. Just because someone bought it is not an endorsement of the ribbon.
That not at all true. Syncing to iTunes had/has a well documented and FREE approach. You just need to read the itunes xml file and develop your own sync software. Palm didn't follow the spec. They chose they lazy route of having Apple do all the heavily lifting by spoofing the device id of the Palm device to pretend it was an iPod. This was in violation of the USB spec and the USB industry association came down hard on them for botching the protcol. jellomizer is right. Palm didn't want to be professional and code this the right way. They wanted a quick and dirty hack with as little effort as possible. They *intentionally* took a route that caused their customers a bunch of hassle and caused an advertised feature to be non-existent.
Slashdot Mirror
I call BS. I had a timing belt done on my Toyota SUV at the dealer not 5 weeks ago for $390. I can't see it being any more expensive unless you actually waited for it to break.
It's funny how those things persist. Years ago, I took over a mainframe data processing department. Every month I would be sent a fan-fold report on that old school tractor fed paper that took up a whole copy paper box. It literally was a 50 pound report. I had no idea what it was for, nor did anyone else. It went straight into the shredder. Every month a new bundle would show up. I sent it straight to the shredder. Didn't even look at it. The box came interoffice mail with no return address and there wasn't any identifying information on the report for me to figure out where it came from or how to get it shut off. Not even a report identifier I could look for in the mainframe. I can't imagine how much time, paper, and impact printer ribbon went into it. I mean, how would you even look for anything on that report? Kept coming every month for the whole 4 years I managed that department. I hear it finally and mysteriously, stopped showing up a year or two ago. The new manager has no explanation for it's demise but it was a good thing. /Shrug
Choice quotes from a recent article on H1B visas I read over at Cringley...
"There is a misconception about the H-1B program that it was designed to allow companies to import workers with unique talents. There has long been a visa program for exactly that purpose. The O (for outstanding) visa program is for importing geniuses and nothing else. Interestingly enough, the O visa program has no quotas. So when Bill Gates complained about not being able to import enough top technical people for Microsoft, he wasn’t talking about geniuses, just normal coders."
and on later......
"Last year, nearly half of the H-1B visas went to companies like Infosys and Wipro, not marquee companies like Google and Microsoft. Companies such as Infosys are the workhorses of Silicon Valley, large IT firms that churn out the industry’s unglamorous connective tissue: things like boilerplate coding, user support, and network maintenance.
So, why does the US need to import labor for this lower-skilled work? Matloff says it has to do with wages and immobility. He argues that since employers sponsor H-1Bs visas, foreigners have a limited ability to negotiate higher salaries or switch jobs. If they do manage to change employers, it means they must restart any green card applications. Matloff says these realities “handcuff” H-1B visa holders to their employers. "
and further on...
"There are a number of common misunderstandings about the H-1B program, the first of which is its size. H-1B quotas are set by Congress and vary from 65,000 to 190,000 per year. While that would seem to limit the impact of the program on a nation of 300+ million, H-1B is way bigger than you think because each visa lasts for three years and can be extended for another three years after that.
At any moment, then, there are about 700,000 H-1B visa holders working in the USA.
Most of these H-1B visa holders work in Information Technology (IT) and most of those come from India. There are about 500,000 IT workers in the USA holding H-1B visas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 2.5 million IT workers in America. So approximately 20 percent of the domestic IT workforce isn’t domestic at all, but imported on H-1B visas."
Here's the thing though.... according to the Dept of Education, the average American citizen only has a high school education, and graduated with a 2.8 GPA. It only gets worse if you look at the south, or seniors in the midwest. With only 27% of Americans holding a bachelor or better... I'd say that meme is rapidly becoming spot on.
I've been burned by too many "non-core" Google applications to even be bothered to try this. I mean, look up the old Google Notebook. Basically the same thing. If it ain't search, advertising, or social.... it's only a matter of time till you get scroogled. (Funny I thought that was the dumbest MS campaign ever....but it's starting to grow on me).
Grrrrr.... I am SO TIRED of all the apps I use integrating with Google products that later get canceled. I was using NetNewsWire on my iPhone until the new version practically forced me to sync with Google Reader. I resisted for a long time, but I really liked that app so I grudgingly setup a google account and sync'd with google reader to make the app happy and work right again. Now they're pulling the plug. *Sigh*
Exactly. My drivers training included not just looking at the green light but also glancing at the "walk/don't walk sign" once it came into view. If you still had the solid white walk sign you knew the green would stay long enough for you. If "don't walk" was already flashing, the light was a 'stale green' meaning it was just about to turn yellow and you should prepare to stop... NOT GUN THE ENGINE through the forthcoming yellow.
Or, say, broadcasting Commodore 64 software over the radio...
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-08/20/finland-radio-code-broadcasts?page=all
Exactly. I couldn't watch the new Star Trek due to all the artificially inserted lens flares. And after I pointed them out to my roommate, they insisted we shut off the movie. It's like the first time someone points out blocky compression artifacts in dark colors to you on your new big screen pumping out "HD" cable. It's all you can see after that.
^^ This. Please dear lord this!!!!
You mean like gold? :-P
This always seems lost on those people that hate the fed....
After reading world war z, and hearing about their "landwarrior" system - I'm inclined to think maybe we don't want soldiers to have this technology. :-)
This is by far the best line of the article....
"Hewlett-Packard is now run by Meg Whitman, who during her failed campaign for governor in 2010 promised to save California money with better computer technology."
Shia LaBooBoos better not be in any of these films. Or any more films period. He sucks so much. I can't stand watching any movie he's in.....
Ummm..... reading some William Gibson may help you with the reference that went over your head :-)
Well considering they only offer 4 classes, and have 6 more pending approval.... that's a very, very limited audience available. I mean, one of the classes offered is "The Joy of Computing". Really? I actually would be interested in this sort of thing, as an adult college student with my employer picking up a lot of the tab. The class selection really leaves something to be desired though! If I could really knock out most of my degree online thru them I'd be interested. Having 4 weird elective classes online isn't going to attract anyone.
^^ This is a good plan. Transfer credits are a big plus.
FWIW, I think you need to keep looking. Here in Minnesota I'm enrolled in a nights and weekends college program for working adults at Augsburg College (no online though I'm afraid), and it's a real, accredited, 4 year school. Getting my company to pay for it too through tuition reimbursement.
and here I though it meant Kobe Bryant. The jokes not as fun now :-(
Already moderated in this forum... but posting anyway.
That is NOT what the jury said if you read the full statement. Your as bad as fox news with taking a snippet and carrying on with it, totally out of context. The jury said they took the easy questions first, that could be agreed upon with only a small amount of discussion. And saved the ones where people were really far apart and divided and saved those for later discussion. This is the same way you take standardized tests. You knock out the easy questions first. When this person said they skipped prior art... they didn't disregard it or refuse to consider it. They tabled it for the lengthier discussion due to its complexity (skipped it from the initial discussion) and did indeed discuss it in quite a bit of detail. Please quit putting your faux-news tidbit spin on this. That's been discredited several times. Go read up on it.
Indeed... buy it now... $9.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALPHASMART-dana-wireless-Portable-Word-Processor-100-Tested-Working-DANA-/370652122952?pt=BI_Typewriters_Word_Processors&hash=item564c968f48
Well, I think part of it is that the money he's 'giving' away is used to fund programs that help his investments. For example, from what I've seen in news coverage, the vaccine programs they set up buy drugs from Merck. Sure, the foundation goes in there and sets up a program and buys the first round of vaccines for children. Now the program is up and running. The foreign government keeps it going (or other aid organizations do with monetary contributions) and continue to buy discounted drugs for the program from Merck. This earns the Gates Foundation a return.
Same with crops. They are heavily invested in Monsanto. Particularily GMO crops (a whole 'nother debate on the wisdom of that). They go in and buy seeds and agricultural equipment from Monsanto and give it to foreign farmers. As you may know though, these seeds have to be repurchased every year. It's not like traditional seeds that can be harvested and replanted. So the farmers become dependent on Monsanto, again earning the foundation a return.
I really hope the news reports and blog posts are wrong, and that the foundation really is doing good in the world. All that money could do amazing things. A lot of sites though have demonstrated how the foundation could just be a huge tax shelter for the Gates' wealth. I suppose if they donate it all when they die, it doesn't matter..... but we don't know how serious this 'pledge' is 10 or 20 years down the road.
I would have recommended a Roku or AppleTV with Netflix and Hulu Plus.... but Hulu Plus just started running political ads. Arrrgghh. Amazon Prime is a nice to have, but not needed. I rarely find something there that Netflix doesn't have.... unless you want reality tv stuff or those "dirty job" type shows. Amazon Prime streaming seems to have those in spades.
I did a holiday stint at clothing retailer last year for the discount and to make some holiday cash. Cashier's were required to finagle 11 new emails - that's new, never before collected emails, and 2 approved credit cards per shift. Those that made the goal got to stay on permanently. Those that did not were not offered a permanent position. The store was going to try again with the next batch of temp workers around easter, than again during back to school.
Customer survey scores only mattered if you routinely got negative scores. Bagging well didn't matter. Speed at the register didn't matter, in fact you were encouraged to slow down the line and were trained with all kinds of "countering" sales lines to say to people that declined the credit offer. Going slower gave you more time to work them over. You were supposed to keep trying until the customer firmly said no (basically when they reached the point of being pissed). They even had little charts and tables taped to the cash register so you could quickly estimate they 15/20/25% off so you could tell the customer that even just applying for the store credit card would save them 'x' amount of dollars right now on this purchase. The store talked a lot about advancement opporunity and growth through store provided training, but it was all just sales hype videos.
So don't get mad when they hound you at the register.... their job depends on it. Even if it is exactly the opposite of what you actually want in a retail experience.
I bought it for my new laptop but hate the ribbon. However, the huge student discount was very alluring, and they don't sell Office 2007 anymore and I like to stay legit. Plus, on the Mac, at least you still get the menus in conjunction with the ribbon. Just because someone bought it is not an endorsement of the ribbon.
That not at all true. Syncing to iTunes had/has a well documented and FREE approach. You just need to read the itunes xml file and develop your own sync software. Palm didn't follow the spec. They chose they lazy route of having Apple do all the heavily lifting by spoofing the device id of the Palm device to pretend it was an iPod. This was in violation of the USB spec and the USB industry association came down hard on them for botching the protcol. jellomizer is right. Palm didn't want to be professional and code this the right way. They wanted a quick and dirty hack with as little effort as possible. They *intentionally* took a route that caused their customers a bunch of hassle and caused an advertised feature to be non-existent.