You listed "Unions can be pretty tenacious in defending individuals who have been genuinely wronged by their employer or their immediate manager" without mentioning the downside of this. I know of many instances were very bad people were fired, but the union had them reinstated
Northwest Airline baggage handlers intentionally smashing fragile packages against the walls and floors as a part of a "game". This one was in the news.
School bus driver caught abusing handicappped children on the bus. Was fired. Union brought her back.
Keebler cookie factory. Worker liked to beat up on other workers. You guessed it: the union kept him from being fired.
What use is there for a union that protects and encourages the worst behavior?
"One of the most absurdly anti-union companies in the US at the moment is Wal*Mart."
Anti-union meaning: unlike Costco, Wal-Mart does not force its workers to give money to unions? Wal-Mart workers are free to give or not give money to the unions.
"Unions provide job security since they counteract the..."
In real practice, however, unions reduce job security. When the company has to pay everyone more, they have to get rid of workers to make up for it (the money has to come from somewhere), and the company's workforce undergoes reduction.
A good example of this is the famous Teamster's strike at UPS just a few years ago. The Teamsters won their wage demands, and the size of the UPS workforce was reduced in order to pay it.
It is the unions that assault, harass, and insult those who dare to work at the jobs the union members quit and gave away (by going on strike) that also draw negative stereotypes.
"much like the orignal trade unions before they become bloated fatcats themselves"
You mean the ones from 100 or so years ago that were not above actually murdering people for the "crime" of crossing picket lines in order to work for a living?
Give the man a cigar. Or at least a free AOL CD. I was going to add "like Windows" to the original post, but I figured that this sort of thing went without saying around here!
"PDF really sucks. I understand most organizations use it for FORMs but I truly think a better open format needs to come into play"
Adobe's PDF reader sure sucks, that is for sure. By default, it brings up PFD pages on the Web with the fonts in a microscopic size smaller than "font size = 1" on regular HTML. So, the first thing I have to do is bang on the "+" enlarge icon a bunch of times, while waiting for the slow screens to update in a watery- washy fashion. Then I can read the PDF. HTML is so much faster, so much friendler, and so much easier to read. It is rare that I find an HTML page that can't be read just as it appears. You don't need a 20 meg bag on the browser with annoying "there is a new version!" nag messages just to read HTML.
PDF on the Internet is an annoyance to be worked around. The "read as HTML" feature of Google sure is great.
"I agree. It should have a removal option. BUT, it doesn't do any harm, which is the actual definition of malware"
Thousands of computer viruses don't do harm, either. Many of the Bonzi Buddy-etc malware toolbar and "helper" apps were not designed with malice in mind, and many like them. I guess none of these are malware either?
You have a good point. So much TV production is now done in Canada, because the unions in California have encouraged production outfits to stay out of Hollywood. "X Files" is a famous example.
Sorry, IMHO software that installs itself and refuses to let you remove it without herculean effort is a kind of malware.
What is wrong with complying to "uninstall" standards? Or better yet have a checkbox when it runs that tells it to scram or to never pop-up or run again?
"Now, I'm not even in America so my knowledge of US workers is based solely on Slashdot and The Onion"
Here is an important fact about union membership in the United States. Most members are forced to join (that is, they will lose their job if they refuse to pay union dues). After they are forced to join, they are forced to give money to political candidates and lobbyists. I strongly feel that donating to political candidates that go against your interest should NOT be a condition of employment. The ideal situation is to reform the labor laws so no worker is threatened with firing for refusing to join OR for joining a union. Barring that, forced political donations should be eliminated in order to protect the unwilling members. I have nothing against organizations getting politically active, unless membership in the organization is coerced.
Actually, I think the end result will be new developments in RPG-style fantasy games. You will go into a dungeon and find Teamsters-member goblins lounging against the walls, refusing to lift a finger to fight you. Entire levels of games will be replaced with big red "UNFAIR! ON STRIKE" messages blocking entry. Fighting the boss of a level will become even more fun: no more swords and shark guns. Now, you will fight the boss through mass demonstration and labor action.
Your troll might make sense if it was on-topic and factual.
"What a complete joke of a post, rape as a punishment? What are you waffling about? Are you so blind that you believe everything you hear on TV?"
What does TV have to do with this? I read this from Pakistani sources. Even the Pakistani "patriot" who posted the parent item knows about it.
"Obviously, there is a war going on with the Muslims right now, obviously, negative propaganda about them will be encouraged."
"Propaganda" defined by you as information you don't like and would want to keep secret.
"I remember studying British Propaganda about the Germans in World War 2"
And I remember studying the Crimean war. But what does either entirely irrelevant situation have to do with anything? Oh wait. Your example is connected a little: like WW2 Germany, Pakistan is governed by a military dictatorship that has a foreign policy goal of exterminating Jews (they do not recognize the rights of Israelis to exist). It is not anywhere near as bad as Nazi Germany, but it is rather antisemitic.
"Not to mention the fake Iraqis overturning incubators"
What were these fake Iraqis really, once you took their "Iraqi costumes" off. Were they Bildeburger agitprop agents? Or was it Mossad guys?
The difference is outsourcing. The game industry can pretty much outsource everyone. Hollywood can't: if they outsourced everything, it would become Bollywood, and there is already a Bollywood.
"One is a slowly but surely rising superpower, while the other is a failed state">
I would even venture to say that Pakistan is an illegitimate entity. It broke from India in that war in order to deny basic human rights. The official name of the country is "Islamic Republic of Pakistan", which is an open declaration of war on Pakistanis and their right to make their own religious decisions.
"Six of the rapists and instigators in this case were sentenced to death by Pakistan's legal system"
Only after international outrage and pressure.
"Which does not suggest to me that it condones such an act in any way."
You are right. The death sentence does not suggest that the Pakistani government condones it. The fact that all of the rapists were released from prison? Set free? That shows that the Pakistani government condoned the act.
"Thats capitalism, not socialism. Don't start redefining words"
I'm not. This is exactly what socialism ends up doing: encouraging the limitless power of the ruling class over the ruled. It is the proven way for the powerful to gain the most power, which is why the overwhelming majority of the worst dictators in the post Marx period (Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, etc) are all socialists.
"the washington state govt will do anything (including giving huge tax cuts to the... "
How is letting someone keep the money they created and earned a "gift" ?
"Well, that was technically an attempt at communism, not socialism"
Marx used the terms communism and socialism almost interchangably. The Soviet Union was made up of socialist republics (see the first S in USSR). However, in general usage, "communism" tends to be used for only the more extreme version of socialism.
If I could, I'd mod that up. All of your personal animosity toward me for my political views aside, that was perfectly stated.
I think the enforcability of the EULA would be week. To most, it is some black stuff on the screen that you see when you are on your way to hit the "Accept" button, which almost everyone treats as a kind of "Next" during the install.
Slashdot Mirror
Northwest Airline baggage handlers intentionally smashing fragile packages against the walls and floors as a part of a "game". This one was in the news.
School bus driver caught abusing handicappped children on the bus. Was fired. Union brought her back.
Keebler cookie factory. Worker liked to beat up on other workers. You guessed it: the union kept him from being fired.
What use is there for a union that protects and encourages the worst behavior?
Already 404? Sometimes, even though the OS is Linux, the server is still kleenex.
Anti-union meaning: unlike Costco, Wal-Mart does not force its workers to give money to unions? Wal-Mart workers are free to give or not give money to the unions.
"Wage slave" is an oxymoron. There is no slavery in freely trading, including the free trade of work for compensation equal to the value of the work.
In real practice, however, unions reduce job security. When the company has to pay everyone more, they have to get rid of workers to make up for it (the money has to come from somewhere), and the company's workforce undergoes reduction.
A good example of this is the famous Teamster's strike at UPS just a few years ago. The Teamsters won their wage demands, and the size of the UPS workforce was reduced in order to pay it.
It is the unions that assault, harass, and insult those who dare to work at the jobs the union members quit and gave away (by going on strike) that also draw negative stereotypes.
You mean the ones from 100 or so years ago that were not above actually murdering people for the "crime" of crossing picket lines in order to work for a living?
For the British game players here, let's say we scrap #4, ok?
I agree. No way it it worse than (other?) malware, as the news item title says. I don't think it is as bad as Bonzi either.
"Even if we do count those programs in the same malware pool"
I don't think I want to go swimming there, that is for sure.
Give the man a cigar. Or at least a free AOL CD. I was going to add "like Windows" to the original post, but I figured that this sort of thing went without saying around here!
That definition is out of date, for sure. It excludes a large percentage of the malware that spybot, Adaware, etc are designed to filter.
Adobe's PDF reader sure sucks, that is for sure. By default, it brings up PFD pages on the Web with the fonts in a microscopic size smaller than "font size = 1" on regular HTML. So, the first thing I have to do is bang on the "+" enlarge icon a bunch of times, while waiting for the slow screens to update in a watery- washy fashion. Then I can read the PDF. HTML is so much faster, so much friendler, and so much easier to read. It is rare that I find an HTML page that can't be read just as it appears. You don't need a 20 meg bag on the browser with annoying "there is a new version!" nag messages just to read HTML.
PDF on the Internet is an annoyance to be worked around. The "read as HTML" feature of Google sure is great.
Thousands of computer viruses don't do harm, either. Many of the Bonzi Buddy-etc malware toolbar and "helper" apps were not designed with malice in mind, and many like them. I guess none of these are malware either?
You have a good point. So much TV production is now done in Canada, because the unions in California have encouraged production outfits to stay out of Hollywood. "X Files" is a famous example.
What is wrong with complying to "uninstall" standards? Or better yet have a checkbox when it runs that tells it to scram or to never pop-up or run again?
Here is an important fact about union membership in the United States. Most members are forced to join (that is, they will lose their job if they refuse to pay union dues). After they are forced to join, they are forced to give money to political candidates and lobbyists. I strongly feel that donating to political candidates that go against your interest should NOT be a condition of employment. The ideal situation is to reform the labor laws so no worker is threatened with firing for refusing to join OR for joining a union. Barring that, forced political donations should be eliminated in order to protect the unwilling members. I have nothing against organizations getting politically active, unless membership in the organization is coerced.
Actually, I think the end result will be new developments in RPG-style fantasy games. You will go into a dungeon and find Teamsters-member goblins lounging against the walls, refusing to lift a finger to fight you. Entire levels of games will be replaced with big red "UNFAIR! ON STRIKE" messages blocking entry. Fighting the boss of a level will become even more fun: no more swords and shark guns. Now, you will fight the boss through mass demonstration and labor action.
"What a complete joke of a post, rape as a punishment? What are you waffling about? Are you so blind that you believe everything you hear on TV?"
What does TV have to do with this? I read this from Pakistani sources. Even the Pakistani "patriot" who posted the parent item knows about it.
"Obviously, there is a war going on with the Muslims right now, obviously, negative propaganda about them will be encouraged."
"Propaganda" defined by you as information you don't like and would want to keep secret.
"I remember studying British Propaganda about the Germans in World War 2"
And I remember studying the Crimean war. But what does either entirely irrelevant situation have to do with anything? Oh wait. Your example is connected a little: like WW2 Germany, Pakistan is governed by a military dictatorship that has a foreign policy goal of exterminating Jews (they do not recognize the rights of Israelis to exist). It is not anywhere near as bad as Nazi Germany, but it is rather antisemitic.
"Not to mention the fake Iraqis overturning incubators"
What were these fake Iraqis really, once you took their "Iraqi costumes" off. Were they Bildeburger agitprop agents? Or was it Mossad guys?
The difference is outsourcing. The game industry can pretty much outsource everyone. Hollywood can't: if they outsourced everything, it would become Bollywood, and there is already a Bollywood.
They've actually heard of "Swedish Chef" of the Muppets.
I would even venture to say that Pakistan is an illegitimate entity. It broke from India in that war in order to deny basic human rights. The official name of the country is "Islamic Republic of Pakistan", which is an open declaration of war on Pakistanis and their right to make their own religious decisions.
Only after international outrage and pressure.
"Which does not suggest to me that it condones such an act in any way."
You are right. The death sentence does not suggest that the Pakistani government condones it. The fact that all of the rapists were released from prison? Set free? That shows that the Pakistani government condoned the act.
I'm not. This is exactly what socialism ends up doing: encouraging the limitless power of the ruling class over the ruled. It is the proven way for the powerful to gain the most power, which is why the overwhelming majority of the worst dictators in the post Marx period (Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, etc) are all socialists.
"the washington state govt will do anything (including giving huge tax cuts to the... "
How is letting someone keep the money they created and earned a "gift" ?
Marx used the terms communism and socialism almost interchangably. The Soviet Union was made up of socialist republics (see the first S in USSR). However, in general usage, "communism" tends to be used for only the more extreme version of socialism.
I think the enforcability of the EULA would be week. To most, it is some black stuff on the screen that you see when you are on your way to hit the "Accept" button, which almost everyone treats as a kind of "Next" during the install.