Ok, probably a crappy name but the idea is extremely valid. Software engineers, network admins, and the other assorted "geek" trades need a united political voice. Why? Because without one crap like this will become *more* common. I know it sounds stupid but it is true!! A united politcal group with a professional sounding name (ie."Organization of American Technology Trades" or somesuch) with money and lobbyists to congress will improve the public image of the much maligned "hacker" and give some clout to a long deserving segment of the population.
Some possibilities:
Maximum warning. Employees ought to have between three and six months' notice before they're laid off, time enough to
look for other work in a sane, secure way.
Continued health benefits. Employment used to be a contract: you worked hard for the company, the company took
reasonable care of you. Employees who have been with a corporation any length of time at all -- I'd say six months -- ought
to keep their health benefits until they find new work, a guarantee not even COBRA provides.
Innovative responses. The layoff has become almost a corporate reflex, a statement to analysts, boards of directors and
stockholders that management is lean and mean. When the market drops, capital gets squeezed,or takeovers occur,
employment gets slashed. This often seems short-sighted. Tech workers are skilled and valuable. It's difficult to predict the
nature of technology, and of consumer attitudes towards technological products and innovation. People laid off today might be
urgently needed in six months. Shouldn't they at least have a chance to come up with other tasks, products, functions or ideas
before they're booted out?
This would be best done in a collective bargaining situtation which is almost non-existant in the IT sector.
Plenty of professionals have unions (teachers,professors, nurses for example). There is no way this would pass into a law without being so watered down as to be completely ineffective. Don't like the idea of unions? Then maybe you might want to give up your weekend and 8 hour work day, without unions we'd have neither of those.
Norad was designed to take the brunt of a nearby nuclear strike. Even if Norad was hit, the destruction would be minor and loss of life only incurred if someone were to have been outside around the impact area. That said, I doubt highly that this 'Fifth plane' theory is true. The FUD is still flying and will be for a while.
I am surprised no-one so far has mentioned one of the first things I noticed aboutthis book before I decided not to buy it:there is a complete lack of any useful code examples. A book like this needs code samples!! Lots of them!! And well commented too!!
other free UseNet options are avaiable at
http://newssearch.pilum.net . Just do a keyword search for groups you are interested in and you'll get a list of freely accessible servers that carry that group sorted by a number of useful criteria(message count, speed, posting ability, etc) .
Slashdot Mirror
Thawtw was good. Then they became a "Verisign company". Now you can expect the same spectacular service that you can get from NetWork Solutions.
Ok, probably a crappy name but the idea is extremely valid. Software engineers, network admins, and the other assorted "geek" trades need a united political voice. Why? Because without one crap like this will become *more* common. I know it sounds stupid but it is true!! A united politcal group with a professional sounding name (ie."Organization of American Technology Trades" or somesuch) with money and lobbyists to congress will improve the public image of the much maligned "hacker" and give some clout to a long deserving segment of the population.
Some possibilities:
Maximum warning. Employees ought to have between three and six months' notice before they're laid off, time enough to look for other work in a sane, secure way.
Continued health benefits. Employment used to be a contract: you worked hard for the company, the company took reasonable care of you. Employees who have been with a corporation any length of time at all -- I'd say six months -- ought to keep their health benefits until they find new work, a guarantee not even COBRA provides.
Innovative responses. The layoff has become almost a corporate reflex, a statement to analysts, boards of directors and stockholders that management is lean and mean. When the market drops, capital gets squeezed,or takeovers occur, employment gets slashed. This often seems short-sighted. Tech workers are skilled and valuable. It's difficult to predict the nature of technology, and of consumer attitudes towards technological products and innovation. People laid off today might be urgently needed in six months. Shouldn't they at least have a chance to come up with other tasks, products, functions or ideas before they're booted out?
This would be best done in a collective bargaining situtation which is almost non-existant in the IT sector.
Plenty of professionals have unions (teachers,professors, nurses for example). There is no way this would pass into a law without being so watered down as to be completely ineffective. Don't like the idea of unions? Then maybe you might want to give up your weekend and 8 hour work day, without unions we'd have neither of those.
Norad was designed to take the brunt of a nearby nuclear strike. Even if Norad was hit, the destruction would be minor and loss of life only incurred if someone were to have been outside around the impact area. That said, I doubt highly that this 'Fifth plane' theory is true. The FUD is still flying and will be for a while.
I am surprised no-one so far has mentioned one of the first things I noticed aboutthis book before I decided not to buy it:there is a complete lack of any useful code examples. A book like this needs code samples!! Lots of them!! And well commented too!!
other free UseNet options are avaiable at http://newssearch.pilum.net . Just do a keyword search for groups you are interested in and you'll get a list of freely accessible servers that carry that group sorted by a number of useful criteria(message count, speed, posting ability, etc) .