As technology progresses some jobs are destroyed while others are created but need more education and training to qualify for.
Automobiles made the Buggy and Buggy Whip jobs go away. When robots replaced people on the assembly line, there was robot repair jobs.
Before the Word Processor and Laser Printer, companies used to hire a room full of a hundred typists to type up copies of memos and letters. But now one person can print out 100 copies with a Laser Printer. But there needs to be an IT staff on duty to fix the Laser Printer or Computer that the Word Processor is installed on.
All politics has done is limit what we can and cannot do with technology. Real change does not come from technology or politics, it comes from people deciding to change their ways for the better of the world. Technology was invented to make things easier to do, but it leads to sloth and greed and other negative things. You can get more things done with technology than you can without it, but people tend to get slothful or greedy. Technology companies have to keep coming up with new versions of technology in order to keep earning money, that is greed. Who says the 4.0 version isn't as good as the 7.0 version? Most likely the company that developed it. Meanwhile some people are satisfied with the 4.0 version and don't need to buy the 7.0 version, while others claim that even the 7.0 version isn't as good enough.
When I was young I loved calculators because they made doing Math easier. My father called it a crutch, claimed that if I did Math via the calculator I wouldn't be able to do Math in my head and I used the calculator as a crutch. Technology is a crutch, we use it and sometimes it causes us not to be able to do things on our own. We become dependent on technology to get things done. If there is a crisis and we can no longer have electricity due to a shortage of fossil fuels, how can we function without technology? Maybe the Amish have a point that technology is idleness?
Fill the USB drives with DOSBox and some DOS Shareware games so they can remember what gaming was like in the 1980's when PC clones running MS-DOS were all the craze.
Put in some family videos in AVI files on the USB drives, make them Christmas themed or if you recorded prior Christmas days of kids opening up presents you can use those videos.
Fill it full of PNG and JPEG Christmas photos.
That CD you made, convert the songs to MP3 format and put them on the USB drive so they can load them onto their iPods, Zunes, iPhones, Blackberries, etc.
Don't listen to the people telling you to put viruses and email programs on the USB drives, that is not what Christmas is all about.
Apple will sue them until they file for bankruptcy like they did Pystar.
If you are trying to sell Hackintosh systems, Apple will sue you to protect their territory.
Apple does not want Mac Clones because last time they allowed Mac Clones they cut into Apple's own sales. Apple makes most of its profits by selling hardware with software already installed on it. Cheaper Mac Clones will cut into hardware sales.
If you want to distinguish yourself sell Linux pre-installed on PC systems, even AROS or HaikuOS pre-installed on systems, some people don't want to install their own OS and want a pre-installed system. Make your money selling them tech support and developing software for Linux, AROS, and HaikuOS.
I think you might be right, the early shareware had the nag screens and missed the data files for the levels. Like Doom only had the lower levels and not the higher levels later on in the game. You bought the Commercial Doom and got a new WAD file and IIRC an unlock code to activate it. Either that or you just copied the Commercial files over the Shareware versions?
I do remember some games that where unlocked by a code key though.
All the better to have AOL users link to Google as a search engine by installing the Google Toolbar as part of the AOL software. The default search engine is still AOL, but the Google toolbar gives Google some traffic to keep up their revenues.
Google usually takes a minority share in computer companies that agree to install their toolbar with their own software or web browsers.
was mostly to people who couldn't figure out how to set up their Dialup account for Internet Access. One AOL install CD and they were on the Internet. Plus they had access to the Time/Warner media empire via the AOL search engine.
But now most operating systems have Wizards to guide ISP setup just as easy as the AOL Install CD and most Broadband ISPS have install CDs to set up DSL/Cable Modems and Routers. Plus the media is all over the Internet and not just in an AOL search database. So really what need is there for AOL anymore?
The only advantage for AOL is for those people who cannot get broadband but need a local call-in number that most other ISP's don't offer. I remember bringing my laptop to Branson, Missouri and my NetZero Free Internet dial-up account on my laptop could not get a local Branson number (From Branson for some reason calling Springfield and Joplin numbers where toll access at the Time Sharing Condos and are considered long distance and hence charged more on the bill even if they are in the same area code), but the people at the Time Sharing Condo said that AOL had several local numbers that work with their AOL software.
But now with USB G3 based modems you can get an Internet connection almost anywhere for $40/month or lower. Plus many places offer free Wifi. So there isn't much need for dial-up access local numbers anymore. Cricket has a pay as you go plan, so you can pay for G3 access before you go on vacation and have a whole month to use it.
Well I remember about 10 years ago Infoworld had users vote the best operating system of choice and OS/2 won. Most of the IPs voting came from the bluethunder.ibm.com or whatever ISP IBM used for OS/2 at the time. It seems OS/2 users figured out that if they cleared their browser cookies they could vote again in that poll and did so over and over again.
IIRC in Asia they had TV Game Consoles with Keyboards based on the Nintendo Famicom (NES Nintendo Entertainment System in the USA as it was called without the keyboard) and due to lack of IP laws electronic companies build their own Famicom clones for like $50USD that included 101 Famicom games inside of it. It became a best selling game console because it was cheap and had a lot of educational games on it.
It lasted until the Sony Playstation beat it, but due to IP laws not being enforced everyone and their brother made pirated Playstation CD disks for like $1USD to $5USD each, and Sony had to raise the price of the Playstation to cover losses to piracy. It seemed when they sold the Playstation in some stores they modified it to play pirated games. I think after that Sony gave up selling the Playstation 2 because it cost more and they didn't want a repeat of piracy. But people where able to buy the Chinese or Japanese version of the PS2 anyway in places like Thailand, even if Sony didn't want to sell to Thailand due to high piracy of Playstation 1 games.
I think South America, and Central America and Mexico had the Commodore 16 and Plus4 as popular game consoles because Commodore had dumped them on those markets really cheap. Because the USA, Europe, etc had rejected them, and they got replaced by the Commodore Amiga (68000 series based GUI workstation/game personal computer) and Commodore PC-Colt (IBM compatible PC).
The trick it seems to make a good selling game console in third world nations is to make the console cheap enough to afford, and find a way to foil piracy of games.
I am not sure what kind of DRM the Zeebo and Android based systems have, but unless they can sell games at a reasonable rate, there is going to be a piracy market to sell the games after cracking the DRM or modifying the Zeebo unit to play copied versions of the games.
I have heard that even the Apple iPhone DRM was cracked and that on some bittorrent web sites are iPhone apps already cracked that can be downloaded and installed on iPhones. If they can do it with iPhones then they can do it with Android based game consoles.
It seems like a fool's errand to sell a $200 game console and then $12 games that can easily be cracked by pirates and sold cheaper. Either have the nations enforce the IP laws, or face the threat of piracy of the Zeebo games like all of the others had done.
You can examine the market by paying attention to what happened in the past, as I just did above. If the Zeebo can solve the piracy problem they might have a good market, if not, they will fail like the others before them.
I think you are right and I need to work on my social skills. I need to be able to work with others and still reach my own true potential. Any suggestions on how to do that?
It is not that I am hostile to helping other people, it is just that sometimes I need to be left alone to work on my own projects without constant interruptions.
I am glad to help out other people, but not to the point that it takes up 100% of my time doing so and leaves no time to work on my own projects. It would be great if it was 50%/50% or some reasonable ratio.
Just that most places I worked at, they couldn't do their jobs without me constantly helping others. But I could work by myself without needing any help. I could work either way, but I get more stuff done by myself alone, working with other people tends to slow me down.
I am not saying I should work alone, only that #1 through #3 limit what I can do and how I can work and takes away time via "distractions" for the work I am assigned to by dealing with a lot of "Bad Karma" from coworkers, managers, and non-technical people.
I mean I can work that way, but I would not be able to reach my true potential that way. The only way to reach one's true potential is to eliminate all distractions and limitations from their path. In other words in order to free my mind, all distractions and limitations need to be removed. Or else I just function at half or three fourths of my true potential, but I get work done, follow every policy, work as a team player, do what the managers and non-technical people want, but doing so impedes my skills as a programmer.
Like every other Geek and Nerd, when I do the social skills stuff, it limits my technical skills stuff.
Work for Apple, yeah I guess so, while I don't like Apple that much, they would be the ones most likely to give me the work environment I need to reach my true potential. Or Google, IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.
I don't mind it, but it gets in my way of getting work done.
#1 No OOP used per management policy, like programming with a hand tied behind my back.
#2 Coworkers offloading their work onto me, because they cannot do it. Fixing their problems takes away time for me to do my own work.
#3 Non-Technical people who have no business doing analysis and design come up with ideas that don't work or cannot be done because they don't follow any logic or reasoning. I have to end up doing the analysis and design on my own.
When I was let go, the developers couldn't get anyone to fix their problems, and the whole IT department suffered. It was like they were dependent on me to get their work done.
When I did work, I had to deal with other people and it distracted me from getting my work done because I was doing the job of 5 or more people, and everyone else was slacking off and offloading their work to me.
If you don't hire me or someone like me, there will be nobody to fix the problems of the other developers, I do a quality job of debugging and writing good coding practices, eventually your system will break down. Just that sometimes I wish I was just left alone to do my job, instead of other people's jobs.
that someone had created to defame me. They had used my real name, and real phone number, and I was able to get them removed with just an email from my paid ISP SBC/AT&T Yahoo account. I guess they could check my billing information to see that it was me.
Sad part is that the web pages had been going for a few years before I noticed them. Even indexed in Google. Eventually someone tipped me off about them. It may have cost me a few jobs and disqualified me for being hired for a few jobs.
There ought to be some Internet service that searches for your real name in search engines and is able to tell if the pages are fake or not. Some sort of identity theft service. I think such a service exists, but I don't know how to find them.
#1 Management off my case, leave me alone, no restrictions on what I can and cannot code. #2 Coworkers stop bugging me about their problems and how I should fix them for them, to take away valuable time from my own problems to fix and programs to write. #3 Analysis and design that actually makes sense and is easy to follow. Not vague legalspeak and not "make it look like Outlook" and other BS.
If I didn't have 1 through 3, I could have reached a coding Nerdvana and that would have been my Trifecta.
I would like a cheap way to read the PDF and CHM files I already purchased on my computer to be read via an eBook. I want an open sourced eBook so I know they won't put in Killflags and take away my rights and freedoms for the eBooks I already bought.
Right now my eBook reader is my Laptop and Desktop systems.
The only sell new PC Games at my local Gamestops. Used Console Games, but not Used PC Games.
Maybe the original article was talking about people pirating the Console Games and then selling them back to Gamestop so they can be sold used? Console games lack serial keys and etc, but can be resold, and have DRM built into the game console and DVD disk. But if someone buys a Mod-Chip they can play the copied DVD-R disks for free that are copies of the Console Game and the Mod-Chip bypasses the DRM.
Some Mod-Chips even plug into USB slots so you don't have to hack your console.
Many Facebook games are that way like Battlestations, you play for free but can buy items from their shop to help gameplay. They earn about $40,000 a month.
I don't know if that was the original link but Wrox or some other company was giving away free copies of their old books as eBooks to promote their new books.
Being that if you read an old book on Visual BASIC 2002/2005 or PHP 3.0/4.0 etc that you would pay money for the Visual BASIC 2008, or PHP 5.0 versions of the books.
That link I gave also had a link to buy the books that were offered for download as an eBook for free.
It seems some computer book business models give away the older copies of the old books in order to promote their newer books. That wouldn't work for Stephen King and etc who write fiction books that don't have an expiration date that get replaced by a newer version every 3 to 5 years.
Scribd.com and other web sites offer free eBooks with or without the author's signed consent.
Some companies give away old books as free eBooks like the old Wrox Computer Books all around the Internet and it is legal. They give away the old books to promote their new books.
True because Senior Developers are responsible for the other developers under them to train and support them.
They would try to train a junior developer to improve his/her performance, and when that doesn't work, try something else to train them with, when you run out of training ideas and ways to improve them, then and only then do you suggest they go on probation or be fired.
and poorly worded. You can be charged as a hacker just by surfing the wrong web site.
I remember when my managers couldn't tell the difference between MSN and MSDN, and they even paid for a subscription to MSDN for us developers to use. I went on MSDN looking up for bug fixes, service packs, and anything else to help with my development and debugging duties. I was told that my use of the Internet was against usage policies (it wasn't it was work related and computer development related materials from Microsoft that my employer was paying for) even if everything I did was work related and my manager told me to go on MSDN and research some problems we were having with Microsoft software.
In short, you could be just doing your job like I was, and still get into trouble for Internet usage. That law is meaningless when the description is so vague that almost any Internet usage management does not like can be considered "hacking" or against their Internet use policy.
Slashdot Mirror
I want an eBook device that can read the eBooks I already bought and own.
They are in PDF and some on CHM format.
If I am going to spend $300 or more for an eBook device I might as well buy a Netbook that can use PDF and CHM formats for the same price.
As technology progresses some jobs are destroyed while others are created but need more education and training to qualify for.
Automobiles made the Buggy and Buggy Whip jobs go away. When robots replaced people on the assembly line, there was robot repair jobs.
Before the Word Processor and Laser Printer, companies used to hire a room full of a hundred typists to type up copies of memos and letters. But now one person can print out 100 copies with a Laser Printer. But there needs to be an IT staff on duty to fix the Laser Printer or Computer that the Word Processor is installed on.
All politics has done is limit what we can and cannot do with technology. Real change does not come from technology or politics, it comes from people deciding to change their ways for the better of the world. Technology was invented to make things easier to do, but it leads to sloth and greed and other negative things. You can get more things done with technology than you can without it, but people tend to get slothful or greedy. Technology companies have to keep coming up with new versions of technology in order to keep earning money, that is greed. Who says the 4.0 version isn't as good as the 7.0 version? Most likely the company that developed it. Meanwhile some people are satisfied with the 4.0 version and don't need to buy the 7.0 version, while others claim that even the 7.0 version isn't as good enough.
When I was young I loved calculators because they made doing Math easier. My father called it a crutch, claimed that if I did Math via the calculator I wouldn't be able to do Math in my head and I used the calculator as a crutch. Technology is a crutch, we use it and sometimes it causes us not to be able to do things on our own. We become dependent on technology to get things done. If there is a crisis and we can no longer have electricity due to a shortage of fossil fuels, how can we function without technology? Maybe the Amish have a point that technology is idleness?
Fill the USB drives with DOSBox and some DOS Shareware games so they can remember what gaming was like in the 1980's when PC clones running MS-DOS were all the craze.
Put in some family videos in AVI files on the USB drives, make them Christmas themed or if you recorded prior Christmas days of kids opening up presents you can use those videos.
Fill it full of PNG and JPEG Christmas photos.
That CD you made, convert the songs to MP3 format and put them on the USB drive so they can load them onto their iPods, Zunes, iPhones, Blackberries, etc.
Don't listen to the people telling you to put viruses and email programs on the USB drives, that is not what Christmas is all about.
Apple will sue them until they file for bankruptcy like they did Pystar.
If you are trying to sell Hackintosh systems, Apple will sue you to protect their territory.
Apple does not want Mac Clones because last time they allowed Mac Clones they cut into Apple's own sales. Apple makes most of its profits by selling hardware with software already installed on it. Cheaper Mac Clones will cut into hardware sales.
If you want to distinguish yourself sell Linux pre-installed on PC systems, even AROS or HaikuOS pre-installed on systems, some people don't want to install their own OS and want a pre-installed system. Make your money selling them tech support and developing software for Linux, AROS, and HaikuOS.
I think you might be right, the early shareware had the nag screens and missed the data files for the levels. Like Doom only had the lower levels and not the higher levels later on in the game. You bought the Commercial Doom and got a new WAD file and IIRC an unlock code to activate it. Either that or you just copied the Commercial files over the Shareware versions?
I do remember some games that where unlocked by a code key though.
All the better to have AOL users link to Google as a search engine by installing the Google Toolbar as part of the AOL software. The default search engine is still AOL, but the Google toolbar gives Google some traffic to keep up their revenues.
Google usually takes a minority share in computer companies that agree to install their toolbar with their own software or web browsers.
was mostly to people who couldn't figure out how to set up their Dialup account for Internet Access. One AOL install CD and they were on the Internet. Plus they had access to the Time/Warner media empire via the AOL search engine.
But now most operating systems have Wizards to guide ISP setup just as easy as the AOL Install CD and most Broadband ISPS have install CDs to set up DSL/Cable Modems and Routers. Plus the media is all over the Internet and not just in an AOL search database. So really what need is there for AOL anymore?
The only advantage for AOL is for those people who cannot get broadband but need a local call-in number that most other ISP's don't offer. I remember bringing my laptop to Branson, Missouri and my NetZero Free Internet dial-up account on my laptop could not get a local Branson number (From Branson for some reason calling Springfield and Joplin numbers where toll access at the Time Sharing Condos and are considered long distance and hence charged more on the bill even if they are in the same area code), but the people at the Time Sharing Condo said that AOL had several local numbers that work with their AOL software.
But now with USB G3 based modems you can get an Internet connection almost anywhere for $40/month or lower. Plus many places offer free Wifi. So there isn't much need for dial-up access local numbers anymore. Cricket has a pay as you go plan, so you can pay for G3 access before you go on vacation and have a whole month to use it.
Well I remember about 10 years ago Infoworld had users vote the best operating system of choice and OS/2 won. Most of the IPs voting came from the bluethunder.ibm.com or whatever ISP IBM used for OS/2 at the time. It seems OS/2 users figured out that if they cleared their browser cookies they could vote again in that poll and did so over and over again.
IIRC in Asia they had TV Game Consoles with Keyboards based on the Nintendo Famicom (NES Nintendo Entertainment System in the USA as it was called without the keyboard) and due to lack of IP laws electronic companies build their own Famicom clones for like $50USD that included 101 Famicom games inside of it. It became a best selling game console because it was cheap and had a lot of educational games on it.
It lasted until the Sony Playstation beat it, but due to IP laws not being enforced everyone and their brother made pirated Playstation CD disks for like $1USD to $5USD each, and Sony had to raise the price of the Playstation to cover losses to piracy. It seemed when they sold the Playstation in some stores they modified it to play pirated games. I think after that Sony gave up selling the Playstation 2 because it cost more and they didn't want a repeat of piracy. But people where able to buy the Chinese or Japanese version of the PS2 anyway in places like Thailand, even if Sony didn't want to sell to Thailand due to high piracy of Playstation 1 games.
I think South America, and Central America and Mexico had the Commodore 16 and Plus4 as popular game consoles because Commodore had dumped them on those markets really cheap. Because the USA, Europe, etc had rejected them, and they got replaced by the Commodore Amiga (68000 series based GUI workstation/game personal computer) and Commodore PC-Colt (IBM compatible PC).
The trick it seems to make a good selling game console in third world nations is to make the console cheap enough to afford, and find a way to foil piracy of games.
I am not sure what kind of DRM the Zeebo and Android based systems have, but unless they can sell games at a reasonable rate, there is going to be a piracy market to sell the games after cracking the DRM or modifying the Zeebo unit to play copied versions of the games.
I have heard that even the Apple iPhone DRM was cracked and that on some bittorrent web sites are iPhone apps already cracked that can be downloaded and installed on iPhones. If they can do it with iPhones then they can do it with Android based game consoles.
It seems like a fool's errand to sell a $200 game console and then $12 games that can easily be cracked by pirates and sold cheaper. Either have the nations enforce the IP laws, or face the threat of piracy of the Zeebo games like all of the others had done.
You can examine the market by paying attention to what happened in the past, as I just did above. If the Zeebo can solve the piracy problem they might have a good market, if not, they will fail like the others before them.
I think you are right and I need to work on my social skills. I need to be able to work with others and still reach my own true potential. Any suggestions on how to do that?
It is not that I am hostile to helping other people, it is just that sometimes I need to be left alone to work on my own projects without constant interruptions.
I am glad to help out other people, but not to the point that it takes up 100% of my time doing so and leaves no time to work on my own projects. It would be great if it was 50%/50% or some reasonable ratio.
Just that most places I worked at, they couldn't do their jobs without me constantly helping others. But I could work by myself without needing any help. I could work either way, but I get more stuff done by myself alone, working with other people tends to slow me down.
Wolfenstein 3D and Commander Keen. :)
Basically any Shareware application is crippled until you pay for it and get an unlock code.
I am not saying I should work alone, only that #1 through #3 limit what I can do and how I can work and takes away time via "distractions" for the work I am assigned to by dealing with a lot of "Bad Karma" from coworkers, managers, and non-technical people.
I mean I can work that way, but I would not be able to reach my true potential that way. The only way to reach one's true potential is to eliminate all distractions and limitations from their path. In other words in order to free my mind, all distractions and limitations need to be removed. Or else I just function at half or three fourths of my true potential, but I get work done, follow every policy, work as a team player, do what the managers and non-technical people want, but doing so impedes my skills as a programmer.
Like every other Geek and Nerd, when I do the social skills stuff, it limits my technical skills stuff.
Work for Apple, yeah I guess so, while I don't like Apple that much, they would be the ones most likely to give me the work environment I need to reach my true potential. Or Google, IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.
I don't mind it, but it gets in my way of getting work done.
#1 No OOP used per management policy, like programming with a hand tied behind my back.
#2 Coworkers offloading their work onto me, because they cannot do it. Fixing their problems takes away time for me to do my own work.
#3 Non-Technical people who have no business doing analysis and design come up with ideas that don't work or cannot be done because they don't follow any logic or reasoning. I have to end up doing the analysis and design on my own.
When I was let go, the developers couldn't get anyone to fix their problems, and the whole IT department suffered. It was like they were dependent on me to get their work done.
When I did work, I had to deal with other people and it distracted me from getting my work done because I was doing the job of 5 or more people, and everyone else was slacking off and offloading their work to me.
If you don't hire me or someone like me, there will be nobody to fix the problems of the other developers, I do a quality job of debugging and writing good coding practices, eventually your system will break down. Just that sometimes I wish I was just left alone to do my job, instead of other people's jobs.
that someone had created to defame me. They had used my real name, and real phone number, and I was able to get them removed with just an email from my paid ISP SBC/AT&T Yahoo account. I guess they could check my billing information to see that it was me.
Sad part is that the web pages had been going for a few years before I noticed them. Even indexed in Google. Eventually someone tipped me off about them. It may have cost me a few jobs and disqualified me for being hired for a few jobs.
There ought to be some Internet service that searches for your real name in search engines and is able to tell if the pages are fake or not. Some sort of identity theft service. I think such a service exists, but I don't know how to find them.
#1 Management off my case, leave me alone, no restrictions on what I can and cannot code.
#2 Coworkers stop bugging me about their problems and how I should fix them for them, to take away valuable time from my own problems to fix and programs to write.
#3 Analysis and design that actually makes sense and is easy to follow. Not vague legalspeak and not "make it look like Outlook" and other BS.
If I didn't have 1 through 3, I could have reached a coding Nerdvana and that would have been my Trifecta.
I would like a cheap way to read the PDF and CHM files I already purchased on my computer to be read via an eBook. I want an open sourced eBook so I know they won't put in Killflags and take away my rights and freedoms for the eBooks I already bought.
Right now my eBook reader is my Laptop and Desktop systems.
The only sell new PC Games at my local Gamestops. Used Console Games, but not Used PC Games.
Maybe the original article was talking about people pirating the Console Games and then selling them back to Gamestop so they can be sold used? Console games lack serial keys and etc, but can be resold, and have DRM built into the game console and DVD disk. But if someone buys a Mod-Chip they can play the copied DVD-R disks for free that are copies of the Console Game and the Mod-Chip bypasses the DRM.
Some Mod-Chips even plug into USB slots so you don't have to hack your console.
Well that and sell items in the game to help with game play. Plus a monthly subscription so they can play unlimited with options turned on.
Many games like Pirates of the Caribbean, etc already do that.
Many Facebook games are that way like Battlestations, you play for free but can buy items from their shop to help gameplay. They earn about $40,000 a month.
But the original article talked about UK not Great Briton, unless I am mistaken?
"Should we be concerned that such a scenario play itself out in Ross Clark's UK or in the US?"
Last I checked UK was more than just England.
I don't know if that was the original link but Wrox or some other company was giving away free copies of their old books as eBooks to promote their new books.
Being that if you read an old book on Visual BASIC 2002/2005 or PHP 3.0/4.0 etc that you would pay money for the Visual BASIC 2008, or PHP 5.0 versions of the books.
That link I gave also had a link to buy the books that were offered for download as an eBook for free.
It seems some computer book business models give away the older copies of the old books in order to promote their newer books. That wouldn't work for Stephen King and etc who write fiction books that don't have an expiration date that get replaced by a newer version every 3 to 5 years.
Scribd.com and other web sites offer free eBooks with or without the author's signed consent.
Some companies give away old books as free eBooks like the old Wrox Computer Books all around the Internet and it is legal. They give away the old books to promote their new books.
True because Senior Developers are responsible for the other developers under them to train and support them.
They would try to train a junior developer to improve his/her performance, and when that doesn't work, try something else to train them with, when you run out of training ideas and ways to improve them, then and only then do you suggest they go on probation or be fired.
Even those in Wales and Scotland?
and poorly worded. You can be charged as a hacker just by surfing the wrong web site.
I remember when my managers couldn't tell the difference between MSN and MSDN, and they even paid for a subscription to MSDN for us developers to use. I went on MSDN looking up for bug fixes, service packs, and anything else to help with my development and debugging duties. I was told that my use of the Internet was against usage policies (it wasn't it was work related and computer development related materials from Microsoft that my employer was paying for) even if everything I did was work related and my manager told me to go on MSDN and research some problems we were having with Microsoft software.
In short, you could be just doing your job like I was, and still get into trouble for Internet usage. That law is meaningless when the description is so vague that almost any Internet usage management does not like can be considered "hacking" or against their Internet use policy.