The government reflects those who hold power. Absent any substantial lobbying power, the government will screw American information workers to put bucks in the pockets of those who pay the bills. The excuses made for it are largely irrelevant, even in a court.
I'm generally opposed to being a member of a Union, however since the government seems to have conspired to very specifically fuck us over I think some sort of political organization would benefit us at this point. Not a union so much as a lobby.
Can you imagine the reaction if the the gov't created a visa class for foreign grocery workers, truck drivers, or auto workers? As long as they have protection, I want it too. If and when we have free trade in those, crops, steel and booze, then we'll talk about more visas for tech workers.
That Indians immigrated from somewhere too. If we're going to try and dodge the current immigration issue by going back in time, we should go all the way and kick everyone out of America. Buffalo nativism FTW.
There's no shortage of American born engineers. Companies simply aren't willing to pay them enough. Smart people not bound to a job have a lot of options in America, and many of them pay better than programming. So engineers either move into management, law, medicine, or (other forms of) business. Yes programmers make more than some other professions, but the good ones are also smart enough to do other things if they pay is better.
Therefore, companies are now lobbying the government to provide them more indentured servants from abroad, who, for legal or practical reasons, can't leave.
I can't speak for IT positions, but programmers seem to benefit from CS training. Vocational school is unnecessary, as you can learn most everything on the job. At best, vocational training for programmers would exacerbate crappiness level of production code in the world, which is already pretty high, by leading people out of CS.
As for lousy CS grad students, you should probably ask your school why they admit students who are clearly just trying to get a job into a program that is not supposed to be vocational or why they admit lousy students at all.
If you limit yourself to the South you depress your own wages. Whatever your reason, if you stay where supply is high and demand is low, that is the barrier between yourself and better pay, not H1-B visas.
FWIW, I agree with pretty much everyone that the health care system is fucked up. IIWKOTW (if I were king of the world) I would ban breeding by those who can't afford it, but I'm told that makes me some kind of Nazi or something. "You know who else was logical and shit..."
700MB? That's a very lowball estimate. A DVD can be what 8GB? And some games install from multiple DVDs so you could be looking at ~30GB in data, which is a lot for a laptop.
So whenever you don't want to support your game any more, publish a "crack" for your game (or link to the one somebody probably made already), and put the data in a free repository somewhere.
I put anonymous and immoral into the Wikipedia search and the first result was "Casual Sex." Thank God that wasn't a GIS. You have to be very careful what you type into boxes on the Internets these days.
Consoles see more sales because places like Gamestop allow them to trade stuff in... which is IMO is why console gaming attracts more young people.
True. Also a decent video card costs as much as an Xbox and won't stay current for as long. Then you usually need more RAM, etc.
Back when I was in high school, we would have LAN parties, but most games back then would run on ordinary computer hardware -- the same thing you would type your papers on, that Dad used to pay the bills. Heck Doom even ran OK on a 486 with no FPU. Can you imagine that today?
With the cost of hardware so high, it's amazing that any kids these days pay for software.
Surely if you play games you now that speed of your CPU doesn't really matter any more. That leads to an unfortunate thing, though. They do put GPU requirements in the specs, but it'll be something like minimum 9600GTS or some ATI card. Am I supposed to keep track of every video cards performance to know whether its better than the random card on the box? Now there are some objective measures out there, but game developers seem to be loathe to put those numbers on the box.
Careful with the MS Natural Keyboards. I love the action on them, but I have broken 4 in a year, including both home and work, and my latest home device has a broken NumLock key. Either I have really bad luck, or there's a manufacturing problem. Don't get addicted.
Fit is more complex than just the size, and a good fit will keep your feet more comfortable. Workmanship shows itself in the long run, in the degree to which your shoes hold together. Better leather complements better workmanship.
Speaking as a person who buys 100 dollar shoes and wears them 'till they start to fall apart, then gets them repaired and wears them some more.
All the airlines have BS fees now. Most of them, however, won't fly you off the runway for 5 quid. Do you feel less screwed when you pay 20 pounds fees on a 200 pound flight?
Not sure whether you'd call it cause or not, but a great deal of technical field workers come from cultures where women are unlikely to work outside the house. I'm sure that contributes.
Using the word isopropyl should get you pretty far with the pharmacist. Apparently isopropanol is correct as well, but I've seen the former more often on products.
Anybody who thinks the same U.S. government responsible for Katrina, Bridge to Nowhere, $500 toilet seats, No Child Left Behind, and no-bid contracts could do anything cheaply or well.
Look what happened with Medicare: no patient wants to have just medicare, and no doctors want to deal with the bureaucracy.
Fix our government first, then we'll see if they're qualified to take on any more responsibility.
Gaging risk has always been the most important part of the insurance industry. Yet medical history has traditionally been considered a private or even personal matter. And now the conflict of ideas.
Slashdot Mirror
The government reflects those who hold power. Absent any substantial lobbying power, the government will screw American information workers to put bucks in the pockets of those who pay the bills. The excuses made for it are largely irrelevant, even in a court.
I'm generally opposed to being a member of a Union, however since the government seems to have conspired to very specifically fuck us over I think some sort of political organization would benefit us at this point. Not a union so much as a lobby.
Can you imagine the reaction if the the gov't created a visa class for foreign grocery workers, truck drivers, or auto workers? As long as they have protection, I want it too. If and when we have free trade in those, crops, steel and booze, then we'll talk about more visas for tech workers.
That Indians immigrated from somewhere too. If we're going to try and dodge the current immigration issue by going back in time, we should go all the way and kick everyone out of America. Buffalo nativism FTW.
There's no shortage of American born engineers. Companies simply aren't willing to pay them enough. Smart people not bound to a job have a lot of options in America, and many of them pay better than programming. So engineers either move into management, law, medicine, or (other forms of) business. Yes programmers make more than some other professions, but the good ones are also smart enough to do other things if they pay is better.
Therefore, companies are now lobbying the government to provide them more indentured servants from abroad, who, for legal or practical reasons, can't leave.
I can't speak for IT positions, but programmers seem to benefit from CS training. Vocational school is unnecessary, as you can learn most everything on the job. At best, vocational training for programmers would exacerbate crappiness level of production code in the world, which is already pretty high, by leading people out of CS.
As for lousy CS grad students, you should probably ask your school why they admit students who are clearly just trying to get a job into a program that is not supposed to be vocational or why they admit lousy students at all.
If you limit yourself to the South you depress your own wages. Whatever your reason, if you stay where supply is high and demand is low, that is the barrier between yourself and better pay, not H1-B visas.
FWIW, I agree with pretty much everyone that the health care system is fucked up. IIWKOTW (if I were king of the world) I would ban breeding by those who can't afford it, but I'm told that makes me some kind of Nazi or something. "You know who else was logical and shit..."
700MB? That's a very lowball estimate. A DVD can be what 8GB? And some games install from multiple DVDs so you could be looking at ~30GB in data, which is a lot for a laptop.
So whenever you don't want to support your game any more, publish a "crack" for your game (or link to the one somebody probably made already), and put the data in a free repository somewhere.
I put anonymous and immoral into the Wikipedia search and the first result was "Casual Sex." Thank God that wasn't a GIS. You have to be very careful what you type into boxes on the Internets these days.
Consoles see more sales because places like Gamestop allow them to trade stuff in... which is IMO is why console gaming attracts more young people.
True. Also a decent video card costs as much as an Xbox and won't stay current for as long. Then you usually need more RAM, etc.
Back when I was in high school, we would have LAN parties, but most games back then would run on ordinary computer hardware -- the same thing you would type your papers on, that Dad used to pay the bills. Heck Doom even ran OK on a 486 with no FPU. Can you imagine that today?
With the cost of hardware so high, it's amazing that any kids these days pay for software.
Surely if you play games you now that speed of your CPU doesn't really matter any more. That leads to an unfortunate thing, though. They do put GPU requirements in the specs, but it'll be something like minimum 9600GTS or some ATI card. Am I supposed to keep track of every video cards performance to know whether its better than the random card on the box? Now there are some objective measures out there, but game developers seem to be loathe to put those numbers on the box.
Caveat: If two women show up to a party in the same outfit they're embarrassed. If two men show up similarly dressed they say "nice shirt."
Because used cars start needing serious maintenance, which is not free.
Completely OT: but...
Careful with the MS Natural Keyboards. I love the action on them, but I have broken 4 in a year, including both home and work, and my latest home device has a broken NumLock key. Either I have really bad luck, or there's a manufacturing problem. Don't get addicted.
Fit is more complex than just the size, and a good fit will keep your feet more comfortable. Workmanship shows itself in the long run, in the degree to which your shoes hold together. Better leather complements better workmanship.
Speaking as a person who buys 100 dollar shoes and wears them 'till they start to fall apart, then gets them repaired and wears them some more.
Most of those "vacation memberships" are scams, so it doesn't surprise me you get a lot of people wanting refunds.
I realize it's not exactly the same but airlines cancel flights all the time, with relative impunity.
All the airlines have BS fees now. Most of them, however, won't fly you off the runway for 5 quid. Do you feel less screwed when you pay 20 pounds fees on a 200 pound flight?
Not sure whether you'd call it cause or not, but a great deal of technical field workers come from cultures where women are unlikely to work outside the house. I'm sure that contributes.
Apparently yes. This is not the first I've heard it.
Except that it doesn't matter to the scoring of basketball whether the 3 point shot is easy or hard.
Using the word isopropyl should get you pretty far with the pharmacist. Apparently isopropanol is correct as well, but I've seen the former more often on products.
I will accept nothing less than slashdot comments to read with my fine whisky.
Anybody who thinks the same U.S. government responsible for Katrina, Bridge to Nowhere, $500 toilet seats, No Child Left Behind, and no-bid contracts could do anything cheaply or well.
Look what happened with Medicare: no patient wants to have just medicare, and no doctors want to deal with the bureaucracy.
Fix our government first, then we'll see if they're qualified to take on any more responsibility.
Gaging risk has always been the most important part of the insurance industry. Yet medical history has traditionally been considered a private or even personal matter. And now the conflict of ideas.