So that must mean that in the good old days before Affirmative Action, there was no such descrimination! Yeah!
Check your logic, please. Yes, there was a historical problem with descrimination. Then there was Affirmative Action. Now that past wrongs have been corrected, AA is harming women and minorities and should be abolished.
You know, to give you credit, I could imagine that a system designed to help the less fortunate, like Affirmative Action, or Welfare, could be manipulated by the greedy and malicious to their benefit.
What are you giving me credit for that for? I never said that--you did. Read my post. I said AA trivializes the true achievements of women and minorities. Read it again. A woman/minority actually earns a promotion or a position or is accepted to a university and yet it's dismissed as affirmative action in action. If there were no AA, then everyone would know that the promotion, position, or acceptance was truly earned and not just a handout for being born to a privileged sex/race.
As a kid, you spent all your time playing with computers, and that's how you got to be so good; that's why you blew the curve in your CS classes, for example. You're the best; you're like the Howard Roark of CS, right? If some bitch or nigger isn't as good as you but still gets into to Caltech or MIT, that's unfuckingfair, right?
You think you know me? If I owed you a biography you'd see how wrong you are. But you can't even post non-A/C, so you're not even worth it.
Does it make you feel good to put words in my mouth? Do you feel all superior by attributing racial slurs to me when I never used them? Do you think that because I am against race-based AA that I am a racist? If so, you are not listening to me and you are not thinking for yourself.
She had to be more stubborn than you did, because she had to have enough self confidence and drive to succeed when all her well meaning friends and parents told her to "give up and be a kindergarten teacher".
First of all, nobody is more stubborn than me. Nobody. Secondly, what is this? Fantasy land? What "friend" and for that matter what kind of deranged "parent" would tell his/her child she can't/shouldn't follow her dreams?
You have obviously never been a parent, or you would know better. Kid bangs on the piano? Parent sees future Alicia Keys. Kid pounds on a computer keyboard? Parent sees future Bill Gates.
you, as a white male, most likely became as good as you are because of it.
So you tell me, Mr. A/C. Does being a white male mean I was born and raised in a magical house in the suburbs with 2.2 kids, a dog, and the proverbial white picket fence? Or has your logic broken down again? Being a white male does not automatically imply being born into privilege.
And what about black kids? I had friends in college who's parents had a hard time buying food. You understand, man?
I'm not sure I do understand, Mr. A/C. I'm not sure I understand how being black means you don't get to eat. Could you please enlighten me as to how there are still black people and how they have not all starved to death? Are all black people poor, Mr. A/C? Be careful what you say, because when you say all black people are poor gang-bangers, some people might construe that as racism.
Sometimes the ignorance of the privileged just baffles me.
Well, sometimes the closed-mindedness of the people who think they are being helpful just baffles me. I mean, just look at you. You see that I am against AA, so you assume that I must be some kind of KKK grandmaster. But you don't even bother to try to understand why I am against it. You don't even ask. You just assume away about how awful a person I must be.
Reread what I wrote. I said that Madison was not like most women, and she is, indeed, not like most women. Most women are born with a vagina, uterus, the genetic programming to release more estrogen, are eventually able to carry a child, and possess the innate (also innane sometimes) desire to carefully take in every word communicated to them and analyze it to death.
Madison may be a woman, but you, Veronica, are without a doubt a man.
She says on her website that she is a transsexual, and that is exactly what I was referring to when I said that she was not like other women. She says that she still has male body parts, but is undergoing hormone replacement therapy to work toward getting female body parts.
Sounds to me like your real problem is with Affirmative Action, and the profound belittling effects it has on the real achievements of women and minorities.
Hearing conversations about how women are just naturally not as good as men at science/engineering/other complex field
That's why we need Affirmative Action. To make up for women being naturally stupid. What's that you say? Women aren't born stupid? Well, maybe it's time to start speaking out against AA. You've certainly seen its ugly effects.
Being told that women only get into graduate school because of affirmative action
Being told that women only get good jobs because of affirmative action
See above.
Walking into yet another lecture hall where you are the only female
It seems AA isn't working, anyway.
Having most of the men you meet assume that you only got where you are because of your looks, your youth, or affirmative action
Your looks? One of my majors was CS... don't go there... Your youth? Being female makes you younger? AA is the culprit, but you already know that firsthand, so I don't have to tell you.
Anyhow, what do you care what other people think? Someone think you're dumb? Prove her wrong. Don't like your boss or coworkers? Start your own company and hire people who aren't assholes. But for pete's sake, your complaining is totally misdirected. Help to get rid of AA, a system that favors less-qualified people at the expense of those people's (and every other woman/minority's) personal dignity.
This is bad both because we might be missing out on excellent people out there just because they don't have a penis and because if we discourage women from entering profitable fields (offshoring notwithstanding), we end up perpetuating an earning power inequity between men and women. This sucks because, well, when I get married I'd like my wife to make at least as much as I do (and ideally, much much more. Really, a sugar mommy wouldn't be so bad:) ).
Back when I had my programming job, my wife made more than me. Quite a bit more, actually. In school, I was a CS major, while she was a Religious Studies major. So attracting women to CS is relegating them to less-profitable fields. See how chauvinistic you are?;)
Of course, she made more money than me because she is way smarter than I am. To give you an idea, she was high school Valedictorian, and I was the jackass in the back of the class making farting noises. Perhaps we both got what we deserved.
Anyhow, if you ask me, people should do whatever their calling is. If a woman wants to work with computers, she should. If a man wants to be a nurs, he should. Why should a person's sex matter?
Oh, and forgive me for being a selfish asshole, but the other reason I'd like to see more women in CS is because I'd like to finally be able to talk shop with my loved one
Blech. I never got along well romantically with technical women, and I hate talking shop when I'm not working. Funny, I wonder if I would have even liked my wife if she would have been herded into some scientific field "'cuz she's smart" instead of being allowed to just follow her passion?
It's easy to say "oh, it's okay that nurses make 60% of what software engineers do, because there are lots of nurses, and nursing is less technical and less important."
Nurses are subject to the same labor market that everyone else is. And if you believe what you read, the avg starting salary for a nurse compared with, say, an accountant (another male-dominated field) is 6.1% less. Comparied with MIS, 8.3% less. So... uhhh... what's the problem? That's certainly not in the 60% range! And since we're talking about money, for a long time my wife made more than me. If I would have continued at my old programming job, she probably would have continued to make more than me for our entire careers. (I started a successful business, so now I make way more than she does, but that has nothing to do with the job market for CS grads vs. other majors.)
Or, it could turn out that schools and businesses are discouraging women from entering CS, and that discouragement might rise to the level of unfair gender discrimination.
When I filled out the application to declare my CS major, there was no spot for me to indicate my sex. Maybe because there is no descrimination based on sex for declaring a major in college, CS or otherwise. In fact, at my Alma Mater, there is a special Women in Computer Sciences group that gives women increased access to grad students, faculty, and research/teaching staff. If there is any unfair descrimination going on here, it would most certainly be against men, who don't get that kind of special treatment!
The reason I responded to you is I feel that people are way too quick to cry "descrimination" in this country. Not a 50/50 male/female balance? Must be those evil men descriminating again! Evil evil evil!
Sometimes I feel like I live in a nation of wussies with each person trying to be a bigger victim than the next. You want to know what I think? I think people should just do what they want to do. If women want to major in CS, they should. If men want to major in nursing, they should. Whatever your calling is, you should do, and you shouldn't need any encouragement or special treatment, and you definitely shouldn't whine about it.
People speaking with you may, voluntarily or involuntarily, be taking in just what it is they are looking at. As you are well aware, you are not the same as most women out there, which has the potential to confuse a lot of people.
Economists think that in general, Employees are paid based on their productivity.
Name one.
Current economic theory (current as of, say, a few hundred years ago or so) holds that there is a Labor Market which is subject to the laws of Supply and Demand. It is similar in nature to the Product Market. Your mistake is to only consider a factor of Demand while ignoring Supply.
Why else would a teacher make less than a garbage collector when a teacher, with specialized training, is providing the education for the future generations and a garbage collector mearly transports plastic bags across town, a function you could easily do yourself? Because there is a short Supply of people willing to spend their days smelling rotten garbage.
If you create lots of value, you get lots of money, if you create less, you get less.
If you, retrostamm, provided a lot of value for my business, I would fire your ass in a heartbeat if Bob down the street would be willing to provide that same value for less money. I'd me an idiot not to.
Now, if you get "Perks" like Gym, free food etc, that's still coming from your total compensation, and on average just makes your paycheck smaller.
Aha! A correct statement! But what is your point? You better believe it makes your paycheck smaller, but to what degree, is the important question. Your employer is getting a group rate at that gym, so if your gym membership would cost $100 retail, your employer does NOT have to deduct $100 from your paycheck. Benefits like your employer-provided health insurance, etc, are being paid for with pretax dollars. If you had to buy it yourself, it would be with post-tax dollars (to the extent that your health care expenses are less than 2% of your AGI blahdy blah blah). So your employer is providing you a monetary benefit without it costing them a dime, so they don't have to lower your salary to fix your "total compensation". Which makes your conclusion:
If the Employer does not pay for it, you would get that money.
Completely and utterly wrong. Your total compensation is set by the laws of Supply and Demand, and your benefits package truly is a benefit to you.
You know, I was about to rant at you. Rant about your 11 months worth of savings after a 23-year career (were you ever planning to retire?), your starting an underfunded business (the experts say the odds are stacked waaay against you if you can't fund your operations for at least 3 years, preferrably 5), your wife not working, your daughter not going to college, your inability to control your expenses, your not moving to where you can find work, and your blaming it all on the Republicans. Don't get me wrong, I want the GOP gone as much as you, but it's time to quit bitching and take control of your life.
Learn to look for work. What worked for you 23 years ago will not work now. Learn to interview. Quit reading slashdot and read everything on this site about how to fix your resume, write a cover letter that will increase your chances of getting an interview, conduct yourself during an interview, and basically just get yourself back on your feet!
Also, fricking network. Somebody you know knows somebody who needs you.
Looking for work at your age sucks balls, but it can be done. Practice interviewing with your wife/friends/whomever will indulge you. The resume should get you the interview (leave the dates off, if you must), the cover letter should ask for an interview, but the interview itself... that's when you sell yourself, and you must perfect that sales pitch.
Above all, good luck! You can do this. (no more slashdot!!)
I grew up in a country(Switzerland) where the education system is not targeted towards the rich(can afford to pay) , the athletes(get scholarship to play golf, lucky ones !) and the geniuses(get scholarship also). It's a country where every kid has a chance, no matter how rich his parents are.
Well, I guess you got what you paid for in your free education. Do the Swiss take time out of their US-Education-system-bashing to learn math?
In the US, we have state-sponsored schools, which are mostly funded through taxes and endowments. To give an example, to go full time at my Alma Mater costs $2933.12 per semester. It cost less when I went there, but whatever. Say you spent your summers temping at $12/hr. That's $8000 (you pay no income taxes with income that low, but even if you somehow had to, your HOPE credit would more than counteract it, so you are really gonna pay no income taxes). If you can live at home and mooch off the parents, relax, you're done. If not, don't fret.
Take a job in the computer lab at $7.50/hr for 10 hours/wk. That's about $300/mo to sit there and do your homework. Live in a coop, eat ramen, rice, and beans. In four years, relax. You just worked your way through school with no loans and no mooching off the parents.
Surprise, my friend! You can work your way through school in the US no matter how dirt-poor you are and graduate debt-free! Hopefully now you'll quit spreading misinformation about US Universities being restricted to the wealthy and athlectically gifted.
Incidentally, how does access to education work in Switzerland? Is it like in Germany where if you can't get into Gymnasium, you're basically fucked and get to go to the Realschule and learn to be a plumber? The US education system is looking way better from where I'm sitting, I gotta tell ya.
P.S. I know you're gonna say, "but what about healthcare when you're living on that shoestring?" Nice try, but health care is free through the Univ.
And for those of us who've used Debian before, we can tell you that, every so often, unstable just breaks. It's not like it's planned, but the fact is, with so many package maintainers, something's bound to go wrong - and it usually does every few months. At that point, you've got to go and uninstall and reinstall packages to make dpkg not complain about weird circular dependency problems - an irony for a distribution that so many claim is the answer to "dependency hell".
I've had unstable break on me once. Synched up a few days later and all was well. If you can't handle this, don't fscking use unstable.
Use testing instead. That's what it's for. Testing is a whopping 10 days behind unstable. That's 10 days of ironing out the kinks. Use that if you don't want breakages.
This guy violated several rules of basic office politics, but I'm surprised he violated rule 24.
Rules of Office Politics, Rule #24: Do not, under any circumstances, attempt an attack on someone who spends 90% of his time goofing off. He is obviously better-connected at the company than you are.
No, it's all about having someone outside the company to blame when things go wrong.
That and $3.79 will buy you you a #1 at McDonalds.
Seariously, that "we have someone to blame when the stuff hits the fan" is the biggest fallacy of commercial software ever. The last time a windows security flaw brought down your entire organization (happend to several clients of mine) did Microsoft do anything about it? Did they fix you up and bring you back online? Did they compensate you for lost time? Lost business? Did they even give you a free Windows license?
Nofuckinway. They didn't give you shit. In fact, you prolly had to bring in outside help at considerable expense to get you back online quickly like my last client. Did Microsoft so much as even apologize for writting insecure software? Hah.
So that is why I laugh so hard when some idiot says an advantage of commercial software is some type of corporate security blanket. Trust me, your vendor doesn't care and won't do anything to help you out of a jam when it is clearly the fault of their lousy software package.
Go to JDPower.com and look up your favorite BMW model. You'll see that they are in the 1-3 range out of 5 in Overall Quality (and all the subcategories of Quality). Ask any BMW owner. That precision German engineering has earned a reputation that it fails to live up to.
Slashdotters constantly whine about how out of touch with technology gov't is. That is until it comes to law enforcement. Then they want the cops to be restricted to using laws designed for 1960 on criminals using technology from 2004.
That is not it at all. In fact, that's no even close. Nobody wants to see law enforcement paralyzed by obsolete technology resulting in high-tech criminals operating with impunity. New technologies that can help catch criminals and exonerate innocents are very welcome.
The problem people have with the USAPATRIOT act is that it concentrates too much power with the federal executive branch. While the technology is not objectionable, the fact that the justice department, the FBI, the CIA, the TSA, and other federal agencies can use this technology without judicial oversight. All anyone's asking for is that the XYZ agency take 5 minutes in front of a judge to explain the suspicion in person X and what intelligence they hope to gather. That's it. No more. And I don't think that's being unreasonable.
Law enforcement should have all the latest toys. But if someone's privacy is being compromised, I feel a judge needs to give the thumbs up.
Drunk drivers pay a lot of money and get back on the road.
I think the grandparent poster was implying that putting DUI convicts back on the road was not the wisest thing to do. Under the current system we take away their licenses, but they just drive anyhow. Maybe intoxicated, maybe not.
The reason for laws like that is to make life easier on prosecutors. This way, they don't have to take the time to prove to a jury that driving while yacking on a cellphone is driving without due care and attention every time someone does that. The legislature simply states the obvious: that if you are driving while on a cell phone, then you are not paying enough attention to the road.
Now the defendant can't argue that he/she has some special ability to drive and yack at the same time without being distracted (even though he/she just caused an accident while on a cell).
doesn't mean that you're excluding them by not having a Spanish-language option in your e-commerce business.
You have obviously never been to Miami. Hint: they have no desire and see no reason to speak English down there. I'm also guessing that you have never been in business. What difference does it make if you have totally shut them out or just encourage them to shop elsewhere? The end result is the same. They're still gonna shop elsewhere.
Second, as has been pointed out by others, you do not have to offer pages in French in order to get business from Canada.
Who said you did? I was just saying that you don't get to do business with all of Canada if you don't have your site in French. Only 75%. I still say better to translate into Spanish if you're going to go to the trouble.
Just remember that it would be more costly to accommodate a different language AND international shipping etc. than it would be to accommodate just the international shipping
And it's even less costly to throw up your hands and say "forget it" which is what most businesses wind up doing (which is what started this whole thread).
I stand by my analysis.:-)
You should open up an electronics website and sell to Canadians from the US, then. It sounds like that's a huge market just ripe for the pickin'!:-) Just don't ask me for any startup money! hahah.
Well, how many US e-commerce sites do you see that have sites that are also in Spanish? Because there are more Hispanics in the US (35 million in 2000 census) than there are Canadians in Canada. But that brings up a good point: In order to take advantage of the 30 million Canadians (2001 census), you gotta have pages in French, 'cuz there are 7.2 million pompous assholes in Quebec.
Another thing you have to remember about business is that you need to focus your marketing and sales efforts. 10M people does not necessarily mean 10M potential customers. Hell, my company won't do business with 99% of the US population and we're doing just fine, thanks. But I gotta tell ya that if I was in the e-commerce business, I'd be much quicker to translate my frickin' pages into Spanish and sell to all the Hispanics in the US and the 105 million Mexicans in Mexico than I would bother with Canada.
Slashdot Mirror
Check your logic, please. Yes, there was a historical problem with descrimination. Then there was Affirmative Action. Now that past wrongs have been corrected, AA is harming women and minorities and should be abolished.
What are you giving me credit for that for? I never said that--you did. Read my post. I said AA trivializes the true achievements of women and minorities. Read it again. A woman/minority actually earns a promotion or a position or is accepted to a university and yet it's dismissed as affirmative action in action. If there were no AA, then everyone would know that the promotion, position, or acceptance was truly earned and not just a handout for being born to a privileged sex/race.
You think you know me? If I owed you a biography you'd see how wrong you are. But you can't even post non-A/C, so you're not even worth it.
Does it make you feel good to put words in my mouth? Do you feel all superior by attributing racial slurs to me when I never used them? Do you think that because I am against race-based AA that I am a racist? If so, you are not listening to me and you are not thinking for yourself.
First of all, nobody is more stubborn than me. Nobody. Secondly, what is this? Fantasy land? What "friend" and for that matter what kind of deranged "parent" would tell his/her child she can't/shouldn't follow her dreams?
You have obviously never been a parent, or you would know better. Kid bangs on the piano? Parent sees future Alicia Keys. Kid pounds on a computer keyboard? Parent sees future Bill Gates.
So you tell me, Mr. A/C. Does being a white male mean I was born and raised in a magical house in the suburbs with 2.2 kids, a dog, and the proverbial white picket fence? Or has your logic broken down again? Being a white male does not automatically imply being born into privilege.
I'm not sure I do understand, Mr. A/C. I'm not sure I understand how being black means you don't get to eat. Could you please enlighten me as to how there are still black people and how they have not all starved to death? Are all black people poor, Mr. A/C? Be careful what you say, because when you say all black people are poor gang-bangers, some people might construe that as racism.
Well, sometimes the closed-mindedness of the people who think they are being helpful just baffles me. I mean, just look at you. You see that I am against AA, so you assume that I must be some kind of KKK grandmaster. But you don't even bother to try to understand why I am against it. You don't even ask. You just assume away about how awful a person I must be.
But then l
N/T
Madison may be a woman, but you, Veronica, are without a doubt a man.
Does that make her a troll?
- Hearing conversations about how women are just naturally not as good as men at science/engineering/other complex field
That's why we need Affirmative Action. To make up for women being naturally stupid. What's that you say? Women aren't born stupid? Well, maybe it's time to start speaking out against AA. You've certainly seen its ugly effects.- Being told that women only get into graduate school because of affirmative action
- Being told that women only get good jobs because of affirmative action
See above.- Walking into yet another lecture hall where you are the only female
It seems AA isn't working, anyway.- Having most of the men you meet assume that you only got where you are because of your looks, your youth, or affirmative action
Your looks? One of my majors was CS... don't go there... Your youth? Being female makes you younger? AA is the culprit, but you already know that firsthand, so I don't have to tell you.Anyhow, what do you care what other people think? Someone think you're dumb? Prove her wrong. Don't like your boss or coworkers? Start your own company and hire people who aren't assholes. But for pete's sake, your complaining is totally misdirected. Help to get rid of AA, a system that favors less-qualified people at the expense of those people's (and every other woman/minority's) personal dignity.
Of course, she made more money than me because she is way smarter than I am. To give you an idea, she was high school Valedictorian, and I was the jackass in the back of the class making farting noises. Perhaps we both got what we deserved.
Anyhow, if you ask me, people should do whatever their calling is. If a woman wants to work with computers, she should. If a man wants to be a nurs, he should. Why should a person's sex matter?
Blech. I never got along well romantically with technical women, and I hate talking shop when I'm not working. Funny, I wonder if I would have even liked my wife if she would have been herded into some scientific field "'cuz she's smart" instead of being allowed to just follow her passion?The reason I responded to you is I feel that people are way too quick to cry "descrimination" in this country. Not a 50/50 male/female balance? Must be those evil men descriminating again! Evil evil evil!
Sometimes I feel like I live in a nation of wussies with each person trying to be a bigger victim than the next. You want to know what I think? I think people should just do what they want to do. If women want to major in CS, they should. If men want to major in nursing, they should. Whatever your calling is, you should do, and you shouldn't need any encouragement or special treatment, and you definitely shouldn't whine about it.
People speaking with you may, voluntarily or involuntarily, be taking in just what it is they are looking at. As you are well aware, you are not the same as most women out there, which has the potential to confuse a lot of people.
Glad I'm cheaper to insure 'cuz my car's black, tho.
Current economic theory (current as of, say, a few hundred years ago or so) holds that there is a Labor Market which is subject to the laws of Supply and Demand. It is similar in nature to the Product Market. Your mistake is to only consider a factor of Demand while ignoring Supply.
Why else would a teacher make less than a garbage collector when a teacher, with specialized training, is providing the education for the future generations and a garbage collector mearly transports plastic bags across town, a function you could easily do yourself? Because there is a short Supply of people willing to spend their days smelling rotten garbage.
If you, retrostamm, provided a lot of value for my business, I would fire your ass in a heartbeat if Bob down the street would be willing to provide that same value for less money. I'd me an idiot not to.Aha! A correct statement! But what is your point? You better believe it makes your paycheck smaller, but to what degree, is the important question. Your employer is getting a group rate at that gym, so if your gym membership would cost $100 retail, your employer does NOT have to deduct $100 from your paycheck. Benefits like your employer-provided health insurance, etc, are being paid for with pretax dollars. If you had to buy it yourself, it would be with post-tax dollars (to the extent that your health care expenses are less than 2% of your AGI blahdy blah blah). So your employer is providing you a monetary benefit without it costing them a dime, so they don't have to lower your salary to fix your "total compensation". Which makes your conclusion:Completely and utterly wrong. Your total compensation is set by the laws of Supply and Demand, and your benefits package truly is a benefit to you.Now get back to work and quit trying to do mine.
I've been having the same problem. But at least I knew going into the deal what a jackass my boss was.
Learn to look for work. What worked for you 23 years ago will not work now. Learn to interview. Quit reading slashdot and read everything on this site about how to fix your resume, write a cover letter that will increase your chances of getting an interview, conduct yourself during an interview, and basically just get yourself back on your feet!
Also, fricking network. Somebody you know knows somebody who needs you.
Looking for work at your age sucks balls, but it can be done. Practice interviewing with your wife/friends/whomever will indulge you. The resume should get you the interview (leave the dates off, if you must), the cover letter should ask for an interview, but the interview itself... that's when you sell yourself, and you must perfect that sales pitch.
Above all, good luck! You can do this. (no more slashdot!!)
In the US, we have state-sponsored schools, which are mostly funded through taxes and endowments. To give an example, to go full time at my Alma Mater costs $2933.12 per semester. It cost less when I went there, but whatever. Say you spent your summers temping at $12/hr. That's $8000 (you pay no income taxes with income that low, but even if you somehow had to, your HOPE credit would more than counteract it, so you are really gonna pay no income taxes). If you can live at home and mooch off the parents, relax, you're done. If not, don't fret.
Take a job in the computer lab at $7.50/hr for 10 hours/wk. That's about $300/mo to sit there and do your homework. Live in a coop, eat ramen, rice, and beans. In four years, relax. You just worked your way through school with no loans and no mooching off the parents.
Surprise, my friend! You can work your way through school in the US no matter how dirt-poor you are and graduate debt-free! Hopefully now you'll quit spreading misinformation about US Universities being restricted to the wealthy and athlectically gifted.
Incidentally, how does access to education work in Switzerland? Is it like in Germany where if you can't get into Gymnasium, you're basically fucked and get to go to the Realschule and learn to be a plumber? The US education system is looking way better from where I'm sitting, I gotta tell ya.
P.S. I know you're gonna say, "but what about healthcare when you're living on that shoestring?" Nice try, but health care is free through the Univ.
Use testing instead. That's what it's for. Testing is a whopping 10 days behind unstable. That's 10 days of ironing out the kinks. Use that if you don't want breakages.
Probably too much to just write DBMS-neutral code and not bother to use any value-added features that Oracle provides.
Rules of Office Politics, Rule #24:
Do not, under any circumstances, attempt an attack on someone who spends 90% of his time goofing off. He is obviously better-connected at the company than you are.
Seariously, that "we have someone to blame when the stuff hits the fan" is the biggest fallacy of commercial software ever. The last time a windows security flaw brought down your entire organization (happend to several clients of mine) did Microsoft do anything about it? Did they fix you up and bring you back online? Did they compensate you for lost time? Lost business? Did they even give you a free Windows license?
Nofuckinway. They didn't give you shit. In fact, you prolly had to bring in outside help at considerable expense to get you back online quickly like my last client. Did Microsoft so much as even apologize for writting insecure software? Hah.
So that is why I laugh so hard when some idiot says an advantage of commercial software is some type of corporate security blanket. Trust me, your vendor doesn't care and won't do anything to help you out of a jam when it is clearly the fault of their lousy software package.
Go to JDPower.com and look up your favorite BMW model. You'll see that they are in the 1-3 range out of 5 in Overall Quality (and all the subcategories of Quality). Ask any BMW owner. That precision German engineering has earned a reputation that it fails to live up to.
The problem people have with the USAPATRIOT act is that it concentrates too much power with the federal executive branch. While the technology is not objectionable, the fact that the justice department, the FBI, the CIA, the TSA, and other federal agencies can use this technology without judicial oversight. All anyone's asking for is that the XYZ agency take 5 minutes in front of a judge to explain the suspicion in person X and what intelligence they hope to gather. That's it. No more. And I don't think that's being unreasonable.
Law enforcement should have all the latest toys. But if someone's privacy is being compromised, I feel a judge needs to give the thumbs up.
Now the defendant can't argue that he/she has some special ability to drive and yack at the same time without being distracted (even though he/she just caused an accident while on a cell).
You were the one who brought up prison anal rape, not the grandparent poster. Perhaps you are the one with prison anal rape fantasies?
Real issues? I read that rant, but I must have missed all those "real issues". Could you please point me to a single "real issue" in there?
Another thing you have to remember about business is that you need to focus your marketing and sales efforts. 10M people does not necessarily mean 10M potential customers. Hell, my company won't do business with 99% of the US population and we're doing just fine, thanks. But I gotta tell ya that if I was in the e-commerce business, I'd be much quicker to translate my frickin' pages into Spanish and sell to all the Hispanics in the US and the 105 million Mexicans in Mexico than I would bother with Canada.