The population of the United States was 180 million at the time of writing, but there are 64 million over 60 years of age, leaving 116 million to do the work.
People under 21 total 59 million which leaves 57 million people to do the work.
Because of the 31 million government employees, there are only 26 million left to do the work.
Six million in the armed forces leave twenty million workers.
Deduct 17 million State, county, and city employees, and we are left with three million to do the work.
There are 2,500,000 people in hospitals, asylums, and treatment facilities leaving half a million workers.
However, 450,000 of these are bums or others who will not work, leaving 50,000 to do the work.
Now, it may interest you to know that there are 49,998 people in jail so that leaves just 2 people to do all the work, and that is you and me, and I'm getting tired of doing everything myself!
I believe a lot has changed in India in the last 10 years. There are much higher salaries (compared to what they were around '93 time), the internet and the satellite/cable TV has bridged a cultural gap (you get the same info from anywhere in the world), the work environment seems to be very good (as more and more people stay back in India, or opt to return to India, it becomes autocatalytic).
The main advantage of killing off old culture is that the corporations can continue to "make" new culture: e.g., master piece mythological/historical stories versus "who will this bachelor choose for his date". If the longer lasting content is killed, there is much more demand for junk content that becomes obsolete in a few months.
Just like we don't see companies advertise "run three miles a day to reduce fat" and instead focus on "eat these amazing pills", corporations would rather want the consumers to consume whatever makes the corporations profitable.
Especially considering that the tech books these days are becoming obsolete very fast, the tissue paper type books are probably what is good. This is not the "Gray's Anatomy", or "Transport Phenomena", or Knuth's works. Books like, "Learn VB x.y.z in 21 days" are relevant only so far.
Regarding ripping of copyrighted work, it is a false accusation. The books are not to be *sold* outside India (they are often called as Eastern Economy Editions). However, nothing prevents one from going to India, buying it, and bringing it to US. Just like, nothing prevents a US tourist from going to India, buying inexpesive gifts from India , and giving them to friends.
I believe the practice of software development is being commoditized. E.g. it doesn't take a lot more training for a person to do simple tasks of software testing as it would be needed for training someone in testing cars. The 100k salaries for people sitting in meetings sipping coffee and coke while browsing and checking email/stock portfolios or IM'ing friends over their wireless laptops is difficult to sustain.
The complexities of software development (for many tasks) is approaching the complexity of repairing cars and such things. Likewise, the salaries/jobs, etc.
The added effect is that the jobs can be outsourced to anywhere -- some guy on a boat in Hawaii could fix your "e-car" as easily as a guy in a cubicle farm down the street. That is not the case with Chefs, repairmen, barbers, etc.
The new tools and toolsmiths can work from afar. And anyone can become a toolsmith with some basic math/logic education (sadly that is a problem in US education).
It seems to actively discourage immigration. Nothing more, nothing less. Three year terms (with no renewal) is not much of an incentive for anyone to come to US to work. It is a thinly veiled attempt to say "no H1's", without the courage to say so.
If such proposals go on, with no foreign workers to work in US, and US people complain about outsourcing of jobs to other countries, US is heading towards becoming a protectionist and reclusive country.
Unfortunately, it has been a fashion on slashdot to berate RMS. However, I am sure RMS does not mind not winning the popularity contest. Same holds true for people that appreciate his principles, ideology, and the uncompromising way he adheres to his principles.
S
Let's hope he won't get into trouble again
on
Kevin Free
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Say, by watching DVDs on linux, or reading an e-book on linux, or... The odds are stacked against him. I suggest he take up VB.Net classes and work on IE plugins and IIS maintenance.
M$FT is still making huge profits! There was a tech boom and bust cycle, and 100k+ jobs for "assembling software components" is not a sustainable thing.
BTW, Richard Stallman started the FSF close to 20 years ago. Linux actually was also a buzz word that resulted in the biggest jumping IPO (where we are currently posting).
S
So much data -- a little OT
on
1.5 TB DVD by 2010
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The amount of data on a single disk made me think what the uses could be, and the primary thing I could come up with is hi-res multimedia. There was an article in one of the popular magazines about the next 10 years advancements, and one of them was about digital projections that fool the eye -- one would not be able to distinguish between real images and digital images.
But, this also makes me wonder... Our ability to process information has stayed the same (e.g., it still takes me awful lot of time to read a small book -- let alone the LOTR), but the amount of data is just exploding.
May be there would be some new technology that leads us into faster/better processing of the tonnes of information?
S
Re:Just ignorance, nothing more
on
Linus Is A Hero
·
· Score: 2
Why is the parent a troll? The post was on topic (talks about why RMS was not credited) and quite reasonable (with a couple of explanations of how single individuals get fame for collective efforts).
Methinks RMS deserves to be much more favourably viewed, if not for his philosophy (it is very revolutionary even today) or his social contributions (FSF), at least for his technical contributions (emacs, gcc, the whole GNU toolset).
Through 2012, more than 95 percent (by volume in gigabytes) of human-to-computer information input will remain keyboard- and mouse-based.
I think 94 percent will be mouse generated (e.g., the new "Hello, WordProcessor" document would have several KB of different font styles, markup, colors, and all that jazz (all mouse based), and only a couple of dozen bytes of text (via keyboard).
I hope this means back to actually finding ways of optimizing code, and not the standard "We can throw money at it", or "Next year computers will be twice as fast".
However, may be better processor architectures and clusters will keep the march going.
Either way, I believe some progress would be made.
S
OT: Anyone summarize previous query responses?
on
Getting Started In Linux
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Just a thought...
Since the submitter (chrisd) asked for opinions and got feedback, wouldn't it be nice if someone filtered the responses and provided a digest? The original queries were for books for developers and books for web development. Furthermore, if someone already has done some filtering, it would be great to see the results.
S
Re:The sysadmins sound so... disturbing.
on
Largo Loving Linux
·
· Score: 4, Funny
This reminds me of an old joke about the USSR:
A worker complains about how he is having trouble at his factory: if he goes five minutes late, the managers think he is irresponsible; if he goes five minutes early, the managers think he is there to plan some coup.
His friend suggests him to go on time, to which the worker says, "Then, they will are grill me about where I smuggled such an accurate watch from".
Likewise, I am sure the MS reps (and Dubya's brother in FL) would complain that since it doesn't crash often, it must not be doing something big!
Ofcourse, if it is doing something big and doesn't crash, then it should be some plot by the "terrorists".
This reminds me of the Sun Enterprise 10000 (StarFires) that came with 64 processors pre-installed but you could use only the ones that you paid for (others need to be "enabled" before the system can use it).
I have not seen RMS in person (and not even on video). However, I have read his writings, and most of them are very well written -- polished, focus, and always to the point. He believes in what he says, and he also acts accordingly. It is the ideal combo: consistency in thought, words, and actions.
The parent post mentions that Ellison and McNealy are abrasive and rude, and that Gates and Ballmer are slimy, and vague, *but* they are largely presentable, and chides RMS's appearance.
The fact that RMS has a big beard, long hair, and looks "unpresentable" would not influence how people regard him in the long run.
For instance, an off-topic example... when the Indian Prime Minister (of '93 time) came to US, the press was only focused on his dress (a sort of non-stiched bottom -- very decent, and common in India, but different from the "mainstream fashion" here). However, when Arafat dresses in fancy clothes or the Crown Prince of Saudi dresses in fancy clothes, the news casters mention it in a couple of lines, and then *THEY GET TO THE POINT*. The basic thing is if there is nothing to talk about, people will talk about funny stuff, and if there is something important, they get to the point very quickly. Hell, you don't see anyone on TV say good things about how clean shaved the hijackers of Sep 11 flight were (and quite rightfully so) -- appearances are not a big deal when dealing with important issues.
May be the mainstream press hasn't yet caught on to the point, but once they do, it wouldn't matter how RMS looks -- it would matter what he stands for. Just his presence (and silence) would be enough for the press (and the mainstream people) go ooh aah.
RTF and Text are not good at all... Especially when you want send an email saying "The meeting is at 10:30am. See you there", we need Office XP doc file, with a couple of signature attachments -- better yet, copy a PPT slide from standard company template and highlight the 10:30 with big, bright colors.
Call this post a flamebait, but most people that use "Word" do that stuff.
Most of the cybercafes in India are used primarily to send email (hotmail, yahoo, rediffmail, etc.) Some are used for chatting (simple messenger programs). For lots of online games, or "fancy pr0n", the cafes simply don't have enough bandwidth.
For simple things like getting info on web, web based email, and simple chatting, no difference between linux and windows.
I believe Tomcat can be used as a drop in replacement for JServ (so, the requests that would have gone to JServ would now go to Tomcat). You could try Catalina (Tomcat 4.0) and start it up to listen to the port JServ was listening to.
The documentation talks about how to set up Tomcat as an adapter. I wish I had more specific info. However, I am pretty sure that the steps are straight-forward.
Slashdot Mirror
Who is doing the work around here?
The population of the United States was 180 million at the time of writing, but there are 64 million over 60 years of age, leaving 116 million to do the work.
People under 21 total 59 million which leaves 57 million people to do the work.
Because of the 31 million government employees, there are only 26 million left to do the work.
Six million in the armed forces leave twenty million workers.
Deduct 17 million State, county, and city employees, and we are left with three million to do the work.
There are 2,500,000 people in hospitals, asylums, and treatment facilities leaving half a million workers.
However, 450,000 of these are bums or others who will not work, leaving 50,000 to do the work.
Now, it may interest you to know that there are 49,998 people in jail so that leaves just 2 people to do all the work, and that is you and me, and I'm getting tired of doing everything myself!
S
Damn! Would have been fp if I didn't get into an argument with my ditto.
S
My IP is 127.0.0.1. Do your worst.
Aha! Here is a picture of Anna Kournikova saying "I LOVE YOU". Take a look.
S
I believe a lot has changed in India in the last 10 years. There are much higher salaries (compared to what they were around '93 time), the internet and the satellite/cable TV has bridged a cultural gap (you get the same info from anywhere in the world), the work environment seems to be very good (as more and more people stay back in India, or opt to return to India, it becomes autocatalytic).
S
The main advantage of killing off old culture is that the corporations can continue to "make" new culture: e.g., master piece mythological/historical stories versus "who will this bachelor choose for his date". If the longer lasting content is killed, there is much more demand for junk content that becomes obsolete in a few months.
Just like we don't see companies advertise "run three miles a day to reduce fat" and instead focus on "eat these amazing pills", corporations would rather want the consumers to consume whatever makes the corporations profitable.
S
Especially considering that the tech books these days are becoming obsolete very fast, the tissue paper type books are probably what is good. This is not the "Gray's Anatomy", or "Transport Phenomena", or Knuth's works. Books like, "Learn VB x.y.z in 21 days" are relevant only so far.
Regarding ripping of copyrighted work, it is a false accusation. The books are not to be *sold* outside India (they are often called as Eastern Economy Editions). However, nothing prevents one from going to India, buying it, and bringing it to US. Just like, nothing prevents a US tourist from going to India, buying inexpesive gifts from India , and giving them to friends.
S
I believe the practice of software development is being commoditized. E.g. it doesn't take a lot more training for a person to do simple tasks of software testing as it would be needed for training someone in testing cars. The 100k salaries for people sitting in meetings sipping coffee and coke while browsing and checking email/stock portfolios or IM'ing friends over their wireless laptops is difficult to sustain.
The complexities of software development (for many tasks) is approaching the complexity of repairing cars and such things. Likewise, the salaries/jobs, etc.
The added effect is that the jobs can be outsourced to anywhere -- some guy on a boat in Hawaii could fix your "e-car" as easily as a guy in a cubicle farm down the street. That is not the case with Chefs, repairmen, barbers, etc.
The new tools and toolsmiths can work from afar. And anyone can become a toolsmith with some basic math/logic education (sadly that is a problem in US education).
S
It seems to actively discourage immigration. Nothing more, nothing less. Three year terms (with no renewal) is not much of an incentive for anyone to come to US to work. It is a thinly veiled attempt to say "no H1's", without the courage to say so.
If such proposals go on, with no foreign workers to work in US, and US people complain about outsourcing of jobs to other countries, US is heading towards becoming a protectionist and reclusive country.
S
when you make your work and your play the same thing, then everyday is a joy
The general pitfall is that instead of everyday becoming a joy, it may end up becoming a job
S
Unfortunately, it has been a fashion on slashdot to berate RMS. However, I am sure RMS does not mind not winning the popularity contest. Same holds true for people that appreciate his principles, ideology, and the uncompromising way he adheres to his principles.
S
Say, by watching DVDs on linux, or reading an e-book on linux, or... The odds are stacked against him. I suggest he take up VB.Net classes and work on IE plugins and IIS maintenance.
S
I am replying to a troll.. but...
M$FT is still making huge profits! There was a tech boom and bust cycle, and 100k+ jobs for "assembling software components" is not a sustainable thing.
BTW, Richard Stallman started the FSF close to 20 years ago. Linux actually was also a buzz word that resulted in the biggest jumping IPO (where we are currently posting).
S
The amount of data on a single disk made me think what the uses could be, and the primary thing I could come up with is hi-res multimedia. There was an article in one of the popular magazines about the next 10 years advancements, and one of them was about digital projections that fool the eye -- one would not be able to distinguish between real images and digital images.
But, this also makes me wonder... Our ability to process information has stayed the same (e.g., it still takes me awful lot of time to read a small book -- let alone the LOTR), but the amount of data is just exploding.
May be there would be some new technology that leads us into faster/better processing of the tonnes of information?
S
Why is the parent a troll? The post was on topic (talks about why RMS was not credited) and quite reasonable (with a couple of explanations of how single individuals get fame for collective efforts).
Methinks RMS deserves to be much more favourably viewed, if not for his philosophy (it is very revolutionary even today) or his social contributions (FSF), at least for his technical contributions (emacs, gcc, the whole GNU toolset).
Modding the parent as troll is very unfair.
S
I think 94 percent will be mouse generated (e.g., the new "Hello, WordProcessor" document would have several KB of different font styles, markup, colors, and all that jazz (all mouse based), and only a couple of dozen bytes of text (via keyboard).
S
I hope this means back to actually finding ways of optimizing code, and not the standard "We can throw money at it", or "Next year computers will be twice as fast".
However, may be better processor architectures and clusters will keep the march going.
Either way, I believe some progress would be made.
S
Just a thought...
Since the submitter (chrisd) asked for opinions and got feedback, wouldn't it be nice if someone filtered the responses and provided a digest? The original queries were for books for developers and books for web development. Furthermore, if someone already has done some filtering, it would be great to see the results.
S
This reminds me of an old joke about the USSR:
A worker complains about how he is having trouble at his factory: if he goes five minutes late, the managers think he is irresponsible; if he goes five minutes early, the managers think he is there to plan some coup.
His friend suggests him to go on time, to which the worker says, "Then, they will are grill me about where I smuggled such an accurate watch from".
Likewise, I am sure the MS reps (and Dubya's brother in FL) would complain that since it doesn't crash often, it must not be doing something big!
Ofcourse, if it is doing something big and doesn't crash, then it should be some plot by the "terrorists".
S
Little OT but ...
This reminds me of the Sun Enterprise 10000 (StarFires) that came with 64 processors pre-installed but you could use only the ones that you paid for (others need to be "enabled" before the system can use it).
S
I have not seen RMS in person (and not even on video). However, I have read his writings, and most of them are very well written -- polished, focus, and always to the point. He believes in what he says, and he also acts accordingly. It is the ideal combo: consistency in thought, words, and actions.
The parent post mentions that Ellison and McNealy are abrasive and rude, and that Gates and Ballmer are slimy, and vague, *but* they are largely presentable, and chides RMS's appearance.
The fact that RMS has a big beard, long hair, and looks "unpresentable" would not influence how people regard him in the long run.
For instance, an off-topic example... when the Indian Prime Minister (of '93 time) came to US, the press was only focused on his dress (a sort of non-stiched bottom -- very decent, and common in India, but different from the "mainstream fashion" here). However, when Arafat dresses in fancy clothes or the Crown Prince of Saudi dresses in fancy clothes, the news casters mention it in a couple of lines, and then *THEY GET TO THE POINT*. The basic thing is if there is nothing to talk about, people will talk about funny stuff, and if there is something important, they get to the point very quickly. Hell, you don't see anyone on TV say good things about how clean shaved the hijackers of Sep 11 flight were (and quite rightfully so) -- appearances are not a big deal when dealing with important issues.
May be the mainstream press hasn't yet caught on to the point, but once they do, it wouldn't matter how RMS looks -- it would matter what he stands for. Just his presence (and silence) would be enough for the press (and the mainstream people) go ooh aah.
S
RTF and Text are not good at all... Especially when you want send an email saying "The meeting is at 10:30am. See you there", we need Office XP doc file, with a couple of signature attachments -- better yet, copy a PPT slide from standard company template and highlight the 10:30 with big, bright colors.
Call this post a flamebait, but most people that use "Word" do that stuff.
S
Most of the cybercafes in India are used primarily to send email (hotmail, yahoo, rediffmail, etc.) Some are used for chatting (simple messenger programs). For lots of online games, or "fancy pr0n", the cafes simply don't have enough bandwidth.
For simple things like getting info on web, web based email, and simple chatting, no difference between linux and windows.
S
What about the new national security solution by Pres. Bush that would create a Multi Yield -- Asteriod Security Shield (MYASS)?
That should take care of the problems with Asteroids...
S
I believe Tomcat can be used as a drop in replacement for JServ (so, the requests that would have gone to JServ would now go to Tomcat). You could try Catalina (Tomcat 4.0) and start it up to listen to the port JServ was listening to.
The documentation talks about how to set up Tomcat as an adapter. I wish I had more specific info. However, I am pretty sure that the steps are straight-forward.
S
Kinda offtopic, but I can burn some Karma...
Dubya: Dumb enough...
Gore: Limited range of motions and very predictable behavior...
S