Really? It may just be a matter of understanding, but when I think unskilled I simply mean those without specialized skills. A garbage collector may not need special skills to make a living, not a highly paid living, but certianly well above poverty nevermind abject poverty.
Are you saying that those jobs which require no special skills will become so low paid that you can't survive off them? That doesn't make sense. Even the rich need their trash removed, their homes cleaned, their local fast food restaurants serviced, their groceries bagged or delivered, etc. Further, the more the rich want something done cheaply, the more work there is for those who do not have special skills.
Lastly, your argument also depends on the idea that those without special skills are unable to obtain those skills. I don't buy into it.
As the rich get richer the poor seem poorer only by comparison. The fact is that the poor of today have it much better than the poor of years/decades/centuries ago on average.
You also forgot to include that those countries with good social problems will attract those who want to participate in that economy. People who like socialized medicine move to Canada, UK, or many other countries. People who like to make a lot of money fast or fail miserably move to America and get venture capital. Countries will start attracting citizens just like businesses attract customers.
In the end I doubt the huge gap you illustrate will be nearly so large or empty. There will be people all along the spectrum, and opportunities will exist for people to move up or down as they desire and work at doing so. At least, that's what I'm optimistically expecting.
If you believe that the government should leave these statistics to private industry, then sure, I can see why you'd want them to leave it to private industry. I like seeing my money spent by the gov't for these studies. I'd be interested in hearing more about how the gov't standards for these surveys are worse than industry standards, though, and how that actually solves the problem of lying companies.
How are the basic studdies at the local Community College going? Got your EE or CE yet? I'd recommend CE because state government has not figured out outsourcing yet and it's tough to do that kind of work without visiting the site.
I ought to update that page. I'm a year away from my BE in CE. I'm looking for positions in embedded design. Still working full time in a position which cannot be outsourced (onsite emergency computer work). With my broad experience in computers, my experience doing electronics as a hobby for umpteen years, and a BE I suspect I'll not have a terrible time finding work, especially since the economy is going up and companies are starting to hire again.
I think too many people are too scared about outsourcing. Yes, it affects people, but where were they when the auto industry and clothing industry were attacked? At home going, "Gee, too bad. Let's change the channel." The fact is that this affects such a small percentage of the total population that it really isn't anything more than pandering to a specific market to gain votes.
I'm sorry to here you've been out of work so long. My father was recently out of work for that length of time as well. I can't say that I understand because I haven't been in that situation before - the last time I was laid off I was given a month's notice and was only unemployed for one day.
I wish you, and anyone else looking for work, luck on your job search.
If you are saying that by upgrading your skills to the point that you were the best programmer in the world and you were still unable to find a job then:
1. You are horribly pessimistic about your job outlook
2. You are horribly optimistic about your skills
3. You can be the best programmer in the world, but if you don't have any skill at interviewing, looking for jobs, etc you simply won't get one.
In all cases my points still apply. You would have been better spending your time upgrading a different set os skills (such as interviewing, looking for a job, etc) rather than becoming a better programmer.
You can keep trying to hit at a specific special case where a particular person has to lower their sallary to become employed, but in the aggreggate this simplification does not apply. If you are insinuating that every programmer and tech guy is going to be making only $5k a year doing what they are doing now then you need therapy. Such a desperately unrealistic view of the world is unhealthy.
Many economists agree that unemployment consists of three primary types:
Frictional - typical daily layoffs, company closings, etc. Short term, expected and accepted unemployment.
Structural - Skill set is no longer adequate, replaced by a machine, etc. Long term (re-training), expected and accepted unemployment.
Cyclical - Unemployment due to economic business cycles. During a recession this number is positive, during a recovery and boom it may actually go negative (stealing from frictional and structural). This can be long term depending on the recession, but it is not expected nor accepted.
Adding frictional and structural unemployment together many economists argue we should have 5% unemployment that's based alone on two expected and accepted circustances. It's the cyclical unemployment that's bad.
By this measure, 5.6% is actually not bad. Further, inflation is low so the total economic picture is doing well. Add the unemployment and inflation together to get a pain level. Right now we're at under 8% between the two. In some parts of the 1970s we had unemployment and inflation together reach 20%. You don't even want to know what this was at during the depression.
So the economy is doing well. It's not as nice as it was in the 90s, but it's certianly not as bad as it's been in the past century.
Oh, and if you think unemployment is bad, you'd better hope you don't experience high inflation. If inflation goes up to 5% and your bank account only earns 2% then you're losing 3% of you purchasing power every year. If your raises are less than inflation you again are losing money.
We're getting a whole crop of people who see this tiny recession and are acting like chicken little. Study some economics, study history, and perhaps you'll be given a different (more correct) perspective.
It conveniently glosses over the fact that its legally impossible for an american employee of any skill level to accept a full time job for less than many outsourcers are accepting in their own country.
In many cases that is true, however you conveniently gloss over the fact companies aren't outsourcing 100% or even 50% of the tech worker's jobs. The industry isn't up and moving away. Just because you can't get a job here doing what you've always done doesn't meant that your job doesn't exist. Are you saying the gov't should gurantee you a position in the tech field just because that's where you want to work? In that case, they should provide me a job being a movie star because, hey, that's where I want to work. The job market is only so big.
It conveniently glosses over the fact that companies these days are hiring fresh college grads to abuse as unskilled low-paid monkeys while passing over resumes for older people with more skills (See also: "Overqualified").
This has always been and always will be the case. Companies have always had to choose between higher pay with more experience versus lower pay with less experience. Again, are you saying that this should be regulated? In that case, why don't we also regulate consumers. You should not purchase products from the cheaper superstores, you should be forced to buy 10% of your goods from the more expensive corner market because they have been around longer. It's not an unworkable solution to what you percieve to be a problem, but it does have much broader consequences than I suspect you realize.
(Its worth noting that people have quit calling the whole event a "correction", now that its obvious that its no longer about overpaying for American labor, but not paying for American labor at all.)
Yes, our dollars are going overseas. We are importing services from other countries and sending our American dollar to those countries. This will affect our GDP. However, if a displaced worker upgrades their skills then they can increae their productivity and increase the national GDP. Now the real question is: Will the displaced worker's productivity go up enough to offset the GDP loss in importing labor from a third party? It depends on the displaced worker. Are you going to be mad and sulk, or are you going to be mad and actually do something about it?
It ignores the fact that there is a high cost of entry for changing skillsets for a completely different kind of employment.
I don't beleive my argument ignores this fact. When you are young and going to college you have the ability to take huge risks because there is typically a safety net for you (family). When you have a family to support you cannot take such great risks. Some people will have to completely change their situation and skill set, but the reality is that while it's risky, it's done every day/week/month/year currently. Some win, some lose. Again, is this something that needs to be regulated? There are already low interest rate loans, tax breaks, and subsidies for re training workers. What more should be done?
People suggesting that we become plumbers and electricians conveniently forget to remind us that nationwide these trades are protected by unions, and nearly everywhere, an apprenticeship is required to enter these trades. And this apprenticeship is not like a doctor's residency requirement, you can't just get one from any hospital, you have to know people (all your contacts in the computer field? useless...). Not just anyone, but the few who are willing to take on an apprentice, knowing full well when your apprenticeship is over, you'll be their competition.
True, but I fail to see how this relates directly to the situation. There are a myriad of jobs you can perform which do not have these restrictions and are easy to learn with help from the local library. A service position such as these gurantees you a little work that can't easily be outsourced, but it does
This is a consequence of global business. It is not your fault the company won't use you, it's the company's fault for pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Further, if you don't upgrade your skills you'll be much worse off.
Lastly, it sounds as though you chose poorly in which skills you decided to upgrade, or you are targetting the wrong companies after upgrading your skills.
These problems are not due to outsourcing, but due to lack of foresight and random events which no one has control over. Sometimes you can see the future and prepare to meet it, and sometimes you are unprepared no matter how much you prepare.
It is a terrible fact of life. But is government intervention the correct solution? Is the disease really worse than the cure?
"Companies were asked if workers had been replaced and taken at their word."
Because a statistically significant number of companies are scared to reveal the truth they will lie to the gov't about how many people they are offshoring?
The bureau has always taken companies at their word. Are you going to pay for them to audit american companies for labor statistics? It's stupid to assume that you'll get better numbers by holding a gun to someone's head. They'll lie if they want to lie just to see what you'll do. You'll be forced to implement laws and consequences for lies, and if you discover a company was lying then you get to prove it in court.
It isn't worth it.
The BLS has always surveyed a number of companies and a number of households for their information. These surveys produce unemployment numbers and a ton of other interesting statistics about the job economy.
If this bothers you then you'll really go wild when you learn that they only survey a small number of companies instead of all the companies in the US.
I love a good cynic in the morning. No wonder some people are so unhappy about outsourcing - they're never happy about anything.
"And we'd like to welcome the technology workers of America to the global economy. Please, have a seat and make yourself comfortable. If you fight it you'll only waste time you should be spending upgrading your skills."
There are two scenarios here, let's play with them a little bit:
1:
We tax local companies who offshore to make offshoring less palatable. We tariff products coming into the US from companies who are offshoring but use certian tax shelters and place their corporation offices outside the US so the taxes don't affect them.
Outcome:
Other countries raise tariffs in response. Companies here in America lose customers because their products are so expensive compared to solutions and products purchased elsewhere by independant companies outside the US. American companies close shop unless they are 'saved' by tax breaks/loans/subsidies - the same companies that were taxed into not outsourcing.
2
We recognize the fallacy of America as an independant microeconomy. We allow companies to outsource labor which can be performed more cheaply elswhere. Displaced workers are forced to upgrade skills or accept a lower sallary.
Outcome:
Those who upgrade their skills earn more money, increasing the economic power of the US Labor force. National GDP increases, companies become more profitable, etc.
There is no realistic way to stop outsourcing the tech worker. All one can do is try to stay ahead of the curve. Get your MBA and manage outsourced projects. Move to a smaller company where outsourcing IT doesn't make sense. Start your own company.
Eventually the global economy will level out, and half of the tech work done here will be done there. This will happen regardless of the measures we are taking to slow it down. In the end our products are still competitive on the global market, and we still carry 1/3 of the international GDP. Fighting it is only going to slow down our economy and speed up the rest of the world's economy.
If you really want to keep your current life style, you'll learn to roll with the punches, pick yourself up and get back in the game.
"Sweet. Contracts are up by %15, we cut half our customer service department, and this new report shows that people don't like it. But they keep buying it, so we'll keep shovelling it!"
The "RSS 2.0 format is by far the most widely used format. There was a time when it looked like things would coalesce, but then things started to fragment, largely due to Google," Winer said. "RSS deserves Google's respect, and it's not getting it."
Ah yes. Let's translate the first sentence, "RSS 2.0 format is by far the most widely used format. There was a time when it looked like things would go my way, but then people started to use a competing syndication system, largely due to Google"
The line about RSS deserving respect from anyone much less Google just cracks me up. Regardless of which is "better," Google made a business decision to focus on one. RSS deserves nothing from Google or anyone else. It's a specification for crying out loud.
Keeping this in mind, let's now translate the second sentence, "I deserve Google's respect, and I'm not getting it."
That sounds about right. If you are so tied to your creation that you cannot seperate yourself from it then you need take a step back, take a deep breath, and avoid making decisions for your baby until it, and you, have matured.
Just having read about the fbi raid, I can't help but think that everyone should keep a few hundred small and/or dead hard drives around. Gotta keep them busy finding your 'stash'. They'd have to use a ream of paper to document all the computer equipment I have at this location.
Valve should license the engine and sell the game. At least if they want to make any money.
They have a great piece of technology here. They are likely to make as much money (possibly more) licensing the engine to third parties as they are selling HL2
This is how fisrt person shooters have always worked. There are really only three or four good engines licensed underneath a ton of games.
You should be able to doubleclick on a person and pop up a questionaire or chat box on their screen.
Should be able to right click and have a context menu with kick-ban, transport to another page on next user action, etc
Should be able to transport users to a jail cell in the city using OnBeforeUnload...
Of course, this requires more integration with the website, but the reality is that the website is there to amuse you, not the little ants running around from page to page.
I'm sorry... javascript is a requirement on the modern web. If you are afraid to leave it on, you might want to look into switching browsers. Next you'll tell us cookies are "tracking you" and you should turn that off as well.
Fortunately my optimism filter translated your statement
I'm sorry... java is a requirement on the modern web. If you are afraid to drink it, you might want to look into switching liquid diets. Next you'll tell us cookies are "yummy" and you should visit the vending machine as well.
Don't bother, both are probably taken. I can see it now...
Male: "Honey, would you come here a minute and tell me why this is segfaulting?"
Female: "Well here's the problem, you forgot to initialize here, this shouldn't be an assignment, and you're obviously locking the resources in the wrong order so you're facing a deadlock anyway."
Male: "Can you fix it for me, sweetie? Star trek starts in 10."
Female: Sigh ...
IBM is attempting to change the rules of performance measurement. They are doing this by educating their customers. Inherently, people want a single performance metric that says X is better than Y because this perfromance metric says so.
IBM would prefer customers to come to them and ask IBM, "Which processor is better?" rather than rely on an external, easily verifiable, though not accurate, single number indicator.
The truth, as we all know, is that there is no single metric since each processor has strengths and weaknesses and various applications rely on these strengths differently.
They are also opening their processors to the end users a little more, almost as a jab at Intel. Intel has microcode, but you'll never see it or get to modify it. But the very presence of microcode in almost every modern general purpose CPU means that performance can be enhanced and tailored for each application with very little processor change.
So IBM is letting people get closer with the processor to enhance performance with very little risk or effort.
The kicker is that it's not simple, so only a few large manufacturers and some dedicated homebrewers will really have anything to show for it.
Thus it's a marketting ploy intended to raise questions about current performance metrics in the minds of indecisive consumers.
But then, when has the CPU war ever been about anything but marketting?
The interesting thing about liability is that if they have some control over your routers, then you can hold them more liable than if they had no control. Further, now that everyone knows they can 'dial in' then hopefully customers will pester them to fix their products remotely instead of spending hours on the phone. In the end a backdoor is *much* more work than a product without one.
Silly programmer, backdoors are for script kiddies.
What you should say instead is: "I will purchase products from other companies since theirs do not address my needs at this time."
I said, "Someone set up us the password. You have no chance to survive make your time since your products do not my needs fit presently."
But that's just me.
In all seriousness, it would be a pity to find that the netgear engineers, programmers, and other employees all used netgear products at a discount. I bet they live near netgear facilities, and use netgear email addresses. I'd hate to see their routers flashed with a less efficient firmware. Hopefully no one will take advantage of their precarious position.
One fear is that some predatory monopolist, a Microsoft of the airwaves, would end up owning all of the spectrum. That won't happen. First, the market value of the spectrum would approach $1 trillion, out of the reach of any individual corporation. Second, antitrust laws would remain on the books. The Department of Justice could wield the Sherman Antitrust Act to challenge unlawful conduct and block mergers.
First, a decade or two ago we thought that a company approaching a few billion was out of the reach of an individual corporation. Companies will only get bigger.
Second, antitrust laws are not currently effective. Using MS as an example in the same paragraph where you claim that antitrust laws work is rather painful.
There are other problems with the article.
However, it is time for a good review of the FCC's mandate. Remember, they have a mandate and they are following it to the best of their abilities. If you want them to change, call your congresscritter.
I can understand the argument that spectrum should be handled like land (purchased and owned) but since radio spectrum is inherently public it cannot simply be run under land management laws. There would be no ability for small consumers to buy spectrum, and without efficient management you may end up with a few big chunks, and then millions of tiny inefficent chunks - consider hard disk fragmenting.
It's an unworkable idea, but it is thought provoking, and I'm certian that was his real intent.
-Adam
Lots of mods, none documented....
on
Old Toy Modding?
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· Score: 2, Informative
Re:for actually using a computer (writing document
on
Is Caps Lock Dead?
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· Score: 1
" What if he types with only one finger?"
Sticky keys. In windows XP hold down the right shift key for 10 seconds, and click settings on the window that opens. Check "StickyKeys" and you can press modifiers seperately, so CTRL-S becomes CTRL then S. Affects CTRL, ALT, Shift, and the windows keys.
I do three types of redundancy/backup at my sites:
* Mirrored Raid in all servers
* A regular workstation with a good, large had drive that copies the server data to itself nightly
* A DVD-RW backup made nightly on yet another workstation, with at least one off site - 5 discs, one each weeknight, replaced a few times a year.
In most cases the server RAID (cheap ATA promise controllers) takes care of 90% of the problems - only one HD goes bad at a time, lightning strikes rarely take out the hard drives at all, nevermind both hard drives, etc. Even if it dies it's unlikely that the problem affected the HD backup on the other workstation, and it definitely didn't affect the cd-rw.
However, whenever you get a catastrophic failure in any component in the server, replace the entire thing. If the MB or power supply fails, copy the data to new hard drives, and use the old ones in less critical applications, etc.
Much cheaper than an 'enterprise' solution, and it should be because your application doesn't require such a solution. Use large tape drives in place of the dvd-rw if you must back up a huge amount of data on a nightly basis.
This sort of solution is very tolerant of cheap hardware, so replacing the server later may not be such a major cost.
Slashdot Mirror
for the unskilled, that means abject poverty
Really? It may just be a matter of understanding, but when I think unskilled I simply mean those without specialized skills. A garbage collector may not need special skills to make a living, not a highly paid living, but certianly well above poverty nevermind abject poverty.
Are you saying that those jobs which require no special skills will become so low paid that you can't survive off them? That doesn't make sense. Even the rich need their trash removed, their homes cleaned, their local fast food restaurants serviced, their groceries bagged or delivered, etc. Further, the more the rich want something done cheaply, the more work there is for those who do not have special skills.
Lastly, your argument also depends on the idea that those without special skills are unable to obtain those skills. I don't buy into it.
As the rich get richer the poor seem poorer only by comparison. The fact is that the poor of today have it much better than the poor of years/decades/centuries ago on average.
You also forgot to include that those countries with good social problems will attract those who want to participate in that economy. People who like socialized medicine move to Canada, UK, or many other countries. People who like to make a lot of money fast or fail miserably move to America and get venture capital. Countries will start attracting citizens just like businesses attract customers.
In the end I doubt the huge gap you illustrate will be nearly so large or empty. There will be people all along the spectrum, and opportunities will exist for people to move up or down as they desire and work at doing so. At least, that's what I'm optimistically expecting.
-Adam
If you believe that the government should leave these statistics to private industry, then sure, I can see why you'd want them to leave it to private industry. I like seeing my money spent by the gov't for these studies. I'd be interested in hearing more about how the gov't standards for these surveys are worse than industry standards, though, and how that actually solves the problem of lying companies.
How are the basic studdies at the local Community College going? Got your EE or CE yet? I'd recommend CE because state government has not figured out outsourcing yet and it's tough to do that kind of work without visiting the site.
I ought to update that page. I'm a year away from my BE in CE. I'm looking for positions in embedded design. Still working full time in a position which cannot be outsourced (onsite emergency computer work). With my broad experience in computers, my experience doing electronics as a hobby for umpteen years, and a BE I suspect I'll not have a terrible time finding work, especially since the economy is going up and companies are starting to hire again.
I think too many people are too scared about outsourcing. Yes, it affects people, but where were they when the auto industry and clothing industry were attacked? At home going, "Gee, too bad. Let's change the channel." The fact is that this affects such a small percentage of the total population that it really isn't anything more than pandering to a specific market to gain votes.
I'm sorry to here you've been out of work so long. My father was recently out of work for that length of time as well. I can't say that I understand because I haven't been in that situation before - the last time I was laid off I was given a month's notice and was only unemployed for one day.
I wish you, and anyone else looking for work, luck on your job search.
-Adam
If you are saying that by upgrading your skills to the point that you were the best programmer in the world and you were still unable to find a job then:
1. You are horribly pessimistic about your job outlook
2. You are horribly optimistic about your skills
3. You can be the best programmer in the world, but if you don't have any skill at interviewing, looking for jobs, etc you simply won't get one.
In all cases my points still apply. You would have been better spending your time upgrading a different set os skills (such as interviewing, looking for a job, etc) rather than becoming a better programmer.
You can keep trying to hit at a specific special case where a particular person has to lower their sallary to become employed, but in the aggreggate this simplification does not apply. If you are insinuating that every programmer and tech guy is going to be making only $5k a year doing what they are doing now then you need therapy. Such a desperately unrealistic view of the world is unhealthy.
-Adam
To back up your point:
Many economists agree that unemployment consists of three primary types:
Frictional - typical daily layoffs, company closings, etc. Short term, expected and accepted unemployment.
Structural - Skill set is no longer adequate, replaced by a machine, etc. Long term (re-training), expected and accepted unemployment.
Cyclical - Unemployment due to economic business cycles. During a recession this number is positive, during a recovery and boom it may actually go negative (stealing from frictional and structural). This can be long term depending on the recession, but it is not expected nor accepted.
Adding frictional and structural unemployment together many economists argue we should have 5% unemployment that's based alone on two expected and accepted circustances. It's the cyclical unemployment that's bad.
By this measure, 5.6% is actually not bad. Further, inflation is low so the total economic picture is doing well. Add the unemployment and inflation together to get a pain level. Right now we're at under 8% between the two. In some parts of the 1970s we had unemployment and inflation together reach 20%. You don't even want to know what this was at during the depression.
So the economy is doing well. It's not as nice as it was in the 90s, but it's certianly not as bad as it's been in the past century.
Oh, and if you think unemployment is bad, you'd better hope you don't experience high inflation. If inflation goes up to 5% and your bank account only earns 2% then you're losing 3% of you purchasing power every year. If your raises are less than inflation you again are losing money.
We're getting a whole crop of people who see this tiny recession and are acting like chicken little. Study some economics, study history, and perhaps you'll be given a different (more correct) perspective.
-Adam
It conveniently glosses over the fact that its legally impossible for an american employee of any skill level to accept a full time job for less than many outsourcers are accepting in their own country.
In many cases that is true, however you conveniently gloss over the fact companies aren't outsourcing 100% or even 50% of the tech worker's jobs. The industry isn't up and moving away. Just because you can't get a job here doing what you've always done doesn't meant that your job doesn't exist. Are you saying the gov't should gurantee you a position in the tech field just because that's where you want to work? In that case, they should provide me a job being a movie star because, hey, that's where I want to work. The job market is only so big.
It conveniently glosses over the fact that companies these days are hiring fresh college grads to abuse as unskilled low-paid monkeys while passing over resumes for older people with more skills (See also: "Overqualified").
This has always been and always will be the case. Companies have always had to choose between higher pay with more experience versus lower pay with less experience. Again, are you saying that this should be regulated? In that case, why don't we also regulate consumers. You should not purchase products from the cheaper superstores, you should be forced to buy 10% of your goods from the more expensive corner market because they have been around longer. It's not an unworkable solution to what you percieve to be a problem, but it does have much broader consequences than I suspect you realize.
(Its worth noting that people have quit calling the whole event a "correction", now that its obvious that its no longer about overpaying for American labor, but not paying for American labor at all.)
Yes, our dollars are going overseas. We are importing services from other countries and sending our American dollar to those countries. This will affect our GDP. However, if a displaced worker upgrades their skills then they can increae their productivity and increase the national GDP. Now the real question is: Will the displaced worker's productivity go up enough to offset the GDP loss in importing labor from a third party? It depends on the displaced worker. Are you going to be mad and sulk, or are you going to be mad and actually do something about it?
It ignores the fact that there is a high cost of entry for changing skillsets for a completely different kind of employment.
I don't beleive my argument ignores this fact. When you are young and going to college you have the ability to take huge risks because there is typically a safety net for you (family). When you have a family to support you cannot take such great risks. Some people will have to completely change their situation and skill set, but the reality is that while it's risky, it's done every day/week/month/year currently. Some win, some lose. Again, is this something that needs to be regulated? There are already low interest rate loans, tax breaks, and subsidies for re training workers. What more should be done?
People suggesting that we become plumbers and electricians conveniently forget to remind us that nationwide these trades are protected by unions, and nearly everywhere, an apprenticeship is required to enter these trades. And this apprenticeship is not like a doctor's residency requirement, you can't just get one from any hospital, you have to know people (all your contacts in the computer field? useless...). Not just anyone, but the few who are willing to take on an apprentice, knowing full well when your apprenticeship is over, you'll be their competition.
True, but I fail to see how this relates directly to the situation. There are a myriad of jobs you can perform which do not have these restrictions and are easy to learn with help from the local library. A service position such as these gurantees you a little work that can't easily be outsourced, but it does
This is a consequence of global business. It is not your fault the company won't use you, it's the company's fault for pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Further, if you don't upgrade your skills you'll be much worse off.
Lastly, it sounds as though you chose poorly in which skills you decided to upgrade, or you are targetting the wrong companies after upgrading your skills.
These problems are not due to outsourcing, but due to lack of foresight and random events which no one has control over. Sometimes you can see the future and prepare to meet it, and sometimes you are unprepared no matter how much you prepare.
It is a terrible fact of life. But is government intervention the correct solution? Is the disease really worse than the cure?
-Adam
"Companies were asked if workers had been replaced and taken at their word."
Because a statistically significant number of companies are scared to reveal the truth they will lie to the gov't about how many people they are offshoring?
The bureau has always taken companies at their word. Are you going to pay for them to audit american companies for labor statistics? It's stupid to assume that you'll get better numbers by holding a gun to someone's head. They'll lie if they want to lie just to see what you'll do. You'll be forced to implement laws and consequences for lies, and if you discover a company was lying then you get to prove it in court.
It isn't worth it.
The BLS has always surveyed a number of companies and a number of households for their information. These surveys produce unemployment numbers and a ton of other interesting statistics about the job economy.
If this bothers you then you'll really go wild when you learn that they only survey a small number of companies instead of all the companies in the US.
I love a good cynic in the morning. No wonder some people are so unhappy about outsourcing - they're never happy about anything.
-Adam
"And we'd like to welcome the technology workers of America to the global economy. Please, have a seat and make yourself comfortable. If you fight it you'll only waste time you should be spending upgrading your skills."
There are two scenarios here, let's play with them a little bit:
1:
We tax local companies who offshore to make offshoring less palatable. We tariff products coming into the US from companies who are offshoring but use certian tax shelters and place their corporation offices outside the US so the taxes don't affect them.
Outcome:
Other countries raise tariffs in response. Companies here in America lose customers because their products are so expensive compared to solutions and products purchased elsewhere by independant companies outside the US. American companies close shop unless they are 'saved' by tax breaks/loans/subsidies - the same companies that were taxed into not outsourcing.
2
We recognize the fallacy of America as an independant microeconomy. We allow companies to outsource labor which can be performed more cheaply elswhere. Displaced workers are forced to upgrade skills or accept a lower sallary.
Outcome:
Those who upgrade their skills earn more money, increasing the economic power of the US Labor force. National GDP increases, companies become more profitable, etc.
There is no realistic way to stop outsourcing the tech worker. All one can do is try to stay ahead of the curve. Get your MBA and manage outsourced projects. Move to a smaller company where outsourcing IT doesn't make sense. Start your own company.
Eventually the global economy will level out, and half of the tech work done here will be done there. This will happen regardless of the measures we are taking to slow it down. In the end our products are still competitive on the global market, and we still carry 1/3 of the international GDP. Fighting it is only going to slow down our economy and speed up the rest of the world's economy.
If you really want to keep your current life style, you'll learn to roll with the punches, pick yourself up and get back in the game.
-Adam
"Sweet. Contracts are up by %15, we cut half our customer service department, and this new report shows that people don't like it. But they keep buying it, so we'll keep shovelling it!"
"Life is good."
-Adam
The "RSS 2.0 format is by far the most widely used format. There was a time when it looked like things would coalesce, but then things started to fragment, largely due to Google," Winer said. "RSS deserves Google's respect, and it's not getting it."
Ah yes. Let's translate the first sentence, "RSS 2.0 format is by far the most widely used format. There was a time when it looked like things would go my way, but then people started to use a competing syndication system, largely due to Google"
The line about RSS deserving respect from anyone much less Google just cracks me up. Regardless of which is "better," Google made a business decision to focus on one. RSS deserves nothing from Google or anyone else. It's a specification for crying out loud.
Keeping this in mind, let's now translate the second sentence, "I deserve Google's respect, and I'm not getting it."
That sounds about right. If you are so tied to your creation that you cannot seperate yourself from it then you need take a step back, take a deep breath, and avoid making decisions for your baby until it, and you, have matured.
-Adam
Just having read about the fbi raid, I can't help but think that everyone should keep a few hundred small and/or dead hard drives around. Gotta keep them busy finding your 'stash'. They'd have to use a ream of paper to document all the computer equipment I have at this location.
Of course, I didn't do anything illegal.
-Adam
Valve should license the engine and sell the game. At least if they want to make any money.
They have a great piece of technology here. They are likely to make as much money (possibly more) licensing the engine to third parties as they are selling HL2
This is how fisrt person shooters have always worked. There are really only three or four good engines licensed underneath a ton of games.
-Adam
You should be able to doubleclick on a person and pop up a questionaire or chat box on their screen.
Should be able to right click and have a context menu with kick-ban, transport to another page on next user action, etc
Should be able to transport users to a jail cell in the city using OnBeforeUnload...
Of course, this requires more integration with the website, but the reality is that the website is there to amuse you, not the little ants running around from page to page.
-Adam
I'm sorry... javascript is a requirement on the modern web. If you are afraid to leave it on, you might want to look into switching browsers. Next you'll tell us cookies are "tracking you" and you should turn that off as well.
Fortunately my optimism filter translated your statement
I'm sorry... java is a requirement on the modern web. If you are afraid to drink it, you might want to look into switching liquid diets. Next you'll tell us cookies are "yummy" and you should visit the vending machine as well.
Unfortunately, it's playing heck with my diet.
-Adam
Don't bother, both are probably taken. I can see it now...
...
Male: "Honey, would you come here a minute and tell me why this is segfaulting?"
Female: "Well here's the problem, you forgot to initialize here, this shouldn't be an assignment, and you're obviously locking the resources in the wrong order so you're facing a deadlock anyway."
Male: "Can you fix it for me, sweetie? Star trek starts in 10."
Female: Sigh
-Adam
IBM is attempting to change the rules of performance measurement. They are doing this by educating their customers. Inherently, people want a single performance metric that says X is better than Y because this perfromance metric says so.
IBM would prefer customers to come to them and ask IBM, "Which processor is better?" rather than rely on an external, easily verifiable, though not accurate, single number indicator.
The truth, as we all know, is that there is no single metric since each processor has strengths and weaknesses and various applications rely on these strengths differently.
They are also opening their processors to the end users a little more, almost as a jab at Intel. Intel has microcode, but you'll never see it or get to modify it. But the very presence of microcode in almost every modern general purpose CPU means that performance can be enhanced and tailored for each application with very little processor change.
So IBM is letting people get closer with the processor to enhance performance with very little risk or effort.
The kicker is that it's not simple, so only a few large manufacturers and some dedicated homebrewers will really have anything to show for it.
Thus it's a marketting ploy intended to raise questions about current performance metrics in the minds of indecisive consumers.
But then, when has the CPU war ever been about anything but marketting?
-Adam
If you hold out a larger carrot, more venture capitalists, companies, and universities will put more money into the race.
An extra $1M in winnings increases the amount invested by several million, so it is better spent as part of the carrot, rather than the fuel.
-Adam
The interesting thing about liability is that if they have some control over your routers, then you can hold them more liable than if they had no control. Further, now that everyone knows they can 'dial in' then hopefully customers will pester them to fix their products remotely instead of spending hours on the phone. In the end a backdoor is *much* more work than a product without one.
Silly programmer, backdoors are for script kiddies.
-Adam
What you should say instead is: "I will purchase products from other companies since theirs do not address my needs at this time."
I said, "Someone set up us the password. You have no chance to survive make your time since your products do not my needs fit presently."
But that's just me.
In all seriousness, it would be a pity to find that the netgear engineers, programmers, and other employees all used netgear products at a discount. I bet they live near netgear facilities, and use netgear email addresses. I'd hate to see their routers flashed with a less efficient firmware. Hopefully no one will take advantage of their precarious position.
-Adam
to put it midely, i was running around the house naked celebrating with great joy
Dude, that is so not mild. I'm going to have to get the memory eraser out again to get rid of that thought.
-Adam
One fear is that some predatory monopolist, a Microsoft of the airwaves, would end up owning all of the spectrum. That won't happen. First, the market value of the spectrum would approach $1 trillion, out of the reach of any individual corporation. Second, antitrust laws would remain on the books. The Department of Justice could wield the Sherman Antitrust Act to challenge unlawful conduct and block mergers.
First, a decade or two ago we thought that a company approaching a few billion was out of the reach of an individual corporation. Companies will only get bigger.
Second, antitrust laws are not currently effective. Using MS as an example in the same paragraph where you claim that antitrust laws work is rather painful.
There are other problems with the article.
However, it is time for a good review of the FCC's mandate. Remember, they have a mandate and they are following it to the best of their abilities. If you want them to change, call your congresscritter.
I can understand the argument that spectrum should be handled like land (purchased and owned) but since radio spectrum is inherently public it cannot simply be run under land management laws. There would be no ability for small consumers to buy spectrum, and without efficient management you may end up with a few big chunks, and then millions of tiny inefficent chunks - consider hard disk fragmenting.
It's an unworkable idea, but it is thought provoking, and I'm certian that was his real intent.
-Adam
PORK!
-Adam
" What if he types with only one finger?"
Sticky keys. In windows XP hold down the right shift key for 10 seconds, and click settings on the window that opens. Check "StickyKeys" and you can press modifiers seperately, so CTRL-S becomes CTRL then S. Affects CTRL, ALT, Shift, and the windows keys.
-Adam
I do three types of redundancy/backup at my sites:
* Mirrored Raid in all servers
* A regular workstation with a good, large had drive that copies the server data to itself nightly
* A DVD-RW backup made nightly on yet another workstation, with at least one off site - 5 discs, one each weeknight, replaced a few times a year.
In most cases the server RAID (cheap ATA promise controllers) takes care of 90% of the problems - only one HD goes bad at a time, lightning strikes rarely take out the hard drives at all, nevermind both hard drives, etc. Even if it dies it's unlikely that the problem affected the HD backup on the other workstation, and it definitely didn't affect the cd-rw.
However, whenever you get a catastrophic failure in any component in the server, replace the entire thing. If the MB or power supply fails, copy the data to new hard drives, and use the old ones in less critical applications, etc.
Much cheaper than an 'enterprise' solution, and it should be because your application doesn't require such a solution. Use large tape drives in place of the dvd-rw if you must back up a huge amount of data on a nightly basis.
This sort of solution is very tolerant of cheap hardware, so replacing the server later may not be such a major cost.
-Adam
I'd say go with canon because they've only changed their lens format once.
In the software world, that means it's time for another change...
-Adam