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User: sethstorm

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  1. You never saw a good company. on Sociologist: Job Insecurity Is the New Normal · · Score: 1

    Your naturalized citizenship betrays you in that respect. It also provides you with an easy "Diversity Candidate" card depending on the company, which seems to have favored you more than merit.

    While it was harder to find, it was possible to easily see it well into the 1990's. Seeing it past the dotcom crash was quite hard. Seeing it past 2008 was a PITA. Seeing it past 2013 for non-diverse individuals (both you and myself) is asking for the nigh-impossible.

  2. Contractors/Agency labor == 21st Century Union. on Sociologist: Job Insecurity Is the New Normal · · Score: 1

    The only kind of unions that are going to form are ones that the employer controls or is the primary benefactor - which are staffing firms, contractors, consulting groups, and other third-party types that see the worker as a butcher would see animals in an abattoir.

    Try that in any other arrangement, especially in the South, and one does so at their career's own peril.

  3. Then a change of incentives is in order. on Sociologist: Job Insecurity Is the New Normal · · Score: 1

    First, kill off the idea that agency/temporary/PT/third-party work can be a condition for accepting work with any particular entity. Take the toys away that businesses misuse for the primary (if not sole) purpose of dodging benefits laws. They'll have to play by the same rules as the rest of the workforce.

    That is, someone could ask for FTE, get it, and not have to settle for dealing with a benefit-dodging third party. That would make secure arrangements the default, and require less secure arrangements to provide a compelling advantage above and beyond the job itself.

  4. When they're American-sized & priced, maybe... on Are We Reaching the Electric Car Tipping Point? · · Score: 1

    If you want adoption to increase, make them like the cars that environmentalists want to kill off - large & inexpensive.

  5. Re: Yeah, be a man! on Two Years Later, White House Responds To 'Pardon Edward Snowden' Petition · · Score: 1

    The same agreement that is provided to every person working with his kind of clearance. You go in there to provide a service and not disclose to unauthorized individuals.

  6. Re: Yeah, be a man! on Two Years Later, White House Responds To 'Pardon Edward Snowden' Petition · · Score: 1

    The same agreement that is provided to every person working with his kind of clearance. You go in there to provide a service and not disclose to unauthorized individuals.

    That's what it is about in its simplest form.

  7. Are you sure about HyperCard? on Ask Slashdot: Everyone Building Software -- Is This the Future We Need? · · Score: 1

    (Note to Apple: Bring back HyperCard, please!)

    At least this time around, it might not come with an inbuilt attack vector (courtesy of being able link in application objects).

  8. Snowden modbombing in 3,2,1... on Two Years Later, White House Responds To 'Pardon Edward Snowden' Petition · · Score: 1

    It is funny you try to claim he is a whistleblower when he made no effort to be a whistleblower. Selling IC secrets to the highest bidder is hardly whistleblowing.

    It's even worse when one proves it by using it to gain safe passage between one hellhole(China) and the next(Russia). Those plane tickets weren't free, y'know.

  9. You were expecting him to be pardoned? Really? on Two Years Later, White House Responds To 'Pardon Edward Snowden' Petition · · Score: 1

    No administration in its right mind is going to pardon him for it is political suicide. They're more likely to pardon/protect someone that "handles" him and all the other loose ends.

  10. Re:No point in signing these petitions on Two Years Later, White House Responds To 'Pardon Edward Snowden' Petition · · Score: 1

    That, and good luck trying to get a clearance with your name on that petition.

  11. Sounds like you're a victim of the PRC's lies. on The Factory of the World - Documentary On Manufacturing In Shenzhen · · Score: 1

    Nope, but don't let facts get in the way of *your* narrative!

    Nice bullshitting by Apple, though.

  12. They misspelled "Hellhole of the world" on The Factory of the World - Documentary On Manufacturing In Shenzhen · · Score: 0

    Given that it's made with a labor market that depends on a constant supply of desperate people, no thanks.

  13. That's a case of being inordinately lucky. On the other hand, the US system doesn't need such good fortune - as education is not locked out like it is in other parts of the world.

    What of individuals that routinely get stuck in a low-tier track but show high-tier competence at the wrong time?

  14. So your life is determined by a couple of tests? on Melinda Gates: Facebook Engineers Have Solved One of Education's Biggest Problem · · Score: 1

    That kind of rigidity is worse than the UK system, since it explicitly locks out education for having the wrong number. Any talent or otherwise demonstrated competence useful enough for higher-tier work gets killed off if not supported by The Number. The N-1 approach doesn't help since it throws you far enough behind to be clearly seen as a lower-tier individual and thus only worth lower-tier work arrangements.

  15. While the US shows how you are not correct. on Melinda Gates: Facebook Engineers Have Solved One of Education's Biggest Problem · · Score: 1

    UK-style streaming enforces a rigidity that have lifetime implications if someone is unlucky enough to be on the wrong side of the score.

    In your system, despite having technical talent, low secondary scores would have shunted me off to a vocationally-oriented school that would provide a very limited scope of highly precarious work opportunities. I would have to possess some favorable peerage status (or be from a very wealthy/influential family) to overcome that in any reasonable amount of time.

    On the other hand, the US system allowed me to fix my issues, attend a good university, and graduate at the top of my class. That, and I managed to find good FTE work for a non-agency-based employer during said education - something equally impossible for my UK equivalent.

  16. The US system is about freedom, not PCness on Melinda Gates: Facebook Engineers Have Solved One of Education's Biggest Problem · · Score: 1

    Mandatory streaming, as practiced outside the US, only makes the problem worse by divining one's entire life based on the performance of a small number of tests. Make the wrong score, get locked out of education save for bottom-tier, perpetually-unskilled vocational schooling.

    On the other hand, the US system does not lock in status and concentrates on continual display of merit. It takes anyone and gives them the best opportunity to succeed. In the US system, AP Honors is a nice thing to have but not necessary for entry. Competence is recognized without the rigidity that you want to see in education.

  17. Streaming needs to DIAF for lack of mobility on Melinda Gates: Facebook Engineers Have Solved One of Education's Biggest Problem · · Score: 1

    While it is admirable to try to speed-bin people, it makes things worse. For those caught on the wrong side, it amplifies faults while nullifying any gains.

  18. A bit heavy on resources on Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Open and Affordable IPCams? · · Score: 1

    Zoneminder brings in a lot more than just itself. It's heavy enough that one can rule out using it on most embedded devices and lower-end PCs.

    On the other hand, if you have something that can keep up with all the camera threads, it's worth a try.

  19. So this is how GATTACA starts. on Genetic Access Control Code Uses 23andMe DNA Data For Internet Racism · · Score: 1

    Apparently someone forgot that it was a movie, not an instruction manual.

  20. Streaming is bad. on IT Workers Training Their Foreign Replacements 'Troubling,' Says White House · · Score: 1

    Unless the switching costs are trivial, streaming doesn't provide flexibility.

  21. Make quitting easier to do w/o empl. retaliation on IT Workers Training Their Foreign Replacements 'Troubling,' Says White House · · Score: 1

    If you have people being forced to train under multiple financial threats (unemployment eligibility, severance), that is enough evidence of a qualified person. The job is then handed to someone that has no qualifications prior to the involuntary knowledge transfer - aside from being a non-citizen.

    How about removing the ability to do that to someone? That is, give the at-will provision some teeth for the employee side of things so that quitting can mean something.

  22. Outsourcing multiplies the problem. on How Will IT Workers' Roles Change in the Next Five Years? (Video) · · Score: 1

    ...which will be worse than the local team.

  23. Asking a consultant group is a bad idea. on How Will IT Workers' Roles Change in the Next Five Years? (Video) · · Score: 1

    They just want to see things as less permanent, which means more easily managed people. In turn, that means people are worse off overall for lack of access to opportunities that go a more conventional route.

  24. Re:Tail lights are wrong on Google Self-Driving Car Rear-Ended In First Injury Accident · · Score: 1

    Thankfully as more cars are designed for global market, rather than just US

    That's not a good thing given how globalizing a car makes it blander than an unsalted cracker.

  25. That assumes human driving, not AI on Google Self-Driving Car Rear-Ended In First Injury Accident · · Score: 1

    When you're dealing with non-human drivers, it's a case of the law not catching up to account for software error.

    That tends to blow the "rule" out the window.