How about the Necronomicon? That thing causes no end of trouble, or maybe the Artifact of Evil of course that may be a more Chaotic Evil kind of tool, but I think that it qualifies.
remember that YOU are doing the favor for your employer
I don't know about that. Employment is a mutally beneficial arrangement. Your employer has something you need (money) and you have something your employer needs (skills). No one is doing anyone a favor.
That having been said, I agree that you don't owe your employer anything beyond what you agreed to in your employment contract, and in fact being fully up front and honest with your employer will probably hurt you in the long run.
Yeah, and after that, let's fund a billion dollar campaign to educate the world about the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and DNF.
I totally agree. You just can't teach common sense. Why, just today, I was talking with the finance minister of Uganda as I was transfering control of my entire life savings in a complex attempt to skirt international finance laws, and he said the exact same about the Nigerian scam. Some people are just surprisingly gullible.
Where I think it gets more sticky is if a country like Iraq or Libya or N. Korea (or China?) were using stuff from freshmeat to aid their military. Could the developer be tried for treason
I believe programs that utilize "strong" encryption are still considered a munition, and so distributing them outside of the United States is a federal offense. So while under current law you probably could not get prosecuted for distributing an open source helicopter training program, it is not entirely inconceivable that congress pass a law dictating that to do should be illegal.
Well, I don't know that you're entirely correct. After all the two best selling PC games of all time are The Sims and Myst. Both of which are relatively death and chaos-free. (Sadistic Sims players being the exception.) Of course, your central point probably still stands true with people who consider themselves gamers.
If somehow you didn't know 80 hours was expected, or if you were lied to in the job interview then quit.
That's a noble sentiment, but tell that to the poor schmuck who's trying to pay off his mortgage and save enough money to put his kids through college. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices early on, for a better pay off later. Obviously it's a balancing act and in your example of an 80 hour work week perhaps it wouldn't be worth the burden. But it's rarely as simple as that.
I imagine one of those signs probably has info on how to anonymously alert the appropriate regulatory body that your employer may not be following the overtime rules.
The only problem is that even if you alert them anonymously, they have to know which personnel records to examine, at which point your cover is pretty much blown. Also, I wouldn't find the whistleblower laws too comforting, as all too often, employees have to go to court to get them enforced.
Seems it would be a small matter for these companies to post their EULA on their websites
I doubt that would fly. Since the EULA is a Licensing Agreement, I don't think that people can just implicitly agree to it without some sort of acknowledgement.
If this was legally binding, I would think that you could post a contract to your website stating that anyone entering your house implicitly grants you power of attorney for the rest of their lives. That might be fun. Of course there would have to be small print over the entrance to your house that stated, "By entering this house you agree to the terms of the contract stated at www.norights.com".
Perhaps when developing a new system the developers could take some time to study the methodologies that are used in the gaming market. After all Games are highly technical but must be very easy to learn and use to be popular.
I can see it now:
Drone1: Were you here all night?
Drone2: Yeah, I just kept on filling out TPS reports, and before I knew it, the sun was coming up. I just need to fill out a couple more before I level up to Middle Management!
Drone1: Sweet!
Drone2: Yeah, I can't wait to use my new "Schedule Meeting" power.
For those of you who are interested, a press release linking the contract and other relevant documents can be found at Sun's site here
For those of you more interested in blurbs and sound bites from the article:
Sun, based in Santa Clara, Calif., claims Microsoft views Sun's Java software as a threat because it can run on a variety of operating systems, not just on Microsoft's Windows.
Among tactics cited in the lawsuit, Sun alleges Microsoft promoted an incompatible form of Java that worked best on Windows and, most recently, dropped it from Windows XP, which was introduced in 2001.
An appropriate opinion. However, I believe making these fellows dirt poor would be better justice.
Actually, I agree that taking all of their money would be much more poetic justice, but even if you could seize all of their US assets (which would probably be a Sisyphean task unto itself), there would be no suitable way of recovering anything they stashed offshore or overseas, which is why jail time should still be an important deterrent (Even if the odds of any of them serving it are slim).
Jail *should* be for the people that are a physical threat to society, not a theoretical or financial one.
I don't know about that, especially with all the corporate scandal that popped up at the end of last year. I think that many of those CEOs could seriously benefit from some jail time despite having not been a physical threat to society.
Err. . . no, my point is that you wouldn't want to let Johnny back into your system where he could do even more damage (e.g. By subverting your accounting and payroll systems and paying himself whether you want him to or not). Of course you could have someone try and continuously monitor him while he "fixed" whatever bug he exploited, but that would probably be more time and effort than it's worth.
I seem to recall that the criminal justice system is geared towards not ruining the lives of 15 year olds
You should talk to more 15 year olds. I'm sure plenty of them feel that the sole purpose of the criminal justice system is to ruin their lives and ensure that they don't have any fun. Just ask the ones with the skateboards.
Well Johnny, as part of your sentence for cracking our systems, you have to help us set up our accounting and payroll software. . . Why are you smiling like that?
20% off of (say) $1 million still leaves $800K - whereas 6% off $50K leaves you with $47K
On the other hand %100 off of $50k leaves $0, which is presumably what they were trying to avoid. Whether or not this is a wise business practice is debatable, after all it's inevitable that a company pick up some amount of dead weight over time, but I can think of far worse corporate policies.
Also, I'm not so sure I agree with you that moving from $50k to $47k necessitates that you cut back on the essentials. Admittedly it would hurt to lose that $3k, but I have friends in the SF Bay Area making far less.
As an aside: The CEO of Xylinx actually makes around $600k but by the looks of it, his options (which probably weren't cut) probably make up for it.
Frankly I don't know that we have a choice. Until Orbital Death Ray and Mind Control technology catch up, how are we supposed to execute our fiendish plans?
it's just another example of our parents living at our expense
God damn parents! What did they ever do for me?! (All self-made men and women excepted)
Seriously, though, while I agree with you in principle, I think your hard line stance is a bit much. One of the benefits of Prop 13, (which freezes property tax rates at the level they are when a house is purchased in CA) is that Grandma who is living on a fixed income doesn't get kicked out of her house for being unable to make property tax payments. Certainly the lack of revenue hurts schools, and as a product of the California public school system, I can testify to that, but I wouldn't want to punish someone for making the "mistake" of moving into a neighborhood where property values rise.
You might want to have two separate ciriculums if you have such a wide age range in students. I think it would probably be damn near impossible to come up with something that was as engaging to someone in 2nd grade as it was to someone in 10th grade.
Does anyone think that, eventually, this problem might take care of itself? I was just thinking that I don't know anyone who actually reads their spam, and I would guess that an inclination to do so would only be due to an unfamiliarity with spam and the internet in general. I think that as more and more people are raised with internet access as the norm, the general populace will come to realize the worthlessness of spam and that response rates will drop and deprive most spammers of a viable business model. But that's just my $0.02
That having been said, there will always be suckers with small penises who need to make $5000 a week at home, and there will always be people who take advantage of that.
I would say that even that estimate is too high, considering that not every internet user speaks english (which is presumably the language her spam is in) and that she doesn't get 100% coverage of all internet users. Regardless, since she is still in business, whatever her response rate, she must be making money.
40% of each sale of one product: anti-spam software
Geez. This is like sending out virus attachments to people in hopes of getting them to buy your anti-virus software.
Slashdot Mirror
How about the Necronomicon? That thing causes no end of trouble, or maybe the Artifact of Evil of course that may be a more Chaotic Evil kind of tool, but I think that it qualifies.
I don't know about that. Employment is a mutally beneficial arrangement. Your employer has something you need (money) and you have something your employer needs (skills). No one is doing anyone a favor.
That having been said, I agree that you don't owe your employer anything beyond what you agreed to in your employment contract, and in fact being fully up front and honest with your employer will probably hurt you in the long run.
I totally agree. You just can't teach common sense. Why, just today, I was talking with the finance minister of Uganda as I was transfering control of my entire life savings in a complex attempt to skirt international finance laws, and he said the exact same about the Nigerian scam. Some people are just surprisingly gullible.
I believe programs that utilize "strong" encryption are still considered a munition, and so distributing them outside of the United States is a federal offense. So while under current law you probably could not get prosecuted for distributing an open source helicopter training program, it is not entirely inconceivable that congress pass a law dictating that to do should be illegal.
Well, I don't know that you're entirely correct. After all the two best selling PC games of all time are The Sims and Myst. Both of which are relatively death and chaos-free. (Sadistic Sims players being the exception.) Of course, your central point probably still stands true with people who consider themselves gamers.
That's a noble sentiment, but tell that to the poor schmuck who's trying to pay off his mortgage and save enough money to put his kids through college. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices early on, for a better pay off later. Obviously it's a balancing act and in your example of an 80 hour work week perhaps it wouldn't be worth the burden. But it's rarely as simple as that.
The only problem is that even if you alert them anonymously, they have to know which personnel records to examine, at which point your cover is pretty much blown. Also, I wouldn't find the whistleblower laws too comforting, as all too often, employees have to go to court to get them enforced.
I doubt that would fly. Since the EULA is a Licensing Agreement, I don't think that people can just implicitly agree to it without some sort of acknowledgement.
If this was legally binding, I would think that you could post a contract to your website stating that anyone entering your house implicitly grants you power of attorney for the rest of their lives. That might be fun. Of course there would have to be small print over the entrance to your house that stated, "By entering this house you agree to the terms of the contract stated at www.norights.com".
I can see it now:
Drone1: Were you here all night?
Drone2: Yeah, I just kept on filling out TPS reports, and before I knew it, the sun was coming up. I just need to fill out a couple more before I level up to Middle Management!
Drone1: Sweet!
Drone2: Yeah, I can't wait to use my new "Schedule Meeting" power.
Perhaps this is more a comment on my incipient alcoholism than anything, but some of the best times I've had have resulted in a hangover the next day.
For those of you more interested in blurbs and sound bites from the article:
Sun, based in Santa Clara, Calif., claims Microsoft views Sun's Java software as a threat because it can run on a variety of operating systems, not just on Microsoft's Windows.
Among tactics cited in the lawsuit, Sun alleges Microsoft promoted an incompatible form of Java that worked best on Windows and, most recently, dropped it from Windows XP, which was introduced in 2001.
Actually, I agree that taking all of their money would be much more poetic justice, but even if you could seize all of their US assets (which would probably be a Sisyphean task unto itself), there would be no suitable way of recovering anything they stashed offshore or overseas, which is why jail time should still be an important deterrent (Even if the odds of any of them serving it are slim).
I don't know about that, especially with all the corporate scandal that popped up at the end of last year. I think that many of those CEOs could seriously benefit from some jail time despite having not been a physical threat to society.
Err. . . no, my point is that you wouldn't want to let Johnny back into your system where he could do even more damage (e.g. By subverting your accounting and payroll systems and paying himself whether you want him to or not). Of course you could have someone try and continuously monitor him while he "fixed" whatever bug he exploited, but that would probably be more time and effort than it's worth.
You should talk to more 15 year olds. I'm sure plenty of them feel that the sole purpose of the criminal justice system is to ruin their lives and ensure that they don't have any fun. Just ask the ones with the skateboards.
Well Johnny, as part of your sentence for cracking our systems, you have to help us set up our accounting and payroll software. . . Why are you smiling like that?
Terrorism deemed "bad" by President
On the other hand %100 off of $50k leaves $0, which is presumably what they were trying to avoid. Whether or not this is a wise business practice is debatable, after all it's inevitable that a company pick up some amount of dead weight over time, but I can think of far worse corporate policies.
Also, I'm not so sure I agree with you that moving from $50k to $47k necessitates that you cut back on the essentials. Admittedly it would hurt to lose that $3k, but I have friends in the SF Bay Area making far less.
As an aside: The CEO of Xylinx actually makes around $600k but by the looks of it, his options (which probably weren't cut) probably make up for it.
Frankly I don't know that we have a choice. Until Orbital Death Ray and Mind Control technology catch up, how are we supposed to execute our fiendish plans?
it's just another example of our parents living at our expense
God damn parents! What did they ever do for me?! (All self-made men and women excepted)
Seriously, though, while I agree with you in principle, I think your hard line stance is a bit much. One of the benefits of Prop 13, (which freezes property tax rates at the level they are when a house is purchased in CA) is that Grandma who is living on a fixed income doesn't get kicked out of her house for being unable to make property tax payments. Certainly the lack of revenue hurts schools, and as a product of the California public school system, I can testify to that, but I wouldn't want to punish someone for making the "mistake" of moving into a neighborhood where property values rise.
You might want to have two separate ciriculums if you have such a wide age range in students. I think it would probably be damn near impossible to come up with something that was as engaging to someone in 2nd grade as it was to someone in 10th grade.
Does anyone think that, eventually, this problem might take care of itself? I was just thinking that I don't know anyone who actually reads their spam, and I would guess that an inclination to do so would only be due to an unfamiliarity with spam and the internet in general. I think that as more and more people are raised with internet access as the norm, the general populace will come to realize the worthlessness of spam and that response rates will drop and deprive most spammers of a viable business model. But that's just my $0.02
That having been said, there will always be suckers with small penises who need to make $5000 a week at home, and there will always be people who take advantage of that.
I would say that even that estimate is too high, considering that not every internet user speaks english (which is presumably the language her spam is in) and that she doesn't get 100% coverage of all internet users. Regardless, since she is still in business, whatever her response rate, she must be making money.
40% of each sale of one product: anti-spam software
Geez. This is like sending out virus attachments to people in hopes of getting them to buy your anti-virus software.
Except that just those actions alone, may constitute a valid reason for you to be on that list (at least in the eyes of some government bureaucrat).
"Hmmm . . . clearly this guy has anti-American tendecies and wants to mess with us. Let's watch him some more."