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User: TheSync

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  1. Re:America's loss is Africa's gain on LinkedIn Study: US Attracting Fewer Educated, Highly Skilled Migrants · · Score: 1

    will we be seeing more high-tech startups opening shop in Africa and Central America?

    If you want a tech job in Central America, check out Tecoloco (which was a high-tech startup itself).

  2. Re:Perspective on LinkedIn Study: US Attracting Fewer Educated, Highly Skilled Migrants · · Score: 1

    top 1% AGI is $388,905 (in 2011, the most recent year for which the IRS has final data, reference).

  3. Re:Stupid on Sony To Take On Netflix With Playstation Vue · · Score: 1

    Netflix is no exception - they produce House of Cards and it's available exclusively via Netflix.

    No, "House of Cards" is produced by Media Rights Capital and licensed for initial distribution through Netflix.

    In Australia, "House of Cards" was shown on Showcase, a Foxtel-owned premium cable channel. In New Zealand, it was shown on TV3 broadcast channel. In India, it was shown on Zee Cafe cable channel, and in Latvia is was on LNT. It also has been released on DVD and Blu-ray.

    Want to stream movies like Lawrence of Arabia and The Shawshank Redemption? I'm sorry, they're only available on Playstation Vue.

    "Shawshank Redemption" is on Amazon Instant Video, Blockbuster On Demand, M-GO and Redbox Instant.

    By the way, Comcast also buys early access to Sony films, including American Hustle and Captain Phillips.

    Even on TV networks, companies swap content and distribution. For example, "The Mindy Project" is produced by NBC Universal, but distributed on the Fox broadcast network. "How I Met Your Mother" was produced by Fox, but distributed initially on the CBS broadcast network.

    I think you underestimate the desire of Hollywood to distribute TV shows and movies through all appropriate mechanisms, though at the appropriate time and price points, in order to maximize revenue.

  4. Department of Education on Education Chief Should Know About PLATO and the History of Online CS Education · · Score: 2

    Perhaps the federal Department of Education is just a complete boondoggle?

    Have schools really benefitted from this department, which was only formed in 1980? Has the quality of education gone up since then? Have the costs come down?

  5. Solutions to non-Problems of the Internet on AT&T To "Pause" Gigabit Internet Rollout Until Net Neutrality Is Settled · · Score: 1

    Here is a list of solutions to non-problems of the Internet:

    Clipper Chip (1994) - "those terrorists will encrypt where the bomb is!"

    Communication Decency Act (1996) - "a.s.b. will destroy our country"

    Net Neutrality (2013) - "I think my Netflix is too slow, so let's make some crazy rules about it, even though I have no idea about the realities of modern ISP interconnections and protocols"

    This too will pass...

  6. ESA PR sucks on Philae Lands Successfully On Comet · · Score: 1

    I think the ESA media relations is pretty bad. There is really no explanation of what is going on now...

  7. Best case scenario of a bad situation on SpaceShipTwo's Rocket Engine Did Not Cause Fatal Crash · · Score: 2

    This is a horrible event, but for the future of Virgin Galactic it is one of the better scenarios for the failure not to be in the rocket engine itself (which is always a challenging situation, putting the strength of materials at the edge of breaking), but instead on a faulty deployment of the feathering system. Hopefully it should be simply to work out a solution to avoid pre-mature feathering.

  8. Re:H1B applicants are people too on Labor Department To Destroy H-1B Records · · Score: 1

    H1B applications contain personal data (of the type Slashdotters are usually passionate about protecting),

    Slasdotters believe in lots of freedoms except the freedom of movement of labor. Because they believe in the religion of nationalism.

  9. uh.... on Labor Department To Destroy H-1B Records · · Score: 1

    Privacy?

  10. Re:Riiiiiight, because that's what this issue... on Imagining the Future History of Climate Change · · Score: 2

    Sadly, we likely lost the war on Global Warming back in the 70-80's when China industrialized. Oil was too cheap to force innovation in renewable power.

    Oil is not the big CO2 source of China - coal is. China would love to get rid of all coal and move to nuclear, and they plan to have 150 GWe of nuclear by 2030. Unfortunately, today they have 707 GWe of coal.

  11. Re:I'm all in favor... on Black Swan Author: Genetically Modified Organisms Risk Global Ruin · · Score: 1

    Genetic mutations are largely a constant. Every generation will continue to exhibit mutations, the vast majority of which have no impact on procreation and are either carried on, or not.

    But any effort to create a protein or change regulation changes the metabolism, which can be a selection pressure when competing for resources with native strains that don't spend the energy to make those proteins. For example, genetic alterations in bacteria for DNA computing elements) can disappear rapidly in a culture, sometimes this happens on the order of hours.

  12. Free-routing on Designing Tomorrow's Air Traffic Control Systems · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Economist has a great article on free-routing. Not only does this save time & fuel, but a "continuous descent approach" is also quieter at airports.

  13. Chemistry on How English Beat German As the Language of Science · · Score: 1

    In the late 1950's, my father had to take German as part of his chemistry grad school (think Adolf von Baeyer, Fritz Haber, Otto Wallach, Richard WillstÃtter).

    Now as far as I see, the highest SJR ranking German-language titled journal is Journal fur die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik founded in 1826, but most articles in it are English language.

    Also ironically Springer Science+Business Media, a leading scientific journal publisher mainly of English language journals, is based in Germany.

  14. Slashdot post from 1800 on One In Three Jobs Will Be Taken By Software Or Robots By 2025, Says Gartner · · Score: 1

    OMG 99% of all agriculture jobs will be GONE by 1990! What will all the unemployed do?

  15. Re:And still nothing in the US on Japan's Shinkansen Bullet Trains Celebrate 50th Anniversary · · Score: 1

    Southwest doesn't share its prices with other sites. I can tell you that a "Wanna Get Away" fare from SW with 14 day advance purchase LAX to SFO is under $80 one way, some flights are under $70.

  16. Re:And still nothing in the US on Japan's Shinkansen Bullet Trains Celebrate 50th Anniversary · · Score: 1

    My JR Tokaido Shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto was $140. A Southwest flight from LAX to SFO is $73.

    I think of Southwest as the real "high speed rail" of California. Flights take off almost every hour.

  17. On the bright side... on Aral Sea Basin Almost Completely Dry · · Score: 1

    Burning Man Uzbekistan 2015!

    Build your camp in one of our rusting ship hulks laying on the playa!

  18. Re:just be sure to remember how it ended on The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy · · Score: 1

    Cartels are rarely stable. Phoebus has the advantage of patents (and what is the purpose of a patent except to provide the patent holder with a limited period of enhanced revenue?), but once fully exposes to global competition, it fell apart.

  19. Re:Fine! on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 1

    Unless, of course you use your considerable funds to ensure that people have to buy from you and only you, like Microsoft and Standard Oil both did.

    Microsoft never stopped me from using Linux & FreeBSD. At it's height, Standard Oil still left 22% of the market to competitors.

  20. Re:Fine! on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 1

    but that doesn't change the fact that they are robber barons.

    Or "robber barons" concept is a socialist myth. In fact the companies founded by these people generally pushed forward technological or business solutions that revolutionized the economy and made people's lives better. For instance, Standard Oil dramatically decreased the price of oil products (not what you'd expect from a "monopoly").

    "Robber barons" is a concept invented by their inefficient competitors to try to hassle them with useless anti-trust laws.

    My reading of generosity of "robber barons" is that they considered themselves very lucky, were sitting on a ton of cash, and wanted to do something beneficial to society with that money.

    At the same time, many also wanted to have lasting monuments to themselves because they were megalomaniacs. But the truth is that many CEOs tend to be that way. If you believe in yourself enough, other people tend to follow you. That's one of the reasons you pay multinational CEOs so much is because it takes a rare person crazy/megalomaniacal enough while also being reasonably intelligent and socially capable to get tends of thousands of people to take orders from you. And also if you are rich, people tend to kowtow to you as well. It is a bit like...government! Only instead of voting them out of office, you can choose not to buy from them if you don't like the product.

  21. Re:Fine! on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 2

    Companies like Nike have been steadily moving their labor to the next cheapest place whenever people start asking for fair wages and working conditions.

    Actually the evidence indicates that multinational firms routinely provide higher wages and better working conditions in poor countries than their local counterparts, and they are typically not attracted preferentially to countries with weak labor standards.

    On the other hand, if manufacturers are forced to stay in high labor cost countries, they will simply use more automation and employ fewer people. US real manufacturing output is near an all-time high, yet US manufacturing jobs are down 35% from the peak in 1979. This is not just a US trend, but typical of all advanced economies.

  22. Re:"stashes its cash" on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 1

    Whenever we tax rich people, we're disincentivizing them from being rich, which discourages them from spending their money.

    I'm going to tell you that if my family's tax rate goes up any more, my wife is leaving the technical labor force and staying home with the kids because we won't be able to afford the child care. So there will be one less productive technical worker, and less business for the child care workers. That is reality.

    We're not "super rich", but we're not bad off at all, although we live in a high-cost area where our jobs are.

  23. Re:Cake and eat it too on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 1

    Under NAFTA any Canadian with a college degree can get a 'no questions asked' work visa at the border.

    I've personally been screwed when we had a Canadian vendor try to send someone across the border to go fix a technical system in Detroit, and he got sent back at the border.

  24. Re:Cake and eat it too on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 1

    If you incorrectly believe that _everyone_ pays the US 35% corporate tax sure, the US has the highest corporate tax rate.

    Microsoft in 2013 paid $5.1 billion in total US federal/state/local and international taxes. This is on $21.8 billion in net income. So they are paying about 23% on a global basis.

    Microsoft paid out about $3.1 billion in US federal taxes, and $1.7 billion in foreign taxes, so despite making more profits oversees, Microsoft is paying more in US taxes than foreign taxes.

  25. Re:Geographic matching on Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway · · Score: 1

    There is value in having developers who are from the countries where you sell your products because their understanding of the local culture and context

    I am often dealing with technical product developers in Europe, Japan, or Israel, and it is a bit of a pain to schedule conference calls or get them to travel to meet with us. Much easier if they are in the US, unfortunately the smartest people in the planet do not all live in the US...