Bingo! This is why the suit won. If IBM is counting work hours and docking against them when you take off early for a Dr. appt, etc, then legally you are not a salary employee.
Accountants love to count "productivity", on time, over time, etc. But in Legal reality Salary/exempt is not about "hours" or "pay", it's about flexibility to do the JOB, not punch a clock. Once you start requiring timecards and accounting for your time, your company is breaking the law.
IF YOU can't count OT (or short), the company can't either.
It's too bad digital TV was cut down at last minute, because digital TV includes guides upto several days ahead. There could be a huge opportunity for some broadcaster to team up with TiVo like hardware and broadcast podcasts around the clock. After all, TV has the key advantage of cheap multi-cast bandwidth... it's a 5Mb pipe to hundreds of thousands of sets with the lowest overhead compared to running around wiring up all the houses. It's too bad somebody hasn't made use of wasted time for internet-related functions like Podcasts.
good point, Zend is more than willing to partner their proprietary acceleration and IDE tech with big companies. That would make Apache the truly "neutral" project in the stack.
I understand Boot camp was "time bombed" for late 2007 long in advance (before 4.11), but it was far to close to the release of leopard for proper customer service because Leopard was so late. If you are still waiting on your favorite App to be supported after only 4 months you can't reinstall tiger with bootcamp... THAT is the problem, poor customer service and forced upgrades in spite of what the PAYING customers NEED to do with their machines.
The Nvidia thing was over at engadget earlier last week. Apple released an "upgrade" for only the NEW Mac Pro that was released in 2008!!! while many fans that spent good money on a Mac Pro in 2007 with crappy cards got told to "upgrade" their $3000+ machines for the upgrade? Note that under dual boot Linux or windows (not OSX), a normal PC version Geforce 8800 works just fine... it's APPLE's Firmware choice that's the problem here, not technical issues. It's POOR customer service to the fans that spend the absolute MOST money on your stuff.. that's crappy!!
The iPhone and Touch are just icing on the cake lately. Accounting issues be damned, changed pricing and adding features within 90 days of product launch is simply unprofessional for anybody. THIS is the reason Apple nearly died in the early 90's. While IBM clones were selling machines that could do anything you wanted Apple maintained locked down, slow evolving machines and refused to let customers evolve in any non-approved manner... Apple's doing it again, and that's extremely cocky, stuck up, and pretentious approach to customer service, especially the fanboi-hacker customers!!!, is going to undo them shortly. I JUST bought a Mac in August and Apple's behavior is atrocious, the hardware and OS is fantastic, the FUTURE customer service seems awful though.
HTML4 was released in 1997!!! CSS2 (the one STILL not supported) in 1998!!! The web has stood still on ancient tech because of 1 big company a REALLY long time. It's time to push HTML5 (XHTML5?) CSS3 & other new things and push those who don't keep up into the cold.
First, NBC PLANNED to ditch Apple before they ever started talking last time... Apple negotiated in "good faith", NBC didn't, it was just "noise" to market the new service.
You do have point about the writers strike. One of the negotiations is that they want iTunes downloads counted the same as a DVD sale of an episode for royalty purposes. Right now under the ad-supported model they get NOTHING for royalties. Ouch!) I'd almost think NBC was trying to "move the cheese".. to give in on DVD, but not streaming.. then shift all play to pay-for-stream. NBC claimed they'd need $4.99 to "properly" pay for royalties "just like DVD" per episode. That seems a bit high.
There is probably some truth to that price increase if the writers get their royalties so Apple may need to up the prices a little to help. Of course, Apple can't get involved at this point because that would be contract interference, so the studios have to fix the situation, then adjust with Apple later.
I don't know the deal on no mid-size Mac that's slightly expandable. I could say the reason that the entry Macbook is so high priced is that the cheaper stuff from BigBox stores is priced cheap... and runs like crap. Apple has a sweetheart deal with Intel to get the very best chips at a good price, there's no reason NOT to put forward the best chips in their machines (except they can put in crap video?) it gives them room to make that extra profit margin they like and it ensures customers don't buy crappy machines and then not use the features.
For instance, try to find a RETAIL laptop with Bluetooth, or T7000 series chips. You can Walk into the Apple store to get one... with HP or Dell you MIGHT find one at a store, but it will be over priced and they'd prefer you to order it online... Apple has less waiting for their best stuff. Wireless N is just starting to make an appearance, and gigabit wired Ethernet is non-existent. Just about all their products use the highest speed (notebook) ram generally available (not for hackers) as well as buses to run the chips on. The software bundle of iLife includes ALL the features you need for basic computing... it's not "trial ware" for things like your DVD player or photo editor... that's a BIG deal in the total package.
Apple shipping Windows + Boot camp is illegal under the Windows OEM guidelines. Microsoft offers no option except full price for "legal" dual boot situations. Even the mighty Dell hasn't been able to break that contract line. (no Ubuntu/Windows or Red Hat/Win Server for you!)
SOX has nothing to do with the CHOICE to account this way. Apple's just using PR of SOX as a marketing crutch. They could easily account for continual improvement of the product line like any other software company does. Sounds like they're accounting for "appliances", perhaps closing the "R&D" account when the product ships, then claiming only "warranty" costs to make the books look better. That would explain the iPhone price drop also, perhaps they cleared their R&D budget early by hitting shipment targets and could drop the price.
iPod Touch is less than 6 months old at this point. They haven't raised the price for the new feature and every single device is still under the 1 year warranty. That they choose Byzantine accounting rules is their own fault and they should correct them. It seems that Apple marketing and business are hiding behind the coat-tails of accounting and engineering to justify decisions that are terrible for quality customer service. I understand their need to "look forward" and innovate without looking back, but the current mac/ipod products are less than 2 years old! That they're claiming "unsupported" features at this point is unreasonable at best.
a mac mini converted to a "cube" with a PCI & PCI express slot, dual monitors off the built in, and 3.5 inch HDD bay would mop the industry. There would be plenty of difference because most of us don't want $3000 Xeon servers, but a core 2 duo is great for gaming... with a VIDEO CARD!!!
exactly, Charging $20 to update the 3 month old iPod touch software but not for Apple TV software. stupid. The new Nvidia 8800 card...only for the NEW (2008) Mac Pro. stupid. Dropping iPhone price in the same 60 days of release. Stupid. Disabling Boot Camp for Tiger leaving users less than 30 days to debug their software on Leopard. Stupid.
I'd agree. He's being considered a "code monkey" and not a software engineer. Typical situation is that they'll drop some random user problem on his desk after a week "to familiarize himself" then expect him to figure out what program it is and why it broke and suggest a process improvement. Then tell him he's all wrong because "they already tried that 5 years ago."
The question he's trying to answer is what does the code "do"? why does it exist? what problem does it solve? When you inherit some homegrown ERP system for example, it's easy to find a bug in a routine... not so easy is why input from program A is displayed wrong in program E that is processed by B, C, & D then stored for a week. He's looking for a quick picture of what it all looks like.. in 90% of cases nobody has that info for the CURRENT version of their homegrown system...they might have made the flowcharts, data dictionaries, and code books years ago, but nobody keeps them current.. and DOCUMENTED. How do you get enough info in a short amount of time?
The Constitution doesn't determine HOW to draw districts... just that each state gets so many reps. If the Law was different a state could put all 10 reps up for election on 1 ballot! There's no rule that all the districts have to be "exactly" the same INSIDE a state. It is more "proper" in a Republic to use existing geo-political boundaries... THAT is who WE vote for. That way an entire city is in one district, a county is in 1 district. That way the Congressional rep also represents a fixed number of elected officials and not just random "people".
I live in Michigan and my part of the state looks good, but Detroit looks ripe for abuse, partly due to high stakes and partly because there are so many districts and medium sized cities in little space. (they have half the districts in 1/4 of the state). Like I said about "local" control of the reps, the map I saw with Detroit had the city with 4-5 reps.. but split up so influence of local elected leaders of the CITY is diminished by bundling other small cities into each district... By all rights the Mayor of a city like Detroit should have 3-4 Reps COMPLETELY inside his city... so what HE would need as the elected leader of Detroit should get heard... but they're split up to include "others" in the name of "fairness" so that no one Rep is "controlled" by the voters of just Detroit, so they don't answer to just them, but to the richer suburbs.
A better way to put it is say you have 4 reps and two towns one has poor people and one rich people. Which is more fair? To split it so there are 2 "poor" reps and 2 "rich" reps by city boundaries, or 4 reps with "even" districts and squiggly maps? Would the poor people get properly represented? THAT is the issue with the districts.
They also created a shower pics website... wetriffs.com (NSFW) see http://xkcd.com/305/ and sort of were responsible for the Terminator TV series... http://xkcd.com/311/... or at least the show is close.
You miss the point. A company like SUN "outsourcing" it's IT staff is very different. They ARE a large enterprise, and they should be using themselves to sell themselves!!! Imagine going to GM engineering and seeing a lot full of Hondas... or taxis. While I'm sure the data site would be using SUN equipment, it's still not the same.
This is IT, SHOW ME you know your stuff... don't sell it to me... that's the WRONG direction, anybody can SELL software and Chinese made hardware... it's can YOU build solutions that are efficient that is the part you have to sell me on. If you can't do that for YOURSELF as large as SUN is, go home!
labor has nothing to do with farm prices. What does have to do is that the market is so saturated, farmers need those subsidies to keep the price of corn they sell UP enough they don't go out of business. Like another poster said, corn should be $10 bushel adjusted, not $2! It's truly amazing just how efficient farming today is... but it makes the market flooded with food and starts knocking farmers off their land.
Subsidies are about keeping farmers working for cheap. More voters eat food, and nobody would like farmers to shut down and stop growing food!! Except that is happening in droves, just the rural suburbanites don't like farmers too sell their land to developers for a fair value either, then the price of their big houses would diminish!! We pay farmers to grow more than we need so we have geographic diversity and our crops aren't wiped out by drought or pest. YES it has happened.. we're in the middle of a drought right now!!! Large groups of farmers loose whole fields to drought every year, but you don't hear about it because there's more than enough to go around.
We tried letting the "free market" run farming until the depression when so many farmers went under and moved to the cities but the cities starved!! The banks foreclosed and kicked so many farmers off their land, there was a big drought, farmers were using poor practices because it was "cheaper" and people STARVED as late as 1930's. Imagine if farmers could triple the price of their product like the oil companies have done. Take every food item at the store and triple the price and it would start to look like the fair value of Food. Then we wouldn't need subsidies, and you'd spend 25%+ pretax on FOOD not mortgage or car payments... Think of the economic hit THAT would cause.
border states like Michigan want the Real ID because the passport requirements are completely out of line for day travel... Real ID requires the same data collected so it should be valid for travel to Canada and Mexico. That would save lines at the passport office as well as promote tourism in boarder states!!!
It's because the north east is where all the politicians go to "blow off steam" and hard drinking and driving is part of the deal. They all "know" better and even vote to tell the rest of us not too!
businesses swipe because the corporate damage due to these crazy laws is getting really bad. Some minimum wage 40 year-old burn out can sell to minors at 2:30 am and get your company sued for millions. Nobody defends the company from abusive, or lazy employees! So several stores I go to have programmed the register to require the swipe or no sale. It's the store's right to do this, as THEY are the ones that get the fines in multiples of 10k and counting.
I agree that big stores WILL sell this data, after all, it's "theirs" and they have to monetize!!!! Once lawyers get wind the data is available for "sale" they'll want it for free to "police" people with. that could be a big problem.
local grocery stores near me swipe your license if you buy alcohol at the register. It's mostly put into place because they are big chains to force the cashiers to check ID... after all when the stores get fined it's not a "minimum wage cashier" that pays, but the corporation!! But there's nothing stopping them from keeping that data... what do they do with it, keep it, how long, do they tell police if they ask? That is a pretty big concern. once it becomes knowledge that the data is kept it won't be long before the other corporate goons want a piece and pay bucks for it.
Because were the UNITED STATES... the Constitution is a contract between STATES first and foremost. The idea that the "people" would pandered to at the current level was a big FEAR of the writers. Many of the current problems with Congress and the President are because they answer to the nebulous group of "people" and not to specific ELECTED officials that voted them in office.
play that districting game online to understand how it works. (somebody above posted a link) Sure it LOOKS fair, but who decides how to connect the blocks? The game is a great example of what they do. They know better than YOU do who lives where. They can even kick fellow reps out by moving the district away from their houses!!! It's really crooked in the name of being "fair".
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Bingo! This is why the suit won. If IBM is counting work hours and docking against them when you take off early for a Dr. appt, etc, then legally you are not a salary employee.
Accountants love to count "productivity", on time, over time, etc. But in Legal reality Salary/exempt is not about "hours" or "pay", it's about flexibility to do the JOB, not punch a clock. Once you start requiring timecards and accounting for your time, your company is breaking the law.
IF YOU can't count OT (or short), the company can't either.
It's too bad digital TV was cut down at last minute, because digital TV includes guides upto several days ahead. There could be a huge opportunity for some broadcaster to team up with TiVo like hardware and broadcast podcasts around the clock. After all, TV has the key advantage of cheap multi-cast bandwidth... it's a 5Mb pipe to hundreds of thousands of sets with the lowest overhead compared to running around wiring up all the houses. It's too bad somebody hasn't made use of wasted time for internet-related functions like Podcasts.
good point, Zend is more than willing to partner their proprietary acceleration and IDE tech with big companies. That would make Apache the truly "neutral" project in the stack.
I understand Boot camp was "time bombed" for late 2007 long in advance (before 4.11), but it was far to close to the release of leopard for proper customer service because Leopard was so late. If you are still waiting on your favorite App to be supported after only 4 months you can't reinstall tiger with bootcamp... THAT is the problem, poor customer service and forced upgrades in spite of what the PAYING customers NEED to do with their machines.
The Nvidia thing was over at engadget earlier last week. Apple released an "upgrade" for only the NEW Mac Pro that was released in 2008!!! while many fans that spent good money on a Mac Pro in 2007 with crappy cards got told to "upgrade" their $3000+ machines for the upgrade? Note that under dual boot Linux or windows (not OSX), a normal PC version Geforce 8800 works just fine... it's APPLE's Firmware choice that's the problem here, not technical issues. It's POOR customer service to the fans that spend the absolute MOST money on your stuff.. that's crappy!!
The iPhone and Touch are just icing on the cake lately. Accounting issues be damned, changed pricing and adding features within 90 days of product launch is simply unprofessional for anybody. THIS is the reason Apple nearly died in the early 90's. While IBM clones were selling machines that could do anything you wanted Apple maintained locked down, slow evolving machines and refused to let customers evolve in any non-approved manner... Apple's doing it again, and that's extremely cocky, stuck up, and pretentious approach to customer service, especially the fanboi-hacker customers!!!, is going to undo them shortly. I JUST bought a Mac in August and Apple's behavior is atrocious, the hardware and OS is fantastic, the FUTURE customer service seems awful though.
HTML4 was released in 1997!!! CSS2 (the one STILL not supported) in 1998!!! The web has stood still on ancient tech because of 1 big company a REALLY long time. It's time to push HTML5 (XHTML5?) CSS3 & other new things and push those who don't keep up into the cold.
First, NBC PLANNED to ditch Apple before they ever started talking last time... Apple negotiated in "good faith", NBC didn't, it was just "noise" to market the new service.
.. to give in on DVD, but not streaming.. then shift all play to pay-for-stream. NBC claimed they'd need $4.99 to "properly" pay for royalties "just like DVD" per episode. That seems a bit high.
You do have point about the writers strike. One of the negotiations is that they want iTunes downloads counted the same as a DVD sale of an episode for royalty purposes. Right now under the ad-supported model they get NOTHING for royalties. Ouch!) I'd almost think NBC was trying to "move the cheese"
There is probably some truth to that price increase if the writers get their royalties so Apple may need to up the prices a little to help. Of course, Apple can't get involved at this point because that would be contract interference, so the studios have to fix the situation, then adjust with Apple later.
I don't know the deal on no mid-size Mac that's slightly expandable. I could say the reason that the entry Macbook is so high priced is that the cheaper stuff from BigBox stores is priced cheap... and runs like crap. Apple has a sweetheart deal with Intel to get the very best chips at a good price, there's no reason NOT to put forward the best chips in their machines (except they can put in crap video?) it gives them room to make that extra profit margin they like and it ensures customers don't buy crappy machines and then not use the features.
For instance, try to find a RETAIL laptop with Bluetooth, or T7000 series chips. You can Walk into the Apple store to get one... with HP or Dell you MIGHT find one at a store, but it will be over priced and they'd prefer you to order it online... Apple has less waiting for their best stuff. Wireless N is just starting to make an appearance, and gigabit wired Ethernet is non-existent. Just about all their products use the highest speed (notebook) ram generally available (not for hackers) as well as buses to run the chips on. The software bundle of iLife includes ALL the features you need for basic computing... it's not "trial ware" for things like your DVD player or photo editor... that's a BIG deal in the total package.
Apple shipping Windows + Boot camp is illegal under the Windows OEM guidelines. Microsoft offers no option except full price for "legal" dual boot situations. Even the mighty Dell hasn't been able to break that contract line. (no Ubuntu/Windows or Red Hat/Win Server for you!)
SOX has nothing to do with the CHOICE to account this way. Apple's just using PR of SOX as a marketing crutch. They could easily account for continual improvement of the product line like any other software company does. Sounds like they're accounting for "appliances", perhaps closing the "R&D" account when the product ships, then claiming only "warranty" costs to make the books look better. That would explain the iPhone price drop also, perhaps they cleared their R&D budget early by hitting shipment targets and could drop the price.
iPod Touch is less than 6 months old at this point. They haven't raised the price for the new feature and every single device is still under the 1 year warranty. That they choose Byzantine accounting rules is their own fault and they should correct them. It seems that Apple marketing and business are hiding behind the coat-tails of accounting and engineering to justify decisions that are terrible for quality customer service. I understand their need to "look forward" and innovate without looking back, but the current mac/ipod products are less than 2 years old! That they're claiming "unsupported" features at this point is unreasonable at best.
a mac mini converted to a "cube" with a PCI & PCI express slot, dual monitors off the built in, and 3.5 inch HDD bay would mop the industry. There would be plenty of difference because most of us don't want $3000 Xeon servers, but a core 2 duo is great for gaming... with a VIDEO CARD!!!
exactly, Charging $20 to update the 3 month old iPod touch software but not for Apple TV software. stupid. The new Nvidia 8800 card...only for the NEW (2008) Mac Pro. stupid. Dropping iPhone price in the same 60 days of release. Stupid. Disabling Boot Camp for Tiger leaving users less than 30 days to debug their software on Leopard. Stupid.
Notice a pattern!!
I'd agree. He's being considered a "code monkey" and not a software engineer. Typical situation is that they'll drop some random user problem on his desk after a week "to familiarize himself" then expect him to figure out what program it is and why it broke and suggest a process improvement. Then tell him he's all wrong because "they already tried that 5 years ago."
The question he's trying to answer is what does the code "do"? why does it exist? what problem does it solve? When you inherit some homegrown ERP system for example, it's easy to find a bug in a routine... not so easy is why input from program A is displayed wrong in program E that is processed by B, C, & D then stored for a week. He's looking for a quick picture of what it all looks like.. in 90% of cases nobody has that info for the CURRENT version of their homegrown system...they might have made the flowcharts, data dictionaries, and code books years ago, but nobody keeps them current.. and DOCUMENTED. How do you get enough info in a short amount of time?
states that get 3 electors only have 1 Rep and the 2 Senators. They are REALLY small compared to states that have 40+ Reps.
The Constitution doesn't determine HOW to draw districts... just that each state gets so many reps. If the Law was different a state could put all 10 reps up for election on 1 ballot! There's no rule that all the districts have to be "exactly" the same INSIDE a state. It is more "proper" in a Republic to use existing geo-political boundaries... THAT is who WE vote for. That way an entire city is in one district, a county is in 1 district. That way the Congressional rep also represents a fixed number of elected officials and not just random "people".
I live in Michigan and my part of the state looks good, but Detroit looks ripe for abuse, partly due to high stakes and partly because there are so many districts and medium sized cities in little space. (they have half the districts in 1/4 of the state). Like I said about "local" control of the reps, the map I saw with Detroit had the city with 4-5 reps.. but split up so influence of local elected leaders of the CITY is diminished by bundling other small cities into each district... By all rights the Mayor of a city like Detroit should have 3-4 Reps COMPLETELY inside his city... so what HE would need as the elected leader of Detroit should get heard... but they're split up to include "others" in the name of "fairness" so that no one Rep is "controlled" by the voters of just Detroit, so they don't answer to just them, but to the richer suburbs.
A better way to put it is say you have 4 reps and two towns one has poor people and one rich people. Which is more fair? To split it so there are 2 "poor" reps and 2 "rich" reps by city boundaries, or 4 reps with "even" districts and squiggly maps? Would the poor people get properly represented? THAT is the issue with the districts.
They also created a shower pics website... wetriffs.com (NSFW) see http://xkcd.com/305/
and sort of were responsible for the Terminator TV series... http://xkcd.com/311/... or at least the show is close.
You miss the point. A company like SUN "outsourcing" it's IT staff is very different. They ARE a large enterprise, and they should be using themselves to sell themselves!!! Imagine going to GM engineering and seeing a lot full of Hondas... or taxis. While I'm sure the data site would be using SUN equipment, it's still not the same.
This is IT, SHOW ME you know your stuff... don't sell it to me... that's the WRONG direction, anybody can SELL software and Chinese made hardware... it's can YOU build solutions that are efficient that is the part you have to sell me on. If you can't do that for YOURSELF as large as SUN is, go home!
but in most states they still expect 18 year olds to serve the drunks at the bar or quicki mart!!!
first don't know why the Jews (and other religous types) are so uptight.. God is not he/she/its name anyway... unless King James wrote the Bible.
I do think you have a valid idea about search terms needing tags to identify them as "not text". let the HTML5 guys know!
labor has nothing to do with farm prices. What does have to do is that the market is so saturated, farmers need those subsidies to keep the price of corn they sell UP enough they don't go out of business. Like another poster said, corn should be $10 bushel adjusted, not $2! It's truly amazing just how efficient farming today is... but it makes the market flooded with food and starts knocking farmers off their land.
Subsidies are about keeping farmers working for cheap. More voters eat food, and nobody would like farmers to shut down and stop growing food!! Except that is happening in droves, just the rural suburbanites don't like farmers too sell their land to developers for a fair value either, then the price of their big houses would diminish!! We pay farmers to grow more than we need so we have geographic diversity and our crops aren't wiped out by drought or pest. YES it has happened.. we're in the middle of a drought right now!!! Large groups of farmers loose whole fields to drought every year, but you don't hear about it because there's more than enough to go around.
We tried letting the "free market" run farming until the depression when so many farmers went under and moved to the cities but the cities starved!! The banks foreclosed and kicked so many farmers off their land, there was a big drought, farmers were using poor practices because it was "cheaper" and people STARVED as late as 1930's. Imagine if farmers could triple the price of their product like the oil companies have done. Take every food item at the store and triple the price and it would start to look like the fair value of Food. Then we wouldn't need subsidies, and you'd spend 25%+ pretax on FOOD not mortgage or car payments... Think of the economic hit THAT would cause.
border states like Michigan want the Real ID because the passport requirements are completely out of line for day travel ... Real ID requires the same data collected so it should be valid for travel to Canada and Mexico. That would save lines at the passport office as well as promote tourism in boarder states!!!
It's because the north east is where all the politicians go to "blow off steam" and hard drinking and driving is part of the deal. They all "know" better and even vote to tell the rest of us not too!
businesses swipe because the corporate damage due to these crazy laws is getting really bad. Some minimum wage 40 year-old burn out can sell to minors at 2:30 am and get your company sued for millions. Nobody defends the company from abusive, or lazy employees! So several stores I go to have programmed the register to require the swipe or no sale. It's the store's right to do this, as THEY are the ones that get the fines in multiples of 10k and counting.
I agree that big stores WILL sell this data, after all, it's "theirs" and they have to monetize!!!! Once lawyers get wind the data is available for "sale" they'll want it for free to "police" people with. that could be a big problem.
local grocery stores near me swipe your license if you buy alcohol at the register. It's mostly put into place because they are big chains to force the cashiers to check ID... after all when the stores get fined it's not a "minimum wage cashier" that pays, but the corporation!! But there's nothing stopping them from keeping that data... what do they do with it, keep it, how long, do they tell police if they ask? That is a pretty big concern. once it becomes knowledge that the data is kept it won't be long before the other corporate goons want a piece and pay bucks for it.
Because were the UNITED STATES... the Constitution is a contract between STATES first and foremost. The idea that the "people" would pandered to at the current level was a big FEAR of the writers. Many of the current problems with Congress and the President are because they answer to the nebulous group of "people" and not to specific ELECTED officials that voted them in office.
play that districting game online to understand how it works. (somebody above posted a link) Sure it LOOKS fair, but who decides how to connect the blocks? The game is a great example of what they do. They know better than YOU do who lives where. They can even kick fellow reps out by moving the district away from their houses!!! It's really crooked in the name of being "fair".