The only problem with this is they'll simply point to the loss of revenue as evidence of piracy. "We're losing money!" they'll say, "That's because they're pirating our movies, instead of paying for them!"
Their egoes cannot tolerate the idea that maybe the lack of revenues is caused by consumer disgust...
Are you totally ignorant of U.S. History? Corporations have been molesting the U.S. government since at latest the Civil War. The Railroad Barons mutated what was once fairly restrictive corporate laws into a laissez-faire playground where corporations and their officers could do as they pleased. The recent resurgence in the '70s you mentioned stemmed a lot from (oddly enough) Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed and the "Hippee" movement that vilified corporations and seriously threatened to put them back under pre-Civil War-type laws. This scared Big Business into finally loosely joining together (until then, they tended to manipulate government seperately, and at the local level) to break the back of American democracy. Since then, it's been more the synergy of similar interests, rather than some Big Conspiracy, but the effect is the same: Big Business sees "too much" democracy as a threat to their bottom line, and believe it is right and feasible to replace it with a sham to preserve their power.
Bottom line is that the CEO of EA has no obligation to his employees beyond the contract they'ce agreed to.
They have, at least, the obligation to obey the laws, some of which are applicable regardless of what the contractor has hidden in the contract, or what the contractee has signed.
Also, I would like to raise the point of ethical obligations, but I doubt anyone's listening...
I bet there is at least one or two labor laws being broken here, call them on it. If there are no laws covering this abuse, find out how to make them, and get them passed and enforced.
One problem - Where do I get start-up capital? I can't earn it via a job, because no corporation would pay their employees enough money to afford to become their competition. I can't get a loan or investor money, because I'm not well connected enough (read: born and raised among the rich) It's no accident that corporations are hard to create - the businesses who did it first didn't want competition, so they used their money to warp the rules to make it nearly impossible (unless it was a daughter corp).
In the US people are so busy with work that they can't even find the time to unionize let alone get implicated with politics. And that is no coincidence...
What happens when personal accountability isn't enough? What happens when someone makes the right decisions AND works hard and still can't make it on their own? Should we jail them for the crime of being unlucky? Because that's exactly what you're promoting. You are essentially criminalizing non-success, whether it be caused by someone doping up, or someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or someone being ripped off by someone else trying to unfairly get ahead of them.
Should people depend on the "welfare state"? No. But it should still be there for those who have tripped on the road of life and earnestly want to pick themselves up again. Fail to do so, and you might as well simply execute the unemployed.
Wouldn't that money be better off putting up scholarships for peeple who can't afford college? Or are these "freeebies" just a start of the new College Marketeering? Not even colleges seem to be immune to the ubercapitalist drumbeat these days...
How about I invest some of my money (instead of it being taken at gunpoint). Or I buy some stuff. Thereby making that company stronger. Maybe they'll have to hire some more people to keep up with the increased demand.
That is a very big maybe, which history has shown not to be the result of a moderate rise in investment/spending. Most companies would rather flog more labor out of existing workers and keep that extra money, boosting that all holy stock price.
I agree, however, that abuse of the welfare system is wrong, and such systems should supply just enough funds to survive and maybe supply education fee waivers and college book vouchers so those who need it can become even more productive.
Also, go to John Taylor Gatto's website. He is a three-time New York City Teacher of the Year who decided to look at how our schools work as if they were designed to do as poorly as they do, instead of trying to find out what was wrong. He discoved much of what was listed above.
As my moniker suggests, I was in the same boat that these two were in. Programming an Atari was different than programming today, in a sense: Atari's were quite limited; but since the were, expectations were not so high. It was quite easy to get near the "ceiling" of what one could do with the machine. The real geniuses, of course, pushed the envelope. What I'm concerned with nowadays is the lack of such machines; the closest we have are either complex machines with confising API's, or emulators of the previous machines which no one except retrogamers will even notice. How are we going to get our next generation of truly genius programmers without such platforms for them to "cut their geek teeth" on?
The Titanic was not built to the blueprint specifications. The builders cut costs by not building the bulkheads as high as they should be, and lowering the lifeboat count. So it's cutting costs that kills people.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I'm surprised the science geeks and nerds haven't started a war...
Hire an already existing and out of work game programmer to program your game. We need the money!
Good luck getting the ring to that Mount Doom...
Pod Races?
Great. I just turned thirty. Thanks a whole lot - am I supposed to Ascend now?
The only problem with this is they'll simply point to the loss of revenue as evidence of piracy. "We're losing money!" they'll say, "That's because they're pirating our movies, instead of paying for them!"
Their egoes cannot tolerate the idea that maybe the lack of revenues is caused by consumer disgust...
Actually Stratagus is the name of the core executables; Wargus merely allows you to use Blizzard's artwork for it.
Pay-wise, they can easily do better with a two-year degree.
How? I have a two-year degree, and no one will touch me with a ten-foot pole.
e.g. gravity has yet to be married to quantum mechanics
Or at least go to dinner and a movie...
Are you totally ignorant of U.S. History? Corporations have been molesting the U.S. government since at latest the Civil War. The Railroad Barons mutated what was once fairly restrictive corporate laws into a laissez-faire playground where corporations and their officers could do as they pleased. The recent resurgence in the '70s you mentioned stemmed a lot from (oddly enough) Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed and the "Hippee" movement that vilified corporations and seriously threatened to put them back under pre-Civil War-type laws. This scared Big Business into finally loosely joining together (until then, they tended to manipulate government seperately, and at the local level) to break the back of American democracy. Since then, it's been more the synergy of similar interests, rather than some Big Conspiracy, but the effect is the same: Big Business sees "too much" democracy as a threat to their bottom line, and believe it is right and feasible to replace it with a sham to preserve their power.
...Well, they were attached to his crotch, but now...
Bottom line is that the CEO of EA has no obligation to his employees beyond the contract they'ce agreed to.
They have, at least, the obligation to obey the laws, some of which are applicable regardless of what the contractor has hidden in the contract, or what the contractee has signed.
Also, I would like to raise the point of ethical obligations, but I doubt anyone's listening...
I bet there is at least one or two labor laws being broken here, call them on it.
If there are no laws covering this abuse, find out how to make them, and get them passed and enforced.
I would love to be able to do that.
One problem - Where do I get start-up capital? I can't earn it via a job, because no corporation would pay their employees enough money to afford to become their competition. I can't get a loan or investor money, because I'm not well connected enough (read: born and raised among the rich) It's no accident that corporations are hard to create - the businesses who did it first didn't want competition, so they used their money to warp the rules to make it nearly impossible (unless it was a daughter corp).
In the US people are so busy with work that they can't even find the time to unionize let alone get implicated with politics.
And that is no coincidence...
Conceptual Guerilla is my favorite site. Blogs, fora, the whole works.
What happens when personal accountability isn't enough? What happens when someone makes the right decisions AND works hard and still can't make it on their own? Should we jail them for the crime of being unlucky? Because that's exactly what you're promoting. You are essentially criminalizing non-success, whether it be caused by someone doping up, or someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or someone being ripped off by someone else trying to unfairly get ahead of them.
Should people depend on the "welfare state"? No. But it should still be there for those who have tripped on the road of life and earnestly want to pick themselves up again. Fail to do so, and you might as well simply execute the unemployed.
Funny, I thought they were voyeurs...
Wouldn't that money be better off putting up scholarships for peeple who can't afford college? Or are these "freeebies" just a start of the new College Marketeering? Not even colleges seem to be immune to the ubercapitalist drumbeat these days...
How about I invest some of my money (instead of it being taken at gunpoint). Or I buy some stuff. Thereby making that company stronger. Maybe they'll have to hire some more people to keep up with the increased demand.
That is a very big maybe, which history has shown not to be the result of a moderate rise in investment/spending. Most companies would rather flog more labor out of existing workers and keep that extra money, boosting that all holy stock price.
I agree, however, that abuse of the welfare system is wrong, and such systems should supply just enough funds to survive and maybe supply education fee waivers and college book vouchers so those who need it can become even more productive.
Also, go to John Taylor Gatto's website. He is a three-time New York City Teacher of the Year who decided to look at how our schools work as if they were designed to do as poorly as they do, instead of trying to find out what was wrong. He discoved much of what was listed above.
Thanks for the visual.
Probably. But only gnats and fleas will be able to hear it.
Hear Hear!
As my moniker suggests, I was in the same boat that these two were in. Programming an Atari was different than programming today, in a sense: Atari's were quite limited; but since the were, expectations were not so high. It was quite easy to get near the "ceiling" of what one could do with the machine. The real geniuses, of course, pushed the envelope. What I'm concerned with nowadays is the lack of such machines; the closest we have are either complex machines with confising API's, or emulators of the previous machines which no one except retrogamers will even notice. How are we going to get our next generation of truly genius programmers without such platforms for them to "cut their geek teeth" on?
The Titanic was not built to the blueprint specifications. The builders cut costs by not building the bulkheads as high as they should be, and lowering the lifeboat count. So it's cutting costs that kills people.