How many of those ballot issues are at a federal level? It sounds like your state government has some elements of direct democracy, but that doesn't change the fact that at a federal level you vote only for representatives.
And I wasn't "trotting it out" at random. The person I was responding to was talking about "direct democracy", a very specific style of government which is exclusive from a representative republic. I'm sorry if using correct terms is irritating to you.
Sure, but to be fair, that's because those things you're asking people to prove aren't actually things, and you have no idea what you're talking about. A good clue when you think that a "Republic" and "Democracy" are mutually exclusive things. When you say the US "is" a Republic to the exclusion of all else, you're claiming that the essence of the American form of government is that which makes us the same as China, Cuba, France, and Mexico and different than Canada, Sweden, and the UK. Sure we're a Republic, but that has very little to do with how our government works. In fact, all it means is that we don't have a king anymore.
I'm sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. A Representative Republic is a very specific government type, and is absolutely different than the broader "Republic" that countries like to stick in their name. And yes, a representative republic is distinct from a direct democratic system. In a direct democracy, as those started in ancient Greece, every citizen would vote on every issue. In a representative republic, citizens vote for a representative to serve their interests indirectly through a limited democratic process.
Are you sure your opinion is really your own, and not swayed by campaign rhetoric? If you think you can honestly vote for people you believe will support the way you think things should be run, then go for it.
If you're unsure, take half an hour and research the candidates and ballot measures. It's pretty easy to find enough information to make a reasonable decision. Most states publish voter guides online which contain a few paragraphs from each of the candidates. A trusted local paper will usually have a rundown of the candidates and issues in the week leading up to the polls.
That's not entirely accurate. The thing is, as those wages rise, the number of positions which are viable also drop. When the same programmer that cost 40k last year costs 60k this year, some projects become unprofitable, and the job market shrinks at the same time the labor pool expands. Yeah, it'll reach an equilibrium at some point, but at the price of some of the more interesting edge projects going away.
But this is, in theory, good news for those of us who are actually competent and working in the field. It means we can command higher salaries. The downside, of course, is that it's unlikely we'll have many competent people to work alongside, but rather end up delegating work to a bunch of half-brained peons and trying to shape their results into something workable.
The ideal democracy would be composed of people who actually cared. Would be composed of an educated mass of people who were taught to ignore distraction and cheap marketing gimmicks. Who would see guile and sweet talk from miles away.
Yeah, but with paper ballots you can have observers from all interested parties watching to make sure nothing like that is going on. With an electronic system, one hacker can do something with nobody noticing.
Seriously, which is easier: hacking a machine by slipping a virus onto the diagnostic USB key (as has been shown to work on Diebold machines), or somehow swapping out a box of valid ballots with a box of rigged ones while 5 people from parties who hate your guts are watching you like hawks?
The US has never been a direct democracy. We're a representative republic, and it's much, much better that way. Do you really want every jerkoff on your street voting on every little issue? I'd much rather have someone semi-competent who actually examines the pros and cons in detail and makes a decision than let every citizen decide based on a 5 sentance "position statement" on a ballot.
But seriously - we know what we have to do to combat global warming - who honestly thinks it's a great idea to start fucking ith the planet's ecosystem even more with what amounts to a high-tech, multiple-failure-mode band-aid, versus manning up, taking responsibility and sorting out the actual cause of the problem?
your claim that "There are no feasible replacements for something as simple as Office-style programs available on the web" indicates to me that you've either been living in a barrel for the last few years or have been well and truly sucked in by the marketing machine.
Really? Then where's the online spreadsheet (or any office app) that lets a company or individual ensure total privacy of their data? Where's the one that remains usable even when the LAN starts having connectivity issues? Where's the one that lets the company manage versioning, and perform regular automated backups? I agree the surface functionality is there, but there's a lot of things about web services that are inferior to desktop. And there are a number of applications that would do even worse on the web than office programs.
Windows is still far and away the leader in that field, and there's a number of improvements they can make in security, efficiency, clarity in the user interface, etc.
Make up your mind. If Microsoft are the leaders, why haven't they made their improvements? It's no use clinging to the upturned hull of their moribund ship claiming that all those others sailing past are just playing catch-up. No-one is really prepared to believe that any more.
Sorry, poor choice of words on my part. I meant Windows is the leader as far as install base. And honestly, I think all 3 (windows/osx/linux) have a lot of improvements to make in terms of interface and setup before Grandma will be comfortable with them. My point is, the Operating System as a product is nowhere near the level of what we will have in 5, 10, 50 years from now. It's not a dead product by any means, even to non-techie customers.
(I don't know that Grandma SHOULD be able to use a computer without having to learn anything, but that's another discussion... the market seems to think she should, so there's room for improvement).
In the end it doesn't really matter./. posters are a small but vocal fringe group who more likely than not will have no measurable effect on the browser market. The true test is what the public at large thinks, and they seem to think that Microsoft is relatively good at what they do, but the more tech-savy among the general population has found that Firefox has a better feature set. A couple bugs on either side aren't going to sway a bunch of people one way or another, because bugs "Just Happen". It's an accepted part of computing, and nobody really cares. IE users will feel smug, Firefox users will download a patch, and next time the roles will be reversed. It just doesn't matter.
I agree with (or am indifferent to) most of your post. But the last point, about Windows becoming irrelevant as people move towards online services... that's just ridiculous. People have been trumpetting this for years now, and it's simply ridiculous. There are no feasible replacements for something as simple as Office-style programs available on the web. Yeah, there are "competitors", but they're not nearly good enough to replace the desktop versions for serious use. And then there's the fact that you need an OS to run before you can access the net. Windows is still far and away the leader in that field, and there's a number of improvements they can make in security, efficiency, clarity in the user interface, etc. Grandma is still confused by her computer, which means they still have plenty of things to improve. The desktop game is far from over.
I agree, if you get a phone call once or twice a week, it's an annoyance but probably not worth legal action. But if your number gets on the wrong list and you're getting multiple phone calls per day, they've basically destroyed the convenience factor of even carrying a cell phone, and they're disrupting your life. I totally support anyone who tries to stop that type of behavior.
I also think we can and should put some technological work into solving this. For example, maintain a "white list" of people who are allowed to demand your immediate attention, and when your phone is in "restricted" mode, route any other caller directly to voice mail so you can deal with them at a later time.
This is a horrible example. The GPL, first off, is quite popular, in case you hadn't noticed. And all it requires is that if you use this common resource (globally shared code base), that you share the additions you make and not keep them secret. This makes sense in the first place, because without sharing the resource wouldn't be there for you to take in the first place, and secondly because it's the choice of the person who first creates it to use such a license.
What you really seem to be saying is, you want the right to do anything with no responsibility to anybody else. You want to take what you can get and not give anything back, and anything that gets in your way is "anti-capitalist".
I really think a large part of it is just that there aren't as many bright people graduating in the field. Since the dot com bust, the sector suddenly didn't look as attractive to those looking for easy money, and the graduating class of that age is just hitting the job market as we speak. In addition, a lot of the old-timers who've been around since just after punch cards are hitting retirement age. The US tech sector is looking at a serious employee shortage over the next ten years or so. Good for the workers, of course, unless your company can't find you anyone competent to work with...
And if the idea of "energy" used in Feng Shui is just a useful abstraction of the psychology of human interaction with an environment? If that's true then you're just talking out of your ass, no?
First off, stop posting AC and I'll take you a whole lot more seriously. Secondly, flash games were just an example of giving my brain downtime to process on stuff. You're focusing on it as if I said that's the only thing I use. Third, why does it matter whether the employee can correctly estimate the time they spend on these things, if they get their work done in the end? As long as they're turning in what you need on time, it's really none of your business how they get there. Finally, you say it's your job to "manage their time for them" up to and including "improving their home life"? I wasn't talking about overtime at all, you just pulled that out of nowhere. And you're seriously out of touch with reality in general.
Seriously, though... unless you're talking about managing people in some menial non-creative job, you're not going to get results that way. You can't demand creativity on the spot. Sometimes people have to sit and mull stuff over. And by the way, the fact that you use the phrasing, "when you need a little breaky-wakey from your oh so stressful day" shows that you have no idea how to work with people who actually do creative work. My original post was nothing about that. It's about how I learn, and how I integrate information to be able to do my job better. I'm guessing you just manage a couple code-monkeys who don't really understand the finer points of engineering.
I'm fairly certain I could find someone who can be as productive as you when you are working -- the entire day (sans scheduled breaks) with your skill set who doesn't find it necessary to spend 10 mins playing a flash game to let something "sink in". Unless your flash playing/sink-in time and 5 some odd/. reads a day are during regular breaks...
The fact that you think people in highly creative disciplines like programming should only take "scheduled breaks" speaks loads about your management style.
I continue to hope that good managers would understand people getting sidetracked during the day. Browsing/. and random news stories is my way of letting my brain process on something so it gets internalized, and I can then go tackle the problem head on. I don't work well just beating my head against something, I have to poke at it for a while and then go read or play a flash game for 10 minutes and let it sink in. Subconcious processing, transfer to long-term memory, whatever it is, it's how I work. I'm plenty productive despite hitting/. about 5 times a day.
This is simply not true. There are tons of great new bands out there, some of them even signed to major labels. They just don't get radio time or videos on MTV. Look places other than the Top 40 hangouts, and you'll find some amazing new stuff.
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How many of those ballot issues are at a federal level? It sounds like your state government has some elements of direct democracy, but that doesn't change the fact that at a federal level you vote only for representatives.
And I wasn't "trotting it out" at random. The person I was responding to was talking about "direct democracy", a very specific style of government which is exclusive from a representative republic. I'm sorry if using correct terms is irritating to you.
Are you sure your opinion is really your own, and not swayed by campaign rhetoric? If you think you can honestly vote for people you believe will support the way you think things should be run, then go for it.
If you're unsure, take half an hour and research the candidates and ballot measures. It's pretty easy to find enough information to make a reasonable decision. Most states publish voter guides online which contain a few paragraphs from each of the candidates. A trusted local paper will usually have a rundown of the candidates and issues in the week leading up to the polls.
That's not entirely accurate. The thing is, as those wages rise, the number of positions which are viable also drop. When the same programmer that cost 40k last year costs 60k this year, some projects become unprofitable, and the job market shrinks at the same time the labor pool expands. Yeah, it'll reach an equilibrium at some point, but at the price of some of the more interesting edge projects going away.
But this is, in theory, good news for those of us who are actually competent and working in the field. It means we can command higher salaries. The downside, of course, is that it's unlikely we'll have many competent people to work alongside, but rather end up delegating work to a bunch of half-brained peons and trying to shape their results into something workable.
Yeah, but with paper ballots you can have observers from all interested parties watching to make sure nothing like that is going on. With an electronic system, one hacker can do something with nobody noticing.
Seriously, which is easier: hacking a machine by slipping a virus onto the diagnostic USB key (as has been shown to work on Diebold machines), or somehow swapping out a box of valid ballots with a box of rigged ones while 5 people from parties who hate your guts are watching you like hawks?
The US has never been a direct democracy. We're a representative republic, and it's much, much better that way. Do you really want every jerkoff on your street voting on every little issue? I'd much rather have someone semi-competent who actually examines the pros and cons in detail and makes a decision than let every citizen decide based on a 5 sentance "position statement" on a ballot.
That's a remarkably depressing idea. Do you have evidence in the form of prior examples of this behavior?
Sorry, poor choice of words on my part. I meant Windows is the leader as far as install base. And honestly, I think all 3 (windows/osx/linux) have a lot of improvements to make in terms of interface and setup before Grandma will be comfortable with them. My point is, the Operating System as a product is nowhere near the level of what we will have in 5, 10, 50 years from now. It's not a dead product by any means, even to non-techie customers.
(I don't know that Grandma SHOULD be able to use a computer without having to learn anything, but that's another discussion... the market seems to think she should, so there's room for improvement).
In the end it doesn't really matter. /. posters are a small but vocal fringe group who more likely than not will have no measurable effect on the browser market. The true test is what the public at large thinks, and they seem to think that Microsoft is relatively good at what they do, but the more tech-savy among the general population has found that Firefox has a better feature set. A couple bugs on either side aren't going to sway a bunch of people one way or another, because bugs "Just Happen". It's an accepted part of computing, and nobody really cares. IE users will feel smug, Firefox users will download a patch, and next time the roles will be reversed. It just doesn't matter.
I agree with (or am indifferent to) most of your post. But the last point, about Windows becoming irrelevant as people move towards online services... that's just ridiculous. People have been trumpetting this for years now, and it's simply ridiculous. There are no feasible replacements for something as simple as Office-style programs available on the web. Yeah, there are "competitors", but they're not nearly good enough to replace the desktop versions for serious use. And then there's the fact that you need an OS to run before you can access the net. Windows is still far and away the leader in that field, and there's a number of improvements they can make in security, efficiency, clarity in the user interface, etc. Grandma is still confused by her computer, which means they still have plenty of things to improve. The desktop game is far from over.
I agree, if you get a phone call once or twice a week, it's an annoyance but probably not worth legal action. But if your number gets on the wrong list and you're getting multiple phone calls per day, they've basically destroyed the convenience factor of even carrying a cell phone, and they're disrupting your life. I totally support anyone who tries to stop that type of behavior.
I also think we can and should put some technological work into solving this. For example, maintain a "white list" of people who are allowed to demand your immediate attention, and when your phone is in "restricted" mode, route any other caller directly to voice mail so you can deal with them at a later time.
This is a horrible example. The GPL, first off, is quite popular, in case you hadn't noticed. And all it requires is that if you use this common resource (globally shared code base), that you share the additions you make and not keep them secret. This makes sense in the first place, because without sharing the resource wouldn't be there for you to take in the first place, and secondly because it's the choice of the person who first creates it to use such a license.
What you really seem to be saying is, you want the right to do anything with no responsibility to anybody else. You want to take what you can get and not give anything back, and anything that gets in your way is "anti-capitalist".
I really think a large part of it is just that there aren't as many bright people graduating in the field. Since the dot com bust, the sector suddenly didn't look as attractive to those looking for easy money, and the graduating class of that age is just hitting the job market as we speak. In addition, a lot of the old-timers who've been around since just after punch cards are hitting retirement age. The US tech sector is looking at a serious employee shortage over the next ten years or so. Good for the workers, of course, unless your company can't find you anyone competent to work with...
I suppose now may not be the time to mention that I fast-forward through television commercials too...
And if the idea of "energy" used in Feng Shui is just a useful abstraction of the psychology of human interaction with an environment? If that's true then you're just talking out of your ass, no?
First off, stop posting AC and I'll take you a whole lot more seriously. Secondly, flash games were just an example of giving my brain downtime to process on stuff. You're focusing on it as if I said that's the only thing I use. Third, why does it matter whether the employee can correctly estimate the time they spend on these things, if they get their work done in the end? As long as they're turning in what you need on time, it's really none of your business how they get there. Finally, you say it's your job to "manage their time for them" up to and including "improving their home life"? I wasn't talking about overtime at all, you just pulled that out of nowhere. And you're seriously out of touch with reality in general.
Thank god I don't work for you, huh? :-)
Seriously, though... unless you're talking about managing people in some menial non-creative job, you're not going to get results that way. You can't demand creativity on the spot. Sometimes people have to sit and mull stuff over. And by the way, the fact that you use the phrasing, "when you need a little breaky-wakey from your oh so stressful day" shows that you have no idea how to work with people who actually do creative work. My original post was nothing about that. It's about how I learn, and how I integrate information to be able to do my job better. I'm guessing you just manage a couple code-monkeys who don't really understand the finer points of engineering.
I continue to hope that good managers would understand people getting sidetracked during the day. Browsing /. and random news stories is my way of letting my brain process on something so it gets internalized, and I can then go tackle the problem head on. I don't work well just beating my head against something, I have to poke at it for a while and then go read or play a flash game for 10 minutes and let it sink in. Subconcious processing, transfer to long-term memory, whatever it is, it's how I work. I'm plenty productive despite hitting /. about 5 times a day.
I hate to break it to you, but the US only has positive population growth because of immigration...
This is simply not true. There are tons of great new bands out there, some of them even signed to major labels. They just don't get radio time or videos on MTV. Look places other than the Top 40 hangouts, and you'll find some amazing new stuff.