Looking back even further, porn embraced VHS tapes before major movie studios ever did.
Compared to the games industry which only uses the web to force always on connections even for single player.
Instead of allowing people to play peer-to-peer online force people to join their online community only. (and will turn game servers off forcing your game to be useless.)
The same game industry which only recently and reluctantly allowed downloadable distribution.
Is it even a competition?!?, porn beats the gaming industry easily for embracing technology.
What happens if I am sick? My mental acuity is not the same when my head is pounding with a headache... My reactions are slowed. Even if you can account for the difference in attentiveness between the start of the work day and the end, will you be able to recognize me when someone wakes me at 3am to troubleshoot?
Even without sickness and sleepiness, anything that can affect my mood can bring some minor changes to my typing habits. Even if they use cameras to measure eye movement, mood will be a factor. Think of how well you type (or how you would expect to) during major life changing events such as marriage/divorce/birth of children/death of parents. Can the even account for differences between days that you get promoted (or at least praised) compared to the day when your boss chews you out.
Then there are physical changes... Anything from a paper cut to carpal tunnel syndrome, or breaking a bone and getting a cast will seriously impact your typing.
Finally, what happens when your keyboard (or mouse) breaks and you need to get a new one. Even if it is the same model, a new one will generally have stiffer keys and buttons. You would be screwed if it had a different layout of keys or if it was a model of a different size. As for smart phones and tablets, what happens when you buy a new phone?
I'm sorry, I do not believe that this can be reliable enough. Even though I am somewhat impressed with Analytic software's ability to determine people's behaviour, that works on the masses with a margin of error; there will always be a few fringe cases that do not fit the mold; for authentication you need to be right, all the time, and I do not see that possibility.
I would contact my local police force and talk to the financial crimes desk. They may not be able to do anything at this point, but you should establish a paper trail ASAP,
The police is my first though as well...
If you are worried at all about financial threats, the 2nd action would be to contact the major credit reporting agencies and ask to freeze your credit. In theory this stops them from giving out your credit report so that no one (including yourself) can apply for credit while frozen.
This can prevent someone malicious from applying for credit cards, running them up, and destroying your credit history in the process. (even though it is a huge inconvenience if you need to get credit during this time.) This can also be a problem if you are seeking employment and your potential employer wants to run a credit check on you.
It is cross platform as well including Linux/Unix, Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
There are two versions, v1 and v2. BOTH are actively supported and updated. v2 is really a rewrite using.net, so v1 is better if you want to use it on non-windows devices.
There are plugins for browser integration, and as a flat file, in theory you can sync it through dropbox (or a different cloud service.) Of course you better trust that service if you do...
Very Important: Have a very good and long passphrase as a login. Also, create a key file and require both. A key file is just a 2nd authentication method. (If you rely on a cloud service, never put the key on the cloud.) If someone gets your key, you should pray that you have a damn good password or you are screwed.
I agree, for the majority of home use, a tablet will replace laptops and desktops.
A tablet is less expensive, more portable, and has a relatively lightweight OS. The smaller size combined with a camera that can be used as a simple scanner allows for a lot of added flexibility even for some business uses.
The biggest downfall is the lack of a physical keyboard. While this only has a minimal impact on people that are browsing content, it is a severe limitation on people that need to type a lot. (especially people that need to use a work processor or programmers editor.) I do have an original Asus Transformer (TF101) with the physical keyboard attachment, and while this works well for light typing, it is far from a true desktop replacement.
I suppose if tablets with full sized usb ports supporting real keyboards and mice become commonplace, the full fledged desktop/laptop market will have accelerated loses. However, there will always be at least a niche need for the power users. (and as a transformer owner, I know adding a mouse really does change the UI; it is not something that many developers account for making for a few moments of awkwardness.)
My tablet has allowed me to bring it instead of a full laptop in many cases and I love it. My mother has a smaller 7 inch tablet and the only time she uses her computer now is the few times she needs a word processor.
Tablets are already destroying the PC market. The only question is how long before they take over.
They do not scam large corporations with deep pockets.
Basically, a good scammer knows to not scam marks that can cause him trouble. You can scam a million people with no resources to fight you and be fine. But go against one mark who does have the resources and you're toast.
Exactly. That is also why they try to avoid politicians. The auto-warranty scam was going on for months, than they robo-called a few politicians and the investigation started.
I've worked both remotely and onsite. I have worked from home on team and individual projects. I have seen it work and fail.
The key factor of whether it works or not depends on communication. If you talk to your co-workers regularly, and they contact you all the time it works well. If there is no communication, or if you can't contact your coworkers regularly (or vice-versa,) the project will fail.
As a sr. developer, I still see other people's code, and people see mine. Managers can (or at least should) be able to determine if I am productive.
Working on individual side projects, if you can motivate yourself, it will succeed.
The only problem is those occasional programming problems... The ones every programmer gets... where it is a stupid typo or something you are overlooking. (common misspellings like "o" instead of the character zero, lack of quotes, or using an operator from a different language.) All programmers will do this and they can take an hour to find on your own... A co-worker can see the problem in a glance. That is the only problem to working on your own. On a team project, if you have someone you talk to regularly, that can and will find it quickly, you are golden. If you are on a team and no one has the time to bother with you, your communication is lacking and you are doomed to fail.
...people that work remotely are less likely to get promoted regardless of their productivity and work ethic.
Chances are that if you are a technical person, your likelihood of getting promoted are pretty limited already.
There are only so many PM's and middle management positions available, and chances are even if you do get promoted to management, you will never leave the technical side of the business and have a snowball's chance in hell of reaching upper management.
If you can do your work from home, it's probable that someone else can do the work from the other side of the planet. For less. So be careful what you wish for.
Actually I find it funny and sad how many employers that refuse to let people work from home, are willing to outsource that same work to someone on the other side of the planet. (And while that usually means cheaper labor; generally there is less quality control, a language barrier, and people that may not even work the same time as you.)
I want HTC to build a Nexus phone again. The Nexus One was (relatively speaking) the best Nexus phone made, in my opinion
I agree... I had a Nexus One and to this day, it was my favorite smartphone.
Unfortunately, that phone was destroyed due to water damage. I've tried 3 replacements and none have compared.
Currently I am using a HTC One V. If you look at the hardware specs, it seems to be a decent phone, but it is slowed down by this horrid abomination know as Sense.
Sense alone will stop be from buying any other HTC phone. It is slow as sh!t...
The UI itself is horrid... The contacts/dialer interface is complete different from stock. Where stock has tabs for recent calls, phonebook, dialer and favs, Sense shows 3 lines of recent and a dialer. It will hide the dialer as you scroll down your recent calls, but you need to scroll through about 40 calls to get to your stored contacts. (wtf was wrong with tabs?!?) In addition where stock would ask you which number to call(home, mobile, work, other) when you select a stored contact, Sense always assumes you want to call their cell phone. (This is not good for either business contacts or Mom) Last, where stock has the call button on the left and hangup on the right, Sense has call/end call on the bottom. This does not sound bad until the UI slows up, you do not know if your keypress was registered, and you call back the person you just hung up with, or disconnect someone you just called.
Also, the sense UI failed to provide a way to change live backgrounds. Its frustrating to download one from Google play only to realize you can only select a plain background or download a HTC specific wallpaper. (I had to install Nova Launcher to fix this; though it is possible to set some live wallpapers if they leave an icon in your apps.)
Right now, I am looking for a working Romset that completely replaces Sense. Its to the point that I am even willing to use one without a working camera app... (But bluetooth is necessary.) If anyone has a suggestion for the HTC One V --CDMA (primoc I think) I would appreciate it.
HTC -- in short, while I have liked your hardware, I will not buy another phone from you while you still force Sense onto people. (And I would think that with your declining sales, that funding the development of Sense is a complete lack of sense...)
if your coffeemaker or fridge is that close to your keyboard, you get points for efficiency but you'll need to find a different micro-break. May I suggest moving it across the room?
I disagree about the need to move it farther away...
Caffeine is a diuretic (a substance that promotes the production of urine), which means you will need to get up for more "bio-breaks." Even if you drink decaf, having a coffee machine within close reach will promote drinking more, and drinking more of any liquid will have the same effect of increased bio-breaks.
I was an avid Diablo and Diablo II player. Same with Starcraft. These games gave me endless hours of enjoyment in some cases decades after release. I have not and will not purchase either Starcraft II or Diablo III. I am a 'lost sale' because of the WAR on gamers by the studios. Any game I purchase, in a store or otherwise, that I can't play at my leisure now or at any time in the future because the creator or owner of the license shuts down a server, or stops supporting the game will not be in my inventory.
Unfortunately you're a minority because game sales have never been so high.
He may be in the minoriy, but I think it is a significant minority... I can make the same caim as Kaitiff.
Instead of Diablo III, I bought Torchight (and then bought it again for the linux version when it appeared on the humbebundle.) While I have not seen an exact replacement for Starcraft, there are a ton of different RTS games to fill the void.
As for sales, the industry is growing because the market is expanding everywhere (phones, tablets, consoles, social networks, and even app stores for web browsers). In addition, compared to 10-20 years gaming is now an acceptable form of entertainment. Its is no longer symbolized by a geek sitting in front of a computer for days on end... now anyone and everyone can game casually... and do it everywhere (thanks mostly to smartphones.) Also, while huge applications are still expensive, with app stores and indie sites, there has been a virtual explosion of games for $5 and under.
So, increasing sales is not a valid counterpoint against the idea of a growing number of gamers revolting against DRM. We may be a minority, but we are vocal, and we are significant.
As for EA, you used to be a good company... back in the 8-bit days. Now, the last game I bought from you was Command & Conquer 3. I was in the Beta Test for Red Alert 3, but avoided it due to DRM. I will NEVER buy anything else from you until DRM is gone... completely gone. That includes PopCap (which I liked until you bought them), android games, and even back titles through GOG.com. Even though some things may not have DRM,(e.g. GOG titles) I don't like the idea of EA making a profit when the company doesn't give a damn about their customers. Selling games is about making them good, not forcing people to upgrade by deactivating old titles, or suppressing honest opinions.
What is "their share" and why should it be more simply because they are more successful?
One simple reason: It takes money to make money. If you are making minimum wage or any amount slightly above the poverty line, all your money is going to living expenses. You do not have money to invest.
If you have a large nest egg investing is easier... If you have bills to pay, you may be forced to remove money from the market at an inopportune time. There used to be a saying on wall street... "To turn 10 thousand dollars into 20 thousand dollars requires skill; to turn 10 million dollars into 20 million dollars requires only patience."
In addition one of the better investments is education. In general the more education you have the more you will make in the long term. However, when it is hard even for the middle class to send their kids to college, a good education is not always possible. And scholarships only take care of a small minority. Even with a full scholarship, a person may not afford college because they still need living expenses.
If you already have money, you can make smart long term investments to make your future even brighter and generate even more wealth. If you have very little, it is a struggle to keep afloat from day to day, let alone invest for the future.
I think you mean the top 50% are getting tired of funding the bottom 50%.
We realize this and it happens every day. While the wealthiest people generally are the business owners and investors, they pay employees less every year compared to inflation. Wages have stagnated, yet inflation still increases. And the travesty is that most business owners credit themselves as the only reason why their business succeeds; yet in many cases, yet the customers are more likely to deal with the low-end wage slave.
And yes, wage slave is appropriate... The wealthiest always say that if you don't like the pay to find another job; but it is hard to say no to even a bad offer when there is a lot of unemployment especially when you have children that have only had mac and cheese for the last 3 months. And when you have a job, there is not a lot of time available to actually find a new job if you are not happy.
Everyone should pay something if they have an income.
No, if someone can barely afford food and shelter, they should not pay.
And let me add this... Why is it that investment income is capped at 15% for capital gains (now 20% as of 1/1 for people over $400,000) A rate that is much lower than taxes on the middle class who work. The people who are sitting on their asses pay less in taxes (as a percentage.) Hard work should be rewarded, not sitting on investments. The rich cry foul saying that low taxes motivate them... believe me, they would be a lot more motivated if there was a real threat to the value of their wealth diminishing if they did not invest it.
Driving drunk is ALWAYS wrong. 99% of gun owners do absolutely nothing wrong with their guns.
To paraphrase, driving drunk is wrong. owning a gun is not wrong (at least not morally, laws may differ depending on where you live and if you have a criminal record.)
I agree with the above. But, you are comparing apples to oranges...
If you want a better comparison... Owning a car is legal and not wrong. Drinking (depending on age) is also legal. But if you are impaired (through drugs or alcohol) shooting a gun is just as wrong as driving a car. (at least morally, if not legally.)
If you are a responsible adult, owning dangerous items should not be an issue. Drinking alcohol is also fine, even if you want to get drunk to the point of passing out... However, you are acting irresponsibly and should be held accountable when you use dangerous items while impaired regardless of the item.
Being drunk (or high) is not an excuse, you made a conscious decision to drink. If you can not adequately plan other arrangements, or if you know you will completely ignore your plans to let your sober friend drive, you should not be allowing yourself to drink in the first place. It is called responsibility. In the same way, gun owners need to be as responsible as car owners.
There is not a difference, when I was in college, a few of my fraternity brothers got drunk and used bb guns to shoot out the windows of a neighboring house. Shooting while drunk really is just as dangerous. It was obvious (based on trajectory of the bb's in the walls) that it came from our fraternity house and they were forced to learn an expensive lesson. But I guarantee that they would not have been as fortunate had it not been another fraternity house that was empty during a renovation... Think of the consequences had they actually hit someone.
Not to mention a wife who pulls in 6 figures. My wife costs money.
You are assuming that she is spending less than $100,000 a year. If she has expensive tastes, she can still be costing money in spite of the 6 figure salary.
Go and grab "Torchlight." It is a Diablo Clone by the people that wrote the original Diablo. (i.e. before Blizzard was infested with the evil known as Activision.)
Torchlight is a good, hi-res knock-off of Diablo and it is available through GOG. (It also made its way into the Humble Bundle.) If you like Diablo, you will like Torchlight.
They also recently release Torchlight 2 with online options that compete with Diablo III. With Torchlight, you contribute your cash to a small Indie company instead of corporate fat cats.
And if we all bought from Pirate Bay, eventually there would no longer be any more quality ebooks.
O'Reilly is a decent publisher. Many of there books are well organized and are worth the money. And unlike the f-ing RIAA/MPAA, their products are DRM-Free. They let you copy it to any device you want; they will even put it directly into your dropbox folder if you would like them to.
Many people who pirate content claim that "if they had the money..." or "if they let me use it on ZZZ device..." Well now is your chance. Everything is on sale, and they do let you use it on any device that can read it Put up or shut up.
For the record, I own about 25 O'Reilly ebooks. I even own a bunch more older titles but I stopped buying printed tech books because I find dropbox and pdfs on my tablet much easier than a broken bookcase and lugging printed material around. (Though I will add the files to my dropbox account manually instead of storing my credentials on their server.)
Aside from a couple of great indie games, the majority of the games I've enjoyed in the past few months are not available for Linux.
Actually, I feel the reverse... all of the games I have bought recently have been through the Humble Bundle which are all indie and all work on Linux. The few games that have not been through the Humble Bundle have been through GOG.com and work on wine.
The last big studio release I have bought was C&C 3. After that I just felt that DRM became too restrictive. (A big reason for buying humble bundle and GOG games.)
I did buy one indie game about a year ago that did not work on Linux, and that was Torchlight. (which I recently was released under Linux through the humble bundle.) I actually ran Torchlight in a virtual machine.
As suggested by the article, because I have not been beholden to windows only games, I have not used windows since XP.
Anyone with half a brain I know of didn't vote. I didn't vote, and none of my friends voted.
Well if you had more than half a brain, you would have voted. It is your only power to prevent the things you do not like in politics.
This two party system is only going to bring more welfare, poverty and despair and finally a dictatorship to control it all just like North Korea.
While I do not see the dictatorship aspect, a two party system is one of our biggest problems... However, you did nothing to stop it, even an AC that replied to you earlier realizes that if a 3rd party gets 5% of the vote, they qualify for federal election funding in the next race. That is the first step to get rid of the two party system.
Nobody is doing nothing about the banks robbing everything, billions go missing and nobody goes to jail. It is out of control, and it is all going to end very badly.
Yet, in spite of this, you still sit home and do not vote. You do absolutely nothing to help yourself and everyone else. You let the corrupt incumbents stay in office instead of attempting to vote them out. All it takes is for our elected officials to actually fear for their job to get them to listen to the people; right now they only listen to the people who finance their campaigns... If they get voted out, or narrowly squeeze by, they will be more likely to listen to the people the next time.
One thing that the Obama campaign proved this year, is that it is people turning out to vote that will get you elected, not getting more campaign contributions. (Of course, trying to get them to realize that themselves will be difficult at best base on the number of "give me more money" emails they sent out this year.)
In short, by staying home, you are part of the problem. A smart person realizes that the right to vote is valuable and will exercise that right whenever he/she can.
Whether I call myself a developer or software engineer will not affect my income. I'm old school (over 40) and I think that people building systems as long as I have tend not to care about titles. I'm not even sure there was a "software engineer" title when I started programming.
What I can say is that people that are coming out of college today calling themselves either tend to not have a clue what they are doing. (Of course there are exceptions, but the truly good people are hard to find.) And don't forget the recent title of "Software (or Data) Architect..." This idiots conceptualize a system, charge a ton of money, and have others build it. When it fails, they blame the developers and/or run to another job.
Then there are "Front End Developers," which are nothing more than a graphic/web designer that knows how to add some horribly written jQuery to a site and changed their name to developer in order to get paid more.
Essentially this whole debate is really about one huge issue: Large Companies are trying to turn the entire development process into something that can be done like an assembly line. They are chopping it up into little pieces so that anyone can perform the same monotonous task. The smaller your piece is, the more people that can focus on that specific area, the more people that can do it, the less you are worth. The less the companies pay, the happier they become. The more pieces there are, the more titles.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately if you really know what you are doing) the development process is not easy to break down into pieces. While certain pieces can be farmed out, the overall system will work best when one person knows how to build the system as a whole and can take the project from the requirements to a working application. (And companies rarely want to pay for these good people.)
Amazon fought the sales tax for online purchases for years, it's over, by law they have to charge you.
Actually, Amazon fought the requirement to collect the taxes and remit them to the various states. Legally, you were always required to pay them.
Every state requires that you pay sales tax on every out of state purchase. It does not matter if you order it over the phone, mail order, internet, or even drive across the border to buy something in person. Every state has a tax form to claim the amount of taxes owed that should be filed with your annual tax return.
Admittedly, I have never know anyone to actually pay taxes on out of state purchases, but ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Because so few people actually comply with this law, getting large companies like Amazon to collect taxes is easier than trying to get individuals to comply.
I have heard of a few rare cases where states have actually audited people for not paying these taxes, but generally it only happens when the government gets tips from angry neighbors about large purchases. Even then, I have only heard of states that have completely replaced all income tax with sales tax taking this drastic measure.
It's ironic that Ghostery identifies 6 trackers on this very Slashdot page.
Its not ironic at all if you think about it. Slashdot was original created by geeks for geeks. It became popular and later the original geeks became a minority. The original creator is no longer involved and it is being sold every few months to another company trying to monetize it.... Sounds like a microcosm of the internet itself.
Slashdot Mirror
Believe it or not, I am serious with that answer.
Heck the web as a whole grew in no small part due to the existence of porn.
Is there a gaming equivalent to Rule 34? No, Rule 34 relates to internet porn.
Looking back even further, porn embraced VHS tapes before major movie studios ever did.
Compared to the games industry which only uses the web to force always on connections even for single player.
Instead of allowing people to play peer-to-peer online force people to join their online community only. (and will turn game servers off forcing your game to be useless.)
The same game industry which only recently and reluctantly allowed downloadable distribution.
Is it even a competition?!?, porn beats the gaming industry easily for embracing technology.
Sure, we can vote with our dollars, and we do. At the same time, we can freely complain
Exactly. If we didn't complain, they wouldn't know why we stopped buying.
EA, it wasn't micro transactions that caused me to boycott you, it was excessive DRM. (but micro transactions suck too!)
What happens if I am sick? My mental acuity is not the same when my head is pounding with a headache... My reactions are slowed. Even if you can account for the difference in attentiveness between the start of the work day and the end, will you be able to recognize me when someone wakes me at 3am to troubleshoot?
Even without sickness and sleepiness, anything that can affect my mood can bring some minor changes to my typing habits. Even if they use cameras to measure eye movement, mood will be a factor. Think of how well you type (or how you would expect to) during major life changing events such as marriage/divorce/birth of children/death of parents. Can the even account for differences between days that you get promoted (or at least praised) compared to the day when your boss chews you out.
Then there are physical changes... Anything from a paper cut to carpal tunnel syndrome, or breaking a bone and getting a cast will seriously impact your typing.
Finally, what happens when your keyboard (or mouse) breaks and you need to get a new one. Even if it is the same model, a new one will generally have stiffer keys and buttons. You would be screwed if it had a different layout of keys or if it was a model of a different size. As for smart phones and tablets, what happens when you buy a new phone?
I'm sorry, I do not believe that this can be reliable enough. Even though I am somewhat impressed with Analytic software's ability to determine people's behaviour, that works on the masses with a margin of error; there will always be a few fringe cases that do not fit the mold; for authentication you need to be right, all the time, and I do not see that possibility.
I would contact my local police force and talk to the financial crimes desk. They may not be able to do anything at this point, but you should establish a paper trail ASAP,
The police is my first though as well...
If you are worried at all about financial threats, the 2nd action would be to contact the major credit reporting agencies and ask to freeze your credit. In theory this stops them from giving out your credit report so that no one (including yourself) can apply for credit while frozen.
This can prevent someone malicious from applying for credit cards, running them up, and destroying your credit history in the process. (even though it is a huge inconvenience if you need to get credit during this time.) This can also be a problem if you are seeking employment and your potential employer wants to run a credit check on you.
I'm also a fan of KeePass.
It is cross platform as well including Linux/Unix, Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
There are two versions, v1 and v2. BOTH are actively supported and updated. v2 is really a rewrite using .net, so v1 is better if you want to use it on non-windows devices.
There are plugins for browser integration, and as a flat file, in theory you can sync it through dropbox (or a different cloud service.) Of course you better trust that service if you do...
Very Important: Have a very good and long passphrase as a login. Also, create a key file and require both. A key file is just a 2nd authentication method. (If you rely on a cloud service, never put the key on the cloud.) If someone gets your key, you should pray that you have a damn good password or you are screwed.
I agree, for the majority of home use, a tablet will replace laptops and desktops.
A tablet is less expensive, more portable, and has a relatively lightweight OS. The smaller size combined with a camera that can be used as a simple scanner allows for a lot of added flexibility even for some business uses.
The biggest downfall is the lack of a physical keyboard. While this only has a minimal impact on people that are browsing content, it is a severe limitation on people that need to type a lot. (especially people that need to use a work processor or programmers editor.) I do have an original Asus Transformer (TF101) with the physical keyboard attachment, and while this works well for light typing, it is far from a true desktop replacement.
I suppose if tablets with full sized usb ports supporting real keyboards and mice become commonplace, the full fledged desktop/laptop market will have accelerated loses. However, there will always be at least a niche need for the power users. (and as a transformer owner, I know adding a mouse really does change the UI; it is not something that many developers account for making for a few moments of awkwardness.)
My tablet has allowed me to bring it instead of a full laptop in many cases and I love it. My mother has a smaller 7 inch tablet and the only time she uses her computer now is the few times she needs a word processor.
Tablets are already destroying the PC market. The only question is how long before they take over.
They do not scam large corporations with deep pockets.
Basically, a good scammer knows to not scam marks that can cause him trouble. You can scam a million people with no resources to fight you and be fine. But go against one mark who does have the resources and you're toast.
Exactly. That is also why they try to avoid politicians. The auto-warranty scam was going on for months, than they robo-called a few politicians and the investigation started.
I've worked both remotely and onsite. I have worked from home on team and individual projects. I have seen it work and fail.
The key factor of whether it works or not depends on communication. If you talk to your co-workers regularly, and they contact you all the time it works well. If there is no communication, or if you can't contact your coworkers regularly (or vice-versa,) the project will fail.
As a sr. developer, I still see other people's code, and people see mine. Managers can (or at least should) be able to determine if I am productive.
Working on individual side projects, if you can motivate yourself, it will succeed.
The only problem is those occasional programming problems... The ones every programmer gets... where it is a stupid typo or something you are overlooking. (common misspellings like "o" instead of the character zero, lack of quotes, or using an operator from a different language.) All programmers will do this and they can take an hour to find on your own... A co-worker can see the problem in a glance. That is the only problem to working on your own. On a team project, if you have someone you talk to regularly, that can and will find it quickly, you are golden. If you are on a team and no one has the time to bother with you, your communication is lacking and you are doomed to fail.
...people that work remotely are less likely to get promoted regardless of their productivity and work ethic.
Chances are that if you are a technical person, your likelihood of getting promoted are pretty limited already.
There are only so many PM's and middle management positions available, and chances are even if you do get promoted to management, you will never leave the technical side of the business and have a snowball's chance in hell of reaching upper management.
If you can do your work from home, it's probable that someone else can do the work from the other side of the planet. For less. So be careful what you wish for.
Actually I find it funny and sad how many employers that refuse to let people work from home, are willing to outsource that same work to someone on the other side of the planet. (And while that usually means cheaper labor; generally there is less quality control, a language barrier, and people that may not even work the same time as you.)
I want HTC to build a Nexus phone again. The Nexus One was (relatively speaking) the best Nexus phone made, in my opinion
I agree... I had a Nexus One and to this day, it was my favorite smartphone.
Unfortunately, that phone was destroyed due to water damage. I've tried 3 replacements and none have compared.
Currently I am using a HTC One V. If you look at the hardware specs, it seems to be a decent phone, but it is slowed down by this horrid abomination know as Sense.
Sense alone will stop be from buying any other HTC phone. It is slow as sh!t...
The UI itself is horrid... The contacts/dialer interface is complete different from stock. Where stock has tabs for recent calls, phonebook, dialer and favs, Sense shows 3 lines of recent and a dialer. It will hide the dialer as you scroll down your recent calls, but you need to scroll through about 40 calls to get to your stored contacts. (wtf was wrong with tabs?!?) In addition where stock would ask you which number to call(home, mobile, work, other) when you select a stored contact, Sense always assumes you want to call their cell phone. (This is not good for either business contacts or Mom) Last, where stock has the call button on the left and hangup on the right, Sense has call/end call on the bottom. This does not sound bad until the UI slows up, you do not know if your keypress was registered, and you call back the person you just hung up with, or disconnect someone you just called.
Also, the sense UI failed to provide a way to change live backgrounds. Its frustrating to download one from Google play only to realize you can only select a plain background or download a HTC specific wallpaper. (I had to install Nova Launcher to fix this; though it is possible to set some live wallpapers if they leave an icon in your apps.)
Right now, I am looking for a working Romset that completely replaces Sense. Its to the point that I am even willing to use one without a working camera app... (But bluetooth is necessary.) If anyone has a suggestion for the HTC One V --CDMA (primoc I think) I would appreciate it.
HTC -- in short, while I have liked your hardware, I will not buy another phone from you while you still force Sense onto people. (And I would think that with your declining sales, that funding the development of Sense is a complete lack of sense...)
if your coffeemaker or fridge is that close to your keyboard, you get points for efficiency but you'll need to find a different micro-break. May I suggest moving it across the room?
I disagree about the need to move it farther away...
Caffeine is a diuretic (a substance that promotes the production of urine), which means you will need to get up for more "bio-breaks." Even if you drink decaf, having a coffee machine within close reach will promote drinking more, and drinking more of any liquid will have the same effect of increased bio-breaks.
I was an avid Diablo and Diablo II player. Same with Starcraft. These games gave me endless hours of enjoyment in some cases decades after release. I have not and will not purchase either Starcraft II or Diablo III. I am a 'lost sale' because of the WAR on gamers by the studios. Any game I purchase, in a store or otherwise, that I can't play at my leisure now or at any time in the future because the creator or owner of the license shuts down a server, or stops supporting the game will not be in my inventory.
Unfortunately you're a minority because game sales have never been so high.
He may be in the minoriy, but I think it is a significant minority... I can make the same caim as Kaitiff.
Instead of Diablo III, I bought Torchight (and then bought it again for the linux version when it appeared on the humbebundle.) While I have not seen an exact replacement for Starcraft, there are a ton of different RTS games to fill the void.
As for sales, the industry is growing because the market is expanding everywhere (phones, tablets, consoles, social networks, and even app stores for web browsers). In addition, compared to 10-20 years gaming is now an acceptable form of entertainment. Its is no longer symbolized by a geek sitting in front of a computer for days on end... now anyone and everyone can game casually... and do it everywhere (thanks mostly to smartphones.) Also, while huge applications are still expensive, with app stores and indie sites, there has been a virtual explosion of games for $5 and under.
So, increasing sales is not a valid counterpoint against the idea of a growing number of gamers revolting against DRM. We may be a minority, but we are vocal, and we are significant.
As for EA, you used to be a good company... back in the 8-bit days. Now, the last game I bought from you was Command & Conquer 3. I was in the Beta Test for Red Alert 3, but avoided it due to DRM. I will NEVER buy anything else from you until DRM is gone... completely gone. That includes PopCap (which I liked until you bought them), android games, and even back titles through GOG.com. Even though some things may not have DRM,(e.g. GOG titles) I don't like the idea of EA making a profit when the company doesn't give a damn about their customers. Selling games is about making them good, not forcing people to upgrade by deactivating old titles, or suppressing honest opinions.
What is "their share" and why should it be more simply because they are more successful?
One simple reason: It takes money to make money. If you are making minimum wage or any amount slightly above the poverty line, all your money is going to living expenses. You do not have money to invest.
If you have a large nest egg investing is easier... If you have bills to pay, you may be forced to remove money from the market at an inopportune time. There used to be a saying on wall street... "To turn 10 thousand dollars into 20 thousand dollars requires skill; to turn 10 million dollars into 20 million dollars requires only patience."
In addition one of the better investments is education. In general the more education you have the more you will make in the long term. However, when it is hard even for the middle class to send their kids to college, a good education is not always possible. And scholarships only take care of a small minority. Even with a full scholarship, a person may not afford college because they still need living expenses.
If you already have money, you can make smart long term investments to make your future even brighter and generate even more wealth. If you have very little, it is a struggle to keep afloat from day to day, let alone invest for the future.
I think you mean the top 50% are getting tired of funding the bottom 50%.
We realize this and it happens every day. While the wealthiest people generally are the business owners and investors, they pay employees less every year compared to inflation. Wages have stagnated, yet inflation still increases. And the travesty is that most business owners credit themselves as the only reason why their business succeeds; yet in many cases, yet the customers are more likely to deal with the low-end wage slave.
And yes, wage slave is appropriate... The wealthiest always say that if you don't like the pay to find another job; but it is hard to say no to even a bad offer when there is a lot of unemployment especially when you have children that have only had mac and cheese for the last 3 months. And when you have a job, there is not a lot of time available to actually find a new job if you are not happy.
Everyone should pay something if they have an income.
No, if someone can barely afford food and shelter, they should not pay.
And let me add this... Why is it that investment income is capped at 15% for capital gains (now 20% as of 1/1 for people over $400,000) A rate that is much lower than taxes on the middle class who work. The people who are sitting on their asses pay less in taxes (as a percentage.) Hard work should be rewarded, not sitting on investments. The rich cry foul saying that low taxes motivate them... believe me, they would be a lot more motivated if there was a real threat to the value of their wealth diminishing if they did not invest it.
Driving drunk is ALWAYS wrong. 99% of gun owners do absolutely nothing wrong with their guns.
To paraphrase, driving drunk is wrong. owning a gun is not wrong (at least not morally, laws may differ depending on where you live and if you have a criminal record.)
I agree with the above. But, you are comparing apples to oranges...
If you want a better comparison... Owning a car is legal and not wrong. Drinking (depending on age) is also legal. But if you are impaired (through drugs or alcohol) shooting a gun is just as wrong as driving a car. (at least morally, if not legally.)
If you are a responsible adult, owning dangerous items should not be an issue. Drinking alcohol is also fine, even if you want to get drunk to the point of passing out... However, you are acting irresponsibly and should be held accountable when you use dangerous items while impaired regardless of the item.
Being drunk (or high) is not an excuse, you made a conscious decision to drink. If you can not adequately plan other arrangements, or if you know you will completely ignore your plans to let your sober friend drive, you should not be allowing yourself to drink in the first place. It is called responsibility. In the same way, gun owners need to be as responsible as car owners.
There is not a difference, when I was in college, a few of my fraternity brothers got drunk and used bb guns to shoot out the windows of a neighboring house. Shooting while drunk really is just as dangerous. It was obvious (based on trajectory of the bb's in the walls) that it came from our fraternity house and they were forced to learn an expensive lesson. But I guarantee that they would not have been as fortunate had it not been another fraternity house that was empty during a renovation... Think of the consequences had they actually hit someone.
Not to mention a wife who pulls in 6 figures. My wife costs money.
You are assuming that she is spending less than $100,000 a year. If she has expensive tastes, she can still be costing money in spite of the 6 figure salary.
Go and grab "Torchlight." It is a Diablo Clone by the people that wrote the original Diablo. (i.e. before Blizzard was infested with the evil known as Activision.)
Torchlight is a good, hi-res knock-off of Diablo and it is available through GOG. (It also made its way into the Humble Bundle.) If you like Diablo, you will like Torchlight.
They also recently release Torchlight 2 with online options that compete with Diablo III. With Torchlight, you contribute your cash to a small Indie company instead of corporate fat cats.
Pirate Bay discounts every eBook by 100%.
And if we all bought from Pirate Bay, eventually there would no longer be any more quality ebooks.
O'Reilly is a decent publisher. Many of there books are well organized and are worth the money. And unlike the f-ing RIAA/MPAA, their products are DRM-Free. They let you copy it to any device you want; they will even put it directly into your dropbox folder if you would like them to.
Many people who pirate content claim that "if they had the money..." or "if they let me use it on ZZZ device..." Well now is your chance. Everything is on sale, and they do let you use it on any device that can read it Put up or shut up.
For the record, I own about 25 O'Reilly ebooks. I even own a bunch more older titles but I stopped buying printed tech books because I find dropbox and pdfs on my tablet much easier than a broken bookcase and lugging printed material around. (Though I will add the files to my dropbox account manually instead of storing my credentials on their server.)
Aside from a couple of great indie games, the majority of the games I've enjoyed in the past few months are not available for Linux.
Actually, I feel the reverse... all of the games I have bought recently have been through the Humble Bundle which are all indie and all work on Linux. The few games that have not been through the Humble Bundle have been through GOG.com and work on wine.
The last big studio release I have bought was C&C 3. After that I just felt that DRM became too restrictive. (A big reason for buying humble bundle and GOG games.)
I did buy one indie game about a year ago that did not work on Linux, and that was Torchlight. (which I recently was released under Linux through the humble bundle.) I actually ran Torchlight in a virtual machine.
As suggested by the article, because I have not been beholden to windows only games, I have not used windows since XP.
Anyone with half a brain I know of didn't vote.
I didn't vote, and none of my friends voted.
Well if you had more than half a brain, you would have voted. It is your only power to prevent the things you do not like in politics.
This two party system is only going to bring more welfare, poverty and despair and finally a dictatorship to control it all just like North Korea.
While I do not see the dictatorship aspect, a two party system is one of our biggest problems... However, you did nothing to stop it, even an AC that replied to you earlier realizes that if a 3rd party gets 5% of the vote, they qualify for federal election funding in the next race. That is the first step to get rid of the two party system.
Nobody is doing nothing about the banks robbing everything, billions go missing and nobody goes to jail.
It is out of control, and it is all going to end very badly.
Yet, in spite of this, you still sit home and do not vote. You do absolutely nothing to help yourself and everyone else. You let the corrupt incumbents stay in office instead of attempting to vote them out. All it takes is for our elected officials to actually fear for their job to get them to listen to the people; right now they only listen to the people who finance their campaigns... If they get voted out, or narrowly squeeze by, they will be more likely to listen to the people the next time.
One thing that the Obama campaign proved this year, is that it is people turning out to vote that will get you elected, not getting more campaign contributions. (Of course, trying to get them to realize that themselves will be difficult at best base on the number of "give me more money" emails they sent out this year.)
In short, by staying home, you are part of the problem. A smart person realizes that the right to vote is valuable and will exercise that right whenever he/she can.
Whether I call myself a developer or software engineer will not affect my income. I'm old school (over 40) and I think that people building systems as long as I have tend not to care about titles. I'm not even sure there was a "software engineer" title when I started programming.
What I can say is that people that are coming out of college today calling themselves either tend to not have a clue what they are doing. (Of course there are exceptions, but the truly good people are hard to find.) And don't forget the recent title of "Software (or Data) Architect..." This idiots conceptualize a system, charge a ton of money, and have others build it. When it fails, they blame the developers and/or run to another job.
Then there are "Front End Developers," which are nothing more than a graphic/web designer that knows how to add some horribly written jQuery to a site and changed their name to developer in order to get paid more.
Essentially this whole debate is really about one huge issue: Large Companies are trying to turn the entire development process into something that can be done like an assembly line. They are chopping it up into little pieces so that anyone can perform the same monotonous task. The smaller your piece is, the more people that can focus on that specific area, the more people that can do it, the less you are worth. The less the companies pay, the happier they become. The more pieces there are, the more titles.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately if you really know what you are doing) the development process is not easy to break down into pieces. While certain pieces can be farmed out, the overall system will work best when one person knows how to build the system as a whole and can take the project from the requirements to a working application. (And companies rarely want to pay for these good people.)
Amazon fought the sales tax for online purchases for years, it's over, by law they have to charge you.
Actually, Amazon fought the requirement to collect the taxes and remit them to the various states. Legally, you were always required to pay them.
Every state requires that you pay sales tax on every out of state purchase. It does not matter if you order it over the phone, mail order, internet, or even drive across the border to buy something in person. Every state has a tax form to claim the amount of taxes owed that should be filed with your annual tax return.
Admittedly, I have never know anyone to actually pay taxes on out of state purchases, but ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Because so few people actually comply with this law, getting large companies like Amazon to collect taxes is easier than trying to get individuals to comply.
I have heard of a few rare cases where states have actually audited people for not paying these taxes, but generally it only happens when the government gets tips from angry neighbors about large purchases. Even then, I have only heard of states that have completely replaced all income tax with sales tax taking this drastic measure.
Microsoft has nothing to lose from this. Removing legitimate sites from Google's index only helps Bing.
Removing Bing from Google's index hurts Mircrosoft. After all, Microsoft's average user needs to use google to find bing...
It's ironic that Ghostery identifies 6 trackers on this very Slashdot page.
Its not ironic at all if you think about it. Slashdot was original created by geeks for geeks. It became popular and later the original geeks became a minority. The original creator is no longer involved and it is being sold every few months to another company trying to monetize it.... Sounds like a microcosm of the internet itself.
So, how many Republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
None, after all, no one in congress does any work. (either party)