Yeah but that's exactly the point. Your cost is not equal to your fee for service.
And if you dig into it, it's not that you're being paid only 20% of your contract rate, your cost to the company is 20% + x%, with x% being unknown (but could be as much as double your salary)
If you really did believe yourself to be underpaid, why didn't you ask for a raise?
It seems to me with the cheapness of wireless cameras and how much a guy in a "plumbing" van sticks out like a sore thumb when the van is mysteriously parked that cops would stick out less in a bust by using things like hidden video cameras.
Not necessarily nefarious and orwellian.
However, I can see how in the current climate it's hard to know when you're actually being overly paranoid.
People in Asia often are used to living in much tighter quarters than westerners. What seems cruel to you, is normal for them.
Interesting anecdote from the book Changi, by James Clavell (awesome book, read it if you haven't!). During WWII, the Japanese were transporting Clavell and fellow POWs by ship. The japanese officer showed how "human shelves" works. You get into what looks to be a 1m high bookshelf, and sit cross legged. The POWs absolutely thought this to be insane, and demanded better transportation. The Japanese asked why POWs needed luxury transportation, and couldn't use the same transport as the japanese army.
Believe it or not, an employee's "cost" is not the same as his or her salary.
While I have no idea if 20% - 30% is fair, consider that on top of your salary they pay:
Benefits like health insurance
Real estate -- that cube you work in isn't free
Equipment, electricity, and utilities (like some nice fat internet pipes)
Managers
Support staff
Software licensing fees
Profit margin -- you didn't think you worked for the march of dimes, did you?
I remember one project I worked on where my employer billed our client several million a year for three of us. Our client would often jokingly refer to us as the "million dollar men" when we came on site, and not so jokingly whenever it was time to renegotiate the fee schedule. However, our three salaries were actually a small part of the actual bill -- most of that was chewed up by things like equipment and software licensing fees.
This is the one thing that makes me very sad at Apple.
Their business focuses mostly not on business. I would love to see them change that, and do business right. They'd pose a credible threat to microsoft and we'd all benefit from the additional choice.
The nice thing about iTunes + Apple TV is the cloud. Stream whatever you want to watch and delete it when you're done. So long as you have a halfway decent internet connection, literally anything you want to watch is available with a touch of a button.
I've tried the DVD route. DVDs tend to get scratched, lost, or otherwise become a pain to organize.
I've also tried ripping them. It required way too much storage space. And I'm always faced with the distinct possibility that if I don't make backups of all that data I may find it disappear one day.
Apple takes care of all of that for me. And I am more than happy to pay them for it.
The definition of a kilogram or a meter is irrational as well. It's just a lump of platinum someone decided was 1. The benefit of metric is the fact that it's a base 10 measurement, and everything is easily convertible.
There IS a lot of difference in quality but the key is you need to get up close enough to see the difference. If you watch a smallish TV from 3 meters back maybe you don't see a difference. The other thing is you actually need 4k content which is lacking now.
Give it 5 years and when all movies are released in 4k mode and iTunes / Netflix / Amazon Firetv all have a 4k download option you may change your mind a bit....
Fear of authority is often used by confidence men. The vast majority of people who see a shiny badge or ID that says "FBI" don't take the time to actually verify that it's legit.
Except with a kick starter campaign you actually get something.
You're not an investor. You're a customer doing a preorder. Sure there's usually a $1 feel good about yourself donation, but the vast majority of the cash on successful kickstarter campaigns come from people BUYING something.
Having taken some programming courses that covered C, I've created a pointer or two and overloaded a few operators, but you really wouldn't want to let me become a developer on any major C based project.
(although that doesn't mean I don't think I COULD be one if I put in the time or effort -- just that familiarity with a language and the ability to write kernel drivers are two very different things)
I think the vast majority of us at some point have made a C program go "Hello World!" Many more of us have overloaded some operators and learned some other elements of the language.
But there's a world of difference between that, and being a competent C developer. That is something that takes years to learn and quite a bit of work. And while I am sure if I had the time and the yearning to be one I could, I just know I am not.
Slashdot Mirror
What exactly are you arguing for / against?
It seems to me you're just taking pleasure in negating anything I say...
Yeah but that's exactly the point. Your cost is not equal to your fee for service.
And if you dig into it, it's not that you're being paid only 20% of your contract rate, your cost to the company is 20% + x%, with x% being unknown (but could be as much as double your salary)
If you really did believe yourself to be underpaid, why didn't you ask for a raise?
It seems to me with the cheapness of wireless cameras and how much a guy in a "plumbing" van sticks out like a sore thumb when the van is mysteriously parked that cops would stick out less in a bust by using things like hidden video cameras.
Not necessarily nefarious and orwellian.
However, I can see how in the current climate it's hard to know when you're actually being overly paranoid.
Yeah but try doing something about it.
The problem with "discrimination" in hiring is you can almost always find a reason not to hire someone.
People in Asia often are used to living in much tighter quarters than westerners. What seems cruel to you, is normal for them.
Interesting anecdote from the book Changi, by James Clavell (awesome book, read it if you haven't!). During WWII, the Japanese were transporting Clavell and fellow POWs by ship. The japanese officer showed how "human shelves" works. You get into what looks to be a 1m high bookshelf, and sit cross legged. The POWs absolutely thought this to be insane, and demanded better transportation. The Japanese asked why POWs needed luxury transportation, and couldn't use the same transport as the japanese army.
Believe it or not, an employee's "cost" is not the same as his or her salary.
While I have no idea if 20% - 30% is fair, consider that on top of your salary they pay:
I remember one project I worked on where my employer billed our client several million a year for three of us. Our client would often jokingly refer to us as the "million dollar men" when we came on site, and not so jokingly whenever it was time to renegotiate the fee schedule. However, our three salaries were actually a small part of the actual bill -- most of that was chewed up by things like equipment and software licensing fees.
5.5 GB?
What quality do you rip those movies at? ;)
Sucks to be you.
This is the one thing that makes me very sad at Apple.
Their business focuses mostly not on business. I would love to see them change that, and do business right. They'd pose a credible threat to microsoft and we'd all benefit from the additional choice.
Yeah and how big is your NAS?
The nice thing about iTunes + Apple TV is the cloud. Stream whatever you want to watch and delete it when you're done. So long as you have a halfway decent internet connection, literally anything you want to watch is available with a touch of a button.
I've tried the DVD route. DVDs tend to get scratched, lost, or otherwise become a pain to organize.
I've also tried ripping them. It required way too much storage space. And I'm always faced with the distinct possibility that if I don't make backups of all that data I may find it disappear one day.
Apple takes care of all of that for me. And I am more than happy to pay them for it.
The definition of a kilogram or a meter is irrational as well. It's just a lump of platinum someone decided was 1. The benefit of metric is the fact that it's a base 10 measurement, and everything is easily convertible.
It's curious that the metric system took over while the metric calendar didn't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
I saw a 4k monitor at an electronics show. The demo were super high res scenes of Avatar. Believe me the difference POPPED.
It could be the set up just wasn't good. There just really is not a lot of 4k content out there.
There IS a lot of difference in quality but the key is you need to get up close enough to see the difference. If you watch a smallish TV from 3 meters back maybe you don't see a difference. The other thing is you actually need 4k content which is lacking now.
Give it 5 years and when all movies are released in 4k mode and iTunes / Netflix / Amazon Firetv all have a 4k download option you may change your mind a bit....
Fear of authority is often used by confidence men. The vast majority of people who see a shiny badge or ID that says "FBI" don't take the time to actually verify that it's legit.
Except with a kick starter campaign you actually get something.
You're not an investor. You're a customer doing a preorder. Sure there's usually a $1 feel good about yourself donation, but the vast majority of the cash on successful kickstarter campaigns come from people BUYING something.
LOL +1 funny
That's because this entire submission should be modded -5 Flamebait
I suppose you threw out your CD collection rather than ripping it?
I personally think the Kindle is AWESOME.
No complaints here and I think the submitter is just daft. Or anti-amazon
Oh come on. Books have never been "vendor neutral." Publishers for many hundred years have done all kinds of weasely things.
And this is why you should keep me away from any C based kernel development ;)
Fuzzy memories of what may or may not be and how to do things. And I'd bet other /.s have similar experiences
LOL... You might want to read my post.
Having taken some programming courses that covered C, I've created a pointer or two and overloaded a few operators, but you really wouldn't want to let me become a developer on any major C based project.
(although that doesn't mean I don't think I COULD be one if I put in the time or effort -- just that familiarity with a language and the ability to write kernel drivers are two very different things)
Any sort of life style for children is a double edged blade.
Socialize them well, and they may become more interested in friends than academics.
Encourage them to sit at home reading, and they'll be maladjusted socially (but smart).
Part of life is about learning to deal with your deficiencies, and play to your strength.
Depends what you mean by "code in C"
I think the vast majority of us at some point have made a C program go "Hello World!" Many more of us have overloaded some operators and learned some other elements of the language.
But there's a world of difference between that, and being a competent C developer. That is something that takes years to learn and quite a bit of work. And while I am sure if I had the time and the yearning to be one I could, I just know I am not.