hear hear.... I used to have a nice little mp3 player with tactile buttons and a physical click for every action. I bought a Creative Zen box which is mostly wonderful EXCEPT for a God Damned Slider Pad in the center (like Ipod's circular slider pad) that is so sensitive that even at lowest sensitivity and the audible clicks it is impossible to use without looking at it.
I *used* to be able to use my cellphone without looking at it... no more. What are these fucking morons thinking?
This really isn't an "ipod" problem.. it is a problem with most brands of MP3 and cellphone makers.
I can use my stereo controls on my steering wheel without ever taking my eyes off the road or hands off the wheel..... how about stereo systems that integrate via USB ports with players so that you can do the same?
Until then... I just have some playlists that I can key in without having to use the God Damned Slider Bar or I just hit random and hope.
As for idiots and multi-tasking in cars? Its my contention that most of the driving population can not drive their cars... with or without distractions. Blame non-existent driving skill testing, non-existent retesting, and lack of alternatives to letting any moron drive a car.
Re:...never to be seen again
on
Back to the Bunker
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
And that, in a nutshell, is why this whole scenario is stupid and unrealistic --- 4000+ civilians are going to *abandon* their husbands, wives, children, etc. to burrow themselves in deep caverns in order "keep the essential functions of government working".
It might have made *some* sense if immediate family were brought along --- how productive am I going to be not knowing the wellbeing of my family in a really big disaster? Make sure they're safe and you'll have some highly motivated people...
Makes me want to staplegun a DVD of Dr. Strangelove to the foreheads of these loons we have in charge...
"Maybe because we here in the US take security fairly seriously."
Sorry but I just ruined a monitor in coffeespew... I spent too many years in the Cold War as a defense contractor to think the measures you're touting as serious have ANYTHING to do with real security. They're shams and designed to make some people "feel good" and more ominously, to condition the population into sheeples. Reality interrupt: this administration is incompetent and where they're not incompetent, they're looting the vaults, and where they're not looting the vaults, they're ideologically unsound. But by all means, let the trainwreck continue just to drive the point home completely.
Then there is the rather substantial pack of people (like me) are STILL not even offered DSL/Broadband whatever. I have to resort to the rather unreliable service of Direcway satellite which for a substantial fee - gives you service that either won't complete simple file transfers reliably and then caps you for retrying the same file more than a few times (350mb/4hr == capped to dialup speed).
ISDN? not available, DSL? not available, Frame Relay? not available, cable? not available
Do I live in the middle of Montana? No, they have better connectivity -- no, I live less than a couple of miles from one of Intel's largest facilities. But Verizon refuses to upgrade their CO and have a pastiche of copper-fiber-copper with old DLC units. I have to run two land lines just to simulate 56k (the DLCs are so old they only do 26.4kbps).
The "everyone has it who wants it" argument is a bit stale when the "last mile" issue is still so prevalent with *all* the RBOCs.
Then you live in a very small world... sad for you. Perhaps you hang out with the wrong crowd.
I'm 48, have a BSEE, make about $100K/yr and play regularly with my teenage sons games such as WoW, CS, Total War, Battlefield, and random RPGs. My wife (a pharmacist) plays console games and online board games (fps type games make her a bit dizzy). Most of my friends are engineers, lawyers, research types... all play at least console games though many play FPS and MMO type games. My first computer game was Adventure played on a Perkin-Elmer 8/32 back in 1981 (not including the arcade games in the late 70s).
Oh I know... you must have missed the monolith meeting. Too busy throwing poo at the waterhole:)
yeah, thats probably the best solution for it...keep a keyboard handy for typing and use the zboard specifically for gaming (aren't USB keyboards wonderful?)
The *idea* is pretty nifty... customized keyboard layouts for particular games (flight simulators come to mind). However, the *execution* sucks... I bought one last year with a few keyboards.... the keyboard quality itself is awful (as in "clack clack" and if you hit a key too hard or too soft it doesn't register), and it has a USB issue of "disappearing" rarely (found to be true on several machines).
The typing quality on a $19 Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard exceeds it manyfold. Nice try but I find my little Nostromo N51 palm toy much more useful for FPS.... lets me assign keys so I don't accidently fall into mode hell ("Moving to leftffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff aieee").
Humor tag: Oh and I will not take any more suggestions to use Vent.... the last thing I want to experience in gameplay is a little pink mage gnome femme sounding like a burly guy who hangs out in smoky bars.
This is like saying we're addicted to tools... fire is a tool. Without fire, we're definitely worse off. For better or worse, our species is defined by its use of tools and the effect tools have had on our evolution. To a great degree, this is no different than folks whining about some people being addicted to the bow and arrow.... while they keep banging the rocks together and wondering why they're not getting the food.
Our tools *might* do us in one day.... just like most species have come to an end because of some inability to adapt or an overspecialization. From that respect, introduction of new tools should be looked at critically... but so should the decision NOT to introduce new tools.
Okay... I've had it with the moronic misuse of the word "addicted". I guess most of the West is addicted to electricity, indoor plumbing, and the ability to communicate with each other. I use the Internet for work, shopping, play, education, and research. It is a conduit.
People who call this an addiction are just modern day Luddites or those refusing to come out of the water and check out the spooky "dry land".
And what about all those "non-Western" countries that find the Internet vital to their infrastructure?
That's odd.... when I look in a mirror I see some person that looks a lot like my dad in his younger days. My self-image function has not kept up with my actual appearance.... (not that I've become Gollum but I definitely can't be mistaken for the 20-something image stuck in my head).
And what about this addiction to cars? And.. the telephone - very very addictive. O my god I use electricity *all* the time!!!!! Aieeeee!!!!!
So paying my bills, job hunting, corresponding with friends, hobby activities, remote administration, playing games with friends... now add up to "addiction".....
They are not only idiots but the worst of Luddites.
The *hilarious* thing about this is our guild can't get the flipping GMs to do squat about seriously "against policy" names while a fairly innocuous name like Taco's gets the bleach. And there is no appeal process --- unlike about every other customer service function in existence. The end game of this type of behavior is that you chase away "good customers" and are only left with the obnoxious ones.
The headline and the article really don't match... unless he's been misquoted (like that never happens) he's saying something that many NASA employees would agree on. Both the Shuttle and the ISS are monsters of compromise due to chronic underfunding, mismanagement of existing funds, and politics. The Shuttle was supposed to something closer to the X craft they're tinkering with now but Congress -- year after year underfunded the project - forcing design compromises that led us to the mess we call the External Tank, for instance. Originally, there were to be two vehicles - a cargo shuttle and a crew launch vehicle. Poof.
The ISS was *originally* going to be something rather spectacular but the restraints (partly due to being forced to fit in Shuttle bays, again more underfunding, *LOTS* of mismanagement) became something that really a LOT of the research that could be done there can't be (the necessary pieces to do a broad range of research were erased during budget cuts).
NASA uses less than a penny out of every tax dollar and despite the enormous waste it *does* have, the GAO routinely calculates that NASA gets more bang for the buck than almost every other agency. Bush has managed to squander in two years with his stupid and arrogant diversion into Iraq from Afghanistan what NASA couldn't spend in a decade.
The only problem I see with that analysis is in the phrase "most homes." A substantial portion of homes, even in suburban ares and urban areas CANNOT get broadband from their telco and ISDN is cost-prohibitive because they refuse to upgrade their networks. They don't want competition and they don't want to change their business model.
For example, in my case, my telco (Verizon) uses DLC devices between my area and the CO... result: not only no broadband but all dialup is capped at 26.4kbps. No cable tv down our area... o well... power Internet? HAHAHAHAHAHA... no time this decade. Currently, my ONLY choice is satellite - which has 1200ms ping. Hard to even type under ssh. The only poor wireless in our area keeps getting swamped by the airport noise and has dark spots everywhere in their nominal coverage zone.
We live less than 3 miles from an Intel campus. Some of my engineer friends live a few blocks from Intel and can't get any decent broadband for similar reasons.
Thank you and fuck you, Verizon. I even want to strangle Mr. Jones when I see their stupid commercials.
One has to remember that originally, news departments were run as a public service so that the station could meet its mandate and justification for the BORROWING of the public airwaves. Somewhere in the wonderful "greed is good" 80s... someone decided that news departments should be profit centers.
At that instant -- the news was fucked (as opposed to just biased or agenda-driven).
I'd like to see the Fairness Doctrine reinstated and an FCC mandate that news departments be NON-PROFIT... not likely at the moment.
As a network admin, I agree with everything you said... BUT this Tom Clueless is totally out of line with his comments to the news. Employer restrictions on what they can say about current and former employees is pretty straightforward. Tom's remarks are probably good for a lawsuit that will waste a lot of the taxpayer's money...
Thanks Tom... idiot.
I did the same... I also note that the website has virtually NO email communication points. I find this epecially entertaining considering they have a whole page devoted to the Communication Office and Media Center office... and yet NOT ONE email contact point. Says reams about the state of mind at this place.
I suspect they're going to have a LOT of trouble attracting any technical talent for a while with this kind of anti-intellectual arrogant jerk management.
That said, the firing was probably justified IF they had a strong policy against unauthorized software... but Tom's remarks were completely out of line and probably actionable.
The problem with this whole thread is that first it has to be understood that Ballmer is a corporate asshole.
Everything he says has to be filtered through that concept. Worse, he's a corporate asshole that repeatedly and loudly Doesn't Get It when it comes to customers. They aren't consumer units or little thieving roaches.
They have the RIGHT to store and protect the concepts they've have a license to on *any* medium.
As much as it pains me, Donald Trump Gets It (at least he says he gets it in the OfficeDepot spots). If your primary mission is "maximizing value to shareholders after I line my pockets"... its all screwed. If your primary mission is "taking care of my customers, keep them happy, and the money will flow", then you have a sustainable clue.
Re:Neither candidate is dancing the hoochie coo
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
My $10K number was just a grab at our competitor's average salary in India --- THEY don't have to pay so much for transportation/housing, its all scaled down to fit the economy.
So if we're going to be "global" (and not wait for India's average cost of living to grow as big as ours) -- we're going to have to figure out how a $10K/yr salary for engineer doesn't mean he lives under a bridge.
Besides, we can't ALL flip fries... someone has to be the engineer.
Re:Management is Employees also
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
Ah well.. you've just defined Humankind. I spent six months at Intel on a project. From what I saw they could have randomly fired every third person and never missed a deadline. A few people did a lot of the work, the rest were in meetings where Dilbert's laws ruled supreme.
Re:Neither candidate is dancing the hoochie coo
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
You missed my point... if all your customers make less than $10K.... all those lovely $450K homes will sit unused.
MORE likely... the housing industry will shrink and collapse because they won't be able to adjust to their customer's "new leaner lifestyle".
The corporations engaged in destroying the middle class are indirectly going to destroy the housing industry...
Of course, if you notice housing developers (like car manufacturers) prefer building a smaller number of high end units --- apparently better profit. Hence the neverending pleas for "affordable housing".
Re:As an American I can say...
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
I'd be happy working in the US for $10000/yr... just explain to the auto and housing industry that they need to sell their products for less than $10000. Oh... and let the Feds and the corporate industrial complex know that their business model is about to become toast because a bunch of serfs making $10000/yr won't pay for their cute toys like Hummers, plasma tvs, B-2 bombers, subsidizing corporate fun like logging roads, oil refineries...
Hell, even the closet nazi Henry Ford knew you had to pay your workers enough to buy product and pay those lovely corporate welfare supporting taxes...
Re:Neither candidate is dancing the hoochie coo
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
"First off, the economy isn't doing badly - I'm right here in the valley, and things are picking up quite nicely. "
I'm so glad your provincial clue holds true for the whole country... sorry, try again.
If we're going to compete with the global market...then the housing industry is going to have to figure out how to sell us decent housing for less than $10,000, the auto industry is going to have to create cars for less than $10,000... and the government is going to have find something other than personal income tax to gather money with because they are not taxing the wealth transfer in the top 1% and the rest of us are going to only be making $20,000/yr if we're lucky... if we're going to compete globally.
Re:As an American I can say...
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
I call bullshit... by most measures Americans compete or outcompete most other countries.
What you're seeing are little robber barons lining their pockets for THIS quarter by outsourcing vital corporate work to overseas people who can afford to work for less because they don't have an artifically high cost of living (aka housing with minimum costs or $50000/$100000/$200000). These robbers get bonuses and rewards.. by the time the shareholders figure out they've screwed what makes the company a good long term investment, these robbers are exiting stage right.
The last full time company I worked for (before my current "freelancing" status... and obtw I'm not on any Unemployment List either thanks to the way the state counts its data)... sliced and diced this way... highly productive and profitable company -- new management moves in with cronies on Board of Directors -- while they're all getting much higher bonuses, company loans (never paid back), and perks... they're screwing up our price structure and moving us into the Fortune 100 market (total customer base abandonment) where we can't compete with the Top 4.
Result: 10 branch offices go under... the remainder of the company is a facade under which the management slurps whats left of cash on hand.. we drop off the NYSE (its all in the plan they say).
All you morons supporting this line of thinking: message - YOU AREN'T IN THE COUNTRY CLUB. These thieves use you and your ideological theories while laughing all the way to the bank.
Seriously... are you connected to ANY form of communication? They *are* making a movie -- it started filming a couple of months ago... the Internet is buzzing about it. And radio plays are making a comeback since they use this special effects package called "the brain" that doesn't cost much at all. Its certainly better than tv when driving or doing something in the house besides sitting on the Couch Of Ass Holding.
A radio is also a good thing to have when disaster strikes... one of those wind up kind.
Slashdot Mirror
hear hear.... I used to have a nice little mp3 player with tactile buttons and a physical click for every action. I bought a Creative Zen box which is mostly wonderful EXCEPT for a God Damned Slider Pad in the center (like Ipod's circular slider pad) that is so sensitive that even at lowest sensitivity and the audible clicks it is impossible to use without looking at it.
.... how about stereo systems that integrate via USB ports with players so that you can do the same?
... with or without distractions. Blame non-existent driving skill testing, non-existent retesting, and lack of alternatives to letting any moron drive a car.
I *used* to be able to use my cellphone without looking at it... no more. What are these fucking morons thinking?
This really isn't an "ipod" problem.. it is a problem with most brands of MP3 and cellphone makers.
I can use my stereo controls on my steering wheel without ever taking my eyes off the road or hands off the wheel.
Until then... I just have some playlists that I can key in without having to use the God Damned Slider Bar or I just hit random and hope.
As for idiots and multi-tasking in cars? Its my contention that most of the driving population can not drive their cars
And that, in a nutshell, is why this whole scenario is stupid and unrealistic --- 4000+ civilians are going to *abandon* their husbands, wives, children, etc. to burrow themselves in deep caverns in order "keep the essential functions of government working". It might have made *some* sense if immediate family were brought along --- how productive am I going to be not knowing the wellbeing of my family in a really big disaster? Make sure they're safe and you'll have some highly motivated people... Makes me want to staplegun a DVD of Dr. Strangelove to the foreheads of these loons we have in charge...
"Maybe because we here in the US take security fairly seriously."
Sorry but I just ruined a monitor in coffeespew... I spent too many years in the Cold War as a defense contractor to think the measures you're touting as serious have ANYTHING to do with real security. They're shams and designed to make some people "feel good" and more ominously, to condition the population into sheeples. Reality interrupt: this administration is incompetent and where they're not incompetent, they're looting the vaults, and where they're not looting the vaults, they're ideologically unsound. But by all means, let the trainwreck continue just to drive the point home completely.
Then there is the rather substantial pack of people (like me) are STILL not even offered DSL/Broadband whatever. I have to resort to the rather unreliable service of Direcway satellite which for a substantial fee - gives you service that either won't complete simple file transfers reliably and then caps you for retrying the same file more than a few times (350mb/4hr == capped to dialup speed). ISDN? not available, DSL? not available, Frame Relay? not available, cable? not available Do I live in the middle of Montana? No, they have better connectivity -- no, I live less than a couple of miles from one of Intel's largest facilities. But Verizon refuses to upgrade their CO and have a pastiche of copper-fiber-copper with old DLC units. I have to run two land lines just to simulate 56k (the DLCs are so old they only do 26.4kbps). The "everyone has it who wants it" argument is a bit stale when the "last mile" issue is still so prevalent with *all* the RBOCs.
Then you live in a very small world... sad for you. Perhaps you hang out with the wrong crowd.
:)
I'm 48, have a BSEE, make about $100K/yr and play regularly with my teenage sons games such as WoW, CS, Total War, Battlefield, and random RPGs. My wife (a pharmacist) plays console games and online board games (fps type games make her a bit dizzy). Most of my friends are engineers, lawyers, research types... all play at least console games though many play FPS and MMO type games. My first computer game was Adventure played on a Perkin-Elmer 8/32 back in 1981 (not including the arcade games in the late 70s).
Oh I know... you must have missed the monolith meeting. Too busy throwing poo at the waterhole
yeah, thats probably the best solution for it.. .keep a keyboard handy for typing and use the zboard specifically for gaming (aren't USB keyboards wonderful?)
The *idea* is pretty nifty ... customized keyboard layouts for particular games (flight simulators come to mind). However, the *execution* sucks ... I bought one last year with a few keyboards.... the keyboard quality itself is awful (as in "clack clack" and if you hit a key too hard or too soft it doesn't register), and it has a USB issue of "disappearing" rarely (found to be true on several machines).
The typing quality on a $19 Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard exceeds it manyfold. Nice try but I find my little Nostromo N51 palm toy much more useful for FPS .... lets me assign keys so I don't accidently fall into mode hell ("Moving to leftffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff aieee").
Humor tag: Oh and I will not take any more suggestions to use Vent .... the last thing I want to experience in gameplay is a little pink mage gnome femme sounding like a burly guy who hangs out in smoky bars.
This is like saying we're addicted to tools... fire is a tool. Without fire, we're definitely worse off. For better or worse, our species is defined by its use of tools and the effect tools have had on our evolution. To a great degree, this is no different than folks whining about some people being addicted to the bow and arrow .... while they keep banging the rocks together and wondering why they're not getting the food.
Our tools *might* do us in one day.... just like most species have come to an end because of some inability to adapt or an overspecialization. From that respect, introduction of new tools should be looked at critically ... but so should the decision NOT to introduce new tools.
Okay... I've had it with the moronic misuse of the word "addicted". I guess most of the West is addicted to electricity, indoor plumbing, and the ability to communicate with each other. I use the Internet for work, shopping, play, education, and research. It is a conduit. People who call this an addiction are just modern day Luddites or those refusing to come out of the water and check out the spooky "dry land". And what about all those "non-Western" countries that find the Internet vital to their infrastructure?
That's odd.... when I look in a mirror I see some person that looks a lot like my dad in his younger days. My self-image function has not kept up with my actual appearance.... (not that I've become Gollum but I definitely can't be mistaken for the 20-something image stuck in my head).
And what about this addiction to cars? And.. the telephone - very very addictive. O my god I use electricity *all* the time!!!!! Aieeeee!!!!! So paying my bills, job hunting, corresponding with friends, hobby activities, remote administration, playing games with friends ... now add up to "addiction".....
They are not only idiots but the worst of Luddites.
The *hilarious* thing about this is our guild can't get the flipping GMs to do squat about seriously "against policy" names while a fairly innocuous name like Taco's gets the bleach. And there is no appeal process --- unlike about every other customer service function in existence. The end game of this type of behavior is that you chase away "good customers" and are only left with the obnoxious ones.
The headline and the article really don't match ... unless he's been misquoted (like that never happens) he's saying something that many NASA employees would agree on. Both the Shuttle and the ISS are monsters of compromise due to chronic underfunding, mismanagement of existing funds, and politics. The Shuttle was supposed to something closer to the X craft they're tinkering with now but Congress -- year after year underfunded the project - forcing design compromises that led us to the mess we call the External Tank, for instance. Originally, there were to be two vehicles - a cargo shuttle and a crew launch vehicle. Poof.
The ISS was *originally* going to be something rather spectacular but the restraints (partly due to being forced to fit in Shuttle bays, again more underfunding, *LOTS* of mismanagement) became something that really a LOT of the research that could be done there can't be (the necessary pieces to do a broad range of research were erased during budget cuts).
NASA uses less than a penny out of every tax dollar and despite the enormous waste it *does* have, the GAO routinely calculates that NASA gets more bang for the buck than almost every other agency. Bush has managed to squander in two years with his stupid and arrogant diversion into Iraq from Afghanistan what NASA couldn't spend in a decade.
The only problem I see with that analysis is in the phrase "most homes." A substantial portion of homes, even in suburban ares and urban areas CANNOT get broadband from their telco and ISDN is cost-prohibitive because they refuse to upgrade their networks. They don't want competition and they don't want to change their business model. For example, in my case, my telco (Verizon) uses DLC devices between my area and the CO... result: not only no broadband but all dialup is capped at 26.4kbps. No cable tv down our area... o well... power Internet? HAHAHAHAHAHA... no time this decade. Currently, my ONLY choice is satellite - which has 1200ms ping. Hard to even type under ssh. The only poor wireless in our area keeps getting swamped by the airport noise and has dark spots everywhere in their nominal coverage zone. We live less than 3 miles from an Intel campus. Some of my engineer friends live a few blocks from Intel and can't get any decent broadband for similar reasons. Thank you and fuck you, Verizon. I even want to strangle Mr. Jones when I see their stupid commercials.
One has to remember that originally, news departments were run as a public service so that the station could meet its mandate and justification for the BORROWING of the public airwaves. Somewhere in the wonderful "greed is good" 80s... someone decided that news departments should be profit centers. At that instant -- the news was fucked (as opposed to just biased or agenda-driven). I'd like to see the Fairness Doctrine reinstated and an FCC mandate that news departments be NON-PROFIT... not likely at the moment.
As a network admin, I agree with everything you said... BUT this Tom Clueless is totally out of line with his comments to the news. Employer restrictions on what they can say about current and former employees is pretty straightforward. Tom's remarks are probably good for a lawsuit that will waste a lot of the taxpayer's money... Thanks Tom... idiot.
I did the same... I also note that the website has virtually NO email communication points. I find this epecially entertaining considering they have a whole page devoted to the Communication Office and Media Center office... and yet NOT ONE email contact point.
Says reams about the state of mind at this place.
I suspect they're going to have a LOT of trouble attracting any technical talent for a while with this kind of anti-intellectual arrogant jerk management.
That said, the firing was probably justified IF they had a strong policy against unauthorized software... but Tom's remarks were completely out of line and probably actionable.
The problem with this whole thread is that first it has to be understood that Ballmer is a corporate asshole. Everything he says has to be filtered through that concept. Worse, he's a corporate asshole that repeatedly and loudly Doesn't Get It when it comes to customers. They aren't consumer units or little thieving roaches. They have the RIGHT to store and protect the concepts they've have a license to on *any* medium. As much as it pains me, Donald Trump Gets It (at least he says he gets it in the OfficeDepot spots). If your primary mission is "maximizing value to shareholders after I line my pockets" ... its all screwed. If your primary mission is "taking care of my customers, keep them happy, and the money will flow", then you have a sustainable clue.
My $10K number was just a grab at our competitor's average salary in India --- THEY don't have to pay so much for transportation/housing, its all scaled down to fit the economy. So if we're going to be "global" (and not wait for India's average cost of living to grow as big as ours) -- we're going to have to figure out how a $10K/yr salary for engineer doesn't mean he lives under a bridge. Besides, we can't ALL flip fries... someone has to be the engineer.
Ah well.. you've just defined Humankind. I spent six months at Intel on a project. From what I saw they could have randomly fired every third person and never missed a deadline. A few people did a lot of the work, the rest were in meetings where Dilbert's laws ruled supreme.
You missed my point... if all your customers make less than $10K.... all those lovely $450K homes will sit unused. MORE likely... the housing industry will shrink and collapse because they won't be able to adjust to their customer's "new leaner lifestyle". The corporations engaged in destroying the middle class are indirectly going to destroy the housing industry... Of course, if you notice housing developers (like car manufacturers) prefer building a smaller number of high end units --- apparently better profit. Hence the neverending pleas for "affordable housing".
I'd be happy working in the US for $10000/yr ... just explain to the auto and housing industry that they need to sell their products for less than $10000. Oh... and let the Feds and the corporate industrial complex know that their business model is about to become toast because a bunch of serfs making $10000/yr won't pay for their cute toys like Hummers, plasma tvs, B-2 bombers, subsidizing corporate fun like logging roads, oil refineries...
Hell, even the closet nazi Henry Ford knew you had to pay your workers enough to buy product and pay those lovely corporate welfare supporting taxes...
"First off, the economy isn't doing badly - I'm right here in the valley, and things are picking up quite nicely. " I'm so glad your provincial clue holds true for the whole country... sorry, try again. If we're going to compete with the global market...then the housing industry is going to have to figure out how to sell us decent housing for less than $10,000, the auto industry is going to have to create cars for less than $10,000... and the government is going to have find something other than personal income tax to gather money with because they are not taxing the wealth transfer in the top 1% and the rest of us are going to only be making $20,000/yr if we're lucky... if we're going to compete globally.
I call bullshit... by most measures Americans compete or outcompete most other countries. What you're seeing are little robber barons lining their pockets for THIS quarter by outsourcing vital corporate work to overseas people who can afford to work for less because they don't have an artifically high cost of living (aka housing with minimum costs or $50000/$100000/$200000). These robbers get bonuses and rewards.. by the time the shareholders figure out they've screwed what makes the company a good long term investment, these robbers are exiting stage right. The last full time company I worked for (before my current "freelancing" status ... and obtw I'm not on any Unemployment List either thanks to the way the state counts its data) ... sliced and diced this way... highly productive and profitable company -- new management moves in with cronies on Board of Directors -- while they're all getting much higher bonuses, company loans (never paid back), and perks... they're screwing up our price structure and moving us into the Fortune 100 market (total customer base abandonment) where we can't compete with the Top 4.
Result: 10 branch offices go under... the remainder of the company is a facade under which the management slurps whats left of cash on hand.. we drop off the NYSE (its all in the plan they say).
All you morons supporting this line of thinking: message - YOU AREN'T IN THE COUNTRY CLUB. These thieves use you and your ideological theories while laughing all the way to the bank.
Seriously... are you connected to ANY form of communication? They *are* making a movie -- it started filming a couple of months ago ... the Internet is buzzing about it. And radio plays are making a comeback since they use this special effects package called "the brain" that doesn't cost much at all. Its certainly better than tv when driving or doing something in the house besides sitting on the Couch Of Ass Holding.
A radio is also a good thing to have when disaster strikes... one of those wind up kind.