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User: TapeCutter

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  1. Re:It's the stigma on Unemployed Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks To Factory Jobs · · Score: 1

    People that started in the mail-room and made it to CEO were almost always the former CEO's/Chairman's son.

    A common practice for sure, but as someone who started working 39yrs ago my experience was the majority just had the RightStuff(TM)*.

    * - right place, right time, right attitude.

    I can't speak for the US but these kind of opportunities exist today in Australia, for centuries one particular opportunity was clearly labeled as "mail boy", communications technology has killed the mail boy along with a lot of other clerical activities, the trick nowadays is to spot the unlabeled opportunity in an entry level job, but hasn't that always been the case?

  2. Re:It's the stigma on Unemployed Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks To Factory Jobs · · Score: 1

    The mail room path was additional to the formal education path, it's primary advantage was you knew everybody in the building. An education would start you off a couple of rungs above a mail boy but your political/social understanding of the organization would be limited to your boss, coworkers, and the mail boy. The ideal situation was to get a job as a mail boy AND study at the same time.

    As with the UK, more than a few Aussie companies prefer to promote from the bottom up. However I can also see the merit in occasionally recruiting a Cxx from outside to stir up a stagnant business.

  3. Re:It's the stigma on Unemployed Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks To Factory Jobs · · Score: 1

    I'd rather we broke up each Cxx prize into 100 more modest prizes.

  4. Re:It's the stigma on Unemployed Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks To Factory Jobs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It also sounds like they have a "buyers market" for labour, workers can pick and choose because there are plenty of jobs and businesses are forced to react by making more attractive offers. Henry Ford famously did the same thing with his factory (the largest in the world at the time). He dramatically cut workers hours at the same time as handing out massive pay increases, and then made a big noise about it in the newspapers. Workers flocked to the Ford factory looking for a job, (somewhat counter-intuitively) productivity also went through the roof. A direct result of Ford's policy was that it pushed the US into a 40hr week much faster than the unions could have done so alone, it was a glaring example to all that such a move would not destroy the economy..

    When I was a kid China was still suffering the last of Mao's self-induced famines, I'm pretty sure most workers in China look at today's job market as a blessing rather than a problem because at the end of the day, finding and retaining workers is a rich man's problem and a common man's opportunity.

  5. Re:And here is the solution on In Brazil, Trees To Call For Help If Illegally Felled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Illegal timber is big business, there are huge profits and people are prepared to get violent about it. A single hardwood tree can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, particularly fine furniture species. I imagine they would attach these things to the most valuable trees. There are other schemes to track where legal logs come from but they require a lot of manpower to police since each log needs to be checked to find unregistered logs. This idea certainly won't catch everyone but as you say these illegal loggers are a businesses with heavy equipment, a tree that calls home will expose the entire company behind the operation.

    BTW: How would one use an EMP without also frying the electronics in the trucks and bulldozers?

  6. Re:Yes on Ask Slashdot: Job Search Or More Education? · · Score: 1

    Whatever, but we will still lock you up for driving without a license.

  7. Re:Old news on Jonathan Coulton Song Used By Glee Without Permission · · Score: 0

    Virtually ALL art is a derivative of a derivative, most of science, politics, and religion too.

  8. Opps on Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set · · Score: 2
  9. Re:here we go on Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set · · Score: 2

    "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." - Mein Kampf.

    Adolf Hitler was raised by a Catholic father and a devout Catholic mother; he ceased to participate in the sacraments after childhood and supported the Deutsche Christen church which rejected the Hebrew origins of the Gospel.[1] In his book Mein Kampf and in public speeches he often made statements that affirmed a belief in Christianity. Prior to World War II Hitler had promoted "positive Christianity", a movement which purged Christianity of its Jewish elements and instilled it with Nazi philosophy. - Shamelessly cut and paste from WP, turns out he was a non-practicing Catholic who linked his enemy Stalin with atheism and had a habit of claiming god was on his side. Unsurprisingly Stalin also co-opted the church as part of his propaganda machine in pretty much the same way as Hitler did.

  10. Re:here we go on Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hitler was in bed with the Pope, Stalin split the orthodox church by attacking it and used what was left as a sock puppet. Religious institutions are powerful players in society, no dictator worth his title is going to allow the church to oppose him, nor can he completely dismantle it. The simplest option is to co-opt it and absorb the obedient followers into his own flock. Stalin did this so effectively he was seen as a benevolent demigod by the majority of his people, even those in death camps believed Stalin would rescue them if he knew what was going on.

    This is not to say either of them were motivated by religion, but they most definitely tamed and harnessed the power of religious institutions and used it to suppress internal opposition.

  11. Re:"Secret" as in "well signposted"? on Secret UK Uranium Components Plant Closed Over Safety Fears · · Score: 1

    Nope, but the contents of the safety deposit boxes inside it certainly are. The USSR had "secret cities" in plain site, area 51 is on the tourist map.... In other words the meaning is clear, the debate is about semantics.

  12. Re:no surprise there on Can a New GPU Rejuvenate a 5 Year Old Gaming PC? · · Score: 1

    See my reply to the OP above, a smallish SSD will also do wonders for your builds.

  13. Re:no surprise there on Can a New GPU Rejuvenate a 5 Year Old Gaming PC? · · Score: 2

    I have an i5 with an SSD and an i7 with a traditional HDD, both have very similar GPU's, both run about the same for demanding video games ('world of tanks' at highest quality to be specific). Prior to installing the SSD the i5 was clearly an inferior setup and could not cope with the game without setting the quality slightly above "total crap". I've had that setup for about a year but I also had the SSD replaced under warranty after about 6mths of use, overall I think it's been well worth the dollars and the hassle.

    From the credit_where_credit_is_due_dept: the standard Win7 "Performance Information and Tools" really is a very useful "upgrades for dummies" guide as to where you should focus your hardware dollars. With an i5 or better, it's unlikely it would recommend a CPU upgrade.

  14. Re:Thanks, Antigua! on Responding to US Gambling Law, Antigua Set To Launch "Pirate" Site · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you can't keep a promise because it confilcts with the constitution then don't make the promise in the first place, or withdraw from the club and retain your honour. Cherry-picking the umpire's decisions is at best hypocritical, at worst it fucks up the game for all players.

  15. Re:Thanks, Antigua! on Responding to US Gambling Law, Antigua Set To Launch "Pirate" Site · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You seem to continue to side step the issue of the US having the right to control gambling within its borders.

    You seem to be ignorant of the fact that the US agreed to abide by certain rules for governing international trade. The US eagerly signed the WTO treaty, a binding contract between nations defining the rules of international trade. The US broke the terms of the contract in order to protect it's domestic gambling industry, this disadvantages all other signatories to the treaty who offer international gambling (including the UK and other staunch allies). Antigua is the only one with the balls to pursue the issue with the umpire. The fact that the WTO agreed with them indicates the WTO is now more than just a lapdog of the US state department.

    If the US regrets what it agreed to when it joined the WTO it can always do the honorable thing and pull out of the organisation (that it worked hard to establish). Instead they show themselves to be complete hypocrites by studiously ignoring adverse rulings and vigously enforcing benificial rulings.

  16. Re:Hardly anonymous on UK Anonymous Hacktivists Get Jail Time · · Score: 1

    Yes.

  17. Re:"a total of"... on UK Anonymous Hacktivists Get Jail Time · · Score: 1

    Cromwell tried that approach, it just made things worse.

  18. Re:Why fine them? on Sony Fined In UK For PlayStation Network Hack · · Score: 1

    Great post, pity everyone else is too busy dressing up as Guy Fawkes and throwing rocks to actually read it.

  19. Re:Fail, fail, fail. on Scientists Take Most Accurate Reading Yet of Universe's Cooling · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just make it 640K, that should be enough for any universe.

  20. Re:Reaffirms my theory on Scientists Take Most Accurate Reading Yet of Universe's Cooling · · Score: 1

    Actually we can (to the same degree of certainty that the sun will rise in the East tomorrow).

  21. Re:Reaffirms my theory on Scientists Take Most Accurate Reading Yet of Universe's Cooling · · Score: 2, Insightful

    it will be sad to see the Earth engulfed in a red giant

    Don't worry, although that fate is inevitable there's no chance you will be there to see it. Besides, it's only 0.5 billion years until the oceans evaporate and Earth resembles Venus.

  22. Re:Well... on 'Bankrupt' Australian Surgeon Sues Google For Auto-Complete · · Score: 1

    It's only "misinformation" if you believe that it offers an opinion. If you do believe that is the case then you have been misinformed, (ironically, in your case it could have been something you read in an auto-complete).

  23. Re:Well... on 'Bankrupt' Australian Surgeon Sues Google For Auto-Complete · · Score: 1

    As others have pointed out, your misread what I wrote. Also I used the term "right to be forgotten" as a basic concept, regardless of what the EU thinks I did indicate I thought the concept was desirable but impractical.

  24. Re:easy to be forgotten on 'Bankrupt' Australian Surgeon Sues Google For Auto-Complete · · Score: 1

    Hmmmm that is probably true for the bloke in TFA but rather than you guessing what I want, how about I just tell you.

    What I want is the equivalent of an old fashioned unlisted phone number. Not for me personally, I'm old enough that I don't give a shit what marketing departments think about me, but privacy (in all its forms) is a basic requirement of mental health, the human psyche demands it. I don't see why a commercial entity should have the right to publish a "dossier" (the search results) on a person against their will (as opposed to without their prior consent).

    Having said that I'm quite aware that an ideology and its implementation are two separate things. As I indicated previously, delisting a name from google's index is quite likely impractical for most names since it would affect multiple unrelated people. But I can still want something better, right?

  25. Re:so google is giving out more info... on Google Report Shows Governments Want More Private Data · · Score: 1

    It's not "worded poorly", I think you and others posting similar drivel are being deliberately obtuse. It's quite clear they meant they now service a smaller percentage of the requests, any card carrying geek should know that comparing percentages is a very common method of analyzing growth. In fact I'm pretty sure that knowledge is not unique to geeks, I believe the average Joe reading TFS would also be fully aware that 90% of $1 is a lot less in absolute terms than 50% of $1M.

    In other words your posting "dumb kids math" on a geek site?