And am I the only one who is wondering just who would be buying one of these shiny MacBooks in such a harsh economic climate?
I will be buying at least two. First, I find them a whole lot more powerful and better looking than the white MacBooks. I was facing the fact that, if Apple had decided to drop the MacBook price to 800 or come up with a cheap "netBook" I was looking at having to spend the money to move up to a MacBook Pro to get the graphics performance I needed. Now, it looks like the MacBook will have enough Oomph with its new GPU. That saves me at least $1000.00 right there.
As far as "harsh economic climate" goes. My job is secure. My paycheck has not gone down. I'm not buried in debt. I've been budgeting and saving for this purchase since I bought the last MacBooks -- After all I knew it was coming. You always need to upgrade computers; so save for it -- with the fact that it looks like the purchase will now *save* me a grand, I'm looking good for this Christmas. Sure the price of fuel went up and the cost of food and other supplies went up - who didn't see that coming though.
I saw it more than a year ago and started reorganizing my finances. I live *below* my means, not above it. Sure, I can't sell my house for the outrageous price I could have gotten for it two years ago - so what? I can afford my mortgage. I'm not upside down on it. I actually bought my current house as a "fixer-upper" and invested my own time in it. I can wait until the housing market recovers. Even then, I'm not looking to move - I love my job and my community.
Unless you are a Wall Street broker or have all your money tied up in the stock market, what, exactly is this "harsh economic climate" doing to you? Are you being foreclosed on? Why? Were you one of the fools who got greedy and bought a house you new you couldn't afford the payments for? If so, why should that affect me?
Now, I understand that if you were innocently employed by one of the banks that went under or an SUV maker that is downsizing, then you might have been laid off and are in a financial bind because of it. I'm sorry about that. That really sucks. Finding a new job - especially one that pays the inflated union rates of your old one - might be difficult. And for *you* this is a legitimately sucky economic time. But how many of *you* are there in America? There are billions who weren't laid off and haven't taken a pay cut and can make their mortgages. I wonder how many of them are panicking, wondering what they should panic about?
All this hysteria seems a bit over-blown. Is it harder to get a loan now? Yup! So what? You don't get that shiny new car you wanted and have to keep your old one running for a bit more while you SAVE UP for your new one. I drove a 22-year-old Volvo while I *saved up* for my (currently) 10-year-old Mercedes while I'm *saving up* for my next car. I buy quality. I can drive the same car for 20 years without a problem. That might seem like a bad thing - and probably is if you were sentenced to 20-years driving a Ford. I've spent the last ten years driving a Mercedes that I payed (almost) all cash for. By the time you make your last payment on your shiny-new *financed* F150, you'll have paid more for it than I did for mine. And yours won't last 20 years - not that you'd want to drive it that long even if it did.
This economy is just emphasizing the weakness in the American philosophy of consumerism. If you can't afford it - borrow for it! Those who live by that code are going to suffer in all but the best times. They've mortgaged their future. Remember when you were told that you should have 6 months worth of income in your savings account? Uh huh. Did you ever get around to actually doing that? Remember being told that if you really want something you should save your money up for it and decide what you are willing to give up in the mean time so you can save more for it? Uh huh. Wait, you mean that applies to all my gadgets too? Yup.
If the Government uses open source code that is under the GPL license, and modifies it to include some security or other feature that is considered to be under the umbrella of "National Security", are they required to provide the source code to terrorists so they can attempt to crack it?
Depends. If my company uses OSS in an internal application, I don't have to release the changes back to the public. But, if my company were to distribute a product that uses it we'd have to provide source code.
I'm assuming that the military would not have to release source code in UAV's because they tend to get those products back and therefore it would be an internal product or application. They'd have to release the source for any bombs or missiles though because they are delivering that product to the public.
I'm heavily leaning to Cellular One (I'm shopping for a provider having ditched AT&T)
Uhhmmm... Didn't AT&T just buy Cellular One or was that only in my state? I was on Cellular One and was able to terminate my contract early an get the iPhone because all our Cell-One's are AT&T's now. I'm confused.
Well, it doesn't bloody work for me under iTunes 8 and iPhone 2.01. I wrote and recorded the MP3 I'm trying to add as a ring tone and the only thing that's done it is iToner, which is 15 dollars for the licence. Grr.
Right-click your MP3 in iTunes and choose "Convert to AAC". Then right-click the new file and choose "Show in Finder". Make a copy of that on the desktop and change the extension of it to.m4r. Delete the old AAC file from iTunes and drag the new one back into iTunes. I just did it last night with a bunch of MP3s I DL'd from the 'Net and they sync'd to my iPhone just fine after I remembered to check the "Sync Ringtones" option in iTunes;-).
"Fundamentalist wack-jobs"? So somebody is a "wack-job" just because they have a slightly different view on the interpretation of the Bible than yours (believing in a literal interpretation of the Bible)?
The people who run over to my car when I'm stopped at a red light and slam a Bible against my window shouting scripture and acting like they're exorcising a demon from me in the middle of the street: they're whack-jobs. They're turning people *off* to Christ - the Bible says that's one of the worst sins you can commit. They don't know me. How can you be concerned for my soul when you don't even know me? I was raise on the mission field, in the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico. If there is one thing I learned from that experience is that it really helps to get to know someone before you introduce them to Christ. I've never seen anyone walk up to a total stranger and demand that they accept Christ and have it work. Ever. Accosting me on the street may put a check-mark next to some list your church has, but you aren't saving any souls, I'll guarantee you!
I think people who believe the univers is 6,000 years old and that Jesus rode on dinosaurs are whack-jobs. My best friend growing up wound up leaving the church because they put so much pressure on him and he was told that if he believed in evolution he could not be a Christian and was going to hell. He's now a high-energy particle physicist working with the Large Hadron Collider. He broke all ties to his family and friends in the christian community. I haven't heard from him in years. That's how turned off to christianity he was. Those people are whack-jobs in my opinion.
It's not that they have a "slightly different view on the interpretation of the Bible than me" it's that they are rabidly intolerant of any differing views and that they doggedly hold to those views against, what I contend, is overwhelming evidence that their interpretation of the Bible is wrong. My father is a biblical scholar. He reads Latin, Hebrew and Greek. He spent the last 20 years translating the Bible into Tzeltal. That is a tremendous undertaking because Tzeltal is very idiomatic and you can't just "transcribe" the Bible with Google-translate. I'd say my dad knows the Bible as well as anyone I can think of because of that experience. Even he does not say that evolution is "just a theory" and that the universe is 6,000 years old. He would be a non-whack-job.
I once saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that read "Lord, save me from your followers!". I was ashamed that I actually agreed with the guy. Haven't gotten the nerve up to wear one myself, but I get closer every day. The problem is that 95% of the Christians in the world are not whack-jobs. It's the idiots like the people from Hillsborough Baptist and their "God hates fags" message that get all the press and make the rest of us look bad. I guess it's a lot like the muslims...
Obama is a socialist. I don't want that kind of change. On the other hand McCain isn't any better, just another version of the current administration. So, the choices appear to be keep the poor status quo or make a change toward socialism.
You think Obama is a socialist? Silly American, you have no idea what socialism is.
Alright. Let me explain my personal position - perhaps socialist is the wrong word for you fuming pedants out there. Perhaps I'm just ill-informed and am using the wrong word for it.
I take issue with the fact that people feel "entitled" to anything. No one owes me a living, a job, happiness, nothing. I have a right to *pursue* those things. If I fail, it's my responsibility. If I succeed, I take the credit. That seems harsh and absolute and I don't have time to write a complete defense of it here, but let me at least give some context:
I am a Christian. I am a scientist. I believe in God. I believe in evolution. I take issue with the fundamentalist whack-jobs that are at the fringe of the Christian movements giving it a bad name. I also take issue with the (primarily liberal) idea that the "I am my brother's keeper" from the Bible gives them the right to confiscate the products of my labor and give it to the guy next door who refuses to work. He sits home all day in front of his big screen TV collecting welfare. He has nothing but time on his hands and money for a PS3 and a WII, but doesn't have time to mow his lawn, pick up the trash, or repair his fence.
If I feel that someone needs help, I will help them myself, or I will get together with a group of people voluntarily (my church, my neighborhood,...) to do what I can for that person. If that person is not putting forth an effort to help themselves and simply feels I owe them something out of some pious guilt-trip, I have news for them. I will not be made to feel guilty for not feeding every hungry child in the world and "buying happiness" for every slacker who feels the world owes them a living.
I don't resent the fact that my boss is "richer" than I am. I'm glad he is. It means he can afford to pay me for my skills. I don't see him as being a tight-fisted bastard for trying to pay me as little as he can get away with. That's what he's supposed to do; he's in business. It is my job to make sure that I provide him with something of value to his company. We either agree on a rate of exchange in money and benefits or I go somewhere else (or he finds someone willing to give him the same value for less). He doesn't owe me my job. By the same token he doesn't own me. I am free to leave for a better offer if someone will give it to me. This means I'm constantly looking to improve myself so that I have more to bargain with. I am always giving my best, because that's what gives my life and work value.
To my mind the socialist position is the opposite. It holds that it's the government's job to take care of me. It's the government's job to make sure every thing is "fair". To make sure no one has too much more that anyone else because that would make them "feel bad". They want to take what I have earned and give it to someone who has not earned it. To them "equal opportunity" means "equal results". That's not what it means. It means that you have the same opportunity to try. I may have the same opportunity to enter a race, but I don't have the same opportunity to win the race or even be competitive. This doesn't mean the race managers should handicap the faster runners to give me a chance. It doesn't mean they should hand everyone a medal just to make it fair.
Harsh? Perhaps. It's especially irritating to the young people who have come up through an educational system that has focussed more on self-esteem than education. Were you aware that in our public school system a parent can request a modified grade scale for their child through a process called a 504 plan? I'm not talking about being in special ed. That child can then get an 'A' for doing 'C
What is Obama? I thought he was a Christian too. From what I hear his church doesn't exactly put a mild spin on things. Or is the problem that Obama is from your party so his Christian views don't count? I am a devout Christian myself. I am also a scientist. I do not agree with Palin's views on creation. However, I don't think that having those views makes her any more dangerous when making decisions in office than someone who is convinced that Windows is the One True OS. Of course, she's just going to be the VP so will more than likely be responsible for setting the good china out for tea than making decisions. It's McCain and Obama we should be worrying about.
Obama is a socialist. I don't want that kind of change. On the other hand McCain isn't any better, just another version of the current administration. So, the choices appear to be keep the poor status quo or make a change toward socialism. It makes me sick. I'm not sure who I'll be voting for, but right now I'm leaning toward "sending a message". If a 3rd party can get a big enough chunk of the vote to send the message that the citizens are sick to death of the current direction with the DHS, loss of privacy, heavy-handed foreign policy, deficit spending, maybe it'll prime the pump for the future and get both parties back to their honest differences.
While filing a false DMCA notice is a criminal offense, prosecution in these cases rarely comes about.
Sounds like this would be a good time to start.
I can't think of a nicer group of people to sue.
You *know* that if one of us violated the DMCA we'd be jumped on in a heartbeat. The DMCA is a farce to begin with, but when they only enforce the provisions one-sidedly they are really exposing it for piece of crap, purchased fraud that it is.
you don't seem to get it. I can't find any job that pays a living wage.
I'm not talking about 50k a year, i'm talking about a GD living wage you can actually use to pay loans and rent an apartment.
we're past an age when you can "corner a vp".
As for your description of "college boys", you're full of it. I said I worked my youth away, not partied it away.
You're right. I don't get it. You claim to have two college degrees and lots of work experience yet you can't get a job that will let you rent an apartment and pay your bills. Either you have been living *way* above your means and have a huge amount of debt, and are apparently blaming society for this because they won't give you a high-paying job. Or you're choosing to live in down-town Manhattan where apartments are $5,000.00 a month. Or you are just too picky about the specific type of job you want, which apparently isn't the type of job you can cherry-pick from street-level.
First, the 20-year-old girl that holds the "Slow/Stop" sign for the road crew building the overpass near my house is making $36.00 an hour. I'd call that a living wage at her age. It's not a job I'd want to do, but if I had no job, you can count on the fact that I'd be out there doing it.
If you can't afford the rent where you are, *move*. My Daughter is working her way through college in Montana. She goes to school part time and works full-time at a coffee shop. She is using no student loans. It's pay-as-you-go, and scholarships where she can get them. She is sharing an apartment with three other people to save money. Sure, she's young and unmarried and *not* living in a town where apartments are super expensive. When she graduates (with a degree in graphic design - God help her). she *hopes* to get an entry-level job doing what she loves - designing. We've talked about it though and she understands that in the "real world" only a handful of graphic designers get the cool, high-paying contracts. Most of the others are rather low-paying drudges. She accepts that, which is why she's making sure she comes out of college without student loans. Just for your information, I am not paying for her college. I pay for Airfare for her to come visit at Christmas. She has not ever written home asking for money (Oh, I did buy her a MacBook for Christmas last year).
My Son is 18. He started college yesterday. When he looked at what his sister was going though he decided that was too much work. At 17 he joined the Air National Guard as a jet mechanic. They pay him enough to have his own car (paid for), his own apartment (off-base) and they pay for all of his college tuition. They put him on swing-shift so that he can attend his classes. He doesn't plan to make the military his career, but he was willing to trade 6 years of his life in order to get his college for free and get great training in a useful career with a decent wage while he was doing it. When he comes out the other end of his contract, he'll have his degree and be debt-free and much more flexible with what to do with his life. Oh, he bought his own MacBook (and iMac) last year.
See, these are *choices* and sacrifices that they are making. They aren't demanding that anyone hand them a job that lets them live up to some ridiculous standard of living. They aren't getting themselves into a heap of debt and then whining that the cruel world isn't bailing them out of it.
I've been married 22 years. During that time my family and I have lived in some pretty squalid places. We struggled. We even had to move back in with my parents for a while (much to my eternal shame). Why? *My* mistakes, poor judgement, and stupid idea that I had to have a new car, condo, vacations and all the other things I thought were the mark of a successful lifestyle - right out of college. We wracked up huge debts on tons of credit cards and then found, guess what, no job out there was going to pay a young hot-shot, straight out of college, enough to cover those debts. Mor
I have worked my youth away, earned two degrees, and nobody wants to hire me. Why? because I actually focused on academics in college, and they want people who neglected their studies for internships and "meeting people" (partying).
I don't know you personally, but let me tell you about my experience with "academics" and "college boys" (I was one of them, unfortunately) They know everything. Just ask them. They are all theory. They've been trained with the latest hammer and all our problems are exactly the nail they've been looking for. They aren't trainable. They already know it all and look around for the "Google" benefits. I can't count how many times I've had to ask "Has anyone heard from Joe?" at 11 a.m. Maybe he'll show up at noon, maybe he'll call and "explain" that he had things to do. Maybe he'll show up the next day as if nothing happened. WTF!?
We've had several "Joe's" in the last couple of years. It has gotten to the point where we always include "Five years experience minimum" in our job postings. Then we count the number of jobs they've had, and if they've jumped around too much we pass. We aren't going to invest tens of thousands of dollars in training someone who has no intention of staying and who thinks our company is there to cater to their whims and needs.
When I entered the workforce after college, I was under the impression that I dictated the terms, that I was the answer to all companies needs. I could do anything - just let me show you. Well, reality hit me right in the face. I passed up many good jobs because they were offering "entry-level" wages, but I naively believed that I was worth so much more. Finally, after almost a year I was desperate enough to take *anything*. I located a promising company, researched it, cornered the VP and said I'd work for the company for free for three months, doing whatever the needed done, if they'd give me a chance to prove myself a valuable employee. I briefly outlined my skills, but stressed that I'd take any job (I had 2 kids in diapers and was on welfare at that point because of my arrogance)
He looked at me and said, "Show up for work Monday". I did. He said "Every office has a garbage can; take it to the dumpster out back - don't bother the employees. When you're done with that, look for what needs to be done and do it - don't bother the employees". I was dumbstruck, but I did what he told me to (side note: he was about 500lbs and everyone called him "Tiny"). I hunted through the unfamiliar building, looking unobtrusively through each office for trash and emptied it. The janitorial staff must have been briefed because they never said a word except to point to the supply of new liners.
Over the course of the next 6 weeks I came to know every department, what they did, who were the movers and shakers and who were the "de-facto" leaders, despite the org chart. I also overheard a lot of water-cooler talk, perused many discarded brochures, design outlines, meeting notes, product documentation revisions, specs, and printouts (their primary product was written in COBOL). In short, I got an overview of the company from the bottom, up. I learned about their products, their competitors, their responses, the office politics, the water-cooler gossip, everything. Of course, as much as I was supposed to "not bother the employees" and I'm sure they were told to "ignore me", I still found myself in informal conversation on many occasions. The difference was that it was much more difficult to be "authoritative" and "arrogant" with a garbage bag in my hand.
About 6 weeks into my "free" work period, Tiny called me in to his office and said that there was a "commission-only" sales position open, did I want it. I said yes. For the next 8 months, I learned a lot about our product, our competition, and the fact that I can really get excited about a product, but can't ask for the sale. They had pity on me though and saw that I had an uncanny understanding of the technical side, an excit
it would actually make sure americans had a "living wage" by which to pay for the products on the shelves.
This is something that's being eviscerated atm.
And as soon as every business owner and manufacturer was forced to pay this magical "living wage" the people who were making a bit more than minimum wage would want a raise as well because the arey now back on the bottom rung again. This would continue all the way up the workforce-chain. Then the price of those goods would go up because it costs so much more to produce them - or, more likely, the jobs would be sent overseas and then businesses would close and people would be out of work and have to go on welfare, meaning taxes would have to go up to support them, meaning the folks who were fortunate enough to still be working would take home less, meaning they would demand a new "living wage" and everything starts over again.
Artificial mandates for wages never work in the long run. They sound great to the entry-level workers who think they're getting this big raise, but reality eventually bites. The point of having an entry-level job is to move OUT of it and let the next skill-less worker move in. Working at McDonald's as a fry-guy was never intended to be a job you could live on. If it paid enough to live on the cost of McDonald's food would be too high to afford. That job, and so many unskilled jobs like it, are for kids getting started, or for someone looking to get experience before moving up into a management position.
Why not just set the minimum wage at $100.00 and hour? That would be enough to live on. "Oh, but, but... That's ridiculous!" Yeah, but it just demonstrates the point. If an employer is not paying enough to entice someone to work for him, he will not stay in business. If he doesn't reward skill and initiative and keeps having employee churn, his business will suffer. The problem with people is they have this absurd sense of entitlement. they think they are entitled to a "living wage". You aren't entitled to squat! Just because you *need* something doesn't mean you're going to get it. The question is: What do you have to offer that is of value to an employer? Maybe it's just a strong back or a warm body. You will receive as much compensation as that is worth to your employer. If you don't think it's enough, you won't take the job. Fine, there are 10 others who want the job. You're own sense of self worth is important, but only to you. It does not entitle you to anything.
Until you have improved yourself in some way so as to be valuable enough to your employer for him to pay you a wage that you can live on, you will have to struggle to make ends meet. That's just reality. To artificially manipulate that equation (in either direction) is doomed to failure. The point is, you aren't entitled to a job. Jobs are offered by business owners who need something and are willing to pay a certain amount for it. It is a trade. If you feel that trade is equitable, you will work for him. If not, you won't. If no one will work for the wage he offers, he will have to offer more, until the balance is reached. You will always have the businessman who is a penny wise and a pound foolish, but his business will never be great unless he has quality employees. You have to pay for quality employees. Look around. How many people are quality employees, and how many people are just walking around with this "The world owes me a living" entitlement attitude who have no initiative and no skill and don't care about doing quality work?
I know my position is highly unpopular with the current crop of socialist youngsters that are being cranked out of our educational institutions, but so be it. I've got my flame-proof underwear on!
Please read those books; I would read Atlas Shrugged if I was only inclined to read one, but Fountainhead first if planning to read both. Trust me.
*A-FREAKIN-MEN BROTHER!*
I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged, bought it as an audio-book on iTunes and gave it to my son to listen to, bought the book for my daughter to read and have my wife reading it out loud to me (while I make dinner) every night. I also convinced a co-worker to buy it from iTunes and she's listening to it in the evenings.
Atlas Shrugged is known as the second most influential book in history after the Bible for a reason. It should be mandatory reading in every high school and college (ditch Gone With the Wind). It is a powerful book with powerful insight and is more relevant today than when it was written in 1957
I am actually looking for a first-edition hard cover copy for my personal library. For being the longest book ever written in any european language, it reads well. Ayn Rand has a way with words.
I would only live there if the ziggurat itself was owned by the public and maintained with taxes. The public spaces, police department, fire department, and etc should all be cared for by the 'city'. I don't want to live in a huge gigantic apartment complex "cared for" by some corporation. Apartment complexes suck enough without the added problem of having to leave the _city_ in order to get away from a bad landlord.
I would want to be able to own, buy, and sell "land" in the ziggurat the same way I can own, buy, and sell real land, condos, and etc.
Because we all know how good the *government* is at efficiently and fairly managing and caring for it's resources.
Except that the % chance increasing from "practically zero" to "nearly zero", such that not a single instance has happened on a plane, means that you're exaggerating the risk into a real risk, when it is not. Meanwhile, banning them from planes has substantial cost.
Not to mention the fact that there is going to be *much* more danger to the passengers on the plane if I am not allowed to listen to music or my book-on-tape and am forced to endure the screaming toddler behind me. I once ran into an officious prick who pointed to the "No food or drink" sign on the server room door after seeing my coffee mug sitting on the desk across from the server racks. I explained to him that the cup never came closer to the servers than 6 feet as I always left it on the desk. As I was going to be working in there all morning it was far more efficient to have it sitting there then make me take a coffee break outside every half-hour like the smokers. I then got right up in his face and added "...and a lot safer for you and the servers if I have my coffee."
Yeah, I'm a prick. Yeah, I know the theoretical danger of liquids getting dumped into a server from across the room. I'm an adult. I'm careful. And if I ever did take a server out with my coffee, I'd face the consequences. I'm not making more work for a custodian - they aren't allowed near the server room. If I were to spill it, I'd clean it up. Anyway, he never bothered me about it again.
I hate it when the statistically-handicapped get a bug up their butt. Along that line, my "city" in-laws came to visit and camp for a few weeks in Alaska. In case you don't know, we are known to have a few mosquitoes up here - they are the state bird after all. My sister-in-law refused to use any "repellent" with Deet in it. She said that "Woman's Day" claimed it could cause seizures in kids. She didn't even want me wearing Deet around her kids. *What?!* What are the chances of "deet-seizures? One in one-hundred-million! WTF?! Ignorant morons... Drives me nuts!
how did you get the 3 months of vacation time?
Does it carry over from year to year in your job? Here it's normal that vacation time does not carry over, if you don't use it this year then it's gone after a certain date and if you want holiday time it comes out of the next years allocation.
Ever think you'll get a chance to use the holiday time?
Yes, it does carry over - we are encouraged to use it or cash it out once it gets over 60 days and forced to once it gets over 120 days. I earn 34 days of vacation a year (there have been many years where they couldn't afford raises so they gave us extra vacation/personal time instead). I guess they know we work long and hard and even if they give us more vacation time we will just work longer hours to catch back up:-) You start out with 2 weeks per year, but can earn your way up to 30 over time. I can't complain about the benefits here - they are really good.
I always intend to use it but something always comes up (this year my wife had to leave for 6-weeks of training) so I never do. I should probably cash it in and will next summer (when the next window of opportunity comes). I'm getting older and the long hours are turning me into a grumpy old man:-) Time to get back to some of my hobbies like hiking, camping and flying.
Now that the kids are grown an out of the house my wife and I would like to travel more too. But you know how it is. I never feel like I can "afford" to be away from work for a long stretch of time. However, this summer I took three straight weeks of vacation. That's the longest vacation I've ever had and I must say it was nice. Of course it put me three weeks behind at work, but the break was cathartic. I think I just need to make a point of taking the time. Kinda like making a point of working out. There may be other things that need to be done but you should still do it:-)
actually when you're working as a subsistence farmer, you're at least growing your own food so you don't have to waste the crap pay you get on buying food from someone else. the working conditions, while they might not be great on a farm, are a damn sight healthier than they are in an electronics factory.
You live and work in the city, don't you. As someone who was both raised in a third-world country and worked on a farm, I can tell you that, although a good, hard day's work is rewarding, it's not nearly as romantic as TV makes it seem. Also, it is the goal of almost everyone I've known to "grow up" and "get a job in the city". See, they have the same romantic notion as you do, but in reverse.
I can tell you though that those people who are lucky enough to get hired by a multi-national corporation to work in the factory are grateful for the work and pay. They would work longer hours if they could because it means more money for their families. Having the do-gooders from first-world countries barge in, "improve" their pay and working conditions to the point where the workforce is downsized really pisses them off.
Americans and Europeans are soft and spoiled when it comes to working and earning a living. I work in IT. I am considered an "exempt" employee. I'm payed to make sure things get done and work correctly, period. If I had to do that in the confines of a 9-5 work day, while having to go through an approval and justification process every time I needed to take over time, I could not do my job nearly as well. I don't get over time. I often work 60-hour weeks. I have over 3 months of unused vacation time. Boo Hoo. If it's that bad I can quit. I can quit because I have a good education and a marketable skill. I get paid well for what I do.
Bringing this back to the Apple engineers: I think they are whiners. I think they should go work for Dell, or McDonalds. If they didn't want to work the long hours they should have quit. If enough people do that Apple will have to change their policies. However, I'll bet there are 10 people who'd kill to get a chance to take their job, even knowing the conditions. No one *owes* you a job. My contract says that I can be let go at any time, without notice. I have to sign a new contract every July. I'm not overly worried though. I know that what I do is valuable. I know that I am good at what I do.
I give the company good value for their money and in exchange I get a fair salary and good benefits. I put in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Would I like to earn more? Sure. Who wouldn't? Am I worth more? Probably. Can my employer afford to pay me more? Not right now. If I can do something to save them money and make them more productive then I may be able to negotiate a better wage. Do they owe it to me? Absolutely not. It's my job to save them money and make them more productive.
Not everyone sees it that way, of course. We get new kids, right out of college who grumble about not making as much as I do, when I've been doing this for 25 years and have been working here for more than 10 years. They think the world owes them a living. They show up to work late. Go home early. Get drunk on the weekend and call in sick every Monday. They stay up so late playing XBox that they are half asleep at work the next day. An they have the gaul to complain about how much they earn and how unfair their bosses are. Whining babies!
Well, I don't know how this rant got to where it is from what I was responding to, but just putting food on you own table by working on a farm is not always enough. Especially if you need to pay for other things, like medical bills, an education, clothes, etc. Working on a farm is not the glamour life you're making it out to be.
Most of the Mac users I know have switched from Windows and are so paranoid and twitchy about installing anything on their system it's ridiculous. I helped my neighbor switch a few months ago and he refused to use his shiny new iMac until he'd received his Symantic Antivirus software in spite of my assurances that he'd be fine until it arrived.
I keep hearing the meme about Mac users (usually typed MAC users) claiming they are invulnerable, but have yet to run into one myself. I'm sure they must exist, but they must be pretty rare. On the other hand, I have found that Mac users actually had to make a conscious and informed choice to *not* run to Walmart or Dell and get a default computer. This would seem to mean that they might be a bit more aware, in general, than the "unwashed masses" who don't even know there are options out there. This goes double for Linux users. I think (at least for now) that fact will protect Mac users more than anything.
I sincerely hope that Macs never become the "default" computer and that people will always have to make a conscious choice to use it.
I have been one of the first to point out the same thing in each of these past cases but this is different. We have a scriptable application setuid to root. That's an obvious vulnerability on a sliver platter. What was Apple thinking? The application in question is NOT suid on my system (Yes, I looked inside the.app too). I think it's likely that a third-party app or framework, like MacPorts or something, is responsible for making the change - "fix permissions" should take care of it - I don't think this is Apple's fault.
Next time, instead of checking perms on the.app package folder, try looking at the executable.
ls -lR/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app on my system shows that NONE of the files are SUID. Then again, I have not installed many 3rd-party apps except things like FireFox on my MacBook and I run "fix permissions" after major updates. I'm betting the parent is correct and this is a "vulnerability" that is introduced by a third-party application or framework.
Are you sure about that? The man cavorting sounds awfully close to bestiality, which is, in fact, illegal most places as it constitutes animal abuse. It specifically says the animal was aroused. How can you claim abuse? I don't think the animal would.
I've never, ever, ever had anything like that sent to any of the 9 e-mail addresses I use for home, work, or family communication. Ever. Hang on.........OK. Go check your GMail account:-)
[Objective-C] The language is a serious turn off for most developers I know.
It takes getting used to, but I find it very elegant and powerful. I think the biggest turn off for most is "it's something new". It's C, but then it's not. I find myself having to think much more "MVC" and "object-oriented" than I'm used to (my brain is wired old-school procedural), but I also find that I can get an amazing amount done with fewer lines of code. The trade-off is that I don't feel I have the deep level of control I should. This is nonsense, of course, I can write any functionality and subclass all I want, but with the API's I usually don't find I need to, so I come away from a project feeling a little guilty - like I didn't *really* do any hard-core coding. Combine that with Interface-builder and it feels more like building with Legos than "programming". It's just that you find yourself getting so much functionality for free.
All that, combined with the fact that the syntax is different from C++ and you get a bit of a turn-off, but give it a chance. It's like transitioning to any new thing. You like what you know. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone for a while (which is hard for a lot of programmers who tend to be control freaks to begin with). Once you are used to it though you find going back a bit clumsy. At least that's been my experience.
Slavery is a step up from living on the streets homeless and hungry (or being beaten to death), but that doesn't make it moral, nor something I should support if given the choice. I keep hearing your reasoning to justify using third-world slave labor, and I still find it unsavory.
I grew up in a third-world country. It's not "Slavery". People are falling all over themselves to get and keep these jobs. If there is anything negative to be said it's that there is no job security. What we would consider "poor working conditions" and "low pay" is a gold mine to these people. Stop trying to help them out of their jobs. Talk to them and they will tell you that.
Are there bad bosses? Sure. That happens everywhere. Are there some places that have poor working conditions? Sure. And we need to bring those to light and pressure them to improve. But for goodness sake, don't take these people's jobs away from them.
Slashdot Mirror
And am I the only one who is wondering just who would be buying one of these shiny MacBooks in such a harsh economic climate?
I will be buying at least two. First, I find them a whole lot more powerful and better looking than the white MacBooks. I was facing the fact that, if Apple had decided to drop the MacBook price to 800 or come up with a cheap "netBook" I was looking at having to spend the money to move up to a MacBook Pro to get the graphics performance I needed. Now, it looks like the MacBook will have enough Oomph with its new GPU. That saves me at least $1000.00 right there.
As far as "harsh economic climate" goes. My job is secure. My paycheck has not gone down. I'm not buried in debt. I've been budgeting and saving for this purchase since I bought the last MacBooks -- After all I knew it was coming. You always need to upgrade computers; so save for it -- with the fact that it looks like the purchase will now *save* me a grand, I'm looking good for this Christmas. Sure the price of fuel went up and the cost of food and other supplies went up - who didn't see that coming though.
I saw it more than a year ago and started reorganizing my finances. I live *below* my means, not above it. Sure, I can't sell my house for the outrageous price I could have gotten for it two years ago - so what? I can afford my mortgage. I'm not upside down on it. I actually bought my current house as a "fixer-upper" and invested my own time in it. I can wait until the housing market recovers. Even then, I'm not looking to move - I love my job and my community.
Unless you are a Wall Street broker or have all your money tied up in the stock market, what, exactly is this "harsh economic climate" doing to you? Are you being foreclosed on? Why? Were you one of the fools who got greedy and bought a house you new you couldn't afford the payments for? If so, why should that affect me?
Now, I understand that if you were innocently employed by one of the banks that went under or an SUV maker that is downsizing, then you might have been laid off and are in a financial bind because of it. I'm sorry about that. That really sucks. Finding a new job - especially one that pays the inflated union rates of your old one - might be difficult. And for *you* this is a legitimately sucky economic time. But how many of *you* are there in America? There are billions who weren't laid off and haven't taken a pay cut and can make their mortgages. I wonder how many of them are panicking, wondering what they should panic about?
All this hysteria seems a bit over-blown. Is it harder to get a loan now? Yup! So what? You don't get that shiny new car you wanted and have to keep your old one running for a bit more while you SAVE UP for your new one. I drove a 22-year-old Volvo while I *saved up* for my (currently) 10-year-old Mercedes while I'm *saving up* for my next car. I buy quality. I can drive the same car for 20 years without a problem. That might seem like a bad thing - and probably is if you were sentenced to 20-years driving a Ford. I've spent the last ten years driving a Mercedes that I payed (almost) all cash for. By the time you make your last payment on your shiny-new *financed* F150, you'll have paid more for it than I did for mine. And yours won't last 20 years - not that you'd want to drive it that long even if it did.
This economy is just emphasizing the weakness in the American philosophy of consumerism. If you can't afford it - borrow for it! Those who live by that code are going to suffer in all but the best times. They've mortgaged their future. Remember when you were told that you should have 6 months worth of income in your savings account? Uh huh. Did you ever get around to actually doing that? Remember being told that if you really want something you should save your money up for it and decide what you are willing to give up in the mean time so you can save more for it? Uh huh. Wait, you mean that applies to all my gadgets too? Yup.
I'm betting that tho
If the Government uses open source code that is under the GPL license, and modifies it to include some security or other feature that is considered to be under the umbrella of "National Security", are they required to provide the source code to terrorists so they can attempt to crack it?
Depends. If my company uses OSS in an internal application, I don't have to release the changes back to the public. But, if my company were to distribute a product that uses it we'd have to provide source code.
I'm assuming that the military would not have to release source code in UAV's because they tend to get those products back and therefore it would be an internal product or application. They'd have to release the source for any bombs or missiles though because they are delivering that product to the public.
I'm heavily leaning to Cellular One (I'm shopping for a provider having ditched AT&T)
Uhhmmm... Didn't AT&T just buy Cellular One or was that only in my state? I was on Cellular One and was able to terminate my contract early an get the iPhone because all our Cell-One's are AT&T's now. I'm confused.
Well, it doesn't bloody work for me under iTunes 8 and iPhone 2.01. I wrote and recorded the MP3 I'm trying to add as a ring tone and the only thing that's done it is iToner, which is 15 dollars for the licence. Grr.
Right-click your MP3 in iTunes and choose "Convert to AAC". Then right-click the new file and choose "Show in Finder". Make a copy of that on the desktop and change the extension of it to .m4r. Delete the old AAC file from iTunes and drag the new one back into iTunes. I just did it last night with a bunch of MP3s I DL'd from the 'Net and they sync'd to my iPhone just fine after I remembered to check the "Sync Ringtones" option in iTunes ;-).
"Fundamentalist wack-jobs"? So somebody is a "wack-job" just because they have a slightly different view on the interpretation of the Bible than yours (believing in a literal interpretation of the Bible)?
The people who run over to my car when I'm stopped at a red light and slam a Bible against my window shouting scripture and acting like they're exorcising a demon from me in the middle of the street: they're whack-jobs. They're turning people *off* to Christ - the Bible says that's one of the worst sins you can commit. They don't know me. How can you be concerned for my soul when you don't even know me? I was raise on the mission field, in the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico. If there is one thing I learned from that experience is that it really helps to get to know someone before you introduce them to Christ. I've never seen anyone walk up to a total stranger and demand that they accept Christ and have it work. Ever. Accosting me on the street may put a check-mark next to some list your church has, but you aren't saving any souls, I'll guarantee you!
I think people who believe the univers is 6,000 years old and that Jesus rode on dinosaurs are whack-jobs. My best friend growing up wound up leaving the church because they put so much pressure on him and he was told that if he believed in evolution he could not be a Christian and was going to hell. He's now a high-energy particle physicist working with the Large Hadron Collider. He broke all ties to his family and friends in the christian community. I haven't heard from him in years. That's how turned off to christianity he was. Those people are whack-jobs in my opinion.
It's not that they have a "slightly different view on the interpretation of the Bible than me" it's that they are rabidly intolerant of any differing views and that they doggedly hold to those views against, what I contend, is overwhelming evidence that their interpretation of the Bible is wrong. My father is a biblical scholar. He reads Latin, Hebrew and Greek. He spent the last 20 years translating the Bible into Tzeltal. That is a tremendous undertaking because Tzeltal is very idiomatic and you can't just "transcribe" the Bible with Google-translate. I'd say my dad knows the Bible as well as anyone I can think of because of that experience. Even he does not say that evolution is "just a theory" and that the universe is 6,000 years old. He would be a non-whack-job.
I once saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that read "Lord, save me from your followers!". I was ashamed that I actually agreed with the guy. Haven't gotten the nerve up to wear one myself, but I get closer every day. The problem is that 95% of the Christians in the world are not whack-jobs. It's the idiots like the people from Hillsborough Baptist and their "God hates fags" message that get all the press and make the rest of us look bad. I guess it's a lot like the muslims...
Obama is a socialist. I don't want that kind of change. On the other hand McCain isn't any better, just another version of the current administration. So, the choices appear to be keep the poor status quo or make a change toward socialism.
You think Obama is a socialist? Silly American, you have no idea what socialism is.
Alright. Let me explain my personal position - perhaps socialist is the wrong word for you fuming pedants out there. Perhaps I'm just ill-informed and am using the wrong word for it.
I take issue with the fact that people feel "entitled" to anything. No one owes me a living, a job, happiness, nothing. I have a right to *pursue* those things. If I fail, it's my responsibility. If I succeed, I take the credit. That seems harsh and absolute and I don't have time to write a complete defense of it here, but let me at least give some context:
I am a Christian. I am a scientist. I believe in God. I believe in evolution. I take issue with the fundamentalist whack-jobs that are at the fringe of the Christian movements giving it a bad name. I also take issue with the (primarily liberal) idea that the "I am my brother's keeper" from the Bible gives them the right to confiscate the products of my labor and give it to the guy next door who refuses to work. He sits home all day in front of his big screen TV collecting welfare. He has nothing but time on his hands and money for a PS3 and a WII, but doesn't have time to mow his lawn, pick up the trash, or repair his fence.
If I feel that someone needs help, I will help them myself, or I will get together with a group of people voluntarily (my church, my neighborhood, ...) to do what I can for that person. If that person is not putting forth an effort to help themselves and simply feels I owe them something out of some pious guilt-trip, I have news for them. I will not be made to feel guilty for not feeding every hungry child in the world and "buying happiness" for every slacker who feels the world owes them a living.
I don't resent the fact that my boss is "richer" than I am. I'm glad he is. It means he can afford to pay me for my skills. I don't see him as being a tight-fisted bastard for trying to pay me as little as he can get away with. That's what he's supposed to do; he's in business. It is my job to make sure that I provide him with something of value to his company. We either agree on a rate of exchange in money and benefits or I go somewhere else (or he finds someone willing to give him the same value for less). He doesn't owe me my job. By the same token he doesn't own me. I am free to leave for a better offer if someone will give it to me. This means I'm constantly looking to improve myself so that I have more to bargain with. I am always giving my best, because that's what gives my life and work value.
To my mind the socialist position is the opposite. It holds that it's the government's job to take care of me. It's the government's job to make sure every thing is "fair". To make sure no one has too much more that anyone else because that would make them "feel bad". They want to take what I have earned and give it to someone who has not earned it. To them "equal opportunity" means "equal results". That's not what it means. It means that you have the same opportunity to try. I may have the same opportunity to enter a race, but I don't have the same opportunity to win the race or even be competitive. This doesn't mean the race managers should handicap the faster runners to give me a chance. It doesn't mean they should hand everyone a medal just to make it fair.
Harsh? Perhaps. It's especially irritating to the young people who have come up through an educational system that has focussed more on self-esteem than education. Were you aware that in our public school system a parent can request a modified grade scale for their child through a process called a 504 plan? I'm not talking about being in special ed. That child can then get an 'A' for doing 'C
What is Obama? I thought he was a Christian too. From what I hear his church doesn't exactly put a mild spin on things. Or is the problem that Obama is from your party so his Christian views don't count? I am a devout Christian myself. I am also a scientist. I do not agree with Palin's views on creation. However, I don't think that having those views makes her any more dangerous when making decisions in office than someone who is convinced that Windows is the One True OS. Of course, she's just going to be the VP so will more than likely be responsible for setting the good china out for tea than making decisions. It's McCain and Obama we should be worrying about.
Obama is a socialist. I don't want that kind of change. On the other hand McCain isn't any better, just another version of the current administration. So, the choices appear to be keep the poor status quo or make a change toward socialism. It makes me sick. I'm not sure who I'll be voting for, but right now I'm leaning toward "sending a message". If a 3rd party can get a big enough chunk of the vote to send the message that the citizens are sick to death of the current direction with the DHS, loss of privacy, heavy-handed foreign policy, deficit spending, maybe it'll prime the pump for the future and get both parties back to their honest differences.
While filing a false DMCA notice is a criminal offense, prosecution in these cases rarely comes about.
Sounds like this would be a good time to start. I can't think of a nicer group of people to sue.
You *know* that if one of us violated the DMCA we'd be jumped on in a heartbeat. The DMCA is a farce to begin with, but when they only enforce the provisions one-sidedly they are really exposing it for piece of crap, purchased fraud that it is.
you don't seem to get it. I can't find any job that pays a living wage.
I'm not talking about 50k a year, i'm talking about a GD living wage you can actually use to pay loans and rent an apartment.
we're past an age when you can "corner a vp".
As for your description of "college boys", you're full of it. I said I worked my youth away, not partied it away.
You're right. I don't get it. You claim to have two college degrees and lots of work experience yet you can't get a job that will let you rent an apartment and pay your bills. Either you have been living *way* above your means and have a huge amount of debt, and are apparently blaming society for this because they won't give you a high-paying job. Or you're choosing to live in down-town Manhattan where apartments are $5,000.00 a month. Or you are just too picky about the specific type of job you want, which apparently isn't the type of job you can cherry-pick from street-level.
First, the 20-year-old girl that holds the "Slow/Stop" sign for the road crew building the overpass near my house is making $36.00 an hour. I'd call that a living wage at her age. It's not a job I'd want to do, but if I had no job, you can count on the fact that I'd be out there doing it.
If you can't afford the rent where you are, *move*. My Daughter is working her way through college in Montana. She goes to school part time and works full-time at a coffee shop. She is using no student loans. It's pay-as-you-go, and scholarships where she can get them. She is sharing an apartment with three other people to save money. Sure, she's young and unmarried and *not* living in a town where apartments are super expensive. When she graduates (with a degree in graphic design - God help her). she *hopes* to get an entry-level job doing what she loves - designing. We've talked about it though and she understands that in the "real world" only a handful of graphic designers get the cool, high-paying contracts. Most of the others are rather low-paying drudges. She accepts that, which is why she's making sure she comes out of college without student loans. Just for your information, I am not paying for her college. I pay for Airfare for her to come visit at Christmas. She has not ever written home asking for money (Oh, I did buy her a MacBook for Christmas last year).
My Son is 18. He started college yesterday. When he looked at what his sister was going though he decided that was too much work. At 17 he joined the Air National Guard as a jet mechanic. They pay him enough to have his own car (paid for), his own apartment (off-base) and they pay for all of his college tuition. They put him on swing-shift so that he can attend his classes. He doesn't plan to make the military his career, but he was willing to trade 6 years of his life in order to get his college for free and get great training in a useful career with a decent wage while he was doing it. When he comes out the other end of his contract, he'll have his degree and be debt-free and much more flexible with what to do with his life. Oh, he bought his own MacBook (and iMac) last year.
See, these are *choices* and sacrifices that they are making. They aren't demanding that anyone hand them a job that lets them live up to some ridiculous standard of living. They aren't getting themselves into a heap of debt and then whining that the cruel world isn't bailing them out of it.
I've been married 22 years. During that time my family and I have lived in some pretty squalid places. We struggled. We even had to move back in with my parents for a while (much to my eternal shame). Why? *My* mistakes, poor judgement, and stupid idea that I had to have a new car, condo, vacations and all the other things I thought were the mark of a successful lifestyle - right out of college. We wracked up huge debts on tons of credit cards and then found, guess what, no job out there was going to pay a young hot-shot, straight out of college, enough to cover those debts. Mor
I have worked my youth away, earned two degrees, and nobody wants to hire me. Why? because I actually focused on academics in college, and they want people who neglected their studies for internships and "meeting people" (partying).
I don't know you personally, but let me tell you about my experience with "academics" and "college boys" (I was one of them, unfortunately) They know everything. Just ask them. They are all theory. They've been trained with the latest hammer and all our problems are exactly the nail they've been looking for. They aren't trainable. They already know it all and look around for the "Google" benefits. I can't count how many times I've had to ask "Has anyone heard from Joe?" at 11 a.m. Maybe he'll show up at noon, maybe he'll call and "explain" that he had things to do. Maybe he'll show up the next day as if nothing happened. WTF!?
We've had several "Joe's" in the last couple of years. It has gotten to the point where we always include "Five years experience minimum" in our job postings. Then we count the number of jobs they've had, and if they've jumped around too much we pass. We aren't going to invest tens of thousands of dollars in training someone who has no intention of staying and who thinks our company is there to cater to their whims and needs.
When I entered the workforce after college, I was under the impression that I dictated the terms, that I was the answer to all companies needs. I could do anything - just let me show you. Well, reality hit me right in the face. I passed up many good jobs because they were offering "entry-level" wages, but I naively believed that I was worth so much more. Finally, after almost a year I was desperate enough to take *anything*. I located a promising company, researched it, cornered the VP and said I'd work for the company for free for three months, doing whatever the needed done, if they'd give me a chance to prove myself a valuable employee. I briefly outlined my skills, but stressed that I'd take any job (I had 2 kids in diapers and was on welfare at that point because of my arrogance)
He looked at me and said, "Show up for work Monday". I did. He said "Every office has a garbage can; take it to the dumpster out back - don't bother the employees. When you're done with that, look for what needs to be done and do it - don't bother the employees". I was dumbstruck, but I did what he told me to (side note: he was about 500lbs and everyone called him "Tiny"). I hunted through the unfamiliar building, looking unobtrusively through each office for trash and emptied it. The janitorial staff must have been briefed because they never said a word except to point to the supply of new liners.
Over the course of the next 6 weeks I came to know every department, what they did, who were the movers and shakers and who were the "de-facto" leaders, despite the org chart. I also overheard a lot of water-cooler talk, perused many discarded brochures, design outlines, meeting notes, product documentation revisions, specs, and printouts (their primary product was written in COBOL). In short, I got an overview of the company from the bottom, up. I learned about their products, their competitors, their responses, the office politics, the water-cooler gossip, everything. Of course, as much as I was supposed to "not bother the employees" and I'm sure they were told to "ignore me", I still found myself in informal conversation on many occasions. The difference was that it was much more difficult to be "authoritative" and "arrogant" with a garbage bag in my hand.
About 6 weeks into my "free" work period, Tiny called me in to his office and said that there was a "commission-only" sales position open, did I want it. I said yes. For the next 8 months, I learned a lot about our product, our competition, and the fact that I can really get excited about a product, but can't ask for the sale. They had pity on me though and saw that I had an uncanny understanding of the technical side, an excit
Unions would do what, exactly, to change this?
it would actually make sure americans had a "living wage" by which to pay for the products on the shelves.
This is something that's being eviscerated atm.
And as soon as every business owner and manufacturer was forced to pay this magical "living wage" the people who were making a bit more than minimum wage would want a raise as well because the arey now back on the bottom rung again. This would continue all the way up the workforce-chain. Then the price of those goods would go up because it costs so much more to produce them - or, more likely, the jobs would be sent overseas and then businesses would close and people would be out of work and have to go on welfare, meaning taxes would have to go up to support them, meaning the folks who were fortunate enough to still be working would take home less, meaning they would demand a new "living wage" and everything starts over again.
Artificial mandates for wages never work in the long run. They sound great to the entry-level workers who think they're getting this big raise, but reality eventually bites. The point of having an entry-level job is to move OUT of it and let the next skill-less worker move in. Working at McDonald's as a fry-guy was never intended to be a job you could live on. If it paid enough to live on the cost of McDonald's food would be too high to afford. That job, and so many unskilled jobs like it, are for kids getting started, or for someone looking to get experience before moving up into a management position.
Why not just set the minimum wage at $100.00 and hour? That would be enough to live on. "Oh, but, but... That's ridiculous!" Yeah, but it just demonstrates the point. If an employer is not paying enough to entice someone to work for him, he will not stay in business. If he doesn't reward skill and initiative and keeps having employee churn, his business will suffer. The problem with people is they have this absurd sense of entitlement. they think they are entitled to a "living wage". You aren't entitled to squat! Just because you *need* something doesn't mean you're going to get it. The question is: What do you have to offer that is of value to an employer? Maybe it's just a strong back or a warm body. You will receive as much compensation as that is worth to your employer. If you don't think it's enough, you won't take the job. Fine, there are 10 others who want the job. You're own sense of self worth is important, but only to you. It does not entitle you to anything.
Until you have improved yourself in some way so as to be valuable enough to your employer for him to pay you a wage that you can live on, you will have to struggle to make ends meet. That's just reality. To artificially manipulate that equation (in either direction) is doomed to failure. The point is, you aren't entitled to a job. Jobs are offered by business owners who need something and are willing to pay a certain amount for it. It is a trade. If you feel that trade is equitable, you will work for him. If not, you won't. If no one will work for the wage he offers, he will have to offer more, until the balance is reached. You will always have the businessman who is a penny wise and a pound foolish, but his business will never be great unless he has quality employees. You have to pay for quality employees. Look around. How many people are quality employees, and how many people are just walking around with this "The world owes me a living" entitlement attitude who have no initiative and no skill and don't care about doing quality work?
I know my position is highly unpopular with the current crop of socialist youngsters that are being cranked out of our educational institutions, but so be it. I've got my flame-proof underwear on!
Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!
Please read those books; I would read Atlas Shrugged if I was only inclined to read one, but Fountainhead first if planning to read both. Trust me.
*A-FREAKIN-MEN BROTHER!*
I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged, bought it as an audio-book on iTunes and gave it to my son to listen to, bought the book for my daughter to read and have my wife reading it out loud to me (while I make dinner) every night. I also convinced a co-worker to buy it from iTunes and she's listening to it in the evenings.
Atlas Shrugged is known as the second most influential book in history after the Bible for a reason. It should be mandatory reading in every high school and college (ditch Gone With the Wind). It is a powerful book with powerful insight and is more relevant today than when it was written in 1957
I am actually looking for a first-edition hard cover copy for my personal library. For being the longest book ever written in any european language, it reads well. Ayn Rand has a way with words.
I have some conditions:
I would only live there if the ziggurat itself was owned by the public and maintained with taxes. The public spaces, police department, fire department, and etc should all be cared for by the 'city'. I don't want to live in a huge gigantic apartment complex "cared for" by some corporation. Apartment complexes suck enough without the added problem of having to leave the _city_ in order to get away from a bad landlord.
I would want to be able to own, buy, and sell "land" in the ziggurat the same way I can own, buy, and sell real land, condos, and etc.
Because we all know how good the *government* is at efficiently and fairly managing and caring for it's resources.
Except that the % chance increasing from "practically zero" to "nearly zero", such that not a single instance has happened on a plane, means that you're exaggerating the risk into a real risk, when it is not. Meanwhile, banning them from planes has substantial cost.
Not to mention the fact that there is going to be *much* more danger to the passengers on the plane if I am not allowed to listen to music or my book-on-tape and am forced to endure the screaming toddler behind me. I once ran into an officious prick who pointed to the "No food or drink" sign on the server room door after seeing my coffee mug sitting on the desk across from the server racks. I explained to him that the cup never came closer to the servers than 6 feet as I always left it on the desk. As I was going to be working in there all morning it was far more efficient to have it sitting there then make me take a coffee break outside every half-hour like the smokers. I then got right up in his face and added "...and a lot safer for you and the servers if I have my coffee."
Yeah, I'm a prick. Yeah, I know the theoretical danger of liquids getting dumped into a server from across the room. I'm an adult. I'm careful. And if I ever did take a server out with my coffee, I'd face the consequences. I'm not making more work for a custodian - they aren't allowed near the server room. If I were to spill it, I'd clean it up. Anyway, he never bothered me about it again.
I hate it when the statistically-handicapped get a bug up their butt. Along that line, my "city" in-laws came to visit and camp for a few weeks in Alaska. In case you don't know, we are known to have a few mosquitoes up here - they are the state bird after all. My sister-in-law refused to use any "repellent" with Deet in it. She said that "Woman's Day" claimed it could cause seizures in kids. She didn't even want me wearing Deet around her kids. *What?!* What are the chances of "deet-seizures? One in one-hundred-million! WTF?! Ignorant morons... Drives me nuts!
how did you get the 3 months of vacation time? Does it carry over from year to year in your job? Here it's normal that vacation time does not carry over, if you don't use it this year then it's gone after a certain date and if you want holiday time it comes out of the next years allocation. Ever think you'll get a chance to use the holiday time?
Yes, it does carry over - we are encouraged to use it or cash it out once it gets over 60 days and forced to once it gets over 120 days. I earn 34 days of vacation a year (there have been many years where they couldn't afford raises so they gave us extra vacation/personal time instead). I guess they know we work long and hard and even if they give us more vacation time we will just work longer hours to catch back up :-) You start out with 2 weeks per year, but can earn your way up to 30 over time. I can't complain about the benefits here - they are really good.
I always intend to use it but something always comes up (this year my wife had to leave for 6-weeks of training) so I never do. I should probably cash it in and will next summer (when the next window of opportunity comes). I'm getting older and the long hours are turning me into a grumpy old man :-) Time to get back to some of my hobbies like hiking, camping and flying.
Now that the kids are grown an out of the house my wife and I would like to travel more too. But you know how it is. I never feel like I can "afford" to be away from work for a long stretch of time. However, this summer I took three straight weeks of vacation. That's the longest vacation I've ever had and I must say it was nice. Of course it put me three weeks behind at work, but the break was cathartic. I think I just need to make a point of taking the time. Kinda like making a point of working out. There may be other things that need to be done but you should still do it :-)
actually when you're working as a subsistence farmer, you're at least growing your own food so you don't have to waste the crap pay you get on buying food from someone else. the working conditions, while they might not be great on a farm, are a damn sight healthier than they are in an electronics factory.
You live and work in the city, don't you. As someone who was both raised in a third-world country and worked on a farm, I can tell you that, although a good, hard day's work is rewarding, it's not nearly as romantic as TV makes it seem. Also, it is the goal of almost everyone I've known to "grow up" and "get a job in the city". See, they have the same romantic notion as you do, but in reverse.
I can tell you though that those people who are lucky enough to get hired by a multi-national corporation to work in the factory are grateful for the work and pay. They would work longer hours if they could because it means more money for their families. Having the do-gooders from first-world countries barge in, "improve" their pay and working conditions to the point where the workforce is downsized really pisses them off.
Americans and Europeans are soft and spoiled when it comes to working and earning a living. I work in IT. I am considered an "exempt" employee. I'm payed to make sure things get done and work correctly, period. If I had to do that in the confines of a 9-5 work day, while having to go through an approval and justification process every time I needed to take over time, I could not do my job nearly as well. I don't get over time. I often work 60-hour weeks. I have over 3 months of unused vacation time. Boo Hoo. If it's that bad I can quit. I can quit because I have a good education and a marketable skill. I get paid well for what I do.
Bringing this back to the Apple engineers: I think they are whiners. I think they should go work for Dell, or McDonalds. If they didn't want to work the long hours they should have quit. If enough people do that Apple will have to change their policies. However, I'll bet there are 10 people who'd kill to get a chance to take their job, even knowing the conditions. No one *owes* you a job. My contract says that I can be let go at any time, without notice. I have to sign a new contract every July. I'm not overly worried though. I know that what I do is valuable. I know that I am good at what I do.
I give the company good value for their money and in exchange I get a fair salary and good benefits. I put in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Would I like to earn more? Sure. Who wouldn't? Am I worth more? Probably. Can my employer afford to pay me more? Not right now. If I can do something to save them money and make them more productive then I may be able to negotiate a better wage. Do they owe it to me? Absolutely not. It's my job to save them money and make them more productive.
Not everyone sees it that way, of course. We get new kids, right out of college who grumble about not making as much as I do, when I've been doing this for 25 years and have been working here for more than 10 years. They think the world owes them a living. They show up to work late. Go home early. Get drunk on the weekend and call in sick every Monday. They stay up so late playing XBox that they are half asleep at work the next day. An they have the gaul to complain about how much they earn and how unfair their bosses are. Whining babies!
Well, I don't know how this rant got to where it is from what I was responding to, but just putting food on you own table by working on a farm is not always enough. Especially if you need to pay for other things, like medical bills, an education, clothes, etc. Working on a farm is not the glamour life you're making it out to be.
You know, it's much easier to call it an apathetic sausage fest... Wait, you meant literally?! Eeeewww.... I knew I liked the real world better.
FYI, the real world is full of dicks too.
Most of the Mac users I know have switched from Windows and are so paranoid and twitchy about installing anything on their system it's ridiculous. I helped my neighbor switch a few months ago and he refused to use his shiny new iMac until he'd received his Symantic Antivirus software in spite of my assurances that he'd be fine until it arrived.
I keep hearing the meme about Mac users (usually typed MAC users) claiming they are invulnerable, but have yet to run into one myself. I'm sure they must exist, but they must be pretty rare. On the other hand, I have found that Mac users actually had to make a conscious and informed choice to *not* run to Walmart or Dell and get a default computer. This would seem to mean that they might be a bit more aware, in general, than the "unwashed masses" who don't even know there are options out there. This goes double for Linux users. I think (at least for now) that fact will protect Mac users more than anything.
I sincerely hope that Macs never become the "default" computer and that people will always have to make a conscious choice to use it.
Next time, instead of checking perms on the .app package folder, try looking at the executable.
ls -lRIt takes getting used to, but I find it very elegant and powerful. I think the biggest turn off for most is "it's something new". It's C, but then it's not. I find myself having to think much more "MVC" and "object-oriented" than I'm used to (my brain is wired old-school procedural), but I also find that I can get an amazing amount done with fewer lines of code. The trade-off is that I don't feel I have the deep level of control I should. This is nonsense, of course, I can write any functionality and subclass all I want, but with the API's I usually don't find I need to, so I come away from a project feeling a little guilty - like I didn't *really* do any hard-core coding. Combine that with Interface-builder and it feels more like building with Legos than "programming". It's just that you find yourself getting so much functionality for free.
All that, combined with the fact that the syntax is different from C++ and you get a bit of a turn-off, but give it a chance. It's like transitioning to any new thing. You like what you know. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone for a while (which is hard for a lot of programmers who tend to be control freaks to begin with). Once you are used to it though you find going back a bit clumsy. At least that's been my experience.
I grew up in a third-world country. It's not "Slavery". People are falling all over themselves to get and keep these jobs. If there is anything negative to be said it's that there is no job security. What we would consider "poor working conditions" and "low pay" is a gold mine to these people. Stop trying to help them out of their jobs. Talk to them and they will tell you that.
Are there bad bosses? Sure. That happens everywhere. Are there some places that have poor working conditions? Sure. And we need to bring those to light and pressure them to improve. But for goodness sake, don't take these people's jobs away from them.