Over the years I've worked with more than a few duds who were MIT grads - I think Samuelson in economics is quite smart - but they do have their share of duds there - if they couldn't succeed on the first try - it simply doesn't prove anything. (Remember that book that grad student in mech engineering wrote about his studies there - he didn't know how a spark plug worked until he entered their grad engineering program!!!!)
Given the number of FBI agents who have actually been caught and convicted over the past 20 years, doing nothing illegal and being an upright citizen can be quite dangerous with federal predators on the loose. No thanks, I'd rather not have a bunch of political draft-dodgers in the Feeb Bureau responsible for all the secret printer-tracking codes.
Sorry, dude, but I'm afraid you're taking me far to literally. I'm referring to the macro picture - the actual economy - the idea in our present consumer-based economy that everyone will create their own jobs is besides the point - although I have no doubt that will be necessary when the economy really tanks sometime in the next 5 years.
What I meant was how to forestall that - it is not with presently everyone creating their own jobs - whether it be your excellent suggestions - or yet another service to buy groceries for busy people, etc. Thanks for the input, though....
I'm sorry, but I just can't take the guy that seriously. After all, the natives here (Seattle) don't really drink Starbucks, it's actually just for the rubes. Real Seattleites drink Cafe Vita, Cafe d'Arte or Torrefazione.
Starbucks coffee - it's really far too burnt for our refined palates.....
Yup, I've noticed an increase in shoeshine people - unfortunately I've also noticed a concurrent increase in people wearing flip-flops.
Yup, we can all try to survive selling pizzas and hamburgers to each other - but unfortunately, after all the productive jobs (those that produce, and those that produce with a future) have been shipped out to India, China, Eastern Europe, and everywhere else - your caustic remark doesn't make much sense - as someone has to be around in fair numbers who will still buy from you. Instead of trite comebacks, how about real live suggestions.....
Microsoft continues to try to wrap the Internet around Windows - and it ain't going to happen. Microsoft doesn't reinvent themselves every 5 years - they reinvent their creative accounting systems.
They've lost billions on the Internet, on China, on XBox - now their recent biz deals suggests they mired in the same mental rut - never capable of thinking outside of the box - they've made plenty of mistakes - but thanks to all those billions that poured in from the DOS licensing monopoly they now have an enormous investment fund - I'm not sure where they fit on the global investment funds - but they've got to be near the top. One wonders if they derive more money from their investments than from their products now.....
Thanks for those links. I've never cared for Card's writing, having read his bio I now understand why. This guy's philosophy is the reason why his "future fiction" and regular fiction are so mediocre.
I didn't see anything about his military record...oh no! Not another vocal bloody draft-dodger or too good to have served in the US military - i.e., chickenhawk who prefers others to do the tough work.
If you go to the Seattle Times website - do a free registration - and search around 2000, 2001 - you should find an article on it (www.seattletimes.com). Which brings to mind an interesting question: As Bill Gates has recently stated several times, he prefers hiring only recent college grads from Ivy League schools - do you know of any readily successful software program introduced into the marketplace which was created by an Ivy League grad and youthful programmer?????
Another topic makes mention of Hillis and his Connection Machine - sounds great - but all tech news accounts (I recall) gave it a fairly mediocre rating - is this simply more media creationism????
OR...will technology make control and enslavement the ultimate probability.
In the year 2000, the world's richest man (from technology), one Bill Gates, bought a law in the state of Washington putting an earning cap on independent contractors. No anyone who's ever put an earning cap on Bill Gates????? The greedy, once ensconced in their position, always change the laws to their benefit and the detriment of most of the rest of us......
Right...simply a handle to sell his book - NO ONE can be that naive and simple-minded (yeah, I know, Kurzweil is an "official" genius, and Bush is really smart and not a deserter....).
No doubt, in the future people suddenly discover integrity, a conscience and purity of heart!
Those are more than likely hacks by today's accepted definitions - but I would describe them as "MacGuyvering it".
In the earliest dawn of the PC - when CP/M was still the big thing, I hacked into Ohio Scientific, IBM's Dallas facility, and the National Geological Survey's facility in Reston, VA - then I set up a shadow network involving the excess drive space at these three facilities - harming no one, simply expanding my knowledge of their IBM OS's. (Of course, it was a real bear each time one of these facilities decided to install the next version....)
That shadow network I considered to be a hack. A young, Indian-American lady once described the definition of hacking perfectly - but the exact definition eludes me - something about the free-form search for knowledge and then improving upon said knowledge, etc.
Your point is extremely well-taken. The poster who lauded India (not that I wish to insult a country which has so many American jobs I lust after) would be well served in following the politics of that nation in a detailed manner. My grievances with this present-day corpocracy are many, but I'm not too sure about a bunch of other countries, with the exception of the Scandinavian countries.
They can also protest openly (within reason) against the government without fear of being arrested.
I strongly doubt this is viable anymore. Many, if not most, corporations do a thorough background check on what would once be considered private and insignificant data on the individuals who work for them or they might be considering for employment. They will find out if you ever wrote anything against the offshoring of American jobs, or anything trivial against any aspect of "big business."
They (agencies or staff within the Bush Administration) have been keeping anti-Bush emails that appear anywhere on the Web, and especially any emails disagreeing with Bush which were sent to the White House (along with any snail mail, etc.). This ignores the obvious suspension of habeas corpus rights once due Americans - anyone disagreeing with this should read the Patriots Act. Since corporations effectively now control our (the American) government, they do and will call all the shots!
Nope, dada21 had it right - they have online spyware or other types of monitoring processes - observing the methods of optimizing code - the incorporate the best ones into future programs, etc.
To further add to this excellent post - the Sound Transit train is "grade-level" meaning it is the most mindless "solution" to the hilly topography of Seattle - therefore, they will have to build endless number of super-expensive tunnels in an earthquake-prone, sea-level region. Also, Sound Transit has infinite taxing authority (I voted against it twice) and has already made a number of people millionaires - the reason the Monorail can't get political support is that, unlike Sound Transit, it doesn't have any financial kickbacks for the local politicians who always have "for sale" signs haning around their necks......
Construction workers work hard, and would love to earn as much as IT workers..but they cant.
You are obviously either not an American or not familiar with America - construction workers all too frequently earn considerably more than IT workers. Why is wanting "low cost labor" a problem - at the expense of destroying a society and a democracy, it is indeed quite a problem - and whether or not it has existed in your fantasy world - democracy is relatively new to this planet and I, for one, would like to bring it back to this country.....
Simply put - anyone, whether having the requisite educational requirments or not - who possess real creativity will not be hired nor sought after by the woefully pathetic cretins of American "management".....
Well, no need to collect Georgie W's DNA - we all know he got high - then became president......so many members of his family are cokeheads, it goes without saying - that, and stupidity, must be genetic.
If CEOs don't know this stuff it's because they shipped all those network programmer/network admin jobs off to India, China, Africa, Eastern Europe and now South America - GEEZ!!!!
You know what would be a great law for Congress to create - one whereby they COULD NOT be prosecuted for insider trading - and could make millions off of all those insider trading tips they get - plus all those gifts of first-time stocks they receive.
OOPS! They've already passed that law. What was I thinking.......
BTW, are those draft-dodging, deviant (speaking of those feebs I've personally come in contact with over the years) FBI dudes going to solicit Robert Hanssen as a consultant (he was really into deviant sex videotaping without his wife's consent) or perhaps that last FBI dude they recently fired - then arrested - who was really into child pornography???
Hmmmmm.....would I want the FBI - with their track record - put in charge of deciding what's deviant????? Does anyone recall Louis ("the Sicilian") Freeh's track record at the FBI??? And this Mueller character - not too impressed with this guy - and about those 43 tips they had on 9/11 transpiring - and about ignoring all those tips from French Intelligence ("Freedom Fries" - how about "Super-twit incompetent FBI fries"?????)
You are completely ignoring Microsoft's eminently losing "China strategy" whereby they hope to make future billions off that market - meanwhile China is doing to them what China has so successfully done to other companies (see Volvo, Stanley Tools, etc., etc., etc.) and taking their technology which they will cannibalize and turn to their own advantage while M$ continues to lose further billions there.....
Slashdot Mirror
Over the years I've worked with more than a few duds who were MIT grads - I think Samuelson in economics is quite smart - but they do have their share of duds there - if they couldn't succeed on the first try - it simply doesn't prove anything. (Remember that book that grad student in mech engineering wrote about his studies there - he didn't know how a spark plug worked until he entered their grad engineering program!!!!)
Given the number of FBI agents who have actually been caught and convicted over the past 20 years, doing nothing illegal and being an upright citizen can be quite dangerous with federal predators on the loose. No thanks, I'd rather not have a bunch of political draft-dodgers in the Feeb Bureau responsible for all the secret printer-tracking codes.
What I meant was how to forestall that - it is not with presently everyone creating their own jobs - whether it be your excellent suggestions - or yet another service to buy groceries for busy people, etc. Thanks for the input, though....
Starbucks coffee - it's really far too burnt for our refined palates.....
Yup, we can all try to survive selling pizzas and hamburgers to each other - but unfortunately, after all the productive jobs (those that produce, and those that produce with a future) have been shipped out to India, China, Eastern Europe, and everywhere else - your caustic remark doesn't make much sense - as someone has to be around in fair numbers who will still buy from you. Instead of trite comebacks, how about real live suggestions.....
They've lost billions on the Internet, on China, on XBox - now their recent biz deals suggests they mired in the same mental rut - never capable of thinking outside of the box - they've made plenty of mistakes - but thanks to all those billions that poured in from the DOS licensing monopoly they now have an enormous investment fund - I'm not sure where they fit on the global investment funds - but they've got to be near the top. One wonders if they derive more money from their investments than from their products now.....
That is a most concise, lucid, pithy and pragmatically realistic account of what has, is and will happen. BRAVO!
I didn't see anything about his military record...oh no! Not another vocal bloody draft-dodger or too good to have served in the US military - i.e., chickenhawk who prefers others to do the tough work.
Another innovative idea from McSoftware???????? Yeah...right...
Another topic makes mention of Hillis and his Connection Machine - sounds great - but all tech news accounts (I recall) gave it a fairly mediocre rating - is this simply more media creationism????
In the year 2000, the world's richest man (from technology), one Bill Gates, bought a law in the state of Washington putting an earning cap on independent contractors. No anyone who's ever put an earning cap on Bill Gates????? The greedy, once ensconced in their position, always change the laws to their benefit and the detriment of most of the rest of us......
No doubt, in the future people suddenly discover integrity, a conscience and purity of heart!
Because Google is the 21st century new paradigm for the Internet - and Microsoft just doesn't get it and never will.
In the earliest dawn of the PC - when CP/M was still the big thing, I hacked into Ohio Scientific, IBM's Dallas facility, and the National Geological Survey's facility in Reston, VA - then I set up a shadow network involving the excess drive space at these three facilities - harming no one, simply expanding my knowledge of their IBM OS's. (Of course, it was a real bear each time one of these facilities decided to install the next version....)
That shadow network I considered to be a hack. A young, Indian-American lady once described the definition of hacking perfectly - but the exact definition eludes me - something about the free-form search for knowledge and then improving upon said knowledge, etc.
Your point is extremely well-taken. The poster who lauded India (not that I wish to insult a country which has so many American jobs I lust after) would be well served in following the politics of that nation in a detailed manner. My grievances with this present-day corpocracy are many, but I'm not too sure about a bunch of other countries, with the exception of the Scandinavian countries.
I strongly doubt this is viable anymore. Many, if not most, corporations do a thorough background check on what would once be considered private and insignificant data on the individuals who work for them or they might be considering for employment. They will find out if you ever wrote anything against the offshoring of American jobs, or anything trivial against any aspect of "big business."
They (agencies or staff within the Bush Administration) have been keeping anti-Bush emails that appear anywhere on the Web, and especially any emails disagreeing with Bush which were sent to the White House (along with any snail mail, etc.). This ignores the obvious suspension of habeas corpus rights once due Americans - anyone disagreeing with this should read the Patriots Act. Since corporations effectively now control our (the American) government, they do and will call all the shots!
Nope, dada21 had it right - they have online spyware or other types of monitoring processes - observing the methods of optimizing code - the incorporate the best ones into future programs, etc.
To further add to this excellent post - the Sound Transit train is "grade-level" meaning it is the most mindless "solution" to the hilly topography of Seattle - therefore, they will have to build endless number of super-expensive tunnels in an earthquake-prone, sea-level region. Also, Sound Transit has infinite taxing authority (I voted against it twice) and has already made a number of people millionaires - the reason the Monorail can't get political support is that, unlike Sound Transit, it doesn't have any financial kickbacks for the local politicians who always have "for sale" signs haning around their necks......
You are obviously either not an American or not familiar with America - construction workers all too frequently earn considerably more than IT workers. Why is wanting "low cost labor" a problem - at the expense of destroying a society and a democracy, it is indeed quite a problem - and whether or not it has existed in your fantasy world - democracy is relatively new to this planet and I, for one, would like to bring it back to this country.....
Simply put - anyone, whether having the requisite educational requirments or not - who possess real creativity will not be hired nor sought after by the woefully pathetic cretins of American "management".....
Well, no need to collect Georgie W's DNA - we all know he got high - then became president......so many members of his family are cokeheads, it goes without saying - that, and stupidity, must be genetic.
If CEOs don't know this stuff it's because they shipped all those network programmer/network admin jobs off to India, China, Africa, Eastern Europe and now South America - GEEZ!!!!
OOPS! They've already passed that law. What was I thinking.......
Hmmmmm.....would I want the FBI - with their track record - put in charge of deciding what's deviant????? Does anyone recall Louis ("the Sicilian") Freeh's track record at the FBI??? And this Mueller character - not too impressed with this guy - and about those 43 tips they had on 9/11 transpiring - and about ignoring all those tips from French Intelligence ("Freedom Fries" - how about "Super-twit incompetent FBI fries"?????)
You are completely ignoring Microsoft's eminently losing "China strategy" whereby they hope to make future billions off that market - meanwhile China is doing to them what China has so successfully done to other companies (see Volvo, Stanley Tools, etc., etc., etc.) and taking their technology which they will cannibalize and turn to their own advantage while M$ continues to lose further billions there.....