Ok generally I lurk but occasionally I see a post that I have personal experience in and I can't keep my mouth shut.
I was in your situation only 4 years ago. I started in IT in 1993 and found a very lucrative and rewarding career only to find myself slowly getting bored with the field I thought I loved. I felt like I was just constantly relearning the same skill set over and over in a slightly different variation constantly afraid that my current skillset was going to be obsolete.
So I went to law school. In my first weeks in class I learned that in other professions you can learn a skill and still have it be meaningful 10 years later! For example, I studied a contract case that is over 200 years old, and it is still good law and will never be obsolete (in common law countries). That was a revelation and a realization that I don't want to go back on. In IT I had to relearn the same skill set every few years.
Now, to be frank I made more money in IT than I do in law now (just graduated). However, I have a whole new perspective and a career path that is solidly supported by two differing skill sets. I am currently working as a litigation technology consultant for a large consulting practice that consults on enormous trials (my first job was $65 Billion).
I now have a lot more respect, self confidence, knowledge, and a better perspective. I love having solid IT skills. I also have a LOT more school debt...but I can envision paying it off in 5-10 years and it is "good" debt. I do have a wife and newborn child, my wife is working, and we do ok. Am I living the lifestyle I want? Not yet. But do I feel trapped by my career? Not at all. I have so many more career options now the hardest part is keeping focused on whats in front of me.
In fact there are more and more lawyers being outsourced to India every day. (see http://www.lexadigm.com/) As a soon to be lawyer (and a US citizen of Indian origin, [oh the irony])... taking the July Bar, I can testify to the increasing difficulty in finding work. If you haven't gone to a top 20 school (out of 300 schools) or if you are not in the top 1-5% of your class it has gotten a lot harder to find work. It is extremely competitive right now and only getting worse. There are 12,400 people taking the NY bar exam in July, the most ever. The funny thing is that even though the top tier law firms are paying incoming associates $160K/year... they are doing the same research and grunt work that an Indian lawyer would be happy to do for $10-20K. So yes... outsourcing lawyers is a huge growth industry...
Solution: I decided to be a trial consultant... when the sharks get hungry... they bite each other... and you cannot outsource the court room.
The calculation that the DOJ and FTC releaseed in their merger guidelines is called the HHI (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hhi.asp). If AFTER the merger the resulting value is more than 2100 and the change in value from before the merger to after the merger is more than 100 then the agencies take a VERY careful look at the anticompetitive effects. It seems to me like this merger will likely get shot down.
I would be really surprised if this merger gets regulatory approval from the FTC or DOJ. If the first and third largest harddrive manufacturers merge, then the amount anti-competitive power that they will be able to wield is untenable. How many harddrive manufacturers are out there? 6? 8? Surely no more than 10-12 even assuming a number of brands that I am unfamiliar with. Also, there are no real substitutes available for harddrives on the market today. Nothing else is a viable alternative for mass storage so the product market is really narrow and both companies are global players which compete in the same marketplaces.
Conclusion - Fails regulatory approval.
Alright so I was a sysadmin until age 28 until I made the switch at the bottom of the dot com bust. I just took the final on a course in cyberlaw. I expected this course to be the most exciting and relevant course I could possibly take in lawschool considering my previous background. It WAS NOT. The law and technology are too completely different fields. Lawyers and judges are constantly trying to analogize technology to classic methods and modes of thinking. Technology changes constantly, most laws are poorly constructed to deal with issues retroactively, when the underlying law has already changed. Laws change very slowly... and thats a good thing.. (especially considering that I don't have to learn a new prog. lang. each year) But it is a very hard adjustment. Personally, I have come to understand why most lawyers are miserable doing what they are doing. They are generally very smart people stuck doing very boring high paying jobs. This gets wearing on you. In fact, I want to continue programming because it is a way of gettin instant gratification... in a way that can never happen in law.
If there is one thing I am learning the hard way in law school, is how much detailed grammar and accurate, precise writing matters. You cannot leave the law to vague analysis, if you do, the other guy will nail you to the wall. In the same way, video with things like "body language" and other vague interpretations will never replace precise linguistic communication. Unfortunately, it is really hard to be precise with natural language. Its time to create a new language that only has one simple definition for every word. Stupid humans.
Interestingly I am covered this in ConLaw today. The reason the Courts manage to get away with this standing argument is on "prudential" grounds(i.e. the wouldn't be able to handle the number of suits that would arise). The logic being that IF you really wanted the laws changed you would resolve the issue by political means...voting in your Congressman. Congress DOES have the power to grant standing to private citizens to bring suit for violations, and in fact has done so in the past.
Are there free legal resources available to help people in this situation? This kid's mistake is a pattern that we see recited over and over. There are free legal clinics that help people in all kinds of other situations, landlord/tenant disputes, immigration, etc.,...but I haven't seen anything to help common people when they accidentily cross these IP boundries.
So, I just got back from Kerala. I am a 29 year-old, American raised, Keralite who has worked in IT industry now in Law School. I agree with most of your Positives...
1. Agreed. It is really hard to impress on people in the States how focused Malayalee's (The native term for Keralites) are on education. Here is an anecdote,... My mother-in-law was shocked when I told here there are people in the US that DON'T go to college. I had to explain to her, that we need people to flip burgers.
2.Agreed
3.Agreed. The competition is Intense. Law school is cake compared to what some of my cousins go through. You are ranked on State-wide exams. The top 100 students can easily get a free medical school education. That is quite a bit of motivation...
4. Agreed, with a caveat... they are motivated, but they are motivated by money. This has a LOT of negatives... I can't even trust some of my blood relations. They make an automatic assumption that since I live in the States, I'm loaded.
5. Agreed. Every family in Kerala I know has a car, has a cell phone, etc. They are becoming a consumer economy. With all the negatives that come with it too...
6. DISagree. Politics in Kerala, and India as a whole SUCKS. Most politicians keep private armies of "gundas" (thugs) to cover their backs. Politicians are there to line their pockets. Everyone is in the political "game" for themselves.
BUT
The number one challenge that India faces from my perspective is the abject failure of LAW and ORDER. Both the police and the legal system are terrible. Don't even bother trying to file for medical malpractice...you'd get laughed out of court. Hopefully, as the middle class starts getting wealthier they will be able to start demanding proper (unbribable) police protection, but that will take a long time in coming. In the mean time, mobsters, politicians, and thugs rule the streets. Watch your backs, don't go out at night AT ALL if your a woman, keep your jewellery in the bank, and don't trust your fellow man. THAT is the greatest problem in India.
Well thats why it never becomes a criminal case. In a civil case you don't need a jury, if the judge can clearly make the determination that as a MATTER OF LAW (i.e., on the face of the complaint) the defendent is liable...then the case is over. In most cases the facts about copyright would speak for themselves. The RIAA will not bring a criminal case for a small time offender because they know they won't win.
Ok, I was just in India last summer and this is the first hand experience I had regarding medical care, and medical education.
First, if you are in top of your class on the STATE-WIDE medical exams... you are advertised in the local newspapers by each of the schools in which you were educated, bragged about in the local newspapers, and get the MOST ATTRACTIVE, and WEALTHY spouses. Yes... very simple, if you study and work hard, and get the top scores, you get a FREE education, (every school is REQUIRED by the state to keep a certain number of spots free for the top students) and you get the absolute BEST in life, respect, wealth (relatively), status, and power.
Secondly, my father happened to need treatment for a throat irritation. He visited a local physician, at his HOME, on a SUNDAY, got a prescription for the SAME antibiotics you get in the States, and spent a total of 250 rupees = ~$5.
Finally, EVERY student in INDIA aspires to be a doctor. All those outsourced computer programmers are actually the SECOND rank of students. If you can manage to do so, you Strive to get into a medical program. The average doctor makes between 30,000-45,000 rupees per month = ~$1000/month. versus a programmer who makes 15,000 rupees/month = $300, even when your working for US companies! (These are not numbers I am pulling out of thin air, I have relatives and friends that make these exact salaries)
Finally, my wife, if she were in India, as a trained and licensed physical therapist in India, makes 750 rupees ($15) a week in India. (A man would make about a 1000 rupees) Here, she will earn about $1200/month.
Also, my grandfather (86 years old) suspected that he had some sort of tumor in his foot. He visited a hospital in Trivandrum, which was established by American trained physicans from Texas. The facility was spectacular, and easily of the same quality as you would see here in the states. However, there was twice the staffing! He was waited upon by a physician (yes an MD) within the hour that he arrived. I was really impressed.
My father in law, 3 days ago, had a mild hard attack. He went to intensive care, with 24 hour monitoring for 3 days! And the total cost is less than $200.
So, it is not at all surprising to me that medical care is the next big shift. In fact, I changed my medical insurance to catastrophic coverage only. If I need anything kind of care that is not an absolute emergency, I will just go back to India.
Slashdot Mirror
What that xkcd is missing ... are the philosophers! (starting just to the right of the mathematicians to infinity)
oh wait...that would basically make it one of those mini-CAT forklifts.
So that you can be forced to keep paying for equipment that you can no longer use... Indefinitely?
Ok generally I lurk but occasionally I see a post that I have personal experience in and I can't keep my mouth shut. I was in your situation only 4 years ago. I started in IT in 1993 and found a very lucrative and rewarding career only to find myself slowly getting bored with the field I thought I loved. I felt like I was just constantly relearning the same skill set over and over in a slightly different variation constantly afraid that my current skillset was going to be obsolete. So I went to law school. In my first weeks in class I learned that in other professions you can learn a skill and still have it be meaningful 10 years later! For example, I studied a contract case that is over 200 years old, and it is still good law and will never be obsolete (in common law countries). That was a revelation and a realization that I don't want to go back on. In IT I had to relearn the same skill set every few years. Now, to be frank I made more money in IT than I do in law now (just graduated). However, I have a whole new perspective and a career path that is solidly supported by two differing skill sets. I am currently working as a litigation technology consultant for a large consulting practice that consults on enormous trials (my first job was $65 Billion). I now have a lot more respect, self confidence, knowledge, and a better perspective. I love having solid IT skills. I also have a LOT more school debt...but I can envision paying it off in 5-10 years and it is "good" debt. I do have a wife and newborn child, my wife is working, and we do ok. Am I living the lifestyle I want? Not yet. But do I feel trapped by my career? Not at all. I have so many more career options now the hardest part is keeping focused on whats in front of me.
In fact there are more and more lawyers being outsourced to India every day. (see http://www.lexadigm.com/) As a soon to be lawyer (and a US citizen of Indian origin, [oh the irony])... taking the July Bar, I can testify to the increasing difficulty in finding work. If you haven't gone to a top 20 school (out of 300 schools) or if you are not in the top 1-5% of your class it has gotten a lot harder to find work. It is extremely competitive right now and only getting worse. There are 12,400 people taking the NY bar exam in July, the most ever. The funny thing is that even though the top tier law firms are paying incoming associates $160K/year... they are doing the same research and grunt work that an Indian lawyer would be happy to do for $10-20K. So yes... outsourcing lawyers is a huge growth industry...
Solution: I decided to be a trial consultant... when the sharks get hungry... they bite each other... and you cannot outsource the court room.
The calculation that the DOJ and FTC releaseed in their merger guidelines is called the HHI (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hhi.asp). If AFTER the merger the resulting value is more than 2100 and the change in value from before the merger to after the merger is more than 100 then the agencies take a VERY careful look at the anticompetitive effects. It seems to me like this merger will likely get shot down.
I would be really surprised if this merger gets regulatory approval from the FTC or DOJ. If the first and third largest harddrive manufacturers merge, then the amount anti-competitive power that they will be able to wield is untenable. How many harddrive manufacturers are out there? 6? 8? Surely no more than 10-12 even assuming a number of brands that I am unfamiliar with. Also, there are no real substitutes available for harddrives on the market today. Nothing else is a viable alternative for mass storage so the product market is really narrow and both companies are global players which compete in the same marketplaces. Conclusion - Fails regulatory approval.
Alright so I was a sysadmin until age 28 until I made the switch at the bottom of the dot com bust. I just took the final on a course in cyberlaw. I expected this course to be the most exciting and relevant course I could possibly take in lawschool considering my previous background. It WAS NOT. The law and technology are too completely different fields. Lawyers and judges are constantly trying to analogize technology to classic methods and modes of thinking. Technology changes constantly, most laws are poorly constructed to deal with issues retroactively, when the underlying law has already changed. Laws change very slowly... and thats a good thing.. (especially considering that I don't have to learn a new prog. lang. each year) But it is a very hard adjustment. Personally, I have come to understand why most lawyers are miserable doing what they are doing. They are generally very smart people stuck doing very boring high paying jobs. This gets wearing on you. In fact, I want to continue programming because it is a way of gettin instant gratification... in a way that can never happen in law.
For a very unique perspective of living through a nuclear attack read "Black Rain" - Fantastic, tragic book... and a good movie too. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0870 11364X/qid=1118949579/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/002-4076 997-4001631?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Two images have been posted on top of this wipo article: http://www.wipo.int/roller/comments/ipisforum/Webl og/theme_three_the_public_domain
No Software Patents layered over Goatse.
If there is one thing I am learning the hard way in law school, is how much detailed grammar and accurate, precise writing matters. You cannot leave the law to vague analysis, if you do, the other guy will nail you to the wall. In the same way, video with things like "body language" and other vague interpretations will never replace precise linguistic communication. Unfortunately, it is really hard to be precise with natural language. Its time to create a new language that only has one simple definition for every word. Stupid humans.
and since you have the rule of "generality" probably nobody would have standing either...
Interestingly I am covered this in ConLaw today. The reason the Courts manage to get away with this standing argument is on "prudential" grounds(i.e. the wouldn't be able to handle the number of suits that would arise). The logic being that IF you really wanted the laws changed you would resolve the issue by political means...voting in your Congressman. Congress DOES have the power to grant standing to private citizens to bring suit for violations, and in fact has done so in the past.
Are there free legal resources available to help people in this situation? This kid's mistake is a pattern that we see recited over and over. There are free legal clinics that help people in all kinds of other situations, landlord/tenant disputes, immigration, etc.,...but I haven't seen anything to help common people when they accidentily cross these IP boundries.
Hey "AnyLove.."
So, I just got back from Kerala. I am a 29 year-old, American raised, Keralite who has worked in IT industry now in Law School. I agree with most of your Positives...
1. Agreed. It is really hard to impress on people in the States how focused Malayalee's (The native term for Keralites) are on education. Here is an anecdote,... My mother-in-law was shocked when I told here there are people in the US that DON'T go to college. I had to explain to her, that we need people to flip burgers.
2.Agreed
3.Agreed. The competition is Intense. Law school is cake compared to what some of my cousins go through. You are ranked on State-wide exams. The top 100 students can easily get a free medical school education. That is quite a bit of motivation...
4. Agreed, with a caveat... they are motivated, but they are motivated by money. This has a LOT of negatives... I can't even trust some of my blood relations. They make an automatic assumption that since I live in the States, I'm loaded.
5. Agreed. Every family in Kerala I know has a car, has a cell phone, etc. They are becoming a consumer economy. With all the negatives that come with it too...
6. DISagree. Politics in Kerala, and India as a whole SUCKS. Most politicians keep private armies of "gundas" (thugs) to cover their backs. Politicians are there to line their pockets. Everyone is in the political "game" for themselves.
BUT
The number one challenge that India faces from my perspective is the abject failure of LAW and ORDER. Both the police and the legal system are terrible. Don't even bother trying to file for medical malpractice...you'd get laughed out of court. Hopefully, as the middle class starts getting wealthier they will be able to start demanding proper (unbribable) police protection, but that will take a long time in coming. In the mean time, mobsters, politicians, and thugs rule the streets. Watch your backs, don't go out at night AT ALL if your a woman, keep your jewellery in the bank, and don't trust your fellow man. THAT is the greatest problem in India.
Well thats why it never becomes a criminal case. In a civil case you don't need a jury, if the judge can clearly make the determination that as a MATTER OF LAW (i.e., on the face of the complaint) the defendent is liable...then the case is over. In most cases the facts about copyright would speak for themselves. The RIAA will not bring a criminal case for a small time offender because they know they won't win.
Ok, I was just in India last summer and this is the first hand experience I had regarding medical care, and medical education. First, if you are in top of your class on the STATE-WIDE medical exams... you are advertised in the local newspapers by each of the schools in which you were educated, bragged about in the local newspapers, and get the MOST ATTRACTIVE, and WEALTHY spouses. Yes... very simple, if you study and work hard, and get the top scores, you get a FREE education, (every school is REQUIRED by the state to keep a certain number of spots free for the top students) and you get the absolute BEST in life, respect, wealth (relatively), status, and power. Secondly, my father happened to need treatment for a throat irritation. He visited a local physician, at his HOME, on a SUNDAY, got a prescription for the SAME antibiotics you get in the States, and spent a total of 250 rupees = ~$5. Finally, EVERY student in INDIA aspires to be a doctor. All those outsourced computer programmers are actually the SECOND rank of students. If you can manage to do so, you Strive to get into a medical program. The average doctor makes between 30,000-45,000 rupees per month = ~$1000/month. versus a programmer who makes 15,000 rupees/month = $300, even when your working for US companies! (These are not numbers I am pulling out of thin air, I have relatives and friends that make these exact salaries) Finally, my wife, if she were in India, as a trained and licensed physical therapist in India, makes 750 rupees ($15) a week in India. (A man would make about a 1000 rupees) Here, she will earn about $1200/month. Also, my grandfather (86 years old) suspected that he had some sort of tumor in his foot. He visited a hospital in Trivandrum, which was established by American trained physicans from Texas. The facility was spectacular, and easily of the same quality as you would see here in the states. However, there was twice the staffing! He was waited upon by a physician (yes an MD) within the hour that he arrived. I was really impressed. My father in law, 3 days ago, had a mild hard attack. He went to intensive care, with 24 hour monitoring for 3 days! And the total cost is less than $200. So, it is not at all surprising to me that medical care is the next big shift. In fact, I changed my medical insurance to catastrophic coverage only. If I need anything kind of care that is not an absolute emergency, I will just go back to India.