Unfortunately, I think CNN's constant running of WTC clips subtitled "American Under Attack" has already had this desensitizing effect. The images don't make me retch the way they used to. Is this the passage of time, or the effects of seeing the same thing several thousand times?
It's true. When my sister was in high school, a meat retailer asked to buy her phone number, which happened to be ***-BEEF. Because Telus (then known as BC Tel) actually owned the number, the entire stransaction had to be termed as covering her current bill, cost of setting up a new line, etc. She got $250 out of the deal. (And I always thought she should have whined a little more, to see what their second offer would be. However, she was happy to act quickly on a sure thing.)...In a strange twist of fate, my sister grew up to work for Telus...
If there are people heaping unwarranted praise on a book and people heaping unwarranted criticism on a book, shouldn't these things balance out? For example, if *I* had a book on Amazon, I would ask all my trusted friends, marketing buddies, and family members to post positive reviews. However, I would think my ex-boyfriends, childhood enemies, competing authors and competing publishers would publish negative reviews. In the end, this should leave only the Amazon reader opinions. Some of which will praise the book, and some of which will tear it apart.
While the Internet offers a low-cost medium for publishing propaganda, I think freedom of speech still wins out. Publishers romance reviewers in much the same way that pharmaceutical companies toy with doctors. Even the "independent" journalists (from publications that refuse to mingle with publishers) need to be loyal to their editors, advertisers or, at the very least, their perceived readership. Reviews are just as much a marketable commodity as the books themselves.
When I minored in publishing during my undergrad, the profs trotted out all sorts of publishers who admitted to wining and dining reviewers. And, in my career as a technology marketer, I've put together strategies for capturing the positive attention of software magazine writers. Lately, I have noticed my peers are starting to pitch to bloggers. Yes, even blogs and Amazon reviews are tainted by commercial interests. But at least the little guy can still publish reviews or put up a website. It's such an awful pain to tack one's protests to the door of the castle church at Wittenburg.
Yes, Quebec does take a bigger chunk of your taxes. However, it has heavily subsidized daycare and university. It also needs to produce everything in French.
On the whole, Canadian taxes are starting to look more like those in the US. I looked up US and Canadian tax rates, and was surprised to see that they are not that different anymore.
Canada:
a 17-per-cent tax rate is applied to taxable income up to $35,000;
a 23-per-cent tax rate is applied to taxable income between $35,000 and $70,000; and
a 29-per-cent tax rate is applied to taxable income above $70,000.
Canada does not set taxes according to marital status, although there are some financial breaks for married people.
Analysis
The tax rate for lower-income Canadians is 15%, compared to 17% in the US. However, the first $8,000 of income is tax-free in Canada. That provides for a lower average rate.
Middle-income Canadians pay 23%, compared to 25% in the US.
Canadians earning more than $70k pay 29%, while Americans pay 28%. However, again, the first $8,000 of earnings is tax-free, so this should work out to be about the same.
I don't know if the US uses marginal or flat tax rates. In Canada, they are marginal.
Now, if you figure in public health and education, you might actually see some financial advantage to living here. There are social advantages too. But, more importantly, Canada has a balanced budget and is paying down its deficit, while the US is posting its all-time largest deficit. This may mean that we will be in a better position to maintain or lower tax rates over the next few years.
Does your health insurance cover everything, or do you have to pay deductibles?
Canadian public health insurance is about C$55 ($US40) per person per month. Many employers pick up that fee, and it's subsidized for lower-income people. We don't have to pay for other costs, except medication -- which is subsidized for lower income people and also usually included in employers' extended health benefits.
I know someone is going to reply and say that my taxes are high to compensate for this. However, whenever I have run the numbers, I have found that the taxes I pay are no higher than those of Americans, if you include health benefits for a family. And our small and mid-sized business taxes are far lower than those in the US.
This is really interesting. It sounds like an Indian programmer can achieve a better quality of life than can a US programmer. Of course, perhaps it only holds for this particular profession at this point in time.
Last year, I took a job with a very tiny engineering firm. There were only 8 employees, and 2 told me to quit on my first day. It was an awful place to work. Anyway, I quit after about 8 weeks. I had never signed an NDA. The company asked me to sign one, now that I had quit. I told them to send it along with my final paycheque. When I got the package, I ran to the bank and cashed the cheque at the originating bank (the fastest way to get it to clear). After a day or 2, the company asked why I hadn't signed the NDA. I told them I was reviewing it (true). Then they called the bank and tried to cancel the cheque (already cleared, and my province's law demands employers pay within X number of days). The president emailed me and told me that signing the NDA was a condition of my employment contract. I pointed out that a) I no longer worked there, b) it wasn't my responsibility to enforce that end of the employment contract, c) they had allowed me to continue to work without an NDA, and d) only an idiot would sign a BACKWARD-LOOKING contract. They wanted me to promise that I had not breached the NDA prior to signing! I might have considered signing a FORWARD-LOOKING NDA (considered, not signed), but there was no way on earth I was going to say that I had never accidentally disclosed information prior to even seeing the NDA!
After I quit, the company tried this with another employee. She also refused. I don't think either of us would ever intentionally disclose information that would put the company in jeapardy, but it would be legally hazardous to obligate yourself to events in the past. I mean, the other employee was completing her P.Eng, so she might have written something in her journal that violated the later NDA!
I would be interested in knowing whether programmers and their families expect the following and how much these things cost:
- car
- "good" schools for their children -- forcing them to buy in "good" neighbourhood
- 2000-square-foot home on 33'x100' lot on a wide street
- second car
- unsubsidized education for their children
- occasional holidays
- buy first home with 5% down
- pre-school and after-school care for children
- name-brand clothes and shoes (just something along the lines of Gap & Nike, not Armani)
- to provide for themselves in retirement
Having recently read several reviews and seen interviews for The Two-Income Trap (Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi), I am curious about how "middle-class" Indians set their expectations. While the authors of this book take the view that it's 2nd incomes that have led to a decline in American living standards, I think there are many other middle-class American expectations that have led to demands for $60k programmer salaries. I live in Canada, and we are often told of higher US salaries. (Okay, it's not like I'm making $11k!) But I've often noted that Americans must pay for HMOs, retirement, gated communities, college, etc. It would be interesting to compare American "needs" with Indian "needs".
And, since I'm sure I've exposed myself to flames, I'll just state for the record that I'm a Canadian woman in a 2-income family that recently became bought its first home. However, it's an 800-square-foot condo where we plan to raise children, and we both walk to work and stores. We have a 4-year-old Civic, but we rarely drive it.
There are several interesting scenarios here.
1. Having moved past visionaries on the technology adoption lifecycle for paid downloads, companies need to spend a lot of time and money getting the mainstream on board. This drives up costs.
2. Labels are not separating out their CD sales from downloads. CD sales are hurting, so the costs (and losses?) from that area are passed along to the pricing for downloads.
3. When you consider start-up costs, iPod and Napster may both start high on the cost curve. As their sales increase, the fixed costs become less important, and the total costs will start to look more like the variable costs alone.
4. Again, if even the download scenario means starting high on the cost curve, Napster and iPod may be charging too little for their download prices. Over time, as fixed costs (and past losses) become less relevant, the profit margin will increase. In the meantime, it's a tough sell to get a consumer to pay $1 for something they can get elsewhere for free.
I've got a BA in English. I work in technology marketing & business development, which is not the same as network engineering. However, when I go to job interviews, I find that hiring managers spend a lot of time asking me about my English degree. They seem to think that only dolts major in English. Many even suggest that I couldn't possibly be good at English and "math stuff".
Two years ago, I went back to school to complete an MBA. I found myself ranked at the top of the class, along with engineers, computer programmers, and scientists. Only one other person had a BA. Yet I managed to hold my own and graduate near the top of the class. I proved I could do calculus and compete with "math people".
And then I graduated. People now find it suspicious that I have an English degree and an MBA! They say, "You can't possibly be good at both financial and 'soft' business skills. Which is it?" It's amazing how people put Liberal Arts majors in boxes. I majored in Arts because I felt it was extremely important to have a well-rounded background before specializing. I do think Arts majors learn a breadth of skills and are more likely to challenge establishment thinking.
However, my husband chose to do an undergrad in Math, with a computer science minor and lots of Arts electives. He later completed an M.Math. He has a great job as a software architect, makes about 40% more than I do, and can still quote Shakespeare and Homer.
My recommendation? Do a general computer science or somewhat general engineering degree, and do a double-major/minor in Liberal Arts. Volunteer for some clubs and try to socialize with a wide variety of people. You'll still gain exposure to a broad range of ideas, but you'll have better job options.
That being said, I suppose I still earn more than the average university grad or masters grad. But my husband has a lot more jobs to choose from.
It's pretty obvious that low-level coding is only the first step in shipping "knowledge worker" jobs overseas. Roles in IT architecture, financial, creative and management will follow suit. Even positions that rely on an understanding of local nuances -- e.g. radio announcers and ad writers -- can likely be filled through customization of generic content or by people who've spent a few years overseas. So what's left for the "more developed" nations?
In my country, Canada, government is pouring money into education and R&D. The idea is that Canadians will create new knowledge that can be patented and licensed for profit. Right now, we have one of the best productivity rates for scientific discovery. It's hard to determine conversion to patents, though, because so many innovations are patented and commercialized in the US and UK. It makes sense to explore this route, since manufacturing will no doubt take place in countries with cheaper production costs. But how long can this work? Won't countries like India and China figure this out? Aren't their scientists and students willing to do research for less money? Couldn't foreign students study in countries like Canada, then go back home to create patents? Do patents even matter if they are infringed overseas?
You're correct. The spelling and gramar reflect that used during Chaucer's time. Later, around 1500, the Great Vowel Shift changed the way words were written and pronounced.
But, even allowing for the Great Vowel Shift, it's not so much a question of whether the spelling and grammar are correct. The first English dictionary was published by Samuel Johnson in 1755. Until then, writers lacked a standard reference for spelling and grammar. Even Johnson simply picked spellings from the books he respected the most.
Arguably, some writers would have learned to spell in school (if they were so lucky to attend). But what constituted "Standard English" would vary from town to town. Many people never travelled to other towns, so much of English spelling developed in pockets.
Until the rise of mercantilism in the 1500s and 1700s, variations in spelling and grammar were of minor importance. In time, the move from guilds to mercantalism required precision in business dealings, and the language had to be standardized. For example, English speakers dropped "they" as a singular, finding agreement in number more important than gender neutrality.
Much of "standard English" grammar is based on Latin rules of grammar. The reason we avoid splitting infinitives is that you can't split a Latin infinitive -- it's one word!
Well, that about sums up my English degree.:) I knew I'd use it again one day.
The 1919 Nickle law declared Canadians couldn't hold peerages. From what I can tell, this has been overlooked occasionally, but the last date I could find was in the 40s. Before 1946, people who lived in Canada were British subjects only.
Also, Black isn't a member of the Canadian Privy Council anymore -- even though those appointments are usually for life. He wasn't actually a council member, but an advisor -- he couldn't do orders in council. He lost his PC membership when he gave up his citizenship.
Of course, Chretien was still at war with Black. The main question in Chretien vs. Black was whether the Prime Minister could advise the Queen on this matter. The Canadian Prime Minister may advise the Queen of Canada, but not the Queen of the British Empire. (A delicate matter, given both refer to Elizabeth R.) So, if Chretien was telling her what to do with Britain's affairs, he was way out of line. But he wasn't out of line in advising her about a Canadian affair, nor in telling Black that a peerage was a no-no.
Just to clarify, that's because the Canadian government doesn't feel its citizens should hold aristocratic titles. The Queen has long agreed to avoid giving titles to Canadians. There was quite a dispute between Prime Minister Chretien and the Queen when she wanted to make Conrad Black a lord, though. Ironically, Canada does bestow the Order of Canada on foreign nationals!
Hi there,
I went to a school designated as "inner city". There were 2 Commodore 64s for the 500 students. I had a Vic 20 at home and managed to find myself in charge of teaching computers to all the primary students -- I was in 4th grade and all of 8.5 years old. (A 7th grader and teachers were responsible for working with the intermediate students, so I was just teaching kids how to type and turn on computers.) Over the next few years, I gained really strong computer knowledge, but it was generally because I had a computer at home.
When I got to junior high, I found there were lots of kids with computers, instead of just a handful of kids with forward-looking parents. (The country club area fed into the junior high.) Our 8th grade computer course was all about Logo for the Commodore 64. Because I only had a Vic 20 at home, I was suddenly in the same place as all the other kids who didn't have computers. I did know programming, so I managed an above-average mark of a B. But the kids with computers at home got A's, because they were able to spend extended hours working on their projects. As the years went by, these kids made great gains, as their affluence allowed them to move up to Amigas and PCs. Seeing that it was going to be a nighmare to get enough computer time for other courses, I bailed and took drama. I needed good grades to get into university, and these "rich kids" were wrecking the curve in the comp sci classes!
When I look at the kids from my inner city school and subsequent schools, it was generally the kids with computers at home who went into engineering and computer science. I don't think any of my other classmates went near the sciences.
Of course, the upper and middle-classes have more than just computers on their side. They have money for tutoring, weekend trips to science centres, parents who went to university, etc. Computers are just the start of this imbalance. If I were a school administrator, I'd put my money into making sure inner city kids have a mastery of the 3 R's as well as exposure to the arts and sciences. Computers are just a symbol, not a panacea.
I'm not assuming that the techies always vet the materials -- I am just saying that it is frequently the case. And, usually, the techie/programmer/engineer gets the byline because it lends credibility to the story. All the quotes in press releases are made up, too, but the CEO (or whoever is cited) has to sign off.
If you are dealing with marketers who don't care about accuracy, you are dealing with people who do not deserve to be called professional marketers. The marketer's role should be to help the client solve its problems by raising awareness of a solution, providing information to support that solution, and helping the client to be reassured that they made the right choice. If the marketer doesn't care about accuracy, they aren't helping that process at all -- and should be hung, drawn and quartered, then marched over the Tower Bridge!
I'm a marketing freelancer & consultant who frequently ghostwrites articles and success stories for companies. It's unlikely that the director of marketing wrote the article. More likely, a coordinator or specialist wrote it -- or they outsourced to a freelancer. So you're not even getting the goods from a senior manager.:)
In fact, even when you see an article with a byline that credits an engineer or other techie, there's a huge chance that someone in marketing wrote it. This doesn't mean that the article is garbage. It just means that they interviewed the techs and wrote it up. The tech people still have to sign off on it. When something that isn't true goes through, I find it's often because the techies weren't willing to take the time to read it through before signing off on it. Of course, I admit that sometimes the marketers go off on a Dilbert-style tangent. But that's often because no one takes the time to read their stuff before okaying it!
Still, I have to admit that Amulet took a bizarre step in crediting its marketing director. Usually, you could find *someone* in R&D to take the credit.;)
The head of a company that obtained repeated product placements actually called one such program 'a great infomercial.' Yet these programs typically lack the disclosure required of infomercials to uphold honesty and fair dealing."
When it comes to honesty, fair dealings and an end to promoting agendas, the government is certainly going to get to the bottom of it. I've going to call CNN right now to find out who puts those "growth" and "jobs" signs behind Dubya....
Anyone else ever notice that flashmob is only 3 letters off from Slashdot? Clicking harmlessly is sort of like doing the twist at Bob's Big Boy, n'est-ce pas?
I suppose the key is to commoditize knowledge without making it freely available. Knowledge poses a tremendous barrier to entry (expensive, high effort to create), but it is easy to replicate (books, music, code, etc). How do you build a competency in a knowledge area (as a nation) without opening yourself to commoditization of that knowledge (e.g. people reading your books & patents)? And how does this work if further innovation is spurred by sharing?
Slashdot Mirror
It's true. When my sister was in high school, a meat retailer asked to buy her phone number, which happened to be ***-BEEF. Because Telus (then known as BC Tel) actually owned the number, the entire stransaction had to be termed as covering her current bill, cost of setting up a new line, etc. She got $250 out of the deal. (And I always thought she should have whined a little more, to see what their second offer would be. However, she was happy to act quickly on a sure thing.)...In a strange twist of fate, my sister grew up to work for Telus...
While the Internet offers a low-cost medium for publishing propaganda, I think freedom of speech still wins out. Publishers romance reviewers in much the same way that pharmaceutical companies toy with doctors. Even the "independent" journalists (from publications that refuse to mingle with publishers) need to be loyal to their editors, advertisers or, at the very least, their perceived readership. Reviews are just as much a marketable commodity as the books themselves.
When I minored in publishing during my undergrad, the profs trotted out all sorts of publishers who admitted to wining and dining reviewers. And, in my career as a technology marketer, I've put together strategies for capturing the positive attention of software magazine writers. Lately, I have noticed my peers are starting to pitch to bloggers. Yes, even blogs and Amazon reviews are tainted by commercial interests. But at least the little guy can still publish reviews or put up a website. It's such an awful pain to tack one's protests to the door of the castle church at Wittenburg.
On the whole, Canadian taxes are starting to look more like those in the US. I looked up US and Canadian tax rates, and was surprised to see that they are not that different anymore.
Canada:
a 17-per-cent tax rate is applied to taxable income up to $35,000;
a 23-per-cent tax rate is applied to taxable income between $35,000 and $70,000; and
a 29-per-cent tax rate is applied to taxable income above $70,000.
Source.
We pay no tax on the first $8,000. (Some of these rates are being phased in by 2005.)
For the US:
Single filers
$7,001 - $28,400 15%
$28,401 - $68,800 25%
$68,801 - $143,500 28%
$143,501- $311,950 33%
$311,951 or more 35%
Source.
Canada does not set taxes according to marital status, although there are some financial breaks for married people. Analysis
The tax rate for lower-income Canadians is 15%, compared to 17% in the US. However, the first $8,000 of income is tax-free in Canada. That provides for a lower average rate.
Middle-income Canadians pay 23%, compared to 25% in the US.
Canadians earning more than $70k pay 29%, while Americans pay 28%. However, again, the first $8,000 of earnings is tax-free, so this should work out to be about the same.
I don't know if the US uses marginal or flat tax rates. In Canada, they are marginal.
Now, if you figure in public health and education, you might actually see some financial advantage to living here. There are social advantages too. But, more importantly, Canada has a balanced budget and is paying down its deficit, while the US is posting its all-time largest deficit. This may mean that we will be in a better position to maintain or lower tax rates over the next few years.
Canadian public health insurance is about C$55 ($US40) per person per month. Many employers pick up that fee, and it's subsidized for lower-income people. We don't have to pay for other costs, except medication -- which is subsidized for lower income people and also usually included in employers' extended health benefits.
I know someone is going to reply and say that my taxes are high to compensate for this. However, whenever I have run the numbers, I have found that the taxes I pay are no higher than those of Americans, if you include health benefits for a family. And our small and mid-sized business taxes are far lower than those in the US.
This is really interesting. It sounds like an Indian programmer can achieve a better quality of life than can a US programmer. Of course, perhaps it only holds for this particular profession at this point in time.
Thanks. Given the current mod level, I think there is a eunuch out there in Slashdotland.
After I quit, the company tried this with another employee. She also refused. I don't think either of us would ever intentionally disclose information that would put the company in jeapardy, but it would be legally hazardous to obligate yourself to events in the past. I mean, the other employee was completing her P.Eng, so she might have written something in her journal that violated the later NDA!
Never sign a backward-looking NDA.
- "good" schools for their children -- forcing them to buy in "good" neighbourhood
- 2000-square-foot home on 33'x100' lot on a wide street
- second car
- unsubsidized education for their children
- occasional holidays
- buy first home with 5% down
- pre-school and after-school care for children
- name-brand clothes and shoes (just something along the lines of Gap & Nike, not Armani)
- to provide for themselves in retirement
Having recently read several reviews and seen interviews for The Two-Income Trap (Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi), I am curious about how "middle-class" Indians set their expectations. While the authors of this book take the view that it's 2nd incomes that have led to a decline in American living standards, I think there are many other middle-class American expectations that have led to demands for $60k programmer salaries. I live in Canada, and we are often told of higher US salaries. (Okay, it's not like I'm making $11k!) But I've often noted that Americans must pay for HMOs, retirement, gated communities, college, etc. It would be interesting to compare American "needs" with Indian "needs".
And, since I'm sure I've exposed myself to flames, I'll just state for the record that I'm a Canadian woman in a 2-income family that recently became bought its first home. However, it's an 800-square-foot condo where we plan to raise children, and we both walk to work and stores. We have a 4-year-old Civic, but we rarely drive it.
2. Labels are not separating out their CD sales from downloads. CD sales are hurting, so the costs (and losses?) from that area are passed along to the pricing for downloads.
3. When you consider start-up costs, iPod and Napster may both start high on the cost curve. As their sales increase, the fixed costs become less important, and the total costs will start to look more like the variable costs alone.
4. Again, if even the download scenario means starting high on the cost curve, Napster and iPod may be charging too little for their download prices. Over time, as fixed costs (and past losses) become less relevant, the profit margin will increase. In the meantime, it's a tough sell to get a consumer to pay $1 for something they can get elsewhere for free.
Two years ago, I went back to school to complete an MBA. I found myself ranked at the top of the class, along with engineers, computer programmers, and scientists. Only one other person had a BA. Yet I managed to hold my own and graduate near the top of the class. I proved I could do calculus and compete with "math people".
And then I graduated. People now find it suspicious that I have an English degree and an MBA! They say, "You can't possibly be good at both financial and 'soft' business skills. Which is it?" It's amazing how people put Liberal Arts majors in boxes. I majored in Arts because I felt it was extremely important to have a well-rounded background before specializing. I do think Arts majors learn a breadth of skills and are more likely to challenge establishment thinking.
However, my husband chose to do an undergrad in Math, with a computer science minor and lots of Arts electives. He later completed an M.Math. He has a great job as a software architect, makes about 40% more than I do, and can still quote Shakespeare and Homer.
My recommendation? Do a general computer science or somewhat general engineering degree, and do a double-major/minor in Liberal Arts. Volunteer for some clubs and try to socialize with a wide variety of people. You'll still gain exposure to a broad range of ideas, but you'll have better job options.
That being said, I suppose I still earn more than the average university grad or masters grad. But my husband has a lot more jobs to choose from.
In my country, Canada, government is pouring money into education and R&D. The idea is that Canadians will create new knowledge that can be patented and licensed for profit. Right now, we have one of the best productivity rates for scientific discovery. It's hard to determine conversion to patents, though, because so many innovations are patented and commercialized in the US and UK. It makes sense to explore this route, since manufacturing will no doubt take place in countries with cheaper production costs. But how long can this work? Won't countries like India and China figure this out? Aren't their scientists and students willing to do research for less money? Couldn't foreign students study in countries like Canada, then go back home to create patents? Do patents even matter if they are infringed overseas?
Once WKRP left the airwaves, baby, you'd just have to wonder, wonder what ever became of Pettus-Brown...
Arguably, some writers would have learned to spell in school (if they were so lucky to attend). But what constituted "Standard English" would vary from town to town. Many people never travelled to other towns, so much of English spelling developed in pockets.
Until the rise of mercantilism in the 1500s and 1700s, variations in spelling and grammar were of minor importance. In time, the move from guilds to mercantalism required precision in business dealings, and the language had to be standardized. For example, English speakers dropped "they" as a singular, finding agreement in number more important than gender neutrality.
Much of "standard English" grammar is based on Latin rules of grammar. The reason we avoid splitting infinitives is that you can't split a Latin infinitive -- it's one word!
Well, that about sums up my English degree. :) I knew I'd use it again one day.
Also, Black isn't a member of the Canadian Privy Council anymore -- even though those appointments are usually for life. He wasn't actually a council member, but an advisor -- he couldn't do orders in council. He lost his PC membership when he gave up his citizenship.
Of course, Chretien was still at war with Black. The main question in Chretien vs. Black was whether the Prime Minister could advise the Queen on this matter. The Canadian Prime Minister may advise the Queen of Canada, but not the Queen of the British Empire. (A delicate matter, given both refer to Elizabeth R.) So, if Chretien was telling her what to do with Britain's affairs, he was way out of line. But he wasn't out of line in advising her about a Canadian affair, nor in telling Black that a peerage was a no-no.
At least, I think that's what happened.
Being the nerd that I am, I actually had to Google to see if anyone had done that. I ended up being pointed to an April 2000 Slashdot thread.
When I got to junior high, I found there were lots of kids with computers, instead of just a handful of kids with forward-looking parents. (The country club area fed into the junior high.) Our 8th grade computer course was all about Logo for the Commodore 64. Because I only had a Vic 20 at home, I was suddenly in the same place as all the other kids who didn't have computers. I did know programming, so I managed an above-average mark of a B. But the kids with computers at home got A's, because they were able to spend extended hours working on their projects. As the years went by, these kids made great gains, as their affluence allowed them to move up to Amigas and PCs. Seeing that it was going to be a nighmare to get enough computer time for other courses, I bailed and took drama. I needed good grades to get into university, and these "rich kids" were wrecking the curve in the comp sci classes!
When I look at the kids from my inner city school and subsequent schools, it was generally the kids with computers at home who went into engineering and computer science. I don't think any of my other classmates went near the sciences.
Of course, the upper and middle-classes have more than just computers on their side. They have money for tutoring, weekend trips to science centres, parents who went to university, etc. Computers are just the start of this imbalance. If I were a school administrator, I'd put my money into making sure inner city kids have a mastery of the 3 R's as well as exposure to the arts and sciences. Computers are just a symbol, not a panacea.
If you are dealing with marketers who don't care about accuracy, you are dealing with people who do not deserve to be called professional marketers. The marketer's role should be to help the client solve its problems by raising awareness of a solution, providing information to support that solution, and helping the client to be reassured that they made the right choice. If the marketer doesn't care about accuracy, they aren't helping that process at all -- and should be hung, drawn and quartered, then marched over the Tower Bridge!
In fact, even when you see an article with a byline that credits an engineer or other techie, there's a huge chance that someone in marketing wrote it. This doesn't mean that the article is garbage. It just means that they interviewed the techs and wrote it up. The tech people still have to sign off on it. When something that isn't true goes through, I find it's often because the techies weren't willing to take the time to read it through before signing off on it. Of course, I admit that sometimes the marketers go off on a Dilbert-style tangent. But that's often because no one takes the time to read their stuff before okaying it!
Still, I have to admit that Amulet took a bizarre step in crediting its marketing director. Usually, you could find *someone* in R&D to take the credit.
When it comes to honesty, fair dealings and an end to promoting agendas, the government is certainly going to get to the bottom of it. I've going to call CNN right now to find out who puts those "growth" and "jobs" signs behind Dubya....