You make it sound like it's black and white. It's not. Sure, but also, they are forced to export X% of their produce at a fixed price, both determined entirely by the EU. If they had a fair chance at free market economics, you'd have a point. It's no coincidence the money was mismanaged after joining the EU. The UK understand just that, and that's where Brexit originates from, although it's poorly understood by the British...
You have to keep in mind Germany's long history of wanting money from *other* countries, and I do mean WWII. The EU is no different; it's controlled by Germans, their banks are in Germany. Fair taxes my ass. They drained Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain out of money.
The EU (at least monetary union) suffers from a similar problem as the US, a large geographic region using the same currency. But when the European Parliament discussed a tax equivalent to the US tax, Germany who controls the EU and would've been the highest tax payer given such tax, refused immediately.
Meanwhile Germany is doing great while a lot of countries in Europe are struggling. But expecting anything ethical from Germany is nonsense, from WWII to the EU through the VW diesel scandal. They just love free money
And I'm not contradicting myself, I was quoting the parent on the voice precision bit. He was wrong about that aspect, so are you. That is NOT the problem with voice, Musk understands it, you two really don't seem to. I really hate to admit it when Musk knows more about machine learning than people on/.
No, the problem with voice TODAY isn't accuracy (it's already pretty damn accurate, more than humans), it's bandwidth/latency. Source: I work with machine learning for a living;-)
I'd mod you down but since I don't feel like a complete jerk today, I thought I'd take a second to ask about your mental wellness.
You just agreed that the human-to-computer is slow (voice isn't precise enough, typing is cumbersome) and therefore actually is the problem/bottleneck. So actually you agree with Musk 100%, but then a paragraph later you say you disagree. While others would ask what are you smoking, I gotta ask, wtf don't you smoke something?
Musk's idea isn't new nor his but he's completely right, there are more efficient (both bandwidth and latency, just for you) to get instructions out of humans and into a computer. Voice was one step in that evolution, no wonder it's not perfect, but we're heading there because we will need to provide more input to robots/computers.
Now, as a non-billionaire, let's say I want my robot to drill a hole in my wall or whatever. I could spend months programming it vs. I could just imagine where I want the hole and the damn thing will do it.
The fact you can't think of better tech or better uses for said tech is why Musk is loaded and you are very likely sitting in your underwear in your mom's basement.
You should read a whole lot more into the EU and the mess it's in. Hint: there's a VERY good reason for Brexit which many people, including Europeans and Brits, are entirely ignoring.
Italy does have a history of corruption, mafia, etc. as others mentioned but the economic pressure from the EU (i.e., your country is getting broke by the second) makes politicians do the only thing they can to maintain their power: steal & stash money! It's so bad that Italians (think: middle-class, have a profession, can speak English) are fucking off. Even Spain which is hella-corrupt and nothing short of an economic nightmare is highly attractive to Italian nationals.
With the economies not doing as well as originally theorized, and the Schengen agreement (free-movement) being shat all over, which does have economic implications as well, I really wonder what value the EU brings. As seen by Brexit, they make it nearly impossible to leave the damn thing (like, Scientology kinda BS, "oh, sure, you can leave, but you'd owe us a shbazillion Euros and we'll cut all trade with you..."). And the UK is not doing great economically right this second but they do have what it takes to stabilize and do much better on their own, something that cannot be said about Italy.
You are, for some reason, ignoring the part about "food" and "shelter".
I'm self-taught, dropped out of high-school, never went to college. Lately I took a couple of months off (contracting) work to brush up on new technologies, etc. Let there be no mistake: it set me back financially a lot more than $200 even though I already had a laptop. I am not from that part of the world but I assume this "heating" thing alone would cost more than $200 this time of year in Chicago.
As a side-note, wtf do we need laws and governments for if not for when people *don't* do the right things and make mistakes? Humans make mistakes. They should never be allowed to dig themselves so deep in a hole where they risk freezing to death sleeping in their cars.
As many mentioned here lately, software engineers "automate" their own work alllllllll the time. So the "boxes" that "require lots of math"? Well, I had to build something like that and I had about a dozen (awesome) open-source solutions to choose from. I'm not a math god, not even a front-end developer, and yet I got super-impressive results pretty easily.
Math is way easier to automate than creativity, and that's *exactly* what AI does. You have open-source projects like TensorFlow so you don't have to do loads of math yourself. Did you ever feel like doing all the math to create your own RNNs? No? Well, no one else did, either, and now that they don't have to, they're coming up with super impressive/creative/quick results. Only because you need to do *less* math.
So mr. PHP guy will go on to drag and drop "boxes" around, building awesome, creative, useful things. Maybe, just maybe, the simplicity of that process will allow us to create way more complex software that won't necessarily make mr. PHP guy's work less interesting, challenging, rewarding, useful or profitable.
YouTube Red isn't being offered in Argentina for the same reason many other services/things aren't being offered in Argentina. Because it's an absolutely fucked up country that's impossible to do business with/in unless you're an Iranian or Russian politician trying to make extremely dodgy secret deals or try to hire a hitman to make a politician disappear a day before he testifies.
You know how corrupt and problematic (to be gentle) your country is; don't blame it on Google. You shouldn't blame any company or person for not taking Argentina seriously.
P.S: why don't you use that energy to complain against your own government, for, say, making you ask for an approval to go on vacation and pay 20% tax if you, god forbid, want to use your money outside of Argentina?
Judging by your tech-skills, bitterness, and your other comments on this thread and others, you are a grumpy old man who's given up on this profession ages ago. Totally fine, but don't make such bold statements when your head is stuck so far up your ass to have any clue what software development in 2016 is like.
So, you would launch a Windows VM + DreamWeaver but you wouldn't learn how to use a Linux editor or maybe just run Windows to begin with? You launch a VM for every single application or task? An orgy of operating systems? 32GB of RAM just so you can get some work done? You must be kidding. And working for a corporate that made you lose any interest in your profession (no idea how even they hired you).
In 2016 we have: - Way better build systems (for your win32 ports, etc.) - Containers. You know, the stuff that's being mentioned on Slashdot all the time. - Orchestration tools for said containers (Mesos, Kubernetes, etc.) so I don't have to run everything on my own computer, anyway - Better databases than the crap you're stuck with - Etc.
So no, laptops aren't underpowered, it's that you're doing everything in your power to work in the absolute dumbest least efficient way possible, and therefore, you're the one not worth his salt. Too bad you hang around Slashdot to tell people to get off your lawn rather than, say, keep up with technology.
I'm not a cryptocurrency expert, so pardon my ignorance, but... Am I seriously expected to transfer bitcoins from some "hot" wallet to a "cold" wallet and store that in a fucking safe??? I don't have a safe. I don't want to print/tattoo/OCR a wallet. I don't trust them to exist 50 years from now.
I do want to be able to keep as many copies as possible. You know, like my bank has backups (they do, they're not going to forget anyone's debt, e-v-e-r). I want a copy on my phone, all laptops, on an RFID card, wearables, on S3 for all I care.
A digital currency where I can't keep digital copies of my wallet? A cryptocurrency that clearly didn't figure out how to properly encrypt wallets? Expecting some federal reserve to back this shit up with, e.g., gold is just a hackaround the fact that bitcoin's security model simply does NOT work.
When have you last checked? It's getting more and more popular, really. And aren't they giving away free money where you live, anyway???;-)
I go over these websites mostly out of my interest in remote jobs (seeing what companies are in the game, what kind of jobs, what do they offer, etc.). The jobs/pay seem way more legit than what you're thinking about... See for yourself, and learn how to negotiate, you're a freelancer!
The best place to find good clients is your inbox. Word-of-mouth is still the best tool. This kinda requires you to be great at what you do, impressing your clients and coworkers. You shouldn't be looking for clients, that sucks because no one's paying you for it, and it's not exactly free-time either.
If you're not amazing at what you do (say, you prefer being a great dad than the best iOS dev on the planet?), keep in mind that $potential_remote_employer is exposed to way more devs from way more places in the world. Chances are, some of them are better than you and charge less than you, simply because you live in a pretty damn expensive country. So it's not necessarily the clients being cheap or expecting you to earn less *because* it's a remote job. It's probably because they're not looking at the same market as you are (which, in your city, is t-i-n-y, and the salaries are relatively high to begin with, because they just rape people out of their money with taxes over in Holland).
The kind of client that hires iOS developers is an Apple zealot too stupid to hire remote employees and pay them well (or understand anything about software engineering for that matter). The kind of horrible freelance you are can't get normal clients. iOS developers are a dime-a-dozen so people don't get stuck w/o devs and even consider hiring remotely.
I don't know, you're stating these "facts", so so can I! Have you seen sites like WeWorkRemotely? Remotive? FULL of remote jobs at awesome companies offering really, really competitive salaries and benefits. Yes, even for iOS developers, knock yourself out. Glad to prove you wrong.
I am a freelance, work remotely, charge more than twice what you do, been doing it for 9 years or so. Not even once, not a single potential client, has asked me for a discount or expected me to earn less because I work remotely. It's usually "oh, we don't work that way", and even that's really uncommon these days.
Now, you're on slashdot so I don't expect you to understand human beings but... We don't work just for the money. And we want that money so we can use it for stuff that's not related to work. Personally, I travel all over the world all year round, and if that meant getting paid a few percents less per hour compared to being stuck in the same city and having to go to an office (read: prison with a coffee machine) and spend time in traffic or public transport, then... I really, really, really, realllllly couldn't care less.
Worst thing? Try their customer support (or worse, RMA process). Sent in my Zenbook UX31A because the keyboard had non-functioning keys (up/down/esc?). Got it 6 months later (after a ton of phone calls and email correspondences). The keyboard worked alright, but the sound card was DOA and it was missing a couple of screws. The international warranty is a hoax as well...
Either way, both of you: 1) Think you can measure people's productivity or contribution to society (what's yours? what if I think it's pointless or non-contributing whatsoever?) 2) Are focused on one thing that attributes to their health (smoking, as opposed to alcohol abuse, fast food, genetics, health, etc.) 3) Assume you have the right to decide when such "evil smokers" deserve to die because "they're wasting your tax money" ("they took our jobs!").
That sounds so American. If you're looking for something that's wasting tax money, assuming you both are American, you should start looking at your silly excuse for a government. Other than that, I don't think you have the right to tell people not to poison themselves so your tax money wouldn't be wasted, because that's pretty much bullshit anyway (esp. in the US where healthcare, Obamacare or otherwise, still is *private* -- your public tax money is wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan instead). Will you make the same statement about fat people eating McDonald's 2-3 times a day, flushing it all down with Big Gulps, doing no exercise other than squeezing their fat asses into their car-seat? Were you raped by smokers when you were kids or something?
That being said, if we're going to decide when people deserve to die according to their productivity and how much public cash they're wasting, can we pleasssssssssse start off with politicians rather than smokers (or any group of people)? Thanks.
There is no addictive compound to enhance, and introducing nicotine into cannabis sounds as probable as the Simpsons' "tomacco". Rest assured, us potheads would rather buy it illegally (we're used to it, unfortunately) than smoking legal nicotine-weed:-) At any rate, instead of debating your hypothetical addictive-weed-of-the-future, can we bring the spotlight back to actual present-day addictive substances such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, heroin, meth, etc.? Some of which you probably have absolutely no problem consuming yourself, I believe?
No, it's 69. Why don't we ban fast/junk food while we're at it, since clearly the life expectancy of the "average" (fat, stupid) American is way lower than of a Japanese. In other words, what's your point?
What "addictive elements" does pot have? I hope you at least enjoyed taking that dump on science's head.
Others have commented on why the "all-natural" weed is as unappealing to a pothead as smoking tea leaves. What this means is, we've had people genetically crossing cannabis for decades, and doing a pretty damn good job at it, too. No, not "farmers", but scientists. I doubt farmers had anything to do with the pot we know and love today. Take prof. Raphael Mechoulam to begin with, and then, some of my best friends own or work for seed companies (in Amsterdam). They are geneticists, botanists, and so forth and they take things so seriously, any nerd would be impressed walking around their huge labs.
Of course, with medicinal weed being more widely accepted, no thanks to pseudo-scientists such as yourself, we have more of what you'd categorize as "real scientists" working on that as well. What I'm trying to say is... We already have pretty much the strongest weed possible, or we're pretty damn close otherwise. Cannabinoids = fat-soluble trichromes secreted by the plant to protect itself from bugs/UVA/UVB. Considering that you have to account for "plant material", you're not going to reach a strain with, say, "80% CBD".
All that is pointless. Because we already have ridiculously strong *concentrates*. About 70~90% cannabinoids, usually on the higher end of that range. It doesn't make it more addictive; in fact, you can't really smoke too much of it, and building up tolerance to these levels is nearly impossible. Living in Amsterdam, I know quite a few people who smoke nothing but that, every single day. Every now and then, they don't have the luxury to smoke that or any pot at all (when they fly abroad, for instance), and they don't seem to have a nervous breakdown or whatnot when that happens.
You're confusing pot with physical addiction such as nicotine, cocaine, heroin, alcohol -- the kind of crap which should worry us as a society slightly more than a bunch of stoners smoking insanely-potent pot...
"Booth reviews" are actually being conducted in the NFL's HQ in New York starting this season...
Since all scoring-drives are being reviewed, and the whole "booth review" method didn't scale so well across 16 games a week, the NFL figured out it's easier to lock a few football nerds in the same room with some fancy video equipment and have them review all the plays (i.e., scoring drives & coach challenges) across all the games.
So the NFL's solution to this problem is great, but it makes Microsoft's deal a whole lot less appealing.
Some of the worst and most unproductive/abusive/unreliable 'programmers' I've worked with use illegal drugs. "Some of the worst and most unproductive/abusive/unreliable 'programmers' I've worked with went to the university." (hey, I'm actually serious!)
Well, it only shows that drugs are a bad indicator for programming skills/etc.
I was serious about the amazingly skilled programmers who do drugs, btw...
It depends on the person. Some are good, some are bad. But illegal drug use is/can be an indicator. 'What other laws and company rules will you casually break?' Especially important in the financial field. Someone else already used that -- and as I said, DUI/shoplifiting/whatever is even worse than drugs.
And as I also wrote, you don't necessarily get caught by the police when DUI.
So why don't you ask you if you've ever driven under the influence?
I would love to see studies that show people who use drugs (esp. cannabis) are more prone to commit a crime than people who did other stupid things, like driving under the influence.
Because some of them don't act like adults. No offense, but that's a silly thing to say.
You can't say they don't act like adults because they use drugs.
I tend to think that people who drink shitloads of alcohol don't act like adults, and they don't get screened for any job.
I don't want to talk about cocaine/meth again *but* I think a person who prefers marijuana over alcohol just likes to keep things under control.
Judging from the replies I see here, a lot of slashdotters actually believe that cannabis is a harsher drug than alcohol; but having tried a lot of both (I no longer drink alcohol, though:)), I can say for sure that even the strongest strains of cannabis won't make you act like an idiot or get you out of control, like alcohol does.
Just one last thing: did you hear about programmers who smoke cannabis in the Netherlands (.nl programmers love weed, really:)), worked in a bank, and committed a crime?
They don't screen for cannabis there, as it is perfectly legal...
(Oh, and since it's legal,.nl is the European country with the lowest percentage of "hard" drug use)...
I guess the logic goes that if someone is willing to violate the law for personal gratification, what else would they be willing to do? Perhaps for greater reward? That may be a tough sell for something seemingly innocuous like pot, but if you screen for cocaine or meth or whatever you can't just ignore a positive for marijuana.
In that case, you can't "ignore a positive" for that person shoplifting in the "last 10 years" (like someone mentioned).
Or illegally parking. Or DUI. Or whatever.
Obviously, people who smoke will also argue why smoking marijuana is a crime and, e.g., drinking alcohol isn't.
So, really, why would you hire someone who did something really dumb like DUI (really dangerous for that person and others, very illegal, and again, really really dumb)?
Of course, someone who drove under the influence doesn't have to get caught and thus having a criminal record; much like people who smoke weed.
Or maybe I'm the only one thinking (oops: knowing:)) that smoking weed is really not a big issue?
As for cocaine: I don't know.
I'm seriously against cocaine and meth, but if a guy did coke 5 years ago at a party, wtf should I care?
Cocaine is too easy to get these days; parties, pubs, friends, people from work (sorry, that's the truth)...
Also, it's not crackheads we're talking about, it's people who work hard and fscking want to relax after work:)
So unless I see studies showing that people who smoke weed (or even do meth) tend to publish your source code/steal from you/whatever, I still think testing programmers for drugs is irrelevant and hypocritical.
Coming to think about it, I'm a living proof that you can smoke all you want and still write good code, help guys with technical problems, finish projects on time, and most importantly, I have never even thought about stealing a damn thing from any of my employers (or sell their source code, etc.).
Slashdot Mirror
You make it sound like it's black and white.
It's not.
Sure, but also, they are forced to export X% of their produce at a fixed price, both determined entirely by the EU.
If they had a fair chance at free market economics, you'd have a point.
It's no coincidence the money was mismanaged after joining the EU.
The UK understand just that, and that's where Brexit originates from, although it's poorly understood by the British...
They refused loans to Greece and Portugal, and either way, lending some percentage of the money you stole is misdirection, at best.
I mean US state tax, oops!
You have to keep in mind Germany's long history of wanting money from *other* countries, and I do mean WWII.
The EU is no different; it's controlled by Germans, their banks are in Germany.
Fair taxes my ass.
They drained Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain out of money.
The EU (at least monetary union) suffers from a similar problem as the US, a large geographic region using the same currency.
But when the European Parliament discussed a tax equivalent to the US tax, Germany who controls the EU and would've been the highest tax payer given such tax, refused immediately.
Meanwhile Germany is doing great while a lot of countries in Europe are struggling.
But expecting anything ethical from Germany is nonsense, from WWII to the EU through the VW diesel scandal.
They just love free money
And I'm not contradicting myself, I was quoting the parent on the voice precision bit. /.
He was wrong about that aspect, so are you.
That is NOT the problem with voice, Musk understands it, you two really don't seem to.
I really hate to admit it when Musk knows more about machine learning than people on
No, the problem with voice TODAY isn't accuracy (it's already pretty damn accurate, more than humans), it's bandwidth/latency. ;-)
Source: I work with machine learning for a living
You're thinking soundwaves while Musk is thinking brainwaves...
I'd mod you down but since I don't feel like a complete jerk today, I thought I'd take a second to ask about your mental wellness.
You just agreed that the human-to-computer is slow (voice isn't precise enough, typing is cumbersome) and therefore actually is the problem/bottleneck.
So actually you agree with Musk 100%, but then a paragraph later you say you disagree.
While others would ask what are you smoking, I gotta ask, wtf don't you smoke something?
Musk's idea isn't new nor his but he's completely right, there are more efficient (both bandwidth and latency, just for you) to get instructions out of humans and into a computer.
Voice was one step in that evolution, no wonder it's not perfect, but we're heading there because we will need to provide more input to robots/computers.
Now, as a non-billionaire, let's say I want my robot to drill a hole in my wall or whatever.
I could spend months programming it vs. I could just imagine where I want the hole and the damn thing will do it.
The fact you can't think of better tech or better uses for said tech is why Musk is loaded and you are very likely sitting in your underwear in your mom's basement.
You should read a whole lot more into the EU and the mess it's in.
Hint: there's a VERY good reason for Brexit which many people, including Europeans and Brits, are entirely ignoring.
Italy does have a history of corruption, mafia, etc. as others mentioned but the economic pressure from the EU (i.e., your country is getting broke by the second) makes politicians do the only thing they can to maintain their power: steal & stash money!
It's so bad that Italians (think: middle-class, have a profession, can speak English) are fucking off.
Even Spain which is hella-corrupt and nothing short of an economic nightmare is highly attractive to Italian nationals.
With the economies not doing as well as originally theorized, and the Schengen agreement (free-movement) being shat all over, which does have economic implications as well, I really wonder what value the EU brings.
As seen by Brexit, they make it nearly impossible to leave the damn thing (like, Scientology kinda BS, "oh, sure, you can leave, but you'd owe us a shbazillion Euros and we'll cut all trade with you...").
And the UK is not doing great economically right this second but they do have what it takes to stabilize and do much better on their own, something that cannot be said about Italy.
You are, for some reason, ignoring the part about "food" and "shelter".
I'm self-taught, dropped out of high-school, never went to college.
Lately I took a couple of months off (contracting) work to brush up on new technologies, etc.
Let there be no mistake: it set me back financially a lot more than $200 even though I already had a laptop.
I am not from that part of the world but I assume this "heating" thing alone would cost more than $200 this time of year in Chicago.
As a side-note, wtf do we need laws and governments for if not for when people *don't* do the right things and make mistakes?
Humans make mistakes. They should never be allowed to dig themselves so deep in a hole where they risk freezing to death sleeping in their cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
This guy isn't a math guru. And that demo only took him one day to build.
As many mentioned here lately, software engineers "automate" their own work alllllllll the time.
So the "boxes" that "require lots of math"?
Well, I had to build something like that and I had about a dozen (awesome) open-source solutions to choose from.
I'm not a math god, not even a front-end developer, and yet I got super-impressive results pretty easily.
Math is way easier to automate than creativity, and that's *exactly* what AI does.
You have open-source projects like TensorFlow so you don't have to do loads of math yourself.
Did you ever feel like doing all the math to create your own RNNs?
No? Well, no one else did, either, and now that they don't have to, they're coming up with super impressive/creative/quick results.
Only because you need to do *less* math.
So mr. PHP guy will go on to drag and drop "boxes" around, building awesome, creative, useful things.
Maybe, just maybe, the simplicity of that process will allow us to create way more complex software that won't necessarily make mr. PHP guy's work less interesting, challenging, rewarding, useful or profitable.
OverlordQ ( #264228 ) already pointed out the error in the linked post:
It belonged to Spacecom and since it exploded before launch isn't covered by insurance, so they're out $200 million.
I thought the editors deserved a little slack but...
This is turning into a news site with little to no facts.
Seriously, can we guys team up and build AI to replace Slashdot editors?
YouTube Red isn't being offered in Argentina for the same reason many other services/things aren't being offered in Argentina.
Because it's an absolutely fucked up country that's impossible to do business with/in unless you're an Iranian or Russian politician trying to make extremely dodgy secret deals or try to hire a hitman to make a politician disappear a day before he testifies.
You know how corrupt and problematic (to be gentle) your country is; don't blame it on Google.
You shouldn't blame any company or person for not taking Argentina seriously.
P.S: why don't you use that energy to complain against your own government, for, say, making you ask for an approval to go on vacation and pay 20% tax if you, god forbid, want to use your money outside of Argentina?
Judging by your tech-skills, bitterness, and your other comments on this thread and others, you are a grumpy old man who's given up on this profession ages ago.
Totally fine, but don't make such bold statements when your head is stuck so far up your ass to have any clue what software development in 2016 is like.
So, you would launch a Windows VM + DreamWeaver but you wouldn't learn how to use a Linux editor or maybe just run Windows to begin with?
You launch a VM for every single application or task?
An orgy of operating systems? 32GB of RAM just so you can get some work done?
You must be kidding. And working for a corporate that made you lose any interest in your profession (no idea how even they hired you).
In 2016 we have:
- Way better build systems (for your win32 ports, etc.)
- Containers. You know, the stuff that's being mentioned on Slashdot all the time.
- Orchestration tools for said containers (Mesos, Kubernetes, etc.) so I don't have to run everything on my own computer, anyway
- Better databases than the crap you're stuck with
- Etc.
So no, laptops aren't underpowered, it's that you're doing everything in your power to work in the absolute dumbest least efficient way possible, and therefore, you're the one not worth his salt.
Too bad you hang around Slashdot to tell people to get off your lawn rather than, say, keep up with technology.
I'm not a cryptocurrency expert, so pardon my ignorance, but...
Am I seriously expected to transfer bitcoins from some "hot" wallet to a "cold" wallet and store that in a fucking safe???
I don't have a safe. I don't want to print/tattoo/OCR a wallet. I don't trust them to exist 50 years from now.
I do want to be able to keep as many copies as possible.
You know, like my bank has backups (they do, they're not going to forget anyone's debt, e-v-e-r).
I want a copy on my phone, all laptops, on an RFID card, wearables, on S3 for all I care.
A digital currency where I can't keep digital copies of my wallet?
A cryptocurrency that clearly didn't figure out how to properly encrypt wallets?
Expecting some federal reserve to back this shit up with, e.g., gold is just a hackaround the fact that bitcoin's security model simply does NOT work.
When have you last checked? It's getting more and more popular, really. ;-)
And aren't they giving away free money where you live, anyway???
I go over these websites mostly out of my interest in remote jobs (seeing what companies are in the game, what kind of jobs, what do they offer, etc.).
The jobs/pay seem way more legit than what you're thinking about...
See for yourself, and learn how to negotiate, you're a freelancer!
The best place to find good clients is your inbox. Word-of-mouth is still the best tool.
This kinda requires you to be great at what you do, impressing your clients and coworkers.
You shouldn't be looking for clients, that sucks because no one's paying you for it, and it's not exactly free-time either.
If you're not amazing at what you do (say, you prefer being a great dad than the best iOS dev on the planet?), keep in mind that $potential_remote_employer is exposed to way more devs from way more places in the world.
Chances are, some of them are better than you and charge less than you, simply because you live in a pretty damn expensive country.
So it's not necessarily the clients being cheap or expecting you to earn less *because* it's a remote job.
It's probably because they're not looking at the same market as you are (which, in your city, is t-i-n-y, and the salaries are relatively high to begin with, because they just rape people out of their money with taxes over in Holland).
The kind of client that hires iOS developers is an Apple zealot too stupid to hire remote employees and pay them well (or understand anything about software engineering for that matter).
The kind of horrible freelance you are can't get normal clients.
iOS developers are a dime-a-dozen so people don't get stuck w/o devs and even consider hiring remotely.
I don't know, you're stating these "facts", so so can I!
Have you seen sites like WeWorkRemotely? Remotive?
FULL of remote jobs at awesome companies offering really, really competitive salaries and benefits.
Yes, even for iOS developers, knock yourself out. Glad to prove you wrong.
I am a freelance, work remotely, charge more than twice what you do, been doing it for 9 years or so.
Not even once, not a single potential client, has asked me for a discount or expected me to earn less because I work remotely.
It's usually "oh, we don't work that way", and even that's really uncommon these days.
Now, you're on slashdot so I don't expect you to understand human beings but...
We don't work just for the money. And we want that money so we can use it for stuff that's not related to work.
Personally, I travel all over the world all year round, and if that meant getting paid a few percents less per hour compared to being stuck in the same city and having to go to an office (read: prison with a coffee machine) and spend time in traffic or public transport, then...
I really, really, really, realllllly couldn't care less.
Worst thing? Try their customer support (or worse, RMA process).
Sent in my Zenbook UX31A because the keyboard had non-functioning keys (up/down/esc?).
Got it 6 months later (after a ton of phone calls and email correspondences).
The keyboard worked alright, but the sound card was DOA and it was missing a couple of screws.
The international warranty is a hoax as well...
Either way, both of you:
1) Think you can measure people's productivity or contribution to society (what's yours? what if I think it's pointless or non-contributing whatsoever?)
2) Are focused on one thing that attributes to their health (smoking, as opposed to alcohol abuse, fast food, genetics, health, etc.)
3) Assume you have the right to decide when such "evil smokers" deserve to die because "they're wasting your tax money" ("they took our jobs!").
That sounds so American.
If you're looking for something that's wasting tax money, assuming you both are American, you should start looking at your silly excuse for a government.
Other than that, I don't think you have the right to tell people not to poison themselves so your tax money wouldn't be wasted, because that's pretty much bullshit anyway (esp. in the US where healthcare, Obamacare or otherwise, still is *private* -- your public tax money is wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan instead).
Will you make the same statement about fat people eating McDonald's 2-3 times a day, flushing it all down with Big Gulps, doing no exercise other than squeezing their fat asses into their car-seat?
Were you raped by smokers when you were kids or something?
That being said, if we're going to decide when people deserve to die according to their productivity and how much public cash they're wasting, can we pleasssssssssse start off with politicians rather than smokers (or any group of people)?
Thanks.
There is no addictive compound to enhance, and introducing nicotine into cannabis sounds as probable as the Simpsons' "tomacco". :-)
Rest assured, us potheads would rather buy it illegally (we're used to it, unfortunately) than smoking legal nicotine-weed
At any rate, instead of debating your hypothetical addictive-weed-of-the-future, can we bring the spotlight back to actual present-day addictive substances such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, heroin, meth, etc.?
Some of which you probably have absolutely no problem consuming yourself, I believe?
No, it's 69.
Why don't we ban fast/junk food while we're at it, since clearly the life expectancy of the "average" (fat, stupid) American is way lower than of a Japanese.
In other words, what's your point?
What "addictive elements" does pot have? I hope you at least enjoyed taking that dump on science's head.
Others have commented on why the "all-natural" weed is as unappealing to a pothead as smoking tea leaves.
What this means is, we've had people genetically crossing cannabis for decades, and doing a pretty damn good job at it, too.
No, not "farmers", but scientists. I doubt farmers had anything to do with the pot we know and love today.
Take prof. Raphael Mechoulam to begin with, and then, some of my best friends own or work for seed companies (in Amsterdam).
They are geneticists, botanists, and so forth and they take things so seriously, any nerd would be impressed walking around their huge labs.
Of course, with medicinal weed being more widely accepted, no thanks to pseudo-scientists such as yourself, we have more of what you'd categorize as "real scientists" working on that as well.
What I'm trying to say is... We already have pretty much the strongest weed possible, or we're pretty damn close otherwise.
Cannabinoids = fat-soluble trichromes secreted by the plant to protect itself from bugs/UVA/UVB. Considering that you have to account for "plant material", you're not going to reach a strain with, say, "80% CBD".
All that is pointless. Because we already have ridiculously strong *concentrates*.
About 70~90% cannabinoids, usually on the higher end of that range.
It doesn't make it more addictive; in fact, you can't really smoke too much of it, and building up tolerance to these levels is nearly impossible.
Living in Amsterdam, I know quite a few people who smoke nothing but that, every single day.
Every now and then, they don't have the luxury to smoke that or any pot at all (when they fly abroad, for instance), and they don't seem to have a nervous breakdown or whatnot when that happens.
You're confusing pot with physical addiction such as nicotine, cocaine, heroin, alcohol -- the kind of crap which should worry us as a society slightly more than a bunch of stoners smoking insanely-potent pot...
"Booth reviews" are actually being conducted in the NFL's HQ in New York starting this season...
Since all scoring-drives are being reviewed, and the whole "booth review" method didn't scale so well across 16 games a week, the NFL figured out it's easier to lock a few football nerds in the same room with some fancy video equipment and have them review all the plays (i.e., scoring drives & coach challenges) across all the games.
So the NFL's solution to this problem is great, but it makes Microsoft's deal a whole lot less appealing.
Well, it only shows that drugs are a bad indicator for programming skills/etc.
I was serious about the amazingly skilled programmers who do drugs, btw...
It depends on the person. Some are good, some are bad. But illegal drug use is/can be an indicator. 'What other laws and company rules will you casually break?' Especially important in the financial field. Someone else already used that -- and as I said, DUI/shoplifiting/whatever is even worse than drugs.
And as I also wrote, you don't necessarily get caught by the police when DUI.
So why don't you ask you if you've ever driven under the influence?
I would love to see studies that show people who use drugs (esp. cannabis) are more prone to commit a crime than people who did other stupid things, like driving under the influence.
Because some of them don't act like adults. No offense, but that's a silly thing to say.
You can't say they don't act like adults because they use drugs.
I tend to think that people who drink shitloads of alcohol don't act like adults, and they don't get screened for any job.
I don't want to talk about cocaine/meth again *but* I think a person who prefers marijuana over alcohol just likes to keep things under control.
Judging from the replies I see here, a lot of slashdotters actually believe that cannabis is a harsher drug than alcohol; but having tried a lot of both (I no longer drink alcohol, though
Just one last thing: did you hear about programmers who smoke cannabis in the Netherlands (.nl programmers love weed, really
They don't screen for cannabis there, as it is perfectly legal...
(Oh, and since it's legal,
In that case, you can't "ignore a positive" for that person shoplifting in the "last 10 years" (like someone mentioned).
Or illegally parking. Or DUI. Or whatever.
Obviously, people who smoke will also argue why smoking marijuana is a crime and, e.g., drinking alcohol isn't.
So, really, why would you hire someone who did something really dumb like DUI (really dangerous for that person and others, very illegal, and again, really really dumb)?
Of course, someone who drove under the influence doesn't have to get caught and thus having a criminal record; much like people who smoke weed.
Or maybe I'm the only one thinking (oops: knowing
As for cocaine: I don't know.
I'm seriously against cocaine and meth, but if a guy did coke 5 years ago at a party, wtf should I care?
Cocaine is too easy to get these days; parties, pubs, friends, people from work (sorry, that's the truth)...
Also, it's not crackheads we're talking about, it's people who work hard and fscking want to relax after work
So unless I see studies showing that people who smoke weed (or even do meth) tend to publish your source code/steal from you/whatever, I still think testing programmers for drugs is irrelevant and hypocritical.
Coming to think about it, I'm a living proof that you can smoke all you want and still write good code, help guys with technical problems, finish projects on time, and most importantly, I have never even thought about stealing a damn thing from any of my employers (or sell their source code, etc.).