I'm not running UNSTABLE, but I still have the latest linux kernel and - more or less - the most recent (or nearly so) versions of most applications and servers.
Debian is a constantly evolving beast. It changes daily. It's not some static system that only ever is what it is at each "release".
You want bleeding edge, debian - install it. Nobody is stopping you. Just don't force those of us who want a reliable, steady, proven Debian to accept an unproven level of changes just so you can say "look I have teh latestests on my servers! I ROXOR!".
So you'll be buying hardware that is managed, developed, engineered and built by outsourced labor that will run software that is managed, developed and written by outsourced labor. Probably over a website developed and maintained by outsourced labor, to save on the costs of brick and mortar stores that require regional employees at regional costs.
I meant protectionism in the sense of protecting employment for your own population - as many other nations do. As opposed to handing out H1Bs that are not necessary just to flood the market and reduce costs, trade and farm out work to countries that we are supposedly on the brink of war with and so on.
See, America imports far more than it exports. The game is different depending on weather you are the world's leading importer or exporter. We are not (or at least, shouldn't have to be if we had been more cautious) have to compete with other nations on the same level that we are, because they are competing for OUR business. We're selling out our own people to sell to our own people (who are both the employees and consumers). Corporations are now playing both sides of the table.
That's the thing I find most amusing. I'm more or less a conservative minded libertarian and I've noticed that the same people who decry redistribution of wealth through taxation are all in favor of redistribution of wealth through outsourcing.
The point is that the "great deal of money" I am paid is only a "great deal of money" in other countries where the cost of living is lower and, thus, the salaries are lower. However, unlike corporations, I can't pick and choose where I wish to apply my living expenses. I don't have the ability to pay Indian rent like my employer has the ability to pay Indian salaries and expenses. I don't have the ability to pay Chinese food costs, the way my employer can export work at Chinese costs.
Do you see the doublestandard? By your logic, someone making minimum wage is living the life of a king, becuase while they can't even afford rent in their own country, it could buy a *house* in some third world nation.
That's not anyone else's problem. Those 70% are clearly the lazy, flabby, selfish, self-entitled 70% of the population. Nobody owes them anything and they should find another line of work or reduce their expectations of living standards. Why should they expect to eat or have shelter or medicine, just because they've been faithful employees in a particular field their whole life?
Those selfish bastards should do what every other American is eventually going to have to do - work in retail for minimum wage, selling products that are made offshore by foreign labor and sold by American companies.:)
The only reason for humans in space is commercial viability. When it becomes necessary or profitable to have humans in space, corporations will see to it that we get humans into space. Until then, it's just an unnecessary venture that eats up costs. And what isn't beneficial to the corporation isn't beneficial to politicians. And until space programs become beneficial to politicians, they won't be funded or supported properly with the appropriate goals.
It was suggested that this was a winning situation for everyone. I see how this is a winning situation for the American corporation, China and India. But how is it a winning situation for _everyone_.
I'm not talking about corporations and business plans. I'm talking about individual workers. This isn't a matter of corporations in America being undercut by more competetive corporations in other nations. This is a simple issue of American corporations selling out their countrymen and going with the cheapest labor, which typically comes from the places with the cheapest cost of living.
As such, the individual worker has no control over the cost of living in his area. The individual worker also rarely has anything to do with the business plan the CEOs of his company draw up or how they compete.
So what you're saying is that the American worker's "business plan" is flawed and it isn't up to the American corporation to sustain them. So exactly how is the American worker's business plan flawed, do tell?
Um. China and India have their own governments. They don't need us solving their problems. They should look out for themselves as our own country would look out for itself.
Unfortunately, while they do look out for themselves, we don't look out for ourselves. The corporations aren't interested in protectionism or give a lick about the American work force and because the politicians are in their pockets, they couldn't care less either. So now you have these competing countries looking out for themselves. Our corporations looking out for those countries. And our politicians essentially looking out for those countries.
Whether or not they deserve their success is not relevant, though. What's relevant is that American companies and politicians are selling-out the people they're supposed to represent. Other countries would not so willingly sell out their education forces and work forces so a company could turn a quick buck with cheap labor. They may or may not deserve the success, but it comes not because American workers dropped the ball. It comes because America was looking out for number one. And number one is corporate America's bottom line - not the American citizen's bottom line.
And I'm not sure what you mean by lazy. I work 80 hour weeks and have racked up enormous quantities of vacation time as I've never taken one. Most people I know are in a similar situation. I suppose you can call that lazy, but... whatever.
See, the idea is that in a capitalist society, everyone competes against everyone else. But a capitalist society has caused prices to increase to the point where workers need a certain wage to survive and thrive in their own country. Other countries, however, not having exactly what you'd call a "capitalist society", don't have a cheaper workforce. By nature of not having a capitalist society, they are able to provide cheaper costs for the capitalists. Go figure.
Really, I don't know what people expect the American worker to do. Are we expected to just start working for 20% of our current salaries, give up our health benefits, 401ks and stock options? If so, when do we get this offer? I've seen PLENTY of people laid off from their tech jobs in favor of foreign labor and none of them were given the option of "cut your salary our lose your job".
I don't think that we can call sending every techie back to college to earn an MBA and then flooding the management and marketing fields "more efficient".
See, I'm all for competition. But it should be balanced competition. A corporation can scan the entire globe for the cheapest labor and operating costs. The guy who sells milk and real-estate doesn't have to compete with anyone outside of his competitive range, because he's not competing with dairy farmers and mortgage brokers 12,000 miles away.
What functions can not possibly be outsourced to a cheaper pool of labor? I can't think of a single one. We've even got robots performing surgery now, so in time surgeons could feasibly be outsourced. Drive through ordering already is. So is every tech job you could think of. And many middle-management jobs.
I don't see anything shifting until the quality of living rises in the rest of the world and brings down the quality of living in the more developed countries. Then it will become cheaper to outsource to us than hire from within their own countries. Of course, most of those countries are very protectionist when it comes to sending jobs overseas, so I wouldn't count on that.
Except it isn't a matter of being unable to compete.
There is nothing lacking in the skill, talent and dedication of American employees. It is simply that employees in America have to pay American prices for rent, housing, transportation, food, clothing, education and health care. Corporations have the entire planet to search for qualified and extremely cheap labor.
If American tech workers had the entire world to choose from for sourcing out their necessary purchases for living, they could live cheaper, too. If Joe Techie lives in a country where a gallon of milk is almost $4 and the average cost of a house is $200,000 - how can you expect him to survive on the wages of someone who lives in a country where that would buy five houses?!
If American tech workers can't compete at the pennies-per-hour salary range, then they deserve to lose their jobs to the superior foreign technological forces. And stop whining about "oh, but I need to buy groceries" and "I need to save up for my child's college fund and my retirement".
At least, this is what I've heard.
I, for one, welcome our new high-school management retail wage-slave jobs of the future.
I didn't really delve into the site, but it appeared to me that the huge "load" on the guy's back was part of what made the aparatus run. That is, it wasn't a pack of stuff he was hauling for a camping trip - it was part of what was necessary fuel the legs.
This still seems a long way from something seriously useful (except for very limited applications). But it's nice to see them working on it still. If only they can perfect power-hip-thrusts. Yeah, ladies...
The site I found Hammerfall and a few others on is simevil.com - they're European. You add some money to your account via a pay service (not paypal, but a different one - I tried it with no problems). Then you download the music you want. The only problem is that you have to download a P2P application and install it. Then you download the music through that. The music, however, is completely DRM free.
The speed you download at is very fast, too. And if you host files (which you can do without actually paying for them), you are credited with money each time someone downloads an album from you (which you can then use to buy more albums or just cash-out).
I know it sounds like a cheap gimmick to steal your cash, but the bands are legit, the site is decent, they have a decent selection of lesser known stuff (metal, industrial, goth, power metal, speed metal, heavy metal, death metal, punk and lots of other stuff) and the quality of the MP3s is high (192kbps, if I recall).
You can also listen to 30 seconds of every song so you can browse around and get an idea of what you want to spend your money on. It's a bit pricey, in my opinion, but this is stuff I don't think you'll find on iTunes (and again - it's DRM free, so...)
I just wish you didn't need the silly simevil P2P client to download stuff. But it's understandable.
What happens when these things go berserk and won't stop? Or they tear off your legs? And how would having stronger lower limbs help you carry heavier loads? You'd still fuck up your back, hips, spine without mechanical assistance there, too.
That being said, I have the idle money for one of these units at the mentioned price, if it is cool enough.
Show off your computer and your girlfriend (if you have one) and to check out other people's computers. And girlfriends (if they have one). And to totally geek out. It's a different experience with dozens or hundreds of other geeks instead of just you, half naked, sucking down a mountain dew in your apartment.
It's the same reason people still go to arcades sometimes. And why car geeks get together and show off their cars, check other people's cars out. Drive 'em ar ound a bit. Talk. Make contacts. Share information. Sure, they could work on their car alone at home and connect online and over the phone and read magazines. But doing it in person is a unique experience.
And if nothing else, it makes you feel better about yourself to see that there are other people in the world who smell worse, look worse, haven't showered longer and are generally more geeky and withdrawn than you are.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Who cares about releasing a distrobution?
I'm not running UNSTABLE, but I still have the latest linux kernel and - more or less - the most recent (or nearly so) versions of most applications and servers.
Debian is a constantly evolving beast. It changes daily. It's not some static system that only ever is what it is at each "release".
You want bleeding edge, debian - install it. Nobody is stopping you. Just don't force those of us who want a reliable, steady, proven Debian to accept an unproven level of changes just so you can say "look I have teh latestests on my servers! I ROXOR!".
Yeah, corporate America is all about global welfare.
Whatever.
So you'll be buying hardware that is managed, developed, engineered and built by outsourced labor that will run software that is managed, developed and written by outsourced labor. Probably over a website developed and maintained by outsourced labor, to save on the costs of brick and mortar stores that require regional employees at regional costs.
Nice.
I meant protectionism in the sense of protecting employment for your own population - as many other nations do. As opposed to handing out H1Bs that are not necessary just to flood the market and reduce costs, trade and farm out work to countries that we are supposedly on the brink of war with and so on.
See, America imports far more than it exports. The game is different depending on weather you are the world's leading importer or exporter. We are not (or at least, shouldn't have to be if we had been more cautious) have to compete with other nations on the same level that we are, because they are competing for OUR business. We're selling out our own people to sell to our own people (who are both the employees and consumers). Corporations are now playing both sides of the table.
That's the thing I find most amusing. I'm more or less a conservative minded libertarian and I've noticed that the same people who decry redistribution of wealth through taxation are all in favor of redistribution of wealth through outsourcing.
The point is that the "great deal of money" I am paid is only a "great deal of money" in other countries where the cost of living is lower and, thus, the salaries are lower. However, unlike corporations, I can't pick and choose where I wish to apply my living expenses. I don't have the ability to pay Indian rent like my employer has the ability to pay Indian salaries and expenses. I don't have the ability to pay Chinese food costs, the way my employer can export work at Chinese costs.
Do you see the doublestandard? By your logic, someone making minimum wage is living the life of a king, becuase while they can't even afford rent in their own country, it could buy a *house* in some third world nation.
That's not anyone else's problem. Those 70% are clearly the lazy, flabby, selfish, self-entitled 70% of the population. Nobody owes them anything and they should find another line of work or reduce their expectations of living standards. Why should they expect to eat or have shelter or medicine, just because they've been faithful employees in a particular field their whole life?
:)
Those selfish bastards should do what every other American is eventually going to have to do - work in retail for minimum wage, selling products that are made offshore by foreign labor and sold by American companies.
Dwindling size of the labor force?
What in the hell are you smoking?
The only reason for humans in space is commercial viability. When it becomes necessary or profitable to have humans in space, corporations will see to it that we get humans into space. Until then, it's just an unnecessary venture that eats up costs. And what isn't beneficial to the corporation isn't beneficial to politicians. And until space programs become beneficial to politicians, they won't be funded or supported properly with the appropriate goals.
It was suggested that this was a winning situation for everyone. I see how this is a winning situation for the American corporation, China and India. But how is it a winning situation for _everyone_.
I'm not talking about corporations and business plans. I'm talking about individual workers. This isn't a matter of corporations in America being undercut by more competetive corporations in other nations. This is a simple issue of American corporations selling out their countrymen and going with the cheapest labor, which typically comes from the places with the cheapest cost of living.
As such, the individual worker has no control over the cost of living in his area. The individual worker also rarely has anything to do with the business plan the CEOs of his company draw up or how they compete.
So what you're saying is that the American worker's "business plan" is flawed and it isn't up to the American corporation to sustain them. So exactly how is the American worker's business plan flawed, do tell?
Um. China and India have their own governments. They don't need us solving their problems. They should look out for themselves as our own country would look out for itself.
Unfortunately, while they do look out for themselves, we don't look out for ourselves. The corporations aren't interested in protectionism or give a lick about the American work force and because the politicians are in their pockets, they couldn't care less either. So now you have these competing countries looking out for themselves. Our corporations looking out for those countries. And our politicians essentially looking out for those countries.
Of course, not everyone is a contractor and has the ability to do that. I won't comment on the scruples.
Whether or not they deserve their success is not relevant, though. What's relevant is that American companies and politicians are selling-out the people they're supposed to represent. Other countries would not so willingly sell out their education forces and work forces so a company could turn a quick buck with cheap labor. They may or may not deserve the success, but it comes not because American workers dropped the ball. It comes because America was looking out for number one. And number one is corporate America's bottom line - not the American citizen's bottom line.
And I'm not sure what you mean by lazy. I work 80 hour weeks and have racked up enormous quantities of vacation time as I've never taken one. Most people I know are in a similar situation. I suppose you can call that lazy, but... whatever.
See, the idea is that in a capitalist society, everyone competes against everyone else. But a capitalist society has caused prices to increase to the point where workers need a certain wage to survive and thrive in their own country. Other countries, however, not having exactly what you'd call a "capitalist society", don't have a cheaper workforce. By nature of not having a capitalist society, they are able to provide cheaper costs for the capitalists. Go figure.
Really, I don't know what people expect the American worker to do. Are we expected to just start working for 20% of our current salaries, give up our health benefits, 401ks and stock options? If so, when do we get this offer? I've seen PLENTY of people laid off from their tech jobs in favor of foreign labor and none of them were given the option of "cut your salary our lose your job".
I don't think that we can call sending every techie back to college to earn an MBA and then flooding the management and marketing fields "more efficient".
See, I'm all for competition. But it should be balanced competition. A corporation can scan the entire globe for the cheapest labor and operating costs. The guy who sells milk and real-estate doesn't have to compete with anyone outside of his competitive range, because he's not competing with dairy farmers and mortgage brokers 12,000 miles away.
What functions can not possibly be outsourced to a cheaper pool of labor? I can't think of a single one. We've even got robots performing surgery now, so in time surgeons could feasibly be outsourced. Drive through ordering already is. So is every tech job you could think of. And many middle-management jobs.
I don't see anything shifting until the quality of living rises in the rest of the world and brings down the quality of living in the more developed countries. Then it will become cheaper to outsource to us than hire from within their own countries. Of course, most of those countries are very protectionist when it comes to sending jobs overseas, so I wouldn't count on that.
Except it isn't a matter of being unable to compete.
There is nothing lacking in the skill, talent and dedication of American employees. It is simply that employees in America have to pay American prices for rent, housing, transportation, food, clothing, education and health care. Corporations have the entire planet to search for qualified and extremely cheap labor.
If American tech workers had the entire world to choose from for sourcing out their necessary purchases for living, they could live cheaper, too. If Joe Techie lives in a country where a gallon of milk is almost $4 and the average cost of a house is $200,000 - how can you expect him to survive on the wages of someone who lives in a country where that would buy five houses?!
Jonathan Scwhartz, is that you?
Everybody will win from this.
Unless you are emloyed in America, making software or hardware for a living.
Please inform the masses on Slashdot how lowering the standard of living for those in say - America, Britain and elsewhere - is a winning situation.
If American tech workers can't compete at the pennies-per-hour salary range, then they deserve to lose their jobs to the superior foreign technological forces. And stop whining about "oh, but I need to buy groceries" and "I need to save up for my child's college fund and my retirement".
At least, this is what I've heard.
I, for one, welcome our new high-school management retail wage-slave jobs of the future.
Yeah, until one of those crazy little asian dance dance revolution freaks converts his control system to a DDR pad and goes nuts.
I didn't really delve into the site, but it appeared to me that the huge "load" on the guy's back was part of what made the aparatus run. That is, it wasn't a pack of stuff he was hauling for a camping trip - it was part of what was necessary fuel the legs.
This still seems a long way from something seriously useful (except for very limited applications). But it's nice to see them working on it still. If only they can perfect power-hip-thrusts. Yeah, ladies...
The site I found Hammerfall and a few others on is simevil.com - they're European. You add some money to your account via a pay service (not paypal, but a different one - I tried it with no problems). Then you download the music you want. The only problem is that you have to download a P2P application and install it. Then you download the music through that. The music, however, is completely DRM free.
The speed you download at is very fast, too. And if you host files (which you can do without actually paying for them), you are credited with money each time someone downloads an album from you (which you can then use to buy more albums or just cash-out).
I know it sounds like a cheap gimmick to steal your cash, but the bands are legit, the site is decent, they have a decent selection of lesser known stuff (metal, industrial, goth, power metal, speed metal, heavy metal, death metal, punk and lots of other stuff) and the quality of the MP3s is high (192kbps, if I recall).
You can also listen to 30 seconds of every song so you can browse around and get an idea of what you want to spend your money on. It's a bit pricey, in my opinion, but this is stuff I don't think you'll find on iTunes (and again - it's DRM free, so...)
I just wish you didn't need the silly simevil P2P client to download stuff. But it's understandable.
What happens when these things go berserk and won't stop? Or they tear off your legs? And how would having stronger lower limbs help you carry heavier loads? You'd still fuck up your back, hips, spine without mechanical assistance there, too.
That being said, I have the idle money for one of these units at the mentioned price, if it is cool enough.
I think you're a pussy. If you don't like it, don't read the thread and shut the hell up.
But that's just an opinion.
Show off your computer and your girlfriend (if you have one) and to check out other people's computers. And girlfriends (if they have one). And to totally geek out. It's a different experience with dozens or hundreds of other geeks instead of just you, half naked, sucking down a mountain dew in your apartment.
:)
It's the same reason people still go to arcades sometimes. And why car geeks get together and show off their cars, check other people's cars out. Drive 'em ar ound a bit. Talk. Make contacts. Share information. Sure, they could work on their car alone at home and connect online and over the phone and read magazines. But doing it in person is a unique experience.
And if nothing else, it makes you feel better about yourself to see that there are other people in the world who smell worse, look worse, haven't showered longer and are generally more geeky and withdrawn than you are.