A while back, there were some disputes at a place I worked and there was a group of employees who started sending crazy emails around trying to get people to join a union.
The thing is, I know the company as a whole deals pretty well with it's staff. The only benefit I could see from a union would be that if I get pay rises in future, it's because the union negotiated. I'm much happier getting pay rises because of my personal ability. I support a social security safety net but I'm damned if I want to trust a union with my career.
Kind of like imagining what it would be like if all couples in the world decided to not bother with the hassle of having kids. Sooner or later, the system itself will collapse and everyone would lose the benefit they used to get from it. Seems that unfortunately, the decent majority just have to bite the bullet and live with the fact that there will always be people who want to cheat their way through lives.
Of course, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to stop the cheats.
Any particular reason then why you think call centres have to be in the country they support? Personally, as long as the other country can do it cheaper and provide an adequate level of service, it should go overseas. There's no reason why the consumer should be subsidising jobs for the natives.
I laugh at countries where they appear to have a democracy yet there is an unnellected 'executive' body of government that can simply veto decisions made by the elected representatives. Iran being a nice example.
I'm not laughing anymore because this is what seems to be happening in Europe. The council must be castratated for the good of democracy in Europe. It's no wonder some people are reluctant to see more power go to the EU.
BTW. I know my MEP dislikes patents as much as I do;-)
In one key way I agree with you but not just regarding politicians. All people are bad to a certain degree. This is the problem with having humans running things.
Political power can be a nasty thing and we're right to be suspicious of people who want that power. I'm inclined to accept the fact that politicians and the rest of us are all prone to the same failures and motivations. Accepting this doesn't mean that we should let them get away with it.
I've had a decent experience with my MEP and I'm happy that in one area at least, we share the same views.
I agree also with statism being something that needs to be curtailed. The job of the government is to provide the laws and regulations that protect us from each other, provide a safety net for the poor, provide the laws and regulations that allow business to create wealth and of course, the defence of our nations.
Yeah, I'm heading in to off-topic territory but it annoys me when people generalise and complain. Particularly when they take a trendy and safe point of view like 'politicians are all corrupt' or 'globalisation is exploiting the third world'.
It's good to say that politicians are bad as long as you can explain why. With a sweeping generalisation, it just becomes a pointless populist arguement of the kind that belong in a murdoch newspaper.
Hell, I'd respect someone more if they can argue an unpopular point of view by providing decent reasoning more than someone who just jumps on the populist bandwagon. If someone could explain to me why Himmler was actually a good guy, I'd listen.
Possibly "Master of Transhuman" is, h(im|er)self, a politician, having judged me more harshly on less evidence.
No slur intended to Master of Transhuman but that comment reminds me of a saying. Goes something like "A thief see thieves everywhere".
In fairness to Smitty, he described a personal situation where he found politicians to actually be okay people. Sure you can't tell everything about someone by just talking to them but it's a good start.
You insulted him twice and went on to regurgitate the stereotypical generalisation that tars all politicians with the same brush. How did you determine that all politicians are corrupt then? Michael Moore books or blogs?
Online sharing of copyrighted material is a bad thing for any trying to oppose the record companies. IMHO this tells the record companies that there is a market out there for their stuff. They then go lobbying governments for stricter laws and continue to develop DRM systems.
The question is, how low will the cost have to be before the serious file sharers will buy original content? Certainly, the file sharers I know would not ever consider paying money while they can get it from free. I've a great deal more respect for file sharers like this who are honest as opposed to the ones who complain about the big corporations and high costs.
Boycotting is the only reasonable option. At least this way, you can make a point from a legally and morally attainable position.
Lobbying plays an important role in democracy. I've lobbied my MEP about issues important to me.
I see no problem with companies/organisations lobbying government as long as it's completely transparent. i.e. If Mandelson is getting a trip to New York paid for Microsoft, it needs to be declared.
I agree on what you say about the European Commission. I feel I have absolutely no connection with it, it seems to be a law unto itself. I like my MEP though, she's a very pleasant person to speak to and keeps me updated on happenings over there.
Users buy a product over-seas thinking that they are getting a bargain, then they call the company for support and are told to pay or go away
I should have said that this would probably apply to MS as well. Nope, never called Microsoft for support and hopefully will never have to.
You're probably right about the whole piracy toleration thing although, there must be a point when they simply can't accept that anymore. This heavily reduced pricing seems like a good start.
One thing they could do would be to just refuse to provide support to customers who buy 'grey-imports'.
I've seen other companies do this. Users buy a product over-seas thinking that they are getting a bargain, then they call the company for support and are told to pay or go away. It won't really affect the technies who can support themselves but it makes it difficult for people who will need some help.
Then the sysadmins will share their superior technology, bring peace to the world and explain why they made the Egyptians, Mayans and Atlanteans build spookily similar pyramids.
In the past, some ISPs had a habit of just refusing to support people who are using Macs. This was in silly cases where the user just needed to get dial-up details.
I found that they had to phone up and pretend they were using Windows just so they could get these details. Otherwise the phone monkey would hear 'Mac' and assume that they can't support it. Ah, the joys of call centres.
I wonder, could it then be similar to the situation with mobile phones. Some poorer countries seem to be skipping the whole land-line thing and just going straight for mobiles because the land-line infrastructure is piss-poor.
Taking this as face value, it would seem that these countries have a higher mobile phone adoption rate that more developed countries.
Yeah, to call it ageism is like accusing someone of discrimination when they won't let a 3 foot tall guy work as a bouncer at a night-club.
Kids can raise some interesting points but it's hard to see how someone can contribute to an adult political discussion if they simply don't have experience. That said, age of course is no guarantee of wisdom.
BTW. I clicked the link at work. I'd better explain my visiting a boy-love site to my boss before he asks.
Nope, I think you're right about the change. Not sure how much modification can be carried out though.
Yeah, I suppose this is a downside to end user licences and plenty of other contracts. If you play world of warcraft, you'll notice that you have to agree to a licence when you install it and also, every time you install an update, you agree to the sometimes updated licence.
I'm not sure what the law says about these licences being changed. I'd hope that if a company tried to alter a licence in a seriously evil way, you'd have a legal case.
I wouldn't call the iTunes DRM highly restrictive or myself naive for using it.
I can listen to my music in any any Mac application that can play QuickTime files. I can listen on my iPods. I can copy the music to up to 4 other machines. If I want a CD or a DRM free version of the song, I just burn it to CD.
The DRM does restrict the use of the files but personally, the convenience and cost makes up for this.
The only things I can't do would be to give copies to others - something that you can't do with copyrighted MP3s anyway if you're going to respect copyright.
The only downside I see is that if Apple were to go out of business or kill the music store, I would have problems authorising machines.
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I've been lucky to have decent bosses that know what I do and have the budget to reward it. I'm still waiting for the certificate though.
A while back, there were some disputes at a place I worked and there was a group of employees who started sending crazy emails around trying to get people to join a union.
The thing is, I know the company as a whole deals pretty well with it's staff. The only benefit I could see from a union would be that if I get pay rises in future, it's because the union negotiated. I'm much happier getting pay rises because of my personal ability. I support a social security safety net but I'm damned if I want to trust a union with my career.
We could try but it wouldn't be a stable strategy
Kind of like imagining what it would be like if all couples in the world decided to not bother with the hassle of having kids. Sooner or later, the system itself will collapse and everyone would lose the benefit they used to get from it. Seems that unfortunately, the decent majority just have to bite the bullet and live with the fact that there will always be people who want to cheat their way through lives.
Of course, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to stop the cheats.
Ah Hotmail account users.. In my experience, they are the number 1 senders of emails like..
...and a whole boat load of cheesy 'uplifting' stories about angels and children.
;-)
"If you don't send this email to 50 of your true friends, they will die..."
"Microsoft will donate x dollars if you forward this email..."
Damn I'm bitter
Who says that they're not being paid fairly? Are you comparing their pay to the local norm or what they would get paid for doing the job in Berlin?
Brits in Indian call centres?
Indian pay rises highest in Asia
Call centre is my dream job
Some call centres in India no doubt pay badly but then so do some call centres and many other employers in Europe/US.
Any particular reason then why you think call centres have to be in the country they support?
Who says that they're not being paid fairly based on the local economy? You're not expecting them to earn the same as someone working in Berlin?
Brits in Indian call centres?
Indian pay rises highest in Asia
Call centre is my dream job
Any particular reason then why you think call centres have to be in the country they support? Personally, as long as the other country can do it cheaper and provide an adequate level of service, it should go overseas. There's no reason why the consumer should be subsidising jobs for the natives.
I laugh at countries where they appear to have a democracy yet there is an unnellected 'executive' body of government that can simply veto decisions made by the elected representatives. Iran being a nice example.
;-)
I'm not laughing anymore because this is what seems to be happening in Europe. The council must be castratated for the good of democracy in Europe. It's no wonder some people are reluctant to see more power go to the EU.
BTW. I know my MEP dislikes patents as much as I do
In one key way I agree with you but not just regarding politicians. All people are bad to a certain degree. This is the problem with having humans running things.
Political power can be a nasty thing and we're right to be suspicious of people who want that power. I'm inclined to accept the fact that politicians and the rest of us are all prone to the same failures and motivations. Accepting this doesn't mean that we should let them get away with it.
I've had a decent experience with my MEP and I'm happy that in one area at least, we share the same views.
I agree also with statism being something that needs to be curtailed. The job of the government is to provide the laws and regulations that protect us from each other, provide a safety net for the poor, provide the laws and regulations that allow business to create wealth and of course, the defence of our nations.
It's good to say that politicians are bad as long as you can explain why. With a sweeping generalisation, it just becomes a pointless populist arguement of the kind that belong in a murdoch newspaper.
Hell, I'd respect someone more if they can argue an unpopular point of view by providing decent reasoning more than someone who just jumps on the populist bandwagon. If someone could explain to me why Himmler was actually a good guy, I'd listen.
No slur intended to Master of Transhuman but that comment reminds me of a saying. Goes something like "A thief see thieves everywhere".
In fairness to Smitty, he described a personal situation where he found politicians to actually be okay people. Sure you can't tell everything about someone by just talking to them but it's a good start.
You insulted him twice and went on to regurgitate the stereotypical generalisation that tars all politicians with the same brush. How did you determine that all politicians are corrupt then? Michael Moore books or blogs?
Online sharing of copyrighted material is a bad thing for any trying to oppose the record companies. IMHO this tells the record companies that there is a market out there for their stuff. They then go lobbying governments for stricter laws and continue to develop DRM systems.
The question is, how low will the cost have to be before the serious file sharers will buy original content? Certainly, the file sharers I know would not ever consider paying money while they can get it from free. I've a great deal more respect for file sharers like this who are honest as opposed to the ones who complain about the big corporations and high costs.
Boycotting is the only reasonable option. At least this way, you can make a point from a legally and morally attainable position.
True. I'm living overseas myself (I won't name the country), and hear similar nasty things about the native men here.
Personally I think there's a grain of truth in what they're saying but it's a pretty small grain.
Lobbying plays an important role in democracy. I've lobbied my MEP about issues important to me.
I see no problem with companies/organisations lobbying government as long as it's completely transparent. i.e. If Mandelson is getting a trip to New York paid for Microsoft, it needs to be declared.
I agree on what you say about the European Commission. I feel I have absolutely no connection with it, it seems to be a law unto itself. I like my MEP though, she's a very pleasant person to speak to and keeps me updated on happenings over there.
I should have said that this would probably apply to MS as well. Nope, never called Microsoft for support and hopefully will never have to.
You're probably right about the whole piracy toleration thing although, there must be a point when they simply can't accept that anymore. This heavily reduced pricing seems like a good start.
One thing they could do would be to just refuse to provide support to customers who buy 'grey-imports'.
I've seen other companies do this. Users buy a product over-seas thinking that they are getting a bargain, then they call the company for support and are told to pay or go away. It won't really affect the technies who can support themselves but it makes it difficult for people who will need some help.
Then the sysadmins will share their superior technology, bring peace to the world and explain why they made the Egyptians, Mayans and Atlanteans build spookily similar pyramids.
Yeah, it's sad when it comes down to having to lie just to get some cross-platform settings. I'm glad things have improved over the years.
In the past, some ISPs had a habit of just refusing to support people who are using Macs. This was in silly cases where the user just needed to get dial-up details.
I found that they had to phone up and pretend they were using Windows just so they could get these details. Otherwise the phone monkey would hear 'Mac' and assume that they can't support it. Ah, the joys of call centres.
You just don't need all those gauges, information is only useful if you can realistically process it.
Homer Simpson invented the 'everything's fine' alarm. It was a device that played an ear-piercing siren whenever everything was okay.
Wouldn't it be simpler to just have one of these installed in your car. that way, while the siren plays, you'll know that everything is fine.
Spam is as necessary and useful as me standing in your street at night with a bullhorn shouting sales pitches at the sky.
There's a big difference between advertising and unwanted solicitation.
I wonder, could it then be similar to the situation with mobile phones. Some poorer countries seem to be skipping the whole land-line thing and just going straight for mobiles because the land-line infrastructure is piss-poor.
Taking this as face value, it would seem that these countries have a higher mobile phone adoption rate that more developed countries.
Even if ARexx was invented back in 1985, it wasn't introduced until the early 90s.
If I remember correctly, ARexx was introduced in Workbench 2.
Cheers for the Smalltalk link. very interesting.
Yeah, to call it ageism is like accusing someone of discrimination when they won't let a 3 foot tall guy work as a bouncer at a night-club.
Kids can raise some interesting points but it's hard to see how someone can contribute to an adult political discussion if they simply don't have experience. That said, age of course is no guarantee of wisdom.
BTW. I clicked the link at work. I'd better explain my visiting a boy-love site to my boss before he asks.
Nope, I think you're right about the change. Not sure how much modification can be carried out though.
Yeah, I suppose this is a downside to end user licences and plenty of other contracts. If you play world of warcraft, you'll notice that you have to agree to a licence when you install it and also, every time you install an update, you agree to the sometimes updated licence.
I'm not sure what the law says about these licences being changed. I'd hope that if a company tried to alter a licence in a seriously evil way, you'd have a legal case.
I wouldn't call the iTunes DRM highly restrictive or myself naive for using it.
I can listen to my music in any any Mac application that can play QuickTime files. I can listen on my iPods. I can copy the music to up to 4 other machines. If I want a CD or a DRM free version of the song, I just burn it to CD.
The DRM does restrict the use of the files but personally, the convenience and cost makes up for this.
The only things I can't do would be to give copies to others - something that you can't do with copyrighted MP3s anyway if you're going to respect copyright.
The only downside I see is that if Apple were to go out of business or kill the music store, I would have problems authorising machines.