States can't collect tariffs, can't tax based on origin, and can't have their own foreign policies.
Nothing illegal about that.
Bullcrap.
Before you continue arguing for tossing out these constitutional clauses, because, hey, Jerry Brown is a great guy, you should consider that they could then be abused by your opponents as well. If California can have their own foreign policy, then why not Texas and Oklahoma?
The Constitution was well thought out and well written. We water it down at our peril.
Liberals are not all alike. Some are very pro-science, while others are anti-vaxx, anti-GMO, anti-cellphone-brain-cancer, anti-scientific-evidence hippies. Marin County is badly infested with the latter.
If nothing else, we'll train an AI to spot the fakes
Yes, that is exactly how it works. Train one DNN to generate fakes, and train another to detect the fakes. Set them up as adversarial networks.
The generating network, and the detecting network continue to improve as each fights to defeat the other. Eventually the generator creates an image or video so good that it passes as "real". That is a "deep fake".
who in their right mind would steal a radio transmitter equipped with GPS that can be activated remotely with "Find my iPhone", or the android equivalent, in the first place?
Raise the minimum wage higher than the cost to roll out tech, this is what you get, fewer jobs
No, not fewer jobs. Just different jobs. SF has an unemployment rate of 2.4%, which is far below the national average. Companies are struggling to find workers. Any displaced cashiers will have no problem finding alternative jobs where they are doing something that is actually productive.
Cashierless stores are being introduced first in high wage locations like SF and Seattle, but once they are debugged and working, they will be deployed everywhere.
More companies censoring makes the situation worse not better.
Nope. If Baidu dominates search (it currently does) then users have no where else to go, so Baidu has no incentive to please them, and can instead focus on doing whatever the government wants.
But with multiple search engines, there is a competitive market. If one censors more strictly, users will go to another, and the stricter censor will lose market share.
The censorship rules are somewhat ambiguous, so companies have leeway to interpret them in different ways. This puts pressure on competitors to also be more permissive.
More competitors is definitely better, and Google is doing the right thing.
This is the way most of the world does it. Spam calls are mostly an American phenomenon.
Other countries have the "one ring scam", where the caller rings once and then hangs up, hoping a foolish person will be curious and call back. But most people do NOT call back, and the call can be traced since you have to disclose your real call back number. Also, phones in some countries have a feature where the second ring is the first audible ring.
Another reform would be to restrict spoofing. You should only be allowed to spoof if you own both numbers. This is another "American problem".
A big part of the problem is dumb incompetent spammers. When I get a spam call, I press "1" to get a human, and then I say just enough to hook them into thinking I am a mark. They I ask them to wait on hold while I go get my credit card. After a few minutes, I check the line, and if they are still waiting, I give them fake CC numbers until they give up in frustration. It is especially gratifying when they start spewing profanity at me. I love that.
But here's the thing: THEY KEEP CALLING BACK. The SAME company will call back day after day with the same stupid line about the IRS, or Microsoft anti-virus warnings, or "Rachel at cardholder services". Why don't they flag people like me, and stop wasting their time? It makes no sense.
I asked a trainer on how to handle architecture and design with Agile
You just start coding. You don't do architecture or design until coding is complete, docs are written, and you have buy-in from all stakeholders.
1. Code 2. Document 3. Design
Really, what could be easier? The cool thing about Agile is if you screw up the design, it doesn't really matter, because you already have working code, and everybody is happy.
Is it too much to ask that they refrain from helping foreign governments oppress their people?
They are not "helping". If Google pulled out, the oppression would be worse.
Reality is more important that ideological virtue signaling.
In China, all search engines censor, but Google does so less than Baidu. Google does only what they are legally required to do, but Baidu goes further.
Also, Baidu's English language search engine sucks big time.
I don't care, because anything else that Google could have done would have made no difference, or would have made things worse.
Corporations are required to obey the laws of the countries in which they do business. So Google's only alternative would have been to cutback services, and leave the market to competitors that would have been even more compliant.
American corporations are not going to "fix" China, and it is silly to expect them to try. That is not their purpose, and they wouldn't make a difference even if they tried.
Every few years since the 1970s managers get some new fad that it is possible to totally predict all software development, 100% perfectly, so it fits into nice neat marketing timetables.
Can you give a few examples of these "fads", because I have never seen this.
The biggest fad today is Agile, with does the opposite. It abandons the idea of a rigid timetable, and instead uses a series of flexible "sprints", and incremental objectives.
Waterfall used rigid timetables, but it was around way before 1970, and was never a "fad".
Employers would be better if if they focused on things that DO matter. For instance, improper capitalization in social media posts, especially either all caps or all lower case, is correlated with poor employment outcomes.
This story is a RRSM (regularly recurring Slashdot meme), so lets get some facts straight. The IRS publishes a 20 point checklist to determine if someone should be an employee or contractor.
Every time this story comes up (about once a month) we get people claiming that ONE of those criteria is all that matters. This is nonsense. You need to look at all 20, and even then it isn't always clear.
There is also often an assumption that it is always "better" to be classified as an employee, and that Uber is screwing people buy not doing that. That is misleading. There are advantages and disadvantages to being either an employee or contractor.
Here is the list:
1. Profit or loss. Can the worker make a profit or suffer a loss as a result of the work, aside from the money earned from the project? (This should involve real economic risk-not just the risk of not getting paid.) 2. Investment. Does the worker have an investment in the equipment and facilities used to do the work? (The greater the investment, the more likely independent contractor status.) 3. Works for more than one firm. Does the person work for more than one company at a time? (This tends to indicate independent contractor status, but isn’t conclusive since employees can also work for more than one employer.) 4. Services offered to the general public. Does the worker offer services to the general public? 5. Instructions. Do you have the right to give the worker instructions about when, where, and how to work? (This shows control over the worker.) 6. Training. Do you train the worker to do the job in a particular way? (Independent contractors are already trained.) 7. Integration. Are the worker’s services so important to your business that they have become a necessary part of the business? (This may show that the worker is subject to your control.) 8. Services rendered personally. Must the worker provide the services personally, as opposed to delegating tasks to someone else? (This indicates that you are interested in the methods employed, and not just the results.) 9. Hiring assistants. Do you hire, supervise, and pay the worker’s assistants? (Independent contractors hire and pay their own staff.) 10. Continuing relationship. Is there an ongoing relationship between the worker and yourself? (A relationship can be considered ongoing if services are performed frequently, but irregularly.) 11. Work hours. Do you set the worker’s hours? (Independent contractors are masters of their own time.) 12. Full-time work. Must the worker spend all of his or her time on your job? (Independent contractors choose when and where they will work.) 13. Work done on premises. Must the individual work on your premises, or do you control the route or location where the work must be performed? (Answering no doesn’t by itself mean independent contractor status.) 14. Sequence. Do you have the right to determine the order in which services are performed? (This shows control over the worker) 15. Reports. Must the worker give you reports accounting for his or her actions? (This may show lack of independence) 16. Pay Schedules. Do you pay the worker by hour, week, or month? (Independent contractors are generally paid by the job or commission, although by industry practice, some are paid by the hour.) 17. Expenses. Do you pay the worker’s business or travel costs? (This tends to show control.) 18. Tools and materials. Do you provide the worker with equipment, tools, or materials? (Independent contractors generally supply the materials for the job and use their own tools and equipment.) 19. Right to fire. Can you fire the worker? (An independent contractor can’t be fired without subjecting you to the risk of breach of contract lawsuit.) 20. Worker’s right to quit. Can the worker quit at any time, without incurring liability? (An independent contractor has a legal obligation to complete the contract.)
Slashdot Mirror
Why do we measure in lines of code? Serious question.
LOC is an important metric, for quantifying both progress and complexity.
The mistake is assuming that more is better.
It has NOTHING to do with location other than the CO2 that emits from there.
This is a direct violation of the WTO membership treaty signed by the US. Tariffs can't discriminate on "process and production methods".
Nations do it ALL THE TIME.
California is not a nation.
I recently read that the biggest contributor to the growth in CO2 emissions is ... air conditioners.
Most new ACs are being installed in India and China, where most electricity comes from coal. They are cheap and terribly inefficient.
ACs could, in theory, use a third the electricity that they do, for the same cooling capacity.
A good, reliable, efficient, and inexpensive AC could do more to cut CO2 emissions than LED lights and VSDC motors combined.
That is were we should be investing more money.
Why would it be unconstitutional?
1. Import-Export Clause of The US Constitution
2. Tax and Spending Clause of the US Constitution
States can't collect tariffs, can't tax based on origin, and can't have their own foreign policies.
Nothing illegal about that.
Bullcrap.
Before you continue arguing for tossing out these constitutional clauses, because, hey, Jerry Brown is a great guy, you should consider that they could then be abused by your opponents as well. If California can have their own foreign policy, then why not Texas and Oklahoma?
The Constitution was well thought out and well written. We water it down at our peril.
Except when you're not using a phone, then it's the tower.
Nope. For ionizing radiation able to cause cancer, bananas are a bigger threat.
These liberal run towns don't care about science.
Liberals are not all alike. Some are very pro-science, while others are anti-vaxx, anti-GMO, anti-cellphone-brain-cancer, anti-scientific-evidence hippies. Marin County is badly infested with the latter.
Disclaimer: I am not a liberal.
If nothing else, we'll train an AI to spot the fakes
Yes, that is exactly how it works. Train one DNN to generate fakes, and train another to detect the fakes. Set them up as adversarial networks.
The generating network, and the detecting network continue to improve as each fights to defeat the other. Eventually the generator creates an image or video so good that it passes as "real". That is a "deep fake".
who in their right mind would steal a radio transmitter equipped with GPS that can be activated remotely with "Find my iPhone", or the android equivalent, in the first place?
Someone who knows how to operate an "off" switch.
Raise the minimum wage higher than the cost to roll out tech, this is what you get, fewer jobs
No, not fewer jobs. Just different jobs. SF has an unemployment rate of 2.4%, which is far below the national average. Companies are struggling to find workers. Any displaced cashiers will have no problem finding alternative jobs where they are doing something that is actually productive.
Cashierless stores are being introduced first in high wage locations like SF and Seattle, but once they are debugged and working, they will be deployed everywhere.
Of course that doesn't stop someone from stealing a phone and using it to gain entry.
If you steal a phone, why would you go to where the phone is identified while your face is recorded by 27 cameras?
Even thieves aren't that stupid.
140 employees to build, market, and sell a drone.
Indeed. Their problem was that they couldn't decide what business they were in. Hardware? Software? Services? They tried to "do it all".
Apple can afford to "do it all" and make both hardware and software, but Apple has 70,000 employees and $247B in the bank.
If you have 140 employees you need to focus.
More companies censoring makes the situation worse not better.
Nope. If Baidu dominates search (it currently does) then users have no where else to go, so Baidu has no incentive to please them, and can instead focus on doing whatever the government wants.
But with multiple search engines, there is a competitive market. If one censors more strictly, users will go to another, and the stricter censor will lose market share.
The censorship rules are somewhat ambiguous, so companies have leeway to interpret them in different ways. This puts pressure on competitors to also be more permissive.
More competitors is definitely better, and Google is doing the right thing.
How ?
Calling party pays.
This is the way most of the world does it. Spam calls are mostly an American phenomenon.
Other countries have the "one ring scam", where the caller rings once and then hangs up, hoping a foolish person will be curious and call back. But most people do NOT call back, and the call can be traced since you have to disclose your real call back number. Also, phones in some countries have a feature where the second ring is the first audible ring.
Another reform would be to restrict spoofing. You should only be allowed to spoof if you own both numbers. This is another "American problem".
A big part of the problem is dumb incompetent spammers. When I get a spam call, I press "1" to get a human, and then I say just enough to hook them into thinking I am a mark. They I ask them to wait on hold while I go get my credit card. After a few minutes, I check the line, and if they are still waiting, I give them fake CC numbers until they give up in frustration. It is especially gratifying when they start spewing profanity at me. I love that.
But here's the thing: THEY KEEP CALLING BACK. The SAME company will call back day after day with the same stupid line about the IRS, or Microsoft anti-virus warnings, or "Rachel at cardholder services". Why don't they flag people like me, and stop wasting their time? It makes no sense.
I asked a trainer on how to handle architecture and design with Agile
You just start coding. You don't do architecture or design until coding is complete, docs are written, and you have buy-in from all stakeholders.
1. Code
2. Document
3. Design
Really, what could be easier? The cool thing about Agile is if you screw up the design, it doesn't really matter, because you already have working code, and everybody is happy.
>one of our competitors would make the cyanide for the gas chambers if we don't
That is a stupid analogy. It is completely backwards:
More companies making cyanide would have made the situation worse.
More companies delivering search results makes the situation better.
Is it too much to ask that they refrain from helping foreign governments oppress their people?
They are not "helping". If Google pulled out, the oppression would be worse.
Reality is more important that ideological virtue signaling.
In China, all search engines censor, but Google does so less than Baidu. Google does only what they are legally required to do, but Baidu goes further.
Also, Baidu's English language search engine sucks big time.
I don't care, because anything else that Google could have done would have made no difference, or would have made things worse.
Corporations are required to obey the laws of the countries in which they do business. So Google's only alternative would have been to cutback services, and leave the market to competitors that would have been even more compliant.
American corporations are not going to "fix" China, and it is silly to expect them to try. That is not their purpose, and they wouldn't make a difference even if they tried.
The words are: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits.
This list is dated and US-centric.
"Piss" is no longer considered impolite. Even my mom says "The cat pissed on the carpet."
Australians use "cunt" as a casual gender neutral pronoun.
In Britain, tits are birds, what an American would call a chickadee.
And a Court in Great Britain said ...
A court ruling in the UK has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on whether Uber drivers are contractors or employees in Southern California.
Every few years since the 1970s managers get some new fad that it is possible to totally predict all software development, 100% perfectly, so it fits into nice neat marketing timetables.
Can you give a few examples of these "fads", because I have never seen this.
The biggest fad today is Agile, with does the opposite. It abandons the idea of a rigid timetable, and instead uses a series of flexible "sprints", and incremental objectives.
Waterfall used rigid timetables, but it was around way before 1970, and was never a "fad".
Most businesses won't employ people with a criminal record
For most jobs, a criminal record is not correlated with job performance.
Employers would be better if if they focused on things that DO matter. For instance, improper capitalization in social media posts, especially either all caps or all lower case, is correlated with poor employment outcomes.
This story is a RRSM (regularly recurring Slashdot meme), so lets get some facts straight. The IRS publishes a 20 point checklist to determine if someone should be an employee or contractor.
Every time this story comes up (about once a month) we get people claiming that ONE of those criteria is all that matters. This is nonsense. You need to look at all 20, and even then it isn't always clear.
There is also often an assumption that it is always "better" to be classified as an employee, and that Uber is screwing people buy not doing that. That is misleading. There are advantages and disadvantages to being either an employee or contractor.
Here is the list:
1. Profit or loss. Can the worker make a profit or suffer a loss as a result of the work, aside from the money
earned from the project? (This should involve real economic risk-not just the risk of not getting paid.)
2. Investment. Does the worker have an investment in the equipment and facilities used to do the work? (The
greater the investment, the more likely independent contractor status.)
3. Works for more than one firm. Does the person work for more than one company at a time? (This tends to
indicate independent contractor status, but isn’t conclusive since employees can also work for more than one
employer.)
4. Services offered to the general public. Does the worker offer services to the general public?
5. Instructions. Do you have the right to give the worker instructions about when, where, and how to work? (This
shows control over the worker.)
6. Training. Do you train the worker to do the job in a particular way? (Independent contractors are already
trained.)
7. Integration. Are the worker’s services so important to your business that they have become a necessary part of
the business? (This may show that the worker is subject to your control.)
8. Services rendered personally. Must the worker provide the services personally, as opposed to delegating tasks
to someone else? (This indicates that you are interested in the methods employed, and not just the results.)
9. Hiring assistants. Do you hire, supervise, and pay the worker’s assistants? (Independent contractors hire and
pay their own staff.)
10. Continuing relationship. Is there an ongoing relationship between the worker and yourself? (A relationship can
be considered ongoing if services are performed frequently, but irregularly.)
11. Work hours. Do you set the worker’s hours? (Independent contractors are masters of their own time.)
12. Full-time work. Must the worker spend all of his or her time on your job? (Independent contractors choose
when and where they will work.)
13. Work done on premises. Must the individual work on your premises, or do you control the route or location
where the work must be performed? (Answering no doesn’t by itself mean independent contractor status.)
14. Sequence. Do you have the right to determine the order in which services are performed? (This shows control
over the worker)
15. Reports. Must the worker give you reports accounting for his or her actions? (This may show lack of
independence)
16. Pay Schedules. Do you pay the worker by hour, week, or month? (Independent contractors are generally paid
by the job or commission, although by industry practice, some are paid by the hour.)
17. Expenses. Do you pay the worker’s business or travel costs? (This tends to show control.)
18. Tools and materials. Do you provide the worker with equipment, tools, or materials? (Independent contractors
generally supply the materials for the job and use their own tools and equipment.)
19. Right to fire. Can you fire the worker? (An independent contractor can’t be fired without subjecting you to the
risk of breach of contract lawsuit.)
20. Worker’s right to quit. Can the worker quit at any time, without incurring liability? (An independent contractor
has a legal obligation to complete the contract.)
Naturally occurring DNA sequences can't be patented.
A modified sequence can be patented, or a novel and innovative use of a natural sequence can be patented.
Basic rule of thumb: You can only patent inventions, not discoveries.
which means Tesla is overcharging (no pun intended) everyone on the hardware - and/or that it isn't priced according to scarcity.
The price of most products is only tenuously connected to the cost of production. Very few things are priced "according to scarcity".
A $300 bottle of perfume costs about 30 cents to produce ... and most of that is for the fancy bottle.
If a customer feels they are being overcharged, then they should NOT BUY IT.