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User: sydbarrett74

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  1. IT pros absolutely *should* get overtime pay on Should IT Professionals Be Exempt From Overtime Regulations? · · Score: 1

    In fact, only people at the very top of the income distribution should be exempt from overtime pay -- think A-list actors and professional athletes. The vast majority of workers should be paid overtime. *cue bullshit libertarian arguments about how this abrogates free-market capitalism*

  2. End rush hour! on In a Self-Driving Future, We May Not Even Want To Own Cars · · Score: 1

    Hopefully the phase-in of autonomous vehicles will bring about an end to rush-hour. It's a ridiculous misallocation of resources to have major arteries clogged maybe four hours of the day and underutilised the remaining 20. And all because most businesses cling tenaciously to anachronistic 8a-5p 'business hours' in many parts of the Western world. Flextime and telecommuting should be the rule. The whole convention of set business hours is about nothing more than the PTB controlling the lives of the unwashed masses.

  3. Re:So in other words . . . on Microsoft's JavaScript Engine Gets Two-Tiered Compilation · · Score: 1

    Agreed. And the fact that IE12 will have a new extension engine finally puts it at feature parity with Chrome and Firefox. Microsoft is getting back in the game, and Apple seems to be coming out with ho-hum, me-too tweaks of existing products rather than anything truly new. Stuff happens in cycles. That's what keeps things exciting.

  4. Re:SSE2 and NX on New HP Laptop Would Mean Windows at Chromebook Prices · · Score: 1

    Who on earth would be trying to run a modern release of Windows on pre-2003 hardware, anyway? Stuff of that vintage is only useful for historical curiosity, or at best running a stripped-down Linux distro. Given that CPU's that old had a horrible power/performance ratio, it would be cheaper in the long-run to spend the couple hundred bucks on newer equipment.

  5. Answer: lemon laws on Study: Firmware Plagued By Poor Encryption and Backdoors · · Score: 1

    Until lemon laws for computer-related products become pervasive, this shit will continue. Manufacturers are able to skirt liability and hide behind nebulous EULA's.

  6. Hierarchy as correlated to division of labour on The Benefits of Inequality · · Score: 1

    Hierarchy goes hand-in-hand with specialisation of roles in a society. Even in a hunter-gatherer society, the more physically endowed were hunters whilst the frailer members of the band gathered or engaged in child-care; even in pre-agricultural times, larger groups certainly had various factions even if they viewed other factions as peers. As agriculture took hold and a warrior caste developed, the more physically-armed members of society (or those were were under the protection of such) could keep the rabble down via the threat of violence.

  7. Re:Nobody kills Java on Oracle Hasn't Killed Java -- But There's Still Time · · Score: 1

    Sounds like your ideas on development are just as atavistic and misguided as the ones you have regarding economics. I see a trend here.

  8. First have user close windows w/ sensitive content on Ask Slashdot: IT Personnel As Ostriches? · · Score: 1

    Before I work on someone's machine, I ask that person to close all windows that may have sensitive content s/he may not want me to see. This policy establishes a certain amount of trust with the user. Put the onus on the user to determine what s/he considers private and sensitive. Easy-peasy, and it only takes 30 seconds.

  9. Re:Boy, do I hear you! on 'Just Let Me Code!' · · Score: 1

    Don't worry, there are some of us for whom your irony didn't escape us. :)

  10. '...no substantial benefit.' on World Health Organization Calls For Decriminalization of Drug Use · · Score: 1

    The War on Drugs does provide a substantial benefit -- for the police forces who can buy shiny new toys by auctioning off stuff seized via asset forfeiture; the owners of private prisons; drug kingpins who earn their filthy lucre from peddling illicit wares; the members of public-sector prison-guard unions; and the laboratories who get to charge outrageous amounts of money to administer and process drug tests.

    The general public, of course, does not share in this bounty and furthermore suffers from higher rates of violent crime spawned by prohibition.

  11. Re:Considering Bush did this... on After NSA Spying Flap, Germany Asks CIA Station Chief to Depart · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As to why the 'cheap shot', it's because Obama has been expanding upon many of Bush's most-hated policies. In his campaign speeches, he promised to scale back the War on Terror, close Gitmo and rein in the surveillance apparatus. He has done none of these things, and has indeed intensified those efforts.

  12. Re:Jiji press? on Percentage of Elderly In Japan Continues to Grow as Number of Children Drops · · Score: 2

    Technology only goes so far. There are certain limits imposed by the laws of physics (e.g., thermodynamics) that are unyielding.

  13. I like Amory Lovins' twist: 'Global Weirding'.

  14. Re:I have your conversion right here... on Microsoft's Attempt To Convert Users From Windows XP Backfires · · Score: 1

    Have her run ReactOS in a virtual machine and she can run her favourite piece of software under *that*. She can run everything thing else (including a browser) under Windows 7 or 8.x.

  15. Re:Which is why on How Ireland Got Apple's $9 Billion Australian Profit · · Score: 1

    It throws the burden of taxation more on the wealthy, because they buy more things, and they be the least harmed, because they are wealthy.

    Erm, no . If Bill Gates is a million times wealthier than me, do you think he buys a million times more automobiles? He does consume more than I do, but nowhere near in proportion to his greater overall wealth. You're committing a fallacy of composition. The wealthy may consume 10 or 100 times more, but the bulk of the difference in income and wealth are locked up in bonds and offshore accounts. This stuff gets passed onto their progeny, creating a de facto dynastic ruling class.

  16. Follow the money on TSA: Confiscating Aluminum Foil and Watching Out For Solar Powered Bombs · · Score: 1

    The people who profit from making all these inane rules are ultimately the manufacturers of the screening equipment, the people training security staff, et cetera. In other words, the military-industrial-security complex. It is with them (and the politicians who sell us out to them) that we must start redressing our grievances. We must also stop sensationalising every one-in-a-million occurrence (terrorism, being struck twice by lightning) and start mitigating the effects of problems that will likely impact us all (e.g., climate change).

  17. Criminal charges for management on Target's Internal Security Team Warned Management · · Score: 1

    The management who 'brushed off' the security staff should be held criminally liable. This goes beyond mere negligence.

  18. Re:Fuck Android on Wozniak To Apple: Consider Building an Android Phone · · Score: 1

    I also observe Google progressively closing off more and more of Android's API's, making iOS comparatively less of a walled garden over time. In that respect, Android's comparative advantage is decreasing steadily.

  19. Re:Yep, that makes sense on How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Stack-Ranking Performance Reviews · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That self-assessment stuff is mostly wankery. I want my boss to be candid about what I'm doing right, and what I'm doing wrong. And tell me then and there, not six months later.

  20. Just like saving a file... on How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Stack-Ranking Performance Reviews · · Score: 1

    Feedback from our bosses should be like saving a file: early and often. I can't tell you how many times I've heard of a manager showing his/her dissatisfaction too late: during 'the talk' about the direct report being let go.

  21. Re:It's Like The Last Piece Of Technology That Wor on FCC Wants To Trial Shift From Analog Phone Networks To Digital · · Score: 1

    Your telephone line is a private circuit. Chances are, if someone's phone line got a short circuit -- the other circuits are intact -- it's not everybody elses.

    That may be true if you're a rural customer and/or have DSL. However, if you live in a (sub)urban location and don't have DSL, chance are you're provisioned from a SLC-96. If so, your line is only private between your residence and the SLC-96 cabinet. From that point on to the central office, you're sharing a circuit with 23 other customers (a SLC-96 cabinet has 4 active DS1 circuits, with 1 spare; 4 x 24 = 96, hence the name).

  22. Newsflash: nobody likes his/her power taken away on FISA Judges Oppose Intelligence Reform Proposals Aimed At Court · · Score: 1

    Film at 11.

  23. Infinite delay on U.S. Waived Laws To Keep F-35 On Track With China-made Parts · · Score: 1

    The federal government needs to impose an 'infinite delay' on the F-35 -- i.e., scrap the fucking thing. Even most quarters within the Pentagon don't want it. It's a big white elephant that needs to be put out of its misery.

  24. Editors asleep at the wheel, again on The SEC Is About To Make Crowdfunding More Expensive · · Score: 1

    Why do the editors allow such salacious but unwarranted headings to be used? If the title were: The SEC Is About to Make Crowdfunding of Securities More Expensive, then this more accurate but less sensationalist wording would suffice. Do the editors never read the referenced article to make sure the title reflects the content?

  25. Any company that snoops around my FB page... on Headhunters Can't Tell Anything From Facebook Profiles · · Score: 1

    ...as a matter of policy is not a company I would ever care to work for, or even do business with. Employers need to stop being Big Brother, because they're appallingly awful at it.