And widespread thinking like the parent post is why America's losing the high ground globally. You'd be throwing out the baby with the bathwater, unless you're prepared to start offering naturalization or a fast-tracked green card from the get-go as an alternative. Not that either of those options would ever be similarly abused, of course...
I am currently on an H-1B, hired for a scientific research & facility operations position requiring a lot of particularly specialized skills (I have a Ph.D. & came into the job with more than 5 years' postdoctoral experience). I beat out a bunch of US nationals fair & square (I know, because I met several of the shortlisted ones during the interview process). My employers deemed me to be the best-suited applicant in a standard interview process, so I got the job, paid at the same going rate as any US citizen. In practice, hiring me probably actually cost the employer MORE than a US citizen, due to the need to pay the extra fast-tracking fees for the H-1B visa & so on.
So, while I've no doubt that there are some companies & individuals abusing the system, I take issue with the ill-founded assumption that just because I'm on an H-1B, I was hired as "cheap labor".
A friend of mine always used to say that F1 would be more fun if they started the race with half of the cars going rounf the track in the opposite direction.
That'd be potentially even more spectacular for rocket plane races...
Mod parent up. As a neglected fan of the Apple 12" Powerbook (MacBook Air? Bah. Gimme a break...), the only thing that stopped me plunking down cash for a pretty HP Mini-Note running Linux/BSD was knowing that it had a wimpy processor that was pin-compatible with the new Isaiah chips... So come on, HP - go for it.
Anyone at Apple reading this feel free to pass this oft-repeated chorus on to your management: we wanted a 12" MBP. Oh yeah, & your 15" MBP's peel as well...
... kill it now before it breeds!
I say we take off & nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Re:I thought this was news for nerds....
on
Slackware 12.1 Released
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Although the parent post's a bit... overcaffeinated, he has a point: maintaining a Slackware box teaches a lot about Linux overall.
As a stepping stone for those who find it "as user-friendly as a rattlesnake", might I suggest they try out VectorLinux ( http://vectorlinux.com/website2/ )? It's a Slackware-derived distro that's easier to get to grips with, & runs nice & quickly on old boxes (which is why I often use it). Not totally pure in terms of 'free' (as in speech), but rather usable.
Not a problem. We'll just use the Sony rootkit to hide files from it!:-)
Seriously, though, folks, the parent has a point. We've got to watch out for
this sort of thing. While it's technically possible to break (e.g.) HDCP
with a black box, not many people actually do it. On the other hand,
something only has to be cracked, format-shifted & circulated once to render
the whole issue moot.
Same here: best computer I've ever owned. I used mine while plane-hopping for years, including monthly shifts working at 14000 feet. It's still the machine of choice when slobbing about at home & still looks great as well, despite being about 5 years old & my also having a 15" MacBook Pro now. And I think the parent was joking: the battery life of my little G4 is at least comparable to my juice-hungry Core2Duo MBP. Still not sure it'd have the battery life needed for the submitter's needs, though.
So sad that they never produced a 12" MBP, & produced the pretty-but-much-less-useful Air instead. I think it's pretty damning that the Air makes me consider buying a used last-gen 12" Powerbook, just as insurance against my own machine dying...
this could have more catastrophic results, in that another Galactic President might be produced...
Ford: [talking about Zaphod] He's my semi half brother.
Zaphod: He shares three of the same mothers as me.
(I keep hoping there's one strip where she doesn't pull it away, but I never saw it.... anyone?) I've never seen one, but there was an episode of "Robot Chicken" in which he kicks her really hard instead of the ball, with the line "That`s for years of humiliation, bitch!"
That's just a part of it, too: the thing's a parody of (among other things) the horror film "Pumpkinhead". Very funny, actually. See here for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Pumpkin#Appearances_outside_Peanuts
Interesting: is it really now the case that Beryl can be run simultaneously with OpenGL-based games? I've got an old Feisty box with XGL+Beryl enabled (on an old NVidia GeForce 3-ish card) & I can't run "Jedi Academy" in Wine without dropping back to MetaCity first. I guess that my Beryl/Compiz install is probably as old hat the video card by now, though...
Interesting that the real bogeyman behind the ID card issue (the national ID register & its associated DNA collection) is finally getting its time in the limelight.
I thought that it was fairly well known that a complete UK national DNA database has been a long-term goal of (at least) New Labour for years, even though it somehow never made it into the election manifesto. My understanding of this was that they'd taken a look at the marketability of Iceland's national DNA database & had been licking their lips over the prospect of a UK equivalent ever since. The fact that in much of the UK, it's entirely possible to be arrested, DNA-tested, released without even being charged with a crime & then have no way to have one's DNA sample destroyed or the database entry deleted clearly supports this.
As I recall, Iceland's DNA database was actually voted for by the people there in a national referendum. The scenario was that although Iceland had comparatively little in the way of natural resources for international trade, one of the things they could sell was a database containing the full genetic information of the population. It was a big government revenue earner, IIRC. I remember seeing a TV report about this years ago, in which the Icelandic researcher being interviewed was able to type in both his own name & the singer Bjork's, & immediately pull up their most recent common ancestor.
Now, Iceland's population as a whole is genetically unusually homogeneous, so it provides an interesting dataset for all kinds of studies. In contrast, the UK population is extremely genetically diverse (particularly nowadays), which also makes it interesting as a counterpoint for such studies. Given that there are 60 million genetically-diverse people confined to the small island nation that is the UK, this would provide a massive, mostly-controllable, genetically heterogeneous pool that'd be worth a fortune to all sorts of industries, including (but not limited to) the obvious cases of the insurance & pharmaceutical business worlds.
I know that the current UK criminal DNA database only includes information based on key markers, rather than a complete DNA workup, but I can't help but suspect that once the general public are conditioned to being used to a DNA database, then augmentation of the entries as a consequence of increased computing power will just be publicly referred to as an 'upgrade' (or some such), & feature creep will follow. Then a few years down the line, access to the database will be somehow granted to more & more parties, outside of the original spec. The government already invited people to make 'gift' donations of their DNA samples obtained during medical procedures.
In the end, there are no good reasons for this database & many bad ones. There's the implicit Totalitarian assumption that everyone is guilty until proven innocent, & should therefore be compulsorily catalogued. There's the question of what subsequent British governments might do with the information, even assuming that the current government is totally good & benign (which I don't really believe for a second). There's the fact that DNA testing could still be used to help distinguish between innocent & guilty suspects for a given crime without the need for a database (& no, the fact that it'd conveniently speed up the process somewhat is *not* sufficient justification for the wholesale erosion of personal freedoms). There's the security issue: sufficiently interesting databases are frequently hacked, stolen, sold, traded, or used for purposes for which they were not initially designed. There's the fact that based on previous experiences with British government IT contracts, the thing will overrun massively both in terms of time & expense, cost the taxpayers millions & return nothing in the way of tangible benefits. And heaven help anyone who mistakenly gets a red flag next to their name. See (e.g.) "Gattaca" or "Brazil". And lastly, I feel it's an invasion of my most
Slashdot Mirror
And widespread thinking like the parent post is why America's losing the high ground globally. You'd be throwing out the baby with the bathwater, unless you're prepared to start offering naturalization or a fast-tracked green card from the get-go as an alternative. Not that either of those options would ever be similarly abused, of course...
I am currently on an H-1B, hired for a scientific research & facility operations position requiring a lot of particularly specialized skills (I have a Ph.D. & came into the job with more than 5 years' postdoctoral experience). I beat out a bunch of US nationals fair & square (I know, because I met several of the shortlisted ones during the interview process). My employers deemed me to be the best-suited applicant in a standard interview process, so I got the job, paid at the same going rate as any US citizen. In practice, hiring me probably actually cost the employer MORE than a US citizen, due to the need to pay the extra fast-tracking fees for the H-1B visa & so on.
So, while I've no doubt that there are some companies & individuals abusing the system, I take issue with the ill-founded assumption that just because I'm on an H-1B, I was hired as "cheap labor".
"The truth is... I am Iron Gran."
A friend of mine always used to say that F1 would be more fun if they started the race with half of the cars going rounf the track in the opposite direction.
That'd be potentially even more spectacular for rocket plane races...
Mod parent up. As a neglected fan of the Apple 12" Powerbook (MacBook Air? Bah. Gimme a break...), the only thing that stopped me plunking down cash for a pretty HP Mini-Note running Linux/BSD was knowing that it had a wimpy processor that was pin-compatible with the new Isaiah chips... So come on, HP - go for it.
Anyone at Apple reading this feel free to pass this oft-repeated chorus on to your management: we wanted a 12" MBP. Oh yeah, & your 15" MBP's peel as well...
Amusingly, the Finnish word "kamala" means "ghastly, frightful".
Hello. My name is Ingo Molnar. You killed my flash drive. Prepare to be reformatted.
Usually people cash in their chips *after* they get canned...
... kill it now before it breeds! I say we take off & nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Although the parent post's a bit... overcaffeinated, he has a point: maintaining a Slackware box teaches a lot about Linux overall. As a stepping stone for those who find it "as user-friendly as a rattlesnake", might I suggest they try out VectorLinux ( http://vectorlinux.com/website2/ )? It's a Slackware-derived distro that's easier to get to grips with, & runs nice & quickly on old boxes (which is why I often use it). Not totally pure in terms of 'free' (as in speech), but rather usable.
Ask & ye shall receive...
Try Witch:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/25871Not a problem. We'll just use the Sony rootkit to hide files from it! :-)
Seriously, though, folks, the parent has a point. We've got to watch out for this sort of thing. While it's technically possible to break (e.g.) HDCP with a black box, not many people actually do it. On the other hand, something only has to be cracked, format-shifted & circulated once to render the whole issue moot.
Same here: best computer I've ever owned. I used mine while plane-hopping for years, including monthly shifts working at 14000 feet. It's still the machine of choice when slobbing about at home & still looks great as well, despite being about 5 years old & my also having a 15" MacBook Pro now. And I think the parent was joking: the battery life of my little G4 is at least comparable to my juice-hungry Core2Duo MBP. Still not sure it'd have the battery life needed for the submitter's needs, though.
So sad that they never produced a 12" MBP, & produced the pretty-but-much-less-useful Air instead. I think it's pretty damning that the Air makes me consider buying a used last-gen 12" Powerbook, just as insurance against my own machine dying...
This is exactly what the alien invaders did in one episode of the old "U.F.O." T.V. series: http://ufoseries.com/
Hey, it works for US politics! Oh, wait...
Cue one pirate penis prosthetics joke:
A pirate walks into a tavern, & the barman says "Excuse me sir, but do you know that you have a steering wheel coming out of your crotch?"
And the pirate replies (drum roll, please): "Yarr! It's driving me nuts!"
If we can now, indirectly control them, shouldn't read:
"I, for one, welcome our new insect minions"?
(Thump)
Smithers, continue the research...
Interesting: is it really now the case that Beryl can be run simultaneously with OpenGL-based games? I've got an old Feisty box with XGL+Beryl enabled (on an old NVidia GeForce 3-ish card) & I can't run "Jedi Academy" in Wine without dropping back to MetaCity first. I guess that my Beryl/Compiz install is probably as old hat the video card by now, though...
Interesting that the real bogeyman behind the ID card issue (the national ID register & its associated DNA collection) is finally getting its time in the limelight.
I thought that it was fairly well known that a complete UK national DNA database has been a long-term goal of (at least) New Labour for years, even though it somehow never made it into the election manifesto. My understanding of this was that they'd taken a look at the marketability of Iceland's national DNA database & had been licking their lips over the prospect of a UK equivalent ever since. The fact that in much of the UK, it's entirely possible to be arrested, DNA-tested, released without even being charged with a crime & then have no way to have one's DNA sample destroyed or the database entry deleted clearly supports this.
As I recall, Iceland's DNA database was actually voted for by the people there in a national referendum. The scenario was that although Iceland had comparatively little in the way of natural resources for international trade, one of the things they could sell was a database containing the full genetic information of the population. It was a big government revenue earner, IIRC. I remember seeing a TV report about this years ago, in which the Icelandic researcher being interviewed was able to type in both his own name & the singer Bjork's, & immediately pull up their most recent common ancestor.
Now, Iceland's population as a whole is genetically unusually homogeneous, so it provides an interesting dataset for all kinds of studies. In contrast, the UK population is extremely genetically diverse (particularly nowadays), which also makes it interesting as a counterpoint for such studies. Given that there are 60 million genetically-diverse people confined to the small island nation that is the UK, this would provide a massive, mostly-controllable, genetically heterogeneous pool that'd be worth a fortune to all sorts of industries, including (but not limited to) the obvious cases of the insurance & pharmaceutical business worlds.
I know that the current UK criminal DNA database only includes information based on key markers, rather than a complete DNA workup, but I can't help but suspect that once the general public are conditioned to being used to a DNA database, then augmentation of the entries as a consequence of increased computing power will just be publicly referred to as an 'upgrade' (or some such), & feature creep will follow. Then a few years down the line, access to the database will be somehow granted to more & more parties, outside of the original spec. The government already invited people to make 'gift' donations of their DNA samples obtained during medical procedures.
In the end, there are no good reasons for this database & many bad ones. There's the implicit Totalitarian assumption that everyone is guilty until proven innocent, & should therefore be compulsorily catalogued. There's the question of what subsequent British governments might do with the information, even assuming that the current government is totally good & benign (which I don't really believe for a second). There's the fact that DNA testing could still be used to help distinguish between innocent & guilty suspects for a given crime without the need for a database (& no, the fact that it'd conveniently speed up the process somewhat is *not* sufficient justification for the wholesale erosion of personal freedoms). There's the security issue: sufficiently interesting databases are frequently hacked, stolen, sold, traded, or used for purposes for which they were not initially designed. There's the fact that based on previous experiences with British government IT contracts, the thing will overrun massively both in terms of time & expense, cost the taxpayers millions & return nothing in the way of tangible benefits. And heaven help anyone who mistakenly gets a red flag next to their name. See (e.g.) "Gattaca" or "Brazil". And lastly, I feel it's an invasion of my most
Two galaxies walk into a pub.
Landlord (to first galaxy): I'll serve you, but not your friend.
First galaxy: Why not?
Landlord: Because he's barred!
Dead easy:
"Zuul!"
(I'll match your "Snow Crash" & raise you a "Ghostbusters")
"But they're claims with feet of clay, so to speak."
Um, surely you mean terra cotta?
Ah. Avoid Alliteration. Always.