. It shows that 5% of the workers quit every month
Although I do not agree with the other practices shown in the videos and article, according to my wife who worked in Mexico's sweatshops for about 2 years tells me that 5% worker rotation is normal in those types of jobs.
The reason is that people that enter those jobs are usually young guys who do not have any other obligation and want to do some quick bucks. As you usually do not need any qualifications to enter some of the positions, these guys enter thinking on doing some cash and they quit after looking that the job does not give a lot money and it is very demanding.
I disagree on something regarding the video, and something that is commented by an interviewed guy. The individuals that commit suicide are special cases. These guy in interview says "those who can bare the mental preasure stay, those who don't they commit suicide". I think, those who do not stand the pressure are the 5% that quit. It is only a really small percentaje that commit suicide. Thus, although the working conditions surely have some influence in the suicides, I believe there are other personal factors that made these people kill themselves.
Yay! let me comment, I am actually working on this... kind of.
In my project we are looking at one region in eastern Germany which has invested a *lot* of money in this BioEnergy technology.
There are a lot of advantages for farmers, although there is one slight problem: It still depends a lot on the subsidies.
Bio-energy producers get paid a constant electricity price, they also get some extra subsidies if they use manure (instead of pure corn and other fodder). It is well known that if there were no subsidies, the technology would not be profitable.
I have visited about 3 or 4 bio-energy plants. They are indeed quite interesting (although also quite smelly!)
IMHO, that's exactly what Sony was pushing for. Now you've not only given them money for the first PS3 you bought and got screwed over on, you went and gave them more money.
Bb...bu... but, I learned in Slashdot that each Playstation console Sony sold was doing so at a loss; this will mean that he stuck it to the man and made Sony lose money!
A serious Usenet server system, carrying all of the standard 8 Usenet | hierarchies, a large hunk of alt.* and various regionals, is typically | going to need a Sparc 20/HP 9000/7xx series or better, with 64Mb or | more RAM, and at least 8Gb of disk
I guess nowadays it is possible to have a usenet run as a "virtual machine"
In fact, someone should make a VMWare appliance (or whatever is called for VirtualBox or QEmu with a Linux usenet installed ready to use!
It seems my keyboard (or rather my brain) does not parse the word SERVER... there! I said it.
A serious Usenet server system, carrying all of the standard 8 Usenet | hierarchies, a large hunk of alt.* and various regionals, is typically | going to need a Sparc 20/HP 9000/7xx series or better, with 64Mb or | more RAM, and at least 8Gb of disk
I guess nowadays it is possible to have a usenet run as a "virtual machine"
In fact, someone should make a VMWare appliance (or whatever is called for VirtualBox or QEmu with a Linux usenet installed ready to use!
The truth is Google Docs is still nothing more than the web version of Write/Wordpad (maybe only with the added ability to put tables... which do not work so well). A much better implementation is the one from Zoho.
If the online version of Word is as complete as say, OpenOffice then it will be much better than Google Docs.
IFF, Microsoft offers the OneNote program online (for free) and manages to integrate it in a sensible way to Hotmail, I might be sold.
Currently I am using Google Notebook (I was lucky to get an account before they closed the subscriptions) to organize my life. I have really tried to use other online alternatives (like Zoho) but they just do not feel right.
On the other hand, the times when I have used OneNote, it has *really* impressed me. That is a really good program.
It will be fun to see after the guys get their "first version" running and see all the "real world" issues they will get. IIRC Friendster got canned due to scalability issues.
IMHO the Diaspora guys have a "good idea", but it is still to be implemented. However I have seen a *lot* of people with lots of good ideas for software, unfortunately the implementation is what counts.
I have thought of a system like this before, although with a commercial POV.
The idea of the web site my I built (not public) is to allow "intellectual property" creators to offer their work for a specific amount of money and then, when such amount is raised (I considered of the "chip-in" service) the author publishes his work, gets paid said amount and anyone can get the work for free.
In this way, I.P. creators can work on whatever they want and charge an amount of money that they think is equivalent to the value of the time they spent on it. Once they get paid what they think their work is worth they should not care how/if their content is distributed.
It might be possible to let the creators choose the license in which they choose to release the creation. Some people might even release their works in Open licenses (GPL, CC, BSD, etc). Other might choose to release the "binaries" (PDF, exe, mp3, etc) of their creations for a certain amount, and the "source-code" (LaTeX, DOC,.cpp,.wav) for another amount.
Authors may even be able to publish some "teaser" content (one chapter of the book, samples of a song, a reduced functionality version [with *only* the stuff they want to give for free! no cracks possible]) to increase the demand from their products.
In my opinion that will be the future of distribution/creation of intellectual creations. And from what I know, this is not so far from how it was long ago, when people used to write operas, plays and orchesta scores after being hired by some wealthy individual.
The article is just pointing some things that we real software developers have known from a looooong time: it is easier to develop and maintain software that uses an integrated framework than a collection of frameworks.
This is part of what software companies have been selling for some time, such as Microsoft's "solutions" like the DirectX platform, or the VisualStudio/WinForms/MicrosoftSQL platform. My preferred technology is however Java/JDK/JDBC/etc...
Not that it is not possible to develop using bits and pieces from projects here and there... however in the long term and all other things equal (like the quality of the developer itself), having an integrated framework makes the code more robust.
Would it be better to find new and amazing ways to create energy from resources now, or would it be better for humanity to first learn to live within our means as oil runs out?
It is better to find new ways to harvest and manipulate energy (remember kids, energy can not be destroyed or created, only transformed) because:
a) Population growth is a clear trend in humanity (nobody wants to die!) b) More resources(food, space and tools) are needed for bigger population. c) More energy is needed to produce such resources.
and we designed new culture based on long term sustainability instead of constant growth.
You are going against the basic cycle of any living ogranism, born/reproduce/die. As I said, nobody wants to die; everybody wants to live more, therefore the population growth trend will likely continue.
Ah! yes... I have been looking for something like that in Firefox for *ages*. Mores specifically a task manager for extensions; to see which extensions eat the most memory.
What really sucks is that according to the summary it seems Firefox 4 will continue the sucky trend of adding and adding more "features" to the base Firefox binary.
I am a "power user" (usually have 4 or 5 windows open across several virtual desktops, some of them with 40 tabs) and I use the TreeStyle tab extension without any problem. OTOH I do not care about any of the listed "features", I just want firefox to be faster and to consume less darn memory!
My wife used to work in a Mexican sweatshop where they manufactured pants. It was the typical newsworthy sweatshop where they locked the warehouse building door at the beginning of the day (8:00am) and didn't opened until the end of the day (7:00pm); These people are abused.
In my opinion, we in IT are just a bunch of "primma donas" that got used to the "dot com bubble" superstitions where the "computer guy" is an almighty god that will solve all the office problems.
Fortunately, in 3rd world countries like mine (Mexico) having an IT job (shit... having a job!) is on itself a good reward and the majority of IT people find it quite comfy.
Naw... this one is like crack. Getting you hooked is "free" but once your documents are in its clutches, um, I mean file format, then your ass belongs to them.
Yup, I believe the same. I wonder what happened to/. "itsatrap" tag, I I kinda liked it as it separated in a clear way stories from Microsoft.
"Netbooks have tried to bundle with 3G but I think it is safe to say it has been fairly unsuccessful."
I think it's fairly safe to say bullshit - might be true for your neck of the woods, but around here, bundling a 3G dongle is a big hit (EU - Denmark), in fact, such a big hit some of the big carriers are having trouble delivering the amount of bandwith needed.
Not only that, here in Germany, the majority of networks bundle a netbook with you 3G/mobile plan purchase (for as low as 1 euro).
There's a reason they are selling like hot cakes !
No, people know what is a Netbook. Since the first EEE (701) came out, they have been clearly separated by the market (e.g., by computer shops and sellers).
I think the market is a bit broader than that, people who buy the iPad want a media content consumption device; being i video, pictures, text or audio. As long as the majority of your activities with the portable device center in consuming media, the ipad is better than a netbook.
I produce media content too (like this post) so that's the reason I have a Netbook:)
Of course these issues are very subjective. So I will just add my personal opinion:
I think the problem a lot of people have with SaaS is not with the *software* itself, but with the *data*.
For me, I would have no problem with the following framework: 1. SaaS prodcut to say, manage all my daily tasks (kind of what Google does), but with... 2. A personal place where I could save my data, say from my HDD or from another service like drop-box. The SaaS product would only be able to pull and process my data when *I* decide so. In addition... 3. The data would be stored on an open format (say, some kind of well documented XML) which I can migrate to any other software or service whenever I want.
I know that some of MS Research stuff is really good. I've been to some academic presentations from people working there.
I find current MS status exactly as how Xerox was when Apple and MS begun. PARC labs where doing a lot of really good stuff but the management failed to transform it to real useful products. It will be other small companies who will come to do it... that in theory, of course patents will ultimately block such kind of innovation. yay!
So, are there any interesting books already made? It may be a good idea if people start sharing pre-made books with coherent chapters.
Also, I always wondered how difficult could it be to get an article wiki source, translate it to Latex and compile it into a PDF... If someone made a program that performed the 3 steps it would be easy to create a book from any wiki article in any language. Is there anything like that?
Slashdot Mirror
I LOLed because my sig is almost like that... maybe there was someone else or you mistook my sig for that (btw, I got my sig from another slashddoter)
. It shows that 5% of the workers quit every month
Although I do not agree with the other practices shown in the videos and article, according to my wife who worked in Mexico's sweatshops for about 2 years tells me that 5% worker rotation is normal in those types of jobs.
The reason is that people that enter those jobs are usually young guys who do not have any other obligation and want to do some quick bucks. As you usually do not need any qualifications to enter some of the positions, these guys enter thinking on doing some cash and they quit after looking that the job does not give a lot money and it is very demanding.
I disagree on something regarding the video, and something that is commented by an interviewed guy. The individuals that commit suicide are special cases. These guy in interview says "those who can bare the mental preasure stay, those who don't they commit suicide". I think, those who do not stand the pressure are the 5% that quit. It is only a really small percentaje that commit suicide. Thus, although the working conditions surely have some influence in the suicides, I believe there are other personal factors that made these people kill themselves.
Yay! let me comment, I am actually working on this... kind of.
In my project we are looking at one region in eastern Germany which has invested a *lot* of money in this BioEnergy technology.
There are a lot of advantages for farmers, although there is one slight problem: It still depends a lot on the subsidies.
Bio-energy producers get paid a constant electricity price, they also get some extra subsidies if they use manure (instead of pure corn and other fodder). It is well known that if there were no subsidies, the technology would not be profitable.
I have visited about 3 or 4 bio-energy plants. They are indeed quite interesting (although also quite smelly!)
IMHO, that's exactly what Sony was pushing for. Now you've not only given them money for the first PS3 you bought and got screwed over on, you went and gave them more money.
Bb...bu... but, I learned in Slashdot that each Playstation console Sony sold was doing so at a loss; this will mean that he stuck it to the man and made Sony lose money!
here [faqs.org] is a good place to start :)
Funny that they mention such high requirements:
A serious Usenet server system, carrying all of the standard 8 Usenet
| hierarchies, a large hunk of alt.* and various regionals, is typically
| going to need a Sparc 20/HP 9000/7xx series or better, with 64Mb or
| more RAM, and at least 8Gb of disk
I guess nowadays it is possible to have a usenet run as a "virtual machine"
In fact, someone should make a VMWare appliance (or whatever is called for VirtualBox or QEmu with a Linux usenet installed ready to use!
It seems my keyboard (or rather my brain) does not parse the word SERVER... there! I said it.
And now it is gone Forever!
here is a good place to start :)
Funny that they mention such high requirements:
A serious Usenet server system, carrying all of the standard 8 Usenet
| hierarchies, a large hunk of alt.* and various regionals, is typically
| going to need a Sparc 20/HP 9000/7xx series or better, with 64Mb or
| more RAM, and at least 8Gb of disk
I guess nowadays it is possible to have a usenet run as a "virtual machine"
In fact, someone should make a VMWare appliance (or whatever is called for VirtualBox or QEmu with a Linux usenet installed ready to use!
The truth is Google Docs is still nothing more than the web version of Write/Wordpad (maybe only with the added ability to put tables... which do not work so well). A much better implementation is the one from Zoho.
If the online version of Word is as complete as say, OpenOffice then it will be much better than Google Docs.
IFF, Microsoft offers the OneNote program online (for free) and manages to integrate it in a sensible way to Hotmail, I might be sold.
Currently I am using Google Notebook (I was lucky to get an account before they closed the subscriptions) to organize my life. I have really tried to use other online alternatives (like Zoho) but they just do not feel right.
On the other hand, the times when I have used OneNote, it has *really* impressed me. That is a really good program.
By the same thinking line you should be tried in Iran for all your horrendous crimes as defined by the Sharia law.
You know, you are committing an offense against Iranian people just by not believing on the Qur'an!
Therefore, you should be prosecuted, tried and sentenced to death by stoning in an Islamic court.
How does that seem to you?
It will be fun to see after the guys get their "first version" running and see all the "real world" issues they will get. IIRC Friendster got canned due to scalability issues.
IMHO the Diaspora guys have a "good idea", but it is still to be implemented. However I have seen a *lot* of people with lots of good ideas for software, unfortunately the implementation is what counts.
Best of luck to them anyhow.
I have thought of a system like this before, although with a commercial POV.
The idea of the web site my I built (not public) is to allow "intellectual property" creators to offer their work for a specific amount of money and then, when such amount is raised (I considered of the "chip-in" service) the author publishes his work, gets paid said amount and anyone can get the work for free.
In this way, I.P. creators can work on whatever they want and charge an amount of money that they think is equivalent to the value of the time they spent on it. Once they get paid what they think their work is worth they should not care how/if their content is distributed.
It might be possible to let the creators choose the license in which they choose to release the creation. Some people might even release their works in Open licenses (GPL, CC, BSD, etc). Other might choose to release the "binaries" (PDF, exe, mp3, etc) of their creations for a certain amount, and the "source-code" (LaTeX, DOC, .cpp, .wav) for another amount.
Authors may even be able to publish some "teaser" content (one chapter of the book, samples of a song, a reduced functionality version [with *only* the stuff they want to give for free! no cracks possible]) to increase the demand from their products.
In my opinion that will be the future of distribution/creation of intellectual creations. And from what I know, this is not so far from how it was long ago, when people used to write operas, plays and orchesta scores after being hired by some wealthy individual.
The article is just pointing some things that we real software developers have known from a looooong time: it is easier to develop and maintain software that uses an integrated framework than a collection of frameworks.
This is part of what software companies have been selling for some time, such as Microsoft's "solutions" like the DirectX platform, or the VisualStudio/WinForms/MicrosoftSQL platform. My preferred technology is however Java/JDK/JDBC/etc...
Not that it is not possible to develop using bits and pieces from projects here and there... however in the long term and all other things equal (like the quality of the developer itself), having an integrated framework makes the code more robust.
All that of course, in my opinion.
In this reality it can happen, they stole code, period.
Holly hypocrisy Batman! so in May it is once again called "stealing"... last month (when it was RIAA vs people) was called "copyright infringement".
So many hypocrites in slashdot :(
Would it be better to find new and amazing ways to create energy from resources now, or would it be better for humanity to first learn to live within our means as oil runs out?
It is better to find new ways to harvest and manipulate energy (remember kids, energy can not be destroyed or created, only transformed) because:
a) Population growth is a clear trend in humanity (nobody wants to die!)
b) More resources(food, space and tools) are needed for bigger population.
c) More energy is needed to produce such resources.
and we designed new culture based on long term sustainability instead of constant growth.
You are going against the basic cycle of any living ogranism, born/reproduce/die. As I said, nobody wants to die; everybody wants to live more, therefore the population growth trend will likely continue.
Yup, what happened to Mandrake was RPM. At least that was the reason I migrated to Debian and then to Ubuntu.
Ah! yes... I have been looking for something like that in Firefox for *ages*. Mores specifically a task manager for extensions; to see which extensions eat the most memory.
What really sucks is that according to the summary it seems Firefox 4 will continue the sucky trend of adding and adding more "features" to the base Firefox binary.
I am a "power user" (usually have 4 or 5 windows open across several virtual desktops, some of them with 40 tabs) and I use the TreeStyle tab extension without any problem.
OTOH I do not care about any of the listed "features", I just want firefox to be faster and to consume less darn memory!
Shit, you couldn't be more right.
My wife used to work in a Mexican sweatshop where they manufactured pants. It was the typical newsworthy sweatshop where they locked the warehouse building door at the beginning of the day (8:00am) and didn't opened until the end of the day (7:00pm); These people are abused.
In my opinion, we in IT are just a bunch of "primma donas" that got used to the "dot com bubble" superstitions where the "computer guy" is an almighty god that will solve all the office problems.
Fortunately, in 3rd world countries like mine (Mexico) having an IT job (shit... having a job!) is on itself a good reward and the majority of IT people find it quite comfy.
Naw ... this one is like crack. Getting you hooked is "free" but once your documents are in its clutches, um, I mean file format, then your ass belongs to them.
Yup, I believe the same. I wonder what happened to /. "itsatrap" tag, I I kinda liked it as it separated in a clear way stories from Microsoft.
"Netbooks have tried to bundle with 3G but I think it is safe to say it has been fairly unsuccessful."
I think it's fairly safe to say bullshit - might be true for your neck of the woods, but around here, bundling a 3G dongle is a big hit (EU - Denmark), in fact, such a big hit some of the big carriers are having trouble delivering the amount of bandwith needed.
Not only that, here in Germany, the majority of networks bundle a netbook with you 3G/mobile plan purchase (for as low as 1 euro).
There's a reason they are selling like hot cakes !
No, people know what is a Netbook. Since the first EEE (701) came out, they have been clearly separated by the market (e.g., by computer shops and sellers).
People buy the iPad want an entertainment device.
I think the market is a bit broader than that, people who buy the iPad want a media content consumption device; being i video, pictures, text or audio. As long as the majority of your activities with the portable device center in consuming media, the ipad is better than a netbook.
I produce media content too (like this post) so that's the reason I have a Netbook :)
Of course these issues are very subjective. So I will just add my personal opinion:
I think the problem a lot of people have with SaaS is not with the *software* itself, but with the *data*.
For me, I would have no problem with the following framework: ...
1. SaaS prodcut to say, manage all my daily tasks (kind of what Google does), but with...
2. A personal place where I could save my data, say from my HDD or from another service like drop-box. The SaaS product would only be able to pull and process my data when *I* decide so. In addition
3. The data would be stored on an open format (say, some kind of well documented XML) which I can migrate to any other software or service whenever I want.
I know that some of MS Research stuff is really good. I've been to some academic presentations from people working there.
I find current MS status exactly as how Xerox was when Apple and MS begun. PARC labs where doing a lot of really good stuff but the management failed to transform it to real useful products. It will be other small companies who will come to do it... that in theory, of course patents will ultimately block such kind of innovation. yay!
So, are there any interesting books already made? It may be a good idea if people start sharing pre-made books with coherent chapters.
Also, I always wondered how difficult could it be to get an article wiki source, translate it to Latex and compile it into a PDF... If someone made a program that performed the 3 steps it would be easy to create a book from any wiki article in any language. Is there anything like that?