This is just the start of it. It's way too early to crow.
Our end of the boat may not be taking on water yet but the ship is sinking, the brass band is playing and politicians are fighting over the deck chairs.
How is health care related to old age pensions being insufficient ?
Health care is the largest single expense for most older people. Because they are on fixed incomes, when faced with runaway costs, they have to work to meet these. In the past 20 years, insurance premiums more than tripled at a small company I once worked for. Many of the younger employees simply dropped the coverage and did without. That's not a viable option as you age. One trip to the hospital could bankrupt you.
Yes, you can buy limited selections of reissues and "new old stock" at a premium online. Back in 1988, the records disappeared from the shelves of retail stores and were replaced almost overnight with CDs.
I'm not saying outsourcing is all bad, but we as consumers are the ultimate cause of it all.
In many cases, the decision to outsource is made by the retailer. The substitution is made without choice being presented to the consumer and likely without all the cost saving being passed onto the consumer.
When the word shortage is used, the price at which the shortage exists should be specified. I'm correct when I say there's a shortage of gasoline at $1/gallon. But I can find plenty of gas around here at $3.80/gallon.
He's 83 years old and has never owned a computer or sent an email. Technologically, he never progressed past cassette tapes. He's not exactly a luddite; he didn't reject computers. He just never cared much about keeping up.
In contrast, my 82 year old mother in law embraced computers in the late 80s and is more computer savvy than many 40somethings. She still works from her home.
The vast majority of drunk driving arrests and fatal accidents due to drunk driving in my state involve illegal immigrants from Mexico. And yet, there's been nary a peep out of MADD. Why? They're afraid of the pro-amnesty lobby.
But let some company release a video game with some drunk driving aspect to it and they make a big stink about that.
How many people started ringing the bells for Microsoft after Windows ME? We saw how that worked out...
I didn't think Windows ME, which seemed to be a hastily kludged afterthought, was likely to really hurt Microsoft. They just stubbed their toe. And when Windows ME went thud, there was a good alternative, Windows 2000. Windows 98SE was still available then, too.
But the situation with Vista is very different because there's alot more riding on the success of it than was riding on the succes of Windows ME.
I use XP and Vista at work. Vista drives me nuts with all it's "sure you wanna do that?" dialogs and it's lackluster performance. I don't want to buy a computer with Vista pre-installed.
In America, a 20 year old who has sex with a mature 14 year old who is clearly capable of consenting is still violation of society's morals in most cases.
This wasn't always the case. My grandfather was born in 1888 and my grandmother was born in 1894. She was pregnant at age 14, soon after they married. This was not uncommon in those days. A 20 year old man could earn a living wage and support a family and a teenager is in the prime of her life, physically at least, insofar as having babies is concerned.
Attitudes had changed somewhat by the time my parents were becoming adults. The WWII generation generally waited until high school graduation or thereabouts. Younger girls did get married sometimes but only if they "got in trouble".
It was only when I came of age in the 70s that I heard any mention of statutory rape concerning a minor girl and an 18 year old boy. I _never_ heard anyone mention pedophilia or sex crimes or any of that until the 90s. Of course, in grandpa's day, if you "got a girl in trouble" and didn't have no intention of marrying her, you'd have been taken out and shot.;-)
My team lead was working a full day at the office and dealing with the builds at night from home. Whatever they were paying him, it wasn't enough to put up with that nonsense. So the abuse can go both ways.
That's the way my last boss treated telecommuting, as a supplement rather than as a substitute. And here's the kicker, I was working on nightly builds. Mine was the only group in a large company compelled to work scheduled, rotating shifts of uncompensated overtime. Either you were up until 2 or 3am tending to the builds and all the stuff that could and would go wrong or you had to get up at oh-dark-thirty to mop up and fix whatever carnage remained. At least with telecommuting, I only had to get out of bed and sit at my computer but I was still putting in extra time at the office too. But the boss didn't consider it real work and had no compunction about imposing on what had been your private life. Yeah, it was Lumbergh-a-rama. It was common to be awakened by the phone at 4AM, just after I'd fallen asleep. The pointy headed boss called me one time when I was in the middle of taking a massive dump. I wondered whether he could hear my voice reverberating off the bathroom tiles or splashing sounds.
Bottom line: Telecommuting can be a shackle as well as a quality of life improvement.
Also, don't ever let yourself be roped into tending to nightly builds. It is a thankless task.
Seems to me they just took away another reason to buy a CD. If I can buy from iTunes or other online service, sync my iPod to that or make playlists and burn CDs but face the threat of lawsuits for buying and ripping a CD of the same material and then doing the same things with it, why should I buy any more CDs?
One outfit I interviewed with was wanting me to sign an agreement which stipulated, among other things, that I not work for any competing companies for a year after termination of employment with them, even if they fire me. I balked. They withdrew their offer. A few years later, they shuttered their operations here.
Is this enforceable? I don't know. But the way I look at it, if they're doing stuff like this during the interview process, what will they be like later?
Sure, but context is important. In 10 years you're going to have alot of kids and young adults out there who haven't what a phonebooth is...
10 years? Heck. There's a kid fresh out of school in my group who's never seen one except in a movie, not the old style, fully enclosed kind. He's seen pay phones at malls and airports, one of the last bastions of such but not the old timey, freestanding phone booth. Most of those disappeared in the early 90s.
As someone who once relied on pay phones, I say good riddance. Damn pay phones were nasty as hell. The earpieces were often caked with old-man ear wax and grit. The mouthpieces often had epoxied spittle or snuff juice on 'em. It was disgusting. The whole phone booth itself was germ laden and smelled of cigarettes.
Americans have taken their military and economic superiority for granted so long that it no longer really exists. Months ago, the Chinese let us know they had us by the short hairs with the trade and debt imbalance. Yesterday, we got a message about China's military capability.
Has anyone signed a similar agreement that reaches beyond the end of employment and includes things not related to the business?
One outfit I interviewed with was wanting me to sign an agreement which stipulated, among other things, that I not work for any competing companies for a year after termination of employment with them, even if they fire me. I balked. They withdrew their offer. A few years later, they shuttered their operations here.
Is this enforceable? I don't know. But the way I look at it, if they're doing stuff like this during the interview process, what will they be like later?
I'm 325 pounds and can keep up with most anyone in almost anything I do
How old are you? You might be able to do this now but later is another story.
As a 6ft 4 inch 325+ pound male who can walk 5 miles through the woods carrying another 25-50 pounds of gear with me without breathing hard or getting tired, I am pretty fit for not working out or training to do so. I can lift over 400lbs and I don't weight train or anything.
I'm 6'1" and weigh 296lbs. I have 31% body fat. I can bench press 405 lbs 3 reps. My working bench is 365 lbs (10 reps). I can leg press as much as the machine can hold plus have 2 guys on it. I can do 10 palms forward pullups. I'm a 3rd degree black belt in karate, a 1st degree black belt in jujitsu and a green belt in judo.
As recently as 3 years ago, I could run a 5k. I could run a 100 yd dash in 15 seconds. I had tremendous strength and stamina.
At 50, I can no longer run or train in martial arts. It's not because of my cardiovascular system. It's because of my joints. I wore out my knees. I have severe arthritis in both knees. I have been recommended for partial knee replacement surgery. I have learned that this will not allow me to run or continue in martial arts. It is for when the pain of walking is too great. I haven't reached that point.
That being said. Being the size I am has certain advantages.
I can beat the majority of men in hand to hand combat, even in my reduced capacity.
I can pick up ridiculously heavy things.
But there are several serious downsides.
clothes: Buy a shirt that fits my neck and I have to have it altered unless I want to stay away from air vents.
commodes: I had to get the kind at Lowes that could flush a bucket of golf balls because I'm a high volume kinda guy.
airplanes: I don't fly. I can't fit in those seats.
sports arenas: I can't fit in many of the seats.
office furniture: I break office chairs. Bolts shear off in Steelcase chairs. I pick 'em up with magnets.
lawn furniture: I sat down in a recliner at the beach and it seemed to melt down to China.
And for the inevitable people who're going to say, "All the US demand for engineers is being filled by H1-B types" I say good! More engineers in this country means more engineering work has to come to this country, because that's where the engineers are,
Not necessarily. It typically means that relatively expensive US citizen engineers are being displaced by inexpensive, indentured H1-B engineers.
and that's where the work will be done best. More work for engineers means more demand for engineers, and more engineers with jobs HERE means countless other jobs will be created by the money they'll be spending. Would you rather they stayed where they are already, and brought the work to their country? We can afford to do that for running shoes, but if we start exporting tech industries, that's a bad thing.
Start exporting tech industries? Start? Most of the electronics industry was airmailed to China by the early 90s. Last year, TI and other chip makers quietly made public their plans to move their chip foundries there. Once all that goes, the US electronics industry will have been marginalized.
For 30 years, I've heard dire predictions of engineering labor shortages which have never materialized but there certainly have been shortages of engineering jobs.
Using government funding to force produce a glut of science-types is silly. Better to use the money to kick off industries that require them, and let the rest take care of itself.
Now that I agree with. I'll go one step further. There's little point in producing more engineers when we're not using all the ones we've already got. Several hundred thousand people were laid off in the fallout from the dot-com bust. It's a safe bet many are underemployed. The same thing happened in the early 90s. The engineering schools need more grist for the mill. They just keep on churnin' 'em out, regardless of demand.
Slashdot Mirror
This is just the start of it. It's way too early to crow.
Our end of the boat may not be taking on water yet but the ship is sinking, the brass band is playing and politicians are fighting over the deck chairs.
How is health care related to old age pensions being insufficient ?
Health care is the largest single expense for most older people. Because they are on fixed incomes, when faced with runaway costs, they have to work to meet these. In the past 20 years, insurance premiums more than tripled at a small company I once worked for. Many of the younger employees simply dropped the coverage and did without. That's not a viable option as you age. One trip to the hospital could bankrupt you.
Ummm... they're still being sold new today.
Yes, you can buy limited selections of reissues and "new old stock" at a premium online. Back in 1988, the records disappeared from the shelves of retail stores and were replaced almost overnight with CDs.
since I am only 26, I have to ask, is there anything before CD's?
Sure, records. And they were still being sold until you were 5 or 6 years old.
I'm not saying outsourcing is all bad, but we as consumers are the ultimate cause of it all.
In many cases, the decision to outsource is made by the retailer. The substitution is made without choice being presented to the consumer and likely without all the cost saving being passed onto the consumer.
Anyone who has a good paying job in the US today is lucky.
When the word shortage is used, the price at which the shortage exists
should be specified. I'm correct when I say there's a shortage of gasoline
at $1/gallon. But I can find plenty of gas around here at $3.80/gallon.
He's 83 years old and has never owned a computer or sent an email. Technologically, he never progressed past cassette tapes. He's not exactly a luddite; he didn't reject computers. He just never cared much about keeping up.
In contrast, my 82 year old mother in law embraced computers in the late 80s and is more computer savvy than many 40somethings. She still works from her home.
The vast majority of drunk driving arrests and fatal accidents due to drunk driving in my state involve illegal immigrants from Mexico. And yet, there's been nary a peep out of MADD. Why? They're afraid of the pro-amnesty lobby.
But let some company release a video game with some drunk driving aspect to it and they make a big stink about that.
Home - Fighting Red Light Camera Tickets
and
Armey's Automotive Freedom & Privacy
It seems inevitable that there will be a fatality caused by a panic stop due to the presence of a red light camera and a shortened yellow light.
How many people started ringing the bells for Microsoft after Windows ME? We saw how that worked out...
I didn't think Windows ME, which seemed to be a hastily kludged afterthought, was likely to really hurt Microsoft. They just stubbed their toe. And when Windows ME went thud, there was a good alternative, Windows 2000. Windows 98SE was still available then, too.
But the situation with Vista is very different because there's alot more riding on the success of it than was riding on the succes of Windows ME.
I use XP and Vista at work. Vista drives me nuts with all it's "sure you wanna do that?" dialogs and it's lackluster performance. I don't want to buy a computer with Vista pre-installed.
For xterms,
green on black
black on wheat
white on navy
cyan on black
orange on black
I use white on navy for emacs.
Cut Commander Bond in two.
James Bond: "Do you expect me to talk?"
Goldfinger: "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"
In America, a 20 year old who has sex with a mature 14 year old who is clearly capable of consenting is still violation of society's morals in most cases.
This wasn't always the case. My grandfather was born in 1888 and my grandmother was born in 1894. She was pregnant at age 14, soon after they married. This was not uncommon in those days. A 20 year old man could earn a living wage and support a family and a teenager is in the prime of her life, physically at least, insofar as having babies is concerned.
Attitudes had changed somewhat by the time my parents were becoming adults. The WWII generation generally waited until high school graduation or thereabouts. Younger girls did get married sometimes but only if they "got in trouble".
It was only when I came of age in the 70s that I heard any mention of statutory rape concerning a minor girl and an 18 year old boy. I _never_ heard anyone mention pedophilia or sex crimes or any of that until the 90s. Of course, in grandpa's day, if you "got a girl in trouble" and didn't have no intention of marrying her, you'd have been taken out and shot.
My team lead was working a full day at the office and dealing with the builds at night from home. Whatever they were paying him, it wasn't enough to put up with that nonsense. So the abuse can go both ways.
That's the way my last boss treated telecommuting, as a supplement rather than as a substitute. And here's the kicker, I was working on nightly builds. Mine was the only group in a large company compelled to work scheduled, rotating shifts of uncompensated overtime. Either you were up until 2 or 3am tending to the builds and all the stuff that could and would go wrong or you had to get up at oh-dark-thirty to mop up and fix whatever carnage remained. At least with telecommuting, I only had to get out of bed and sit at my computer but I was still putting in extra time at the office too. But the boss didn't consider it real work and had no compunction about imposing on what had been your private life. Yeah, it was Lumbergh-a-rama. It was common to be awakened by the phone at 4AM, just after I'd fallen asleep. The pointy headed boss called me one time when I was in the middle of taking a massive dump. I wondered whether he could hear my voice reverberating off the bathroom tiles or splashing sounds.
Bottom line: Telecommuting can be a shackle as well as a quality of life improvement.
Also, don't ever let yourself be roped into tending to nightly builds. It is a thankless task.
Seems to me they just took away another reason to buy a CD. If I can buy from iTunes or other online service, sync my iPod to that or make playlists and burn CDs but face the threat of lawsuits for buying and ripping a CD of the same material and then doing the same things with it, why should I buy any more CDs?
Just look at the stock price over the last 3 years. Circuit City Stock Price for past 3 years
They were riding high in '06. What they've been doing for the past year ain't been working.
Perhaps mistreating workers isn't so profitable after all.
Why not create a "modified division" for those who take performance enhancing substances?
One outfit I interviewed with was wanting me to sign an agreement which stipulated, among other things, that I not work for any competing companies for a year after termination of employment with them, even if they fire me. I balked. They withdrew their offer. A few years later, they shuttered their operations here.
Is this enforceable? I don't know. But the way I look at it, if they're doing stuff like this during the interview process, what will they be like later?
Sure, but context is important. In 10 years you're going to have alot of kids and young adults out there who haven't what a phonebooth is
10 years? Heck. There's a kid fresh out of school in my group who's never seen one except in a movie, not the old style, fully enclosed kind. He's seen pay phones at malls and airports, one of the last bastions of such but not the old timey, freestanding phone booth. Most of those disappeared in the early 90s.
As someone who once relied on pay phones, I say good riddance. Damn pay phones were nasty as hell. The earpieces were often caked with old-man ear wax and grit. The mouthpieces often had epoxied spittle or snuff juice on 'em. It was disgusting. The whole phone booth itself was germ laden and smelled of cigarettes.
I've often wondered how many rude online trolls would act the same way in person, particularly if confronted by a linebacker sized thug.
Americans have taken their military and economic superiority for granted so long that it no longer really exists. Months ago, the Chinese let us know they had us by the short hairs with the trade and debt imbalance. Yesterday, we got a message about China's military capability.
Has anyone signed a similar agreement that reaches beyond the end of employment and includes things not related to the business?
One outfit I interviewed with was wanting me to sign an agreement which stipulated, among other things, that I not work for any competing companies for a year after termination of employment with them, even if they fire me. I balked. They withdrew their offer. A few years later, they shuttered their operations here.
Is this enforceable? I don't know. But the way I look at it, if they're doing stuff like this during the interview process, what will they be like later?
I'm 325 pounds and can keep up with most anyone in almost anything I do
How old are you? You might be able to do this now but later is another story.
As a 6ft 4 inch 325+ pound male who can walk 5 miles through the woods carrying another 25-50 pounds of gear with me without breathing hard or getting tired, I am pretty fit for not working out or training to do so. I can lift over 400lbs and I don't weight train or anything.
I'm 6'1" and weigh 296lbs. I have 31% body fat. I can bench press 405 lbs 3 reps. My working bench is 365 lbs (10 reps). I can leg press as much as the machine can hold plus have 2 guys on it. I can do 10 palms forward pullups. I'm a 3rd degree black belt in karate, a 1st degree black belt in jujitsu and a green belt in judo.
As recently as 3 years ago, I could run a 5k. I could run a 100 yd dash in 15 seconds. I had tremendous strength and stamina.
At 50, I can no longer run or train in martial arts. It's not because of my cardiovascular system. It's because of my joints. I wore out my knees. I have severe arthritis in both knees. I have been recommended for partial knee replacement surgery. I have learned that this will not allow me to run or continue in martial arts. It is for when the pain of walking is too great. I haven't reached that point.
That being said. Being the size I am has certain advantages.
But there are several serious downsides.
And for the inevitable people who're going to say, "All the US demand for engineers is being filled by H1-B types" I say good! More engineers in this country means more engineering work has to come to this country, because that's where the engineers are,
Not necessarily. It typically means that relatively expensive US citizen engineers are being displaced by inexpensive, indentured H1-B engineers.
and that's where the work will be done best. More work for engineers means more demand for engineers, and more engineers with jobs HERE means countless other jobs will be created by the money they'll be spending. Would you rather they stayed where they are already, and brought the work to their country? We can afford to do that for running shoes, but if we start exporting tech industries, that's a bad thing.
Start exporting tech industries? Start? Most of the electronics industry was airmailed to China by the early 90s. Last year, TI and other chip makers quietly made public their plans to move their chip foundries there. Once all that goes, the US electronics industry will have been marginalized.
For 30 years, I've heard dire predictions of engineering labor shortages which have never materialized but there certainly have been shortages of engineering jobs.
Using government funding to force produce a glut of science-types is silly. Better to use the money to kick off industries that require them, and let the rest take care of itself.
Now that I agree with. I'll go one step further. There's little point in producing more engineers when we're not using all the ones we've already got. Several hundred thousand people were laid off in the fallout from the dot-com bust. It's a safe bet many are underemployed. The same thing happened in the early 90s. The engineering schools need more grist for the mill. They just keep on churnin' 'em out, regardless of demand.