The US would look radically different if it was a direct democracy and reallly there would probably be a good chance of some sort of ACA being inacted given that the house/senate would be the voting public as a whole.
We would also have a radically different form of lobbying... Though executive and judicial branches would likely remain.... However without an example of a real direct democracy it is hard to say what the real effect would be.
From my time as the network admin (and defacto director of technology as the 'highest' official IT position) for a school district, I can guess how things went. The rest of the administrators likely had no clue that it even takes people to setup the devices when they arrive, let alone thought to budget for such.
When I was working for the school (pre-tablet days) they wanted to replace two very old 'mobile labs' of laptops that could be moved around rather than relying on static machines taking up lots of space in general classrooms. I looked at current options and suggested a two part plan: Netbooks (to lower overall costs) and a campus-wide wireless network. The plan was approved for the netbooks and I assumed was for the wireless as well, however I was kept busy planning for the deployment of the netbooks with the vendor and couldn't keep an eye on the wireless part that was needed to really make it work. Then the netbooks arrived and I asked about the status of the wireless (which was supposed to be handled by a contractor in my plan), since I had not heard anything about that end of things. Well it turns out they hadn't bothered to approve that part as it was 'expensive' for something 'unneeded'. I then had to explain the netbooks were near useless without wireless connectivity. So they gave me a $300 budget and said 'Do something about it'. So yeah... great wireless solution for $300. Definitely not the planned for campus wide setup I had planned.
I think a good 'fix' to alot of issues would be that while you can horde your money all you want while alive, you cannot give more than a average years wage to any adult offspring or other person (outside a wife/husband who you have mutual accounts with). Once both parts of a couple pass away the joint properties must be liquidated (offspring can pay for any items they wish to keep). If you want to create a legacy you need to donate these funds to the general good in some way. This levels the playing field for kids of someone rich and or famous. They must succeed or fail on their own.
If you combine this with eliminating private education on favor of public education we should see improved public schools bringing up the education level of all students instead of a few chosen offspring.
I have no thoughts on how to fix the rich getting their kids a job with a 'friend's business', but if I had an idea for it I'd at that in as well.
I've done 120 mph with my '95 Nissan Sentra when I owned it... And later with a Dodge Dakota pickup... And even a twice with my current '99 LHS. Not a one anything designed for 'racing'... None in Cali either... Late night (2 am ish) on the interstate in most eastern states in the US are pretty bare...
My personal experience has been I could stand on a chair and wave my arms as I shouted about it and if it either costs them money or inconveniences them in the slightest (even if that is just not being able to use 'god' as their password) then they refuse to listen. Then if their is a security issue they blame you for not 'fixing' it.
Another factor which relates to the cost of employees is health care costs. I've been working with the IT department of a university for awhile and starting this summer they gave all their employees over 50 a early retirement option because they simply 'cost to much in health insurance costs' and 'were inflating the health insurance fees for younger staff'.
This was at a 'state financed' university, so professor contracts are handled at the state level. The state has also created a split budget system for the universities. One budget covers the costs of running and maintaining the school. The other budget is for new construction or reconstruction of old buildings. The second budget is now higher than the first and the university cannot use funds from the bigger one on things covered by the smaller one. Hence each semester there they demolish an old building from the 70's and rebuild it as a modern structure. To add to this the state has recently told the school that they have to many classrooms and should demolish more buildings with no replacements. Which is funny as their class sizes have gone up to the point where 100 level classes have upwards of 70 students in each class and there are few rooms that can hold them.
When I graduated high school I had looked at attending this particular university and tuition then was ~$6000/year (that was '96) it is now $15k/year.
Well by canon only 3-4 Gallifreyans are sort of left... The Doctor's old nemesis is supposed to have died... again. His wife/amy pond's daughter, ie River Song, is supposed to be dead, but did regenerate at least twice. He does have a cloned daughter who we saw a couple years ago and dissapeared. Though she would have to be reintroduced after all this time (I was hoping for a spin off then).
There is already a massive problem where fairly normal active boys get stuck in special education because boys are more likely to be disruptive than girls. If you look at special education numbers they tend to be at least 10:1 male:female, if not higher. This is already where problem kids go. Though most special education teachers realize only a handful of these kids actually have issues learning.
The problem is taking care of special education kids costs at least 5 times what normal kids do. Which makes this an expensive option. The school I use to work for as their network admin eventually decided to keep special ed kids in the classrooms for the majority of the day, because they had so many that they would need an extra 'special ed' classroom at each grade level to handle them. The local school district liked to use that school as a dumping ground for every kid who had already been kicked out of other schools, which doesn't quite mesh with the schools goal of being a enhanced education better than what the local school district was offering.
The problem became the kids even that school could not handle. It was nearly impossible to kick out the worst offenders because they had already been kicked out everywhere else. They had all been stuck in special education before we had even seen them as well. Eventually the staff psychologist would end up watching 5-10 kids every day, because they were simply to disruptive. Not a task she enjoyed.
Requiring a user, after the fact, to recall an error message is futile. They simple have seen to many varied ones and their brain goes 'oh an error message' not 'oh a 504 error' or 'oh a invalid data type error'. This is when we have to write error handling code to be able to provide a text message, email, or simply a text file that records the details around a crash so you get the robustness you need to fix these types of errors without relying on iffy recall of users.
As an network admin, and closer to your 2nd paragraph, I would spend considerable time filtering fire wall logs for different criteria trying to see things like what sites are most blocked over a week to try to catch these sorts of things without having to have details from users. As strange as it sounds I would hear about connectivity issues often third hand (when they are all in the same building and I had an open door policy). So if I was not actively hunting for these things I knew I'd be having the CEO call me into his office (he never just dropped in to mine) and explain why he keeps hearing people are having issues with 'x' and if I didn't have an answer I'd have to hear him yell at me 'until I did'. I simply could not rely on users to tell me when they had issues or even correctly explain what those issues were.
Not all hikimori (to use the Japenese term) live with their parents. In Japan many hikimori actually go to the 'big city' (ie Tokyo in most cases) trying to get into university and when they fail some of become hikimori living on a stipend form their parents and not leaving their 1-room apartments.
Especially in Japan, but also in other parts of the world, getting into the 'right' school can mean the difference between being 'somebody' and being 'average'. Lots of people are set up to fail if they cannot be 'somebody'.
First, yes I have been in a position to hire people. Second if you actually did search for the video I mentioned, done at a presentation of a Pittsburgh law firm that specializes in visa hires, you would have seen how the ENTIRE point of what they were 'selling' companies on was how to make it impossible to hire an american. It wasn't about qualifications. It wasn't about 'capable, creative, etc.'. It was about specifically excluding anyone from the US for jobs in the US.
If you don't find that absurd then I guess It's unlikely we can ever agree.
Slashdot alone has been collecting anecdotal evidence for... 15 years now...? I think it's been 15 anyways...
There have also been videos of presentations by firms who work in this area that teach companies how not to hire americans (You can google that). If their really was no advantage to hiring H1-B over a US worker, then why would companies go out of their way to disqualify US workers...?
I think they real factor in "recent study suggests, the growth of immigrant workers in American companies helps younger American technical workers" is that the few who do get in as US workers are the top of the crop and the rest simply are left to pick there way through other fields after getting their expensive degrees.
Well using the all mighty interstate commerce clause, this could be considered a federal matter as it bans a company from one state selling in another. I mean one group in one state selling to people in another is sort of the root of 'interstate commerce'.
I believe this is why saturn has no dealerships in my state, but they do in Ohio (next door). Though I've never actually heard that we have such a law in place.
How does "more reserved and less outspoken in groups", "likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people", " observe situations before they participate", and "easily overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement" not make me an introvert? I broke that into a quick "so I don't favor large social gatherings" as an easy summing up of the scope of the concept. I certainly am an introvert, on a personalty survey I'm usually extremely into introversion and hardly register on extroversion. Most personality surveys don't yet support the concept of other extremes.
The 'need to get out more' was about seeing more and varied admins. I've worked for at least a dozen companies so far in my carrier and I've seen a wide range of admins. It had nothing to do with being social per se.
I was a psych minor, I don't think you know what an introvert means if that is your definition...
"The common modern perception is that introverts tend to be more reserved and less outspoken in groups. They often take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, using computers, hiking and fishing. The archetypal artist, writer, sculptor, engineer, composer and inventor are all highly introverted. An introvert is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people, though he or she may enjoy interactions with close friends. Trust is usually an issue of significance: a virtue of utmost importance to an introvert is choosing a worthy companion. They prefer to concentrate on a single activity at a time and like to observe situations before they participate, especially observed in developing children and adolescents. They are more analytical before speaking. Introverts are easily overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement, introversion having even been defined by some in terms of a preference for a quiet, more minimally stimulating environment."
I don't recall anything in that modern definition as relating to 'expressing feelings' or 'sharing'.
One place I was working for had the 'if it uses electricity it's IT' attitude, it's how I suddenly had to be support for the phone system... Not a VOIP system, but an honest to god phone system with electrical switching. They went so far as to cancel their support contract from the phone company. My reply of 'I'm not a electrician or a phone tech!' didn't do any good what so ever.
I am a systems administrator. While I am an introvert (so I don't favor large social gatherings), I do actually have both CS and business degrees and have a broad specialization. I've also never intentionally reduced anyone to tears...
I saw it referenced that way after the pre-E3 'it will play TV!' showing MS did for the xbox one and the name was announced. This went with the 'mostly on' locked down DRM scheme that they announced at the same time, but just couldn't get their collective stories straight.
You have the money to sue a big corporation? Wow... You must be rich.
Seriously, you know what happens when a corp wants to use your music, movie, or illustration and it isn't owned by another company? Typically they just use it. They may offer you a token sum, but usually that's after they have already used your material. Don't want to settle? Good luck spending the next decade in court.
Copyright is for those with money. Which is basically corporations and those who run them.
Kent state as I remember it was the national guard, not the US military per se. It was also a largely peaceful demonstration until the cops moved in and then things escalated. Even when it came to gun fire form the guard (& no one knows for sure why they fired) only 29 of 77 guardsmen would actually do it.
Slashdot Mirror
The US would look radically different if it was a direct democracy and reallly there would probably be a good chance of some sort of ACA being inacted given that the house/senate would be the voting public as a whole.
We would also have a radically different form of lobbying... Though executive and judicial branches would likely remain.... However without an example of a real direct democracy it is hard to say what the real effect would be.
From my time as the network admin (and defacto director of technology as the 'highest' official IT position) for a school district, I can guess how things went. The rest of the administrators likely had no clue that it even takes people to setup the devices when they arrive, let alone thought to budget for such.
When I was working for the school (pre-tablet days) they wanted to replace two very old 'mobile labs' of laptops that could be moved around rather than relying on static machines taking up lots of space in general classrooms. I looked at current options and suggested a two part plan: Netbooks (to lower overall costs) and a campus-wide wireless network. The plan was approved for the netbooks and I assumed was for the wireless as well, however I was kept busy planning for the deployment of the netbooks with the vendor and couldn't keep an eye on the wireless part that was needed to really make it work. Then the netbooks arrived and I asked about the status of the wireless (which was supposed to be handled by a contractor in my plan), since I had not heard anything about that end of things. Well it turns out they hadn't bothered to approve that part as it was 'expensive' for something 'unneeded'. I then had to explain the netbooks were near useless without wireless connectivity. So they gave me a $300 budget and said 'Do something about it'. So yeah... great wireless solution for $300. Definitely not the planned for campus wide setup I had planned.
I think a good 'fix' to alot of issues would be that while you can horde your money all you want while alive, you cannot give more than a average years wage to any adult offspring or other person (outside a wife/husband who you have mutual accounts with). Once both parts of a couple pass away the joint properties must be liquidated (offspring can pay for any items they wish to keep). If you want to create a legacy you need to donate these funds to the general good in some way. This levels the playing field for kids of someone rich and or famous. They must succeed or fail on their own.
If you combine this with eliminating private education on favor of public education we should see improved public schools bringing up the education level of all students instead of a few chosen offspring.
I have no thoughts on how to fix the rich getting their kids a job with a 'friend's business', but if I had an idea for it I'd at that in as well.
I've done 120 mph with my '95 Nissan Sentra when I owned it... And later with a Dodge Dakota pickup... And even a twice with my current '99 LHS. Not a one anything designed for 'racing'... None in Cali either... Late night (2 am ish) on the interstate in most eastern states in the US are pretty bare...
My personal experience has been I could stand on a chair and wave my arms as I shouted about it and if it either costs them money or inconveniences them in the slightest (even if that is just not being able to use 'god' as their password) then they refuse to listen. Then if their is a security issue they blame you for not 'fixing' it.
Another factor which relates to the cost of employees is health care costs. I've been working with the IT department of a university for awhile and starting this summer they gave all their employees over 50 a early retirement option because they simply 'cost to much in health insurance costs' and 'were inflating the health insurance fees for younger staff'.
This was at a 'state financed' university, so professor contracts are handled at the state level. The state has also created a split budget system for the universities. One budget covers the costs of running and maintaining the school. The other budget is for new construction or reconstruction of old buildings. The second budget is now higher than the first and the university cannot use funds from the bigger one on things covered by the smaller one. Hence each semester there they demolish an old building from the 70's and rebuild it as a modern structure. To add to this the state has recently told the school that they have to many classrooms and should demolish more buildings with no replacements. Which is funny as their class sizes have gone up to the point where 100 level classes have upwards of 70 students in each class and there are few rooms that can hold them.
When I graduated high school I had looked at attending this particular university and tuition then was ~$6000/year (that was '96) it is now $15k/year.
Well by canon only 3-4 Gallifreyans are sort of left... The Doctor's old nemesis is supposed to have died... again. His wife/amy pond's daughter, ie River Song, is supposed to be dead, but did regenerate at least twice. He does have a cloned daughter who we saw a couple years ago and dissapeared. Though she would have to be reintroduced after all this time (I was hoping for a spin off then).
There is already a massive problem where fairly normal active boys get stuck in special education because boys are more likely to be disruptive than girls. If you look at special education numbers they tend to be at least 10:1 male:female, if not higher. This is already where problem kids go. Though most special education teachers realize only a handful of these kids actually have issues learning.
The problem is taking care of special education kids costs at least 5 times what normal kids do. Which makes this an expensive option. The school I use to work for as their network admin eventually decided to keep special ed kids in the classrooms for the majority of the day, because they had so many that they would need an extra 'special ed' classroom at each grade level to handle them. The local school district liked to use that school as a dumping ground for every kid who had already been kicked out of other schools, which doesn't quite mesh with the schools goal of being a enhanced education better than what the local school district was offering.
The problem became the kids even that school could not handle. It was nearly impossible to kick out the worst offenders because they had already been kicked out everywhere else. They had all been stuck in special education before we had even seen them as well. Eventually the staff psychologist would end up watching 5-10 kids every day, because they were simply to disruptive. Not a task she enjoyed.
You forgot the War of 1812... You know the one where we invaded British Canada...
Requiring a user, after the fact, to recall an error message is futile. They simple have seen to many varied ones and their brain goes 'oh an error message' not 'oh a 504 error' or 'oh a invalid data type error'. This is when we have to write error handling code to be able to provide a text message, email, or simply a text file that records the details around a crash so you get the robustness you need to fix these types of errors without relying on iffy recall of users.
As an network admin, and closer to your 2nd paragraph, I would spend considerable time filtering fire wall logs for different criteria trying to see things like what sites are most blocked over a week to try to catch these sorts of things without having to have details from users. As strange as it sounds I would hear about connectivity issues often third hand (when they are all in the same building and I had an open door policy). So if I was not actively hunting for these things I knew I'd be having the CEO call me into his office (he never just dropped in to mine) and explain why he keeps hearing people are having issues with 'x' and if I didn't have an answer I'd have to hear him yell at me 'until I did'. I simply could not rely on users to tell me when they had issues or even correctly explain what those issues were.
Not all hikimori (to use the Japenese term) live with their parents. In Japan many hikimori actually go to the 'big city' (ie Tokyo in most cases) trying to get into university and when they fail some of become hikimori living on a stipend form their parents and not leaving their 1-room apartments.
Especially in Japan, but also in other parts of the world, getting into the 'right' school can mean the difference between being 'somebody' and being 'average'. Lots of people are set up to fail if they cannot be 'somebody'.
Oh please...
First, yes I have been in a position to hire people. Second if you actually did search for the video I mentioned, done at a presentation of a Pittsburgh law firm that specializes in visa hires, you would have seen how the ENTIRE point of what they were 'selling' companies on was how to make it impossible to hire an american. It wasn't about qualifications. It wasn't about 'capable, creative, etc.'. It was about specifically excluding anyone from the US for jobs in the US.
If you don't find that absurd then I guess It's unlikely we can ever agree.
Slashdot alone has been collecting anecdotal evidence for... 15 years now...? I think it's been 15 anyways...
There have also been videos of presentations by firms who work in this area that teach companies how not to hire americans (You can google that). If their really was no advantage to hiring H1-B over a US worker, then why would companies go out of their way to disqualify US workers...?
I think they real factor in "recent study suggests, the growth of immigrant workers in American companies helps younger American technical workers" is that the few who do get in as US workers are the top of the crop and the rest simply are left to pick there way through other fields after getting their expensive degrees.
Well using the all mighty interstate commerce clause, this could be considered a federal matter as it bans a company from one state selling in another. I mean one group in one state selling to people in another is sort of the root of 'interstate commerce'.
I believe this is why saturn has no dealerships in my state, but they do in Ohio (next door). Though I've never actually heard that we have such a law in place.
Auew you do, if you were smart by then you move into politics.
This is what I get for replying on my tablet... autocorrect for the fail...
As in: I'm probably not the only one who doesn't fit in someones nice cookie cutter of a 'sysadmin'.
How does "more reserved and less outspoken in groups", "likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people", " observe situations before they participate", and "easily overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement" not make me an introvert? I broke that into a quick "so I don't favor large social gatherings" as an easy summing up of the scope of the concept. I certainly am an introvert, on a personalty survey I'm usually extremely into introversion and hardly register on extroversion. Most personality surveys don't yet support the concept of other extremes.
The 'need to get out more' was about seeing more and varied admins. I've worked for at least a dozen companies so far in my carrier and I've seen a wide range of admins. It had nothing to do with being social per se.
I was a psych minor, I don't think you know what an introvert means if that is your definition...
"The common modern perception is that introverts tend to be more reserved and less outspoken in groups. They often take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, using computers, hiking and fishing. The archetypal artist, writer, sculptor, engineer, composer and inventor are all highly introverted. An introvert is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people, though he or she may enjoy interactions with close friends. Trust is usually an issue of significance: a virtue of utmost importance to an introvert is choosing a worthy companion. They prefer to concentrate on a single activity at a time and like to observe situations before they participate, especially observed in developing children and adolescents. They are more analytical before speaking. Introverts are easily overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement, introversion having even been defined by some in terms of a preference for a quiet, more minimally stimulating environment."
I don't recall anything in that modern definition as relating to 'expressing feelings' or 'sharing'.
One place I was working for had the 'if it uses electricity it's IT' attitude, it's how I suddenly had to be support for the phone system... Not a VOIP system, but an honest to god phone system with electrical switching. They went so far as to cancel their support contract from the phone company. My reply of 'I'm not a electrician or a phone tech!' didn't do any good what so ever.
Well then you need to get out more...
I am a systems administrator. While I am an introvert (so I don't favor large social gatherings), I do actually have both CS and business degrees and have a broad specialization. I've also never intentionally reduced anyone to tears...
I saw it referenced that way after the pre-E3 'it will play TV!' showing MS did for the xbox one and the name was announced. This went with the 'mostly on' locked down DRM scheme that they announced at the same time, but just couldn't get their collective stories straight.
You have the money to sue a big corporation? Wow... You must be rich.
Seriously, you know what happens when a corp wants to use your music, movie, or illustration and it isn't owned by another company? Typically they just use it. They may offer you a token sum, but usually that's after they have already used your material. Don't want to settle? Good luck spending the next decade in court.
Copyright is for those with money. Which is basically corporations and those who run them.
Kent state as I remember it was the national guard, not the US military per se. It was also a largely peaceful demonstration until the cops moved in and then things escalated. Even when it came to gun fire form the guard (& no one knows for sure why they fired) only 29 of 77 guardsmen would actually do it.