I've worked with indian programmers and they are decent to good.
Couple points. 1) Yes the indian system is so hard that many commit suicide. The japanese used to do this to, once their standard of living came up they got lazy like americans and said, Why are we sacrificing our children to advance- we have advanced far enough. 2) Yes the indian system is hard, so we are seeing the best and brightest- there are only so many best and brightest- as a result wage increases of 18% were observed last year. 3) At that rage, we see loss of savings in 4 years and wage PARITY in 12 years or less. 4) The u.s. will not be a 3rd world country in 12 years. 5) Asia is not going to continue advancing forward without some kind of a setback. And the last time they had a setback in China, they killed about 95% of the people with any kind of education.
So... Wages will rise there (yea!) India will have to deal with hyperinflation- taxes will skyrocket, the cost of kheer will go through the roof (It'll be 5 bucks a serving like it is here). Some programmer jobs will continue to require american programmers and american business is going to have to face up to the fact that they are destroying that class of jobs- when they need them back, they'll be expensive to fill - and it won't get better because our population of workers is dropping now and will continue to drop for the next 15 years. After a mild recession next year and a harsh recession in 2010, 2011, it's going to be pretty nice for about 5 years.
6) Indian companies engage in very blatant age discrimination- so I expect they'll start dumping their guys as they approach 40 or 45 just like americans do. --- But he is right- outsourcing works often. But it is sold as saving 50% of cost sand it is looking like it is really saving 15% as projects are being delivered- still a huge amount but very little inflation will close that gap.
And finally- business is lying it's ass off to american programmers- the line is "You be the senior and they will do the code" but any fool can see, in 3 years business things "and then you'll be gone and they'll be the senior coders.
I listen to classic rock- even 80's rock and you hear all kinds of wierd opening bars, strange instruments, real experimentation trying for a new sound.
Today's songs I can listen to for 30 seconds before I can tell which particular song I'm listening to.
How do i put this...
They are not even good enough to download for free. The only time I hear them is in the car driving to work.
The most recent music I am -buying- is coming out of new places like Magnatune.
But, if I -was- buying CD's, I'd never ever buy another SONY CD again. As it is, they are one of two companies out of the entire universe which I boycott (The other is Domino's for political/religious reasons- their pizza's and service were great- I heartily recommend Domino's to folks who are against any form of abortion and who are right wing religious types- just not my thing).
Microsoft, who I think of as a fairly scammy company with touches of outright evil, doesn't make the boycott bar in part because of absolutely -steller- customer service they gave me in 1999. Yea, I like linux and java, but I've also got a winxp and win2k box here.
Sony, tho, they just keep pushing my buttons - the biggest was an absolutely horrid customer service incident in 2002- you havn't lived til customer service insults you instead of helping you and their supervisor doesn't care. But now with the CD thing they crossed the line from merely being irritating to being actively dangerous to my welfare since I earn my money using computers. The thought that I could -legally- purchase their product and it could destroy my computer and they did it all on the sly means that I will never purchase another sony product again. Period. I hope they get nailed to the wall and have to pay for any clean reinstalls that folks have to pay pc techs to do for them. Hundred million pc's at 70 bucks a piece would be more than fair.
But as far as today's music goes- I'm open to new good music- there just isnt any on the radio, or mtv, or any of that crap. The words change but the basic chords stay the same. It's so bad that a couple summers ago at the beach, a friend and I were humming the songs (and in some cases the words) to songs that we had never heard before. It was freaking our friend out- but we were not some kind of super brains- the music and lyrics were just that cliche'd/trite/predictable.
Finally... on a philosophical basis, I don't think a) I should pay $16 for a CD that my competitor in india/china/etc. is sold for $2.49 and then she/he gets to take my job working for a fraction of the salary. b) I don't think any copyright over 28 years is valid- everything older than 28 years is an immoral law that the corporations bought from corrupt politicians. c) I don't think anyone particularly deserves to get rich off a 3 minute song when I don't get paid royalties for my software after I leave a company. d) Given my irritation with the above facts, I just find alternative ways. d.1 listen to new music that's free. d.2 record music off the radio into mp3's (legal!) d.3 buy used cd's d.4 do other things d.5 call "BULLSHIT" and download old stuff if I can't get it conveniently and legally.
--- But back on topic, the songs are crap, and we are much busier than even 15 years ago. Since music is too expensive, it gets crowded out by cheaper entertainment. Since there are thousands of bands instead of hundreds, I have a lot more to choose from- and price is a factor in what I choose.
Large companies are slow and stupid. You can spend months doing nothing and then they act like something is an emergency and then before it is finished, it's dropped and something new is chosen. Assuming all does go well, you suffer a huge productivity hit.
I was at small companies christmas party tonight and I asked about how long it would take them to make a 100 line change to production that involved adding a new column to the database.
They replied, as I remembered from my small company days, oh about 2 hours-- another said half a day. I told them (and it obviously shocked them) that it took 4 months at a large corporation. There are too many steps to go into, but it is a stutter step of forms to fill, required estimation of the size of the project, impact analysis (even if you know there is none), approval of the pmo office, more required forms, required kickoff meetings, (actual coding & testing), required weekly status meetings, required regression testing, approval of the database team, coordination with our outside hardware partners. Sarbanes Oxley can be responsible for about 1 month of that - the pmo office can be another month of that.
It is truly horrible. But yes, you still have career programmers because they are tired of spending their personal time to self train a few nights a week and really just want a pension and a stable job. It can be stable until this offshoring crap started- until inflation makes offshoring a bad deal (in 3-4 years) it piles on top of all the other horrible stuff.
But hey, it's a job- it pays okay as long as you leap to each new tech, and it can take months before the large company lays folks off if it decides it wants to do so today. They just don't want the risk. So they have you document everything and train your offshore replacement before they let you go. So you keep racing to take on new responsibilities so they can't let you go. And so on.
It's pretty straight forward. Why the hell else does INFOSYS have to have your EXACT HIGH SCHOOL graduation date on your resume? They don't care about your college graduation date. It's behavior that deserves the appropriate response-- to flat out lie and add a few years to your high school graduation date. Along with dying your hair and any other trick you can figure out.
I've dodged it so far- leaping to each new technology. I'm saving about 50% of my salary tho because I know it's coming despite everything I do.
It starts at 45- and progresses through 55. A few make it past there. You have much better luck at large corporations. There is absolutely no security in this field- you should spend and save accordingly.
But young people are BOTH cheap AND will/able/stupid enough/ to work for 60 hours a week. They havn't yet seen their managers getting huge bonuses and promotions while they were given a half day off after working 6 straight 72 hour weeks to get a new system in.
Old guys know if the company needs you to work 72 hours, that means that they -really- needed 2 programmers. When you figure in the 90k plus for a senior programmer for the much lower salary of a college guy- it always seems like a bargain to management (even if it takes a team of 8 old guys 3 years to clean up the latest non-standard, undocumented mess, delivered on time/under budget by the hot shot dev team- if it was indeed delivered and not canceled because it turned out part of it was impossible and no one had the experience to realize that).
And now we have the 'better than new guys' people around the world currently able to live well on 10k a year- sure they have 18% inflation so it won't be but about 12 years til the make as much as we do (and maybe 4 years until it's not worth it to offshore to them).
The fact is, programming is NOT a career like plumbing or being an electrician. Every 5-7 years you need to spend 90 days learning a completely new skill set and somehow finding that first project in the new skill set, or you are dumped off the train.
It's part of why I focus on java- I have hopes that maybe it will be around 15 years. But even it changes fast- html->jsp's->struts->JSF in just a few short years with python nipping at it's heals for small projects.
The last programmer I saw shoved out of the field was selling tickets at a movie theatre when I saw him a few months later. A lot just retire. That's what I'm aggressively saving towards. I just need to some how make it another 3 years and I'll be okay- if I make it another 5 years, I'll be fairly okay. If I make it the entire 11 years, then I will retire in style at 55.
Oh, your the person I had to argue with the last time I was on a jury.
She kept saying, "But the defense hasn't PROVED that he's innocent so he should go to jail."
The rest of us were aghast and said, "Lady, this isn't france, the prosecution has to PROVE he's guilty here. If there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt, then he is innocent!"
However, perhaps you are from a country where guilt is presumed. The defendent in this case appears to be in america.
Jeez man, you don't know anything- a good hooker (hell even a bad hooker) is a lot more expensive than a girlfriend- tho a ton cheaper than an "ex-wife."
You have to be rich to get the best quality prostitutes. Those are the ones who don't even realize it themselves- you know the 22 year olds that really "fall in love" with a bald, fat, ugly 68 year old guy (who always just happen to be incredibly rich.) I hear that it's a growing market for young guys and older, yet rich, ladies as well.
Then you get tired of being poor and having trouble keeping a relationship because you are poor.
With a few exceptions, you are going to need more like 80k if you buy into consumer society at all. If you really are happy with a 27 inch TV, living in a cheap apartment with tatty furniture, riding public transportation, never going on those skiing or rafting trips with friends, or going out to big events, never having really sharp clothing, and being low status then you are a saint and can probably retire well on a 30k income. If you are at all normal tho, you'll have a car ($20k+), a house ($120k+), eat out ($3k per year), etc.
While you might find "miracle spouse", money is way ahead of sex for breaking up relationships. So if you work on that low salary, you'll have more arguements, struggle a lot more if you have kids, etc.
You can be as good as you want programming, but MANY good programmers are forced out of the field once they hit their 50's. Age discrimination is rampant in the field- I -STILL- see ads for "YOUNG, dynamic individual" which by rights should get the company sued left, right, and sideways. Most are smart enough to say "dynamic individual willing to work long hours" as a way to get around the age issue while letting you know they really care about the age issue. As a good example, INFOSYS, is very pointed about wanting to know your EXACT HIGH SCHOOL graduation date. That's the new way businesses are getting around the age issue since everyone learned to dye their hair before interviewing.
Anyway, my point is that it is very romantic to be poor when young but it gets old.
No statues of christ in piss. No publicly funded groups of musicians who play ancient music. No 300 million dollar bridges across a bay to 50 people. No 55 million dollar high schools closed down 7 years after built. No publicly funed but PRIVATE pension plans for "public" servants which pay more per year in benefits than I'll ever earn as a salary. No 10% annual tax increases when I'm getting no pay increase because they -say- that my house is worth more now. No private 70 thousand dollar roads on public servants properties. No viagra pills for convicted rapists. No public funds for "homeless" who never worked a day in their life even tho they were physically capable (fortunately, Clinton put an end to most of that nonsense.)
Your examples are great-- the problem is that is probably about 50% of our tax burden. The other 50% is wasted, leached away by corruption.
I think taxes should be limited to 25% of your income- once you hit the cap, you are done. You get to decide what you do NOT want to fund if you are taxed over that level. Our politicians are spending money like there was no limit and they are destroying the country for our children and they don't seem to care. Could it be that many are fundies who feel like James Watt (Reagan era Interior guy) that we are "in the end times" and so we don't need to be concerned about the next generation.
I agree. Every time I have looked up lyrics (maybe seven or eight so far) I would have gladly paid 3 million dollars for them. So my acts have already cost them 21 to 24 million dollars.
The level of remorse I am feeling cannot be described with words. Jail time isn't what I deserve, I should probably just be shot or forced into indentured servitude or slavery. That would put a stop to my larcenous behavior.
Not really. There's been an enormous change since the 1960's.
Some kids might have seen the same things then but most did not. Now most do and some do not.
I imagine the change is even larger since the 1950's. When it was only available as printed material it was a lot harder to come by. I stumbled on my first about 16. HBO, Showtime, Skinimax were all invented after I was a teen so no stumbling on late night naught stuff.
The mainstream really was pretty squeeky clean back then and isn't today.
At some point, all these files floating around for free on the net are going to start sounding pretty crappy, and the DRM files will be the only ones that will be the MUST HAVE rage.
And that's the basic flaw. As of about 7-8 years ago, it all got "good enough". Most people don't care about having higher resolution, higher quality- because it's "good enough". Only video and audiophiles notice or care about any improvements at this point.
DVD is "good enough" so why should i pay for the same movies again?
MP3's and FLAC are "good enough" so why buy it for something new.
Plus I can't see how you are going to have a new technology improve "Duke of Earl". You might improve a new song but 99% of new studio songs are very repetative and boring these days.
Hell yes. I think there should be constant audio and video survellence both inside and outside your car (put a camera on each seat) as well as a monitor on your speedometer- if you happen to go 1mph over the speed limit.. or more than 10mph below it then automatically send you a small ticket. If you are talking on the cell phone while the car is in motion- send you a ticket. If you forget to buckle up before the car is put in gear send you a ticket. If you engage in carnal acts in the car- well that's basically a public place (I mean you are doing them on camera!) so you should probably be arrested- you know I'm sure there are still many states where oral sex is still considered sodomy and illegal (and if not now.. perhaps in a few years when the baby boomers start to get too old to enjoy sex).
Why stop with the car? You should have total surveillance at work (I mean if you are doing your job, you have nothing to fear right?) as well as in the house in case you show terrorist tendencies they can backtrack all your contacts.
In fact, every time you meet or talk to someone, it should send record that fact so they can backtrack all your contacts in case you later do something bad. You shouldn't have any problem with this unless you are doing something bad of course.
Wow- we could eliminate all crime if we just put people into 10'x10' rooms under constant supervision and surveillance! It's a good idea since we know that people are going to eat and drink unhealthily and get sick on OUR DIME. Since we have to pay for their illness we should have complete control of them (and they of us!)
A divorced mother of 5 who is reasonably likely to have had no clue that this was happening makes it clearer than a single male mcse living alone in an apartment.
The holes in the law are not clear until they encounter the correct test case.
And the poster seemed to be saying that we should follow laws just because they are the law and clearly many great thinkers believe that is not a good idea.
All reasonable arguments to have control of them for at most about 28 years. I'm sure that puts the most of those inventions out of patent & original copyrights (tho not perhaps today's immoral er... immortal copyrights)
After which time the question becomes, "what have you done for us lately?"
That being said, I'm a strong supporter of multiple DNS namespaces. With today's bandwidth and personal computer power there is no reason to have one company own the address book.
And there are already free alternate DNS's that support new top level domains. They provide an entirely alternate internet which can't even be browsed if ICANN's DNS is the only one you are using.
I think DNS should be like a classpath. You start with ICANN's but add as many as you want after that. Your computer trys them in order until it gets a hit. Each DNS makes reasonable efforts to avoid stepping on each other with namespaces since it knows the one first in the path will get the hit.
Slashdot Mirror
Last year's average wage inflation in india was 18%.
I would call that a "sharp rise" if I got that on my salary.
Most of what you say is true.
I've worked with indian programmers and they are decent to good.
Couple points.
1) Yes the indian system is so hard that many commit suicide. The japanese used to do this to, once their standard of living came up they got lazy like americans and said, Why are we sacrificing our children to advance- we have advanced far enough.
2) Yes the indian system is hard, so we are seeing the best and brightest- there are only so many best and brightest- as a result wage increases of 18% were observed last year.
3) At that rage, we see loss of savings in 4 years and wage PARITY in 12 years or less.
4) The u.s. will not be a 3rd world country in 12 years.
5) Asia is not going to continue advancing forward without some kind of a setback. And the last time they had a setback in China, they killed about 95% of the people with any kind of education.
So...
Wages will rise there (yea!)
India will have to deal with hyperinflation- taxes will skyrocket, the cost of kheer will go through the roof (It'll be 5 bucks a serving like it is here).
Some programmer jobs will continue to require american programmers and american business is going to have to face up to the fact that they are destroying that class of jobs- when they need them back, they'll be expensive to fill - and it won't get better because our population of workers is dropping now and will continue to drop for the next 15 years. After a mild recession next year and a harsh recession in 2010, 2011, it's going to be pretty nice for about 5 years.
6) Indian companies engage in very blatant age discrimination- so I expect they'll start dumping their guys as they approach 40 or 45 just like americans do.
---
But he is right- outsourcing works often. But it is sold as saving 50% of cost sand it is looking like it is really saving 15% as projects are being delivered- still a huge amount but very little inflation will close that gap.
And finally- business is lying it's ass off to american programmers- the line is "You be the senior and they will do the code" but any fool can see, in 3 years business things "and then you'll be gone and they'll be the senior coders.
I listen to classic rock- even 80's rock and you hear all kinds of wierd opening bars, strange instruments, real experimentation trying for a new sound.
...
Today's songs I can listen to for 30 seconds before I can tell which particular song I'm listening to.
How do i put this
They are not even good enough to download for free. The only time I hear them is in the car driving to work.
The most recent music I am -buying- is coming out of new places like Magnatune.
But, if I -was- buying CD's, I'd never ever buy another SONY CD again. As it is, they are one of two companies out of the entire universe which I boycott (The other is Domino's for political/religious reasons- their pizza's and service were great- I heartily recommend Domino's to folks who are against any form of abortion and who are right wing religious types- just not my thing).
Microsoft, who I think of as a fairly scammy company with touches of outright evil, doesn't make the boycott bar in part because of absolutely -steller- customer service they gave me in 1999. Yea, I like linux and java, but I've also got a winxp and win2k box here.
Sony, tho, they just keep pushing my buttons - the biggest was an absolutely horrid customer service incident in 2002- you havn't lived til customer service insults you instead of helping you and their supervisor doesn't care. But now with the CD thing they crossed the line from merely being irritating to being actively dangerous to my welfare since I earn my money using computers. The thought that I could -legally- purchase their product and it could destroy my computer and they did it all on the sly means that I will never purchase another sony product again. Period. I hope they get nailed to the wall and have to pay for any clean reinstalls that folks have to pay pc techs to do for them. Hundred million pc's at 70 bucks a piece would be more than fair.
But as far as today's music goes- I'm open to new good music- there just isnt any on the radio, or mtv, or any of that crap. The words change but the basic chords stay the same. It's so bad that a couple summers ago at the beach, a friend and I were humming the songs (and in some cases the words) to songs that we had never heard before. It was freaking our friend out- but we were not some kind of super brains- the music and lyrics were just that cliche'd/trite/predictable.
Finally... on a philosophical basis, I don't think
a) I should pay $16 for a CD that my competitor in india/china/etc. is sold for $2.49 and then she/he gets to take my job working for a fraction of the salary.
b) I don't think any copyright over 28 years is valid- everything older than 28 years is an immoral law that the corporations bought from corrupt politicians.
c) I don't think anyone particularly deserves to get rich off a 3 minute song when I don't get paid royalties for my software after I leave a company.
d) Given my irritation with the above facts, I just find alternative ways.
d.1 listen to new music that's free.
d.2 record music off the radio into mp3's (legal!)
d.3 buy used cd's
d.4 do other things
d.5 call "BULLSHIT" and download old stuff if I can't get it conveniently and legally.
---
But back on topic, the songs are crap, and we are much busier than even 15 years ago. Since music is too expensive, it gets crowded out by cheaper entertainment. Since there are thousands of bands instead of hundreds, I have a lot more to choose from- and price is a factor in what I choose.
I agree with both of you.
Large companies are slow and stupid. You can spend months doing nothing and then they act like something is an emergency and then before it is finished, it's dropped and something new is chosen. Assuming all does go well, you suffer a huge productivity hit.
I was at small companies christmas party tonight and I asked about how long it would take them to make a 100 line change to production that involved adding a new column to the database.
They replied, as I remembered from my small company days, oh about 2 hours-- another said half a day. I told them (and it obviously shocked them) that it took 4 months at a large corporation. There are too many steps to go into, but it is a stutter step of forms to fill, required estimation of the size of the project, impact analysis (even if you know there is none), approval of the pmo office, more required forms, required kickoff meetings, (actual coding & testing), required weekly status meetings, required regression testing, approval of the database team, coordination with our outside hardware partners. Sarbanes Oxley can be responsible for about 1 month of that - the pmo office can be another month of that.
It is truly horrible. But yes, you still have career programmers because they are tired of spending their personal time to self train a few nights a week and really just want a pension and a stable job. It can be stable until this offshoring crap started- until inflation makes offshoring a bad deal (in 3-4 years) it piles on top of all the other horrible stuff.
But hey, it's a job- it pays okay as long as you leap to each new tech, and it can take months before the large company lays folks off if it decides it wants to do so today. They just don't want the risk. So they have you document everything and train your offshore replacement before they let you go. So you keep racing to take on new responsibilities so they can't let you go. And so on.
It's pretty straight forward. Why the hell else does INFOSYS have to have your EXACT HIGH SCHOOL graduation date on your resume? They don't care about your college graduation date. It's behavior that deserves the appropriate response-- to flat out lie and add a few years to your high school graduation date. Along with dying your hair and any other trick you can figure out.
I've dodged it so far- leaping to each new technology. I'm saving about 50% of my salary tho because I know it's coming despite everything I do.
It starts at 45- and progresses through 55. A few make it past there. You have much better luck at large corporations. There is absolutely no security in this field- you should spend and save accordingly.
But young people are BOTH cheap AND will/able/stupid enough/ to work for 60 hours a week. They havn't yet seen their managers getting huge bonuses and promotions while they were given a half day off after working 6 straight 72 hour weeks to get a new system in.
Old guys know if the company needs you to work 72 hours, that means that they -really- needed 2 programmers. When you figure in the 90k plus for a senior programmer for the much lower salary of a college guy- it always seems like a bargain to management (even if it takes a team of 8 old guys 3 years to clean up the latest non-standard, undocumented mess, delivered on time/under budget by the hot shot dev team- if it was indeed delivered and not canceled because it turned out part of it was impossible and no one had the experience to realize that).
And now we have the 'better than new guys' people around the world currently able to live well on 10k a year- sure they have 18% inflation so it won't be but about 12 years til the make as much as we do (and maybe 4 years until it's not worth it to offshore to them).
The fact is, programming is NOT a career like plumbing or being an electrician. Every 5-7 years you need to spend 90 days learning a completely new skill set and somehow finding that first project in the new skill set, or you are dumped off the train.
It's part of why I focus on java- I have hopes that maybe it will be around 15 years. But even it changes fast- html->jsp's->struts->JSF in just a few short years with python nipping at it's heals for small projects.
The last programmer I saw shoved out of the field was selling tickets at a movie theatre when I saw him a few months later. A lot just retire. That's what I'm aggressively saving towards. I just need to some how make it another 3 years and I'll be okay- if I make it another 5 years, I'll be fairly okay. If I make it the entire 11 years, then I will retire in style at 55.
All they had to do was torrent af few copies out- no need to blow their own bandwidth or force people to use IGN file networks.
And where is finland going to be getting the money to pay for this?
... who's going to be paying for this again?
And where are the ISP's going to get the money to pay for this?
So for 50 bonus mod points,
Oh, your the person I had to argue with the last time I was on a jury.
She kept saying, "But the defense hasn't PROVED that he's innocent so he should go to jail."
The rest of us were aghast and said, "Lady, this isn't france, the prosecution has to PROVE he's guilty here. If there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt, then he is innocent!"
However, perhaps you are from a country where guilt is presumed. The defendent in this case appears to be in america.
Jeez man, you don't know anything- a good hooker (hell even a bad hooker) is a lot more expensive than a girlfriend- tho a ton cheaper than an "ex-wife."
You have to be rich to get the best quality prostitutes. Those are the ones who don't even realize it themselves- you know the 22 year olds that really "fall in love" with a bald, fat, ugly 68 year old guy (who always just happen to be incredibly rich.) I hear that it's a growing market for young guys and older, yet rich, ladies as well.
That feeling lasts until about your late 20's.
Then you get tired of being poor and having trouble keeping a relationship because you are poor.
With a few exceptions, you are going to need more like 80k if you buy into consumer society at all. If you really are happy with a 27 inch TV, living in a cheap apartment with tatty furniture, riding public transportation, never going on those skiing or rafting trips with friends, or going out to big events, never having really sharp clothing, and being low status then you are a saint and can probably retire well on a 30k income. If you are at all normal tho, you'll have a car ($20k+), a house ($120k+), eat out ($3k per year), etc.
While you might find "miracle spouse", money is way ahead of sex for breaking up relationships. So if you work on that low salary, you'll have more arguements, struggle a lot more if you have kids, etc.
You can be as good as you want programming, but MANY good programmers are forced out of the field once they hit their 50's. Age discrimination is rampant in the field- I -STILL- see ads for "YOUNG, dynamic individual" which by rights should get the company sued left, right, and sideways. Most are smart enough to say "dynamic individual willing to work long hours" as a way to get around the age issue while letting you know they really care about the age issue. As a good example, INFOSYS, is very pointed about wanting to know your EXACT HIGH SCHOOL graduation date. That's the new way businesses are getting around the age issue since everyone learned to dye their hair before interviewing.
Anyway, my point is that it is very romantic to be poor when young but it gets old.
No statues of christ in piss.
No publicly funded groups of musicians who play ancient music.
No 300 million dollar bridges across a bay to 50 people.
No 55 million dollar high schools closed down 7 years after built.
No publicly funed but PRIVATE pension plans for "public" servants which pay more per year in benefits than I'll ever earn as a salary.
No 10% annual tax increases when I'm getting no pay increase because they -say- that my house is worth more now.
No private 70 thousand dollar roads on public servants properties.
No viagra pills for convicted rapists.
No public funds for "homeless" who never worked a day in their life even tho they were physically capable (fortunately, Clinton put an end to most of that nonsense.)
Your examples are great-- the problem is that is probably about 50% of our tax burden. The other 50% is wasted, leached away by corruption.
I think taxes should be limited to 25% of your income- once you hit the cap, you are done. You get to decide what you do NOT want to fund if you are taxed over that level. Our politicians are spending money like there was no limit and they are destroying the country for our children and they don't seem to care. Could it be that many are fundies who feel like James Watt (Reagan era Interior guy) that we are "in the end times" and so we don't need to be concerned about the next generation.
Democracy is about people agreeing that you win some, you lose some and if you win or lose you won't kill everyone who disagrees with you.
I'd buy it today for $100.
I don't even need to think much about it at $200.
I'm drooling over this computer.
Sure, it won't do what my 700 dollar p4 3.0 with 600 gigs & a 6800OC card will but it is useful in several cases where my p4 isn't.
I don't kara what you call it oke?
I agree. Every time I have looked up lyrics (maybe seven or eight so far) I would have gladly paid 3 million dollars for them. So my acts have already cost them 21 to 24 million dollars.
The level of remorse I am feeling cannot be described with words. Jail time isn't what I deserve, I should probably just be shot or forced into indentured servitude or slavery. That would put a stop to my larcenous behavior.
Imagine if they applied this to other adult activities.
1) It must be safe for a child to drive a car.
2) Then adults will be considered.
1) It must be safe for children to surf the net unsupervised.
2) Then adults will be considered.
1) It must be safe for a child to play professional football.
2) Then adults will be considered.
Not really. There's been an enormous change since the 1960's.
Some kids might have seen the same things then but most did not.
Now most do and some do not.
I imagine the change is even larger since the 1950's. When it was only available as printed material it was a lot harder to come by. I stumbled on my first about 16. HBO, Showtime, Skinimax were all invented after I was a teen so no stumbling on late night naught stuff.
The mainstream really was pretty squeeky clean back then and isn't today.
Unfortunately, they have insurance liability if they don't lock you out and something bad happens.
Because someone, somewhere gave notice and then got mad during the last 2 weeks and did something nasty.
You say
At some point, all these files floating around for free on the net are going to start sounding pretty crappy, and the DRM files will be the only ones that will be the MUST HAVE rage.
And that's the basic flaw. As of about 7-8 years ago, it all got "good enough". Most people don't care about having higher resolution, higher quality- because it's "good enough". Only video and audiophiles notice or care about any improvements at this point.
DVD is "good enough" so why should i pay for the same movies again?
MP3's and FLAC are "good enough" so why buy it for something new.
Plus I can't see how you are going to have a new technology improve "Duke of Earl". You might improve a new song but 99% of new studio songs are very repetative and boring these days.
They are going to save now, and in 2 years, and again 2 year after that.
The conversion costs are a one-time event.
Hell yes. .. or more than 10mph below it then automatically send you a small ticket. If you are talking on the cell phone while the car is in motion- send you a ticket. If you forget to buckle up before the car is put in gear send you a ticket. If you engage in carnal acts in the car- well that's basically a public place (I mean you are doing them on camera!) so you should probably be arrested- you know I'm sure there are still many states where oral sex is still considered sodomy and illegal (and if not now .. perhaps in a few years when the baby boomers start to get too old to enjoy sex).
I think there should be constant audio and video survellence both inside and outside your car (put a camera on each seat) as well as a monitor on your speedometer- if you happen to go 1mph over the speed limit
Why stop with the car? You should have total surveillance at work (I mean if you are doing your job, you have nothing to fear right?) as well as in the house in case you show terrorist tendencies they can backtrack all your contacts.
In fact, every time you meet or talk to someone, it should send record that fact so they can backtrack all your contacts in case you later do something bad. You shouldn't have any problem with this unless you are doing something bad of course.
Wow- we could eliminate all crime if we just put people into 10'x10' rooms under constant supervision and surveillance! It's a good idea since we know that people are going to eat and drink unhealthily and get sick on OUR DIME. Since we have to pay for their illness we should have complete control of them (and they of us!)
Man... for some reason the controllers emitting powerful electric shocks seems really way cool.
Especially if certain game events caused it.
You crashed! ZAP!
You died! ZAP!
Heating issues.
They didn't consider people would block the airflow to the Xbox by putting it in entertainment centers(1) or on deep carpet(2).
1 hard to fix really.
2 could have avoided this problem by moving intakes/outtakes up off the floor or by adding a 1" spacer at the bottom.
A divorced mother of 5 who is reasonably likely to have had no clue that this was happening makes it clearer than a single male mcse living alone in an apartment.
The holes in the law are not clear until they encounter the correct test case.
And the poster seemed to be saying that we should follow laws just because they are the law and clearly many great thinkers believe that is not a good idea.
All reasonable arguments to have control of them for at most about 28 years. I'm sure that puts the most of those inventions out of patent & original copyrights (tho not perhaps today's immoral er... immortal copyrights)
After which time the question becomes, "what have you done for us lately?"
That being said, I'm a strong supporter of multiple DNS namespaces. With today's bandwidth and personal computer power there is no reason to have one company own the address book.
And there are already free alternate DNS's that support new top level domains. They provide an entirely alternate internet which can't even be browsed if ICANN's DNS is the only one you are using.
I think DNS should be like a classpath. You start with ICANN's but add as many as you want after that. Your computer trys them in order until it gets a hit. Each DNS makes reasonable efforts to avoid stepping on each other with namespaces since it knows the one first in the path will get the hit.