The conditions at Foxconn are actually a lot better than what you'll find at most Chinese factories, and the pay is a lot better. That's why there are people constantly flocking to their factories looking for work. Usually it's even worse at the factories making stuff for the domestic market.
But then foreign companies aren't aware of what happens there on a day to day basis, nor do they care. The whole point of making stuff in China is because it's cheaper, they're not going to add expense by instituting an oversight program and forcing the manufacturer to ensure better working conditions. And I'm sure they'll rationalize things by pointing out the situation I've described above. At least conditions at their factories are better than what those workers will find elsewhere.
Then again, as this article in the Economist points out, the Chinese people are starting to stand up for themselves. So the government is walking a fine line between trying to address complaints and keeping the people in check. The fundamental problem is that it's in the Chinese government's interest to keep factories churning out products quickly and cheaply. I'm sure they're very aware of the threat higher wages and better conditions present to the nation. So what's been happening over the past couple of decades is that factories have been migrating West across the nation, moving where it's cheaper.
Once the cost advantage of manufacturing in China evaporates foreign companies will move out. If we're lucky some of that will go domestic. But far more likely, it will migrate into Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia. Actually, China has been doing a lot of investing in Africa. So we may see a day where Chinese companies continue to handle our manufacturing from Africa. But either way it would still deal a very serious blow to the Chinese economy. Despite all the stories of a burgeoning China they're extremely dependent on the rest of the developed world.
I don't understand the outrage. If you don't like this practice, don't buy the damn game. A bunch of pissing and moaning on a forum is not going to make any difference if everyone still went out and bought the game. Not buying the game will send the strongest possible message.
You don't need this game to survive. This game wont make your life complete. In the never-ending deluge of entertainment it's just a blip.
If everyone did this these publishers would stop this practice almost immediately. Games might possibly get more expensive, but you wouldn't have to deal with these gimmicks. And this means NO PIRACY. The only message piracy sends is that demand for the game is obviously there, it's just that DRM is not draconian enough. These guys don't think the way you do.
Mind you that this doesn't necessarily apply to DLC. I don't have any problem with DLC or even subscription based games. But these little gimmicks developers play are annoying. That's one of the many reasons I've generally stopped buying games, especially from publishers like EA. The problem is that most gamers don't seem to have much in the way of principles. They complain, but they're right back there at the feeding trough devouring whatever crap EA feeds them.
There's no elegant way to put it: stop being consumer whores and companies will change their ways or go out of business.
The pathetic thing is that they're probably doing a better job than an American contractor would and doing it for half the price. That's one of the big reasons why we're having the problems we're having.
I absolutely agree with you. People at the top, and I'm not just talking about the extremely wealthy, who are unwilling to sacrifice a little bit of income to improve quality or keep the work domestic.
But the sense of entitlement in this country is too pervasive. Everyone thinks they're owed a job. The mindset seems to be that they'd do a better job if only they were better paid. So they keep doing crap, but charge too much for it. So we've got corporate America which for a lot of people isn't much more than middle-class welfare. It's a vicious cycle that will only end when the economy ends up in the toilet.
If you think social healthcare is a panacea you've got another thing coming.
That's not to say I don't support the idea of socialized healthcare to some extent. But the problem is paying for it. Both in Europe and Asia the model is proving unsustainable. I've got two uncles in France who had to pick up private health insurance because of what the government has cut. Unless you've got the bulk of the population paying more into the system than they take out you're going to have problems. It's why Northern Europe and east Asia continue to have thriving programs. And even in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea they're facing problems because even though they've got a productive population they're suffering exceedingly low birthrates. And government can't control the cost of goods and services. Well, they can, but it introduces a whole host of other problems. In my experience American healthcare is more consistently good than I've seen anywhere else, in both Asia and Europe.
It's funny you mention that because I've lived both within the US and outside and have found the experience to be the opposite, in terms of how the patient is treated. Yes, there is more financial difficulty for Americans who aren't in a financially comfortable situation, but I've found the healthcare in the States to be consistently on par, if not better, to what you'll find in Europe and definitely superior to what you get in Asia.
On the Mass Turnpike people routinely do 80-85. They get close to those speeds on I-95 as well, but traffic tends to be a bit heavier. Most of Eastern MA is quite flat.
That's BS. The average car available in the United States is easily capable of handling 100mph. Sure, some malaise era automobiles were uniformly awful but I'm talking about a reasonably modern car. I'm not suggesting that it's safe to be driving at those speeds, but that it shouldn't be the ordeal you suggest it is. If it were that bad you wouldn't be seeing people routinely going 80mph and faster.
Of course, a lot of it has to do with road construction. But I've found that most highways easily support speeds much higher than the speed limit. It's usually in dense urban centers where that's not the case. Although, I do agree that the overall quality of road construction is far superior in Europe.
It sounds like you've never been to Taiwan because you don't have the first clue what you're talking about. Taiwan, in fact, is considered to be the most progressive nation in Asia.
But then I'm not sure what your criteria is for being "progressive". There are high profile women there running corporations. They've had a female vice-president and a woman is currently running for president and doing fairly well. The people there are very open-minded and great towards foreigners. They've got good labor laws and they offer more holidays than we get in the US. And they have a decent nationalized healthcare system, although not nearly as problem-free as PBS documentary from several years ago claimed. The major cities have a good public transportation systems and a couple of years ago completed a high-speed rail line that crosses the nation.
So how are they not progressive?
One thing you need to understand is that Taiwan is NOT China.
I legitimately hope they're serious about this and faithful to their principles. I'd absolutely stand behind them if that's the case.
Unfortunately, far too often some organization comes along professing to be nonpartisan but it quickly becomes evident they're very partisan. But more likely they'll start off one way and groupthink sends the whole thing careening off in some other direction.
I had a utility that charged for online payments. They have a third party processing those transactions and everyone likely decided to pass the cost directly onto the consumer. The best part is that it's probably handled in India so they're enjoying a nice profit. Hell, even if it's all based in the States it's probably a good profit they enjoy. How much can it possibly cost to handle a payment electronically?
This all reminds me of the "convenience" fee ticket sellers charge when you buy tickets online. I've been told some even charge on online ordering fee on top of that. What a scam.
It's only a matter of time before you're charged for literally everything, even using a public restroom.
I don't understand why people are complaining that these cars are expensive. That's the nature of technological progress. Early cars were also luxury items but now most people in the developed world can afford one.
Technology can't be forced into being inexpensive. Progress takes time.
You obviously haven't lived in Asia, otherwise you wouldn't be making such an absurd claim. And you're being intellectually dishonest by calling out a specific subset of Buddhism. There are numerous subsets of Christianity that preach similar peaceful ideals.
The fact is that humans have corrupted religion, not the other way around. Religion, at it's core, is a philosophical belief like any other. The problem with any belief system is that inevitably it's used by individuals to encourage self-righteousness. And once you get on that path it's only a matter of time before you start trying to impose your belief on others.
Humans are pretty good at finding reasons to oppress others, they don't need religion.
If he said people were getting bored of the same old thing, I might be inclined to agree. But if you were happy with either Android or iOS there's no reason for that to change as both OS's have fundamentally remained the same. And the thing is that most people don't want to feel left out. So they're not willing to go with something different until it's been deemed cool and desirable.
There's Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Given that South Korea, Taiwan and Japan all have amongst the largest economies in the world and massively dense populations I'd say that what China is doing is very important. They already have to deal with dust storms blowing over from the ever expanding Gobi desert.
In my experience it's not that easy to find a job overseas, at least not a conventional field.
Let's consider local companies first... It's true that it's not that difficult to find English speakers, that's not always the case. And the thing is that in day to day business the ability to speak the local language is pretty much mandatory. Sometimes you'll luck out and find a company that's interested in hiring you as the token foreigner, but don't expect to be doing anything particularly fulfilling. Also expect pay comparable to what a local would be earning, which is usually paltry compared to what you'd get as an ex-pat at a big multinational. In a lot of cases you'll just be getting by and will have to save carefully.
So then you've got American companies with international offices. The catch is landing a job that will enable you to travel where you'd like to go. Good luck with that. The people I've known who've been so fortunate tended to be in management or finance. And you never really get the proper experience of living overseas anyway. They generally set you up in a really nice place in the best part of town and in countries where safety is a concern they stick you in an isolated, often guarded community. And the circles ex-pats inhabit are usually separate from other foreigners.
I know there are options via defense industry and US government, but not having had much experience with that I can't speak to it. I know someone who was in Japan for a while and is now in Germany, working with the government, but he doesn't really have a say in where he's sent.
There are a couple of other surefire ways to get a job overseas. The first is to do charity work, although more than likely you'll be looking at the third world. The pay isn't necessarily good, but the work is definitely fulfilling. The second is to teach English. It's fairly easy to get a job teaching in Asia, even Japan, given how big they are on learning English. The pay isn't great, but in a lot of countries it's actually marginally better than what your average local makes. Also, if you end up at the right company they may even have arrangements for room and board which will help cut down on expenses. And the thing is that may afford you the opportunity to look for the kind of work you're actually interested in doing.
You obviously haven't been to China. I will agree that Americans are extremely cheap, but that pales in comparison to their Chinese counterparts. And it's so pervasive that people at every level will be looking to cut corners, usually with the hope that a little extra money ends up in their pockets. Of course, it does depend on who you're working with, because he might come across someone who's so ambitious he's willing to spare no expense.
But really, the pathetic thing here is that this isn't being done in the United States.
I guess everyone enjoys having a bit of paranoid delusion. Religious people aren't out to put an end to science, despite the rhetoric of a few extremists. I've never come across anyone, religious or otherwise, who doesn't embrace science. Beyond minor details everyone I've ever known, including born-agains embraces science as the source of all our answers.
But I understand it's hard to be self-righteous if you don't believe everyone is out to get you.
In the scheme of things CGI is still in it's infancy. Even the use of models have advanced a good deal over the last several decades. So I'm not going to be critical of a medium simply because it hasn't had time to evolve. CGI opens up opportunities filmmakers have never had access to before. Certainly there were filmmakers doing impressive work previously, but it pales in comparison to what's possible today.
The fundamental problem is not with CGI, it's with film-making. Movies today emphasis the spectacle over substance. Writing today is crap, it's as simple as that. It's like they're writing a video game, the plot present only to move the film from one set piece to the next. Look at movies like Blade Runner or Alien. Both feature elements that could be considered contrived. A dystopian future with flying cars in one movie and exotic, vicious aliens in the other. But those aspects take a backseat to the store-telling so that they enhance the story instead of distracting from it.
The thing is that any one of these movies could look even more impressive today. But it would all get slathered under a layer of Hollywood flavor-of-the-day gloss. Look at Avatar, visually it's amazing, but the story is simplistic to the point of being patronizing.
It's certainly interesting, but also pointless. I mean, if you don't know that anything out of Hollywood is heavily retouched then you're embarrassingly naive. And even before photos are loaded up in Photoshop the celebrity has already been loaded up with a pound of makeup, sat under carefully positioned lights and been photographed by a professional. That's why those sexiest people lists are so stupid. Almost anyone subjected to that amount of effort will look great.
It's like those stupid articles where some celebrities fitness "secrets" are revealed. I'll tell you what their secrets entail: enjoy an immense amount of leisure time, make it your job to look good and pay a fitness trainer six figures to accomplish that.
American society is more influenced by the entertainment industry than any other culture on Earth.
Years ago I was sitting at light. The light turns green and the driver in front of me starts going oblivious to the car that's sailing down the road and clearly not intending on stopping for the red. So this guy slams right into the guy in front of me.
This was back when a light would turn green almost immediately after the intersecting street's light would go red. Drivers in my city are notorious for flaunting the rules and generally driving like jerks, but it was rare to have someone go through a red because people were aware of the risk involved.
Then at some point in the past 10-15 years traffic engineers got the idea to delay the interval between one light turning red and the next going green. So now there's a good 2+ second delay where all lights are red.
What has been the side-effect of this change? Now people brazenly blow through red lights. And the thing is that I've seen it happen everywhere, upscale and low-income areas alike. I've seen lines of 3-5 cars keep on going through when the light had clearly gone red. It's so bad sometimes that there are still cars in the intersection after the other light has already turned green, and this is with the aforementioned delay.
But yeah, it's pretty easy to spot the ones who aren't going to stop. They're the ones still moving at a good clip and making no attempt to slow down and stop.
This is why I'm somewhat supportive of stop light cameras. It's not like speed cameras which don't really target the real problem, aggressive or careless driving. Going through a red light poses real danger and is a clear example of reckless driving. Of course, I realize that stop light cameras are abused as well; one popular tactic being to shorten the yellow in order to boost the number of offenders. Otherwise running red lights is a persistent problem I don't really see anyone addressing. Probably because it involves more effort and brings in less revenue than going after speeders.
It can absolutely be a problem and I think this has been demonstrated many times in the past.
However, the problem I've encountered over the years isn't from your average employee telecommuting, it's management telecommuting. Your average designer or programmer can happily sit at home and still get their job done, all they need is a good understanding of what has to be done. But managers need to be available and closely involved in the process, because if they're not, what's really the point of even keeping them employed?
And yet, it's everyone from project managers all the way on up to high level directors who most consistently partake in telecommuting. I've worked with countless project managers who come in to the office for a few hours, spend the entire time catching up because they have to rush back home. In quite a few cases I've found myself managing my own project, dealing with clients directly, rendering that manager redundant. But even worse are the higher ups. I've come across numerous clients who've got people who make themselves essential to the process but work from home a couple of days a week. I use the term "work" loosely as it's apparent they're just dicking around all day. And yet the company is stuck accommodating these jerks suffering stalled processes because they're not available to make decisions. And when they do decide to turn up at the office suddenly they're big saviors.
It's a huge peeve of mine. Especially since everyone else is basically stuck doing their jobs for them. It's at a point where I sometimes feel like corporate America is welfare for the upper middle class.
I take it you haven't used Windows Phone 7. That OS is lightyears beyond anything from Google or Apple, and this is coming from a happy Android user. The challenge is whether or not Microsoft will be able to overcome public perception.
My suspicion tells me this "new kind of television" is nothing more than a standard television with a media server built in. Perhaps something like a computerized television; in Apple's case an iMac marketed as a television.
Slashdot Mirror
The conditions at Foxconn are actually a lot better than what you'll find at most Chinese factories, and the pay is a lot better. That's why there are people constantly flocking to their factories looking for work. Usually it's even worse at the factories making stuff for the domestic market.
But then foreign companies aren't aware of what happens there on a day to day basis, nor do they care. The whole point of making stuff in China is because it's cheaper, they're not going to add expense by instituting an oversight program and forcing the manufacturer to ensure better working conditions. And I'm sure they'll rationalize things by pointing out the situation I've described above. At least conditions at their factories are better than what those workers will find elsewhere.
Then again, as this article in the Economist points out, the Chinese people are starting to stand up for themselves. So the government is walking a fine line between trying to address complaints and keeping the people in check. The fundamental problem is that it's in the Chinese government's interest to keep factories churning out products quickly and cheaply. I'm sure they're very aware of the threat higher wages and better conditions present to the nation. So what's been happening over the past couple of decades is that factories have been migrating West across the nation, moving where it's cheaper.
Once the cost advantage of manufacturing in China evaporates foreign companies will move out. If we're lucky some of that will go domestic. But far more likely, it will migrate into Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia. Actually, China has been doing a lot of investing in Africa. So we may see a day where Chinese companies continue to handle our manufacturing from Africa. But either way it would still deal a very serious blow to the Chinese economy. Despite all the stories of a burgeoning China they're extremely dependent on the rest of the developed world.
I don't understand the outrage. If you don't like this practice, don't buy the damn game. A bunch of pissing and moaning on a forum is not going to make any difference if everyone still went out and bought the game. Not buying the game will send the strongest possible message.
You don't need this game to survive. This game wont make your life complete. In the never-ending deluge of entertainment it's just a blip.
If everyone did this these publishers would stop this practice almost immediately. Games might possibly get more expensive, but you wouldn't have to deal with these gimmicks. And this means NO PIRACY. The only message piracy sends is that demand for the game is obviously there, it's just that DRM is not draconian enough. These guys don't think the way you do.
Mind you that this doesn't necessarily apply to DLC. I don't have any problem with DLC or even subscription based games. But these little gimmicks developers play are annoying. That's one of the many reasons I've generally stopped buying games, especially from publishers like EA. The problem is that most gamers don't seem to have much in the way of principles. They complain, but they're right back there at the feeding trough devouring whatever crap EA feeds them.
There's no elegant way to put it: stop being consumer whores and companies will change their ways or go out of business.
The pathetic thing is that they're probably doing a better job than an American contractor would and doing it for half the price. That's one of the big reasons why we're having the problems we're having.
I absolutely agree with you. People at the top, and I'm not just talking about the extremely wealthy, who are unwilling to sacrifice a little bit of income to improve quality or keep the work domestic.
But the sense of entitlement in this country is too pervasive. Everyone thinks they're owed a job. The mindset seems to be that they'd do a better job if only they were better paid. So they keep doing crap, but charge too much for it. So we've got corporate America which for a lot of people isn't much more than middle-class welfare. It's a vicious cycle that will only end when the economy ends up in the toilet.
What's funny is how they can't even invest effort in coming up with a new name. Zynga clearly crosses the line from inspiration to blatant copying.
if it's good enough for congress....
If you think social healthcare is a panacea you've got another thing coming.
That's not to say I don't support the idea of socialized healthcare to some extent. But the problem is paying for it. Both in Europe and Asia the model is proving unsustainable. I've got two uncles in France who had to pick up private health insurance because of what the government has cut. Unless you've got the bulk of the population paying more into the system than they take out you're going to have problems. It's why Northern Europe and east Asia continue to have thriving programs. And even in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea they're facing problems because even though they've got a productive population they're suffering exceedingly low birthrates. And government can't control the cost of goods and services. Well, they can, but it introduces a whole host of other problems. In my experience American healthcare is more consistently good than I've seen anywhere else, in both Asia and Europe.
It's funny you mention that because I've lived both within the US and outside and have found the experience to be the opposite, in terms of how the patient is treated. Yes, there is more financial difficulty for Americans who aren't in a financially comfortable situation, but I've found the healthcare in the States to be consistently on par, if not better, to what you'll find in Europe and definitely superior to what you get in Asia.
On the Mass Turnpike people routinely do 80-85. They get close to those speeds on I-95 as well, but traffic tends to be a bit heavier. Most of Eastern MA is quite flat.
That's BS. The average car available in the United States is easily capable of handling 100mph. Sure, some malaise era automobiles were uniformly awful but I'm talking about a reasonably modern car. I'm not suggesting that it's safe to be driving at those speeds, but that it shouldn't be the ordeal you suggest it is. If it were that bad you wouldn't be seeing people routinely going 80mph and faster.
Of course, a lot of it has to do with road construction. But I've found that most highways easily support speeds much higher than the speed limit. It's usually in dense urban centers where that's not the case. Although, I do agree that the overall quality of road construction is far superior in Europe.
It sounds like you've never been to Taiwan because you don't have the first clue what you're talking about. Taiwan, in fact, is considered to be the most progressive nation in Asia.
But then I'm not sure what your criteria is for being "progressive". There are high profile women there running corporations. They've had a female vice-president and a woman is currently running for president and doing fairly well. The people there are very open-minded and great towards foreigners. They've got good labor laws and they offer more holidays than we get in the US. And they have a decent nationalized healthcare system, although not nearly as problem-free as PBS documentary from several years ago claimed. The major cities have a good public transportation systems and a couple of years ago completed a high-speed rail line that crosses the nation.
So how are they not progressive?
One thing you need to understand is that Taiwan is NOT China.
I legitimately hope they're serious about this and faithful to their principles. I'd absolutely stand behind them if that's the case.
Unfortunately, far too often some organization comes along professing to be nonpartisan but it quickly becomes evident they're very partisan. But more likely they'll start off one way and groupthink sends the whole thing careening off in some other direction.
I had a utility that charged for online payments. They have a third party processing those transactions and everyone likely decided to pass the cost directly onto the consumer. The best part is that it's probably handled in India so they're enjoying a nice profit. Hell, even if it's all based in the States it's probably a good profit they enjoy. How much can it possibly cost to handle a payment electronically?
This all reminds me of the "convenience" fee ticket sellers charge when you buy tickets online. I've been told some even charge on online ordering fee on top of that. What a scam.
It's only a matter of time before you're charged for literally everything, even using a public restroom.
I don't understand why people are complaining that these cars are expensive. That's the nature of technological progress. Early cars were also luxury items but now most people in the developed world can afford one.
Technology can't be forced into being inexpensive. Progress takes time.
You obviously haven't lived in Asia, otherwise you wouldn't be making such an absurd claim. And you're being intellectually dishonest by calling out a specific subset of Buddhism. There are numerous subsets of Christianity that preach similar peaceful ideals.
The fact is that humans have corrupted religion, not the other way around. Religion, at it's core, is a philosophical belief like any other. The problem with any belief system is that inevitably it's used by individuals to encourage self-righteousness. And once you get on that path it's only a matter of time before you start trying to impose your belief on others.
Humans are pretty good at finding reasons to oppress others, they don't need religion.
If he said people were getting bored of the same old thing, I might be inclined to agree. But if you were happy with either Android or iOS there's no reason for that to change as both OS's have fundamentally remained the same. And the thing is that most people don't want to feel left out. So they're not willing to go with something different until it's been deemed cool and desirable.
There's Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Given that South Korea, Taiwan and Japan all have amongst the largest economies in the world and massively dense populations I'd say that what China is doing is very important. They already have to deal with dust storms blowing over from the ever expanding Gobi desert.
In my experience it's not that easy to find a job overseas, at least not a conventional field.
Let's consider local companies first... It's true that it's not that difficult to find English speakers, that's not always the case. And the thing is that in day to day business the ability to speak the local language is pretty much mandatory. Sometimes you'll luck out and find a company that's interested in hiring you as the token foreigner, but don't expect to be doing anything particularly fulfilling. Also expect pay comparable to what a local would be earning, which is usually paltry compared to what you'd get as an ex-pat at a big multinational. In a lot of cases you'll just be getting by and will have to save carefully.
So then you've got American companies with international offices. The catch is landing a job that will enable you to travel where you'd like to go. Good luck with that. The people I've known who've been so fortunate tended to be in management or finance. And you never really get the proper experience of living overseas anyway. They generally set you up in a really nice place in the best part of town and in countries where safety is a concern they stick you in an isolated, often guarded community. And the circles ex-pats inhabit are usually separate from other foreigners.
I know there are options via defense industry and US government, but not having had much experience with that I can't speak to it. I know someone who was in Japan for a while and is now in Germany, working with the government, but he doesn't really have a say in where he's sent.
There are a couple of other surefire ways to get a job overseas. The first is to do charity work, although more than likely you'll be looking at the third world. The pay isn't necessarily good, but the work is definitely fulfilling. The second is to teach English. It's fairly easy to get a job teaching in Asia, even Japan, given how big they are on learning English. The pay isn't great, but in a lot of countries it's actually marginally better than what your average local makes. Also, if you end up at the right company they may even have arrangements for room and board which will help cut down on expenses. And the thing is that may afford you the opportunity to look for the kind of work you're actually interested in doing.
You obviously haven't been to China. I will agree that Americans are extremely cheap, but that pales in comparison to their Chinese counterparts. And it's so pervasive that people at every level will be looking to cut corners, usually with the hope that a little extra money ends up in their pockets. Of course, it does depend on who you're working with, because he might come across someone who's so ambitious he's willing to spare no expense.
But really, the pathetic thing here is that this isn't being done in the United States.
I guess everyone enjoys having a bit of paranoid delusion. Religious people aren't out to put an end to science, despite the rhetoric of a few extremists. I've never come across anyone, religious or otherwise, who doesn't embrace science. Beyond minor details everyone I've ever known, including born-agains embraces science as the source of all our answers.
But I understand it's hard to be self-righteous if you don't believe everyone is out to get you.
In the scheme of things CGI is still in it's infancy. Even the use of models have advanced a good deal over the last several decades. So I'm not going to be critical of a medium simply because it hasn't had time to evolve. CGI opens up opportunities filmmakers have never had access to before. Certainly there were filmmakers doing impressive work previously, but it pales in comparison to what's possible today.
The fundamental problem is not with CGI, it's with film-making. Movies today emphasis the spectacle over substance. Writing today is crap, it's as simple as that. It's like they're writing a video game, the plot present only to move the film from one set piece to the next. Look at movies like Blade Runner or Alien. Both feature elements that could be considered contrived. A dystopian future with flying cars in one movie and exotic, vicious aliens in the other. But those aspects take a backseat to the store-telling so that they enhance the story instead of distracting from it.
The thing is that any one of these movies could look even more impressive today. But it would all get slathered under a layer of Hollywood flavor-of-the-day gloss. Look at Avatar, visually it's amazing, but the story is simplistic to the point of being patronizing.
It's certainly interesting, but also pointless. I mean, if you don't know that anything out of Hollywood is heavily retouched then you're embarrassingly naive. And even before photos are loaded up in Photoshop the celebrity has already been loaded up with a pound of makeup, sat under carefully positioned lights and been photographed by a professional. That's why those sexiest people lists are so stupid. Almost anyone subjected to that amount of effort will look great.
It's like those stupid articles where some celebrities fitness "secrets" are revealed. I'll tell you what their secrets entail: enjoy an immense amount of leisure time, make it your job to look good and pay a fitness trainer six figures to accomplish that.
American society is more influenced by the entertainment industry than any other culture on Earth.
Years ago I was sitting at light. The light turns green and the driver in front of me starts going oblivious to the car that's sailing down the road and clearly not intending on stopping for the red. So this guy slams right into the guy in front of me.
This was back when a light would turn green almost immediately after the intersecting street's light would go red. Drivers in my city are notorious for flaunting the rules and generally driving like jerks, but it was rare to have someone go through a red because people were aware of the risk involved.
Then at some point in the past 10-15 years traffic engineers got the idea to delay the interval between one light turning red and the next going green. So now there's a good 2+ second delay where all lights are red.
What has been the side-effect of this change? Now people brazenly blow through red lights. And the thing is that I've seen it happen everywhere, upscale and low-income areas alike. I've seen lines of 3-5 cars keep on going through when the light had clearly gone red. It's so bad sometimes that there are still cars in the intersection after the other light has already turned green, and this is with the aforementioned delay.
But yeah, it's pretty easy to spot the ones who aren't going to stop. They're the ones still moving at a good clip and making no attempt to slow down and stop.
This is why I'm somewhat supportive of stop light cameras. It's not like speed cameras which don't really target the real problem, aggressive or careless driving. Going through a red light poses real danger and is a clear example of reckless driving. Of course, I realize that stop light cameras are abused as well; one popular tactic being to shorten the yellow in order to boost the number of offenders. Otherwise running red lights is a persistent problem I don't really see anyone addressing. Probably because it involves more effort and brings in less revenue than going after speeders.
It can absolutely be a problem and I think this has been demonstrated many times in the past.
However, the problem I've encountered over the years isn't from your average employee telecommuting, it's management telecommuting. Your average designer or programmer can happily sit at home and still get their job done, all they need is a good understanding of what has to be done. But managers need to be available and closely involved in the process, because if they're not, what's really the point of even keeping them employed?
And yet, it's everyone from project managers all the way on up to high level directors who most consistently partake in telecommuting. I've worked with countless project managers who come in to the office for a few hours, spend the entire time catching up because they have to rush back home. In quite a few cases I've found myself managing my own project, dealing with clients directly, rendering that manager redundant. But even worse are the higher ups. I've come across numerous clients who've got people who make themselves essential to the process but work from home a couple of days a week. I use the term "work" loosely as it's apparent they're just dicking around all day. And yet the company is stuck accommodating these jerks suffering stalled processes because they're not available to make decisions. And when they do decide to turn up at the office suddenly they're big saviors.
It's a huge peeve of mine. Especially since everyone else is basically stuck doing their jobs for them. It's at a point where I sometimes feel like corporate America is welfare for the upper middle class.
I take it you haven't used Windows Phone 7. That OS is lightyears beyond anything from Google or Apple, and this is coming from a happy Android user. The challenge is whether or not Microsoft will be able to overcome public perception.
My suspicion tells me this "new kind of television" is nothing more than a standard television with a media server built in. Perhaps something like a computerized television; in Apple's case an iMac marketed as a television.