
Re: Is this the 21st Century equivalent
One of Feynman's postulates was that there is only one electron in the universe, and it is jolly busy.
41 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jan 2008
There are plenty of SMEs doing custom build jobs with bought in h/w, who will give you a choice of the available MS OSs or a "none" option for people to put Linux/BSD on. The "none" option is usually the cheapest version of the MS home OS with the proviso that it is wiped, so the m/c will have been tested before dispatch and can be started when it arrives.
even crazier than British ones.
"If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman"
George Harrison et al.
Paris because ...
Corporates have no reason to "upgrade" from Windows 7, indeed W8 is a disincentive. Laptoppers similarly. Those using iPads or Android equivalents wouldn't want W8 on anything. Netbooks are ok with Linux.
There is no real market for W8 (except for a few fanbois and microserfs).
Shame (+irony).
Wind & Solar outputs are not predictable in the medium term, let alone the long term. Extrapolation is not the same thing as a trend.
Unpredictable acts of nature such as volcanoes, meteorites & global warm changing climate could arise at any time to render extrapolations redundant.
Would you want to bet your future, possibly your life, on a model? I would not.
As far as justice is concerned, the USA ought to be considered a pariah state by any European country.
The draconian "3 strikes" legal framework, means a person can be sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing a postage stamp.
Once in prison, they are forced to produce saleable items and if they refuse are kept in solitary confinement, despite the supposed constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The saleable items are sold by various corporations who of course pocket the profit. This is slavery.
And of course, there is the systematic use of torture in Guantanamo.
Only proven terrorists should be liable for extradition to the USA (bearing in mind the USA funded anti-British terrorism for years).
Of course this will depend on British politicians standing up for British people.
"Whether or not a worker is an employee of a company or not can only be decided by looking at a wide range of facts related to their working life"
Rubbish - everyone knows who is a contractor and who is not, it's only the dodgey laws passed in haste by an incompetent and malicious government that cause the problem.
The only times this is debatable is when someone is trying to screw someone else.
Either HMRC trying to screw the contractor for extra taxes he or she does not actually owe, or a contractor trying to screw their client for employee benefits they are not entitled to.
Mainly it's HMRC acting badly.
MS has 2 things going for it - their OS and Office.
Their OS is vulnerable to Linux and Apple. Office is vulnerable to OpenOffice and GoogleDocs.
All the rest of the MS stuff is predicated on maintaining the majority market share of either or both of the above.
That's why Bulliboy is crapping himself.
It's irritating that when you rate a post up or down, you get taken to another page, then have to click to get back again.
There are plenty of sites around where a vote click doesn't take you to another page - check out the various uk newspaper sites, e.g. guardian, daily mail.
p.s.
Did it really seem a good idea at the time, for the IPCC to take their facts from a bunch of anarcho-eco-weenies at an environmental "charity" such as the WWF? Unbelievable - except that it is.
"(I'm asian - police and airport security officials automatically assume you're a muslim if you have brown skin)"
It will only take one mistake by some under-educated government lacky to accidentally put "muslim" on your ID database entry and you'll have 10 times the grief you get already.
"contractors ... <snip> ... are often paid better than permanent employees in order to compensate them for reduced benefits in terms of holidays, sick pay and pensions."
No - It is simply supply and demand that drives fees charged by contractors.
Most people don't want the risks that come with being a contractor, so contractors are in relatively short supply and that drives fees up.
At the moment, there are more contractors available than contracts available and that is driving down fees.
This has been economics 101. Thank you.
p.s.
If anyone in the Labour party is reading this, please inform Gordon.
Offshoring is one thing, abusing the immigration rules is another.
It's not about protectionism - if companies want to offshore then good luck to them, but abusing the immigration rules is a different thing entirely.
Indian staff brought into the UK on "Intra-Company Transfers" also get tax free allowances, making it impossible for UK staff, whether perm or contract, to compete with them.
See http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=39680&highlight=allowance
When are our government going to stop throwing yet another industry away?!
@AC: Whining Permies
By Anonymous Coward Posted Friday 22nd May 2009 15:35 GMT
"You don't think some permies just want to be honest non-selfish citizens?
You're position assumes everybody should be selfish and try to screw everybody else."
He said nothing of the sort. Contractors can charge higher fees because of supply and demand, it's a simple as that.
If contracting is so great, everyone would do it, but it does not suit everyone for a number of reasons. Having the balls to face being without fee-earning work for months on end, especially now, is one reason why most prefer permanent employment.
Re - Anonymous Coward Posted Friday 22nd May 2009 09:34 GMT
"I know of at least one person who used to do the same job as me (a fully-taxed employee) but as a contractor who also paid themselves a low enough wage from their one-man 'company' that they could claim housing benefit. I don't think they were the only one."
But that's bollox because the Gov housing benefit web-site says:
"You may get Housing Benefit if you pay rent and your income ***and capital (savings and investments) *** are below a certain level."
We need to keep an eye on this.
Wacky Jacui Smith (the second-Home Secretary) would love to control our net access and the bbc could give her the excuse.
Of course the best thing would be to scrap the licence fee altogether and for the bbc to try to scrape a living by subscription.
I wonder how popular eastenders will be when people have to choose to pay for it.