Just like television
in that regard.
2410 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Dec 2009
I am not that amazed. Being incredibly capable in your field does not automatically bleed across to other areas. The number of conversations I had about how the university's managed (RAIDed, mirrored across two geographically separate campuses, backed up nightly to two distant off-site secure repositories) was too expensive compared to buying a USB hard drive from OfficeWorks! Keep in mind the data to be backed up could have real-world values measured in tens of thousands (usually) or even millions (not uncommon) of dollars (not to mention several years of the complainant's working life) and you will understand why the VC tended to side with IT on this matter.
...is certainly more democratic than the facist-dictatorship setup of big companies. Which is why CEOs and their lackeys in govt. won't have a bar of it.
Ideally, management is selected by the workforce, and a good manager will be valued and paid well if the workforce wants to keep them. You avoid all the rorts and golden-parachutes, as a manager who is demanding rediculous pay will be replaced by someone of equal competence asking less. And workforces who make bad management-selection choices are in danger of loosing their jobs when the company goes down, so they generally will do their level best to get and keep a good balance in management.
That is the theory anyway, though shareholders in public companies stand to loose a lot of money from bad/overpriced management, but it doesn't seem to stop them keeping on instating bozos from the same overpriced tallent-less pool year-on-year. And the dumber the population gets, the easier it is to keep the entrenched system going.
A lot of people seem to miss that the reason big corporations behave like short-sighted arse-holes is that they are legaily required to (the fact that most CEOs are likely also arse-holes is probably a round-peg-round-hole effect). Some tweaking of the legal climate in which public companies operate would be needed. And on that day, Satan will call the central heating people for a quote!
Problem can't be fixed because the people with the ability to fix it benefit from the problem.
I had to outsource myself and my expensive publicly-funded education to China for several years too. In this case it was my own country who couldn't give me a job. As a school teacher. With IT specialisations including solid industry experience.
Every week the papers ran stories of the government screaming out for qualified and experienced IT teachers and every week I was down the dole office with my list of job applications I didn't get because I was 'overqualified'.
I am back home again now, but in a far better job than school-teaching, though only because I lucked onto an employer who explicitly wanted older hirees for dealing with a particular type of customer, and admits she was taking a chance with me even then (a chance that, I'm happy to say, worked out excellently for all parties).
When the Reserve raises interest rates, the banks are 'forced' to raise theirs immediately, but when the Reserve lowers them, the banks can take months to follow suit. And then they whine in the press about how put-upon their industry is because hopelessly-bad decisions might (but probably won't) cost their managers their bonuses.
And consistently fail, ending up online (though like most online shopping in Aust. at Australian online shops - so the GST is paid anyway). The problem is that the corpreal shops are not interested in stocking what I want to buy. And the numpties* they hire as staff don't know or care as long as they get their pay for standing around all day chewing their cud. I would not be surprised if that was a significant portion of the case with the market as a whole, not just price (some of the freight costs are rediculous too).
*I know from personal experience that major retailers with a CE section (like good 'ol "Hardly Normal" - not my expression, it is part of the linguistic culture here) won't hire you if you can spell 'technical' let alone know something about the products beyond what it says in the brochure.
A lot of it seems to be just retail giants whining because people are waking up to the fact they are just having crap dumped on them for a premium and are refusing to play anymore.
I should also point out that there /are/ good stores around here too. I have a shortlist. It is very short. But those stores get a lot of business from me and I get good value for money, even at a higher price, as the service and convenience they offer is worth the extra.
Or you can start with a mostly-empty backplane and whenever you need more oomph, ADD another board, still keeping your existing ones(s), untll all slots are filled, by which the slowest board would be starting to sucum to silicon degredation, freeing up a slot for the next upgrade.
Can you really call a person's dowload a "pirate copy" if they own a legit copy and are only DLing the crack in order to actually use the product they paid for? I know they are bypassing DRM which is (swear swear) illegal in its own right, but that is not the same as 'stealing' the game without paying for it?
after centuries of selectively breeding them for their behaviour. And lock pigs (naturally fairly clean animals) in a stinking pen of soiled mud and then point and call them dirty, so why not force data-providers we don't like to ISPs of dubious reputation and then point it out? It is just human nature!
even for me. Having lived there for several years, it is rather apparent. But also apparent is the moderate number of people on the inside genuinely intent on fighting it. I'd recommend people look in their own backyard a bit: my backyard of local politics in this part of Australia consists of more local councils run by auditors than councilors after the councilors were sacked for corruption (in one region some time back, when it came time to vote in a new council, the people protested they preferred the auditor to stay rather than them have to choose amongst the dross of small-time political wanna-bees on offer. Sadly, the auditor was not interested in breaking the law, even by popular demand).
As a former primary teacher, I am very doubtful that kids of that age would be "horrified" or any where close. They are not mentally developed enough in the area of indoctrination to social norms to have such a sense of moral outrage over something like this (unless they were overly concerned at the girls/boys germs issue). I imagine they were quite surprised and rather curious, not to mention giggly.
Kids of that age can get horrified over things like violence, social injustice and other such 'real' issues, but a bit of skin, no way.
But I have been boycotting that particular 'celebration' for years. I buy bigger birthday pressies for everyone instead, which spreads out the spend nicely and avoids the need to plonk money down on some crap no-one would want just because I /have/ to get /something/. Noticable mental health benefits in additional to the financial ones.
....
I wonder if it is possible to DDOS the world's prison systems with a huge influx of inmates. It will cost the tax-payer dearly, I imagine.
My last replied-paid envelope from MC trying to sell me debt went out in the recycle collection yesterday morning. But there will be more, and if future I will be posting them all back. Empty.
The only downside is that this puts money into the hands of those parcel-mangling numpties at Australia Post. Though I guess supporting incompetence is better than supporting malice.
Why would a (legal) porn site be any more or less trustworthy than any other (legal) site? Because porn is 'icky' in the view of some? Because only 'bad' people would run a site dealing with such content? (Maybe this is true - my experience of such things isn't exactly pervasive).
"The energy and money invested in snooping would be far better spent making sure your commerce website is delivering the information the potential customer wants to see, in a convenient fashion."
E-Comerce sites that help you buy the things you want?! What malakary is this!
My brain has blanked advertising as long as I can remember. I know it was doing it back in my early 20's as my workplace got in two printed trade journals which were 100% adds (basically suppliers advertising their latest offerings). I had huge trouble even reading these! It took conscious effort to see anything on the page (obviously I was SEEING the ads, but my mind rebelled against registering them in any way other than as squiggly lines).
On the down side, I can't casually watch a TV weather report due to the same effect. Unless I glue my concentration to the screen, I get to the end with three minutes of conscious experience missing! :-/