I bought a Palm LifeDrive PDA about a year ago. The one with the hard drive. BIG mistake. Palm is quietly pretending this device never happened -- no support, no updates, no answers to why the damned thing is unacceptably slow, no useful information on their website. And no announced recall (I registered my device, so they have no excuse on that count).
Congratulations to Mr. Young for finding a career in which he can escape the Dilbert phenomenon. I hope that real estate sales turns out well for him. I tried something very similar (insurance sales), but I found that I sucked at it, so I let my licenses expire -- I am back writing software for a company that doesn't seem to mind that I have gray hair and I'm a bit overweight (used to morbidly obese before losing 100 lbs; now I'm just a tad chubby).
However, the memory of the hard times from 2002 to 2005 still haunt me, so I am currently pursuing two different avocations on the side (teaching violin lessons, and teaching concealed handgun classes), which I definitely enjoy, and appear to have the potential of being a living when (not if; if you don't believe in age discrimination, it just means that you haven't been around long enough) my employer decides that I'm "overqualified" to write software.
US companies have not given up on outsourcing, and certainly have not given up on the idea of replacing "expensive" US workers with the cheaper H1-b workers. There was a pretty good (unintentional) admission of that by a law firm that specializes in teaching US companies how to destroy domestic jobs in a series of videos that they posted on YouTube (now taken down, but Google for "job destruction" or "Cohen & Grigsby" and you can still find them elsewhere: they may still be on the Lyre, Lyre, Pantz & Fier blog). --
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Bid sniping is the ONLY rational way to buy on ebay. All intelligence bidders will bid their max as late as possible in the course of the auction. Then the dumb ones will complain about getting "ripped off", when, in fact, no such thing happened. If you bid the maximum that you are willing to pay, then there are only two possible outcomes: 1) you win at a price less than or equal to what it was worth to you, or 2) you laugh at the fool who paid too much. If you lose, and you would have been willing to pay a little more, then you have nobody but yourself to blame.
The nation-state is increasingly obsolete, but that doesn't mean that nations will simply go away quietly. The demise of the nation-state and the rise of the sovereign individual will be accompanied by many such futile attempts to maintain the state's monopolies over such things as the media, the internet, and use of force. see: http://snipurl.com/SovereignIndivual
I have used Monster in the past, but I found my last job listed on Craigslist. I spent several weeks searching through the hundreds of listings on Monster, and I found what I was looking for in a very short time on Craigslist. The local newspaper classifieds were completely useles (it now runs only "H1-b qualifiers", not real employment ads).
My wife owns a small business, and she has had pretty good luck finding employees through Craigslist. Craigslist has been lower-hassle from both ends, and it's free for employers (don't know how long THAT will last, though, now that eBay managed to buy into Craigslist).
I'm guessing that Craigslist will do for Monster and related commercial sites what it is doing for newspaper classifieds.
My salary is about half what it was 6 years ago, and most of the folks I know in this business are in the same boat. Seems to me they didn't check their facts carefully.
I am in the process of transitioning to running my own business(es), because of the rampant age discrimination in software development -- mostly in the form of H1-b abuse.
-- Texas Concealed Handgun Licenses Courses in Plano, TX
The best way to combat terrorism is to quit funding it.
Quit fighting the "War on Drugs", and just legalize and regulate them. That will remove the profit from that industry. Then spend the money saved on development of biodiesel, EV, and solar technologies. We only have to reduce our foreign oil dependence by about 25% in order to completely cut off the muslim OPEC countries.
About two years ago, I stood in line for more than a half-hour at WalMart, then gave up. I took my full cart to the service desk and explained LOUDLY to the lady there that since they couldn't hire enough checkers, they could just put all those groceries back for me, because I was going to Kroger. And walked out (I think I heard some muffled cheers). And I went to Kroger, where I was pleasantly surprised to be able to get my grocery shopping done and checked out in less time than I spent waiting in line at WalMart.
I may have started a trend, because I noticed the last several times I went to that WalMart that there were enough checkers that I didn't have to stand in line more than a few minutes.
But I still do most of my shopping at Kroger. Even with slightly higher prices, the service is enough better to make it worth it. And I've discovered some items there that I like, that aren't available at WalMart. Competition is a wonderful thing.
When Verizon FiOS came into my neighborhood, I dropped Comcast immediately. Now, I don't even have to keep a backup dial-up account anymore, so my total cost of broadband service is actually lower, as well as actually being broadband. Back when I had Comcast, I ended up using the dial-up about twice a month, because Comcast was either down, or was slower than dial-up -- and I still had a business to run. And, every time I called their excuse for tech support, I had to (after being on hold from 15 to 30 minutes) explain to the barely-intelligible Indian on the other end that I didn't want to play the "let's reset the modem" game, because I had more networking experience than he did, and I already checked out the hardware on my end, and I was JUST CALLING TO TELL THEM THAT THEIR NETWORK WAS DOWN AGAIN, dammit. Usually, about the forth time I repeated that, I could get the almost-English-speaking 'tech' to actually check the status, and admit that there was a problem on the network in my area, but he would never have a ETR. Then, a few days later, I would check, and it would be up again -- for a few weeks.
When I canceled the service, all of a sudden, customer service called ME to ask why, and try to talk me out of it. When I told the lady I was switching to FiOS, she said "oh..." and hung up. Probably the 200th time she had heard that in the last couple of days.
Comcast service was crappy enough right from the start that I never used the email address that they provided. I'm glad I didn't, because it meant that I didn't have to notify anybody that my email address was changed (because it wasn't). I highly recommend not using your ISP-provided email, because it's a pain in the ass if you ever change ISPs (or move to a location where you can't get your old ISP anymore).
-- Texas Concealed Handgun License Training, evening classes in Plano
I've been on the inside of an illegally-run H1-b sweatshop, run by contractors on behalf of a major telecom company. The reason the telecom company uses job-shops is for plausible deniability.
I have no problem with allowing foreign workers into the US, but I have a BIG problem with the government-encouraged abuse of the H1-b system -- which, as practiced by above un-named telco, amounted to slavery. ("What? So you don't like working 18-hour days without paid overtime, Ganesh? Pack your bags; you're fired -- er, "laid off". Too bad you have to leave the country before you have time to file a legal complaint..."). The abuses I personally observed were bad enough that I have trouble with people believing it could be so bad.
I would favor complete abolishment of the H1-b program, and just let anyone with a marketable skill come to the US with no restriction other than a clean criminal record. Note that the companies that want to hire H1-b's are dead set against any such move, because it would obviate the main advantage of the H1-b program, namely the ease with which it can be abused.
BTW, if you think age discrimination isn't for real, it just means you haven't been around long enough for it to get applied to you.
-- Texas CHL Courses
Perhaps Quaero is France's response to the page that you get when you enter "French military victories" into Google and then hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button. -- TX CHL Training
"How's that for technology bringing the family together?"
Reminds me of a story by Isaac Asimov about a planet that used video technology to avoid all physical contact -- the logical extreme of this idea. They (d)evolved to a point where the entire planet had fewer than 1000 residents who each lived alone in large estates tended by robots. The residents became so averse to physical contact that they would commit suicide to avoid it.
-- Texas Concealed Handgun License courses in Plano, TX
Reminds me of the song "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be" by Josephine Thane, Wendy Zdrodowski, and John Wiseman, (Minstrosity) which was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2003 John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
Forget guns and knives. Since cars can be (and are!) used in the commission of many types of crimes (many of which would be much harder to commit without one!), it's obvious that we need to make the manufacture of automobiles illegal... (Liberal Logic)
The Japanese legal system has just (potentially) economically crippled their country. They already have a problem with innovation in product development, just from their anal-retentive authoritarian culture. Now, if only the Chinese could be persuaded to commit the same error... -- Texas Concealed Handgun License Training
Ebay is going to yawn away the 'strike', and with the current listing sale, the numbers will increase anyway. Plus, all those Tuesday 'strikers' will be back on Wednesday. What eBay really needs is some viable competition.
Google, maybe? Google is going to do whatever Google wants, on their own schedule, just like they have always done to date. I seriously doubt that the current "petition" is going to have any effect at all.
Meanwhile, there are dozens of viable places to sell other than eBay. Most of the junk sold on eBay isn't really well-suited to the auction format, anyway, and there are several non-auction listing sites. My current favorite is Blujay. I don't sell as much stuff there as on eBay, but I get to keep more of what I make, and it's a lot less hassle. I'm currently pruning back my eBay listings to concentrate on other sites, and I have a little sales-blurb that I send with every eBay order that I ship telling the customer about the better deals they will be able to find on Blujay. That's how to impact eBay; word of mouth, one customer at a time.
For auction sites, check out OnlineAuction.com or ebid.com -- both are growing steadily, and are already a substantial fraction of the size of eBay.
The reason Vonage is doing poorly is because they have basically established themselves as lower than pond scum through massive spamming. From complaints I have read elsewhere, they are succeeding in living down to that reputation in other ways, too. If Vonage was the ONLY place I could get VoIP, I would do without. (I use VoicePulse, and am quite satisfied with the performance, and no, I don't get anything for referring them.)
The reason Skype is doing poorly is because eBay has no clue what it's good for. When eBay finally divests Skype (I predict it will do so in less than 2 years), both companies will do better. Or at least Skype might; eBay has lost all connection with its roots, and is drifting aimlessly. eBay will take a long time to die because of its sheer size, but the combination of GoogleBase, Froogle, and Google Checkout will eventually sweep eBay and its captive PayPal into the dustbin of history. Unless, of course, they manage to come up with a better business model than they currently have.
On September 11th, 2001, a bunch of Islamic terrorists attacked the United States because they hated Israel. Does that make sense? Why didn't they attack an Israeli airline???
Simple answer: Israeli pilots and flight crews are armed. Terrorists and other criminals prefer 'soft' targets.
More than 3,000 people died on September 11th, 2001 because a bunch of Liberals managed to prevent American pilots and flight crews from carrying defensive weapons.
However, Sep 11 changed few other things, too. It was the hijacking to end hijackings of that type. Since 9/11, there have been attempted hijackings that were defeated by the male passengers -- in at least one case, the would-be hijacker was beaten to death, which is as it should be (unfortunately, his carcass was *not* fed to pigs). If I was on a plane being hijacked, I would kill the hijacker(s), or die in the attempt, because there is no other morally acceptable choice.
Accordingly, now the Islamic terrorists have changed tactics. They can't commandeer a plane anymore, so they can only do suicide bombings to crash them (attempting to do so over a populated area, of course). We adapt as needed -- I just don't travel by air anymore.
On the post: Nobody Loves Palm (And Really, Why Should They?)
My very last Palm device ever.
I bought a Palm LifeDrive PDA about a year ago. The one with the hard drive. BIG mistake. Palm is quietly pretending this device never happened -- no support, no updates, no answers to why the damned thing is unacceptably slow, no useful information on their website. And no announced recall (I registered my device, so they have no excuse on that count).
--
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On the post: IBM Puts The Theory Of Comparative Advantage Into Practice
Re: Outsourcing of IT jobs...
Congratulations to Mr. Young for finding a career in which he can escape the Dilbert phenomenon. I hope that real estate sales turns out well for him. I tried something very similar (insurance sales), but I found that I sucked at it, so I let my licenses expire -- I am back writing software for a company that doesn't seem to mind that I have gray hair and I'm a bit overweight (used to morbidly obese before losing 100 lbs; now I'm just a tad chubby).
However, the memory of the hard times from 2002 to 2005 still haunt me, so I am currently pursuing two different avocations on the side (teaching violin lessons, and teaching concealed handgun classes), which I definitely enjoy, and appear to have the potential of being a living when (not if; if you don't believe in age discrimination, it just means that you haven't been around long enough) my employer decides that I'm "overqualified" to write software.
US companies have not given up on outsourcing, and certainly have not given up on the idea of replacing "expensive" US workers with the cheaper H1-b workers. There was a pretty good (unintentional) admission of that by a law firm that specializes in teaching US companies how to destroy domestic jobs in a series of videos that they posted on YouTube (now taken down, but Google for "job destruction" or "Cohen & Grigsby" and you can still find them elsewhere: they may still be on the Lyre, Lyre, Pantz & Fier blog).
--
TX Concealed Handgun License Training
New! All-day Saturday Classes
On the post: Are eBay Auctions Rational?
Re: Of course its not rational
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Texas Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, TX
On the post: Japan Looks To Allow Compulsory Licenses For Putting TV Content Online
The nation-state
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Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, TX
On the post: Why Monster Isn't The Monster It Once Was
Monster vs. Craigslist
I have used Monster in the past, but I found my last job listed on Craigslist. I spent several weeks searching through the hundreds of listings on Monster, and I found what I was looking for in a very short time on Craigslist. The local newspaper classifieds were completely useles (it now runs only "H1-b qualifiers", not real employment ads).
My wife owns a small business, and she has had pretty good luck finding employees through Craigslist. Craigslist has been lower-hassle from both ends, and it's free for employers (don't know how long THAT will last, though, now that eBay managed to buy into Craigslist).
I'm guessing that Craigslist will do for Monster and related commercial sites what it is doing for newspaper classifieds.
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Concealed Handgun License Course in Plano, TX
On the post: NY Governor Seems To Think The Constitution Doesn't Apply There
The People's Republic of NY
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Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, TX
On the post: Tech Wages Return To Heights Not Seen Since The Bubble
Where'd they find their data?
I am in the process of transitioning to running my own business(es), because of the rampant age discrimination in software development -- mostly in the form of H1-b abuse.
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Texas Concealed Handgun Licenses Courses in Plano, TX
On the post: Stopping Terrorists... By Making It Illegal To Sell Them Domain Names?
Best way to combat terrorism
Quit fighting the "War on Drugs", and just legalize and regulate them. That will remove the profit from that industry. Then spend the money saved on development of biodiesel, EV, and solar technologies. We only have to reduce our foreign oil dependence by about 25% in order to completely cut off the muslim OPEC countries.
On the post: Comcast Fined For Being Too Slow At Answering Customer Calls
Re: heh
I may have started a trend, because I noticed the last several times I went to that WalMart that there were enough checkers that I didn't have to stand in line more than a few minutes.
But I still do most of my shopping at Kroger. Even with slightly higher prices, the service is enough better to make it worth it. And I've discovered some items there that I like, that aren't available at WalMart. Competition is a wonderful thing.
On the post: Comcast Fined For Being Too Slow At Answering Customer Calls
Bye, bye Comcast
When I canceled the service, all of a sudden, customer service called ME to ask why, and try to talk me out of it. When I told the lady I was switching to FiOS, she said "oh..." and hung up. Probably the 200th time she had heard that in the last couple of days.
Comcast service was crappy enough right from the start that I never used the email address that they provided. I'm glad I didn't, because it meant that I didn't have to notify anybody that my email address was changed (because it wasn't). I highly recommend not using your ISP-provided email, because it's a pain in the ass if you ever change ISPs (or move to a location where you can't get your old ISP anymore).
--
Texas Concealed Handgun License Training, evening classes in Plano
On the post: Does Betting On The CD Still Make Sense?
Re: Still Buying
Get yourself a converter that plugs into the headphone jack and transmits to your FM radio. The are available for around $20.
On the post: No End In Sight To H-1B Problems
H1-b is just another form of age discrimination
I have no problem with allowing foreign workers into the US, but I have a BIG problem with the government-encouraged abuse of the H1-b system -- which, as practiced by above un-named telco, amounted to slavery. ("What? So you don't like working 18-hour days without paid overtime, Ganesh? Pack your bags; you're fired -- er, "laid off". Too bad you have to leave the country before you have time to file a legal complaint..."). The abuses I personally observed were bad enough that I have trouble with people believing it could be so bad.
I would favor complete abolishment of the H1-b program, and just let anyone with a marketable skill come to the US with no restriction other than a clean criminal record. Note that the companies that want to hire H1-b's are dead set against any such move, because it would obviate the main advantage of the H1-b program, namely the ease with which it can be abused.
BTW, if you think age discrimination isn't for real, it just means you haven't been around long enough for it to get applied to you.
--
Texas CHL Courses
On the post: Why France's Google Clone Helps Google Users
French military victories
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TX CHL Training
On the post: Forget Video Conferencing, How About Video Dining?
Re: Not going far enough.
Reminds me of a story by Isaac Asimov about a planet that used video technology to avoid all physical contact -- the logical extreme of this idea. They (d)evolved to a point where the entire planet had fewer than 1000 residents who each lived alone in large estates tended by robots. The residents became so averse to physical contact that they would commit suicide to avoid it.
--
Texas Concealed Handgun License courses in Plano, TX
On the post: At $15,000 Will Best Buy's Smart Home In A Box Also Paint My House Blue And Yellow?
Reminds me of...
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Texas Concealed Handgun License courses in Plano, TX
On the post: Japanese Court Decides That Making Software That's Used For Some Illegal Things Is Illegal
Re: Re: Create This!
The Japanese legal system has just (potentially) economically crippled their country. They already have a problem with innovation in product development, just from their anal-retentive authoritarian culture. Now, if only the Chinese could be persuaded to commit the same error...
--
Texas Concealed Handgun License Training
On the post: eBay Should Treat Users As If It Had Some Competition For Them
eBay strike? Yawn...
Google, maybe? Google is going to do whatever Google wants, on their own schedule, just like they have always done to date. I seriously doubt that the current "petition" is going to have any effect at all.
Meanwhile, there are dozens of viable places to sell other than eBay. Most of the junk sold on eBay isn't really well-suited to the auction format, anyway, and there are several non-auction listing sites. My current favorite is Blujay. I don't sell as much stuff there as on eBay, but I get to keep more of what I make, and it's a lot less hassle. I'm currently pruning back my eBay listings to concentrate on other sites, and I have a little sales-blurb that I send with every eBay order that I ship telling the customer about the better deals they will be able to find on Blujay. That's how to impact eBay; word of mouth, one customer at a time.
For auction sites, check out OnlineAuction.com or ebid.com -- both are growing steadily, and are already a substantial fraction of the size of eBay.
On the post: Like WiFi, VoIP Profits Might Go To Unexpected Places
VoIP not profitable...
The reason Skype is doing poorly is because eBay has no clue what it's good for. When eBay finally divests Skype (I predict it will do so in less than 2 years), both companies will do better. Or at least Skype might; eBay has lost all connection with its roots, and is drifting aimlessly. eBay will take a long time to die because of its sheer size, but the combination of GoogleBase, Froogle, and Google Checkout will eventually sweep eBay and its captive PayPal into the dustbin of history. Unless, of course, they manage to come up with a better business model than they currently have.
On the post: A Turing Test For Terrorists
El Al planes don't get hijacked.
Simple answer: Israeli pilots and flight crews are armed. Terrorists and other criminals prefer 'soft' targets.
More than 3,000 people died on September 11th, 2001 because a bunch of Liberals managed to prevent American pilots and flight crews from carrying defensive weapons.
However, Sep 11 changed few other things, too. It was the hijacking to end hijackings of that type. Since 9/11, there have been attempted hijackings that were defeated by the male passengers -- in at least one case, the would-be hijacker was beaten to death, which is as it should be (unfortunately, his carcass was *not* fed to pigs). If I was on a plane being hijacked, I would kill the hijacker(s), or die in the attempt, because there is no other morally acceptable choice.
Accordingly, now the Islamic terrorists have changed tactics. They can't commandeer a plane anymore, so they can only do suicide bombings to crash them (attempting to do so over a populated area, of course). We adapt as needed -- I just don't travel by air anymore.
On the post: Don't Forget To Read The New Disclaimer For The Internet
To put things in perspective...
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