Comment Re:*Cracks Whip* (Score 2) 267
What did people do before the industrial revolution?
Lived as serfs
Comment Re:*Cracks Whip* (Score 4, Insightful) 267
My point is that over that last couple hundred years we have built up a series of labour laws covering things like minimum wage, working hours, unions, child labour etc. It's not perfect and you can make arguments for and against certain aspects of the system. However, these online employers like Turk or Rent a Coder have the potential to wipe the slate clean. Employers can simply set up shop in whatever country has the most favourable (read none) labour laws
So what will happen in the long term? Will this be the revolution that brings prosperity for all or will it be like the industrial revolution where people were forced to send all of their children to work in the coal mines just to survive?
Comment Re:*Cracks Whip* (Score 1) 267
Should it even be legal to pay these rates? Where I live an employer can pay you based on the work acomplished but they must still pay you at least minimum wage. Welcome to the new industrial revolution where you're not entilted to minimum wage because you're working online as an "independent contractor" for a foreign company.
Submission + - Conservative groups gaming digg (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: cnet and other sites have the story of an Alternet undercover operation that discovered conservative activists gaming digg results. From the cnet piece: "Alternet's report details tactics used by the 100-some user group, who allegedly communicate through a Yahoo Groups site, and have done so since early 2009.
Its members cull both Digg's front page and its upcoming section to find what they consider liberal or otherwise anti-conservative stories. They then send out group messages to its members to use the social news site's bury option to make sure those stories stay off the front page, or get them out of sight if they're already there. Screenshots of bury assignment e-mails taken during the investigation indicate that the group's efforts were highly successful. "
Its members cull both Digg's front page and its upcoming section to find what they consider liberal or otherwise anti-conservative stories. They then send out group messages to its members to use the social news site's bury option to make sure those stories stay off the front page, or get them out of sight if they're already there. Screenshots of bury assignment e-mails taken during the investigation indicate that the group's efforts were highly successful. "
Comment Re:Simple solution. (Score 1, Insightful) 1018
In a perfect world the programmers could just quit and start their own trading firm. The reality is that there is an unreasonbly high barrier to entry which is more about keeping new players out then about the true cost of entry.
Comment My Cost (Score 2, Informative) 420
At the universisty where I work. IT charges $3.00 per GB/year to store data on a NetApp SAN. It then costs you another $3.00 GB/year for backups.
NOTE: In case you're wondering the two prices are charged separtely in case you have data that doesn't need to be backed up or have data that needs to be backed up but isn't stored on the SAN.
Comment Re:How much did they save? (Score 1) 383
In the corporate word, the important thing is to save money no matter how mutch extra it costs.
It's funny but true. As a CEO it makes sense to role the dice, cut costs and rake in a huge bonus. The odds are in your favour that it will work out. But on the off chance you loose then just take your golden parachute and move on to another company to try it at.
Comment Re:Which is awesome until... (Score 4, Interesting) 356
Downloading child pornography is a major crime?
I think that'll be small potatoes compared to the fact that every black hat, spammer, script kiddie, phisherman, fraudster, terrorist, and mobster can safely do whatevery they want and not have to worry about it. If this ISP manages to grow to any decent size I'd expect it would turn into the pariah of the Internet with admins everywhere blocking the IPs becuase they don't want to put up with all the crap that hit's their servers.
Comment Re:Johnny's Mom Has 3 Kids... (Score 2, Informative) 981
i've obviously not had enough to drink - what's the answer?
The riddle starts out as "Johnny's Mom has 3 kids" therefore one of the kids must be named Johnny.
Comment Re:It's One of Those Days (Score 1) 154
So you knew about the shady calling practices but how do you know it wasn't a total scam. They could have lied to you and said that the DirectTV equipment was being shipped from another city when in fact nothing was being sent. Then given you a bogus 1-800 phone number to give out to customers to call in case they have any problems.
America's Army Games Cost $33 Million Over 10 Years 192
Responding to a Freedom Of Information Act request, the US government has revealed the operating costs of the America's Army game series over the past decade. The total bill comes to $32.8 million, with yearly costs varying from $1.3 million to $5.6 million.
"While operating America's Army 3 does involve ongoing expenses, paying the game's original development team isn't one of them. Days after the game launched in June, representatives with the Army confirmed that ties were severed with the Emeryville, California-based team behind the project, and future development efforts were being consolidated at the America's Army program office at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. A decade after its initial foray into the world of gaming, the Army doesn't appear to be withdrawing from the industry anytime soon. In denying other aspects of the FOIA request, the Army stated 'disclosure of this information is likely to cause substantial harm to the Department of the Army's competitive position in the gaming industry.'"
The Struggle For Private Game Servers 125
A story at the BBC takes a look at the use of private game servers for games that tend not to allow them. While most gamers are happy to let companies like Blizzard and NCSoft administer the servers that host their MMORPGs, others want different rules, a cheaper way to play, or the technical challenge of setting up their own. A South African player called Hendrick put up his own WoW server because the game "wasn't available in the country at the time." A 21-year-old Swede created a server called Epilogue, which "had strict codes of conduct and rules, as well as a high degree of customized content (such as new currency, methods of earning experience, the ability to construct buildings and hire non-player characters, plus 'permanent' player death) unavailable in the retail version of the game." The game companies make an effort to quash these servers when they can, though it's frequently more trouble that it's worth. An NCSoft representative referenced the "growing menace" of IP theft, and a Blizzard spokesperson said,"We also have a responsibility to our players to ensure the integrity and reliability of their World of Warcraft gaming experience and that responsibility compels us to protect our rights."
Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight 140
Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."
US Air Force Buying Another 2,200 PS3s 144
bleedingpegasus sends word that the US Air Force will be grabbing up 2,200 new PlayStation 3 consoles for research into supercomputing. They already have a cluster made from 336 of the old-style (non-Slim) consoles, which they've used for a variety of purposes, including "processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and 'neuromorphic computing.'" According to the Justification Review Document (DOC), "Once the hardware configuration is implemented, software code will be developed in-house for cluster implementation utilizing a Linux-based operating software."
Submission + - What Happened To The Bay Bridge? (sci-experiments.com)
farnsworth writes: Tony Alfrey has put together a fascinating page with some history, analysis, and possible explanations for what ultimately went wrong with the recent emergency repair of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The bridge has been closed for days and is not scheduled to open for days to come, hugely inconveniencing more than 250,000 people a day. His analysis touches in possibly poor welding, possibly a fatally flawed kludge, and a the absence of a long-term fix or adequate follow-up by Caltrans, who are responsible for the bridge. This is a great engineering community, what other info do you have?
