Let me get this straight: You want people who deal with machines that require exacting precision in the statement of command for the machine to work at all to not take the interview literally?

Are you out of your fscking mind?

What kind of people do you think get attracted to computer programming in the first place? If these people were so comfortable assuming you're effectively lying during the interview, what makes you think they'd become programmers?

Get out of the industry. I think you would be more comfortable somewhere else - and you would definitely do less damage to the industry elsewhere.

...but instead of needing to because of technology and cost constraints, Microsoft is doing it as a method of control. Once Microsoft has the O.S. and your data on their servers, they have you by the curlies. You'll pay what they tell you to pay to access your own data or they pull the trigger.

I largely agree with you here, but there is one important difference: The Plague killed most of its victims, limiting how it spread. The MemePlague not only doesn't kill its carriers, it enriches them like a breeder reactor - they get more extreme AND more communicative over time. In fact, I would say this phenomenon also shares traits with radioactivity - and we're nearing supercriticality...

The problem with your sentiment is that whether someone is "trivially replaceable" has nothing to do with skill. The only bar for replacement is whether the replacement is cheaper or not. Mr. Niel is betting that flooding the market with programmers who don't know their worth is going to save him enough money it's worth "educating" them for free.

Americans don't have a choice - they either work the hours their masters tell them to, or they get blacklisted and don't work at all, become homeless, and die of exposure.

Except for the millions of "us" who can't afford to retire - for whom investment means not being able to pay rent.

Next time, speak for yourself Mr. Tenth-Percenter.

Yeah, because they're just handing them out. There's not thousands of applicants per job, or anything.

The NRA will never "return to its roots as a promoter of firearms education and safety" - it is the purchase enforcement arm of the weapon manufacturer industry. What the "liberals" do has nothing to do with their behavior. They will stop at nothing to use guns to take money out of the hands of Americans - the only difference between the weapon industry and muggers is that the industry is willing to give you the whole gun in exchange instead of just the bullets.

Mind you, this is coming from a gun *owner*, but let's call a flintlock a flintlock, okay?

Ironic, considering IBM's role in creating a massively popular microcomputing platform.

The reason they're tying it to the current debate is so they can blame the victim; victim-blaming is practically mandatory these days.

What about all the information about companies worldwide those businesses spend millions of dollars to hide? How can customers use information to find better alternatives when companies move heaven and earth to make sure customers never get that information and keep them in the dark? Right now, the law gives businesses nearly carte blanche to lie to customers (anything outside of a direct lie is allowed); do you really think this total imbalance between trading partners is reasonable?

I, too was born into a poor family - but no grades, no matter how good, could make college affordable to me, and no degree will ever make me acceptable to employers, no matter no good I program. You don't know how lucky you are not to be the subject of prejudice.

That's why they got away with it.

So, not only are you suggesting that people who through no fault of their own develop an allergy should accept an economic punishment they did nothing to deserve, but then you add insult to economic injury by suggesting that businessmen should exploit those people and their handicap for personal gain, doubling the economic burden they face. This is what's wrong with the world today; instead of helping each other succeed, we seek out the weak to bleed them out - and when we run out of the weak, we actively weaken innocent bystanders to prey on them.

Spoken like someone who has never spoken to an entitled asshole all his life.

People like that have staff whose sole job is to ruin the lives of those who "talk back" to the spoiled. I know this personally - I was blacklisted from my industry for five years when I calmly suggested that a particular course of action was bad. I learned the hard way while eating out of garbage cans never to do that again.