There is absolutely no requirement to provide any benefits to employees in America.

I agree with you in spirit, but as phrased, you have it factually incorrect.

Employers must pay half of payroll taxes - 6.2% right off the top, there - on W2s. Then we have the Obamacare mandate for companies over 50 employees. And if you think your tax prep sucks, as a W2 your employer has already done most of the work for you. Your employer pays into UI for you (though an "indirect" benefit, it becomes very tangible if you get laid off). Your employer provides worker's comp insurance (which you may take as a "duh, they broke me, they should pay for it", but as an actual contractor, if you get hurt on the job, oh well). Most employers offer short and/or long term disability insurance, because it benefits them to do so. Many employers offer life insurance, because by offering it to you, they can also take it out on you. As for 401ks, no mandate, but employers get tax breaks for contributing to them.

No argument, the US has disgustingly employer-favoring labor laws. But a W2 gets a world of benefits (yes, many optional, but mostly not) that a 1099 does not.

I agree...why a 3rd category??

Because a W2 employee involves a lot more overhead for the employer than a 1099; but in this case, we have people who arguably don't qualify as 1099s, but don't have the "stickiness" of a W2 employee that would normally make it worth the extra trouble to classify them as such.

A 3rd category could get around this by reducing the friction to hiring a W2 - For example, one of the big hassles comes from withholding and payroll taxes; if an employer could just "pay" these directly to the employee (which of course would get horribly abused, but let's skip that for now), and the employee bears the responsibility of quarterly withholding and dealing with schedules C and SE, it would reduce most of that overhead. The same idea applies to insurance, 401k, paid leave, etc - Employers don't typically balk at the raw dollars involved, but rather, the increase in organizational complexity inherent in tracking all that. Make it just one more line item, and you'll see much of the resistance vanish.

To think of this another way, Uber has 550 non-driving employees. That takes an HR department of around 6 people, plus that amount again in additional "HR-related" support staff (accountants, lawyers, etc). Uber has 160,000 drivers. Treating those as FTEs would more than quintuple Uber's total current headcount, just for HR. And those extra people don't just draw their own salaries - They exist to correctly pay expense reports and taxes and insurance and manage depreciable assets and process liability lawsuits, all extra costs that don't exist for an army of 1099s.

would it also be acceptable for YouTube to retaliate against the user of such proxy or extension by blocking the display of the video that plays after the preroll video ad?

Absolutely! But when Joe Sixpack eventually figures out that "nothing works" at YouTube, he will stop going there.

Also keep in mind that a lot of actual "content" consists of little more than advertisements in itself. Product reviews (even teardowns), music videos, movie trailers - Do you think YouTube wants to block someone from watching the real ad, just because they skipped the pre-ad?

What I don't get is this: If Rhino Horn powder is such a big deal with so many idiots - why hasn't anybody started breeding them? Sounds like a license to print money to me. Clearly some african nation must've thought of that, no? ... And you can take a Rhinos horn *without* killing it.

Back in the 80ies they were trying a better thing: Tranquilizing Rinos and replacing their horns with artificial ones made of red plastic. The Rinos don't care - they're colorblind and probably like a new horn thats bigger and sturdier than the original. But the poachers won't kill a rino for plastic. Neat idea - why didn't that pan out .- apparently?

Find a feasible FOSS replacement for Flash that enables fast and easy cross-plattform development for performant non-trivial 'good-looking' client applications - and you have a winner. Offer some tacky half-assed JS cross-compiler nonsense, and your new tech won't get off the ground. The Web and DOM tech is a mess enough as it is, without yet another PL/runtime solution thrown into the mix.

However, I remain slightly optimistic that this may be the long awaited not-fucked-up-by-adobe FOSS Flash successor we've been waiting for. All other non-foss contenders failed throughout the last 15 years, but this might have a chance, also since there is nothing else around and the web has taken over as platform of choice due to 80ies style tech fragmentation via the mobile revolution.

Two cents from a senior webdev.

Common User Access Standard.

Enough said. ...
The very first to start breaking the rules on a broad scale was - curiously enough - Apple with their we're-doing-everything-different-this-time iTunes programm. UI standards basically went steeply downhill from there on. We've moved so far away from standards that it can even take an expert weeks to get familiar with programms (s)he should be able to operate instantly. On top of that, the software manual has disappeared (I'm looking at you, Adobe)

Handling computers has gotten more difficult, no doubt.

Switching positions throughout the day is awesome - for physical and mental health. ... And for the eyes and arms/wrists (RSI) aswell.
Highly recommended. I once worked in an office where everyone had a desk they could electrically lift to standing height. Very cool for quick discussions or standing conding sessions. ... You can do standing excersises and Kung Fu moves at the same time. ... Work on your "Crane Technique" (TM) :-)

Hey, thanks for your honest question. ... Wow, nuanced political debate coming up on slashdot - interesting! ...
I hope this answers your question:
I have absolutely nothing against any country or folks in our outside of Europe. And, funny clichees aside, I don't think anybody in Europe has anything against Greece or Italy or any other country. Most Europeans love Europe in its entireity. And also each country on its own, especially the differences. Europe would be quite a boring place if it weren't for those.
As for Greece, no problem at all. I would love for Greece to be a merry member of the Eurozone with no more problems than Germany at the moment. Part of this whole charade being such a waste is that we actually have enough problems in Europe without one country causing so much trouble.
The big problem though is that Greece has been living off emergency (!!) loans for quite some time now and has been unwilling to execute even the most elementary and pressing reforms. Their administration hasn't even started trying! To me and many other observers it seems that the Greek aren't really aware of how dire their situation is. An exit from the Euro is long overdue and I see absolutely no problem with that. Denmark and Norway have both kept their currency and AFAICT they're doing just fine. It's a drag to trade currency when I visit them, and I'd rather not have to, but I'll live and I still like to visit them and take the trading thing as an excersize.
As a currency, the Eurp is a tool. It's supposed to facilitate easyer trade amoung European Countries and move their economies closer together. The implementation of the Euro is buggy, no doubt, and it could've been done better. This Greece thing is an exception no one thought of, for instance. ... Well, except those who've been warning everybody else for years that is.

Bottom line:
Greece has to get its shit together, one way or the other. Just about now is the right time to call it quits and have Greece take the other way. At least that seems to be the broader opinion within the Eurozone and I can't blame them.

Idiots. The whole corrupt and incompetent lot of greek politicians. They frauded their way into the Eurozone and have been dragging their heels ever since. This whole Syriza stunt was the very last straw. They were the worst. They could've gotten real reforms on the way - they had the mandate by the people. Instead they kept fucking and bullshitting around, squandering the very last bit of good will with every gouvernment in the Eurozone. Even Italy is pissed - which actually is quite amazing in itself, because they're are almost right up there with Greece when it comes to mal-administration.

They could've gotten away easy - now they'll be left to their own devices.

At least it's a clear "No" by the people. Better a clear NO that a whishy-washy YES. Tsipras can use this to get some real internal reforms on the way. ... Although I doubt he will.
Well, at least we can finally make a clear cut. No more money for free for all. No more bizarely overpaid early pensioneers and nepotism. The Eurozone should finally cut their losses, have Greece move back to the Drachma and prepare for humanitarian help, like food supplies and such - at least that money won't be wasted.

Lets finally put the ECB goodies and candy to work for nations who are actually pulling their weight and can use a little help aswell, like some baltic nations.

My 2 eurocents.

Technical skills... You mean like how half of the bubbles say fluffy BS like "leadership", "strategy", "demand generation" and "spanish" (yes, the chart includes "spanish" as a node, over near ITIL)? Yeah, sure, "technical" - If you work in HR, maybe.

"Applicant must recognize a computer, and not attempt to eat the mouse. 2-4 years experience stuffing envelopes preferred, because we don't understand metered trifolds. Ideal candidate can tell Brioni from Armani by smell alone".

No kidding... Did anyone else keep getting a popup on mouseover that said something like "Men's Dockers, $22"?

Aside from the fucking annoying factor, it didn't even link anywhere or tell you where to buy them. Way to fail even at shilling, DiceDot!

Looked for two dots: C and SQL.

C has a nice big dot, but connects to only a handful of extremely broad-scoped nodes.

SQL, OTOH, has a tiny dot, and connects to just about everything on the chart.

Software doesn't hate black people. Software doesn't dislike Islam. Software doesn't think kids these days need to pull their damned pants up and stop playing that crap music too loudly.

Apologizing for a program miscategorizing an image it has never seen before as somehow "racist" makes about as much sense as GE apologizing because my toaster looks like a frowny-face from just the right angle.

Yes, Virginia, we've taken this shit too far.

1999 called and wants its meme back.

Seriously, have you actually used any modern Linux distros? Hey, good news, it has gotten so easy to install and use, you don't even need to install it! Download any of a dozen LiveCD / DVD / BRD / Thumbdrive versions, burn it to the appropriate media, and reboot. Bam! You have a fully functional modern OS at your fingertips.

Give it a try, and if you don't like it, it comes with a 100% money back guarantee.