Sparkfun is out only because they CHOOSE to give stuff away. Don't cry for them, they're being made whole by the generosity of a large evil corporation, or at least that was the opinion most people had of Fluke yesterday. It's Fluke who is out either way. Either Fluke becomes this evil company that is simply trying to keep its trademark and a few people stop buying from them, or they hand out $30k and the same people who would buy from them anyway keep buying from them.

And Fluke is out for support, too. Those people who get free Fluke meters from Sparcfun aren't going to call Sparcfun when they need help with the meter. They're going to call Fluke because Fluke's name is on them.

I think that's a pretty sweet deal for Sparcfun. They violated a trademark and they're not suffering one bit from it. The company whose trademark they infringed is the one losing money.

Don't throw your disposable tech workers in the trash. Recycle!

there is probably a more nuanced discussion to be had about affirmative action

but having been in the hiring seat, I can tell you that almost every single
applicant is white and male, and very few of those are actually qualified

so unless Jackson thinks HP should hire unqualified people just because
they are black or latino, he should probably focus his efforts earlier
in the pipeline

Can you give us a hint as to where we would look for those real companies? "Outside of Silicon Valley" covers a lot of ground - where specifically are those real companies designing real products located?

The problem is, "profitable" usually actually means "what will get me (high-level exec) the most profit in the least time?" Often followed by "before I bail the ship I just helped sink."

Shore that up with bean-counter metrics, projections that fail to properly account for costs (especially intangible ones) and you can easily justify "saving" money by preferring the inexperienced. The only reason why anything has any quality anymore is that advanced manufacturing techniques and materials allows relatively incompetent and de-motivated employees to turn out items that exceed what was possible 50 years ago when low price and cheap junk were more obviously related. Software, however, isn't something that benefits much from microprocessor-controlled fabrication equipment, which is why cheap software is still cheap junk.

The old-time model of a corporation was based on the idea of a more or less permanent core population of differing levels of skill and experience. Since the 1980s the model has changed to the conceit that everyone is an interchangeable cog purchased at commodity prices, used up, and then discarded at will. Except senior management (who are obviously unique, indispensable and irreplaceable, thus mandating extreme compensation).

Did Fluke actually request this? Or did Customs do this of their own volition?

If it's the latter, Fluke should step up and allow them to make a one time exception for this shipment. It would generate considerably goodwill for the company and show that they're not bullies keeping the little guy down.

If they DID request this, then fuck them all with a chainsaw, seriously.

Yeah, also: oh, bullshit.

If this were true I wouldn't even have a brain left.

I bet there are so many caveats here that the truth of this is almost certain to be lost in the noise. People differ so much, I tend to take it with a very large dose of salt when someone tells me such and such consequences are inevitable. People smoke their entire lives, no cancer. Others, bang, almost right away. Some people have immense physical stamina. Some enjoy the night. Some like the day. Some think kids are the most wonderful thing in the world, others think they're the purest form of annoyance. Some people live for sex, others don't care.

And then there's the stats angle... Headline: "your chances are TWICE the nomal fella if you (fill in the blank)", when it turns out that the chances for the normal fella are one in ten thousand, and yours are now a whopping 1 in 5000. Yawn.

Nah, not buying it. Think I'll skip sleeping tonight and play with my radios. :) 80 meters is open all night, and it's pretty quiet (in the atmospheric noise sense) now!

You know what probably REALLY gives you brain damage? Superstition.

Refreshing there is some common sense creeping into this global warming/climate change/the new name when the current one looses its umph. Naturally the pro-we-ignore-the-earths-climate-has-changed-over-millions-of-years crowd cry foul. I cannot ever recall a group of scientists like these folks be so opposed and go to the lengths they do to squelch any and all dissenting views. That is not science but fanaticism.

Certainly I'd be more worried about their intentions to sink the US dollar by selling all their reserves held in that currency. A lot cheaper than firing several ICMBs, and much more effective...Regarding the economic warfront, I don't see any tactical advantages for the US here. Imagine the Russians selling all their US dollars, China following them, and bringing the value of a dollar bill cheaper than paper toilet...

Exactly, but only because you had the drive to study and complete your assignments based on understanding, rather than rote memorization. It's easy enough to recognize a pattern in the answers that a professor is looking for and answer as expected without really understanding *why* you're expected to answer that way. Getting through a university with something more valuable than a piece of paper is work.

On the other hand, if you haven't learned hard work and writing before university, then you're less likely to succeed during it. Or, you could be a self-driven student that would learn the material even if they weren't directed by a university curriculum.

Yes, in the same sense that Amazon "has a website", except that Alibaba is far bigger than Amazon.

In my university classes, I knew more than one student that weaseled their way through classes without really understanding the material, so I know that those people are out there. A college/university education isn't a panacea; the student has to do work on their own to end up with any level of competency at graduation time.

In my case, I saw two benefits to a college education. First, it showed me what was important to study in my time. Second, it provided me the pass to get past the HR gatekeeper-goons at most employers. A degree is no replacement for having the drive to learn.

I don't have much love for the US government, but I don't trust US corporations not at all. And there are a lot of foreign governments I don't trust to act in the best interests of the Internet. I am not sure how to feel about this.