As in, "Commensurate with experience, and aligned with the cost structure of the country in which the engineer lives."

But that's not how capitalism works, is it? Capitalism works like this:

1) A bean counter (i.e. 20-something MBA, whose inherited wealth background means, he/she doesn't know any specific business), comes in and says, "Your department is too expensive. The shareholders must be paid!"

2) The most expensive engineers are laid off. Coincidentally, these are the older, most experienced engineers (i.e. The only ones who are any good).

3) Productivity suffers. Profits go down.

4) Bean counter explains this away as technological change and increased overseas competion. Recommends outsourcing.

5) Outsourcing extends the death throes of the company by 2-5 years.

6) MBA has taken another job elsewhere at a healthy company, not yet infested with newly minted MBAs.

And drinking. Man, those mammals were *wild!*

And too cheap to meter! Oh, and there's trillions of barrels of oil RIGHT HERE IN THE USA, and, and .... cold fusion and biofuels!

Or not.

Yup. Even the most dimwitted Republicans have figured out that America's secret police do not discriminate. They spy on *everybody* who might need to be arrested or blackmailed (i.e. everybody), congress included.

It's clearly the direction we're going. Herd the lumpenproletariat into open spaces so they can be survielled and managed more efficiently.

And if you're unsure, there's this cool thing called "google" which, when combined with those fancy, dancy new-fangled gadgets called "calculators" can give you the answer in very short order.

Technically, neither Windows 8 nor 8.1 are terrible OSs. Technically.

The incredibly, stupid, clueless fail, flowed from the top (as corporate fails inevitably do). The new desktop-inappropriate GUI was shoved down everyone's throat. No option. You're a captive business audience, so learn it or go fuck yourself. Spent a few years, or decades getting familiar with Windows and its quirks? Tough shit. Learn it all anew, and *pay* for the privilege. Find that difficult? Time consuming? Not our problem.

Oh, and we're going to make damn sure the OS is almost impossible to figure out without a manual, a map, and GOOGLE (how ironic), because we can't be bothered to hire, or listen to, professional human-factors experts. I mean, they're not developers or management. What can they know? Right?

So suddenly, the breathtaking lack of regard that had previously been reserved for Microsoft's development community was heaped on *everybody.* And everybody's leaving. Android is looking good. Linux Mint too. Why not? Seriously Microsoft. At this point, WHY NOT?

Overbearing, arrogant and clueless.

It was Microsoft's attitude that made me barf. It was the "We know best" and you're going to use your computer OUR way, an you will *like* it. Had Microsoft put in an obvious button that allowed a user to switch between "desktop" mode and "tablet" mode, nobody today would be talking about this today.

Instead, they told their captive audience of business users that their opinions didn't matter, that MIcrosoft knew best, and that you would goddam well take what Microsoft knows was good for you, you little techno-peasant scum.

It was just like what they did with their programming languages (i.e. dead ending them, not designing for automated migration from the start, and so on). Learning something new, and revamping all your old macros, processes, training guides and formerly useful knowldge was *your* problem.

Many of us had parents like this. We left them, and don't visit much. The same will happen to Windows and it's developers, I expect.

What next? A governor that blocks highways as political reprisal?

But the turtles appear out of nowhere and are very far apart.
Why do cosmological theories of any merit always sound like they were written by Douglas Adams?

Illegal drugs make it easy for the police to plant evidence and pick up anyone at any time. The high prices that result from the illegality keep the cartels in business, which in turn, keeps congressional campaign coffers funded.

If those in the federal government didn't know how unpleasant things are likely to get in the near future, there would be no legal pot in Colorado or anywhere else. It's now more valuable as a control tool. Should the economy tank, there will soon be cheap pot everywhere.

But then, the takeover by the military industrial complex has already happened more or less. Look what happened when we tried to simpley reduce funding for the military during the last self-induced "crisis."

now produces 1/1000 of an unverifiable benefit, at an unknown cost to boot.

Look, there has to be *some* transparency that's independently verifiable. Right now, if I was a business analyst and tasked to determine the cost/benefit of the NSA, I couldn't do it, an neither could anyone else. Certainly not cluster of clueless congressmen.

If the NSA wants to continue existing in some form, it's going to have to open up to some degree. Moreover, some things *have* to remain off-limits, like spying on friendly heads of state, congress itself, suprement court justices or the president. Right now, they're *all* gunning for the NSA, because they've all realized that they too, have been spied on. That too, will have to be independently verifiable.

It's doable, just not comfortable.

The only question left is how much he was paid, or what was he blackmailed with, to generate this "opinion?" Time, will of course, tell. After the next economic fail, followed rapidly by governmental rearrangement, the information will surely come out. It will be too late by then, of course.

Ah, but the Estonians do not wear silly hats (except at Rennaissance festivals) and their level of mud is much lower (except during the spring thaw).

Seriously, they're about the most wired country in Europe, having brought you Skype, digital voting and a network of electric car charging station. ThankYouVeryMuch. If anybody can figure out a way to make some nutbar digital system work, it's them.

Disclaimer: Half Estonian. Making nutbar digital things work daily.