Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Craig Kilborn (Score 1) 277

Kilborn did 5 questions when he hosted the Late Late show. I used to think Kilborn was playing this self absorbed D-Bag host (think of it as a pre-Colbert), but after seeing the longer format interviews on the Late Late show (not to meant ion the blow up with Liz Windstead), I'm not sure if it was an act.

Comment Wrong Question - Industry Going Opposite Direction (Score 1) 136

It's really the wrong question. The industry is going in the direction where the OS is simple and secure while the App deployment package is responsible for having all the required bits and pieces required to make the app work.

For instance for a Java application we might use something like Spring-Boot to assist in creating the deployment artifact. That artifact will include the Apache Tomcat server. So all we need is a simple Linux server that has a JVM installed. Comes in handy for automation for running stuff at one of the many "cloud" providers.

Comment Re:I Know (Score 1) 170

That was a Unix system. Specifically File System Navigator for Silicon Graphics's unix system IRIX. At the time SGI was pretty popular in movie production. Albeit quite unrealistic for a tween to have a $15k unix workstation.

But hey, at her age I had Slackware running on a machine, installed from a from a bunch of floppy disks.

Comment Minnesota - No Tech Job? Huh? (Score 3, Informative) 170

I've work in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market for over a decade. I get calls from recruiters daily. Clients can never find enough experienced people. There's tons of H1Bs working in the market. It's been like that for since about 2006. It can be hard as a college grad to find a job because some bean counter is weighing paying an experienced H1B worker a similar wage as a college hire (and the H1B can't easily leave without obtaining a new sponsor.) But, as the H1B cap have tightened it's forced companies to invest in college workers like they did in the 90s.

To summarize, MN's general unemployment rate is 3.9%, it's tech unemployment rate is a fraction of a percent. It's jobs, jobs jobs if you know computers.

Comment Re:Hang on WTF? (Score 1) 191

There's a bit of a difference. He now resides in California where the company would be required to spell out IP assignment in an employment contract. It's not uncommon for those contracts to spell out a profit sharing agreement to entice additional development. It's not uncommon for these guys to be serial inventors with many patents to their name. In some states, lack of spelling it out means the employee is free to keep the patent and the company would simple have non-transferable royalty free rights.

That's not to say inventors don't get screwed in the US, but there's at least a chance that if you keep your wits about you that you'll end up with a percentage of the royalties.

Japan has a real hard-on for the company being placed first over everything else. For instance in the entertainment business no one will book you without a talent agency. The agency takes the majority profits and more or less tells you how to live your life. Don't like it, good luck getting on TV or having your stuff produced. There's a lot of stars from the 70s through the 90s that appeared to be living nicely while they were doing well, but it ended up the company owned everything and paid for housing and transport. When they fell from fame they basically had very little money to show to years of stardom.

Comment It's a Huge Problem for College Grads (Score 2) 484

We are finally to a point where economics are forcing companies to put serious efforts into college hire programs and workforce development of college hires. I consult with many large companies as a programmer. Up until recently I went nearly a decade without seeing a programming department have college hires.

If you were to remove all caps on H1B companies would go back to facing a decision between hiring a college grads that need professional development or H1B workers. The college hire could choose to take a different jobs years later. The H1B worker is far less likely to change jobs because they risk deportation if they fail to secure a sponsor (a fact that does not go unnoticed by employers).

IEEE-USA's position is STEM workers should be afforded Green Cards accommodations (most likely capped) thus not be beholden to employer sponsorship. I personally think any change to H1B or Greencard programs should be dependent on the majority of college hires finding jobs post graduation.

Comment There's a reason for the laws (Score 4, Insightful) 190

The reason the laws existed in the first place was because at the dawn of the industry the franchise fees were used for capital by the manufactures. Without the legal protections car makers could simply run the franchisees out of business once they became big enough. To a similar extent when foreign makers moved into the USA the franchise fees helped build the infrastructure.

Now we have a conundrum where Tesla doesn't see itself needing the dealers and is going on it's own. A large chunk of that is based on most buyers are going to be in big cities. They only need need 1 or 2 showrooms per state for the foreseeable future. They don't see the need to build out the showroom network which would require having franchisees. For Tesla the Franchisee system would certainly add another 3-4K to the cost of each car. They'll never get the model 3 to fit into the expected price range going that route.

At the same time you can't just get rid of all the dealer protections because Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, etc would be more than happy to cherry pick the most profitable areas for corporate dealerships. Those dealerships are owed that exclusivity because they invested in the company at the beginning. I personally don't think the dealers give a crap about selling Tesla, but they foresee the big auto makers suing to get rid of franchise laws if Tesla is allowed an exemption.

Comment Skip MATLAB, Learn R (Score 4, Interesting) 242

IMHO Matlab is a dead end. R is a similar language in the statistics and big data fields and the base spec and sample programs are open source. If you're a Math or Stats major you're likely getting a sample of R in school already because the tools are free. In the paid space big data tools like HP's Vertica will split up complicated R functions across it's cluster and crunch the data much faster than Matlab.

Comment Voip Providers don't get direct SS7 (Score 1) 89

ILECs and CLECs don't trust other entities to route good SS7 commends. The gateway to the actual SS7 network is setup to filter most SS7 commands beyond the bare minimum needed to complete a call. I've seen an unrestricted SS7 console in action at an ILEC and you can do all sorts of things to trace out a calls, listen in and pull billing and address information. It's pretty slick, but they are very selective about who gets access.

Comment Re:Just let them test out! (Score 2) 307

Most colleges use the intro classes to weed out the sick and the lame. Big group lecture hall with a non-english speaking grad student giving instruction. I think Google sees that it's never going to get colleges to change how they do classes. Moving experienced students to an online class is a way of disrupting the system.

I still am a little dubious. There were plenty of people who go Comp-Sci degrees in the late 90s who had very little interest in computers and programing. But IT was a big money field and Y2K really pumped people at problems. They made the worst programmers and IT Engineers. They either washed out of IT or ended up in management.

Comment Re:Growing Isolation (Score 1) 157

We are quite lucky that Russia didn't do what they should have done with the oil money. Create a massive sovereign wealth fund. Norway has the largest that's heading towards a trillion dollars. China is over a Trillion if you combine funds controlled by various entities. Russia on the the other hand has a couple very modest funds (under $100bn).

Why are we lucky? Because Russia has been looking for a way to economically hurt the United States for a very long time. When the financial market crashed in 2008 in the wake of the housing crisis Russia approached China with a plan to dump US currency and bonds. The plan would have created a sell off that would have plummeted the value of the dollar, created hyperinflation and crushing the US economy. Luckily China has no desire to mess with a very beneficial trading relationship and we were able to emerge from the worst parts of the recession.

If Russia had a trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund they could very easily hurt the US companies by triggering sell offs.

Slashdot Top Deals

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Working...