Ah Europe! Many places here (North America) now do equal time off for overtime. Some places here would maybe do 150% time in compensation, but paying money for overtime hours at all, let alone at 150% rate? That's the day hell freezes over.

This is one of the most bizzare conversations I've ever been in. I worked hard, *and was compensated for it.*

Found the source of your confusion. The tech companies we're talking about are the ones who like to pay people for 40 hours of work and want 60-70 hours of work once you get in the door. Which is unfortunately way too many of them.

One place I worked at when I was younger had a 3 month death march to launch a new version of the packaged product and when it was all over I did the math on the hours we all worked I realized we would have made more working at McDonalds because at least McDonalds would have been forced to pay time and a half for all the overtime.

No, I think the problem is software patents. Almost every software patent isn't for something novel and unique, most of it is extrapolation of current practices and new ways of using the same, which is seen in the fact that almost all of these patent suits are not going after people who "stole" someone else's idea, but rather came up with the same thing all on their own and didn't even know these people existed until they got sued by them. Aside from a few interesting compression algorithms, I'm struggling to think of any software patent that's been awarded that is actually something novel, unique and worth protecting.

Hell, during the Oracle Java trial their lawyers were going on and on about how amazing these functions that Google "stole" were, until it was revealed that the judge in the case had learned Java himself and realized that many of these functions were necessary for any good programmer to do work with Java and on top of that, the work involved to create them was minutes, not weeks or months like Oracle's lawyers were claiming.

You know, when I was in my 20s and even 30s I thought the same way you did. Looking back on it I realize there were a lot of tech companies that got a lot of free work that was left on the table from me and my peers because of those attitudes. Sure, staying late a couple of nights to finish something or booking time on the weekend is fine *as long as your company is also fine with giving you that time back somewhere else*. Most companies aren't, treating it as a one way street, especially in software/tech and that's not right.

Companies love attitudes like yours because it helps weed out the people who won't be taken advantage of.

On the one hand that sounds unlikely as autopilots on planes are already quite capable of landing a plane if the need arose in anything but the most adverse weather and if the ground connection were jammed or otherwise cut off the planes would have alternative instructions like diverting to another airport or if it was on final approach and the autopilot assessed the landing as do-able then it would just land by itself. On the other hand, a "Die Hard 2" weather situation would be the kind of scenario where what you describe would be possible. Forcing the plane into a situation where the autopilot might not be able to easily manage severely adverse weather but is also cut off from external control would be about the only time I would foresee that as an issue with just jamming.

>Okay 3, 2, 1, let's jam.

Yes. That's one problem with any sort of mission critical wireless. It can be jammed by people with ill intent.

I'm not talking about computer equipment, I'm talking about TVs, receivers, home theater equipment, headphones and the like. That's where they're losing most of the business to showrooming. And it's not just Amazon, there's a ton of other online sites to buy from after you go to Future Shop and see what you like.

What part is doubtful? That people showroom? I've done it and so has everyone else I know.

Yes, "stealing business". It's called showrooming, and there's even apps for that. You go down to the local Future Shop or Best Buy and kick the tires of whatever thing you were thinking of buying online but can't see before delivery and then when you find one you like you check its price on Amazon or wherever else and if it's cheaper online after shipping you make your purchase. Frequently you buy online and the retailer has now lost a sale to an online company despite being the one that showed you the product in person and allowed you to make your final decision on its merits. Online retailers don't need to pay for retail space which is why they're almost always able to undercut the retail shops.

I do wonder what the future will look like when many retailers have gone under and everyone orders things online.

But apparently if you're a rising star BBC newsreader and you BITE a producer, you end up as the BBC Director General. Oh, and when that producer complains, you have him sent to Rwanda.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/the-day-i-was-bitten-by-bbc-boss-7086208.html

"The bizarre, apparently unprovoked, attack was on senior television journalist Anthony Massey. Thompson's 44-year-old victim suffered clear bite marks through his shirt, and immediately reported the incident.

Their bosses were so determined to hush up the affair, however, that Massey was promptly sent to Rwanda on a perilous assignment. And Thompson, then a rising star, was allowed to continue his soaring career unhindered."

Seems a bit of a double standard to me.

You wouldn't care because you'd be dead. That doesn't mean you would LIKE the idea before it happened. If I walked up to you tomorrow and said I can upload your consciousness and "you" will live forever but after the upload I regrettably have to shoot your meatbag in the forehead, would you agree to it?

It's not a migration, it's a copy. You will cease to exist and your digi-clone goes on. How could that be appealing to anyone is beyond me. It's no different than having a machine that makes a perfect copy of you on another planet and then as you step out of the machine here on Earth, the operator shoots you in the head with a sawed off shotgun. Other you is happy on planet Gletzlplork 12, but YOU you are dead.

He's pointing out that's how it will go in the US when the medium income jobs disappear. You're not going to get a Scandanavian style society with guaranteed basic living standard for all, you're going to get what's happening in Brazil. Either you're rich or you're dirt poor.

Banks fail, even in places like Iceland, the UK and the US. Now, many countries have bodies set up to guarantee a certain amount of a given account's deposits, like the FDIC in the US will guarantee the first $250K in an account if the bank fails. But then again the US also has almost 400 million people and the largest economy in the world. It'd be a little insane to expect that Iceland with a population of less than 350,000 people could offer the same guarantees, especially on foreign deposits in privately operated banks. That would be privatizing profit, but socializing the risk, hardly fair.

There are always risks, you took one, it went badly. Such is life.

I think you vastly underestimate the market. Touchscreen games are like pretzels before dinner. You can only eat so many before you want something more substantial. And with the iOS/Android gaming market heavily F2P-P2W monetized, it feels less like gaming and more like paying rent on something. As those kids gets older they do generally get a handheld, and the numbers break means it's most likely going to be a Nintendo handheld. Most of the kids who won't bother to get a handheld now are the ones who 5-10 years ago wouldn't have bothered then either. Plus, don't underestimate the allure of the handheld crack known as Pokemon, and there's only one way to scratch that itch. Pokemon X and Y sold 12 million copies in the 5 months after launch in 2013, that's not exactly peanuts.