This is real humorous. One company offered a degreed Electrical Engineer $15 an hour in the SF Bay Area. I kid you not. (read the thread) This is not an isolated case, and I know of other examples. Why do people bother to get college degrees again??

This is what the H1B program has bought us folks. People with degrees working for slave wages that won't even enable them to pay back their student loans. In my book, that's going backwards. It's time to stop being fooled by the H1B folly.

I really question if we ever needed an H1B program. Because what it's doing is shifting the costs of training (if there is any) onto someone else. Not to mention the thousands of people who Microsoft and Cisco have laid off. Or the countless older workers who are being discriminated against (it seems like everyone's career ends at 40 - as they're laid off in favor of a younger H1B). If companies did not have H1Bs, perhaps all these 'undesirable' workers would have a lot more value in the job market. Or better yet, the layoffs would not happen in the first place.

This really is a case of the emperor having no clothes.

Also, six months from communist China could be in turmoil over one thing or another. Share prices scurry to the ground!

I think people who are investing in Chinese companies are forgetting one thing. China could easily become an aggressor much the same way Russia is with the Ukraine. If China were to get in a war with Japan over Japan's northern islands, the share value of these companies could evaporate overnight.

As much as investing in BRICs is tempting, it can not be forgotten that most of these places are not democracies.

From their website. This is the official Home Depot statement.

Really, this symbolizes the lackadaisical attitude people have when it comes to security - that a breach is not going to happen to them. You'd think after Target major companies like Home Depot would have audited their own security processes.

I submit that current trade agreements such as TIPP only work to lower wages and shift jobs overseas. In which case a vote for independence would be very beneficial to the Scottish people.

I think this really is the answer. The ROI on sales with what is already a razor thin margin for them just wouldn't be there. Especially that unusually large sapphire crystals would need to be grown on a very large scale. Which would have required a whole new plant and processes for them.

My gut tells me they could have made it work if they wanted to badly enough - considering how hard sapphire really is. But they looked at the numbers and it wasn't workable for them.

So what really 'cracked' here was the accounting numbers.

I'd like to see the completion rate for people who get actual college credit for the courses - and still have the courses free.

The reason that moocs are not disruptive is because have not been given the power to be disruptive. They still allow the old institutions to get away with their many current shortcomings without facing true competition.

Colleges and universities dangle the carrot in front of everyone's face (like MIT) while not really following through to the conclusion - i.e. granting credit for the work and effort someone invests in learning the material.

In MIT's case, they could offer to have an exam proctored at a local university where someone would walk in the door and be tested. But then nobody would bother to pay exorbitant amounts to show up to the brick and mortar school.

But I submit that the emperor has no clothes. The value of having a college degree (i.e. help in gaining employment) has decreased markedly, as the workplace values cheap workers over qualified ones in the first place. Employers first priority is to make sure that their board of directors and CEOs are well taken care of before anyone else.

Students would be crazy to enter the CS field. You have employers demanding vast experience for "entry level" positions, and then that experience has to contain a long checklist of languages and methodologies. Then they face an employer who will always be looking for a way to find a cheaper H1B replacement for their American employee (regardless if they have less experience and knowledge). After that, a dozen years later their skills are "out of date" and job hunting becomes difficult - after their employer lays them off in a merger. Other employers want to hire the "hot shot" Doritos and Mountain Dew kid straight out of college.

And after all that, when they hit their 40's, they're completely unemployable now and ready to be put out to pasture. As age discrimination seems to be a widely acceptable if not approved practice in a society where other minorities are given legal protections of one sort or another.

Really kids, stay out of anything having to do with programming. Keep it as a hobby, you'll enjoy it far more.

Thank the 'patriot act' and all the ilk that drove for it. I'm looking at you, Senator Hatch.

Developers! Developers! Developers!

The fact that these towers are found next to military bases speaks volumes.

The military needs to there own version of everything to make sure things work in times of national crisis, emergency, or security. They need to have their own infrastructure to insure communications. They need to control their communications around bases and know who is saying or doing what. They need to be able to anticipate attacks. Nobody should have any expectation of privacy on or next to a military base.

Quite frankly, I'm glad to see this.