The tax "reform" acts of the 1980s - supported by both Republicans and Democrats - shifted the tax burden off the wealthy and corporations and onto the middle class. 30 years of gradual destruction of the middle class ensued. Today, instead of a progressive system of taxation, the US has a system where the wealthiest and the largest corporations pay little or no tax, while those least capable pay the most. Having a bunch of millionaires under the influence of corporate contributions - then and now - make tax policy is the definition of conflict of interest and reveals the total corruption at the heart of the US system - and its drift toward oligarchy, now almost complete.

Absolutely correct. The logic of mikejuk's argument is so flawed is hard to know where to begin. Google isn't just proposing standards because they're nice folks who want everyone to work happily together. Google, like Microsoft, is a huge for-profit behemoth whose goal is domination of the markets they are in and any others they can get into. Doubtless Google has some product(s) of its own that require, or may require such a standard and, not being fools, they realize that hiding behind the figleaf of Mozilla and pretending to be nice will buy them some cred in the open-source world. Microsoft pulls stuff like that only when it thinks it needs to. The W3C will most likely cull what is best from both proposals, have lots of meetings, and come up with something that everyone can live with. That's one way standards come into being.

I don't know who came up with the idea of Friday afternoon meetings but unless they're accompanied by quantities of alcohol, they usually end up becoming modern day equivalents of lynchings or Soviet-era show trials. They have the great potential to end up destroying morale and productivity. Meetings in general are a tremendous waste of time (IMHO) and a large company is better served by very brief, daily morning meetings among teams or daily updates via some other means of communication, rather than stopping the entire operation dead for an hour or two on a Friday afternoon.

When they stop releasing a new version of Firefox every two weeks - let me know. It's really tiresome. Maybe they should just schedule their updates with Windows Update. Yeah, I know - makes way too much sense. I can hear the howling now.

What's really nutty about ExxonMobil is that on the one hand, they are spending millions on TV, radio and print ads on how the US needs to improve math and science education, but at the same time roughly two-thirds of their political contributions (corporation and employees) are to Republican candidates. To a person, Republicans have conducted an all-out war on free public education, teachers, and teachers unions over the last 30 years. The leading US scientists over the last 100 years did not, in general, attend tony prep schools or come from wealthy families. If ExxonMobil is actually serious about improving math and science education in the US, they'll stop funding Republican candidates and start funding Democrats, as well as making targeted gifts to grammar and high school math and science programs around the country.

I studied English, Russian and French literature in college and for the first 10 years of my career worked as an editor. In the early 1990's I fell into programming quite by accident - through a project at my then employer's. I caught the software bug and never looked back. Today, I run my own software development company and work across Windows, UNIX, and Linux. I think that curiosity and intelligence are paramount, followed by a good dollop of old fashioned perseverance. To build a career in a technology-related field requires that you never stop learning. It's the old story: if you enjoy what you do, it won't seem like work.

How do you turn them off?

Well, at least it keeps lawyers employed. Rule one of big business seems to be: if you can't win in the market place, go to court. I seem to recall a bunch of schoolyard bullies (IBM, Sun, Oracle...) crying to the principal in the late 90's about how another schoolyard bully (Microsoft) was being mean to them. Instead of taking their eye off the ball (remember Novell?), Google needs to do a much better job of building relationships and selling its products. Going to court is a pointless diversion and a waste of time and money. Google's goal, as is Microsoft's, is to eliminate the competition and totally control any market they are in. Neither they (nor any of their rivals) are truly interested in fair play. Google would take the same no-bid, no-competition deal Microsoft got in a heartbeat.