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Comment FLSA? (Score 1) 848

by fudgefactor7 (#38513766) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Handing Over Personal Work Without Compensation?
You need to tell the bosses that because you just saved the company mucho moolah by doing this haphazardly, you deserve a raise; otherwise you no longer feel comfortable supporting the code since that's really not your job. Sure, it works *now*, but later you can't really expect. Who knows what bugs crept in when you weren't looking--after all, this is way above your pay grade. Also, look into being able to write off your personal time/equipment on your taxes, since that's where the development was taking place. Additionally, see if FLSA kicks in, since you pretty much volunteered time/effort to the company without compensation.

Comment Is it just me, or... (Score 2) 94

by fudgefactor7 (#36046060) Attached to: id Software's <em>RAGE</em> To Ship With Mod Tools
...does this game just look like practically every other game out there? I'm not enthusiastic about it. The physics of the car just looked wrong to me. I don't know, maybe that was still some early stuff, but for me to want this they'll have to do more. Lots more. And it's still a damn FPS. Enough already! The market is flooded with them, and none of them are any better than Doom 3 was. Ugh. Someone, please develop a new gaming paradigm so we can lose the FPS once and for all.
Facebook

Facebook To Make Facebook Credits Mandatory For Games 116

Posted by Soulskill from the hope-that's-ok-with-you dept.
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from TechCrunch: "Facebook has confirmed that it is indeed making Facebook Credits mandatory for Games, with the rule going into effect on July 1 2011. Facebook says that Credits will be the exclusive way for users to get their 'real money' into a game, but developers are still allowed to keep their own in-game currencies (FarmBucks, FishPoints, whatever). For example, Zynga can charge you 90 Facebook Credits for 75 CityCash in CityVille. ... The company acknowledges that some developers may not be pleased with the news, explaining this is why it is announcing the news five months in advance, so it can 'have an open conversation with developers.' The rule only applies to Canvas games (games that use Facebook Connect aren't affected), and while it's games only at this part, Facebook says that it eventually would like to see all apps using Facebook Credits. It's a move that's been a long time coming — there has been speculation that Facebook would do this for a year now, spurring plenty of angst in the developer community."
The Internet

Two-Thirds of US Internet Users Lack Fast Broadband 402

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-comcastic dept.
jbrodkin writes "Two-thirds of US Internet connections are slower than 5 Mbps, putting the United States well behind speed leaders like South Korea, where penetration of so-called 'high broadband connectivity' is double the rate experienced in the United States. The United States places ninth in the world in access to high broadband connectivity, at 34% of users, including 27% of connections reaching 5 Mbps to 10 Mbps and 7% reaching above 10 Mbps, Akamai says in its latest State of the Internet Report. That's an improvement since a year ago, when the United States was in 12th place with only 24% of users accessing fast connections. But the United States is still dwarfed by South Korea, where 72% of Internet connections are greater than 5 Mbps, and Japan, which is at 60%. The numbers illustrate the gap between expectation and reality for US broadband users, which has fueled the creation of a government initiative to improve access. The US government broadband initiative says 100 million Americans lack any broadband access, and that faster Internet access is needed in the medical industry, schools, energy grid and public safety networks."
Government

UK Authorities Accused of Inciting Illegal Protest 371

Posted by samzenpus from the stirring-the-pot dept.
jarran writes "Questions are being asked about the tactics being employed by UK authorities to monitor and control protest groups. Schnews reports on evidence that government IP addresses are posting messages to sites like indymedia, attempting to provoke activists into taking illegal direct action. Evidence has emerged recently that the police consider sex to be a legitimate tool for extracting information from targets, and senior police have been accused of lying to parliament about the deployment of undercover agents at protests."
Security

New Mega-Leak Reveals Middle East Peace Process 760

Posted by samzenpus from the like-a-sieve dept.
An anonymous reader writes "There's been yet another mega-leak, this time of 1,600 papers describing the Israeli/Palestinian peace process negotiations. It's independent of Wikileaks and came to light via al-Jazeera, showing perhaps that the mega-leak meme is here to stay whatever happens to Assange. The papers show a weak Palestinian side offering ever greater concessions to Israel, which flatly rejected this as being insufficient: 'We do not like this suggestion because it does not meet our demands,' Israel's then foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told the Palestinians, 'and probably it was not easy for you to think about it, but I really appreciate it.'"
America Online

60% of AOL's Profits Come From Misinformed Customers 301

Posted by samzenpus from the check-your-math-again dept.
satuon writes "Ken Auletta's big New Yorker piece on AOL (subscription only) this week revealed an interesting detail about the company's inner workings. According to Auletta, 80% of AOL's profits come from subscribers, and 75% of those subscribers are paying for something they don't actually need. According to Auletta: "The company still gets eighty percent of its profits from subscribers, many of whom are older people who have cable or DSL service but don't realize that they need not pay an additional twenty-five dollars a month to get online and check their e-mail. 'The dirty little secret,' a former AOL executive says, 'is that seventy-five percent of the people who subscribe to AOL's dial-up service don't need it.'"
Education

America Losing Its Edge In Innovation 757

Posted by Soulskill from the chickens-coming-home-to-flip-burgers dept.
jaywhybee writes "Forbes has an interesting article about America losing its edge in innovation because engineers and scientists in the US are not as respected as they are in other countries, and thus fewer youths aspire to become one. Quoting: 'I’ve visited more than 100 countries in the past several years, meeting people from all walks of life, from impoverished children in India to heads of state. Almost every adult I’ve talked with in these countries shares a belief that the path to success is paved with science and engineering. In fact, scientists and engineers are celebrities in most countries. They’re not seen as geeks or misfits, as they too often are in the US, but rather as society’s leaders and innovators. In China, eight of the top nine political posts are held by engineers. In the US, almost no engineers or scientists are engaged in high-level politics, and there is a virtual absence of engineers in our public policy debates.'"
Businesses

IRS Nails CPA For Copying Steve Jobs, Google Execs 509

Posted by Soulskill from the money-for-somethin' dept.
theodp writes "It seems $1 salaries are only for super-wealthy tech execs. The WSJ reports that CPA David Watson incurred the wrath of the IRS by only paying himself $24,000 a year and declaring the rest of his take profit. It's a common tax-cutting maneuver that most computer consultants working through an S Corporation have probably considered. Unlike profit distributions, all salary is subject to a 2.9% Medicare tax and the first $106,800 is subject to a 12.4% Social Security tax (FICA). By reducing his salary, Watson didn't save any income taxes on the $379k in profit distributions he received in 2002 and 2003, but he did save nearly $20,000 in payroll taxes for the two years, the IRS argued, pegging Watson's true pay at $91,044 for each year. Judge Robert W. Pratt agreed that Watson's salary was too low, ruling that the CPA owed the extra tax plus interest and penalties. So why, you ask, don't members of the much-ballyhooed $1 Executive club like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt get in hot water for their low-ball salaries? After all, how inequitable would it be if billionaires working full-time didn't have to kick in more than 15 cents into the Medicare and Social Security kitty? Sorry kids, the rich are different, and the New Global Elite have much better tax advisors than you!"
First Person Shooters (Games)

Unreal Tournament 3 For Linux Is Officially Dead 190

Posted by Soulskill from the snuffing-out-long-fading-hopes dept.
ndogg writes "There is no longer any uncertainty surrounding the release of Unreal Tournament 3 for Linux. It's official: the port is now dead. No reasons were given, but no one should be waiting for it anymore, if anyone still was."

Submission + - Blake Edwards, R.I.P. (imdb.com) 1

Submitted by fudgefactor7
fudgefactor7 writes: Blake Edwards, the driving force behind such classic films as "The Pink Panther," has passed on, age 88.

Comment I'm going to be honest here (Score 1) 376

by fudgefactor7 (#33468588) Attached to: <em>Hurt Locker</em> File-Sharing Subpoenas Begin
I have not seen "The Hurt Locker," and probably never will; this mode of profit generation makes me not to even rent the damn thing, so they can suck it. Every person I know who saw this movie said the EXACT same thing: it sucked balls. I believe them, because everyone I read online says the same thing. This is why I haven't seen this movie, nor have I pirated it just out of some form of curiosity. It was not advertised where I live, and if it was at the theater, it was there less than 5 days. That's why this movie made no damn money! I go to the movies all the freakin' time, and this one was NEVER there at my local 12-plex...or at the 8-plex across town. No ads=no revenue. There you go. I don't give a shit if it won an award or not, that's meaningless. I've seen plenty of movies with "Best Picture" awards and thought they sucked ass through a pipe. Plus, they're going after IP Addresses. Wow. What a shitty way to tell if someone grabbed your crappy flick. IPs change all the time, it's a DHCP lease. So all you know is that someone with that IP at that time was in the swarm. Ok, so that means it was them at that time, right? Not on your life, IP spoofing is common. So are Proxies. You cannot trust IPs one iota when you're in a swarm. Not at all. And these chumps think that is the smoking gun for their lawsuit? Wow, they don't understand how shit works, do they? Also, keep in mind that these lawyers signed a contract with the movie studio: they keep 70% of all the money they get from the lawsuit. See a flaw there? Yeah, the big one you can drive a truck through? Yeah, that one.... gimme a break. They won't see a dime in money from a lawsuit like this (nobody ever has); and what's more it's nothing more than extortion along the lines of "Hey, give us money or we break your stuff!" Not cool.

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