Actually, this is probably the main reason MS is defying the US court order. If they give over the info without getting permission from the Irish government, they are likely to be in violation of Irish or EU laws on data privacy. They have some ground to defer the compliance with the US court during the appeals process, so they are deferring the risk of violating the EU laws until absolutely necessary. Or they may elect to take contempt charges in the US over greater charges in the EU, and reap the PR benefit. It definitely isn't a purely altruistic "defend the consumer" action, even if they choose to play it that way.

On the other hand, it does defend their customers against overreaching by the US, so more power to them.

Well, yeah - cops and arrestees are both human. That's the fundamental problem. Are we ready for RoboCop?

The practical issue here is that courts and juries give more weight to cop testimony than Joe Schmoe's testimony. So most of the time when the cops do something wrong, Joe loses. The cams are the best way to generate evidence and history to counteract that bias. In the short term, they also provide final proof between the cop said/Joe said testimony.

Yeah Java is the COBOL of the 21st Century. It's the lowest common denominator, almost every programmer knows at least the rudiments, and the tool and support ecosystem around it is huge.

More politely - if these guys spent as much (re)training each US worker as they spend on lawyers, visa fees and other costs related to bringing in the replacements, they wouldn't have a problem.

One reason I route all email from my company's PAC to my junk folder. Why should I help fund legislation against my own interests as well as those of the country.

Now if there was a permanent residence visa program, I might go for it. The foreign workers would have more bargaining power over their salaries/benefits and they would be long-term paying payroll taxes and other things that would help the US economy and budget.

Walmart used to do (and probably still does) this to their suppliers. The only difference is the consumer never knew their was a coercive price negotiation going on because the product simply never appeared on store shelves, and usually there was a substitute from another vendor.

but his history is pretty weak. Up until the rise of the internet in the '90s (or possibly the "Weird Science"/"Revenge of the Nerds" era in the 1980s), nerds/geeks/otaku were right up there with gays, women and ethnic/religious minorities for being bullied, harassed and abused by the crueler edges of the mainstream. And this kind of harassment still goes on in certain areas/communities - try being a geek in a gang-ridden slum sometime.

That certainly doesn't justify a nerd perpetuating the cycle of abuse onto women or any of the other groups. But it does mean that there are better ways to engage the "nerd community" than by claiming that they aren't the subjects of abuse themselves.

In my experience a CAB usually gets introduced in a small organization if something really got screwed up under the old process. There are exceptions - you could get a CTO who is gung-ho for ITIL, or you may have a new, important customer who insists on "process". But a CAB is an attempt to manage change and prevent problems in the working environment. So unless you have a better solution that will prevent negative impacts from your change process, go do the paperwork, with special attention to any risks or issues associated with the change (extended maintenance window, complex install or backout process, partial or incomplete fixes that still leave issues open). You can probably half-ass the CAB and get your work done almost like the old days, but when the next failed change occurs and they find out you hid risks or didn't do proper research, your ass could be out the door.

OTOH, if you really hate bureaucracy that much, hauling your ass out the door could be your best option - as long as you have a different career in mind besides sysadmin.

What I get for not scrolling down before posting. Being a millionaire ain't what it used to be: it's definitely middle class now.

If you earn $80k+ a year, you need to be a double millionaire just in retirement savings to maintain your income when you retire. I guess this means 44% of developers don't expect to retire at age 65?

This isn't just randomly going after relatives to pay a debt. The chain is
1) person A (allegedly) receives an overpayment
2) person A dies. The overpayment is a liability of the estate of person A.
3) Persons B and C inherit from person A. If no reserve is left in the estate, the IRS will come after the heirs for recovery.

While NSA was hunting sysadmins, they were being pwned by...a sysadmin!

Yet another example of how NSA is too focused on offensive network capabilities (breaking into target systems) and doesn't pay enough attention to defense (strong crypto, open security models, etc.)

...
Caalll for Super Chicken!

Ba-buck!

Or maybe it's Baby Huey.

1) Rollback Ukraine to previous "territorial integrity", possibly with some bargaining over the structure of a new government.
2) Russia annexes Crimea after their puppets declare independence and the remainder of Ukraine joins EU (and possibly NATO), starting a new cold war. Ukraine gets screwed over in this case because they don't really have any guarantee that NATO would back them up any more than the current coalition fails to.

This is all part of a cunning plan to have Android and/or Chromium enter the desktop/laptop market. Start by denigrating your target.