I actually had a job for a couple of years designing 'advanced' POS system software based on the industry standards. The items that the retailers considered 'advanced' just amazed me. They seemed like basic items to me. That said, it is almost impossible to protect against this until they changed the coupon codes to something like QR codes that they could digitally sign. The current standard was made long time ago and is very limited in the amount of information it can carry.

/ This is a simple standard anyone can google that shows exactly how these bar codes are laid out. I used that myself when implementing that section of code. Why anyone would pay for it is beyond me. At the end of the day, the retailers know there is going to be some fraud on this. They have switched to all of these automated checkout systems to save money on cashiers, who would likely catch this sort of thing, so I don't really feel sorry for them at all. They have made that trade.

That said, there are some safeguards in there. If your coupon total is unusually high, your checkout will lock up and require approval from the person watching up front. So anything outrageous will likely be caught. Also, you better pay with cash, as the transaction is all tied together to your card. Also, don't use a loyalty program. So at the end of the day is all that hassle worth it to maybe save a couple of dollars? Conversely, though, I guess the checkers care less and less every day as they get replaced by machines and probably just hit the 'ok' button most of the time, and the retailers eat it as just cost of doing business.

Myself, I would not suggest it as it is punishable by law. It is worth going to jail to save a relative few dollars off your bill?

Simple then, let them do it anywhere else then and try and compete. Don't allow the companies here to bring people in from overseas to work here at deflated wages and with strong ties to a single company at the workers disadvantage. Let them do it at some other spot then, and try to compete with others working onshore in the US. Big difference between that and the H1B program. Like it or not, countries all over the world have immigration laws to avoid flooding their countries with people. Ever try to work in Mexico as a US citizen, or own some property? It's not just the USA that does this. Again, if there is a shortage then allow an increase in Visas for the US as a temporary FREE worker competing evenly on every level. Then it is a fair game.

I think the article is also talking about the fact that so many things are running low voltage today (and low amperage) that we are constantly throwing away energy in a solar situation to convert them back and forth. I have an off grid cabin where there are zero power lines as an option. Everything was originally designed for a generator. When I first put solar in, an inverter was a must to run a lot of things. My efficiency sucked, and I would have to budget power all of the time. Since then, I have switched to all LED bulbs. I put in a 12v dc stereo, and a 12v dc tv/dvd player. Additionally, I installed a car 12v DC to multi port USB charger. All of my music and movies run off a windows tablet running XBMC off of that USB hub. The fridge is 12v DC. The water is run off a 12v RV pump. Basically, I can do everything with no conversion from DC to AC to DC. There was an amazing amount of stuff that was either doing this through wall warts or internally in the device itself. That is all wasted electricity. The net result, I can run all of the stuff, all of the time, with the same number of panels. Amazing returns. I don't think anyone should be talking about switching high amperage devices over to DC. I left an AC line (and the inverter) in for that. But instead I have parallel low voltage AND low amperage DC lines for all of the stuff we use day to day. That would be the big gain in a solar home.

You can clearly see the way the companies are manipulating the system. Don't hire them as 'engineers', but as 'technology leads' then make up a low salary for them. No, the salary is not minimum wage as posted above, but it is half of what you would have to pay a standard software engineer, and you have their loyalty as it is a hassle to switch jobs. Yes, some companies appear to be above board, but is Google really only paying their software developers 123,000 in Silicon Valley? That seems low for that place. And yes, these salaries look big until you consider where they are. They are pulling salaries from the biggest companies in the most expensive places. Anyone looked into the data yet and see what the consulting sweat shops are paying/claiming? Again, tax the heck out of H1Bs and if there really aren't any engineers available in the US these companies will be happy to pay the penalty. Or better yet, untie H1Bs from a company, make it a 2 year visa, and let them go wherever they want. My guess is the companies will not be so hot on using H1B labor at that point.

Something as simple as manufacturing data far eclipses this number every day. Think of every screw from every supplier in every product. Then tracking the reliability of this product through the entire lifecycle with self diagnostic tests. No, this is not for your toy made in china, but when it comes to real top end products that HAVE to work, then you need this kind of data to figure out what went wrong and fix it fast. That could save your company millions. No, making your latest dot bomb app does not need this, but there are many places that do. Also check out financial apps like credit fraud, insurance, etc.

These things are all over and in remote areas. They are solar powered, and designed to be left alone for long periods of time. They are built such that they can go down at night if the battery dies, and come back to life with the sun. So as long as the sun shines, these things will keep sending their data. I would bet they would just keep quietly ticking on for a very very long time.

I have been a programmer for over 30 years now. The best way to keep your job is to jump on the hard technologies that real industry is doing, not the latest dot bomb thing. That stuff goes to India or Costa Rica. Manufacturing needs big data to reduce production costs. Marketing needs it as well. It is hard stuff you can't just hack out, and you need practical math. The clients also expect good communication skills and don't mind grey hair. I think being a data engineer is going to hold out against large scale offshoring for awhile. That is my bet, anyways, and I have managed to stay at the forefront for quite a few years. Also, get the heck out of Silicon Valley. Go to America's offshoring places. I am in Utah, and get paid much less but can buy so much more. My cost of living is fractional of CA. We are America's India and business is booming.

My biggest distractions come from external sources on Skype and email. If I really want to get something done, I turn those off, block off my calendar, and hide the best I can. Even better if I can do that from my office at home, rather than the wonderful 'open office' I have at work.

That sure looks darn similar to the schematic for a variable inductor. You often use inductors to balance the feed on an antenna system (usually paired with capacitors) and would seem to make sense. Otherwise why the arrow in the diagram?

I actually like this. I think we should consider the logging industry a failure unless we have a tree that is cut down by a female logger, that is then processed into a 2x4 by a female saw mill worker. Then maybe take it that one step further into having it placed into a house by a female carpenter.
This game is fun! (serious sarcasm).

And Java can be concurrent as well. It depends on the framework you are using to run it. Tomcat is thread bound, but things like akka and vert.x are not. In fact I suggest you look at the vert.x site to examine the speed increases you get on multi-core java with vert.x vs. node.js. Plus vert.x is a polyglot so you can also do Scala if it makes more sense. It is all about using asynchronous programming techniques which you HAVE to do in JavaScript, since it is single threaded, and you can do with Java. node.js is more about using cheaper web developers to put together a back end that barely functions. The node.js code I have seen is so unmaintainable with massive promise structures that will make your head hurt. If you truly need to scale to those kinds of levels you can do it even better with Java and the correct runtime environment.

Funny you say they are not being utilized. Last weekend the bands were jammed end to end for the world wide DX contest. On the major bands the waterfall was full end to end. I made hundreds of contacts. Earlier I did a summits on the air activation and made over 30 contacts in an hour. Never mind the digital modes. The ham bands are alive and well, Jim Olsen K7JEO

Another funny story along that line. I bought my cabin from a former school principal and administrator. When I moved into it, I found a note on the sink reading: "Leek in Fawsett". I at first looked for a vegetable in there, but did not find one. It was deplorable to me that someone in the school system long enough to retire could not even spell these very common words correctly. Then I saw all of his 'fixes' around (split a pipe in two since it didn't fit easily, and tried hose clamping it), and felt very sad for the generation he mentored.....

Whatever happened to teaching the kids the fundamentals of math and logic, never mind reading comprehension? Guess what? All of that is far more important to learning to code than the actual code itself. I find it ironic to imply that the kids are lost if they don't start to learn actual code that young. When I started programming, computers weren't even really available to anyone. I had good knowledge of math and logic, and was able to figure it out on my own over 35 years ago, and keep up with 'all of the latest trends' and have quite a successful career.
What I learned that help me do this, was how to learn. Start teaching that, and you will find they are prepared for whatever comes down the line in the future. Stop making automatons.....
Jim

Yes, age discrimination is horrible and very real. I just hit 45 and am seeing it first hand. I work for a 'hot' type company and they actually said in a company wide meeting 'look around you. Notice that you don't see much grey hair. That is on purpose as we want people on their way up, not out'. I was shocked. Meanwhile their people 'on the way up' hack out some of the worst code I have ever seen. We could use a few more people on their way out to actually make some scalable and well architected products so our servers don't fail under the weight of this pile of crap they created. Thing that sucks is I am right now the best I have ever been with all of this experience and I am afraid it is going to get harder and harder to get a decent job.