Apparently on slashdot, the plural of anecdote is the exception that proves the rule. So five or 10 people have seen witching work. Therefore it doesn't work.

Gas lines, water lines, sewer lines, coaxial lines, electric lines can all be found with a minimum of effort without witching sticks. All you have to do is go to a random spot, any old spot, it doesn't even have to be within 1000 miles of a human settlement, and dig. If you do not hit one of the above, you will at the very least cut the only fiber connection to an entire continent.

I think unions were great at busting up some frankly inhumane hiring practices. These days, it seems like you need a union against the union as the percentage they take from you is probably about equal to the percentage cut you would have to take if you didn't have the union backing you.

This is my problem, too. The problem is that companies not only expect you to to work late into the evening "when necessary", meaning on days that end in "y", but they also expect that the fact that you worked a 20 hour shift on Monday does not mean you can come in late on Tuesday, and you certainly cannot expect to be allowed to take a half hour to go run some errands during the day, unless you are willing to give up your lunch hour to run those errands instead of maintaining your health so that you can be a more productive employee.

In the vast majority of places I have worked, they have claimed that I am an exempt employee and thus cannot be paid overtime, although that is not true by the letter of the law in most cases. Also, in most of those places, they do allow you an hour for lunch and you are not actually "on the clock", however, they also expect you to work 8:30 to 5:30, not 9 to 5. So you still work at least a full 8 hours.
Recently I was told by my boss that I need to bring my laptop to lunch in case there is a problem at work. That means, as far as I can tell, that I am not actually on a lunch break at all. Also, it means that I am limited to eating places that have free public wifi, because they won't pay for tethering and I'm sure not going to pay for it just for their use, and also that wherever I go has electric outlets within reach of the table because the battery on my 4 year old laptop only lasts about 10-15 minutes.

Green Eggs and Ham FTW!

One of my favorite things to do during a conference call is to wait for somebody to start some tirade after hitting mute and then to say "By the way, IT says they will have the mute button fixed by Friday."

I've been thinking about getting a dashcam. I commute less than 40 miles round trip each day and yet almost every day I witness at least one bonehead move that could have killed someone. If I could record these, at least it could be put up on a wall of shame somewhere and maybe it ought to be admissible as evidence for attempted vehicular manslaughter. At the very least, if one of these maneuvers does eventually cause an accident, i will be able to present video evidence.
Some of the illegal maneuvers are done by cops, as well. I saw one yesterday that i wanted to call in for a possible drunk driver. Weaving around, getting at least a tires width into neighboring lanes at times, etc. But he was probably just surfing the internet on his police computer. Oh, and speeding. About 75 in the 60 zone. Then sometimes I see officers throwing lit cigarettes or other trash out of the car. Excessively speeding without using their lights, etc.

The problem with accidental breakage is that it it always occurs when it would have corroborated the defendants story. The problem with this ubiquitous recording is that it never seems to be able to be used for your benefit. My friend had his debit card used at a local branch ATM. it had never left his possession, so he was curious as to who had used it. He requested the tapes from the bank. Of course, the camera had not been working that day. Undoubtedly they would have been working that day if someone had tried to steal the money out of the ATM though. Perhaps if he had gotten a subpoena, the bank may have changed their story. Or perhaps not. How can an outsider prove whether the camera system was working or not? If the bank wants the cameras to have been broken, then they were broken.

I'm surprised they are actually allowed to call terrorists terrorists.In the U.S., it is not PC to call terrorists terrorists. However, you can call people who hate government oppression in response to terrorist acts terrorists.

Watching something does not encourage the production of something. When you stop and rubberneck at an accident, does that mean you love accidents and want to encourage the production of them?

$20 for food? Well, that will get you through breakfast if you are a lousy tipper.

Better make sure the hotel is within a mile or two of the work place and you don't go anywhere for lunch.

It takes me about half an hour for a week long trip. That is about $100 cost to the company. Then it has to go to my manager who has to look it over and then to HR. Altogether it probably costs about $200 to process the receipts.

Not according to the IRS. They allow a per diem rate (and it is much more than $20).
For New York City, the per diem rate is $303 lodging plus $71 food.
For Oklahoma City, where I am now, the per diem rate is $87 lodging and $66 food.
I would have to say that the lodging rate for Oklahoma City is lower than you are going to be able to find decent quality lodging in Oklahoma City. The overall average rate in Oklahoma City is $99, with three star rating average of $141 or more than double the IRS suggested per diem.
Contrast that to New York City, where the overall average rate is $221 and the three start average is $177. If I recall, the food in New York City is very pricey as well, although the IRS site only allows slightly more for the food in NYC than in OKC.
I guess if you are going to New York, get a per diem. If you are going to Oklahoma City, get a receipt.

I learned Fortran, then Pascal, then C, then 68000, then 6802. Well, in school anyway. I had already learned Basic when I was in 5th grade at home. When I first started working with C++, I was lost and confused and couldn't figure it out.
I went into Java with some trepidation, owing to my previous experience with C++ as an OOL. However, the OO model in Java was so much easier to understand that after having learned Java, I was able to go back to C++ and this time around it made sense.

I am anxiously awaiting the popping of the .gov bubble.

If they require you to use the internet, and desktop at home for business purposes then they absolutely should reimburse you for it. Clothes are something else entirely. I mean, presumably you were going to wear clothes anyway. Maybe they require you to wear clothes that you wouldn't normally wear. If it was specific, like a uniform, they do normally provide that sort of thing. If it is khakis, dress slacks, or a suit, I would expect that they would cover this in the dress code policy and it would be your understanding that part of your compensation is to cover those items. If they wanted to go so far as to outline a similar policy for home desktop and internet use for business purposes and make that part of your compensation, I would be agreeable to that as well, and would want the flexibility to adjust my compensation accordingly.
As an example, when my previous company went from providing temporary cell phones to their employees when traveling, to NOT providing them and still requiring the employees to have one, their should have been a commensurate adjustment to employee compensation to cover the cost difference.