Would you like to work at "Survivor" all the time?

So every week we "vote" someone out of the company?

What Netflix is missing is that employee loyalty comes with an implicit "employer" loyalty as well. People should feel that they have a future where they work and that they can invest in the place.

A nice severance is fine if you're 20 years old.. but if you're 50 and you get fired it may be your last job (don't think age isn't a factor).

As others have pointed out Microsoft tried out a similar strategy.. that didn't pan out so well for them.

A company needs to have a certain level of humanity and morality. Not everything is about money and performance metrics. There are people and families involved as well. As a company owner myself I firmly believe that I need to care about "my people" or otherwise why should they care about me?

Another factor here is that hiring is VERY EXPENSIVE.. and training as well. Also corporate know-how is in its people.

Netfilix may be ok.. but their UI is certainly not an A-game.. (I have quite a bit of trouble finding and browsing with it)
So their magic results are not a given in my opinion.

People are not pieces of machinery to play with and then discard. These people have forgotten their moral/human obligations toward their people. They think only stock holders matter. That is what is wrong with a lot of corporations these days.

too bad.. I'd love to see them succeed at that as well

"booked" is not the same as having it in the bank. They need to launch or they don't earn the money.

people seem to equate "free market" with capitalism and regulation w socialism. No need to be so black and white. Before the free market dogma caught on there were plenty of regulated capitalistic economies. Putting the free market dogma to rest would help improve economies so that all people are benefitting from economic growth and not just a small group of nobles. This was largely the case in the US in the 1950s but today selfish policies are systematically eroding the middle class and the US will soon be like Latin America in the 50s where a small oligarchy takes over, dominates all while the land "of the free" languishes in poverty and oppression due to a shortsighted adherence to a free market policy that sacrifices the good of all for the ridiculous notion that "the market will correct itself." The way the economic values are setup these days there is no regard for the environment or justice. People need to wake up and realize that human regulation by elective representatives is necessary to protect the interests of society. That isn't socialism.. its life, liberty and the free pursuit of happiness!

Now there'll be more worms for the rest of us..

No. Progress in "3rd world countries" comes about when people are empowered to look at their own problems and find their own solutions to them rather than have "experts" from the "developed world" come and tell them what to do.

People in "under-developed" countries are not the only ones in trouble in this world. Those in Europe and the US shouldn't think that they're future is necessarily better than those in the "third world".

What will save the world is a profound recognition of the oneness of humankind, that we all have rights and responsibilities, that we all should be respected and that the only way to solve our problems is learning how to collaborate. Also, the vast majority of humanity must learn to solve its own problems rather than wait for politicians or opportunists to come solve it for them.

The profound understanding of who we are and what we are capable of achieving when we work hard, honestly and with regard for the rights of all at the local, national and international sphere will allow us to over come problems.

Tecnology, economic development, material education will all flourish if progress is made at the human level.

What I've found works well (90% of the time) is:

1. Look to see if people are hiring for that technology. If you check dice.com or something similar you'll see if companies are invested in it.
2. Are 3rd parties building "plugins" or "extensions" for it?
3. Does it make sense to you? Does it adapt well to your needs? Is it well designed?

While many frameworks may be cool or superior technologically, the sad thing about software is that popularity DOES matter.

My List:

1. Estimates
2. Legacy code / huge uncommented code
3. Designing the features correctly
4. Over/under designing the code
5. Estimates

Computing is not the act of programming.. Computing is the act of executing a program.

In my opinion, this is a question for Computer Scientists and not Physicists.

To some degree you are correct that initially such world wide agreements have little meaning while people chose not to enforce it. However, once an international agreement is taught in schools and people become more familiar with its principles, the effect is much greater and much more universal. Take for example the "Universal Declaration on Human Rights," this tool initially a piece of fiction from and for diplomats became a strong cultural force that is used today accross the world as a basis for the defense of human rights for minorities, native groups, women, gay people, political groups, etc. It is with this basis that people have an expectation today that they have some rights.

Note also, that while in the US a lot of credit for these principles is given to the Constitution, it wasn't till the late 60s until basic human rights for African Americans were upheld. International pressure was as significant factor in the US as it was in South Africa.

That is one way to look at it.

Another is that what we teach is communication. As students learn the ways of expressing themselves on paper when learning their ABCs and later by writing what happened over the weekend. They can also learn how to communicate more precisely using mathematics. For example by drawing a table, by setting its measurements, by calculating how much wood they'll need.

Another thing a child could describe is a process to solve something. Like how a robot would need to walk by going from one place to another. To do so they would need to use "words" in certain ways to "communicate" with the robot.

All of this is communication. I believe both Math and Programming should be taught as was to communicate and model processes and ideas. Then the creative side of children can be explored.

Java != applets

Its about time Oracle change the name of applets to be JAT (Java Applet Architecture) or something less catchy..

The point is that applets are messing up the Java brand.. so brand them with some other name and keep people from confusing Java with applets.

For example advice like: "remove Java from your machine" would change to "remove JAT from your machine"

Java is very successful server side.. I can't understand why they continue to contaminate the brand with the half baked plugin that only serves as a security hole.

Good.. because Introductory courses should be taught by the absolute best instructors. They have the most impact over a student's carreer.