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Ask Slashdot: How Many Employees Does Microsoft Really Need? 272

An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday, word came down that Microsoft was starting to lay off some 18,000 workers. As of June 5th, Microsoft reported a total employee headcount of 127,005, so they're cutting about 15% of their jobs. That's actually a pretty huge percentage, even taking into account the redundancies created by the Nokia acquisition. Obviously, there's an upper limit to how much of your workforce you can let go at one time, so I'm willing to bet Microsoft's management thinks thousands more people aren't worth keeping around. How many employees does Microsoft realistically need? The company is famous for its huge teams that don't work together well, and excessive middle management. But they also have a huge number of software projects, and some of the projects, like Windows and Office, need big teams to develop. How would we go about estimating the total workforce Microsoft needs? (Other headcounts for reference: Apple: 80,000, Amazon: 124,600, IBM: 431,212, Red Hat: 5,000+, Facebook: 6,800, Google: 52,000, Intel: 104,900.)

Comment Re:Was she cured? (Score 2) 126

Seems to me stupid to say a person is cured if they have to keep taking meds to prevent a relapse.
By that standard insulin is a cure for diabetes.

They thought she might have been cured as she went two years without the meds without suffering a relapse. Typically, a relapse occurs within weeks of discontinuing the medication.

But that ended up bring wrong, as she eventually did relapse, so now they need to figure out why it took so long for that to happen.

Comment Re:yes but (Score 1) 302

Hobby Lobby didn't have a problem with contraceptives they were okay with 16 that is currently on the market. They didn't want to support the last four drugs which are abortifacients. Anyways, the ruling was much more. You should read it carefully.

They were okay with the 1,196 that are on the market. It was just the 4, including two types of IUDs that were problematic.

Yes, and then SCOTUS ruled the next day that Catholic-owned corporations can opt out of all birth control.

Comment Re:Scientific research never got anyone anything (Score 1) 225

You will need to have a process of converting Fusion-generated energy into fuel.

We've had that for almost a century. The Fischer-Tropsch process. Hydrogen+carbon monoxide+energy=liquid hydrocarbons.

The whole "fuel from seawater" thing a few months ago was this, using seawater as the source for the hydrogen (electrolysis) and carbon (dissolved in seawater).

Comment Re:Gee Catholic judges (Score 1) 1330

1. 9% is the "typical use" failure rate. The "perfect use" rate is hypothetical and of little consequence for practical use, as people doing things perfectly is a damn rare occurrence. It's a far better idea to promote the use of methods that are inherently screwup-proof.

2. Yes, that is probably entirely within the constitutional powers of the US federal government. What you listed is quite similar to what was mandated by the second Militia Act of 1792. Though I don't think there was ever a legal challenge to that law, so I'm not completely sure on its constitutionality.

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