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Submission + - Mark Cuban Wants You - But Won't Pay You (linkedin.com)

Submitted by Mephistophocles
Mephistophocles writes: Mark Cuban thinks people ought to work for him — for free. No stranger to controversy, Cuban posted on his blog that people who want to work for free ought to be able to — even though that's generally illegal (strict rules apply to unpaid internships — they can't do anything that benefits the company, replace paid workers, etc). Linkedin posted a scathing rebuttal yesterday, flat-out calling Cuban out for his claims and citing statistics showing that unpaid internships just aren't worth it — people who take them in college actually tend to make less than people who take no internship at all:

The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently did a survey of people who graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree and found that a graduate who did a paid internship while in college made an average starting salary of $51,930 – compared to a $37,087 average salary for workers who didn’t do an internship.

But here’s a shocking statistic from that same survey: 2013 graduates who did an unpaid internship while in college actually made less than students who got no internship at all – $35,721 a year, on average, compared to the aforementioned $37,087. Pretty bad deal – work for free and then make $1,366 a year less when it’s time to work for money.

So are unpaid internships really just slavery in disguise, or is Cuban correct in that they can provide valuable experience?

Comment Re:Haha, nobody will do this. (Score 1) 208

by Mephistophocles (#47309733) Attached to: The Simultaneous Rise and Decline of <em>Battlefield</em>
Roger, same here. I just don't "need" new games bad enough to eat their bullshit, and regardless there are other studios out there who don't practice this screw-the-customer-at-every-turn routine. It's typical corporate greed - yes, they can do everything just short of actually sending a goon to your house to rape you and your dog, and there will still be plenty of people who buy their crap and they'll still make a profit. But I don't have to be one of them.

Comment HA! (Score 3, Interesting) 365

Man. What idiot marketing shill came up with that harebrained scheme? Talk about corporate desperation. So we'll trade in a perfectly good MBA for half what it's worth in credit toward a glorified tablet that M$ can't seem to give away? (yes, I know that's last year's news but no reason to believe anything will change with version 3 IMHO). No thanks. I'm not really a huge fan of the MBA either, but this is ridiculous.

Comment Why didn't I think of that (Score 1) 132

by Mephistophocles (#46874699) Attached to: CISPA 3.0: the Senate's New Bill As Bad As Ever
Oh, sure, that'll work. Those nice senators are always SO ready to listen to people's phone calls. I'm sure they just sit around all day hoping that someone will call them and tell them what to do, because they just get so much pleasure out of serving the people. I mean, they just put so MUCH importance on the will of the people. Guess that's why their approval rating is so gosh-darn high.

Comment Better Idea (Score 1) 104

by Mephistophocles (#46724367) Attached to: NYC Considers Google Glass For Restaurant Inspections
Here's a proposal for a minor change in the legislation. If this law is all about protecting the consu--I mean citizen, and limiting abuses of the inspectors, providing an accurate record, etc, then instead of the inspectors wearing a recording device, how about requiring those being inspected to wear them instead? Same results, right? Surely the state inspectors won't have ANY problem whatsoever being recorded doing their jobs - if everything's so above board, then they have nothing to fear.

Comment Re:Maybe (Score 1) 371

by Mephistophocles (#45738215) Attached to: How a MacBook Camera Can Spy Without Lighting Up
No argument with any of that, and great points re: NSA's deceit and the fact if Snowden could make off with such a database, it was likely child's play for most governments with an interest in it. However, expecting Apple to actually follow through with installing privacy controls like what you've described is probably the height of foolish optimism. I'm perfectly comfortable taking the matter into my own hands, hence the destruction or careful blocking of the camera.

Comment Maybe (Score 1) 371

by Mephistophocles (#45737637) Attached to: How a MacBook Camera Can Spy Without Lighting Up
I'm not an electronics engineer, but I dunno. That seems a little harsh on apple; the camera and led could have different power sources for any one of many innocuous reasons. That said, if you're paranoid (like me), a nail and jeweler's hammer will make quick work of the camera, and then power sources don't matter much. If you don't want to damage it permanently, some electrical tape works great too.

Comment Re:Just lie (Score 1) 357

by Mephistophocles (#43081075) Attached to: Don't Want a Phonebook? Give Up Your Privacy

...seeding the database with strings that could be construed to create a hostile work environment...

That's more or less where I was going with that line of thought - even if not truly a "hostile environment," at least enough that finding people to take the job is pretty difficult - or perhaps enough that the postal service doesn't think it's funny that they're delivering mountains of mail to Mr and Mrs C*********g F*******s at a couple hundred different addresses.

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