This mirrors my experience; I find that the part of my brain that processes code is distracted by music, and vice versa, so I'm pretty sure they are the same part.

-- Terry

Typically it's to avoid annoying the System Administrator who is already working there with the idea they are hiring a peer or over his head.

-- Terry

Unless you are, IT workers are already exempt from overtime pay; you are exempt IFF:

(a) Paid at least $23,600/year
(b) Paid on a salary basis
(c) Perform exempt job duties

IT workers fall under the "Exempt Job Duties - Professional" umbrella, just like computer programmers:

(a) Employees are performing exempt professional job duties if their work involves the application of advanced, usually specialized, learning or credentials of the type commonly associated with the "traditional learned professions" such as medicine, law, accounting or engineering.
(b) Computer professionals are exempt if they are paid on a salary basis, or hourly at a rate of at least $27.63

See here http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html and here http://www.overtimelawyer.com/areyouexempt.html to further educate yourself as to why you probably do not deserve to get overtime pay if you are an IT person.

-- Terry

Given that Java has only been released for 17 years, you are basically asking James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, or Patrick Naughton to come to work for you for $40K/year.

-- Terry

...drugs, cigarettes, liquor, gambling, lottery tickets, flat screens, cell phones, junk food, etc...

You are aware that Interpol regularly handles arrest warrants issued to detain criminals who have committed a crime in only a single country.

Interpol is not an international police organization, it is a framework to allow national police organizations to work together across international boundaries.

If a person were to rob a bank in the US, and flee to Mexico, the US will put out an Interpol warrant (more accurately, the US will issue an arrest warrant, which is then passed on to Interpol, who communicates that warrant to all member nations), and when/if the person shows up in Mexico, Mexico will then arrest them under the Interpol warrant, in order to handle extradition processes. Mexico cannot simply arrest people on a US arrest warrant... that's why they then send it to Interpol who distributes the warrant in an internationally-aware manner that other countries recognize as valid.

So again: Country A cannot legitimately just issue an arrest warrant valid in Country B. Interpol allows Country A to get international recognition of their warrant in such a way that Country B will consider it valid in their borders. There is absolutely no requirement that the crime have occurred in multiple countries, nor that the purported criminal have committed crimes in anything more than just one country.

... but filing in small claims court still costs a non-significant amount of money. Last I checked, $25 in the state of Washington. What happens when a company crosses the line and defrauds a million people of $20? The company just made $20,000,000 dollars, and no one is going to sue, because even in small claims, it's $25 to sue to get even a default judgement of $20, with a net loss of $5 for anyone who wants to sue. And even if everyone did sue in small claims court, the small claims court would be a) clogged with cases, and b) made out like a bandit with $25,000,000 in revenue.

Class action suits are less about benefiting individual consumers, because their damages are usually relatively low, and widely spread out. Class action suits are usually about collecting up a bunch of people who have been wronged a little and getting the company to pay for being dicks.

While this is accurate to say, it's like saying that he's one of the justices that is a human being. All justices, judges, and magistrates accept that corporations are legal persons. This is neither surprising, nor debatable, and is a fundamental part of Common Law tradition. Why are corporations people? Because otherwise, they couldn't own property, and could not be sued.

Let's have a hypothetical. Let's say that corporations are not people in our new world. Alice, Bob, and Charlie are working together in a Corporation, ACME. Now, ACME is not a person, so someone has to own all the assets that would otherwise belong communally to ACME, and the three decide that Alice should be the person of record for ownership of materials. Now, someone has to run the company and be on the line for any legal messes, and the three decide that Bob shall do the actual operations of the company, and direct Charlie in his work, while Alice just sits at home, and collects a paycheck just for not walking away with the money and property. Now, Bob tells Charlie to dump some toxic waste in Derick's yard. Derick is upset, and goes to sue ACME in court, however, since ACME is not a person, he cannot sue ACME. So, he has to sue the people responsible for the toxic waste dumping. Well, obviously, he'd like to go after Alice, with the deep pockets, but she had no hand in causing the harm. Bob would also be a nice choice, because as the director, he has a reasonable salary, and it was his policies that directed Charlie to dump the toxic waste. Except that Bob only ever told Charlie in verbal communication that was never recorded to dump the toxic waste in Derick's yard. Leaving the only person that Derick can sue as Charlie, who is really just a lowly employee with no salary, and no real power. Derick sues and throws Charlie into bankruptcy with the tort finding, while Alice continues to maintain all the company assets that have not been touched, and Bob continues to direct the company however he sees fit with no accountability for his actions.

They charge the U.S. companies they outsource to $12-$20/hour.

Seriously, learn some Mandarin before going, and expect to be values for your understanding of English and Western corporate culture.

-- Terry

"A ______ is to a public microphone as a 1W laser from http://www.wickedlasers.com/ is to a traffic camera."

-- Terry