Quite the contrary. Employers are able to find good workers for a reasonable price and the government is saying no. So meanwhile some guy's new business is struggling to get going and some other guy who had the misfortune of being born somewhere else can't find work. Free trade, by definition, is mutually beneficial to both parties. Meanwhile, people on H1B visas are getting treated like indentured servants, because that's what they are. If you just let workers come over and work for market wages, you'll quickly get equilibrium and not have to deal with this nonsense.

The whole netbook thing came and went already. The biggest problem with the Chromebook is it's got a tiny 12" screen. At that size, I'd rather just use a tablet. For doing any actual work, a 15" screen is pretty much the minimum. I know, I've been using a netbook for occasional travel and configuring IT equipment at the office for the last 4 years. While not terrible, it's hard to type on the shrunken keyboard and the screen is frequently too small to view the window I'm trying to work in without stuff being cut off at the bottom. And the weak Atom CPU can barely play movies while I'm on the plane. I don't need a desktop replacement, but the 12" screen just isn't getting the job done. Put ChromeOS on a decent laptop and then see how it compares to Windows units.

When I'm hiring, I usually just advertise on Craigslist. 90% of the interview is just being able to complete a freshman level programming assignment. But I usually am hiring entry-level developers. It's depressing to see just how few applicants can pass the test, even guys with 5 years experiance. I was beginning to think my test was unreasonable util I had a prospect pass both tests (FizzBuzz and sort a text file of numbers) in 15 minutes dispite never having used C#, .NET or Visual Studio before. His sense of engineering needs a lot of work and supervision, but he does do good UI work.

Graduates expecting to get a job without training in technology de jour is a disturbing trend. Graduates need to have both abstract and concrete skills. You're setting yourself back $15k/year if your education did not include currently in demand skills. Students need to demand this. And most of it is as simple as just teaching the abstract principles on current technologies. I do not personally know anyone who has ever had a job programming in Scheme or Lisp, but academics still seem to love that shit. That's one of the major resons I dropped out. As a customer (and that's how students should be viewed), I was not satisfied with what I was getting for my tens of thousands of dollars.

The last round of hiring I did, none of the new grads I interviewed had ever even used Visual Studio. This is simply inexcuseable. Only one had apparently ever written a program outside of class. He was also the only one to pass the FizzBuzz test and got the job. And technically, he hasn't graduated yet; he's still taking night classes, but he's only got one left.

Blackberry makes business devices, and as a business device, tablets aren't doing much. Tablets are doing great in the consumer space. My wife and kid have their own tablets and use them all the time - Facebook, email, web surfing, games. It gets them away from their main computers and lets them communicate with the world anywhere in the hosue. Meanwhile, no one in my office uses a tablet for work. I don't really see that changing in the next few years, either. They're fine for viewing things, and while there are exceptions, they don't seem to be very good for actual work tasks.

That's what we do. Corporate credit cards are a real pain in the ass to get if you're a small company. We (small business) use personal cards and have the bill sent to the office. The employee gets to keep the airline miles or whatever bonus is attached to the card. Given that I have about $4k/month in expenses that flow through there, it adds up fast and it's a win/win all around.

What do you think people will be doing on an interstellar voyage? Maybe someday we'll have a breakthrough on interstellar travel, but I think the 1000 year spaceship seems much more probable. And that's 1000 years without anywhere to go on vacation. 1000 years where nothing new ever happens. I can tell ya, whoever gets off that ship and arrives on a new planet is going to be damn good at Tetris.

I had a similar idea for streaming movies. I just don't have the time or the resources to try and do it.

Put together a server room filled with DVD towers and literally stream the discs directly to the customer in real time. I'm actually surprised that no one is doing this right now. Or, for all I know, someone is doing this and I just don't know about it.

I specifically prohibit my developers from looking at the user agent string. Heck, I use IE9 as a browswer, and I've changed the user agent string to 'null'. Anyway, if it doesn't render correctly in Chrome, Firefox and IE, then we find a new way of doing things. Browswer specific code is never allowed. Not even for detecting mobile browsers. There's already a link to the mobile version. If they want to use the main site, that's their business.

Have the app phone home at startup to nominally check for new versions. Any serial number that checks in from more than a dozen different IPs in a day can be presumed to be pirated. Give them a little nag screen that says, "$10 to register this program is a lot cheaper than a $5000 copyright infringement lawsuit. Don't be a dick, this is how I feed my family."

The goal, of course, is to have your software widely used and then convert as many pirates into paying customers as possible.

You are correct, sir. There was also no shortage of public opposition because the Bush administration was clearly full of shit. However, post 9/11, everyone in Washington was too afraid of the sky falling to say anything. There was also substantial neo-con support for the war. Even without Twitter, there was substantial activity on forums, chat boards, IM, email, etc both for and against the war. It changed nothing. To stop anything in DC, you need massive unanimous public support as was the case with SOPA and even that isn't 100% dead yet.

My senses are still good enough, but I'd like to have my joints back the way they were when I was 17.

What should be shocking is that the district court, appeals court, and 3 justices apparently willfully misreading the law. Not to mention how the 6-3 split on the court lined up. Kennedy, Ginsburg and Scalia in the minority.

Not only that, but here's another thing that should be interesting: no matter how this case was decided, the odds of congress doing anything to clarify the law are almost nil. Any time a case like this reaches the court, Congress should be acting to either confirm the ruling or amend the law and that almost never happens.

Breadmakers are dumb. They make mediocre bread, but you eat it like crazy while it's hot because warm bread is always awesome with butter.

He's apparently moved since the 2 pictures were taken. He probably has a built in microwave now (per his notes, he was excluding built in kitchen appliances). His old electronics are probably hanging out with his missing hair.

Anwyay, I've got far more gadgets now. I was never much of a gadget person, but my kid is almost 10 and she's got all kinds of crap. Camera, tablet, computer, iPod, DS, Wii. All together, as a family, we've got 3 computers, 3 TVs, 3 printers, a Dell server, Roku, 2 DVD players, 2 tablets, 2 cell phones, 2 cameras, 2 iPods, half a dozen remotes, a healthy pile of networking gear, home phones, alarm clocks, Raspberry Pi (running RaspBMC), stereo system. I've got some old computers that need to be recycled.

The solution is to make the imported workers permanent residents or even citizens. Imported workers work for substandard wages because they're better than their home country, but it's nearly impossible for them to switch jobs once their here. If that H1B or 457 expires or they lose their job, it's back to wherever they came from. Give them residency stability and the ability to switch jobs, and they'll expect the same pay as you or I.