The best perk for me has always been interesting work in a congenial environment. Everything else is secondary. It helps to be a senior person, so my tasks are usually along the lines of "Figure out $newtechnology. Find a way for the company to make money with it."

I've worked for a number of companies who did the "we pay less but we're such a great place to work!" thing. Someday I'd like to at least visit a "we pay lots but it sucks to work here" company, just to see what it's like.

...laura

I'm such a cheap drunk that I voluntarily observe a limit of zero when I'm driving. I remember one night when I was tired and hungry and managed to get completely blasted on one can of american beer. :-)

For flying the limit is zero as well, with the requirement of eight hours from the last drink to takeoff.

The real solution is social: make it utterly unfashionable to drink and drive.

...laura

For my immediate family my computer-savvy Mom does first-level tech support. I'm second-level support.

Most of us use Macs, so the tech support requriements are minimal. :-)

...laura

Foundation Trilogy

Customers have choice. If you make content available under reasonable terms, they may be your customer. If not, they won't. I decided a couple of years ago that the cable company's terms were unreasonable, so I cancelled my cable. With over the air HD, internet streaming and DVDs, I don't miss it.

While many tv shows people have mentioned are from U.S. cable tv networks, I've seen top-quality stuff from other sources. Recent faves include Borgen and Scott & Bailey, both from "regular" (albeit European) TV channels. Who would have thought Danish parliamentary democracy would make such gripping drama? And Janet and Rachel can arrest me any time they like. :-)

I've watched Borgen on DVD, and am currently streaming S&B on youtube. When ITV get around to releasing series 3 on DVD I'll buy it. Reasonable terms, remember.

...laura

While I think of it: a few years ago I was talking to people about some recent historical events, and the subject of 11 September 2001 came up. One person had an interesting response:

"Give me a break. I grew up in Northern Ireland."

...laura

The news coverage leaves a lot to be desired, IMNSHO.

Something terrible happened. People were hurt. People died. Not good.

The authorities are investigating. As they should.

They caught the pricks. They wasted one in the process. Good.

The hysterical saturation coverage of all of this, however, gives these sick fucks and their filthy ilk exactly what they want: free publicity, plus public fear.

I've tried to avoid the coverage. It's difficult at times...

...laura

Canals, bridges, roads, standards, libraries ... are built by Governments, in the USA by the will, funds, and demands of the people. Special-Interest-Entitlements [AKA: corporate/religious/plutocrat/aristocrat ... "Institutional Entitlements"] has always been around, but in the last four decades Institutional Entitlements have literally co-opted USA Democracy by all The People with exploitation for very few of the people. We The People pay for infrastructure, entitlements , and Damn Hubris People exploit US like all domestic and foreign enemy.

If we are not better off than we were, and corporate/religious ... institutions always say they will make everything better (including education ), then why do we believe the lies/promises and never judge the failures and exploitation?

The USSC today defines corporations / institutions as an equal (proxy vote buying) citizen, endowed with inalienable USA Constitutional rights. This agrees with the USA Congress election-district gerrymandering, mandated corporate tax-welfare entitlements, law enforcement and prosecution (RIAA ...) by civil a/o criminal courts, corporate and religious tyranny of economic initiatives and life-quality innovation. IMO: The USSC will award in favor of the corporations / institutions that for decades now fyck US, EU, and others. US as One has degenerated in to US as racing to the last.

I view the point as moot: almost all food already is genetically modified, through selective breeding. Many things we eat bear little resemblance to their wild ancestors.

I'm more concerned about companies asserting intellectual property rights to food.

I'm also concerned about the "oppose everything" mentality. Some day something will come along that really is worth opposing and people will tune out because the tinfoil hat brigade have cried wolf too many times.

...laura

In the universe, yes. On Earth, no. All the helium on Earth has been here from the beginning, and no process on Earth is creating more. Once it's released in to the atmosphere, it's gone.

I'm always envious of stuff like this. Where I live (southwestern British Columbia, Canada), it would be very difficult to retrieve a payload that came down 100 km away, in just about any direction. A steerable RC glider is an option I've thought about. Live video, GPS and telemetry would make me even more motivated to get the aircraft back.

...laura

Indeed.

One of those legacy applications here is a customer service web page. The search function is particularly useless: it returns nothing at all, every document on the site, or a random selection of dead links. I've suggested to its maintainer that it should be rewritten (if it serves any purpose at all, which is debatable...). He's dragging his heels.

...laura

I feel sure the European Commission and USA FCC/FTC... know Google's Android is a Linux distribution with community services and support.

I feel sure Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle and others continue to not innovate and compete with Open Source Software business models and companies.

There could be a Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle or other Mobile...Intel... Linux distribution, but (IMO) anti-capitalist and closed-market icons like Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle spend their time and money on lobbying governments and writing laws for passage by corrupt/stupid/treasonous politicians to maintain market share/control.

When one of US/EU is fycked, so are we all serviced in like mode! Bring back democratic capitalist meritocracies, hang a C*O or politician.

...but I've followed them closely.

A long time ago I noted that the biggest challenge of the Internet was going to be finding things. As an undergrad I earned a bit of extra money working in the university library, and was told, on my very first day, that if you don't put something in the right place you might as well throw it away, because it's unlikely anybody will be able to find it otherwise. Now we have Google. Dave Cheriton was one of my undergrad profs, BTW, a 2nd year course in data structures that used Pascal.

Another lesson from my undergrad days is that the structure of a product is isomorphic to the structure of the group that created it. I currently support legacy software that was created by people who never talked to each other, who never even sat down for a chat over lunch. It shows. The interface specs read like legal contracts. The product line worked for a while, but is now unmaintainable, unsupportable, well in to its end of life bug explosion, and we are actively developing replacements.

The company imploded in 2001. What was left tried a looser development process. It sort of worked, but eventually failed. The biggest issue was a couple of extremely forceful people who steamrollered their own pet ideas and who refused to listen to others. The bosses needed to rein them in, and didn't. It cost us the company.

Our current development model is basically a surgical team in a skunkworks sort of environment. Head office is in Dallas. I'm in Vancouver. The physical separation is helpful. There aren't enough of us in the company to do much else. It works. We're doing good work. The company is making money. The bosses are happy. We're happy.

I like a lot of what Google is doing. I like the encouragement to be creative. Good people are creative, and if they're going to be creative, you might as well get them to be creative for you. And you have to take some risks. Not all decisions are right. Not all products are winners. But if you don't risk failure, you don't risk success either.

I have issues with the work/life balance implicit in the Googleplex work environment. Maybe I'm too old or something (I'm 51), but I expect to have a life apart from my work.

...laura

India and China can solve the world's tech skills crisis with more bodies for Silicon Valley and US, EU ... CEOs. More work-visas and illegal-residents will always solve the skills problems for chicken processing, grape picking, software developing, engineering design, corporate welfare, political elections . Visas and illegal’s have solved labor crisis’s for decades now. Why not continue ?

By importing labor, we can save on education, healthcare, first responders, housing loans and provide communities for the newest and youngest amoral entrepreneurs in the drug, sex, larceny sectors of the US and EU underground economy. Religious conservative scientist would say “it’s all relativity, gods’ will.”

The more things sound the same:
In the 1700s the peasants could not survive without fealty to an aristocracy.
In the 1800s the small dirt farmers’ survival ended the big plantation farms.
In the 1900s the small businesses could not compete with national Corporations.
In the 2000s the citizens must serve the whim/will of Corporation Welfare states.
The less things appear changed for US, EU, RU, CN, IN .

Make'em sound different, and folks will think they got some difference.