His assertion is more spot on than your counter. Science (research) has always been pretty heavilty dependent on "grants" and "welfare". Same with artist. It's pretty recent that science was something used by business men (at least I think). However saying this causes scientist to be welfare-statist, may be true that they do it to keep funding coming their way, but they may not really feel it is correct.

Prison inmates are held agains their will and demonstrably do not come out being welfare-statst. They often are anarchist.

Exactly.... why do game companies shut down their servers? Why don't they keep them running for 11-12 years like MS will with XP? Because it costs money to keep a system up and running... no matter if it's a biological, manufacturing, internet or operating system. They all take resources to run and resources are not unlimited.

This is true, Paul is very anti-abortion. He was an obstetrician, though. Other than that he is pretty much the definition of Libertarian.

You too are mindless. This was part of Obama's "Jobs Bill". If that would have been passed this issue would be moot. But the 'pubs didn't like it because Obama liked it. So the Dems have proposed a 2 month extension so they can have a nice Christmas break and debate this in January.

There is also the issue of the Keystone Pipeline... which is really funny because the 'pubs are calling that "shovel ready" and claiming it will create 100k jobs. This just a few months after the chants that "the government can't create jobs".

Just for the record Democrats aren't all roses and glitter either... they both need to be slapped around.

Who said you had to do any of that... other than the last question. You should always ask if what you are doing is a profitable task.

If you are a competent person, whom your manager trusts, I don't think they would bother you much. Seeing websites up like stack overflow, w3schools, ibm.com and, as far as this manager is concerned, /. are not things that you should be worried about. Those are part of your job.

But does that mean the guy working on your team that doesn't do jack shit should be able to browse sports by brooks, hooters, and shinyobject.com based on your assertion that some internet access is needed to do your job (or most any other nowdays)?

Just because you don't need big brother doesn't mean others don't. And it's damn near impossible to tell who does and does not need this close overview. My personal experience has shown that a hardcore Christian can be the worst offender... I caught them watching a couple hours of online catholic TV everyday when we installed the new barracuda.

I have worked my way up from Network Tech to Director of IS... so I made the switch from hourly (non-exempt) to salary (exempt) and since then have had to deal with who is and isn't exempt.

It all comes down to what positions are considered "professional". My take on the subject has usually been that if the employee has the type of work that is difficult to measure and determine if they are truly working hard or stretching it out, then they are exempt. Exempt employees are expected to know what amount of work is truly needed and get things done in the least effort possible.

As a competent sys-admin, do you need to parse all 100MB of that log to determine the root cause of the error? How exactly does the boss know you did or didn't need to (yes a competent manager should have a clue, but it's more difficult than you think). Programming is the same way... I could hack it and get it out in a week, or be so damn picky it takes a year.

My position has usually been that people in these positions are able to determine what level of work is need to satisfy customer demand and not do unnecessary work. BUT, it is always a judgement call with IT. If you get it wrong, make a guy salary, make him work 60 hours to get a project out and he then sues, you can be held liable for back pay.

It is a difficult balance between leaving grey areas (because a lot of it is grey), and the government formally defining who is and isn't exempt. I would not immediately defame the Senator introducing the bill... they may actually be trying to do a good thing for employees. This is a messy area of personnel issues, and if they are successful in bringing clarity, all will benefit.

Even further, I don't want most of that for my primary phone. I want my primary phone to function everytime, when needed. And maybe I'm the exception, but usually my hacking projects are fun and exciting, but also full of troubleshooting and frustration (which is part the excitement to get it working again).

Would I pay some money for a device to hack up that had some really cool features... sure. But still not sure this is the one.

Yeah, go check out TFA from the OSHA App Story and you can see the last bullet point is "don't drink more than 6 cups of water an hour". Why would that be? Because if you need that much water to counteract the sweat, you will run out of salt/electrolytes. That's gatorade's main selling point - electrolytes.

The best part is the idiots could learn everything they need to know just in /. stories and wikipedia.

From utexas.edu:

This is a tax-supported state school, although probably one of the more expensive ones.

Those are good points but I think that's a reason to have programmers on staff. I am guessing this app could have been done in a month's work (160 hours) including all those other steps. It just isn't that complicated.

Pay that guy $120,000 and this app costs $10,000. Maybe x3 to port to 3 phones. Although that brings me to the point... WHY ISN"T THIS JUST A WEBSITE! Seriously... this could have been done in a mobile formated website in days! Why is everything an "app"?

Your link says twitterific took 200 hours. This guy is claiming 400 hours for something that is probably much simpler (mot really sure, but it would seem that way if TFA is anywhere near accurate about the features). Also that link has many people calling BS on the answer, stating instead that it would be less.

How in the world do you think 16 man-weeks is anywhere near reasonable. I put together a website/app that auto loads locally stored pictures to the website and automatically displays them in galleries based on the folder structure... total labor 16 MAN-HOURS! While I was watching TV the whole time.

And if you think the contracting/bureaucracy is the problem, I am willing to bet there is at least one decent programmer on the OSHA payroll that could have knocked this out in a few weeks at most! Why even outsource it?

Okay, I don't look for the rewind button for emergency routes... more for "wait what was said on NPR while I avoided this idiot". I wonder if they will invent TiVo for the radio... Call it RaVo or something.

My kid watches Dora, Diego, Bubble Guppies, Sesame Street and other shows of the like. They all do a few things that makes me question your assertion that TV is passive:

1. They ask questions such as "do you see the banana?" and he points and says "Banana!".
2. They speak in both English and Spanish and teach it to the kids. he can speak more Spanish than I can (he is 2.5)
3. They teach letters, numbers, and basic math. He can count quite well (by 1, 2, and 10)
4. They teach logic and problem solving.

I have no problem with him watching these shows... I watched much less stimulating stuff... although GI Joe did teach me that knowing was half the battle.

All that said, I can easily see that parents use TV and internet WAY to much. It comes down to individuals and there is no right or wrong.