A report doesn't "fix issues". A report presents information. People act on that information to fix issues.

Unless those pink iguanas evolved within the last 30 years, that active volcano is PART OF their 'fragile ecosystem'. It's been there all along.

Yup. The cool name and the penguin. Never underestimate the power of marketing.

Not so, and I say this as someone who, as an employee, has wound up owning large chunks of project code outright.

The key is... ASK FOR IT.

Seriously, it can be that easy. I worked as an employee no a specific project for a company's internal use, but I saw it could be more generally useful with a few tweaks. When the project was canceled for budgetary reasons, I simply asked for the code. The deal we struck was that I owned the code, they retained a non-exclusive license to use it and future enhancements, if any were produced. They put it in writing (a letter of assignment doesn't have to be complicated at all) and I went back to contracting.

While contracting, I've occasionally run across a contract here or there that contained an ownership clause. I've always struck through it, while explaining that a great deal of my value comes from the experience i've gained at prior engagements; and that this translates directly to less effort for me and shorter deadlines for them. If they wish to own the code, then it is with the understanding that I would have to expend additional time and effort to re-code some very effective algorithms from scratch to meet their IP requirements. I raise my rates and time estimates accordingly.

Given the economic costs and rationale, I have never had a client push the issue. If they did I'd shrug and pocket the extra money. If they didn't want to pay more for exclusivity, then I walk away, as it is 100% assured that they WILL have other issues that will make you regret ever dealing with them. Not every contract is worth landing.

Hmmm. I'm a free software proponent, so I think you should move in that direction anyway, but I do have to question your reasoning... By dropping Microsoft products you would put market pressures on them to further lower costs, driving even more jobs offshore. That doesn't seriously put a damper on Microsoft, but it does accelerate the loss of US jobs. Now, if you're committed to losing those jobs ANYWAY, what do you care whether they go to H1B visa workers? At least they would live and spend in the local economy rather than siphoning jobs our of the U.S.

So your theory is what? That blacks are too smart to see what whites have missed? Sorry, guy, but IT is filled to the brim with minorities, and jobs on-shore are everywhere. And yes, many are filled with H1-B visas, but it is clearly not a racism problem, nor is it an opportunity problem. Look at the number of black applicants for tech jobs. Look at the number of black students majoring in STEM. Who's missing? Failure to capitalize on opportunities is not equivalent to the nonexistence of those opportunities, and you can't bitch your way into them either. These are jobs that demand productive output... results. And it's too easy to know whether somebody writes code or designs tech that works, so nobody skates and stays employed. The solution is -- to put it bluntly -- to stop laughing at Urkel and play up how cool and desirable these jobs are. To capitalize on the opportunities takes real skill, and that takes real work. So your TARGET of a campaign can not be the industry. That's just planning to fail. The target must be young students, and they must be targeted LONG before they get to college.

It's not your time, therefore not your call.

http://adventure.howstuffworks... Well, you did ask... ;)

Sure it is. He mis-remembers it. Obviously his recollection is marred by the passage of time and the stress caused by the accusations. Also, it was a really complicated password that's hard to remember. And his dog ate it. Oh, and perhaps he hasn't spent any effort to refresh his memory, contemplating instead the fact that the rights listed in the Bill of Rights are inalienable. They are affirmed by, not granted by, the Constitution. A state judge doesn't get to waive them with not-terribly-clever re-definitions.

I know you asked about products, but I'm going to stretch it a little for a software product. Unix. 41 years and counting. Like grandad's axe, many of the parts have been replaced, but the essence remains. Still my OS of choice. For hardware, I've got a Radio Shack EC4075 Programmer's Hex & Time calculator/clock that's been in continuous use since around 1980 (I still use it... the batteries last for years), and a Casio CT-6000 synth that's been in continuous use since the mid '80s.

Definitely not her. You think she learned to do that by settling for the first guy SHE met?

You're no more obligated to be married to your first programming language than you are obligated to be married to the first girl you ever met.

It's because of FORTRAN. Implicitly created variables named I through N are part of the "integer" block, and are integers by default. So programmers of all languages tend to use those variables because they learned from coding examples written by even older dinosaurs who learned FORTRAN first. 'Cause FORTRAN is bloody old. (full disclosure... my first programming language was FORTRAN 77)

I think a really good idea for BASIC's birthday is to give away some free programs, written in a dialect of BASIC. So I'll be doing that. On April 30 I'll release a new program written in Gambas. Nothing super... it'll just be a nice little program that'll keep you clicking for a little while. You'll be able to tear it apart, look at the source code, see how an event-driven Gambas program works, etc. Of course, it will be released under a Creative Commons license. Anybody else want to dust off a BASIC compiler or interpreter?

I've done the VM on boot idea for a couple of people. Within Linux I put a script that will restore from the latest backup VM on demand. This works extraordinarily well.