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Comment: Re:won't matter for 90% (Score 4, Interesting) 192

by XopherMV (#46902449) Attached to: How 'Fast Lanes' Will Change the Internet
The ISPs aren't creating "slow lanes." They're simply refusing to widen the freeway until they're paid to do so.

Funny. Customers pay their ISPs for an advertised bandwidth. Content providers also pay ISPs for advertised bandwidth. Yet, ISPs are still able to turn up the speed if content providers pay them extra. It sounds like ISPs are purposefully not living up to their advertising in order to extort money from people who aren't their customers.

Comment: They were already paying (Score 3, Insightful) 192

by XopherMV (#46902293) Attached to: How 'Fast Lanes' Will Change the Internet
Provider pays to provide information, customer pays ISP for access to internet and then has to pay a per view fee to view content at reasonable speeds. So long as there's money to be extracted, the consumer will be squeezed.

This buys into the framing of the argument pushed by the ISPs. The content providers were already paying for their own connection to the internet. Now if content providers want to provide fast connections to their customers, then they not only have to pay their own ISP, but they also need to send money to every other ISP in the world. This fundamentally changes the structure of the market.

And you, as a customer, get a crappy connection to the internet unless the content providers pay. That's true regardless of what you pay your ISP for their advertised bandwidth.

If this goes too far, customers will eventually start suing their ISPs for false advertising. ISP customers are paying for a certain amount of bandwidth, not a certain amount of bandwidth IF the content providers also pay.

Comment: Re:Denver? Atlanta? (Score 1) 285

Microsoft is a major employer of technical talent in the Seattle area even though you didn't see that in your anecdotal experience. Microsoft employs just about 101,000 people worldwide. About 43,000 are in the Seattle area. Yes, not all of them are technical staff. Companies need to employ more than just developers, testers, and admins to operate properly. (Duh?)

Amazon has more employees at about 110,000. It has about 15,000 in Seattle. Those are mostly highly paid engineers, managers and programmers. It's hiring like crazy.

Boeing has about 170,000 employees. About 81,000 are employed in Washington state.

T-Mobile has about 4,800 employees at its local headquarters.

AT&T near Seattle manages operations in the Western US and performs engineering and testing. It has 4,592 employees in Washington.

Adobe's Seattle office employs about 500 people, focusing on product development and operations.

F5 employs over 1200 workers in Washington state.

The Seattle area hosts Google's third-largest engineering center. It has about 1000 employees.

You are simply wrong about the speed of internet connections and the government. Areas in the north has access to Verizon fiber. Other areas have access to high speed internet from Comcast. As for the government, they're working with private companies to establish citywide fiber. People aren't electing "anti-Internet candidates", whatever the hell those are.

So yes, Seattle IS a significant tech hub.

Comment: Re:How exactly (Score 4, Insightful) 285





Comment: Re:this again ? really (Score 1) 333

by XopherMV (#46353103) Attached to: Will Peggy the Programmer Be the New Rosie the Riveter?

well there were not many women doctors not too long ago and now there are quite many. I assume if programming is as attractive as medicine then this will also happen.

Yes. When developer salaries rise to match the salaries to those in medicine, then the field will get flooded with all types of people looking to do development work. This will include women. That's economics 101: supply and demand.

Comment: Re:Let's be clear (Score 5, Interesting) 278

by XopherMV (#44905527) Attached to: Ballmer Admits Microsoft Whiffed Big-Time On Smartphones

Microsoft was not looking to make a Phone a PC

I worked at Microsoft from 2004-2005. This was before the iPhone or Android phones. Most people had flip-phones. If you wanted a smart phone, you either got a Blackberry or a Windows phone. Those were the most advanced phones on the market. They were around years before Apple thought of getting into the phone business.

Keep in mind that Microsoft mainly earns its money through the sales of Windows and Office. So, every product they make is engineered to drive the sales of those two products. One of the initial groups I interviewed with at Microsoft were the guys making the Windows phones. (No, I didn't end up working with this group.)

Yes, they absolutely were attempting to bring the Windows PC experience to the phone. And yes, that was a disaster.

The problem was that tiny screens don't work well with a Windows type of interface. Users don't like the clutter. Microsoft needed to make the interface transparent and focus on what people actually wanted to do with their phones, which is use applications.

Hiding the Windows interface doesn't work when you're attempting to promote Windows. Marketing which promotes "Windows on your phone!" doesn't sell phones. I remember thinking during my interview, "what does Windows on my phone actually get me? Why would I want that?" Microsoft itself couldn't adequately answer that question until the iPhone and Android came out and focused on the apps. Even then, Microsoft still screwed up their answer to the iPhone and Android. They simply can't get away from promoting Windows and Office.

Comment: Re:Since when is sharing stealing (Score 1) 221

by XopherMV (#43973557) Attached to: Sharing HBO Go Accounts Could Result In Prison
A restaurant could kick you out. Or, they could call the cops. The police do take these actions seriously. You could get charged with theft. And you could spend time in jail. That's happened to people I've known. And, it's harmed their lives. Try getting any serious job with a theft conviction on your record.

Comment: Re:Since when is sharing stealing (Score 1) 221

by XopherMV (#43970883) Attached to: Sharing HBO Go Accounts Could Result In Prison

They didn't steal accounts from each other. They shared. What is this world coming to? A place for fascist corporations and governments who clearly support them.

Try going to a buffet restaurant and using the "it's only sharing" argument. It won't work. Buffet restaurants aren't "fascist" for not allowing you to feed all your friends for the price of one person.

Comment: Re: Have u thought about.. (Score 4, Interesting) 524

As a contractor when I submit code, I leave a certain amount of time for the customer to test that code and supply me a list of bugs. I fix that list. Once my contract time elapses, I expect sign-off and payment. I've fulfilled my end of the contract. I expect my customer to fulfill his end. If he doesn't pay, then I'll send my bill to a collection agency.

My code is not guaranteed indefinitely. Any bugs which appear after the contract is expired can be fixed under another contract if I agree to fix them. I am certainly under no obligation to do that later work at all and especially not for free.

Comment: Re:Machine shop, anyone? (Score 2, Informative) 578

by XopherMV (#43761297) Attached to: Of 1000 Americans Polled, Most Would Ban Home Printing of Guns
Printers are sold with an embedded chip that prevents the printing of currency. From what I understand, the chip is typically buried so deep into the printer that they simply can't operate if you could find it and remove it. We could attempt a similar requirement on a 3D printer.

However, gun parts can vary wildly. And, a part for a gun could conceivably be used as a part for a completely different, legal machine. I don't see a practical means of programming such a limitation.

Comment: Re:Personal Responsibility? (Score 1) 578

by XopherMV (#43761261) Attached to: Of 1000 Americans Polled, Most Would Ban Home Printing of Guns

Sure, these plastic firearms could have been made previously. However up until now, the people with the means to make such a weapon were smart enough to not make such a weapon given their inherent problems. Now, any idiot who doesn't realize or care about those problems can print off their own gun by simply printing the 3D design.

Comment: Re:They're not who you think (Score 2) 512

by XopherMV (#43377351) Attached to: H-1B Cap Reached Today; Didn't Get In? Too Bad

...having companies held hostage to some nation wide union of american workers is not a good thing in the long run.

Good for who? The limits may be inconvenient for foreign workers. They may be inconvenient for international corporations. But, keeping American jobs in America is good for American workers. And yes, America makes more than enough highly skilled workers to fill all these jobs.
