Don't Drink That Water--Have A Beer With a Friend Instead!

So the other night after our performance of Don't Drink the Water, I got to sit around and gab with Vicki and her husband Joe and Lauren and her boyfriend Jim.  Four fine human beings.  Lauren, Vicki and I used to all do plays together.  I hadn't realized how much I missed Vicki's sense of humor.  And I had forgotten how nice it is just to sit around and gab.  Of course, all we talked about were "the old days".  I definitely intend to try to see all of them a bit more often than I have been lately so that we'll have some new memories to talk about.  I only wish that Mark could have joined us.  Mark also used to do shows with us. 

I'm also looking at the script of The Good Doctor, a comedy by Neil Simon.  I had forgotten how funny the script really is.  It's Simon's take on Chekov.  I'm not deeply familiar with Chekov but I doubt that it's anywhere near as funny as Neil Simon doing Chekov is.

9:04:06 PM  #  
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The Man Who Invented Solitaire

An interesting article on the story of the man who invented one of the most ubiquitious ways to waste time of the Windows era...Windows Solitaire. 

Apparently as successful as his creation was, he never saw a dime from it.  More proof that big firms which profit from intellectual property care almost nothing about the creators who invent the intellectual property (IP). 

My personal take on the IP debate/discussion...I think it's amazing that some people who make most of their living from IP (i. e. programmers and other computer experts) are often the ones who denounce most loudly others making money from IP.  It does seem a bit hypocritical that some programmers want to be compensated for the creation of IP but they seem to think it's somehow evil that record companies and movie studios should want to be compensated for providing IP. 

Yes, yes, I know how the argument goes--it's not that the record companies and movie studios are making profits--it's the fact that they're making more money than they should be allowed to make.  I would love to see the expression on the faces of  those "Information wants to be free" types if someone told them that programmers are paid too much to write software.

And yes, I do think that the record companies and the movie studios will find new business models to make money from the quick and easy distribution of digital media.  However, that does not justify stealing music and movies in the meantime.  Stealing from people we hate is no less theft than is stealing from people that we admire, now is it?

 

8:53:10 PM  #  
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Are H1B Visa Workers Taking American Jobs?

A recent story in the San Jose Mercury News indicates that some Americans working in the High Tech field are starting to take their former employers to court.  The issue?  These employees say that they're being let go while H1B Visa holders who are willing to work for less are being given the jobs.

For those unfamiliar with the term an H1B Visa is a special temporary work permit issued to allow a foreign worker with a highly specialized skill to work in the US.  The idea is to allow foreign engineers and scientists to supplement the US workforce so that our firms can have the best minds that the globe has to offer.  However, this seems to have become an avenue for employers to take work that would normally be done by knowledge workers off-shore without having to move it out of the US. 

In an economy where the IT sector seems to be hit even harder than the rest of the economy it's hard to understand how companies can lay off 41,000 people and yet hire 2,000 H1B Visa holders at the same time. 

8:35:53 PM  #  
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