To bad they don't sell hand made, home grown artist stuff anymore. The Chinese knock-off Gucci "authentic" syndication machine took over under many names / masks / illusions. It's more the Walmart Hobby Lobby .. where it all looks good on the way or on your back (shirt/whatever) .. it's still most likely made in China. #fact. The revenue is more about the fees and clear profit machine that is required to run a profitable business on their side. The problem? The sellers - the "real" ones like myself and my wife. We sell authenticate stuff with pottery and photography made locally here in Buffalo. However, I find more and more #buffalo search related material are major hub outlets of people I don't know. I've been doing this for almost 7 years now - I know people here and the artists specifically OF Buffalo. It's the trend that then started to go up in margin % and no return. Only recently have I seen an overhaul to the interface for the Store, but it runs like a sweatshop with minimal tools that any of us were accustomed to online. I wish it was better, but we are leaving and concentrating on real world sales.
MIT for example calls it CS even though it's part of the engineering school - agreed, but it's not an engineering discipline. The school just manages it, because it's closer to engineering than it is math. However, many math departments control computer science programs still - but it's a general classification in order to put it some place for administration.
CS is a sub-set of specialization from math - ergo a science. A scientist is one thing, as with an engineer is a very distinct animal separate from this. Opinion still holds.
I'm talking about folks that call themselves engineers, where they clearly are not. A PE has an exam with credential requirements and an apprenticeship under another PE for a period of time + having to retake that PE exam in order to get that designation. I COMPLETELY understand the PE part of it. It's the software developers that use the title of engineer that irks me. Or HR folks baiting software developers with a title of "engineer" when they clearly are NOT qualified to be that - both by credentials or by the PE designation. Engineers are engineers, scientists are scientists (and equally less qualified in comparison to engineers). Are scientists important? Absolutely .. for me, it's more about the semantics of use and the validation of it.
Software engineers w/o degrees are just software developers. They are not engineers, by any stretch of the term. Engineering principals applied to software, including performance analysis and validation are done by engineers. There is a big difference. Actually a HUGE difference. This isn't most likely going to be popular here, because a lot of industry folks who are in the epicenter of SF just like the title more than the job .. but it's fact, IMHO. I don't mind having discrediting titles all the time, but it's more ego that pushes it. I could care less about a title, so I'll call it out all the time. Scientists are not engineers.
See, it's not divisive at all to me. There are two types of degrees - a computer science degree and a computer engineering degree. If you are an engineer - your paper says so. If you are a scientist ... you are a scientist. There is a very BIG difference. Folks that write software can be both engineers and scientists. However, there are key differences in the applications of being an engineer. Just because I write E=mc^2 on a board and apply it to some problem in front of me, doesn't make me a theoretical physicist - it just makes me a guy writing on a board, a formula that a physicist might use. In the case of the story, he's a mechanical "engineer". He isn't a guy off the street calling himself an engineer. He has the education to match the claim. HUGE difference. Software engineers have degrees that state they are. Software / computer scientist can be thrown around more liberally, but a software ENGINEER cannot.
I couldn't agree with you more. Even in Buffalo, I cross about once every two months - if not more - and the Canadian folks are nothing more than polite. This includes Washington State, Minnesota, and New York crossings. I ENCOURAGE people to travel to Canada from the US. The ONLY time I ever had issues was with coming back into the US. The US border searched my car, my electronics, my cameras (I'm a pseudo-high end landscape guy) and basically I find the US re-entry as a US-citizen to be absolutely fucking insanely clownish. I hate the US border patrol though ... but love Canada .. I tolerate the douches.
This is a glass half empty, half full argument. Honestly, I am taking the view that "wellness programs" should be mandatory fun. Why? Just look at social programs like social security, garbage collection, public schools, welfare ... I mean we all pay into a system even when we are healthy, wealthy, and happy .. but there comes a time, when we won't be. The buy in ideology here, is what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Healthcare costs are rising for every company out there. It's _not_ free. When someone joins a wellness program they are doing so for a benefit. But .. as a company it is insuring that people are doing their best to keep the social healthcare system that the company purchased costs down for everyone. You are doing this for your fellow co-workers, not you. It's being caring enough to say hey .. I'm working hard to keep myself in the best shape I can, so I don't have to die and cost our company money when they negotiation on the bulk for ALL of us. This is not a company thing, it's a fellow-man thing. This is about as close to universal healthcare as you are going to see and it's a good thing.
If that certainly _is_ true, that's a multi-million dollar chaching for the ADA and the ACLU. Also, if I was working for CVS I'd have my lawyer on that like flies on rice for a number of slippery slope reasons. That fires me up a ton, because if let's say the FitBit tracker they give you requires login, they might do the setup for you and slap it on your wrist. Well, that information contains monitoring and GPS coordinates and what is the policy around that? What is the retention of data? What is the sharing of data policy? I mean CVS case really raises an eyebrow for me.
"The national drugstore chain CVS announced in 2013 that it would require employees to report their levels of body fat, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol — or pay $600 a year."
Programmers are not lawyers, and this isn't Edward Snowden. There is a logical train of legality and one can debate the ethics of a task most likely with the owner, or legal counsel. The other option is to get release of liability which is not uncommon in realms where developers are asked to do things that are shady. If they don't have the fortitude to stand up and say something .. then just walk away.