Only a person of unblemished virtue can get a job at Wal-Mart ? a low-level job, that is, sorting stock, unloading trucks or operating a cash register. A drug test eliminates the chemical miscreants; a detailed “personality test” probes the job applicant’s horror of theft and willingness to turn in an erring co-worker.
…What has been revealed in corporate America over the past six months is a two-tier system of morality: Low-paid employees are required to be hard-working, law-abiding, rule-respecting straight arrows. More than that, they are often expected to exhibit a selfless generosity toward the company, readily “donating” chunks of their time free of charge. Meanwhile, as we have learned from the cases of Enron, Adelphia, ImClone, WorldCom and others, many top executives have apparently felt free to do whatever they want ? conceal debts, lie about profits, engage in insider trading ? to the dismay and sometimes ruin of their shareholders.
But investors are not the only victims of the corporate crime wave. Workers also suffer from management greed and dishonesty. In Wal-Mart’s case, the moral gravity of its infractions is compounded by the poverty of its “associates,” many of whom are paid less than $10 an hour.
Author Archives: Karl
Tri-State Syndicate search continues
Look at the blogroll in my sidebar under Tri-State syndicate. There are some great weblogs here.
Any others that I’m not aware of that should be listed?
Java Dead? Three articles…
At ZDNet, there is an opinion piece must read titled Tempest in a Teapot. A brutal indictment of Java on the desktop.
In this NetworkWorldFusion article some of Java’s biggest names question it’s chances for survival, including a Boland survey of corporate bigwigs. Check out the related JavaLobby thread.
At TheServerSide you’ll find a flawed, but good read – J2EE to Oblivion?. Pay particular attention to the message board. via rebelutionary
Java is getting squeezed on two fronts. One, it’s never put forth a succesful desktop platform. Don’t talk to me about applets. They are cool. But that’s about it. And Swing is too hard for the Windows VB and Delphi influenced world. And too damn slow. Why no desktop compiler that optimizes performance for the platform? That won’t damage write once run anywhere. Idealism be damned. Why no VB like IDE? Now there *is* progress on that front, but maybe it’s too late. Two, you now have .NET attacking Java where it has found a huge degree of adoptance, server side apps, and it will surely be simpler and easier to use. J2EE is extrememly powerful, but complex.
No, I don’t think Java is dying. Far from it. But I hope to see some real progress made on those these fronts in the future. I really think the Java platform is becoming bloated, the focus has been to encompass as many functionalities in it’s APIs as possible, and if the focus would shift to the big fundamentals – ease of development, ease of deployment, and speed (on the desktop – server side apps are just fine thank you), well Java would be really kick ass and it’s future secure.
RSS Workshop
This looks like a good introduction and tutorial on RSS.
The Pledge of Allegiance A Short History
A much linked to history of the Pledge.
Philadelphia is the place to be July 4th
Here goes the week long calendar of events to Philadelphia’s Welcome America celebration.
Killing Monsters
Virginia Postrel defends comic books and the make-believe violence they portray against the idiots that would like to deprive kids of this imaginary outlet.
U.S. national mottos – background
Excellent background information into the history of our mottos.
“E Pluribus Unum”
A huge reference on the seperation of Church and State.
Quotes from America’s founding fathers.
Some content management links
Blogs as Disruptive Tech – How weblogs are flying under the radar of the Content Management Giants
PAID: the economics of content
via Ken Layne
Companies Overpaying For Content Management Technology, Reports Jupiter Research
via cam
Big step forward in Apache/Sun Agreement
Sun and Apache are now officially engaged
Apache has signed a newly formed (and much improved) TCK License covering all the JSRs on which it’s active, allowing Apache to continue participating in the JCP. This new TCK License is becoming the Sun boilerplate and promises to bring benefits to all JSR licensees, both commercial and open source, by allowing true legitimate independent implementations of Java technology for the first time.
via rebelutionary