Itâ(TM)s a measure of profitability relative to other similar investment options over a period of time.

Grossly oversimplified example: if the overall market is returning, letâ(TM)s say, 4% year over year, and a specific investment (stock, bond, whatever) is returning 5% for that same year, the alpha on that investment is 1%; itâ(TM)s the gain youâ(TM)d realize above and beyond just putting your money in the overall market.

Alpha is a big big deal to pro investors; finding large alpha opportunities makes you considerably more attractive to money looking for investment opportunities.

"In which Kiki discovers she is Force sensitive and immediately Force-chokes a few of the less agreeable townsfolk"

"Totoro: Jedi Knight"

"Darth Toyo"

(shudders)

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Zed Shaw, is that you? Good to hear from you again!

1. No fully online AA program will be accepted as meeting prereqs for any BS degree worth your time or effort. Self-directed learning is great, but none of it currently hold any rigor in the eyes of academe or the evaluators reviewing your transcripts for transfer credit.

2. No fully online BS program will get so much as a whiff of attention from HR at a decent company. See comments on "academic rigor" above.

3. If you are serious about making development your profession, write a ton of code, contribute to open source projects where you can, build a reputation and contacts in a few developer communities so that, if you're actually any good, they can help get you in the door somewhere. Protip: coding a solution to a painful development problem (library, tool, etc.) goes a long way in this regard.

4. Prepare for your 8 - 5 life to collide with the above repeatedly and decide how much impact pain you're willing to tolerate.

I don't think they needed to worry....

And your alternative remedy is what exactly? And how does it make the victim whole again, beyond the tools currently available?

He already can sue for fraud in the current system, if he's so motivated, and recover losses.

For that matter, fraud itself is a crime. Whether or not the federal/state authorities pursue fraud cases energetically enough is a legit beef, but a government issue not a market one. There are well-crafted, legally tested statutes defining commercial fraud and markets have been subject to them for decades, centuries in certain cases.

So what type of market provides novel, effective remedies beyond the above that you'd recommend as a replacement?

There are not enough "Funny" mod points on the planet to give this. Well played, VortexCortex!

"Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun."

Poor thing's life probably flashed before him at the last instant, right?

....who cares where they come down? That's not my department." says Wernher Von Braun.

(ok, not exactly the same scientific disciplines here, for sure....but the mindset is certainly close enough.)

....none of 'em answer to the name "Caesar"....

Pretty sure most of us geezers figured out the "life-draining waste of time" nature of most meetings long ago. Primary difference between the kiddies and us is that the young'uns aren't experienced enough yet to: a) be able to partition the useful ones from the non-useful at first glance, and b) learned the million creative ways of escaping the latter. And if they keep up with this taking the calls, texting and playing Candy Crush business, they ain't gonna last long enough to learn 'em in any moderately structured place of employment.

Back in the day, you had to actually be....thoughtful....to get out of a productivity-trap meeting. Nowadays, it's just easier to pull out the little hand-held whatever and mentally escape. Even if you're being immediately tagged as "lightweight", "rude", "arrogant", etc., by the annoying-but-still-in-charge-for-the-moment management.

You're absolutely right....except you're assuming there is an actual finding/admission of guilt.

The article speaks of a "settlement" being announced. To my eyes, the probability of that settlement including an admission of culpability approaches zero.

Infosys will not be blacklisted, they'll mind their manners and volume for a bit, then quietly pick up where they left off on the contract pile.

And....allowing for that tiny percentage sliver, what if they do admit guilt and are barred from government contracting for whatever period? They just slide the excess capacity over to the contractual pile of Walmart, Sears, etc.

As others have mentioned, $35MM, while not a drop in the bucket, is small enough to be absorbed as a carrying cost of doing business, given the revenue stream.

I hate the whole sordid "enterprise staffing" model that spawns this garbage and hope fervently never to work with it again.

I would agree Milo is laying it on waaaaay too heavy here....but, honestly, have you met the people he's describing? "Evangelists", "Community Developers", "Mentors", "Facilitators" and their ilk? They have no technical skills to value.