Mystakaphoros - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Luddites are Almost Always Wrong (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by Mystakaphoros on Friday October 04, 2013 @06:25AM

Mystakaphoros writes: Mike Masnick of TechDirt argues that we can all put down our wooden shoes and take a chill pill: technology "rarely destroys jobs." For example, telephone operators have largely gone by the wayside, but a (brave) new world of telemarketing and call center support jobs have opened up because of advances in technology, not to mention the Internet.

That being said, I think it's worth asking... if machines are going to replace all our fast food workers, are we going to start paying our gourmet chefs minimum wage just because we can?

Submission + - "Micro-Gig" sites undermining workers rights? (theatlantic.com)

Submitted by Mystakaphoros on Wednesday April 10, 2013 @11:42AM

Mystakaphoros writes: An article in The Atlantic examines the effects sites like TaskRabbit, Fiverr, and Rev.com are having on employment and freelancing. (I would add Amazon's Mechanical Turk to the list as well.) As the article mentions, "Work is being stripped down to the bone. It's as if we're eliminating the 'extraneous' parts of a worker's day--like lunch or bathroom breaks--and paying only for the minutes someone is actually in front of the computer or engaged in a task." How many Slashdotters have used these sites, either to hire or work? What's been your experience?

Submission + - David Lowery on the Ethics of the Cloud (wordpress.com)

Submitted by

Mystakaphoros

on Tuesday June 19, 2012 @12:07PM

Mystakaphoros writes: "Musician David Lowery (of Cracker fame) takes NPR intern Emily White to task for her stance on paying for (or failing to pay for) music. While he makes some cogent moral points about failing to support artists, I still have some issues with conflating the "cloud" and other (peer-to-peer) file-sharing methods."

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