As the technology industry lays off thousands, a division of the German conglomerate, Siemens, takes a different approach. I like the idea of having a sabbatical of sorts with half pay instead of simply being laid off. Of course, this would never happen in the U.S. - we love laying people off here and contributing to overall unemployment and higher welfare rates. Just look at what Salon has to say about it.... (note, you need to scroll down to midpage).
posted by gloege on Sep 5, 2001 - 5 comments

You might not ever get rich ...but let me tell you - it's better than digging a ditch.
Larry Downes in The Standard on the saga of the Suez canal and the 'long-now' view of the Internet.
posted by blackbeltjones on Jul 2, 2001 - 9 comments

Minorities are underrepresented in the ranks of geeks. While 84% of the population of the US is white, 90% of geeks are white. (Obviously we need quotas and white angst. Let's get some righteous indignation going here.)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jun 24, 2001 - 44 comments

Kill a patent, make a bundle. This is one of the more creative uses of the web to date. A new kind of matchmaker, actually. Patents are a common source of litigation and often a company accused of violating a patent wants to prove that the patent is invalid. The easiest way to do that is to find "prior art", to prove that the invention described by the patent actually existed elsewhere before the owner of the patent filed for it. So this web site offers prizes ($10,000!) for leads to prior art in specific cases. Those offering the prizes are anonymous, though it's often possible to figure out who they are just by the questions they ask if you have a knowledge of disputes in the industry.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Feb 3, 2001 - 3 comments

51,631 dot com layoffs as of Feb. 01, 2001. Is it that the web allows us to simultaneously view the usual failure of 99% of new businesses, a sign of the coming recession, or just a result of bad business plans and get rich quick schemes? Or was it simply too good to last? Whatever the reason, it's depressing.
posted by crushed on Feb 2, 2001 - 19 comments

For those who like to watch carcrashes but don't want to patronize that site with the vulgar name, The Standard maintains Dot Com Flop Tracker, Dot Com Layoff Tracker, and Dot Com Ex-Exec Tracker.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Oct 7, 2000 - 6 comments