When dealing with trump it is was always going to be a lose-lose situation. If you had accepted the USA conditions you would lose more in the long term so I think Canada has done the right thing. Canada has earned the worlds respect for taking proactive steps to protect itself by diversifying its trade etc. I am keen for our country to join in a free trade agreement with Canada given our common values and attitudes.

Yes, a great idea as it goes to the idea I was trying to get across. I would say that a company that sponsors the cost of bring someone in should be able to lock them in to working for their company for a modest period, say 6 to 12 months, to recover the time and cost of the process, but after that sure let them free on the market.

Here in New Zealand we have a similar system but it is based on needed skills and the worker's visa can be revoked if they are not being paid local market rates for the skills of the role they were brought in for.

The kickback part is an example of "The big catch is ensuring creative accounting" I flagged. Yes you are right there will be other factors at play. I still think the core principle is H1B should be tuned to address specific skills shortages, and should not be the cheaper option.

Thanks for that informative reply. So I guess the take away from that is we probably have another decade before this claim will actually be finally dead given SCO/Xinuos don't seem to know when to give up.

The proper way to do this is not a big fee, that is just a government money grab. The proper way is to force a minimum pay rate for H1B employees such that they are paid inline with local rate. This means they are employed because their skills are needed and not available locally, not to save money over employing a local person with the needed skills. The big catch is ensuring creative accounting is not used to under pay the H1B working while pretending to pay them similar rates to local employees.

I am not from the USA and I am not a lawyer so my old understanding of the process was the final step was SCOTUS. However from recent news it appears that can be followed by an appeal which can be followed by a request to reconsider the appeal. Is there further steps after that? I assume there are some steps after "Xinuos intends to file a petition to have the case re-heard by the full bench of the Court of Appeals" before it reaches SCOTUS, and the undead SCO will try every one of them, given the past decades of failure hasn't stopped them so far.

Not as impressed as my wife. She told me to get a carton of milk and if there are eggs to get a dozen. However she did ask why I brought 13 cartons of milk, so I told her there were eggs.

To your point now when I boot one of those Macs and disconnect the power lead Mint does indeed run on the new batteries. Before buying the new batteries when I disconnected the power lead the screen went blank, nothing would run on the old batteries. So I think that proves my statement true?

I have been using both mini-PCs and RPIs for server tasks and find the RPi less hassle long term. The RPi is simpler and the fans in the mini-PC are not good when run 24-7 and the replacement fans often don't work, just a unnecessary hassle compared with the RPi with a decent heat sink and ventilation. Just don't use SD cards for the OS on the RPi.

It sounds like you think that will actually be replacing hardware? Given Linux runs better on most hardware than Windows there is no actual need for new hardware, and any new hardware they do buy can be more modest spec.

I recently saw some cheap batteries for a couple of Mac Book Airs that I brought circa 2013 so brought them and then flashed the latest Linux Mint Cinnamon edition on them. Not some stripped down Linux for legacy systems, but the full normal version of Mint. I was impressed to find it runs really well on both of them.

If China does their planning right they can probably save money on both hardware and software as well as protecting their sovereignty.

Here, let me fix that for you: "I'm sure the USA is a police state".

There is a reason your tourist numbers are dropping rapidly, I feel sorry for the actual residents.

Before changing the OS try changing any apps they will use first, one at a time, so they get used to them and they are one less new thing when the actual OS is changed.

For example back in the Windows XP/8 days I changed my elderly parents to Mint by first changing them to use Firefox and Thunderbird on their Windows machine. The actual OS change was pretty painless for them as the programs they used the most were then unchanged from what they had already learnt.

While crap products from China is a common result of the race to the bottom on price, as demanded by buyers, they can make quality too. For routers start with one that uses OpenWRT, or a derivative of it, and flash it with a fresh copy of OpenWRT when you get it. There are many products areas where companies have made a solid reputation for themselves. For example Sonoff are a solid choice if you are doing home automation, just give preference to buying from their factory outlet store or a distributor with a solid reputation.

If you can't buy more RAM I guess there is no point in planning any more new data centers for next year, what are you going to put in them?

I just wish this whole AI as a service bubble would hurry up and deflate.

Meh, the USA is only about 20% of world trade, China will be happy to supply the other 80% of the world trade.