Founder of Omnition here. We are the primary maintainers of the OpenCensus agent and collector services. OpenTelemetry which is the result of the OpenCensus and OpenTracing merger is also inheriting these. Omnition is building a distributed tracing backend. If anyone is interested to find out more you can email me directly: spiros at omnition.io. For those interested to contribute or use OpenTelemetry, checkout out:
- https://opentelemetry.io/
- https://github.com/open-telemetry
- https://gitter.im/open-telemetry/community
I thought that OpenCensus originated at Google. Does it mean Google no longer contributes any resources to OpenCensus development and long term success?
Google is heavily involved as well, in both the client libraries and the agent development. In addition to Google, Omnition, Microsoft and others are also major contributors. All of the OpenCensus community is moving over to OpenTelemetry, Google and Omnition included.
At Pattern Insight (http://patterninsight.com) we have build a source code search engine. We do not give this to our customers as a standalone tool most of the time but it's the underlying technology for our product, Code Assurance, which helps companies eliminate bugs from their releases.
We use it internally to search our code / libraries, if anyone is interested in indexing/searching his own code, especially if it's open source, I would be happy to provide a copy. Email: spiros at patterninsight.com
Mountain View, CA
Pattern Insight (http://patterninsight.com). We are profitable and growing fast. Customers are some of the biggest technology companies
I think it's fair if it's aimed at Oracle given Oracle's record in terms of "supporting" open source. It will probably hurt a lot many others though, including CentOS.
I would be happy to provide a free copy to anyone that might want to use Patch Miner (http://patterninsight.com/patchminer/) to verify patches in one of the free distros
We develop solutions for searching and analyzing vast quantities of semi-structured data. Many of the biggest tech companies (Cisco, Qualcomm, Juniper, Motorola) rely on Pattern Insight for their internal search.
Many of our team members joined the company after working part-time or as interns
One of the positions we are looking for is a Cloud Operations Engineer Intern. This position comes with loads of responsibilities. So please pass on the word to any students looking for impactful work this summer.
We are building search products for semi-structured data.
We are cash flow positive and growing fast. Our customers are some of the biggest tech companies in the world. That said, we are still early and looking for people that want to be part of the core team and shape our future.
Totally agree. I started my company 4 years ago. We have been pretty successful so far (several millions in revenue and big customers). There are times that people need to work a lot but there is no way you can work 7 or even 6 days a week in a sustainable fashion, not even at the beginning. I never expected people to work on the weekends although sometimes they do. Of course, I never expected people to work more than me either. Most of them are extremely productive during normal working hours. I don't think having a life means you are not motivated.
Also, hours that somebody appears to be working is definitely the wrong metric for developers.
The article points out many of the problems of the greek economy, like:
* The inflated public sector
* The power of the unions over the government
* The corruption in certain areas of the public sector (e.g. hospitals)
* The loose observance of laws
But it mischaracterizes several important points, as it is commons with articles that describe such complicated issues after a minimal exposure of the journalist to the situation:
* Tax evasion does not hurt the real economy. Especially not in a country like Greece where the public sector is so inefficient. It might be unfair for some but it doesn't really hurt the economy. In some cases it enables smart and motivated entrepreneurs to start their businesses.
* Most public sector workers are not corrupted but they are part of the problem simply because of the fact that they work in the public sector. Think of DMV x1000.
* The majority of Greeks are against the unions and would like to see the public sector shrink.
I am not advocating tax evasion. I think, US for example, is a great place to do business, as opposed to Greece, because the letter of the law is followed and the rules are clear to everyone. I am just saying that the Greek government was so inefficient and the public sector so bloated, that in some sense tax evasion was helping put people's money at more efficient uses.
Such as building their own private businesses and employing other people in the private sector.
For example, it is much more beneficial to the country to build, say a new hotel (as this is Greece's biggest industry), instead of wasting the money on more public-railroad-type of money wasting businesses.
The problem with tax evasion in a democracy is that, when combined with a government's ability to borrow money, it removes the one of the main reasons why voters should care about how much the government spends. If you don't pay taxes, government spending is free money, at least until the debt burden becomes obviously unsustainable and things start falling apart as a result.
"The loose observance of laws" and "tax evasion" are one and the same.
A big point I get from the article is that everyone is just looking out for themselves, with little regard for law or society. Want to pay less taxes? Fine, vote in the local version of Thatcher, but don't cheat. That leads to a system where everyone picks and chooses which laws they want to follow.
But this is not the cause of the economic problems. The more appropriate solution would be to shut down the money-loosing public businesses (like the train org) and lay off as many people as needed from the public sector.
This way, they will reduce government spending and will also allow people to do something more productive.
More taxation will just slow down the economy even further.
Greece has a debt crisis. The state borrowed some €216 billion and now cannot pay it. This isn't just some slow down caused by the business cycle that can be fixed by reducing taxes.
Tax evasion costs the Greek government an estimated $20B a year. I would say that improving tax collection would significantly help Greece make payments on their debt. You have a big problem when there are millionaire doctors not paying a cent in taxes to the state.
Sure, they have money wasting state enterprises, they could try to privatize some of them - but it is something that should not be done in a hasty manner. Rushes to privatize have led to massive failures (see Russia, parts of Latin America).
So in order to get out of this mess they should 1. Restructure the debt to get a longer payment schedule 2. Improve their ability to collect taxes so that they can make some of those payments. 3. Work to privatize certain state owned businesses / infrastructure.
... or drop out of the EU, devalue currency, grow GDP
And you are arguing as if the Greek government is entitled to no taxes.
Greece provides its citizens with loads of social services. Someone/something has to pay for that. In the other EU countries, you know - the ones without sovereign debt crises (Germany for example), the taxes paid by citizens help pay for some of those services.
In Greece that doesn't happen because of the rampant tax evasion. So instead the government lies about its budget deficit, borrows tons of debt, and is now hoping for a bailout from some of the more fiscally responsible EU nations. German tax paying citizens are likely going to have to help subsidize Greek citizens who are unwilling to pay taxes.
Greece does not provide its citizens with more social services than other European countries, I would say that they actually provide less. And although you are right about the deficit, again, the main problem is the inflated public sector with all its associated problems, like high pensions at a young age.
The private sector should not be burdened with this, and actually, it cannot afford to pay for this burden. If collecting more taxes is the solution here, it's certain that Greece will go bankrupt.
Regarding Germany vs the other European countries, what is easy to see is the direct contribution of Germany to the EU but the indirect benefits that Germany got because of the fixed currency are more difficult to see although very very important for them.
It's not about more taxes, necessarily, it's that everyone should pay their "fair share", not some people pay 50%, and some wealthier people pay 0. If they think that is too high, they need to convince the politicians/electorate to lower the taxes. I can't just go steal stuff from the supermarket because I don't like the price.
But people in the US (mostly) pay the taxes that they are supposed to pay, not the taxes they feel like paying. If they don't like that, there is a democratic process they can go through to get them lowered (or raised, or whatever).
> I also seriously doubt that the only people not paying taxes in Greece are wealthy.
If you read the article and the comments, the people who actually pay their taxes are those who work for companies and have them withheld, so pretty much "middle class".
> It seems people only complain when the "rich" don't pay their taxes.
I wonder why ... I'd be pretty bitter if I had to pay, and saw some guy living a life of luxury who isn't paying a dime.
There's a difference between being against taxes, and fighting to eliminate them, and simply cheating because you don't like them.
If they are going to be good citizens, then Greeks must not only pay their taxes, they must also take responsibility for fixing their government, reducing waste, and stamping out their culture of corruption.
I don't think I disagree with you. My whole argument in these posts is that tax evasion, although very real, did not lead Greece to this mess neither will its reverse take it out. The problem is the bloated public sector with all its related problems. I think fixing that should be the first step towards a real solution.
That's obviously a large part of the problem - to claim otherwise would be silly. But the overarching theme of the article is how everyone is out to "get theirs" and screw the next guy. This includes both the unions who got wages and benefits far out of proportion to the value of their work, as well as many people cheating on their taxes. It's a vicious circle, because when you see the next guy cheating and coming out ahead because of it, you are more inclined to cheat yourself, or grab what you can, the consequences for society be damned.
I think this has a perverse effect on markets in general: when you're pretty sure the next guy is out to screw you, rather than just make a fair trade, it erodes faith in markets and capitalism.
I am not advocating something that extreme here. Not sure how familiar you are with Greece. Each of these organizations is overstaffed to a great extend. Then some of them are totally useless, like the public railroad. On the top of that there are businesses that would be very healthy in the private sector (see banks) and that the government has absolutely no reason to be in. The fact that the government is actually in those businesses, profitable or not, screws up the incentives of everyone involved.
I happen to be somewhat familiar, since I've been living there for 26 years. The majority of state enterprises (or those the state has a share in) right now are profitable, with the notable exceptions of a) railroads and b) the off-the-books units created by ministries to handle short-term tasks. Could they benefit from a restructuring and would lay offs be helpful? Probably so.
Does the state's involvement in public corporation screw up incentives? Telecommunications is a good example of why not. Banks still don't convince me; they pay taxes with interest rates significantly less than 18-20%, which is the norm and they have resisted any and all attempts of the state for policy changes.
Personally, I am more concerned with other issues: the legislation that often proves to be shortsighted and inefficient, limited (and that's a euphemism) opportunities to young entrepreneurs, poor education, but the one thing that bugs me the most is that Greeks (yeah, I'm one of them) have no regard for public interest. The why is a longer story than what can fit in this post.
PS. You hinted to "shut down the money-loosing public businesses" as the "more appropriate solution"; if you're not advocating for it I may have to brush up on my English comprehension skills.
A point with which I strongly disagree is that some public businesses are profitable so we should leave them alone. First of all, it's trivial to be profitable if you control a monopoly. Also, being profitable doesn't mean you are efficient, some things could be done much more effectively in the private sector. Also, by being overstaffed, even if profitable, you are not allowing all these people working for you to do something more productive.
Beyond that, when talking about profitability, you should consider pension plans and future obligations. Some of these businesses might have a positive balance sheet for the year but what's going to happen if you consider their future, inflated, obligations. A good example are the pensions the Public Electric Company employees get. They are mostly funded by the government.
Let's see why it screws up incentives:
-- What do you think any of the people working in the public sector tries to optimize? Is it the successe of the business they are working on? Do they try to advance their careers? Or do they try to work as little as possible?
-- If an employee is not good, is a government controlled company ever going to fire them?
-- The guy who controls the supplies in the hospitals, does he ever have to report to somebody about that?
-- Do you know a single person in the public sector that he has ever been promoted or fired because of his skills or lack there of?
A point with which I strongly disagree is that some public businesses are profitable so we should leave them alone.
A point which I didn't make. Improvements can always take place. But no matter; not all businesses I was talking about are monopolies. In fact, the telecom sector is free since 2001, and it's doing great, considering HTO possessed 100% of the infrastructure up to that point.
Incentives are given by management. It is extremely easy for any business to motivate their employers, as it is easy to lay off slackers. It mostly does not happen; this is a result of corruption, incoherent legislation, and poor law enforcement as well as financial and management review (among others). I've already mentioned those factors, I view them as extremely dangerous for our economy and I highly doubt they'll be waived in any reasonable amount of time. I think we mostly agree on this part.
It hurts the government, but the institutions that were dumb enough to lend Greece should be also accountable. Of course if Greece defaults, German taxpayers are likely to pick up the tab so it sucks for them.
I upvoted you because you make a valid point ... what exactly, are the government services that Greeks who "should" be paying their taxes actually receiving?
One big group of tax evaders are doctors, who like to play both sides of the game. They accept large government subsidies and equipment on the one hand, and run off-the-books side businesses with that equipment on the other hand. Sometimes the side business isn't even very "side": doctors frequently demand and receive under-the-table cash payments to "expedite" service in the state hospitals.
They also, of course, didn't pay tuition for their medical degrees--- their education was paid for by the people who actually pay taxes.
Our company makes wyBuild: http://wyday.com/wybuild/ . It comes in 3 parts (wyBuild, wyUpdate, and the AutomaticUpdater control). wyBuild makes the tiny update patches, wyUpdate is the open source updater (BSD licensed) and the AutomaticUpdater control is the open source control that adds the ability for fully automatic updates (LGPL Licensed).
Here are the links to the source code, for those interested:
It might be that you came up with this icon independently but anyway it's better to change it.
Terrific product otherwise. I'll try to convince people at our company to tale a look at it. We currently have our own AutoUpdate implementation but it downloads the whole .msi files.
I like that Sparkle's open source, and it's being used by many open source apps on Mac already. Getting the auto-update software to actually be secure is not trivial either (a recent attack was discovered on Acrobat's updater for example).
> I am not aware of a win or a Linux (I mostly work on Linux) solution either.
I'm trying to say this without sounding snarky, but why the heck would you need this on an operating system that already gives you apt-get, pacman, yum, portmaster, or what have you?
Also the WiX people have been working on something along these lines, but I don't know how mature that project is or if it's even still a project any more.
EDIT: Looks like Google's made a separate open-source project of its update framework, Omaha, which is apparently how Chrome gets its updates. So I guess you can get Chrome-style auto updates in your own applications now. Don't know if Google's nifty binary diff compression algorithm is included.
I disagree. Ineffective tax collection actually might be helping the greek economy. The government is so inefficient that I cannot imagine how paying more taxes would actually help in the long run. People can be more efficient and produce much more real value by spending their money.
The real big problem is the inflated public sector. This of course is a problem because is a big burden to the public finances but more importantly results in >20% of the population that is capable of working being occupied at the public sector producing minimal value for the economy overal.
