Sure, the only place guilt exists is in thoughts, and moral codes are subjective and meaningless thought-fluff, except that we're judged and condemned for our thought-fluff all the time. That's a big part of living in a society right there.

Thanks for the response, Kevin. Actually, this incident I described took place 10 years ago. I have since totally put it behind me, moved on to another employer, an honorable employer who pays what they owe people.

Here's my experience with Macs. Six years ago my wife, a struggling freelance writer, decided to start a blog as a hobby. She was using a PC at the time, learning how to take and edit her own pictures, and learning basic HTML and CSS to format her blog posts. After a year of the blog as her part-time hobby, she…

Honestly, it's like you just believe everything you read, Dayne. Seriously, I think you're a nice enough person, but you sound naive. Of course I know that those attorneys exist. I and my coworkers — the others I mentioned who were in the same boat — looked for an attorney who'd work on contingency. None would.

You make it sound so simple... It's not. I lived it. I and about 10 other employees who worked for a tech company here in the California Bay Area. Our employer defrauded us, bounced paychecks, commingled funds, lied. We filed complaints with the DOL. It took about 20 of them from 10 different employees of the company…

I'll agree with you that the government does screw up many things, but I would add to that that without effective employee protections (and the current DOL doesn't count, as I've needed them and they were useless) many employers would also cheat.

I don't think Dayne is an idiot. I think he's actually coming at this from the perspective of what's legal and what's right/wrong.

I applaud you for being a responsible manager, but this isn't about you. This is about the world out there, and the fact that you brought up the Department of Labor and pointed to it as an effective recourse for employees not being paid their fair wages.

It would change things if it actually worked.

Yes. I want a law with enforcement behind it. The DOL is the problem because it's toothless. I have a judgment from a former employer that I got after a lengthy dispute in which the DOL resisted, then cooperated in helping me with. After the judgment, the DOL offered no advice, no counseling in actually recovering any…

If most people think the DMV is inefficient, try working with the DOL to go after a bad employer. Then you'll see what real inefficiency and incompetence are.

It's also illegal to jaywalk. How many people still do it?

The DOL is a joke. I needed them once, turned to them for help, and didn't get any, even though my former employer was a well-known cheat. Still a cheat to this day.

The DOL is a joke, at least it was here in California when I needed their help about 10 years ago after an employer stiffed me out of about a year's worth of salary.

As someone who sits on interview panels for mid-level management and tech jobs, I can affirm that the email followup is pretty customary nowadays. Most candidates do it, and most of them say something to the effect of, "Thank you for the chance to interview. It was very nice meeting ______, and I'm more excited than…

My sentiments exactly. Give the family members and the community a break before the politicized fangs come out, and give the nation a break to ruminate on what happened, reflect and gather enough of the facts before we shout our opinions from the rafters.

I call bullsh*t on anyone who calls this voodoo. It works for me, and I'm a cynical skeptic at heart. Got a terrible deviated septum from a broken nose years ago, and this little trick works better than any OTC sinus medication I've tried (tried 'em all). Plus, zero side effects, other than a little redness between…

You do sound cynical and jaded by Hollywood, Alex Pace. These are awesome and beautiful because they're real and not merely digital paint created with Adobe After Effects.

I've been on both sides of the caffeine/coffee fence. I had my first cup of coffee at age 21. I love the taste and find that used in moderation, caffeine can be very helpful. Caffeine is a drug, like aspirin or alcohol, and as with any drug, it should be used responsibly, which is great because it's a free country.