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Robert E. Lee on Leadership : Executive Lessons in Character, Courage, and Vision by H. W. Crocker III is a book that I read when I began the transition from SA/SE to project manager. While it does delve into the history and goings-on of the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression, according to my wife), the 'backstory' does well to highlight examples of what the author is trying to say. It does have many good principles, and it's a fun read. Good luck!

Debugging the Development Process: http://www.amazon.com/Debugging-Development-Proces s-Practical-Strategies/dp/1556156502
Peopleware:
http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projec ts-Tom-DeMarco/dp/0932633439

And think about those managers over the course of your career whom you've enjoyed working for, and felt most productive under. If you can - ask them for advice. If any of them were, or are, in the same company - that's even better.

Finally, many companies have "intro to management" courses offered by HR - sometimes they're mandatory when you're promoted into a role with direct reports, sometimes they're not. Take one, either way. You may not learn much, but at least it should give you a sense of the "management process" in your company from a perspective you may not have glimpsed before.

Although you didn't ask for them, since I was in a similar position a few years ago, I'll offer a few specific suggestions and observations.

First of all, your management responsibilities won't just do themselves - they'll take time. Seems obvious - but I've seen (and worked for) first time managers who figured they could just go on writing code, and the rest would "sort it self out."

Second - you have two bosses - the people you work for and the people who work for you. You're accountable to each of them for different things.

One major job is to facilitate communication in both directions. Make sure the folks working for you know what's expected of them, and how that contributes to the company goals/direction. Similarly, you need to make sure the people you work for understand what your team is doing - what it's challenges are, what it's successes have been. And don't neglect communication within the team. You'll likely eventually be called on to smooth ruffled feathers, or sort out conflicts among your direct reports. It's not fun, but it's part of the job.

Another key role is facilitator. Get obstacles - technical, organizational and otherwise - out of your team's way *before they're stymied by them* so they can execute.

One way to do this is to make sure you talk to everyone working for you regularly - at least once a week, more often if the environment is "highly dynamic" (i.e. sh*t changes quickly). Find out how they're doing - and, most importantly, what they need from you so they can get it done.

If your management role includes "pay and review" responsibilities (as opposed to "just" technical leadership) - get to know the appropriate folks in HR. Most companies have a pay grade system that basically defines compensation latitude - learn it, and learn where your reports are on the scale.

Depending on the make up of the team, and the "formality" of the environment, this can either be grabbing coffee together, or having a more formal scheduled one-on-one.

Keep notes on these meetings - and encourage your reports to do the same. Note commitments made, those that are made good on, those that aren't. When folks volunteer to take on additional responsibility, and when they shirk the responsibility they have. When you end up writing reviews, these notes are useful to justify pay rises or lack thereof.

Finally, one of the hardest things for first time managers is the transition from "one of the team" to "running the team." It's especially tricky if you manage anyone with whom you have a personal relationship (friendship, dating, etc.) The generally safe thing is "don't." But my experience is that overlapping relationships are maintainable, but only with early explicit agreement on both sides.

I've worked for, and managed, friends a number of times over the years - and the very first conversation, either way, has been something like:

"we're friends, and I'd like to stay friends, b

Debugging the Development Process: http://www.amazon.com/Debugging-Development-Proces s-Practical-Strategies/dp/1556156502
Peopleware:
http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projec ts-Tom-DeMarco/dp/0932633439

And think about those managers over the course of your career whom you've enjoyed working for, and felt most productive under. If you can - ask them for advice. If any of them were, or are, in the same company - that's even better.

Finally, many companies have "intro to management" courses offered by HR - sometimes they're mandatory when you're promoted into a role with direct reports, sometimes they're not. Take one, either way. You may not learn much, but at least it should give you a sense of the "management process" in your company from a perspective you may not have glimpsed before.

Although you didn't ask for them, since I was in a similar position a few years ago, I'll offer a few specific suggestions and observations.

First of all, your management responsibilities won't just do themselves - they'll take time. Seems obvious - but I've seen (and worked for) first time managers who figured they could just go on writing code, and the rest would "sort it self out."

Second - you have two bosses - the people you work for and the people who work for you. You're accountable to each of them for different things.

One major job is to facilitate communication in both directions. Make sure the folks working for you know what's expected of them, and how that contributes to the company goals/direction. Similarly, you need to make sure the people you work for understand what your team is doing - what it's challenges are, what it's successes have been. And don't neglect communication within the team. You'll likely eventually be called on to smooth ruffled feathers, or sort out conflicts among your direct reports. It's not fun, but it's part of the job.

Another key role is facilitator. Get obstacles - technical, organizational and otherwise - out of your team's way *before they're stymied by them* so they can execute.

One way to do this is to make sure you talk to everyone working for you regularly - at least once a week, more often if the environment is "highly dynamic" (i.e. sh*t changes quickly). Find out how they're doing - and, most importantly, what they need from you so they can get it done.

If your management role includes "pay and review" responsibilities (as opposed to "just" technical leadership) - get to know the appropriate folks in HR. Most companies have a pay grade system that basically defines compensation latitude - learn it, and learn where your reports are on the scale.

Depending on the make up of the team, and the "formality" of the environment, this can either be grabbing coffee together, or having a more formal scheduled one-on-one.

Keep notes on these meetings - and encourage your reports to do the same. Note commitments made, those that are made good on, those that aren't. When folks volunteer to take on additional responsibility, and when they shirk the responsibility they have. When you end up writing reviews, these notes are useful to justify pay rises or lack thereof.

Finally, one of the hardest things for first time managers is the transition from "one of the team" to "running the team." It's especially tricky if you manage anyone with whom you have a personal relationship (friendship, dating, etc.) The generally safe thing is "don't." But my experience is that overlapping relationships are maintainable, but only with early explicit agreement on both sides.

I've worked for, and managed, friends a number of times over the years - and the very first conversation, either way, has been something like:

"we're friends, and I'd like to stay friends, b

Try Hacking MythTV. It's from Jarod Wilson who wrote one of the most popular MythTV howto out there.

Read this blog: http://www.randsinrepose.com/
And this book by the same author: http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Sof tware-Engineering/dp/159059844X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/00 2-5507769-8385647?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188351151&s r=8-1

De nada. There's also an O'Reilly book that's helpful with some of these more advanced options: Sendmail Cookbook .

As an engineer / architect who has had to deal with some frustrating management (most of it indirect, fortunately), I've found these two blogs to be both enlightening and useful for feeding to managers. Rands especially, as a developer who moved into management with a purpose, has some very insightful commentary. He's also recently published a book, which I'm planning on giving to some of my favorite managers (who despite their sincere desire to treat us well, sometimes have a hard time understanding the geeks they herd.)

Rands on Management: http://www.randsinrepose.com/cat_management.html
Rands's Book: http://managinghumans.com/ (Direct to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Sof tware-Engineering/dp/159059844X)

Joel on Software: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/

Good luck! It's great to hear about people who care enough to want to do it right.

• certs are only good for getting your foot in the door and you're already in.
• Phone and face to face is better than email
• KISS it, especially when explaining technical material you understand to other managers who don't.
• ideals are for developers. management is about revenue generation (or maybe cost savings) It's rarely about doing the "right" thing unless it generates revenue or saves money (maybe).
• The Art of War Plus the Art of Management (amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Tzu%C2%BFs-Art-Plus-Mana gement/dp/1929194218/ref=sr_1_6/103-2742808-784064 3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188346527&sr=8-6 is interesting and entertaining but not really useful.

I've found joel spolsky's book helpful. It's not a comprehensive management book, but there is a lot of good advice that can be gleaned from his essays.

I think the most important thing any *people* manager can do is set the tone for the entire team. I highly recommend reading "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't" (amazon link - http://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workp lace-Surviving/dp/0446526568). The world doesn't need anymore assholes in management. Good luck!

There are plenty of management books out there -- it's hard to go wrong when learning the basics -- and they all pretty much emphasize the same things: effective communication, appreciate where your employees are coming from, demand respect for others in the workplace, lead by example, don't be a pushover, and foster a culture of openness so your employees aren't afraid to tell you what's wrong. If you're not sure how to effectively do any of the above, then The First-time Manager is a decent read. But if you're being selected for management, it's probably because your boss(es) have seen you demonstrate those qualities in the first place (unless you're in the military, where advancement is based in large part on factual knowledge that you will almost never use in management).

If you're staying in the same department (or just with the same company), the biggest problem may be the transition from a co-worker relationship to a superior/subordinate relationship. Some people may resent you immediately, and if they don't, they probably will at some point in the future, but if you demonstrate the qualities you require of them, you will likely gain their respect, even if you cannot maintain the same friendship you had. Of course, if you weren't buddies with any of your new underlings (and never, ever call them underlings), that makes things a lot easier.

That said, I hate being a manager/supervisor. The slight (in my experience anyway) increase in pay was never worth the added responsibility, visibility, and stress. My supervisor, for example (for whom I fill in when he's on leave) has 3x the workload, and only makes 3% more. Not only that, but if any of *us* screw up, he's the one held responsible. Middle management can also be lonely; too junior to be good friends with upper management, and too senior to be good friends with your subordinates, so it's good if you have friends outside of the workplace, or at least working in a different area. I'd say the experience is important and necessary -- especially if you want to do something like start your own business, with the possible exception of consulting -- but I've never found it to be a rewarding experience. Under the right circumstances, if I was a team leader or project manager for a creative project, I'd do it again, but in my current line of work, management = TPS reports and scapegoat.

Two others that I (being a contrarian) love, but you won't find on most "top X" lists:

Simplicity , and Work 2.0 , both by Bill Jensen. Simplicity Survival Handbook is also very useful.

I found these books were helpful both for making my own work/life less-complex, and for helping my staff focus, be more productive, and experience more success.

Two others that I (being a contrarian) love, but you won't find on most "top X" lists:

Simplicity , and Work 2.0 , both by Bill Jensen. Simplicity Survival Handbook is also very useful.

I found these books were helpful both for making my own work/life less-complex, and for helping my staff focus, be more productive, and experience more success.

Two others that I (being a contrarian) love, but you won't find on most "top X" lists:

Simplicity , and Work 2.0 , both by Bill Jensen. Simplicity Survival Handbook is also very useful.

I found these books were helpful both for making my own work/life less-complex, and for helping my staff focus, be more productive, and experience more success.

Can't recommend it enough really - it helped me plenty.

http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projec ts-Tom-DeMarco/dp/0932633439

I found "The Art of Project Management" book to be an excellent read:

http://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Theory-Pr actice-OReilly/dp/0596007868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-0 051573-5986862?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188342199&sr=8 -1

Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence

http://www.amazon.com/Primal-Leadership-Learning-E motional-Intelligence/dp/1591391849/ref=pd_bbs_sr_ 1/105-3091731-1517231?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=11883417 74&sr=8-1

FTFA: "There should be no way that a legitimate user of a product should be suddenly cut off from use of that product because of an authentication server error, ever. ... All this proves is that these Web-based applications cannot be trusted."

WGA does not fit into the same category as Google and Amazon.com (or even good old /.!). Some software is best provided as a service, and it's worth trusting for the value it provides. That sort of software derives most of its value from the fact that it is connected to information that its customers want.

Now, WGA on the other hand isn't worth trusting. As a service, it doesn't enable any valuable functionality; all it can do is disable existing functionality. It relies on locally running code to do its work, anyway, which is why this "service" doesn't even work on Linux, Mac, or early versions of Windows. (Can you imagine implementing a WGA client for Linux?)

Maybe a better conclusion would be that some software does more harm than good when it's implemented as a service, or just when it's implemented at all.

Yes, if only someone had spotted this gaping hole in everyone's logic. You sir, are a true genius. No educated mathematician has ever considered such a flaw! Bravo, sir! Bravo! http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Evolution-Phylog eny-Olivier-Gascuel/dp/0199231346

You could instead stay offline and read a good book. Such as http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Cable-Modem-What-Com panies/dp/1593271018/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7505582-2 160112?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188245489&sr=8-1

Song song, different tune. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
Mediocre writing, interesting story though.

Do you really think that many people have read it?

I've only read Shame, but I'm pretty sure that I missed out on a very large quantity of cultural references and perhaps a large part of the satire. From what a friend told me, 'The Satanic Verses' is somewhat inaccessible if you don't have a familiarity with Islam and India/Pakistan. I'm not sure I'd understand any references to Khomeini, either.

There's a book out there called "The Visible Ops Handbook: Implementing ITIL in 4 Practical and Auditable Steps" that might be exactly what you need. It is written by a few heavy hitters in IT and information security, including George Spafford and Gene Kim. It is based around a subset of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which is the major international standard for IT management. It revolves around sane configuration management of data centers, in particular making all changes predictable and reliable, and lowering the likelihood of unexpected downtime and failure. Metrics are a big part of this system, and it might be exactly what your boss is looking for, as well as a good way to make your own lives easier. It is really short, at about a hundred pages or so. You can pick it up in any number of places, including here. Good luck!

"I am a (strictly technical) member of a large *nix systems admin team at a Fortune 150. Our new IT Management Overlord is a hardcore bean-counter from hell.

You're technical, you work for a large company and you have a new boss that sucks.

The first two points should make it relatively easy for you to find a new job. Have you considered a slight change of career? Why not engineering (development) rather than sys admin? In the Unix world, the line between the two is very blurry.

Bosses like this kill businesses.

I can't give you specific metrics for your situation, but you might like to read Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers for some ideas of business processes in general, why they work and don't.

In particular, there are some insightful and scathing examinations of the methods of "bean counters." You're an admin, not a developer, but it should provide a spark, a starting-off point for you.

You will find, if you scratch beneath the "Islamic" surface of the Persian, that there is a much older culture, ethic and metier present - something you don't find elsewhere in the moslem world - except in the Iranized parts of central Asia.

12er Shi'ism in Iran has morphed into a vehicle where some popular expression of this culture can manifest itself under the veil of Islam. The repressive arab-semitic aspects still dominate, but they are softened by the Indo-Iranian element.

The mission of Zartosht and that of Gautama Buddha are so close. They are different expressions of the deep, unitary mysticism rooted in the Indo-Iranian consciousness. This is continued by the Persian Sufism of Love, as revealed through Byazid and Ruzbehan Baqli - a continuous perfection of the kernel that is found in Hinayana schools.

It was eastern, Indo-Iranian cultured people who introduced Buddhism to China and the Turko-Mongolians - from the realms of their Gobi oasis kingdoms of Shanshan and Kashgar.

I suggest reading In Search of Zarathustra for an entertaining exploration of the very real and modern presence of Zoroastrian elements in the life of nominally moslem Iranians and Tajiks - although the author lingers overly on the Mithraic cults of later Zoroastrianism.

Do you have a 'War on Cars'?

Why did you link to More at Amazon and not the others? FWIW I saw The Wall concert and would have linked to it. http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Floyd-Wall-Anniversary- Deluxe/dp/B0006ZE7G2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8135703-7 503223?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1187919783&sr=1-1

It is a very cool if disturbing movie.

qz

Yea, I guess I'm just not smoking enough cannabis to understand your point of view.

Sorry for all the insults, but I felt it was necessary to fight stupid with stupid. Perhaps liberalism is a mental disorder, who knows.

Blueprints for High Availability , Evan Marcus and Hal Stern, second edition. http://www.amazon.com/Blueprints-High-Availability -Evan-Marcus/dp/0471430269/ref=cm_taf_title_featur ed?ie=UTF8&tag=tellafriend-20

Deals with the subject of high availability from the IT side rather than programming, but anyone dealing with HA systems needs to understand these issues.

Wanna learn something about History AND economy? http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Great-Powers/dp/06 79720197 The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (Paperback) by Paul Kennedy (Author)

As Robert Reich discusses in his book, The Work of Nations, this is "vestigal thinking." Manufacturing ("making stuff") is not the only way to earn a profit. (Think consulting, for example.)

As another poster noted, the future of the U.S. economy is in areas such as intellectual property and services (specifically those that need not be performed in person). Reich calls this "symbolic analysis."

I can't believe that you didn't include the "Fisher Price Baby Bowling Set" (comes up on the third page)! What were you thinking?

Actually, I'm going to completely agree with you; bad original search term. Amazon usually does better (and I should have checked).

The search term "enterprise architecture" seem to produce better general results.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-6220372-7 109710?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&fiel d-keywords=enterprise+architecture

I read the book "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. It describes what has happened in the last 20 years and how many different unavoidable events have converged to "flatten" the world (globalization). We tend to think that India and China have lowered prices on cheap goods. They see things differently. They want to compete with us at the high end. That is their goal and they are racing us to the top. He argues that American creativity can keep America on the top, but Americans need to be better educated and they need to be motivated. (It was a good book.)

I know you're being funny, but PF *did* do several movie soundtracks: a forgettable hippie movie called More but also "Tonite Let's All Make Love in London", "Zabriskie Point", obviously "The Wall", "La Vallee" (same director/feel as "More"), and the documentaries "Live at Pompeii" and "La Carrera Panamerica".

I see a lot of recommendations for various technologies, software packages, etc. -- but I don't think this addresses the original question.

What you are asking about, of course, is enterprise-grade software. This typically involves an n-tier solution with massive attention to the following:

- Redundancy.
- Scalability.
- Manageability.
- Flexilibility.
- Securability.
- and about ten other "...abilities."

The classic n-tier solution, from top to bottom is:

- Presentation Tier.
- Business Tier.
- Data Tier.

All of these tiers can be made up of internal tiers. (For example, the Data Tier might have a Database and a Data Access / Caching Tier. Or the Presentation Tier can have a Presentation Logic Tier, then the Presentation GUI, etc.)

Anyway, my point is simply that there is a LOT to learn in each tier. I'd recommend hitting up good ol' Amazon with the search term "enterprise software" and buy a handful of well-received books that look interesting to you (and it will require a handful):

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-8545839-8 925669?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&fiel d-keywords=enterprise+software+

Hope this helps.

Scalable Internet Architectures by Theo Schlossnagle http://www.amazon.com/Scalable-Internet-Architectu res-Developers-Library/dp/067232699X.

Great tutorial at OSCON about it too.

But the biggest piece of advice is to never guess about where things are slow. Measure them and then fix the slow parts. Don't change a thing until you've benchmarked it.

You'll find that Erlang doesn't even blink at those volumes, and that Erlang's entire reason to exist is scalability/reliability. Granted, it's a little severe to pick up a new language, but the benefits are enormous, and it's one of those boons you can't really understand until you've learned it. It is, however, worth noting that transactions on an MNesia database in the multiple gigabytes are typically faster than PHP just invoking MySQL in the first place, let alone doing any work with it.

Erlang is difficult to learn from what's on the web; consider starting with Joe's book.

The Moonseed ate the olivine, of course!

Slashdot readers hits the Amazon tag system; hilarity ensues...

delusional (11)
junk science (11)
crank (8)
fiction (8)
garbage (7)
crap (2)
crazy (2)
absent-minded (1)
art (1)
creative thinking (1)
dog crap (1)
fantast (1)
flim flam (1)
insane (1)
junk science crackpot crank garbage ball... (1)
litigious (1)
non-science (1)

(Before I drop into my string theory rant, I want to point out that there is a difference between having no evidence and MAKING UP evidence.)

String theory is an interesting bit of physically-motivated mathematics that has been WAY oversold as a description of nature. It is the theorist's job to invent new mathematical descriptions of unexplained phenomenon, and to extrapolate from what we know to what we could potentially discover. It takes a while to get there, though. Lots of nice ideas which are wrong get generated along the way.

Somewhere in the process the string theory PR machine got out of hand, and it started being sold to the general public as more than just a crazy conjecture. In the process, I think it has done a lot of damage to the credibility of high energy physics. There's a lot of argument within the field about string theory as well. I would suggest checking out The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of a String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next.

Seems like word gets around, already the book reviews are flooding in....my word, he has really not done himself any favors here - I sense another internet laughing stock in the making.

from: http://www.amazon.com/LifeCode-Theory-Biological-S elf-Organization/dp/0976406004

I do not own this book. I do not propose to read it. My "rating" is based solely upon the fact that the author has chosen to sue a reviewer for "Injury - Assault, Libel, and Slander", because he didn't like the review. (Unlike the author, the reviewer is a professional biology professor who actually understands this subject.) No reputable scientist would react in this way - indeed the whole point of science is to prove things wrong! (As Richard Feynman wrote, "We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.") So caveat emptor...

A 164 page book for $60?
And from an author without any doctorate in the sciences he purports to write about? With a non-peer-reviewed 'theory'?
Don't waste your money.

The reviewer above wrote everything I intended to, but I just thought I would add my voice here. By sueing a critic of his theories, the author of this book threw away any claim he might have had to any kind of scientific credibility. A scientist might argue with his critics, but the fact that this author has instigated a lawsuit against someone for criticizing his theories suggests to me that even he is aware that said theories have no merits to argue.

Everything seems to point to HDDVD region codes:

To me, no, everything does not seem to point to HD-DVD region codes (thanks for those links though). From that Amazon page, if you follow their "Read more about region encoding and how it may affect you here" link, you wind up at this page. As you can see, regular DVD and BluRay region coding is detailed, but there is no mention of such a thing for HD-DVD.

Furthermore, as you noted the other two links you provided are from last year, and refer to discussions that they were expecting to have this year about implementing region coding. Do you happen to have any information about whether those expected discussions have actually happened or not, and if so what the outcome of those "working groups" were?

I'll also point out that the relevant Wikipedia entry -- that fount of information that is never, ever wrong -- states that, "there is no Region Coding in the existing HD DVD specification, which means that titles from any country can be played in players in any other country." Alternatively, if you check out the Wikipedia article on BluRay (which comes complete with a pretty map), you can see that the opposite is true.

I'm sorry but the very concept of region coding bothers me so much that, until I see clear evidence that the same thing is going to be implemented with HD-DVD some day, HD-DVD easily wins over BluRay. Higher capacity be damned. I'll take at least some level of consumer-oriented freedom over that any day, thanks.

I'm glad someone's making a revitalizing effort on the part of HD-DVD, even if it means handing out buckets of cash. My biggest reason for supporting HDDVD over BluRay (other than a long-time dislike for Sony) is that HDDVD does not have any form of region coding, while BluRay does. I haven't seen that point raised here on Slashdot before, so I'm at the point of wondering if A) it's even correct, and B) if I'm really the only one who cares.

Everything seems to point to HDDVD region codes:

• 2006 reghardware article
• 2006 Dvd-recordable article
• Actual product at Amazon (see editorial review)

If anything, you should support BD over HDDVD simply because it's better technology (higher capacity storage), and if you want to go down the "corporate evil" route, Microsoft is far more evil than Sony, so BD wins by default.

So far as I know, with HD-DVD I don't have to worry about it. But Sony, showing their true stripes once again, embraced it with BluRay.

First off, BD is not a "Sony" format, anymore than Cell is a "Sony processor"; they're just part of the committees. One of many. Secondly, if anything, the lack of region codes on PS3 and PSP games should point in the opposite direction. The inclusion of region coding is like the inclusion of DRM---it's a feature that studios will want before they support the format, regardless of how ineffective or stupid it is.

In the accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke, just before John baptizes Jesus he is approached by multitudes coming out to be baptized by him (Luke 3:7) and they questioned him as to whether he was the Messiah. Then he tells them, "One mightier than I is coming" (Luke 3:16). Just after that, John baptizes Jesus.

In the account of John, the actual baptism of Jesus is not recorded, only John speaking of it. Notice in John 1:19 that the group of people approaching him this time were not a multitude coming to be baptized by him. Rather, they were a group of priests and Levites sent from the Pharisees in Jerusalem (v19,24). So this is a different time than the one discussed in the other three Gospels. The baptism of Christ would have actually happened before John 1:19, but John did not include that account. John was more interested in the ministry workings than the events leading up to them.

John's account says that the day after John the Baptist was questioned, "he saw Jesus coming toward him" and then John the Baptist proceeds to speak about Jesus, this time recounting what he had said before, "This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me'", and bearing witness to the fact that he had already baptized Jesus and witnessed the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and emphasizing that he has seen and testified that Jesus is the Son of God. This is not a direct account of the baptism of Christ by John the writer of the Gospel, only of what John the Baptist said about the prior baptism of Christ.

Halley's Bible Handbook on John 1:19-34 (John's Testimony) gives helpful insight here:

After brief statements about the Deity of Jesus, his Pre-Existence and Incarnation, John's Gospel, passing over Jesus' Birth, Childhood, Baptism and Temptation, starts with this testimony of John the Baptist before the Committee from the Sanhedrin as to the Deity of Jesus.

This was at the close of the Forty Days' Temptation. It is nowhere stated that Jesus returned from the Wilderness Temptation to the Jordan where John was baptizing. The three Synoptics pass directly from the Temptation to the Galilean ministry (Mt 4:11-12; Mark 1:13-14; Luke 4:13-14). But the three successive "morrow's" (Jn 1:29, 35, 43), followed by the "third day" (2:1), for his arrival in Galilee, make it evident that Jesus went back from the wilderness to the place where John was preaching before departing for Galilee.

One thing to note also is that at the end of Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness, Satan led Him to Jerusalem to the top of the temple to tempt Him there. After He endured that temptation, Satan left Him and then He departed for Galilee. If you look at a map of Israel, Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing (John 1:28), is southeast of Cana and Galilee, while Jerusalem is a ways south of both Galilee and Bethany beyond the Jordan. So it is feasible for Jesus to have visited Bethany beyond the Jordan on His way to Galilee from Jerusalem, in line with John's account.

Every time I find an apparent contradiction in the Bible, I get excited because I know that I'm about to discover a truth that was hidden to me before. Sometimes there are really exciting things hidden in the Scriptures! If you want to whet your appetite, check out the book, Hidden Treasures in the Biblical Text (Missler, 2001).

I would suggest you read this book. Masturbation it may be, but as your childhood has proven. Masturbation is very important.

I would suggest you read this book. Masturbation it may be, but as your childhood has proven. Masturbation is very important.

... "And while you're at it, spank your children and stop reading them politically correct fairy tales. Yes the gingerbread house is made from bad little boys and girls."

http://www.amazon.com/Politically-Correct-Bedtime- Stories-Modern/dp/002542730X

Imagine we noticed something artificial flying by. We needn't even be able to catch and examine it, just imagine the Hubble telescope picks up some item that is without a doubt artificial. Even after millenia of interstellar travel, a probe is still not an asteroid. It will be heavily damaged and probably look barely like the probe that was launched, but it will no less be clearly evident that some intelligence shaped it

May I recommend Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds. Deals with exactly such a scenario happening in near-future. Just finished reading it a month ago and thought it was great (as are other AR's books).