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Domain: bonkersworld.net

Stories and comments across the archive that link to bonkersworld.net.

Comments · 12

  1. Re: Ah the Oracle gameplan 101 by sl3xd · · Score: 1 · on Inside Oracle's Cloak-and-dagger Political War With Google (recode.net)

    Get some women to 'remember' sexual 'assaults' by Oracle management from 20 or 30 years ago, then demand that the accused resign or be fired

    In times like these, it's useful to refer to organizational trees of the companies

    Oracle will likely sue, and then use every option in its power to bankrupt any accuser with legal costs before it gets to trial. Sure, there's probably a "loser pays" part of the law, but eventually the Lawyer representing Oracle's accuser is going to say "you know... I may never get paid for this... I'm out."

  2. Biased Article by cutinf · · Score: 2 · on The Challenge of Working At Amazon
    Most of the comments so far seem to take the article at face value, so I thought I'd offer an alternative perspective. I've worked at Amazon for several years as a software engineer, on two different teams, and my experience has been a far cry from what is described in the article. Is hard work encouraged? Sure. Do I work 80 hours a week? Absolutely not. I average around 50. I don't take my laptop home at night, and I don't get work email on my phone. I certainly am not expected to respond while on vacation. Those women in my department who have left on maternity leave have come back and been promoted, seemingly contrary to the harsh treatment described.

    The other engineers I work with are some of the smartest and best I've met in my career (i've worked at several other large companies), and there is certainly an overall goal of excellence. Feedback and discussion is strongly encouraged, but I've never seen anyone break down into tears at work. The leadership principles cited are accurate, but my experience with them has been seemingly more in line with their original intentions.

    Their sampling seems biased to those who have left the company, either voluntarily or forced, which suggests to me there may be a negative bias. If you ever saw this comic: http://www.bonkersworld.net/im... , you may understand Amazon operates many independent divisions, I suspect the experience of employees varies by division. I don't know if NYT sought out particular opinions, but they only gave a sentence or two to those veterans they encountered with a positive experience - literally this line:

    "Some veterans interviewed said they were protected from pressures by nurturing bosses or worked in relatively slow divisions".

    It seems like focusing on those experiences wouldn't have made as sensational of an article though.

  3. On the other hand... by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 2 · on Steve Ballmer Reorganizing Microsoft

    Taking a different approach from most of these comments, I think a reorganization is exactly what Microsoft needs. It has long been known that the individual departments of Microsoft rarely communicate well between themselves and often seem actively hostile towards one another. I remember reading an article (when Office 97 came out, so this shows how far back this problem goes) about how the OS team was upset that Office utilized a goodly number of non-standard tricks rather than using the standard APIs. Thus, moving forward the OS team had to add in shims into their OS to ensure that its Office suite would continue to function in later versions of Windows. Or years later, how PlaysForSure didn't, on the Zune. Each division had its own methods and goals and rarely would they consider the needs of the other divisions. So a re-organization that helps solve some of these issues is probably long overdue.
    (incidentally, a telling graphic of this problem is the following cartoon)

    On the gripping hand, I have to wonder if Balmer is really the best person to enact these changes; he hasn't inspired confidence with his recent (or any?) decisions. Similarly, I suspect that this "one company approach" is less to solve internal problems and more to officially shift the whole company from product-based development (e.g., write a program and sell it to the customers) to a service-based company (e.g., continual subscription-based access to its portfolio of services). , which is a direction Microsoft has been edging towards for over a decade.

  4. Re:Door Wide Open by Curupira · · Score: 5, Funny · on Steve Ballmer Reorganizing Microsoft

    Perhaps this one.

  5. Related cartoon... by lmanul · · Score: 1 · on Apple Threatens Bistro Over "AppleADay" Name

    ... on the same fruity business: http://www.bonkersworld.net/eating-fruit/

  6. Re:Childish by jevring · · Score: 1 · on Apple Granted Patent For Slide To Unlock

    This is what this makes me think about.

    Hahaha, that's awesome and incredibly accurate! =)

  7. Re:Childish by vgerclover · · Score: 2 · on Apple Granted Patent For Slide To Unlock

    This is what this makes me think about.

  8. Closely related cartoon by lmanul · · Score: 1 · on Samsung Lawyer Fails To Differentiate iPad and Galaxy Tab In Court

    Made a few weeks ago: http://www.bonkersworld.net/obvious-similarities/

  9. Re:Points to a larger cultural problem at MS by Tridus · · Score: 1 · on Zune Dead, Then Not Dead, Then Officially Dead

    I believe this is a perfect visual aid to the point you're making. :)

  10. Trivial patents? by lmanul · · Score: 1 · on Amazon Responds To "App Store" Lawsuit From Apple

    http://www.bonkersworld.net/2011/03/24/eating-fruit/ :-)

  11. Re:At some point, it's just bashing... by vgerclover · · Score: 1 · on Google Announces WebM Community Cross Licensing

    This reminded me of something.

  12. Re:And this... by vgerclover · · Score: 1 · on Google Cuts Chrome Page Load Times In Half w/ SPDY

    I feel there is a slight difference.