This is one nice and juicy little factoid. Consider how much mythology lives around these hidden tapes. There was no way for Nixon to be implicated in their tampering...
It's a neat mythology: if you believe the Moon Landing was faked, a hoax, then the soon-to-come high-def photos of the moon should answer that by showing the trash we left behind and that should still be there, the Lunar Landers. And if the landings are proven by the images to have actually occurred, then those same people can migrate to the idea that alien presences on the Moon were airbrushed out. Terrible tragedy it is for NASA that so many of their moon photos have obvious smudge marks over certain details. It would be nice to find out if those were alien ruins, waving aliens or just machine malfunctions
Who said anything about proof? No manager needs proof of anything to fire someone. A manager just needs suspicion.
But really, I was explaining why it was ludicrous for any junior developer to stand up, among an ocean of peers and say, "I'm the one. I wrote the Credit-Default-Swap logic that became the standard, and I didn't know what the hell I was doing." Unlikely as such a confession is, the confession of guilt is misguided. In this case, it seems clear to me that no authority equals no guilt. Only those in positions of authority deserve to have their careers destroyed, lives ruined, their images burned in effigy, students in college programming classes hearing about it, making that junior CDS coder into a little Satan in his or her cubicle. I think the architect should wear the red suit, horns and pointy tail.
It all depends on the technique. To be considered true public urination, the pee-er must be standing with at least one leg in the air, with a look of bliss on their face, mouth agape, and that steam must rise from the wee as it spreads on the ground and transfers its heat into the ground. If it comes from a jar--unless it has just been made and is still warm so that it steams, does not qualify.
Over the years, I have worked on hundreds of IT projects. I encountered many flawed processes.
I worked for a company that had just decided to use UML and so we were forced to spend months constructing UML diagrams that mostly were a waste of time. Eventually, we made our business folks master the verbal-only [no stick men] use case model and that worked.
I worked on another project where the business people were so involved they made technology decisons and were even standing over the backs of developers ordering 'for' or 'while' loops. (Not to me, thankfully).
I've also worked on perfectly tuned agile teams that had a tight PM daily accountability in standups, and that was stressful but also tremendously productive.
Let The Punishment Fit the Crime
Project fails because business interfered? Hold the head of the business team responsible.
Project fails because the software is buggy? Hold the head of QA accountable. Also maybe the architect or lead developer, who of course will be only too glad to point out the sloppy developer who did the work.
Project fails because the design is stupid or flawed in some other way? Hold the designers accountable.
So, I hope you see my point: if you were part of a project or product that became infamous--your punishment should fit your crime. If you were only a grunt developer implementing a design blessed by the architect and tech lead and designed by the business folks--then hell no, you should not also be accountable. You were doing your job. The junior developer can honestly say that but only if that developer's superiors are being held accountable.
So, if you're the original developer of AIG's Credit-Default Swap software, I would not hold you accountable for the damage done by those "financial instruments" (another name for a stick you would use to dig peanuts out of shit). The architects of this software and the business folks who designed it should be held accountable.)
As a software developer myself, while still professional embarrassed at any bug that escapes into the wild, I know how today's modern software ecosystem has evolved: iteratively. This obvious defect--pinning the snobby effetes of Manhattan in the alcohol-immersed college town of Austin, Texas--seems almost fitting. Maybe Google My Location is on to something. As I write this, I think I'm in Manhattan but wait--all the license plates are white, with a red star. What's all that green stuff on the ground where there should be concrete and asphalt? Wait a second--where's the subway? (Oh, no local and state taxes = no subway.)
Unless you're commenting on the double entendre, I must say that I know the book was called "The Peter Principle". I am, of course, referring to the point in ones career when the Peter Principle effect takes place. Sheesh. Some people...
I think the solution is to confront your Peter Point and remove your limitations. However, management is heavily political. That's why I have avoided it.
... back to the Technical Side. Management is a task that has no upside. If you suck at managing people, they're fire you. If you're great at managing people, they will increase your responsibilities, inching you closer to your Peter Point. (See "The Peter Principle" for context.) If you handle the heightened expectations, they will raise you to a higher management level, thereby eliminating your chance to contribute in your old way, or they will reassign you to fix some ailing project.
If you have made it this far in the technical world, it means you are competent at it. If you were a bozo, they wouldn't be discussing an alleged promotion. By all means get into management if you hate the technical stuff. That is your choice. But I would say--if you're hankering for management--that you take the safe road: become a software architect. This involves so much politics and human engineering that you might as well be a manager.
While there are members of the non-elected government who would like you to believe they oppose this on Libertarian grounds, that is not the case. The permanent government oppose this because it would reveal which cattle are involved in UFO Cattle Mutilations. Perfectly obvious...
I worked in a hospital in college and for insurance companies after and I can confirm this. Doctors, for example, are only in it for the money. While some of you may be able to cite examples of good doctors, they are rare. Most are in it to get rich and so it follows obviously that they are going to do as many tests as possible--cost be damned--and if called on it they can claim they're protecting themselves from malpractice suits. In fact, it's just wallet padding.
Insurance companies have their own version of this. They are trying to find any excuse not to pay for stuff while they are collecting their ever-rising premiums. The only solution to this problem that I can see is the Public Option. Hence, all the entities who have gotten fabulously wealthy on the current Fee-for-Service model, are against it. That includes physicians, Big Pharma, medical product vendors such as Baxter and of course hospitals and the insurance industry.
The public option is the only way to go my friends, unless you or your immediate family are one of the few getting rich off of the status quo.
Oh how great this will be for the tiny fraction of New Yorkers in Manhattan even who pay for everything and don't look at each turn for a chance to scam. This electricity will only be useful really in New York, when it can be easily and conveniently stolen by the masses in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
I have given away content for years. I have a website that gives away years of writing for free: Nebraska Writer. However, when you self publish--which is what giving away content is--you are on your own, re-inventing the wheel. Now, having working at B&N corporate in Manhattan, I have seen the great engines that publishers and booksellers have to market and sell books. If you want to do all that yourself--and have miserable results--be my guest. Cory Doctorow got his chance because he is the son of the famous novelist E.L. Doctorow. ("Ragtime"). So, his example is not relevant. Your average unknown has one chance to make it--sell a book to a major publishing company. If you want to try to go it alone, you may but it's not going to be fun.
Speaking as someone who worked 6 years on a thriller novel and who now has an agent and will see publication, I'm happy that I did not end up in a self-publishing backwater. Food for thought.
The only reason you've heard of Cory Doctorow is because he has published (or his father has) in the traditional way. I will stand by my decision to go the majors. Enjoy your obscurity...
I don't know about you, but I didn't spend 6 years on a novel to piss it away on a free site. Anybody can do that. The standard of excellence will still remain publication by a major.
I got into Computer Science at 35, my friend. Now, with 12 years in the business, I'm flying high. It's never too late. Just be comprehensive in what you learn and you'll do fine.
Free Java Lectures
Interesting reply. That actually sounds cool. However, not every job is in Finance.
I myself have worked in: a variety of businesses that had hard-core computing needs.
It has all been Java. I have never worked in finance, a fact I'm so glad of now as
that industry tanks. Though some of the applications you described sounded cool,
you're not addressing the agony that goes with things like tracking down memory leaks
and playing with pointers and all the other fun stuff you get to do with C. Sure,
it's fun writing stuff that runs fast and does an esoteric job. However, I believe
I am a more efficient programmer in Java and that I am able to tell those MBAs
"Yes, it's done" much easier with less fighting with stupid crap like I described
above that happens when programming in C. I feel like a more effective developer
in Java because a minimum of time is spent language-hogwash.
In all the companies I have worked for, they were either getting away from C or never had gotten near it. So unless you want to be stuck in some real time systems world--I would recommend Java. I have a free website to help you learn:
Free Java Lectures
This is a fantastic discovery. A new way to store energy, via magnetic spin? That is akin to finding a new form of matter, it's just amazing that we did not know this before. There are likely a few choice bits of technology--concepts awaiting us out there--before things such as Warp Drive could be possible. One could imagine some alien intelligence looking at us before today, thinking: "Well how can those Earthlings even dream of interstellar travel--they haven't even discovered magnetic spin yet!"
This has the potential to be big but of course the valid questions are not mentioned, such as what are the inputs to get this hydrogen and does it scale. Still sounds rather Cold Fusiony...
Slashdot Mirror
This is one nice and juicy little factoid. Consider how much mythology lives around these hidden tapes. There was no way for Nixon to be implicated in their tampering...
It's a neat mythology: if you believe the Moon Landing was faked, a hoax, then the soon-to-come high-def photos of the moon should answer that by showing the trash we left behind and that should still be there, the Lunar Landers. And if the landings are proven by the images to have actually occurred, then those same people can migrate to the idea that alien presences on the Moon were airbrushed out. Terrible tragedy it is for NASA that so many of their moon photos have obvious smudge marks over certain details. It would be nice to find out if those were alien ruins, waving aliens or just machine malfunctions
Who said anything about proof? No manager needs proof of anything to fire someone. A manager just needs suspicion. But really, I was explaining why it was ludicrous for any junior developer to stand up, among an ocean of peers and say, "I'm the one. I wrote the Credit-Default-Swap logic that became the standard, and I didn't know what the hell I was doing." Unlikely as such a confession is, the confession of guilt is misguided. In this case, it seems clear to me that no authority equals no guilt. Only those in positions of authority deserve to have their careers destroyed, lives ruined, their images burned in effigy, students in college programming classes hearing about it, making that junior CDS coder into a little Satan in his or her cubicle. I think the architect should wear the red suit, horns and pointy tail.
It all depends on the technique. To be considered true public urination, the pee-er must be standing with at least one leg in the air, with a look of bliss on their face, mouth agape, and that steam must rise from the wee as it spreads on the ground and transfers its heat into the ground. If it comes from a jar--unless it has just been made and is still warm so that it steams, does not qualify.
Over the years, I have worked on hundreds of IT projects. I encountered many flawed processes.
I worked for a company that had just decided to use UML and so we were forced to spend months constructing UML diagrams that mostly were a waste of time. Eventually, we made our business folks master the verbal-only [no stick men] use case model and that worked.
I worked on another project where the business people were so involved they made technology decisons and were even standing over the backs of developers ordering 'for' or 'while' loops. (Not to me, thankfully).
I've also worked on perfectly tuned agile teams that had a tight PM daily accountability in standups, and that was stressful but also tremendously productive.
Let The Punishment Fit the Crime
Project fails because business interfered? Hold the head of the business team responsible.
Project fails because the software is buggy? Hold the head of QA accountable. Also maybe the architect or lead developer, who of course will be only too glad to point out the sloppy developer who did the work.
Project fails because the design is stupid or flawed in some other way? Hold the designers accountable.
So, I hope you see my point: if you were part of a project or product that became infamous--your punishment should fit your crime. If you were only a grunt developer implementing a design blessed by the architect and tech lead and designed by the business folks--then hell no, you should not also be accountable. You were doing your job. The junior developer can honestly say that but only if that developer's superiors are being held accountable.
So, if you're the original developer of AIG's Credit-Default Swap software, I would not hold you accountable for the damage done by those "financial instruments" (another name for a stick you would use to dig peanuts out of shit). The architects of this software and the business folks who designed it should be held accountable.)
As a software developer myself, while still professional embarrassed at any bug that escapes into the wild, I know how today's modern software ecosystem has evolved: iteratively. This obvious defect--pinning the snobby effetes of Manhattan in the alcohol-immersed college town of Austin, Texas--seems almost fitting. Maybe Google My Location is on to something. As I write this, I think I'm in Manhattan but wait--all the license plates are white, with a red star. What's all that green stuff on the ground where there should be concrete and asphalt? Wait a second--where's the subway? (Oh, no local and state taxes = no subway.)
Unless you're commenting on the double entendre, I must say that I know the book was called "The Peter Principle". I am, of course, referring to the point in ones career when the Peter Principle effect takes place. Sheesh. Some people...
I think the solution is to confront your Peter Point and remove your limitations. However, management is heavily political. That's why I have avoided it.
I saw those too--after I pressed submit. Regrets. I wrote it at midnight.
I hear the irony in your comment: just trying to weed out the competition by sending them over the cliff that is management, ay? Pretty fiendish...
... back to the Technical Side. Management is a task that has no upside. If you suck at managing people, they're fire you. If you're great at managing people, they will increase your responsibilities, inching you closer to your Peter Point. (See "The Peter Principle" for context.) If you handle the heightened expectations, they will raise you to a higher management level, thereby eliminating your chance to contribute in your old way, or they will reassign you to fix some ailing project.
If you have made it this far in the technical world, it means you are competent at it. If you were a bozo, they wouldn't be discussing an alleged promotion. By all means get into management if you hate the technical stuff. That is your choice. But I would say--if you're hankering for management--that you take the safe road: become a software architect. This involves so much politics and human engineering that you might as well be a manager.
While there are members of the non-elected government who would like you to believe they oppose this on Libertarian grounds, that is not the case. The permanent government oppose this because it would reveal which cattle are involved in UFO Cattle Mutilations. Perfectly obvious...
I worked in a hospital in college and for insurance companies after and I can confirm this. Doctors, for example, are only in it for the money. While some of you may be able to cite examples of good doctors, they are rare. Most are in it to get rich and so it follows obviously that they are going to do as many tests as possible--cost be damned--and if called on it they can claim they're protecting themselves from malpractice suits. In fact, it's just wallet padding. Insurance companies have their own version of this. They are trying to find any excuse not to pay for stuff while they are collecting their ever-rising premiums. The only solution to this problem that I can see is the Public Option. Hence, all the entities who have gotten fabulously wealthy on the current Fee-for-Service model, are against it. That includes physicians, Big Pharma, medical product vendors such as Baxter and of course hospitals and the insurance industry. The public option is the only way to go my friends, unless you or your immediate family are one of the few getting rich off of the status quo.
Oh how great this will be for the tiny fraction of New Yorkers in Manhattan even who pay for everything and don't look at each turn for a chance to scam. This electricity will only be useful really in New York, when it can be easily and conveniently stolen by the masses in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
This is a fantastically obscure process, and I am wondering if I am the only one who thought: alien technology?
I have given away content for years. I have a website that gives away years of writing for free: Nebraska Writer. However, when you self publish--which is what giving away content is--you are on your own, re-inventing the wheel. Now, having working at B&N corporate in Manhattan, I have seen the great engines that publishers and booksellers have to market and sell books. If you want to do all that yourself--and have miserable results--be my guest. Cory Doctorow got his chance because he is the son of the famous novelist E.L. Doctorow. ("Ragtime"). So, his example is not relevant. Your average unknown has one chance to make it--sell a book to a major publishing company. If you want to try to go it alone, you may but it's not going to be fun. Speaking as someone who worked 6 years on a thriller novel and who now has an agent and will see publication, I'm happy that I did not end up in a self-publishing backwater. Food for thought.
The only reason you've heard of Cory Doctorow is because he has published (or his father has) in the traditional way. I will stand by my decision to go the majors. Enjoy your obscurity...
I don't know about you, but I didn't spend 6 years on a novel to piss it away on a free site. Anybody can do that. The standard of excellence will still remain publication by a major.
The Russian word for beer is 'PIVA' and Polish and Russian are quite close.
I got into Computer Science at 35, my friend. Now, with 12 years in the business, I'm flying high. It's never too late. Just be comprehensive in what you learn and you'll do fine. Free Java Lectures
Counselor, I rest my case.
Interesting reply. That actually sounds cool. However, not every job is in Finance. I myself have worked in: a variety of businesses that had hard-core computing needs. It has all been Java. I have never worked in finance, a fact I'm so glad of now as that industry tanks. Though some of the applications you described sounded cool, you're not addressing the agony that goes with things like tracking down memory leaks and playing with pointers and all the other fun stuff you get to do with C. Sure, it's fun writing stuff that runs fast and does an esoteric job. However, I believe I am a more efficient programmer in Java and that I am able to tell those MBAs "Yes, it's done" much easier with less fighting with stupid crap like I described above that happens when programming in C. I feel like a more effective developer in Java because a minimum of time is spent language-hogwash.
In all the companies I have worked for, they were either getting away from C or never had gotten near it. So unless you want to be stuck in some real time systems world--I would recommend Java. I have a free website to help you learn: Free Java Lectures
This is a fantastic discovery. A new way to store energy, via magnetic spin? That is akin to finding a new form of matter, it's just amazing that we did not know this before. There are likely a few choice bits of technology--concepts awaiting us out there--before things such as Warp Drive could be possible. One could imagine some alien intelligence looking at us before today, thinking: "Well how can those Earthlings even dream of interstellar travel--they haven't even discovered magnetic spin yet!"
The person who wrote the article is hardly unbiased. He's merely trumpeting his own country. Not convincing.
This has the potential to be big but of course the valid questions are not mentioned, such as what are the inputs to get this hydrogen and does it scale. Still sounds rather Cold Fusiony...