Congratulations on making the board, it means that your peers have found your insights valuable, and yourself trustworthy. And that's exactly the trap that board members can fall into: "I want to be a team player, so I can compromise on such-and-such," that can lead to immitigable greed.
So in addition to getting involved, I would suggest that you effect a culture change at the board level that looks long-term, and I mean, generationally long-term. This was how American business used to be run, with the founders' intent to pass along company control to their heirs. Example: Du Pont. Started out as a small family chemical (gunpowder) concern, and exploded (!) to become a giant. They certainly profited during wars, but were able to ride out lean years by diversifying and investing in R&D (plastics, it's the future, kid).
Finally, it is never wrong to treat any employee fairly. The biggest and hardest-hitting impact on an employee's sense of fairness is now much the CEO or a board member is being paid relative to him. I'm sure that at your level, you MUST question yourself daily: "What is my value-added?" compared to an engineer who just kept the plant from shutting down, or the janitor who prevented a fatality by keeping the floors dry and clean. I remember the signal example back in the 90s (maybe 80s) of Nike's CEO only allowing himself a certain salary that was no more than some multiplier over the lowest-paid employee in the company. People remember such things, and know that the executives are in it for the long haul, and not just positioning themselves for a quick, enriching sale in a few quarters.
So, good luck, and go forth and do good by your employees - and the reward in the long-term will be manifold.
You're about to be Slashdotted.
Seriously, it's good to get a glimpse of the interactions in the dev side of MS. It's astonishing that MS even allows this to happen at all. The March 07 Wired had a feature on Channel 9 that humanized the MS organization quite a bit, IMO. It's not just about chair-throwing, marketing hyperbole, and world domination after all... oh wait.
Is it just me...? I feel that there have been a lot more stories in the last few years about corporations caring less and less about their employees and more about their share price. But I could just be remembering the past with rose-colored glasses. This has been true since the late 90s - when I was made aware of metrics like Shareholder Value Index, and other such variables, were developed to quantify how to make the shareholders happy. Imagine a shareholder meeting proceeding thusly:
Shareholder mob: We are not happy with our dividend.
Board: But look at the SVI! It's up 20% from last quarter. So really, you should be more than happy.
Shareholder mob: OK, we see that you guys take your duties very seriously. You're doing so well for us that if you keep this up for the next 3 quaters, we'll increase your bonuses!
Board: Why, you are most generous. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And don't worry: we'll hit those numbers for the next three quarters.
In reality, the secret of SVI and its kind is that operating costs, with labor in particular, are its biggest component, and to reduce that component, the easiest thing to do is to conduct lay-offs, ostensibly for reasons of say, higher health care costs, higher rents, interest rates, etc. So the shareholders and board have partnered (love that word!) to set up a short-sighted strategy to maximize short-term gain.
This is true in business. This is true in politics. I am not a communist or socialist, but at least "they" envisioned and attempted to execute 5-year plans.
This is brilliant. The philosophy you describe for "first do no harm" by not adding extraneous and intrusive components is actually in use at nuclear plants today. We use closed-circuit TV to watch dials in high dose areas, reducing operator dose, and freeing the operator up to do other things. We don't quite go as far as using an OCR-like process described by the link, since we'd have to qualify that software (which is a buttload of paperwork, honestly, and not worth it), and human eyes are more than good enough for data gathering at the periodicty of interest.
...let's be clear about this: all you're doing is monitoring and gathering data - there is to be no feedback signal from the homebrew rig to control the valves. There's a whole field devoted to control theory, one that is best not trifled with, especially with industrial processes that can potentially cause fatalities.
If you really want meaningful data from those process streams, you're much better off installing calibratable (calibrable?) flowmeters on those lines that cover the performance range of the process fluids you're working with. If you've got the flow, you don't need the valve position, unless it's for a secondary indication to validate the valve's performance (e.g., position vs. Cv vs. measured flowrate). The flowmeters can be hooked up to provide data for remote collection, or more simply, display data for periodic local reading. Here's a mess to start with. Whomever you buy from, you'll need to develop specifications defining the operating range, operating conditions (pressure, temperature, humidity), power requirements, tolerances, calibration frequency, etc.
The stereotyping has indeed begun. The money quote for me from above was:
The Asian community "faces new pressures" as a result of the shootings,
I didn't quite know whether to laugh or cry. Apparently, Asians are Natural Born Killers(TM). And being intelligent enough to create a game map, we're wicked smaht NBKs! And wielding that mighty Mjolnir (also useful for bed repair), we're wicked DEADLY smaht NBKs.
OK, I have to stop now. Seriously, I think most everyone here at/. came to the same conclusion: ignorance and irrational fear make a wonderful combination for persecution, and this has been true for time immemorial for just about all humanity. If there ever has been a super-tolerant race or society, one not guilty of genocide, slave-hunting, slave-trading, or just the run-of-the-mill pogrom, I'd really like to know.
Now I better get my boy's 870 off his gun rack in his bedroom, lest he be labeled "terroristic." Just kidding. The gun stays; it's his.
Thanks, and at the risk of making this thread an echo chamber, you're absolutely right about the chaos and turmoil of adolescent thought. This boy's decision to write what he did was spot on with the intent and letter of the assignment, but, IMHO, was not a shining example of good judgement.
Heck, when we see teenagers now, don't we often ask ourselves: Was I that big a jerk/doofus in high school? Frankly, the answer was often "yes."
My last thought on this is: What if this had been a kid of Middle Eastern descent? And his essay rambled on about jihad, the slaying of infidels, martyrdom missions at synagogues, and the 72 goats he was gonna get in the Islamic Valhalla? How would we react?
It's fine for teachers to be vigilant and all following the VT massacre, but the principal and his/her underlings could have at least spoken to the kid about the essay (if you can call it that) to get the straight story.
And herein lies one of those traps that these "educators" can set up for themselves: a free-form assignment, unfettered by structure, unrestricted in content, heck, turn it in on toilet paper if you want, combine that with the ethnicity of the writer, and it gets used as evidence of a threat and an arrest.
The arrest is a clear case of going overboard. If this does not get corrected, well I guess we've found a new way of wrecking a young man's future.
Full disclosure: I are an Asian male... not young tho.
If MS is lying, or even overstating its earnings, it will be just a matter of time before bad things catch up with them. Witness the Apple CFO mess.
On the other hand, if their earnings reflect the positive reception of Vista, then good for them. As far as I'm concerned, the more OSs there are to play with, the merrier any geek will be (by discovering something new and shiny, or by making $ from fixing people's machines because of various OS "features").
I think we can even conceptualize further for a multi-player mode:
Opposing underwater bases with underwater infantry and vehicles. Mission: locate and destroy the enemy bases. The "locate" part would require that the players would have to search, and take care not to lead enemy troops back to their base, or that active sonar (or other gear) would only be used in dire situations. Maybe even make the bases mobile but very slow. This would make it a bit different than the BF2142 Titan game.
The "destroy" part would involve torpedoes, man-fired projectiles (think speargun, only on auto), and for the "leet," a diving knife!:-D At the serious depths you're postulating, the issue would not just be flooding, but getting instantly crushed. So a JIM suit would be needed for the troops.
There could even be surface support ships that would need to be careful to give away their base's position, and maybe even drop ships to provide additional troops.
I don't know why you got modded Flamebait, because I think your comment has merit, and I'd mod you up if I could. RIAA consists of a slew of labels that are party to these activities. If we really want to exert effective pressure, these labels need to be held to account. That means not supporting the artists associated with those labels, and that means voting with your wallet to support non-RIAA artists.
I know it's probably hard to do. For some reason, many people seem compelled to have their lives lived to some soundtrack from a Sony (or other label's) artist. Mount a meaningful resistance: support independent music; or better yet, make your own.
Desert Combat, IMO the best mod of the venerable BF1942
BF2 (dint like the chopper controls, so dint buy it)
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
CounterStrike:Source
Would be nice to see an FPS that goes beyond the ubiquitous shoot-'em-ups of zombies, aliens, and assorted brown folk. Something underwater, maybe (that would make for interesting physics), or maybe in near-earth orbit, where one has an outside chance burning up due to an incorrect and excessive application of delta-V from their combat EVA-suit thrusters.
I appreciate your candor and discretion, and fully understand why you'd want to "tune out" for a spell. But real quick: from what I've been reading, Gen. Petraeus' strategy has been having a positive effect. I hope it continues to do so, to preclude the even greater human catastrophe that follows sudden regime changes (e.g., the boat people of Viet Nam, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Taliban reign of terror). It would also be nice to have a substantial Arab ally in the MS.
I am also heartened to know that Iraqis are given some opportunities to be entrepreneurs. I think you may have come home before Gen. Petraeus took over, but from what you've seen/read/heard, what do you think of his approach to handling the insurgency?
You're right about the security thread not more thoroughly explored. This was the principal reason I posted the story, being interested in IT (one of my uneconomical hobbies) in general and security in particular. Specifically, how to control a former employee's access to the company's IT systems, especially if that former employee was in an IT-related branch of that company.
The nuclear/Iran angle served as the framework of the event, which, I should have known, would cause funny, thoughtful, and a few shrill reactions from the/. crowd.
Highly trained, and the training does not stop. There is a requalification cycle, and if an operator (union member or not) does not make the cut academically or fails to demonstrate proficiency, he or she goes off-shift (i.e., less pay) and is remediated. If that fails, he or she should start looking for another job.
/used to work at one, and still work for them indirectly.
It was unfortunate that you had to re-work the code of your colleague - but incompetence knows no gender bounds.
I have worked with women in IT who were dedicated, technically adept, and most importantly, customer-focused. Mind you, this was at a nuclear power plant, which is a machine that is continuously operating for up to two years, and this places some serious demand for IT support (yes, it was/is an MS-based house, but that's another issue). Approaching it from a cultural standpoint, operators (mostly male) are required to have the utmost confidence that they can handle the beast at all times, and this often manifested itself as massive chips on shoulders, and demands of flawless execution on just about anything. Having women in IT 'gentled' the testosterone-charged atmosphere, and that helped just getting the job done. In comparison, the IT departments at other plants in the fleet were male-dominated, and for some reason were a lot less effective. Could have been a competence issue - but IMHO, it was cultural.
Finally, regarding the quest for a prospective partner: I believe it unwise to date someone at work. Think in terms of consequences if things go awry.
Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read, and funny at times. Their motto, "Live long and die out," is a clever way to avoid an opponent challenging them to lead by example.
Also, consider the USS Thresher - she's still down there, as is her core. Same with the USS Scorpion. However, these are in deep water, and likely irrecoverable. A shore-side plant would be more so, and I'd think the owner would be obligated to recover a sunken core. I'd put it in the decommisioning fund as a contingency.
Slashdot Mirror
Congratulations on making the board, it means that your peers have found your insights valuable, and yourself trustworthy. And that's exactly the trap that board members can fall into: "I want to be a team player, so I can compromise on such-and-such," that can lead to immitigable greed.
So in addition to getting involved, I would suggest that you effect a culture change at the board level that looks long-term, and I mean, generationally long-term. This was how American business used to be run, with the founders' intent to pass along company control to their heirs. Example: Du Pont. Started out as a small family chemical (gunpowder) concern, and exploded (!) to become a giant. They certainly profited during wars, but were able to ride out lean years by diversifying and investing in R&D (plastics, it's the future, kid).
Finally, it is never wrong to treat any employee fairly. The biggest and hardest-hitting impact on an employee's sense of fairness is now much the CEO or a board member is being paid relative to him. I'm sure that at your level, you MUST question yourself daily: "What is my value-added?" compared to an engineer who just kept the plant from shutting down, or the janitor who prevented a fatality by keeping the floors dry and clean. I remember the signal example back in the 90s (maybe 80s) of Nike's CEO only allowing himself a certain salary that was no more than some multiplier over the lowest-paid employee in the company. People remember such things, and know that the executives are in it for the long haul, and not just positioning themselves for a quick, enriching sale in a few quarters.
So, good luck, and go forth and do good by your employees - and the reward in the long-term will be manifold.
Seriously, it's good to get a glimpse of the interactions in the dev side of MS. It's astonishing that MS even allows this to happen at all. The March 07 Wired had a feature on Channel 9 that humanized the MS organization quite a bit, IMO. It's not just about chair-throwing, marketing hyperbole, and world domination after all... oh wait.
Shareholder mob: We are not happy with our dividend.
Board: But look at the SVI! It's up 20% from last quarter. So really, you should be more than happy.
Shareholder mob: Holy cow, he's right! Let's huddle, shareholders!
Shareholder mob: (mumble)(mumble)
Shareholder mob: OK, we see that you guys take your duties very seriously. You're doing so well for us that if you keep this up for the next 3 quaters, we'll increase your bonuses!
Board: Why, you are most generous. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And don't worry: we'll hit those numbers for the next three quarters.
In reality, the secret of SVI and its kind is that operating costs, with labor in particular, are its biggest component, and to reduce that component, the easiest thing to do is to conduct lay-offs, ostensibly for reasons of say, higher health care costs, higher rents, interest rates, etc. So the shareholders and board have partnered (love that word!) to set up a short-sighted strategy to maximize short-term gain.
This is true in business. This is true in politics. I am not a communist or socialist, but at least "they" envisioned and attempted to execute 5-year plans.
This is brilliant. The philosophy you describe for "first do no harm" by not adding extraneous and intrusive components is actually in use at nuclear plants today. We use closed-circuit TV to watch dials in high dose areas, reducing operator dose, and freeing the operator up to do other things. We don't quite go as far as using an OCR-like process described by the link, since we'd have to qualify that software (which is a buttload of paperwork, honestly, and not worth it), and human eyes are more than good enough for data gathering at the periodicty of interest.
...let's be clear about this: all you're doing is monitoring and gathering data - there is to be no feedback signal from the homebrew rig to control the valves. There's a whole field devoted to control theory, one that is best not trifled with, especially with industrial processes that can potentially cause fatalities.
If you really want meaningful data from those process streams, you're much better off installing calibratable (calibrable?) flowmeters on those lines that cover the performance range of the process fluids you're working with. If you've got the flow, you don't need the valve position, unless it's for a secondary indication to validate the valve's performance (e.g., position vs. Cv vs. measured flowrate). The flowmeters can be hooked up to provide data for remote collection, or more simply, display data for periodic local reading. Here's a mess to start with. Whomever you buy from, you'll need to develop specifications defining the operating range, operating conditions (pressure, temperature, humidity), power requirements, tolerances, calibration frequency, etc.
Thanks for the full text.
/. came to the same conclusion: ignorance and irrational fear make a wonderful combination for persecution, and this has been true for time immemorial for just about all humanity. If there ever has been a super-tolerant race or society, one not guilty of genocide, slave-hunting, slave-trading, or just the run-of-the-mill pogrom, I'd really like to know.
The stereotyping has indeed begun. The money quote for me from above was:
The Asian community "faces new pressures" as a result of the shootings,
I didn't quite know whether to laugh or cry. Apparently, Asians are Natural Born Killers(TM). And being intelligent enough to create a game map, we're wicked smaht NBKs! And wielding that mighty Mjolnir (also useful for bed repair), we're wicked DEADLY smaht NBKs.
OK, I have to stop now. Seriously, I think most everyone here at
Now I better get my boy's 870 off his gun rack in his bedroom, lest he be labeled "terroristic." Just kidding. The gun stays; it's his.
... is a way to change the laser rifle's intensity, and thus, its lethality. Yeah, I envision settings for STUN and KILL. Shark mount optional.
For supporting him, and telling everyone - he ain't no Cho, he a Lee! :-D
Best regards to a future Devil Dog!
Thanks, and at the risk of making this thread an echo chamber, you're absolutely right about the chaos and turmoil of adolescent thought. This boy's decision to write what he did was spot on with the intent and letter of the assignment, but, IMHO, was not a shining example of good judgement.
Heck, when we see teenagers now, don't we often ask ourselves: Was I that big a jerk/doofus in high school? Frankly, the answer was often "yes."
My last thought on this is: What if this had been a kid of Middle Eastern descent? And his essay rambled on about jihad, the slaying of infidels, martyrdom missions at synagogues, and the 72 goats he was gonna get in the Islamic Valhalla? How would we react?
Damn straight.
...Let the stereotyping begin.
Seriously though, thanks for the article.
It's fine for teachers to be vigilant and all following the VT massacre, but the principal and his/her underlings could have at least spoken to the kid about the essay (if you can call it that) to get the straight story.
And herein lies one of those traps that these "educators" can set up for themselves: a free-form assignment, unfettered by structure, unrestricted in content, heck, turn it in on toilet paper if you want, combine that with the ethnicity of the writer, and it gets used as evidence of a threat and an arrest.
The arrest is a clear case of going overboard. If this does not get corrected, well I guess we've found a new way of wrecking a young man's future.
Full disclosure: I are an Asian male... not young tho.
...that's what we've drummed into our kids.
If MS is lying, or even overstating its earnings, it will be just a matter of time before bad things catch up with them. Witness the Apple CFO mess.
On the other hand, if their earnings reflect the positive reception of Vista, then good for them. As far as I'm concerned, the more OSs there are to play with, the merrier any geek will be (by discovering something new and shiny, or by making $ from fixing people's machines because of various OS "features").
It's all fun.
I think we can even conceptualize further for a multi-player mode:
:-D At the serious depths you're postulating, the issue would not just be flooding, but getting instantly crushed. So a JIM suit would be needed for the troops.
Opposing underwater bases with underwater infantry and vehicles. Mission: locate and destroy the enemy bases. The "locate" part would require that the players would have to search, and take care not to lead enemy troops back to their base, or that active sonar (or other gear) would only be used in dire situations. Maybe even make the bases mobile but very slow. This would make it a bit different than the BF2142 Titan game.
The "destroy" part would involve torpedoes, man-fired projectiles (think speargun, only on auto), and for the "leet," a diving knife!
There could even be surface support ships that would need to be careful to give away their base's position, and maybe even drop ships to provide additional troops.
Yeah, I can get carried away with this...
I don't know why you got modded Flamebait, because I think your comment has merit, and I'd mod you up if I could. RIAA consists of a slew of labels that are party to these activities. If we really want to exert effective pressure, these labels need to be held to account. That means not supporting the artists associated with those labels, and that means voting with your wallet to support non-RIAA artists.
I know it's probably hard to do. For some reason, many people seem compelled to have their lives lived to some soundtrack from a Sony (or other label's) artist. Mount a meaningful resistance: support independent music; or better yet, make your own.
Indeed:
Desert Combat, IMO the best mod of the venerable BF1942
BF2 (dint like the chopper controls, so dint buy it)
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
CounterStrike:Source
Would be nice to see an FPS that goes beyond the ubiquitous shoot-'em-ups of zombies, aliens, and assorted brown folk. Something underwater, maybe (that would make for interesting physics), or maybe in near-earth orbit, where one has an outside chance burning up due to an incorrect and excessive application of delta-V from their combat EVA-suit thrusters.
WOLVERINES!
But you only need two to get a Druish princess.
In related news, there's an apparent premium on Wiis. I thought these things were supposed to be less than $300.
Oh yeah? Well, Chuck Norris can create a thicker oxide layer with a well-placed roundhouse kick. :D
I appreciate your candor and discretion, and fully understand why you'd want to "tune out" for a spell. But real quick: from what I've been reading, Gen. Petraeus' strategy has been having a positive effect. I hope it continues to do so, to preclude the even greater human catastrophe that follows sudden regime changes (e.g., the boat people of Viet Nam, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Taliban reign of terror). It would also be nice to have a substantial Arab ally in the MS.
Have a great leave!
Thank you very much for your service.
I am also heartened to know that Iraqis are given some opportunities to be entrepreneurs. I think you may have come home before Gen. Petraeus took over, but from what you've seen/read/heard, what do you think of his approach to handling the insurgency?
You're right about the security thread not more thoroughly explored. This was the principal reason I posted the story, being interested in IT (one of my uneconomical hobbies) in general and security in particular. Specifically, how to control a former employee's access to the company's IT systems, especially if that former employee was in an IT-related branch of that company.
/. crowd.
The nuclear/Iran angle served as the framework of the event, which, I should have known, would cause funny, thoughtful, and a few shrill reactions from the
Highly trained, and the training does not stop. There is a requalification cycle, and if an operator (union member or not) does not make the cut academically or fails to demonstrate proficiency, he or she goes off-shift (i.e., less pay) and is remediated. If that fails, he or she should start looking for another job.
/used to work at one, and still work for them indirectly.
It was unfortunate that you had to re-work the code of your colleague - but incompetence knows no gender bounds.
I have worked with women in IT who were dedicated, technically adept, and most importantly, customer-focused. Mind you, this was at a nuclear power plant, which is a machine that is continuously operating for up to two years, and this places some serious demand for IT support (yes, it was/is an MS-based house, but that's another issue). Approaching it from a cultural standpoint, operators (mostly male) are required to have the utmost confidence that they can handle the beast at all times, and this often manifested itself as massive chips on shoulders, and demands of flawless execution on just about anything. Having women in IT 'gentled' the testosterone-charged atmosphere, and that helped just getting the job done. In comparison, the IT departments at other plants in the fleet were male-dominated, and for some reason were a lot less effective. Could have been a competence issue - but IMHO, it was cultural.
Finally, regarding the quest for a prospective partner: I believe it unwise to date someone at work. Think in terms of consequences if things go awry.
Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read, and funny at times. Their motto, "Live long and die out," is a clever way to avoid an opponent challenging them to lead by example.
Also, consider the USS Thresher - she's still down there, as is her core. Same with the USS Scorpion. However, these are in deep water, and likely irrecoverable. A shore-side plant would be more so, and I'd think the owner would be obligated to recover a sunken core. I'd put it in the decommisioning fund as a contingency.