"I'll take the chaos and diversity of the city over Apple's quiet little aesthetically pleasing, shiny white, gated suburban community."
So it's "stone knives and bearskins" for you? Even Spock would be annoyed (City on the Edge of Forever). Seriously, would you really like to live in the the angry world you speak of? C. G. Jung said that there was much to be learned about ourselves by studying the things that upset us most. Be careful in what you contribute to the world.
Let's see... Networks withdraw their programming from a revenue stream (iTunes). Possible motives?
1) Want their programming to be free and are thus willing to give up income from distributors. 2) Microsoft release of Vista - DRM Edition now provides for a way to guarantee that people must pay-per-view and cannot copy or distribute copies of their programming having seen an opportunity to shut down their free streaming and go to a full pay-per-view distribution. This would allow them to charge more in a high demand, low availability market (e.g. get a bigger cut of the profits by charging more and having no third party involved as well).
While I am sure that there are many other variations on the above, I believe these are the most likely.
I also agree that goals rarely compare with an enjoyable process. To die with the most toys you must be careful not to break them (or spend them in this case) thus removing any joy in using them (spending it). In order to attain more you must give away something. I would rather go through life enjoying it by doing interesting and spiritually rewarding things. I believe that if we think on this a bit we will realize that that is why we toil. We want to create a society where we can pursue or spiritual needs and reduce the amount of our lives that we must devote to simply surviving.
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mt. 16:26) Yeah, that sounds about right.
I generally agree with the parent with the possible exception of expecting the manager to come up with all of the metrics. The main things they are going to be looking at and held accountable for themselves is cost estimates and deadlines met. If you are using a trouble ticket system then turn around time would be a good more granular measurement. If you are experienced try making a list of services that the system you are administering provides. Weight these according to importance to the consumers of the services and assign a dollar value to these. If providing services for developers, ask them for their top 10 "What is most important to you, system-wise, in performing your job?" Factor in how many users you will have to be assisting. Some things that come to mind are:
database performance, system latency, network latency, package purchasing and maintenance, backups and the ability to recover from user screw-ups in a usable time and granularity, etc.
Sometimes it is useful to ask your manager in advance of all this to get their input on what they consider important as this can save you the trouble of coming up with a meaningful system only to find your manager only wants to know how many hours you work! Be aware as well that many large organizations rotate managers so all is not lost if the first one is a zero. If the zero has been in this position for years and their boss is their best buddy, get that resume' out and remember to ask insiders about the environment before hiring in. Networking is invaluable. Good luck.
Slashdot Mirror
"I'll take the chaos and diversity of the city over Apple's quiet little aesthetically pleasing, shiny white, gated suburban community."
So it's "stone knives and bearskins" for you? Even Spock would be annoyed (City on the Edge of Forever). Seriously, would you really like to live in the the angry world you speak of? C. G. Jung said that there was much to be learned about ourselves by studying the things that upset us most. Be careful in what you contribute to the world.
Let's see... Networks withdraw their programming from a revenue stream (iTunes). Possible motives?
1) Want their programming to be free and are thus willing to give up income from distributors. 2) Microsoft release of Vista - DRM Edition now provides for a way to guarantee that people must pay-per-view and cannot copy or distribute copies of their programming having seen an opportunity to shut down their free streaming and go to a full pay-per-view distribution. This would allow them to charge more in a high demand, low availability market (e.g. get a bigger cut of the profits by charging more and having no third party involved as well).While I am sure that there are many other variations on the above, I believe these are the most likely.
I also agree that goals rarely compare with an enjoyable process. To die with the most toys you must be careful not to break them (or spend them in this case) thus removing any joy in using them (spending it). In order to attain more you must give away something. I would rather go through life enjoying it by doing interesting and spiritually rewarding things. I believe that if we think on this a bit we will realize that that is why we toil. We want to create a society where we can pursue or spiritual needs and reduce the amount of our lives that we must devote to simply surviving. "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mt. 16:26) Yeah, that sounds about right.
I generally agree with the parent with the possible exception of expecting the manager to come up with all of the metrics. The main things they are going to be looking at and held accountable for themselves is cost estimates and deadlines met. If you are using a trouble ticket system then turn around time would be a good more granular measurement. If you are experienced try making a list of services that the system you are administering provides. Weight these according to importance to the consumers of the services and assign a dollar value to these. If providing services for developers, ask them for their top 10 "What is most important to you, system-wise, in performing your job?" Factor in how many users you will have to be assisting. Some things that come to mind are: database performance, system latency, network latency, package purchasing and maintenance, backups and the ability to recover from user screw-ups in a usable time and granularity, etc. Sometimes it is useful to ask your manager in advance of all this to get their input on what they consider important as this can save you the trouble of coming up with a meaningful system only to find your manager only wants to know how many hours you work! Be aware as well that many large organizations rotate managers so all is not lost if the first one is a zero. If the zero has been in this position for years and their boss is their best buddy, get that resume' out and remember to ask insiders about the environment before hiring in. Networking is invaluable. Good luck.