Zero-inventory = getting the supplies only when you need them, saving overhead in storage and so on. Hiring contractors instead of maintaining employees is analogous. Get workers only when you need them.
However, a worker is not like a part off the shelf that can be popped into place.
The large telecom equipment company that I work for has made it plain that upper management thinks we're all interchangeable cogs.
He managed to squeeze a reference to 9-11 in a freakin cartoon review. I love it. I had no idea
the world was as deep and mysterious until Mr. Katz started writing. I think I will go buy his
book on dogs to see if I am missing something there too.
The lives of dogs have changed greatly since 9/11...
What's that system RCA TV's have? "GuidePlus" or something. I always guessed it used VBI. I think it claims to work for OTA and cable. Too bad Tivo couldn't buy into that...
I used CueCat to bounce ISBN #s off of the B&N database and make a list of a 50-100 books that I was trying to give away. It was some simple mods of an available Perl based CueCat ISBN/UPC program. (I forget the name.)
The problem is that not all books have bar codes. Older ones don't. Not even all newer ones do.
If you take into account that "lifetime" means your TiVo's lifetime (not yours), $200 doesn't seem that cheap, does it?
Of course a TiVo box lasts a long time, but it will eventually break beyond repair.
Duh. $200 / $12.95 = less than 16 months.
Do you think it will last that long?
I saw something like this at my school in the early 80's.
Not too sophisticated -- eat the whitespace and comments, change the variable names to a1, a2, a3, etc. Change the function names to f1, f2, etc. Diff.
I don't know if it had a parse tree. (I probably didn't know what that was at the time.) Never heard of anyone being accused because of it.
I had success with the Atkin's diet too. It's time to do it again though:(
I will use Atkin's again. Major reasons: it's simple and it worked. I couldn't be bothered with scoring and counting things. It was just easier to eat as few carbohydrates as possible.
Major insight: The link between carbs and craving. Your appetite drops dramatically after dropping carbs, and not because you hate your food choices. When you come off the diet and eat your first chips, fries, whatever, you'll "need" another and another...
By which I mean that these people have been deadwood for a good long time:
Not everyone who gets the axe is deadwood. A company that's screwed up enough to lay off a truly large number of people often screws up when doing it.
You might be a star performer on a project that gets cut. The surviving projects may not have the opportunity to grab you, or may choose not to in order to avoid laying off a lesser performer already in that organization. (Protect your own.)
And that project might have been cut instead of another for political reasons, rather than true viability or profit potential.
it's just that while the stock market was rewarding those companies unjustly during the boom, those companies couldn't cut their workforce without severely impacting their stock value.
Possibly. But don't assume a plan when stupidity will do. Large beauracracies are amazingly clueless, especially during good times. Middle managers measure themselves by growing an organization.
Now that everything is in the shithole, it's real easy to trash employees: hell, it's even desirable to drop the stock price, so that the company can buy it back for resale at a far greater value once the market recovers!
Waayyy too much credit for a plan. These layoffs are reactions to the stock drop. Stock price is everything to these companies.
(Also, you argued above that they didn't cut because they were worried about stock price!)
Finally, the one big question I have is this: how the fuck do you end up with thousands and tens of thousands of excess employees? You'd have to be insane to retain that many staff when they're unnecessary -- why weren't they being hired/fired in trickles and dribbles, as the company needed/didn't need them?
See "stupidity" comment above.
I know what I'm talking about. I'm (still) at one of the large, well known companies that's going through this now.
One last note: while being fired is stressful, many of these people are skilled and creative. It may take them a few months to get over the loss, but once they do -- look out! We're going to see entrepreneurship skyrocketing!
Nah, the majority (from the large companies) are usually cogs.
I hope Cowboy Bebop wasn't cancelled because of the recent terrorist attacks!
Instead of CB, my Tivo caught a WWII era Merrie Melodies cartoon last night at mignight. It's titled Rhapsody in Rivets and involves building the "Umpire State" building to music. At the end, someone closes the door and it comes crashing down!
Maybe someone with a sense of humor didn't like pulling CB??
Slashdot Mirror
Judging from the comment count,
Sys Admins have a lot of time
to read Slashdot !
What's that system RCA TV's have? "GuidePlus" or something. I always guessed it used VBI. I think it claims to work for OTA and cable. Too bad Tivo couldn't buy into that...
The problem is that not all books have bar codes. Older ones don't. Not even all newer ones do.
Do you think it will last that long?
-Tivo lifetime subscriber since 3/2000, YMMV
... FROM A USABILITY POINT OF VIEW?
(Don't say "Gnucleus because they're righteous;
those Morpheus guys are sneaky.)
Should I d/l the new Morpheus or Gnucleus?
Well we've got anti-anti-matter!
NPR central only supports those formats, but one NPR station is serving a shoutcast stream (for winamp & compatibles):
http://152.2.63.108:8000/listen.pls
It's not OGG, but it'll probably play in your player...
I saw something like this at my school in the early 80's.
Not too sophisticated -- eat the whitespace and comments, change the variable names to a1, a2, a3, etc. Change the function names to f1, f2, etc. Diff.
I don't know if it had a parse tree. (I probably didn't know what that was at the time.) Never heard of anyone being accused because of it.
I couldn't find one. He's probably got the DVD's.
Tivo did tell me that a local PBS station is starting the series again this week though. Your PBS may be different.
For admins? No. But DSP coders still make the BIG bucks.
Never let your ferret drink near the computer!
I will use Atkin's again. Major reasons: it's simple and it worked. I couldn't be bothered with scoring and counting things. It was just easier to eat as few carbohydrates as possible.
Major insight: The link between carbs and craving. Your appetite drops dramatically after dropping carbs, and not because you hate your food choices. When you come off the diet and eat your first chips, fries, whatever, you'll "need" another and another...
The Cowboy Bebop series is playing now
on the Cartoon network, BTW.
www.tin.org
I prefer keyboard navigation to read large quantities of news faster. Tin provides that and article threading.
A lot of other non-gui newsreaders are probably
just as good, but I'm used to the keystrokes.
LazyBoy
I may be wrong, but I believe I read that multplayer Halo meant 4 people on a console or 16 people with 4 consoles hooked together.
Are any of the Xbox games planning to large, online, multiplayer modes a. la. Tribes2 ??
OK. Somebody highlight the significant ones.
I read Slashdot because I don't want to read the articles.
He's not just preaching to the choir, he's annoying the choir.
I found the remote and menus much more
intuitive on the Tivo.
One little example:
The Tivo has a TV (&/or stereo) power button.
On the Replay you first change the remote's
mode to TV, then hit "power".
No big deal to anyone who's worked a multi
device remote control, but even my mother
inlaw can work the Tivo.
You might be a star performer on a project that gets cut. The surviving projects may not have the opportunity to grab you, or may choose not to in order to avoid laying off a lesser performer already in that organization. (Protect your own.)
And that project might have been cut instead of another for political reasons, rather than true viability or profit potential.
Possibly. But don't assume a plan when stupidity will do. Large beauracracies are amazingly clueless, especially during good times. Middle managers measure themselves by growing an organization. Waayyy too much credit for a plan. These layoffs are reactions to the stock drop. Stock price is everything to these companies. (Also, you argued above that they didn't cut because they were worried about stock price!) See "stupidity" comment above.I know what I'm talking about. I'm (still) at one of the large, well known companies that's going through this now.
Nah, the majority (from the large companies) are usually cogs.... until it's their job.
Instead of CB, my Tivo caught a WWII era Merrie Melodies cartoon last night at mignight. It's titled Rhapsody in Rivets and involves building the "Umpire State" building to music. At the end, someone closes the door and it comes crashing down!
Maybe someone with a sense of humor didn't like pulling CB??
Tonight on a rerun of "That 70's Show", the words "blows up" were dubbed out. The quote is something like
Cowboy bebop brought me to the Cartoon Network
when nothing else it had could. I just couldn't
get into DBZ or even Outlaw Star.
Is there somewhere to send e-mail?