It has a specific and complicated business plan, and some of it is written down. You can easily write a business plan once you actively start working on stuff and have some prospects or customers.
VCs are not faceless creatures. Sooner or later you'll actually get to know some as your personal network grows. I probably could get some financing right now if I really wanted to. I'd say VC hunting is like job hunting - tedious and time-consuming, unless you have the inside track where some lunches can turn up to be quite profitable.
If you want to run a company, you need to figure out what exactly your product will do and who needs it. I know that it seems like everyone needs it, but that's not the case.
With regards to storefronts, you may be better off selling someone else's established product as a channel partner. What do you bring that no other storefront product has done so far? Shopping carts were new in 1997. I worked for a company that developed one of these first successful shopping carts. That means that you are catching up on NINE YEARS of development.
Now, if you want to do.Net, find a partner with Microsoft who has a good solution and sell that. The profits you'll make from these sales and customizing these products will eventually fund your own niche product. Some products are more profitable than others - I have a 40% margin on some stuff I sell.
If you can't describe at least one relevant aspect what you are doing in less than 30 seconds, you need more focus.
I find formal business plans to be a nuisance, but it may help you clarify your vision. As long as my key assumptions are on the paper, that's good. My vision is very simple and seemingly unattainable, yet I am exactly at the point I wanted to achieve by this stage now.
I just ran a search for storefronts written in.Net through Microsoft Partner channel - there are quite a few.
What do I have to do, start specifying ranges as 0 to infinity?
Just because I ideally require 3 years of experience with something, it doesn't mean I won't settle for less with the right candidate.
Try hiring someone as an in-house consultant who will be working with all of these technologies.
This will be fun, especially with specifying requirements for similar technologies that are sufficiently different yet complementary. Case in point - someone who works with Windows Server since Windows 2000 can logically claim 5 years of experience with Windows Server 2003, even though that is technically impossible. Someone who has been a Java expert for a while can apply the skill to C#. What about Solaris vs. Linux?
I'd have to define range values and use conditionals to specify a requirement.
My suggestion? Remove the requirement from positions classified as Exempt under the overtime law.
I have a shell account on a Dreamhost machine. The cheapest account will get you that. I was a customer for 8 years now with zero complaints. This is the only host where all of my applications and scripts worked out of the box and I've installed countless scripts in the late 90s all over the Internet.
My server at home is where I keep my data. I login to it over the Internet through RDP and go from there to wherever I need to.
Never ever keep data on employer's computers. I write computer use policies, and yep all your data is our property. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to disclose things I am working on outside working hours on an employer-owned machine.
I had offers in the past to host my stuff with my employer, which I always declined.
While I agree that this article is pretty silly, I personally can't drive on the street after driving in a racing game for at least 15 minutes.
I have actual steering hardware with force feedback and overall a fairly realistic environment. It's pretty much the only way for me to stay in control on the freeway at a boring 65mph because I know I can drive much faster in a game without any risk.
However, I think that the brain is not as easily switched from driving something like Crazy Taxi (not a realistic sim, but hey it's fun!) to driving a car through suburban streets. I find 15 minutes to be sufficient to drive with less intensity.
A couple of times that I drove right after playing a high intensity driving game I had to snap out of it when I realized I hit 80+ mph. I have a freeway onramp about 3/4 miles away from my house, so it takes some effort to take the foot off the accelerator and to set cruise on 65mph.
I normally drive 65mph on cruise, in the second lane from the right.
I expect you to know that [] means a member of the array, not necessarily the entire array. This is to counter the argument "you want too much in one person".
Hmm... what the hell:-). Slashdot me with some resumes and save me some recruitment costs. I think it's obvious we are in the same mindset.
Training is not that expensive with CBT technologies and a VirtualPC lab (although I prefer VMWare;-). My budget allocation for this is about $20,000 for this year. May not sound like much, but I know how to get good training within a reasonable budget not decided by non-technical accountants.
The trouble for me is that there is just so much training available that it is quite staggering. Most of you do not realize just how much free training is available for Microsoft Partners - we get free MS Courseware, technology demonstration kits (COMPLETE virtual PC labs, optimally preconfigured by Microsoft so you don't have to), Partner-exclusive content. Heck, keeping up with free Microsoft training is a full-time job, and I am not kidding.
I can buy a 14-hr eCourse for about $300 and have you people be certified in something very valuable. I can get a Microsoft Dynamics Foundation course for $200 that will give you basics of just about every ERP app that Microsoft has.
If you work for a Microsoft Partner, ask to get your account associated with your organization, and head over to http://partner.microsoft.com/ - you'll be quite surprised at what's available to you.
Those amounts are far less than most of you are paid in a day, so the "training cost is too high" is simply bogus. I don't like to pay the typical full cost of instructor-led training, but we do get nice deals from Microsoft that make it quite affordable sometimes.
My requirements?
1. A ton of expertise in [CRM, Great Plains, Exchange, RMS, SBS, Active directory, Disaster recovery, Clustering, Geoclustering] or [Solution sales in excess of $3MM/year, Business needs analysis for 6-figure projects] or [desire for an internship at a fixed monthly rate for someone who wants to get to this level and who is already certified]. 2. Willingness to be certified within 30 days of hire, and yes I can cover that cost if you are productive immediately. 3. I do not support offshoring US economy and some of our work is of sensitive nature, so you must reside inside US, although that exact place of residence can be anywhere. Hmm... that all-elusive telecommuting opportunity for rural recluses?
If the environment is bad, the person will leave anyway. If what I offer is enticing enough, you'll stay with the company. I have a plan in mind for some golden handcuffs that is not yet final, but I hate it when companies do not share.
We work very closely with Microsoft and the immediate goal for 2006 is to become the #1 source for Microsoft Exchange expertise. There are other areas that we are pursuing, primarily the Microsoft Dynamics expertise.
Oh yeah, I believe in maximizing opportunity for everyone. If you happen to become a salesperson, you'll get paid what they get paid as far as their commission goes in addition to regular technical salary.
Nope, this is not a sarcastic post. Send me an e-mail and we'll talk [sd-resume [at] crashproofsolutions [dot] com]. I am really looking for some sales leads so I can afford to hire quite a few of you for a dream job.:-)
Started off with IRC on Undernet and a few flirts. Met my first love on Playsite whom we have never exchange pictures with over the course of two years, which made meeting her at the airport a little difficult (meet the flight, estimate whom she might be based on age group/ethnicity etc). Met a few girls on Yahoo!, SocialNet, and Match.
Interestingly, those whom I've dated tended to match me on more than one site. For instance, one girl was at the top of my list across two e-mail newsletters. She later showed me her inbox where I was at #4 spot in both. That was a surreal experience, but we did have very fun times. Some of the girls I've met would be considered out of my league if I'd approached them offline. One flat out told me that I'd see her distinctly different from a block away and was right about that.
I guess my profile was sufficiently different not to match your typical fake ads.
With all this online dating experience, I find it ironic that eventually I found my wife offline.:-)
Speed - it takes me longer to park the car occasionally at my preferred station. Compared to driving my car and costs of driving my car to the city, including the bridge toll and neglecting parking costs, Bart is only slightly more expensive now that gas prices have dropped. The costs were roughly identical when I was paying $2.85/gal vs. $2.35/gal I pay now. Round trip cost is $9.40 from my station and that's for roughly 45 miles each way. I consider it a chauffeured trip where I can either get some work done or simply relax.
My T-mobile phone suddenly started to work on Montgomery (one of 4 supported stations), and this article I guess explains why it does so. Some will find the system noisy, but I wear noise-cancelling can-type headphones and fit an earbud headset inside this noise-cancelled space if I am to talk on the phone. I don't have a problem reading slashdot over bluetooth gprs through T-mobile while on train.
Re:beware of the "understanding friend" method.
on
Best Way to Manage Geeks?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Try this...
The unpaid lunch concept. I was expected to work 8am-5pm, yet paid for time from 8pm-lunch and +60min-5pm. Are people really that unaware of their personal worth that they invest unpaid time into the company without any meaningful return?
They insisted I take the damned lunch and not get paid for having this time unavailable for my personal use in a block of time not conjoined with the rest of my personal time. I would suspect most of us here who are working on solving a problem don't necessarily stop at an arbitrary break time? So I did take my unpaid lunch. At 4pm. At first everyone was thinking I was crazy - but is it not logical to take lunch when you are actually hungry? The fact that it happened to coincide with the end of workday was a sheer coincidence.:-)
Then there is the concept of interruptions. The clients got the most productive use of my time only when I was using equipment actually adequate for the task, at home. For some absurd reason that was unacceptable. I lived 3.2miles away on purpose. Billable work is billable work, right? Who cares where it is done?
what do you get when you make a good geek mad enough to leave your company? A competitor!:-)
My rules as a geek manager:
1. Work from wherever you want, as long as the desired results are produced 2. You are not expected to work for more than 40 hours a week 3. Spend at least 5 hours a week on training in advanced topics, you are expected to be certified in a ton of stuff in a very short period of time 4. You are paid in accordance with your direct revenue portion - billable work is paid for according to client's billable rate, non-billable work is paid at a different rate 5. We have an advanced lab environment available to facilitate item 3 6. You can make as much money as sales people if you bring in new accounts 7. You are not a client babysitter 8. Rigid hours are not needed as long as you are available during business hours
It just reflects what I hate and we are growing nicely in the shark-infested waters of IT in Bay Area.
Some companies have some of these points in place, but I find that adding a sales commission keeps the turnover rate substantialy lower. The employees know that bringing business into the company and being compensated for it with every invoice is worth more than the gimmick $500 referral bonus that they can make in 4 hours working direct. That coupled with an actual training program produces a very attractive environment.
I do not support wars on: Terror (systematic capture of terrorists is called differently) and Drugs (systematic capture of drug manufacturers is called differenently). I view them as a bottomless money pit that money gets diverted from for other purposes that I do not support either.
This has no rational reason whatsoever... But then again, I've been all over US, and there are incredible differences between the states and their moral standards. Unfortunately, those of us with progressive views on these matters are silenced by those who seize control illegally and have been doing so for a long period of time.
I am an HP Partner. In order for me to get reimbursed for HP warranty service, according to HP, I absolutely must be A+ certified. Never mind the fact that I have a few MCP certs, CCNA, and SCSA... No, I gotta waste however much time and money it costs to take the silly A+ test before I can submit warranty claims as they are otherwise null and void.
I've gone ahead and quantified a realistic cost of deployment of a stable Windows-based environment. For 10 users you are looking at price tag of $7500 or so, including everything from server, firewall and a decent switch to all the Microsoft server application software licenses, but excluding desktops.
By stable I mean one that is impervious to most common attacks:
1. MAC lockdown at switch level - bring in a foreign laptop, and it will be on an entirely different VLAN firewalled off with Internet access and without corporate resources access. 2. Desktop lockdown to require non-admin rights to get work done, standardized. No admin rights == no unauthorized apps, no malware. I actually have a GPO in place that makes admin rights worse than non-admin rights, so you have to modify the GPO to override that. 3. Fault-tolerant servers that reduce the need for expertise in the domain.
This makes the TCO pretty low, but the initial investment is fairly significant. Notice that most of the requirements echo what we take for granted in the Linux world.
Can I deploy a functionally identical solution on Linux that I can on a Microsoft platform? Yes I can, provided that there is application software in a comparable price range.
For instance, Scalix can compete with Exchange fairly well, though pricing for Scalix is almost identical. Actually, I can probably beat it with Exchange pricing if I go with Open License model.
As long as Microsoft licenses its software perpetually, there is little threat of the doomsday document scenario. If, however, they switch to subscription-based model, we'll see TCO in Linux become substantially more attractive.
Given about 2-3 months of R&D investment, I am pretty sure I could offer a Linux-based solution at a similar price point.
Provide a higher quality of service that in the end costs the customer a reasonable amount. It doesn't have to be lower than India's, as you have other avenues of attack (such as no cultural barrier, for one thing).
Tell them to go review the FCC website that states in plain English that passive reception devices are their authority, can be deployed anywhere on your property, and that they explicitly override any landlord or HOA with regards to these decisions.
Calling my cell phone is like calling a 900-number at a similar rate. Why do people do it? They know that their problem will be solved. Any problem that costs them more than $90/hr is cheaper to solve at that rate. They don't have to call often since we implement fault-tolerant solutions with full monitoring capabilities and not the standard budget junk. If their problem can be solved by my first tier people, the charge is reduced. $3000/year for unlimited access to senior support who would demand $3000/month at least? It's a steal. Raise the price:)
If you drive a Vic, most drivers who ever got a ticket will likely stay out of your way, thanks to a fairly unique headlight pattern that it has. I wouldn't pass a Vic that I see a mile away until I am reasonably clear it's not a Vic whose driver I would like to meet.:-)
Have you tried entering a complex enough resume through one of those forms and exceeding their parameters? Now multiply that by dozens of pages in a typical paper...
No way in hell I would chew up my paper and feed it paragraph by paragraph to a "smart" system. Yuck!
I once had an urgent high priority matter and got sick of interruptions. I normally wear high quality headphones (office music is well...), but...
Next day did not show up at the office and logged on from home through VPN and shut off my phones. Worked my 8 hours and got back to work next day. They had a problem with it, but I said it was billable time and I had to allocate the entire day to one client that was basically a convoluted research project.
The reason why I was surprised at the reaction? I live 3 miles from my office. Any urgent ticket, for which I have real-time notification, would have same speed of response if not quicker than calling me in the office.
Some people just don't get it, but it's a good option if you can make it work. I much prefer working in my home office with a high end sound system rather than the open-doored office in subzero temperatures.
I've been successful another 2 times so far to work remotely and converted most customers for remote access.
I haven't bought a game in a while, and I love GTA series. So what did I do? I went out and bought this title at my local Fry's.:-)
Funny thing... their Wicked Pictures DVDs are not sold in a protective locked plastic box... but this title is! I suppose that's to actually prompt cashiers to pay attention as to why it needs to be unlocked in the first place.
They put a 18+ notice on the price guidance card.
I think this is the first and last AO-rated title in history to be sold at mass retail. So hold on to your copies. It'll go right next to my Linux version of Quake 3 in tin box.:-)
Maybe this will help jolt people awake as to what absurdity we are dealing with. I commend Rockstar Games for creating this controversy, and for that they got their $50.
I reviewed my noncompete clause. Found it rather reasonable (don't steal my customers for a year, but you can work for a competitor who acquires them some other way).
That's OK. The part where work done by me elsewhere does not belong to me is what I didn't like.
Smiled that it's not enforceable anyway but gave it an A for effort. Then expressly deleted the part "all your brains are belong to us" from the agreement and had them sign that. I am not a backstabber anyway, so I flat out declined offers to hire me direct from some of our customers.
The investigation is probably minor and CNN is making a bigger deal out of it to attack Hillary. Think about it for a moment - the people in power don't want a strong Hillary in 2008, so they are starting to erode her support now. Alternatively, she may be appealing to more voters this way.
Either way, this has nothing to do with GTA:SA.
Another example - Why can I shoot a movie of this content, and have it easily rated R [SC GV] by MPAA (it wouldn't get NC-17 for this scene) but I can't make an interactive movie as in video game format and have it rated a M with same modifiers.
Slashdot Mirror
Consider cell phone broadband.
I run a fairly successful company.
.Net, find a partner with Microsoft who has a good solution and sell that. The profits you'll make from these sales and customizing these products will eventually fund your own niche product. Some products are more profitable than others - I have a 40% margin on some stuff I sell.
.Net through Microsoft Partner channel - there are quite a few.
It has a specific and complicated business plan, and some of it is written down. You can easily write a business plan once you actively start working on stuff and have some prospects or customers.
VCs are not faceless creatures. Sooner or later you'll actually get to know some as your personal network grows. I probably could get some financing right now if I really wanted to. I'd say VC hunting is like job hunting - tedious and time-consuming, unless you have the inside track where some lunches can turn up to be quite profitable.
If you want to run a company, you need to figure out what exactly your product will do and who needs it. I know that it seems like everyone needs it, but that's not the case.
With regards to storefronts, you may be better off selling someone else's established product as a channel partner. What do you bring that no other storefront product has done so far? Shopping carts were new in 1997. I worked for a company that developed one of these first successful shopping carts. That means that you are catching up on NINE YEARS of development.
Now, if you want to do
If you can't describe at least one relevant aspect what you are doing in less than 30 seconds, you need more focus.
I find formal business plans to be a nuisance, but it may help you clarify your vision. As long as my key assumptions are on the paper, that's good. My vision is very simple and seemingly unattainable, yet I am exactly at the point I wanted to achieve by this stage now.
I just ran a search for storefronts written in
What do I have to do, start specifying ranges as 0 to infinity?
Just because I ideally require 3 years of experience with something, it doesn't mean I won't settle for less with the right candidate.
Try hiring someone as an in-house consultant who will be working with all of these technologies.
This will be fun, especially with specifying requirements for similar technologies that are sufficiently different yet complementary. Case in point - someone who works with Windows Server since Windows 2000 can logically claim 5 years of experience with Windows Server 2003, even though that is technically impossible. Someone who has been a Java expert for a while can apply the skill to C#. What about Solaris vs. Linux?
I'd have to define range values and use conditionals to specify a requirement.
My suggestion? Remove the requirement from positions classified as Exempt under the overtime law.
I have a shell account on a Dreamhost machine. The cheapest account will get you that. I was a customer for 8 years now with zero complaints. This is the only host where all of my applications and scripts worked out of the box and I've installed countless scripts in the late 90s all over the Internet.
My server at home is where I keep my data. I login to it over the Internet through RDP and go from there to wherever I need to.
Never ever keep data on employer's computers. I write computer use policies, and yep all your data is our property. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to disclose things I am working on outside working hours on an employer-owned machine.
I had offers in the past to host my stuff with my employer, which I always declined.
While I agree that this article is pretty silly, I personally can't drive on the street after driving in a racing game for at least 15 minutes.
I have actual steering hardware with force feedback and overall a fairly realistic environment. It's pretty much the only way for me to stay in control on the freeway at a boring 65mph because I know I can drive much faster in a game without any risk.
However, I think that the brain is not as easily switched from driving something like Crazy Taxi (not a realistic sim, but hey it's fun!) to driving a car through suburban streets. I find 15 minutes to be sufficient to drive with less intensity.
A couple of times that I drove right after playing a high intensity driving game I had to snap out of it when I realized I hit 80+ mph. I have a freeway onramp about 3/4 miles away from my house, so it takes some effort to take the foot off the accelerator and to set cruise on 65mph.
I normally drive 65mph on cruise, in the second lane from the right.
By the way...
I expect you to know that [] means a member of the array, not necessarily the entire array. This is to counter the argument "you want too much in one person".
Hmm... what the hell :-). Slashdot me with some resumes and save me some recruitment costs. I think it's obvious we are in the same mindset.
;-). My budget allocation for this is about $20,000 for this year. May not sound like much, but I know how to get good training within a reasonable budget not decided by non-technical accountants.
:-)
Training is not that expensive with CBT technologies and a VirtualPC lab (although I prefer VMWare
The trouble for me is that there is just so much training available that it is quite staggering. Most of you do not realize just how much free training is available for Microsoft Partners - we get free MS Courseware, technology demonstration kits (COMPLETE virtual PC labs, optimally preconfigured by Microsoft so you don't have to), Partner-exclusive content. Heck, keeping up with free Microsoft training is a full-time job, and I am not kidding.
I can buy a 14-hr eCourse for about $300 and have you people be certified in something very valuable. I can get a Microsoft Dynamics Foundation course for $200 that will give you basics of just about every ERP app that Microsoft has.
If you work for a Microsoft Partner, ask to get your account associated with your organization, and head over to http://partner.microsoft.com/ - you'll be quite surprised at what's available to you.
Those amounts are far less than most of you are paid in a day, so the "training cost is too high" is simply bogus. I don't like to pay the typical full cost of instructor-led training, but we do get nice deals from Microsoft that make it quite affordable sometimes.
My requirements?
1. A ton of expertise in [CRM, Great Plains, Exchange, RMS, SBS, Active directory, Disaster recovery, Clustering, Geoclustering] or [Solution sales in excess of $3MM/year, Business needs analysis for 6-figure projects] or [desire for an internship at a fixed monthly rate for someone who wants to get to this level and who is already certified].
2. Willingness to be certified within 30 days of hire, and yes I can cover that cost if you are productive immediately.
3. I do not support offshoring US economy and some of our work is of sensitive nature, so you must reside inside US, although that exact place of residence can be anywhere. Hmm... that all-elusive telecommuting opportunity for rural recluses?
If the environment is bad, the person will leave anyway. If what I offer is enticing enough, you'll stay with the company. I have a plan in mind for some golden handcuffs that is not yet final, but I hate it when companies do not share.
We work very closely with Microsoft and the immediate goal for 2006 is to become the #1 source for Microsoft Exchange expertise. There are other areas that we are pursuing, primarily the Microsoft Dynamics expertise.
Oh yeah, I believe in maximizing opportunity for everyone. If you happen to become a salesperson, you'll get paid what they get paid as far as their commission goes in addition to regular technical salary.
Nope, this is not a sarcastic post. Send me an e-mail and we'll talk [sd-resume [at] crashproofsolutions [dot] com]. I am really looking for some sales leads so I can afford to hire quite a few of you for a dream job.
Wake up.
Today's laptops are way beyond Oracle specs for hosting giant DBs.
Hmm let's see.
:-)
Started off with IRC on Undernet and a few flirts. Met my first love on Playsite whom we have never exchange pictures with over the course of two years, which made meeting her at the airport a little difficult (meet the flight, estimate whom she might be based on age group/ethnicity etc). Met a few girls on Yahoo!, SocialNet, and Match.
Interestingly, those whom I've dated tended to match me on more than one site. For instance, one girl was at the top of my list across two e-mail newsletters. She later showed me her inbox where I was at #4 spot in both. That was a surreal experience, but we did have very fun times. Some of the girls I've met would be considered out of my league if I'd approached them offline. One flat out told me that I'd see her distinctly different from a block away and was right about that.
I guess my profile was sufficiently different not to match your typical fake ads.
With all this online dating experience, I find it ironic that eventually I found my wife offline.
I'll take exception to this statement.
Speed - it takes me longer to park the car occasionally at my preferred station. Compared to driving my car and costs of driving my car to the city, including the bridge toll and neglecting parking costs, Bart is only slightly more expensive now that gas prices have dropped. The costs were roughly identical when I was paying $2.85/gal vs. $2.35/gal I pay now. Round trip cost is $9.40 from my station and that's for roughly 45 miles each way. I consider it a chauffeured trip where I can either get some work done or simply relax.
My T-mobile phone suddenly started to work on Montgomery (one of 4 supported stations), and this article I guess explains why it does so. Some will find the system noisy, but I wear noise-cancelling can-type headphones and fit an earbud headset inside this noise-cancelled space if I am to talk on the phone. I don't have a problem reading slashdot over bluetooth gprs through T-mobile while on train.
Try this...
:-)
:-)
The unpaid lunch concept. I was expected to work 8am-5pm, yet paid for time from 8pm-lunch and +60min-5pm. Are people really that unaware of their personal worth that they invest unpaid time into the company without any meaningful return?
They insisted I take the damned lunch and not get paid for having this time unavailable for my personal use in a block of time not conjoined with the rest of my personal time. I would suspect most of us here who are working on solving a problem don't necessarily stop at an arbitrary break time? So I did take my unpaid lunch. At 4pm. At first everyone was thinking I was crazy - but is it not logical to take lunch when you are actually hungry? The fact that it happened to coincide with the end of workday was a sheer coincidence.
Then there is the concept of interruptions. The clients got the most productive use of my time only when I was using equipment actually adequate for the task, at home. For some absurd reason that was unacceptable. I lived 3.2miles away on purpose. Billable work is billable work, right? Who cares where it is done?
what do you get when you make a good geek mad enough to leave your company? A competitor!
My rules as a geek manager:
1. Work from wherever you want, as long as the desired results are produced
2. You are not expected to work for more than 40 hours a week
3. Spend at least 5 hours a week on training in advanced topics, you are expected to be certified in a ton of stuff in a very short period of time
4. You are paid in accordance with your direct revenue portion - billable work is paid for according to client's billable rate, non-billable work is paid at a different rate
5. We have an advanced lab environment available to facilitate item 3
6. You can make as much money as sales people if you bring in new accounts
7. You are not a client babysitter
8. Rigid hours are not needed as long as you are available during business hours
It just reflects what I hate and we are growing nicely in the shark-infested waters of IT in Bay Area.
Some companies have some of these points in place, but I find that adding a sales commission keeps the turnover rate substantialy lower. The employees know that bringing business into the company and being compensated for it with every invoice is worth more than the gimmick $500 referral bonus that they can make in 4 hours working direct. That coupled with an actual training program produces a very attractive environment.
I do not support wars on: Terror (systematic capture of terrorists is called differently) and Drugs (systematic capture of drug manufacturers is called differenently). I view them as a bottomless money pit that money gets diverted from for other purposes that I do not support either.
This has no rational reason whatsoever... But then again, I've been all over US, and there are incredible differences between the states and their moral standards. Unfortunately, those of us with progressive views on these matters are silenced by those who seize control illegally and have been doing so for a long period of time.
Yep I remember Landesk 6.0 very fondly :-)
That's what makes Symantec Antivirus (and not consumer Norton brand nonsense) so good.
Time to build up another Antivirus and sell it off again for Intel?
Try this on for size...
I am an HP Partner. In order for me to get reimbursed for HP warranty service, according to HP, I absolutely must be A+ certified. Never mind the fact that I have a few MCP certs, CCNA, and SCSA... No, I gotta waste however much time and money it costs to take the silly A+ test before I can submit warranty claims as they are otherwise null and void.
I've gone ahead and quantified a realistic cost of deployment of a stable Windows-based environment. For 10 users you are looking at price tag of $7500 or so, including everything from server, firewall and a decent switch to all the Microsoft server application software licenses, but excluding desktops.
By stable I mean one that is impervious to most common attacks:
1. MAC lockdown at switch level - bring in a foreign laptop, and it will be on an entirely different VLAN firewalled off with Internet access and without corporate resources access.
2. Desktop lockdown to require non-admin rights to get work done, standardized. No admin rights == no unauthorized apps, no malware. I actually have a GPO in place that makes admin rights worse than non-admin rights, so you have to modify the GPO to override that.
3. Fault-tolerant servers that reduce the need for expertise in the domain.
This makes the TCO pretty low, but the initial investment is fairly significant. Notice that most of the requirements echo what we take for granted in the Linux world.
Can I deploy a functionally identical solution on Linux that I can on a Microsoft platform? Yes I can, provided that there is application software in a comparable price range.
For instance, Scalix can compete with Exchange fairly well, though pricing for Scalix is almost identical. Actually, I can probably beat it with Exchange pricing if I go with Open License model.
As long as Microsoft licenses its software perpetually, there is little threat of the doomsday document scenario. If, however, they switch to subscription-based model, we'll see TCO in Linux become substantially more attractive.
Given about 2-3 months of R&D investment, I am pretty sure I could offer a Linux-based solution at a similar price point.
Sure you can.
Provide a higher quality of service that in the end costs the customer a reasonable amount. It doesn't have to be lower than India's, as you have other avenues of attack (such as no cultural barrier, for one thing).
Tell them to go review the FCC website that states in plain English that passive reception devices are their authority, can be deployed anywhere on your property, and that they explicitly override any landlord or HOA with regards to these decisions.
Calling my cell phone is like calling a 900-number at a similar rate. Why do people do it? They know that their problem will be solved. Any problem that costs them more than $90/hr is cheaper to solve at that rate. They don't have to call often since we implement fault-tolerant solutions with full monitoring capabilities and not the standard budget junk. If their problem can be solved by my first tier people, the charge is reduced. $3000/year for unlimited access to senior support who would demand $3000/month at least? It's a steal. Raise the price :)
If you drive a Vic, most drivers who ever got a ticket will likely stay out of your way, thanks to a fairly unique headlight pattern that it has. I wouldn't pass a Vic that I see a mile away until I am reasonably clear it's not a Vic whose driver I would like to meet. :-)
Have you tried entering a complex enough resume through one of those forms and exceeding their parameters? Now multiply that by dozens of pages in a typical paper...
No way in hell I would chew up my paper and feed it paragraph by paragraph to a "smart" system. Yuck!
Ask the managers at BofA, CITI etc... who tried using that approach with private shipping carriers.
Oh yeah... You'll be famous the day someone can't account for that tape after it has been shipped.
I once had an urgent high priority matter and got sick of interruptions. I normally wear high quality headphones (office music is well...), but...
Next day did not show up at the office and logged on from home through VPN and shut off my phones. Worked my 8 hours and got back to work next day. They had a problem with it, but I said it was billable time and I had to allocate the entire day to one client that was basically a convoluted research project.
The reason why I was surprised at the reaction? I live 3 miles from my office. Any urgent ticket, for which I have real-time notification, would have same speed of response if not quicker than calling me in the office.
Some people just don't get it, but it's a good option if you can make it work. I much prefer working in my home office with a high end sound system rather than the open-doored office in subzero temperatures.
I've been successful another 2 times so far to work remotely and converted most customers for remote access.
Well...
:-)
:-)
I haven't bought a game in a while, and I love GTA series. So what did I do? I went out and bought this title at my local Fry's.
Funny thing... their Wicked Pictures DVDs are not sold in a protective locked plastic box... but this title is! I suppose that's to actually prompt cashiers to pay attention as to why it needs to be unlocked in the first place.
They put a 18+ notice on the price guidance card.
I think this is the first and last AO-rated title in history to be sold at mass retail. So hold on to your copies. It'll go right next to my Linux version of Quake 3 in tin box.
Maybe this will help jolt people awake as to what absurdity we are dealing with. I commend Rockstar Games for creating this controversy, and for that they got their $50.
I reviewed my noncompete clause. Found it rather reasonable (don't steal my customers for a year, but you can work for a competitor who acquires them some other way).
That's OK. The part where work done by me elsewhere does not belong to me is what I didn't like.
Smiled that it's not enforceable anyway but gave it an A for effort. Then expressly deleted the part "all your brains are belong to us" from the agreement and had them sign that. I am not a backstabber anyway, so I flat out declined offers to hire me direct from some of our customers.
Signed the thing.
The investigation is probably minor and CNN is making a bigger deal out of it to attack Hillary. Think about it for a moment - the people in power don't want a strong Hillary in 2008, so they are starting to erode her support now. Alternatively, she may be appealing to more voters this way.
Either way, this has nothing to do with GTA:SA.
Another example - Why can I shoot a movie of this content, and have it easily rated R [SC GV] by MPAA (it wouldn't get NC-17 for this scene) but I can't make an interactive movie as in video game format and have it rated a M with same modifiers.