IT managers seldom receive the appropriate business training to manage a large, mission-critical function and budget, and non-technical executives get lost in the maze
It shouldn't be any wonder IT people are selected who do not understand business; they aren't allowed to! The reverse for general management. And whose fault is this? The HR people are the obstacles. With a shiny new degree in business and extensive computer experience, I thought I could get into IT management. For general management jobs HR people said I'm not qualified because because all my practical experience is technical. For technical jobs I'm told I'm not qualified because me education is in business. Fortunately I landed a somewhat IT position at a firm too small to have an HR department but I wonder at what kind of people ended up at all the big corp positions whose HR people blew me off.
Nope, at some point small profits are not enough. If you can get better returns buying government bonds AND the foreseeable future looks no better, you should sell off the company assets and get a fed-direct account.
I link up charities with corporate donations of computers. The hottest machines in my inventory are P3-733 machines from IBM's NetVista line which are reasonably legacy free. Why won't they move? Nobody wants the things because they can't hook up their parallel printer or scanner, serial modem, etc, etc. They've just got 5 USB ports for hooking up externals. Yes, there are USB adapters for all of these things and I've tried to give them away with the machines but even then people look too skeptical at such an obviously deficient computer that it doesn't even have a printer port. If you could wave a magic budget wand and replace every component at the same time then these new legacy free systems rock. Otherwise there aren't many takers. Sad, but true. No, you may not have one; I can only redistribute them to a 501c3.
Actually, he's the head of the executive branch of the government.
he isn't fighting any of this stuff. It may not be his fault, but it's his responsibility
And as head of the aforementioned executive branch it is exactly his job to enforce/operate within those laws enacted by the legislative branch and not contested by the judicial branch. So any problems with the laws really lie with the legislature. If there are bad loopholes then the legislature needs to amend them. It is not up to the executive branch to do that kind of thing at all. That's why the police arrest bums for digging in dumpsters for cans on the charge of collecting garbage without a license and why the judge throws out the case.
"I'm not doing it for profit," he said. "I'm doing it for a hobby."
He might think it's a hobby but I assure you that the IRS will take another view. This quote is the real indicator of how to bet as to whether this venture will be successful.
A well is just one pump/tower combo. It is several of these that are burning. A field is a whole darn field full of the things. Several of these are NOT what has caught fire, which will be a major mess when (if) they do.
Umm, televison advertisements subsidize television programming. Junk mail subsidizes postage. Newspaper ads, radios ads, magazine ads, etc, etc do the same for their respective mediums. How does spam help pay for my internet connection? ABSOLUTELY NOT AT ALL. All it does is increase my ISP's costs on behalf of a freeloading spammer.
Spam is not just a problem of numbers of emails, but also how big the darn things are. My filter's stats so far for this month reveal that while spam is barely over half of the quantity of mail I get but is over FOUR TIMES the size of real email:
Total Volume Sent on as Clean Mail: 211 (342.3KB ) 44.8% Total Spam Messages: 260 (1.4MB ) 55.2%
This is the most important evil of the spam flood; not only do I not want it but it's huge!
I think anyone who will start to read an article with a science topic headline, regardless of the publication, is willing to wade through any reasonable explaination. No need to make it graduate level but the writer can probably feel free to get a bit technical. After all, anyone who isn't interested in science isn't going to look past the headline anyway.
World Bank... every CIV is going to be in debt within 20 years of it's founding"
An amusing list of activities for this highly fictional World Bank. Completely unrelated to the real World Bank, which makes relatively small long-term loans for infrastructure improvements in developing nations.
My favorite tech support call was a woman who had gone overseas for a year and a half to research her novel. Prior to this she had backed up the part she had already written (she claimed it was several hundred pages created over the past year) to floppy disks. When she came home it was discovered that the data on the floppies was corrupted. But what about the original on the hard drive? She deleted it on purpose because after all, it was backed up! Argh!!!
Re:EVA: most overrated anime ever.
on
Giant Mecha News
·
· Score: 1
For a good giant robot show... watch the Escaflowne tv series
Maybe that's the problem; I had already watched Escaflowne before trying to sit through NGE.
A friend and I tried to watch Evangelion but just couldn't get interested. It's a well established narrative style to drop the audience into the middle of the world and explain gradually as you go. But Evangelion took this beyond the extreme limit, IMO. After four episodes we still had NO IDEA what was going on and it lost our sympathy for the situation and characters. Just how long does the thing take to make sense, or is the entire series an exercise of self indulgence in an in-joke by the authors?
idot, the retail mailorder vendor, is owned by MediaLand Systems, Inc. MLS is listed on VIA's website as merely a distributor. Thus, idot does not manufacture these laptops, VIA does.
Obviously this is an OEM model made by someone else (probably VIA themselves). Lindows doesn't have enough market pull to have a custom model made to their own specs. So I bet it is already selling like hotcakes in Southeast Asia with someone else's name on it and Windows installed. Does any recognise it?
At my university the filesharing has been demanding almost 150% of the off-campus bandwidth. Needless to say, performance is hurting, badly. Administration recently appealed for the filesharers to voluntarily cut back during day and early evening hours so people doing research and other "real" school activities can get through. I can sympathise with wanting to cut back on this activity, but for different reasons than the RIAA's.
I bet a big part is litigation. If this craft blows up (this happens on occasion with spacecraft), relatives are too likely to sue any and all suppliers of equipment and materials that went into it. (I'd check the article to see if this is mentioned, but the thing is already/.ed)
The problem with The Matrix was its message: technology is inherently bad. The dialog places the blame of the whole Matrix world being due to "scientists messing with things they shouldn't" (paraphrased). Other movies, like the Terminator series, are just as bad. I don't get why such a blatantly anti-technology movie is so popular with the technology crowd, other than appreciation for the work that went into the special effects.
There are a lot of comments in this thread regarding the feasability and riskiness of new replacement technologies. This is really sad. There was a time in this country (USA) when we didn't fret about whether some new technology was possible or completely safe. We just went and invented it. This attitude made us the economic and scientific powerhouse we are today. Now that we've become rich and soft, all we do is whine and try to minimize risks. I weep for the USA's future.
Slashdot Mirror
IT managers seldom receive the appropriate business training to manage a large, mission-critical function and budget, and non-technical executives get lost in the maze
It shouldn't be any wonder IT people are selected who do not understand business; they aren't allowed to! The reverse for general management. And whose fault is this? The HR people are the obstacles. With a shiny new degree in business and extensive computer experience, I thought I could get into IT management. For general management jobs HR people said I'm not qualified because because all my practical experience is technical. For technical jobs I'm told I'm not qualified because me education is in business. Fortunately I landed a somewhat IT position at a firm too small to have an HR department but I wonder at what kind of people ended up at all the big corp positions whose HR people blew me off.
small profits are better than none
Nope, at some point small profits are not enough. If you can get better returns buying government bonds AND the foreseeable future looks no better, you should sell off the company assets and get a fed-direct account.
I link up charities with corporate donations of computers. The hottest machines in my inventory are P3-733 machines from IBM's NetVista line which are reasonably legacy free. Why won't they move? Nobody wants the things because they can't hook up their parallel printer or scanner, serial modem, etc, etc. They've just got 5 USB ports for hooking up externals. Yes, there are USB adapters for all of these things and I've tried to give them away with the machines but even then people look too skeptical at such an obviously deficient computer that it doesn't even have a printer port. If you could wave a magic budget wand and replace every component at the same time then these new legacy free systems rock. Otherwise there aren't many takers. Sad, but true. No, you may not have one; I can only redistribute them to a 501c3.
Well, he's head of the government
Actually, he's the head of the executive branch of the government.
he isn't fighting any of this stuff. It may not be his fault, but it's his responsibility
And as head of the aforementioned executive branch it is exactly his job to enforce/operate within those laws enacted by the legislative branch and not contested by the judicial branch. So any problems with the laws really lie with the legislature. If there are bad loopholes then the legislature needs to amend them. It is not up to the executive branch to do that kind of thing at all. That's why the police arrest bums for digging in dumpsters for cans on the charge of collecting garbage without a license and why the judge throws out the case.
#63 would be true if the power company conspiracy hadn't killed Tesla...
"I'm not doing it for profit," he said. "I'm doing it for a hobby."
He might think it's a hobby but I assure you that the IRS will take another view. This quote is the real indicator of how to bet as to whether this venture will be successful.
Oil Fields ablaze in southern Iraq
A well is just one pump/tower combo. It is several of these that are burning. A field is a whole darn field full of the things. Several of these are NOT what has caught fire, which will be a major mess when (if) they do.
Umm, televison advertisements subsidize television programming. Junk mail subsidizes postage. Newspaper ads, radios ads, magazine ads, etc, etc do the same for their respective mediums. How does spam help pay for my internet connection? ABSOLUTELY NOT AT ALL. All it does is increase my ISP's costs on behalf of a freeloading spammer.
Spam is not just a problem of numbers of emails, but also how big the darn things are. My filter's stats so far for this month reveal that while spam is barely over half of the quantity of mail I get but is over FOUR TIMES the size of real email:
Total Volume Sent on as Clean Mail: 211 (342.3KB ) 44.8%
Total Spam Messages: 260 (1.4MB ) 55.2%
This is the most important evil of the spam flood; not only do I not want it but it's huge!
I think anyone who will start to read an article with a science topic headline, regardless of the publication, is willing to wade through any reasonable explaination. No need to make it graduate level but the writer can probably feel free to get a bit technical. After all, anyone who isn't interested in science isn't going to look past the headline anyway.
World Bank ... every CIV is going to be in debt within 20 years of it's founding"
An amusing list of activities for this highly fictional World Bank. Completely unrelated to the real World Bank, which makes relatively small long-term loans for infrastructure improvements in developing nations.
My favorite tech support call was a woman who had gone overseas for a year and a half to research her novel. Prior to this she had backed up the part she had already written (she claimed it was several hundred pages created over the past year) to floppy disks. When she came home it was discovered that the data on the floppies was corrupted. But what about the original on the hard drive? She deleted it on purpose because after all, it was backed up! Argh!!!
For a good giant robot show ... watch the Escaflowne tv series
Maybe that's the problem; I had already watched Escaflowne before trying to sit through NGE.
A friend and I tried to watch Evangelion but just couldn't get interested. It's a well established narrative style to drop the audience into the middle of the world and explain gradually as you go. But Evangelion took this beyond the extreme limit, IMO. After four episodes we still had NO IDEA what was going on and it lost our sympathy for the situation and characters. Just how long does the thing take to make sense, or is the entire series an exercise of self indulgence in an in-joke by the authors?
idot, the retail mailorder vendor, is owned by MediaLand Systems, Inc. MLS is listed on VIA's website as merely a distributor. Thus, idot does not manufacture these laptops, VIA does.
Depends on your definition of performing well... Quake3==Lousy, Battery life==pretty darn good
Obviously this is an OEM model made by someone else (probably VIA themselves). Lindows doesn't have enough market pull to have a custom model made to their own specs. So I bet it is already selling like hotcakes in Southeast Asia with someone else's name on it and Windows installed. Does any recognise it?
...the person who wrote the article is clearly a long-time /. regular.
At my university the filesharing has been demanding almost 150% of the off-campus bandwidth. Needless to say, performance is hurting, badly. Administration recently appealed for the filesharers to voluntarily cut back during day and early evening hours so people doing research and other "real" school activities can get through. I can sympathise with wanting to cut back on this activity, but for different reasons than the RIAA's.
Almost every "live album" you can buy in stores has been redone. Basically, you would get inferior quality music.
Obviously written by someone who has never been to see Rush or Yes play live.
Hopefully my new motherbo
I bet a big part is litigation. If this craft blows up (this happens on occasion with spacecraft), relatives are too likely to sue any and all suppliers of equipment and materials that went into it. (I'd check the article to see if this is mentioned, but the thing is already /.ed)
The problem with The Matrix was its message: technology is inherently bad. The dialog places the blame of the whole Matrix world being due to "scientists messing with things they shouldn't" (paraphrased). Other movies, like the Terminator series, are just as bad. I don't get why such a blatantly anti-technology movie is so popular with the technology crowd, other than appreciation for the work that went into the special effects.
Unfortunately the robot can also be programmed to ask 'You're home late. What have you been up to?'
Is it worried you might be seeing another robot on the side?
There are a lot of comments in this thread regarding the feasability and riskiness of new replacement technologies. This is really sad. There was a time in this country (USA) when we didn't fret about whether some new technology was possible or completely safe. We just went and invented it. This attitude made us the economic and scientific powerhouse we are today. Now that we've become rich and soft, all we do is whine and try to minimize risks. I weep for the USA's future.