I'm in my mid to late 40's now with a pretty good career. And I've been in the position of hiring today's grads upon occasion. Some are really, really smart. Most, IMHO, not so much. Sure, their abilities to do Powerpoint, make pretty Word docs and even crunch a few spreadsheets are okay in an academic sense. But, holy crap, I need a business sense. And more than a business sense: an ability to go and talk to a customer, build a business relationship, establish trust and do business! I don't need another dumbass talking about "social media" and "blah blah blah" that doesn't connect with the large majority of down-in-the-trenches-small-business-owners.
When I was in high school, most of the seniors worked part-time. Hell, before they even graduated or went to college or university, they already had more raw work experience than over 95% of today's grads. Today's high school grads (at least in Ontario) can't even drive a fucking car by themselves. Add that together with globalization (the fucking of the middle class), the destruction of the traditional retirement age of 65 (selfish prick babyboomers) and you're got a perfect storm of screwing today's generation. It isn't that there is no jobs available, it's that they are already taken and many of today's grads don't have the work experience that gives employer's any confidence.
It's fucking depressing when you think about it. Sure, I'm ranting a bit. I've got four young kids and I'm really concerned with what I see out there today. The politicians today are complete morons and out of touch with reality. Today's politicians are becoming "institutionalized" where you're now seeing dumb-ass dynasties occurring with people who have no sense of what's really going on.
It's very clear that this is a mission-critical application need.
I recommend a clustered Oracle database with no less than four 8-core Wintel servers having at least 1 TB of RAM on each system along with 2 TB hard drives with a RAID 5 cluster and heartbeat connection between each pair of servers. Since we all know that California is a goner when the big one hits, you clearly need a RT (real-time, for you noobs!) connection with the same configuration located on the other side of the country. In fact, if you're a multi-national then its advisable to take a tax writeoff and host yet another same configuration in fscking Ireland too!
If that doesn't get you a renewable annual budget and a job-for-life then you need to become a manager and outsource the whole fscking thing to India where they'll do the work for minimum wage (what's that, $0.10/hour?) and you can manage it locally and report to the Board each year of all the hard work that you do.
Or just use a sqlite database with a small front-end configuration and Bob's your Uncle.
Anyone in Canada could have told you that the US is an oligarchy. This is exactly what we've seen since at least the Reagan administration. The US is *NOT* a democracy - sorry to burst your bubble but it's the truth. The US has the appearance of a democracy but it is absolutely *NOT* a democracy.
They can't find a pattern because they're doing their calculations using base 10. They should expand their minds and try using another base, perhaps 2. I bet there's a pattern using binary!!
...and after being a fan and user of almost EVERY single Blizzard game since WarCraft I, I have now just dropped Blizzard and will not be purchasing SC2. Some of us actually want to use what we pay for by ourselves. And fuck having to connect to the 'net to use it.
-a pissed off very long time customer who just washed his hands of you.
...it's just that Microsoft's initial implementation was poor IMHO. The whole concept is great. At my work, we have available a tremendous amount of online training through a combination of video and PDF, etc. The thing is that what Microsoft didn't study, or perhaps did but didn't understand is that since childhood, kids are raised to see cartoon charactors as, for the most part, a little retarded. So anyone seen using a cartoon charactor to teach them concepts and usage of a software program will be seen as being retarded.
I bet that if they had done a proper, professional, and serious implentation, that it might have gone better for them.
What you need to do is contact some other F150 companies and ask their senior IT admins/CTOs how they measure productivity. I work for a major investment firm and we have metrics for everything we do (even though we're private) because of two primary reasons: 1. its how you improve, and 2. its what our competitors do too.
A sales slip is a legal contract, and one party to a legal contract may not change the terms of the contract without the approval of the other party. Amazon may have made a mistake but as long as the sales slip is relatively accurate, then they cannot charge the client again.
Disclaimer: IANAL, just someone who knows a bit about contract law (as it applies in Ontario, CANADA)
"...culture of piracy"? That is highly debatable!!
I completely disagree with this line of thought. What I think is that in a monopolistic situation, the consumer masses have no control and no ability to enforce market change... other than to simply change the dynamics of the market and hence, of the relationship with the monopolist. And economic history has proven that this happens, in different ways, over and over again. When a monopolist has such total control over their product distribution and there is no viable competition that can allow the "hands" of Adam Smith to take effect, it makes sense that the consumer masses will simply ignore the monopolist and seek to acquire their product in any capacity available to them. Hence, P2P, CD/DVD copying via sneakernet, and what is called "mass piracy". That label is disconcerting in its use, as piracy in its historical sense is about the plunder and pillaging of humans against humans, and not consumers against monopolistic companies whose exorbitant prices have outpaced the discretionary spending abilities of the majority of their consumer (age) target audiences.
Perhaps if the media cartels would simply adjust to the new dynamics of the digital age, they would not be encountering a fierce and growing opposition in the market for their goods and services. Regardless, economic history shows that what is inevitable is that the media cartels will continue to try to enforce their so-called "rights" (many of which are questionable in nature) and continue to try to restrict open trade and whatnot. And the mass consumer will continue to resist to the point that one of two things will happen. A new company or business model comes along that meets the consumers needs and wants and the old business model and old companies that didn't adapt, die. Or, the consumer simply moves on and transfers their wants and needs to other sources. Ahh, satori!!
Our company uses ServiceCenter. It's a UNIX-based app, runs off of Solaris where I work. We have 25000 employees across 3 countries, and multiple support departments (not just IT), and although ServiceCenter has its strengths and weaknesses like most s/w applications, IMHO it does its job like a charm. I keep my eyes on freshmeat.net and I haven't seen anything come out even remotely close.
Check out http://www.dbsonline.com/ and have a look at their BS/1 products. I've used them in the past and found them to be of exceptional quality. The part that I like best is that, yes, the BS/1 series is closed source, BUT, you can buy the source at a reasonable price. This is some very popular code that is used in a variety of industries, easily customized, and may meet your needs too.
All you need is some delphi experience.
[Disclaimer: no, I am not affiliated with the company, just a satisfied user]
Great concept but I can already envision a problem in the (lawless) US where an employee comes up with a great idea and some other employees leave to go pursue development and market delivery of said idea. And they get sued for idea theft or something along that line. What, did something similar happen with RIM / NTP where one great company developed a real, market demanded product that another (totally useless) company claimed was their idea? Hmm... food for thought in the mighty US, isn't it.
An IQ of 190 would statistically put you as one of the smartest people on the whole planet. And its a known fact that a majority of people with IQs in that range (and higher) have severe psychological issues. Hence, I call you "BULLSHIT".
As a Rogers customer for over 5 years and an @Home customer before that, I've given Rogers a lot of business over the years. I'm also a mid to heavy Usenet user, ever since University.
Well, I have to admit that Rogers Usenet service has been virtually untouchable in the Toronto area. They carry well over 100,000 Usenet groups and have a good thread availability ratio in the groups from what I've seen.
And this is the ONLY thing that has kept me dealing with Rogers for these years. On Dec 15, that loyalty is OVER.
Now I WILL shop my ISP services around to the best rate since Rogers doesn't have a strongly demanded service available anymore. I can also immediately drop my premium high-speed EXTREME account since I won't be needing that anymore. Yes, that would be Usenet. The Globe&Mail article author is wrong. In the IT world, Usenet is probably one of the top services needed. Putting all the dumbasses and pornographers aside, the Usenet service is invaluable as a place of discussion and reference, and arguably the last source of (un?)moderated democracy in the free world.
This is just more of my discretionary spending money that will now flow south of the border. Rogers must be hiring some really bright people these days, like the kind of people that cancel TV shows like Firefly and Dead Like Me, and (cough) work in Microsoft marketing. Or is that Rogers marketing? I can't tell the difference sometimes. Rogers has my cell phone service and TV service too. Rogers business competitors please call me...
You're talking about the arguably largest, most popular bestseller around versus literature that in many cases hasn't been seen in years, most people don't know about, and has essentially been forgotten by the sands of time. Yah, that's real apples to oranges. Google Print is a step in the right direction, even if you don't believe in the utopian informational paradise of 24th century Star Trek.
This is an interesting question, and I'll tell you my situation a little before I answer the question.
After being in the IT industry since 1991 (did my undergraduate in Mathematics) and working in technical IT sales since 1994, my career was fantastic up until 2003. In mid-2000, I left the company I was with because the hardware margins were drying up and I didn't see them recovering for a long time if ever. I moved to a software development company only to have to fight tooth-and-nail for every contract for the next 3 years due to outsourcing. The margins there are gone too.
The last 2 years since 2003 have been really hard. I have a house and mortgage, a wife, 2 young kids, 2 cars, etc and I've been struggling to pay my bills for a while.
I sit 3 interviews the other day. Two of them were with companies that are outside of the IT industry altogether, since I've decided that my sales experience and background makes me suitable for a variety of industries (a widget is a widget kind of arguement). Here's the results, condensed version:
I get 2 offers from the companies that are not in the IT industry. They both say the same thing: "we know that you don't have the necessary skills to get up and productive for a little while, but we see great potential in you and the value that you can bring to our organization. We look at our employees as partners in our success, and to this belief, we are going to pay for your training and pay for you to learn our business. Congratulations!"
Here's my results from another large IT company that recently replaced their CEO that I sat an interview with: "we are looking for someone with the ability to get up and running immediately from ground zero with no training at all. We see a great fit for you in this other job, but we're not hiring for that right now. Thanks for the interview and we'll keep your resume on file."
Each company that I interviewed with, I was going for a job valued in the $100K+ range (base plus commission plus bonuses).
The problem with IT companies today is that you as an individual get no respect at all. They don't have people onboard who have the foresight and intelligence to say "I want you not for what you can do for us immediately in those first 3 weeks or 2 months, but for what you can do for us over the course of 10, 15+ years as you build a career with us.
When I was in Junior Achievement in high school, my mentor was a guy from this same large IT company. I was a VP for my final company at Junior Achievement, and my mentor was really smart. Scary smart, almost like some of my classmates at university. I just don't see the "value mentality" existing at most IT companies today anymore. Neither do most of my friends in the IT industry which is why so many are leaving, and so many young students are dropping CompSci as a major. When you start outsourcing and offshoring, whatever, you need to recognize what you're losing. You aren't losing "economic resources", you're losing people. And many of them are skilled and talented people with families and friends, etc that support the IT companies through waterfall economics. Some other poster mentioned that the amount of money that these companies will save will pale in comparison to the amount of money and goodwill that they'll lose over the longer term, and that poster is IMHO dead on the money.
My IT career is effectively over now because I've had enough. I've put up with enough, I've worked the 60 and 70+ hour weeks, and its gotten me nowhere. Screw the IT companies, I've realized that my success no longer involves them or their success. And as more and more people like me do this, the IT companies are the ones that will suffer in the longer term as they no longer have my support or my purchasing loyalty in the future. You want to outsource and offshore? No problem, go ahead. BUT remember, when it comes time for me to buy equipment and services from you, I'll be looking for the lowest price and FUCK YOU.
My wife is a hardcore, WoW addict. She easily logs over 8hrs a day. Plays on the Allera server (aka "Carebear"), 2 characters are Level 60 (has a number of other characters too), and is a member of the Tendrils of Maneroth guild.
I concur, girls appear to be more inclined to play the RPG and MMORPG games than the the Q3A/UT2K4 that I prefer (SC:BW excepted).
Slashdot Mirror
I'm in my mid to late 40's now with a pretty good career. And I've been in the position of hiring today's grads upon occasion. Some are really, really smart. Most, IMHO, not so much. Sure, their abilities to do Powerpoint, make pretty Word docs and even crunch a few spreadsheets are okay in an academic sense. But, holy crap, I need a business sense. And more than a business sense: an ability to go and talk to a customer, build a business relationship, establish trust and do business! I don't need another dumbass talking about "social media" and "blah blah blah" that doesn't connect with the large majority of down-in-the-trenches-small-business-owners.
When I was in high school, most of the seniors worked part-time. Hell, before they even graduated or went to college or university, they already had more raw work experience than over 95% of today's grads. Today's high school grads (at least in Ontario) can't even drive a fucking car by themselves. Add that together with globalization (the fucking of the middle class), the destruction of the traditional retirement age of 65 (selfish prick babyboomers) and you're got a perfect storm of screwing today's generation. It isn't that there is no jobs available, it's that they are already taken and many of today's grads don't have the work experience that gives employer's any confidence.
It's fucking depressing when you think about it. Sure, I'm ranting a bit. I've got four young kids and I'm really concerned with what I see out there today. The politicians today are complete morons and out of touch with reality. Today's politicians are becoming "institutionalized" where you're now seeing dumb-ass dynasties occurring with people who have no sense of what's really going on.
It's very clear that this is a mission-critical application need.
I recommend a clustered Oracle database with no less than four 8-core Wintel servers having at least 1 TB of RAM on each system along with 2 TB hard drives with a RAID 5 cluster and heartbeat connection between each pair of servers. Since we all know that California is a goner when the big one hits, you clearly need a RT (real-time, for you noobs!) connection with the same configuration located on the other side of the country. In fact, if you're a multi-national then its advisable to take a tax writeoff and host yet another same configuration in fscking Ireland too!
If that doesn't get you a renewable annual budget and a job-for-life then you need to become a manager and outsource the whole fscking thing to India where they'll do the work for minimum wage (what's that, $0.10/hour?) and you can manage it locally and report to the Board each year of all the hard work that you do.
Or just use a sqlite database with a small front-end configuration and Bob's your Uncle.
Upgrade? Sounds like a downgrade to me.
Seriously, what's the benefit to upgrade to a downgraded OS? Sounds like XP to Vista all over again.
Anyone in Canada could have told you that the US is an oligarchy. This is exactly what we've seen since at least the Reagan administration. The US is *NOT* a democracy - sorry to burst your bubble but it's the truth. The US has the appearance of a democracy but it is absolutely *NOT* a democracy.
- A Canadian
Hahaha!! Now that one deserves to be modded up!!!
They can't find a pattern because they're doing their calculations using base 10. They should expand their minds and try using another base, perhaps 2. I bet there's a pattern using binary!!
...and after being a fan and user of almost EVERY single Blizzard game since WarCraft I, I have now just dropped Blizzard and will not be purchasing SC2. Some of us actually want to use what we pay for by ourselves. And fuck having to connect to the 'net to use it.
-a pissed off very long time customer who just washed his hands of you.
...it's just that Microsoft's initial implementation was poor IMHO. The whole concept is great. At my work, we have available a tremendous amount of online training through a combination of video and PDF, etc. The thing is that what Microsoft didn't study, or perhaps did but didn't understand is that since childhood, kids are raised to see cartoon charactors as, for the most part, a little retarded. So anyone seen using a cartoon charactor to teach them concepts and usage of a software program will be seen as being retarded.
I bet that if they had done a proper, professional, and serious implentation, that it might have gone better for them.
What you need to do is contact some other F150 companies and ask their senior IT admins/CTOs how they measure productivity. I work for a major investment firm and we have metrics for everything we do (even though we're private) because of two primary reasons:
1. its how you improve, and
2. its what our competitors do too.
Its that simple.
A sales slip is a legal contract, and one party to a legal contract may not change the terms of the contract without the approval of the other party. Amazon may have made a mistake but as long as the sales slip is relatively accurate, then they cannot charge the client again.
Disclaimer: IANAL, just someone who knows a bit about contract law (as it applies in Ontario, CANADA)
"...culture of piracy"? That is highly debatable!!
I completely disagree with this line of thought. What I think is that in a monopolistic situation, the consumer masses have no control and no ability to enforce market change... other than to simply change the dynamics of the market and hence, of the relationship with the monopolist. And economic history has proven that this happens, in different ways, over and over again. When a monopolist has such total control over their product distribution and there is no viable competition that can allow the "hands" of Adam Smith to take effect, it makes sense that the consumer masses will simply ignore the monopolist and seek to acquire their product in any capacity available to them. Hence, P2P, CD/DVD copying via sneakernet, and what is called "mass piracy". That label is disconcerting in its use, as piracy in its historical sense is about the plunder and pillaging of humans against humans, and not consumers against monopolistic companies whose exorbitant prices have outpaced the discretionary spending abilities of the majority of their consumer (age) target audiences.
Perhaps if the media cartels would simply adjust to the new dynamics of the digital age, they would not be encountering a fierce and growing opposition in the market for their goods and services. Regardless, economic history shows that what is inevitable is that the media cartels will continue to try to enforce their so-called "rights" (many of which are questionable in nature) and continue to try to restrict open trade and whatnot. And the mass consumer will continue to resist to the point that one of two things will happen. A new company or business model comes along that meets the consumers needs and wants and the old business model and old companies that didn't adapt, die. Or, the consumer simply moves on and transfers their wants and needs to other sources. Ahh, satori!!
Our company uses ServiceCenter. It's a UNIX-based app, runs off of Solaris where I work. We have 25000 employees across 3 countries, and multiple support departments (not just IT), and although ServiceCenter has its strengths and weaknesses like most s/w applications, IMHO it does its job like a charm. I keep my eyes on freshmeat.net and I haven't seen anything come out even remotely close.
Check out http://www.dbsonline.com/ and have a look at their BS/1 products. I've used them in the past and found them to be of exceptional quality. The part that I like best is that, yes, the BS/1 series is closed source, BUT, you can buy the source at a reasonable price. This is some very popular code that is used in a variety of industries, easily customized, and may meet your needs too.
All you need is some delphi experience.
[Disclaimer: no, I am not affiliated with the company, just a satisfied user]
Great concept but I can already envision a problem in the (lawless) US where an employee comes up with a great idea and some other employees leave to go pursue development and market delivery of said idea. And they get sued for idea theft or something along that line. What, did something similar happen with RIM / NTP where one great company developed a real, market demanded product that another (totally useless) company claimed was their idea? Hmm... food for thought in the mighty US, isn't it.
(long live Canada)
An IQ of 190 would statistically put you as one of the smartest people on the whole planet. And its a known fact that a majority of people with IQs in that range (and higher) have severe psychological issues. Hence, I call you "BULLSHIT".
As a Rogers customer for over 5 years and an @Home customer before that, I've given Rogers a lot of business over the years. I'm also a mid to heavy Usenet user, ever since University.
Well, I have to admit that Rogers Usenet service has been virtually untouchable in the Toronto area. They carry well over 100,000 Usenet groups and have a good thread availability ratio in the groups from what I've seen.
And this is the ONLY thing that has kept me dealing with Rogers for these years. On Dec 15, that loyalty is OVER.
Now I WILL shop my ISP services around to the best rate since Rogers doesn't have a strongly demanded service available anymore. I can also immediately drop my premium high-speed EXTREME account since I won't be needing that anymore. Yes, that would be Usenet. The Globe&Mail article author is wrong. In the IT world, Usenet is probably one of the top services needed. Putting all the dumbasses and pornographers aside, the Usenet service is invaluable as a place of discussion and reference, and arguably the last source of (un?)moderated democracy in the free world.
This is just more of my discretionary spending money that will now flow south of the border. Rogers must be hiring some really bright people these days, like the kind of people that cancel TV shows like Firefly and Dead Like Me, and (cough) work in Microsoft marketing. Or is that Rogers marketing? I can't tell the difference sometimes. Rogers has my cell phone service and TV service too. Rogers business competitors please call me...
So, let me quickly summarize your solution:
1. Get a consultant.
2. Blow $50K in Crisco hardware (yah, you heard me, Crisco, not Cisco)
3. Put a bunch of snot-nosed barely literate retards, err, sorry, students on a L3 network where they can run fscking kazaa all day.
I haven't laughed this hard in a while
Hmm.. wasn't the collusion between corporations and the State known as... fascism?!?
It also blows the Rational Expectations theory too. Isn't it funny the types of people you can encounter on /. sometimes...
You're talking about the arguably largest, most popular bestseller around versus literature that in many cases hasn't been seen in years, most people don't know about, and has essentially been forgotten by the sands of time. Yah, that's real apples to oranges. Google Print is a step in the right direction, even if you don't believe in the utopian informational paradise of 24th century Star Trek.
I hear that Blizzard is working on a new project called "StarCraft FOREVER!!", aptly named in honour of THE DUKE!!
Ahh, that's the one!! I knew someone on /. would know it too.
Damn, what was that sci-fi "spaceships of the future" book that I got back in the early 80s about where all the spaceships are made of "plastisteel"?
After being in the IT industry since 1991 (did my undergraduate in Mathematics) and working in technical IT sales since 1994, my career was fantastic up until 2003. In mid-2000, I left the company I was with because the hardware margins were drying up and I didn't see them recovering for a long time if ever. I moved to a software development company only to have to fight tooth-and-nail for every contract for the next 3 years due to outsourcing. The margins there are gone too.
The last 2 years since 2003 have been really hard. I have a house and mortgage, a wife, 2 young kids, 2 cars, etc and I've been struggling to pay my bills for a while.
I sit 3 interviews the other day. Two of them were with companies that are outside of the IT industry altogether, since I've decided that my sales experience and background makes me suitable for a variety of industries (a widget is a widget kind of arguement). Here's the results, condensed version:
I get 2 offers from the companies that are not in the IT industry. They both say the same thing: "we know that you don't have the necessary skills to get up and productive for a little while, but we see great potential in you and the value that you can bring to our organization. We look at our employees as partners in our success, and to this belief, we are going to pay for your training and pay for you to learn our business. Congratulations!"
Here's my results from another large IT company that recently replaced their CEO that I sat an interview with: "we are looking for someone with the ability to get up and running immediately from ground zero with no training at all. We see a great fit for you in this other job, but we're not hiring for that right now. Thanks for the interview and we'll keep your resume on file."
Each company that I interviewed with, I was going for a job valued in the $100K+ range (base plus commission plus bonuses).
The problem with IT companies today is that you as an individual get no respect at all. They don't have people onboard who have the foresight and intelligence to say "I want you not for what you can do for us immediately in those first 3 weeks or 2 months, but for what you can do for us over the course of 10, 15+ years as you build a career with us.
When I was in Junior Achievement in high school, my mentor was a guy from this same large IT company. I was a VP for my final company at Junior Achievement, and my mentor was really smart. Scary smart, almost like some of my classmates at university. I just don't see the "value mentality" existing at most IT companies today anymore. Neither do most of my friends in the IT industry which is why so many are leaving, and so many young students are dropping CompSci as a major. When you start outsourcing and offshoring, whatever, you need to recognize what you're losing. You aren't losing "economic resources", you're losing people. And many of them are skilled and talented people with families and friends, etc that support the IT companies through waterfall economics. Some other poster mentioned that the amount of money that these companies will save will pale in comparison to the amount of money and goodwill that they'll lose over the longer term, and that poster is IMHO dead on the money.
My IT career is effectively over now because I've had enough. I've put up with enough, I've worked the 60 and 70+ hour weeks, and its gotten me nowhere. Screw the IT companies, I've realized that my success no longer involves them or their success. And as more and more people like me do this, the IT companies are the ones that will suffer in the longer term as they no longer have my support or my purchasing loyalty in the future. You want to outsource and offshore? No problem, go ahead. BUT remember, when it comes time for me to buy equipment and services from you, I'll be looking for the lowest price and FUCK YOU.
My wife is a hardcore, WoW addict. She easily logs over 8hrs a day. Plays on the Allera server (aka "Carebear"), 2 characters are Level 60 (has a number of other characters too), and is a member of the Tendrils of Maneroth guild.
I concur, girls appear to be more inclined to play the RPG and MMORPG games than the the Q3A/UT2K4 that I prefer (SC:BW excepted).