Sheperd Book and Wash had to die to set up River vs. the Reavers. You had to know that Joss was perfectly willing to kill anybody. When River jumped through that door, you had to absolutely believe she wasn't coming back -- that's the only way to get the emotional charge from the "Now it's my turn to take care of you" line to Simon and the shock of seeing River alive and gory when the doors opened.
Let me apologize up front for how vehemently I'm going to disagree with you.
No. I mean no. For the love of God, No! Have you lost your bloody mind?! NO!
Don't. Ever. Work. For. Free. You might as well wear a sandwich board that reads "My time is worthless and I'm so naive that I believe an idea put forth by suits looking to recruit cheap, easily-abused labor. I'm beyond desperate, so please, pay me some lowball chump change."
Take a lesson from the marketers. People honestly believe that a thing is worth what you paid for it. If you ever work for someone for free, you'll never convince them to pay top dollar for your services.
You wouldn't believe how much my life has improved since I learned to look them right in the ye without blinking and say "You're right. I compete on quality, not price. To be honest, these are my prices if I design and implement. If I have to go through the headache of fixing someone else's mistakes, I charge a 20% premium."
You'd be amazed at how that one little statement/attitude improves your world. You never have to deal with those neurotic not-worth-the-trouble PITA clients, and the rest come to the job with a "he's expensive, he must know what he's doing" mentality.
So long as you can deliver the goods, it's a far more satisfying way to run your business.
"in which case this may be the Programmer Permanent Employment Act"
Unfortunately, not really. Taking two examples of popular "shopping cart" programs in wide use, "Miva" and "Cart32," setting them up to charge sales tax only in California is a trivial task. Even setting them to charge unique rates in all 50 states would probably burn no more than half a day, even with testing.
Unfortunately, this is far more likely to burn accounting time than programming time.
"Make it too pretty and the client will think you're almost done. After all, to the client, the UI is the app. If that looks done, the guts of the thing must be near done as well."
Actually, yes, the legal theory is called "clean hands." Before you can come asking for justice, you must yourself be just. If you have lived your life as a thief, you lose your standing to complain when other people steal from you.
... go learn what you're doing before you irrevocably break something. Especially on something that's non-disposable.
Not just plunging in and trying to crack the thing open isn't cowardice on their part. It's wisdom. And using a non-invasive tool to get the job done is the sign of a working brain.
Years ago, by a rare series of events, I found myself down to carrying only two keys -- house and car.
I found I needed to attach something to give my keyring a little more bulk so I attached a small swiss army knife to it just to keep the two keys from falling out of my pocket.
You'd be amazed how fast you get attached to it. Need to open a letter? Done. Cut tape, string, cardboard, whatever? Done. Emergency procedures on devices from cars to computers to toys? Done.
Pretty soon you just get accustomed to having your own personal toolset. The usb key would just be an added bonus.
Think of it as the first step of a sliding scale of tool sets. Swiss army knife, Leatherman, small plastic toolbox, big metal toolbox, floor mount toolchest...
I for one, say let's trust the people that we have put in positions of power (for the most part), and let them decide when to use this power.
Some interesting entries for you to investigate in your school library's encyclopedia...
Nixon, Richard M.
Hoover, Edgar J.
Tuskeegee, Institute of Medical Research
Jefferson, Thomas
Paper on the the wisdom of grudgingly allowing your government power, carefully checking, balancing and calling that power into account, and why the Founding Fathers believed in double-leashing all their dogs due next Monday....
The fact is that most good coders are at least mediocre sysadmins, and most good sysadmins are at least mediocre coders. Both jobs usually require a general CS background. I refer you to Fooker as an example.
If you can code a network aware application, then you probably have at least the fundamentals of networking down, and if you are a capable network admin, then you probably can sling a mean scripting language, which means you have the fundamentals of coding like encapsulation, OOP, data structures, etc. down.
Assuming that all us OSI Layer 4 and below people have to be on-site (which is far from a given), we're still vulnerable to outsourcing. When all those programmers are unemployed, guess whose job they can retool for fastest and be best qualified for?
Now guess what happens when the supply of sysadmins far outstrips the available jobs (even worse than it does now)?
Hmm. Let me see. Both Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison are men with enough free cash to buy and sell me like a kleenex, and according to US census data, I'm in the top 1% of American wage earners. I'll also gladly concede that both Steve and Larry are far more gifted businessesmen than me.
In addition, while I dislike Microsoft, both Steve and Larry have real NEEDS to influence Microsoft behavior.
And yet, somehow your plan of "buy Microsoft stock, influence Microsoft behavior" hasn't really worked for them. Perhaps we're overlooking the minor inconvenience of needing to own 51% of Microsoft stock to have any real say in the matter.
Hmm. I wonder how much money it would take to own 51% of Microsoft voting-class stock and more importantly, would they take a check?
Wow, the cluelessness, the awesome cluelessness...
With that one move, you just guaranteed that your employees are only the hacks, the drudges, the plodders and the paper certs. You just guaranteed that no one who ever loves programming or computers will ever work with you.
Under a capitalist system the chief responsibility of a company is to make money for its shareholders. Looking after the rest of society is a very secondary issue...
God, I'm so tired of hearing this nonsense. Have you looked at a corporate charter lately? Do you know the history behind corporations? Do you even understand the logic of WHY we give them tax breaks, protection from legal liability and the legal fiction of "personhood?"
Let me spell it out for you. Every corporation ever formed has made the EXPLICIT promise in their corporate charter that if we as a society grant them tax breaks and freedom from personal liability for the owners, then the corporation will benefit society as a whole.
That promise is the reason WHY we grant them lower tax rates, freedom from liability and a myriad other favors. Shareholder value is a distant second to that promise.
Oh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Humor is a rare gift these days. I sincerely enjoyed your post.
If you're a fellow old man like me, then I gotta tell you. Lighten up. You're making the kids who work for you miserable. As for responsibilities, I'm a consultant to one enterprise, a partner in another, and a teacher on top of it because hanging out with no one but other old farts in suits makes me feel old. I got a handful of kids who call me "Dad," and a roomful more who refer to me as "Uncle," so if you're looking for "professional" "responsibility," I've got so much I'll gladly lend you some of mine.
Perhaps you don't understand that the company officers (i.e. the directors) wear liability (incl. criminal) for the actions of the employees:
Here's Westlaw. Find me the cites. Here's CNN. Find me ANY corporate officer who's done time for the actions of their employees in the past fifty years. Feel free to include the terms "Enron," "Union Carbide," and "Exxon Valdez" in your search.
when the directors are sued in a class action because of an employee of theirs that used a personal phone during work hours to cause a negligent loss of profits, then that's okay - hardly!).
Son, I'd like to invite you to come picnic with the rest of us back in the soft green fields of Reality.
Look, you sound like you just got promoted to Head Assistant Manager of the Whole Sporting Goods Department down at the KMart. Does the name "Maj. Frank Burns" ring a bell with you? If you're half as old as you claim to be, it should.
Lighten up. Rent "Seabiscuit" and watch it twice, and that includes the "Making Of Featurette." People don't run their best when you're cracking whips over their heads. Call a seance and ask Uday Hussein about that if you don't believe me.
My people are glad to see me come in, because they know "the boss" can solve their problem. I get good information because no one's afraid to tell me the truth, and I get TIMELY information because no one's afraid about covering their butts when things don't go our way. Sure, my people work for me, but more importantly, they work WITH me.
If you find you're having to threaten more than you inspire, then chances are you're a fairly lousy manager. And if you think that the answer to your company's bottom line is taking away a cell phone from some single mother who works for you, then I'd suggest you start thinking about cutting the payroll at your job.
1. You have no specific right to be able to use your personal phone in the work place, period.
Wow. And your justification for this is...?
I have what might be very liberating news for you. Your "employer" is your primary client in a business relationship. They're not your parent. They're not your god. They don't "own" you.
They are merely hiring your services for a specific period of time. Their only "right" is they they receive full benefit of the services they've hired you for. In this day and age of hardball and outsourcing, they don't even have the right to expect "company loyalty," whatever that is, since they all almost universally insist on hiring you "at will."
Actually, it hurts to hear a fellow human being so subservient and obsequious. Stand up, my fellow man. Hear the bones pop and the muscles ease as you straighten out your back and unbend your neck. Take a breath of the air of liberty, resplendent in the knowledge that your are your own human being.
"if you family needs to reach you at work, they can call in through the usual office lines, like everyone always did in the time before we all had cell phones in our pockets."
Oh how quickly they forget. The entire problem is that people often didn't get reached at all. I've personally seen low-level managers refuse to put through emergency calls from family because "they didn't want her upset during her shift."
I love my cell phone. It's a qualitative improvement in my life. I have a far better existence knowng that if my family ever needs me they WILL get in touch with me. It gives us all greater freedom knowing that communication is no longer a function of distance.
But then again, that's just a father's point of view.
I'd like to take a moment to salute another yatai veteran.
I started out the sort of hyper-sensitive squeamish dweeb that could have put Seinfeld to shame. After a few years, I knew I'd passed some sort of threshold when my Japanese wife looked at me and said "What's wrong with you? We're not eating there. That place's filthy."
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe it's just been that kind of day, but I laughed for five minutes straight at this...
Ah, to be 18 again. Good times.
Sheperd Book and Wash had to die to set up River vs. the Reavers. You had to know that Joss was perfectly willing to kill anybody. When River jumped through that door, you had to absolutely believe she wasn't coming back -- that's the only way to get the emotional charge from the "Now it's my turn to take care of you" line to Simon and the shock of seeing River alive and gory when the doors opened.
Let me apologize up front for how vehemently I'm going to disagree with you.
No. I mean no. For the love of God, No! Have you lost your bloody mind?! NO!
Don't. Ever. Work. For. Free. You might as well wear a sandwich board that reads "My time is worthless and I'm so naive that I believe an idea put forth by suits looking to recruit cheap, easily-abused labor. I'm beyond desperate, so please, pay me some lowball chump change."
Take a lesson from the marketers. People honestly believe that a thing is worth what you paid for it. If you ever work for someone for free, you'll never convince them to pay top dollar for your services.
You wouldn't believe how much my life has improved since I learned to look them right in the ye without blinking and say "You're right. I compete on quality, not price. To be honest, these are my prices if I design and implement. If I have to go through the headache of fixing someone else's mistakes, I charge a 20% premium."
You'd be amazed at how that one little statement/attitude improves your world. You never have to deal with those neurotic not-worth-the-trouble PITA clients, and the rest come to the job with a "he's expensive, he must know what he's doing" mentality.
So long as you can deliver the goods, it's a far more satisfying way to run your business.
I have got to get a hold of your client list... :)
"in which case this may be the Programmer Permanent Employment Act"
Unfortunately, not really. Taking two examples of popular "shopping cart" programs in wide use, "Miva" and "Cart32," setting them up to charge sales tax only in California is a trivial task. Even setting them to charge unique rates in all 50 states would probably burn no more than half a day, even with testing.
Unfortunately, this is far more likely to burn accounting time than programming time.
A.M.E.N.
I made the same mistake with System Shock 2. Really should have played "1" first.
Finally, someone who understands the importance of this issue.
Actually, yes, the legal theory is called "clean hands." Before you can come asking for justice, you must yourself be just. If you have lived your life as a thief, you lose your standing to complain when other people steal from you.
...send everyone in the world an email about their campaign.
Not just plunging in and trying to crack the thing open isn't cowardice on their part. It's wisdom. And using a non-invasive tool to get the job done is the sign of a working brain.
I found I needed to attach something to give my keyring a little more bulk so I attached a small swiss army knife to it just to keep the two keys from falling out of my pocket.
You'd be amazed how fast you get attached to it. Need to open a letter? Done. Cut tape, string, cardboard, whatever? Done. Emergency procedures on devices from cars to computers to toys? Done.
Pretty soon you just get accustomed to having your own personal toolset. The usb key would just be an added bonus.
Think of it as the first step of a sliding scale of tool sets. Swiss army knife, Leatherman, small plastic toolbox, big metal toolbox, floor mount toolchest...
Some interesting entries for you to investigate in your school library's encyclopedia...
Nixon, Richard M.
Hoover, Edgar J.
Tuskeegee, Institute of Medical Research
Jefferson, Thomas
Paper on the the wisdom of grudgingly allowing your government power, carefully checking, balancing and calling that power into account, and why the Founding Fathers believed in double-leashing all their dogs due next Monday....
If you can code a network aware application, then you probably have at least the fundamentals of networking down, and if you are a capable network admin, then you probably can sling a mean scripting language, which means you have the fundamentals of coding like encapsulation, OOP, data structures, etc. down.
Assuming that all us OSI Layer 4 and below people have to be on-site (which is far from a given), we're still vulnerable to outsourcing. When all those programmers are unemployed, guess whose job they can retool for fastest and be best qualified for?
Now guess what happens when the supply of sysadmins far outstrips the available jobs (even worse than it does now)?
In addition, while I dislike Microsoft, both Steve and Larry have real NEEDS to influence Microsoft behavior.
And yet, somehow your plan of "buy Microsoft stock, influence Microsoft behavior" hasn't really worked for them. Perhaps we're overlooking the minor inconvenience of needing to own 51% of Microsoft stock to have any real say in the matter.
Hmm. I wonder how much money it would take to own 51% of Microsoft voting-class stock and more importantly, would they take a check?
With that one move, you just guaranteed that your employees are only the hacks, the drudges, the plodders and the paper certs. You just guaranteed that no one who ever loves programming or computers will ever work with you.
Which company did you say you were with again?
...about Marvin?
God, I'm so tired of hearing this nonsense. Have you looked at a corporate charter lately? Do you know the history behind corporations? Do you even understand the logic of WHY we give them tax breaks, protection from legal liability and the legal fiction of "personhood?"
Let me spell it out for you. Every corporation ever formed has made the EXPLICIT promise in their corporate charter that if we as a society grant them tax breaks and freedom from personal liability for the owners, then the corporation will benefit society as a whole.
That promise is the reason WHY we grant them lower tax rates, freedom from liability and a myriad other favors. Shareholder value is a distant second to that promise.
Are the rumors of the Great DayStar true?
So I'm assuming you won't mind paying a $10M food bill next month, a $20M water bill and the rest of your assets for a mostly reliable air supply...
If you're a fellow old man like me, then I gotta tell you. Lighten up. You're making the kids who work for you miserable. As for responsibilities, I'm a consultant to one enterprise, a partner in another, and a teacher on top of it because hanging out with no one but other old farts in suits makes me feel old. I got a handful of kids who call me "Dad," and a roomful more who refer to me as "Uncle," so if you're looking for "professional" "responsibility," I've got so much I'll gladly lend you some of mine.
Perhaps you don't understand that the company officers (i.e. the directors) wear liability (incl. criminal) for the actions of the employees:
Here's Westlaw. Find me the cites. Here's CNN. Find me ANY corporate officer who's done time for the actions of their employees in the past fifty years. Feel free to include the terms "Enron," "Union Carbide," and "Exxon Valdez" in your search.
when the directors are sued in a class action because of an employee of theirs that used a personal phone during work hours to cause a negligent loss of profits, then that's okay - hardly!).
Son, I'd like to invite you to come picnic with the rest of us back in the soft green fields of Reality.
Look, you sound like you just got promoted to Head Assistant Manager of the Whole Sporting Goods Department down at the KMart. Does the name "Maj. Frank Burns" ring a bell with you? If you're half as old as you claim to be, it should.
Lighten up. Rent "Seabiscuit" and watch it twice, and that includes the "Making Of Featurette." People don't run their best when you're cracking whips over their heads. Call a seance and ask Uday Hussein about that if you don't believe me.
My people are glad to see me come in, because they know "the boss" can solve their problem. I get good information because no one's afraid to tell me the truth, and I get TIMELY information because no one's afraid about covering their butts when things don't go our way. Sure, my people work for me, but more importantly, they work WITH me.
If you find you're having to threaten more than you inspire, then chances are you're a fairly lousy manager. And if you think that the answer to your company's bottom line is taking away a cell phone from some single mother who works for you, then I'd suggest you start thinking about cutting the payroll at your job.
Wow. And your justification for this is...?
I have what might be very liberating news for you. Your "employer" is your primary client in a business relationship. They're not your parent. They're not your god. They don't "own" you.
They are merely hiring your services for a specific period of time. Their only "right" is they they receive full benefit of the services they've hired you for. In this day and age of hardball and outsourcing, they don't even have the right to expect "company loyalty," whatever that is, since they all almost universally insist on hiring you "at will."
Actually, it hurts to hear a fellow human being so subservient and obsequious. Stand up, my fellow man. Hear the bones pop and the muscles ease as you straighten out your back and unbend your neck. Take a breath of the air of liberty, resplendent in the knowledge that your are your own human being.
You don't have to live your life on your knees.
Oh how quickly they forget. The entire problem is that people often didn't get reached at all. I've personally seen low-level managers refuse to put through emergency calls from family because "they didn't want her upset during her shift."
I love my cell phone. It's a qualitative improvement in my life. I have a far better existence knowng that if my family ever needs me they WILL get in touch with me. It gives us all greater freedom knowing that communication is no longer a function of distance.
But then again, that's just a father's point of view.
I started out the sort of hyper-sensitive squeamish dweeb that could have put Seinfeld to shame. After a few years, I knew I'd passed some sort of threshold when my Japanese wife looked at me and said "What's wrong with you? We're not eating there. That place's filthy."
Fear Factor's got nothing on us.