Thanks for the post. Well said. I've come to the same conclusion: new zealand but the details of life and general complacency always get in the way.
Here are some additional criteria that make we want to move to NZ: first world, good health care and general infrastructure; nice tolerant liberal people; same langauge; mild/cool non-humid climate; pretty; clean; not in the firm grip of the USA; recreation; oh and the sheep of course. Mmmm sheep.
That what I was thinking. What perseverence. And people say sitting computers make you lazy and something about attention span, but this guy drove a long way and...
Sweet. While playing touch american football in 6th grade - which inevitably becomes tackle at some point - I broke an ankle. I can grumble with pride now, "When I was a kid going to school meant you might get hurt, but we liked it taht way, damn it!"
Er, um, of course, people didn't unload automatic weapons in my school, so I guess kids today will have that to brag about.
I think they'd be better off slide tackling each other though.
No no no. Lawyers are evil because they intice / advertise / convince / encourage clients to bring lawsuits. Saying that lawyers are just sitting around doing the bidding of their clients is horse pucky. That's like saying the auto industry wants to sell more fuel efficient cars, but darn, the people just keep begging for SUVs. Check out the marketing angle at midnight on local TV, "Have you tripped over a crack in your neighbor's sidewalk?...." And then publicity from crazy jury awards like this one just gets both the public and a pack of lawyers all salivating for more and more of the same. The whole greedy $$$ bent of lawyer-ism shifts the system towards litigious non-sense like this. Don't tell me lawyers don't share the blame.
1. doesn't want to be / doesn't care enough? or 2. really doesn't have the skills? or 3. is being left out of the conversation all together?
"rational ignorance" agrees that if it is important enough, you'll figure it out. but not if you don't know how to get the info or if you are being left out of the conversation.
i worry that there is a social acceptance of "just give me the answer" or "just give me the quick sound bite" or a dismissive, "meh, it's too hard to understand i give up" and that PEOPLE* need to be better looker-up-ers; better a questioning things; better at de-mistifying advertisements, de-bunking BS, etc. ironically the same techno-babble baffling brits in TFA is the gear you can use to figure it out.
*not/. information masters, i mean the average joe.
statistics or anecdotes aside... there is something troubling about the pace of technology change and tech-language change when it starts to intimidate buyers; alienate populations; exploit the niave...
it is hard to keep pace with new acronyms and insider lingo. harder still to research best-value when buying a new product. how much of this acronym is enough?
are you a teacher? smart ass/. reader? IT professional? a parent? son/daughter to someone struggling with e-mail? parent? then please **TEACH people how to look stuff up!**
give people a fishing pole: google, wikipedia, industry acronym lists, textbooks, reference books. teaching people to be independent researchers is very important. more important in the info-age? maybe. feels like it ot me.
The US Dept of Defense has a very clear definiton of "terrorism." Unfortunately they seem to be really good at the practice itself, by their own defintion. Notice the policy part protects the DoD not the citizens.
DoD DEFINITION: The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or try to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.(DoD O-2000.12-H)
DoD POLICY: "To protect DoD personnel and their families, facilities, and other material resources from terrorist acts."(DoD O-2000.12-H)\
I have some experience in Government acquisition management and some of these/. rants (when temperred) are TRUE:
- some contractors can bid low and get well on mods.
- some large programs are constantly overrun.
And sure you can say this or that should be outsourced and the people managing these programs need to be smarter, but here are the real problems IMHO:
- the requirements generation and acqusition processes are BROKEN. It takes literaly years to document and approve the need, the capability, performance parameters, etc until you are eventually allowed to let a contract. the buerocracy pendulum is currently pegged. it's just too slow.
- the user reps often end up documenting "solutions" instead of "requirements" (e.g. i want a U P-38 I saw at a trade show instead of I want a handheld unit with these constraints capable of...). or worse *sigh* a congressmen sets aside money in your agency's budget for his/her favorite company irregardless of agency need. that's always fun.
- the financial management processes are BROKEN. The budget is on a 4 year (new starts) / 2 year (tweaks) cycle. Right now you are setting the final budget for FY2010/08. more importantly, there are no incentives for the purchasing command to save money. In fact there can be penalties. E.g. 10M per year program. You get crafty and get it all done for 8M + 1M incentive bonus = 9M in year one. It will be incredibly difficult to avoid having your budget cut at the miodyear or year end reviews because you will be way behind in your "obligation and expenditure benchmarks." Expect at least a $1M recurring cut per year thereafter. The system incentivizes full or over-spending; not savings.
Reality check:
- there are some very hard working people in the government... swimming upstream. the succeess stories rarely make the headlines. here's one. we put together a 5 year global telecom contract for an agency that saved 10%-20% per year and brought the system availability from ~90% with many single points fo failure to 99% with prioritized redundant failover. um, well no... it wasn't at the FBI.
coming soon to satellites. the oct 05 issue of via satellite quotes a telesat vp to say, "We expect VoIP will drive demand of the Ka-band [satellite] service considerably. The Ka-band platform is being enhanced to allow us to effectively provide this service and telesat's service providers are in the are in the process of developing a VoIP service they could offer their customers."
would be cool if satellite co's could offer me a total telecom package: digital video, voice and broadband access. don't think anyone has all three over satellite yet... (?)
The US Navy uses both military and commercial satellite networks. Your best bet right now is INMARSAT, but it will still cost you many dollars per minute.
Slashdot Mirror
She's ok and all.
BUT SHE DIDN'T SAVE CHRISTMAS!!! Oh Janie Porche, where are you?
Please mod parent up.
Thanks for the post. Well said. I've come to the same conclusion: new zealand but the details of life and general complacency always get in the way.
Here are some additional criteria that make we want to move to NZ: first world, good health care and general infrastructure; nice tolerant liberal people; same langauge; mild/cool non-humid climate; pretty; clean; not in the firm grip of the USA; recreation; oh and the sheep of course. Mmmm sheep.
That what I was thinking. What perseverence.
And people say sitting computers make you lazy and something about attention span, but this guy drove a long way and...
Hey look... something shiny...
Sweet. While playing touch american football in 6th grade - which inevitably becomes tackle at some point - I broke an ankle. I can grumble with pride now, "When I was a kid going to school meant you might get hurt, but we liked it taht way, damn it!"
Er, um, of course, people didn't unload automatic weapons in my school, so I guess kids today will have that to brag about.
I think they'd be better off slide tackling each other though.
No no no. ... ." And then publicity from crazy jury awards like this one just gets both the public and a pack of lawyers all salivating for more and more of the same. The whole greedy $$$ bent of lawyer-ism shifts the system towards litigious non-sense like this. Don't tell me lawyers don't share the blame.
Lawyers are evil because they intice / advertise / convince / encourage clients to bring lawsuits. Saying that lawyers are just sitting around doing the bidding of their clients is horse pucky. That's like saying the auto industry wants to sell more fuel efficient cars, but darn, the people just keep begging for SUVs. Check out the marketing angle at midnight on local TV, "Have you tripped over a crack in your neighbor's sidewalk?
i wonder sometimes...
/. information masters, i mean the average joe.
1. doesn't want to be / doesn't care enough? or
2. really doesn't have the skills? or
3. is being left out of the conversation all together?
"rational ignorance" agrees that if it is important enough, you'll figure it out. but not if you don't know how to get the info or if you are being left out of the conversation.
i worry that there is a social acceptance of "just give me the answer" or "just give me the quick sound bite" or a dismissive, "meh, it's too hard to understand i give up" and that PEOPLE* need to be better looker-up-ers; better a questioning things; better at de-mistifying advertisements, de-bunking BS, etc. ironically the same techno-babble baffling brits in TFA is the gear you can use to figure it out.
*not
statistics or anecdotes aside...
/. reader? IT professional? a parent? son/daughter to someone struggling with e-mail? parent? then please **TEACH people how to look stuff up!**
there is something troubling about the pace of technology change and tech-language change when it starts to intimidate buyers; alienate populations; exploit the niave...
it is hard to keep pace with new acronyms and insider lingo. harder still to research best-value when buying a new product. how much of this acronym is enough?
are you a teacher? smart ass
give people a fishing pole: google, wikipedia, industry acronym lists, textbooks, reference books. teaching people to be independent researchers is very important. more important in the info-age? maybe. feels like it ot me.
The US Dept of Defense has a very clear definiton of "terrorism." Unfortunately they seem to be really good at the practice itself, by their own defintion. Notice the policy part protects the DoD not the citizens.
DoD DEFINITION: The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or try to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.(DoD O-2000.12-H)
DoD POLICY: "To protect DoD personnel and their families, facilities, and other material resources from terrorist acts."(DoD O-2000.12-H)\
Try reading Douglas Coupland's "JPod: A Novel"
-pop-culture-damaged twentysomething misfits flailing, foundering, and occasionally succeeding in the high-tech sector-
I have some experience in Government acquisition management and some of these /. rants (when temperred) are TRUE:
- some contractors can bid low and get well on mods.
- some large programs are constantly overrun.
And sure you can say this or that should be outsourced and the people managing these programs need to be smarter, but here are the real problems IMHO:
- the requirements generation and acqusition processes are BROKEN. It takes literaly years to document and approve the need, the capability, performance parameters, etc until you are eventually allowed to let a contract. the buerocracy pendulum is currently pegged. it's just too slow.
- the user reps often end up documenting "solutions" instead of "requirements" (e.g. i want a U P-38 I saw at a trade show instead of I want a handheld unit with these constraints capable of...). or worse *sigh* a congressmen sets aside money in your agency's budget for his/her favorite company irregardless of agency need. that's always fun.
- the financial management processes are BROKEN. The budget is on a 4 year (new starts) / 2 year (tweaks) cycle. Right now you are setting the final budget for FY2010/08. more importantly, there are no incentives for the purchasing command to save money. In fact there can be penalties. E.g. 10M per year program. You get crafty and get it all done for 8M + 1M incentive bonus = 9M in year one. It will be incredibly difficult to avoid having your budget cut at the miodyear or year end reviews because you will be way behind in your "obligation and expenditure benchmarks." Expect at least a $1M recurring cut per year thereafter. The system incentivizes full or over-spending; not savings.
Reality check:
- there are some very hard working people in the government... swimming upstream. the succeess stories rarely make the headlines. here's one. we put together a 5 year global telecom contract for an agency that saved 10%-20% per year and brought the system availability from ~90% with many single points fo failure to 99% with prioritized redundant failover. um, well no... it wasn't at the FBI.
coming soon to satellites.
the oct 05 issue of via satellite quotes a telesat vp to say, "We expect VoIP will drive demand of the Ka-band [satellite] service considerably. The Ka-band platform is being enhanced to allow us to effectively provide this service and telesat's service providers are in the are in the process of developing a VoIP service they could offer their customers."
would be cool if satellite co's could offer me a total telecom package: digital video, voice and broadband access. don't think anyone has all three over satellite yet... (?)
The US Navy uses both military and commercial satellite networks. Your best bet right now is INMARSAT, but it will still cost you many dollars per minute.