Your point about not blaming people is a strong one I think.
Business is all about a process. That process should not allow a situation to arise where hostility could erupt.
If some project doesn't get done on time, yes, certain people may be at fault, but only if they deliberately deceived someone. If a programmer overstated what he could do, but told his boss about it when he realized it, there's no reason to get mad. If his boss then tells HIS boss and schedules are adjusted to reflect reality.. nobody needs to get mad. If the top level people are upset with the schedule change... they might get mad, but they shouldn't. What they SHOULD do is say 'why did this happen, how can we change the system so it won't happen again?'.
Good point.
I'm not trying to tell people that they shouldn't have a strong work ethic and to believe in what they do.. in the company they work for. That's all GOOD!
But you *MUST* realize how the company views *YOU*. If you do miracles for the company, that translates into *money* for someone at the top. Make sure you are properly compensated for what you do.
If it's crunch time and the only way the company is going to meet it's deadline is if you bust ass 100 hours a week.. that's fine. IT's GREAT that you can commit to that. ANd afterwards, make sure you USE that fact. Inform your boss that you are taking a week's paid vacation (or a couple extra days on a weekend, or whatever) because of all the extra work you put in. Don't let it just slide by.
Okay.. that WAS NOT a troll.
I made a mistake. the site should be
www.digiscents.com, the product is called the 'ismell'. There was an article in wired a year ago or so.....
in the IT world get stressed out because they *don't recognize that they get stressed out, or what makes them stressed out until it's too late*.
The first time I was really stressed out (I was 22 years old, working at some ISP) I went to the doctor complaining that I was having trouble sleeping, got frequent headaches, and noticed that I was generally getting irritable. I thought it was my diet or I had a tumor or something. After talking to him, describing work... he said 'You are simply stressed out'.
And it was *MY FAULT* for getting that way.
So.. here are my simple guidelines for not getting stressed out.
1) When someone gives you tasks/objectives at work, and a deadline, TALK TO THEM. If it can't be done during reasonable working hours, TELL THEM SO, IMMEDIATELY. Don't just assume they won't budge.
2) You aren't doing your job right if you can't do it in about 8 hours a day. You are either a crapppy programmer, or WAY overextending what you should be doing.
3) Eat Good Food!
4) Drink lots of water.
5) Don't drink too much booze.
6) Don't do recreational drugs during the workweek. The odd beer is okay. Stay off the weed, it makes you stupid. Save it for the weekend.
For the record.. I have an IT job, in a public company, in a company in the IT sector. Lots of engineers, programmers, etc.
I keep reading all these horror stories about Silicon Valley and how 'horrible and stressful' working there is. 80 hour weeks....
Yet I hear so many people moving there saying 'but I can make $100,000 a year'.
Hey.. that's twice what I make.. but wait, I only work *gasp* 40 hour weeks..... and I'm NOT stressed out.
I also know that if I decided to work 80 hours a week, like at a second job, I could make that hundred grand a year, and I would be sick and unhealthy and stressed out.
There are several things needed to make you happy at work.
1) Job Security. You can't feel 'good' about work if you worry about every single thing you do causing you to get fired.
2) Personal Security. You have to feel confident about your own abilities, and not dig yourself into a job that's over your head.
3) Good coworkers. If you end up working with backstabbing moneygrubbing coworkers.. well, what do you expect?
4) Good managers/management! Yes.. VERY important. Managers who realize that programmers are not 'programming machines' that can go 40 or 80 hours a week. Managers who realize that you will get just as much quality code out of programmers who work 40 hour weeks and are expected to actually code for only part of that.
5) Good *company* management. If everyone is on the same playing field, things work fine. If corporate guys set deadlines for engineering projects, of COURSE there is stress! If software managers set deadlines on software without any idea of what is involved, same thing. Stress.
Best example I've seen of proper behavior is this:
corporate (marketing) says they want this new feature added to the product. Corporate asks VP Engineering. VP Engineering talks to his managers. (hardware guys, software guys, project managers). THey all go back to their respective groups, gather input as to what is involved, and get back together to tell the VP Engineering how long it will take. Project managers indicate when a good time to start it is.. etc. VP Engineering calls back and says 'You can have that two years from now, unless you want to shelve some other stuff. HEre are the main reasons we can't do it.
And *NOBODY GETS MAD ABOUT IT!* This is how things should work.
The programmers and engineers aren't overworked, the deadlines are reasonably met, the managers take responsibility for their departments....
The one thing that makes games better these days is the multiplayer aspect, more specifically, the massively multiplayer stuff. That definately makes things more fun and interesting (and addicting).
Aside from that, no...
The early Ultima games were fun, had great depth and took a long time to finish, and required a lot of thought.
Saying 'this laptop sucks 10 watt-hours per hour' would be correct, but can be reduced to 'it's a 10 watt laptop'.
10wh/h = 10w...
An amp-hour is meaningless unless you know the voltage. That's why batteries are usually measured in amp-hours.. the voltage is known and fixed.
(there is no need to specify watts as you already know the voltage, and watts = volts * amps). It's saying the same thing.
You missed the point. Microsoft *DOES* pay taxes, and their employees *DO* end up with fair 'wages'.
They simply get a tax exemption for paying their employees, like any other companies. This would happen whether they were paid in cash or options, or new cars.
The real issue, from an investor point of view, is that the only reason microsoft can get away with doing this (financially speaking) is because their stock price still goes up. A normal company would just dilute it stock, drive the value down, and it would end up costing them the same as if they had paid their employees cash.
The government would get *NO MORE* income tax out of them if they simply paid their employees in pur cash.
I know we hate MS.. but that summary of the fool.com article is *WAY* out of context.
It's not that 'ms simply prints certificates to exercise options'....
THe quote is that 'rather than pay out cash, all MS has to do is have the BOARD OF DIRECTORS VOTE to issue stock certificates for the options.'
This is how *ALL STOCK OPTIONS EVERYWHERE* work. ALL OF THEM.
Also.. the talk of 'put warrants'. These are otherwise known as 'options', as in, options trading. Check out cboe.org (chicago bond & option exchange?). LOTS and LOTS of big companies are listed there and do the same thing.
The context of the fool article is that half of MS income statement can be accounted for on common stock alone, and that it really doesn't reflect their sale of product accurately at all, due to several reasons.
1) Employees are largely paid in options. The benefit to their financial statement here is that the wages they paid out (an incurred expense of business) is significantly less than you would expect, because options issued are not recorded as expenditures.
Employees receive no real benefit here; they are still taxed as if they were paid cash. Read the fool article for details (or learn about employee stock options).
2) Wages paid to employees is tax deductible for Microsoft. By giving them options valued at $xxx, they get the benefit of the tax deduction, without reducing their cash flow, becuase the employees were really paid in options.
3) In fact, on the books, the options actually caused INCOME to come into Microsoft, as employees had to buy them.
Now.. please note. This article is NOT trying to say that Microsoft is cheating on it's taxes, ripping off it's employees, or anything like that.
It's simply pointing out (like the fool always does) that, if you are trying to valuate microsoft and their earnings, as an INVESTOR, you should realize that a *large* part of what they claim as income is coming from their own common stock, and not the products they are selling. Coming by way of tax benefits offset by not spending 'real' money for employee compensation.
BTW... a smaller company can't do this as well, becuase the dilution of their stock from issuing more shares has a much larger impact on the stock value, and paying their employees large percentages of their salaries in options woudl drive the stock price continually downard, defeating the purpose. This only works as long as the company stock value keeps rising. (as long as it's rising, investors don't much care if it's diluted.. as long as it still rises... kind of fucked, eh?)
But, the thing is, employees are no different than mom & pop Farmer who own stock. The fact that the shareholderes are employees has nothing to do with the value of the company.
And from an employees POV, exercised options either ammount to capital gains (US?) or a taxable benefit based on the fair market value of the stock on the exercise date (Canada)
? Employees exercising stock optionns incurr a taxable benefit.. and...
Microsoft printing it's own stock certificates instead of using already-set aside stock should be no problem provided it was previously disclosed that this is how it worked. What's the issue?
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but that's how basically *ALL* companies deal with stock options.
THe only thing that differs is whether or not the directors permit the company to do so in this manner. This is something *completely* up to them.
I know at one company, it used to be they had to pre-set the # of options set aside for option plans in an 'opton plan for year xxxx' or whatever.
Now, they have the leverage to do so whenever they want (provided they follow the option plan outlined to the SEC).
How MS doing this is something bad, I'm not sure I understand. How they deal with their employee stock options is public knowledge for any potential investor, and to any employee. What's wrong with that?
Also... handing out new shares instead of setting them aside ahead of time is merely a bookkeeping issue. Yes, they dilute the stock by doing so, but given the # of shares outstanding, is it really a big deal?
Slashdot Mirror
Your point about not blaming people is a strong one I think.
Business is all about a process. That process should not allow a situation to arise where hostility could erupt.
If some project doesn't get done on time, yes, certain people may be at fault, but only if they deliberately deceived someone. If a programmer overstated what he could do, but told his boss about it when he realized it, there's no reason to get mad. If his boss then tells HIS boss and schedules are adjusted to reflect reality.. nobody needs to get mad. If the top level people are upset with the schedule change... they might get mad, but they shouldn't. What they SHOULD do is say 'why did this happen, how can we change the system so it won't happen again?'.
It's important to have a good work ethic, to love your job, etc...
It's MORE important to recognize how you are treating yourself and how your wonderful job that you are dedicated to fits into your life as a whole.
Good point.
I'm not trying to tell people that they shouldn't have a strong work ethic and to believe in what they do.. in the company they work for. That's all GOOD!
But you *MUST* realize how the company views *YOU*. If you do miracles for the company, that translates into *money* for someone at the top. Make sure you are properly compensated for what you do.
If it's crunch time and the only way the company is going to meet it's deadline is if you bust ass 100 hours a week.. that's fine. IT's GREAT that you can commit to that. ANd afterwards, make sure you USE that fact. Inform your boss that you are taking a week's paid vacation (or a couple extra days on a weekend, or whatever) because of all the extra work you put in. Don't let it just slide by.
Okay.. that WAS NOT a troll.
I made a mistake. the site should be
www.digiscents.com, the product is called the 'ismell'. There was an article in wired a year ago or so.....
So 'smellvision' really IS becoming possible.
That may be the case for you. Somehow I think you'd find that if you stopped for a while, you'd find you were sharper.
Also.. how old are you? age is a factor.
in the IT world get stressed out because they *don't recognize that they get stressed out, or what makes them stressed out until it's too late*.
The first time I was really stressed out (I was 22 years old, working at some ISP) I went to the doctor complaining that I was having trouble sleeping, got frequent headaches, and noticed that I was generally getting irritable. I thought it was my diet or I had a tumor or something. After talking to him, describing work... he said 'You are simply stressed out'.
And it was *MY FAULT* for getting that way.
So.. here are my simple guidelines for not getting stressed out.
1) When someone gives you tasks/objectives at work, and a deadline, TALK TO THEM. If it can't be done during reasonable working hours, TELL THEM SO, IMMEDIATELY. Don't just assume they won't budge.
2) You aren't doing your job right if you can't do it in about 8 hours a day. You are either a crapppy programmer, or WAY overextending what you should be doing.
3) Eat Good Food!
4) Drink lots of water.
5) Don't drink too much booze.
6) Don't do recreational drugs during the workweek. The odd beer is okay. Stay off the weed, it makes you stupid. Save it for the weekend.
7) Take your holidays.
8) Communicate!
For the record.. I have an IT job, in a public company, in a company in the IT sector. Lots of engineers, programmers, etc.
I keep reading all these horror stories about Silicon Valley and how 'horrible and stressful' working there is. 80 hour weeks....
Yet I hear so many people moving there saying 'but I can make $100,000 a year'.
Hey.. that's twice what I make.. but wait, I only work *gasp* 40 hour weeks..... and I'm NOT stressed out.
I also know that if I decided to work 80 hours a week, like at a second job, I could make that hundred grand a year, and I would be sick and unhealthy and stressed out.
There are several things needed to make you happy at work.
1) Job Security. You can't feel 'good' about work if you worry about every single thing you do causing you to get fired.
2) Personal Security. You have to feel confident about your own abilities, and not dig yourself into a job that's over your head.
3) Good coworkers. If you end up working with backstabbing moneygrubbing coworkers.. well, what do you expect?
4) Good managers/management! Yes.. VERY important. Managers who realize that programmers are not 'programming machines' that can go 40 or 80 hours a week. Managers who realize that you will get just as much quality code out of programmers who work 40 hour weeks and are expected to actually code for only part of that.
5) Good *company* management. If everyone is on the same playing field, things work fine. If corporate guys set deadlines for engineering projects, of COURSE there is stress! If software managers set deadlines on software without any idea of what is involved, same thing. Stress.
Best example I've seen of proper behavior is this:
corporate (marketing) says they want this new feature added to the product. Corporate asks VP Engineering. VP Engineering talks to his managers. (hardware guys, software guys, project managers). THey all go back to their respective groups, gather input as to what is involved, and get back together to tell the VP Engineering how long it will take. Project managers indicate when a good time to start it is.. etc. VP Engineering calls back and says 'You can have that two years from now, unless you want to shelve some other stuff. HEre are the main reasons we can't do it.
And *NOBODY GETS MAD ABOUT IT!* This is how things should work.
The programmers and engineers aren't overworked, the deadlines are reasonably met, the managers take responsibility for their departments....
smellvision exists.
check out ismell.com
The one thing that makes games better these days is the multiplayer aspect, more specifically, the massively multiplayer stuff. That definately makes things more fun and interesting (and addicting).
Aside from that, no...
The early Ultima games were fun, had great depth and took a long time to finish, and required a lot of thought.
Yes. How does that make what I said wrong?
A '10 watt-hour' is a '10 joule/second' load for an hour.
ANd that will be something that the *consumer* can most effectively fight.,
If people don't agree with genetic testing... DON'T BUY INSURANCE FROM THOSE WHO WANT TO DO IT!
They'll get the hint.
The best way to say it is not to say it at all.
Saying 'this laptop sucks 10 watt-hours per hour' would be correct, but can be reduced to 'it's a 10 watt laptop'.
10wh/h = 10w...
An amp-hour is meaningless unless you know the voltage. That's why batteries are usually measured in amp-hours.. the voltage is known and fixed.
(there is no need to specify watts as you already know the voltage, and watts = volts * amps). It's saying the same thing.
No... though you could say 'if on for one hour, the laptop will consume 10 watt-hours'.. but that's the same as saying it's a 10W device.
The amount of power used is measured in kilowatt-hours... meaing the amount of energy equivalent to drawing a kilowatt for an hour.
IBM's s/390 will run other distributions..
It's only some kernel mods that are needed to get it working.
You missed the point. Microsoft *DOES* pay taxes, and their employees *DO* end up with fair 'wages'.
They simply get a tax exemption for paying their employees, like any other companies. This would happen whether they were paid in cash or options, or new cars.
The real issue, from an investor point of view, is that the only reason microsoft can get away with doing this (financially speaking) is because their stock price still goes up. A normal company would just dilute it stock, drive the value down, and it would end up costing them the same as if they had paid their employees cash.
The government would get *NO MORE* income tax out of them if they simply paid their employees in pur cash.
1) Because they can
2) Because Red Hat *TOLD* them to.
BTW.. the prospectus says they may sell 'up to 800,000 shares', not 'must sell 800,000 shares'. This was at their discretion as an underwriter.
Not exactly.
Thoese are rights *the people guarantee themselves*.
cboe.com that is.
Okay. BAD REPORTER! BAD SLASHDOT!
I know we hate MS.. but that summary of the fool.com article is *WAY* out of context.
It's not that 'ms simply prints certificates to exercise options'....
THe quote is that 'rather than pay out cash, all MS has to do is have the BOARD OF DIRECTORS VOTE to issue stock certificates for the options.'
This is how *ALL STOCK OPTIONS EVERYWHERE* work. ALL OF THEM.
Also.. the talk of 'put warrants'. These are otherwise known as 'options', as in, options trading. Check out cboe.org (chicago bond & option exchange?). LOTS and LOTS of big companies are listed there and do the same thing.
The context of the fool article is that half of MS income statement can be accounted for on common stock alone, and that it really doesn't reflect their sale of product accurately at all, due to several reasons.
1) Employees are largely paid in options. The benefit to their financial statement here is that the wages they paid out (an incurred expense of business) is significantly less than you would expect, because options issued are not recorded as expenditures.
Employees receive no real benefit here; they are still taxed as if they were paid cash. Read the fool article for details (or learn about employee stock options).
2) Wages paid to employees is tax deductible for Microsoft. By giving them options valued at $xxx, they get the benefit of the tax deduction, without reducing their cash flow, becuase the employees were really paid in options.
3) In fact, on the books, the options actually caused INCOME to come into Microsoft, as employees had to buy them.
Now.. please note. This article is NOT trying to say that Microsoft is cheating on it's taxes, ripping off it's employees, or anything like that.
It's simply pointing out (like the fool always does) that, if you are trying to valuate microsoft and their earnings, as an INVESTOR, you should realize that a *large* part of what they claim as income is coming from their own common stock, and not the products they are selling. Coming by way of tax benefits offset by not spending 'real' money for employee compensation.
BTW... a smaller company can't do this as well, becuase the dilution of their stock from issuing more shares has a much larger impact on the stock value, and paying their employees large percentages of their salaries in options woudl drive the stock price continually downard, defeating the purpose. This only works as long as the company stock value keeps rising. (as long as it's rising, investors don't much care if it's diluted.. as long as it still rises... kind of fucked, eh?)
But, the thing is, employees are no different than mom & pop Farmer who own stock. The fact that the shareholderes are employees has nothing to do with the value of the company.
And from an employees POV, exercised options either ammount to capital gains (US?) or a taxable benefit based on the fair market value of the stock on the exercise date (Canada)
? Employees exercising stock optionns incurr a taxable benefit.. and...
Microsoft printing it's own stock certificates instead of using already-set aside stock should be no problem provided it was previously disclosed that this is how it worked. What's the issue?
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but that's how basically *ALL* companies deal with stock options.
THe only thing that differs is whether or not the directors permit the company to do so in this manner. This is something *completely* up to them.
I know at one company, it used to be they had to pre-set the # of options set aside for option plans in an 'opton plan for year xxxx' or whatever.
Now, they have the leverage to do so whenever they want (provided they follow the option plan outlined to the SEC).
How MS doing this is something bad, I'm not sure I understand. How they deal with their employee stock options is public knowledge for any potential investor, and to any employee. What's wrong with that?
Also... handing out new shares instead of setting them aside ahead of time is merely a bookkeeping issue. Yes, they dilute the stock by doing so, but given the # of shares outstanding, is it really a big deal?
Either 1) Lobby government to make laws (bad)
2) Vote with your money (GOOD!)
3) Encourage dealers to tell Motorola to fuck off.
Besides. If companies want demographics, they can do it in much nicer ways.
If you don't like the banners, why don't you block them and quit whining?
Sounds like AT&T is forgetting who needs who.
Without those sites all over the place, joe average has no reason to use AT&T.