Being Part of both a good layoff plan and a bad layoff plan. I think it all comes down to how I look at employment in the future. I was both dot-bombed, and government hand shook away. And I much prefer the golden handshake of 6-8 weeks virtual employment while I looked for a job
Friends and I who got the "your laid off, and you get the rest of the day paid", plan makes us much more picky when choosing new employment. My skills are up to date, so now when I got my present job, I asked questions in the interview like.
Have you ever (coporate HR) laid people off, what kind of benefits are you talking about when you get rid of people. Boy that throws them for a loop.
What kind of notice do you give before laying someone off, is it "our product wasn't accepted at a trade show" or "we have lost money for the last 2 quaters".
Did you lose money in the last 2 quarters( good follow-up".
Have you ever made a profit, or a product (good for dot-coms)
Given that they are going to lie a little, at least you have a good idea where most of them stand. Does this make me risk adverse, well maybe a little, but at least I know what I am getting into.
This is an email exchange between me and a SuSE Rep. I was blatantly asking for marketing drivel to try and steer my PHB in the right direction. Our bussiness focus is not on databases, so we were just looking to fill a customer requirement.
It seems to me that they did a very poor sales job, when you stack them up against Dell, Sun and Compaq.
The Sun reps called me repeatedly, the Dell Reps are stilling calling me, and I had to get a restraining order against the Compaq people;)
I understand that they would be pushing the hardware, but I was more looking for a total turnkey solution (setup, installation, and support), and we were willing to pay for it.
I was really intrigued about SuSE not having an answer to "Why Linux", I thought that this would be the major question that PHB's asked.
> Hello
Sorry for LATE response, I had forgotten to redirect the mails before I
went on vacation.
> I am tasked with doing a cost analysis (Hardware and Software) of
> installing Oracle into a customers site. At present I haven't been
> limited by OS, so Windows(NT or 2000), Linux, or UNIX (any supported
> flavour) are all in the running. I use SuSE at home, and enjoy
> it, but I need to make a strong business case to use it in a customer
> site.
>
> Do you have any of the following;
>
> 1. White papers leveraging SuSE against Windows or HP/SUN
No. We rarely have to justify "why Linux", our customers almost always
already know they want Linux, so their was little need for such
documents.
> 2. Cost outlines for support.
You can get a quote for support from bsupport@suse.com, or see below for
the other option.
> 3. Do you offer Oracle turnkey solutions
No. We don't believe this would make sense to do this ourselves.
Instead, we have partnered with Compaq. See
http://www.suse.com/en/support/oracle/ for a link to Compaq's "Certified
Configuration" for Oracle 9i. The model we use: Compaq sells and
supports (1st and 2nd level) such solutions, and we work with Compaq in
the background to develop them and provide them with 3rd level support.
In the future we'll also add other hardware vendors, but since we have
to start somewhere and because Compaq is by far the most important
Oracle partner for Linux they're the first ones (and will always have a
head-start).
> 3. Any useful links that I can use to better showcase Linux would be
> appreciated
>
> It has to be reliable, and be on Oracle 8.1.6(7), The size of the
> database would be around 50 GB, and have less than 50 concurrent
> users.
Yes, that's a typical Linux scenario and even on the low end. If you
need user experiences I'd suggest to ask on suse-oracle@suse.com, a very
active list. What they'll have to say is worth more than our or Oracle's
marketing talk I guess... subscription info is available under the URL I
already mentioned.
What is the harm to taking these scientists views and making some changes to our industries. If they are right, then we might be able to slow down the damage and shorten the amount of time that it takes for the earth to heal. If the models are incorrect, we gain greater energy efficiency, less dependence on fossil fuels and probably greater air quality for all.
Who will pay for these things, well I guess industry, and eventually the consumers. In fact it probaly would create a whole new high tech industry which undoubtedly only high tech countries will be able to provide
Either way we win...
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Being Part of both a good layoff plan and a bad layoff plan. I think it all comes down to how I look at employment in the future. I was both dot-bombed, and government hand shook away. And I much prefer the golden handshake of 6-8 weeks virtual employment while I looked for a job
Friends and I who got the "your laid off, and you get the rest of the day paid", plan makes us much more picky when choosing new employment. My skills are up to date, so now when I got my present job, I asked questions in the interview like.
Have you ever (coporate HR) laid people off, what kind of benefits are you talking about when you get rid of people. Boy that throws them for a loop.
What kind of notice do you give before laying someone off, is it "our product wasn't accepted at a trade show" or "we have lost money for the last 2 quaters".
Did you lose money in the last 2 quarters( good follow-up".
Have you ever made a profit, or a product (good for dot-coms)
Given that they are going to lie a little, at least you have a good idea where most of them stand. Does this make me risk adverse, well maybe a little, but at least I know what I am getting into.
This is an email exchange between me and a SuSE Rep. I was blatantly asking for marketing drivel to try and steer my PHB in the right direction. Our bussiness focus is not on databases, so we were just looking to fill a customer requirement.
;)
It seems to me that they did a very poor sales job, when you stack them up against Dell, Sun and Compaq.
The Sun reps called me repeatedly, the Dell Reps are stilling calling me, and I had to get a restraining order against the Compaq people
I understand that they would be pushing the hardware, but I was more looking for a total turnkey solution (setup, installation, and support), and we were willing to pay for it.
I was really intrigued about SuSE not having an answer to "Why Linux", I thought that this would be the major question that PHB's asked.
> Hello
Sorry for LATE response, I had forgotten to redirect the mails before I
went on vacation.
> I am tasked with doing a cost analysis (Hardware and Software) of
> installing Oracle into a customers site. At present I haven't been
> limited by OS, so Windows(NT or 2000), Linux, or UNIX (any supported
> flavour) are all in the running. I use SuSE at home, and enjoy
> it, but I need to make a strong business case to use it in a customer
> site.
>
> Do you have any of the following;
>
> 1. White papers leveraging SuSE against Windows or HP/SUN
No. We rarely have to justify "why Linux", our customers almost always
already know they want Linux, so their was little need for such
documents.
> 2. Cost outlines for support.
You can get a quote for support from bsupport@suse.com, or see below for
the other option.
> 3. Do you offer Oracle turnkey solutions
No. We don't believe this would make sense to do this ourselves.
Instead, we have partnered with Compaq. See
http://www.suse.com/en/support/oracle/ for a link to Compaq's "Certified
Configuration" for Oracle 9i. The model we use: Compaq sells and
supports (1st and 2nd level) such solutions, and we work with Compaq in
the background to develop them and provide them with 3rd level support.
In the future we'll also add other hardware vendors, but since we have
to start somewhere and because Compaq is by far the most important
Oracle partner for Linux they're the first ones (and will always have a
head-start).
> 3. Any useful links that I can use to better showcase Linux would be
> appreciated
>
> It has to be reliable, and be on Oracle 8.1.6(7), The size of the
> database would be around 50 GB, and have less than 50 concurrent
> users.
Yes, that's a typical Linux scenario and even on the low end. If you
need user experiences I'd suggest to ask on suse-oracle@suse.com, a very
active list. What they'll have to say is worth more than our or Oracle's
marketing talk I guess... subscription info is available under the URL I
already mentioned.
What is the harm to taking these scientists views and making some changes to our industries. If they are right, then we might be able to slow down the damage and shorten the amount of time that it takes for the earth to heal. If the models are incorrect, we gain greater energy efficiency, less dependence on fossil fuels and probably greater air quality for all. Who will pay for these things, well I guess industry, and eventually the consumers. In fact it probaly would create a whole new high tech industry which undoubtedly only high tech countries will be able to provide Either way we win...