I always found the stress of academia silly and trivial compared to, say, making rent. Or taking care of a family. Or not killing people when you're operating on their brain.
Then again, I was a student of modest talent at best. I never gave a damn about school. It was, for me, a means to an end: Never an end in itself.
Yup. The software had to be good, and the hardware had to be good. And it has done so, consistently, since Jobs came back and fixed the company.
So what's your point?
Saying that Jobs is only good at marketing and spin is to damn him with faint praise. What some people call a "reality distortion field", I call a preternatural awareness of what makes good products that people want to buy.
I say more power to him. He's not hurting anybody.
Apple software with the typical crappy PC hardware would not be as good.
I certainly wouldn't put up with running OS X on a Dell. Sure, Apple's stumbled a time or two, but I count their engineering and quality control as a cut above anything else on the market.
Oh yeah. And their software pretty much rages too.
The trick is to apply enough pressure, but not too much. It's the part of parenting I fear the most.
I would have appreciated (in the long run) higher standards for my academic performance in school. I was very smart, but not motivated.
Not to say I blame my parents...I think they did a great job with me, and I understand the conundrum they were in. I do hope I can strike a better balance. If I had gotten in the habit of getting better grades in elementary and high school, I'd have had a much easier time in college. (Because I wouldn't have needed to work two jobs, because I would have had a scholarship.)
"It was guys like that that the rest of us in the flight hated, which again compounded the stress levels for these poor guys."
If you understand what the problem was, and why the DIs were doing what they were doing, why did you hate those guys? The DIs job is to identify those people and hit them until they are ready to break. The DIs are good at their job. The people break. So you hate them?
That's ridiculous. The mini is a fully strapped computer out of the box. If you want to add accessories, they're available. How is this "sucker[ing] people"?
"Buying all those stackable boxes is probably expensive..." Whatever. Buying well designed products is always more expensive than buying poorly designed products. I'm glad to have the option. If it weren't for Apple, there would be zero well-designed personal computers.
(I've seen some very nicely designed servers, although the aesthetics tend to be poor to miserable)
I'd love a good looking PC case. Never found one. I've found some that don't look hideous, but I've never seen one that made me say "Wow! That's a nice looking case!"
I don't know what would lead you to that conclusion. I work in a place where I get respect when I own my mistakes. It's an excellent climate for exploration and problem-solving. If I try something that doesn't work, I don't feel any need to cover it up. I can just say "Hey! This broke!" and proceed to fix it. I tell my boss straight up: This is what I need to do the job. He gets it for me. I do the job. I fix what breaks, and he appreciates my work.
So, again: I have a good working environment. I do not have a right to have a good working environment. I do not expect that I will always have a good working environment. I tailor my behavior to the dicta of my environment. This guy at Google failed to do the last, and paid for it. Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?
I'm very forgiving. I give huge benefits of the doubt. I would be a great fool if I proceeded from the assumption that anybody else on Earth behaves like I do in that regard.
Google was within their rights. They made a judgement call that this yahoo was more of a liability than an asset. Whether you agree with that assessment is irrelevant: The point is, it's their assessment to make.
If it WAS there to read, it HAS BEEN disclosed, therefore, he violated his non-DISCLOSURE agreement.
You have enough credibility with your boss to be forgiven when you make mistakes. So do I. This guy obviously did not. What's the problem, other than this guy was an idiot and got fired?
Of course it reflects poorly on their management and business practices. Yet another in the long list of reasons I wouldn't buy their stock.
This "lowest man on the totem pole" was the guy shooting his mouth off. If he thought he was important enough to Google to be able to shoot his mouth off with impunity, well, I guess he was wrong.
Anybody with two neurons to bang together knows you don't call your boss an ass in public and expect to keep your job.
I think it makes perfect sense. I have the right to work without being coerced into joining the union. What is unclear?
I expect that my employer should have the right to fire me if he doesn't like the color of my shirt. I expect my own performance to be of high enough quality to make this an unattractive proposition for the employer.
Slashdot Mirror
I take it back. Let me further qualify. A well-designed case that I don't have to mortgage my home to purchase.
I always found the stress of academia silly and trivial compared to, say, making rent. Or taking care of a family. Or not killing people when you're operating on their brain.
Then again, I was a student of modest talent at best. I never gave a damn about school. It was, for me, a means to an end: Never an end in itself.
Different perspectives...
Yup. The software had to be good, and the hardware had to be good. And it has done so, consistently, since Jobs came back and fixed the company.
So what's your point?
Saying that Jobs is only good at marketing and spin is to damn him with faint praise. What some people call a "reality distortion field", I call a preternatural awareness of what makes good products that people want to buy.
I say more power to him. He's not hurting anybody.
Wow. You mean the first digital camera I ever saw wasn't as capable as a camera you could get ten years later?
What a staggering revelation. You should, like, get a patent or something. I bet computers got faster and cheaper over the same timeframe.
It's both.
Apple software with the typical crappy PC hardware would not be as good.
I certainly wouldn't put up with running OS X on a Dell. Sure, Apple's stumbled a time or two, but I count their engineering and quality control as a cut above anything else on the market.
Oh yeah. And their software pretty much rages too.
Why would you feel any way about it at all? The statistical results of any given study have no predictive value for any given human being.
You say that you're not "one of those". I say there is no "those". The "majority of geekdom" is an irrelevant categorization.
The trick is to apply enough pressure, but not too much. It's the part of parenting I fear the most.
I would have appreciated (in the long run) higher standards for my academic performance in school. I was very smart, but not motivated.
Not to say I blame my parents...I think they did a great job with me, and I understand the conundrum they were in. I do hope I can strike a better balance. If I had gotten in the habit of getting better grades in elementary and high school, I'd have had a much easier time in college. (Because I wouldn't have needed to work two jobs, because I would have had a scholarship.)
I think being able to admit when you are wrong is where intelligence begins.
If you think you're never wrong, I don't think you're very smart.
"It was guys like that that the rest of us in the flight hated, which again compounded the stress levels for these poor guys."
If you understand what the problem was, and why the DIs were doing what they were doing, why did you hate those guys? The DIs job is to identify those people and hit them until they are ready to break. The DIs are good at their job. The people break. So you hate them?
Huh?
That's ridiculous. The mini is a fully strapped computer out of the box. If you want to add accessories, they're available. How is this "sucker[ing] people"?
"Buying all those stackable boxes is probably expensive..." Whatever. Buying well designed products is always more expensive than buying poorly designed products. I'm glad to have the option. If it weren't for Apple, there would be zero well-designed personal computers.
(I've seen some very nicely designed servers, although the aesthetics tend to be poor to miserable)
I'd love a good looking PC case. Never found one. I've found some that don't look hideous, but I've never seen one that made me say "Wow! That's a nice looking case!"
No, I"m in a community where I don't interact with the editors.
You know there are more people than editors, right?
I've never interacted with the editors, and I somehow get value out of this community.
Except when I take the time to respond to ACs. That never seems to be useful...
I think Slashdot is MORE like a large community of people with a wide variety of preconceptions and beliefs.
But hey, whichever model suits your rhetorical needs...
I don't know what would lead you to that conclusion. I work in a place where I get respect when I own my mistakes. It's an excellent climate for exploration and problem-solving. If I try something that doesn't work, I don't feel any need to cover it up. I can just say "Hey! This broke!" and proceed to fix it. I tell my boss straight up: This is what I need to do the job. He gets it for me. I do the job. I fix what breaks, and he appreciates my work.
So, again: I have a good working environment. I do not have a right to have a good working environment. I do not expect that I will always have a good working environment. I tailor my behavior to the dicta of my environment. This guy at Google failed to do the last, and paid for it. Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?
If you want a transparent image that's more than 256 colors, your only viable option is .png. A minor format? Are you nutty?
I'm very forgiving. I give huge benefits of the doubt. I would be a great fool if I proceeded from the assumption that anybody else on Earth behaves like I do in that regard.
Google was within their rights. They made a judgement call that this yahoo was more of a liability than an asset. Whether you agree with that assessment is irrelevant: The point is, it's their assessment to make.
If it WAS there to read, it HAS BEEN disclosed, therefore, he violated his non-DISCLOSURE agreement.
You have enough credibility with your boss to be forgiven when you make mistakes. So do I. This guy obviously did not. What's the problem, other than this guy was an idiot and got fired?
His blog is still up. He's not being censored. It looks like he was fired because he did some dumb things.
What's the problem?
OK, he posts confidential information that violates his NDA, and they should let him off the hook because he took it down? You can't unspill the milk.
I'd have fired him for bad judgement. Why didn't he know that this was a dumb idea?
Of course it reflects poorly on their management and business practices. Yet another in the long list of reasons I wouldn't buy their stock.
This "lowest man on the totem pole" was the guy shooting his mouth off. If he thought he was important enough to Google to be able to shoot his mouth off with impunity, well, I guess he was wrong.
Anybody with two neurons to bang together knows you don't call your boss an ass in public and expect to keep your job.
I think it makes perfect sense. I have the right to work without being coerced into joining the union. What is unclear?
I expect that my employer should have the right to fire me if he doesn't like the color of my shirt. I expect my own performance to be of high enough quality to make this an unattractive proposition for the employer.
So Google shouldn't be free to employ only people they wish to employ?
This guy doesn't have a right to work at Google. He has a right to not be thrown in jail for speaking.
I think Ebbers and Lay were criminals. Fiorina was just incompetent.
"Paper can't crash."
But it can be inaccurate. Or rip. Or lost. Or any number of other failures.
Nothing is foolproof.