I've always been a bit worried about overheating components, so I tend to install a thermal fuse in the PSU. I rather have a server shutdown than a house/burn/down.
However, if you liked BRIEF there is a persistent rumour that it was merely derived from EMACS. I couldn't be asked to browse through the comments, but someone is bound to have thrown that up as an alternative. The problem is that virtually any keystroke bar alphanumerics is apparently a command .
However, I haven't cut code in over 20 years now (Corporate Security, CEO level IT coaching and generally running a couple of businesses has ended that:-). I do miss it at times, but I now actually/sleep/ at nights:-).
Easy solution (which I use): work with a friend and do cross backups.
We both have the same Lacie USB drive, and we meet often enough for stuff other than computing to make this viable (and he lives nearby as well). I back up his system on a section on my external drive, and he does the same for mine, and backups are password protected.
We both use Acronis True Image as that allows restore from the ground up, including Linux ext3 partitions. OK, Acronis costs money but I've found it more than worth it over time, it works for me better than Ghost but that obviously depends on your needs.
Well, if that is now really legally acceptable I know what's going to happen next, expect a new type of spam, the 'sack' spam. That also has the effect ot training your spam filter so you'll never receive the real one. As a matter of fact, it probably pretty much nukes this for the next time it's attempted.
I note an implied permission/request in that law to make sure your car has a black box to start with. Given that I'm not in control of that box (that law isn't helping here) I'm not too happy with that - not because I'm doing something illegal, but because I have no idea what it records, how it does it AND HOW RELIABLE THAT INFORMATION IS.
It's all very well stating what data the box needs to provide (again, this implies that it HAS to provide - what controls are applied?), but I'd recommend anyone subjected to abuse of this data to force disclosure on method and technique of recording first.
After all, it appears nobody is interested in what calibration has been applied, what sample rate's used, what error rate the black box itself has - yet the push seems for it to become legally admissable data.
No, LEDs don't use neon, it's time to show you a life beyond advertising lights.. Just go to Radioshack and seach for 'neon' - enlightenment may ensue. Look around you, the blighters are everywhere.
While I'm at it - I hope you don't think LEDs use no power. It's little, yes, but multiply that with how many you really don't need, and again with how many computers there are on the planet.
As for 27/7 - take your pick: a typo or accurate reflection of IT staff working hours:-).
To go completely pedantic: if we weren't wasting such a rediculous amount of processing power on keeping Windows pretty we could use simpler systems as well that thus don't convert so much power into unwanted heat.
You find those orange lights in light switches, kettles, power sockets, power switches - they're everywhere. If recall correctly, every single neon bulb (lit all year round, 27/7) rates at anything from 0.4W to 2.5W - for almost nil functionality.
You seem to be well informed, are there any places where I can find more on this? I'm presently researching some new ideas I have on neurofeedback (especially now transcranial stimulation seems to be promising) because I have a totally shot short term, um, memory (OK, bad joke).
I'm now also getting totally screwed up sleeping patterns so I'm having a map done to see if anything happened (I once fell hard enough to snap my arm in 4 places, and problems have started since so I guess some sand must have shifted:-).
And I do NOT want to go the chemical route, I want to fix this, not become another pharma shareholder sponsor..
As any business knows, cash is king. Planning is essential to make it through the years.
Your principle problem will come from having to pay bills and not having money for it. You get money by (a) your original investment: be careful of what is known as "the cost of capital" - anything you borrow will have to go back (b) paying customers: whatever your target audience is, be ready to shift this as fashions change - this can be almost seasonal.. (c) whatever franchise you manage to get going local businesses may be interested in banner advertising on your default logon screens.
You spend money by running the business (read: pay your bills, staff, live AND set aside enough for maintenance and equipment/business refresh - the cycle of that depends on what you want to do and how destructive our clients are:-). Don't try to be everything at once, that means you're spending before you earn which is worth avoiding. Get the basics up first - systems, chairs, premises, backup, etc. Leave the fancy stuff - flashy decoration, huge advertising, costly extra features - until you can pay them from income, that way you keep your borrowing as low as possible. Borrowing costs interest which is money that doesn't work for you.
The equation is simple: if you get your income (including future planning) to rise above your spend and you have about 3 months running costs in the bank you have a winner. As a matter of fact, if you have a winner of that scale you should pump some of your profits in doing it again elsewhere and create a chain but NEVER try to continue a business after it shows not to work where you you put it. You'll know that in 3 months or so (so you know what your potential loss is before you do this).
Ultimately, if you've got 3 shops doing this with profit you have in principle something that you can sell on for quite a bit more, but let's tackle that when you get there:-).
Oh, and try to avoid personal risk, companies can be set up with 'limited liability' but some companies want your shirt/house as guarantee - be careful because it can be used on a succesful business to take it over. The bankis by NO means your friend. They may help you, but they're a business too. The more you can avoid external money the better it is, and if you do get a loan, make sure it's one you can clear ASAP without penalties. Try and stay debtfree where possible, that's the stuff that will keep you awake at night.
Good luck - starting a business is a nervous enterprise but it's also very rewarding when it all starts to tick.
Given the way DRM is implemented it amounts to a serial chain of single points of failure, but that's what TCM is supposed to be the basis of. As errors in military procurement are standard, not an exception, this strikes me as, um, just a tad stupid (I think this may later emerge as the understatement of the century).
In addition, for a sovereign nation it is, of course, a perfectly sensible idea to hand the on/off switch of your entire infrastructure to another nation, potentially giving rise to a whole new class of collateral damage and/or fratricide.
Oh, and on top of that Windows (although not in the US).
But hey, let's look at the bright side. At least we now know for sure that the next big war will be fought with sticks and stones, just not for the reasons that prompted Albert Einstein to make that statement - he forgot 'dead equipment':-)
In my experience (only 20+ years or so;-) it's not really the keyboard use that causes the problems, it's using the mouse. Unless the work is such that a mouse is absolutely essential you may want to start with working on keyboard shortcuts - it's also much faster.
The problem is of course that Windows as a GUI is pretty crap without a mouse, but even that is manageable.
It won't/remove/ the use of a mouse, but it'll certainly minimise it. I've had carpal problems for a while until I did just that, but it does very much depend on how far the problem has progressed. Especially when users leave it too late it's sometimes almost impossible to recover without abandoning computer use altogether, and believe me, not doing that will get pretty darn ugly - I've seen it up close a few times. Nothing is worth the near disbablement that results.
Just think about it: if the military starts using it there will be vast opportunities to sell us new "stuff" (technical term:-). As soon as vendors realise that you will suddenly find that support for "legacy" will expire - you know the drill. And if the US goes that route, many nations will have to follow to remain 'integrated'..
As for the military - not everything can be upgraded so someone will be making a fortune out of the 'legacy' kit as well.
Just follow the money and the answer becomes easy.
BTW, it's not really news. I have been costing IPv6 conversions a good 2 years ago as it was easy to predict - I'm glad to see we estimated the year dead on:-).
I can see why the fact that someone is tapping your data should be hidden from them during investigation, but AFAIK there's no provision post investigation for them to be made aware. In other words, abuse will always go unpunished because you can never prove it. IMHO that's an ideal situation for corruption to bloom..
I'd recommend 'Secrets and Lies' and 'Beyond Fear' from Bruce Schneier for a no bullshit look at security and reality. Be aware that to do it right you're looking at quite a lonely career, and your main effort in any company is to make yourself redundant..
Which is why it's better to be a consultant in this field - you get to do the interesting stuff. What I enjoy best is resolving calamities and helping companies with invoking DR strategies - I'm personally not very good at handle turning but very much at home with the chaos that follows a breach or a problem (but you need to be prepared to take decisions based on sometimes less than ideal information).
Just in case your solution doesn't have barcoding, there's a free font that does code 39 ("3 out of 9"). To code "bn22" to put it in between "* as delimiter, so print *bn22* in that font will give you a functional barcode. BTW, a bit overkill, but you could use KOHA (www.koha.org) as your system.
MP3 recorder, decent mikes, copy for all - if agreed by everyone. No sound, no interruption, perfect recall. Maybe illegal, though, but that's IMHO a better technical solution if you can get to pick up the whole class in a decent way (that always strikes me as the problem - you can filter people in a conversation as it happens, it's hard to impossible from a recording).
(1) Mules are animals. Read: heaps of people will get upset because you put a mule in the line of fire. Somehow no-one cares that much for people, but God help us if it's an animal. (2) You can't switch off a mule for transport, nor can you compact it for that purpose (well, not without rendering it useless;-). And the weight during transport doesn't change unless you, er, 'lose' the byproducts. You could always call it an audit trail, but I think you'll end up with some problems. (3) It's harder to carry spare parts for mules. You end up carrying spare mules, so there goes your weight advantage. (4) Now call me cynical, but I personally think this is about reason one why your mules won't win: there isn't much profit on them. Supplying military hardware is all about absorbing as much as possible from your taxes. I could name numerous ways in which military procurement could be made MUCH more efficient, especially in the computing part (and the resulting logistical efficiencies), but who would be interested? It would nuke a lot of profit, so you'd immediately end up with "studies" and "white papers" that would "prove" it would never work - I've seen quite a bit of that over the years.
In summary, I think mules are quite safe from military deployment once this project gets, um, legs..
Think of field servicability. A humble 2 stroke is about the simplest engine you can put in the field (apart froma diesel, but that's a different ballgame altogether). A 2 stroke has few parts (which also means less bits that can go wrong) and carrying spares is thus easy. I'm not sure if the power output to weight ratio is better as well, if I remember well from my motorcycle days that is pretty much a given too but that's not quite as scientific as I'd like;-).
Having said that, it's only a theory. Maybe they only had a grasmower to work with, having spend all teh money on *SERIOUSLY* good hydraulic actuators. It's seriously weird to watch this thing - impressive, but weird..
I recently started contracting, and I was looking for a setup that doesn't just shop meat but actually tries to find something that suits me + prospective client. Maybe I got lucky, but I ran into a startup that is currently now represented in London, UK, India (not quite sure where) and has a presence in Switzerland they're not yet ready to use yet (takes a bit longer if you want to do it right, apparently).
What I like about them is that they actually really listen to what you want. Maybe that will change over the years as volume increases, but it's nice to find someone who doesn't subsequently waste your (and employers') time with giving you unsuitable positions and presenting unsuitable CVs to prospective clients - it's IMHO a win-win because these guys get listened to. And they also manage payroll so I just have to turn up at work, do the job and hand in timesheets - no more paper hassle (yes!;-). Moreover, I took the trouble to see what their future plans look like (because I don't want to change every job) and I think this club is here to stay..
So, I'm happy to plug them, but their website is presently embarrasing - when I complained (because I have referred some friends to them already) I was told that's being improved in the next few weeks because they're changing designer (rightly so, any designer who puts an 'under construction' sign anywhere on a site ought to be hit with a clue bat - repeatedly).
They're called Carter Jones (there's an 'Associates' in the name as well somewhere, but that appears to have been dropped), at www.carter-jones.biz.
Large fat disclaimer: this worked for *me*. No guarantee it works for you, if you prefer someone who just shops you in volume these guys might not be right for you. I appreciate that for some jobs volume shopping is more effective, but I'm in a more mature market which requires experienced specialists and I'm happy with them;-). They allow me to focus on doing interesting work instead of fighting paperwork;-).
For the last few years I've worked for a large consultancy which shall remain nameless because they're likely to hit the news soon anyway (I left for a reason;-), and they had some designer type redo the offices. 'Hotdesking' is IMHO an excuse not to offer storage space, and I found teh the best work I could do was when locked away in a conference room instead of in teh middle of a gazillion half overheard phone conversations (other than by sticking headsets on but that has it's own problems - not everyone likes music when they think). It's ironic that such companies pay (just;-) above the mean to get really clever people, and then sets forth to avoid getting their best thinking from them..
Give me my own office anytime - my challenge is to keep it totally empty to avoid distrations;-)
Bad management is rife to the point of being the default. Especially when people with no IT background whatsoever get decision power over IT stategy, vendor selection and the choice of development model, applications, platforms and network infrastructure common sense leaves the building.
The problem is that you and I have to eat, that is used against you keeping you working on stuff that is suboptimal, wastes vast amounts of resources and is frankly a complete waste of time.
Worse, as far as I can see at the moment, consultancies then grab the good guys that are sellable - and make these guys write supporting docs for those managers. Reason? Money - if it goes wrong the IT staff gets blamed and guess who gets to fix the problem..
You don't need to look far either to see evidence of that. Look at many failed government IT projects, and look at how most banks operate (troll bait: and just look at how many still use Windows in the back end;-)
The problem is that a clueless manager will need you to fail to look good so you're going to get a lot of 'advice' so *you* then 'have failed to improve' - and they'll get another victim.
Slashdot Mirror
I've always been a bit worried about overheating components, so I tend to install a thermal fuse in the PSU. I rather have a server shutdown than a house /burn/down.
BRIEF, dBRIEF, where has the time gone?
:-). I do miss it at times, but I now actually /sleep/ at nights :-).
However, if you liked BRIEF there is a persistent rumour that it was merely derived from EMACS. I couldn't be asked to browse through the comments, but someone is bound to have thrown that up as an alternative. The problem is that virtually any keystroke bar alphanumerics is apparently a command .
However, I haven't cut code in over 20 years now (Corporate Security, CEO level IT coaching and generally running a couple of businesses has ended that
Thanks for the memory..
Easy solution (which I use): work with a friend and do cross backups.
We both have the same Lacie USB drive, and we meet often enough for stuff other than computing to make this viable (and he lives nearby as well). I back up his system on a section on my external drive, and he does the same for mine, and backups are password protected.
We both use Acronis True Image as that allows restore from the ground up, including Linux ext3 partitions. OK, Acronis costs money but I've found it more than worth it over time, it works for me better than Ghost but that obviously depends on your needs.
Well, if that is now really legally acceptable I know what's going to happen next, expect a new type of spam, the 'sack' spam. That also has the effect ot training your spam filter so you'll never receive the real one. As a matter of fact, it probably pretty much nukes this for the next time it's attempted.
I note an implied permission/request in that law to make sure your car has a black box to start with. Given that I'm not in control of that box (that law isn't helping here) I'm not too happy with that - not because I'm doing something illegal, but because I have no idea what it records, how it does it AND HOW RELIABLE THAT INFORMATION IS.
It's all very well stating what data the box needs to provide (again, this implies that it HAS to provide - what controls are applied?), but I'd recommend anyone subjected to abuse of this data to force disclosure on method and technique of recording first.
After all, it appears nobody is interested in what calibration has been applied, what sample rate's used, what error rate the black box itself has - yet the push seems for it to become legally admissable data.
Fundamentals..
No, LEDs don't use neon, it's time to show you a life beyond advertising lights.. Just go to Radioshack and seach for 'neon' - enlightenment may ensue. Look around you, the blighters are everywhere.
:-).
While I'm at it - I hope you don't think LEDs use no power. It's little, yes, but multiply that with how many you really don't need, and again with how many computers there are on the planet.
As for 27/7 - take your pick: a typo or accurate reflection of IT staff working hours
To go completely pedantic: if we weren't wasting such a rediculous amount of processing power on keeping Windows pretty we could use simpler systems as well that thus don't convert so much power into unwanted heat.
#23: Delude humans. Check.
:-)
You guys have obviously already forgotten about the mice then?
= Ch =
Neon lights!
You find those orange lights in light switches, kettles, power sockets, power switches - they're everywhere. If recall correctly, every single neon bulb (lit all year round, 27/7) rates at anything from 0.4W to 2.5W - for almost nil functionality.
Adds up..
= Ch =
You seem to be well informed, are there any places where I can find more on this? I'm presently researching some new ideas I have on neurofeedback (especially now transcranial stimulation seems to be promising) because I have a totally shot short term, um, memory (OK, bad joke).
:-).
I'm now also getting totally screwed up sleeping patterns so I'm having a map done to see if anything happened (I once fell hard enough to snap my arm in 4 places, and problems have started since so I guess some sand must have shifted
And I do NOT want to go the chemical route, I want to fix this, not become another pharma shareholder sponsor..
= Ch =
As any business knows, cash is king. Planning is essential to make it through the years.
:-). Don't try to be everything at once, that means you're spending before you earn which is worth avoiding. Get the basics up first - systems, chairs, premises, backup, etc. Leave the fancy stuff - flashy decoration, huge advertising, costly extra features - until you can pay them from income, that way you keep your borrowing as low as possible. Borrowing costs interest which is money that doesn't work for you.
:-).
Your principle problem will come from having to pay bills and not having money for it. You get money by (a) your original investment: be careful of what is known as "the cost of capital" - anything you borrow will have to go back (b) paying customers: whatever your target audience is, be ready to shift this as fashions change - this can be almost seasonal.. (c) whatever franchise you manage to get going local businesses may be interested in banner advertising on your default logon screens.
You spend money by running the business (read: pay your bills, staff, live AND set aside enough for maintenance and equipment/business refresh - the cycle of that depends on what you want to do and how destructive our clients are
The equation is simple: if you get your income (including future planning) to rise above your spend and you have about 3 months running costs in the bank you have a winner. As a matter of fact, if you have a winner of that scale you should pump some of your profits in doing it again elsewhere and create a chain but NEVER try to continue a business after it shows not to work where you you put it. You'll know that in 3 months or so (so you know what your potential loss is before you do this).
Ultimately, if you've got 3 shops doing this with profit you have in principle something that you can sell on for quite a bit more, but let's tackle that when you get there
Oh, and try to avoid personal risk, companies can be set up with 'limited liability' but some companies want your shirt/house as guarantee - be careful because it can be used on a succesful business to take it over. The bankis by NO means your friend. They may help you, but they're a business too. The more you can avoid external money the better it is, and if you do get a loan, make sure it's one you can clear ASAP without penalties. Try and stay debtfree where possible, that's the stuff that will keep you awake at night.
Good luck - starting a business is a nervous enterprise but it's also very rewarding when it all starts to tick.
= CH =
Given the way DRM is implemented it amounts to a serial chain of single points of failure, but that's what TCM is supposed to be the basis of. As errors in military procurement are standard, not an exception, this strikes me as, um, just a tad stupid (I think this may later emerge as the understatement of the century).
:-)
In addition, for a sovereign nation it is, of course, a perfectly sensible idea to hand the on/off switch of your entire infrastructure to another nation, potentially giving rise to a whole new class of collateral damage and/or fratricide.
Oh, and on top of that Windows (although not in the US).
But hey, let's look at the bright side. At least we now know for sure that the next big war will be fought with sticks and stones, just not for the reasons that prompted Albert Einstein to make that statement - he forgot 'dead equipment'
Groan
In my experience (only 20+ years or so ;-) it's not really the keyboard use that causes the problems, it's using the mouse. Unless the work is such that a mouse is absolutely essential you may want to start with working on keyboard shortcuts - it's also much faster.
/remove/ the use of a mouse, but it'll certainly minimise it. I've had carpal problems for a while until I did just that, but it does very much depend on how far the problem has progressed. Especially when users leave it too late it's sometimes almost impossible to recover without abandoning computer use altogether, and believe me, not doing that will get pretty darn ugly - I've seen it up close a few times. Nothing is worth the near disbablement that results.
The problem is of course that Windows as a GUI is pretty crap without a mouse, but even that is manageable.
It won't
= Ch =
Wow - that sure is innovation. I mean, I felt pretty advanced when the calendar said '2005' and I got a look at Office 2003.
I wish they'd stick to simple version numbers, but that would bore the marketoids, I guess.
Just think about it: if the military starts using it there will be vast opportunities to sell us new "stuff" (technical term :-). As soon as vendors realise that you will suddenly find that support for "legacy" will expire - you know the drill. And if the US goes that route, many nations will have to follow to remain 'integrated'..
:-).
As for the military - not everything can be upgraded so someone will be making a fortune out of the 'legacy' kit as well.
Just follow the money and the answer becomes easy.
BTW, it's not really news. I have been costing IPv6 conversions a good 2 years ago as it was easy to predict - I'm glad to see we estimated the year dead on
I can see why the fact that someone is tapping your data should be hidden from them during investigation, but AFAIK there's no provision post investigation for them to be made aware. In other words, abuse will always go unpunished because you can never prove it. IMHO that's an ideal situation for corruption to bloom..
I'd recommend 'Secrets and Lies' and 'Beyond Fear' from Bruce Schneier for a no bullshit look at security and reality. Be aware that to do it right you're looking at quite a lonely career, and your main effort in any company is to make yourself redundant..
Which is why it's better to be a consultant in this field - you get to do the interesting stuff. What I enjoy best is resolving calamities and helping companies with invoking DR strategies - I'm personally not very good at handle turning but very much at home with the chaos that follows a breach or a problem (but you need to be prepared to take decisions based on sometimes less than ideal information).
Depends on your aims.
Good luck!
Just in case your solution doesn't have barcoding, there's a free font that does code 39 ("3 out of 9"). To code "bn22" to put it in between "* as delimiter, so print *bn22* in that font will give you a functional barcode.
BTW, a bit overkill, but you could use KOHA (www.koha.org) as your system.
MP3 recorder, decent mikes, copy for all - if agreed by everyone. No sound, no interruption, perfect recall. Maybe illegal, though, but that's IMHO a better technical solution if you can get to pick up the whole class in a decent way (that always strikes me as the problem - you can filter people in a conversation as it happens, it's hard to impossible from a recording).
Let's add it all up, shall we?
;-). And the weight during transport doesn't change unless you, er, 'lose' the byproducts. You could always call it an audit trail, but I think you'll end up with some problems.
..
(1) Mules are animals. Read: heaps of people will get upset because you put a mule in the line of fire. Somehow no-one cares that much for people, but God help us if it's an animal.
(2) You can't switch off a mule for transport, nor can you compact it for that purpose (well, not without rendering it useless
(3) It's harder to carry spare parts for mules. You end up carrying spare mules, so there goes your weight advantage.
(4) Now call me cynical, but I personally think this is about reason one why your mules won't win: there isn't much profit on them. Supplying military hardware is all about absorbing as much as possible from your taxes. I could name numerous ways in which military procurement could be made MUCH more efficient, especially in the computing part (and the resulting logistical efficiencies), but who would be interested? It would nuke a lot of profit, so you'd immediately end up with "studies" and "white papers" that would "prove" it would never work - I've seen quite a bit of that over the years.
In summary, I think mules are quite safe from military deployment once this project gets, um, legs
Think of field servicability. A humble 2 stroke is about the simplest engine you can put in the field (apart froma diesel, but that's a different ballgame altogether). A 2 stroke has few parts (which also means less bits that can go wrong) and carrying spares is thus easy. I'm not sure if the power output to weight ratio is better as well, if I remember well from my motorcycle days that is pretty much a given too but that's not quite as scientific as I'd like ;-).
..
Having said that, it's only a theory. Maybe they only had a grasmower to work with, having spend all teh money on *SERIOUSLY* good hydraulic actuators. It's seriously weird to watch this thing - impressive, but weird
.. it's just that's it is presently a TV show called Big Brother. If I were them I'd patent the concept quickly.
Talk about clueless - this guy is a police CHIEF?
That made me laugh, thnx ;-)
I recently started contracting, and I was looking for a setup that doesn't just shop meat but actually tries to find something that suits me + prospective client. Maybe I got lucky, but I ran into a startup that is currently now represented in London, UK, India (not quite sure where) and has a presence in Switzerland they're not yet ready to use yet (takes a bit longer if you want to do it right, apparently).
;-). Moreover, I took the trouble to see what their future plans look like (because I don't want to change every job) and I think this club is here to stay..
;-). They allow me to focus on doing interesting work instead of fighting paperwork ;-).
What I like about them is that they actually really listen to what you want. Maybe that will change over the years as volume increases, but it's nice to find someone who doesn't subsequently waste your (and employers') time with giving you unsuitable positions and presenting unsuitable CVs to prospective clients - it's IMHO a win-win because these guys get listened to. And they also manage payroll so I just have to turn up at work, do the job and hand in timesheets - no more paper hassle (yes!
So, I'm happy to plug them, but their website is presently embarrasing - when I complained (because I have referred some friends to them already) I was told that's being improved in the next few weeks because they're changing designer (rightly so, any designer who puts an 'under construction' sign anywhere on a site ought to be hit with a clue bat - repeatedly).
They're called Carter Jones (there's an 'Associates' in the name as well somewhere, but that appears to have been dropped), at www.carter-jones.biz.
Large fat disclaimer: this worked for *me*. No guarantee it works for you, if you prefer someone who just shops you in volume these guys might not be right for you. I appreciate that for some jobs volume shopping is more effective, but I'm in a more mature market which requires experienced specialists and I'm happy with them
For the last few years I've worked for a large consultancy which shall remain nameless because they're likely to hit the news soon anyway (I left for a reason ;-), and they had some designer type redo the offices. 'Hotdesking' is IMHO an excuse not to offer storage space, and I found teh the best work I could do was when locked away in a conference room instead of in teh middle of a gazillion half overheard phone conversations (other than by sticking headsets on but that has it's own problems - not everyone likes music when they think). It's ironic that such companies pay (just ;-) above the mean to get really clever people, and then sets forth to avoid getting their best thinking from them..
;-)
Give me my own office anytime - my challenge is to keep it totally empty to avoid distrations
Bad management is rife to the point of being the default. Especially when people with no IT background whatsoever get decision power over IT stategy, vendor selection and the choice of development model, applications, platforms and network infrastructure common sense leaves the building.
;-)
The problem is that you and I have to eat, that is used against you keeping you working on stuff that is suboptimal, wastes vast amounts of resources and is frankly a complete waste of time.
Worse, as far as I can see at the moment, consultancies then grab the good guys that are sellable - and make these guys write supporting docs for those managers. Reason? Money - if it goes wrong the IT staff gets blamed and guess who gets to fix the problem..
You don't need to look far either to see evidence of that. Look at many failed government IT projects, and look at how most banks operate (troll bait: and just look at how many still use Windows in the back end
The problem is that a clueless manager will need you to fail to look good so you're going to get a lot of 'advice' so *you* then 'have failed to improve' - and they'll get another victim.