I hate to reply to myself, but I forgot to mention something. A lot, if not most, offshoring companies have some kind of quality rating. I have seen some that say they are CMM Level 5. That is no small feat at all. I wonder how many companies take this rating at face value. If you are a company who is not familiar with the CMM, how do you know if they really are at that level? Also, who certified them? Is the company who certified them reputable themselves?
I don't know how much policing goes on in the world to make sure that companies who award Quality certifications are legit, but I am guessing there isn't much. If *I* were an unscrupulous businessman, I think I might start a Quality Certification company in India.
I am not saying that those companies don't have valid quality certifications. I am saying that you shouldn't believe anything like that on face value, regardless of where the company is located.
The inevitable result is that you can commit to shooting your customer in the foot, and document that you have done so, and earn the highest ``quality'' rating for it. That sort of ``quality'' isn't very reassuring.
Don't know much about Quality, do you?
I'll speak of these things in general, since they are essentially the same types of certifications (ISO, CMM, etc). If your customer agrees to be shot in the foot, and you shoot him in the foot, then the quality of that release is right on the money. One of the things that people miss (or fake) when implementing these processes is that they try to cut corners and fake-out the process. These certifications usually require that you get customer commitment to process changes. That means you keep your customer in the loop of communication. Therefore, you get them to agree to things and hold them to it. Customers don't usually like that, they love to wiggle and worm their way around commitments. But if you follow these processes, you can get them to document their commitment. They aren't very happy when they are called on the fact that they get exactly what they asked for, but in the end the point is to make them happy by getting them to ask for what they really want.
Everyone loves to put down things like the CMM and Six Sigma, because they "don't work". Just because you worked somewhere where it didn't work doesn't mean the models don't work, it means you didn't do them very well. And they aren't easy to do well, they take effort. Most places will cut corners and fake the behavior that they think will let them slide by to get a certification, then they will usually go right back to doing what they want. There is a difference to "getting to certification level X" and "operating at certification level X".
And the real definition of quality is the delta between what the customer expects and what is delivered.
Since both HD-DVD and blu-ray are using the same blue lasers, will this 'war' eventually turn out to be HD/BR-DVD similar to the DVD+/-R standards.
Which is fine, provided that commercial equipment can play both formats. It is a bigger deal now because they are talking about releasing content on those formats. That was never an issue with DVD+/-R, where compatability was left to the consumer to figure out. If I am burning my own DVDs, I can stick to whatever format I find works best. If I am buying a DVD from the store, it had just better work.
And remember he was the first president to start giving money to this kind of research.
Whooptie-doo. It is relatively new research. The type he funded didn't gain traction until around 2000. Therefore, he was the first president who practically could have started giving money to this kind of research. I hear him bragging about this, but it is nothing to brag about.
So you want cellphone companies to tell you to not buy batteries off of ebay, but only one of their batteries from one of their approved resellers? And then you'll be complaining about unfair business practices, how they are trying to monopolize the battery business, etc etc.
Where can I go and get a degree in being a corporate board member or a CEO?
They seem to be low skill, high pay jobs. And if you get fired, you get a firing bonus in the millions.
Hell. All you have to do is sign a deal with the Devil.
As long as he's willing to accept the decreased quality associated with making you work overtime.
Yes, he is right in that sense, but I was commenting more on how salaried employees are treated. Just because he is right doesn't mean it isn't bullshit. Cause guess who WASN'T working OT when the team was?
When the quality isn't what they want, guess what? Work overtime to compensate. Note that they don't really believe in this matrix. They want to optimize everything. It just *does* *not* work like that. I understand that you have to find the right balance, and it is always a challenge. But you can't just close your eyes to these things. You cannot honestly believe that you will be able to do this stuff better than everyone else. If you don't plan these things realistically, you will fail. And the project I am talking about is a year off from the original estimates - but that's OK, because we now move the date about once a month, so when we finally "hit" our date someone will probably get a bonus. (but it won't be anyone who put in the OT)
Another part of "cost" that they don't get is that it isn't just money for salaried employees. There is a cost to making people work OT and not giving them raises. That cost is in morale. They haven't seen the real effects of this cost yet, but they will once the job market gets better. I get the feeling I am not the only person around here who is looking for other opportunities.
Funny, where I work (I am a contractor there) the full time employees were the first to go in those belt tightening times. You see, we contractors are just overhead. We're like the ream of paper next to the printer. We don't count. PHB's seem to look at "how many employees do we have?" and we don't show up in that column. We're invisible in many ways. It is definetely an advantage when they're looking for heads to cut.
And while you are seen as overhead, as a salaried employee, I am seen as "free" labor. I was having a conversation with a director the other day, who happens to be my boss. I was trying to get across to him the concept of planning, and how there are 4 things:
Cost
Functionality
Schedule
Quality
You can Optimize one, Constrain one, and you have to accept the other two. I was using a current example, where we were constrained by schedule but wanted to get the most functionality in the release. Therefore, we had to accept the cost and the quality. His response? "Cost doesn't factor into this, because as a salaried employee, your cost is free. You can just work overtime and you don't cost any more. Problem solved."
Debian and the derivative distributions have this sorted perfectly.
I would take issue with this statement. I have never used Debian proper, but I have installed a few systems with Knoppix. I put Knoppix 3.4 on a Dell Inspiron 8000, and I thought all was well. I then tried to update KDE. The system got totally hosed. KDE only partially updated, and I couldn't get it back to normal. I will admit that I was new to apt-get, but I am not a newbie when it comes to *nix systems. After lots of man pages and searches on the net, I concluded that KDE was FUBAR. From what I gathered on some weblogs, it was a known issue with the way that Knoppix installs that kind of messes up apt-get in some scenarios.
I replaced that with Mandrake 10.0, and thought all was well. Unfortunately, I had to later uninstall that after fscking around with my new wireless card for 2 days. It was supported under Linux using the Prism54 drivers, but after some searching on the net, Netgear had updated the firmware in their newest version of those cards (WG511) and they weren't compatable anymore. So I had to reinstall Win2k on the thing because the reason I got it was to use as a wireless connection. That really hurt too, because I wanted to run Linux on it. (don't tell me I should have returned the card, I got the card and router as a combo, and it was mail order - too much hassle to return) I'll have to keep checking to see if they ever get the drivers updated for that card.
Even if there were a few people who were inconvenienced by this, it sounds like Valve turned the tables a bit. I am guessing that the majority of those who were busted were people trying to run cracked copies of the game.
I think that this is a separate issue than Steam blowing goats. I don't have HL2, I am waiting. I almost got a new video card a YEAR ago in anticipation of the game, now I am very glad I didn't. If Steam sucks because it inconveniences legit users, then Valve needs to answer for it. But if they nail people who are trying to get away with playing it illegally, I am all for it. The real question is, is one the result of the other?
Why not just put out a Sims game about US Slavery?
You get sold into slavery. It could be an online game. You have to sit on a boat for 90 days with all kinds of people. You don't get to skip forward either. Your character can't move around very well, and you just have to sit there. Then after 90 (real-time) days of this, you get to perform menial tasks for the rest of your life. Not to mention the beatings! You could try to escape, but surprise! There is nowhere to go where you won't be hunted down. Oops, don't look at that white woman, or you'll get another beating. If you happened to be bought during the right era, then you possibly get to go free. You are promised some material things that are never given to you, and you just roam the land and have to survive. And if your character dies, the game disables itself. No second chances here! Want to play again? You have to go buy another copy. Hah ha. What a great stocking stuffer for Xmas.
Who do you think runs this country?
on
NYT on EA Games
·
· Score: 1
with specific rules for high-tech industry so ppl don't get to be fscked over by large companies?
Ummm, who do you think runs the United States?
It may sound like a joke at first, but it is true. We are a capitalist and consumeristic society. We enable it every day. We (not me) voted in as President one of the most corporate-friendly presidents that I can remember. Quite honestly, the tech industry is just a tiny blip that is barely on this country's radar. People would rather vote for a candidate based on what he thinks about gay marriage. Nobody here gives a shit about the hi-tech industry.
My company has been seeing a lot of turnover (both incoming and outgoing) lately. People leave because of better jobs and people come in because this place is better than where they were. I'm not sure if that means the market is better or worse, but it's certainly a little more mobile than I remember.
Well, if other places are like where I work, people are looking for jobs because they are tired of VPs who got fat bonuses this year telling them "you don't get a raise this year, and you are lucky you even have a job." They are willing to treat their employees like crap because the market will bear it. You can only take that for so long before you start looking. Because I work for a very large company, if the market picks up it would be a year or two before I would see any benefits from it (like a raise). Therefore, my best option is to get out as soon as possible. It may take longer to accomplish this because of the market, but that is what I am working towards.
Valve, having locked the potential customer out of Steam, will have lost a customer.
ObSimpsons quote:
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Wha? I'm sorry, Homer I couldn't hear you
Homer: I said you just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Huh?
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Homer you're going to have to speak up!
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer, Moe!
CHA-CHING
Moe: I've forced myself to wha?
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Homer.. I'll talk to you tomorrow!
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Yeah you can use it!
This is the future that engineers are building, but will you accept to be driven by your car?
In 2.5 decades (taking the median of what was suggested) I will be 60 years old. I'll be freaked out by lots of things by the time I get to that age, and hopefully I will have accepted them. Some of these being:
The majority of the people in the country won't know what it was like before the internet. Or personal computers. Or cellphones. Or MTV.
My parents will most likely be dead. My dog will be dead. My kid(s) will be in college (hopefully). My nieces will be 37 and 34.
Where will the software industry be like, if it still even exists? How fast will computers be? What other wars will we have started, and won/lost? Will anyone have used a nuclear weapon against other humans?
Self-driving car? Where the hell is my flying car?!?
We think our software is far more secure than open-source software. It is more secure because we stand behind it, we fixed it, because we built it. Nobody ever knows who built open-source software.
Hilarious. That is like saying "I am the strongest man in the world because I have brown hair, I wear shoes, and I am standing here right now."
So much for the rest of this college semester. Between this and Halo2, I'll be lucky if I even come in contact with a female during the next 3 months...
On behalf of all the women at this guy's college: Thank you Half Life 2, thank you Halo 2.
This is perhaps the most compelling point made in the article, to me. Of course, the cynic's read into that statement is that Wikipedia will never get to the truth (see Asymptote [wikipedia.org]).
Now how in the hell am I supposed to trust this definition of Asymptote?
Slashdot Mirror
Aren't you the enemy of your enemy?
Choctaw - the official language of Microsoft and George W. Bush.
I don't know how much policing goes on in the world to make sure that companies who award Quality certifications are legit, but I am guessing there isn't much. If *I* were an unscrupulous businessman, I think I might start a Quality Certification company in India.
I am not saying that those companies don't have valid quality certifications. I am saying that you shouldn't believe anything like that on face value, regardless of where the company is located.
Don't know much about Quality, do you?
I'll speak of these things in general, since they are essentially the same types of certifications (ISO, CMM, etc). If your customer agrees to be shot in the foot, and you shoot him in the foot, then the quality of that release is right on the money. One of the things that people miss (or fake) when implementing these processes is that they try to cut corners and fake-out the process. These certifications usually require that you get customer commitment to process changes. That means you keep your customer in the loop of communication. Therefore, you get them to agree to things and hold them to it. Customers don't usually like that, they love to wiggle and worm their way around commitments. But if you follow these processes, you can get them to document their commitment. They aren't very happy when they are called on the fact that they get exactly what they asked for, but in the end the point is to make them happy by getting them to ask for what they really want.
Everyone loves to put down things like the CMM and Six Sigma, because they "don't work". Just because you worked somewhere where it didn't work doesn't mean the models don't work, it means you didn't do them very well. And they aren't easy to do well, they take effort. Most places will cut corners and fake the behavior that they think will let them slide by to get a certification, then they will usually go right back to doing what they want. There is a difference to "getting to certification level X" and "operating at certification level X".
And the real definition of quality is the delta between what the customer expects and what is delivered.
Which is fine, provided that commercial equipment can play both formats. It is a bigger deal now because they are talking about releasing content on those formats. That was never an issue with DVD+/-R, where compatability was left to the consumer to figure out. If I am burning my own DVDs, I can stick to whatever format I find works best. If I am buying a DVD from the store, it had just better work.
Whooptie-doo. It is relatively new research. The type he funded didn't gain traction until around 2000. Therefore, he was the first president who practically could have started giving money to this kind of research. I hear him bragging about this, but it is nothing to brag about.
And as with most hackers, (s)he left a calling card in the image. Can you spot it? The writing is on the wall, so to speak.
For those interested, Mumbai was formerly known as Bombay.
This sounds like a job for ...
Da Da Ta Daaaa
The Federal Copyright Enforcement Czar !
Hell. All you have to do is sign a deal with the Devil.
Yes, he is right in that sense, but I was commenting more on how salaried employees are treated. Just because he is right doesn't mean it isn't bullshit. Cause guess who WASN'T working OT when the team was?
When the quality isn't what they want, guess what? Work overtime to compensate. Note that they don't really believe in this matrix. They want to optimize everything. It just *does* *not* work like that. I understand that you have to find the right balance, and it is always a challenge. But you can't just close your eyes to these things. You cannot honestly believe that you will be able to do this stuff better than everyone else. If you don't plan these things realistically, you will fail. And the project I am talking about is a year off from the original estimates - but that's OK, because we now move the date about once a month, so when we finally "hit" our date someone will probably get a bonus. (but it won't be anyone who put in the OT)
Another part of "cost" that they don't get is that it isn't just money for salaried employees. There is a cost to making people work OT and not giving them raises. That cost is in morale. They haven't seen the real effects of this cost yet, but they will once the job market gets better. I get the feeling I am not the only person around here who is looking for other opportunities.
And while you are seen as overhead, as a salaried employee, I am seen as "free" labor. I was having a conversation with a director the other day, who happens to be my boss. I was trying to get across to him the concept of planning, and how there are 4 things:
Cost
Functionality
Schedule
Quality
You can Optimize one, Constrain one, and you have to accept the other two. I was using a current example, where we were constrained by schedule but wanted to get the most functionality in the release. Therefore, we had to accept the cost and the quality. His response? "Cost doesn't factor into this, because as a salaried employee, your cost is free. You can just work overtime and you don't cost any more. Problem solved."
That is how salaried employees are treated.
I would take issue with this statement. I have never used Debian proper, but I have installed a few systems with Knoppix. I put Knoppix 3.4 on a Dell Inspiron 8000, and I thought all was well. I then tried to update KDE. The system got totally hosed. KDE only partially updated, and I couldn't get it back to normal. I will admit that I was new to apt-get, but I am not a newbie when it comes to *nix systems. After lots of man pages and searches on the net, I concluded that KDE was FUBAR. From what I gathered on some weblogs, it was a known issue with the way that Knoppix installs that kind of messes up apt-get in some scenarios.
I replaced that with Mandrake 10.0, and thought all was well. Unfortunately, I had to later uninstall that after fscking around with my new wireless card for 2 days. It was supported under Linux using the Prism54 drivers, but after some searching on the net, Netgear had updated the firmware in their newest version of those cards (WG511) and they weren't compatable anymore. So I had to reinstall Win2k on the thing because the reason I got it was to use as a wireless connection. That really hurt too, because I wanted to run Linux on it. (don't tell me I should have returned the card, I got the card and router as a combo, and it was mail order - too much hassle to return) I'll have to keep checking to see if they ever get the drivers updated for that card.
I think that this is a separate issue than Steam blowing goats. I don't have HL2, I am waiting. I almost got a new video card a YEAR ago in anticipation of the game, now I am very glad I didn't. If Steam sucks because it inconveniences legit users, then Valve needs to answer for it. But if they nail people who are trying to get away with playing it illegally, I am all for it. The real question is, is one the result of the other?
Why not just put out a Sims game about US Slavery? You get sold into slavery. It could be an online game. You have to sit on a boat for 90 days with all kinds of people. You don't get to skip forward either. Your character can't move around very well, and you just have to sit there. Then after 90 (real-time) days of this, you get to perform menial tasks for the rest of your life. Not to mention the beatings! You could try to escape, but surprise! There is nowhere to go where you won't be hunted down. Oops, don't look at that white woman, or you'll get another beating. If you happened to be bought during the right era, then you possibly get to go free. You are promised some material things that are never given to you, and you just roam the land and have to survive. And if your character dies, the game disables itself. No second chances here! Want to play again? You have to go buy another copy. Hah ha. What a great stocking stuffer for Xmas.
Ummm, who do you think runs the United States?
It may sound like a joke at first, but it is true. We are a capitalist and consumeristic society. We enable it every day. We (not me) voted in as President one of the most corporate-friendly presidents that I can remember. Quite honestly, the tech industry is just a tiny blip that is barely on this country's radar. People would rather vote for a candidate based on what he thinks about gay marriage. Nobody here gives a shit about the hi-tech industry.
Well, if other places are like where I work, people are looking for jobs because they are tired of VPs who got fat bonuses this year telling them "you don't get a raise this year, and you are lucky you even have a job." They are willing to treat their employees like crap because the market will bear it. You can only take that for so long before you start looking. Because I work for a very large company, if the market picks up it would be a year or two before I would see any benefits from it (like a raise). Therefore, my best option is to get out as soon as possible. It may take longer to accomplish this because of the market, but that is what I am working towards.
IsNot
IsToo
IsNot
IsToo
I win!!
Oh yeah, well I have patented "IsToo Infinity". I win!
(I have also patented "IsToo Infinity + 1" HAH!)
ObSimpsons quote:
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Wha? I'm sorry, Homer I couldn't hear you
Homer: I said you just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Huh?
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Homer you're going to have to speak up!
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer, Moe!
CHA-CHING
Moe: I've forced myself to wha?
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Homer.. I'll talk to you tomorrow!
Homer: You just lost yourself a customer!
CHA-CHING
Moe: Yeah you can use it!
In 2.5 decades (taking the median of what was suggested) I will be 60 years old. I'll be freaked out by lots of things by the time I get to that age, and hopefully I will have accepted them. Some of these being:
The majority of the people in the country won't know what it was like before the internet. Or personal computers. Or cellphones. Or MTV.
My parents will most likely be dead. My dog will be dead. My kid(s) will be in college (hopefully). My nieces will be 37 and 34.
Where will the software industry be like, if it still even exists? How fast will computers be? What other wars will we have started, and won/lost? Will anyone have used a nuclear weapon against other humans?
Self-driving car? Where the hell is my flying car?!?
I wonder if he gets any of those "Bill Gates will send you money" chain letters.
If you use Gentoo, the answer is EVERYONE.
Hilarious. That is like saying "I am the strongest man in the world because I have brown hair, I wear shoes, and I am standing here right now."
On behalf of all the women at this guy's college: Thank you Half Life 2, thank you Halo 2.
Now how in the hell am I supposed to trust this definition of Asymptote?