I know for a FACT that I manage to obtain all the vital information I need while ignoring distractions apleanty on nakednews dot com. I mean, I know they are supposed to talk and all, but it doesn't distract me at all.:)
well.. for a company that has 35ish BILLION in *LIQUID* assets, 1 billion a year is not that stiff.
its certainly enough to get someone there to worry about their department's budget, but that only reinforces my point.. if the fine were, lets say, $100,000 a day - they would have laughed and just ignored it. 35ish billion would earn more than that in interest if it were just in a standard SAVINGS account, let alone under the management of a team of financial officers.
They will probably lose 1 billion to just the xbox-360 division this year.. and gladly, to gain whatever marketshare they can.
I wouldn't mind windows going away, and linux staying HARD to use. then the 8,000 ish 'web developers' that the local college churns out a year could stop affecting my salary cap. Hard to argue with your boss about a raise, when they can replace you with 3 college graduates, who might know less, but certainly don't need to know MORE to program in visual-whatever.
Umm.. wasn't this a court order as part of the anti-truse resolution ?
Its not like europe said 'hey.. you know what would be nice ?' one sunny afternoon.
I believe this was part of the agreement that kept microsoft from losing its shirt in court, and yet - given that life bouy, they STILL don't comply.
I'm sure the only reason its set to 2.4m a day, is because any lower and they would consider it a busness expense, and not something that will actually hurt their bottom line.
first, Starship troopers wasn't by any means 'a blockbuster', lackluster acting - and poor box office performance assures that.
Second, Ender's Game is far from neo-facisim.
Look, its great that you live in a pacifist country like Britian *cough* FALKLANDS *cough*, but honestly - your commenting negativly about a book you never read, comparing it to ANOTHER book you never read, and lumping both into the 'propaganda for the U.S. war machine.' simply to make yourself feel better about.. well.. something.
You are talking about two books, BOTH written by soldiers, and both dealing with a lot of inner morality searching of the main characters. In both books, people constantly question the morality and need for war.
Perhapse you should get off your high horse, and actually sample them - before looking even more foolish with your off the cuff and uninformed opinions.
If you want to say 'war is bad', fine, just say it.. don't try to find hidden messages in books you have never read.
I had a boss tell once, stupidly, infront of several other folks in our department, [and this was at a fortune 500!] That we were all replaceable, and for far cheaper - we should be GLAD to have jobs, that we should thank her - and if people didn't start doing more overtime to get these [pet] projects done, she would just outsource our jobs overseas.
2 months later, Her department had gone from 10 people to 6. [all of us that left, had over 5 years exp there.] Three days after I left she was given a 'Promotion' to move from the development team, to a 'special project' involving people-soft. Reports say she couldn't stop walking around the office talking up her new promotion - never once realizing that she was moving from a [formerly] 10 seat department, to a 0 seat department.
2 weeks after her 'promotion' she suddenly left the company, of her own will of course.
Apparantly the exit interviews of her former IT staff were not kind, especially the.wav recording that one employee had of her threats to outsource our jobs if we didn't start doing more overtime. Sucks to work in a cube-sea of techgeeks with fancy toys like archos-recorders.
having, in the past, worked with indian call centers, [IE flying to india, and training staff to answer the phones for a previous employer.] The reason I consider Indians a dime a dozen is because they were.
Literally, we had 10 staffing agencies give us over 10k people to screen. The requirements were as follows :
Must speak english fluently, Must have a degree in computer science, Must have call center experience.
out of the 10k that showed up.. EVERY SINGLE ONE had certificates that said they met all three requirements. [IE Language skill schools certification, degrees, resumes listing years of call center work.] Around the 700th interview, we figured out something was wierd... the people who had passed english fluency exams, couldn't answer simple questions asked them in english, like 'how old are you' or 'what is your name'. The people with degrees in computer science, had trouble turning on the test PC we had set up, the ones that could turn it on, had problems opening up ACT, or answering a list of simple technical questions we had: [how can you tell if a cat-5 netword card is working, how do you start up a web browser, how do you ping another computer] let ALONE any programming questions. The ones that had call center experience, were having problems transfering a call to another phone, putting people on hold, and dialing another country.
All in all.. we were mystified, but skeptically drudged through more interviews, somewhere around the 1200 mark, I personally got a guy who spoke decent queens english, was technically compatent, but had only 1 call center job. I asked him, politely, to tell me why i should hire him over the 1200 people i had spoken to so far. His answer was simple :
'I am actually fluent in english, and I really have my degree - I may only have 1 call center listed on my resume, but I actually worked there - and you can call this number [which was in the UK] to verify that I was employed.' He then went on to tell me that he was SURE that lots of people had impressive references, and said they had degrees etc, but that in India - there was a whole black market of places that would sell you certification for whatever you needed to get a job.
out of the 10k people they sent us, we barely got 50.. thats FIFTY.. people who could pass all the tests. [we had been expecting to get 1k easily]
My personal favorite was a guy who MUST have been 80, who repeated 'Yes, I am perfectly fluent in English.' over and over, no matter what we asked him. [Including when we told him he could leave the interviewing room.]
The impression we got from the people we hired, was that we were paying very well for a call center, and that many people figured that we would be hiring like any other call center - basically, anyone that breathed. So they just did what they always do, get papers that could be attached to a form that is sent to the US showing they were qualified, and apply for the job.
Apparantly MOST US and British companies don't actually do what we did. They just hire a local guy to staff their centers for them. Who normally train folks to just read a set of scripts. Anyone will do. [Normally this fellow will take bribes from people desperate for work - to give them the priveledge of working.]
So when you ask what makes me (personally) think that a guy in a US college class would be more productive, My answer is that at least I have a very high certainty that he really is trained in what his degree is in, and if I am skeptical, I can verify the college is accredited, and call them to check his facts. I can call his previous employers, and although leagally they can't tell me if he was a crappy worker, they can at least verify that he DID work there, and the dates he worked there, how much notice he gave, and what his salary range was.
He may not work as hard, as some guy in india who REALLY needs the $2 a day, and he may not be as cheap.. but at least I know he speaks english, really has his degree, and could actually DO the job.
"Well billy, you see... about your programmer, he wasn't feeling so good anymore, and city life would be just mean. So Daddy put him in the car and drove him out to this WONDERFUL farm, where he could play in the sun, and see cows, run around having fun all day long. He seemed really sad at first, but Daddy said he REALLY enjoyed it there, we might be able to visit him eventually, once he is back to his old self."
78 is a pretty insignifigant number.. there is at least ONE person who i know of that holds over 6500 US issued patents.
to be included on a patent, you only have to be listed as an inventor, it doesn't mean you actually DID anything - but it gives you full rights to the patent.
I noticed you guys are going to be speaking at 'The Amazing Meeting 4' this year. How are you connected to James Randi ? Penn & Teller have been very vocal about supporting him in past years, but this was the first inkling that I had that you fine folks were on the same bandwagon.
[My personal suspicion is that this is more of an Adam spin, considering his card throwing, slight of hand antics on the show - which my whole household loves by the way.]
Re:as someone lumped with the prodigies for awhile
on
The Prodigy Puzzle
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· Score: 1
Well.. quite honestly, I was just joking about:P [Although I did have a slight stroke a year or so ago due to a head injury - no faculties were lost.]
When I was tested, I was very young, 7 and 8, and it was actually the late 70's. Standardized testing wasn't used much at the time. The California Achievement Tests were the only ones that I could remember at an elementary school level. I was actually tested on I.Q. by a person, one on one, to be included in a G.E. program.
My obscure point (and the resulting joke) was, that as you get older, and other responsibilities take over, it becomes less and less important how 'smart' you were as a child. No one cares on a job interview what your I.Q. is, and its not going to keep your newborn children from waking up every 3 hours wanting to eat.
And when you were told, constantly, throughout your childhood that you have the potential to do great things, the realization that mundane tasks await you every day can be frustrating or disheartening. I, for example, have not done anything of historically significant value with my life to date. (Who knows what will happen next year though.) The stigma of 'why are you wasting your life' runs high amongst folks with 'above average I.Q.s, apparently if your lower than 150, its ok to just have two kids and work 9-5, but once you branded with higher than that - society, your peers, and hell..even slash-dot *grin*, looks at you like your nuts if 'that's all you have done'.
It must have been a crappy joke if I had to explain it.
Re:as someone lumped with the prodigies for awhile
on
The Prodigy Puzzle
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I second your theory on this.. I was tested several times in a G.E. program when I was young, and was given an I.Q. that I am always embarrised to share in mixed company, lets just say its a signifigant number.
That out of the way, I SWEAR I have gotten dumber as I have gotten older.
First there were girls, then money, then 'advancing my career'.
With each step on society's ladder, i've shed IQ points like water off a duck.
I recently had a kid, He seems pretty bright, and thus will probably bring be down to a nice society average I.Q. in record time:)
I was in this program as well from 3rd - 7th grade until the national funding grant for it was yanked/ran out. We had a separate 'G.E.' teacher, and did a lot of advanced course work. We were encourages in certain directions, but were allowed to choose what areas we wanted to work in. [I remember in 5th grade, building a suit of period correct, 13th century English full plate armour out of cardboard and modeling compound. It was [for 5th graders] fairly elaborate, down to the engravings on the individual pieces, embellishments from what little detail we were able to glean from research at the local college libraries.]
When Friedmud says 'higher than average iq's' from reports that were sent to our parents from 'the program' it looks to me like no one under 150 was accepted to this program. This is probably fairly accurate, out of some 350k students close in age range in my hometown's surrounding school district, there were maybe a total of 40-60 G.E. students. [We once had an 'event' where everyone got together and did strange 'puzzle offs' which.. later in life - memories of which seem VERY similar to group IQ screening commonly used with younger children.
I remember being given a box of junk and told to lead my team in moving 40 ping pong balls from 1 box to a another by placing it through a hold in the side of the box. We were not being able to touch the ping pong balls without tools, and only being able to use each item in the box once - although we could combine them, and move multiple balls with each if possible. I only remember it clearly because our team scored 'major' points, because we 'wove' a net out of several elastic bands, pieces of string etc, combined that with a funnel made of an envelope, some paperclips and thumbtacks, and used several pens and pencils shoved through the first box, to simply pour the ping pong balls into the 2nd box via the net/funnel connected to the hole.
Put a bit of a dent in the 'you have one hour' timeline:P
All in all.. it was something from my childhood I rarely remembered - seeing the source article just jostled it to the surface.
I do believe that this program is no longer done at such a level anymore. Individual school systems have 'T.A.G' classes but not something so 'centralized' as the program I participated in. [I know, in my town at least, there were several complaints from parents who's children were excluded due to the IQ cut off.. and didn't feel it was fair that other children could be singled out for special treatment. [A different tune would have been sung if their child was selected.. I'm sure.]
I think said program both gave me advantages and disadvantages in school.
I did pretty good on my SAT's when I took them. 780 v / 640 m. I only took them once, and it was after a 2 hour drive back from an all night break-up fiasco in Boston. [Older girlfriend in college already, young kid in high school, who skipped a grade as it was.. not a perfect match.]
I was taking college classes my jr and sr year in high school in computer science, to keep my interest in school.
When I was a jr in high school, most of my classes were with that year's seniors, as a result - most folks thought I was a senior. [I skipped my sophomore year of HS.] As much as this would MAKE me seem like a social outcast, I think it had the opposite effect. I became more gregarious and social - instead of being that nerd that got beat up in the back of the class.
I do know for a fact, however, that through my later school career, I caught crap from some of my teachers. There were one or two teachers (with access to student files) who would single out kids from the G.E. program and make snide comments like 'You should be able to figure this out already, your a genius after all.' etc. I'm not sure why the did this.. if they were petty, if their kids were passed over, or if they just disagreed with the pro
Quite honestly, I'm with everyone else here on this. [Of course, this is slash-dot.] Dress doesn't matter in IT.
Several jobs ago, I was a sales-man. Selling toy soldiers. I wore suits, but when you were selling $10-$20k of product to a small independant retailer, you needed to make an impression.
I then worked for a cable giant, and was told to wear kakhi's and a polo to work. I did, there were a *LOT* of cute girls in that office, seemed easy to comply - especially with lunch dates in mind.
I left that job to go work for another fortune 500, where Jeans were expresly forbidden. I wore jeans every day. Once a director asked me [infront of a vp, and a department head] why i was allowed to wear jeans. This man, ironcally - the head of it/ecommerce, and 2 years later, my boss - was told by the VP of marketing : "Oh, thats cause he is one of those programmers, who wants to do all that math in a tie ?"
The two or three times I pulled an armani out of the closet (remember, i was in sales!) and wore them to work, I made people VERY.. VERY nervous.
That being said, in a fortune 500 environment, I noticed that on the days I wore a $1500 suit, people stepped out of my way.. made sure to say 'Hi' to me, and [bluntly] I had a lot more 'package glances' from co-workers. Maybe I just look 'nicer' in an expensive suit (who doesn't ?!) but I think, in a professional environment where you interact with outside departments who *NEED* to dress nicely to deal with clients - it can help them feel more comfortable. Job advancement is mainly based on other people's perception of how you do your job. I've seen *AWESOME* coders get shafted again and again, but jr. guys who know how to play the game - get given better projects, raised, and recognition.
Now I am the V.P. of IT at a smaller company, and all upper management actually tells me all the time to 'dress edgy' when I ask if I should wear a suit.
In the small co. / startup / under 50 million a year industry. Venture Caps *LIKE* to see the crazy IT guys, it provides them with an oddly inverted feeling of comfort - NO ONE who dresses like that could be hired by such a small company if they were not REALLY good at their job.. i mean.. 'look at them'.
Like it or not, we actually *HAVE* fostered the belief that good programmers really *don't* wear suits. And the tighter we hold on to that conviction, the more truth it gains:)
Trust me.. its not all of us over here.. some of us fight it tooth and nail. You just can't help folks who don't want to be helped. Everyone gets the impression that these fringe groups are the mass majority, this is untrue, they are just a motivated and very VOCAL minority, who just has to shout louder than the larger percentage of normal folks, who are more often occupied with the massive amount of work that it takes to just survive in a free market economy. After all - who cares what happens in Kansas schools when your making minimum wage and working two jobs to feed your kids.
And how much.. exactly.. does a college degree run now adays ? 53k ? Thats great if your single without a family. Throw two kids in the mix, and what you get from that 53k after taxes is just about what it costs you to put them in daycare.
I guess we could hire 11-b's for daycare to drive those costs down.
I mean, the average worker in cuba brings home $12 usd a month.
of course, everything is a lot cheaper in cuba too.. so.. its all relative.
But I bet the guys that make $15 a month get laid a lot more, and buy a nicer used 1950's car.
Just a few facts about the McDonalds case that everyone LOVES to cite as a friviolous law suit:
There is a lot of hype about the McDonalds' scalding coffee case. No one is in favor of frivolous cases of outlandish results; however, it is important to understand some points that were not reported in most of the stories about the case. McDonalds coffee was not only hot, it was scalding -- capable of almost instantaneous destruction of skin, flesh and muscle. Here's the whole story.
Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson's car when she was severely burned by McDonalds' coffee in February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonalds.
After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled into her lap.
The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonalds refused.
During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This history documented McDonalds' knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard.
McDonalds also said during discovery that, based on a consultants advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste. He admitted that he had not evaluated the safety ramifications at this temperature. Other establishments sell coffee at substantially lower temperatures, and coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees.
Further, McDonalds' quality assurance manager testified that the company actively enforces a requirement that coffee be held in the pot at 185 degrees, plus or minus five degrees. He also testified that a burn hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above, and that McDonalds coffee, at the temperature at which it was poured into styrofoam cups, was not fit for consumption because it would burn the mouth and throat. The quality assurance manager admitted that burns would occur, but testified that McDonalds had no intention of reducing the "holding temperature" of its coffee.
Plaintiffs' expert, a scholar in thermodynamics applied to human skin burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus, if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn.
McDonalds asserted that customers buy coffee on their way to work or home, intending to consume it there. However, the companys own research showed that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while driving.
McDonalds also argued that consumers know coffee is hot and that its customers want it that way. The company admitted its customers were u
Actually, I came from a fortune 500 (now working for a GREAT startup, and both my immediate project manager (10 people) and our IT director (30 people) were essentially clueless on both how to get stuff done, and how to manage the people doing it.
it has nothing to do with IT, it has everything to do with them being a good manager, or a bad manager.
ironically, i had been hounding them for weeks to get a project moving (because i knew i was leaving) and they dragged their asses. after I *LEFT* not only were the conditions i had been bringing to constant attention for over a YEAR fixed, but other advice i offered on my exit interview were implemented as well.
That is not a patent. That is an assignment. An assignemtn is basically application to apply for a patent, they have 1 year to actually get a patent passed before it expires.
The uspto will push back if the patent is too broad and make them refine it.
Also, this is a very broad patent, its not just for computers, its for an electronic document. that covers quite a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
I know for a FACT that I manage to obtain all the vital information I need while ignoring distractions apleanty on nakednews dot com. I mean, I know they are supposed to talk and all, but it doesn't distract me at all. :)
well .. for a company that has 35ish BILLION in *LIQUID* assets, 1 billion a year is not that stiff.
.. if the fine were, lets say, $100,000 a day - they would have laughed and just ignored it. 35ish billion would earn more than that in interest if it were just in a standard SAVINGS account, let alone under the management of a team of financial officers.
.. and gladly, to gain whatever marketshare they can.
its certainly enough to get someone there to worry about their department's budget, but that only reinforces my point
They will probably lose 1 billion to just the xbox-360 division this year
I wouldn't mind windows going away, and linux staying HARD to use. then the 8,000 ish 'web developers' that the local college churns out a year could stop affecting my salary cap. Hard to argue with your boss about a raise, when they can replace you with 3 college graduates, who might know less, but certainly don't need to know MORE to program in visual-whatever.
Umm .. wasn't this a court order as part of the anti-truse resolution ?
.. you know what would be nice ?' one sunny afternoon.
Its not like europe said 'hey
I believe this was part of the agreement that kept microsoft from losing its shirt in court, and yet - given that life bouy, they STILL don't comply.
I'm sure the only reason its set to 2.4m a day, is because any lower and they would consider it a busness expense, and not something that will actually hurt their bottom line.
first, Starship troopers wasn't by any means 'a blockbuster', lackluster acting - and poor box office performance assures that.
.. well .. something.
.. don't try to find hidden messages in books you have never read.
Second, Ender's Game is far from neo-facisim.
Look, its great that you live in a pacifist country like Britian *cough* FALKLANDS *cough*, but honestly - your commenting negativly about a book you never read, comparing it to ANOTHER book you never read, and lumping both into the 'propaganda for the U.S. war machine.' simply to make yourself feel better about
You are talking about two books, BOTH written by soldiers, and both dealing with a lot of inner morality searching of the main characters. In both books, people constantly question the morality and need for war.
Perhapse you should get off your high horse, and actually sample them - before looking even more foolish with your off the cuff and uninformed opinions.
If you want to say 'war is bad', fine, just say it
I had a boss tell once, stupidly, infront of several other folks in our department, [and this was at a fortune 500!] That we were all replaceable, and for far cheaper - we should be GLAD to have jobs, that we should thank her - and if people didn't start doing more overtime to get these [pet] projects done, she would just outsource our jobs overseas.
.wav recording that one employee had of her threats to outsource our jobs if we didn't start doing more overtime. Sucks to work in a cube-sea of techgeeks with fancy toys like archos-recorders.
2 months later, Her department had gone from 10 people to 6. [all of us that left, had over 5 years exp there.] Three days after I left she was given a 'Promotion' to move from the development team, to a 'special project' involving people-soft. Reports say she couldn't stop walking around the office talking up her new promotion - never once realizing that she was moving from a [formerly] 10 seat department, to a 0 seat department.
2 weeks after her 'promotion' she suddenly left the company, of her own will of course.
Apparantly the exit interviews of her former IT staff were not kind, especially the
having, in the past, worked with indian call centers, [IE flying to india, and training staff to answer the phones for a previous employer.] The reason I consider Indians a dime a dozen is because they were.
.. EVERY SINGLE ONE had certificates that said they met all three requirements. [IE Language skill schools certification, degrees, resumes listing years of call center work.] Around the 700th interview, we figured out something was wierd ... the people who had passed english fluency exams, couldn't answer simple questions asked them in english, like 'how old are you' or 'what is your name'. The people with degrees in computer science, had trouble turning on the test PC we had set up, the ones that could turn it on, had problems opening up ACT, or answering a list of simple technical questions we had: [how can you tell if a cat-5 netword card is working, how do you start up a web browser, how do you ping another computer] let ALONE any programming questions. The ones that had call center experience, were having problems transfering a call to another phone, putting people on hold, and dialing another country.
.. we were mystified, but skeptically drudged through more interviews, somewhere around the 1200 mark, I personally got a guy who spoke decent queens english, was technically compatent, but had only 1 call center job. I asked him, politely, to tell me why i should hire him over the 1200 people i had spoken to so far. His answer was simple :
.. thats FIFTY .. people who could pass all the tests. [we had been expecting to get 1k easily]
.. but at least I know he speaks english, really has his degree, and could actually DO the job.
Literally, we had 10 staffing agencies give us over 10k people to screen. The requirements were as follows :
Must speak english fluently,
Must have a degree in computer science,
Must have call center experience.
out of the 10k that showed up
All in all
'I am actually fluent in english, and I really have my degree - I may only have 1 call center listed on my resume, but I actually worked there - and you can call this number [which was in the UK] to verify that I was employed.' He then went on to tell me that he was SURE that lots of people had impressive references, and said they had degrees etc, but that in India - there was a whole black market of places that would sell you certification for whatever you needed to get a job.
out of the 10k people they sent us, we barely got 50
My personal favorite was a guy who MUST have been 80, who repeated 'Yes, I am perfectly fluent in English.' over and over, no matter what we asked him. [Including when we told him he could leave the interviewing room.]
The impression we got from the people we hired, was that we were paying very well for a call center, and that many people figured that we would be hiring like any other call center - basically, anyone that breathed. So they just did what they always do, get papers that could be attached to a form that is sent to the US showing they were qualified, and apply for the job.
Apparantly MOST US and British companies don't actually do what we did. They just hire a local guy to staff their centers for them. Who normally train folks to just read a set of scripts. Anyone will do. [Normally this fellow will take bribes from people desperate for work - to give them the priveledge of working.]
So when you ask what makes me (personally) think that a guy in a US college class would be more productive, My answer is that at least I have a very high certainty that he really is trained in what his degree is in, and if I am skeptical, I can verify the college is accredited, and call them to check his facts. I can call his previous employers, and although leagally they can't tell me if he was a crappy worker, they can at least verify that he DID work there, and the dates he worked there, how much notice he gave, and what his salary range was.
He may not work as hard, as some guy in india who REALLY needs the $2 a day, and he may not be as cheap
the first thing that popped into my head :
... about your programmer, he wasn't feeling so good anymore, and city life would be just mean. So Daddy put him in the car and drove him out to this WONDERFUL farm, where he could play in the sun, and see cows, run around having fun all day long. He seemed really sad at first, but Daddy said he REALLY enjoyed it there, we might be able to visit him eventually, once he is back to his old self."
"Well billy, you see
at 20-25 grand a pop ? i don't think so ..
.. there is at least ONE person who i know of that holds over 6500 US issued patents.
78 is a pretty insignifigant number
to be included on a patent, you only have to be listed as an inventor, it doesn't mean you actually DID anything - but it gives you full rights to the patent.
but it would have to be cash up front :)
www.invequity.com
i'm sure they are laughing all the way to the bank.
I noticed you guys are going to be speaking at 'The Amazing Meeting 4' this year.
How are you connected to James Randi ? Penn & Teller have been very vocal about supporting him in past years, but this was the first inkling that I had that you fine folks were on the same bandwagon.
[My personal suspicion is that this is more of an Adam spin, considering his card throwing, slight of hand antics on the show - which my whole household loves by the way.]
Well .. quite honestly, I was just joking about :P [Although I did have a slight stroke a year or so ago due to a head injury - no faculties were lost.]
..even slash-dot *grin*, looks at you like your nuts if 'that's all you have done'.
When I was tested, I was very young, 7 and 8, and it was actually the late 70's. Standardized testing wasn't used much at the time. The California Achievement Tests were the only ones that I could remember at an elementary school level. I was actually tested on I.Q. by a person, one on one, to be included in a G.E. program.
My obscure point (and the resulting joke) was, that as you get older, and other responsibilities take over, it becomes less and less important how 'smart' you were as a child. No one cares on a job interview what your I.Q. is, and its not going to keep your newborn children from waking up every 3 hours wanting to eat.
And when you were told, constantly, throughout your childhood that you have the potential to do great things, the realization that mundane tasks await you every day can be frustrating or disheartening. I, for example, have not done anything of historically significant value with my life to date. (Who knows what will happen next year though.) The stigma of 'why are you wasting your life' runs high amongst folks with 'above average I.Q.s, apparently if your lower than 150, its ok to just have two kids and work 9-5, but once you branded with higher than that - society, your peers, and hell
It must have been a crappy joke if I had to explain it.
I second your theory on this .. I was tested several times in a G.E. program when I was young, and was given an I.Q. that I am always embarrised to share in mixed company, lets just say its a signifigant number.
:)
That out of the way, I SWEAR I have gotten dumber as I have gotten older.
First there were girls,
then money,
then 'advancing my career'.
With each step on society's ladder, i've shed IQ points like water off a duck.
I recently had a kid, He seems pretty bright, and thus will probably bring be down to a nice society average I.Q. in record time
I was in this program as well from 3rd - 7th grade until the national funding grant for it was yanked/ran out. We had a separate 'G.E.' teacher, and did a lot of advanced course work. We were encourages in certain directions, but were allowed to choose what areas we wanted to work in. [I remember in 5th grade, building a suit of period correct, 13th century English full plate armour out of cardboard and modeling compound. It was [for 5th graders] fairly elaborate, down to the engravings on the individual pieces, embellishments from what little detail we were able to glean from research at the local college libraries.]
.. later in life - memories of which seem VERY similar to group IQ screening commonly used with younger children.
:P
.. it was something from my childhood I rarely remembered - seeing the source article just jostled it to the surface.
.. and didn't feel it was fair that other children could be singled out for special treatment. [A different tune would have been sung if their child was selected .. I'm sure.]
.. not a perfect match.]
.. if they were petty, if their kids were passed over, or if they just disagreed with the pro
When Friedmud says 'higher than average iq's' from reports that were sent to our parents from 'the program' it looks to me like no one under 150 was accepted to this program. This is probably fairly accurate, out of some 350k students close in age range in my hometown's surrounding school district, there were maybe a total of 40-60 G.E. students. [We once had an 'event' where everyone got together and did strange 'puzzle offs' which
I remember being given a box of junk and told to lead my team in moving 40 ping pong balls from 1 box to a another by placing it through a hold in the side of the box. We were not being able to touch the ping pong balls without tools, and only being able to use each item in the box once - although we could combine them, and move multiple balls with each if possible. I only remember it clearly because our team scored 'major' points, because we 'wove' a net out of several elastic bands, pieces of string etc, combined that with a funnel made of an envelope, some paperclips and thumbtacks, and used several pens and pencils shoved through the first box, to simply pour the ping pong balls into the 2nd box via the net/funnel connected to the hole.
Put a bit of a dent in the 'you have one hour' timeline
All in all
I do believe that this program is no longer done at such a level anymore. Individual school systems have 'T.A.G' classes but not something so 'centralized' as the program I participated in. [I know, in my town at least, there were several complaints from parents who's children were excluded due to the IQ cut off
I think said program both gave me advantages and disadvantages in school.
I did pretty good on my SAT's when I took them. 780 v / 640 m. I only took them once, and it was after a 2 hour drive back from an all night break-up fiasco in Boston. [Older girlfriend in college already, young kid in high school, who skipped a grade as it was
I was taking college classes my jr and sr year in high school in computer science, to keep my interest in school.
When I was a jr in high school, most of my classes were with that year's seniors, as a result - most folks thought I was a senior. [I skipped my sophomore year of HS.] As much as this would MAKE me seem like a social outcast, I think it had the opposite effect. I became more gregarious and social - instead of being that nerd that got beat up in the back of the class.
I do know for a fact, however, that through my later school career, I caught crap from some of my teachers. There were one or two teachers (with access to student files) who would single out kids from the G.E. program and make snide comments like 'You should be able to figure this out already, your a genius after all.' etc. I'm not sure why the did this
Quite honestly, I'm with everyone else here on this. [Of course, this is slash-dot.]
.. VERY nervous.
.. made sure to say 'Hi' to me, and [bluntly] I had a lot more 'package glances' from co-workers. Maybe I just look 'nicer' in an expensive suit (who doesn't ?!) but I think, in a professional environment where you interact with outside departments who *NEED* to dress nicely to deal with clients - it can help them feel more comfortable. Job advancement is mainly based on other people's perception of how you do your job. I've seen *AWESOME* coders get shafted again and again, but jr. guys who know how to play the game - get given better projects, raised, and recognition.
.. i mean .. 'look at them'.
:)
Dress doesn't matter in IT.
Several jobs ago, I was a sales-man. Selling toy soldiers. I wore suits, but when you were selling $10-$20k of product to a small independant retailer, you needed to make an impression.
I then worked for a cable giant, and was told to wear kakhi's and a polo to work. I did, there were a *LOT* of cute girls in that office, seemed easy to comply - especially with lunch dates in mind.
I left that job to go work for another fortune 500, where Jeans were expresly forbidden. I wore jeans every day. Once a director asked me [infront of a vp, and a department head] why i was allowed to wear jeans. This man, ironcally - the head of it/ecommerce, and 2 years later, my boss - was told by the VP of marketing : "Oh, thats cause he is one of those programmers, who wants to do all that math in a tie ?"
The two or three times I pulled an armani out of the closet (remember, i was in sales!) and wore them to work, I made people VERY
That being said, in a fortune 500 environment, I noticed that on the days I wore a $1500 suit, people stepped out of my way
Now I am the V.P. of IT at a smaller company, and all upper management actually tells me all the time to 'dress edgy' when I ask if I should wear a suit.
In the small co. / startup / under 50 million a year industry. Venture Caps *LIKE* to see the crazy IT guys, it provides them with an oddly inverted feeling of comfort - NO ONE who dresses like that could be hired by such a small company if they were not REALLY good at their job
Like it or not, we actually *HAVE* fostered the belief that good programmers really *don't* wear suits. And the tighter we hold on to that conviction, the more truth it gains
Actually .. its probably got something to do with SONY headquarters being located in Japan :)
Trust me .. its not all of us over here .. some of us fight it tooth and nail.
You just can't help folks who don't want to be helped. Everyone gets the impression that these fringe groups are the mass majority, this is untrue, they are just a motivated and very VOCAL minority, who just has to shout louder than the larger percentage of normal folks, who are more often occupied with the massive amount of work that it takes to just survive in a free market economy. After all - who cares what happens in Kansas schools when your making minimum wage and working two jobs to feed your kids.
was that land-dinosaur of north america ? or lard-dinosaur of north america ?
And how much .. exactly .. does a college degree run now adays ?
.. so .. its all relative.
53k ? Thats great if your single without a family. Throw two kids in the mix, and what you get from that 53k after taxes is just about what it costs you to put them in daycare.
I guess we could hire 11-b's for daycare to drive those costs down.
I mean, the average worker in cuba brings home $12 usd a month.
of course, everything is a lot cheaper in cuba too
But I bet the guys that make $15 a month get laid a lot more, and buy a nicer used 1950's car.
From someone who has had the nerve, it tends to work even Better if your both men :
.. sure I guess .. "
Telemarketer: "I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?"
Me: "May I ask you one question first ?"
TM: "Umm
Me: (Deep breathy kind of voice) "What are you wearing right now. I mean, is it sexy ?"
TM: "Umm"
Me: "Lacey ? Leather ? What, common now, don't hold back."
TM "Thank-you sir, I hope you have a good day."
*click*
Yeah, most stuff now aways is the 'tear it open' variety.
My point is more along the lines of its illegal to tamper with mail in any way, the methods of which you use are immaterial.
In order to 'scan' the PIN number out, they first have to have illegal possession of your mail, or work for the post i suppose.
If you hold a sealed envelope, over boiling water, it OPENS! Once it opens, if you close it back up and place it under a book, it will RESEAL!
.. oh wait, there are already laws in place making mail fraud illegal.
.. nevermind.
God! someone should *DO* something about this
Gee
Just a few facts about the McDonalds case that everyone LOVES to cite as a friviolous law suit:
There is a lot of hype about the McDonalds' scalding coffee case. No
one is in favor of frivolous cases of outlandish results; however, it is
important to understand some points that were not reported in most of
the stories about the case. McDonalds coffee was not only hot, it was
scalding -- capable of almost instantaneous destruction of skin, flesh
and muscle. Here's the whole story.
Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of
her grandson's car when she was severely burned by McDonalds' coffee in
February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served
in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonalds.
After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and
stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her
coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often
charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in
motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed
the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from
the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled
into her lap.
The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next
to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full
thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body,
including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin
areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she
underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement
treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonalds
refused.
During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700
claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims
involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This
history documented McDonalds' knowledge about the extent and nature of
this hazard.
McDonalds also said during discovery that, based on a consultants
advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to
maintain optimum taste. He admitted that he had not evaluated the
safety ramifications at this temperature. Other establishments sell
coffee at substantially lower temperatures, and coffee served at home is
generally 135 to 140 degrees.
Further, McDonalds' quality assurance manager testified that the company
actively enforces a requirement that coffee be held in the pot at 185
degrees, plus or minus five degrees. He also testified that a burn
hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above,
and that McDonalds coffee, at the temperature at which it was poured
into styrofoam cups, was not fit for consumption because it would burn
the mouth and throat. The quality assurance manager admitted that burns
would occur, but testified that McDonalds had no intention of reducing
the "holding temperature" of its coffee.
Plaintiffs' expert, a scholar in thermodynamics applied to human skin
burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full
thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony
showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent
of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus,
if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would
have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn.
McDonalds asserted that customers buy coffee on their way to work or
home, intending to consume it there. However, the companys own research
showed that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while
driving.
McDonalds also argued that consumers know coffee is hot and that its
customers want it that way. The company admitted its customers were
u
Actually, I came from a fortune 500 (now working for a GREAT startup, and both my immediate project manager (10 people) and our IT director (30 people) were essentially clueless on both how to get stuff done, and how to manage the people doing it.
it has nothing to do with IT, it has everything to do with them being a good manager, or a bad manager.
ironically, i had been hounding them for weeks to get a project moving (because i knew i was leaving) and they dragged their asses. after I *LEFT* not only were the conditions i had been bringing to constant attention for over a YEAR fixed, but other advice i offered on my exit interview were implemented as well.
ironic.
That is not a patent.
That is an assignment.
An assignemtn is basically application to apply for a patent, they have 1 year to actually get a patent passed before it expires.
The uspto will push back if the patent is too broad and make them refine it.
Also, this is a very broad patent, its not just for computers, its for an electronic document. that covers quite a bit.