Good reply.
Lots of the comments in this topic are about how to make yourself fit comfortably with the team (which is certainly something a manager wants, though he will still value a loner as long as he's not unpleasant).
But the one thing that marks you out above all other is :
"Understand his/her expectations and deliver on what's asked. However, if the expectations are completely unreasonable, have a backbone and ensure they know why you can't rewrite Linux in a day."
What makes a manager's job harder than anything is stuff that doesn't deliver on time. A poor manager needs to be politely told that his expectations are unrealistic. A good manager will let you set the timescales.. but they need to be real, and most of all, you need to meet them.
It's a game. Who cares ?
If the gaming industry gets as precious as the music industry, they'll go the same way.
A product that will make money is one that's accessible, available and attractive. When an industry thinks IP is more important than keeping and attracting customers, it's dead in the water.
Sounds like a good tradeoff to me.
OK, it's harder for Joe Public to see a popular website, but it keeps the government's sticky fingers off the law, and 'satisfies' the DRM lobby with a technically unfeasible sop.
Meanwhile, anyone who cares still has access via proxies, ssh tunnels, blah blah blah
1. The libel stuff is fairly new - probably only the last 5 years or so. We always used to consider the USA the place for that, but it seems to have moved here recently.
2. The establishment understands the Streisand effect and ignores the popular press. But now the lawyers rather than the clients are creating the market. They don't care whether they actually suppress the 'libel, they just want to get paid. So they lead stupid people to try. Doubtless they'll get over it eventually.
As an AC says below : there are already medical applications for computer-processed muscle signals for prosthetics. I wouldn't like to see Microsoft act as a gatekeeper there, especially as they aren't even responsible for the founding research.
If you make a personal transaction such as buying at a boot sale and don't have sufficient cash, and your bank hasn't thoughtfully provided a terminal in the middle of a field, how do you pay ?
And how do you do that in a way that can be conducted between two semi-trusting parties ?
If I buy something using a cheque, I hand over my bit of paper in return for the goods. There is the possibility of refusing to hand one of the items over right up to the point of sale or even snatch it back afterwards. If I have to authorise my transfer online in advance, or check it's there afterward, where is my control over the transaction ?
Reality E: Oil is getting a little shorter (at least to the extent that continuing price rises are inevitable). IEA talks it up, people get a little worried, try rather harder to save oil and find alternatives. Result : Oil becomes less important, let's say harvesting seaweed becomes a cheap and realistic option. Or chinese-made solar cells fulfil all out energy needs. Effect : Americans have to take energy conservation seriously, and American oil companies go down the pan.
Surprise ! suddenly influence over IEA's position looks terribly important to.. American oil companies.
Surely all internet hosts are peers. So this applies to anything that communicates.
Not that that's a bad thing : people should understand (and be informed enough to understand) what their software is sharing.
The bar is the expectation of faults arising and time to fix, not faults in specific applications. Compared to Microsoft, a fault affecting 22 students that's fixed in 3 days is well beyond excellence.
> Is it really a robot when its driven and operated by a remote human? It has no autonomous functionality.
Yes. A robot is, more than anything, a programmable agent. It's name comes from Robota, the Czech word for forced labour. We have ascribed lots of other features to them, often expecting autonomous action, reaction to their environment or human form but these are all a matter of opinion and usage : there is no authority that replaces Capek's use of the word as the base definition.
Autonomous functionality really needs another word : a fully autonomous 'robot' wouldn't be a robot at all, since it would only act as an agent of the user if it chose to do so, just like a human.
I realise that the meaning of the word is changing as the capabilities improve and the robot of our imagination becomes closer to reality, but I think a definition that precludes non-autonomous robots is unreasonable when a new definition is still so subjective.
The act was performed from the US, and the photos stored in the US. But the copy involved a server in the UK, so if anyone broke UK copyright law it would be the NPG..
From TFA:
"Crews commanding a flotilla of specially-equipped vessels are still trolling an area with a radius of at least 50 miles for the recorders."
So I guess they're out there in the deep blue sea, provoking the fishes in the hope they'll get mad tell us where they hid the tapes..
You do appreciate the plumber when he comes to build something new - he arrives on time, does a good job, and leaves you with an improved house (we hope !!). So deal with the just-gotta-be-fixed stuff as nicely as you can, but really shine on the improvements. Volunteer stuff - don't make them drag it out of you. Offer to help with things. Make yourself more than just the guy who has to be called when something's wrong.
I'm not in IT support, but I used to work for a company that built electronics for motor racing. To the drivers and the mechanical guys, we were just like IT : invisible when it worked and a cause of trouble when it didn't. This was accepted as just the way things were - we laughed about it and got our satisfaction from doing a good job, thanked or not.
Approx. energy used by NA grid in one year, 4x10^12 kWh
Approx. mean power to achieve this, 4.5x10^11 W
Approx. energy used in one femtosecond pulse 4.5x10^-4 Ws = 1.26x10^-10 kWh
So quite a high repetition rate is allowed before the energy usage is noticeable.
Slashdot Mirror
Good reply. Lots of the comments in this topic are about how to make yourself fit comfortably with the team (which is certainly something a manager wants, though he will still value a loner as long as he's not unpleasant).
.. but they need to be real, and most of all, you need to meet them.
But the one thing that marks you out above all other is :
"Understand his/her expectations and deliver on what's asked. However, if the expectations are completely unreasonable, have a backbone and ensure they know why you can't rewrite Linux in a day."
What makes a manager's job harder than anything is stuff that doesn't deliver on time. A poor manager needs to be politely told that his expectations are unrealistic. A good manager will let you set the timescales
.. There's an app for thet !
It's a game. Who cares ? If the gaming industry gets as precious as the music industry, they'll go the same way. A product that will make money is one that's accessible, available and attractive. When an industry thinks IP is more important than keeping and attracting customers, it's dead in the water.
Sounds a good strategy, but sometimes I wonder whether we needlessly mistrust electronics and software.
What if the spring were to break ?
Sounds like a good tradeoff to me. OK, it's harder for Joe Public to see a popular website, but it keeps the government's sticky fingers off the law, and 'satisfies' the DRM lobby with a technically unfeasible sop. Meanwhile, anyone who cares still has access via proxies, ssh tunnels, blah blah blah
1. The libel stuff is fairly new - probably only the last 5 years or so. We always used to consider the USA the place for that, but it seems to have moved here recently. 2. The establishment understands the Streisand effect and ignores the popular press. But now the lawyers rather than the clients are creating the market. They don't care whether they actually suppress the 'libel, they just want to get paid. So they lead stupid people to try. Doubtless they'll get over it eventually.
Seems there's still a good number of web designers who are prepared to tell 28% (firefox share) of their potential customers to screw off.
Yes, six legs would be harder to manage. From the video, four legs looks pretty tough. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc
Because the behaviour of the lab and the french looked a lot more dodgy than Landis.
Indeed. So it's hardly surprising that jokers & hoaxers don't get very big laughs, is it ?
As an AC says below : there are already medical applications for computer-processed muscle signals for prosthetics. I wouldn't like to see Microsoft act as a gatekeeper there, especially as they aren't even responsible for the founding research.
But the Muppets were better, right ?
If you make a personal transaction such as buying at a boot sale and don't have sufficient cash, and your bank hasn't thoughtfully provided a terminal in the middle of a field, how do you pay ?
How do you make a payment between individuals ?
And how do you do that in a way that can be conducted between two semi-trusting parties ? If I buy something using a cheque, I hand over my bit of paper in return for the goods. There is the possibility of refusing to hand one of the items over right up to the point of sale or even snatch it back afterwards. If I have to authorise my transfer online in advance, or check it's there afterward, where is my control over the transaction ?
Reality E: Oil is getting a little shorter (at least to the extent that continuing price rises are inevitable). IEA talks it up, people get a little worried, try rather harder to save oil and find alternatives.
.. American oil companies.
Result : Oil becomes less important, let's say harvesting seaweed becomes a cheap and realistic option. Or chinese-made solar cells fulfil all out energy needs.
Effect : Americans have to take energy conservation seriously, and American oil companies go down the pan.
Surprise ! suddenly influence over IEA's position looks terribly important to
Surely all internet hosts are peers. So this applies to anything that communicates. Not that that's a bad thing : people should understand (and be informed enough to understand) what their software is sharing.
There's a seal (a SEAL ?) swims though at 3:10 - 3:20. And Nessie's visible between 5:00 and 5:10.
The bar is the expectation of faults arising and time to fix, not faults in specific applications. Compared to Microsoft, a fault affecting 22 students that's fixed in 3 days is well beyond excellence.
> Is it really a robot when its driven and operated by a remote human? It has no autonomous functionality. Yes. A robot is, more than anything, a programmable agent. It's name comes from Robota, the Czech word for forced labour. We have ascribed lots of other features to them, often expecting autonomous action, reaction to their environment or human form but these are all a matter of opinion and usage : there is no authority that replaces Capek's use of the word as the base definition. Autonomous functionality really needs another word : a fully autonomous 'robot' wouldn't be a robot at all, since it would only act as an agent of the user if it chose to do so, just like a human. I realise that the meaning of the word is changing as the capabilities improve and the robot of our imagination becomes closer to reality, but I think a definition that precludes non-autonomous robots is unreasonable when a new definition is still so subjective.
The act was performed from the US, and the photos stored in the US. But the copy involved a server in the UK, so if anyone broke UK copyright law it would be the NPG ..
From TFA: "Crews commanding a flotilla of specially-equipped vessels are still trolling an area with a radius of at least 50 miles for the recorders." So I guess they're out there in the deep blue sea, provoking the fishes in the hope they'll get mad tell us where they hid the tapes ..
Hmmm ..
What if I bought some botnet cycles and sent line eater spam ?
You do appreciate the plumber when he comes to build something new - he arrives on time, does a good job, and leaves you with an improved house (we hope !!). So deal with the just-gotta-be-fixed stuff as nicely as you can, but really shine on the improvements. Volunteer stuff - don't make them drag it out of you. Offer to help with things. Make yourself more than just the guy who has to be called when something's wrong.
I'm not in IT support, but I used to work for a company that built electronics for motor racing. To the drivers and the mechanical guys, we were just like IT : invisible when it worked and a cause of trouble when it didn't. This was accepted as just the way things were - we laughed about it and got our satisfaction from doing a good job, thanked or not.
Approx. energy used by NA grid in one year, 4x10^12 kWh Approx. mean power to achieve this, 4.5x10^11 W Approx. energy used in one femtosecond pulse 4.5x10^-4 Ws = 1.26x10^-10 kWh So quite a high repetition rate is allowed before the energy usage is noticeable.