If I had to make a suggestion, I would say start with a little mobile app development. Write for Android or the iPhone or something. Draw from your experience to come up with something to write - maybe an electrical debugging tool? Or a training application for someone junior? Doesn't have to be novel, even; just build one or two apps for a phone. And, if possible, try to get one out onto one of the app stores.
A couple of advantages that come from this: 1) You get some practice doing real programming with a modern language and modern environment. 2) You get to see whether you really like programming as you're older. 3) It's easy to learn on your own (lots of tutorials out there) 4) You'll have a great differentiator when you do apply for jobs (because we all know age discrimination exists and you've got a great sales pitch around 'well, I've got a few Android apps that I wrote and sell.' 5) You might even make a little money on the side.
Interesting. You know, in 1969, Michael Crichton wrote a 'thriller' about a satellite which was designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation Andromeda Strain
Makes you wonder what else he right about, eh? (Cue ominous sound of very large animal coming through the brush...)
I will just point out that I've been through this before with the scares in the 1980's around "Dungeons and Dragons". Which was considered then a clearly dangerous game - after all, children who liked to pretend that they lived as heroes in a violent universe killing monsters would clearly grow up to be violent maniacs. As we now know, D&D is mostly dangerous in terms of "if you let it slip that you like D&D, the jocks will beat you up." and the theories that D&D would teach the children to be violent have been (largely) refuted.
All taxation is unfair. Taxation is, essentially, legalised theft..
I don't think all taxes are legalised theft. Consider a sales/consumption tax: I think one could make a valid argument that it's a charge by the state for doing business in their area - a charge that helps pay for the various services (eg, police, sanitation, transport, etc.) that the state provides so that the environment is friendly for commerce. If you feel that the charge by the state is too large, you are free to go to another area to pay less taxes but also suffer the risks of that state (for example, Pakistan has lower taxes than the US but also fewer services)
I think a similar parallel exists for income and capital gains taxes (where the government takes a cut of what you earn) - it's a charge for use of all the services that the state provides to make the area useful to work in.
If you're claiming that mechanism is 'theft', I think many other items become theft: if I allow someone to run their business out of my office for 10% of their revenue, is that theft? I would consider that a form of rent. Is it just theft when it's done by the government?
1) You could try the 'duplicate, don't replace' strategy. For instance, minutes of the board meetings go in Google Docs (so they can be searched more easily) and then are copied over to Bob's system once approved. If you do it right, eventually Google docs will start to become the primary source system - simply because it's easier to use - but Bob will still be maintaining his system. The downside to this is that you'll have a lot of documents in two places but eventually you can drop the one that isn't working.
2) You try to give Bob some kind of new, very cool project for him to work on - that is, give him a way cooler, more interesting bone and maybe he'll drop the one he's got. How's your donor database? Do you need some kind of app built for mobile or something? Once he's up and handling that (and gotten some real street cred for a good project), you might be able to obsolete the document management thing.
3) Work on a Business Continuity Plan: an early step in all BCP's is to make sure that you can (a) recover the documents if disaster hits and (b) that no one person is a single point of failure. Use the recent 'Sandy' events to emphasize that this is not a slur against Bob but the organization has to be able to survive even if the current 'datacenter' (even if it's just a machine under a desk) is flooded/destroyed. Google Docs is far cheaper from a recovery point of view.
4) Emphasize the shared document approach to Google Docs - if you have remote meetings, it's much easier to use Google docs to share/edit and remotely collaborate. Again, merging with approach #1 (use Google Docs until it's finalized, then it goes into the Bob system) might work well.
I've seen a lot of folks suggesting that you focus on documenting but I take the opposite view: you should actually be working to make documentation unnecessary. Documentation, by its very nature, tends to become obsolete very quickly - and any good IT guy learns to look at what's actually going on in the system rather than relying solely on the documentation. So you want to make your system as self-documenting as possible:
Set up a good monitoring system - that's a great starting point for your successor because he can deduce what's important by what's being monitored. Get someone else to be involved in monitoring (maybe your boss?) and you've got a second person who knows what is important.
Use a good naming convention - EmailServer1, TelephoneCloset3 are good names. Ninja, Macbeth, Comp1, etc. are bad.
Fix DNS so that common names go the right place - typing 'wiki' into the browser should go to the wiki, 'monitoring' should go to the monitoring system, etc.
Never build machines manually - Use configuration management software, automate builds, make them as push-button as possible.
Use an web/online Task List - Get in the habit of using task list software (I like PivotalTracker, personally) Giving your successor a list of what you worked on over the last month is really useful. Plus, it's an easy way to sit down with your management and show them what you'll be working on over the next week/month/year.
Automate those simple tasks you do all the time - Do you find yourself clearing disk space? Running reports? Run them from your management/monitoring console instead - that way, there's at least a script for someone else to read.
Finally, set up a wiki to document anything that isn't covered above - there will always be something but hopefully it will be a short list.
I've done this three or four times and it's worked every time.
You still believe things you hear at WWDC? The WWDC is great primarily because it tells you what won't happen in the next year. It's kinda like when you add "in bed" after a fortune cookie fortune; except in this case, you add "... NOT!"
Is that a Death Star?
on
LHC Success!
·
· Score: 1
Here is a picture from the control room which I'm sure makes sense to someone that isn't me.
*ahem* These are images from design specs that were recently obtained by our spies. As you can see on the upper right image, there is clearly a small trench leading to an exhaust port that leads directly to the reactor core. A proton torpedo launched at exactly the right time could travel through the exhaust shaft to the reactor core and set off a chain reaction.
I'd have my kids LoJacked if it could be safely removed (with minimal scar) at the age of 18, were legal, and could be proved to be safe.
Keep them lojacked until 18? Are you crazy? Age 25 is MUCH more reasonable although I could compromise at 22 ("once I stop paying for your tuition, you can get rid of the device.") Of course, they'll probably insist on doing the same thing to me when I turn 70...
Any measure taken to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism in the United States should not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, or civil liberties of United States citizens or lawful permanent residents
Really? "Should not" is the strongest language you want to use? Not something like "must not"? Really?
And does this actually need to be written into the bill? Have we gone so far that we need to remind the government not violate the Constitution in enforcing legislation? Really?
Just be aware, also, that there are some GREAT comparison utilities out there. Far better than Word's "track changes", they take two documents and compare everything, including contents within tables.
Our Legal department uses one all the time to compare documents to ensure no changes have been "snuck in".
SoftInterface.com has a nice product that compares both PDFs and Word/Excel/other files...
Awesome - I've always wanted to be a professional "Swedish Chef" translator!
Pros: a) Training is cheap, fun and available via NetFlix b) I can finally tell my Mom that watching TV actually didn't rot my brain but got me a job instead!
Cons: b) The Swedish Chef periphrastic subjunctive is a little tricky.
It's not free but IDEA by IntelliJ can help solve your troubles (if you're using Java). It supports "rename functionality" with intelligent search and replace in Java. It will replace all uses of the code and even rename getters/setters if you're changing an internal variable. So while we can't stop the spelling errors when we make them, we can easily remove them.
There's also a spellchecker plugin for IDEA but it only checks String literals and comments.
From the article, it mentions that the 767 prefix is now available (used to be 767 followed by any four digits would give you the time so they wouldn't allow numbers starting with 767)
Hmmm, someone could get the telephone number POP-CORN (767-2676)... more interestingly, it can also be used to spell "POR" so someone could also get 1-909-PORNSTAR (Suggested ad tagline: "Dial 1-909-PORNSTAR and leave off the last R 'cause it's all XXX!")
After studying philosophy I came to the conclusion that atheists usually don't know what they're talking about. They take the term "god", think it means something like a comics superhero, only bigger, and proceed to denounce that as non-existent. To which I answer: yes, it doesn't exist. Now, since the gods of which religions talk about have nothing in common with this concept, the debunking doesn't apply.
Regarding subsets, yes, all atheists believe in god. They just call it by other names: nature, causality, mater. And under specific conditions: while mathematical relations. In other words: atheists "understand" god while immanence. Religious people add to that transcendence. Both are two sides of the same coin. First, only a philosopher could get away with saying "After studying philosophy, I came to the conclusion that atheists usually don't know what they're talking about...Regarding subsets, yes, all atheists believe in god." How do you then define "atheist"?
Anyway I'm intrigued. I don't believe in God nor do I believe in fate, "nature", or other non-observable forces that somehow shape the universe. I do believe in matter, causality (that there is cause and effect in the universe), the strong and weak nuclear forces, and other physical concepts. Are you arguing that believing that the universe exists constitutes believing in god?
If so, aren't you redefining "god" to be essentially meaningless? Certainly it's not the definition of "god" typically used by most theistic religions.
I was very interested in this story at the time and followed the news coverage fairly closely. After 9/11, the ATM's couldn't check account balances but could dispense cash (and, as normal, they logged who withdrew money.) Some people took advantage to withdraw more money than was actually in their account (thereby essentially robbing the bank through an ATM rather than a teller.)
The interesting issue was that some people clearly didn't know they were overdrawn (they withdrew $200 but only had $170, etc.) and some people took HUGE advantage (withdrawing the maximum limit repeatedly from multiple ATMs in the area.) So how would the banks deal with the people trying to abuse the system while not penalizing the people who made accidents?
In practice, it was pretty simple: the bank sent notices to everyone who overdrew from their accounts and gave them a chance to return the money without charge. Most people ended up repaying after they got one or two notices. A few people insisted that they didn't have to return the money and then the bank threatened legal/criminal action. In the end (and to the best of my knowledge), only the people deliberately trying to abuse the system and then get away without giving the money back got threatened with legal issues (and the New York Daily News mocked them roundly for taking advantage of a bank that was trying to do the right thing...)
I got the impression from some of the news stories that two professional poker players barely beat out the machine. Actually, from the article, the professionals tied with the computer the first day, lost the second day, and then made up the lost ground and then some on the third day. However, on the third day, the programmers tried a new system with a "coach" coordinating the efforts of various bots that attempted to improve by learning over the hands. If the programmers had kept their original program in place, we almost certainly would be reading "Chess, Checkers, and now Poker - humans can't beat the computer. "
Just to reemphasize what the previous poster said: the best approach is to get a housesitter/tenant. Otherwise it might literally not be there when you get back. In our case, not only was our house robbed once but it was then burned to the ground one winter by an arsonist. Trust me, we will never leave another house unoccupied over the winter.
If you can't find a paying tenant, there are always people who are looking for a place to housesit for a winter. Definitely do reference checks on anyone you get to housesit but I'd bet you can find someone who would be really grateful for the chance to housesit.
If you can't find a tenant, move all your possessions (all that you don't want to lose) to a storage unit. And make sure you have sufficient insurance for trouble that occurs while you're not there (pipes bursting, roof leaks, etc.)
As the boomers age, their ability to learn and remember new things will diminish (natural part of aging.) As a consequence, I think they're going to want a computer platform which is stable and unchanging; they aren't going to want the "latest and greatest" every couple of years. Plus, as reflexes get slower, people aren't going to need the latest superfast computer in order to play games. A real market for stability in the consumer marketplace will open up...
I predict there will be a company that makes its mark in building such a platform for the elderly that has a lifetime of 10-15 years rather than needing to be upgraded every few years. It will probably support email, web browsing, a basic platform for games (including support for those older games that the boomers grew up with and still want to play.) and some kind of remote monitoring to fix things if the user can't. Their business model will probably be built on maintenance fees ("buy this computer, technical support and maintenance is just $20 a month, and you'll never need to relearn the programs.")
My other prediction: Someone will start developing software games that adapt their speed to people's reflexes - as people get older, their reflexes will slow down but they'll still want to play the game. Imagine Tetris but with some intelligence to adjust to slower reflexes so that the game is still fun for people who have lost their twitchy trigger finger reflexes.
I can just say that, from my own experience, you CAN get a lot of satisfaction from making an ethical change.
I went from working at a "dot com" that always seemed to me to be one step away from a pyramid scheme to working for a relatively well-known non-profit. I didn't realize how big an impact it would have. Everytime I went to a party or had to explain my job anywhere, people thought it was good that I was working for a non-profit that was trying to make the world better.
I know it seems trite, but it makes a big difference in your life when you can explain what you do and people respect it. Admittedly I made less money but I was glad I switched.
[Important caveat: not all non-profits are great. Some are remarkably disfunctional. If you're interviewing, make sure to talk to people about how they REALLY make organizational decisions. It make a big difference to be at a good non-profit. ]
One approach that has worked for me in the past is the "backup and recover" approach. Basically, it works like this: 1) You maintain a canonical "test" database (or multiple ones). This database has the same functionality as the production database but generally contains much less data. No one touches this database unless they need to permanently modify the test data. After each release, you make a backup of the database and release that backup to everyone who needs a test database. They restore it to their own environment. 2) You always write changes to the database as scripts so that you can run them against your test database and your production database. Your release process has to change to include running any database modification scripts on the canonical test database as well as the production database. This ensures that your new test database matches the production database for that release. 3) You need to modify your test process so that it runs a database restore at the appropriate points. In our case, we always restore before QA functional tests (because they leave the database in an altered state) but we don't restore for unit-tests (because we insist they leave the database in the same state they started.)
The advantages to this approach is that everyone has a copy of an actual database and you get to see all the funkiness of your real environment. The downside is that you have to be very disciplined in keeping the backups for all releases, and for running modification scripts against both the test and production databases appropriately.
Hmmm.... an astronomer chooses a bad name for a new type of celestial body, starts a feud with geologists, and then - in a stunning move - decides that Microsoft is to blame???
I know we blame Microsoft for all the problems here on Earth. Don't you think it's stretching things to hold them accountable for all the problems in the Solar System too?:)
So as long as the local politicians don't actually say who they are going to give the property to, whether it be some wealthier individual or corporation, until 10 minutes after they take it from you, then it is all well and good as long as the deed is actually held by the town for a moment?
The issue is purpose, and the courts are pretty good at smacking down attempts to violate the Constitution by means of holding up a fraudulent and superfical mask of a permissable purpose.
So no, if a company lobbied the government to do them a favor of seizing some property to turn over to that company, then that seizure would be unconstitutional no matter what facade the government crafted to conseal that illegitimate purpose.
The complication is that this kind of corruption is awfully easy to conceal and very difficult to prove. In the real world, I think that rich interests could very well get specific property given to them if they were willing to pay enough money.
BUT... I agree that the SCOTUS decision is the right one and that issues of corruption and misuse of emminent domain are better handled through legislation at the local level . For example, you could pass a regulation that insists all emminent domain seizures must be approved first by a ballot measure getting at least 50% of the vote.
Or you could just trust your politicians to do the right thing...they're mostly honest, right?
The disposable $500 pill--which enters and exits the body through preexisting orifices.
Preexisting orifices? I guess we should be thankful they don't enter and exit through non-preexisting orifices - I can just imagine a doctor saying "There's this great new SmartPill but I'm gonna have to tear you a new asshole to use it."
Slashdot Mirror
If I had to make a suggestion, I would say start with a little mobile app development. Write for Android or the iPhone or something. Draw from your experience to come up with something to write - maybe an electrical debugging tool? Or a training application for someone junior? Doesn't have to be novel, even; just build one or two apps for a phone. And, if possible, try to get one out onto one of the app stores.
A couple of advantages that come from this:
1) You get some practice doing real programming with a modern language and modern environment.
2) You get to see whether you really like programming as you're older.
3) It's easy to learn on your own (lots of tutorials out there)
4) You'll have a great differentiator when you do apply for jobs (because we all know age discrimination exists and you've got a great sales pitch around 'well, I've got a few Android apps that I wrote and sell.'
5) You might even make a little money on the side.
Good luck!
Interesting. You know, in 1969, Michael Crichton wrote a 'thriller' about a satellite which was designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation Andromeda Strain
Makes you wonder what else he right about, eh? (Cue ominous sound of very large animal coming through the brush...)
I will just point out that I've been through this before with the scares in the 1980's around "Dungeons and Dragons". Which was considered then a clearly dangerous game - after all, children who liked to pretend that they lived as heroes in a violent universe killing monsters would clearly grow up to be violent maniacs. As we now know, D&D is mostly dangerous in terms of "if you let it slip that you like D&D, the jocks will beat you up." and the theories that D&D would teach the children to be violent have been (largely) refuted.
-Peter
All taxation is unfair. Taxation is, essentially, legalised theft..
I don't think all taxes are legalised theft. Consider a sales/consumption tax: I think one could make a valid argument that it's a charge by the state for doing business in their area - a charge that helps pay for the various services (eg, police, sanitation, transport, etc.) that the state provides so that the environment is friendly for commerce. If you feel that the charge by the state is too large, you are free to go to another area to pay less taxes but also suffer the risks of that state (for example, Pakistan has lower taxes than the US but also fewer services)
I think a similar parallel exists for income and capital gains taxes (where the government takes a cut of what you earn) - it's a charge for use of all the services that the state provides to make the area useful to work in.
If you're claiming that mechanism is 'theft', I think many other items become theft: if I allow someone to run their business out of my office for 10% of their revenue, is that theft? I would consider that a form of rent. Is it just theft when it's done by the government?
Just a few quick possibilities:
1) You could try the 'duplicate, don't replace' strategy. For instance, minutes of the board meetings go in Google Docs (so they can be searched more easily) and then are copied over to Bob's system once approved. If you do it right, eventually Google docs will start to become the primary source system - simply because it's easier to use - but Bob will still be maintaining his system. The downside to this is that you'll have a lot of documents in two places but eventually you can drop the one that isn't working.
2) You try to give Bob some kind of new, very cool project for him to work on - that is, give him a way cooler, more interesting bone and maybe he'll drop the one he's got. How's your donor database? Do you need some kind of app built for mobile or something? Once he's up and handling that (and gotten some real street cred for a good project), you might be able to obsolete the document management thing.
3) Work on a Business Continuity Plan: an early step in all BCP's is to make sure that you can (a) recover the documents if disaster hits and (b) that no one person is a single point of failure. Use the recent 'Sandy' events to emphasize that this is not a slur against Bob but the organization has to be able to survive even if the current 'datacenter' (even if it's just a machine under a desk) is flooded/destroyed. Google Docs is far cheaper from a recovery point of view.
4) Emphasize the shared document approach to Google Docs - if you have remote meetings, it's much easier to use Google docs to share/edit and remotely collaborate. Again, merging with approach #1 (use Google Docs until it's finalized, then it goes into the Bob system) might work well.
Good luck.
I've seen a lot of folks suggesting that you focus on documenting but I take the opposite view: you should actually be working to make documentation unnecessary. Documentation, by its very nature, tends to become obsolete very quickly - and any good IT guy learns to look at what's actually going on in the system rather than relying solely on the documentation. So you want to make your system as self-documenting as possible:
I've done this three or four times and it's worked every time.
You still believe things you hear at WWDC? The WWDC is great primarily because it tells you what won't happen in the next year. It's kinda like when you add "in bed" after a fortune cookie fortune; except in this case, you add " ... NOT!"
*ahem* These are images from design specs that were recently obtained by our spies. As you can see on the upper right image, there is clearly a small trench leading to an exhaust port that leads directly to the reactor core. A proton torpedo launched at exactly the right time could travel through the exhaust shaft to the reactor core and set off a chain reaction.
Happy to help!
I'd have my kids LoJacked if it could be safely removed (with minimal scar) at the age of 18, were legal, and could be proved to be safe.
Keep them lojacked until 18? Are you crazy? Age 25 is MUCH more reasonable although I could compromise at 22 ("once I stop paying for your tuition, you can get rid of the device.") Of course, they'll probably insist on doing the same thing to me when I turn 70...
Really? "Should not" is the strongest language you want to use? Not something like "must not"? Really?
And does this actually need to be written into the bill? Have we gone so far that we need to remind the government not violate the Constitution in enforcing legislation? Really?
Just be aware, also, that there are some GREAT comparison utilities out there. Far better than Word's "track changes", they take two documents and compare everything, including contents within tables.
Our Legal department uses one all the time to compare documents to ensure no changes have been "snuck in".
SoftInterface.com has a nice product that compares both PDFs and Word/Excel/other files...
-Peter
Awesome - I've always wanted to be a professional "Swedish Chef" translator!
Pros:
a) Training is cheap, fun and available via NetFlix
b) I can finally tell my Mom that watching TV actually didn't rot my brain but got me a job instead!
Cons:
b) The Swedish Chef periphrastic subjunctive is a little tricky.
Man, if ever there was a post that deserved +6 funny...
It's not free but IDEA by IntelliJ can help solve your troubles (if you're using Java). It supports "rename functionality" with intelligent search and replace in Java. It will replace all uses of the code and even rename getters/setters if you're changing an internal variable. So while we can't stop the spelling errors when we make them, we can easily remove them.
There's also a spellchecker plugin for IDEA but it only checks String literals and comments.
-Peter
From the article, it mentions that the 767 prefix is now available (used to be 767 followed by any four digits would give you the time so they wouldn't allow numbers starting with 767)
Hmmm, someone could get the telephone number POP-CORN (767-2676)... more interestingly, it can also be used to spell "POR" so someone could also get 1-909-PORNSTAR (Suggested ad tagline: "Dial 1-909-PORNSTAR and leave off the last R 'cause it's all XXX!")
Regarding subsets, yes, all atheists believe in god. They just call it by other names: nature, causality, mater. And under specific conditions: while mathematical relations. In other words: atheists "understand" god while immanence. Religious people add to that transcendence. Both are two sides of the same coin. First, only a philosopher could get away with saying "After studying philosophy, I came to the conclusion that atheists usually don't know what they're talking about...Regarding subsets, yes, all atheists believe in god." How do you then define "atheist"?
Anyway I'm intrigued. I don't believe in God nor do I believe in fate, "nature", or other non-observable forces that somehow shape the universe. I do believe in matter, causality (that there is cause and effect in the universe), the strong and weak nuclear forces, and other physical concepts. Are you arguing that believing that the universe exists constitutes believing in god?
If so, aren't you redefining "god" to be essentially meaningless? Certainly it's not the definition of "god" typically used by most theistic religions.
Am I misunderstanding your argument?
Just curious...
-Peter
I was very interested in this story at the time and followed the news coverage fairly closely. After 9/11, the ATM's couldn't check account balances but could dispense cash (and, as normal, they logged who withdrew money.) Some people took advantage to withdraw more money than was actually in their account (thereby essentially robbing the bank through an ATM rather than a teller.)
The interesting issue was that some people clearly didn't know they were overdrawn (they withdrew $200 but only had $170, etc.) and some people took HUGE advantage (withdrawing the maximum limit repeatedly from multiple ATMs in the area.) So how would the banks deal with the people trying to abuse the system while not penalizing the people who made accidents?
In practice, it was pretty simple: the bank sent notices to everyone who overdrew from their accounts and gave them a chance to return the money without charge. Most people ended up repaying after they got one or two notices. A few people insisted that they didn't have to return the money and then the bank threatened legal/criminal action. In the end (and to the best of my knowledge), only the people deliberately trying to abuse the system and then get away without giving the money back got threatened with legal issues (and the New York Daily News mocked them roundly for taking advantage of a bank that was trying to do the right thing...)
Just to reemphasize what the previous poster said: the best approach is to get a housesitter/tenant. Otherwise it might literally not be there when you get back. In our case, not only was our house robbed once but it was then burned to the ground one winter by an arsonist. Trust me, we will never leave another house unoccupied over the winter.
If you can't find a paying tenant, there are always people who are looking for a place to housesit for a winter. Definitely do reference checks on anyone you get to housesit but I'd bet you can find someone who would be really grateful for the chance to housesit.
If you can't find a tenant, move all your possessions (all that you don't want to lose) to a storage unit. And make sure you have sufficient insurance for trouble that occurs while you're not there (pipes bursting, roof leaks, etc.)
As the boomers age, their ability to learn and remember new things will diminish (natural part of aging.) As a consequence, I think they're going to want a computer platform which is stable and unchanging; they aren't going to want the "latest and greatest" every couple of years. Plus, as reflexes get slower, people aren't going to need the latest superfast computer in order to play games. A real market for stability in the consumer marketplace will open up...
I predict there will be a company that makes its mark in building such a platform for the elderly that has a lifetime of 10-15 years rather than needing to be upgraded every few years. It will probably support email, web browsing, a basic platform for games (including support for those older games that the boomers grew up with and still want to play.) and some kind of remote monitoring to fix things if the user can't. Their business model will probably be built on maintenance fees ("buy this computer, technical support and maintenance is just $20 a month, and you'll never need to relearn the programs.")
My other prediction: Someone will start developing software games that adapt their speed to people's reflexes - as people get older, their reflexes will slow down but they'll still want to play the game. Imagine Tetris but with some intelligence to adjust to slower reflexes so that the game is still fun for people who have lost their twitchy trigger finger reflexes.
I can just say that, from my own experience, you CAN get a lot of satisfaction from making an ethical change.
I went from working at a "dot com" that always seemed to me to be one step away from a pyramid scheme to working for a relatively well-known non-profit. I didn't realize how big an impact it would have. Everytime I went to a party or had to explain my job anywhere, people thought it was good that I was working for a non-profit that was trying to make the world better.
I know it seems trite, but it makes a big difference in your life when you can explain what you do and people respect it. Admittedly I made less money but I was glad I switched.
[Important caveat: not all non-profits are great. Some are remarkably disfunctional. If you're interviewing, make sure to talk to people about how they REALLY make organizational decisions. It make a big difference to be at a good non-profit. ]
One approach that has worked for me in the past is the "backup and recover" approach. Basically, it works like this:
1) You maintain a canonical "test" database (or multiple ones). This database has the same functionality as the production database but generally contains much less data. No one touches this database unless they need to permanently modify the test data. After each release, you make a backup of the database and release that backup to everyone who needs a test database. They restore it to their own environment.
2) You always write changes to the database as scripts so that you can run them against your test database and your production database. Your release process has to change to include running any database modification scripts on the canonical test database as well as the production database. This ensures that your new test database matches the production database for that release.
3) You need to modify your test process so that it runs a database restore at the appropriate points. In our case, we always restore before QA functional tests (because they leave the database in an altered state) but we don't restore for unit-tests (because we insist they leave the database in the same state they started.)
The advantages to this approach is that everyone has a copy of an actual database and you get to see all the funkiness of your real environment. The downside is that you have to be very disciplined in keeping the backups for all releases, and for running modification scripts against both the test and production databases appropriately.
-Peter
Hmmm.... an astronomer chooses a bad name for a new type of celestial body, starts a feud with geologists, and then - in a stunning move - decides that Microsoft is to blame???
:)
I know we blame Microsoft for all the problems here on Earth. Don't you think it's stretching things to hold them accountable for all the problems in the Solar System too?
-Peter
The complication is that this kind of corruption is awfully easy to conceal and very difficult to prove. In the real world, I think that rich interests could very well get specific property given to them if they were willing to pay enough money.
BUT... I agree that the SCOTUS decision is the right one and that issues of corruption and misuse of emminent domain are better handled through legislation at the local level . For example, you could pass a regulation that insists all emminent domain seizures must be approved first by a ballot measure getting at least 50% of the vote.
Or you could just trust your politicians to do the right thing...they're mostly honest, right?
Preexisting orifices? I guess we should be thankful they don't enter and exit through non-preexisting orifices - I can just imagine a doctor saying "There's this great new SmartPill but I'm gonna have to tear you a new asshole to use it."
-Peter