I was going back to school to become a teacher. In so doing I had to take a Trig course. I did so online from my local community college. It really refreshed my math skills (that were ~20 years old).
Keep in mind I had taken through Series and Diff Eq. in college, so I had mastered the material previously. (Don't ask why I needed trig. in spite of having had the upper level courses. Just a magic hoop to jump through).
I would argue that people don't know when to doubt, and when to believe.
Which scientists do they believe when it comes to Autism and vaccines? Which scientist to believe when it comes to global warming? It is just they have more insight into the infighting that is present into the community now.
The infighting has ALWAYS been there. When I was in graduate school I never saw a larger bunch of petty people whining over who was the bigger fish in there tiny ponds.
Just out of curiosity, shouldn't Microsoft be responsible for ensuring that only valid data makes it into the registry? If this is the core information source for the system, it would seem that there should be checks in place, at the OS level, that prevent changes to core items.
We went through a lot of growth (I ended up hiring 8 people as we went to > 300 people), but that first one was the hardest. One possible way(which we did) of hiring 1/2 a person is taking on additional responsibility in other, non-IT areas. We took on additional product development responsibilities. Look to what areas someone at an entry level IT could also contribute in other areas.
I too worked for a 20 person company for in a role similar to what you did. I tried asking them what they wanted, but I quickly learned that I need to guide what they asked of me. You will probably need to educate them on the what you do.
I had a weekly status meeting with 2 execs to where I prepared a one page document with:
1) Here is what the main projects are, and my perceived priority (chance for them to change the IT priorities to match the business priorities). 2) Here are any potential roadblocks to the projects (keep them aware of business risk). 3) Here are tasks that were completed from the last week (advertise yourself). 4) Here are the some potential large money items or other significant items that could occur in the next 6-12 months (depends on your company's planning horizon) (prevent surprises).
Number 4 is very important. Good executives don't like surprises. If you see ANYTHING that could be a major problem down the road. Tell them that you have discovered something, what the potential ramifications are, and what you are doing to identify, isolate, reduce the risks associated with the discovery. If your executives do like to keep their head in the sand, then you should keep an eye on the long term viability of your company.
13+ Years of geek marriage (and still going) brought about these lessons the hard way:
1) For chores around the house: write down a list of what you like to do, what you are neutral with, and what you don't like. That way you don't end up doing chores you don't like just because you should.
2) Views change. Even if you "know" what the other person thinks, verify.
3) Assume that the person's worst characteristics will get worse, and learn how to cope with them. Trying to change someone will only lead to pain and misery.
4) For any life changing events. Don't do it until both parties agree that it is the best choice. Battle it out, knock it out. Spend weeks working it out, but don't "just let it happen". Neither one of you should give up a life and then later say "I did _____ for you and it ruined my life." Both of you agreed it was the best choice. (This one I learned from observation).
I vaguely remember about 10 years ago one of the anti-virus vendors included in their EULA that you can't say anything bad about their software without getting their approval first? I remember immediately dumping them for all software evaluations for any product.
About 3 years ago I moved out of the software evaluation business, so I don't remember which one any more.
Similarly, a long distance company tried to forcibly move me to their Long Distance service. Even going so far as to saying I had approved in on the phone (they couldn't produce the recording when I demanded it).
Guess who didn't get to bid to be our ISP.
The bean counters don't see these numbers, but they cost these companies real dollars.
Disclaimer: I work for a radiation treatment manufacturer.
No arguments here. Unfortunately, economics will always have some role. When you can buy one accelerator that gives un-paralleled treatment options, or a TomoTherapy, Accuray, or Cyberknife device for between 1/40 and 1/20 the cost. There will be one patient who can't get treated due to the lack of proton treatment, but 20 people get a treatment that they wouldn't have on conventional radiotherapy devices because there are more of the advanced radiotherapy devices out there.
Agreed, that qualifies as stupid. I am still surprised that companies that are so worried about open source wouldn't use a general purpose tool. Usually they have policies about ALL of the software on their machines.
1) It can be used to help companies ensure that they are being compliant with the various licenses [good].
2) It can be used to "root out" those 'evil' open source applications [bad].
Unfortunately I agree that option 2 is most likely as it is really used to search for applications and not code. Why you would want to search for explicitly open source, vs. just knowing what is on a corporate PC doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
If intelligence is defined as something that is native to a person, it doesn't come close. It is much more a measure of environment and training. Yes an innate intelligence can help your training, but the margin of error in these tests for isolating for environment is so huge so as to make them irrelevant.
There are many studies that demonstrate that environment has a huge impact on how people score. An example study show how much environment can overwhelm any form of natural aptitude.
The biggest challenge is defining intelligence, any kind, which is not nearly as simple as some would make it out to be.
Slashdot Mirror
I was going back to school to become a teacher. In so doing I had to take a Trig course. I did so online from my local community college. It really refreshed my math skills (that were ~20 years old).
Keep in mind I had taken through Series and Diff Eq. in college, so I had mastered the material previously. (Don't ask why I needed trig. in spite of having had the upper level courses. Just a magic hoop to jump through).
-Chris
I would argue that people don't know when to doubt, and when to believe.
Which scientists do they believe when it comes to Autism and vaccines? Which scientist to believe when it comes to global warming? It is just they have more insight into the infighting that is present into the community now.
The infighting has ALWAYS been there. When I was in graduate school I never saw a larger bunch of petty people whining over who was the bigger fish in there tiny ponds.
Just out of curiosity, shouldn't Microsoft be responsible for ensuring that only valid data makes it into the registry? If this is the core information source for the system, it would seem that there should be checks in place, at the OS level, that prevent changes to core items.
Good point on hiring additional people.
We went through a lot of growth (I ended up hiring 8 people as we went to > 300 people), but that first one was the hardest. One possible way(which we did) of hiring 1/2 a person is taking on additional responsibility in other, non-IT areas. We took on additional product development responsibilities. Look to what areas someone at an entry level IT could also contribute in other areas.
I too worked for a 20 person company for in a role similar to what you did. I tried asking them what they wanted, but I quickly learned that I need to guide what they asked of me. You will probably need to educate them on the what you do.
I had a weekly status meeting with 2 execs to where I prepared a one page document with:
1) Here is what the main projects are, and my perceived priority (chance for them to change the IT priorities to match the business priorities).
2) Here are any potential roadblocks to the projects (keep them aware of business risk).
3) Here are tasks that were completed from the last week (advertise yourself).
4) Here are the some potential large money items or other significant items that could occur in the next 6-12 months (depends on your company's planning horizon) (prevent surprises).
Number 4 is very important. Good executives don't like surprises. If you see ANYTHING that could be a major problem down the road. Tell them that you have discovered something, what the potential ramifications are, and what you are doing to identify, isolate, reduce the risks associated with the discovery. If your executives do like to keep their head in the sand, then you should keep an eye on the long term viability of your company.
California academy of sciences, is in the same area and great as well.
13+ Years of geek marriage (and still going) brought about these lessons the hard way:
1) For chores around the house: write down a list of what you like to do, what you are neutral with, and what you don't like. That way you don't end up doing chores you don't like just because you should.
2) Views change. Even if you "know" what the other person thinks, verify.
3) Assume that the person's worst characteristics will get worse, and learn how to cope with them. Trying to change someone will only lead to pain and misery.
4) For any life changing events. Don't do it until both parties agree that it is the best choice. Battle it out, knock it out. Spend weeks working it out, but don't "just let it happen". Neither one of you should give up a life and then later say "I did _____ for you and it ruined my life." Both of you agreed it was the best choice. (This one I learned from observation).
Yeah, and those popular sports games. Only males in football?! How unrealistic is that!
Talk about skewing the results by picking the data set.
To follow up on this, looking at problems from a variety of perspectives will help you understand it better.
Walk through the problem as others might. It will help you produce a more useful solution.
Yeah,
And is it me, or was the total > 100 %
68.18% IE
21.96% Mozialla
10.91% Safari
1.16% Opera
--------------
102.21%
Just curious.
I vaguely remember about 10 years ago one of the anti-virus vendors included in their EULA that you can't say anything bad about their software without getting their approval first? I remember immediately dumping them for all software evaluations for any product.
About 3 years ago I moved out of the software evaluation business, so I don't remember which one any more.
Similarly, a long distance company tried to forcibly move me to their Long Distance service. Even going so far as to saying I had approved in on the phone (they couldn't produce the recording when I demanded it).
Guess who didn't get to bid to be our ISP.
The bean counters don't see these numbers, but they cost these companies real dollars.
Many may not remember, but when Sears first came out with the Discover card, they stopped accepting Visa/Mastercard.
Sales dropped, and it was the beginning of the end for Sears.
Those who don't study history....
Um, anyone else read it as that?
Disclaimer: I work for a radiation treatment manufacturer.
No arguments here. Unfortunately, economics will always have some role. When you can buy one accelerator that gives un-paralleled treatment options, or a TomoTherapy, Accuray, or Cyberknife device for between 1/40 and 1/20 the cost. There will be one patient who can't get treated due to the lack of proton treatment, but 20 people get a treatment that they wouldn't have on conventional radiotherapy devices because there are more of the advanced radiotherapy devices out there.
Hey Microsoft, please keep this going. All the free publicity you are providing Linux and Apple is greatly appreciated.
Side comment on your comments.
Scientific theory is just the best current model that is available based on the current data that has been collected.
Too many people expect scientific fact.
The new research is less established theory, so it often hasn't been tested.
Science education would help, in that it would help people actually critically think about the information presented.
I know having my own scientific background sure helps when I see these articles.
Forgive me here, but I couldn't tell what the point of the article was.
Was it challenging the use of assumptions?
Was it stating that people can't understand the research without advanced knowledge of the assumptions?
Help, I didn't understand.
An additional poster commented as well, pointing to a wiki article.
IANAL either. To me it is kind of like the DMCA, for good guys. The more it is defined by the courts, the less options that we will have.
I just don't have a lot of faith in our legal system.
It could be viewed that failing to follow the GPL is not a copyright violation, but a contractual violation.
That changes the game. That was a concern for the artistic license not too long ago.
It could happen. I hope not, but it could.
That's not the Steve Jobs way.
He has an expectation for the experience, if the experience isn't within what he deems acceptable, it isn't allowed.
There are pros and cons of this.
Biggest Pro: End user experiences are much more consistent.
Biggest Con: Like you said. The end user doesn't get to decide for themselves.
Fair enough. My problem is I have spent so much for software development companies, I too often blur the lines between the code and the program.
Agreed, that qualifies as stupid. I am still surprised that companies that are so worried about open source wouldn't use a general purpose tool. Usually they have policies about ALL of the software on their machines.
1) It can be used to help companies ensure that they are being compliant with the various licenses [good].
2) It can be used to "root out" those 'evil' open source applications [bad].
Unfortunately I agree that option 2 is most likely as it is really used to search for applications and not code. Why you would want to search for explicitly open source, vs. just knowing what is on a corporate PC doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I just think it can't be measured accurately.
There are many studies that demonstrate that environment has a huge impact on how people score. An example study show how much environment can overwhelm any form of natural aptitude.
The biggest challenge is defining intelligence, any kind, which is not nearly as simple as some would make it out to be.