from EconTechnologies is my choice. It's easy to use, supports archiving, and unattended operation. That's pretty much all I need. I back up my home folder with all my shtuff, and/usr/local where I have data and config files. Everything else in my world is downloadable, configurable, or forgotten. If I lose my hard drive once a year, I'll spend less time rebuilding then I would searching for and configuring a more advanced backup package.
I run an in-house software development department for a company with 1200 employees. I have a Film degree and a Pysch degree which I got after dropping out of a visual art program, then a music program. I have 2 direct reports, one was an English lit major, the other, I haven't a clue, but he's getting his MBA at night school now. Two other guys I work closely with have a Masters in Library Science, and the other I think was in Anthropology. We also have actors, singers, marine biologists, and non-degree-holders on the IT Staff.
Critical thinking, adaptivity, creativity, enthusiasm and a sense of humor are more important than formal training. Any degree gets you further than no degree.
You nailed it. This article could been about rock-n-roll and heroin. Technology is an "enabler" (to use the psych parlance) of a different problem. When I'm depressed, I tend to stay up later, accomplish less, etc. Before I had wireless in my house, I used the tv clicker and bowls full of dry fruity pebbles to facilitate insomnia. The sleep deprivation and a bad diet affected my mood, my productivity, and my attitude. Now with wireless, I use the internet instead.
The point is technology is unlikely the cause of these interpersonal problems. The are hundreds of everyday stressors, and a few major life changes that can cause problems. Retreating into tech is in a way a coping mechanism.
It is likely that any people in any businesses who are dedicated to their jobs/careers: police, musicians, school teachers, etc. all have vices which contribute to vicious cycles of negitude.
Many technology projects "for the people" are too ambitious. As any implementer knows, buy-in and pr are essential to a succesful rollout, particularly with a lot of complexity.
The key for success I think is to leverage existing assets, trends, and needs, in order to bring the school into a digital mindset.
I reccommend something that would thrust the school into the future. Something that would itself encourage everyone to use it. Something that would eventually lead to more funding for technology to build out the infrastructure.
Digitize all the content owned by the university and catalog it according to an existing metadata standard. Then, plug it into a dynamic web-publishing system with built-in collaboration tools.
With access to alot of coursework online, and the ability to discuss, comment, embellish, and self-publish, students will find the system useful.
The university will have the freedom to repurpose content to multiple distribution paths, like university coalitions, e-learning initiatives, even DVD's of entire courses for distance-learners ($$$).
What's more, with collaboration and dynamic publishing, all interaction through the system can be repurposed as well.
There are open-source tools which can fit these needs, hardware is cheap. Students work for free. The big money should be saved for digital rights management.
How often has your car taken one more day at the shop, or the pizza place got a mad rush right after your call?
Estimation, by definition, is inaccurate because it has to account for the randomness of reality.
Project managers are rewarded for being on time and under budget. It is the abilities to organize, communicate, and marshall reality into compliance with the schedule that makes a project manager successful.
My favorite estimate is a year, regardless of the complexity, platform, budget, or need. Coincidentally, my current project was spec'd in May 2001. At that time I said it would take a year (I meant it then) to write a fully customized JSP app on top of a vendor's API and pre-existing schema. My boss insisted we only had until September because what she needed was a showpiece (in November). Fortunately, I convinced her a mockup would be sufficient for her needs.
Since then we have written functional requirements, design docs, architecture specs, and a static html mockup. In November, when the mockup was delivered, the vendor said, "Hey, you're not gonna believe this but...look at the mockup of our next major upgrade." It turns out we had 80%+ overlap, and we canned the customization project, because the vendor upgrade is due in, you guessed it, May 2002.
The wiseacre would point out that our original estimate was infinitely inaccurate. The pragmatist would point out that the delivery of 80% of our functional requirements will occur in lock-step with the estimate--one year from approval.
It doesn't surprise me really considering how much MS is out there in real world IT. As an IT staffer helping to support UNIX (Solaris) under glass and more than 1200 mac desktops, I can assure you from talking with new staff, vendors, reading trades, etc, that beating MS cancer takes vigilance. We convinced our management that extending the mac network beyond the creatives would cost about 25% less to support than MS. Some (uncited) studies have proven this. Anecdotally, 1200 macs - 6 help desk staff. An E10K with 6 domains, plus 10 or so more sun boxes, and only 3 sysadmins. If everyone in the industry was as dedicated and thoughful as *most* of the slashdot crowd, MS wouldn't have a chance.
Slashdot Mirror
from EconTechnologies is my choice. It's easy to use, supports archiving, and unattended operation. That's pretty much all I need. I back up my home folder with all my shtuff, and /usr/local where I have data and config files. Everything else in my world is downloadable, configurable, or forgotten. If I lose my hard drive once a year, I'll spend less time rebuilding then I would searching for and configuring a more advanced backup package.
I just ignored my kids for 10 minutes to read this thread!
I run an in-house software development department for a company with 1200 employees. I have a Film degree and a Pysch degree which I got after dropping out of a visual art program, then a music program. I have 2 direct reports, one was an English lit major, the other, I haven't a clue, but he's getting his MBA at night school now. Two other guys I work closely with have a Masters in Library Science, and the other I think was in Anthropology. We also have actors, singers, marine biologists, and non-degree-holders on the IT Staff.
Critical thinking, adaptivity, creativity, enthusiasm and a sense of humor are more important than formal training. Any degree gets you further than no degree.
You nailed it. This article could been about rock-n-roll and heroin. Technology is an "enabler" (to use the psych parlance) of a different problem. When I'm depressed, I tend to stay up later, accomplish less, etc. Before I had wireless in my house, I used the tv clicker and bowls full of dry fruity pebbles to facilitate insomnia. The sleep deprivation and a bad diet affected my mood, my productivity, and my attitude. Now with wireless, I use the internet instead.
The point is technology is unlikely the cause of these interpersonal problems. The are hundreds of everyday stressors, and a few major life changes that can cause problems. Retreating into tech is in a way a coping mechanism.
It is likely that any people in any businesses who are dedicated to their jobs/careers: police, musicians, school teachers, etc. all have vices which contribute to vicious cycles of negitude.
Many technology projects "for the people" are too ambitious. As any implementer knows, buy-in and pr are essential to a succesful rollout, particularly with a lot of complexity.
The key for success I think is to leverage existing assets, trends, and needs, in order to bring the school into a digital mindset.
I reccommend something that would thrust the school into the future. Something that would itself encourage everyone to use it. Something that would eventually lead to more funding for technology to build out the infrastructure.
Digitize all the content owned by the university and catalog it according to an existing metadata standard. Then, plug it into a dynamic web-publishing system with built-in collaboration tools.
With access to alot of coursework online, and the ability to discuss, comment, embellish, and self-publish, students will find the system useful.
The university will have the freedom to repurpose content to multiple distribution paths, like university coalitions, e-learning initiatives, even DVD's of entire courses for distance-learners ($$$).
What's more, with collaboration and dynamic publishing, all interaction through the system can be repurposed as well.
There are open-source tools which can fit these needs, hardware is cheap. Students work for free. The big money should be saved for digital rights management.
How often has your car taken one more day at the shop, or the pizza place got a mad rush right after your call?
Estimation, by definition, is inaccurate because it has to account for the randomness of reality.
Project managers are rewarded for being on time and under budget. It is the abilities to organize, communicate, and marshall reality into compliance with the schedule that makes a project manager successful.
My favorite estimate is a year, regardless of the complexity, platform, budget, or need. Coincidentally, my current project was spec'd in May 2001. At that time I said it would take a year (I meant it then) to write a fully customized JSP app on top of a vendor's API and pre-existing schema. My boss insisted we only had until September because what she needed was a showpiece (in November). Fortunately, I convinced her a mockup would be sufficient for her needs.
Since then we have written functional requirements, design docs, architecture specs, and a static html mockup. In November, when the mockup was delivered, the vendor said, "Hey, you're not gonna believe this but...look at the mockup of our next major upgrade." It turns out we had 80%+ overlap, and we canned the customization project, because the vendor upgrade is due in, you guessed it, May 2002.
The wiseacre would point out that our original estimate was infinitely inaccurate. The pragmatist would point out that the delivery of 80% of our functional requirements will occur in lock-step with the estimate--one year from approval.
It doesn't surprise me really considering how much MS is out there in real world IT. As an IT staffer helping to support UNIX (Solaris) under glass and more than 1200 mac desktops, I can assure you from talking with new staff, vendors, reading trades, etc, that beating MS cancer takes vigilance. We convinced our management that extending the mac network beyond the creatives would cost about 25% less to support than MS. Some (uncited) studies have proven this. Anecdotally, 1200 macs - 6 help desk staff. An E10K with 6 domains, plus 10 or so more sun boxes, and only 3 sysadmins. If everyone in the industry was as dedicated and thoughful as *most* of the slashdot crowd, MS wouldn't have a chance.