Actually, it's pretty much proven via various psychological studies that A) teens are poorer at judging risk vs adults and that B) they tend to take impulsive actions more often than adults.
If your standups ever run longer than 15 minutes, you're not doing scrum standups, you're doing status meetings or reporting or some such. That is not scrum.
"I mean, corporations do this all the time...many companies incorporate in Delaware for the tax breaks they get, even while most of their manufacturing/business/warehouses are in other states."
That's not strictly true. While it is true that you avoid some state taxes (e.g. franchise taxes) if you incorporate in Deleware, that is not the reason most firms incorporate in DE.
The main reason companies incorporate in DE is to take advantage of favorable corporate law regarding how corporations may be governed. Things like poison pill statues, how boards are elected, limits on management liability, relaxed rules on board composition, etc. Tax avoidance is pretty minor since, you can't use your DE status to avoid any income, property, sales, or use tax.
Ignite wasn't about people pitching their business plans. I was there. Not a single presentation did that. Though one was by a VC/Angel who talked about how to raise money, very few of the talks were about business, per-se.
I went to this thing. The soldering contest was just the warm up (a friend of mine participated and almost won).
The event was actually pretty fun. It was in a biggish bar/lounge so there was plenty of booze and it was *packed*. The crowd was a mix of geeks, artsy types and business folks. A bit loud, but hey, it's NYC.
The main thing was a bunch of 5 minute presentations. They were NOT demos or requests for funding as someone else implied. The talks ranged from funny (how NYPD conducts undercover prostitution busts) to weird (guerilla knitting) to informative (how to raise money from angels) to cool (a prof from NYU's ITP who showed a bunch of new tactile interface ideas) to preachy (helping out in third world countries). Most of the speakers were pretty good. One guy even did his in rap/hip-hop style.
All in all, it was fun and everyone I know who went was glad they did.
Well, I have a good friend who majored in Japanese and her first job was at major japanese bank. Eventually, then a major Wall St. bank running a desk's middle office operations. She now does consulting on mortgage-backed securities derivatives at major private and public institutions. She also makes a boatload of money.
Her family is "middle class", not elite. So, YMMV, even with a humanities education. For her, college wasn't a "scam".
Brickwall wrote: "They demanded respect from me, but never offered the same in return (there were precious few exceptions, and for their counsel, I will always be grateful)."
And why in God's name should your teacher give you any respect? Your self-righteous attitude is, in my opinion, one of the main problems with youth culture today. As a child, it is highly unlikely you have done anything worthwhile. There is simply no reason why any responsible adult should give you (as a child) any "respect" at all.
So you were smart. Big deal. Intelligence, by itself, is not that important -- it only provides potential. While it is a common amongst the youth to feel that their innate abilities and potential somehow deserve accolades and celebration, most learn quickly upon entering adulthood that accomplishment counts for far more. What saddens me is that, years after you have left physical childhood behind, you still think like a child.
light (photons) are affected by gravity even though it has no mass because gravity is the curvature of space-time caused by mass (in this case, other mass). Thus, gravity affects the movement of EVERYTHING, regardless of whether the entity has mass or not.
mdd4696 wrote: "...The fact that Essjay did not tell the truth about his personal life doesn't really influence Wikipedia's credibility at all..."
Perhaps you don't understand what "credibility" means. While I agree (though I doubt) that Essjay's fraud may not undermine Wikipedia's accuracy, it certainly undermines its credibility.
That said, to me, what is really concerning is Wales' lack of concern for Essjay's grossly fraudulent claims about his background. He didn't just exaggerate a little, he fabricated academic credentials. If I was running things, I'd not only ban him upon confirmation of fraud but also attempt to review recent actions by this individual.
Dried up? When we've hunted for developers we've had a hard time finding qualified people. Plenty of candidates, but when we quizzed them the results were often somewhat disappointing. Some have suggested that perhaps our standards are too high, though from my perspective they seem rather easy. Guess everyone's experience varies.
If you really have a good business plan, and you don't need millions, and you want to keep control of your own company (a lot of ifs).
You might be much better off getting a loan from your local bank/credit union. Also many governments have grants and subsidised small business loans.
This only makes sense for business concepts with low capitalization requirements. Many very good business ideas require a LOT of up front capital to get started.
Moreover, having a good business plan is just one out of many factors that must be right to make a business a success. More important than "the plan" is the people running the company. Things change and the plan will change, but if the people are smart, flexible, disiplined and creative enough, they can cope with the changes.
Finally, I get the feeling your definition of "success" is not a VC's definition of "success". From what you wrote, I my gut tells me you'd consider a few hundred thousand $ of net annual income and a sale of the company for $2mil to $5mil a phenominal success. Most VC's would not consider that a "home run" and would probably consider it a failure.
Cheers,
Rob
Ivy is still a big bonus! (big deal)
on
Who Needs Harvard?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
According to the article, the percent of all CxO's are Ivy grads has dropped to 10% from 14%.
According to the US Census, about 13 mil employed white males from 35 to 64 have a bachelors degree or greater.
There are 8 Ivy League universities, but let's be gracious and include schools like Stanford, MIT and Chicago and up the number of "top" schools to 12. Let's assume an average enrollment of apx 1,500 students per year per school between the years 1960 through 1990 (the years those white males went to school), leading to a total of 12 x 1,500 x 30 = 540,000 graduates and let's assume that 2/3 are male (it's only 1/2 nowadays), leading to apx 360,000 ivy leaguers out there.
This means that ivy leaguers make up apx. 2.8% of the eligible CxO candidate pool.
So, the conclusion is that having an ivy degree increases your odds of becoming a CxO by about 3.5x today instead of the 5x it did back in the day.
Of course, all this is meaningless drivel since they Ivy League is a *football* league, not some sort of academic standards association and, more importantly, as if increasingn a 0.002% chance to 0.007% means anything at all.
Someone wrote, "The great wall of china, the boxer rebellion, world war II, and mao's march were all about thowing foreign influence out of the country."
And someone else said, "Let's not forget the scrapping of the exploration fleets in the 1400s."
Now, while it is true that China has long pursued an isolationist policy, most of the examples given are somewhat missleading.
First, the so-called "exploration fleets" were NOT for exploration. Those fleets were about projecting the power of the new Ming dynasty (they had just thrown out the Mongols) in foreign ports. The fleets were intended to awe barbarian powers of Annam (Vietnam), Malay, India, the arab world and west africa. Because of various court intrigues, isolationist powers prevaled and from around the mid-1400's on, China became isolationist until the start of the Republican Era around 1910.
The Great Wall was built over millenia to try to stop foreign invaders. While some may call this "isolationist", I don't see how trying to stop barbarians hordes from the steppes is "isolationist" in the contemporary sense.
The fighting during World War II was actually two wars, two wars in one. It was a civil war between the Communists and the new Chinese Republic. It was also about kicking out the invading Japanese. Again, I don't see how kicking out invadors is "isolationist".
Mao's Long March was a part of the civil war and an internal event. Basically, Mao got his ass kicked and had to retreat. Of course, he later came back to win. C'est la vie (or la guerre).
Finally, while the Boxer Rebellion was about kicking out the foreign devils, it's roots were the British opium smuggling during the early 1800's. Moreover, at the start of the rebellion, the rebels also sought to destroy the Imperial regime. However, the Empress Dowager co-opted their cause and focused them more on uprooting the foreign powers out of China. If kicking out foreign military strongholds out of one's own nation is "isolationist", then the Boxer Rebellion was an isolationist movement, I guess.
In the end, China ceased being "isolationist", in the traditional sense, with the overthrow of the Imperial regime and the establishment of the Republic in 1911. Even after the Communists gained power, any isolationism on their part was more a part of the Cold War with the West than typical nationalist isolationism.
This is not completely incorrect. There are basically three categories:
1. You are an employee (i.e. paid under W-2). In this case, the copyright on all works created by you for your employer belongs to the employer.
2. You are a contractor (i.e. paid under 1099) and the contract explicitly states the work you do is "WORK FOR HIRE". In this case, the copyright again belongs to the client.
3. You are a contractor and the contract does NOT state the work is "work for hire". In this case, the copyright stays with you. It doesn't matter that the client paid you or not. I think there is case law that states the client is at least entitled to a de-facto license to use the work in question but I'm not sure about that.
is this the test of GPL in the courts everyone has been waiting for?
It may be or it may not be. It depends on what happens.
A preliminary injunction does not set a precidence the way a trial and decision by the court would. However, it does bode well because it says the court (or at least the judge) felt the plaintif's case had merit.
Email it to some stupid people, tell them they have to run it as root or else they wont see the video of Condoleeza Rice's tits.
Actually, 90% of Mac users wouldn't be able to do that since the root account isn't even accessible by default and Apple purposefully makes it hard to login as root. My family members who use MacOSX don't even know what "root" is.
The command line is not user friendly because you need to remember things to use it. While some may poo-poo the difficulty of memorizing dozens of commands and hudreds, if not thousands of cryptic options, the *fact* is that command lines are not "user friendly" for most people.
Moreover, the original article was not talking about being user-friendly to administrators, the argument was between administrators. The article was about how becoming more user-friendly would make the machines more accessible and vulnerable when used by non-administrators.
I swear, reading comprehension skills have gone way down.
Gross profit is really only meaningful in manufacturing and retail where the COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) makes up a significant portion of the business's expenses.
I've read a huge number of "comments" here stating how obvious the invention or how it has been known for centuries. Every single one of these people don't see what the *actual* invention was.
The invention is NOT evaporative cooling. That is well established in both tradition and science.
The invention is putting one pot inside the other seperated by wet sand. This way, the inner pot stays DRY while the evaporative cooling happens. In case you don't know, dryness is important for preserving many types of food.
As far as I know this, seemingly obvious, technique has not been applied before. The guy deserves his money.
The problem with Bradley's is not that they are a "piece of shit"...I'm sure they're fine machines. The problem is that the Bradley is a hybrid vehical that is unjustifiably expensive.
The Bradley was designed to fullfil two dual roles: armored personel carrier and light tank. It does neither well. For 1/10'th the cost of each Bradley, we could use improved M-113's and M-151 Sheradins.
Most people do not realize the magnitude of US military spending. Sure, we should have the most powerful military in the world. Maybe even spend more than the next 3 or 4 adversaries combined. But today, we spend more than the next 25 nations in the world *combined*. At the current rate of increase, the US will soon be spending more on its military than the rest of the world *combined*. That is, IMO, a bit too much.
That's right, cuz everbody knows the BIG MONEY is in public television!
You've bought into the myth of poverty that PBS promotes without checking the facts.
In NYC, for example, the PBS TV station has the largest budget of all the TV stations in the city. And the other stations aren't chump change -- many are the flagship stations of the big networks (WNBC, WABC, etc.)
So, while PBS may not be a *profit* machine, don't doubt that at least a few PBS stations have plenty of money.
Just FYI, PBS hires management consultants and cares about cost/benefit ratios just like any other broadcaster. I know this because I know a few people who have done consulting gigs for them.
This is probably less than optimal if you are trying to manufacturing cow meat instead of robust, self-reproducing organisims that exist in harmony with their natural environment.
You know, it constantly amazes me just how little people know about agricultural history.
Cows do not, and never have, existed "in harmony with their natural environment". Animals which people today would recognize as "cows" did not exist prior to about 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. We (humans) made them. We bred them from, now extinct, animals called aurochs.
Same with grain crops like wheat. What we today call "wheat" is a plant that simply would not be able to survive without humans. They are a mutant strain that does not shed its seed kernals when they are fertile. This is good for us (we can harvest the grain and eat it), but bad for the plant (no seeds on the ground to reproduce).
Almost nothing we eat today existed prior to about 10,000 years ago. We humans bioengineered it all: wheat, rice, apples, corn, cows, etc, etc, etc. Yes, I'm sure you can find a few food staples that exist in the wild, but they are few and far between.
In every thread like this Slashdot should just put a filter on the word "steal" and all it's derivatives and replace them with copyright infringement. It would save a hell of alot of correction/arguing.
If some people can call GPF "free", then I can call copyright infringement "stealing".
Besides, *all* property rights are a social construct. The idea that physical property is somehow more real than non-physical property is silly and I don't understand why some of the intelligent folk who frequent slashdot keep saying that.
Cheers,
Rob
Slashdot Mirror
- Rob
If your standups ever run longer than 15 minutes, you're not doing scrum standups, you're doing status meetings or reporting or some such. That is not scrum.
"I mean, corporations do this all the time...many companies incorporate in Delaware for the tax breaks they get, even while most of their manufacturing/business/warehouses are in other states."
That's not strictly true. While it is true that you avoid some state taxes (e.g. franchise taxes) if you incorporate in Deleware, that is not the reason most firms incorporate in DE.
The main reason companies incorporate in DE is to take advantage of favorable corporate law regarding how corporations may be governed. Things like poison pill statues, how boards are elected, limits on management liability, relaxed rules on board composition, etc. Tax avoidance is pretty minor since, you can't use your DE status to avoid any income, property, sales, or use tax.
- Rob
Rob
I was there. It was not like what you said. See my other post for more details. Cheers, Rob
The event was actually pretty fun. It was in a biggish bar/lounge so there was plenty of booze and it was *packed*. The crowd was a mix of geeks, artsy types and business folks. A bit loud, but hey, it's NYC.
The main thing was a bunch of 5 minute presentations. They were NOT demos or requests for funding as someone else implied. The talks ranged from funny (how NYPD conducts undercover prostitution busts) to weird (guerilla knitting) to informative (how to raise money from angels) to cool (a prof from NYU's ITP who showed a bunch of new tactile interface ideas) to preachy (helping out in third world countries). Most of the speakers were pretty good. One guy even did his in rap/hip-hop style.
All in all, it was fun and everyone I know who went was glad they did.
Rob
Her family is "middle class", not elite. So, YMMV, even with a humanities education. For her, college wasn't a "scam".
And why in God's name should your teacher give you any respect? Your self-righteous attitude is, in my opinion, one of the main problems with youth culture today. As a child, it is highly unlikely you have done anything worthwhile. There is simply no reason why any responsible adult should give you (as a child) any "respect" at all.
So you were smart. Big deal. Intelligence, by itself, is not that important -- it only provides potential. While it is a common amongst the youth to feel that their innate abilities and potential somehow deserve accolades and celebration, most learn quickly upon entering adulthood that accomplishment counts for far more. What saddens me is that, years after you have left physical childhood behind, you still think like a child.
light (photons) are affected by gravity even though it has no mass because gravity is the curvature of space-time caused by mass (in this case, other mass). Thus, gravity affects the movement of EVERYTHING, regardless of whether the entity has mass or not.
Business is a team sport. The "fit" of an individual is as important as raw skill/talent.
Cheers,
Rob
Perhaps you don't understand what "credibility" means. While I agree (though I doubt) that Essjay's fraud may not undermine Wikipedia's accuracy, it certainly undermines its credibility.
That said, to me, what is really concerning is Wales' lack of concern for Essjay's grossly fraudulent claims about his background. He didn't just exaggerate a little, he fabricated academic credentials. If I was running things, I'd not only ban him upon confirmation of fraud but also attempt to review recent actions by this individual.
- Rob
Dried up? When we've hunted for developers we've had a hard time finding qualified people. Plenty of candidates, but when we quizzed them the results were often somewhat disappointing. Some have suggested that perhaps our standards are too high, though from my perspective they seem rather easy. Guess everyone's experience varies.
You might be much better off getting a loan from your local bank/credit union. Also many governments have grants and subsidised small business loans. This only makes sense for business concepts with low capitalization requirements. Many very good business ideas require a LOT of up front capital to get started.
Moreover, having a good business plan is just one out of many factors that must be right to make a business a success. More important than "the plan" is the people running the company. Things change and the plan will change, but if the people are smart, flexible, disiplined and creative enough, they can cope with the changes.
Finally, I get the feeling your definition of "success" is not a VC's definition of "success". From what you wrote, I my gut tells me you'd consider a few hundred thousand $ of net annual income and a sale of the company for $2mil to $5mil a phenominal success. Most VC's would not consider that a "home run" and would probably consider it a failure.
Cheers,
Rob
According to the US Census, about 13 mil employed white males from 35 to 64 have a bachelors degree or greater.
There are 8 Ivy League universities, but let's be gracious and include schools like Stanford, MIT and Chicago and up the number of "top" schools to 12. Let's assume an average enrollment of apx 1,500 students per year per school between the years 1960 through 1990 (the years those white males went to school), leading to a total of 12 x 1,500 x 30 = 540,000 graduates and let's assume that 2/3 are male (it's only 1/2 nowadays), leading to apx 360,000 ivy leaguers out there.
This means that ivy leaguers make up apx. 2.8% of the eligible CxO candidate pool.
So, the conclusion is that having an ivy degree increases your odds of becoming a CxO by about 3.5x today instead of the 5x it did back in the day.
Of course, all this is meaningless drivel since they Ivy League is a *football* league, not some sort of academic standards association and, more importantly, as if increasingn a 0.002% chance to 0.007% means anything at all.
And someone else said, "Let's not forget the scrapping of the exploration fleets in the 1400s."
Now, while it is true that China has long pursued an isolationist policy, most of the examples given are somewhat missleading.
First, the so-called "exploration fleets" were NOT for exploration. Those fleets were about projecting the power of the new Ming dynasty (they had just thrown out the Mongols) in foreign ports. The fleets were intended to awe barbarian powers of Annam (Vietnam), Malay, India, the arab world and west africa. Because of various court intrigues, isolationist powers prevaled and from around the mid-1400's on, China became isolationist until the start of the Republican Era around 1910.
The Great Wall was built over millenia to try to stop foreign invaders. While some may call this "isolationist", I don't see how trying to stop barbarians hordes from the steppes is "isolationist" in the contemporary sense.
The fighting during World War II was actually two wars, two wars in one. It was a civil war between the Communists and the new Chinese Republic. It was also about kicking out the invading Japanese. Again, I don't see how kicking out invadors is "isolationist".
Mao's Long March was a part of the civil war and an internal event. Basically, Mao got his ass kicked and had to retreat. Of course, he later came back to win. C'est la vie (or la guerre).
Finally, while the Boxer Rebellion was about kicking out the foreign devils, it's roots were the British opium smuggling during the early 1800's. Moreover, at the start of the rebellion, the rebels also sought to destroy the Imperial regime. However, the Empress Dowager co-opted their cause and focused them more on uprooting the foreign powers out of China. If kicking out foreign military strongholds out of one's own nation is "isolationist", then the Boxer Rebellion was an isolationist movement, I guess.
In the end, China ceased being "isolationist", in the traditional sense, with the overthrow of the Imperial regime and the establishment of the Republic in 1911. Even after the Communists gained power, any isolationism on their part was more a part of the Cold War with the West than typical nationalist isolationism.
Cheers,
Rob
1. You are an employee (i.e. paid under W-2). In this case, the copyright on all works created by you for your employer belongs to the employer.
2. You are a contractor (i.e. paid under 1099) and the contract explicitly states the work you do is "WORK FOR HIRE". In this case, the copyright again belongs to the client.
3. You are a contractor and the contract does NOT state the work is "work for hire". In this case, the copyright stays with you. It doesn't matter that the client paid you or not. I think there is case law that states the client is at least entitled to a de-facto license to use the work in question but I'm not sure about that.
Cheers,
Rob
A preliminary injunction does not set a precidence the way a trial and decision by the court would. However, it does bode well because it says the court (or at least the judge) felt the plaintif's case had merit.
Cheers
Actually, 90% of Mac users wouldn't be able to do that since the root account isn't even accessible by default and Apple purposefully makes it hard to login as root. My family members who use MacOSX don't even know what "root" is.
Cheers
Moreover, the original article was not talking about being user-friendly to administrators, the argument was between administrators. The article was about how becoming more user-friendly would make the machines more accessible and vulnerable when used by non-administrators.
I swear, reading comprehension skills have gone way down.
Gross profit is really only meaningful in manufacturing and retail where the COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) makes up a significant portion of the business's expenses.
Cheers
The invention is NOT evaporative cooling. That is well established in both tradition and science.
The invention is putting one pot inside the other seperated by wet sand. This way, the inner pot stays DRY while the evaporative cooling happens. In case you don't know, dryness is important for preserving many types of food.
As far as I know this, seemingly obvious, technique has not been applied before. The guy deserves his money.
Cheers
The Bradley was designed to fullfil two dual roles: armored personel carrier and light tank. It does neither well. For 1/10'th the cost of each Bradley, we could use improved M-113's and M-151 Sheradins.
Most people do not realize the magnitude of US military spending. Sure, we should have the most powerful military in the world. Maybe even spend more than the next 3 or 4 adversaries combined. But today, we spend more than the next 25 nations in the world *combined*. At the current rate of increase, the US will soon be spending more on its military than the rest of the world *combined*. That is, IMO, a bit too much.
Cheers,
Rob
You've bought into the myth of poverty that PBS promotes without checking the facts.
In NYC, for example, the PBS TV station has the largest budget of all the TV stations in the city. And the other stations aren't chump change -- many are the flagship stations of the big networks (WNBC, WABC, etc.)
So, while PBS may not be a *profit* machine, don't doubt that at least a few PBS stations have plenty of money.
Just FYI, PBS hires management consultants and cares about cost/benefit ratios just like any other broadcaster. I know this because I know a few people who have done consulting gigs for them.
Cheers,
Rob
You know, it constantly amazes me just how little people know about agricultural history.
Cows do not, and never have, existed "in harmony with their natural environment". Animals which people today would recognize as "cows" did not exist prior to about 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. We (humans) made them. We bred them from, now extinct, animals called aurochs.
Same with grain crops like wheat. What we today call "wheat" is a plant that simply would not be able to survive without humans. They are a mutant strain that does not shed its seed kernals when they are fertile. This is good for us (we can harvest the grain and eat it), but bad for the plant (no seeds on the ground to reproduce).
Almost nothing we eat today existed prior to about 10,000 years ago. We humans bioengineered it all: wheat, rice, apples, corn, cows, etc, etc, etc. Yes, I'm sure you can find a few food staples that exist in the wild, but they are few and far between.
If some people can call GPF "free", then I can call copyright infringement "stealing".
Besides, *all* property rights are a social construct. The idea that physical property is somehow more real than non-physical property is silly and I don't understand why some of the intelligent folk who frequent slashdot keep saying that. Cheers, Rob