I was thinking about this earlier today while reading the article on Raytheon's Riot Program. I don't know if you can effectively remove yourself from the internet, but you might be able to muddy up your profiles with garbage to the point that the information that can be gleaned about you from the internet is of little or no value to a mass data harvester like Riot.
I think this is the way to go in the future. You can't erase the data someone has already compiled about you, but you can feed the beast garbage until it vomits.
If you have decent developers and they have physical access to their machines (particularly laptops that they can take away from scrutinizing eyes), then they likely already have local admin rights in some form or fashion, whether you want them to or not.
It's an asinine waste of resources to try and use an IT group that is usually less competent than the developers to police those developers' local admin rights when they have physical access to their machines.
I wonder if this has applications to any of the experiments done at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research department. I seem to remember some of their experiments being dependent upon generating large amounts of *truly* random numbers, usually generated from thermal fluctuations. If you believe them, they were able to generate statistically significant variations in these thermally generated random numbers simply from a person thinking that way...
I know, I know...sounds weird, but read some of their experiments and the outcomes and see what you think.
Wouldn't time be relative even within the mechanics of your death machine as well? What is actually triggering the device mechanically, and when does it "notice" that it's supposed to go off?
You should view this as an opportunity to be able to rationalize extra help in the future! Let me give you an example: I'm an industrial engineer for a large 3PL. I put together labor models for warehousing opps on a day to day basis, and I do it by breaking down individual activities that the team will perform (stageing pallets, filling out purchase orders, etc.). I then assign hourly productivity rates to them (how many units I handle per hour), and assume that my employees will really only work about 6.75 hours per day, after breaks and interaction with others, using the restroom, etcetera.
Now, I used to be a *nix admin for a much smaller company back in the day, and most of my requests would come through email. I imagine you guys probably get your requests to perform different tasks through some sort of fancy IT system if you work for a larger company. So, ask yourself the major categories that these tasks break down into. For example, if there are two main categories of work you do, say, 1.) fixing stupid errors and 2.) setting up things for people to break, you estimate how long it takes to handle a request from each of these major categories, and translate that into how many you could handle a week (or other time period), keeping in mind you only have about 6.75 productive hours a day to work. Say a single employee could handle 10 stupid errors or 5 set ups per week, assuming they were doing nothing else (be conservative when setting these up so you look good when you surpass the productivity figures). Now, when you are getting in 40 requests for stupid errors per week, and you only have 3 team members, you have something to bitch about!
Your boss is basically telling you that he doesn't know what you really do, and so you can pretty much define how your group should be operating - HAVE FUN WITH IT!!
Phew. I followed the link to the original article on this, and apparently since "Researchers warn of 'Spam Zombies from Outer Space'" I think the things are actually FROM outer space. SETI, here I come!
Dammit, I read this article and I am VERY concerned. Are the spam zombies actually FROM outer space, or am I supposed to fight them from outer space? If they're FROM outer space, then at least I know where to look (you know, up towards space...I hijack the SETI satellites or something). If I'm just supposed to fight them from outer space, then where the hell do I need to start looking for them? I mean, outer space is a big battleground.
Can someone please clarify? I can only hope that they choose to face us on our home turf...but then again, spam zombies can't be hard to beat up. They're made of friggin' spam, and they move pretty slow. Furthermore, if we have to fight them FROM outer space, and they're not coming here, why are we fighting them in the first place? Isn't that more of an attack on the spam zombies? I have no beef with the spam zombies. Well, maybe some highly processed beef...
"The faults of youth are retained along with the virtues, he believes. These include short attention span, sensation and novelty-seeking, short cycles of arbitrary fashion and a sense of cultural shallowness."
Aside from short attention span, is any of this really indicative of immaturity? Sounds a bit more like a shift in social paradigm to me...I still see people working 8-5 to make ends meet so that a family can be raised. How are these people defining "mental adulthood?"
It sounds like this guy's main argument is that education requires mental immaturity, and education now continues into the 20s. If this is the case, then shouldn't the New Adult be more capable of learning than the older generations? I don't understand, but maybe it is just a consequence of my short attention span...
I can sit down with a pile of toothpicks/pennies/ and demonstrate why I use most of the axioms I use (identity, transitivity, etc.)...that's why I take them on faith (I just can't PROVE them in the traditional sense of a math proof). Saying that 1+0=1 seems different to me than stating that God exists...if it doesn't to you, I'm happy that you've found a suitable explanation for existence. God or no god, intelligence is just a nuance of existence that I don't spend much time trying to understand...I'm just thankful that I get to take part in it.
As for the statement "intelligence is only an emergent property of matter," well, that's just another "axiom" that some scientists are willing to accept. Even if we did prove that intelligence CAN emerge spontaneously from matter, we can never say that OUR intelligence didn't come from God. The scientists that take this as fact are no worse or better than a string theorist or a religious person...so I guess it is kind of "naturalism run amok."
Pretty much all you can do in life is accept the fundamental reason of existence that gives you the greatest sense of comfort (religion/string theory/whatever), or just not think about it (that's where the joint comes in...).
"How did God do it?" Takes it as given that God exists. If you take that on faith, great! Science isn't about faith, though. Science is about testing hypotheses to see if the underlying theory is valid.
Unfortunately, at some level, I believe we just can't test any further...we get stuck due to the fact that we're (at least currently) trapped in our universe. Thus, any base-level explanation of our universe, God, String Theory, or otherwise is at least highly difficult to prove (at best), or just has to be taken on faith.
So go worship your God or your Strings or whatever, I'm gonna go smoke a joint:)
Re:Long interviews aren't new
on
Defining Google
·
· Score: 1
See...the long interview processes are strange to me. Before IBM, the last round of interviews I had was before the tech bubble burst, and I had several offers spawned from no more than 4 interviews total in each case. I guess it just depends on where you interview.
But Google isn't just "innovating" through long interview processes...they've had that competition I mentioned, plus the tests they post in technical journals, plus other things I haven't heard of many other companies doing. They just strike me as extra picky and willing to take the time to sift through the enormous stack of resumes they must have.
Your results may differ;)
Re:Innovative practices...(link I promised)
on
Defining Google
·
· Score: 1
Innovative practices...
on
Defining Google
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I just finished up with a graduate e-Commerce class in which we did a large case study on Google. They tend to be super-cutting-edge in almost every aspect of their business from technology to revenue generation, so it should come as no surprise that they are extraordinarily innovative in their hiring practices. One of the key things I remember reading about is their extraordinarily high employee satisfaction ratings, so it follows that a whole lotta people would want to work there. So, with a stack of highly qualified resumes like that (they hire a ton of PhDs), you have to expect them to use some pretty unorthodox methods to choose the creme de la creme.
I remember a few years ago they ran a contest to see who could come up with the best project presentation solving some big issue in search technology, and I think I remember hearing about them making the guy who won a big offer (can't remember what the project was on...I'll try to find a link in a minute).
On the other hand, we have IBM, where I start my job this month. The job is in their Business Consulting Services division, and their interviewing process was totally on the other end of the spectrum. I had two rounds of non-technical behavioral interviews, and don't believe they ever even checked my references. Go figure. I would think that IBM would have a large amount of applicants as well and that they would want to be a bit more picky about their interviewing process, but I guess I'm not going to complain because at least I'll be getting a paycheck (I went back to grad school after getting laid off...don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess).
I've always wanted to get an LED sign for the back of my car. Yours fixes the problem that I had with actually buying one. Now, I could just edit the Unix "fortune" program to quip random, witty, profane statements to drivers that piss me off rather than having to type the whole statement in. Thanks.
Maybe a bit off-topic, but Turing wrote the first chess machine on paper and played a well known player of his age. He always aimed to be a good player, but never quite got the hang of it. Guess we all have our own skills!
Lifesize Barbie Doll....
on
Old Toy Modding?
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Well, you all probably don't want to hear what I...I mean my friend...did to a lifesize barbie doll.
...any reason to party is a good reason! I can see it now--RMS drunk on vodka dressed up as Godzilla, Linus up on the turntables spinnin' some wicked trance music, AND NO WOMEN TO BE SEEN FOR MILES!
Ultima Online was thinking about having a sequel, but then they decided to focus on their current project instead of developing a whole new system to troubleshoot and work through. That makes sense. I wonder what Everquest's rationale for drawing development away for another project is? Why not focus on the current project instead?
I have several 3ware raid cards that have worked great. Not only that, but I've had to call several times for support, and every time, I either talked to someone who helped me right off the bat, or was contacted by someone who knew what they were talking about within the day. Twice, they even made driver fixes on the fly and sent me the updated code the next day. DEFINITELY the best company-based Linux support I have seen...
Judging from most of the programmers I've talked to (including myself), I think that the morning is definitely not the time to be in the zone. The night-time is the right-time for programming success. It brings CS graduates back to their late-night programming sessions trying to tie all the loose ends up in their current project.
I'm not saying that this is a steadfast rule, I'm just saying that perhaps allowing different workday shifts like 9-5 and 3-11 would be good. You'd have two hours of overlap for collaberation, and people who fear mornings would be more apt to be in the zone in their "primetime."
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking about this earlier today while reading the article on Raytheon's Riot Program. I don't know if you can effectively remove yourself from the internet, but you might be able to muddy up your profiles with garbage to the point that the information that can be gleaned about you from the internet is of little or no value to a mass data harvester like Riot. I think this is the way to go in the future. You can't erase the data someone has already compiled about you, but you can feed the beast garbage until it vomits.
See here: http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/02/08/211225/labor-activist-apple-may-be-terrible-but-all-others-are-worse
No.
If you have decent developers and they have physical access to their machines (particularly laptops that they can take away from scrutinizing eyes), then they likely already have local admin rights in some form or fashion, whether you want them to or not. It's an asinine waste of resources to try and use an IT group that is usually less competent than the developers to police those developers' local admin rights when they have physical access to their machines.
I wonder if this has applications to any of the experiments done at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research department. I seem to remember some of their experiments being dependent upon generating large amounts of *truly* random numbers, usually generated from thermal fluctuations. If you believe them, they were able to generate statistically significant variations in these thermally generated random numbers simply from a person thinking that way...
I know, I know...sounds weird, but read some of their experiments and the outcomes and see what you think.
Wouldn't time be relative even within the mechanics of your death machine as well? What is actually triggering the device mechanically, and when does it "notice" that it's supposed to go off?
You should view this as an opportunity to be able to rationalize extra help in the future! Let me give you an example: I'm an industrial engineer for a large 3PL. I put together labor models for warehousing opps on a day to day basis, and I do it by breaking down individual activities that the team will perform (stageing pallets, filling out purchase orders, etc.). I then assign hourly productivity rates to them (how many units I handle per hour), and assume that my employees will really only work about 6.75 hours per day, after breaks and interaction with others, using the restroom, etcetera. Now, I used to be a *nix admin for a much smaller company back in the day, and most of my requests would come through email. I imagine you guys probably get your requests to perform different tasks through some sort of fancy IT system if you work for a larger company. So, ask yourself the major categories that these tasks break down into. For example, if there are two main categories of work you do, say, 1.) fixing stupid errors and 2.) setting up things for people to break, you estimate how long it takes to handle a request from each of these major categories, and translate that into how many you could handle a week (or other time period), keeping in mind you only have about 6.75 productive hours a day to work. Say a single employee could handle 10 stupid errors or 5 set ups per week, assuming they were doing nothing else (be conservative when setting these up so you look good when you surpass the productivity figures). Now, when you are getting in 40 requests for stupid errors per week, and you only have 3 team members, you have something to bitch about! Your boss is basically telling you that he doesn't know what you really do, and so you can pretty much define how your group should be operating - HAVE FUN WITH IT!!
Phew. I followed the link to the original article on this, and apparently since "Researchers warn of 'Spam Zombies from Outer Space'" I think the things are actually FROM outer space. SETI, here I come!
Dammit, I read this article and I am VERY concerned. Are the spam zombies actually FROM outer space, or am I supposed to fight them from outer space? If they're FROM outer space, then at least I know where to look (you know, up towards space...I hijack the SETI satellites or something). If I'm just supposed to fight them from outer space, then where the hell do I need to start looking for them? I mean, outer space is a big battleground.
Can someone please clarify? I can only hope that they choose to face us on our home turf...but then again, spam zombies can't be hard to beat up. They're made of friggin' spam, and they move pretty slow. Furthermore, if we have to fight them FROM outer space, and they're not coming here, why are we fighting them in the first place? Isn't that more of an attack on the spam zombies? I have no beef with the spam zombies. Well, maybe some highly processed beef...
Aside from short attention span, is any of this really indicative of immaturity? Sounds a bit more like a shift in social paradigm to me...I still see people working 8-5 to make ends meet so that a family can be raised. How are these people defining "mental adulthood?"
It sounds like this guy's main argument is that education requires mental immaturity, and education now continues into the 20s. If this is the case, then shouldn't the New Adult be more capable of learning than the older generations? I don't understand, but maybe it is just a consequence of my short attention span...
As for the statement "intelligence is only an emergent property of matter," well, that's just another "axiom" that some scientists are willing to accept. Even if we did prove that intelligence CAN emerge spontaneously from matter, we can never say that OUR intelligence didn't come from God. The scientists that take this as fact are no worse or better than a string theorist or a religious person...so I guess it is kind of "naturalism run amok."
Pretty much all you can do in life is accept the fundamental reason of existence that gives you the greatest sense of comfort (religion/string theory/whatever), or just not think about it (that's where the joint comes in...).
"How did God do it?" Takes it as given that God exists. If you take that on faith, great! Science isn't about faith, though. Science is about testing hypotheses to see if the underlying theory is valid. Unfortunately, at some level, I believe we just can't test any further...we get stuck due to the fact that we're (at least currently) trapped in our universe. Thus, any base-level explanation of our universe, God, String Theory, or otherwise is at least highly difficult to prove (at best), or just has to be taken on faith. So go worship your God or your Strings or whatever, I'm gonna go smoke a joint :)
-1 FLAME ON!!!
But Google isn't just "innovating" through long interview processes...they've had that competition I mentioned, plus the tests they post in technical journals, plus other things I haven't heard of many other companies doing. They just strike me as extra picky and willing to take the time to sift through the enormous stack of resumes they must have.
Your results may differ ;)
Here's the link...
I just finished up with a graduate e-Commerce class in which we did a large case study on Google. They tend to be super-cutting-edge in almost every aspect of their business from technology to revenue generation, so it should come as no surprise that they are extraordinarily innovative in their hiring practices. One of the key things I remember reading about is their extraordinarily high employee satisfaction ratings, so it follows that a whole lotta people would want to work there. So, with a stack of highly qualified resumes like that (they hire a ton of PhDs), you have to expect them to use some pretty unorthodox methods to choose the creme de la creme.
I remember a few years ago they ran a contest to see who could come up with the best project presentation solving some big issue in search technology, and I think I remember hearing about them making the guy who won a big offer (can't remember what the project was on...I'll try to find a link in a minute).
On the other hand, we have IBM, where I start my job this month. The job is in their Business Consulting Services division, and their interviewing process was totally on the other end of the spectrum. I had two rounds of non-technical behavioral interviews, and don't believe they ever even checked my references. Go figure. I would think that IBM would have a large amount of applicants as well and that they would want to be a bit more picky about their interviewing process, but I guess I'm not going to complain because at least I'll be getting a paycheck (I went back to grad school after getting laid off...don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess).
I've always wanted to get an LED sign for the back of my car. Yours fixes the problem that I had with actually buying one. Now, I could just edit the Unix "fortune" program to quip random, witty, profane statements to drivers that piss me off rather than having to type the whole statement in. Thanks.
Maybe a bit off-topic, but Turing wrote the first chess machine on paper and played a well known player of his age. He always aimed to be a good player, but never quite got the hang of it. Guess we all have our own skills!
Well, you all probably don't want to hear what I...I mean my friend...did to a lifesize barbie doll.
Yes, it is. The confusing part is the fact that a lot of businesses won't use freeware, even when it is as well-tested as SSH!
...any reason to party is a good reason! I can see it now--RMS drunk on vodka dressed up as Godzilla, Linus up on the turntables spinnin' some wicked trance music, AND NO WOMEN TO BE SEEN FOR MILES!
Ultima Online was thinking about having a sequel, but then they decided to focus on their current project instead of developing a whole new system to troubleshoot and work through. That makes sense. I wonder what Everquest's rationale for drawing development away for another project is? Why not focus on the current project instead?
I have several 3ware raid cards that have worked great. Not only that, but I've had to call several times for support, and every time, I either talked to someone who helped me right off the bat, or was contacted by someone who knew what they were talking about within the day. Twice, they even made driver fixes on the fly and sent me the updated code the next day. DEFINITELY the best company-based Linux support I have seen...
I'm not saying that this is a steadfast rule, I'm just saying that perhaps allowing different workday shifts like 9-5 and 3-11 would be good. You'd have two hours of overlap for collaberation, and people who fear mornings would be more apt to be in the zone in their "primetime."
I'll pay for a video of this!