Open goverment from the people who know...
on
eGovOS 3 Announced
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Previous sponsors of EGOVOS have included UNDP, the World Bank, IBM, Oracle, Sun, Red Hat, and Dell as well as government associations and universities.
Remember folks, when people talk about Open Software and standards they are not talking about employing a bunch of bearded hackers with l33t Linux skills. They are talking about hiring the big boys, who in many ways just happen to be supporting this movement because it fits their business and selling models.
This is great to see, but lets not pretend that it isn't the big boys who are making sure the goverments play with Open Source toys.
WRONG! Because the odds are some PHB hired the fuckwit and so you can't fire him or PHB looks bad, so you are stuck with numbnuts on the project for 10 months doing filing and even then screwing up the project. In India you just say "he is shit fire him" and he disappears, and is magically replaced by someone new, and IME the new person is almost always better as people realise the quality level you are setting and don't want to fail twice.
PHBs hire and fire, and they don't fire their own hires.
My experience with a small shop in the US in Oregon was almost exactly the same, totally and utterly useless gung-ho "we can fix it" cartoon like characters. And of course with any Microsoft code that has ever escaped into the wild you couldn't exactly bandy about the word quality.
Shit programmers exist everywhere. There are shit hot people in India, there are crap people in the US. The trick is to meld the good people in both areas to create decent teams as the client needs to speak NOW to someone, and that person HAS to be in the US. But the basic work can be done by top quality people in India.
It does work, and I for one have had good experiences of it, and I'll tell you one thing. Its a damned sight easier to get rid of the shit person on your project in India than it is in the US.
Personally I have not found project management software any use at all, software projects being far too chaotic (in the mathematical sense of being unpredictable due to complex interactions) to be planned.
Which indicates, sorry to pick on you, that you don't have a defined process. This is part of the saying "yes" and meaning "no" art, having a process ensures that people know that A is followed by B. If your project is chaotic and not properly managed it is easier to place additional demands as the amount of information to say no with is low.
The rest of the advice here was good, but the later one isn't I'm afraid. Software projects can, and should, be planned. And a process should be in place to manage the changes that inevitably occur. If you do not have a process then change management becomes difficult or impossible and the project will lose money and you will be fired.
Also management LOVES the idea of a process, so if you define a process for your work and it proves effective it will be enforced on everyone else.... BUT (and this is the best bit) NOT MODIFIED, so you end up looking even better.
So the easy way to say no is to define how you do your job. If you are doing software development this means getting a requirement (on paper), doing a design, then doing the code, then testing it. If you have several requirements these will inter-relate.
And one final piece of advice, if you really want to say no, make sure you can claim that a seemingly trivial piece of work that could be dropped for this new task can be linked to another major piece of work that would bring the project down. And say the immortal words
"Sure no problem, you'll just need to tell Big Boss Dave that the well have a delay releasing phase 1 because I won't be able to complete X in time"
Its amazing how people don't want to slip phases.
Other great phrases for cases where the idea is plain dumb:-
"That is a great idea, just a couple of things that confuse me" then get them to explain the dumb bits and start using phrases like "Ahh I see, but wouldn't that mean that...." and point out how you'd have to re-arrange the universe to get it to work.
The trick is to make the client feel you are working out the problem together, with them taking the lead.
BUT do plan, do have a process, because without that you're screwed.
EU has managed NOT to have the issues, yes. Not YET
Umm are you implying that the EU has a power network for only 30 years ? You do realise that much of the power infrastructure was built in Europe BEFORE it was built in the US. And things like the lightbulb were invented in France.
This is NOT because the US has some age old system and the European one is new, it is because the US system is badly designed (as someone else pointed out its 3 phase grounded) to not tolerate errors and is badly maintained. The US also had major blackouts in 1977 in the NY area so its hardly new.
This is NOT the first time this has happened in the NE US (you did read the articles didn't you?), and its ONLY the NE that is suffering these problems, not the rest of the US.
Re:Why is nobody totally up in arms about this ?
on
Blackout Week Continues
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Well in the US we have more than 240 million people to provide power for. Who is more likely to have problems, a country that has to provide power for 60 million or a country that has to provide power for over 240 million?
But the North East is where all the problems occur and the population there is similar to France, and the EU has a similar population to the US and manages NOT to have these issues.
Hell Italy, Spain and Greece have a better power network.
Why is nobody totally up in arms about this ?
on
Blackout Week Continues
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· Score: 5, Interesting
What confuses me is how people are just taking this, from Bloomberg and the President down its "just one of those things" as if the rest of the first world has the same problems...
The other countries in the top 5 are Canada, Mexico and Malaysia. And in the US its always the North Eastern corner of the country. Doesn't this sort of indicate that this is NOT normal and that it is NOT reasonable ?
In the UK when there is a massive storm and some people are without power for a few days its a major issue, the idea of a major city being without power is unthinkable. Same across Europe and the rest of the first world. It isn't about area because down in the Southern US these things don't happen like they do in the NE. It is just plain incompetance and woeful bad practice.
If the French can run a decent power grid for 60 million people, why can't the US ? Why is America's most populus city part of a 3rd world power grid ? It can't be due to lack of consumpion, hence it can't be because the power companies aren't making money... so that leads us to power companies and goverment wilfully and knowingly allowing a sub-standard power grid to be in operation.
And just how much are people questioning the goverment about their over-sight right now ?
Summary: It is not normal in a 1st world country to have a grid failure, it is not normal for major cities to be without power. Some people some where are asleep on the job.
We've had portable numbers for years... and most of the US mobile companies are Europe based and work in the UK, T-Mobile, Vodaphone etc. So the quick summary is...
1) We've done it in the UK (and the rest of Europe)
2) European companies dominate the carrier networks
The group says this could be useful "in other approaches to quantum computing based on the optical control of electron-spin qubits in quantum dots..
and thought "I'm sure I've seen that on a Powerpoint presentation somewhere". This is clearly uber-smart stuff by uber-smart people, but they are beginning to sound like clueless PHBs dressing things up in techno-babble.
Maybe this is the fundamental essence of quantum computers, something maybe smart or idiotic depending on the reader, the actual quality of work is only resolved when viewed by multiple individuals.
I hearby copyright the phrase Quantum-Powerpoint, and the resolution process of determining presentation value which I shall call "De-spinning Qubits"
Yahoo's SCO Page has the money SCO execs have made by pumping the share price and setting automatic sell limits. When you consider how low the stock was its amazing that they put limits of $12 or more for a sell.
The EU represents the 2nd largest trade area on the planet, and can fine companies who wish to trade in the EU who break competition rules in the EU. And when people next go "that won't hurt MS" remember that the fine is proportionate to the market and the level of control.
So how about a fine equal to the sales over the period of the infringement. And restrictions on the sale of MS products.
And the best bit is that the EU actually has a spine here as its a great chance to piss of a US company, which lets face it they are hardly going to resist.
Nick Leeson anyone ? Futures as a predictive technology ? Again its wishes v reality. Compare the 5 year old futures market with today... and gasp at how wrong they got it.
Microsoft are being sued and its passed the kick out phase and is now well into court. Sony and Philips have paid several hundred million for licenses, and of course this represents the legal slush fund for Intertrust.
Why no focus on something that could stop the shipping of ALL microsoft products ?
Slashdot Mirror
Previous sponsors of EGOVOS have included UNDP, the World Bank, IBM, Oracle, Sun, Red Hat, and Dell as well as government associations and universities.
Remember folks, when people talk about Open Software and standards they are not talking about employing a bunch of bearded hackers with l33t Linux skills. They are talking about hiring the big boys, who in many ways just happen to be supporting this movement because it fits their business and selling models.
This is great to see, but lets not pretend that it isn't the big boys who are making sure the goverments play with Open Source toys.
If there was even a 1/10th cent tax on each email SPAM would drop dramatically.
Think about it, you've seen the advertisement "Read 200 million people instantly" at 1/10th cent that means EACH single SPAM will cost you $200,000
Now the market for penis enlargement could be big... but I'm betting it isn't that big (pun intended).
The Iraq war was, if not military advertising for the Bush re-election campaign ?
WRONG! Because the odds are some PHB hired the fuckwit and so you can't fire him or PHB looks bad, so you are stuck with numbnuts on the project for 10 months doing filing and even then screwing up the project. In India you just say "he is shit fire him" and he disappears, and is magically replaced by someone new, and IME the new person is almost always better as people realise the quality level you are setting and don't want to fail twice.
PHBs hire and fire, and they don't fire their own hires.
Officially Visual Basic developers are classified as "cleaners with additional training"
My experience with a small shop in the US in Oregon was almost exactly the same, totally and utterly useless gung-ho "we can fix it" cartoon like characters. And of course with any Microsoft code that has ever escaped into the wild you couldn't exactly bandy about the word quality.
Shit programmers exist everywhere. There are shit hot people in India, there are crap people in the US. The trick is to meld the good people in both areas to create decent teams as the client needs to speak NOW to someone, and that person HAS to be in the US. But the basic work can be done by top quality people in India.
It does work, and I for one have had good experiences of it, and I'll tell you one thing. Its a damned sight easier to get rid of the shit person on your project in India than it is in the US.
Microsoft will announce "updates" to C# that will be implemented in
This protest is a EUROPEAN one. What I'm talking about is a US focused equivalent.
Come on guys, this is what the US community should have done to protest the DMCA, and the range of RIAA abuses that are being seen.
Lets not be silly and take it down for ever, but why not have an official protest day? Slashdot, Freshmeat, maybe even some of the Corporates.
And the time for this ? How about we start it on the same date as the end of the First World War ?
November 11th, starting at 11am GMT, for 24 hours, we declare the internet closed for business.
Are we in ? Slashdot.... are you listening ?
Personally I have not found project management software any use at all, software projects being far too chaotic (in the mathematical sense of being unpredictable due to complex interactions) to be planned.
:-
Which indicates, sorry to pick on you, that you don't have a defined process. This is part of the saying "yes" and meaning "no" art, having a process ensures that people know that A is followed by B. If your project is chaotic and not properly managed it is easier to place additional demands as the amount of information to say no with is low.
The rest of the advice here was good, but the later one isn't I'm afraid. Software projects can, and should, be planned. And a process should be in place to manage the changes that inevitably occur. If you do not have a process then change management becomes difficult or impossible and the project will lose money and you will be fired.
Also management LOVES the idea of a process, so if you define a process for your work and it proves effective it will be enforced on everyone else.... BUT (and this is the best bit) NOT MODIFIED, so you end up looking even better.
So the easy way to say no is to define how you do your job. If you are doing software development this means getting a requirement (on paper), doing a design, then doing the code, then testing it. If you have several requirements these will inter-relate.
And one final piece of advice, if you really want to say no, make sure you can claim that a seemingly trivial piece of work that could be dropped for this new task can be linked to another major piece of work that would bring the project down. And say the immortal words
"Sure no problem, you'll just need to tell Big Boss Dave that the well have a delay releasing phase 1 because I won't be able to complete X in time"
Its amazing how people don't want to slip phases.
Other great phrases for cases where the idea is plain dumb
"That is a great idea, just a couple of things that confuse me" then get them to explain the dumb bits and start using phrases like
"Ahh I see, but wouldn't that mean that...." and point out how you'd have to re-arrange the universe to get it to work.
The trick is to make the client feel you are working out the problem together, with them taking the lead.
BUT do plan, do have a process, because without that you're screwed.
What a great idea... because Parody is protected by the first ammendment (People vs Larry Flint anyone?)
And you missed the point which is this IS NOT the first time this has happened in the North Eastern US.
EU has managed NOT to have the issues, yes. Not YET
Umm are you implying that the EU has a power network for only 30 years ? You do realise that much of the power infrastructure was built in Europe BEFORE it was built in the US. And things like the lightbulb were invented in France.
This is NOT because the US has some age old system and the European one is new, it is because the US system is badly designed (as someone else pointed out its 3 phase grounded) to not tolerate errors and is badly maintained. The US also had major blackouts in 1977 in the NY area so its hardly new.
This is NOT the first time this has happened in the NE US (you did read the articles didn't you?), and its ONLY the NE that is suffering these problems, not the rest of the US.
Well in the US we have more than 240 million people to provide power for. Who is more likely to have problems, a country that has to provide power for 60 million or a country that has to provide power for over 240 million?
But the North East is where all the problems occur and the population there is similar to France, and the EU has a similar population to the US and manages NOT to have these issues.
Hell Italy, Spain and Greece have a better power network.
What confuses me is how people are just taking this, from Bloomberg and the President down its "just one of those things" as if the rest of the first world has the same problems...
The other countries in the top 5 are Canada, Mexico and Malaysia. And in the US its always the North Eastern corner of the country. Doesn't this sort of indicate that this is NOT normal and that it is NOT reasonable ?
In the UK when there is a massive storm and some people are without power for a few days its a major issue, the idea of a major city being without power is unthinkable. Same across Europe and the rest of the first world. It isn't about area because down in the Southern US these things don't happen like they do in the NE. It is just plain incompetance and woeful bad practice.
If the French can run a decent power grid for 60 million people, why can't the US ? Why is America's most populus city part of a 3rd world power grid ? It can't be due to lack of consumpion, hence it can't be because the power companies aren't making money... so that leads us to power companies and goverment wilfully and knowingly allowing a sub-standard power grid to be in operation.
And just how much are people questioning the goverment about their over-sight right now ?
Summary: It is not normal in a 1st world country to have a grid failure, it is not normal for major cities to be without power. Some people some where are asleep on the job.
We've had portable numbers for years... and most of the US mobile companies are Europe based and work in the UK, T-Mobile, Vodaphone etc. So the quick summary is...
1) We've done it in the UK (and the rest of Europe)
2) European companies dominate the carrier networks
3) We're just doing it to piss you off.
DOH! NOW I know why my home build PC isn't working. I also made the "often made" mistake of forgetting the Power Supply.
I'm glad to know this is a common mistake and not just me being stupid.
Was I the only person who read the line
The group says this could be useful "in other approaches to quantum computing based on the optical control of electron-spin qubits in quantum dots..
and thought "I'm sure I've seen that on a Powerpoint presentation somewhere". This is clearly uber-smart stuff by uber-smart people, but they are beginning to sound like clueless PHBs dressing things up in techno-babble.
Maybe this is the fundamental essence of quantum computers, something maybe smart or idiotic depending on the reader, the actual quality of work is only resolved when viewed by multiple individuals.
I hearby copyright the phrase Quantum-Powerpoint, and the resolution process of determining presentation value which I shall call "De-spinning Qubits"
So its a desktop portal server. Why is this amazing ?
Yahoo's SCO Page has the money SCO execs have made by pumping the share price and setting automatic sell limits. When you consider how low the stock was its amazing that they put limits of $12 or more for a sell.
Apologies you are correct as it says here the EU has 30% of the worlds GDP, NAFTA has only 28%.
So in other words the EU can REALLY kick some butt here.
The EU represents the 2nd largest trade area on the planet, and can fine companies who wish to trade in the EU who break competition rules in the EU. And when people next go "that won't hurt MS" remember that the fine is proportionate to the market and the level of control.
So how about a fine equal to the sales over the period of the infringement. And restrictions on the sale of MS products.
And the best bit is that the EU actually has a spine here as its a great chance to piss of a US company, which lets face it they are hardly going to resist.
Nick Leeson anyone ? Futures as a predictive technology ? Again its wishes v reality. Compare the 5 year old futures market with today... and gasp at how wrong they got it.
I've patented digital entertainment, including digital film, digital art, digital stories and digital fish.
In a seperate patent I've included all of the above in wireless, electronic and avian form.
Microsoft are being sued and its passed the kick out phase and is now well into court. Sony and Philips have paid several hundred million for licenses, and of course this represents the legal slush fund for Intertrust.
Why no focus on something that could stop the shipping of ALL microsoft products ?