#88 - the point when every news organization feels compelled to make really long lists of the top ____ of the last decade. It's like the annual "top ____ of the year" lists, only 10 times as lame.
he was surprised DirecTV refused to change its business practices voluntarily.
I'm not surprised DirecTV ignored him. The big corporate types are used to owning government, and tend to get blindsided by guys who take their job as AG to mean that they're supposed to enforce the laws of their state (e.g. pre-affair Eliot Spitzer).
Eating squirrels and cooking over a fire would stink, but at least no one would come to put me in prison for something I didn't even know I did.
What about when the Fish & Game department gets you for hunting squirrels out of season?
(Hi NSA/Echelon! Hope you are having a nice day. I once threw a paper cup out my car window.)
Also, just for that, I'm going to have to ask you to go sit on that bench over there marked "Group W", with all the mother-rapers, father-stabbers, and father-rapers.
Other managers to 4iedBandit & his manager: We apologize for what happened and we will be personally taking measures to ensure this doesn't happen again.
Depends on the organization, and the political power of 4iedBandit's team vs the development and QA teams. Otherwise, a development manager (to pick an example) might say "I said to 4iedBandit that we'd need the extra servers 3 weeks ago in a hallway conversation". Even if that's a complete load of crap, a development manager who is popular with the higher-ups will be able to make that sort of story stick.
It's stupid, it's a bad way of doing business, but it is the way the world works.
Here's the interesting thing about that: the fascists in Europe were mostly defeated militarily, whereas the fascists in the US were not. And yes, there were fascists in America in the 1930's, although nowhere near as many or as organized as in Europe. (There's some evidence that there was even a far-fetched plot to overthrow Roosevelt.)
I'm not saying any of those ideas are right or wrong, just that they happened, in large part because workers were unemployed, frustrated, working too hard if they had jobs, and being generally oppressed by their bosses.
Re:Programming without music? Listen Up Cog
on
Music While Programming?
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· Score: 2, Informative
In case you hadn't picked up on it, "Workers of the world, unite!" is a direct quote from the Communist Manifesto. The folks I was referring to were most definitely Communists: The Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, the Red side of the Russian Revolution being the two most prominent examples.
In Germany there are genuine labor protection laws. In the US, current labor laws are more about protecting companies from the possibility that a union might form.
"Corporate accounts payable, Mina speaking. Just a moment. Corporate accounts payable, Mina speaking. Just a moment. Corporate accounts payable..."
Seriously, that little moment when Peter Gibbons first goes into work on Monday explains everything that's wrong with cubicle environments.
Re:Programming without music? Listen Up Cog
on
Music While Programming?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
How right you are.
The interesting thing is that an environment like that, there are 2 political messages that become a lot more appealing: 1) blame some minority group of people for all your woes: Mexican immigrants, black people, communists, Jews, Muslims, etc. In short, fascism. 2) band together with the other exploited workers to put a stop to oppressive management. Workers of the world, unite! In short, communism.
And when you look for the last time both of those messages really took hold, you get Europe in the early 20th century.
Where: Coastal New England Who: Wampanoags, Massachusetts, Narrangansetts, Pequots, and several other groups How many: Not entirely clear, but most evidence is that there were something like 50,000-100,000 residents of the area before European contact. How large: At least most of present-day southern New England (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. At what times: Not entirely clear when it started, but what was clear from reports from early explorers and settlers is that it was easy to walk around, there was beautiful agricultural land available (due to a very large percentage of the population being wiped out by smallpox and other plagues in the late 1500's), and they never really described it as pristine woodlands.
It's not a matter of "noble Indians", just Indians who were capable of basic science. They're livelihood was based around hunting in woodlands and cultivation of corn, beans, and squash. They experimented and figured out ways of making that process easier. That's not a far-fetched hypothesis in the least.
Actually, a lot of the area east of the Mississippi is doing pretty well on that front as well. Thanks in no small part to the conservationist types and Teddy Roosevelt, while most of the old growth forests are gone, a lot of new forests have grown up. For instance, New England went from almost completely forested to 30% forested, and is now 80% forested.
It's important to note that the North American forests were not "pristine" when the white folks showed up. The people who had lived there for a few thousand years had practiced some fairly sophisticated forest management. For instance, they would regularly clear undergrowth to make it easier to travel and hunt, and put significant effort into managing herd sizes. They also cleared some spaces for agriculture, which the Pilgrims in particular took advantage of when they went to set up their own colony.
Actually, no, kids aren't stupid. Kids are ignorant a lot of the time, but they aren't stupid. Your average 10-year-old is absorbing information like a sponge. The trouble is that they may not be absorbing the information you want them to absorb.
Now, here's the real trick, though: if you look at what information kids pay really close attention to, it's what the adults around them our doing. If you want a kid to act a certain way, act in that way around the kid and before you know it they will have picked it up. On the flip side, if you start acting like you don't want them to act, they will pick that up and copy you. It's monkey-see, monkey-do.
And while other adults do have some influence on kids, the adults with the most influence are mom, dad, and their teachers. Even if they don't admit it, even teenagers will pay close attention to what their parents do. They have more influence than anyone the kid sees on TV or on teh Interwebs.
A kernel based on a Linux kernel... sounds like they might be heading towards either "nifty contribution to the Linux codebase for embedded devices" or "GPL violation" here.
Well, at the very least, it's pretty clear that they didn't come out wrong, but with a very useful skill set. I have similar sentiments about ADHD: if you're in a group of cavemen going out hunting, you want someone in your group who will notice all the little things that folks who don't have ADHD ignore because that's not what they're focusing on. So if I have a task that involves looking around for anything unusual or interesting, I want someone with ADHD along, because he or she will find things I'll miss.
In fact, any "disorder" that is as common as high functioning autism or ADHD often indicates that it's not a disorder at all, but more a personality type that the rest of us have decided was annoying to deal with. For instance, autistic people are the most likely to announce that the emperor is walking around naked, which is extremely inconvenient for anyone who is selling clothing that everyone claims they can see but no one can.
Not at all. Managers more than anything else have to be able to read and influence people, which exactly what autistic people have the hardest time doing.
They're likely to accidentally quote Tom Spikowski, and say "I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people!! Can't you understand that?! What the hell is wrong with you people?!?!"
Besides that, if they can handle what the rest of us consider really monotonous stuff well (which a lot of autistic people can), that leaves less of it for those of us who get bored silly by it.
In other words, it's not just putting autistic folks in a place where they can do a good job. It's actually putting them in a place where they can do a better job than the rest of us, so long as their manager gets training on how to deal with their quirks, and they're kept far away from customers.
Oh Tenenbaum, oh Tenenbaum, your legal team is awesome. Oh Tenenbaum, oh Tenenbaum, your legal team is awesome. With fair use, you may see a chance for copyright victory. Oh Tenenbaum, oh Tanenbaum, your legal team is awesome.
I'm glad to see that someone else read the rest of what Lawrence J Peter had to say about it.
Actually, Peter pointed out the major reasons that you can't actually say no to this aren't economic so much as social: For instance, if the OP refuses the promotion, his wife and in-laws will likely start hassling him about his lack of ambition, that sort of thing.
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#88 - the point when every news organization feels compelled to make really long lists of the top ____ of the last decade. It's like the annual "top ____ of the year" lists, only 10 times as lame.
he was surprised DirecTV refused to change its business practices voluntarily.
I'm not surprised DirecTV ignored him. The big corporate types are used to owning government, and tend to get blindsided by guys who take their job as AG to mean that they're supposed to enforce the laws of their state (e.g. pre-affair Eliot Spitzer).
Eating squirrels and cooking over a fire would stink, but at least no one would come to put me in prison for something I didn't even know I did.
What about when the Fish & Game department gets you for hunting squirrels out of season?
(Hi NSA/Echelon! Hope you are having a nice day. I once threw a paper cup out my car window.)
Also, just for that, I'm going to have to ask you to go sit on that bench over there marked "Group W", with all the mother-rapers, father-stabbers, and father-rapers.
Other managers to 4iedBandit & his manager: We apologize for what happened and we will be personally taking measures to ensure this doesn't happen again.
Depends on the organization, and the political power of 4iedBandit's team vs the development and QA teams. Otherwise, a development manager (to pick an example) might say "I said to 4iedBandit that we'd need the extra servers 3 weeks ago in a hallway conversation". Even if that's a complete load of crap, a development manager who is popular with the higher-ups will be able to make that sort of story stick.
It's stupid, it's a bad way of doing business, but it is the way the world works.
Here's the interesting thing about that: the fascists in Europe were mostly defeated militarily, whereas the fascists in the US were not. And yes, there were fascists in America in the 1930's, although nowhere near as many or as organized as in Europe. (There's some evidence that there was even a far-fetched plot to overthrow Roosevelt.)
I'm not saying any of those ideas are right or wrong, just that they happened, in large part because workers were unemployed, frustrated, working too hard if they had jobs, and being generally oppressed by their bosses.
In case you hadn't picked up on it, "Workers of the world, unite!" is a direct quote from the Communist Manifesto. The folks I was referring to were most definitely Communists: The Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, the Red side of the Russian Revolution being the two most prominent examples.
In Germany there are genuine labor protection laws. In the US, current labor laws are more about protecting companies from the possibility that a union might form.
"Corporate accounts payable, Mina speaking. Just a moment. Corporate accounts payable, Mina speaking. Just a moment. Corporate accounts payable ..."
Seriously, that little moment when Peter Gibbons first goes into work on Monday explains everything that's wrong with cubicle environments.
How right you are.
The interesting thing is that an environment like that, there are 2 political messages that become a lot more appealing:
1) blame some minority group of people for all your woes: Mexican immigrants, black people, communists, Jews, Muslims, etc. In short, fascism.
2) band together with the other exploited workers to put a stop to oppressive management. Workers of the world, unite! In short, communism.
And when you look for the last time both of those messages really took hold, you get Europe in the early 20th century.
Where: Coastal New England
Who: Wampanoags, Massachusetts, Narrangansetts, Pequots, and several other groups
How many: Not entirely clear, but most evidence is that there were something like 50,000-100,000 residents of the area before European contact.
How large: At least most of present-day southern New England (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts.
At what times: Not entirely clear when it started, but what was clear from reports from early explorers and settlers is that it was easy to walk around, there was beautiful agricultural land available (due to a very large percentage of the population being wiped out by smallpox and other plagues in the late 1500's), and they never really described it as pristine woodlands.
It's not a matter of "noble Indians", just Indians who were capable of basic science. They're livelihood was based around hunting in woodlands and cultivation of corn, beans, and squash. They experimented and figured out ways of making that process easier. That's not a far-fetched hypothesis in the least.
Actually, a lot of the area east of the Mississippi is doing pretty well on that front as well. Thanks in no small part to the conservationist types and Teddy Roosevelt, while most of the old growth forests are gone, a lot of new forests have grown up. For instance, New England went from almost completely forested to 30% forested, and is now 80% forested.
It's important to note that the North American forests were not "pristine" when the white folks showed up. The people who had lived there for a few thousand years had practiced some fairly sophisticated forest management. For instance, they would regularly clear undergrowth to make it easier to travel and hunt, and put significant effort into managing herd sizes. They also cleared some spaces for agriculture, which the Pilgrims in particular took advantage of when they went to set up their own colony.
Actually, no, kids aren't stupid. Kids are ignorant a lot of the time, but they aren't stupid. Your average 10-year-old is absorbing information like a sponge. The trouble is that they may not be absorbing the information you want them to absorb.
Now, here's the real trick, though: if you look at what information kids pay really close attention to, it's what the adults around them our doing. If you want a kid to act a certain way, act in that way around the kid and before you know it they will have picked it up. On the flip side, if you start acting like you don't want them to act, they will pick that up and copy you. It's monkey-see, monkey-do.
And while other adults do have some influence on kids, the adults with the most influence are mom, dad, and their teachers. Even if they don't admit it, even teenagers will pay close attention to what their parents do. They have more influence than anyone the kid sees on TV or on teh Interwebs.
I think you'd better do what he says, Mr. Kinney.
How does it compare with Manos: The Hands of Fate (without MST)?
Weird Al should definitely demand one as well.
A kernel based on a Linux kernel ... sounds like they might be heading towards either "nifty contribution to the Linux codebase for embedded devices" or "GPL violation" here.
Well, at the very least, it's pretty clear that they didn't come out wrong, but with a very useful skill set. I have similar sentiments about ADHD: if you're in a group of cavemen going out hunting, you want someone in your group who will notice all the little things that folks who don't have ADHD ignore because that's not what they're focusing on. So if I have a task that involves looking around for anything unusual or interesting, I want someone with ADHD along, because he or she will find things I'll miss.
In fact, any "disorder" that is as common as high functioning autism or ADHD often indicates that it's not a disorder at all, but more a personality type that the rest of us have decided was annoying to deal with. For instance, autistic people are the most likely to announce that the emperor is walking around naked, which is extremely inconvenient for anyone who is selling clothing that everyone claims they can see but no one can.
Not at all. Managers more than anything else have to be able to read and influence people, which exactly what autistic people have the hardest time doing.
They're likely to accidentally quote Tom Spikowski, and say "I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people!! Can't you understand that?! What the hell is wrong with you people?!?!"
Besides that, if they can handle what the rest of us consider really monotonous stuff well (which a lot of autistic people can), that leaves less of it for those of us who get bored silly by it.
In other words, it's not just putting autistic folks in a place where they can do a good job. It's actually putting them in a place where they can do a better job than the rest of us, so long as their manager gets training on how to deal with their quirks, and they're kept far away from customers.
Damn, I knew I forgot to check the Sub-Etha Sens-o-matic today.
What if you're leading a government in south Asia bent on destroying another government in south Asia?
Oh Tenenbaum, oh Tenenbaum,
your legal team is awesome.
Oh Tenenbaum, oh Tenenbaum,
your legal team is awesome.
With fair use, you may see
a chance for copyright victory.
Oh Tenenbaum, oh Tanenbaum,
your legal team is awesome.
I'm glad to see that someone else read the rest of what Lawrence J Peter had to say about it.
Actually, Peter pointed out the major reasons that you can't actually say no to this aren't economic so much as social: For instance, if the OP refuses the promotion, his wife and in-laws will likely start hassling him about his lack of ambition, that sort of thing.
The IRA definitely HAS attacked our ally, Britain. They are strategically important to us, so I think my original opinion still has some validity.