One upshot of which is that the companies of the future may be surprisingly small. I sometimes daydream about how big you could grow a company (in revenues) without ever having more than ten people. What would happen if you outsourced everything except product development? If you tried this experiment, I think you'd be surprised at how far you could get. As Fred Brooks pointed out, small groups are intrinsically more productive, because the internal friction in a group grows as the square of its size.
I know from experience (non-trivial engineering projects} that more people does not necessarily equal more success; sometimes it drags down an effort while the original goal gets lost in "management".
Wow, that was a pretty crappy comment. What is always needed is a leader who knows what he's doing, not a cheerleader who has a vague idea of what's going on, and this applies to software as well as making widgets.
I'll trade 1000 "money-making" employees (after IPO) for 10 people that are focused on the goal.
... the legendary game designer suggests that the future of learning is through playing.
I think he is right. If you can make (supposedly) boring things interesting via computers, you will have been successful. Great teachers have been able to do this without software, but not all teachers are great.
That's one thing that's always bothered me, people just making up spellings for words they can't spell
And can't be bothered to check. As native English-speakers (and given that English is the natural language of the internet) we should try to provide a good example for our non-English-speaking friends.
I guess it's kewl in some corners to be linguistically ignorant.
The link comes from a PBS program web page, Now with Bill Moyers. Was the League of Women Voters actively undermining America enough that both parties got together to change the debate rules?
It actually was a typo, but after I checked what I wrote I figured I'd leave it in.
I think native English speakers should be more careful with spelling online as many non-native speakers can learn bad habits. Some people use the "i cant spel" excuse as some kind of badge of honour or something; "I'm a programmer, dammit, not an English major".
Re:Terraforming or ecosynthesising mars
on
Making Tracks on Mars
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Instead of looking to off-earth as a possible (waaay into the) future home for us meatbags, why not consider moving underground?
What I find interesting is the spelling and syntax ignorance at Slashdot. Given that many commenters are programmers, one would think that they'd be more careful with the tyoing.
...same psychology at work in air transport: people that habitually use a car (and drive recklessly, BTW) regard air travel as "dangerous", while statistically just the opposite is true.
What scares people about flying is their total lack of control and the likelihood of surviving any kind of accident involving aircraft.
Just spend lots of time with her at that age. They are really neat when they are so small.
Change her diapers, feed her, burp her, carry her around, etc. She may never remember you doing these things for her, but you will.
It also helps later on when your inevitable foot comes down. It's much easier to do so when you can cite "all the things I did for you, and here's the video evidence".
Thanks, that's pretty neat! To think that millions of people spend hundreds of hours each fussing around with Sim-type, entertainment-only games and don't learn much.
I think it's more likely in the above case that France would see the advertised munitions and surrender.
Chuckle, chuckle. When was the last time you challenged a French soldier physically? Never? I thought so. The cheese-surrendering monkey stereotype is pretty passe, isn't it.
The French have a damn good military and technological base (in many ways better than the US). The frogs would have been much less of a whipping boy if they had just gone along with the US.
It's sad to see everyone jump on the bandwagon and dunp on the French, it just shows up the moronity of the typical ugly American.
Thank you, after I re-read what you said, it made sense. Good description, I think I understand even though you are way ahead of me. Great to see experts responding.
In other words, it now costs US oil companies more to buy oil that they can process and sell to the consumer.
The Canucks actually want this oil price rise to continue. That way, the US will move to "domestic" supply (even though it is nowhere near as sweet - will employ 5 or 6 construction/engineering companies for about 11 days, however). There are those that say that Canada's untapped oil reserves dwarf those that are predicted to remain in the Middle East.
Red Adair just passed-on, maybe the next generation of hardcore oil guys will be Canadian or Texans that are cold-averse. Should weed-out the wannabes in either case.
Slashdot Mirror
One upshot of which is that the companies of the future may be surprisingly small. I sometimes daydream about how big you could grow a company (in revenues) without ever having more than ten people. What would happen if you outsourced everything except product development? If you tried this experiment, I think you'd be surprised at how far you could get. As Fred Brooks pointed out, small groups are intrinsically more productive, because the internal friction in a group grows as the square of its size.
I know from experience (non-trivial engineering projects} that more people does not necessarily equal more success; sometimes it drags down an effort while the original goal gets lost in "management".
Wow, that was a pretty crappy comment. What is always needed is a leader who knows what he's doing, not a cheerleader who has a vague idea of what's going on, and this applies to software as well as making widgets.
I'll trade 1000 "money-making" employees (after IPO) for 10 people that are focused on the goal.
I think he is right. If you can make (supposedly) boring things interesting via computers, you will have been successful. Great teachers have been able to do this without software, but not all teachers are great.
That's one thing that's always bothered me, people just making up spellings for words they can't spell
And can't be bothered to check. As native English-speakers (and given that English is the natural language of the internet) we should try to provide a good example for our non-English-speaking friends.
I guess it's kewl in some corners to be linguistically ignorant.
The text below is from a PDF document:
In 1986, the Republican and Democratic National Committees ratified an agreement for the "parties to take over the presidential debates." Fifteen months later, then-Republican Party chair Frank Fahrenkopf and then-Democratic Party chair Paul Kirk created the CPD, which immediately seized control of the debates from the genuinely nonpartisan League of Women Voters.
The link comes from a PBS program web page, Now with Bill Moyers. Was the League of Women Voters actively undermining America enough that both parties got together to change the debate rules?
It actually was a typo, but after I checked what I wrote I figured I'd leave it in.
I think native English speakers should be more careful with spelling online as many non-native speakers can learn bad habits. Some people use the "i cant spel" excuse as some kind of badge of honour or something; "I'm a programmer, dammit, not an English major".
Instead of looking to off-earth as a possible (waaay into the) future home for us meatbags, why not consider moving underground?
Probably a stupid question.
Maybe they can use nuclear batteries to power the flash so they can photograph the dark side.
Not to be a grammar/spelling nazi...
What I find interesting is the spelling and syntax ignorance at Slashdot. Given that many commenters are programmers, one would think that they'd be more careful with the tyoing.
...certainly some of the really require a look...
Did you forget some, like, words in there somewhere?
What scares people about flying is their total lack of control and the likelihood of surviving any kind of accident involving aircraft.
"But there's no such thing as brown alert!"
Is a yellow alert before, during or after a brown one?
I've only ever heard that said about LH2.
That's what pressure relief valves and rupture disks are for.
Where's Robbin the Hood?
The PP is equating long-term unemployment with death?
It wouldn't take long to write a script to find all the broken links on a page.
Just use Xenu's Link Checker.
There are software licensing issues so they are going to use the backup solution
...accountants? The only industry where the word "creative" is a bad thing.
What about surgeons?
"Well, if it isn't my good friend Mr. McGreg! With a leg for an arm, and an arm for a leg!"
What a craptacular idea!
Just spend lots of time with her at that age. They are really neat when they are so small.
Change her diapers, feed her, burp her, carry her around, etc. She may never remember you doing these things for her, but you will.
It also helps later on when your inevitable foot comes down. It's much easier to do so when you can cite "all the things I did for you, and here's the video evidence".
I'm assuming you have a video camera.
Thanks, that's pretty neat! To think that millions of people spend hundreds of hours each fussing around with Sim-type, entertainment-only games and don't learn much.
I think it's more likely in the above case that France would see the advertised munitions and surrender.
Chuckle, chuckle. When was the last time you challenged a French soldier physically? Never? I thought so. The cheese-surrendering monkey stereotype is pretty passe, isn't it.
The French have a damn good military and technological base (in many ways better than the US). The frogs would have been much less of a whipping boy if they had just gone along with the US.
It's sad to see everyone jump on the bandwagon and dunp on the French, it just shows up the moronity of the typical ugly American.
Thank you, after I re-read what you said, it made sense. Good description, I think I understand even though you are way ahead of me. Great to see experts responding.
Paul
In other words, it now costs US oil companies more to buy oil that they can process and sell to the consumer.
The Canucks actually want this oil price rise to continue. That way, the US will move to "domestic" supply (even though it is nowhere near as sweet - will employ 5 or 6 construction/engineering companies for about 11 days, however). There are those that say that Canada's untapped oil reserves dwarf those that are predicted to remain in the Middle East.
Red Adair just passed-on, maybe the next generation of hardcore oil guys will be Canadian or Texans that are cold-averse. Should weed-out the wannabes in either case.
I am overjoyed. I'm not sure who initiated this policy shift, but they deserve major kudos.
Could it possibly be a result of some Bush policy? I dare not even suggest this in this forum, so, sorry...AC post.