You misunderstand how affirmative action in the workplace is supposed to work.
Let's say that in your city the breakdown is:
75% purple people 25% green people
And let's say that equal percentages (say 10%) of each race are qualified for the positions you are trying to fill. When all is said and done you should have close to 75% purple people and 25% green people on your workforce - this is especially true if you have a large workforce.
Now, with the 75/25 ratio being the same, let's say that 10% of the purple people and 50% of the green people are qualified and interested in said jobs. You should then end up with approximately 44% purple people and 56% green people employed by your company.
It would work similarly in the education world as well, but since those are formative years you also have to try to understand if people are being influenced by environmental factors (nature vs nurture) and i'm not going to go there.
Unfortunately, both the opponents of affirmative action and often the people putting it into practice fuck it up and nobody really seems to understand how it should work.
Please note that as detailed as this is, it is still a generalization. It doesn't factor in things like poverty, population distribution, etc. YMMV
My girlfriend graduated from university with a BA in English. She decided she wanted to be a technical writer so she took a certificate course and completed that. She then spent a year trying to find a job without luck.
So she spoke with a few people in the industry, curious why she would find it so hard to start her career. She thought it might be because she had an arts degree (actually, she took a lot of sciences in university but that's not obvious) but the common response she got was it was because she is a woman. Why is this bad? Because the TW industry is dominated by women so there is a big push to hire more men.
She's going to go back to school in September but hasn't yet decided what to do (she has a number of ideas, she's just still doing research). Personally, I think she should get an CT diploma so she can be on the other side of the affirmative action coin.
(Disclaimer: This story is rife with anecdotes and personal experience and may only reflect trends in our area of the planet. This also wasn't an attempt to bash affirmative action, so don't interpret it as such. YMMV)
The point I'm trying to make is, there are very few women in the garbage collection or plumbing industries either. But almost noone considers this a terrible sign of gender inequity propagating itself through the ages.
Actually, a lot of people do see the lack of women in trades as a sign of gender inequity and there are a lot of programs (at least in western Canada) that are dedicated to getting women interested in them. Trade organizations have been trying to attract women for a number of years now. Do a simple google and you see a lot of interesting links on this topic.
In a related note, I have always felt it's a bullshit cop-out to say that IT is a "lonely" industry. I spend a lot of time dealing with end users and where I work we tend to avoid hiring the "creepy nerd" types as much as possible (fortunately this stereotype is usually not found in the wild, or at least I have met very few:). It doesn't matter if you are a perfect coder if you can't establish what the users need. (But that's just my opinion:)
CrossTrainer (exercise software) has the same type of scheme. I have to email them to unlock the software whenever I install on a new pc (or os install, for that matter).
Pissed me off to no end - if I had realized this was the case before, I never would have bought it.
Dude, it was a joke. I was making fun of the typical fanboy and how many of them will probably react. Seriously, I mostly dislike the clamshell design. Looks fragile.
Anyone that doesn't know, front lit means that there is a piece of clear plastic film over the lcd screen that lights up:
------- plastic ....... clear plastic film that lights up ======= lcd screen
The articles actually kind of make it sound like it's going to light up around the edges of the LCD, which is wrong:)
Words fail me. I hope it works better than I think it might. It's ugly, probably going to cramp my hands up worst than the GBA does, and the fucking thing isn't even backlit?
From a business standpoint it makes no sense either. Cell phones are big in Japan. Why not make a combo cell-phone/gba (and make it backlit of course).
ARGH!!!! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? IT'S UGLY!!!
No, wait, must recover... remember, Nintendo good, do no wrong....
I can install and remove anything from my pc at will, and if I am the one to install McAfee and tell it to remove spyware then it doesn't matter what the spyware manufacturer thinks (and don't give me no guff about licencing agreements - nothing I sign says I can't turn around and remove it (and expect to hold up in court) - besides, I didn't even click a yes/no to get that last batch of spyware I excised from my pc).
Just because some pr0n dialer sued somebody doesn't mean the case was justified or will even last or lasted 1 week.
I prefer audio books. I can't move my arms on the train in the morning, so listening to a book is a sweet deal. It's slow (I read pretty fast) but my mp3 player holds about 4-5 hours worth of audio books (32kbps is fine with spoken audio) and it's the size of a matchbook.
About 1/2 through the unabridged "The Return of the King" right now:)
I dunno about that, but IE seems to think I want six windows open when I click one link. It also thinks I want to go on a diet, optimize my system, punch a monkey, and meet women, judging by the windows I get. Wierd shit, dude...
Heheh, I got to "disassemble" an old AS/400 box last year at work. Amazing how much dust was in the sucker - word from the wise, when you disassemble something, wear goggles:)
Ok, this is completely off-topic, but it's kind of creepy how when I went to dictionary.com (had to make sure I had the correct spelling for bosom) a popup for match.com popped up with a bunch of ladies with my city and province (canadian) in their listings.
I should use an anonymous proxy. I'd switch to Mozilla but IE is just so fast for some reason:) [/joke]
So a team from Texas Tech University was dispatched to document the tone of her copper skin, the undulations of her flowing gown, the muscles in her outstretched arm, the curve of her lips and the height, width and depth of her wide-open eyes.
Lady Liberty is sexy sexy sexy! They forgot to mention her heaving bosom though.
I predict that along with the flish there will be mushrooms living in a kingdom with a princess and a pasta eating plumber fighting against giant turtles (wearing punk threads).
Come to think of it, the giant squid and the chrome spider fits into this too... maybe they were playing super mario sunshine and just ripped it off as a big joke?
I did the same thing with a story I submitted recently - it was a NYT story so I submitted the google partner link. They didn't publish it though:) I urge all submitters to do the same in the future.
(Incidently, the story was about copyrights in Europe that will expire soon)
You're right, although there are legal monopolies like utilities or government services. Whether they are good or not is debatable, of course - they usually lack a profit oriented model so they fall into a gray area.
I question the usefulness of this article - it seems to be a snapshot in time and it doesn't even say when these numbers were collected. It could change dramatically next week.
It would be much more interesting to see these statistics over a wide range of time. Applicability of the languages would be interesting too (ie/ what types of jobs are looking for what type of developers).
And it doesn't really detail if some languages tend to cluster (ie/ VB coders tend to have to know x as well).
For instance, if you get a poor look at someone, then I show you a picture of someone, your brain may merge the two memories into one and you may identify the picture as the original person.
Slashdot Mirror
So they're born with microchips in their necks? What about endoskeletons?
Aibo's were the T100 models. You must be talking about the T200 models. Next comes shape changing Rover to kill our resistance leader of the future...
You misunderstand how affirmative action in the workplace is supposed to work.
Let's say that in your city the breakdown is:
75% purple people
25% green people
And let's say that equal percentages (say 10%) of each race are qualified for the positions you are trying to fill. When all is said and done you should have close to 75% purple people and 25% green people on your workforce - this is especially true if you have a large workforce.
Now, with the 75/25 ratio being the same, let's say that 10% of the purple people and 50% of the green people are qualified and interested in said jobs. You should then end up with approximately 44% purple people and 56% green people employed by your company.
It would work similarly in the education world as well, but since those are formative years you also have to try to understand if people are being influenced by environmental factors (nature vs nurture) and i'm not going to go there.
Unfortunately, both the opponents of affirmative action and often the people putting it into practice fuck it up and nobody really seems to understand how it should work.
Please note that as detailed as this is, it is still a generalization. It doesn't factor in things like poverty, population distribution, etc. YMMV
My girlfriend graduated from university with a BA in English. She decided she wanted to be a technical writer so she took a certificate course and completed that. She then spent a year trying to find a job without luck.
So she spoke with a few people in the industry, curious why she would find it so hard to start her career. She thought it might be because she had an arts degree (actually, she took a lot of sciences in university but that's not obvious) but the common response she got was it was because she is a woman. Why is this bad? Because the TW industry is dominated by women so there is a big push to hire more men.
She's going to go back to school in September but hasn't yet decided what to do (she has a number of ideas, she's just still doing research). Personally, I think she should get an CT diploma so she can be on the other side of the affirmative action coin.
(Disclaimer: This story is rife with anecdotes and personal experience and may only reflect trends in our area of the planet. This also wasn't an attempt to bash affirmative action, so don't interpret it as such. YMMV)
Actually, a lot of people do see the lack of women in trades as a sign of gender inequity and there are a lot of programs (at least in western Canada) that are dedicated to getting women interested in them. Trade organizations have been trying to attract women for a number of years now. Do a simple google and you see a lot of interesting links on this topic.
In a related note, I have always felt it's a bullshit cop-out to say that IT is a "lonely" industry. I spend a lot of time dealing with end users and where I work we tend to avoid hiring the "creepy nerd" types as much as possible (fortunately this stereotype is usually not found in the wild, or at least I have met very few
Heheh, my girlfriend saw me reading and laughing and asked me, "What's so funny?"
I asked her, "Are you sure you want to know?"
"Yes, show me."
So I covered my eyes and shift-clicked.
"Eeewwwww," she said, "is that real?"
"Yes dear, it's real and the burning sensation in your eyes will clear in a few days."
It's scary shared-experiences like these that really solidify a relationship.
*looks out window at clear blue skies, bright sun, and no snow*
:) It's at least 10 degrees outside right now
Not in my end of Canada, dude
Actually, he sounds exactly like the type of guy that would do that...
CrossTrainer (exercise software) has the same type of scheme. I have to email them to unlock the software whenever I install on a new pc (or os install, for that matter).
Pissed me off to no end - if I had realized this was the case before, I never would have bought it.
Anyone that doesn't know, front lit means that there is a piece of clear plastic film over the lcd screen that lights up:The articles actually kind of make it sound like it's going to light up around the edges of the LCD, which is wrong
FRONT LIT?!?!
Words fail me. I hope it works better than I think it might. It's ugly, probably going to cramp my hands up worst than the GBA does, and the fucking thing isn't even backlit?
From a business standpoint it makes no sense either. Cell phones are big in Japan. Why not make a combo cell-phone/gba (and make it backlit of course).
ARGH!!!! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? IT'S UGLY!!!
No, wait, must recover... remember, Nintendo good, do no wrong....
*Remembers virtua-boy*
*explodes*
More info, please. How is it a legal minefield?
I can install and remove anything from my pc at will, and if I am the one to install McAfee and tell it to remove spyware then it doesn't matter what the spyware manufacturer thinks (and don't give me no guff about licencing agreements - nothing I sign says I can't turn around and remove it (and expect to hold up in court) - besides, I didn't even click a yes/no to get that last batch of spyware I excised from my pc).
Just because some pr0n dialer sued somebody doesn't mean the case was justified or will even last or lasted 1 week.
Arms are pinned at sides due to excessive number of people in train.
:)
Like I (think) said in a parent post, I can read quite quickly but it is kind of nice to take your time with a book by listening to it.
I prefer audio books. I can't move my arms on the train in the morning, so listening to a book is a sweet deal. It's slow (I read pretty fast) but my mp3 player holds about 4-5 hours worth of audio books (32kbps is fine with spoken audio) and it's the size of a matchbook.
:)
About 1/2 through the unabridged "The Return of the King" right now
Yup, parent post (while very useful) missed my point. I meant using an anon proxy on the net to mask my ip address. I already run ad aware.
I dunno about that, but IE seems to think I want six windows open when I click one link. It also thinks I want to go on a diet, optimize my system, punch a monkey, and meet women, judging by the windows I get. Wierd shit, dude...
Heheh, I got to "disassemble" an old AS/400 box last year at work. Amazing how much dust was in the sucker - word from the wise, when you disassemble something, wear goggles :)
Ok, this is completely off-topic, but it's kind of creepy how when I went to dictionary.com (had to make sure I had the correct spelling for bosom) a popup for match.com popped up with a bunch of ladies with my city and province (canadian) in their listings.
:) [/joke]
I should use an anonymous proxy. I'd switch to Mozilla but IE is just so fast for some reason
Lady Liberty is sexy sexy sexy! They forgot to mention her heaving bosom though.
I predict that along with the flish there will be mushrooms living in a kingdom with a princess and a pasta eating plumber fighting against giant turtles (wearing punk threads).
Come to think of it, the giant squid and the chrome spider fits into this too... maybe they were playing super mario sunshine and just ripped it off as a big joke?
I must have missed the shark though...
I did the same thing with a story I submitted recently - it was a NYT story so I submitted the google partner link. They didn't publish it though :) I urge all submitters to do the same in the future.
(Incidently, the story was about copyrights in Europe that will expire soon)
You're right, although there are legal monopolies like utilities or government services. Whether they are good or not is debatable, of course - they usually lack a profit oriented model so they fall into a gray area.
Correction noted. It still says January 3 so it isn't automatically generated though.
I question the usefulness of this article - it seems to be a snapshot in time and it doesn't even say when these numbers were collected. It could change dramatically next week.
It would be much more interesting to see these statistics over a wide range of time. Applicability of the languages would be interesting too (ie/ what types of jobs are looking for what type of developers).
And it doesn't really detail if some languages tend to cluster (ie/ VB coders tend to have to know x as well).
Smithers, this show is awful! Far too much mincing, not enough prancing!
my point was memory is not exact.
For instance, if you get a poor look at someone, then I show you a picture of someone, your brain may merge the two memories into one and you may identify the picture as the original person.