There are smart people who aren't jerks. Get them instead.
This. There are plenty of great people out there if you look hard enough (though often you have to poach them).
Of course you have to look at both sides. The brilliant jerk may not actually be a jerk, he just is willing to speak out about managements failings where others are unwilling, "Oh yes master, whatever you say master, you are always so right master.."
Personally in my business I want people that are willing to call me on my bullshit. If I'm doing something stupid don't just hang on for the ride, I honestly may not see the mistake I'm making because I have horse blinders on or similar. Maybe I have a fuller view of what is going on, and the concerns are unwarranted, but then I should be clearly explaining why those concerns are unwarranted not just some brush off, "Trust me." Which is the biggest bullshit line ever. If you've put sweat equity into our product I owe it to you to explain I'm not driving it into the ground when from your perspective that's what the situation appears to be.
I know places that charge 20% and up for used car loans.
Yeah we have some of the slime ball, "No credit? No problem!!!" type places. Even at a normal interest rate by the end of the loan they could have gotten a new vehicle.
I had a new car dealer try to pull the bullshit four-square worksheet on me. That's old school and lame. They claimed to not do the whole dance, then won't give me an out the door price and pull the lame old school, "Well how much do you want to pay per month?" I don't care. I'll figure out financing. You said I could have the one for $21K out the door (which you have conveniently forgotten and never wrote on paper), will you do the 4x4 model for $24K or not? I ended up buying from a dealer that I made an email offer on a new vehicle. Came in, signed some papers walked out in less than 20 minutes owning a new car. Worked out great for everyone.
I assume that's the US as that's way beyond what's legal in Canada (yes even 416%). A bunch of pay day loan places were taken to court over having the maximum interest rate but also charging various service fees. It was deemed that the service fees were effectively pushing them over the max interest rate (as it was just another cost on borrowing money no matter what you call it).
Even new car dealers are in on it. A local Mazda dealership listed 0%* on purchase (probably listed nationally even). If you read the footnote the effective rate is 7%. Why? They give you a discount for paying cash. So you are better off to find your own financing for less than 7% (I can walk into the bank and get better than that) so you can pay "cash" and get the $5000+ "discount". You're average person will say, "Oooh, no down and 0% financing.. this is a good deal!" Then end up paying way more in interest than necessary.
I guess it's true that "A fool and his money are soon parted". It's too bad the law doesn't do a better job of protecting the less educated.
I bet the people these place prey on do not know that.
That's exactly it. They don't know better and can't figure out how much a rip off the place is. Places like Aaron's charge maximum interest rates on products that they price well above the norm for the market. The box stores are selling a particular tv for $800? Aaron's claims it's worth $1200 (which should be the original msrp, if not they could get sued like a bunch of the payday loan places did in Canada for charging interest that is effectively above legal levels). They make it sound good by having ridiculously long terms so the monthly rate is low(ish).
Why do people go to payday loan places instead of running a line of credit? Some people might not be eligible, but I suspect the majority don't know any better. Most credit card companies offer better rates on cash advances than payday loan places. If you can't get a credit card why would a payday loan place loan you money? You are probably too high a risk for any type of loan regardless of the payback.
I think why these places can even exist is education. I had to help teach a friend about compound interest and how paying the minimum monthly payment on her credit card would not reduce her bill ("But I only have to pay $10!"). Huge credit card bills combined with 60K+ in student loans and a car lease but she had no clue about the costs of borrowing. So many people are "credit rich" and don't have a clue about how much it will cost them to use that credit. To them a 10K limit on a credit card is like having a bank account with 10K in it. You or I wouldn't think of it that way, but plenty of people do.
It depends on the project. I "donated" money to a friend that was publishing a book (book already written). The kickstarter gave him enough capital to self publish enough books so they could be produced at a reasonable price. In return for the "donation" I got a personalized signed copy and some luggage tags (since the book is about packing). I was guaranteed to get something out of it if the project went ahead (i.e. enough people funded it) and if I didn't have enough for a book I could have thrown a few bucks his way to help him publish his first book (which as a friend I'd personally get some value out of that).
I also helped fund a 2d animation tool. A little higher risk, but they already had a working prototype and there seemed to be no reason they wouldn't be successful. Stuff is progressing nicely and for my modest donation I get a copy of the final pay-for tool. Without the kickstarter promotion it would have had to be a side project for the developers. The funding allows them to focus on the tool. What better way to fund something than the end users? It validates that there is a market for the tool and is super low risk on the business side (as opposed to loans or venture capital).
I'd definitely help fund a band that wants to do a vinyl pressing of an already produced album (if I like the music). That's another example of something low risk (they have something they can definitely produce) but need an initial capital investment and confirmation of interest to go forward.
Totally different. 60hz hum is a ground loop. Tubes tend to add 2nd order harmonic distortion (and other even order harmonic distortion which is "pleasing" to the ear). They also soft clip which apparently sounds better (plus hard clipping adds high order odd harmonic distortion iirc).
If you look at class D amps (switching amps often mislabeled as "digital") when they clips they add a lot of high order distortion. The trick is to not clip them (i.e. have sufficient headroom), then they can be sterile clean if the power supply is designed right and isn't adding noise or distortion. Tube amps on the other hand don't sound horrid when you clip them and some like the sound. Just like some people swear by untreated paper cone speakers which often have higher levels of 2nd order harmonics. It sounds "warm". Not true to the original sound, but warm and full.
I started reading in '98 (started a degree in compsci) but didn't create an account for years. I tried to go back through my posting history to find the oldest post I made. Didn't find my first post but did notice that spell check in web browsers improved my posting quality dramatically. Some of those early posts make me cringe now.
Dreamhost is terrible. I've had good luck with BlueHost.com for a few people who wanted inexpensive.
How so? I've used dreamhost for a few years (as have some friends) and have had 0 problems. All super low bandwidth sites mind you. So what happened with dreamhost to make you say they are terrible? It's fine to have an opinion, but you should back it up somehow.
I was using webhostingbuzz before but did have a few issues (lost some db data when they did something to a server and they were't able to recover it.. some outages they didn't credit for) plus they raised their prices. br>
I had some issues with dns setting in the panel of hostmonster on someone's site I was helping with (changes were locked out when they shouldn't have been). But live help fixed the issues quickly.
I recently had a sub-contractor I would classify as a "rock star". First time I worked with him he wasn't even out of Uni. Amazingly understanding of software development. He truly "got it". He understood softdev better than any "senior" dev I have ever worked w/ and produced elegant, clean, simple solutions that were brilliant (any idiot can push out some spaghetti quick). What made him a "rock star" in my opinion was his extreme ability. Writing good code was as natural for him. Just a crazy talent like some are w/ instruments or other skills. He knew his craft, knew it well and claiming 20+ years of experience had nothing to do with it (I've had nothing but problems w/ people claiming double digit experience and being seasoned senior developers).
This is a non-article by someone who hasn't actually worked w/ a rock star.
Yeah that's the problem it'll primarily be indie devs buying which isn't a huge market.
BUT, it's a market that is very into gaming (whereas only a % of phone owners buy games). If you are already targetting Android as a platform (or basically any platform with Unity that translates well to a controller) then it's another revenue stream.
I'll grab one regardless as it's useful for me at the price. It has a good form factor and looks great. It could actually replace another item for a commercial application (where we are using similar devices hooked up to large TVs for live display purposes).
Shame it won't come with any good games or a consumer base larger than 3 neckbeards and the owner's mom.
Well they've already sold 20K+ consoles. Unity3d is a supported engine (which with my experience will be just making sure your game scales right to 1080P) as well other engines. There are some damn good Unity games out there and porting them will be trivial. I bet a ton of indy devs will be picking this up due to the price.
There's a huge indie gaming scene that brings back good play (fun!) over lifelike graphics. This system is the perfect platform for such games.
The only times I get calls from Shaw is to offer free services.
I haven't paid for cable for years now. I cancel cable then get offered 6 months free. 6 months run up, I cancel, in 1-2 weeks I get a call offering free cable. This most recent spat is 1 year of full cable (no hd.. but doesn't really matter as I rarely watch it).
I also got my broadband upped to 50mbps for free (i.e. same price I was paying for "highspeed" which was something like 15mbps down). They may have finally got me on the internet though (I'm assuming the point is to get me to want to keep a service). The upwards bandwidth is finally higher than I had in the late 90s before they started capping upload speed and it has me hooked. I'll probably have to pay the extra $$ to keep the extra upwards bandwidth. No more ghetto uploading large files overnight (which really brought me back to dialup). Wish is was symmetric, but I don't want to pay what they'd charge for that.
At 5 years I'd just replace the power supply and fans. They have a finite lifespan and in my experience those two items (fans and PS) are most likely to take out other components with them.
Thanks for the encouragement. A friend's company out does me by quite a bit (hard as a start-up to offer lots of benefits). They pay well above the norm, have amazing benefits (med/dent) and have the best RSP matching program I've heard of.
They discovered early on (partially due to their niche) that turnover is extremely expensive (both hiring/training costs and team morale). Even if someone leaves not because they dislike the job, but because their spouse needs to move for their job/education (e.g. med school) will disrupt the team. Can't prevent that, but best to control the losses you can prevent. Wage is an easy starting point in that effort. Making your workplace a desirable work place is the more difficult challenge. I'm not talking about silly things like foosball tables, rather things like accountable decisive management, useful/timely performance feedback, fostering growth, providing work/life balance etc.
One big thing I don't think many realise (at least those from a business background) is that software devs are really easy to motivate. Any good devs I've worked with are self motivated and self driven. You just have to avoid demotivating them, which is all to easy if you don't know what makes devs tick.
No, not really. I was very up front about my opportunity and that I was seriously considering it and I was open about how I thought the wage was too low (pretty much anywhere would beat the wage I had there). I never said anything along the lines of, "Pay me X or I leave." I did state what my expectations were. They said they'd come back with their best offer (which was not only financial, it included changes regarding the reasons I was considering leaving). I considered the offer for a weekend, and chose to move on.
There were other issues that needed to be fixed more than wage there. I wouldn't have even looked elsewhere if that weren't the case. I ended up reading "The 7 Hidden reason employees leave" and it hit a lot of nails on the head. I think it's a good read for any employer, or even any employee. There are stages up to an employee leaving (according to the author) and they described my situation quite well.
But, to play devil's advocate, let's say I'm making all that up (to make myself feel better about being a money grubbing asshole) and I really just gave them, "Give me X or I leave". Hopefully a little more eloquent than that (maybe WHY I think I deserve more). When they don't meet the norm for my position is that really a bad reason to leave? If you were working burger king at $8/hr and could move to KFC or McDonald's at $13/hr wouldn't you? Same shit, better pay. A fast food worker probably would jump ship without even discussing the possibility of matching other fast food restaurant wages.
I didn't, the company I worked for did. They did it company wide. I doubt it's something an individual would want to pay for (best to know someone in that industry that can give you a quick off hand, "Yeah.. about X."). It's really something all companies should do. You're losing out on talent if you underpay, losing out on opportunity to spend budget elsewhere if you are over paying. It's one thing to pay someone talented big bucks, but spending big bucks on someone that is mediocre because that's what their field used to command is nuts.
You can check payscale. I found what they present for free to non-businesses is low (at least for my field and region). But it gives some kind of an indicator. I'm curious if it measures low across fields or high in some and low in others.
Victoria. Which now features Vancouver wages at many establishments. Still no where near Toronto wages.
"The climate here is worth about $15,000 a year."
That's what they tell you. Victoria is nice, but after spending a fair amount of time in SoCal I'm quite disapointed in the current "summer". Nice for Canada I guess and a little drier than Vancouver or Seattle. Mild for sure. What I really do love is it's green nearly year round and I can go mtn biking at lunch (pretty much year round).
.. It would not surprise me if a vast majority of pro-TSA posts on the Internet are written by DHS or manufacturer employees.
While I'm sure the DHS would want to back their position the manufacturers have the most to lose. I'd love to see some numbers on how big their contracts are. What the manufacturers are being paid should be available under FOIA right? (I'm not a US resident or citizen so I honestly don't know)
and workers themselves, who all too often turn down good jobs at good wages
Unfortunately, a company's definition of "good wages" is all too often directly at odds with what the workers themselves would consider to be good.
Quite true. Where I live (pacific northwest) I've found there is no problem finding jobs in software but employers have a difficult time finding good people. In this case it's partially due to the low unemployment rate but also companies that are used to paying sub par wages because "this is a desirable place to live".
The last employer I worked for I gave them a chance to compete on wage before I left. Initially they thought they were paying me quite fairly, but were willing to do a 3rd party wage review (to hopefully confirm their beliefs). I claimed I was under paid by at least 12% for the local market (I know a lot of other software devs, I was quite certain about that number) and considering a position that would be close to a 30% raise. Their wage review did in fact show I was under paid however they offered a paltry 6% raise and one time 5% bonus (when I was clear I wouldn't accept less than a 12% raise).
The smart employers have started offering wages close to 20% above the norm and relocation expenses. Why? While this is a desirable place to live the cost of living is exorbitant compared to most of Canada. To attracting outside talent (rather than poaching from the local pool) you really need to sweeten the pot. Also, in order to poach from the local pool you need to offer better wages. I forget the study (I think it was in "The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave"), but I read a claim that employees won't leave a good that's "good enough" for less than 20%. If you don't 100% enjoy your job you'll put up with it rather than the risks of leaving for a small raise, the threshold being a 20% increase in pay.
Now I have my own small business. One of my contractors (who just graduated) I pay pretty much what I was making when I left the previous company (which is a sizeable jump from the local norm for new grads). Why? Because tying experience to wage is ridiculous. He can code circles around devs I've worked with that claim 20+ years experience. He's easily worth it. Plus it makes it harder for others to poach him. He was taking on some other side work part-time and they complained that his rate was quite high for a new grad (of course they needed him, so they sucked it up and paid).
Just because flies are annoying doesn't make it right to pull their wings off to see them buzz round in a circle of death.
Yes, but the worst thing a fly does is eat shit. We could only wish the scammers did the same.
What's worse? Buzzing around annoying people or taking money from a pensioner that requires that money to feed themselves? A fly doesn't harm anyone, someone scamming the more gullible (who are generally old or uneducated/poor) does cause real harm.
I'm trying to figure out...when did music become disposable?
There has always been garbage music, since long before recordings. It's just technology has allowed us to consume the fast foods of music without purchasing it. Prior to streaming you had to listen to the radio or purchase. Now you have the option of streaming it for the duration of your interest.
I tend to do this with dubstep. I stream a playlist of dubstep and similar music that I don't really have any intention of ever owning (as I'll tire of a song in a month). I find it good to work to (believe it or not).
For music I plan on listening to long term? I buy vinyl that comes with "free" high quality downloads. That way I can listen to it anywhere and can enjoy the listening to an entire album (or at least side) at a time. That's what I like about vinyl, none of the elitist it's warmer BS, I like the aspect that you can not easily skip songs. It makes you think more about a music purchase, "Will I enjoy this entire album?" It also forces me to buy music that the musicians put effort into creating a cohesive work (not 1 or 2 singles with a bunch of filler). In the odd chance I really like a single and think I will listen to it long term I'll get it off iTunes or similar.
Slashdot Mirror
There are smart people who aren't jerks. Get them instead.
This. There are plenty of great people out there if you look hard enough (though often you have to poach them).
Of course you have to look at both sides. The brilliant jerk may not actually be a jerk, he just is willing to speak out about managements failings where others are unwilling, "Oh yes master, whatever you say master, you are always so right master.."
Personally in my business I want people that are willing to call me on my bullshit. If I'm doing something stupid don't just hang on for the ride, I honestly may not see the mistake I'm making because I have horse blinders on or similar. Maybe I have a fuller view of what is going on, and the concerns are unwarranted, but then I should be clearly explaining why those concerns are unwarranted not just some brush off, "Trust me." Which is the biggest bullshit line ever. If you've put sweat equity into our product I owe it to you to explain I'm not driving it into the ground when from your perspective that's what the situation appears to be.
I know places that charge 20% and up for used car loans.
Yeah we have some of the slime ball, "No credit? No problem!!!" type places. Even at a normal interest rate by the end of the loan they could have gotten a new vehicle.
I had a new car dealer try to pull the bullshit four-square worksheet on me. That's old school and lame. They claimed to not do the whole dance, then won't give me an out the door price and pull the lame old school, "Well how much do you want to pay per month?" I don't care. I'll figure out financing. You said I could have the one for $21K out the door (which you have conveniently forgotten and never wrote on paper), will you do the 4x4 model for $24K or not? I ended up buying from a dealer that I made an email offer on a new vehicle. Came in, signed some papers walked out in less than 20 minutes owning a new car. Worked out great for everyone.
I assume that's the US as that's way beyond what's legal in Canada (yes even 416%). A bunch of pay day loan places were taken to court over having the maximum interest rate but also charging various service fees. It was deemed that the service fees were effectively pushing them over the max interest rate (as it was just another cost on borrowing money no matter what you call it).
Even new car dealers are in on it. A local Mazda dealership listed 0%* on purchase (probably listed nationally even). If you read the footnote the effective rate is 7%. Why? They give you a discount for paying cash. So you are better off to find your own financing for less than 7% (I can walk into the bank and get better than that) so you can pay "cash" and get the $5000+ "discount". You're average person will say, "Oooh, no down and 0% financing.. this is a good deal!" Then end up paying way more in interest than necessary.
I guess it's true that "A fool and his money are soon parted". It's too bad the law doesn't do a better job of protecting the less educated.
Never once has the agent patting me down seemed to enjoy the process...
We'll if you're the average slashdotter I can't see how they would enjoy it.
"Sorry sir, I'm going to have to move your beard aside so I can..."
I bet the people these place prey on do not know that.
That's exactly it. They don't know better and can't figure out how much a rip off the place is. Places like Aaron's charge maximum interest rates on products that they price well above the norm for the market. The box stores are selling a particular tv for $800? Aaron's claims it's worth $1200 (which should be the original msrp, if not they could get sued like a bunch of the payday loan places did in Canada for charging interest that is effectively above legal levels). They make it sound good by having ridiculously long terms so the monthly rate is low(ish).
Why do people go to payday loan places instead of running a line of credit? Some people might not be eligible, but I suspect the majority don't know any better. Most credit card companies offer better rates on cash advances than payday loan places. If you can't get a credit card why would a payday loan place loan you money? You are probably too high a risk for any type of loan regardless of the payback.
I think why these places can even exist is education. I had to help teach a friend about compound interest and how paying the minimum monthly payment on her credit card would not reduce her bill ("But I only have to pay $10!"). Huge credit card bills combined with 60K+ in student loans and a car lease but she had no clue about the costs of borrowing. So many people are "credit rich" and don't have a clue about how much it will cost them to use that credit. To them a 10K limit on a credit card is like having a bank account with 10K in it. You or I wouldn't think of it that way, but plenty of people do.
It depends on the project. I "donated" money to a friend that was publishing a book (book already written). The kickstarter gave him enough capital to self publish enough books so they could be produced at a reasonable price. In return for the "donation" I got a personalized signed copy and some luggage tags (since the book is about packing). I was guaranteed to get something out of it if the project went ahead (i.e. enough people funded it) and if I didn't have enough for a book I could have thrown a few bucks his way to help him publish his first book (which as a friend I'd personally get some value out of that).
I also helped fund a 2d animation tool. A little higher risk, but they already had a working prototype and there seemed to be no reason they wouldn't be successful. Stuff is progressing nicely and for my modest donation I get a copy of the final pay-for tool. Without the kickstarter promotion it would have had to be a side project for the developers. The funding allows them to focus on the tool. What better way to fund something than the end users? It validates that there is a market for the tool and is super low risk on the business side (as opposed to loans or venture capital).
I'd definitely help fund a band that wants to do a vinyl pressing of an already produced album (if I like the music). That's another example of something low risk (they have something they can definitely produce) but need an initial capital investment and confirmation of interest to go forward.
That's what he meant by adding a 60 Hz hum.
Totally different. 60hz hum is a ground loop. Tubes tend to add 2nd order harmonic distortion (and other even order harmonic distortion which is "pleasing" to the ear). They also soft clip which apparently sounds better (plus hard clipping adds high order odd harmonic distortion iirc).
If you look at class D amps (switching amps often mislabeled as "digital") when they clips they add a lot of high order distortion. The trick is to not clip them (i.e. have sufficient headroom), then they can be sterile clean if the power supply is designed right and isn't adding noise or distortion. Tube amps on the other hand don't sound horrid when you clip them and some like the sound. Just like some people swear by untreated paper cone speakers which often have higher levels of 2nd order harmonics. It sounds "warm". Not true to the original sound, but warm and full.
I started reading in '98 (started a degree in compsci) but didn't create an account for years. I tried to go back through my posting history to find the oldest post I made. Didn't find my first post but did notice that spell check in web browsers improved my posting quality dramatically. Some of those early posts make me cringe now.
Dreamhost is terrible. I've had good luck with BlueHost.com for a few people who wanted inexpensive.
How so? I've used dreamhost for a few years (as have some friends) and have had 0 problems. All super low bandwidth sites mind you. So what happened with dreamhost to make you say they are terrible? It's fine to have an opinion, but you should back it up somehow.
I was using webhostingbuzz before but did have a few issues (lost some db data when they did something to a server and they were't able to recover it.. some outages they didn't credit for) plus they raised their prices.
br> I had some issues with dns setting in the panel of hostmonster on someone's site I was helping with (changes were locked out when they shouldn't have been). But live help fixed the issues quickly.
This.
I recently had a sub-contractor I would classify as a "rock star". First time I worked with him he wasn't even out of Uni. Amazingly understanding of software development. He truly "got it". He understood softdev better than any "senior" dev I have ever worked w/ and produced elegant, clean, simple solutions that were brilliant (any idiot can push out some spaghetti quick). What made him a "rock star" in my opinion was his extreme ability. Writing good code was as natural for him. Just a crazy talent like some are w/ instruments or other skills. He knew his craft, knew it well and claiming 20+ years of experience had nothing to do with it (I've had nothing but problems w/ people claiming double digit experience and being seasoned senior developers).
This is a non-article by someone who hasn't actually worked w/ a rock star.
Oh man. Lost geek cred on my part as I had to look that up (or maybe plus geek cred since I've never seen the Special Edition?).
Without looking it up I would have said original and I still do. Beak and tentacles?! Seriously, that's overdoing it.
Yes.
She is a hottie.
Who is very financially successful.
And an engineer who writes code.
Tell me she plays video games and likes to cook too.
Yep she loves video games and is definitely a foodie who can cook.
Only downside is that she has a sarlacc where here vulva should be.
Yeah that's the problem it'll primarily be indie devs buying which isn't a huge market.
BUT, it's a market that is very into gaming (whereas only a % of phone owners buy games). If you are already targetting Android as a platform (or basically any platform with Unity that translates well to a controller) then it's another revenue stream.
I'll grab one regardless as it's useful for me at the price. It has a good form factor and looks great. It could actually replace another item for a commercial application (where we are using similar devices hooked up to large TVs for live display purposes).
Shame it won't come with any good games or a consumer base larger than 3 neckbeards and the owner's mom.
Well they've already sold 20K+ consoles. Unity3d is a supported engine (which with my experience will be just making sure your game scales right to 1080P) as well other engines. There are some damn good Unity games out there and porting them will be trivial. I bet a ton of indy devs will be picking this up due to the price.
There's a huge indie gaming scene that brings back good play (fun!) over lifelike graphics. This system is the perfect platform for such games.
Heard of Offspring Fling!? It's a cool game worth checking out.
..and if they were manually suffocating the rabbits they would have choked them not placed them on blocks or wedges.
The only times I get calls from Shaw is to offer free services.
I haven't paid for cable for years now. I cancel cable then get offered 6 months free. 6 months run up, I cancel, in 1-2 weeks I get a call offering free cable. This most recent spat is 1 year of full cable (no hd.. but doesn't really matter as I rarely watch it).
I also got my broadband upped to 50mbps for free (i.e. same price I was paying for "highspeed" which was something like 15mbps down). They may have finally got me on the internet though (I'm assuming the point is to get me to want to keep a service). The upwards bandwidth is finally higher than I had in the late 90s before they started capping upload speed and it has me hooked. I'll probably have to pay the extra $$ to keep the extra upwards bandwidth. No more ghetto uploading large files overnight (which really brought me back to dialup). Wish is was symmetric, but I don't want to pay what they'd charge for that.
At 5 years I'd just replace the power supply and fans. They have a finite lifespan and in my experience those two items (fans and PS) are most likely to take out other components with them.
Thanks for the encouragement. A friend's company out does me by quite a bit (hard as a start-up to offer lots of benefits). They pay well above the norm, have amazing benefits (med/dent) and have the best RSP matching program I've heard of.
They discovered early on (partially due to their niche) that turnover is extremely expensive (both hiring/training costs and team morale). Even if someone leaves not because they dislike the job, but because their spouse needs to move for their job/education (e.g. med school) will disrupt the team. Can't prevent that, but best to control the losses you can prevent. Wage is an easy starting point in that effort. Making your workplace a desirable work place is the more difficult challenge. I'm not talking about silly things like foosball tables, rather things like accountable decisive management, useful/timely performance feedback, fostering growth, providing work/life balance etc.
One big thing I don't think many realise (at least those from a business background) is that software devs are really easy to motivate. Any good devs I've worked with are self motivated and self driven. You just have to avoid demotivating them, which is all to easy if you don't know what makes devs tick.
No, not really. I was very up front about my opportunity and that I was seriously considering it and I was open about how I thought the wage was too low (pretty much anywhere would beat the wage I had there). I never said anything along the lines of, "Pay me X or I leave." I did state what my expectations were. They said they'd come back with their best offer (which was not only financial, it included changes regarding the reasons I was considering leaving). I considered the offer for a weekend, and chose to move on.
There were other issues that needed to be fixed more than wage there. I wouldn't have even looked elsewhere if that weren't the case. I ended up reading "The 7 Hidden reason employees leave" and it hit a lot of nails on the head. I think it's a good read for any employer, or even any employee. There are stages up to an employee leaving (according to the author) and they described my situation quite well.
But, to play devil's advocate, let's say I'm making all that up (to make myself feel better about being a money grubbing asshole) and I really just gave them, "Give me X or I leave". Hopefully a little more eloquent than that (maybe WHY I think I deserve more). When they don't meet the norm for my position is that really a bad reason to leave? If you were working burger king at $8/hr and could move to KFC or McDonald's at $13/hr wouldn't you? Same shit, better pay. A fast food worker probably would jump ship without even discussing the possibility of matching other fast food restaurant wages.
I didn't, the company I worked for did. They did it company wide. I doubt it's something an individual would want to pay for (best to know someone in that industry that can give you a quick off hand, "Yeah.. about X."). It's really something all companies should do. You're losing out on talent if you underpay, losing out on opportunity to spend budget elsewhere if you are over paying. It's one thing to pay someone talented big bucks, but spending big bucks on someone that is mediocre because that's what their field used to command is nuts.
You can check payscale. I found what they present for free to non-businesses is low (at least for my field and region). But it gives some kind of an indicator. I'm curious if it measures low across fields or high in some and low in others.
"The climate here is worth about $15,000 a year."
That's what they tell you. Victoria is nice, but after spending a fair amount of time in SoCal I'm quite disapointed in the current "summer". Nice for Canada I guess and a little drier than Vancouver or Seattle. Mild for sure. What I really do love is it's green nearly year round and I can go mtn biking at lunch (pretty much year round).
.. It would not surprise me if a vast majority of pro-TSA posts on the Internet are written by DHS or manufacturer employees.
While I'm sure the DHS would want to back their position the manufacturers have the most to lose. I'd love to see some numbers on how big their contracts are. What the manufacturers are being paid should be available under FOIA right? (I'm not a US resident or citizen so I honestly don't know)
and workers themselves, who all too often turn down good jobs at good wages
Unfortunately, a company's definition of "good wages" is all too often directly at odds with what the workers themselves would consider to be good.
Quite true. Where I live (pacific northwest) I've found there is no problem finding jobs in software but employers have a difficult time finding good people. In this case it's partially due to the low unemployment rate but also companies that are used to paying sub par wages because "this is a desirable place to live".
The last employer I worked for I gave them a chance to compete on wage before I left. Initially they thought they were paying me quite fairly, but were willing to do a 3rd party wage review (to hopefully confirm their beliefs). I claimed I was under paid by at least 12% for the local market (I know a lot of other software devs, I was quite certain about that number) and considering a position that would be close to a 30% raise. Their wage review did in fact show I was under paid however they offered a paltry 6% raise and one time 5% bonus (when I was clear I wouldn't accept less than a 12% raise).
The smart employers have started offering wages close to 20% above the norm and relocation expenses. Why? While this is a desirable place to live the cost of living is exorbitant compared to most of Canada. To attracting outside talent (rather than poaching from the local pool) you really need to sweeten the pot. Also, in order to poach from the local pool you need to offer better wages. I forget the study (I think it was in "The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave"), but I read a claim that employees won't leave a good that's "good enough" for less than 20%. If you don't 100% enjoy your job you'll put up with it rather than the risks of leaving for a small raise, the threshold being a 20% increase in pay.
Now I have my own small business. One of my contractors (who just graduated) I pay pretty much what I was making when I left the previous company (which is a sizeable jump from the local norm for new grads). Why? Because tying experience to wage is ridiculous. He can code circles around devs I've worked with that claim 20+ years experience. He's easily worth it. Plus it makes it harder for others to poach him. He was taking on some other side work part-time and they complained that his rate was quite high for a new grad (of course they needed him, so they sucked it up and paid).
Just because flies are annoying doesn't make it right to pull their wings off to see them buzz round in a circle of death.
Yes, but the worst thing a fly does is eat shit. We could only wish the scammers did the same.
What's worse? Buzzing around annoying people or taking money from a pensioner that requires that money to feed themselves? A fly doesn't harm anyone, someone scamming the more gullible (who are generally old or uneducated/poor) does cause real harm.
I'm trying to figure out...when did music become disposable?
There has always been garbage music, since long before recordings. It's just technology has allowed us to consume the fast foods of music without purchasing it. Prior to streaming you had to listen to the radio or purchase. Now you have the option of streaming it for the duration of your interest.
I tend to do this with dubstep. I stream a playlist of dubstep and similar music that I don't really have any intention of ever owning (as I'll tire of a song in a month). I find it good to work to (believe it or not).
For music I plan on listening to long term? I buy vinyl that comes with "free" high quality downloads. That way I can listen to it anywhere and can enjoy the listening to an entire album (or at least side) at a time. That's what I like about vinyl, none of the elitist it's warmer BS, I like the aspect that you can not easily skip songs. It makes you think more about a music purchase, "Will I enjoy this entire album?" It also forces me to buy music that the musicians put effort into creating a cohesive work (not 1 or 2 singles with a bunch of filler). In the odd chance I really like a single and think I will listen to it long term I'll get it off iTunes or similar.