Do you think 70 lbs of paper maps is a better item to help you through 300 kilometers of enemy territory? Or do you figure that, in between the shooting down and the crash landing, you'll flip through those 70 lbs of paper maps and take only the really important ones?
Right, totally, because fuel savings are the only savings they'll see. Not the cost of paper, or bags for carrying them, or recycling the paper every 28 days...
Really? 5, Insightful, for making the totally obvious point that electronic devices have limited battery lifespans, and that any plan to use electronic devices in a particular environment should take account of that fact? This is what passes for highly rated commentary on/.? Does anyone really think that the Air Force hasn't incorporated this little fact into their planning?
I look forward to Picardo85's other stunning observations, such as how the routine use of food prevents starvation.
Her gender is important because technology is one of the last areas where sexism is respectable and defended. In business, law, and medicine, the same tired stereotypes used to be operative, and are no longer because women like Robyn Bergeron stuck it out.
Her gender is news because it's a sign of progress.
No, it's not. When female participation in law, medicine, or business was near zero, the same tired stereotype existed of women being unable to work in those fields for whatever reason--too emotional, not logical enough, whatever.
Now women exist in large and growing numbers in all three areas, as legal and social barriers to them were dropped (or, more often, shoved out of the way by women we now admire). The stereotype is viewed as a quaint bit of wrongheadedness.
Way to set the bar pointlessly high. So women, in order to participate normally in the community, have to demonstrate super-fitness to participate by beating the shit out of those who threaten them? Why doesn't the community simply agree that this behaviour is unacceptable?
It's not that men need to protect women. It's that, in a room of 100, if five or so are working diligently to prevent another two from participating, those two can't really be expected to be successful at participating if the other 95 just keep their mouths shut and shuffle their feet when the two complain about how they're treated.
If you want a smooth, uncomplicated user experience and don't mind lock-in with a tyrannical corporation, get an iPhone.
Windows Phones are pretty clearly aimed at this segment, for those who don't want to pay the premium price to get locked in. They're aiming to beat Apple doing the same thing, "just good enough", for a lot less money.
It worked for PCs. It's not crazy to try it with phones.
As someone very tangentially involved in the launch of the latest Windows phone this fall, I got to handle one of the latest/greatest models. The OS did seem pretty damn good, though a little too "whizzy"--too much animation, too much blinking, too much trying to show me "Hey! Look at what a sexy OS I am!", but in principle it looked really solid and worked well. MS has put a lot of thought and effort into making a mobile interface on a small touchscreen work well.
What was terrible was the Samsung hardware. It was light and plasticky and felt stupidly cheap. It's hard to value Metro as a real competitor to iOS when the phone itself feels like a disposable model, compared to my new 4S that feels solid and real.
Really? This crap gets moderated insightful, when my post mentioning the last two countries to have the Cowboy Yanks show up "to save them" gets -1 Troll?
Fine, I'll rephrase: "Still getting Thank You cards from Vietnam?"
Well, exactly, unless you're planning on coding/selling into the Mac ecosphere, in which case it's basically mandatory. If you're not writing apps for OSX or iOS, you would never bother with Obj-C, which is an also-ran in the OOP wars that found a very durable niche--and that niche is now paying off handsomely for some coders who endured the lean years.
Not really, but the Mac ecosphere has remained large enough to retain a sufficient pool of talented Obj-C coders to keep the language viable. It's obscure only because it's the standard language in Apple-land, where it's dominant, but it's also extremely accessible because it's basically C with OOP macros built in. If you're a C programmer, you're 80% of the way to competent Obj-C coding.
There's something wrong with you that you can't enjoy the movies on their own terms. You acknowledge in your first post that the films simply cannot be a literal adaptation of the books, then backslide into complaining about changes when you've already granted that changes were necessary.
You know what'd be healthy? Being able to separate the books and the movie and yourself from each other. Seriously, you're just way too into the books if you can't enjoy the movies on their own terms (which is how every work should be approached).
It's not micromanaging that's needed, which is to say that it's not useful to be continually drilling down to the smallest level of detail with your employees. This annoys employees and wastes your time.
What is needed is to be constantly keeping yourself and your team members focussed on the desired result, and you get that by continually checking on them and saying "How are you doing? Anything in your way? How's your estimate look?" This is also annoying, but can be made less so by making it routine, like a morning scrum. This is an opportunity for team members to let you know about problems, thus keeping you informed and keeping small problems from becoming big ones; it also makes communicating about status the norm rather than the exception.
Seriously, treat them as you would treat day laborers if you picked them up in the morning to work on your yard: Give them clear instructions about what's expected, give them clear feedback (good and bad) about how they're carrying out your instructions, and stay out of their way if they're doing what you want them to.
A lot of bullshit has cropped up around management techniques, especially among geeks, and it's cruft that needs to be cleared away. Devs are like everyone else: They want to know what they're supposed to do, if they're doing it how you want it done, and to be left alone to do it. If you get that part of the work relationship right, the rest is window dressing.
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The 70 lb package is apparently the standard package of charts that military cargo pilots carried on every flight.
+1 for having a sense of humour and perspective, Picardo85 :)
Do you think 70 lbs of paper maps is a better item to help you through 300 kilometers of enemy territory? Or do you figure that, in between the shooting down and the crash landing, you'll flip through those 70 lbs of paper maps and take only the really important ones?
Right, totally, because fuel savings are the only savings they'll see. Not the cost of paper, or bags for carrying them, or recycling the paper every 28 days...
Really? 5, Insightful, for making the totally obvious point that electronic devices have limited battery lifespans, and that any plan to use electronic devices in a particular environment should take account of that fact? This is what passes for highly rated commentary on /.? Does anyone really think that the Air Force hasn't incorporated this little fact into their planning?
I look forward to Picardo85's other stunning observations, such as how the routine use of food prevents starvation.
Your perception of Apple users says much, much more about you than it does about Apple users.
Hear hear.
Her gender is important because technology is one of the last areas where sexism is respectable and defended. In business, law, and medicine, the same tired stereotypes used to be operative, and are no longer because women like Robyn Bergeron stuck it out.
Her gender is news because it's a sign of progress.
What you say is true
No, it's not. When female participation in law, medicine, or business was near zero, the same tired stereotype existed of women being unable to work in those fields for whatever reason--too emotional, not logical enough, whatever.
Now women exist in large and growing numbers in all three areas, as legal and social barriers to them were dropped (or, more often, shoved out of the way by women we now admire). The stereotype is viewed as a quaint bit of wrongheadedness.
Like the stereotypes that women aren't capable of practicing law or medicine?
Way to set the bar pointlessly high. So women, in order to participate normally in the community, have to demonstrate super-fitness to participate by beating the shit out of those who threaten them? Why doesn't the community simply agree that this behaviour is unacceptable?
It's not that men need to protect women. It's that, in a room of 100, if five or so are working diligently to prevent another two from participating, those two can't really be expected to be successful at participating if the other 95 just keep their mouths shut and shuffle their feet when the two complain about how they're treated.
That's why men should speak up against sexism.
Interesting choice of a hill to die on.
If you're doing a lot of copying and pasting code, you're doing it wrong.
You should see government films of early attempts to use rocket-jumping in the 60s.
Horrifying, especially because there's over 200 attempts.
So a 3 year old model of an iPhone is still more expensive than a mid-range new model Windows Phone?
There's your premium price.
Windows Phones are pretty clearly aimed at this segment, for those who don't want to pay the premium price to get locked in. They're aiming to beat Apple doing the same thing, "just good enough", for a lot less money.
It worked for PCs. It's not crazy to try it with phones.
As someone very tangentially involved in the launch of the latest Windows phone this fall, I got to handle one of the latest/greatest models. The OS did seem pretty damn good, though a little too "whizzy"--too much animation, too much blinking, too much trying to show me "Hey! Look at what a sexy OS I am!", but in principle it looked really solid and worked well. MS has put a lot of thought and effort into making a mobile interface on a small touchscreen work well.
What was terrible was the Samsung hardware. It was light and plasticky and felt stupidly cheap. It's hard to value Metro as a real competitor to iOS when the phone itself feels like a disposable model, compared to my new 4S that feels solid and real.
Really? This crap gets moderated insightful, when my post mentioning the last two countries to have the Cowboy Yanks show up "to save them" gets -1 Troll?
Fine, I'll rephrase: "Still getting Thank You cards from Vietnam?"
Still getting Thank You cards from Afghanistan and Iraq?
Well, exactly, unless you're planning on coding/selling into the Mac ecosphere, in which case it's basically mandatory. If you're not writing apps for OSX or iOS, you would never bother with Obj-C, which is an also-ran in the OOP wars that found a very durable niche--and that niche is now paying off handsomely for some coders who endured the lean years.
Not really, but the Mac ecosphere has remained large enough to retain a sufficient pool of talented Obj-C coders to keep the language viable. It's obscure only because it's the standard language in Apple-land, where it's dominant, but it's also extremely accessible because it's basically C with OOP macros built in. If you're a C programmer, you're 80% of the way to competent Obj-C coding.
Who am I? I'm a guy on the Internet, and my words should be given exactly as much weight as they have consequence.
There's something wrong with you that you can't enjoy the movies on their own terms. You acknowledge in your first post that the films simply cannot be a literal adaptation of the books, then backslide into complaining about changes when you've already granted that changes were necessary.
You know what'd be healthy? Being able to separate the books and the movie and yourself from each other. Seriously, you're just way too into the books if you can't enjoy the movies on their own terms (which is how every work should be approached).
You're actually not far off.
It's not micromanaging that's needed, which is to say that it's not useful to be continually drilling down to the smallest level of detail with your employees. This annoys employees and wastes your time.
What is needed is to be constantly keeping yourself and your team members focussed on the desired result, and you get that by continually checking on them and saying "How are you doing? Anything in your way? How's your estimate look?" This is also annoying, but can be made less so by making it routine, like a morning scrum. This is an opportunity for team members to let you know about problems, thus keeping you informed and keeping small problems from becoming big ones; it also makes communicating about status the norm rather than the exception.
Seriously, treat them as you would treat day laborers if you picked them up in the morning to work on your yard: Give them clear instructions about what's expected, give them clear feedback (good and bad) about how they're carrying out your instructions, and stay out of their way if they're doing what you want them to.
A lot of bullshit has cropped up around management techniques, especially among geeks, and it's cruft that needs to be cleared away. Devs are like everyone else: They want to know what they're supposed to do, if they're doing it how you want it done, and to be left alone to do it. If you get that part of the work relationship right, the rest is window dressing.