Since you're doing this for the money, and hitting the "glass ceiling", honing your business skills will give you the best chance of moving into a position where you can make significantly more money. You say that you want to go into project management, and having business skills in achieving the trifecta of a successful project (scope, schedule, and budget) will go far.
Since you've spent a significant part of your career in deep technical fields, it will also give you a different perspective on what your employer thinks is important. It will also give you a hand-up on your peer competition, because being able to tell when the tech folks are bullshitting the "suits" is extremely valuable.
Must be some new science. My recollection of thermo (a couple decades ago, to be sure) was pretty clear on non-relativistic energy change. Enthalpy decreases, entropy increases, but mass stays constant.
It's obviously all those nukular reactors turning mass into energy. The only responsible action would be to go to a mass-neutral system like fossil fuels for energy.
Not one of the sources you posted in way backs up the bullshit that you're spouting. It was well known that Iraq had radioactive materials, including enriched uranium. That materiel is now presumably secured. There is no evidence that foot soldiers found and released radioactive materials, or that Iraqis (who are not a stupid or uneducated people) dumped out drums of yellowcake and used them to store food. Stop believing everything you hear at the EarthFirst! meetings and start to think for yourself.
Re:your first sentence is technically flawed
on
Ubuntu on a Dime
·
· Score: 1
I suggest it for anyone who deals with clients and wants their number to remain the same after they leave a job. Get a GC number and put it on your business cards. Link up your cell and your desk phone. Leave the job, keep the cards, your clients may not even know the difference.
It has always been a good service.
My concern about using Grandcentral for business (or any other real-person contact, for that matter) is that it really doesn't protect my privacy. The way I see it working is:
1) I give out my Grandcentral number to someone.
2) They call me. I don't pick up, and they leave a message.
3) I call them back on my cell or home phone, they pick up and comment about the caller ID not being what I gave them.
4) They record my cell number, and use it from then on to contact me, thus negating the whole point of Grandcentral.
Hummingbird rocks, in my experience. It involves a fundamental shift in the way people create and access documents, since it doesn't work with network shares. It also means that you have to enter the meta-data associated with the files every time.
However, it does have very strong permissions, access controls, and versioning support, and would likely solve your problem, since you can prevent those who don't need access to a document or project from access, or even viewing that the document exists.
On the down side, it's fairly expensive. (In our organization, implementation was at least 5-figures, and probably 6) and it requires a lot of support and baby-sitting (1/2 to 1 FTE, with an organization of about 500).
I'm on the same list as this guy. He is basically a whining, privileged douche, just like all commercial pilots. He is not on the "no-fly" list (otherwise he would not be allowed to fly, period.)
The list that he is on is the "Watch" list, which means that he has a name that is the same or similar to someone the government is interested in. What this means is that he has to verify his ID before he gets a boarding pass and pass security. It means that he has to stand in line with the rest of us plebes, rather than walking to front of the line because he's a pilot and therefore exempt from all the hassles that us citizens have to endure. This guy is whining about being treated like everyone else, and having to arrive 15 minutes earlier and show his ID. His job is not on the line, that's just a claim he's making to sue the government.
Having a receipt for the title you're trying to activate, purchased within the last couple weeks would probably go a long way to getting them to unlock your disk.
All jokes aside, I spent a few months last year working for a civilian contractor just south of Baghdad. I was on the operations side of the house, but I gained a tremendous respects for the IT and logistics folks. In addition to a very good wage, you'll get to work with people can you can relate to from your Navy days, you'll be doing important work (i.e. people really need you for their food, fuel, work, and family contact.) Where I was, literally all telephones and interweb data came through the satellite dish, and let me tell you, it was tough when it went down down for a week. I also found the work to be terribly satisfying compared to my time in a cube farm; everyone around you is working toward a common goal, with less of the corporate buzzspeak, busywork, and tedium of the office.
A few months ago, I flew from Baghdad, Iraq to Knoxville, TN via Royal Jordanian, Lufthansa, and US Air. I paid cash all the way. I had no problems whatsoever, except that I was pinged for inspection every step of the way. I figured that's not unexpected when flying internationally, one-way, and paying in cash.
Understood. No-one wants to be a dick, especially someone who just came up from the trenches. Double-especially if you happen to now be supervising the people you've been working with. Every tech person in the world has all kinds of good ideas about how to run projects, but very few get the opportunity to demonstrate it. Kudos to you for wanting to maintain yourself as a "B" while not becoming a "PHB".
However, being a manager is hard. Whereas a tech person is required to go to work, do a competent job, and meet schedules, a manager is required to:
Go to work
Make sure that the people that are working for him are doing a competent job and meeting their schedule.
Make sure the client is happy with the product and schedule.
Make sure the client has paid their bills.
Deal with your workers problems, both personal and professional. Make sure those problems don't impact the project.
Handle changes in scope and schedule from the client such that your workers won't mutiny, and the client won't get pissed off and go the competition.
Work with sales so that the workers have something else to do once the current project ends.
The point of my post, although perhaps poorly worded, was to demonstrate that you need to be able to put a positive spin on the challenges that are going to face you. If you remain a manager, at some point, you will have to make a decision:
Do you want to be unpopular because you asked your people to do something difficult, or do you want to be unpopular because you told a client "No", and now you have to lay people off because the client took the work to a competitor?
Don't want a server, don't want to pay for it, do want to track dates and multiple schedules.
Keeping multiple calendars that can be seen by others and can show busy/free times on a per-user/resource basis is inherintly a client/server relationship. If you don't want to use Exchange or one of the other closed-source solutions, why not have someone else maintain the server for you. Here's what I use:
Saying no is a lousy thing for any project manager to say, and is one of the traits that would get them fired from any successful company. Project managers should be acutely aware that their competition is never saying "No" to your customers. A project manager's proper response is: "Sure no problem, but..." For example:
Employee wants time off: "Sure, but either get your work done or find someone to cover for you."
Client wants you to do something that your company doesn't do: "Sure but I'll have to get back with you." Find a subcontractor to do it, and add 10% to their price.
Client wants work done Christmas day: "Sure, no problem, but I'll have to charge double-time and a half." Then find a non-christian who will do it for straight-time.
Workers threaten to walk off when you tell them that they need to work overtime: "Sure, no problem." Solicit bids from India for their job, and "accidently" leave them in the break room.
As a Project Manager, you are responsible for interfacing between your clients and the team that reports to you. You are the face of the company. Dress nicer. Tighten up the e-mail etiquette. Use capital letters, punctuation, and spell check. Every time. Always assume that someone will forward your emails to your team, your client, and your boss.
You are the leader of your project. You need to set an example for the attitude and morale of the teams that report to you. Always show up on time, and leave late. Never, never bitch about the customers or senior management. Never appear frazzled or irritated, as that attitude invariable trickles down to your team.
You are responsible for everything that happens on the project. Not just the technical execution of the work, but also the accounting, invoicing, reporting, vendors, and subcontractors. Follow up on everything, because if it doesn't happen, it's always your fault.
Always take opportunities to sell yourself and your company. Take every opportunity to call, or preferably visit your clients. I'm serious about this. Find out what your marketing budget is, and spend every nickel on visiting your clients. Eventually, they'll give you more work just to get rid of you. When dealing with a client, always keep your game face on. Know that you represent the best damn (whatever) company out there, and don't be afraid to take risks. Ask your clients often for more work. This can be a little uncomfortable, but rest assured that your competition is chasing the same work you are.
Expect excellence from your teams. If you don't know enough about the subjects to judge whether the people are producing what they should be, find a trusted advisor who does know, and get their opinion. After clearing it with senior management, quietly solicit some bids from other companies (even overseas companies) on a task-by-task basis to make sure that you are getting the most out of your teams. However, don't be an ogre. Find out the difference between regular, everyday complaining that technical people do all the time and the honest-to-gosh complaining that signals something's really wrong.
Limit senior management involvement. Always ask for help when you need it, but always propose a solution or a set of alternatives. You should try and schedule project reviews monthly or quarterly between senior management, QA, yourself and the task leads to make sure the project is on schedule and meeting performance objectives. Don't cc: half the damn company on every e-mail, and never when you chew someone's butt.
Try and grow scope whenever possible. This ties into face time with the customer, but also knowing what other services your company can provide, and also knowing the specific scope of your project, so that you know when the client requests are going out of bounds. When you do win more work, make sure everyone knows it. This will be one of the things that your boss will be evaluating your performance on.
Clients will always try and get more than what they are paying for, but limit the amount of freebies you give them, and ham it up a little when you give them one. ("You know, I could get fired for this, but since you're one of my best customers, I can make this happen.") Also, don't ever be afraid follow up on an invoice that is getting late. This might be a little embarrassing to the client, so this is probably best done over an e-mail.
As much as possible, define what your requirements are to the teams that report to you. Not just "I need XYZ done," but "I need XYZ done by 21 December. You have 64 hours to do it in, and use charge code ABC123.QQ." If the teams have problems delivering, find out whether it's a problem with your schedule, the team's resources, or if you have unreasonable production estimates.
Celebrate your teams' performance. Even if you're managing the project from hell, find something they're doing right, and send out a quick e-mail to your boss an
Slashdot Mirror
Since you're doing this for the money, and hitting the "glass ceiling", honing your business skills will give you the best chance of moving into a position where you can make significantly more money. You say that you want to go into project management, and having business skills in achieving the trifecta of a successful project (scope, schedule, and budget) will go far. Since you've spent a significant part of your career in deep technical fields, it will also give you a different perspective on what your employer thinks is important. It will also give you a hand-up on your peer competition, because being able to tell when the tech folks are bullshitting the "suits" is extremely valuable.
Must be some new science. My recollection of thermo (a couple decades ago, to be sure) was pretty clear on non-relativistic energy change. Enthalpy decreases, entropy increases, but mass stays constant.
It's obviously all those nukular reactors turning mass into energy. The only responsible action would be to go to a mass-neutral system like fossil fuels for energy.
Not one of the sources you posted in way backs up the bullshit that you're spouting. It was well known that Iraq had radioactive materials, including enriched uranium. That materiel is now presumably secured. There is no evidence that foot soldiers found and released radioactive materials, or that Iraqis (who are not a stupid or uneducated people) dumped out drums of yellowcake and used them to store food. Stop believing everything you hear at the EarthFirst! meetings and start to think for yourself.
Anybody want a peanut?
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_book It's been around for 100 years.
I suggest it for anyone who deals with clients and wants their number to remain the same after they leave a job. Get a GC number and put it on your business cards. Link up your cell and your desk phone. Leave the job, keep the cards, your clients may not even know the difference.
It has always been a good service.
My concern about using Grandcentral for business (or any other real-person contact, for that matter) is that it really doesn't protect my privacy. The way I see it working is:
1) I give out my Grandcentral number to someone.
2) They call me. I don't pick up, and they leave a message.
3) I call them back on my cell or home phone, they pick up and comment about the caller ID not being what I gave them.
4) They record my cell number, and use it from then on to contact me, thus negating the whole point of Grandcentral.
Is there a way to overcome this?
Hummingbird rocks, in my experience. It involves a fundamental shift in the way people create and access documents, since it doesn't work with network shares. It also means that you have to enter the meta-data associated with the files every time. However, it does have very strong permissions, access controls, and versioning support, and would likely solve your problem, since you can prevent those who don't need access to a document or project from access, or even viewing that the document exists. On the down side, it's fairly expensive. (In our organization, implementation was at least 5-figures, and probably 6) and it requires a lot of support and baby-sitting (1/2 to 1 FTE, with an organization of about 500).
I'm on the same list as this guy. He is basically a whining, privileged douche, just like all commercial pilots. He is not on the "no-fly" list (otherwise he would not be allowed to fly, period.) The list that he is on is the "Watch" list, which means that he has a name that is the same or similar to someone the government is interested in. What this means is that he has to verify his ID before he gets a boarding pass and pass security. It means that he has to stand in line with the rest of us plebes, rather than walking to front of the line because he's a pilot and therefore exempt from all the hassles that us citizens have to endure. This guy is whining about being treated like everyone else, and having to arrive 15 minutes earlier and show his ID. His job is not on the line, that's just a claim he's making to sue the government.
A true engineer would say that it dissipates about 3.4 BTU/hr.
Having a receipt for the title you're trying to activate, purchased within the last couple weeks would probably go a long way to getting them to unlock your disk.
All jokes aside, I spent a few months last year working for a civilian contractor just south of Baghdad. I was on the operations side of the house, but I gained a tremendous respects for the IT and logistics folks. In addition to a very good wage, you'll get to work with people can you can relate to from your Navy days, you'll be doing important work (i.e. people really need you for their food, fuel, work, and family contact.) Where I was, literally all telephones and interweb data came through the satellite dish, and let me tell you, it was tough when it went down down for a week. I also found the work to be terribly satisfying compared to my time in a cube farm; everyone around you is working toward a common goal, with less of the corporate buzzspeak, busywork, and tedium of the office.
Of course it is.
A few months ago, I flew from Baghdad, Iraq to Knoxville, TN via Royal Jordanian, Lufthansa, and US Air. I paid cash all the way. I had no problems whatsoever, except that I was pinged for inspection every step of the way. I figured that's not unexpected when flying internationally, one-way, and paying in cash.
So what?
CD Stores won't give you another copy of a CD that you've purchased, even if you've lost it.
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Where's the torrent?
http://www.nakednews.com/
and the government's debt was wiped out in 2 months.
http://directdepot2u.com/item.asp?PID=666
You can also get system pulls for less than $65:
http://directdepot2u.com/item.asp?PID=671
Whether it's legal or not is open to intrepretation; if you're the kind of person who thinks ELUA'a are unenforceable, I'd say go for it.
But I thought copyright infringement wasn't piracy and that ELUAs weren't enforceable!
/. coming to?
What is
I'm no Mirosoft fanboy, but $150? Cmon.
It's currently going for less than $65, with COA and a CD.
http://www.salesintl.com/product.asp?3=13/
If you check pricewatch, you can get a COA for $44.
However, being a manager is hard. Whereas a tech person is required to go to work, do a competent job, and meet schedules, a manager is required to:
Go to work
Make sure that the people that are working for him are doing a competent job and meeting their schedule.
Make sure the client is happy with the product and schedule.
Make sure the client has paid their bills.
Deal with your workers problems, both personal and professional. Make sure those problems don't impact the project.
Handle changes in scope and schedule from the client such that your workers won't mutiny, and the client won't get pissed off and go the competition.
Work with sales so that the workers have something else to do once the current project ends.
The point of my post, although perhaps poorly worded, was to demonstrate that you need to be able to put a positive spin on the challenges that are going to face you. If you remain a manager, at some point, you will have to make a decision:
Do you want to be unpopular because you asked your people to do something difficult, or do you want to be unpopular because you told a client "No", and now you have to lay people off because the client took the work to a competitor?
Lessee-
Don't want a server, don't want to pay for it, do want to track dates and multiple schedules.
Keeping multiple calendars that can be seen by others and can show busy/free times on a per-user/resource basis is inherintly a client/server relationship. If you don't want to use Exchange or one of the other closed-source solutions, why not have someone else maintain the server for you. Here's what I use:
http://calendar.yahoo.com/
Saying no is a lousy thing for any project manager to say, and is one of the traits that would get them fired from any successful company. Project managers should be acutely aware that their competition is never saying "No" to your customers. A project manager's proper response is: "Sure no problem, but ..." For example:
Employee wants time off: "Sure, but either get your work done or find someone to cover for you."
Client wants you to do something that your company doesn't do: "Sure but I'll have to get back with you." Find a subcontractor to do it, and add 10% to their price.
Client wants work done Christmas day: "Sure, no problem, but I'll have to charge double-time and a half." Then find a non-christian who will do it for straight-time.
Workers threaten to walk off when you tell them that they need to work overtime: "Sure, no problem." Solicit bids from India for their job, and "accidently" leave them in the break room.
As a Project Manager, you are responsible for interfacing between your clients and the team that reports to you. You are the face of the company. Dress nicer. Tighten up the e-mail etiquette. Use capital letters, punctuation, and spell check. Every time. Always assume that someone will forward your emails to your team, your client, and your boss.
You are the leader of your project. You need to set an example for the attitude and morale of the teams that report to you. Always show up on time, and leave late. Never, never bitch about the customers or senior management. Never appear frazzled or irritated, as that attitude invariable trickles down to your team.
You are responsible for everything that happens on the project. Not just the technical execution of the work, but also the accounting, invoicing, reporting, vendors, and subcontractors. Follow up on everything, because if it doesn't happen, it's always your fault.
Always take opportunities to sell yourself and your company. Take every opportunity to call, or preferably visit your clients. I'm serious about this. Find out what your marketing budget is, and spend every nickel on visiting your clients. Eventually, they'll give you more work just to get rid of you. When dealing with a client, always keep your game face on. Know that you represent the best damn (whatever) company out there, and don't be afraid to take risks. Ask your clients often for more work. This can be a little uncomfortable, but rest assured that your competition is chasing the same work you are.
Expect excellence from your teams. If you don't know enough about the subjects to judge whether the people are producing what they should be, find a trusted advisor who does know, and get their opinion. After clearing it with senior management, quietly solicit some bids from other companies (even overseas companies) on a task-by-task basis to make sure that you are getting the most out of your teams. However, don't be an ogre. Find out the difference between regular, everyday complaining that technical people do all the time and the honest-to-gosh complaining that signals something's really wrong.
Limit senior management involvement. Always ask for help when you need it, but always propose a solution or a set of alternatives. You should try and schedule project reviews monthly or quarterly between senior management, QA, yourself and the task leads to make sure the project is on schedule and meeting performance objectives. Don't cc: half the damn company on every e-mail, and never when you chew someone's butt.
Try and grow scope whenever possible. This ties into face time with the customer, but also knowing what other services your company can provide, and also knowing the specific scope of your project, so that you know when the client requests are going out of bounds. When you do win more work, make sure everyone knows it. This will be one of the things that your boss will be evaluating your performance on.
Clients will always try and get more than what they are paying for, but limit the amount of freebies you give them, and ham it up a little when you give them one. ("You know, I could get fired for this, but since you're one of my best customers, I can make this happen.") Also, don't ever be afraid follow up on an invoice that is getting late. This might be a little embarrassing to the client, so this is probably best done over an e-mail.
As much as possible, define what your requirements are to the teams that report to you. Not just "I need XYZ done," but "I need XYZ done by 21 December. You have 64 hours to do it in, and use charge code ABC123.QQ." If the teams have problems delivering, find out whether it's a problem with your schedule, the team's resources, or if you have unreasonable production estimates.
Celebrate your teams' performance. Even if you're managing the project from hell, find something they're doing right, and send out a quick e-mail to your boss an