Of course, scoring feminist points might be enough to persuade one of them to sleep with you. In that case, carry on - whatever works best for you.
It's amazing that this came at the end of a pretty strongly-worded attack on stereotyping. So based on some stereotype you hold as gospel, I can't possibly have the honesty and integrity to put forth an opinion based on my life experience. I'm sorry to find out that you hold men in such low regard. I'm glad I don't live where you do.
No, but cultural norms have everything to do with it. Because women weren't allowed to be part of the male fraternity, they've thus far had to work a lot harder (e.g. not depending on social promotion) to get where they are.
Like I said, my opinion is based on empirical evidence; I've worked under male bosses, I've worked under female bosses. Based on my life experience, I prefer female. This may change in the future, but it's my opinion that cultural norms will have to change (and stay that way) as well.
I'd just like to also attach my approval to your statements. A boss that's more technically oriented than management oriented 1) isn't going to be so great on the management side of things (he's got to be good with upper management and clients as well), and 2) I find that managers with some technical experience try to steer the project according to their opinion. This second point is really important, especially when the boss doesn't have enough knowledge of your team's constraints, and makes things go haywire by trying to micromanage your team, or by changing specifications on the fly. Likewise, if he's overly technical in a good way (to you or your team), he may not connect well with the Big Cs or the clients; Also a very bad situation.
Right, like a woman is ever going to be the boss in a embedded systems team.
Troller.
I've had four female bosses in various jobs, two of which were in technical fields. Although I recognize that my empirical evidence isn't going to be the universal norm, I found that women are better to work under for these reasons: They're more apt to be direct when they have a gripe, instead of "backstabbing" or manipulating the system to make you look bad. They're more organized. Most importantly, they don't promote incompetents based on feelings of fraternity.
Let me explain that last point in more detail. Career women don't seem to form work relationships like men. They appear to be more objective about their workers' performance than do men. Whereas a male boss would keep around a gang of idiots just because they talk sports / play golf / go to the bar together after work. Don't get me wrong, it's great to be one of the Fraternal Brothers, but I don't talk sports / play golf / go to bars after work.
I graduated high school in 1988. If I had gone to university and attained a bachelor's in CS, I would've graduated in 1992. State of the art technology in 1992 is largely irrelevant today, and the only thing that would have been proven by that degree is that I could finish what I started.
Really? Things I learned from programming in assembly on a Commodore in the 1980s are still relevant today. Sure the instruction sets are different, as are the programming languages and APIs, but understanding how a personal computer worked at a low level has given me a lot of useful insight.
No, actually, scratch that. Nearly everything I learned in electronics hobbies and in school has actually come in handy in real life. I wish I'd studied harder in school, because that would have saved me a lot of time later in life.
Microsoft gets a lot of flak for the MCSE certs, but Novell's CNE program really started it as far as I am concerned. For years, a CNE meant a lot more money on your paychecks. Admittedly, the CNE was also a difficult certification to get compared to MCSE, but it was Novell and not Microsoft that set the ball rolling in the first place.
I've got an MCNE (took the stuff at a harder level because I thought I'd go CNI later), and I have to disagree here on two points. First, a CNE isn't supposed to be the equivalent of an MCSE. The MCSE is more like the Certificed Netware Administrator program. Well, it's more inbetween, because it covers client operating systems, which Novell does not produce (NDOS doesn't count). Either way, I got the distinct impression that the course material was unnecessarily drawn out in order to keep butts in seats to justify the price tag. In other words, it wasn't competitive use of my time.
This brings me to another point. I learned all the basics many years ago under the watchful eye of an experienced senior tech while on the job. I've since greatly expanded my knowledge through countless hours of reading (both dead tree an Internet) and hands-on experience during two subsequent jobs. I don't have an "A+" or "Net+"(?) certification because there was no such thing then. I definitely wouldn't have had the money for these programs then, and I don't have it now. Even if I did, I wouldn't waste it to pay for something I already know. How do I fit into this equation?
Here's another one to throw a wrench into the works: Since I'm the "boss" of my department, I receive resumes every once in a while. Now, my professional career in PC and network administration started 9 years ago, and that's all I've done in those 9 years. What am I supposed to think when I see someone's resume where they had 3 unrelated jobs, one technical job, and another unrelated job? Is someone who has uninterrupted experience in my field better than a career-hopper? I would have said "no" a few years back, but since then we've hired someone with a resume similar to what I've described, and she's been wonderful. Granted, she's not obsessive about it like me, but definitely worth more than my employer is paying her.
JPilot: Short projects or reminders that are persistent for a month or two. I also use it for its calendar and address book features.
For anything longer, I write out the project description in a document, then draw out a timeline on the chalkboard in my office. If it involves lots of people, I distribute the document to them, and do the diagrams in OpenOffice Draw. And where I work, anything larger than that involves a committee. It's not readily apparent how anything gets accomplished after it goes to committee.;o)
Except that if you're using WordPad, you have to put up with line wrapping (it's ambiguous when the feature asserts itself but apparently related to the file extension), and the fact that it constantly nags you if you try to save in any other format besides Word 6. This drove me nuts when I was editing Tcl code on Windows, so now I either use the built-in editor in Visual Tcl (it's not so great, but is integrated), or JED for Windows.
The NT version of Notepad is tolerable. It doesn't have such a low memory limit. When I used to use it to do Tcl code, I wrote a little utility in C to convert the control codes between MS Text(tm) format and The-Rest-of-the-Universe text format (and vice versa).
Yes, I have. And code is already covered under copyright laws, just like performers' work. But since the industries are organized differently, you generally have a bunch of codemonkeys in some corporation working for hire, and the company holds copyright.
My problem is that the system wasn't broken in this particular area, and through a couple decades of protectionism, our confused legislators have managed to break it. Now Hatch is introducing legislation to break it more.
Dear Sen. Hatch:
If protectionism is the future of American industry, please recount for me the following stories: How protectionist policies saved the textile industries. How protectionist policies saved the steel industry. How protectionism saved the auto industry, (I mean, we buy less foreign cars than ever now, right?)
I have to deal with USF as part of my job. It's a nasty, evil redistribution-of-wealth concept made into practice. I could write a book about the bad aspects of it, or frame it as a political issue, but I can trim away all that cruft and state my major gripe in economic terms:
Its stated purpose was to help pay for the ongoing communications costs for "poor" school systems. In reality, it rewards only those municipalities that are the most corrupt or financially incompetent, while doing the opposite of its stated purpose in those districts that don't qualify for a high level of reimbursement.
In other words, my district (which ranks in the "poorer" half in terms of wealth in my state) has to choose a less than adequate solution for bandwidth, because our residents and businesses are bearing the tax burden of ERate, which is greater than upgraded connection costs would be if we were to get it through a property tax increase.
Hmm.. you seem to be claiming that Slackware is neither fast nor current.
Yes, that's what I am claiming. Third-party source updates always come faster than the packages in the Slackware current tree, (not a problem, since it's really easy to find the third-party source and update ASAP). Gentoo appears to be updated faster and more often. As far as speed, I'm referring to the fact that Slackware is compiled/optimized for 486 processors.
That only applies to clue-bies. I've been using Linux (specifically Slackware) since 1995. I know how it works. I don't need to play with it "for days and days". I just do, and be done with it. Thanks for presuming I use Slackware to "feel smart". I use it because I can trust it. I'm no genius, so if I can do it, anyone can.
Who said this? Slackware and Gentoo appear to me as polar opposites. Slackware is simple and stable, Gentoo is fast and current. About the only thing the two have in common is that both are very powerful in the hands of clueful users, whereas RedHat/Mandrake layer on click-n-drool cruft that makes what should be simple fixes for simple problems into sheer frustration.
Or maybe it's because you are using them for useless things. There are plenty of uses where PDA's are *much* better than laptops.
The market suggests that I use them for exactly the purpose I mentioned, hence the name "personal data assistant". That is exactly the purpose for which my colleagues use them. But good point about specialized purposes. I agree that this is definitely an area of growth for handheld computers.
You can't be serious. How many months of daily use do the batteries in a PDA endure? Do your notes disappear when your ink runs out? How much do batteries cost compared to a ball point pen?
Why should we even worry about this? Lots of previous AOL subscribers found out that they really only wanted plain Internet access, and moved on to cheaper alternatives. Either AOL will find a new source of revenue, or their subscriber base will shrink even further.
Maybe it's because PDAs are fairly worthless. I always used to get a kick out of all the administrators at meetings that would sit there and squint as it took them two minutes to write a two-word sentence using "Graffiti" letters. The smarter ones brought collapsible keyboards. After 7 years with my PDA, I finally settled for a paper notebook; A notebook never runs out of batteries during a meeting, doesn't cost $300, and allows me to take down information quickly, and it's legible.
If you go through real office supply companies (sorry, Staples and Office Max don't count), you can get paper notepads for pennies, as well as a box of pens that will last your for years. I go to a meeting, take notes manually, then after the meeting I copy in the important dates, phone numbers and e-mail addresses into my PDA. The sheet of handwritten notes goes into a file (so I have a record of what happened). I use less batteries for my PDA than everyone else as well.
Well, no matter what the radiation pattern, the phone is still transmitting at a certain power, and its receiver is still only so sensitive. A directional antenna is a big disadvantage on a mobile phone if you can't be stationary, and can't "point" the antenna in the direction of the signal.
Why should anyone have a problem being seen on camera while in public? It just confirms that you are in public, and if you didn't want to be seen, then you wouldn't be in public anyhow. If it's hijacked so what?
It's a big cost to the taxpayer, and it's so far without proof that it improves the situation, though you may feel free to show me some (no really, I'm interested). However, statistics do show that having more police officers on the street has a real effect on crime (i.e. it goes down).
CCTV in the UK is massively useful, and shown to be a useful tool and deterent when dealing with crime.
Have crimes against persons and property dropped drastically in all the areas where such surveillance systems were in use?
The crime rate in Washington DC is higher than in Baltimore; that is tragic. DC should have a rotating shift of every person in the military to patrol the capital. Crime in DC should be the lowest in the nation.
First off, putting the military on our streets would be stirring the hornets' nest for sure, not to mention a waste of good military personnel, or funding (wouldn't they all need hazard pay?) However, it lends us a perspective: This is how the Federal Government would run your state, if given the chance. Think about that next time your representitive or your state's general assembly proposes some new extension of federal funding or intrusion of federal law in your state.
That said, it's very frightening that you propose marshal law as the solution. I hope this isn't the consensus.
Slashdot Mirror
Enough!
We shall meet on the field of honor. Please select your weapon.
Of course, scoring feminist points might be enough to persuade one of them to sleep with you. In that case, carry on - whatever works best for you.
It's amazing that this came at the end of a pretty strongly-worded attack on stereotyping. So based on some stereotype you hold as gospel, I can't possibly have the honesty and integrity to put forth an opinion based on my life experience. I'm sorry to find out that you hold men in such low regard. I'm glad I don't live where you do.
No, but cultural norms have everything to do with it. Because women weren't allowed to be part of the male fraternity, they've thus far had to work a lot harder (e.g. not depending on social promotion) to get where they are.
Like I said, my opinion is based on empirical evidence; I've worked under male bosses, I've worked under female bosses. Based on my life experience, I prefer female. This may change in the future, but it's my opinion that cultural norms will have to change (and stay that way) as well.
I'd just like to also attach my approval to your statements. A boss that's more technically oriented than management oriented 1) isn't going to be so great on the management side of things (he's got to be good with upper management and clients as well), and 2) I find that managers with some technical experience try to steer the project according to their opinion. This second point is really important, especially when the boss doesn't have enough knowledge of your team's constraints, and makes things go haywire by trying to micromanage your team, or by changing specifications on the fly. Likewise, if he's overly technical in a good way (to you or your team), he may not connect well with the Big Cs or the clients; Also a very bad situation.
Right, like a woman is ever going to be the boss in a embedded systems team.
Troller.
I've had four female bosses in various jobs, two of which were in technical fields. Although I recognize that my empirical evidence isn't going to be the universal norm, I found that women are better to work under for these reasons: They're more apt to be direct when they have a gripe, instead of "backstabbing" or manipulating the system to make you look bad. They're more organized. Most importantly, they don't promote incompetents based on feelings of fraternity.
Let me explain that last point in more detail. Career women don't seem to form work relationships like men. They appear to be more objective about their workers' performance than do men. Whereas a male boss would keep around a gang of idiots just because they talk sports / play golf / go to the bar together after work. Don't get me wrong, it's great to be one of the Fraternal Brothers, but I don't talk sports / play golf / go to bars after work.
Please point out where the front lines are in the Iraq War.
I don't think that question can be answered until after November 2nd.
...But seeing as how I've got a Slackware Linux box on my desk at work, I use the following:
;o)
knotes: Short reminders and temporary stuff.
JPilot: Short projects or reminders that are persistent for a month or two. I also use it for its calendar and address book features.
For anything longer, I write out the project description in a document, then draw out a timeline on the chalkboard in my office. If it involves lots of people, I distribute the document to them, and do the diagrams in OpenOffice Draw. And where I work, anything larger than that involves a committee. It's not readily apparent how anything gets accomplished after it goes to committee.
Except that if you're using WordPad, you have to put up with line wrapping (it's ambiguous when the feature asserts itself but apparently related to the file extension), and the fact that it constantly nags you if you try to save in any other format besides Word 6. This drove me nuts when I was editing Tcl code on Windows, so now I either use the built-in editor in Visual Tcl (it's not so great, but is integrated), or JED for Windows.
The NT version of Notepad is tolerable. It doesn't have such a low memory limit. When I used to use it to do Tcl code, I wrote a little utility in C to convert the control codes between MS Text(tm) format and The-Rest-of-the-Universe text format (and vice versa).
My problem is that the system wasn't broken in this particular area, and through a couple decades of protectionism, our confused legislators have managed to break it. Now Hatch is introducing legislation to break it more.
I have to deal with USF as part of my job. It's a nasty, evil redistribution-of-wealth concept made into practice. I could write a book about the bad aspects of it, or frame it as a political issue, but I can trim away all that cruft and state my major gripe in economic terms:
Its stated purpose was to help pay for the ongoing communications costs for "poor" school systems. In reality, it rewards only those municipalities that are the most corrupt or financially incompetent, while doing the opposite of its stated purpose in those districts that don't qualify for a high level of reimbursement.
In other words, my district (which ranks in the "poorer" half in terms of wealth in my state) has to choose a less than adequate solution for bandwidth, because our residents and businesses are bearing the tax burden of ERate, which is greater than upgraded connection costs would be if we were to get it through a property tax increase.
Hmm.. you seem to be claiming that Slackware is neither fast nor current.
Yes, that's what I am claiming. Third-party source updates always come faster than the packages in the Slackware current tree, (not a problem, since it's really easy to find the third-party source and update ASAP). Gentoo appears to be updated faster and more often. As far as speed, I'm referring to the fact that Slackware is compiled/optimized for 486 processors.
That only applies to clue-bies. I've been using Linux (specifically Slackware) since 1995. I know how it works. I don't need to play with it "for days and days". I just do, and be done with it. Thanks for presuming I use Slackware to "feel smart". I use it because I can trust it. I'm no genius, so if I can do it, anyone can.
Who said this? Slackware and Gentoo appear to me as polar opposites. Slackware is simple and stable, Gentoo is fast and current. About the only thing the two have in common is that both are very powerful in the hands of clueful users, whereas RedHat/Mandrake layer on click-n-drool cruft that makes what should be simple fixes for simple problems into sheer frustration.
What's so bad about a Slackware subscription for $25 a year? Consider it a donation to the Slackware Project.
So having someone else mirror it makes it free for everyone involved? Please explain how this works.
Or maybe it's because you are using them for useless things. There are plenty of uses where PDA's are *much* better than laptops.
The market suggests that I use them for exactly the purpose I mentioned, hence the name "personal data assistant". That is exactly the purpose for which my colleagues use them. But good point about specialized purposes. I agree that this is definitely an area of growth for handheld computers.
You can't be serious. How many months of daily use do the batteries in a PDA endure? Do your notes disappear when your ink runs out? How much do batteries cost compared to a ball point pen?
Why should we even worry about this? Lots of previous AOL subscribers found out that they really only wanted plain Internet access, and moved on to cheaper alternatives. Either AOL will find a new source of revenue, or their subscriber base will shrink even further.
Maybe it's because PDAs are fairly worthless. I always used to get a kick out of all the administrators at meetings that would sit there and squint as it took them two minutes to write a two-word sentence using "Graffiti" letters. The smarter ones brought collapsible keyboards. After 7 years with my PDA, I finally settled for a paper notebook; A notebook never runs out of batteries during a meeting, doesn't cost $300, and allows me to take down information quickly, and it's legible.
If you go through real office supply companies (sorry, Staples and Office Max don't count), you can get paper notepads for pennies, as well as a box of pens that will last your for years. I go to a meeting, take notes manually, then after the meeting I copy in the important dates, phone numbers and e-mail addresses into my PDA. The sheet of handwritten notes goes into a file (so I have a record of what happened). I use less batteries for my PDA than everyone else as well.
And... Can someone explain to me why the FCC has anything to do with Internet "broadcasting"?
Well, no matter what the radiation pattern, the phone is still transmitting at a certain power, and its receiver is still only so sensitive. A directional antenna is a big disadvantage on a mobile phone if you can't be stationary, and can't "point" the antenna in the direction of the signal.
CCTV in the UK is massively useful, and shown to be a useful tool and deterent when dealing with crime.