More US bashing from EXTREMELY left-wing organizations and mainstream media. The US has never sold bio-weapons. In the 1980's it was Top Secret that we HAD them. What the US sold was petroleum refining technology. If you would take a look the organic chemistry to make pesticides and the chemistry to make something like Sarin are damn near identical. A refinery can make the components of beneficial drugs or deadly chemicals with very minor changes as the technology is the same, just the mixture of chemicals a bit different.
Bingo! One of Murphy's Laws of Software Development States: "adding more programmers to a late project makes it later". Also read "The Mythical Man Month" and "Death March". Good software management is NOT easy, thats why there is so much poor management. Just telling the lead programmer he is now the project manager is not the way to do it.
Technically EA does not have to pay OT or they would have been sued by now. What they MAY do is pay for the extra time but not at 1.5X and maybe not for everyone. It's mostly a PR stunt, they might do it for one project, get the heat off, and then go back to the old way.
You mentioned that International Law should trump US law and the extradition should occur. That's a roundabout way of saying International courts know better than each country. Sounds like you are for letting the UN or other World Government decide things for the USA.
UC didn't violate any laws in the safety of the plant. India has very few laws protecting workers, why do you think software "sweatshops" are locating there? You want to hammer one company from ONE country for killing a few 1000's and ignore the fact that 1000's of factory workers in China die every year and even more in the mines. Why not hammer THAT saftey record? Accidents like Bhopal happen, you can't prevent them all from occuring even with the most comprehensive safety systems. At least UC owned up to being at "fault", I haven't heard Exxxon acknowledge that about the Valdez oil spill yet!!
If this accident had happened in the USA the claims would STILL be in court. At least the poor bastards in India got something. Here the lawyers get it all. So it's not all negative. And cost-cutting is not per se unethical. Maybe you haven't had an ethics class at Ga Tech yet so you don't quite comprehend the scenario fully.
Sure, just tell the consumers that they have to pay more for the items they buy so that the businesses that make them can comply with your ethical position. See if it flies. Sheeple are too stupid and cost conscious. They'll pay a penny less and won't give a think that it was made in China with slave labor. Convince the consumers and the corps will follow.
OK then, should we hold accountable the French and German companies that made the plants for WMDs that Iraq used to kill Tens of Thousands? WMDs are illegal under International Law, so someone should compensate the "victims", right? Wasn't this corporate greed by the EU? Corporate greed is not a 100% American trait.
IBM is a SERVICES company that has the mindset of Hardware company. I used to work for Global Services in a senior technical role. Or skills at IT Architecture, problem solving, Systems Integration, etc. were always an open door for the Hardware guys to try to sell overpriced equipment. It p*ssed off the customers. When Sam Palisano ran Global Services (before he became CEO) he and Gerstner both stated the future of IBM was services and software. So they went out and bought PwC's IT services group for it's business base (and laid off the staff). The long term trend has been and will be pro-Service and definitely anti-hardware. IBM even laid off folks at the R&D Labs about a year ago, so even the patent and inventions for hardware are not as important as before. Sam's idea of the R&D guys is who cares if we can write IBM from single atoms, no one buys Atoms. Unless IBM can sell them Atom Services it has no place in this company. Get rid of it. Palisano was known as a "slash and burn" guy who if it wasn't making the revenue it was gone in a heartbeat. He was the guy who sold off the first generation IBM PC business back in the late 80's when he ran that group. Make the company money by getting rid of the "waste" was how he climbed up to CEO.
Don't get me wrong IBM makes some very good equipment top to bottom but the mainframe market (Z-Series) is stagnant at best, mid-range is flat (AS-400), servers (Unix/Linux) are still hot, but desktops and laptops are way too price sensitive for IBM to make money there. When Joe Customer can get almost TWO Dells for one high-end Thinkpad, 9 of 10 customers buy the Dell. IBM just can't compete in a market that is purely cost driven where the cheapest wins and quality is a distant second consideration. Laptops and desktops are a commodity these days. If IBM can get a few Billion out of the laptop biz and keep those losses off the books then they ARE doing the right thing business wise. They might even get some sort of Branding revenue from whoever buys the line and wants to keep the IBM name (and quality I hope) just with a lower price point. IBM did this very same thing 10 or so years ago with the DiskDrive group. They first outsourced the manufacturing then sold it all. That idea has worked pretty good! All told I think this is a GOOD business move by IBM (Wall St agreees, Stock is up) which might hurt some short term but will help free up cash for other things (Services, new Software) long term. I do kind of feel sorry to see the laptops go, and some folks will probably lose jobs but businesses cannot remain stagnant or even more folks might lose thier jobs.
She actually has a couple of folks who help with admin work. MathFox is one. It really doesn't take that much time to admin the site as she has a pretty solid idea of what she won't put up with. Groklaw is pretty well behaved. I suspect she didn't have to do a lot of looking, jobs came looking for her. She has a pretty wide circle of contacts and an excellent reputation.
Groklaw (and PJ) presented facts from eyewitnesses that proved O'Gara was lying. If O'Gara wasn't I suspect she would have sued PJ by now but truth is the defense for libel/slander. MOG is just a bought and paid for anti-Liunx, Pro-SCO "journalist". She makes Dan Rather's National Guard story on Pres Bush look amateur.
If you've kept up with GrokLaw PJ has talked about the OSRM situation. She dislikes what SCO is doing in the ethical/moral sense, she's not a techie. Since she left OSRM she's had many job offers and I recall she recently took one. PJ is a very good journalist and solid paralegal. I wish Groklaw had been around during the M$ anti-trust case.
I forgot Numerical Analysis. Good catch! You learn about representations and error in numbers plus how to solve equations.
Might want to add a plain basic Operating Systems course as well. Or a comparative course in OSes looking at Windows, UNIX, IBM 360, etc.
OK, we can Add Calculus up thru series and multiple integrals. Not too sure about a Complier class, that one ATE my lunch then tossed it back at me! Learning about building a recursive descent parser, BNF syntax and formal language theory has very limited use I have found unless of course you WANTED to build a compiler. Code Optimization I DID find handy when working with embedded systems where every CPU cycle could matter and I had to hand optimize the crappy code generated by the compiler. Of course now we have 3.5GHz 686 64 bit CPUs vs my old 8MHz 8 bit 6800 CPU so who cares if the compiler generates bad code!;)
Really? Tell that to the teams of guys in Richardson,, TX who design ASICs for the Cisco 6500 and other series routers/switches. When at Cisco I had a few convos with these guys about building in some security features into the ASICs instead of in IOS. The 6500 is the cream of the crop, it can do just about anything you want now and MLPS is being added soon (if not already), and it's got ASICs.
I worked at Cisco too. I was a contractor, I was paid and treated VERY well. Cisco DOES cut the bottom 10% (saw it happen) but not in every group, and the DO bring H1B's over in droves. They pay the H1Bs well (better than most) and most of them are talented, but the still are paying below standard wages. Cisco will make a penny scream for mercy if it affects production costs. They got guys/gals working there that put in 90 hour weeks in the hopes their stock options will ever get above water. I don't know how many times I heard if the stock hits $XX I'm cashing in and leaving. So, in many cases the rank and file employees are OK with the H1Bs if it saves money, as long as they are not replaced by them!
Students should learn Algorithms, Data Structures, Discrete Math, Basic Computer Hardware, Statistics, 1 or 2 languages plus Assembler, Database and Networking. Maybe Calculus and AI thrown in as well. Once you know 1 or 2 languages you can pick up the others quickly if you REALLY understand how to develop software.
I agree with you, except the college/University should be accredited. And there IS a standard CS program that is put out by the ACM/IEEE that the school should teach most if not all of. I will pick a good solid well rounded "kid" from a university that does more than teach them to program. I want someone who can interact, be part of a team, and has intelligence not just coding skills.
Having a good TEACHER makes a big difference. You might get a class with a big name guy at a big name school (MIT, CMU, Stanford, UNC) but the grad assistant does most of the teaching. At State Tech U you might get a prof that actually teaches and loves it and thus YOU learn more. It's so much publish or perish at the big places that teaching often takes a back seat.
The Russian program is doing so-so, the only reason it is ALIVE today is the Soyuz flights that NASA bought, and the Progress resupply flights as well, all to keep ISS going. NASA bought these are a time when the guys in Russia were about to go under. NASA was hailed as a hero. But of course no one recalls that.
Unless the Russians can sell a few of these new vehicles it isn't going to get built, they don't have that kind of budget. How far they are in the design is questionable, the article say this just a nice mock-up. If someone signed a contract tomorrow, it would be at least 2010 before a flight ASSUMING they can get Zenit to work AND get the Ukraine to play along for a lauch site. (RTFA) It's all smoke and mirrors at this time, but it gets good press, and keeps up the reputation that they Russians can do good work and are forward thinking. That can't hurt.
As for where NASA is going, who knows. But we have a pretty decent commercial space industry with Lockheed (who buys engines from Russia) and Boeing. Unless someone can give a clear reason why we need to go to Mars I'm not sure the Public will buy it like they did the Moon Race against the evil Russians. I mean who are we competing against for Mars? The Chinese? The Indians? What technologies useful to those of us on Earth will come from the Mars Mission? Payback has got to be there with Space because IMHO the public has no faith in NASA's Space Program after two STS disasters.
I sideline as the Marketing Manager for my wife's Jewelry business, and we also breed and show dogs. Neither one breaks even, but maybe someday one of them will!
Interesting idea, but how does this stuff react with LOX or LH? Cryogenic propellents do some funky things to materials. 200-300 atmospheres is a LOT of pressure to hold, you can't have the slightest flaw in the vessel. That would need to be some incredible tight knitting!
Get a research grant from NASA and see if you can make your idea work!
While said in a rage this *IS* exactly right. Firms have to adapt to the new technology that comes out. They can work with it to protect their market by using the technology and also give consumers what the WANT, not be hindering it. If firms had not found ways to adapt, embrace and then sell technology we would still be driving Model T's and using hand-cranked phones. The MPAA and RIAA can find ways to secure content without resorting to lawsuits, it's just that lawsuits are much easier and cheaper plus it's pretty hard to crack a lawsuit versus a algorithm.
History has shown us that new methods of information distribution will piss off someone who is going to lose control and thus money/prestige. The Church hated the invention of the printing press as now the masses could have Bibles and see if the minister was full of BS. MPAA/RIAA is the Same song, different verse, a little louder a little worse.
IIRC, there was a plan like this using Sodium as the coolant back in the 1980's. It never got off the ground. What about safety issues with molten metals? Any risk of a "China Syndrome"? I'm guessing the heat exchanger for molten lead to water would be a bit tricky, can't let the lead cool off to much or you get a clog! Also the water loop would need to be under high pressure, then flashed into steam to turn a very high pressure turbine[same as current design]. Wouldn't the molten lead used as the coolant also be radioactive so we have the same waste disposal problem don't we?
As was discussed yesterday in the Wal-Mart thread, Wal-Mart wants BOTH. They tell you it MUST cost $X and have A,B,C features or we won't buy it. And $X better be lower than any other product. Many, many companies have been tried to keep up with Wal-Marts continuing price pressure and either gone broke or moved jobs to China to keep solvent.
Dispersed over a very wide area (and mostly over water) at high altitude it wouldn't be nearly as bad as say fallout from a weapon. It don't think it would be nearly as bad as you say. If it was low-level waste (which most of it is) it might not be an issue at all. We have had several Russian sattelites re-enter that had nuclear fuel on board and no one has died yet. Of course they had maybe a few kg on board not tons which would need to be launched in order to even think about the cost being reasonable. Like most things, a little bit over time won't hurt ya but a lot right now will kill you. The risks are too high right now as well as the costs to make it a practical solution.
I thought the traffic would be higher. At Cisco I was told they (can't say we as I don't work with them now) hit 10M a day on busy days and 7M was average. We only ran Exchange at the mailbox level. We used an email gateway box at the edge (behind the firewalls) and the servers were actually in the UK for all the worldwide email.
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More US bashing from EXTREMELY left-wing organizations and mainstream media. The US has never sold bio-weapons. In the 1980's it was Top Secret that we HAD them. What the US sold was petroleum refining technology. If you would take a look the organic chemistry to make pesticides and the chemistry to make something like Sarin are damn near identical. A refinery can make the components of beneficial drugs or deadly chemicals with very minor changes as the technology is the same, just the mixture of chemicals a bit different.
Bingo! One of Murphy's Laws of Software Development States: "adding more programmers to a late project makes it later". Also read "The Mythical Man Month" and "Death March". Good software management is NOT easy, thats why there is so much poor management. Just telling the lead programmer he is now the project manager is not the way to do it. Technically EA does not have to pay OT or they would have been sued by now. What they MAY do is pay for the extra time but not at 1.5X and maybe not for everyone. It's mostly a PR stunt, they might do it for one project, get the heat off, and then go back to the old way.
You mentioned that International Law should trump US law and the extradition should occur. That's a roundabout way of saying International courts know better than each country. Sounds like you are for letting the UN or other World Government decide things for the USA. UC didn't violate any laws in the safety of the plant. India has very few laws protecting workers, why do you think software "sweatshops" are locating there? You want to hammer one company from ONE country for killing a few 1000's and ignore the fact that 1000's of factory workers in China die every year and even more in the mines. Why not hammer THAT saftey record? Accidents like Bhopal happen, you can't prevent them all from occuring even with the most comprehensive safety systems. At least UC owned up to being at "fault", I haven't heard Exxxon acknowledge that about the Valdez oil spill yet!! If this accident had happened in the USA the claims would STILL be in court. At least the poor bastards in India got something. Here the lawyers get it all. So it's not all negative. And cost-cutting is not per se unethical. Maybe you haven't had an ethics class at Ga Tech yet so you don't quite comprehend the scenario fully.
Sure, just tell the consumers that they have to pay more for the items they buy so that the businesses that make them can comply with your ethical position. See if it flies. Sheeple are too stupid and cost conscious. They'll pay a penny less and won't give a think that it was made in China with slave labor. Convince the consumers and the corps will follow.
OK then, should we hold accountable the French and German companies that made the plants for WMDs that Iraq used to kill Tens of Thousands? WMDs are illegal under International Law, so someone should compensate the "victims", right? Wasn't this corporate greed by the EU? Corporate greed is not a 100% American trait.
IBM is a SERVICES company that has the mindset of Hardware company. I used to work for Global Services in a senior technical role. Or skills at IT Architecture, problem solving, Systems Integration, etc. were always an open door for the Hardware guys to try to sell overpriced equipment. It p*ssed off the customers. When Sam Palisano ran Global Services (before he became CEO) he and Gerstner both stated the future of IBM was services and software. So they went out and bought PwC's IT services group for it's business base (and laid off the staff). The long term trend has been and will be pro-Service and definitely anti-hardware. IBM even laid off folks at the R&D Labs about a year ago, so even the patent and inventions for hardware are not as important as before. Sam's idea of the R&D guys is who cares if we can write IBM from single atoms, no one buys Atoms. Unless IBM can sell them Atom Services it has no place in this company. Get rid of it. Palisano was known as a "slash and burn" guy who if it wasn't making the revenue it was gone in a heartbeat. He was the guy who sold off the first generation IBM PC business back in the late 80's when he ran that group. Make the company money by getting rid of the "waste" was how he climbed up to CEO.
Don't get me wrong IBM makes some very good equipment top to bottom but the mainframe market (Z-Series) is stagnant at best, mid-range is flat (AS-400), servers (Unix/Linux) are still hot, but desktops and laptops are way too price sensitive for IBM to make money there. When Joe Customer can get almost TWO Dells for one high-end Thinkpad, 9 of 10 customers buy the Dell. IBM just can't compete in a market that is purely cost driven where the cheapest wins and quality is a distant second consideration. Laptops and desktops are a commodity these days. If IBM can get a few Billion out of the laptop biz and keep those losses off the books then they ARE doing the right thing business wise. They might even get some sort of Branding revenue from whoever buys the line and wants to keep the IBM name (and quality I hope) just with a lower price point. IBM did this very same thing 10 or so years ago with the DiskDrive group. They first outsourced the manufacturing then sold it all. That idea has worked pretty good! All told I think this is a GOOD business move by IBM (Wall St agreees, Stock is up) which might hurt some short term but will help free up cash for other things (Services, new Software) long term. I do kind of feel sorry to see the laptops go, and some folks will probably lose jobs but businesses cannot remain stagnant or even more folks might lose thier jobs.
She actually has a couple of folks who help with admin work. MathFox is one. It really doesn't take that much time to admin the site as she has a pretty solid idea of what she won't put up with. Groklaw is pretty well behaved. I suspect she didn't have to do a lot of looking, jobs came looking for her. She has a pretty wide circle of contacts and an excellent reputation.
Groklaw (and PJ) presented facts from eyewitnesses that proved O'Gara was lying. If O'Gara wasn't I suspect she would have sued PJ by now but truth is the defense for libel/slander. MOG is just a bought and paid for anti-Liunx, Pro-SCO "journalist". She makes Dan Rather's National Guard story on Pres Bush look amateur.
If you've kept up with GrokLaw PJ has talked about the OSRM situation. She dislikes what SCO is doing in the ethical/moral sense, she's not a techie. Since she left OSRM she's had many job offers and I recall she recently took one. PJ is a very good journalist and solid paralegal. I wish Groklaw had been around during the M$ anti-trust case.
I forgot Numerical Analysis. Good catch! You learn about representations and error in numbers plus how to solve equations. Might want to add a plain basic Operating Systems course as well. Or a comparative course in OSes looking at Windows, UNIX, IBM 360, etc.
OK, we can Add Calculus up thru series and multiple integrals. Not too sure about a Complier class, that one ATE my lunch then tossed it back at me! Learning about building a recursive descent parser, BNF syntax and formal language theory has very limited use I have found unless of course you WANTED to build a compiler. Code Optimization I DID find handy when working with embedded systems where every CPU cycle could matter and I had to hand optimize the crappy code generated by the compiler. Of course now we have 3.5GHz 686 64 bit CPUs vs my old 8MHz 8 bit 6800 CPU so who cares if the compiler generates bad code! ;)
Really? Tell that to the teams of guys in Richardson,, TX who design ASICs for the Cisco 6500 and other series routers/switches. When at Cisco I had a few convos with these guys about building in some security features into the ASICs instead of in IOS. The 6500 is the cream of the crop, it can do just about anything you want now and MLPS is being added soon (if not already), and it's got ASICs.
I worked at Cisco too. I was a contractor, I was paid and treated VERY well. Cisco DOES cut the bottom 10% (saw it happen) but not in every group, and the DO bring H1B's over in droves. They pay the H1Bs well (better than most) and most of them are talented, but the still are paying below standard wages. Cisco will make a penny scream for mercy if it affects production costs. They got guys/gals working there that put in 90 hour weeks in the hopes their stock options will ever get above water. I don't know how many times I heard if the stock hits $XX I'm cashing in and leaving. So, in many cases the rank and file employees are OK with the H1Bs if it saves money, as long as they are not replaced by them!
Students should learn Algorithms, Data Structures, Discrete Math, Basic Computer Hardware, Statistics, 1 or 2 languages plus Assembler, Database and Networking. Maybe Calculus and AI thrown in as well. Once you know 1 or 2 languages you can pick up the others quickly if you REALLY understand how to develop software.
I agree with you, except the college/University should be accredited. And there IS a standard CS program that is put out by the ACM/IEEE that the school should teach most if not all of. I will pick a good solid well rounded "kid" from a university that does more than teach them to program. I want someone who can interact, be part of a team, and has intelligence not just coding skills. Having a good TEACHER makes a big difference. You might get a class with a big name guy at a big name school (MIT, CMU, Stanford, UNC) but the grad assistant does most of the teaching. At State Tech U you might get a prof that actually teaches and loves it and thus YOU learn more. It's so much publish or perish at the big places that teaching often takes a back seat.
The Russian program is doing so-so, the only reason it is ALIVE today is the Soyuz flights that NASA bought, and the Progress resupply flights as well, all to keep ISS going. NASA bought these are a time when the guys in Russia were about to go under. NASA was hailed as a hero. But of course no one recalls that.
Unless the Russians can sell a few of these new vehicles it isn't going to get built, they don't have that kind of budget. How far they are in the design is questionable, the article say this just a nice mock-up. If someone signed a contract tomorrow, it would be at least 2010 before a flight ASSUMING they can get Zenit to work AND get the Ukraine to play along for a lauch site. (RTFA) It's all smoke and mirrors at this time, but it gets good press, and keeps up the reputation that they Russians can do good work and are forward thinking. That can't hurt.
As for where NASA is going, who knows. But we have a pretty decent commercial space industry with Lockheed (who buys engines from Russia) and Boeing. Unless someone can give a clear reason why we need to go to Mars I'm not sure the Public will buy it like they did the Moon Race against the evil Russians. I mean who are we competing against for Mars? The Chinese? The Indians? What technologies useful to those of us on Earth will come from the Mars Mission? Payback has got to be there with Space because IMHO the public has no faith in NASA's Space Program after two STS disasters.
I sideline as the Marketing Manager for my wife's Jewelry business, and we also breed and show dogs. Neither one breaks even, but maybe someday one of them will!
Interesting idea, but how does this stuff react with LOX or LH? Cryogenic propellents do some funky things to materials. 200-300 atmospheres is a LOT of pressure to hold, you can't have the slightest flaw in the vessel. That would need to be some incredible tight knitting! Get a research grant from NASA and see if you can make your idea work!
Golden, CO is the home of Coors beer, one of the most popular brands in the USA. So, yea they got a serious amount of beer at the brewery there!
Geeks never get laid, and with all that bandwidth on I2 who has time when they could be downloading kewl music, games and p0rn? ;)
While said in a rage this *IS* exactly right. Firms have to adapt to the new technology that comes out. They can work with it to protect their market by using the technology and also give consumers what the WANT, not be hindering it. If firms had not found ways to adapt, embrace and then sell technology we would still be driving Model T's and using hand-cranked phones. The MPAA and RIAA can find ways to secure content without resorting to lawsuits, it's just that lawsuits are much easier and cheaper plus it's pretty hard to crack a lawsuit versus a algorithm.
History has shown us that new methods of information distribution will piss off someone who is going to lose control and thus money/prestige. The Church hated the invention of the printing press as now the masses could have Bibles and see if the minister was full of BS. MPAA/RIAA is the Same song, different verse, a little louder a little worse.
IIRC, there was a plan like this using Sodium as the coolant back in the 1980's. It never got off the ground. What about safety issues with molten metals? Any risk of a "China Syndrome"? I'm guessing the heat exchanger for molten lead to water would be a bit tricky, can't let the lead cool off to much or you get a clog! Also the water loop would need to be under high pressure, then flashed into steam to turn a very high pressure turbine[same as current design]. Wouldn't the molten lead used as the coolant also be radioactive so we have the same waste disposal problem don't we?
As was discussed yesterday in the Wal-Mart thread, Wal-Mart wants BOTH. They tell you it MUST cost $X and have A,B,C features or we won't buy it. And $X better be lower than any other product. Many, many companies have been tried to keep up with Wal-Marts continuing price pressure and either gone broke or moved jobs to China to keep solvent.
Dispersed over a very wide area (and mostly over water) at high altitude it wouldn't be nearly as bad as say fallout from a weapon. It don't think it would be nearly as bad as you say. If it was low-level waste (which most of it is) it might not be an issue at all. We have had several Russian sattelites re-enter that had nuclear fuel on board and no one has died yet. Of course they had maybe a few kg on board not tons which would need to be launched in order to even think about the cost being reasonable. Like most things, a little bit over time won't hurt ya but a lot right now will kill you. The risks are too high right now as well as the costs to make it a practical solution.
I thought the traffic would be higher. At Cisco I was told they (can't say we as I don't work with them now) hit 10M a day on busy days and 7M was average. We only ran Exchange at the mailbox level. We used an email gateway box at the edge (behind the firewalls) and the servers were actually in the UK for all the worldwide email.