Preaching to the choir. In my 4 years at public Highschool, I remember one visit by police. A student was caught smoking pot in the bathroom, if I recall correctly. No guns, probably knives, but no knife fights.
Heck, in grade school I walked the 1.5 miles to and from school. Rain, shine, I doubt my parents ever dropped me off at school. The school near my house here has special traffic control to accommodate parents dropping off students.
When I was in school (public school, pre-university) there was no student ID. We just went to class, learned, did after school activities (if desired) and then went home. Alas, the public schools have become police states with lockdowns, gates, guards, and metal detectors. No wonder students are not learning.
Heck, I was trusted enough to be given a physical key to get into our computer lab (8 Apple II's) in the afternoon to work on them.
Agreed. I have been a lifelong reader, starting in high school, and have probably averages 3 novels a week since then. The only physical books I have nostalgia for are those that haven't been re-released in ebook format.
In fact, I was an early adopter of the e-ink reader since I travel a lot, I got tired of carrying 5-6 SciFi novels on my international trips to read. Carrying a hundred or so books is now trivial, and welcomed on 14 hour flights as well as sleepless nights in Asia.
Maintenance is climbing on the roof once a year, and washing them like windows. 25 years guaranteed life, probably longer than that (and that is longer than I will likely live).
I would probably argue that I (me that is) would be hard pressed to invest in stock and get even 5% over the last decade (judging by my portfolio and retirement account), it is indeed a good investment.
And when the electricity rates go up, the payback is even better.
BTW today, that $17K investment would probably be $10K with the price reductions of the panels. Crazy good deals there.
My house in Tucson, Arizona has a 7.6kW PV system. Our total electric bill for the year is ~ $180.00. It used to be about $2000. Most months, we generate more than we use, and we just pay the $7 taxes. Out of pocket cost was a hair over $17K, so in 9-ish years it will pay for itself, and we will have an annual electricity bill that is less than one of the former summer months' consumption.
Of course living in the sunshine capital of the US is helpful in the generation
True. But my willingness to stand up to senior management and even executives in the C-suite and tell them the truth is why I am still "just" a product manager after 14 years (well, that and I am really good at it).
I have seen career advancement opportunities evaporate simply because I was a pragmatist and would tell them an idea was not in the best interest of the organization. The satisfaction of watching the train wreck in slow motion is not worth the smugness of being right.
The fact is that at large companies, people get consistently promoted by saying yes, and beating the people under them mercilessly to deliver half assed results. Those of us with consciences leave to find better environments to work in.
And to answer your original question: it's a general rule of the universe that if you're going to replace something, it had better be pretty comparable to what it's replacing. Yes, Google has been doing this for a long time, but "what it takes to make a good map app" is very much a known quantity by now so it should be relatively easy to replicate -- or at least hold your product up in comparison to see if it's as good.
I was just having this argument with my development team. In 14 years of product management experience, this has universally been the truth. Engineering can make all the excuses that they want, but if the replacement product can't do what the current product does, you will have to support both platforms until it does. And they hate doing that.
You are my hero. Please, can we wipe Comic-Sans off the face of the earth?
I have a colleague who insists on using comic-sans for all his presentations, and even the site newsletter. Nothing screams unprofessional like Comic-Sans font.
This. I do a lot of volunteer work for a local nonprofit (we rescue greyhounds off the track and work their transition into couch potatoes). Facebook used to be our best channel to attract volunteers and potential adopters. But about 6 months ago they started this. If you don't pay to "promote" your post only a small fraction of the people who like or follow your page will see an entry in their timeline. Granted with only a few hundred likes, the cost to promote is only like $6.00. But we post 4 - 5 times a day, every day. We can't afford their promotion and it has really hurt our outreach efforts.
I know Facebook needs to monetize, and that their great hope is advertising, but this isn't advertising, and it is greatly reducing the value of their interconnected community.
Don't know where you work, but in my experience, HR doesn't hire people. The hiring manager files the req, and guides the requirements for the role. HR goes and finds candidate, but they don't select the person, it is the hiring manager's responsibility to hire a hero (or goof up and hire a bozo). HR just pre-screens based on what they are told.
Yes, that means that the hiring manager usually asks for certs or degrees, and HR/Recruitment try to bring in candidates.
Of course, my experience is that either they bring in bad candidates, or that your requirements (certs/degree/salary range) filters the input list to 0.
Arizona too. I travel a lot, so as soon as they gave the option for permanent vote by mail status, I signed up.
Stupid easy too. I moved from Tucson to Phoenix (both in AZ), and when I changed my Drivers license address (on the web), I was able to register to vote, and get the permanent vote by mail. Ease peasy
The case was for some pissant armed robbery. I was the only member of the seated jury that had a graduate degree, and there were no questions beyond whether I could be objective, had the time to sit on the jury, and was willing. They did ask about my employment, and my educational background, but they seemed to be pretty general. I was struck with the defense's discretionary strikes.
Every jury I have been called for, I was excused from in the voir dire. Apparently, being a physicist, technologist, and having a broad range of knowledge about geopolitical, local, and national issues makes you too smart for one team or the other.
The last one I was in the selection pool for, I was called in on the first day, seated first in the jury box, and survived until the last strike from the defense team. I was the last person that they rejected. Pissed me off because it took 4 days to get to that point.
I have come to the conclusion that one side or the other is always interested in having morons sitting in the box.
Hmmm. Not in my experience. Engineering is given a specification for a product. They respond with what they think is a project plan with all uncertainties accounted for. Building a flux capacitor (or whatever tricky widget) that they thought would be a 2 week process becomes 8 months. They start backpedaling on their commitment, and finally product management accedes to their "reduced" spec (note: engineers these days seem to love tossing the term Minimum Viable Product around. It doesn't mean a minimally functional product done quickly), and the product is launched. Engineering can be counted on 2 or three cycles of fixes (bugs, fixing production glitches in manufacturing, whatever) then they move on to the next big thing, and can't wait to tell support/mfg engineering that it is their problem.
Of course, senior management often gets in the middle of this and applies pressure through both the marketing/product management organization and the engineering management.
I am in marketing and product management, and I can state that this is not true. Often it is engineering who wants to cut or discontinue support for older products.
It is far more common that I have to force them to support a reasonable life cycle after the launch of a new version (reasonable being 3 or 5 years).
FWIW, Microsoft publishes their PLC, and is quite good at giving you runway to plan for end of support.
The reaction was so severe, that she was dying in the ER. And, she didn't know about the price until the bill came. Kind of like how it is hard to shop for the best healthcare bang for the buck. There is no transparency, and the providers/insurers like it that way.
Like when I had my heart attack. I really didn't have time to debate between St. Josephs, TMC and the university medical center. You kind of go where the ambulance takes you.
Except that our healthcare as it exists today is "up to the states" by and large. And you know what? The states have completely fucked up the laboratory experiment that is Healthcare. We know that doesn't work.
The only real option is a public, single payer system, and getting to a state where the US funds subsidies of drug prices around the world. Recently in AZ, where I live, there was a lady who had a major adverse reaction to a bark scorpion bite. 6 doses of antivenin that is manufactured in Mexico were administered. If she was in Mexico, total cost would have been about $600. Her bill? $35,000 for the same medicine that costs
Want more? I used to work for a multinational. They explicitly said that they will hire more people in Canada, the UK, France and Germany, while reducing their roster in the US. Reason? Healthcare costs. Paying the extra taxes and having universal healthcare is a powerful reason to move good high paying engineering jobs out of the US.
Actually, I have been listening to what Romney is saying, and he isn't saying much. He will cut the rates across the board 20%, and he will make it revenue neutral by closing some mythical loopholes.
The problem with what he is saying is that cutting the base rate = $5T over 10 years. Even eliminating the mortgage deduction, the employer's tax credit for providing health care, it barely begins to scratch that loss of revenue. Hell, cutting all foreign aid, including to Israel is barely noticeable. (Foreign aid is ~ $23B a year, over 1/3 goes to Egypt and Israel) http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm
The fact is taxes have to go up for the middle class if he is going to be revenue neutral. So, either he is lying about being revenue neutral, or lying about not raising taxes on the middle class. Can't have it both ways.
Actually, patent trolls don't want to go to court. They are used to companies rolling over and paying a nominal sum to "license" it and go away. Then they use this pot of "winnings" to go buy some other patent to then exploit. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Of course, when a company fights, it gets ugly, and takes years to conclude. And the only real winners are the lawyers.
After you have been slimed by a patent troll, the next time one hits you, you roll over and pay.
I got the unlucky task of being the 30(b)(6) deponent in a suit against my last employer (that was a large factor why I left). I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy. http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_30 It is an awesome responsibility, and it sucked major league to be on that hot seat for a totally bullshit court case.
Ah, this made me think of this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/incredible_photos I do use my phone to snap pics when I am out and about, but I also have a Canon 5D with an array of L series lenses.
I do not expect my phone to be my vacation picture taker.
Slashdot Mirror
Preaching to the choir. In my 4 years at public Highschool, I remember one visit by police. A student was caught smoking pot in the bathroom, if I recall correctly. No guns, probably knives, but no knife fights.
Heck, in grade school I walked the 1.5 miles to and from school. Rain, shine, I doubt my parents ever dropped me off at school. The school near my house here has special traffic control to accommodate parents dropping off students.
When I was in school (public school, pre-university) there was no student ID. We just went to class, learned, did after school activities (if desired) and then went home. Alas, the public schools have become police states with lockdowns, gates, guards, and metal detectors. No wonder students are not learning.
Heck, I was trusted enough to be given a physical key to get into our computer lab (8 Apple II's) in the afternoon to work on them.
Agreed. I have been a lifelong reader, starting in high school, and have probably averages 3 novels a week since then. The only physical books I have nostalgia for are those that haven't been re-released in ebook format.
In fact, I was an early adopter of the e-ink reader since I travel a lot, I got tired of carrying 5-6 SciFi novels on my international trips to read. Carrying a hundred or so books is now trivial, and welcomed on 14 hour flights as well as sleepless nights in Asia.
Yep, I have been buying them for some time now, and they are awesome. Good light throw too.
Maintenance is climbing on the roof once a year, and washing them like windows. 25 years guaranteed life, probably longer than that (and that is longer than I will likely live).
I would probably argue that I (me that is) would be hard pressed to invest in stock and get even 5% over the last decade (judging by my portfolio and retirement account), it is indeed a good investment.
And when the electricity rates go up, the payback is even better.
BTW today, that $17K investment would probably be $10K with the price reductions of the panels. Crazy good deals there.
My house in Tucson, Arizona has a 7.6kW PV system. Our total electric bill for the year is ~ $180.00. It used to be about $2000. Most months, we generate more than we use, and we just pay the $7 taxes. Out of pocket cost was a hair over $17K, so in 9-ish years it will pay for itself, and we will have an annual electricity bill that is less than one of the former summer months' consumption.
Of course living in the sunshine capital of the US is helpful in the generation
True. But my willingness to stand up to senior management and even executives in the C-suite and tell them the truth is why I am still "just" a product manager after 14 years (well, that and I am really good at it).
I have seen career advancement opportunities evaporate simply because I was a pragmatist and would tell them an idea was not in the best interest of the organization. The satisfaction of watching the train wreck in slow motion is not worth the smugness of being right.
The fact is that at large companies, people get consistently promoted by saying yes, and beating the people under them mercilessly to deliver half assed results. Those of us with consciences leave to find better environments to work in.
And to answer your original question: it's a general rule of the universe that if you're going to replace something, it had better be pretty comparable to what it's replacing. Yes, Google has been doing this for a long time, but "what it takes to make a good map app" is very much a known quantity by now so it should be relatively easy to replicate -- or at least hold your product up in comparison to see if it's as good.
I was just having this argument with my development team. In 14 years of product management experience, this has universally been the truth. Engineering can make all the excuses that they want, but if the replacement product can't do what the current product does, you will have to support both platforms until it does. And they hate doing that.
You are my hero. Please, can we wipe Comic-Sans off the face of the earth?
I have a colleague who insists on using comic-sans for all his presentations, and even the site newsletter. Nothing screams unprofessional like Comic-Sans font.
Ah, that brings back memories. Loved DESQview, and QEMM that made it possible.
Thanks for the memories...
Yeah, me too. Now I work at a place that is fully Oracle. I miss SAP now.
This. I do a lot of volunteer work for a local nonprofit (we rescue greyhounds off the track and work their transition into couch potatoes). Facebook used to be our best channel to attract volunteers and potential adopters. But about 6 months ago they started this. If you don't pay to "promote" your post only a small fraction of the people who like or follow your page will see an entry in their timeline. Granted with only a few hundred likes, the cost to promote is only like $6.00. But we post 4 - 5 times a day, every day. We can't afford their promotion and it has really hurt our outreach efforts.
I know Facebook needs to monetize, and that their great hope is advertising, but this isn't advertising, and it is greatly reducing the value of their interconnected community.
Don't know where you work, but in my experience, HR doesn't hire people. The hiring manager files the req, and guides the requirements for the role. HR goes and finds candidate, but they don't select the person, it is the hiring manager's responsibility to hire a hero (or goof up and hire a bozo). HR just pre-screens based on what they are told.
Yes, that means that the hiring manager usually asks for certs or degrees, and HR/Recruitment try to bring in candidates.
Of course, my experience is that either they bring in bad candidates, or that your requirements (certs/degree/salary range) filters the input list to 0.
Arizona too. I travel a lot, so as soon as they gave the option for permanent vote by mail status, I signed up.
Stupid easy too. I moved from Tucson to Phoenix (both in AZ), and when I changed my Drivers license address (on the web), I was able to register to vote, and get the permanent vote by mail. Ease peasy
The case was for some pissant armed robbery. I was the only member of the seated jury that had a graduate degree, and there were no questions beyond whether I could be objective, had the time to sit on the jury, and was willing. They did ask about my employment, and my educational background, but they seemed to be pretty general. I was struck with the defense's discretionary strikes.
Every jury I have been called for, I was excused from in the voir dire. Apparently, being a physicist, technologist, and having a broad range of knowledge about geopolitical, local, and national issues makes you too smart for one team or the other.
The last one I was in the selection pool for, I was called in on the first day, seated first in the jury box, and survived until the last strike from the defense team. I was the last person that they rejected. Pissed me off because it took 4 days to get to that point.
I have come to the conclusion that one side or the other is always interested in having morons sitting in the box.
Damn. And my Mod points expired yesterday.
Hmmm. Not in my experience. Engineering is given a specification for a product. They respond with what they think is a project plan with all uncertainties accounted for. Building a flux capacitor (or whatever tricky widget) that they thought would be a 2 week process becomes 8 months. They start backpedaling on their commitment, and finally product management accedes to their "reduced" spec (note: engineers these days seem to love tossing the term Minimum Viable Product around. It doesn't mean a minimally functional product done quickly), and the product is launched. Engineering can be counted on 2 or three cycles of fixes (bugs, fixing production glitches in manufacturing, whatever) then they move on to the next big thing, and can't wait to tell support/mfg engineering that it is their problem.
Of course, senior management often gets in the middle of this and applies pressure through both the marketing/product management organization and the engineering management.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I am in marketing and product management, and I can state that this is not true. Often it is engineering who wants to cut or discontinue support for older products.
It is far more common that I have to force them to support a reasonable life cycle after the launch of a new version (reasonable being 3 or 5 years).
FWIW, Microsoft publishes their PLC, and is quite good at giving you runway to plan for end of support.
Damn. And I without moderator points.
The reaction was so severe, that she was dying in the ER. And, she didn't know about the price until the bill came. Kind of like how it is hard to shop for the best healthcare bang for the buck. There is no transparency, and the providers/insurers like it that way.
Like when I had my heart attack. I really didn't have time to debate between St. Josephs, TMC and the university medical center. You kind of go where the ambulance takes you.
Except that our healthcare as it exists today is "up to the states" by and large. And you know what? The states have completely fucked up the laboratory experiment that is Healthcare. We know that doesn't work.
The only real option is a public, single payer system, and getting to a state where the US funds subsidies of drug prices around the world. Recently in AZ, where I live, there was a lady who had a major adverse reaction to a bark scorpion bite. 6 doses of antivenin that is manufactured in Mexico were administered. If she was in Mexico, total cost would have been about $600. Her bill? $35,000 for the same medicine that costs
Want more? I used to work for a multinational. They explicitly said that they will hire more people in Canada, the UK, France and Germany, while reducing their roster in the US. Reason? Healthcare costs. Paying the extra taxes and having universal healthcare is a powerful reason to move good high paying engineering jobs out of the US.
Actually, I have been listening to what Romney is saying, and he isn't saying much. He will cut the rates across the board 20%, and he will make it revenue neutral by closing some mythical loopholes.
The problem with what he is saying is that cutting the base rate = $5T over 10 years. Even eliminating the mortgage deduction, the employer's tax credit for providing health care, it barely begins to scratch that loss of revenue. Hell, cutting all foreign aid, including to Israel is barely noticeable. (Foreign aid is ~ $23B a year, over 1/3 goes to Egypt and Israel) http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm
The fact is taxes have to go up for the middle class if he is going to be revenue neutral. So, either he is lying about being revenue neutral, or lying about not raising taxes on the middle class. Can't have it both ways.
Actually, patent trolls don't want to go to court. They are used to companies rolling over and paying a nominal sum to "license" it and go away. Then they use this pot of "winnings" to go buy some other patent to then exploit. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Of course, when a company fights, it gets ugly, and takes years to conclude. And the only real winners are the lawyers.
After you have been slimed by a patent troll, the next time one hits you, you roll over and pay.
I got the unlucky task of being the 30(b)(6) deponent in a suit against my last employer (that was a large factor why I left). I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy. http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_30 It is an awesome responsibility, and it sucked major league to be on that hot seat for a totally bullshit court case.
Ah, this made me think of this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/incredible_photos I do use my phone to snap pics when I am out and about, but I also have a Canon 5D with an array of L series lenses. I do not expect my phone to be my vacation picture taker.