Amen brother. I am a product manager, report through the marketing organization, and I studied Physics in university. My SW team loves me because I am unafraid to roll up my sleeves and muck around with them, talking architecture, API's and working through use cases. My HW team respects me because I can bust out Maxwell's equations and work through the intricacies of electron beam optics with them.
And best of all, I do not have an MBA, and nobody seems to mind, as I have picked up enough business savvy in the 20 years or so I have been on this wild ride.
Sadly, techies often dis marketing, start their own firms doing solely what they want, and wonder why they fail miserably. A little market research up front, and promotion on the back end, and success likelihood greatly increases.
Marketing is useful and virtually a requirement if you are to be successful.
I will second this. My old company's UK office was based there. To see and walk around the campus was pretty cool (as well as the time I spent in one of their physics labs teaching the students how to use a piece of equipment. Ah, my youth...)
Bzzzt. That benefit (for US carriers at least) is as dad as the dodo. United, USAir, Delta, Continental, American all charge now for over seas alcohol.
Doesn't bother me though, as I rarely have even a single beer on a flight...
FWIW, I think that all the mainline international carriers still offer free beer and wine in the economy cabin.
Actually, If they fix three things, it will become a tractable problem.
1 ) Repeal Prop 13. Get rid of the silly frozen property tax, and negligible ability to raise the appraised value that it locked in. It is absurd that my folks like in a house that is valued at $850K and they pay $300 a year in property tax (based largely on its value in 1976).
2) have a blind chimpanzee redo the election districts so that there is a chance that an election might mean anything. The gerrymandering means that the choice for change is only happening in the primaries, which are closed mind you, as there is about as much chance of a R district going D as Jessica Alba showing up naked at my door this weekend.
3) Get rid of the constitutional requirement to have a super majority for tax increases. Hell get rid of it altogether. It allows the Republicans to be spoilers, and thus neither side feels compelled to negotiate in good faith.
I guess I shouldn't expect miss Alba to show up this weekend.
Well, I lived there a long time, and while much of what you say is true, there are some political reasons that should be brought up around why their services are amok, and their taxation is not high enough to support it.
First is their proposition system. This lets any hare-brained crackpot who can get enough signatures on a petition to put before the electorate an idea that will be codified into law. The Founding Fathers had enough wisdom to create a representative Republic for a reason. Like mice who can feed themselves morphine, the public LOVES to vote themselves shiny new butterflies. Even if they can't afford it. FWIW, one of the worst was Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann initiative to freeze property tax rates and assessed values in the late 70's.
Add to that some of the worst gerrymandering in the country, you have a remarkably stable slate of state politicians. The republicans and democrats are in such secure districts, that there is really no chance of ever changing the balance. Since the Republicans have enough to prevent a super majority, they have virtually unlimited veto power in practice.
I just mentioned the super majority. It turns out that the constitution demands a super majority (66%) to approve tax hikes. The republicans, who come from uber safe districts, use this to prevent anything that will help raise revenues to balance the state's expenditures.
So, what is left to play with is raising fees and rates on things like vehicle license fees and the sort.
It all boils down to they like to have a lot of public services, and they don't like to pay for them.
This reminds me of the work I did in Macro 11 back in the day. I used to spend a lot of time documenting each block of code, to the point that my partners on the program thought I was nuts. However, when we had to go back and maintain the code later, my blocks were quick and easy to decipher, and make any fixes.
ah, the good old days of PDP Assembly language....
Just wanted to say that the article was probably one of the best I had read in a while. I am a former member of the ACM (and may renew because of articles such as this).
Amen brother. I have been an off and on Mac user since the late 80's, Now my preference is my MacBook Pro. I use Logitech mice. They plug in and work, and the MX400 (I think that is my current fave) is super responsive and accurate. I think they (logitech) has a driver package, but I have never bothered to load it.
My wife has an iMac, with the stock super mouse, and it drives me nuts that she can't seem to adapt to the right click thing, and always resets it in the properties menu.
And hard travel time will take its toll on any laptop (Toughbook aside). I have found that in general, my MacBook Pro(s) have held up remarkably well to the toils of road warrior-ness. The magnetic power cord has probably saved me at least one logic board replacement.
Of course, my last employer used Dell's, and the Latitudes I have had sucked pretty hard. My new employer gave me a 3 year old Thinkpad, that has seen better days, and I have to say that I HATE the lenovo XP install. Their "handy utilities" suck. Nothing like watching the ATI driver panel, and the lenovo display presentation mode selector fight over the video port for the projector. I almost want to buck IT and load up a clean install, but I am not supposed to do such things...
Perhaps for me it was different. I studied Physics. BSc. and the coursework for the MSc. I took notes. on paper, with a pencil. For me, the comprehension came in applying the mathematics as I went in my notes, validating what the prof was deriving on the board (and often catching and calling out their gaffes). I would often fill in the 'skipped steps for brevity' (sometimes called "will be left to the reader as an exercise") during the lecture, as that would help my understanding. Further understanding would come from recopying the notes, and again filling in more details, between the lines.
In this day of multitasking able students, it amazes me that they can't focus themselves for the 55 or 90 minutes of a class, and truly be engaged.
Of course, I graduated from university before students all could be assumed to own a computer, let alone a laptop.
My PDE prof was like that. He would walk in, open the text to see where he left off, and then spend 90 minutes filling board after board with mathematical derivations, and practical, real world examples. He was a monster, and he graded very very hard. I learned a lot in that class.
Of course, I was in college before Powerpoint was really in existence, and we used chalk on black boards, no white boards.
Years later, I was helping a friend get her masters degree in economics, and it was amazing how much non-linear PDE's were used, and they didn't have the rigorous mathematics background to support it. Wild...
Welcome to the world of 2 - 3 acquisitions a year, and the never quite done consolidation of the IT infrastructure. A lot of mid sized companies are like this, and just have neither the stomach, nor the resources to unify everything.
Not everyone can handle an integration like a Cisco or an IBM, and these little details often linger for a LONG time.
Neither assertion is true, but both have some bearing on the fact. In my old company, we used iPhones and the exchange/activesyc connector. We were a ~ 900 person company, and probably 150 - 200 had the phone/email plan. The $15 a month isn't a huge deal, because it got us a person we could call when there was an issue, and she would just get it fixed. No hassle, no hemming and hawing, etc. It really helped the perceived service. I can assure you that every dollar that was part of our OpEx was critically monitored.
On the otherhand, where I am at now, we are a blackberry house, and I had to get one, as our implementation of Exchange wasn't current enough to allow me to connect my personal iPhone to it via activesync. I will refrain from commenting on my perception of the service, as I have only had it a couple weeks, but I did prefer the iPhone/exchange connection.
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Amen brother. I am a product manager, report through the marketing organization, and I studied Physics in university. My SW team loves me because I am unafraid to roll up my sleeves and muck around with them, talking architecture, API's and working through use cases. My HW team respects me because I can bust out Maxwell's equations and work through the intricacies of electron beam optics with them.
And best of all, I do not have an MBA, and nobody seems to mind, as I have picked up enough business savvy in the 20 years or so I have been on this wild ride.
Sadly, techies often dis marketing, start their own firms doing solely what they want, and wonder why they fail miserably. A little market research up front, and promotion on the back end, and success likelihood greatly increases.
Marketing is useful and virtually a requirement if you are to be successful.
Sometime in 2008. About the time that they started charging for checked baggage.
I will second this. My old company's UK office was based there. To see and walk around the campus was pretty cool (as well as the time I spent in one of their physics labs teaching the students how to use a piece of equipment. Ah, my youth...)
D'oh... dad = dead
Doesn't bother me though, as I rarely have even a single beer on a flight...
FWIW, I think that all the mainline international carriers still offer free beer and wine in the economy cabin.
Actually, If they fix three things, it will become a tractable problem.
1 ) Repeal Prop 13. Get rid of the silly frozen property tax, and negligible ability to raise the appraised value that it locked in. It is absurd that my folks like in a house that is valued at $850K and they pay $300 a year in property tax (based largely on its value in 1976).
2) have a blind chimpanzee redo the election districts so that there is a chance that an election might mean anything. The gerrymandering means that the choice for change is only happening in the primaries, which are closed mind you, as there is about as much chance of a R district going D as Jessica Alba showing up naked at my door this weekend.
3) Get rid of the constitutional requirement to have a super majority for tax increases. Hell get rid of it altogether. It allows the Republicans to be spoilers, and thus neither side feels compelled to negotiate in good faith.
I guess I shouldn't expect miss Alba to show up this weekend.
Sigh...
Well, I lived there a long time, and while much of what you say is true, there are some political reasons that should be brought up around why their services are amok, and their taxation is not high enough to support it.
First is their proposition system. This lets any hare-brained crackpot who can get enough signatures on a petition to put before the electorate an idea that will be codified into law. The Founding Fathers had enough wisdom to create a representative Republic for a reason. Like mice who can feed themselves morphine, the public LOVES to vote themselves shiny new butterflies. Even if they can't afford it. FWIW, one of the worst was Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann initiative to freeze property tax rates and assessed values in the late 70's.
Add to that some of the worst gerrymandering in the country, you have a remarkably stable slate of state politicians. The republicans and democrats are in such secure districts, that there is really no chance of ever changing the balance. Since the Republicans have enough to prevent a super majority, they have virtually unlimited veto power in practice.
I just mentioned the super majority. It turns out that the constitution demands a super majority (66%) to approve tax hikes. The republicans, who come from uber safe districts, use this to prevent anything that will help raise revenues to balance the state's expenditures.
So, what is left to play with is raising fees and rates on things like vehicle license fees and the sort.
It all boils down to they like to have a lot of public services, and they don't like to pay for them.
Yes it is (was) Europe whom you can thank for crappy Pb free solder...
Have another Old Fashioned with that too!
F' an A'. That sounds so familiar that I think I will cry....
This reminds me of the work I did in Macro 11 back in the day. I used to spend a lot of time documenting each block of code, to the point that my partners on the program thought I was nuts. However, when we had to go back and maintain the code later, my blocks were quick and easy to decipher, and make any fixes.
ah, the good old days of PDP Assembly language....
Just wanted to say that the article was probably one of the best I had read in a while. I am a former member of the ACM (and may renew because of articles such as this).
Great reading!
I think SAP is every bit as evil as MS or Apple...
Amen brother. I have been an off and on Mac user since the late 80's, Now my preference is my MacBook Pro. I use Logitech mice. They plug in and work, and the MX400 (I think that is my current fave) is super responsive and accurate. I think they (logitech) has a driver package, but I have never bothered to load it.
My wife has an iMac, with the stock super mouse, and it drives me nuts that she can't seem to adapt to the right click thing, and always resets it in the properties menu.
And hard travel time will take its toll on any laptop (Toughbook aside). I have found that in general, my MacBook Pro(s) have held up remarkably well to the toils of road warrior-ness. The magnetic power cord has probably saved me at least one logic board replacement.
Of course, my last employer used Dell's, and the Latitudes I have had sucked pretty hard. My new employer gave me a 3 year old Thinkpad, that has seen better days, and I have to say that I HATE the lenovo XP install. Their "handy utilities" suck. Nothing like watching the ATI driver panel, and the lenovo display presentation mode selector fight over the video port for the projector. I almost want to buck IT and load up a clean install, but I am not supposed to do such things...
Perhaps for me it was different. I studied Physics. BSc. and the coursework for the MSc. I took notes. on paper, with a pencil. For me, the comprehension came in applying the mathematics as I went in my notes, validating what the prof was deriving on the board (and often catching and calling out their gaffes). I would often fill in the 'skipped steps for brevity' (sometimes called "will be left to the reader as an exercise") during the lecture, as that would help my understanding. Further understanding would come from recopying the notes, and again filling in more details, between the lines.
In this day of multitasking able students, it amazes me that they can't focus themselves for the 55 or 90 minutes of a class, and truly be engaged.
Of course, I graduated from university before students all could be assumed to own a computer, let alone a laptop.
My PDE prof was like that. He would walk in, open the text to see where he left off, and then spend 90 minutes filling board after board with mathematical derivations, and practical, real world examples. He was a monster, and he graded very very hard. I learned a lot in that class.
Of course, I was in college before Powerpoint was really in existence, and we used chalk on black boards, no white boards.
Years later, I was helping a friend get her masters degree in economics, and it was amazing how much non-linear PDE's were used, and they didn't have the rigorous mathematics background to support it. Wild...
Damn, and I thought I was the only one who was thinking Hellhounds on my mind....
Bravo!
Welcome to the world of 2 - 3 acquisitions a year, and the never quite done consolidation of the IT infrastructure. A lot of mid sized companies are like this, and just have neither the stomach, nor the resources to unify everything.
Not everyone can handle an integration like a Cisco or an IBM, and these little details often linger for a LONG time.
No disagreement here. However, that is how the iPhone and WinMobile connect to exchange, for better or worse.
I can assure you it is worlds better than the steaming pile of shit that is GoodLink...
Neither assertion is true, but both have some bearing on the fact. In my old company, we used iPhones and the exchange/activesyc connector. We were a ~ 900 person company, and probably 150 - 200 had the phone/email plan. The $15 a month isn't a huge deal, because it got us a person we could call when there was an issue, and she would just get it fixed. No hassle, no hemming and hawing, etc. It really helped the perceived service. I can assure you that every dollar that was part of our OpEx was critically monitored.
On the otherhand, where I am at now, we are a blackberry house, and I had to get one, as our implementation of Exchange wasn't current enough to allow me to connect my personal iPhone to it via activesync. I will refrain from commenting on my perception of the service, as I have only had it a couple weeks, but I did prefer the iPhone/exchange connection.
Actually, it was Lockheed Martin and JPL who couldn't communicate effectively. I know people at both, and I am not surprised that it happened...
Not many of them would want to live in Taiwan, and work in Hsin Chu. For low wages.
Let's not get a metric conversion in this, ok?
Shudder. That is ugly...