If there is no incentive to make money in a certain field, progress will suffer in a society such as a capitalist one.
Absolutely, but there shouldn't be blanket permission to prevent societies evolution to your gain. This was the original idea of copyright - the holder could make money out of their invention/creation for a "reasonable" period of time, then the content fell back into the public domain.
Also, once something is in the public domain, it should be there for all. Disney has made a fortune by taking out-of-copyright material (Cinderella, Pooh, Snow White), reworking it, then throwing lawyers at everybody who attempts to use the original material.
Finally, people who want to put their creations "conditionally" into the public domain (eg - GPL) should be protected. Although they aren't motivated by money, to see somebody else get rich by using your work (outside the rules) is a different kettle of fish.
A main problem I have seen with hiring from within is that many people who are VERY good at their jobs and have a lot of skills have no management skills.
Spot on. People who want to be good managers will be good managers, and as we all know, there is a severe shortage of good managers in IT.
Management can be learnt. Sure, some personalities are more suited to it than others, and some people have a more natural flair for management, but in the end, its a set of skills. The biggest point is "do you want to be a manager?" If the answer is no, then its not a promotion.
Companies need to find other ways to reward talented employees than "promotion" to management. If I have a top developer that I don't want to lose, why put them in a role where they aren't developing?
I'm lucky - I've worked for companies that "get it", but there seem to be plenty that don't.
'but if you went out there now and ask who the most famous horn player is, would they remember some felonious monk or would they shout for Glod Glodson?'
3. Interesting Times (IMNSHO, the funniest DW book).
IMHO your IMHO sux:)
Soul Music is the best DiscWorld novel ever, but maybe because I come from a long line of Jazz musicians I really appreciated all the references... especially those pertaining to Monk and The Blues Brothers.
And I forget how many people (women in particular) asked to be connected to a "real" technician.
I usally ask to speak to a real technician independantly of the sex of the person who answers the phone.
I hate calling tech support for anything these days. What should be a 5 minute problem usually blows out to wasting hours of my time trying to get in contact with somebody with 2/3 of a clue.
I think mythbusters is better than higher education research in some ways too, because they show you their methodologies in clear terms and not jargon designed to make it inaccessible to most people outside a certain field.
Um. and I'm "burnt up"? You sound like the unpopular fat kid at school who never gets invited to parties.
You've obviously never done any higher education research, or written a paper for an international journal. All respectable journals encourage showing methodologies and results in clear terms. Those who aim to be obscure and generally the older generation and looked down up. Of course there is some 'Jargon' - there has to be in every profession in order to communicate succinctly. Jargon is just an industry accepted shorthand.
And you lose your bet. I'm not "mired" in academia. I left academia 12 years ago to work in the "real world" of the IT industry.
The problem is that their experiements aren't usually well constructed. I spent five misspent years of my an applied physicist doing experimental materials science on thin films... I understand experiement construction.
But Mythbuster gets people thinking - and that's a good thing. Its also bloody entertaining.
They are professional special-effects guys with lots of experience. They are not engineers, they are not scientists, and they very rarely do anything that would be regarded as following the "Scientific Method".
However I'm a huge fan of the show because its bloody entertaining.
A good example of that would be the Toyota Camry. It is a very good car. For the most part Camry owners wouldn't even think about buying a different car.
The Camry is a safe, reliable, boring boat of a car that fills the void left when Volvo decided to move away from being "boxy but safe". Every Camry comes with a hat to put on the rear parcel shelf and automatically sprays Old Spice into the airconditioning unit.
They do in Latin America (which is where I learnt my Spanish), so I'm completely willing to believe that the Spanish have their own way of wording it, coño!
I actually am an excelllent driver. I say this as a 15+ year driver with no moving violations and no at-fault accidents (although I've been hit by others a few times).
I've had more years driving than you, no moving violations either, and the only accident to affect my vehicle was when somebody reversed into me in a car park.
However, I am not an excellent driver. I have good car control, good anticipatory skills ("drive as if everybody else is a dickhead"), but there is a lot of room for improvement.
What a stick *does* force me to do is use all four limbs while I drive.
What a stick does is ensure that the car does what I want to do when I want it to do it.
If I want to drop a gear to avoid an obstacle, I drop the gear - I don't push down on the accellerator and wait for the automatic transmission to work it out. If I'm pulling a load up a hill, same deal.
Yes, Automatic transmissions are a lot for responsive than they used to be, especially on higher end cars. I'll still argue that your average family sedan or city runabout isn't up to scratch.
"so when they buy or borrow another car that doesnt have tractional control power steering a fish finder they will be a danger to themselves and others"
Maybe this is less of a problem in the US, but the growing number of Australians who can't drive a car with a manual gear-box ("Stick") I find really concerning. Several people I went to school with learnt to drive on Mummy's comfy Camry (the new Volvo), then rushed out and bought a $2000 piece of junk. I remember one girl would roll back at least a car length everything she did an inclune start. I quickly learned her number plates and always ensure there were at least a couple of other victims between me and her.
The government has taken the first steps to doing something - if you do your driving test on an Auto, you are limitied to driving Autos for a year, but why would having a couple years of driving experience mean that you can just jump into a manual and drive safely? You need to be concentrating on the road, operating the vehicle needs to be instinct.
once did i see any evidence of an environment that fostered a silicon valley or whatever type of rampant innovation and development
You are spot on. There are very few incentives that encourage entrepeneurial behaviour, and in the end we are a small markets (20 million people) selling into a small market.
Today I went to talk to a group of PhDs who have spent the last 3 years developing some really funky s/ware. This friday they are off to europe and asia for two months to get some pilots up and running with some major international businesses. The only reason they got this far is that they knew people who knew people and were able to fund their work for the three years its taken to get to this point. No government help, no tax breaks... and Australia is not going to benefit from it: I'm betting that a major European provider snaps them up and then sells it back to us at an exhorbitant rate.
Maybe if you'd just stop dumping shit on anybody from the East Coast, some of us might come over to work there.
As it is, Perth has such a huge chip on its shoulder that anybody from Sydney or Melbourne is treated like a leper.
News to all Perth residents: We don't call you names. The only time I've heard people use the term "Sandgroper" has been when WA residents accuse use "Eastcoasters" of using the term.
Note to all non-Perth residents: Its a beautiful city, and if you tell the locals that you are from Adelaide, they are really nice people.
willing to work long hours for what we'd consider a shitty salary
C'mon. Everybody I know (including myself) in this industry in Australia work shitty hours. Programming deadlines, upgrade windows, tender responses, support calls. Even just the reading to stay on top of the technology. We get paid well because we know stuff and we put in the hard yards.
Looking around my office, if there are "foreigners" taking Australian jobs, then those foreigners all come from NZ (Out of 18 people I can see from my cube, 4 are kiwis). Kiwis don't even need a Visa to come work in Aus.
As far as these "unemployable" grads, I'd like to see their profiles. I still get people turning up with a three-year CS degree from a non-brand university, a CCNA and an expectation of a six-figure salary. Sorry guys, not going to happen when I can get somebody (either Aussie or Foreign) with a hell of a lot of experience for that money.
We don't discrimiate on race or background, but nor do we import people to work for us. Actually, I can't think of any reason to import "cheap" foreign workers: The hoops you have to jump through to get the Visa are still pretty stiff, they have no knowledge of the local market and if I just want to use them for programming, why not leave them where they are and send the work over?
No. I think at least a decent proportion of these grads don't have work because they don't have the skills or experience to land the jobs, nor the nouse to go out and get the requisites.
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So you didn't really have 10 years of experience in Windows 2003?
Absolutely, but there shouldn't be blanket permission to prevent societies evolution to your gain. This was the original idea of copyright - the holder could make money out of their invention/creation for a "reasonable" period of time, then the content fell back into the public domain.
Also, once something is in the public domain, it should be there for all. Disney has made a fortune by taking out-of-copyright material (Cinderella, Pooh, Snow White), reworking it, then throwing lawyers at everybody who attempts to use the original material.
Finally, people who want to put their creations "conditionally" into the public domain (eg - GPL) should be protected. Although they aren't motivated by money, to see somebody else get rich by using your work (outside the rules) is a different kettle of fish.
or bankrobber, embezeller or poodle torturer.
Just because you have the ability to do something doesn't mean that you want to, nor that you should.
He may very well make a good manager, but that doesn't mean that he has any compulsion to move his career in that path.
Spot on. People who want to be good managers will be good managers, and as we all know, there is a severe shortage of good managers in IT.
Management can be learnt. Sure, some personalities are more suited to it than others, and some people have a more natural flair for management, but in the end, its a set of skills. The biggest point is "do you want to be a manager?" If the answer is no, then its not a promotion.
Companies need to find other ways to reward talented employees than "promotion" to management. If I have a top developer that I don't want to lose, why put them in a role where they aren't developing?
I'm lucky - I've worked for companies that "get it", but there seem to be plenty that don't.
'but if you went out there now and ask who the most famous horn player is, would they remember some felonious monk or would they shout for Glod Glodson?'
IMHO your IMHO sux :)
Soul Music is the best DiscWorld novel ever, but maybe because I come from a long line of Jazz musicians I really appreciated all the references... especially those pertaining to Monk and The Blues Brothers.
I usally ask to speak to a real technician independantly of the sex of the person who answers the phone.
I hate calling tech support for anything these days. What should be a 5 minute problem usually blows out to wasting hours of my time trying to get in contact with somebody with 2/3 of a clue.
Um. and I'm "burnt up"? You sound like the unpopular fat kid at school who never gets invited to parties.
You've obviously never done any higher education research, or written a paper for an international journal. All respectable journals encourage showing methodologies and results in clear terms. Those who aim to be obscure and generally the older generation and looked down up. Of course there is some 'Jargon' - there has to be in every profession in order to communicate succinctly. Jargon is just an industry accepted shorthand.
And you lose your bet. I'm not "mired" in academia. I left academia 12 years ago to work in the "real world" of the IT industry.
At least technology has permitted us to rise above the language barrier.
The problem is that their experiements aren't usually well constructed. I spent five misspent years of my an applied physicist doing experimental materials science on thin films... I understand experiement construction. But Mythbuster gets people thinking - and that's a good thing. Its also bloody entertaining.
They are professional special-effects guys with lots of experience. They are not engineers, they are not scientists, and they very rarely do anything that would be regarded as following the "Scientific Method".
However I'm a huge fan of the show because its bloody entertaining.
The Camry is a safe, reliable, boring boat of a car that fills the void left when Volvo decided to move away from being "boxy but safe". Every Camry comes with a hat to put on the rear parcel shelf and automatically sprays Old Spice into the airconditioning unit.
They do in Latin America (which is where I learnt my Spanish), so I'm completely willing to believe that the Spanish have their own way of wording it, coño!
I've had more years driving than you, no moving violations either, and the only accident to affect my vehicle was when somebody reversed into me in a car park.
However, I am not an excellent driver. I have good car control, good anticipatory skills ("drive as if everybody else is a dickhead"), but there is a lot of room for improvement.
What a stick does is ensure that the car does what I want to do when I want it to do it.
If I want to drop a gear to avoid an obstacle, I drop the gear - I don't push down on the accellerator and wait for the automatic transmission to work it out. If I'm pulling a load up a hill, same deal.
Yes, Automatic transmissions are a lot for responsive than they used to be, especially on higher end cars. I'll still argue that your average family sedan or city runabout isn't up to scratch.
That's why I always smoke a couple of joints and snort a line of speed before pulling out of the driveway.
"so when they buy or borrow another car that doesnt have tractional control power steering a fish finder
they will be a danger to themselves and others"
Maybe this is less of a problem in the US, but the growing number of Australians who can't drive a car with a manual gear-box ("Stick") I find really concerning. Several people I went to school with learnt to drive on Mummy's comfy Camry (the new Volvo), then rushed out and bought a $2000 piece of junk. I remember one girl would roll back at least a car length everything she did an inclune start. I quickly learned her number plates and always ensure there were at least a couple of other victims between me and her.
The government has taken the first steps to doing something - if you do your driving test on an Auto, you are limitied to driving Autos for a year, but why would having a couple years of driving experience mean that you can just jump into a manual and drive safely? You need to be concentrating on the road, operating the vehicle needs to be instinct.
And what he actually said was:
"Los computadores no sirven para nada, sólo pueden darte respuestas"
(Computers are no good for anything, they only give you answers)
Melbourne, in general, has a more interesting mix. Sydney is just Kiwis, Poms and most of Asia.
At least we don't have too many South Africans (and, no, that's not a rascist comment: They are as white as I am and they are still arseholes)
Forbidden /2006/01/gp2x-needs-gpl-lesson.html on this server.
You don't have permission to access
Yep. There "is" no ads at all!
You are spot on. There are very few incentives that encourage entrepeneurial behaviour, and in the end we are a small markets (20 million people) selling into a small market.
Today I went to talk to a group of PhDs who have spent the last 3 years developing some really funky s/ware. This friday they are off to europe and asia for two months to get some pilots up and running with some major international businesses. The only reason they got this far is that they knew people who knew people and were able to fund their work for the three years its taken to get to this point. No government help, no tax breaks... and Australia is not going to benefit from it: I'm betting that a major European provider snaps them up and then sells it back to us at an exhorbitant rate.
The last ACS survey put this around 80%. Yeah - contacts are everything.
Strangely, this is the exact antithesis of the current Australian government's Science and Education policies.
Maybe if you'd just stop dumping shit on anybody from the East Coast, some of us might come over to work there.
As it is, Perth has such a huge chip on its shoulder that anybody from Sydney or Melbourne is treated like a leper.
News to all Perth residents: We don't call you names. The only time I've heard people use the term "Sandgroper" has been when WA residents accuse use "Eastcoasters" of using the term.
Note to all non-Perth residents: Its a beautiful city, and if you tell the locals that you are from Adelaide, they are really nice people.
C'mon. Everybody I know (including myself) in this industry in Australia work shitty hours. Programming deadlines, upgrade windows, tender responses, support calls. Even just the reading to stay on top of the technology. We get paid well because we know stuff and we put in the hard yards.
Looking around my office, if there are "foreigners" taking Australian jobs, then those foreigners all come from NZ (Out of 18 people I can see from my cube, 4 are kiwis). Kiwis don't even need a Visa to come work in Aus.
As far as these "unemployable" grads, I'd like to see their profiles. I still get people turning up with a three-year CS degree from a non-brand university, a CCNA and an expectation of a six-figure salary. Sorry guys, not going to happen when I can get somebody (either Aussie or Foreign) with a hell of a lot of experience for that money.
We don't discrimiate on race or background, but nor do we import people to work for us. Actually, I can't think of any reason to import "cheap" foreign workers: The hoops you have to jump through to get the Visa are still pretty stiff, they have no knowledge of the local market and if I just want to use them for programming, why not leave them where they are and send the work over?
No. I think at least a decent proportion of these grads don't have work because they don't have the skills or experience to land the jobs, nor the nouse to go out and get the requisites.