Since there's a good chance that you make more money than 99% of humanity (like almost everyone on Slashdot / in the West) you too make "way too much money." I propose your local gov't confiscate your the vast majority of your fiscal property in order to help lift up the 99% of humanity who trail you financially. If someone in Bangladesh can survive on a few bucks a day, so can you./snark, but not really
RIIIIIIGHT. This is gov't we're talking about. Assuming and idea like this actually makes it into law I would bet a lot of money that it will be in addition to gasoline tax.
Something smells awfully fishy about the story anyway. If more and more people are moving to higher gas mileage cars (doubtful since the environmentalists have been screaming blue murder that average gas mileage in cars is decreasing as of late) then the simple solution would be to increase the gasoline tax. There has to be another angle.
I agree that software doesn't equal bridge, but the question I was answering was more "can you learn project management" as opposed to "which type of project management works well." Software is a different beast than construction projects and will no doubt require a different type of PM process, just like a small turnaround project is vastly different that a brand new stick-build project and requires a different type of PM process. Whatever the process is, though, the Project Manager needs to know it and apply rigor to its implementation.
The evidence suggests to me that either you can do it (presumably with some practice) or you can't.
I'm going to have to disagree with this one. Project Management in general is a pretty mature field. I deal with project managers from the oil, gas and chemical fields every day and these guys and gals are well trained at what they do. There is very little "hey, we're just good at it." Most project managers work their way up the system during their careers, learning different aspects of a project from the bottom of the project team on up. Plus, companies will send project managers to either outside PM training, or for the larger companies will have their own, interior colleges.
The reason all this time and money is spent training project managers is because a good project manager (in those fields) can literally save billions in capital costs, hundreds of millions in lost opportunity costs and workers lives. Project systems are pretty well defined and they usually require proper front-end-loading to make sure the project team knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing it before they actually start execution. Plus, there are formal risk analysis steps performed so the team knows what might come back to bite them in the ass so they can be prepared with the appropriate contingencies.
Now, with respect to software, from what I have seen anecdotally there's just not the same kind of rigor placed on most software projects, even large, very expensive software projects. The upfront definition tends to lack the type of detail you see in other (physical) capital projects. I don't know if its the idea that "Hey, its only software, its no problem if we change crap halfway through implementation" that causes this or something else, but its a killer when it comes to controlling cost and schedule, not to mention the ramifications that has on the project team (low moral, work crunches, throwing bodies at the problem, etc.).
The moral of the story (I'll stop rambling here) is that project management is very much a learned skill. Although its not as mature in the software field and software specific project management training may not be as available as more PM training specific to more traditional industries, its still worth looking to get as much training as possible. It will pay back in spades. Also, as someone above mentioned, network your butt off with other IT PMs. Learn from others what works and what doesn't work. Also, start formulating a company-wide project system with you colleagues. And go read up on the successful IT PM jobs. From what I understand Boeing did an awesome job with the software development associated with the 777. See if there are any case studies about how they did it floating around.
Except that Markos said he wasn't being wasn't for policy, but for "technical" consulting.
But for the record, I will not discuss my role within the Dean campaign, other than to say it's technical, not message or strategy. I will also not discuss any of my other clients, including their identities (I have non-disclose agreements to which I must adhere).
However, according to Zephyr Teachout the money wasn't paid to Kos for any technical consulting, but to buy his loyalty.
On Dean's campaign, we paid Markos and Jerome Armstrong as consultants, largely in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean. We paid them over twice as much as we paid two staffers of similar backgrounds, and they had several other clients.
While they ended up also providing useful advice, the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime. To be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment -- but it was very clearly, internally, our goal.
A bit OT, but your post has reminded me of something I've always wondered about. Has someone come up with a "User" level version of APT or YUM? i.e. something that allows a non-root user to install packages in their own little userspace corner of the filesystem?
I was talking about walking down the street. If someone is carrying a gun, then they are a valid target - for police and criminals.
First of all, why does having a gun make you a "valid" target? Does it state somewhere in the criminal code that if you own/carry a gun a "criminal" now has the right to mug you? Secondly, have any data to back that up the idea that people lawfully carrying guns are targeted more by criminals? Or that people who have guns in their house (which was the argument that I was making) have their houses robbed? Shouldn't be hard to find since there are quite a few states that have both carry and concealed carry laws. And go ask your common thief who they'd rather rob: someone they know is armed or someone they know is unarmed.
If I am burgled, it is less likely that I will be shot than you would in the same situation.
But a) I am less likely to be burgled and b) the burglar has a much greater likelihood of being shot, which is, I believe, the point.
So, either you're a house burglar, in which case no, you shouldn't have the right not to be shot at or you're not a house burglar, and you have nothing to worry about.
But violent crime (per 1000 head of population) is worse in the UK. I believe England and Wales have just topped the charts for industrialized nations in that statistic. And ~50% of all burglaries there are home invasions (i.e. the residents are home during the robbery), as compared to about 15% here. You tend to have problems like that when you take away the right for a person to defend himself in his own home.
(Second hand knowledge of this as my cousin in Bristol did time for defending his house from career criminals with a knife).
This made me think of Michael Crichton's Aliens Cause Global Warming" speech, which is actually quite apropos since he took on the idea of scientific "consensus:"
In addition, let me remind you that the track record of the consensus is nothing to be proud of. Let's review a few cases.
In past centuries, the greatest killer of women was fever following childbirth . One woman in six died of this fever. In 1795, Alexander Gordon of Aberdeen suggested that the fevers were infectious processes, and he was able to cure them. The consensus said no. In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed puerperal fever was contagious, and presented compelling evidence. The consensus said no. In 1849, Semmelweiss demonstrated that sanitary techniques virtually eliminated puerperal fever in hospitals under his management. The consensus said he was a Jew, ignored him, and dismissed him from his post. There was in fact no agreement on puerperal fever until the start of the twentieth century. Thus the consensus took one hundred and twenty five years to arrive at the right conclusion despite the efforts of the prominent "skeptics" around the world, skeptics who were demeaned and ignored. And despite the constant ongoing deaths of women.
There is no shortage of other examples. In the 1920s in America, tens of thousands of people, mostly poor, were dying of a disease called pellagra. The consensus of scientists said it was infectious, and what was necessary was to find the "pellagra germ." The US government asked a brilliant young investigator, Dr. Joseph Goldberger, to find the cause. Goldberger concluded that diet was the crucial factor. The consensus remained wedded to the germ theory. Goldberger demonstrated that he could induce the disease through diet. He demonstrated that the disease was not infectious by injecting the blood of a pellagra patient into himself, and his assistant. They and other volunteers swabbed their noses with swabs from pellagra patients, and swallowed capsules containing scabs from pellagra rashes in what were called "Goldberger's filth parties." Nobody contracted pellagra. The consensus continued to disagree with him. There was, in addition, a social factor-southern States disliked the idea of poor diet as the cause, because it meant that social reform was required. They continued to deny it until the 1920s. Result-despite a twentieth century epidemic, the consensus took years to see the light.
Probably every schoolchild notices that South America and Africa seem to fit together rather snugly, and Alfred Wegener proposed, in 1912, that the continents had in fact drifted apart. The consensus sneered at continental drift for fifty years. The theory was most vigorously denied by the great names of geology-until 1961, when it began to seem as if the sea floors were spreading. The result: it took the consensus fifty years to acknowledge what any schoolchild sees.
And shall we go on? The examples can be multiplied endlessly. Jenner and smallpox, Pasteur and germ theory. Saccharine, margarine, repressed memory, fiber and colon cancer, hormone replacement therapy. The list of consensus errors goes on and on. Finally, I would remind you to notice where the claim of consensus is invoked. Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2. Nobody says the consensus is that the sun is 93 million miles away. It would never occur to anyone to speak that way.
Perhaps instead of demanding more money, schools should evaluate how they are spending the money they already get.
*** WARNING: Blog Pimping Ahead ***
Bingo! I live in DC and see this crap first hand. The students routinely score at the bottom of the national average, the drop out and truancy rates are staggering, and some of the schools, when not falling over from sever neglect, are borderline war zones (and I wish I was exaggerating about this).
Interestingly enough, though, DC public schools are well funded on a per student basis. Near the top nationwide. So if its not money, what's to blame? How about bloated, ineffectual at best / corrupt at worst managment (contract being awarded to the highest bidder, complete lack of any sort of capital works plan). How about criminally low expectations ("Want to be able to graduate without ever stepping into a math class? Go right ahead." "Don't feel like coming to school? Don't worry, we won't consider you truant until you miss fifteen days in a row). How about a Teacher's Union that cares more about ripping off its members to the tune of $2+ million than the welfare of the children its supposed to teach.
The only good that has come out of DC's education mess is a vibrant private school system that caters to all socio-economic backgrounds. DCPS is proof positive that you can't solve problems by simply throwing money at them.
The reason China looks so good per capita is because most of China is still an agrarian, third world backwater. Scale up China's current "modern" infrastructure to cover the entire population and China would disappear under a cloud of smog.
Don't forget that Socialist paradise formerly known as the Soviet Block. You want to see some environmental carnage, go take a look at any industrial site in the old Soviet controled nations. Hell, as much as people bitch about "big oil" and how dirty they are take a gander at a place like Baku some time. That place makes the worst Superfund site in the States look like a meadow full of daffodils.
The reason China looks so good per capita is because most of China is still an agrarian, third world backwater. Scale up China's current "modern" infrastructure to cover the entire population and China would disappear under a cloud of smog.
Ah... good catch; I had forgotten about that. Although if I remember the object of the Snowman's affections had quite a bit of breast reduction work done on her for the Monsters version.
When people talk about Toy Story, Finding Nemo, et al, they are talking about Pixar, not Disney.
The press around The Incredibles is when I knew Disney had lost their "Family Film" mind share. For the first time all of the reviews I read and heard were talking about how this was a Pixar film and didn't mention Disney at all.
Pixar now has the reputation Disney had for so long that their name is synonymous with quality family entertainment, and that has to be killing the Disney board.
(They do know how to make good stories - see some of their shorts from the old animation festivals for proof of this.)
I remember seeing the snow-globe short at some animation festival back in college and almost peeing my pants I was laughing so hard. At one point Disney was selling all of Pixars early shorts on one video tape (got my grubby little hands on a copy). I wonder if they ever released them on DVD?
In general, I'd have to agree that Disney has, for the most part, gotten stuck in the "let's make some sort of Lion King / Little Mermaid rip off" (The Hunchback..., Mulan, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Atlantis, Treasure Planet,...) they have made some decent animation over the last few years:
Lilo and Stitch Home on the Range The Emperors New Groove Teacher's Pet
Granted, not exactly Citizen Kane, but damn good animated films nevertheless.
Slashdot Mirror
no political system has yet been found to work
Which is a damn good reason to have no political system involved in the first place.
Since there's a good chance that you make more money than 99% of humanity (like almost everyone on Slashdot / in the West) you too make "way too much money." I propose your local gov't confiscate your the vast majority of your fiscal property in order to help lift up the 99% of humanity who trail you financially. If someone in Bangladesh can survive on a few bucks a day, so can you. /snark, but not really
I envisions bitch slapping... pride obliterating bitch slapping.
Maybe some fart eating thrown in for good measure.
RIIIIIIGHT. This is gov't we're talking about. Assuming and idea like this actually makes it into law I would bet a lot of money that it will be in addition to gasoline tax.
Something smells awfully fishy about the story anyway. If more and more people are moving to higher gas mileage cars (doubtful since the environmentalists have been screaming blue murder that average gas mileage in cars is decreasing as of late) then the simple solution would be to increase the gasoline tax. There has to be another angle.
I agree that software doesn't equal bridge, but the question I was answering was more "can you learn project management" as opposed to "which type of project management works well." Software is a different beast than construction projects and will no doubt require a different type of PM process, just like a small turnaround project is vastly different that a brand new stick-build project and requires a different type of PM process. Whatever the process is, though, the Project Manager needs to know it and apply rigor to its implementation.
The evidence suggests to me that either you can do it (presumably with some practice) or you can't.
I'm going to have to disagree with this one. Project Management in general is a pretty mature field. I deal with project managers from the oil, gas and chemical fields every day and these guys and gals are well trained at what they do. There is very little "hey, we're just good at it." Most project managers work their way up the system during their careers, learning different aspects of a project from the bottom of the project team on up. Plus, companies will send project managers to either outside PM training, or for the larger companies will have their own, interior colleges.
The reason all this time and money is spent training project managers is because a good project manager (in those fields) can literally save billions in capital costs, hundreds of millions in lost opportunity costs and workers lives. Project systems are pretty well defined and they usually require proper front-end-loading to make sure the project team knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing it before they actually start execution. Plus, there are formal risk analysis steps performed so the team knows what might come back to bite them in the ass so they can be prepared with the appropriate contingencies.
Now, with respect to software, from what I have seen anecdotally there's just not the same kind of rigor placed on most software projects, even large, very expensive software projects. The upfront definition tends to lack the type of detail you see in other (physical) capital projects. I don't know if its the idea that "Hey, its only software, its no problem if we change crap halfway through implementation" that causes this or something else, but its a killer when it comes to controlling cost and schedule, not to mention the ramifications that has on the project team (low moral, work crunches, throwing bodies at the problem, etc.).
The moral of the story (I'll stop rambling here) is that project management is very much a learned skill. Although its not as mature in the software field and software specific project management training may not be as available as more PM training specific to more traditional industries, its still worth looking to get as much training as possible. It will pay back in spades. Also, as someone above mentioned, network your butt off with other IT PMs. Learn from others what works and what doesn't work. Also, start formulating a company-wide project system with you colleagues. And go read up on the successful IT PM jobs. From what I understand Boeing did an awesome job with the software development associated with the 777. See if there are any case studies about how they did it floating around.
Of course, Safari kicks them both :-)
Not always. With more complex pages I find Safari to really, really bog down.
Still pales in comparison to what Armstrong did.
Have reps from all three pubs in one location. No need for video feed.
In fact, if you really want to go whole hog have a three round tournament, one round in each pub. Triple your opportunity to solicit donations.
A bit OT, but your post has reminded me of something I've always wondered about. Has someone come up with a "User" level version of APT or YUM? i.e. something that allows a non-root user to install packages in their own little userspace corner of the filesystem?
I was talking about walking down the street. If someone is carrying a gun, then they are a valid target - for police and criminals.
First of all, why does having a gun make you a "valid" target? Does it state somewhere in the criminal code that if you own/carry a gun a "criminal" now has the right to mug you? Secondly, have any data to back that up the idea that people lawfully carrying guns are targeted more by criminals? Or that people who have guns in their house (which was the argument that I was making) have their houses robbed? Shouldn't be hard to find since there are quite a few states that have both carry and concealed carry laws. And go ask your common thief who they'd rather rob: someone they know is armed or someone they know is unarmed.
If I am burgled, it is less likely that I will be shot than you would in the same situation.
But a) I am less likely to be burgled and b) the burglar has a much greater likelihood of being shot, which is, I believe, the point.
You have the right to defend yourself.
I have the right not be shot at so often.
So, either you're a house burglar, in which case no, you shouldn't have the right not to be shot at or you're not a house burglar, and you have nothing to worry about.
But violent crime (per 1000 head of population) is worse in the UK. I believe England and Wales have just topped the charts for industrialized nations in that statistic. And ~50% of all burglaries there are home invasions (i.e. the residents are home during the robbery), as compared to about 15% here. You tend to have problems like that when you take away the right for a person to defend himself in his own home.
(Second hand knowledge of this as my cousin in Bristol did time for defending his house from career criminals with a knife).
And now that handguns are illegal shootings in DC have all but disappeared....
the original Star Trek was about as low budget as Sci Fi comes
You've obviously never seen British (BBC) SciFi. Blakes 7, Early Dr. Who, even Red Dwarf. Cheap, cheap, cheap (yet mostly really good stories).
And this has what, exactly, to do with the topic at hand?
Perhaps instead of demanding more money, schools should evaluate how they are spending the money they already get.
*** WARNING: Blog Pimping Ahead ***
Bingo! I live in DC and see this crap first hand. The students routinely score at the bottom of the national average, the drop out and truancy rates are staggering, and some of the schools, when not falling over from sever neglect, are borderline war zones (and I wish I was exaggerating about this).
Interestingly enough, though, DC public schools are well funded on a per student basis. Near the top nationwide. So if its not money, what's to blame? How about bloated, ineffectual at best / corrupt at worst managment (contract being awarded to the highest bidder, complete lack of any sort of capital works plan). How about criminally low expectations ("Want to be able to graduate without ever stepping into a math class? Go right ahead." "Don't feel like coming to school? Don't worry, we won't consider you truant until you miss fifteen days in a row ). How about a Teacher's Union that cares more about ripping off its members to the tune of $2+ million than the welfare of the children its supposed to teach.
The only good that has come out of DC's education mess is a vibrant private school system that caters to all socio-economic backgrounds. DCPS is proof positive that you can't solve problems by simply throwing money at them.
(You can read the sordid details at the DC Education Blog)
The reason China looks so good per capita is because most of China is still an agrarian, third world backwater. Scale up China's current "modern" infrastructure to cover the entire population and China would disappear under a cloud of smog.
Don't forget that Socialist paradise formerly known as the Soviet Block. You want to see some environmental carnage, go take a look at any industrial site in the old Soviet controled nations. Hell, as much as people bitch about "big oil" and how dirty they are take a gander at a place like Baku some time. That place makes the worst Superfund site in the States look like a meadow full of daffodils.
The reason China looks so good per capita is because most of China is still an agrarian, third world backwater. Scale up China's current "modern" infrastructure to cover the entire population and China would disappear under a cloud of smog.
Unfortunately it looks like you can only view "sneak peeks" of some of them (Knick Knack included).
Ah... good catch; I had forgotten about that. Although if I remember the object of the Snowman's affections had quite a bit of breast reduction work done on her for the Monsters version.
When people talk about Toy Story, Finding Nemo, et al, they are talking about Pixar, not Disney.
The press around The Incredibles is when I knew Disney had lost their "Family Film" mind share. For the first time all of the reviews I read and heard were talking about how this was a Pixar film and didn't mention Disney at all.
Pixar now has the reputation Disney had for so long that their name is synonymous with quality family entertainment, and that has to be killing the Disney board.
(They do know how to make good stories - see some of their shorts from the old animation festivals for proof of this.)
I remember seeing the snow-globe short at some animation festival back in college and almost peeing my pants I was laughing so hard. At one point Disney was selling all of Pixars early shorts on one video tape (got my grubby little hands on a copy). I wonder if they ever released them on DVD?
In general, I'd have to agree that Disney has, for the most part, gotten stuck in the "let's make some sort of Lion King / Little Mermaid rip off" (The Hunchback..., Mulan, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, ...) they have made some decent animation over the last few years:
Lilo and Stitch
Home on the Range
The Emperors New Groove
Teacher's Pet
Granted, not exactly Citizen Kane, but damn good animated films nevertheless.