I should not read *any* "workplace discussion" right now. I'm about to leave my very cushy, very low-paying job for a contract gig with an offer of money that I can't refuse. But I'm pretty sure I'll have to actually work, and worse, work for other people. I'm a little scared. But I *Really* need the money.
A rule of thumb in the old days was, "60K miles was half an engine."
I lived in a part of the country where rust wasn't much of a problem, if you took reasonable care of a vehicle. Now, people tended to replace their cars every 5 or 6 years mostly because they could (times were prosperous, and families were basing their ideas of consumerism on their post-WWII experiences.) But *trucks* were another matter. And it was very common for trucks to hold out well over 100K miles, even if it meant replacing drive trains. I suspect the general sentiment for trucks came from a tractor culture. When my family's farm operated, we had a tractor that had been used for 2 generations. My uncle had a machine shop, and it was rather common for people to go as far as to fabricate parts to keep tractors going. Farm margins being razor thin, it was simply unthinkable to replace a tractor. And I think this conservative point of view carried over into trucks, but not "family cars" so much. My uncle (the same one with the machine shop) had a 1961 Plymouth Fury that he somehow managed to keep in immaculate condition for almost 30 years (until he died). This was particularly amazing because the man was usually filthy, carried welding stuff around, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he put a quarter million miles on that car.
My '91 Volvo has 317,000 km on it, about 200,000 miles. That's one engine, two transmissions, lots of suspension parts, and the thing that's going to kill it is the heater fan going out. (They basically put the heater fan in first, and then assemble the frame around it, and so replacing it is one of the most complicated possible jobs.)
>Let your boss deal with it. That's why he or she makes more money than you.
Not all of us are so far removed from the source of funding, or so well insulated from the risks of not getting work done. The ineffective "IT Person" just gets ignored after a disappointment like that. And I assume that same person is somewhere bitching about how stupid their boss is, and blaming other people for being stuck in an entry level IT position. By the way, my boss actually makes less money than I do, but has significantly more job security and authority.
A half day Friday defeats the purpose for me. If I have a Friday off, I can leave on Thursday night and actually go somewhere interesting, be there for Friday morning, return Sunday night, and it's like a vacation. But then I'm pretty spoiled. I can pretty much take off whenever I want at my current job. I'm thinking about going to a new job as a contractor, for a really good rate, but I'm worried about the shock when I find out I have to actually work hours that someone else specifies. I have not had an experience like that since the mid 90s.
I would always make plans well in advance and make sure that my supervisor knew not only that I had plans, but how much money I had invested in them. The implication was always there -- if your action deprives me of my ability to execute this plan, I am going to charge you the amount noted. I never had to play that card, but that's because I think the strategy worked to secure my days off, either when I had 9/80 or when I was simply planning vacation time. I'm seriously considering to write into my next contract, language that requires them to make reasonable compensation for travel or entertainment that I have to forego at the company's insistence.
If he were not (wisely) choosing his fights, he could simply order it. He is not subordinate to the advisers who don't want him using a Blackberry. In fact, he could replace them if he wanted -- he could even eliminate their positions. The President has a great deal of authority, very little of it subject to the opinion of anyone else.
"The most widely used definition of genius in the US is an IQ more than 2 standard deviations above average. I submit to you that no geniuses are within 2 standard deviations of the norm."
Yes, and I'm telling the OP that he probably doesn't have "geniuses" OR "morons" working for him. He's probably making arbitrary designations based on personality traits.
I saw Hale-Bopp while driving in a very dark part of the country. For most of my trip, the comet happened to be in my peripheral view, which, once I got used to it, turned out to be a good way to see it. It really was amazing, but nothing to base a doomsday cult on.
>Any earnt money is better than no earnt money when you have a mortgage.
Explain that a bit further: How does it help to take home $250 a week when you have a $1500 mortgage payment? Do you actually have more time until you're homeless, or is it really just the same amount of time but you're too busy working at a shit job to actually do anything about it?
Most of both groups are within two standard deviations of a norm. Your idiots are probably smarter than you think and your geniuses are probably not as smart as you'd like to believe.
I don't find much, if any legalese in the GPL. It reads like English. Few people seem to actually read it, but that doesn't stop them from criticizing it.
>Only because they use Excel and don't use anything else.
I like the OpenOffice spreadsheet but I greatly prefer Excel's scatter plot. Also, recognize Excel as a development platform and realize how much software is targeted for that platform in finance and in the natural sciences. In some areas, Word is just an artifact, a consequence of choosing Excel.
I am not saying Excel is perfect (and I'm much more into Matlab), but I don't know where you get the idea that "anything" would be better. Excel is a pretty solid program, and so is Word.
Have you actually talked to many accountants who use Excel extensively, or do you just hate Microsoft on general principles?
You didn't mention it but others did, the idea that Word is mostly features that people don't bother to use. I think you'd be surprised by this also, if you looked at people who use it professionally in certain fields (especially legal secretaries.) I once thought that "nobody" used the advanced and esoteric features of the word processors, but I've seen this.
Not only did I immediately see a "g", I also saw what happens when you put your graphic artists through the famous Google interview, failing to actually acquire the talent.
>Even better, if this isn't already done, if someone files a patent/copyright suit, they have to pay for the judge, baliff, stenographer, etc. If the IP >is truly that important, they'll have no problem spending an extra $100K to get it.
Oh sure you say that *now*, when you don't have some company publishing your book/song/program. I think you'd have a different opinion if you were defending your own work against someone who has claimed it.
>When was the last time you saw a real grill at McDonalds?
That would be Friday, Jan. 9. They have a "clam grill". Picture a George Foreman Grill, but huge. They use microwaves, but not for the burgers. The burgers are beef, too. Think about this for one second: Their volume is so high, the cheapest route is to simply buy market beef. Any extra process adds overhead, making it cheaper to simply buy market beef.
McDonald's isn't "good" mind you, but they are nowhere near as bad as they are demonized to be. I guess they just make a good target for whatever you'd like to direct at some giant corporate entity.
This might be a better idea than "going to college." How many people would be better off if they simply took the cost of education, not just the tuition, housing and food, but also the opportunity cost of spending years of time not working, and invested that in something. Start a business or just buy some decent real estate with that money. If you own a business, you're the boss. You get to hire other people who went to college, and they don't get to say a word to you about the fact that you didn't.
Slashdot Mirror
I should not read *any* "workplace discussion" right now. I'm about to leave my very cushy, very low-paying job for a contract gig with an offer of money that I can't refuse. But I'm pretty sure I'll have to actually work, and worse, work for other people. I'm a little scared. But I *Really* need the money.
A rule of thumb in the old days was, "60K miles was half an engine."
I lived in a part of the country where rust wasn't much of a problem, if you took reasonable care of a vehicle. Now, people tended to replace their cars every 5 or 6 years mostly because they could (times were prosperous, and families were basing their ideas of consumerism on their post-WWII experiences.) But *trucks* were another matter. And it was very common for trucks to hold out well over 100K miles, even if it meant replacing drive trains. I suspect the general sentiment for trucks came from a tractor culture. When my family's farm operated, we had a tractor that had been used for 2 generations. My uncle had a machine shop, and it was rather common for people to go as far as to fabricate parts to keep tractors going. Farm margins being razor thin, it was simply unthinkable to replace a tractor. And I think this conservative point of view carried over into trucks, but not "family cars" so much. My uncle (the same one with the machine shop) had a 1961 Plymouth Fury that he somehow managed to keep in immaculate condition for almost 30 years (until he died). This was particularly amazing because the man was usually filthy, carried welding stuff around, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he put a quarter million miles on that car.
My '91 Volvo has 317,000 km on it, about 200,000 miles. That's one engine, two transmissions, lots of suspension parts, and the thing that's going to kill it is the heater fan going out. (They basically put the heater fan in first, and then assemble the frame around it, and so replacing it is one of the most complicated possible jobs.)
>>There's a lot worser things than people using spreadsheet formulas.
>Indeed. Consider people inventing new words, for instance.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worser
>Let your boss deal with it. That's why he or she makes more money than you.
Not all of us are so far removed from the source of funding, or so well insulated from the risks of not getting work done. The ineffective "IT Person" just gets ignored after a disappointment like that. And I assume that same person is somewhere bitching about how stupid their boss is, and blaming other people for being stuck in an entry level IT position. By the way, my boss actually makes less money than I do, but has significantly more job security and authority.
A half day Friday defeats the purpose for me. If I have a Friday off, I can leave on Thursday night and actually go somewhere interesting, be there for Friday morning, return Sunday night, and it's like a vacation. But then I'm pretty spoiled. I can pretty much take off whenever I want at my current job. I'm thinking about going to a new job as a contractor, for a really good rate, but I'm worried about the shock when I find out I have to actually work hours that someone else specifies. I have not had an experience like that since the mid 90s.
I would always make plans well in advance and make sure that my supervisor knew not only that I had plans, but how much money I had invested in them. The implication was always there -- if your action deprives me of my ability to execute this plan, I am going to charge you the amount noted. I never had to play that card, but that's because I think the strategy worked to secure my days off, either when I had 9/80 or when I was simply planning vacation time.
I'm seriously considering to write into my next contract, language that requires them to make reasonable compensation for travel or entertainment that I have to forego at the company's insistence.
If he were not (wisely) choosing his fights, he could simply order it. He is not subordinate to the advisers who don't want him using a Blackberry. In fact, he could replace them if he wanted -- he could even eliminate their positions. The President has a great deal of authority, very little of it subject to the opinion of anyone else.
"The most widely used definition of genius in the US is an IQ more than 2 standard deviations above average. I submit to you that no geniuses are within 2 standard deviations of the norm."
Yes, and I'm telling the OP that he probably doesn't have "geniuses" OR "morons" working for him. He's probably making arbitrary designations based on personality traits.
Do not underestimate the value of snail mail in a situation like this.
I saw Hale-Bopp while driving in a very dark part of the country. For most of my trip, the comet happened to be in my peripheral view, which, once I got used to it, turned out to be a good way to see it. It really was amazing, but nothing to base a doomsday cult on.
>Any earnt money is better than no earnt money when you have a mortgage.
Explain that a bit further: How does it help to take home $250 a week when you have a $1500 mortgage payment? Do you actually have more time until you're homeless, or is it really just the same amount of time but you're too busy working at a shit job to actually do anything about it?
My degrees are in music and mathematics, you insensitive clod!
>There are geniuses and idiots in all groups.
Most of both groups are within two standard deviations of a norm. Your idiots are probably smarter than you think and your geniuses are probably not as smart as you'd like to believe.
I don't find much, if any legalese in the GPL. It reads like English. Few people seem to actually read it, but that doesn't stop them from criticizing it.
Young marriage might be yet another symptom of social dysfunction.
>Only because they use Excel and don't use anything else.
I like the OpenOffice spreadsheet but I greatly prefer Excel's scatter plot.
Also, recognize Excel as a development platform and realize how much software is targeted for that platform in finance and in the natural sciences. In some areas, Word is just an artifact, a consequence of choosing Excel.
I am not saying Excel is perfect (and I'm much more into Matlab), but I don't know where you get the idea that "anything" would be better. Excel is a pretty solid program, and so is Word.
Have you actually talked to many accountants who use Excel extensively, or do you just hate Microsoft on general principles?
You didn't mention it but others did, the idea that Word is mostly features that people don't bother to use. I think you'd be surprised by this also, if you looked at people who use it professionally in certain fields (especially legal secretaries.) I once thought that "nobody" used the advanced and esoteric features of the word processors, but I've seen this.
Not only did I immediately see a "g", I also saw what happens when you put your graphic artists through the famous Google interview, failing to actually acquire the talent.
>16px * 16px * 256 colors = 65536 favicons.
Is that your final answer?
How many states exist in a 4x4 grid of monochromatic pixels?
>Even better, if this isn't already done, if someone files a patent/copyright suit, they have to pay for the judge, baliff, stenographer, etc. If the IP
>is truly that important, they'll have no problem spending an extra $100K to get it.
Oh sure you say that *now*, when you don't have some company publishing your book/song/program. I think you'd have a different opinion if you were defending your own work against someone who has claimed it.
>Well, if I was allowed to reveal my identity here on Slashdot,
I am trying to work out how much my rate would increase before I'd give up the ability to use my own identity.
>When was the last time you saw a real grill at McDonalds?
That would be Friday, Jan. 9. They have a "clam grill". Picture a George Foreman Grill, but huge. They use microwaves, but not for the burgers. The burgers are beef, too. Think about this for one second: Their volume is so high, the cheapest route is to simply buy market beef. Any extra process adds overhead, making it cheaper to simply buy market beef.
McDonald's isn't "good" mind you, but they are nowhere near as bad as they are demonized to be. I guess they just make a good target for whatever you'd like to direct at some giant corporate entity.
>Having been laid off for Christmas
Work for a company whose fiscal year is not January-December.
At least then you don't get laid off at Christmas.
>Better yet, start your own business.
This might be a better idea than "going to college."
How many people would be better off if they simply took the cost of education, not just the tuition, housing and food, but also the opportunity cost of spending years of time not working, and invested that in something. Start a business or just buy some decent real estate with that money. If you own a business, you're the boss. You get to hire other people who went to college, and they don't get to say a word to you about the fact that you didn't.
"I was serving as the executor of my late mother's estate, you insensitive clod!"
I would be highly suspicious of any MIT grad I could hire for $60K.