1. It is natural for human beings to surround themselves with the same way behaving human beings. Translated for you, you, would, NEVER, ever, would hire, anyone, who is better than you, if he, just for example, hates your favorite baseball team.
I have hired many people I would not willingly associate with beyond the necessities of our working relationship.
2.You assume, wrongly, that you and your mates are genius, and that's why you hire genius, because you are able to recognize them. I will say only one thing. You are an idiot.
I am a genius (according to Mensa.) I am more intelligent than all but about a dozen people in the world. I may have hired geniuses, but only by accident. Most of the people I have encountered who have a legitimate claim to be geniuses are not people I would want to hire. There are a few notable exceptions.
3.People, for some strange reason tend to like (translated for you: hire) their friends. Again, if you really think that all of your friends are genius....(look at 2 for the proper translation).
I have hired many of my friends over the years, but only a few because I thought they would be an excellent candidate for the job. I have mostly hired them because in an economic-downturn it was a choice between hiring them, or having them living on my couch... So it would be more accurate to say I hired them because I don't like them that much.
4.Again, i have to tell you, look at 2.
I just could not resist replying...It was the numbered list that got to me. That, and the almost using my handle as the first word of your post;)
That "hiring by algorithm" is indeed a new way of looking at things, but it does take experience - excellent programmers all comes with their own particular quirks - and you need to provide them the room to stretch, the freedom that they need, in order to get them to do whatever they are good at
I am inclined to agree with you.
We typically hire people based on interest level and personality fit more than what their education was in. We do have a strong preference for people with advanced degrees who are looking to perform simple tasks for low wages...
I currently have two employees with PhDs. They are both working in one of our retail stores, earning $9.00/hr, performing mostly menial labor, and enjoying the lack of stress and the occasional chance to discuss their areas of expertise with customers.
My staff developer has a BA in something unrelated, and is entirely a self-taught programmer. He learned to do it because he wanted to accomplish a task and thought that a web-based application would be of use in doing so. He was offered the position based on this adaptability -his willingness to learn something new in order to accomplish a goal, and the obvious interest in programming that this showed. The lack of formal development training, project analysis, etc. shows, but is not a critical fault, the interest in accomplishing a task using code mostly makes up for it. I see basic mistakes that a trained developer would have been taught not to make and I have to take the time to explain why they are wrong, which is frustrating, but not overwhelming.
I did not choose these hiring practices, but inherited them from the founding partners. I can see strengths and weaknesses in these practices -but it has opened me to more experimentation in staffing than I would have been wiling to do otherwise. The idea of "hiring by algorithm" or at least of inviting people for an interview based on the results of such an algorithm is intriguing.
last time I bought something through paypal, there was a (not very obvious) option at paypal's site to use my card without creating an account. It may not have been there (or have been better hidden) when you went, though.
Most of the time yes. But these particular sellers will pop up that they won't accept any sales to people that don't have a Paypal account. Seems odd, but then so are some ebay sellers.
You misunderstand.
MY businesses is one that accepts only PayPal for eBay purchases. That does not mean you must have a PayPal account to pay. You can pay PayPal with your credit card, using the guest checkout option.
Since eBay has a reputation for buyers who claim non-receipt or pay with fraudulent credit cards, forged money orders, stolen checks, etc. and since eBay requires all sellers to accept PayPal anyway, it is safer for us to rely on PayPal's seller protection guarantee (we provide a tracking number for delivery confirmation, we get paid.)
There is an option to require a verified delivery address, which requires that the address you request to have your package shipped to match the billing address of your payment account...
Scripting involves simplifying or automating a process using pre-existing functions in whatever software you're scripting against. Programming involves creating new functions where previously such a module or action did not exist in the first place. In other words: One involves creating limited functionality with the elements given to you. The other is creating whole new elements from the ground up.
Thank you for that summary explanation. I will be appropriating it for explaining why I do not program, but do script.
This is essentially what I went with for my business.
username@domain.tld is the actual email address, with an automatic alias of firstname.lastname@domain.tld, and (if the user requests it) an additional alias of nickname@domain.tld I have only refused one request for an alias -I decided it was stretching the bounds of "business appropriate" a bit too far.
It makes email addresses easy to remember. It works for us. YMMV
Exactly so. There are treaties which specifically require sharing of intelligence data with the USA (and other countries). These treaties are generally held to trump laws prohibiting the sharing of such data.
e.g. -USA makes request of company x for data.
-Company x responds that it is not allowed to provide the data, per law y in country z.
-USA requests that country z provide exception to law y for company x regarding the requested data, per treaty.
-Country z tells company x to provide the data.
-Company x provides the data, and is prohibited from admitting publicly that it did so. National security requirements in the USA (and in the countries which signed these treaties with the USA) make doing otherwise an act of treason.
As opposed to Windows, which runs like an absolute dream on unsupported hardware, right? How's that old parallel port printer working for you btw, or that old but perfectly adequate graphics card?
Unsupported hardware is hardware which might-or-might-not work, by definition.
The parallel port printer not working is an issue with the lack of a parallel port on a modern PC. Fortunately you can buy USB/LPT adapters (I bought these) which really do work. I was surprised at how well they work -at least on the Win7 & OSX boxes. I plugged the adapter into the computer, plugged the (very outdated: one had a LPT 1824-B and a serial DE-9 port, the other had a LPT 1284-B and an AppleTalk port) printer into the other end, and (in both Win7 and OSX) the printer was listed and worked correctly. I performed no driver installation at all, just let the OS detect and configure itself and when it reported it was finished I tested the results -successful.
The old graphics card thing is even more of a false flag. The standard vga driver (built in to win7) just works with every video card I have seen. If you want better graphics, or specific features, you may have to install the correct driver for the card, but that does not mean it does not work without it.
NetWars CyberCity is a small-scale city located close by the New Jersey Turnpike complete with a bank, hospital, water tower, train system, electric power grid, and a coffee shop.
You take out the electricity, and we will all stumble around wondering how to connect to the net... You take out the coffee shop, and you will find us all focused on your destruction (or on finding another source of coffee, whichever happens first.)
It's true that the desktop does not need this pace of innovation. Some stability is nice - at least a few years.
Which is why the new low price (disposable) all-in-one and tablet computers are being pushed so hard. Just buy a new computer with the new OS every year...
However, if they are serious about merging the desktop and mobile platforms, they will need to go to a yearly (or more frequent) release schedule. The mobile market is simply moving too fast, and the platforms are becoming more powerful very quickly.
I think that an annual upgrade cycle is something marketing (and partners/vendors/retailers) can work with: Announce the new product line 3rd quarter, release it 4th quarter, giving marketing enough time to build up a demand for the "new thing" in time for the holiday buying season.
Queue discussion about the wisdom of merging the desktop and mobile platforms...
It depends on from what perspective... It sucks right now from a useability standpoint (and a security one), but it is nice from a productivity standpoint (interoperability of applications across multiple platforms is a big deal.)
You raise many good points. I am just starting to think this through...
"Problem: Chuck is holding a conference with 15 speakers. Women comprise between 25-40% of the IT workforce/CS graduates that are, other things being equal, represented approximately in proportion in the pool of candidates. Calculate the probability of Chuck inviting 15 male speakers, assuming an unbiased selection."
"Answer: a chance between.75^15=1.3% and.6^15=0.047%."
And the failure was not in your math, but in your presuppositions:
You assume that the flaw is in the "other things being equal" (selection criteria) portion as opposed to the "represented approximately in proportion in the pool of candidates" (applicants) portion.
Yeah, it's ridiculous to arrest the man because he had a watch in his boots. But why in the hell did he have a watch in his boots? That doesn't make any sense to me. Was he coming from out of the country? Was he coming into the country? Did he forget what pockets were for? Things don't seem to add up to me.
It is possible that he was testing security at the airport so that he could sneak a bomb in later. Nobody would take the time to change their boots unless they had more than one use for them.
I didn't read TFA so excuse me if that was posted in there.
He had an ornate (fancy word for...fancy) watch AND boots with extra insoles (the poor man's version of lifts?)
Slashdot Mirror
Did you ever drink the contents of a glowstick when you were a a kid?
I'll give you three guesses as to the source material for their development.
This is GMO I can truly appreciate. Of course, I would also support development of gigantic venus-flytraps that are self-mobile...
Idiot. Let me land you down in the real world:
1. It is natural for human beings to surround themselves with the same way behaving human beings. Translated for you, you, would, NEVER, ever, would hire, anyone, who is better than you, if he, just for example, hates your favorite baseball team.
I have hired many people I would not willingly associate with beyond the necessities of our working relationship.
2.You assume, wrongly, that you and your mates are genius, and that's why you hire genius, because you are able to recognize them. I will say only one thing. You are an idiot.
I am a genius (according to Mensa.) I am more intelligent than all but about a dozen people in the world. I may have hired geniuses, but only by accident. Most of the people I have encountered who have a legitimate claim to be geniuses are not people I would want to hire. There are a few notable exceptions.
3.People, for some strange reason tend to like (translated for you: hire) their friends. Again, if you really think that all of your friends are genius....(look at 2 for the proper translation).
I have hired many of my friends over the years, but only a few because I thought they would be an excellent candidate for the job. I have mostly hired them because in an economic-downturn it was a choice between hiring them, or having them living on my couch... So it would be more accurate to say I hired them because I don't like them that much.
4.Again, i have to tell you, look at 2.
I just could not resist replying...It was the numbered list that got to me. That, and the almost using my handle as the first word of your post ;)
The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference, while in practice there is.
That "hiring by algorithm" is indeed a new way of looking at things, but it does take experience - excellent programmers all comes with their own particular quirks - and you need to provide them the room to stretch, the freedom that they need, in order to get them to do whatever they are good at
I am inclined to agree with you.
We typically hire people based on interest level and personality fit more than what their education was in. We do have a strong preference for people with advanced degrees who are looking to perform simple tasks for low wages...
I currently have two employees with PhDs. They are both working in one of our retail stores, earning $9.00/hr, performing mostly menial labor, and enjoying the lack of stress and the occasional chance to discuss their areas of expertise with customers.
My staff developer has a BA in something unrelated, and is entirely a self-taught programmer. He learned to do it because he wanted to accomplish a task and thought that a web-based application would be of use in doing so. He was offered the position based on this adaptability -his willingness to learn something new in order to accomplish a goal, and the obvious interest in programming that this showed. The lack of formal development training, project analysis, etc. shows, but is not a critical fault, the interest in accomplishing a task using code mostly makes up for it. I see basic mistakes that a trained developer would have been taught not to make and I have to take the time to explain why they are wrong, which is frustrating, but not overwhelming.
I did not choose these hiring practices, but inherited them from the founding partners. I can see strengths and weaknesses in these practices -but it has opened me to more experimentation in staffing than I would have been wiling to do otherwise. The idea of "hiring by algorithm" or at least of inviting people for an interview based on the results of such an algorithm is intriguing.
Wrong, its "noir moore", a retelling of the James Bond universe in 40's noire format.
That actually sounds interesting...
Pearl Harbor
Nagasaki
Hiroshima
last time I bought something through paypal, there was a (not very obvious) option at paypal's site to use my card without creating an account. It may not have been there (or have been better hidden) when you went, though.
Most of the time yes. But these particular sellers will pop up that they won't accept any sales to people that don't have a Paypal account. Seems odd, but then so are some ebay sellers.
You misunderstand.
MY businesses is one that accepts only PayPal for eBay purchases. That does not mean you must have a PayPal account to pay. You can pay PayPal with your credit card, using the guest checkout option.
Since eBay has a reputation for buyers who claim non-receipt or pay with fraudulent credit cards, forged money orders, stolen checks, etc. and since eBay requires all sellers to accept PayPal anyway, it is safer for us to rely on PayPal's seller protection guarantee (we provide a tracking number for delivery confirmation, we get paid.)
There is an option to require a verified delivery address, which requires that the address you request to have your package shipped to match the billing address of your payment account...
Scripting involves simplifying or automating a process using pre-existing functions in whatever software you're scripting against. Programming involves creating new functions where previously such a module or action did not exist in the first place. In other words: One involves creating limited functionality with the elements given to you. The other is creating whole new elements from the ground up.
Thank you for that summary explanation. I will be appropriating it for explaining why I do not program, but do script.
This is essentially what I went with for my business.
username@domain.tld is the actual email address, with an automatic alias of firstname.lastname@domain.tld, and (if the user requests it) an additional alias of nickname@domain.tld I have only refused one request for an alias -I decided it was stretching the bounds of "business appropriate" a bit too far.
It makes email addresses easy to remember. It works for us. YMMV
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
You took the words right out of my mouth!
Now we know what the Mayans were predicting:
The scientists wake Cthulhu, R'lyeh rises, and the world ends.
You know that bringing up R vs D is about as damning to any argument as involving Hitler & Nazis...
In other words: Reducto ad Republican == Reducto ad Democrat == Reducto ad Hitlerum .
Congratulations on Godwining this discussion.
Exactly so. There are treaties which specifically require sharing of intelligence data with the USA (and other countries). These treaties are generally held to trump laws prohibiting the sharing of such data.
e.g.
-USA makes request of company x for data.
-Company x responds that it is not allowed to provide the data, per law y in country z.
-USA requests that country z provide exception to law y for company x regarding the requested data, per treaty.
-Country z tells company x to provide the data.
-Company x provides the data, and is prohibited from admitting publicly that it did so. National security requirements in the USA (and in the countries which signed these treaties with the USA) make doing otherwise an act of treason.
GDP is more akin to profit then to revenue. Apple's net profit was 47b in 2012, or about 1/4 of Finland. We should compare apples to Apple.
False.
Whichever method you use for calculating GDP, it is measuring economic activity -thus revenue, not profit.
Simply put: "[GDP] is akin to ignoring a company's balance sheet, and judging it solely on the basis of its income statement." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product
I'm Irish.
Even in my family you dont drink pints (or liters) of whiskey... You drink shots, or "fingers" if its a sipping whiskey.
Developers in corporations download random code from the web and incorporate it into their projects all the time.
Yes, but we call it "research"
not everyone should be expected to share their work.
Nor should Github be expected to host such repositories for free.
And? There is no requirement that GitHub do so, but the maintainers of GitHub have chosen to do it.
What-the-fuck business is it of yours what they choose to do?
As opposed to Windows, which runs like an absolute dream on unsupported hardware, right? How's that old parallel port printer working for you btw, or that old but perfectly adequate graphics card?
Unsupported hardware is hardware which might-or-might-not work, by definition.
The parallel port printer not working is an issue with the lack of a parallel port on a modern PC. Fortunately you can buy USB/LPT adapters (I bought these) which really do work. I was surprised at how well they work -at least on the Win7 & OSX boxes. I plugged the adapter into the computer, plugged the (very outdated: one had a LPT 1824-B and a serial DE-9 port, the other had a LPT 1284-B and an AppleTalk port) printer into the other end, and (in both Win7 and OSX) the printer was listed and worked correctly. I performed no driver installation at all, just let the OS detect and configure itself and when it reported it was finished I tested the results -successful.
The old graphics card thing is even more of a false flag. The standard vga driver (built in to win7) just works with every video card I have seen. If you want better graphics, or specific features, you may have to install the correct driver for the card, but that does not mean it does not work without it.
NetWars CyberCity is a small-scale city located close by the New Jersey Turnpike complete with a bank, hospital, water tower, train system, electric power grid, and a coffee shop.
You take out the electricity, and we will all stumble around wondering how to connect to the net...
You take out the coffee shop, and you will find us all focused on your destruction (or on finding another source of coffee, whichever happens first.)
and... just to keep this one going: http://xkcd.com/705/
It's true that the desktop does not need this pace of innovation. Some stability is nice - at least a few years.
Which is why the new low price (disposable) all-in-one and tablet computers are being pushed so hard. Just buy a new computer with the new OS every year...
However, if they are serious about merging the desktop and mobile platforms, they will need to go to a yearly (or more frequent) release schedule. The mobile market is simply moving too fast, and the platforms are becoming more powerful very quickly.
I think that an annual upgrade cycle is something marketing (and partners/vendors/retailers) can work with: Announce the new product line 3rd quarter, release it 4th quarter, giving marketing enough time to build up a demand for the "new thing" in time for the holiday buying season.
Queue discussion about the wisdom of merging the desktop and mobile platforms...
It depends on from what perspective... It sucks right now from a useability standpoint (and a security one), but it is nice from a productivity standpoint (interoperability of applications across multiple platforms is a big deal.)
You raise many good points. I am just starting to think this through...
But... it worked so well for Firefox: you know, "Follow that Chrome..."
All the users cheering happily at each new release. ...What? Those aren't cheers? um... Oh.
What I do is set my upload to 0.
In many file sharing apps, a setting of 0 = unlimited.
Let's do some introductory probability theory:
"Problem: Chuck is holding a conference with 15 speakers. Women comprise between 25-40% of the IT workforce/CS graduates that are, other things being equal, represented approximately in proportion in the pool of candidates. Calculate the probability of Chuck inviting 15 male speakers, assuming an unbiased selection."
"Answer: a chance between .75^15=1.3% and .6^15=0.047%."
And the failure was not in your math, but in your presuppositions:
You assume that the flaw is in the "other things being equal" (selection criteria) portion as opposed to the "represented approximately in proportion in the pool of candidates" (applicants) portion.
Without proof, that assumption is unjustified.
But how will the Earth cope with the loss of billions of pounds of fat shed from the asses of all the obese 'Murkans?
Well, much the same as when it was the Brits shedding all that Adipose tissue... I assume
Yeah, it's ridiculous to arrest the man because he had a watch in his boots. But why in the hell did he have a watch in his boots? That doesn't make any sense to me. Was he coming from out of the country? Was he coming into the country? Did he forget what pockets were for? Things don't seem to add up to me.
It is possible that he was testing security at the airport so that he could sneak a bomb in later. Nobody would take the time to change their boots unless they had more than one use for them.
I didn't read TFA so excuse me if that was posted in there.
He had an ornate (fancy word for ...fancy) watch AND boots with extra insoles (the poor man's version of lifts?)