Good to hear! Now if only IBM would give me an interview...:)
But after interviewing and being blown away at a certain company on Fortune's Top 100 Companies to Work For list, I think i'll hold off before sending IBM any more apps
... put his money where his mouth is. If he wants open standards based computing, then he had better start mandating that all web applications are developed so that all relevant browsers can use them.
Converting everything would take forever, but they ahve to start with the new stuff and work backwards. They shouldn't be using Internet Explorer anyway... companies don't have time or money to dick around with spyware-bloated computers.
It's just a matter of time for them, but it has to come from the top, and he has to make sure it gets done and stop making empty promises.
Whoops - not sure why I put the world "Highly" in the title. Either way, the link works. Grab the ISBN number off of Amazon.com and go buy it from the cheapest site you can from www.addall.com (cheap book search, searches 36 sites or so)
While this book is more heavily recommended to entrepreneurial people, I'd read it anyway. Some of the stuff is so simple and counter-intuitive, it's mind-boggling.
I loved the stories in it, and just interviewed with a company that lives and dies by this book, and I am dying waiting for the phone to ring. It made me realize that I cannot go back to certain companies (perhaps one mentioned in the parent post) after seeing such an amazing, positive place.
Allright, I'm going to reply to myself here now that I've read the whole thing.
Fuck this guy. I don't like him one bit. High school slashdotters, hear me out:
It's more evolutionary. Try lots of shit and see what you like. You'll figure it out from there. I throw away 99% of this guy's crap, it doesn't work for me. So if it doesn't work for you, throw it out too, break all the rules, and write your own book.
I have TONS of things I wish I had done differently. But if someone (even myself) went back in a time machine and talked to me, I would have told you to screw off. After all, I was 18 years old, full of testosterone, and the smartest, hottest thing in the world. I wouldn't have listened, and even if I would have, it wouldn't have been the same.
I like what happened later. I learned from my mistakes. I learned a LOT. Freshman year of college was a huge learning experience for me, and even though I had my fair share of bumps in the road, had someone just handed me the book on how I like to be me, it wouldn't have developed me fully.
So learn from your own experiences - but learn quickly and don't waste too much time getting there. I could rant on and on about what you should and shouldn't do in college (actually there aren't many things you SHOULDN'T do:) -- but you will have to figure it out yourself for the best possible experience.
I like another theory, proposed (probably not first) by Richard Dawkins in his masterpiece, The Selfish Gene. He says that one way of increasing lifespan is by slowly increasing the minimum age at which you're allowed to breed.
If you can't have kids until you're 30, you'll systematically remove early-death genes from the gene pool. Then bump that age up to 35, then 40... etc.
It sounds like it would work, but of couse will never happen.
I'm with you. I believe that abolishing social security will also INCREASE family values, and here's why:
If I can't save a lot for my retirement, and I know there's no social security, I better do something to fix the problem. One good solution is to raise some very successful kids with great values who know that they will have to take care of me. I'll take care of them for their first 20 years, then they take care of me for my last 20 years.
It's really simple. The urgency makes it so that you don't have kids beating each other up in the streets - you train your kids good.
But in an Americanized liberal society where we can all go get a free, quick fix, greed is taken advantage of and children are NOT reared well - a vicious downward spiral.
It's time for some accountability in our citizens - and liberalism is NOT the solution for most Americans. It's a solid kick in the ass.
That's what it's going to come to, and I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.
But realize that a worm that deletes everything won't work - unless it's on a delay, spreads itself around as much as it can, THEN deletes. Like a 12 hour delay or something.
I would have thought it happened already - and I'm not looking forward to when it happens.
Our first family computer was a 286 (yeah I should have had one earlier, oh well)... and basically, I broke every single piece of software that I touched.
Being stubborn and not wanting to disappoint my parents, I learned how to fix it. That's how I learned it, and it's still my best way of learning to do this day. Blow shit up and find a way to put it back together
You know, I have to believe that even within Microsoft, the IE team must be extremely embarrassed.
There is constant egg on their faces, some new young competition is eating up their market share at astonishing rates, and they are always in the bad part of the news.
Microsoft has a cult-like culture, and this type of constant bad news does NOT go over well in those types of cultures. I'd love to hear from someone on the IE team... I bet they're wishing that they were on the Office team or something like that.
Another theory of mine - Most people getting new computers don't NEED new computers - they need new operating system installations (haha sometimes a completely different operating system).
So, in order to combat a cyclical chip/semiconductor market, I propose that chip and PC companies artificially prop up the demand for their products - by riddling the world with slow-you-down spyware/adware/etc programs!
Joe Sixpack doesn't know it's his software. He just knows that his 2 year old computer is slow as hell right now and that he needs a new one! It doesn't matter that all he does is e-mail and web browsing...
User unawareness keeps the PC market chugging, and I see no reason to believe why some PC and chip manufacturers don't absolutely love all the crap that clogs Joe's system.
That's right, I'm a slashdotter with an AMD Athlon 550mhz, 384MB ram, and 80gb hard drive (the latter 2 were obviously some small upgrades).
This does everything I need, why should I spend money on it? It plays music, is fine for my homework, IM, web browsing, and plays *cough* videos *cough* just fine. In the meantime, it's also my server running SSH, Samba, Apache, ProFTPD, etc...
I'm now at the point where I refuse to upgrade until it melts down on me. It's been this good to me, so I'm going to keep using it until forced out. I obviously don't play new games.
I know this is a joke, but are there any good arguments FOR the one-button mouse?
I just set up one of my boss's new powerbooks (it is absolutely loaded), and I can't stand the UI or the one-button mouse myself.
Things are so much slower without a scroll wheel and extra options with right-clicking.
I understand that it's easier to use, but for me it's a downright pain.
Unlike a big part of the slashdot crowd, I am definitely not on the OS X bandwagon. It is definitely more secure than windows, but I find it a headache to navigate around in.
I'm not saying that you're going to get all the bells and whistles for a dime. I'm saying that I don't think security and usability have to be the antitheses of each other.
Nobody is invincible, and that includes yourself along with Microsoft. There's always a better person or possibility out there, and history shows us that copmanies that avoid your type of thinking are the ones that win in the long run.
Consider where Microsoft values the following 4 items:
Customers
Profits
Products
Employees
I would guess that their order goes 1. Employees, 2. Profits, 3. Products, 4. Customers.
Perhaps change up profits and employees, but it does seem that they have a great culture and treat their employees well. However - having profits become more important than both your customers and your products will yield a company that can't exist on the corporate landscape for as long as others.
Profits ARE good. They are the point of business. But if you start screwing your customers and products over time and time again in order to maximize those profits, someone else is going to step in. OSS-based companies are on their way to save the day.
We can have security OR compatability. We can have low prices OR product quality... etc..
Bullshit. You can have both. The visionary companies described in this book DO get both, because they live by what the book describes "Genius of the 'AND'". You CAN have it both ways - it just takes hard work, dediction, and thinking outside of the box.
Microsofts lamentations will eventually get them beat. As good as they think they are, there is always someone better - with the visionary attitudes described in this book - that will eventually beat them in the long run.
I'm confident that as a community, OSS will be able to embrace the Genius of the AND in this situation, and get security along with usability. It just takes time.
Slashdot Mirror
But after interviewing and being blown away at a certain company on Fortune's Top 100 Companies to Work For list, I think i'll hold off before sending IBM any more apps
Converting everything would take forever, but they ahve to start with the new stuff and work backwards. They shouldn't be using Internet Explorer anyway... companies don't have time or money to dick around with spyware-bloated computers.
It's just a matter of time for them, but it has to come from the top, and he has to make sure it gets done and stop making empty promises.
Whoops - not sure why I put the world "Highly" in the title. Either way, the link works. Grab the ISBN number off of Amazon.com and go buy it from the cheapest site you can from www.addall.com (cheap book search, searches 36 sites or so)
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Highly Visionary Companies, by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras.
While this book is more heavily recommended to entrepreneurial people, I'd read it anyway. Some of the stuff is so simple and counter-intuitive, it's mind-boggling.
I loved the stories in it, and just interviewed with a company that lives and dies by this book, and I am dying waiting for the phone to ring. It made me realize that I cannot go back to certain companies (perhaps one mentioned in the parent post) after seeing such an amazing, positive place.
Fuck this guy. I don't like him one bit. High school slashdotters, hear me out:
It's more evolutionary. Try lots of shit and see what you like. You'll figure it out from there. I throw away 99% of this guy's crap, it doesn't work for me. So if it doesn't work for you, throw it out too, break all the rules, and write your own book.
Which is why I like the subject of your post - learn it all yourself. What works for you certainly doesn't work for me.
I have TONS of things I wish I had done differently. But if someone (even myself) went back in a time machine and talked to me, I would have told you to screw off. After all, I was 18 years old, full of testosterone, and the smartest, hottest thing in the world. I wouldn't have listened, and even if I would have, it wouldn't have been the same.
I like what happened later. I learned from my mistakes. I learned a LOT. Freshman year of college was a huge learning experience for me, and even though I had my fair share of bumps in the road, had someone just handed me the book on how I like to be me, it wouldn't have developed me fully.
So learn from your own experiences - but learn quickly and don't waste too much time getting there. I could rant on and on about what you should and shouldn't do in college (actually there aren't many things you SHOULDN'T do :) -- but you will have to figure it out yourself for the best possible experience.
I like another theory, proposed (probably not first) by Richard Dawkins in his masterpiece, The Selfish Gene. He says that one way of increasing lifespan is by slowly increasing the minimum age at which you're allowed to breed.
If you can't have kids until you're 30, you'll systematically remove early-death genes from the gene pool. Then bump that age up to 35, then 40... etc.
It sounds like it would work, but of couse will never happen.
Yet another retarded California law.
I stay away from that state.
If I can't save a lot for my retirement, and I know there's no social security, I better do something to fix the problem. One good solution is to raise some very successful kids with great values who know that they will have to take care of me. I'll take care of them for their first 20 years, then they take care of me for my last 20 years.
It's really simple. The urgency makes it so that you don't have kids beating each other up in the streets - you train your kids good.
But in an Americanized liberal society where we can all go get a free, quick fix, greed is taken advantage of and children are NOT reared well - a vicious downward spiral.
It's time for some accountability in our citizens - and liberalism is NOT the solution for most Americans. It's a solid kick in the ass.
I like it when criminals get caught.
Why shouldn't I love this?
But realize that a worm that deletes everything won't work - unless it's on a delay, spreads itself around as much as it can, THEN deletes. Like a 12 hour delay or something.
I would have thought it happened already - and I'm not looking forward to when it happens.
I can't see it. I'm using Mozilla Firefox with Adblock.
Being stubborn and not wanting to disappoint my parents, I learned how to fix it. That's how I learned it, and it's still my best way of learning to do this day. Blow shit up and find a way to put it back together
There is constant egg on their faces, some new young competition is eating up their market share at astonishing rates, and they are always in the bad part of the news.
Microsoft has a cult-like culture, and this type of constant bad news does NOT go over well in those types of cultures. I'd love to hear from someone on the IE team... I bet they're wishing that they were on the Office team or something like that.
So, in order to combat a cyclical chip/semiconductor market, I propose that chip and PC companies artificially prop up the demand for their products - by riddling the world with slow-you-down spyware/adware/etc programs!
Joe Sixpack doesn't know it's his software. He just knows that his 2 year old computer is slow as hell right now and that he needs a new one! It doesn't matter that all he does is e-mail and web browsing...
User unawareness keeps the PC market chugging, and I see no reason to believe why some PC and chip manufacturers don't absolutely love all the crap that clogs Joe's system.
That's right, I'm a slashdotter with an AMD Athlon 550mhz, 384MB ram, and 80gb hard drive (the latter 2 were obviously some small upgrades).
This does everything I need, why should I spend money on it? It plays music, is fine for my homework, IM, web browsing, and plays *cough* videos *cough* just fine. In the meantime, it's also my server running SSH, Samba, Apache, ProFTPD, etc...
I'm now at the point where I refuse to upgrade until it melts down on me. It's been this good to me, so I'm going to keep using it until forced out. I obviously don't play new games.
I just set up one of my boss's new powerbooks (it is absolutely loaded), and I can't stand the UI or the one-button mouse myself.
Things are so much slower without a scroll wheel and extra options with right-clicking.
I understand that it's easier to use, but for me it's a downright pain.
Unlike a big part of the slashdot crowd, I am definitely not on the OS X bandwagon. It is definitely more secure than windows, but I find it a headache to navigate around in.
I'm all for "reading the article", but this is far too long and I have a bit of work to do. Can anyone post a brief synopsis of what they're saying?
Nobody is invincible, and that includes yourself along with Microsoft. There's always a better person or possibility out there, and history shows us that copmanies that avoid your type of thinking are the ones that win in the long run.
I'm focusing on the competition of it. How other companies treat their employees is their thing.
Customers
Profits
Products
Employees
I would guess that their order goes 1. Employees, 2. Profits, 3. Products, 4. Customers.
Perhaps change up profits and employees, but it does seem that they have a great culture and treat their employees well. However - having profits become more important than both your customers and your products will yield a company that can't exist on the corporate landscape for as long as others.
Profits ARE good. They are the point of business. But if you start screwing your customers and products over time and time again in order to maximize those profits, someone else is going to step in. OSS-based companies are on their way to save the day.
We can have security OR compatability. We can have low prices OR product quality... etc..
Bullshit. You can have both. The visionary companies described in this book DO get both, because they live by what the book describes "Genius of the 'AND'". You CAN have it both ways - it just takes hard work, dediction, and thinking outside of the box.
Microsofts lamentations will eventually get them beat. As good as they think they are, there is always someone better - with the visionary attitudes described in this book - that will eventually beat them in the long run.
I'm confident that as a community, OSS will be able to embrace the Genius of the AND in this situation, and get security along with usability. It just takes time.
Why don't you set up a Wiki and let all these generous people help out with your site?
Hey, even if he's not with us, we'll probably still have Ben Affleck!