What I hate is the truth of an article like this one, from Machine Design, in which opinion-author James Finkel tells us
Consider a recent Wall Street Journal article about a vendor of high-speed-network equipment, since bought and resold at least once. The article details the long hours put in by engineers and staff to ship the company's next generation of products. We discover the engineers were working 80-hr weeks for about $75,000 annual salary. Do the math: The techies did not have a $75,000/yr job; they had two $37,500/yr jobs, and only one that paid benefits.
...and Finkel goes on to remind us about two other sins of engineering employers: non-compete agreements and lost intellectual-property rights. Oh, yeah, and the idea that skills are not transferable because we engineers can't use the right buzzwords, and the human-resources wonks can't understand the wrong ones. Bleah.
It's what I've long been telling anyone who can shake the boredom out of their eyes long enough to listen: engineering employers know they can find someone who will do exactly what they want done, for exactly what they want to pay, and under whatever conditions they want to impose. All they have to do is remain patient. And the professional societies, if they are doing anything at all about such dismal treatment of skilled professionals, are certainly not doing anything that matters.
...Lil Jon ringtone rollovers. They're advertised, along with others, on AIM. And I can't seem to avoid the rollover, even when the AIM screen isn't on top.
I know, I know: I said I was done with instant messaging. But the situation has changed. I need it to keep in touch with my daughter at least. And I do NOT want to hear Lil Jon every time I get that window up!!!
What would be the worst thing in the world to drive behind?
I'll give you a hint: it's not the guys who hit their brakes for no reason. Though they clearly suck. It's this:
It's not enough that there are ads on every surface that will stay stationary long enough for an ad to be posted. Now, we have to have them driving on the road right in front of us, as dangerous as if we were watching TV at the wheel. Possibly even worse: though the ability to impress ads on thin vinyl is impressive, it can't be read except at the right light -- but it CAN get our eyes off what we're supposed to be doing, even when we CAN'T read it.
The London buses have the right solution: get the moving ads on the side for pedestrians -- that's where the traffic tends to be in cities anyway -- and use the more traditional stationary ads on the back, so drivers won't have something else fighting for their concentration.
One thing I hate about living in New Jersey: gas stations are required by law to be "full service" only. Unfortunately, "full service" means that some high school kid or the uncle of the Pakistani owner of the gas station swipe my credit card and stand around, hands in pockets, while the gas pumps.
No, I have nothing against Pakistani-Americans. Sheesh. But for what I am paying for gas, I feel I have every right to expect George W. Bush himself to come out and squeegee my windows. Yet I have had my windows done by a gas station employee exactly once in the past year. And I most likely drive more than anyone else you know.
Please, New Jersey, stop this delusion -- stop calling it "full service." That ain't what it is. If you wanna say "only employees may operate the pumps," that'll be fine. But what you have now is expectations left unmet all over the state.
Don't get me wrong: I like the idea of Engineering TV, which is brought to us by, among other entities, Machine Design, a magazine I have always liked.
But in the early going, I'm not impressed. Despite the slick production values going into Engineering TV, I am enjoying myself more watching YouTube.
The issues are these:
Most of the early videos are about robots. I LOVE robots myself, having worked with 'em a few years, but not everybody does. Which leads to...
...a marketing of this tool as being for all engineers, by default. We need to have some kind of filing system that helps engineers of specific types get to exactly what they're interested in. Maybe when they have a critical mass of material they'll go that way through natural evolution. Which leads to...
...a need to market the videos on an individual basis, highly targeting engineers in specific industries. They target their periodicals' e-mails that way, so I figure it's just a matter of time before they do it with the videos as well.
In the meantime, they're getting a lot of hits out of curiosity for the new material. Just like new Usenet groups used to. The history of the Internet tells us such curiosity is fleeting, and you need something else to keep viewers loyal after that. I'm looking forward to seeing if they have that something else in hand. There's a good team there. I wanna see what happens.
A black Cap in a suit of armor -- the logical candidate for this job is Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes, who's already warn a suit of armor and joined the Avengers as "War Machine."
An ancient weapon, probably of Atlantean origin, wearing a Cap suit and goofy sunglasses, and maybe remote-controlled by either Nick Fury or Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner.
A youthful "Captain America Boy," wearing a hip version of the classic chain mail. One might consider Bucky Barnes as the logical choice, as he is currently alive and wearing the useless moniker "Winter Soldier." But alas, even the resurrected Bucky looks too old for the job.
So: have we seen this scenario before? And how long will it be before the Red Skull tosses an unstoppable super-weapon at the United States to run roughshod over these four pretenders?
You'll see: the lesson is that there is nothing new under the sun. :-) :-) :-)
Yep, yep, I gotta get me one of them Beer Launchers. LOL This guy is said to want $1500 for one of these! The hardware makes the price not surprising, but would even beer aficionados go for it? I like the feeling of reaching down and pulling the can out of the fridge myself...
The emperor of the Qin Dynasty had a surprise visitor late one night. It was Lord Confucius, come from the Jade Palace in Heaven. He said, "Lord Emperor, the King of Heaven has sent me with an urgent message." Well, the Emperor had fallen on his face in front of Lord Confucius. Confucius said, "Do you want to hear the message or not? Get up, sluggard!" He got up. Confucius said, "Unless you follow my instructions exactly, the world will end tomorrow." With fear and trembling, the Emperor said, "What must i do?" Confucius said, "Your daughters must learn to bowl." The Emperor said, "Right away. Wait... what?" "They must learn to bowl. "They must also learn to keep score. "And they must each pick up at least one frame, or the world will end." The Emperor said, "You're kidding, right?" Confucius said, "Do I look like I'm kidding? I AM carrying bowling shoes for your daughters, after all!" The daughters -- their names were Rose and Lily -- were taken to the celestial bowling alley to be taught to bowl. "Honored Father," they said, "it smells like smoke in here!" Confucius said, "Yes, girls, it's Open Bowling night." The Monkey King (pictured, with a friend :-)) taught the older one, Rose, to keep score. Rose was very interested in Monkey's cudgel. I taught Lily myself. (It WAS my dream, after all.) Lily liked the cudgel too. I wonder sometimes if they would've had better scores if they could leave the cudgel alone... until I saw Monkey could make the smoke do giant rings with it. But Rose had a 123 and a strike in the ninth frame. And Lily had a 117 and three spares. The world was safe... or so we thought. Breathing a sigh of relief, the Emperor said, "Are we safe?" Lord Confucius said, "You have other tasks to perform. but the world will not end for tonight, at least." I noticed the girls were keeping their bowling shoes. Then I woke up. And I haven't been back yet. But while I was there, they called me "Scorekeeper From Above," you know. :-)
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Standardized tests require teachers and professors to "keep time" for test-takers by writing the number of minutes left on the blackboard. Am I the only person on the planet who sees that this method is only good for exactly one minute?
Hey! ETS! And you other standardized test makers! Find a way to the 21st century! You can put up a Web screen in the classroom with a simple, easily readable Javascript timer, that'll be good for the duration of the test! So why isn't it happening already?
It does have one weakness: I want to suppress the number of days and the author appears to have overriden me. Hmph. I might have to write my own before the next wave of tests. LOL
The "Teacher's Version" in the table below is a list of "Ten Commandments" for teachers, and it comes from developingteachers.com. (It's actually written for language teachers, but it seems reasonable for many subjects, if not all.) It's not a perfect match with ten of W. Edwards Deming's 14 Points for industry, but it's reasonably close.
Teachers' Version
Deming's Version
Lower inhibitions
Drive out fear and build trust so that everyone can work more effectively.
Encourage risk-taking
Remove barriers that rob people of joy in their work.
Build self-confidence
Adopt and institute leadership for the management of people, recognizing their different abilities, capabilities, and aspirations.
Develop intrinsic motivation
Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets asking for zero defects or new levels of productivity.
Engage in cooperative learning
Adopt a new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) in which everybody wins and put it into practice by teaching it to employees, customers and suppliers.
Use right-brain processes
Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality.
Promote ambiguity tolerance
Eliminate numerical goals, numerical quotas and management by objectives. Substitute leadership.
Practice intuition
End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. Instead, minimize total cost in the long run.
Process error feedback
Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
Set personal goals
Improve constantly, and forever, the system of production, service, planning, of any activity.
This just came in from engineer-poet David Young -- it's pretty cool!
Fasteners of two different materials, Inside a tough durable like plastic, Outside a non rusting metal shell, Screws or nails driven in cold.
When the outer head hits the surface, The outer part stops while inner moves Slightly coming out the end point as Its expands growing larger, seeding itself!
Hurricane wind braces in between walls, Forty five degrees of horizontal plane. Swiss cheese like holes inside its length, Accordion to stretch, contract harmonics!
Braces set at different computer set heights, More on those outer walls less on the inside. Same thing done on the ceilings with extra Shock absorbers to resist severe vibrations.
Additional safety of pressure equalizers, Keeping the inside closer to the outside. During severe tornadic, hurricane storms That might release before windows crash.
They ideas are copyrighted from dreams, Added to computer models harmonics, like Franklin, I want to contribute something To the American Home Sweet Home!
Even if PowerPoint is responsible for the dumbing-down of America, it's still a de facto industry standard. If we can't embrace it, we can at least try to tame it to serve our purposes.
And here's another one -- it talks about making a simple plot of dependent v. independent variable more readable. If you are waiting for Microsoft Excel to take care of plot readability for you, don't hold your breath.
My specialty is start-ups, especially those run by students. I am a micropatron, purveyor of sweat equity, prognosticator of and speculator on future fortunes, and reservoir of multifaceted experience.
You have just discovered the world's foremost authority on Holcombe Chassis Works, Juterphusion Recording Solutions, the IMET Corporation, and GreyPilgrim Inc., as well as several other start-ups and really small companies. Apart from their employees themselves, that is. :-) :-) :-)
I have just finished a compilation of four years of blogging on these subjects, and you can have it for FREE! Just contact me!
I also write about writing, quality, failures, customer service, and the creative process. Start-ups tend to care about these issues.
I know, I know: I said I was done with 
Here's how Marvel will handle the death of Steve (Captain America) Rogers: they'll give us four new candidates for the job.
The emperor of the 
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