« March 2006 | Main | May 2006 »
April 30, 2006
consequences of war
Every once in awhile, people seem to awaken to the atrocities of other humans. It's like a bulb has gone on but the bulb has always been on and people have just failed to see the light. We are truly blind.
UN is halving the daily calorie intake for those in Sudan due to lack of money. This for people who already are malnourished. So, what's our answer, try to encourage movie stars to see the problem and act as advocates. So, we can throw more money into a war-ravaged, corrupt world with the hopes that a little more gets to those who need it.
Posted by azileretsis at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2006
time
What wonderful sight to behold? Google Calendar! How great is this! Oh, my!
DBAs are the most underappreciated expense. A good DBA is one of the strongest requirement for any enterprise-wide, custom IT project. This is if you are stupid or insane enough to try it (and proven stupid or insane). Your managers will thank you, your employees will thank you, and if your customers understood, they would thank you too. My first experience with a DBA team was that they were a bit odd. They seemed not as free and open minded as us developers, actually the opposite. Even for an internal tiny database, you were required to fill out a five page document that seemed like you were signing your life away (at least your data). One of the DBAs looked like Gandalf. You wondered what really went on in the DBA corner. I did learn a lot from them especially since they felt they had to teach SQL to us, the ignorant.
Here is my rant about dbs and companies. Data and if you are fortunate, information is one of the most valuable assets in a company. My fellow business students would say it's the most valuable asset. Then, why do companies limit themselves in using Access alone? As I tell people, Access is a great growth tool but you have to become an adult eventually. I am biased b/c my first db happened to be MS SQL and when I learned Access, it was like stepping into a little box. MySQL is even better than Access. I sometimes want to go to sleep and wake up in a better world.
Posted by azileretsis at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2006
open mind
Ummm....wow. This reading is about group decision making. It's openning my mind to different ideas.
Posted by azileretsis at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2006
bad ideas
The 20/70/10 is the worst idea to come out of GE. It's the idea that top 20% gets rewarded while the bottom 10% gets shown the door. Although, the perfomance assessments are not solely based on financial results and half is actually devoted to corporate fit, it is still a bad idea. It strangles any real sense of cooperation and substitutes it with an unauthentic sense of cooperation. It promotes distrust in others and in the company. Most importantly, it keeps people from seeking to improve for their own job satisfaction but instead improve to some arbitrary ruler.
This idea sounds like it came from someone who lack understanding of the postmodern generation.
I liked these authors of Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management. I agree with Bob Sutton that managers don't seem to understand the quantity and velocity of change is critical to change management. Change is absolutely required but you require the resisters to keep you from going too fast.
Posted by azileretsis at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2006
horrid
I hate Delta! The company is just incompetent. I can't even place a reservation without getting angry. Again, it's their customer service which has placed me on hold for the last 20 minutes. If your attempts to save money causes your customers be angry, you are doomed.
A hour and half later, I get the original reservation I wanted. I hate flying Delta.
Posted by azileretsis at 09:37 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2006
art
I love Google's salute to Joan Miro.
Posted by azileretsis at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
optimal
Like I don't have anything else to think about, I was pondering on different ways that backups can be done cheaply. One of thoughts that came to me was the use of the network, and particularly, the use of peer to peer network but it occurs to me that peer to peer has an optimal size range. Also, to ensure complete information, you would need multiple copies of information. Not very efficient when you hold a terabyte of information. However, the cheapest means of backups is trying to use something you already have. I agree with my coworker backups on tape are inefficient but necessary.
You can bet on somebody's job! They were right though it's way before the 30th.
Interesting story about Jude Shao. I wonder if there's more to this story. He must have really angered someone or just stuck in political hell. Jude and others like him take a major risk when they do business in a country that doesn't work by Western standards.
IMF makes a strong statement about the dollar. Something has to slow down the rate of US deficit.
Google's search is not sufficient for adding real corporate value. It's like selling the CueCat in the late 90s.
One of the most vexing problems of living in the Internet age is having to wait. I hate waiting for a new book to come out with one of my favorite authors.
Taking a trip down memory lane using the Internet Archive. I was able to go back to a version of my previous site in 2001. I would have gone back all the way to 1998 if Geocities hadn't blocked the Archive. BTW, is everyone (Nullgel, CamWorld, MegNut) now married?!?
I used to be Windows 2000 SP3, now I'm the following:
Which OS are You?
Posted by azileretsis at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2006
dye is cast
I have to say I was pretty envious of kids that had a cast.
Interesting series on healthcare starting in WSJ. But, beside that is an article about LoveLehGirl. I love what she does.
Posted by azileretsis at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2006
chore
Microsoft should change how folders can be found by integrating the address bar in all the folder views. The "My Recent Documents" folder is pretty much useless. Selecting folder by folder is so old.
I feel like I'm in Europe when I look at the gasoline prices. Oil prices go up.
Oded Shenkar definitely have some interesting ideas about the East and West. I would wholeheartly agree about his assessment concerning West's strength in innovation and how it plays out in the marketplace. Imitation of West to the East is a foolish endeavor.
Drive-throughs would never work in a flu pandemic. This and other aspects of the bird-flu plan worry me. Drive-throughs would only work if there were enough people triaging all the people coming in. Imagine a pipe, the flow will only be as fast as the point where there is the greatest resistance. Now, you just have angry, frustrated sick people with cars. As the Red Cross found out in Hurricane Katrina, sometimes having people who have good intentions is not enough.
Posted by azileretsis at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2006
workoholics
Workoholic's reason for living are verified if tasks cannot be completed without them. They will never be interested in finding process improvements (unless they collapse) since they are validated by others' need of them. I'm starting to understand why I wouldn't want one to work for me or work for one.
I'm currently reading old news, Newsweeks and Wall Street Journals that have been stacking up in my house. It's different having a retrospective look at news.
Boutique Medicine is an intriquing subject. More doctors seem to be moving in this direction. The economist in me is interested to see how the market moves in reaction to other events. Why it is good and bad (pdf).
Posted by azileretsis at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
unknown
What is with Paul Anka?!? The name is popular on TV shows and it came up in a conversation with a Frenchman in Sweden. He has achieved social tipping point.
I love the new show, Numb3rs. I love the idea of finding out the unknown by looking at the known variables. Yet, I get hit again today about how many unknown variables that impact decisions. Models and algorithms are such a simplification of what is actually going on. A person's choice or decisions can be impacted by so many unknown factors that isn't even documented anywhere. Changes in circumstance and environment play such a unknown but key role in our choices and decisions. How small is my mind and my understanding.
Posted by azileretsis at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2006
tv
Does quality really matter or does quality really matter only when finding a price point to sell the product? I have no problems watching TV clips on my computer. I've actually been doing too much of this lately.
"Sustainable" and "charity" are not antonyms. There are many charities that are much older than most Fortune 100 companies.
Posted by azileretsis at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2006
emphasis
Two strategy meetings in two months with two different companies in two different industries. I should write a paper.
American companies should never compete on efficiency alone because they will never be competitive enough. Stop try to squeeze blood from rocks instead use the ingenuity and diversity that can make you strong. Sigh. It's like working as a mime.
Posted by azileretsis at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2006
technology for change
Neat. Technology for social enterprise. Does anyone else notice a slow deterioration (this word was first ms) of spelling ability due to spell check?
Posted by azileretsis at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)