I'm a geek working as a distance learning specialist for a large corporation.
My "radio station"
(Unfortunately, only works in IE.)
Loading ...Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The - Brisco date, art and tons of extras!
This was a fun show. Great sense of humor, great mixture of sci-fi and westerns, and my introduction to Bruce Campbell (as the title character).
At just under $100, I’ll probably pass on purchasing it, but I’ll rent it. Gotta get my wife up to speed on yet another show I was hooked on.
Torchwood Lights Up May - Slice of SciFi
In a recent interview with SciFi Wire, writer-producer Russell T.Davies (Doctor Who) stated that filming for the 13-episodes of Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff, will begin in May on location in England.
“Torchwood” is, appropriately, an anagram of Doctor Who, which I think is pretty clever.
The show will apparently be aimed squarely at adults, in contrast to Doctor Who’s family-friendly story lines. I just hope they don’t play up the character’s bi-sexuality. It was good for a few gags in the 5 Doctor Who episodes introducing the Jack Harkness character, but I really think it would end up being tired pretty quickly.
It is a fun character, though. Con men are always good characters to write for, in my opinion. Lots of opportunities there.
I hope “adult” doesn’t mean a) laden with sexuality, or b) dark and heavy. If they keep with the general tone they established in the Doctor Who episodes, the series should be pretty good.
It’d be nice if they’d air it in the States, too…
Brain interface: next best thing to telekinesis
This is cool stuff. I’m quoting the whole article, because I’m not confident of the longevity of articles on the scifi.com site.
Saving a life by mixing man and machine has had varied results: Darth Vader tormented a galaxy, RoboCop saved a city. Still, I’m in no way hesitant about the Brain Computer Interface. The system, developed by researches in Berlin, allows for a direct dialogue between a person’s brain and a computer. On display at the CeBIT trade show in Germany this week, the “mental typewriter” translates thoughts into cursor movement. Signals from the brain, measured by 128 electrodes affixed to a subject’s scalp, are dissected by a software program, picking out specific instructions amongst a mass of information. In the long term, the researchers hope a brain-controlled device will allow people with severe disabilities to communicate with the outside world. Currently, it takes 5 to 10 minutes to write a sentence with the system; that’s obviously too slow for everyday use, but as the technology improves, the device could give the paralyzed a voice. Other researchers in Germany and the United States are working on similar systems. — Trevor Noren
The majority of senior executives and managers are stressed at work. Eighty percent of senior executives and managers are stressed at work, with a third saying they are highly stressed, based on a nationwide survey by NFI Research.
That’s a lot of stressed people. And those people being stressed means that the people who work for them are most likely stressed as well. That’s a whole bunch more people.
The top three sources of stress at work are deadlines (52%), interruptions (42%) and conflicting responsibilities (37%). “This is not a healthy work situation with this constant pressure on people all the time,” said Chuck Martin, CEO of NFI Research.
Okay, if those are the top three, why aren’t they ever addressed, except to increase them?
The more stressed a person is, the less effective they generally become. So we’ve got a whole lot of less-than-top-performing executives and managers running around passing their stress down to the levels below them (essentially leading people to become more stressed). The feedback from those people then goes back up to the managers, and the inevitable unrest causes them even more stress.
Deadlines are the top stressor. In most cases, executives and managers are the ones setting the deadlines to begin with. That means this one is completely within their control. So why don’t they do a better job of controlling this stressor? It’d be easy to say it’s because they are stupid, but I don’t think that’s really the case. I think these are intelligent people, but they don’t take the time to plan ahead. They see a trend or a need, and say “I need that now!” and then tell those below them to get it done, without really considering the effort it takes to get it done right.
Take, for instance, every software project I’ve been associated with (not, I hasten to add, as a leader). An executive has looked at the competition and realized that somebody does something better than we do, so we better get that capability quickly. Fine… sounds like a reasonable plan. He tells the manager below him to get that done in X timeframe. The manager, not really knowing the specifics of how to pull that off, but wanting to impress the boss, says “Sure. We can do it for $XXXX.00.” The executive says “Great! So we have the talent to do it. But do it for $XXX.00.” (Because it’s an executive’s job, apparently, to provide a challenge, and lower costs.) The manager says, “okay but we need to expand the timeframe to X+1.” The executive says “Deal. Git ‘er dun.”
Right there: that’s where it all falls apart. See, with that budget there is no way they can get it done in X+1. They need at least X+3. But the manager thinks they can cut a corner here or there and bring it in maybe a little late, but not too badly. Plus, he’s not thinking of all the pieces that need to go into the project. He’s an IT manager, so he’s thinking:
But he’s not figuring in:
So from the initial agreement the software is doomed to be slipshod and 4 months late.
Now meanwhile, the executives are promising the public, or worse, the shareholders, that this will be in place at X+1. So now they’re stressed, because it looks like they’re incompetent when it doesn’t come out on time, and the manager is stressed because they could be fired for making the executive look stupid.
All this could be avoided if project management processes were actually followed and all relevant stakeholders were included in the estimating process. (I can’t speak for other departments, but I know the training timeline is ignored until the last minute more often than not.) I’ve also seen that most software projects are not nearly as well architected in the planning stages as they should be — many times I’ve heard project managers say, “We’ll figure that out later” only to be slammed with stress when they discover that that seemingly innocuous function actually impacts three distinct systems — so what should be a small effort when planned correctly turns into a major coordination of last-minute effort and rushed work.
For loyal readers (all 1 of you, including me), let me apologize for the dearth of posts lately. My second daughter was born recently and I was therefore otherwise engaged. I’m still trying to get caught up with stuff, including the readings that typically fuel these posts. I scanned a lot of stuff today that really looks interesting. When I go back and really read it, hopefully it will spur more thoughts and this blog will become active again.
In the meantime, go back and check out that Bugs Bunny entry. Good stuff. 
U.S.S. Mariner » Bugs Bunny, greatest banned player ever
This just blew me away.
First of all, if you’ve never seen the referenced cartoon, you’re missing one of the greatest of all time. Go rent the DVD.
The author spends a long article in a dead-pan analysis of the entire cartoon as if it were a real baseball game played in 1946, rationalizing the toon’s gags and attempting to apply real physics. The level of detail is unbelievable.
That must have been really hard to write. Humor is tough. I’d give him respect just for the effort, but it’s actually funny as well.
And it made me want to see that toon again!
Caddickisms is powered by WordPress | Using Tiga theme with a bit of Ozh + WP 2.2 / 2.3 Tiga Upgrade
