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Comment Re:What sorts of jobs were these? (Score 1) 164

I do agree that in the "real world" we absolutely need good PM's and good BA's, especially when you have to deal with larger scales, industrial or financial amongst others. Where I work I happen to manage (yes, I am one of those in "management") both PM's and BA's, and also manage a good chunk of developers, dba's, network folks, systems management and other tech-folk. My PM's and BA's are handpicked for their effectiveness and their ability to "get it" and translate the tech-speak to business-speak and vice versa, and not get railroaded by the business side wanting my techs to "do it quicker and cheaper at all costs" or my techs wanting to pull wool over the business side eyes; I view them as my cops yet they have the respect of both sides.

The issue becomes when you as a company start feeling that in order to be more competitive, you can solve the issue just by increasing the number of PM's and BA's which in turn will invariably generate more work, yet your tech base is left either with the same numbers or is reduced to make room for those new inbound PM's and BA's.

That’s where comments like our esteemed colleague “kiwimate” come from IMO, and while I don’t condone the arrogance in that statement, I do understand how frustrating it is to see these “ill-defined” positions overwhelm the rest.

If you manage these positions actively and effectively, you CAN live in harmony. When you get complacent and start thinking that power points and spreadsheets alone will solve your problems, then you’ll have a room full of “kiwimates” holding pitch forks and torches and your ability to be an effective manager is toast. My $.02

Comment Can the Supreme Court efficiently rule here? (Score 1) 124

From TFA "Now, here’s where things get interesting. Beckstead decided to sue PCOAB not over the deficiencies found, but rather the oversight board’s very right to existence."
As a disclaimer I have to say I have worked for Financials IT for quite a while and SOX was quite literally the bane of our existence for over 3 years. Whether SOX is a true measure of compliance is still an open question on my mind ...
The implication here is that if the Justices do rule in favor of Beckstead, what does that say about other government organizations that "audit" citizen's affairs?
In other words, you are told that all your servers must be 1U, you know this for a long time and make an effort to make sure every server is 1U, you go as far as dedicating an entire year in ensuring that servers must be 1U, then you get audited and they happen to find that 4U box your support guys used to launch all that crap that no other box was capable of handling, simultaneously, so you fail that portion of the audit.
You just SUE the people who enforce these efforts in the hopes that the very laws you knew about and made a concise effort to abide to get disregarded or amended in the course of a hearing? that's it?
First Person Shooters (Games)

Infinity Ward Fights Against Modern Warfare 2 Cheaters 203

Faithbleed writes "IW's Robert Bowling reports on his twitter account that Infinity Ward is giving 2,500 Modern Warfare 2 cheaters the boot. The news comes as the war between IW and MW2's fans rages over the decision to go with IWnet hosting instead of dedicated servers. Unhappy players were quick to come up with hacks that would allow their own servers and various other changes." Despite the dedicated-server complaints, Modern Warfare 2 has sold ridiculously well.
Games

Games Workshop Goes After Fan Site 174

mark.leaman writes "BoingBoing has a recent post regarding Games Workshop's aggressive posturing against fan sites featuring derivative work of their game products. 'Game publisher and miniature manufacturer Games Workshop just sent a cease and desist letter to boardgamegeek.com, telling them to remove all fan-made players' aids. This includes scenarios, rules summaries, inventory manifests, scans to help replace worn pieces — many of these created for long out of print, well-loved games...' As a lifelong hobby gamer of table, board, card and miniature games, I view this as pure heresy. It made me reject the idea of buying any Games Workshop (read Warhammer) products for my son this Christmas. Their fate was sealed, in terms of my wallet, after I Googled their shenanigans. In 2007 they forbid Warhammer fan films, this year they shut down Vassal Modules, and a while back they went after retailers as well. What ever happened to fair use?"

Comment Eurostar (Score 1) 1095

In addition to the many helpful comments posted here about places in London (or there'bouts), don't forget you can travel to France quite easily by train.
For about £130 round-trip you can get from London to Paris on the Eurostar http://www.eurostar.com/ , it's about a 2 1/2 to 3hr train ride depending on what station you board.
So, my suggestion would be take a train at 6 AM and you'll be in Paris by 9 AM, enjoy this wonderful city (lots of walking) and ride back in the evening.
You have Notre Damme, Eifel Tower, Champs-Elysées and the Arche du Triomphe all within a reasoneable walk along the Sienne river.
And yes, if you are so inclined, you may bring your laptop also, although with all the walking I would not recommend it.
Enjoy your "use it or lose it" vacation

Comment Re:Felt (Score 1) 388

Hey, I can certify that my Warrior, while wearing plate armor gets usually cut down by Huntards and their arrows, *and* I have 450 Blacksmithing. Will roll a DK to test the effectiveness of that class wearing armor.

Comment Re:Sick of the Double Standard (Score 3, Insightful) 1172

"Calling the accusation of fictional rape of a young girl parody is ridiculous. Stooping to that level means you are simply trying to assassinate a person's character. But when it's done against a conservative, it's called parody"

You, my dear sir or madam, missed the point entirely, of course he didn't rape and kill anyone, it would certainly hit his ratings so he wouldn't do that, what the domain "parodied" was the style favored by Mr. Glenn "I do more research ..." Beck: make a statement about a target, imply its validity and ask why the target does not defend that accusation, because if he doesn't defend that accusation, then it must be true.

That *is* character assassination and he was called on it, quite publicly.

Remember, “if it weights more than a duck, it must be a witch"

Comment Lunarian race ... (Score 4, Funny) 132

It's a pretty safe bet that the impact of the Centaur module will awaken some ancient lunarian race which will immediately begin waging a campaign to subjugate Earth once and for all, so it would behoove you to watch one of these feeds in order to be prepared for the inevitable.

Flash!!! ... GORDON .....

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