Pretty close. However, if you can bring a new tool in and quickly and clearly demonstrate the advantages of this tool you stand a chance. Did it with Cold Fusion. Demonstrated how quickly one can knock out a website versus the excruciating Java development environment that was set up. It became something of a grassroots development environment in the company and dozens of apps are written in it. They tried to get it out because they only wanted to use Weblogic but fortunately CF was rewritten to run in Weblogic and other app engines and that kept it in here.

Your first sentence is quite accurate though. Things that can be touchy feely as soon as possible always impress. Add real data into it and they'll be putty in your hands. Beware! As soon as they see something seemingly nearly working they'll expect it yesterday so a realistic timeframe needs to be presented in advance of showing off anything.

Absolutely untrue. Most people want to avoid change. You have to factor many things in not just higher salary. Commute, hours, family, debt, environment (co-workers, office space, office location). Are there people like this, definitely.

Where do I see it the most. Outsourcing companies. People making say 30K will leave tomorrow for 33-35K because 1) that's a huge % difference; 2) the new commute might be going to a different floor in the same building; 3) the demand is there and this is the norm. Who's suffering for this, the client. You end up with a revolving door of developers where their experience is nearly zero, have no prior knowledge of the company they're going to do the work for, etc. You could easily end up with a group of people working on something for 6 months or a year, say you need a couple of more enhancements and you have an entirely new team of people and you're back to square one.

Where else, middle to upper management where generic manager A convinces some other company that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, they hire him for a lot more money and after 2 years or less he's gone from your place and repeating the cycle somewhere else. Of course, after they've left your company realizes what a dolt he/she was and the cleaning up the mess begins. I know a guy that does this. He must start planning his departure a little after a year or 18 months after his arrival.

Another example of a company striving for mediocrity by replacing acknowledged, talented people with "x" number of "y" people that cost as much or less. I had a similar experience. I ran the whole environment (which management should never have allowed but never wanted to pay for more staff), never a problem, only kudos, total support by the internal clientele. I even brought money in from other divisions to support their needs. 13 management changes, most were wise (or lazy) managers that were more than happy to simply sign my timesheet, ask me if they needed to do anything for me, etc. Then, of course, there's the manager that just has to make their mark. Let's replace him with some outsourcing. My client's were sold a bill of goods which I warned them about but they were getting this change rammed down their throats. Fortunately, the clients from the other divisions realized what the deal was and hired me in directly from day 1.

So after eventually staffing up with 5 outsourcers and a year+ goes by, absolutely nothing new was developed, problems were rampant, clients disgusted, etc, I get a call. Can you come back in and help us out with this, that and the other thing. I was more than happy to be double paid working at my convenience, etc.

For the young guy, doing a good job is mandatory. Making sure you have people that want to keep you in your job is also mandatory. Those people are generally not IT people. They are your clients and they are the ones being charged by IT to pay for you. The more important/high level your client the more survivability you have. The more breadth of clientele the better. I had clients that went 3 levels up in their management chain just to have him tell IT to go stick it for 3 years on replacing me. During that time I cultivated more internal clients and ended up where I am now. Do I want to spend my time being political, no. I just want to deliver good quality stuff quickly in support of my clients. However, it's simply unavoidable.

determined to be not as advertised

We've gotten several inquires about this by the fantastically loyal and knowledgeable Mac community. After further investigating the item, here's the information:
Firstly, this Macintosh was, indeed, presented to Gene Roddenberry by Apple. There is no doubt about this.
The conflict between the photo and the serial number is as follows. This computer, given by Apple to Mr. Roddenberry, is an early production Macintosh 128 (#776), which was then upgraded by Apple for Gene to a Macintosh Plus-thus the model number / serial number / panel that "belongs to" a Macintosh Plus. The 0001 led us to mistakenly believe that it was the first one off the line.
Again, the provenance of the item is perfect and it did belong to Mr. Roddenberry. I apologize for any confusion.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get the entire country or even better world to not buy any music for a few days in protest of the RIAA / ASCAP / Record Labels BS NAZI tactics? Any other business that pulled this BS would be out of business in a second. Imagine walking into a car showroom and them saying "Ok, that'll be $20 to take a testdrive" or a clothing store to say "That'll be $2 to try that on"?

How could one conclude that Lego was "saved" by these tie-ins and would have ceased to exist? Did they promote added sales, etc, yeah sure. But "saved" is simply a ridiculous statement.

Perhaps someone pulled a switcharoo? If someone actually called NASA and they said they had provided a rock for this purpose then that is likely true. What was presented may or may not have been real or at some point after the presentation some monkey business might have occurred.

The garbage I read from younger co-workers in the office certainly doesn't demonstrate this. 1/3 of it is simply embarrassing.

So you're basically better off shoplifting, stealing from the library, breaking into cars, stealing iPods, etc. Sorry the "crime" does not justify the "fine".

This is why we need to have penalties for filing nuisance law suits. Yes, another person in this world that wants to blame their problems on anyone else.

Guess you never heard of "no child left behind". This is where the idiot kids who have been texting aren't allowed to be left back. They get moved ahead and shouldn't even be working at Burger King.

Barry Diller's view of reality is a myth. People already pay for internet access they generally will not pay more to hit websites. Some will remain free and those will thrive and the losers will either go out of business or they will return to free, possibly too late to survive.

There must be a group of masochists over at MS. Apps outside the browser? Are they insane. I'm sure the sample exploit code is already out there.

The Great American Bubble Machine

http://www.correntewire.com/great_american_bubble_machine_0