In business school, they taught me to value the customer relationship over its lifetime. They also taught to think of all of the folks involved in the lifecycle of the product, including impacted non-customers, as important stakeholders. Oracle's approach has always been shortsighted, but it's painting with too broad a brush to treat all of the business educated as dollar chasing world breakers. Oracle's faults are Oracle's. Their shortsightedness is the result of *not* listening to sound advice, including that of MBAs.

What tech companies respect you most?

I don't believe this is true. There will certainly be disruption and the need to "reskill" or "retrain." And there will be some who have a hard time doing so. But the machines simply aren't going to replace certain types of work for a number of reasons.

(1) We prefer people doing some thing.
(2) Our needs and consumption desires change. We always want the next thing.
(3) By not being able to think like humans do, the machines aren't going to be able to address our needs. They can't deal with categorical dissonance, consciously experience and interpret sense data, relate on tough judgement call issues, define "good enough" criteria for making a choice in unprecedented circumstances, etc.

Which is why we need us.

Cheers

I make recipes for computers to follow.

Should poll questions make sense?

__ Yes

__ No

__ CowboyNeal

Google Voice for IOS crashes on me daily. Wish you'd take some of your own medicine.

Totally agree.

In addition, zero-rated traffic types.

I'd love to see this for small business Internet Access services. Availability of static v4/v6 assignments, etc.

Batman emoji is the one I'd use the most. Surprised it wasn't isn't the original set.

A $10k Apple Watch is going to attract thieves. Unlike a phone, which for some is a fashion accessory while out, but usually stays in the pocket/purse, this thing will be on your wrist continuously. It doesn't need to work to be valuable to someone just wanting to be seen with it. For someone with a stolen Apple Watch, saying it is out of batteries will be enough to explain away questions about why it isn't working.

Just saying.

Has anybody patented delivering boxes on a truck yet? Better jump on that one.

Using the Epic browser, slashdot is exactly as you say. Under chrome, I'm seeing ads from Doubleclick and Tribalfusion.
Guess I'll have to dig deeper to figure out where the ads are coming from. If my box or browser is compromised, I owe you one.

Thanks!

Capriguy84,
    Over the last few years, I have worked with a service provider on what to an outsider would sound very similar. The organization's processes, applications, and information had been distributed throughout the company on an ad hoc and project basis, resulting in an irrational de facto architecture that contributed inefficiency to practically every activity. For any organization, addressing these systemic issues will always be a work in progress. Although my case differs in scale by more than a factor of 100, I think the lessons I've taken may apply for you as well.

1 - Dysfunction is not a product of the technical situation. It is a product of management. Thus, it can only be addressed by management. For you, this means you have the opportunity to lead the organization to the right outcome, and you will have to get management support to get folks to change their processes. It looks like this: a) Identify the outcomes the org is looking for. Not "FAQs on the same server," but "Knowledge Management - Processes and technology to get and KEEP key company information accessible when necessary and secure." b) Obtain management support on the outcome. c) Explain the steps and costs needed - technical and non-technical. Management must ensure that new knowledge lands in the right place and people to go to the right place for the info. d) Implement - the technology and the culture changes e) Evaluate.

2 - What you are doing is not unique to your organization. Practically every firm has this problem in varying degrees. Go scan through the book "Faster Cheaper Better" by Michael Hammer to see an articulation of the issue at a very high level - not specific to knowledge management.

3 - There are frameworks that help guide the architecture process. Have a look at TOGAF. These are model driven, and frankly, they are very hard to consume and live by. Nevertheless, the point of these is roughly the same. When the problem is too large, divide and conquer. Model the organization and subject matter by dividing it into its parts. Prioritize, strategize, etc. Having the model enables you to ensure that solutions at the micro level are in harmony with those at the macro, etc. TM Forum does this for telecoms.

4 - Since the most important part of the job is getting buy in from management and those having to live through the culture change, your soft skills are more important than the tech skills.

All this might look like killing an ant with a sledgehammer. I suggest that you take a little time glance through material on how this is done at large scale and apply whatever seems pertinent.

Good luck!

This thread already has great posts in it. I'm an amateur who has recently done a good bit of research and made some purchases.

Prior to this 2011, I usually kept a small point-and-shoot around for a few years at a time. Each one took some great photos, and plenty of throw aways. That was until I had a chance to use a friend's Nikon D40, an older 6MP DSLR. I discovered with it that I had far more control, especially over focus and depth of field. All of the sudden, I could put the subject into focus quickly, and I found I was getting better results. From this experience, I went on a research binge and ended up making two purchases soon after. I bought a Canon ELPH SD4000 IS, a Point-and-Shoot that works well in low light, for my girlfriend. I got a Nikon D3100, an entry level DSLR. Here is a quick list of what I learned.

1 - The world is full of great cameras. A good photographer can make great work with most or all of them, and the best camera can't make up for a poor photographer.
2 - The DSLR world is as much about lenses as camera bodies. Canon and Nikon seem to be the two that most folks are religious about, and both have their mutually-incompatible lens styles. Every dollar toward one lens style gets you further invested in that family of lenses. It's not a bad thing, but you'll want to school up if you go the DSLR route. Have a sense for how the UIs work, the lens options (including compatibility with cameras), the relative prices, etc.
3 - Despite my Nikon D3100 having 14MP and all around "better specs" in most regards, I have little practical benefit to having my DSLR vs. the one borrowed. I get the joy of having more control with both, and I know I can shoot photos that could be printed to be somewhat larger. Scaling images down, my photos might be slightly more forgiving than those of the D40. In truth, if I were taking the same photos with either, I would have the same keepers.
4 - DSLRs carry a stigma in crowds. Carrying a point-and-shoot, you can take your pictures and put them away. Pulling out a DSLR means everyone around knows they're on camera.
5 - The Canon SD4000 IS does the best of job of no-flash low-light shots of any point and shoot I have seen. It does better than my DSLR with stock lens due to having a lower aperture. If your shots are mainly of people indoors at their homes, in restaurants, at clubs, or in other night settings, pulling out a DSLR will not only inspire poses or turned backs, but will probably require more tuning. I am not endorsing this camera as the best at this, but only that I was satisfied that I matched the camera to the kinds of shots that would be taken. I would have been less happy with a general purpose point and shoot.
6 - I have no experience with the "DSLR-like" cameras in the mid range, except that very good photographers I know downsize to these to have a camera that they can take with them anywhere.
7 - Borrow a camera if you can. I was very happy that I did.

Once you know what you'll use it for and what it is that encourages you, you'll be in a better position to figure out what camera will fit you.

Good Luck!