Engineer2Entrepreneur

Gill Blog: Carnival of the Capitalists

Link: Gill Blog: Carnival of the Capitalists.

Lots of good posts on what to do in case of another big disaster.

Another University starts podcasting

Link: The UW Daily Online.

Some UW students can now shuffle oceanography, anatomy and political science into their MP3 playlist.Three classes in Kane Hall are now offering downloadable podcasts of classroom lectures, with all the classes being recorded automatically.

The University of Washington has also started podcasting.

This is really great I love continuing education. I suspect that someday that these podcasts will be pay-to-play as they add enough material to create the ability to do minors and then majors in some fields entirely with podcasts and workbooks, rather like correspondence courses.

And I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future that except of hard science and engineering schools that need laboratory facilities, some universities will be nothing more then some servers in a commercial park somewhere. With podcasts as lectures, pdfs as textbooks and computer-scored tests.

Teen's military history podcast heard around the world

Link: Teen's military history podcast heard around the world.

"I was shocked to learn that he's only 15 years old. I've been through enough college and graduate school to know it takes a lot of time, work and maturity to research and organize a 20-minute lecture and then defend it against questions," said one subscriber, Brian Liddicoat, 39, who has an MBA and is a real estate attorney in Northern California. "This guy sounds like a college professor with years of experience, not a high school student. This is high-quality podcasting, and military history is not a very forgiving subject: Military history buffs tend to get very particular on details."

It just isn't all that hard to be out there anymore.

iPod Garage : iPod, iTunes, and Music : News, Commentary, and Reviews : Switch to the iPod Garage - New Tools for Searching podcasts

Link: iPod Garage : iPod, iTunes, and Music : News, Commentary, and Reviews : Switch to the iPod Garage - New Tools for Searching podcasts.

There are directories of podcasts and search engines that look at information about podcasts but now there are search engines that look inside podcasts.

What is it to be poor?

Link: 2� Worth.com � Blog Archive � The Economics of being poor.

The poverty threshold defined by the US Census bureau for 2004 ranges between $9,000 to $40,000, depending on the number of members including children in the family. And various estimates found on the web, that between 13 million to 30 million people, qualify as being poor. While there may be some reservation about whether all qualify, depending on what they have by way of assets and whether this is a temporary income condition, it seems reasonable to assume that an income level below $10,000 sustained over years, for an adult with dependent family, should qualify for the definition of poor.

What I find as most interesting is how wide the poverty threshold is.

If you go look at Political Calculations list of job for the un-degreed, all of them start below the high end of the poverty threshold and some of them don't break it at the high end.

But they are still far above the world poverty line, though that doesn't really matter it is the local conditions that effect you more then how rich someone is on another continent or even another country, but the people right around you. You can seem very wealthy compared to those around you but be poor compared to others further away.

Just look at any cost of living comparison calculator, a good job in the American Midwest supports a good lifestyle that in California or Boston would be relatively dirt poor. It is no wonder so many people are selling their overpriced homes in California and moving east.

The worst part about poverty is the mindset people around you can take. He doesn't have the best clothes so he must be dumb and things like that. Clothes don't make the man, but many people think that way.

Well, more thought provoking stuff from COTC.

PHOTON COURIER HUNTING THE FIVE-POUND BUTTERFLY

Link: PHOTON COURIER.

The article doesn't mention it, but the same kind of excessive specificity in hiring is also happening in fields other than engineering. I'm quite sure that there are talented salesmen who won't be hired this week because of a lack of experience with some particular sales automation or customer resources management system...representing knowledge that they could have easily picked up during their first couple of weeks on the job. And for the employer, this kind of thing has real costs. It's a basic reality of life that you can't optimize everything at once. So, if you insist on a perfect fit for certain things, you are probably getting less of some other attributes--and these may be ones that matter more. I'd personally rather have a salesman who has demonstrated (for example) skill at managing the customer politics in a large and complex sale than one who has specific experience with the Snarkolator CRM system. It's a lot easier to train for the second than for the first.Why this increased focus on "checklist" items? The WSJ article blames it largely on Internet job boards, which encourage a flood of resumes and enable the use of keyword screening as a means of coping with that flood. That's certainly part of it. I also think that fear of litigation has led hiring managers to focus on more "objective" criteria and less on intuition, and that this tendency has now been internalized to the point that people do it without even understanding why they do it.

I've run into this problem. They will ignore you if you don't have the right software in your background. The funny thing is that a lot of it is very expensive and not something you would and sometimes could buy on your own.

Sure, some unethical people would say you can pirate the software, but a lot of it is copy protected in one form or another. I remember having one computer that had so many dongles on it I needed to put it on its own desk.

If you have used any kind of CAD software you know them all, except for a few special things each has. The great thing about a GUI is it forces the same type of software to look very much the same, very different from the old DOS days.

I think the worst effect of this is that it takes thinking out of the hiring process. Any computer can find word matches, but it takes a person to find out if the candidate will work well in your group.

Hiring by checklist is a very lazy thing to do. It is just like zero-tolerance policies, there is no thought just institutional reflex. You almost have to wonder why have a manager at all. All these things can be automated away.

Carnival of the Capitalists: November 21, 2005 | Gongol.com

Link:
Carnival of the Capitalists: November 21, 2005 | Gongol.com
.

Good articles at The Carnival.

How to steal from the elderly

Link: When a Family Matter Turns Into a Business - Los Angeles Times.
"Her life changed three years ago, when a woman named Melodie Scott told a court in San Bernardino that Jones was unable to manage for herself. Without asking Jones, a judge made Scott — someone she had never met — her legal guardian.

Scott is a professional conservator."

This is scary beyond scary. Without warning or consent someone can take everything away from your or your parents, all they have to do is ask a judge.

Even if you have a will and other legal arraignments some stranger can come in an take over without even asking you.

If your parents are getting up there in age find out more.

The Entrepreneurial Mind: Carnival of the Capitalists Goes Back to College!

Link: The Entrepreneurial Mind: Carnival of the Capitalists Goes Back to College!.

This weeks contains a nice memorial to Peter Drucker.

Management Visionary Peter Drucker Dies

Link: Management Visionary Peter Drucker Dies.

Peter F. Drucker, 95, who was often called the world's most influential business guru and whose thinking transformed corporate management in the latter half of the 20th century, died Nov. 11 at his home in Claremont, Calif. No cause of death was reported, but he was under hospice care. His work influenced Winston Churchill, Bill Gates, Jack Welch and the Japanese business establishment. His more than three dozen books, written over 66 years and translated into 30 languages, also delivered his philosophy to newly promoted managers just out of the office cubicle.

A great man and a lose to the world. I've read some of his work and it always seemed obvious when he was talking that what he was saying was right. His material will be read for a long time.