3640 Quality in code and sex bunnies

Saturday, October 13, 2012

A good deal of tyranny goes by the name of protection.

-- Crystal Eastman --

 

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If you're a masochist who is curious about the budget proposed by Paul Ryan, you can find all 98 pages of it at  http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf.

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When I worked for IBM, there was a lot of blather from management about "quality", but that's just what it was - blather.  We put out code that we knew was full of bugs, but we sent it out ON TIME, by damn!  We techies hated it.  Everybody said the word "quality" with a snort.  Yeah, sure.  What it came down to was that we had to beat the competition to market,  Period.  As far as sales and executives were concerned - "get it out first and fix it later", which eventually devolved to "get it out, and fix the bugs only if customers complain about them".

Well, judging by what I received the other day, that hasn't improved.  What really gets me is that there isn't even any competition in this instance - just maybe a due date to be met.

There's a website for employees.  I got an email saying that I should register for it.  This is how:  

Your IBM ID must have the format of a valid email address. It is uneditable and

•     must be no longer than 80 characters
•     must contain an '@' character that separates the user and domain values (example: yourid@ipsname.com)

[...later in the instructions, after the part about creating a password ...]  

If your IBM ID is over 32 characters or contains an "@" symbol, it may not give you access to certain password-protected parts of [the site].  This is a known, temporary condition, where a shorter, simpler IBM ID is required to access those areas properly. If you haven't already created a secondary IBM ID, return to the area where you had trouble signing in, and follow the 'Register' link from there to create one. 

 They have GOT to be kidding!  How could anyone send that crap out with a straight face?

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  Well, ladies, it looks like all the advances of the libbers in the '70s have not penetrated some areas.  The above photo accompanies one of those Yahoo sidebar ads, versions with captions like "One simple trick to beat the recession and make a fortune" or "One simple way to make a million dollars".

Take a good look.

Now, who is that ad addressed to?

And what does it say about women?

Apparently, a woman is still a thing to be owned, a reward for good work, good for one thing only, and we don't mind if she's a golddigger if she's got a chest full of silicone.

They could have shown him with a fancy car.  Car = woman, woman = car, same thing, same amount of respect.

Bah!

3269 Aaaaargh!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

“Bad news stops you for a while, then you move on. Hope is paralyzing.”
-- A line on “Criminal Minds“, 09/09/09 episode --

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This is today's Dilbert. It struck a chord with me, and not in a good way. That guy on the right, Asok, I think? That was me in The Company. I got so sick and tired of other people getting awards for things I did.

1505 Taxes and Cascade

Thursday, October 11, 2007

I got a $500 rebate check yesterday, under the STAR program (School Tax Relief Program, which includes a school property tax rebate program and a partial property tax exemption). The amount of the rebate depends on one's age and income level, and amount of taxes paid. They (Albany) determine your income from the income tax forms filed the previous April.

Now, I appreciate the rebate. But what bugs me is that it costs the state money to cut all these checks and mail them. I paid my school taxes several months ago, using money from a money market account, $500 of which I will now return to that account. So I'm out those months of earnings on that $500.

In these days of computers, would it really be so difficult to figure the rebate before I pay the school tax, and simply discount the tax bill by that much? Duh?

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This (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) is a New York Times article on "mistaken consensus".

I've seen mistaken consensus in action in The Company. It's when some person considered an expert comes up with a conclusion that a few others accept without question. Then, since there are now several "experts" espousing this conclusion, others accept it too. It cascades. Next thing you know, it's common wisdom. "Everyone knows" it's true.

Then, a few skeptics decide to actually test the truth, and are unable to support the conclusion. In fact, they may even prove it false. But since the conclusion is generally accepted (by experts who have never tested it, based solely on the acceptance of others who had never tested it, the cascade), these skeptics are shouted down, and even ostracised, to the point where dissension could become professional suicide - in a "reputational cascade".

The example used in the article is "Dietary fat is bad for you." 'Tain't true. The article traces the origin and mistaken cascade of the myth, and the difficulty combating it.

I witnessed several mistaken cascades within The Company. The source was almost always someone who stood to profit from the myth (not that they knowingly spread misinformation - they likely fully believed it - just that it wasn't true), and, on the basis of the myth, was promoted beyond harm by the time it was disproved. And, unfairness piled upon unfairness, the disprover was usually professionally injured by early dissension, and the final disproving of the myth never fully repaired that damage. ("Harumph! Not a team player! Rocks the boat! Yeah, ok, she was right, but still...")

Sigh. Yeah. The disprover was often me. It's a real credit to my talents that I actually did quite well on appraisals, raises, promotions. When I wasn't in the doghouse, that is. Which would last until I managed to kickstart a competing consensus cascade of my own.

There's a lesson there.
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