Monday, May 17, 2004

Maximil Posted by: Maximil 9:13:06 PM

The Business of Doing Business - Notes From 'Pulp IT' Skools in SessionsBetween 2000 and 2003 98% of Ame .... Skools in Sessions Between 2000 and 2003 98% of American Business either: Lost significant revenue Laid off up to 50% of its staff Outsourced services or jobs in order to save money and increase productivity Went out of business Filed Bankrupcy Was acquired by a more dominant competitor If you did any combination of the above or lost your job as a result of the above listed desparate decision making you know these are bad moves made as a result of years of bad business moves with the intent of saving face at the last minute. No over paid excutive is going to admit that their degree was not worth more than lining a bird cage, nor are they going to admit that some relative got them their job. They are never going to say I don't know what I am doing don't listen to me. They will take credit when the going is good and lay blame when it is not. It's the nature of the RAT. Don't get mad, just move on. My favorite IT magazine cover of late was Baseline's March 2004 issue 028. The image is a corpse complete with toe tag and a sheet covering the rest of the body. The caption read," We Did Nothing Wrong" Poetry! Even though the image was meant to go with the issues main article relating to Software; the symbolism represented to me at least everything that I have discovered is wrong with American "Business as Usual" and is the perfect poster to go along with the above statics. For those Executives and Entreprenuers hoping not to repeat the mistakes of their corporate counterparts here is a top 10 list of how to handle b.a.u. so that everyone comes out on top. 1. Realize when something is wrong or not working out. 2. Identify exactly what the problem is and address it thoroughly and appropriately. 3. Find the origin of the problem area and correct what can be repaired; Exercise Damage Control 4. Realize the long term impact of the errors including your responsibility and address them with everyone involved. 5. Make certain this issue, problem, or mistake is completely comprehendable to all employees and departments involved. 6. Prepare your staff and retrain them before firing becomes an option. 7. Understand the value of Micromanagement and how to implement this productively. (Huh??? - Editor) 8. Standardize procedures that prove effective in both the long and short term. 9. Stay informed regarding current events/news and how they effect your company, sales, and industry. Markets fluctuate. Be prepared to stay on top by knowing how to lead out of troubled times. Have a back up plan. Maintain a Marketing and Advertising budget saved for a rainy day. 10. Lighten up, because you could have done better and things could have been worse. The more responsible you're willing to be for a negative situation, the more likely you will take control and turn things around. When all else fails Start over! Here's a tidbit from Kurt Vonnegut "Cold Turkey" [eCriteria Datablog eCriteria Meta Datablog Pulp IT] 7:39:44 PM

From Stephen Wolfram - 2 Year Anniversary of A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE A wonderful community is forming around the ideas of NKS. The pace of research and applications is steadily building--with an average of about one new paper now appearing every day (http://www.wolframscience.com/reference/bibliography.html). NKS classes and courses are being taught. And several times each week we hear about an ambitious new initiative based on NKS--in technology, or art, or business or somewhere else. We're trying to do our part to help. Earlier this year we released the online version of the complete book (http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline). We launched the NKS Forum (http://forum.wolframscience.com). We just sponsored the second annual conference: NKS 2004 (http://www.wolframscience.com/conference/2004). And we're working hard to make http://www.wolframscience.com the best possible reference source and meeting place for the NKS community. At the end of June, I'm looking forward to our second NKS Summer School (http://www.wolframscience.com/summerschool/2004)--where I hope we'll educate another outstanding group of NKS pioneers. (We're still accepting applications this week at http://www.wolframscience.com/summerschool/application.cgi). And later this year we'll be starting an R&D fellowship program at our new facility near Boston. It's been exciting to see everything that's been happening with NKS over the past year. But it's now clearer than ever that this is just the beginning. Much of what's being done so far on NKS has focused on specific models, and specific conceptual conclusions. But ultimately the real power of NKS comes from its core: the basic science of "pure NKS"--and its methodology of systematically exploring and understanding what's out there in the computational universe. New methodologies generally spread slowly. But pure NKS is definitely gaining momentum. And this year we'll be announcing a major initiative that I think will be an important step in moving it forward. Years from now, pure NKS will no doubt be a mature field like physics or mathematics--with its own complete infrastructure for research, education and applications. But for now it is still wide open, and full of terrific opportunities for professionals, students and amateurs alike. I hope you've been able to spend time on NKS. It's always great to hear what people are doing with NKS, and I hope you'll let us know if you have something to share. -- Stephen Wolfram 6:55:40 PM

Re: Hackers & Painters Hackers & Painters (and Writers). Since I am going off to the Computers and Writing conference in Hawaii next month, I am starting to think a little about what kinds of reading material to take on the plane. On my list is Hackers & Painters... [datacloud] 6:48:53 PM