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Admin
Admin
Admin
let's hope you provide some big file cabinets as well to handle the "output" - no, wait, implement some digital imaging so your office can be completely "paperless."
the next thing would be to install parking meters next to each desk...
Admin
Welcome to the club.
We've all, I assume, made the mistake of advocating something that ended up with even more work for us.
Admin
I guess it's too late to jump on this bandwagon?
:)
Admin
I still can't figure out what the hell "Jamie" was talking about there. It doesn't even make sense any other way.
I sure appreciate you to pointing out that glaring error on my part? Nope, doesn't work.
I sure appreciate you too pointing out that glaring error on my part? Well, maybe in a really convoluted and awkward way you could use the word 'too' or also there, but still, wtf -- it makes perfect sense the way you wrote it originally.
Kind of reminds me of people who pat themselves on the back thinking they've managed to catch an error when they correct someone for using the word 'homage'. "Hey you dolt! You misspelled homepage!"
Admin
Reboot yours first. 1% of CPU time will allow him to read emails comfortably and will not slow down the main program considerably. If he reads his mail in something like pine, he won't even use that much memory.
Admin
Buying a second computer is not an investment in education.
What you describe is business-to-business relationship. In an employer-employee relationship, the first is supposed to provide the second with the tools they need for the job. It's a bad idea to be in one of these relationships and act as if it were the other one.
If you do all that and still act as and are treated as an employee (i.e. are told what to do, in what order, when and where), then you're not a professional but a naive sucker.
Admin
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns
"Nobody Cares If Your Pun Was Intended"
Admin
Because obviously buying a second computer to improve your output above and beyond is EXACTLY the same as the company not providing you with basics.
I must be a toilet-paper-buying retard because I paid for a license to install our lab software on my laptop so I could optimize all the test methods after-hours. Stupid me. It's not like I got a 10% raise out of it.
Oh wait, I did.
Admin
Obviously these fools are so uncool that they're unable to spell "hommage," which is clearly the etymological superior.
I mean, you say "homage" and it rhymes with "porridge," doesn't it?
That is just not right. It's not even a very good hommage, unless you're paying your respects to Bonnie Prince Charlie's cooking.
Admin
Great story!
Admin
Admin
Admin
Solution: Let's produce computers that have the framebuffers in the monitors, and not the graphics cards!
Admin
The first thing that strikes me as disgusting is the fact that your boss doesn't respect you enough to pay for the tools you need to do your job.
The second thing is touting a "raise" which was simply an exchange for spending your own money and working unpaid overtime. What if you spent the money on the license and still didn't get a raise? What if you didn't spend the time and money, but still got the same raise? Some of us are capable of doing our jobs within the normal parameters and still getting a fat raise.
Admin
If you spent more than .8 of an hour a day on it outside of work hours, yes, stupid you.
Admin
Admin
I call BS on this one! If you were a REAL old fart, you'd know that's a multi tape sort - and yes, we used to sort data between tape drives.
Admin
His job wasn't at risk at all. Everybody thought he did great work. HE was the one concerned about it.
I think the real WTF is that he didn't add a flag to run the program at less than 100%... or else prepare smaller sample datasets.
Admin
It will actually speed things up if he turns off X and uses pine at the console.... That's TRWTF! Why is he a) running the simulation on his machine instead of a dedicated cluster? b) running X on a computational machine? C) using a resource-intensive screensaver on a computational machine?
Admin
I hope old Allen F got to wear sandals and a t-shirt. And eat pizza while working....you don't want to do that in the lab either!
Admin
I remember that NT Server 4.0 came with a number of screen savers built in, one of which drew pipes. If that screen saver was selected, it always maxed the CPU at 100%. Not really good on a server. Back in those days, we would see lots of other peoples servers and PDCs with this screen saver on. Why is my outlook so slow?
Admin
I haven't noticed different lab coat lengths in grad school. Grad students wear t-shirts with lab coats, post-docs wear dress shirts with no coats, and professors wear dress shirts with optional jackets for seminars.
Also, $200000 will buy you around 4000 twill or 26315 Tyvek lab coats (from VWR with institutional discount). Finding the reason that the lab needs so many coats is left as an exercise to the reader.
Admin
Enough sniping.
This whole thread has been fascinating, in terms of different attitudes to entrepreneurship, risk, the social contract implicit in employment, perceptions of work quality, and use of own tools.
On this last matter, my employers have all been Marxists. They insisted very firmly on owning the means of production. And they had tenable reasons.
The title of the item (perfectly adequate productivity) might well be true, from the employer's perspective. If the scientists are fully occupied, or the production cluster runs near 100% utilisation, with work booked for weeks ahead, there's no gain to the employer in improving the developer's productivity -- see Liebig's Law.
Admin
Your case regarding Liebig's Law doesn't apply when priority is involved. Does management want the developer sitting on his hands because his workstation is locked up, or do they want him looking ahead and trying to get a simulation done that suddenly became top priority? Just because programs A, B, and C are complete doesn't mean they are going to run them in that order. They may want to run program Q next and the developer needs to be able to jump on it.
It sounds like you aren't one of those people who are going to be getting a raise by working normal hours. So good luck with the overtime. I was going to be polite but your Paula comment was pretty lame and didn't even really fit the discussion or refute anything I said.
Admin
Tretonin? I guess Allen F is a human working in a Tok'ra lab... explains a few things but leads to many more questions.
Kree!
Admin
How about Irish Girl?
Admin
So basically, anyone who is currently a 'worker' and wishes to become a 'professional' simply needs to quit their job and become re-employed?
I'd expect that any suitable definition regarding whether someone was a worker or a professional should be based entirely off their current abilities, not the abilities they had when they started their job.
Admin
Admin
Virtual machines don't use virtual CPUs ... they use real CPUs. Emulators use virtual CPUs.
Admin
If you have one and have gone through all usual trouble to get it to work.
Personally, I don't do that on machines where I know I'm not going to need 3D-acceleration, even if it has a 3D-accelerator. Since this is purely a work machine (and not for graphics design or CAD or something like that), chances are high 3D-card drivers were never set up.
Admin
I work in a similar lab and just run my test code on the cluster.
That's what it's there for.
Admin
While limiting the amount of processor time the simulations can use on his workstation would open up processor time for other things, it would also slow down test runs; possibly making him less productive. It makes better sense to have them run as quickly as possible, IMO. And I'll assume he gets paid pretty well for what he's doing so I doubt buying a 2nd workstation was a problem.
Admin
Just want to point out that makes it look like you're doing science, download Folding@Home. You can set it to display images of the folding proteins as a screensaver.
Okay, you will actually be doing science, but it'll be someone else's research that you get no data, citations, acknowledgements, or other benefits from.
Admin
Nope... but I didn't say education was the only way you can invest in yourself or your ability to do your job.
Consider a professional photographer... in many areas of professional photography if they think a particular camera, lens, strobe, or similar will allow them to do a better job they go out and buy it. They then use it professionally. In other words... they use it to do work for someone else. They don't expect that other party to directly pay for it even though obviously the money they are paid does pay for the gear.
Exactly right. A worker (employee if you prefer but it employment is more a legal term where worker implies social status as well) just does what they are told, using the tools they are given. If you want to claim to be a professional you must be willing to back your judgment with action and step outside the "I do what I'm told" framework and start thinking "I deliver what I am paid for". A professional must be able to judge, to deliver, and to walk away. What do you think I was talking about?
Investing in your ability to do your job is one hallmark of professionalism. Those investments give you independence.
I've known "IT people" who literally didn't own a computer of their own. They were nothing but workers. They got paid squat, couldn't be trusted, never got promoted... and they thought the way so many here apparently think. "I'm just trading time for money... you want me to use a tool you'd better buy it for me and teach me how to use it..."
Admin
He didn't supply hardware to the company. He bought himself a machine for his own use at the company. When he quits he will take it with him.
Have you ever bought a book about a work-related subject and brought it to the office with you? Then you have done exactly the same thing. The book is a tool, the computer is a tool, and you bought and used it because it helped you to deliver what you were paid to deliver.
If you haven't...well...whatever.
Admin
Of course, the pay would also be 100% virtual :P
Captcha - dignissim (more like idiotim)
Admin
You have just cluelessly missed the point.
This isn't "no chair or desk"... this s "I don't like the chair or desk you provided".
See the difference? They gave him a computer. They were happy with his performance. He thought he could do better. He proposed a solution but they said they were happy with the status quo. He, like a professional, invested in his ability to do better because he wanted to improve. No different than being a C programmer, being paid as a C programmer, and buying learning material to find out about C++ or C# or whatever... then applying that knowledge (which the employer didn't pay for) to do your job.
You sound like a real worker.
And you know what... there was a time when the chair my employer provided sucked...it wasn't busted, wasn't even a bad chair, I just didn't like it...and my employer thought it was a fine chair and I should just get used to it. What I want matters. I don't use things just because they are what my employer provides. I'll quit a job rather than use the wrong tools... but I didn't have to quit. I went out and bought what I wanted, used what I wanted, because I am paid to do a job, not to sit in a company provided chair while hours tick by. Nobody minded. I still have the chair. It was an investment in my comfort which means an investment in my ability to do the job I was paid to do.
Admin
Are you the same JustChris who posted Dracula's Servants to Remix ThaSauce?
Admin
This is my first the daily WTF comment ever. Even though I find most of the articles on this site funny, this one I really LOL'ed at. Thanks for a great piece of text to brighen my day :)
Admin
This strikes me as a culture clash. On the one hand, there's the attitude that you just do the job they tell you to do, and if they won't supply you with the stuff you need, you'll wait till they do. If everything takes twice as long, that's their problem, you get paid the same. After all, if you start buying your own stuff, that's what they'll expect from you in future. And if your stuff causes a problem, it'll be All Your Fault. On the other, there's the attitude that making 6-10 hours of your day a little less tedious is worth the money, and it's not like it'll be a problem to buy a new PC. You might also be able to get the money for it, once you've proved that it's useful, and it'd still be AYF if the computer you asked for broke something, even if they'd okay'd it.
Personally, I'm on Labguy and Asiago Chow's side. If the options are "sit watching a blank screen for 4 hours", or "buy a new PC and look like a suck-up", I'd rather look like a suck-up and have a new PC. After all, it's my computer, so I can use it for stuff I want to do. Also, there's a gap between "need" and "want". I don't "need" the extra PC, I can still work without it, so it's not really part of my job reqs. But I "want" it, so I can do a better job. Also, I can take it with me if I leave, I can run my own programs on it, that kind of thing.
But it's fairly environment dependent. If your workplace is the kind where doing something like this would seem "sucker" or suck-up like, then it's probably less attractive a prospect. That's why Mr. "My Startup Needs These Kind Of Suckers" won't get them. If you think it's a suckerish thing to do, how can that not bleed off into the workplace dynamic.
If your workplace is the kind of environment where people are proud of what they're doing and want to produce the best stuff they can, it's probably more. Also, if your workplace is like this, I'd like a job...
Admin
Admin
After realizing that almost half of his day was spent staring at his screen, Allen requested a second workstation so that he could focus on email, requirements analysis, and other tasks while his computer slaved away. Well there's your problem! A second workstation? Such extravagance! You should have asked for a dedicated testing rig instead. Same effect, but it doesn't come out of the "employee status indicators" budget.
Admin
This is because ulimit is there so that you can kill processes that use too much resources over time, not to assist the scheduler. The right tool is 'renice', and screensavers should be low priority as they're never as important as doing real work, the likes of Folding@Home notwithstanding.
Of course, the real question is why the original submitter is using large datasets for testing on small hardware. If he's tuning for the production servers, he probably needs to run the test jobs on those servers too so that he's getting the right memory/interconnect performance. If he's doing main development, he'll be better with something with a run time of a few seconds so that the test turnaround time is minimal.
Admin
In my opinion, the true, real and only WTF is that he used his OWN money to buy a computer for work purposes.
Admin
I dream of a workplace like that. This place is so full of people who just do enough, and then the management layer are surprised when the product is awful and full of bugs. Not that management layer are any better...
Admin
Bob + NaN = NaN, who is only one person.
Admin
Ah well, I better move that stick again....
Admin
You know, maybe those scientists should be more careful. There might be a resonance cascade you know...