Reed Me : research

In other words, if I get promoted that means what...?

reedme — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:59:55 GMT

The way I read these alleged research results, a lottery is just as effective at picking people for promotions as what we’ve been doing for years?

But is there a better way of choosing individuals for promotion? It turns out that there is, say Pluchino and co. Their model shows that two other strategies outperform the conventional method of promotion.

The first is to alternately promote first the most competent and then the least competent individuals. And the second is to promote individuals at random. Both of these methods improve, or at least do not diminish, the efficiency of an organization.
Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: Why Incompetence Spreads through Big Organizations

I think some researchers have been playing The Sims too much lately...

From personal experience, I know that it matters quite a bit to cow-orkers’ morale who gets promoted... and it’ll be hard to convince even an average CEO or HR generalist that promoting people at random results in an organization that’s just as efficient as one produced by experience, interview selection, seniority and/or the good ole boy network connections.

Pick me. Pick me! Heh.

We are sooo doomed as a species.

reedme — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:41:48 GMT

I bump into people now and then, even up here in the near orbit of Redmond, who either don’t have an email address or don’t check it regularly. Being a hyper-connected person (my man-portable gadgets radiate enough EM to keep me warm in the winter), these people always remind me that I don’t live on the same planet with most people. [Do you know how hard it is to buy a motorcycle via craigslist from somebody who only checks email once a week?!]

However, these lies, damn lies and statistics from a Harris Interactive survey (sponsored by Intel) boggle the mind:

People would forgo sex and television watching for two weeks rather than lose a week's worth of access to the Internet. Not Tonight Honey, I've Got the Internet (InternetNews.com)

Um. No.

If you’d rather give up sex for two weeks than a week without lolcats, wasted hours WoWing, playing Solitaire Online and watching stupid BlewTube videos... well, please get out of the gene pool. If you’ve already got kids, put them up for adoption before you corrupt them further. Really. Also, you’re doing it wrong.

If natural disasters, meteors, super-volcanoes, gamma ray bursts, space aliens, zombies, climate change or bloody unicorns don’t wipe us out, we’re still doomed as a species... because Algore invented the webbernetz.

I’ll be over here in the corner weeping for all the kids in the “third world” that we’re going to be giving free laptops and Internet access. It’s only a matter of time for them, too. *cry*

You’d think that this would already be available off-the-shelf...

reedme — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:26:13 GMT

I can think of three or four realistic first-person shooters that might already fill this niche. There are probably more...

Reportedly, the army has had a great need for virtual training aids and initially wanted to get videogame training materials out to units before the money was available. Though the army has a large interest in watching the gaming industry for useful technology that could be adapted for military training applications, it doesn't plan to be go toe-to-toe with game publishers.
The Escapist : News : U.S. Army To Invest $50 Million In Gaming

It seems like DARPA needs to connect up with MSR:

Mobile Augmented Reality Games and Visualization
Steve Feiner and Sean White of Columbia University demonstrate prototype mobile augmented reality applications. The goal is to merge virtual information with the real world, leveraging our skill in interacting with physical objects to interact with virtual ones. Demos include hand-held games, user interfaces for an electronic field guide for plants, and visualizations of site data for urban designers. Work being displayed is implemented using the Goblin XNA 3D platform, running on top of Microsoft XNA. Demofest 2008

I saw a demo of Goblin a year or so ago, and it was pretty cool!

For some reason, this all reminds me of the silly reports when I was a kid about how many hours of “combat training” that we all received from watching G.I. Joe cartoons. Heh.

Contrary to the FUD, The Relational Database™ is far from dead...

reedme — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:29:14 GMT

I've gotten questions over the past month or two from folks (mostly DBAs and trainers) who have attended FUD dissemination events where various "experts" have declared The Relational Database™ to be dead. Ha! I've had a good laugh at most of the points that the so-called "experts" were spewing... They were all selling vaporware that was allegedly in development to produce a True Relational Database™ or a niche column-based cache widget or their own special brand of Snake Oil™.

Smarter people than I am are happily, eagerly investing MORE in database technology, rather than less, so I feel pretty comfortable continuing to base my career on the growth of The Relational Database™. In the spirit of w00t!, I'd like to welcome aboard the newest David in the database realm @ Microsoft:

DeWitt said Microsoft has generally given him carte blanche to focus his research and development wherever he wants. He's interested in a number of technologies and use cases, such as analytics to target online ads, query optimization at mega-scale, building database systems that can better exploit multi-core computers, and expanding the types of data databases can handle at scale. Microsoft Hires Database Pioneer, Opens Database Development Lab (InformationWeek.com)

I love The Relational Database™ (a.k.a. Microsoft™ SQL Server™), and I'm glad to see that we're adding more technical fellows in this realm. At the risk of seeming cliché, I'm happy to report that rumors of the demise of The Relational Database™ are greatly exaggerated. Heh.