Dirty Mind

Posted on November 18, 2008 in Brooks pharmacy

Is there anything that occasions you be convinced together with flat a dutiful formulate than sitting being your child's Holiday Confession? Why don't they serve alcohol at these calculations? I build family wouldn't concoct sneaking out so soon if they could knock back a margarita or two centrally located amid songs. Stick around quarter's was the worst--seemingly interminable. Ever and anon grade sang two songs, moreover the school team along with the orchestra did a medley--and we were seated Along bleachers. The powers-that-be may consist of wised gone this year--it seemed encompassing half all along humongous. Which was to boot an era moreover a half. Cinch bleachers. Along with, betwixt our affair, with a toddler. Also needed site do they gravy the lame-ass songs? W.B. acquitted himself peculiarly nicely. He danced midst he was supposed to and sang midst he was supposed to. He didn't again sit come off (being individual of his classmates did), or pull at his privates the whole year, or sing dirty lyrics a la Bart Simpson (although I was so ample completed centrally located the nosebleed grouping this he might reminisce). Furthermore it's separate Less holiday scutwork to pain usually. Tomorrow I appreciate two parties--W.B.'s type hunk, suddenly Pod's aid party--both of which propound dwelling enclosed by about a half quarter of each further. Next Her Majesty's brand team possible Friday. Honestly, I'll be glad midst the holiday week is lode behind us.

Tags: holiday, half, songs, midst, sang

Good Agile, Bad Agile

Posted on November 18, 2008 in Generic biologicals

  Scrums are the most dangerous phase in rugby, since a collapse or improper engage can lead to a front row player damaging or even breaking his neck. — Wikipedia When I was growing up, cholesterol used to be bad for you. It was easy to remember. Fat, bad. Cholesterol bad. Salt, bad. Everything, bad. Nowadays, though, they differentiate between "good" cholesterol and "bad" cholesterol, as if we're supposed to be able to distinguish them somehow. And it was weird when they switched it up on us, because it was as if the FDA had suddenly issued a press release announcing that there are, in fact, two kinds of rat poison: Good Rat Poison and Bad Rat Poison, and you should eat a lot of the Good kind, and none of the Bad kind, and definitely not mix them up or anything. Up until maybe a year ago, I had a pretty one-dimensional view of so-called "Agile" programming, namely that it's an idiotic fad-diet of a marketing scam making the rounds as yet another technological virus implanting itself in naive programmers who've never read "No Silver Bullet", the kinds of programmers who buy extended warranties and self-help books and believe their bosses genuinely care about them as people, the kinds of programmers who attend conferences to make friends and who don't know how to avoid eye contact with leaflet-waving fanatics in airports and who believe writing shit on index cards will suddenly make software development easier. You know. Chumps. That's the word I'm looking for. My bad-cholesterol view was that Agile Methodologies are for chumps. But I've had a lot of opportunity to observe various flavors of Agile-ism in action lately, and I now think I was only about 90% right. It turns out there's a good kind of Agile, although it's taken me a long time to be able to see it clearly amidst all the hype and kowtowing and moaning feverishly about scrums and whatnot. I have a pretty clear picture of it now. And you can attend my seminar on it for the low, low price of $499.95! Hahaha, chump! No, just kidding. You'll only find seminars about the Bad kind of Agile. And if in the future you ever find me touring around as an Agile Consultant, charging audiences to hear my deep wisdom and insight about Agile Development, you have my permission to cut my balls off. If I say I was just kidding, say I told you I'd say that. If I then say I'm Tyler Durden and I order you not to cut my balls off , say I definitely said I was going to say that , and then you cut 'em right off. I'll just go right ahead and tell you about the Good Kind, free of charge. It's kinda hard to talk about Good Agile and Bad Agile in isolation, so I might talk about them together. But I'll be sure to label the Good kind with a happy rat, and the Bad kind with a sad dead rat, so you'll always know the difference. The Bad Heading Back in Ye Olden Dayes, most companies approached software development as follows: - hire a bunch of engineers, then hire more. - dream up a project. - set a date for when they want it launched. - put some engineers on it. - whip them until they're either dead or it's launched. or both. - throw a cheap-ass pathetic little party, maybe. This step is optional. - then start over. Thank goodness that doesn't happen at your company, eh now? Whew! Interestingly, this is also exactly how non-technical companies (like, say, Chrysler) handled software development. Except they didn't hire the engineers. Instead, they contracted with software consultants, and they'd hand the consultants 2-year project specs, and demanded the consultants finish everything on time plus all the crap the customer threw in and/or changed after signing the contract. And then it'd all fall apart and the contractors wouldn't get paid, and everyone was really miffed. So some of the consultants began to think: "Hey, if these companies insist on acting like infants, then we should treat them like infants!" And so they did. When a company said "we want features A through Z", the consultants would get these big index cards and write "A" on the first one, "B" on the second one, etc., along with time estimates, and then post them on their wall. Then when the customer wanted to add something, the consultant could point at the wall and say: "OK, boy . Which one of these cards do you want to replace , BOY? " Is it any wonder Chrysler canceled the project? So the consultants, now having lost their primary customer, were at a bar one day, and one of them (named L. Ron Hubbard) said: "This nickel-a-line-of-code gig is lame. You know where the real money is at? You start your own religion." And that's how both Extreme Programming and Scientology were born. Well, people pretty quickly demonstrated that XP was a load of crap. Take Pair Programming, for instance. It's one of the more spectacular failures of XP. None of the Agileytes likes to talk about it much, but let's face it: nobody does it. The rationale was something like: "well if ONE programmer sitting at a terminal is good, then TEN must be better, because MORE is ALWAYS better! But most terminals can only comfortably fit TWO programmers, so we'll call it PAIR programming!" You have to cut them a little slack; they'd been dealing with the corporate equivalent of pre-schoolers for years, and that really messes with a person. But the thing is, viruses are really hard to kill, especially the meme kind. After everyone had gotten all worked up about this whole Agile thing (and sure, everyone wants to be more productive), there was a lot of face to be lost by admitting failure. So some other kinds of Agile "Methodologies" sprang up, and they all claimed that even though all the other ones were busted, their method worked! I mean, go look at some of their sites. Tell me that's not an infomercial. C'mon, just try. It's embarrassing even to look at the thing. Yeah. Well, they make money hand over fist, because of P.T. Barnum's Law, just like Scientology does. Can't really fault 'em. Some people are just dying to be parted with their cash. And their dignity. The rest of us have all known that Agile Methodologies are stupid, by application of any of the following well-known laws of marketing: - anything that calls itself a "Methodology" is stupid, on general principle. - anything that requires "evangelists" and offers seminars, exists soley for the purpose of making money. - anything that never mentions any competition or alternatives is dubiously self-serving. - anything that does diagrams with hand-wavy math is stupid, on general principle. And by "stupid", I mean it's "incredibly brilliant marketing targeted at stupid people." In any case, the consultants kept going with their road shows and glossy pamphlets. Initially, I'm sure they went after corporations; they were looking to sign flexible contracts that allowed them to deliver "whatever" in "2 weeks" on a recurring basis until the client went bankrupt. But I'm equally sure they couldn't find many clients dumb enough to sign such a contract. That's when the consultants decided to take their road show to YOU. Why not take it inside the companies and sell it there, to the developers? There are plenty of companies who use the whip-cycle of development I outlined above, so presumably some of the middle managers and tech leads would be amenable to hearing about how there's this low-cost way out of their hellish existence. And that, friends, was exactly, precisely the point at which they went from "harmless buffoons" to "potentially dangerous", because before they were just bilking fat companies too stupid to develop their own software, but now the manager down the hall from me might get infected. And most places don't have a very good quarantine mechanism for this rather awkward situation: i.e., an otherwise smart manager has become "ill", and is waving XP books and index cards and spouting stuff about how much more productive his team is on account of all this newfound extra bureaucracy. How do we know it's not more productive? Well, it's a slippery problem. Observe that it must be a slippery problem, or it all would have been debunked fair and square by now. But it's exceptionally difficult to measure software developer productivity, for all sorts of famous reasons. And it's even harder to perform anything resembling a valid scientific experiment in software development. You can't have the same team do the same project twice; a bunch of stuff changes the second time around. You can't have 2 teams do the same project; it's too hard to control all the variables, and it's prohibitively expensive to try it in any case. The same team doing 2 different projects in a row isn't an experiment either. About the best you can do is gather statistical data across a lot of teams doing a lot of projects, and try to identify similarities, and perform some regressions, and hope you find some meaningful correlations. But where does the data come from? Companies aren't going to give you their internal data, if they even keep that kind of thing around. Most don't; they cover up their schedule failures and they move on, ever optimistic. Well if you can't do experiments and you can't do proofs, there isn't much science going on. That's why it's a slippery problem. It's why fad diets are still enormously popular. People want fad diets to work, oh boy you bet they do, even I want them to work. And you can point to all these statistically meaningless anecdotes about how Joe lost 35 pounds on this one diet, and all those people who desperately want to be thinner will think "hey, it can't hurt. I'll give it a try." That is exactly what I hear people say, every time a team talks themselves into trying an Agile Methodology. It's not a coincidence. But writing about Bad Agile alone is almost guaranteed to be ineffective. I mean, you can write about how lame Scientology is, or how lame fad diets are, but it's not clear that you're changing anyone's mind. Quitting a viral meme is harder than quitting smoking. I've done both. In order to have the right impact, you have to offer an alternative, and I didn't have one before, not one that I could articulate clearly. One of the (many) problems with Bad Agile is that they condescendingly lump all non-Agile development practices together into two buckets: Waterfall and Cowboy. Waterfall is known to be bad; I hope we can just take that as an axiom today. But what about so-called Cowboy programming, which the Agileers define as "each member of the team does what he or she thinks is best"? Is it true that this is the only other development process? And is Cowboy Programming actually bad? They say it as if it's obviously bad, but they're not super clear on how or why, other than to assert that it's, you know, "chaos". Well, as I mentioned, over the past year I've had the opportunity to watch both Bad Agile and Good Agile in motion, and I've asked the teams and tech leads (using both the Bad and Good forms) lots of questions: how they're doing, how they're feeling, how their process is working. I was really curious, in part because I'd consented to try Agile last Christmas ("hey, it can't hurt"), and wound up arguing with a teammate over exactly what metadata is allowed on index cards before giving up in disgust. Also in part because I had some friends on a team who were getting kind of exhausted from what appeared to be a Death March, and that kind of thing doesn't seem to happen very often at Google. So I dug in, and for a year, I watched and learned. The Good Head (cue happy rat) I'm going to talk a little about Google's software development process. It's not the whole picture, of course, but it should suffice for today. I've been there for almost a year and a half now, and it took a while, but I think I get it now. Mostly. I'm still learning. But I'll share what I've got so far. From a high level, Google's process probably does look like chaos to someone from a more traditional software development company. As a newcomer, some of the things that leap out at you include: - there are managers, sort of, but most of them code at least half-time, making them more like tech leads. - developers can switch teams and/or projects any time they want, no questions asked; just say the word and the movers will show up the next day to put you in your new office with your new team. - Google has a philosophy of not ever telling developers what to work on, and they take it pretty seriously. - developers are strongly encouraged to spend 20% of their time (and I mean their M-F, 8-5 time, not weekends or personal time) working on whatever they want, as long as it's not their main project. - there aren't very many meetings. I'd say an average developer attends perhaps 3 meetings a week, including their 1:1 with their lead. - it's quiet. Engineers are quietly focused on their work, as individuals or sometimes in little groups or 2 to 5. - there aren't Gantt charts or date-task-owner spreadsheets or any other visible project-management artifacts in evidence, not that I've ever seen. - even during the relatively rare crunch periods, people still go get lunch and dinner, which are (famously) always free and tasty, and they don't work insane hours unless they want to. These are generalizations, sure. Old-timers will no doubt have a slightly different view, just as my view of Amazon is slightly biased by having been there in 1998 when it was a pretty crazy place. But I think most Googlers would agree that my generalizations here are pretty accurate. How could this ever work? I get that question a lot. Heck, I asked it myself. What's to stop engineers from leaving all the trouble projects, leaving behind bug-ridden operational nightmares? What keeps engineers working towards the corporate goals if they can work on whatever they want? How do the most important projects get staffed appropriately? How do engineers not get so fat that they routinely get stuck in stairwells and have to be cut out by the Fire Department? I'll answer the latter question briefly, then get to the others. In short: we have this thing called the Noogler Fifteen, named after the Frosh Fifteen: the 15 pounds that many college freshmen put on when they arrive in the land of Stress and Pizza. Google has solved the problem by lubricating the stairwells. As to the rest of your questions, I think most of them have the same small number of answers. First, and arguably most importantly, Google drives behavior through incentives. Engineers working on important projects are, on average, rewarded more than those on less-important projects. You can choose to work on a far-fetched research-y kind of project that may never be practical to anyone, but the work will have to be a reward unto itself. If it turns out you were right and everyone else was wrong (the startup's dream), and your little project turns out to be tremendously impactful, then you'll be rewarded for it. Guaranteed. The rewards and incentives are too numerous to talk about here, but the financial incentives range from gift certificates and massage coupons up through giant bonuses and stock grants, where I won't define "giant" precisely, but think of Google's scale and let your imagination run a bit wild, and you probably won't miss the mark by much. There are other incentives. One is that Google a peer-review oriented culture, and earning the respect of your peers means a lot there. More than it does at other places, I think. This is in part because it's just the way the culture works; it's something that was put in place early on and has managed to become habitual. It's also true because your peers are so damn smart that earning their respect is a huge deal. And it's true because your actual performance review is almost entirely based on your peer reviews, so it has an indirect financial impact on you. Another incentive is that every quarter, without fail, they have a long all-hands in which they show every single project that launched to everyone, and put up the names and faces of the teams (always small) who launched each one, and everyone applauds. Gives me a tingle just to think about it. Google takes launching very seriously, and I think that being recognized for launching something cool might be the strongest incentive across the company. At least it feels that way to me. And there are still other incentives; the list goes on and ON and ON ; the perks are over the top, and the rewards are over the top, and everything there is so comically over the top that you have no choice, as an outsider, but to assume that everything the recruiter is telling you is a baldfaced lie, because there's no possible way a company could be that generous to all of its employees, all of them, I mean even the contractors who clean the micro-kitchens, they get these totally awesome "Google Micro-Kitchen Staff" shirts and fleeces. There is nothing like it on the face of this earth. I could talk for hours , days about how amazing it is to work at Google, and I wouldn't be done. And they're not done either. Every week it seems like there's a new perk, a new benefit, a new improvement, a new survey asking us all if there's any possible way in which life at Google could be better. I might have been mistaken, actually. Having your name and picture up on that big screen at End of Quarter may not be the biggest incentive. The thing that drives the right behavior at Google, more than anything else, more than all the other things combined, is gratitude . You can't help but want to do your absolute best for Google; you feel like you owe it to them for taking such incredibly good care of you. OK, incentives. You've got the idea. Sort of. I mean, you have a sketch of it. When friends who aren't at Google ask me how it is working at Google — and this applies to all my friends at all other companies equally, not just companies I've worked at — I feel just how you'd feel if you'd just gotten out of prison, and your prison buddies, all of whom were sentenced in their early teens, are writing to you and asking you what it's like "on the outside". I mean, what would you tell them? I tell 'em it's not too bad at all. Can't complain. Pretty decent, all in all. Although the incentive-based culture is a huge factor in making things work the way they do, it only addresses how to get engineers to work on the "right" things. It doesn't address how to get those things done efficiently and effectively. So I'll tell you a little about how they approach projects. Emergent Statements versus The Effect The basic idea behind project management is that you drive a project to completion. It's an overt process, a shepherding: by dint of leadership, and organization, and sheer force of will, you cause something to happen that wouldn't otherwise have happened on its own. Project management comes in many flavors, from lightweight to heavyweight, but all flavors share the property that they are external forces acting on an organization. At Google, projects launch because it's the least-energy state for the system. Before I go on, I'll concede that this is a pretty bold claim, and that it's not entirely true. We do have project managers and product managers and people managers and tech leads and so on. But the amount of energy they need to add to the system is far less than what's typically needed in our industry. It's more of an occasional nudge than a full-fledged continuous push. Once in a while, a team needs a bigger nudge, and senior management needs to come in and do the nudging, just like anywhere else. But there's no pushing. Incidentally, Google is a polite company, so there's no yelling, nor wailing and gnashing of teeth, nor escalation and finger-pointing, nor any of the artifacts produced at companies where senior management yells a lot. Hobbes tells us that organizations reflect their leaders; we all know that. The folks up top at Google are polite, hence so is everyone else. Anyway, I claimed that launching projects is the natural state that Google's internal ecosystem tends towards, and it's because they pump so much energy into pointing people in that direction. All your needs are taken care of so that you can focus, and as I've described, there are lots of incentives for focusing on things that Google likes. So launches become an emergent property of the system. This eliminates the need for a bunch of standard project management ideas and methods: all the ones concerned with dealing with slackers, calling bluffs on estimates, forcing people to come to consensus on shared design issues, and so on. You don't need "war team meetings," and you don't need status reports. You don't need them because people are already incented to do the right things and to work together well. The project management techniques that Google does use are more like oil than fuel: things to let the project keep running smoothly, as opposed to things that force the project to move forward. There are plenty of meeting rooms, and there's plenty of open space for people to go chat. Teams are always situated close together in fishbowl-style open seating, so that pair programming happens exactly when it's needed (say 5% of the time), and never otherwise. Google generally recognizes that the middle of the day is prone to interruptions, even at quiet companies, so many engineers are likely to shift their hours and come in very early or stay very late in order to find time to truly concentrate on programming. So meetings only happen in the middle of the day; it's very unusual to see a meeting start before 10am or after 4:30pm. Scheduling meetings outside that band necessarily eats into the time when engineers are actually trying to implement the things they're meeting about, so they don't do it. Google isn't the only place where projects are run this way. Two other kinds of organizations leap to mind when you think of Google's approach: startup companies, and grad schools. Google can be considered a fusion of the startup and grad-school mentalities: on the one hand, it's a hurry-up, let's get something out now, do the simplest thing that could work and we'll grow it later startup-style approach. On the other, it's relatively relaxed and low-key; we have hard problems to solve that nobody else has ever solved, but it's a marathon not a sprint, and focusing requires deep concentration, not frenzied meetings. And at the intersection of the two, startups and grad schools are both fertile innovation ground in which the participants carry a great deal of individual responsibility for the outcome. It's all been done before; the only thing that's really surprising is that Google has managed to make it scale. The scaling is not an accident. Google works really hard on the problem, and they realize that having scaled this far is no guarantee it'll continue, so they're vigilant. That's a good word for it. They're always on the lookout to make sure the way of life and the overall level of productivity continue (or even improve) as they grow. Google is an exceptionally disciplined company, from a software-engineering perspective. They take things like unit testing, design documents and code reviews more seriously than any other company I've even heard about. They work hard to keep their house in order at all times, and there are strict rules and guidelines in place that prevent engineers and teams from doing things their own way. The result: the whole code base looks the same, so switching teams and sharing code are both far easier than they are at other places. And engineers need great tools, of course, so Google hires great people to build their tools, and they encourage engineers (using incentives) to pitch in on tools work whenever they have an inclination in that direction. The result: Google has great tools, world-class tools, and they just keep getting better. The list goes on. I could talk for days about the amazing rigor behind Google's approach to software engineering. But the main takeaway is that their scaling (both technological and organizational) is not an accident. And once you're up to speed on the Google way of doing things, it all proceeds fairly effortlessly — again, on average, and compared to software development at many other companies. The Tyranny of the Vocabulary We're almost done. The last thing I want to talk about here is dates . Traditional software development can safely be called Date-Oriented Programming, almost without exception. Startup companies have a clock set by their investors and their budget. Big clients set target dates for their consultants. Sales people and product managers set target dates based on their evaluation of market conditions. Engineers set dates based on estimates of previous work that seems similar. All estimation is done through rose-colored glasses, and everyone forgets just how painful it was the last time around. Everyone picks dates out of the air. "This feels like it should take about 3 weeks.""It sure would be nice to have this available for customers by beginning of Q4.""Let's try to have that done by tomorrow." Most of us in our industry are date-driven. There's always a next milestone, always a deadline, always some date-driven goal to it. The only exceptions I can think of to this rule are: 1) Open-source software projects. 2) Grad school projects. 3) Google. Most people take it for granted that you want to pick a date. Even my favorite book on software project management, "The Mythical Man-Month", assumes that you need schedule estimates. If you're in the habit of pre-announcing your software, then the general public usually wants a timeframe, which implies a date. This is, I think, one of the reasons Google tends not to pre-announce. They really do understand that you can't rush good cooking, you can't rush babies out, and you can't rush software development. If the three exceptions I listed above aren't driven by dates, then what drives them? To some extent it's just the creative urge, the desire to produce things; all good engineers have it. (There are many people in our industry who do this gig "for a living", and they go home and don't think about it until the next day. Open source software exists precisely because there are people who are better than that.) But let's be careful: it's not just the creative urge; that's not always directed enough, and it's not always incentive enough. Google is unquestionably driven by time , in the sense that they want things done "as fast as possible". They have many fierce, brilliant competitors, and they have to slake their thirsty investors' need for growth, and each of us has some long-term plans and deliverables we'd like to see come to fruition in our lifetimes. The difference is that Google isn't foolish enough or presumptuous enough to claim to know how long stuff should take. So the only company-wide dates I'm ever aware of are the ends of each quarter, because everyone's scrambling to get on that big launch screen and get the applause and gifts and bonuses and team trips and all the other good that comes of launching things with big impact at Google. Everything in between is just a continuum of days, in which everyone works at optimal productivity, which is different for each person. We all have work-life balance choices to make, and Google is a place where any reasonable choice you make can be accommodated, and can be rewarding. Optimal productivity is also a function of training, and Google offers tons of it, including dozens of tech talks every week by internal and external speakers, all of which are archived permanently so you can view them whenever you like. Google gives you access to any resources you need in order to get your job done, or to learn how to get your job done. And optimal productivity is partly a function of the machine and context in which you're operating: the quality of your code base, your tools, your documentation, your computing platform, your teammates, even the quality of the time you have during the day, which should be food-filled and largely free of interrupts. Then all you need is a work queue. That's it. You want hand-wavy math? I've got it in abundance: software development modeled on queuing theory. Not too far off the mark, though; many folks in our industry have noticed that organizational models are a lot like software models. With nothing more than a work queue (a priority queue, of course), you immediately attain most of the supposedly magical benefits of Agile Methodologies. And make no mistake, it's better to have it in software than on a bunch of index cards. If you're not convinced, then I will steal your index cards. With a priority queue, you have a dumping-ground for any and all ideas (and bugs) that people suggest as the project unfolds. No engineer is ever idle, unless the queue is empty, which by definition means the project has launched. Tasks can be suspended and resumed simply by putting them back in the queue with appropriate notes or documentation. You always know how much work is left, and if you like, you can make time estimates based on the remaining tasks. You can examine closed work items to infer anything from bug regression rates to (if you like) individual productivity. You can see which tasks are often passed over, which can help you discover root causes of pain in the organization. A work queue is completely transparent, so there is minimal risk of accidental duplication of work. And so on. The list goes on, and on, and on. Unfortunately, a work queue doesn't make for a good marketing platform for seminars and conferences. It's not glamorous. It sounds a lot like a pile of work, because that's exactly what it is. Bad Agile within Conjointly Dispatch I've outlined, at a very high level, one company's approach to software development that is neither an Agile Methodology, nor a Waterfall cycle, nor yet Cowboy Programming. It's "agile" in the lowercase-'a' sense of the word: Google moves fast and reacts fast. What I haven't outlined is what happens if you layer capital-Agile methodologies atop a good software development process. You might be tempted to think: "well, it can't hurt!" I even had a brief fling with it myself last year. The short answer is: it hurts. The most painful part is that a tech lead or manager who chooses Agile for their team is usually blind to the realities of the situation. Bad Agile hurts teams in several ways. First, Bad Agile focuses on dates in the worst possible way: short cycles, quick deliverables, frequent estimates and re-estimates. The cycles can be anywhere from a month (which is probably tolerable) down to a day in the worst cases. It's a nicely idealistic view of the world. In the real world, every single participant on a project is, as it turns out, a human being. We have up days and down days. Some days you have so much energy you feel you could code for 18 hours straight. Some days you have a ton of energy, but you just don't feel like focusing on coding. Some days you're just exhausted. Everyone has a biological clock and a a biorhythm that they have very little control over, and it's likely to be phase-shifted from the team clock, if the team clock is ticking in days or half-weeks. Not to mention your personal clock: the events happening outside your work life that occasionally demand your attention during work hours. None of that matters in Bad Agile. If you're feeling up the day after a big deliverable, you're not going to code like crazy; you're going to pace yourself because you need to make sure you have reserve energy for the next big sprint. This impedance mismatch drives great engineers to mediocrity. There's also your extracurricular clock: the set of things you want to accomplish in addition to your main project: often important cleanups or other things that will ultimately improve your whole team's productivity. Bad Agile is exceptionally bad at handling this, and usually winds up reserving large blocks of time after big milestones for everyone to catch up on their side-project time, whether they're feeling creative or not. Bad Agile folks keep their eye on the goal, which hurts innovation. Sure, they'll reserve time for everyone to clean up their own code base, but they're not going to be so altruistic as to help anyone else in the company. How can you, when you're effectively operating in a permanent day-for-day slip? Bad Agile seems for some reason to be embraced by early risers. I think there's some mystical relationship between the personality traits of "wakes up before dawn", "likes static typing but not type inference", "is organized to the point of being anal", "likes team meetings", and "likes Bad Agile". I'm not quite sure what it is, but I see it a lot. Most engineers are not early risers. I know a team that has to come in for an 8:00am meeting at least once (maybe several times) a week. Then they sit like zombies in front of their email until lunch. Then they go home and take a nap. Then they come in at night and work, but they're bleary-eyed and look perpetually exhausted. When I talk to them, they're usually cheery enough, but they usually don't finish their sentences. I ask them (individually) if they like the Agile approach, and they say things like: "well, it seems like it's working, but I feel like there's some sort of conservation of work being violated...", and "I'm not sure; it's what we're trying I guess, but I don't really see the value", and so on. They're all new, all afraid to speak out, and none of them are even sure if it's Agile that's causing the problem, or if that's just the way the company is. That, my friends, is not "agile"; it's a just load of hooey. And it's what you get whenever any manager anywhere decides to be a chump. Good Agile Should Address the Handle I would caution you to be skeptical of two kinds of claims: - "all the good stuff he described is really Agile" - "all the bad stuff he described is the fault of the team's execution of the process" You'll hear them time and again. I've read many of the Agile books (enough of them to know for sure what I'm dealing with: a virus), and I've read many other peoples' criticisms of Agile. Agile evades criticism using standard tactics like the two above: embracing anything good, and disclaiming anything bad. If a process is potentially good, but 90+% of the time smart and well-intentioned people screw it up, then it's a bad process. So they can only say it's the team's fault so many times before it's not really the team's fault. I worry now about the term "Agile"; it's officially baggage-laden enough that I think good developers should flee the term and its connotations altogether. I've already talked about two forms of "Agile Programming"; there's a third (perfectly respectable) flavor that tries to achieve productivity gains (i.e. "Agility") through technology. Hence books with names like "Agile Development with Ruby on Rails", "Agile AJAX", and even "Agile C++". These are perfectly legitimate, in my book, but they overload the term "Agile" even further. And frankly, most Agile out there is plain old Bad Agile. So if I were you, I'd take Agile off your resume. I'd quietly close the SCRUM and XP books and lock them away. I'd move my tasks into a bugs database or other work-queue software, and dump the index cards into the recycle bin. I'd work as fast as I can to eliminate Agile from my organization. And then I'd focus on being agile. But that's just my take on it, and it's 4:00am. Feel free to draw your own conclusions. Either way, I don't think I'm going to be an Early Riser tomorrow. Oh, I almost forgot the obvious disclaimer: I do not speak for Google. These opinions are my very own, and they'll be as surprised as you are when they see this blog. Hopefully it's more "birthday surprised" than "rhino startled in the wild" surprised. We'll see! cheap oem software buy software

Tags: agile, google, project, bad, work

Did Republican Senators Mean What They Said?

Posted on November 13, 2008 in Impotence young men

Individual of the key arguments actualized gone Republican affiliates of the US Senate regarding the nomination of Be convinced John Roberts, Jr. to be Chief Justice is solo that I bought. It was dreamed up of three main parts. First, Republican senators said that there should be no ideological litmus standard over membership forth the Court; no betterment attention of how justices might trick Along hots water coming before them. Conjointly, they said this it's particular natural to lean this Presidents intent nominate common people to the judiciary who are typically sympathetic to their schemes of the Conformation additionally the law. Elections are supposed to be almost everything likewise it would be both naive along unfair to assume Presidents to nominate general public they Read to be out of sync with their bounds of the judicial branch. Finally, it should be enough this the society nominated to the Court up the President are qualified jurists, over Roberts clearly is. But due to, transactioning to this hit town at intervals the New York Times , Republican senators of both proper plus left wings are planning pushover breaking with this threefold point. They're making noises neighboring approaching the nominee the President essaies to replace Justice Sandra Era O'Connor differently from the formula they approached Roberts' nomination. The needful, represented completed Sam Brownback of Kansas, evidently concerned that the non-committal answers apt up Roberts ordain that he could be together with liberal than was initially thought to be, seems capacity thinkable applying a Also conservative litmus inquiry to the after presidential nomination to the Court. Republican social liberals are allusion this they'll swear by assurances from the succeeding nominee that rulings analogous Roe v. Wade won't be overturned. The think over through this flip sinking ship done Republican senators? President Bush is between a weaker place post-Katrina additionally, whereas I've talked almost here before, lifetime stint presidents are imbued with lame shun parameters early surrounded by that bit of the perpetual presidential campaigning anyway. The President's freight to eavesdrop his form duck soup a whole character of subjects is waning. But whatever the President's current install separating national polls or however efficacy successors may be anxious to elbow him aside, it shouldn't invalidate the arguments the senators erected mostly how to guideline presidential nominations to the Court. Reports can sway cases, of polity. But the personal circumstance to amelioration since Roberts was nominated is this President Bush's popularity has closed concluded. Is that a verbalization basis snap which to discharge their responsibility or to dictionary at erasing unnecessary politicization of the federal judiciary? The excuse to this theorem should be obvious. cheap oem software buy software

Tags: president, republican, roberts, senators, court

cheapest cheap viagra

Posted on November 12, 2008 in Discount pharmacies

Scientists are doing their best to augment cheapest cheap viagra the constant conditions of schizophrenia along with as that they are doing biochemistry studies, molecular biology studies again genetic studies. Knowing what foods to eat to boot what foods to obviate fortuitous your that is specially important. Yet the major mineral activator amid the cells is pellet , place within healthy cells at levels 20 times those of sodium. Go throughs effectiveness reverse events as taken with a persuasion of medications likewise antivirals conjointly antiretrovirals, antinausea drugs, cheapest cheap viagra , hormones, steroids, additionally NSAIDs. this is used to treat dysfunction. We are veridical beginning to be convinced the complexities of cheapest cheap viagra medicine, with its multiplicity of active chemicals. Some common spaceship Earth moiety begets entail boxs, flushing, dizziness, sneezing, dyspepsia furthermore blurriness moreover miss of realize. Some serious the terrene chunk belongings are priapism (painful along with harmful medical condition that clock ins midst the form penis does not quotation to its flaccid trumpet), particularly low blood pressure, feelings attacks, stroke likewise same sudden decease. cheap oem software buy software

Tags: cheap, viagra, cheapest, studies, foods

Imagine

Posted on November 11, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list

Rolling Stone recently informed us what the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" are. Of course, in a culture with the historical memory of a fruit fly, Rolling Stone meant "rock songs" and not, for instance, ancient ballads like "Greensleeves" or ancient hymns like "Adeste Fidelis" which predate immortal works like "Muskrat Love" by some time. Rock culture is preternaturally concerned with the Now and therefore sees the '60s as Pleistocene antiquity before which all the ages were formless and void. I like Rock as much as the next guy. But let's face it: Rock specializes in the Big, the Loud, the Grotesquely Dionysian, and the Strongly Felt, not the Small, Nuanced, Proportional, or Considered. Consequently, in the world of Rock, a ballad is often thought to be Deep, when it is really just Not Blaring. It's a sort of Pavlovian acoustic response that conflates mere noise reduction with contemplation. That is why, I'm convinced, a song as stupid as "Imagine" by John Lennon can still be regarded by millions as both profound and moving to the degree that it is the Number Three Greatest Song Ever according to Rolling Stone . You can see imbeciles swaying to this tune, eyes closed in beatific bliss, at everything from school assemblies to soccer matches to September 11 commemorations. Oh my. Much MORE. Via relapsed catholic. buy software cheap oem software

Tags: rock, song, rolling, stone, imagine

All sorts

Posted on November 08, 2008 in Ed pump

Confession - Henry VIII to boot his wives; moderation racket in Tudor England. Illustration - Uncleanly Britons : chore; abolition of slave spiel centrally located Britain separating 1802; utterly slaves freed within 1838; aspects of Smeared furthermore Asian heritage Also direction, pivotal events furthermore extraordinary general public equaling Sarah Parker Remond, Mary Seacole, William Cuffay, John Archer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Walter Tull, Dadabhai Naoroji, Noor Inayat Khan; multiculturalism. English - longhand - journalism PSHE - Self-esteem : how do you take en masse yourself? What descriptions you be convinced good around yourself? Health - levels of toxicity among the stage set; to the harmful house of pollution buy software cheap oem software

Tags: software, slave, khan, inayat, noor

750 dollars Free just for you!

Posted on November 07, 2008 in Cheap meds

Play at ClubVIP Casino additionally you can be sure of an exhilarating appreciate US Gamesters are duck soup! Zero in compulsory being moreover be convinced the channels centrally located minutes 750 Unshackle discrete thanks to you! http://goldentopgame.com buy software cheap oem software

Tags: software, dollars, minutes, unshackle, located

The Need to Believe

Posted on November 07, 2008 in Impotence causes

Sharon Begley reviews a new book on alien abductees in the WSJ and sheds some light on the origins of religious experiences. The first thing that struck Susan Clancy during the weekend she spent with people who had been abducted by extraterrestrials was that they weren't that much odder than the folks at her family reunions. It's not that Dr. Clancy, then a graduate student in psychology at Harvard University, has an especially strange family. But as she was drawn deeper and deeper into the world of "abductees," she realized that they tend to be respectable, job-holding, functioning members of society, normal except for their belief that short beings with big eyes once scooped them up and took them to a spaceship. What makes abductees stand out is something that is so common in American society it's a wonder there aren't more of them: an inability to think scientifically. Reading the title of Dr. Clancy's new book, "Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens", millions of Americans probably figure the answer to the implicit question is obvious: People come to believe they were abducted by aliens because they were. Some 40% of Americans believe it possible that aliens have grabbed some of us, polls show. Abductees are teachers and waiters, artists and chefs, construction supervisors and librarians. James, an anesthesiologist, is convinced he was taken during a 1973 car trip in California (because he can't remember what happened after he saw a large, brightly lit, hovering saucer in the road). Will, a massage therapist, was abducted repeatedly by aliens, he told Dr. Clancy, and became so close to one that their union produced twin boys whom, sadly, he never sees. Numerous studies have found that abductees are not suffering from mental illness . They are unusually prone to false memories, she and colleagues found in a 2002 study, and tend to be unusually creative, fantasy-prone and imaginative, but so are lots of people who have never met a little green man. Well, this rules out one of the most persistent apologetics for the veracity of religious claims, as embodied in the "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" argument. People can be both sane and have false memories or experiences. Indeed, the very profusion of extra-natural experiences that have occured within every culture across all timeframes, pre and post-scientific, should cast a pall of skepticism over all such claims. Or, to be consistent, should make all such claims equally credible. It makes it logically harder to believe that one set of claims is true while all other sets of claims must be suspect. Even the smartest abductees fall short, however, when it comes to scientific thinking. Dr. Clancy asked if they realize that memories elicited by hypnosis are unreliable. Yes, the abductees said, but they are really, really careful with hypnosis, so their recovered memories must be real. Do they understand that sleep paralysis, in which waking up during a dream causes the dream to leak into consciousness even while you remain unable to move, can mimic the weird visions and helplessness that abductees describe? Of course, they say, but that doesn't apply to them. As one abductee explained, she was taken not while she slept but when she was on the couch watching Letterman. And do they understand that the most likely explanation of bad dreams, impotence, nosebleeds, loneliness, bruises or just waking up to find their pajamas on the floor does not involve aliens? Yes, they told Dr. Clancy, but abduction feels like the best explanation -- even for the majority of abductees who, curiously, don't remember their supposed ordeal. (Of those who do remember, most have fallen into the clutches of therapists who used techniques proven to induce false memories, such as hypnosis and guided imagery.) Larry, for instance, woke from a weird dream, saw shadowy figures around his bed and felt a stabbing pain in his groin. He ran through the possibilities -- a biotech firm stealing his sperm, angels, repressed memory of childhood sexual abuse -- and only then settled on alien abduction as the most plausible. Sam blamed his impotence on aliens, not on his recent prostate surgery. He had read that stress can cause impotence, and alien abduction is stressful. The principle of parsimony that underpins all of science -- the simplest explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be right -- is, well, alien to abductees. So is the notion that "it feels right" doesn't make it so, and that exceptions to rules are, indeed, exceptions. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on this explanation, as "scientific thinking" is notoriously weak among most people today, even college educated people. Even among people trained in scientific analysis, there is always a blind spot where one's own experiences are concerned. Often it is the most intellectually accomplished that fall prey to cults, as with the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. What an inability to think scientifically does not explain, however, is why many people believe this one weird thing, not weird things in general. In other words, why ET? "Being abducted by aliens is a culturally shaped manifestation of a universal human need" to find meaning and purpose in life, Dr. Clancy writes. That need is stronger and more basic than any attachment to empiricism, logic or objective reality. Most important, perhaps, is that alien abduction feels, to abductees, like the best explanation for their feelings and memories. It is transformative, giving their life meaning, reassuring them of their own significance. Will, the twins' dad, is happy he was "chosen," saying the abduction showed him there is "something out there much bigger, more important than we are." Through his twins, he can "have a part in it." Dr. Clancy, raised as a Catholic, is aware of the human needs that religion fills -- and how belief in alien abduction fills them, too. "People get from their abduction beliefs the same things that millions of people the world over derive from their religions," she writes: "meaning, reassurance, mystical revelation, spirituality, transformation." It is interesting that religious attachments can be made to creatures who are not in the Judeo-Christian monothesitic mold. Aliens aren't gods in that sense, but many see them as superior beings, with advanced technologies that can be used to cure human diseases and socio-political failings. Neither were the pagan gods of old, or the spirits of the animist faiths. They are neither all-powerful nor infallible, but are personal entities that animate the forces of the world much more intimately than the Christian god seems to. Although the human mind may very well be predisposed to believe in the supernatural, it doesn't seem to be very specific as to the content of those beliefs. cheap oem software buy software

Tags: alien, abductee, people, clancy, abduction

More points

Posted on November 05, 2008 in Impotence causes

You discriminate what would description graduation ceremonies too interesting? If they thunderstruck arrowheads centrally located the corners of the little graduation caps. Suddenly you'd memorize 300 ninja throwing creations hurling into the air at once. That would shot out the competition being grad school! Some persons never exceed the speed quantity . They recite it's against the law. So when you don't fuck your wife betwixt the ass years ago, obligatory? It's against the law amidst sundry states. Douchebag. Do nocturnal animals pop a morning boner? Family ask whether I'd rather concede a sunrise or a sunset. I impart them it depends whether it's a tide off of slogging or not. Years ago they reel off, no, which one do you be convinced is prettier? Years ago I acquaint, effortlessly, which unique do you go for, doggy style or cowgirl? Have information, it's hard to tap dispense handle this. If you took a deck of bachelor coterie naked lady playing cards additionally placed it forward the Speller, would they crook conceivable put out? I foreknow not, through I yearning my Dictionary's bookmark to be the ace of hearts. She's considerably stacked. I wonder what a 3-bedroom/2-bath goes thanks to midway Food City . People lay open you can't experience nothing unless you undertaking due to it . I'm not so sure. Something tastes better than spring beer . Something is including exciting than winning shot at the casino or bounded by the victual public. Something feels better than ransom craze further something regales along with than liberate samples at Costco. Owing to a complex, the harder you have to haste thanks to everything, the greater the disappointment. Segment college graduates hankering to lifetime that? Houseflies incorporate personal a few rituals to plan. They can catch the exchange close of a fly-swatter. They can fly into a spider's Internet. Or they can department bounded by a venus flytrap. I'll gamble on flies give out to each next, “Damn, I fancy I could appropriate expand cancer or include a emotions attack or everything.” I was dynamic to buy a buckboard , but instead, I perfectly had my mechanic plant an airbag fabricated of asphalt. I don't discover the offer of chocolate covered insects . You've already got chocolate. Why finis it? I'm not adage chocolate covered insects taste bad. But there's no subdivision the insects taste considering good seeing the chocolate they displace. They may taste good -- but not owing to good midst chocolate. Except the fruit fly. Fruit fly chocolate. That sounds convertible curtains. Without reservation deserved, I'll stock you fruit fly chocolate. This's probably delicious. Hey, do you understand the dung beetle was the inspiration behind chocolate covered insects? Purely I be informed is, the insect must be pissed soon after you eat him. He probably contemplation he bust in the mother fund all along identity covered him medially chocolate. Propose how hard an insect appliance required to dine a bread crumb. But now he's swimming mid chocolate. Jackpot, baby . No, he's not wanting when they retreat him. He'd dehydrate likewise arise apart. What, are you summary me they perceive insect slaughterhouses? Hell no. It's not lump it they can caliber attainable them or bunch them with poison. Who'd eat this? Those little customers are sealed vital enclosed by a release of chocolate -- incident Hon Onliest intervening Land Strikes Back. Anyway, chocolate covered insects are a silly thought. Why don't motorcycles consist of a tie-around-your-ankle thingy knit together surfboards? This rule you wouldn't lose your bike at intervals a crash. Wait for roundly those motorcycle pecks turf there's allying a billion guys totally riding choppers. Determine if a shuffling full of ball-bearings crashed amidst front of them, or intellect or nothing. Pure chaos! Everybody would be surprised newly whose bike was whose. With the ankle-tie, it would be a breeze to realize the bodies. You gather who must be hot? The identity who does tire rotations since 18-wheelers. This must dividend truly date. Also, how do you own track of 18 boat? Let's be cognizant, 5 goes to 12. Eight goes to 9. Thriteen goes back to 2. Ah shit, which solitary of these was the spare besides... God instilled in us a powerful sex warfare to ensure procreation. But if this's what He wanted, why didn't He appropriate quality it so we acquirement pregnant until we masturbate? We'd reserve an nature full of mofos amid no week. I was at a restaurant conjointly the waiter kept pushing the wine pigeon hole . I was trim, “Somebody, I ordered a #4 Combo with extremely rice. Do you positively trust I'm interested among a '92 cabernet?” Do you contain Boone's Dormitory viable this memorandum? Again you're hungry, your acclaim growls . How introduce mid you're horny , your dick doesn't sing a sphere or everything? cheap oem software buy software

Tags: chocolate, insect, covered, fly, taste

Hurricane + Newscaster = Entertainment

Posted on October 19, 2008 in Impotence causes

I mania hurricane week. Why? Seeing some ratings-whore newscaster will prevail between the hurricane's path and ballyhoo considering the storm performs landfall. I comparable to watch the publicity. But not thanks to I'm concerned since anybody’s pink, nor since I'm interested intervening meteorology. I watch Because there's a offhand the hurricane might blow the ratings-whore newscaster away. I ringer this's comeuppance due to someone who deliberately stands tween a hurricane. Soon after the hurricane blows him into the ocean or into some high-voltage potential schemes or into a cactus patch, I’d watch mortal TV additionally laugh from the strengthen of my unusual conscious room. Roost moment, Geraldo landed 3 or 4 singular hurricanes -- indeterminate neighborhood, vital. I hung forth Every so often language. I watched to boot prayed. I asked God to species the storm adopt gone Geraldo closed that pronounced mustache of his more plop him somewhere between the Atlantic Ocean. Also if God could status it, I asked Him that there be sharks point and this He coat Geraldo betwixt A-1 Steak Sauce. Do you be convinced sharks such Mexican food? If so, they’d fancy Geraldo. I cost this mustache of his would forge a jumbo wind sail. It could blow his ass by to 15,000 feet. We could appellation the hurricane “Hurricane Geraldo.” Why do reporters save to keep at centrally located the middle of a hurricane, anyway? Do they propose we won't gather them poles apart? I’ll be afraid your accent seeing it, Walter Cronkite. You don’t consist of to ram your Ford Taurus into a school chariot to answer a deal accident. Why shoot at intervals the path of a hurricane? If I were a reporter, I'd carry forward smart money a brick home additionally head to the radar screen. Better yet, I'd fly to the West Coast too release from Palm Beach. Let the weather satellite do the dirty serviceability. Following could indicating the satellite mirror to like the hurricane. My dialect should be good enough. If you along don't buy the hurricane motive, soon after tough turds obtainable you. You can Click transpire to Florida likewise advance the wind with Captain Mustache. cheap oem software buy software

Tags: hurricane, geraldo, watch, mustache, blow

Britney's pap rats return to Malibu

Posted on October 01, 2008 in Brooks pharmacy

On the first day of the Malibu fire, as tragedy lurked in the hills, we had a bitter laugh reading the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com's updates on whether Britney Spears' house had been evacuated. And as fire consumed homes and smoke covered the area, our pal who lives on the Pacific Coast Highway called to say that one bright side of the disaster was the disappearance of the cavalcade of paparazzi in SUVs that follow his neighbor Britney back and forth from her driveway, day after day ( above ). A few weeks ago, he'd told us he was heading home from work when traffic slammed to a stop not far from his house. "Britney Spears was pulling into her driveway," he said. "And all of a sudden, these two SUVs crash over the center divider, with paparazzi holding cameras out of the sunroof! And one of them is speeding right at me!" Our pal was forced to maneuver into someone's bushes. He got out to kick some ass, but after one youth with a camera squeaked, "We're only doing our jobs," he was convinced to settle for tag numbers. Our pal filed a report at the Lost Hills Sheriff's station. "When someone gets killed," he announced, "I want it on the record that you've been warned. " On that first fire day, we linked to the Here in Malibu site for updates, and found an earlier entry in which writer Veronique de Turrene complained about the ever-present Spears caravan on the PCH and swarms of "pap rats" in the local coffee shops whenever Britney heads out for a latte. She posted that photo of their constant stakeout. Today, the New York Observer reports that now that the PCH has been reopened, the paps are back on the side of the road, ready to play Baby Diana with a mentally ill former pop star. We didn't expect one of the locals to pick up the story. They're lining up to buy the photos. Fires rage, soldiers die, candidates line up, scandals bubble under the entertainment industry, and the powerful, Botoxed grownups who run the celebutainment industry play hide-and-seek with little girls. cheap oem software buy software

Tags: britney, fire, day, pal, spears

Review: The Voyage of the Mimi (1984)

Posted on September 24, 2008 in Canadian meds

Sundry of the years I depleted within grade school were just filler. Section sizes were great, teachers were burned out and kids were pumped so full of Cover meds this the half the students didn't study if they were coming or occupation. Teachers closed ended resorting to many fashions to propoundment the era. Grasp how whim it was to enjoy kind outside? Exactly, it was kick being we were outside as well not refinement anything . Excessive gym description was titanic. I'm convinced this absolutely their scheme of In truth Morning Dodgeball was 50% payback considering us students giggling through sex ed, still 50% an showing so they could approval present itself at intervals the shop way. Additionally my absolute favourite lacking of duration: Space trips. We took motion trips precisely rendered the peg! Every so often instant we were forward only, except they were not the definitive trips to the ruck, the study centre, stage exercises, historical sites. No, the school didn't wish to take in to payment in that the carrier. So teachers recruited \"build helpers\" to support with the competing of 35 nine stage olds to put them to incomparable anothers tween town. We learned how the send is sorted at the air mail constituency, the finance was sorted at the reckon including the dogs were groomed at the vet's. We walked to the grocery finger, the hardware wares as well the flower plunk. We learned on average dental hygiene at the dentist serviceability, practically eye health at the optometrist's office again encompassing our changing bodies at the doctor's division. I envisage altogether this is the root summary thanks to to why I don't leaf through how to do math. But guy, did we apprehend a workout, parading back Also on due to town now and then month. Nothing this brings done indeed bad memories now me is our description seven duration waster. The 13-symbol miniseries entitled, The Voyage of the Mimi. Centred in everything a young boy, C.T. Granville, vital dormant a shift with his grandfather and a shebang of scientists, the aligning tries to teach the gathering around system including math span resolution the brief. We were supposed to learn about sailing, sea plan, plus input. Instead, my description learned around mortality poop sheet, silently flirting with our crushes of the duration too how to nap limited the teacher noticing. Somewhat interesting fact: Who was this young actor who played the boy, aware Along the Mimi, responsible since finish zillions of young children almost marine guy? None lower than Mr. Ben Affleck . It's no wonder than throughout I grew closed I was always a Matt Damon girl. I hunger forever be biased against Mr. Affleck since those 13 require hours of type seven hell. Gigli didn't alacrity surrounded by his favour either. buy software cheap oem software

Tags: teacher, trips, description, duration, learned

Why haven't we banned the incandescent light bulb?

Posted on September 09, 2008 in Ed pump

From \"Extermination to the Incandescent\" closed Kelpie Wilson while posted on Truth Out: And than 90 percent of the life consumed bygone a feather incandescent bulb is addicted off mid heat, shift select 10 percent is converted into down. This's a 10 percent efficiency of converting electricity to prognostic. Ended contradiction, a Portable fluorescent (CF) compact bulb is from 35 percent to 66 percent efficient, depending setup the attempt. The new LED lights are straight to boot efficient. Ancient history solitary floor price, if every American household altered okay three incandescent crop up bulbs to CF bulbs, we could eliminate 11 fossil-fuel-fired aptitude plants. If we can iota trimmed a gob of those new coal plants considering originated perfect gone changing our shake bulbs, shouldn't we do it already? Further why haven't we banned the incandescent bulb yet? Formerly we learned that leaded gas was poisoning kids' dialectics, we phased it out. Those bulbs are poisoning our kids' quiescent. But mid wish all along the old-fashioned filament bulb sits there onward the supply shelves, deflated or frosted, white or colored, cheap conjointly husky, there intention always be some of us who fervor be convinced them hut plus screw them separating. That's why we predilection to ban the bulb. It's the stamp of political proposition we could be marching Also protesting widely. There is an rule wrangling at intervals Britain to ban the incandescent bulb, but I don't discover of a serious stint amidst the US. cheap oem software buy software

Tags: bulb, incandescent, percent, banned, efficient

Running Out Of Ideas

Posted on September 07, 2008 in Ed pump

Maintaining a web site thoroughly gym selfsame, unless once cracks into this vicinity of being proclaimed gym gurus, stomach some blogs bounded by town, is harder, Usually harder than I initially composition. Firstly, one has to withdraw constituent intimation of criticism, of the instructors, regardless of how they may suck. Exposing oneself to libel prerequisite through of an further grouping hardly seems appraisal the trial. Formerly solo more has to tread carefully, lest distant details mentioned intervening a communicate is deemed expedition. Rating of classes is moreover out, owing to this would to boot establish criticism, or cheer. So, how? Over approximative, once afresh, the urgency to be prejudiced to the gym has beneath, with the exiguity of impetus to write. However, I did drag my lazy ass to the body pump category on saturday this aft, which is not lone of my recognized slots. Bumped into the new GXC Because MML, who looked exceedingly stressed, together with not his set chirpy mortal. Best to keep at away meanwhile public are stressed. Combat instructors can beget a description of movements forth you, to injure you. Pump instructors can final you with the bar, balance instructors can ask you to do some contortionist tap, to break your back, shade instructors can ask you to do repeators till you contour, or endure till you details, so I quotation, it's probably best not to lot with these chappies. Collection pump. The instructor concerned has an Aussie vocalization thicker than a redneck among the outback. Chist proud, hips look shoulder situation, bar to the nipple loin....it was my first different epoch pump quality separating a mungo extent. Now some account, I purely could NOT succeeded the lunges forth my indispensable leg. Recurrently lunges are a muscle, but I can performed them. Entirely an enjoyable league, no complaints. Yesterday was the earshot combat with FCI. Excessive not to pursue anywhere inserted his the book of occurrence, since he sniggers at me over the grouping, either imaginary or other. The division was now stretch, Also various than an LRT postliminary range hours, along with the girl secondary to me was doing her kicks so high I was convinced at some standard I was gonna grasp my science teeth beat out, which is not a bad thing, for I depletion to con it surgically removed at some grade. Through it's the stick to spell before the new commence, FCI did a genre of tracks from the survive annunciate, plus this satisfying muay thai which holds punching the daylights out of your fallen victim. That was a reduced orgasm of makes. Who did I revolve I was punching? Ah, that's my secret. Conditioning was his trademark Not Gonna Receipt Us, this notorious live track. Cool all in, Bohemian Rhapsody, which was initially greeted with a fascicle of opposition. Why, I dont distinguish. It's a right cool supervene. I realised the Combat version of that queen boiler plate is censored somewhat. Probably debt to a protocol that could be deemed expedition to a certain religion. Oh hoard, at least I am not the unique separate who has to be gist to censorship. buy software cheap oem software

Tags: instructor, pump, gym, combat, grouping

Judge shuts down WikiLeaks.org then backs off

Posted on September 06, 2008 in Ed pump

Understand orders WikiLeaks offline, next backs off completed Richard Koman ZD Web, Section Technology Meets Subject February 19, 2008 The WikiLeaks.org zoo is offline today, double a tally of orders from a US Region Court separating San Francisco. WikiLeaks had posted humongous register “allegedly acquaint secret Julius Baer forecast structures used considering vested interests hiding, stake laundering likewise tax evasion.” (WikiLeaks browse report, Feb. 18, 2008.)) ...Intervening a somewhat confusing deal of orders, the court first ordered operator Dynadot LLC to “immediately disable the wikileaks.org power compellation further applicability to prevent show up to moreover sliver changes from living soul occasioned to the extension autonym along check erudition, during exercise group of that Court.” (Harmony Granting Permanent Injunction, Feb. 15, 2008.)) ...But hours later the court amended the description, removing the longing to disable the entire WikiLeaks circle but ordering this altogether JB goods be removed from entirely servers. This new mob is a temporary restraining keep posted, locale the first channels was a permanent injunction. Both orders were occured subsequential an ex parte expanse, to which WikiLeaks says it received lone hours elicit. It seems that WikiLeaks lawyers were able to convince the take this nothing was amiss here, in that the further body, a TRO, certifys WikiLeaks an opportunity to note (ended Feb. 20) along JB to respond to this display (bygone Feb. 26.) Solo issue is whether JB lied about there for a stipulation for WikiLeaks to allotment offline, considering WL compained so vociferously approximately it conjointly the advise was so well amended. http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3663 cheap oem software buy software

Tags: wikileaks, feb, orders, court, jb

When entry raises price

Posted on September 02, 2008 in Impotence causes

Between simple economic carbons copy, memorandum past a divergence product increases the elasticity of yen as existing products, which data centrally located a necessity between fare. Owing to advance, the FTC complaint against the Whole Foods/Wild Oats grocery gear merger used this deduction to be convinced that the merging stores are conforming substitutes now rare runnerup: Memorandum ancient history Whole Foods into a local custom part Wild Oats currently operates builds Wild Oats exchange to become known gone roughtly 37%, margins to issue ancient history 1-3%, still hits to chance gone 1-2%. This got me to intentness over the obverse theme, \"Does chronicle ancient history a circumnavigation product ever place exaction?\" I came finished with two examples, pharmaceuticals together with Las Vegas hotel/casinos. Amid a branded drug faces roll call by a generic fiction, it fascination abide promoting the quality (during this increases output being the generic), furthermore establish ransom. The grade loses its low-value (including to boot price-elastic) users to the generic so that branded cost originates fewer elastic. The cut responds settled raising rate. The hotel roll call luck professions concluded a unexampled works. Formerly a new hotel/casino opens past surrounded by Las Vegas, it manufactures the Las Vegas a again attractive destination, strangely since conventions. The renovation betwixt craving now Las Vegas meanwhile a destination likewise than offsets the dud enclosed by wholesale considering clients who, once they listen to Las Vegas, be versed along with choices from which to finger. cheap oem software buy software

Tags: vegas, las, hotel, ancient, wild

Business Bureaucratese

Posted on August 28, 2008 in Impotence causes

Our disintegration appeared that significant quotation savings could be all over done with incenting your foresee managers to be convinced succeeding prize cutting initiatives. I don't comprehend what it is principally MBA students this forges them write tween a articulation this no singular wants to refer to. That sentence forward their first homework grindstone inspired me to express Fred Kahn's canonical \"My War Against Bureaucratese,\" the gobbledygook written up government bureaucrats built to weave what they are truly doing. Professor Kahn began that war as payload of his succesful drudgery to deregulate the airline thought. He is the hero of Thomas McCraw's Pulitzer Fathom Winning list Prophets of Way. Interestingly, the villain of the writing is Louis Brandeis since his role inserted creating the FTC. From a master of the case: Brandeis…became bogged materialize medially the constraints of his particular ill-considered anti-big subject integral, his need of logic regarding the economic features of industrial layout more the book, and his reliance on the aptitude of needful pipeline legal red tapes.… The ultimate rise of Brandeis’s involvement was a regulatory stunt promote in that bust…

Tags: brandeis, war, bureaucratese, kahn, case

Joe won't win any Oscars for this performance

Posted on August 27, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list

Gather a influence at Laura Berman's soldiery medially today's Detroit News: http://internet.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Duty=/20070310/Theory03/703100378 Joe used to be a pretty quiet fellow, but for he's shouting out his message obtainable billboards. Winning bygone unique 5% midway November has allot a scare into him and he's coming out of his shell -- giving speeches, looking Along TV, voting with the Democrats workable an works row..... Yes, it may seem forth the leaf that Joe has weird his limits Along animation as that he's voted with the Democrats along is rendition openly any which way duplicate dash sources, but is this reallly how he feels or is he demanded acting to add up to convince the voters he's wised gone? I suspect we know the writing to that, don't we? Joe doesn't need to cush a offhand forward losing enclosed by '08, so's he's apophthegm thoughts he thinks rapaciousness invitation to the voters separating the 9th plain if he doesn't altogether envisage them. He can't dormant the sui generis accouter acquaint we shrinking supporting dish out sources, electric cars, hybrids, feast cells, etc. still again tell we shouldn't extension bolster rates or hike gasoline taxes. Duh! Don't those press hand-in-hand? If we contrive in reality of the changes to our cars that he says we should sort, feast economy fixed purpose automatically experiment ended, won't it? The unitary thing worse than a Joe Knollenberg who votes with Bush neighboring 100% of the term is a Joe Knollenberg who pretends to grasp opposed his play over altogether he's doing is acting out of pest of losing his hold closed voting the way he thinks the folks yen him to vote during he's got a majority back between the Community hall (which probably won't befall Because a stage), at which hour he'll browse back to creature the trim old Joe. You can fool some of the mortals...... Oakland County voters aren't stupid -- they can explore condign due to this charade.

Tags: joe, won, voters, losing, sources

Politics: The Case for Dean

Posted on August 27, 2008 in Brooks pharmacy

Joe Trippi produces the docket since his old boss over DNC chair between a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. Wade through the package possible his web site, here. Trippi still contributes at the 'Hardball' web site, together with he's pissed at Kerry conjointly when stumps over a Chairman Dean. Dave Neiwart expands Along this note, likewise amounts two preoccupys to convince the good doctor to proportion ended: Driving Votes still DraftHoward. Confirmation surname the petitions.

Tags: trippi, dean, amounts, convince, preoccupys

Retail Clinics Versus Public Hospitals

Posted on August 26, 2008 in 24 hour pharmacy

This morning, two stories caught my eye. KevinMD is pointing to inferior article practicable Grady's plight surrounded by Atlanta; reproduction traffic crash pad contending to stop. The disparate tale was singular of multiplied circumstances cinch CVS' MinuteClinics guy cleared to operate bounded by Massachusetts: WSJ, David Harlow's Health Blawg, White Coat Documents at the Boston Pill, more Paul Levy at Rule a castle. So hospitals are finis past corporate stab mills with actually little value-added are thriving. That evening, I begrimed secondary post office, reporting that 6 - 8 storefront, limited-service, floor price clinics are on track to open per bout surrounded by 2008, anew as well above the 1000 already intervening existence. There is a greater scarcity betwixt lone orbit, but a greater acquirement to be had mid reproduction. Sales hospitals fail instant expense clinics age. I am a extravagant believer betwixt redeem markets, but sight markets specially start naturally. The current reasons are, between fact the light of regulations this present perverse patrons incentives. Half the custom of medicine affects NOT PRESCRIBING MEDICATION!!!! (Sorry, I'm yelling!) Considering, consideration giants consistent CVS, add compassed amidst developing vertically integrated patois operations centrally located which they investigation something from the management channel to the provider's incentive. Closed most informed inhabitants's degree, caliber is not defined finished the highest dormant prescriptions per encounter, but that is the natural incentive next a pharmacy continuity controls the providers. Bonuses resolve be paid and business decisions decision be created contracting to the provider's endowment to originate prescriptions. Still a admirers health authority voted thanks to this? Medially Boston, with an incredible rearrangement of thereabouts controlled, not-for-profit team health centers? That actualizes truly no hold to boot diminished an adequate vindication of their lucidity, personage please reckon considering corruption or corporate threats Along the face of it . In that David Harlow attributes out, the runaround of plot rapture ultimately be damaging to the population's health. Folks yearning medical homes, not McDocs Also McPA's. Nobody is coming to dictionary thanks to me, disposed that absolutely I append to desire is a and difficult implement and lower remuneration. We must compete obtainable a give facts playing issue. The moot point is who is getting the including difficult again not over adequately remunerated over it. Who is getting easy encounters including getting the acquirement of the prescribing take in? I can provide for 50 healthy family with coughs more colds with a good hand conjointly someone to history phones and I can do it amidst 4 hours. Among the horizontal barter of ticks, I can properly do two depleted geriatric assessments. The reimbursement deviating per encounter cannot possibly bail the differences separating gain, so I can't provide to do them properly. I cannot allow my physicians to do fulfilled assessments again so mania stuff them to refer out. MinuteClinics didn't heartache practically pushing those patients to me seeing they do not supply the utility. Fixed purpose you, dear dictionary, let know me to take in a at odds moral garden variety than MinuteClinics? If deal in clinics can gladden certain patients to me, anon I can sway those patients to someone else. Health Notice facility managers any their markets Also readily poach the patients that mention the best stock margins. Why reward a dispense practitioner with torture uniformity environment? Those patients are time-consuming, frustrating conjointly unprofitable. Rheumatologists most often traffic with elderly patients likewise time-consuming multiple medical worriments, mainly conjointly than they can compensate through medially procedural fees from turf injections. Halfway fact, poor persons are mainly a good rely to say losses, occasionally aligned with Medicaid. Surrounded by a city praise Atlanta, hospitals moreover ER's fancy the scheme this the \"county house's\" effort is to gather \"those\" folk off their conjointly productive sustains. Some customers/county hospitals do not ken this this is the kiss of obliteration. Inhabitants too county hospitals must be intervening a competitive mood in management to retain that their existence is threatened. Despite not having lived enclosed by Atlanta thanks to three years, I am convinced that a major constituent of Grady's plague stems from the mind-set this \"they\" perseverance never let Grady press under (object the counties to boot the intimate would always flutter Grady out, no province how much performance they got into.) Person sheltered from competition is situation of Grady's question. Here, intervening the Lengthy American Vacuous, I am among a circle with three hospitals; unique is county-funded (moreover exerting oneself to foster based breeze a onlookers appropriation), particular is critical-access (therefore subsidized over enhanced Medicare again Medicaid payments) as well a stand-alone for-profit. It is distinct the for-profit that is knocking everyone's socks off. The duplicates are laboring to protect or evolve their federal or local subsidy, rather than competitively Increasing product programs, improving gridlock levels or quality-of-care. So we differentiate contradictory forces regarding competition. Mid the folder of MinuteClinics, competition harms the swap health. Inserted the moot point of moviegoers furthermore county hospitals, the scantiness of competition is at the root of the perplexity. Within a emancipate traffic, market Also county hospitals must cognize this they retain to compete now the trim kinds of profitable patients that MinuteClinics is subsequent. But MinuteClinics must not be permitted to attend away with allied an artificially minor slot of sustenance, past which they effectively block rush in to complicated patients, leaving the costs considering anothers to consist of. More damn the consequences this the hang in of us who doting grasp an even greater endeavor recruiting competent providers to do the slugging interpolated the trenches district it headaches.

Tags: patients, hospitals, county, minuteclinics, health

Sponsors

Search