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| Volume 7, Issue 4 |
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In This Issue:
 [Google’s] Top ten ways to show appreciation
 Recruiting the top 1 percent
The nightmare of too little sleep
 It's all in your head
 China's new weapon: Low executive pay
Google keeps tweaking its search engine
Why Google loves developers
Researchers show off virtual human in 4D
 [Video] The energy efficient data center: Some simple steps
 Excuse me for doing my job
 New ways to get rid of old computers
Nine burning questions about how Vista is really doing
Don't get caught in the Vista upgrade trap
How to zap the crap on a new Windows PC
Data centers in a box: Really?
 CIOs share secrets of getting IT some respect
When bad things happen to good projects
 Did Google's street view spook even Eric Schmidt?
The IT department as corporate snoop
 6 ways to kill your credit score
7 net-worth killers
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Recruiting the Top 1 Percent
There's a better way to find and hire the very best employees.
I keep hearing people say that they only hire the top 1 percent of job seekers. At my company, Fog Creek Software, I want to hire the top 1 percent, too. We're doubling in
size each year, and we're always in the market for great software developers. In our field, the top 1 percent of the work force can easily be 10 times as productive as the
average developer. The best developers invent new products, figure out shortcuts that save months of work, and, when there are no shortcuts, plow through coding tasks like a
monster truck at a tea party. From a recruiting perspective, the problem is that the people I consider to be in the top 1 percent in my field barely ever apply for jobs at
all. That's because they already have jobs. Stimulating jobs. Jobs where their employers pay them lots of money and do whatever it takes to keep them happy. If these
pros switch jobs, chances are the offer came through networking, not because they submitted a resumé somewhere or trolled a job site like Monster (NASDAQ:MNST). Many of
the best developers I know took a summer internship on a whim and then stayed on. They have applied for only one or two jobs in their lives. A lot of companies think they're
hiring the top 1 percent because they get 100 resumés for every open position. They're kidding themselves. When you fill an opening, think about what happens to the 99 people
you turn away. They don't give up and go into plumbing. They apply for another job. There's a floating population of applicants in your industry that apply for nearly
every opening posted online, even though many of them are qualified for virtually none of these positions. So if the top 1 percent never apply for jobs, how can you recruit
them? My theory is that the best way is to find them before they realize there is a job market--back when they're still in college...
Read the article. Back to top
The Nightmare of Too Little Sleep
Blame the BlackBerry, blame the boss, blame the kids. A look at how busy professionals cope.
What he found instead were strung-out employees taking catnaps at their desks. "You're working way too hard, and it was never expected that you'd be tired, or get sick," says Greenleaf. "Most of the time, you're kind of there, but you're not." Feeling bored and
miserable, he quit after just seven months. Today, at the helm of Greenleaf Books, an Austin, Texas-based independent-press publishing company he launched in 1997, Greenleaf
makes sure all 25 of his employees know they can go home when they're too sleepy -- or come in late, or take the whole day off. "As long as they get the job done, it's fine,"
says Greenleaf, 31. As a result, staffers are generally well-rested and alert most of the time, he says -- though with seven pregnancies among them in less than a year,
including his own baby daughter born just weeks ago, they can expect more than a few sleepless nights ahead. Yet whether it's the result of overwork or a crying baby at
home, sleep deprivation isn't just an employee's problem...
Read the article. Back to top
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It's All In Your Head
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The latest supercomputer is way faster than the human brain. But guess which is smarter?
WNetworks rock, especially electronic ones. In the history of the world there has been nothing like them--telegraph, telephone, cellular mobile, broadcast radio, cable
television, Internet--to democratize the global, political economy, to bring us prosperity and freedom.
Astonishing as they are, electronic networks can't hold a synaptic spark to the human brain. We know this intuitively--that the intelligence from the brain's network of
neurons makes even the most advanced supercomputers look pitifully stupid. And yet, this paradox: Why is it that a comparison of the components goes the other way? When
you stack neurons up against modern transistors in switching speed, the brain looks pathetic. Let me make a stab at resolving this brain-supercomputer contradiction by
bringing up the network effect, as it is quantified in a 25-year-old, and still controversial, law that has my name attached. The network effect, according to
Wikipedia, "causes a good or service to have a value to a potential customer which depends on the number of other customers who own the good or are users of the service."
In the early 1980s I used an early description of this phenomenon to sell my invention, Ethernet, via 3Com Corp. (nasdaq: COMS - news - people ) Using a 35mm slide (see chart
below), I argued that my customers needed their Ethernets to grow above a certain critical mass if they were to reap the benefits of the network effect...
Read the article. Back to top
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China's new weapon: Low executive pay
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Will globalization someday stick it to the man?
Excessive executive pay has been a hot-button issue in American politics for years, but worldwide factors could one day make it a liability on the balance sheet. As companies
in countries like China and India move away from performing behind-the-scenes functions, they're selling products and services under their own brand names directly
against U.S. and European counterparts. Since high-level executives and other white
collar professionals in Asian companies typically make less than their Western equivalents, these companies potentially will have a cost advantage.
How or even whether the differences in executive salary will impact the market remains unclear: multinational companies are hiring their own executives in these regions, too, after all. Nonetheless, the numbers are tough to ignore:
engineers aren't the only "talent" that costs less in developing markets. Executives cost a lot less, too. Shanghai's SunTech Holdings, for instance...
Read the article. Back to top
Google keeps tweaking its search engine
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These days, Google seems to be doing everything, everywhere.
It takes pictures of your house from outer space, copies rare Sanskrit books in India, charms its way onto Madison Avenue, picks fights with Hollywood and tries to undercut
Microsoft's software dominance. But at its core, Google remains a search engine. And its search pages, blue hyperlinks set against a bland, white background, have made it
the most visited, most profitable and arguably the most powerful company on the Internet. Google is the homework helper, navigator and yellow pages for half a billion
users, able to find the most improbable needles in the world's largest haystack of information in just the blink of an eye. Yet however easy it is to wax poetic about the
modern-day miracle of Google, the site is also among the world's biggest teases. Millions of times a day, users click away from Google, disappointed that they couldn't find the hotel, the recipe or the background of that hot guy. Google often finds what
users want, but it doesn't always...
Read the article. Back to top
Why Google loves developers
Millions of people use Google's Web services every day. Now the search giant wants to actively recruit the geek elite of software programmers.
On Thursday, the company will host its first Google Developer Day, attracting 5,000 people to 10 locations around the world, including the San Jose Convention Center in
California. The conference is part of a company goal to cultivate a better relationship with programmers, particularly those on the cutting edge of mashup development, a
relatively new style of application development that combines information from different Web sites. In conjunction with the conference, the company on Wednesday
announced Google Gears, a Web browser plug-in that allows Web developers to add offline access to Web applications. Google Gears is part of the company's strategy to court developers
in order to make Web applications more capable--a goal that it is taking substantial steps to achieve, particularly for a company whose primary business is
online search...
Read the article. Back to top
Researchers show off virtual human in 4D
Canadian researchers say they have developed the most detailed model of a human yet, a movable "4D" image that doctors can use to plan complex surgery or show patients what ailments look like inside their bodies.
Called Caveman, the larger-than-life computer image encompasses more than 3,000 distinct body parts, all viewed in a booth that gives the image height, width and depth, the researchers said Wednesday. Caveman also plots the passage of time--the fourth "D." Scientists can layer on the unique visuals of patients, such as magnetic resonance images, CAT scans and X-rays, giving physicians high-resolution views of the inner workings of the body while it appears to float within arm's reach. It will help researchers study the genetics of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, muscular sclerosis and Alzheimer's, said officials at...
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Excuse Me for Doing My Job
When you rise in an organization, the bad vibes can rise off other employees like steam in a Turkish bath. Here's how to deal with it.
The very first time I got promoted, the stakes weren't high. There were four customer service reps (average age: 20) in the department. Two people weren't interested in the newly created supervisor position, and my only rival for the job fell asleep at her
desk on a regular basis. So I got the nod, a fifty-cent-an-hour raise, and the cold shoulder from my sleepy rival, whom I was now supervising. My manager sent me off to a supervisory-training course where I sat like a stone, too shy to ask any questions
until the very last session. I finally murmured, "How do you deal with a co-worker who's resentful because I got promoted?" The instructor didn't have an answer for that one. But it happens—all the time. If you're a person who sets career goals and achieves
them, trust me, it will happen to you. Perhaps you've already been a victim of the "how dare you!" effect. That's the iciness directed your way when you do or get something that others feel you had no right to. As wonderful as it feels to be awarded a
promotion or a plum assignment, there are people who will like you a little less (or even a lot less) as a result. [Here's what to do about it]...
Read the article. Back to top
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New ways to get rid of old computers
The U.S. may still lag behind much of the world in regulating e-waste, but the good news is that there are new solutions out there for responsibly disposing of your outdated equipment.
Residents in Wylie, Texas, had no problems getting rid of their old computers: They just threw them in the trash. But that approach was costing the city more and more in
landfill and hauling fees, particularly during the city's semiannual Cleanup-Greenup campaigns, when residents would toss their junk into Dumpsters bound for landfills,
says Michael B. Sferra, Wylie's public services director. As Sferra tried to cut costs, he discovered that companies that recycle computers and other electronic waste charge
less than those hauling junk away to landfills. "I was utterly surprised," he says. The city recycled 15,000 pounds of computers, printers and other such "e-waste" the first
time it offered the service, at its April 2006 Cleanup-Greenup day. It collected another 7,000 pounds of e-waste last fall and 10,500 pounds this past April. Score one
for Mother Earth. Wylie's work is part of a growing effort...
Read the article. Back to top
Nine burning questions about how Vista is really doing
Four months after the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft's claiming that 40 million copies have shipped -- but even Microsoft's not claiming that 40 million PCs are humming away with the new operating system. Computerworld.com gets to the bottom of the claims.
Four months after its official, belated release, figuring out how Windows Vista is doing in the market involves as much decoding as a Dan Brown mystery. Microsoft Corp.
may trumpet impressive, McDonald's-esque stats -- 40 million copies shipped in 100 days, twice as fast as XP! -- but it politely ducks and weaves when the professionally
curious seek many of the details behind those numbers. Instead, there’s so much spin -- from Microsoft, from rivals such as Apple Inc., from market analysts pushing
research and more research -- it would even leave Sasha Cohen dizzy. Here's our attempt to unravel this puzzle-shrinkwrapped-in-a-mystery...
Read the article. Back to top
Don't get caught in the Vista upgrade trap
Without proper planning, upgrading to Vista could result in unexpected costs that total a lot more than the price of the OS licensing.
reader wrote in after my column "Hands On: My Adventures Getting Vista Up and Running" and asked what the total cost of a Vista deployment/upgrade would be.
He noted, as I found, that the costs could go beyond operating system licensing to include new software and hardware. To address his question, I spoke with David
Cottingham, a Vista specialist at technology and services provider CDW Inc. CDW recently conducted a survey of 761 IT decision-makers, asking if and when they plan to
adopt Vista. More than 85% said they expect to adopt Vista, with 20% saying they aim to deploy it by the end of 2007. Cottingham says Vista in many cases will require "a
major forklift upgrade." Therefore, he recommends that IT departments that aren't in the budgeting or testing phase start this process now. "Vista, more than anything
else, is about having a good plan," he says. Here are six questions to consider as you venture into Vista...
Read the article. Back to top
How to zap the crap on a new Windows PC
 Out of the box, my brand-new Acer notebook had a system tray brimming with icons, including two volume controls.
 On my new notebook, Internet Explorer 7 is loaded down with preinstalled toolbars.
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The first thing to do with any new Windows PC isn't to start using it, but to clean all the junk off it. Here are seven easy steps to a clutter-free PC. (They're also useful for those whose PCs aren't new but are still plagued by preinstalled software.)
When you take a brand-new Windows PC out of the box, it's shiny and scratch-free, but on the PC's hard disk, it's a different story entirely. Most major hardware makers clutter their systems with preinstalled applications, browser toolbars, search settings and utilities -- not to mention self-launching advertisements enticing you to try out even more software. In essence, they have sold your PC to the highest bidder long before you take it out of the box. Instead of having Windows defaults or your own preferences, the system is set up to maximize the profits of the computer maker and its business partners at the expense of your convenience. All this extra unwanted software takes its toll on system performance and reliability. Each time the system starts, many of the applications run in the background. While running, they may access the Internet to find updates or change the behavior of standard Windows functions. These freeloaders also take up system resources such as processor, memory and disk space, resulting in longer start-up and shutdown times. Many of them clutter the desktop, system tray and browser with icons, buttons, yellow balloon dialogs and other visible reminders in the hope that you will click on them and use their services. Apple even pokes fun of this phenomenon in one of its "I'm a PC; I'm a Mac" commercials, called "Stuffed" (requires QuickTime plug-in). Uninvited applications and utilities often target product or service categories where competition is fierce. Take music, for example. Nearly every new computer comes with preinstalled software designed to grab your business for music downloads. It may be Napster, MusicMatch, RealPlayer or Microsoft's own Windows Media Player. The preinstalled software usually takes over all sound-related file extensions, such as .MP3 or .WAV, and launches an in-your-face barrage of advertising any time you want to play something as simple as a sound effect. Uninstalling isn't always as simple as it should be, either -- many preinstalled processes don't offer a standard uninstall routine...
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Data centers in a box: Really?
It could be the largest appliance available for the data center to date.
Two companies have separately announced the availability of a preconfigured, self-contained data center that can instantly add up to 1,200 servers and 3.5 petabytes of storage to your network and, the manufacturers claim, significantly decrease your energy bills. Rackable Systems Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. each revealed their "data center in a box" concept earlier this year. Rackable's 40-foot Concentro and Sun's 20-foot Project Blackbox feature racks of servers and storage stationed in a shipping container. The container-based model, which is still in its infancy, allows companies of all sizes to locate their data centers anywhere there is power, cooling and a network connection...
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CIOs Share Secrets of Getting IT Some Respect
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It's an investment in our future." |
Key to making sure IT and business groups understand each other is rotating IT people in and out of the business groups.
One of John Furlong's pet peeves is IT employees who don't dress like their clients. "Look at the way your clients are dressed. Make sure your IT organization matches
them," says Furlong, managing director and CTO for UBS Global Asset Management. "That means in my organization in the investment room, guys tend to be in khakis or jeans or
T-shirts, and that's great. But if you're in the sales organization, that's not the way to go. You want to be their peer." The theme of getting more respect for IT was
pervasive at this week's CIO Forum, a gathering of 300-plus CIOs and other high-level IT executives that takes place at sea aboard the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship sailing out
of New York City. Furlong says a key to making sure IT and business groups understand each other is rotating IT people in and out of the business groups. He cites his own
experience of working in jobs on both sides of the fence...
Read the article. Back to top
When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects
HP's project managers knew what could go wrong with their ERP rollout. They just didn't plan for so much of it to happen at once.
It goes against human nature to always expect the worst. But with IT projects, pessimism—otherwise known as contingency planning—is the only way to keep small
technology problems from becoming full-blown business disasters. Too bad no one can bring themselves to do enough of it. Christina Hanger had little reason to be
pessimistic in May 2004, when she was moving one of Hewlett-Packard's biggest North American divisions onto a centralized ERP system from SAP. As the leader of an IT
consolidation project rooted in HP's acquisition of Compaq two years earlier, Hanger, HP's senior vice president of Americas operations and IT, had an unbroken record of
success migrating five product groups within the two former companies onto one of two SAP systems. Hanger had every reason to believe that the sixth would go well too. Even
so, she knew to be prepared for problems. At approximately $7.5 billion in annual revenue, the division involved with this latest project, Industry Standard Servers
(ISS), is much larger than any of the others that Hanger had migrated to SAP to that point. So Hanger took the contingency plan that her team had developed for the other
five migrations and adjusted it to accommodate the ISS division's larger sales volume. She planned for three weeks of IT snafus, mostly focused on what might happen as a
result of tweaking a legacy order-entry system to work with the new SAP system. The
contingency plan addressed business impacts too. HP banked three weeks' worth of extra servers and took over an empty portion of an HP factory in Omaha to stand by for any
overflow of orders that needed special configurations (for example, an unusual component or software combination) and could not be stockpiled ahead of time. But the
plan wasn't pessimistic enough...
Read the article. Back to top
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Did Google's Street View spook even Eric Schmidt?
Maybe we finally have a semi-plausible explanation for why Google CEO Eric Schmidt went berserk two summers back just because a reporter had the audacity to Google him ... and point readers to online documents that contained his exact address.
Maybe Schmidt knew then what we all know now: that Google's latest feature - Street View - makes the prospect of a nosy tourist knocking on your door seem quaint. Street View, it seems, is the answer to every Peeping Tom's dream...
Read the article. Back to top
The IT department as corporate snoop
As if we needed more proof that insiders are a seriously worse threat to your corporate jewels than any malicious hacker, a study released today says that one in
three of IT employees snoop through company systems and peek at confidential information such as private files, wage data, personal emails, and HR background.
The survey, which claims to reveal "the hidden scandal of IT staff snooping," is from Cyber-Ark Software, a company that, naturally specializes in password protection As if
that weren’t bad enough, the survey found that more than one-third of IT professionals admit they could still access their company’s network once they’d left their current
job, with no one to stop them...
Read the article. Back to top
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6 Ways to Kill Your Credit Score
A low score means higher rates. Here's how you may be doing yourself harm.
Lenders, insurers, landlords and others will charge you more or flat-out reject you if you show up with a low FICO score. Here's how you may be doing yourself harm...
Read the article. Back to top
7 Net-Worth Killers
Saving and spending aren't the only factors affecting your net worth. How you manage (or don't manage) your assets and liabilities can make a big difference, too.
...
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