This is one of those places where I agree with the point the author is making, but I don’t really agree with the path they chose to get there… The bottom line problem is this—government, companies, and even individuals (yes, that means you and I) tend to slip into a mode of treating people as objects which either cost something, or produce something. From many perspectives, it’s easy to treat people as units of information, work, cost, etc.—but when you cross the line from using this as a useful abstraction to actually seeing people as an abstraction, then you’ve cross a line you shouldn’t be crossing.
The post Worth Reading: Employees are Human Beings appeared first on 'net work.
How often, in our careers, are we told to focus on one thing at a time? I would guess I see some message about this, such as the image to the left in this post, at least once a week, if not once a day.
In general, I agree with the sentiment. If you really want to get something done, do it, rather than doing a lot of things at once. The reason for this, I think, is because multitasked work tends to result in half-work, which is something to be avoided at all costs.
Avoid half-work more than anything. Do not imitate those people who sit long at their desks but let their minds wander. It is better to shorten the time and use it intensely, to increase its value, which is all that counts. Do something, or do nothing at all. Do ardently whatever you decide to do; do it with your might; and let the whole of your activity be a series of vigorous fresh starts. Half-work, which is half-rest, is good neither for rest nor for work. via Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life
But there is another side to focus we need to be wary of as Continue reading
Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life
The post QOTW: Height appeared first on 'net work.
One of the neat things about Oak Island is it’s a south facing beach. You don’t get the sun over the beach in the morning, but along the beach, and both sunrise and sunset are over the water at some time in the year. Some days, the sunrise and the sunset are both over the ocean.
The post Sunrise on Oak Island appeared first on 'net work.
This is the first of a four part series on open source versus open standards.
The post Worth Reading: Open Source (Part 1) appeared first on 'net work.
The post Worth Reading: Micromanaging Compute appeared first on 'net work.
Stop mulling over the latest (now dead) command line, and learn something useful. If you work in networking, you work with electricity. But how many people really know how the power grid works? Even though I have relatives and friends who’ve worked in the power industry all their lives, I’m still learning new things about the grid, and the way it works.
Four items of interest in this area for today.
A really short and simple video
A longer, boring video with lots of presentations and details
An interesting paper on coal to data
An article giving the other side of the renewable hype
The post Worth Learning: The Power Grid appeared first on 'net work.
Or as Thomas Sowell says — Stupid people can cause problems, but it usually takes brilliant people to create a real catastrophe.
The post Worth Reading: Trading Shares in Milliseconds appeared first on 'net work.
Sipping from the firehose is a big problem in the tech industries. Every time I turn around there’s yet another new technology to make everything better. If you can’t quote rule 11, you need to learn it by heart. Now. I’ll wait right here while you do the memorization thing.
So — why the hype cycle? Essentially, it comes down to this: we’re emotionally driven creatures. Advertisers have known this for years; to wit —
Mark the last words in that quote: it’s about selling an experience, rather than a Continue reading
C.S. Lewis, Rehabilitations
The post Civilization appeared first on 'net work.
This is a white hat tool, of course, a form of social engineering penetration testing. Two points of interest, though.
First, you can be pretty certain hackers are already using this sort of tool today to find the right person to contact, how to contact them, and to discover the things they know people will respond to. The rule of thumb you should keep in mind is — at least 80% of the time, hackers are already using the tools researchers come up with to do penetration testing. Remember all those fake people inhabiting the world of twitter, facebok, and the like? Some of them might not be just another click farm — some of them might be clickbait for hackers to find out who you Continue reading
From the very beginning, the walled garden has been the opposite of what those who work on and around the ‘net have wanted. The IETF, and the protocols it has developed over the years, have always been about free and open access to anyone who wants to learn networking, coding, or even just what the latest baseball score for their favorite team. Of course, a number of tech giants (remember Compuserve?) fought to build walled gardens using the tools of the Internet. A user would dial into a modem pool, and access the world through a small portal that would provide a consistent and controlled interface for their entire experience, from email to news to chat to…
The same battle rages in recent times, as well. Phone makers, mobile providers, and even social media networks would desperately like to make your only interface into the global Internet a single O/S or app. From this one app, you’ll be able to talk to your friends, pay your bills, save all your data, and, in general, live your entire life. And for those times when you can’t get to what you want outside the app or social network, they will gladly Continue reading
The post Worth Reading: Software Defined Overload appeared first on 'net work.
The post Worth Reading: New Port Mapper DDoS Attack appeared first on 'net work.