Obama will drive now

Excellent!

Imagination. Originallity, freshness

Cultural dimensions in Management Theory

According to Geert Hofstede, there is no such thing as a universal management method or management theory across the globe. Even the word 'management' has different origins and meanings in countries throughout the world. Management is not a phenomenon that can be isolated from other processes taking place in society. It interacts with what happens in the family, at school, in politics, and government. It is obviously also related to religion and to beliefs about science.




The cultural dimensions model of Geert Hofstede is a framework that describes five sorts (dimensions) of differences / value perspectives between national cultures:

• power distance (the degree of inequality among people which the population of a country considers as normal)

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• individualism versus collectivism (the extent to which people feel they are supposed to take care for or to be cared for by themselves, their families or organizations they belong to)

*

• masculinity versus femininity (the extent to which a culture is conducive to dominance, assertiveness and acquisition of things versus a culture which is more conducive to people, feelings and the quality of life)

*

• uncertainty avoidance (the degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations)

*

• long-term versus short-term orientation (long-term: values oriented towards the future, like saving and persistence - short-term: values oriented towards the past and present, like respect for tradition and fulfilling social obligations)

To understand management in a country, one should have both knowledge and empathy with the entire local scene. However, the scores of the unique statistical survey that Hofstede carried out should make everybody aware that people in other countries may think, feel, and act very differently from yourself, even when confronted with basic problems of society. Any person dealing with Value Based Management or Corporate Strategy is well advised to bear the lessons from Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory constantly in mind (human beings have a tendency to think and feel and act from their own experiences), especially when working internationally.

The origin of the @

The origin and use of the @ sign


In Germany, they call it Klammeraffe, the spider monkey. In Hebrew, it's called strudel, as in the rolled pastry. Its Italian nickname is chiocciola, for snail; in Russian, it's called sobaka, for little dog; and in Greece they call it the papaki, which means duckling. In the English-speaking world, however, we know this symbol, @, as the at sign.






Strictly speaking, by current Unicode standards, the official name for the @ symbol is the commercial at. Most folks didn't encounter the @ until they became regular e-mail users, which has led to a common misconception that the @ symbol was created for, if not e-mail, then at least computer software in general. Not so.





The @ symbol was included in the original ASCII character set in 1963, and ASCII was created largely for the benefit of teletype, not computer systems. (Although early computer developers found ASCII very handy.) Moreover, the original ASCII codifiers didn't generate the @ symbol from whole cloth, as this odd little be-swirled letter has appeared on typewriter keyboards since at least 1902. So where, exactly, did the @ symbol come from, and what did it mean before it found a use in e-mail addresses?





That explains where the @ symbol came from before e-mail, but surely both @ and e-mail have been synonymous since the latter was created. Again, not so. E-mail existed in various forms before it was ever associated with @ sign, and it took one particular techie to decide that the @ operator would be perfect for this then-new communications medium.


The developer in question is Ray Tomlinson, who worked on both ARPAnet, the precursor to the modern Internet, and TENEX, an early mainframe operating system. Tomlinson is often cited as the outright inventor of e-mail, a claim that is inaccurate and one that Tomlinson himself denies. The accolade which is due Tomlinson is that he sent the first Internet e-mail, and he was the first to use the @ sign as an address operator.




The first e-mail, by most accounts, was sent in 1965 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between users of the Compatible Timesharing System (CTSS) mainframe. CTSS users could post messages to each other, so that whenever the receiving user logged onto the mainframe, the message was waiting. (Actually, the new message was simply appended to a running message file, and each user got one, long, constantly updated message logfile.)



In 1971, Tomlinson was working on a similar message system for the TENEX operating system, called SNDMSG, as part of the ARPAnet team. He hit upon the idea of extending the functionality of SNDMSG to e-mail messages not to just users of the same mainframe, but to users of any mainframe connected to ARPAnet. In this case, he’d need an addressing system that indicated both the username and the host computer name. To combine these two data spaces, he chose the @ symbol because, in his words, “It made sense. At signs didn’t appear in names so there would be no ambiguity about where the separation between login name and host name occurred.”



Tomlinson sent the first Internet e-mail message in 1971 — he doesn’t recall exactly when, though it was most likely late summer or early fall. The e-mail traveled between two DEC mainframes sitting side by side, but which were connected exclusively through ARPAnet. Tomlinson tested the technology with a standard qwertyuiop-style nonsense message, but what Tomlinson describes as the first substantive message simply alerted all the local users to the availability of the new @ operator-enhanced ARPAnet e-mail — which is to say, it was a message from IT that e-mail was working. My, how little has changed in 37 years.

14 things to do if you are laid off from a tech job

A post from Rafe Needleman, CNet

I saw a great piece of advice in a recent story on U.S. News & World Report called 10 things to do on the day after you're laid off: "Write a thank-you note to your former boss." I like that. It can't hurt, and if your boss hears of openings elsewhere, you're now that much more likely to get the referral.



Geeks and other tech employees are a little different from the vanilla workforce, though, so I wanted to put together a list of specific things that people in our part of the economy might want to consider if they're let go. Here's the rundown.




1. Get involved in an open-source project
It's where the most interesting and influential products are being developed, and more importantly, many open-source projects are filled with people who are also connected to companies that pay their engineers. Plus, obviously, working on a development project will keep you sharp and expand your skill set.


2. Go to start-up fairs
Wherever people are pitching new businesses, be there. They're all hiring. If not now, then soon. I am partial to the Under the Radar series (I helped start them and moderate at many of them), and there are several a year. Update: I just talked with the organizers of the next UTR event, which focuses on mobility startups, and they've created a special pink slip discount: $200 off admission, includes entry to the opening night reception for even more networking. There are 20 tickets at this rate.


3. Get project work
You may not have a daily gig, but you still have your skills, and there are people who need them. Head over to a project marketplace like oDesk or eLance and pick up some work.


4. Update your profiles
Go to your pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc., and let people know you are available for new projects. While you're at it, proactively send out notes to your trusted associates that you are looking for work. As we say here at CNET: "duh."


5. Learn some new skills
No, I don't mean to learn Rails if you're a Java guy. That's obvious. I mean cooking, rock climbing, riding a motorcycle--something that you didn't have the time to do while you were an FTE.


6. Answer some questions
Scan Friendfeed and Twitter Search for people asking questions in your areas of expertise, hang out in message boards on things you know stuff about. You'll see what's going on in the industry, you might be able to help people out (always worthwhile), and you might also land a tip for a gig.


7. Get a girlfriend or boyfriend
Don't let the fact that you have no job, per se, slow you down. You can still earn some dough. You will have more control over your schedule. And you can spend some of your newfound time with your new friend, assuming this friend doesn't have his or her own 18-hour-a-day engineering job.


8. Campaign in a swing state
Hurry up, though.


9. Take some time off
"Invest a little and travel to a seaside town in Mexico, even if it's just a few days. Mexico is easy to get to, it might be cheaper to live there, and lying on a beach is certainly not a bad way to contemplate what you want to do with the rest of your career. At the very least, you'll see people who get by on a lot less than we make."


10. Move out of the Bay Area
Just a thought: This is a very expensive place to live, and the economy is heavily tilted to tech. If you have other skills, you might find a better market for them elsewhere, and it will be less expensive to maintain your lifestyle. Plus, you can continue to do project work.


11. Buy a new rig
Yes, you're going to have to do the obvious and odious task of taking a financial inventory and cutting back on your expenses, but you will also need current tools to pick up projects. You'll be more positive about working on those projects if you're doing it on a shiny new system configured just the way you like.


12. Take pictures
Put your $1,500 dSLR to use by selling stock-art pictures of household objects to Fotolia, ShutterStock, iStockphoto, StockXpert, etc. "It's cheap for people to buy images compared to the traditional stock (photo) market, but it can be lucrative over time because images sell over and over. I've made money without trying too hard. But quality standards are going up, so you can't just upload any old crap. Brush up on your model releases."


13. Volunteer
"It can build new skills (like leadership), a new portfolio. Someone capable of making their kid's Boy Scout troop turn a profit suddenly looks a lot more proactive than the shlub who catches up on reruns while waiting for Craigslist to pay off."


14. Start your own company
If you have some savings and can afford to work for peanuts (or less), it's a great time to start a company. Without the annoying distraction of a booming economy, you can focus on building a product to solve a problem you know people will have again when the economy loosens up. There is still funding, even, for early-stage companies. What should you build? We leave that as an exercise for the reader.

China’s Rise Goes Beyond Gold Medals

August 21, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

BEIJING

China has displaced the United States as the winner of the most Olympic gold medals this year. Get used to it.

Today, it’s the athletic surge that dazzles us, but China will leave a similar outsize footprint in the arts, in business, in science, in education.

The world we are familiar with, dominated by America and Europe, is a historical anomaly. Until the 1400s, the largest economies in the world were China and India, and forecasters then might have assumed that they would be the ones to colonize the Americas — meaning that by all rights this newspaper should be printed in Chinese or perhaps Hindi.

But then China and India both began to fall apart at just the time that Europe began to rise. China’s per-capita income was actually lower, adjusted for inflation, in the 1950s than it had been at the end of the Song Dynasty in the 1270s.

Now the world is reverting to its normal state — a powerful Asia — and we will have to adjust. Just as many Americans know their red wines and easily distinguish a Manet from a Monet, our children will become connoisseurs of pu-er tea and will know the difference between guanxi and Guangxi, the Qin and the Qing. When angry, they may even insult each other as “turtle’s eggs.”

During the rise of the West, Chinese culture constantly had to adapt. When the first Westerners arrived and brought their faith in the Virgin Mary, China didn’t have an equivalent female figure to work miracles — so Guan Yin, the God of Mercy, underwent a sex change and became the Goddess of Mercy.

Now it will be our turn to scramble to compete with a rising Asia.

This transition to Chinese dominance will be a difficult process for the entire international community, made more so by China’s prickly nationalism. China still sees the world through the prism of guochi, or national humiliation, and among some young Chinese success sometimes seems to have produced not so much national self-confidence as cockiness.

China’s intelligence agencies are becoming more aggressive in targeting America, including corporate secrets, and the Chinese military is busily funding new efforts to poke holes in American military pre-eminence. These include space weapons, cyberwarfare and technologies to threaten American aircraft carrier groups.

President Bush was roundly criticized for attending the Beijing Olympics, but, in retrospect, I think he was right to attend. The most important bilateral relationship in the world in the coming years will be the one between China and the United States, and Mr. Bush won enormous good will from the Chinese people by showing up.

Having won that political capital, though, Mr. Bush didn’t spend it. Mr. Bush should have spoken out more forcefully on behalf of human rights, including urging Beijing to stop shipping the weapons used for genocide in Darfur.

It’s a difficult balance to get right, but China’s determination to top the gold medal charts — and its overwhelming efforts to find and train the best athletes — bespeaks a larger desire for international respect and legitimacy. We can use that desire also to shame and coax better behavior out of China’s leaders.

When the Chinese government sentences two frail women in their late 70s to labor camp because they applied to hold a legal protest during the Olympics, as it just has, then that is an outrage to be addressed not by “silent diplomacy” but by pointing it out.

We also must recognize that informal pressures are becoming increasingly important. The most important figure in China-U.S. relations today isn’t the ambassador for either country; it is Yao Ming, the basketball player — and David Stern, the commissioner of the N.B.A., is second. The biggest force for democratization isn’t the Group of 7 governments, but is the millions of Chinese who study in the West and return — sometimes with green cards or blue passports, but always with greater expectations of freedom. China’s rise is sustained in part by the way the Communist Party has grudgingly, sometimes incompetently, adapted to these pressures for change.

On this visit, I dropped by the home of Bao Tong, a former senior Communist Party official who spent seven years in prison for challenging the hard-liners during the Tiananmen democracy movement. The guards who monitor him 24/7 let me through when I showed my Olympic press credentials.

Mr. Bao noted that Communist leaders used to actually believe in Communism; now they simply believe in Communist Party rule. He recalled that hard-liners used to fret about the danger of “peaceful evolution,” meaning a gradual shift to a Western-style political and economic system. “Now, in fact, what we have is peaceful evolution,” he noted.

That flexibility is one of China’s great strengths, and it’s one reason that the most important thing going on in the world today is the rise of China — in the Olympics and in almost every other facet of life.

Don't ask (in BEIJING)

Preparing for the influx of Olympic visitors, authorities in Beijing published posters on bulletin boards around the forbidden city counseling locals against a wide range of potentially awkward conversation topics with foreigners.

The authorities (actually, the Propaganda (!) department) issued a list of "eight don't asks":

• Don't ask about income or expenses,
• don't ask about age,
• don't ask about love life or marriage,
• don't ask about health, don't ask about someone's home or address,
• don't ask about personal experience,
• don't ask about religious beliefs or political views,
• don't ask what someone does

I wonder what's left to ask...The weather perhaps. And then there are probably so many "don't tells"

The ideal husband

This is from an editorial by MAUREEN DOWD, in New York Times:

Father Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest born in Australia and based in Bordentown, N.J., has spent his celibate life — including nine years as a missionary in India — mulling connubial bliss. His decades of marriage counseling led him to distill some “mostly common sense” advice about how to dodge mates who would maul your happiness.

“Hollywood says you can be deeply in love with someone and then your marriage will work,” the twinkly eyed, white-haired priest says. “But you can be deeply in love with someone to whom you cannot be successfully married.”

For 40 years, he has been giving a lecture — “Whom Not to Marry” — to high school seniors, mostly girls because they’re more interested.

“It’s important to do it before they fall seriously in love, because then it will be too late,” he explains. “Infatuation trumps judgment.”

I asked him to summarize his talk:

“Never marry a man who has no friends,” he starts. “This usually means that he will be incapable of the intimacy that marriage demands. I am always amazed at the number of men I have counseled who have no friends. Since, as the Hebrew Scriptures say, ‘Iron shapes iron and friend shapes friend,’ what are his friends like? What do your friends and family members think of him? Sometimes, your friends can’t render an impartial judgment because they are envious that you are beating them in the race to the altar. Envy beclouds judgment.

“Does he use money responsibly? Is he stingy? Most marriages that founder do so because of money — she’s thrifty, he’s on his 10th credit card.

“Steer clear of someone whose life you can run, who never makes demands counter to yours. It’s good to have a doormat in the home, but not if it’s your husband.

“Is he overly attached to his mother and her mythical apron strings? When he wants to make a decision, say, about where you should go on your honeymoon, he doesn’t consult you, he consults his mother. (I’ve known cases where the mother accompanies the couple on their honeymoon!)

“Does he have a sense of humor? That covers a multitude of sins. My mother was once asked how she managed to live harmoniously with three men — my father, brother and me. Her answer, delivered with awesome arrogance, was: ‘You simply operate on the assumption that no man matures after the age of 11.’ My father fell about laughing.

“A therapist friend insists that ‘more marriages are killed by silence than by violence.’ The strong, silent type can be charming but ultimately destructive. That world-class misogynist, Paul of Tarsus, got it right when he said, ‘In all your dealings with one another, speak the truth to one another in love that you may grow up.’

“Don’t marry a problem character thinking you will change him. He’s a heavy drinker, or some other kind of addict, but if he marries a good woman, he’ll settle down. People are the same after marriage as before, only more so.

“Take a good, unsentimental look at his family — you’ll learn a lot about him and his attitude towards women. Kay made a monstrous mistake marrying Michael Corleone! Is there a history of divorce in the family? An atmosphere of racism, sexism or prejudice in his home? Are his goals and deepest beliefs worthy and similar to yours? I remember counseling a pious Catholic woman that it might not be prudent to marry a pious Muslim, whose attitude about women was very different. Love trumped prudence; the annulment process was instigated by her six months later.

“Imagine a religious fundamentalist married to an agnostic. One would have to pray that the fundamentalist doesn’t open the Bible and hit the page in which Abraham is willing to obey God and slit his son’s throat.

“Finally: Does he possess those character traits that add up to a good human being — the willingness to forgive, praise, be courteous? Or is he inclined to be a fibber, to fits of rage, to be a control freak, to be envious of you, to be secretive?

“After I regale a group with this talk, the despairing cry goes up: ‘But you’ve eliminated everyone!’ Life is unfair.”

The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

This is from the New York Times:

Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.

1. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
   How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.
2. Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
   How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
3. Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
   How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.
4. Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol.
   How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
5. Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants.
   How to eat: Just drink it.
6. Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants.
   How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
7. Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
   How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.
8. Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.'’ They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
   How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
9. Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,'’ it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
   How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
10. Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
    How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.
11. Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
    How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.

George Carlin - Quotes and Jokes

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937–June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author who won four Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.

Carlin was noted for his political insights, his black humor and his observations on language, psychology, religion and on many taboo subjects.

Here are some of his famous lines:

• If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
• Electricity is really just organized lightning.
• Always do whatever's next.
• Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town.
• Standing ovations have become far too commonplace. What we need are ovations where the audience members all punch and kick one another.
• Standing ovations have become far too commonplace. What we need are ovations where the audience members all punch and kick one another.
• In comic strips, the person on the right always speaks first.
• I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.
• The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.
• Think off-center.
• At a formal dinner party, the person nearest death should always be seated closest to the bathroom.
• By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.
• Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.
• Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
• Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
• I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me - they're cramming for their final exam.
• I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
• If God had intended us not to masturbate he would've made our arms shorter.
• Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.
• Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
• Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that crap.
• The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
• There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
• There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past.
• Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning.
• When Thomas Edison worked late into the night on the electric light, he had to do it by gas lamp or candle. I'm sure it made the work seem that much more urgent.
• When you step on the brakes your life is in your foot's hands.
• When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat.
• You know an odd feeling? Sittin on the toilet eating a chocolate candy bar.
• You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.
• Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
• It's never just a game when you're winning.
• If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him...is he still wrong?
• What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?
• Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?
• If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?
• If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn't the whole damn airplane made out of that stuff?