commentary

Teaching Tomorrow's Employees Today

International Business Machines Corp. [IBM], worried the United States is losing its competitive edge, will financially back employees who want to leave the company to become math and science teachers. ... Up to 100 IBM employees will be eligible for the program in its trial phase. The goal is to help fill shortfalls in the nation's teaching ranks, a problem expected to grow with the retirement of today's educators. ...

If selected, the employees would be allowed to take a leave of absence from the company, which includes full benefits and up to half their salary, depending on length of service. In addition, the employees could get up to $15,000 in tuition reimbursements and stipends while they seek teaching credentials and begin student-teaching.

IBM pushes math and science education, CNN Technology, Friday, September 16, 2005

When I first read this, I was impressed. It sounded like a terrific idea.

Then I read on...

Tech Support Motivations

There are very few interpersonal problems which cannot be solved by a suitable application of high explosives.

Rich and I frequently get into "discussions" with people who provide technical support for the various applications we run (this includes mailing lists, forums, and the "official" tech support addresses). The cause of the "discussions" is a fundamental difference in motivation.

Many people who provide technical support appear to be motivated to get the user back to work as quickly as possible.

Rich and I have another motivation. Ours appears related on the surface but is crucially different underneath - we want to solve the problem.

We Are The Web

Ten years ago, Netscape's explosive IPO ignited huge piles of money. The brilliant flash revealed what had been invisible only a moment before: the World Wide Web. As Eric Schmidt (then at Sun, now at Google) noted, the day before the IPO, nothing about the Web; the day after, everything.

      -- from We Are The Web by Kevin Kelly in Wired Magazine 13.08, August 2005 [all quotes ibid]

I was introduced to the Web sometime in 1994 by a friend and co-worker. He had discovered a cool new application called NCSA Mosaic and he was telling everyone about it. I tried it. The Web seemed like an interesting toy... but I had to ask, what it was really "good for"?

...Before the Netscape browser illuminated the Web, the Internet did not exist for most people. If it was acknowledged at all, it was mischaracterized as either corporate email (as exciting as a necktie) or a clubhouse for adolescent males (read: pimply nerds). It was hard to use. On the Internet, even dogs had to type. Who wanted to waste time on something so boring?

I was one of the people for whom the Internet existed Before Netscape. We had email both at home and where I worked (and it was much more interesting and exciting than a necktie). I belonged to several USENET news groups. I used FTP. I was a savvy techie. But I still didn't guess what was coming.