Vacanţa de iarnă 2010

Guvernul a declarat ieri 25 decembrie curent zi de odihna, astfel incit credinciosii de rit nou sa poata sarbatori Craciunul. Prim-ministrul Vlad Filat a precizat ca in 2010, Executivul va propune o initiativa legislativa pentru a declara aceasta data zi de odihna.

De asemenea, Cabinetul de Ministri a declarat 4, 5 si 6 ianuarie 2010 zile de odihna. In acest mod angajatii bugetari si institutiile de invatamint si educational vor avea o vacanta intre 1-10 ianuarie. Zilele date vor fi recuperate simbata 16 ianuarie, 13 februarie si, respectiv, 13 martie 2010. Ziua de 25 decembrie va fi recuperata in una din simbetele de pina la finele anului viitor.

In nota informativa se mentioneaza ca hotarirea de Guvern nu afecteaza unitatile si personalul care activeaza in regim continuu la munca sau in regim special.

 

Rentabilizând moartea

Dacă trăiaţi cu iluzia că cei care au provocat colapsul actual s-au retras discret din prima linie, vă înşelaţi amarnic. Ei nu au părăsit niciodată câmpul de bătălie şi, cred că nu aş exagera dacă aş afirma că, în ultimă instanţă, noţiunea de “câmp de bătălie” în accepţiunea actuală le aparţine întrutotul. Sunt oameni discreţi, aproape obscuri, dar care au o capacitate destructivă fabuloasă. Scopul lor este acela de a face baloane nu de dragul umflatului, ci pentru perceperea comisionului.

Ceea ce vă voi prezenta în continuare este una din mostrele de inventivitate ale băncilor de investiţii, un balon în stadiu incipient, despre care este posibil să auziţi în viitorul apropiat.Schema pusă la cale este, pe cât de simplă, pe atât de genială. Poate vă este cunoscută zicala conform căreia “moartea este singura certitudine”. Pornind de la această axiomă, băieţii deştepţi ai Wall Street-ului sunt pe cale să dezvolte noua generaţie de arme de distrugere în masă.

Să ne gândim la o afacere reciproc avantajoasă. John este bolnav de o maladie incurabilă. De asemenea, John are o poliţă de asigurare de viaţă de 1 milion de dolari, bani care vor încasaţi după ce nefericitul îşi va da obştescul sfârşit. Ce are de câştigat John din această afacere? Mai nimic. Ei bine, aici intervine un binevoitor care-i propune lui John următorul târg: în schimbul dreptului de a încasa banii corespunzători asigurării,  îi oferă o fracţie înainte de a muri. Cu alte cuvinte, John devine în timpul vieţii beneficiarul  unei părţi din suma care i se cuvine ca “premiu” pentru moartea sa. Ciudată afacerea, dar destul de bănoasă,  dacă ţinem cont de faptul că un John poate emite pretenţii pentru maxim 40% din suma asigurată. Deci, pe scurt investeşti acum, aştepţi să moară John şi încasezi de 2.5 ori mai mult decât ai băgat în afacere. Dacă nefericitul moare repede, ai pus-o de un profit baban. Un business sigur, nu-i aşa?

Ei bine, băieţii de pe Wall Street nu se apucă să lucreze ca amatorii. Doar nu vă gândiţi că vreun rechin de la Goldman va sta să vâneze distruşi la colţul străzii. Adevăratul profit vine din dezvoltarea schemei după principiul statutat de activele toxice cu suport ipotecar. Aşa că schema pusă la cale prevede gruparea de drepturi în pachete mai mari pentru diversificare şi minimizarea riscului(vă sună cunoscut?). După aceasta, urmează vânzarea de pachete şi derivarea produselor până la atingerea unui nivel satisfăcător de sofisticare. Dacă în ceea ce priveşte piaţa ipotecară mizarea pe creştere s-a dovedit a fi o eroare, cred că nu este un secret pentru nimeni că moartea este ceva sigur. Deci, un argument suficient de puternic pentru a reisteriza lumea cu gunoi nobil.

Când am auzit pentru prima dată de acest “nou concept”, am crezut că e vorba de vreun experiment, iar lucrurile urmează să se dezvolte în timp. Numai că schema se pare că este pregătită de mult timp în laboratoare. Deja se vorbeşte despre un index tranzacţionabil pus la punct de Goldman Sachs (de ce nu mă miră…) care ar permite pariuri pe durata de viaţă a celor din spatele pachetelor de asigurări securizate. Marketingul acestui index va fi bazat pe faptul că produsul nu este dependent de ciclurile financiare, deci va putea oferi o siguranţă mai mare a investiţiei.

Cu toată că la prima vedere pare ceva sigur(probabil agenţiile de rating au pregătit deja triple A-ul) riscurile sunt mult mai mari decât vă puteţi imagina. Pornind de la tentaţia fraudei şi continuând cu erori de diagnosticare, descoperirea unor medicamente revoluţionare sau, pur şi simplu cu supravieţuirea inexplicabilă a unor indivizi. Toate acestea sunt posibile riscuri care invalidează încasarea poliţei.

Pe hârtie lucrurile sună tentant, iar rechinii îşi pregătesc buzunarele pentru valul de comisioane care va fi generat de noua paradigmă. Marketing-ul agresiv, lobby-ul intens, precum şi celelalte elemente ale maşinăriei infernale a finanţiştilor de pe Wall Street stau să fie scoase de la naftalină. Asta în timp ce pe la întruniri inutile gen G8, G20, etc. un grup de prostănaci dau declaraţii sforăitoare cu privire la reglementarea pieţelor.

Articol de pe:  http://trenduri.blogspot.com/2009/09/rentabilizand-moartea.html

 

Signs that you’re a bad programmer

Most of these faults were discovered the hard way by the author himself, and cataloged in order to think about them some more and hopefully purge them from his own work.

This article is also written for the manager who’s trying to help a problem employee or judge a candidate for hire, for at least a few of the listed examples have been taken from real-world interviews and code reviews.

And finally, this article is written for you so that you can render yourself smug on your next code review. Given that you’re impeccable, of course.

 

The Story of the Mexican Fisherman

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.  Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna.  The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos.  I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you.  You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat.  With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.  Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery.  You would control the product, processing, and distribution.  You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”

“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part.  When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”

“Millions – then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire.  Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

Source: http://www.protolink.com/MexicanFisherman.html

 

GeeMail: Desktop email client for Gmail

Gmail has gained so much popularity in so little time. But when it comes to access gmail from an email client like outlook or outlook express most of us frown. This is because Gmail does not work perfectly with popular e-mail clients. I have always wished for a dedicated program for accessing my e-mail. And finally ths wsh has been fulfilled through a dedicated e-mail client called Geemail. Developed by Sourcebits, Geemail is an Adobe air based program and currently in beta. Geemail has everything you need to access your gmail email account. It does not require you to configure POP3 or IMAP to access gmail. Just install the program and use your user name and password like you use to login to gmail from your browser and you are done. Moreover it has the same familiar interface of web based gmail so at moment you will feel that you are using gmail in a browser where as you are infact using it ina desktop client. In order to install Geemail you need the following: – Adobe Air Adobe AIR is a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich Internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, or , that can be deployed as a desktop application. – Geemail Adobe AIR serves as the platform above which the Geemail application runs.

 

Top 10 Reasons Not To Have A Job

Source: http://hunternuttall.com/blog/2007/12/top-10-reasons-not-to-have-a-job/

1. Your life or your money.

In the original Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (1987), there was a mean old man who would lock you in a room in a deadly underground labyrinth and demand that you “leave your life or money.” You had to give up either 50-100 rupees or a heart container in order to proceed.

That’s not so different from employment, is it? If you want to quit your job so you can have a life, you have to give up the money. If you want the money, you have to hand over control of your life. I don’t think either choice is acceptable.

Image from The Legend of Zelda (1987).

 

Demand Shifts for IT Skills

So far, the year 2009 bodes both good and ill for IT professionals with Internet skills, at least from the perspective of Foote Partners LLC, a research firm specializing in IT salaries and skills compensation.

First, the good news: In general, IT skills remain in demand despite the recession. According to Foote’s recent research, culled in part from surveying a pool of 84,000 IT professionals in 1,960 companies in the U.S. and Canada, a majority of IT workers surveyed continue to get at least 7 percent of their pay for specific skills, such as networking, security, database management, or project management.

The bad news? Some specialized skills, including Web development, have suffered a reduction in demand.

David Foote, CEO of the eponymous firm, says demand has grown for IT skills related to project management, architecture, and security. According to data from a set of 22,550 respondents to Foote’s survey, IT security certifications grew nearly 6 percent over the last two years as a percentage of overall median pay.

But the same sample of respondents reported that skills related to Web development certifications dropped 36.8 percent as a percentage of median pay in the same timeframe.

Foote’s research in the area of non-certified IT skills reveals a similar trend: Over the last two years, respondents have reported that management, methodology, and process skills have grown as a percentage of IT staffers’ premium pay by nearly 21 percent. In contrast, Web and e-commerce development has grown just 3.5 percent as a non-certified skill.

What gives? Isn’t the Web the way forward for many IT pros?

David Foote says many firms, especially in healthcare, retail, finance, and education, hired an abundance of experts in specific kinds of online applications in recent years. Many of these were pilot projects, and when the going’s gotten tough, they have been cut mercilessly.

At the same time, Foote points out that demand has risen for IT skills involved in designing and overseeing an organizational move to automated processes in the data center. Ironically, being able to help design and implement technology that reduces headcount is more popular than swelling the IT ranks with specialized Web-related expertise.

Further, these kinds of skills will come in handy as industries consolidate: “With the anticipated escalation in recession-driven mergers and acquisitions creating an enormous amount of integration-related activity, IT architecture and project management expertise are [sic] in more demand than ever,” Foote writes in his report’s executive summary.

Another expert confirms the trend. “Enterprises today are more concerned with solving business problems than with employing the ‘latest technology,’ ” writes Tom Nolle, CEO of the CIMI Corp. consultancy, in an email. “If you go to the online forums for IT and networking, you find all kinds of questions that sound like, ‘Why can’t my management accept that my ideas need to be implemented even if I can’t prove any business value whatsoever?’ The executives look at this sort of thing and laugh. Project managers are typically very connected to the business justification and becoming ever more so, and technical types are fleeing justification more every day.”

Bottom line? IT is still hiring, and online applications are still important, but demand has shifted from specialized skills, including Web development, to architectural expertise.
Source:InternetEvolution Written by Mary Jander

 

Efectul fructului Amarula

Ca tot radeati de betivi care ii vedeti dimineata in drum spre locul de munca, sau acei betivi care va deranjeaza in mijloacele de transport in comun ar fii cazul sa vedeti acest videoclip.

In Mozambic exista un fruct de culoare galbena foarte aromatizat si placut la gust cunoscut sub numele de Amarula. Oamenii il folosesc la prepararea bauturilor alcoolice. Fructele pot fi mancate numai cand sunt foarte bine coapte. Compozitia lor contine cca 17% alcool, dar cand deja sunt prea coapte si cad singure din copac fermenteaza, iar continutul de alcool este si mai mare. Toate animalele din zona apropiata copacilor plini de amarule sunt ametite de la acoolul continut de fructe.
Sursa Text: http://www.swampblog.info/

 

Pentru toţi care îşi încălzesc mâncarea la Microwave

Textul e luat direct de pe Beyond Health.Com , nu am facut nici o modificare. Pot spune un singur lucru, eu deacum ma tem de Cuptorul cu Microunde:

Microwaved Food

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News

Microwaved Food

by Raymond Francis

More than 90% of homes in the US have a microwave oven. Builders routinely install these ovens in new homes and hardly a restaurant is without one. They are fast, convenient, economical, and ideally suited to the fast pace of modern lifestyles. There is only one problem with microwave ovens—they are extremely hazardous to your health. It is hard to conceive of any reasonable person who would eat microwaved foods if they understood the hazards. Obviously, very few people truly comprehend these hazards. And no one is rushing to educate them! Let’s have a look at some of the problems with this technology:

Microwaves, very short waves of electromagnetic energy, are just part of Mother Nature’s energy spectrum. This spectrum includes visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light along with radio waves, x-rays, and so forth. Microwaves are generated by the sun along with visible light and the other invisible parts of the spectrum. However, there is a big difference between what the sun generates and what is generated in a microwave oven. This difference is the result of the alternating current used to generate the oven microwaves.

 

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