Be Careful What You Ask For

We're doing a bowling event at work and we were asked to come up with team names. We're the only IT team from the pipeline going bowling. Anybody who knows me knows that this isn't the kind of question you ask me without invoking the law of unintended consequences. Here's the list I sent my team capatain:

Possible Team Names:


"Nerd Revenge"
"Kings of IT"
"Coders of Doom"
"PC Bandits"
"Ghosts of Gateway" (Gateway Project, i.e. Exchange, the system I support that's being replaced by outsourcing...)
"Mice and Men"
"Outsourcers of Victory"
"Keyboard Strikers"
"Perfect 3.00E+2"
"Indoctrination Technology"
"Raiders of the Lost Awk"
"XP-Men"
"Windows 300"
"Palace Unix" (think eunuchs...)
"Chips 4 Crips" (think gangs and circuts...)
"Bytes of Blood" (gang theme again...)
"IT's Just a Game"
"Code Chargers"
"SLA Dodgers"
"Billable Horrors" (spellcheck doesn't always save the day)
"Controllers of Time" (or is that time control, our hour-entry system?)
"MicroMagic"
".BOWL" (there's a dot in front of it)
"Connecting Pins" (for those of you who used to solder)
"Thugs of Initech" (ever see "Office Space"?)
"Bad Mondays" (Office Space again)
"One Microsoft Lane" (it's "Way", but not when we're bowling)
"Data Basemen" (baseball theme for the DBAs on our team)
"Nevershorts" (we can't wear shorts here, not ever)
"Friday Genies" (pun on Jeans day)
"What the FERC?" (we're regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
"Gas Passers" (we're a gas pipeline)

posted by Arley at 3:03 PM

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Check out the wakeup song for Spirit Sol 84.
posted by Arley at 11:19 AM

Mergers and Acquisitions

The war in Israel and America has merged into one.
posted by Arley at 6:23 PM

Carl the Critic

Who would have ever suspected that under that hard shell lies a warm and fuzzy sentimentalist?
posted by Arley at 6:08 PM

Inquiry

Was Blade Runner typical? Was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep typical? Was anything Philip K. Dick wrote typical? What about Stanislaw Lem?

Is there nothing new under the sun, or is technology alone without precedent, and thus Science Fiction the only innovative genre? Or can a retelling of the same old song be new every morning?
posted by Arley at 10:34 PM

Boring at Times

A review of John A. Burns; is this to be my ephithet?

JEnna's Review, May 7, 2000

Reviewer: jenna from United States of America

It was a good book, though boring at times.

posted by Arley at 3:15 PM

BMC Killer

All software companies exist at the pleasure of Microsoft. It looks like BMC will not be one of those to exist much longer. It is always possible that government action will prevent the encroachment of monopoly, but it's unlikely for now.
posted by Arley at 5:38 PM

I'm a New Media Professional

Which Survivor of the Impending Nuclear Apocalypse Are You?
A Rum and Monkey joint.
posted by Arley at 10:08 PM

SXSW and Blogger

I won't be in town, but perhaps you will be in Austin and you're looking for some action.
posted by Arley at 10:07 AM

19th Century SCO

It appears that SCO copied their "barratry of an industry" approach, not just from Rambus, but perhaps also from Selden.
posted by Arley at 10:05 AM

The Corporation

If the corporation is a psychopath, can it be cured?

Anyone seen this yet? Skipping over the Chomsky and Moore interviews, especially Moore who has about zero reason to be in the film besides star-power, it may be a decent film. Check out the clips online or read the book.

It's hard to disagree with the physchological analysis. Corporations definitely have a personality disorder. Having worked on both sides of the fence, executive and employee, I think I know why.

The corporate structure is, at its heart, an embodiment of the abstract concept of limited liability. The idea that I'm not fully liable for my behavior. The approach to work that "it's just a job", and whatever we do short of actual crime, we can always go back behind the corporate veil and absolve ourselves of responsibility.

Corporations are the investor's answer to the liability questions of the 20th century tort revolution. In the early 20th century, the advent of railroads and factories across America led to the abolition of previous limited liability for business operators. These negligence and strict liability actions held businessmen responsible for things they had never been responsible for before. It was now highly dangerous to keep the old partnership form of business with its owner-operator and patronizing mentality. As legislatures lifted the previously heavy restrictions on incorporation, the limited-liability structure of the company became an increasingly tempting way to organize business.

With a corporation, you're never quite fully responsible for your actions. The shareholders point to the board. The board points to the CEO. The CEO points to the VPs. The VPs point to the managers. The managers point to the employees. The employees go home and have a drink. At every step, whether through the shareholder/board investor liability limitation, the board/CEO fiduciary duty limitation, the CEO/VP delegatory fiduciary limitation, the VP/manager detailed event limitation, the manager/employee master-servant liability limitation, or the powerless compliant employee limitation, in every way it's a limited responsibility for all involved.

The only solution I can see to the corporate malfunction is to abort the experiment. Revoke all corporate charters - the state has a perfect legal right to do so. Let them reorganize into partnerships. Split existing investments into general and limited interests. General partnership interests have unlimited potential for gain and management control but expose you to unlimited liability, although you can always buy insurance. Limited partnership interests have unlimited potential for gain and limited liability but without management control. As is often said, you can't have your cake and eat it to.

The crux of the problem is dividing control from liability. If you control, either as a manager or voting investor, you should be liable. If you don't control, either because you're not a manger or don't have a voting interest, you should not be liable.

Some investors may cringe at the idea of being liable. What most people don't realize is that they're already liable. In fact, each of us personally has unlimited liability for our actions. If I walk down the street and don't look where I'm going and knock over a ladder that causes a worker to fall and become injured, there's no reason I can't be sued for $500,000,000 dollars and be forced to pay this amount. Unlimited liability is a part of life. Investors that want management control should get used to it.
posted by Arley at 9:52 AM