I'm a Martini!
So my Monday personality test is a little late this week, but I think it was worth the wait. And if you are what you drink, this test is spot on. I am going to be enjoying one of these shortly, so everyone have a good weekend and see you Monday.

Congratulations!! You're a smart sophisticated and
beautiful martini!!


What Drink Are You?

Hat Tip: The Cranky Professor


posted by Director_Mitch @ 3:47 PM (Permalink)
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Job Advice from a Window Manager
Maybe because I am a "director", maybe because I have the office next to the Big Guy in the corner suite, but I have had a small flow of cube dwellers coming by my office to get career advice lately (and I use the term "cube dweller" non-disparangingly since I was one myself for many years).

So what does a Window Manager have to say? Let's take a look at two of my young mentees:

"Lisa" works in accounts receivable and collections. She is bright, articulate and in her mid 20s. She started working straight out of high school in the warehouse of a major electronics distribution company and over the course of seven years worked her way onto the accounting staff before being laid off during the tech downturn. At that time she was making around $40K. We found her and wanted to bring her on, but had a budget of only $30K. Since the hiring manager knew her and really wanted her, we settled on $35K.

Lisa is ambitious and I think has the talent and skills to move further up the ladder in finance and accounting. I heard about an entry-level financial analyst position opening up at a near-by company that paid about $50K and I had a contact fairly high-up in the finance department. I helped her target her resume and sent it to my colleague along with a verbal recommendation.

Lisa isn't even being considered for the position for the main reason I feared: she doesn't have a college degree.

Even though she has more real-world financial experience than any kid coming out of college or even business school, she can't get a break. The main problem is the hiring manager has both a degree and an MBA and feels that anyone she hires for the position should at least have the same background.

Unless Lisa goes out and starts her own company, she is going to have to finish that degree if she wants to work her way up the ladder in a large corporate organization. It may not be fair, but that's just the way it works in the U.S. these days. She is working on her degree part time and I am encouraging her to get it done ASAP.

"Elliott" is a first tier manager overseeing an inside sales staff of three people. He came by my office to ask my advice about getting an MBA in order to move ahead.

Elliott is in his late 20s, makes about $50K, has a wife and kid, and is saving up for a down payment on a home in insanely expensive Southern California. A full-time MBA would take two years, take away from that nest egg he is building, and likely saddle him with school loans. Going part time while working at his present position isn't an option (just the way this particular company is).

We talked for a while. I told him I truly enjoyed working on my MBA since I liked the subject matter so much. However, I didn't learn anything in business school that I couldn't learn eventually in the normal course of business. I do think it changed how I think about business and basically gave me in a short time the experiences that would have taken over a decade.

Despite his present situation, we came to the conclusion that an MBA is probably the right choice as a long term investment, assuming he doesn't want to start his own business. An MBA opens more doors and puts you on a different plane when competing for jobs and promotions. For example, the position I now have would only consider MBAs during the interview process. In a similar sort of situation as Lisa above, just having experience wouldn't get you into the door. And while I may be a "window manager", I am highly compensated and have other "perques". And it certainly beats unemployment or slogging away at some mundane job at a much lower salary.

Since Elliott wants to stay with large corporate organizations, the MBA should definitely be a part of his career plan. I encouraged him, however, to look into executive and part-time programs if possible and work while getting his degree in order to help with the financial side of things (which is what I did - an "MBA" is all that matters and I have personally found that whether you go full time or the executive route doesn't matter).


posted by Director_Mitch @ 12:12 PM (Permalink)
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GDP Historical Chart
I decided to put yesterday's announcement of GDP growth in perspective, so I created a chart to show some major political events mapped against our economy:




posted by Director_Mitch @ 8:19 AM (Permalink)
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Raising Taxes, Wasting Money for "Education"
The California Insider posts that "Rob Reiner and the California Teachers Association are preparing to file a ballot measure for November, 2004 that would increase commercial property taxes by 55 percent and dedicate the money -- $4.5 billion annually -- to expanded pre-school and K-12 education."

"For education" is used almost as much as "for the children" as an excuse to raise taxes. After all, spending more money on education will make our kids smarter, right?

Wrong.

Study after study after study has shown that more money doesn't improve education. Here's a graph from the Heritage Foundation showing the real (inflation adjusted) spending on education and test scores.





You will see (and the graph is somewhat small) that scores (straight lines) are practically unchanged despite a nearly constant increase in spending (yellow area). Similar graphs posted in this month's issue of Forbes (not yet on-line) show the same thing. A great article I found by Cal Thomas lists all sorts of facts and figures showing the continuing increase of government spending in education and absolutely nothing to show in terms of better education or test scores.

A comment I read recently - I thought by Thomas Sowell but I can't find it - stated that education is not something you can buy by the truck load and dump on the curb of the nearest school to improve children's education. Education has to be sought. It has to be a goal, a priority, driven into students by their parents and the community. We often hear stories of children that show up in this country from some distant land with no understanding of English, then winning spelling bees and other academic achievements in just a few years. This isn't because more money was spent on them, but because they had a drive to learn and excel.

It will be interesting to see how this money grab plays to voters. It is aiming at "education" and it is targeting "evil" businesses who have pocket-fulls of money, so there is a real chance that our uneducated voters will vote to spend more money on our uneducated students.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 11:58 AM (Permalink)
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Wow, Technology that Can Tell My Sex
Instapundit has a link to the Gender Genie, where you enter text - like a blog entry - and it tells you your sex (because I was sort of wondering...).

The little econo-slam entry below got a male score of 238 versus a female score of 58, so not even close (maybe I was being too snide and not "feeling" enough?).

The software says it works better on longer entries, so I put in the automotive entry two posts below. Again, my testosterone trumps my feminine side by nearly double with a Male Score of 1352 vs Female Score of 743.

Just another fun time waster like Iraqi Blackjack, which I found over at the Noble Pundit.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 8:50 AM (Permalink)
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I'm Sorry, You Were Saying the Tax Cuts Were Hurting the Economy?
This has gotta hurt Al Frankin and his ilk:

GDP Jumps 7.2 Percent, Biggest Increase in Nearly 20 Years

Hopefully we can stop hearing from Dean, Gephardt and the others how this is the worst economy since the Great Depression. I was getting a little tired of the rhetoric when contradicting data is all around.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 8:15 AM (Permalink)
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The Electronic Car
I don't mean electric car, one that runs on something besides gasoline - I mean electronic car, one that has it's mechanical systems replaced with electronic ones. A posting at Outside the Beltway got me thinking about the automobile and how it's changing from a hydraulic-mechanical device into an almost purely electronic device. This change is being forced by a variety of factors:

1. Economic - Even the casual observer will notice how electronics pricing has plummeted over the past 10 years. While most people observe that this change has resulted in cheaper and more powerful PCs and consumer electronics, many people miss out on the point that it also means that electrical systems can be used economically in areas where they have never been used before - such as mechanical systems.

2. Safety - Automobile fatalities are one of the leading causes of death in developed countries and a combination of consumer demand and government regulation have driven automobile manufacturers to develop new safety systems for cars. Invariably, these systems are electronic control systems that monitor and provide feedback to the driver or over the car itself. Examples include anti-lock brake systems (ABS) which need a microcontroller, air bags which need an accelerometer and microcontroller and Tire Pressure Controllers (TPS) which use sensors and potentially a wireless communication system.

3. Consumer Demand - Consumers want their cars to be easy to control, easy to operate, comfortable and entertaining. These demands have driven manufacturers to add a variety of systems to automobiles that actually have no direct effect on the car's driving - keyless entry systems, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and power windows, just to name a few.

While there are several ways to segment these electronic systems, I have put them into the following four groups:

Infotainment - Entertainment and information systems for the driver. These include the mundane, such as the ubiquitous radio, but also include new systems such as "Telematics", of which OnStar is the currently the most popular system. Examples: Audio Deck, Satellite Radio (XM Radio, e.g.), GPS, Telematic Systems, in-car Video (including rear-seat entertainment), Networked Car (wireless links for everything from your cellphone output to your car speaker to internet connectivity)

Powertrain - refers to the system in a car that controls the actual movement of the vehicle, including engine management. Historically, these systems have been hydraulic or mechanical, but with the introduction of fuel injection engines and the need for exhaust control, electronics made their debut in the powertrain and over time have increased their presence: Examples: Engine Control Unit (ECU), Adaptive Cruise Control, Power Steering

Control & Comfort - Dashboard Cluster, Heads Up Display, Remote Keyless Entry, Climate Control, Power Seats & Windows

Safety - Anti-lock Brakes, Traction Control, Airbags, Electronic Brakes, Tire Pressure Controllers

These are all systems that are in cars today and don't include a large number of systems in test-cars or on the drawing board such as collision avoidance systems, drive-by-wire, and other innovations which will increase the electronic content even further.

These systems are adding to a steady increase in the amount of electronics in the average automobile, despite the fact that electronics are getting cheaper:



So, what does this all mean?

o For the average consumer, it just means that your car will just become pretty darn nice, very safe, and much easier to control.

o The replacement of mechanical systems with electrical systems makes the car lighter, thus improving gas mileage.

o While more gas efficient, all these new systems require additional power that will not be manageable with the existing 12/14V battery system. According to Gartner, current 12/14V alternators can deliver up to 2 kilowatts of peak power, with the battery lending an additional 4 kilowatts peak power. A loaded, upscale vehicle could require as much as 12 kilowatts, and by 2010 this number could reach 20 kilowatts, fueling the need for higher voltages. Several manufacturers are exploring new battery and power systems for new cars which are likely to start hitting the street by the end of the decade.

o I would argue that as the average car becomes more electronic, that transitioning from the internal combustion engines to Hybrid Electrical Vehicles (HEV) or to full Electric Vehicles becomes easier from a design and manufacturing standpoint, and in consumer acceptance. The main issue in this area, however, will continue to be infrastructure.

o From a business standpoint, it means that those companies that are providing hydraulic and electrical systems need to diversify into electronics as soon as possible (this is not an issue with the vast majority of the "Tier 1" suppliers in this industry). In addition, it provides an opening for electronics providers who do not serve this market to get into one of the last, large manufacturing segments left in North America.

It should be remembered that the automotive industry is one of the largest industries in North America, contributing over 3% to the U.S. $10 Trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and U.S. automakers collectively purchase nearly $120 billion of goods and services. Both domestic and foreign manufacturers have set up manufacturing or subassembly sites in nearly every state, and unlike other industries, U.S. domestic production is not going overseas. In fact, production in the U.S. is expected to increase by over a million units within the next five years to 17 million units. However, the U.S. percentage of worldwide production will decline somewhat, dropping from 29% in 2002 to 27% by 2007.

If possible, manufacturers should try to participate in this market, but certain structural changes taking place in the automotive supply chain are making this difficult, which I will go into more detail on a future posting.


posted by Director_Mitch @ 3:52 PM (Permalink)
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Adding New Links
One of the areas I have been remiss is adding links. I have added The Noble Pundit, who hosted this week's Carnival of the Capitalists, seems like a nice guy, and seems to have more posts on economics and business, which was one of my original goals for this blog (I seem to be posting more on politics lately). I have also added Pejmanesque, who always has posts that I wish I had come up with. I plan on adding Balloon Juice, but his site is currently down.

These links are the same as "My Favorites" function in Explorer since I come to my own home page to launch my daily blog reading. Generally speaking I prefer to read blogs that are right-of-center and have comment sections since a good comment discussion can be more fun than actually doing your own posts.

I at one time read left-wing sites, but they just got me foaming at the mouth so I stopped as a matter of mental health. Getting into flame wars in the comments section of Calpundit just isn't worth the time and effort (try arguing with someone whose idea of discussion is "Bush is Hitler").

I am trying to figure out how to join the illusive Bear Flag League. I usually read a handful of these after linking to Slings and Arrows. I am in California and right of center, but no one posts how to join this thing or how to get invited.

Also note I am working on improving my site layout, including the link section - which is one area where Blogger lacks a bit.

Update: I have also added Another Rice Grad, who is a fellow Blogger for Bush

posted by Director_Mitch @ 12:07 PM (Permalink)
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Clueless Idiots and Their Bankrupt Ideas
Liberals just aren't getting it:

Democrats Open New Liberal Think Tank

The problem isn't that they "aren't getting their ideas out there", the problem is that their ideas are bankrupt. Americans aren't undertaxed, the government overspends. Terrorists don't want to kill us because of our foreign policy, they want to kill us because we're infidels. The solution to any problem isn't to get the government involved, it's to give people the tools to solve the problem themsevles.

It seems that the more unpopular liberal ideas get, the more desperate they become since they believe the problem isn't the ideas themselves, it's just "marketing". So we get Algore starting a "liberal TV network". We get new liberal think-tanks. We get musings about a "liberal Rush".

It sounds like it will take another few election losses before they get it, but some of them never will.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 9:39 AM (Permalink)
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Political Reality or Taking Away a Democratic Bludgeon?
This fell off the major news' lead stories pretty quickly, but is still linked on Drudge:

President Bush said on Tuesday the United States is not ready for a total abortion ban

Wherever you stand on the matter, this is the political truth and a great move by GW. The anti-abortion crowd just got the partial-abortion ban, their first piece of legislation in years, so they're happy and will head to the polls. The shrill pro-choice crowd wouldn't ever dream of voting for Bush, so there's no reason to even think about them.

This comment is for the vast majority of Americans who are in the middle - who think abortions should generally be available, if regulated (no partial birth, parental notification, etc.). It takes an issue out of the hands of democrats and allows those people who vote on only this issue (and I have known a few) to move past it.

Think there will be any response to this by any of the democratic candidates?



posted by Director_Mitch @ 5:43 PM (Permalink)
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If You Thought California is Smoke Free - It Isn't
My house is directly under one of those smoke plumes. Again, I am counting my blessings that this is all I am having to deal with since there are those who are losing everything - even their lives.


Photo courtesy Fox News.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 10:47 AM (Permalink)
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Carnival of the Capitalists
I am happy to report that my posting on the Economy below made the Carnival of the Capitalists, a collection of economics- and business-related blog posts.

For those who don't want to scroll down, here is the direct link to that post.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 5:02 PM (Permalink)
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Choking on Smoke and Ash
For those of us in SoCal who aren't in direct line of the fires, there is one thing we are having to deal with: smoke and ash "fallout" from the fires. I'm not complaining too much - check the link at right to Slings and Arrows to find someone almost directly in line of one of the fires - so I should be counting my blessings.

The smoke was so bad in Orange County this weekend that I thought it was foggy when I woke up. In addition, anything left outside more than a few minutes gets covered with a layer of ash. Those who don't have covered parking see quite a build-up of ash overnight. I kept my two-year-old inside as much as I could this weekend since who knows what it does to young lungs.

Which brings me to my point: when will we hear from the environmentalists? They insist on passage of insane laws to take miniscule amounts of pollutants out of the air, but then actually block efforts for forest management to prevent fires, when these same fires spread more pollution than decades of man-made pollution. Of course these same people purposely set fires in San Diego recently to burn down new homes, so it's not like these people have any logic in their thinking.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 12:09 PM (Permalink)
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