Posts of the Week
|
Monitoring Net use at work Larry Abel - 08:32am Sep 18, 1997 PST (#2 of 8)
Aside from the liability that arises from porn on a company's network (which no responsible employee at any level of a corporation should tolerate), the real productivity issue is that same as it always has been: how much do I produce compared with how much do I consume. Bandwidth is a resource like any other, no different, really, than a person's office or telephone. We give employee's work spaces and telephones because they, presumably, make them more productive than they would be without them. We also give them breaks, lunch hours and company picnics for the same reason. Of course, managing an employee's output is much more difficult than managing their time. Managing time and not output has another great advantage for corporate bureaucrats in that it fits nicely into "policy". I would much rather have a highly productive employee who surfs ESPN than someone who sticks their nose to the grindstone all day and produces nothing. This, of course, requires that people be managed as individuals and not as interchangeable parts of a machine. But then, how would you write a "policy" for a management approach like that? Is novelty necessary in art today? Walter Koehler - 12:56pm Sep 18, 1997 PST (#17 of 19)
When I say there's nothing new left to do, I hope everyone realizes that I don't think all painters, composers, writers, etc., should go find another job. I meant from the point of view of "novelty" in the discussion title. It's possible that technology will provide new media for us, but I'm not so sure. Electronic music, for example, remains an off-mainstream genre. Computer-generated art can be very interesting, but it still just doesn't carry the weight, make the statement, that oil on canvas does. This isn't something I'm making up off the top of my head in an internet chat group, either. I think that Warhol and Lichtenstein painting soup cans and comic strips, for example, were saying, "Hey, there's nothing new left so we're just going to call 'art' whatever we want to, and we'll start with these blatantly 'unartistic' images just to make the point." Consider, too, that there is no single, generally accepted style of painting, composition, etc., as there was as recently as 1960. There is no longer an arc of 'progress.' Van Gogh must have known that he was pushing oil painting "beyond" Monet and Seurat. Schoenberg surely knew that he was moving music "out" past the envelope. You can't do that today. You can still create meaningful art/music/literature, certainly, obviously. Stork Spaces: Reserved Parking For Breeders Marney Theiler - 11:16pm Sep 18, 1997 PST (#23 of 24)
... As for this Mommy space stuff ... I have no problem with letting a pregnant woman ahead of me in the Ladies Room ... dear Old Mother taught me that from the get-go ... however for those of you that chose to have Children, I think that's just Grand, but I do not think that bestows any special privilege on you and I do not think the rest of us should be beset by howling children(don't care if they're wet, hungry, or just plain cranky) it is also my world to enjoy and it's Noise Pollution(PC) and children belong at home until they are disciplined enough to join the rest of us . . . we, who are childless, do the same old bump and grind to put beans on the table and survive the Universe and its headaches . . . and if there is one element missing in today's world, . . it has to be concept of Peace . . . and when Junior decides he wants to throw a hissy fit or toss his pabulum pudding on the floor, I'd just rather he did it somewhere I am not . . . if nothing else, from an age standpoint-- RHIP (am now going to hide under my desk) |
Salon front page | Posts of the Week Issue No. 81 | 80 | 79 | 78 | 77