According to this list the United States Government’s 60% stake in General Motors, a public corporation, would make it the 36th largest public corporation in the world. So, when is the U.S. government going to be put up on the stock market?

There has been a lot of news recently about athletes using performance enhancers. And for each new case the flurries of condemnation and disgust are echoed constantly in the news. But it seems that echoes is all they are because they can very quickly fade away.

When the vast use of performance enhancers in sports broke light people were shocked and appalled at the decisions the players had made. Shocked that they would take something that would almost guarantee success and wealth. Shocked those players would sacrifice their integrity for money, players that argue for more money when they already make millions per year?

But why are we so against performance enhancers? Most people would say because its cheating, it gives some players an advantage over others. Do we really think that most people in our society wouldn’t take a drug if it would almost certainly guarantee that promotion, that job, or the recognition we have always wanted? What is going to happen when this “miracle drug” is created? College students have already figured it out.

So do we fight them or embrace them? Fight and create task forces and institute drug testing for everything, or simply count on the integrity of individuals not to cheat, not to be greedy? Or do we embrace them, and view it as the evolution of biological technology? I don’t know what we should do, but I do know that what we are doing now is not working.

“The general tendency is to over-design the second system, using all the ideas and frills that were cautiously sidetracked on the first one.” -Frederick Brooks

I feel like this is an awful tendency that I’ve seen that when you learn something that you have a burning desire to use it, whether it is the right time to use it or not. This is from The Mythical Man Month that I recently finished reading. Brooks is specifically talking about computer systems from the 1960’s, but I feel like it extends far beyond computer system design and into a number of other areas. I think that the easiest way to avoid this is to make a log of some sort to store the ideas, and then also to make a clear set of goals that will not change for the project, and then not to include anything that is beyond the scope of the original goals. Don’t forget, there will always be another project that you can use the you new-found knowledge on.

In May of this year I graduated from Clemson Univsersity with a degree in Computer Science and moved to charlotte, NC to work for as a Web Developer for a large financial company. I have been with the company for about 3 months now and I am just starting to slow down and take a look around at what I’ve gotten myself into. It’s been a really weird time for me transitioning in life from being on a school schedule to a working schedule.

I’m someone who has an almost odd sense of enjoyment in seeing a schedule and knowing what is going to happen in the future and being able to look forward and countdown to future events. When I was young time passed in years, as I moved from one grade to the next, then in college it started to move as the semesters changed twice a year.

Now the only really notable way for me to look at time is weekly. Each week I work 5 days, and then I get two days off of work, then it starts over, again and again and again. There’s no longer winter or summer vacation to look forward to, no end in sight. There’s no semester starting where I get to start over and hope that I can keep up with my school work and do well in the next set of classes. Nope, its all changed, and its just now sinking in. So now that I’m here and the time is passing by even faster than before, I’m wondering where I’m going, and how I’m going to get there. It’s just too bad I can’t find a road map for this journey.