[way way OT] Re: BYU CS Department Opening

[Bryan Sant]

On 3/17/06, Michael L Torrie <torriem at chem.byu.edu> wrote:
> That's not the point.  An employee should always fairly compensate his
> employer by putting in honest work for the money paid him.  Similarly,
> an employee who is in charge of spending his employers money should
> spend it with respect, responsibility, and honesty regardless of where
> that money comes from.  If an employee treats money differently
> depending on whether or not such money is sacred, there is a problem.
> So my point in that working for the church, or working with sacred or
> un-sacred money should not have any discernible difference on a person's
> responsibility or integrity.  That is how I operate.  All of my budget
> money is "sacred" just as a matter of principle.

I see what you're saying and I agree.  You're a man of integrity no matter what.

> Sure that sounds great.  But we have to approach this issue (of using
> OSS to save money) from a business standpoint.  All of the costs (not
> just money) have to be considered.  For example, in theory we can also
> save money by providing all church units and BYU needs with cheap white-
> box computers with built-in RAID1 for 1/3 the cost of Dell.  But would
> we save money?  I don't think so.

True again.  You can't just take free software and throw it on an
ignorant user-base and expect them to be as productive as they used to
be.  You would loose money in the short term (and MS would argue that
you would loose money -- TCO -- in the long term too).  Your example
of desktop hardware is true  In the case of desktop software I think
that's mostly true.  In the case of server software, however, that's
not true at all.

> I deal just fine with my little corner of BYU.  People I work with are
> largely responsible and are good managers of people, money, and
> resources.  I like working for BYU.  I like the overall environment (no
> serious health hazards, etc...).  I like the ability to discuss general
> conference if I wanted to.

That's great.  I appreciate the same benefit.

> If there is a take-away message for a potential CS CSR from this off-
> topic exchange it is that a job is a job and what you get out of it and
> what you put into it should not be influenced by the fact that it is
> "working for the church."  Your bosses are not (at BYU) necessarily
> kneeling in prayer for every decision.  They are not super-human or walk
> 6-inches off the ground.  They are just normal business managers who
> pretty much run the place like any other business. Most of them are not
> nearly as knowledgeable or as perfect as they should be (neither are
> you).  But here and there you find some really good people and lots of
> cool things get done.  The same goes for every place you will ever work
> at.

Agreed.

-Bryan