Distribution may refer to:

Mathematics / Physics

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• Distribution (mathematics), for generalized functions
• Probability distribution
• Frequency distribution
• Distribution function, in physics describes the number of particles per unit volume in phase space.
• Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
• Distribution (differential geometry), a subbundle of a vector bundle defining the integrability conditions of a set of differential equations.
• Distributed parameter systems, systems that have an infinite-dimensional state-space.

Computer science

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• Distributed computing
• Software distribution
  • Linux distribution

Distributor/Distribution

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The term distributor has several uses:

• for the ignition system of an internal combustion engine, see distributor;
• for the distribution of film, see film distributor;
• for the distribution of records, see record distributor;
• for the distribution of products and services in business, see distribution (business)
• Electricity distribution, in electrical engineering
• for the notion of category theory, see profunctor.

More on [ Distribution ]

NYT > Job Market

Under New Management: Life After a Merger: Learning on Both Sides
KELLEY HOLLAND Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:11:03 -0400
Managers should act promptly (and creatively) to keep the best people after a deal.
Home Front: Training for the Twists of Driving a School Bus
JOSEPH P. FRIED Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:25:36 -0400
A program in Brooklyn helps low-income or unemployed New York City residents become bus or truck drivers.
The Boss: When Focus Leads the Way
As told to PATRICIA R. OLSEN Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:13:22 -0400
“New Orleans defines who I am,” said Arnold Donald, chief executive of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.

Portfolio.com: Careers

Stuck in the Middle
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
A powerful woman in my company has indicated to me that she'd like to be my mentor, which is obviously great. Problem is, she doesn't get along well with my boss and my boss's boss, and if I agree to be her protégé, I might alienate them. What should I do?You need to figure out how much juice this potential mentor has at your company relative to your boss and boss's boss, and choose sides accordingly. That means doing some research on this person and evaluating how other protégés of hers have fared at your company, as well as the particular role this potential mentor plays in your office and industry, and how valuable it is. In addition, you should talk (discreetly, of course) to as many people as you can in the company—other people she's mentored, people who have worked for her and with her, etc.—to find out how strong she is and how good an ally she'd be. displayPromoModule ('{"moduleType":{"value" : "featuresModule", "index" : "1"},"mediaType1":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType2":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType3":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType4":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"url1":"/careers/features/2008/09/30/Colleagues-Who-Act-Like-the-Boss","url2":"/careers/features/2008/09/23/Tips-for-a-New-Boss","url3":"/careers/features/2008/09/16/Going-Over-Your-Bosss-Head","url4":"","teaser1":"How to deal with a colleague who treats you as a subordinate even though you're peers.","teaser2":"How to get ex-colleagues to follow you after you've been promoted above them. ","teaser3":"How to blow the whistle on an underperforming boss. ","teaser4":"","headline1":"Peer Pressure","headline2":"Showing Them Who's Boss","headline3":"End Run","headline4":"","title":"More Power Plays" }'); If you decide to align with her, you need to figure out what to do if your current situation gets difficult once it becomes known that you've allied with her. I once had a client in a similar situation who chose to tie up with a new mentor. Things became sticky when her boss realized what she had done, and my client met with her new mentor to figure out a solution. The mentor maneuvered to get my client onto a high-profile task force on which other, more powerful people within the company served, and her successful work there gave her leverage with people who had more influence than her boss. Eventually my client was promoted, and she's now running a fairly large staff in a position at the forefront of her company's future strategy.Turning down a potential mentor obviously has some risks as well, though. I'd recommend a straightforward approach, telling her that there's simply some goals you have at the company that don't fit with her being your mentor. You could try to play both sides and maintain your relationships with both your boss and this mentor, but eventually there would come a pinch when you're asked to do something by one of them that's at odds with the other. And to my mind, it's better to deal with that tension sooner rather than later, when the anger or disappointment might be greater.  Dr. Ron Brown is a leading expert in the fields of leadership development and organizational change. He is the founder and president of Banks Brown, a management consulting firm that specializes in providing skills to optimize the performance of leaders and organizations. He can be reached at rbrown@banksbrown.com or 415-788-5444. Questions for Power Plays can be submitted on this page.Related LinksEnd RunHome Sweet OfficePeer Pressure
Getting the Last Laugh
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:00:00 -0000
Job Title: Comedian Employers: Comedy clubs, TV and film production companies Openings: Open mic or amateur nights at local clubs Salary Cap: Sky's the limit; Will Ferrell makes $40 million a year Number of Jobs: Thousands As the saying goes, comedy isn't pretty. Bobby Lee can attest to that as he peels off layers of latex prosthetics and makeup, the uncomfortable remnants of a just-completed sketch. He's stripped to the waist, his diminutive frame covered in adhesive and flecks of foam rubber, and he pants in the late-afternoon sun. But even under circumstances like this, Lee says being a comedian is "the best job I've ever had." A standup comic and one of the stars of Fox's late-night comedy series, Mad TV, Lee is taking a breather outside the show's Hollywood soundstages after playing John McCain as a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance. (In the sketch, Lee's McCain does a dusty waltz with his wife Cindy, and then proudly notes how he "got jiggy with it.") Although the Korean-American Lee has made a name for himself with his repertoire of memorable Asian characters—such as the Blind Kung-Fu Master, who doesn't notice his black belt is actually white and a scenery-chewing North Korean scientist who mugs his way through his 15 minutes of fame in a propaganda film—he's particularly proud that he was tapped to portray the Republican presidential candidate. "It didn't matter that I was a different race," notes Lee. "Funny is funny." Lee, who grew up outside San Diego, broke into showbiz in 1995 when the coffee shop where he was working went out of business. "I literally went next door to get a job," he recalls, "and next door was the Comedy Store." After washing dishes and doing odd chores there for $25 a shift, Lee was invited by the club's manager to go onstage during an open mic night. Soon he was doing three nights a week as a regular, and when Pauly Shore saw his act, he asked Lee to open for him in Las Vegas. "It all happened really fast," Lee says. Lee joined Shore and other comedians on the road (including Andrew Dice Clay), and though the experience was valuable, the payoff wasn't. While sometimes he'd get paid several hundred dollars a week, other times there'd be months without any gigs. "That's what comedy is," says Lee. "For the first eight or so years, you're pretty much doing it for free." After moving to L.A. and surviving on commercial work for a few years, Lee leveraged a personal connection to get an audition for Mad TV. He impressed producers and joined the show in 2001, but spent most of his first two seasons riding the bench. "I was Asian, and they just didn't know what to do with me," says Lee. He persevered however, and managed to get some routines on the air—just as a certain internet phenomenon was taking hold. "YouTube saved my career," says Lee. Mad TV's sketch-comedy format proved to be perfect fodder for the video-sharing site, and Lee's racially themed bits, which showcased his manic, un-P.C. style, were especially popular. A parody of Memoirs of a Geisha starring a cross-dressing Lee garnered more than 3.5 million views. "Overnight, people started recognizing me." Lee is now a headliner, in demand at comedy clubs and college campuses around the country. These days he can clear a couple of thousand dollars for a single show, and he recently shot a pilot for Comedy Central. He's also looking to delve into features, and snagged a small role in the recent Pineapple Express. "It'll happen," he says confidently about a potential movie career. "And if it doesn't, it doesn't. But I'm not going to quit. If there's one thing you learn from being in comedy, it's that you can't give up. Ever."Related LinksThe Rebel King of Comedy Sundance in the CityLeap of Faith
Drop and Earn Me 20
Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In companies both of the profit-making and military variety, a diverse group of strangers must come together for a shared purpose, overcome personal obstacles, and learn to work together efficiently. What keeps them in line? Strategies and leaders. So it is that the ultimate symbol of armed forces' leadership—the feared drill sergeant—possesses wisdom that applies to the office as readily as the barracks. Today's drill sergeants are a far cry from Lee Ermey's sadist in Full Metal Jacket and Lou Gossett Jr.'s bullying gunnery sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman. In place of indiscriminate barking and ruthless punishment is a meticulously calibrated system for transforming untrained men and women into the most disciplined employees around. Jeremy Gorelick, a drill sergeant in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, from 1998 to 2001 and now the master sergeant running the Army's drill sergeant program, says the management demands of the civilian workplace are little different from those of the military. "Drill sergeants have an exceptional way of getting messages through, and that can have applications in a lot of civilian contexts," Gorelick says. "You motivate thousands of solders, from all walks of life. After nine weeks, you've graduated all types of people from a very difficult program. That's an extremely successful program." displayPromoModule ('{"moduleType":{"value" : "featuresModule", "index" : "1"},"mediaType1":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType2":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType3":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType4":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"url1":"/careers/features/2008/09/18/Bomb-Squad-Talks-Crisis-Management","url2":"/careers/features/2008/09/08/Sales-Advice-From-a-Pickup-Artist","url3":"/careers/features/2008/09/30/Colleagues-Who-Act-Like-the-Boss","url4":"","teaser1":"Bomb defuser Kevin Barry has lessons for today's managers about managing a crisis.","teaser2":"Professional pickup artist Mystery says playing hard to get works in business, too.","teaser3":"How to deal with a colleague who treats you as a subordinate even though you're peers.","teaser4":"","headline1":"Bombs Away","headline2":"Seduce to Produce","headline3":"Peer Pressure","headline4":"","title":"Also in Careers" }'); At work and in a training camp, a leader's chief duty is to convince his or her team to buy into a complex and demanding organizational ethos—and to guide those special cases who present particular challenges. One effective approach involves "the loyalty factor," as Gorelick puts it: Instilling new recruits with a sense of fealty to their superior and the organization. How? By setting up the drill sergeant as a father figure whose approval is highly coveted. "It goes back to Psych 101. You want to see your boss smile," he says. By carefully parceling out these moments of approval, however, the sergeant imbues them with far more value and power than if they came easily. Gini Graham Scott, an expert on employee management who's written several books on the topic, says that utilizing drill sergeant techniques can be effective in an office, particularly with lower-level or newer employees. "[These employees] tend to respond well to having more structure and discipline, something that a drill sergeant might be particularly good at instilling," Scott says. "This approach could give them more of a sense of direction and guidance. Otherwise someone could flounder, or not really know how to prioritize. The drill sergeant could give a concrete pattern of how to behave at work." Gorelick also emphasizes the importance of establishing one's authority early and decisively. "They have to understand who's in charge from the beginning [so] we're the loudest voice they're hearing," Gorelick says. "You're not there to be their friend." Scott agrees: "You have to have distance between you and your employees. You need a level of authority that doesn't come with being a pal." But at some point, you can put them "at ease." Gorelick says that the closer the group gets to its goal, the more the leader can smile and relax. "You become human, show them you can be a good guy," Gorelick says. "They'll want to keep that [good] guy around—and they know by now that you can go back to being a [tough guy] at any point. If you start the other way around, as their friend, you'll never recover." Contrary to popular conceptions of army drill sergeants, Gorelick is quick to emphasize the importance of positive reinforcement. More personal time for a job well done, more phone time talking to family members, even an extra piece of cake after dinner out in the bivouac are small but vital gestures, he explains. For the business world, this might mean rewards like celebratory meals or some extra time off, sprinkled in with a tough enforcement of standards. "We've found that just ordering pushups all the time isn't enough," says Gorelick. "We've come away from that 'smoking them' atmosphere a bit, over the years. Now if discipline is required, we always tie it to a specific lesson and make them understand that every action has an effect." For workplace managers, this means criticizing or calling out workers for specific mistakes they've made, but not holding it against them generally if their overall performance is strong. In the end, Gorelick explains, the ultimate sign of successful personnel management in both the corporate and military trenches is one's own redundancy. "At first, they view your discipline as punishment. Eventually, they see it as motivation," he says. "They get down on the ground for pushups themselves if they screw up. They want to come back 10 times harder the next time, and you don't have to say a thing."
Peer Pressure
Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:00:00 -0000
One of my co-workers always treats me as a subordinate in meetings. It really bugs me because he's actually my peer, but he acts like he's my supervisor and tries to filter everything I do through to our bosses. How can I stop this jerk from constantly doing this? Your colleague's behavior may be irksome, but getting caught up in the emotional struggle here ultimately won't be very productive for you. Stop focusing on how his behavior makes you feel and instead play your own game.   displayPromoModule ('{"moduleType":{"value" : "featuresModule", "index" : "1"},"mediaType1":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType2":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType3":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"mediaType4":{"value" : "article", "index" : "0"},"url1":"/careers/features/2008/09/23/Tips-for-a-New-Boss","url2":"/careers/features/2008/09/16/Going-Over-Your-Bosss-Head","url3":"/careers/features/2008/09/07/How-to-Survive-a-Merger","url4":"","teaser1":"How to get ex-colleagues to follow you after you've been promoted above them. ","teaser2":"How to blow the whistle on an underperforming boss. ","teaser3":"In a merger, your hard work may mean less than alliances and burying your past.","teaser4":"","headline1":"Showing Them Who's Boss","headline2":"End Run","headline3":"Squeeze-Time Survival","headline4":"","title":"More Power Plays" }'); This means being ready to assume leadership on tasks that arise—particularly in meetings. Your peer will be waiting to jump in, too, so be the one to volunteer first. If your colleague is simply too good in these situations, consider setting up these responsibilities with your boss outside of your colleague's presence. And if necessary to weaken his position, you can withhold your support of this colleague in some key area where he needs you—maybe you simply become too busy or otherwise unavailable. I knew a manager at a large technology company who was in a similar situation with a peer who pretended he needed to constantly know what she was working on, but was actually preempting her so he could report on her status. He was very adept at implying to their supervisors that she was smart but more effective if her work were funneled through him. And so this manager had to learn to not share specific information with him and to claim ownership of other projects and establish her reputation. As she got more positive feedback, her colleague wound up more isolated, and she had a much better platform from which to pursue her goals.   Look at this as a tactical issue—your peer has thus far been able to outplay you, and so you have to focus on becoming a better player. Getting upset freezes you from any action other than a desire to confront the other person, which likely isn't going to be that useful. Instead, perhaps you can convert that emotional energy into competitive fuel that you can use to advance yourself.Dr. Ron Brown is a leading expert in the fields of leadership development and organizational change. He is the founder and president of Banks Brown, a management consulting firm that specializes in providing skills to optimize the performance of leaders and organizations. He can be reached at rbrown@banksbrown.com or 415-788-5444. Questions for Power Plays can be submitted on this page.  Related LinksEnd RunStuck in the MiddleShowing Them Who's Boss
Crowd Control
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:00:00 -0000
Job Title: Disc Jockey Employers: Clubs, promoters, and individuals. Openings: Promote skills on MySpace or a personal website, then get a booking agent. Salary Cap: High seven figures for celebrity D.J.'s Number of Jobs: About 100,000 As a professional D.J., Sarah Lewitinn, a.k.a. Ultragrrrl, listens to all the latest music. She helped get bands like The Killers and My Chemical Romance onto the map. But she says one of her biggest challenges—one that many of us making party mixes on our iPods may be familiar with—is figuring out an appropriate follow-up to crowd favorite "Come On Eileen," the 1982 song by Dexys Midnight Runners. "The song is instantly recognizable and enchanting," says the 28-year-old Lewitinn. "It's also very haphazard in its own delightful way, being one of the few songs [where the] bridge is the most eagerly anticipated part of the song." Lewitinn says she often chooses to follow up the song with other surefire crowd-pleasers like Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" or Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." Though her own tastes run more toward alternative and indie bands like the Oolahs and Bright Light Fever, that doesn't stop her from appreciating many other genres of music and playing what she thinks a given crowd will respond to. "When you D.J., you understand the concept of a song structure and you get a sixth sense of what crowds will react to and what the masses will react to," Lewitinn says. "All you have to do is close your eyes and think, Can I picture a hundred people singing along to this song?" Her gigs today range from the party she throws every Thursday night at a downtown Manhattan dive bar to the recent engagement party for power couple Serena Torrey and Teddy Roosevelt V at the Natural History Museum, where Motown and Arcade Fire were the favorites. She also does plenty of weddings in the Hamptons and Cape Cod, which bring in anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 per gig plus travel expenses; her hourly rate is roughly $250 an hour.   Lewitinn usually has about 50 CDs on hand with a mix of songs, from George Michael's "Freedom" to Bon Jovi's "Living On a Prayer," when she does parties, tending to play more popular Top 40 songs in clubs while saving the cutting-edge stuff for smaller venues. Unlike many other D.J.'s, she eschews the popular computer program Serato Scratch Live to manage her playlists and instead uses CD players connected to a mixer because of the greater discipline it forces upon her. Lewitinn started D.J.'ing because she loved music, but she also used it as an excuse to stay out late, since her conservative Jewish-Egyptian parents would only allow her to do it if it was helping her career. After seven years of D.J.'ing, she finally got an agent to deal with payment problems, where promoters often shortchange even popular D.J.'s. "Promoters sometimes promise one thing and deliver another," says Lewitinn. A bad night at the bar for a promoter, with people not buying enough drinks, means a smaller chunk of change at the end of the night for the D.J., who usually has to wait until 4 a.m. to collect his or her share. In addition to D.J.'ing, Lewitinn has also become well-known for her tastemaking blog, Ultragrrrl.com—the source of her D.J. moniker. The site gets thousands of pageviews a day from people checking in to find out what she's listening to now. Despite a brief foray into producing, she says she's now content to play other people's music at parties and help to popularize bands she likes, claiming that the ingredients of a hit song are often a mystery to her. "I'd be much richer if I knew!" she says.Related LinksBillion-Dollar Boy Band?Battle HymnMusic Man
Last Women Standing
Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Sallie Krawcheck's departure from Citigroup this week made it official: The trio of female executives at the top of the field—Zoe Cruz, formerly Morgan Stanley's co-president; Erin Callan, previously Lehman Brothers' chief financial officer; and now Krawcheck, most recently Citigroup's head of wealth management and formerly its C.F.O.—has disappeared from Wall Street.            So what does the decimation of women at the top mean for the women on their way there? With Cruz, Callan, and Krawcheck out, the industry's most powerful women are all well below C-level. And promotion rates for women are anemic. In January, just 35 of the 258 managing directors Citigroup promoted were women; the now-defunct Lehman Brothers only upped 23 out of 199, and Barclays Capital promoted a paltry 5 out of 80. A report issued in February by Catalyst Research confirmed the dismal picture, finding that women make up just 3.7 percent of C.E.O.'s in the finance and insurance industries.            But the same study indicated that the next generation of women in finance could change the situation. Women now make up 38.7 percent of the overall industry workforce and account for more than a third of financial analysts (34.3 percent).            While there may be a dearth of women actually running banks, they are making notable progress in wealth management and global operations, divisions that are taking on new importance as Wall Street refashions itself following the recent shocks. Bank of America's Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa, who heads up wealth management, and Amy Woods Brinkley, who runs global risk, both made the Wall Street Journal's "50 Women to Watch" list last year—and could creep further into the spotlight following B. of A.'s acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Also on that list were Naina Lal Kidwai, HSBC's India group head, and Wei Christianson, head of China operations for Morgan Stanley. And there's also Mary Erdoes and Ellyn McColgan, who head up wealth management for J. P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, respectively.            Though the sector's present turmoil will lead to lost jobs on Wall Street across the board—up to 40,000, by some estimates—the refocusing and reorganizing to come could benefit women. "One of the few areas growing is wealth management," says Janet Hanson, founder of the women's career-connection network 85 Broads. "And in the wealth-management space, [female] talent is growing."             In fact, Hanson adds, it's Wall Street that stands to lose out on women—not the other way around. "It's so wrenching, the hiring and firing that's been going on now for about two years," she says. "I think you will see far fewer women coming out of graduate school and wanting to work on Wall Street, because the risk profile is ridiculously high."            And for the notable women who have been burned by that risk, Hanson says, there always seems to be a silver lining. "We'll have to wait and find out what Zoe Cruz does, but she had dozens of job offers" after being fired, says Hanson. Similarly, Erin Callan quickly landed a post heading up Credit Suisse's hedge fund business after exiting Lehman Brothers. "I would bet the ranch that right now Sallie Krawcheck's phone lines are melting," says Hanson. "There will always be bids for the best talent."Related LinksSayonara, SallieLehman: The End GameWall Street's New Realities

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