I can tell you with certainty that this is not the case where I work. I was hired at a generous wage for my level of experience. Over the next year we struggled to find people who were even remotely competent. Eventually, with time and a few revisions to our first level filtering, we were able to fill the positions, but believe me around here there is demand and the pay is good if you have skills.
No, what he is suggesting is that there is no ladder. There isn't a path from phone support to software engineering, one does not lead to the other and thus they should not be put in the same bucket. System, database and network administration don't really have a path to the kind of work I do (commercial software development). Most System administrators would be really lousy at my job and I would be pretty lousy at their job.
Whats wrong with dividing up the career of software development and the IT support/administration career since the vast majority of people don't move between the two. I'm sure Ill get a bunch of replies from people here about how they moved from one to another but you need to understand that you are not in the majority.
Software jobs are available in many parts of the US despite the downturn. Here in the Northeast there are many jobs available and not enough competent people to fill them. Sure its not like it was during the bubble but it is still a good employment environment.
Obviously not everyone can just up and move, but a recent grad might have the flexibility and it might be enough to get you on a path to doing what you want.
I basically already do that, but the amount I could loose from the checking account if I lost the card is kind of high. On the other hand, if I kept less money in there, I would be spending more time shuffling money around. I have chosen my level of risk vs my level of convenience, but I would rather not have too.
All of this could be solved with a simple ATM card that is not a debit card. I don't need a debit card, I have credit cards for purchases where cash is not practical. Certainly for some people a debit card is a useful tool, but I am not one of those people.
In this case it was a debit card, which comes with far less protection than a credit card. One of the reasons I hate them, but none of my banks will give me an ATM card that is not also a debit card so I guess I'm stuck.
that may or may not be true, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the story of what happened to her particular credit card, which is what the article is about.
I could see, if her identity was stolen from the records that apple has, how the new laws would apply to Apple. But her identity was stolen from elsewhere and then her credit card used to purchase stuff from Apple. I can't really see how Apple has anything to do with it. Would you go after Shell if someone used a stolen card to buy some gas?
Sure, dell stopped the purchase of a multi hundred dollar computer, but should Apple have to check ever 99 cent transaction? I don't even have to sign receipts most places if the total is under 20 bucks. If she canceled the card, isn't that her banks fault?
The data breach laws seem like a good thing, its important that Apple and others protect information about their customers against theft, but her identity was stolen during a ski trip to New Hampshire. That doesn't seem like it has anything to do at all with Apple or iTunes.
To be fair, Firefox had more than its share of problems before going to this model. Chrome on the other hand doesn't seem to have too many terrible bugs (other than the crashes in their flash implementation, which is annoying) and it doesn't seem to leak memory like a sieve.
Perhaps the problem is not the release cycle, but I would rather they dropped the release cycle and went to something that allowed them to fix bugs (rather than introducing new ones more and more quickly) if they can't manage to get this process to work for them. Perhaps it has to do with how the project is managed or maybe its just that Chrome wasn't in such rough shape when it started. Either way, I have given up on firefox for now anyway, its just too buggy, too resource intensive and way too leaky.
Today Obama introduced much more than just a tax proposal, in fact some of that is covered lightly in the summary, however the headline is not: "Obama proposes new economic recovery plan" the headline focuses simply on the "Wealthy tax" which is neither a name of a thing or a technical term, it is actually more of a talking point. The only commentary on the plan is simply another talking point from a prominent republican which says pretty much nothing at all about the plan. All of this is designed to whip people into a frenzy. Its much the same on any of the 24 hour news stations or news papers or political websites. Headlines and summaries like that get people all up in arms rather than getting them to a place where they can rationally discuss the implications of the policy.
The reason websites and TV shows do this is because whipping people into a frenzy keeps their eyeballs where you want them. When you read something rational and well thought out (as well as written in a calm and neutral way) you don't usually get into a multi page flame war with someone over it. Those flame wars provide advertising dollars that are critical. Politicians are complicit in this (with their talking points and their reframing and redefining of terms and arguments) because the same thing that keeps people flaming keeps them from thinking, from considering other viewpoints and from finding middle ground.
This is the nature of discourse in our world today. To some degree it has always been like this, but I do think we are getting better and better at fanning the flames. Remember that there was a time when a 24 hour news station seemed crazy... what would they talk about all day. Either there is really a lot more going on (probably not) or these people are getting a lot more milage out of what is going on by keeping people worked up over just about everything.
If the guy that employed him could make more money by firing him and magically getting more productivity out of the rest of his workers, he would have done it a long time ago and it wouldn't matter what his tax rate was.
If you honestly believe that isn't true then you have never had a real job.
It is intersting how much of this is location based. Where I am there are a lot of C++ jobs and there certainly were 5 years ago (back before that there were jobs in C++ but there were a lot more people out of work). There do seem to be a lot of Java jobs around here too. I would say 50/50 but trending toward C++.
However, after years of watching this board and these kinds of articles and comparing the experiences of posters here with my own experience its pretty clear that the job market varies so much by geography that generalizing is almost useless. On the other hand, it does indicate that there may be an opportunity to change locations in order to keep your skills in demand. Not everyone is going to want to do that, but maybe its worth considering rather than taking a pay cut to move into some new technology, especially if that is not something you particularly want to do (understandable if you are closer to retirement anyway).
Of course it can be hard for older developers to just pick up and move if they have a family, but it is something that we all should keep in mind. Most everyone here will be an old IT worker at some point.
Have you ever considered the possibility that you might be the one who is mistaken? Perhaps your opinion is the one that you want other to believe despite it not really being the case.
The real question is, would it be profitable. I suppose it depends on the composition of the asteroid, but sending a mission out to retrieve one with all the gear/fuel necessary to move it into orbit, then the cost of actually mining it and recovering the ore that you sling down the gravity well, that has got to add up.
Obviously if it were made of the right materials it could be worth while, but that's a pretty huge expense for a big rock.
In the US its more than just apple doing the audit. I don't know how Apple's standards compare to the EPA standards, but much of this would be illegal in this country and it wouldn't really be up to Apple to police it.
It's good to hear about an active environmental group in China though. With time, hopefully there will be change. It will mean more expensive hardware, but that is inevitable.
Slashdot Mirror
I can tell you with certainty that this is not the case where I work. I was hired at a generous wage for my level of experience. Over the next year we struggled to find people who were even remotely competent. Eventually, with time and a few revisions to our first level filtering, we were able to fill the positions, but believe me around here there is demand and the pay is good if you have skills.
A doctor is in the health care industry, just like the EMT, the receptionist and the janitor who cleans up puke around the hospital.
No, what he is suggesting is that there is no ladder. There isn't a path from phone support to software engineering, one does not lead to the other and thus they should not be put in the same bucket. System, database and network administration don't really have a path to the kind of work I do (commercial software development). Most System administrators would be really lousy at my job and I would be pretty lousy at their job.
Whats wrong with dividing up the career of software development and the IT support/administration career since the vast majority of people don't move between the two. I'm sure Ill get a bunch of replies from people here about how they moved from one to another but you need to understand that you are not in the majority.
Consider moving.
Software jobs are available in many parts of the US despite the downturn. Here in the Northeast there are many jobs available and not enough competent people to fill them. Sure its not like it was during the bubble but it is still a good employment environment.
Obviously not everyone can just up and move, but a recent grad might have the flexibility and it might be enough to get you on a path to doing what you want.
I basically already do that, but the amount I could loose from the checking account if I lost the card is kind of high. On the other hand, if I kept less money in there, I would be spending more time shuffling money around. I have chosen my level of risk vs my level of convenience, but I would rather not have too.
All of this could be solved with a simple ATM card that is not a debit card. I don't need a debit card, I have credit cards for purchases where cash is not practical. Certainly for some people a debit card is a useful tool, but I am not one of those people.
In this case it was a debit card, which comes with far less protection than a credit card. One of the reasons I hate them, but none of my banks will give me an ATM card that is not also a debit card so I guess I'm stuck.
that may or may not be true, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the story of what happened to her particular credit card, which is what the article is about.
I could see, if her identity was stolen from the records that apple has, how the new laws would apply to Apple. But her identity was stolen from elsewhere and then her credit card used to purchase stuff from Apple. I can't really see how Apple has anything to do with it. Would you go after Shell if someone used a stolen card to buy some gas?
Sure, dell stopped the purchase of a multi hundred dollar computer, but should Apple have to check ever 99 cent transaction? I don't even have to sign receipts most places if the total is under 20 bucks. If she canceled the card, isn't that her banks fault?
The data breach laws seem like a good thing, its important that Apple and others protect information about their customers against theft, but her identity was stolen during a ski trip to New Hampshire. That doesn't seem like it has anything to do at all with Apple or iTunes.
The grandparent is thinking of HTC.
To be fair, Firefox had more than its share of problems before going to this model. Chrome on the other hand doesn't seem to have too many terrible bugs (other than the crashes in their flash implementation, which is annoying) and it doesn't seem to leak memory like a sieve.
Perhaps the problem is not the release cycle, but I would rather they dropped the release cycle and went to something that allowed them to fix bugs (rather than introducing new ones more and more quickly) if they can't manage to get this process to work for them. Perhaps it has to do with how the project is managed or maybe its just that Chrome wasn't in such rough shape when it started. Either way, I have given up on firefox for now anyway, its just too buggy, too resource intensive and way too leaky.
OK.
Today Obama introduced much more than just a tax proposal, in fact some of that is covered lightly in the summary, however the headline is not: "Obama proposes new economic recovery plan" the headline focuses simply on the "Wealthy tax" which is neither a name of a thing or a technical term, it is actually more of a talking point. The only commentary on the plan is simply another talking point from a prominent republican which says pretty much nothing at all about the plan. All of this is designed to whip people into a frenzy. Its much the same on any of the 24 hour news stations or news papers or political websites. Headlines and summaries like that get people all up in arms rather than getting them to a place where they can rationally discuss the implications of the policy.
The reason websites and TV shows do this is because whipping people into a frenzy keeps their eyeballs where you want them. When you read something rational and well thought out (as well as written in a calm and neutral way) you don't usually get into a multi page flame war with someone over it. Those flame wars provide advertising dollars that are critical. Politicians are complicit in this (with their talking points and their reframing and redefining of terms and arguments) because the same thing that keeps people flaming keeps them from thinking, from considering other viewpoints and from finding middle ground.
This is the nature of discourse in our world today. To some degree it has always been like this, but I do think we are getting better and better at fanning the flames. Remember that there was a time when a 24 hour news station seemed crazy... what would they talk about all day. Either there is really a lot more going on (probably not) or these people are getting a lot more milage out of what is going on by keeping people worked up over just about everything.
If the guy that employed him could make more money by firing him and magically getting more productivity out of the rest of his workers, he would have done it a long time ago and it wouldn't matter what his tax rate was.
If you honestly believe that isn't true then you have never had a real job.
Except that webkit is open source and you can do whatever you want with it and mshtml... well... isn't.
since a guy 2 posts up actually did get modded down for saying the same thing, I think the grand parent might have a point.
Aww.. Does somebody disagree with your vision of the world?
Fanboy.
which would be reflected in the total amount of power produced by a particular source.
Wow, this is the second time I have seen this guys obviously sarcastic signature taken literally in as many days.
Might be time for a change. Apparently it is too subtle for this crowd.
Don't worry, no company actually follows documentation or testing procedures, you'll be fine :-)
It is intersting how much of this is location based. Where I am there are a lot of C++ jobs and there certainly were 5 years ago (back before that there were jobs in C++ but there were a lot more people out of work). There do seem to be a lot of Java jobs around here too. I would say 50/50 but trending toward C++.
However, after years of watching this board and these kinds of articles and comparing the experiences of posters here with my own experience its pretty clear that the job market varies so much by geography that generalizing is almost useless. On the other hand, it does indicate that there may be an opportunity to change locations in order to keep your skills in demand. Not everyone is going to want to do that, but maybe its worth considering rather than taking a pay cut to move into some new technology, especially if that is not something you particularly want to do (understandable if you are closer to retirement anyway).
Of course it can be hard for older developers to just pick up and move if they have a family, but it is something that we all should keep in mind. Most everyone here will be an old IT worker at some point.
Except me... I'm going to open a brewery :-)
Have you ever considered the possibility that you might be the one who is mistaken? Perhaps your opinion is the one that you want other to believe despite it not really being the case.
The real question is, would it be profitable. I suppose it depends on the composition of the asteroid, but sending a mission out to retrieve one with all the gear/fuel necessary to move it into orbit, then the cost of actually mining it and recovering the ore that you sling down the gravity well, that has got to add up.
Obviously if it were made of the right materials it could be worth while, but that's a pretty huge expense for a big rock.
In the US its more than just apple doing the audit. I don't know how Apple's standards compare to the EPA standards, but much of this would be illegal in this country and it wouldn't really be up to Apple to police it.
It's good to hear about an active environmental group in China though. With time, hopefully there will be change. It will mean more expensive hardware, but that is inevitable.
Funny, last time I was there there were Apple products all over the place.
To a New Englander, Pennsylvania is practically the deep south.
Western Pennsylvania actually kind of feels that way in some places.
He did post anonymously. Some people are just from wealthy families.