You know the thinkgeek shirt that says "go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script"? The trick is to replace yourself with a very small shell script (or several small shell scripts) but don't tell anyone you've done so, and instantly you've freed up most of the time allotted to your part-time job to read Slashdot, Wikipedia, etc.
You know, I'm only kind of joking... I've slowly been replacing myself with cron jobs and shell scripts for a few weeks now, partly because I don't want to do these things myself, partly because I'm leaving this job in April, and partly because my replacement is only vaguely familiar with Linux.
The only way out is to either strike out on your own or to give up on the industry altogether.
I disagree. There are plenty of part-time IT jobs, you just have to know where to look. My current job is a part-time IT job at a small company that started up a year or two ago. Sure, my boss wouldn't mind me working full-time, but it is, in fact, a part-time job, and honestly if I weren't doing web development work alongside the regular IT stuff, I wouldn't have enough stuff to do to fill even a part-time job.
My advice would be to find a small startup in need of some IT help. Easier said than done, I know, but that's the best bet, and it's probably a better alternative than striking out alone or giving up on the industry altogether.
Oh, I didn't mean to say that proper handling doesn't matter - I just meant to disagree with JWSmythe's statement that a laptop will only last a year even with proper handling.
It's trivial to clear BIOS passwords, though, isn't it? Motherboards usually have a jumper or switch to clear the BIOS settings (which includes the password), or I've heard you can just take out the CMOS battery for a while...
Of course, I've never needed to do this, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of my own statements. A bit of Googling seems to confirm it though.
I wholeheartedly endorse your idea here - but I can't bring myself to believe it will happen. I'm 23, so I grew up when computers were just becoming mainstream (someone's going to tell me they were programming on punch cards in 1970, whatever, not my point), and as a result I know a lot more about computers than my parents.
Unfortunately, it's people my parents' age and older who are making these policy decisions - and let's face it, most of them are scared of computers. They don't want to educate kids about what's really on the internet - they want to hide it from kids. The notion of actual computer literacy scares them.
They propose this stuff in the first place because they realize that technology is useful - but at the same time they propose restrictive measures that make technology's advantages irrelevant. The worst part is that they simply don't realize what they're saying, and they dismiss the explanations of people like us as nonsense.
The solution, of course, is to educate the policymakers, but as I said, they're scared of technology as much as they want to embrace it, so they won't actually learn anything important...
I had an old IBM Thinkpad that lasted 8 years. Yes, eight. I'm not exaggerating. I treated the thing like a textbook for the last two years of its life. That laptop was awesome.
I've had my current Dell laptop for just over a year and a half, and I haven't had any problems with it yet (though I treat it better than I treated that old Thinkpad). I've left it running (not in standby) in a closed, insulated bag for several hours. I even dropped it about four feet once while it was running, causing the hard drive to fly several feet away from the machine - it works fine still.
So... I disagree with your "with proper handling" lifespan expectancy;) But like everything else, YMMV...
I'm sure most of them are smart enough (or have friends who are smart enough) to wipe the drive and put Linux on the machines to get rid of the restrictions. It's not hard.
op-er-a - noun 1. an extended dramatic composition, in which all parts are sung to instrumental accompaniment, that usually includes arias, choruses, and recitatives, and that sometimes includes ballet. Compare comic opera, grand opera. 2. the form or branch of musical and dramatic art represented by such compositions. 3. the score or the words of such a composition. 4. a performance of one: to go to the opera. 5. (sometimes initial capital letter) an opera house or resident company: the Paris Opera.
In all seriousness though, my wireless card (Intel 3945 ABG) didn't work with kernel 2.6.25 x64 (though it did in 2.6.24 x86), but then I upgraded to 2.6.26 x64... and it works flawlessly, without redoing any wireless configuration or reinstalling anything else. Even the LED blinks appropriately:) (I wasn't even trying to make the wireless work when I upgraded the kernel, I was trying to make my audio work. Still no luck there.)
Anyway, there are lots of reasons to use Java (though not in a browser setting) nowadays. Just my two cents. YMMV, not all languages are created equal, not every language is good for every project, etc etc etc.
Disclaimer: I have a great dislike for Java, but the job offer I just accepted is almost exclusively Java work. Silly me.
I get internet through a local company's fiber network. They offer television service as well, but I only have internet service.
I hesitate to recommend them not because they're local but because I disagree with the method they used to purchase the fiber network from the city... I still use them because I oppose Comcast even more and, I'll admit, I'm addicted to 15Mbps...
Anyway, my advice would be to look for smaller companies in your area.
Our school uses Blackboard, but the math department rebelled and got Moodle set up.
Most of the teachers I've talked to complain endlessly about Blackboard. Would you believe that when they (the teachers) update something (an assignment, announcement, quiz, whatever) on Blackboard, it doesn't show up for the students until early the next morning?
Personally I don't like either solution; they both seem clunky (from a student's perspective). Granted, Moodle is orders of magnitude better than Blackboard, but still.
A command-line-only Linux installation with one of several command-line bittorrent clients would run faster than Win98, yes, and it would serve your needs quite well, assuming you don't need to do anything with a GUI on it.
I'll tend to agree with you, at least as far as the free IDEs go. However, I'd recommend exactly what *I* did when I was that age that got me my start.
Sam's Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days by Jesse Liberty is a fabulous book that I still (ten years later) use for reference on occasion.
C# is good, but you miss out on a few things that I think are important concepts for budding programmers to learn, the most important of which is memory management.
4a. Girl tells you to take a hike. 4b. Girl e-mails you three years later detailing all her problems. 4c. Talk with girl via e-mail for a year. 4d. Girl insists on dating you. 4e. Girl insists on marrying you. 4f. (18 months later) Girl gets pregnant.
I'm still waiting for steps 5 and 6 though. Mostly step 6. I'm waiting for someone to tell me how step 6 works...
Sorry, I'm assuming it's a 5-meter radius, not a 5-meter point-to-point transmission. I'm not sure whether the tech described in the article is omnidirectional or point-to-point.
A 5-meter range isn't really a serious limitation. Just put one transmitter in every room in your house (spaced appropriately to avoid overlaps) and you can go anywhere in your house with your portable device. That setup would be able to give power to any room smaller than ten meters in diameter, more than enough for the average home.
Sure, maybe you can't take the device out into your car - but why not put one in your car, too?
Slashdot Mirror
Half the pay, too - or less.
You know the thinkgeek shirt that says "go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script"? The trick is to replace yourself with a very small shell script (or several small shell scripts) but don't tell anyone you've done so, and instantly you've freed up most of the time allotted to your part-time job to read Slashdot, Wikipedia, etc.
You know, I'm only kind of joking... I've slowly been replacing myself with cron jobs and shell scripts for a few weeks now, partly because I don't want to do these things myself, partly because I'm leaving this job in April, and partly because my replacement is only vaguely familiar with Linux.
The only way out is to either strike out on your own or to give up on the industry altogether.
I disagree. There are plenty of part-time IT jobs, you just have to know where to look. My current job is a part-time IT job at a small company that started up a year or two ago. Sure, my boss wouldn't mind me working full-time, but it is, in fact, a part-time job, and honestly if I weren't doing web development work alongside the regular IT stuff, I wouldn't have enough stuff to do to fill even a part-time job.
My advice would be to find a small startup in need of some IT help. Easier said than done, I know, but that's the best bet, and it's probably a better alternative than striking out alone or giving up on the industry altogether.
Oh, I didn't mean to say that proper handling doesn't matter - I just meant to disagree with JWSmythe's statement that a laptop will only last a year even with proper handling.
It's trivial to clear BIOS passwords, though, isn't it? Motherboards usually have a jumper or switch to clear the BIOS settings (which includes the password), or I've heard you can just take out the CMOS battery for a while...
Of course, I've never needed to do this, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of my own statements. A bit of Googling seems to confirm it though.
I wholeheartedly endorse your idea here - but I can't bring myself to believe it will happen. I'm 23, so I grew up when computers were just becoming mainstream (someone's going to tell me they were programming on punch cards in 1970, whatever, not my point), and as a result I know a lot more about computers than my parents.
Unfortunately, it's people my parents' age and older who are making these policy decisions - and let's face it, most of them are scared of computers. They don't want to educate kids about what's really on the internet - they want to hide it from kids. The notion of actual computer literacy scares them.
They propose this stuff in the first place because they realize that technology is useful - but at the same time they propose restrictive measures that make technology's advantages irrelevant. The worst part is that they simply don't realize what they're saying, and they dismiss the explanations of people like us as nonsense.
The solution, of course, is to educate the policymakers, but as I said, they're scared of technology as much as they want to embrace it, so they won't actually learn anything important...
Why Troll? I thought his post was insightful.
I think you're confusing "laptop" with "girl".
I had an old IBM Thinkpad that lasted 8 years. Yes, eight. I'm not exaggerating. I treated the thing like a textbook for the last two years of its life. That laptop was awesome.
I've had my current Dell laptop for just over a year and a half, and I haven't had any problems with it yet (though I treat it better than I treated that old Thinkpad). I've left it running (not in standby) in a closed, insulated bag for several hours. I even dropped it about four feet once while it was running, causing the hard drive to fly several feet away from the machine - it works fine still.
So... I disagree with your "with proper handling" lifespan expectancy ;) But like everything else, YMMV...
I'm sure most of them are smart enough (or have friends who are smart enough) to wipe the drive and put Linux on the machines to get rid of the restrictions. It's not hard.
"Operawhat?"
op-er-a - noun
1. an extended dramatic composition, in which all parts are sung to instrumental accompaniment, that usually includes arias, choruses, and recitatives, and that sometimes includes ballet. Compare comic opera, grand opera.
2. the form or branch of musical and dramatic art represented by such compositions.
3. the score or the words of such a composition.
4. a performance of one: to go to the opera.
5. (sometimes initial capital letter) an opera house or resident company: the Paris Opera.
Get a non-crappy wireless card.
In all seriousness though, my wireless card (Intel 3945 ABG) didn't work with kernel 2.6.25 x64 (though it did in 2.6.24 x86), but then I upgraded to 2.6.26 x64... and it works flawlessly, without redoing any wireless configuration or reinstalling anything else. Even the LED blinks appropriately :) (I wasn't even trying to make the wireless work when I upgraded the kernel, I was trying to make my audio work. Still no luck there.)
I hope you mean "C#/Mono disease"...
Anyway, there are lots of reasons to use Java (though not in a browser setting) nowadays. Just my two cents. YMMV, not all languages are created equal, not every language is good for every project, etc etc etc.
Disclaimer: I have a great dislike for Java, but the job offer I just accepted is almost exclusively Java work. Silly me.
Anarchy Online is free, too.
I get internet through a local company's fiber network. They offer television service as well, but I only have internet service.
I hesitate to recommend them not because they're local but because I disagree with the method they used to purchase the fiber network from the city... I still use them because I oppose Comcast even more and, I'll admit, I'm addicted to 15Mbps...
Anyway, my advice would be to look for smaller companies in your area.
That would be hard to accomplish on purpose - saying an accident did it is beyond belief.
This is why so many people believe in intelligent design. (I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm just pointing it out.)
Our school uses Blackboard, but the math department rebelled and got Moodle set up.
Most of the teachers I've talked to complain endlessly about Blackboard. Would you believe that when they (the teachers) update something (an assignment, announcement, quiz, whatever) on Blackboard, it doesn't show up for the students until early the next morning?
Personally I don't like either solution; they both seem clunky (from a student's perspective). Granted, Moodle is orders of magnitude better than Blackboard, but still.
A command-line-only Linux installation with one of several command-line bittorrent clients would run faster than Win98, yes, and it would serve your needs quite well, assuming you don't need to do anything with a GUI on it.
That's why I call them LAPPPP systems to avoid the whole argument...
Surely you're thinking of a different book. Jesse Liberty has an excellent command of English, and I didn't encounter any errors in the code.
I've never used Objective-C, so logically I would be unable to recommend it ;)
You've never had to look up a rule or interface or function that you learned 10 years ago? I envy your memory.
I'll tend to agree with you, at least as far as the free IDEs go. However, I'd recommend exactly what *I* did when I was that age that got me my start.
Sam's Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days by Jesse Liberty is a fabulous book that I still (ten years later) use for reference on occasion.
C# is good, but you miss out on a few things that I think are important concepts for budding programmers to learn, the most important of which is memory management.
In my case, step 4 was the following:
4a. Girl tells you to take a hike.
4b. Girl e-mails you three years later detailing all her problems.
4c. Talk with girl via e-mail for a year.
4d. Girl insists on dating you.
4e. Girl insists on marrying you.
4f. (18 months later) Girl gets pregnant.
I'm still waiting for steps 5 and 6 though. Mostly step 6. I'm waiting for someone to tell me how step 6 works...
Sorry, I'm assuming it's a 5-meter radius, not a 5-meter point-to-point transmission. I'm not sure whether the tech described in the article is omnidirectional or point-to-point.
A 5-meter range isn't really a serious limitation. Just put one transmitter in every room in your house (spaced appropriately to avoid overlaps) and you can go anywhere in your house with your portable device. That setup would be able to give power to any room smaller than ten meters in diameter, more than enough for the average home.
Sure, maybe you can't take the device out into your car - but why not put one in your car, too?