Myself, I'm a two-space typer. My finger know a sentence-ending period is followed by two spaces and they just do it. However, in certain formats, such as HTML, white space is ignored anyway and then formatted by the format-processor (obviously a web browser in the case of HTML).
While I'm a two-spacer, the medium in which we type is largely making this a moot point.
I think there's a big opportunity here for accessories. Imagine dragging your fingers along your desk all day - how dirty! Or, having to levitate your palm above the desk the whole time -- how cumbersome!
Introducing our new line of mouseless accessories. We have a small plastic device that will fit perfectly in your palm -- we even have ergonomic designs! No more dragging your palms around, just rest your hand conveniently on our mouseless hand rest.
Coming soon - Our state-of-the-art version includes a reduced-friction mousless hand rest with a rolling ball inside!
There are several things you can do to get started and there are plenty of places where you can make very good money working part-time. Here are some of the important points I've found working both as a contractor as well as an employer who hires contractors.
#1 Learn the business as well as the development.
You can be a great developer and not make money (see any of the previous "Contracting sucks" posts). Improve your networking skills and just start talking to people, be willing to fail occasionally in order to succeed.
#2 Start with online sites.
It sounds like you're not ready to make a move from your current job (see #3), so you may want to start with some online sites. I use ODesk to look for potential contractors and have considered using it for jobs. There are plenty of sites out there which help facilitate matching developer skills with company needs.
#3 Be willing to move when the time is right.
Most of my clients came from full-time contracts or previous employers I had worked with. If you're good, you just need ways for people to see that and you'll never go hungry again:-)
#4 Don't be afraid to raise your rate.
This is actually a two-way street. If you set a low rate, I assume you suck. You are also not happy b/c after a while you realize 15 hours probably *is* worth more than $150 (before taxes). If you don't know what others are charging, do some research and ask questions. Don't be a jerk, but don't be afraid of the social faux pas of asking money questions. Ask employers what they pay an average Java developer with your experience. Generally, I charge an 80% to 100% premium over a salary for hourly work (i.e., 100,000 / yr = $48/hr. $100,000 salary would instead charge an $86 - $96 hourly rate). YMMV
And finally, try to spend less time reading our posts (loosely known as "advice") and more time building your clientele!;-)
-geis
P.S. This advice is not for developers who suck. If you suck, unsuck (read, learn, do, repeat) first.
...cognitive scientist David Meyer reports that truly effective multitasking is beyond people's capabilities.
Anyone else get the feeling that people who make claims like this are really smart people, who can usually do more things that other people can do, and because they can't do something, they assume no one else can either?
Some people can't do math very well. I happen to suck at spelling. One thing I can do, however, is multitask. For example, I can discuss a problem with my boss while writing this message because my brain works much faster than either my mouth or my fingers. Granted, there are times where 100% of my brain cycles are being used for a particular task (quite often actually -- and usually for something otherwise simple... like say spelling!), but to say that people can't multitask seems like limited thinking to me.
There was a time when people would have thought we'd never need gigabytes of storage because people just aren't smart enough to use all that data. Clearly we haven't evolved since then, but here we are... using gigabytes of data.
A side problem I see in this statement is that we don't define multitasking. When my code is compiling, I'm off working on a document for it. I switch tasks every 20 minutes. Is that multitasking? This gentleman would probably label it Adult ADD, but I should say that it makes me more productive, not less.
Sometimes I just think that having above-average intelligence makes it easy to get prideful -- prideful in a way that makes us say, "If I can't do it, then neither can anyone else."
I'm curious if anyone else views this similarly...
I'm less concerned about how big 128-bits can store. It is apparent that 64-bits will do just fine for quite some time. It took about 10 years to go from megabytes standards to gigabytes standards. Then it looks like about another 10 years to go to terrabytes. We see terrabytes in desktops, but they still aren't extremely useful (FOR A DESKTOP) like gigabytes eventually became (i.e. No OS takes >= 1 Terrabyte to install).
I'm more concerned that we will sacrifice a significant amount of performance for this. Now, no reference in the filesystem can be handled in a single register. No one is looking at 128 bit processors at this point, so it will be a while before it will fit in a register on any system.
(If you don't think the register size is relevant, just think "cache".)
If we don't need the storage, why waste performance? I could even see setting the FS up to expand to 128 bits, but it doesn't seem to make sense to use it now. I'll be impressed if we find Sun making optimization for 64 bits, that would seem to make more useful sense.
This is also being tackled by those in the Fibre Channel world doing virtualization. Some companies (I happen to work for one) believe that this sort of thing should be handled in the fabric. So you don't have to do it at the filesystem, but rather, anyone using a particular set of (virtual) disks will automatically have their data journaled in lock-step with any other disks as specified by the administrator.
Not saying that's the way to do it, just giving an alternative that should be available soon (and some options are already available on the market now).
Watch some of the working groups in the T11.5 group for specs on this in the future. T11 Website
Because SUN has partnerships with other vendors, they cannot release all of their OS code.
This is similar to when they released the Solaris 8 source code. I believe anyone could download it for some period of time, or at least it was really easy to get (partners || edu). However, even limiting their distribution channel, they were bound by contracts to vendors to not release parts of their code. I.e. a lot of the fibre source was written by Qlogic or JNIC, so none of that will be released, Open Source or not.
I have to think Sun will release their code, since the Solaris 8 code was pretty publicly available for quite some time. It wouldn't be a major step to release the code publicly now.
I'd have to say, there is quite a diversity of comments on this subject, all by people who seem to feel very strongly about their particular view. Selecting what to do with your life has more to it than the question of "School or profession?". For myself, I was "forced" into the decision by my parents who kicked me out after I graduated.
For myself, I entered one year a Rochester Institute of Technology and got caught up in a very helpful group, CSH (www.csh.rit.edu). For me, this turned out to be the best. I left school after 1 year with no useful information gained from classes, but still glad I made a cameo at a University.
For others, school often gives them what they needed, either in terms of stability or in terms of knowledge. Either way, it can be a very useful thing. There are still some theory-related topics which make me wish I'd gone to school (still can't write a B-tree w/o hitting a manual first).
The bottom line really, is Y-O-U. I have had no trouble getting jobs, and typically make more than those around me (and I'm younger, didn't have a 4 year investment); however, that is not as shiny as it appears. I have often faced people who won't give me a chance, since I'm young, or since I didn't have "Experience". Basically, if you're going to work hard, going to school, or which school, or which profession is not such an issue. If you're a hard worker, you'll more than likely do just fine wherever you head.
geis
BTW - Now that I have some experience under my belt, I don't run into those issues much anymore.:)
Is AMD spreading themselves too thin? Will everyone jump on the Merced bandwagon and abandon the new AMD chip? Does AMD have the ability to keep up with Intel? I think the first question is probably moot. I would imagine AMD has their share of engineers working on the Athlon. Now they've got to continue future development and that's exactly what they're doing. I can't argue with that strategy. Everyone has to keep pre-planning.
As to everyone skipping out on AMD to head for the Merced chip, I doubt it. Come on, we're all pulling for a new processor that brings us out of the bulky instruction set of 1978 (& probably earlier) 8086s and so forth. We'd love to see Merced be the "chip of the future" and everything else I'm sure Intel is boasting it as. However, we've got to face the music. If someone gives us an opportunity to avoid a drastic change in the x86 instruction set, we'll take it. It sounds like SledgeHammer should kick Merced's butt on running 32 bit code, and we're just gonna have that stuff running around. It doesn't sound like it will be too hard to port stuff to the new AMD chip while Intel's chip may take some work.
I think what it comes down to is AMD opens a new market. People who don't want to spend tons on new ports, but want their code to execute at speeds not limited by 32 bits and 100MHz busses and so forth. (233MHz Athlons soon? -- that rocks!) This then gives AMD an opportunity to produce another chip (Bulldozer perhaps?) that may support Merced, or may not. Depending on how Merced catches on.
I say kudos to AMD. They've got to make a move to pass Intel somehow and it can't come from following in their shadow. They've got to get this show on the road and make a presumptive move. I think they picked a great choice. Not getting stuck in the middle of the road, but not totally commiting to something completely different.
geisel
At least if it doesn't work no one can put it on the Periodic Table of Intel Chip Flops.
There's actually a rumor floating around that this is being done in conjunction with Italy's version of NASA. The word is that there is an oversupply (hypersupply perhaps) of food in Italy (kinda like the reason we pay some farmers to avoid certain crops). This rush of food into the boot country has created such an uproar in Italy that they have got their space program involved. They're sending a second 30-story high balloon right behind NASA's in search of anti-pasta. They're actually hoping they can prove the existence of anti-ravioli and anti-meatballs.
It appears as if the article from SpaceViews was a little slanted . Of course NASA is going to wine if their budget gets cut, I'd wine if mine got cut. In reality do you really think all the programs will be cut that they say will be cut? Origianally anyone flipps and says, "We lost 10% of our budget and now we can't do 90% of what we were going to do". When in reality they actually will probably do some of their own budgeting and end up doing 90% of the projects they claim will be absolutely cut.
The next point is, do we really need all this stuff. Yeah, it's really cool and all... To boldly go to pluto, where no man has gone before. Ok, that's great, but if I (as a US taxpayer) am paying for it, I want to know why. It's a great achievement, but what's it for. I think we need to at least consider the validity of some of these projects before we get all flustered that they're getting cut... and maybe they do have some grand purpose, in which case they're worth supporting to some point. What that point is?...
Ok, last point. This one really kinda made me chuckle. The article from SpaceViews claims that we got so much surplus that we don't even know what to do with it! hello!? Can anyone say Multi-Trillion dollar debt? Could some one do a bar chart between "dozens of billions of dollars" and our multi-trillion dollar debt? I can at least assure you it would be a very un-interesting chart. I think it's great that the government is finally being respoinsible and starting to resolve this huge debt. Now the question...
What is NASA doing that is beneficial and why is it work 13.? billion instead of 12.? billion. I'm interested on views and info on what NASA is doing and potential benefits. I realize there have been many in the past, but what are the current benefits?
I believe last year was actually the first year that the USPS turned a profit. They're actually expanding.
Think about all the things that are being sent in the mail. I try to do as much online as possible, but companies like Utilities are unlikely to organize any form of web payment. So even if we just concentrate on bills, think of all the more bills we have today than we used to. Instead of a light bill and maybe a water bill many of us have two and three phone bills, pager bills, internet service bills, etc. As life gets more complicated we tend to use the USPS much more often.
I honestly don't expect them to be obsolete anytime soon (or not so soon).
They (some scientist group) claim that all dogs originate from one set of parents. Often there are problems with genetic bottlenecks, but I wonder if it would be surpassed by whatever seemed to work for the dogs.
Also, I wonder what would happen to Dolly's children... Do you suppose they'll start with genetics that are older, or will they actually receive a fresh start. I suppose that phenomenon would carry over into whatever else might be cloned.
As much as I hate to say it, I would have to think the second mindsoft test was the most appropriate. The first mindsoft test certainly was biased since there was no optimization of the Linux box done. The C't test was just as worthless (IMHO). It tested with '486s and higher PCs' and a 10 Base-T ethernet card. Who runs that as a web server? If we're talking about real production systems we really need to throw out the C't test.
The mindsoft tests obviously exploited the Linux SMP and the network stack. We've been hearing about those for weeks and there are apparently several people working on them. It doesn't negate the tests just because it works well on a 486 with a 10 base card. We need to stay a little more realistic than that.
NT is advertising they play the big server market. If Linux is to play that game, we've got to play it on the same field.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I believe this story comes directly from the we-dont-care-how-you-spell-Louisiana dept.
Myself, I'm a two-space typer. My finger know a sentence-ending period is followed by two spaces and they just do it. However, in certain formats, such as HTML, white space is ignored anyway and then formatted by the format-processor (obviously a web browser in the case of HTML).
While I'm a two-spacer, the medium in which we type is largely making this a moot point.
-geis
I think there's a big opportunity here for accessories. Imagine dragging your fingers along your desk all day - how dirty! Or, having to levitate your palm above the desk the whole time -- how cumbersome!
Introducing our new line of mouseless accessories. We have a small plastic device that will fit perfectly in your palm -- we even have ergonomic designs! No more dragging your palms around, just rest your hand conveniently on our mouseless hand rest.
Coming soon - Our state-of-the-art version includes a reduced-friction mousless hand rest with a rolling ball inside!
-geis
There are several things you can do to get started and there are plenty of places where you can make very good money working part-time. Here are some of the important points I've found working both as a contractor as well as an employer who hires contractors.
#1 Learn the business as well as the development.
You can be a great developer and not make money (see any of the previous "Contracting sucks" posts). Improve your networking skills and just start talking to people, be willing to fail occasionally in order to succeed.
#2 Start with online sites.
It sounds like you're not ready to make a move from your current job (see #3), so you may want to start with some online sites. I use ODesk to look for potential contractors and have considered using it for jobs. There are plenty of sites out there which help facilitate matching developer skills with company needs.
#3 Be willing to move when the time is right. :-)
Most of my clients came from full-time contracts or previous employers I had worked with. If you're good, you just need ways for people to see that and you'll never go hungry again
#4 Don't be afraid to raise your rate.
This is actually a two-way street. If you set a low rate, I assume you suck. You are also not happy b/c after a while you realize 15 hours probably *is* worth more than $150 (before taxes). If you don't know what others are charging, do some research and ask questions. Don't be a jerk, but don't be afraid of the social faux pas of asking money questions. Ask employers what they pay an average Java developer with your experience. Generally, I charge an 80% to 100% premium over a salary for hourly work (i.e., 100,000 / yr = $48/hr. $100,000 salary would instead charge an $86 - $96 hourly rate). YMMV
And finally, try to spend less time reading our posts (loosely known as "advice") and more time building your clientele! ;-)
-geis
P.S. This advice is not for developers who suck. If you suck, unsuck (read, learn, do, repeat) first.
Some people can't do math very well. I happen to suck at spelling. One thing I can do, however, is multitask. For example, I can discuss a problem with my boss while writing this message because my brain works much faster than either my mouth or my fingers. Granted, there are times where 100% of my brain cycles are being used for a particular task (quite often actually -- and usually for something otherwise simple... like say spelling!), but to say that people can't multitask seems like limited thinking to me.
There was a time when people would have thought we'd never need gigabytes of storage because people just aren't smart enough to use all that data. Clearly we haven't evolved since then, but here we are... using gigabytes of data.
A side problem I see in this statement is that we don't define multitasking. When my code is compiling, I'm off working on a document for it. I switch tasks every 20 minutes. Is that multitasking? This gentleman would probably label it Adult ADD, but I should say that it makes me more productive, not less.
Sometimes I just think that having above-average intelligence makes it easy to get prideful -- prideful in a way that makes us say, "If I can't do it, then neither can anyone else."
I'm curious if anyone else views this similarly...
I'm less concerned about how big 128-bits can store. It is apparent that 64-bits will do just fine for quite some time. It took about 10 years to go from megabytes standards to gigabytes standards. Then it looks like about another 10 years to go to terrabytes. We see terrabytes in desktops, but they still aren't extremely useful (FOR A DESKTOP) like gigabytes eventually became (i.e. No OS takes >= 1 Terrabyte to install).
I'm more concerned that we will sacrifice a significant amount of performance for this. Now, no reference in the filesystem can be handled in a single register. No one is looking at 128 bit processors at this point, so it will be a while before it will fit in a register on any system.
(If you don't think the register size is relevant, just think "cache".)
If we don't need the storage, why waste performance? I could even see setting the FS up to expand to 128 bits, but it doesn't seem to make sense to use it now. I'll be impressed if we find Sun making optimization for 64 bits, that would seem to make more useful sense.
This is also being tackled by those in the Fibre Channel world doing virtualization. Some companies (I happen to work for one) believe that this sort of thing should be handled in the fabric. So you don't have to do it at the filesystem, but rather, anyone using a particular set of (virtual) disks will automatically have their data journaled in lock-step with any other disks as specified by the administrator.
Not saying that's the way to do it, just giving an alternative that should be available soon (and some options are already available on the market now).
Watch some of the working groups in the T11.5 group for specs on this in the future. T11 Website
FYI
-geis
Because SUN has partnerships with other vendors, they cannot release all of their OS code.
This is similar to when they released the Solaris 8 source code. I believe anyone could download it for some period of time, or at least it was really easy to get (partners || edu). However, even limiting their distribution channel, they were bound by contracts to vendors to not release parts of their code. I.e. a lot of the fibre source was written by Qlogic or JNIC, so none of that will be released, Open Source or not.
I have to think Sun will release their code, since the Solaris 8 code was pretty publicly available for quite some time. It wouldn't be a major step to release the code publicly now.
I'd have to say, there is quite a diversity of comments on this subject, all by people who seem to feel very strongly about their particular view. Selecting what to do with your life has more to it than the question of "School or profession?". For myself, I was "forced" into the decision by my parents who kicked me out after I graduated.
:)
For myself, I entered one year a Rochester Institute of Technology and got caught up in a very helpful group, CSH (www.csh.rit.edu). For me, this turned out to be the best. I left school after 1 year with no useful information gained from classes, but still glad I made a cameo at a University.
For others, school often gives them what they needed, either in terms of stability or in terms of knowledge. Either way, it can be a very useful thing. There are still some theory-related topics which make me wish I'd gone to school (still can't write a B-tree w/o hitting a manual first).
The bottom line really, is Y-O-U. I have had no trouble getting jobs, and typically make more than those around me (and I'm younger, didn't have a 4 year investment); however, that is not as shiny as it appears. I have often faced people who won't give me a chance, since I'm young, or since I didn't have "Experience". Basically, if you're going to work hard, going to school, or which school, or which profession is not such an issue. If you're a hard worker, you'll more than likely do just fine wherever you head.
geis
BTW - Now that I have some experience under my belt, I don't run into those issues much anymore.
Is AMD spreading themselves too thin? Will everyone jump on the Merced bandwagon and abandon the new AMD chip? Does AMD have the ability to keep up with Intel? I think the first question is probably moot. I would imagine AMD has their share of engineers working on the Athlon. Now they've got to continue future development and that's exactly what they're doing. I can't argue with that strategy. Everyone has to keep pre-planning.
As to everyone skipping out on AMD to head for the Merced chip, I doubt it. Come on, we're all pulling for a new processor that brings us out of the bulky instruction set of 1978 (& probably earlier) 8086s and so forth. We'd love to see Merced be the "chip of the future" and everything else I'm sure Intel is boasting it as. However, we've got to face the music. If someone gives us an opportunity to avoid a drastic change in the x86 instruction set, we'll take it. It sounds like SledgeHammer should kick Merced's butt on running 32 bit code, and we're just gonna have that stuff running around. It doesn't sound like it will be too hard to port stuff to the new AMD chip while Intel's chip may take some work.
I think what it comes down to is AMD opens a new market. People who don't want to spend tons on new ports, but want their code to execute at speeds not limited by 32 bits and 100MHz busses and so forth. (233MHz Athlons soon? -- that rocks!) This then gives AMD an opportunity to produce another chip (Bulldozer perhaps?) that may support Merced, or may not. Depending on how Merced catches on.
I say kudos to AMD. They've got to make a move to pass Intel somehow and it can't come from following in their shadow. They've got to get this show on the road and make a presumptive move. I think they picked a great choice. Not getting stuck in the middle of the road, but not totally commiting to something completely different.
geisel
At least if it doesn't work no one can put it on the Periodic Table of Intel Chip Flops.
There's actually a rumor floating around that this is being done in conjunction with Italy's version of NASA. The word is that there is an oversupply (hypersupply perhaps) of food in Italy (kinda like the reason we pay some farmers to avoid certain crops). This rush of food into the boot country has created such an uproar in Italy that they have got their space program involved. They're sending a second 30-story high balloon right behind NASA's in search of anti-pasta. They're actually hoping they can prove the existence of anti-ravioli and anti-meatballs.
Did you ever just get into one of those moods...
It appears as if the article from SpaceViews was a little slanted . Of course NASA is going to wine if their budget gets cut, I'd wine if mine got cut. In reality do you really think all the programs will be cut that they say will be cut? Origianally anyone flipps and says, "We lost 10% of our budget and now we can't do 90% of what we were going to do". When in reality they actually will probably do some of their own budgeting and end up doing 90% of the projects they claim will be absolutely cut.
...
The next point is, do we really need all this stuff. Yeah, it's really cool and all... To boldly go to pluto, where no man has gone before. Ok, that's great, but if I (as a US taxpayer) am paying for it, I want to know why. It's a great achievement, but what's it for. I think we need to at least consider the validity of some of these projects before we get all flustered that they're getting cut... and maybe they do have some grand purpose, in which case they're worth supporting to some point. What that point is?
Ok, last point. This one really kinda made me chuckle. The article from SpaceViews claims that we got so much surplus that we don't even know what to do with it! hello!? Can anyone say Multi-Trillion dollar debt? Could some one do a bar chart between "dozens of billions of dollars" and our multi-trillion dollar debt? I can at least assure you it would be a very un-interesting chart. I think it's great that the government is finally being respoinsible and starting to resolve this huge debt. Now the question...
What is NASA doing that is beneficial and why is it work 13.? billion instead of 12.? billion. I'm interested on views and info on what NASA is doing and potential benefits. I realize there have been many in the past, but what are the current benefits?
geisel
I believe last year was actually the first year that the USPS turned a profit. They're actually expanding.
Think about all the things that are being sent in the mail. I try to do as much online as possible, but companies like Utilities are unlikely to organize any form of web payment. So even if we just concentrate on bills, think of all the more bills we have today than we used to. Instead of a light bill and maybe a water bill many of us have two and three phone bills, pager bills, internet service bills, etc. As life gets more complicated we tend to use the USPS much more often.
I honestly don't expect them to be obsolete anytime soon (or not so soon).
geisel
Just some (more) thoughts...
They (some scientist group) claim that all dogs originate from one set of parents. Often there are problems with genetic bottlenecks, but I wonder if it would be surpassed by whatever seemed to work for the dogs.
Also, I wonder what would happen to Dolly's children... Do you suppose they'll start with genetics that are older, or will they actually receive a fresh start. I suppose that phenomenon would carry over into whatever else might be cloned.
Just my 2 cents...
geisel
As much as I hate to say it, I would have to think the second mindsoft test was the most appropriate. The first mindsoft test certainly was biased since there was no optimization of the Linux box done. The C't test was just as worthless (IMHO). It tested with '486s and higher PCs' and a 10 Base-T ethernet card. Who runs that as a web server? If we're talking about real production systems we really need to throw out the C't test.
The mindsoft tests obviously exploited the Linux SMP and the network stack. We've been hearing about those for weeks and there are apparently several people working on them. It doesn't negate the tests just because it works well on a 486 with a 10 base card. We need to stay a little more realistic than that.
NT is advertising they play the big server market. If Linux is to play that game, we've got to play it on the same field.
geisel
Wait... I missed something. When did we get files over 2 GB?