I wear cargo pants and a belt. The cargo pants have between 6 and 8 large pockets. The pockets are large enough so that I comfortably carry my Palm, keys, wallet, and car radio faceplace in just the front two pockets! These pants have enough pockets even when I'm doing things above-and-beyond my regular geek activities, such as going camping. I can use the lower side pockets to hold a good-sized flashlight and waterbottle. If you don't like long pants, fear not, cargo shorts are also available, as well as convertible pants with lower-legs that zip off.
The belt holds just my leatherman, but I'm sure you can find attachments to hold other geekery as well. I know some people who carry cell phones or pagers that way. (I have studiously avoided acquiring either)
On a sligthly related note, I have a backpack that zips apart into a large backpack and a day-pack. As two packs, it's exactly the maximum sized allowed as the two carry-on luggage items on an airplane. Off the airplane, I can combine them and strap the whole thing on my back. Not having to check any luggage is a wonderful way to travel!
One of the co-founders of the EFF is John Barlow, who was a lyricist for the Greatful Dead. I'm inclined to listen more closely to his views on the Greatful Dead's experiences and policies than to something heard 27th-hand on slashdot.
If you're concerned about a certain scenario resulting in the artist being screwed over if they use this license, send your question to the EFF. I had the opportunity to be present at the expo where this license was announced. Many similar questions were asked there, and the EFF deftly answered them all. By sending your questions to the EFF, you'll also help to raise their awareness that certain frequently asked questions are missing from their FAQ.
WE should assimilate THEM. Stick to your values, geeks!
We don't need to be rich. That's what THEY tell us, because they want us to buy their STUFF.
Being a geek isn't about having the latest T-shirt with a witty saying; it's about being witty. Being a geek isn't about having the latest greatest hardware; it's about doing neat things with the hardware you have. Being a geek isn't about letting the world romp all over you; it's rising up to the challenge and telling corporate america where to get off.
DO NOT SUBMIT
Don't want to work for "The Man"? Don't! Take his money just long enough to find something else to do. If you're bright and talented, there are plenty of other things to do. Go to graduate school. Get some grants and go into research. Work for a non-profit. Start a non-profit.
If you need more ideas, send me email.
"Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, nothing else ever has." -- Margaret Mead
I think your examples are backwards. The statement "You are an ignorant troll" is an opinion. It is a subjective statement that can neither be proven nor disproven. It it, as you say, an appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter.
On the flip side, the statement "I believe that you are an ignorant troll" is a fact. I either believe it, or I don't. There is no room for interpretation.
You are right about the classification of fact or opinion being orthogonal to true or false, though. "It is raining outside" is a fact, regardless of the current weather. On the other hand, "that picture is beautiful" is an opinion, since it is subjective.
That's what they teach in elementary school anyway.
In the real world, there's a lot of gray area inbetween the two. For example, "that band is composed of good musicians" has both factual and opinion components. Specifically, one can factually determine that the band members are excellent at playing their instruments, that they understand the principles of harmony and melody, and that they can listen to other music and identify precisely what is being played. These are objective qualities which cannot be disputed (or a fact). Simultaneously, one could feel that the music the band creates is awful, which is a subjective quality (or an opinion).
IANAL, but from what I've read, for a company to become a non-profit (in the eyes of the IRS), it first must start up as a regular for-profit company, then apply for non-profit status. So, it's quite reasonable that they're not yet a non-profit. As long as they don't stay that way...
You talk about "rights" and "stealing", but these are fuzzy, man-made concepts. The recording industry only has a right to compensation for every copy (beyond Fair Use) because the law says that this is so. The laws can change. The laws must change.
Yes, not buying is one form of protest.
Civil disobedience is another form of protest; one which can be wildly more effective. Could any attempt at boycott have raised the interest and awareness of the masses as acutely as Napster has?
Napster has more users than President Bush had voters.
Disclaimer: I majored in Electrical Engineering with a Computer Science minor. I went to a school where my peers generally considered the Eletrical Engineering program to be more rigorous than the Computer Science program. I confess that my opinion may be schewed by this experience. YMMV.
The terms "Computer Science" and "Computer Engineering" are somewhat nebulous; different schools will use them to mean slightly different things. "Computer Science" is almost always far removed from hardware. "Computer Engineering" may or may not be. Some schools will also offer a Computer specializiation within their Electrical Engineering program; this will definately be hardware-oriented.
That said, being close to the hardware you'll learn more about assembly and about how the guts of a computer works. An Electrical Engineering program is typically much more calculus-heavy than a pure-software program. Being closer to the hardware will prime you for doing low-level work such as kernel hacking, embedded systems, compiler hacking, fine-grained optimizations, dealing with network packets, etc. You'll also likely to learn a whole slew of other interesting things about electronics, signals, and how to avoid-calculus-and-use-algebra-whenever-possible (Eletrical Engineers have developed many innovative techniques for this). You can become better at programming in C than the average pure-software person since you'll understand what the machine is doing underneath it all.
With a more purely software program, the school is more likely to expose you to things like Java, GUIs, databases, and other high level things.
In my experience, many companies will gladly hire anyone with a CS or EE degree as long as they have the requisite skills. For example, for an embedded systems programmer, a computer-focused EE or a low-level-focused CS are both suitable. For GUI work, a CS is more likely to be hired simply because you're not going to find many entry-level EEs with GUI experience.
(Hint: virtually everything electronic is an embedded system these days. Particularly sexy, high-paying jobs can be found in the networking industry. Somebody needs to program all those routers and figure out how to make the Internet backbone better, faster, and cheaper...)
Eventually, for a programming job, it doesn't matter which degree you have; it's your skills that count. If you spend lots of time coding on your own time, that goes a long way, and the skills you accumulate will open countless doors for you. Employers often like to see that you have a degree, but once they see that they begin looking at what you know how to do.
Although the open source world spends considerable resources cloning closed source applications, I think you've overlooked many open source innovations.
What's worked for me (and several other talented young friends of mine), was to get a job at a small, high-tech company. A place where you have an opportunity to wear a lot of hats and have an opportunity to really shine. If you really are That Good, it'll show through. After a year or two, people will begin to understand and treat you with the respect you're seeking (or, at least, closer to that level of respect).
Learn everything, not just the purely technical stuff. Understand what your boss's job is; it'll help you to understand where he's coming from and to work well with him. Understand your coworkers. If you don't understand why someone wants to do something a certain way, ask (politely).
(by "politely", I mean "in such a way that does not imply that you think they are wrong and/or stupid and/or a disgrace to all of humanity)
In a growing company, there's a lot of opportunity to become an expert. If it's your job is X, you become the expert on X. If Y needs doing, and no one is doing it yet, and you start doing Y, Y may very well become your job. When new people are hired, perhaps they'll take on some of your responsibilities so you can work on other things. You'll need to train them.
Suddenly, you're becoming the senior person.
If your boss isn't consulting your opinion on matters, what happens later? Do things get implemented badly, causing you frustration? If so, be sure to voice your criticisms (again, as politely as is possible). If your criticisms are sound, your boss will begin to realize that it might be useful to include you during the planning stages. If you're looking for more responsibility, ask for it. Be specific; is there something that's not getting done, that you feel you could take on? (preferably while still getting done all your existing tasks) Your manager may not be able to grant your wish immediately, but you're much better off if it's at least rolling around in the back of his mind for the next time an opportunity arises.
Eventually, you may still be a bit frustrated, but you can accumulate some excellent things to put on your resume, as well as some excellent references.
(All of this assumes your boss is even a remotely competent manager, of course)
I've read a lot of the replies to this person's question, and a I see many responses by older people along the lines of "young engineers may have great technical skills, but they don't know much about x, y, and z". They list things like interpersonal skills, QA, budgets, time-to-market, user-interface, etc.
So, I must ask: what if the person posing this question has a solid understanding of such things? How would your response be different?
Perhaps he started working at age 14, perhaps at a local ISP; perhaps he's seen a company rise and fall. Perhaps he understands the importance of QA after thinking closely about how he'd really like computer game M, if only it didn't crash so much; or perhaps he's used a lot of GNU software and developed a sense of pride that it works right and doesn't crash (typically;)).
Perhaps he even started his own business at one point. Perhaps he realizes the importance of an intuitive interface; perhaps he has a friend or relative who he realizes is never going to understand:
find -type f -exec grep -il foobar \{\} \;
Perhaps he feels strongly about getting his code used by real people in the real world, and so he pays close attention to all these details.
What then?
-- Agthorr
(age 23, started programming in 3rd grade)
Try looking up their contact information in the DNS. You can use the "whois" command, or the Network Solutions webpage. The name and phone number of the technical contact will often be someone fairly high up in the company (ie, someone who has the authority to change the company's DNS servers!).
Play nethack, or a similar open-source game. This is a game that in order to get good at, you'll need to spend time wading through the source. It's well written, and you can generally find the right piece of code using "grep". As you become more familiar with it, you can experiment making changes and enhancements to the game.
Oh, and you'll have fun playing a great game while you're at it:-)
Also, if you're interested in learning more about programming UNIX, I heartily recommend Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by W. Richard Stevens. It takes you through just about every UNIX system call and explains not only what it does, but how it works. This is the sort of book you'll still be pulling off the shelf to reference years down the road.
The most important thing is to keep at it; read, tinker: learn.
The more you do, the more you'll learn, and the more you learn, the more you'll be able to do.
While not exactly a "geek" charity, the ACLU fights many of the legal battles talked about on slashdot. Their charter is to basically uphold the bill of rights: free speech, free press, freedom of religion, etc.
Sadly, donations are not tax deductible.
Since it's likely to be a long time before the gasoline infrastructure goes away, I recommend looking at hybrid gasoline-electric cars. These cars run entirely on regular gasoline; they don't need to be hooked up to an external electric system. They store up extra energy (that a regular car wastes) in batteries, and use this energy later to save gasoline. These cars have the range of a regular car, unlike pure electric vehicles.
Slashdot Mirror
I wear cargo pants and a belt. The cargo pants have between 6 and 8 large pockets. The pockets are large enough so that I comfortably carry my Palm, keys, wallet, and car radio faceplace in just the front two pockets! These pants have enough pockets even when I'm doing things above-and-beyond my regular geek activities, such as going camping. I can use the lower side pockets to hold a good-sized flashlight and waterbottle. If you don't like long pants, fear not, cargo shorts are also available, as well as convertible pants with lower-legs that zip off.
The belt holds just my leatherman, but I'm sure you can find attachments to hold other geekery as well. I know some people who carry cell phones or pagers that way. (I have studiously avoided acquiring either)
On a sligthly related note, I have a backpack that zips apart into a large backpack and a day-pack. As two packs, it's exactly the maximum sized allowed as the two carry-on luggage items on an airplane. Off the airplane, I can combine them and strap the whole thing on my back. Not having to check any luggage is a wonderful way to travel!
-- Agthorr
If you're concerned about a certain scenario resulting in the artist being screwed over if they use this license, send your question to the EFF. I had the opportunity to be present at the expo where this license was announced. Many similar questions were asked there, and the EFF deftly answered them all. By sending your questions to the EFF, you'll also help to raise their awareness that certain frequently asked questions are missing from their FAQ.
BAH!
Don't let THEM assimulate US.
WE should assimilate THEM. Stick to your values, geeks!
We don't need to be rich. That's what THEY tell us, because they want us to buy their STUFF.
Being a geek isn't about having the latest T-shirt with a witty saying; it's about being witty. Being a geek isn't about having the latest greatest hardware; it's about doing neat things with the hardware you have. Being a geek isn't about letting the world romp all over you; it's rising up to the challenge and telling corporate america where to get off.
DO NOT SUBMIT
Don't want to work for "The Man"? Don't! Take his money just long enough to find something else to do. If you're bright and talented, there are plenty of other things to do. Go to graduate school. Get some grants and go into research. Work for a non-profit. Start a non-profit.
If you need more ideas, send me email.
(I'm reminded vaguely of Theodore Sturgeon's To Marry Medusa , which you should all read since it's a fantastic book. ;-))
I think your examples are backwards. The statement "You are an ignorant troll" is an opinion. It is a subjective statement that can neither be proven nor disproven. It it, as you say, an appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter.
On the flip side, the statement "I believe that you are an ignorant troll" is a fact. I either believe it, or I don't. There is no room for interpretation.
You are right about the classification of fact or opinion being orthogonal to true or false, though. "It is raining outside" is a fact, regardless of the current weather. On the other hand, "that picture is beautiful" is an opinion, since it is subjective.
That's what they teach in elementary school anyway.
In the real world, there's a lot of gray area inbetween the two. For example, "that band is composed of good musicians" has both factual and opinion components. Specifically, one can factually determine that the band members are excellent at playing their instruments, that they understand the principles of harmony and melody, and that they can listen to other music and identify precisely what is being played. These are objective qualities which cannot be disputed (or a fact). Simultaneously, one could feel that the music the band creates is awful, which is a subjective quality (or an opinion).
IANAL, but from what I've read, for a company to become a non-profit (in the eyes of the IRS), it first must start up as a regular for-profit company, then apply for non-profit status. So, it's quite reasonable that they're not yet a non-profit. As long as they don't stay that way...
Bell Labs is owned by Lucent, not AT&T. You can by the coffee stain in the upper-right corner of their webpage.
You talk about "rights" and "stealing", but these are fuzzy, man-made concepts. The recording industry only has a right to compensation for every copy (beyond Fair Use) because the law says that this is so. The laws can change. The laws must change.
Yes, not buying is one form of protest.
Civil disobedience is another form of protest; one which can be wildly more effective. Could any attempt at boycott have raised the interest and awareness of the masses as acutely as Napster has?
Napster has more users than President Bush had voters.
Disclaimer: I majored in Electrical Engineering with a Computer Science minor. I went to a school where my peers generally considered the Eletrical Engineering program to be more rigorous than the Computer Science program. I confess that my opinion may be schewed by this experience. YMMV.
The terms "Computer Science" and "Computer Engineering" are somewhat nebulous; different schools will use them to mean slightly different things. "Computer Science" is almost always far removed from hardware. "Computer Engineering" may or may not be. Some schools will also offer a Computer specializiation within their Electrical Engineering program; this will definately be hardware-oriented.
That said, being close to the hardware you'll learn more about assembly and about how the guts of a computer works. An Electrical Engineering program is typically much more calculus-heavy than a pure-software program. Being closer to the hardware will prime you for doing low-level work such as kernel hacking, embedded systems, compiler hacking, fine-grained optimizations, dealing with network packets, etc. You'll also likely to learn a whole slew of other interesting things about electronics, signals, and how to avoid-calculus-and-use-algebra-whenever-possible (Eletrical Engineers have developed many innovative techniques for this). You can become better at programming in C than the average pure-software person since you'll understand what the machine is doing underneath it all.
With a more purely software program, the school is more likely to expose you to things like Java, GUIs, databases, and other high level things.
In my experience, many companies will gladly hire anyone with a CS or EE degree as long as they have the requisite skills. For example, for an embedded systems programmer, a computer-focused EE or a low-level-focused CS are both suitable. For GUI work, a CS is more likely to be hired simply because you're not going to find many entry-level EEs with GUI experience.
(Hint: virtually everything electronic is an embedded system these days. Particularly sexy, high-paying jobs can be found in the networking industry. Somebody needs to program all those routers and figure out how to make the Internet backbone better, faster, and cheaper...)
Eventually, for a programming job, it doesn't matter which degree you have; it's your skills that count. If you spend lots of time coding on your own time, that goes a long way, and the skills you accumulate will open countless doors for you. Employers often like to see that you have a degree, but once they see that they begin looking at what you know how to do.
YMMV
-- AgthorrAlthough the open source world spends considerable resources cloning closed source applications, I think you've overlooked many open source innovations.
For example:What's worked for me (and several other talented young friends of mine), was to get a job at a small, high-tech company. A place where you have an opportunity to wear a lot of hats and have an opportunity to really shine. If you really are That Good, it'll show through. After a year or two, people will begin to understand and treat you with the respect you're seeking (or, at least, closer to that level of respect).
Learn everything, not just the purely technical stuff. Understand what your boss's job is; it'll help you to understand where he's coming from and to work well with him. Understand your coworkers. If you don't understand why someone wants to do something a certain way, ask (politely).
(by "politely", I mean "in such a way that does not imply that you think they are wrong and/or stupid and/or a disgrace to all of humanity)
In a growing company, there's a lot of opportunity to become an expert. If it's your job is X, you become the expert on X. If Y needs doing, and no one is doing it yet, and you start doing Y, Y may very well become your job. When new people are hired, perhaps they'll take on some of your responsibilities so you can work on other things. You'll need to train them.
Suddenly, you're becoming the senior person.
If your boss isn't consulting your opinion on matters, what happens later? Do things get implemented badly, causing you frustration? If so, be sure to voice your criticisms (again, as politely as is possible). If your criticisms are sound, your boss will begin to realize that it might be useful to include you during the planning stages. If you're looking for more responsibility, ask for it. Be specific; is there something that's not getting done, that you feel you could take on? (preferably while still getting done all your existing tasks) Your manager may not be able to grant your wish immediately, but you're much better off if it's at least rolling around in the back of his mind for the next time an opportunity arises.
Eventually, you may still be a bit frustrated, but you can accumulate some excellent things to put on your resume, as well as some excellent references.
(All of this assumes your boss is even a remotely competent manager, of course)
-- Agthorr
I've read a lot of the replies to this person's question, and a I see many responses by older people along the lines of "young engineers may have great technical skills, but they don't know much about x, y, and z". They list things like interpersonal skills, QA, budgets, time-to-market, user-interface, etc.
So, I must ask: what if the person posing this question has a solid understanding of such things? How would your response be different?
Perhaps he started working at age 14, perhaps at a local ISP; perhaps he's seen a company rise and fall. Perhaps he understands the importance of QA after thinking closely about how he'd really like computer game M, if only it didn't crash so much; or perhaps he's used a lot of GNU software and developed a sense of pride that it works right and doesn't crash (typically ;)).
Perhaps he even started his own business at one point. Perhaps he realizes the importance of an intuitive interface; perhaps he has a friend or relative who he realizes is never going to understand: find -type f -exec grep -il foobar \{\} \;
Perhaps he feels strongly about getting his code used by real people in the real world, and so he pays close attention to all these details.
What then?
-- Agthorr
(age 23, started programming in 3rd grade)
Try looking up their contact information in the DNS. You can use the "whois" command, or the Network Solutions webpage. The name and phone number of the technical contact will often be someone fairly high up in the company (ie, someone who has the authority to change the company's DNS servers!).
The Merriam Webster dictionary says that an initialism is a special type of acronym.
You can see for yourself here.
Don't pick nits until you check your facts in multiple places!
Play nethack, or a similar open-source game. This is a game that in order to get good at, you'll need to spend time wading through the source. It's well written, and you can generally find the right piece of code using "grep". As you become more familiar with it, you can experiment making changes and enhancements to the game.
Oh, and you'll have fun playing a great game while you're at it :-)
Also, if you're interested in learning more about programming UNIX, I heartily recommend Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by W. Richard Stevens. It takes you through just about every UNIX system call and explains not only what it does, but how it works. This is the sort of book you'll still be pulling off the shelf to reference years down the road.
The most important thing is to keep at it; read, tinker: learn.
The more you do, the more you'll learn, and the more you learn, the more you'll be able to do.
While not exactly a "geek" charity, the ACLU fights many of the legal battles talked about on slashdot. Their charter is to basically uphold the bill of rights: free speech, free press, freedom of religion, etc. Sadly, donations are not tax deductible.
Since it's likely to be a long time before the gasoline infrastructure goes away, I recommend looking at hybrid gasoline-electric cars. These cars run entirely on regular gasoline; they don't need to be hooked up to an external electric system. They store up extra energy (that a regular car wastes) in batteries, and use this energy later to save gasoline. These cars have the range of a regular car, unlike pure electric vehicles.
Two commericially available hybrid cars are the Honda Insight, and the Toyoto Pruis.
If you get one of these cars, you'll save a fortune on gas while helping to preserve the environment.