you can break the 30 wpm barrier without home row, but you better have fast hands.
it's definitely a very important skill. i sucked at typing when i actually took keyboarding in high school, but i did improve over the course of the year (or half year, i don't remember). i improved once i started chatting on instant messenger all the time. you had to be able to type fast so you could keep up with 30 different conversations at the same time. of course chatting made me forget how to do capital letters. i learned that from writing "professional" emails and letters to people (and my email program does not auto-capitalize like MS word).
i think i can type at about 100+ wpm with pretty good accuracy. if i'm copying something, it's slower, but if i'm typing something from my head, i fly with it. i don't think i'd be able to handle anything on a computer if i couldn't type as well as i do.
i'm talking about a link that brings you directly to the page where you enter your credit card info.
also might be something to note... any site where you are a registered user will ask you for your username and password before asking to update your credit card info. if the link automatically brings you to a page where you just enter your info, it's probably not legit.
and yes, i knew that. most email clients do that (especially the windows ones). but when you click on a link for www.paypal.com, it should take you to the main page, if it doesn't, then you should know something's up.
paypal does not send links to verify credit card info. if you looked at the second paypal example on the test, it gave instructions, no link. the third paypal one (which was a legit email) was a link to UPS tracking info, which does not require a credit card number to access. the first paypal one was not legit. paypal also puts some sort of email identifier at the bottom.
i think the best one is the visa one with the button instead of a link. it's so obviously a scam. first, visa doesn't send customers emails, the bank that the card is through does (MBNA, citibank, etc). second, the button is just soooo sketchy.
selling pot or any drugs, selling pornography and cigarettes to those under 18, selling alcohol to those under 21, and prostution outside nevada (note it's illegal in vegas) are all illegal. there's no question about it. do i agree that it should be illegal? well, pot and prostitution should be legalized, but regulated. the alcohol, porn, and cigarettes are all things that should be illegal for people underage.
should i be worried about getting caught if i'm buying drugs? yes, the law says it's illegal. should i be worried about walking into a gay club? no, nothing illegal about it. will i get caught for practicing S&M in my home? no, my home is not under surveillance, only public areas where it is already illegal to practice this. are abortions illegal? nope. are you wrong for following around your wife if you feel she is going to kidnap your kids? if you haven't called the police about it first, yes, that's call stalking.
so what would the government do to abortion doctors? they can't do a thing. what does the government do to sado-masochists? nothing. what does the government do to gays? nothing that incriminates them, in fact, we have a gay senator in washington by the name of barney franks.
your argument is slightly flawed. while the other stuff is questionable, it's not stuff that can easily be detected by cameras. and if you are being watched by the government, they're gonna use other methods besides just cameras, so you have more to worry about.
they are not evil in teh same sense that cops can just patrol more often and pick up the same amount of trouble that these cameras do. woudl you have a problem with higher police presence in cities? if you do, i have to laugh. just having a cop drive by on a regular basis reduces crime. knowing that you're on candid camera reduces crime (though some peopel are dumb enough). i don't think that they will stop the hardcore terrorists, but they will reduce crime. and the less crime that has to be worried about during the convention (especially around the fleet center), the more security can be devoted to worse things.
i also don't feel it's giving up a right having cameras around a city. it's less intrusive than having more cops walking the beat. and, as something that has already been argued, they will pick up police brutality as well. so while i don't think they help against terrorists, they do help against other forms of crime, which allows the actual security officers to pay attention to less petty things.
a camera is not an increase in government power. that's the problem i have with your argument. who's to say that a cop can't be driving aruond and say the same thing? and a camera has no tracking ability, it can't say "that's bob smith" when bob smith walks by. and for that reason, they can't get an individual for being part of a protest. and while the groundwork for doing what you explained may have been laid down (i have serious issues wtih the patriot act for the record), how many times has it occurred that they picked a random person out of a picture of a peaceful protest and argued they were a terrorist without having other "evidence" to say so? i know i shouldn't say that it hasn't happened so it won't because it can and may happen. but it's highly unlikely that they will get that sort of evidence from a security camera pointing over boston.
do you have issues with the webcams in cities across teh world, especially NYC? they're free for everyone to look at. but they aren't controlled by the government, so they're ok, right? who's to say taht the government can't look at the images from those cameras and use those against people?
i have issues with our current government, i have serious issues with it. but a security camera is not a highly accurate tracking device because you don't know who the people are. and once the convention is over, they fall into the hands of the city of boston, no longer the feds. so for about a week, they belong to the feds. if somehow the "intelligence" they got about terrorists disrupting the whole election process is true, then why not use cameras?
and you think that the cameras will be used for bad? they're fucking cameras for pete's sake. what can the government do with cameras? they can prove you committed a crime. they see suspicious activity, a video of said suspicious activity is not enough, so they send a cop to do a drive-by. the cop sees that there's nothing going on, reports back to headquarters, they move the camera to someone else. there's really nothing a camera will do to you unless you're breaking the law or looking like you are. if you're a law-abiding citizen what difference should it make to you? you're the one with nothing to worry about.
and for the record, i do not support bush in any manner. i am vehemently anti-bush (except the good kind of course).
i believe all primates have opposable thumbs... therefore, a monkey would have opposable thumbs (they also have opposable big toes, so they could use it with their feet as well).
i wonder if they are putting on sub-standard contestants so they can boost ratings with this guy. it's very possible. eventually the guy will meet his match, he can't be knowledgeable in everything (i think they should purposely put up more questions in those subjects he's admitted to not being that intelligent in and see what happens).
it's not like it's some great quiz show, even though it is the most popular. they still worry about ratings and stuff (not that merv griffin is running out of money or anything though). i think they should be working on getting the guy to lose... that's what i'd do.
this is a big key, he's figured out how to do this... it doesn't require a lot of knowledge...
also, the only reason he's the record holder is because they only recently removed the 5 day limit for being on the show. and i won't be surprised if they bring it back because while some people might think it's exciting to watch teh same guy win every night, others will find it boring. i don't think there's anything special about this guy at all. he's got a quick thumb, that's his weapon.
now in the case where there is no actual contract... where the job description is the one used in the job ad that you replied to... it says nothing about providing 24/7 support or needing you to be available after hours. they say nothing about this at the interview (you don't ask, but it's not your obligation to ask this sort of question). they say nothing about it when you fill out all your tax forms and everything when they hire you...
then you start work and they drop the bomb... who's responsibility is it? it shouldn't be your own since you knew nothing of this through the job ad, the job description, or the interview/hiring process.
and in your second case, it's a perk, part of your salary in a way. they can expect you to pick it up on your own, but they better be compensating you for it.
but yes... i agree... always read EVERYTHING before you sign ANYTHING.
while realistically, you are correct, but if employee #2 is available at his home phone (which every employer has access to), he's no worse an employee than #1. his job description does not require 24/7 access, why should he? if there's a deadline that he has to meet and he's meeting the deadline, then why should he work outside the office? if it comes down to the wire, he can always put in extra hours to get it done.
now... if they're system administrators that are required to offer 24/7 uptime, the company sure as hell should be paying for a pager/cellphone so that they can get ahold of them at anytime. otherwise, they should be provided with extra salary to cover these extra costs for job-related expenses.
but the issue at hand is it's in your contract and the company supplies the means to contact you after hours. all of a sudden the company decides they're no longer gonna pay for the means, but they still expect to be able to contact you, which means you must now take on the costs yourself. unless there's a salary increase, this is an unreasonable expectation since by providing the means for contact is considered a benefit, part of your "pay".
is it reasonable to expect someone to pay for their own broadband service, for their own personal computer at home, for their own cell phone, for their own pager, for whatever?
i think you are missing the point regardless of being paid salary. you aren't expected to have any of that stuff, and if they do expect that, then they need to at least increase your salary so you can afford the extra expenses they expect you to pick up. your salary is meant to compensate you for your time, you give them a service, they pay you for it. that salary is not meant to pay for work-related expenses. so while a bit more would be expected of someone on salary, it's also not within reason to expect that person to pay for all these work-related items if they normally wouldn't have them anyways.
the only way i'd work for a company that expected me to provide my own cell phone, computer, and broadband connection was if i knew they were paying me a fair amount higher than the average salary for my position.
i can only read one of my magazines in paper. it's called relix. it's a jamband/music related magazine that's becoming bigger. it's been around for a while, but it's increasing it's publication and adding more non-music/non-jamband content. it's a great mag that is far better than rolling stone which seems to have sold out. even the political articles in rolling stone aren't that great anymore.
while relix has a website with some news on it, you can't get the whole magazine content. now you don't need a PC-related magazine to get what you can on the internet for free, but this one is great for my other hobby/interest.
porn comes second to playboy. the magazine and company stands for much more than naked women. it's about sexual freedom (you'll see that in a lot of the articles, especially the advisor). it's also very political. there's generally an entire section dedicated to political discussion. it's geared towards men, obviously, but not just because of hte pics. it's got great movie/dvd/book/video game/music reviews. it's got a section of info on generally "manly" things like cars or whatnot. it's an overall great magazine. i'd get it even if it didn't have the pics. maxim just doesn't offer the same quality in the non-"porn" articles.
there's one problem with maxim... the articles suck. it's just a crappy soft porn mag.
playboy, while being far more risque, has articles written on almost any topic. there's nothing in playboy other than the pics that any normal girl wouldn't want to read. i highly recommend it for hte political content and the interviews. the playboy advisor is also an excellent source of information. the way i look at it, i bought a great magazine that comes with an extra. the pics are just extra fluff to me. the articles are why i got it. and i got it for $12/year.
a lot of cd's come with windows logos on them because they have special features. if you read what you replied to carefully, you'd see taht it was most likely an enhanced cd. enhanced cd's do not cost more than regular cd's adn they work just fine on a standard cd player. the special features on them are on a small data track with stuff liek music videos as described above. sometimes they're windows executables, so you won't be able to run them in linux, sometimes they're mpegs or flash or something. nothing on the cd prevents you from copying the music or anything, it's not drm, it's not copy protected. if an indie band sold a cd that you could only play in windows, that'd be incredibly stupid, but they might throw in some extra features that will only run in windows. this is not a case of the band not understanding the audience. maybe if you took 2 more seconds to find out what the windows logo was there for, you'd be able to give more money to that indie band. but you're too high and mighty to have to deal with something that has a windows logo on it. your loss, not theirs. they'd probably prefer to have less pretentious fans anyways.
i did not graduate with a CS degree, in fact i wasn't even engineering or technical with my degree, it's in ecology and evolution, but it is a BS. either way. i learned about comptuers, taught myself stuff, got help installing linux, ran a little linux box for a while, and most importantly, got a job in college. most colleges have student jobs doing network stuff, tech support, programming, etc. any college student who doesn't have much real world experience should be looking for that type of job in their school.
it took me 2 years to find a job after i graduated, but i recently took a job in another college at their helpdesk. i'm not the average helpdesk person. it's a small college, so everyone works together and helps each other out. in addition to being able to learn some stuff from both students (generally about new technologies/issues) and my co-workers and anything they watn me to learn on my own (asp scripting), i get to dabble in a bunch of different stuff. i also manage student employees so i am not only gaining technical skills, but also supervisory/management skills. i'm not looking for a real engineering job, but i'm not planning on staying helpdesk forever either. i'd like to work up to maybe network administration or even management if i don't choose to completely change careers and go into education.
the moral of the story is it depends on what kind of helpdesk role you have. i highly recommend working for a small company or college. there's room to move up, there's more room to learn, and it's a much nicer environment. and while it doesn't pay as much, you can gain really valuable experience. of course i do come from the belief that pay isn't what's important, being happy is. i love my job, i couldn't ask for anything better, and while i could make a lot more money working for a company rather than a small private college, my work environment is far more flexible and relaxed. and i got my job solely on what i did for 1.5 years when i was a student. most colleges have similar student jobs, i recommend you look for them as a student. the other thing is you can probably get a job programming for a professor that's doing research.
this is the easiest option... i don't think i'd recommend using a cable or dsl connection without having some sort of firewall (not a software firewall on the machine in question, but something external like a broadband router or linux router) between the computer and the internet. they're cheap, they're easy to use, and you don't need to disable them to install updates.
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you can break the 30 wpm barrier without home row, but you better have fast hands.
it's definitely a very important skill. i sucked at typing when i actually took keyboarding in high school, but i did improve over the course of the year (or half year, i don't remember). i improved once i started chatting on instant messenger all the time. you had to be able to type fast so you could keep up with 30 different conversations at the same time. of course chatting made me forget how to do capital letters. i learned that from writing "professional" emails and letters to people (and my email program does not auto-capitalize like MS word).
i think i can type at about 100+ wpm with pretty good accuracy. if i'm copying something, it's slower, but if i'm typing something from my head, i fly with it. i don't think i'd be able to handle anything on a computer if i couldn't type as well as i do.
i'm talking about a link that brings you directly to the page where you enter your credit card info.
also might be something to note... any site where you are a registered user will ask you for your username and password before asking to update your credit card info. if the link automatically brings you to a page where you just enter your info, it's probably not legit.
and yes, i knew that. most email clients do that (especially the windows ones). but when you click on a link for www.paypal.com, it should take you to the main page, if it doesn't, then you should know something's up.
i've got credit cards on file with them as well. i've never had a email with a link other than the ups link.
paypal does not send links to verify credit card info. if you looked at the second paypal example on the test, it gave instructions, no link. the third paypal one (which was a legit email) was a link to UPS tracking info, which does not require a credit card number to access. the first paypal one was not legit. paypal also puts some sort of email identifier at the bottom.
i think the best one is the visa one with the button instead of a link. it's so obviously a scam. first, visa doesn't send customers emails, the bank that the card is through does (MBNA, citibank, etc). second, the button is just soooo sketchy.
selling pot or any drugs, selling pornography and cigarettes to those under 18, selling alcohol to those under 21, and prostution outside nevada (note it's illegal in vegas) are all illegal. there's no question about it. do i agree that it should be illegal? well, pot and prostitution should be legalized, but regulated. the alcohol, porn, and cigarettes are all things that should be illegal for people underage.
should i be worried about getting caught if i'm buying drugs? yes, the law says it's illegal. should i be worried about walking into a gay club? no, nothing illegal about it. will i get caught for practicing S&M in my home? no, my home is not under surveillance, only public areas where it is already illegal to practice this. are abortions illegal? nope. are you wrong for following around your wife if you feel she is going to kidnap your kids? if you haven't called the police about it first, yes, that's call stalking.
so what would the government do to abortion doctors? they can't do a thing. what does the government do to sado-masochists? nothing. what does the government do to gays? nothing that incriminates them, in fact, we have a gay senator in washington by the name of barney franks.
your argument is slightly flawed. while the other stuff is questionable, it's not stuff that can easily be detected by cameras. and if you are being watched by the government, they're gonna use other methods besides just cameras, so you have more to worry about.
they should've named it iTalk to go along with all the other apple names.
they are not evil in teh same sense that cops can just patrol more often and pick up the same amount of trouble that these cameras do. woudl you have a problem with higher police presence in cities? if you do, i have to laugh. just having a cop drive by on a regular basis reduces crime. knowing that you're on candid camera reduces crime (though some peopel are dumb enough). i don't think that they will stop the hardcore terrorists, but they will reduce crime. and the less crime that has to be worried about during the convention (especially around the fleet center), the more security can be devoted to worse things.
i also don't feel it's giving up a right having cameras around a city. it's less intrusive than having more cops walking the beat. and, as something that has already been argued, they will pick up police brutality as well. so while i don't think they help against terrorists, they do help against other forms of crime, which allows the actual security officers to pay attention to less petty things.
a camera is not an increase in government power. that's the problem i have with your argument. who's to say that a cop can't be driving aruond and say the same thing? and a camera has no tracking ability, it can't say "that's bob smith" when bob smith walks by. and for that reason, they can't get an individual for being part of a protest. and while the groundwork for doing what you explained may have been laid down (i have serious issues wtih the patriot act for the record), how many times has it occurred that they picked a random person out of a picture of a peaceful protest and argued they were a terrorist without having other "evidence" to say so? i know i shouldn't say that it hasn't happened so it won't because it can and may happen. but it's highly unlikely that they will get that sort of evidence from a security camera pointing over boston.
do you have issues with the webcams in cities across teh world, especially NYC? they're free for everyone to look at. but they aren't controlled by the government, so they're ok, right? who's to say taht the government can't look at the images from those cameras and use those against people?
i have issues with our current government, i have serious issues with it. but a security camera is not a highly accurate tracking device because you don't know who the people are. and once the convention is over, they fall into the hands of the city of boston, no longer the feds. so for about a week, they belong to the feds. if somehow the "intelligence" they got about terrorists disrupting the whole election process is true, then why not use cameras?
and you think that the cameras will be used for bad? they're fucking cameras for pete's sake. what can the government do with cameras? they can prove you committed a crime. they see suspicious activity, a video of said suspicious activity is not enough, so they send a cop to do a drive-by. the cop sees that there's nothing going on, reports back to headquarters, they move the camera to someone else. there's really nothing a camera will do to you unless you're breaking the law or looking like you are. if you're a law-abiding citizen what difference should it make to you? you're the one with nothing to worry about.
and for the record, i do not support bush in any manner. i am vehemently anti-bush (except the good kind of course).
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1093/Mptv/1093/96 79-8.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0106701
i think that's the closest you'll get. that's after the flower died and mr wilson got pissed.
i believe all primates have opposable thumbs... therefore, a monkey would have opposable thumbs (they also have opposable big toes, so they could use it with their feet as well).
i wonder if they are putting on sub-standard contestants so they can boost ratings with this guy. it's very possible. eventually the guy will meet his match, he can't be knowledgeable in everything (i think they should purposely put up more questions in those subjects he's admitted to not being that intelligent in and see what happens).
it's not like it's some great quiz show, even though it is the most popular. they still worry about ratings and stuff (not that merv griffin is running out of money or anything though). i think they should be working on getting the guy to lose... that's what i'd do.
this is a big key, he's figured out how to do this... it doesn't require a lot of knowledge...
also, the only reason he's the record holder is because they only recently removed the 5 day limit for being on the show. and i won't be surprised if they bring it back because while some people might think it's exciting to watch teh same guy win every night, others will find it boring. i don't think there's anything special about this guy at all. he's got a quick thumb, that's his weapon.
now in the case where there is no actual contract... where the job description is the one used in the job ad that you replied to... it says nothing about providing 24/7 support or needing you to be available after hours. they say nothing about this at the interview (you don't ask, but it's not your obligation to ask this sort of question). they say nothing about it when you fill out all your tax forms and everything when they hire you...
then you start work and they drop the bomb... who's responsibility is it? it shouldn't be your own since you knew nothing of this through the job ad, the job description, or the interview/hiring process.
and in your second case, it's a perk, part of your salary in a way. they can expect you to pick it up on your own, but they better be compensating you for it.
but yes... i agree... always read EVERYTHING before you sign ANYTHING.
while realistically, you are correct, but if employee #2 is available at his home phone (which every employer has access to), he's no worse an employee than #1. his job description does not require 24/7 access, why should he? if there's a deadline that he has to meet and he's meeting the deadline, then why should he work outside the office? if it comes down to the wire, he can always put in extra hours to get it done.
now... if they're system administrators that are required to offer 24/7 uptime, the company sure as hell should be paying for a pager/cellphone so that they can get ahold of them at anytime. otherwise, they should be provided with extra salary to cover these extra costs for job-related expenses.
but the issue at hand is it's in your contract and the company supplies the means to contact you after hours. all of a sudden the company decides they're no longer gonna pay for the means, but they still expect to be able to contact you, which means you must now take on the costs yourself. unless there's a salary increase, this is an unreasonable expectation since by providing the means for contact is considered a benefit, part of your "pay".
is it reasonable to expect someone to pay for their own broadband service, for their own personal computer at home, for their own cell phone, for their own pager, for whatever?
i think you are missing the point regardless of being paid salary. you aren't expected to have any of that stuff, and if they do expect that, then they need to at least increase your salary so you can afford the extra expenses they expect you to pick up. your salary is meant to compensate you for your time, you give them a service, they pay you for it. that salary is not meant to pay for work-related expenses. so while a bit more would be expected of someone on salary, it's also not within reason to expect that person to pay for all these work-related items if they normally wouldn't have them anyways.
the only way i'd work for a company that expected me to provide my own cell phone, computer, and broadband connection was if i knew they were paying me a fair amount higher than the average salary for my position.
have you ever smelled a rotting carcass?
no?
didn't think so...
because uconn is cooler... we won both the men's and women's ncaa basketball championships last year.
i can only read one of my magazines in paper. it's called relix. it's a jamband/music related magazine that's becoming bigger. it's been around for a while, but it's increasing it's publication and adding more non-music/non-jamband content. it's a great mag that is far better than rolling stone which seems to have sold out. even the political articles in rolling stone aren't that great anymore.
while relix has a website with some news on it, you can't get the whole magazine content. now you don't need a PC-related magazine to get what you can on the internet for free, but this one is great for my other hobby/interest.
porn comes second to playboy. the magazine and company stands for much more than naked women. it's about sexual freedom (you'll see that in a lot of the articles, especially the advisor). it's also very political. there's generally an entire section dedicated to political discussion. it's geared towards men, obviously, but not just because of hte pics. it's got great movie/dvd/book/video game/music reviews. it's got a section of info on generally "manly" things like cars or whatnot. it's an overall great magazine. i'd get it even if it didn't have the pics. maxim just doesn't offer the same quality in the non-"porn" articles.
there's one problem with maxim... the articles suck. it's just a crappy soft porn mag.
playboy, while being far more risque, has articles written on almost any topic. there's nothing in playboy other than the pics that any normal girl wouldn't want to read. i highly recommend it for hte political content and the interviews. the playboy advisor is also an excellent source of information. the way i look at it, i bought a great magazine that comes with an extra. the pics are just extra fluff to me. the articles are why i got it. and i got it for $12/year.
a lot of cd's come with windows logos on them because they have special features. if you read what you replied to carefully, you'd see taht it was most likely an enhanced cd. enhanced cd's do not cost more than regular cd's adn they work just fine on a standard cd player. the special features on them are on a small data track with stuff liek music videos as described above. sometimes they're windows executables, so you won't be able to run them in linux, sometimes they're mpegs or flash or something. nothing on the cd prevents you from copying the music or anything, it's not drm, it's not copy protected. if an indie band sold a cd that you could only play in windows, that'd be incredibly stupid, but they might throw in some extra features that will only run in windows. this is not a case of the band not understanding the audience. maybe if you took 2 more seconds to find out what the windows logo was there for, you'd be able to give more money to that indie band. but you're too high and mighty to have to deal with something that has a windows logo on it. your loss, not theirs. they'd probably prefer to have less pretentious fans anyways.
i did not graduate with a CS degree, in fact i wasn't even engineering or technical with my degree, it's in ecology and evolution, but it is a BS. either way. i learned about comptuers, taught myself stuff, got help installing linux, ran a little linux box for a while, and most importantly, got a job in college. most colleges have student jobs doing network stuff, tech support, programming, etc. any college student who doesn't have much real world experience should be looking for that type of job in their school.
it took me 2 years to find a job after i graduated, but i recently took a job in another college at their helpdesk. i'm not the average helpdesk person. it's a small college, so everyone works together and helps each other out. in addition to being able to learn some stuff from both students (generally about new technologies/issues) and my co-workers and anything they watn me to learn on my own (asp scripting), i get to dabble in a bunch of different stuff. i also manage student employees so i am not only gaining technical skills, but also supervisory/management skills. i'm not looking for a real engineering job, but i'm not planning on staying helpdesk forever either. i'd like to work up to maybe network administration or even management if i don't choose to completely change careers and go into education.
the moral of the story is it depends on what kind of helpdesk role you have. i highly recommend working for a small company or college. there's room to move up, there's more room to learn, and it's a much nicer environment. and while it doesn't pay as much, you can gain really valuable experience. of course i do come from the belief that pay isn't what's important, being happy is. i love my job, i couldn't ask for anything better, and while i could make a lot more money working for a company rather than a small private college, my work environment is far more flexible and relaxed. and i got my job solely on what i did for 1.5 years when i was a student. most colleges have similar student jobs, i recommend you look for them as a student. the other thing is you can probably get a job programming for a professor that's doing research.
this is the easiest option... i don't think i'd recommend using a cable or dsl connection without having some sort of firewall (not a software firewall on the machine in question, but something external like a broadband router or linux router) between the computer and the internet. they're cheap, they're easy to use, and you don't need to disable them to install updates.