From an employer perspective, I will never "pre-screen" a candidate by their Facebook profile - sure, I could discover your age, gender, nationality, and social activities by doing so, but these are all things I can guess from your application by comparing it to the position you applied for (and any others), the manner in which you applied, the other candidates who applied, and the contents of your resume/cover letter. Besides, none of these things will affect how employable you are before the interview. The contents of your resume, will.
Once inside the interview, I will never ask a potential candidate to show me their profile or "friend" me on Facebook to give me access to their personal data. Instead, I will simply have a conversation with you - ask you what you do outside of work to relax, what's important to you on a personal level, and how you cope with certain work environments. No Facebook profile or resume can convey this, but it is the most critical portion of the entire process.
Every candidate is different, but the thing that most forget is that once you get to the interview, the employer already knows you can do the job - you're just there so they can assess whether you're a good fit for the team. If you keep that in mind, you will ace every interview you go to. You may even start to ask yourself if the job is a good fit for you - a question which will eventually land you your dream job.
Disclaimer - I regularly recruit for one of Canada's Top 100 Employers.
Pretty much this. If you're stuck doing the song and dance for HR to get a job, it's your choice how to respond - we've all had to play that game to get past the front-door at some point in our lives.
But if this is coming from your future manager, and they insist that you show them your Facebook account, you should ask some serious questions about whether you want to work there or not. Any manager worth their salt will assess your "fit" for the team by simply having a coffee with you - only the inept or lazy will try to distill it down to the contents of your Facebook account, and this is likely the first in a long barrage of crap if you do take the job.
At first, I thought this sounded like iTunes Match, but for movies - load disc copy of movie into PC, receive rights to the original high-definition video file stored on Warner's servers. An easy and painless way to "launder" your collection of DVDs, no questions asked, with the kicker that each digital file is going to be DRM'ed and watermarked to prevent you from seeding it to The Pirate Bay. I'm sure most users would consider this a fair trade, even with an associated yearly fee, as they are getting something of value for very little effort - but it turns out I was wrong, and this is the most retarded idea they've come up with yet.
Seems like the marketing goonies got you - 24 Mbps is the theoretical maximum of ADSL2+. Kinda like how the theoretical maximum of dial-up is 56.6 Kbps - your local loop had to be blessed by the Gods "back in the day" to get exactly 56.6 Kbps. Getting 20 Mbps is pretty darn good.
Also, that first-hop of 10ms is likely your ISP's B-RAS - your Layer 3 gateway to the Internet, usually deep inside the CO and still a couple hops away from the Internet. Again, you have exceptional service if the B-RAS is 10ms away, and Internet only 17ms. The most common I see in Canada is 20ms/30ms, respectively.
More often than not, latency is caused by congestion and not number of hops. Hops do introduce latency, but few modern applications need to go very far. So, whether the customer intentionally (bit-torrent) or unintentionally (malware) introduced this congestion is the first thing a tech will check for - usually by disconnecting the local network and running a speed-test directly from a laptop. The latency could also be caused by a local wireless network which is saturated, underpowered, or experiencing interference. So if the wireline speed-test passes, a wireless speed-test is likely to happen next with the tech standing right beside the modem.
In the much more unlikely scenario that the latency is being introduced by the network itself, the technician will usually escalate the problem and check both the street-side cabinet (DSLAM in this case), and customer profile at the B-RAS deep inside the provider network. It is not uncommon to see a low-speed DSL profile applied to a poor quality local loop, or for the wrong Layer 3 profile to be applied by provisioning error on the B-RAS itself. Both scenarios would result in poor performance for the user, leading to congestion and therefore, latency.
Also if it's a pc can they have a pci-e slots so you can add a cable card tuner or a OTA tuner card? E-sata / room for more HDD's for DRV use.
A full web browser should be there, as well full web streaming so you can pick what you want / what your isp / tv providers offers.
We can call it the Steam Box - Clown Car Edition! Seriously though, you've just described any basic Home Entertainment PC. I believe the goal here is not to create a small form-factor PC that also runs Steam, but to bring PC titles directly to the living room - which means stripping the "fat" and focusing just on game delivery.
If Valve sticks true to the upgrade lifecycle, we won't have anything to worry about. For instance, I've been running the same i7 rig for nearly four years now - and it still runs every current title at maximum detail (yes, even Crysis 2!) with plenty of extra FPS. This is clearly due to developers focusing on cross-platform games designed to run on 7 year old Xbox hardware, so gaming hardware requirements have not progressed nearly as rapidly as they did a decade ago.
Haha, my "Get The Facts" materials came with a free subscription to Wired if I do recall. The funny part is, I never actually got around to reading the Microsoft stuff - our receptionist recycled it without hesitation. I knew this had happened when I saw only a copy of Wired on my desk.
Either the author is seriously mistaken about Sony competing with iOS/Android, or Sony is joking. Take at look at the prices of those handheld games - they're full price, some at $50 USD! Since everyone and their mother (and grandmother) already has an iOS device, there is no way Sony will claw back any revenue lost to the army of 99c Apps. Maybe from the Sony Devoted, but I can't see anyone dropping their iPad to buy a Vita (yet another gadget) when iOS delivers a mobile gaming experience already.
Seconded. I would rather hire a brand-new college graduate without any relevant work experience than someone who left a company because they couldn't adapt. At least the college grad is trying to leave their comfort zone and progress in the world.
A tip from someone who regularly hires into one of Canada's Top 100 Employers - channel your sentiment into a positive change within the company. Drive management towards FOSS platforms. Prove their value by providing feedback, and learn something valuable in the process. It's not going to be easy and there are no guarantees, but leaving a company and expecting to be "embraced" by another is seen as a liability during an interview, not a selling point, especially over something so trivial.
Frankly, I'm tired of dealing with retarded drivers. The only way to communicate with the guy tailing you or trying to cut you off is with your lights or your middle finger - but such actions are usually met with road rage, and usually do not result in a change of behaviour. After all, in the eyes of the other driver, you're the idiot who is going too slowly/waiting too long/doesn't know how to drive. In the end, the habits of poor drivers only change after they get into a serious car accident - and sometimes not even then, especially if they can profit from the event in court.
So I say, good on TomTom and good on the insurance companies who adopt this. Maybe having this month-to-month (or even instant?) feedback on money lost due to poor driving habits is what it takes for people to learn. Only time will tell if this system is abused, but if properly administered, I'll take four.
No, that was not a troll - the A4/A5 chips are based upon ARM chips, but have been modified to suit Apple's needs and currently represent their mobile processor line. What I took from the article was that Apple would be taking a brand new ARM chip (probably then modified) and then using it to drive Mac OS. You would then have three unique Apple architectures to develop for - iOS, Intel-based Mac OS, and ARM-based Mac OS. That sounds ugly, hence, "not this again"...
Apple learned their lesson last time with the G3/G4/G5 chips, and I find it hard to believe they would do something as stupid as introducing a third chipset (Intel, A4/A5, ARM) into the mix, especially with one of their mainstream laptops. Nobody wants to go through that - not the users, nor the developers.
A more likely scenario is a MacBook Air based upon iOS with a built-in touchscreen.
I know the area quite well. Each year, TELUS and Shaw create an expansion roadmap based upon profitability for certain areas. Unfortunately, business parks are not very profitable in terms of street-side cabinets due to their low density - so as you pointed out, it's much more cost-effective to have the businesses eat the cost of fiber construction. This can be made quite attractive, as even a five-figure fiber build can be amortized over a 5 year contract, but residential users are basically out of luck in this scenario.
The good news for you is that LTE is on the way from many providers, and so long as it is engineered properly in that area, should provide you with a high-bandwidth and low latency connection. Only time will tell.
Further to the point, they are going to wipe out brick-and-mortar distribution stores overnight - used games and warranties are the only things keeping those stores afloat today. These publishers better be ready for digital-only distribution the day they do this, but even then, they will have severely limited accessibility to their product. Weekend browsers, impulse shoppers, kids without credit cards, and parents shopping for their kids will all be impacted, and these are fairly large groups. Some consumers will adapt, but most will just move to platforms which provide greater value (99c iOS Apps, anyone?) for less hassle.
Now, I'm not saying that cutting out the middleman is a bad thing - Steam did this quite well, and to the benefit of everyone through their legendary Steam Sales. But I can't see a market dominated by big players accustomed to $60 price points adapting before their agile competitors snap-up a good chunk of their alleged profit.
The part I found interesting about the article is the focus on mobile devices - indeed, this is the area most likely to receive IPv6 before the public Internet at large. This becomes even more realistic when you throw LTE - a technology which is not strictly IP-based, being deployed by more operators worldwide virtually every day. The entire platform is almost a clean slate, as it were - a provider could conceivably activate an IPv6 gateway to their LTE network, and away they go. By contrast, this would be much easier than issuing IPv6 addresses over a well-established landscape of home routers. Just food for thought.
Following that train of thought, there is no doubt that some - maybe even all - of the graphics technologies in Crysis went into Frostbite for Battlefield 3, also published by EA. Put the two side-by-side and they are almost indistinguishable in terms of engine features and play feel. So EA and Crytek may cry foul on lost profits to pirates, but Crysis 2 was extremely valuable as a tech demo for their next big console and PC launch. Just food for thought.
Programmers can be outsourced. Employees with unique skills and an interest in the business can't be. Diversify yourself and stay engaged with your management and you will have nothing to worry about, even as a fresh grad.
Having your recipes on a large, portable, touch interface is light-years ahead of a laptop or PC in the kitchen. Not to mention the apps which demonstrate proper technique and ingredients, the iPad is actually a great culinary companion.
On one hand, you are correct - you need a superb loop to a nearby cabinet, and these cabinets must be attached to a fiber network. On the other hand, trenching new fiber to an existing home is prohibitively expensive, and then you need to replace the entire cabinet anyway to support fiber subscribers instead of copper! There are a few exceptions to this, such as aerial fiber, but this is rarely an option. If installing a new cabinet is not an option, an ISP will usually opt for wireless. Not entirely ideal, but a new realm of possibilities exists with LTE.
There is an important distinction to make when looking at upload speeds for any access technology. First of all, there is your train rate - this is the rate you are getting to the local cabinet. ADSL offered very little in terms of upload train rates, but VDSL2 is much more generous. For example, my VDSL2 at home is 60 Mbps/25 Mbps. Now, you also need to consider your committed rate, which is usually determined by your Layer 3 gateway inside the service provider network. My committed rate, right now, is actually 35 Mbps/3 Mbps. Some people call this "bandwidth throttling", others call it "quality of service", but what it comes down to is even though I'm talking at 60/25 to the cabinet, my service provider is only selling me 35/3.
Remember, the service providers built their networks to support the previous access technologies - DOCSIS v2 and ADSL. Nobody (well, almost nobody) complained about poor upload rates then, so why would the ISP all of a sudden decide to double, triple, or quadruple your rates just because the technology supports it? I doubt the local cabinets could even handle the traffic demand that would place upon it, and so long as that bandwidth could be used for new customers, what incentive is there to make a change? You will get your increased rates, but the ISPs will need to lay much, much more fiber before this happens.
Slashdot Mirror
From an employer perspective, I will never "pre-screen" a candidate by their Facebook profile - sure, I could discover your age, gender, nationality, and social activities by doing so, but these are all things I can guess from your application by comparing it to the position you applied for (and any others), the manner in which you applied, the other candidates who applied, and the contents of your resume/cover letter. Besides, none of these things will affect how employable you are before the interview. The contents of your resume, will.
Once inside the interview, I will never ask a potential candidate to show me their profile or "friend" me on Facebook to give me access to their personal data. Instead, I will simply have a conversation with you - ask you what you do outside of work to relax, what's important to you on a personal level, and how you cope with certain work environments. No Facebook profile or resume can convey this, but it is the most critical portion of the entire process.
Every candidate is different, but the thing that most forget is that once you get to the interview, the employer already knows you can do the job - you're just there so they can assess whether you're a good fit for the team. If you keep that in mind, you will ace every interview you go to. You may even start to ask yourself if the job is a good fit for you - a question which will eventually land you your dream job.
Disclaimer - I regularly recruit for one of Canada's Top 100 Employers.
Pretty much this. If you're stuck doing the song and dance for HR to get a job, it's your choice how to respond - we've all had to play that game to get past the front-door at some point in our lives.
But if this is coming from your future manager, and they insist that you show them your Facebook account, you should ask some serious questions about whether you want to work there or not. Any manager worth their salt will assess your "fit" for the team by simply having a coffee with you - only the inept or lazy will try to distill it down to the contents of your Facebook account, and this is likely the first in a long barrage of crap if you do take the job.
At first, I thought this sounded like iTunes Match, but for movies - load disc copy of movie into PC, receive rights to the original high-definition video file stored on Warner's servers. An easy and painless way to "launder" your collection of DVDs, no questions asked, with the kicker that each digital file is going to be DRM'ed and watermarked to prevent you from seeding it to The Pirate Bay. I'm sure most users would consider this a fair trade, even with an associated yearly fee, as they are getting something of value for very little effort - but it turns out I was wrong, and this is the most retarded idea they've come up with yet.
Seems like the marketing goonies got you - 24 Mbps is the theoretical maximum of ADSL2+. Kinda like how the theoretical maximum of dial-up is 56.6 Kbps - your local loop had to be blessed by the Gods "back in the day" to get exactly 56.6 Kbps. Getting 20 Mbps is pretty darn good.
Also, that first-hop of 10ms is likely your ISP's B-RAS - your Layer 3 gateway to the Internet, usually deep inside the CO and still a couple hops away from the Internet. Again, you have exceptional service if the B-RAS is 10ms away, and Internet only 17ms. The most common I see in Canada is 20ms/30ms, respectively.
More often than not, latency is caused by congestion and not number of hops. Hops do introduce latency, but few modern applications need to go very far. So, whether the customer intentionally (bit-torrent) or unintentionally (malware) introduced this congestion is the first thing a tech will check for - usually by disconnecting the local network and running a speed-test directly from a laptop. The latency could also be caused by a local wireless network which is saturated, underpowered, or experiencing interference. So if the wireline speed-test passes, a wireless speed-test is likely to happen next with the tech standing right beside the modem.
In the much more unlikely scenario that the latency is being introduced by the network itself, the technician will usually escalate the problem and check both the street-side cabinet (DSLAM in this case), and customer profile at the B-RAS deep inside the provider network. It is not uncommon to see a low-speed DSL profile applied to a poor quality local loop, or for the wrong Layer 3 profile to be applied by provisioning error on the B-RAS itself. Both scenarios would result in poor performance for the user, leading to congestion and therefore, latency.
Also if it's a pc can they have a pci-e slots so you can add a cable card tuner or a OTA tuner card? E-sata / room for more HDD's for DRV use.
A full web browser should be there, as well full web streaming so you can pick what you want / what your isp / tv providers offers.
We can call it the Steam Box - Clown Car Edition! Seriously though, you've just described any basic Home Entertainment PC. I believe the goal here is not to create a small form-factor PC that also runs Steam, but to bring PC titles directly to the living room - which means stripping the "fat" and focusing just on game delivery.
If Valve sticks true to the upgrade lifecycle, we won't have anything to worry about. For instance, I've been running the same i7 rig for nearly four years now - and it still runs every current title at maximum detail (yes, even Crysis 2!) with plenty of extra FPS. This is clearly due to developers focusing on cross-platform games designed to run on 7 year old Xbox hardware, so gaming hardware requirements have not progressed nearly as rapidly as they did a decade ago.
Haha, my "Get The Facts" materials came with a free subscription to Wired if I do recall. The funny part is, I never actually got around to reading the Microsoft stuff - our receptionist recycled it without hesitation. I knew this had happened when I saw only a copy of Wired on my desk.
Either the author is seriously mistaken about Sony competing with iOS/Android, or Sony is joking. Take at look at the prices of those handheld games - they're full price, some at $50 USD! Since everyone and their mother (and grandmother) already has an iOS device, there is no way Sony will claw back any revenue lost to the army of 99c Apps. Maybe from the Sony Devoted, but I can't see anyone dropping their iPad to buy a Vita (yet another gadget) when iOS delivers a mobile gaming experience already.
Seconded. I would rather hire a brand-new college graduate without any relevant work experience than someone who left a company because they couldn't adapt. At least the college grad is trying to leave their comfort zone and progress in the world.
A tip from someone who regularly hires into one of Canada's Top 100 Employers - channel your sentiment into a positive change within the company. Drive management towards FOSS platforms. Prove their value by providing feedback, and learn something valuable in the process. It's not going to be easy and there are no guarantees, but leaving a company and expecting to be "embraced" by another is seen as a liability during an interview, not a selling point, especially over something so trivial.
Frankly, I'm tired of dealing with retarded drivers. The only way to communicate with the guy tailing you or trying to cut you off is with your lights or your middle finger - but such actions are usually met with road rage, and usually do not result in a change of behaviour. After all, in the eyes of the other driver, you're the idiot who is going too slowly/waiting too long/doesn't know how to drive. In the end, the habits of poor drivers only change after they get into a serious car accident - and sometimes not even then, especially if they can profit from the event in court. So I say, good on TomTom and good on the insurance companies who adopt this. Maybe having this month-to-month (or even instant?) feedback on money lost due to poor driving habits is what it takes for people to learn. Only time will tell if this system is abused, but if properly administered, I'll take four.
No, that was not a troll - the A4/A5 chips are based upon ARM chips, but have been modified to suit Apple's needs and currently represent their mobile processor line. What I took from the article was that Apple would be taking a brand new ARM chip (probably then modified) and then using it to drive Mac OS. You would then have three unique Apple architectures to develop for - iOS, Intel-based Mac OS, and ARM-based Mac OS. That sounds ugly, hence, "not this again"...
Apple learned their lesson last time with the G3/G4/G5 chips, and I find it hard to believe they would do something as stupid as introducing a third chipset (Intel, A4/A5, ARM) into the mix, especially with one of their mainstream laptops. Nobody wants to go through that - not the users, nor the developers.
A more likely scenario is a MacBook Air based upon iOS with a built-in touchscreen.
I know the area quite well. Each year, TELUS and Shaw create an expansion roadmap based upon profitability for certain areas. Unfortunately, business parks are not very profitable in terms of street-side cabinets due to their low density - so as you pointed out, it's much more cost-effective to have the businesses eat the cost of fiber construction. This can be made quite attractive, as even a five-figure fiber build can be amortized over a 5 year contract, but residential users are basically out of luck in this scenario.
The good news for you is that LTE is on the way from many providers, and so long as it is engineered properly in that area, should provide you with a high-bandwidth and low latency connection. Only time will tell.
Further to the point, they are going to wipe out brick-and-mortar distribution stores overnight - used games and warranties are the only things keeping those stores afloat today. These publishers better be ready for digital-only distribution the day they do this, but even then, they will have severely limited accessibility to their product. Weekend browsers, impulse shoppers, kids without credit cards, and parents shopping for their kids will all be impacted, and these are fairly large groups. Some consumers will adapt, but most will just move to platforms which provide greater value (99c iOS Apps, anyone?) for less hassle.
Now, I'm not saying that cutting out the middleman is a bad thing - Steam did this quite well, and to the benefit of everyone through their legendary Steam Sales. But I can't see a market dominated by big players accustomed to $60 price points adapting before their agile competitors snap-up a good chunk of their alleged profit.
The part I found interesting about the article is the focus on mobile devices - indeed, this is the area most likely to receive IPv6 before the public Internet at large. This becomes even more realistic when you throw LTE - a technology which is not strictly IP-based, being deployed by more operators worldwide virtually every day. The entire platform is almost a clean slate, as it were - a provider could conceivably activate an IPv6 gateway to their LTE network, and away they go. By contrast, this would be much easier than issuing IPv6 addresses over a well-established landscape of home routers. Just food for thought.
Following that train of thought, there is no doubt that some - maybe even all - of the graphics technologies in Crysis went into Frostbite for Battlefield 3, also published by EA. Put the two side-by-side and they are almost indistinguishable in terms of engine features and play feel. So EA and Crytek may cry foul on lost profits to pirates, but Crysis 2 was extremely valuable as a tech demo for their next big console and PC launch. Just food for thought.
Publishers have fled to the consoles in record numbers. Now all that PC gamers get is crappy console ports.
Santa gave someone a bad PC game this year... =)
You mean investment, don't you? That thing the United States forgot all about amidst slashing budgets to hand out bailouts?
The bats would be optional then - I'd eat the mosquitoes if they were mango flavored!
Why not turn the tables? I'd love to see a website that tracks the companies that help violate human rights.
Julian Assange called...
Programmers can be outsourced. Employees with unique skills and an interest in the business can't be. Diversify yourself and stay engaged with your management and you will have nothing to worry about, even as a fresh grad.
Having your recipes on a large, portable, touch interface is light-years ahead of a laptop or PC in the kitchen. Not to mention the apps which demonstrate proper technique and ingredients, the iPad is actually a great culinary companion.
On one hand, you are correct - you need a superb loop to a nearby cabinet, and these cabinets must be attached to a fiber network. On the other hand, trenching new fiber to an existing home is prohibitively expensive, and then you need to replace the entire cabinet anyway to support fiber subscribers instead of copper! There are a few exceptions to this, such as aerial fiber, but this is rarely an option. If installing a new cabinet is not an option, an ISP will usually opt for wireless. Not entirely ideal, but a new realm of possibilities exists with LTE.
There is an important distinction to make when looking at upload speeds for any access technology. First of all, there is your train rate - this is the rate you are getting to the local cabinet. ADSL offered very little in terms of upload train rates, but VDSL2 is much more generous. For example, my VDSL2 at home is 60 Mbps/25 Mbps. Now, you also need to consider your committed rate, which is usually determined by your Layer 3 gateway inside the service provider network. My committed rate, right now, is actually 35 Mbps/3 Mbps. Some people call this "bandwidth throttling", others call it "quality of service", but what it comes down to is even though I'm talking at 60/25 to the cabinet, my service provider is only selling me 35/3.
Remember, the service providers built their networks to support the previous access technologies - DOCSIS v2 and ADSL. Nobody (well, almost nobody) complained about poor upload rates then, so why would the ISP all of a sudden decide to double, triple, or quadruple your rates just because the technology supports it? I doubt the local cabinets could even handle the traffic demand that would place upon it, and so long as that bandwidth could be used for new customers, what incentive is there to make a change? You will get your increased rates, but the ISPs will need to lay much, much more fiber before this happens.