Lets make a distinction here. The vast majority of so-called e-mail virii are VB virii, that exploit weaknesses in Outlooks security to hide inside attachements and run without the users knowledge. They think they're opening a picture of AnnaK, instead they get infected. Just how is a virus of this variety going to run in a mailer like mutt that doesn't have built-in scripting??? You have to detach the attachement, then set it's permissions to executable, then execute it. Only a total fool would do that.
Yes, UNIX-type system have worms, but they're a damn sight harder to write, and do a lot less damage. Yes we will see more of them, but at least we try to build systems that will fight them, not welcome them with open arms.
Try doing Google on "illustrator software vector drawing" and Sattler's page is 5th from top, before even Adobe!!! Google even high-lights the words "similar to Adobe Illustrator". No wonder their sharky eyes lit up with euro signs!
How much you want to bet that some smart-ass lawyer from the firm typed illustrator in Google, and Dr Kai-Uwe's page was the first KIllustrator one he found physically in Germany, enabling him to C&D and send his bill???
"RSW is an internationally engaged firm that works with competant partners worldwide to obtain and enforce intellectual property rights."
"Having built its foundations upon a reputation synonymous with an engaging, individualised style of consultation, competitive fees and prompt and exact execution, the firm... has been able to enjoy many years of continuous growth."
So, a firm of sharks whose sole purpose is to build a portfolio of rights, then earn a living off cease and desist letters.
My advice to the good Doctor is to demand the sharks provide confirmation from Adobe head office in the US that they agree to the action taken on their behalf.
Anyone else get the feeling these are rouge IP lawyers acting without prior approval from Adobe, nor with any clue as to what Open-Source/Free Software is???
I'd say these are IP lawyers that Adobe licensed to enforce their IP in Germany. The lawyers use it as a cash-cow, going around extorting money from any hapless programmer who gets too close. I'd guess not a cent makes it's way back to Adobe. I bet Adobe doesn't even know this is happening.
The worst part is demanding the destruction of KIllustrator, talk about stomping over other peoples IP rights! I was in favour of paying the fine, changing the name, and moving on, but not now. We shouldn't be forced to destroy Killi (R), we need to fight this.
So, how can we politely contact someone important at Adobe and get them to make the lawyers see sense? A case for Bruce Perens, perhaps, to put on his HP hat and go door-knocking?
Failing that, we're going to need a fighting fund. I'm good for a $100.
Too late... M$ already has mapping products based on the Public Domain USGS data (and other PD governement sources as well). And by re-formatting the data, they get copyright on their version of the database, and can sell it at their usual over-inflated price...
That's why Bill loves PD and is trying so hard to stop the govenment using GPL...
Nice try, but it's still only a survey of peoples opinions, and people lie, especially to people taking surveys. It's not hard fact, and that's what it's going to take to convince the RIAA guys who make all their decisions based on the bottom line.
So what's needed? A study of say 5000 people, that for 6 months records all the MP3's they download, and all the CD's they purchase. Compare this to an equivalent control group who don't download. Crunch the numbers, and see who buys more CD's, see if there is a link between sampling and purchasing. Then show the numbers to the RIAA, watch the dollar signs light up in their eyes as they realise we were right all along...
Now, don't get me wrong, this Xt stuff sounds like a Good Thing(TM), it's just a shame he feels he has to talk it up at the expense of Qt/GTK. He makes a lot of good technical points, but wraps them up in a whole bundle of M$-style FUD. Anyone would think he was trying to sell you something. Oh, wait, he is...
A few choice quotes...
There are things Qt in particular does better than Motif: it is nicer to program with, for example. As a language, Motif does show its age. However, that doesn't make a hoot of difference when you have an end product to produce.
When you have an end product to produce, it does make a hoot of difference. If a tool-kit is nicer to program with, you code faster and with fewer bugs.
It does not matter how elegant a toolkit is in terms of programmer taste if at the end of the day the product derived from the toolkit is
shorn of customizability, internationalization,
attribute configuration, or a standardized way
of working.
Compare this to his later statement:
Xt/Motif provides built-in standard methods for
user customizability of components, which
includes built-in internationalization capability.
The internationalization issue may prove to be
a key killing point for Qt/GTK+.
So, does he think internationalisation is important or not?
The commercial world writes product for customers and users; the Linux community writes software for programmers.
Funny, when it comes to programming toolkits, I thought the programmer WAS the customer/user? I've yet to meet the CEO or end-user who gave a toss what toolkit I used, so long as it did what they wanted.
The nature of the software being produced with Qt and GTK+ is yet more software for programmers. KDE, GNOME, and the like aren't about products and customers at all.
OK, so all those desk-top apps I'm using are only for programmers? KDE and Gnome are about building a better environment for developers and users to work in. Now that these environments are maturing nicely, the products will come. It's the same factors that led to CDE and Motif being developed in the first place.
Indeed, there is no commercial GUI builder for Qt or GTK+.
Kylix anyone? And why does it need to be commercial, like that inherently makes it better?
There are a number of private programs available, but as far as companies go, this is a no-no because it fails to guarantee any kind of continuance, stability, or development. Compare this with the Open Group's license for maintaining Motif, guaranteed by contract. Continued development is absolutely guaranteed. The same cannot be said about Qt or GTK+. The commercial infrastructure just isn't in place.
Not sure what license they use, but it's commercial right? So if Open Group goes under, what's the use of a support contract? Continued developement is not guarenteed, unless they just invented some new economic model that means they can't fail. At least GPL means there's a whole community behind QT/GTK who can pick the baton up and run with it.
Now, it is true that Motif has features that QT/GTK can't compete with. Yet. Motif's been around for how long now? 15/20 years? Give QT/GTK that long and they too will have all those features. But by then they too will have been superceded by the Next Big Thing, that's the nature of the industry.
Hmm, I notice from the screenshot name this is part of the QT3.0 release, which includes some other goodies I've been looking forward to, like a DB API and data-aware widgets. So, anyone out there care to speculate on a release date?
Oh, and on the subject of de-facto standards, IIRC QT is used by Boland in Kylix, and will be used in the next generation of Delphi6/C++ Builder on Windows. That could be a fair chunk of the developer market, anyone got figures on how big? Regardless, it' a lot of windows developers who will soon have a viable dual-platform developement environment, based on QT.
Another thought, Borland already have JBuilder for the Mac (being coded in Java, it's an easyish port), what odds on a Mac Delphi/Kylix/C++ port coming soon?
Apologies accepted:-) Don't know if it's Slash, the net or my proxy, but the response time is lagging at this end, so I missed your first correction.
But it does go to prove how few people know about the changes. Finding an agency who did was a nightmare, and forget about employers, one mention of the P word and they run the other way...
I've been through the process twice now, once the old way in 1998, and now the Shortage way. The experience was a million times better second time around:-)
According to my agency, they're currently averaging an 8 day turn-around on all their IT applications.
Mate, do it. Even if for just a year. It's a lot of fun, and the money is worth it, but only if you contract. Think anywhere between 30 and 50 pounds an hour. Do 40 hours a week. For a year. Even if you throw money away like there's no tomorrow, you can come back with heaps. One friend saved NZ$100,000 in a year. I'm about to go again, and plan to come back with at least $50,000 as a house deposit. That's the power of a 3:1 exchange rate.
Even if you don't bring back much money, the ex-pat lifestyle, and the travel opportunities, make it worthwhile. And you come back appreciating just how good we really do have it.
That was true 3 years ago, that's how I got my first permit, and it took 3 months. Now, however, there's new rules, thanks to the Y2K inspired IT skills shortage.
While the above system still applies to most jobs, there is a shortage occupation list. If your job is on the list, all you need is a relevant degree, or any degree with 1 years relevant experience, and you're in. Automatic. And it takes less than 2 weeks to approve. No proving there's no-one else in the EU, no advertising searches, nothing.
What's on the list? Most anything technical in IT (code-monkeys and sys-admins), nurses, doctors, certain engineers and teachers (if you're willing to work in East-End hell).
Other rule changes allow you to take secondary employment, and to change roles within the company , so long as the skills requirement stays the same. Approved large international companies can self-issue permits, and e-mail applications are also available.
There's even a proposal to allow highly-skilled workers to self-apply before finding employment, but the governments not going to touch that one until after the election:-)
As for entry visas, same rules apply as for being a tourist. If you're a Yank, Canuck, Aussie or Kiwi, just turn up at the airport, flash you're permit, and you're in, no hassle. If, on the other hand, you're from a "restricted" nation (i.e. your skin tone is anything darker than ivory), then you do have to do the visa hassle. However, this has no bearing on your work permit application, which is solely judged on your skills, so it's "just" an inconvenience.
Of course, if you're already in the country and applying to change your tourist visa, then they DO get VERY difficult. Not recommended.
Full details can be found at www.workpermits.gov.uk
I can sympathise with you about the hassle of finding a sponsor, been there, done that. Usually, it's because of ignorance about the visa system, or greed. So let's spell the rules out for the UK:
If you have an IT degree, or any degree with 1 years IT experience, and the job appears on the shortage occupation list (i.e. almost anything in IT), then the work permit is automatic, and takes about 2 weeks to be issued. The employer can fill out the application themselves, and it doesn't cost them anything. Check out www.workpermits.gov.uk for full details.
I've found that most UK IT recruitment consultants are ignorant of the rules and take some convincing. I even had one consultant who didn't believe me, and so she checked with the immigration consultant firm they usually used. The immigration consultant, the greedy bastard, told her I was lying, and that it was so hard to do that they needed to be involved and it would cost about a thousand pounds. Needless to say, I was no longer considered for the job.
The key, obviously, is to find a good recruitment consultant, one that knows about the rules, and is used to convincing employers to sponsor people. After too many bastards, I may have found a good one in www.abbeywood.com, time will tell, but certainly they're open to sponsoring visas. In general avoid the really small outfits, they're just cowboys out to rip people off. Some of the big internatioanl recruiters should also be used to dealing with visas.
If you are approaching companies directly, try the big international firms, they're used to dealing with permits. Otherwise, be prepared to tell them about how easy it is. I do this by emailing them a completed application form, just to show how easy it is, and give them the phone number of the work permit people to ring and ask verify.
Of course, as some people have already mentioned, if you have English or Irish grandparents, or your spouse has, then you're in like Flynn. The UK will give you a 4 year residency permit, allowing you to work there, and after 4 years, you can claim permenant residency.
The number one IT job search site in the UK is www.jobserve.com, if it's not there, it's not available.
I've been looking for a decent Linux genealogy app, the existing ones are all a bit crappy, and the projects for new ones are run by wanna-be's who only talk and don't actually achieve anything.
I've become so frustrated, I've started designing my own and have been pondering over the object/relational thing and language/toolkit issues.
If yours is any good, I might as well throw mine away, no use re-inventing the wheel:-)
Re:Valley startup syndrome. My life in a bucket.
on
Coder on the Cross
·
· Score: 1
When the Boss came back to bitch about the bug-fixes, he knew what he was doing. He has you pegged as the sort of person that he can keep loading all the crap jobs on, knowing that you will keep taking them on, and keep on delivering (even if a little late), unlike the others who bitch and moan and refuse to take it. By nagging about the bug fixes, he keeps the fire under your ass and relys on your guilt to keep you moving at 200%. He's just being a bastard to get the work done and make himself look good, standard management practise, really.
Some free advice from someone who's been there, done that: push back. Refuse to take on the extra crap, manage your workload downwards.
And when you do leave, at the exit interview, make sure they know why, it's the sweetest revenge.
I think The Kompany has given considerably more to the Open Source community than it has taken. Check out the list of Free, free, GPL'ed software they have developed:
Aethera
KDB
kamera
KDE Studio
Kivio
Korelib
Kugar
PyQT/PyKDE
Rekall
VeePee
Now compare that to their commercial products:
Blackadder
Kapital
KDE Studio Gold
Powerplant
Three of those are merely souped up versions of Free products where you pay for extra features, packaging and support. Only Kapital doesn't (yet) have a Free version. And for those of us who care about keeping track of our finances, it's worth the $30.
It's horses for courses. If you're running a web-site like Slashdot, MySQL/PostgreSQL should do. If, on the other hand, you're running a bank or telco, you need the big guys like DB2 or Oracle for consistency, reliability and speed. And forget MSSQL, it's not a true enterprise DB yet.
Try processing 100 million phone call records in a 4 hour batch window, or storing a few trillion dollars worth of bank accounts in MySQL and you'll soon see what I mean.
Hell, there are times when even the big databases can't cope, and we have to use flat files and assembler code. You choose the best solution for the job, whatever your personal preferences.
Van Goughs paintings are actually incrediably accurate, especially the nature ones. Like most artists, he would spend hours just sitting and watching a scene before committing anything to canvas. The details are all there, it's just how he represents them that makes him great. He saw the ordinary in a whole new way, and that wasn't just the Abstinth talking...
Towards the end, van Gough was knocking off paintings in a matter of only a couple of hours as a deliberate technique. Because the paint didn't dry fully, the brushstrokes would bleed into each other, altering the colours and diffusing the edges to give that "blurry" effect.
This is very different to his earlir pontilism period where he would paint a base colour, let it dry fully, then daub individual points of colour on the canvas, letting them dry fully so there was no bleeding or blurring.
He also had the habit of doing two copies. For example, he knocked off a quick portrait to give to Dr Gachet, then made a better copy to keep for himself as a method of refining the composition and his technique.
The result is perhaps mundane - when a painting was painted is not earth-shattering news.
At a time when van Goughs are selling for tens of millions of dollars, and some "experts" are claiming that up to one third of all van Goughs are fakes, setting a date like this is invaluable, especially for a painting that has mysteriously appeared after so long. By tying down a date and a building in this fashion, it almost seals the provenance of the painting. It also fits with what we know about his style, method and speed at this point of time. This is a great example of how science has become more and more important in historical studies.
The problem for art historians with van Gough is that he left very poor records of what he painted, partly because he sold so few of them, so we have no gallery sales records.
One thing that does bug me, though, is that the only other person to identify the particular house in the painting was Dr Gachets son. The same "experts" who who think that many van Goughs are fakes, point the finger at Gachets son, a failed artist, as a possible culpruit for some of them.
Joy: No, it's a problem. It's that the rights of the artists aren't being respected that I think is the problem. And with CD writers and MP3s and Napster, the artists have lost control of the uses of their recordings.
Sorry, all due respect Bill, but open your eyes, the artists DO NOT have control over their own recordings. It is the record companies that hold the copyright, and control the music, and the artists can't do squat to stop them doing stuff the artists don't won't, like letting the songs be used in ad's, or releasing greatest hits records long after the artist has left the label.
Contrast this with the books you insist you care about. The copyright rests with the author. If you really care about the rights of musicians, expend your lobbying efforts to get their rights enshrined in law. Then the artists can decide for themselves about the digital rights, not be dictated to by the money-hungrey labels.
New Zealand is another example of a market which seems to be working well.
ROFL!
Seems the free-market idealogue's propaganda machine has been feeding you their carefully crafted crap. Don't believe everything you read, go talk to the locals (and I don't mean big business), and see what they have to say about the mess...
Slashdot Mirror
Lets make a distinction here. The vast majority of so-called e-mail virii are VB virii, that exploit weaknesses in Outlooks security to hide inside attachements and run without the users knowledge. They think they're opening a picture of AnnaK, instead they get infected. Just how is a virus of this variety going to run in a mailer like mutt that doesn't have built-in scripting??? You have to detach the attachement, then set it's permissions to executable, then execute it. Only a total fool would do that.
Yes, UNIX-type system have worms, but they're a damn sight harder to write, and do a lot less damage. Yes we will see more of them, but at least we try to build systems that will fight them, not welcome them with open arms.
Try doing Google on "illustrator software vector drawing" and Sattler's page is 5th from top, before even Adobe!!! Google even high-lights the words "similar to Adobe Illustrator". No wonder their sharky eyes lit up with euro signs!
How much you want to bet that some smart-ass lawyer from the firm typed illustrator in Google, and Dr Kai-Uwe's page was the first KIllustrator one he found physically in Germany, enabling him to C&D and send his bill???
Confirmed. Just read their web-site:
... has been able to enjoy many years of continuous growth."
"RSW is an internationally engaged firm that works with competant partners worldwide to obtain and enforce intellectual property rights."
"Having built its foundations upon a reputation synonymous with an engaging, individualised style of consultation, competitive fees and prompt and exact execution, the firm
So, a firm of sharks whose sole purpose is to build a portfolio of rights, then earn a living off cease and desist letters.
My advice to the good Doctor is to demand the sharks provide confirmation from Adobe head office in the US that they agree to the action taken on their behalf.
Anyone else get the feeling these are rouge IP lawyers acting without prior approval from Adobe, nor with any clue as to what Open-Source/Free Software is???
I'd say these are IP lawyers that Adobe licensed to enforce their IP in Germany. The lawyers use it as a cash-cow, going around extorting money from any hapless programmer who gets too close. I'd guess not a cent makes it's way back to Adobe. I bet Adobe doesn't even know this is happening.
The worst part is demanding the destruction of KIllustrator, talk about stomping over other peoples IP rights! I was in favour of paying the fine, changing the name, and moving on, but not now. We shouldn't be forced to destroy Killi (R), we need to fight this.
So, how can we politely contact someone important at Adobe and get them to make the lawyers see sense? A case for Bruce Perens, perhaps, to put on his HP hat and go door-knocking?
Failing that, we're going to need a fighting fund. I'm good for a $100.
Too late... M$ already has mapping products based on the Public Domain USGS data (and other PD governement sources as well). And by re-formatting the data, they get copyright on their version of the database, and can sell it at their usual over-inflated price...
That's why Bill loves PD and is trying so hard to stop the govenment using GPL...
Nice try, but it's still only a survey of peoples opinions, and people lie, especially to people taking surveys. It's not hard fact, and that's what it's going to take to convince the RIAA guys who make all their decisions based on the bottom line.
So what's needed? A study of say 5000 people, that for 6 months records all the MP3's they download, and all the CD's they purchase. Compare this to an equivalent control group who don't download. Crunch the numbers, and see who buys more CD's, see if there is a link between sampling and purchasing. Then show the numbers to the RIAA, watch the dollar signs light up in their eyes as they realise we were right all along...
QT3.0 does this, beta 1's just been released.
A few choice quotes...
There are things Qt in particular does better than Motif: it is nicer to program with, for example. As a language, Motif does show its age. However, that doesn't make a hoot of difference when you have an end product to produce.
When you have an end product to produce, it does make a hoot of difference. If a tool-kit is nicer to program with, you code faster and with fewer bugs.
It does not matter how elegant a toolkit is in terms of programmer taste if at the end of the day the product derived from the toolkit is shorn of customizability, internationalization, attribute configuration, or a standardized way of working.
Compare this to his later statement:
Xt/Motif provides built-in standard methods for user customizability of components, which includes built-in internationalization capability. The internationalization issue may prove to be a key killing point for Qt/GTK+.
So, does he think internationalisation is important or not?
The commercial world writes product for customers and users; the Linux community writes software for programmers.
Funny, when it comes to programming toolkits, I thought the programmer WAS the customer/user? I've yet to meet the CEO or end-user who gave a toss what toolkit I used, so long as it did what they wanted.
The nature of the software being produced with Qt and GTK+ is yet more software for programmers. KDE, GNOME, and the like aren't about products and customers at all.
OK, so all those desk-top apps I'm using are only for programmers? KDE and Gnome are about building a better environment for developers and users to work in. Now that these environments are maturing nicely, the products will come. It's the same factors that led to CDE and Motif being developed in the first place.
Indeed, there is no commercial GUI builder for Qt or GTK+.
Kylix anyone? And why does it need to be commercial, like that inherently makes it better?
There are a number of private programs available, but as far as companies go, this is a no-no because it fails to guarantee any kind of continuance, stability, or development. Compare this with the Open Group's license for maintaining Motif, guaranteed by contract. Continued development is absolutely guaranteed. The same cannot be said about Qt or GTK+. The commercial infrastructure just isn't in place.
Not sure what license they use, but it's commercial right? So if Open Group goes under, what's the use of a support contract? Continued developement is not guarenteed, unless they just invented some new economic model that means they can't fail. At least GPL means there's a whole community behind QT/GTK who can pick the baton up and run with it.
Now, it is true that Motif has features that QT/GTK can't compete with. Yet. Motif's been around for how long now? 15/20 years? Give QT/GTK that long and they too will have all those features. But by then they too will have been superceded by the Next Big Thing, that's the nature of the industry.
Hmm, I notice from the screenshot name this is part of the QT3.0 release, which includes some other goodies I've been looking forward to, like a DB API and data-aware widgets. So, anyone out there care to speculate on a release date?
Oh, and on the subject of de-facto standards, IIRC QT is used by Boland in Kylix, and will be used in the next generation of Delphi6/C++ Builder on Windows. That could be a fair chunk of the developer market, anyone got figures on how big? Regardless, it' a lot of windows developers who will soon have a viable dual-platform developement environment, based on QT.
Another thought, Borland already have JBuilder for the Mac (being coded in Java, it's an easyish port), what odds on a Mac Delphi/Kylix/C++ port coming soon?
Apologies accepted :-) Don't know if it's Slash, the net or my proxy, but the response time is lagging at this end, so I missed your first correction.
But it does go to prove how few people know about the changes. Finding an agency who did was a nightmare, and forget about employers, one mention of the P word and they run the other way...
Ah, no, see my response to your post above.
:-)
Three words: "Shortage Occupation List"
I've been through the process twice now, once the old way in 1998, and now the Shortage way. The experience was a million times better second time around
According to my agency, they're currently averaging an 8 day turn-around on all their IT applications.
Mate, do it. Even if for just a year. It's a lot of fun, and the money is worth it, but only if you contract. Think anywhere between 30 and 50 pounds an hour. Do 40 hours a week. For a year. Even if you throw money away like there's no tomorrow, you can come back with heaps. One friend saved NZ$100,000 in a year. I'm about to go again, and plan to come back with at least $50,000 as a house deposit. That's the power of a 3:1 exchange rate.
Even if you don't bring back much money, the ex-pat lifestyle, and the travel opportunities, make it worthwhile. And you come back appreciating just how good we really do have it.
That was true 3 years ago, that's how I got my first permit, and it took 3 months. Now, however, there's new rules, thanks to the Y2K inspired IT skills shortage.
:-)
While the above system still applies to most jobs, there is a shortage occupation list. If your job is on the list, all you need is a relevant degree, or any degree with 1 years relevant experience, and you're in. Automatic. And it takes less than 2 weeks to approve. No proving there's no-one else in the EU, no advertising searches, nothing.
What's on the list? Most anything technical in IT (code-monkeys and sys-admins), nurses, doctors, certain engineers and teachers (if you're willing to work in East-End hell).
Other rule changes allow you to take secondary employment, and to change roles within the company , so long as the skills requirement stays the same. Approved large international companies can self-issue permits, and e-mail applications are also available.
There's even a proposal to allow highly-skilled workers to self-apply before finding employment, but the governments not going to touch that one until after the election
As for entry visas, same rules apply as for being a tourist. If you're a Yank, Canuck, Aussie or Kiwi, just turn up at the airport, flash you're permit, and you're in, no hassle. If, on the other hand, you're from a "restricted" nation (i.e. your skin tone is anything darker than ivory), then you do have to do the visa hassle. However, this has no bearing on your work permit application, which is solely judged on your skills, so it's "just" an inconvenience.
Of course, if you're already in the country and applying to change your tourist visa, then they DO get VERY difficult. Not recommended.
Full details can be found at www.workpermits.gov.uk
For the US-centric out there, that's NZ dollars quoted above. Given the current exchange rate, NZ$99 ~= US$40.
I can sympathise with you about the hassle of finding a sponsor, been there, done that. Usually, it's because of ignorance about the visa system, or greed. So let's spell the rules out for the UK:
If you have an IT degree, or any degree with 1 years IT experience, and the job appears on the shortage occupation list (i.e. almost anything in IT), then the work permit is automatic, and takes about 2 weeks to be issued. The employer can fill out the application themselves, and it doesn't cost them anything. Check out www.workpermits.gov.uk for full details.
I've found that most UK IT recruitment consultants are ignorant of the rules and take some convincing. I even had one consultant who didn't believe me, and so she checked with the immigration consultant firm they usually used. The immigration consultant, the greedy bastard, told her I was lying, and that it was so hard to do that they needed to be involved and it would cost about a thousand pounds. Needless to say, I was no longer considered for the job.
The key, obviously, is to find a good recruitment consultant, one that knows about the rules, and is used to convincing employers to sponsor people. After too many bastards, I may have found a good one in www.abbeywood.com, time will tell, but certainly they're open to sponsoring visas. In general avoid the really small outfits, they're just cowboys out to rip people off. Some of the big internatioanl recruiters should also be used to dealing with visas.
If you are approaching companies directly, try the big international firms, they're used to dealing with permits. Otherwise, be prepared to tell them about how easy it is. I do this by emailing them a completed application form, just to show how easy it is, and give them the phone number of the work permit people to ring and ask verify.
Of course, as some people have already mentioned, if you have English or Irish grandparents, or your spouse has, then you're in like Flynn. The UK will give you a 4 year residency permit, allowing you to work there, and after 4 years, you can claim permenant residency.
The number one IT job search site in the UK is www.jobserve.com, if it's not there, it's not available.
Good luck!
Is this project out in the wild yet?
:-)
I've been looking for a decent Linux genealogy app, the existing ones are all a bit crappy, and the projects for new ones are run by wanna-be's who only talk and don't actually achieve anything.
I've become so frustrated, I've started designing my own and have been pondering over the object/relational thing and language/toolkit issues.
If yours is any good, I might as well throw mine away, no use re-inventing the wheel
When the Boss came back to bitch about the bug-fixes, he knew what he was doing. He has you pegged as the sort of person that he can keep loading all the crap jobs on, knowing that you will keep taking them on, and keep on delivering (even if a little late), unlike the others who bitch and moan and refuse to take it. By nagging about the bug fixes, he keeps the fire under your ass and relys on your guilt to keep you moving at 200%. He's just being a bastard to get the work done and make himself look good, standard management practise, really.
Some free advice from someone who's been there, done that: push back. Refuse to take on the extra crap, manage your workload downwards.
And when you do leave, at the exit interview, make sure they know why, it's the sweetest revenge.
I think The Kompany has given considerably more to the Open Source community than it has taken. Check out the list of Free, free, GPL'ed software they have developed:
Aethera
KDB
kamera
KDE Studio
Kivio
Korelib
Kugar
PyQT/PyKDE
Rekall
VeePee
Now compare that to their commercial products:
Blackadder
Kapital
KDE Studio Gold
Powerplant
Three of those are merely souped up versions of Free products where you pay for extra features, packaging and support. Only Kapital doesn't (yet) have a Free version. And for those of us who care about keeping track of our finances, it's worth the $30.
Seems to me the community is winning here.
It's horses for courses. If you're running a web-site like Slashdot, MySQL/PostgreSQL should do. If, on the other hand, you're running a bank or telco, you need the big guys like DB2 or Oracle for consistency, reliability and speed. And forget MSSQL, it's not a true enterprise DB yet.
Try processing 100 million phone call records in a 4 hour batch window, or storing a few trillion dollars worth of bank accounts in MySQL and you'll soon see what I mean.
Hell, there are times when even the big databases can't cope, and we have to use flat files and assembler code. You choose the best solution for the job, whatever your personal preferences.
Van Goughs paintings are actually incrediably accurate, especially the nature ones. Like most artists, he would spend hours just sitting and watching a scene before committing anything to canvas. The details are all there, it's just how he represents them that makes him great. He saw the ordinary in a whole new way, and that wasn't just the Abstinth talking...
Towards the end, van Gough was knocking off paintings in a matter of only a couple of hours as a deliberate technique. Because the paint didn't dry fully, the brushstrokes would bleed into each other, altering the colours and diffusing the edges to give that "blurry" effect.
This is very different to his earlir pontilism period where he would paint a base colour, let it dry fully, then daub individual points of colour on the canvas, letting them dry fully so there was no bleeding or blurring.
He also had the habit of doing two copies. For example, he knocked off a quick portrait to give to Dr Gachet, then made a better copy to keep for himself as a method of refining the composition and his technique.
The result is perhaps mundane - when a painting was painted is not earth-shattering news.
At a time when van Goughs are selling for tens of millions of dollars, and some "experts" are claiming that up to one third of all van Goughs are fakes, setting a date like this is invaluable, especially for a painting that has mysteriously appeared after so long. By tying down a date and a building in this fashion, it almost seals the provenance of the painting. It also fits with what we know about his style, method and speed at this point of time. This is a great example of how science has become more and more important in historical studies.
The problem for art historians with van Gough is that he left very poor records of what he painted, partly because he sold so few of them, so we have no gallery sales records.
One thing that does bug me, though, is that the only other person to identify the particular house in the painting was Dr Gachets son. The same "experts" who who think that many van Goughs are fakes, point the finger at Gachets son, a failed artist, as a possible culpruit for some of them.
Joy: No, it's a problem. It's that the rights of the artists aren't being respected that I think is the problem. And with CD writers and MP3s and Napster, the artists have lost control of the uses of their recordings.
Sorry, all due respect Bill, but open your eyes, the artists DO NOT have control over their own recordings. It is the record companies that hold the copyright, and control the music, and the artists can't do squat to stop them doing stuff the artists don't won't, like letting the songs be used in ad's, or releasing greatest hits records long after the artist has left the label.
Contrast this with the books you insist you care about. The copyright rests with the author. If you really care about the rights of musicians, expend your lobbying efforts to get their rights enshrined in law. Then the artists can decide for themselves about the digital rights, not be dictated to by the money-hungrey labels.
New Zealand is another example of a market which seems to be working well.
ROFL!
Seems the free-market idealogue's propaganda machine has been feeding you their carefully crafted crap. Don't believe everything you read, go talk to the locals (and I don't mean big business), and see what they have to say about the mess...