I won't tell someone specifically why they didn't get the job. However, I will suggest to the person--if they express an interest--some areas I think they could work on in order to improve their employability in the future.
It might be "Hey, I think you could make a much better impression at interview if you slowed down and spoke more clearly", or "You really don't need a 5 page CV unless you're a Nobel prize winner, I'd recommend cutting out some of the stuff about your pre-school, that's too many years ago for anyone to care about", or "I think you'd do better applying to companies like ours if you had more concrete experience with Java, why not contribute to some open source projects in your spare time?"
The key is to make it a positive suggestion for personal improvement, with concrete ideas for what to do, and not a "Here's why you suck" list.
I've done much the same for friends and colleagues who have asked.
Just because the design of Unix is "very long in the tooth" doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it; that's just argumentum ad novitatem.
The fundamental design of the automobile hasn't changed much in over a hundred years. It still has an internal combustion engine (albeit sometimes augmented with electric), four wheels with pneumatic tires, a steering control based on a wheel that operates the front two wheels, a geared transmission from the engine to the wheels, a cabin in the middle with engine space and cargo space on front and back (albeit sometimes reversed). Sure, we've seen improvements--seatbelts, increasing automation, crumple zones--but the fundamental design hasn't changed. I don't seriously expect it to either. We're not suddenly going to be zooming around in South Park style "IT" wheels.
Similarly, the fundamental design of the camera didn't change much for a long time. Lens at the front, rectangular body containing film on a spool which moves past the rear of the lens, rotary controls on the lens, shutter top right of the body, eyepiece or viewing screen on the back. Digital has been the biggest shakeup, but you'll notice digital SLRs are still the same basic shape as film SLRs, even though there's no reason at all why they need to be.
Analog wristwatches are another example. They haven't changed design in several hundred years. Same 12 hours arranged in a circle, long hand and short hand, adjustment control on the right edge of the case, strap attached at top and bottom of case. When they went digital, there was a brief change, but now we've mostly swung back to using hands that move in a circle again, just with a different mechanism inside. And again, a quick look at Tokyoflash's web site will prove that there's absolutely no reason why this basic design needs to be kept. But it is. And we still have mechanical watches made and sold that use the same hundred-plus year old mechanisms.
I'm not saying that Unix is perfect; I'm just saying that its organic community-led growth and continued robustness and adaptability make it seem likely to me that the basic design is sound, and not something that needs to be thrown away.
There are certainly interesting possibilities in alternative OS design. The Apple Newton was a good example. But most of the radical attempts to reinvent the OS have failed. It might be that the design we've arrived at with Unix is going to last for hundreds of years, much to some people's disgust.
As the article points out, discussing the possibility is complicated by the fact that our definition of velocity depends on the meter and second, which are defined in terms of the behavior of photons, and hence dependent on the speed of light...
There may be slight variations;/opt and/srv vs/var,/usr/spool/mail vs/var/mail, and so on. But the basic/usr/dev/etc/var/usr/local is universal to every Unix (not TM). Mac OS X just doesn't show the Unix stuff in the Finder, so as not to panic the easily spooked.
Atheism is from "a-" meaning "without" and "theism" meaning "belief in god". It literally means, without a belief in god.
Agnosticism was defined by T.H. Huxley, who was quite specific as to his meaning: An agnostic is someone who believes that we do not and cannot know whether god exists.
Refusing to believe in ridiculous creatures that no one else believes in is one thing, turning your back on something that the vast majority of your society believes in is quite another.
90% of Christians don't really believe in God; they just like to say they do. If they really believed in the God of the Bible, their behavior would be totally different.
Cingular picture messaging costs extra, more than SMS, and it seems to be less reliable.
I've never had a non-GSM phone, because I need my phone to work when I travel. I will say that GSM when my wife calls my land line is much better voice quality than other people's Sprint phones when they call my land line.
Not only did I avoid buying copy protected CDs, but I also wrote to EMI in Germany giving them a list of the CDs I hadn't bought because of the copy protection. (I haven't received a reply yet.)
I also told them that there was an upcoming boxed set I was interested in buying, and that if they put copy protection on it I wouldn't buy it, so it was up to them.
In some locations, you can demand your cash back. For example, in the UK, consumer protection law states that if the product is unsuitable for the purpose for which it was sold, you can get a refund. No store credit. In this case, if you're sold something under the pretense that it's a CD, and it turns out it won't play in some CD players because it doesn't meet the CD specifications, I think it would be an open and shut case in small claims court.
There are any number of cell phones that work with your existing Mac--that sync contacts, calendar, photos, music, work as Bluetooth modems, etc. Everything the iPhone does from a functionality point of view, minus the snazzy new UI.
So why did you go with Fedora in the first place? It was obvious when Fedora Core 2 came out and required a reinstall via CD that they weren't concerned with providing ongoing support. That's the point at which I said "Screw you, Red Hat" and moved to Debian...
You mean all those spammers using Pegasus didn't contribute money to its development?
Re:From vi to vim, now back again to vi
on
The Birth of vi
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· Score: 1
If vim is invoked as vi, it should revert to strict vi compatibility mode by default.
It does. You need to:set nocompatible to get the extended behavior. However, some Linux distributions decide to install helpful.vimrcs by default.
Re:So let the flame wars begin!
on
The Birth of vi
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· Score: 2
In most vi implementations, touching the cursor keys has a 50% chance of kicking you out of Insert mode. This appears to be caused by cursor key sequences containing ESC, but seems to happen rather inconsistantly - the same applies to vim when it is in compatability mode. While I strongly think that modern systems should not have potentially ambiguous key-sequences (i.e. cursor keys starting with the ESC key), most applications should at least consider the platform they were designed for.
What you're missing is that Berkeley vi was designed for systems which didn't have cursor keys. Arrow keys on the keyboard weren't commonplace in the 70s.
Later vi implementations, like vim, support the cursor keys. However, you should note that it's slower to lift your hand and move it to the cursor keys on a standard PC keyboard than it is to use the hjkl keys that are under your right hand's normal typing position.
Pretty much most of what's happening on game consoles *is* envelope pushing.
Yeah, but again that still leaves a big chunk of the market. Katamari Damacy, DDR, FPSs, RPGs, Guitar Hero, 3D action platformers like Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper... they're all quite doable in Java. Not everything is Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo.
Slashdot Mirror
I won't tell someone specifically why they didn't get the job. However, I will suggest to the person--if they express an interest--some areas I think they could work on in order to improve their employability in the future.
It might be "Hey, I think you could make a much better impression at interview if you slowed down and spoke more clearly", or "You really don't need a 5 page CV unless you're a Nobel prize winner, I'd recommend cutting out some of the stuff about your pre-school, that's too many years ago for anyone to care about", or "I think you'd do better applying to companies like ours if you had more concrete experience with Java, why not contribute to some open source projects in your spare time?"
The key is to make it a positive suggestion for personal improvement, with concrete ideas for what to do, and not a "Here's why you suck" list.
I've done much the same for friends and colleagues who have asked.
Just because the design of Unix is "very long in the tooth" doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it; that's just argumentum ad novitatem.
The fundamental design of the automobile hasn't changed much in over a hundred years. It still has an internal combustion engine (albeit sometimes augmented with electric), four wheels with pneumatic tires, a steering control based on a wheel that operates the front two wheels, a geared transmission from the engine to the wheels, a cabin in the middle with engine space and cargo space on front and back (albeit sometimes reversed). Sure, we've seen improvements--seatbelts, increasing automation, crumple zones--but the fundamental design hasn't changed. I don't seriously expect it to either. We're not suddenly going to be zooming around in South Park style "IT" wheels.
Similarly, the fundamental design of the camera didn't change much for a long time. Lens at the front, rectangular body containing film on a spool which moves past the rear of the lens, rotary controls on the lens, shutter top right of the body, eyepiece or viewing screen on the back. Digital has been the biggest shakeup, but you'll notice digital SLRs are still the same basic shape as film SLRs, even though there's no reason at all why they need to be.
Analog wristwatches are another example. They haven't changed design in several hundred years. Same 12 hours arranged in a circle, long hand and short hand, adjustment control on the right edge of the case, strap attached at top and bottom of case. When they went digital, there was a brief change, but now we've mostly swung back to using hands that move in a circle again, just with a different mechanism inside. And again, a quick look at Tokyoflash's web site will prove that there's absolutely no reason why this basic design needs to be kept. But it is. And we still have mechanical watches made and sold that use the same hundred-plus year old mechanisms.
I'm not saying that Unix is perfect; I'm just saying that its organic community-led growth and continued robustness and adaptability make it seem likely to me that the basic design is sound, and not something that needs to be thrown away.
There are certainly interesting possibilities in alternative OS design. The Apple Newton was a good example. But most of the radical attempts to reinvent the OS have failed. It might be that the design we've arrived at with Unix is going to last for hundreds of years, much to some people's disgust.
Plenty of people have a GameCube and a PS2. Me, for example.
While I'm not interested in the PS3 at the moment, once they deliver MGS:4 and WipeOut for PS3 I may pick one up.
There is a theory that the speed of light has changed over the lifetime of the universe, yes.
l e6_constant.htm
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/einsteinlight/jw/modu
As the article points out, discussing the possibility is complicated by the fact that our definition of velocity depends on the meter and second, which are defined in terms of the behavior of photons, and hence dependent on the speed of light...
There may be slight variations; /opt and /srv vs /var, /usr/spool/mail vs /var/mail, and so on. But the basic /usr /dev /etc /var /usr/local is universal to every Unix (not TM). Mac OS X just doesn't show the Unix stuff in the Finder, so as not to panic the easily spooked.
Well, let's be specific here: we're talking about Special Relativity.
The problem with trying to disprove SR is that it can be derived from a very small number of basic axioms:
1. The speed of light in vacuum is a constant.
2. The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames.
3. Causality holds.
So if you want to doubt SR, you should probably decide which of those axioms you think is false.
Yes, it has going to be happened. The pillars will were be destroyed a thousand years ago in the future.
You're the one who needs to look things up.
h uxley.html
Atheism is from "a-" meaning "without" and "theism" meaning "belief in god". It literally means, without a belief in god.
Agnosticism was defined by T.H. Huxley, who was quite specific as to his meaning: An agnostic is someone who believes that we do not and cannot know whether god exists.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/sn-
90% of Christians don't really believe in God; they just like to say they do. If they really believed in the God of the Bible, their behavior would be totally different.
It's the same way on OS X too, actually.
Cingular picture messaging costs extra, more than SMS, and it seems to be less reliable.
I've never had a non-GSM phone, because I need my phone to work when I travel. I will say that GSM when my wife calls my land line is much better voice quality than other people's Sprint phones when they call my land line.
Not only did I avoid buying copy protected CDs, but I also wrote to EMI in Germany giving them a list of the CDs I hadn't bought because of the copy protection. (I haven't received a reply yet.)
I also told them that there was an upcoming boxed set I was interested in buying, and that if they put copy protection on it I wouldn't buy it, so it was up to them.
I want HD-DVD to win because Blu-ray has region coding, and HD-DVD doesn't.
Show me some region free Blu-ray players and I might upgrade from my region free DVD player. Until then, forget about trying to get me to buy Blu-ray.
I went to Best Buy, Target and GameStop looking for a Wii.
They all had PS3s just sitting there in boxes waiting to be sold.
The PS3 was in stock at circuitcity.com and bestbuy.com for several days in the last week.
So yes, I believe there are PS3s sitting around unsold.
It's easy to work out why Microsoft chose the format they did. Blu-ray uses Java for its interactive menus; HD-DVD uses Windows Media codecs.
In some locations, you can demand your cash back. For example, in the UK, consumer protection law states that if the product is unsuitable for the purpose for which it was sold, you can get a refund. No store credit. In this case, if you're sold something under the pretense that it's a CD, and it turns out it won't play in some CD players because it doesn't meet the CD specifications, I think it would be an open and shut case in small claims court.
There are any number of cell phones that work with your existing Mac--that sync contacts, calendar, photos, music, work as Bluetooth modems, etc. Everything the iPhone does from a functionality point of view, minus the snazzy new UI.
Speaking as a Cingular customer who was previously a T-Mobile customer:
Cingular are expensive, their SMS sucks (very unreliable), and they make you pay out the ass for any Internet connectivity whatsoever.
My biggest question about the iPhone is how much I'm going to have to let Cingular ream me for each month if I buy one.
Komelon USA make metric tape measures, I found one in my local hardware store.
I've no clue why Stanley doesn't sell metric measures. Apparently they don't want engineers' custom.
So why did you go with Fedora in the first place? It was obvious when Fedora Core 2 came out and required a reinstall via CD that they weren't concerned with providing ongoing support. That's the point at which I said "Screw you, Red Hat" and moved to Debian...
Order online. CircuitCity and BestBuy have the PS3 in stock right now.
You mean all those spammers using Pegasus didn't contribute money to its development?
It does. You need to :set nocompatible to get the extended behavior. However, some Linux distributions decide to install helpful .vimrcs by default.
What you're missing is that Berkeley vi was designed for systems which didn't have cursor keys. Arrow keys on the keyboard weren't commonplace in the 70s.
Later vi implementations, like vim, support the cursor keys. However, you should note that it's slower to lift your hand and move it to the cursor keys on a standard PC keyboard than it is to use the hjkl keys that are under your right hand's normal typing position.
Yeah, but again that still leaves a big chunk of the market. Katamari Damacy, DDR, FPSs, RPGs, Guitar Hero, 3D action platformers like Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper... they're all quite doable in Java. Not everything is Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo.