I'm tired of the chicken-egg thing. If I don't have experience I can't get the job. If I can't get the job, how am I supposed to get experience?
It's quite simple, really. The Chicken is volunteering for Open Source projects. The Egg is getting job offers. Most of the best people I know followed this formula. And most of us have more trouble finding vacation time than contracts.
It's obviously best to simply give up and leave, rather than actually stand up and do something about changing your country.
And you can't do both because...? The Americans I know over here all vote and many of them contribute to political organizations and write letters to Congress. In other words, they're more active in American politics than the people I know over there. The only thing I find difficult to do from here is to actually volunteer to work for a political organization come election time.
With fossils unearthed recently showing _tropical_ weather in Northern Canada, I think it's safe to say that the Arctic ice cap is a temporary feature.
You do realize that continents move around, right? Plate techtonics and all that. Canada, for example, used to be on the equator.
Personally, I'd like to go back to the original five. The word "planet" comes from Greek and means "wanderer". They were called that because they didn't move with the stars as they (seemingly) rotated around the earth. In other words, they were defined in a way that was useful for human beings.
Since then we've been discovering adding objects that aren't visible to the naked eye. This has taken the word out of the realm of normal folk and into the realm of science. But it's not science. It's a pretty much an arbitrary definition that really doesn't mean much to scientists one way or another - other than as a possible marketing opportunity for a pluto mission.
With the new definition of 8 (and with the old of 9) school children learn that there are 8 (or 9) planets. Why? Because the teacher said so. Yet when they dig deeper to learn about the other objects and why they aren't planets what do they find? That basically we just made up an answer that sounded like it might sound scientific.
In this day and age when science is trying to defend itself not only against the intelligent design crowd but also government funding agencies, it seems to me that this whole fiasco only makes things worse. Science claims to be the light, the truth, the way of trying not to fool ourselves. But I can't imagine this whole thing looks very "enlightened" to the general public. Probably looks more like the circus that it is.
So I say we should do science a favor and give the word back to the sky watchers and the sidewalk astronomers. Someplace where the word can actually be useful.
There is no such things as unbiased reporting. Just the fact that they need to decide what to report and what not to is a huge bias. The only real way to approach having an informed opinion is to hear both sides of an issue (like read a book from a representative author from both sides), dig deeply and critically at the "facts" presented, and decide for yourself. But that takes an enormous amount of time and effort and is rarely done. So there is no shortages of opinions on world affairs based on five minute news segments.
the continents are riding around on their crustal plates, which ooze on molten material
Just nitpicking... The mantle isn't actually molten. The lava we see flowing from volcanoes is just a local effect. Though if you go way, way down to the outer core, you'll probably find liquid.
Not only do day traders pay fees more often than buy-and-holders, but buying and holding also keeps the tax man away. You'll pay tax on your dividends in any case, but the power of compounding that comes from the capital gains that are only taxed when you sell is enormous. You'd have to rake in insane bucks day trading to make up the difference. Though, amazingly, people rarely figure that into the equation. A lot of big fish stories would wither.
I'd quibble with your "buy the dow" advice a bit, though. Good advice for someone that has no idea. But people like Warren Buffet would most definitely disagree that you can't beat the Dow. And your example of 99.9% of mutual funds that don't beat the Dow every single year is questionable. If I beat the Dow by 5% every year and then miss by 0.1% one year, I'd be counted in those stats despite being extremely wealthy.
Adjusting for the cost of living isn't that easy. Since a large portion of the money you're earning is being put into retirement savings, that money needs to be compared to the cost of living where you plan to retire and not where you earn it. (A large portion of your money is being put into retirement savings, right?)
While I agree the price should be lower considering what you get, I generally consider not getting the packaging to be a plus. One of the reasons I buy from iTunes (and hope the Hymn project will break the DRM again) is that it has no packaging and hence nothing to fill up the landfills (now or later). It also means no fuel used to transport it. Considering the packaging generally contains 3-4 times more plastic than the disc itself, I'm very happy to give the planet a break.
My algorithm is to read Slashdot regularly to look for things that I haven't heard of (usually in the comments, not necessarily articles). When I see a new language or methodology that seems to have a few positive comments written about it, I find a definitive web site and download some pdfs, do some tutorials, or go to O'Reilly and read a book about it (a Safari subscription is nice for this). It works well. It takes some time and effort but I end up with in-depth knowledge (not just buzzwords) about pretty much everything that is relevant. Magazines and such are a total waste of time.
Sure, some people with CS degrees go on to get PhD's and disover better sorting algorithms, but 99.9% of us "just" become programmers.
I'm paid as a programmer. But I also understand the halting problem, reversible computing, turing machines, etc. I'd say every two years or so I'm faced with a problem that I solve with the "science" side of my education. Sure, every two years isn't that often but it turns out that these situations have become the foundation of my reputation. Cracking a tough problem in an elegant way tends to stick in people's minds and they start bringing me more unusual and difficult problems. That's what distinguishes me from the rest.
That said, I used to whine about having to learn all this theory stuff in school. Never saw the need for it at the time. But in retrospect, I'm obviously very happy I learned it. Every so often, I even find myself reading theory for *gasp* fun.
When I download a dmg file with Safari, I get a warning if the dmg contains an executable. (Not sure if that's Safari doing the warning or the code that mounts the archive or what.) Something like this in the code that unpacks tar files would go a long way toward fixing it.
Now, one thing that does need to be standardized is terminology.
Amen. Where I'm currently working, for each module the business specialists have one name, the database people have another, and the GUI people another. And, to make things more fun, sometimes they're in English and sometimes in German. Drives me nuts in meetings.
"We have 25% of the world's prisoners but we're only 5% of the world's population,"
I wonder if that includes the prisoners that are imported. I was recently in Colombia and talked to a woman that worked in the prison system there. She said they export many of their prisoners to America (don't remember the number but it was a lot). So it could be that a good percentage of those imprisoned in America aren't there due to the American legal system at all.
Imagine throwing a rubber ball at a train that's coming toward you. The ball will bounce off the train with more speed than you threw it because of the motion of the train. Same thing here except the probe "slingshots" around the planet using gravity instead of bouncing off of it. Thus avoiding the need for rubber space probes.
Well, I wouldn't expect anyone that would use a term like "pro-abortion" (who the hell is pro-abortion?) to get it. But here in Europe there actually is a left. And when I go "home" to the US, I can't even mention concepts that are "mind-bogglingly" obvious over here. Michael Moore makes movies about corporations destroying small towns, out of control violence, and the extremism of the current administration. Only in right America could such things seem like left issues. Over here it's called "common sense". Anyway. Enjoy your murder rates.
Now, I've heard a lot of talk among people of the ACLU being a crazy leftist organization that's terribly out of touch with reality.
There is no left in America anymore. There is extreme right, right, and middle. The two rights call the middle "left" to get people to recall images of communists and hippies. How many of those do you see these days?
The ACLU actually takes on a very many cases that the majority of Americans agree with. And they win many (most?) of them. But you won't hear that from the rights.
Devon
Re:Maybe not declining, but simply changing
on
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If you have a Mac, try AdSanity. It doesn't block ads, it stops animation and "fades" the ads so they blend with the background.
I doubt there are many people that don't fit in your Category B. Most people consider me crazy-busy and I signed up for it. People I hear claim they have no time usually spend huge chunks of it in front of the tube watching other people do interesting things with theirs.
One of the places I contract solves this problem by providing everyone with Virtual PC. They have Windows boxes which are locked down but you're free to do what you want with the Virtual PC. Yeah, it's slower. You're probably not going to run any batch jobs with it. But it's great when you need your own tool (or OS) and can't convince the sys admin that you need it. Given that it's a Windows shop, I couldn't work there without it.
I've started putting in the DVD a few minutes before I want to watch it and then muting it and letting it run through whatever it wants. I can then fix a cup of tea or whatever and it waits at the menu for me when it's done so I don't have to worry about getting back in time. It's a bit annoying, but better than the alternative.
Slashdot Mirror
It's quite simple, really. The Chicken is volunteering for Open Source projects. The Egg is getting job offers. Most of the best people I know followed this formula. And most of us have more trouble finding vacation time than contracts.
Devon
And you can't do both because...? The Americans I know over here all vote and many of them contribute to political organizations and write letters to Congress. In other words, they're more active in American politics than the people I know over there. The only thing I find difficult to do from here is to actually volunteer to work for a political organization come election time.
Devon
You do realize that continents move around, right? Plate techtonics and all that. Canada, for example, used to be on the equator.
Devon
Personally, I'd like to go back to the original five. The word "planet" comes from Greek and means "wanderer". They were called that because they didn't move with the stars as they (seemingly) rotated around the earth. In other words, they were defined in a way that was useful for human beings.
Since then we've been discovering adding objects that aren't visible to the naked eye. This has taken the word out of the realm of normal folk and into the realm of science. But it's not science. It's a pretty much an arbitrary definition that really doesn't mean much to scientists one way or another - other than as a possible marketing opportunity for a pluto mission.
With the new definition of 8 (and with the old of 9) school children learn that there are 8 (or 9) planets. Why? Because the teacher said so. Yet when they dig deeper to learn about the other objects and why they aren't planets what do they find? That basically we just made up an answer that sounded like it might sound scientific.
In this day and age when science is trying to defend itself not only against the intelligent design crowd but also government funding agencies, it seems to me that this whole fiasco only makes things worse. Science claims to be the light, the truth, the way of trying not to fool ourselves. But I can't imagine this whole thing looks very "enlightened" to the general public. Probably looks more like the circus that it is.
So I say we should do science a favor and give the word back to the sky watchers and the sidewalk astronomers. Someplace where the word can actually be useful.
Devon
There is no such things as unbiased reporting. Just the fact that they need to decide what to report and what not to is a huge bias. The only real way to approach having an informed opinion is to hear both sides of an issue (like read a book from a representative author from both sides), dig deeply and critically at the "facts" presented, and decide for yourself. But that takes an enormous amount of time and effort and is rarely done. So there is no shortages of opinions on world affairs based on five minute news segments.
Devon
Just nitpicking... The mantle isn't actually molten. The lava we see flowing from volcanoes is just a local effect. Though if you go way, way down to the outer core, you'll probably find liquid.
Devon
Not only do day traders pay fees more often than buy-and-holders, but buying and holding also keeps the tax man away. You'll pay tax on your dividends in any case, but the power of compounding that comes from the capital gains that are only taxed when you sell is enormous. You'd have to rake in insane bucks day trading to make up the difference. Though, amazingly, people rarely figure that into the equation. A lot of big fish stories would wither.
I'd quibble with your "buy the dow" advice a bit, though. Good advice for someone that has no idea. But people like Warren Buffet would most definitely disagree that you can't beat the Dow. And your example of 99.9% of mutual funds that don't beat the Dow every single year is questionable. If I beat the Dow by 5% every year and then miss by 0.1% one year, I'd be counted in those stats despite being extremely wealthy.
Devon
Adjusting for the cost of living isn't that easy. Since a large portion of the money you're earning is being put into retirement savings, that money needs to be compared to the cost of living where you plan to retire and not where you earn it. (A large portion of your money is being put into retirement savings, right?)
Devon
While I agree the price should be lower considering what you get, I generally consider not getting the packaging to be a plus. One of the reasons I buy from iTunes (and hope the Hymn project will break the DRM again) is that it has no packaging and hence nothing to fill up the landfills (now or later). It also means no fuel used to transport it. Considering the packaging generally contains 3-4 times more plastic than the disc itself, I'm very happy to give the planet a break.
Devon
The book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" contains plenty of examples.
Devon
My algorithm is to read Slashdot regularly to look for things that I haven't heard of (usually in the comments, not necessarily articles). When I see a new language or methodology that seems to have a few positive comments written about it, I find a definitive web site and download some pdfs, do some tutorials, or go to O'Reilly and read a book about it (a Safari subscription is nice for this). It works well. It takes some time and effort but I end up with in-depth knowledge (not just buzzwords) about pretty much everything that is relevant. Magazines and such are a total waste of time.
Devon
Wow. That's an amazingly self-limiting attitude. Your "too damn old" is my "just getting started".
Devon
I'm paid as a programmer. But I also understand the halting problem, reversible computing, turing machines, etc. I'd say every two years or so I'm faced with a problem that I solve with the "science" side of my education. Sure, every two years isn't that often but it turns out that these situations have become the foundation of my reputation. Cracking a tough problem in an elegant way tends to stick in people's minds and they start bringing me more unusual and difficult problems. That's what distinguishes me from the rest.
That said, I used to whine about having to learn all this theory stuff in school. Never saw the need for it at the time. But in retrospect, I'm obviously very happy I learned it. Every so often, I even find myself reading theory for *gasp* fun.
Devon
If you still have your employer, you haven't completely uprooted yourself.
Devon
Unfortunately, many of the geologic cycles are measured in millions of years.
Devon
When I download a dmg file with Safari, I get a warning if the dmg contains an executable. (Not sure if that's Safari doing the warning or the code that mounts the archive or what.) Something like this in the code that unpacks tar files would go a long way toward fixing it.
Devon
Amen. Where I'm currently working, for each module the business specialists have one name, the database people have another, and the GUI people another. And, to make things more fun, sometimes they're in English and sometimes in German. Drives me nuts in meetings.
Devon
I wonder if that includes the prisoners that are imported. I was recently in Colombia and talked to a woman that worked in the prison system there. She said they export many of their prisoners to America (don't remember the number but it was a lot). So it could be that a good percentage of those imprisoned in America aren't there due to the American legal system at all.
Devon
Imagine throwing a rubber ball at a train that's coming toward you. The ball will bounce off the train with more speed than you threw it because of the motion of the train. Same thing here except the probe "slingshots" around the planet using gravity instead of bouncing off of it. Thus avoiding the need for rubber space probes.
Devon
Well, I wouldn't expect anyone that would use a term like "pro-abortion" (who the hell is pro-abortion?) to get it. But here in Europe there actually is a left. And when I go "home" to the US, I can't even mention concepts that are "mind-bogglingly" obvious over here. Michael Moore makes movies about corporations destroying small towns, out of control violence, and the extremism of the current administration. Only in right America could such things seem like left issues. Over here it's called "common sense". Anyway. Enjoy your murder rates.
Devon
There is no left in America anymore. There is extreme right, right, and middle. The two rights call the middle "left" to get people to recall images of communists and hippies. How many of those do you see these days?
The ACLU actually takes on a very many cases that the majority of Americans agree with. And they win many (most?) of them. But you won't hear that from the rights.
Devon
If you have a Mac, try AdSanity. It doesn't block ads, it stops animation and "fades" the ads so they blend with the background.
Devon
I doubt there are many people that don't fit in your Category B. Most people consider me crazy-busy and I signed up for it. People I hear claim they have no time usually spend huge chunks of it in front of the tube watching other people do interesting things with theirs.
Devon
One of the places I contract solves this problem by providing everyone with Virtual PC. They have Windows boxes which are locked down but you're free to do what you want with the Virtual PC. Yeah, it's slower. You're probably not going to run any batch jobs with it. But it's great when you need your own tool (or OS) and can't convince the sys admin that you need it. Given that it's a Windows shop, I couldn't work there without it.
Devon
I've started putting in the DVD a few minutes before I want to watch it and then muting it and letting it run through whatever it wants. I can then fix a cup of tea or whatever and it waits at the menu for me when it's done so I don't have to worry about getting back in time. It's a bit annoying, but better than the alternative.
Devon