For my first programming job I moved to Indianapolis (worked on the PC Game "Deer Hunter", actually:). The biggest problem with moving to the midwest for a programming position is that because the local market is smaller, it can tend to trap you in that job. The lower salaries are compensated by lower cost of living, true, but that doesn't help when you're trying to scrape pennies together for flights to Seattle to interview with other companies.
I'm now working in Seattle, btw, and I've found a couple of things: first, I immediately found a job that paid so much more that it more than made up for the cost of living increase. Second, when the first company went under, I found another job in the area, and got a huge raise to boot. After four years in the industry, I'm making just enough to buy my own (ridiculously overpriced but modestly sized) house.
I actually liked the midwest, but the bottom line is that unless there's at least a few job options in the city you're moving to, or unless you know that you can afford to fly around for interviews, be careful.
'Nader doesn't sound so bad?' Nope, he sounds as bad as ever.
Corporate "welfare" is a great buzzword, associating a government dole-out to individuals not working with a company employing tens of thousands of people and providing (despite the opinions of about 95% of the folks here) a useful service. And people bitch because somewhere in the 10,000 page tax code, someone found (gasp) a loophole. The problem is not Microsoft. The problem is our tax code and government, along with their lawyers who wrote it.
If they figured out a way to send less $ to the beltway, I say BRAVO! I wish I could do the same.
Re:I think it's time to re-examine the article.
on
High-Speed Greed
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· Score: 1
Well put: "much ado about nothing". Slash-dotters are far too easily baited. AT&T isn't stupid enough to try something as outrageous as charging a customer directly for using a merchant site hosted by them.
Of course, folks here love their indignant outrage. I guess we shouldn't try to spoil it by being rational.
That moron has been posting a bunch of flame-bait recently, and I'm hoping he gets moderated down appropriately. Sometimes, however, the satisfaction of a stinging reply is too sweet to pass on.
In case you're not aware, the whole point of DirectX is to enable Windows-based games to access high-performance video, sound, and input devices without having to program specifically for each device. You're obviously referring to Direct3D as a comparison API to OpenGL. The fact that X-Box is going to use DirectX simply means that they're going to write nearly tranparent layers of the DX API that are compatible with the standard PC API. This simply translates into a lesser learning curve for those of us to know the DX API inside and out (warts and all). The fact of the matter is that, although DX did and does have problems, the majority of developers welcomed a standard API and have had great success using it. In addition, MS actually listens to the developers (I've had a modest part in helping to shape portions of DirectMusic and DirectInput).
Regarding the comment about wanting to see a blue-screen... Have you ever actually worked with NT or Win2000? (oh boy, I'm asking for it now...) I can go for weeks without rebooting my 2000 machine, and that's doing D3D development work. Although I have the typical beefs with NT that many other here would share, stability is not one of them.
Slashdot Mirror
For my first programming job I moved to Indianapolis (worked on the PC Game "Deer Hunter", actually :). The biggest problem with moving to the midwest for a programming position is that because the local market is smaller, it can tend to trap you in that job. The lower salaries are compensated by lower cost of living, true, but that doesn't help when you're trying to scrape pennies together for flights to Seattle to interview with other companies.
I'm now working in Seattle, btw, and I've found a couple of things: first, I immediately found a job that paid so much more that it more than made up for the cost of living increase. Second, when the first company went under, I found another job in the area, and got a huge raise to boot. After four years in the industry, I'm making just enough to buy my own (ridiculously overpriced but modestly sized) house.
I actually liked the midwest, but the bottom line is that unless there's at least a few job options in the city you're moving to, or unless you know that you can afford to fly around for interviews, be careful.
-Happy in Seattle
'Nader doesn't sound so bad?' Nope, he sounds as bad as ever.
Corporate "welfare" is a great buzzword, associating a government dole-out to individuals not working with a company employing tens of thousands of people and providing (despite the opinions of about 95% of the folks here) a useful service. And people bitch because somewhere in the 10,000 page tax code, someone found (gasp) a loophole. The problem is not Microsoft. The problem is our tax code and government, along with their lawyers who wrote it.
If they figured out a way to send less $ to the beltway, I say BRAVO! I wish I could do the same.
Well put: "much ado about nothing". Slash-dotters are far too easily baited. AT&T isn't stupid enough to try something as outrageous as charging a customer directly for using a merchant site hosted by them.
Of course, folks here love their indignant outrage. I guess we shouldn't try to spoil it by being rational.
That moron has been posting a bunch of flame-bait recently, and I'm hoping he gets moderated down appropriately. Sometimes, however, the satisfaction of a stinging reply is too sweet to pass on.
In case you're not aware, the whole point of DirectX is to enable Windows-based games to access high-performance video, sound, and input devices without having to program specifically for each device. You're obviously referring to Direct3D as a comparison API to OpenGL. The fact that X-Box is going to use DirectX simply means that they're going to write nearly tranparent layers of the DX API that are compatible with the standard PC API. This simply translates into a lesser learning curve for those of us to know the DX API inside and out (warts and all). The fact of the matter is that, although DX did and does have problems, the majority of developers welcomed a standard API and have had great success using it. In addition, MS actually listens to the developers (I've had a modest part in helping to shape portions of DirectMusic and DirectInput).
Regarding the comment about wanting to see a blue-screen... Have you ever actually worked with NT or Win2000? (oh boy, I'm asking for it now...) I can go for weeks without rebooting my 2000 machine, and that's doing D3D development work. Although I have the typical beefs with NT that many other here would share, stability is not one of them.