So unless you happen to live near a large, undiscovered underground tract of gold, your chance of growing gold in your backyard like potatoes is just about zero.
What if I happen to have a neutron accelerator and some lead in my backyard?
No it was not above boiling, if that were the case they would have sold hot coffee vapor.
Actually, it is when the coffee is brewed. When you have water under pressure, you can superheat it far above boiling (up to the structural limits of the pressurizer). As a result, the coffee is pretty close to boiling when it first hits the pot.
FWIW, I was a kid working at McD's at the time of the suit. I've dumped hot coffee on myself many, many times and didn't get anything worse than a red patch of skin. The reason is that coffee doesn't stick like grease. When you spill coffee on yourself, you wave your arms/jump around a bit from the pain, and end up cooling the coffee to a luke warm temperature. I can understand that this lady was older, but moving quickly is a natural reaction. To get third degree burns you must have either the weakest skin in existence, or the slowest reaction time I've ever seen.
(BTW fahrenheid sucks, you should start using celsius)
I agree. Fahrenheid [sic] does suck. So does celsius and kelvin. We should all move the the superior system of Fahrenheit! Instead of some arbitrary numbers like 0 for freezing and 100 for boiling, we can use easy to remember numbers like 32F is freezing and 220F is boiling (subject to change based on your altitude). Conversion couldn't be easier! Just take your Celsius temperature, multiply by 9, divide by 5, add 32, wave a rubber chicken, howl at the moon, write an essay on why Fahrenheit is better, and you're done!
As I said, it was obviously a sensationalist article. (i.e. Designed to draw controversy.) It's a really ugly card to play and fully deserving of the term "yellow journalism". Unfortunately, it can also be an effective card. As you can see from the responses, most people took the bait. Doesn't exactly inspire my confidence in the human race.
I'd be a little more concerned as to why he wants to do that. Is there something wrong with FFS? Other than the fact that it wipes the floor with EXT2, that is...
You'll notice how all the extremists have happily taken the bait and are now yelling, screaming and throwing insults. Sometimes I wonder about the human race as a whole.
This article is simply a sensational piece. It's intent is to say, "See? Look at all the smart programmers we found in India! Don't you feel ashamed of yourselves now?" At which point both sides of the argument will start shouting.
Do yourself a favor. Realize that there are smart people in India, and there are smart people in the US. Realize that the amount of outsourcing done is ineffective and will change, but some outsourcing works and will work.
My aim is to sell a product, not consultancy. Thus options such as magazine exposure. And I wasn't saying that you'd do that out of the gate. Start small with things like Google Adwords and submitting to Tucows. After you've gotten some recognition, *then* do magazine ads. However, you still need capital, albeit not as much.
This article asks the question: Rather than go on job interviews to work for someone else, should I instead start my own business?
Fair enough. However, most people don't think of consulting as a "business", even if it is. Consulting is most certainly the easiest (and quickest) option to money. The only problem is that you need to have the right kind of personality (or know how to manage your personality and do consulting a little different). It's not feasible for me to be a consultant in the current market. I'm highly skilled, but my Alpha personality scares people and makes them feel threatened. Even if I hide my personality from them, enough will poke through later to sour the relationship. I'm in a much better position as an ISV or employee. In both of those situations, I can be more aggressive and get things done the way I believe they should be.
Usually after the third or fourth time I've seen it. You're not *supposed* to notice the ad. Your unconscious sees it and files it away for later use. After seeing the ad enough times, your brain will attempt to make a conscious note of it. That conscious note will translate into "cool, that's interesting". Even that isn't the biggest return. The biggest return is when someone sees a mention of it outside the printed ads. (Say a friend, an article, or a websearch result.) If they'd seen the ads before, they'll be that much more likely to check it out.
And that's not even counting the people who are already looking for a solution like yours. Those will be your early adopters, who will make the "word of mouth" part of advertising work.
You're confusing consulting with pure software sales. The former is "create a product for a customer and try to resell it to others" while the later is, "I see a market of XX dollars that this program will attack." Most out of work programmers will tend to do the former as a quick way to make some money. The good ones will be able to make a business out of it. The article (as I understand it) is referring to the later situation.
For example, I have an idea for a new consumer operating system. I'm not going to go ask businesses what their needs are. I'm going to do consumer market research and attempt to build the product that I believe the market wants.
But you're still not going to get enough business that way. In order to get market share, you need mind share. To get mind share, you need eyeballs. To get eyeballs, you need to put catchy ads in places where a lot of people will see it.
And I don't mean just anyone. You need to target your audience and make sure that you're getting the best bang for your buck (ROI). Advertising in a magazine that addresses the topic your product addresses is a very good way. Just keep in mind that even the smallest magazine charges more than most programmer's wages to place your ad.
And while I'm on the subject, posts on Slashdot and other forums may not lead to the best ROI. If you spending time on some other advertising campaign (or programming) is going to result in more sales, then you're time is wasted. However, if you are posting on those forums for personal enjoyment, then it (almost) never hurts to pull in a few sales along the way.
If you're doing anything even similar to software development for your current employer, don't be surprised when they fire you and take you to court seeking ownership of the software product you developed for your own company.
This is true. I was assuming a software product that has little to no relation to your current job. Developing something similar to your employer may not always be illegal, but it is unethical.
You forgot marketing. That's going to cost you money, plain and simple. Marketing campaigns can cost you as little as $50-$200 dollars a month (Google Adwords), all the way up to $10000 per month with a 3 month commitment (magazine placement).
Traditional thinking tells you you need some hefty investment to make something work, where as a determined mind will tell you that you can do it, out of a spare bedroom, doing odd-jobs on the side in the evening...
You can, in fact, take that much farther. There's nothing saying that you have to live in the middle of a city when running your own business. Move out to the country where the cost of living is much cheaper. Add in a cheap web hosting service (if applicable), and you should be able to have a burn rate of no more than 25,000 per year! (perhaps less)
The down side is that I'm assuming a business model known as "sole proprietor". This means that you as an individual are doing business under some other name. Any debts, lawsuits, or unexpected expenses will land squarely on your head. As a result, you'll want to incorporate as an LLC as soon as your company starts generating a steady revenue.
...done that. And I have to warn you, it's not easy. What you think makes a good product will in fact be very different from what your customers think is a good product. You can plan on at least a year of post-release development before your software meets the needs of your clients. And you'll have to be doing the development while taking the time to advertise the existing version, so you can at least make enough money to make ends meet.
My best advise is to start a small software company while still employed. Don't advertise too much, and listen to what your customers have to say. If you keep constant development going, you should have an excellent product prepped for the next time you're out of work (or to start off on your own).
1. Java - includes JSP/EJB/Swing/Servlets/JDBC 2. C/C++ - mostly CLI data processing and high speed graphics 3. VB/VBA - wide variety of GUI based programs 4. COBOL - data processing/Y2K on Unisys MCP
The problem is that (at least in the preview), it comes out like this:
Primary Languages (In order of importance) 1. Java - includes JSP/EJB/Swing/Servlets/JDBC 2. C/C++ - mostly CLI data processing and high speed graphics 3. VB/VBA - wide variety of GUI based programs 4. COBOL - data processing/Y2K on Unisys MCP
Not being able to use line breaks to format your resume for readability is highly frustrating. I'm not trying to wow them with my text skillz or anything, I just want the blasted thing to be readable. Sadly, it doesn't seem that's an option.
If it's a coder, probably a CD that contains a collection of his work (again, portfolio) would be appreciated.
Many job posting explicitly say, "Please do not send example work." Some will even go as far as to say that they will throw away your resume if you include a CD. I think the problem is that HR departments are afraid of viruses. Beyond that, the HR personnel don't care. There's very little you could show them that they'd find truly impressive.
Save your CDs for the interview. They *may* want to see it, they may not. I don't think it hurts to ask if they would like to have a CD with your example work on it.
anyone else's gag reflex triggered whenever getting an email beginning with Dear Sir/Madam from @yahoo.com?
Just out of curiosity, do all free mail services turn you off to the submitter? Many email servers will reject my personal mail server as possible spam. As a result, I use (myname)@techie.com (a mail.com domain). There's a slight blurb about mail.com at the bottom, but nothing too annoying.
Keep a text copy, some people want to receive resumes through horrible web interfaces.
Does anyone know the proper way to deal with these? Just about every web interface I've seen will screw up your resume's formatting. I when I say formatting, I don't mean tabs and spaces, I mean fscking line breaks! Some of these companies have a "build your resume" interface that they prefer, but to be perfectly honest, the process takes longer than writing your original resume to begin with.
You bring up a good point. I think that Joel is missing that *most* companies won't consider your resume if it isn't something an MBA would write. You'd think that loading your resume down with technical qualifications, working software, amazing things you'd done, etc. would be good information for IT/IS employers. Unfortunately, they ignore all that and pay attention to one of two things:
1. Do the requirements match EXACTLY? (Note that this has nothing to do with finding a candidate. They simply will throw out the resume and not have any candidates.)
2. Does the resume have that "feel good" quality of double speak that makes HR departments believe you know what you're doing?
Sadly, prospecting employees get used to this situation and end up hurting themselves when attempting to apply for a job with a more reasonable company like Fog Creek.
A warning like this will be a cold shower to them when they will suddenly comprehend how detailed and accurate the information kept is.
That's why every other piece of mail I get has my name misspelled or my last name replaced with my wife's maiden name? Sure. No offense, but I'll start worrying when they can spell.
Slashdot Mirror
So unless you happen to live near a large, undiscovered underground tract of gold, your chance of growing gold in your backyard like potatoes is just about zero.
What if I happen to have a neutron accelerator and some lead in my backyard?
No it was not above boiling, if that were the case they would have sold hot coffee vapor.
Actually, it is when the coffee is brewed. When you have water under pressure, you can superheat it far above boiling (up to the structural limits of the pressurizer). As a result, the coffee is pretty close to boiling when it first hits the pot.
FWIW, I was a kid working at McD's at the time of the suit. I've dumped hot coffee on myself many, many times and didn't get anything worse than a red patch of skin. The reason is that coffee doesn't stick like grease. When you spill coffee on yourself, you wave your arms/jump around a bit from the pain, and end up cooling the coffee to a luke warm temperature. I can understand that this lady was older, but moving quickly is a natural reaction. To get third degree burns you must have either the weakest skin in existence, or the slowest reaction time I've ever seen.
(BTW fahrenheid sucks, you should start using celsius)
I agree. Fahrenheid [sic] does suck. So does celsius and kelvin. We should all move the the superior system of Fahrenheit! Instead of some arbitrary numbers like 0 for freezing and 100 for boiling, we can use easy to remember numbers like 32F is freezing and 220F is boiling (subject to change based on your altitude). Conversion couldn't be easier! Just take your Celsius temperature, multiply by 9, divide by 5, add 32, wave a rubber chicken, howl at the moon, write an essay on why Fahrenheit is better, and you're done!
*clap* *clap* *clap*
An excellent dissertation. My hat goes off to you, sir.
As I said, it was obviously a sensationalist article. (i.e. Designed to draw controversy.) It's a really ugly card to play and fully deserving of the term "yellow journalism". Unfortunately, it can also be an effective card. As you can see from the responses, most people took the bait. Doesn't exactly inspire my confidence in the human race.
FreeBSD supports ext2fs..what do you mean?
I'd be a little more concerned as to why he wants to do that. Is there something wrong with FFS? Other than the fact that it wipes the floor with EXT2, that is...
By the time you collect the money, SCO will already be bankrupt. Either that, or they'll apply it to all the $699 licenses you "owe" them.
You'll notice how all the extremists have happily taken the bait and are now yelling, screaming and throwing insults. Sometimes I wonder about the human race as a whole.
*sigh*
This article is simply a sensational piece. It's intent is to say, "See? Look at all the smart programmers we found in India! Don't you feel ashamed of yourselves now?" At which point both sides of the argument will start shouting.
Do yourself a favor. Realize that there are smart people in India, and there are smart people in the US. Realize that the amount of outsourcing done is ineffective and will change, but some outsourcing works and will work.
My aim is to sell a product, not consultancy. Thus options such as magazine exposure. And I wasn't saying that you'd do that out of the gate. Start small with things like Google Adwords and submitting to Tucows. After you've gotten some recognition, *then* do magazine ads. However, you still need capital, albeit not as much.
This article asks the question: Rather than go on job interviews to work for someone else, should I instead start my own business?
Fair enough. However, most people don't think of consulting as a "business", even if it is. Consulting is most certainly the easiest (and quickest) option to money. The only problem is that you need to have the right kind of personality (or know how to manage your personality and do consulting a little different). It's not feasible for me to be a consultant in the current market. I'm highly skilled, but my Alpha personality scares people and makes them feel threatened. Even if I hide my personality from them, enough will poke through later to sour the relationship. I'm in a much better position as an ISV or employee. In both of those situations, I can be more aggressive and get things done the way I believe they should be.
How often do you read an ad in a magazine?
Usually after the third or fourth time I've seen it. You're not *supposed* to notice the ad. Your unconscious sees it and files it away for later use. After seeing the ad enough times, your brain will attempt to make a conscious note of it. That conscious note will translate into "cool, that's interesting". Even that isn't the biggest return. The biggest return is when someone sees a mention of it outside the printed ads. (Say a friend, an article, or a websearch result.) If they'd seen the ads before, they'll be that much more likely to check it out.
And that's not even counting the people who are already looking for a solution like yours. Those will be your early adopters, who will make the "word of mouth" part of advertising work.
You're confusing consulting with pure software sales. The former is "create a product for a customer and try to resell it to others" while the later is, "I see a market of XX dollars that this program will attack." Most out of work programmers will tend to do the former as a quick way to make some money. The good ones will be able to make a business out of it. The article (as I understand it) is referring to the later situation.
For example, I have an idea for a new consumer operating system. I'm not going to go ask businesses what their needs are. I'm going to do consumer market research and attempt to build the product that I believe the market wants.
But you're still not going to get enough business that way. In order to get market share, you need mind share. To get mind share, you need eyeballs. To get eyeballs, you need to put catchy ads in places where a lot of people will see it.
And I don't mean just anyone. You need to target your audience and make sure that you're getting the best bang for your buck (ROI). Advertising in a magazine that addresses the topic your product addresses is a very good way. Just keep in mind that even the smallest magazine charges more than most programmer's wages to place your ad.
And while I'm on the subject, posts on Slashdot and other forums may not lead to the best ROI. If you spending time on some other advertising campaign (or programming) is going to result in more sales, then you're time is wasted. However, if you are posting on those forums for personal enjoyment, then it (almost) never hurts to pull in a few sales along the way.
If you're doing anything even similar to software development for your current employer, don't be surprised when they fire you and take you to court seeking ownership of the software product you developed for your own company.
This is true. I was assuming a software product that has little to no relation to your current job. Developing something similar to your employer may not always be illegal, but it is unethical.
You forgot marketing. That's going to cost you money, plain and simple. Marketing campaigns can cost you as little as $50-$200 dollars a month (Google Adwords), all the way up to $10000 per month with a 3 month commitment (magazine placement).
Traditional thinking tells you you need some hefty investment to make something work, where as a determined mind will tell you that you can do it, out of a spare bedroom, doing odd-jobs on the side in the evening...
You can, in fact, take that much farther. There's nothing saying that you have to live in the middle of a city when running your own business. Move out to the country where the cost of living is much cheaper. Add in a cheap web hosting service (if applicable), and you should be able to have a burn rate of no more than 25,000 per year! (perhaps less)
The down side is that I'm assuming a business model known as "sole proprietor". This means that you as an individual are doing business under some other name. Any debts, lawsuits, or unexpected expenses will land squarely on your head. As a result, you'll want to incorporate as an LLC as soon as your company starts generating a steady revenue.
...done that. And I have to warn you, it's not easy. What you think makes a good product will in fact be very different from what your customers think is a good product. You can plan on at least a year of post-release development before your software meets the needs of your clients. And you'll have to be doing the development while taking the time to advertise the existing version, so you can at least make enough money to make ends meet.
My best advise is to start a small software company while still employed. Don't advertise too much, and listen to what your customers have to say. If you keep constant development going, you should have an excellent product prepped for the next time you're out of work (or to start off on your own).
I actually don't indent anything. For example:
Primary Languages (In order of importance)
1. Java - includes JSP/EJB/Swing/Servlets/JDBC
2. C/C++ - mostly CLI data processing and high speed graphics
3. VB/VBA - wide variety of GUI based programs
4. COBOL - data processing/Y2K on Unisys MCP
The problem is that (at least in the preview), it comes out like this:
Primary Languages (In order of importance) 1. Java - includes JSP/EJB/Swing/Servlets/JDBC 2. C/C++ - mostly CLI data processing and high speed graphics 3. VB/VBA - wide variety of GUI based programs 4. COBOL - data processing/Y2K on Unisys MCP
Not being able to use line breaks to format your resume for readability is highly frustrating. I'm not trying to wow them with my text skillz or anything, I just want the blasted thing to be readable. Sadly, it doesn't seem that's an option.
If it's a coder, probably a CD that contains a collection of his work (again, portfolio) would be appreciated.
Many job posting explicitly say, "Please do not send example work." Some will even go as far as to say that they will throw away your resume if you include a CD. I think the problem is that HR departments are afraid of viruses. Beyond that, the HR personnel don't care. There's very little you could show them that they'd find truly impressive.
Save your CDs for the interview. They *may* want to see it, they may not. I don't think it hurts to ask if they would like to have a CD with your example work on it.
anyone else's gag reflex triggered whenever getting an email beginning with Dear Sir/Madam from @yahoo.com?
Just out of curiosity, do all free mail services turn you off to the submitter? Many email servers will reject my personal mail server as possible spam. As a result, I use (myname)@techie.com (a mail.com domain). There's a slight blurb about mail.com at the bottom, but nothing too annoying.
Keep a text copy, some people want to receive resumes through horrible web interfaces.
Does anyone know the proper way to deal with these? Just about every web interface I've seen will screw up your resume's formatting. I when I say formatting, I don't mean tabs and spaces, I mean fscking line breaks! Some of these companies have a "build your resume" interface that they prefer, but to be perfectly honest, the process takes longer than writing your original resume to begin with.
Oh, and in case anyone's wondering: here's the worst offender
You bring up a good point. I think that Joel is missing that *most* companies won't consider your resume if it isn't something an MBA would write. You'd think that loading your resume down with technical qualifications, working software, amazing things you'd done, etc. would be good information for IT/IS employers. Unfortunately, they ignore all that and pay attention to one of two things:
1. Do the requirements match EXACTLY? (Note that this has nothing to do with finding a candidate. They simply will throw out the resume and not have any candidates.)
2. Does the resume have that "feel good" quality of double speak that makes HR departments believe you know what you're doing?
Sadly, prospecting employees get used to this situation and end up hurting themselves when attempting to apply for a job with a more reasonable company like Fog Creek.
Like arcade game high scores? Wouldn't that be prior art, or is there something more specific about this patent?
They must be using Sun's OpenBOOT. No need to be anywhere near the machine. ;-)
A warning like this will be a cold shower to them when they will suddenly comprehend how detailed and accurate the information kept is.
That's why every other piece of mail I get has my name misspelled or my last name replaced with my wife's maiden name? Sure. No offense, but I'll start worrying when they can spell.