Back in the day, even just 10 years ago, you could get a degree in CS and be a programmer, and if you wanted a programmer you always hired a CS. Nowadays, there are only certain types of programmers that are pure CS degrees. If I need a program to do some type of physics or biology I'm not going to hire a programmer, I'm going to hire a physicist or biologist and teach them to program.
Now, chances are good you're going straight to retail.
Is that really accurate? Or does it depend on the type of degree you have?
My employer literally cannot find enough people with EE degrees, to the point that we are hiring people and paying them to get their EE. But if you graduate with a degree in history or arts...yes, there's going to be a shortage of jobs. My sis-in-law graduated with a history degree but all she can find is a phone customer service rep for an airline.
You know, I was going to post more follow up messages about Dr. Wakefield's apparent lack of ethics, but two other posts in this article gave me pause.
These were both good comments, and made me realize that I was letting my emotion overtake my good judgement. Do I believe that Dr. Wakefield was some evil charlatan laughing in a study while drinking whiskey and petting a white cat? No, I don't. Its more likely that years of research and the lure of money clouded his judgement, or that he was too close to the source for objective thought.
But it is concerning to me that somehow, this series of events combined with others, has resulted in such a shades-of-grey issue. The simple question: should I vaccinate my kids? is now complicated.
I'm glad I'm not a doctor. Parents would just want me to say "yes or no" and I would not really be able to do it. I'd want to explain all the nuances going on here.
Being a new parent right around the height of the Autism/Vaccination scare, this is a Big Deal. This was huge! We had lots of talking heads on TV telling people not to vaccinate their kids. Famously, Jenny McCarthy went on Oprah and told parents not to vaccinate their kids. Many doctors and parents LISTENED! If you read the articles, you'll see that as a result children died of easily preventable childhood diseases because parents were too scared to get the proper vaccinations.
I am frankly amazed that this turned out to be a scam and not just sloppy science research. I just cannot fathom the depths of this man's conscience.
The sad part is, the repercussions will continue to last for years and years. Even after this has all been revealed as malicious, willful fraud, I bet dollars to doughnuts that many parents will still believe it, and won't get their kids vaccinations, putting them at risk.
I'm normally a laid back guy but this one just makes me fired up.
Or the CONSTANT number of times the title card beneath someone is "somehow" the wrong party - so a Republican in trouble is shown as a "Democrat".
Its not that I don't believe you on this statement, but I looked through Google and couldn't find any mentions of this. Do you have any links to site with pictures or screenshots? I'd be really interested to see those...a nail in FNC's coffin.
you're not so much a gamer, as you are simply a viewer
Excellent point, let me build on it. I've found that a lot of times, I'm simply too tired to really enjoy a game because I want something passive, not that requires active brain thought.
What worked for me, and the submitter might try, is finding movies/anime that are "videogamish" in look and feel and simply enjoying watching those. When I'm in this mood I watch the Ghost in the Shell series on Netflix (there are 2 seasons' worth of episodes.)
Not finishing a game doesn't mean I didn't enjoy my time with it, just that I went on to something different before the game ran out of gameplay.
This.
I felt a lot better when I realized I'm not obligated to finish every game I buy, just as long as I enjoyed the time I had with the game. If I know I'm never going to finish it but really enjoyed the story, I'll find a wiki to learn what happened.
How old are your kids? I have a 2 year old and 4 month old and feel the same way you do, but by the time they are both 10 or so I suspect they can be better at entertaining themselves (homework, etc) so that I'll be able to game again.
That, or some nights I just don't sleep. I'll start about 10PM after everyone is in bed and play for a few hours before I fall asleep at the keyboard. Maybe once a week I'll do this.
James mentions a blog post someone wrote about "Star Trek vs Blade Runner", that I guess deals with privacy. Does anyone have a link to this? My google-fu is weak on this one.
It sounds interesting, and something I've thought about. Star Trek, especially TNG, has super privacy issues. "Computer, locate joe smith.".."Joe Smith is at Wal-Mart, buying a gallon of milk."
As for dropping cable in this Brave New World, ha! And again I say "ha!". I'm married. It'll never happen.
You'd be surprised. My wife can watch her soaps and all those reality shows on abc.com and mtv.com and bravo.com. The downside is they are usually not available until the next day after they air.
Because there are multiple ways via Internet to get all the content you want WITHOUT needing cable. ESPN3, Hulu, Netflix ondemand, even abc.com stream their shows.
Wouldn't it be cool if you could just aggregate all those services into a single interface, plug it into your 38" HDTV in the living room, and be able to drop your cable or satellite TV? And wouldn't it be cool if you had a Google search interface on top of all that content to find what you want?
And wouldn't it be cool if you could just do this with an appliance instead of building out a small-profile box and installing XBMC?
Oh man, I wish I had mod points! this is one of the best posts I've seen discussing scientific method and experiments. And it shows exactly why only knowing some of the data can be dangerous to draw all sorts of conclusions from.
Dude, fail. This is why our political system in the US sucks. No one votes for a third-party candidate because, as you put it, "ultimately [whomever] won't notice your little boycott".
I for one applaud HeronBlademaster for doing what he thinks is right, no matter what anyone else thinks. Remember, character is how you act when no one is watching.
This is a really, really good blog post. Really made me think.
To understand the essay, you have to separate yourself from the culture stigma of the word "loser" to grok that he is not talking about "living-in-your-parents-basement" losers, he is talking about a defined category of person who is in a position where they are being taken advantage of by the company, and know it. Basically, any worker in America.
Here's where it gets interesting. Venkat talks about enlightened losers becoming slackers. I immediately thought of the anecdote about underperforming elementary school kids. Are they underperforming because they are not that bright? Or is it because they are not being challenged enough, are bored, and need to be promoted to the gifted class? This all ties back to the management lesson of challenging your people.
Here is where Venkat, I think, makes one error. He bases the categorization of slacker losers upon the fact that they are not being paid well enough for their talent. But not all workers look at their paycheck as their only form of payment. Many people here on slashdot would perhaps be happy with a smaller paycheck if it was an awesome working environment where they could be challenged every day to do cool, neat things and write lots of code.
Slashdot Mirror
Amen to this!
Back in the day, even just 10 years ago, you could get a degree in CS and be a programmer, and if you wanted a programmer you always hired a CS. Nowadays, there are only certain types of programmers that are pure CS degrees. If I need a program to do some type of physics or biology I'm not going to hire a programmer, I'm going to hire a physicist or biologist and teach them to program.
Interesting. And from IEEE. Thanks for the link.
I've heard that theory as well, but check out my sig.
Now, chances are good you're going straight to retail.
Is that really accurate? Or does it depend on the type of degree you have?
My employer literally cannot find enough people with EE degrees, to the point that we are hiring people and paying them to get their EE. But if you graduate with a degree in history or arts...yes, there's going to be a shortage of jobs. My sis-in-law graduated with a history degree but all she can find is a phone customer service rep for an airline.
However, Anecdote != data, YMMV, etc etc etc
That's a good point. This did cause me to research thimerosol and bisphenol-A, which I would not have done otherwise.
Thanks for this post. You literally caused me to rethink my position.
see?
Thanks for this post. You literally caused me to rethink my position.
see?
You know, I was going to post more follow up messages about Dr. Wakefield's apparent lack of ethics, but two other posts in this article gave me pause.
From A nonymous Coward
from suv4x4
These were both good comments, and made me realize that I was letting my emotion overtake my good judgement. Do I believe that Dr. Wakefield was some evil charlatan laughing in a study while drinking whiskey and petting a white cat? No, I don't. Its more likely that years of research and the lure of money clouded his judgement, or that he was too close to the source for objective thought.
But it is concerning to me that somehow, this series of events combined with others, has resulted in such a shades-of-grey issue. The simple question: should I vaccinate my kids? is now complicated.
I'm glad I'm not a doctor. Parents would just want me to say "yes or no" and I would not really be able to do it. I'd want to explain all the nuances going on here.
Being a new parent right around the height of the Autism/Vaccination scare, this is a Big Deal. This was huge! We had lots of talking heads on TV telling people not to vaccinate their kids. Famously, Jenny McCarthy went on Oprah and told parents not to vaccinate their kids. Many doctors and parents LISTENED! If you read the articles, you'll see that as a result children died of easily preventable childhood diseases because parents were too scared to get the proper vaccinations.
I am frankly amazed that this turned out to be a scam and not just sloppy science research. I just cannot fathom the depths of this man's conscience.
The sad part is, the repercussions will continue to last for years and years. Even after this has all been revealed as malicious, willful fraud, I bet dollars to doughnuts that many parents will still believe it, and won't get their kids vaccinations, putting them at risk.
I'm normally a laid back guy but this one just makes me fired up.
Or the CONSTANT number of times the title card beneath someone is "somehow" the wrong party - so a Republican in trouble is shown as a "Democrat".
Its not that I don't believe you on this statement, but I looked through Google and couldn't find any mentions of this. Do you have any links to site with pictures or screenshots? I'd be really interested to see those...a nail in FNC's coffin.
you're not so much a gamer, as you are simply a viewer
Excellent point, let me build on it. I've found that a lot of times, I'm simply too tired to really enjoy a game because I want something passive, not that requires active brain thought.
What worked for me, and the submitter might try, is finding movies/anime that are "videogamish" in look and feel and simply enjoying watching those. When I'm in this mood I watch the Ghost in the Shell series on Netflix (there are 2 seasons' worth of episodes.)
Not finishing a game doesn't mean I didn't enjoy my time with it, just that I went on to something different before the game ran out of gameplay.
This.
I felt a lot better when I realized I'm not obligated to finish every game I buy, just as long as I enjoyed the time I had with the game. If I know I'm never going to finish it but really enjoyed the story, I'll find a wiki to learn what happened.
How old are your kids? I have a 2 year old and 4 month old and feel the same way you do, but by the time they are both 10 or so I suspect they can be better at entertaining themselves (homework, etc) so that I'll be able to game again.
That, or some nights I just don't sleep. I'll start about 10PM after everyone is in bed and play for a few hours before I fall asleep at the keyboard. Maybe once a week I'll do this.
James mentions a blog post someone wrote about "Star Trek vs Blade Runner", that I guess deals with privacy. Does anyone have a link to this? My google-fu is weak on this one.
It sounds interesting, and something I've thought about. Star Trek, especially TNG, has super privacy issues. "Computer, locate joe smith.".."Joe Smith is at Wal-Mart, buying a gallon of milk."
As for dropping cable in this Brave New World, ha! And again I say "ha!". I'm married. It'll never happen.
You'd be surprised. My wife can watch her soaps and all those reality shows on abc.com and mtv.com and bravo.com. The downside is they are usually not available until the next day after they air.
So you don't watch any shows or movies at all? No DVDs? No Netflix? No ESPN3 or Hulu or abc.com?
Or do you watch it on your LCD monitor instead of a 42" HDTV in the living room on the couch?
Because there are multiple ways via Internet to get all the content you want WITHOUT needing cable. ESPN3, Hulu, Netflix ondemand, even abc.com stream their shows.
Wouldn't it be cool if you could just aggregate all those services into a single interface, plug it into your 38" HDTV in the living room, and be able to drop your cable or satellite TV? And wouldn't it be cool if you had a Google search interface on top of all that content to find what you want?
And wouldn't it be cool if you could just do this with an appliance instead of building out a small-profile box and installing XBMC?
Just like pregnancy, right?
* If you don't get it, go read "The Mythical Man Month"
This is literally one of the best and funniest posts I've ever seen on /. 1729, you rock.
I'm jealous. I love Palak Paneer with nan. Yummy.
Oh man, I wish I had mod points! this is one of the best posts I've seen discussing scientific method and experiments. And it shows exactly why only knowing some of the data can be dangerous to draw all sorts of conclusions from.
Dude, fail. This is why our political system in the US sucks. No one votes for a third-party candidate because, as you put it, "ultimately [whomever] won't notice your little boycott".
I for one applaud HeronBlademaster for doing what he thinks is right, no matter what anyone else thinks. Remember, character is how you act when no one is watching.
No rice. Rolled in cucumber.
See here for an example.
This is what I do...use phrases that I will remember. For example:
"Luke, I am your father."
becomes
L,Iayf.
This is a really, really good blog post. Really made me think.
To understand the essay, you have to separate yourself from the culture stigma of the word "loser" to grok that he is not talking about "living-in-your-parents-basement" losers, he is talking about a defined category of person who is in a position where they are being taken advantage of by the company, and know it. Basically, any worker in America.
Here's where it gets interesting. Venkat talks about enlightened losers becoming slackers. I immediately thought of the anecdote about underperforming elementary school kids. Are they underperforming because they are not that bright? Or is it because they are not being challenged enough, are bored, and need to be promoted to the gifted class? This all ties back to the management lesson of challenging your people.
Here is where Venkat, I think, makes one error. He bases the categorization of slacker losers upon the fact that they are not being paid well enough for their talent. But not all workers look at their paycheck as their only form of payment. Many people here on slashdot would perhaps be happy with a smaller paycheck if it was an awesome working environment where they could be challenged every day to do cool, neat things and write lots of code.
In any case, great reading.