You probably can't change the school district as a whole, but you might be able to start a group/club or something. If you start such a group, you'll get a whole lot more support if you can find a mentor - perhaps a teacher who has an interest in what you want to learn. That mentor would have a bit more pull and better ideas of how to get funding and resources to help your club if it is not a huge liability or burden to the school.
Back when I was in high school (a LONG time ago), the only reason we had a programming class was a teacher volunteered to teach a group of us. We couldn't afford a Fortran compiler for the PDP-11, so he bought a textbook and taught us on the board. We hand wrote our code and he did a vis-grep on it to see if we were going in the right direction. Our school didn't have a calculus program until a teach volunteered to teach a group of us. This was after he agreed to teach a single student in parallel with another class (the guy sat in the back and essentially studied by himself, with the teacher "guiding" his studies.
Be willing to heft some of the load yourself, find like-minded students that can be trusted to commit and seek a faculty sponsor. And, be clear about what you want to do - "having a computer club" is a bit vague compared to having a "mysql" seminar series...
Those computers are generally ruggidized to MilSpec (military specifications). Instead of using your friendly neighborhood Dell,...
In general, they probably are Dells or maybe IBM/Lenovos. For the most part, the industry has "ruggedized" computers for some very specialized apps (such as mounting them on forklifts), but in the field, they emphasize safe behaviors - i.e., know which areas are classified as explosive and don't use certain equipment there. There will be a lot of people that say that human nature will cause problems here, but the industry really does have a pretty good safety record in this regard. Most of the reported problems tend to be one-offs - contractors and third parties coming in to do a quick job or observe.
I've tried this and have known several people who have tried this. In the short term, the novelty tends to lend itself to "higher productivity." It seems that freeing yourself from the trappings and surroundings where you've allowed yourself to develop bad habits (slouching, surrepticiously surfing/., playing solitaire, staring at that mark on the wall of your cubicle) that are not productive causes you to have a spurt of higher productivity. Nowadays, I find that a periodic change of venue helps me in the same way - I goto the library for a while, move to a table and spread my stuff out instead of on a desk, sit on the floor or on a couch. I think that the people that I work with innately understand what I'm doing, even if it looks funny.
The only thing I have against standing is that I have to find a counter or something of similar height that functions as a work surface - otherwise, i'm hunched over and a sore back is a real productivity killer....
"check the web logs. Bad password. He is connecting fine but typing in the wrong password. I try to find some way polite way to ask if he knows his own last name. He does. It was Johnson. OK. I keep having him try the user ID and password. I lead him through the numbers one at a time, although I could see from the web logs that he was getting that right. I finally lead him, letter by letter, through the spelling of his own last name (not case-sensitve). That worked."
It *almost* sounds as if YOU were "socially-engineered" into revealing the password to him until he got in.
This is a good observation. Corel's slow return to profitability is due to its return to its core compentency, which *wasn't* Linux distributions, nor supporting applications on Linux. Most of its Linux offerings seems either ill-conceived at the time (Corel Linux) or skunkworks projects (Wordperfect on Linux) and not part of their overall strategy.
Wordperfect, in general, had a HUGE following that rivaled MS Word.
I remember when it took my two roommates and me to scrape together $6 to get a pitcher of cheap beer. If there was a $20 between us, we were drunk and proud of... something...
These kids nowadays with their $250 iPods... Sheesh!:-)
Is it possible that you've expected behavior from OO? I'm not certain that OO's credo is to "replace" M$ Office as an exact copy. However, they probably intend to include *equivalent* functionality in most cases. So, simply opening in a different state ("edit" vs. "Presentation" mode) is a case of you expecting an M$ Office behavior when working with an entirely separate, discrete, different, non-Microsoft Office piece of software.
"Similarly if the system detects queues growing beyond a pre-defined length in the security zone staff will be alerted of the need to open another lane"
Mondays incur serious bottlenecks here at IAH Terminal C (Houston). The security staff seems stymied by their limited empowerment to work the crowd. Often, the line extends out the door, and sometimes into traffic. In fact, it's often more expedient (though no less "secure") to check into a different terminal altogether, then walk or take a tram to Terminal C's gates. The idea that we could open several lines seems beyond the security personnel.
The odd thing to me is that this airport seems the *least* offensive of several majors. Perhaps it's just my familiarity with Houston's particular brand of inefficiency.
I know that the security measures in most were put in place *after* 9-11; therefore, they didn't benefit from any really modern analysis of their security methods (Denver is the most egregious that I've found, to date). However, true to "government droid" stereotypes, the people manning the lines can't seem to think adaptively *and* provide equivalent security.
Ah well, getting to the airport 2 hours early is supposed to be relaxing, somehow....
Yeah, it sounds all "1984." The police chief isn't *quoted* (in TFA) as saying "in homes." I'm willing to concede that he probably meant something more like, "in the vicinity of" high-crime-area homes to surveille the homes and their surrounding areas. This would approximate the same thing as a patrol car sitting on the street watching.
Like all cities, there are a lot of places in Houston that no one likes to be in after dark (including the police). Cameras leverage the limited manpower of the police in those areas.
However after the shitstorm of controversy stirred up by the ill-considered wording of the comments and the implications leveled in the press, the city council will probably table this (they have enough of their own problems).
I, on the other hand have both a tin-foil hat and a Glock, in either case.
45% of Americans say it's simply too expensive. 30% say that they just don't want it. 14% say they feel dial-up is adequate for their needs. 10% are not able to get broadband access in their area. 5% insist broadband is "too complicated". 5% aren't even sure why they don't have it...
Assuming that the "10%" is between 1% and 9%, this adds up to 100% to 108% of the population.
"What if the rovers did come across something which was undeniably manufactured. "Say the rovers happened upon a rock with a sheet of bent and rusted steel laying "against it. What if the robot caught a picture of what would look like a circuit "board or some motorized assembly. What then? Would we be seeing pictures of it "right away? In a day? In a month? In a year?"
I recall something like this from the mind of the late, great Douglas Adams. One of the protagonists in one of the two Dirk Gently books wrote a program that lets people hear information as music - I think it was spreadsheet data or something like that. The premise was that good data sounded "good."
Sounded (no pun intended) like a great idea at the time. I thought it was pretty original...
Crap. This is still taught as an ethics lesson. An engineering manager (Roger Boisjoly) was told to think like a manager rather than an engineer (I believe the term was "take off your engineering hat and put on your manager hat") and the process was approved. I feel for the guy that had to make this decision, because it occurs on the knife-edge that most of us engineers are taught about, but never experience. However, he came to that point, and history will record that he MADE THE WRONG DECISION.
"The booster engineers felt helpless...'No one stepped forward and said, "Stop this train until it's fixed,"'" IS CRAP. Someone said "Stop." Then, he said, "okay," after he switched hats and the world has never been the same since.
The reason I'm so harsh about this is that it could've been any one of us that call ourselves "engineers." We should NEVER forget the lesson from this. Someone went against his training AND his instincts and, as a result, PEOPLE DIED.
You have choices and so does your employer. If you are too far below the requirements to train you to effectively do your new job in a short amount of money, er, time, you are probably going to be replaced. This happens fairly often.
If you believe that they might afford you the time and money for training, ask them and have a tangible cost/benefit arguement in mind for the inevitable questions.
If you can't make headway and if you believe that you can train yourself to the job in a reasonable amount of time, use your time at work as a primary resource for learning. This should make sense to your employer if they really understand that this is the position that they put you in. This is not to say that you wouldn't put in a bit of time on the bus to and from home, in the evenings or in the morning before work. After all, you gotta look like you're learning the stuff at an extraordinary speed, right?:-) If you truly enjoy the topic, you'll probably be reading about it in your spare time anyway. I got several certs that way myself - studying on the bus, an extra hour before work, a few late nights...
If all this doesn't work for them or for you, the last choice is to do the best that you can, documenting everything, without killing yourself in the process. You *do* have a life outside the server room and you can reasonably expect to be left to live it, even if you aren't given the means to adequately prepare for the work you have to do.
Nah. Make sure you do your best and if your best isn't what's needed, go elsewhere. You can keep trying, but after a while that foolish feeling inside you is your subconscious trying to tell you to get real.
"Remember that you're smarter than he is, and that only by persevering can you defeat all the bosses and rescue the princess, or whatever. But if you quit playing, then he's won."
If you don't realize that there's a bigger game called "your life" outside your boss's world, you've already lost.
Slashdot Mirror
and get the microreactor guys to switch methane and you might have something here!
You probably can't change the school district as a whole, but you might be able to start a group/club or something. If you start such a group, you'll get a whole lot more support if you can find a mentor - perhaps a teacher who has an interest in what you want to learn. That mentor would have a bit more pull and better ideas of how to get funding and resources to help your club if it is not a huge liability or burden to the school.
Back when I was in high school (a LONG time ago), the only reason we had a programming class was a teacher volunteered to teach a group of us. We couldn't afford a Fortran compiler for the PDP-11, so he bought a textbook and taught us on the board. We hand wrote our code and he did a vis-grep on it to see if we were going in the right direction. Our school didn't have a calculus program until a teach volunteered to teach a group of us. This was after he agreed to teach a single student in parallel with another class (the guy sat in the back and essentially studied by himself, with the teacher "guiding" his studies.
Be willing to heft some of the load yourself, find like-minded students that can be trusted to commit and seek a faculty sponsor. And, be clear about what you want to do - "having a computer club" is a bit vague compared to having a "mysql" seminar series...
"OH NOES!!1!" :-)
It's a trick!
Those computers are generally ruggidized to MilSpec (military specifications). Instead of using your friendly neighborhood Dell,...
In general, they probably are Dells or maybe IBM/Lenovos. For the most part, the industry has "ruggedized" computers for some very specialized apps (such as mounting them on forklifts), but in the field, they emphasize safe behaviors - i.e., know which areas are classified as explosive and don't use certain equipment there. There will be a lot of people that say that human nature will cause problems here, but the industry really does have a pretty good safety record in this regard. Most of the reported problems tend to be one-offs - contractors and third parties coming in to do a quick job or observe.
Sorry - it was an Apple IIc. I worked on those and probably have a poster with Roy sitting on the beach doing AppleWorks or something. :-)
Okay - now back to our regularly scheduled rant...
I've tried this and have known several people who have tried this. In the short term, the novelty tends to lend itself to "higher productivity." It seems that freeing yourself from the trappings and surroundings where you've allowed yourself to develop bad habits (slouching, surrepticiously surfing /., playing solitaire, staring at that mark on the wall of your cubicle) that are not productive causes you to have a spurt of higher productivity. Nowadays, I find that a periodic change of venue helps me in the same way - I goto the library for a while, move to a table and spread my stuff out instead of on a desk, sit on the floor or on a couch. I think that the people that I work with innately understand what I'm doing, even if it looks funny.
The only thing I have against standing is that I have to find a counter or something of similar height that functions as a work surface - otherwise, i'm hunched over and a sore back is a real productivity killer....
"check the web logs. Bad password. He is connecting fine but typing in the wrong password. I try to find some way polite way to ask if he knows his own last name. He does. It was Johnson. OK. I keep having him try the user ID and password. I lead him through the numbers one at a time, although I could see from the web logs that he was getting that right. I finally lead him, letter by letter, through the spelling of his own last name (not case-sensitve). That worked."
It *almost* sounds as if YOU were "socially-engineered" into revealing the password to him until he got in.
This is a good observation. Corel's slow return to profitability is due to its return to its core compentency, which *wasn't* Linux distributions, nor supporting applications on Linux. Most of its Linux offerings seems either ill-conceived at the time (Corel Linux) or skunkworks projects (Wordperfect on Linux) and not part of their overall strategy.
Wordperfect, in general, had a HUGE following that rivaled MS Word.
Then, they took their eyes off the ball...
where not only does the circuit die, but so does the backhoe, its operator and anyone standing near it.
I remember when it took my two roommates and me to scrape together $6 to get a pitcher of cheap beer. If there was a $20 between us, we were drunk and proud of ... something...
:-)
These kids nowadays with their $250 iPods... Sheesh!
Is it possible that you've expected behavior from OO? I'm not certain that OO's credo is to "replace" M$ Office as an exact copy. However, they probably intend to include *equivalent* functionality in most cases. So, simply opening in a different state ("edit" vs. "Presentation" mode) is a case of you expecting an M$ Office behavior when working with an entirely separate, discrete, different, non-Microsoft Office piece of software.
"Similarly if the system detects queues growing beyond a pre-defined length in the security zone staff will be alerted of the need to open another lane"
Mondays incur serious bottlenecks here at IAH Terminal C (Houston). The security staff seems stymied by their limited empowerment to work the crowd. Often, the line extends out the door, and sometimes into traffic. In fact, it's often more expedient (though no less "secure") to check into a different terminal altogether, then walk or take a tram to Terminal C's gates. The idea that we could open several lines seems beyond the security personnel.
The odd thing to me is that this airport seems the *least* offensive of several majors. Perhaps it's just my familiarity with Houston's particular brand of inefficiency.
I know that the security measures in most were put in place *after* 9-11; therefore, they didn't benefit from any really modern analysis of their security methods (Denver is the most egregious that I've found, to date). However, true to "government droid" stereotypes, the people manning the lines can't seem to think adaptively *and* provide equivalent security.
Ah well, getting to the airport 2 hours early is supposed to be relaxing, somehow....
Don't *knock* it...
Z1 - Z4?
Yeah, it sounds all "1984." The police chief isn't *quoted* (in TFA) as saying "in homes." I'm willing to concede that he probably meant something more like, "in the vicinity of" high-crime-area homes to surveille the homes and their surrounding areas. This would approximate the same thing as a patrol car sitting on the street watching.
Like all cities, there are a lot of places in Houston that no one likes to be in after dark (including the police). Cameras leverage the limited manpower of the police in those areas.
However after the shitstorm of controversy stirred up by the ill-considered wording of the comments and the implications leveled in the press, the city council will probably table this (they have enough of their own problems).
I, on the other hand have both a tin-foil hat and a Glock, in either case.
45% of Americans say it's simply too expensive.
30% say that they just don't want it.
14% say they feel dial-up is adequate for their needs.
10% are not able to get broadband access in their area.
5% insist broadband is "too complicated".
5% aren't even sure why they don't have it...
Assuming that the "10%" is between 1% and 9%, this adds up to 100% to 108% of the population.
What's up with that?
It seems that all my best ideas and clear thinking occur during my morning shower.
Maybe this is the manifestation of all the great thinking I've done while I've been sleeping.
"What if the rovers did come across something which was undeniably manufactured. "Say the rovers happened upon a rock with a sheet of bent and rusted steel laying "against it. What if the robot caught a picture of what would look like a circuit "board or some motorized assembly. What then? Would we be seeing pictures of it "right away? In a day? In a month? In a year?"
We found BEAGLE II!!!!!!
I recall something like this from the mind of the late, great Douglas Adams. One of the protagonists in one of the two Dirk Gently books wrote a program that lets people hear information as music - I think it was spreadsheet data or something like that. The premise was that good data sounded "good."
Sounded (no pun intended) like a great idea at the time. I thought it was pretty original...
This may not have the aesthic appeal that you might think it would...
Crap. This is still taught as an ethics lesson. An engineering manager (Roger Boisjoly) was told to think like a manager rather than an engineer (I believe the term was "take off your engineering hat and put on your manager hat") and the process was approved. I feel for the guy that had to make this decision, because it occurs on the knife-edge that most of us engineers are taught about, but never experience. However, he came to that point, and history will record that he MADE THE WRONG DECISION.
...'No one stepped forward and said, "Stop this train until it's fixed,"'" IS CRAP. Someone said "Stop." Then, he said, "okay," after he switched hats and the world has never been the same since.
"The booster engineers felt helpless
The reason I'm so harsh about this is that it could've been any one of us that call ourselves "engineers." We should NEVER forget the lesson from this. Someone went against his training AND his instincts and, as a result, PEOPLE DIED.
You have choices and so does your employer. If you are too far below the requirements to train you to effectively do your new job in a short amount of money, er, time, you are probably going to be replaced. This happens fairly often.
:-) If you truly enjoy the topic, you'll probably be reading about it in your spare time anyway. I got several certs that way myself - studying on the bus, an extra hour before work, a few late nights...
If you believe that they might afford you the time and money for training, ask them and have a tangible cost/benefit arguement in mind for the inevitable questions.
If you can't make headway and if you believe that you can train yourself to the job in a reasonable amount of time, use your time at work as a primary resource for learning. This should make sense to your employer if they really understand that this is the position that they put you in. This is not to say that you wouldn't put in a bit of time on the bus to and from home, in the evenings or in the morning before work. After all, you gotta look like you're learning the stuff at an extraordinary speed, right?
If all this doesn't work for them or for you, the last choice is to do the best that you can, documenting everything, without killing yourself in the process. You *do* have a life outside the server room and you can reasonably expect to be left to live it, even if you aren't given the means to adequately prepare for the work you have to do.
I TOLD Matsumoto-san to clean out the back of the leefligelaytah!
Nah. Make sure you do your best and if your best isn't what's needed, go elsewhere. You can keep trying, but after a while that foolish feeling inside you is your subconscious trying to tell you to get real. "Remember that you're smarter than he is, and that only by persevering can you defeat all the bosses and rescue the princess, or whatever. But if you quit playing, then he's won." If you don't realize that there's a bigger game called "your life" outside your boss's world, you've already lost.
I have a feeling that neither of these would be greeted seriously by the tech world (for a processor name, anyway)...