"I want to be able to "circle" my friends." - Exactly. Just like how it's done on Google+. Even Facebook has a similar, though not as elegant, concept. This is something that LinkedIn could do quite easily if they wanted to. If it were a feature only available to paying customers I might sign up just for that alone.
Above all, use LinkedIn for what it's intended for. Purely professional stuff. I don't see any need to put in marital status, hobbies, political views, vacation plans..any of that crap.
Being a contractor I use LinkedIn and I find it useful, but your points are well taken. Recruiters can be a real PITA on there. Often they are trying to fill a single job and send requests to everyone that might be even a remote fit for the position. I will not 'friend' them but send an email reply (without disclosing my personal email address) if the job interests me. Otherwise I just ignore the invitation. I won't add anyone I don't know personally. Maybe that makes me a purist but so be it.
One of the things that bothers me on LinkedIn is that once you friend someone they can see all your contacts. I'd like to have a way to show my contacts to people I trust and hide them from people that I have an arms length relationship with, or none at all. Such as that random recruiter I just got a request from. I am certain that many of them send you a friend request just so they can mine your friends for more contacts. I even sent a request to LinkedIn to add this as an enhancement. Never got a reply.
I suspect that LinkedIn wants it exactly this way because recruiters pay for the service and people like me just use the free version of it. Money talks.
Sure, pure UNIX use is declining on servers but OSX is UNIX based and that seems to be doing fine. Linux is too. I think that the decline of UNIX on servers is more about the architecture it is tied to rather than UNIX itself. Linux, of course, can run on Intel CPUs which tend to be much cheaper. UNIX has always been a rock solid OS in my experience and it will continue to live on, behind the scenes, for a long time to come.
From a courtesy standpoint, sure, you should give 2 weeks notice. But courtesy is a 2 way street. If they treat me well, I'll treat them well. From a reference standpoint, many companies are forbidden from giving official references of any kind. All they are allowed to say is when you started, when you left and your position at the company. If you want a reference don't get it from some dweeb in HR...get it from your boss or a co-worker. Now if you've screwed your boss over by quitting without notice..well..they are not likely to give you a reference to begin with. A co-worker might be more willing.
Having said all that, a company would have to had screwed me over really bad to leave without any notice. It's just bad form. But legally, there is nothing they can do to you. But as a general rule, I'd just hold my nose, give them the 2 week notice and leave. It might make you feel better to tell "the man" to go fuck himself but you've really got very little to gain by doing that.
You make a good point but one other thing that Apple doesn't get enough credit for is OSX. UNIX and Linux have been around a long time and there are lots of UI's created for them but nobody - nobody - has done a good a job as Apple at creating a user friendly version of UNIX/Linux. For a lot of people they will never get beyond launching Apps from the Dock. Click once...App opens...easy-peasy. But for the technically inclined you've got a Terminal with all the command line UNIX magic you can shake a stick at. The beauty of it is that both types of users can coexist peacefully in the same OS. It's truly a one size fits all operating system.
Over the last couple of years I would estimate that about half of my tech colleagues have made the switch to a Mac and AFAIK, nobody has gone back to Windows. Don't get me wrong...nothing wrong with Windows. I just think that Jobs and Apple deserve a lot of credit for OSX. It's really quite brilliant.
that's what these TV execs are operating under. The idea that I'm going to watch what they want me to watch, when they want me to watch it, is laughable. What is this...1950? With 3 channels to watch and no remote control and everyone huddled around the TV for the 6 o'clock news?
Newsflash Mr. TV fat cat....I'm gonna watch stuff when I want to, not when you schedule it. And you can forget about those overpriced, locked down DVR boxes you're trying to peddle. Nope...I'm just going to fire up Netflix and watch stuff that's interesting to me, on my schedule.
I am through paying for 250 channels only to find out that there are only 5-10 that I ever really watch. I am sick and tired of the ever increasing number of commercials that seem to occupy about 1/4 of the TV experience. I am thrilled to have a service that lets me watch every episode of Hawaii 5-0 ever made, in whatever order I choose, whenever I like, in high-def no less.
Simply put - your service costs too much and delivers too little. I would venture to guess that people gravitate to other services like Netflix and Hulu and, yes, even torrents because they feel the same way I do. Now some of these services are coming up with their own original content like House of Cards and you know what? It's every bit as good as anything produced by fat cat TV. Even YouTube is starting to do this.
Slowly but surely the big TV studios are turning into the modern day horse and buggy. Good riddance.
3 tablets, 5 tables...it doesn't matter. Microsoft is never going to be a big player in either the cellphone or tablet market. MS has been outflanked by both Apple and Google. Desktop computers are dying a slow death, at least in the consumer market. And that's where MS had it's competitive advantage. MS saw the tide change too late and are now left on the outside looking in at Apple and Google.
Sure, MS still has tons of money coming in from it's Windows/Office monopoly but you can see a quiet desperation at Microsoft. Even they must realize that they missed the boat on tablets and probably can't hope for more than a 10% market share.
Apple excels at UI design and marketing. Google excels at innovation. MS? They're still trying to find out.
Much like WebOS, which I loved by the way, BB is now a sinking ship. I've played around with the BB10 and it's actually a pretty cool phone. The problem for me was that it was so different from Android and iOS, in term of the gestures and just how it flowed. You'd have to basically relearn, and unlearn, the whole smartphone ecosystem and I'm not a big enough BB fan to do that.
There just doesn't seem to be room for more than two big players in the smartphone arena. The only reason Microsoft is still in there is because they have enough money to keep it afloat. The sales for Windows phones are dismal and not likely to improve much. Android and iOS just have too much momentum.
In my experience, when these big projects start to go sideways the vendor always gets blamed. Or the software. Anyone but the incompetent government boob running the project. The outside contractor is always the first to get the blame.
But fear not...big companies like IBM are used to this sort of thing. That's why they take their time and make you sign this document and that document authorizing decisions along the way. Change in project scope? Sure...sign here. They do this because they know that eventually something like this will happen. And when it does they will have a paper trail of evidence should it go to court. In the end, faced with the mountain of evidence, the client will make a confidential settlement to save face and IBM moves along to the next project. Nice and neat. Thanks for playing.
while they're at it have them install a paper shredder beside the clusters to save me the trouble of shredding the 90% of my current mail that ends up being junk.
I've got an iMac, same vintage as yours. I'm running 10.8 on it with only 4GB of RAM and it runs flawlessly. Mind you, I went to the trouble to replacing the original HD with an SSD (highly recommended!). Never been in for repairs either. As much as I love the new Macs I just can't find a good reason to retire the one I have now. It's still a good light to medium use workhorse.
Yeah, kinda like how the cops put a "street value" on drug busts. As if some dude that just got busted with 10 kilos is going to be standing on a street corner selling dime bags.
I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials for several years now without a hitch. It's free and it doesn't seem to slow the machine down. If it weren't for preinstalled bloatware McAfee, Norton, NOD32, Kaspersky, etc. (well, mostly McAfee and Norton) would all be out of business. I'm sure that a lot of unsophisticated users believe that McAfee is the ONLY way to protect their PC from viruses and they simply must purchase it. Heaven knows, the scare tactics they employ are surely helping. Completely unethical in my view...they'll never see a nickel of my money.
1) 31.2 million iPhones sold...well ahead of estimates. 2) 14.6 million iPads sold...well below expectations.
Here's my theory on the iPhone sales. I think that many people had earlier models of the iPhone and when it came time to upgrade they decided to try Android phones, were unsatisfied, and switched back to an iPhone on the next upgrade cycle. Android has a lot of nifty features but I have to admit that the iPhone is a lot slicker and easier to use. For a lot of people, ease of use wins out.
I suspect we might see the same thing occur with the iPads in the near future. There are a lot of cheap Android tablets out there and most of them are crap. The exception being the Samsung Galaxy, which is very nicely done. I think that a lot of people that really wanted an iPad settled for a cheap Android tablet and are discovering that you get what you pay for.
These days I'm using my laptop more like a desktop and my tablet more like a laptop. I barely ever use my laptop unless it's plugged in and connected to an external monitor. Heck, the battery could die on it and I might not even know. And yes, I still use my desktop computer. It performs the same function it always has - high powered workstation with huge monitors for serious work.
The trouble with trying to make movies that appeal to everyone is that you have to cater to the LCD. That means lots of explosions, car chases, and low brow plots that everyone can follow without having to think very much. It also means that the themes are generally trendy and politically correct. So the women tend to be good looking, strong, confident and smart. The guys tend to be dumb, weak, and doughy (Kevin James comes to mind). This has been the formula for success for many years now in Hollywood.
The trouble with this approach is that you quickly run out of ideas. Every movie seems like the one you saw last week. Every car chase seems just a little bit less exciting than the last one. So they try to come up with these gimmicks like 3D to spice it up. The first time you see it, it's pretty cool. But that fades as well.
I think George Clooney was the first person I heard express the "one for them, one for me" idea. In other words, make one low ball fluff movie for the studios and make a smaller independent high brow film for himself. Fortunately for him, he's in a position that he can pick and choose the movies he wants to make.
Yeah that's a fair point and I'm not disputing it. I just think that in this case Sun would have gone down either way, given their bad management. Would IBM be a better partner? Sure...but IBM isn't exactly a model corporate citizen either. Just ask any of the thousands of US based employees that have been laid off in the face of record profits.
I know that I'm in the minority here - and I don't have a horse in the race either way - I'm just trying to stir up some spirited debate on it.
The anti Oracle bias is quite clear on this thread but just consider...Sun was a horribly run company. Jonathan Schwartz had this bizarre notion that if they gave everything away for free they could somehow make money off it. We all saw how that turned out. Sure, Sparc stations were pretty cool...back in the 90's. But then they got leapfrogged by commodity servers and never caught up. Sun failed to innovate so it got swallowed up by the bigger fish.
Look - I'm the first to admit that Ellison is a first class prick. But Oracle is in business to make money. They keep what works and get rid of what doesn't.
B&N is selling the Nook for $129/$149 right now and, frankly, it's a better tablet than the Surface in just about every way. Maybe if Microsoft included the cover/keyboard it might be a bit more appealing but those are sold separately.
I wanted Microsoft to succeed with this thing, I really did, but as soon as it came out I just knew that it was DOA. The original price was way too high. The specs were sort of average. Not enough Apps. Failure to attract developers. The list goes on.
It will be interesting to see what (if anything) Microsoft does for those unfortunate souls that plunked down $500 for one of these things not very long ago. It kind of reminds me of the original iPhone that sold for $600, only to be reduced to $400 shortly thereafter. Customers were justifiably pissed off. Maybe MS should give them a free tablet keyboard or a coupon for some software? It's the least they could do. Correction...the least they could do is nothing, which is probably what will happen.
Yup. I rent a lot of cars and every time I get in one I have to relearn the darn touchscreen system. There is no standardization. I don't like having to take my eyes off the road to operate the AC system. My personal car is an older one and doesn't have any touchscreen. I love it. I can operate all the controls with, at most, a very quick glance at the button. Most things I can do without taking my eyes off the road at all. Voice activation is the way to go. That's what the car makers should concentrate on. Microsoft Sync is a great start.
Get your resume together and create a LinkedIn account. Post the relevant details and start sending out connection invitations to the people you know in the industry. Emphasize your skills over education. Trust me, you'll have 100 connections in no time. Then the recruiters will start to find you. They troll through LinkedIn all the time looking for keyword skill matches. Sure, some of them are bottom feeders but others can help you.
Short answer is to use your networking skills. Having a degree is great for getting your foot in the door but eventually you've got to be able to get shit done. When you get shit done, people notice. When people notice, you begin to build a reputation. Once you build a reputation, you don't call them...they call you.
Equally important are your interviewing skills. Managers are typically "Type A" personalities and are drawn to people like them. If you're not a Type A then learn how to pretend you are one in a interview. Don't be afraid to toot your own horn. Be confident and impress them with your skills. You don't have to kiss anyone's ass but leave them with the impression that you're a cool guy and someone they would want to work with. It goes a long way.
Slashdot Mirror
"I want to be able to "circle" my friends." - Exactly. Just like how it's done on Google+. Even Facebook has a similar, though not as elegant, concept. This is something that LinkedIn could do quite easily if they wanted to. If it were a feature only available to paying customers I might sign up just for that alone.
This.
Above all, use LinkedIn for what it's intended for. Purely professional stuff. I don't see any need to put in marital status, hobbies, political views, vacation plans..any of that crap.
Being a contractor I use LinkedIn and I find it useful, but your points are well taken. Recruiters can be a real PITA on there. Often they are trying to fill a single job and send requests to everyone that might be even a remote fit for the position. I will not 'friend' them but send an email reply (without disclosing my personal email address) if the job interests me. Otherwise I just ignore the invitation. I won't add anyone I don't know personally. Maybe that makes me a purist but so be it.
One of the things that bothers me on LinkedIn is that once you friend someone they can see all your contacts. I'd like to have a way to show my contacts to people I trust and hide them from people that I have an arms length relationship with, or none at all. Such as that random recruiter I just got a request from. I am certain that many of them send you a friend request just so they can mine your friends for more contacts. I even sent a request to LinkedIn to add this as an enhancement. Never got a reply.
I suspect that LinkedIn wants it exactly this way because recruiters pay for the service and people like me just use the free version of it. Money talks.
Sure, pure UNIX use is declining on servers but OSX is UNIX based and that seems to be doing fine. Linux is too. I think that the decline of UNIX on servers is more about the architecture it is tied to rather than UNIX itself. Linux, of course, can run on Intel CPUs which tend to be much cheaper. UNIX has always been a rock solid OS in my experience and it will continue to live on, behind the scenes, for a long time to come.
From a courtesy standpoint, sure, you should give 2 weeks notice. But courtesy is a 2 way street. If they treat me well, I'll treat them well. From a reference standpoint, many companies are forbidden from giving official references of any kind. All they are allowed to say is when you started, when you left and your position at the company. If you want a reference don't get it from some dweeb in HR...get it from your boss or a co-worker. Now if you've screwed your boss over by quitting without notice..well..they are not likely to give you a reference to begin with. A co-worker might be more willing.
Having said all that, a company would have to had screwed me over really bad to leave without any notice. It's just bad form. But legally, there is nothing they can do to you. But as a general rule, I'd just hold my nose, give them the 2 week notice and leave. It might make you feel better to tell "the man" to go fuck himself but you've really got very little to gain by doing that.
You make a good point but one other thing that Apple doesn't get enough credit for is OSX. UNIX and Linux have been around a long time and there are lots of UI's created for them but nobody - nobody - has done a good a job as Apple at creating a user friendly version of UNIX/Linux. For a lot of people they will never get beyond launching Apps from the Dock. Click once...App opens...easy-peasy. But for the technically inclined you've got a Terminal with all the command line UNIX magic you can shake a stick at. The beauty of it is that both types of users can coexist peacefully in the same OS. It's truly a one size fits all operating system.
Over the last couple of years I would estimate that about half of my tech colleagues have made the switch to a Mac and AFAIK, nobody has gone back to Windows. Don't get me wrong...nothing wrong with Windows. I just think that Jobs and Apple deserve a lot of credit for OSX. It's really quite brilliant.
that's what these TV execs are operating under. The idea that I'm going to watch what they want me to watch, when they want me to watch it, is laughable. What is this...1950? With 3 channels to watch and no remote control and everyone huddled around the TV for the 6 o'clock news?
Newsflash Mr. TV fat cat....I'm gonna watch stuff when I want to, not when you schedule it. And you can forget about those overpriced, locked down DVR boxes you're trying to peddle. Nope...I'm just going to fire up Netflix and watch stuff that's interesting to me, on my schedule.
I am through paying for 250 channels only to find out that there are only 5-10 that I ever really watch. I am sick and tired of the ever increasing number of commercials that seem to occupy about 1/4 of the TV experience. I am thrilled to have a service that lets me watch every episode of Hawaii 5-0 ever made, in whatever order I choose, whenever I like, in high-def no less.
Simply put - your service costs too much and delivers too little. I would venture to guess that people gravitate to other services like Netflix and Hulu and, yes, even torrents because they feel the same way I do. Now some of these services are coming up with their own original content like House of Cards and you know what? It's every bit as good as anything produced by fat cat TV. Even YouTube is starting to do this.
Slowly but surely the big TV studios are turning into the modern day horse and buggy. Good riddance.
3 tablets, 5 tables...it doesn't matter. Microsoft is never going to be a big player in either the cellphone or tablet market. MS has been outflanked by both Apple and Google. Desktop computers are dying a slow death, at least in the consumer market. And that's where MS had it's competitive advantage. MS saw the tide change too late and are now left on the outside looking in at Apple and Google.
Sure, MS still has tons of money coming in from it's Windows/Office monopoly but you can see a quiet desperation at Microsoft. Even they must realize that they missed the boat on tablets and probably can't hope for more than a 10% market share.
Apple excels at UI design and marketing. Google excels at innovation. MS? They're still trying to find out.
Much like WebOS, which I loved by the way, BB is now a sinking ship. I've played around with the BB10 and it's actually a pretty cool phone. The problem for me was that it was so different from Android and iOS, in term of the gestures and just how it flowed. You'd have to basically relearn, and unlearn, the whole smartphone ecosystem and I'm not a big enough BB fan to do that.
There just doesn't seem to be room for more than two big players in the smartphone arena. The only reason Microsoft is still in there is because they have enough money to keep it afloat. The sales for Windows phones are dismal and not likely to improve much. Android and iOS just have too much momentum.
perhaps what it really shows is that so called 'hands-free' calling is equally distracting as regular cell phone use.
In my experience, when these big projects start to go sideways the vendor always gets blamed. Or the software. Anyone but the incompetent government boob running the project. The outside contractor is always the first to get the blame.
But fear not...big companies like IBM are used to this sort of thing. That's why they take their time and make you sign this document and that document authorizing decisions along the way. Change in project scope? Sure...sign here. They do this because they know that eventually something like this will happen. And when it does they will have a paper trail of evidence should it go to court. In the end, faced with the mountain of evidence, the client will make a confidential settlement to save face and IBM moves along to the next project. Nice and neat. Thanks for playing.
Dang...wish I had some mod points left :-(
while they're at it have them install a paper shredder beside the clusters to save me the trouble of shredding the 90% of my current mail that ends up being junk.
I've got an iMac, same vintage as yours. I'm running 10.8 on it with only 4GB of RAM and it runs flawlessly. Mind you, I went to the trouble to replacing the original HD with an SSD (highly recommended!). Never been in for repairs either. As much as I love the new Macs I just can't find a good reason to retire the one I have now. It's still a good light to medium use workhorse.
Yeah, kinda like how the cops put a "street value" on drug busts. As if some dude that just got busted with 10 kilos is going to be standing on a street corner selling dime bags.
* This *
I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials for several years now without a hitch. It's free and it doesn't seem to slow the machine down. If it weren't for preinstalled bloatware McAfee, Norton, NOD32, Kaspersky, etc. (well, mostly McAfee and Norton) would all be out of business. I'm sure that a lot of unsophisticated users believe that McAfee is the ONLY way to protect their PC from viruses and they simply must purchase it. Heaven knows, the scare tactics they employ are surely helping. Completely unethical in my view...they'll never see a nickel of my money.
1) 31.2 million iPhones sold...well ahead of estimates.
2) 14.6 million iPads sold...well below expectations.
Here's my theory on the iPhone sales. I think that many people had earlier models of the iPhone and when it came time to upgrade they decided to try Android phones, were unsatisfied, and switched back to an iPhone on the next upgrade cycle. Android has a lot of nifty features but I have to admit that the iPhone is a lot slicker and easier to use. For a lot of people, ease of use wins out.
I suspect we might see the same thing occur with the iPads in the near future. There are a lot of cheap Android tablets out there and most of them are crap. The exception being the Samsung Galaxy, which is very nicely done. I think that a lot of people that really wanted an iPad settled for a cheap Android tablet and are discovering that you get what you pay for.
These days I'm using my laptop more like a desktop and my tablet more like a laptop. I barely ever use my laptop unless it's plugged in and connected to an external monitor. Heck, the battery could die on it and I might not even know. And yes, I still use my desktop computer. It performs the same function it always has - high powered workstation with huge monitors for serious work.
The trouble with trying to make movies that appeal to everyone is that you have to cater to the LCD. That means lots of explosions, car chases, and low brow plots that everyone can follow without having to think very much. It also means that the themes are generally trendy and politically correct. So the women tend to be good looking, strong, confident and smart. The guys tend to be dumb, weak, and doughy (Kevin James comes to mind). This has been the formula for success for many years now in Hollywood.
The trouble with this approach is that you quickly run out of ideas. Every movie seems like the one you saw last week. Every car chase seems just a little bit less exciting than the last one. So they try to come up with these gimmicks like 3D to spice it up. The first time you see it, it's pretty cool. But that fades as well.
I think George Clooney was the first person I heard express the "one for them, one for me" idea. In other words, make one low ball fluff movie for the studios and make a smaller independent high brow film for himself. Fortunately for him, he's in a position that he can pick and choose the movies he wants to make.
Yeah that's a fair point and I'm not disputing it. I just think that in this case Sun would have gone down either way, given their bad management. Would IBM be a better partner? Sure...but IBM isn't exactly a model corporate citizen either. Just ask any of the thousands of US based employees that have been laid off in the face of record profits.
I know that I'm in the minority here - and I don't have a horse in the race either way - I'm just trying to stir up some spirited debate on it.
Cheers.
Hahaha...touche my friend, touche :-)
The anti Oracle bias is quite clear on this thread but just consider...Sun was a horribly run company. Jonathan Schwartz had this bizarre notion that if they gave everything away for free they could somehow make money off it. We all saw how that turned out. Sure, Sparc stations were pretty cool...back in the 90's. But then they got leapfrogged by commodity servers and never caught up. Sun failed to innovate so it got swallowed up by the bigger fish.
Look - I'm the first to admit that Ellison is a first class prick. But Oracle is in business to make money. They keep what works and get rid of what doesn't.
B&N is selling the Nook for $129/$149 right now and, frankly, it's a better tablet than the Surface in just about every way. Maybe if Microsoft included the cover/keyboard it might be a bit more appealing but those are sold separately.
I wanted Microsoft to succeed with this thing, I really did, but as soon as it came out I just knew that it was DOA. The original price was way too high. The specs were sort of average. Not enough Apps. Failure to attract developers. The list goes on.
It will be interesting to see what (if anything) Microsoft does for those unfortunate souls that plunked down $500 for one of these things not very long ago. It kind of reminds me of the original iPhone that sold for $600, only to be reduced to $400 shortly thereafter. Customers were justifiably pissed off. Maybe MS should give them a free tablet keyboard or a coupon for some software? It's the least they could do. Correction...the least they could do is nothing, which is probably what will happen.
Yup. I rent a lot of cars and every time I get in one I have to relearn the darn touchscreen system. There is no standardization. I don't like having to take my eyes off the road to operate the AC system. My personal car is an older one and doesn't have any touchscreen. I love it. I can operate all the controls with, at most, a very quick glance at the button. Most things I can do without taking my eyes off the road at all. Voice activation is the way to go. That's what the car makers should concentrate on. Microsoft Sync is a great start.
Get your resume together and create a LinkedIn account. Post the relevant details and start sending out connection invitations to the people you know in the industry. Emphasize your skills over education. Trust me, you'll have 100 connections in no time. Then the recruiters will start to find you. They troll through LinkedIn all the time looking for keyword skill matches. Sure, some of them are bottom feeders but others can help you.
Short answer is to use your networking skills. Having a degree is great for getting your foot in the door but eventually you've got to be able to get shit done. When you get shit done, people notice. When people notice, you begin to build a reputation. Once you build a reputation, you don't call them...they call you.
Equally important are your interviewing skills. Managers are typically "Type A" personalities and are drawn to people like them. If you're not a Type A then learn how to pretend you are one in a interview. Don't be afraid to toot your own horn. Be confident and impress them with your skills. You don't have to kiss anyone's ass but leave them with the impression that you're a cool guy and someone they would want to work with. It goes a long way.