Look, I know a bunch of people run Windows. But on an Atom CPU, 1GB memory, 16GB (smallest) flash drive, I just don't see Windows being that great. I'm sure Windows will run, but how well?
Ah well, I suppose I can easily wipe this and put Fedora on it... I just wish Eee put a Linux option on more of their gear, installed out-of-the-box. Even if I wipe whatever Linux they give me and put another distro on it, I'd love to send a message by buying the Linux option.
To compare, I'm running an older Dell subnotebook with 1GB memory, booting Fedora 11 from an 8GB consumer flash drive. Works great, very fast!
"The article makes the argument that high volumes of data and bandwidth limitations make external cloud storage all but useless for enterprises because it could take months to restore the data in a disaster. It also appears to be a consumer problem -- the author spent three months replicating 1TB of home data via cable modem to an online backup service."
I work at a large university, and my group recently concluded writing a 5-year strategy for our storage systems. On the topic of "cloud storage", we concluded that this fits into the overall storage plan, but you need to consider what type of data to put on the cloud.
In our case, we created a matrix of all the different storage available on campus, including our central SAN (4 tiers), HPC storage, NAS, Active Directory storage, cloud, etc. We identified the pros/cons to each storage (and yes, there are pros and cons to each storage type) and gave example usage for each.
We recommended that we leverage "cloud" storage for rarely used data that did not require getting backed up by the university. There is a surprisingly large amount of data that fits this. We recommended against putting any "enterprise" data (enterprise data backup, critical files, etc.) in the cloud.
For example: we have one researcher who generates large data sets from his HPC efforts. After publication, he may need to hang on to this data for 2 years, but may not access it at all during that time. Sure, he can always regenerate the data by re-running his HPC with the same initial conditions (and has done this in the past) but it takes months to complete the run. It takes him weeks to transfer the entire data set to a cloud storage vendor, and weeks to get it back (if he needs it.) When you're comparing weeks to months, for data that doesn't need to be backed up (that's according to the researcher), cloud storage becomes an easy choice.
Another example: we have a vocal faculty who are now claiming that they need up to 1TB of storage, to do with as they like, to help support their informal research needs. Not every faculty claims to need the 1TB, so this is hard to plan for. And those of us in central IT know that most of the researchers who claim "I need 1TB" will only use a few 100 GB at most, making the planning a bit harder still. Assume 1,000 faculty sign up, how much storage do you really need, and how much storage will sit idle? Over-subscription helps address this, but not fully. Again, we looked to cloud storage.
In our report, we recommended the university arrange for cloud storage agreements, just like many universities are doing with GMail, so that we retain ownership over the data we put in "our" part of the cloud. We can establish a service level statement for our consumers of the cloud, so everyone understands the pros/cons and appropriate use - and its limitations.
I agree with the parent. It's unfortunate, but sometimes headhunters mess about with the resume before sending it on. You can reduce the odds of this happening (somewhat) by only giving the headhunter a PDF copy of your resume. They'd have to re-type the resume to edit it, and many may be unwilling to go through the effort.
Definitely do bring copies of your resume with you to any interview, and if you find the resume they have in front of them is wrong correct it right away. Don't try to cover for the headhunter. In the original question, the submitter said he was an idiot to correct the resume during the interview - no, you weren't. As a hiring manager, I'd rather hear that the headhunter falsified your resume, than discover that you did.
If you find a headhunter has faked your resume, I'd drop him/her right away, and insist they no longer share your info with anyone. Limit the exposure. If it happens once, it will happen again.
I read the article, and it's definitely biased. There's a lot of unnecessary negativity there, and a very classy photo of giving The Finger to a few UMD-based games. Nice.
I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: the PSP Go is not really geared for people who already have a PSP. If you own a PSP today, Sony has already made $$ from you, they don't need you to buy a PSP Go. Sure, they'd appreciate it, but you aren't their primary market for the PSP Go. There's a reason Sony has committed to selling all future PSP games as both UMD and download - existing PSP owners can buy games on UMD if they like, or as digital download, and PSP Go owners can do the digital download thing.
Instead, Sony's market for the PSP Go is people who don't already own a PSP. Really.
I'm a PSP gamer. I have a PSP 1001, it's very nice. I've bought a lot of UMD games for it. I still have a few of those UMD games - notably "Ratchet & Clank Size Matters", "Daxter", "Star Wars Battlefront 2", "Lumines" and "Loco Roco". These are all great games, and they've definitely gotten re-play value with me. And I own a few movies on UMD, great to take with you on a flight to the next conference.
But I'll say this: if my PSP 1001 died today, I'd probably buy a PSP Go. Yes, that means I'd lose the ability to keep playing my UMD games, but I'm done playing them. I want to play new games. I haven't bought a UMD since I've been able to buy games from PSN. Same for UMD movies (you can rent/buy standard-def movies from PSN, and watch them on a PSP.) For me, it's easy: I purchase & download them on my PS3, then transfer them to my PSP.
A few months ago in a comment about the then-coming-soon PSP Go, I said Sony needed to go back through its PSP game catalog and re-release the hottest titles as digital download on PSN. I'm really glad to see that Sony flooded PSN this week with a section just for PSP games - as I predicted, they re-released 100+ PSP games.
Why did Sony need to do this? And why was it important that they actually did this? Because the PSP Go is not aimed at people who already have a PSP. If you buy a PSP Go, you know you can only buy games from PSN - so you just do it.
I've followed the PSP Go quite closely. As I said above, if my PSP 1001 dies, I'd probably replace it with a PSP Go. I use "probably" because the fact that the cable isn't regular USB really bothers me. That's my only complaint with the PSP Go: it should have used a standard data cable. (I don't think the power cable being different bothers me, since almost all my personal electronic devices use different power cables, sort of the state we live in for now.)
It happens to me every so often. Occasionally, I will actually wake up, but it's rare, since I don't have this problem every night. The key to knowing when it happens is when I wake up tired. And when I wake up tired, I have felt the sensation of not breathing right before I consciously wake up.
Your symptoms are eeeeeeeeeeeeerily similar to mine. Waking up coughing, or with the sensation you are out of breath, is a big clue. So is waking up feeling tired. I usually woke up around 3:00 just like that, figured I had to go pee or something. And then the alarm went off at 6:00, and I was still tired - I assumed it was because I got up at 3:00 to go to the bathroom. Heck, I didn't even think I had apnea - my wife finally convinced me to get the sleep study done.
Go see a sleep specialist about this, man. It's not a big deal. They have you fill out a survey, then you schedule to stay the night in a room that's a lot like a hotel room. Except you're wired up to a monitor the whole time you're asleep. If they detect apnea, they may wake you up in the middle of the night to try a CPAP mask.
That sleep study really helped me realize what sleep was supposed to be like. Went to bed at 10:00, woke me up around 2:00 to try on the mask, and when I woke up at 6:00 (alarm clock) I felt soooooooooo much better. Even on 4 hours of sleep. With CPAP, you may have bad nights (maybe the mask leaks that night, or something.) But my worst night on CPAP is way better than my best nights before CPAP. It really is that much better.
I happen to live in Minnesota, where most homes have basements. Our Comcast cable enters the house through the basement, so I figured it was a convenient place to hook up the WiFi access point. The WAP is sitting on the bottom shelf of a bookshelf I have there.
The net effect is that I have great WiFi signal throughout the house. I have a wood frame house, and WiFi signal is not retarded by normal wood construction. However, I get almost no signal as soon as I step out the back door onto the porch. A few feet away from the house, I can't pick up the signal at all. I've also tested it from the street, and it's like my WAP isn't even there. No, I'm not using any special paints or "Faraday cage" wallpaper.
That's because basements are constructed from cement blocks, which do a pretty good job of retarding WiFi signal. Not to mention my basement is 6-7 feet underground (there are windows at almost ceiling height) and all that dirt also helps block the signal. I figure I'm pretty safe from snooping. Sometimes it helps to just be incrementally harder to get to than the next guy. If you're a wardriver who's interested in free WiFi, my neighbor two doors down is an easier target (his WAP is on the second floor of his house, so he's essentially broadcasting to the whole neighborhood.) Or I suppose you could drive down a block and a half to the coffee shop who runs a completely open WAP.
* And yes, I do use good WAP security, with encryption, long passphrase, MAC filtering, only wired connections are allowed to connect to the admin screen.
From what I remember my dr telling me, the mouth appliance works for like 5% of the people out there, and addresses a specific origin of apnea. I think it only works with very mild snoring/apnea though.
My score of 57/hr means I have quite severe apnea. The mouth appliance would never work on me, even if I happened to have that specific apnea that the appliance addresses.
I had the same thing as you - in college, I could go more than a day without sleep. I'd definitely be dragging that second day, but I could do it. After college, and as time wore on, I found that I just needed more and more sleep. On weekends, I would sometimes get 12+ hours of sleep - and I'd still be tired!! I'd sometimes take naps on weekend afternoons.
For me, the problem was that I had obstructive sleep apnea. That's where you stop breathing when you fall asleep (your brain wakes you up just enough that you start breathing again, but not enough that you become aware that you woke up.) Most people who have sleep apnea aren't even aware they have a problem, they just assume you should be tired all the time.
I was finally diagnosed last year, and I did a sleep study**. They gave me a CPAP machine - I wear the mask whenever I sleep, and the CPAP machine pushes air into me. Effectively, it's inflating my airway so it doesn't close during the night. I'm a totally different person now! I don't need naps, and I sleep about 7-8 hours a night before I wake up normally.
If you're feeling the same way (naps during the day, needing more time every night to get rested) you might want to see a sleep specialist and ask for a sleep study.
My [twin] brother reported similar symptoms as you, and I eventually convinced him to see his doctor about it. Turns out, he also has apnea, got a CPAP, and is much better.
** For you fellow CPAP users out there, let's compare numbers: I had 57 sleep disruptions per hour, and my CPAP pressure is 14, no EPR.
Nissan says its system would turn off after the car reaches 12 mph, when, it says, tire noise is deemed loud enough to warn a pedestrian or cyclist that a car is approaching.
This is a good thing, IMO. I probably wouldn't want to hear that constant noise on a 4 hour road trip to anywhere.
I just hope they found a good way for the noise to turn on/off at the 12 mph mark. I expect it slowly fades in/out, rather than just being "on" or "off". I'd hate to keep having that noise start and stop on me as my speed hovered around 12 mph.
Lucky, you get to work with FORTRAN-77. In 1993, I worked on a project to migrate FORTRAN-IV code from an old HP1000 minicomputer to the Macintosh! I grew to completely loathe the computed GOTO.
You joke (and re-post) but really, I believe that imitation is a great way to learn programming. By trying to re-create all the computer screens from TV and movies, I pushed myself to learn new programming techniques. Sure, it was all AppleBASIC, but at least I came out of it knowing a lot about programming concepts that could be applied elsewhere.
You need to have a motivation to write a program. If that motivation is "just to learn stuff", it's not very strong to keep you working at it when you hit a sticky point.
My first AppleBASIC programs were simple things like "make a program that counts down from 9 to 0 using GR characters that fill the screen." Just like I saw all the time in shows like Dr Who. That's easy... if you don't consider the GR stuff. I created a bitmap of the numbers 0-9, and draw that on screen as I counted down. From there, I modified the bitmap, made them narrower, so I could count from numbers as high as 99. I think I also modded the program to use green for 99-10, and red for 9-0.
Once I did that, I moved on to other programs.
The stuff from War Games was harder, and I learned a lot from working on it. For "Global Thermonuclear War", I drew an outline of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in HGR mode, using x,y pairs stored in a DATA statement. Cities that you could attack were listed in an array. Drawing the missile tracks was more difficult, but mainly because I didn't know trig (I was in like, 4th grade) so drew a "triangle" track instead, with square explosions.
Trying to create what I guessed "Biological Warware" (also from War Games) might have been like... way harder! I settled on doing it in GR mode, drawing a map of the U.S. in white. A bio attack "site" (square of green pixels) was chosen at random within that. The attack propagated using a simple algorithm: which I learned was like Conway's Life... except that a GR spot could "die" (red pixel) after being infected for so-many "turns", and no longer took part in the algorithm. Wow, I learned a lot from that.
All that because I was trying to emulate what I saw in movies and on TV.
Somewhere after that, I just experimented. I wrote a text-based adventure game, with 1-letter commands (N, S, E, W,... A(ttack), R(un away!), etc.) One thing I played with, but didn't realize it's significance until college, was a simple HGR program that drew a dot in the middle of the screen, at the very left edge. I then walked across the screen, moving the line up if RND(1)<0.3, down if RND(1)>0.6, and stayed level otherwise. I called it a "stock market ticker". Imagine my surprise at university when I realized I'd discovered/written a "random walk" simulator when I was a kid!
Lately I've been visiting colleges with my daughter, who is a senior in high school. Every school has proudly announced that they support both Windows and Macs, and most of these schools report having about a 50-50 split between the two. However we've been a Linux household for many years now, and my daughter routinely uses a laptop running Kubuntu 9.04. Sometimes I would ask the student tour guide if Linux was supported and was usually met with a blank stare. We're obviously not concerned about whether she can write papers using OpenOffice and Linux. Rather we've been wondering about using other computing services on campus like classroom applications, remote printing, VPNs, or Wi-Fi support (nearly all these campuses have ubiquitous Wi-Fi). Given the composition of Slashdot's readership, I thought I'd pose the question here. Does your school support Linux? Have you found it difficult or impossible to use Linux in concert with the school's computing services?
I work in central IT at a Big-Ten university, and I'm not surprised you got blank stares from the campus tour guides. All our tour guides are students trained into the position, and are very knowledgeable about buildings, academics, that sort of thing. Ask a technical question, like "Do you support Linux on campus?" and unless the guide happens to be an EE/CS student, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a "huh?" response.
Our university officially supports Windows and Mac. But we don't specifically prohibit Linux. In fact, many people who work the call-in help desk know about Linux and will do their best to support you (even though it's "unsupported") in getting connected to the wireless network, or checking your email.
In practice, I suppose most universities are the same. Nothing to actively break Linux, but not really looking out for Linux's best interests either.
Our basic services don't care - central email is platform-agnostic; use any system you like as long as it talks POP or IMAP (or use our webmail system.) Wi-Fi is open to anyone with a valid university account, nothing else required. I've connected to our VPN using Linux vpnc. Calendar has downloadable clients for Windows/Mac/Linux, or use the web interface. Our web-based file share for students supports all major browsers, doesn't care about the OS. (There is a desktop client for Windows that integrates the file share at the Windows desktop, but this is just a convenience.) Similarly, our web registration and many other central web-delivered services only check the browser, not the OS.
That said, you may run into problems with things like e-learning if you aren't using Windows or Mac. Check first. The e-learning platform used at each institution may dictate what OS you can use. Some commercial e-learning systems may only support Windows and Mac. I think I had problems accessing our remote classroom system (to participate in a remote meeting) when using Linux. It would be better to ask things like "What is your campus e-learning system?" (which a tour guide would likely know, by the way) then google that e-learning system later to see what clients are supported by the vendor.
Specific systems at the college level may also depend on platform (CAD or GIS, as two examples) and departments may run their own web systems that assume Windows or Mac, and may break for Linux (use of ActiveX or Silverlight, for example, if that's what the collegiate web developer wanted to use to build that system.)
Based on what major your daughter is interested in, you may also ask students in that college about their use of Linux in the program. If you explain "I'm visiting with my high school daughter", students are often inclined to answer questions about the program and what they use.
The major also could be a clue. Engineering or Computer Science? Probably running Linux. English or Fine Arts? Probably Mac or Windows. Physics or Chemistry? Could be anything. Or, just wander the lounge and see what students are running on their laptops - that may give you an idea. At our university, I can walk through the lounge on any given day in the semester, and guarantee seeing at least one GNOME or KDE desktop.
I experimented in AppleBASIC programming by re-creating the computer displays from various television programs and movies: Doctor Who had a lot to imitate, so did War Games. In fact, I wrote a Global Thermonuclear War simulator using HGR, and a (poor) guess at how the Biological War program might have been implemented in GR mode. [Turns out, I created something not unlike a one-way Conway's Life.]
But yeah, I remember a friend had come over one afternoon, and I ran the Global Thermonuclear War program. When it got to the "countdown to launch" section, he flipped out, thinking the program really was running at NORAD or something. He was actually pissed when I let him in on the joke. And I just thought it was clever programming...
On his linkedin page he describes himself as "Delivering strong and effective leadership", which often means someone that fires people for no good reason to show they are "strong" but maybe I've just seen too many bastards in action that like that word.
I'm not defending this person at all, but I wanted to disagree with you on this point. I'm a senior IT manager, and I would describe myself as delivering strong and effective leadership. What strong and effective leadership means to me is helping people to reach the next level (where interested) and achieve their personal goals, while matching the right skills in the right people to the right problems. I bring people together, and have proven myself particularly effective in getting opposite sides to come together to make a decision that everyone believes in, or at least supports (the two are not always connected.)
It's all about good leadership, which often balances out to communication (particularly "listening" and "coaching/mentoring.")
I suspect it's as you mention in your comment: you've seen too many bad bosses fire people, then describe themselves as "strong and effective." Certainly the position requires making the tough decisions when someone isn't working out, or when you're in a budget contraction, but being "strong and effective" isn't about firing people.
Oracle does not have a tradition of giving away much of it's software. Sun by contrast has a lot of open source or free as in beer software. I am worried that Oracle will either kill or start charging for Java, OpenOffice, Solaris, VirtualBox, MySQL and other products based on it's own business interests. It's only natural for it to do so. With this aquisition, Oracle is in a position of great power. It can kill or alter the course of all the products of both companies. Absolute power corrupts.
Note: I do not work for Oracle, but we are a big customer of theirs. I have watched this very carefully, attended briefings (by Sun and by third party analysts.)
I am not concerned that Oracle will kill Java, OpenOffice, VirtualBox, MySQL. (I'm a little concerned about them selling off [Open]Solaris, since I don't see Oracle as an operating systems company.) However, I do expect to see a "pro" version of Java, OpenOffice, VirtualOffice, MySQL where Oracle forks the code into a stable branch, and companies can buy into a support contract for it. This isn't materially different from how OpenOffice/StarOffice are related now, or how Red Hat runs their business.
For example MySQL and PostgressSQL are the only 2 viable open source alternatives to an Oracle DB for many systems. (There are critical systems for which Oracle is absolutely needed, but the percentage that could be served well by an open source alternative is probably significant). It is definitely in Oracle's interest to kill or dillute MySQL.
I disagree that Oracle wants to kill or dilute MySQL. Quite the opposite, really. Oracle desperately wants to compete with SQL Server at the lower-end databases. Small companies and many mid-size companies feel that Oracle is much too complicated for them to run with [typically] a limited IT staff. Oracle has a lot of buttons, knobs, switches to tune performance (not to mention get things running.) As a result, SQL Server often gets deployed here. And for most internal-office workloads for small or mid-size companies, SQL Server works very well. So Oracle doesn't make money here. Oracle knows that lots of people can (and do) easily deploy MySQL, this is an easy "win" for them.
Yes, the CGI is stunning - for most of the trailer, it's hard to believe it's not live action. They have made a huge leap across the uncanny valley, and successfully.
But I have a few problems with it, just like most CGI movies these days:
The robots don't move right. It doesn't "feel" like a robot to me. James Cameron was the guy behind Aliens, and he seems to have forgotten that one of the reasons that was such a believable movie (despite taking place in the future, on an alien planet, fighting aliens with two mouths) was the use of "today" tech. So I would have expected Cameron to make Avatar's robots more like the military robots we envision today. I'm sure 1000 years from now, robots will move identically to a human (as in the movie) but I'd still prefer movie robots today to move more like real robots we have today.
Predators shouldn't announce their presence. There's a scene in the trailer where a dino-thing jumps out of the bushes, roars, and runs after people. I see this all the time in action movies where some large animal is about to attack the hero: the predator rises from the bushes (or from behind whatever), bellows, then rushes to attack. But in that split-second, our hero is able to throw himself behind cover, narrowly avoiding being eaten. Ever watch actual predator/prey wildlife - even a house cat pouncing on a mouse. Predators just don't announce their attacks - they just pounce. If you stop to roar, your prey gets away, and you go hungry.
That said, I'll probably still go see this when it comes out.
Better video support, especially MKV files. (Yes, you can convert MKV files to be playable. No, I don't think that's good enough.)
Ability to play media files over a Windows/Samba share, rather than having to use media server software.
Ability to backup the PS3 over a LAN automatically.
Less klunky web browsing
1080i support for more games. (Since some TVs are 1080/480 only, and downgrade 720 down to 480.)
I'm with you on most of this, except:
PS2 compatibility... really? I'm a huge gamer, but I just don't go back there anymore. I still have a mini-library of PS1 and PS2 games that I just can't seem to give up (the original 'Tomb Raider' series, 'Ico', 'Colossus',...) but can't remember the last time I said "hey, I should play that old game." I'm too busy playing the new PS3 games, even games from PSN.
MKV video. I used to think this mattered, but I honestly don't care anymore.
Backup the PS3... not really. I move copies of movies and music from my PC to my PS3. So in a way, the PS3 is already a backup of other stuff. For me, I don't care about backing up the PS3. And those games I buy from PSN... you can re-download them later once you've already purchased them (my friend had to do this after the disc player in his PS3 died, and Sony exchanged his unit for a new one.)
You're already at 5-Interesting or I'd mod you further. This is exactly what we do in our large organization. Every laptop and PC is named according to its asset tag. If my asset tag is OIT20081111, the computer's name is OIT20081111. It's easy to manage systems. Users don't have to know the name of their system; when they call, you just ask them for their asset tag.
This makes tracking systems dead simple. Have a problem with a laptop? Swap out with the same model (we have standardized hardware here), re-image the laptop back at the shop (if not a hardware problem), redeploy to the next user. Our desktop support guys track this all in an Access database, so they just enter that "Bob" is now using OIT20082222 and OIT20081111 is at the shop. A spreadsheet would work just as well.
At my first job, we had maybe 100 people. We named all our WinNT workstations according to the user, so Steve's computer really was called steve. Our UNIX workstations in R&D were similarly named. You can get away with that at a small company, but for a desktop environment larger than that, you need to track it differently.
Besides, users don't need to SSH into a workstation, and they never actually see the system name. So the users won't care if you name it after the system tag.
I'm pretty impressed that someone has taken the time to recreate an Apple-I kit. But I'd be really thrilled to see someone create a mini-version of an Apple ][. The embedded industry created very small (like, 3.5" x 3.7") SBC's like the PC/104. So it should be very possible for someone to design/sell a mini-board version of an Apple ][.
I have one of those $40 joysticks with some cool classic arcade games built into it. I plug it into my TV. If there's a nostalgia market for those, maybe there's a market for a mini-Apple ][ that I can just plug into my TV. Especially if it can support a USB keyboard plugged into it (yes, I know the Apple ][ didn't support USB, but I'm talking about an interface that translates USB keyboard to Apple ][ keyboard input.) Also cool would be to have 5MB of on-board storage that emulated the old Apple hard drive peripheral. Then I wouldn't need to emulate floppies.
Yes, I know I can pick up any of the Apple ][ emulators but there's a certain something nostalgic about connecting a physical device to my TV and running it.:-)
What is it with almost every discussion about licenses and computers somehow has to come to a car analogy?
I think we need a "law" like Godwin's: first person to give a car analogy (in a thread having nothing do with cars) "loses" the discussion thread - no matter how artful your argument.
Hold them accountable. Track everything they do, and audit that it was in fact necessary and honest.
I'm an IT Manager, and it scares me to think anyone would set up an arrangement like this and not have auditing in place, with reporting going to the customer (i.e. this guy.) I would assume as part of the initial contract, there were requirements in place that specified audits and reporting and transparency. You don't want to know everything they are doing in detail but you need to have enough information about what work is getting done, and the status, so that you can report to the CEO. That means auditing, that means project tracking. And you need to review those audit reports. Or at least, I would do that.
2) works of testimony (what people experienced or believe):
- republishing with modification is misrepresentation,
- commercial use covered by existing copyright
And yet when I gave an interview (via email) to a FSF-sponsored newsletter about FreeDOS, every instance of "Linux" in my interview was mysteriously changed to "GNU/Linux". The writer and I passed about 4-5 copies of the interview and followup back to each other. Sometime around round 3, I noticed "Linux" had become "GNU/Linux". I changed it all back, and asked why that happened. He said it was because RMS prefers that all FSF publications use "GNU/Linux". I said I disagreed with that, would prefer my responses remain "Linux" because that was how I referred to a generic Linux distro.
And yes, I did feel very mis-represented after the interview was published and I saw "GNU/Linux" again. Having me (in the article) consistently using "GNU/Linux" makes it seem as though I support the whole "Let's call it GNU/Linux" thing, which I definitely do not.
Let me respond to the sample questions you re-posted:
"What about my resume caught your eye?
This is a good question to ask. It shows the interviewer that you are interested in the position, and want to know how your resume stacks up against others. But be careful asking a question like this - don't be too direct, or it will seem to your potential employer that you are "fishing" for positive feedback.
What hardware/software am I expected to use at my desktop (e-mail, OS, editor, source control, etc.)?
An immediate red flag if you asked this of a manager. Tools are tools, to a manager.
While I'm an open source software advocate, even at work, asking a question like this can be very dangerous. Most hiring managers will wonder what kind of "zealous outrage" will follow if you're asked to run a Mac, and you're a Windows person. Or if you're asked to use CVS for version control, and you prefer SVN. (I've had to deal with these kinds of issues with staff previously, and it's not pleasant when you just need the work to get done, and have you do that work as part of a team.) If you don't have some kind of "religious" feeling towards one OS or one platform/tool, then don't ask this.
Be careful asking this to a fellow engineer, if you do a 1-on-1 interview. It's more appropriate to ask of someone on your level, because you really are asking about the toolset, but just be careful how you phrase it (i.e. tone.)
Are there team lunches or get-togethers?
Not sure what this question is about. Are you looking for me to pay for your lunch once a week? Are you kidding me? (That's what a hiring manager will think/say if you ask this question.)
What are your goals for the next six months, one year, three years?
This is a very good question, because it shows you are interested not just in what the job is about, but what you need to get done. I would see this as a very positive sign.
What ticket/issue tracking system do you use?
Do you have separate build/stage/QA/etc. environments?
How do you keep track of documentation?
Again, if you ask this of a hiring manager - red flag! I'd start to wonder if you have a particular point of view you are going to try to "sell" me. For a mid-size to large company, the hiring manager may even be insulted that you question if they even have these things. Interestingly, a small company might be flattered you asked, and may be happy to describe it in detail. Generally, I'd steer clear of this question on a first interview.
But as above, you can ask these to someone on your level, if they do a one-on-one interview with you (like, a follow-up interview.) Just be careful how you ask it.
What are your full names (so I can Google them)?
I'd immediately put a "no" next to your name if you asked me this. My full name? What does this guy plan to do? Who does he think he is?
Rather, just make sure you got their names down correctly as they introduced themselves (maybe they even gave you a card) and remember to Google them later. But really, what do you think you'll find on Google? Unless the person's name is "Annaleigh Skymaker" or "Tyler Harkskiind" you aren't likely to come up with any useful hits. "Bob Baker" or "John Johnson" or "Kristin Jones" are pretty low-contrast names that will have lots of hits on Google, but have nothing to do with that person.
What are the typical hours of the team members?
Could be a good question, if you use the suggested phrasing. You're basically asking what are the work hours of the employees, and the answer will tell you how hard the company will push you. Just be careful about a lie for an answer. When I moved to my current employer, I asked a similar question. The Director (no longer here) gave me a total lie: "8:00 to 4:00". Yeah, right. Some people in the office
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So write the code yourself OSS boy. Mr. XP
Hi, Mr Troll.
Thanks, but I already have. Need anything else?
I was excited until I read Windows XP Home.
Look, I know a bunch of people run Windows. But on an Atom CPU, 1GB memory, 16GB (smallest) flash drive, I just don't see Windows being that great. I'm sure Windows will run, but how well?
Ah well, I suppose I can easily wipe this and put Fedora on it ... I just wish Eee put a Linux option on more of their gear, installed out-of-the-box. Even if I wipe whatever Linux they give me and put another distro on it, I'd love to send a message by buying the Linux option.
To compare, I'm running an older Dell subnotebook with 1GB memory, booting Fedora 11 from an 8GB consumer flash drive. Works great, very fast!
"The article makes the argument that high volumes of data and bandwidth limitations make external cloud storage all but useless for enterprises because it could take months to restore the data in a disaster. It also appears to be a consumer problem -- the author spent three months replicating 1TB of home data via cable modem to an online backup service."
I work at a large university, and my group recently concluded writing a 5-year strategy for our storage systems. On the topic of "cloud storage", we concluded that this fits into the overall storage plan, but you need to consider what type of data to put on the cloud.
In our case, we created a matrix of all the different storage available on campus, including our central SAN (4 tiers), HPC storage, NAS, Active Directory storage, cloud, etc. We identified the pros/cons to each storage (and yes, there are pros and cons to each storage type) and gave example usage for each.
We recommended that we leverage "cloud" storage for rarely used data that did not require getting backed up by the university. There is a surprisingly large amount of data that fits this. We recommended against putting any "enterprise" data (enterprise data backup, critical files, etc.) in the cloud.
For example: we have one researcher who generates large data sets from his HPC efforts. After publication, he may need to hang on to this data for 2 years, but may not access it at all during that time. Sure, he can always regenerate the data by re-running his HPC with the same initial conditions (and has done this in the past) but it takes months to complete the run. It takes him weeks to transfer the entire data set to a cloud storage vendor, and weeks to get it back (if he needs it.) When you're comparing weeks to months, for data that doesn't need to be backed up (that's according to the researcher), cloud storage becomes an easy choice.
Another example: we have a vocal faculty who are now claiming that they need up to 1TB of storage, to do with as they like, to help support their informal research needs. Not every faculty claims to need the 1TB, so this is hard to plan for. And those of us in central IT know that most of the researchers who claim "I need 1TB" will only use a few 100 GB at most, making the planning a bit harder still. Assume 1,000 faculty sign up, how much storage do you really need, and how much storage will sit idle? Over-subscription helps address this, but not fully. Again, we looked to cloud storage.
In our report, we recommended the university arrange for cloud storage agreements, just like many universities are doing with GMail, so that we retain ownership over the data we put in "our" part of the cloud. We can establish a service level statement for our consumers of the cloud, so everyone understands the pros/cons and appropriate use - and its limitations.
I agree with the parent. It's unfortunate, but sometimes headhunters mess about with the resume before sending it on. You can reduce the odds of this happening (somewhat) by only giving the headhunter a PDF copy of your resume. They'd have to re-type the resume to edit it, and many may be unwilling to go through the effort.
Definitely do bring copies of your resume with you to any interview, and if you find the resume they have in front of them is wrong correct it right away. Don't try to cover for the headhunter. In the original question, the submitter said he was an idiot to correct the resume during the interview - no, you weren't. As a hiring manager, I'd rather hear that the headhunter falsified your resume, than discover that you did.
If you find a headhunter has faked your resume, I'd drop him/her right away, and insist they no longer share your info with anyone. Limit the exposure. If it happens once, it will happen again.
I read the article, and it's definitely biased. There's a lot of unnecessary negativity there, and a very classy photo of giving The Finger to a few UMD-based games. Nice.
I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: the PSP Go is not really geared for people who already have a PSP. If you own a PSP today, Sony has already made $$ from you, they don't need you to buy a PSP Go. Sure, they'd appreciate it, but you aren't their primary market for the PSP Go. There's a reason Sony has committed to selling all future PSP games as both UMD and download - existing PSP owners can buy games on UMD if they like, or as digital download, and PSP Go owners can do the digital download thing.
Instead, Sony's market for the PSP Go is people who don't already own a PSP. Really.
I'm a PSP gamer. I have a PSP 1001, it's very nice. I've bought a lot of UMD games for it. I still have a few of those UMD games - notably "Ratchet & Clank Size Matters", "Daxter", "Star Wars Battlefront 2", "Lumines" and "Loco Roco". These are all great games, and they've definitely gotten re-play value with me. And I own a few movies on UMD, great to take with you on a flight to the next conference.
But I'll say this: if my PSP 1001 died today, I'd probably buy a PSP Go. Yes, that means I'd lose the ability to keep playing my UMD games, but I'm done playing them. I want to play new games. I haven't bought a UMD since I've been able to buy games from PSN. Same for UMD movies (you can rent/buy standard-def movies from PSN, and watch them on a PSP.) For me, it's easy: I purchase & download them on my PS3, then transfer them to my PSP.
A few months ago in a comment about the then-coming-soon PSP Go, I said Sony needed to go back through its PSP game catalog and re-release the hottest titles as digital download on PSN. I'm really glad to see that Sony flooded PSN this week with a section just for PSP games - as I predicted, they re-released 100+ PSP games.
Why did Sony need to do this? And why was it important that they actually did this? Because the PSP Go is not aimed at people who already have a PSP. If you buy a PSP Go, you know you can only buy games from PSN - so you just do it.
I've followed the PSP Go quite closely. As I said above, if my PSP 1001 dies, I'd probably replace it with a PSP Go. I use "probably" because the fact that the cable isn't regular USB really bothers me. That's my only complaint with the PSP Go: it should have used a standard data cable. (I don't think the power cable being different bothers me, since almost all my personal electronic devices use different power cables, sort of the state we live in for now.)
It happens to me every so often. Occasionally, I will actually wake up, but it's rare, since I don't have this problem every night. The key to knowing when it happens is when I wake up tired. And when I wake up tired, I have felt the sensation of not breathing right before I consciously wake up.
Your symptoms are eeeeeeeeeeeeerily similar to mine. Waking up coughing, or with the sensation you are out of breath, is a big clue. So is waking up feeling tired. I usually woke up around 3:00 just like that, figured I had to go pee or something. And then the alarm went off at 6:00, and I was still tired - I assumed it was because I got up at 3:00 to go to the bathroom. Heck, I didn't even think I had apnea - my wife finally convinced me to get the sleep study done.
Go see a sleep specialist about this, man. It's not a big deal. They have you fill out a survey, then you schedule to stay the night in a room that's a lot like a hotel room. Except you're wired up to a monitor the whole time you're asleep. If they detect apnea, they may wake you up in the middle of the night to try a CPAP mask.
That sleep study really helped me realize what sleep was supposed to be like. Went to bed at 10:00, woke me up around 2:00 to try on the mask, and when I woke up at 6:00 (alarm clock) I felt soooooooooo much better. Even on 4 hours of sleep. With CPAP, you may have bad nights (maybe the mask leaks that night, or something.) But my worst night on CPAP is way better than my best nights before CPAP. It really is that much better.
I happen to live in Minnesota, where most homes have basements. Our Comcast cable enters the house through the basement, so I figured it was a convenient place to hook up the WiFi access point. The WAP is sitting on the bottom shelf of a bookshelf I have there.
The net effect is that I have great WiFi signal throughout the house. I have a wood frame house, and WiFi signal is not retarded by normal wood construction. However, I get almost no signal as soon as I step out the back door onto the porch. A few feet away from the house, I can't pick up the signal at all. I've also tested it from the street, and it's like my WAP isn't even there. No, I'm not using any special paints or "Faraday cage" wallpaper.
That's because basements are constructed from cement blocks, which do a pretty good job of retarding WiFi signal. Not to mention my basement is 6-7 feet underground (there are windows at almost ceiling height) and all that dirt also helps block the signal. I figure I'm pretty safe from snooping. Sometimes it helps to just be incrementally harder to get to than the next guy. If you're a wardriver who's interested in free WiFi, my neighbor two doors down is an easier target (his WAP is on the second floor of his house, so he's essentially broadcasting to the whole neighborhood.) Or I suppose you could drive down a block and a half to the coffee shop who runs a completely open WAP.
* And yes, I do use good WAP security, with encryption, long passphrase, MAC filtering, only wired connections are allowed to connect to the admin screen.
From what I remember my dr telling me, the mouth appliance works for like 5% of the people out there, and addresses a specific origin of apnea. I think it only works with very mild snoring/apnea though.
My score of 57/hr means I have quite severe apnea. The mouth appliance would never work on me, even if I happened to have that specific apnea that the appliance addresses.
But I love my CPAP and would never give it up. :-)
I had the same thing as you - in college, I could go more than a day without sleep. I'd definitely be dragging that second day, but I could do it. After college, and as time wore on, I found that I just needed more and more sleep. On weekends, I would sometimes get 12+ hours of sleep - and I'd still be tired!! I'd sometimes take naps on weekend afternoons.
For me, the problem was that I had obstructive sleep apnea. That's where you stop breathing when you fall asleep (your brain wakes you up just enough that you start breathing again, but not enough that you become aware that you woke up.) Most people who have sleep apnea aren't even aware they have a problem, they just assume you should be tired all the time.
I was finally diagnosed last year, and I did a sleep study**. They gave me a CPAP machine - I wear the mask whenever I sleep, and the CPAP machine pushes air into me. Effectively, it's inflating my airway so it doesn't close during the night. I'm a totally different person now! I don't need naps, and I sleep about 7-8 hours a night before I wake up normally.
If you're feeling the same way (naps during the day, needing more time every night to get rested) you might want to see a sleep specialist and ask for a sleep study.
My [twin] brother reported similar symptoms as you, and I eventually convinced him to see his doctor about it. Turns out, he also has apnea, got a CPAP, and is much better.
** For you fellow CPAP users out there, let's compare numbers: I had 57 sleep disruptions per hour, and my CPAP pressure is 14, no EPR.
According to the article:
Nissan says its system would turn off after the car reaches 12 mph, when, it says, tire noise is deemed loud enough to warn a pedestrian or cyclist that a car is approaching.
This is a good thing, IMO. I probably wouldn't want to hear that constant noise on a 4 hour road trip to anywhere.
I just hope they found a good way for the noise to turn on/off at the 12 mph mark. I expect it slowly fades in/out, rather than just being "on" or "off". I'd hate to keep having that noise start and stop on me as my speed hovered around 12 mph.
Lucky, you get to work with FORTRAN-77. In 1993, I worked on a project to migrate FORTRAN-IV code from an old HP1000 minicomputer to the Macintosh! I grew to completely loathe the computed GOTO.
You may please get off my lawn now. :-)
You joke (and re-post) but really, I believe that imitation is a great way to learn programming. By trying to re-create all the computer screens from TV and movies, I pushed myself to learn new programming techniques. Sure, it was all AppleBASIC, but at least I came out of it knowing a lot about programming concepts that could be applied elsewhere.
You need to have a motivation to write a program. If that motivation is "just to learn stuff", it's not very strong to keep you working at it when you hit a sticky point.
My first AppleBASIC programs were simple things like "make a program that counts down from 9 to 0 using GR characters that fill the screen." Just like I saw all the time in shows like Dr Who. That's easy ... if you don't consider the GR stuff. I created a bitmap of the numbers 0-9, and draw that on screen as I counted down. From there, I modified the bitmap, made them narrower, so I could count from numbers as high as 99. I think I also modded the program to use green for 99-10, and red for 9-0.
Once I did that, I moved on to other programs.
The stuff from War Games was harder, and I learned a lot from working on it. For "Global Thermonuclear War", I drew an outline of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in HGR mode, using x,y pairs stored in a DATA statement. Cities that you could attack were listed in an array. Drawing the missile tracks was more difficult, but mainly because I didn't know trig (I was in like, 4th grade) so drew a "triangle" track instead, with square explosions.
Trying to create what I guessed "Biological Warware" (also from War Games) might have been like ... way harder! I settled on doing it in GR mode, drawing a map of the U.S. in white. A bio attack "site" (square of green pixels) was chosen at random within that. The attack propagated using a simple algorithm: which I learned was like Conway's Life ... except that a GR spot could "die" (red pixel) after being infected for so-many "turns", and no longer took part in the algorithm. Wow, I learned a lot from that.
All that because I was trying to emulate what I saw in movies and on TV.
Somewhere after that, I just experimented. I wrote a text-based adventure game, with 1-letter commands (N, S, E, W, ... A(ttack), R(un away!), etc.) One thing I played with, but didn't realize it's significance until college, was a simple HGR program that drew a dot in the middle of the screen, at the very left edge. I then walked across the screen, moving the line up if RND(1)<0.3, down if RND(1)>0.6, and stayed level otherwise. I called it a "stock market ticker". Imagine my surprise at university when I realized I'd discovered/written a "random walk" simulator when I was a kid!
Lately I've been visiting colleges with my daughter, who is a senior in high school. Every school has proudly announced that they support both Windows and Macs, and most of these schools report having about a 50-50 split between the two. However we've been a Linux household for many years now, and my daughter routinely uses a laptop running Kubuntu 9.04. Sometimes I would ask the student tour guide if Linux was supported and was usually met with a blank stare. We're obviously not concerned about whether she can write papers using OpenOffice and Linux. Rather we've been wondering about using other computing services on campus like classroom applications, remote printing, VPNs, or Wi-Fi support (nearly all these campuses have ubiquitous Wi-Fi). Given the composition of Slashdot's readership, I thought I'd pose the question here. Does your school support Linux? Have you found it difficult or impossible to use Linux in concert with the school's computing services?
I work in central IT at a Big-Ten university, and I'm not surprised you got blank stares from the campus tour guides. All our tour guides are students trained into the position, and are very knowledgeable about buildings, academics, that sort of thing. Ask a technical question, like "Do you support Linux on campus?" and unless the guide happens to be an EE/CS student, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a "huh?" response.
Our university officially supports Windows and Mac. But we don't specifically prohibit Linux. In fact, many people who work the call-in help desk know about Linux and will do their best to support you (even though it's "unsupported") in getting connected to the wireless network, or checking your email.
In practice, I suppose most universities are the same. Nothing to actively break Linux, but not really looking out for Linux's best interests either.
Our basic services don't care - central email is platform-agnostic; use any system you like as long as it talks POP or IMAP (or use our webmail system.) Wi-Fi is open to anyone with a valid university account, nothing else required. I've connected to our VPN using Linux vpnc. Calendar has downloadable clients for Windows/Mac/Linux, or use the web interface. Our web-based file share for students supports all major browsers, doesn't care about the OS. (There is a desktop client for Windows that integrates the file share at the Windows desktop, but this is just a convenience.) Similarly, our web registration and many other central web-delivered services only check the browser, not the OS.
That said, you may run into problems with things like e-learning if you aren't using Windows or Mac. Check first. The e-learning platform used at each institution may dictate what OS you can use. Some commercial e-learning systems may only support Windows and Mac. I think I had problems accessing our remote classroom system (to participate in a remote meeting) when using Linux. It would be better to ask things like "What is your campus e-learning system?" (which a tour guide would likely know, by the way) then google that e-learning system later to see what clients are supported by the vendor.
Specific systems at the college level may also depend on platform (CAD or GIS, as two examples) and departments may run their own web systems that assume Windows or Mac, and may break for Linux (use of ActiveX or Silverlight, for example, if that's what the collegiate web developer wanted to use to build that system.)
Based on what major your daughter is interested in, you may also ask students in that college about their use of Linux in the program. If you explain "I'm visiting with my high school daughter", students are often inclined to answer questions about the program and what they use.
The major also could be a clue. Engineering or Computer Science? Probably running Linux. English or Fine Arts? Probably Mac or Windows. Physics or Chemistry? Could be anything. Or, just wander the lounge and see what students are running on their laptops - that may give you an idea. At our university, I can walk through the lounge on any given day in the semester, and guarantee seeing at least one GNOME or KDE desktop.
I experimented in AppleBASIC programming by re-creating the computer displays from various television programs and movies: Doctor Who had a lot to imitate, so did War Games. In fact, I wrote a Global Thermonuclear War simulator using HGR, and a (poor) guess at how the Biological War program might have been implemented in GR mode. [Turns out, I created something not unlike a one-way Conway's Life.]
But yeah, I remember a friend had come over one afternoon, and I ran the Global Thermonuclear War program. When it got to the "countdown to launch" section, he flipped out, thinking the program really was running at NORAD or something. He was actually pissed when I let him in on the joke. And I just thought it was clever programming...
And if anyone wants to see more images from the IBM team, they have a flickr photostream. It's really impressive.
On his linkedin page he describes himself as "Delivering strong and effective leadership", which often means someone that fires people for no good reason to show they are "strong" but maybe I've just seen too many bastards in action that like that word.
I'm not defending this person at all, but I wanted to disagree with you on this point. I'm a senior IT manager, and I would describe myself as delivering strong and effective leadership. What strong and effective leadership means to me is helping people to reach the next level (where interested) and achieve their personal goals, while matching the right skills in the right people to the right problems. I bring people together, and have proven myself particularly effective in getting opposite sides to come together to make a decision that everyone believes in, or at least supports (the two are not always connected.)
It's all about good leadership, which often balances out to communication (particularly "listening" and "coaching/mentoring.")
I suspect it's as you mention in your comment: you've seen too many bad bosses fire people, then describe themselves as "strong and effective." Certainly the position requires making the tough decisions when someone isn't working out, or when you're in a budget contraction, but being "strong and effective" isn't about firing people.
Oracle does not have a tradition of giving away much of it's software. Sun by contrast has a lot of open source or free as in beer software. I am worried that Oracle will either kill or start charging for Java, OpenOffice, Solaris, VirtualBox, MySQL and other products based on it's own business interests. It's only natural for it to do so. With this aquisition, Oracle is in a position of great power. It can kill or alter the course of all the products of both companies. Absolute power corrupts.
Note: I do not work for Oracle, but we are a big customer of theirs. I have watched this very carefully, attended briefings (by Sun and by third party analysts.)
I am not concerned that Oracle will kill Java, OpenOffice, VirtualBox, MySQL. (I'm a little concerned about them selling off [Open]Solaris, since I don't see Oracle as an operating systems company.) However, I do expect to see a "pro" version of Java, OpenOffice, VirtualOffice, MySQL where Oracle forks the code into a stable branch, and companies can buy into a support contract for it. This isn't materially different from how OpenOffice/StarOffice are related now, or how Red Hat runs their business.
For example MySQL and PostgressSQL are the only 2 viable open source alternatives to an Oracle DB for many systems. (There are critical systems for which Oracle is absolutely needed, but the percentage that could be served well by an open source alternative is probably significant). It is definitely in Oracle's interest to kill or dillute MySQL.
I disagree that Oracle wants to kill or dilute MySQL. Quite the opposite, really. Oracle desperately wants to compete with SQL Server at the lower-end databases. Small companies and many mid-size companies feel that Oracle is much too complicated for them to run with [typically] a limited IT staff. Oracle has a lot of buttons, knobs, switches to tune performance (not to mention get things running.) As a result, SQL Server often gets deployed here. And for most internal-office workloads for small or mid-size companies, SQL Server works very well. So Oracle doesn't make money here. Oracle knows that lots of people can (and do) easily deploy MySQL, this is an easy "win" for them.
My $0.02
Yes, the CGI is stunning - for most of the trailer, it's hard to believe it's not live action. They have made a huge leap across the uncanny valley, and successfully.
But I have a few problems with it, just like most CGI movies these days:
The robots don't move right. It doesn't "feel" like a robot to me. James Cameron was the guy behind Aliens, and he seems to have forgotten that one of the reasons that was such a believable movie (despite taking place in the future, on an alien planet, fighting aliens with two mouths) was the use of "today" tech. So I would have expected Cameron to make Avatar's robots more like the military robots we envision today. I'm sure 1000 years from now, robots will move identically to a human (as in the movie) but I'd still prefer movie robots today to move more like real robots we have today.
Predators shouldn't announce their presence. There's a scene in the trailer where a dino-thing jumps out of the bushes, roars, and runs after people. I see this all the time in action movies where some large animal is about to attack the hero: the predator rises from the bushes (or from behind whatever), bellows, then rushes to attack. But in that split-second, our hero is able to throw himself behind cover, narrowly avoiding being eaten. Ever watch actual predator/prey wildlife - even a house cat pouncing on a mouse. Predators just don't announce their attacks - they just pounce. If you stop to roar, your prey gets away, and you go hungry.
That said, I'll probably still go see this when it comes out.
Things People Actually Want:
I'm with you on most of this, except:
PS2 compatibility ... really? I'm a huge gamer, but I just don't go back there anymore. I still have a mini-library of PS1 and PS2 games that I just can't seem to give up (the original 'Tomb Raider' series, 'Ico', 'Colossus', ...) but can't remember the last time I said "hey, I should play that old game." I'm too busy playing the new PS3 games, even games from PSN.
MKV video. I used to think this mattered, but I honestly don't care anymore.
Backup the PS3 ... not really. I move copies of movies and music from my PC to my PS3. So in a way, the PS3 is already a backup of other stuff. For me, I don't care about backing up the PS3. And those games I buy from PSN ... you can re-download them later once you've already purchased them (my friend had to do this after the disc player in his PS3 died, and Sony exchanged his unit for a new one.)
You're already at 5-Interesting or I'd mod you further. This is exactly what we do in our large organization. Every laptop and PC is named according to its asset tag. If my asset tag is OIT20081111, the computer's name is OIT20081111. It's easy to manage systems. Users don't have to know the name of their system; when they call, you just ask them for their asset tag.
This makes tracking systems dead simple. Have a problem with a laptop? Swap out with the same model (we have standardized hardware here), re-image the laptop back at the shop (if not a hardware problem), redeploy to the next user. Our desktop support guys track this all in an Access database, so they just enter that "Bob" is now using OIT20082222 and OIT20081111 is at the shop. A spreadsheet would work just as well.
At my first job, we had maybe 100 people. We named all our WinNT workstations according to the user, so Steve's computer really was called steve. Our UNIX workstations in R&D were similarly named. You can get away with that at a small company, but for a desktop environment larger than that, you need to track it differently.
Besides, users don't need to SSH into a workstation, and they never actually see the system name. So the users won't care if you name it after the system tag.
I'm pretty impressed that someone has taken the time to recreate an Apple-I kit. But I'd be really thrilled to see someone create a mini-version of an Apple ][. The embedded industry created very small (like, 3.5" x 3.7") SBC's like the PC/104. So it should be very possible for someone to design/sell a mini-board version of an Apple ][.
I have one of those $40 joysticks with some cool classic arcade games built into it. I plug it into my TV. If there's a nostalgia market for those, maybe there's a market for a mini-Apple ][ that I can just plug into my TV. Especially if it can support a USB keyboard plugged into it (yes, I know the Apple ][ didn't support USB, but I'm talking about an interface that translates USB keyboard to Apple ][ keyboard input.) Also cool would be to have 5MB of on-board storage that emulated the old Apple hard drive peripheral. Then I wouldn't need to emulate floppies.
Yes, I know I can pick up any of the Apple ][ emulators but there's a certain something nostalgic about connecting a physical device to my TV and running it. :-)
What is it with almost every discussion about licenses and computers somehow has to come to a car analogy?
I think we need a "law" like Godwin's: first person to give a car analogy (in a thread having nothing do with cars) "loses" the discussion thread - no matter how artful your argument.
Hold them accountable. Track everything they do, and audit that it was in fact necessary and honest.
I'm an IT Manager, and it scares me to think anyone would set up an arrangement like this and not have auditing in place, with reporting going to the customer (i.e. this guy.) I would assume as part of the initial contract, there were requirements in place that specified audits and reporting and transparency. You don't want to know everything they are doing in detail but you need to have enough information about what work is getting done, and the status, so that you can report to the CEO. That means auditing, that means project tracking. And you need to review those audit reports. Or at least, I would do that.
2) works of testimony (what people experienced or believe):
- republishing with modification is misrepresentation,
- commercial use covered by existing copyright
And yet when I gave an interview (via email) to a FSF-sponsored newsletter about FreeDOS, every instance of "Linux" in my interview was mysteriously changed to "GNU/Linux". The writer and I passed about 4-5 copies of the interview and followup back to each other. Sometime around round 3, I noticed "Linux" had become "GNU/Linux". I changed it all back, and asked why that happened. He said it was because RMS prefers that all FSF publications use "GNU/Linux". I said I disagreed with that, would prefer my responses remain "Linux" because that was how I referred to a generic Linux distro.
And yes, I did feel very mis-represented after the interview was published and I saw "GNU/Linux" again. Having me (in the article) consistently using "GNU/Linux" makes it seem as though I support the whole "Let's call it GNU/Linux" thing, which I definitely do not.
Let me respond to the sample questions you re-posted:
"What about my resume caught your eye?
This is a good question to ask. It shows the interviewer that you are interested in the position, and want to know how your resume stacks up against others. But be careful asking a question like this - don't be too direct, or it will seem to your potential employer that you are "fishing" for positive feedback.
What hardware/software am I expected to use at my desktop (e-mail, OS, editor, source control, etc.)?
An immediate red flag if you asked this of a manager. Tools are tools, to a manager.
While I'm an open source software advocate, even at work, asking a question like this can be very dangerous. Most hiring managers will wonder what kind of "zealous outrage" will follow if you're asked to run a Mac, and you're a Windows person. Or if you're asked to use CVS for version control, and you prefer SVN. (I've had to deal with these kinds of issues with staff previously, and it's not pleasant when you just need the work to get done, and have you do that work as part of a team.) If you don't have some kind of "religious" feeling towards one OS or one platform/tool, then don't ask this.
Be careful asking this to a fellow engineer, if you do a 1-on-1 interview. It's more appropriate to ask of someone on your level, because you really are asking about the toolset, but just be careful how you phrase it (i.e. tone.)
Are there team lunches or get-togethers?
Not sure what this question is about. Are you looking for me to pay for your lunch once a week? Are you kidding me? (That's what a hiring manager will think/say if you ask this question.)
What are your goals for the next six months, one year, three years?
This is a very good question, because it shows you are interested not just in what the job is about, but what you need to get done. I would see this as a very positive sign.
What ticket/issue tracking system do you use? Do you have separate build/stage/QA/etc. environments? How do you keep track of documentation?
Again, if you ask this of a hiring manager - red flag! I'd start to wonder if you have a particular point of view you are going to try to "sell" me. For a mid-size to large company, the hiring manager may even be insulted that you question if they even have these things. Interestingly, a small company might be flattered you asked, and may be happy to describe it in detail. Generally, I'd steer clear of this question on a first interview.
But as above, you can ask these to someone on your level, if they do a one-on-one interview with you (like, a follow-up interview.) Just be careful how you ask it.
What are your full names (so I can Google them)?
I'd immediately put a "no" next to your name if you asked me this. My full name? What does this guy plan to do? Who does he think he is?
Rather, just make sure you got their names down correctly as they introduced themselves (maybe they even gave you a card) and remember to Google them later. But really, what do you think you'll find on Google? Unless the person's name is "Annaleigh Skymaker" or "Tyler Harkskiind" you aren't likely to come up with any useful hits. "Bob Baker" or "John Johnson" or "Kristin Jones" are pretty low-contrast names that will have lots of hits on Google, but have nothing to do with that person.
What are the typical hours of the team members?
Could be a good question, if you use the suggested phrasing. You're basically asking what are the work hours of the employees, and the answer will tell you how hard the company will push you. Just be careful about a lie for an answer. When I moved to my current employer, I asked a similar question. The Director (no longer here) gave me a total lie: "8:00 to 4:00". Yeah, right. Some people in the office