The article mentions the previously networked machines.
All Gateway Stores are connected back to S. Dakota or wherever via T1. Ever notice all the Bay/Nortel Networks equipment there? It is there to connect them. (and to show off Nortel)
Alot of these machines are already running presentation software that highlights the features of the model, etc. The monitors still turn off, or are switched off, so the savings in electricity is really minor.
It's building in reward (and by lack of rewarded behaviour, punishment) in a game that simulates modern life. I'm glad the article was posted here because until then I didn't really get the objection. Yeah, more product placement.
That's the point of the whiole game is rampant American Consumerism (r). Upsizing your TV with your new paycheck, buying a bigger house. The more dope shit you get, the more likely you get bitches in game to get naked in your hot tub. Before you worry about McDonalds, worry about the "real" message of this game.
We used to protest rule changes and bugs in Ultima Online by all dressing up in black or yellow shirts and camping out at the main bank.
There was also a protest where people were asked to create a character on a particular shard to protest another shard server's constant technical issues. As I recall a lot of people were suspended from the game for a couple days.
The point is that when you are addicted to a game, or really, really, enjoy an online game - You act up! Check out these screenshots from UO where people are protesting. 1,2,3.
Does it work? Not usually, but it does get the attention of the Game Masters, and shows the world you care about an issue.
Maxis and these other companies want to create Virtual Worlds. It is only natural that the people that play these games will take an active role.
After reading that press release, it appears to me that they are just making excuses for their failures. If things were as bad as they say, they should have cut bait months ago.
I guess this helps deflect investor concerns. Not a huge annoucement IMO.
AOL also has IMO pretty bad account creation issues. I spoke with them on Sunday regarding a charge on my credit card. It seems that someone signed up for AOL in July using my credit card number. However, they did not use my name, my address or even my current state of residence.
Most web sites have better credit card fraud prevention, than AOL has for creating accounts. The guy on the phone asked me, "Do you know anyone named Jennifer?"
Anyway, couple that with the fact that it is so easy for people to use AOL for free as an ISP (via the trial) they have got to be bleeding money.
I don't think AOL will ever go away. But I think they have reached the bottom. They should clean up their act.
Man I wish you didn't post that as AC. I would have missed your good post had it not been a reply to mine.
Suffice it to say that NOT all geeks hate MS, I was just pointing out that MS is an easy target to ridicule, and that easy targets become stereotypical objects of the point of the ridicule. IE, the Edsel.
What is a geek? Depending on who you ask you would get a variety of answers. the one I like at the moment is that geeks are individuals who show a lot of creativity, generally are young, and are quick learners and intelligent. So does this pigeon-hole geeks into a group?
No Way!
Geeks are not the tightly knit, cohesive, sub-culture that the media makes us out to be. We are as unique and different as any other creative, young, quick learning, and intelligent people.
The Microsoft Question.
All geeks hate Microsoft. Why? Because MS is AN EASY TARGET. It's like making fun of Politicians. Give anyone intellegent an easy target to ridicule, and thay will do the same. -It's human nature.
This guy misses the point about geeks. It's easy to point to the DMCA, and Microsoft, and say, "See Geeks are united." But poll us on who we voted for in an election, or really see how we act with our families... Wait, no better yet, DON'T!
Perhaps it's best if the marketeers of our world continue to vie for our dollars, and make dumb movies about us, perhaps we will eventually unite in boredom, and fire off a press release or something.
The concept car has me thinking of applications for it's use. I am thinking this technology could be used in mass transit and shipping near(er) term.
Think about a larger, longer version of these things as a replacement for a bus. Assuming they would not cost too much, they could be a bus replacement for city transit. It's a medium haul, and they get moving pretty quickly. They would have zero emissions, better handling, and probably be safer than existing buses. Even if the battery life is short, it could do a run and charge up for the evening rush hour.
Trucks! These things could easily be modified to trucks as well. (Hell it really feels like a truck anyway.) We could use these things to transport cargo that could zip goods from west coast to east is amazing time. This could change the way the term "hot-shot" is used for parts replacment. I am not trying to draw a parallel to the Segway, but cities, roads, and infrastructure could be re-designed around this vehicle.
Now I realize this is a concept vehicle. I also want those of you out here that just dismiss the vehicle as being impractable to see beyond the low drag shape, and strange looks, and se this vehicle as a ground up designed alternative to automobiles.
The touchpad idea is not too shabby, but I will certainly insist on a mechanical keyboard. I don't want to have to re-learn how to type.
Clicking = good.
Another aspect is the idea of "a very complex gestural language between man and machine." Why do I envision a theremin. Let's face it, programmers are not neccesarly the most nimble of people.
The idea of a password being encrypted in a gesture is also a step backwards, imo. Why not just use biometrics?
150 MByte/s maximum transfer rate (300/600 MByte/s envisioned for the future) Hot-plugging capability Two power saving modes: partial and slumber Overlapping (commands) Tagged command queueing Seven-wire data cable. Connectors measure just 8 mm wide.
NEC has the right idea, but it's too bad there will be no execution on this. I hope that it garners enough interest that a real computer manufacturer like HP or Dell consider making them for businesses.
The price is way too high, but the machine would be perfect for a call center, or an office environment e-mail etc. I bet you could really see a difference in a call center of 500 people on your electrcity bill. But at $1600 you will never get around the cost.
I have seen machines like this before, but nothing that was lead-free. If it was $700 I would buy one.
The no fan aspect is really cool too. (no pun intended) It great to see a mfgr making a machine that does not follow the horespower hype. The graphics card being 16mb is probably partly to reduce temp as well.
And since nobody has mentioned it yet: ---offtopic> Wouldn't it be cool to have a Beowulf Cluster of these? ---/offtopic>
I agree. Just put it under the studio web site. Much easier to administer that way.
BTW: I know that somebody (I didn't) saw FEAR.COM. I got a real cick out of the movie commercials where they listed the url as feardotcom.com ----I mean what the hell is that?
In this article I write about
some of the most common mistakes that I see on resumés, and how you can avoid
them.
I proofread resumés for friends... a lot. With the economy heating up I'm
getting asked to more frequently. I find that technical people often have
difficulty "selling" themselves. While "The Practice of System and Network
Administration" (co-authored with Christine Hogan) has tips on hiring
sysadmins, we didn't include specific resumé-writing tips. Therefore, I thought
it might be useful to write down the thoughts I have in this area. (Our
negotiation section does have tips on how to negotiate your salary, but that's
putting the cart ahead of the horse.)
How do employers process resumés?It's important to write your resumé to
be useful from the perspective of your potential employer. In writing they say,
play to your audience.
That is, an action film is expected to have an explosion or something major
in the first scene, a romance is expected to introduce at least one of the main
people in the first 5 minutes, Steven King always includes the elements that his
fans expect. A resumé has to be written for its audience too.
What are the audiences of a resumé?What makes writing a resumé
difficult is that there are two audiences.
First is the non-technical HR clerk that receives the resumé. If it gets past
the clerk, it will arrive at the desk of the person that will be your future
boss. Your resumé has to have the elements that will please both of these
people:
The HR clerk
The first person to see your resumé, sadly, is a non-technical clerk who
is handed 10,000 resumés a day and a list of positions that need to be filled.
This person does the first level of sorting. Your job is to make sure you get
through this person's selection criteria. The problem here is that this person
doesn't know the difference between UNIX and Solaris, or that if someone knows
Solaris 2.5 then they are hirable for a Solaris 2.6 job. Luckily, this person
only reads the top part of every resumé, so you make make sure that you have
"Objective" and "Skills" sections made just for him/her. Don't say "Solaris
2.6", say "Solaris 2.x" or just "Solaris" (people have forgotten about Solaris
1.x by now).
The Hiring Manager
Each pile that the clerk created is handed to an appropriate "Hiring
Manager." This person does understand the technology that you'll be working
with, or at least they think they do. The rest of the resumé must be in their
language. The most common mistake that I see is that people don't
write anything for the clerk. Therefore, their resumé never gets to the hiring
manager.
The "Objective Statement" and "Skills" section at the top of your resumé is
what the clerk reads. Make sure your resumé has these sections and make them
clear. Typically I see resumés without an "Objective Statement" at all!
Tip 1: A good "Objective" statementA good objective statement tells a
plainly-stated title you would like ("UNIX programmer", "CGI Developer",
"Project Manager", etc.) and a couple skills that you have ("excellent writing
skills", "experience with digital audio technology", "experience with large
development projects", etc).
If you aren't sure what your title is called, look at a couple job
advertising web sites to fill you in.
You can also specify what industry or department you want to be in
("financial services", "telecommunication", ".COM", etc.).
Here are some good ones that I've seen:
Objective: A position as a Senior UNIX/Linux Developer that lets me
utilize my years of experience in the TDM cellular technology.
Objective: A position as a Project Manager in the EDA industry that
lets me utilize my excellent communication and presentation skills.
Objective: A position as a Junior UNIX/Solaris Sysadmin (SAGE Level
II) in the financial services industry that lets me utilize my superior
Solaris knowledge.
Objective: An entry-level position as a HP-UX/UNIX Sysadmin that
enables me to demonstrate my ability to learn on the job.
A sample bad
objective statement (this is a real example):
Objective: I am an expert in building large, scalable services
based on open protocols.
That person didn't get any calls back, even
though he had built.COM infrastructures that served literally millions of users
email, web services, etc. The person was quite brilliant with technical things,
but didn't write a resumé that would get past the clerk: It didn't include any
buzzwords or technology that the clerk could recognize nor a tangible
position/title that was open.
How could the clerk classify such a resumé?
A better statement would have been: "A senior architect of UNIX-based email
and web services that lets me utilize my experience in building extremely
scalable systems with high up-times." He did change his resumé to something
similar, and soon started getting phone calls.
Tip 2: A good "Skills" sectionUse buzzwords. There is a reason
for them, it makes communication faster. I hate "buzzword compliant"
presentations, but only when they aren't adding any value to the statement. When
they appear on a resumé they do add value because the clerk undestands them.
Better-trained clerks are given a list of synonyms. For example: they might be
told "We need a Solaris sysadmin... but that means anyone that mentions Sun,
SunOS, or UNIX should be considered. Oh, other synonyms for UNIX are: AIX,
Linux, IRIX... a person that knows any of those but wants to learn Solaris is
fine for this position." However, that doesn't always happen so it is ok to be a
little redundent: I include the word UNIX in addition to the name the vendor
uses (i.e. "Solaris/UNIX" or "Red Hat/Linux/UNIX").
List the best skills first. I see many "skills" sections that list 20
operating systems or 20 languages or 20 vendors and that's a fine way to show
that you have a lot of experience over many years. However, the person reading
your resumé is only going to read the first 3-4, so make sure those are the ones
you want to work in.
A friend listed the languages she knew in the order she learned them. Which
of the these two would a clerk find most useful if he/she was told to find a
"Windows C++ programmer"?
While I'm at it, I believe one should delete the super-old technologies like
Commodore 64 and Apple II unless, of course, you are applying to work someplace
that still uses those technologies.
A concise way to list skills is to group them. The first example below is the
most concise, the others are longer.
Skills:
Operating systems: Unix (FreeBSD, Solaris, Linux), Windows
95/98/2000/NT, and others.
Here are some other good examples of "Skills" listings that I've seen:
Skills:
Operating systems: Unix (FreeBSD, Solaris, Linux), Windows
95/98/2000/NT, Cisco IOS 7.x-12.x, plus some experience with AIX, HP-UX,
OpenVMS, NetBSD, OpenBSD and others.
Tip 3: ClassificationsIf you are a sysadmin, use the SAGE Job
Classifications to describe yourself and/or the position you are looking for.
More and more HR departments are using them, and certainly the cool companies
that you want to work for are using them. However, explain enough so that
someone that hasn't read http://sageweb.sage.org/resources/publications/8_j obs/
will understand what you mean. That's why the above example was redundant: "a
Junior UNIX/Solaris Sysadmin (SAGE Level II)".
Tip 4: Pick a good filenameNever use a filename like resume.doc
when sending your resumé as an attachment. Name the file something like
resume_tom_limoncelli.doc so that if the HR person saves it, he or she
will be able to easily tell yours from someone else's...and your resumé won't be
overwritten the next time someone else sends them a file called
resume.doc. (Thanks to my friend Tina for this tip.)
ConclusionA good resumé is your key to finding a new job. However,
you'll never find a job if your resumé doesn't reach the right people. Making
your "Objective" and "Skills" sections complete and accurate is how you make
sure it reaches the right people.
Tom Limoncelli is co-author of The Practice
of System and Network Administration with Christine Hogan, Director of
Network Operations at Lumeta Corp. and
maintains www.EverythingSysadmin.com. He can
be reached at talsagewire@whatexit.org.
First of privacy is important, and I agree with most of the posters here, that there is the *potential* for a chilling effect.
However, a point I am more concerned with is knowing what my government is doing, and being able to "keep tabs" on agencies, elected officals, etc.
Here is the stuff that keeps me wondering:
A lot of libraries, especially university libraries participate in the Federal Government Depository Program, which means they receive documents from the government and house them in their library systems. After Sept. 11, certain publications were recalled from depository program participants because they contained what government agencies believed to be sensitive material.
These are the documents that the public uses to see what is really going on in Washington. If there is a confrence on the environment and the EPA decides to roll back some law after meeting with Exxon, we would find out in these documents. Now many are being recalled.
Why? In the interest of national security. The government has being reduciong the amount of materials it sends to Depository Program for years, but now it's really dwindeling.
Is it in the interest of national security for the government to keep us in the dark about where my city's water supply comes from?
Our government has been steadily enabling big business to ruin the environment, and now in the interest of national secufrity, we can't even access the information to determine what the heck is goning on.
So it's already been 3 weeks, and they have not fixed the problem? The problem my friends should be easy enough. Turn off the copy protection!
Oh, but then other people may be able to get access to channels they are not paying for. - WELL TOO BAD! It's your fault for taking the easy way out on designing your digital coding and using cheaper, older set top boxes to rip into customers.
I can't believe Comcast charges $7 a month to lease the boxes. These pieces of crap are worth $60. It's a scam!
My advice get an antenna. - If you still need your Sopranos fix, get the dish.
I vaguely recall playing Pitfall for hours in an attempt to achieve a certain score, in order to join the Pitfall! club or something.
There was information on the box, or in the packaging, and when you achieved a certain score (assuming you took a photo of your TV) -you could join the elite club. I think it was like 10,000 or 20,000.
I've not played this game in ages, but perhaps someone can help me out with this vague memory.
I can see a point in FOPing users that abuse the bandwidth or something, but just going after people for having more than one pc attached is ridiculous.
Do you remember wen it was "illegal" to plug in a splitter box on your cable so you could watch cable in the bedroom too? What is it with these guys. As if $30 in addition to my $50 a month cable bill was not enough.
If they want to be ubiquotous they should merge with an ISP or something. - Oh wait, n/m
Commercial software (even Microsoft tools) are not released with obscure bugs for the purpose of billing back Tech Support fees.
The reason Incident based Tech Suport is so costly is that you get quality support from very knowledgable people.
Why do you think MS SQL Server cost $250 and Outlook only $95 for support? It's a highly technical product that requires a certain level of skill to support.
I doubt MS counts on Incident based TS as a revenue stream. In fact I am pretty sure TS is costly for them.
Terrorism is a crime, consisting of an intentional act of political violence to create an atmosphere of fear. Acts of terrorism are premeditated by their perpetrators and are conspiratorial in nature.
A software company or PC manufacture that conspired to cause death would feel the full weight of the justice system. Of course, by the nature of the Internet, it could be possible to claim that if you dropped the network, and the network was our only means of communication, and that lack of comunication caused death, MS's point could be argued.
Additionally, terrorists conspire their acts of terror to generate fear. Fear is not the ends of the terrorist, but the means to bring to pass their goal, yet the affected society is often completely consumed with this fear. It is by this generated fear the terrorist hopes to motivate the public, group or government to make changes whereby the goals of the terrorist might be realized. It is the government's responsibility to secure society from this threat.
This leads to another point: Don't blame the airlines, or the security guards at the terminal, those that perpatrated this last act of terror, were targeting our governments.
First of all distributed.net is a pioneer in distributed computing. When I found out about them 842 days ago I was impressed with the concepts and the potential. I hope that some of us who would rather chase the new thing in distributed computing will keep this in mind before they flame DNET for being lame, etc...
Secondly, I hate math, and am lazy, but I think despite us reaching the 1/2 point in the keyspace we have really ramped up in processor speeds over the past 3 years. When I first started this, I put the client on 3 P166 PCs, and watched my name shoot up the leader board. Then, I put it on my web server a dual PII266, and recall my ass kicking keyrate at the time. Now I have it running on maybe 4 boxes that are all more modern PIII or SPARC types, and am barely keeping pace. I think that these new processors will crack it sooner than we think.
Going back to my math problem, it reminds of the question about running half the time, and walking the rest or running half-way and walking the rest. I would say we are running pretty quickly now.
They can only sue the shit of those parents, and ruin their already fractured lives once.
Face it, there is not enough money in the world to bring all those kids back. The only option they have it to grasp at straws and litigate.
The parents will lose if it goes to trial (it won't go that far) I think that this new slew of litigation is part of the parents collective grieving process.
What they should do instead of suing everyone and anyone with money, is to become activists for renewed parenting, gun control, or anything that they can do that would allow them to work for the memory of the lost kids.
Anything genuine can bring them closure, but sitting around and having your lawyer do it, sure as hell ain't going to help you get over your loss.
Slashdot Mirror
The article mentions the previously networked machines.
All Gateway Stores are connected back to S. Dakota or wherever via T1. Ever notice all the Bay/Nortel Networks equipment there? It is there to connect them. (and to show off Nortel)
Alot of these machines are already running presentation software that highlights the features of the model, etc. The monitors still turn off, or are switched off, so the savings in electricity is really minor.
It's building in reward (and by lack of rewarded behaviour, punishment) in a game that simulates modern life. I'm glad the article was posted here because until then I didn't really get the objection. Yeah, more product placement.
That's the point of the whiole game is rampant American Consumerism (r). Upsizing your TV with your new paycheck, buying a bigger house. The more dope shit you get, the more likely you get bitches in game to get naked in your hot tub. Before you worry about McDonalds, worry about the "real" message of this game.
We used to protest rule changes and bugs in Ultima Online by all dressing up in black or yellow shirts and camping out at the main bank.
There was also a protest where people were asked to create a character on a particular shard to protest another shard server's constant technical issues. As I recall a lot of people were suspended from the game for a couple days.
The point is that when you are addicted to a game, or really, really, enjoy an online game - You act up! Check out these screenshots from UO where people are protesting.
1,2,3.
Does it work? Not usually, but it does get the attention of the Game Masters, and shows the world you care about an issue.
Maxis and these other companies want to create Virtual Worlds. It is only natural that the people that play these games will take an active role.
Here is a link I found to have the CD mailed to me for free.
link
I don't plan on paying for this game either. I got this link from Ben's Bargains So read the discussion there as well.
That has me thinking. If my company decides to use linux on all the mid range servers, and some package we have loaded is a trojan, who do we sue?
Seriously, if big business can not trust Linux "police itself" community, how is it it going to grow and replace AIX, Solaris, NT, etc?
After reading that press release, it appears to me that they are just making excuses for their failures. If things were as bad as they say, they should have cut bait months ago.
I guess this helps deflect investor concerns. Not a huge annoucement IMO.
AOL also has IMO pretty bad account creation issues. I spoke with them on Sunday regarding a charge on my credit card. It seems that someone signed up for AOL in July using my credit card number. However, they did not use my name, my address or even my current state of residence.
Most web sites have better credit card fraud prevention, than AOL has for creating accounts. The guy on the phone asked me, "Do you know anyone named Jennifer?"
Anyway, couple that with the fact that it is so easy for people to use AOL for free as an ISP (via the trial) they have got to be bleeding money.
I don't think AOL will ever go away. But I think they have reached the bottom. They should clean up their act.
Man I wish you didn't post that as AC. I would have missed your good post had it not been a reply to mine.
Suffice it to say that NOT all geeks hate MS, I was just pointing out that MS is an easy target to ridicule, and that easy targets become stereotypical objects of the point of the ridicule. IE, the Edsel.
What is a geek? Depending on who you ask you would get a variety of answers. the one I like at the moment is that geeks are individuals who show a lot of creativity, generally are young, and are quick learners and intelligent. So does this pigeon-hole geeks into a group?
No Way!
Geeks are not the tightly knit, cohesive, sub-culture that the media makes us out to be. We are as unique and different as any other creative, young, quick learning, and intelligent people.
The Microsoft Question.
All geeks hate Microsoft. Why? Because MS is AN EASY TARGET. It's like making fun of Politicians. Give anyone intellegent an easy target to ridicule, and thay will do the same. -It's human nature.
This guy misses the point about geeks. It's easy to point to the DMCA, and Microsoft, and say, "See Geeks are united." But poll us on who we voted for in an election, or really see how we act with our families... Wait, no better yet, DON'T!
Perhaps it's best if the marketeers of our world continue to vie for our dollars, and make dumb movies about us, perhaps we will eventually unite in boredom, and fire off a press release or something.
The concept car has me thinking of applications for it's use. I am thinking this technology could be used in mass transit and shipping near(er) term.
Think about a larger, longer version of these things as a replacement for a bus. Assuming they would not cost too much, they could be a bus replacement for city transit. It's a medium haul, and they get moving pretty quickly. They would have zero emissions, better handling, and probably be safer than existing buses. Even if the battery life is short, it could do a run and charge up for the evening rush hour.
Trucks! These things could easily be modified to trucks as well. (Hell it really feels like a truck anyway.) We could use these things to transport cargo that could zip goods from west coast to east is amazing time. This could change the way the term "hot-shot" is used for parts replacment. I am not trying to draw a parallel to the Segway, but cities, roads, and infrastructure could be re-designed around this vehicle.
Now I realize this is a concept vehicle. I also want those of you out here that just dismiss the vehicle as being impractable to see beyond the low drag shape, and strange looks, and se this vehicle as a ground up designed alternative to automobiles.
The touchpad idea is not too shabby, but I will certainly insist on a mechanical keyboard. I don't want to have to re-learn how to type.
Clicking = good.
Another aspect is the idea of "a very complex gestural language between man and machine." Why do I envision a theremin. Let's face it, programmers are not neccesarly the most nimble of people.
The idea of a password being encrypted in a gesture is also a step backwards, imo. Why not just use biometrics?
This is what I am waiting for hot-swapable, plug and play Serial ATA.
This has been in the workls for a long time, but there are some actual products coming to market this year.
Tom's has a good story. Serial ATA
The features in brief:
150 MByte/s maximum transfer rate (300/600 MByte/s envisioned for the future)
Hot-plugging capability
Two power saving modes: partial and slumber
Overlapping (commands)
Tagged command queueing
Seven-wire data cable. Connectors measure just 8 mm wide.
NEC has the right idea, but it's too bad there will be no execution on this. I hope that it garners enough interest that a real computer manufacturer like HP or Dell consider making them for businesses.
The price is way too high, but the machine would be perfect for a call center, or an office environment e-mail etc. I bet you could really see a difference in a call center of 500 people on your electrcity bill. But at $1600 you will never get around the cost.
I have seen machines like this before, but nothing that was lead-free. If it was $700 I would buy one.
The no fan aspect is really cool too. (no pun intended) It great to see a mfgr making a machine that does not follow the horespower hype. The graphics card being 16mb is probably partly to reduce temp as well.
And since nobody has mentioned it yet:
---offtopic>
Wouldn't it be cool to have a Beowulf Cluster of these?
---/offtopic>
Yeah it will be called Intelligestures or something.
I agree. Just put it under the studio web site. Much easier to administer that way.
BTW: I know that somebody (I didn't) saw FEAR.COM. I got a real cick out of the movie commercials where they listed the url as feardotcom.com ----I mean what the hell is that?
In this article I write about some of the most common mistakes that I see on resumés, and how you can avoid them.
I proofread resumés for friends... a lot. With the economy heating up I'm getting asked to more frequently. I find that technical people often have difficulty "selling" themselves. While "The Practice of System and Network Administration" (co-authored with Christine Hogan) has tips on hiring sysadmins, we didn't include specific resumé-writing tips. Therefore, I thought it might be useful to write down the thoughts I have in this area. (Our negotiation section does have tips on how to negotiate your salary, but that's putting the cart ahead of the horse.) How do employers process resumés?It's important to write your resumé to be useful from the perspective of your potential employer. In writing they say, play to your audience.
That is, an action film is expected to have an explosion or something major in the first scene, a romance is expected to introduce at least one of the main people in the first 5 minutes, Steven King always includes the elements that his fans expect. A resumé has to be written for its audience too. What are the audiences of a resumé?What makes writing a resumé difficult is that there are two audiences.
First is the non-technical HR clerk that receives the resumé. If it gets past the clerk, it will arrive at the desk of the person that will be your future boss. Your resumé has to have the elements that will please both of these people: The HR clerk The first person to see your resumé, sadly, is a non-technical clerk who is handed 10,000 resumés a day and a list of positions that need to be filled. This person does the first level of sorting. Your job is to make sure you get through this person's selection criteria. The problem here is that this person doesn't know the difference between UNIX and Solaris, or that if someone knows Solaris 2.5 then they are hirable for a Solaris 2.6 job. Luckily, this person only reads the top part of every resumé, so you make make sure that you have "Objective" and "Skills" sections made just for him/her. Don't say "Solaris 2.6", say "Solaris 2.x" or just "Solaris" (people have forgotten about Solaris 1.x by now).
The Hiring Manager Each pile that the clerk created is handed to an appropriate "Hiring Manager." This person does understand the technology that you'll be working with, or at least they think they do. The rest of the resumé must be in their language. The most common mistake that I see is that people don't write anything for the clerk. Therefore, their resumé never gets to the hiring manager.
The "Objective Statement" and "Skills" section at the top of your resumé is what the clerk reads. Make sure your resumé has these sections and make them clear. Typically I see resumés without an "Objective Statement" at all! Tip 1: A good "Objective" statementA good objective statement tells a plainly-stated title you would like ("UNIX programmer", "CGI Developer", "Project Manager", etc.) and a couple skills that you have ("excellent writing skills", "experience with digital audio technology", "experience with large development projects", etc).
If you aren't sure what your title is called, look at a couple job advertising web sites to fill you in.
You can also specify what industry or department you want to be in ("financial services", "telecommunication", ".COM", etc.).
Here are some good ones that I've seen:
- Objective: A position as a Senior UNIX/Linux Developer that lets me
utilize my years of experience in the TDM cellular technology.
- Objective: A position as a Project Manager in the EDA industry that
lets me utilize my excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Objective: A position as a Junior UNIX/Solaris Sysadmin (SAGE Level
II) in the financial services industry that lets me utilize my superior
Solaris knowledge.
- Objective: An entry-level position as a HP-UX/UNIX Sysadmin that
enables me to demonstrate my ability to learn on the job.
A sample bad objective statement (this is a real example):- Objective: I am an expert in building large, scalable services
based on open protocols.
That person didn't get any calls back, even though he had builtHow could the clerk classify such a resumé?
A better statement would have been: "A senior architect of UNIX-based email and web services that lets me utilize my experience in building extremely scalable systems with high up-times." He did change his resumé to something similar, and soon started getting phone calls. Tip 2: A good "Skills" sectionUse buzzwords. There is a reason for them, it makes communication faster. I hate "buzzword compliant" presentations, but only when they aren't adding any value to the statement. When they appear on a resumé they do add value because the clerk undestands them. Better-trained clerks are given a list of synonyms. For example: they might be told "We need a Solaris sysadmin... but that means anyone that mentions Sun, SunOS, or UNIX should be considered. Oh, other synonyms for UNIX are: AIX, Linux, IRIX... a person that knows any of those but wants to learn Solaris is fine for this position." However, that doesn't always happen so it is ok to be a little redundent: I include the word UNIX in addition to the name the vendor uses (i.e. "Solaris/UNIX" or "Red Hat/Linux/UNIX").
List the best skills first. I see many "skills" sections that list 20 operating systems or 20 languages or 20 vendors and that's a fine way to show that you have a lot of experience over many years. However, the person reading your resumé is only going to read the first 3-4, so make sure those are the ones you want to work in.
A friend listed the languages she knew in the order she learned them. Which of the these two would a clerk find most useful if he/she was told to find a "Windows C++ programmer"?
OR The second list is the more appealing, right?While I'm at it, I believe one should delete the super-old technologies like Commodore 64 and Apple II unless, of course, you are applying to work someplace that still uses those technologies.
A concise way to list skills is to group them. The first example below is the most concise, the others are longer.
Skills:
Operating systems: Unix (FreeBSD, Solaris, Linux), Windows 95/98/2000/NT, and others.
Here are some other good examples of "Skills" listings that I've seen:
Skills:
Operating systems: Unix (FreeBSD, Solaris, Linux), Windows 95/98/2000/NT, Cisco IOS 7.x-12.x, plus some experience with AIX, HP-UX, OpenVMS, NetBSD, OpenBSD and others.
Programming Languages: Perl/CGI/mod_perl, C/C++, HTML, Unix shells and tools, awk/sed, SQL, Python, Pascal, BASIC.
Network Products: Cisco Routers, Cisco Switches, Cisco PIX Firewalls and Cisco IP Telephony equipment (ICS7750); Checkpoint FW-1; Linux/Unix firewalls (IPFilter, IPFW); Avaya Cajun products; Network General Sniffer, tcpdump, Ethereal, Snort.
Network Technologies: FastEthernet, Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, OSPF, BGP, ATM.
Tip 3: ClassificationsIf you are a sysadmin, use the SAGE Job Classifications to describe yourself and/or the position you are looking for. More and more HR departments are using them, and certainly the cool companies that you want to work for are using them. However, explain enough so that someone that hasn't read http://sageweb.sage.org/resources/publications/8_j obs/
will understand what you mean. That's why the above example was redundant: "a
Junior UNIX/Solaris Sysadmin (SAGE Level II)".
Tip 4: Pick a good filenameNever use a filename like resume.doc
when sending your resumé as an attachment. Name the file something like
resume_tom_limoncelli.doc so that if the HR person saves it, he or she
will be able to easily tell yours from someone else's...and your resumé won't be
overwritten the next time someone else sends them a file called
resume.doc. (Thanks to my friend Tina for this tip.)
ConclusionA good resumé is your key to finding a new job. However,
you'll never find a job if your resumé doesn't reach the right people. Making
your "Objective" and "Skills" sections complete and accurate is how you make
sure it reaches the right people.
Tom Limoncelli is co-author of The Practice
of System and Network Administration with Christine Hogan, Director of
Network Operations at Lumeta Corp. and
maintains www.EverythingSysadmin.com. He can
be reached at talsagewire@whatexit.org.
Because we are geeks, we read, and we don't want to explain to anybody why we read what we do.
First of privacy is important, and I agree with most of the posters here, that there is the *potential* for a chilling effect.
However, a point I am more concerned with is knowing what my government is doing, and being able to "keep tabs" on agencies, elected officals, etc.
Here is the stuff that keeps me wondering:
A lot of libraries, especially university libraries participate in the Federal Government Depository Program, which means they receive documents from the government and house them in their library systems. After Sept. 11, certain publications were recalled from depository program participants because they contained what government agencies believed to be sensitive material.
These are the documents that the public uses to see what is really going on in Washington. If there is a confrence on the environment and the EPA decides to roll back some law after meeting with Exxon, we would find out in these documents. Now many are being recalled.
Why? In the interest of national security. The government has being reduciong the amount of materials it sends to Depository Program for years, but now it's really dwindeling.
Is it in the interest of national security for the government to keep us in the dark about where my city's water supply comes from?
Our government has been steadily enabling big business to ruin the environment, and now in the interest of national secufrity, we can't even access the information to determine what the heck is goning on.
So it's already been 3 weeks, and they have not fixed the problem? The problem my friends should be easy enough. Turn off the copy protection!
Oh, but then other people may be able to get access to channels they are not paying for. - WELL TOO BAD! It's your fault for taking the easy way out on designing your digital coding and using cheaper, older set top boxes to rip into customers.
I can't believe Comcast charges $7 a month to lease the boxes. These pieces of crap are worth $60. It's a scam!
My advice get an antenna. - If you still need your Sopranos fix, get the dish.
Help me out here...
I vaguely recall playing Pitfall for hours in an attempt to achieve a certain score, in order to join the Pitfall! club or something.
There was information on the box, or in the packaging, and when you achieved a certain score (assuming you took a photo of your TV) -you could join the elite club. I think it was like 10,000 or 20,000.
I've not played this game in ages, but perhaps someone can help me out with this vague memory.
--
Um..
I can see a point in FOPing users that abuse the bandwidth or something, but just going after people for having more than one pc attached is ridiculous.
Do you remember wen it was "illegal" to plug in a splitter box on your cable so you could watch cable in the bedroom too? What is it with these guys. As if $30 in addition to my $50 a month cable bill was not enough.
If they want to be ubiquotous they should merge with an ISP or something. - Oh wait, n/m
Commercial software (even Microsoft tools) are not released with obscure bugs for the purpose of billing back Tech Support fees.
The reason Incident based Tech Suport is so costly is that you get quality support from very knowledgable people.
Why do you think MS SQL Server cost $250 and Outlook only $95 for support? It's a highly technical product that requires a certain level of skill to support.
I doubt MS counts on Incident based TS as a revenue stream. In fact I am pretty sure TS is costly for them.
Terrorism is a crime, consisting of an intentional act of political violence to create an atmosphere of fear. Acts of terrorism are premeditated by their perpetrators and are conspiratorial in nature.
A software company or PC manufacture that conspired to cause death would feel the full weight of the justice system. Of course, by the nature of the Internet, it could be possible to claim that if you dropped the network, and the network was our only means of communication, and that lack of comunication caused death, MS's point could be argued.
Additionally, terrorists conspire their acts of terror to generate fear. Fear is not the ends of the terrorist, but the means to bring to pass their goal, yet the affected society is often completely consumed with this fear. It is by this generated fear the terrorist hopes to motivate the public, group or government to make changes whereby the goals of the terrorist might be realized. It is the government's responsibility to secure society from this threat.
This leads to another point: Don't blame the airlines, or the security guards at the terminal, those that perpatrated this last act of terror, were targeting our governments.
First of all distributed.net is a pioneer in distributed computing. When I found out about them 842 days ago I was impressed with the concepts and the potential. I hope that some of us who would rather chase the new thing in distributed computing will keep this in mind before they flame DNET for being lame, etc... Secondly, I hate math, and am lazy, but I think despite us reaching the 1/2 point in the keyspace we have really ramped up in processor speeds over the past 3 years. When I first started this, I put the client on 3 P166 PCs, and watched my name shoot up the leader board. Then, I put it on my web server a dual PII266, and recall my ass kicking keyrate at the time. Now I have it running on maybe 4 boxes that are all more modern PIII or SPARC types, and am barely keeping pace. I think that these new processors will crack it sooner than we think. Going back to my math problem, it reminds of the question about running half the time, and walking the rest or running half-way and walking the rest. I would say we are running pretty quickly now.
They can only sue the shit of those parents, and ruin their already fractured lives once. Face it, there is not enough money in the world to bring all those kids back. The only option they have it to grasp at straws and litigate. The parents will lose if it goes to trial (it won't go that far) I think that this new slew of litigation is part of the parents collective grieving process. What they should do instead of suing everyone and anyone with money, is to become activists for renewed parenting, gun control, or anything that they can do that would allow them to work for the memory of the lost kids. Anything genuine can bring them closure, but sitting around and having your lawyer do it, sure as hell ain't going to help you get over your loss.