Your post shows so little knowledge of the business world. "Real documentation" is the notes, memos, etc... that flowed between key people while a project was executed on. Frequently these data elements are brought together in some sort master file at the end of a project though.
Junk the info and learn the lesson; LOL, yea let me throw away all the knowledge my business has accumulated because it was written in word. I don't think anything more needs to be said here.
I am all for getting people to switch to linux, but telling businesses to
-dump all their old info
-convert word docs to text
-convert.xls to csv files
-etc... is laughable at best.
I would feel the same way if I had the *choice* to get the original versions on dvd. I doubt that is what will happen though, as I don't think you can even get the orginal vhs versions anymore.
Do we really care precisely how Anakin Skywalker got pissed off and turned to the Dark Side? Um, YES! Lucas's vision was a rich backstory that we saw only a couple of episodes in the middle of. The public has put huge demands on him to develop that backstory.
I totally agree here. I thought ATOC was a good movie except for the excessive love scenes. I had always wondered where the empire got the endless supply of storm troopers, how the emperor came to power, etc...
After Ep1 I was pretty bummed about seeing the next two, and just saw Ep2 last weekend(in a empty theater btw). Now I am pretty excited about ep3 and can't wait to see how everything fits together.
Secondly, going through the computer stream, the business stream, or both, in college, will give you extra perspective on where the demands of management and the coders are coming from, and how to balance their requests. You'll be able to do a better job (not all of the job is technical).
This can't be stressed enough. As a sysadmin or programmer who do you work for? Business people(It sucks, but is a fact of life). Some very lucky ones get to hack at code just for fun, but most IT people are doing things to help their employers be more productive. Understanding business concepts and needs and then being able to translate them into technical solutions makes a person invaluable to any company.
I think infogrames owns Atari home entertainment now. I just got Transworld Surf for the ps2 which is published by infogrames, but throws up an Atari splash screen at the start.
I agree. They rejected a story I submitted about there being 1.2 million tech jobs open this year with half of them not expected to be filled(contrary to many people you read on slashdot) for someones shipping story.
Kick in another million and they'll throw in some decaying nuclear war-heads.
LOL, if they can find them. I can see it now:
Russian Op> Hello, warhead distribution?
Caller> Yea, I sent in my free warhead certificate months ago, and still haven't received it.
Russian Op> Hmm, we shipped it out 2 months ago. Guess it got "lost" in the mail. That has been happening a lot lately. Anyways, let me get your address and we will send another one, plus a free one to make up for it.
Caller> 911 Kabul Drive.
Russin Op> Ok, we will get that right out to you. Don't forget to check our website at www.discountrussianwarheads.com
Remember, original Star Wars fans are all 30+ now, there's a whole new generation coming up who are seeing films not so much as something you go and watch as something you download to see if it sucks.
I am 24 and consider myself an orginal SW fan. I just didn't become a fan until the second movie came out;) The first movie I remember seeing in the theater was Empire Strikes Back. It is kinda wierd, I can remember that whole day like it was yesterday.
They already have ratings on games. Why doesn't the game industry just follow through with what they currently have in place and follow similar rules that movie theaters do? If the game is rated M then you must be 17 or with a parent to purchase it. I don't really see why we need to make selling games some sort of federal crime. Will they now start doing undercover sting operations at your local EB?
In general tech companies should not pay dividends. They should be reinvesting that money into R&D. Without R&D most tech companies will die in a few years.
Very few tech companies will ever become that "utility" stock that returns 10%-15% every year, MS included. MS will never be the Coca-Cola because MS "must" to continue to spend huge amounts of R&D dollars to keep their revenue stream moving. Coke can just continue to sell coke and make a profit. MS cannot just to continue to sell WinXP and still be around in 5 years.
but in the past ten years every application has been converted to requiring a relational database...Things that used to be simple (e.g. a list of a few hundred customers) now require a team of Oracle database experts
I think this is more becuase in the past 10 years people have realized that *data* is king. Get all the data you possible can about your business because it *may* be useful. No longer does a business want to just store the names of 100 customers. They want to store the customer, contact data, purchases, support calls/cost, etc... AND they want to use this information in adhoc ways to improve their business.
Storing data in flat files in not conducive to doing complex analysis or reasearch against. This is the primary reason in my experience that a working flat file system has been moved into a relational database.
I'm not saying that OSes should be somewhat secure by default, and Microsoft has been doing a better job of this as of late, however you can't make them uber locked down systems like most geeks have, it will just piss them off.
Exactly. In most cases security goes directly against usability. Why do I have to log into my *home* machine? Why do I have to log in as admin/root to install a new application? Why can I only run this particular program as admin/root? These are all questions that the typical home user will ask when using their home machine. Having to do these things ends up making the machine less usable to the home user(albeit more secure).
"On the other hand, who would you rather call for a diskn drive support, Dell or Western Digital? I much prefer putting brand-name components on the inside than having no-name components on the inside with a brand name on the outside!"
Maybe not WD, but every other component manufacturer is going to try to blame some other part in the PC. I would much rather call dell and have them just send the part instead of having to argue with them about what the problem really may be.
"The meeting was told that in 2000 the software industry in Europe lost $3bn to pirates."
I am always curious where they actually come up with these numbers. Some kid in his basement downloading a $3,000 software package hasn't actually cost the industry anything b/c he wouldn't have bought it anyway. Now if a company like IBM bought 1 copy of office and installed on every corporate desktop then I think that is a real problem. The real question is how many companys are really in gross violations of the current laws?
Good point. I sign all of my cards with "Check ID" and I still get clerks that look at the card and don't ask for id(maybe they can't read??). I am not sure how much more I can do as a consumer to protect my cards if they were stolen.
"If you are willing to put up with not knowing whether your program is the problem or it is a bug in the language, and willing to spend hours looking up API when you run into a wall because you thought outside the MS-box and need to do something they didn't spoon feed you, then you can get a job anywhere."
LOL, spouting things spoon fed to you by linux zealots(not all people who use and enjoy linux are zealots btw). I hate to break it to you, but every API, language, and OS that has ever been or will be is going to have bugs, quirks, and work-arounds.
Work is called work for a reason. It is not always enjoyable or fun. If you are one of the people who doesn't have a job b/c you refuse to work with MS products then fine. When you spout that you have been looking for a year to find a job, but there aren't any around make sure to qualify it properly. "I can't get a job because I am an arrogant linux zealot" will work nicely.
I have seen all types make idiotic database blunders. MBA's(of course;), IS people, and programmers who think they know databases because they can do a select statement. I remember interviewing a girl who said she could do anything with SQL. I gave her 3 chances to back off of her statement, but she insisted. I then proceeded to crush her with a fairly complex problem that I had just solved the day before, but thats another story.
I think I now understand your statement though. *Accessing* databases(using api's, writing some sql) can be mastered fairly quickly. Heck, it's actually very simple. *Designing* database structures to solve a particular problem is something that I see as taking a long time and a lot of experience to master. Every design you do has it's own tradeoffs, strengths, and weaknesses. All of these are only tested with data and time.
On a side note, if you think you have figured out every which way to do select statements you should check out SQL For Smarties from Joe Celko. It's an interesting book with lots of code.
True, it will also most likley make the games even more sought after. Many movies leave just enough violence/etc... in to get the R rating b/c in many peoples minds R means a better movie.
I totally agree with the parent post here. There are tons of programming jobs around. Heck it took my company about a year to fill a position doing db/web/vb/c/etc... stuff. I'll admit, the work is not flashy or glamorous, but it pays well and is stable.
It just irks me to see people complaining that they can't find a job programming. Yes, it is hard to find a paying job hacking the linux kernel all day. Finding a job writing business apps is not very challenging though.
/rant I know this is slashdot and everything MS is evil, but if you know VB, MSSQL server, and Crystal reports you can get a job in just about any industry. /rant off
Nah, stories only get posted once a "cool" person submits it. I used to submit stuff all the time and get rejected in around an hour. Then, a few days later the same story would be posted submitted by someone else.
Slashdot Mirror
Your post shows so little knowledge of the business world. "Real documentation" is the notes, memos, etc... that flowed between key people while a project was executed on. Frequently these data elements are brought together in some sort master file at the end of a project though.
.xls to csv files
Junk the info and learn the lesson;
LOL, yea let me throw away all the knowledge my business has accumulated because it was written in word. I don't think anything more needs to be said here.
I am all for getting people to switch to linux, but telling businesses to
-dump all their old info
-convert word docs to text
-convert
-etc...
is laughable at best.
I would feel the same way if I had the *choice* to get the original versions on dvd. I doubt that is what will happen though, as I don't think you can even get the orginal vhs versions anymore.
Do we really care precisely how Anakin Skywalker got pissed off and turned to the Dark Side? Um, YES! Lucas's vision was a rich backstory that we saw only a couple of episodes in the middle of. The public has put huge demands on him to develop that backstory.
I totally agree here. I thought ATOC was a good movie except for the excessive love scenes. I had always wondered where the empire got the endless supply of storm troopers, how the emperor came to power, etc...
After Ep1 I was pretty bummed about seeing the next two, and just saw Ep2 last weekend(in a empty theater btw). Now I am pretty excited about ep3 and can't wait to see how everything fits together.
Secondly, going through the computer stream, the business stream, or both, in college, will give you extra perspective on where the demands of management and the coders are coming from, and how to balance their requests. You'll be able to do a better job (not all of the job is technical).
This can't be stressed enough. As a sysadmin or programmer who do you work for? Business people(It sucks, but is a fact of life). Some very lucky ones get to hack at code just for fun, but most IT people are doing things to help their employers be more productive. Understanding business concepts and needs and then being able to translate them into technical solutions makes a person invaluable to any company.
I submitted this story this morning around 9am est. It was promptly rejected.
Slashdot: The place to comment about old news.
So which Atari is this and who owns them?
I think infogrames owns Atari home entertainment now. I just got Transworld Surf for the ps2 which is published by infogrames, but throws up an Atari splash screen at the start.
to put their name on your post. As if they owned it or something.
That's an interesting thought. By doing this are they claiming some sort of ownership to your post and thus become liable for things in the said post?
Where's the nightmare?
I agree. They rejected a story I submitted about there being 1.2 million tech jobs open this year with half of them not expected to be filled(contrary to many people you read on slashdot) for someones shipping story.
What makes the shipping "nightmare" news again?
Kick in another million and they'll throw in some decaying nuclear war-heads.
LOL, if they can find them. I can see it now:
Russian Op> Hello, warhead distribution?
Caller> Yea, I sent in my free warhead certificate months ago, and still haven't received it.
Russian Op> Hmm, we shipped it out 2 months ago. Guess it got "lost" in the mail. That has been happening a lot lately. Anyways, let me get your address and we will send another one, plus a free one to make up for it.
Caller> 911 Kabul Drive.
Russin Op> Ok, we will get that right out to you. Don't forget to check our website at www.discountrussianwarheads.com
Remember, original Star Wars fans are all 30+ now, there's a whole new generation coming up who are seeing films not so much as something you go and watch as something you download to see if it sucks.
;) The first movie I remember seeing in the theater was Empire Strikes Back. It is kinda wierd, I can remember that whole day like it was yesterday.
I am 24 and consider myself an orginal SW fan. I just didn't become a fan until the second movie came out
They already have ratings on games. Why doesn't the game industry just follow through with what they currently have in place and follow similar rules that movie theaters do? If the game is rated M then you must be 17 or with a parent to purchase it. I don't really see why we need to make selling games some sort of federal crime. Will they now start doing undercover sting operations at your local EB?
In general tech companies should not pay dividends. They should be reinvesting that money into R&D. Without R&D most tech companies will die in a few years.
Very few tech companies will ever become that "utility" stock that returns 10%-15% every year, MS included. MS will never be the Coca-Cola because MS "must" to continue to spend huge amounts of R&D dollars to keep their revenue stream moving. Coke can just continue to sell coke and make a profit. MS cannot just to continue to sell WinXP and still be around in 5 years.
but in the past ten years every application has been converted to requiring a relational database...Things that used to be simple (e.g. a list of a few hundred customers) now require a team of Oracle database experts
I think this is more becuase in the past 10 years people have realized that *data* is king. Get all the data you possible can about your business because it *may* be useful. No longer does a business want to just store the names of 100 customers. They want to store the customer, contact data, purchases, support calls/cost, etc... AND they want to use this information in adhoc ways to improve their business.
Storing data in flat files in not conducive to doing complex analysis or reasearch against. This is the primary reason in my experience that a working flat file system has been moved into a relational database.
I'm not saying that OSes should be somewhat secure by default, and Microsoft has been doing a better job of this as of late, however you can't make them uber locked down systems like most geeks have, it will just piss them off.
Exactly. In most cases security goes directly against usability. Why do I have to log into my *home* machine? Why do I have to log in as admin/root to install a new application? Why can I only run this particular program as admin/root? These are all questions that the typical home user will ask when using their home machine. Having to do these things ends up making the machine less usable to the home user(albeit more secure).
"On the other hand, who would you rather call for a diskn drive support, Dell or Western Digital? I much prefer putting brand-name components on the inside than having no-name components on the inside with a brand name on the outside!"
Maybe not WD, but every other component manufacturer is going to try to blame some other part in the PC. I would much rather call dell and have them just send the part instead of having to argue with them about what the problem really may be.
"The meeting was told that in 2000 the software industry in Europe lost $3bn to pirates."
I am always curious where they actually come up with these numbers. Some kid in his basement downloading a $3,000 software package hasn't actually cost the industry anything b/c he wouldn't have bought it anyway. Now if a company like IBM bought 1 copy of office and installed on every corporate desktop then I think that is a real problem. The real question is how many companys are really in gross violations of the current laws?
"# Pro-wrestling is faked."
Careful, to some people this could be like telling young kids santa clause isn't real.
Good point. I sign all of my cards with "Check ID" and I still get clerks that look at the card and don't ask for id(maybe they can't read??). I am not sure how much more I can do as a consumer to protect my cards if they were stolen.
You haven't yet figured out that slashdot cannot post timely news. It must be old news to be on slashdot.
"If you are willing to put up with not knowing whether your program is the problem or it is a bug in the language, and willing to spend hours looking up API when you run into a wall because you thought outside the MS-box and need to do something they didn't spoon feed you, then you can get a job anywhere."
LOL, spouting things spoon fed to you by linux zealots(not all people who use and enjoy linux are zealots btw). I hate to break it to you, but every API, language, and OS that has ever been or will be is going to have bugs, quirks, and work-arounds.
Work is called work for a reason. It is not always enjoyable or fun. If you are one of the people who doesn't have a job b/c you refuse to work with MS products then fine. When you spout that you have been looking for a year to find a job, but there aren't any around make sure to qualify it properly. "I can't get a job because I am an arrogant linux zealot" will work nicely.
I have seen all types make idiotic database blunders. MBA's(of course ;), IS people, and programmers who think they know databases because they can do a select statement. I remember interviewing a girl who said she could do anything with SQL. I gave her 3 chances to back off of her statement, but she insisted. I then proceeded to crush her with a fairly complex problem that I had just solved the day before, but thats another story.
I think I now understand your statement though. *Accessing* databases(using api's, writing some sql) can be mastered fairly quickly. Heck, it's actually very simple. *Designing* database structures to solve a particular problem is something that I see as taking a long time and a lot of experience to master. Every design you do has it's own tradeoffs, strengths, and weaknesses. All of these are only tested with data and time.
On a side note, if you think you have figured out every which way to do select statements you should check out SQL For Smarties from Joe Celko. It's an interesting book with lots of code.
True, it will also most likley make the games even more sought after. Many movies leave just enough violence/etc... in to get the R rating b/c in many peoples minds R means a better movie.
"a decently smart CompSci guy should pick up everything you need to know about databases in about 6 months."
LOL, how come I am constantly cleaning up database design stupidity from these "I know it all in 6 month guys?"
These must be the same guys that think mysql is a real database.
I totally agree with the parent post here. There are tons of programming jobs around. Heck it took my company about a year to fill a position doing db/web/vb/c/etc... stuff. I'll admit, the work is not flashy or glamorous, but it pays well and is stable.
It just irks me to see people complaining that they can't find a job programming. Yes, it is hard to find a paying job hacking the linux kernel all day. Finding a job writing business apps is not very challenging though.
/rant
I know this is slashdot and everything MS is evil, but if you know VB, MSSQL server, and Crystal reports you can get a job in just about any industry.
/rant off
Nah, stories only get posted once a "cool" person submits it. I used to submit stuff all the time and get rejected in around an hour. Then, a few days later the same story would be posted submitted by someone else.