This is an issue we should take seriously, but I wonder if the book offers any practical responses to the issue. I have read a dozen well meaning articles on the topic that degenerate into a desperate attempt to scare the bejeezus out of the reader. This is the point at which I feel like I've been had, because in all fairness it isn't like the oil pipe will turn off overnight. Prices will gradually increase as supply decreases, making ripe an opportunity for alternatives.
From what I understand, the socially responsible thing is to conserve resources but to not lose your head over this stuff. We did manage to survive y2k, didn't we?
hmmm, fair enough. We do seem to get screwed least when neither party has enough power to push through something without help from the other side.
No, you get heaps of compromises where a bill to revise the tax code has some ridiculous provision to fund something erroneous in the consenting congressman's district. Of course, steam rolling legislation has it's problems too, but gridlock is a sure path to pork legislation.
Reminds me of the good old days (well, not that long ago come to think of it) in college in the computer lab. We could always tell who was the vi newbie based on the quantity of beeps emanating from the workstation.
This is a clever idea indeed. I think most issues could be worked out, but I wonder if there would be problems with multiple keyboard in one area.
Also, I can see the next version of a virus that plays an mp3 to the effect of broadcasting an "rm -rf ~" to the whole room. There is probably something to be said for having a strongly paired connection between the computer and the input device.
Although I'm a fan of making things secure, the first rule of security is that it should be commensurate with what is being secured. In other words, don't build high walls for small issues. Not everyone needs to take counter measures for eavesdropping, but if someone is in fact involved in sensitive communication this makes sense.
Personally, I would love to see a do it yourself kit to test this out.
I'm curious how anyone would know in a neighborhood. I can see the stigma of listing a felony on a job application, but how would I know that my neighbor has committed any variety of crime?
His sexual preference is mildly interesting in that it led to the demise of his career, but aside from this it isn't newsworthy. People in minority situations are trying hard to get the removal of their status from mention. How many times do we hear of someone referred to as a {black,latino,gay,etc} person for no apparent reason, other than to illuminate the presumption that a person is white and straight? I think we will make more progress to leave private and irrelevant matters aside.
Although I agree with your stereotypes of east vs west (I'm an admitted east coast bigot), the fact is that AOL was an east coast business based out of Dulles, Virginia. That aside, us east coasters get a kick out of the "dudes" out west and how they do things. (just teasin' y'all)
Having worked at several Government facilities, I very much doubt their ability to keep such information under wraps, but I agree that it would only be addressed in the 11th hour. As for your reference to those of faith, it couldn't hurt for people to pray a little more often. Most religious people don't regard their faith as existing to save the earth, but rather to enrich and save the souls of those who are living.
I have wondered this as well, because digital medium are not only fragile, but they are not self explanatory. A PDF doesn't give any clues in the file about how it should be used, nor does the media it comes on. On the other hand, clay pots and various artifacts we have found aren't very durable either. We rely on the improbable chance of things surviving.
These days I do work at a University on humanities computing, which has made me a bit more sensitive to this issue. Prior to this, I worked at the Library of Congress doing work on digital archival. I sense the need for our culture to understand its past and to recognize that people a thousand years ago had many of the same hopes and fears we have, but I worry about how future generations will know us. In the absence of any evidence of our culture will they consider us uncultured (as we often think of cultures without a strong written history) or will they judge as simply living in a time with brittle technology?
I couldn't have said it better. My fiance and I are committed to go the private school route, and if we can't afford it we won't have children. That is how outraged we are about the public school system.
The thing that really shocks me is the forthright and honest wording in the page. In the third paragraph they admit that sometimes they were in too far over their heads, but they are trying their best. Good luck finding any company stump material today that doesn't proclaim them to be the infallible Word of God concerning technology X.
After years of hearing all those poor analogies about how software development should be more like building an edifice, we get to see it in practice. Let's just hope they don't need to do too many patches.;)
As I read his blog, he basically described how Microsoft listened to customers better than the now defunct competition. There is nothing preventing a competitor doing the same thing if MS products are lacking significantly in some manner. Long live competition.
Good points. To add to what you said, when I look at promoting someone within a company I look for a person that has sought out additional responsibility. Lot's of people wait for the employer to promote them before they consider attempting a new task, but it rarely works that way.
My advice to the person who submitted the question is this:
1. If you are passionate about IT, get the degree 2. If you are passionate about moving up the ladder, seek out responsibilities pertaining to the position you seek. Show that you are willing to do the job and it will be a no brainer to promote you when the time comes.
Finish school. You have a whole life ahead of you to work, but school is best suited to your early 20s. Your interests will change and the degree will give you flexibility.
Think of the degree as a pool pass. Most times you can just walk up to the pool and swim because you look like a swimmer or someone who belongs in the area, but every once in a while you get carded by the life guard. Trust me, when you work among people with degrees it will get old dodging the "so, where did you go to school" question. You want to talk about stress? Running through life having a major issue half completed will disrupt your life repeatedly.
Trust some of the other posters here who advise likewise. You will meet some of your best life long friends in college. It will develop your professional vocabulary, which has a subtle effect on people's perception of you, and a direct effect on your career mobility. The degree is no substitute for competence, but don't skip or delay it.
I work at a state University and concur with generally what you say, except that the intelligence level of co-workers is very high. At some times, it can be intimidating, but the atmosphere of respect is excellent. The nice thing about working for a University is that you have your nights and weekends available for contract work if you like. The pay differential is easily closed and surpassed by an enterprising person. Heck, who knows... you might accidentally start a successful company that way.
I did contract work in my mid 20s for a government agency in Washington DC. I loved the work, but the politics concerning who I reported to and who I shared information with was maddening. It often felt like I was walking on the edge of a knife, but as a consequence I learned a lot about how to do my job without jeopardizing the project over personal conflict. Some people I work with never learned this and it stunts their career growth.
Excellent points. I manage software projects at a University and I make it my goal to keep developers as happy as possible. We aim for release dates and whatnot, but I would rather adjust the release date than make people work 12 hour shifts and resent the experience. I've found that being flexible and understanding on my part has made for a more professional environment.
Regarding exercise, I couldn't agree more. Although I can't make it every day, my cycling routine keeps me ticking.
Are you serious? Would you rather concede the high ground and live out your career hating your job, or would you rather seek employment that is fulfilling?
Every time I hear people talk about unions and the "blue collarization" of IT, I wonder if they realize what they are giving up. It is a pretty pathetic thing to spend 40 hours a week hating the foreman, because this is the way most blue collar workers act.
Naturally, it is a two way street. I would look elsewhere if I were treated like that. I'm just saying that people shouldn't give up on the possibility of having a mature work relationship altogether.
Seems to me that most professional blue-collar workers, like plumbers and carpenters and such, make upwards of six-figure incomes.
Seems to me like you have been taken for a ride. Aside from the physical challenges of manual labor, there is no way I would trade in my white collar. If anything, IT workers have to focus on being more professional and less like tradespersons.
Looking that the vast number of pro-union posts in this discussion, I can't help but think that too many slashdot readers have a blue collar mindset about IT. It isn't an "us versus them" situation. Put simply, overtime pay is for people seem incapable of developing a professional working relationship where they will put in a little extra time when needed. The beauty of developing that relationship (as I have done in current and previous jobs) is that they don't balk when you need to jet out a little early or tend some life issues. I would rather foster a professional environment of mutual respect than be handed a time card and petition my union boss for respect.
agreed. Whenever a person can work to learn, rather than earn, it is a plus. I feel blessed that the first few jobs out of school are very interesting and raise eyebrows when I talk about the organization, the work and my specific contributions. It has helped me since to land better opportunities.
As others point out, it may be necessary to eat the dog food with less than optimal pay, but it can't hurt to shop around for the quality of the projects and organization you join.
What do you think these corporations will do with the extra profit? If they don't spend it, they get taxed on it, so the system encourages them to invest it back into the economy. Nothing prevents them from spending the money badly, but outsourcing doesn't remove the competitive environment, so there is a good incentive to invest it back into the industry. Does this mean that HTML programmers get 80k jobs? No, but I think we will see the cost savings of outsourcing come back to benefit our economy.
Exactly. Your post illustrates the biggest liberal fallacy, which goes by the name of "the American job." Supposedly they are so concerned about the welfare of people, but their love of humanity stops at political borders. The average standard of living of people have increased through capitalism, and international capitalism is just another growing pain in the process of efficiency.
Slashdot Mirror
This is an issue we should take seriously, but I wonder if the book offers any practical responses to the issue. I have read a dozen well meaning articles on the topic that degenerate into a desperate attempt to scare the bejeezus out of the reader. This is the point at which I feel like I've been had, because in all fairness it isn't like the oil pipe will turn off overnight. Prices will gradually increase as supply decreases, making ripe an opportunity for alternatives.
From what I understand, the socially responsible thing is to conserve resources but to not lose your head over this stuff. We did manage to survive y2k, didn't we?
hmmm, fair enough. We do seem to get screwed least when neither party has enough power to push through something without help from the other side.
No, you get heaps of compromises where a bill to revise the tax code has some ridiculous provision to fund something erroneous in the consenting congressman's district. Of course, steam rolling legislation has it's problems too, but gridlock is a sure path to pork legislation.
Reminds me of the good old days (well, not that long ago come to think of it) in college in the computer lab. We could always tell who was the vi newbie based on the quantity of beeps emanating from the workstation.
This is a clever idea indeed. I think most issues could be worked out, but I wonder if there would be problems with multiple keyboard in one area.
Also, I can see the next version of a virus that plays an mp3 to the effect of broadcasting an "rm -rf ~" to the whole room. There is probably something to be said for having a strongly paired connection between the computer and the input device.
Although I'm a fan of making things secure, the first rule of security is that it should be commensurate with what is being secured. In other words, don't build high walls for small issues. Not everyone needs to take counter measures for eavesdropping, but if someone is in fact involved in sensitive communication this makes sense.
Personally, I would love to see a do it yourself kit to test this out.
I'm curious how anyone would know in a neighborhood. I can see the stigma of listing a felony on a job application, but how would I know that my neighbor has committed any variety of crime?
His sexual preference is mildly interesting in that it led to the demise of his career, but aside from this it isn't newsworthy. People in minority situations are trying hard to get the removal of their status from mention. How many times do we hear of someone referred to as a {black,latino,gay,etc} person for no apparent reason, other than to illuminate the presumption that a person is white and straight? I think we will make more progress to leave private and irrelevant matters aside.
Although I agree with your stereotypes of east vs west (I'm an admitted east coast bigot), the fact is that AOL was an east coast business based out of Dulles, Virginia. That aside, us east coasters get a kick out of the "dudes" out west and how they do things. (just teasin' y'all)
Having worked at several Government facilities, I very much doubt their ability to keep such information under wraps, but I agree that it would only be addressed in the 11th hour. As for your reference to those of faith, it couldn't hurt for people to pray a little more often. Most religious people don't regard their faith as existing to save the earth, but rather to enrich and save the souls of those who are living.
I have wondered this as well, because digital medium are not only fragile, but they are not self explanatory. A PDF doesn't give any clues in the file about how it should be used, nor does the media it comes on. On the other hand, clay pots and various artifacts we have found aren't very durable either. We rely on the improbable chance of things surviving.
These days I do work at a University on humanities computing, which has made me a bit more sensitive to this issue. Prior to this, I worked at the Library of Congress doing work on digital archival. I sense the need for our culture to understand its past and to recognize that people a thousand years ago had many of the same hopes and fears we have, but I worry about how future generations will know us. In the absence of any evidence of our culture will they consider us uncultured (as we often think of cultures without a strong written history) or will they judge as simply living in a time with brittle technology?
I couldn't have said it better. My fiance and I are committed to go the private school route, and if we can't afford it we won't have children. That is how outraged we are about the public school system.
The thing that really shocks me is the forthright and honest wording in the page. In the third paragraph they admit that sometimes they were in too far over their heads, but they are trying their best. Good luck finding any company stump material today that doesn't proclaim them to be the infallible Word of God concerning technology X.
After years of hearing all those poor analogies about how software development should be more like building an edifice, we get to see it in practice. Let's just hope they don't need to do too many patches. ;)
As I read his blog, he basically described how Microsoft listened to customers better than the now defunct competition. There is nothing preventing a competitor doing the same thing if MS products are lacking significantly in some manner. Long live competition.
Good points. To add to what you said, when I look at promoting someone within a company I look for a person that has sought out additional responsibility. Lot's of people wait for the employer to promote them before they consider attempting a new task, but it rarely works that way.
My advice to the person who submitted the question is this:
1. If you are passionate about IT, get the degree
2. If you are passionate about moving up the ladder, seek out responsibilities pertaining to the position you seek. Show that you are willing to do the job and it will be a no brainer to promote you when the time comes.
Finish school. You have a whole life ahead of you to work, but school is best suited to your early 20s. Your interests will change and the degree will give you flexibility.
Think of the degree as a pool pass. Most times you can just walk up to the pool and swim because you look like a swimmer or someone who belongs in the area, but every once in a while you get carded by the life guard. Trust me, when you work among people with degrees it will get old dodging the "so, where did you go to school" question. You want to talk about stress? Running through life having a major issue half completed will disrupt your life repeatedly.
Trust some of the other posters here who advise likewise. You will meet some of your best life long friends in college. It will develop your professional vocabulary, which has a subtle effect on people's perception of you, and a direct effect on your career mobility. The degree is no substitute for competence, but don't skip or delay it.
I work at a state University and concur with generally what you say, except that the intelligence level of co-workers is very high. At some times, it can be intimidating, but the atmosphere of respect is excellent. The nice thing about working for a University is that you have your nights and weekends available for contract work if you like. The pay differential is easily closed and surpassed by an enterprising person. Heck, who knows... you might accidentally start a successful company that way.
I did contract work in my mid 20s for a government agency in Washington DC. I loved the work, but the politics concerning who I reported to and who I shared information with was maddening. It often felt like I was walking on the edge of a knife, but as a consequence I learned a lot about how to do my job without jeopardizing the project over personal conflict. Some people I work with never learned this and it stunts their career growth.
Excellent points. I manage software projects at a University and I make it my goal to keep developers as happy as possible. We aim for release dates and whatnot, but I would rather adjust the release date than make people work 12 hour shifts and resent the experience. I've found that being flexible and understanding on my part has made for a more professional environment.
Regarding exercise, I couldn't agree more. Although I can't make it every day, my cycling routine keeps me ticking.
Are you serious? Would you rather concede the high ground and live out your career hating your job, or would you rather seek employment that is fulfilling?
Every time I hear people talk about unions and the "blue collarization" of IT, I wonder if they realize what they are giving up. It is a pretty pathetic thing to spend 40 hours a week hating the foreman, because this is the way most blue collar workers act.
Naturally, it is a two way street. I would look elsewhere if I were treated like that. I'm just saying that people shouldn't give up on the possibility of having a mature work relationship altogether.
Seems to me that most professional blue-collar workers, like plumbers and carpenters and such, make upwards of six-figure incomes.
Seems to me like you have been taken for a ride. Aside from the physical challenges of manual labor, there is no way I would trade in my white collar. If anything, IT workers have to focus on being more professional and less like tradespersons.
Looking that the vast number of pro-union posts in this discussion, I can't help but think that too many slashdot readers have a blue collar mindset about IT. It isn't an "us versus them" situation. Put simply, overtime pay is for people seem incapable of developing a professional working relationship where they will put in a little extra time when needed. The beauty of developing that relationship (as I have done in current and previous jobs) is that they don't balk when you need to jet out a little early or tend some life issues. I would rather foster a professional environment of mutual respect than be handed a time card and petition my union boss for respect.
agreed. Whenever a person can work to learn, rather than earn, it is a plus. I feel blessed that the first few jobs out of school are very interesting and raise eyebrows when I talk about the organization, the work and my specific contributions. It has helped me since to land better opportunities.
As others point out, it may be necessary to eat the dog food with less than optimal pay, but it can't hurt to shop around for the quality of the projects and organization you join.
What do you think these corporations will do with the extra profit? If they don't spend it, they get taxed on it, so the system encourages them to invest it back into the economy. Nothing prevents them from spending the money badly, but outsourcing doesn't remove the competitive environment, so there is a good incentive to invest it back into the industry. Does this mean that HTML programmers get 80k jobs? No, but I think we will see the cost savings of outsourcing come back to benefit our economy.
Exactly. Your post illustrates the biggest liberal fallacy, which goes by the name of "the American job." Supposedly they are so concerned about the welfare of people, but their love of humanity stops at political borders. The average standard of living of people have increased through capitalism, and international capitalism is just another growing pain in the process of efficiency.