You know, I can put this liquid on my dog's skin and for three months, he's immune to fleas. Completely immune - they die if they touch him. Why isn't there something like this for humans?
Personally, I favor pulling back to suborbital range, saturation bombing the planet with DEET until it's livable, and then coming back.
If you are a programmer/sysadmin, then you can find work if you move. Network and job-board-scrounge like mad, search company web sites, use headhunters, etc., and at every turn say "yes, I'll relocate anywhere".
Yes, relocation is a pain - just did it last year myself. This makes the 2nd time I've moved to places other than my first choice of living areas...been happy both times. When I was laid off last year, I looked in my large metropolitan home first...after three weeks, looked nationwide. I considered Nebraska, Mississippi, all sorts of places most people wouldn't pick as their first choice. Personally, I'd rather be working than unemployed or flipping burgers. And I'm too young (and so are you if you're under 50) to lock yourself down to one geography. If you want steady upward mobility, you have to RELOCATE SEVERAL TIMES IN YOUR CAREER.
If you cast your net wide - the whole US, go anywhere, do anything - you will find work if your skills are in demand. If you don't find work, then your skills are not in demand or your experience isn't sufficient and you have to lower your sights or improve your skills or both.
It's simple market mechanics. Brutal if you want to call it that, but simple nonetheless. If you're not finding work in your home market, then you need to look in other markets. You might end up in some place you don't like, have never heard of, or not your dream, but you'd be working.
PS...I've never met anyone who was both a senior sysadmin AND a senior programmer. I've also never seen a truly senior admin/programmer who was out of work for long. I'd pick which one you like better and go gonzo on it.
Every time I hear Lucas or Campbell drone on about the "classic mythological themes" in Star Wars I want to yak. Replace "mythology" with "cliche" and you have a better understanding.
That's not a direct criticism of Star Wars - really, are there any new plots? It's just that these two guys are sooo full of themselves, lauding themselves as the torchbearers of archetypal mythology, blah blah.
The only people who are successful in computing, I have found, are people who teach themselves. The field is too fast-moving to have a good class in every subject. On the contrary, I have never seen a class that was excellent.
I agree in part and disagree in part. You're absolutely right that being able to teach yourself is vital - if you're not able to suck down big thick books and keep it in temporary storage, then neither systems administration nor programming is the field for you. If you're not motivated enough (or interested enough) to learn in your spare time - i.e., if this isn't both your hobby AND your profession - then your potential is limited.
I agree that classes are often of questionable value, especially since they're often very expensive. I think System Administration 101 classes are a waste of time - learn on your own. Same for a lot of programming classes. The material is in books, usually in many books, and if you can't read and learn from the literature, forget it. It's one thing if you're pursuing a B.S. degree and it's part of the curriculum; it's another if you're expecting your employer to spend $3,000 to send you off to Solaris 101.
However, that said, there are some situations in which training is invaluable. The first training I ever went to was on Auspex fileservers, where are specialized NAS hardware. There's no way I could afford a $200,000+ box to play with at home, no way to simulate one, and no way management would let me "experiment" on the production box. In that case, paying for a few days of instruction + lab access was worth it (and really, it was the lab access).
If the class in question offers you the ability to work in a lab and break things (and fix them), then it may be worthwhile. If that lab consists of PCs, then it's not - yes, Virginia, you can learn Linux (or Solaris x86, or whatever) at home. You can't learn a Sun E10000 at home.
Good post!
Yes, broadband is cool and all, but in all reality, the days of offering unlimited bandwidth in the days of mp3s and dvd-quality rips floating are just about over.
Perhaps for cable. However, DSL is always quoted in uplink/downlink speeds that are unlimited usage (at least, in the three states where I've had it). Once you pay for that rate, you can use it 24x7 at full blast if you so desire.
Lots of places you can find 128k down/768k up for $40 a month for the home user.
...and my Dell Dimension 8100 with the biggest monitor I could get. It has a Pentium IV giving a 1.4 GHz processing speed, with 20 gigs of ROM and 256 megs of RAM
Damn, it'd be cool if Dell Dimensions really came with 20GB of ROM. I don't think even the SpaceKnight had that much.
(Footnote: does anyone else remember when ads for personal computers used to say both how much ROM and RAM? "8K ROM and 16K RAM!")
The problem with RTS games is that the S is always the same: build a really large army of something and send it over to overwhelm the opponent. It's impossible to control your army other than mass-select-and-move, so a lot of the finer points of strategy are lost.
Try before you buy. I had a GoType from Landware and while it was well engineered in every other respect, the dinky keyboard made a notebook's look expansive.
I first read about this thing about 18 months ago. They apparently have made no progress since then because the page is the same, word-for-word. Consider the problems: - who's sponsoring all these facts? Your "life log" is likely to consist of vending machines advertising their presence. - privacy, as they admit. - my goal in using information technology is to strain out data, not gather more of it (thank you junkbusters.org for getting rid of those annoying blockstackers;) - suppose my office were over a corner with a broadcaster that's pumping millions of ads a minute? - I really can't imagine what I'd do with all the data. If I wanted a technology that would let me 'check in', I'd prefer something like Sun's Java ring or related tokens. It is interesting to note that we have proof of a human desire in this area, as we already build and buy "remembering" devices. Some example include: voice note recorders, cameras, camcorders, and written memos. All of those are devices that I can use, edit, and review in the field...not the same thing.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I can put this liquid on my dog's skin and for three months, he's immune to fleas. Completely immune - they die if they touch him. Why isn't there something like this for humans?
Personally, I favor pulling back to suborbital range, saturation bombing the planet with DEET until it's livable, and then coming back.
Roger Ebert mentioned a certain fuzziness in his review.
Anyone seen The Wizard of Oz yet?
Yes, relocation is a pain - just did it last year myself. This makes the 2nd time I've moved to places other than my first choice of living areas...been happy both times. When I was laid off last year, I looked in my large metropolitan home first...after three weeks, looked nationwide. I considered Nebraska, Mississippi, all sorts of places most people wouldn't pick as their first choice. Personally, I'd rather be working than unemployed or flipping burgers. And I'm too young (and so are you if you're under 50) to lock yourself down to one geography. If you want steady upward mobility, you have to RELOCATE SEVERAL TIMES IN YOUR CAREER.
If you cast your net wide - the whole US, go anywhere, do anything - you will find work if your skills are in demand. If you don't find work, then your skills are not in demand or your experience isn't sufficient and you have to lower your sights or improve your skills or both.
It's simple market mechanics. Brutal if you want to call it that, but simple nonetheless. If you're not finding work in your home market, then you need to look in other markets. You might end up in some place you don't like, have never heard of, or not your dream, but you'd be working.
PS...I've never met anyone who was both a senior sysadmin AND a senior programmer. I've also never seen a truly senior admin/programmer who was out of work for long. I'd pick which one you like better and go gonzo on it.
That's not a direct criticism of Star Wars - really, are there any new plots? It's just that these two guys are sooo full of themselves, lauding themselves as the torchbearers of archetypal mythology, blah blah.
I agree in part and disagree in part. You're absolutely right that being able to teach yourself is vital - if you're not able to suck down big thick books and keep it in temporary storage, then neither systems administration nor programming is the field for you. If you're not motivated enough (or interested enough) to learn in your spare time - i.e., if this isn't both your hobby AND your profession - then your potential is limited.
I agree that classes are often of questionable value, especially since they're often very expensive. I think System Administration 101 classes are a waste of time - learn on your own. Same for a lot of programming classes. The material is in books, usually in many books, and if you can't read and learn from the literature, forget it. It's one thing if you're pursuing a B.S. degree and it's part of the curriculum; it's another if you're expecting your employer to spend $3,000 to send you off to Solaris 101.
However, that said, there are some situations in which training is invaluable. The first training I ever went to was on Auspex fileservers, where are specialized NAS hardware. There's no way I could afford a $200,000+ box to play with at home, no way to simulate one, and no way management would let me "experiment" on the production box. In that case, paying for a few days of instruction + lab access was worth it (and really, it was the lab access).
If the class in question offers you the ability to work in a lab and break things (and fix them), then it may be worthwhile. If that lab consists of PCs, then it's not - yes, Virginia, you can learn Linux (or Solaris x86, or whatever) at home. You can't learn a Sun E10000 at home. Good post!
Perhaps for cable. However, DSL is always quoted in uplink/downlink speeds that are unlimited usage (at least, in the three states where I've had it). Once you pay for that rate, you can use it 24x7 at full blast if you so desire.
Lots of places you can find 128k down/768k up for $40 a month for the home user.
...and I'm ready to report to my disintegration chamber.
Damn, it'd be cool if Dell Dimensions really came with 20GB of ROM. I don't think even the SpaceKnight had that much.
(Footnote: does anyone else remember when ads for personal computers used to say both how much ROM and RAM? "8K ROM and 16K RAM!")
The problem with RTS games is that the S is always the same: build a really large army of something and send it over to overwhelm the opponent. It's impossible to control your army other than mass-select-and-move, so a lot of the finer points of strategy are lost.
So he's got a $100,000 car...and he parks it on his lawn?!?
...even though pico came along more than a decade after vi? I guess your day was yesterday.
...the journalist who believed this story, or the Slashdot editors who gave it credence?
>can you explain to me what *bsd has that
>gnu/linux doesnt
man pages.
Every try to find something in Stallman's info system when you don't have X running and you're not an emacs freak?
Rock? Scissors? Paper? cf. Corewars, the original...
http://www.koth.org/
Try before you buy. I had a GoType from Landware and while it was well engineered in every other respect, the dinky keyboard made a notebook's look expansive.
I first read about this thing about 18 months ago. They apparently have made no progress since then because the page is the same, word-for-word. Consider the problems: - who's sponsoring all these facts? Your "life log" is likely to consist of vending machines advertising their presence. - privacy, as they admit. - my goal in using information technology is to strain out data, not gather more of it (thank you junkbusters.org for getting rid of those annoying blockstackers ;) - suppose my office were over a corner with a broadcaster that's pumping millions of ads a minute? - I really can't imagine what I'd do with all the data. If I wanted a technology that would let me 'check in', I'd prefer something like Sun's Java ring or related tokens. It is interesting to note that we have proof of a human desire in this area, as we already build and buy "remembering" devices. Some example include: voice note recorders, cameras, camcorders, and written memos. All of those are devices that I can use, edit, and review in the field...not the same thing.
There's one at auction now and the bid is only $1136.
...two. At least according to an InternetWorld article a month or so ago.
In most parts of the US, they do give everyone unmetered access all the time...and nothing's fallen over yet.