The University I went to a few years ago didn't have any sort of "practical" computer training. They were teaching mostly theory and while some classes used C++ (oooh, how revolutionary for 1995) students had to learn to program on their own.
I found that the small community college in the area had excellent classes in things like Network Administration, Graphics Programming, X Windows Interface Design, etc. People with two-year "certificates" from this community college were getting jobs at the University once reserved only for academics with higher degrees.
The C++ class I took at the community college was taught by one of the full-time programmers who worked on Mosaic and other NCSA projects at the time (oops, guess I just gave away the University and community college I'm talking about...).
The X Windows class was taught by a professional X programmer from Motorola. These classes taught me more in one semester than three years of Computer Science classes at the University.
Also, my brother is getting execllent expierence in things like Adobe Photoshop, Quark and Dreamweaver in a small state school getting a "visual communications" degree.
Investigate community colleges and smaller state schools, they tend to be geared more towards the "pratical" expierence that many are now looking for.
True, smaller schools don't have the resources of large institutions, but in the days of PCs as powerfull as 5-year-old supercomputers, that doesn't matter as much anymore. Still, if you're interested in optimising algorithms for more than 128 processors, you're better off at a big school, but if you're looking to get some "hands-on" knowledge of practical computing topics, smaller schools tend to have less formality and more practical expierence.
Another point is that there is no standard design for nuke power plants. Every time we build one, its a whole new design. If someone would settle on a design, then we could study it and make it much safer. Then we could learn from our mistakes and next year (decade, whatever) when we build all the new plants, they'll all be "version 1.2, with bugfixes".
The US Navy cites this as one of the reasons they don't have problems with their nukes (at least none that they've told us about). The Navy has a singular basic design that they've refined and exacted, plus they've got a talent base that knows how to operate _all_ their reactors.
Think if all US nuke power plants were the same basic design, then experts from one facility would be instantly usefull in diagnosing problems at another.
Saying we lost a spacecraft because NASA can't convert units is just plain absurd. We've lost so many Mars missions this must be a cover up for something that's happening or something we've found out there.
Saying NASA can't convert between Metric and English units is like saying the CIA has old, out-of-date maps. Uh, oh... wait...
VHS records at 352x240... the Tivo and ReplayTV things are recording in MPEG2, same compression used for DVD discs, at roughly 640x480. You're getting double the picture quality out of Tivo than a VHS VCR.
From what I know, MPEG2 is variable bit rate, so these boxes encode at around 2Mbps, while a DVD will be encoded between 2Mbps and 8Mbps.
Well, it took until about 9pm CST tonight, but I eventually did see my 100 shares of RHAT show up on my E*Trade account.
While E*Trade's web site, email and "account alerts" were all but useless during this entire process, their telephone support people and brokers seemed to be mostly on-the-ball. As some earlier poster suggested, maybe they should change their name to P*Trade.
I'm happy I got some shares, and I'll probably try to buy some more if RedHat comes back down a little... I think it will be a good long-term investment.
Johnny Mnemonic did suck, but it sucked in a good and entertaining way:
- Keanu is just plain FUNNY in the movie ("I want ROOM SERVICE!").
- The Ice-T scene with the dolphin where he says "You got to loop it through Jones" is rather good... actually Ice-T tends to do well in cyber-punk-esque movies. He doesn't take it or himself too seriously.
- Any movie that puts Henry Rollins in birth-control glasses and makes him a geeky doctor is a must-see for me, even if it is bad.
Strange Days was a decent movie... I just couldn't take Juliet Lewis singing PJ Harvey tunes...
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The University I went to a few years ago didn't have any sort of "practical" computer training. They were teaching mostly theory and while some classes used C++ (oooh, how revolutionary for 1995) students had to learn to program on their own.
I found that the small community college in the area had excellent classes in things like Network Administration, Graphics Programming, X Windows Interface Design, etc. People with two-year "certificates" from this community college were getting jobs at the University once reserved only for academics with higher degrees.
The C++ class I took at the community college was taught by one of the full-time programmers who worked on Mosaic and other NCSA projects at the time (oops, guess I just gave away the University and community college I'm talking about...).
The X Windows class was taught by a professional X programmer from Motorola. These classes taught me more in one semester than three years of Computer Science classes at the University.
Also, my brother is getting execllent expierence in things like Adobe Photoshop, Quark and Dreamweaver in a small state school getting a "visual communications" degree.
Investigate community colleges and smaller state schools, they tend to be geared more towards the "pratical" expierence that many are now looking for.
True, smaller schools don't have the resources of large institutions, but in the days of PCs as powerfull as 5-year-old supercomputers, that doesn't matter as much anymore. Still, if you're interested in optimising algorithms for more than 128 processors, you're better off at a big school, but if you're looking to get some "hands-on" knowledge of practical computing topics, smaller schools tend to have less formality and more practical expierence.
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I own about 10 Criterion titles (about 1/3 of my DVD collection right now) and I must say, they produce some DAMN FINE discs.
Their release of "Armageddon" can't be beat, plus they do extra-cool stuff like director's cut editions of "Brazil" and "Robocop".
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Another point is that there is no standard design for nuke power plants. Every time we build one, its a whole new design. If someone would settle on a design, then we could study it and make it much safer. Then we could learn from our mistakes and next year (decade, whatever) when we build all the new plants, they'll all be "version 1.2, with bugfixes".
The US Navy cites this as one of the reasons they don't have problems with their nukes (at least none that they've told us about). The Navy has a singular basic design that they've refined and exacted, plus they've got a talent base that knows how to operate _all_ their reactors.
Think if all US nuke power plants were the same basic design, then experts from one facility would be instantly usefull in diagnosing problems at another.
Someone should start a "safe nukes" movement...
----
Saying we lost a spacecraft because NASA can't convert units is just plain absurd. We've lost so many Mars missions this must be a cover up for something that's happening or something we've found out there.
Saying NASA can't convert between Metric and English units is like saying the CIA has old, out-of-date maps. Uh, oh... wait
----
VHS records at 352x240... the Tivo and ReplayTV things are recording in MPEG2, same compression used for DVD discs, at roughly 640x480. You're getting double the picture quality out of Tivo than a VHS VCR.
From what I know, MPEG2 is variable bit rate, so these boxes encode at around 2Mbps, while a DVD will be encoded between 2Mbps and 8Mbps.
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Since Diamond bought S3, they're not making nVidia based cards anymore... they'd be competing with themselves.
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Actually, JVC put out VHS decks below their costs to gain market share (dumping) and beat-out Sony, that's why we all own VHS decks.
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Well, it took until about 9pm CST tonight, but I eventually did see my 100 shares of RHAT show up on my E*Trade account.
While E*Trade's web site, email and "account alerts" were all but useless during this entire process, their telephone support people and brokers seemed to be mostly on-the-ball. As some earlier poster suggested, maybe they should change their name to P*Trade.
I'm happy I got some shares, and I'll probably try to buy some more if RedHat comes back down a little... I think it will be a good long-term investment.
----
- Keanu is just plain FUNNY in the movie ("I want ROOM SERVICE!").
- The Ice-T scene with the dolphin where he says "You got to loop it through Jones" is rather good... actually Ice-T tends to do well in cyber-punk-esque movies. He doesn't take it or himself too seriously.
- Any movie that puts Henry Rollins in birth-control glasses and makes him a geeky doctor is a must-see for me, even if it is bad.
Strange Days was a decent movie... I just couldn't take Juliet Lewis singing PJ Harvey tunes...
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