Of course I'm in RTP, NC which has more high-tech companies than I care to count. If you aren't willing to relocate, then I guess I could see a problem starting to develop.
Of course, if companies want people badly enough, they'll give them OJT.
I'll mention that I've been very satisfied with AT&T MasterCard (www.att.com/ucs). They have current charges & past bills (PDF, html tables, & proprietary formats for Windows based financial packages) online to view. I personally have it setup to ACH draft my checking account when I go online & click pay, but they also have a feature where they will automatically draft some or all of the balance on a day that you specify every month. I'm a very satisfied customer [and they aren't afraid to issue a chargeback on bad merchants either:) ].
I haven't even finished with my second year of college, but I get calls from employers & head hunters several times a week. Too bad for them, I end up turning down 98-99% of their inquiries (I tend to read them as an "almost certain offer"). There are numerous companies that want me to quit school & work for them FT, but they just don't seem to understand that I want to finish my education first. Most of them have difficulty reading the "Available for employment [date]" part of my resume.
I'd agree that the geographic area that you are in has something to do with the number of calls, but there are so many companies that want you to relocate.
Even though I haven't read the article because the server is slashdotted...
I'll agree that there is a shortage of *qualified & cheap* IT people. What can you expect after these mega corporations go through "corporate downsizing"? The ironic part is that several companies that laid people off have recently rehired them -- at twice to 4x what they were being originally paid.
Corporations don't, but the monopoly known as the government does. The problem is that "big" corporations now think they can act like the government and force their every wish down on individuals.
I don't think it is right, but it *is* happening, if we like it or not.
I once worked for a ISP (we didn't do design, just hosting). I happen to know that it took a notable percentage of customers over a year to get a production level site (beyond a 'comming soon...' page) that describes their company / N.P. organization. I would say that taking 2 years to get up a site is long, but not totally out of the question. Granted, if you put your mind to it, a month, week, or even an hour can produce a half-way decent site, but the last time I checked, nothing says you have to instantly publish a website for a domain you registered. I know several people just use a domain for e-mail only & have no web service. It is possible, but unlikely that the guy in question might want to answer e-mails about cocaine.
Another relevant question is how much content has to be on a web site before it is classified as utilized? One, five, twenty, 100, 1000 pages? I don't see how you can make a clear definition of what consitutes using a web site. Is static content sufficient, or is dynamic also required? Each person / corporation has a different level that that want to [spend to / have time to] utilize internet technologies.
Even though I don't use my website for commerce (I do have a resume & other stuff about me & a few outdated web publishing tutorials), I registered it a few years ago to prevent some company from grabbing it up. MailBank already grabbed my last name dot com, so I was forced to grab the dot org of it and first + last dot com. Of course Donaghy is a rare name, and Smith is a common one, so there is more competition for smith names. I guess it is a case of who got there first.
It appears that the Linux community is reacting very quickly to this news. TriLUG is thinking VERY SERIOUSLY about holding one, and getting other lugs to help. Back before Red Hat held expo's #3,4,5, the LUG@NCSU (http://www.linux.ncsu.edu/) held them (#'s 1 & 2). Several of the LUG@NCSU people have moved to Red Hat (and some still attend our meetings).
The LUG @ NCSU might be interested in holding it. Theoretically we can get meeting space for the Expo as a student organization. I'll definitely bring it up at our meeting next Tuesday.
Trying to get our members to commit time to an expo would be an entirely different story. Most of us are way too busy as it is.
Even though Red Hat has ventured into other areas (compilers, embeded devices, credit card authorization, etc.), they are still a very strong Linux company.
The main reason that they are having to cancel it is because they haven't called for any papers yet, and 2.5 months just isn't enough time to organize an expo (at least like years past). Last year they were taking registrations & papers in November for a May/June expo.
It doesn't have to be sponsored by Red Hat. Linux Expo #'s 1 & 2 were sponsored by the LUG @ NCSU (I'm told). Members from the LUG back then now work for Red Hat, and Red Hat has been sponsoring it since.
I've heard something about the TriLUG wants to sponser some sort of Expo, but they will have to deal with time constraints if they want it to be this summer.
Also, in addition to the N&O article, the linuxexpo.org website confirms the story.
Third it gets them a lot of great press. People look at Ford differently 'cause they are doing something which is not blantantly in their self interets.
I'm glad to see a company trying to eliminate the "digital divide." While you and I have a computer and internet access, I'd imagine that most of Ford's assembly line workers don't have a computer. I think this is a great move, and I would hope to see other companies (including ones in other industries), especially ones that pay low wages, follow in Ford's footsteps.
The above script would probably be useful for most uses, but it still doesn't help when you issue the command from a different (/usr/local) dir than you *think* (/usr/local/prod-install-dir) you are in. Yes, this does happen on rare occurances (every 1.5 - 2 years) to very competent *nix people (as in last Friday night to me).
What would be nice would be for something to hold 'deleted' files from rm -rf on disk (unless partition is totally full) for a minute (to allow me to come to my senses) and then actually commit it to disk to the file system.
It has been a while since I saw the numbers (so no URL), but the USPS isn't as good as FedEx & UPS about getting the package there within the 'guaranteed' time specified. FedEx was in 1st place, UPS in a close 2nd, and the USPS was in third (I think it was their express mail), with a rather large percentage not arriving on time compared to FedEx & UPS.
Just think about if the telco was screening all phone calls to make sure that "bad" content wasn't on their network. There would be a loss of privacy. Plus I guess the phone bill would have to go up considerably to conver the cost of all that monitoring (just as if an ISP had to hire staff to monitor content on their servers).
I'm glad the courts ruled the way they did in this case.
Slashdot Mirror
Someone at /. just changed the article to one that had better English. Don't know where the old one went.
Of course I'm in RTP, NC which has more high-tech companies than I care to count. If you aren't willing to relocate, then I guess I could see a problem starting to develop.
Of course, if companies want people badly enough, they'll give them OJT.
I'll mention that I've been very satisfied with AT&T MasterCard (www.att.com/ucs). They have current charges & past bills (PDF, html tables, & proprietary formats for Windows based financial packages) online to view. I personally have it setup to ACH draft my checking account when I go online & click pay, but they also have a feature where they will automatically draft some or all of the balance on a day that you specify every month. I'm a very satisfied customer [and they aren't afraid to issue a chargeback on bad merchants either :) ].
I haven't even finished with my second year of college, but I get calls from employers & head hunters several times a week. Too bad for them, I end up turning down 98-99% of their inquiries (I tend to read them as an "almost certain offer"). There are numerous companies that want me to quit school & work for them FT, but they just don't seem to understand that I want to finish my education first. Most of them have difficulty reading the "Available for employment [date]" part of my resume.
I'd agree that the geographic area that you are in has something to do with the number of calls, but there are so many companies that want you to relocate.
Even though I haven't read the article because the server is slashdotted...
I'll agree that there is a shortage of *qualified & cheap* IT people. What can you expect after these mega corporations go through "corporate downsizing"? The ironic part is that several companies that laid people off have recently rehired them -- at twice to 4x what they were being originally paid.
Corporations don't, but the monopoly known as the government does. The problem is that "big" corporations now think they can act like the government and force their every wish down on individuals.
I don't think it is right, but it *is* happening, if we like it or not.
I once worked for a ISP (we didn't do design, just hosting). I happen to know that it took a notable percentage of customers over a year to get a production level site (beyond a 'comming soon...' page) that describes their company / N.P. organization. I would say that taking 2 years to get up a site is long, but not totally out of the question. Granted, if you put your mind to it, a month, week, or even an hour can produce a half-way decent site, but the last time I checked, nothing says you have to instantly publish a website for a domain you registered. I know several people just use a domain for e-mail only & have no web service. It is possible, but unlikely that the guy in question might want to answer e-mails about cocaine.
Another relevant question is how much content has to be on a web site before it is classified as utilized? One, five, twenty, 100, 1000 pages? I don't see how you can make a clear definition of what consitutes using a web site. Is static content sufficient, or is dynamic also required? Each person / corporation has a different level that that want to [spend to / have time to] utilize internet technologies.
Even though I don't use my website for commerce (I do have a resume & other stuff about me & a few outdated web publishing tutorials), I registered it a few years ago to prevent some company from grabbing it up. MailBank already grabbed my last name dot com, so I was forced to grab the dot org of it and first + last dot com. Of course Donaghy is a rare name, and Smith is a common one, so there is more competition for smith names. I guess it is a case of who got there first.
Can a US court judgement really apply over country lines???
Donnie Barnes, a founding member of the LUG @ NCSU which hosted the first two Expos has posted an explanation on the Linux Expo website.
Also, the Linux Expo has joined forces with Atlanta Linux Showcase.
It appears that the Linux community is reacting very quickly to this news. TriLUG is thinking VERY SERIOUSLY about holding one, and getting other lugs to help. Back before Red Hat held expo's #3,4,5, the LUG@NCSU (http://www.linux.ncsu.edu/) held them (#'s 1 & 2). Several of the LUG@NCSU people have moved to Red Hat (and some still attend our meetings).
The LUG @ NCSU might be interested in holding it. Theoretically we can get meeting space for the Expo as a student organization. I'll definitely bring it up at our meeting next Tuesday.
Trying to get our members to commit time to an expo would be an entirely different story. Most of us are way too busy as it is.
Webmaster - http://www.linux.ncsu.edu/
Even though Red Hat has ventured into other areas (compilers, embeded devices, credit card authorization, etc.), they are still a very strong Linux company.
The main reason that they are having to cancel it is because they haven't called for any papers yet, and 2.5 months just isn't enough time to organize an expo (at least like years past). Last year they were taking registrations & papers in November for a May/June expo.
It doesn't have to be sponsored by Red Hat. Linux Expo #'s 1 & 2 were sponsored by the LUG @ NCSU (I'm told). Members from the LUG back then now work for Red Hat, and Red Hat has been sponsoring it since.
I've heard something about the TriLUG wants to sponser some sort of Expo, but they will have to deal with time constraints if they want it to be this summer.
Also, in addition to the N&O article, the linuxexpo.org website confirms the story.
I was talking to one of their admins tonight, and the site should be getting a hardware upgrade soon.
Most of slashdot is archived, so it doesn't take a suponea to get at the contents of slashdot.
/. were recently entered into court in the whole DeCSS/MPAA/DMCA mess.
IIRC, comments on
I'm glad to see a company trying to eliminate the "digital divide." While you and I have a computer and internet access, I'd imagine that most of Ford's assembly line workers don't have a computer. I think this is a great move, and I would hope to see other companies (including ones in other industries), especially ones that pay low wages, follow in Ford's footsteps.
[NOTE: This is not a flame.]
The above script would probably be useful for most uses, but it still doesn't help when you issue the command from a different (/usr/local) dir than you *think* (/usr/local/prod-install-dir) you are in. Yes, this does happen on rare occurances (every 1.5 - 2 years) to very competent *nix people (as in last Friday night to me).
What would be nice would be for something to hold 'deleted' files from rm -rf on disk (unless partition is totally full) for a minute (to allow me to come to my senses) and then actually commit it to disk to the file system.
It has been a while since I saw the numbers (so no URL), but the USPS isn't as good as FedEx & UPS about getting the package there within the 'guaranteed' time specified. FedEx was in 1st place, UPS in a close 2nd, and the USPS was in third (I think it was their express mail), with a rather large percentage not arriving on time compared to FedEx & UPS.
They have been allocated shares by an underwriter...at least that is my understanding.
Just think about if the telco was screening all phone calls to make sure that "bad" content wasn't on their network. There would be a loss of privacy. Plus I guess the phone bill would have to go up considerably to conver the cost of all that monitoring (just as if an ISP had to hire staff to monitor content on their servers).
I'm glad the courts ruled the way they did in this case.