If it were truely worth my time... Two weeks ago I started working at a small office as a consultant. No IT staff had ever been employed there. Amazingly enough they have a database application running, exchange email, a 28.8k dialup shared over 25 users, and a 56k WAN connection to another company. Problem 1 - "my email doesn't get delivered" Hello - you're on the damn near every Open Relay list. Even at 28.8k, as an open relay, they were sending thousands of junkmails every hour. Yes, the problem is fixed now, but several years as an open relay, man, they've had serious theft of service issues. Its a DAMN good thing they didn't have a faster connection! Probably not worth it to attempt to sue for $30/month over x # of years....
I'm now 27, working for a CLEC in the network department. I make great money and love my work. I'm getting married soon to a non-geek who loves me anyway (whee!). While my life could certainly have been easier, I feel that all my experiences have helped me become a better person.
Coming into high school I had two suicide attempts under my belt and a whole lot of rage. From my memories of High School, it was a pretty terrible place, which only had two redeeming qualities. 1) A gifted education program 2) An incredible humanities course (studying mythology, religions, relaxation, music, etc.)
I was able to get a few friends and be excited about learning through the Gifted program. Two years after I graduated, the Gifted program was dropped and all funding and teachers for this program was re-distributed to Special Ed (learning diabilities and the like). I was (around my sophomore/junior years) able to stay on somewhat of an even keel through some of the ideas I picked up in humanities class. My favorite memory of the course is sitting in the planetarium with a nice starshow going and listening to the Moody Blues "In Search of the Lost Chord". Getting into the idea of something bigger really helped me be comfortable turning inward for strength. I believe these classes were recently canceled for having no "scholastic content". School systems are going downhill all around us.
Now I feel very strong in my sense of self, and have had success professionally. I see some of those popular people sometimes when I go visit relatives...working in a factory, working in the 7-11, managing the pizza shop, struggling to get by. Not that these are unneccesary jobs, but I know they are not satisfying in the long run to most people. I know that what I do effects millions of people, and I'm working on systems that are moving the world in the "wired" direction. I still long for more education, not for the school, but for the knowledge. Socially, I still am not in with the in crowd, but I don't particularly care most of the time. Geeks - stay alive. Stay strong inside. Get online and find others. Get some facetime. Know that you can succeed.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought it was a fax machine. I've actually seen and used the model which they destroy at the end of the movie. Typical fax machine, it sucks ;)
If it were truely worth my time...
Two weeks ago I started working at a small office as a consultant. No IT staff had ever been employed there. Amazingly enough they have a database application running, exchange email, a 28.8k dialup shared over 25 users, and a 56k WAN connection to another company.
Problem 1 - "my email doesn't get delivered"
Hello - you're on the damn near every Open Relay list.
Even at 28.8k, as an open relay, they were sending thousands of junkmails every hour.
Yes, the problem is fixed now, but several years as an open relay, man, they've had serious theft of service issues. Its a DAMN good thing they didn't have a faster connection!
Probably not worth it to attempt to sue for $30/month over x # of years....
I'm now 27, working for a CLEC in the network department. I make great money and love my work. I'm getting married soon to a non-geek who loves me anyway (whee!). While my life could certainly have been easier, I feel that all my experiences have helped me become a better person.
Coming into high school I had two suicide attempts under my belt and a whole lot of rage. From my memories of High School, it was a pretty terrible place, which only had two redeeming qualities.
1) A gifted education program
2) An incredible humanities course (studying mythology, religions, relaxation, music, etc.)
I was able to get a few friends and be excited about learning through the Gifted program. Two years after I graduated, the Gifted program was dropped and all funding and teachers for this program was re-distributed to Special Ed (learning diabilities and the like).
I was (around my sophomore/junior years) able to stay on somewhat of an even keel through some of the ideas I picked up in humanities class. My favorite memory of the course is sitting in the planetarium with a nice starshow going and listening to the Moody Blues "In Search of the Lost Chord". Getting into the idea of something bigger really helped me be comfortable turning inward for strength. I believe these classes were recently canceled for having no "scholastic content". School systems are going downhill all around us.
Now I feel very strong in my sense of self, and have had success professionally. I see some of those popular people sometimes when I go visit relatives...working in a factory, working in the 7-11, managing the pizza shop, struggling to get by. Not that these are unneccesary jobs, but I know they are not satisfying in the long run to most people. I know that what I do effects millions of people, and I'm working on systems that are moving the world in the "wired" direction.
I still long for more education, not for the school, but for the knowledge. Socially, I still am not in with the in crowd, but I don't particularly care most of the time.
Geeks - stay alive. Stay strong inside. Get online and find others. Get some facetime. Know that you can succeed.