Re:A Recommendation to Submitters
on
IMSAI Series Two
·
· Score: 1
I know you think you're being cool and all by using acronyms that only you and a few of your friends are familiar with...
Hey yeah. What's with this PHP crap and P2P blech and Warcraft eye-eye-eye? Or this Linux thing? Why can't you cliquish geeks fill us drooling morons in?
...I have yet to get a single interview, despite many carefully written letters and resume submissions to job postings.
Give up on job postings. I have never gotten a job from a listing like that. Every IT job I've ever found is through networking.
Talk to the people you worked with during your co-op. Talk to other students. Talk to professionals at your local ACM/IEEE meetings. Everyone you know should know that you are looking. Put a sign on your car. Whatever it takes.
Any geek working in long-haul trucking has got to get into ham radio, both the localish VHF/UHF stuff and long-distance HF. I know of several guys that have worked Japan and other DX sites (voice and code) while driving.
Best Jon Katz ever!
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Is is just me, or is this the best Jon Katz story ever? I know that's not saying much, but this is the first one in 6 months that I have actually read beyond the preview text.
, RIAA would have us all believe that 90% or more are used to copy CDs.
Between my wife and I, we've burned at least 400 CD-Rs in the past couple years. I don't think more than 10 were audio CDs. (As an aside, I think we've bought about 20 music CDs in the past 2 years.) And I know at work we go through a 100-pack about every two weeks and none of those hold audio. Hillarious use of stats there Hilary.
I'd love to see someone build a package that guts WinNT (or 2000/XP) of the GUI stuff and runs X on top of their kernel. The only real use would be to piss on their legal arguments.
Whenever I ran into problems with our BOFH-type network admins, I got a professor to poke them. They didn't like it when they got a call from the department chair. It interrupted their 16-hour-a-day IRC/MUD sessions, but I didn't give a crap. I had work to do.
So what the hell really happened with Dave Trampier? Somewhere I still have a freakish flame letter from him because my brother wanted his money back for the Wormy compilation he failed to produce. Did the dude go into the rubber room for a couple years or what?
In general, the stuff produced in the late 80s and early 90s is pretty valuable. Nobody was buying it then, so there are less copies in circulation. The combined modules from this period, like A1-4, I3-5, T1-4, and GDQ1-7 go for $40-80. Some stuff is valued in odd ways. For example, H1 (Something Bloodstone) tends to sell for at least $50. It was a blah Battlesystem module, but it was for high level characters. Somehow that has translated into a high perceived value, so people pay a lot for it.
The old favorites are still valuable, like the Dieties and Demigods with Elric, the original D&D boxed set, and the RPGA modules.
What's suprised me is that miniatures are worth quite a bit. I keep expecting to find a good deal on someone's box full of half painted figures, but they tend to sell for $2+ each, even in bulk.
I had a boss that would never e-mail me about anything important. Anything that could come back to bite him in the ass was done in person or over the phone, never in writing. Learned a lot from that jackass.
I also have always kept replicated copies of all my work e-mail. Want to see my boss from 4 years ago telling me to forge timesheets to bill more hours to a certain customer? It's in there. Want to see a pornographic joke from half my coworkers? I've got them.
Cover your own ass. I assure you that your bosses are covering theirs.
I'll be sure to think of how horrible and inferior Microsoft is while I'm rebuilding my kernal and half my apps over the next few days. (Not to mention the fact that I still have OpenSSH on remote machines that need patching). Meanwhile, my wife hits Windows update every day and gets fresh binary patches with little effort.
I still remember Usenet threads like this back when he started what became Netscape. Fascinating to go back and see the mindset at the time.
Re:The Real Problem With Cheap Laptops
on
Low-end Laptops?
·
· Score: 2
Take the pack to a local battery specialty shop. If you can't find one, ask around anyone that uses a lot of portable radios (law enforcement, fire, power company, ham radio, scanner buffs, etc.) They'll know someone that refurbs battery packs.
When I was working on my PhD in Computer Science, one faculty opening at a smaller state school had 70 applicants. A faculty opening at our large state research school had over 300 applicants. The market is tough, but it can be done. If you want to go to a research school, it's all about publications and grant possibilities.
If you can show a breadth of research in your field, you'll boost your chances.
I saw the review process when we hired faculty. Most applicants had one research idea, which had been fed to them by their advisor. The best applicants had several viable (fundable) research ideas to pursue.
This was posted on some crypto/compression list awhile back about compressing totally random data. The guy was able to do so by underspecification of the problem.
If I recall, the guy asked if he could break the compressed data into several files as long as their total file size was smaller than the uncompressed data. Sure, said the judge. So he broke the data into thousands of files and used the "free" storage from the filenames to end up with a smaller total file size than the uncompressed data.
It'd be nice if AMD would make it easy to do this. I'd love to have a little applet that I could use to toggle my CPU between underclocked with the fan shut off and full speed with the fan going full blast. Bring back the TURBO switch!
Absolutely. I've been semi-independant for over a year and a half now. I bill most of my hours to one company where I used to be an employee. Now when they reorganize every 2 months, I barely even notice, especially since I work from home.
They still change direction every month, but since my tasks change every 3 days I don't even realize that they had a direction picked out. On a hectic week I work with three programming languages on two different platforms.
They've had a freeze on spending for almost a year now. People have to fight like dogs to get RAM upgrades. In the meantime, I'm running twice the memory of most of their developers and just dropped a DVD-ROM into my main desktop. Now when I'm on a conference call (with my muted speakerphone), I can watch my latest Netflix arrival.
I do miss the vacations. I'm too cheap to give up the pay. I'm also working longer hours. I used to feel free to take my kid to the zoo or go ride my bike in the middle of the day, but lately I feel like I have to keep 8-5 hours plus the 2-3 hours I work at night to make up for time wasted on Slashdot and stuff. It's sad because when I was an employee I didn't even feel guilty about only doing 4 productive hours a day.
Slashdot Mirror
I know you think you're being cool and all by using acronyms that only you and a few of your friends are familiar with...
Hey yeah. What's with this PHP crap and P2P blech and Warcraft eye-eye-eye? Or this Linux thing? Why can't you cliquish geeks fill us drooling morons in?
Now, the first Unix I ever knew is about to be no more.
Ironically, the first Unix I ever used was Microsoft Xenix on the 68000 Tandy.
Give up on job postings. I have never gotten a job from a listing like that. Every IT job I've ever found is through networking.
Talk to the people you worked with during your co-op. Talk to other students. Talk to professionals at your local ACM/IEEE meetings. Everyone you know should know that you are looking. Put a sign on your car. Whatever it takes.
Any geek working in long-haul trucking has got to get into ham radio, both the localish VHF/UHF stuff and long-distance HF. I know of several guys that have worked Japan and other DX sites (voice and code) while driving.
Is is just me, or is this the best Jon Katz story ever? I know that's not saying much, but this is the first one in 6 months that I have actually read beyond the preview text.
Don't forget to mount a scratch monkey.
Then you can run the Basilisk II Mac emulator and have the fastest compact Mac.
, RIAA would have us all believe that 90% or more are used to copy CDs.
Between my wife and I, we've burned at least 400 CD-Rs in the past couple years. I don't think more than 10 were audio CDs. (As an aside, I think we've bought about 20 music CDs in the past 2 years.) And I know at work we go through a 100-pack about every two weeks and none of those hold audio. Hillarious use of stats there Hilary.
I'd love to see someone build a package that guts WinNT (or 2000/XP) of the GUI stuff and runs X on top of their kernel. The only real use would be to piss on their legal arguments.
If you can bring back A/UX, you can bring back the eMate. Build me $500 ruggedized laptop (no moving parts) with a couple of compact flash slots.
This is soooo offtopic, but that seems to be the way this story is going. If you enjoy this guys letters, they remind me of The Filthy Critic.
They do if you fold them.
There's a different between being in great shape and being a world class runner.
There's also a difference between running for sport and running because someone behind you is going to kill you.
Whenever I ran into problems with our BOFH-type network admins, I got a professor to poke them. They didn't like it when they got a call from the department chair. It interrupted their 16-hour-a-day IRC/MUD sessions, but I didn't give a crap. I had work to do.
So what the hell really happened with Dave Trampier? Somewhere I still have a freakish flame letter from him because my brother wanted his money back for the Wormy compilation he failed to produce. Did the dude go into the rubber room for a couple years or what?
In general, the stuff produced in the late 80s and early 90s is pretty valuable. Nobody was buying it then, so there are less copies in circulation. The combined modules from this period, like A1-4, I3-5, T1-4, and GDQ1-7 go for $40-80.
Some stuff is valued in odd ways. For example, H1 (Something Bloodstone) tends to sell for at least $50. It was a blah Battlesystem module, but it was for high level characters. Somehow that has translated into a high perceived value, so people pay a lot for it.
The old favorites are still valuable, like the Dieties and Demigods with Elric, the original D&D boxed set, and the RPGA modules.
What's suprised me is that miniatures are worth quite a bit. I keep expecting to find a good deal on someone's box full of half painted figures, but they tend to sell for $2+ each, even in bulk.
I also have always kept replicated copies of all my work e-mail. Want to see my boss from 4 years ago telling me to forge timesheets to bill more hours to a certain customer? It's in there. Want to see a pornographic joke from half my coworkers? I've got them.
Cover your own ass. I assure you that your bosses are covering theirs.
I'll be sure to think of how horrible and inferior Microsoft is while I'm rebuilding my kernal and half my apps over the next few days. (Not to mention the fact that I still have OpenSSH on remote machines that need patching). Meanwhile, my wife hits Windows update every day and gets fresh binary patches with little effort.
I still remember Usenet threads like this back when he started what became Netscape. Fascinating to go back and see the mindset at the time.
Take the pack to a local battery specialty shop. If you can't find one, ask around anyone that uses a lot of portable radios (law enforcement, fire, power company, ham radio, scanner buffs, etc.) They'll know someone that refurbs battery packs.
If you can show a breadth of research in your field, you'll boost your chances. I saw the review process when we hired faculty. Most applicants had one research idea, which had been fed to them by their advisor. The best applicants had several viable (fundable) research ideas to pursue.
This was posted on some crypto/compression list awhile back about compressing totally random data. The guy was able to do so by underspecification of the problem.
If I recall, the guy asked if he could break the compressed data into several files as long as their total file size was smaller than the uncompressed data. Sure, said the judge. So he broke the data into thousands of files and used the "free" storage from the filenames to end up with a smaller total file size than the uncompressed data.
It'd be nice if AMD would make it easy to do this. I'd love to have a little applet that I could use to toggle my CPU between underclocked with the fan shut off and full speed with the fan going full blast. Bring back the TURBO switch!
The transfer of hazardous waste is restricted by a 1989 treaty known as the Basel Convention, but the United States has not ratified it.
If we had signed it, we never would have gotten rid of Madonna.
They still change direction every month, but since my tasks change every 3 days I don't even realize that they had a direction picked out. On a hectic week I work with three programming languages on two different platforms.
They've had a freeze on spending for almost a year now. People have to fight like dogs to get RAM upgrades. In the meantime, I'm running twice the memory of most of their developers and just dropped a DVD-ROM into my main desktop. Now when I'm on a conference call (with my muted speakerphone), I can watch my latest Netflix arrival.
I do miss the vacations. I'm too cheap to give up the pay. I'm also working longer hours. I used to feel free to take my kid to the zoo or go ride my bike in the middle of the day, but lately I feel like I have to keep 8-5 hours plus the 2-3 hours I work at night to make up for time wasted on Slashdot and stuff. It's sad because when I was an employee I didn't even feel guilty about only doing 4 productive hours a day.