When I get a call from a "collection agency" like that, I tell them that I don't have any records of that debt and ask them to send me documentation about it showing that I made the purchase, etc. I've yet to receive any. Maybe if they sent things certified mail I'd actually receive it because it sure seems like a lot of my regular mail gets "lost".
No, I'm not misinformed. What's an "open airway"? No such thing. MURS is indeed license-free and used by businesses, but ever local mall around here has a valid FCC license for at least one repeater with multiple "mobile" stations.
If the owner of a wireless transceiver, a radio if you will, doesn't want to let that device communicate then they bear the burden of making it not communicate. If they leave it in a mode that allows any public access over frequencies that belong to the public-at-large then they bear the responsibility.
Are you smoking super double-stupid crack today? If any entity, from a police department to a mall cleaning crew, has a radio system then the public isn't free to just use it. That's punishable by law. Even ham radio repeaters can be "closed" and then if people access them without permission it's intentional interference and can result in fines.
...cuts and bruises trying to take that beast apart...
I swear I found unofficial instructions for opening my vintage PowerMac that involved sitting on the floor and using your feet to push the outer case while you used both hands to squeeze flaps and pull the chassis out of the case.
I regularly use Knoppix or another live CD system with a flash card. I might write a file to the flash 10 times on a busy day. I could probably get 10 years out of a modern flash card at that pace. Now granted, my primary system at home and work have several large hard drives, but I get a lot done on systems that don't have a hard drive spun up at all.
Most users just don't need to write local files that often. They email, chat, and browse the web. Sometimes they install a free game or a whole lot of malware. I regularly fix my neighbors old laptops and the two times when I've needed to reformat or replace a hard drive, they said there wasn't anything important on it.
If it took anyone more than $5,000 to repair the "damage" someone did, it is also a Federal felony if the computers were connected to the internet. Mandatory minimum of six months imprisonment and I believe due to the PATRIOT Act, they take your DNA and keep it in the antiterrorist files.
Keep in mind that a lot of job listings are B.S. anyways. They list incredibly specific skillsets so very few people are actually qualified. Why? So they can continue to employ the guy on the H1B visa that already has that job. Why else would you see a job listing for a mainframe CICS C++ programmer that knows web design?
Not a geek joke, but when we had our last kid, whenever someone in the office asked me this, I'd start "Well, that's a long story..." The faces I got were great.
Almost as good as when people found out we were expecting:
"Congratulations!"
"What?"
"I hear your wife is pregnant."
My wife didn't think it was funny.
"Yeah and if I catch the son-of-a-bitch..."
I almost always "install" things to my palm by copying them to the SD card. The only times I actually need the Palm Desktop or an alternative is when the software vendor absolutely forces me into that.
Ditto. I would view anyone as a novice if they didn't have 2-3 years experience working on one project. I've had enough of hotshot-sounding guys that worked 6 months here, 6 months there, whether it's for a contracting company or project-hopping at a big company. If they don't have experience living with the impact of their decisions, they can be worse than useless.
Hell, that's half my career right there: figuring out what some hotshot did while making a "simple" change that broke something else. Why am I so good at it? Because I spent the first half of my career making those same mistakes and having to eventually figure out the consequences.
I work with about 50 IS/IT people now and I don't think a single one of them have a tattoo that's normally visible. I'm not aware of anyone having piercings other than the women having the two "normal" ear studs. There's not a single person that dresses much different than "business casual". In fact, the one guy that tends to wear tshirts during the week is ridiculed behind his back, but that's more for his B.O. than the shirt style. Otherwise the most unprofessional is our middle-aged head marketing skank that wears way-too-short skirts.
Keep a feature list on a big whiteboard. Every time you get another side project or support issue, cross a feature off of the list for the next release.
My company is down to about 100 people, 50 in the main office. We have three full-time IT staff (not counting a mainframe guy and a DBA) and they're swamped. One of those spends about 50% of his time on network issues (well, maybe 30% network and 20% voice-over-ip phones).
Sounded pretty lame. Not to thread-hijack, but I've heard of better "corporate" Penn & Teller work. Like the time they came to I think a Pixar meeting and Penn chugged a bottle of Listerine.
In the real world the Java platform is just as complicated as any other. We have plenty of Java apps that need to be tweaked for the different app servers and VMs they run on. The only things Java really buys us over C++ is:
some better stability given the same mediocre programming skill level
don't have to wrestle with 8 different compiler and linkers
only have to compile and package a single package for all the platforms (realistically, we have 3 different Java packages per release)
Re:cubicle? wish I had one of those..
on
Cubicle Privacy
·
· Score: 1
I have cubes, but we only have three walls and two of those are shaped so it's easy for people to hang over the wall and talk to you. Sheer hell. So I hung a whiteboard on one so you can't see or hang on it. I stacked stuff in the way so they can't walk up to the other wall. I arrange dead machines on the desk and floor to reduce standing and sitting space in my "cube" so when I get a vistor, he's not very comfortable.
The worst is that I have a small table right outside my cube. The first time we had all the salesguys in for training, two of them decided to have a conference about 8 feet away from me. Now whenever I hear the salesguys are coming, I pile that table with binders and stuff and hide every single spare chair. Where do I hide the chairs? In one of the offices near me that are empty because the supposed occupants are billable at a customer probably 40 weeks of the year.
Slashdot Mirror
When I get a call from a "collection agency" like that, I tell them that I don't have any records of that debt and ask them to send me documentation about it showing that I made the purchase, etc. I've yet to receive any. Maybe if they sent things certified mail I'd actually receive it because it sure seems like a lot of my regular mail gets "lost".
No, I'm not misinformed. What's an "open airway"? No such thing. MURS is indeed license-free and used by businesses, but ever local mall around here has a valid FCC license for at least one repeater with multiple "mobile" stations.
Cool idea. So he won't mind when I start using his cordless phone base to make some local calls. Oh wait, that's illegal.
Are you smoking super double-stupid crack today? If any entity, from a police department to a mall cleaning crew, has a radio system then the public isn't free to just use it. That's punishable by law. Even ham radio repeaters can be "closed" and then if people access them without permission it's intentional interference and can result in fines.
I'm so sick of hearing you University of Georgia grads bragging about your college days.
I swear I found unofficial instructions for opening my vintage PowerMac that involved sitting on the floor and using your feet to push the outer case while you used both hands to squeeze flaps and pull the chassis out of the case.
One of the more interesting non-computer games I've seen lately is 1000 Blank White Cards.
Most users just don't need to write local files that often. They email, chat, and browse the web. Sometimes they install a free game or a whole lot of malware. I regularly fix my neighbors old laptops and the two times when I've needed to reformat or replace a hard drive, they said there wasn't anything important on it.
If it took anyone more than $5,000 to repair the "damage" someone did, it is also a Federal felony if the computers were connected to the internet. Mandatory minimum of six months imprisonment and I believe due to the PATRIOT Act, they take your DNA and keep it in the antiterrorist files.
Keep in mind that a lot of job listings are B.S. anyways. They list incredibly specific skillsets so very few people are actually qualified. Why? So they can continue to employ the guy on the H1B visa that already has that job. Why else would you see a job listing for a mainframe CICS C++ programmer that knows web design?
Not a geek joke, but when we had our last kid, whenever someone in the office asked me this, I'd start "Well, that's a long story..." The faces I got were great.
Almost as good as when people found out we were expecting:
"Congratulations!"
"What?"
"I hear your wife is pregnant."
My wife didn't think it was funny. "Yeah and if I catch the son-of-a-bitch..."
These two strings walk into a bar and sit down. The bartender says, "So what'll it be?"
The first string says, "I think I'll have a beer quag fulk boorg jdk^CjfdLk jk3s d#f67howe%^U r89nvy~~owmc63^Dz x.xvcu"
"Please excuse my friend," the second string says, "He isn't null-terminated."
I almost always "install" things to my palm by copying them to the SD card. The only times I actually need the Palm Desktop or an alternative is when the software vendor absolutely forces me into that.
The time to figure out what job to get is not the week before you graduate with a master's degree.
Hell, that's half my career right there: figuring out what some hotshot did while making a "simple" change that broke something else. Why am I so good at it? Because I spent the first half of my career making those same mistakes and having to eventually figure out the consequences.
Even Tom's...? Pretty funny considering SlashDot is linking to it.
And unlike Disney DVDs, you can skip the 13 minutes of commercials at the beginning.
Or if you live in Canada and have an unlimited supply of ice, just buy a read-made evaporative cooler from Wal-Mart.
I work with about 50 IS/IT people now and I don't think a single one of them have a tattoo that's normally visible. I'm not aware of anyone having piercings other than the women having the two "normal" ear studs. There's not a single person that dresses much different than "business casual". In fact, the one guy that tends to wear tshirts during the week is ridiculed behind his back, but that's more for his B.O. than the shirt style. Otherwise the most unprofessional is our middle-aged head marketing skank that wears way-too-short skirts.
Keep a feature list on a big whiteboard. Every time you get another side project or support issue, cross a feature off of the list for the next release.
My company is down to about 100 people, 50 in the main office. We have three full-time IT staff (not counting a mainframe guy and a DBA) and they're swamped. One of those spends about 50% of his time on network issues (well, maybe 30% network and 20% voice-over-ip phones).
Sounded pretty lame. Not to thread-hijack, but I've heard of better "corporate" Penn & Teller work. Like the time they came to I think a Pixar meeting and Penn chugged a bottle of Listerine.
We need Netflix for books. I'd use it. Heck, I'd probably buy (keep) a lot of them.
The worst is that I have a small table right outside my cube. The first time we had all the salesguys in for training, two of them decided to have a conference about 8 feet away from me. Now whenever I hear the salesguys are coming, I pile that table with binders and stuff and hide every single spare chair. Where do I hide the chairs? In one of the offices near me that are empty because the supposed occupants are billable at a customer probably 40 weeks of the year.
I hate my job.