Truly "advanced" courses are hard to come by, because of limited appeal and other factors. The further you go into something the more inevitable specialization becomes, so it's not just a matter of offering one course for the tenth-of-a-percent of the market who's even heard of the Linux Kernel, but in all likelihood offering half a dozen ranging from security to device drivers to assembler optimization and so on. (and I'm just guessing here, knowing next to nothing about the kernel myself)
My suggestion would be to find someone who's pretty savvy in the area you're aimed at, and hire him or her (OK, let's face it, "him"...) for some lessons. Keep in mind that a good programmer is not the same as a good teacher, but if you find someone who can explain things the way you need to hear them then you won't need that many lessons to make a lot of progress - the cost could very well end up in the same league as a commercially-vended course.
I'm just guessing that finding a kernel guru willing to give up a month of Saturday afternoons at $300 a session will be easier than finding "Linux Kernel for Experts" at the downtown Learning Annex.
0. Tweaking IRQs on PC clones to let soundcards work with any other card 1. Knowing how to drop certain types of home comupter to re-seat the chips 2. Inserting 64k RAM chips with your bare hands to expand memory 3. Cutting a notch in 5-1/4" floppies to use the other side 4. Adjusting graphics by hand to NTSC-legal colors for decent video output 5. Editing config.sys to push drivers into HIMEM in order to free up memory 6. Crimping your own RJ45 connectors to save money 7. PEEK and POKE locations to do cool stuff on the Commodore 64 8. Manually configuring a SLIP connection to connect to the Internet (in pre-Winsock days) 9. Removing adjectives and punctuation from code comments to fit into 1k of RAM
I'm not sure if there's a book or a class that will truly help more than a few in your position. It takes work, time, and honest self-evaluation, not a tutorial. (although for all I know, mentoring from a more experienced person might be the best way of all - sadly, I never came across anyone in a technically-oriented position who wasn't as least as bad as me)
What about your social circle - are they all techies or do you spend time with folks outside your area of expertise? How do you talk to them? I cultivate and maintain friendships with people as different from me as I can find, just to try and keep my sense of perspective pried open a tad, because I've learned that without constant work my worldview shrinks to a sliver pointed straight back into my own head...
Keep the other person's viewpoint in mind, and if you don't know what it is, ask them. Feel free to admit that you may need help in crafting your answer in a way that will help them solve the problem, because in all probability you're used to looking at things on an entirely different level. Encourage them to ask questions for anything they don't feel clear about. Encourage them strongly - lots of people are hesitant to question someone they view as an "expert" and will put the blame on themselves for not understanding.
Some people seem to be born with effortless social skills; the rest of us either have to invest a lot of work, or live with a language barrier between us and our colleagues. Keep at it. Give it a few years. And in between talking to people, think back over past conversations and try to use the wisdom of hindsight to decide how you could've handled them better.
> Broadband is more expensive here than in other nations, as well, > almost 10 times as expensive by some estimates.
I've paid $15/mo for 1.5kbps+ DSL in Los Angeles, for years - you mean to tell me that there's a country where it's *even cheaper*??
In Australia at least, it's definitely not cheaper - worse, they have data caps everywhere. Just a few gigs a month can cost $40-$60, after which you're summarily knocked back to less-than-dialup speeds. And as far as we've been able to ascertain (trying to get broadband for the in-laws), there are NO unlimited-data plans offered by anyone.
I don't dispute that the US lags in many aspects of Internet services, but cost isn't necessarily one of them.
I think HAL 9000, Colossus and Skynet are all eerily accurate depictions of the future of computing, each in its own way. The fact that all 3 movies seriously overestimated the rate of progress in technology can be excused by the fact that no one could have anticipated Microsoft slapping a parking brake on the industry for the past ~30 years.
Someone in Hollywood knows they'll be the death of us all - and I, for one, welcome our new silicon overlords...
Years ago I was a field service tech, repairing PCs and laser printers for an office equipment reseller who was the dominant player in the region. One year-end meeting it was jubilantly announced that our department (16 guys) had produced more than $2,000,000 in PROFIT for the year - in gratitude, they gave us each 2 free movie passes.
(And believe me, that's just the tip of the iceberg with them...)
For years I held a job as the database administrator of a national charity. The database was central to their fundraising efforts, and the charity was dedicated to causes I (and I think most people) believe in. I was not fully qualified for the job - I did my best and learned a lot, but in my time I made some mistakes that probably pissed off a number of donors. I feel bad about them to this day, even though I told them they really needed someone better-trained.
(in the past I made mistakes due to being underqualified, as a database admin for a private company, but I didn't feel so guilty - I was up-front about needing training which they never provided, so not listening to me only affected their bottom-line...)
But more recently I've been employed by that same charity for a job I AM qualified to do - and yet not being allowed to do my job fully. Just for one of several examples, I tell them repeatedly that I need help testing various aspects of the software; many incidents from the past point to the fact that I'm too close to the software to catch everything by myself. They ignore me and publish unready software, the results gained by which can actually affect people's lives.
They're my best employer but I'm having a hard time taking money when - well, where ARE the ethical lines here?
(and yeah, I get employed at jobs above my training level now and then; sue me for being good at job interviews!)
> The laws will make it illegal to modchip a console, to hack a DVD player to make it multi-region,
So if I, hypothetically mind you, recently helped my Aussie in-laws to find the region unlock code on their DVD remote so they could watch some shows which were legally purchased (and only available) in America, then if/when this law passes will they get sent to Gitmo??
> my understanding that filtering alcohol in this manner basically ruins the filter in just 1-2 passes
Not in my experience. I replaced the filters every couple months, and this was for a gang that went through at least 3 liters/week (avg 2 filtration passes for each bottle). They seemed work just as well at the end of the cycle as at the beginning - and believe me, the cheap stuff we started with will burn nasal passages from across the room, so it's NOT a subtle effect!
YMMV, and I'm not affiliated with anyone, I just knew a lot of thrifty drinkers when I lived in Hollywood...
Charcoal filters like Brita can turn a $9 big bottle of rotgut into something respectably drinkable (mixed) in 2 passes, and another couple runs will give you a result that most people can't tell from name brand. Brita filters are rated to deliver drinking water to a family of 4 for months; unless you drink that much booze (and if you do, I probably know you personally) the cost of cartridges will be a rounding error compared to what you save.
It doesn't filter the alcohol to any significant degree; I base that on common sense more than chemistry. Most vodka is 40% alcohol - if the filters captured very much of it, you'd get noticably less liquid in the final result!
I've tried this in the past... I had experience, credentials, references, tools and people skills. I was in a densely-populated area (upscale suburban/professional) and had several existing (happy) customers, mostly from my former office job. I built a reasonably slick website with advice from a pal in marketing, and made sure it got on all the search engines - local and global. I printed up cards and flyers, and pounded pavement distributing same.
I didn't have up-front money for real advertising. I got zero new customers.
I ended up with a pizza delivery job - steady income, sometimes free food, and no more watching Windows reboot all day.
We're in Australia staying at my brother-in-law's house for awhile. He has cable modem service (Optus) and after a few days of using a Slingbox to get our Stewart/Colbert fix from back in the USA, we've maxed out his monthly allowance! Yes, there seems to be no such thing as "unlimited" broadband here. Both DSL and cable are sold on tiered plans with a maximum download amount, beyond which you get clamped to below-dialup speeds... And the prices? Back in California we got unlimited 1.5mbps DSL for USD$13/mo (with a choice of providers) - our host is paying AU$50 for 2 gigs/month max download, and the top-end plan is $80 for 20 gigs! DSL's not a lot better, from our research. Maybe that's why almost nobody seems to have heard of BitTorrent hereabouts?
> Something is seriously wrong with your ears if you can't hear artifacts in 96kbps MP3
There's a big difference between "can't hear artifacts" and "don't give a flying fig about 'em"... the words and melodies are the same, why not just relax a little!
For years I've subscribed to 'Science News', a slim weekly publication with wonderfully concise articles covering most if not all branches of science. They've been publishing since 1921 and are pretty highly regarded in the industry. It's written for the scientist who wants to keep up on what's going on outside their specialty, or anyone educated enough to not need the lowest-common-denominator language required by the mass media outlets. They have a website at http://www.sciencenews.org/ but I find the paper version worthwhile to have in my car so I can skim a few paragraphs at stoplights, or while otherwise stuck in traffic...
On the one hand, Windows is at most a couple hundred bucks, and pretty much works for millions of people (like it or not)... Linux is FREE, and also pretty much works for most of the rest.
Microsoft has spent umpty-billions trying to make something everyone's happy with. IBM, Sun, Novell and many others have spent more billions trying to perfect another family of approaches - with no small level of success. I simply don't see a niche for an "ad-supported" operating system. What possible effort will $2-$20 of revenue per seat fund, in terms of obvious and tangible improvements over either of the existing alternatives?? (I'm not even bothering to mention MacOS or a slew of other worthy contenders)
Advertising can work to support websites, browsers, games, even productivity apps - but even a numbskull marketing nitwit has to understand that the OS market is already well served.
> I guess I have to disagree. TV sucks way more today than ever before IMO and I'm only 20.
May I respectfully suggest, it's just barely possible you lack a sense of historical perspective here... the only TV you see from "before your time" are the shows which were popular enough to survive into syndication in the first place. TV has always sucked just about the same, at any given point in time, because it's always been created the same sorts of people aiming at the same goals.
And it's not all bad - there've always been gems waiting to be found if you're willing to dig deep enough. It's just that the older you get, the more time you gotta spend digging...
TV is, by and large, advertiser funded. Advertisers like to aim at youthful people who are thought to be more easily influenced by their messages. Advertisers therefore gravitate towards shows aimed for the 18-34 segment. And mmost movies are aimed at younger audiences who have the spare time and money and freedom to actually go to them.
If you find yourself saying "Gee, TV sure is bad these days" then there's a fair chance you celebrated your 35th birthday recently... TV is the same as it's always been, you've just outgrown a lot of it.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing - except to add that if VMware isn't available or usable, do what I used to do years ago and simply make a copy of the base install on a separate partition. Leave the user with a DOS (this was Win9x days) batch file which will copy everything back over in the event of an otherwise-unrecoverable problem, and make sure they never use C:\ to store documents.
But if VMware, or better still Linux of one form or other, is an option then by all means go with what the other posters in this thread have said, there's good advice here.
The problem only arises if you assume that people give honest answers because if they don't, it's as hard as keeping track of multiple passwords for every site. Each one has different question lists, after all, and the answers to some questions can change over the years (before I came up with my own scheme below, I set up an account with "Best Friend's Last Name" as the question - she's now my wife, so her last name is different... but when I infrequently have to log in, I have to think back to when I signed up to realize, it was around the time we first met!
My approach makes this a nonissue. (this is not quite my real method, but parallel) I just pick a question and set the answer as "I can't remember". Give the same answer every time, who cares what the question is, but don't make it something real. "Huh?" is good too, or "42".
Comedian Eugene Mirman has a funny bit about this authentication scheme - his credit card company let him choose a question, so he made them ask him "What are you wearing?" and he has to answer, "That's highly inappropriate!"...
> I don't think this is a discovery of any sort.. I think it is just a guy > bragging that he had a nice audience at some conference for which he gave > a presentation regarding the non-zero energy of empty space
But did you see the parts where he mentioned Stephen Hawking was there?
From what I read, apparently Stephen Hawking was there.
I think it depends on who you want to go work for - and that, in turn, can be influenced by your people skills. I think for a lot of white collar jobs, any halfway bright person can become a success if it's something they're interested enough to work at, so you already have that covered by making a goal of something you like. The real catch is, of course, getting hired.
If you consider yourself someone who can function well in a job interview, then IMHO the specifics of your credentials matter less. Aim for a smaller company, use your degree to get your foot in the door and then impress the person interviewing you with your dedication and flexibility. Larger companies, however, will have HR departments and resume screening processes - you won't even have a human laying eyes on your name if you don't have exactly the right degree, but if you DO, then the foot in the door is all you need - you'll be interviewed by an HR droid, who is not competent to judge your technical skills and is probably just trying to make sure you're not some kind of freak before rubber-stamping your way into the headcount.
Of course, these are generalizations. My point is, don't just envision what field you want to work in, try to picture what sort of environment (megacorp, 3-man shop, contractor, government?) you might thrive in. Being 'well prepared' means different things with different employers.
> Also also, call around to local charities, political groups > with whom you agree, and other similar operations. See if > you can identify ways their operation could be streamlined,
I think that's a very narrow view of your options. Don't limit yourself! You could find a charity or political group with whom you DISagree, and subtly sabotage them... THERE'S your motivation!
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Can I moderate just the last paragraph of the parent comment "insightful"? The rest of it was OK too, but I liked the last bit particularly.
Truly "advanced" courses are hard to come by, because of limited appeal and other factors. The further you go into something the more inevitable specialization becomes, so it's not just a matter of offering one course for the tenth-of-a-percent of the market who's even heard of the Linux Kernel, but in all likelihood offering half a dozen ranging from security to device drivers to assembler optimization and so on. (and I'm just guessing here, knowing next to nothing about the kernel myself)
My suggestion would be to find someone who's pretty savvy in the area you're aimed at, and hire him or her (OK, let's face it, "him"...) for some lessons. Keep in mind that a good programmer is not the same as a good teacher, but if you find someone who can explain things the way you need to hear them then you won't need that many lessons to make a lot of progress - the cost could very well end up in the same league as a commercially-vended course.
I'm just guessing that finding a kernel guru willing to give up a month of Saturday afternoons at $300 a session will be easier than finding "Linux Kernel for Experts" at the downtown Learning Annex.
0. Tweaking IRQs on PC clones to let soundcards work with any other card
1. Knowing how to drop certain types of home comupter to re-seat the chips
2. Inserting 64k RAM chips with your bare hands to expand memory
3. Cutting a notch in 5-1/4" floppies to use the other side
4. Adjusting graphics by hand to NTSC-legal colors for decent video output
5. Editing config.sys to push drivers into HIMEM in order to free up memory
6. Crimping your own RJ45 connectors to save money
7. PEEK and POKE locations to do cool stuff on the Commodore 64
8. Manually configuring a SLIP connection to connect to the Internet (in pre-Winsock days)
9. Removing adjectives and punctuation from code comments to fit into 1k of RAM
I'm not sure if there's a book or a class that will truly help more than a few in your position. It takes work, time, and honest self-evaluation, not a tutorial. (although for all I know, mentoring from a more experienced person might be the best way of all - sadly, I never came across anyone in a technically-oriented position who wasn't as least as bad as me)
What about your social circle - are they all techies or do you spend time with folks outside your area of expertise? How do you talk to them? I cultivate and maintain friendships with people as different from me as I can find, just to try and keep my sense of perspective pried open a tad, because I've learned that without constant work my worldview shrinks to a sliver pointed straight back into my own head...
Keep the other person's viewpoint in mind, and if you don't know what it is, ask them. Feel free to admit that you may need help in crafting your answer in a way that will help them solve the problem, because in all probability you're used to looking at things on an entirely different level. Encourage them to ask questions for anything they don't feel clear about. Encourage them strongly - lots of people are hesitant to question someone they view as an "expert" and will put the blame on themselves for not understanding.
Some people seem to be born with effortless social skills; the rest of us either have to invest a lot of work, or live with a language barrier between us and our colleagues. Keep at it. Give it a few years. And in between talking to people, think back over past conversations and try to use the wisdom of hindsight to decide how you could've handled them better.
> Broadband is more expensive here than in other nations, as well,
> almost 10 times as expensive by some estimates.
I've paid $15/mo for 1.5kbps+ DSL in Los Angeles, for years - you mean to tell me that there's a country where it's *even cheaper*??
In Australia at least, it's definitely not cheaper - worse, they have data caps everywhere. Just a few gigs a month can cost $40-$60, after which you're summarily knocked back to less-than-dialup speeds. And as far as we've been able to ascertain (trying to get broadband for the in-laws), there are NO unlimited-data plans offered by anyone.
I don't dispute that the US lags in many aspects of Internet services, but cost isn't necessarily one of them.
I think HAL 9000, Colossus and Skynet are all eerily accurate depictions of the future of computing, each in its own way. The fact that all 3 movies seriously overestimated the rate of progress in technology can be excused by the fact that no one could have anticipated Microsoft slapping a parking brake on the industry for the past ~30 years.
Someone in Hollywood knows they'll be the death of us all - and I, for one, welcome our new silicon overlords...
Years ago I was a field service tech, repairing PCs and laser printers for an office equipment reseller who was the dominant player in the region. One year-end meeting it was jubilantly announced that our department (16 guys) had produced more than $2,000,000 in PROFIT for the year - in gratitude, they gave us each 2 free movie passes.
(And believe me, that's just the tip of the iceberg with them...)
For years I held a job as the database administrator of a national charity. The database was central to their fundraising efforts, and the charity was dedicated to causes I (and I think most people) believe in. I was not fully qualified for the job - I did my best and learned a lot, but in my time I made some mistakes that probably pissed off a number of donors. I feel bad about them to this day, even though I told them they really needed someone better-trained.
(in the past I made mistakes due to being underqualified, as a database admin for a private company, but I didn't feel so guilty - I was up-front about needing training which they never provided, so not listening to me only affected their bottom-line...)
But more recently I've been employed by that same charity for a job I AM qualified to do - and yet not being allowed to do my job fully. Just for one of several examples, I tell them repeatedly that I need help testing various aspects of the software; many incidents from the past point to the fact that I'm too close to the software to catch everything by myself. They ignore me and publish unready software, the results gained by which can actually affect people's lives.
They're my best employer but I'm having a hard time taking money when - well, where ARE the ethical lines here?
(and yeah, I get employed at jobs above my training level now and then; sue me for being good at job interviews!)
> The laws will make it illegal to modchip a console, to hack a DVD player to make it multi-region,
So if I, hypothetically mind you, recently helped my Aussie in-laws to find the region unlock code on their DVD remote so they could watch some shows which were legally purchased (and only available) in America, then if/when this law passes will they get sent to Gitmo??
> my understanding that filtering alcohol in this manner basically ruins the filter in just 1-2 passes
Not in my experience. I replaced the filters every couple months, and this was for a gang that went through at least 3 liters/week (avg 2 filtration passes for each bottle). They seemed work just as well at the end of the cycle as at the beginning - and believe me, the cheap stuff we started with will burn nasal passages from across the room, so it's NOT a subtle effect!
YMMV, and I'm not affiliated with anyone, I just knew a lot of thrifty drinkers when I lived in Hollywood...
Charcoal filters like Brita can turn a $9 big bottle of rotgut into something respectably drinkable (mixed) in 2 passes, and another couple runs will give you a result that most people can't tell from name brand. Brita filters are rated to deliver drinking water to a family of 4 for months; unless you drink that much booze (and if you do, I probably know you personally) the cost of cartridges will be a rounding error compared to what you save.
It doesn't filter the alcohol to any significant degree; I base that on common sense more than chemistry. Most vodka is 40% alcohol - if the filters captured very much of it, you'd get noticably less liquid in the final result!
I've tried this in the past... I had experience, credentials, references, tools and people skills. I was in a densely-populated area (upscale suburban/professional) and had several existing (happy) customers, mostly from my former office job. I built a reasonably slick website with advice from a pal in marketing, and made sure it got on all the search engines - local and global. I printed up cards and flyers, and pounded pavement distributing same.
I didn't have up-front money for real advertising. I got zero new customers.
I ended up with a pizza delivery job - steady income, sometimes free food, and no more watching Windows reboot all day.
Moral of story: have flexible goals...
> There is no spec, no design document, and no way to confirm any given feature. What do you do?
Check off "Tuesday" on the wall calendar, because this means it's time to go ask why my paycheck is late again.
We're in Australia staying at my brother-in-law's house for awhile. He has cable modem service (Optus) and after a few days of using a Slingbox to get our Stewart/Colbert fix from back in the USA, we've maxed out his monthly allowance! Yes, there seems to be no such thing as "unlimited" broadband here. Both DSL and cable are sold on tiered plans with a maximum download amount, beyond which you get clamped to below-dialup speeds... And the prices? Back in California we got unlimited 1.5mbps DSL for USD$13/mo (with a choice of providers) - our host is paying AU$50 for 2 gigs/month max download, and the top-end plan is $80 for 20 gigs! DSL's not a lot better, from our research. Maybe that's why almost nobody seems to have heard of BitTorrent hereabouts?
> Something is seriously wrong with your ears if you can't hear artifacts in 96kbps MP3
There's a big difference between "can't hear artifacts" and "don't give a flying fig about 'em"... the words and melodies are the same, why not just relax a little!
For years I've subscribed to 'Science News', a slim weekly publication with wonderfully concise articles covering most if not all branches of science. They've been publishing since 1921 and are pretty highly regarded in the industry. It's written for the scientist who wants to keep up on what's going on outside their specialty, or anyone educated enough to not need the lowest-common-denominator language required by the mass media outlets. They have a website at http://www.sciencenews.org/ but I find the paper version worthwhile to have in my car so I can skim a few paragraphs at stoplights, or while otherwise stuck in traffic...
On the one hand, Windows is at most a couple hundred bucks, and pretty much works for millions of people (like it or not)... Linux is FREE, and also pretty much works for most of the rest.
Microsoft has spent umpty-billions trying to make something everyone's happy with. IBM, Sun, Novell and many others have spent more billions trying to perfect another family of approaches - with no small level of success. I simply don't see a niche for an "ad-supported" operating system. What possible effort will $2-$20 of revenue per seat fund, in terms of obvious and tangible improvements over either of the existing alternatives?? (I'm not even bothering to mention MacOS or a slew of other worthy contenders)
Advertising can work to support websites, browsers, games, even productivity apps - but even a numbskull marketing nitwit has to understand that the OS market is already well served.
> If you're looking for a nice solid wood Spock, there is only The One choice: Keanu.
I dunno, this could be the role Hayden Christansen was born for! He could use BOTH of his facial expressions...
> I guess I have to disagree. TV sucks way more today than ever before IMO and I'm only 20.
May I respectfully suggest, it's just barely possible you lack a sense of historical perspective here... the only TV you see from "before your time" are the shows which were popular enough to survive into syndication in the first place. TV has always sucked just about the same, at any given point in time, because it's always been created the same sorts of people aiming at the same goals.
And it's not all bad - there've always been gems waiting to be found if you're willing to dig deep enough. It's just that the older you get, the more time you gotta spend digging...
TV is, by and large, advertiser funded. Advertisers like to aim at youthful people who are thought to be more easily influenced by their messages. Advertisers therefore gravitate towards shows aimed for the 18-34 segment. And mmost movies are aimed at younger audiences who have the spare time and money and freedom to actually go to them.
If you find yourself saying "Gee, TV sure is bad these days" then there's a fair chance you celebrated your 35th birthday recently... TV is the same as it's always been, you've just outgrown a lot of it.
Also see Sturgeon's law.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing - except to add that if VMware isn't available or usable, do what I used to do years ago and simply make a copy of the base install on a separate partition. Leave the user with a DOS (this was Win9x days) batch file which will copy everything back over in the event of an otherwise-unrecoverable problem, and make sure they never use C:\ to store documents.
But if VMware, or better still Linux of one form or other, is an option then by all means go with what the other posters in this thread have said, there's good advice here.
The problem only arises if you assume that people give honest answers because if they don't, it's as hard as keeping track of multiple passwords for every site. Each one has different question lists, after all, and the answers to some questions can change over the years (before I came up with my own scheme below, I set up an account with "Best Friend's Last Name" as the question - she's now my wife, so her last name is different... but when I infrequently have to log in, I have to think back to when I signed up to realize, it was around the time we first met!
My approach makes this a nonissue. (this is not quite my real method, but parallel) I just pick a question and set the answer as "I can't remember". Give the same answer every time, who cares what the question is, but don't make it something real. "Huh?" is good too, or "42".
Comedian Eugene Mirman has a funny bit about this authentication scheme - his credit card company let him choose a question, so he made them ask him "What are you wearing?" and he has to answer, "That's highly inappropriate!"...
> I don't think this is a discovery of any sort.. I think it is just a guy
> bragging that he had a nice audience at some conference for which he gave
> a presentation regarding the non-zero energy of empty space
But did you see the parts where he mentioned Stephen Hawking was there?
From what I read, apparently Stephen Hawking was there.
I think it depends on who you want to go work for - and that, in turn, can be influenced by your people skills. I think for a lot of white collar jobs, any halfway bright person can become a success if it's something they're interested enough to work at, so you already have that covered by making a goal of something you like. The real catch is, of course, getting hired.
If you consider yourself someone who can function well in a job interview, then IMHO the specifics of your credentials matter less. Aim for a smaller company, use your degree to get your foot in the door and then impress the person interviewing you with your dedication and flexibility. Larger companies, however, will have HR departments and resume screening processes - you won't even have a human laying eyes on your name if you don't have exactly the right degree, but if you DO, then the foot in the door is all you need - you'll be interviewed by an HR droid, who is not competent to judge your technical skills and is probably just trying to make sure you're not some kind of freak before rubber-stamping your way into the headcount.
Of course, these are generalizations. My point is, don't just envision what field you want to work in, try to picture what sort of environment (megacorp, 3-man shop, contractor, government?) you might thrive in. Being 'well prepared' means different things with different employers.
> Also also, call around to local charities, political groups
> with whom you agree, and other similar operations. See if
> you can identify ways their operation could be streamlined,
I think that's a very narrow view of your options. Don't limit yourself! You could find a charity or political group with whom you DISagree, and subtly sabotage them... THERE'S your motivation!