If you've ever spent a lot of time in a hospital bed, anything to get your mind off the pain and boredom is a godsend. If this brings some happiness to some sick kids and lets them escape from their misery, I don't see anything frivolous about it.
Well, how often do you compile your code? Say it takes 30 seconds to compile some code... and you compile 100 times per day. That's 50 minutes per day that you're just waiting around. Say you bought a faster box that could compile that code in 10 seconds.
You just saved yourself 33 minutes per day. I don't think that would help you get out of the office any faster, but at least you'd get more done in the same amount of time.
One of my favorite sites for finding deals is Got Apex. He scours the net every day for bargains, usually on computer and A/V equipment. I have found some incredible deals from this page. It is updated frequently and worth checking out daily.
(I'm not associated in any way with the site, blah blah...)
Being young is sometimes an advantage in IT work. We don't have family obligations, so we can work long hours (not true in your specific case though). Your skills are more current than many of the older people. Your brain is younger and faster. You've grown up immersed in the technology and your mind has been shaped to be comfortable around it. The amount of caffeine you ingest before lunch would give most oldsters instant cardiac arrest.
Most older people (35+) are cool, and will recognize your greater talent so long as you don't try to disregard their greater experience. In other words, let them tell you what the goals are, and they'll let you tell them how they can best be reached. But some people will resent you... ex: where I work there's this one old asshole. His skills have not been current for 20 years, so he can't really do anything besides lecture people. Every chance he gets, he's trying to dominate or patronize the younger guys. Alernatively disparaging their abilities or giving them wise (bullshit) advice. Since this guy has no social skills, he is not a manager (he can't fire anyone). But maybe you have become a victim of a similar guy.
You can try to go to "Mr. Asshole"'s boss and formally ask for a resolution. Maybe you can get reassigned to an area where you won't be under Mr. Asshole anymore. When your boss hates you, there's not a lot you can do. You've just got to remove yourself from the situation, either by switching bosses or switching companies. Remember, if Mr. Asshole had the power to unilaterally fire you, he would have done it already. If you can't make a lateral transition into another job, then your choice becomes simple. Keep doing good work, hang on until the economy gets better, and then ditch that company. From this point forward, you should be saving all the cash you can and be mentally ready to quit at any time. In your exit interview, make sure you mention you're leaving because of Mr. Asshole. (Don't excessively disparage him, because that is unprofessional.) Good luck...
Does anyone know if it is safe to expose this technology to strong magnetic fields or X-rays? I'm especially worried about airport X-ray machines. I've noticed now that they want to X-ray your keyring, mobile phone, sometimes even your shoes. I can just picture myself trying to convince some airport security drone that my USBDrive isn't a weapon. I'm worried they might even try to confiscate it.
Actually, all that junk mail is the reason why a first-class stamp isn't $1.00. Unsolicited bulk mailers pay a lot of the USPS's operating costs, otherwise you and I would be paying. I'm not trying to justify trash mail, but that is an upside. Some uses for junk mail:
Line a birdcage, or put it on the floor for your dog when you can't let him out
Use it for packing material when you ship holiday gifts
Kindling for the fireplace
If all else fails, make sure it goes in the recycle bin
So many ivory tower software architects sneer at anyone who would consider scrapping an entire codebase and starting from scratch. He appears to be one of these but he slightly redeems himself towards the end. I've only had to do it one time, when there were several factors working against the old code:
Written in Java but worked only on NT platform
Tightly bound to Microsoft Access, no clear line between business logic and database tier
Burned RAM at a rate of 5MB per day, even more if you actually used it during that time. (This app was meant to be high availability)
It was the product of 1 developer working without consistent peer review or any process whatsoever
When the guy gave notice they tried to make him document but he never came close to finishing
EVERYONE who worked with that code wanted it redone. I was brought on to lead the effort. We rewrote the whole thing except some gui components. We were able to shrink the LOC in most modules by at least half. In one case I reduced a class from 4000 LOC to 200 simply by taking advantage of preexisting APIs. Redevelopment is sometimes the best solution.
I'm in Phoenix & I have Cox@Home. What I've found is that about a week before the shutdown, my bandwidth reduced by about 3/4ths. Then it went down completely Friday night and came back up Saturday afternoon. My bandwitdh still sucks though (60-70kB max). Unless I'm on very early in the morning, then it's OK (200-300KB). I'm willing to bet that Excite is running at reduced capacity. Either that or everyone is frantically downloading pr0n and warez to tide them over during a potential shutdown.:)
Funny you should mention exotic drugs. I went to a Microsoft conference once and they gave me a shot like you describe. I don't really remember what they talked about at the conference, but I sure love COM now! Just yesterday a guy was talking about RMI and CORBA and I beat the hell out of him!!! COM IS LOVE!!!!
If you have an account with a national ISP (Earthlink, etc), you can 'roam'... Find out the local access number for where you'll be staying and just log on the same way you would at home.
So it's not broadband, so what... do you really need to be downloading warez and pr0n on your vacation anyway? I guess this advice is also not much help if you're going international. And many hotels do charge you by the minute for local calls. But if you need to get online, that's a way to do it.
I am an American who has travelled internationally quite a lot on business... I can vouch for what 02n has to say about foreign women. If you are a young American guy who travels overseas (especially Asia), you will score beyond your wildest dreams.
In America, we treat our women better than just about anyplace else, and yet so many of them are emotionally volatile, manipulative bitches*. In many countries men beating their women is the norm. If you give a woman from that culture a bouquet of flowers, smile a lot, and hold the door open for her, her panties will just about fall off right there. LOL
*I think a lot of American women are great and I have had the pleasure of dating more than a few of them.
One time a good friend and co-worker for 1 year asked me to come work on a project with him, where he was the resident ubergeek. I jumped at the chance because of our friendship and the great work experience. I was there for 1 month and then he quit to go work at a startup, leaving me to maintain his undocumented and poorly designed code. It turned out he just needed someone who could replace him so he could quit with a clear conscience. It was kind of a suck-ass thing to do because he didn't tell me that was his plan. I'm not too mad though because now I am the ubergeek around here. You have to be careful because even your friends will backstab you if there is a monetary incentive. Having friends in the workplace can become a conflict of interest rather easily.
BTW this was 6 months ago. My 'friend' now does not talk to me. I was friends with his wife too and she doesn't talk to me either. I also redesigned and reimplemented the entire application, so there is no evidence he ever worked here. There are 60% fewer LOC in the new version with all the same features plus some. I also heard he is working 80 hour weeks at his new job. Muhahahaha!!!!!!
Virtual reality is not as good as real reality. In order for VR to succeed, we should either find a way to make VR better, or start making real reality worse. Much more progress in the latter unfortunately.
The following is a radio transmission from the future, accidently trapped in a stray tachyon beam.
Larry Ellison: Houston, this is the Space Shuttle Ellison, we're coming in for a landing. Houston: That's a negative, Ellison. Maintain low earth orbit and wait for landing clearance. Unknown: Greetings to planet Earth. We come in peace from a planet light years away from your Earth. We have come to bring peace to all, cures to all your diseases, and share all our advanced technology with you. Houston: Unknown craft, you are clear to land. Welcome to earth! Ellison: Fuck that, I'm a billionaire!! I'm landing first!! Houston: Ellison, watch your flight path! NOOOO!!! KABOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!
It CAN work, if you get speedy help when you need to do something that requires admin rights. It's only a nuisance in that case. If you can't get good support, you've effectively crippled your developers. Where I work, developers aren't granted administrator privileges to their Windows machines. The support staff is also horrible, they take 2 or 3 days before resolving your issue. So what you do is this... call out the support tech and tell him you want to install some software. When he is doing it, get him away from the computer and set yourself up with another account that has administrator rights. Then when he finishes the install and logs out, you can log back in as your new administrator account, and give your old account admin rights too.
The 4th Amendment only protects you from the government. If your company wants to search your bag to allow you access to THEIR property, then they are well within their rights. There are three things you can do:
1) Put up with it. Where I work they do the same thing. So the security guard gets to see my sweaty workout clothes. Big deal.
2) Try to change the system.
3) Quit.
I think #1 is the most reasonable choice. If they start doing body cavity searches, then by all means, investigate #2 and #3!
Slashdot Mirror
and in one instance, porn
How much extra do they charge for pre-loaded porn?
If you've ever spent a lot of time in a hospital bed, anything to get your mind off the pain and boredom is a godsend. If this brings some happiness to some sick kids and lets them escape from their misery, I don't see anything frivolous about it.
You just saved yourself 33 minutes per day. I don't think that would help you get out of the office any faster, but at least you'd get more done in the same amount of time.
(I'm not associated in any way with the site, blah blah...)
There's pr0n on page 01111.
Most older people (35+) are cool, and will recognize your greater talent so long as you don't try to disregard their greater experience. In other words, let them tell you what the goals are, and they'll let you tell them how they can best be reached. But some people will resent you... ex: where I work there's this one old asshole. His skills have not been current for 20 years, so he can't really do anything besides lecture people. Every chance he gets, he's trying to dominate or patronize the younger guys. Alernatively disparaging their abilities or giving them wise (bullshit) advice. Since this guy has no social skills, he is not a manager (he can't fire anyone). But maybe you have become a victim of a similar guy.
You can try to go to "Mr. Asshole"'s boss and formally ask for a resolution. Maybe you can get reassigned to an area where you won't be under Mr. Asshole anymore. When your boss hates you, there's not a lot you can do. You've just got to remove yourself from the situation, either by switching bosses or switching companies. Remember, if Mr. Asshole had the power to unilaterally fire you, he would have done it already. If you can't make a lateral transition into another job, then your choice becomes simple. Keep doing good work, hang on until the economy gets better, and then ditch that company. From this point forward, you should be saving all the cash you can and be mentally ready to quit at any time. In your exit interview, make sure you mention you're leaving because of Mr. Asshole. (Don't excessively disparage him, because that is unprofessional.) Good luck...
Does anyone know if it is safe to expose this technology to strong magnetic fields or X-rays? I'm especially worried about airport X-ray machines. I've noticed now that they want to X-ray your keyring, mobile phone, sometimes even your shoes. I can just picture myself trying to convince some airport security drone that my USBDrive isn't a weapon. I'm worried they might even try to confiscate it.
EVERYONE who worked with that code wanted it redone. I was brought on to lead the effort. We rewrote the whole thing except some gui components. We were able to shrink the LOC in most modules by at least half. In one case I reduced a class from 4000 LOC to 200 simply by taking advantage of preexisting APIs. Redevelopment is sometimes the best solution.
To eat sushi -- that is the law!!
I'm in Phoenix & I have Cox@Home. What I've found is that about a week before the shutdown, my bandwidth reduced by about 3/4ths. Then it went down completely Friday night and came back up Saturday afternoon. My bandwitdh still sucks though (60-70kB max). Unless I'm on very early in the morning, then it's OK (200-300KB). I'm willing to bet that Excite is running at reduced capacity. Either that or everyone is frantically downloading pr0n and warez to tide them over during a potential shutdown. :)
Funny you should mention exotic drugs. I went to a Microsoft conference once and they gave me a shot like you describe. I don't really remember what they talked about at the conference, but I sure love COM now! Just yesterday a guy was talking about RMI and CORBA and I beat the hell out of him!!! COM IS LOVE!!!!
It was probably the goatse.cx guy with Mickey Mouse ears Photoshopped in for effect.
So it's not broadband, so what... do you really need to be downloading warez and pr0n on your vacation anyway? I guess this advice is also not much help if you're going international. And many hotels do charge you by the minute for local calls. But if you need to get online, that's a way to do it.
In America, we treat our women better than just about anyplace else, and yet so many of them are emotionally volatile, manipulative bitches*. In many countries men beating their women is the norm. If you give a woman from that culture a bouquet of flowers, smile a lot, and hold the door open for her, her panties will just about fall off right there. LOL
*I think a lot of American women are great and I have had the pleasure of dating more than a few of them.
BTW this was 6 months ago. My 'friend' now does not talk to me. I was friends with his wife too and she doesn't talk to me either. I also redesigned and reimplemented the entire application, so there is no evidence he ever worked here. There are 60% fewer LOC in the new version with all the same features plus some. I also heard he is working 80 hour weeks at his new job. Muhahahaha!!!!!!
Somebody mod this to Troll, PLEASE!!!!!!
Virtual reality is not as good as real reality. In order for VR to succeed, we should either find a way to make VR better, or start making real reality worse. Much more progress in the latter unfortunately.
Larry Ellison: Houston, this is the Space Shuttle Ellison, we're coming in for a landing.
Houston: That's a negative, Ellison. Maintain low earth orbit and wait for landing clearance.
Unknown: Greetings to planet Earth. We come in peace from a planet light years away from your Earth. We have come to bring peace to all, cures to all your diseases, and share all our advanced technology with you.
Houston: Unknown craft, you are clear to land. Welcome to earth!
Ellison: Fuck that, I'm a billionaire!! I'm landing first!!
Houston: Ellison, watch your flight path! NOOOO!!! KABOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!
[End of transmission]
It CAN work, if you get speedy help when you need to do something that requires admin rights. It's only a nuisance in that case. If you can't get good support, you've effectively crippled your developers. Where I work, developers aren't granted administrator privileges to their Windows machines. The support staff is also horrible, they take 2 or 3 days before resolving your issue. So what you do is this... call out the support tech and tell him you want to install some software. When he is doing it, get him away from the computer and set yourself up with another account that has administrator rights. Then when he finishes the install and logs out, you can log back in as your new administrator account, and give your old account admin rights too.
1) Put up with it. Where I work they do the same thing. So the security guard gets to see my sweaty workout clothes. Big deal. 2) Try to change the system. 3) Quit. I think #1 is the most reasonable choice. If they start doing body cavity searches, then by all means, investigate #2 and #3!
Will our intelligent creations love us? Will they be grateful to us for their existence? Do we love our creator? Are we grateful to him/her/it?