a local high school has a very accomplished station that plays only PSA's and occasional news headlines.
five minutes of "normal" radio is enough to make my ears bleed.
i pledge their annual fund drive, which i guess is my "subscription" charge. but somehow, when you give it willingly instead of it being ripped from your grasp (ala cable/sat TV) it is easier and feels good.
doesn't mean there aren't times when i'd rather build my own mix on a portable/desktop player. but having people who like the same kind(s) of music you do finding new stuff and sharing it with you is what, i think, radio is supposed to be about, whatever the format.
but even on credit cards they don't require a signature. barista swipes your card, gives it back to you, here's your receipt, have a nice day. i'm sure there's a cap, but coffee and a scone (est. $9) isn't enough to flag it.
maybe there are other merchants doing this, but this is the first large-scale policy i've encountered.
i could use anybody's card i wanted to buy coffee...
what sucks is when you're one of the unlucky ones who chose your field because you liked it, at the same time that everyone else chose it too, and when there were more graduates then jobs you're the one left without the good career...
the whole thing is pretty transparent, really. just another avenue to promote WMA, ActiveX, even IE as the 'standard' in each of their markets. same thing Apple's trying to do with AAC and the iPod. and Real with RM. let the mud fly...
funny how much this whole things starts to remind me of the hoohah we're put thru every four years in november...
put some sticky felt on the bottom of those old 3.5's and set your drink on them. if you actually still use floppies for real data... well, i can no longer hang out with you... but also, you should mark the ones that are for drinks (write COASTER on them with a sharpie) so drinks don't end up on the real ones. my roommates lost some homework this way after i spread felt-coated floppies all over the apartment's flat surfaces. haha... serves them right for not getting a flash drive or something...
perhaps much of what is frustrating about IT right now is that many of us feel we can't look elsewhere, cause there's nowhere to look! surrounded by unemployed techie friends and fellow undervalued IT people, it's difficult to keep confident that there's something better out there to be found. rather, we cling to the job we do have and hope fervently that it doesn't go away on short notice - hating the place despite needing it.
when i was 15 and workin at pizza hut, low responsibility contributed to low stress, but even more so the knowledge that * i didn't need them * as much as they needed me, that i could turn around and have a job at safeway just as easily should i tire of pepperoni and garlic bread.
now in my late 20's, feeling lucky to have a job even remotely IT-related, could i relocate if i wanted to? perhaps... perhaps not. i may spend another year working out of the industry before something else came along. therein lies the stress... not just that the job doesn't make you happy, but that creeping feeling that you can't leave and will be trapped there forever - that's what brings you down.
you are so right about that, life and success are only what you make of them!
at the same time, i'm still wondering if i'm making the right life for myself? sure, i love to write code, but three years out of college and i still haven't found a way to do it for money other than the occasional side job.
maybe i would have loved being a doctor or an astronaut or (gasp) a lawyer just as much, had i gone that route instead. it's one thing to scratch out a living while i'm young - but someday, i might want a 9-5 that i enjoy and that allows me a future, a good retirement, a pleasant life.
and it doesn't help to be in the top 1% of your class if you can't get any work experience and no one wants bright people who wasted their college years getting dumb ol' computer science degrees...;)
hear that - all i really want is for the phone to *work* most of the time, and some way to keep the address book current with all the other address books floating around (palm, powerbook, webmail, post-its on my desk). i use text messaging a lot, that's pretty neato. the rest of it, forget it.
is anyone really going to carry around a digital camera attachment for their phone so they can send pictures/video to their *one* other friend who can see them? don't think so. i want my phone *smaller* and with *less* loose parts to break off or lose.
my phone's like my wallet - goes everywhere with me. gets dropped. scratched. beat up. tossed in the backseat. sat on. <sarcasm>i know, let's put some sensitive video hardware and a *glass lens* in there! yeah!</sarcasm>:p
c'mere, sprint! i'll give ya some PieCeS of this Vision!
well, in seattle at least, it'll be hydro power, as we have that coming out our ears here. washington's been exporting hydro power to other states for years...
so unless you count the salmon, it should be fairly impact-free;)
i've got a box at "public storage" for extra household junk, christmas lights, the styrofoam that my tv came in... all sorts of good crap. it's a big wooden crate stacked up in a climate-controlled, secure warehouse. i have the padlock key that locks it up - i mailed the other to my sister, and keep an unmarked spare. plus i need to present my id each time. i can have access to it on a few hours notice 6 days a week. since i already had it, seemed like a good place for backups.
i chose CD-R, cause (a) they're cheap enough that i don't feel guilty backing up *everything* (b) i burn a new one each time, and keep the old ones in there, in case the august file is corrupt, the july one might not be, etc. (c) they're not that big, and file nicely. (d) if you buy decent ones, they have a good shelf life.
one other note of offsite storage - a disk cataloger app, so i can figure out what i've got in storage *before* i go down there!
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe Sage should ship with Mozilla by default?
a local high school has a very accomplished station that plays only PSA's and occasional news headlines.
five minutes of "normal" radio is enough to make my ears bleed.
i pledge their annual fund drive, which i guess is my "subscription" charge. but somehow, when you give it willingly instead of it being ripped from your grasp (ala cable/sat TV) it is easier and feels good.
doesn't mean there aren't times when i'd rather build my own mix on a portable/desktop player. but having people who like the same kind(s) of music you do finding new stuff and sharing it with you is what, i think, radio is supposed to be about, whatever the format.
a time-seed would (and probably does) work in itunes and the full-size ipods, tho.
maybe that's why the shuffle seems less "random" ?
but even on credit cards they don't require a signature. barista swipes your card, gives it back to you, here's your receipt, have a nice day. i'm sure there's a cap, but coffee and a scone (est. $9) isn't enough to flag it.
maybe there are other merchants doing this, but this is the first large-scale policy i've encountered.
i could use anybody's card i wanted to buy coffee...
last couple times i've been in a theater and the ad runs, the whole crowd laughs together - the ad alone is enough to get everyone going.
no kidding. the more our "freedom" progresses around here the more i think about exporting myself to another country.
and how exactly does one get a job as a professional if they've never used the professional tools? think PE looks good on your design resume? haha
http://www.tshirtjunkie.com/
what sucks is when you're one of the unlucky ones who chose your field because you liked it, at the same time that everyone else chose it too, and when there were more graduates then jobs you're the one left without the good career...
or with hot wet garbage on a summer day.
the whole thing is pretty transparent, really. just another avenue to promote WMA, ActiveX, even IE as the 'standard' in each of their markets. same thing Apple's trying to do with AAC and the iPod. and Real with RM. let the mud fly...
funny how much this whole things starts to remind me of the hoohah we're put thru every four years in november...
put some sticky felt on the bottom of those old 3.5's and set your drink on them. if you actually still use floppies for real data ... well, i can no longer hang out with you... but also, you should mark the ones that are for drinks (write COASTER on them with a sharpie) so drinks don't end up on the real ones. my roommates lost some homework this way after i spread felt-coated floppies all over the apartment's flat surfaces. haha... serves them right for not getting a flash drive or something...
unfortunately, what percentage of software out there was actually designed with this ideal in mind?
(well, 5.8*10^12 lines of open source code on sourceforge, 9.6*10^15 lines of code in longhorn... you do the math)
being an idealist is very frustrating in an un-ideal world...
perhaps much of what is frustrating about IT right now is that many of us feel we can't look elsewhere, cause there's nowhere to look! surrounded by unemployed techie friends and fellow undervalued IT people, it's difficult to keep confident that there's something better out there to be found. rather, we cling to the job we do have and hope fervently that it doesn't go away on short notice - hating the place despite needing it.
when i was 15 and workin at pizza hut, low responsibility contributed to low stress, but even more so the knowledge that * i didn't need them * as much as they needed me, that i could turn around and have a job at safeway just as easily should i tire of pepperoni and garlic bread.
now in my late 20's, feeling lucky to have a job even remotely IT-related, could i relocate if i wanted to? perhaps... perhaps not. i may spend another year working out of the industry before something else came along. therein lies the stress... not just that the job doesn't make you happy, but that creeping feeling that you can't leave and will be trapped there forever - that's what brings you down.
you are so right about that, life and success are only what you make of them!
;)
at the same time, i'm still wondering if i'm making the right life for myself? sure, i love to write code, but three years out of college and i still haven't found a way to do it for money other than the occasional side job.
maybe i would have loved being a doctor or an astronaut or (gasp) a lawyer just as much, had i gone that route instead. it's one thing to scratch out a living while i'm young - but someday, i might want a 9-5 that i enjoy and that allows me a future, a good retirement, a pleasant life.
and it doesn't help to be in the top 1% of your class if you can't get any work experience and no one wants bright people who wasted their college years getting dumb ol' computer science degrees...
not sure if i should laugh or cry at the inane-ness. sigh...
hear that - all i really want is for the phone to *work* most of the time, and some way to keep the address book current with all the other address books floating around (palm, powerbook, webmail, post-its on my desk). i use text messaging a lot, that's pretty neato. the rest of it, forget it.
:p
is anyone really going to carry around a digital camera attachment for their phone so they can send pictures/video to their *one* other friend who can see them? don't think so. i want my phone *smaller* and with *less* loose parts to break off or lose.
my phone's like my wallet - goes everywhere with me. gets dropped. scratched. beat up. tossed in the backseat. sat on. <sarcasm>i know, let's put some sensitive video hardware and a *glass lens* in there! yeah!</sarcasm>
c'mere, sprint! i'll give ya some PieCeS of this Vision!
well, in seattle at least, it'll be hydro power, as we have that coming out our ears here. washington's been exporting hydro power to other states for years...
;)
so unless you count the salmon, it should be fairly impact-free
i've got a box at "public storage" for extra household junk, christmas lights, the styrofoam that my tv came in... all sorts of good crap. it's a big wooden crate stacked up in a climate-controlled, secure warehouse. i have the padlock key that locks it up - i mailed the other to my sister, and keep an unmarked spare. plus i need to present my id each time. i can have access to it on a few hours notice 6 days a week. since i already had it, seemed like a good place for backups.
i chose CD-R, cause
(a) they're cheap enough that i don't feel guilty backing up *everything*
(b) i burn a new one each time, and keep the old ones in there, in case the august file is corrupt, the july one might not be, etc.
(c) they're not that big, and file nicely.
(d) if you buy decent ones, they have a good shelf life.
one other note of offsite storage - a disk cataloger app, so i can figure out what i've got in storage *before* i go down there!