I've got two thirds of a Uni degree, but, when I first came to the UK, 2 years industry experience.
Had a job within 24 hours of first sending out my CV. That was a few years back.
I did have the advantage of having a valid work visa (due to ancestry). Plenty of places will go through the process of sponsoring you to get in to the country. The larger companies do it as a matter of course.
There's such a shortage of people over here that most places aren't too bothered about education - it's more about what you can do now. Also keep in mind a lot of places completely over-spec their requirements.
You could do worse than checking out the recently launched Industry Standard Europe or Business 2.0 UK - both have bucket loads of articles about the tech scene in Europe (from a business point of view, primarily, but it's good to know the financial health of where you're planning on moving to, right?).
You would be suprised on the number of people on continental Europe who speak english, although the French are particularly full-on about maintaining french as the primary language within their country (see earlier/. stories about the French govt. banning english-esque net-related words), so it might be harder to get in without half-decent French.
When I was in Berlin, I don't recall meeting one person who couldn't speak english... The homeless beggers even spoke english. Multi-lingual beggers. I was impressed.
As someone else mentioned, the UK has a massive shortage of tech people with half a clue. Providing you play by the immigration rules, you should have no trouble getting sponsored, assuming you find someone who wants your particular skills. Central London is only 4 hours from Central Paris (including customs, check-in, etc., on the Eurostar train), so you may want to consider coming here and use it as a stepping stone in to Europe.
If so, check out JobServe, which is considered (more or less) to be the definitive way to find a tech job in the UK. If you don't get at least 3 interviews in a fortnight, you might as well give up (actually, maybe not. I guess if you're still in the States and trying to get a job in the UK, you'll get less bites. Point is, it's easy to get a tech job in London).
If that's the case, why this recent story about a man suing an impotence clinic when they used his image without his consent?
Wasn't Fatboy Slim's album artwork "You've Come A Long Way Baby" changed in the US because they couldn't locate the person used in the original album artwork?
Last year, 'round about this time, I ordered a video from there to send to my brother in Oz as a festive season present. It's the first time i've ordered from there (erm, and the last time - i'm not a big pre-recorded video purchaser).
Some time just before the festive season itself, I received another package from them. "Yippee! Misdirect goods!" thinks I.
Nup - they had sent copies of "It's a Wonderful Life" out to thousands of people who had purchased off them in the previous year, as a festive season thank you gift.
Wow. I was impressed, anyway...
If I ever have need to purchase another pre-recorded video, they've got my cash (erm, credit card number. Whatever.)
I didn't realise people really drunk XXXX, except in rural Queensland?
For Australians in the UK (such as myself), here's some happy news: VB distribution seems to be improving. It's imported from Oz, and Sainsburys is stocking it (at some stores in London, at any rate) at a reasonable price.
Woo!
The pubs i've seen it in seem to charge about £2.50 (~AUS$6.25) for a can...
You may access your personal profile by e-mailing
your request to CRQprofile@digitalconvergence.com
with your proof of identification, which is the
activation code given to you at the time you register your product(s).
Anyone want to show us what one of their profiles looks like? Interesting that it appears as though they're processing these requests manually for the time being - I wonder how long that will last?
Go talk to Citibank UK and ask to open a US dollar account. They'll then ask you if you want a US dollar cheque/check book and a US dollar credit card to go along with it. They'll also ask whether you want your US dollar account to be based in London or New York (ie, it affects clearing times on cheques).
These are private accounts.
No charges for moving money in or out, or moving money between your GBP and US dollar accounts (or AUS, or NZD, or whatever you ask them for).
There's a ton of great music on mp3.com. I've recently bought a bunch of CDs from there, and have since had a warm inner glow. The CDs I bought were all as good/better than stuff you can get in the shops, and, as the artist receives 50% of the cost of the CD, they're probably better off selling their stuff through mp3.com than going through the more traditional routes (well, that could be open for debate, I guess).
And, possibly just as importantly, mp3.com has been in RIAA's line of fire for a while now.
Might as well support something they're trying to shut down, right?
...j (a satisfied customer of mp3.com and nothing more)
Think of what RedHat, Caldera, or whoever could do with a single package now. RedHat 7.0, webserver addition: includes your end to end large scale site solution, web services by Apache, Content Management by GO.com. With a good ecommerce suite, that could be one hell of a package if it all came preconfigured.
The go.com stuff provides you with the tools to build a website - it'll never be an out of the box solution.
CMP released their perl-based CMS a while back - Mason. It looks very nice, it's used on some high-volume sites, and has a feature site suprisingly similar to Vignette's StoryServer (which is TCL-based, and grew out of C|Net).
None of which will do anything magical out of the box.
Inside.com recently had a decent article about CMS pros and cons, but I can't find it. Anyone got the URL?
Win98 has an optional feature that will periodically contact Microsoft when you're connected to the internet to download a list of updates/patches, etc. Apparently no information is sent to Microsoft. All very similar to Helix Gnome.
Ofcourse, OS/2 was doing this in about '94 (via gopher rather than http, if I remember correctly).
Last I heard, they were trying to figure out how to get ads to display on the site - but only for people accessing the site from outside of the UK (and, therefore, not license fee payers).
Ofcourse, that's kinda tricky to do, and, as yet, they haven't found a solution (or have given up).
The BBC is getting in a lot of heat over here about them supplying news feeds for free to external sites (Yahoo, etc). ITN has taken them to the Office of Fair Trading. We'll see what happens...
FWIW, news.bbc.co.uk is the most popular non-banner ad supported site in the world, or so I read.
Under auctions, the same rules about copyrights, trademark infringement, etc., still apply.
I guess it would get interesting if, say, the US corporation "ABC" decided to go head to head with the Australian Broadcasting Coproration - both of whom would have a valid claim to the domain.
Yo Sushi also has the rather cool scooter things you see, erm, scooting about. But I digress...
There's a really tacky bar, just under London Bridge with two robotic bar tenders. Go up, press a button (and swipe a card, I guess), and watch in amazement as it mixes you a cocktail. Woo! Timeout (what's on listings magazine) said it was kinda cool, if I recall.
Personally - after having set foot in there when passing by - I wouldn't be seen dead in the place.
It took me several hours to work out how to get it to recognise my PS/2 mouse and give me something more than 8 bits on my G400 Max video card (and I got that card because I was told it was well supported under XFree86 4.x - bah!)
And, as an end user of Helix Gnome, I can tell you that it is _very_ stable.
Had a problem with a particular release of sawmill once, but reinstalled the previous version and was fine. I've never encountered any other problems, and Helix Gnome is all I use (at home, that is. Work is an NT shop).
miguel: 'twould be nice if the updater didn't automatically remove the rpms once they were installed. I would like the option of storing them somewhere for safe keeping once the update's done.
You haven't looked at the Evolution screen shots, have you? From a UI point of view, it's a direct rip off of Outlook.
(Not that that's a bad thing - i'll be downloading Evolution tonight when I get home. I'm well impressed with Helix-Gnome (and the bulk updates that were made available yesterday)).
Go download some music (legally) from there and support mp3.com. I'm only just getting back in to mp3.com after not having looked at it for a while. There's some _seriously_ good music there if you dig around a bit.
Was thinking about mp3.com the other day, and, apart from the whole legally dodgy Beam-It stuff, I can see why RIAA wants to shut mp3.com down. As I said, there's a lot of really good music available for download - music that I would of previously been happy to go buy in a shop on CD. "Commercial" quality and all that. Or I can get a DAM CD for ~US$7, and the artist is still making more money than if they had a record deal with a major. And, hey, guess what? The majors aren't getting in on this new stuff.
There's already some artists who are making a decent living from mp3.com sales, etc. Look here.
The majors aren't needed any more. I would be upset if I was them.
This Guardian article reports on how the European Commission has just criticised BT for being too slow in rolling out access to the local loop to other companies.
The EC thinks they should do it by the end of this year, not mid next year.
Nice to know someone with a bit of weight is happy to throw the cat amongst the pidgeons.
Slashdot Mirror
I've got two thirds of a Uni degree, but, when I first came to the UK, 2 years industry experience.
Had a job within 24 hours of first sending out my CV. That was a few years back.
I did have the advantage of having a valid work visa (due to ancestry). Plenty of places will go through the process of sponsoring you to get in to the country. The larger companies do it as a matter of course.
There's such a shortage of people over here that most places aren't too bothered about education - it's more about what you can do now. Also keep in mind a lot of places completely over-spec their requirements.
...j
You could do worse than checking out the recently launched Industry Standard Europe or Business 2.0 UK - both have bucket loads of articles about the tech scene in Europe (from a business point of view, primarily, but it's good to know the financial health of where you're planning on moving to, right?).
/. stories about the French govt. banning english-esque net-related words), so it might be harder to get in without half-decent French.
You would be suprised on the number of people on continental Europe who speak english, although the French are particularly full-on about maintaining french as the primary language within their country (see earlier
When I was in Berlin, I don't recall meeting one person who couldn't speak english... The homeless beggers even spoke english. Multi-lingual beggers. I was impressed.
As someone else mentioned, the UK has a massive shortage of tech people with half a clue. Providing you play by the immigration rules, you should have no trouble getting sponsored, assuming you find someone who wants your particular skills. Central London is only 4 hours from Central Paris (including customs, check-in, etc., on the Eurostar train), so you may want to consider coming here and use it as a stepping stone in to Europe.
If so, check out JobServe, which is considered (more or less) to be the definitive way to find a tech job in the UK. If you don't get at least 3 interviews in a fortnight, you might as well give up (actually, maybe not. I guess if you're still in the States and trying to get a job in the UK, you'll get less bites. Point is, it's easy to get a tech job in London).
HTH,
...j
a free feeling of smugness to whoever can tell me which of the large name-brand filtering companies also runs a big porn search engine thingy.
anyone?
If that's the case, why this recent story about a man suing an impotence clinic when they used his image without his consent?
Wasn't Fatboy Slim's album artwork "You've Come A Long Way Baby" changed in the US because they couldn't locate the person used in the original album artwork?
...j
...and around the world, by Tesco (a big supermarket in the UK). See this story from The Register.
Which, I guess, means that that is the biggest install of Linux, rather than in Japan.
Is it any coincidence that Tesco is supposedly also the largest online grocery retailer in the world? Erm, probably...
...j
Last year, 'round about this time, I ordered a video from there to send to my brother in Oz as a festive season present. It's the first time i've ordered from there (erm, and the last time - i'm not a big pre-recorded video purchaser).
Some time just before the festive season itself, I received another package from them. "Yippee! Misdirect goods!" thinks I.
Nup - they had sent copies of "It's a Wonderful Life" out to thousands of people who had purchased off them in the previous year, as a festive season thank you gift.
Wow. I was impressed, anyway...
If I ever have need to purchase another pre-recorded video, they've got my cash (erm, credit card number. Whatever.)
...j
There are currently two factories in France,
with the first models expected on the streets
later this year.
There are five factories planned for Mexico and
Spain, with three in Australia.
OK, maybe the BBC got it wrong, but why 3 factories in Australia? That seems really wierd to me.
...j
Hmm. Next release of slashcode prolly just got longer when you posted that.
And this.
D'oh!
...j
I didn't realise people really drunk XXXX, except in rural Queensland?
For Australians in the UK (such as myself), here's some happy news: VB distribution seems to be improving. It's imported from Oz, and Sainsburys is stocking it (at some stores in London, at any rate) at a reasonable price.
Woo!
The pubs i've seen it in seem to charge about £2.50 (~AUS$6.25) for a can...
...j
Go talk to Citibank UK and ask to open a US dollar account. They'll then ask you if you want a US dollar cheque/check book and a US dollar credit card to go along with it. They'll also ask whether you want your US dollar account to be based in London or New York (ie, it affects clearing times on cheques).
These are private accounts.
No charges for moving money in or out, or moving money between your GBP and US dollar accounts (or AUS, or NZD, or whatever you ask them for).
Citibank is tres groovy.
...j
There's a ton of great music on mp3.com. I've recently bought a bunch of CDs from there, and have since had a warm inner glow. The CDs I bought were all as good/better than stuff you can get in the shops, and, as the artist receives 50% of the cost of the CD, they're probably better off selling their stuff through mp3.com than going through the more traditional routes (well, that could be open for debate, I guess).
And, possibly just as importantly, mp3.com has been in RIAA's line of fire for a while now.
Might as well support something they're trying to shut down, right?
...j
(a satisfied customer of mp3.com and nothing more)
Think of what RedHat, Caldera, or whoever could do with a single package now. RedHat 7.0, webserver addition: includes your end to end large scale site solution, web services by Apache, Content Management by GO.com. With a good ecommerce suite, that could be one hell of a package if it all came preconfigured.
The go.com stuff provides you with the tools to build a website - it'll never be an out of the box solution.
CMP released their perl-based CMS a while back - Mason. It looks very nice, it's used on some high-volume sites, and has a feature site suprisingly similar to Vignette's StoryServer (which is TCL-based, and grew out of C|Net).
None of which will do anything magical out of the box.
Inside.com recently had a decent article about CMS pros and cons, but I can't find it. Anyone got the URL?
...j
...will only make sense to those familiar with the state of net access in country Qld over the past five or so years.
Today's topic is:
Pegasus Networks was doing this years ago.
Discuss.
...j
Win98 has an optional feature that will periodically contact Microsoft when you're connected to the internet to download a list of updates/patches, etc. Apparently no information is sent to Microsoft. All very similar to Helix Gnome.
Ofcourse, OS/2 was doing this in about '94 (via gopher rather than http, if I remember correctly).
...j
Last I heard, they were trying to figure out how to get ads to display on the site - but only for people accessing the site from outside of the UK (and, therefore, not license fee payers).
Ofcourse, that's kinda tricky to do, and, as yet, they haven't found a solution (or have given up).
The BBC is getting in a lot of heat over here about them supplying news feeds for free to external sites (Yahoo, etc). ITN has taken them to the Office of Fair Trading. We'll see what happens...
FWIW, news.bbc.co.uk is the most popular non-banner ad supported site in the world, or so I read.
...j
Just as Inktomi sells their search engine and directory (ie, yahoo-esque) engine services seperately, i'm sure google does exactly the same.
No problem there, then.
...j
Under auctions, the same rules about copyrights, trademark infringement, etc., still apply.
I guess it would get interesting if, say, the US corporation "ABC" decided to go head to head with the Australian Broadcasting Coproration - both of whom would have a valid claim to the domain.
One of the recent computer animation films (Toy Story 2, perhaps?) was shown entirely digitally at the Odeon in Leicster Square, London.
It all went pear shaped and they had to revert to film, apparently.
Anyone know what i'm talking about? Links?
...j
Yo Sushi also has the rather cool scooter things you see, erm, scooting about. But I digress...
There's a really tacky bar, just under London Bridge with two robotic bar tenders. Go up, press a button (and swipe a card, I guess), and watch in amazement as it mixes you a cocktail. Woo! Timeout (what's on listings magazine) said it was kinda cool, if I recall.
Personally - after having set foot in there when passing by - I wouldn't be seen dead in the place.
Anyone tried it out?
...j
XFree86 4.0 xf86cfg still has a long way to go.
It took me several hours to work out how to get it to recognise my PS/2 mouse and give me something more than 8 bits on my G400 Max video card (and I got that card because I was told it was well supported under XFree86 4.x - bah!)
...j
And, as an end user of Helix Gnome, I can tell you that it is _very_ stable.
Had a problem with a particular release of sawmill once, but reinstalled the previous version and was fine. I've never encountered any other problems, and Helix Gnome is all I use (at home, that is. Work is an NT shop).
miguel: 'twould be nice if the updater didn't automatically remove the rpms once they were installed. I would like the option of storing them somewhere for safe keeping once the update's done.
...j
You haven't looked at the Evolution screen shots, have you? From a UI point of view, it's a direct rip off of Outlook.
(Not that that's a bad thing - i'll be downloading Evolution tonight when I get home. I'm well impressed with Helix-Gnome (and the bulk updates that were made available yesterday)).
...j
mp3.com just got bitten by RIAA, right?
.mp3s.com/stations/2/turn_on_tune_in_space_out_.ht ml)
Go download some music (legally) from there and support mp3.com. I'm only just getting back in to mp3.com after not having looked at it for a while. There's some _seriously_ good music there if you dig around a bit.
Was thinking about mp3.com the other day, and, apart from the whole legally dodgy Beam-It stuff, I can see why RIAA wants to shut mp3.com down. As I said, there's a lot of really good music available for download - music that I would of previously been happy to go buy in a shop on CD. "Commercial" quality and all that. Or I can get a DAM CD for ~US$7, and the artist is still making more money than if they had a record deal with a major. And, hey, guess what? The majors aren't getting in on this new stuff.
There's already some artists who are making a decent living from mp3.com sales, etc. Look here.
The majors aren't needed any more. I would be upset if I was them.
(for a nice selection of electronic music from mp3.com, check out this link )that I have nothing to do with): http://stations
...j
This Guardian article reports on how the European Commission has just criticised BT for being too slow in rolling out access to the local loop to other companies.
The EC thinks they should do it by the end of this year, not mid next year.
Nice to know someone with a bit of weight is happy to throw the cat amongst the pidgeons.
...j