Only water rights lawyers understand that stuff. My cousin is a paralegal in New Mexico and her specialty is water rights.
She makes more bling bling than I do, and w/o a college degree (I'm a corporate coder). I doubt she will ever have to worry about a job in the future, because people always need water and in the western US, the water rights laws are byzantine.
On the way to Mesa Verde, stop by Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos Nat Labs. Not much in Los Alamos, but there is a small museum with some interesting exhibits. Plus it is pretty much a magnent for geeks with PhDs.
Bandelier is GREAT! But watch out for that volcanic tuff... esp if you get it in your eye (like I did while working there). OUCH!
Re:Wha???
on
All The Rave
·
· Score: 2, Informative
>>Anything that you have to go to the store to buy, packaged in cellophane on a CD is not culture.
Sure it is. Part of the culture is the fact that we generally have to buy our material needs at a store. The clothes we wear, the way we interact with people, the fact that we drive cars instead of using sandled feet--all part of our culture. It may not be a part of our culture we like or feel a particular affinity towards, but it still is part of the culture.
But I'm only a trained anthropologist. What do I know?
One of my biggest gripes is during crunch time, I am constantly getting Conflict Messages because I edited a task to let the testers know I fixed the bug and they edited the same task with a new bug.
If it was a little smarter about sending these conflict messages or doing a CVS-type merge, I probably wouldn't mind it as much, though prioritizing bugs can be a small hassle because the priority list is in a separate task.
I see your point about having to enter all the data. That would suck too.
>>(very important...our comapny uses hierarchies of these task lists for all bug tracking in development , because it's stupid enough to be flexible with regards to input)
Ugh you have to endure that too? Our bug 'system' is similar and no one seems to mind one bit. I have suggested moving to a more capable bug tracking system, but my manager loves Outlook, so no dice.
I find it cumbersome and archaic, not much removed from post-it notes on a development whiteboard.
Re:Technical != nerdy != academic
on
More Cheap Linux PCs
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
>>They may not be nerds, and may not have college degrees, but I'd argue that they're extremely technical. Those same skills - especially troubleshooting and understanding how little details make a bigger thing work - are the exact skills that everyone needs, from programmers to network administrators.
Most car mechanics I know are nerds in some way. It just is not generally with computers, but they know all kinds of factoids about their love--cars.
Have you ever watched Monster Garage? I think Jesse James is pretty much a nerd, but because he builds custom choppers and uses a welding torch instead of a keyboard, he is not placed in that category. He exhibits similar personality characteristics to the the uber-geeks I know.
It just struck watching the show one weekend. If I had gone to VoTech instead of a high school that was focused on College Prep, I would have become somewhat like him. Working on cars, using my creative abilities to build custom cars or custom fabricate solutions to my customer's problems.
As it is, I build custom software and fabricate software solutions for client's problems.
>>That this update got rid of that annoying little click noise
THANK YOU APPLE!
Not that the clicking was a deal-breaker (this thing is the best 'gadget' I have ever bought), but it is annoying, esp when put through a stereo. I know what I will be downloading tonight...
>> You leave the house to mail a letter or a bill and end up in a bookstore a couple of hours later without the letter and unable to remember if it was actually mailed, or if it is sitting on a bookshelf someplace.
This is hilarious (in a laughing with you sort of way)! Happens to me all the time. I go into a grocery store with something very specific to get and suddenly I am walking around the store trying to remember why the hell I am there. I am not buying anything else, I just get distracted by all the people/food whatever. So I generally have to stop walking and concentrate on why I am there... OH! That's right, I need to get some dishwashing detergent and a light bulb.
Trundle over to the household aisle and get the light bulb. Start walking to the check-out line, but with a nagging feeling I am forgetting something. Stop, concentrate... detergent! That's right.
I have learned to take lists with me as it helps cut down on the 'fog' when I get in a store and keeps me on task.
I have never taken medication and refuse to. Unless it is life-or-death I feel most medication just masks symptoms rather than treats the core problem. I'd rather use these coping strategies, but then again I was only diagnosed with mild ADD when a kid (no meds then either).
Geeks have (by definition) little to no social skills. It is in evidence in these two.
It has nothing to do with their talent or intelligence. Stupid geeks think they are right all the time too, and will not listen to you if you prove them wrong.
Yes but generally not on the internet. But if a company is situated in California and your shipping address is in CA, I know they charge you sales tax. I think it is 8 or 9% (relatively high for the USA).
Other states might work this way too. But each state determines the tax, not the Feds.
From what I understand (I am a programming monkey for an HR company, FWIW) yes they can terminate your employment, but depending on the state, this may require building a case against you detailing your poor past performance (at least here in CA).
But if you walk out, you get no unemployment benefits. If they fire you, you can claim unemployment, but you can forget about using that company as a reference. And if you list it on a resume and HR calls to confirm details of employment, be careful.
Generally there is an underground HR code that you were fired for incompetance. Under state law they can't say "He was a loser, so we fired him.", but they can do things like the following:
"I am calling to check on a former employee of yours, Mr. John Smith. Can you describe his work activities at your company?"
"I can confirm that he worked here."
"What were his responsibilties? Was he a good employee?"
"I can confirm that he worked here."
"How would you rate his performance on the job?"
"I can confirm that he worked here."
"I see, thank you very much for your time Mr PHB."
Except we didn't have to worry about freezing cold.
I did think my office should have invested in some kind of generating bikes to run the servers in case of a rolling blackout (where the elec company purposefully turns off the power to certain grids so the whole thing doesn't crash).
Exercise for us geeks and the company can still provide our clients access to their data. They didn't really think it was such a great idea.
Well if they are YOUR customers, they are likely not using Open Source, so it's a tautology that they have seen more innovation from MS than from the Open Source community.
You can't see the innovation if you never use the software.
I usually go to the Ranch plaza in Milpitas to stock up on Chinese foods (a big Asian food market, plus lots of Asian businesses, in case you don't know the area). As soon as I heard about SARS about 2 weeks ago I stopped going. There are a lot of people 'fresh off the boat' (so to speak) from Hong Kong, Singapore, and such places so I was worried about being exposed.
But my hairdresser is over in that plaza and my hair is in need of a cut... so I am going to have to go. No one else seems to be worried here, so I am going to take my chances this weekend.
Unless you have family that lives in Singapore (like I do) and have someone in quarantine right now there because she went to China during the time of the outbreak.
The Spanish Flu actually originated in Tibet in 1917. As the armies of various nations moved across the continents the flu spread with them. Before long cases were showing up in Europe. When it hit France, it changed its character, becoming malignant as it was contracted by African soldiers who had been recruited into the French army.
After establishing a stronghold in France, the flu moved into Spain. Spain was a neutral player in the First World War. For that reason it had no need to censor the illness from its people in order to keep them focused on the war effort. The Spanish press, then, fully documented the illness, along with it's terrible life taking effects on the human body.
Slashdot Mirror
>>How much do you know about fair water rights
Only water rights lawyers understand that stuff. My cousin is a paralegal in New Mexico and her specialty is water rights.
She makes more bling bling than I do, and w/o a college degree (I'm a corporate coder). I doubt she will ever have to worry about a job in the future, because people always need water and in the western US, the water rights laws are byzantine.
On the way to Mesa Verde, stop by Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos Nat Labs. Not much in Los Alamos, but there is a small museum with some interesting exhibits. Plus it is pretty much a magnent for geeks with PhDs.
... esp if you get it in your eye (like I did while working there). OUCH!
Bandelier is GREAT! But watch out for that volcanic tuff
>>Anything that you have to go to the store to buy, packaged in cellophane on a CD is not culture.
Sure it is. Part of the culture is the fact that we generally have to buy our material needs at a store. The clothes we wear, the way we interact with people, the fact that we drive cars instead of using sandled feet--all part of our culture. It may not be a part of our culture we like or feel a particular affinity towards, but it still is part of the culture.
But I'm only a trained anthropologist. What do I know?
One of my biggest gripes is during crunch time, I am constantly getting Conflict Messages because I edited a task to let the testers know I fixed the bug and they edited the same task with a new bug.
If it was a little smarter about sending these conflict messages or doing a CVS-type merge, I probably wouldn't mind it as much, though prioritizing bugs can be a small hassle because the priority list is in a separate task.
I see your point about having to enter all the data. That would suck too.
>>(very important...our comapny uses hierarchies of these task lists for all bug tracking in development , because it's stupid enough to be flexible with regards to input)
Ugh you have to endure that too? Our bug 'system' is similar and no one seems to mind one bit. I have suggested moving to a more capable bug tracking system, but my manager loves Outlook, so no dice.
I find it cumbersome and archaic, not much removed from post-it notes on a development whiteboard.
>>They may not be nerds, and may not have college degrees, but I'd argue that they're extremely technical. Those same skills - especially troubleshooting and understanding how little details make a bigger thing work - are the exact skills that everyone needs, from programmers to network administrators.
Most car mechanics I know are nerds in some way. It just is not generally with computers, but they know all kinds of factoids about their love--cars.
Have you ever watched Monster Garage? I think Jesse James is pretty much a nerd, but because he builds custom choppers and uses a welding torch instead of a keyboard, he is not placed in that category. He exhibits similar personality characteristics to the the uber-geeks I know.
It just struck watching the show one weekend. If I had gone to VoTech instead of a high school that was focused on College Prep, I would have become somewhat like him. Working on cars, using my creative abilities to build custom cars or custom fabricate solutions to my customer's problems.
As it is, I build custom software and fabricate software solutions for client's problems.
I bought a cheapo HP about 3 years ago at Fry's. It sucks running Win, but I think that is because it was either a return or a recondition machine.
I put Red Hat on it, and another stick of RAM and it runs great. Who says you need more than a 533 Celery processor?
>>Apple is givin' us a preview of the new Finder themselves (blech, I don't like brushed metal}
Why are they going away from the Aqua theme with this brushed aluminum crap? I don't use Safari because I can't stand that look.
Just give me the option to use Aqua Apple, that is all I ask.
>>That this update got rid of that annoying little click noise
...
THANK YOU APPLE!
Not that the clicking was a deal-breaker (this thing is the best 'gadget' I have ever bought), but it is annoying, esp when put through a stereo. I know what I will be downloading tonight
>> You leave the house to mail a letter or a bill and end up in a bookstore a couple of hours later without the letter and unable to remember if it was actually mailed, or if it is sitting on a bookshelf someplace.
... OH! That's right, I need to get some dishwashing detergent and a light bulb.
... detergent! That's right.
This is hilarious (in a laughing with you sort of way)! Happens to me all the time. I go into a grocery store with something very specific to get and suddenly I am walking around the store trying to remember why the hell I am there. I am not buying anything else, I just get distracted by all the people/food whatever. So I generally have to stop walking and concentrate on why I am there
Trundle over to the household aisle and get the light bulb. Start walking to the check-out line, but with a nagging feeling I am forgetting something. Stop, concentrate
I have learned to take lists with me as it helps cut down on the 'fog' when I get in a store and keeps me on task.
I have never taken medication and refuse to. Unless it is life-or-death I feel most medication just masks symptoms rather than treats the core problem. I'd rather use these coping strategies, but then again I was only diagnosed with mild ADD when a kid (no meds then either).
Geeks have (by definition) little to no social skills. It is in evidence in these two.
It has nothing to do with their talent or intelligence. Stupid geeks think they are right all the time too, and will not listen to you if you prove them wrong.
Yikes, that reminds me of Deuteronomy.
Did I just get transported back to my Catholic High School religion class?
>>There's no Value Added Tax on goods in EEUU ?
Yes but generally not on the internet. But if a company is situated in California and your shipping address is in CA, I know they charge you sales tax. I think it is 8 or 9% (relatively high for the USA).
Other states might work this way too. But each state determines the tax, not the Feds.
From what I understand (I am a programming monkey for an HR company, FWIW) yes they can terminate your employment, but depending on the state, this may require building a case against you detailing your poor past performance (at least here in CA).
But if you walk out, you get no unemployment benefits. If they fire you, you can claim unemployment, but you can forget about using that company as a reference. And if you list it on a resume and HR calls to confirm details of employment, be careful.
Generally there is an underground HR code that you were fired for incompetance. Under state law they can't say "He was a loser, so we fired him.", but they can do things like the following:
"I am calling to check on a former employee of yours, Mr. John Smith. Can you describe his work activities at your company?"
"I can confirm that he worked here."
"What were his responsibilties? Was he a good employee?"
"I can confirm that he worked here."
"How would you rate his performance on the job?"
"I can confirm that he worked here."
"I see, thank you very much for your time Mr PHB."
The message comes through loud and clear.
You would think slashdot was written in PHP, considering the amount of coverage it gets in the book reviews.
Hey have you noticied that Sam McGee's message board is all messed up lately? The 'latest' page on the Chile Garden Forum shows messages from 1998. :-/
It was ticking me off in the movie! I couldn't tell what the hell they were looking at--was like a jumbled mess to me.
Except we didn't have to worry about freezing cold.
I did think my office should have invested in some kind of generating bikes to run the servers in case of a rolling blackout (where the elec company purposefully turns off the power to certain grids so the whole thing doesn't crash).
Exercise for us geeks and the company can still provide our clients access to their data. They didn't really think it was such a great idea.
Newspaper in a dump?
Well if they are YOUR customers, they are likely not using Open Source, so it's a tautology that they have seen more innovation from MS than from the Open Source community.
You can't see the innovation if you never use the software.
Yeah but then my spam filter might misinterpret an update announcement as a new way to grow bigger and last longer.
Yeah I wonder if I am too alarmist as well.
... so I am going to have to go. No one else seems to be worried here, so I am going to take my chances this weekend.
I usually go to the Ranch plaza in Milpitas to stock up on Chinese foods (a big Asian food market, plus lots of Asian businesses, in case you don't know the area). As soon as I heard about SARS about 2 weeks ago I stopped going. There are a lot of people 'fresh off the boat' (so to speak) from Hong Kong, Singapore, and such places so I was worried about being exposed.
But my hairdresser is over in that plaza and my hair is in need of a cut
>>Nothing to panic over.
Unless you have family that lives in Singapore (like I do) and have someone in quarantine right now there because she went to China during the time of the outbreak.
Not as bad as the poorly timed Hong Kong ads - "Hong Kong ... it will take your breath away"
Google here I come ...
#4 on the hit chart -