1) If you're getting taxed around 55% you must be making six figures (or near it). Unless you're purchasing a house or supporting some children, that's more than enough to pay for a "dumpy 3 bed house" in any neighborhood in America. Maybe my assumption is wrong, but if you're really making that much money and you consider it a pittance I recommend you adjust your lifestyle.
2) I used to listen to you guys who said "a college degree isn't worth it". Well maybe a $60k one isn't from an ivy league or a private school, but I think my ~$18k education from one of the top public schools in America (UC Berkeley) was definitely well worth it. Why? It's not so much the material they teach you, but how to think critically. The experience also puts you in a situation to learn and think effectively as well as intelligently. I know this sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo but recently I started a new job with a bunch of programmer coworkers who don't come from good schools. My god you should look at their code. For a bunch of guys who have at lest 5+ years experience MORE than me they are damn horrible coders. Do I think my college degree was worth it? So far it seems so.
technology does not differentiate PCs these days.
OMG, don't tell that to a Mac user. Or people running Linux. Or *BSD. Or AIX. Or those with multihead displays. Or touch screens. Or voice recognition. Or high-speed connections. Mind you, if he thinks technology doesn't differentiate PCs, maybe I can sell him an old 286 at today's prices:-)
Let me repeat what he said: "Technology does not differentiate PCs THESE days." So the fact that NO pcs that are sold new come with a 286 cpu makes your point moot. Your comment about Mac users is completely wrong too. If anything, Mac users prove his point precisely. I'd say a good number of Mac users by Macs out of the "sexy" quality of their machines versus the technology architecture of their machines.
On this point he was basically saying that you could by a PC with an intel chip, amd chip that are of similar speeds and it would not matter much to you. The same can be said of equal powered graphics cards by nvidia, ati etc etc. There is little differentiation amongst PCs when it comes to technology.
design is a funnel-shaped thing
design is a holistic way of thinking
Maybe we should point him to dictionary.com so he can make up his mind what design is?
He was saying that the design process was funnel-shaped. He pointed out the Palm as an example where it's capable to doing a thousand things but the physical interface to the user comes down to four main buttons.
He referred to design as being holistic in reference to intersecting disciplines that are requirements of design (in his example he said that a software engineer would have to have some interested in the hardware because those two disciplines would interact in a product). That makes complete sense.
I recommend you read the article closer next time.
There's curtailment of free-speech and then there's the protection of our citizens (more specifically children from pornography).
Abolition of democracy? While I think our government is one big machine, and I do think the media is filled largely with propaganda, last I checked we were trying to uphold democracy in the best ways we thought.
Military occupation of other countries? While I don't necessarily agree with Bush's methods, what about the right to life and liberty? The truth is there are regimes out there whose main goal is to take threaten those rights. Nazi-Germany was motivated by thoughts of manifest destiny and power rolling into peaceful neighboring nations. I hardly think our situation can be seen as exactly (or mostly) the same.
I see your point and in some ways I'm against big business myself but your characterization omits one understandable fact of life:
We have limited resources when it comes to law enforcement (or limited resources period). This doesn't mean that you're worth shit and that's why they didn't do anything about it. What it does mean is that it has to affect a lot of people or have some large value associated with it. This makes perfect sense. Analagously it's like cops who are working on busting large-scale drug smuggling between Mexico and the US instead of frisking every single individual coming across the border. There are just not enough resources to do that.
Everyone is talking about burning bridges but how many people does it affect?
I've never done anything to outright insult my former employers but I have noticed that my references don't necessarily have as much impact as I thought they would in looking for new employment. Secondly, I often list people I respect or people I'm on good terms with as references instead of bad bosses I hated.
Lastly, what prevents you from lying to your new employer about the situation at your old company? I'm not saying this is moral or anything, but I've embellished past situations quite a bit and none of them seemed to care that much and accepted any explanation I had (except for one employer who dug deeper).
Very valuable advice. Unfortunately sometimes it's hard to maintain this sort of composure when your bosses are treating you unprofessionally. This includes veiled threats, illegal activities (over working hours), lies, personal harassment etc etc. While it would be good to always be the bigger person, I feel for everyone who has broken out unprofessionally because there have been so many times I've wanted to just kick the ass out of a bad boss.
They do, dont' they? I can easily walk down the street and find a deal where they can give you a phone for free. If you want to stay with your own subscriber I'm sure you can find an old model nokia for dirt cheap.
Anyway, in the long run, high-end market becomes the low-end market due to technological advances.
Due to the identification of all the different genes humans have, one wonders if one day there will be gene-ism (as in racism, sexism, etc). I.e. will people who are identified to have a high likelihood of heart disease going to be denied life insurance because they are likely to croak earlier? etc etc.
It's a pretty popular topic that can be found with a simple search on the web and this issue has been around for the last several years.
I mean cmon! There are way too many factors, even beyond the ones you supplied, to consider. Oh so you want to talk about the number of different support platforms? How about the sheer number of people who use windows versus linux+solaris? You want to talk about vendors? What about vendor support? What about the monetary value of the cumulative supporting vendors? Cmon.
The same way knowing a bit about technology can help make a sales person seem more knowledgable.
I.e. if a developer/software architect knows what sells better (in terms of products, features and services) it can definitely influence future projects (or projects in the pipeline) to things that rake in more revenue.
[A more specific scenario] My friend who is a developer created a relationship with engineers from company X [Microsoft:)]. Due to those good relationships, he was able to contract more and more projects for them and the total revenue from company X soon equaled half the revenue of the company. Sure you might say that's just "common sense" but networking is definitely a sales concept.
Much like knowing why Java is platform-independent may explaining to other business people why Java is the superior choice.
When I read that last sentence, I didn't parse "clueless" as pertaining to the direct subject matter at hand. I guess it's because it's my assumption that superiors, in refernence to this thread, were just cluess in general.:)
My mistake. I skimmed it the first time and interpreted it quite the opposite.
I have a bunch of friends on the compressed work schedule but that would probably not work for programmers/IT since they usually work 9-10 hours everyday.
I'm a coder but, in some ways, it would be good to see that salespeople are taking the least bit effort to understand what it is you're doing. By understanding the technology better they can sound more educated about the stuff they are selling. Perhaps it behooves you to read a book or two about management, sales and marketing (I recommend Sales for Dummies).
In actuality that's not a raise.:) Every year inflation averages around 2-3%. Therefore, you can assume that your pay (on a living-standard basis) remained even.:\ Sorry.
How an appropriate response in regards to the article the other day about Google and how they had hired a bunch of middle-managers but when they realized that it was impeding innovation/work they just got rid of them.:)
Re:Loss of jobs and a nightmare thread of thought
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U.S. Jobs Jumping Ship
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· Score: 1
Interesting thread but more fud than reality IMHO.
The reason why I say that is because you can't really compare IT and oil like you did. Oil is a commodity that is created in nature and thus is limited in accessibility (it only exists in specific environments). IT is not restricted in this way.
Actually you were on the right track with your initial comments. Semiconductors and electrical parts ARE being created overseas. I think what we need to differentiate is the R&D vs production.
Cars, semiconductors, electronics, plastic toys can be produced overseas but, due to the amount of money and education we have, research will most likely occur in the US (and other wealthy nations). Sure India may use their new found wealth to build research facilities but it's like being afraid that China's new microchip factories will replace Intel (yes yes i know they build sometign equivalent to a 486 but is it time to worry?).
On the other hand, I am afraid that this is bad for an already depressed economy.. I will give you that. But don't compare it to oil and OPEC. It just doesn't make sense.
Re:PC bangs, succecssors to Nora Bang, and BiDio B
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PC Baangs In America
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· Score: 1
You're wrong.
Actually, PC Rooms have been in existence for at least a good 4 years now. That's a lifespan of at lesat 48 months, and it's still going on strong.
And this is why you're wrong:
1) Profit margins aren't low. At $3-7 per hour, the price for the game, computer, and connection can be recouped in at least one month (maybe 2).
2) True. There have been some incidents on teenage crime. However, all this means is that people who frequent these spots of a certain ilk (and they will still get business). I'd hardly call it scary, though. It's mostly kids who should be home doing homework.
3) Why won't kids want to go there? Is this supposed to be related to point #2? Go to a number of PC rooms (in the bay area or LA) and you'll find plenty of kids there. So, on that point, you're wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't buy it.
1) If you're getting taxed around 55% you must be making six figures (or near it). Unless you're purchasing a house or supporting some children, that's more than enough to pay for a "dumpy 3 bed house" in any neighborhood in America. Maybe my assumption is wrong, but if you're really making that much money and you consider it a pittance I recommend you adjust your lifestyle.
2) I used to listen to you guys who said "a college degree isn't worth it". Well maybe a $60k one isn't from an ivy league or a private school, but I think my ~$18k education from one of the top public schools in America (UC Berkeley) was definitely well worth it. Why? It's not so much the material they teach you, but how to think critically. The experience also puts you in a situation to learn and think effectively as well as intelligently. I know this sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo but recently I started a new job with a bunch of programmer coworkers who don't come from good schools. My god you should look at their code. For a bunch of guys who have at lest 5+ years experience MORE than me they are damn horrible coders. Do I think my college degree was worth it? So far it seems so.
Troll. :)
:-)
technology does not differentiate PCs these days. OMG, don't tell that to a Mac user. Or people running Linux. Or *BSD. Or AIX. Or those with multihead displays. Or touch screens. Or voice recognition. Or high-speed connections. Mind you, if he thinks technology doesn't differentiate PCs, maybe I can sell him an old 286 at today's prices
Let me repeat what he said: "Technology does not differentiate PCs THESE days." So the fact that NO pcs that are sold new come with a 286 cpu makes your point moot. Your comment about Mac users is completely wrong too. If anything, Mac users prove his point precisely. I'd say a good number of Mac users by Macs out of the "sexy" quality of their machines versus the technology architecture of their machines.
On this point he was basically saying that you could by a PC with an intel chip, amd chip that are of similar speeds and it would not matter much to you. The same can be said of equal powered graphics cards by nvidia, ati etc etc. There is little differentiation amongst PCs when it comes to technology.
design is a funnel-shaped thing design is a holistic way of thinking Maybe we should point him to dictionary.com so he can make up his mind what design is?
He was saying that the design process was funnel-shaped. He pointed out the Palm as an example where it's capable to doing a thousand things but the physical interface to the user comes down to four main buttons.
He referred to design as being holistic in reference to intersecting disciplines that are requirements of design (in his example he said that a software engineer would have to have some interested in the hardware because those two disciplines would interact in a product). That makes complete sense.
I recommend you read the article closer next time.
There's curtailment of free-speech and then there's the protection of our citizens (more specifically children from pornography).
Abolition of democracy? While I think our government is one big machine, and I do think the media is filled largely with propaganda, last I checked we were trying to uphold democracy in the best ways we thought.
Military occupation of other countries? While I don't necessarily agree with Bush's methods, what about the right to life and liberty? The truth is there are regimes out there whose main goal is to take threaten those rights. Nazi-Germany was motivated by thoughts of manifest destiny and power rolling into peaceful neighboring nations. I hardly think our situation can be seen as exactly (or mostly) the same.
I see your point and in some ways I'm against big business myself but your characterization omits one understandable fact of life:
We have limited resources when it comes to law enforcement (or limited resources period). This doesn't mean that you're worth shit and that's why they didn't do anything about it. What it does mean is that it has to affect a lot of people or have some large value associated with it. This makes perfect sense. Analagously it's like cops who are working on busting large-scale drug smuggling between Mexico and the US instead of frisking every single individual coming across the border. There are just not enough resources to do that.
Essentially: Trust no one.
Everyone is talking about burning bridges but how many people does it affect? I've never done anything to outright insult my former employers but I have noticed that my references don't necessarily have as much impact as I thought they would in looking for new employment. Secondly, I often list people I respect or people I'm on good terms with as references instead of bad bosses I hated.
Lastly, what prevents you from lying to your new employer about the situation at your old company? I'm not saying this is moral or anything, but I've embellished past situations quite a bit and none of them seemed to care that much and accepted any explanation I had (except for one employer who dug deeper).
Very valuable advice. Unfortunately sometimes it's hard to maintain this sort of composure when your bosses are treating you unprofessionally. This includes veiled threats, illegal activities (over working hours), lies, personal harassment etc etc. While it would be good to always be the bigger person, I feel for everyone who has broken out unprofessionally because there have been so many times I've wanted to just kick the ass out of a bad boss.
Hmm that explains why the guy in my ad is a pimp-stud holding a heavy machine gun while reading an 0'Reilly book.
I thought that was quite odd.
They do, dont' they? I can easily walk down the street and find a deal where they can give you a phone for free. If you want to stay with your own subscriber I'm sure you can find an old model nokia for dirt cheap.
Anyway, in the long run, high-end market becomes the low-end market due to technological advances.
Yeah I was pretty excited about this too until I remember, that day, that it was April 1. ha ha...
Not only does it say Weekly World News on the left column (which I don't know what it is) but it's under the subtitle "Supermarket Tabloids".
Due to the identification of all the different genes humans have, one wonders if one day there will be gene-ism (as in racism, sexism, etc). I.e. will people who are identified to have a high likelihood of heart disease going to be denied life insurance because they are likely to croak earlier? etc etc.
It's a pretty popular topic that can be found with a simple search on the web and this issue has been around for the last several years.
As of today (facetiously):
C# (Microsoft) $275.2 Billion
Java (SUN + IBM + ORCL) $2.9B + $140B + $60B = $202.9 Billion
I mean cmon! There are way too many factors, even beyond the ones you supplied, to consider. Oh so you want to talk about the number of different support platforms? How about the sheer number of people who use windows versus linux+solaris? You want to talk about vendors? What about vendor support? What about the monetary value of the cumulative supporting vendors? Cmon.
They must've upgraded hotmail with some of this new shared source stuff because my hotmail seems to be the april fools joke of the day.
:'A timeout occured while communicating with the server.'
Task 'Hotmail:Folder:Inbox Synchronizing headers.' reported error (0x800CCC19)
They're making money hand-over-fist on ad revenue.
The same way knowing a bit about technology can help make a sales person seem more knowledgable.
:)]. Due to those good relationships, he was able to contract more and more projects for them and the total revenue from company X soon equaled half the revenue of the company. Sure you might say that's just "common sense" but networking is definitely a sales concept.
I.e. if a developer/software architect knows what sells better (in terms of products, features and services) it can definitely influence future projects (or projects in the pipeline) to things that rake in more revenue.
[A more specific scenario] My friend who is a developer created a relationship with engineers from company X [Microsoft
Much like knowing why Java is platform-independent may explaining to other business people why Java is the superior choice.
Good point. :)
:)
When I read that last sentence, I didn't parse "clueless" as pertaining to the direct subject matter at hand. I guess it's because it's my assumption that superiors, in refernence to this thread, were just cluess in general.
My mistake. I skimmed it the first time and interpreted it quite the opposite.
>It's the same tired old Humanity Is Cruel And Stupid line. Yawn. Umm Iraq? Yugoslavia? Nazi regime? Khmer rouge? etc etc etc etc ...
I have a bunch of friends on the compressed work schedule but that would probably not work for programmers/IT since they usually work 9-10 hours everyday.
What exactly is your point?
I'm a coder but, in some ways, it would be good to see that salespeople are taking the least bit effort to understand what it is you're doing. By understanding the technology better they can sound more educated about the stuff they are selling. Perhaps it behooves you to read a book or two about management, sales and marketing (I recommend Sales for Dummies).
In actuality that's not a raise. :) Every year inflation averages around 2-3%. Therefore, you can assume that your pay (on a living-standard basis) remained even. :\ Sorry.
How an appropriate response in regards to the article the other day about Google and how they had hired a bunch of middle-managers but when they realized that it was impeding innovation/work they just got rid of them. :)
Interesting thread but more fud than reality IMHO.
The reason why I say that is because you can't really compare IT and oil like you did. Oil is a commodity that is created in nature and thus is limited in accessibility (it only exists in specific environments). IT is not restricted in this way.
Actually you were on the right track with your initial comments. Semiconductors and electrical parts ARE being created overseas. I think what we need to differentiate is the R&D vs production.
Cars, semiconductors, electronics, plastic toys can be produced overseas but, due to the amount of money and education we have, research will most likely occur in the US (and other wealthy nations). Sure India may use their new found wealth to build research facilities but it's like being afraid that China's new microchip factories will replace Intel (yes yes i know they build sometign equivalent to a 486 but is it time to worry?).
On the other hand, I am afraid that this is bad for an already depressed economy.. I will give you that. But don't compare it to oil and OPEC. It just doesn't make sense.
You're wrong.
Actually, PC Rooms have been in existence for at least a good 4 years now. That's a lifespan of at lesat 48 months, and it's still going on strong.
And this is why you're wrong:
1) Profit margins aren't low. At $3-7 per hour, the price for the game, computer, and connection can be recouped in at least one month (maybe 2).
2) True. There have been some incidents on teenage crime. However, all this means is that people who frequent these spots of a certain ilk (and they will still get business). I'd hardly call it scary, though. It's mostly kids who should be home doing homework.
3) Why won't kids want to go there? Is this supposed to be related to point #2? Go to a number of PC rooms (in the bay area or LA) and you'll find plenty of kids there. So, on that point, you're wrong.
Interesting.
May I ask where you work and/or what it is you do?
I like working for small companies but have been pretty unsuccessful with finding a group of people i really like and respect.
Someone has some repressed feelings of aggression/angst.