This whole thing drives me crazy. Is man screwing up the earth? Absolutely, but the solutions the politicians and algoreans are suggesting is pay to play. You can polute all you want as long as you pay for it.
Imagine for a moment that Microsoft was forced to deal with the fact that their software is responsible for ninety-five percent of virus infections, but instead of, Oh I don't know - MAKING THEM BUILD BETTER SOFTWARE - , we simply require that they pay for the tuition of every High School graduate who wants to get a degree in Computer Science.
Freejack. If this system survives longer than twenty-five years, Al Gore and every other person on the inside will live in secure cities with fresh water, abundant food and toss scraps to the rest of the world to feed the need for compassion.
As for me, I've got my money on the zoo of the future. Imagine being able to see the extinct Blue Jay, Cardinal, and if you are really lucky an Eagle.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Dateline 1488: William Howell purchases a nice manor in Buckinghamshire, England but has a recurring nightmare that he is living 521 years in the future. Sucks to be him.
I've learned over the years that you may have to take jobs that aren't the most socially redeeming as you would hope. The trick is to make sure your resume is written so as to downplay the company versus the actual coding. As an example you could say that you had work on statistical analysis of number sequences.
That being said I was offered a job that was described as high volume video streaming over the web. When I showed up it was a porn video streaming company with multiple cubicles each with it's own actor performing for the camera. Needless to say I decided to turn them down.
I have been programming accounting software for almost fifteen years and the first nasty lesson I learned was that data can be presented in unlimited ways and if you want to get paid you better make it look good. Change the scale, oversample, skew the questions and all sorts of other nasty tricks are now par for the course.
We now have well respected polls contradicting each other by double digits because of the politicizing of any information that might change voters opinions. I never thought that I would long for the post civil war years of reapproachment and unity.
Are you kidding me? How many Apple computers are running MS Office. Personally I think if Microsoft put more focus on cross-platform applications they would be able to leverage their extensive experience in developing software. The have gotten so bogged down in pi##ing contests with Google, Oracle, IBM and almost every other windmill out there that they have lost sight of what made Microsoft all their money, Basic and MS Office.
I say now that RIM has released an SDK for VS we should create serious applications for everything and stop thinking that Windows will exist in the same form in twenty years.
Dateline Orlando: Man get's hurt after trying to break into jail because he fears for his life. (true story google it)
And to think wanting to put a bullet in my brain is actually a sign of efficient programming.
I'm working on a project that follows the hand off of 150 million dollars worth of application source code. As I was reviewing the software I found several remarks. Two were:
' I don't know why I have to include this in the program
' but it's the only way it will work
' For some reason I have to put this in here to keep
' from getting an exception error
The last one is a keeper because we still got the exception error until it was fixed.
Good point. Have you seen some of the Japanese Hotels? It's a bed like the one in Fifth Element and everyone shares a bathroom.
Still, it sucks that I had to put a 10X10X5 inch aluminum heat sink on my Dish DVR 622 to keep it from overheating because the processor and harddrive overheat.
I completely agree that smaller is better for portable gaming systems but hate the fact that there is this belief that console based systems have to be so small. What really drives me crazy is when processing speed, storage size and cooling is sacrificed so it can be smaller.
I would much rather have a kick-a$# system that doesn't suffer from overheating problems and comes with a whole lot of storage than some pretty little thing that is dumb as a brick when it gets to hot.
Whoa Nellie! I've always wanted to send this reply but never found a sufficiently relevant post of which to respond.
All corporate IT departments worldwide are basically Johns looking for the cheapest but most satisfying solution to their current needs.
So imagine you are a CTO driving down the street and you see on your right a woman who, while attractive, also seems to provide a significant amount of additional services. However when you roll down your window you find out that in exchange for her services you have to marry her and hire her twenty children from a previous marriage in addition to signing a pre-nuptial agreement that pretty much sucks for you. (IBM)
You continue down the road and see the most beautiful woman in the world and she is guaranteed to be free of any viruses and diseases. Unfortunately she tells you that once you use her services you will be physically incapable of even looking at another women and if you try they will sue both you and the other women in court. Plus she is even more expensive than IBM. (Apple)
After deciding to keep looking you see a girl who looks less than a biscuit over fifteen but claims to be twenty-five. She is very enthusiastic and actually offers to do anything you want absolutely free. When you ask for specifics she excuses herself and walks over to a group of people who are feverously checking their computers for the most recent, coolest and insane method of satisfying your needs. When she returns she absolutely insures that she can do everything that you want but makes you sign an agreement that you have to share everything that you do with her with everyone else on the planet and she cannot completely guarantee that you will be satisfied. Just before you leave the attractive woman from IBM shows up and offers to throw in the fifteen year old for free as long as you still marry her, hire her children and sign the pre-nuptial agreement. (OpenSource)
You continue down the road and see a woman so ugly that you can't tell whether she has makeup on or not. She can provide all of the services of all the other girls and cheaper than everyone but the fifteen year old. She cannot guarantee you won't get any viruses or other diseases but promises to provide as many vaccines and cures necessary to keep you from dying. She seems to have a lot of customers and very few of them have died of anything serious so you are very interested in using her services. (Microsoft)
Before you make a final decision you pull over and roll your windows down to get some air. Suddenly you see a women that looks like nothing you have ever seen but different. She is clearly beautiful but has a strange glow of experience. You actually get out of the car and walk up to her wondering how she would compare to all the other girls. She does not speak English very well but within a very short time you realize that she has as much if not more experience that everyone else. When you ask how much she charges she provides a printout of over a thousand different services at half of what any of the other women are charging, save of course for the fifteen year old, and provides SLAs that put all of the other girls to shame. (Offshore)
You have finally made up your mind. You are going with the offshore service and invite her to join you in you car. She apologizes and mentions that she is just the representative for the team and if you stop at the next light you can pick up the other ten girls.
Because I'm no Ron Jeremy I will leave the end of the story, but suffice to say they separated into five groups of two and he fell asleep before they had decided on a
Willie Sutton, a famous bank robber from the early twentieth century, when asked why he robs banks said, "Because that is where the money is."
I'm a contract.Net C# programmer and the vast majority of jobs available right now are C# and Java. Unfortunately the corporate world follows the mantra, "You can't go wrong with.Net C# or Java".
The same was said of IBM pretty much throughout the seventies and eighties. Hopefully Ruby and Python will start to make some corporate inroads but I don't see it happening any time soon.
wdhowellsr
My brother-in-law works for Microsoft as a System Engineer guru they contract out to customers. He got his MCSE by paying 10k for a boot camp. I don't think it is possible for him to be any less interested in technology. When he is scheduled to work he works, when he isn't he doesn't.
I've been a computer geek for as long as I can remember and even when I was a Building Contractor I spent forty hours a week coding for fun. Fast forward thirty years and I'm developing software as a contractor for a Fortune 100 company Monday to Friday, 8-4:30. I still spend another twenty to thirty hours a week studying, coding and reading. My only rules are that my extra time must either further my skills or allow me to extend my contract by becoming invaluable to my current contract position.
If you are like my brother-in-law, the worker bee, you have every right to demand pay for any time you spend working. However if most of you are geeks like me, you just need to make sure you extra time either makes you better or extends your contract.
I was Roku buyer number 247 and can tell you that without question this is the most in demand device in our family. Netflix offers over ten-thousand videos for free and Amazon offers another five or ten-thousand for rental or purchase.
I've been a slashdotter for a very long time so I'm not some slacky for Dish, Roku or anyone else but I can tell you that if I can have a Roku on each TV in my house and have the ability to watch what I want when I want in HD for free I'm sold.
The resolution of the picture when connected to a decent broadband source is very good. The downside is that all of the providers will give you free access in exchange for forced commercials. I've got no problem with that and hope than one day soon we can watch any content, including new movies, for free with the understanding that we will be required to watch commercials.
There is nothing more beautiful than telling my seven and ten year old to go on Roku so Mom and I can have some "Private Time". It works every time.
It's seems odd that the general acceptance of the cytokine storm creating an overabundance of T-Cell and Macrophages is now being questioned. Everything written so far has indicated that the stronger the patient's immune system, the greater the response.
I'd wait until we see a peer reviewed study in a major medical journal.
I'm actually happy that they are extending the copyright of these works. The beauty is that a hundred years from now they will actually laugh at the fools that expect you to pay to watch the crap of the past century.
Disney and others will suddenly find themselves fighting a loosing war against completely unique Movies, Music, Animation and every other forms of art. Instead of realizing that Walt Disney could possible be remembered for a thousand years by providing a seed to future innovation, they will regard him as a greedy twentieth century materialist that offered nothing for people of the twenty-first century and beyond.
The dark ages provided a clean break and the new age of reasoning. It's quite likely that the arrogance of the artists of today will lead to another age of which they have no part.
We will, within ten to twenty years, find ourselves in a world where, in theory, everyone has access to the same technology. The fact is Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and all of the others will realize that the Internet is like Aerosmith, the poor man's Rolling Stones. All data will be centralized and coordinated by governments and the wealthy to be parlayed into election results and financial gain.
Those unlikely enough to be on the outside of this new class-based proprietary world will be lulled into believing that they are happy. The end result will be a pseudo-matrix that allows the haves to control the have nots without anyone being the wiser.
This is not a new process just the biggest yet. There have been FAA clearance to 50k feet out west. The difference between a NASA or Military Rocket and a Model Rocket is one costs billions of dollars and has fail rate of thirty percent. A model rocket cost less than fifty thousand and has a fail rate of fifty percent.
I'm no conspiracy theorist but aren't their like, oh I don't know, A MILLION TOUCHSCREEN ATMS AROUND THE WORLD? I don't recall hearing about this calibration issue with them. I guess it's possible that since the banks definitely want it to be accurate they make sure they work.
Why wouldn't someone want the voting machines to work?
William D Howell Sr.
Your right but I have never been offered a job that mentioned SQL that meant anthing other than Microsoft SQL. Usually the just mention the database system if they want experience in Oracle or DB2.
If you are going to work in the UK or in the US you need to look at the job offers. I would start with entry level contract positions since they will usually give you a chance faster than a full time position. In addition you will be able to work three or four contracts and get a feel for what you like.
You will notice that the UK has a lot more need to C++, JAVA and C and the US, no matter how much you hate Microsoft, has more SQL, Visual Studio, C# and other.Net and Web Based programming jobs.
I specialize in the n-tier web and windows application with Visual Studio, C#, Asp.net, and other Web Technologies and never want for work in the Orlando, FL area.
Good Luck and unless your married, program and read about programming every waking moment. If you are married unfortunately I can't help you. This is coming from someone married for twenty-three years. I got all my computer geek out of the way before I married her.
I had the opportunity, after graduating from Southampton High School in 1983, to spend my freshman and sophmore year at RIT with a guarantee that I could transfer to MIT in my Junior year. I said screw that because I was a 115lb 5' 8" computer geek and I didn't want to end up in some cubicle in the middle of the Pentagon.
I started building houses in the Hamptons right out of High School and became a geek in hunks clothing at 155lbs at 5' 8" with a 38" chest and a 31" waist. I met my wife in Miami after leaving NY and now have a hot wife and two incredibly smart kids.
A side note: The girls initially go for the hunks but at some point want you to make money, that's why I got back into computers in the early nineties.
You may be right as I've not actually used the Roku unit outside of the US. However unless Netflix is actively filtering non US IP ranges there should be no reason why we shouldn't be able to use the service outside the US.
I've had Netflix for almost two years and Roku for about a year and there is no contest. I'm not a big fan of movies but with two kids and a wife we rent probably three videos a month.
My Wife would leave me and take the kids if I ever took away the Roku. Almost every show the kids watch on Disney is available for free plus almost ten thousand other movies. Amazon now rents movies on the Roku and I'm sure all of the other movies will be available very soon. PLUS! (No. I don't work for Roku or Netflix) We can take the Roku anywhere in the world with internet access and a TV and I can view anything in my queue.
I worked through thick and thin with Microsoft for over twenty years and find this to be a classic example of pure insanity. My primary work load is n-tier web application development using Asp.net, VS and C#. The.Net framework is very closely tied to the IE engine and I don't even want to think of the headaches in trying to migrate all existing applications to whatever they release.
This is obviously a dream, but it would be nice to have some sort of standard system for Internet Cloud and Browser software and hardware not unlike the telco and cellular market. There would still be billions to make for all of the Tech companies.
Not to say that paranoia is good, but after thirty years of software development as well as patented product development you can't be naive.
When it comes to software, the ownership issue for better or worse is actually quite simple. Very rarely if ever do you have clear and legal ownership of what you code.
Check with the schools legal department as many schools claim complete ownership of anything you do including your groundbreaking PHD Thesis.
When you finaly get a contract or permanent position programming, you will find that the employer again claims complete ownership of anything that you write. In contract positions you will almost always be required to sign a non-disclosure and code ownership agreement that grants complete ownership to the company. This also includes your handy library code stash. I speak from experience. If they want to, they can legaly prevent you from using your code on any other contracts or even personally.
As far as patenting anything else, consider yourself warned. Every single state bar in the US has very loose rules regarding legal and ethical behavior of Patent Attorneys.
As an example, If you were to walk into a Criminal Defense Attorneys office for a free consultation and confess to a murder you committed, he would be obligated to maintain the attorney client privilege regardless of whether he takes your case or not.
Now for the Patent Attorney. He offers a free consultation regarding a wonderful new idea that you have. He signs a non-disclosure agreement and you spend the next few hours detailing your idea. After you leave he calls his business partner and proceeds to patent your idea and there is nothing you can do about.
UNLESS YOU HAVE A SIGNED CONTRACT OF REPRESENTATION AND IN MOST CASES A RETAINER DEPOSIT, HE IS NOT YOUR PATENT ATTORNEY AND HAS NO LEGAL OR ETHICAL OBLIGATION TO REPRESENT YOU.
As for the non-disclosure agreement since you were speaking to him without representation he is free to divulge your information to his business partner. If you don't believe me contact the US Patent Office.
Shameless Plug...
Coming Fall 2009, "Patently Absurd - Everything you didn't want to know about PAs but I'm going to tell you anyway"
I'm currently working on underground bunkers that will be self-sustaining regardless of a rise or fall in temparature so I therefore would benefit by the possibility of a 200 degree fall or rise in temparature. I was of course betting on the lack of understanding of orders of magnitude and was hoping to scare up some business.
Slashdot Mirror
This whole thing drives me crazy. Is man screwing up the earth? Absolutely, but the solutions the politicians and algoreans are suggesting is pay to play. You can polute all you want as long as you pay for it.
Imagine for a moment that Microsoft was forced to deal with the fact that their software is responsible for ninety-five percent of virus infections, but instead of, Oh I don't know - MAKING THEM BUILD BETTER SOFTWARE - , we simply require that they pay for the tuition of every High School graduate who wants to get a degree in Computer Science.
Freejack. If this system survives longer than twenty-five years, Al Gore and every other person on the inside will live in secure cities with fresh water, abundant food and toss scraps to the rest of the world to feed the need for compassion.
As for me, I've got my money on the zoo of the future. Imagine being able to see the extinct Blue Jay, Cardinal, and if you are really lucky an Eagle.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Dateline 1488: William Howell purchases a nice manor in Buckinghamshire, England but has a recurring nightmare that he is living 521 years in the future. Sucks to be him.
I've learned over the years that you may have to take jobs that aren't the most socially redeeming as you would hope. The trick is to make sure your resume is written so as to downplay the company versus the actual coding. As an example you could say that you had work on statistical analysis of number sequences.
That being said I was offered a job that was described as high volume video streaming over the web. When I showed up it was a porn video streaming company with multiple cubicles each with it's own actor performing for the camera. Needless to say I decided to turn them down.
I have been programming accounting software for almost fifteen years and the first nasty lesson I learned was that data can be presented in unlimited ways and if you want to get paid you better make it look good. Change the scale, oversample, skew the questions and all sorts of other nasty tricks are now par for the course.
We now have well respected polls contradicting each other by double digits because of the politicizing of any information that might change voters opinions. I never thought that I would long for the post civil war years of reapproachment and unity.
Are you kidding me? How many Apple computers are running MS Office. Personally I think if Microsoft put more focus on cross-platform applications they would be able to leverage their extensive experience in developing software. The have gotten so bogged down in pi##ing contests with Google, Oracle, IBM and almost every other windmill out there that they have lost sight of what made Microsoft all their money, Basic and MS Office.
I say now that RIM has released an SDK for VS we should create serious applications for everything and stop thinking that Windows will exist in the same form in twenty years.
Dateline Orlando: Man get's hurt after trying to break into jail because he fears for his life. (true story google it)
The nuts always roll south.
And to think wanting to put a bullet in my brain is actually a sign of efficient programming.
I'm working on a project that follows the hand off of 150 million dollars worth of application source code. As I was reviewing the software I found several remarks. Two were:
' I don't know why I have to include this in the program
' but it's the only way it will work
' For some reason I have to put this in here to keep
' from getting an exception error
The last one is a keeper because we still got the exception error until it was fixed.
Jimmy Hendrix was obviously not a programmer.
Good point. Have you seen some of the Japanese Hotels? It's a bed like the one in Fifth Element and everyone shares a bathroom. Still, it sucks that I had to put a 10X10X5 inch aluminum heat sink on my Dish DVR 622 to keep it from overheating because the processor and harddrive overheat.
I completely agree that smaller is better for portable gaming systems but hate the fact that there is this belief that console based systems have to be so small. What really drives me crazy is when processing speed, storage size and cooling is sacrificed so it can be smaller.
I would much rather have a kick-a$# system that doesn't suffer from overheating problems and comes with a whole lot of storage than some pretty little thing that is dumb as a brick when it gets to hot.
There is nothing cooler than being commented on by a 117685. Live long and prosper.
That being said, I'm pretty sure my entire life is apocryphal.
I was orginally going to respond to Kodak man but am comfortable just providing this link of their amazing success. http://quote.morningstar.com/stock/s.aspx?t=EK&culture=en-US®ion=USA&r=469272&byrefresh=yes
Whoa Nellie! I've always wanted to send this reply but never found a sufficiently relevant post of which to respond.
All corporate IT departments worldwide are basically Johns looking for the cheapest but most satisfying solution to their current needs.
So imagine you are a CTO driving down the street and you see on your right a woman who, while attractive, also seems to provide a significant amount of additional services. However when you roll down your window you find out that in exchange for her services you have to marry her and hire her twenty children from a previous marriage in addition to signing a pre-nuptial agreement that pretty much sucks for you. (IBM)
You continue down the road and see the most beautiful woman in the world and she is guaranteed to be free of any viruses and diseases. Unfortunately she tells you that once you use her services you will be physically incapable of even looking at another women and if you try they will sue both you and the other women in court. Plus she is even more expensive than IBM. (Apple)
After deciding to keep looking you see a girl who looks less than a biscuit over fifteen but claims to be twenty-five. She is very enthusiastic and actually offers to do anything you want absolutely free. When you ask for specifics she excuses herself and walks over to a group of people who are feverously checking their computers for the most recent, coolest and insane method of satisfying your needs. When she returns she absolutely insures that she can do everything that you want but makes you sign an agreement that you have to share everything that you do with her with everyone else on the planet and she cannot completely guarantee that you will be satisfied. Just before you leave the attractive woman from IBM shows up and offers to throw in the fifteen year old for free as long as you still marry her, hire her children and sign the pre-nuptial agreement. (OpenSource)
You continue down the road and see a woman so ugly that you can't tell whether she has makeup on or not. She can provide all of the services of all the other girls and cheaper than everyone but the fifteen year old. She cannot guarantee you won't get any viruses or other diseases but promises to provide as many vaccines and cures necessary to keep you from dying. She seems to have a lot of customers and very few of them have died of anything serious so you are very interested in using her services. (Microsoft)
Before you make a final decision you pull over and roll your windows down to get some air. Suddenly you see a women that looks like nothing you have ever seen but different. She is clearly beautiful but has a strange glow of experience. You actually get out of the car and walk up to her wondering how she would compare to all the other girls. She does not speak English very well but within a very short time you realize that she has as much if not more experience that everyone else. When you ask how much she charges she provides a printout of over a thousand different services at half of what any of the other women are charging, save of course for the fifteen year old, and provides SLAs that put all of the other girls to shame. (Offshore)
You have finally made up your mind. You are going with the offshore service and invite her to join you in you car. She apologizes and mentions that she is just the representative for the team and if you stop at the next light you can pick up the other ten girls.
Because I'm no Ron Jeremy I will leave the end of the story, but suffice to say they separated into five groups of two and he fell asleep before they had decided on a
Willie Sutton, a famous bank robber from the early twentieth century, when asked why he robs banks said, "Because that is where the money is."
.Net C# programmer and the vast majority of jobs available right now are C# and Java. Unfortunately the corporate world follows the mantra, "You can't go wrong with .Net C# or Java".
I'm a contract
The same was said of IBM pretty much throughout the seventies and eighties. Hopefully Ruby and Python will start to make some corporate inroads but I don't see it happening any time soon. wdhowellsr
My brother-in-law works for Microsoft as a System Engineer guru they contract out to customers. He got his MCSE by paying 10k for a boot camp. I don't think it is possible for him to be any less interested in technology. When he is scheduled to work he works, when he isn't he doesn't.
I've been a computer geek for as long as I can remember and even when I was a Building Contractor I spent forty hours a week coding for fun. Fast forward thirty years and I'm developing software as a contractor for a Fortune 100 company Monday to Friday, 8-4:30. I still spend another twenty to thirty hours a week studying, coding and reading. My only rules are that my extra time must either further my skills or allow me to extend my contract by becoming invaluable to my current contract position.
If you are like my brother-in-law, the worker bee, you have every right to demand pay for any time you spend working. However if most of you are geeks like me, you just need to make sure you extra time either makes you better or extends your contract.
I was Roku buyer number 247 and can tell you that without question this is the most in demand device in our family. Netflix offers over ten-thousand videos for free and Amazon offers another five or ten-thousand for rental or purchase.
I've been a slashdotter for a very long time so I'm not some slacky for Dish, Roku or anyone else but I can tell you that if I can have a Roku on each TV in my house and have the ability to watch what I want when I want in HD for free I'm sold.
The resolution of the picture when connected to a decent broadband source is very good. The downside is that all of the providers will give you free access in exchange for forced commercials. I've got no problem with that and hope than one day soon we can watch any content, including new movies, for free with the understanding that we will be required to watch commercials.
There is nothing more beautiful than telling my seven and ten year old to go on Roku so Mom and I can have some "Private Time". It works every time.
It's seems odd that the general acceptance of the cytokine storm creating an overabundance of T-Cell and Macrophages is now being questioned. Everything written so far has indicated that the stronger the patient's immune system, the greater the response.
I'd wait until we see a peer reviewed study in a major medical journal.
William D Howell
I'm actually happy that they are extending the copyright of these works. The beauty is that a hundred years from now they will actually laugh at the fools that expect you to pay to watch the crap of the past century.
Disney and others will suddenly find themselves fighting a loosing war against completely unique Movies, Music, Animation and every other forms of art. Instead of realizing that Walt Disney could possible be remembered for a thousand years by providing a seed to future innovation, they will regard him as a greedy twentieth century materialist that offered nothing for people of the twenty-first century and beyond.
The dark ages provided a clean break and the new age of reasoning. It's quite likely that the arrogance of the artists of today will lead to another age of which they have no part.
William D Howell Sr
"Memory is Fleeting, Inspiration Eternal"
We will, within ten to twenty years, find ourselves in a world where, in theory, everyone has access to the same technology. The fact is Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and all of the others will realize that the Internet is like Aerosmith, the poor man's Rolling Stones. All data will be centralized and coordinated by governments and the wealthy to be parlayed into election results and financial gain.
Those unlikely enough to be on the outside of this new class-based proprietary world will be lulled into believing that they are happy. The end result will be a pseudo-matrix that allows the haves to control the have nots without anyone being the wiser.
Or perhaps not.
William David Howell Sr.
This is not a new process just the biggest yet. There have been FAA clearance to 50k feet out west. The difference between a NASA or Military Rocket and a Model Rocket is one costs billions of dollars and has fail rate of thirty percent. A model rocket cost less than fifty thousand and has a fail rate of fifty percent.
William D Howell Sr.
I'm no conspiracy theorist but aren't their like, oh I don't know, A MILLION TOUCHSCREEN ATMS AROUND THE WORLD? I don't recall hearing about this calibration issue with them. I guess it's possible that since the banks definitely want it to be accurate they make sure they work.
Why wouldn't someone want the voting machines to work? William D Howell Sr.
Your right but I have never been offered a job that mentioned SQL that meant anthing other than Microsoft SQL. Usually the just mention the database system if they want experience in Oracle or DB2.
If you are going to work in the UK or in the US you need to look at the job offers. I would start with entry level contract positions since they will usually give you a chance faster than a full time position. In addition you will be able to work three or four contracts and get a feel for what you like.
.Net and Web Based programming jobs.
http://www.computingcareers.co.uk/jobs/programmer-developer/ are jobs in the UK.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobseeker/Jobs/JobResults.aspx?SB%3Asbkw=computer+programming&SB%3As_freeloc=&SB%3Asbfr=30&sbsbmt=Find+Jobs+%C2%BB&cid=US&excrit=QID%3DA6656194759657%3Bst%3Da%3Buse%3DALL%3BrawWords%3Dprogramming%3BCID%3DUS%3BSID%3D%3F%3BTID%3D0%3BENR%3DNO%3BDTP%3DDRNS%3BYDI%3DYES%3BIND%3DALL%3BPDQ%3DAll%3BPDQ%3DAll%3BPAYL%3D0%3BPAYH%3Dgt120%3BPOY%3DNO%3BETD%3DALL%3BRE%3DALL%3BMGT%3DDC%3BSUP%3DDC%3BFRE%3D30%3BQS%3Dsid_unknown%3BSS%3DNO%3BTITL%3D0%3BJQT%3DRAD%3BJDV%3DFalse&IPath=QHKCV are jobs in the US.
You will notice that the UK has a lot more need to C++, JAVA and C and the US, no matter how much you hate Microsoft, has more SQL, Visual Studio, C# and other
I specialize in the n-tier web and windows application with Visual Studio, C#, Asp.net, and other Web Technologies and never want for work in the Orlando, FL area.
Good Luck and unless your married, program and read about programming every waking moment. If you are married unfortunately I can't help you. This is coming from someone married for twenty-three years. I got all my computer geek out of the way before I married her.
I had the opportunity, after graduating from Southampton High School in 1983, to spend my freshman and sophmore year at RIT with a guarantee that I could transfer to MIT in my Junior year. I said screw that because I was a 115lb 5' 8" computer geek and I didn't want to end up in some cubicle in the middle of the Pentagon.
I started building houses in the Hamptons right out of High School and became a geek in hunks clothing at 155lbs at 5' 8" with a 38" chest and a 31" waist. I met my wife in Miami after leaving NY and now have a hot wife and two incredibly smart kids.
A side note: The girls initially go for the hunks but at some point want you to make money, that's why I got back into computers in the early nineties.
You may be right as I've not actually used the Roku unit outside of the US. However unless Netflix is actively filtering non US IP ranges there should be no reason why we shouldn't be able to use the service outside the US.
I've had Netflix for almost two years and Roku for about a year and there is no contest. I'm not a big fan of movies but with two kids and a wife we rent probably three videos a month.
My Wife would leave me and take the kids if I ever took away the Roku. Almost every show the kids watch on Disney is available for free plus almost ten thousand other movies. Amazon now rents movies on the Roku and I'm sure all of the other movies will be available very soon. PLUS! (No. I don't work for Roku or Netflix) We can take the Roku anywhere in the world with internet access and a TV and I can view anything in my queue.
Enough Said.
I worked through thick and thin with Microsoft for over twenty years and find this to be a classic example of pure insanity. My primary work load is n-tier web application development using Asp.net, VS and C#. The .Net framework is very closely tied to the IE engine and I don't even want to think of the headaches in trying to migrate all existing applications to whatever they release.
This is obviously a dream, but it would be nice to have some sort of standard system for Internet Cloud and Browser software and hardware not unlike the telco and cellular market. There would still be billions to make for all of the Tech companies.
Not to say that paranoia is good, but after thirty years of software development as well as patented product development you can't be naive.
When it comes to software, the ownership issue for better or worse is actually quite simple. Very rarely if ever do you have clear and legal ownership of what you code.
Check with the schools legal department as many schools claim complete ownership of anything you do including your groundbreaking PHD Thesis.
When you finaly get a contract or permanent position programming, you will find that the employer again claims complete ownership of anything that you write. In contract positions you will almost always be required to sign a non-disclosure and code ownership agreement that grants complete ownership to the company. This also includes your handy library code stash. I speak from experience. If they want to, they can legaly prevent you from using your code on any other contracts or even personally.
As far as patenting anything else, consider yourself warned. Every single state bar in the US has very loose rules regarding legal and ethical behavior of Patent Attorneys.
As an example, If you were to walk into a Criminal Defense Attorneys office for a free consultation and confess to a murder you committed, he would be obligated to maintain the attorney client privilege regardless of whether he takes your case or not.
Now for the Patent Attorney. He offers a free consultation regarding a wonderful new idea that you have. He signs a non-disclosure agreement and you spend the next few hours detailing your idea. After you leave he calls his business partner and proceeds to patent your idea and there is nothing you can do about.
UNLESS YOU HAVE A SIGNED CONTRACT OF REPRESENTATION AND IN MOST CASES A RETAINER DEPOSIT, HE IS NOT YOUR PATENT ATTORNEY AND HAS NO LEGAL OR ETHICAL OBLIGATION TO REPRESENT YOU.
As for the non-disclosure agreement since you were speaking to him without representation he is free to divulge your information to his business partner. If you don't believe me contact the US Patent Office.
Shameless Plug... Coming Fall 2009, "Patently Absurd - Everything you didn't want to know about PAs but I'm going to tell you anyway"
I apologize and must make this disclosure:
I'm currently working on underground bunkers that will be self-sustaining regardless of a rise or fall in temparature so I therefore would benefit by the possibility of a 200 degree fall or rise in temparature. I was of course betting on the lack of understanding of orders of magnitude and was hoping to scare up some business.