<rant>About two years ago, I noticed this after I actually went to their website AND called to cancel prior to renewal. It still renewed, and the "customer service" rep had the balls to tell me that they couldn't refund my money when I called about it. I took that one as far up the food chain as I could - including writing an email to the president or whatever, and got the "immediate" response that they wouldn't auto-renew NEXT time. It took approximately 3 months to get my money back. ONLY because I had documented my cancellation with workers numbers and crap. I figure they owe me about $600 in time. </rant>
I don't consider myself a narcissistic student, but I wonder, what's the point of going through years of education, if not to use it?
I think you misunderstand... Your degree only demonstrates to an employer:
You can complete a long-term simple project with clearly defined requirements.
You have the most basic competencies required by your degree program
You should have some basic knowledge about the field
What it does not demonstrate to an employer:
You can complete a complex short or long-term project with fuzzy requirements (as in: the real world)
You can work on a small part of a complex project, without necessarily knowing "where it fits"
You work well in a team and actually contribute usefully
You can lead or follow
You have the ability to teach yourself any required new skill
You are flexible enough to use the appropriate technology for a project - and become an expert as needed
You can admit when you screwed up, and happily fix it
I'm sure I missed loads, but those are just the things off the top of my head. Basically, your education is primarily there to teach you how to teach yourself in an area of expertise.
School finished long ago for us. Just doing the Birth, School, Work, Death thing. Fort Fun is a nice boring place to live as a grownup. Or, as one of my friends says: The Fun Never Starts! lol
I checked out the SAS website, and they say"Email Service and Internet Access -
Participants can access web-based email accounts, such as Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc. The technology fee charged to all students and lifelong learners provides 125 minutes of Internet access. Internet usage beyond 125 minutes will incur a charge on a per minute basis." So, he doesn't get cut off after 100 minutes. He gets 125 minutes, but he can pay for more. It's not as bad as he makes out.
I personally feel like I can answer the phone "Spousal Support Desk". Back in the early 90's, I set up my little Mac with the "EasyOpen" feature - he could only edit documents he'd created and create new ones. He could not delete any or run anything besides Claris Works and Solitare. He seemed to be really comfortable using the computer for school, and loved spellchecker et. Al. He comes home one day saying he wishes he had a copy of a paper from the prior semester, since he could use it for another class/prof. I'm thinking "I'll be a hero" when I show him the fantasical way computers help us by keeping our old documents. Instead, I find he had been using the same document over and over. He would just delete the entire prior paper (cauliflower-A, Del) and start over. It still hasn't got much better - he cruises the web on his flashy iMac, writes email, but I still can't get him to casually "cauliflower-Q" an app. He just clicks the little X in the window and thinks that app is closed. He also has a real thing where he tries to magically press the apple command key for 1 nanosecond followed by the other key (V, X, A, et. Al.), using only the tips of his fingers, like he can screw it up. 15 years later and he still doesn't get it. You see why I keep buying him Macs tho? lol
IMHO - and I'm no longer in an MS shop - is that OSLO and VS2010 both add up to HuYOOGE code bloat if prior MS tools are any indication. What MS needs to do, since they're obviously trying to automagic stuff more and more, is to sort out including their whole freaking library in the binaries by default.
Re:Oblig. Eddie Izzard
on
LHC Success!
·
· Score: 1, Funny
Having just got off the phone to get a password from someone on vacation... I couldn't agree more. If you don't think it's important enough to wake someone up in New York when you're in California, then it can wait. OTOTH: When I was supporting a system that was supposed to be 24/7/365 we did have BBs that the Monitoring System would send alerts for down time... if it exceeded X minutes and didn't automagically come back up.... but PEOPLE didn't have the address for the thing. That was fine too. But I would never have wanted my boss to know how to send an email to it.
I went to HS in the mid 80's, undergrad (Physics) and grad (Unclear Physics) in the early 90's: I was APPALLED even in grad school at the people who were supposedly top of their undergrad class and unable to do simple DifEqs! The advantage I think? I had to learn to do it myself. Even in undergrad: I could use a calculator... but no whiz-bang TI-85 (I did end up buying a schweet HP clamshell my senior year - and learned to glory of reverse polish). So you used your Handy Dandy Math Handbook even in the early 90's... and learned how to create your own plug-n-chug. AND you learned to derive your own equations. It was called an education back then. Now? I teach classes for an unnamed university or two on occasion, and cannot believe that inability of the "grad students" to do basic algebra. And that's all I have to say about that!
Hmmm... I guess no one there is allowed to have smoke detectors. What if a resident needs to use nuclear medicine? Well, I guess it's okay with me if their houses burn down et. Al. if it's okay with them.
OMG! It's true! Ada Lovelance > Lord Byron > Percy Shelly > Mary Shelly > Colin Clive > Don Ameche > Clark Gregg > Kevin Bacon... so they're separated by 6 - is that right?
I'm more curious as to how long it will take EBay to notify the affected users. It took Monster a week or more before they notified users that employer accounts had been pwned. *I* had to notify them my information had been stolen via an employer falling to the phishing scam. I just hope EBay is more upfront.
In my area, (where lots do not have access to broadband via cable or DSL), there are two other options. One is radio via Digis or Direct TV has an internet option. Even those who have "stand alone" homes (completely off all grids) can have broadband.
Slashdot Mirror
<rant>About two years ago, I noticed this after I actually went to their website AND called to cancel prior to renewal. It still renewed, and the "customer service" rep had the balls to tell me that they couldn't refund my money when I called about it. I took that one as far up the food chain as I could - including writing an email to the president or whatever, and got the "immediate" response that they wouldn't auto-renew NEXT time. It took approximately 3 months to get my money back. ONLY because I had documented my cancellation with workers numbers and crap. I figure they owe me about $600 in time. </rant>
What? No music to go with the dancing hamsters?
Stop Runner!
I think you misunderstand... Your degree only demonstrates to an employer:
What it does not demonstrate to an employer:
I'm sure I missed loads, but those are just the things off the top of my head. Basically, your education is primarily there to teach you how to teach yourself in an area of expertise.
School finished long ago for us. Just doing the Birth, School, Work, Death thing. Fort Fun is a nice boring place to live as a grownup. Or, as one of my friends says: The Fun Never Starts! lol
Huzzah from Fort Fun.
Pinko Commie ... couldn't resist.
I checked out the SAS website, and they say "Email Service and Internet Access - Participants can access web-based email accounts, such as Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc. The technology fee charged to all students and lifelong learners provides 125 minutes of Internet access. Internet usage beyond 125 minutes will incur a charge on a per minute basis." So, he doesn't get cut off after 100 minutes. He gets 125 minutes, but he can pay for more. It's not as bad as he makes out.
I personally feel like I can answer the phone "Spousal Support Desk". Back in the early 90's, I set up my little Mac with the "EasyOpen" feature - he could only edit documents he'd created and create new ones. He could not delete any or run anything besides Claris Works and Solitare. He seemed to be really comfortable using the computer for school, and loved spellchecker et. Al. He comes home one day saying he wishes he had a copy of a paper from the prior semester, since he could use it for another class/prof. I'm thinking "I'll be a hero" when I show him the fantasical way computers help us by keeping our old documents. Instead, I find he had been using the same document over and over. He would just delete the entire prior paper (cauliflower-A, Del) and start over.
It still hasn't got much better - he cruises the web on his flashy iMac, writes email, but I still can't get him to casually "cauliflower-Q" an app. He just clicks the little X in the window and thinks that app is closed. He also has a real thing where he tries to magically press the apple command key for 1 nanosecond followed by the other key (V, X, A, et. Al.), using only the tips of his fingers, like he can screw it up. 15 years later and he still doesn't get it. You see why I keep buying him Macs tho? lol
That would be fine with a three button mouse. But for some reason, I find using the wheelie thingie as a button slightly disturbing... it wiggles.
s/Bload/Bloat... damnit shoulda previewed!
IMHO - and I'm no longer in an MS shop - is that OSLO and VS2010 both add up to HuYOOGE code bloat if prior MS tools are any indication. What MS needs to do, since they're obviously trying to automagic stuff more and more, is to sort out including their whole freaking library in the binaries by default.
So, my choices are "or Death?"
Hey, if Kurt Vonnegut could do it while writing a NOVEL, why can't engineers do it for a proposal?
Having just got off the phone to get a password from someone on vacation... I couldn't agree more. If you don't think it's important enough to wake someone up in New York when you're in California, then it can wait.
OTOTH: When I was supporting a system that was supposed to be 24/7/365 we did have BBs that the Monitoring System would send alerts for down time... if it exceeded X minutes and didn't automagically come back up.... but PEOPLE didn't have the address for the thing. That was fine too. But I would never have wanted my boss to know how to send an email to it.
I went to HS in the mid 80's, undergrad (Physics) and grad (Unclear Physics) in the early 90's: I was APPALLED even in grad school at the people who were supposedly top of their undergrad class and unable to do simple DifEqs! The advantage I think? I had to learn to do it myself. Even in undergrad: I could use a calculator... but no whiz-bang TI-85 (I did end up buying a schweet HP clamshell my senior year - and learned to glory of reverse polish). So you used your Handy Dandy Math Handbook even in the early 90's... and learned how to create your own plug-n-chug. AND you learned to derive your own equations. It was called an education back then. Now? I teach classes for an unnamed university or two on occasion, and cannot believe that inability of the "grad students" to do basic algebra. And that's all I have to say about that!
Hmmm... I guess no one there is allowed to have smoke detectors. What if a resident needs to use nuclear medicine? Well, I guess it's okay with me if their houses burn down et. Al. if it's okay with them.
OMG! It's true! Ada Lovelance > Lord Byron > Percy Shelly > Mary Shelly > Colin Clive > Don Ameche > Clark Gregg > Kevin Bacon... so they're separated by 6 - is that right?
Thank You! That brought a smile to my face for a sad occasion! Pot-o-weet Arthur C. Clarke.
Baxter and Clarke...a partnership *I* for one enjoy... The Light of Other Days is just one example. RIP!
My response was "uh. Hum." and my next thought was "who posted this?", and "Why did I just waste my time reading this undecipherable article..."
...to the explanation (with graphics) of internet tubes.
LMAO! You made me snort coffee out my nose.
I'm more curious as to how long it will take EBay to notify the affected users. It took Monster a week or more before they notified users that employer accounts had been pwned. *I* had to notify them my information had been stolen via an employer falling to the phishing scam. I just hope EBay is more upfront.
In my area, (where lots do not have access to broadband via cable or DSL), there are two other options. One is radio via Digis or Direct TV has an internet option. Even those who have "stand alone" homes (completely off all grids) can have broadband.