I have a computer around 99% of the time. I like the CD format, I grew up with records, soft vinyl which sounded like crap after 8 or nine times through, and the improvement with the CD format was and is phenomenal...
But I can't or won't carry around my collection - I can however rip the entire collection to mp3 and have it in endless variety...
So far I have no real interest in downloading free music, but if these morons keep doing all this for my own good, I will.
And didn't CD sales plunge AFTER napster was shut off? Kind of a residual sea change?
And what IS with $ 14.00 average for a CD? I think we could perhaps PRICE these things a bit better?
Let's really return to the old days - self-scratching CDs that become useless and unlistenable after a couple of months so you must re-buy to continue listening... Or not only could we have copy protection we could have the whole CD just expire after a certain date. Won't we all rush to buy THAT! Expiration dates on CDs, like the food dates at the grocery stores. Customers picking through the front ones looking for some better "freshness dates" in the back of the bin. A disclosure label (they won't call it a warning, because after all, it's what YOU the PUBIC demanded@!) that says "This CD is a better product because it would get stale and old if we didn't respond to your demands!" The FDA could get in the picture setting times of expiration for crops of plastic.
Of course, there ARE some CDs that should become unplayable, but I have found a piece of sandpaper, or scissor, or something similar to work just fine without corporate HELP, thank you.
I look, I look further and yet again - what a surprise - Katz is promoting yet another book he purports to agree with...
I swear this guy absolutely should be getting kickbacks from the authors.
Globalization is a phenomenon, not reponsible for anything - the problem stems from corporate "ethics" which isn't - corporation executives make decisions based on the best interest of this non-existent legal fiction of a person called a corporation which has cells called stockholders - and this is an immoral and unworkable way to run a planet. Individual ethics are gone.
Katz is too busy being "hip" to really have a thought on his own, but this book-review cloaked in an opinion piece shtick is getting quite old...
And most sane corporate internet use policies (like the one I drafted for my company) will nail your ass to the wall if this is found on a non-personal or corporate VPN-enabled PC. I know I would...
It's about me, not some company or manager
on
Do You Like Your Job?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I manage my career/destiny using three rules, roughly in order of precedence
Is this fun?
How does this contribute to my resume?
What is the difference between what I am being paid currently and what I am worth/could get elsewhere?
No company has or ever will look out for my personal interests as well as I can. There is no job security, in fact there never was such. In the long run only your own professionalism and competence really counts
These three factors juggle - If it's not fun, then money becomes more important and comes up in priority. If it is fun and contributing to a long term future (is adding to the resume in impressive ways) then money becomes third as in the list. Stupid mindless tasks demand more money and more fun either in the tasks themselves or somewhere else.
Also part of what I will put up with is what other possibilities exist. So far I have found another job first before resigning, I always keep my resume up to date, and I think looking to see what you are really worth and who will really hire you is vital to managing your profession - makes negotiating for a real market valued increase much easier when you do not feel trapped - plus interviewing is its own skill and worth keeping on top of anyway. If you are really unhappy (i.e., it's not fun) go see what else is out there, then decide whether or not it is worth putting up with (resume?, money?) You may have to stay where you are and try to bring up two of the three factors without changing jobs.
I created my current job, basically network guru at an engineering company. I work on the fun, hard interesting projects, then turn over the implementation and day to day operations. Right now the priorities align as above, it is FUN, it is contributing rapidly to a cutting edge resume, and I am paid well. I still look at other jobs and postings, but only as a matter of principle right now.
I also have the occasional nightmare where I dream I came into work and was locked out... Again, the only true assurance of any security is your personal competence and value
Every once in a while you really have to be able to look up and wonder, "And they pay me to do this?", and have that be a good thing, 'cause you would probably do it for fun and the challenge anyway.
The article fails to actually quantify "looking for a job". What did these people actually DO? Send out resumes to companies they hope maybe to work for? Follow up with a phone call or snail mail? What kind of resume - most resumes are bad advertisements, written with badness...
Did they go out and TALK WITH PEOPLE every day while drawing unemployment? Or send out a couple of resumes a week? Did they go over interview questions and formulate answers? Did they then get interviews?
Basically did they do the same thing over and over and expect different results (insanity) or professionally execute "finding a job"?
This is not a true picture of anything, this is one person's perception (author) of several other people (sought out for their failure to find a job - undoubtably one of the prerequisites for showing up in the article was that singular failure...
How many people did he find who were unsuitable for the article (i.e., found a job in three weeks rather than the next day)? Remember, this guy starts with the premise that this is bad, that people (preselected for failure) can't find jobs... He works very hard to find supporting examples and facts, pointedly ignoring and minimizing that which does not support his premise.
I preferred the boom economy, who wouldn't? I saw demand for my specific skills slow to a crawl for about three months (September to November 2001) - then gradually pick back up again. No corporation can expand/operate/move forward in any way without technology, even just basic office networks. There is still a shortage of tech guys who can do as opposed to talk about doing or hang certificates. MCSE - Mine Sweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert...
Yet again, Katz doesn't get it. Who in hell looks for relevance in a Schwartzenegger movie? Just blow things up, have great sound (the "tink" of brass hitting the concrete...) and it's a go.
And to think/. features this idiot.
I majored in physics at UCLA...
Then spent 17 years building houses, apprenticing and then working as electrician, plumber, drywaller, framer, trim carpenter, cabinet maker, millright, painter, mason, before finally settling on my real career -
General contractor... oops, hated that, back to owning a small cabinet shop... But wait, what's that money thing I keep hearing about? Don't ever seem to have any of that.
Took an intense systems admin in UNIX class. I had been using and tweaking computers since 1986, in DOS, and loved the command line. Got a job doing support for Solaris webservers, and drifted into managing (Windows) desktops and (NT) servers. Quit and went to a Solaris only shop, managing 1400 firewall servers. Then the start-up I am at now which is doing quite well. Now I do network architecture and protocol and service workability (guru) and mostly work from home and do what the hell interests me and looks good on my resume. I truly love it.
The best advice I have seen so far is decide what you want to have, then decide what you want to do for that level of lifestyle that will produce that kind of income, then decide what you would have to be to do that. "What Color is Your Parachute" is good as well, for discovering what the hell you should be doing when you grow up. It is never a straight line, unless you want a boring life. If you are job hunting via resumes and interviews, truly, check out the Parachute book - that job hunt was statistically doomed.
I am now looking about ten to fifteen years ahead to what next, and it is between a sheriff for a small western town, and baseball player or fireman...
Seriously, if you don't wake up every once in a while and look around you and say "They're paying me for this? Hell, I'd (almost) do it for free..." then your life is in a rut and eventually that rut will become the open sewer of corporate or blue collar hell.
Best of luck, follow your dreams to the money.
Slashdot Mirror
Nuff said right there.
--doug
I have a computer around 99% of the time. I like the CD format, I grew up with records, soft vinyl which sounded like crap after 8 or nine times through, and the improvement with the CD format was and is phenomenal...
But I can't or won't carry around my collection - I can however rip the entire collection to mp3 and have it in endless variety...
So far I have no real interest in downloading free music, but if these morons keep doing all this for my own good, I will.
And didn't CD sales plunge AFTER napster was shut off? Kind of a residual sea change?
And what IS with $ 14.00 average for a CD? I think we could perhaps PRICE these things a bit better?
Let's really return to the old days - self-scratching CDs that become useless and unlistenable after a couple of months so you must re-buy to continue listening... Or not only could we have copy protection we could have the whole CD just expire after a certain date. Won't we all rush to buy THAT! Expiration dates on CDs, like the food dates at the grocery stores. Customers picking through the front ones looking for some better "freshness dates" in the back of the bin. A disclosure label (they won't call it a warning, because after all, it's what YOU the PUBIC demanded@!) that says "This CD is a better product because it would get stale and old if we didn't respond to your demands!" The FDA could get in the picture setting times of expiration for crops of plastic.
Of course, there ARE some CDs that should become unplayable, but I have found a piece of sandpaper, or scissor, or something similar to work just fine without corporate HELP, thank you.
I look, I look further and yet again - what a surprise - Katz is promoting yet another book he purports to agree with...
I swear this guy absolutely should be getting kickbacks from the authors.
Globalization is a phenomenon, not reponsible for anything - the problem stems from corporate "ethics" which isn't - corporation executives make decisions based on the best interest of this non-existent legal fiction of a person called a corporation which has cells called stockholders - and this is an immoral and unworkable way to run a planet. Individual ethics are gone.
Katz is too busy being "hip" to really have a thought on his own, but this book-review cloaked in an opinion piece shtick is getting quite old...
You have my sympathies... (i.e., no real command line)
And most sane corporate internet use policies (like the one I drafted for my company) will nail your ass to the wall if this is found on a non-personal or corporate VPN-enabled PC. I know I would...
Is this fun?
How does this contribute to my resume?
What is the difference between what I am being paid currently and what I am worth/could get elsewhere?
No company has or ever will look out for my personal interests as well as I can. There is no job security, in fact there never was such. In the long run only your own professionalism and competence really counts
These three factors juggle - If it's not fun, then money becomes more important and comes up in priority. If it is fun and contributing to a long term future (is adding to the resume in impressive ways) then money becomes third as in the list. Stupid mindless tasks demand more money and more fun either in the tasks themselves or somewhere else.
Also part of what I will put up with is what other possibilities exist. So far I have found another job first before resigning, I always keep my resume up to date, and I think looking to see what you are really worth and who will really hire you is vital to managing your profession - makes negotiating for a real market valued increase much easier when you do not feel trapped - plus interviewing is its own skill and worth keeping on top of anyway. If you are really unhappy (i.e., it's not fun) go see what else is out there, then decide whether or not it is worth putting up with (resume?, money?) You may have to stay where you are and try to bring up two of the three factors without changing jobs.
I created my current job, basically network guru at an engineering company. I work on the fun, hard interesting projects, then turn over the implementation and day to day operations. Right now the priorities align as above, it is FUN, it is contributing rapidly to a cutting edge resume, and I am paid well. I still look at other jobs and postings, but only as a matter of principle right now.
I also have the occasional nightmare where I dream I came into work and was locked out... Again, the only true assurance of any security is your personal competence and value
Every once in a while you really have to be able to look up and wonder, "And they pay me to do this?", and have that be a good thing, 'cause you would probably do it for fun and the challenge anyway.
The article fails to actually quantify "looking for a job". What did these people actually DO? Send out resumes to companies they hope maybe to work for? Follow up with a phone call or snail mail? What kind of resume - most resumes are bad advertisements, written with badness... Did they go out and TALK WITH PEOPLE every day while drawing unemployment? Or send out a couple of resumes a week? Did they go over interview questions and formulate answers? Did they then get interviews?
Basically did they do the same thing over and over and expect different results (insanity) or professionally execute "finding a job"?
This is not a true picture of anything, this is one person's perception (author) of several other people (sought out for their failure to find a job - undoubtably one of the prerequisites for showing up in the article was that singular failure... How many people did he find who were unsuitable for the article (i.e., found a job in three weeks rather than the next day)? Remember, this guy starts with the premise that this is bad, that people (preselected for failure) can't find jobs... He works very hard to find supporting examples and facts, pointedly ignoring and minimizing that which does not support his premise.
I preferred the boom economy, who wouldn't? I saw demand for my specific skills slow to a crawl for about three months (September to November 2001) - then gradually pick back up again. No corporation can expand/operate/move forward in any way without technology, even just basic office networks. There is still a shortage of tech guys who can do as opposed to talk about doing or hang certificates. MCSE - Mine Sweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert...
Yet again, Katz doesn't get it. Who in hell looks for relevance in a Schwartzenegger movie? Just blow things up, have great sound (the "tink" of brass hitting the concrete...) and it's a go. And to think /. features this idiot.
I majored in physics at UCLA...
Then spent 17 years building houses, apprenticing and then working as electrician, plumber, drywaller, framer, trim carpenter, cabinet maker, millright, painter, mason, before finally settling on my real career -
General contractor... oops, hated that, back to owning a small cabinet shop... But wait, what's that money thing I keep hearing about? Don't ever seem to have any of that.
Took an intense systems admin in UNIX class. I had been using and tweaking computers since 1986, in DOS, and loved the command line. Got a job doing support for Solaris webservers, and drifted into managing (Windows) desktops and (NT) servers. Quit and went to a Solaris only shop, managing 1400 firewall servers. Then the start-up I am at now which is doing quite well. Now I do network architecture and protocol and service workability (guru) and mostly work from home and do what the hell interests me and looks good on my resume. I truly love it.
The best advice I have seen so far is decide what you want to have, then decide what you want to do for that level of lifestyle that will produce that kind of income, then decide what you would have to be to do that. "What Color is Your Parachute" is good as well, for discovering what the hell you should be doing when you grow up. It is never a straight line, unless you want a boring life. If you are job hunting via resumes and interviews, truly, check out the Parachute book - that job hunt was statistically doomed.
I am now looking about ten to fifteen years ahead to what next, and it is between a sheriff for a small western town, and baseball player or fireman...
Seriously, if you don't wake up every once in a while and look around you and say "They're paying me for this? Hell, I'd (almost) do it for free..." then your life is in a rut and eventually that rut will become the open sewer of corporate or blue collar hell.
Best of luck, follow your dreams to the money.