Technical ability isn't going to help nearly enough if they don't understand software engineering principles. What SDLC methodologies have they used? What do they like and don't like? What source code tools do they like? What is Brooks' Law? How do they work with QA? Have they supported software they have released or has it gone to another team?
And understand their answers. Say they don't like the daily Scrum in their AGILE environment. Why? Is it because it's pointless in that environment - no real problems are addressed, brought up, no code is reviewed, no items gone over? Or do they just find it boring?
Technology is important. It's also important to have engineers and not programmers. 10 times out of 10 I'd hire and engineer with proven SDLC experience without the specific experience in the specific technology at hand*. My experience is that having an engineer that uses and respects the processes in place is infinitely more valuable than getting someone with mastery of the technology.
*Within reason. I'm not hiring a LAMP expert for an embedded C job, but hiring a LAMP expert for a web-based Java job? Yeah, I'd consider that.
This needs to get out. anandtech did a bang up job investigating how strong the signal is based on the bars you have and found it to be logarithmic and heavily weighted to having 5 bars. This is probably a software fix to make it more linear. It's not fixing the antenna issue or all the dropped calls you'll still get because of the grip of death.
I know that if I'm running Linux, I'm going to immediately take code off a mailing list, compile it in my kernel, and feel comfortable.
Had this been open source, everyone would wait for a patch just like they are from Microsoft. It will almost definitely be quicker, but the mailing list idea is just absurd.
Pinging slashdot.org [216.34.181.45] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=126ms TTL=243 Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=125ms TTL=243 Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=119ms TTL=243 Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=138ms TTL=243
Ping statistics for 216.34.181.45:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 119ms, Maximum = 138ms, Average = 127ms
C:\>ping google.com
Pinging google.com [66.249.81.104] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=57 Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=57 Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=125ms TTL=57 Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=129ms TTL=57
Ping statistics for 66.249.81.104:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 105ms, Maximum = 129ms, Average = 116ms
Raleigh-Durham, 4G since November as my primary home internet connection.
It doesn't work well in the rain or a thunderstorm. 6-7 Mbit down 1.5 or so up. That is as fast as the DSL connection I could get. I refuse to give money to Time Warner so that's out of the question.
The connection isn't as reliable as DSL or cable modem. It's kind of flaky and the DNS servers that come with Clearwire service are bad. Use Google's or opendns.
That said, it is basically a wireless DSL connection. It is way way faster than a 3G signal. Don't know how it will be on the EVO, but unless the iPhone 4G/HD blows me out of the water, when my iPhone 3G contract comes up in July, I'm going to Sprint to take advantage.
I'm 5'9" and 200. I also overpronate. And I like to run. Cushioning and stability are huge for me. Shoes help me do what I enjoy.
You realize the most popular running shoes, the Asics 2100 series, helps those that overpronate. That would imply there are a lot of people out there who need some adjustments to their running form and the shoes help with it. It sure helps me.
I can't even imagine the blisters I would get running barefoot. Back in the day the races weren't on asphalt or concrete.
(Before I get any flack, I'm built like a short linebacker. I am overweight, but only 20-25 pounds. I'm not one of those waif-ish runners.)
Perhaps this should be an indication not so much of the readership but the percentage of people in the entire country sick and tired of this administration and its decisions and policies. Perhaps the "blue team" feelings on this story are the majority nation wide?
Our W-2 (report of what we made - required when filing the return) doesn't arrive until Jan. 31st or a little after. The earliest most of us can do our taxes is early in February. And if you're like me and your former company filed an amended W-2, you get to wait a bit longer or file an amended return.
I will say that even though I lost a former job to outsourcing and cost-cutting measures, my impression having worked for 2 companies that outsource is that companies are willing to hire more employees than necessary in outsourcing operations just because they cost less. That may factor into the numbers. If I lay off 8 people in the states and hire 10-12 replacements, I have created jobs kind of but not really. I've seen this many times in the efforts to get a group in India up and running.
I want to say this will be the case, but it's worth noting that computers just aren't affordable for the average person. The average salary is about 15-25% of an American equivalent in the IT world, and that's astronomically high for India. That may or may not get you a car.
My point is it's not like the US where someone can sit at home, get a computer, and learn computer skills quickly. Someone in India has to take the time to learn computer skills somewhere. I'm not sure where the qualified applicants are going to come from.
Completely offtopic, I'm astounded that after all of these India posts on/. and related places there aren't more people chiming in about their experience in India. I mean, some of us have been over there to train people. Collectively the IT folks in America are getting more impressions of experiences in India. Hopefully more of those impressions will come to light as discussion continue.
Maybe you should read some M. Scott Peck. He argues that science and religion - well, spirituality - aren't that different. He argues, and correctly I believe, that people that question to the point of being agnostic or athiestic are more advanced spiritually than zombies in a church building, be them fundamentalists or progressives.
Both are a way to make sense of the world. Conclusions from science will come and go just as do religions. A better model of the world will be developed in physics one day, the Big Bang theory may change, just as deism is in its dying throes.
Disclaimer. I used to work for the founder of Zenph Studios, back when he founded a networking software company and he left when it merged with a larger one. I am still in touch.
Someone takes a recording from long ago on vinyl. They play it on vinyl. Advanced signal processing listens to the sound from the original recording and detects which note is played when keys are pressed and lifted, and apparently when pedals are in use as well. This is laid down in a high-fidelity MIDI format. This MIDI file is fed through a high-performance Yamaha piano and the concert is played live on the piano in the concert hall. The piano translates the MIDI files and hits the keys, pedals, everything to the exact timing specified in the file. The magic is in the signal processing of the original recording. The idea is to replicate the original recording, note for note, tone for tone, microsecond for microsecond, feeling for feeling.
So, this is a HUGE step beyond player pianos. We can replicate old recordings and (GASP!) re-record them using modern methods, saving old lost tapes, making old recordings available in SACD and DVD-Audio. We can replicate concerts across the globe. Piano competitions can be done remotely. This could be of incredible significance to old classical music libraries and performances.
Perhaps the editors could wait until there is an official piece of information from Intuit before posting editorial comments? Seriously, maybe there's a reason why. Then again, maybe not.
<sarcasm>In either case, I believe we should be reactionary and attack Intuit, just like we do every year about this time. They did add DRM stuff to TurboTax one year. Bastards.</sarcasm >
(I do remember them pulling the DRM or whatever stuff from TurboTax. Maybe they'll do the right thing here. But since I don't have enough info, I don't know the right thing. So I won't jump on this bandwagon. Yet.
Allegedly studies have been done since then that prove you can't use cell phones on airplanes reliably. Some people on this thread have said basically the same thing.
I would imagine you're close enough to towers during take off and landing you could use them. In the sky, I don't know. You are 7+ miles away from a cell tower, which should be beyond the limit to use them.
All XM music channels are commercial free. The talk ones have commercials, but it's kind of weird. It would take me too long to explain all the public service stuff they play instead of commercials most of the time.
With the MyFi you can skip songs in the sections you have recorded.
ACC/Big 10/Pac-10 are COLLEGE conferences. XM plays college basketball and football games.
Apple did make a good product. I don't knock it. Just making fun of the owners of said product.
I totally agree. I have XM, and I have Sirius on Dish Network. I have about 100 music stations on Dish Network, and none of them are remotely as good as the ones on XM. Listening to the alternative stations on Sirius, there's only so many Talking Heads songs I can listen to at any given time.
I ordered from Crutchfield. I'm not a big fan of Crutchfield, but they and Circuit City got them before anyone else and it was a crap shoot to see who got them first. Circuit City did. Oh well. Same price everywhere.
Best Buy has them sometimes now as well. They're at least on the Best Buy website. If you order on-line they'll ship soon. Check local stock as well - many Circuit City stores have had them in stock, not in stock, in stock, and not in stock again.
Everyone keeps saying the iPOD holds more music, has better battery life. I don't seem them competing. Maybe it's just me. The limitations of satellite radio mean you have to have an antenna and specialized hardware that sucks the juice down. But you get a 2,000,000 song library.
You can record and playback, and it has an alarm. It also comes with a home and car kit. Note that buying a SkyFi2, home, and car kit will almost cost as much as the MyFi.
I have the MyFi so I can listen while I'm walking my dog. Yes, I like XM that much to want to listen to it over MP3s or something like that. One thing your MP3 collection can't do is turn you on to new music. I wouldn't have known about many new bands (or old bands for that matter) without XM. I don't know if I would know who Muse, The Faint, or Franz Ferdinand were, and I wouldn't have found out how much I like Echo and the Bunnymen and stuff like that.
I don't think it needs more storage space. The idea is to listen to radio, which is mostly live. I think the recorded feature is for programs you can't pick up when you aren't available (a timer feature will record something for you) and if you can't pick up a signal. It's basically 5 hours of music programming.
Did I mention the talk radio and the ACC/Big 10/Pac-10 games?
I like not having to cue up playlists, pick what I want to listen to, listen to new music, etc. XM seems to want to play their deeper library more than Sirius, one reason I like their service more.
I've had it for 2 days and like it. I need to play with the wearable antenna some more before I say I love it. The signal is spotty outside at times while walking around. I have no problems in my car or at the office. Speaking as someone who is upgrading from the original Sony Xm radio, this is also a huge upgrade.
Finally, to the editors, stop knocking XM an satellite radio. Half the satellite radio stories seem to denounce it somehow. The AP review doesn't really say anything bad about it. Some of you that knock satellite radio need to try it before worshiping your iPOD again.
I haven't heard a noticeable degredation. I've subscribed in late 2001. Talk stations are pretty bad, but music hasn't been.
Reports are the new SkyFi2 sounds better than pretty much anything else. And there is a new Polk component XM receiver with optical and coaxial output. Time for an upgrade?
Slashdot Mirror
Technical ability isn't going to help nearly enough if they don't understand software engineering principles. What SDLC methodologies have they used? What do they like and don't like? What source code tools do they like? What is Brooks' Law? How do they work with QA? Have they supported software they have released or has it gone to another team?
And understand their answers. Say they don't like the daily Scrum in their AGILE environment. Why? Is it because it's pointless in that environment - no real problems are addressed, brought up, no code is reviewed, no items gone over? Or do they just find it boring?
Technology is important. It's also important to have engineers and not programmers. 10 times out of 10 I'd hire and engineer with proven SDLC experience without the specific experience in the specific technology at hand*. My experience is that having an engineer that uses and respects the processes in place is infinitely more valuable than getting someone with mastery of the technology.
*Within reason. I'm not hiring a LAMP expert for an embedded C job, but hiring a LAMP expert for a web-based Java job? Yeah, I'd consider that.
This needs to get out. anandtech did a bang up job investigating how strong the signal is based on the bars you have and found it to be logarithmic and heavily weighted to having 5 bars. This is probably a software fix to make it more linear. It's not fixing the antenna issue or all the dropped calls you'll still get because of the grip of death.
I know that if I'm running Linux, I'm going to immediately take code off a mailing list, compile it in my kernel, and feel comfortable.
Had this been open source, everyone would wait for a patch just like they are from Microsoft. It will almost definitely be quicker, but the mailing list idea is just absurd.
Slow.
(seriously, not bad)
C:\>ping slashdot.org
Pinging slashdot.org [216.34.181.45] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=126ms TTL=243
Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=125ms TTL=243
Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=119ms TTL=243
Reply from 216.34.181.45: bytes=32 time=138ms TTL=243
Ping statistics for 216.34.181.45:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 119ms, Maximum = 138ms, Average = 127ms
C:\>ping google.com
Pinging google.com [66.249.81.104] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=57
Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=57
Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=125ms TTL=57
Reply from 66.249.81.104: bytes=32 time=129ms TTL=57
Ping statistics for 66.249.81.104:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 105ms, Maximum = 129ms, Average = 116ms
C:\>
Yes I just checked the freaking post...
Raleigh-Durham, 4G since November as my primary home internet connection.
It doesn't work well in the rain or a thunderstorm. 6-7 Mbit down 1.5 or so up. That is as fast as the DSL connection I could get. I refuse to give money to Time Warner so that's out of the question.
The connection isn't as reliable as DSL or cable modem. It's kind of flaky and the DNS servers that come with Clearwire service are bad. Use Google's or opendns.
That said, it is basically a wireless DSL connection. It is way way faster than a 3G signal. Don't know how it will be on the EVO, but unless the iPhone 4G/HD blows me out of the water, when my iPhone 3G contract comes up in July, I'm going to Sprint to take advantage.
I'm 5'9" and 200. I also overpronate. And I like to run. Cushioning and stability are huge for me. Shoes help me do what I enjoy.
You realize the most popular running shoes, the Asics 2100 series, helps those that overpronate. That would imply there are a lot of people out there who need some adjustments to their running form and the shoes help with it. It sure helps me.
I can't even imagine the blisters I would get running barefoot. Back in the day the races weren't on asphalt or concrete.
(Before I get any flack, I'm built like a short linebacker. I am overweight, but only 20-25 pounds. I'm not one of those waif-ish runners.)
Can Chloe O'Brien set up a secure channel for me?
Perhaps this should be an indication not so much of the readership but the percentage of people in the entire country sick and tired of this administration and its decisions and policies. Perhaps the "blue team" feelings on this story are the majority nation wide?
Our W-2 (report of what we made - required when filing the return) doesn't arrive until Jan. 31st or a little after. The earliest most of us can do our taxes is early in February. And if you're like me and your former company filed an amended W-2, you get to wait a bit longer or file an amended return.
But yeah, that's still 2 and a half months.
I will say that even though I lost a former job to outsourcing and cost-cutting measures, my impression having worked for 2 companies that outsource is that companies are willing to hire more employees than necessary in outsourcing operations just because they cost less. That may factor into the numbers. If I lay off 8 people in the states and hire 10-12 replacements, I have created jobs kind of but not really. I've seen this many times in the efforts to get a group in India up and running.
Not that I've ever seen it successful yet...
I want to say this will be the case, but it's worth noting that computers just aren't affordable for the average person. The average salary is about 15-25% of an American equivalent in the IT world, and that's astronomically high for India. That may or may not get you a car.
/. and related places there aren't more people chiming in about their experience in India. I mean, some of us have been over there to train people. Collectively the IT folks in America are getting more impressions of experiences in India. Hopefully more of those impressions will come to light as discussion continue.
My point is it's not like the US where someone can sit at home, get a computer, and learn computer skills quickly. Someone in India has to take the time to learn computer skills somewhere. I'm not sure where the qualified applicants are going to come from.
Completely offtopic, I'm astounded that after all of these India posts on
Maybe you should read some M. Scott Peck. He argues that science and religion - well, spirituality - aren't that different. He argues, and correctly I believe, that people that question to the point of being agnostic or athiestic are more advanced spiritually than zombies in a church building, be them fundamentalists or progressives.
Both are a way to make sense of the world. Conclusions from science will come and go just as do religions. A better model of the world will be developed in physics one day, the Big Bang theory may change, just as deism is in its dying throes.
Disclaimer. I used to work for the founder of Zenph Studios, back when he founded a networking software company and he left when it merged with a larger one. I am still in touch.
Someone takes a recording from long ago on vinyl. They play it on vinyl. Advanced signal processing listens to the sound from the original recording and detects which note is played when keys are pressed and lifted, and apparently when pedals are in use as well. This is laid down in a high-fidelity MIDI format. This MIDI file is fed through a high-performance Yamaha piano and the concert is played live on the piano in the concert hall. The piano translates the MIDI files and hits the keys, pedals, everything to the exact timing specified in the file. The magic is in the signal processing of the original recording. The idea is to replicate the original recording, note for note, tone for tone, microsecond for microsecond, feeling for feeling.
So, this is a HUGE step beyond player pianos. We can replicate old recordings and (GASP!) re-record them using modern methods, saving old lost tapes, making old recordings available in SACD and DVD-Audio. We can replicate concerts across the globe. Piano competitions can be done remotely. This could be of incredible significance to old classical music libraries and performances.
5th Post? (Click here for definition!)
Perhaps the editors could wait until there is an official piece of information from Intuit before posting editorial comments? Seriously, maybe there's a reason why. Then again, maybe not.
<sarcasm>In either case, I believe we should be reactionary and attack Intuit, just like we do every year about this time. They did add DRM stuff to TurboTax one year. Bastards.</sarcasm >
(I do remember them pulling the DRM or whatever stuff from TurboTax. Maybe they'll do the right thing here. But since I don't have enough info, I don't know the right thing. So I won't jump on this bandwagon. Yet.
I have a white worm the updates my system. It pops with the name "Automatic Updates."
Allegedly studies have been done since then that prove you can't use cell phones on airplanes reliably. Some people on this thread have said basically the same thing.
I would imagine you're close enough to towers during take off and landing you could use them. In the sky, I don't know. You are 7+ miles away from a cell tower, which should be beyond the limit to use them.
This isn't offtopic. It's either proof cell phones work in airplanes or reason for someone to ask some pointed questions about 9/11.
I remember first getting on the Internet 10 years ago in 1994 and AOL was a punchline then. They were innovative?
I can't wait for the Treo phone that runs Windows and has a built in XM Radio and a free EA Sports game. /. editors will keel over.
All XM music channels are commercial free. The talk ones have commercials, but it's kind of weird. It would take me too long to explain all the public service stuff they play instead of commercials most of the time.
With the MyFi you can skip songs in the sections you have recorded.
ACC/Big 10/Pac-10 are COLLEGE conferences. XM plays college basketball and football games.
Apple did make a good product. I don't knock it. Just making fun of the owners of said product.
I totally agree. I have XM, and I have Sirius on Dish Network. I have about 100 music stations on Dish Network, and none of them are remotely as good as the ones on XM. Listening to the alternative stations on Sirius, there's only so many Talking Heads songs I can listen to at any given time.
I ordered from Crutchfield. I'm not a big fan of Crutchfield, but they and Circuit City got them before anyone else and it was a crap shoot to see who got them first. Circuit City did. Oh well. Same price everywhere.
Best Buy has them sometimes now as well. They're at least on the Best Buy website. If you order on-line they'll ship soon. Check local stock as well - many Circuit City stores have had them in stock, not in stock, in stock, and not in stock again.
Random notes:
Everyone keeps saying the iPOD holds more music, has better battery life. I don't seem them competing. Maybe it's just me. The limitations of satellite radio mean you have to have an antenna and specialized hardware that sucks the juice down. But you get a 2,000,000 song library.
You can record and playback, and it has an alarm. It also comes with a home and car kit. Note that buying a SkyFi2, home, and car kit will almost cost as much as the MyFi.
I have the MyFi so I can listen while I'm walking my dog. Yes, I like XM that much to want to listen to it over MP3s or something like that. One thing your MP3 collection can't do is turn you on to new music. I wouldn't have known about many new bands (or old bands for that matter) without XM. I don't know if I would know who Muse, The Faint, or Franz Ferdinand were, and I wouldn't have found out how much I like Echo and the Bunnymen and stuff like that.
I don't think it needs more storage space. The idea is to listen to radio, which is mostly live. I think the recorded feature is for programs you can't pick up when you aren't available (a timer feature will record something for you) and if you can't pick up a signal. It's basically 5 hours of music programming.
Did I mention the talk radio and the ACC/Big 10/Pac-10 games?
I like not having to cue up playlists, pick what I want to listen to, listen to new music, etc. XM seems to want to play their deeper library more than Sirius, one reason I like their service more.
I've had it for 2 days and like it. I need to play with the wearable antenna some more before I say I love it. The signal is spotty outside at times while walking around. I have no problems in my car or at the office. Speaking as someone who is upgrading from the original Sony Xm radio, this is also a huge upgrade.
Finally, to the editors, stop knocking XM an satellite radio. Half the satellite radio stories seem to denounce it somehow. The AP review doesn't really say anything bad about it. Some of you that knock satellite radio need to try it before worshiping your iPOD again.
I haven't heard a noticeable degredation. I've subscribed in late 2001. Talk stations are pretty bad, but music hasn't been.
Reports are the new SkyFi2 sounds better than pretty much anything else. And there is a new Polk component XM receiver with optical and coaxial output. Time for an upgrade?