What about the poor and homeless people that use pay phones on a regular basis? Several organizations have voice mail systems in place for homeless and poor people to receive and exchange messages. Many of these people can not afford a cell phone (even if it is prepaid). In many places this will be a very large impact for these people. Assuming we give them a free cell phone to make 911 calls it is going to be difficult, almost impossible, to keep the phone charged all the time.
Secondly, pay phones are used to report crimes or to get help.
On one hand I can understand ATT not wanting to support pay phones if they don't make money. They are business after all and need to make money. Is it their responsibility to fund/maintain social infrastructure? However, while it may not cause your or I problems there is a populations of people out there whose lives will be impacted.
I have only been in IT for about 8 years and have some of the same feelings. I decided to take a look at what else the world had to offer besides IT and didn't know what to look for. What can and can't I do with my skills? What can I learn?
I ended up accepting a hybrid type job that is IT in nature but also gives me a foot into an entirely different industry. An industry that I could effectively work at full time in a few years, if I so chose.
In addition, this job happens to be at a university that will pay my tuition for a masters degree... furthering my options to broaden my mind.
This decision was not without sacrifice... most notable is reduction in pay scale.
The question was what would I do..... and this is it...
Best of luck!!
-B/did not proofread//should probably start proofreading if I go back to school... hmmm
Interesting response. Many of the same reasons were used against females and blacks well into the 20th century to keep them from having a voice. Adults also have physical, emotional, and hormonal changes that they endure in addition to work, bills, stress etc...
We entrust teens with the right to work and the right to drive along with ability to spend money and act as part of society. We encourage them to take part in activities and do things with their lives and we make massive decisions for them that could have impact down the road... Kids are smarter these days, they have information readily available and can be informed on how to vote and the impacts they can create by doing so.
Maybe if we allowed them to have a voice and participate at a younger age then as adults we would have more informed voters and higher turnout.
Lowering the voting age isn't the only solution but activist groups or lobbyists working in favor of children to help give them a voice about things that affect them.
I am not saying this is the right solution but rather something worthy of strong discussion. The world is an increasingly different place from even 50 years ago and that includes the way children/teens think and act.
I have long been an advocate of children's/teens rights. They have thoughts, ideas and opinions like adults and have as much, if not more, to gain or lose from the decisions made. In regards to the US:
-We have and do prosecute children/teens as adults.
-Spend social security.
-Go to war.
-Enact laws on education. (including college funding and rules).
-Many states allow driving at 16.
-Some states consider 17 to be a legal adult.
The decisions we make can have very big impacts and yet we give no voice to children/teens? Why??? What could we do??
-Lower the voting age.
-Create children/teen lobbyist or activist groups.
I have yet to hear a good argument why we can't make these things happen. Why young adults/children/teens can't have more of a say.
If we can prosecute a teen as an adult then they should have a voice on how the laws impact their lives.
I welcome ideas...
/random thoughts.... and probably unorganized //should probably get back to work ///did not proofread:)
I have ready many articles surrounding the gaming competition. PS3 vs. 360 vs. wii and none of them seem to take into account the female component (or I am reading the wrong articles). The wii has strong potential in this market where as the PS3 and 360 remain the same and this could help drive sales of the wii up.
I think a couple things play into this:
1. PS3 and 360 hype FPS, War and violent games... the wii focuses on gameplay and characters 2. Price... most females are not going to spend the extra money for a PS3 or 360.
Lastly and most important:
Gameplay interface. Females traditionally do not want to sit and learn a controller and all its buttons to play some FPS game. Changing the input or gameplay interface is attracting more females. This has been shown to be true for the Nintendo DS.
Thoughts?/knows females (rare on slashdot)//Females I know hate technology but love the wii!!//Does that mean since I like the wii... I'm less of a man.... 360 here I come!!
I think something to also consider is AOL spent years buying up random small technologies and companies... but then did nothing with them. A couple examples from the top of my head are Winamp and Netscape. Include this with the obvious items that have already been listed and who knows what could happen.
I don't know what Google may or may not be after but there could be potential there.
More than likely this is just a move to keep AOL from MS for the time being. After all it is only a 5% purchase not a merger. It will be interesting to see what happens.
It seems you do not understand what the difference is between MIS and CS. CS is for programming/design positions. This is what they do and what they understand. Nothing more. MIS is much more tailored to buisness needs and criteria. It is very business oriented and students take almost all of the classes that are necessary of management students. They are focused on not only development and design but project management, finance and accounting. MIS majors are geared for those people that run IT organizations or groups and not just develop in them. I would like to note that some of the best programmers I have ever met are not CS. They are MIS, EE and CHE majors.
The bottom line is programming is not hard. A monkey could learn to program but understanding how IT interacts with business and customers is deserving of a degree all its own.
I am a recent college grad (may 2003) and I will list some of the details of my graduating class.
School: A Top school in Texas
Major: MIS
Most of our class did get jobs.(mostly in Texas).
The range seemed to be from 35k-40k and 44k-55k. The lower range were in smaller towns at smaller companies while the larger ones were at larger companies in larger towns.
The workload/benefits varied tremedously and not because of the size of the business. Some people work 45 hours a week and don't have to travel while some work 60 hours and travel as part of the job.
I won't lie when I say it was hard for us all to find jobs...... and every single person that has a job spent a long time and many hours looking for one. We worked together on resumes and made friends with our career advisors.... we joined organization etc...
I will leave with one interesting note. The highest GPA in our class did not get a job.... They had zero work experience of any kind and nobody wanted them.
I think in the end you have to look at all the options and pick the one that's right for you. I make 45k work 40 hours a week and have room for advancement at a large company in a major TX city I love my job. Good luck!!
Slashdot Mirror
What about the poor and homeless people that use pay phones on a regular basis? Several organizations have voice mail systems in place for homeless and poor people to receive and exchange messages. Many of these people can not afford a cell phone (even if it is prepaid). In many places this will be a very large impact for these people. Assuming we give them a free cell phone to make 911 calls it is going to be difficult, almost impossible, to keep the phone charged all the time.
Secondly, pay phones are used to report crimes or to get help.
On one hand I can understand ATT not wanting to support pay phones if they don't make money. They are business after all and need to make money. Is it their responsibility to fund/maintain social infrastructure? However, while it may not cause your or I problems there is a populations of people out there whose lives will be impacted.
It will be interested to see how it plays out.
I have only been in IT for about 8 years and have some of the same feelings. I decided to take a look at what else the world had to offer besides IT and didn't know what to look for. What can and can't I do with my skills? What can I learn?
/did not proofread //should probably start proofreading if I go back to school... hmmm
I ended up accepting a hybrid type job that is IT in nature but also gives me a foot into an entirely different industry. An industry that I could effectively work at full time in a few years, if I so chose.
In addition, this job happens to be at a university that will pay my tuition for a masters degree... furthering my options to broaden my mind.
This decision was not without sacrifice... most notable is reduction in pay scale.
The question was what would I do..... and this is it...
Best of luck!!
-B
Interesting response. Many of the same reasons were used against females and blacks well into the 20th century to keep them from having a voice. Adults also have physical, emotional, and hormonal changes that they endure in addition to work, bills, stress etc...
We entrust teens with the right to work and the right to drive along with ability to spend money and act as part of society. We encourage them to take part in activities and do things with their lives and we make massive decisions for them that could have impact down the road... Kids are smarter these days, they have information readily available and can be informed on how to vote and the impacts they can create by doing so.
Maybe if we allowed them to have a voice and participate at a younger age then as adults we would have more informed voters and higher turnout.
Lowering the voting age isn't the only solution but activist groups or lobbyists working in favor of children to help give them a voice about things that affect them.
I am not saying this is the right solution but rather something worthy of strong discussion. The world is an increasingly different place from even 50 years ago and that includes the way children/teens think and act.
I have long been an advocate of children's/teens rights. They have thoughts, ideas and opinions like adults and have as much, if not more, to gain or lose from the decisions made. In regards to the US:
/random thoughts.... and probably unorganized
//should probably get back to work
///did not proofread :)
-We have and do prosecute children/teens as adults.
-Spend social security.
-Go to war.
-Enact laws on education. (including college funding and rules).
-Many states allow driving at 16.
-Some states consider 17 to be a legal adult.
The decisions we make can have very big impacts and yet we give no voice to children/teens? Why??? What could we do??
-Lower the voting age.
-Create children/teen lobbyist or activist groups.
I have yet to hear a good argument why we can't make these things happen. Why young adults/children/teens can't have more of a say.
If we can prosecute a teen as an adult then they should have a voice on how the laws impact their lives.
I welcome ideas...
I have ready many articles surrounding the gaming competition. PS3 vs. 360 vs. wii and none of them seem to take into account the female component (or I am reading the wrong articles). The wii has strong potential in this market where as the PS3 and 360 remain the same and this could help drive sales of the wii up.
/knows females (rare on slashdot) //Females I know hate technology but love the wii!! //Does that mean since I like the wii... I'm less of a man.... 360 here I come!!
I think a couple things play into this:
1. PS3 and 360 hype FPS, War and violent games... the wii focuses on gameplay and characters
2. Price... most females are not going to spend the extra money for a PS3 or 360.
Lastly and most important:
Gameplay interface. Females traditionally do not want to sit and learn a controller and all its buttons to play some FPS game. Changing the input or gameplay interface is attracting more females. This has been shown to be true for the Nintendo DS.
Thoughts?
I think something to also consider is AOL spent years buying up random small technologies and companies... but then did nothing with them. A couple examples from the top of my head are Winamp and Netscape. Include this with the obvious items that have already been listed and who knows what could happen. I don't know what Google may or may not be after but there could be potential there. More than likely this is just a move to keep AOL from MS for the time being. After all it is only a 5% purchase not a merger. It will be interesting to see what happens.
My buddy uses names like Not Available for all of his ssid.... pretty good.
It seems you do not understand what the difference is between MIS and CS. CS is for programming/design positions. This is what they do and what they understand. Nothing more. MIS is much more tailored to buisness needs and criteria. It is very business oriented and students take almost all of the classes that are necessary of management students. They are focused on not only development and design but project management, finance and accounting. MIS majors are geared for those people that run IT organizations or groups and not just develop in them. I would like to note that some of the best programmers I have ever met are not CS. They are MIS, EE and CHE majors.
The bottom line is programming is not hard. A monkey could learn to program but understanding how IT interacts with business and customers is deserving of a degree all its own.
We also learn to spell in MIS.
I am a recent college grad (may 2003) and I will list some of the details of my graduating class.
School: A Top school in Texas
Major: MIS
Most of our class did get jobs.(mostly in Texas).
The range seemed to be from 35k-40k and 44k-55k. The lower range were in smaller towns at smaller companies while the larger ones were at larger companies in larger towns.
The workload/benefits varied tremedously and not because of the size of the business. Some people work 45 hours a week and don't have to travel while some work 60 hours and travel as part of the job.
I won't lie when I say it was hard for us all to find jobs...... and every single person that has a job spent a long time and many hours looking for one. We worked together on resumes and made friends with our career advisors.... we joined organization etc...
I will leave with one interesting note. The highest GPA in our class did not get a job.... They had zero work experience of any kind and nobody wanted them.
I think in the end you have to look at all the options and pick the one that's right for you. I make 45k work 40 hours a week and have room for advancement at a large company in a major TX city I love my job. Good luck!!