It is about economics. For a network to make money on a show the budget
Adtervisting = ratings. The price for an ad is set based on the ratings, unrelated to the type of show, time it airs, etc. That is why you find the effect of prime time, ie when most people have the time to watch = highest possible ratings. It is why Friday and Saturday night, when lots of people go out, have lower potential ratings than Sun-Thurs.
The difficultly with making SciFi shows successful is exactly why realtity shows are so prevelent. Reality shows are about the cheapest to produce, Sci-Fi some of the most expensive. So even if a Sci-Fi program gets better ratings than Joe Millionaire, it make not be making a profit.
The Sci-Fi channel has rarely had the money to make their own series. Stargate started on Showtime so they had a fan base and a good sense of where the ratings would be before committing to it. BSG was a mini-series first, which is a whole different set of economics. Then, the mini-series did well enough to show that there would be ratings to support the show. Also, I'd bet that the mini-series put in place a lot of the effects that they can now reuse to save money on the production now.
As someone else noted, Farscape was a different animal. They had some money and took a chance. Plus, you can't really say it was a success because it was canceled for the same reason Firefly was in the end. It got a much better run is all.
All the contracts, etc aside, Firefly has done very well on DVD, showing it has an audience. That got the movie bankrolled. If the movie does well, that shows that the audience will continue and that there is new interest. If the reruns on SciFi do well, I'm sure there will be some effort made to bring more episodes to the screen since a certain amount of ratings can be expected. Plus, with the film in the can, they can probably reuse effects from that to give the TV episodes some budget savings.
However, note that Joss Wheadon is commited to the Wonder Woman film next. Tim Minear, the other creator of Firefly has a new series on TV now, so if that takes off, a new Firefly season might be subject to schedules.
Note another piece of news today. Laptop sales have outpaced desktop sales. Apple can't get the heat issues solves in order to continue providing higher powered laptops.
So, use Intel, who has a high end chip already for laptops and has continued to provide such as well as PPC for the high end desktops.
While MAC Zealots will of course be upset, this is a good choice by Apple to allow them to keep growing their laptop business.
Personally, I doubt this means we'll ever see an OSX running on your Dell PC or Windows on an Apple. There is a lot more than CPU to a computer. However, expect a big push from Apple in the laptop market now. Meanwhile, they can continue to provide G5s for those that want the high power PPC.
When the mini-series came out, I didn't want to see anything about it. I'd heard, mostly from aint-it-cool-news that it sucked, that some of the actors hated it, etc. My wife watched it and liked it enough to TIVO the series. I joined her as I started to hear good things about the series and I've gotten to really enjoy it. By just automatically rejecting it because it is different, you're missing out on some good TV.
1. Don't think of it as corrupting the original. It is its own series, sharing a common idea. In fact, at times, it pays strong omage to the original, with nods to aspects of it from time to time.
2. Changing gender. Why not? Was Dick Benedict that special an actor? Watch A-Team if you need more of him. The character was what is important. Apollo is supposed to be the stick in the ass type and Starbuck the fun one. Making Starbuck female is minor as long as they kept the personality the same. In fact, as a woman, she is even more fun, because that is not how our society feels a woman should behave. Plus, it adds a new element to toss in some sexual tension between the two with them having such opposing personalities.
3. All the sex. Yes, they have a lot of sex in the show. One, such things do happen in the real world. Why pretent it won't. They are all in a small, contained environment, with limited numbers. Of course relationships will develop. Just look are our military now. Also, a lot of it is with just one character, Baltar, who is established as a womanizer. So, if they want to spend any time with him as a character, some of that should be a part of it. That is a part of what he is.
4. Cylons. We've gotten a lot of the man creates AI, AI turns on man stories. Dune, Matrix, etc etc etc. This is not an uncommon idea. However, that doesn't means it is a bad one. So far, they've tossed in a big new bit to the idea, religion. The cylons have a religion, and it doesn't follow the same beliefs as the humans. So now, you've got AI vs creators, plus two religions on conflict. Religions in conflict is also not original. However, it is one of our societies biggest issues, especially now. We have a long long history of wars and conflict based on religion. I think if the writers have a good payoff there, using both the AI and religion aspects, that we've got a really interesting motive here. Don't forget, we still do not really know why the Cylons attacked. I doubt religion was promgrammed into the originals so.....
I also went back and watched the mini-series. Yes, it is not as good as the TV series, but it is ok. I was wrong to avoid it because and what I'd heard. Now that I've judged the show on my own, I'm eager to watch more. I think there are some truly interesting ideas being presented, mostly religious, which, set in a SciFi world, makes it different. Heck, while it takes a lot of ideas from the original series, it also grabs a lot from things like Dune as well and I think it well on the way to becoming its own entity. It is rerunning now, I recommend checking it out if you haven't.
How often are the Nielson homes changed? I mean, lots of shows come and go, but it seems like it is not uncommon for there to be short lifespans on SciFi shows more than anything. I know lots of people that enjoy them. Of course, I'm not polling a broad group, so that isn't necessarily a good sample. But I really wonder just what kind of cross section Neilson has and how updates it is year to year.
2. Will other sources of information, like TIVO, become used by stations to set advertising revenue? Right now, Neilson is the only one. I know that recently, TIVO partnered with them to share information, as I volunteered to be a part of that sample with my TIVO. I wonder if this is a precursor to using the TIVOs, and other like sources, in the Nielson ratings?
TV is like any business, about cost and profit. Profit is ads and cost is the production of a show. Of course a show must make a profit to survive, but I think that the system is flawed now, relying on a single source for all the information to set up a company's profit. Adding other information sources I think, will moderinize the system. However, it also needs to be done right. The population of TV viewers using TIVO might not be a good sampling. Or it might be. I know lots of other geeks that have TIVO, some that have built their own PVRs, but my parents, baby boomers, have even gone to TIVO now.
I think TIVO is another good source, but there will also need to be additional sources as well. What about the cable boxes, etc that digital cable viewers use? Comcast recently made a deal to use TIVO on their all in on DVRs, so there is more TIVO sources, but not all cable boxes and sat receivers are DVRs.
And then there are the privacy concerns. Lots of people won't be happy if their boxes have the ability to share what they view. I have a friend that doesn't want TIVO because of that.
The biggest issue I've had with design doc is maintaining them.
A system design is a living animal, but often, the doc gets written before the initial development starts and isn't modified when changes are made later.
After a few revisions, the design doc can easily be out of date.
I think this often happens because the changes are typically smaller and easier. Therefore a developer won't bother with a process for them (when spend time documenting something that you can do in 1 hr and double the amount of work) and instead just go ahead and make the change. A few months down the road and the system may not even reflect the design doc.
If you can find a way to maintain the doc without it being a hassle for the developers that could help make the doc actually useful.
Looking up my hometown, Commack, NY I see a lot of images that are low res there too. Nothing there that would be highly senstive as far as I know and one image is in the neighborhood I grew up in.
Very good point. These photos are not taken at the same time. In fact, I'm sure it is possible to do the math and figure out how far about in time and distance each picture is taken.
Could very well be the same airplane
I've been in lots of airports though and I've seen planes landing pretty close together. Just enough time for one to touchdown and taxi out the way before the next one hits.
This could be related to some research that Neilson and TIVO are up to. I've got DirecTV TIVO and not too long ago was asked if I would give my permission to allow them to collect viewing statistics from my account. We know TIVO already does this and it looks like they are trying to bring something together with Neilson to allow TIVOs to become ratings boxes too.
While it opens up concerns about privacy, etc. Personally, I don't mind letting the ratings types know what I watch, considering I've had a few shows I really liked get canceled on me.
While it is sure nice to do you taxes for as cheap as possible you also need to ask, is the risk for audit worth the savings?
I've used TurboTax for many years, but turned to an accountant this year, because my taxes are starting to get complicated. It cost $200 to prepare, but they also found more than that in additional deductions for me.
Also, tax preparation costs are tax deductible too.
I've never had the fun of being audited, but my in-laws have and it was a huge effort and problem for them. By using an accountant, I also have someone to turn to in case I get audited as well.
I spent a lot of my career working with VB. I also know and work in Java (much more so at my latest job) and I go through the same thing when I switch over to java.
All languages have their quirks and of course their own syntax. The skills with programming should cross between them. All you are really changing is the sytax, which can take a little bit of training or work to get used to, and a different way to utilize the object models you access. I tend to write code in both languages against the same API, depeding on if I'm coding for a windows machine or one of our unix servers.
As I learned most of my skills originally with VB I'm far more comfortable with it, but the more I've been using Java at this job, the more I think I am starting to prefer it. I think it tends to be more.... organized or structured and once I get past the syntax differences, I think it generally forces code to be written a bit more logically.
Bad programmers are bad programmers and will always right messy code, but I'm finding it easier to decifer another programmers Java code more so than VB code.
I'll attest to the success of the career services at PSU. I graduated in 1997 and got my first job at one of the career fairs they run. In this case, the a large one held in the Bryce Jordan center (first time, just after it was finished).
A friend of mine also go a job with the same company and there was another PSU recruit there too. The company was out of Baltimore.
The next year I went up there to rep the company at the career fair and we hired another friend of mine from that.
While I don't know what other universities do and I am sure it is comparable, PSU did a good job not only getting the companies there, but giving us help with resume prep, interviews, etc and really prepared us for getting a job.
I would say that it is hard to stay a coder all your career. Most of the people I've worked around over my 8 yrs in IT have been no more than in their 30's. Anyone older was in management. At 30 now, I wonder what I'll be doing in 10 years and if it is what I'm doing now, well, I think that'll be really boring.
The question is, what is more important to you. The money and position, with all the crap that goes with that (politics, etc) or a more interesting and relaxing job with oportunity to achieve some goals' outside the job.
I left a company where oportunity was there to play the game and move up for a position with no mobility but a 9-5 schedule and not so stressful office life. I am much happier (more so since I asked for a got a raise).
Money is important, your health and happiness more so.
As far as degrees, well, one of the smartest programmers I know and a very successful person (started his own company, now in a high ranking senior technical position at a big tech company) doesn't have his Bachelor's degree. You might look on paper and see that missing, but his job experience and sheer inteligence and knowledge make people not care about education in the first few minutes.
I would never want to quit a job without something else, but sometimes you have to take into account your health and family life if a job is causing you too much stress.
A few years ago I was working at a company that was laying people off and dying a slow death with the pop of the.com bubble. While I knew I had limited time left, but I did have some time, I decided to leave.
The new job had a few things I liked. A good friend was there, even if he didn't love it, and the pay was nice. However, the job turned out to be a mistake.
I went into this job with the idea that I'd be working from home most of thie time building framkeworks and products. The company, while a consulting company, was trying to work on some techonolgies my friend and I had done at our previous job. I didn't like to travel and I didn't want to do the consulting bit of spending every week away from home and only seeing my fiance at the time on weekends.
When things turned south at the company a bit (they had been going, but it really began to move a month or so after I started) they quickly just tossed people at projects as long as they got money. Not caring about us. Seeing this I decided to quit.
I quit, and gave 3 weeks notice, so I had time to find something else. However, they decided to put me at that time on a 3 month project away from home (the lack of morales and lying to the client about me being there on the project where standard pratice).
So, I said I quit again, with no notice. I'd interviewed for one position I'd been contacted for off of monster at that time.
Now, I'm still at that position a year and a half later. I thought it would be something temporary as I was feeling desperate, but turns out that while I took less money, the 9-5 no travel was what I wanted and the lack of stress from my job made me feel much better.
I'd never quit a job without seeing what is around unless it starts to impact me outside work and effects my health. If you dred, to the point of stressing yourself out, going to work, quit. Amoung other things, umployement will kick in after a bit and you'll have some source of money, if you can't immediately find something. Plus, if you really need money, there are jobs outside your area of expertise that you can take. Hell, if you have to, work retail or something. I had a friend that was let go and after a month or two went from IT to managing a warehouse for a little while. We all have skills that can go beyong programming. I was considering temp work and simple admin type stuff if I had to. At least until the next IT job came along.
Anyone enjoying the actual Zero-G flight techniques? Like in B5 they show the ships using thrusters to turn and manuever and allow for the flip and fire move seen recently. I find it a nice attention to detail, esp from a ST guy (where they don't do much with small fighter combat in Zero-G) to have another show getting it right. (Same for the lack of sound out in space)
What effects company is doing the effects for this show? I've noticed something of a similarity to the effects in Firefly.
-T
How is the HDTivo? I know it has 4 tuners, but how many do you really use? How does it handle non-HD signals (different tuner?).
Specifically I'm wondering how many wires you are running from the Dish, or need to run. I've got mine in 2 rooms and I run 2 wires to my living room with the DTV/Tivo and 1 to the bedroom.
How many wires are needed to get the basic functionality from the HDDTV/Tivo?
Also, how easy is it to set things up to record different resolutions, so as to maximize the HD space on the unit?
Did you fork out the cash or find a deal? I'm really interested in HD and I've got a projection TV that is HD upgradable, but 1,000 is a lot to pay and I don't want to give up my Tivo.
Have you tried copying anything from the Tivo off to another media?
I wonder how they'll plan to support the levels of usage they will get. With everyone in the city able to connect, they'll have to make sure their infrastructure can support large numbers of people making large downloads. Or end up with a potentially useless system.
Especially if say, there is an emergency somewhere and like with the blackout, or 9-11, everyone in the city goes online to look up information.
I would also hope that if they start using it for key city services, they provide a second network to them, so if everyone in the city is using the system, key services aren't brought to their knees.
I think it sounds like an absolutely wonderful idea and if they charge a fair price, which pays for the service, then taxes are not needed for maintance at all. It could be a great way to make city services more effecient and bring decent revenue to the city, however, they need to make sure they plan it right and consider some worst cases.
Out of curiosity, who (other than 14 year old girls) is getting sued? Anyone here?
Back in the day, like everyone, I used apps like Napster, Kazaa, etc to get and share files. Since then, I've stopped, because in part, of the RIAA. Has anyone here been sued? How far back do they look and how small time do they go for people that shared?
It seems like a lot of time and money to go after someone sharing even a few thousand files while there are much bigger pirating operations out there now. Personally, their law suits did in a way work, as I don't share much, but that is more because of the spy ware than anything. I avoid Kazaa, but I will ocassionally use other P2P applications to get various files.
But while I don't download mp3s anymore, I also don't buy more CDs. In general, I always bought CDs from my favorite groups, even if I could get the mp3s and I downloaded music only when I had some interest in it, but not enough to pay $18 for a CD. If they sold CDs at $10 or less, I'd be more likely to buy more marginal ones I'd never spend my money on. I think that is the key thing they are missing. Otherwise, how would they still be selling millions of CDs?
Near the start there is a quick line from Scorpi stating, in a surprised tone, that Chriton (sp?) is alive. So I think it wasn't a dream, as at least the news of his death got out.
The lady in black is "Commander Cleavage" or basically, a high ranking peacekeeper that took Scorpi's command away from him. She has some hypnotic ability with chemicals she excretes to control males.
The big blue baddie is one of the top, if not the top, Scarran.
If he can put out movies like the Prequels and make hundreds of millions why not put out 3 more. I'm sure the writing and directing must be so tiring for him but....
The only hope is that he really does decide that he can't handle the workload of making hundreds of millions on the most basic writing anyone could come up with and have someone else write and direct it.
If you want an idea of what Lucas thinks of the art of filmmaking (and basically what he has managed to build his entire empire, hee hee, off of). Check out this from an interview with Gary Kurtz, a producer on Star Wars and Empire.
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/376/376873p1.htm l
In reference to Lucas' changes in going from Amaerican Graffitti to Empire.
"I think the most unfortunate thing that happened was the fact that Indiana Jones came along, and Raiders of the Lost Ark had come out in between. George and I had many, many discussions about that, but it boiled down to the fact that he became convinced that all the audience was interested in was the roller-coaster ride, and so the story and the script didn't matter anymore."
He should wait another 15 years until people are clamoring for more Star Wars and have forgetten the leasons of the past. This way he'll also have time to put out the Ultimate Special Editions of the Original Trilogy with all new Jar Jar scenes and the new Super Special Remastered Editions of the Prequels in the Super 18 disk combo pack with your very own Jar Jar.
This is an age old arguement of envrionment versus genetics in determining the way a child will develop.
The genetics can certainly point in particular directions, but people can also train to overcome a problem, or think a different way, or fight a natural tendancy.
So, while some people might be predisposed to be more liberal in their leaning or conservative, it is a lot like someone predisposed to being overweight. It might take more work to lean the other way, but people, if they see the value, can do it.
Personally, I've swung from liberal to conservative, back to liberal. Politically, I find different issues are more important to me depending on the times.
Slashdot Mirror
It is about economics. For a network to make money on a show the budget
Adtervisting = ratings. The price for an ad is set based on the ratings, unrelated to the type of show, time it airs, etc. That is why you find the effect of prime time, ie when most people have the time to watch = highest possible ratings. It is why Friday and Saturday night, when lots of people go out, have lower potential ratings than Sun-Thurs.
The difficultly with making SciFi shows successful is exactly why realtity shows are so prevelent. Reality shows are about the cheapest to produce, Sci-Fi some of the most expensive. So even if a Sci-Fi program gets better ratings than Joe Millionaire, it make not be making a profit.
The Sci-Fi channel has rarely had the money to make their own series. Stargate started on Showtime so they had a fan base and a good sense of where the ratings would be before committing to it. BSG was a mini-series first, which is a whole different set of economics. Then, the mini-series did well enough to show that there would be ratings to support the show. Also, I'd bet that the mini-series put in place a lot of the effects that they can now reuse to save money on the production now.
As someone else noted, Farscape was a different animal. They had some money and took a chance. Plus, you can't really say it was a success because it was canceled for the same reason Firefly was in the end. It got a much better run is all.
All the contracts, etc aside, Firefly has done very well on DVD, showing it has an audience. That got the movie bankrolled. If the movie does well, that shows that the audience will continue and that there is new interest. If the reruns on SciFi do well, I'm sure there will be some effort made to bring more episodes to the screen since a certain amount of ratings can be expected. Plus, with the film in the can, they can probably reuse effects from that to give the TV episodes some budget savings.
However, note that Joss Wheadon is commited to the Wonder Woman film next. Tim Minear, the other creator of Firefly has a new series on TV now, so if that takes off, a new Firefly season might be subject to schedules.
Note another piece of news today. Laptop sales have outpaced desktop sales. Apple can't get the heat issues solves in order to continue providing higher powered laptops.
So, use Intel, who has a high end chip already for laptops and has continued to provide such as well as PPC for the high end desktops.
While MAC Zealots will of course be upset, this is a good choice by Apple to allow them to keep growing their laptop business.
Personally, I doubt this means we'll ever see an OSX running on your Dell PC or Windows on an Apple. There is a lot more than CPU to a computer. However, expect a big push from Apple in the laptop market now. Meanwhile, they can continue to provide G5s for those that want the high power PPC.
When the mini-series came out, I didn't want to see anything about it. I'd heard, mostly from aint-it-cool-news that it sucked, that some of the actors hated it, etc. My wife watched it and liked it enough to TIVO the series. I joined her as I started to hear good things about the series and I've gotten to really enjoy it. By just automatically rejecting it because it is different, you're missing out on some good TV.
1. Don't think of it as corrupting the original. It is its own series, sharing a common idea. In fact, at times, it pays strong omage to the original, with nods to aspects of it from time to time.
2. Changing gender. Why not? Was Dick Benedict that special an actor? Watch A-Team if you need more of him. The character was what is important. Apollo is supposed to be the stick in the ass type and Starbuck the fun one. Making Starbuck female is minor as long as they kept the personality the same. In fact, as a woman, she is even more fun, because that is not how our society feels a woman should behave. Plus, it adds a new element to toss in some sexual tension between the two with them having such opposing personalities.
3. All the sex. Yes, they have a lot of sex in the show. One, such things do happen in the real world. Why pretent it won't. They are all in a small, contained environment, with limited numbers. Of course relationships will develop. Just look are our military now. Also, a lot of it is with just one character, Baltar, who is established as a womanizer. So, if they want to spend any time with him as a character, some of that should be a part of it. That is a part of what he is.
4. Cylons. We've gotten a lot of the man creates AI, AI turns on man stories. Dune, Matrix, etc etc etc. This is not an uncommon idea. However, that doesn't means it is a bad one. So far, they've tossed in a big new bit to the idea, religion. The cylons have a religion, and it doesn't follow the same beliefs as the humans. So now, you've got AI vs creators, plus two religions on conflict. Religions in conflict is also not original. However, it is one of our societies biggest issues, especially now. We have a long long history of wars and conflict based on religion. I think if the writers have a good payoff there, using both the AI and religion aspects, that we've got a really interesting motive here. Don't forget, we still do not really know why the Cylons attacked. I doubt religion was promgrammed into the originals so.....
I also went back and watched the mini-series. Yes, it is not as good as the TV series, but it is ok. I was wrong to avoid it because and what I'd heard. Now that I've judged the show on my own, I'm eager to watch more. I think there are some truly interesting ideas being presented, mostly religious, which, set in a SciFi world, makes it different. Heck, while it takes a lot of ideas from the original series, it also grabs a lot from things like Dune as well and I think it well on the way to becoming its own entity. It is rerunning now, I recommend checking it out if you haven't.
Few things I wonder about.
How often are the Nielson homes changed? I mean, lots of shows come and go, but it seems like it is not uncommon for there to be short lifespans on SciFi shows more than anything. I know lots of people that enjoy them. Of course, I'm not polling a broad group, so that isn't necessarily a good sample. But I really wonder just what kind of cross section Neilson has and how updates it is year to year.
2. Will other sources of information, like TIVO, become used by stations to set advertising revenue? Right now, Neilson is the only one. I know that recently, TIVO partnered with them to share information, as I volunteered to be a part of that sample with my TIVO. I wonder if this is a precursor to using the TIVOs, and other like sources, in the Nielson ratings?
TV is like any business, about cost and profit. Profit is ads and cost is the production of a show. Of course a show must make a profit to survive, but I think that the system is flawed now, relying on a single source for all the information to set up a company's profit. Adding other information sources I think, will moderinize the system. However, it also needs to be done right. The population of TV viewers using TIVO might not be a good sampling. Or it might be. I know lots of other geeks that have TIVO, some that have built their own PVRs, but my parents, baby boomers, have even gone to TIVO now.
I think TIVO is another good source, but there will also need to be additional sources as well. What about the cable boxes, etc that digital cable viewers use? Comcast recently made a deal to use TIVO on their all in on DVRs, so there is more TIVO sources, but not all cable boxes and sat receivers are DVRs.
And then there are the privacy concerns. Lots of people won't be happy if their boxes have the ability to share what they view. I have a friend that doesn't want TIVO because of that.
-T
The biggest issue I've had with design doc is maintaining them.
A system design is a living animal, but often, the doc gets written before the initial development starts and isn't modified when changes are made later.
After a few revisions, the design doc can easily be out of date.
I think this often happens because the changes are typically smaller and easier. Therefore a developer won't bother with a process for them (when spend time documenting something that you can do in 1 hr and double the amount of work) and instead just go ahead and make the change. A few months down the road and the system may not even reflect the design doc.
If you can find a way to maintain the doc without it being a hassle for the developers that could help make the doc actually useful.
After seeing the Capital buildings blurred link I did a little surfing and found this
6 72,0.033817&t=k&hl=en
8 78,-115.308166&spn=0.063343,0.067635&t=k&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rachel,NV&spn=0.031
Rachel, NV is the town near Area 51.
This is the most you can zoom in on it
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rachel,NV&ll=37.325
Looking up my hometown, Commack, NY I see a lot of images that are low res there too. Nothing there that would be highly senstive as far as I know and one image is in the neighborhood I grew up in.
Very good point. These photos are not taken at the same time. In fact, I'm sure it is possible to do the math and figure out how far about in time and distance each picture is taken.
Could very well be the same airplane
I've been in lots of airports though and I've seen planes landing pretty close together. Just enough time for one to touchdown and taxi out the way before the next one hits.
Ditto on several addresses I've tried. It isn't off by much but it is off.
This could be related to some research that Neilson and TIVO are up to. I've got DirecTV TIVO and not too long ago was asked if I would give my permission to allow them to collect viewing statistics from my account. We know TIVO already does this and it looks like they are trying to bring something together with Neilson to allow TIVOs to become ratings boxes too.
While it opens up concerns about privacy, etc. Personally, I don't mind letting the ratings types know what I watch, considering I've had a few shows I really liked get canceled on me.
While it is sure nice to do you taxes for as cheap as possible you also need to ask, is the risk for audit worth the savings?
I've used TurboTax for many years, but turned to an accountant this year, because my taxes are starting to get complicated. It cost $200 to prepare, but they also found more than that in additional deductions for me.
Also, tax preparation costs are tax deductible too.
I've never had the fun of being audited, but my in-laws have and it was a huge effort and problem for them. By using an accountant, I also have someone to turn to in case I get audited as well.
I spent a lot of my career working with VB. I also know and work in Java (much more so at my latest job) and I go through the same thing when I switch over to java.
All languages have their quirks and of course their own syntax. The skills with programming should cross between them. All you are really changing is the sytax, which can take a little bit of training or work to get used to, and a different way to utilize the object models you access. I tend to write code in both languages against the same API, depeding on if I'm coding for a windows machine or one of our unix servers.
As I learned most of my skills originally with VB I'm far more comfortable with it, but the more I've been using Java at this job, the more I think I am starting to prefer it. I think it tends to be more.... organized or structured and once I get past the syntax differences, I think it generally forces code to be written a bit more logically.
Bad programmers are bad programmers and will always right messy code, but I'm finding it easier to decifer another programmers Java code more so than VB code.
I'll attest to the success of the career services at PSU. I graduated in 1997 and got my first job at one of the career fairs they run. In this case, the a large one held in the Bryce Jordan center (first time, just after it was finished).
A friend of mine also go a job with the same company and there was another PSU recruit there too. The company was out of Baltimore.
The next year I went up there to rep the company at the career fair and we hired another friend of mine from that.
While I don't know what other universities do and I am sure it is comparable, PSU did a good job not only getting the companies there, but giving us help with resume prep, interviews, etc and really prepared us for getting a job.
I would say that it is hard to stay a coder all your career. Most of the people I've worked around over my 8 yrs in IT have been no more than in their 30's. Anyone older was in management. At 30 now, I wonder what I'll be doing in 10 years and if it is what I'm doing now, well, I think that'll be really boring.
The question is, what is more important to you. The money and position, with all the crap that goes with that (politics, etc) or a more interesting and relaxing job with oportunity to achieve some goals' outside the job.
I left a company where oportunity was there to play the game and move up for a position with no mobility but a 9-5 schedule and not so stressful office life. I am much happier (more so since I asked for a got a raise).
Money is important, your health and happiness more so.
As far as degrees, well, one of the smartest programmers I know and a very successful person (started his own company, now in a high ranking senior technical position at a big tech company) doesn't have his Bachelor's degree. You might look on paper and see that missing, but his job experience and sheer inteligence and knowledge make people not care about education in the first few minutes.
I would never want to quit a job without something else, but sometimes you have to take into account your health and family life if a job is causing you too much stress.
.com bubble. While I knew I had limited time left, but I did have some time, I decided to leave.
A few years ago I was working at a company that was laying people off and dying a slow death with the pop of the
The new job had a few things I liked. A good friend was there, even if he didn't love it, and the pay was nice. However, the job turned out to be a mistake.
I went into this job with the idea that I'd be working from home most of thie time building framkeworks and products. The company, while a consulting company, was trying to work on some techonolgies my friend and I had done at our previous job. I didn't like to travel and I didn't want to do the consulting bit of spending every week away from home and only seeing my fiance at the time on weekends.
When things turned south at the company a bit (they had been going, but it really began to move a month or so after I started) they quickly just tossed people at projects as long as they got money. Not caring about us. Seeing this I decided to quit.
I quit, and gave 3 weeks notice, so I had time to find something else. However, they decided to put me at that time on a 3 month project away from home (the lack of morales and lying to the client about me being there on the project where standard pratice).
So, I said I quit again, with no notice. I'd interviewed for one position I'd been contacted for off of monster at that time.
Now, I'm still at that position a year and a half later. I thought it would be something temporary as I was feeling desperate, but turns out that while I took less money, the 9-5 no travel was what I wanted and the lack of stress from my job made me feel much better.
I'd never quit a job without seeing what is around unless it starts to impact me outside work and effects my health. If you dred, to the point of stressing yourself out, going to work, quit. Amoung other things, umployement will kick in after a bit and you'll have some source of money, if you can't immediately find something. Plus, if you really need money, there are jobs outside your area of expertise that you can take. Hell, if you have to, work retail or something. I had a friend that was let go and after a month or two went from IT to managing a warehouse for a little while. We all have skills that can go beyong programming. I was considering temp work and simple admin type stuff if I had to. At least until the next IT job came along.
Anyone enjoying the actual Zero-G flight techniques? Like in B5 they show the ships using thrusters to turn and manuever and allow for the flip and fire move seen recently. I find it a nice attention to detail, esp from a ST guy (where they don't do much with small fighter combat in Zero-G) to have another show getting it right. (Same for the lack of sound out in space)
What effects company is doing the effects for this show? I've noticed something of a similarity to the effects in Firefly.
-T
How is the HDTivo? I know it has 4 tuners, but how many do you really use? How does it handle non-HD signals (different tuner?).
Specifically I'm wondering how many wires you are running from the Dish, or need to run. I've got mine in 2 rooms and I run 2 wires to my living room with the DTV/Tivo and 1 to the bedroom.
How many wires are needed to get the basic functionality from the HDDTV/Tivo?
Also, how easy is it to set things up to record different resolutions, so as to maximize the HD space on the unit?
Did you fork out the cash or find a deal? I'm really interested in HD and I've got a projection TV that is HD upgradable, but 1,000 is a lot to pay and I don't want to give up my Tivo.
Have you tried copying anything from the Tivo off to another media?
I wonder how they'll plan to support the levels of usage they will get. With everyone in the city able to connect, they'll have to make sure their infrastructure can support large numbers of people making large downloads. Or end up with a potentially useless system.
Especially if say, there is an emergency somewhere and like with the blackout, or 9-11, everyone in the city goes online to look up information.
I would also hope that if they start using it for key city services, they provide a second network to them, so if everyone in the city is using the system, key services aren't brought to their knees.
I think it sounds like an absolutely wonderful idea and if they charge a fair price, which pays for the service, then taxes are not needed for maintance at all. It could be a great way to make city services more effecient and bring decent revenue to the city, however, they need to make sure they plan it right and consider some worst cases.
Out of curiosity, who (other than 14 year old girls) is getting sued? Anyone here?
Back in the day, like everyone, I used apps like Napster, Kazaa, etc to get and share files. Since then, I've stopped, because in part, of the RIAA. Has anyone here been sued? How far back do they look and how small time do they go for people that shared?
It seems like a lot of time and money to go after someone sharing even a few thousand files while there are much bigger pirating operations out there now. Personally, their law suits did in a way work, as I don't share much, but that is more because of the spy ware than anything. I avoid Kazaa, but I will ocassionally use other P2P applications to get various files.
But while I don't download mp3s anymore, I also don't buy more CDs. In general, I always bought CDs from my favorite groups, even if I could get the mp3s and I downloaded music only when I had some interest in it, but not enough to pay $18 for a CD. If they sold CDs at $10 or less, I'd be more likely to buy more marginal ones I'd never spend my money on. I think that is the key thing they are missing. Otherwise, how would they still be selling millions of CDs?
Yes it is the very same Thieron.
:)
If that is the case, I hope they find all the pieces.
Near the start there is a quick line from Scorpi stating, in a surprised tone, that Chriton (sp?) is alive. So I think it wasn't a dream, as at least the news of his death got out.
The lady in black is "Commander Cleavage" or basically, a high ranking peacekeeper that took Scorpi's command away from him. She has some hypnotic ability with chemicals she excretes to control males.
The big blue baddie is one of the top, if not the top, Scarran.
If he can put out movies like the Prequels and make hundreds of millions why not put out 3 more. I'm sure the writing and directing must be so tiring for him but....
m l
The only hope is that he really does decide that he can't handle the workload of making hundreds of millions on the most basic writing anyone could come up with and have someone else write and direct it.
If you want an idea of what Lucas thinks of the art of filmmaking (and basically what he has managed to build his entire empire, hee hee, off of). Check out this from an interview with Gary Kurtz, a producer on Star Wars and Empire.
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/376/376873p1.ht
In reference to Lucas' changes in going from Amaerican Graffitti to Empire.
"I think the most unfortunate thing that happened was the fact that Indiana Jones came along, and Raiders of the Lost Ark had come out in between. George and I had many, many discussions about that, but it boiled down to the fact that he became convinced that all the audience was interested in was the roller-coaster ride, and so the story and the script didn't matter anymore."
He should wait another 15 years until people are clamoring for more Star Wars and have forgetten the leasons of the past. This way he'll also have time to put out the Ultimate Special Editions of the Original Trilogy with all new Jar Jar scenes and the new Super Special Remastered Editions of the Prequels in the Super 18 disk combo pack with your very own Jar Jar.
This is an age old arguement of envrionment versus genetics in determining the way a child will develop.
The genetics can certainly point in particular directions, but people can also train to overcome a problem, or think a different way, or fight a natural tendancy.
So, while some people might be predisposed to be more liberal in their leaning or conservative, it is a lot like someone predisposed to being overweight. It might take more work to lean the other way, but people, if they see the value, can do it.
Personally, I've swung from liberal to conservative, back to liberal. Politically, I find different issues are more important to me depending on the times.