'a company that wanted a "very" experienced software developer who also had project manager experience and extensive experience as a DBA in Oracle. The catch? They wanted to pay less than a lot of factory jobs in the area.'
They have a H1B applicant they want to hire. They are required to advertise locally and show that they can't find anybody who can fill that position (they offer extremely low pay to achieve this).
When nobody applies they are free to give the position to a H1B, and pay them the lower (previously agreed) rate.
This is the standard method by which H1B positions are filled.
"This means their only real option is to upgrade the realm servers to be capable of handling more people (to reduce the queues) while still keeping char creation blocked."
That isn't a solution.
The queues do not exist for performance reasons. The reason there are queues is to limit the number of players in the world at one time so it isn't too crowded.
The maximum number allowed now still gives the world a relatively 'uncrowded' feel. Just imagine what it would be like if there were dozens more people in every area.
There would be wholesale bitching about 'how crowded it is' and 'they should limit the number of people who can log in'.
Perhaps there are ways to incorporate some kind of 'skill' detection in games.
For example, while playing WoW yesterday I (L23 Hunter) took on a L24 Lesser Felguard and was immediately attacked by another L24 Lesser Felguard and a L23 Lesser Feldemon (or something like that).
Both my cat and I survived the fight and took out the three enemies (and yes, I know Hunters rock!).
I make no claims of greatness, but it did take a modicum of skill to survive that fight intact.
If the game was able to detect that kind of outcome from a situation like that it would be possible to give some kind of reward (say, some bonus experience or something).
Even when I have a ping of 50ms the game can still be laggy. I have a pretty decent system (A64-3700, 1Gig of Cas 2, 6800GT, 74GB Raptor) so with a ping of 50ms the issues are at their end.
My guess is that either:
a) they are running out of backbone bandwidth (unlikely), or
b) they have downgraded the spec of the servers they are now buying to the bare minimum they can get away with, just to save a few bucks
And please, Please, PLEASE read the damn quest text!
The thing that pisses me off the most in WoW is people who ask 'Where is the xxx?', when the quest text *actually tells you* where it is!
That is soooo damned annoying. I help people all the time and answer lots of questions, but I refuse to answer questions where people are simply too lazy or stupid to read what it says!
I left Oz in '88 and headed to London. Spent six years around there and ended up in the US, where I have been for over 11 years.
The problem is I now have so much experience at what I do (OO, Smalltalk) that there really aren't positions in Oz for me to go back to. There are occasional gigs, but it is a big decision to actually uproot after all this time and head back on the chance of one job.
I would like to go back (I still call Oz home after all this time) but without at least a couple of backup places to work it is hard to take the risk.
"walking out into the night and just staring up at the sky in awe"
To be honest the Northern Hemisphere pretty much sucks for that anyway. The Northern Hemisphere faces away from the Milky Way, so you can really only see stuff that is more on the outskirts of the galaxy than even we are (and we are).
Even on a clear night under dark skies you will see a couple of stars here, a couple there, etc.
Now if you want to see starry skies, make a trip to the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere faces the Milky Way (you can see it with the naked eye), and the night sky is absolutely *filled* with stars. It is really spectacular even under very average conditions.
If you enjoy night skies then make a point of visiting Australia, South America, or Africa at some point. You really won't regret it.
Totally OT, but I just bought a Unicomp Customizer 104.
It's so nice having a buckling spring keyboard again. Not just for the 'feel' and noise, but also because of the taller keys which reduce the incidence of accidentally hitting two keys at once.
I just built a new PC with an Athlon64 3700+, an XFX 6800gt, and a 74gig Raptor. These things would tend to add up to a few degrees.
But I put it into a cheap ($50) Cooler Master Centurion case with an 80mm front fan and a 120mm rear fan.
CPU runs at 29c idle, 36c max Case runs at 33c idle, 39c max GPU runs at 60c idle, 65c max (those buggers run hot!)
The point is that you don't need anything particularly fancy to keep a decent spec system cool. Just do a little homework. The Cooler Master case was excellent value.
It's just astonishing to me that people even equate the two.
The console market and the PC gaming market ARE NOT THE SAME MARKET.
Just because a new console comes out does not mean that PC gamers won't play games on their PC. They may well buy a new console (I buy one on occasion as well), but I am not going to stop buying PC games. I prefer PC games.
All of these doomsayers are just idiots who can't understand that even though the products are similar (ie. you can play games on them) they are not competing in the same market.
When I was first employed as a consultant (waaaaay back in '85) my first job was to go and find a chair. The company's position was that we could spend up to $1k on a chair of our choosing, after which we (obviously) couldn't bitch about not having a good chair.
As we all moved to different sites quite a bit the company also paid for our chair to be delivered to the next client site for us.
After much looking around I found the perfect chair (a Viasit) which cost $990. That was a lot of money for a chair back in 1985! I think the previous record at the company was about $700.
ps. Hi to any old H&S (Perth, Oz) people out there!
"I remember the hype surrounding object databases and xml databases. What happened?"
There are many large companies (finance, insurance, shipping, utilities, etc.) who are using GemStone (www.gemstone.com) very successfully.
We use GemStone as our persistence layer and application server on my project (at a major bank).
The only limitation at the moment is it only provides 32 bit support, so we are limited to about one billion objects, but I believe GemStone are working on a 64 bit version.
It can be kind of funky at times but is also an exceptionally productive application server development environment, and when coupled with a Smalltalk dev tool (VisualAge, VisualWorks, etc.) is probably the most fun you can have developing software.
Slashdot Mirror
Just wondering if you know what happens for British citizens who don't live in the UK?
I have a British passport which expires in 2008 but I don't live there. When I want it renewed will I be required to get an ID card?
'a company that wanted a "very" experienced software developer who also had project manager experience and extensive experience as a DBA in Oracle. The catch? They wanted to pay less than a lot of factory jobs in the area.'
They have a H1B applicant they want to hire. They are required to advertise locally and show that they can't find anybody who can fill that position (they offer extremely low pay to achieve this).
When nobody applies they are free to give the position to a H1B, and pay them the lower (previously agreed) rate.
This is the standard method by which H1B positions are filled.
"Please delete all of your files on your hard drive. Then forward this message to everyone in your address book."
Which is like the guy who comes home to find his wife in bed with another man...
He calmly walks to the dresser, opens a drawer, pulls out a revolver and puts it to his temple.
His wife says: " For God's sake, don't!"
To which he replies: " Shut up woman. You're next!"
You don't get to see these then:
C -4938N-077.html
http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Sep2004/040901-
I work in downtown Seattle and often see these things zipping about. And yes, those are forward and rear mounted machine guns!
From memory I think they have twin 350hp Honda outboards, so they are quick little suckers too!
"This means their only real option is to upgrade the realm servers to be capable of handling more people (to reduce the queues) while still keeping char creation blocked."
That isn't a solution.
The queues do not exist for performance reasons. The reason there are queues is to limit the number of players in the world at one time so it isn't too crowded.
The maximum number allowed now still gives the world a relatively 'uncrowded' feel. Just imagine what it would be like if there were dozens more people in every area.
There would be wholesale bitching about 'how crowded it is' and 'they should limit the number of people who can log in'.
Perhaps there are ways to incorporate some kind of 'skill' detection in games.
For example, while playing WoW yesterday I (L23 Hunter) took on a L24 Lesser Felguard and was immediately attacked by another L24 Lesser Felguard and a L23 Lesser Feldemon (or something like that).
Both my cat and I survived the fight and took out the three enemies (and yes, I know Hunters rock!).
I make no claims of greatness, but it did take a modicum of skill to survive that fight intact.
If the game was able to detect that kind of outcome from a situation like that it would be possible to give some kind of reward (say, some bonus experience or something).
I've been noticing this as well.
Even when I have a ping of 50ms the game can still be laggy. I have a pretty decent system (A64-3700, 1Gig of Cas 2, 6800GT, 74GB Raptor) so with a ping of 50ms the issues are at their end.
My guess is that either:
a) they are running out of backbone bandwidth (unlikely), or
b) they have downgraded the spec of the servers they are now buying to the bare minimum they can get away with, just to save a few bucks
"keep in mind the 80/20 rule of thumb. 80% of the time is spent in 20% of the code."
But you also need to remember that the remaining 80% of the code takes the other 80% of the time.
"why would anyone pay attention to the word of an individual who places career advancement over doing the right thing?"
Like politicians?
Blasphemer!
You put the milk in first. Everybody knows that!
And please, Please, PLEASE read the damn quest text!
The thing that pisses me off the most in WoW is people who ask 'Where is the xxx?', when the quest text *actually tells you* where it is!
That is soooo damned annoying. I help people all the time and answer lots of questions, but I refuse to answer questions where people are simply too lazy or stupid to read what it says!
It can be tough to get back.
I left Oz in '88 and headed to London. Spent six years around there and ended up in the US, where I have been for over 11 years.
The problem is I now have so much experience at what I do (OO, Smalltalk) that there really aren't positions in Oz for me to go back to. There are occasional gigs, but it is a big decision to actually uproot after all this time and head back on the chance of one job.
I would like to go back (I still call Oz home after all this time) but without at least a couple of backup places to work it is hard to take the risk.
Help! Somebody save me!!
"walking out into the night and just staring up at the sky in awe"
To be honest the Northern Hemisphere pretty much sucks for that anyway. The Northern Hemisphere faces away from the Milky Way, so you can really only see stuff that is more on the outskirts of the galaxy than even we are (and we are).
Even on a clear night under dark skies you will see a couple of stars here, a couple there, etc.
Now if you want to see starry skies, make a trip to the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere faces the Milky Way (you can see it with the naked eye), and the night sky is absolutely *filled* with stars. It is really spectacular even under very average conditions.
If you enjoy night skies then make a point of visiting Australia, South America, or Africa at some point. You really won't regret it.
You forgot:
4) Profit
"I want to make sure my family is safe if we're in a wreck."
I've always figured that is why bad drivers buy Volvos.
They know they are eventually going to cause a fatal accident, and they would rather kill somebody else's family than their own.
There are occasionally rumours here that a senior manager might demand we start wearing a shirt and tie, rather than the biz casual we now have.
If he tries that number with me I am going to tell him:
'Just because you have a male clothing fetish does not mean that the rest of us should have to dress to satisfy your sexual perversions'
Think that one will get me fired? 8)
"I'll smack you with my Type-M."
Totally OT, but I just bought a Unicomp Customizer 104.
It's so nice having a buckling spring keyboard again. Not just for the 'feel' and noise, but also because of the taller keys which reduce the incidence of accidentally hitting two keys at once.
"that's kinda like saying why not drive in cars made from ~50 years ago. not very pratical, but they'll still get you from A to B."
I would have no complaints about being forced to drive from A to B in a '55 T-bird or a '55 Chevy...
I just built a new PC with an Athlon64 3700+, an XFX 6800gt, and a 74gig Raptor. These things would tend to add up to a few degrees.
But I put it into a cheap ($50) Cooler Master Centurion case with an 80mm front fan and a 120mm rear fan.
CPU runs at 29c idle, 36c max
Case runs at 33c idle, 39c max
GPU runs at 60c idle, 65c max (those buggers run hot!)
The point is that you don't need anything particularly fancy to keep a decent spec system cool. Just do a little homework. The Cooler Master case was excellent value.
"Money does not equate to a cure for anything."
Very true.
But lack of money certainly doesn't either.
"the rather serious charge of electon fraud"
Sorry to be a spelling nazi, but I think you meant to say:
"electron fraud"
Right? 8)
It's just astonishing to me that people even equate the two.
The console market and the PC gaming market ARE NOT THE SAME MARKET.
Just because a new console comes out does not mean that PC gamers won't play games on their PC. They may well buy a new console (I buy one on occasion as well), but I am not going to stop buying PC games. I prefer PC games.
All of these doomsayers are just idiots who can't understand that even though the products are similar (ie. you can play games on them) they are not competing in the same market.
When I was first employed as a consultant (waaaaay back in '85) my first job was to go and find a chair. The company's position was that we could spend up to $1k on a chair of our choosing, after which we (obviously) couldn't bitch about not having a good chair.
As we all moved to different sites quite a bit the company also paid for our chair to be delivered to the next client site for us.
After much looking around I found the perfect chair (a Viasit) which cost $990. That was a lot of money for a chair back in 1985! I think the previous record at the company was about $700.
ps. Hi to any old H&S (Perth, Oz) people out there!
"I remember the hype surrounding object databases and xml databases. What happened?"
There are many large companies (finance, insurance, shipping, utilities, etc.) who are using GemStone (www.gemstone.com) very successfully.
We use GemStone as our persistence layer and application server on my project (at a major bank).
The only limitation at the moment is it only provides 32 bit support, so we are limited to about one billion objects, but I believe GemStone are working on a 64 bit version.
It can be kind of funky at times but is also an exceptionally productive application server development environment, and when coupled with a Smalltalk dev tool (VisualAge, VisualWorks, etc.) is probably the most fun you can have developing software.
"so why bother debating it with you?"
I agree. There is already plenty of mass debating going on around here!