Even though the Denver metro has gone up the last couple years, it's still a bargain if you're a software dev in terms of cost vs. what you get vs. what you'll make.
You can buy a nice, < 15 year old single family home in the burbs for $250k. That same house would be 3x - 4x that in any of the coastal "tech cities". (That goes up the closer to the foothills/mountains you go. Stay east of I-25 and it's completely true, west of I-25 and you're going toward the $350k range).
A Sr. Engineer is going to start at about $130k, a mid-level probably just north of $100k. Unless you go to work for one of the big guys (Google, Oracle, HP, Twitter, etc) in which case it's actually more.
The city, area, and people are wonderful. Denver is *like* a big city, but it's really not at all - the entire metro area has maybe 1.5m people (I think Denver proper is at about 700k). Great music scene, great restaurants, museums, etc, etc. And if you're into the outdoors at all, this is the place to be.
As a transplant from Washington D.C. (been here 8 years) I can tell you you'd have a very hard time dragging me away.
Basically, you'll get paid almost as much as you would on the coasts, and your cost of living is half. No, it's not as cheap as but it's still a great bargain for a real metro IMHO.
You're correct that we didn't evolve with digital communication. We also didn't evolve with telephones, but everyone seems to have figured those out.
The company for which I work is 100% remote when it comes to pretty much everything but C-level, and that's working pretty well for us (We just opened new business offices in Tokyo and London). I work with people in... 7 timezones? Something like that anyway. The nearest physical office to my home is ~ 1800 miles away.
The trick is you have to hire people capable of working that way. As you say, we didn't evolve with digital communication, but humans have a remarkable ability to learn new things (well, at least some of them). Can you have that guy that needs constant micro-management and someone asking "What did you do today, Bob?" ? No, you can't (although I would make the argument that you really don't want him in an office, either). You also can't have the typical bad mid-level manager that thinks someone sitting in a chair within close physical proximity to them from hour X to hour Y = productive. Or anyone who thinks talking to someone face to face is more effective or productive than the myriad of ways to communicate digitally. I often find great humor in the irony of people building software that allows people from all over the world to communicate and interact with each other... need to be in one physical location to do so.
In short? Best. Job. Ever. I've always found that I was more productive outside an office due to the constant interrupts and constant stream of often useless "facetime" meetings. Having a job where I do that all the time is simply awesome and I have gotten more honest, real work done in the last year working here than probably any time elsewhere (while it's hard to quantify that when talking about software engineering there is a sense of getting things done and doing so effectively).
I will say, however, that having *everyone* remote is far different than having most people in an office and a couple people remote. This is where you run into the problem of them "not being involved". While not impossible to manage and again the right people make this work, it is more difficult for most people because it's simply that "out of sight, out of mind" problem when it comes to the remote workers. In general you also don't have an environment and tools in place to facilitate those remote people being included because it's not your normal workflow.
Businesses will also sell old stock at a loss simply to free up capital that's trapped in stockholding.
Not to mention that often you're charged a restocking fee by your distributor and it counts against your account purchase totals (which grant you perks such as line discounts, better rates overall, etc).
When I was running my business our main distributor would allow a 6 month restock, but with a 15% fee. We'd simply put inventory that wasn't moving that we would have returned on "clearance" at (or up to the 15% below) cost to get rid of it. It was only things that we literally thought we'd never get rid of that we'd return.
The difference, of course, is that you would need physical access to the keyfob in my pocket. Even if you managed that feat without me noticing, you'd destroy it in the process of extracting the information you need thus alerting me that something was amiss.
I know what everyone is saying about how the $38 share price was perfectly picked as the correct valuation of the company, but (and I am not a financial expert) what does this mean to the people who bought in on Friday? With no major share price movement they are left with a bunch of stock certificates and all their money in the hands of FB. How does this become a worthwhile investment for them?
Define "people".
Individual investors were chumps from the start (pretty much every analyst had said not to buy it) and allowed the financial institutions to make a nice 20% profit in a few minutes, selling their shares @ $42 - $45 when it opened.
If you're a financial institution... it's a long term investment that you believe will pan out. They thought $38 was the correct valuation and are in it for the long haul.
I also just bought a U3011. It's worth *every frigging penny*, because I sit in front of it at least 8 hours a day (telecommute gig). I have a 6 year old 22" 1680x1050 rotated to portrait next to it.
Not to be pedantic (ok, I am) but one per day was never mentioned.
I watch people at work make multiples of such purchases daily ($4 coffees, $2 cinnamon buns, etc) then complain that they don't have money to buy things... like a new(er) car.
$10/day buys you a Versa on a 6 year loan at a low interest rate with a minimal down payment.
I worked as an engineer at a company the professed to be "agile" (the quotes are because really, not so much). They started judging performance by "cards closed per week".
You'd be amazed at the number of cards that will be created and closed under those conditions. Our productivity *soared* (according the graph that showed productivity as a measurement of cards closed per week... ).
First of all, we have to remember that the sample questions were from the 4th and 8th grade, but the test he failed was 10th grade. At that age level, the questions might already be hard enough that it's justifiable to have forgotten a couple of rules and fail as an adult.
Here's a sample question from the 12th grade mathematics test, specifically one marked "hard":
"The postal rate is 25 cents for the first ounce and 20 cents for each additional ounce or part of an ounce. What would it cost to mail a package that weighs 6.8 ounces?"
So in short, on top of all the other things you detail in your post which IMHO is spot on, the guy really is operating below a functional level when it comes to mathematics. Given this and those things, I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's probably not really that great at much else either.
Actually, no, it's not. At least not for the last 30 years or so.
The only taxpayer money that goes to the USPS is ~ $100mm a year to cover things mostly for the disabled and overseas voters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service). They are only expected to break even.
And therein lies the problem. The basic fact of the matter is that e-mail has eroded their bread-and-butter; people needing to communicate with another person. Bills/invoices are also going this way. While not everyone uses e-mail, enough do that this is a buggy-whip manufacturing situation. Eventually there will simply be little reason for it to exist.
The fact that they suck at delivering actual packages when compared to UPS pretty much rules them out of that business. They're slower, don't provide adequate or accurate tracking, etc, etc.
Oh, and in new neighborhoods like mine? UPS, FedEx, etc actually bring things to my *house*, not a community mailbox a 1/4 mile away.
What it comes down to is either it needs to be completely overhauled and shrunk to fit today's reality, or be subsidized heavily by taxpayer money.
No kidding. I could write an article that is the complete opposite of this based on my own personal experiences.
I'm past this "half life" and get at least 3 inquires a week via LinkedIn (either via messages or people calling my phone). I just accepted a new position (Sr. Engineer) that I'll be starting after the first of the new year. I wasn't looking for a job as my current position is quite good; this company actively sought me out and recruited me.
The same as an earlier poster stated about himself, I'm also not the smartest guy on the planet. What I am is someone who really does love this field (been programming since I was 10), has decent logic skills, keeps up with technology, etc.
While this would be a reason for many not to get into engineering at all, I don't know that it supports the problem set described in the article(s), specifically the part that says "failing to get any degree".
The core of the problem I think is that the public education system nor the current methods of raising children prepares them for a world where you don't get accolades for just showing up.
Coakley said that her investment in protecting consumers from identity theft was personal, acknowledging that her bank account was emptied after cyber criminals stole her debit card information during a ski trip to New Hampshire. It was not the first time Coakley had mentioned the incident in public. After skimming the card info, Coakley said the thieves attempted to use it to purchase a laptop from Dell Computer, which detected the fraudulent transaction and contacted Coakley. Not so Apple, whose iTunes media store was used to make a slew of transactions that emptied the Attorney General's account.
You know what I do when I happen upon one of those super-awesome flash sites? I navigate away as fast as possible. Because as you say - they *suck* (And that's being kind).
Luckily, I can usually hit the back button before they finish loading the "intro" and not have to suffer through whatever it is that's about to display on my screen.
And now... we have large swaths of people who can't do column arithmetic in their heads. Have you been in a retail store lately and paid cash for anything? Dig that quarter out of your pocket so you don't get back $4.97 from your $20 after they've hit the magic "total" button on the terminal and watch the train wreck that ensues.
So while yes, the people *who already could do simple problems on paper* benefited from the calculator, I'm going to go out on a limb that many didn't.
And that's ignoring the part where video games didn't run on the calculator. Or Facebook.
Correct. Same as every "free" service you use on the internet. Social networks just make it easier than trying to track you with cookies, etc because you actually have a identifying login.
There's no such thing as free. You're paying with your behaviors and demographics.
I fully support someone choosing not to use a service because they don't care for this bargain, but people who don't seem to understand that businesses aren't in business to give them stuff for free kinda annoy me.
Slashdot Mirror
Even though the Denver metro has gone up the last couple years, it's still a bargain if you're a software dev in terms of cost vs. what you get vs. what you'll make.
You can buy a nice, < 15 year old single family home in the burbs for $250k. That same house would be 3x - 4x that in any of the coastal "tech cities".
(That goes up the closer to the foothills/mountains you go. Stay east of I-25 and it's completely true, west of I-25 and you're going toward the $350k range).
A Sr. Engineer is going to start at about $130k, a mid-level probably just north of $100k. Unless you go to work for one of the big guys (Google, Oracle, HP, Twitter, etc) in which case it's actually more.
The city, area, and people are wonderful. Denver is *like* a big city, but it's really not at all - the entire metro area has maybe 1.5m people (I think Denver proper is at about 700k). Great music scene, great restaurants, museums, etc, etc. And if you're into the outdoors at all, this is the place to be.
As a transplant from Washington D.C. (been here 8 years) I can tell you you'd have a very hard time dragging me away.
Basically, you'll get paid almost as much as you would on the coasts, and your cost of living is half. No, it's not as cheap as but it's still a great bargain for a real metro IMHO.
The companies worth working for have engineers do the interviewing and hiring. HR schedules things and does the paperwork.
Indeed we are.
http://bashojobs.theresumator.com/
We make Riak :)
You're correct that we didn't evolve with digital communication. We also didn't evolve with telephones, but everyone seems to have figured those out.
The company for which I work is 100% remote when it comes to pretty much everything but C-level, and that's working pretty well for us (We just opened new business offices in Tokyo and London). I work with people in ... 7 timezones? Something like that anyway. The nearest physical office to my home is ~ 1800 miles away.
The trick is you have to hire people capable of working that way. As you say, we didn't evolve with digital communication, but humans have a remarkable ability to learn new things (well, at least some of them). Can you have that guy that needs constant micro-management and someone asking "What did you do today, Bob?" ? No, you can't (although I would make the argument that you really don't want him in an office, either). You also can't have the typical bad mid-level manager that thinks someone sitting in a chair within close physical proximity to them from hour X to hour Y = productive. Or anyone who thinks talking to someone face to face is more effective or productive than the myriad of ways to communicate digitally. I often find great humor in the irony of people building software that allows people from all over the world to communicate and interact with each other ... need to be in one physical location to do so.
In short? Best. Job. Ever. I've always found that I was more productive outside an office due to the constant interrupts and constant stream of often useless "facetime" meetings. Having a job where I do that all the time is simply awesome and I have gotten more honest, real work done in the last year working here than probably any time elsewhere (while it's hard to quantify that when talking about software engineering there is a sense of getting things done and doing so effectively).
I will say, however, that having *everyone* remote is far different than having most people in an office and a couple people remote. This is where you run into the problem of them "not being involved". While not impossible to manage and again the right people make this work, it is more difficult for most people because it's simply that "out of sight, out of mind" problem when it comes to the remote workers. In general you also don't have an environment and tools in place to facilitate those remote people being included because it's not your normal workflow.
Businesses will also sell old stock at a loss simply to free up capital that's trapped in stockholding.
Not to mention that often you're charged a restocking fee by your distributor and it counts against your account purchase totals (which grant you perks such as line discounts, better rates overall, etc).
When I was running my business our main distributor would allow a 6 month restock, but with a 15% fee. We'd simply put inventory that wasn't moving that we would have returned on "clearance" at (or up to the 15% below) cost to get rid of it. It was only things that we literally thought we'd never get rid of that we'd return.
You are absolutely correct.
The difference, of course, is that you would need physical access to the keyfob in my pocket. Even if you managed that feat without me noticing, you'd destroy it in the process of extracting the information you need thus alerting me that something was amiss.
I know what everyone is saying about how the $38 share price was perfectly picked as the correct valuation of the company, but (and I am not a financial expert) what does this mean to the people who bought in on Friday? With no major share price movement they are left with a bunch of stock certificates and all their money in the hands of FB. How does this become a worthwhile investment for them?
Define "people".
Individual investors were chumps from the start (pretty much every analyst had said not to buy it) and allowed the financial institutions to make a nice 20% profit in a few minutes, selling their shares @ $42 - $45 when it opened.
If you're a financial institution ... it's a long term investment that you believe will pan out. They thought $38 was the correct valuation and are in it for the long haul.
How do you think K-12 gets funded? ::Looks at property tax bill:: ::Looks around and notices a distinct lack of progeny::
I pay for for my neighbor's kids. That's how it works. Because it's *better for our country and society* that they get an education.
Exactly.
I also just bought a U3011. It's worth *every frigging penny*, because I sit in front of it at least 8 hours a day (telecommute gig). I have a 6 year old 22" 1680x1050 rotated to portrait next to it.
The average joe user? $180 = TN 16:9 1920x1080.
You'd be amazed at what good gear and being a good rider (e.g. not a squid) can do for you.
I've been riding for over 20 years. I generally put ~ 10k miles a year on my bikes (combined).
Ducati 1098.
0-60mph in 2.9 sec.
35 - 40mpg while being ham-fisted on the throttle.
My other bike is a Triumph Thruxton and it gets 50mpg.
I ride ~ 7 months out of the year here in CO.
VA has had this for over 20 years -
http://arlingtondrafthouse.com/ (celebrating 25th anniversary)
I always loved going there when I lived in the area.
Not to be pedantic (ok, I am) but one per day was never mentioned.
I watch people at work make multiples of such purchases daily ($4 coffees, $2 cinnamon buns, etc) then complain that they don't have money to buy things ... like a new(er) car.
$10/day buys you a Versa on a 6 year loan at a low interest rate with a minimal down payment.
I worked as an engineer at a company the professed to be "agile" (the quotes are because really, not so much). They started judging performance by "cards closed per week".
You'd be amazed at the number of cards that will be created and closed under those conditions. Our productivity *soared* (according the graph that showed productivity as a measurement of cards closed per week ... ).
First of all, we have to remember that the sample questions were from the 4th and 8th grade, but the test he failed was 10th grade. At that age level, the questions might already be hard enough that it's justifiable to have forgotten a couple of rules and fail as an adult.
Not so much. If you follow the links you'll find up here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/landing.aspx
Here's a sample question from the 12th grade mathematics test, specifically one marked "hard":
"The postal rate is 25 cents for the first ounce and 20 cents for each additional ounce or part of an ounce. What would it cost to mail a package that weighs 6.8 ounces?"
So in short, on top of all the other things you detail in your post which IMHO is spot on, the guy really is operating below a functional level when it comes to mathematics. Given this and those things, I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's probably not really that great at much else either.
Actually, no, it's not. At least not for the last 30 years or so.
The only taxpayer money that goes to the USPS is ~ $100mm a year to cover things mostly for the disabled and overseas voters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service). They are only expected to break even.
And therein lies the problem. The basic fact of the matter is that e-mail has eroded their bread-and-butter; people needing to communicate with another person. Bills/invoices are also going this way. While not everyone uses e-mail, enough do that this is a buggy-whip manufacturing situation. Eventually there will simply be little reason for it to exist.
The fact that they suck at delivering actual packages when compared to UPS pretty much rules them out of that business. They're slower, don't provide adequate or accurate tracking, etc, etc.
Oh, and in new neighborhoods like mine? UPS, FedEx, etc actually bring things to my *house*, not a community mailbox a 1/4 mile away.
What it comes down to is either it needs to be completely overhauled and shrunk to fit today's reality, or be subsidized heavily by taxpayer money.
No kidding. I could write an article that is the complete opposite of this based on my own personal experiences.
I'm past this "half life" and get at least 3 inquires a week via LinkedIn (either via messages or people calling my phone). I just accepted a new position (Sr. Engineer) that I'll be starting after the first of the new year. I wasn't looking for a job as my current position is quite good; this company actively sought me out and recruited me.
The same as an earlier poster stated about himself, I'm also not the smartest guy on the planet. What I am is someone who really does love this field (been programming since I was 10), has decent logic skills, keeps up with technology, etc.
I've found yEd to be quite useful as well.
While this would be a reason for many not to get into engineering at all, I don't know that it supports the problem set described in the article(s), specifically the part that says "failing to get any degree".
The core of the problem I think is that the public education system nor the current methods of raising children prepares them for a world where you don't get accolades for just showing up.
Erm, no ... it doesn't. That would be that "somewhere else in the equation" part I was speaking of.
I agree with you completely and that was my point, though presented in a much more tongue and cheek fashion.
The post talks about changing things at the college level. This reeks of the same logic that got us to where we give kids medals for just showing up.
If the number of engineers has decreased and the teaching methods have been a constant ...
Seems like the problem is somewhere else in the equation.
Coakley said that her investment in protecting consumers from identity theft was personal, acknowledging that her bank account was emptied after cyber criminals stole her debit card information during a ski trip to New Hampshire. It was not the first time Coakley had mentioned the incident in public. After skimming the card info, Coakley said the thieves attempted to use it to purchase a laptop from Dell Computer, which detected the fraudulent transaction and contacted Coakley. Not so Apple, whose iTunes media store was used to make a slew of transactions that emptied the Attorney General's account.
You may be considering learning to read.
If I had mod points, I'd mod you up.
You know what I do when I happen upon one of those super-awesome flash sites? I navigate away as fast as possible. Because as you say - they *suck* (And that's being kind).
Luckily, I can usually hit the back button before they finish loading the "intro" and not have to suffer through whatever it is that's about to display on my screen.
And now ... we have large swaths of people who can't do column arithmetic in their heads. Have you been in a retail store lately and paid cash for anything? Dig that quarter out of your pocket so you don't get back $4.97 from your $20 after they've hit the magic "total" button on the terminal and watch the train wreck that ensues.
So while yes, the people *who already could do simple problems on paper* benefited from the calculator, I'm going to go out on a limb that many didn't.
And that's ignoring the part where video games didn't run on the calculator. Or Facebook.
Correct. Same as every "free" service you use on the internet. Social networks just make it easier than trying to track you with cookies, etc because you actually have a identifying login.
There's no such thing as free. You're paying with your behaviors and demographics.
I fully support someone choosing not to use a service because they don't care for this bargain, but people who don't seem to understand that businesses aren't in business to give them stuff for free kinda annoy me.