I've hired a bunch of computer-oriented employees, and find that many people entering the job market have a slightly skewed perception of their degree's value. They try to find the degree that will give them the maximum number of facts that will overlap with the facts they think they need for a desired job. They don't realize that any job worth doing will not be based on a static pool of facts or abilities. Those are the 7-Eleven jobs. They barely pay anything.
Employers want people who can learn, who are flexible, and who can gracefully handle getting dumped with a bunch of work, when machines are down and customers are screaming. Unfortunately there is no degree in this. There are, however, killer degrees which drown you in work. Employers realize that anyone who made it through this type of degree had to at least perservere in the face of a gigantic mountain of learning, lectures and labs.
Someone who never made it through one of these degrees may do just as well at a job, but it's a bit more of a crap shoot, unless you can find a parallel, concrete achievement that shows their tenacity. Employers often take the easy way out and just insist on the degree.
The maximum ram available for use in Pentium systems is dependent upon the chipset used by the motherboard. The chipset also determines how much is cacheable, which is really important. Some people used to add more RAM to their systems in hopes of increasing speed, and actually caused them to run slower, since the new RAM wasn't cached.
There is often an important point made within the FAQ of discussion-oriented internet resources. It is that someone who is "new in town" should shut up for a while until they can tell how things are done in that community. This is a very good rule of thumb. If someone stumbles upon slashdot and has something to say that reflects vast wisdom, the many moderators will bump its score up until it gets the rating it deserves. This moderation scheme only affects where a post starts, not its final score.
I've used the internet since 1987 and love any trick which will increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Some people post because they can, and others post because they have something worth saying. If someone builds a reputation for wisdom and credibility, their remarks should initially carry more weight. Anyone abusing this will eventually get moderated down to where they belong.
I loved what ESR had to say. He summed up everything that I hate about the well-intentioned-yet counterproductive "advocacy" that is so popular these days. Note to newly-converted linux fans: sometimes you can do more damage than good with your hollering and chest-beating.
When you feel like backseat-driving, just ask yourself "What have I ever done that makes me such an authority on this subject? Why must my voice be heard?"
Remember, linux was built from the effort of hundreds of fallible, flawed humans. Many of them are justifiably proud of their accomplishments. If you hassle them, they just might take their efforts elsewhere.
Many slashdotters feel the need to shift discussion into one of their favourite few topics. Some of the top ones include:
1) Bill Gates is evil. Jon Katz is utterly worthless. Linus Torvalds is the messiah. CmdrTaco cured cancer.
2) People who can't (assemble a computer from a stick of gum and a piece of string\compile kernels\install Linux\get rid of ?s in their posts) should be burned alive
3) I know a lot and you don't. I have always known this much and was never a novice. You don't deserve my help.
This is a very unfortunate state of affairs, because there are always gems of wisdom amidst the normal Slashdot effluvia. The moderation does wonders in banishing some of the worst of the drivel, but I think many new users would rather go somewhere and be treated more civilly.
Mr Katz can no longer help the fact that he's written a book, and that it has become more successful from web exposure. What he can do now is meet and talk to hundreds of people, varying from the extremely non-technical, to Slashdotters. He is now our Dan Rather, reporting to us the "net effect" of the technology that fascinates us. He is on our team. A few years ago there was a great need for someone to write an open-source unix. These days, there is a need for well-spoken, technologically-positive people to get out there and "spread the word". You may not care about Jon Katz's words, but others apparently do, and that's a very powerful opportunity (for us as well as him) that shouldn't be squandered.
I enjoy the hubbub that arises whenever John Katz posts something new to Slashdot.
When I used to study English in High School and University, they used to make us read books by authors from hundreds of years ago. These guys (Chaucer and Shakespeare) have not written any code that I'm aware of. If they did, it was in the pre-Linux years and is most likely not Open Source. I didn't really like the idea of reading stuff by these dinosaurs, and it was definitely tough reading (especially Chaucer who was writing in an early-Alpha version of English, probably version.85 or so).
Sometimes they used words that meant nothing to me. They would trip me up and get in the way of my finishing a sentence. I found the best way to deal with this was to cruise along, and skip over words that I didn't understand. I could pick up the gist of what was being said by the context. The tone of the piece often conveyed more information than the literal translation
I find myself slipping back into this reading mode when the endless hordes of Jolt-guzzling, OSS-cheerleading, self-righteous arbiters of literary good taste come out of the woodwork and start the weekly "John Katz lynch party". Their words run together and I'm left with an image of a narrow-minded, horribly *young* reader who seems to believe that they have all of the answers and that authors, artists and the over-25 crowd have none. I am embarrassed and ashamed by the company of my fellow slashdot readers.
Why must everyone post this tired, tired, old quote whenever a reference to Windows 95 comes up? It was mildly entertaining the first time. Barely so the next few times. It has no entertainment value now. Let it die.
He's playing to his audience. It's almost as if any discussion, about any topic, always ends up getting deflected into a "rah-rah Linux, boo Microsoft, OSS rocks" discussion. The cheerleaders come out in full force, and the original topic gets lost. Katz keeps getting told by the slashdot readers that he is a jerk, that he can't write, that Linux is god and his reality will transform once he "goes Linux". To a certain extent, it seems he's buying in.
Linux is a good thing. Unfortunately, it gets hashed and re-hashed to death here. I'm tired of it, too. I believe his tune has changed because he is trying to fit in.
Slashdot Mirror
I've hired a bunch of computer-oriented employees, and find that many people entering the job market have a slightly skewed perception of their degree's value. They try to find the degree that will give them the maximum number of facts that will overlap with the facts they think they need for a desired job. They don't realize that any job worth doing will not be based on a static pool of facts or abilities. Those are the 7-Eleven jobs. They barely pay anything.
Employers want people who can learn, who are flexible, and who can gracefully handle getting dumped with a bunch of work, when machines are down and customers are screaming. Unfortunately there is no degree in this. There are, however, killer degrees which drown you in work. Employers realize that anyone who made it through this type of degree had to at least perservere in the face of a gigantic mountain of learning, lectures and labs.
Someone who never made it through one of these degrees may do just as well at a job, but it's a bit more of a crap shoot, unless you can find a parallel, concrete achievement that shows their tenacity. Employers often take the easy way out and just insist on the degree.
The maximum ram available for use in Pentium systems is dependent upon the chipset used by the motherboard. The chipset also determines how much is cacheable, which is really important. Some people used to add more RAM to their systems in hopes of increasing speed, and actually caused them to run slower, since the new RAM wasn't cached.
There is often an important point made within the FAQ of discussion-oriented internet resources. It is that someone who is "new in town" should shut up for a while until they can tell how things are done in that community. This is a very good rule of thumb. If someone stumbles upon slashdot and has something to say that reflects vast wisdom, the many moderators will bump its score up until it gets the rating it deserves. This moderation scheme only affects where a post starts, not its final score.
I've used the internet since 1987 and love any trick which will increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Some people post because they can, and others post because they have something worth saying. If someone builds a reputation for wisdom and credibility, their remarks should initially carry more weight. Anyone abusing this will eventually get moderated down to where they belong.
I think his problem is there is no baby.
I loved what ESR had to say. He summed up everything that I hate about the well-intentioned-yet counterproductive "advocacy" that is so popular these days. Note to newly-converted linux fans: sometimes you can do more damage than good with your hollering and chest-beating.
When you feel like backseat-driving, just ask yourself "What have I ever done that makes me such an authority on this subject? Why must my voice be heard?"
Remember, linux was built from the effort of hundreds of fallible, flawed humans. Many of them are justifiably proud of their accomplishments. If you hassle them, they just might take their efforts elsewhere.
Many slashdotters feel the need to shift discussion into one of their favourite few topics. Some of the top ones include:
1) Bill Gates is evil. Jon Katz is utterly worthless. Linus Torvalds is the messiah. CmdrTaco cured cancer.
2) People who can't (assemble a computer from a stick of gum and a piece of string\compile kernels\install Linux\get rid of ?s in their posts) should be burned alive
3) I know a lot and you don't. I have always known this much and was never a novice. You don't deserve my help.
This is a very unfortunate state of affairs, because there are always gems of wisdom amidst the normal Slashdot effluvia. The moderation does wonders in banishing some of the worst of the drivel, but I think many new users would rather go somewhere and be treated more civilly.
Mr Katz can no longer help the fact that he's written a book, and that it has become more successful from web exposure. What he can do now is meet and talk to hundreds of people, varying from the extremely non-technical, to Slashdotters. He is now our Dan Rather, reporting to us the "net effect" of the technology that fascinates us. He is on our team. A few years ago there was a great need for someone to write an open-source unix. These days, there is a need for well-spoken, technologically-positive people to get out there and "spread the word". You may not care about Jon Katz's words, but others apparently do, and that's a very powerful opportunity (for us as well as him) that shouldn't be squandered.
The different operating systems are like night and day with respect to memory use. Windows (CE or not) is a pig for memory. The Pilot's OS isn't.
True, they are aimed at different market segments for different uses...
Anyone should feel free to disagree with me after taking a while to peruse developer documentation for both platforms.
When I used to study English in High School and University, they used to make us read books by authors from hundreds of years ago. These guys (Chaucer and Shakespeare) have not written any code that I'm aware of. If they did, it was in the pre-Linux years and is most likely not Open Source. I didn't really like the idea of reading stuff by these dinosaurs, and it was definitely tough reading (especially Chaucer who was writing in an early-Alpha version of English, probably version
Sometimes they used words that meant nothing to me. They would trip me up and get in the way of my finishing a sentence. I found the best way to deal with this was to cruise along, and skip over words that I didn't understand. I could pick up the gist of what was being said by the context. The tone of the piece often conveyed more information than the literal translation
I find myself slipping back into this reading mode when the endless hordes of Jolt-guzzling, OSS-cheerleading, self-righteous arbiters of literary good taste come out of the woodwork and start the weekly "John Katz lynch party". Their words run together and I'm left with an image of a narrow-minded, horribly *young* reader who seems to believe that they have all of the answers and that authors, artists and the over-25 crowd have none. I am embarrassed and ashamed by the company of my fellow slashdot readers.
Why must everyone post this tired, tired, old quote whenever a reference to Windows 95 comes up? It was mildly entertaining the first time. Barely so the next few times. It has no entertainment value now. Let it die.
Is it worth your time to tell the world that he's not worth your time?
Linux is a good thing. Unfortunately, it gets hashed and re-hashed to death here. I'm tired of it, too. I believe his tune has changed because he is trying to fit in.