Re:Who's got the time?
on
Ageism in IT?
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· Score: 1
Just wait a while longer until you've retired and you'll have that same luxury again.:-) I am only the second person I know of who has retired as a programmer, and now I'm able to spend as much time as I like on fun programming projects. It's wonderful!
I always felt that it was more important to enjoy my job than it was to make money, and so always avoided promotion into a management position. Near the end of my career the raises stopped coming, but I still made out Ok financially and I wouldn't have changed a thing.
I maintain a mailing address in Arizona specifically for avoiding California sales taxes. The additional shipping charge (ie; to have items shipped from my Arizona mailing address to me in California) usually doesn't make it worthwhile to have low cost items shipped to my Arizona address and then forwarded to me in California, but the last time I bought a computer from a company in California I had it shipped to my Arizona address and saved about $200 in California sales tax by doing so.
"3. Don't use ionizers. Ionizers are different than electrostatic filters. Ionizers are designed to change the balance of electrical charge in the ambient air (they spit out electrons). To me that's just a bad thing when highly sensitive electronic parts are about. The more out of balance the charges are, the more likely you are to experience static discharges, and we all know that kills computers."
Sorry, but that's incorrect. I write embedded systems firmware/software for spacecraft and since I sometimes work with flight hardware, I and everyone else who works with spacecraft flight equipment, are required to take a course in Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) every two years. One of the means of reducing the possibility of ESD is to ionize the air. The reason it works is that it increases the conductivity of the air, thus allowing static charges to bleed off to ground slowly before they can build up to high enough potentials to create a spark. It's similar to the reason ESD mats are made of resistive material rather than purely conductive material (ie; metal) - it allows the charge to bleed off slowly rather than rapidly.
Increasing the humidity is another good method of reducing the possibility for ESD.
I know this is off topic, but I thought it might be worth a chuckle: When I finally decided it was time to buy a DVD player, the first thing I did was to check the Internet to find players with firmware that had been cracked. I found a practically brand new model (at that time) Sampo DVE-631CF player that hadn't been in production more than a month or so, but firmware was already available to avoid the DRM measures.
I downloaded the firmware modification, burned a CDROM, and only then ordered the DVD player.:-) In fact, there was some editorial comment at Area 450 that Sampo intentionally makes the firmware of their players easy to crack because it increases sales!
Ok, here are some comments on the text itself. I was going to email Ms. Read my comments, but since I see she is participating in this thread, I'll just post my comments here.
1. In section 3.10 "How To Recognize When To Break or Go Home", I was surprised (even shocked) to find the most primary and basic reason for taking a break or going home missing from the text. The most important reason for going home isn't because we become homicidal/suicidal maniacs when we're tired as Ms. Read implies (we don't), the reason is that we make mistakes when we're tired. Beyond a certain level of fatigue, it is counterproductive to remain at work and attempt to continue writing code. I discovered this many years ago the hard way. There were a couple of times when I wanted to get something finished so much that I kept at it even after I couldn't think straight (though the point at which this occurs isn't always obvious at the time). In *both* cases, I spent the next morning either repairing the mistakes I'd made the night before, or deleting the code I'd written when I was overly tired and rewriting it. The increased number of errors we introduce into our code when overly fatigued is the most important reason to get some sleep, rather than the reasons Ms. Read mentions in her monologue.
2. Use a word processor with a spell checker. There is no excuse for gross spelling and grammar errors these days.
Overall, I thought Ms. Read's monologue was entertaining and perceptive in places. I also liked the author's sense of wit and humor, and got a couple of good laughs out of it. One puzzling thing is the use of the pen name "Robert" even though it's obvious from the text that the author is female. I know one girl who goes by the name of "Sam" (for Samantha), but what is "Robert" short for - "Roberta" perhaps?
Imagine what that makes him as far as I'm concerned - I started out in 1968 as a Field Service Engineer for the RCA Computer Systems Division, which at that time made IBM 360 clones called the "Spectra 70." I was immediately attracted to computer programming and became a "Software Specialist" for RCA CSD. Since then, even though I've had many different job titles and worked on many different types of projects using different languages, for the most part I have immensely enjoyed my last 34 years as a computer programmer and wouldn't do a single thing differently. My software has flown on the Space Shuttle twice, and has been to other planets. These are things I never even dreamed of as a child. My salary has pretty much topped out because I enjoy designing and implementing computer programs myself rather than going into management and being responsible for someone else's work, but that's Ok because I enjoy what I do - and to me that's far more important than the money I make.
-- Ron
"I ask, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." ~~ George Mason during Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788
The Five Question Quiz http://ron.dotson.net/fivequestionquiz.htm 1. What do the words "the people" refer to in the First Amendment, which says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
a. The National Guard b. Individuals
2. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Second Amendment, which says "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
a. The National Guard b. Individuals
3. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Fourth Amendment which says "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
a. The National Guard b. Individuals
4. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Ninth Amendment which says "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
a. The National Guard b. Individuals
5. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Tenth Amendment which says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The easiest way I've found to bypass Windows File Protection is simply to have a second, minimal install of WinNT on a separate partition. I boot into that to do maintenance on my primary WinNT installation.
What's a "sanitary sewer"? It sounds like an oxymoron. My dictionary defines sewer as: "1. an artificial conduit, usually underground, for carrying off waste water and refuse, as in a town or city."
Yes, seeing the doctor's reaction to my Geiger counter was kind of fun - it was pretty obvious I was the only patient he'd ever encountered who owned a Geiger counter!:-)
P32 injections are used for any type of inflammatory arthritis that affects the joints (Rheumatoid Arthritis is the most common and well known type of inflammatory arthritis).
No, I don't have osteoarthritis, I have psoriatic arthritis (PA). It's almost the same as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and in fact if you don't happen to have psoriasis along with it, it's sometimes called "sero-negative RA." It's genetically inherited, and little children can and do get it. In fact, a lady just a couple of days ago posted to our forum that her two year old daughter had been diagnosed with PA. I didn't get it until I was in my mid thirties, and I consider myself very lucky... for a child at the age of two to have it is absolutely tragic. There is no cure for either psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis (or any other autoimmune disease such as RA, Lupus, Crohn's Disease, etc., for that matter).
Well, as I've gotten older I have gained weight but I'm *hardly* grand-piano sized!;-) Actually, when it was first diagnosed I weighted about 180 lbs (I'm 6 feet tall) and was in great shape because I was single at that time and went to the gym regularly, etc. Again, both RA and PA are genetic conditions - neither have anything to do with wear and tear on the joints as osteoarthritis does.
It's not a matter of how much radiation the joint "soaks up", it's a function of how much P32 was injected. The liquid P32 along with some cortisone is injected into the synovial cavity of the joint. Because the synovial cavity is pretty much a sealed container, none (or extremely little) of the radioactive material escapes into the blood stream - it all remains in the synovial cavity. In fact, the most dangerous time period is the first 24 hours or so while the needle puncture heals. The leg is placed in a soft cast, and you're not supposed to walk or bend the knee until the needle puncture heals. I wasn't given any restrictions, or instructions to avoid being near other people while the P32 decayed away.
I'm not sure where it stops, but one of the next things I expect to see is that the "ankle-bracelet" transmitters people who have been convicted of petty crimes are required to wear while under confinement in their own homes, will be supplemented with in-home video cameras as well.
Next, virtually everyone who has been convicted of any crime will be required to have police monitored video cameras installed in their homes.
Finally, the government will somehow convince the majority of people that everyone should be required to have police monitored video cameras installed in their homes in order to best "serve and protect" the people, regardless of whether they want to be served and protected or not.
Sounds pretty farfetched, but I once would have thought that most of the things I've seen happen since 9/11 were pretty farfetched as well.
I don't have any chemical warfare experience, but a few years ago I did undergo two separate procedures that are known as a "radioactive synovectomy" for my right knee. I've posted the details on a forum for people like me with Psoriatic Arthritis at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PsoriaticArthritis/m essage/23440 but basically the doctor injects a small amount of a radioactive isotope of phosphorus (P32) into the synovial cavity of my knee to destroy the diseased synovial tissue lining the joint. The injection is much, much easier than a surgical synovectomy which can take weeks to recover from I've heard, and is much more expensive as well.
My rheumatologist had told me that the beta radiation wouldn't penetrate the tissue of my knee and that none would be detectable externally, but just to double check I pulled out my Geiger counter after I got home (*everyone* has their own Geiger counter, right?;-), and if I held it near my knee it pinned the needle on the most sensitive scale. I was emitting about 2 milli-Rems per hour of radiation, which decreased rapidly the further away the meter was (inverse square law). I panicked and called the doctor on his cell phone. He assured me he had injected the correct amount, etc., and acted as though he thought I must be crazy or something, so on my next visit to his office I brought my Geiger counter along to prove to him that the radiation was indeed detectable externally. He was still incredulous, and thought I must have a defective meter or something. During my next procedure (which had to be done in the radiology lab of the hospital), as soon as the P32 was injected I asked one of the lab technicians to verify my readings, which he did. My Geiger counter had been right on the money, and even after being assured of the accuracy of the readings, my doctor STILL looked skeptical!
P32 has a half-life of about two weeks, so after 6 to 8 weeks it's virtually undetectable.
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Just wait a while longer until you've retired and you'll have that same luxury again. :-) I am only the second person I know of who has retired as a programmer, and now I'm able to spend as much time as I like on fun programming projects. It's wonderful!
I always felt that it was more important to enjoy my job than it was to make money, and so always avoided promotion into a management position. Near the end of my career the raises stopped coming, but I still made out Ok financially and I wouldn't have changed a thing.
Increasing the humidity is another good method of reducing the possibility for ESD.
-- Ron
I downloaded the firmware modification, burned a CDROM, and only then ordered the DVD player. :-) In fact, there was some editorial comment at Area 450 that Sampo intentionally makes the firmware of their players easy to crack because it increases sales!
Ok, here are some comments on the text itself. I was going to email Ms. Read my comments, but since I see she is participating in this thread, I'll just post my comments here.
1. In section 3.10 "How To Recognize When To Break or Go Home", I was surprised (even shocked) to find the most primary and basic reason for taking a break or going home missing from the text. The most important reason for going home isn't because we become homicidal/suicidal maniacs when we're tired as Ms. Read implies (we don't), the reason is that we make mistakes when we're tired. Beyond a certain level of fatigue, it is counterproductive to remain at work and attempt to continue writing code. I discovered this many years ago the hard way. There were a couple of times when I wanted to get something finished so much that I kept at it even after I couldn't think straight (though the point at which this occurs isn't always obvious at the time). In *both* cases, I spent the next morning either repairing the mistakes I'd made the night before, or deleting the code I'd written when I was overly tired and rewriting it. The increased number of errors we introduce into our code when overly fatigued is the most important reason to get some sleep, rather than the reasons Ms. Read mentions in her monologue.
2. Use a word processor with a spell checker. There is no excuse for gross spelling and grammar errors these days.
Overall, I thought Ms. Read's monologue was entertaining and perceptive in places. I also liked the author's sense of wit and humor, and got a couple of good laughs out of it. One puzzling thing is the use of the pen name "Robert" even though it's obvious from the text that the author is female. I know one girl who goes by the name of "Sam" (for Samantha), but what is "Robert" short for - "Roberta" perhaps?
-- Ron
Computers can supposedly create original paintings, so can it be long before they start creating original letters to the editor? ;-)
Yes, I know of many people in that situation. They all ended up at TimeBomb2000
How about losing one finger or thumb per offense? After 10 offenses, the perp would no longer be able to use a computer keyboard at all.
Imagine what that makes him as far as I'm concerned - I started out in 1968 as a Field Service Engineer for the RCA Computer Systems Division, which at that time made IBM 360 clones called the "Spectra 70." I was immediately attracted to computer programming and became a "Software Specialist" for RCA CSD. Since then, even though I've had many different job titles and worked on many different types of projects using different languages, for the most part I have immensely enjoyed my last 34 years as a computer programmer and wouldn't do a single thing differently. My software has flown on the Space Shuttle twice, and has been to other planets. These are things I never even dreamed of as a child. My salary has pretty much topped out because I enjoy designing and implementing computer programs myself rather than going into management and being responsible for someone else's work, but that's Ok because I enjoy what I do - and to me that's far more important than the money I make.
-- Ron
M$ itself has a "Knowledge Base Article - 256219" on their web pages that describes how to uninstall Outlook Express.
More Guns, Less Crime : Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws (Studies in Law and Economics) by John R. Lott, Jr.
Unintended Consequences (A classic)
http://ron.dotson.net/guns.htm (Shameless plug for my own Gun page)
"I ask, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." ~~ George Mason during Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788
The Five Question Quiz
http://ron.dotson.net/fivequestionquiz.htm
1. What do the words "the people" refer to in the First Amendment, which says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
a. The National Guard
b. Individuals
2. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Second Amendment, which says "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
a. The National Guard
b. Individuals
3. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Fourth Amendment which says "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
a. The National Guard
b. Individuals
4. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Ninth Amendment which says "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
a. The National Guard
b. Individuals
5. What do the words "the people" refer to in the Tenth Amendment which says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
a. The National Guard
b. Individuals
The easiest way I've found to bypass Windows File Protection is simply to have a second, minimal install of WinNT on a separate partition. I boot into that to do maintenance on my primary WinNT installation.
What's a "sanitary sewer"? It sounds like an oxymoron. My dictionary defines sewer as: "1. an artificial conduit, usually underground, for carrying off waste water and refuse, as in a town or city."
Gads, sounds like the perfect breeding ground for super-mutant killer bacteria and viruses!
Yes, seeing the doctor's reaction to my Geiger counter was kind of fun - it was pretty obvious I was the only patient he'd ever encountered who owned a Geiger counter! :-)
;-) Actually, when it was first diagnosed I weighted about 180 lbs (I'm 6 feet tall) and was in great shape because I was single at that time and went to the gym regularly, etc. Again, both RA and PA are genetic conditions - neither have anything to do with wear and tear on the joints as osteoarthritis does.
P32 injections are used for any type of inflammatory arthritis that affects the joints (Rheumatoid Arthritis is the most common and well known type of inflammatory arthritis).
No, I don't have osteoarthritis, I have psoriatic arthritis (PA). It's almost the same as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and in fact if you don't happen to have psoriasis along with it, it's sometimes called "sero-negative RA." It's genetically inherited, and little children can and do get it. In fact, a lady just a couple of days ago posted to our forum that her two year old daughter had been diagnosed with PA. I didn't get it until I was in my mid thirties, and I consider myself very lucky... for a child at the age of two to have it is absolutely tragic. There is no cure for either psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis (or any other autoimmune disease such as RA, Lupus, Crohn's Disease, etc., for that matter).
Well, as I've gotten older I have gained weight but I'm *hardly* grand-piano sized!
It's not a matter of how much radiation the joint "soaks up", it's a function of how much P32 was injected. The liquid P32 along with some cortisone is injected into the synovial cavity of the joint. Because the synovial cavity is pretty much a sealed container, none (or extremely little) of the radioactive material escapes into the blood stream - it all remains in the synovial cavity. In fact, the most dangerous time period is the first 24 hours or so while the needle puncture heals. The leg is placed in a soft cast, and you're not supposed to walk or bend the knee until the needle puncture heals. I wasn't given any restrictions, or instructions to avoid being near other people while the P32 decayed away.
-- Ron
Next, virtually everyone who has been convicted of any crime will be required to have police monitored video cameras installed in their homes.
Finally, the government will somehow convince the majority of people that everyone should be required to have police monitored video cameras installed in their homes in order to best "serve and protect" the people, regardless of whether they want to be served and protected or not.
Sounds pretty farfetched, but I once would have thought that most of the things I've seen happen since 9/11 were pretty farfetched as well.
-- Ron
I don't have any chemical warfare experience, but a few years ago I did undergo two separate procedures that are known as a "radioactive synovectomy" for my right knee. I've posted the details on a forum for people like me with Psoriatic Arthritis at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PsoriaticArthritis/m essage/23440 but basically the doctor injects a small amount of a radioactive isotope of phosphorus (P32) into the synovial cavity of my knee to destroy the diseased synovial tissue lining the joint. The injection is much, much easier than a surgical synovectomy which can take weeks to recover from I've heard, and is much more expensive as well.
;-), and if I held it near my knee it pinned the needle on the most sensitive scale. I was emitting about 2 milli-Rems per hour of radiation, which decreased rapidly the further away the meter was (inverse square law). I panicked and called the doctor on his cell phone. He assured me he had injected the correct amount, etc., and acted as though he thought I must be crazy or something, so on my next visit to his office I brought my Geiger counter along to prove to him that the radiation was indeed detectable externally. He was still incredulous, and thought I must have a defective meter or something. During my next procedure (which had to be done in the radiology lab of the hospital), as soon as the P32 was injected I asked one of the lab technicians to verify my readings, which he did. My Geiger counter had been right on the money, and even after being assured of the accuracy of the readings, my doctor STILL looked skeptical!
My rheumatologist had told me that the beta radiation wouldn't penetrate the tissue of my knee and that none would be detectable externally, but just to double check I pulled out my Geiger counter after I got home (*everyone* has their own Geiger counter, right?
P32 has a half-life of about two weeks, so after 6 to 8 weeks it's virtually undetectable.
-- Ron