Unfortunately, speaking from experience, when companies layoff people on the magnitude of IBM or HP, they do it by project/product. I was laid off from a position about 4 years ago and our whole division was canned. Alot of very very smart people were let go and it amazed me that the company showed no interest in keeping the top talent.
The article the parent linked to hit the nail on the head. I personally don't mind watching trailers but why not show them before the movie start time? Most times i'm sitting in the theatre 30 minutes before the movie starts with nothing to do. It would be a great time to show them then.
Now people are showing up late because they don't want to sit through the trailers. then they end up arriving late to find seats, etc, etc.
The biggest disatisfiers for me are:
1. Food prices (5 bucks for a drink?)
2. rude/inconsiderate people
3. 20 minutes of advertisements before the movie starts.
I'm an Oracle DBA and I read a bunch of blogs. I use the planet software to aggregate the feeds on my local machine so I only have to go to one website for a quick look.
Some of the blogs I read contain posts by numerous developers, its my way of seeing what deveopers are upto these ways and how I need to change to be able to support them.
Some are RSS feeds of websites that have interesting articles such as dbazine. The rest of the blogs are by experts such as Tomas Kyte, the Drizwell blog and Pete Finnegin.
While there is alot of 'opinion' tossed into some of these blogs alot of them are very informative and help me keep up technology and how people are using it these days as it relates to my field.
I've been an Oracle DBA for about 8 years ago... A little while ago I decided to take some time to become familiar with SQLServer and DB2. Those 3 rdbms's comprise about 85% (or more) of the marketplace. Althought most would probably consider me an Oracle fanboy I enjoy database technology in general. I figure if I know these 3 systems then it will increase my job opportunities.
Saying that however, I have access to DB2 and SQLServer production environments to learn on. While its nice to crosstrain, if you don't have access to the environments you want to learn, in a production environment, then your not really going to become proficient in it.
IMHO it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit of NT because the job market is pretty competitive and if you end up competing for a job with a person that has the same amount of unix experience but has a bit of NT tossed in they may get the job over you.
it has to be a level playing field. I believe I only saw one other comment here that mentioned this. We have more laws and regulations which govern employers than countries like Vietnam or India. Because of this everyone in the chain needs a higher salary to survive. From the construction crews who maintain our roads to health care to the janitors.
We simply can't compete with people who only need $150 a month to live on.
Google has a great search engine and I routinely find things i'm search for there faster than other providers. Thats why I use them everyday.
I search at Yahoo every now and then when having things categorized is convient. Say i'm looking for C++ resources, etc, etc.
I really don't understand the hoopla over google. I think maybe because it all sounds like our dream jobs... 20% of our time dedicated to projects were interested in, exciting dynamic work atmosphere, etc, etc. Personally, I wouldn't believe until I worked there... For years I wanted to work at a certain company but once I was there I was in for a big suprise.
Gmail, maps, etc are all cool products but I personally don't see anything special. While its cool to switch from map view to satelite view in maps, the route planning is no better than mapquest.
Same with gmail.. sure its nifty but its email.. big deal.. hotmail, yahoo and even outlook express fulfill 95% of peoples needs.
I guess what i'm saying is, they sound like a cool company to work for, they have an awesome search engine but other than that I don't see them doing anything special.
I don't mind watching previews if its before the show is scheduled to start but not after the start time. Why can't they just show the previews in between movies so you have at least something to watch while your waiting. The least they can do is add more trivia, the damn thing recycles after 5 minutes.
I don't see any TOS, or any notice on their search page which states any terms at all... I'm not saying I agree or disagree but I think you should get your facts straight.
Whats so cool about google maps? IMHO its no better or worse than mapquest..Although I would probably say that mapquest's interface is probably more intuitive for the average user.
The only thing I found cool when using google maps was the satelite view and looking at my house or friends houses. Other than that neither service has something that would draw me to it over the other.
Google may be trying to branch out but as other people have noted they have a limited revenue stream. Yeah, google maps and gmail are cool but i'd say they are generating a fraction of the revenue as adwords.
I know your type, I have to work with you everyday. Your type drives everyone else in the company batty and when you do take a day off everyone rejoices./Spoken as someone who has to work with someone who has never take a vacation or holiday.
I've been subscribed to the postresql and mysql lists for a couple of years now and find they are a great source of information.
As for backups, every DBA should have at least 2 different types of backups for each environment. In oracle land that would be a hot/cold backup and an export. You have to have a solid recovery strategy and understand your users expectations. I've seen data corruption (human error) go months unnoticed and only because we understood their backup requirements were we able to restore the data.
As for us, were an Oracle and Peoplesoft application shop, so we have to use Oracle. The difference between something like oracle and mysql or postgresql and mysql is that with the first two you get what you expect. In order to develop for mysql you have to be very aware of the gotchas because it doesn't behave as you expect.
Seriously, what do you expect him to say? I'm just a peon at my company but even so, i'm not allowed to say anything bad about the company. If I said publically that XYZ company did ABC better than us i'd be putting myself into a world of hurt.
He founded arguably one of the most successfully companies in history, of course he's going to tout his own products. The average person doesn't think like us.. All they hear is this insanely successful person think he must know what he's talking about and believe him. Most user have probably never even heard of firefox.
I am by no means a MS junkie but if I was him i'd say the same things. Its all marketing when executives at that level talk.
But when your 80, those little vermin you violently hate will be taking care of your sorry ass while your sitting in a hospital, crapping in your depends and watching reruns of Wheel of Fortune because you have no one left in the world that gives a rats ass about you.
We'll also ignore the fact that that working class at that time will be paying for your social security cheques, benefits, etc, etc. Keep in mind your paying for your parents now (or in the future) whether you see it or not.
What it comes down to, is if people are foolish enough to let a other people walk all over them they get what they deserve. What your complaining about is called 'life', maybe you should get one. Also, you have some serious mental issues.
I'm an Oracle DBA (but we support sql server, db2, informix, ingres, redbrick, etc, etc, etc, etc..) as well but i'm interested in OSS like mysql and postgresql.
For me personally what it comes down to is trust.. I trust that my data won't get corrupted in Oracle.. in 8 years i've never seen an Oracle bug which caused data corruption.
I have no faith in mysql.... I would not trust it as far as I could throw the printed source code. There are too many gotchas (I think everyone has seen that link by now..) I personally believe anyone who uses mysql for mission critical databases is not thinking straight. Sure, if your a startup and you can't afford anything else I might forgive you.
I have faith in postgresql... I don't have enough experience with it to trust it like I do Oracle but from everything I have read it seems like a very solid database in which 90% of the applications out there could easily run on.
Unfortunately we have to use oracle for our mission critical databases because we support financial systems and the software is only available for Oracle. As new projects crop up tho, I do encourage adoption of postgresql.
At first we had a choice between laptops and desktops but since I worked from home alot I choose the laptop... As time progressed more and more people started getting laptops.
For the past 4 years, every company i've been at a laptop is the standard. Its difficult to get a desktop anymore.
Personally, my next computer for home will be a laptop. I'll use my old computers for servers but the main PC will be a large 'laptop' like this. Now that my wife and kids are starting to use the computer more and more it would be nice to get them out of my little dungeon of a workspace in the basement.
I'd also like to be able to sit out on the deck while pluggin away at some code. Granted, I can use my work laptop but I hate dragging that thing back and forth every day. And plus, when they see me take it home they assume they can call me as well.
At some point, no matter what the technology your going to have to trust someone to manage your data/infrastructure/building access, etc, etc.. Whatever happened to trusting your employees who have superuser access? If you can't trust them, then you should hire someone else.
For awhile there was a big push here for auditing the DBA team.. Every option they put forth I told them how I could get around it. We are the superusers of the data, at some point we have to be trusted.
The funny thing is, SOX was brought on by executives who broke the law... Maybe its just me but the only people that seem to be affected by SOX are the people who weren't involved in the recent scandals. ie, my productivity has been impacted by 30-50% because of all the extra process. But when asked, no one is monitoring the effect these process are having on productivity and if headcount needs to increase because of it.
Because sex offenders can't be cured! Admittedly i'm nowhere near an expert in this field but from what I understand you can only teach them how to supress their urges. They can't be 'cured' in the traditional sense.
Personally I have no problems with GPS monitoring of sex offenders.
I worked at Nortel for 4 years just before the big crash. While the cafeterias were subsidised (so I hear) the food wasn't free... It was still cheaper to bag your own lunch or bring in a frozen dinner.
Saying that, there was free food at Nortel. Every second friday they had a TGIF which was all you can eat finger foods (wings, etc), beer, drinks, cookies, ice cream.... Man, I used to love those. We also had alot of working lunches or kick off parties with food.
Maybe you were in another country but up in Ottawa, Canada I worked in 5 different buildings in 4 years and visited quite a few of the others.
"JasperSoft will help to increase the investment in JasperReports by adding full-time professional open source developers to the project.
JasperReports will stay open source forever, and its advancement will accelerate with the additional resources now being applied to it. JasperSoft and I are committed to investing in, and building the best open source reporting products available.
"
Basically they hired the lead the developer, going to build a team around him and sell support and additional services...
This whole article and thread are misleading and just more anti-OSS FUD!
Whether its virtual money or real money that you use to buy items? I've bought items before but not out of my own money.. I sold virtual items and used the money to buy other virtual items. Just because your not willing to use your paycheque to buy items doesn't mean your out in the cold.
Also, it greatly depends on game design.. I haven't played EQ2 but in EQ this system would definately be a problem. For WoW on the other hand it probably wouldn't have that great of an impact because of the way drops, quests and special binds are designed.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm starting to hear more and more about it lately...
Unfortunately, speaking from experience, when companies layoff people on the magnitude of IBM or HP, they do it by project/product. I was laid off from a position about 4 years ago and our whole division was canned. Alot of very very smart people were let go and it amazed me that the company showed no interest in keeping the top talent.
The article the parent linked to hit the nail on the head. I personally don't mind watching trailers but why not show them before the movie start time? Most times i'm sitting in the theatre 30 minutes before the movie starts with nothing to do. It would be a great time to show them then. Now people are showing up late because they don't want to sit through the trailers. then they end up arriving late to find seats, etc, etc. The biggest disatisfiers for me are: 1. Food prices (5 bucks for a drink?) 2. rude/inconsiderate people 3. 20 minutes of advertisements before the movie starts.
and i'm in Ontario as well. I had to give it more information than I would google but that wasn't a big deal.
I'm an Oracle DBA and I read a bunch of blogs. I use the planet software to aggregate the feeds on my local machine so I only have to go to one website for a quick look. Some of the blogs I read contain posts by numerous developers, its my way of seeing what deveopers are upto these ways and how I need to change to be able to support them. Some are RSS feeds of websites that have interesting articles such as dbazine. The rest of the blogs are by experts such as Tomas Kyte, the Drizwell blog and Pete Finnegin. While there is alot of 'opinion' tossed into some of these blogs alot of them are very informative and help me keep up technology and how people are using it these days as it relates to my field.
If I recall correctly squiremail has a plugin for allocating some space to users. Check it out. Link to squirrelmail plugin
How do you integrate MythTV with your cable or satelite provider? Anything above a certain channel I need to use their setup box...
Saying that however, I have access to DB2 and SQLServer production environments to learn on. While its nice to crosstrain, if you don't have access to the environments you want to learn, in a production environment, then your not really going to become proficient in it.
IMHO it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit of NT because the job market is pretty competitive and if you end up competing for a job with a person that has the same amount of unix experience but has a bit of NT tossed in they may get the job over you.
We simply can't compete with people who only need $150 a month to live on.
Google has a great search engine and I routinely find things i'm search for there faster than other providers. Thats why I use them everyday. I search at Yahoo every now and then when having things categorized is convient. Say i'm looking for C++ resources, etc, etc. I really don't understand the hoopla over google. I think maybe because it all sounds like our dream jobs... 20% of our time dedicated to projects were interested in, exciting dynamic work atmosphere, etc, etc. Personally, I wouldn't believe until I worked there... For years I wanted to work at a certain company but once I was there I was in for a big suprise. Gmail, maps, etc are all cool products but I personally don't see anything special. While its cool to switch from map view to satelite view in maps, the route planning is no better than mapquest. Same with gmail.. sure its nifty but its email.. big deal.. hotmail, yahoo and even outlook express fulfill 95% of peoples needs. I guess what i'm saying is, they sound like a cool company to work for, they have an awesome search engine but other than that I don't see them doing anything special.
I don't mind watching previews if its before the show is scheduled to start but not after the start time. Why can't they just show the previews in between movies so you have at least something to watch while your waiting. The least they can do is add more trivia, the damn thing recycles after 5 minutes.
I don't see any TOS, or any notice on their search page which states any terms at all... I'm not saying I agree or disagree but I think you should get your facts straight.
The only thing I found cool when using google maps was the satelite view and looking at my house or friends houses. Other than that neither service has something that would draw me to it over the other.
Google may be trying to branch out but as other people have noted they have a limited revenue stream. Yeah, google maps and gmail are cool but i'd say they are generating a fraction of the revenue as adwords.
I know your type, I have to work with you everyday. Your type drives everyone else in the company batty and when you do take a day off everyone rejoices. /Spoken as someone who has to work with someone who has never take a vacation or holiday.
As for backups, every DBA should have at least 2 different types of backups for each environment. In oracle land that would be a hot/cold backup and an export. You have to have a solid recovery strategy and understand your users expectations. I've seen data corruption (human error) go months unnoticed and only because we understood their backup requirements were we able to restore the data.
As for us, were an Oracle and Peoplesoft application shop, so we have to use Oracle. The difference between something like oracle and mysql or postgresql and mysql is that with the first two you get what you expect. In order to develop for mysql you have to be very aware of the gotchas because it doesn't behave as you expect.
He founded arguably one of the most successfully companies in history, of course he's going to tout his own products. The average person doesn't think like us.. All they hear is this insanely successful person think he must know what he's talking about and believe him. Most user have probably never even heard of firefox.
I am by no means a MS junkie but if I was him i'd say the same things. Its all marketing when executives at that level talk.
We'll also ignore the fact that that working class at that time will be paying for your social security cheques, benefits, etc, etc. Keep in mind your paying for your parents now (or in the future) whether you see it or not.
What it comes down to, is if people are foolish enough to let a other people walk all over them they get what they deserve. What your complaining about is called 'life', maybe you should get one. Also, you have some serious mental issues.
For me personally what it comes down to is trust.. I trust that my data won't get corrupted in Oracle.. in 8 years i've never seen an Oracle bug which caused data corruption.
I have no faith in mysql.... I would not trust it as far as I could throw the printed source code. There are too many gotchas (I think everyone has seen that link by now..) I personally believe anyone who uses mysql for mission critical databases is not thinking straight. Sure, if your a startup and you can't afford anything else I might forgive you.
I have faith in postgresql... I don't have enough experience with it to trust it like I do Oracle but from everything I have read it seems like a very solid database in which 90% of the applications out there could easily run on.
Unfortunately we have to use oracle for our mission critical databases because we support financial systems and the software is only available for Oracle. As new projects crop up tho, I do encourage adoption of postgresql.
For the past 4 years, every company i've been at a laptop is the standard. Its difficult to get a desktop anymore.
Personally, my next computer for home will be a laptop. I'll use my old computers for servers but the main PC will be a large 'laptop' like this. Now that my wife and kids are starting to use the computer more and more it would be nice to get them out of my little dungeon of a workspace in the basement.
I'd also like to be able to sit out on the deck while pluggin away at some code. Granted, I can use my work laptop but I hate dragging that thing back and forth every day. And plus, when they see me take it home they assume they can call me as well.
For awhile there was a big push here for auditing the DBA team.. Every option they put forth I told them how I could get around it. We are the superusers of the data, at some point we have to be trusted.
The funny thing is, SOX was brought on by executives who broke the law... Maybe its just me but the only people that seem to be affected by SOX are the people who weren't involved in the recent scandals. ie, my productivity has been impacted by 30-50% because of all the extra process. But when asked, no one is monitoring the effect these process are having on productivity and if headcount needs to increase because of it.
According to the article other states are doing it... How is it working there, anyone know?
Personally I have no problems with GPS monitoring of sex offenders.
Saying that, there was free food at Nortel. Every second friday they had a TGIF which was all you can eat finger foods (wings, etc), beer, drinks, cookies, ice cream.... Man, I used to love those. We also had alot of working lunches or kick off parties with food.
Maybe you were in another country but up in Ottawa, Canada I worked in 5 different buildings in 4 years and visited quite a few of the others.
Basically they hired the lead the developer, going to build a team around him and sell support and additional services...
This whole article and thread are misleading and just more anti-OSS FUD!
Also, it greatly depends on game design.. I haven't played EQ2 but in EQ this system would definately be a problem. For WoW on the other hand it probably wouldn't have that great of an impact because of the way drops, quests and special binds are designed.