I'm rather ignorant about security on these wireless networks (802.11, Wi-Fi, etc). All my wireless experience is GSM based. I'm also not a user of wireless networks of any kind, for anything other than voice.
My big question is, how much security is needed anyway? What are people using these networks for? If you're just doing simple web browsing at the airport (or even checking email that you don't care about) it shouldn't be much of an issue.
Are many people using this stuff for financial transactions (including HTTPS over the web)? Do people use this to check secure email? Do many people (/. is a biased crowd) use wireless hubs in their homes?
Where do the current security standards fall short? Afterall, you can listen in on any Internet traffic (in theory).
Of course, in time, we'll need good security on wireless links. I just don't think it's reached a point where wireless gets enough use to need much security (yet).
Actually, I want to do academic research, but it's very hard to get into without a PhD. 2 hours after they announced my office was closing, I got a call from a prestigious lab (I knew someone there). I went for an interview and they offered me twice the standard pay for this sort of work... so, I'd be a fool not to make the switch.
I didn't want to get a PhD while living on a fellowship (usually they're about $20k/yr). So, this is a much better route to take. I passed on an offer to relocate for my current company (which ended up being twice as much money), but this is work that I feel is more interesting and important to do.
I really only got into software for the money (maybe I'd fall into the category of accountants that you hate). I do find it interesting, but not as much as other things.
I'm only 24, so who knows, I may jump back into software and/or telecommunications in a few years.
I've run across plenty of English majors that aren't great at writing or explaining an idea. Hell, one of the most respected "explainers" of all time is a physicist (Richard Feynman).
There's certainly a need for tech writers. But, I don't see a literary education as necessary for doing that. And, on a personal level, I would not like having to do that sort of work myself (but, I do need to write academic papers).
The problem I have with a "literary" degree is that it doesn't necessarily teach anything. Writing a literary academic paper does not contribute anything to the world, but getting published in Nature means you've done something substantial. You can not earn a scientific degree without being able to do critical thinking, plus you've got a neat set of skills/facts too. You can certainly get through an English program (most of them, anyway) just by bullshitting.
No, I understand... but, there are hidden costs. The management overhead of trying to deal with India (assuming management stays here) is pretty big. The time difference will really cut into efficiency. My point was, it's not always a case of short sightedness, sometimes they don't really expect a cost reduction at all. They're just looking to shuffle the balance sheets and gain some shareholder value.
Actually, by my estimate, the crew in Montreal is making roughly 30-50% of what we get here. Sure, it's more than India, but it's still a lot less. Also, the Canadian government gives some great tax incentives for doing R&D in Montreal, so there's that to consider too. For this sort of work, there's a lot of infrastructure needed, so India is out of the question. Canada is very favorable for this, they have frequencies available and so on.
From speaking to my colleagues all around the world, most seem to make less than here in NY. Even in other large cities, like Milan, that seems to be the case. Although, I think the guys in England (a couple hours outside London) did pretty well.
Here's a quick overview of how this sort of technology works. I'll leave the typical transaction stuff since most people know that. Instead, this is about the image comparison algorithms...
There are two basic schemes for doing the comparisons. They are the minutiae and correlation methods.
The minutiae-based technique requires a high-quality image. It finds and makes a relative map of points of interest, then does map comparisons. Basically, this will only look at the ends of ridges.
The correlation-based technique uses a more global metric, but is then sensitive to image placement and translation. This technique will take into account details such as ridge count and distribution.
There are also some classifiers used to group fingerprints and prune database searches. Some relevant techniques are GCS (growing cell structure) neural networks, K-nearest neighbor, hard/soft margin SVMs (support vector machine).
Disclaimer: I don't know anything about this field and have never worked in it. I just did some quick Google-whacking. I have done a little AI stuff, but not for this purpose.
I would recommend any basic science education (physics, chemistry, math, etc). Anyone can pick up programming, and if you have a few years of experience (plus any bachelor's degree) you're employable. Other than for pure enjoyment/amusement, don't study English.
<rant target="pseudo-intellectuals">
The skills you learn in science apply to everything. I would say any sort of literature degree is a waste of time...
Don't get me wrong, I love to read, I just don't think much of it as a formal educational pursuit. I had to stop taking English courses because I would argue with the professors about how literary criticism is such a total waste of time. It bothers me that someone can spend their whole life writing about what someone else wrote, instead of doing something for themselves.
I always got the sense, from professional literary types, that they feel really smart... the thing is, they couldn't solve a differential equation if their life depended on it. Yes, I'm sure some of them are smart, but most are not. They just seem to feel superior, which irritates me unbelievably, because they're really just douchebags. I get the same sense from a lot of people in the art community.
</rant>
Not to nitpick or anything, but have you really seen many jobs that want you to know the Linux kernel? I smell a bit of wishful thinking here.
Try replacing "Linux kernel" with "CORBA" or something else that employers are actually looking for right now. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about (I don't know any kernel and I work with Solaris), but I doubt there is a commercial market big enough (right now) to justify in-depth Linux kernel experience (try again in 3-5 years).
Any experience is good, there are just more marketable skills out there at this moment.
I would certainly be in favor of having a real professional association (and possibly an accreditation system)... but could we please not use the ABA (American Bar Association) as a role model???
Seriously though... maybe IT wages should go down as a whole. They, like IT stocks, were grossly exaggerated. Getting almost six-figures for knowing Dreamweaver and Flash was pretty ridiculous. There was a huge demand for any IT skills, that demand is waning, therefore the wage will decrease accordingly.
Honestly, how would you go about doing any valid accreditation? Even in other industries (law, for example) the accreditation only serves to create an "old boys club" atmosphere in the industry, and keep out fresh blood, new ideas, etc. Can you really make a standardized test that will demonstrate good software design skills?
There are two issues here:
Accreditation of IT workers
Protection of the IT labor industry
I suppose that accreditation would work well for admins, but not so good for developers. Fighting H1-B's is very good, but that's kind of a different issue and there are groups in place that already do this (although they may not be very effective right now). Hopefully, with the downturn in technology, the H1-B policies will start reversing. A lot of their momentum came from the over-demand for IT workers (which has now dried up).
A lot of "technology" jobs really aren't that challenging. At least, a good portion of what consumes our time isn't. The phrase code-monkey really elucidates this fact. Programming can sometimes become nothing more than data entry.
This sort of stuff can (and maybe should) be farmed out. However, the overall design/architecture stuff is more complex. I think we're seeing a trend where the lead design is done in a first world nation and the shit work is done in a third world nation.
The same thing has happened in lots of consumer goods industries. Take electronics and clothing as examples. They're designed in places like America, Japan, Italy, UK, and France but they're physically manufactured in India, China, Indonesia, etc.
It's just sort of an economic trickle-down effect. The more drudgery involved the more likely it is that the work will be done in the third world. The main reason is that it's cheap and doesn't require much skill.
Maybe some/.ers will be pissed at me for saying it, but a lot of programming is shit work. Spending a few hours tracking down a bug in an API is not a good use of a skilled worker's time. It makes more sense to let the higher paid and better educated workers (ie. us) do the higher-level stuff and leave the data entry to cheaper less skilled labor (ie. them).
Of course, this is all just a generalization, and won't apply in all cases...
My company is shipping all the jobs from NY to Montreal. The thing about it is that it won't save them anything in the short term. In fact, it's probably costing them millions (relocation costs, training, lost revenues/customers/contracts, etc). It seems they only did it to create the appearance of cost reductions. Hell, they're paying us double our current salaries to go work up there for a year to help get everyone up to speed.
They just want to look good on paper, to boost shareholder value now. They aren't necessarily looking to cut costs (in the short or long term).
You also need to realize, companies aren't really interested in the nation's economy. Sure, they're interested in it because there's a symbiosis, but if they can leech off of another nation's economy that would suit them just fine. This especially applies to non-US based companies (like mine).
I got a BS in astrophysics. But, there's no money in that. So, I went into doing wireless infrastructure (just before telecommunications went to hell). Now, a little over two years later, my office is being closed down. If I want to stay with the company, I'd have to move.
My way of dealing with this is to move away from engineering (in the traditional sense). I'm partway through an MSEE, which I guess I'll finish. But, I'm really going into academia. I've taken a research position in neurobiology and will probably do a PhD in physics (or maybe an MD/PhD).
In the end, engineering's always going to be around. And it will generally be one of the more respectable professions. But, there is certainly a "burn-out" factor to it.
Personally, after having used up 2 years working very hard on something, only to get laid off.. it's kind of a slap in the face. At least if I had done something that I felt was worthwhile, I could justify it. Sure, I'm sitting on some cash now, but that isn't really worth it (in hindsight). The products we put out, in my mind, are meaningless, they were just a way of making money.
I guess engineering, if you are really into the stuff you're creating, is a good career. Otherwise, it can be a good way to pay the bills, but nothing more.
Just, find something that you enjoy doing and make sure that the end result of your work has value to you. I liked the work I did, but I have no feelings for the results of the work...
I've been using Optimum Online since before most people ever heard of broadband or cable modems. I don't upload anything... but I do download lots of stuff.
This is going to seriously cut into my datawhoring and I am not happy!!! I currently pull down about 1Gb per day. I've got about 70Gb waiting to be burned to CD (I'm burning CDs as I write this).
Sure, I steal music/movies. But, I never bought a CD before Napster (and I stopped buying them when the RIAA went psycho anyway).
It's not Cablevision's job to police my Internet usage. Let the MPAA/RIAA come after me directly, I'll fuck them up!!!
There are legitmate uses of P2P, even though most people distribute copyrighted stuff, that doesn't make P2P automatically illegal. Fuck that!
Damn... I just had to vent a bit. Proceed with your discussions...
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I'm rather ignorant about security on these wireless networks (802.11, Wi-Fi, etc). All my wireless experience is GSM based. I'm also not a user of wireless networks of any kind, for anything other than voice.
My big question is, how much security is needed anyway? What are people using these networks for? If you're just doing simple web browsing at the airport (or even checking email that you don't care about) it shouldn't be much of an issue.
Are many people using this stuff for financial transactions (including HTTPS over the web)? Do people use this to check secure email? Do many people (/. is a biased crowd) use wireless hubs in their homes?
Where do the current security standards fall short? Afterall, you can listen in on any Internet traffic (in theory).
Of course, in time, we'll need good security on wireless links. I just don't think it's reached a point where wireless gets enough use to need much security (yet).
Actually, I want to do academic research, but it's very hard to get into without a PhD. 2 hours after they announced my office was closing, I got a call from a prestigious lab (I knew someone there). I went for an interview and they offered me twice the standard pay for this sort of work... so, I'd be a fool not to make the switch.
I didn't want to get a PhD while living on a fellowship (usually they're about $20k/yr). So, this is a much better route to take. I passed on an offer to relocate for my current company (which ended up being twice as much money), but this is work that I feel is more interesting and important to do.
I really only got into software for the money (maybe I'd fall into the category of accountants that you hate). I do find it interesting, but not as much as other things.
I'm only 24, so who knows, I may jump back into software and/or telecommunications in a few years.
I've run across plenty of English majors that aren't great at writing or explaining an idea. Hell, one of the most respected "explainers" of all time is a physicist (Richard Feynman).
There's certainly a need for tech writers. But, I don't see a literary education as necessary for doing that. And, on a personal level, I would not like having to do that sort of work myself (but, I do need to write academic papers).
The problem I have with a "literary" degree is that it doesn't necessarily teach anything. Writing a literary academic paper does not contribute anything to the world, but getting published in Nature means you've done something substantial. You can not earn a scientific degree without being able to do critical thinking, plus you've got a neat set of skills/facts too. You can certainly get through an English program (most of them, anyway) just by bullshitting.
I get the cense that alot of engineeers can't spell too...
No, really, I do.
No, I understand... but, there are hidden costs. The management overhead of trying to deal with India (assuming management stays here) is pretty big. The time difference will really cut into efficiency. My point was, it's not always a case of short sightedness, sometimes they don't really expect a cost reduction at all. They're just looking to shuffle the balance sheets and gain some shareholder value.
Actually, by my estimate, the crew in Montreal is making roughly 30-50% of what we get here. Sure, it's more than India, but it's still a lot less. Also, the Canadian government gives some great tax incentives for doing R&D in Montreal, so there's that to consider too. For this sort of work, there's a lot of infrastructure needed, so India is out of the question. Canada is very favorable for this, they have frequencies available and so on.
From speaking to my colleagues all around the world, most seem to make less than here in NY. Even in other large cities, like Milan, that seems to be the case. Although, I think the guys in England (a couple hours outside London) did pretty well.
There are two basic schemes for doing the comparisons. They are the minutiae and correlation methods.
- The minutiae-based technique requires a high-quality image. It finds and makes a relative map of points of interest, then does map comparisons. Basically, this will only look at the ends of ridges.
- The correlation-based technique uses a more global metric, but is then sensitive to image placement and translation. This technique will take into account details such as ridge count and distribution.
There are also some classifiers used to group fingerprints and prune database searches. Some relevant techniques are GCS (growing cell structure) neural networks, K-nearest neighbor, hard/soft margin SVMs (support vector machine).Disclaimer: I don't know anything about this field and have never worked in it. I just did some quick Google-whacking. I have done a little AI stuff, but not for this purpose.
I would recommend any basic science education (physics, chemistry, math, etc). Anyone can pick up programming, and if you have a few years of experience (plus any bachelor's degree) you're employable. Other than for pure enjoyment/amusement, don't study English.
<rant target="pseudo-intellectuals">
The skills you learn in science apply to everything. I would say any sort of literature degree is a waste of time...
Don't get me wrong, I love to read, I just don't think much of it as a formal educational pursuit. I had to stop taking English courses because I would argue with the professors about how literary criticism is such a total waste of time. It bothers me that someone can spend their whole life writing about what someone else wrote, instead of doing something for themselves.
I always got the sense, from professional literary types, that they feel really smart... the thing is, they couldn't solve a differential equation if their life depended on it. Yes, I'm sure some of them are smart, but most are not. They just seem to feel superior, which irritates me unbelievably, because they're really just douchebags. I get the same sense from a lot of people in the art community.
</rant>
Not to nitpick or anything, but have you really seen many jobs that want you to know the Linux kernel? I smell a bit of wishful thinking here.
Try replacing "Linux kernel" with "CORBA" or something else that employers are actually looking for right now. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about (I don't know any kernel and I work with Solaris), but I doubt there is a commercial market big enough (right now) to justify in-depth Linux kernel experience (try again in 3-5 years).
Any experience is good, there are just more marketable skills out there at this moment.
Seriously though... maybe IT wages should go down as a whole. They, like IT stocks, were grossly exaggerated. Getting almost six-figures for knowing Dreamweaver and Flash was pretty ridiculous. There was a huge demand for any IT skills, that demand is waning, therefore the wage will decrease accordingly.
Honestly, how would you go about doing any valid accreditation? Even in other industries (law, for example) the accreditation only serves to create an "old boys club" atmosphere in the industry, and keep out fresh blood, new ideas, etc. Can you really make a standardized test that will demonstrate good software design skills?
There are two issues here:
- Accreditation of IT workers
- Protection of the IT labor industry
I suppose that accreditation would work well for admins, but not so good for developers. Fighting H1-B's is very good, but that's kind of a different issue and there are groups in place that already do this (although they may not be very effective right now). Hopefully, with the downturn in technology, the H1-B policies will start reversing. A lot of their momentum came from the over-demand for IT workers (which has now dried up).A lot of "technology" jobs really aren't that challenging. At least, a good portion of what consumes our time isn't. The phrase code-monkey really elucidates this fact. Programming can sometimes become nothing more than data entry.
/.ers will be pissed at me for saying it, but a lot of programming is shit work. Spending a few hours tracking down a bug in an API is not a good use of a skilled worker's time. It makes more sense to let the higher paid and better educated workers (ie. us) do the higher-level stuff and leave the data entry to cheaper less skilled labor (ie. them).
This sort of stuff can (and maybe should) be farmed out. However, the overall design/architecture stuff is more complex. I think we're seeing a trend where the lead design is done in a first world nation and the shit work is done in a third world nation.
The same thing has happened in lots of consumer goods industries. Take electronics and clothing as examples. They're designed in places like America, Japan, Italy, UK, and France but they're physically manufactured in India, China, Indonesia, etc.
It's just sort of an economic trickle-down effect. The more drudgery involved the more likely it is that the work will be done in the third world. The main reason is that it's cheap and doesn't require much skill.
Maybe some
Of course, this is all just a generalization, and won't apply in all cases...
It may not really save money in the short run...
My company is shipping all the jobs from NY to Montreal. The thing about it is that it won't save them anything in the short term. In fact, it's probably costing them millions (relocation costs, training, lost revenues/customers/contracts, etc). It seems they only did it to create the appearance of cost reductions. Hell, they're paying us double our current salaries to go work up there for a year to help get everyone up to speed.
They just want to look good on paper, to boost shareholder value now. They aren't necessarily looking to cut costs (in the short or long term).
You also need to realize, companies aren't really interested in the nation's economy. Sure, they're interested in it because there's a symbiosis, but if they can leech off of another nation's economy that would suit them just fine. This especially applies to non-US based companies (like mine).
Here's my little tale -
I got a BS in astrophysics. But, there's no money in that. So, I went into doing wireless infrastructure (just before telecommunications went to hell). Now, a little over two years later, my office is being closed down. If I want to stay with the company, I'd have to move.
My way of dealing with this is to move away from engineering (in the traditional sense). I'm partway through an MSEE, which I guess I'll finish. But, I'm really going into academia. I've taken a research position in neurobiology and will probably do a PhD in physics (or maybe an MD/PhD).
In the end, engineering's always going to be around. And it will generally be one of the more respectable professions. But, there is certainly a "burn-out" factor to it.
Personally, after having used up 2 years working very hard on something, only to get laid off.. it's kind of a slap in the face. At least if I had done something that I felt was worthwhile, I could justify it. Sure, I'm sitting on some cash now, but that isn't really worth it (in hindsight). The products we put out, in my mind, are meaningless, they were just a way of making money.
I guess engineering, if you are really into the stuff you're creating, is a good career. Otherwise, it can be a good way to pay the bills, but nothing more.
Just, find something that you enjoy doing and make sure that the end result of your work has value to you. I liked the work I did, but I have no feelings for the results of the work...
Does anyone know Lucas' feelings toward this sort of stuff? Did he ever sue over "Troops"?
I assume he's on "the wrong side" of the whole intellectual property debate, I'm just wondering how far over the line he is.
Sure, Lucas is putting out some total shit now, but maybe he's not all bad...
I've been using Optimum Online since before most people ever heard of broadband or cable modems. I don't upload anything... but I do download lots of stuff.
This is going to seriously cut into my datawhoring and I am not happy!!! I currently pull down about 1Gb per day. I've got about 70Gb waiting to be burned to CD (I'm burning CDs as I write this).
Sure, I steal music/movies. But, I never bought a CD before Napster (and I stopped buying them when the RIAA went psycho anyway).
It's not Cablevision's job to police my Internet usage. Let the MPAA/RIAA come after me directly, I'll fuck them up!!!
There are legitmate uses of P2P, even though most people distribute copyrighted stuff, that doesn't make P2P automatically illegal. Fuck that!
Damn... I just had to vent a bit. Proceed with your discussions...