I've read almost all of his books, including "The Business", "The Bridge" and other non-science fiction works. "Matter" is one of his best but I have to say "Against a Dark Background" has to be his best work. Nothing beats a lazy gun!
Against a Dark Background
on
Matter
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I've read almost all of his books, including "The Business", "The Bridge" and other non-science fiction works. "Matter" is one of his best but I have to say "Against a Dark Background" has to be his best work. Nothing beats a lazy gun !
The companies that are making money will always need programmers. Here in Chicago its the financial sector. Have her try the exchanges and financial companies like Hull Traders, CBOT, CBOTCC, CME and CBOE. There is a lot of work to be done there and they are mostly unaffected by the economy.
Remember there are more tech jobs in Chicago than anywhere else right now. Tech job study
(Warning - sarcasm and disillusionment follow)
Desert Storm gave Pres. Bush great ratings and that was just over yucky old oil which causes pollution and messes up the environment and unfortunately didn't sit too well with the youth voters so he didn't get a second term. DS2 will be about the PS2, something the 18-25 year old voters can get behind and secure GWB another 4 years. When do we invade?
While besides being an excellent graphic novel, the theme of "The Watchmen" is quite important. With the internet, we have a great means to post information,etc. Everybody has a soapbox to stand on and thus a means of preventing what happened in the "Watchmen" (I don't mean what literally happened of course).
Note that due to the anonymous nature of the internet, you do have to take everything with a grain of salt (to say the least) and make sure you consider the source. But it is a means to keep an eye on the gov. and other groups.
A democracy is built on information and intelligent choices. Sorry people, you can't have one without the other.
Quote "WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
Pursuit of Happiness". Notice it says "all Men" - not groups, classes or corperations. MEN (and also women) are the singular unit. Why should one group be allowed to impede on my rights?
Since there seems to be a connection between zen and techies ( why I haven't quite figured out yet) , I would think the book Z en and the Art of Making a Living would be an ideal book for techies to read.
I read it a little while ago and the jist of it is that a career is a game and what matters is how you play the game. There is alot more to the book than what I can pull of the top of my head but I did use it (and man am I happy I did - I choose a position based on my being productive and happy over money and title and this is the best part - I like getting up in the morning and going to work : ) )
"The Code Book" by Simon Sighn (spelling?) says that the Enigma Machines were mass produced, so more than 3 had to have survived. These three might have some historical significance or were a special versions (limited production).
Okay, everyone, lets all get up from our desks and go look in the company filled refridgerator. Hmm, what do we have here:
three different flavors of jolt,
regular and diet montain dew,
fresh ground coffee for the company coffee maker,
a large supply of sugar filled snacks. Now open the company medicine cabinet... hmm, tylenol, bandaids,and nodoze. Now walk over to the middle manager's office, and open his personal fridge. Is it filled with beer, even though the company has a strict no alcohol policy.
And what, the management is pushing you to work 80 hours a week?
Face it people, the companies are in it for the money, and they can give a flying fuck about the health of their people. They will push any legal drug they can if they think it will improve output and ignore their own policies or turn a blind eye for the bottom line.
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise...
Its five year mission to explore the limitations of the Miscrosoft Windows Client Universe."
Christ, this sounds like something out of Star Trek.
On the other hand, a concerted effort to show how
insecure the M$ is isn't necesarrily a bad idea.
I remember hearing that once, someplace but it does seem that many people should remember that just because you are a proponent of one technology that don't need to be an opponent of other technology.
Why do I often get the impression that we are fighting over the scraps when if we worked together more, we could take the feast from M$?
Does anyone think that the one dentist out of five that does not recommend Trident Gum to their patients gets ridiculed by the other four?
How can we ever measure the damage that M$ has done? How can we ever say how farther computing would be if M$ did not stifle competition? While making Billy pay us money might help, there is no way to recover the time lost due to M$.
Once again, it is quite obvious that the Judge just didn't get it. Here are some possible ways we might remedy this situation:
1) Do nothing and pray a higher court does understand the issues and overrided this judgement. This is the normal response of about 75% of the people.
2) Respond mindlessly and rudely, spamming the shit out of the judge. Usually 5% of the people take this response.
3) Write letters to newspapers and elected officals or people running for office, educate others, protest about this issue, elect officials who understand the issues. The last 20% of people actually do this.
I would encourage more people to try 3) and not 1) (which is essentially doing nothing) or 2) (which is just counterproductive).
One last thought: given that the technical sector is one of the fast growing parts of the economy, why don't we exercize more political muscle?
If you can honestly impress the hello out the interviewer, in most cases you can write your own meal ticket. Also, it demonstates what level of talent you have and allows the boss or project lead to better utilize your skills and talents.
A couple of good ways I've seen interviewees impress the hell out of the interviewer is:
The guy who brought a CD full of sample code he had written. The boss paid what the guy asked for on the spot.
The web developer who had on their URL of their homepage on their resume so you could see the quality of their work
The programmer who pointed out that their name was all over gnu utilities and that if the interviewer wanted to see how good a coder he was,
the interviewer could just download the source code.
One downside of this approach is that if the work you produce on the job is not of the same quality as what you used to impress them with, they will have no problems canning your ass! So don't even think about passing off someone elses work as your own.
Have them help out on GNU projects or other open source projects. Nothing feels better than to go and say, "Hey, see this feature here , I did that." It shows that one person can make a difference and will improve the student's confidence.
Counter argument: Reading about a book you shouldn't buy is of serious value for the following reasons:
1) Either you will agree with the review and possibly save some money by not buying the book or disagree with the reviewer and discard his/her other book reviews. In either case you learn something about the reviewer which might be helpful later on.
2) If you need a book on a subject and there isn't a well trumpeted best book for the subject (like UNIX Network Programming by Stevens), removing the bad books from the list of books on the subject makes finding a book that suits your purposes easier.
3) Some of these books on programming are just plain crap and for the cost of many books (usually between $30 - $60 (O'Reilly being an exception - their books are usually less expensive)), we deserve more for our money. Who knows, maybe publishers will learn to put out better books.
Never mind, I see that the question was about cities outside the US but then again the way the remarks were going plenty of cities in the US were being mentioned...
You might want to also consider your interests outside of computers in considering a location. What I mean is that the money that pays all of our techie salaries has to come from some place and that some place can help you determine your location. For example, if you have an interest in economics or investing, Chicago or New York might be a good choice because there are always open positions at exchanges, investment firms, etc. If you like the idea of shrinkwrapped software development, California might be a better choice.
(Beginning rant now...) When I was a wee young lad, a professor sighed and told me "The difference between computer science and other forms of engineering is that if someone wanted a bridge built over the Chicago River, for example, and one bid said the work could be done in 8 months and cost $100K and another bid said 1 month and cost $10K, the person would choose the first bid, because the first bid seems practical and reasonable while the second bid seems unrealistic. Now if that person wanted a computer project done, no matter how improbable the smaller bid was, the person would choose that bid!" Now, many years later, I have witnessed the truth to that story that people always want miracles out of programmers no matter what we know can be done. Until people learn that computers is a science and not magic, I think cons like this will continue. Perhaps some will be smaller (stretching the truth of how successful a start up will be) and not as large as this con, but they will continue until people learn. (...ending rant now)
Please explain how IBM or Oracle or Sun have a monopoly? I know IBM's op system and its as open as you could want (of course you still pay for it but mostly because the hardware costs so much that you want the support that comes with it). In each of these three cases I can easily think of at least one solid competator to each.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the default way thin crust pizza is cut in Chicago - its called a party cut.
Long time Chicago DJ and part of the radio team that blew up part of the Chicago White Sox basefield to protest disco - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition
Seriously, wasn't this resolved in Knight Rider with the episode with KATT vs KITT?
I've read almost all of his books, including "The Business", "The Bridge" and other non-science fiction works. "Matter" is one of his best but I have to say "Against a Dark Background" has to be his best work. Nothing beats a lazy gun!
I've read almost all of his books, including "The Business", "The Bridge" and other non-science fiction works. "Matter" is one of his best but I have to say "Against a Dark Background" has to be his best work. Nothing beats a lazy gun !
The companies that are making money will always need programmers. Here in Chicago its the financial sector. Have her try the exchanges and financial companies like Hull Traders, CBOT, CBOTCC, CME and CBOE. There is a lot of work to be done there and they are mostly unaffected by the economy. Remember there are more tech jobs in Chicago than anywhere else right now. Tech job study
(Warning - sarcasm and disillusionment follow)
Desert Storm gave Pres. Bush great ratings and that was just over yucky old oil which causes pollution and messes up the environment and unfortunately didn't sit too well with the youth voters so he didn't get a second term. DS2 will be about the PS2, something the 18-25 year old voters can get behind and secure GWB another 4 years. When do we invade?
Hey,
Even in interview and in job descriptions it says the position is salaried and at least 45 hours a week.
I'm not kidding.
While besides being an excellent graphic novel, the theme of "The Watchmen" is quite important. With the internet, we have a great means to post information,etc. Everybody has a soapbox to stand on and thus a means of preventing what happened in the "Watchmen" (I don't mean what literally happened of course).
Note that due to the anonymous nature of the internet, you do have to take everything with a grain of salt (to say the least) and make sure you consider the source. But it is a means to keep an eye on the gov. and other groups.
A democracy is built on information and intelligent choices. Sorry people, you can't have one without the other.
Quote "WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
Pursuit of Happiness". Notice it says "all Men" - not groups, classes or corperations. MEN (and also women) are the singular unit. Why should one group be allowed to impede on my rights?
Sorry about the bold text, I'm still learning HTML .
I read it a little while ago and the jist of it is that a career is a game and what matters is how you play the game. There is alot more to the book than what I can pull of the top of my head but I did use it (and man am I happy I did - I choose a position based on my being productive and happy over money and title and this is the best part - I like getting up in the morning and going to work : ) )
"The Code Book" by Simon Sighn (spelling?) says that the Enigma Machines were mass produced, so more than 3 had to have survived. These three might have some historical significance or were a special versions (limited production).
Okay, everyone, lets all get up from our desks and go look in the company filled refridgerator. Hmm, what do we have here:
three different flavors of jolt,
regular and diet montain dew,
fresh ground coffee for the company coffee maker,
a large supply of sugar filled snacks. Now open the company medicine cabinet... hmm, tylenol, bandaids,and nodoze. Now walk over to the middle manager's office, and open his personal fridge. Is it filled with beer, even though the company has a strict no alcohol policy.
And what, the management is pushing you to work 80 hours a week?
Face it people, the companies are in it for the money, and they can give a flying fuck about the health of their people. They will push any legal drug they can if they think it will improve output and ignore their own policies or turn a blind eye for the bottom line.
I'm not being negative, just blunt.
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise...
Its five year mission to explore the limitations of the Miscrosoft Windows Client Universe."
Christ, this sounds like something out of Star Trek.
On the other hand, a concerted effort to show how
insecure the M$ is isn't necesarrily a bad idea.
Why do I often get the impression that we are fighting over the scraps when if we worked together more, we could take the feast from M$?
Does anyone think that the one dentist out of five that does not recommend Trident Gum to their patients gets ridiculed by the other four?
How can we ever measure the damage that M$ has done? How can we ever say how farther computing would be if M$ did not stifle competition? While making Billy pay us money might help, there is no way to recover the time lost due to M$.
1) Do nothing and pray a higher court does understand the issues and overrided this judgement. This is the normal response of about 75% of the people.
2) Respond mindlessly and rudely, spamming the shit out of the judge. Usually 5% of the people take this response.
3) Write letters to newspapers and elected officals or people running for office, educate others, protest about this issue, elect officials who understand the issues. The last 20% of people actually do this.
I would encourage more people to try 3) and not 1) (which is essentially doing nothing) or 2) (which is just counterproductive).
One last thought: given that the technical sector is one of the fast growing parts of the economy, why don't we exercize more political muscle?
A couple of good ways I've seen interviewees impress the hell out of the interviewer is:
- The guy who brought a CD full of sample code he had written. The boss paid what the guy asked for on the spot.
- The web developer who had on their URL of their homepage on their resume so you could see the quality of their work
- The programmer who pointed out that their name was all over gnu utilities and that if the interviewer wanted to see how good a coder he was,
the interviewer could just download the source code.
One downside of this approach is that if the work you produce on the job is not of the same quality as what you used to impress them with, they will have no problems canning your ass! So don't even think about passing off someone elses work as your own.Have them help out on GNU projects or other open source projects. Nothing feels better than to go and say, "Hey, see this feature here , I did that." It shows that one person can make a difference and will improve the student's confidence.
Reading about a book you shouldn't buy is of serious value for the following reasons:
1) Either you will agree with the review and possibly save some money by not buying the book or disagree with the reviewer and discard his/her other book reviews. In either case you learn something about the reviewer which might be helpful later on.
2) If you need a book on a subject and there isn't a well trumpeted best book for the subject (like UNIX Network Programming by Stevens), removing the bad books from the list of books on the subject makes finding a book that suits your purposes easier.
3) Some of these books on programming are just plain crap and for the cost of many books (usually between $30 - $60 (O'Reilly being an exception - their books are usually less expensive)), we deserve more for our money. Who knows, maybe publishers will learn to put out better books.
4) Finally, knowledge is never wasted.
Never mind, I see that the question was about cities outside the US but then again the way the remarks were going plenty of cities in the US were being mentioned ...
Well, I'll be this will get moderated down but...
How the hell is this off topic? Just because its not a place James Bond would visit?
You might want to also consider your interests outside of computers in considering a location. What I mean is that the money that pays all of our techie salaries has to come from some place and that some place can help you determine your location. For example, if you have an interest in economics or investing, Chicago or New York might be a good choice because there are always open positions at exchanges, investment firms, etc. If you like the idea of shrinkwrapped software development, California might be a better choice.
(Beginning rant now ...)
When I was a wee young lad, a professor sighed and told me "The difference between computer science and other forms of engineering is that if someone wanted a bridge built over the Chicago River, for example, and one bid said the work could be done in 8 months and cost $100K and another bid said 1 month and cost $10K, the person would choose the first bid, because the first bid seems practical and reasonable while the second bid seems unrealistic. Now if that person wanted a computer project done, no matter how improbable the smaller bid was, the person would choose that bid!" Now, many years later, I have witnessed the truth to that story that people always want miracles out of programmers no matter what we know can be done.
Until people learn that computers is a science and not magic, I think cons like this will continue. Perhaps some will be smaller (stretching the truth of how successful a start up will be) and not as large as this con, but they will continue until people learn.
(...ending rant now)
Please explain how IBM or Oracle or Sun have a monopoly? I know IBM's op system and its as open as you could want (of course you still pay for it but mostly because the hardware costs so much that you want the support that comes with it). In each of these three cases I can easily think of at least one solid competator to each.
Quit pushing FUD!