Researcher jobs as civilian employees of the DoD (ARL, ONR, NUWC, etc.).
Pros:
Good pay - basically on par with industry standards.
Job stability. You basically never need to worry about getting laid off. Which is nice, because then you can focus on developing really important skills (statistics, optimization theory, etc.) rather than just the marketable ones (.Net development).
Sometimes really interesting technical work.
40 hour work-weeks, medical, dental, good vacation accrual. I.e., very family-friendly.
Cons:
Often really uninteresting, pointless work. I.e., "I was hired as a research scientist. I'm being assigned as a *&^%&% software test plan?
Politics. I.e, "We can't get the source code for that, because it's in Fred's program, and Fred keeps their code close to their chest."
With the Bush Administration, it's often doubtful that making the military more powerful is making the world a better place.
Punishing paperwork and procurement. I.e., it's nearly impossible to get a PC even when you really need it.
Too bad that their resignations will somehow fail to appear on the evening news programs. That kind of limits (but doesn't totally erase, I suspect) the impact of their protests.
This is like Osama Bin Laden filing a federal lawsuit in Washington D.C. alleging that George W. Bush is interfering with Bin Laden's rights to advance the agenda of fundamentalist Islam and kill innocent Americans.
Hmmm, good point. Quick! Patent that business method before Osama thinks of it!
What makes StarCraft I fun has not very much to do with graphics. It's the gameplay rules and balance.
I'm actually concerned that fancy graphics might (a) distract the game designers from concentrating on game rules and balance and/or (b) clutter the screen so that it's hard to quickly asses what's going on when you look at a new region of the map.
The complete shutdown of 10 blocks worth of streets and buildings in downtown Milwaukee when Clinton came through,
I didn't say that Bush is the only person protected in such an onerous way. Just that it's a fitting symbol of his presidency. So for Clinton, for example, it the onerous protection was still there, but it wasn't a fitting symbol of the rest of his presidency.
Feisty is riddled with bugs, especially for laptop users.
I've been through the same emotional roller-coaster myself, and I concluded that experiencing a regression bug dings our sense of the software's reliability so badly that we assume it's buggy for everyone.
Of course, that's not a good inference to make. One person experiencing a regression != many bugs being in the software. But for some reason that's where our thoughts go.
That explains the timing of Microsoft Saber rattling. One thing they forget is that it is 50+ times harder to get a patent in Japan compared to a patent in the US and many of those patents do not hold there. Unless they have decided to stop contesting the ATT verdict and turn it to their gross advantage. Hm... If a quick settlement of the ATT case follows it will definitely get curiouser and curiouser...
The other curious point is that some of the usual OSS Japanese suspects are strangely missing. Sony and NTT have many years of history of BSD investment. Both of them do not appear on the list and there are quite a few "foreign devils". Curiouser and curiouser...
This posting brought to you by the word curiouser.
I was looking forward to Ubuntu Studio for Ubuntu 7.04 to pull together a useful collection of packages related to music production. But despite a website that shows a lot of polish, it's at least a month out of date (the homepage still says, "Coming in April").
I know this sounds like a dumb little issue, but it was actually one that kept me from playing around with music production on Linux: finding MIDI-interface hardware that is known to work well under Linux.
I've got several MIDI keyboards that lack decent sequencers and sound patch managers. So being able to manage those details from a host computer (running Linux in this case) would be great. But when I asked around the message boards, I couldn't find anyone saying, "Yes, I use product XYZ to let my computer connect to MIDI devices, and it works great."
So I'm willing to play with Linux for multi-track recording and (if I can get the latency lower) real-time effects processing. But I'm not yet ready to plunk down $100+ on MIDI interface hardware to complete the system until I can get a strong recommendation.
I wasn't trying to imply that everyone being laid off was incompetent. I was just trying to state that if 'x' jobs are eliminated from IBM GS, that doesn't translate to exactly 'x' jobs filling the alleged skilled worked gap that companies use to justify H1-B's.
if these people get laid off, won't that mean they can fill some of those supposed jobs that Microsoft et al keep saying they can't fill because there aren't enough qualified workers in the U.S.?
When I worked at IBM GS, my coworkers included a former kindegarten teacher and a former air traffic controller. Hint - they didn't get more schooling afterward that I know of. It's a good bet that lots of people getting laid off don't count as qualified workers.
Slashdot Mirror
Toss 10-week old spaghetti sauce at the wearer. That protective shit will be in trash before the 9mm bullet even gets to him.
Researcher jobs as civilian employees of the DoD (ARL, ONR, NUWC, etc.).
Pros:
Cons:
Stop being so "Web 1.0". He should make money from hitmen's banner ads.
Actually, if they blamed Al Queda pornographers, I'd actually start listening to Bush talk again...
ARE YOU CRAZY??? MS lawyers I can handle, but don't tempt them to bring out Bob.
History suggests that we'd blame Sadam Hussein.
Too bad that their resignations will somehow fail to appear on the evening news programs. That kind of limits (but doesn't totally erase, I suspect) the impact of their protests.
Someone offered him $300 to do it?
Sure, but second to a ThinkPad (which I can't afford), HP laptops are my preferred brand. So they're doing something right it would seem.
Hmmm, good point. Quick! Patent that business method before Osama thinks of it!
What makes StarCraft I fun has not very much to do with graphics. It's the gameplay rules and balance.
I'm actually concerned that fancy graphics might (a) distract the game designers from concentrating on game rules and balance and/or (b) clutter the screen so that it's hard to quickly asses what's going on when you look at a new region of the map.
Is spinachry ignition rivaly gooery stuff? What the hell are you talking about?
I didn't say that Bush is the only person protected in such an onerous way. Just that it's a fitting symbol of his presidency. So for Clinton, for example, it the onerous protection was still there, but it wasn't a fitting symbol of the rest of his presidency.
To have Bush covered in a cone of reduced civil liberties is perhaps the most honest herald to ever signal a leader's presence.
His "legacy" practically writes itself.
The judge wasn't so proud as to pretend understanding and then issue a potentially unjust ruling.
Would that all judges had the same strength of character in this regard.
I'm a ninja?
I've been through the same emotional roller-coaster myself, and I concluded that experiencing a regression bug dings our sense of the software's reliability so badly that we assume it's buggy for everyone.
Of course, that's not a good inference to make. One person experiencing a regression != many bugs being in the software. But for some reason that's where our thoughts go.
This posting brought to you by the word curiouser.
He *knew* the Nexus was going to go through that exact point.
Karl Rove?
I was looking forward to Ubuntu Studio for Ubuntu 7.04 to pull together a useful collection of packages related to music production. But despite a website that shows a lot of polish, it's at least a month out of date (the homepage still says, "Coming in April").
Does anyone know what's up with that project?
I know this sounds like a dumb little issue, but it was actually one that kept me from playing around with music production on Linux: finding MIDI-interface hardware that is known to work well under Linux.
I've got several MIDI keyboards that lack decent sequencers and sound patch managers. So being able to manage those details from a host computer (running Linux in this case) would be great. But when I asked around the message boards, I couldn't find anyone saying, "Yes, I use product XYZ to let my computer connect to MIDI devices, and it works great."
So I'm willing to play with Linux for multi-track recording and (if I can get the latency lower) real-time effects processing. But I'm not yet ready to plunk down $100+ on MIDI interface hardware to complete the system until I can get a strong recommendation.
Screw that! I want them woven into women's stockings to look like airport landing lights for...
Oops. I probably shouldn't have said that out loud. Never mind...
I wasn't trying to imply that everyone being laid off was incompetent. I was just trying to state that if 'x' jobs are eliminated from IBM GS, that doesn't translate to exactly 'x' jobs filling the alleged skilled worked gap that companies use to justify H1-B's.
When I worked at IBM GS, my coworkers included a former kindegarten teacher and a former air traffic controller. Hint - they didn't get more schooling afterward that I know of. It's a good bet that lots of people getting laid off don't count as qualified workers.