I assume the reason that you haven't purchased a house is because you can't afford it where you currently live.
If that's the case, you really need to move somewhere that has affordable housing. There's lots of places with affordable housing that have developer jobs.
I recently moved from New Jersey, which is mostly horribly expensive, to Cary, North Carolina, which is a small town between Raleigh and Durham.
I bought my first home at age 41 for $215K. It's an older home, but it's 2000 sqft, on 1/2 acre, with an in-ground pool. My property taxes are $1600 a year. A similar home in NJ would easily cost over twice as much and the taxes would likely be 8K or more per year if I was lucky.
Here in the Raleigh/Durham/Cary "Research Triangle" area, you could probably find a job with Deutsche Bank or Credit Suisse if you really want to stay on the Financial/Banking career path.
You could always CLEP out of some of the electives...
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html
Enroll in your local community college and take your CLEP exams there. The requirements for a "pass" on a CLEP exam are usually lower at a community college than a four-year school. Once you've taken (and passed) all the CLEP tests you can, finish out a "Liberal Arts" Associates degree at the community college. Trust me on this. A liberal arts associates degree is the easiest to transfer without losing credits.
Then transfer to an in-state four-year college and take all the CS classes and whatever remaining classes you need to get your Bachelor's degree.
Frankly, I really don't know why some people are fighting so hard for base-10 units on hard drive storage. Memory is still sold in base-2 units, and I believe that flash based storage in thumb drives and digital cameras is still measured and marketed in base-2. It seems like once things get above 64 "units" they want to start rounding to multiples of 5 or 10.
All modern computers use data in units that are powers of two, and all data on storage media is organized the same way.
This fact isn't negated by marketing tactics that misrepresent (either intentionally or unintentionally) the storage capacity of the medium.
The correct solution to this problem is for the whole industry to take a step back and universally agree to use the base-2 unit/prefix combos.
The only reason a consumer will ever be "confused" is when they try to compare two products using different units. If everyone is using base-2, the problem goes away. The consumer doesn't know (or care) what the units actually mean, they just want "bigger" and "more" of whatever the unit happens to be.
I remember when SecondLife opened up the French Quarter area and had a virual mardi gras fund raiser for New Orleans disaster relief efforts. Virtual crews made virtual floats and everything. I'm sad that it's gone. Here's a screen shot from the event... http://livejournal.3feetunder.com/slmardigras.jpg
I have a Nokia 6236i phone from Verizon when I signed my 1 year contract about 3 years ago. After all fees and rebates, I ended up +$50 in the deal. Guess what? It does everything a phone should do. I can make outgoing calls and receive incoming calls. Mission accomplished.
If you're the kind of dipshit who buys an iPhone for multiple hundreds of dollars just so you can show it off at Starbucks during the day and rub your penis on the touch screen at night, then you should just shut your mouth, bend over, and happily take whatever Apple and AT&T want to give you.
I've been developing in Java exclusively for the last 4 years and haven't been following C/C++ at all.
Can anyone tell me what the following quote is talking about regarding enumerations?...
"Also, some 'random extensions' will slip through the net and become 'odd and isolated' features in the language (much as enumerations are in C and C++)."
Since when do banks throw away COBOL code? A close friend was a programmer for Citibank. They were still using systems that were 15 years old or more because they can't risk implementing a new system and having it not work correctly. That's why the are still running ancient code on on ancient hardware. Banks get fined thousands of dollars a day by the govt when their books don't balance.
I interviewed for a programming job at Google. I only had the one phone interview. The interview got a little uncomfortable at the end when he asked me if I had any questions or concerns about working for Google.
I mentioned that I was concerned about the inevitable IPO (which hadn't been announced yet) and what effect it would have on the company when they were at the whim of the shareholders. He said that he wasn't allowed to discuss anything involving an IPO. I pressed on and told him that everyone knew it was coming eventually and what would prevent Google from becoming like IBM who lays off thousands of people at a time to make the bottom line look better to boost the stock price. He said that "that's not how Google does things".
I was also concerned about the way that the NYC office seemed to be remotely operated from California. East coast and West coast are VERY different, just ask 2Pac. There is a totally different work style and management style between the two and I'm sure the remote management situation was sure to create friction eventually.
Essentially, they expected me to take a huge risk by moving to NYC to take a job in their recently created NYC office without any kind of guarantee of job security other than "that's not how Google does things". Well, Google pre-IPO and Google post-IPO are two different companies. When the share price goes through one of its inevitable downturns, lets see what their policy is.
In any job interview, there should really be two interviews... They interview you and you interview them. "Why I would want to work for you" is just as important as "Why should we hire you". The feeling I got in the interview was like... "We're google. If you don't want to work for us, there's a thousand people standing in line behind you for the job." I think LucasArts employees know what I'm talking about.
I had a phone interview with Google for the NY office well before the IPO was even announced. During the interview, they asked me if I had any questions/concerns about Google as a company. I offered that my concern was that even though it might be a great place to work now, *when* they went public (eveybody knew it was coming eventually) there was the chance that they would be just like every other large tech company that is at the mercy of the shareholders. When they have their first bad quarter they lay off 1,000 employees to make the stockholders happy. I said that I didn't want to be one of the "last hired, first to go".
Aparently, expressing my honest feelings with them didn't set well because they never called me back for the second round of interviews.
I'm all for more women in my workplace. Especially attractive women. But in general, more people in computer science means more competition for the few jobs that are going to be left once china starts siphoning off all the computer work from the rest of the planet.
Look out India, China is your worst nightmare.
I remember when I was a kid, I saw some person (a highway safety engineer?) on tv talking about those road reflectors. I think they were very new at the time. They referred to them as "Dummy Buttons".
In the same month, my girlfriend and I were both charged a fee for using directory assistance on our cell phones. Her twice, and I once. The problem is, I know for a fact, neither of us has EVER used directory assistance on our cell phones.
1) I know it costs money and I can get the numbers free from my phone book or the internet. i.e. I'm cheap.
2) Since I never use it, I don't even know what the number for directory assistance is on my cell phone? Is it 555-1212, 411, something else?
Anyway, after going round and round for about a hour on the phone with several AT&T Wireless customer service reps and their manager, they concluded: "We know the number was dialed from you phone so someone must have used your phone without your knowledge." And they refused to credit my account. My phone is almost always in the front pocket of my pants (the radiation keeps my testicles warm) and is never in a place where someone could just pick it up and use it.
The charge was only $1.40 or something like that but it was the principle of the whole thing. After my girlfriend got charged for two calls that month, I began to wonder what would happen if they "accidentally" billed each of their customers for a directory assistance call one month. It would probably equal millions of dollars. Thieving bastards!
I worked as a programmer in the game industry for a few years. I was part of the Vivendi/Cendant/Sierra/Dynamix beast in Eugene Oregon. It really sucked. I loved the job itself and my co-workers but you can pretty much forget about having a wife, girlfriend, or meaningful relationships of any kind outside of work. Hell, finding time to shower, eat, or do laundry was a serious concern. The place I worked at had futons in each "team area" for "naps" and we had locker rooms with showers so we didn't really "need" to go home. There was just too much work and not enough time or people.
If you took my salary and divided it by the hours I actually spent there, I wasn't making much more than minimum wage.
The thing that sickens me is what they did to the QA staff. They worked ruthless hours, often sleeping under their desks between shifts for pay that wasn't much better than one would get at a fast food joint.
They tried to lure us to work later hours with perks like pizza (Oregon pizza is definitely not a treat), beer, and free pinball.
If I had it to do over again, I'd just put in my 40 hours a week and make them fire me if they didn't like it.
Slashdot Mirror
I assume the reason that you haven't purchased a house is because you can't afford it where you currently live. If that's the case, you really need to move somewhere that has affordable housing. There's lots of places with affordable housing that have developer jobs. I recently moved from New Jersey, which is mostly horribly expensive, to Cary, North Carolina, which is a small town between Raleigh and Durham. I bought my first home at age 41 for $215K. It's an older home, but it's 2000 sqft, on 1/2 acre, with an in-ground pool. My property taxes are $1600 a year. A similar home in NJ would easily cost over twice as much and the taxes would likely be 8K or more per year if I was lucky. Here in the Raleigh/Durham/Cary "Research Triangle" area, you could probably find a job with Deutsche Bank or Credit Suisse if you really want to stay on the Financial/Banking career path.
You could always CLEP out of some of the electives... http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html Enroll in your local community college and take your CLEP exams there. The requirements for a "pass" on a CLEP exam are usually lower at a community college than a four-year school. Once you've taken (and passed) all the CLEP tests you can, finish out a "Liberal Arts" Associates degree at the community college. Trust me on this. A liberal arts associates degree is the easiest to transfer without losing credits. Then transfer to an in-state four-year college and take all the CS classes and whatever remaining classes you need to get your Bachelor's degree.
Fair Use Wizard is pretty decent.
It costs money, but they released a free full version 2.8 a while back that you can still find on this page...
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/FairUse_Wizard
Frankly, I really don't know why some people are fighting so hard for base-10 units on hard drive storage. Memory is still sold in base-2 units, and I believe that flash based storage in thumb drives and digital cameras is still measured and marketed in base-2. It seems like once things get above 64 "units" they want to start rounding to multiples of 5 or 10. All modern computers use data in units that are powers of two, and all data on storage media is organized the same way. This fact isn't negated by marketing tactics that misrepresent (either intentionally or unintentionally) the storage capacity of the medium. The correct solution to this problem is for the whole industry to take a step back and universally agree to use the base-2 unit/prefix combos. The only reason a consumer will ever be "confused" is when they try to compare two products using different units. If everyone is using base-2, the problem goes away. The consumer doesn't know (or care) what the units actually mean, they just want "bigger" and "more" of whatever the unit happens to be.
^ There, I said it. ^
Now I'll excuse myself from the discussion and go listen to my Zune.
I remember when SecondLife opened up the French Quarter area and had a virual mardi gras fund raiser for New Orleans disaster relief efforts. Virtual crews made virtual floats and everything. I'm sad that it's gone. Here's a screen shot from the event... http://livejournal.3feetunder.com/slmardigras.jpg
I have a Nokia 6236i phone from Verizon when I signed my 1 year contract about 3 years ago. After all fees and rebates, I ended up +$50 in the deal. Guess what? It does everything a phone should do. I can make outgoing calls and receive incoming calls. Mission accomplished. If you're the kind of dipshit who buys an iPhone for multiple hundreds of dollars just so you can show it off at Starbucks during the day and rub your penis on the touch screen at night, then you should just shut your mouth, bend over, and happily take whatever Apple and AT&T want to give you.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/hentai-game-reviews/rapelay.php
It's impossible to post this without a bunch of text up front to get past the slashdot "lameness filter".... IM IN UR CHINA NERFING UR GOLD FARMING
I've been developing in Java exclusively for the last 4 years and haven't been following C/C++ at all.
Can anyone tell me what the following quote is talking about regarding enumerations?...
"Also, some 'random extensions' will slip through the net and become 'odd and isolated' features in the language (much as enumerations are in C and C++)."
Since when do banks throw away COBOL code? A close friend was a programmer for Citibank. They were still using systems that were 15 years old or more because they can't risk implementing a new system and having it not work correctly. That's why the are still running ancient code on on ancient hardware. Banks get fined thousands of dollars a day by the govt when their books don't balance.
All I have to do is buy a bunch of them up, wait for all the other ones to get destroyed and presto, instant collectible. Ebay, here I come.
I interviewed for a programming job at Google. I only had the one phone interview. The interview got a little uncomfortable at the end when he asked me if I had any questions or concerns about working for Google.
I mentioned that I was concerned about the inevitable IPO (which hadn't been announced yet) and what effect it would have on the company when they were at the whim of the shareholders. He said that he wasn't allowed to discuss anything involving an IPO. I pressed on and told him that everyone knew it was coming eventually and what would prevent Google from becoming like IBM who lays off thousands of people at a time to make the bottom line look better to boost the stock price. He said that "that's not how Google does things".
I was also concerned about the way that the NYC office seemed to be remotely operated from California. East coast and West coast are VERY different, just ask 2Pac. There is a totally different work style and management style between the two and I'm sure the remote management situation was sure to create friction eventually.
Essentially, they expected me to take a huge risk by moving to NYC to take a job in their recently created NYC office without any kind of guarantee of job security other than "that's not how Google does things". Well, Google pre-IPO and Google post-IPO are two different companies. When the share price goes through one of its inevitable downturns, lets see what their policy is.
In any job interview, there should really be two interviews... They interview you and you interview them. "Why I would want to work for you" is just as important as "Why should we hire you". The feeling I got in the interview was like... "We're google. If you don't want to work for us, there's a thousand people standing in line behind you for the job." I think LucasArts employees know what I'm talking about.
I had a phone interview with Google for the NY office well before the IPO was even announced. During the interview, they asked me if I had any questions/concerns about Google as a company. I offered that my concern was that even though it might be a great place to work now, *when* they went public (eveybody knew it was coming eventually) there was the chance that they would be just like every other large tech company that is at the mercy of the shareholders. When they have their first bad quarter they lay off 1,000 employees to make the stockholders happy. I said that I didn't want to be one of the "last hired, first to go". Aparently, expressing my honest feelings with them didn't set well because they never called me back for the second round of interviews.
I use Proxomitron with the "allow right mouse clicks" filter turned on. http://www.proxomitron.info/
I'm all for more women in my workplace. Especially attractive women. But in general, more people in computer science means more competition for the few jobs that are going to be left once china starts siphoning off all the computer work from the rest of the planet. Look out India, China is your worst nightmare.
You should always use a router between your PC and the cable modem. My PC is safely hidden behind the router and has never been hacked.
I remember when I was a kid, I saw some person (a highway safety engineer?) on tv talking about those road reflectors. I think they were very new at the time. They referred to them as "Dummy Buttons".
Why your fabulous job sucks...m
http://3feetunder.com/krick/jobsucks.ht
In the same month, my girlfriend and I were both charged a fee for using directory assistance on our cell phones. Her twice, and I once. The problem is, I know for a fact, neither of us has EVER used directory assistance on our cell phones.
...
Krick
1) I know it costs money and I can get the numbers free from my phone book or the internet. i.e. I'm cheap.
2) Since I never use it, I don't even know what the number for directory assistance is on my cell phone? Is it 555-1212, 411, something else?
Anyway, after going round and round for about a hour on the phone with several AT&T Wireless customer service reps and their manager, they concluded: "We know the number was dialed from you phone so someone must have used your phone without your knowledge." And they refused to credit my account. My phone is almost always in the front pocket of my pants (the radiation keeps my testicles warm) and is never in a place where someone could just pick it up and use it.
The charge was only $1.40 or something like that but it was the principle of the whole thing. After my girlfriend got charged for two calls that month, I began to wonder what would happen if they "accidentally" billed each of their customers for a directory assistance call one month. It would probably equal millions of dollars. Thieving bastards!
I worked as a programmer in the game industry for a few years. I was part of the Vivendi/Cendant/Sierra/Dynamix beast in Eugene Oregon. It really sucked. I loved the job itself and my co-workers but you can pretty much forget about having a wife, girlfriend, or meaningful relationships of any kind outside of work. Hell, finding time to shower, eat, or do laundry was a serious concern. The place I worked at had futons in each "team area" for "naps" and we had locker rooms with showers so we didn't really "need" to go home. There was just too much work and not enough time or people.
If you took my salary and divided it by the hours I actually spent there, I wasn't making much more than minimum wage.
The thing that sickens me is what they did to the QA staff. They worked ruthless hours, often sleeping under their desks between shifts for pay that wasn't much better than one would get at a fast food joint.
They tried to lure us to work later hours with perks like pizza (Oregon pizza is definitely not a treat), beer, and free pinball.
If I had it to do over again, I'd just put in my 40 hours a week and make them fire me if they didn't like it.
This article sums up the experiences of a lot of the posters here so far...
http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/jobsucks.htm
I rescued it off of the original Shift.com website.