Another valuable skill (...and this IS a skill) is public speaking.
I'm not talking about giving keynote speeches to thousands of adoring geeks. Rather - developing confidence to present your ideas to people you are working with.
As a citizen of the U.S., one giant advantage that you have is your understanding of our own culture. When you add to that technical understanding AND the ability to communicate your ideas, you really should not be without opportunities for long.
I'd also add that switching jobs (whether forced or voluntary) is not always a bad thing. As a geek, you are probably interested in learning new things - and probably get bored easily. MANY corporate jobs are really are designed to be boring (think division of labor).
exactly. i've used the t-mobile hotspot pass. almost every starbucks i know has wifi now. borders bookstores have it as well.
i find that my maximum period of concentration is about 2 hours. after this, i need to go for a quick walk, move to a new seat, move to a new starbucks, drink more coffee, think, walk, etc.
can't say that i miss anything about working in an office... esp. the human interaction. i really like meeting people, and spending time with friends. but i find that an office environment brings out the worst in people. greed, pettiness, sloth, etc.
most people only come to an office because they want a paycheck. be glad you're out. relish the freedom... make the most of it. adapt to a new life.
I propose a revised version of the Turing Test designed to wipe out Nigerian scammers.
A program (preferrably written in Perl) will parse the Nigerian scammers letter, and automatically generate a response, leading the scammer into a web that will eventually entagle him and send him to the slammer.
Since the average Nigerian scammer seems a bit dumb to begin with, this might be a suitable stepping stone for the artificial intelligence community to consider.
Both of the reasons cited in the article for the increase of profits of online magazines are related to technology. First, that there is an increased availability of broadband. Secondly, because of the ability to do ad targeting.
With always on broadband, people check their favorite content sites 50 times a day, instead of just once or twice a day. I am sure that this will increase, once the profliferation of small wifi enabled devices becomes more common... pda's, telephones.
It's strange, but, the ease with which information is made available to us makes a huge difference. If accessing the content is effortless, then I am far more inclined to make use of it, than if it requires clunking around with a slow and clunky mobile phone browser.
Targeted adwords are a very elegant solution. In the way that they are supplied by google, I actually find them quite helpful. I do click these ads quite frequently, and have made purchases as a result.
Well, because web searching, to this day in age, has been a free service. Supposing that the index is built as the result of donated searches, it would be ethically in very bad taste to act against this trend.
Of course, I am the first one to question this trend. Has anyone else considered the possibility that one day we'll wake up, and notice that google is charging for access to it's basic searching services?
I for one, would probably pay. I have become so dependent on it. What price? That's a good question...
Exactly. I certainly don't consider extreme programming a competitor of OOP. Nor is it a competitor of the use of patterns during development.
The author was able to show that the development of knowledge and technology happens incrementally. At each stage on the road, there were problems that made current technologies less than optimal
For instance, in the 50's people were disgruntled that it took 10 steps to solve an exponential function. This led to Fortran... which had problems of it's own... which were solved in part by OOP.
It's not clear where we are going yet, but it's interesting that the author points to generative programming and XP, two wildly different concepts, as potential roads.
Of course I am skeptical. For one, because I have used a number of IBM software products in the past (including Websphere), that have been less than exceptional.
I am all for the ASP model, and I really think that something like this has great potential. Esp, if I don't have to fire up Office every time I want to make a change to my.doc documents.
My sketicism is driven by the comment
"...80 percent of the Office functionality most people use..."
It's a well known fact, that most people only use something like 10% of Words features. It's also well know that marketers like to exaggerate.
I think T-mobile is looking for fast returns on it's investment. They billed my account $400 last month on bogus charges!
The problem that I see here is that most of the access to these services will be free, or very low cost. Look for the cost of broadband to asymptotically approach zero.
The Starbucks/t-mobile alliance has already cut prices %25 for it's services, and done away with many of it's earlier access limitations. Once the cometa network begins to give them more competition, the price will be pushed even further.
I attended a lecture at CMU yesterday by Michael Shamos, a noted patent attorney. His comment was that very many bad patents are being granted. They are granted not because they are good ideas, but rather, because of the way the system works.
Patent examiners are overworked and underpaid. As a result, many are foreigners, and can barely speak passable English. Additionally, they only search against other previously patented ideas when deciding the fate of a new patent.
As a result, a patent like 1-click by amazon is quickly approved. Since business process patents were only in existence from the late 90s, no one had the chance to patent this obvious business idea.
Google has really defined what it means to be a 'search engine'. If you notice, everyone else, who is really about doing searching, is slowly, but surely becoming Google. Alltheweb? Teoma? Altavista? All feature a simple, centered search box, and text based advertising.
I suspect, that, what MS's 'this time we're serious' comment means, that we can expect a very similar offering from them.
Personally, I certainly hope that they will try. I only use Google now for searching. But, if someone can provide a better engine (and it is possible), and it was still free, easy to use, and free from cluttering garbage, I would probably use it.
Agreed. I like the idea of releasing the language as GPL or another such license. As long as the language still has strong leadership, like the Linux for instance, it would certainly be able to address the needs of users.
Additionally, there is enough industry support from enough strong players in the industry that the language would continue to be pushed forward in development. This assertion is based on game theory. It is really in everyone's best interest that the language of Java is made to be as capable and free of proprietary restrictions as possible.
The only thing that I don't understand is, what the effect of releasing an application with an embedded VM would be. If released under GPL, could somone still charge for such an application?
Tariffs will only serve to raise the overall cost of goods. The result of this will only be to make businesses less confident about the future.
If someone is really concerned about the job situation, then it's time to learn a new skill, or a new way of thinking. A good first step would be to understand the true nature of capitalism and free markets. Something that is usually covered up by media and politics, which are controlled by special interests (read 'people with money, trying to make more').
But, given the 75 billion dollar cost of war, it's unlikely that the overall prospects for anyones job are likely to improve anytime soon.
Exactly. The gossip, dispair, and petty behavior that develops in situations like this is contagious. If you are interested in working in a productive environment, and want to feel good about yourself, you should leave immediately.
You could decide to bring in flowers, and smile more, but, this paddle has very large holes in it.
I like the idea suggested in the article. Talking through a Bluetooth headset, while browsing the net on the device.
Another possiblility would be to integrate VoIP capabilites, through the Wi-Fi connectivity. Depending on mobile signal strength, or something like monthly minutes used, calls could be routed automatically to the best alternative.
Good point. In fact, I combine this with what Paul Graham said about geeks and nerds, and soon it's clear that school texts are only good for causing backpain.
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
Add overall apathy, to the dread of looking uncool, and soon no one is reading anything in high school.
The only people who would read the books, the nerds and geeks, don't bother. They know where to find the really interesting stuff. They know that the textbooks are worthless. Like the article says, school texts are big listings of definitions in bold type.
That's a great idea. At a minimum, there should be a directory of blogs, where someone could self-register what they are writing about. For instance, something close to the Open Directory Project, but for blogs.
Agile methods, including scrum are really a developers best friend. A core part of scrum, is the daily scrum. A 15 minute meeting in the morning that asks 3 questions:
What did you do yesterday?
What are you doing today?
Is anything standing in your way?
It puts the focus on the bottom line, which is productive development. It's really so simple that you shouldn't even need a book to understand this. But, people generally make things more complicated than they have to be.
The book does make for interesting reading. The formatting and graphics do seem from 1970 though. I suspect that the authors used agile techniques to get the book out the door really quick.
Slashdot Mirror
Great post.
Another valuable skill (...and this IS a skill) is public speaking.
I'm not talking about giving keynote speeches to thousands of adoring geeks. Rather - developing confidence to present your ideas to people you are working with.
As a citizen of the U.S., one giant advantage that you have is your understanding of our own culture. When you add to that technical understanding AND the ability to communicate your ideas, you really should not be without opportunities for long.
I'd also add that switching jobs (whether forced or voluntary) is not always a bad thing. As a geek, you are probably interested in learning new things - and probably get bored easily. MANY corporate jobs are really are designed to be boring (think division of labor).
i find that my maximum period of concentration is about 2 hours. after this, i need to go for a quick walk, move to a new seat, move to a new starbucks, drink more coffee, think, walk, etc.
can't say that i miss anything about working in an office... esp. the human interaction. i really like meeting people, and spending time with friends. but i find that an office environment brings out the worst in people. greed, pettiness, sloth, etc.
most people only come to an office because they want a paycheck. be glad you're out. relish the freedom... make the most of it. adapt to a new life.
I propose a revised version of the Turing Test designed to wipe out Nigerian scammers.
A program (preferrably written in Perl) will parse the Nigerian scammers letter, and automatically generate a response, leading the scammer into a web that will eventually entagle him and send him to the slammer.
Since the average Nigerian scammer seems a bit dumb to begin with, this might be a suitable stepping stone for the artificial intelligence community to consider.
With always on broadband, people check their favorite content sites 50 times a day, instead of just once or twice a day. I am sure that this will increase, once the profliferation of small wifi enabled devices becomes more common... pda's, telephones.
It's strange, but, the ease with which information is made available to us makes a huge difference. If accessing the content is effortless, then I am far more inclined to make use of it, than if it requires clunking around with a slow and clunky mobile phone browser.
Targeted adwords are a very elegant solution. In the way that they are supplied by google, I actually find them quite helpful. I do click these ads quite frequently, and have made purchases as a result.
Of course, I am the first one to question this trend. Has anyone else considered the possibility that one day we'll wake up, and notice that google is charging for access to it's basic searching services?
I for one, would probably pay. I have become so dependent on it. What price? That's a good question...
The author was able to show that the development of knowledge and technology happens incrementally. At each stage on the road, there were problems that made current technologies less than optimal
For instance, in the 50's people were disgruntled that it took 10 steps to solve an exponential function. This led to Fortran... which had problems of it's own... which were solved in part by OOP.
It's not clear where we are going yet, but it's interesting that the author points to generative programming and XP, two wildly different concepts, as potential roads.
I am all for the ASP model, and I really think that something like this has great potential. Esp, if I don't have to fire up Office every time I want to make a change to my .doc documents.
My sketicism is driven by the comment
It's a well known fact, that most people only use something like 10% of Words features. It's also well know that marketers like to exaggerate.
The problem that I see here is that most of the access to these services will be free, or very low cost. Look for the cost of broadband to asymptotically approach zero.
The Starbucks/t-mobile alliance has already cut prices %25 for it's services, and done away with many of it's earlier access limitations. Once the cometa network begins to give them more competition, the price will be pushed even further.
btw, this is kind of funny.
free internet with your french fries
ds
but, for general corporate computing, there are usually going to be better solutions.
Patent examiners are overworked and underpaid. As a result, many are foreigners, and can barely speak passable English. Additionally, they only search against other previously patented ideas when deciding the fate of a new patent.
As a result, a patent like 1-click by amazon is quickly approved. Since business process patents were only in existence from the late 90s, no one had the chance to patent this obvious business idea.
ds
I suspect, that, what MS's 'this time we're serious' comment means, that we can expect a very similar offering from them.
Personally, I certainly hope that they will try. I only use Google now for searching. But, if someone can provide a better engine (and it is possible), and it was still free, easy to use, and free from cluttering garbage, I would probably use it.
Additionally, there is enough industry support from enough strong players in the industry that the language would continue to be pushed forward in development. This assertion is based on game theory. It is really in everyone's best interest that the language of Java is made to be as capable and free of proprietary restrictions as possible.
The only thing that I don't understand is, what the effect of releasing an application with an embedded VM would be. If released under GPL, could somone still charge for such an application?
ds
Tariffs will only serve to raise the overall cost of goods. The result of this will only be to make businesses less confident about the future.
If someone is really concerned about the job situation, then it's time to learn a new skill, or a new way of thinking. A good first step would be to understand the true nature of capitalism and free markets. Something that is usually covered up by media and politics, which are controlled by special interests (read 'people with money, trying to make more').
But, given the 75 billion dollar cost of war, it's unlikely that the overall prospects for anyones job are likely to improve anytime soon.
But, the again, this IS free software. hmmmm
Good point. But, I suppose you could deduct the actual value of the code that you contributed. Loop holes are everywhere!
They are just trying to catch up with OS X.
You could decide to bring in flowers, and smile more, but, this paddle has very large holes in it.
Another possiblility would be to integrate VoIP capabilites, through the Wi-Fi connectivity. Depending on mobile signal strength, or something like monthly minutes used, calls could be routed automatically to the best alternative.
related blog entry
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
Add overall apathy, to the dread of looking uncool, and soon no one is reading anything in high school.
The only people who would read the books, the nerds and geeks, don't bother. They know where to find the really interesting stuff. They know that the textbooks are worthless. Like the article says, school texts are big listings of definitions in bold type.
enterblog - computing and business
Agile methods, including scrum are really a developers best friend. A core part of scrum, is the daily scrum. A 15 minute meeting in the morning that asks 3 questions:
It puts the focus on the bottom line, which is productive development. It's really so simple that you shouldn't even need a book to understand this. But, people generally make things more complicated than they have to be.
The book does make for interesting reading. The formatting and graphics do seem from 1970 though. I suspect that the authors used agile techniques to get the book out the door really quick.