I fail to understand, in our modern society, why we retain this system of management-worker relations that is more appropriate to the mid-twentieth century. We rarely have strikes anymore (the ones that stand out are those by millionaire athletes, not laborers). We have effectively replicated the feudal system in modern times, with management operating as the king's court, complete with courtiers vying for executive favors. The best advice I can give my children (and this goes for more than just IT careers - doctors and lawyers play this game too) is to be mediocre at your job, but excel at playing the corporate system.
Since government is likewise organized, and the corporate world wields so much power, this arrangement is not likely to change without a revolution - economic or otherwise.
If you are a certain type personality and find your work enjoyable, you will work all your waking hours. If your boss has to ask, the people being asked are either not that personality or the work is not enjoyable. (NOTE: working all your waking hours isn't really a good idea as it isn't sustainable and you are in danger of burning out.) If you are of that personality and your work is that enjoyable, be sure telecommunting options are available and work your own schedule. And get an ownership stake, you'll be even more motivated.
There are still pockets of brainy goodness out there. EVE Online is a great hardcore business simulator. Incidentally, it also happens to have combat -- but that's not necessarily central to the game.
If you haven't read Travels, you're missing a fascinating autobiography and vicarious insight into what it was like to be a young man in the 1970's. Crichton documents his search for the meaning of life among every New Age craze and pursuit of that decade, intermixed with stories of his many bedroom conquests. It will lead the religious reader to conclude that he was looking in the wrong place, but the secular reader will realize that his search never ends -- the hallmark of a true scientist.
Then again, there's the part about the bedroom conquests.
I used to have a computer program that told me about this stuff, and where to look... but, alas, it ran on my C-64 and probably doesn't know about this chunk of ice anyhow.:) Laugh it up, but there was a program for MS-DOS and Win 3.1 called EZCosmos that was one of the better ephemeris packages available. Alas, they seem to have gone belly up. Here's an Ask Slashdot for you: What do you use for ephemeris software these days? Are there any good Open Source packages or websites?
robocopy is available as part of the free download of Windows 2003 server resource kit. It's pretty good for automating backups to multiple cheap hard drive.
Sadly, I do not know what the equivalent is for *nix. dd or tar sort of does it, but robocopy has a mirror mode that dd lacks. A quick google search shows some platform-agnostic utilities: http://www.google.com/search?q=robocopy+unix
At those speeds, we don't have any materials that will survive impact with the ocean. In fact, the Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters, when they parachute gently into the ocean, sustain considerable damage to the aft end (nozzle & stuff IIRC). It's worth it to salvage the casings.
Yes, I am a rocket scientist (well, I used to be).
The single most productive computing device you can have (besides a non-cube or home office with a locking door) is a good keyboard. I use a Northgate OmniKey Ultra I have had for something like 13 years and my typing rate is triple what it is on a cheapass Dell OEM kbd. This Northgate keyboard is like an extension of my mind. When you are coding, you don't want to have to think about mechanics.
Oh, and you need a good editor. Unfortunately, there hasn't been one since Brief. (Yeah, I use vi now, I've tried emacs, and everything else is just ewwww.)
This is nothing new for Democrats. I lived through the mid-80's attempt by Tipper and Al Gore to seize control of the recording industry. I'm just shocked how few people remember this.
Politics is about money and control, it doesn't matter what the party is. If anarchists wound up with a majority (how would that work?!), they would turn into money grubbing control freaks.
Unfortunately, there is currently a titanium shortage which has been variously attributed to either increased demand from China (JapanMetalBulletin - your source for today's breaking non-ferrous metal news!) or the Iraq War (IIRC Car & Driver Jan '05 dead tree version reported Chevrolet discontinued use of Titanium in '06 Corvette mufflers due to Iraq War-induced shortages).
There are religious people (Christian and Jewish, probably others) who refuse to say the pledge because one is pledging allegiance to an inanimate object (the flag) which is symbolic of a ruling power and therefore may be considered idolatry. Many religious people extend the concept of idolatry to include the worship of anything other than God: money, power, possessions, etc., and idolatry is expressly prohibited by, for one, the Ten Commandments.
We are so indoctrinated from childhood by the public schools that few so-called religious people in the US ever consider this perspective, and will in fact be ready to haul you before a McCarthy hearing when they catch you NOT saying the pledge along with the rest of the sheep.
This is extremely freaky... I have not heard this song since childhood, but I start singing it to some co-workers not 3 days ago, and now here it is on Slashdot, a site I read constantly, in a totally unreleated article. And the article's topic involves making things happen with your mind!
Good idea, but many ISPs (Comcast) don't support routers. I have called Comcast when their crappy connection goes up and down (happens about once per week these days for a whole day). The first thing they ask is if you have a router. If you say yes, they tell you they do not support routers, and refuse to help you any further. I asked them if they sell a router solution, and the answer is "no." Apparently their solution to the problem is for you to use WinXP and enable firewalling, or buy ZoneAlarm (which they also don't sell).
Comcast is a monopoly where I and many others live. Let's hope the Supremes force them to open their cable lines to competitors. The result of them forcing BellSouth to do so has resulted (finally) in my recent switch to an unlimited local and long distance provider for $45/month.
The episode airs here at 12:30 PM CST. The local news on the NBC channel broke the story at 12:00 AM; I also understand it was on the Regis & Kelly morning show. My wife, who doesn't read slashdot (and I certainly didn't spoil it for her a month and a half ago) called and had a fit. I wonder how many other people were pissed.
I have a 128MB Trek ThumbDrive purchased in December of 2002. Since then, it has been dropped in hot coffee twice, been through the washing machine three times, and left at a business site 500 miles from home and returned via FedEx. The plastic cap is shot on it; this was a bad design to start with. The keyring was attached to the point of greatest strain, the top of the pocket clip. The keyring and pocket clip therefore broke off together, making it impossible to carry except in one's pocket. Two tiny plastic doodads keep the cap snugly on the device, until after about 6 months one of the plastic tangs broke off. Breakoff of the other is imminent. But the company where I work has several of these, and no one has ever lost data on any of them, except the clown who "accidentally" reformatted his in MacOS 9. I think I saw these recently remarketed under the Maxtor brand name.
I work for a NASA contractor. Many NASA folk still use Macs, as do some of the older guys in my shop. They are all terrible at expressing themselves using the English language. Run-on-sentences run rampant. The comma, when used, is used incorrectly. The possessive form is used when plural should be used. IANAEM (English Major), I am simply an old-schooler who thinks the language should be used correctly.
Now go make fun of whatever mistakes I made in the above paragraph, but which my aged eyes could not catch!
IEEE Spectrum / IEEE Computer (I'm a programmer)
Physics Today (I have a physics degree)
Aviation Week (I work for NASA)
Car and Driver (I'm a gearhead)
MIT Technology Review (I'm a tech geek)
As a space engineer (really, I work for NASA) I feel compelled to point out that exploring space is an assload harder than exploring the ocean. Accordingly, we've explored far less of it than the oceans (as a percentage of total volume). [Space] technologies are stagnating because most of the NASA beauracracy is directed towards making existing technologies less efficient. We (NASA) really don't have any improvements for reaching really deep space areas and are still using technology pioneered in the 60s.
So there! Our technology sucks a lot more than yours!
I remember in the late 80's seeing a bound, printed version of the IBM XT BIOS source code (ASM of course). It belonged to a friend and probably dated from the early 80's. IIRC, he sent IBM a check for $50 and they sent it to him.
Not Open Source, but invaluable when we were developing device drivers, TSRs, and other low-level software.
15th Level Programmer/5th Level Rocket Scientist
on
Dream Jobs of 2004
·
· Score: 1
OK, I've been a coder (asm, c, c++, perl) since 1976 and now I write software for NASA. I've worked on every bleeding edge trend for the last 20 years, have degrees in physics and math, and now am working on returning Man (and machine) to the Moon. Oh, and did I mention I wrote computer games for 5 years? And that I've been using Linux since 1994 and am root on 5 servers? Can you get any geekier than that? And oh yeah, I'm married. AND I'm a member of IEEE! How much karma do I get for all that? Because obviously I'm too damn busy to moderate...
Bottom line kiddies... this is exactly what I wanted to do in the 4th grade. So this is my dream job.
Slashdot Mirror
I fail to understand, in our modern society, why we retain this system of management-worker relations that is more appropriate to the mid-twentieth century. We rarely have strikes anymore (the ones that stand out are those by millionaire athletes, not laborers). We have effectively replicated the feudal system in modern times, with management operating as the king's court, complete with courtiers vying for executive favors. The best advice I can give my children (and this goes for more than just IT careers - doctors and lawyers play this game too) is to be mediocre at your job, but excel at playing the corporate system. Since government is likewise organized, and the corporate world wields so much power, this arrangement is not likely to change without a revolution - economic or otherwise.
If you are a certain type personality and find your work enjoyable, you will work all your waking hours. If your boss has to ask, the people being asked are either not that personality or the work is not enjoyable. (NOTE: working all your waking hours isn't really a good idea as it isn't sustainable and you are in danger of burning out.) If you are of that personality and your work is that enjoyable, be sure telecommunting options are available and work your own schedule. And get an ownership stake, you'll be even more motivated.
There are still pockets of brainy goodness out there. EVE Online is a great hardcore business simulator. Incidentally, it also happens to have combat -- but that's not necessarily central to the game.
If you haven't read Travels, you're missing a fascinating autobiography and vicarious insight into what it was like to be a young man in the 1970's. Crichton documents his search for the meaning of life among every New Age craze and pursuit of that decade, intermixed with stories of his many bedroom conquests. It will lead the religious reader to conclude that he was looking in the wrong place, but the secular reader will realize that his search never ends -- the hallmark of a true scientist.
Then again, there's the part about the bedroom conquests.
Sadly, I do not know what the equivalent is for *nix. dd or tar sort of does it, but robocopy has a mirror mode that dd lacks. A quick google search shows some platform-agnostic utilities: http://www.google.com/search?q=robocopy+unix
At those speeds, we don't have any materials that will survive impact with the ocean. In fact, the Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters, when they parachute gently into the ocean, sustain considerable damage to the aft end (nozzle & stuff IIRC). It's worth it to salvage the casings.
Yes, I am a rocket scientist (well, I used to be).
The single most productive computing device you can have (besides a non-cube or home office with a locking door) is a good keyboard. I use a Northgate OmniKey Ultra I have had for something like 13 years and my typing rate is triple what it is on a cheapass Dell OEM kbd. This Northgate keyboard is like an extension of my mind. When you are coding, you don't want to have to think about mechanics.
Oh, and you need a good editor. Unfortunately, there hasn't been one since Brief. (Yeah, I use vi now, I've tried emacs, and everything else is just ewwww.)
This is nothing new for Democrats. I lived through the mid-80's attempt by Tipper and Al Gore to seize control of the recording industry. I'm just shocked how few people remember this.
Politics is about money and control, it doesn't matter what the party is. If anarchists wound up with a majority (how would that work?!), they would turn into money grubbing control freaks.
Unfortunately, there is currently a titanium shortage which has been variously attributed to either increased demand from China (JapanMetalBulletin - your source for today's breaking non-ferrous metal news!) or the Iraq War (IIRC Car & Driver Jan '05 dead tree version reported Chevrolet discontinued use of Titanium in '06 Corvette mufflers due to Iraq War-induced shortages).
Let's hope the shortage doesn't return Nixon's head to office.
There are religious people (Christian and Jewish, probably others) who refuse to say the pledge because one is pledging allegiance to an inanimate object (the flag) which is symbolic of a ruling power and therefore may be considered idolatry. Many religious people extend the concept of idolatry to include the worship of anything other than God: money, power, possessions, etc., and idolatry is expressly prohibited by, for one, the Ten Commandments.
We are so indoctrinated from childhood by the public schools that few so-called religious people in the US ever consider this perspective, and will in fact be ready to haul you before a McCarthy hearing when they catch you NOT saying the pledge along with the rest of the sheep.
This is extremely freaky... I have not heard this song since childhood, but I start singing it to some co-workers not 3 days ago, and now here it is on Slashdot, a site I read constantly, in a totally unreleated article. And the article's topic involves making things happen with your mind!
This was covered in MIT's Technology Review at least a month ago, for those who actually pay for a dead tree subscription.
Good idea, but many ISPs (Comcast) don't support routers. I have called Comcast when their crappy connection goes up and down (happens about once per week these days for a whole day). The first thing they ask is if you have a router. If you say yes, they tell you they do not support routers, and refuse to help you any further. I asked them if they sell a router solution, and the answer is "no." Apparently their solution to the problem is for you to use WinXP and enable firewalling, or buy ZoneAlarm (which they also don't sell).
Comcast is a monopoly where I and many others live. Let's hope the Supremes force them to open their cable lines to competitors. The result of them forcing BellSouth to do so has resulted (finally) in my recent switch to an unlimited local and long distance provider for $45/month.
The episode airs here at 12:30 PM CST. The local news on the NBC channel broke the story at 12:00 AM; I also understand it was on the Regis & Kelly morning show. My wife, who doesn't read slashdot (and I certainly didn't spoil it for her a month and a half ago) called and had a fit. I wonder how many other people were pissed.
Spaceballs II: The Menacing Phantom
I have a 128MB Trek ThumbDrive purchased in December of 2002. Since then, it has been dropped in hot coffee twice, been through the washing machine three times, and left at a business site 500 miles from home and returned via FedEx. The plastic cap is shot on it; this was a bad design to start with. The keyring was attached to the point of greatest strain, the top of the pocket clip. The keyring and pocket clip therefore broke off together, making it impossible to carry except in one's pocket. Two tiny plastic doodads keep the cap snugly on the device, until after about 6 months one of the plastic tangs broke off. Breakoff of the other is imminent. But the company where I work has several of these, and no one has ever lost data on any of them, except the clown who "accidentally" reformatted his in MacOS 9. I think I saw these recently remarketed under the Maxtor brand name.
I work for a NASA contractor. Many NASA folk still use Macs, as do some of the older guys in my shop. They are all terrible at expressing themselves using the English language. Run-on-sentences run rampant. The comma, when used, is used incorrectly. The possessive form is used when plural should be used. IANAEM (English Major), I am simply an old-schooler who thinks the language should be used correctly.
Now go make fun of whatever mistakes I made in the above paragraph, but which my aged eyes could not catch!
IEEE Spectrum / IEEE Computer (I'm a programmer)
Physics Today (I have a physics degree)
Aviation Week (I work for NASA)
Car and Driver (I'm a gearhead)
MIT Technology Review (I'm a tech geek)
and...
Penthouse Forum! (for the... uh... articles!)
As a space engineer (really, I work for NASA) I feel compelled to point out that exploring space is an assload harder than exploring the ocean. Accordingly, we've explored far less of it than the oceans (as a percentage of total volume). [Space] technologies are stagnating because most of the NASA beauracracy is directed towards making existing technologies less efficient. We (NASA) really don't have any improvements for reaching really deep space areas and are still using technology pioneered in the 60s. So there! Our technology sucks a lot more than yours!
I remember in the late 80's seeing a bound, printed version of the IBM XT BIOS source code (ASM of course). It belonged to a friend and probably dated from the early 80's. IIRC, he sent IBM a check for $50 and they sent it to him.
Not Open Source, but invaluable when we were developing device drivers, TSRs, and other low-level software.
OK, I've been a coder (asm, c, c++, perl) since 1976 and now I write software for NASA. I've worked on every bleeding edge trend for the last 20 years, have degrees in physics and math, and now am working on returning Man (and machine) to the Moon. Oh, and did I mention I wrote computer games for 5 years? And that I've been using Linux since 1994 and am root on 5 servers? Can you get any geekier than that? And oh yeah, I'm married. AND I'm a member of IEEE! How much karma do I get for all that? Because obviously I'm too damn busy to moderate... Bottom line kiddies... this is exactly what I wanted to do in the 4th grade. So this is my dream job.