You must be an atypical Office user - capable of both learning new skills and adapting to changing situations. I've known many with opposable thumbs you have a HUGE jump on. I wish you the greatest of success and many offspring interested in removing some of the idiots I've worked with from the evolutionary ladder.
One question that hasn't been raised yet is that this is an alternative kind of currency, which has traditionally been quashed by the US Government. One wonders how long it will survive.
Microsoft certs a dime a dozen? I've never known anyone who was an MCSD and/or MCAD.... I'm headed in that direction because I don't have other hard qualifications and I've gotten stuck in QA due to a leave of absence for Philosophy degree / TEFL stuff / etc..... Is it a complete waste to go get MS credentials, or is there something better out there that I could pursue?
And no, I don't have the time or patience to get an aptly-named BS in computer science.
O'Rourke's work has always seemed to me self-centered and sophomoric, so I don't think you should be bragging about him. Brag about Rand instead, because..... her.... work.... is..... completely... um. Yeah, doh.
Well, you still have the Illuminatus trilogy to..... hrm. Yeah, looking tough.
The worst part, I guess, would be waking up on Sunday morning with my harddrive reformatted and unable to get into my machine until a: I did three or four shots of tequila, or b: I reinstalled everything a second time.
Dvorak's columns are generally disappointing on all fronts. I suggest no longer reading them when they show up on the/. homepage, and just coming in to comment the same to whoever started whatever dreck he's output for the day. His only claim to fame should be not having anything to do with whoever invented a more efficient keyboard layout.
Doctors? Lawyers? Try business majors. Someone smart enough to major in CS and willing to do the work might as well just get an MBA, and start out making 30-50 percent more than they would with the technical degree.
Add to that the fact that a CS degree does NOT imply a career in development, and development isn't what it used to be, and you have a bunch of people thinking hard about something completely different.
Data entry, spreadsheets, and drawings probably require little outside influence. However, if you get into something like content creation and your user is only able to see what is done within the company you are inviting stagnation. Stagnation is bad. Overall, I would rather be a trusted employee among other trusted employees... Doing anything else implies that an employee is very little more than a child. The "They're just drones" argument and the, "People paid to know how to do something should know how to do it" arguments don't really hold much water with me - if someone is good enough at their task to do it while distracted by external browsing, and still meet quotas, who cares? And if a techie doesn't know about the latest virus symptoms, well, good luck to you.
What's sad about this entire thing is that as far as I'm concerned, you should be responsible for doing your job. This obnoxious little griper has managed to make it illegal to consider him responsible; they were probably looking for a way to fire him regardless, and that was just the domino that set everything else off. Noone owes you a job. If you're retired in chair, you deserve to be retired manually.
Only really true if you have a pretty close-ended job. Anyone I know in IT uses the internet all the time for technical help. Research, the same. You can lock down people doing tech support or many other call-center type things, but if they ever need extra info, they're going to need internet to produce at maximum effectiveness.
Combined with the competitive market I've heard India has for IT employees, I would think this was just the equivalent of another 'perk.' I've heard that recent grads and experienced people in India are in extremely high demand.
Thus you get a market like the IT market in the US during the dot-com boom. Anyone else remember the office pool table and high levels of tolerance for goofing around with a bit of fondness and regret?
When your employees have a high tendency to start leaving when you yell at them, and you have a hard time replacing them, you start treating them well.
Biased or not, this particular blog entry is one of those entries that defines blogging - pointless, small in both approach and impact, boring, and overhyped.
Around paragraph 3, I thought, "Go write some code or fill out a 27B stroke 6 somewhere." The amazing thing about modern society is that it hasn't produced more great art with more people, it's just produced more junk to get in the way.
The summary is biased, the articles are biased, the only people interested in this particular fight are those who follow successful internet people around like pasty white guy paparazzi. Give it a rest.
1: Opera would be making just as much money if they had as many users as Firefox. Google just pays Adsense cash out. Also, there would be MONSTROUS vetching if they paid all those bloggers but not the Mozilla Foundation. Opera can only blame themselves for being less popular than Firefox.
2: Opera Software a tiny 230-person company? Uh................. Compared to Mozilla, which was / is freeware? Who measures the size of a freeware company? I mean, the Mozilla Foundation might have the biggest bottom line in bloody history for their type of company, at this point. They produce a software product, and give it away. That's it. All their sales are incidental. People can even pick google, yahoo, amazon, creative commons, and yahoo in the little search box (probably more, if extended).
This is a weird era of software. Make something useful enough and you will make money incidentally due to Google Adsense. Weeeeeird.
And, of course, there are downsides. My bet is that the Firefox team gets decadent and corrupt and doesn't do anything and fades into the background as IE X comes out or something. I hope not, but that is a real possibility - Microsoft often wins through complacency.
It's the principle of the thing - e-mail is free, virtually instant communication to anyone and everyone within the network. Monkeying about with this is just muddying the waters and letting someone toss a jar full of leeches in. Not good.
Then get a bluetooth headset. In about five years I hope to not have to type at all. If you have good enough voice recognition, you'll be able to run a computer from a headset and refer to it in your hand.
For someone who is productive working for a small company, suddenly being pulled into working for a large one like Microsoft is either what they always wanted or a sudden and unpleasant jump into a pot of boiling water. The people with large stakes in the company are happy because the money is awesome, but things are definitively different when you switch types of organization.
Occasionally software providers who depend on Microsoft don't die horrible deaths, they receive a fate worse than death and end up with their company bought and working for them.
If you love computer programming, there will generally be a job for you somewhere because you will be decently good at it. (at the least) If you are in it for the money, the games, or the chicks, go get an accounting degree. Programming is more of a calling / obsession than a skill, and I wish I had it. Those with the calling are often extremely valuable and sought after... It just takes a while. If you love what you are studying and love to code and love to build, keep it up. If you just want the money, well, get a finance degree...
And remember, your degree will always be worth more than a philosophy degree. Meditate upon that for a few minutes then go do something useful, like all non-liberal arts majors do.
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You must be an atypical Office user - capable of both learning new skills and adapting to changing situations. I've known many with opposable thumbs you have a HUGE jump on. I wish you the greatest of success and many offspring interested in removing some of the idiots I've worked with from the evolutionary ladder.
Ah, for mod points.
One question that hasn't been raised yet is that this is an alternative kind of currency, which has traditionally been quashed by the US Government. One wonders how long it will survive.
Interesting. Guess I'll be in demand once I get the C# cert I'm working on. Good things.
Doh.
Microsoft certs a dime a dozen? I've never known anyone who was an MCSD and/or MCAD.... I'm headed in that direction because I don't have other hard qualifications and I've gotten stuck in QA due to a leave of absence for Philosophy degree / TEFL stuff / etc..... Is it a complete waste to go get MS credentials, or is there something better out there that I could pursue?
And no, I don't have the time or patience to get an aptly-named BS in computer science.
O'Rourke's work has always seemed to me self-centered and sophomoric, so I don't think you should be bragging about him. Brag about Rand instead, because..... her.... work.... is..... completely... um. Yeah, doh.
Well, you still have the Illuminatus trilogy to..... hrm. Yeah, looking tough.
I'm not married.
Thanks though.
Both comments had valid points. Unfortunately, both comments were slightly biased. Unfortunately, both comments also got personal.
This is the Internet, kids. Everyone... plays... nice.... Oh. Yeah.
Troll on.
The worst part, I guess, would be waking up on Sunday morning with my harddrive reformatted and unable to get into my machine until a: I did three or four shots of tequila, or b: I reinstalled everything a second time.
I'd love it if my computer wouldn't let me unlock it to write drunken e-mail at three AM.
Dvorak's columns are generally disappointing on all fronts. I suggest no longer reading them when they show up on the /. homepage, and just coming in to comment the same to whoever started whatever dreck he's output for the day. His only claim to fame should be not having anything to do with whoever invented a more efficient keyboard layout.
Doctors? Lawyers? Try business majors. Someone smart enough to major in CS and willing to do the work might as well just get an MBA, and start out making 30-50 percent more than they would with the technical degree.
Add to that the fact that a CS degree does NOT imply a career in development, and development isn't what it used to be, and you have a bunch of people thinking hard about something completely different.
Data entry, spreadsheets, and drawings probably require little outside influence. However, if you get into something like content creation and your user is only able to see what is done within the company you are inviting stagnation. Stagnation is bad. Overall, I would rather be a trusted employee among other trusted employees... Doing anything else implies that an employee is very little more than a child. The "They're just drones" argument and the, "People paid to know how to do something should know how to do it" arguments don't really hold much water with me - if someone is good enough at their task to do it while distracted by external browsing, and still meet quotas, who cares? And if a techie doesn't know about the latest virus symptoms, well, good luck to you.
What's sad about this entire thing is that as far as I'm concerned, you should be responsible for doing your job. This obnoxious little griper has managed to make it illegal to consider him responsible; they were probably looking for a way to fire him regardless, and that was just the domino that set everything else off. Noone owes you a job. If you're retired in chair, you deserve to be retired manually.
Only really true if you have a pretty close-ended job. Anyone I know in IT uses the internet all the time for technical help. Research, the same. You can lock down people doing tech support or many other call-center type things, but if they ever need extra info, they're going to need internet to produce at maximum effectiveness.
Woot. My patience doing boring freaking QA for a bank while working on a Mech. Engineering degree is going to pay off. Ah, the joys.
Agreed on the PR stunt.
Combined with the competitive market I've heard India has for IT employees, I would think this was just the equivalent of another 'perk.' I've heard that recent grads and experienced people in India are in extremely high demand.
Thus you get a market like the IT market in the US during the dot-com boom. Anyone else remember the office pool table and high levels of tolerance for goofing around with a bit of fondness and regret?
When your employees have a high tendency to start leaving when you yell at them, and you have a hard time replacing them, you start treating them well.
Only 52 in Portland, but that's just the Starbucks branded ones. I know they own at least one of the other chains in town.
Biased or not, this particular blog entry is one of those entries that defines blogging - pointless, small in both approach and impact, boring, and overhyped.
Around paragraph 3, I thought, "Go write some code or fill out a 27B stroke 6 somewhere." The amazing thing about modern society is that it hasn't produced more great art with more people, it's just produced more junk to get in the way.
The summary is biased, the articles are biased, the only people interested in this particular fight are those who follow successful internet people around like pasty white guy paparazzi. Give it a rest.
A few problems with your argument:
1: Opera would be making just as much money if they had as many users as Firefox. Google just pays Adsense cash out. Also, there would be MONSTROUS vetching if they paid all those bloggers but not the Mozilla Foundation. Opera can only blame themselves for being less popular than Firefox.
2: Opera Software a tiny 230-person company? Uh................. Compared to Mozilla, which was / is freeware? Who measures the size of a freeware company? I mean, the Mozilla Foundation might have the biggest bottom line in bloody history for their type of company, at this point. They produce a software product, and give it away. That's it. All their sales are incidental. People can even pick google, yahoo, amazon, creative commons, and yahoo in the little search box (probably more, if extended).
This is a weird era of software. Make something useful enough and you will make money incidentally due to Google Adsense. Weeeeeird.
And, of course, there are downsides. My bet is that the Firefox team gets decadent and corrupt and doesn't do anything and fades into the background as IE X comes out or something. I hope not, but that is a real possibility - Microsoft often wins through complacency.
I'm druknet and going to bed now.
Spent my mod points, and I'm sad. Noone deserved them more than you.
It's the principle of the thing - e-mail is free, virtually instant communication to anyone and everyone within the network. Monkeying about with this is just muddying the waters and letting someone toss a jar full of leeches in. Not good.
Then get a bluetooth headset. In about five years I hope to not have to type at all. If you have good enough voice recognition, you'll be able to run a computer from a headset and refer to it in your hand.
For someone who is productive working for a small company, suddenly being pulled into working for a large one like Microsoft is either what they always wanted or a sudden and unpleasant jump into a pot of boiling water. The people with large stakes in the company are happy because the money is awesome, but things are definitively different when you switch types of organization.
Occasionally software providers who depend on Microsoft don't die horrible deaths, they receive a fate worse than death and end up with their company bought and working for them.
I have a philosophy degree, and I'm an insensitive clod.
If you love computer programming, there will generally be a job for you somewhere because you will be decently good at it. (at the least) If you are in it for the money, the games, or the chicks, go get an accounting degree. Programming is more of a calling / obsession than a skill, and I wish I had it. Those with the calling are often extremely valuable and sought after... It just takes a while. If you love what you are studying and love to code and love to build, keep it up. If you just want the money, well, get a finance degree...
And remember, your degree will always be worth more than a philosophy degree. Meditate upon that for a few minutes then go do something useful, like all non-liberal arts majors do.