I'm sure there are sysadmin positions where you can screw up and cost people their lives. What do you know about Emergency 911? Do you think they have degrees?
Can't speak to Skateboards, but I could probably replace my car (truck) with my motorcycle. I ride it 95% of the time and only take the truck when there's ice on the road (I could work from home when there's ice) or when I have to get something a bit bigger, which doesn't happen all that often (for $20 I can rent Home Depot's truck for an hour if necessary).
I have a truck because it's more convenient than dealing with renting a Home Depot truck, more convenient than making a couple of trips on the bike when shopping (although with a little planning, I could just make one trip).
But that's just me which is the only person I can speak for:)
A bunch of tubes (or padded cubes) where the passenger slides in, a hatch is closed behind them and soothing music is piped in to help them sleep (or gas, whichever works best).
First thing I did with my Wordpress site was check the 'net for suggestions on how to secure the site. I've blocked off the admin access areas through the httpd.conf file restricting it to my work and home IPs. I occasionally have to update the IP when my home dhcp address changes but it works fine for what I'm doing.
I'm sure upper management was aware of the contents of the contract but when we asked if we could see it so we knew what we were responsible for, we were told we couldn't have access to it. There was a lot of "what happens if we do this" where we'd discover bits and pieces here and there, like reverse engineering a piece of software.
When I was working as a contractor, the contract was so poor, we didn't always know what we were supposed to be doing. Heck, we weren't allowed to read the contract. They came to us after the contract started and needed a list of servers and all third-party software that was installed. Since no one could read the contract, we didn't know why this information was needed and management couldn't (or wouldn't) tell us. So some admins included things like Apache and Cold Fusion where others provided a list of all software that wasn't included with the OS (like expect). And hardware replacement was interesting. For example, the contracting company was responsible for providing new servers if the server couldn't perform its function any more but the agency was responsible for providing a new server if they wanted something that wasn't able to function on an existing server. So lots of push from the contracting company to improve performance and keep systems going when they should have been replaced years before.
The contracting company brought in a troubleshooter because were were in the red contractually. He reviewed the contract and recalled when it was first put out for bid. He'd reviewed it and recommended the company don't bid on the contract because it was so poorly written. He did get us back in the green but there was a lot of hard feelings with the agency in part because we weren't able to read the contract so didn't know that we had a process we were supposed to follow when we changed the functionality of servers (so contractually we were supposed to upgrade Apache on a server that had been converted to a DNS or Mail server a couple of years previously).
Awww, but I like my hats. I have a cowboy hat (Stetson) I bought in DC, two bush type hats (one from the amusement park in Virginia and one from Yellowstone; the crushable types), a fedora I bought for a couple hundred in New York, an artists type hat with a big yellow feather, plus an assortment of baseball hats that I don't wear because I don't like baseball hats.
Being old has its benefits. I don't care what folks think about my hats. I'll wear them anyway:)
Really? When was this? I always thought it was the women who had all the power. The force behind the men. In recent years, women have been able to seize the power directly instead of through a man. Now the men are being left behind. It won't happen overnight, but it is happening.
I'm in a cubical but with 3 monitors and 2 laptops in my peripheral vision. But with my tinnitus, I can only sort of hear the guys around me.
Worse, there are three extraverts on the team, one of them new. Fortunately he's changed from just asking me questions to round-robining the team (I _want_ him to ask questions but it's just a bit overwhelming if I can't concentrate on work). One of the other extraverts is currently out due to the floods so it's been nicely quiet in the farm:)
But most of the time, my tinnitus can keep me from being overwhelmed. It lets me concentrate on the *wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* and ignore (now that I'm listening), the woman talking about connecting to a database to a couple of guys the next row over, the air conditioning unit above the desk in front of me, my coworker talking with the FE, and the bursts of laughter, coughing, shuffling of papers, etc that are just at the edge of the tinnitus *wheeeeeeeeee*
It's true. Until a couple of years ago when I attended an Insights class provided by work, I thought Introvert == Loner. Since I'm somewhat social, I couldn't understand how I could be an 18/20 Introvert and be social. When it was explained that it just meant I gain energy by being away from people, it made a lot more sense. I don't mind going around and chatting, but I get tired and even a headache when I associate with folks more than a few hours or if I'm in a crowded room (like a game store during a Magic tournament:) ).
I thought that's what the new design was doing. Getting rid of the haters since it looks like most folks will be heading off to something else. Maybe snagging the current code and setting up a SlashDot site of their own. Hey, slashdot.jp is still on the old code. Google Translate it and follow it instead:)
The main page refresh doesn't bother me but when I'm in the comments, refreshing moves the comment I was reading down further. When I get back to the tab from whatever I'm doing, I'm reading a comment I've most likely already read and I need to scroll down until I find where I left off.
So yea, disable the in comments refresh but leave the main page refresh (IMHO of course).
Nah, the Palm had its own style for entering in text. Combine drawing in the first few letters until autocomplete has identified the word, tap ahead with the finger and keep on going.
In general it works acceptably. When entering facebook posts or sending an occasional, non-urgent e-mail. But when I'm typing in something longer (like a post on a forum), it will frustrate me to no end. I am a touch typist. I'm not looking at my keyboard even now. I can see when I type errors as I go and backspace when I make an error. On a virtual keyboard, I have to look at the keyboard and see what I'm typing, letter by letter. I can do that but it slows my train of thought and I'll get a little lost/behind on what I'm thinking until I stop and go back to check for errors.
I saw some kid yesterday talking to his mom about thimble like finger caps so he can type in the air. I'd love to be able to adapt to something like that. I think I'd rather come up with my own alphabet (or steal Palm's) and "type" on my thighs or table. I could probably draw faster than try and touch type on a virtual keyboard (similar to Swype I guess).
[John]
Re:"We believed we knew better what customers need
on
How BlackBerry Blew It
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
I received a Blackberry when I started at the company I currently work at, 6 years ago. At the time, I had a bog standard flip phone. Didn't even have a camera (wasn't allowed in the building at IBM). After using the Blackberry for a few years, I was interested in getting one for myself in part for internet access. Unfortunately the web browsing was horrible. Hard to navigate and difficult to manage my bookmarks. That's what had me reluctant to pull the trigger. I heard about the iPhone and finally bought a pair (Valentine's Day special) of 3GS iPhones. 32 Gig for me, 16 Gig for my wife (now ex and we're stuck on the same plan until she upgrades from a iPhone 4). Even though I hated the "keyboard", I still used it and kept using it up until a few weeks ago when I replaced it with an iPhone 5 (not the c or s, just the 5). Plus I'll replace the broken screen on the 3GS and use it to play music (iPhones don't bounce well even on carpet:) ).
At work we've replaced the Blackberries with a choice of iPhone or Android. I turned mine in for an Android based RAZR. It's a bit different than the iPhone. Still has a keyboard problem (I've ordered a keyboard case for my iPhone) which frustrates me to no end at times. I find I'd prefer to have the Blackberry back for work e-mail since I _must_ respond to work but I can take a mental break when the iPhone keyboard bothers me. While the internet experience was sub-par, I at least get my e-mail quickly and at the same time I get my SMS pages from servers. Heck, right now my Android doesn't even work at the office. Not the Android's fault. The carrier doesn't have an appropriate antenna/repeater in the building so I have to go outside to get e-mails. Which is not really a problem since I have my desktop (a MacBook Pro:) ). The battery power of a Blackberry far exceeds the Android or iPhone though. I only had to plug my Blackberry in once a week where the work Android has to be plugged in every night. The new iPhone can last a few days but the 3GS was down to a daily charge too.
So experience wise, I still prefer the iPhone for personal stuff and I'd really like the Blackberry back for work.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure there are sysadmin positions where you can screw up and cost people their lives. What do you know about Emergency 911? Do you think they have degrees?
[John]
Can't speak to Skateboards, but I could probably replace my car (truck) with my motorcycle. I ride it 95% of the time and only take the truck when there's ice on the road (I could work from home when there's ice) or when I have to get something a bit bigger, which doesn't happen all that often (for $20 I can rent Home Depot's truck for an hour if necessary).
I have a truck because it's more convenient than dealing with renting a Home Depot truck, more convenient than making a couple of trips on the bike when shopping (although with a little planning, I could just make one trip).
But that's just me which is the only person I can speak for :)
[John]
A bunch of tubes (or padded cubes) where the passenger slides in, a hatch is closed behind them and soothing music is piped in to help them sleep (or gas, whichever works best).
[John]
First thing I did with my Wordpress site was check the 'net for suggestions on how to secure the site. I've blocked off the admin access areas through the httpd.conf file restricting it to my work and home IPs. I occasionally have to update the IP when my home dhcp address changes but it works fine for what I'm doing.
[John]
Girls are verbal in their bullying. Guys are physical.
I was bullied in school as well and getting into a fight certainly stopped it. But girls actually physically fighting was pretty rare.
[John]
So, you're going to bed now then?
(It was pretty dumb though.)
[John]
Sure. We'll create a gigantic square block with a QR code on it so the aliens can scan it and immediately understand. :)
[John]
I'm sure upper management was aware of the contents of the contract but when we asked if we could see it so we knew what we were responsible for, we were told we couldn't have access to it. There was a lot of "what happens if we do this" where we'd discover bits and pieces here and there, like reverse engineering a piece of software.
[John]
When I was working as a contractor, the contract was so poor, we didn't always know what we were supposed to be doing. Heck, we weren't allowed to read the contract. They came to us after the contract started and needed a list of servers and all third-party software that was installed. Since no one could read the contract, we didn't know why this information was needed and management couldn't (or wouldn't) tell us. So some admins included things like Apache and Cold Fusion where others provided a list of all software that wasn't included with the OS (like expect). And hardware replacement was interesting. For example, the contracting company was responsible for providing new servers if the server couldn't perform its function any more but the agency was responsible for providing a new server if they wanted something that wasn't able to function on an existing server. So lots of push from the contracting company to improve performance and keep systems going when they should have been replaced years before.
The contracting company brought in a troubleshooter because were were in the red contractually. He reviewed the contract and recalled when it was first put out for bid. He'd reviewed it and recommended the company don't bid on the contract because it was so poorly written. He did get us back in the green but there was a lot of hard feelings with the agency in part because we weren't able to read the contract so didn't know that we had a process we were supposed to follow when we changed the functionality of servers (so contractually we were supposed to upgrade Apache on a server that had been converted to a DNS or Mail server a couple of years previously).
[John]
Based on my time in school, summer vacation was to save money so they didn't have to cool down the schools. :)
[John]
Have you seen the proposed new site layout? Oh yea, something's gone horribly wrong.
[John]
Awww, but I like my hats. I have a cowboy hat (Stetson) I bought in DC, two bush type hats (one from the amusement park in Virginia and one from Yellowstone; the crushable types), a fedora I bought for a couple hundred in New York, an artists type hat with a big yellow feather, plus an assortment of baseball hats that I don't wear because I don't like baseball hats.
Being old has its benefits. I don't care what folks think about my hats. I'll wear them anyway :)
[John]
There's your first problem. It doesn't go in a chick's belly.
[John]
You really want to see a picture of me naked?
You are sick and twisted. :D
[John]
Really? When was this? I always thought it was the women who had all the power. The force behind the men. In recent years, women have been able to seize the power directly instead of through a man. Now the men are being left behind. It won't happen overnight, but it is happening.
[John]
I'm in a cubical but with 3 monitors and 2 laptops in my peripheral vision. But with my tinnitus, I can only sort of hear the guys around me.
Worse, there are three extraverts on the team, one of them new. Fortunately he's changed from just asking me questions to round-robining the team (I _want_ him to ask questions but it's just a bit overwhelming if I can't concentrate on work). One of the other extraverts is currently out due to the floods so it's been nicely quiet in the farm :)
But most of the time, my tinnitus can keep me from being overwhelmed. It lets me concentrate on the *wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* and ignore (now that I'm listening), the woman talking about connecting to a database to a couple of guys the next row over, the air conditioning unit above the desk in front of me, my coworker talking with the FE, and the bursts of laughter, coughing, shuffling of papers, etc that are just at the edge of the tinnitus *wheeeeeeeeee*
[John]
We were considered essential during the last furlough (95/96) (Unix admin at NASA).
[John]
Actually sysadmins are considered essential and come to work anyway. At least we had to when I worked at NASA back in 95/96 during the furlough.
[John]
It's true. Until a couple of years ago when I attended an Insights class provided by work, I thought Introvert == Loner. Since I'm somewhat social, I couldn't understand how I could be an 18/20 Introvert and be social. When it was explained that it just meant I gain energy by being away from people, it made a lot more sense. I don't mind going around and chatting, but I get tired and even a headache when I associate with folks more than a few hours or if I'm in a crowded room (like a game store during a Magic tournament :) ).
[John]
Like the new Slashdot you mean?
[John]
I thought that's what the new design was doing. Getting rid of the haters since it looks like most folks will be heading off to something else. Maybe snagging the current code and setting up a SlashDot site of their own. Hey, slashdot.jp is still on the old code. Google Translate it and follow it instead :)
[John]
The main page refresh doesn't bother me but when I'm in the comments, refreshing moves the comment I was reading down further. When I get back to the tab from whatever I'm doing, I'm reading a comment I've most likely already read and I need to scroll down until I find where I left off.
So yea, disable the in comments refresh but leave the main page refresh (IMHO of course).
[John]
Nah, the Palm had its own style for entering in text. Combine drawing in the first few letters until autocomplete has identified the word, tap ahead with the finger and keep on going.
[John]
In general it works acceptably. When entering facebook posts or sending an occasional, non-urgent e-mail. But when I'm typing in something longer (like a post on a forum), it will frustrate me to no end. I am a touch typist. I'm not looking at my keyboard even now. I can see when I type errors as I go and backspace when I make an error. On a virtual keyboard, I have to look at the keyboard and see what I'm typing, letter by letter. I can do that but it slows my train of thought and I'll get a little lost/behind on what I'm thinking until I stop and go back to check for errors.
I saw some kid yesterday talking to his mom about thimble like finger caps so he can type in the air. I'd love to be able to adapt to something like that. I think I'd rather come up with my own alphabet (or steal Palm's) and "type" on my thighs or table. I could probably draw faster than try and touch type on a virtual keyboard (similar to Swype I guess).
[John]
I received a Blackberry when I started at the company I currently work at, 6 years ago. At the time, I had a bog standard flip phone. Didn't even have a camera (wasn't allowed in the building at IBM). After using the Blackberry for a few years, I was interested in getting one for myself in part for internet access. Unfortunately the web browsing was horrible. Hard to navigate and difficult to manage my bookmarks. That's what had me reluctant to pull the trigger. I heard about the iPhone and finally bought a pair (Valentine's Day special) of 3GS iPhones. 32 Gig for me, 16 Gig for my wife (now ex and we're stuck on the same plan until she upgrades from a iPhone 4). Even though I hated the "keyboard", I still used it and kept using it up until a few weeks ago when I replaced it with an iPhone 5 (not the c or s, just the 5). Plus I'll replace the broken screen on the 3GS and use it to play music (iPhones don't bounce well even on carpet :) ).
At work we've replaced the Blackberries with a choice of iPhone or Android. I turned mine in for an Android based RAZR. It's a bit different than the iPhone. Still has a keyboard problem (I've ordered a keyboard case for my iPhone) which frustrates me to no end at times. I find I'd prefer to have the Blackberry back for work e-mail since I _must_ respond to work but I can take a mental break when the iPhone keyboard bothers me. While the internet experience was sub-par, I at least get my e-mail quickly and at the same time I get my SMS pages from servers. Heck, right now my Android doesn't even work at the office. Not the Android's fault. The carrier doesn't have an appropriate antenna/repeater in the building so I have to go outside to get e-mails. Which is not really a problem since I have my desktop (a MacBook Pro :) ). The battery power of a Blackberry far exceeds the Android or iPhone though. I only had to plug my Blackberry in once a week where the work Android has to be plugged in every night. The new iPhone can last a few days but the 3GS was down to a daily charge too.
So experience wise, I still prefer the iPhone for personal stuff and I'd really like the Blackberry back for work.
[John]