Got done installing
A proprietary binary
From a pretty jewel case
with holographic finery
As I was working
Blue screens were forming
Got code that's made for you and me?
This code is my code
This code is your code
From the application space
Down to protected mode
From the install's scripting
To the linker and loader
This code was made for you and me
For what it's worth, I'm a C++ guru with lots of experience in embedded systems. I would love to use Java on a regular basis.
It's part of my personal desire to get back into the applications arena. And it's because I like steady paychecks. And because I'd love to get more exposure to databases and Web services. (If you have tips on this, by all means share.)
I personally don't care very much if Java is a bit slower, more verbose, etc. Fact is, the language is cleaner than what I'm used to working with.
(To be fair, part of the prejudice results from debugging C++ code written by EEs and hardware geeks who have no clue about software construction. I would never have to work again if I had $1 for every time somebody created a data structure, saved it to NVRAM, and said, "Oooh, looky at my new database!" Uh huh. In your under-qualified dreams, my friend.)
In short, it would be nice to work with an OO language that doesn't have the more nefarious 1970s-era baggage of legacy C, and that (gasp!) supports threading and introspection cleanly. And one that employers are demanding...
This has got to be the most depressing/. post I've ever read. Seriously.
From the sound of it, lack of funds doesn't bother you that much anymore. (Not a bad thing IMO.) So let's not talk about money at all: Wiling away your time in retail has got to be one of the most pointless existences imaginable.
And I'm not trying to slam your grandfather, by the way. Chances are, in his day, his job had more meaning. Let me guess: he worked for a local business that was quite trusted, and his presence and helpful attitude was considered a genuine intangible asset to the business owner. In other words, he didn't work in a multinational corporation's big-box store (like you probably do).
My advice, take it or leave it: Milk your current position for what it should be: a stepping stone towards a career that gives your life meaning. (For example, social work pay is equally lousy, but putting lives back together has GOT to be more rewarding.) I'm older than you and juggling work and school myself, so I know it can be done IF you feel like getting off your ass again.
I've known people who've worked for companies that required employees to bring their own office supplies. But their situation sounds different from yours. In fact, you're looking at one of two scenarios AFAICT:
Venture capital is scarce for your startup, and no IPO or takeover is in sight. You're going to Staples on your own dime at that rate. It sucks, but it's tough for everyone in your organization. Save all of your receipts and figure out what to claim as a business expense on your taxes.
The CIO is a dick. Most likely, I think, and probably what you're seeing. Don't give out the cell phone number, no matter what. After that, avoid buying even a single paper clip. If your CIO throws a fit, remind him who's paying for the cell. Then start pounding the pavement.
I only found my current job by applying through every single method available. Networking groups, job boards, user groups, classified ads, you name it. Networking was far and away the most effective, however.
Think of this way: You have a full-time job right now. It's called "finding a job". You are hoping to market and sell a product known as Yourself(tm). How can you increase your efficiency, cut costs, and gain maximum exposure thru your marketing efforts?
we wouldn't even need cops if the 2 amendment wasn't keeply stampled on.
"keeply stampled?"
Oh dear...
If every citizen owned AND carried a firearm, there would be NO crime.
I disagree.
By "NO crime", I assume you mean "no violent crime" (as opposed to, say, white collar crime). If anything, I would argue that the incidence of violent crime would skyrocket. We couldn't assume that every American carried a weapon at all times, even if we mandated this by law (a law which, by the way, would be clearly unconstitutional).
As such, the temptation for some of our less intelligent citizens to settle scores via hot lead would be way to great. Your original argument assumes that everyone acts ethically and in their own best interest at all times -- and that, my friend, is a huge leap of faith.
and once one had a gun one would be given limited arrest privlages [sic] , essentially turing [sic] every american who own a gun into a police officer.
No thank you. While I don't care about gun ownership in general (wanna carry? whatever, enjoy yourself), this would turn America into a police state -- one where any citizen could be murdered on the whim of any one "loyal American". Give me a civil society based on the rule of law instead of arbitrary threats any day.
Not to sound like a raving protectionist, but I seriously think we'll need to cut back on the number of student visas for this reason -- not "terrorism" (whatever that means).
It used to be that the US was more than happy to import top research talent. America provided the incentives for foreign professionals to stay, to innovate, to accrue wealth, and to contribute to the tax base. (Ironically, one of Ronald Reagan's greatest contributions was a program of government spending -- on scientific and technological research during the Cold War. Quite a bit of technology was developed in academia and consequently spun off into the private sector.)
But lately, in US science and engineering schools, I not only see more foreign-born students, but also more who are headed back to their home countries once their education is complete. Essentially, the US is giving away scientific and technological prowess, which may very well be its most valuable asset. (And you can bet that the recent plunge into deficit spending will hobble America further in this regard as budget cutbacks for education kick in.)
On top of that, the number of premiere non-US universities is growing. The Indian Institute of Technology is one of the top educational facilities on the globe for technology and business management; it rivals MIT and Stanford these days. China, Russia, and Eastern Europe are not far behind either; business schools are proliferating in Poland like mad, for example.
In short, we don't understand the value of what we have at home, and the rest of the world no longer needs it as much anyway. Should we still bother?
And I was getting so psyched last night because I got my Via EPIA board loaded up with Fedora and XMMS, and could finally stream my favorite streaming audio site, albeit with Ethernet cable (Wi-Fi was on my project plan), and pipe it through my office stereo.
And this little beauty will plug right into the wall socket by my stereo for a lot less money, less hassle, etc.
More than a few of those centennarians in Russia.. are not centennarians. Quite a few lied about their ages to avoid military conscription during Stalin's day.
As for the Chinese, well, there may be a similar argument there, not sure.
The Guinness Book is loathe to accept records for longevity for the larger reason. Lack of reliable evidence makes claims to longevity ripe for fraud. Think of how unreliable record-keeping must have been in various parts of the world over 100 years ago. Or how many records have been destroyed by disaster or conflict over the years..
I must agree with other posters: the VIA boards are most definitely the shit. And the older ones, like the V-8000A, are a steal. I currently have Fedora Core v1 + XMMS on mine; to make a long story short, lots of fun..
HOWEVER, do note that some VIA processors will advertise themselves as "686-compliant", when in fact their instruction set is missing 1 vital MMX instruction (SSE, I think). So do make sure your binaries are built for the 586. You'll thank me in the morning.
So, ummm, why would anyone listen to that guy, again?
It's not a question of why. People simply do listen to him.
IMO you're absolutely correct: Enderle is just a Mickeysoft fanboy, and has more pull in the industry than he deserves. And he's demonstrated his ignorance many times (as you, dear parent poster, have duly noted).
Unfortunately, he has clout as a "technology consultant". Man, that's the job I want.. it must only take slightly more brain-power than being an entertainment executive (which itself requires only slightly more brain-power than being most furniture).
We're used to thinking of that state of affairs as though it will last forever, as though it were personally handed to us on a silver platter by God Himself. But it doesn't work that way.
Truer words were never written. The real cause of the rot is not the NEA, the public system, the liberals, or the conservatives. The blame lies with all of us.
I know, that sounds like a cop-out, like blaming "society" for the actions of convicted murderer. But, truth be told, we've had it so good for so long that we've come to expect the status quo. And we're not willing to invest in its maintenance, let alone its improvement.
How bad is it? Take taxation as just one example. Now, like it or not, facilities for the common good need funding. But the mantra "taxes bad" has been repeated so often in this country that many of us are not willing to pay even for the most basic services. Witness what happened in Alabama recently: The very conservative Christian Republican state governor proposed a referendum for a tax hike (how likely is that?). He pleaded for voter approval as the "Christian" thing to do. (And things are pretty bad down there. If you're involved in a road accident in a rural area, good luck: a state trooper, EMT, or other first responder might show up.. if at all.. in thirty minutes.) As you might have expected, the referendum was shot down in flames. Hey, "taxes bad", no matter what, right?
And that's just one example. You can trawl CNN or Fox or any other media source for examples of "sound bite" discussions and an utter lack of depth masquerading as intellectual thought.
In short, I think Americans have gotten lazier in one key respect: the ability to think critically. We're still hard working, but we've become so mentally lazy that it's impossible to discuss public policy in any meaningful way, let alone to Do The Right Things (tm), whatever those might be. Forget the emphasis on instant gratification and rampant consumerism; this is key respect in which our culture has failed us!
And we will get exactly what we deserve.
My family came here 150 years ago. Maybe I'll be the first one to emigrate if this continues..
Slashdot Mirror
Got done installing
A proprietary binary
From a pretty jewel case
with holographic finery
As I was working
Blue screens were forming
Got code that's made for you and me?
This code is my code
This code is your code
From the application space
Down to protected mode
From the install's scripting
To the linker and loader
This code was made for you and me
For what it's worth, I'm a C++ guru with lots of experience in embedded systems. I would love to use Java on a regular basis.
It's part of my personal desire to get back into the applications arena. And it's because I like steady paychecks. And because I'd love to get more exposure to databases and Web services. (If you have tips on this, by all means share.)
I personally don't care very much if Java is a bit slower, more verbose, etc. Fact is, the language is cleaner than what I'm used to working with.
(To be fair, part of the prejudice results from debugging C++ code written by EEs and hardware geeks who have no clue about software construction. I would never have to work again if I had $1 for every time somebody created a data structure, saved it to NVRAM, and said, "Oooh, looky at my new database!" Uh huh. In your under-qualified dreams, my friend.)
In short, it would be nice to work with an OO language that doesn't have the more nefarious 1970s-era baggage of legacy C, and that (gasp!) supports threading and introspection cleanly. And one that employers are demanding...
The unwashed masses had a glimpse of what life was like in the /. Subscriber's world.
I thought the /. subscribers were the unwashed masses. Smells that way from here..
This has got to be the most depressing /. post I've ever read. Seriously.
From the sound of it, lack of funds doesn't bother you that much anymore. (Not a bad thing IMO.) So let's not talk about money at all: Wiling away your time in retail has got to be one of the most pointless existences imaginable.
And I'm not trying to slam your grandfather, by the way. Chances are, in his day, his job had more meaning. Let me guess: he worked for a local business that was quite trusted, and his presence and helpful attitude was considered a genuine intangible asset to the business owner. In other words, he didn't work in a multinational corporation's big-box store (like you probably do).
My advice, take it or leave it: Milk your current position for what it should be: a stepping stone towards a career that gives your life meaning. (For example, social work pay is equally lousy, but putting lives back together has GOT to be more rewarding.) I'm older than you and juggling work and school myself, so I know it can be done IF you feel like getting off your ass again.
Rant over...
Just felt like bursting in song again after seeing the 3rd shot:
"What's that blue thing... doooo-ing here..."
Rubber ducky, you're the one..
you're the one who makes malfeasance fun..
Rubber ducky I'm particularly FOND of yoo-oo-oo...
Sorry, just felt like bursting out in song today.
Sorta. He had the chance to serve and passed it up.
Sorry for the "revisionist history" lesson, it had to be said.
(If you don't believe in the propaganda Hollywood churns out today, why should you believe anything from its past?)
I've known people who've worked for companies that required employees to bring their own office supplies. But their situation sounds different from yours. In fact, you're looking at one of two scenarios AFAICT:
After that, avoid buying even a single paper clip. If your CIO throws a fit, remind him who's paying for the cell. Then start pounding the pavement.
Yep, as an undergrad. And without a hard drive.
We had to install Minix from 9 5.25" floppies on a PC AT. (Really!)
My college wasn't keen on spending $$$ (or ccc) on the computer science department. Those $300 5MB hard drives were out of the question.
Gotta go. Lawrence Welk is on the tube..
Hear, hear!
I only found my current job by applying through every single method available. Networking groups, job boards, user groups, classified ads, you name it. Networking was far and away the most effective, however.
Think of this way: You have a full-time job right now. It's called "finding a job". You are hoping to market and sell a product known as Yourself(tm). How can you increase your efficiency, cut costs, and gain maximum exposure thru your marketing efforts?
"keeply stampled?"
Oh dear...
If every citizen owned AND carried a firearm, there would be NO crime.
I disagree.
By "NO crime", I assume you mean "no violent crime" (as opposed to, say, white collar crime). If anything, I would argue that the incidence of violent crime would skyrocket. We couldn't assume that every American carried a weapon at all times, even if we mandated this by law (a law which, by the way, would be clearly unconstitutional).
As such, the temptation for some of our less intelligent citizens to settle scores via hot lead would be way to great. Your original argument assumes that everyone acts ethically and in their own best interest at all times -- and that, my friend, is a huge leap of faith.
and once one had a gun one would be given limited arrest privlages [sic] , essentially turing [sic] every american who own a gun into a police officer.
No thank you. While I don't care about gun ownership in general (wanna carry? whatever, enjoy yourself), this would turn America into a police state -- one where any citizen could be murdered on the whim of any one "loyal American". Give me a civil society based on the rule of law instead of arbitrary threats any day.
Not to sound like a raving protectionist, but I seriously think we'll need to cut back on the number of student visas for this reason -- not "terrorism" (whatever that means).
It used to be that the US was more than happy to import top research talent. America provided the incentives for foreign professionals to stay, to innovate, to accrue wealth, and to contribute to the tax base. (Ironically, one of Ronald Reagan's greatest contributions was a program of government spending -- on scientific and technological research during the Cold War. Quite a bit of technology was developed in academia and consequently spun off into the private sector.)
But lately, in US science and engineering schools, I not only see more foreign-born students, but also more who are headed back to their home countries once their education is complete. Essentially, the US is giving away scientific and technological prowess, which may very well be its most valuable asset. (And you can bet that the recent plunge into deficit spending will hobble America further in this regard as budget cutbacks for education kick in.)
On top of that, the number of premiere non-US universities is growing. The Indian Institute of Technology is one of the top educational facilities on the globe for technology and business management; it rivals MIT and Stanford these days. China, Russia, and Eastern Europe are not far behind either; business schools are proliferating in Poland like mad, for example.
In short, we don't understand the value of what we have at home, and the rest of the world no longer needs it as much anyway. Should we still bother?
I can't take all of this irony. My current desktop system is a Cube running Panther.
The truly scary thing is that my desktop system and the aforementioned EPIA board use the same DRAM (PC-133). I am, like, such a fossil..
You live near Tampa Bay, don't you?
And I was getting so psyched last night because I got my Via EPIA board loaded up with Fedora and XMMS, and could finally stream my favorite streaming audio site, albeit with Ethernet cable (Wi-Fi was on my project plan), and pipe it through my office stereo.
And this little beauty will plug right into the wall socket by my stereo for a lot less money, less hassle, etc.
Anybody wanna buy an EPIA, slightly used?
(DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN......)
Hey Taco, can we have a new moderation category: "Sad" ?
More than a few of those centennarians in Russia.. are not centennarians. Quite a few lied about their ages to avoid military conscription during Stalin's day.
As for the Chinese, well, there may be a similar argument there, not sure.
The Guinness Book is loathe to accept records for longevity for the larger reason. Lack of reliable evidence makes claims to longevity ripe for fraud. Think of how unreliable record-keeping must have been in various parts of the world over 100 years ago. Or how many records have been destroyed by disaster or conflict over the years..
I must agree with other posters: the VIA boards are most definitely the shit. And the older ones, like the V-8000A, are a steal. I currently have Fedora Core v1 + XMMS on mine; to make a long story short, lots of fun..
HOWEVER, do note that some VIA processors will advertise themselves as "686-compliant", when in fact their instruction set is missing 1 vital MMX instruction (SSE, I think). So do make sure your binaries are built for the 586. You'll thank me in the morning.
Thanks for the info. Go Google..
Dvorak???
Computing's answer to Dick Vitale???
*shakes head* Dude...
It's not a question of why. People simply do listen to him.
IMO you're absolutely correct: Enderle is just a Mickeysoft fanboy, and has more pull in the industry than he deserves. And he's demonstrated his ignorance many times (as you, dear parent poster, have duly noted).
Unfortunately, he has clout as a "technology consultant". Man, that's the job I want.. it must only take slightly more brain-power than being an entertainment executive (which itself requires only slightly more brain-power than being most furniture).
We're used to thinking of that state of affairs as though it will last forever, as though it were personally handed to us on a silver platter by God Himself. But it doesn't work that way.
Truer words were never written. The real cause of the rot is not the NEA, the public system, the liberals, or the conservatives. The blame lies with all of us.
I know, that sounds like a cop-out, like blaming "society" for the actions of convicted murderer. But, truth be told, we've had it so good for so long that we've come to expect the status quo. And we're not willing to invest in its maintenance, let alone its improvement.
How bad is it? Take taxation as just one example. Now, like it or not, facilities for the common good need funding. But the mantra "taxes bad" has been repeated so often in this country that many of us are not willing to pay even for the most basic services. Witness what happened in Alabama recently: The very conservative Christian Republican state governor proposed a referendum for a tax hike (how likely is that?). He pleaded for voter approval as the "Christian" thing to do. (And things are pretty bad down there. If you're involved in a road accident in a rural area, good luck: a state trooper, EMT, or other first responder might show up.. if at all.. in thirty minutes.) As you might have expected, the referendum was shot down in flames. Hey, "taxes bad", no matter what, right?
And that's just one example. You can trawl CNN or Fox or any other media source for examples of "sound bite" discussions and an utter lack of depth masquerading as intellectual thought.
In short, I think Americans have gotten lazier in one key respect: the ability to think critically. We're still hard working, but we've become so mentally lazy that it's impossible to discuss public policy in any meaningful way, let alone to Do The Right Things (tm), whatever those might be. Forget the emphasis on instant gratification and rampant consumerism; this is key respect in which our culture has failed us!
And we will get exactly what we deserve.
My family came here 150 years ago. Maybe I'll be the first one to emigrate if this continues..
would there be mass protest?
No. Most Americans today, for the most part, are sheep.
That was easy...