Some of the first software that I ever released for public consumption is still on mirror.ac.uk from it's time as HENSA back in the early 90's. So my earliest experience of giving and receiving software for free is intrinsically linked to this site. Cue mist & fade up nostalgia in 3..2..1...
As of this time the JISC don't appear to have announced a replacement, but nostaligia aside, the mirror.ac.uk site discusses termination of mirrors, so I can't help wonder why all data & contracts are not being transferred to the new provider, as would be done if a business were to change hands. This is, after all, a publically funded service and one could reasonably expect it to be run in the same way as a government office - the inland revenue records don't get shredded just because a different company has the contract to run the systems; cue mist, cue daydreaming.
Without such agreements in place we risk the loss of some of the earliest pieces of intellectual property and prior art that were put in the public domain.
So I wonder... is anything in mirror.ac.uk going to be lost for good when it closes?
Hooking up a speech recognition system to this would be very cool - and basically the opposite of "Commercials on demand" i.e.
Commercial #1: "Do you long for silky, shiny, dandruff free hair?"
Me: "No."
Commercial #2: "Hello! Are you looking for a low-cost loan with n"....
Me: "Fuck No!"
Commercial #3: "Agent Provocateur..."
Me: "hellOOo."
Result - I never see commercials 1+2 again.
That would be an improvement for me, I always answer when the adverts ask me questions but they never listen.
The advertisers would also benefit hugely in knowing which of their ads are good, and which are annoying - they pay a lot of money for the production and airtime and sacking the guy who thought a cheery blue talking phone would be a welcome visitor into my home would probably increase their revenue be several percentage points.
I like commercials, I can recite hundreds of them, especially the ones from the early '80s when Star Wars was first broadcast, but producing a commercial is an art; writing, casting, direction, post production - there's a lot of very capable people work in the field, but the rule is the same as with computers, garbage in, garbage out - if the commisioning company can't see past it's tourettes-inducing happy chatty blue phone that's just gurgling with delight at the prospect of selling me a loan, then we'll keep getting those adverts.
If, however, we have the opportunity to watch based on artistic merit, we could be about to see a far more interesting advertising world.
Wow! That's a pretty far-out goal, dude! Like if Linux could possibly, somehow, one day (as inconceivable as this may sound) be as good as a Mac?
Err. No. Mac's don't suck, but they're no Nirvana either.
One of the more important goals of any user interface should be to model the tasks a user needs to complete in such a way that the gulfs of execution and evaluation are minimised.
That might be achieved through the desktop metaphor, a 3D model of a book, an immersive graph of interconnected nodes, or all kinds of things that you, I and thousands of user-centered engineers have not conceived yet; however, what I can guarantee you, is that to be limited by what "the Mac" is, would be indefatigably hatstand.
Since many superheroes are transmogrified in similar circumstances to these, I've settled myself among a cornucopia of low voltage devices in the hope that the DNA "damage" gives me telepathic powers.
Most folks seem to have commented on the resume, but not on the interview, so I'll mention that.
Cutting through all the crap, interviews come down to just three things.
1. Do you want it? 2. Can you do it? 3. Will you fit in?
To re-introduce some of the crap...
1. Do you want it? An employer wants to be sure you're actually interested and willing to commit to the company.
2. Can you do it? They need to know that you are capable of doing the job they have in mind. Note that the job spec and the real job are two different things, so part of the interview process is where you help them by explaining what they're looking for (i.e. describe the job in terms of your skills and experience).
3. Will you fit in? This is THE important one... bear in mind that assuming they've gone to the expense of getting you in for an interview you've pretty much convinced them of 1 and 2 already.
In the long term, your integration will affect your motivation to stay, your capability to do the work, and you'll also affect these factors in the other employees.
So, if the interviewer doesn't like who you appear to be, you can pretty much forget it.
However, if you've had some bum luck with employers, it just doesn't matter. If you're pissed offdisappointed because of your redundancy, it's OK to show it: it illustrates that you'd committed to a job but the management, or the board, or the economy, or an infinite number of factors outside of your control screwed things up for you; and yet, you're still fighting, covered in crap and smelling terrible, but you've not given up.
Now *that*, for an employer is a jigsaw-completing quality - determination and spirit are invaluable. Show this at an interview and your redundancy just got you your next job.
Well, in Europe at least, there's evidence that such cost-driven fear can be overcome, viz the mobile phone market. The cost of such hardware, often several hundred Euros, is offset by the revenue it generates. Consequently we see a surprisingly high number of children carrying (and not being particularly gentle with) small digital devices of high value.
Slashdot Mirror
Some of the first software that I ever released for public consumption is still on mirror.ac.uk from it's time as HENSA back in the early 90's. So my earliest experience of giving and receiving software for free is intrinsically linked to this site. Cue mist & fade up nostalgia in 3..2..1...
As of this time the JISC don't appear to have announced a replacement, but nostaligia aside, the mirror.ac.uk site discusses termination of mirrors, so I can't help wonder why all data & contracts are not being transferred to the new provider, as would be done if a business were to change hands. This is, after all, a publically funded service and one could reasonably expect it to be run in the same way as a government office - the inland revenue records don't get shredded just because a different company has the contract to run the systems; cue mist, cue daydreaming.
Without such agreements in place we risk the loss of some of the earliest pieces of intellectual property and prior art that were put in the public domain.
So I wonder... is anything in mirror.ac.uk going to be lost for good when it closes?
Hooking up a speech recognition system to this would be very cool - and basically the opposite of "Commercials on demand" i.e.
Commercial #1: "Do you long for silky, shiny, dandruff free hair?"
Me: "No."
Commercial #2: "Hello! Are you looking for a low-cost loan with n"....
Me: "Fuck No!"
Commercial #3: "Agent Provocateur ..."
Me: "hellOOo."
Result - I never see commercials 1+2 again.
That would be an improvement for me, I always answer when the adverts ask me questions but they never listen.
The advertisers would also benefit hugely in knowing which of their ads are good, and which are annoying - they pay a lot of money for the production and airtime and sacking the guy who thought a cheery blue talking phone would be a welcome visitor into my home would probably increase their revenue be several percentage points.
I like commercials, I can recite hundreds of them, especially the ones from the early '80s when Star Wars was first broadcast, but producing a commercial is an art; writing, casting, direction, post production - there's a lot of very capable people work in the field, but the rule is the same as with computers, garbage in, garbage out - if the commisioning company can't see past it's tourettes-inducing happy chatty blue phone that's just gurgling with delight at the prospect of selling me a loan, then we'll keep getting those adverts.
If, however, we have the opportunity to watch based on artistic merit, we could be about to see a far more interesting advertising world.
Wow! That's a pretty far-out goal, dude! Like if Linux could possibly, somehow, one day (as inconceivable as this may sound) be as good as a Mac?
Err. No. Mac's don't suck, but they're no Nirvana either.
One of the more important goals of any user interface should be to model the tasks a user needs to complete in such a way that the gulfs of execution and evaluation are minimised.
That might be achieved through the desktop metaphor, a 3D model of a book, an immersive graph of interconnected nodes, or all kinds of things that you, I and thousands of user-centered engineers have not conceived yet; however, what I can guarantee you, is that to be limited by what "the Mac" is, would be indefatigably hatstand.
Since many superheroes are transmogrified in similar circumstances to these, I've settled myself among a cornucopia of low voltage devices in the hope that the DNA "damage" gives me telepathic powers.
If it works, I won't need to type the rest of...
Most folks seem to have commented on the resume, but not on the interview, so I'll mention that.
Cutting through all the crap, interviews come down to just three things.
1. Do you want it?
2. Can you do it?
3. Will you fit in?
To re-introduce some of the crap...
1. Do you want it?
An employer wants to be sure you're actually interested and willing to commit to the company.
2. Can you do it?
They need to know that you are capable of doing the job they have in mind. Note that the job spec and the real job are two different things, so part of the interview process is where you help them by explaining what they're looking for (i.e. describe the job in terms of your skills and experience).
3. Will you fit in?
This is THE important one... bear in mind that assuming they've gone to the expense of getting you in for an interview you've pretty much convinced them of 1 and 2 already.
In the long term, your integration will affect your motivation to stay, your capability to do the work, and you'll also affect these factors in the other employees.
So, if the interviewer doesn't like who you appear to be, you can pretty much forget it.
However, if you've had some bum luck with employers, it just doesn't matter. If you're pissed offdisappointed because of your redundancy, it's OK to show it: it illustrates that you'd committed to a job but the management, or the board, or the economy, or an infinite number of factors outside of your control screwed things up for you; and yet, you're still fighting, covered in crap and smelling terrible, but you've not given up.
Now *that*, for an employer is a jigsaw-completing quality - determination and spirit are invaluable. Show this at an interview and your redundancy just got you your next job.
Well, in Europe at least, there's evidence that such cost-driven fear can be overcome, viz the mobile phone market. The cost of such hardware, often several hundred Euros, is offset by the revenue it generates. Consequently we see a surprisingly high number of children carrying (and not being particularly gentle with) small digital devices of high value.