It's 1996 and mp3's are becomming extremely popular. You can take an audio track and create a near exact copy and share it with the rest of the world. 5-10 years later recording companies start realizing that people prefer the free/available version over the expensive plastic one available at a local retailer.
Now, put your beliefs about IP aside and just focus on how big a problem this is for both sides (consumers and companies).
What happens in 2040 when someone can download a blueprint to a Ferrari, shoot the data to their replicator, and suddenly have an exact duplicate. Sure, the raw resources needed to do this are probably unavailable to most individuals, but what if it was possible. All physical materials/objects would have the same monetary value as air. Would there be any incentive to design new products? Companies would surely die out unless laws were passed, but then the technology would be hampered as digital technology is today.
I'll have to agree here, employers don't like jack-of-all-trades individuals. I was and still consider myself to be a jack-of-all-trades. I run several flavors of Linux and Windows at home with a variety of server apps to improve my administration and development skillset. In my first real job I touched on a variety of fields as well. However, upon applying for jobs, I created targeted resumes for several different job types.
Thus to an outsider, I appear to specialize in Web Development, or server administration, or technical support... whatever the job calls for (provided that I had experience in that field).
Ultimately, I dumped my JOATs job and went with an ASP developer job that paid a considerably larger sum. On the resume, I mentioned development in ASP/PHP and SQL, experience with IIS and Apache administration, knowledge of Cold Fusion, and knowledge of SQL Server administration (I had installed the trial version and used it at home). So... I ended up doing less and getting paid more.
Agreed. I'm 26 and we just had our first child a month ago. Before, work was a challenge (deadlines, numerous projects, etc.). Now, I find that work is a place of relaxation, where I can focus on something and get it done. I actually asked my boss for more work. When I'm at home, I deal with a sleep-deprived wife, a fussy baby (gas), etc.. I have maybe 15 minutes to do the things I want to do (eat, read e-mail). Work is a breeze in comparison.
Either way, I've always enjoyed the work. It never was really a bad kind of stress. It's just that now I know that there can be situations in life that make the stress of work pale in comparison.
This reminds me of my first job out of college. I was fine working for my salary without benefits. Then some temporary bean counter notices that I've been working w/o benefits at full-time for well over a year and she makes it her mission to fix things. Basically I'm told (without warning) that I could only work 19 hours a week and that I would need to apply for my job when they had it posted.
After a month I interviewed (4 hours of interviews for my own position) and I beat out someone else for my own job. The catch? They docked my pay 25% for the benefits (I was relying on my wife's benefits, $100 a month). My director said she's fix things in 3 months when the budget allowed for it. So, I basically played the waiting game and began applying for jobs after two months, and got an offer just in time to find out that she wasn't going to fix things.
It gave me the greatest sense of accomplishment to tell her that I was moving on, especially since she was going to counter-offer but I told her not to bother (I was aware of her budget and she could only afford half of the increase I was getting). Ahhh... memories...:)
While I agree that the amount made doesn't necessarily influence one's happiness, I must disagree that higher paying jobs necessarily mean more work.
I worked at a major university for 4 years, 2.5 of which were part-time while I was a student. I got paid a good student salary and all I did was fix computers. I got a full-time at the university and I was doing everything from ASP development to Exchange administration. Granted, I was self-taught and I did things poorly, but it was alot of work and I got paid pretty badly ($42K w/o benefits, $35K with).
Now I'm working for a Fortune 500 and I'm making about 33% more (graduated in Fall 02). The benefits are better, the work is MUCH easier, I'm learning much more, I enjoy my work more, I work with others like myself, and I get paid more. I put in more hours at my previous job too.
My advice to college folks is to get work experience if you don't have a 4.0 GPA at a recognized school (the GPA can help you alot, but if it's below 3 you NEED work experience). Work in a field you enjoy with people you like. Ignore salary unless you really NEED a certain amount (like if you have a child, etc.). Don't be too picky with your first job, it's a stepping stone to your career and you can recover from pretty much anything.
Good luck grads!
Reply with bogus data
on
Paid To Spam
·
· Score: 1
When I have time, I visit the sites being advertised and fill out their online forms with bogus data. My theory is that this activity burdens the spammer/scammer and if enough people do it, the benefit of spamming is outweighed by the cost of sorting out the good data from the bad.
How much would it cost someone in the Philippines to live within a 30 minute drive of their workplace? Is it possible that it would be 10 times less than the US?
That doesn't answer how one gets to the interview. It's difficult to convey enthusiasm and creativity on a resume, much less to compete with hundreds of other resumes that actually meet the criteria. In this market, the interview is not the problem, rather it is getting to the interview itself.
If you take some time to learn a skill and practice with it, even if it is for the sole purpose of learning said skill, then it is entirely appropriate to put "some experience with X" on your resume. If in the interview your interviewer decides to question your experience with skill X, then be utterly honest.
Tell me about your experience with skill X...
Several weeks/months ago I decided that skill X is an emerging technology and I have been spent many hours at home both learning and practicing skill X. While I have not had the opportunity to put my knowledge of skill X to use at work, I certainly believe that I am capable of using skill X in the workplace.
Thus you have clarified the ambigious expression "some experience with" and your employer can decide if your creativity and enthusiasm make up for your lack of professional experience with skill X.
My current job, which is going up for grabs in a few weeks, has ASP and MS SQL as a requirement, but PHP and MySQL would also be beneficial if the person who replaces me is interested in switching from IIS to Apache. As for ColdFusion, if someone can't learn that in 30 minutes then they have issues...:)
I ran into this at a certain major employer. My brother-in-law works there and his department needed an entry-level IT person (I was entry level in that I graduated at the time, but I had experience). The hiring manager saw my resume and wanted me, but my resume never got past the HR drone in another state and thus he couldn't even interview me.
The interviewer is merely seeking a way to seperate you from the other candidates. If you mess up and say "well, I tend to yell at coworkers when they don't agree with me" then they easily weeded you out. If you answer positively like "I tend to take on too much work because I want control over the end result" then it will reflect well on you (of course, that is assuming that they want an egotistical control freak type, which some do). If you say "I don't have a weakness" then you are FOS. If you say "Well, I tend to be a picky eater" then they'll laugh at you which could be good or bad, they might think you're dodging the question, or they might think that you are too flaky to pick out a work related response. These questions have two purposes... to see how well you think on your feet and to see if the answers indicate that you are a good personality type for them.
I've read this in job search books, if for some reason your correspondence stands out (like if you said something cute like "I'll even fetch coffee for you"), then it's possible that one recruiting staff will mention it to another person from another organization who will also recognize it. Voila, your name will now be associated with a desperate/generic job seeker.
True, the completely generic ones or the ones with slight spelling/gramatical errors will be weeded out without a second thought (and thus they won't recognize your name for the wrong reasons).
Re:Another day, another batch of applications
on
Joel Rants About Resumes
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
If the job requires some Perl and some Perl is not on your resume, you will be weeded out. There will be applicants with some Perl and you won't be one of them. You might get by if it is a preferred skill, but they would just post it again if they really wanted that skill.
The real solution is to learn some Perl before you apply, even if it is only a few hours of experience. With me I kept seeing jobs requiring applicants with experience in X. I ended up setting up my own little IT department at home and I spent some time learning how to use X. If you want to be honest on your resume, say proficient in A, B, and C and then some experience with X, Y, and Z. Everybody, even the recruiter, knows that some experience could be a 1 hour class or a year of working experience. Hopefully they'll choose to clear it up in the interview (be honest if they ask).
It's the generic resume/cover letter that is often the result of such a job search that can hurt you. If you can custom craft resumes and cover letters for 100 positions a month, then go for it. If you have a single "catch-all" resume and cover letter, then the recruiting staff will weed you out with the other 500 generic applications they receive.
Personally, I created 5 resumes and cover letters for specific positions, and then I looked for those positions online and slightly altered my resumes and cover letters to compensate for the differences. So I avoided the generic look, but I also avoided spending 2 hours for each posting creating custom content. The result? I got an inverview within 10 attempts at applying, and I got the job from that single interview. This in comparison to my previous attempt to change jobs back in September when I sent out bulk/generic stuff and/or custom materials that I often made mistakes on b/c I spent hours on them.
My advice: Stand out, don't be generic because 80% of the other applicants probably copied that same template from Resumes for Dummies. Don't make mistakes, this will get you weeded out instantly. Give the employer a reason to consider you, present evidence on your correspondence that you can handle the job duties detailed in the job posting.
Gotta love the slideshow functionality. A good one for PC is ACDSee. You can have multiple instances so you can view $x slideshows at once, it's great for... um... yeah, you know.:D
To start:
1.) Bad software that nobody wants
2.) Better software that people want
3.) Equivalent software that competes
On top of that, a programmer doesn't have any chance of striking it big by making slight modifications to the work of others. Reinventing the whell can gain you praise, recognition, etc. (unless your product sucks in which case you get ignored). On top of that you typically learn more and improve more from starting over.
So, from a "how does it benefit me" standpoint, starting from scratch presents a better future than tweaking. And before you blame the individual/organziation that made the leap, look at the people who are buying into the new version (i.e. the product wouldn't be a problem if people didn't gravitate towards it).
I did alot of research into converting an LCD from a laptop to a monitor. This website has kits/components for sale and forums that discuss all kinds of weird electronics issues (including LCDs). Best of luck!
Re:when we're finished patting ourselves on the ba
on
2003: Year of Apache
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· Score: 1
Our webserver is used by more Forbes/Fortune 500 companies and is used by more secure websites. Apaches numbers are only high because a lot of amateurs use it.
I imagine that's true, and I'm even interviewing with a Fortune 500 company this week that's a Microsoft shop. There are two possibilities...
1.) They are currently MS but are switching soon. My resume was about 50/50 with half MS and half Linux experience. It's possible that they are interested in my Linux experience because the job position mentioned "new systems" and the company doesn't have any ASP.NET stuff on their site (if course, they could be moving to.NET).
2.) Another argument is that the same thing could be said about old mainframe systems, COBAL, DB2, punchcards, and any other "used to be the shiznat but better alternatives replaced them" technology.
In the end, why are "we" trying to find arguments anyway? Does it really matter if more people like Mac over PC, Linux over Microsoft, Apache over IIS, Honda over Ford, Apples over Oranges? As long as the alternatives continue existing, I'm a happy camper. I was sad to see the demise of alternative browsers (Netscape), but I would have also been saddened to see MSIE die completely. Why can't we champion the improvement of every option, rather than the promotion of a specific option? Would the world be better off if we actually lost a given option (if Microsoft/Ford/Apples/Macs actually disappeared)?
The Apache 2.0 installation documentation (http://www.php.net) suggests "Do not use Apache 2.0 and PHP in a production environment neither on Unix nor on Windows." The reasoning I found, after researching this on Google, had to do with a lack of testing and the fact that something could go wrong because Apache 2.0 is multithreaded (or something like that). So, if you have two versions of an application, both of which meet your needs, you pick the one that has been proven in the field (in this case, Apache 1.3.29). I probably could have used Apache 2.0 without incident, but there was really no reason to risk it.
That caught me off-guard too... originally I was wanting to go to the most recent version, but then I noticed that most people were on 1.3.29 because it worked and 2.0 might present problems with things like PHP. I was a victim of the tendency to want the most recent version just because it was the most recent version... not because it had features/improvements that would benefit me or my organization. Good lesson to learn... I hope I remember it in the future.:)
Re:The platform they did the calculations on
on
2003: Year of Apache
·
· Score: 1
Are you referring to the processor flaw? That was in the original Pentium (I had a Pentium 60MHz that crashed when playing X-Wing and gave faulty values for some of my engineering homework, that MUST be why I gave up on engineering... heh).
Actually, I think they're saying it's a 33% decline of Microsoft's actual numbers... like if you had 9 and went down to 6, that's a 33% decline. Although in the realm of things it might mean your market share dropped less (i.e. if there were a total of 15 and you dropped from 9 to 6, that's a 20% drop). I wondered briefly about their numbers too but you just have to examine what they're trying to say.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course all good Windows-using Slashdotters visit Windows Update regularly and have a firewall, don't you?
Should read "Of course, all good Slashdotters patch their systems and have a firewall, don't you?".
Running something other than Windows is not a good reason to ignore security.
It's 1996 and mp3's are becomming extremely popular. You can take an audio track and create a near exact copy and share it with the rest of the world. 5-10 years later recording companies start realizing that people prefer the free/available version over the expensive plastic one available at a local retailer.
Now, put your beliefs about IP aside and just focus on how big a problem this is for both sides (consumers and companies).
What happens in 2040 when someone can download a blueprint to a Ferrari, shoot the data to their replicator, and suddenly have an exact duplicate. Sure, the raw resources needed to do this are probably unavailable to most individuals, but what if it was possible. All physical materials/objects would have the same monetary value as air. Would there be any incentive to design new products? Companies would surely die out unless laws were passed, but then the technology would be hampered as digital technology is today.
I'll have to agree here, employers don't like jack-of-all-trades individuals. I was and still consider myself to be a jack-of-all-trades. I run several flavors of Linux and Windows at home with a variety of server apps to improve my administration and development skillset. In my first real job I touched on a variety of fields as well. However, upon applying for jobs, I created targeted resumes for several different job types.
Thus to an outsider, I appear to specialize in Web Development, or server administration, or technical support... whatever the job calls for (provided that I had experience in that field).
Ultimately, I dumped my JOATs job and went with an ASP developer job that paid a considerably larger sum. On the resume, I mentioned development in ASP/PHP and SQL, experience with IIS and Apache administration, knowledge of Cold Fusion, and knowledge of SQL Server administration (I had installed the trial version and used it at home). So... I ended up doing less and getting paid more.
Agreed. I'm 26 and we just had our first child a month ago. Before, work was a challenge (deadlines, numerous projects, etc.). Now, I find that work is a place of relaxation, where I can focus on something and get it done. I actually asked my boss for more work. When I'm at home, I deal with a sleep-deprived wife, a fussy baby (gas), etc.. I have maybe 15 minutes to do the things I want to do (eat, read e-mail). Work is a breeze in comparison. Either way, I've always enjoyed the work. It never was really a bad kind of stress. It's just that now I know that there can be situations in life that make the stress of work pale in comparison.
This reminds me of my first job out of college. I was fine working for my salary without benefits. Then some temporary bean counter notices that I've been working w/o benefits at full-time for well over a year and she makes it her mission to fix things. Basically I'm told (without warning) that I could only work 19 hours a week and that I would need to apply for my job when they had it posted.
:)
After a month I interviewed (4 hours of interviews for my own position) and I beat out someone else for my own job. The catch? They docked my pay 25% for the benefits (I was relying on my wife's benefits, $100 a month). My director said she's fix things in 3 months when the budget allowed for it. So, I basically played the waiting game and began applying for jobs after two months, and got an offer just in time to find out that she wasn't going to fix things.
It gave me the greatest sense of accomplishment to tell her that I was moving on, especially since she was going to counter-offer but I told her not to bother (I was aware of her budget and she could only afford half of the increase I was getting). Ahhh... memories...
While I agree that the amount made doesn't necessarily influence one's happiness, I must disagree that higher paying jobs necessarily mean more work. I worked at a major university for 4 years, 2.5 of which were part-time while I was a student. I got paid a good student salary and all I did was fix computers. I got a full-time at the university and I was doing everything from ASP development to Exchange administration. Granted, I was self-taught and I did things poorly, but it was alot of work and I got paid pretty badly ($42K w/o benefits, $35K with). Now I'm working for a Fortune 500 and I'm making about 33% more (graduated in Fall 02). The benefits are better, the work is MUCH easier, I'm learning much more, I enjoy my work more, I work with others like myself, and I get paid more. I put in more hours at my previous job too. My advice to college folks is to get work experience if you don't have a 4.0 GPA at a recognized school (the GPA can help you alot, but if it's below 3 you NEED work experience). Work in a field you enjoy with people you like. Ignore salary unless you really NEED a certain amount (like if you have a child, etc.). Don't be too picky with your first job, it's a stepping stone to your career and you can recover from pretty much anything. Good luck grads!
When I have time, I visit the sites being advertised and fill out their online forms with bogus data. My theory is that this activity burdens the spammer/scammer and if enough people do it, the benefit of spamming is outweighed by the cost of sorting out the good data from the bad.
How much would it cost someone in the Philippines to live within a 30 minute drive of their workplace? Is it possible that it would be 10 times less than the US?
So when is the Encyclopedic Publishing Association of America going to begin issuing subpoenas???
That doesn't answer how one gets to the interview. It's difficult to convey enthusiasm and creativity on a resume, much less to compete with hundreds of other resumes that actually meet the criteria. In this market, the interview is not the problem, rather it is getting to the interview itself.
If you take some time to learn a skill and practice with it, even if it is for the sole purpose of learning said skill, then it is entirely appropriate to put "some experience with X" on your resume. If in the interview your interviewer decides to question your experience with skill X, then be utterly honest.
Tell me about your experience with skill X...
Several weeks/months ago I decided that skill X is an emerging technology and I have been spent many hours at home both learning and practicing skill X. While I have not had the opportunity to put my knowledge of skill X to use at work, I certainly believe that I am capable of using skill X in the workplace.
Thus you have clarified the ambigious expression "some experience with" and your employer can decide if your creativity and enthusiasm make up for your lack of professional experience with skill X.
My current job, which is going up for grabs in a few weeks, has ASP and MS SQL as a requirement, but PHP and MySQL would also be beneficial if the person who replaces me is interested in switching from IIS to Apache. As for ColdFusion, if someone can't learn that in 30 minutes then they have issues... :)
I ran into this at a certain major employer. My brother-in-law works there and his department needed an entry-level IT person (I was entry level in that I graduated at the time, but I had experience). The hiring manager saw my resume and wanted me, but my resume never got past the HR drone in another state and thus he couldn't even interview me.
The interviewer is merely seeking a way to seperate you from the other candidates. If you mess up and say "well, I tend to yell at coworkers when they don't agree with me" then they easily weeded you out. If you answer positively like "I tend to take on too much work because I want control over the end result" then it will reflect well on you (of course, that is assuming that they want an egotistical control freak type, which some do). If you say "I don't have a weakness" then you are FOS. If you say "Well, I tend to be a picky eater" then they'll laugh at you which could be good or bad, they might think you're dodging the question, or they might think that you are too flaky to pick out a work related response. These questions have two purposes... to see how well you think on your feet and to see if the answers indicate that you are a good personality type for them.
I've read this in job search books, if for some reason your correspondence stands out (like if you said something cute like "I'll even fetch coffee for you"), then it's possible that one recruiting staff will mention it to another person from another organization who will also recognize it. Voila, your name will now be associated with a desperate/generic job seeker.
True, the completely generic ones or the ones with slight spelling/gramatical errors will be weeded out without a second thought (and thus they won't recognize your name for the wrong reasons).
If the job requires some Perl and some Perl is not on your resume, you will be weeded out. There will be applicants with some Perl and you won't be one of them. You might get by if it is a preferred skill, but they would just post it again if they really wanted that skill.
The real solution is to learn some Perl before you apply, even if it is only a few hours of experience. With me I kept seeing jobs requiring applicants with experience in X. I ended up setting up my own little IT department at home and I spent some time learning how to use X. If you want to be honest on your resume, say proficient in A, B, and C and then some experience with X, Y, and Z. Everybody, even the recruiter, knows that some experience could be a 1 hour class or a year of working experience. Hopefully they'll choose to clear it up in the interview (be honest if they ask).
It's the generic resume/cover letter that is often the result of such a job search that can hurt you. If you can custom craft resumes and cover letters for 100 positions a month, then go for it. If you have a single "catch-all" resume and cover letter, then the recruiting staff will weed you out with the other 500 generic applications they receive.
Personally, I created 5 resumes and cover letters for specific positions, and then I looked for those positions online and slightly altered my resumes and cover letters to compensate for the differences. So I avoided the generic look, but I also avoided spending 2 hours for each posting creating custom content. The result? I got an inverview within 10 attempts at applying, and I got the job from that single interview. This in comparison to my previous attempt to change jobs back in September when I sent out bulk/generic stuff and/or custom materials that I often made mistakes on b/c I spent hours on them.
My advice: Stand out, don't be generic because 80% of the other applicants probably copied that same template from Resumes for Dummies. Don't make mistakes, this will get you weeded out instantly. Give the employer a reason to consider you, present evidence on your correspondence that you can handle the job duties detailed in the job posting.
Best of luck to all!
Gotta love the slideshow functionality. A good one for PC is ACDSee. You can have multiple instances so you can view $x slideshows at once, it's great for... um... yeah, you know. :D
Reinventing the wheel can result in many things:
To start:
1.) Bad software that nobody wants
2.) Better software that people want
3.) Equivalent software that competes
On top of that, a programmer doesn't have any chance of striking it big by making slight modifications to the work of others. Reinventing the whell can gain you praise, recognition, etc. (unless your product sucks in which case you get ignored). On top of that you typically learn more and improve more from starting over.
So, from a "how does it benefit me" standpoint, starting from scratch presents a better future than tweaking. And before you blame the individual/organziation that made the leap, look at the people who are buying into the new version (i.e. the product wouldn't be a problem if people didn't gravitate towards it).
I did alot of research into converting an LCD from a laptop to a monitor. This website has kits/components for sale and forums that discuss all kinds of weird electronics issues (including LCDs). Best of luck!
Our webserver is used by more Forbes/Fortune 500 companies and is used by more secure websites. Apaches numbers are only high because a lot of amateurs use it.
.NET).
I imagine that's true, and I'm even interviewing with a Fortune 500 company this week that's a Microsoft shop. There are two possibilities...
1.) They are currently MS but are switching soon. My resume was about 50/50 with half MS and half Linux experience. It's possible that they are interested in my Linux experience because the job position mentioned "new systems" and the company doesn't have any ASP.NET stuff on their site (if course, they could be moving to
2.) Another argument is that the same thing could be said about old mainframe systems, COBAL, DB2, punchcards, and any other "used to be the shiznat but better alternatives replaced them" technology.
In the end, why are "we" trying to find arguments anyway? Does it really matter if more people like Mac over PC, Linux over Microsoft, Apache over IIS, Honda over Ford, Apples over Oranges? As long as the alternatives continue existing, I'm a happy camper. I was sad to see the demise of alternative browsers (Netscape), but I would have also been saddened to see MSIE die completely. Why can't we champion the improvement of every option, rather than the promotion of a specific option? Would the world be better off if we actually lost a given option (if Microsoft/Ford/Apples/Macs actually disappeared)?
And we all know the hard drive terminology is racist and sexist too...
master/slave
male/female
See about 2 posts down ("I love Apache")...
The Apache 2.0 installation documentation (http://www.php.net) suggests "Do not use Apache 2.0 and PHP in a production environment neither on Unix nor on Windows." The reasoning I found, after researching this on Google, had to do with a lack of testing and the fact that something could go wrong because Apache 2.0 is multithreaded (or something like that). So, if you have two versions of an application, both of which meet your needs, you pick the one that has been proven in the field (in this case, Apache 1.3.29). I probably could have used Apache 2.0 without incident, but there was really no reason to risk it.
That caught me off-guard too... originally I was wanting to go to the most recent version, but then I noticed that most people were on 1.3.29 because it worked and 2.0 might present problems with things like PHP. I was a victim of the tendency to want the most recent version just because it was the most recent version... not because it had features/improvements that would benefit me or my organization. Good lesson to learn... I hope I remember it in the future. :)
Are you referring to the processor flaw? That was in the original Pentium (I had a Pentium 60MHz that crashed when playing X-Wing and gave faulty values for some of my engineering homework, that MUST be why I gave up on engineering... heh).
Actually, I think they're saying it's a 33% decline of Microsoft's actual numbers... like if you had 9 and went down to 6, that's a 33% decline. Although in the realm of things it might mean your market share dropped less (i.e. if there were a total of 15 and you dropped from 9 to 6, that's a 20% drop). I wondered briefly about their numbers too but you just have to examine what they're trying to say.