Do you have any marketable skills? I am a project manager for software development. I prefer to hire people who don't have computer science degrees. My current crew includes a physicist, chemist, criminal justice, oceaographer, etc. Your other skills in communications, planning, testing, and understanding the customer business are far more important than the computer science.
That said, $40K in our moderate-cost-of-living area is a decent starting salary. However, you'll pay a lot more for your benefits here so the pay is probably equivalent to $35K somewhere else.
Good luck in the job hunting.
And while you are despising project managers they are figuring how to outsource you. (No, I didn't take it personally. Many people just don't want to be project managers. And there are project managers who would be ****ing useless in any job.)
Use the same arguments against outsourcing as Bill Gates uses to promote M$ products - Total Cost of Ownership.
A local worker probably
Speaks the same dialect as the boss
Understands the unwritten requirements of the business (often by just seeing the business run)
Does not need a exhaustive set of requirements to start work thus savings hours of a local person's time
When the work is finished the source code and the development tools are still in house and available for the next modification to the system.
Yeah, I can find cheap coding labor and cut the cost of coding to 10% of the budget instead of 25% - and then I have to beef up the other sections and lose most of what I saved plus having my business processes in some other company's hands.
Having Windows patches available at the library might be nice. Display them prominently to show how inherently buggy the Windows design is. Then explain that Linux "just isn't that way."
How about a "turn off the RIAA" week? Suppose NO ONE bought ANY CDs. No legal downloads. No song swapping for an entire week.
I suppose the reason for turning off the TV is to protest the waste of time (Ads) and the crap that is televised. Stop buying recordings to send the same message to the RIAA.
Hell, for that week don't rent a movie. Don't go to the movies. Let the MPAA feel our wrath!
Then by stock in baby food and diaper manufacturers. 9 months from now there's going to be a baby boom. Oh, yeah, this is/. - nevermind.
I've worked at Hanford for 25+ years - inside the N-reactor (it was graphite moderated), in the tank farms where millions of gallons of radioactive waste are still stored, in Z-plant where they made Pu ingots, and you get used to working in a radioactive environment. You ignore what might happen if the radioactive material got loose. Would Spokane be abandoned? The Columbia polluted? The article gives a preview of a future I hope won't come to pass. Sometimes the scariest reporting is the most amateurish/heartfelt/honest.
So you are saying that Bill Gates owns history? We aren't allowed to see an historical picture unless we pay the owner?
I thinks it's time to shorten copyrights. Say, make a patent and a copyright last the same time....
Microsoft employs some very smart people...
A company can employ many smart people, ignore them, and appear to be run by idiots. Many times management is using something other than technical criteria to decide what to do - like finances, legal implications, massive ego, etc. What makes the Dilbert(R) comic strip so funny? That the smart people are managed by technically-clueless people.
Faulty logic in the first few points.
Point 1 - Updates are freely available, therefore more readily applied; Point 2 - New versions are available more often...; and Point 3 - You can install Linux as often as you want... In my experience administrative effort to modify / reboot the OS in a box has been the biggest problem. Scheduling a re-boot can and does take days unless there is a really monstrous problem - then it is only a 6-hour lead time.
And I agree that LINUX will have fewer security holes and faster patches - if the customer lets us put them in.
However those of us at home find that our internet response has gone to hell because we want to be using streaming audio and browsing e-Bay. Every wotkaround has a cost.
Check the way MSN search works:
linux & windows
returns "Results 1-15 of about 9025395 containing "windows & linux" "
The search engine is just picky about syntax in addition to the other comments about how MSN Search works.
Run their computers through a family firewall with logging. Let them know that every web site they visit will be recorded and, possibly, reviewed by Mom and Dad. Be prepared to explain why you went to a particular site, e.g., "Tokyo Topless", 411 times last week. Don't block any sites. Kids will explore in spite of any blocks you put up. Be there to answer questions when they do explore and find something that you find really repugnant.
Since most employers will have the same monitoring policy this gets your kids used to working for Big Brother.
The general public is being told about security flaws in the voting software. At the same time another Windows virus/exploit makes the news. M$ spreads FUD about how Linux has security holes. So why would anyone want to trust this black box, be it Linux, Windows(R), or Brand X powered? The benefit I see is lessening the time to count the votes. But the voting laws were established in a time of paper ballots when it was OK to take weeks to do the counting and months could pass before the winner took office.
The security protocols, at least here in Washington State, are set up for paper ballots. The police deliver the empty ballot boxes to the voting site; witnesses from each political party at the polling place verify that the box is empty,who signe in to vote, and that the ballot was placed in the box. The county sheriff picks up the ballot boxes and delivers them to the counting site. The ballots are available for a recount. An ordinary person can understand the security procedures and how many people have to be corrupted to alter the results. Not so with a black box from a vendor chosen by the party in power...
Saw me through 6 years of (pre-computer) college. Nice black ink, same width of line in every direction. Size 0 was the best for taking notes. Need to clean/fill them weekly - it became a Sunday night ritual.
Why? Because it's there!
Every product has some mystery (or proprietary stuff) that someone just has to explore. These guys are probably engineers in real life.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you have any marketable skills? I am a project manager for software development. I prefer to hire people who don't have computer science degrees. My current crew includes a physicist, chemist, criminal justice, oceaographer, etc. Your other skills in communications, planning, testing, and understanding the customer business are far more important than the computer science.
That said, $40K in our moderate-cost-of-living area is a decent starting salary. However, you'll pay a lot more for your benefits here so the pay is probably equivalent to $35K somewhere else.
Good luck in the job hunting.
And while you are despising project managers they are figuring how to outsource you. (No, I didn't take it personally. Many people just don't want to be project managers. And there are project managers who would be ****ing useless in any job.)
A local worker probably
Speaks the same dialect as the boss
Understands the unwritten requirements of the business (often by just seeing the business run)
Does not need a exhaustive set of requirements to start work thus savings hours of a local person's time
When the work is finished the source code and the development tools are still in house and available for the next modification to the system.
Yeah, I can find cheap coding labor and cut the cost of coding to 10% of the budget instead of 25% - and then I have to beef up the other sections and lose most of what I saved plus having my business processes in some other company's hands.
The latest nerd thing where I work is to have a USB pen drive clipped to your pocket protector.
Having Windows patches available at the library might be nice. Display them prominently to show how inherently buggy the Windows design is. Then explain that Linux "just isn't that way."
How about a "turn off the RIAA" week? Suppose NO ONE bought ANY CDs. No legal downloads. No song swapping for an entire week. /. - nevermind.
I suppose the reason for turning off the TV is to protest the waste of time (Ads) and the crap that is televised. Stop buying recordings to send the same message to the RIAA.
Hell, for that week don't rent a movie. Don't go to the movies. Let the MPAA feel our wrath!
Then by stock in baby food and diaper manufacturers. 9 months from now there's going to be a baby boom. Oh, yeah, this is
I've worked at Hanford for 25+ years - inside the N-reactor (it was graphite moderated), in the tank farms where millions of gallons of radioactive waste are still stored, in Z-plant where they made Pu ingots, and you get used to working in a radioactive environment. You ignore what might happen if the radioactive material got loose. Would Spokane be abandoned? The Columbia polluted? The article gives a preview of a future I hope won't come to pass.
Sometimes the scariest reporting is the most amateurish/heartfelt/honest.
So you are saying that Bill Gates owns history? We aren't allowed to see an historical picture unless we pay the owner?
I thinks it's time to shorten copyrights. Say, make a patent and a copyright last the same time....
Microsoft employs some very smart people...
A company can employ many smart people, ignore them, and appear to be run by idiots. Many times management is using something other than technical criteria to decide what to do - like finances, legal implications, massive ego, etc.
What makes the Dilbert(R) comic strip so funny? That the smart people are managed by technically-clueless people.
Faulty logic in the first few points.
Point 1 - Updates are freely available, therefore more readily applied; Point 2 - New versions are available more often...; and Point 3 - You can install Linux as often as you want... In my experience administrative effort to modify / reboot the OS in a box has been the biggest problem. Scheduling a re-boot can and does take days unless there is a really monstrous problem - then it is only a 6-hour lead time.
And I agree that LINUX will have fewer security holes and faster patches - if the customer lets us put them in.
However those of us at home find that our internet response has gone to hell because we want to be using streaming audio and browsing e-Bay. Every wotkaround has a cost.
Check the way MSN search works:
linux & windows
returns "Results 1-15 of about 9025395 containing "windows & linux" "
The search engine is just picky about syntax in addition to the other comments about how MSN Search works.
Your solution is a good one - paper trail for recounts, quick responses for the candidates and news media. You should patent the idea, quick.
Since most employers will have the same monitoring policy this gets your kids used to working for Big Brother.
The security protocols, at least here in Washington State, are set up for paper ballots. The police deliver the empty ballot boxes to the voting site; witnesses from each political party at the polling place verify that the box is empty,who signe in to vote, and that the ballot was placed in the box. The county sheriff picks up the ballot boxes and delivers them to the counting site. The ballots are available for a recount. An ordinary person can understand the security procedures and how many people have to be corrupted to alter the results. Not so with a black box from a vendor chosen by the party in power...
My spelling stands corrected. The RapidOgraph pen did NOT have a built-in spell checker.
Saw me through 6 years of (pre-computer) college. Nice black ink, same width of line in every direction. Size 0 was the best for taking notes. Need to clean/fill them weekly - it became a Sunday night ritual.
Why? Because it's there! Every product has some mystery (or proprietary stuff) that someone just has to explore. These guys are probably engineers in real life.