This is a tad unrelated, but I've got a big problem with polls on newspaper sites. For instance, CNN may run an article on how the war in Iraq was a bad thing (a viewpoint article), then, have a poll attached to it with the Q: "Do you think the war in Iraq was bad?" Yes/No... of course, someone who just read an opinion article about how bad it was will probably vote the way the article did.
Just irritating. Anyone else seen stuff like this and wish to add to it?
I do this all the time also with Netflix, and have actually gotten nice emails from their service people about it.
I had RedOctane for a month once (Game Rentals), and I got yelled at in an email and asked to pay extra because they were having to pay more for postage. I immediately called them up and made them cancel my account and pro-rate the rest of the month back.
RedOctane's game rental service is terrible.. not just because of that, but when I signed up.. the first 20 games I put on the queue were all "long wait".. in the 3 weeks I had it, the only games I could get where ones that were like a year+ old.
> BB has a larger library plus their instore stock.
As a person who has used both Netflix's and BB's unlimited rental stuff, I have to disagree with this. My local BB is pretty big, and boasts about 3,000 different titles. Whereas Netflix has something along the lines of 25,000 diff titles.. couple that with the fact that when you rent with BB, you can only use that one BB store, whereas if your current Netflix doesn't have that glamourous BOllywood flick you desire to see so much (that BB doesn't even know exists), they can add a day or so to shipping and get it from another warehouse.
I have converted to BB now, solely because I've now seen the back 10 years of stuff I've always wanted to see, and only get new releases now. Netflix is awesome for obscure/older stuff, whereas BB is more convenient for the brand new or recent big flicks.
I work for a start-up that has a team of 4 developers. In skill order and value to the company, they are:
Developer A - Architect, super-badass.. self-taught, went to MIT for 1 year but has no college degree. 2nd Youngest of bunch. (late 20s)
Developer B - Me, Senior Developer, pretty good all-around coder and designer, went to college for 2 years but didn't do much with it and has no degree. Youngest of bunch. (mid 20s)
Developer C - Developer, Masters in Psychology and some other discipline of that type (non-comp related). Pretty good developer, but not great. (2nd oldest of bunch) (Early 30s)
Developer D - Junior developer, Masters in Computer Science.. can't grasp anything bigger than a small feature, all code has to be reviewed by someone higher up. (oldest of bunch) (Late 30s)
What does this tell me? Experience and work-skill are a *lot* more important than degrees. This is just one small example, but most every company I've ever worked for, the super-badasses never had degrees, and were all either self-taught or had a little bit of college, and tended to eventually rise to the top.
I work for a small startup in DTC, and one of the nice perks is that the upper-ups keep the fridge and cabinets stocked with drinks and snacks.. a small sugar rush can definately help in some of those late coding nights.
When I'm suffering from sleep problems, which is rare, but they happen every so often. I just work like 40-60 hours straight, and when I hit the sack, I'm out for like 2 days.
I used to be a conflict coward, having the exact same co-worker conflict problems. One day at B&N I found this *excellent* book, The Coward's Guide to Conflict.. it really helped me identify that *I* was really the cause of the problems, and help me work them out with my co-workers. Excellent excellent book.
1) I know you mentioned "besides music", but that really is one of the best ways. One thing I've noticed is that, being a programmer, *really* hard industrial really helps me get into "the zone" while coding, and trance just makes the hours fly by. Apoptygma Berserk, VNV Nation, Oakenfold, etc.
2) Get a laptop, watch DVDs or music videos on it while working. I did this for years in my younger years. Helps boredom, but not the greatest for productivity.
3) Someone brought this up before, and it's an awesome time-suck. Learn a new language/technology.. expand your knowledgebase. Employers generally encourage this (in my experience).
4) If all else fails, and the job is just insanely boring, the company won't let you listen to music, watch DVDs, research new fields, read news, whatnot.. find yourself another job. I had this happen once a few years back with a job they sold me as a dev position, and turned out to be configuration management. After 3 months of total boredom, I moved to another job.
I worked for a guy like that once. I was job-hopping and this guy had big ideas, and the price was right. However, I was the *sole* IT/Programmer/Webmaster/Network Analyst/etc guy.. after about 2 months of him telling me that because he made his fortune in Metalworking, he knew more about computers than I did, I hopped away.
What I'm actually surprised at is that three established guys (for which you say have 40+ years of experience between you.. hope you're not counting high school computer classes:P) are working at a show like that.
I really, honestly don't understand open source projects. I would understand if I was like, in college (or high school) and just wanted to fill time.. but adults?
Maybe people trying to pad their resumes to get a real job?
As a developer who's never in his life been out of work and switches jobs every year or two, I guess I can't understand that.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a tad unrelated, but I've got a big problem with polls on newspaper sites. For instance, CNN may run an article on how the war in Iraq was a bad thing (a viewpoint article), then, have a poll attached to it with the Q: "Do you think the war in Iraq was bad?" Yes/No ... of course, someone who just read an opinion article about how bad it was will probably vote the way the article did.
Just irritating. Anyone else seen stuff like this and wish to add to it?
I do this all the time also with Netflix, and have actually gotten nice emails from their service people about it.
I had RedOctane for a month once (Game Rentals), and I got yelled at in an email and asked to pay extra because they were having to pay more for postage. I immediately called them up and made them cancel my account and pro-rate the rest of the month back.
RedOctane's game rental service is terrible.. not just because of that, but when I signed up.. the first 20 games I put on the queue were all "long wait".. in the 3 weeks I had it, the only games I could get where ones that were like a year+ old.
Oh, oops, didn't even know they had an online service. Just moderate me "retarded" ^_^
> BB has a larger library plus their instore stock.
As a person who has used both Netflix's and BB's unlimited rental stuff, I have to disagree with this. My local BB is pretty big, and boasts about 3,000 different titles. Whereas Netflix has something along the lines of 25,000 diff titles.. couple that with the fact that when you rent with BB, you can only use that one BB store, whereas if your current Netflix doesn't have that glamourous BOllywood flick you desire to see so much (that BB doesn't even know exists), they can add a day or so to shipping and get it from another warehouse.
I have converted to BB now, solely because I've now seen the back 10 years of stuff I've always wanted to see, and only get new releases now. Netflix is awesome for obscure/older stuff, whereas BB is more convenient for the brand new or recent big flicks.
Developer A - Architect, super-badass.. self-taught, went to MIT for 1 year but has no college degree. 2nd Youngest of bunch. (late 20s)
Developer B - Me, Senior Developer, pretty good all-around coder and designer, went to college for 2 years but didn't do much with it and has no degree. Youngest of bunch. (mid 20s)
Developer C - Developer, Masters in Psychology and some other discipline of that type (non-comp related). Pretty good developer, but not great. (2nd oldest of bunch) (Early 30s)
Developer D - Junior developer, Masters in Computer Science.. can't grasp anything bigger than a small feature, all code has to be reviewed by someone higher up. (oldest of bunch) (Late 30s)
What does this tell me? Experience and work-skill are a *lot* more important than degrees. This is just one small example, but most every company I've ever worked for, the super-badasses never had degrees, and were all either self-taught or had a little bit of college, and tended to eventually rise to the top.
I work for a small startup in DTC, and one of the nice perks is that the upper-ups keep the fridge and cabinets stocked with drinks and snacks.. a small sugar rush can definately help in some of those late coding nights.
When I'm suffering from sleep problems, which is rare, but they happen every so often. I just work like 40-60 hours straight, and when I hit the sack, I'm out for like 2 days.
I'm serious, it works.
I used to be a conflict coward, having the exact same co-worker conflict problems. One day at B&N I found this *excellent* book, The Coward's Guide to Conflict.. it really helped me identify that *I* was really the cause of the problems, and help me work them out with my co-workers. Excellent excellent book.
1) I know you mentioned "besides music", but that really is one of the best ways. One thing I've noticed is that, being a programmer, *really* hard industrial really helps me get into "the zone" while coding, and trance just makes the hours fly by. Apoptygma Berserk, VNV Nation, Oakenfold, etc.
2) Get a laptop, watch DVDs or music videos on it while working. I did this for years in my younger years. Helps boredom, but not the greatest for productivity.
3) Someone brought this up before, and it's an awesome time-suck. Learn a new language/technology.. expand your knowledgebase. Employers generally encourage this (in my experience).
4) If all else fails, and the job is just insanely boring, the company won't let you listen to music, watch DVDs, research new fields, read news, whatnot.. find yourself another job. I had this happen once a few years back with a job they sold me as a dev position, and turned out to be configuration management. After 3 months of total boredom, I moved to another job.
Hope that helps!
-- Jinsaku
... well, cept Halo.
I worked for a guy like that once. I was job-hopping and this guy had big ideas, and the price was right. However, I was the *sole* IT/Programmer/Webmaster/Network Analyst/etc guy.. after about 2 months of him telling me that because he made his fortune in Metalworking, he knew more about computers than I did, I hopped away.
:P) are working at a show like that.
What I'm actually surprised at is that three established guys (for which you say have 40+ years of experience between you.. hope you're not counting high school computer classes
Find another job, it's not going to work out.
I really, honestly don't understand open source projects. I would understand if I was like, in college (or high school) and just wanted to fill time.. but adults?
Maybe people trying to pad their resumes to get a real job?
As a developer who's never in his life been out of work and switches jobs every year or two, I guess I can't understand that.