This may've been mentioned before, but it's important (you wouldn't want the straps to fall off during a backpacking trip). My Targus backpack split along the top due to the weight of the laptop (about eight pounds), then the straps starting breaking off also. You may want to make sure the backpack you get is up to the task, weight-wise.
Try installing Linux on another partition. You can learn a multitude of useful and wanted languages, and go into all kinds of fields. From C to C++ to Perl to Python to PHP, combinations of those will get you a steady job. As for experience to get your foot in the door: contribute to a reputable open-source project. If the software is recognizable, your potential employer may just be impressed. As for MySQL/MSSQL... you still know SQL, they're all basically the same.
Since degrees and certifications seem to be out of reach, go for experience instead.
I wasn't aware that my anecdote would be under such scrutiny. Since it's that important, I'll give you the background info: we'd had numerous problems with the graphics card on that particular machine. Somebody had just installed a weird driver earlier that day.
Good?
I just graduated from a smallish high school earlier this month, and our technology program consisted of one class: ROP Computer Systems Management.
Over three years, I had about six different teachers, due to budget problems (in California). The one we had the longest started us on track for an MCSE. Just about everybody in the class got their MCP in Windows 2000 that year, and when I realized how inept a lot of my fellow classmates were, I lost faith in (at least Microsoft's) certifications.
"I can't get my e-mail."
"Why not?"
"The screen's messed up."
"How is the screen messed up?"
"It just went blank."
"Have you tried downloading another graphics driver?"
"How do you do that?"
That's a "Microsoft Certified Professional" talking. Pathetic.
I don't mean to be inflammatory, but this may help you better understand what Doctorow was getting at:
"I'm appalled that he would attempt to explain how cryptography works in front of an audience at Microsoft that actually CODES crypto, considering how many fundamental errors he makes."
Since we're reading it, his audience was obviously much larger. Personally, that explanation of cryptography was helpful to me, your average user who doesn't know much about the subject.
"He whines about how he hit the 3 CPU limit of iTunes DRM, because he forgot to decertify one of his Powerbooks before he sent it back to Apple for repair, and that he already used up his other two authorizations on his other machine, and his mom's machine. Skipping over the apparent violation of the terms of the DRM by using one auth for his mom in another household, he failed to mention several points, like how you can call Apple and they will remove the dead auth for the dead machine, and that Apple extended the limit to 5 CPUs."
I believe he was criticizing the fact that people have to de-auth their machines and that any CPU limit exists. With that logic, it doesn't matter if they allow 3, 5, or 25 CPUs.
As for his 1337-speak and "arrr.."s, that's called rhetoric. Without it, papers like these ones become very, very boring. I wouldn't have been able to read the entire thing at 6 AM. All in all, he gets a basic point across, and I believe he does it well.
I didn't mean it in a degrading fashion at all. In fact, if I'm a Linux anything, I'm a 'linux desktop user.'
That's precisely why I stay on Windows 90% of the time-- the applications I can work most efficiently with happen to be on Windows. Even if an equally-good Linux version exists, it'd still take time for me to switch over and learn to use it.
Well, first, it takes less time to write an emulator than a Linux version of every Windows program somebody would want to use.
Since there are so many Windows-emulation applications available, it appears that a demand is present. Remember, this is for a 'linux desktop.' Your average 'linux desktop' user probably isn't savvy enough to research OSS alternatives... or program their own version.
To be quite honest, some Windows applications outdo their open-source counterparts. People will use what works best for them, and who can argue against doing that?
Slashdot Mirror
This may've been mentioned before, but it's important (you wouldn't want the straps to fall off during a backpacking trip). My Targus backpack split along the top due to the weight of the laptop (about eight pounds), then the straps starting breaking off also. You may want to make sure the backpack you get is up to the task, weight-wise.
...Maddox summed it up nicely:
m plicated_than_it_needs_to_be
http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=segway_more_co
...a "reverse firewall" was called the OUTPUT chain.
A slashdot article from yesterday:
U.S. To Impose Spyware Control Laws
I wonder if this is going to eventually end up biting them in the ass?
Try installing Linux on another partition. You can learn a multitude of useful and wanted languages, and go into all kinds of fields. From C to C++ to Perl to Python to PHP, combinations of those will get you a steady job. As for experience to get your foot in the door: contribute to a reputable open-source project. If the software is recognizable, your potential employer may just be impressed. As for MySQL/MSSQL... you still know SQL, they're all basically the same.
Since degrees and certifications seem to be out of reach, go for experience instead.
I wasn't aware that my anecdote would be under such scrutiny. Since it's that important, I'll give you the background info: we'd had numerous problems with the graphics card on that particular machine. Somebody had just installed a weird driver earlier that day. Good?
I just graduated from a smallish high school earlier this month, and our technology program consisted of one class: ROP Computer Systems Management.
Over three years, I had about six different teachers, due to budget problems (in California). The one we had the longest started us on track for an MCSE. Just about everybody in the class got their MCP in Windows 2000 that year, and when I realized how inept a lot of my fellow classmates were, I lost faith in (at least Microsoft's) certifications.
"I can't get my e-mail."
"Why not?"
"The screen's messed up."
"How is the screen messed up?"
"It just went blank."
"Have you tried downloading another graphics driver?"
"How do you do that?"
That's a "Microsoft Certified Professional" talking. Pathetic.
I don't mean to be inflammatory, but this may help you better understand what Doctorow was getting at:
"I'm appalled that he would attempt to explain how cryptography works in front of an audience at Microsoft that actually CODES crypto, considering how many fundamental errors he makes."
Since we're reading it, his audience was obviously much larger. Personally, that explanation of cryptography was helpful to me, your average user who doesn't know much about the subject.
"He whines about how he hit the 3 CPU limit of iTunes DRM, because he forgot to decertify one of his Powerbooks before he sent it back to Apple for repair, and that he already used up his other two authorizations on his other machine, and his mom's machine. Skipping over the apparent violation of the terms of the DRM by using one auth for his mom in another household, he failed to mention several points, like how you can call Apple and they will remove the dead auth for the dead machine, and that Apple extended the limit to 5 CPUs."
I believe he was criticizing the fact that people have to de-auth their machines and that any CPU limit exists. With that logic, it doesn't matter if they allow 3, 5, or 25 CPUs.
As for his 1337-speak and "arrr.."s, that's called rhetoric. Without it, papers like these ones become very, very boring. I wouldn't have been able to read the entire thing at 6 AM. All in all, he gets a basic point across, and I believe he does it well.
I didn't mean it in a degrading fashion at all. In fact, if I'm a Linux anything, I'm a 'linux desktop user.' That's precisely why I stay on Windows 90% of the time-- the applications I can work most efficiently with happen to be on Windows. Even if an equally-good Linux version exists, it'd still take time for me to switch over and learn to use it.
Well, first, it takes less time to write an emulator than a Linux version of every Windows program somebody would want to use.
Since there are so many Windows-emulation applications available, it appears that a demand is present. Remember, this is for a 'linux desktop.' Your average 'linux desktop' user probably isn't savvy enough to research OSS alternatives... or program their own version.
To be quite honest, some Windows applications outdo their open-source counterparts. People will use what works best for them, and who can argue against doing that?