Having lived close to several people who have been clinically depressed, I can assure you that drugs can and DO help, in certain cases. Other times, even more drastic measures are needed.
However, I think that studies like this ("Major anti-depressant company releases study showing that X-percent of americans are depressed") serve to diminish the importance of real psychological problems. I'm sorry, but when you're clinically depressed, all the nice walks in the world won't pull you out of it. It's an illness, usually caused by a chemical imbalance. It can be triggered by circumstances, sure, but often depression sets in for no good reason. It's more likely that somebody will GIVE UP playing a musical instrument. After seeing a close family member spend two years primarily sleeping on the couch, not caring about his family or whether he even continued to live, and through several attempts at various drugs, I can assure you it's not just that easy to pull yourself out. There's not a clinically depressed person in the world that doesn't desperately want to get better. How can you enjoy life when everything tastes bland, there's no color, and you feel utterly alone in a room full of people? Just as proof that this case of depression was clinical and not just some "get some fresh air and feel better" rut, he finally went through a course of ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) which had a startling effect. He's pulled around 180 degrees and is enjoying life to the fullest, even starting a new career. ECT is a drastic treatment with a very high success rate-- even though there are downsides, such as effectively "erasing" one's memory of the months prior to the treatment. It surely is not as simple as "play with a kitten and you're cured."
You might say somebody with bipolar disorder is just having "mood swings." Well after having (unsuccessfully) dated somebody with a severe case of bipolar disorder, I can assure you that going from a giddy, hyper-active superduperfabulous high and then plummeting to a crying mess in the corner of the room within a span of 20 minutes, for no particular reason, is definitely not a normal thing. You have to be close to somebody with a problem like this to get an idea of what it's really like.
I can believe that 1/5 of americans have some sort of diagnosable mental disorder, but only a small portion of those will actually require treatment. I do think Prozac is over-prescribed, almost treated as a cure-all, as is Ritalin. However, there are many cases where the drugs (and other treatments) are necessary and actually do work. Don't discount those.
I was messing around with PC hardware long before I got into cars, but many of the skills involved crossover. Often the same mindset is involved (how can I make this computer/car go faster?), except that working on cars requires more brute force-- since most computer case screws are not torqued to 170 lb-ft. Now I'm getting "the bug" and I'm looking at air compressors, impact wrenches, and a full set of Snap-on tools!
I currently drive a '93 Corvette 6-speed, and this is the second vette I've owned. A unix sysadmin friend of mine has a '94 vette. My roommate has a '94 as well, and he's a geek. Somebody said there's a VW trend for geeks? Corvettes are fun to work on, not very expensive if you look around, and the insurance is much lower than a Z28 or T/A of the same year. If you get one, and you know how to turn a wrench (and you have decent tools), you can do almost all common repairs yourself. Unlike classic cars, they're also very reliable as daily drivers. Not a whole lot of cargo space though, but I've still got a beater '85 minivan as a family hand-me-down for hauling stuff.
Having a car you like to drive and work on is a great way to enjoy this "real world" thing. Sometimes, whipping around the tight turns at breakneck speed through the mountains can be as much fun as an intense UT CTF game, you know. I have some pics of my vette and road trips on my page (link in the header, duh.) Whatever kind of car you have, make sure you find a club to join-- you'll get lots of advice and cheap parts!
are PC Accelerator and occasionally MaximumPC. I used to read PC Magazine, but they don't cater to the hardcore audience.
No magazine I've seen on the newstands actually contains new information-- all the "news" I read, even in MaximumPC, is old news. I've never read a review in PCXL that I haven't already read in a million places online. I buy those magazines for the entertainment value-- namely PCXL. I read it cover to cover, since they throw in lots of oddball twists that I didn't get anywhere online. Ever seen "Goofus and Gallant install a 3D card?" That's the kind of content magazines need to give nowadays. The kind of content that entertains you while you're sitting on the crapper, since many people don't take computers into the bathroom (yet.)
The latest combat flight sims are modelling virtually every aspect and every system of of the airplane-- as well as combat tactics nowadays. For somebody experienced in simming, there would be less of a learning curve if he/she got into a real jet. You'd have to learn where the actual buttons are (as opposed to a million keyboard keystrokes), and get used to actually feeling g-forces, but you'd be waaay ahead of somebody who's never flown a sim OR a real aircraft before.
Take me, for example. I've got years and years of experience on flight sims, mostly Microsoft (the only MS software worth buying!), and then I got to handle the controls of a Cherokee Warrior II single-engine. And I didn't crash! I'm living proof.
It's also a great way to practice certain passages. Your computer won't let you hit wrong notes! However, I noticed that most systems won't let you have passwords that are as long as Flight of the Bumblebee. I tried a different technique, only to discover that drumsticks can really mess up a keyboard after long-term use.
How about this: Operating Systems allow software applications to talk to the hardware, usually via API's.
Operating Environments allow users to work with the operating system. OE's generally use a metaphor of some sort to make the OS more understandable by users-- e.g, the concept of "folders" and "files."
No price given, but they say "up to 81 hours of music" and "less than $10 per hour of playback."
I'd guess maybe $650 street. That's way beyond other MP3 players. However, it's cheaper than the Empeg in-car player. But to have enough memory to hold enough music for a cross-country road trip (a round trip, at that), hell I'd pay it. I was never looking forward to having to hook up a 64MB MP3 player up to a computer just to get some new music. And I thought the one with a 340MB microdrive was going to be cool!
Well let's see... we have headquarters or regional offices for Oracle, HP, Bellsouth.net, Mindspring, Coca-Cola, Sapient, Sprint, MCI, Turner Broadcasting, Harbinger... and tons and tons of healthcare companies. And the cost of living is pretty low if you know where to live. It also takes me 20 minutes to drive to work (few people in Atlanta can say that!) If I remember correctly, there are about 23,000 IT positions in the Atlanta area that are unfilled.
Atlanta, GA has a huge shortage of IT workers, because there are lots of rapidly growing high-tech companies around here.
I don't even work at one of them. I work in the IT department at a major poultry company, so things are slightly different for me than they'd be if our products were technology-related.
2 years ago, I came on board with little experience and no certification, making $33k a year, doing PC support (mainly hardware). Having a college degree is important, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a CS degree-- my degree was physics.
A year later, I was transferred to systems/programming, and now I'm making $40k after programming for 1 year, and I'm also learning a hell of a lot about EDI and supply chain/inventory systems. You don't learn this kind of stuff in college, but it's very high in demand! I'm going to build up a little more experience here, and then... move on. Keep in mind, I was given that position based on my potential (the mgmt really liked what I did in support), since I had no actual programming experience, and I'm mostly self-taught. However, I rarely work over 40 hours a week, and I'm not stressed. There's more than salary to consider!
The key, and this is very important, is that you'll get better jobs through personal contacts (people who've seen how good you are in action) than you will likely get through headhunters. Some people get lucky breaks through headhunters, of course, if they have lots of certificates and degrees listed on their resumes.
With the amount of experience that you have (5 years plus certs) you should be making above $50k by now. But if you want to make more than that, get somewhere where you can expand beyond just sys-adminning. You could get paid lots of money to design a new infrastructure for Company X, who is rolling out new offices that have to communicate with clients Y and Z.
Here I am, 25 years old, and I've never had a long-term relationship. I have lots of girls who are friends (funny how every girl I want to date turns out to be a friend), and seriously thought something was wrong with me. I read your post, and I swear I could've written that whole thing myself! Yes, I've even had the psycho's-- the last girl I had any involvement with was heavy into the "goth" thing, had tattoos, pierced tongue, was severely bipolar, and (surprise surprise) just wound up using me.
Now reading the other replies, it's very curious how many people (geeks) fall along similar lines. In a way it's good to know I'm the only one in this boat. What's more aggravating is that so many of my female friends tell me what a great guy I am. Initially, even some women were just attracted to me based on looks (although I hardly consider myself to be some megastud) and then decided they just wanted to be friends after getting to know me better.
I don't know where I go wrong, and I'm pretty sure that I try to over-analyze/read too deeply into the actions and words coming from MOS (Members of the Opposite Sex). Maybe women pick up on that more easily than I think? I keep misinterpreting signals, missing the "right" signals, and I sure as hell could use a FAQ as well.
Re:Welcome to RealWorld(tm)
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I'm with you. I work from 7AM till 3:30, with a half hour lunch (this is the only way I figured out how to beat Atlanta traffic!).
I've told people that I will stop mid-sentence if I'm talking to somebody and it's time to leave. Nobody's complained, and in fact, everybody seems to understand! My job can mostly be described as in-house developer, EDI support, and analyst, and sticking to my strict 8 hrs of work-per-day schedule has left me remarkably stress-free. If somebody's having to work 12 hour days, every day, just to do their job, something is wrong and it most likely has to do with management. I could be making more money working somewhere else, with longer hours, but on the other hand my job would slowly suck my life away. Is it really worth it?
Funny you mention that, because there are quite a few musicians in my IT department. Strangely, they seem to mostly be on the support side. That's where I started out at my company though, over there on hardware/software/network support.
Now here's a little philosophy for you: programming languages aren't meant for computers, they are simply a tool to express an abstraction of logical human thought, which are converted into itty bitty simple steps for the CPU to process (op codes!) Just think, no matter how elegant your code is, it's all reduced to a bunch of reading and writing to registers, shifting bits, etc. Cool.
Naturally, having a firm understanding of the language is a requirement, along with all the language-independent programming techniques.
I like composing music (everything from industrial to 3 part fugues) for the same reasons I like programming-- the mental exercise. I moved away from support because it felt like I was just fixing wrong notes all day, with whiny orchestra members (end users).
I think the strong correlation you refer to arises from the fact that maybe programming and musicality come from the same parts of the brain? Just my theory, for which I have no supporting evidence:)
I think you're absolutely right. I'm relatively new to VB (1 year) but I've programmed in other languages before (Pascal, Java 1.0, and hell even Motorola 6800 machine code)
VB is very simple to learn, which is why there are plenty of people who use it but don't know much about programming theory. I think my previous, albeit limited, programming experience made me productive in VB almost immediately.
I certainly don't claim to be an expert programmer, but I firmly believe that being good at programming is independent of the language you use. I have met some truly brilliant VB programmers (many of whom aren't even MS Certified, and it's too bad that many resumes are overlooked because of that fact) Look behind the code, for instance at the algorithms and ideas used-- all the good programming concepts and theory can be applied to VB, which is how ones gets nice apps out of it.
Nowadays I mostly write VB stuff, because that's much of my job. I'm just starting with shell scripting and perl on my home Linux box, but that's just for fun right now since I don't see that getting incorporated into my career just yet.
Anyway, the "morons" learn VB from the "21 days" book and that's it. I learned most of the syntax from that same book, but it doesn't actually teach you how to write PROGRAMS. That's where books like Code Complete and my old college texts come in handy, and I've also applied some stuff from various Algorithms in C and Java type books. Most of the "good" (as opposed to Evil) VB programmers are the same way.
So, my point is this: VB is a very accessible language. You don't have to know a lot about it to write something that compiles. But there's also a lot of potential there, which fewer VB programmers will ever learn to use. I think that many of the hard-core C types dismiss VB for these reasons alone: 1) It's "BASIC" which means it's for wussies, 2) It's Microsoft, and 3) They don't know much about it.
Those morons who wrote the Unreal engine obviously "don't have the skills to be a real developer" because they chose to write UnrealEd in VB. But that's another story.
Let's be fair here, there are also plenty of morons who write in C. These are the ones can hammer out code, but they have no concept of what the application will be used for, how it fits into the business, or why the app is needed in the first place. They just take the specs and hammer out code. Are these guys "real developers?"
I think "real developers" will use whatever tool they're using to the greatest possible efficiency, regardless of what that tool actually is, be it VB, C, C++, Java, Cobol.
An example-- we've had to develop a warehouse management system that handles importing data from Symbol barcode guns, processes it, prints out pallet labels (with more barcodes), balances/stages/repairs orders, and finally stores it in our Informix system (SSA BPCS). Of course, there's a whole bunch of other "stuff" going behind the scenes, combined with making a user interface that can be used by minimum-wage guys on a shipping dock. Do you know how many man-hours that would've taken to do in C++? In VB, it took one guy 6 weeks, and surprisingly enough, the system works very well. This, to me, is a perfect example of a real-world application, not just "stringing together components." Now, we could've spent 6-12 months doing this in C++, and it would perform probably perform... about the same. At any rate, you *can* write real apps in VB, just as you can write crappy apps in C/C++. It depends on what you want to do, taking into account the capabilities of the language vs. budget constraints. Your last statement would suggest that VBer's are higher in demand, because they can do things more quickly and less expensively, correct?
Have you actually tried to convince management that slower and more expensive is the way to go for any particular in-house project?
I agree that the applications, not the OS, are the reasons we're supposed to be using computers. I still have to use Windows because there simply isn't a decent MIDI/Multitrack audio program available for Linux. Cakewalk Pro Audio uses directX for its audio plugins (real-time reverb, etc) which is, of course, proprietary, but it works rather well.
However, Microsoft obviously doesn't feel the OS is "secondary" to the applications, because their OS actually costs more than most applications, especially NT. So for now, my home system dual-boots between Win98 and Linux. Right now I just have Linux there to learn it, but most of what I actually do requires Windows.
True-- a couple minutes after I posted, I realized that I should have only mentioned general relativity with regard to incompatibility with QM. The much watered-down point I was making was that QM doesn't explain gravity very well. Naturally, with wave/particles travelling at extremely high velocities, relativistic adjustments are factored into the equations.
It's beyond the realm of quantum mechanics to prove whether or not time exists. QM just assumes time is constant. With QM in its current state, we'll never be able to prove whether Julian's Theory is true, solely because of the initial assumption that QM makes. If QM assumes time is constant, how can it be used to show it doesn't exist? We know for a fact that time is NOT constant. Time is warped by such things as acceleration and gravity. This is the primary reason that Quantum Mechanics and Relativity are fundamentally incompatible theories. QM explains the probabilities that occur in the interactions between particle-waves, but it does not begin to explain what "time" is, or what "gravity" is! Relativity shows us that time and gravity are very connected. What we need here is *GASP* a Grand Unified Theory! So far, Superstring Theory is the closest thing yet, because it's compatible (so far) with both quantum physics and relativity.
An excellent book on this subject is "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Green. You'll find that time does exist, as one of eleven dimensions, but the notion of space-time needs to be changed.
On a more philosophical note... time MUST exist, in the same way that everything else "exists." It can be argued that space and time are merely a matter of perception, so that if something is perceived, that's all that's required for existence. As morpheus said, "How do you define 'real?'"
Does it really change anything as far as we're concerned to prove that time doesn't exist? It's just a theory. Theories are just there to make sense of observed behavior. Superstring theory is one of those, although so far nobody's been able to come up with an experiment to test it. So right now, it just works... in theory. Or something.
One thing's for sure, "Itanium" sticks out. It's so bizarre that it *has* to become a household word, which is exactly what intel wants. I think I can extrapolate some future Intel chip names based on their previous track record:
2002: The Itanium II is introduced, with new AMI (Advanced Marketing Instructions) Technology(tm)
late 2002: A low-cost version of the Itanium core comes out, called either "Asparagon" or "Vidalion"
2004: Itanium III (duh)
late 2005: Intel's first 128-bit CPU is announced, which will be named Delirium.
I think it's a newly discovered highly radioactive element. Naturally, heavy elements of this sort are highly unstable and will decay in a matter of nanoseconds at best.
Perhaps it really is a fitting name for this new chip after all?
I type all the time (read my response a couple posts down) and I'm also a drummer. Actually, I double-majored in percussion (and physics). The most important thing I learned to prevent overstressing yourself, when typing or when playing, is to stay relaxed. Playing 4-mallet marimba is torture on the tendons, but what kept me from developing any type of repetitive stress problem, even through intensive practice, is frequent breaks. As far as drums go, if you keep loose and warm up properly (you didn't just sit down and start banging away, did you?) you'll avoid all sorts of problems. You're probably gripping the stick too tight, which wastes energy and will definitely lead to CTS, tendonitis, etc. I'm pretty sure you can start playing again if you wanted to, but you HAVE TO WARM UP every time. I learned plenty of warm ups and finger/arm stretches from marching in drumline. Don't give up drums, they're so much fun! Email me if you want any more advice on that front...
I took typing in high school, I hated it at the time. Nowadays (25 years old) I consider it as one of the most useful classes I've taken. How does it help to prevent CTS?
1) I can type very fast but I take frequent breaks. As soon as my fingers/wrists get the least bit tired, I stop and stretch. This is much better than typing slowly but non-stop.
2) I learned to use nearly correct posture (OK, I'm still slumped back in my chair) but my wrists are fairly relaxed when I type, and I let my fingers do the work.
I've never had a problem with typing, but I have developed some pains in my wrist from extended mouse-using. This typically happens at work, not while I'm at home playing games for some reason (must be the wrist pad I have at home). When that happens, I put the mouse on the other side of the keyboard and go lefty for a day, which pretty much solves the problem.
Do you think that MS has future plans for, oh I dunno, "Microsoft Photoshop" and "Microsoft 3D Studio Max?" I don't know how I'll react if MS buys the makers of two of the reasons I still use Windows (besides games)... Cakewalk Pro Audio and Sonic Foundry's SoundForge. Cakewalk is already the market leader in music production applications which range from entry-level home apps to high-end music studio apps. They are also already "in bed" with MS technology (both soundforge and Cakewalk PA use DirectX plugins, for one thing, which actually work well). I really like Cakewalk and SF as they are-- powerful, fast, easy to use, and UNBLOATED! The last thing I need is a dancing paperclip causing a GPF which corrupts whatever music files I have open at the time.
Slashdot Mirror
This came to mind.
Click here!
Having lived close to several people who have been clinically depressed, I can assure you that drugs can and DO help, in certain cases. Other times, even more drastic measures are needed.
However, I think that studies like this ("Major anti-depressant company releases study showing that X-percent of americans are depressed") serve to diminish the importance of real psychological problems.
I'm sorry, but when you're clinically depressed, all the nice walks in the world won't pull you out of it. It's an illness, usually caused by a chemical imbalance. It can be triggered by circumstances, sure, but often depression sets in for no good reason. It's more likely that somebody will GIVE UP playing a musical instrument. After seeing a close family member spend two years primarily sleeping on the couch, not caring about his family or whether he even continued to live, and through several attempts at various drugs, I can assure you it's not just that easy to pull yourself out.
There's not a clinically depressed person in the world that doesn't desperately want to get better. How can you enjoy life when everything tastes bland, there's no color, and you feel utterly alone in a room full of people?
Just as proof that this case of depression was clinical and not just some "get some fresh air and feel better" rut, he finally went through a course of ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) which had a startling effect. He's pulled around 180 degrees and is enjoying life to the fullest, even starting a new career. ECT is a drastic treatment with a very high success rate-- even though there are downsides, such as effectively "erasing" one's memory of the months prior to the treatment. It surely is not as simple as "play with a kitten and you're cured."
You might say somebody with bipolar disorder is just having "mood swings." Well after having (unsuccessfully) dated somebody with a severe case of bipolar disorder, I can assure you that going from a giddy, hyper-active superduperfabulous high and then plummeting to a crying mess in the corner of the room within a span of 20 minutes, for no particular reason, is definitely not a normal thing. You have to be close to somebody with a problem like this to get an idea of what it's really like.
I can believe that 1/5 of americans have some sort of diagnosable mental disorder, but only a small portion of those will actually require treatment. I do think Prozac is over-prescribed, almost treated as a cure-all, as is Ritalin. However, there are many cases where the drugs (and other treatments) are necessary and actually do work. Don't discount those.
I was messing around with PC hardware long before I got into cars, but many of the skills involved crossover. Often the same mindset is involved (how can I make this computer/car go faster?), except that working on cars requires more brute force-- since most computer case screws are not torqued to 170 lb-ft. Now I'm getting "the bug" and I'm looking at air compressors, impact wrenches, and a full set of Snap-on tools!
I currently drive a '93 Corvette 6-speed, and this is the second vette I've owned. A unix sysadmin friend of mine has a '94 vette.
My roommate has a '94 as well, and he's a geek. Somebody said there's a VW trend for geeks?
Corvettes are fun to work on, not very expensive if you look around, and the insurance is much lower than a Z28 or T/A of the same year.
If you get one, and you know how to turn a wrench (and you have decent tools), you can do almost all common repairs yourself. Unlike classic cars, they're also very reliable as daily drivers.
Not a whole lot of cargo space though, but I've still got a beater '85 minivan as a family hand-me-down for hauling stuff.
Having a car you like to drive and work on is a great way to enjoy this "real world" thing. Sometimes, whipping around the tight turns at breakneck speed through the mountains can be as much fun as an intense UT CTF game, you know.
I have some pics of my vette and road trips on my page (link in the header, duh.) Whatever kind of car you have, make sure you find a club to join-- you'll get lots of advice and cheap parts!
are PC Accelerator and occasionally MaximumPC. I used to read PC Magazine, but they don't cater to the hardcore audience.
No magazine I've seen on the newstands actually contains new information-- all the "news" I read, even in MaximumPC, is old news. I've never read a review in PCXL that I haven't already read in a million places online.
I buy those magazines for the entertainment value-- namely PCXL. I read it cover to cover, since they throw in lots of oddball twists that I didn't get anywhere online. Ever seen "Goofus and Gallant install a 3D card?"
That's the kind of content magazines need to give nowadays. The kind of content that entertains you while you're sitting on the crapper, since many people don't take computers into the bathroom (yet.)
Ever tried Falcon 4?
The latest combat flight sims are modelling virtually every aspect and every system of of the airplane-- as well as combat tactics nowadays.
For somebody experienced in simming, there would be less of a learning curve if he/she got into a real jet. You'd have to learn where the actual buttons are (as opposed to a million keyboard keystrokes), and get used to actually feeling g-forces, but you'd be waaay ahead of somebody who's never flown a sim OR a real aircraft before.
Take me, for example. I've got years and years of experience on flight sims, mostly Microsoft (the only MS software worth buying!), and then I got to handle the controls of a Cherokee Warrior II single-engine. And I didn't crash! I'm living proof.
It's also a great way to practice certain passages. Your computer won't let you hit wrong notes!
However, I noticed that most systems won't let you have passwords that are as long as Flight of the Bumblebee.
I tried a different technique, only to discover that drumsticks can really mess up a keyboard after long-term use.
How about this:
Operating Systems allow software applications to talk to the hardware, usually via API's.
Operating Environments allow users to work with the operating system. OE's generally use a metaphor of some sort to make the OS more understandable by users-- e.g, the concept of "folders" and "files."
No price given, but they say "up to 81 hours of music" and "less than $10 per hour of playback."
I'd guess maybe $650 street. That's way beyond other MP3 players. However, it's cheaper than the Empeg in-car player. But to have enough memory to hold enough music for a cross-country road trip (a round trip, at that), hell I'd pay it. I was never looking forward to having to hook up a 64MB MP3 player up to a computer just to get some new music. And I thought the one with a 340MB microdrive was going to be cool!
Well let's see... we have headquarters or regional offices for Oracle, HP, Bellsouth.net, Mindspring, Coca-Cola, Sapient, Sprint, MCI, Turner Broadcasting, Harbinger... and tons and tons of healthcare companies.
And the cost of living is pretty low if you know where to live. It also takes me 20 minutes to drive to work (few people in Atlanta can say that!)
If I remember correctly, there are about 23,000 IT positions in the Atlanta area that are unfilled.
Atlanta, GA has a huge shortage of IT workers, because there are lots of rapidly growing high-tech companies around here.
I don't even work at one of them. I work in the IT department at a major poultry company, so things are slightly different for me than they'd be if our products were technology-related.
2 years ago, I came on board with little experience and no certification, making $33k a year, doing PC support (mainly hardware). Having a college degree is important, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a CS degree-- my degree was physics.
A year later, I was transferred to systems/programming, and now I'm making $40k after programming for 1 year, and I'm also learning a hell of a lot about EDI and supply chain/inventory systems. You don't learn this kind of stuff in college, but it's very high in demand! I'm going to build up a little more experience here, and then... move on.
Keep in mind, I was given that position based on my potential (the mgmt really liked what I did in support), since I had no actual programming experience, and I'm mostly self-taught. However, I rarely work over 40 hours a week, and I'm not stressed. There's more than salary to consider!
The key, and this is very important, is that you'll get better jobs through personal contacts (people who've seen how good you are in action) than you will likely get through headhunters. Some people get lucky breaks through headhunters, of course, if they have lots of certificates and degrees listed on their resumes.
With the amount of experience that you have (5 years plus certs) you should be making above $50k by now. But if you want to make more than that, get somewhere where you can expand beyond just sys-adminning. You could get paid lots of money to design a new infrastructure for Company X, who is rolling out new offices that have to communicate with clients Y and Z.
Here I am, 25 years old, and I've never had a long-term relationship. I have lots of girls who are friends (funny how every girl I want to date turns out to be a friend), and seriously thought something was wrong with me.
I read your post, and I swear I could've written that whole thing myself! Yes, I've even had the psycho's-- the last girl I had any involvement with was heavy into the "goth" thing, had tattoos, pierced tongue, was severely bipolar, and (surprise surprise) just wound up using me.
Now reading the other replies, it's very curious how many people (geeks) fall along similar lines. In a way it's good to know I'm the only one in this boat.
What's more aggravating is that so many of my female friends tell me what a great guy I am. Initially, even some women were just attracted to me based on looks (although I hardly consider myself to be some megastud) and then decided they just wanted to be friends after getting to know me better.
I don't know where I go wrong, and I'm pretty sure that I try to over-analyze/read too deeply into the actions and words coming from MOS (Members of the Opposite Sex). Maybe women pick up on that more easily than I think?
I keep misinterpreting signals, missing the "right" signals, and I sure as hell could use a FAQ as well.
I'm with you. I work from 7AM till 3:30, with a half hour lunch (this is the only way I figured out how to beat Atlanta traffic!).
I've told people that I will stop mid-sentence if I'm talking to somebody and it's time to leave. Nobody's complained, and in fact, everybody seems to understand!
My job can mostly be described as in-house developer, EDI support, and analyst, and sticking to my strict 8 hrs of work-per-day schedule has left me remarkably stress-free.
If somebody's having to work 12 hour days, every day, just to do their job, something is wrong and it most likely has to do with management. I could be making more money working somewhere else, with longer hours, but on the other hand my job would slowly suck my life away. Is it really worth it?
Funny you mention that, because there are quite a few musicians in my IT department. Strangely, they seem to mostly be on the support side. That's where I started out at my company though, over there on hardware/software/network support.
:)
Now here's a little philosophy for you: programming languages aren't meant for computers, they are simply a tool to express an abstraction of logical human thought, which are converted into itty bitty simple steps for the CPU to process (op codes!) Just think, no matter how elegant your code is, it's all reduced to a bunch of reading and writing to registers, shifting bits, etc. Cool.
Naturally, having a firm understanding of the language is a requirement, along with all the language-independent programming techniques.
I like composing music (everything from industrial to 3 part fugues) for the same reasons I like programming-- the mental exercise. I moved away from support because it felt like I was just fixing wrong notes all day, with whiny orchestra members (end users).
I think the strong correlation you refer to arises from the fact that maybe programming and musicality come from the same parts of the brain? Just my theory, for which I have no supporting evidence
I think you're absolutely right. I'm relatively new to VB (1 year) but I've programmed in other languages before (Pascal, Java 1.0, and hell even Motorola 6800 machine code)
VB is very simple to learn, which is why there are plenty of people who use it but don't know much about programming theory. I think my previous, albeit limited, programming experience made me productive in VB almost immediately.
I certainly don't claim to be an expert programmer, but I firmly believe that being good at programming is independent of the language you use. I have met some truly brilliant VB programmers (many of whom aren't even MS Certified, and it's too bad that many resumes are overlooked because of that fact)
Look behind the code, for instance at the algorithms and ideas used-- all the good programming concepts and theory can be applied to VB, which is how ones gets nice apps out of it.
Nowadays I mostly write VB stuff, because that's much of my job. I'm just starting with shell scripting and perl on my home Linux box, but that's just for fun right now since I don't see that getting incorporated into my career just yet.
Anyway, the "morons" learn VB from the "21 days" book and that's it. I learned most of the syntax from that same book, but it doesn't actually teach you how to write PROGRAMS. That's where books like Code Complete and my old college texts come in handy, and I've also applied some stuff from various Algorithms in C and Java type books. Most of the "good" (as opposed to Evil) VB programmers are the same way.
So, my point is this: VB is a very accessible language. You don't have to know a lot about it to write something that compiles. But there's also a lot of potential there, which fewer VB programmers will ever learn to use. I think that many of the hard-core C types dismiss VB for these reasons alone: 1) It's "BASIC" which means it's for wussies, 2) It's Microsoft, and 3) They don't know much about it.
Those morons who wrote the Unreal engine obviously "don't have the skills to be a real developer" because they chose to write UnrealEd in VB. But that's another story.
Let's be fair here, there are also plenty of morons who write in C. These are the ones can hammer out code, but they have no concept of what the application will be used for, how it fits into the business, or why the app is needed in the first place. They just take the specs and hammer out code. Are these guys "real developers?"
I think "real developers" will use whatever tool they're using to the greatest possible efficiency, regardless of what that tool actually is, be it VB, C, C++, Java, Cobol.
An example-- we've had to develop a warehouse management system that handles importing data from Symbol barcode guns, processes it, prints out pallet labels (with more barcodes), balances/stages/repairs orders, and finally stores it in our Informix system (SSA BPCS). Of course, there's a whole bunch of other "stuff" going behind the scenes, combined with making a user interface that can be used by minimum-wage guys on a shipping dock. Do you know how many man-hours that would've taken to do in C++?
In VB, it took one guy 6 weeks, and surprisingly enough, the system works very well.
This, to me, is a perfect example of a real-world application, not just "stringing together components."
Now, we could've spent 6-12 months doing this in C++, and it would perform probably perform... about the same.
At any rate, you *can* write real apps in VB, just as you can write crappy apps in C/C++. It depends on what you want to do, taking into account the capabilities of the language vs. budget constraints.
Your last statement would suggest that VBer's are higher in demand, because they can do things more quickly and less expensively, correct?
Have you actually tried to convince management that slower and more expensive is the way to go for any particular in-house project?
Hmmm, I think it would be cool if they made a new version of AIBO that was a transformer. Better yet, a Triple-Changer!
From Dog to Tank to R/C Airplane. That would be cool.
"The major cause of famines is not lack of FOOD, but lack of MONEY."
:)
Well that's easy. You can use the nanites to synthesize money
I agree that the applications, not the OS, are the reasons we're supposed to be using computers. I still have to use Windows because there simply isn't a decent MIDI/Multitrack audio program available for Linux. Cakewalk Pro Audio uses directX for its audio plugins (real-time reverb, etc) which is, of course, proprietary, but it works rather well.
However, Microsoft obviously doesn't feel the OS is "secondary" to the applications, because their OS actually costs more than most applications, especially NT. So for now, my home system dual-boots between Win98 and Linux. Right now I just have Linux there to learn it, but most of what I actually do requires Windows.
True-- a couple minutes after I posted, I realized that I should have only mentioned general relativity with regard to incompatibility with QM. The much watered-down point I was making was that QM doesn't explain gravity very well.
Naturally, with wave/particles travelling at extremely high velocities, relativistic adjustments are factored into the equations.
It's beyond the realm of quantum mechanics to prove whether or not time exists. QM just assumes time is constant.
With QM in its current state, we'll never be able to prove whether Julian's Theory is true, solely because of the initial assumption that QM makes. If QM assumes time is constant, how can it be used to show it doesn't exist?
We know for a fact that time is NOT constant. Time is warped by such things as acceleration and gravity.
This is the primary reason that Quantum Mechanics and Relativity are fundamentally incompatible theories. QM explains the probabilities that occur in the interactions between particle-waves, but it does not begin to explain what "time" is, or what "gravity" is! Relativity shows us that time and gravity are very connected. What we need here is *GASP* a Grand Unified Theory!
So far, Superstring Theory is the closest thing yet, because it's compatible (so far) with both quantum physics and relativity.
An excellent book on this subject is "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Green. You'll find that time does exist, as one of eleven dimensions, but the notion of space-time needs to be changed.
On a more philosophical note... time MUST exist, in the same way that everything else "exists." It can be argued that space and time are merely a matter of perception, so that if something is perceived, that's all that's required for existence. As morpheus said, "How do you define 'real?'"
Does it really change anything as far as we're concerned to prove that time doesn't exist? It's just a theory. Theories are just there to make sense of observed behavior. Superstring theory is one of those, although so far nobody's been able to come up with an experiment to test it. So right now, it just works... in theory. Or something.
One thing's for sure, "Itanium" sticks out. It's so bizarre that it *has* to become a household word, which is exactly what intel wants.
I think I can extrapolate some future Intel chip names based on their previous track record:
2002: The Itanium II is introduced, with new AMI (Advanced Marketing Instructions) Technology(tm)
late 2002: A low-cost version of the Itanium core comes out, called either "Asparagon" or "Vidalion"
2004: Itanium III (duh)
late 2005: Intel's first 128-bit CPU is announced, which will be named Delirium.
I think it's a newly discovered highly radioactive element. Naturally, heavy elements of this sort are highly unstable and will decay in a matter of nanoseconds at best.
Perhaps it really is a fitting name for this new chip after all?
You don't need to quit drumming!
I type all the time (read my response a couple posts down) and I'm also a drummer.
Actually, I double-majored in percussion (and physics).
The most important thing I learned to prevent overstressing yourself, when typing or when playing, is to stay relaxed. Playing 4-mallet marimba is torture on the tendons, but what kept me from developing any type of repetitive stress problem, even through intensive practice, is frequent breaks.
As far as drums go, if you keep loose and warm up properly (you didn't just sit down and start banging away, did you?) you'll avoid all sorts of problems. You're probably gripping the stick too tight, which wastes energy and will definitely lead to CTS, tendonitis, etc.
I'm pretty sure you can start playing again if you wanted to, but you HAVE TO WARM UP every time. I learned plenty of warm ups and finger/arm stretches from marching in drumline.
Don't give up drums, they're so much fun!
Email me if you want any more advice on that front...
I took typing in high school, I hated it at the time.
Nowadays (25 years old) I consider it as one of the most useful classes I've taken.
How does it help to prevent CTS?
1) I can type very fast but I take frequent breaks. As soon as my fingers/wrists get the least bit tired, I stop and stretch. This is much better than typing slowly but non-stop.
2) I learned to use nearly correct posture (OK, I'm still slumped back in my chair) but my wrists are fairly relaxed when I type, and I let my fingers do the work.
I've never had a problem with typing, but I have developed some pains in my wrist from extended mouse-using. This typically happens at work, not while I'm at home playing games for some reason (must be the wrist pad I have at home).
When that happens, I put the mouse on the other side of the keyboard and go lefty for a day, which pretty much solves the problem.
Do you think that MS has future plans for, oh I dunno, "Microsoft Photoshop" and "Microsoft 3D Studio Max?"
I don't know how I'll react if MS buys the makers of two of the reasons I still use Windows (besides games)... Cakewalk Pro Audio and Sonic Foundry's SoundForge.
Cakewalk is already the market leader in music production applications which range from entry-level home apps to high-end music studio apps. They are also already "in bed" with MS technology (both soundforge and Cakewalk PA use DirectX plugins, for one thing, which actually work well).
I really like Cakewalk and SF as they are-- powerful, fast, easy to use, and UNBLOATED! The last thing I need is a dancing paperclip causing a GPF which corrupts whatever music files I have open at the time.