If the author is really as smart as he asserts himself to be why didn't he test out of the introductory engineering courses? The College Board offers advanced placement (AP) tests on a variety of subjects that are graded on a 1-5 scale (5 being the best). Most universities in the US will grant you college credit if you do well enough on the AP test (3-5, depending on the school and/or test). At my high school your GPA was only part of the metric used to determine how "smart" you were. AP scores were a lot more useful.
Right, a failed test certainly means that the system doesn't and will never work...
Regardless of one's opinion about the necessity, or lack thereof, of a missle defense system one can hardly judge it's efficacy based on a failed test (or even a hundred failed tests).
The purpose of testing is to, you know, test the thing to see if it works. If the test fails then you analyize the failure data and make corrections.
Newspapers don't just have news: they also have features, editorials, advertisements, etc.
Even if you could apply variable copyright terms to the various types of content in a newspaper it would be a near if not impossible task for an OCR system to determine what is and what isn't copyright protected.
Who saved Europe in the late 1910s? how about the 1940s? What great European power stepped into the former Yugoslavia in the 90s? When in the past century has the defense of Europe NOT been relient on a third party (the US)?
The US saved Europe from Germany (twice!), and protected it from the Soviet Union from the end of WWII through the end of the Cold War.
Do you honestly think that the US would abdicate the defense of Europe to the defenseless EU if WWIII ever came to pass? We saved Europe twice already, what makes you think that we wouldn't be dumb enough to do it again?
1) Go get the phone book from the secretary. 2) Open to the "electricians" or "electrical contractors" page. 3) Phone around to schedule appointments for estimates. 4) Pay the most experienced master electrician you can find whatever he/she asks. 5) Be glad you saved yourself from becoming a Darwin Award winner.
Seriously, what are you thinking? Electricity is dangerous, even for people who know what they are doing. If you can't identify those "soda bottles", you are not qualified to do this work. It is probably even illegal for you to do so. Go hire a professional right this second.
In AA you CAN NOT shoot whilst jumping. There are, however, some hacks that have allowed people to turn this on.
Likewise, you can't bunny-hop forever: there is some measure of "stamina" that prevents you from just jumping around like a rabbit on uppers.
Third, the M16 in AA is not full-auto. There are full-auto M4s, and you can also pick up AKs off of dead opfor that will be full auto for you (because you see it as an AK, not an M16).
H&H Surplus on Eutaw St. used to be a great place. They had all sorts of miscellaneous junk: camping gear, old military radios & electronics, you name it.
I haven't been there in ages, and I think that it may have closed down.
An early release of Java2D had a bug were mouse event coordinates where flipped about the x axis. I was implementing a dartboard widget at the time, and I was always getting the wrong numbers when I clicked on various regions of the widget. It took me forever to find out that it was a library problem and not a bug in my code.
Ever hear of a company called IBM, you know, the one that owns Lotus? Do you think that they would allow people to use MS products like Outlook or Exchange?
I think if you read what I wrote more carefully, you'd see that at no time do I knock people with shitty grades. I'm simply pointing out that Joe RecruiterGuy is probably going to pass you over if your GPA is in the tank.
Consider why for just a moment. Your point, strictly speaking, is correct. Just because your grades are great, that doesn't make you a good programmer. Logically the contrapositive would also be true: just because your grades are bad, it doesn't mean you're a bad programmer.
The thing to keep in mind here is that recruiters use your grades to guage more than just your intellect. Grades can also give some insight into your "sticktuitiveness". Did you perform well in a class that you hated and didn't think was important? This translates directly to work situations where you'll have assignments that you loath, but still need to execute well.
These days, college recruiters are inundated with resumes for a shrinking number of positions. They have to make tough choices about who will and who won't get interviews. Whether you think it's fair or not, your GPA is probably going to be the most critical factor that lands you an interview.
There is some hope, even if your GPA is less than stellar. Establish a relationship with the campus recruiters. If you can wow them with your experience and other qualifications, they may be willing to give you a second look; doubly so if you can give a good explaination for poor grades.
Note: I am an IBM employee, but these opinions and observations are mine and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of IBM.
One thing I always love about "Ask Slashdot" is that people ask questions who seem to have already made up their mind about the answer. This questioner is no different. A more useful question would have been: I'm a CS undergrad and I'm getting ready to graduate. What weapons do I need in the interview process to land me a job given the current economy? See how that question doesn't presuppose an answer?
I'll answer the question you should have asked, rather than the one you did ask. So, what is important for the job-seeking CS undergrad these days? The first thing would be to find a company that is actually still hiring undergrads. Don't let the fact that some company XYZ was at your college's job fair imply that they are looking to hire you. When I went back to my alma mater in October to assist with the recruiting effort, there were several companies at the job fair who were there basically to save face. Many weren't hiring and were simply collecting resumes which I can only assume went straight to the nearest recycling bin. You're wasting your time pursuing a company like this. If they don't have the budget to hire people, then it doesn't matter how intelligent or skilled you are, you won't be hired there. That said, there are still some companies that are hiring. The key difference is that now they are looking for the absolute cream of the crop. This is opposed to just a few years ago, when software companies were hiring anyone who was remotely qualified.
So what makes you the cream of the crop? Obviously, intelligence and raw ability are very important. If you have shitty grades, you might as well start looking for a job in another field; however, your intellect alone is not going to get you a job.
Experience is also very important. You touched on this with your original question, but I think that you're looking in the wrong place to gain experience. While you can certainly argue that OSS experience is better than no experience, I would say that working on an OSS project doesn't really give you the kind of experience that commercial software firms are looking for. Hiring managers want to see that you've worked in a close knit, team setting; they want to see that you can communicate effectively with your teammates (in both oral and written media); they want to see that you have solid design skills. Basically, they want to see if you have a structured approach to designing, writing, documenting and testing software. In contrast, OSS projects seem to take a more freeform approach which is orthogonal to how commercial firms do business. There are exceptions to be sure, but I think that by and large the majority of OSS projects aren't going to provide you the right kind of experience. A better approach would be to secure an internship or co-op position. Not only do you get some experience in the "cathedral", but you also get your foot in the door for when you do graduate.
Something else to consider is your prospective employer's attitude towards the OSS movement. Some companies are outwardly embracing OSS because they see the business climate as heading that way - basically, an "if you can't beat'em, join'em" attitude. Even if the company is outwardly a supporter of OSS, the individual hiring managers may not be. My former manager was very skittish about OSS, despite the fact that IBM is embracing it with more or less open arms. Here, you have to be able to get a read on the person who is going to be responsible to making you the actual job offer. Feel them out first before you launch into the OSS experience you have.
A passion for the technology is also important. Are you really excited about the field, or did you just pick CS because the monetary prospects looked good at the time? People who are really into technology wear that enthusiasm on their sleeves. It really comes through in an interview, and can make all the difference between otherwise equally qualified applicants. Find some area that you are really excited about an concentrate on it. Have some demos to show in the interview. Interviewers love to have something to back up the resume, and a portfolio CD is a great way to do that.
In my experience, applications with a big focus on usability tend to have better error handling on multiple levels, the first being more of it; the second being better explainations of errors that do occur.
Given that most open-source software doesn't have a big focus on usability, I think it's obvious that open-source applications will be perceived as having poor error handling.
Sometimes I think that the/. editors took FUD lessons from Bill & company...
Please tell me why you are painting Adobe in a negative light with respect to this "story". Adobe owns the trademark to the word "Illustrator" when applied to computer graphics programs. Can you look me in the eye and tell me with a straight face that KIllustrator doesn't dilute that trademark? I didn't think so.
If Microsoft, rather than KDE, was marketing "MSIllustrator" you know that there would be a bloody outcry from the/. community in favor of the original author (Adobe). But since it's a Linux-friendly company that's doing the infringing, everyone wants to direct their angst at Adobe.
Slashdot Mirror
Too bad we don't sell it anymore, but IBM CMVC is great at this sort of thing.
If the author is really as smart as he asserts himself to be why didn't he test out of the introductory engineering courses? The College Board offers advanced placement (AP) tests on a variety of subjects that are graded on a 1-5 scale (5 being the best). Most universities in the US will grant you college credit if you do well enough on the AP test (3-5, depending on the school and/or test). At my high school your GPA was only part of the metric used to determine how "smart" you were. AP scores were a lot more useful.
AFAIK H1-B is a guest worker program. When I think immigrant I think "resident alien" (i.e. green card).
Right, a failed test certainly means that the system doesn't and will never work...
Regardless of one's opinion about the necessity, or lack thereof, of a missle defense system one can hardly judge it's efficacy based on a failed test (or even a hundred failed tests).
The purpose of testing is to, you know, test the thing to see if it works. If the test fails then you analyize the failure data and make corrections.
Newspapers don't just have news: they also have features, editorials, advertisements, etc.
Even if you could apply variable copyright terms to the various types of content in a newspaper it would be a near if not impossible task for an OCR system to determine what is and what isn't copyright protected.
Which is why we have the JCP & JSRs.
Sir YOU are the naive one in this discussion.
Who saved Europe in the late 1910s? how about the 1940s? What great European power stepped into the former Yugoslavia in the 90s? When in the past century has the defense of Europe NOT been relient on a third party (the US)?
The US saved Europe from Germany (twice!), and protected it from the Soviet Union from the end of WWII through the end of the Cold War.
Do you honestly think that the US would abdicate the defense of Europe to the defenseless EU if WWIII ever came to pass? We saved Europe twice already, what makes you think that we wouldn't be dumb enough to do it again?
Maybe XLC has been around for a while.
1) Go get the phone book from the secretary.
2) Open to the "electricians" or "electrical contractors" page.
3) Phone around to schedule appointments for estimates.
4) Pay the most experienced master electrician you can find whatever he/she asks.
5) Be glad you saved yourself from becoming a Darwin Award winner.
Seriously, what are you thinking? Electricity is dangerous, even for people who know what they are doing. If you can't identify those "soda bottles", you are not qualified to do this work. It is probably even illegal for you to do so. Go hire a professional right this second.
In AA you CAN NOT shoot whilst jumping. There are, however, some hacks that have allowed people to turn this on.
Likewise, you can't bunny-hop forever: there is some measure of "stamina" that prevents you from just jumping around like a rabbit on uppers.
Third, the M16 in AA is not full-auto. There are full-auto M4s, and you can also pick up AKs off of dead opfor that will be full auto for you (because you see it as an AK, not an M16).
No software is ever "finished". Even if it's feature-complete, there are always bugs to fix.
First Taco dupes someone else's post, then he dupes himself. A double-dupe, or "tripe" (pun intended).
/.
This is a perfect example of why I will NEVER pay for
H&H Surplus on Eutaw St. used to be a great place. They had all sorts of miscellaneous junk: camping gear, old military radios & electronics, you name it.
I haven't been there in ages, and I think that it may have closed down.
If you want purple title bars, may I suggest WebSphere 5.0......
Considering that I've never heard of this "Britan" place of which you speak, I am not worried.
An early release of Java2D had a bug were mouse event coordinates where flipped about the x axis. I was implementing a dartboard widget at the time, and I was always getting the wrong numbers when I clicked on various regions of the widget. It took me forever to find out that it was a library problem and not a bug in my code.
Yes, and if only your aunt had balls, then she would be your uncle.
Seriously, how can you equate any OSS project, even the Linux kernel, so something like an ATC system? OSS is not a magic pill folks.
Perhaps you have forgotten about a product called
DB2....
Ever hear of a company called IBM, you know, the one that owns Lotus? Do you think that they would allow people to use MS products like Outlook or Exchange?
Think about it.
I think if you read what I wrote more carefully, you'd see that at no time do I knock people with shitty grades. I'm simply pointing out that Joe RecruiterGuy is probably going to pass you over if your GPA is in the tank.
Consider why for just a moment. Your point, strictly speaking, is correct. Just because your grades are great, that doesn't make you a good programmer. Logically the contrapositive would also be true: just because your grades are bad, it doesn't mean you're a bad programmer.
The thing to keep in mind here is that recruiters use your grades to guage more than just your intellect. Grades can also give some insight into your "sticktuitiveness". Did you perform well in a class that you hated and didn't think was important? This translates directly to work situations where you'll have assignments that you loath, but still need to execute well.
These days, college recruiters are inundated with resumes for a shrinking number of positions. They have to make tough choices about who will and who won't get interviews. Whether you think it's fair or not, your GPA is probably going to be the most critical factor that lands you an interview.
There is some hope, even if your GPA is less than stellar. Establish a relationship with the campus recruiters. If you can wow them with your experience and other qualifications, they may be willing to give you a second look; doubly so if you can give a good explaination for poor grades.
One thing I always love about "Ask Slashdot" is that people ask questions who seem to have already made up their mind about the answer. This questioner is no different. A more useful question would have been: I'm a CS undergrad and I'm getting ready to graduate. What weapons do I need in the interview process to land me a job given the current economy? See how that question doesn't presuppose an answer?
I'll answer the question you should have asked, rather than the one you did ask. So, what is important for the job-seeking CS undergrad these days? The first thing would be to find a company that is actually still hiring undergrads. Don't let the fact that some company XYZ was at your college's job fair imply that they are looking to hire you. When I went back to my alma mater in October to assist with the recruiting effort, there were several companies at the job fair who were there basically to save face. Many weren't hiring and were simply collecting resumes which I can only assume went straight to the nearest recycling bin. You're wasting your time pursuing a company like this. If they don't have the budget to hire people, then it doesn't matter how intelligent or skilled you are, you won't be hired there. That said, there are still some companies that are hiring. The key difference is that now they are looking for the absolute cream of the crop. This is opposed to just a few years ago, when software companies were hiring anyone who was remotely qualified.
So what makes you the cream of the crop? Obviously, intelligence and raw ability are very important. If you have shitty grades, you might as well start looking for a job in another field; however, your intellect alone is not going to get you a job.
Experience is also very important. You touched on this with your original question, but I think that you're looking in the wrong place to gain experience. While you can certainly argue that OSS experience is better than no experience, I would say that working on an OSS project doesn't really give you the kind of experience that commercial software firms are looking for. Hiring managers want to see that you've worked in a close knit, team setting; they want to see that you can communicate effectively with your teammates (in both oral and written media); they want to see that you have solid design skills. Basically, they want to see if you have a structured approach to designing, writing, documenting and testing software. In contrast, OSS projects seem to take a more freeform approach which is orthogonal to how commercial firms do business. There are exceptions to be sure, but I think that by and large the majority of OSS projects aren't going to provide you the right kind of experience. A better approach would be to secure an internship or co-op position. Not only do you get some experience in the "cathedral", but you also get your foot in the door for when you do graduate.
Something else to consider is your prospective employer's attitude towards the OSS movement. Some companies are outwardly embracing OSS because they see the business climate as heading that way - basically, an "if you can't beat'em, join'em" attitude. Even if the company is outwardly a supporter of OSS, the individual hiring managers may not be. My former manager was very skittish about OSS, despite the fact that IBM is embracing it with more or less open arms. Here, you have to be able to get a read on the person who is going to be responsible to making you the actual job offer. Feel them out first before you launch into the OSS experience you have.
A passion for the technology is also important. Are you really excited about the field, or did you just pick CS because the monetary prospects looked good at the time? People who are really into technology wear that enthusiasm on their sleeves. It really comes through in an interview, and can make all the difference between otherwise equally qualified applicants. Find some area that you are really excited about an concentrate on it. Have some demos to show in the interview. Interviewers love to have something to back up the resume, and a portfolio CD is a great way to do that.
I saw him, though it might have been in the "mystery" trailer.
In my experience, applications with a big focus on usability tend to have better error handling on multiple levels, the first being more of it; the second being better explainations of errors that do occur.
Given that most open-source software doesn't have a big focus on usability, I think it's obvious that open-source applications will be perceived as having poor error handling.
Sounds similar to PLAF in Swing: you can use the Windows PLAF on a non-windows box.
Sometimes I think that the /. editors took FUD lessons from Bill & company...
/. community in favor of the original author (Adobe). But since it's a Linux-friendly company that's doing the infringing, everyone wants to direct their angst at Adobe.
Please tell me why you are painting Adobe in a negative light with respect to this "story". Adobe owns the trademark to the word "Illustrator" when applied to computer graphics programs. Can you look me in the eye and tell me with a straight face that KIllustrator doesn't dilute that trademark? I didn't think so.
If Microsoft, rather than KDE, was marketing "MSIllustrator" you know that there would be a bloody outcry from the