I use Dell 20" at home and at work. They're the best looking flat panel monitors I've seen. The only complaint I have is minor. The power receptacle is dodgy.
... by which other electronic instruments would be judged. Tone is king and I've yet to heard anything that can create the incredible variety of tones his synthesizers could produce. Only a handful of artists were able to tap into it's full potential. Much of the synth work I subsequently heard in the 80s and 90s just didn't touch the early stuff played on the massive Moog Modular by Keith Emerson and Walter/Wendy Carlos.
I own a Moogerfooger Low Pass Filter (and a Control Panel) and it is way cool as an effect pedal. It's also an engineering momument.
The music world will miss you Bob. I hope Moog Music lives on and continues to produce innovative products.
I went to college in late 70's and returned in the late 90's to pursue a different degree. I kept most of my textbooks. Many of them came in handy as references. I knew where I'd seen something and could find it quickly. During my 15 year stint as an anaolg circuit designer, I needed a 2:1 step up power transformer that could handle 4kVA. I didn't need isolation so an autotransformer could be used. I pulled out my electric power system textbook and flipped right to the section on autotransformers.
Ten years later, I took a course which used an non-DRM'd electronic textbook in pdf format. I don't particularly like reading stuff in Adobe. I don't like having to fire up my computer to read a book. But the worst aspect of the electronic textbook for that course is that it vanished after the course was over. I have no reference. That sucks. Sure, I can pick up another textbook on the same subject. But using a book in a course gives me a familiarity I wouldn't otherwise have with the book. I consider having a reference part of the benefit of taking the course. The volatility of electronic books takes away my reference and leaves me with nothing.
This is a bad development for me. I've used a small, local DSL company for the past 2 years. They've had some DNS issues but the service has been very reliable. They have sensible terms of service. I like 'em and I'll stay with them unless compelled to switch.
From mid-2000 until mid-2003, we used Roadrunner. It was rock solid for a year, then we began to experience packet loss. It was attributed to "signal" levels. They replaced the splitter one time. That fixed the problem for a few months. Then it came back. The next time, they replaced the cable to the street with RJ-6. That fixed it for awhile. Later, the packet loss returned. They did something to the distribution amplifier to clear up that bout. There were several similar packet loss outages which were resolved by fixing the distribution amplifier. Then in summer of 2003, packet loss reared it's head which they were unable to resolve. I couldn't ssh to a remote machine. After a month of getting the runaround, I gave up and switched to a local DSL provider.
If this change is made, my choice will be either try Roadrunner again and see whether they've fixed the problems in my area or switch to Bellsouth. VPN was pretty flaky with Roadrunner even before the horrendous packet loss problems. If I can't get a good enough connection to use it, I'll have to work from the office on nights and weekends just like old times.
It doesn't do much good to crank out engineers and scientists from the universities if there's no work available which requires such credentials. It's not like they're going to sit around and do R&D for giggles. These people have to earn a living, one way or another. How many engineers and scientists have wound up doing whatever work they could find to pay the bills?
I get the impression from listening to alarmists like Gates that our situation can be remedied by cheerleading more young people into training for non-existent jobs. Is he serious? Enrollments have tracked demand. Demand for native born American engineers, programmers and scientists has fallen and students have veered away from those fields.
It seems no company can resist the siren song of cheap labor. Only now is it becoming clear what the true cost is. It won't be long before China has the US by the short hairs.
Some people still goof off the old fashioned way. One of my coworkers seems to be on the phone constantly. I see people reading magazines. There's a guy with a guitar in his office. People zone out and listen to iPods. I knocked on one guy's door, got no answer and found him asleep on the floor.
There was one guy who camped out in the handicapped stall in the restroom and read the EE Times and the newspaper. Our boss used to take notice of what kind of shoes this guy wore because he might have to go looking at feet in the stalls to find him. Another old redneck technician said, "He's gon' git th' hem-a-roids frum settin' in'are sa'long."
... for the past 5 years. And yet, the smug, smirking, puffy pundits continually tell us what fabulous shape the economy is in. No doubt most of these HP jobs paid well. The US has been hemoraging high paying jobs for 5 years. And I thought the recession of the early 90s was bad. That recesion was characterized by 4 figure layoffs. If headcount is a good measure, this recession is 10 times worse.
I get credit offers from the company I already have a credit card with. It amounts to mail noise. With one bank, the envelope the credit offer came in looked so similar to the billing statement, I shredded the wrong one. I've called them to no avail. It's not one outfit. Three big banks all did this. They're snail mail spammers.
"That information was then sold to his clients, which included more than 40 law firms and collection agencies."
I don't know whether the 40 law firms and collection agencies are criminally liable but if they ain't, they oughta be. An example should be made of them. Yes, those taking the data bear the brunt of the blame but the ones purchasing it have some culpability too.
None of the labor shortages predicted during the past 30 years has come to pass.
Some pundits, politicians and industry leaders seem to think that if the market is flooded with more technical degreed graduates, industry will be attracted. In other woirds, build it and they will come. That's putting the cart before the horse.
Enrollments have risen and fallen in direct proportion to the demand for graduates of the curriculum. For the past 5 years companies have been shedding workers in the US. Consequently, enrollments in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering have fallen dramatically. Should this trend continue, these curricula may be discontinued or scaled back at many of the 2nd and 3rd tier engineering schools.
Bill Gates is right. There is a shortage of labor at the price he'd like to pay. Similarly, there's a shortage of $1/gal gasoline.
The 5.7% figure that is mentioned is the unemployment rate for those in the CS field. This number sounds low but unemployment rates don't convey the employment condition in a particular field because those who change lines of work no longer get counted. For older, unemployed programmers, this is their best option. They no longer count as unemployed programmers but as employed retail store clerks. I know dozens of ex-coworkers who've lost jobs in their 40s and 50s. I've read many posts on slashdot claiming only 2nd rate programmers and engineers are pushed out. Those expressing such opinions seem to think their own skills are of such high quality that they will be spared such a fate. I guarantee each of these ex-coworkers I've referred to entertained similar notions. At this time, no accurate assesment exists of the underemployment problem in the USA.
Electronic circuit design was my first career after college. I watched manufacturing being outsourced in the 80s. By the late 80s, it was clear that the engineering work would also be outsourced. I retooled myself to be a software developer and have been doing that for more than 10 years. Now, the same thing is happening to this line of work.
When these high paying jobs leave the USA, the incomes leave too. People with lower incomes eventually have to consume less. Tough times lie ahead for many Americans.
An electronics lab instructor I had in college didn't read our notebooks carefully. I answered a question with the phrase, "mumbo jumbo, dog-faced in the banana patch" and he checked it.
To me, this rabid fixation on short-term profits is a bigger threat than outsourcing -- it is killing our ability to make astonishing things.
This has been the case with many companies since the mid 80s. Their R & D is alot more D than R. Many of the most admired technology companies of the 60s, 70s and 80s are gone because they ate their seed corn.
The rabid fixation with short term profits is a problem cut from the same cloth as outsourcing.
Using MS Antispyware seems like letting the fox guard the chicken house. Whether or not this FireFox stuff is a hoax, there's an inherent conflict of interest.
Handwringing about the quality of American education usually preceeds whining about shortages of workers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the quality of the schools will be less important anyway because most of the jobs likely to be created in the next decade don't require a bachelor degree. This Businessweek artticle summarizes that point.
I know many underemployed people today. Some were underemployed during good times. And now the BLS says this is likely to not only continue but worsen. So why is there a hue and cry about bad schools? Why are industry leaders like Gates involved? They are setting the table for subsequent lobbying campaigns to raise the quotas of H1-B and L1 visas. This isn't the first time they've followed this script and it won't be the last.
Well, now that we've "gotten over" the loss of privacy, perhaps the next thing the McNeely's of the world will tell us is that we should get used this kind of identity theft lottery too.
Well, now that we've "gotten over" the loss of privacy, perhaps the next thing the McNeely's of the world will tell us is that we should get used this kind of identity theft lottery too.
I'm in my late forties but mostly I see 20 sonethings around me. Very few of the people I went to school with are still doing any kind of technical work. Most were pushed out long ago. They tolerate my advancing age because I don't seem old to them. I'm an avid weightlifter and look like a linebacker. I'm also a karate instructor. So the youngins I work with don't perceive me as old.
The first 2 companies I worked for, ITT and RCA, no longer exist. I wrote off the possibility of working until retirement at one company long ago.
Everywhere I work, the engineers/developers are overburdened. Too much work, too little time or both seems to be the norm. I just do my best and hope it's enough. We live on the edge of burnout. Many empoyers don't want an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. They want an honest 1.5+ day's work for an honest day's pay. We got flex time. You can stay as long as you want so long as you're there at 8AM. Yessir. Everybody's a serf now, serfdom USA.
No wonder people are saying to heck with the internet. Spam, virii, worms, spyware, goofy OS problems... My dad asked me, "What damn good is it?" I see his point.
Slashdot Mirror
I use Dell 20" at home and at work. They're the best looking flat panel monitors I've seen. The only complaint I have is minor. The power receptacle is dodgy.
If this weren't the most powerful nation in the world, someone would have invaded us by now
uhhhh, actually we HAVE been invaded.
... because I drink a hell of alot of it.
I own a Moogerfooger Low Pass Filter (and a Control Panel) and it is way cool as an effect pedal. It's also an engineering momument.
The music world will miss you Bob. I hope Moog Music lives on and continues to produce innovative products.
I went to college in late 70's and returned in the late 90's to pursue a different degree. I kept most of my textbooks. Many of them came in handy as references. I knew where I'd seen something and could find it quickly. During my 15 year stint as an anaolg circuit designer, I needed a 2:1 step up power transformer that could handle 4kVA. I didn't need isolation so an autotransformer could be used. I pulled out my electric power system textbook and flipped right to the section on autotransformers.
Ten years later, I took a course which used an non-DRM'd electronic textbook in pdf format. I don't particularly like reading stuff in Adobe. I don't like having to fire up my computer to read a book. But the worst aspect of the electronic textbook for that course is that it vanished after the course was over. I have no reference. That sucks. Sure, I can pick up another textbook on the same subject. But using a book in a course gives me a familiarity I wouldn't otherwise have with the book. I consider having a reference part of the benefit of taking the course. The volatility of electronic books takes away my reference and leaves me with nothing.
This is a bad development for me. I've used a small, local DSL company for the past 2 years. They've had some DNS issues but the service has been very reliable. They have sensible terms of service. I like 'em and I'll stay with them unless compelled to switch.
From mid-2000 until mid-2003, we used Roadrunner. It was rock solid for a year, then we began to experience packet loss. It was attributed to "signal" levels. They replaced the splitter one time. That fixed the problem for a few months. Then it came back. The next time, they replaced the cable to the street with RJ-6. That fixed it for awhile. Later, the packet loss returned. They did something to the distribution amplifier to clear up that bout. There were several similar packet loss outages which were resolved by fixing the distribution amplifier. Then in summer of 2003, packet loss reared it's head which they were unable to resolve. I couldn't ssh to a remote machine. After a month of getting the runaround, I gave up and switched to a local DSL provider.
If this change is made, my choice will be either try Roadrunner again and see whether they've fixed the problems in my area or switch to Bellsouth. VPN was pretty flaky with Roadrunner even before the horrendous packet loss problems. If I can't get a good enough connection to use it, I'll have to work from the office on nights and weekends just like old times.
It doesn't do much good to crank out engineers and scientists from the universities if there's no work available which requires such credentials. It's not like they're going to sit around and do R&D for giggles. These people have to earn a living, one way or another. How many engineers and scientists have wound up doing whatever work they could find to pay the bills?
I get the impression from listening to alarmists like Gates that our situation can be remedied by cheerleading more young people into training for non-existent jobs. Is he serious? Enrollments have tracked demand. Demand for native born American engineers, programmers and scientists has fallen and students have veered away from those fields.
It seems no company can resist the siren song of cheap labor. Only now is it becoming clear what the true cost is. It won't be long before China has the US by the short hairs.
it's just the method of goofing off has changed
Some people still goof off the old fashioned way. One of my coworkers seems to be on the phone constantly. I see people reading magazines. There's a guy with a guitar in his office. People zone out and listen to iPods. I knocked on one guy's door, got no answer and found him asleep on the floor.
There was one guy who camped out in the handicapped stall in the restroom and read the EE Times and the newspaper. Our boss used to take notice of what kind of shoes this guy wore because he might have to go looking at feet in the stalls to find him. Another old redneck technician said, "He's gon' git th' hem-a-roids frum settin' in'are sa'long."
Or not send 10,000 credit offers to my house.
I get credit offers from the company I already have a credit card with. It amounts to mail noise. With one bank, the envelope the credit offer came in looked so similar to the billing statement, I shredded the wrong one. I've called them to no avail. It's not one outfit. Three big banks all did this. They're snail mail spammers.
Would you be willing to accept a pay and benefit cut to what IBM is paying in India?
"That information was then sold to his clients, which included more than 40 law firms and collection agencies."
I don't know whether the 40 law firms and collection agencies are criminally liable but if they ain't, they oughta be. An example should be made of them. Yes, those taking the data bear the brunt of the blame but the ones purchasing it have some culpability too.
None of the labor shortages predicted during the past 30 years has come to pass.
Some pundits, politicians and industry leaders seem to think that if the market is flooded with more technical degreed graduates, industry will be attracted. In other woirds, build it and they will come. That's putting the cart before the horse.
Enrollments have risen and fallen in direct proportion to the demand for graduates of the curriculum. For the past 5 years companies have been shedding workers in the US. Consequently, enrollments in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering have fallen dramatically. Should this trend continue, these curricula may be discontinued or scaled back at many of the 2nd and 3rd tier engineering schools.
Bill Gates is right. There is a shortage of labor at the price he'd like to pay. Similarly, there's a shortage of $1/gal gasoline.
The 5.7% figure that is mentioned is the unemployment rate for those in the CS field. This number sounds low but unemployment rates don't convey the employment condition in a particular field because those who change lines of work no longer get counted. For older, unemployed programmers, this is their best option. They no longer count as unemployed programmers but as employed retail store clerks. I know dozens of ex-coworkers who've lost jobs in their 40s and 50s. I've read many posts on slashdot claiming only 2nd rate programmers and engineers are pushed out. Those expressing such opinions seem to think their own skills are of such high quality that they will be spared such a fate. I guarantee each of these ex-coworkers I've referred to entertained similar notions. At this time, no accurate assesment exists of the underemployment problem in the USA.
Electronic circuit design was my first career after college. I watched manufacturing being outsourced in the 80s. By the late 80s, it was clear that the engineering work would also be outsourced. I retooled myself to be a software developer and have been doing that for more than 10 years. Now, the same thing is happening to this line of work.
When these high paying jobs leave the USA, the incomes leave too. People with lower incomes eventually have to consume less. Tough times lie ahead for many Americans.
An electronics lab instructor I had in college didn't read our notebooks carefully. I answered a question with the phrase, "mumbo jumbo, dog-faced in the banana patch" and he checked it.
To me, this rabid fixation on short-term profits is a bigger threat than outsourcing -- it is killing our ability to make astonishing things.
This has been the case with many companies since the mid 80s. Their R & D is alot more D than R. Many of the most admired technology companies of the 60s, 70s and 80s are gone because they ate their seed corn.
The rabid fixation with short term profits is a problem cut from the same cloth as outsourcing.
Gilmore thinks he's in a free country.
Using MS Antispyware seems like letting the fox guard the chicken house. Whether or not this FireFox stuff is a hoax, there's an inherent conflict of interest.
Handwringing about the quality of American education usually preceeds whining about shortages of workers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the quality of the schools will be less important anyway because most of the jobs likely to be created in the next decade don't require a bachelor degree. This Businessweek artticle summarizes that point.
I know many underemployed people today. Some were underemployed during good times. And now the BLS says this is likely to not only continue but worsen. So why is there a hue and cry about bad schools? Why are industry leaders like Gates involved? They are setting the table for subsequent lobbying campaigns to raise the quotas of H1-B and L1 visas. This isn't the first time they've followed this script and it won't be the last.
Well, now that we've "gotten over" the loss of privacy, perhaps the next thing the McNeely's of the world will tell us is that we should get used this kind of identity theft lottery too.
Well, now that we've "gotten over" the loss of privacy, perhaps the next thing the McNeely's of the world will tell us is that we should get used this kind of identity theft lottery too.
What do you have to hide, comrade?
... but they found out my parents were married when I was born and they wouldn't hire me.
I'm in my late forties but mostly I see 20 sonethings around me. Very few of the people I went to school with are still doing any kind of technical work. Most were pushed out long ago. They tolerate my advancing age because I don't seem old to them. I'm an avid weightlifter and look like a linebacker. I'm also a karate instructor. So the youngins I work with don't perceive me as old.
The first 2 companies I worked for, ITT and RCA, no longer exist. I wrote off the possibility of working until retirement at one company long ago.
Everywhere I work, the engineers/developers are overburdened. Too much work, too little time or both seems to be the norm. I just do my best and hope it's enough. We live on the edge of burnout. Many empoyers don't want an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. They want an honest 1.5+ day's work for an honest day's pay. We got flex time. You can stay as long as you want so long as you're there at 8AM. Yessir. Everybody's a serf now, serfdom USA.
No wonder people are saying to heck with the internet. Spam, virii, worms, spyware, goofy OS problems