My advice, is much like the advice I've heard all over the place when it comes to getting a Masters. After getting your undergrad, go to work, and head to school part time to work on getting your MBA.
In my field we have so many Computer Engineers and Scientists it's ridiculous, and every year we hire some more from college. Everyone is looking to get a foot in the door, but most don't realize what it takes to get a leg up. Understanding how businesses work by getting the MBA will make you invaluable to the company and will open up leadership positions to you that were once closed off. Now when I say leadership, I'm not talking about low level management or even mid level management, but positions in which you might actually create change within the company.
Many of those same people who get the MBA, continue on to getting the PhD in Computer Science or Computer Engineering to solidify their hold within their field of expertise. Continue to strive for excellence in productivity, never forget education, and you will go far. It may not all be about the money, but it will make many of your other decisions in life easier to make when you're well off financially.
Microsoft has been at this game long enough to know exactly what they're doing. And with that I think the author like many others are missing the point. It's about leverage after all. Working as a contractor for the government I can tell you without any hesitation Vista will succeed based upon the government adopting it. Once the sequel to Vista comes out in say 2009, Microsoft will cease support to XP as they have support only the previous OS and that's it. This forces the hand of the government to adopt Vista as oversight deems we can't purchase systems with OSs that aren't supported. And when the vendors state that their applications won't work on Vista, the government will find someone that will. Essentially it's a snowball effect and everyone eventually comes on board anyways. Like it or not Vista is here and people will have to accept it. If not Vista, it will be it's successor. Just look at the timing between 2000 and XP to find history repeating itself. Regardless XP will go by the wayside.
Re:What value DO the entry level certs have?
on
Network Warrior
·
· Score: 1
All they get you is an interview. Of course then again you actually have to sound somewhat intelligent about the subject area you have a cert in. That alone weeds 95% of the candidates that I interview. It's a sad, sad world for most who just get the brain dumps and get the paper cert instead of actually learning the material.
Actually I was stationed in Camp Fallujah with the Marines. During that time I got to see both invasions of the city and experience the daily bombardment of rockets and mortars. Anyways, despite the affiliation with the Marines I also had the opportunity to provide some VSAT support to a few Army bases as well. Upon arrival back to the San Diego area after my last year there, I would have people walk up to me calling me the "Internet Guy". No one really knew who I was, I was just the guy that showed up when the dishes got out of alignment or some guy local to the base thought he might be able to tweak the system to add a few more systems to only break it instead. In the end the key moments for me was just enabling the Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers to establish contact back home. In a couple rare cases I was able to help coordinate a VTC in which two Marines were able to see their kids being born. And that's what it should be all about in my eyes.
Ryan may have been 26, but I did that when I was 24 working as a contractor for CSC. Anyone in the military uses the term drug deals to describe the shake of the hand barter system that gets you going day to day. Back in 2003, I traveled around to military installation setting up VSAT sat dishes to just to provide Internet Cafe's and VOIP access to the troops. Although this wasn't my actual job, I provided my expertise on a "free basis" to aid our troops. General Conway at the time deemed it enough of a priority to at least throw some money at it to get more sites up and running.
In the end, I didn't live in a tent. I was in an actual buidling complete with amenities most would envy in Iraq. Between all of my contacts, I was rocking it with a TV, DVD Player, Sat Cable and Internet, Refrigerator/freezer, microwave, xbox and ps2 at the time, and above all else AC. The hardest part was getting the transformers but much like everyone else the engineers scratched my back as well for what services I rendered in off time.
Traveling between bases, I flew. Forget doing a convoy where it takes you 14 hours to drive 30 miles. Helo rides were what it was all about, and I spent many nights either sweating my @$$ off or freezing to death just waiting for them to touch down to grab me.
Again, like others had said it's sensational journalism. What he did isn't all that impressive and some of the security procedures handled by SSI are negligent at best. I also have a problem trumping up his bad@$$ card for being logistically irresponsible.
I like to think I do an extensive amount of research prior to any hardware purchase, and have always had an issue with mice reviews as it is described in the article as it all seems to be arbitrary. Therefore I tend to option for reviews from Neweggers to determine what a good mouse is. In the drafting of the Christmas wish list I chose the Logitech G5 as the choice mouse this holiday season. Apparently 677 Neweggers can be wrong.
Last I knew the United States owned the moon as we performed mankinds version of a dog pissing to mark its territory by planting a flag on its surface. I just hope the designated Indian has his passport readily available with his customs declaration forms filled out. Thank you, and welcome to America.
First of all, modern media is bound by time constraints. Just as with newspapers in major metropolitan areas you need to be the first to run a story and beat the competition. The issue at hand now is that many don't verfiy the trustworthiness of their sources. If it's sensational, it's running. If it bleeds it leeds as the mantra states. Factor all of this in, and realize the last important facet is ownership of the news organizations themselves and you have a better idea of hidden agenda. Personally I love to read all the responses of those speaking og 1984, but then again... who's telling the news?
Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch...
Are they telling the truth, or are they providing you their slant? Look at who they dontate campaign contributions to. The fact of the matter is that today, there really is no unbiased news organization.
Being a former servicemember at Camp Fallujah, I will leave these parting words. As we invaded the City of Fallujah, Fox News was the only one to get the story even remotely correct. I'm not going to dime out the other news organizations who published blatantly wrong reports, but I'm sure it's not too hard to figure it out. What really gets me, is not what the News agencies decide to report, but rather what they don't report. Some within my unit had seen the torture chambers, the mass burial sites and the transportable chem labs possibly used for WMDs, but I never did see any news about their discoveries. Perhaps the Pentagon really does need to trump up some of their accomplishments as the regular news agencies remain speechless. After all, most need to see both sides of the story to make an informed decision for themselves.
So instead of sticking with just one news organization, read them all and try to find the truth that lies somewhere between them all.
Real quick lesson here. Try to make an "L" with both hands. The one that actually does make the L is your left hand. Now don't start looking in the mirror.;)
Therefore I really wouldn't really go on about your memory there champ. It's actually Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select(Optional), Start. I can't have you go back to retro games and wasting hours trying to get the extra lives only to be denied.
Every time my girlfriend feels compelled to go rent a movie I walk into a Blockbusted with disdain as I'm still infuriated over the years of late charges. I can recall a couple occasions where I'd forget to return a movie and the late charges would be more than the cost of the movie itself. Sure I should be upset with myself, but there should be some common sense applied.
Now when she pays for the movie and they try to sell me their online subscription I scoff. I'll be damned if I give them another penny for all the money the made off me in the past. As it is Netflix has a 1 day turnaround for me once my return gets there. They've been nothing short of spectacular in terms of service. Sure Blockbuster is cheaper, but I have my principles.
Having worked for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force G6 (Communications), I also had the luxury of working in the internet cafes. With that said, I can give you the straight scoop and not these purported theories. We have dedicated hardware to handle filtering and devote hardly any resources to monitoring the activities of the servicemembers. With that said we operate mostly on a lock everything down and ask permission for access mentality.
In the Internet Cafes owned and operated by KBR, and serviced by McDean, they rely on BlueCoats for the filtering. Once again, due to fighting a war we're not going to devote the time to locking down websites manually. At these Internet Cafes you can pull up anything any everything you want. Now there are standard policies in place as to what you can and can't look at, and that's an honor system (for the most part). Big brother is always watching, and generally that was me. The reason we watch is to ensure classified information isn't leaked.
To wrap this up, there is no polticially motivated conspiracy to prevent people from seeing certain sites. You can more or less blame the filtering hardware for that. Now if there are some sites that you really want to see go and talk to your local admin and see if they will unblock it for you. More times than not they will accomodate your request. But if you're on a government laptop (non Internet Cafe) don't start asking for MySpace as after all... it's for official use only. We can't have the taxpayers thinking there is "waste, fraud, and abuse".
It was about 4 months ago today that I submitted my two week notice to my boss for a company that is one of the largest Department of Defense Contractors. I had made mention to my boss that I was contemplating a departure for greener pastures noting that it was due to present business practices. Therefore it wasn't any real shock to the company and thus I was treated professionally. The notice went in and I maintained all accounts and access privledges up until the day I left. Until the last day I still went around to all my sites functioning as the lead System Administrator while trying to impart as much information upon my subordinates before my departure. Granted my boss told me I didn't really have to stay after submitting the notice, but I did it for the customer and my employees.
So what am I saying? If you don't give them any reason to doubt you... status quo is maintained.
Kofi Annan's son is announced to be the director of the UN program for issuance of domain names. In other news three months later, Kofi Annan's son is embroiled in a legal battle for kickbacks associated with squatting on domain names and selling the pilfered goods to the highest bidder. Finally the Vatican rejoices over pornography being outlawed in cyberspace.
This September I had finally thrown in the towel, and decided that my loyalty and dedication to my job had been taken for granted. Having served a year in Iraq with the Marines I had established a reputation as the "go-to" guy doing all that the customer requested. In fact I was to be there only 6 months, but stayed a year due to my replacements threatening to quit if forced to relieve me. I managed to save one co-worker from making that decision by "volunteering" to stay an additional 6 months. Truth be told, I would have had to stay anyways or quit myself.
They will compensate me accordingly for my service.
That's what I told myself to get me through another 6 months. Upon my return raises were coming down the pipe. As it stood I took a salary on at undermarker value for the San Diego area ($53,000) where rent is about $1200/month and every other aspect of living through the roof. I did this with the mentality that I would be rewarded based upon merit. Do a good job, expect a good raise. I was just trying to get the foot in the door in Defense Contracting.
Well, I manged to get a 3.82% raise... just like everyone else. You see, I would have been okay with that raise if I was just like everyone else. Fact of the matter is, is that I did what everyone else was unwilling to do. For the co-worker that remained behind due to my generosity, she was awarded the same as me. I felt insulted.
This having been the straw that broke the camel's back I searched elsewhere for employment. Thankfully for me, my reputation preceeded me and was sent a slew of offers as soon as I told other agencies I was looking to leave. Upon doing my exit interview with the company I had outlined several issues that lead to my decision. In the end however, as an employer don't provide blanket raises. This will only infuriate those that do the majority of the work or perform exemplary. As I told my boss's boss, this all would have been avoided if they had done raises based upon merit.
As a contractor deployed to support 1st Marine Expeditionary Force working on Command and Control systems, I've had the opportunity to do some morale work in theater such as setting up numerous Internet Cafes throughout Iraq. Being well aware of bureacracy associated with the procurement of satellite connections, I encourage you to seek out authorization first as I know personally that throughout all Marine Corps bases in theater it is illegal to own one personally. Why? Operational Security.
If an attack occurs, we go into a period of no communications with the outside world until the attack is investigated and next of kin is notified. If it is found that you have circumvented this by purchasing your own service, prepare to have the equipment confiscated. Operational Security is paramount.
Now I can see that you're looking at Orbit. I've unfortunately had to deal with them personally and two things you need to consider. First is that the service puts you on a shared channel. Secondly, Iraqis are not bound by laws governing false advertising. It would be nice to have such bandwidth rates, but unfortunately that is not the case. You can expect about 300k down and around 20k up. Now if you can get 8 sat dishes you can argue to be put on the same channel and then it's a wonderful experience. This however is costly. Latency is around 1000 to 1200ms on a good day.
VSAT is used out here quite a bit, and it's not all that bad. In fact most of the Internet Cafes use them. The advertised package for them with a 1mb down and 256kb up is 20 computer and 4 VOIP phones. Having done this for a year, I've learned you're going to require at least 22.5k per phone to get a connection. Base your implementation of this after performing some broadband tests on the satellite themself.
Finally... service providers for VOIP. There are two that I've used. With them, you can get down to 4 cents a minute. You can try "http://www.segoviaip.com" or try to work with SPAWAR using "http://ipcalling.openband.net/debit/openband/"
Again, I emphasize getting authorization and don't expect miracles from any ISP out here in theater. They want your business but don't deliver on promises.
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My advice, is much like the advice I've heard all over the place when it comes to getting a Masters. After getting your undergrad, go to work, and head to school part time to work on getting your MBA.
In my field we have so many Computer Engineers and Scientists it's ridiculous, and every year we hire some more from college. Everyone is looking to get a foot in the door, but most don't realize what it takes to get a leg up. Understanding how businesses work by getting the MBA will make you invaluable to the company and will open up leadership positions to you that were once closed off. Now when I say leadership, I'm not talking about low level management or even mid level management, but positions in which you might actually create change within the company.
Many of those same people who get the MBA, continue on to getting the PhD in Computer Science or Computer Engineering to solidify their hold within their field of expertise. Continue to strive for excellence in productivity, never forget education, and you will go far. It may not all be about the money, but it will make many of your other decisions in life easier to make when you're well off financially.
Microsoft has been at this game long enough to know exactly what they're doing. And with that I think the author like many others are missing the point. It's about leverage after all. Working as a contractor for the government I can tell you without any hesitation Vista will succeed based upon the government adopting it. Once the sequel to Vista comes out in say 2009, Microsoft will cease support to XP as they have support only the previous OS and that's it. This forces the hand of the government to adopt Vista as oversight deems we can't purchase systems with OSs that aren't supported. And when the vendors state that their applications won't work on Vista, the government will find someone that will. Essentially it's a snowball effect and everyone eventually comes on board anyways. Like it or not Vista is here and people will have to accept it. If not Vista, it will be it's successor. Just look at the timing between 2000 and XP to find history repeating itself. Regardless XP will go by the wayside.
All they get you is an interview. Of course then again you actually have to sound somewhat intelligent about the subject area you have a cert in. That alone weeds 95% of the candidates that I interview. It's a sad, sad world for most who just get the brain dumps and get the paper cert instead of actually learning the material.
Actually I was stationed in Camp Fallujah with the Marines. During that time I got to see both invasions of the city and experience the daily bombardment of rockets and mortars. Anyways, despite the affiliation with the Marines I also had the opportunity to provide some VSAT support to a few Army bases as well. Upon arrival back to the San Diego area after my last year there, I would have people walk up to me calling me the "Internet Guy". No one really knew who I was, I was just the guy that showed up when the dishes got out of alignment or some guy local to the base thought he might be able to tweak the system to add a few more systems to only break it instead. In the end the key moments for me was just enabling the Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers to establish contact back home. In a couple rare cases I was able to help coordinate a VTC in which two Marines were able to see their kids being born. And that's what it should be all about in my eyes.
Ryan may have been 26, but I did that when I was 24 working as a contractor for CSC. Anyone in the military uses the term drug deals to describe the shake of the hand barter system that gets you going day to day. Back in 2003, I traveled around to military installation setting up VSAT sat dishes to just to provide Internet Cafe's and VOIP access to the troops. Although this wasn't my actual job, I provided my expertise on a "free basis" to aid our troops. General Conway at the time deemed it enough of a priority to at least throw some money at it to get more sites up and running.
In the end, I didn't live in a tent. I was in an actual buidling complete with amenities most would envy in Iraq. Between all of my contacts, I was rocking it with a TV, DVD Player, Sat Cable and Internet, Refrigerator/freezer, microwave, xbox and ps2 at the time, and above all else AC. The hardest part was getting the transformers but much like everyone else the engineers scratched my back as well for what services I rendered in off time.
Traveling between bases, I flew. Forget doing a convoy where it takes you 14 hours to drive 30 miles. Helo rides were what it was all about, and I spent many nights either sweating my @$$ off or freezing to death just waiting for them to touch down to grab me.
Again, like others had said it's sensational journalism. What he did isn't all that impressive and some of the security procedures handled by SSI are negligent at best. I also have a problem trumping up his bad@$$ card for being logistically irresponsible.
I like to think I do an extensive amount of research prior to any hardware purchase, and have always had an issue with mice reviews as it is described in the article as it all seems to be arbitrary. Therefore I tend to option for reviews from Neweggers to determine what a good mouse is. In the drafting of the Christmas wish list I chose the Logitech G5 as the choice mouse this holiday season. Apparently 677 Neweggers can be wrong.
Last I knew the United States owned the moon as we performed mankinds version of a dog pissing to mark its territory by planting a flag on its surface. I just hope the designated Indian has his passport readily available with his customs declaration forms filled out. Thank you, and welcome to America.
First of all, modern media is bound by time constraints. Just as with newspapers in major metropolitan areas you need to be the first to run a story and beat the competition. The issue at hand now is that many don't verfiy the trustworthiness of their sources. If it's sensational, it's running. If it bleeds it leeds as the mantra states. Factor all of this in, and realize the last important facet is ownership of the news organizations themselves and you have a better idea of hidden agenda. Personally I love to read all the responses of those speaking og 1984, but then again... who's telling the news?
Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch...
Are they telling the truth, or are they providing you their slant? Look at who they dontate campaign contributions to. The fact of the matter is that today, there really is no unbiased news organization.
Being a former servicemember at Camp Fallujah, I will leave these parting words. As we invaded the City of Fallujah, Fox News was the only one to get the story even remotely correct. I'm not going to dime out the other news organizations who published blatantly wrong reports, but I'm sure it's not too hard to figure it out. What really gets me, is not what the News agencies decide to report, but rather what they don't report. Some within my unit had seen the torture chambers, the mass burial sites and the transportable chem labs possibly used for WMDs, but I never did see any news about their discoveries. Perhaps the Pentagon really does need to trump up some of their accomplishments as the regular news agencies remain speechless. After all, most need to see both sides of the story to make an informed decision for themselves.
So instead of sticking with just one news organization, read them all and try to find the truth that lies somewhere between them all.
Real quick lesson here. Try to make an "L" with both hands. The one that actually does make the L is your left hand. Now don't start looking in the mirror. ;)
Therefore I really wouldn't really go on about your memory there champ. It's actually Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select(Optional), Start. I can't have you go back to retro games and wasting hours trying to get the extra lives only to be denied.
Every time my girlfriend feels compelled to go rent a movie I walk into a Blockbusted with disdain as I'm still infuriated over the years of late charges. I can recall a couple occasions where I'd forget to return a movie and the late charges would be more than the cost of the movie itself. Sure I should be upset with myself, but there should be some common sense applied. Now when she pays for the movie and they try to sell me their online subscription I scoff. I'll be damned if I give them another penny for all the money the made off me in the past. As it is Netflix has a 1 day turnaround for me once my return gets there. They've been nothing short of spectacular in terms of service. Sure Blockbuster is cheaper, but I have my principles.
You were taking my post a little too literal, but thanks for the amplification.
Having worked for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force G6 (Communications), I also had the luxury of working in the internet cafes. With that said, I can give you the straight scoop and not these purported theories. We have dedicated hardware to handle filtering and devote hardly any resources to monitoring the activities of the servicemembers. With that said we operate mostly on a lock everything down and ask permission for access mentality.
In the Internet Cafes owned and operated by KBR, and serviced by McDean, they rely on BlueCoats for the filtering. Once again, due to fighting a war we're not going to devote the time to locking down websites manually. At these Internet Cafes you can pull up anything any everything you want. Now there are standard policies in place as to what you can and can't look at, and that's an honor system (for the most part). Big brother is always watching, and generally that was me. The reason we watch is to ensure classified information isn't leaked.
To wrap this up, there is no polticially motivated conspiracy to prevent people from seeing certain sites. You can more or less blame the filtering hardware for that. Now if there are some sites that you really want to see go and talk to your local admin and see if they will unblock it for you. More times than not they will accomodate your request. But if you're on a government laptop (non Internet Cafe) don't start asking for MySpace as after all... it's for official use only. We can't have the taxpayers thinking there is "waste, fraud, and abuse".
It was about 4 months ago today that I submitted my two week notice to my boss for a company that is one of the largest Department of Defense Contractors. I had made mention to my boss that I was contemplating a departure for greener pastures noting that it was due to present business practices. Therefore it wasn't any real shock to the company and thus I was treated professionally. The notice went in and I maintained all accounts and access privledges up until the day I left. Until the last day I still went around to all my sites functioning as the lead System Administrator while trying to impart as much information upon my subordinates before my departure. Granted my boss told me I didn't really have to stay after submitting the notice, but I did it for the customer and my employees.
So what am I saying? If you don't give them any reason to doubt you... status quo is maintained.
Kofi Annan's son is announced to be the director of the UN program for issuance of domain names. In other news three months later, Kofi Annan's son is embroiled in a legal battle for kickbacks associated with squatting on domain names and selling the pilfered goods to the highest bidder. Finally the Vatican rejoices over pornography being outlawed in cyberspace.
This September I had finally thrown in the towel, and decided that my loyalty and dedication to my job had been taken for granted. Having served a year in Iraq with the Marines I had established a reputation as the "go-to" guy doing all that the customer requested. In fact I was to be there only 6 months, but stayed a year due to my replacements threatening to quit if forced to relieve me. I managed to save one co-worker from making that decision by "volunteering" to stay an additional 6 months. Truth be told, I would have had to stay anyways or quit myself.
They will compensate me accordingly for my service.
That's what I told myself to get me through another 6 months. Upon my return raises were coming down the pipe. As it stood I took a salary on at undermarker value for the San Diego area ($53,000) where rent is about $1200/month and every other aspect of living through the roof. I did this with the mentality that I would be rewarded based upon merit. Do a good job, expect a good raise. I was just trying to get the foot in the door in Defense Contracting.
Well, I manged to get a 3.82% raise... just like everyone else. You see, I would have been okay with that raise if I was just like everyone else. Fact of the matter is, is that I did what everyone else was unwilling to do. For the co-worker that remained behind due to my generosity, she was awarded the same as me. I felt insulted.
This having been the straw that broke the camel's back I searched elsewhere for employment. Thankfully for me, my reputation preceeded me and was sent a slew of offers as soon as I told other agencies I was looking to leave. Upon doing my exit interview with the company I had outlined several issues that lead to my decision. In the end however, as an employer don't provide blanket raises. This will only infuriate those that do the majority of the work or perform exemplary. As I told my boss's boss, this all would have been avoided if they had done raises based upon merit.
As a contractor deployed to support 1st Marine Expeditionary Force working on Command and Control systems, I've had the opportunity to do some morale work in theater such as setting up numerous Internet Cafes throughout Iraq. Being well aware of bureacracy associated with the procurement of satellite connections, I encourage you to seek out authorization first as I know personally that throughout all Marine Corps bases in theater it is illegal to own one personally. Why? Operational Security. If an attack occurs, we go into a period of no communications with the outside world until the attack is investigated and next of kin is notified. If it is found that you have circumvented this by purchasing your own service, prepare to have the equipment confiscated. Operational Security is paramount. Now I can see that you're looking at Orbit. I've unfortunately had to deal with them personally and two things you need to consider. First is that the service puts you on a shared channel. Secondly, Iraqis are not bound by laws governing false advertising. It would be nice to have such bandwidth rates, but unfortunately that is not the case. You can expect about 300k down and around 20k up. Now if you can get 8 sat dishes you can argue to be put on the same channel and then it's a wonderful experience. This however is costly. Latency is around 1000 to 1200ms on a good day. VSAT is used out here quite a bit, and it's not all that bad. In fact most of the Internet Cafes use them. The advertised package for them with a 1mb down and 256kb up is 20 computer and 4 VOIP phones. Having done this for a year, I've learned you're going to require at least 22.5k per phone to get a connection. Base your implementation of this after performing some broadband tests on the satellite themself. Finally... service providers for VOIP. There are two that I've used. With them, you can get down to 4 cents a minute. You can try "http://www.segoviaip.com" or try to work with SPAWAR using "http://ipcalling.openband.net/debit/openband/" Again, I emphasize getting authorization and don't expect miracles from any ISP out here in theater. They want your business but don't deliver on promises.