"Let's see. Excluding sleeping and other mundane activities, how much of your time do you spend at work, and how much do you spend away from work?"
I think one thing that should be considered is at the startup that is working on an OS, overtime might be unofficially required. So that should be taken into consideration.
I am still a student, but recently I faced the same question. I was guarenteed 2 jobs, one where I would be programming a wireless app for windows (in visual C++, C#, etc.) for $x/hr or in the other I could become an administrator for $(x+4)/hr. Now, considering I am a student and x is quite small the $4 was significant enough to make the decision interesting.
I finally settled on the programming job because I realized that getting experience / diversifying my resume would be well worth it in the long run. You may not be making much now, but it sounds like a good opportunity to add to your resume. I can't say for sure that you'll have more money in the future, but I like to think about it this way: What is better, building a career I could see myself doing for the rest of my life, or a single job that I regard as a vehicle to simply pay the bills?
Besides, there are plenty of jobs like the one you have now. And if they have a CS major doing it, then I doubt they really care about being a person being overqualified. So it probably won't be hard to get another one like it.
The only thing I would be concerned about is the overtime of the OS job. And the ramifications should probably be explained to your gf (if the two of you have a significant enough relationship).
Okay I have a grudge this week. The other day I was at McDonalds and a bunch (maybe two dozen) of junior high kids came in and literally were having a massive food fight and left without even dumping their trays in the trash. Obviously all brats that have been taught no values or respect for other people at all. Worse, some of their parents were there and let them do it.
Don't worry, in a few years Karma will have them cleaning up many messes at their McJobs. Speaking of karma, I sense mine diminishing due to being off topic.
"Thank you science, for trying to take the mystery out of art. Not everything can be quantified. Some things just need to be appreciated and enjoyed for what they are."
Think about it, if you were going to analyze someone random person's expression in a random pose, would it hit home as well as a painting that everyone knows.
As is, I can read the article in lynx and understand everything. Hell, reading the results and knowing the subject is enough.
As they said: "Possibly the most famous portrait of all time, Mona Lisa's cryptic expression has intrigued art lovers for five centuries."
The first part agrees with what I've said, and the second leaves the defense for any fuck ups on the researcher's part as "interpretation" of the subject.
It was a damn smart move from a logical standpoint if you ask me.
Speaking of avoiding hardware that prempts the need for spyware to be implemented in software, Does anyone know of a list of hardware that consumers should avoid?
If not, does anyone want to start a wiki entry or something similar?
You are recommending that someone who asks/. questions that are best answered on tech support boards to convert to linux?
Cliff, (the editor for this story) would be overrun with questions. And I would pity him.
I love converting users to *nix for whatever reason. But I do it responsibily. I offer tech support to anyone that converts.
That being said, I've probably watched other people operate a *nix system for about 20 minutes of my life. What little I know is based on reading the best documentation I could find on whatever subject (sometimes by asking friends for manuals to read). So, I'm not saying that people need the support, because I didn't recieve that much from people. What I am saying is that you should be cautious about recommending a new enviroment to anyone.
Even OS X (supposed UI utopia) can have little annoyances to recently converted users.
So, I agree with you for the most part. And if the person asking the question has a reliable friend that knows *nix then you are perfectly right, all I'm saying is be careful.
It is one thing to ask/.'ers to do tech support for truly difficult problems. But this one should have been managable by the people at any friendly computer repair center.
You know, digg might be on to something with the ability to mod stories up or down.
My biggest concern is that the current system rewards expansion, potientially at the expense of maintaining both the products and the relationships with the customer.
A happy customer can sometimes inform potiential customers about your service. Likewise, a dissatisfied customer may be more trouble than any software problem you could ever have.
Therefore, at the very least, maintaining relations should be considered on par with selling. Meaning that the support staff is just as important.
Furthermore, maintaining relations also includes those people that may never see the customers. Developers are cruicial here. If they do a bad job, everyone else is either selling shit or having to spend resources and good will to maintain it.
This is much like a waiter being the only one who gets a tip when the chef prepared the meal. Not a good way to motivate people (and may have the opposite effect of critical people feeling under appriciated).
Then again, I'm just a 21 year old CS student... What do I know about the business world?
"Actually, they can put a breathalyzer in your car. A friend of mine's next door neighbor had one in her car that would not allow the car to start if she had alcohol in her system. Yes, it was court mandated."
I can see it now:
*In a bar, about to leave*
"Hey lady, could I get a quick blow in my car?"
The brevity and content of the post implies that the poster thinks the article is stupid and not worth talking about. A "Nothing to see here, move along" response would have been the more verbose equivalent.
And when I read it the comment for the first time, it struck me as being humourous, because of its quick and simple dismissal of the topic at hand while answering the main question of the article.
Hell, if one assumes what I've just said to be true, then the post is informative for people that don't RTA (not to waste time).
It at the very least shows more independant thought than some/.ers have shown.
This journalist is in awe of other supposed journalists' (blogger's) new toy, then procedes to overstate the issue.
In other news, according to Cookie Monster, the cookie has been declared "best food ever." When pressed on which particular cookie was superior he declined any further comment.
/.'ers also contain many Windows sysadmins and developers, not to mention users.
I know that I need to vent my frustration somewhere, with people that understand the unique pain that is inflicted only by Microsoft.
Hell, there should be a call for "Worst Microsoft Experience: (admin, developer, conserned employee, user, and a special award for kludges available for each catagory)" to present rewards. I don't even want to think about what horrors would be revealed.
"I can't come up with anything else in the entire marketing world where marketers knowingly introduce a flawed or inadequate product [and] it helps grow your user base."
Doesn't this describe the computer industry in general?
"The Washington Post is reporting the next phase of American progress authorizing intelligence agencies to CAPTURE TERRORISTS without oversight." - Fox'd it up a bit.
My observation is that the media believes that by saying what I said above mixed with the post, reporting on the issue is "fair and balanced".
You're right though, the way to talk about these things is to be more analytical and give the readers the benefit of the doubt that they can read between the lines (maybe add in some historical, or legal commentary to make hints).
I'll admit that my system isn't perfectly balanced, but it is at least trying to give facts rather than opinions.
Oddly enough, I must conclude by saying that this is just my 2 cents. Not a good way to end this reply.
My current job is all about creating a feature that is difficult + time consuming to duplicate thanks to the way microsoft has implemented certain things.
Now, I'm not very good at these types of things, but I suppose that would make me the glass maker, because I profit due to the inflexibility of windows.
So, I suppose if windows built certain things better then I wouldn't have this job...
Doesn't that mean that from my perspective microsoft is the broken window?
"Really? My users (nearly 90% in our last questionnaire) love the Word interface and look-and-feel." Just because you're stuck with something doesn't mean you have to dislike it. "I'm stuck on this planet, but I like it's atmosphere." I know you're trying to say that they are happy and probably wouldn't go elsewhere anyways, but the argument is that they don't have a choice.
Now choice isn't important to everyone. But people aren't wrong for wanting to have it. In the case of word documents, its like another language. "I want to talk to this person, just not under these circumstances" I'll admit it isn't the best example, because everyone understands that person x doesn't speak language y, and will usually be forgiving. Not everyone understands the implications of using a word file.
The choice argument could also be used for defending word perfect (and competition in general), but I don't think I've ever used it, so I leave that up to other posters
Now, the reason that the author claims microsoft has stunted development is probably because developing with windows can be a hateful thing. There are several issues (window's interface (in the context of resource/information gathering), closed source (why doesn't x work? I can't read the code so I'll have to look at the...), documentation (In most cases it says enough, but sometimes msdn only has the bare minimum and really needs to elaborate more about certain things), etc.
That being said, I dislike windows. I don't think I like any operating system in general (maybe OS X, but I have yet to develop for it, so I'm going to reserve judgement on that one), but agree that getting rid of windows would be a positive thing.
I leave talking about the business side of microsoft to others.
A prof of mine had a much better solution to informing students that even though something is legal it may not be desirable...
Instead of getting a 100, he'd give a 99.9999999999999999999 and a note on the side. The trailing number of 9s would get your attention and the note would teach you a lesson.
I've always thought it to be fair and effective.
*Come to think about it, in a fewest LOC assignment we were given in assembly (with the prof mentioned above) I did something very similar to the thread starter... I also got fewest LOC... Granted, assembly is different than C++, but the hack I employed that no one else did involved a jump instruction...
I'd give the original poster a 99.9999999999999999999 and a note explaining why gotos shouldn't be used, then declare an edict of no gotos in the next class.
Slashdot Mirror
"Let's see. Excluding sleeping and other mundane activities, how much of your time do you spend at work, and how much do you spend away from work?"
I think one thing that should be considered is at the startup that is working on an OS, overtime might be unofficially required. So that should be taken into consideration.
I am still a student, but recently I faced the same question. I was guarenteed 2 jobs, one where I would be programming a wireless app for windows (in visual C++, C#, etc.) for $x/hr or in the other I could become an administrator for $(x+4)/hr. Now, considering I am a student and x is quite small the $4 was significant enough to make the decision interesting.
I finally settled on the programming job because I realized that getting experience / diversifying my resume would be well worth it in the long run. You may not be making much now, but it sounds like a good opportunity to add to your resume. I can't say for sure that you'll have more money in the future, but I like to think about it this way: What is better, building a career I could see myself doing for the rest of my life, or a single job that I regard as a vehicle to simply pay the bills?
Besides, there are plenty of jobs like the one you have now. And if they have a CS major doing it, then I doubt they really care about being a person being overqualified. So it probably won't be hard to get another one like it.
The only thing I would be concerned about is the overtime of the OS job. And the ramifications should probably be explained to your gf (if the two of you have a significant enough relationship).
180 profs bring a game into the classroom, 1 person uploads a walkthrough on the internet.
And I thought that "lectures" which are nothing more than powerpoint presentations were bad.
*sitting through a powerpoint lecture as I'm typing*
That's the problem with AI in general... Context...
I believe being bored isn't as much of an emotion, as it is expressing certain emotions under some circumstance.
In OOP terms, state of being inheirits emotion.
"Thank you science, for trying to take the mystery out of art. Not everything can be quantified. Some things just need to be appreciated and enjoyed for what they are."
Think about it, if you were going to analyze someone random person's expression in a random pose, would it hit home as well as a painting that everyone knows.
As is, I can read the article in lynx and understand everything. Hell, reading the results and knowing the subject is enough.
As they said:
"Possibly the most famous portrait of all time, Mona Lisa's cryptic expression has intrigued art lovers for five centuries."
The first part agrees with what I've said, and the second leaves the defense for any fuck ups on the researcher's part as "interpretation" of the subject.
It was a damn smart move from a logical standpoint if you ask me.
"So what are they licensing? Pixie dust?"
Everyone knows pixie dust was patented by Hewlett Packard.
http://amo.net/NT/07-21-01HP.html
Speaking of avoiding hardware that prempts the need for spyware to be implemented in software, Does anyone know of a list of hardware that consumers should avoid?
If not, does anyone want to start a wiki entry or something similar?
(All I've found so far is http://www.againsttcpa.com/tcpa-hardware.html ) But I will be searching more in-depth later
You are recommending that someone who asks /. questions that are best answered on tech support boards to convert to linux?
Cliff, (the editor for this story) would be overrun with questions. And I would pity him.
I love converting users to *nix for whatever reason. But I do it responsibily. I offer tech support to anyone that converts.
That being said, I've probably watched other people operate a *nix system for about 20 minutes of my life. What little I know is based on reading the best documentation I could find on whatever subject (sometimes by asking friends for manuals to read). So, I'm not saying that people need the support, because I didn't recieve that much from people. What I am saying is that you should be cautious about recommending a new enviroment to anyone.
Even OS X (supposed UI utopia) can have little annoyances to recently converted users.
So, I agree with you for the most part. And if the person asking the question has a reliable friend that knows *nix then you are perfectly right, all I'm saying is be careful.
I had the same thought. Five minutes on even a newbie forum should have resulted in the general UPS answers that are dominant at the moment.
Product of a few minutes on google.
It is one thing to ask /.'ers to do tech support for truly difficult problems. But this one should have been managable by the people at any friendly computer repair center.
You know, digg might be on to something with the ability to mod stories up or down.
My biggest concern is that the current system rewards expansion, potientially at the expense of maintaining both the products and the relationships with the customer.
A happy customer can sometimes inform potiential customers about your service. Likewise, a dissatisfied customer may be more trouble than any software problem you could ever have.
Therefore, at the very least, maintaining relations should be considered on par with selling. Meaning that the support staff is just as important.
Furthermore, maintaining relations also includes those people that may never see the customers. Developers are cruicial here. If they do a bad job, everyone else is either selling shit or having to spend resources and good will to maintain it.
This is much like a waiter being the only one who gets a tip when the chef prepared the meal. Not a good way to motivate people (and may have the opposite effect of critical people feeling under appriciated).
Then again, I'm just a 21 year old CS student... What do I know about the business world?
"The choice is yours."
Nintendo, I choose you!
</pokemon reference>
I can see it now:
*In a bar, about to leave*
"Hey lady, could I get a quick blow in my car?"
As dictated by standard operating procedure as a slashdotter you just blame Microsoft
The brevity and content of the post implies that the poster thinks the article is stupid and not worth talking about. A "Nothing to see here, move along" response would have been the more verbose equivalent.
/.ers have shown.
And when I read it the comment for the first time, it struck me as being humourous, because of its quick and simple dismissal of the topic at hand while answering the main question of the article.
Hell, if one assumes what I've just said to be true, then the post is informative for people that don't RTA (not to waste time).
It at the very least shows more independant thought than some
Agreed.
This journalist is in awe of other supposed journalists' (blogger's) new toy, then procedes to overstate the issue.
In other news, according to Cookie Monster, the cookie has been declared "best food ever." When pressed on which particular cookie was superior he declined any further comment.
/.'ers also contain many Windows sysadmins and developers, not to mention users.
I know that I need to vent my frustration somewhere, with people that understand the unique pain that is inflicted only by Microsoft.
Hell, there should be a call for "Worst Microsoft Experience: (admin, developer, conserned employee, user, and a special award for kludges available for each catagory)" to present rewards. I don't even want to think about what horrors would be revealed.
I'd call 'em, the 'Softies.
"I can't scare people into heaven..."
Sure you can, just write a GTA mod based on the book of Revelations.
That game would get an M rating...
My personal favourite is a GTA mod like Passion of the Christ...
"I can't come up with anything else in the entire marketing world where marketers knowingly introduce a flawed or inadequate product [and] it helps grow your user base." Doesn't this describe the computer industry in general?
"The Washington Post is reporting the next phase of American progress authorizing intelligence agencies to CAPTURE TERRORISTS without oversight." - Fox'd it up a bit.
My observation is that the media believes that by saying what I said above mixed with the post, reporting on the issue is "fair and balanced".
You're right though, the way to talk about these things is to be more analytical and give the readers the benefit of the doubt that they can read between the lines (maybe add in some historical, or legal commentary to make hints).
I'll admit that my system isn't perfectly balanced, but it is at least trying to give facts rather than opinions.
Oddly enough, I must conclude by saying that this is just my 2 cents. Not a good way to end this reply.
My current job is all about creating a feature that is difficult + time consuming to duplicate thanks to the way microsoft has implemented certain things. Now, I'm not very good at these types of things, but I suppose that would make me the glass maker, because I profit due to the inflexibility of windows. So, I suppose if windows built certain things better then I wouldn't have this job... Doesn't that mean that from my perspective microsoft is the broken window?
"Really? My users (nearly 90% in our last questionnaire) love the Word interface and look-and-feel." Just because you're stuck with something doesn't mean you have to dislike it. "I'm stuck on this planet, but I like it's atmosphere." I know you're trying to say that they are happy and probably wouldn't go elsewhere anyways, but the argument is that they don't have a choice.
Now choice isn't important to everyone. But people aren't wrong for wanting to have it. In the case of word documents, its like another language. "I want to talk to this person, just not under these circumstances" I'll admit it isn't the best example, because everyone understands that person x doesn't speak language y, and will usually be forgiving. Not everyone understands the implications of using a word file.
The choice argument could also be used for defending word perfect (and competition in general), but I don't think I've ever used it, so I leave that up to other posters
Now, the reason that the author claims microsoft has stunted development is probably because developing with windows can be a hateful thing. There are several issues (window's interface (in the context of resource/information gathering), closed source (why doesn't x work? I can't read the code so I'll have to look at the...), documentation (In most cases it says enough, but sometimes msdn only has the bare minimum and really needs to elaborate more about certain things), etc.
That being said, I dislike windows. I don't think I like any operating system in general (maybe OS X, but I have yet to develop for it, so I'm going to reserve judgement on that one), but agree that getting rid of windows would be a positive thing.
I leave talking about the business side of microsoft to others.
A prof of mine had a much better solution to informing students that even though something is legal it may not be desirable...
Instead of getting a 100, he'd give a 99.9999999999999999999 and a note on the side. The trailing number of 9s would get your attention and the note would teach you a lesson.
I've always thought it to be fair and effective.
*Come to think about it, in a fewest LOC assignment we were given in assembly (with the prof mentioned above) I did something very similar to the thread starter... I also got fewest LOC... Granted, assembly is different than C++, but the hack I employed that no one else did involved a jump instruction...
I'd give the original poster a 99.9999999999999999999 and a note explaining why gotos shouldn't be used, then declare an edict of no gotos in the next class.
Typically, because they come from true hell holes.