It probably won't help you land a development job, but the skills you can pick up in an IT job can be extremely useful. My first job out of college was working in a network operations center doing network and systems administration. We used to make fun of the developers that worked downstairs because half of them couldn't figure out how to install the tools they needed for their jobs. After landing a software engineering position, I turned around and used my experience to set up all sorts of infrastructure that helped manage our projects (e.g. new version control systems, continuous integration, issue tracking, shared storage, etc.) While the IT experience did not really help me get the job, it helped make me a key member of the team.
Sun and IBM are opening a community that will help propel adoption of the ODF standard by making the format more useful. By providing free libraries to access the data inside the documents, they encourage applications that consider the importance of the content, and minimize lock-in for a single presentation tool.
I use twin 30" monitors at work (we develop applications for scientific visualization), and I must say that it has greatly enhanced my productivity (not counting the time spent cleaning up my co-workers' drool from the floor). I think it is much better to have two seperate monitors (no matter what the size). Cost aside, it not only provides better visibility (both viewing planes nearly perpendicular to your viewing direction), but it helps users organize (and find) windows/tasks more efficiently. This essential when working with large screens or your productivity will be obliterated looking around for what you need.
Slashdot Mirror
It probably won't help you land a development job, but the skills you can pick up in an IT job can be extremely useful. My first job out of college was working in a network operations center doing network and systems administration. We used to make fun of the developers that worked downstairs because half of them couldn't figure out how to install the tools they needed for their jobs. After landing a software engineering position, I turned around and used my experience to set up all sorts of infrastructure that helped manage our projects (e.g. new version control systems, continuous integration, issue tracking, shared storage, etc.) While the IT experience did not really help me get the job, it helped make me a key member of the team.
Sun and IBM are opening a community that will help propel adoption of the ODF standard by making the format more useful. By providing free libraries to access the data inside the documents, they encourage applications that consider the importance of the content, and minimize lock-in for a single presentation tool.
I use twin 30" monitors at work (we develop applications for scientific visualization), and I must say that it has greatly enhanced my productivity (not counting the time spent cleaning up my co-workers' drool from the floor). I think it is much better to have two seperate monitors (no matter what the size). Cost aside, it not only provides better visibility (both viewing planes nearly perpendicular to your viewing direction), but it helps users organize (and find) windows/tasks more efficiently. This essential when working with large screens or your productivity will be obliterated looking around for what you need.
--