Exactly. Even now, most keyboards I use are missing the symbol, I just happen to know where it's supposed to be and press accordingly. That or just type EUR.
There's a lot more to building an app than paying a coder. I think GBP40K is incredibly cheap once you factor in management time, meetings etc. Heck, you can easily rack up GBP300K just deciding whether to investigate something (BTDT/got tshirt).
>applications for unemployed people, that only run on phones costing 40 pounds (70$) a month is a bit poorly targeted.
Look down any UK High Street and you'll see swarms of 'unemployed' people with their pet dogs (the sort that are always in the press for killing kids) and iPhones. Usually a clutch of the latest Xbox games they've just aquiried to play on their big flat screen TVs too.
I know some people genuinely struggle on benefits but a great many do very nicely although I don't expect they're exactly in the market for a job either.
>I can honestly say most of the 'kids' I encouter know very little of the low level details of how things work behind the scenes.
Whilst one could take the view 'does that actually matter?' as long as enough people do know how things work, this does point to a wider issue I've come across. When I started in IT we were all generalists and knew a bit of everything. Now people tend to be specialised and often very specialised. I find it quite wierd to be talking to say a Java expert who really does know it inside out but when I start to talk about say disk latency or pretty much any aspect of IT that's not Java, they havent a clue. Heck, I've known 'programmers' who don't know the difference between RAM and hard drives and that's scary.
You're not getting it. Pretty much everything 'new' in IT is just the old stuff renamed/repackaged. The point the OP was making is that once you grok the concepts, learning the latest syntax is trivial. I found Java pretty easy to pick up because it had so much of previous languages in it. I already knew how much of the underlying technology worked so all I had to do was work out what J2EE and other terms were all about. A day with Google, a half decent book or two on Java and 2 weeks later I was running circles around the hot new Java 'Guru' grads at work. The only difference was that I went home at 5:30 and they stayed somewhat later working on something that would have taken anyone with experience ten minutes to solve.
>I'm 40. I think that MY generation at 40 might be starting to get washed up
Not convinced. I'm 46 and when I grew up I knew a lot of people who really got into home computers. Heck, I started with programmable TI calculators in the 1970s. My friends now span around 44-55 years old and 70% of them are still really into IT and can build PCs, program in various languages etc. Some do it as a hobby, some professionally. There *are* people in my age group and much lower who play the 'well, we didn't have computers when I grew up so I can't learn them' card. This is just pure bollocks. They might not be interested in the things but don't blame your age for it. I'm not interested in cars but I'm not going to say 'Well, we didn't have fuel injection when I was young so I just can't understand them'.
FWIW, since I hit 40 I've learned Java, XHTML/CSS/PHP/mySQL and built my own CMS. Just before that I learned C# when it first came out. At home for fun I've played about with XNA and I'm now looking at Android development. Workwise I'm still cranking out C/Unix or VB/Windows stuff. At my last count I've worked on 8 OS's and 30+ languages and to be honest, new ones get easier because they have so much in common after a while.
>Besides, most people over 40 don't want to spend 60hours+/week at work.
I find the opposite - it's the main reason they like the younger ones. They have no family commitments so will happily work through the night on a problem when the older ones have to go pick up jnr from school etc. That said, I'm currently 46 and through the wonders of home working now work more hours than I have for years but that's because I can stop at 3:30 to pick up my son, cook dinner, sort out homework then be back in front of the PC at 6PM for a few more hours.
I know it did come out on the 2600 but sheesh, that was dire. The proper version was the 400/800 and THAT is worth preserving. Oh hang on, they already have via emulators. Next!
>How can you applaud that!?
Because it does both - you get treatment and they try to reduce more cases. The NHS is geared around pereventative medicine - sounds sensible to me. If you DO get sick, they are there as needed.
FWIW, some collegues are having their work medical insurance modified, most have decided to stop paying for the family add-on because their local NHS treatment is so good, it's not worth paying for as they can't imagine it would be any better.
>If you go to your NHS doctor with depression he will just put you on SSRIs according to policy.
Rather out of date. Current policy is CBT therapy for low to mild depression. The heavy duty depression really does need drugs to begin with but the long term aim is always to get people off. As an e.g., I had mildish depression a few years ago. Yes, I was stuck on SSRIs but it was a very low dose and combined with some therapy sessions with a group of similar patients. After 12 months my GP started to wean me off the SSRIs on the basis they had given me the breathing space I needed to get it together and the CBT had done its work - he was right.
>Before Margret Thatcher's management reforms crippled it, there used to be one in the UK
She hasn't been in charge for 20 years - weren't Labour able to sort out the alleged mess and insane manager/useful staff ratio? Having said that, my experience of the NHS has been extremely positive. A&E have jumped through hoops whenever I used them and my local hospital is top scoring in most areas and cancer care in particular. There's still problems out there but I think you're doing them a disservice saying it's all been shite since Thatcher. We're 20 years on now - you can't keep blaming everything on her.
Hey Mr Foreigner, let us free you from evil by invading your country and giving you democracy! Oh yes, it's great - look how well it works in our world! Oh, hang on...
Godammit! We just voted the last lot of crazy loons out because they kept doing this sort of thing. The new ConLib govt are getting rid of a lot of Labour's crap so you'd hope this sort of thing would stop too.
It would be interesting to see what sort of results you'd get outside the US for a similar piece of research. The US has an unusually high % of religious people compared to many other Western nations and this must skew the data. If say 90% (this and following numbers pulled out the air) of Americans are religious but only 70% of scientists claim to be, that tells you something. If another country has 40% religious people but 39% of scientists then this would be worth looking at more deeply. As it stands, one set of results does not prove anything, epecially in a country where you are generally encouraged strongly to exhibit a faith - much as the scientists felt obliged to publically hide a faith.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. Even now, most keyboards I use are missing the symbol, I just happen to know where it's supposed to be and press accordingly. That or just type EUR.
I knew that. I was just hoping no one else would ;-)
Another thing for the Catholics & Prods to argue over. Who gets the green wires...
Forgot to add 'In the US'. Lots of other countries are still using it and building new ones.
Something that can measure my sexual stamina properly ;-)
No, just walking about my high street and sundry other towns.
There's a lot more to building an app than paying a coder. I think GBP40K is incredibly cheap once you factor in management time, meetings etc. Heck, you can easily rack up GBP300K just deciding whether to investigate something (BTDT/got tshirt).
>applications for unemployed people, that only run on phones costing 40 pounds (70$) a month is a bit poorly targeted. Look down any UK High Street and you'll see swarms of 'unemployed' people with their pet dogs (the sort that are always in the press for killing kids) and iPhones. Usually a clutch of the latest Xbox games they've just aquiried to play on their big flat screen TVs too.
I know some people genuinely struggle on benefits but a great many do very nicely although I don't expect they're exactly in the market for a job either.
What if the forest is owned by Monsanto?
>What is this "meter" you speak of .. I only know of the metre
I'm in the UK and I've only seen the meter spelling.
http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/meters-to-feet.htm
In your face Paypal! May I never have to to use your rip off service again.
>I can honestly say most of the 'kids' I encouter know very little of the low level details of how things work behind the scenes.
Whilst one could take the view 'does that actually matter?' as long as enough people do know how things work, this does point to a wider issue I've come across. When I started in IT we were all generalists and knew a bit of everything. Now people tend to be specialised and often very specialised. I find it quite wierd to be talking to say a Java expert who really does know it inside out but when I start to talk about say disk latency or pretty much any aspect of IT that's not Java, they havent a clue. Heck, I've known 'programmers' who don't know the difference between RAM and hard drives and that's scary.
It's that capital AND that's important. It's not the age, it's the mindset.
You're not getting it. Pretty much everything 'new' in IT is just the old stuff renamed/repackaged. The point the OP was making is that once you grok the concepts, learning the latest syntax is trivial. I found Java pretty easy to pick up because it had so much of previous languages in it. I already knew how much of the underlying technology worked so all I had to do was work out what J2EE and other terms were all about. A day with Google, a half decent book or two on Java and 2 weeks later I was running circles around the hot new Java 'Guru' grads at work. The only difference was that I went home at 5:30 and they stayed somewhat later working on something that would have taken anyone with experience ten minutes to solve.
>I'm 40. I think that MY generation at 40 might be starting to get washed up
Not convinced. I'm 46 and when I grew up I knew a lot of people who really got into home computers. Heck, I started with programmable TI calculators in the 1970s. My friends now span around 44-55 years old and 70% of them are still really into IT and can build PCs, program in various languages etc. Some do it as a hobby, some professionally. There *are* people in my age group and much lower who play the 'well, we didn't have computers when I grew up so I can't learn them' card. This is just pure bollocks. They might not be interested in the things but don't blame your age for it. I'm not interested in cars but I'm not going to say 'Well, we didn't have fuel injection when I was young so I just can't understand them'.
FWIW, since I hit 40 I've learned Java, XHTML/CSS/PHP/mySQL and built my own CMS. Just before that I learned C# when it first came out. At home for fun I've played about with XNA and I'm now looking at Android development. Workwise I'm still cranking out C/Unix or VB/Windows stuff. At my last count I've worked on 8 OS's and 30+ languages and to be honest, new ones get easier because they have so much in common after a while.
>Besides, most people over 40 don't want to spend 60hours+/week at work.
I find the opposite - it's the main reason they like the younger ones. They have no family commitments so will happily work through the night on a problem when the older ones have to go pick up jnr from school etc.
That said, I'm currently 46 and through the wonders of home working now work more hours than I have for years but that's because I can stop at 3:30 to pick up my son, cook dinner, sort out homework then be back in front of the PC at 6PM for a few more hours.
I know it did come out on the 2600 but sheesh, that was dire. The proper version was the 400/800 and THAT is worth preserving. Oh hang on, they already have via emulators. Next!
>How can you applaud that!?
Because it does both - you get treatment and they try to reduce more cases. The NHS is geared around pereventative medicine - sounds sensible to me. If you DO get sick, they are there as needed.
FWIW, some collegues are having their work medical insurance modified, most have decided to stop paying for the family add-on because their local NHS treatment is so good, it's not worth paying for as they can't imagine it would be any better.
>If you go to your NHS doctor with depression he will just put you on SSRIs according to policy.
Rather out of date. Current policy is CBT therapy for low to mild depression. The heavy duty depression really does need drugs to begin with but the long term aim is always to get people off. As an e.g., I had mildish depression a few years ago. Yes, I was stuck on SSRIs but it was a very low dose and combined with some therapy sessions with a group of similar patients. After 12 months my GP started to wean me off the SSRIs on the basis they had given me the breathing space I needed to get it together and the CBT had done its work - he was right.
>Before Margret Thatcher's management reforms crippled it, there used to be one in the UK
She hasn't been in charge for 20 years - weren't Labour able to sort out the alleged mess and insane manager/useful staff ratio? Having said that, my experience of the NHS has been extremely positive. A&E have jumped through hoops whenever I used them and my local hospital is top scoring in most areas and cancer care in particular. There's still problems out there but I think you're doing them a disservice saying it's all been shite since Thatcher. We're 20 years on now - you can't keep blaming everything on her.
The stuff on Earth is cheaper to get to (for now)
Received - other sites have reported this one rather better.
http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/6/16/420000-scam-e-mails-sent-britons-each-hour/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7831633/Britons-receive-more-than-420000-scam-emails-every-hour.html/
Hey Mr Foreigner, let us free you from evil by invading your country and giving you democracy! Oh yes, it's great - look how well it works in our world! Oh, hang on...
Godammit! We just voted the last lot of crazy loons out because they kept doing this sort of thing. The new ConLib govt are getting rid of a lot of Labour's crap so you'd hope this sort of thing would stop too.
It would be interesting to see what sort of results you'd get outside the US for a similar piece of research. The US has an unusually high % of religious people compared to many other Western nations and this must skew the data. If say 90% (this and following numbers pulled out the air) of Americans are religious but only 70% of scientists claim to be, that tells you something. If another country has 40% religious people but 39% of scientists then this would be worth looking at more deeply. As it stands, one set of results does not prove anything, epecially in a country where you are generally encouraged strongly to exhibit a faith - much as the scientists felt obliged to publically hide a faith.