Post #112,961
8/6/03 5:55:24 PM
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iwethey.employed++
I haven't been here much since I just drove across the country, and I have been with limited internet access. But I just got a job offer in Santa Monica which represents a pay raise and better benefits over what I had in NYC. I accepted verbally, and will be signing the paperwork tomorrow.
I start Aug 18, which gives me a while to find an apartment and car...
Cheers,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #112,962
8/6/03 5:56:47 PM
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Better employment terms as well, I trust?
'grats!
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #113,097
8/7/03 3:24:41 PM
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That's guaranteed by state law :-)
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #112,963
8/6/03 5:59:01 PM
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Re: iwethey.employed++
Congratulations Ben!!!!
I've missed your input here. :)
Nightowl >8#
"I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum"
Comment by Nightowl
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Post #113,098
8/7/03 3:26:22 PM
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I won't be back in force for a bit...
Need to get an apartment and an Internet hookup. Until then I am using a computer which says, As a courtesy to other Hotel Guests, please limit your computer use to 15 minutes.
Until then I will only read/respond very selectively.
Cheers,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #113,110
8/7/03 3:43:27 PM
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Hey Ben ( was Re: I won't be back in force for a bit...) (new thread)
Created as new thread #113109 titled [link|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=113109|Hey Ben ( was Re: I won't be back in force for a bit...)]
"I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum"
Comment by Nightowl
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Post #112,964
8/6/03 5:59:37 PM
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*Cheer*
Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
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Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
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Post #112,968
8/6/03 6:06:02 PM
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havnt been to Santa Monica in a while
but it is a decent place by LA standards congrats
thanx,
bill
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #116,273
9/1/03 9:43:57 PM
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traffic
but it is a decent place by LA standards
My experience is that traffic and parking are nasty there. Move as near as possible to work to avoid jams. I did a contract at UCLA a while back. Didn't pay well, but I got to look at college chicks all day (didn't touch any, I swear).
My S. Calif. search has been pretty crappy. My current contract is in the Bay Area of all places. They appear not to like locals because they expect too much $ to handle the high cost of living. IOW, they bring in distant, naive suckers.
But anyhow, Congrats, and semi-colons still suck :-)
________________
oop.ismad.com
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Post #112,969
8/6/03 6:06:20 PM
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very cool...congrats!
If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
-Henry Ford
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Post #112,973
8/6/03 6:14:35 PM
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Woo!
Guess the decision to "go where the jobs are" turned out to be correct after all.
Gratumalations.
-YendorMike
[link|http://www.hope-ride.org/|http://www.hope-ride.org/]
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Post #113,101
8/7/03 3:30:07 PM
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Looks that way. :-)
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #112,974
8/6/03 6:15:19 PM
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Congrats!
Now about that party... ;)
And though you hold the keys to ruin of everything I see/With every prison blown to dust, my enemies walk free/Though all the kingdoms turn to sand and fall into the sea/ I'm mad about you I'm mad about you
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Post #112,976
8/6/03 6:54:42 PM
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And ... it's not NYC! Now to see about the West Coast bash
===
Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
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Post #112,983
8/6/03 7:59:53 PM
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Great news, Ben! Good luck with it!
Alex
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw
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Post #112,984
8/6/03 8:05:08 PM
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Congrats!
Sounds like you'll be settled in time for the special election! :-/
Best of luck with the new gig and the new abode.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #112,985
8/6/03 8:29:45 PM
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Rilly nice to see ++ signs around. Luck with the pad hunt
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Post #112,988
8/6/03 9:20:03 PM
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Re: iwethey.employed++
My hometown - groovy!
-drl
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Post #112,992
8/6/03 10:05:29 PM
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Re: My hometown. The People's Republic? :)
Alex
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw
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Post #112,996
8/6/03 10:14:16 PM
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Re: My hometown. The People's Republic? :)
My Dad was a high mucky-muck (said in greatest respect) in security at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach - he attended management meetings and all that, was good with words so designed a number of safety posters for the workplace. I remember some of California (moved when I was 4 to Georgia by train = big extreme fun for a kid) I think we lived on Beethoven Street - nearby is Beethoven Liqours (not what you think, this is a well-kept respectable neighborhood and always was) - it had a rotating "Seagram's 7" sign - for some reason I remember this rotating neon "7" as being a zillion miles away, rotating evenly, mournfully, with the empty, vast Pacific in the background, reflecting a somber evening moon in an indeterminate season. In fact it was a liquor store a few blocks down the street.
IOW, this was a middle class town, with working people in it.
-drl
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Post #112,999
8/6/03 10:26:27 PM
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Re: The People's Republic.
The [link|http://www.hlkklaw.com/livingwage/news/kcrw11072002.html|reason] I mentioned it is an old reputation: "It was once so liberal that landlords and developers called it the "People's Republic of Santa Monica," but Tom Hayden's gone mainstream, Jane Fonda's moved away, and rent control has been pre-empted by state law. And [link|http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1034|another]: The Santa Monica City Council is now considering a law -- repeat, a law -- mandating that private homeowners spend their own money to make their homes handicap "visitable." But what about the Constitution? What about property rights? The People's Republic of Santa Monica, remember? The land of below-market rent-controlled apartments whose tenants drive BMWs while their landlords drive Hondas. Alex
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw
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Post #113,001
8/6/03 10:39:26 PM
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Neat :)
Glad I'm from there!
Really, I have very fond memories of it. The beach was very nice, other than being attacked by a prehistoric beach fly. Drew blood it did.
-drl
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Post #115,593
8/27/03 5:19:42 PM
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Douglas? When?
4456 Clark Avenue (about a block away) is where I grew up.
bcnu,
Mikem
The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice and always has been...We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had-- the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he (just he, by himself) believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.
- Mark Twain, "Monarchical and Republican Patriotism"
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Post #115,597
8/27/03 6:17:55 PM
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Re: Douglas? When?
59-63. Kennedy was killed a few months after we arrived in Georgia.
-drl
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Post #112,990
8/6/03 10:03:48 PM
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Congratulations on your new position
I hope you can find an apartment larger than your last one. As I recall you barely had room to change your socks.
Have fun,
Carl Forde
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Post #113,005
8/7/03 12:13:57 AM
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And that's with one foot out the window...
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #113,100
8/7/03 3:29:35 PM
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Don't remind me...
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #113,028
8/7/03 9:18:34 AM
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Fine as wine.
good to hear. How did the trip go?
-----------------------------------------
[link|http://www.talion.com/questionw.html|?W]
Where were you in 72?
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Post #113,032
8/7/03 9:23:04 AM
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Wow, that was fast!
I'd say someone was smiling on you but I think you'd disagree! :-P
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #113,039
8/7/03 9:33:42 AM
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Perl is job security
..particularly if you're good at it.
-drl
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Post #113,061
8/7/03 11:40:07 AM
8/21/07 6:41:47 AM
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Maybe I should learn it
because my own job hunt isn't going too well.
Smalltalk is dangerous. It is a drug. My advice to you would be don't try it; it could ruin your life. Once you take the time to learn it (to REALLY learn it) you will see that there is nothing out there (yet) to touch it. Of course, like all drugs, how dangerous it is depends on your character. It may be that once you've got to this stage you'll find it difficult (if not impossible) to "go back" to other languages and, if you are forced to, you might become an embittered character constantly muttering ascerbic comments under your breath. Who knows, you may even have to quit the software industry altogether because nothing else lives up to your new expectations.
--AndyBower
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Post #113,063
8/7/03 11:48:30 AM
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It sucks.
But it can pay the bills, yes.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #113,071
8/7/03 12:31:32 PM
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Yabut...
But it can pay the bills, yes. ...that's damn important! -YendorMike
[link|http://www.hope-ride.org/|http://www.hope-ride.org/]
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Post #113,106
8/7/03 3:34:58 PM
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And are known to be good...
But I really believe that location was one of the big factors helping me out. I would not have been placed so quickly in a different city.
Cheers,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #113,156
8/7/03 11:09:14 PM
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My new boss just noticed that line in my resume....
He seems to think it could come in handy. On the other hand, the owner's teenage son wrote most of the existing code, so one must tread lightly...
----
Sometime you the windshield, sometime you the bug, sometime you the driver you turn on the windshield washer you keep going.
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Post #113,044
8/7/03 9:44:48 AM
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Tops one!
John. Busy lad.
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Post #113,345
8/9/03 8:56:41 PM
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What & Where?
What company?
What will you be doing?
Is it Perl based?
Was it via contacts or blind ad?
Enquiring minds want to know.
Congrats.
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Post #113,369
8/10/03 3:16:08 AM
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Partial answers
My internet activities and my employment are separate. Unless my employer wishes it otherwise, I would prefer not to offer too many details in public.
But I am comfortable in saying that I will be programming in Perl. I don't currently know what assignments I will get. I got this position through a friend's recommendation, but I think that I would have found something in time even without that recommend.
I could have probably held out for something more lucrative, but the recommend went two ways - my friend told me good things about the team I would be working with, and the working environment seems very good.
Cheers,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #113,380
8/10/03 10:52:09 AM
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No prob
Separate is safer. Keep safe. Can you give a high level industry?
As far as Perl, just making sure you didn't fall totally to the Red side.
As far as connections, I feel they are really the only way to be able
to take a job and feel confortable going in. Eases a lot of stress.
I know your skills, so I'm sure it isn't a matter of a BS job created for a
friend. They are lucky to have you.
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Post #113,474
8/11/03 1:49:45 PM
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Suspicion
From what I know[1] of such things it's probably not a military type secrecy. Those operating under corporate secrecy will tell you that they can't tell you what they do. Military secrecy tends to come with a plausible cover story. Unless you're going to be writing control software for Los Alamos, in which case military and civilian use tends to overlap somewhat.
Keep in mind that much of what I know comes from reading Tom Clancy and either asking people I knew in the Marines how close it tracked reality, or comparing it to the training manuals I had myself.
In other words I have nothing constructive to add to this conversation. :)
[1] Or rather "what I suspect is true", for rather obvious reasons.
===
Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
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Post #113,475
8/11/03 1:59:03 PM
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Re: Suspicion
Military secrecy tends to come with a plausible cover story. Unless you're going to be writing control software for Los Alamos, in which case military and civilian use tends to overlap somewhat. Yep, Los Alamos employs both civilian and military, and they do overlap at times. But there is still a high level of secrecy. My husband was working there once with a high security clearance. His dad still works for the lab, albeit now from home, but he also has certain security standards to uphold. And his mom and stepmom also work there. I don't know what his stepmom does, but his mom is in explosives, and she is almost NEVER allowed to tell us what she is up to. ;) And I'm speaking from experience. I know all these people, and get the info firsthand. In fact, when the Lee thing exploded, it scared some of his family because they not only knew him, they worked with him. Fortunately, the investigation into John's family's background turned up nothing connecting them in the spying issue. Nightowl >8# "I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum"
Comment by Nightowl
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Post #113,504
8/11/03 6:19:58 PM
8/11/03 6:55:06 PM
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Ummm - tilt.
First, I think it's likely still the case that - revealing {the fact? of} one's "high" security status - is itself a No-No. For obv. reasons - whom shall we snatch today and subject to our Revealed-Truth Merck\ufffd serum? We from Evull Oceania...
Implying that one who is/was possessed of (possessed-by?) such 'credentials' is both an intimate AND a confidante! of certain factoids - sets one up for a visit from a spookish (as opposed to a bookish) type. (And that 'ol Constitution ain't around anymore - to ensure a modicum of common sense - Remember? PATRIOT-I repealed a fair part; wait'll ya see PATRIOT-II)
As In WW-II:
Loose Lips Sink Ships cha cha cha
ie knowing who Has the Seecruts can be.. as valuable as the 'secrets', in the brave New PharmChem World we raced so willingly, naively to Embrace, Extend and [many know the Next word].
(But You don't:) 'Extinguish' - it's a Billy Gates Microsoftian sort of concept. Get it?
This: especially! in a time of spoon-fed Daily Paranoia - the stuff of keeping the massively-disinterested public distracted, from ever looking very closely at - The Neoconmen Behind that Curtain.. y'know?
ie - maybe you wanna appeal to Scott to sorta delete the above?
Edit: AND This One too.
Just a thought,
Ashton
ex-LBL - badge color unstated.
(I ain't afeared - I just don't really much care about the Insider cachet Game)
Or in the (now approximate) words of one Tat San / Tan Sat(?)
The Two Important rules for success in life:
1) Never tell everything you know
Edited by Ashton
Aug. 11, 2003, 06:55:06 PM EDT
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Post #113,506
8/11/03 6:36:49 PM
8/11/03 6:38:37 PM
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Re: Ummm - tilt.
Ah. Regarding Los Alamos, I never said who the people are, thus no one knows. You don't know my real name, and you don't know theirs. Plus, John worked there so long ago it is a mute point. But Scott can delete it if he thinks he should.
As for my post about the B-12, also Scott can delete it if he thinks he should, but since the B-12 never flew, was never built, and etc, all secrecy surrounding it ended. Plus, all I ever knew was the part numbers, not much help to anyone there.
Nightowl >8#
"I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum"
Comment by Nightowl
Edited by Nightowl
Aug. 11, 2003, 06:38:37 PM EDT
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Post #113,538
8/11/03 10:21:00 PM
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I forgot most of what I knew
and what I knew is so outdated now. Even if I could remember the secrets they told me, they would be useless in modern times.
Anyone who tries to get secrets out of me, gets that quote from the movie "1941" by Slim Pickens, "You ain't getting sh*t outta me, I've been constapated for weeks and there aren't a dang thing you can do about it!"
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Post #113,481
8/11/03 2:28:03 PM
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Military secrecy
I used to work as a Federal Contractor, what the Army told us they only told us enough to work on the programs and databases, nothing more like what they use them for. Always using code words and acronymns, which change from time to time. It might be called one thing one month, and then change to something else the next month. But it is virtually the same thing with some minor changes.
The only thing I didn't like about the job was the politics between the Federal Workers and the Federal Contractors. They saw us as greedy corporate types who were out to steal their jobs. But the fact was that many of them had good jobs and didn't want to do certain things, so they hired contractors to cover for them and do what they didn't want to do. Like design programs and databases, etc.
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Post #113,482
8/11/03 2:32:46 PM
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Re: Military secrecy
Yep, I relate to that. I used to work for McDonnell Douglas, and it was back when they were trying to build the B-12 Stealth Bomber (I hope that's the right name, they kept changing it).
Most of the departments didn't know what the other departments were doing. I had a Top-Secret security clearance, and I was like one of the only people who knew EVERY part number for the plane, because I had to put together the files to give the designers and graphic people and sheet metal people the plans to put the parts together.
They made me make changes daily, first use this many bolts, no, this many, no this many. Change this shape of this wing, etc. I think the stupid plane failed because no one could decide how to build it. LOL!
Nightowl >8#
"I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum"
Comment by Nightowl
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Post #113,484
8/11/03 2:46:14 PM
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Re: Military secrecy
Usually the higher ups like the Generals or the Managers knew everything about the project and could co-ordinate the workers into working on the fragments that made up the project.
The law firm I worked at was a lot worse than that, I was given minimual details, so vauge that even Sherlock Holmes couldn't figure them out. When I asked coworkers they usually gave me a "I dunno" answer and shrugged their shoulders, and many of them were in meetings about it that I was not invited to. So it took some extra thinking and guesswork to get the job done, but a lot slower than had I actually had the full details that I needed to get the job done.
My last job was with a small business that had virtually no rules or guidelines for programming, just a coworker who called me "An idiot" when my programming style was not the same as hers. She also kept changing the database column and table names, so it made my job harder. We went from Access to SQL Server, so I removed the spaces in the table and column names to keep compatability, but she made me change them back. The owner of the company kept telling her that we were coworkers, but she continued to be bossy right up to the day I was let go. She was verbally abusive, she ignored what I suggested for the programs, and about three other coworkers had tried to work with her before developing software, and quit and went back to their old jobs.
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Post #113,501
8/11/03 5:48:34 PM
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financial and insurance industries are also quiet
for the obvious reasons. The best reason not to let on is that the entire world can read this thread and narrowing how to have strangers find you might not be such a good idea.
thanx,
bill
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #113,778
8/14/03 2:58:35 AM
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Umm...
People familiar with my history can guess that there may be reasons why I would want to keep my employer and internet presence somewhat separated.
If you don't remember the details, then let it drop...
Cheers,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #113,784
8/14/03 8:15:54 AM
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I do, and will
===
Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
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Post #113,867
8/15/03 8:10:45 AM
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I remember too.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #115,566
8/27/03 2:51:32 PM
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Re: iwethey.employed++
Well done, mate.
qts
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