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Month: December 2007

On Vox: Doonesbury: Still Awesome

Published by NiteMayr on December 31, 2007

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071230

Money line, "Flood the Catacombs!"

I suppose one might credit Doonesbury for a large chunk of my initial understanding of American politics (as I didn't really pay much attention to American news until I started caring that Bill Clinton was the president as he was the coolest politician who ever appeared on the Arsenio Hall show) [Woof Woof Woof]

I still like Clinton (less and less every year, but he seems to slide further and further to the right all the time)  I dislike Hilary as she seems to dislike all the stuff I like (Video Games, Violent Movies, Reading, Free Thought)

I'm a Mike Gravel booster as of right now, but we'll see whom I support after the shakedowns over the next few months.  If not Gravel, I'm hoping for Obama, whom appears to be just the right age to really provide energetic leadership to the US.

However, if he doesn't produce something like this:

President Clinton Last Days in Office

President Clinton Last Days in Office

Then all bets are off….

Originally posted on nitemayr.vox.com

On Vox: Vox Hunt: Singing A Holiday Tune

Published by NiteMayr on December 24, 2007

Share your favorite holiday song.

This is really a toss-up, but both involve artists from Great Britain:

"Little Drummer Boy", David Bowie and Bing Crosby

"Little Drummer Boy", David Bowie and Bing Crosby

Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth; as sung by Bing and Bowie.  This one always reminds me of my early Christmases in North America, and the great surprises and excitement that accompanied those Christmas mornings.

Band Aid - Do they know it's Christmas

Band Aid – Do they know it’s Christmas

Band Aid – Do They Know it's Christmas?  "Feed the Wooooo-ooorld, Let them know it's Christmas Time"  The conceit is strange, especially with Islam being such a huge faith in the affected areas at the time, but their hearts were in the right place.  Nowadays I much more of a cynic about such affairs, but I still think fondly of all the little pyramids of pennies I gave for the babies in Africa who needed them more than I needed a new GiJoe.

Originally posted on nitemayr.vox.com

On Vox: Shut Down Again

Published by NiteMayr on December 20, 2007

Yep, “The position was filled”  again.

Where are these phantom IT experts appearing from?  After 10+ years of direct professional IT experience you’d think that some firm would be gagging for me.  But no.

I spoke with my recruiter friend and he confirmed that the whole sector is slow (due to the end of the year) I have to agree as the daily job postings have slowed to nearly nil.

That being said, I am sick of this crap.  Sick to death.  Maybe I don’t have CCNA or MCSE behind my name, but I have 10+ years, a degree in computer science and better diagnostic skills than 95% of the technicians I have met.  I can work in flash, C, C++, Pascal, PhP, have set up LAMP servers, wrote MySQL front-ends, created content management systems from scratch, worked on PHP-based MMO code (I forked black sun traders really), read packet traces, diagnose email header issues, memorized a number of RFCs, taught hundreds of techs how to understand DNS, SMTP, HTTP and diagnose network issues via telnet.  I’ve created streaming audio solutions via shoutcast and winamp.   I spoke about AntiSpam at Washington to massive approval by the audience.  I have done all this and more, but I can’t find a job in IT.

Why?

Originally posted on nitemayr.vox.com

On Vox: Unemployment blues

Published by NiteMayr on December 19, 2007

It looks like another interview has been for naught… damn.

Come this Saturday I will have been unemployed for the past 4 months.  I’ve been dancing around getting a service job here in the resort town I call home; mostly because I have over a decade of experience with PC support and a degree in computer science.  It’s pretty much driving be nuts, what am I doing wrong?

Anyone have any tips or leads for work that can be done remotely?

Originally posted on nitemayr.vox.com

On Vox: What about kids with no ears?

Published by NiteMayr on December 4, 2007

Some Words of Wisdom by me:

by screwfanboys1 

what about when the people think their own generation of music is crap?

  • They are what were called “Nerds” in the old days, they eschewed the
    popular music for whatever their “cool” uncle or “with it” Big Brother
    liked. You can recognize the Nerds from the current teen generation
    because they love anything Pre-Zeppelin and hate anything that might
    appear on a current Top-100 chart anywhere in the Free World. They may
    also love a current band no one has ever heard of, and they will never
    see said band live.

    Popular music is the lowest common denominator, music that the majority
    of people, before you get too down on popular music, remember that the
    Average IQ in the Western world is 100, which means that while there
    are plenty of folks above the 110 mark, there are just as many, if not
    more in the sub 90 level. A catchy hook or pandering line is going to
    appeal to that hinterland of 90-110 and snag that middle ground. Much
    like snagging the slow moving fish in a stream with no bait and a dull
    hook.

    So while these songs may suck, it is an over-reaching denunciation to
    come down on all popular music as “Crap” simply because you don’t like
    it. If it was crap, for real, it wouldn’t sell and there would be no
    demand for it. Sure some music defies logic or Taste (Yoko Ono, Wing)
    but there is an audience for it; and these are hardly million-sellers.

    For the record, my friends will tell you that I have little or no taste
    in music, so ya know, take what I say with a grain of alcohol or salt,
    whatever gets you through the next four hours of crushing boredom.


Originally posted on nitemayr.vox.com