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Businesses

Career Advice: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer 422

Ian Lamont writes "Patrick McKenzie has written about the do's and don't's of working as a software engineer, and some solid (and often amusing) advice on how to get ahead. One of the first pieces of advice: 'Don't call yourself a programmer: "Programmer" sounds like "anomalously high-cost peon who types some mumbo-jumbo into some other mumbo-jumbo." If you call yourself a programmer, someone is already working on a way to get you fired.' Although he runs his own company, he is a cold realist about the possibilities for new college grads in the startup world: 'The high-percentage outcome is you work really hard for the next couple of years, fail ingloriously, and then be jobless and looking to get into another startup.'"

Comment Re:Professors, not high school teachers (Score 3, Informative) 608

Amen. And this from a college prof.

In my department there are profs that, in a meritocracy, wouldn't stand a chance of being employed another semester. How can you possibly teach a CS class and never once log into a class computer?

Online classes are good for the disciplined students and those that have some prior knowledge of the course material and I'm glad my department is exploring offering more online. It frees the students' time to do other things other than spend gas money and time to warm a seat to learn stuff they already know. But it's really not for everyone. It is kind-of like the higher education equivalent of home schooling. It requires discipline and a routine in order to stay on top of assignments and do well. Some students just need that face-to-face verbal kick in the ass to get anything done. Like I say to my students "It's your time and your money. I don't care what you do with it, but I would rather give an A instead of an F"
Bug

Linux Kernel Developer Declares VirtualBox Driver "Crap" 357

An anonymous reader writes "Linux kernel developers have decided to mark the VirtualBox kernel driver as tainted crap for the significant number of problems this open-source driver has caused. The VirtualBox kernel driver reportedly causes memory corruption and other problems. With the driver being flagged as tainted crap, bug reports caused by the driver will be taken less seriously."

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