Guy Fleegman :-)

There's a big difference between fine print for "usage" that says "don't do illegal stuff" vs. "P.S. After 3 days of real use, we're charging you even more to just USE what you've already paid for once".

Let me put this another way: I purchased a 6M connection. I did not purchase a 5GB transfer account.

And more to the point. If ATT tried putting a 5G cap on my DSL, I'd drop it in a heart beat. I can get my work done at Starbuck, McDonalds and any other place with free wifi for customers. Let THEM deal with the caps.

I completely believe there is fine print. Regardless, they sold it as "unlimited". Yes, 6M is a peak throughput, but there was no restrictions on WHEN nor HOW LONG I use that 6M peak throughput.

I'm actually ok with caps as long as they're sane. 5GB per month is not sane. 1 Steam game can put you over that quite easily. Caps simply will not be viable in a future where everything moves over the connection; esp when it's the same ISP moving IPTV.

Metered would be ok with me as well. It would be interesting to see what happened if metered billing became the norm. I wonder if AdBlock would become a norm, and if there would be a movement back to more thin looking websites to save the bandwidth for the actual data rather than the look n feel.

Well, my ISP sold me a 6Mb Down connection, the cost of which is charged by month. All day, every day of that month. So why should I not be able to fully utilize that 6Mb speed all day, every day of that month?

Their capacity issues are not my problem. I'm simply using what I have paid for. IF their network can't handle it, only sell 3Mb or 1Mb connections.

This sort of cap and overage shenanigans will not work in the future when EVERYTHING is online.Steam is a valid us of high transfers. So it Netflix, and OS upgrades.

I'm not anti-college. I'm anti you-must-have-a-cs-degree. I agree, having a cs degree is a good indicator, and yes, just like MS certs, doesn't mean they know jack shit either.

"He means he could never be bothered to go to college (or couldn't hack it)"

Hacking it wasn't a problem. I managed two majors in 5 years with 23 credit hours every semester, so I can cope just fine.

What I meant was that if something is broken, and I hand that to one of the numerous of people I've interviewed out of college, they look like a deer in headlights with no clue what to do but ask for the solution. We teach science majors the scientific method but most schools don't teach computer folk how to go about troubleshooting problems in the real world. Deductive reasoning is a lost art in CS now a days it seems.

People always look at me funny when I tell them I have BS degrees in music. Makes some sense to me.

What I always like about programming was that a) I shouldn't even be able to do it, but I could, and b) you get to create solutions. Sometimes those solutions are programs to solve problems. Sometimes they were how to effectively play a piece of complicated music.

I haven't played since college. Two things I really really miss: Steel Drum Band and Drum Corps.

"I have been a programmer and manager. I can tell you that without a formal training in the field I wouldn't even bring you in for an interview."

Then I'd say you're missing out on good talent. I have yet to interview ANYONE just out of school who knew a damn thing aside from how to spell "Java" or point click drag, which tells me formal training is crap.*

*Crap for Web 2.0 Tech, not crap for hardcore stuff like pcb, assembly, medical, science, etc.

They certainly don't teach troubleshooting skills in school.

I was a double music major in college: a BA in Music Ed K-12, and a BA in Music Perf. Percussion. I got my teaching certificate, then promptly went into programming. For me, the key seems to be just programming. All you can. All the time.

My last 2 years of school, I started doing HyperCard scripting, then UserLand scripting, then VB and whatever I could get my hands on, doing whatever departmental projects I could do, like test taking apps, etc. Then I worked my way into web pages, html, and doing the department web site.

I've been at it for 14 years now doing .NET, Perl, SQL, Rails, Catalyst, Django...all without a programming degree or background. So, my advice would be:

1. Don't expect someone to hand you a job by pulling strings
2. Program. If you love it, do it all the time. The best job is one where you get paid to do what you would do as a hobby.
3. Keep at it. Be a sponge, and show you can the job by doing as much as you can outside of that job. Contribute to open source. Work on other projects. Start your own projects. Get yourself noticed.

For the "hiring manager" who say they never hire anyone with o experience on their resume, I'd say we all had none when we started. Conversly, I've seen awesome resumes...by people who can't even tell me how to anything more than MS point and click.

I have a metric crap tonne of music. That 32GB iPod Touch just isn't cutting it at all and I loathe that classic iPod. Hurry up with the 64GB upgrade already.

GOOOOONNNNNEEEEE!