omission9 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Where to go from here? Mid-Career Anxiety.

Submitted by omission9 on Wednesday June 17, 2009 @03:04PM

omission9 writes: My software development career got started at about the same time as /. itself. I am happy that I have made it this far. The past 10-12 years have had some major bumps(.com implosion, two recessions)! A lot has been written about how to break into the IT biz but not much gets written here for people that are facing some mid-career anxiety. The options, based on that I have seen other do, are:
(1) becoming a contractor
(2) trying to start my own Micro-ISV
(3) Keep "playing the game" and tenaciously try to get a mid-level management position.
(4) Keep "playing the game" and work towards a "Principle" or "Architect" position.
The bottomline is that I find that the software business is quite cut-throat at this level. A great many people I started out with after college have completely left IT. As time goes on there are a variety of powerful selection forces at play, most of which are out of my control. IT is such a vast field I am not looking for specific advice but rather some case studies. For all of you out there with 10-15+ years in the software industry what is your story and what have you done specifically to survive this long? What has your career trajectory been like?

Comment Netbeans! (Score 1) 1055

by omission9 on Wednesday May 27, 2009 @04:22PM (#28114349) Attached to: What Free IDE Do You Use?

Netbeans is the best IDE I have ever used. Netbeans is written in java so it will run on multiple platforms. While it has lost some
"street cred" to Eclipse it is still wildly popular and attracts developers to volunteer their time to add support for many languages.
Plus, Netbeans in and of itself is a development platform which can help you create some very nice apps.

Comment Definition: trifecta (Score 1) 188

by omission9 on Monday May 18, 2009 @02:33AM (#27992073) Attached to: Finding a Personal Coding Trifecta

A "trifecta" is a wager whereas you win money if you correctly bet on the way the top three "performers" finish. So, suppose there is a horse race and horses Joe, Bob, and Sam finish 1,2,3 and you bet on Joe, Bob, and Sam to finish in that order YOU WIN!
The "trifecta" bet is used in greyhound, horses, and jai-alai. There are variants such as "boxing" and "wheeling" but these are advanced lessons...

Comment Why Math by R.D. Driver (Score 1) 630

by omission9 on Monday February 09, 2009 @12:10AM (#26779529) Attached to: Mathematics Reading List For High School Students?

Why Math by R.D. Driver is an excellent book which is accessible to anyone with basic arithmetic skills. This book really drives home a deep appreciation of the power of Math!

Submission + - How much does it matter where you go to college?

Submitted by

omission9

on Monday April 30, 2007 @01:58PM

omission9 writes: "I am a software engineer with a decade of experience in the field. I went to a public
university. At various points in my career I have worked with people
that have gone to Ivy League schools as well as similar "good schools" such as Johns Hopkins and MIT. I know this because they enjoyed discussing this. Based on how few they are in
relation to the number of people with at least a Bachelor's degree I
would say the representation was proportional.
We had the same job, same skills and knowledge, made the same money.
So, I am wondering just what the advantage they had was? I suppose the
old saw about "ivy league connections" could be true but I have plenty of great connections just from being a nice smart guy that gets along
with people!
Seriously, are there some avenues in life that I simply don't know about
because I didn't go to the right school and are forever shut off to me?
If so, what are they?"

Kaleidescape Triumphant in Court Case, DVD Ripping Ruled Legal 213

Posted by Zonk on Sunday April 29, 2007 @04:15PM from the only-when-you-own-it-netflixers dept.

Jim Buzbee writes "Ever wanted to rip all your DVDs to a big network server so that you could select and play them back to your TV? Up until now, manufacturers have been wary of building a device to allow this type of usage because they've been afraid a lawsuit. The DVD Copy Control Association had claimed this was contractually forbidden, but now a judge says otherwise stating, 'nothing in the agreement prevents you from making copies of DVDs. Nothing requires that a DVD be present during playback.' Kaleidescape has finally won their long-standing lawsuit, a case we first talked about early in 2005."

Where Are All of the HDTV Tuners? 208

Posted by Cliff on Monday February 26, 2007 @12:45PM from the in-case-you-forgot-to-buy-one dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "Today I read about rabbit ears making a comeback with OTA HTDV. I want to purchase a standalone ATSC HDTV tuner to go with my projector, but I am having a very hard time finding one. The big-box stores seem to only stock one or two models and are frequently sold out. Searching online yields similar results. It would seem that there would be ever increasing demand for these tuners given that many HDTVs were sold without internal tuners in years past, and these tuners will be necessary for all old NTSC TVs after the February, 2009 shutdown of analog broadcasts. Where should I look to buy one of these devices? Of the currently available models, which are the best? Will the standalone HDTV tuner become a ubiquitous item as the 2009 deadline approaches?"

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