oops cio.com

You are already moving in that direction and admittedly not a programmer. It is basically a paper chase not too far removed from a cert but non-revocable. You will have an IS degree + years of experience + an MBA. There s a large amount of career potential in that.

But stop hanging out at /., instead lurk around at CO.com and datamation.com to ensure you know all the latest trends.

"Might be better to lie or not check either "Do you have a criminal record" "

No! In many places that is a felony! Don't do it!

Lying about a conviction is in most places a felony. So let's just compound one felony with another. Besides it opens up the poster to blackmail.

Look for jobs in areas which do not overlap the felony. E.g. if the felony was fraud or embezzlement, stay away from financials. And forget systems administration or network administration, too much access to passwords. You may need to start out doing some sort of tech support, but it does pay the rent while you acquire some references and experience.

Then try some volunteer work, the real kind not the 'I'm doing it because the judge told me to' kind. My favorite example maintaining we pages is the no kill animal shelter. You need good references and this is a way to get it.

Also look at smaller companies. They often evaluate people more at the interview level than some HR drone looking at resumes.

Finally, don't give up.

And don't forget Ursula K. LeGuin.

It may be functional. A colony often has limited resources. Reproduction would have to be controlled to ensure the population did not out strip resoureces.

Ummmm.... nope. Very different. Women and children were chattel for instance. Slavery was still considered a good thing and institutionalized. Education was reserved for the rich. Often to get something done you had to talk to your village or neighborhood 'patron'. Talking to the patron was, from what I have learned of it, basically like making a deal with 'The Godfather'. And you had to venerate the Emperor as a living manifestation of the voice of the gods.

"But the core values within a family - has that changed much?"

Yes. First off women could not vote as you pointed out. Secondly women had far fewer career choices and thus less economic freedom. They were expected in general to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. If they aspired to anything more than that the husband was often expected to "keep his wife in line", which often meant administering regular beatings. Women and children were considered chattel, a state not much better than live stock. Women could have their bank accounts raided by their husbands, assuming the bank allowed her to have one, and he could drink it away but she had no access to his. Children could essentially be sold into slavery in a factory or mine. Men were also expected to 'keep his kids in line'.

And the biblical version of 'traditional family values' often involved polygamy and an exchange of cattle.

Whenever I hear some preacher or politician talk about returning to traditional family values I shudder.

He did a Linux distrobution. ;)

I thought it was weather. Nice job with the headline.

I was working in a smaller University town and got laid off 3 times in about 12 years and had a new job within a couple of weeks each time. There simply weren't that many people at my skill level in the town. Low taxes and $500 /month rent. I tucked away a fair amount of cash.

What is that in salary adjusted for local cost of living. $80k is minimum wage in Silly Valley, but in the mid west, which is a huge swath of land from Western PA to Eastern CO, $150K can buy you a nice house in a decent neighborhood. While in Silly Valley you would probably have to pay $500K + a horrific commute.

I was interested in a couple of projects. I did not have much time for coding and did not feel qualified as others had a better knowledge of the "nuts and bolts" so I inquired on what I had to do for testing and documentation[1]. No one responded. So I no longer ask.

[1] OK, here's my rant. Programmers do not understand the value of good documentation. If you look at really good projects they have great documentation. If I can not find documentation for a software package or it is in poor shape I simply do not use the software. Esp. in this short term sprint oriented era I do not have time to waste fumbling around trying to get something to work. If it isn't function OOTB in less than I day I do not have time for it. End of story.

Oh my god! A fond memory of the old days! Where's Tub Girl! Where's a Beowulf cluster of those!