My first job was when I was 17 years old at a used book store. I had been playing with *nix for 6 years already. My next job was at a small hosting company as a jr sysadmin. Then as a half senior sysadmin at a small telco. Then moved to the big city, as a sr sysadmin for another (bigger, nationwide) telco. Then for another company that provided administration services for telcos, and helped them migrate their infrastructure to Asterisk. They mistreated me, and owed me money, so I spoke to their biggest customer and offered to work for them directly, and reduce their costs in half. So I home-worked for ~2 years for them (I live in Argentina). I used that easy-to-earn, no-strings-attached job that payed in dollars (that I sold locally at a very succulent exchange rate) to start my own business. My associate and I did just about everything in the beginning. We developed a web-based DVR/NVR solution (this was back in 2007, and at the time most DVRs where ie-only and required activex. Our Firefox/Chrome/Mac/Linux/Tablet/iPhone/Android friendly alternative took off real quick). So I found myself developing, then beta-testing, then field-testing, doing sales and managing providers, building the systems, hand-crafting the aluminum cases we sold them in, laying cable, installing PTZ domes hanging from a tower 40m above ground, etc, etc, etc. I haven't had a more fulfilling job, ever. Our company grew quickly, and we now employ several guys, from coders to guys that work in the field laying cable, we branched into digital signage, e-learning, ERP software, home-automation, etc, etc. Now I don't have to do everything on my own anymore, but I get to choose when I want to get away from my desk and travel to a 5-star resort in the Iguazu Falls to deploy 200+ cameras, or travel the country for a few weeks deploying cctv for a company that manufactures agriculture equipment.

If you want to work out, see the sun, work out in the open, work with people, and essentially leave your desk to do some work in the real world, while still keeping your coding/administration day job so you don't lose your skills at the keyboard, start your own business.

Tell them you have experience with BOTH decades-old software AND murdering children. That goes right down their alley.

The name was IBM PC DOS, but the box said IBM in HUGE white letters over a grey background. Below that it said "DOS". That was it. Later versions included the PC-DOS Brand prominently on the cover, mine (pre 5.0) didn't, so I call it IBM DOS. Sue me.

I used IBM DOS, sometimes running the oh so ugly IBM DOS Shell on top, then switched briefly to MS DOS 6.22 with Win 3.0 on top, then to OS/2. Then very briefly used a mac, then got started with Slackware, and that's what I used until I moved to Ubuntu 3 years ago (I'm looking to going back to Slackware, but I simply don't have the time to mess with my system anymore, and that's a requirement to do just about anything on Slackware).

Why is it always considered than anything non-windows is "alternative"? With Android growing the way it is, OSX becoming more popular, and GNU/Linux growing more popular, specially in corporate environments, how is it exactly that anything non-ms is alternative? Sure, Windows enjoyed some almost complete market dominance, but it lasted but a decade (Windows became dominant around '95, and started its rapid decline around '05/'06).

Isn't it time we stop using the word "alternative" to describe anything other than windows?

Truth is we've had ZERO cases of GPL violators being sued for more than just compliance. And, in any case, here's the logic I don't understand:

  - This license from the FSF says I can do whatever the hell I want with the software, except for a few restrictions, and the developers have a history of no litigation, plus they are not looking for profit. They also don't own patents in addition to their copyright, so If I need to ever replace the component, I should be able to write my own.
  - This other license from Microsoft says I can't do anything, and the few things I can do might still be restricted by microsoft at any time, and the developer has a huge history of litigating against everyone with their team of ruthless lawyers. Profit is their main interest, and if I need to ever replace their component, they can still use their patents to prevent me from doing so.

Replace Microsoft with just about any other software company. How is the GPL so bad compared to most proprietary licenses?

We invade punta del este every year, but we do it with the white, fat, rich cocksuckers that exploit Argentina until the last fucking dime.

Taking the Malvinas back by force is fucking propaganda, and every government has used them for that purpose. Only Galtieri was insane (and drunk) enough to actually do it.

Oh, what a great idea! Menem did almost that for a decade. Wanna know how it went?

The US keeps going to war and threatening countries to keep the dollar as the worldwide currency. What a great idea! Use this fiat currency everywhere, and we'll keep the printers right here!. We're subsidizing your lifestyle.

It won't last very long. The oil market is steadily moving towards the Euro, and bombs won't help the US this time.

THIS. I own a software company in Argentina. We used to design our own hardware too, and we manufactured overseas. We did some manufacturing and all of the assembling in Argentina. We were steadily moving towards more local manufacturing. The low Shenzhen prices made it hard, but we where making progress in that direction. All of a sudden, getting dollars and sending them overseas was more expensive and harder every month. Then the overreach of non-automatic licenses destroyed us (you have to request permission 90 days in advance to maybe get a limited import quota of certain items). In the meanwhile, the big hardware stores (Garbarino, Fravega, etc.) continued to bring all-chinese products into the country without issues, even those competing with our products. We had to shut down most of our hardware operations. We put more emphasis on our SAS products. We almost went bankrupt several times, in the end, we made it, but it left us weak and in debt. Some of that debt where taxes. They quickly froze our accounts and took their toll. We've paid most of it, and we're growing again. Well, until the government decides to change the rules in favor of the owners of this country again.

I hear people accusing the Kirschner administracion of being socialists. This isn't fucking socialism, this is a systematic plan to destroy what's left of our economy, while spending more and more money every day on free lunches for the unwashed masses that keep voting for this fucking stupid cunt.

I will be very fucking surprised if anything is left after this bastards are done with our country.

All behaviorist psychology is based on the idea that people is gullible and easy to manipulate. So, sure, if the treatment's success is directly correlated to how gullible the person is, then creationists will be cured in nanoseconds. Maybe Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalysis, or any other technique that respects the intelligence of the patient would have a better outcome with people that aren't absolute retards.

Jumping straight into C isn't such a good idea. Specially for an 8 year old kid. Pointers? When you have only been doing basic math for a couple of years?

Let them understand the logic, and then you can switch them to something more advanced. Just make sure they don't stay on a broken training-wheels language like basic past the age of 12.

Even if they don't make a carrier somewhere in IT, coding skills come in handy in many other carrier choices and is highly valued. Even more important, being exposed to programming teaches other valuable skills, and improves logical thinking and organization.

It's not hypothetical, future civilian use that worries me. It's real, current military use that needs to be regulated immediately.

I haven't taken a note in my entire life, and I consider highlighting books to be sacrilege.

Taking notes is overrated. If your brain can't process the information, taking notes won't mean anything in the long run. It's just a exam-passing technique, but it won't help you understand better and certainly will not help you hold on to more knowledge beyond the date of the exam you are studying for.

Read the damn book. Then read some more on the subject, and by all means skip pages and passages if you consider them non-important or redundant. In the real world you will not have time to read 1500 pages of product documentation to understand an API. Learning to skip the irrelevant content and find the relevant information quickly is a fundamental skill.

That would certainly be the Fark headline.