A $5 word that a Google intern pulled out of his ass to impress his peers, who still haven't figured that the real world uses $1 words.

FTFY

Before I switched my file server over to FreeNAS and a motherboard with an AMD video chipset, Ubuntu would automatically install the Nvidia drivers for the Geforce 6200 video card and FUBAR the entire Linux installation. The fix was to re-install Ubuntu. What a PITA!

I did PC refresh project where I did a lot of crawling around underneath cubicle desks. Jeans made the boys downstairs hot and uncomfortable (i.e., sweaty balls). I switched to khaki and the problem went away. Then again, I'm old enough to wear what I call my old man's pants (my father wore khaki while working in construction). The only time I wear blue jeans at work is when I haven't picked up my dry cleaning for the week.

I've gone the opposite extreme. As a lead tester for a video game company, I sometimes had to come in on Sundays. But I also go to church in the morning. I came into the office in my suit and tie. The supervisor on duty would often do a double take when they saw me, as I often wore shorts and T-shirts during the week.

When I worked at a video game company, the first signs that things were going bad was when management stopped handing out free T-shirts to the testers. And then they started charging a quarter for the sodas.

Funny. I thought all the C++ programmers got replaced with every flavor of Java programmers from the community colleges.

If you ever worked in the video game industry, having any kind of life outside of work is strictly forbidden. Been there and done that for six years. I had one supervisor who told married testers that they needed to get a divorce in order to devote more time to work.

And the snake oil salesmen in the Bible Belt.

I do I.T. support work — help desk, desktop, PC refreshes, data centers, and system admin — that typically starts at $25+ per hour in Silicon Valley. The rent on my studio apartment is $1,400 per month. Ten years ago I was making $15 per hour and the rent on my studio apartment (same one) was $800 per month.

Inflation isn't a problem, as the current rate is well below the Fed's target rate of 2%. Where most people get into trouble is thinking that they deserve finer things in life when they make more money. Hence, bigger houses, bigger cars and bigger TVs. It isn't long before they find themselves in the same predicament they were in before, still thinking that more money would solve all their problems.

I do I.T. support work — help desk, desktop, PC refreshes, data centers, and system admin — that typically starts at $25+ per hour. Once I complete a couple of security certifications, and get a new job in a few years, I should double my income as a computer security specialist.

I'm not pursing the American Dream of HAVING IT ALL, and I certainly don't live in San Francisco. In fact, companies are offering higher pay rates ($35+ per hour) for employees to work in the southern half of Silicon Valley (San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale), as all the young hipsters want to work and live within 30 minutes of San Francisco (i.e., Palo Alto, Mountain View and Menlo Park). Living in a studio apartment in a rent-controlled city for the last ten years also helps.

While interviewing for jobs last year, I ran into a former coworker who was still working at the same company and making slightly more money than I did when we worked together nine years ago. He stayed in the same position and accepted 2% pay raises over those nine years. I did short-term contract work — anywhere from a day to a year — for various Fortune 500 companies in Silicon Valley, making 80% more money because I have much broader range of experiences in assignment and corporate cultures. Go figure.

Last year a recruiter contacted me for a Silicon Valley job at $25 per hour. I went for an interview. The other hiring manager wasn't available, so the full interview had to be rescheduled. Oh, BTW, the job only pays $15 per hour. So I told the manager and the recruiter that I was no longer interested in the position.

A month later the recruiter accidentally sent me the salary spreadsheet via email because my name was similar to another employee's name. All the employees at that location got paid $10 per hour. If I came back for a rescheduled interview, I wouldn't be surprised if they pressured me to take the job at $10 per hour.