So, the dirty secret is that most IT employers know that degrees and certificates mean absolutely nothing. The bottom lines of them is that the individual was able to memorize the required information long enough to pass a test. Most do not retain that knowledge for longer than is required...and nearly all students do not practice what they have learned long enough to gain any true experience. There are exceptions to this rule, but far-and-few between.

When IT managers are not directly doing the hiring, HR departments are often asked to include the phrase "blah degree or equivalent experience" in the job postings. This opens the door for those with X number of years doing hands-on work and no degree to get past the submission process. But it often comes down to who actually hires the individual. Some bottom-line oriented companies will hire droves of fresh graduates for no other reason than they are cheap. It is quite a bit harder to get someone with 5 to 10-years experience to want to work for <30k/yr.

IMHO- I would rather hire someone with 5+ years working experience than a fresh BS recipient. That being said, any BS degree is often sufficient to meet a minimum job posting requirement...at the end of the day, it comes down to how much you really know and how well you can articulate your skills.

In which scifi universe are we in? Transformer's? Star Trek?

Duuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know...I plead Ambien.

You know, my phone has a "drunk texting" feature...Whose purpose is to prevent one from shooting off damaging text messages after one-to-many drinks. I think /. should have a similar feature for somnolence-posting. We may find it more of an epidemic in these forums than we are all ready to admit.

I prefer to name my servers after Venereal Diseases.

That is why I paint my servers UPS brown.

Full disclosure. I just took an ambien 15 minutes ago, and read the OP as Obama not Osama. Fortunately, I think my point still stands.

Apparently you forgot about the trillion dollars Bush spent on a fictitious war...

My favorite quote use to be the one engraved on Ellis Island, paraphrasing, those who sacrifice security for freedom deserve neither.

Now it is the Bush quote, "There ought to be limits to freedom."

The only problem with Obama is that he keeps trying to rule from the middle...he needs to step more to one side, and he will be a great President.

No, only Bitcoin.

I have never tried these...or gotten a DUI for that matter.

#1- Keep a collection of pre-filled balloons in your trunk. Twist and close ends with clothes-pins. Attachment should be simple.
#2- Canned air and rubber-tubing.

Yes, I did realize the mistake after the posting...however, given the duality of the meaning, I would not correct it even if I had the ability to edit my original post.

I have since found at least 5 more grammatical errors. While I am certain that I do not live up to the high editorial standards of Slashdot, I do promise to try better next time. If I do not succeed, please feel free to "s/.*//m".

In this instance that would be true, as each person contributing to the project would not be expected to create a line of communication with ever other participant who had already contributed. In the traditional mythical-man-month model, every added developer was assumed to have to establish a line of communication with all existing developers...make growth exponential.

I was making a correlation that wasn't 100% the same, but the article does say, "...the communication wont be a one-way street." I am sure you can see that just reading the postings and giving minimal feedback from the 18,000 contributing participants can be a full time job for several people, which will effect project planning as those ideas will need to be evaluated and assessed (and corresponded with?) in order to stay true to the projects goals. While the structure and organization of the communication is indeed different from the mythical-man-month, I think that, similarly, overall communication will be the defining challenge in this projects ability to succeed. It will be an interesting project to watch evolve.

Notably, that each line of communication increases complexity exponentially. I am not saying the project will fail, with that kind of funding it might well be successful...it just seems to me like a pandora's box of problems and delays.

Someone hasn't read The Mythical Man Month...