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Comment even meta-Excel is to be feared (Score 3, Insightful) 202

My teammates and I found ourselves with what seemed like an easy task: automate the creation of Excel documents for enterprise-wide system resource utilization from our inventory database that would normally take a single person 2 months to do by hand...

18 months later, the code is still under active development, the results are heavily scrutinized (as they are now accurate enough to be used as planning tools for future expenditures), and at least 50% of our effort each sprint is spent improving the code or the underlying inventory data.

Comment Re:You still go through HR for jobs? (Score 1) 242

+1
- Apr/1995 - Oct/1995: hired part-time by consulting company (during last 6 months
of active duty) on the strong recommendation of former USAF teammate.
- Oct/1995 - Jan/2010: hired full-time (1) by customer of aforementioned consulting company.
- Feb/2010 - Jun/2014: hired full-time (2) by former co-workers at FT Job 1.
- Jul/2014 - Feb/2015: hired after strong recommendation by former co-worker at FT Job 1.
- Feb/2015 - Present: hired by former co-worker at both FT Jobs 1 and 2.

It's all who knows what you are capable of. Skills only go away if not used, and the best way to keep
using them it to adapt them to modern problems (e.x.: from reading CSV files to reading XML/SOAP/REST output; from
writing CSV files to writing Excel documents including full charts).

BTW, still using the same language (Perl) to wrangle data into meaningful forms (to include a log monitoring program
written, then open-sourced, from FT Job 1 circa 1996). Language du jour can pass by HR/recruiters' desks all day, but
people who need things to Get Done know who can Get It Done, and are less caring about the how.

Comment Re:High fat? (Score 2) 244

If they took the "Standard American Diet" and added fat, then yes, I can see that being a problem, but from the carbohydrates that are still there.

I didn't see any reference to how the tests were ran, so it is very challenging to properly understand how they reached their conclusions.

I have been running on a LCHF way of eating for nearly 2 years, with zero negative impacts.

Comment Re:I already found a miracle weight loss cure! (Score 1) 153

Started a low-carb high-fat way of eating 13 months ago, with zero change in exercise; result: 50 pounds lost (20% of body weight).
My GP is not pleased with the slightly high total cholesterol numbers, but IMO she needs more education about what is really going on.

I would recommend watching "Fat Head" on the Intertubez to get a rather-comical explanation of how the body works at a chemical level,
and how to hack that working system to your advantage.

Comment 47 and counting... (Score 1) 376

Started in USAF at age 20: spent 3 years QA'ing contractors' code, found Unix (ATT SysV), spent 2 more writing glue programs (BASIC/Pascal/Shell) for management and re-writing contractor's Ada; jumped to sysadmin position, found Perl, found CGI, spent 3 years writing more management glue; left a stripe on the table for private sector, spent 14 years leapfrogging between customer-facing and infrastructure teams, running 10*[1..3] systems and writing Perl/PHP glue; laid off, then picked up by different company, spent 4 years there defending the Internet from DDoS while writing more glue; cut loose, then picked up by govt contractor, who needs more glue.

The key to my longevity is keeping in contact with co-workers who know what you can do, regardless of the specific environment, and learning Perl in 1992 (thx merlyn).

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