winghead - Slashdot User

Microsoft Certifications For High School Credits In Australia 126

Posted by timothy on Thursday November 21, 2013 @04:34PM from the vocational-training dept.

kanad writes "High school students in Queensland, Australia would be able to do Microsoft certifications online and get credits. The exam fees will be free for students and courses include Microsoft's products like Sharepoint and SQL Server. Ostensibly this is for making kids ready for the workforce. but Australian IT entrepreneur Matt Barrie CEO of freelancer.com has criticised it for vendor lock-in and Microsoft's influence in the educational system."

Researchers Create Living Human Gut-On-a-Chip 22

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 29, 2012 @08:29AM from the waiting-for-the-snl-sketch dept.

cylonlover writes "In an effort to provide a more accurate alternative to conventional cell culture and animal models, researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a microdevice that mimics the structure, physiology, and mechanics of the human intestine. The so-called 'gut-on-a-chip' could help provide new insights into intestinal disorders and be used to evaluate the safety and efficacy of potential treatments."

World's Largest Passenger Plane May Be Unsafe, Some Say 394

Posted by timothy on Sunday January 08, 2012 @07:11PM from the whereas-perfect-safety-is-wonderful dept.

CNET reports (citing this BBC video account) that some aircraft engineers in Australia are concerned about small cracks that have appeared on the wing ribs of some Airbus A380 airplanes, a report says. They're calling for the whole fleet to be grounded, but Airbus says the cracks are harmless.

Today's Children Are Officially Potty Mouths 449

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 22, 2010 @10:32AM from the kids-say-the-#@^*est-things dept.

tetrahedrassface writes "When the Sociolinguistics Symposium met earlier this month swearing scholar Timothy Jay revealed that an increase in child swearing is directly related to an increase in adult swearing. It seems that vulgarity is increasing as pop culture continues to popularize vulgarities. The blame lies with media, public figures, politicians, but mostly ourselves. From the article: 'Children as young as two are now dropping f-bombs, with researchers reporting that more kids are using profanity — and at earlier ages — than has been recorded in at least three decades.'"

Terry Pratchett's Self-Made Meteorite Sword 188

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday September 21, 2010 @10:15AM from the x4-crit-modifier dept.

jamie writes "Fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett says he was so excited after being knighted by the Queen that he decided to make his own sword to equip himself for his new status... the author dug up 81kg of ore and smelted it in the grounds of his house, using a makeshift kiln built from clay and hay and fueled with damp sheep manure."

"Tube Map" Created For the Milky Way 142

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 03, 2010 @04:39PM from the non-stop-service-to-the-Perseus-Arm dept.

astroengine writes "Assuming you had an interstellar spaceship, how would you navigate around the galaxy? For starters, you'd probably need a map. But there's billions of stars out there — how complex would that map need to be? Actually, Samuel Arbesman, a research fellow from Harvard, has come up with a fun solution. He created the 'Milky Way Transit Authority (MWTA),' a simple transit system in the style of the iconic London Underground 'Tube Map.' (Travel Tip: Don't spend too much time loitering around the station at Carina, there's some demolition work underway.)"

Comment Re:"Interesting" projects? It depends ... (Score 1) 490

by winghead on Friday October 13, 2006 @02:07PM (#16426801) Attached to: Microsoft or Google?

I'll reply with my perspective as another ms employee. I've worked at microsoft since '98, on visual C++, C# and most recently the visual studio debugger/diagnostics teams. by and large I've enjoyed the experience, though naturally it has had its ups and downs. I came from a rather non-ms background (was a self-taught demo-coder, among other things) and really wasn't interested in working here long-term; I only accepted a full-time position because it was on the C++ team and I thought it would be an interesting product to work on.

I know several people that work at google (a previous intern of mine works there, as well as former co-workers). as I see it, many of the downsides of microsoft are the upsides of google and vice-versa, but in either case you're going to have a good benefits package and a chance to work on many different types of projects. google and microsoft treat "internal transfers" completely differently, but both companies have lots of projects going on in many spaces and smart people don't have a problem moving among projects as they want/need. of course, things aren't always as interesting as they seem from the outside, but that's life.

it is true, as other posters have noted, that most groups at ms don't try to work you to death (any more). the windows and sql teams still do have that reputation though; I don't think I'd go to work for them. I have heard that google works people harder, but the employees I know don't seem to mind.

some up-sides of microsoft include the location, the work environment and the people, though I imagine google shares in all of these but the location and adds its own (free food yada yada yada). and some people consider it a good thing on the resume to have spent time at the largest software company on the planet.

the biggest down-side of microsoft is the huge, monolithic corporate environment. this didn't bother me so much for the first few years, but as you progress in your career you're forced to deal with it more and more. *everything* at ms is ultimately politics and the longer you're here, the more you have to "play the game". that's not unusual for a large company (or even a not-so-large company), but it is frustrating as a software developer who could care less about politics. when I first started working here I used to laugh at Dilbert cartoons and think "thank god I don't work there". now I laugh at them because I DO work there...

if it were me, I'd choose google, but that's just because I spent most of the last decade working for ms and I'm a bit tired of it. :)

I'm sure you can't go far wrong with either choice. I would recommend that you plan on spending at least 2-3 years at whichever company you choose, so that you get well settled in, and then assess your options every year or so from then on; it's too easy to get stuck somewhere that you're not really happy, and not realize it. good luck!

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