Folding@Home Weekly Team News - 23rd November 2006

rich99million said:
Sounds like a plan - after all we'll have a brand new news post for derailing in just a few hours :D
Click to expand...
Indeed, i can't multitask, can only derail one thread at a time. ;)

I think a little one of these :p in Gilly's post would have made all the difference. We're only teasing, the person with the highest post count on the forum has to be teased once in a while. ;)

Nevertheless, as evidenced by the scores of people asking him to become a don again a while ago, he does an excellent job and we all respect him for it.

Spam er fold on!
 
Took me 4 hours to finish posting this message (work got in the way :D ) and the most number of un-DC related posts in a row happened in the mean time :eek:

Well back to a previous topic :D

Joe42 said:
I think ultimately the best position to be in is to have both a degree and 2 years of experience in a rubbishy job, the question is do you really need to waste 3 years learning nothing to get a piece of paper?
snip
Click to expand...

It's more that just a piece of paper - uni/degree is about non course specific lessons too - accountability, punctuality (aka not skipping lectures), commitment, social interaction, finances, time/resources allocation, self motivation, teamwork, etc.
These are all valuable and make a graduate more employable that a non-graduate.

The problem comes with fast moving industries - IT being one. Degrees need to be validated and that takes time. So module are either (1) out of date, (2) too simplistic (so they can't be out of date) (3) specific, but on an unused programme or (4) specific on a market leader programme. So you've a 1 in four chance of a 'relevant' module.

What am I trying to say is you have two options pick one and stick with it.
1 - Get a degree/HND/significant other piece of paper, and if possible specialise in third year.
Get a 2.1 (2.2 with a excellent relevant thesis is also ok) that will open doors.
Don't aim to high on first job, 9-12months minimum later aim for the stars.

Or 2 get lucky / work hard and skip uni altogether (not an option in my case as the only way to become a architects is via the degree+diploma route)
Show willing and responsibility and you’ll move up/sideways with reasonable bosses (and most are)
Go to/on as many career related course/seminars/lectures as possible for relevant pieces of paper, knowledge.
Read 'your professions' trade press is a must - best jobs and current info/news is always in here (not the glossy newsagents stuff)
Network - who you know (or more importantly who knows you) is so important in getting a promotion / new job.
Be honest but never undersell yourself.

/diatribe

On other topics - VeNT is spot on with that fact our spam is 'liked' and dispite not being relavant to DC is relavant to the DC community ;)

And when will 171.65.103.68 be back up and running and why can't I be assigned to another server on my second thread ? (lost 3h now)

Edit: Ignore that just restarted the service for the 5th time and got me a 2125 :(
Oh joy was getting better PPD with nothing (1495 on 100% previouly on the HT P4)
 
Last edited:
shadowscotland said:
On other topics - VeNT is spot on with that fact our spam is 'liked' and dispite not being relavant to DC is relavant to the DC community ;)

And when will 171.65.103.68 be back up and running and why can't I be assigned to another server on my second thread ? (lost 3h now)

Edit: Ignore that just restarted the service for the 5th time and got me a 2125 :(
Oh joy was getting better PPD with nothing (1495 on 100% previouly on the HT P4)
Click to expand...

yeah I've lost a Athlon 2500+ to the dead server over the last 48 hours now!!!
 
shadowscotland said:
Took me 4 hours to finish posting this message (work got in the way :D ) and the most number of un-DC related posts in a row happened in the mean time :eek:

Well back to a previous topic :D



It's more that just a piece of paper - uni/degree is about non course specific lessons too - accountability, punctuality (aka not skipping lectures), commitment, social interaction, finances, time/resources allocation, self motivation, teamwork, etc.
These are all valuable and make a graduate more employable that a non-graduate.
Click to expand...
For me a reference from work should prove to a potential employer i have all of those, i have 2 and a half years part time service at a well respected supermarket with not one single day of absence, never really been told off for anything and its given me a massive amount of customer service experience. I've never been late, i work in a team whenever i'm there, and have to manage my time effectively. I also have a certificate from secondary school where i only had about 1 week off in 5 years resulting in 97% attendance or something like that.
If getting into debt is good financial education then yes i'll be getting plenty of that at uni.
However i understand what you're saying, i suppose what it is is proof that you can learn, even if you aren't learning anything useful.

But couldn't you get that by doing a low level IT job for 3 years? Wouldn't you get all of those things plus relevant IT experience which you wouldn't be getting if you were at Uni? You would also be earning rather than spending money.
The problem comes with fast moving industries - IT being one. Degrees need to be validated and that takes time. So module are either (1) out of date, (2) too simplistic (so they can't be out of date) (3) specific, but on an unused programme or (4) specific on a market leader programme. So you've a 1 in four chance of a 'relevant' module.
Click to expand...
I do agree that part of the problem is the pace of the IT industry. but imo thats no excuse for the mess that i think IT education is in. I think they are an awful lot further behind than they should be, and also they don't teach an awful lot of essential stuff and never have.
They effectively avoid hardware almost completely, where all but the most basic principals of hardware are taught in 2nd or third year degree level, whereas the equivalent in say database design is taught at A-level. Hardware isn't even covered until A-level, and then its only binary, basic data storage etc, no real actual modern hardware knowledge.
For example, thing like what would you do if your boss asked you to design a server for running the company website, what if you had an office pc which was crashing are never actually covered at all. Now i know thats only one specific area of IT jobs, but imo it should be basic knowledge for anyone coming out of a degree, just like the ability to design and implement a simple database is. Things like that, basically the software side of it, is covered in far more depths and to a far greater level than the hardware.
What am I trying to say is you have two options pick one and stick with it.
1 - Get a degree/HND/significant other piece of paper, and if possible specialise in third year.
Get a 2.1 (2.2 with a excellent relevant thesis is also ok) that will open doors.
Don't aim to high on first job, 9-12months minimum later aim for the stars.

Or 2 get lucky / work hard and skip uni altogether (not an option in my case as the only way to become a architects is via the degree+diploma route)
Show willing and responsibility and you’ll move up/sideways with reasonable bosses (and most are)
Go to/on as many career related course/seminars/lectures as possible for relevant pieces of paper, knowledge.
Read 'your professions' trade press is a must - best jobs and current info/news is always in here (not the glossy newsagents stuff)
Network - who you know (or more importantly who knows you) is so important in getting a promotion / new job.
Be honest but never undersell yourself.

/diatribe
Click to expand...
I agree that the degree is probably necessary, but i've heard from many people (i think Gilly was very much in favour of not bothering with the degree?) that they have managed to get a decent job and suffered no barriers along the way without a degree. And when you're spending this much money on it, you have to ask the question 'is it value for money?'. The answer is a very easy 'no', but i think it may be still worth doing.
 
Holy :eek:

Where did this thread emerge from? Seems to have slipped under my radar somehow due to this place's normal sedate pace and my workload recently. My apologies if I missed anything important that seems to have drawn the attention of several Dons. Anyone care to give me a summary?

A few points (I can't read all this stuff right now as I'm tired and I have a headache coming on):

IT education was lagging behind 15 years ago, it still lags behind. Nothing changes. By way of example, in the late 80s/early 90s, people were being taught on BBC Model B and Z80-based hardware. It wasn't until my final year that we got our hands on a lab full of new kit (essentially 20 high powered (for the time) workstations shared between 5 of us for 90% of the time as no-one had figured out how best to utilise the new hardware). The year I left was the year all the old kit got scrapped (I believe), due to the old campus being demolished.

As for this forum being full of spam, yup, always has been, always will be. In the big scheme of things what does a 'parp' mean to anyone anyway? It's all good natured (mostly) and I love it. I don't want it to change. :)
 
We started talking about Bigstans move, and i like to have a bit of general conversation in the weekly news, so i was asking about why email addresses can't be posted without being modified, and why people cover their numberplate's up when posting car pictures. Saves a lot of sdmall pointless posts elsewhere.

Then we started talking about post counts and spamming and of course Gilly got an obligatory mention for his uber postcount.
They me and SiriusB started talking about the joys of computing degrees as i said i'll be posting more coz i have an assignment due.

Then we moved onto the 2nd page and freefaller responded to my number plates question and had everyone (who inevitably hadn't read the thread) wondering what the crazy frenchman was on about, so i came to his rescue as valiant englishmen are prone to do when a frenchman is in trouble.

Then Gilly arrived after searching for his name as he often does and responded to allegations of spamming and having a ridiculous postcount, but completely forgot to use any smilies and used rather covert humour as is his way, so we all got a bit confused and thought he was being nasty, then he said it was a joke and we were all being silly, which we were.

Then shadow scotland responded to my annoyances with IT degrees with his assurance that it was likely to be useful after all, and here we are.

As for this forum being full of spam, yup, always has been, always will be. In the big scheme of things what does a 'parp' mean to anyone anyway? It's all good natured (mostly) and I love it. I don't want it to change.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, i hate the way we always have to stick to the topic of the thread, conversation should vary, thats what it naturally does.
 
Good summary. Reads like the screenplay of a tense, Hollywood thriller.

That's pretty much it. Tbh. Also, from now on Gi!!y must be censored to stop him coming back and making nasty, sarcastic comments at me ;)
 
OK - seems like a good summary. Shame I missed it all at the time.

I did spot the posts about Bigstan's move, but I already knew about that so kinda disregarded it. I guess it was clearly news to some. :)

As Gilly said, he does indeed search on his username, so posting it is a surefire way to get him in here. I'd best not restart the 0.99r = 1, sandwich cut in half, or north/south debates though, otherwise I might get shot :eek:. As for what brought Yewen in as well, well, I can only guess. :)

PS - I'm inclined to agree that the usefulness of an IT degree is somewhat debateable these days, though the industry does go in phases - some years you find a degree is a prerequisite to entry, then other years it isn't. Oh, and I know very few students that get even close to 97% attendance these days. :)
 
Berserker said:
I'd best not restart the 0.99r = 1, sandwich cut in half, or north/south debates though, otherwise I might get shot :eek:. As for what brought Yewen in as well, well, I can only guess. :)
Click to expand...
You've lost me there tbh. Don't fill me in though, you might get shot! :eek: Edit: I see, well I look foward to his response :D

Yewen is a mysterious character. Maybe his mod-sense was tingling? Led him to the DC forum?
 
joeyjojo said:
Yewen is a mysterious character. Maybe his mod-sense was tingling? Led him to the DC forum?
Click to expand...
He seems to sort of drift around depending on the direction of the wind.
Not like the old days here he could always be found in cases. I think he feels its his responsibility to moderate all the other forums rather than spend too much time in cases. I guess thats the disadvantage of being a mod, you have to, err, mod.

Or maybe all the dons just like to come to our cozy corner for a chinwag every now and again. :)

I reckon the general discussion should be renamed the general argument and this should be renamed the general discussion and dc. :p
 
I am here because of Vent! :p

Got tipped off that trouble was a' brewing so ran over with my ban hammer, to find a French guy talking babble and the usual confusion which is the DC section. :p

Here on a RTM, that actually turned out to be nothing due to Gilly and his lack of smilies.

You all should know I do not really have a clue what I am doing by now! ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom