Great minds think alike :-D

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Richard MacCutchan wrote:

I wonder how one can use it appropriately to deal with one's issues.

You could ask Nagy ;P

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

ChrisElston wrote:

Give me a few weeks, I'm sure I can get a consortium together to outbid.

That long... surely not!

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

No, not working in a school, and I'm trying to find out about background but as yet haven't been given a clear direction. I do however agree that all the subjects should have been covered but being in the UK, (and not having that background information), who knows... At the moment, and in general, my thoughts are to not be too company specific as I'd like to be able to give them the opportunity to think on their feet and apply what they know and what they learn regardless of the environment. I think you're right in they would need to know why some things get done certain ways, why we have coding standards, (and certainly what they are as learning to apply them would be appropriate), and yes having a company focus in those area's definitely gives context which is a great aid to learning.

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

I asked about backgrounds etc. almost immediately after being asked to start thinking about putting something together for them. My initial understanding is 18-20 years old, 'A' level educational background, (I believe there is a minimum educational attainment requirement), and they'll be doing 6 months training not on the job but through a recognised provider. My starting point is that they'll be young, keen, probably enthusiastic but a bit wet behind the ears. When I get a better picture on background I'm hoping to be able to refine my thinking a little further but in general I think a lot is going to be about translating academic knowledge into real world application while teaching good practices.

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Well my employer are looking at taking on a couple of apprentices in my team, (Microsoft based development, .net/Sql Server) and I just got asked to think about an initial six month pathway for them. No, I have no experience in training or teaching... My initial thoughts are along the lines of; Introduction to the Company Software Development Fundamentals Web Development Fundamentals Database Development Fundamentals OOP Fundamentals Unit Testing Fundamentals ...along with tasks aligning to each of these, (internal only, potentially throwaway, developments), so we could undertake code reviews, peer reviews possibly some face to face discussions to assess understanding. Given the wealth of experience you guys have, does anyone have any thoughts or opinions in this area, perhaps a bit more detail or blatantly obvious things I'm missing in my initial panic at a task completely out of my comfort zone? Any and all idea's appreciated, cheers!

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

From experience, I would recommend; Zubrowska Bison Grass[^] Grey Goose[^] Russian Standard[^] ...personally, I would most strongly suggest trying both the Bison Grass and Grey Goose with Russian Standard and a most excellent fall back position... literally ;P

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Ah yes, an online porn curb being proposed and pushed by a complete wanker who spends most of his time surrounded by cocks, ironic huh?

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Dalek Dave wrote:

Here in Luton there is massive thunder and lightning storms and a full moon.
Honestly, it is like a scene from a Hammer House of Horror film.

FTFY ;P

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Completely disagree. Its not her job to put up with abuse but it is her job to put up with impoliteness and the minor inconvenience of someone being rude. As long as the line between being rude and being abusive isn't crossed the customer is always right and if you don't like it get another job.

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

For CSV processing have you looked at Sebastien Lorien's[^] Fast CSV Reader[^]? It works pretty damn well and is a good learning curve...

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Good lions win, shame about the refereeing of the breakdown tho! Thought Mike Phillips was very poor, possibly worth starting Ben Youngs next week. Would also swap out Croft for Lydiate or Heaslip for Falateau to have a back row in there doing the grunt work as that was missing. Can't afford to take Adam Jones and Corbisiero off so early either, scrum was a shocker after they were replaced at the same time. Fair result, some fantastic tries but I'd have to take George Norths as my pick of the bunch, that was quite some way to show he isn't just a crash ball merchant :-D

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

You have to remember that Lions sides are pretty much scratch sides, coaches and all, and with injuries that are always picked on tour, meaning players going out of and into the squad, they should never be able to be as well prepared as a single nation. You are looking at it far too simplistically.

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Gonna be close probably, key areas for me; back three, back row and scrum half. Not seen the new Wobbly wing Folau, (ex league, Aussie rules), but up against George North that's gonna be big. I imagine they'll want North, (and to a lesser extent Cuthbert), coming inside and running lines against Lealiifano (but that could create space for Folau with turnovers), Croft and Heaslip probably looking to attacking Ashley-Cooper to try and get mismatches further out. Personally I'd have preferred 'chooper' Lydiate to start with Croft on the bench to come on later in the match when things start to open up, think the back row would have had more balance but i guess Gatland is looking to dominate the line out and open play from the off and then try to prevent Wobblies opening up later on by using Lydiate's infinitely superior ability in the tackle area. Warburton has to perform and at least slow the ball down if not produce turnovers. Philips/Genia is the biggie... Genia is a pretty cool customer but Philips could get under Ghandi's skin. overall, pretty much expecting the result to hinge on the back-row/scrum half partnership which would have been the sole reason I'd have put in Falateu as he's not as big a ball carrying runner as Heaslip, but he doe work well with Philips. At the moment, I'd go for the Lions by about 7.

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Well how convenient a question is that, I am looking for a change and am having a second interview today at lunchtime :-) 1. For me, money has been completely irrelevant in currently looking to move on, if somewhere I feel is the right place offers me round or about what I'm currently earning I'll be happy 2 and 3. Most definitely biggies. Although my current employer are actually good as an employer in general terms, (flexible, reasonable benefits etc.), they've been 're-organising' the entirety of the group IT and given that's over 1500 people and there is union involvement this has been a work in progress now for over 12 months. During that time; no training budget, (not even for conferences such as SQL BITS), no kit budget, (one of the guys I work with is using a laptop that takes close to half an hour to start up and log on to the network), no pro-active development, so we have not been to address significant underlying architectural and technical issues with the main system(s) we work on. This has left us spending a year making no significant improvements technically (or from a personal knowledge perspective), with no work coming in other than the equivalent of 'can you change the layout of that form?'. 4. As I said, my current employer are actually very good in this respect so although this would be part of my decision to commit to a move, it wouldn't make me want to 5. Meh, that's a double edged sword if ever there was one in this industry! 6. Couldn't care less I would say the biggest part of my current thinking is the stagnation of my current work when technology moves on so quickly. I'm playing with MVC 4 in a sandbox area at the moment, (which seems as much of a paradigm shift as asp to asp.net, maybe a bigger one IMHO). I want to be able to learn, assess and make use of newer technologies and although there are a lot of samples out there, the best way to learn after you get a basic grounding is, I think, by using them in anger. I wouldn't say I want to be an MVC developer over web forms, (or windows forms, or sql...), but I do want to be able to consider it as an option when making technical or development decisions and there is no opportunity to do that where I am, there is always work to do, but most of it is technical gaffer tape rather than properly addressing issues and there just hasn't been any will from the business to do anything than continue in that vein.

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talk

I work for a well know mutual society in the UK who have recently had some significant issues around profit, banking and the accompanying bad press. Nice company, but technologically unaware; if you feel you need to restructure your IT, that's reasonable, however you cannot just stand still while you do that, (currently a little over a year and counting), as that's as good as going backwards! Anywho... have been checking the market recently and there does seem a fair mix. Three or four of the people I've dealt with have been excellent, listened to where I am, what I'm looking for in terms of role and location and to be fair have been offering up some realy good potential matches and roles. Then there's a bunch who are just firing almost anything at me; no, I live in Manchester and I don't want to work in London/Leeds/Luton. I'm a dev, I am not looking for a management/testing role. Thirdly there are those asshats that don't even seem to have anything to offer but just want to suck time out of my life. It does seem that it's pretty hectic at the moment, that there's a lack of perm .net dev's with long term experience and people are hiring so I've definitely appreciated the few good people I have dealt with which has let me tell the others to leave me alone and if I see anything interesting then I'll contact them.

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

Apparently some people can't even spell forum anymore let alone read a description about its purpose... ;P

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

[rant] Well, one mahoosive set of proposals for change in the IT dept where I work and I think I may move on. All vacancies canned, plus 10% job cuts, and there is now twice as many people 'managing the relationship' with the business area I primarily work for as there are developers who know the system... ...mind you, when I say 'system' that is an overstatement. Outsourced and done on the cheap its a steaming pile that wouldn't have been acceptable in almost any other place I've worked and after more than a year of trying to get them to see how bad it is, I'm just not sure I have the will to carry on trying. So then, CV, bugger! No copy of my most recent CV, that's on the laptop my ex wouldn't let me have a copy of the data off of when we split last year so working from a really old one from 4 years ago. Ah well, at least I seem to have rediscovered some motivation and I have a week off next week. [/rant] Sorry for that, just felt the need to 'express'... and relax, time for :java:

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

MehGerbil wrote:

I've lost my patience with people who selectively filter offenses

er... that just happens to be human nature. we all do it based on our own thoughts, opinions and prejudices, Just because someone doesn't mean to offend doesn't mean that something they write will be inoffensive to everyone. Grow a pair, suck it up and move on.... after all, does it really bother you that much?

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"

The Peter Principle in action again

Rhys "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the Universe"