Preparing for the Job Market

There are a couple of articles today relating to preparation for the CS job market that I couldn't resist talking about. Joel Spolsky wrote a great blog entry, as always, about the problems with schools that almost solely teach students Java because they're afraid to weed them out. UT CS only works exclusively in Java for its first two courses, but it did irritate me a bit. While I do think that some of the concepts were challenging, I would've preferred having a harder time learning them and getting used to pointers at the same time rather than having to actually think everything I type a * or & in my code now that I'm trying C++. He brings up a lot of other good points, some of which I don't believe pertain to UT graduates. The other article I liked was the results of a Computerworld survey regarding what tech skills are most valuable in the job market for 2006. If you don't want to be afraid of being outsourced then you should really focus on a high level job like developer or project manager as they suggest. I'd like to work my way up to the latter if I were to get into any sort of managerial position. They also mention the importance of security, which leads me to consider more and more taking Introduction to Computer Security as one of my CS electives; I only hope that it's taught well.

I think many of you will agree that the "Intel Inside" motto is kind of stupid and trite, and now they've announced that a new logo will be unveiled next month. Let's hope they get a little more creative. If you're rocking out your iPod with those stylish earbuds, you may wants to reconsider because more and more anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that the fact that it blocks outside sound less (thus forcing you to pump up the volume) is causing early hearing loss. It's a good thing those buds don't even fit my ears. Now for a couple of top ten lists. One of them is for the greatest gadget ideas this year (thought not all of them released yet), and it brought up some stuff I never heard of before like Voicemail VCR. The other is failed tech trends, and a few may make you cringe to remember them.



A few Superman Returns pictures sprouted up online and so I just had to put up the one I liked the best. I could've just as easily put up Natalie Portman, but oh well. There's quite a bit of surprising new today, starting with the fact that Fox has bumped up Lindsay Lohan's Just My Luck to open on the same weekend in March as Poseidon, which may be their stupidest move yet. If they think they have a Saved or Mean Girls on their hands then they're high because this movie is going to get slaughtered. If you thought that was bad though, you should check out the trailer for Bottoms Up because I have no idea why Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith would do a movie with such a bad premise. It's not all bad stuff though because Brett Ratner is looking to introduce Psylocke in X3 with an Filipino actress who looks pretty but is still a no-name so hopefully it'll be more than just a cameo appearance for the historically hot mutant. Lastly, Steven Spielberg has apparently shown interest to remake Marry Poppins so don't be too surprised if his next venture for 2007 is that, but I should hope not because it's wholly unnecessary.

Now for the 3x Thursday meme:

From your point of view, name 3 things that are wrong with this world and how you might go about fixing them.
I'd say the lack of free trade, apathy towards the environment, and stupid conflicts. I don't know if I can personally fix them, but there needs to be a conference to encourage free trade, people need to start realizing that the negative effects of global warming this year are more than just anomalies, and every needs to just hold hands and sing and love each other rather than shoot each other. This is why I'm not a world leader.

Can one person make a difference (good or bad)? Why/why not?
I definitely think so. It's why I want to do CS. Apple changed the world with the iPod, which had to be someone's idea, and it generated a lot of jobs and a lot of revenues so I would call that a good influence. Steve Jobs is the one who resurrected Apple from the dead. Adolf Hitler caused a whole war and he was just one person. I definitely think that it can happen.