Tech Job Growth: It's Back

I hope you all have had a good Ash Wednesday. I didn't get any more than 4 hours of sleep last night thanks to a Physics cram session, and God rewarded me with a B+ on the exam (which is over 30 points above the average), and it's just the boost I needed to get me through the next 7 days of classes before Spring Break. Trust me, it was God, because with 15 minutes left in the test I thought I wouldn't get three or four of them (out of 9) and started freaking out. Anyway, I've commented on job growth recently, but this article was the best topic of conversation for today. WSJ reports that jobs finally rebounded last year in the Silicon Valley area for the first time since the big bubble burst. The great news is that higher level (read: funner stuff for higher salaries) is what has grown, whereas the low-skill stuff (i.e. for ITT Tech students) has moved out of the Silicon Valley area. This had become more and more clear to me in the past year as I see more internship postings for some very specific skills and that are much more than the stereotypical vision of an internship being to just make some good coffee. This has made it slightly harder to get a job as it has become a bit more competitive and, hence, if you don't have the right stuff when you graduate then you're not really wanted, but it's kind of worth it for this shift in positions that have a lot of cool stuff attached to them with increasing pay. It's everyone's dream to do what they love for a living and get paid well for it, and it makes me feel blessed to know that I have an opportunity to live this dream. Especially since when I told everyone I was going to UT to do CS they tried to peel me away like I was going to my vocational deathbed or something.

I may have been a little too harsh on Apple yesterday, and HD Beat rightfully points out how great the new Mac Mini is for watching stuff in HD. Of course this begs the question of why iTunes doesn't have HD content (hint hint, Steve). ZDNet is pointing out that the MacBook Pro has a feature no one really caught onto: a better backlit keyboard than the PowerBook line. I'm not sure if you can adjust the brightness on this thing (doubtful), but if they've managed to do this without letting the power consumption take a hit then more power to them! It turns out that Microsoft was supposed to have their little event tomorrow night, but they've decided to postpone it a couple of weeks. It will, indeed, be regarding Origami, but the leaked video is a year old and reflected concepts rather than the real thing so I think we have something to really look forward to here. Then again, this is a company that thinks that their search engine will trump Google in another 6 months. Anyway, Popular Science has a slideshow of some good gadgets to look forward to this month, and they're always great at finding obscurely cool goodies so you should probably give it a quick flip through. Lastly, Nintendo fans will want to check out IGN's article on every Revolution game known to be in development, though only like 10 of them really have official announcements attached to them. Looks like they still have a ways to go.

Chuck Pahalniuk fans should start holding hands and dancing and stuff right about now since it turns out that a film adaptation for Choke will start production this month. The plot sounds like it revolved around a messed up art school dropout addicted to sex, and I'm putting it on my pleasure reading list (right below all the Stephen King, Survivor, Frank Miller novels, and Fight Club). V for Vendetta is now just a couple of weeks away, and I hope you're as pumped as I am because IESB has a couple of new clips as well as some video interviews with Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman (who does have hair in the interview, and I wonder if its a wig). Not enough interview footage? Then check out IGN's interview with Nate Corddry of The Daily Show, who may not be as funny as his older brother but is definitely getting there. What you should really be watching is 24, which I've becoming obsessed with again for all the right reasons, and next Monday's two episode extravaganza will have a new X3 trailer to further entice you. I'd watch it live myself if I did have prior commitments that night, but it will go on Apple Trailers that night.

Should I be posting pictures of dogs here? Probably not, but Freddie (my brother's dog) is such a cute little pup that I just can't help it! I can't wait to see her next Friday, but I'm afraid that she'll be too big by then to be called a pup!



Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump as I'm just about due for one:

1. Who's the better pig - Babe, or the pig from Charlotte's Web (can't remember his name)?
I'm going to go with Charlotte's Web since it's a classic tale.

2. What's your favorite pork-related food, if you eat pork?
My mom's pork vindaloo, because it's out of this world. I don't like bacon because it's too greasy, and pork may be my least favorite meat overall, but I love that vindaloo.

3. When you want to get a pig's attention, you yell "SOOOOOOEEEE!" What should we yell to get YOUR attention?
Penis or boobs. Or just my name would work, but the former two would be much more amusing in a public place.

4. Random, non-pig question: Do you watch American Idol?
Nope, but that is a pretty random question! There's too much good television nowadays to waste the precious little time I spend watching it on overdone reality shows.