Re: Glenn Campbell interview

On May 29, 2:06�am, Hiram <Hi...@fake.com> wrote:

m...@sushi.com wrote:

Maybe I'm too hard on him saying he is homeless by choice given that
he lost his job.


Yeah, but unless he has something on paper, no employer will take him on.

I agree Glenn is a clever chap, but sometimes that isn't enough.

I'm studying Engineering for the very reason you mention - still can't
say I really understand Calculus :)


The good news is their isn't a lot of calculus used in the traditional
sense in engineering. Laplace transforms is about all you do by hand.
Since computers are cheap, just about all engineering is done with
finite element analysis based software. I don't know what kind of
engineering discipline you are  going to pursue, but most electrical
engineering schools have dropped the hard stuff like thermodynamics
and electromagnetics. I can't think of a time I actually had to use
Maxwell's equations in point form in a multivariate analysis. The only
thing really bad in the current generation of engineers was the lack
on studying classical control systems.

Computer science is actually not a bad carreer if you keep up with the
times. The problem is everything moves so quickly. In the day, you
knew Fortran. Then C. Pascal came along, but died. Then along came
objective programming, so you had to really know the libraries. Then
there are all the various GUIs. Whenever I compile a linux tarball, I
am just amazed at how many different things these people have to
know.

The real advantage to computer science is the barriers to forming your
own company are pretty low. Just a PC and your time.  And the good
thing is you get to sell stuff that doesn't work, and charge for
fixing it.

I think Glenn did something with databases. He could reinvent himself
in that market since all sorts of small companies need outside IT
help. Or even less sexy, setting up networks for small businesses.
These small companies don't want to hire in-house IT because they
can't keep the person busy. Worse, there have been many cases where
the in-house IT holds the company hostage. Sometimes subtle, as in
breaking stuff to fix it, and other times worse, such as demanding
money for passwords.