TheDon

The Don - Who does your recruitment for contractors and do you need a hand ever?

 

I am set to finish my job in recruitment tomorrow - and starting a career in IT. The only thing is I am starting off as a Service Desk Analyst whilst studying for an IT/Computing Degree with the OU...

 

Not sure if I am making the right move as I am taking a knock financially!!!

Mortimer Spinks, we've got an exclusivity agreement with them in place, but they're pretty hopeless a lot of the time! Probably because we don't like paying their full fees and have beat them down to a 10% commission. I keep telling people if you don't pay them as much as everyone else is then we're not going to get their best applicants, they'll go to people who are happy to stump up their full 30%.

I'm the Lead Developer/Technical Architect for a software company.

We're a Microsoft house so it's the full Microsoft stack (so MVC for web, WPF for desktop, TSQL at the bottom).

We've recently acquired a few other companies so we're looking at integrating all our systems together, so I'm currently looking into ESBs, and trying to steer the conversation as far away from BizTalk as I can.

so i graduated last year with degree in computer science. Got a 2.1 (or B ) from top 20 university in UK. Havent done any programming since then as ive been mostly focusing on poker but decided i would try get back into it and look for some freelance work. Dont mind about money i just wanted to create a portfolio so was looking at the cheaper jobs....So i google freelance work and took a quick look what people were asking for...problem is...i have literally no idea where to start on ANY of the projects (not web development projects).

Is this common for a graduate or am i just stupid? I dont get how people get into freelance work? Even for low pay stuff it seemed like people were asking for super advanced stuff

Going into freelance work straight from uni is an amazingly bad idea.

Most freelance work that's advertised online (especially the lower end of the market) will end up going to India because they undercut everyone, you're not going to be able to compete on price, quality, or timescales.

Your best bet is entering into the permanent work force and gaining some real world development experience. If you work for a decent company you'll have people making sure you don't pick up bad habits, and you'll be able to extend your skills in a much lower risk environment. Then when you have a couple of years experience you can switch to contracting where the big money is (we're currently paying contractors between £400 and £450 a day, and they're not amazing developers by any stretch of the imagination)

Absolutely, I'd imagine Sony make next to nothing on PS4 hardware. 

This gen consoles have actually been profitable from the outset.

Sony are making money from their gaming division... and then losing it hand over fist on their smartphone division.

I use the voice stuff all the time when driving. Just makes things so much easier.

Weird, I'm using Waze and play music all the time whilst driving, and haven't had any issues with that (nor the bluetooth issue). Even when receiving phone calls as well they all work together how I'd expect, so you definitely seem to have something odd going on.

I have had inbox not notifying me of emails though, I just assumed it doesn't tell me about all the crap that it bundles together with all the other crap I haven't read.

Yeah lollipop final on the nexus 5 isn't great. Hopefully there's a patch on the way. The dev preview seems like it was better.

It's fine for me, no issues at all.

Did you guys do the OTA or flash the factory image?

I got the factory image the day it went up and it's been perfectly fine, way better than the dev preview for me, so maybe the OTA is leaving things behind that it shouldn't be. Might be worth wiping the cache and seeing if that resolves anything.

I'm prepared to bet that Windows is the issue. It'[s time for a re-install or an upgrade to Linux.

How much? I'll take whatever you're offering at any odds you like.

and run "Clean My Mac" almost every day

Says you've got a losing proposition on your hands.

The "get rid of windows, upgrade to Linux" shtick is pretty tiring. Linux users are like vegans and engineers, you don't have to ask if they are one, they'll make sure you know.

I'd be more willing to bet it's due to location of desktop if it's on wireless as well, the tablet probably gets used closer to the router, the desktop is probably sat upstairs in a corner with most of the signal being blocked.

I've seen the plans and they're available on line. HS2 cuts a very small corner off Bodymoor heath. A plot no bigger than a tennis court. They'll barely notice it happening.

You must play on some bloody big tennis courts.

We've got Google Glass at work now as our mobile apps team managed to convince the higher ups we might be able to do something with them...

Overall I'm unimpressed.

It's a fun novelty to have a voice in your head showing you where to go, but they get hot very quickly. The amount of times it's stopped working and told us Google Glass needs to cool down is stupid. They're obviously weighted on one side too, so I guess after wearing them for a while they'd probably start to get uncomfortable.

I was pretty excited to have a play with them, but that quickly wore off when I realised there isn't actually much to do with them. All the "wow" factor are pretty limiting, the live translations are good, but whenever I've been somewhere unable to read a sign it's usually been in a foreign country with no internet access anyway, so the need to fire the translations off to google's servers means it's very limited in usefulness.

It very much feels like an alpha product (because it is), but I can't really see much use for it in the real world, especially not if the cost stays as high as it is.

A fake depth of field picture.

I can't stop taking Lens Blur photos, makes me think I need an instagram account.

Anti ageing doesn't mean living forever. There's plenty of things that can kill you other than the ageing process.

The only thing preventing ageing does is give you a longer time frame for Cancer to take a hold. Eventually it'll get everyone. That's if you don't die due to some other disease or get run over whilst on your way back from picking up your anti ageing prescription.

Just got KitKat on my N4. I've switched from dalvik to ART. Some nice features in KK...

When they've resolved the issues it'll definitely be a pretty major increase in performance though.

I can see the argument for a stoppage, but it shouldn't have been stopped.

Sorry but no, absolutely no argument for a stoppage, Groves was throwing back.

I'm not saying I agree with the decision, I'm just saying it isn't entirely indefensible, just mostly, and groves really didn't help himself.

That's an appalling decision when you look at the replay.

He was neglecting the first rule of boxing, protect yourself at all times. He was taking big hits and trying to swing through them rather than protecting himself.

The ref has to think about the fighters health, and its a tough call to make in a split second.

Groves cost himself that stoppage, he shouldn't have given the ref the option.

I can see the argument for a stoppage, but it shouldn't have been stopped.

So we're getting a second go at this then.

Hahaha

Groves has been trying to use his head a hell of a lot. Makes no sense with how well he's doing.

Wasn't a fan of that episode at all.

Seems like a huge reset button on the time war. No longer is he the last of the time lords and the destroyer of worlds, now they're just frozen and lost.

Having issues with the WiFi on my nexus 5. Won't reconnect to networks and have to toggle airplane mode on and off to get it working again.

Branson sold the Virgin TV/Broadband company did he not?

It's still very much the old ntl guys who run it (until berkett steps aside as part of the recent takeover). They just bought the rights to use the virgin brand. Branson has never had a say in how the company is ran, he's just paid by them so they can run it under his banner.

Ordered mine Friday morning, gave me an estimate of leaving the warehouse on the 8th, turned up today.

Not too bad.

Currently downloading a system update, then I'll be having a good play.

Going from the s3 to the n5, fed up of having to choose between carrier bloat or buggy custom roms.

Hm, we may need a neuroscientist to help with that answer (I don't know the exact nature of memory), but if the clone was exactly the same, he'd turn left too.

No such thing as free will.

as we differ on free will that may determine our difference of opinion ... but I think the clone could turn right if he wanted to

They both can't occupy the same space, so one will experience slightly different stimulus, a slightly different view of the junction, different temperature, any number of minute changes, and chaos theory says that any one of them can drastically alter the system, meaning an entirely different decision could be made just because the chemical reactions in the brain take place at a fraction of a degree higher temperature.

Just noticed that my online betting site have odds for some wrestling . matches tonight . How it's that even possible if the winners are already known ?

They're only known to the writers.

Same way you sometimes get specials on crap like who killed someone in Eastenders.

You'll get ridiculously shit odds that give the bookies massive edges.

hahahahahahah, **** off Gardner.