Creepy coincidence time. I was just reading Teresa's Mountain-Dew-expelling Amazon review of Black Body to Oleander an hour and a half ago. Whafuh?
Kayjayoh @462:
"Environmental technology" as is environmentalism, or Environmental Science (as in the environments of buildings)?
Ed says he remembers a short story he read as a child that predicted "clean" coal. I always go to Verne reflexively with these kinds of questions...I'm not sure he's going to help me with this one, though. Hmm.
(Oh, and we all loved the Old Fashioned, thanks for the recommendation!)
Leah Miller @22:
Given the...err...appetite of your last panelist, my brain keeps trying to "enliven" the proceedings.
FungiFromYuggoth@46:
You are right that Medicare pays less than hospitals, but many believe that the reduced paperwork hassle for hospitals makes up for the cost. It takes far fewer admins to support government billing than private billing.
You meant that Medicare pays less to hospitals (than private insurers), correct? Just trying to make sure of your point. But as to the second part - that it takes far fewer admins to support gov't payors than private. Where did you get that information? I'm in health care, in hospital billing actually. I'm on the IT side rather than the business office side, but that is opposite from everything I've ever heard. Is it a regional difference, maybe?
Total @4: I'd venture a guess that the plans for the Paris slidewalk were conceived and put on paper before 1899?
David @30: I have a healthy measure of datedness myself, as I work in a very old, limited-market 4GL called Natural. There are maybe a handful of m/f Nat/ada shops left in the Midwest.
I haven't had long enough gaps in my coding career to have personal experience, but some of my friends tell me that it was really the bike thing for them - slowly remembering everything over a surprisingly short number of months, and emerging pretty much where they were.
A couple of us took some short HTML, XML, XSL and JavaScript classes at work a few years ago and ended up only using it for one brief project and that was it. One, though, decided to experiment with it in his own time, and did a cool website that gained him some moderate notice and eventually a great opportunity elsewhere. My better self thinks that this would be a wise path to follow to diversify a bit, but the absolute last thing I want to do when I quit working for the day is more coding.
Good luck in whatever direction you decide to go!
Not long after I started coding some twumbly-mumbly years ago, my boss at the time used one of my more boneheaded constructs - a nested IF some dozen clauses deep - as an example of shiny badness to the rest of my group. Projected on a screen. To my whole work group...did I mention that part? Two of my coworkers (women) burst out laughing at the turbo-suckitude, and I was almost reduced to tears.
Fast-forward fifteen years to a different and wholly better scene, and I was in a position to hire one of these ladies to work for me. The rewarding thing turned out not to be hiring her in as my employee, but finding that she was if anything more unsure of her talent and skills after taking a long kid-raising break than I had ever been, and being in a position to (I think) help her a bit with that.
Thoughtful coders remember their early suckness very well, and have nothing but encouraging thoughts for novices.
Peter Erwin @407 and Kayjayoh @416:
Thank you once again! My friends were flabbergasted by all of the wonderful info. I didn't even consider some chocolatier visits - they'll be thrilled. We used to visit Chocolat Celeste, a rather nice little shop here in Mpls, but that has fallen by the wayside lately with ROWE.
Kayjayoh @377: Thanks much! When does the farmer's market open on Sat, do you know? I adore our Mpls one, but the thought of trying to get Oleander up at 4am to go is muy chuckilicious.
Many thanks to Joseph M., CHip and Vicki for the recommendations! CHip, I know what you're talking about - Oleander and I found a dingy little cheese shop N of Eau Claire on one of our drives that sold the Emmentaler of the gods; damned if we've ever been able to find it again.
Joseph M. @335: You don't happen to work at a certain Intergalactic Headquarters, do you?? This is the first visit for most of us, so we're really up for anything. We have a reasonable per diem ($28 for dinner I believe), and so were going to look for a few nice ($30-$50) places for dinner, spend a bit of our own money, and have some fun. There is a small subgroup of us that enjoy adventurous dining. The other two have kids, so we're really looking for places they wouldn't normally go - i.e. adult food/bevs.
I was thinking maybe a good steakhouse one night, Asian another (can't be only sushi, as one of us doesn't care for it), Indian or French or South/Central American one day? Probably only dinner, as the timing will most likely prevent off-campus lunch. Happily, we've been told that there is some good food on site.
Is that free concert every Weds? I believe we have one evening set aside for Slightly Impaired Dominoes (a variant of Drunken Dominoes for people that need to be alert for classes in the morning), but would appreciate other activities. We'll be there the first and last weeks in July. Thanks for the tips - much appreciated!
Any fluorospherians that live in or are familiar with the dining scene in Madison? Despite it being only 5 hours away, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never been. I'll be in Verona for training 2 weeks in July, luckily with a couple good friends that also enjoy adventurous eating, and anything to enliven the experience would be much appreciated. Please send to mdnims at gmail dot com. Thanks!
Epacris @305:
It was fabulous - my very first con, and I had a great time. Lots of chewy goodness (not the least of which was our hostess' mixed nut toffee, the best I've had in ages). Great panels, great venue, and a friendlier bunch of people (esp to n00b wallflowers) you'd have to go far to find.
I'm lucky enough to be working from home today, and so watching while (trying to) work. President Bush just came out, and does he ever have an odd look on his face. Like he's not quite sure what expression was on the schedule for this particular moment.
Witchiepoo was fetching
In furry coat and muff
But Jimmy, he was bent on making
H. R. Pufnstuf
An' it's who'll slash ye this time
Who'll slash ye noo?
The lass who slashed ye last, lad,
She no will slash ye noo.
Just for myself, I think this might be the greatest ML thread evah. For the first time in my life, I can look back at all the Debaters that I dated in HS and know that they TOTALLY ROCKED (in comparison). Kinda makes me feel better for my younger self. I can't wait for Oleander to wake up so I can show him.
You might want to slap a bladder retention warning label on this one. I'm an old lady, fer cri**akes.
Bill at #83:
Because sometimes you have to roll a saving throw in the middle of your Monday morning staff meeting, and what - you're going to use someone else's d20? As if.
Oh nutz, TomPaine stole a march on me.
For those of us with a theatrical turn of mind....Rumsfeld's Follies?
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