tallpapab

Ah yes, rotary phones. What a wonderful modern invention. Saved much time and prevented many errors over having to tap on the handset cradle.

Nice. Learned something.

Actually, there were also hard disk drives. The drive was the motor attached to a spindle which would spin the disk whether the disk was floppy or hard. Your point still holds that spinning media are starting to be replaced by solid state devices. I agree that Google made a poor choice with the name. BTW the word drive goes back further than motors. It was and still is the term to cause sheep and draught animals to move where you wanted them to go. Still not great for Google's product.

Oh yeah? I'm so old that my mouse was hairy and used to squeak and vomit when I squeezed it.

This. I get a couple dozen channels over the air eight of which I watch from time to time. Still having a hard time recognizing rabbit ear icons though. One pole on mine is broken.

Clearly a thought provoking article none the less.

Nice. I particularly like your zooming icons.

Directories in Unix were/are files that just contain pointers to other files. So they are a bit like a directory in a building. However, "folder" is probably an improvement if you think in terms of it _containing_ other things. Folders are still recognizable real things. Ask any hipster. Now let's talk about folders that contain other folders and so on. There is where the physical metaphor gets strained. Still, it's fine and quite contemporary.

How does this compare with WebOS?

It may also have something to do with the availability of computers and software. It was very rare before about 1980 for people to have home computers that their kids could learn on. Before about 1970 it was rare for anyone outside a university or large business to get access to computers. There just were not as many programmers back in the day. Now you can't turn around and spit without hitting one.

1969 - Fortran and APL on an IBM 1130.

So many job adverts ask for creative people, but on the job creativity is discouraged. Employers want employees to implement the employer's creations.

That said, getting along socially is enormously important. Smart, creative people figure this out. The general impression that to be creative one has to be some sort of social misfit is overblown.

As Piccaso demonstrated, great creativity is born aloft by great mastery. It's not that hard to Get a bad haircut and some outlandish clothing to pose as a creative naughty person.

Stopped reading because site would not let me resize in my eye pad. Too old to squint.

Paper

After 83 weeks I did find work. The reason it was difficult was my age plus few openings. The age thing is interesting. Some places where I applied I got past phone screens that gave fairly little programming quizzes. When I got to the in person interviews there were no questions about me experience, education, or publications. It seemed the whole process was geared to finding folks fresh out of college. Things are picking up here. The recruiters are calling and there seem to be more openings. The unemployment insurance was helpful. Keep in mind though that I have paid more into it over the years than I have gotten out of it. That's fine and fits with the general pattern of insurance. That's why insurance companies make money. I guess I have two point. One is that it is insurance, as opposed to a direct handout from the government. The other is that age discrimination is a big factor that Phil's agenda does not address. OK, there's a third point in that market conditions also make Phil's agenda impractical although I agree that folks should try to "retool" during hard times. It's just not ass easy and effective as Phil suggests.

About the high expectations, perhaps I do. I don't think that's so bad though. I hope you do too. A difficulty though is that so do prospective employers. They are often reluctant to offer lower pay to people that they feel might flee when times improve and they can find a better job.

Phil suggest that I should have bettered myself whilst unemployed. I have a masters degree in Mathematics, professional programming experience in 13 languages including Java, JavaScript, and Python, more if I include things like SQL, HTML, etc. in which I also have professional experience. I speak four human languages (and bits of three others). Perhaps a vocational school will make me more marketable.

So how did I waste my time during my 83 weeks of unemployment? Mostly looked for work. I read and did a few exploratory things. I went on quite a few interviews as my resume is pretty good, but one look at me told the tale of my age. I coached a high school basketball team (and wrote a Java GUI for game stats and management). I did work around the house, repairs etc. I paid bills and figured out ways to stay afloat. Sorry, I don't have a gaming console. I exercised to try to stave off depression. I visited my failing parents weekly and took over their financial chores. I took up singing. (No one would pay me for that either.)

To be fair, Phil was probably not talking about me, but about younger workers like my son. He hasn't been in the work force and is not eligible for unemployment benefits. His generation is having a harder time than mine. Maybe he should study SQL at U of Poenix. He doesn't have a gaming console either.

Inflation adjusted money I paid for unemployment and disability insurance over a 30 some year career (roughly): $40,000.

Money paid to me by said insurance over 83 unemployed weeks $38,475.

Thanks for posting. Now I don't feel so lonely.

Move over Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. The right has a new hero and it's ... Phil Greenspun? Who knew!?

Now Phil is surely much smarter than I. No argument there. I would never have the confidence to go to Harvard and try to straighten out the PhDs there about how Massachusetts should be run. They would call me names like Carpetbagger and such.

Where does Phil get his 10.5% tax rate number? From the Tax Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Foundation. Where do they get their numbers? It's vague. Does it include sales tax and workman's comp etc.? The same foundation complains about California Corporate tax burden being the highest in the nation at an outrageous 8.3%. Hmmm. 8.3 < 10.5. And don't give me any of that trickle down baloney about not taxing corporations.

Pensions are a great boogie man of the right wing. They cost so much. It's much cheaper to stop paying those folks. If they haven't amassed fortune enough to retire using that huge 40k salary by now, tough luck.

I had better stop now before I get all worked up. After all I'm just a dumb old computer programmer who doesn't know much about economics. Phil's a s m a r t old computer programmer ...

Sigh. I'm actually a bit of a fan of Phil's. It's just that the harsh conservative position is hard for an unemployed 50+ programmer to swallow these days. I don't have a "fat" pension. When I go for interviews I rarely see anyone over 40. Good luck to you all, and don't look down on us "over the hill" workers. Just look away.

KMail

As Artie Johnson might have said, verrrry interestink, (long drag on cigarette, turn back to camera) but risky.

So we grade tests with two significant digits (0-100%). Then we partition these to a letter grade (<1 significant digit) Then we average the letter grades to a GPA with three significant digits. So what's a bit more confusion? Small wonder colleges place more emphasis on the SAT (3 digits).

Whistling past the graveyard. Keeping your skills up is necessary, but insufficient. Over 50? Welcome to the top of the layoff list. The baby boomers are getting kicked out of the workforce. There has long been worry about what will happen when the boomers retire in large numbers. Well, it may be happening early. Good luck to us all.

Masters in Mathematics UC Berkeley Programming since 1969.

56 - It has been and continues to be fun. I started in College in 1969 in a physics class. "There's a computer down the hall (IBM 1130, cards, FORTRAN). Go figure it out and analyze your experiments." Since then I have been learning non-stop. I got my degrees in Math, but have had to learn about programming developments for decades. The other fun thing is that I have had to learn about what my users are doing: pharmaceuticals, banking, electric power, genomics, among others. I'm so rich. Enough money, great family, ever stretching horizons.

You have an infinite loop when i < 2^30.

  static int nextOne(int theInt) {
    int answer = 1;
    while (answer < theInt && 0 < answer) {
      answer <<= 1;
    }
    if (answer < 1) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Sorry, " +
        theInt + " is bigger than 2 to the power of 30 (1073741824).");
    }
    return answer;
  }