Accountability is what school offers you. You are forced to work the homework problems and then you really learn. You can do this on your own but without the social motivation it is much less likely. Udacity, etc. are solving this problem for online education now in CS.
I was hired at the end of the dot-com bubble into a technology mega-corporation at the age I should have just finished college. I dropped out of state after studying German and whatever to make money in the technology boom, and I did. Lots. For many years my career grew and I was at zero disadvantage to someone entering with a degree. In the bust, I was even at an advantage for awhile as I had key experience over anyone competing with me.
Over time however it became evident the long term growth curve of my career had a lower slope than my college educated colleges. Soon enough I couldn't move up any more. In a deep, sit-down conversation with a respected manager I was told I would never make senior grade engineer without the degree.
Now in a start-up or small shop maybe this wouldn't matter. In a Fortune 500 corp. it simply did.
Now I'm in my 30's and back in school. At least I'm enjoying it this time :)
The hardware is that much better. 2x the cost but you don't have to carry a damn crap-top around that weighs 4 or more pounds and blows a fan when you move a window.
>Siri and the iPhone 4s is nothing new, Apple simply tied a lot of things together
The original iPhone was nothing new component-wise but something wonderful is summation. This has been Apple's gift. Lots of folks can dream up and write a paper about super-phone, it's a top-notch engineering company, living in the real world of engineering trade-offs, that can actually build and sell millions.
I like to believe I own myself. I am not interested in any legal procedure where an official of the medical establishment can declare my personal ownership no longer valid and harvest 2 million dollars revenue from my still warm body. The couldn't do it with my car and it is wrong to do it with my corpse.
The day my family receives a life insurance style settlement for my death I will consider it. But not if you cut my people out of the deal.
Programmers here are discussing if they choose to work unpaid extra hours or not. You don't make a country great by forbidding extra work regardless of the employee desires. You make a country great by allowing employers and employees to decide amongst themselves case by case. If labor wants to forbid this for other vocations good for them. I would like to keep my right to work more hours on salary or not.
Nobody is forbidding overtime work - they are exempting tech employees from receiving pay for the overtime they work. Much of this legislation was passed in the US through the lobbying of big tech corporations (Microsoft) to increase profit margins. I personally would like to revoke my right to work overtime for free.
They are not prohibiting tech employees from receiving overtime, nor are they prohibiting companies from paying tech employees overtime.
The law simply does not require companies to pay overtime to tech employees (along with other, more traditional professionals such as doctors, accountants, and lawyers).
You're correct in that tech companies can pay overtime but in real terms this legislation results in no tech companies that actually pay overtime (but Im sure there is some rare exception). I'm sure there is a bandwagon of free-market folks who would be quick to point out why this is good for tech workers but from a practical point of view it has lead to an industry that treats long hours for the same pay as the norm.
I prefer web services that link software on various apps across various devices which cache and sync content. The best example is probably Kindle which has a hardware device, various mobile apps and web based reader.
