Y2HH

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 09:19 PM) Sometimes Anderson doesn't think out there...he's a very good athlete playing CF instead of a "natural" baseball player like Beckham who happens to be athletically-gifted...he misses the cut-off man or just has brain cramps, whether in the field or on the basepaths. (Yes, I realize he had a really good throw last week to nab someone trying to score at the plate). Still, it's the evil of two lessers (or three lessers) or the lesser of three evils argument, I suppose. Who will hurt the White Sox the least as a regular? If you stick him the 8 or 9 hole, I'll vote for Anderson at this point. Not because he has really "won" the job, but just because the other logical choices are worse. Agreed on Anderson. I think what he lacks at the plate is made up for on defense. His brain cramps aside, a lot of would be singles/doubles are outs with Anderson out there, while they aren't with the alternatives. Also, who knows, maybe Anderson will catch lightning in a bottle and find his swing...finally.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 09:18 PM) He claimed that the quote they took was out of context. It was. That quote may have been taken out of context, but the other two were not, where he recommended buying Bear Sterns at like 60. Mere weeks before it was worth 2. I think more than anything, this simply prooves that these experts aren't all they're cracked up to be...and maybe now people will be a little more weary of blindly following their expert advice.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 08:29 PM) So is trying to say that you weren't telling people to buy their stock. Bingo. I'm also not the one recommending stocks to people, having them not only go down, but WAY down and then claiming I never recommended it. Also, I'm not the one being paid, on a tv show, to recommend stocks. Isn't Cramer's big slogan something along the lines of, "Helping people make money?" Well...he failed.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 08:23 PM) I think you need to atleast like what you do though, otherwise the emotional toll of doing something you dislike or hate every single day will break you down. But I get what youre saying. Actually, I know a mechanic for Lotus who got into the field because he loved working on cars as a hobby, turns out he wishes that was still just his hobby, not his profession because now he lost his hobby to work. If that makes sense. Makes perfect sense. And I do agree, you should absolutely like what you do, I'm just not so sure about throwing the word love around when talking about a job is realistic. At least, for me, it's not.

College and career come down to two basic, but very important choices. Are you the type that want's to "love your work" or are you the type that "wants to make money"? I say this because, more often than not, the two do not mix. If you can be one of the few that finds that kind of lightning in a bottle, more power to ya, but throughout my career I've found that usually doesn't happen. A lot of people toss around the words, "I love my job", but in reality, they don't...they merely claim to love it. If you loved your job, you wouldn't care what money you made, you wouldn't b**** about raises, bonuses, etc. I don't charge my family/friends to hang out, I do that for free, because I love them. I'd never *EVER* do that for my job, regardless of circumstance. I do that to get paid. Period. I know some will disagree with my point of view on this, as is their right, but this is the way I see it. I live by the philosophy that I work to live, not live to work. I like my job, because I work on computers/information systems, and I've always loved computers, but I do not love my job. I have no room in my life to love my job. Love is reserved for family/friends. Those are my basic priorities. Again, if you can be one of the very few lucky ones, go for it...but if not, I'd recommend to working to live, not the other way around.

Personally, I hope Fallon succeeds. I've always liked him but he picked some pretty bad roles in movies (aside from his Boston Red Sox movie), I thought that was pretty good.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 08:06 PM) For me, I have to take a leak. I can't go to sleep thinking I might have to go to the bathroom. Second, I have to make sure my door is locked. Any other things you guys have to do before the sleep? PG-13 please... #1 Lay down. #2 Close my eyes.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 08:00 PM) So who put a sell recommendation on Bear Stearns before they knew they were collapsing? Was already too late.

Oh, and Burger King still sucks. I have to say that out of all the fast food restaurants, and that goes for all of them, Burger King seems to have a monopoly on hiring the absolute STUPIDEST people in existence. White Castle is a close second, to be fair.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 06:59 PM) Do you work for McDonalds or something? I choose my favorite place to eat due to taste, not by who comes up with creative ideas and/or who has the most revenue. Oh, I also saw some mention about Coke II in this thread. Coke II, FTW. No, I was simply pointing out that judging by profits alone, it's not just me that seems to love McDonalds, or they'd probably suck at making money. Starbucks thought, "Well if we just expand to a trillion stores, everyone will drink StarBucks...", but they ended up being wrong...a lesson Burger King doesn't want to risk learning via over expansion to make a run on McDonalds, which they know would fail. Anyway, when it comes to "taste", the last place I would eat is at a fast food restaurant. I go to fast food places because it's fast and easy, not because I'm a connoisseur of crappy food. I just like the consistency of McDonalds (regardless of state/country), and then Wendy's and Hardee's are both tied for 2nd!

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 05:25 PM) face it, your ploy to sway the minds of soxtalk with your sleazy unoriginal marketing has failed. BK burger shots, my friend, are 2009 Crystal Clear Pepsi. Crystal Pepsi was a disaster. Are those tacos something BK is trying to market/sell now or something? I haven't noticed because I hate BK.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 04:53 PM) That may be true...but Fallon comes from a more traditional performance background. Whereas Conan was more of a writer/improv. Conan could be whoever he wanted to be because no one knew who he was. Fallon is pretty well known, so his leash is probably going to be shorter. The key to this show will be to carve it's own audience rather than trying to placate to Conan's. That, IMO, would be his biggest mistake.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 04:53 PM) So in honor of this thread I just bought a pack of Burger Shots and they tasted average as hell. Whatever marketing genius came up with this idea at Burger King must've barely passed that class in college. Burger King is notorious for copying (or attempting to copy) anything others in that industry do that's successful. They tried to copy McDonalds fries in the early 2000's. In the mid 2000's they tried to copy the mega burger type of things from Hardee's, when Hardee's started seeing success by marketing unhealthy in an era of healthy. Now they're copying White Castle.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 02:35 PM) You are 100% correct. Jon Stewart was wrong that Jim Cramer recommended buying Bear Stears stock the week before he collapsed, and he apologizes in that video. He then provides you the video from 5 days beforehand where he directly says to BUY BEAR STEARNS STOCK. And where a few weeks beforehand, he virtually begs people to buy Bear's stock. I was going to post that myself, I watched Cramer on numerous occasions recommend BUYING BEAR STERNS STOCK. I'm happy Stewart exposed him on that. Cramer, like the rest of these experts, is a f***tard. He got rich in an era of market uprising because he had enough money to put it there, and no fault to him, he was very successful in that era. But let's face facts, he was in the right place at the right time and that time is over. Him and his kind try to pretend they can keep recreating that success over and over, when in fact, they cannot so instead they sell books and weasel their way into TV shows to keep getting richer, rather than actually following their own advice. There are a few studies on the net about Cramer, and if you had followed his investment advice over the past 10 years you would have UNDERPERFORMED the S&P500. In short, if you had just bought shares in any S&P500 index, you would have outperformed the expert that is Cramer, and now...given how far everything has fallen, you would have decimated him. I don't want to downplay Cramer's education level nor his savvy investing back in the 80's, but back in the 80's, if you had the money, you could have bought just about...well...ANYTHING and if you held onto it, you'd have been a millionaire, too. It's like Buffett, who doesn't make solid investments anymore, he merely uses his power/leverage/billions to strong arm companies into giving him deals that the common investor couldn't possibly get. Again, not to downplay his past success, but what he did then and what he does now aren't remotely the same thing. For a personal example, in my personal portfolio, I decimated Cramer HANDILY over the past 8 years, and I'm not even an expert.

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 04:13 PM) I'm not challenging Alexei's athletic skills or Ozzie's judgement of what it takes to play SS... I'm just curious to know how much SS he's actually played... anywhere. It's a damn good question, I'm glad you brought this up because I was wondering myself, I just never remembered to bring it up when it mattered. I'm interested to see what some of our stat experts can find on this...

QUOTE (shipps @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 03:06 PM) Your just saying that cause McDonalds is closer to your house.....yeah I know where that alley behind what used to be Jewel is. DAMNIT, STAY OUT OF MY DUMPSTER!

It's not bad, but let's be real. Fallon replacing Conan is akin to the 2006 White Sox replacing the 2005 White Sox.

I had Burger Kind in Australia -- only it's called Hungry Jack's there -- this is how much BK sucks balls. Their Aussie Burger is a BK Whopper with cheese + a fried egg, a slice of ham and shaved beets. It sucked. Because BK sucks.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 02:38 PM) Not much of a fail when you're better than McDonalds.... Back to the original topic. I've had the burger shots...meh, I wouldn't care if I ever had them again. I could go for white castle sliders anytime, it's something that can't be replicated. Even though just about every restaurant has tried with "sliders" of their own. Only they aren't better than McDonalds according to sales, which is kind of reflected in the numbers. MCD: Total Revenue for 2008: 23.5 BILLION Cost of Revenue for 2008: 14.8 BILLION Gross Profit for 2008: 8.639 BILLION BKC: Total Revenue for 2008: 2.54 BILLION Cost of Revenue for 2008: 1.063 BILLION Gross Profit for 2008: 1.48 BILLION Burger King f***ing sucks. McDonalds > BK.

QUOTE (shipps @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 01:47 PM) Which makes for the correct and most accurate assessment of a cheeseburger. Burger King f***ing sucks. They are the ONLY unoriginal burger chain in existence. Everyone else has their own image and basic ideas on the burger, Burger King's image continues to be, "We wish we were McDonalds!", and that's why they continue to be a super fail.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 11:31 AM) I meant...Obama introduced his education policy and the markets have soared. Based on the standard set for the last month, the stock markets must love Obama's education policy like nobody's business. Hahah, I know you're joking, that education plan has nothing to do with this, nor does this phantom "standard he set a month ago" some people talk about.

Uptick rule has been restored. Goes into effect in a month.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 09:10 AM) This is so true. My journey into security went down a similar path. I was working at a hospital in the Infrastructure group working on Cisco equipment. They wanted to move from the Cisco product to the checkpoint product, which at the time was just realeased. It ran on Solaris and I was the only one in my group who touched Unix at all. It was thrown my way. I left that hospital, then moved to a big company working for their US networking group. I worked as a Unix admin, managing the US based firewalls and got my big break which was they had an global security position open. I actually helped them interview people for over a year and finally they offered it to me. I have never looked back. And one more thing to add to Y2HH's post. Lots of people realize that security is the way to go as far as specialization. You will run into a large amount of charlatans out there in this industry. Self proclaimed security experts because they ran an automated tool once, are getting a masters in IT security, or passed some cert. So if you do specialize in this, remember good people are still hard to find in this industry. You aren't kidding. My friend works in the security department for Apple (in the Cupertino campus), and often shares his experiences with me in the interviews he gives people. One of his most often failed questions goes like so: "If you had root on a *NIX machine, but could only use the default tools on the server/not install anything new or run any sort of script, what would be one of the first steps you take to figure out what kind of server it is, what it does, etc.?!" Now you would be amazed that 99% of the "charlatans", as you called them, answer with, "I'd use NMAP or something similar to portscan the server." Which of course you cannot do, because he just said NO INSTALLING ANYTHING OR RUNNING SCRIPTS. As you pointed out, people lean on these types of programs to call themselves experts. When more simple commands such as netstat -an would give you the information he just asked for in 1/1000th the time. Or how about, I don't know...taking a peek at the process list?! Needless to say, these people don't get hired...but they a majority of his applicants. And their resumes are COMPLETELY fabricated/embellished. Bottom line, don't use tools/scripts to drive 100 miles when the place you're trying to go is only 1 mile away.

QUOTE (Scwible @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 10:16 AM) Question, do you fellows here who are in the field have a degree that is related to what you do? computer science, etc.... I have a degree, but I've never once used it. I have a bachelors in CIS/Computer Information Systems (which is a fancy schmancy way of saying computer programmer). About three months before graduation I was in the lab working on my senior project, executing code, finding errors, debugging them, executing it again, etc. -- and it suddenly dawned on me -- I hated computer programming. Hated it. It was tedious, repetitive and boring. But wait, I find this out NOW?! It took me about 4 years to realize that and I'm graduating in three months?! As it goes, that same year I got a part time job working at that ISP I spoke of earlier which opened a world of computers I had never really considered at that point...networking. You have to keep in mind that this was the 90's, and the Internet was a relatively new concept for most, and nobody had really found a way to make money on that concept yet...so networking was a new thing, and it was a wonderful thing. I remember the first time I connected my Commodore 64 to another computer via modem -- it opened a world to me beyond imagination. I've never looked back. But make no mistake, while I have a passion for the computer world on my personal time, while I'm at work, it's business time. I like my job, I don't love it. Love is reserved for my family, my hobbies and my personal time.

If you are looking for a place to start, start with A+/Network+, and I say this because it's basically the entry gate to the IT industry. The tests are very basic and cover a general knowledge area of the PC world, without going into anything complex. You can self study them just by buying any book on the subject matter (or going to the library). From there, if you want to go the networking path (which I'd recommend), I'd start with the CCNA (Cisco) and move on from there. After you've done those you will know enough to know which direction to go. The alternative is to go for the MCSE (Microsoft Engineer certifications). I have to say, however, I'm not a big fan of vendor specific certifications, I find them to be mostly a scam for those companies to collect extra money every few years. What I mean by this is, for the most part, you will pass a certification exam and they will purposefully "expire" that certification a year or two later so you can pay them again to retake the test. That, IMO, is equivalent to your college/university calling and saying, "You know what, we're gonna need you to come back for another four years because we've decided to "expire" your degree." I find it a very cheap and often used practice on IT certifications...it's a total sham. If you continue to work in the industry, as with any degree, it's taken into consideration you've kept up on technology and learned/grew with the times. That said, don't let my opinion on the matter sway you. Get into the IT industry, it has a bright future -- but as with anything, you'll have to start at the bottom and be willing to accept that! Certifications do very little to replace industry experience, which is the ever living paradox of the industrial world. No experience, no job! Well...how the hell do I get a job if nobody will give me a chance to get experience?! I've found, throughout my career, that most people in IT end up where they are on accident. For example, most of us start out in entry level jobs, and somewhere along the line an opportunity arises which allows us to move into something "bigger or better", but again, that depends on your viewpoint as to what's bigger or better. There are distinct paths in the IT industry, and the path you end up on is usually accidental, e.g. programming, networking, operating systems, security, etc. Back in the late 90's, I worked for a small Chicago ISP called American Information Systems (a job I got through a friend), I started as tech support for dialup customers and move onto the desktop support administrator role about a year after. That's just a fancy IT title for the guy that fixes users PC issues around the office. From there, I started doing minor windows server administration. Shortly after, Exodus Communications (now bankrupt) buys out that small company and my new boss says, "Hey, how would you feel about being our local firewall guy?!" I had never worked on a single firewall in my life at this point, mind you, so I tell him...I have no experience in that realm, and he says, "So what, here is a PIX and a Checkpoint firewall...learn them." The rest is history. I went on to get the silly CISSP in 2000 and have held it since, and now I do PIX/Checkpoint/F5 Load Balancing for a living...like I said, where I entered and where I ended up is pure coincidence. I stumbled into it the security path. The only thing you can do is enter into a low paying jr admin job so you can get on the job training. If I had to say which area has the brightest future, it's the security area of IT, and as I see it, nothing else even comes close. Not only is the security path of IT short on people across the board, it's getting worse, because everyone wants to be a hacker these days...not the guy who stop them. And I absolutely agree to the poster above me, the best way to learn is to teach yourself by building your own network. Any computers will do, try to get them from friends/family who have recently replaced their old computer, or have old computers laying around they aren't using anymore but still work. Speed doesn't matter, it's just a way to enable you to build a network of different operating systems and see if you can get them working together, and to understand WHY they work together. Break them...mess with them, and then try to fix them. You'll find the time flying by when you hit a bump in the road and you research/toy with how to fix it. I spent so many hours in high school doing this it's not even funny. It sounds like a joke, but you'll learn more doing that than reading any book.