About jjb

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  Best way to break into programming/IT field?

  3 0 Approaching it from the direction of languages is a mistake. Just as you don't really learn a foreign language until you are using it for real, you aren't going to really learn a computer language until you're learning it for real. If you're serious, you should come up with a project that interests you on your own and try and work on that. It's not really going to provide you an entry into the industry, but you'll be able to learn if you even like it at a hobbyist level. As far as getting into the industry, without a formal education or industry track record, it's not going to happen. You need one or both. The education could happen from a community college, continuing education classes or similar, but nobody is going to use up their interviewing time on somebody with nothing on their resume. The latter can be found through open source projects, but that's going to take a lot of work to get up to the point where you're able to make a significant contribution to a high enough profile open source project for it to be viable resume material. The computer industry does OK with hiring folks without formal training, but you need to have something like the equivalent of an impressive portfolio in order to make that happen. jjb answered in Geek Week 10 months ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

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  So, I'm thinking about buying a Tablet...

  1 0 As mentioned in Andrew's answer, until there's confirmation that the Flyer will be upgraded to Android 3.2 (the update being pushed out right now that contains support for 7" tablets), it's a clear do not buy. There is at least one 7" tablet that has been announced so far from Hauwei (http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/20/huawei-announces-7-inch-mediapad-android-honeycomb-tablet/) that will be running that OS, so we should expect it that form factor to start showing up. Your use cases are important here, though: if you're going to be doing a lot of e-reading, a 7" tablet makes a lot of sense, as I find the 10" tablets to be cumbersome for that. If you're going to be doing more general purpose stuff, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is my favorite of the current hardware that's out there right now. I wouldn't anticipate a lot of movement in the market over the next couple months, other than the appearance of 7" Android tablets, and then a renewed surge of stuff in the fall. jjb answered in Geek Week 10 months ago Answer, comment & read 5 more answers »

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  Best 4G mobile hotspot?

  0 0 There are three technologies that the carriers are calling "4G", and they're fairly different. Forgive the acronym-itis here, but this is going somewhere. HSPA+ wasn't 4G anything until fairly recently, when T-Mobile decided that they had better call it that in order to not appear to have a 4G solution for folks. This is really an extension of the last gen of technology, and it's fine, but probably not what you're looking for. WiMAX is the technology that Clear and Sprint use, and it's the odd man out as far as what everybody else in basically the world decided. Clear has really oversold their bandwidth and can't keep their network working, and Sprint is already making noises about abandoning WiMAX and going to a different technology. At this point, WiMAX is starting to look like a technological cul-de-sac. Given their service problems on top of that, and anything from those guys (particularly in the Seattle area) looks like a loser. That leaves Verizon's LTE network. They've only recently started rolling it out, but it's blazing fast for now and LTE is the tech that more or less everybody settled on (except Sprint), so there's not really any concern about it being the right path. Since right now, their prices are competitive, they're a clear winner. jjb answered in Tech Products about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

• Comment on seattle firefly's answer…

  0 0 The George and Dragon? Seriously? It's been a little while, but if you had asked me today which place in Seattle had the worst fries, I would have said the George and Dragon without hesitating. Every time I went in there, their fries managed to be both floppy and burned at the same time, a feat I can only guess was achieved with oil that was so ancient that it was actually sooty. Seriously, those things were inedible, a greasy, soggy creation that I wouldn't feed to my dog much less attempt to consume. jjb commented over 2 years ago

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  Where would you eat if you could only have one more meal out in Seattle?

  2 0 Were it not for the "not too expensive" caveat, I'd suggest the omakase at Mashiko in West Seattle. Beyond that, the Paseo suggestion is fantastic. jjb answered in Food & Drink over 2 years ago Answer, comment & read 29 more answers »

• Comment on elenchos's answer…

  0 0 The Barking Dog has been going steadily downhill for years. The menu gets less and less interesting every time they change it - they used to have things like excellent wasabi pork shumai on the appetizer menu, for example, along with entrees like a tasty Vietnamese sandwich and excellent tuna melt. But now, it's pretty ordinary. Last time we were in there, they were even down to just two Belgians on tap from what used to be eight or ten. It's not bad, really, but it's certainly nothing special any more. jjb commented over 2 years ago

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  Should I keep my long hair?

  1 1 For me, at least, long hair tends to be a negative, just because of the hassles. Short or long hair can both look good or bad, but long hair is a big pain in the ass for everybody involved. jjb answered in Sex & Relationships over 2 years ago Answer, comment & read 12 more answers »

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  How do I use an iPhone with T-mobile?

  0 0 It's important to realize, in addition to the other information here, that the iPhone only has AT&T's 3G frequencies, and not T-Mobile's, which are different. As a consequence, for your packet data connection, you'd be limited to EDGE speeds, which is pretty darn slow. jjb answered in Science & Technology over 2 years ago Answer, comment & read 4 more answers »

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  Why is the solstice the beginning of Summer

  0 0 The solstice isn't the beginning of summer, no matter what the local weather muppet on TV says. The Straight Dope had a nice writeup on this: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/161/is-it-true-summer-in-ireland-starts-may-1 jjb answered in Science & Technology over 2 years ago Answer, comment & read 3 more answers »

• Comment on Paul Constant's answer…

  0 0 Thanks Paul, I'll give him a try. More accurately: the book has already been ordered. jjb commented over 2 years ago

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