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In case anybody missed it: I GOT HIRED.
I start full-time employment tomorrow.
In terms of location, the building is literally 2 blocks from my front
door. It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work. (Take note, all ye who
sayeth "there are no jobs in Milton Keynes, you should move to London".)
There is only one other site which is nearer than this. So it's almost
as near as is physically possible.
In terms of the work, it appears that I'm going to be a full-time C#
programmer, occasionally specialising in Linux deployment and packaging.
(As opposed to Linux deployment and packaging, occasionally doing some
C# programming, which is what it initially sounded like.) The guys seem
convinced that I'm a Linux wizard, despite my statements to the
contrary. This seems to be based largely on the fact that I know how to
run "ps" and I know that "kill" is a command that sends signals, not
just a tool for killing processes.
In terms of what the company does, the Non-Disclosure Agreement that I
just signed prevents me saying too much. Their products are used by
government bodies and the military (but also normal commercial customers
as well). Apparently I need to undergo some fairly extensive security
checks. The software they write has some very technical aspects to it -
manipulating low-level stuff like computer file-systems, network
protocols and even cryptography. (I.e., stuff that I would actually find
interesting, rather than just writing yet /another/ CRUD system.)
The company is quite small, and everything is fairly informal. The
development team consists of a bunch of lads all roughly my age. I spent
most of Friday hanging out with them in their den, and I went home
feeling like I'd had "a fun day" rather than "a job interview". It seems
that I fit right in. This is probably no small part of why they hired
me; they do a lot of "pair programming", which I'd imagine doesn't work
at all if the people in the pair aren't both on the same wavelength. In
short, it's a very friendly, very fun environment. (OTOH, I didn't do
any actual *work*, so...)
I wrote quite a lot of C# code for somebody who doesn't "know" C# yet.
Obviously it was all exercises. And they were really more interested in
my problem-solving approach (and social skills) than the actual code
produced (which was obviously trivial).
Oh, and did I mention? The salary isn't peanuts this time. It's real
money. OK, it's not a fortune. But it's not a joke now. And in
percentage terms, it's a rather large increase. (I'm not completely sure
what my final salary from the last place was, but we're talking about
something like a 50% pay rise. Would *you* complain about that??)
Bearing in mind that my previous employer is still paying me what
amounts to a full salary until December, I will basically be earning two
wages for the next few months.
Obviously I'm now in a probation period. My official title is "junior
developer". It has been indicated to me, by several people who have the
authority to be making such statements, that this could change quite
soon, and that if so the pay would also increase. (But to be clear, I do
not have this part in writing.)
So, to summarise, an extremely local job, doing interesting, technical
work, in a relaxed atmosphere with friendly people, for drastically
increased pay. And I start tomorrow. To say that this is my "dream job"
would be an exaggeration, and would be more than a little premature. But
I think you'll all agree this is an extremely positive outcome. Now
let's just hope to **** that after all this I can actually DO the job! O_O
PS. My quip about Mordor seems tame compared to some of the jokes I
heard offered in the office. Indeed, that quip may even by why they
invited me back in the first place... (But that's just speculation on my
part.)
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Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
> In terms of location, the building is literally 2 blocks from my front
> door. It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
You talk as if actually walking to work is completely unthinkable, no matter
how short the distance. Heaven forbid you having to walk two entire blocks!
--
- Warp
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On 07/10/2012 11:45 AM, Warp wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1<voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> In terms of location, the building is literally 2 blocks from my front
>> door. It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
>
> You talk as if actually walking to work is completely unthinkable, no matter
> how short the distance. Heaven forbid you having to walk two entire blocks!
Walking from Milton Keynes to Coventry would be completely unthinkable.
Walking two city blocks would merely mean I'd have to leave a little bit
earlier. At my current fitness level, it's probably about a 30 minute
walk. I probably wouldn't do that in winter though...
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On 07/10/2012 11:33 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> In case anybody missed it: I GOT HIRED.
>
> I start full-time employment tomorrow.
Well done, you seem to have landed on your feet.
It sounds like it is the perfect place for you to work. Interesting job,
good working conditions, reasonable money, close to home and maybe a
social life. When the good weather comes back you could cycle to work.
Don’t worry about the security clearance it is just a pain filling in
the forms. If I can pass, you won’t have any trouble.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 07/10/2012 01:29 PM, Stephen wrote:
> Well done, you seem to have landed on your feet.
> It sounds like it is the perfect place for you to work. Interesting job,
> good working conditions, reasonable money, close to home and maybe a
> social life. When the good weather comes back you could cycle to work.
Yeah, all that stuff. Sounds like good times ahead.
> Don’t worry about the security clearance
I'm not worried. I merely mentioned it as an indication of the kind of
work they're doing.
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On 07/10/2012 3:32 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 07/10/2012 01:29 PM, Stephen wrote:
>
>> Well done, you seem to have landed on your feet.
>> It sounds like it is the perfect place for you to work. Interesting job,
>> good working conditions, reasonable money, close to home and maybe a
>> social life. When the good weather comes back you could cycle to work.
>
> Yeah, all that stuff. Sounds like good times ahead.
>
Except that you may actually have to work. :-P
>> Don’t worry about the security clearance
>
> I'm not worried. I merely mentioned it as an indication of the kind of
> work they're doing.
Gotcha!
--
Regards
Stephen
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>> Yeah, all that stuff. Sounds like good times ahead.
>
> Except that you may actually have to work. :-P
Uh... yeah. I wonder if I still remember how to do that? o_O
Oh well, either way, it's going to get *quiet* around this newsgroup. ;-)
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On 07/10/2012 4:24 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>> Yeah, all that stuff. Sounds like good times ahead.
>>
>> Except that you may actually have to work. :-P
>
> Uh... yeah. I wonder if I still remember how to do that? o_O
>
> Oh well, either way, it's going to get *quiet* around this newsgroup. ;-)
I didn't want to say that but since you brought it up... :-P
--
Regards
Stephen
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On Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:29:39 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> On 07/10/2012 11:33 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> In case anybody missed it: I GOT HIRED.
>>
>> I start full-time employment tomorrow.
>
>
> Well done, you seem to have landed on your feet.
> It sounds like it is the perfect place for you to work. Interesting job,
> good working conditions, reasonable money, close to home and maybe a
> social life. When the good weather comes back you could cycle to work.
Yes indeed. Well done!
Jim
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> I start full-time employment tomorrow.
Congratulations - must be nice to be getting paid double (until xmas
wasn't it?) :-)
> In terms of location, the building is literally 2 blocks from my front
> door. It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
...
> In terms of the work, it appears that I'm going to be a full-time C#
> programmer,
...
> protocols and even cryptography. (I.e., stuff that I would actually find
...
> something like a 50% pay rise. Would *you* complain about that??)
...
Surely that is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE! You're one of the 6 people in the
world working on cryptography!
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On 08/10/2012 08:15 AM, scott wrote:
>> I start full-time employment tomorrow.
>
> Congratulations - must be nice to be getting paid double (until xmas
> wasn't it?) :-)
Yeah, roughly that. Looks like fun times ahead.
> Surely that is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE! You're one of the 6 people in the
> world working on cryptography!
I'm not designing cryptographic methods - just employing existing ones.
(Maybe.)
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Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> In case anybody missed it: I GOT HIRED.
congrats!
> The guys seem convinced that I'm a Linux wizard, despite my statements to the
> contrary. This seems to be based largely on the fact that I know how to
> run "ps" and I know that "kill" is a command that sends signals, not
> just a tool for killing processes.
I can see lots of Linux-related questions here in the coming weeks.
> In terms of what the company does, the Non-Disclosure Agreement that I
> just signed prevents me saying too much.
weapons of mass destruction?
> The software they write has some very technical aspects to it -
> manipulating low-level stuff like computer file-systems, network
> protocols and even cryptography. (I.e., stuff that I would actually find
> interesting, rather than just writing yet /another/ CRUD system.)
no doubt
> I wrote quite a lot of C# code for somebody who doesn't "know" C# yet.
it's not all that different from Java. Plus it got its fair share of pythonism
and haskellites.
> And they were really more interested in
> my problem-solving approach (and social skills) than the actual code
> produced (which was obviously trivial).
that's the correct way to hire compsci guys
> Oh, and did I mention? The salary isn't peanuts this time. It's real
> money. OK, it's not a fortune. But it's not a joke now. And in
> percentage terms, it's a rather large increase. (I'm not completely sure
> what my final salary from the last place was, but we're talking about
> something like a 50% pay rise. Would *you* complain about that??)
> Bearing in mind that my previous employer is still paying me what
> amounts to a full salary until December, I will basically be earning two
> wages for the next few months.
great, you can finally buy a 4" smartphone.
> Obviously I'm now in a probation period. My official title is "junior
> developer". It has been indicated to me, by several people who have the
> authority to be making such statements, that this could change quite
> soon, and that if so the pay would also increase. (But to be clear, I do
> not have this part in writing.)
ok, junior
> PS. My quip about Mordor seems tame compared to some of the jokes I
> heard offered in the office. Indeed, that quip may even by why they
> invited me back in the first place... (But that's just speculation on my
> part.)
BTW, did you ever mention povray during the interview? ;)
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Le 2012-10-08 12:46, nemesis a écrit :
> Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> In case anybody missed it: I GOT HIRED.
>
> congrats!
>
Ditto.
>> The guys seem convinced that I'm a Linux wizard, despite my statements to the
>> contrary. This seems to be based largely on the fact that I know how to
>> run "ps" and I know that "kill" is a command that sends signals, not
>> just a tool for killing processes.
>
> I can see lots of Linux-related questions here in the coming weeks.
>
>> In terms of what the company does, the Non-Disclosure Agreement that I
>> just signed prevents me saying too much.
>
> weapons of mass destruction?
>
James Bond gadgets.
--
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/* flabreque */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/* @ */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/* gmail.com */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }
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On 08/10/2012 05:46 PM, nemesis wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1<voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> In case anybody missed it: I GOT HIRED.
>
> congrats!
TY.
>> The guys seem convinced that I'm a Linux wizard, despite my statements to the
>> contrary.
>
> I can see lots of Linux-related questions here in the coming weeks.
Heh. I doubt that...
> weapons of mass destruction?
Surely the only true weapon of mass destruction is the atom bomb. After
all, it works by converting mass (which is a form of energy) into heat
(which is another form of energy)...
>> I wrote quite a lot of C# code for somebody who doesn't "know" C# yet.
>
> it's not all that different from Java. Plus it got its fair share of pythonism
> and haskellites.
My C# book did spend an entire chapter telling me that immutable objects
and mapping / filtering / gouping are cool. Right before it started
raving about something called LINQ, which seems to be of very dubious
usefulness. (Unless you're actually writing database applications,
anyway...)
>> Oh, and did I mention? The salary isn't peanuts this time.
>
> great, you can finally buy a 4" smartphone.
Uhuh. So I could splash out and buy a camera that doesn't stop working
after 20 minutes. Or a copy of VMware Workstation. Or some new dance shoes.
Or I could buy something utterly useless like a smartphone.
Seriously. You realise I'm never more than 17 feet from a computer,
right? What do I need a phone for?
> BTW, did you ever mention povray during the interview? ;)
It's on my CV. I don't think I mentioned it out loud.
Weirdly, this company has an animation department - even though this is
utterly unrelated to their actual core business. They use them to do
marketing graphics and such, and also contract them out to companies
wanting similar. Random...
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Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> Weirdly, this company has an animation department - even though this is
> utterly unrelated to their actual core business. They use them to do
> marketing graphics and such, and also contract them out to companies
> wanting similar. Random...
Until I got a videogame fixation, my Plan B list included doing technical or
educational animations. This seems like it should be a pretty good market niche
to get into.
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Le 2012-10-08 17:00, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
> On 08/10/2012 05:46 PM, nemesis wrote:
>>
>> great, you can finally buy a 4" smartphone.
>
> Uhuh. So I could splash out and buy a camera that doesn't stop working
> after 20 minutes. Or a copy of VMware Workstation. Or some new dance shoes.
>
> Or I could buy something utterly useless like a smartphone.
>
> Seriously. You realise I'm never more than 17 feet from a computer,
> right? What do I need a phone for?
>
Calling the tow-truck the next time you get into a fight with a polish
truck driver. ;)
--
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/* flabreque */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/* @ */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/* gmail.com */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }
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Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Seriously. You realise I'm never more than 17 feet from a computer,
> right? What do I need a phone for?
Some people have friends who are not always 17 feet from a computer.
--
- Warp
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Le 10/10/2012 19:59, Warp nous fit lire :
> Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Seriously. You realise I'm never more than 17 feet from a computer,
>> right? What do I need a phone for?
>
> Some people have friends who are not always 17 feet from a computer.
>
Two shocking ideas:
* people have friends
* 17 feet from a computer is already too much away.
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On 10/10/2012 6:59 PM, Warp wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Seriously. You realise I'm never more than 17 feet from a computer,
>> right? What do I need a phone for?
>
> Some people have friends who are not always 17 feet from a computer.
>
Ooo! Scratch your eyes out, Julian.
That's so polari. (Sandy)
:-P
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 10/10/2012 06:59 PM, Warp wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1<voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Seriously. You realise I'm never more than 17 feet from a computer,
>> right? What do I need a phone for?
>
> Some people have friends who are not always 17 feet from a computer.
Oh, sure, I'm not saying it's a useless device. I'm saying it's useless
*to me*.
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On Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:07:26 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 10/10/2012 06:59 PM, Warp wrote:
>> Orchid Win7 v1<voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>> Seriously. You realise I'm never more than 17 feet from a computer,
>>> right? What do I need a phone for?
>>
>> Some people have friends who are not always 17 feet from a computer.
>
> Oh, sure, I'm not saying it's a useless device. I'm saying it's useless
> *to me*.
I'm curious how you manage to be within 17 feet of a computer when you're
skiing. ;)
Jim
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> Some people have friends who are not always 17 feet from a computer.
Or they are within 17 feet, but it's not turned on. Since I was able to
access email/web from a phone I went from having my home PC on every
evening to it being quite unusual to turn it on in the evenings.
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On 11/10/2012 08:07 AM, scott wrote:
>> Some people have friends who are not always 17 feet from a computer.
>
> Or they are within 17 feet, but it's not turned on. Since I was able to
> access email/web from a phone I went from having my home PC on every
> evening to it being quite unusual to turn it on in the evenings.
I can see how that might be useful. My PC, of course, has not been
turned off for several months now. I've got 4 copies of POV-Ray running
24 hours a day ATM.
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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> I'm curious how you manage to be within 17 feet of a computer when you're
> skiing. ;)
He has a smartphone, of course...
--
- Warp
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On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 07:35:52 -0400, Warp wrote:
> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> I'm curious how you manage to be within 17 feet of a computer when
>> you're skiing. ;)
>
> He has a smartphone, of course...
#REF
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>> Surely that is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE! You're one of the 6 people in the
>> world working on cryptography!
>
> I'm not designing cryptographic methods - just employing existing ones.
> (Maybe.)
Actually... It turns out all of the cryptography is a 3rd party
commercial library that we purchased. The code we wrote does no
cryptography at all. Oh well...
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On 10/7/2012 3:33, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> In terms of location, the building is literally 2 blocks from my front door.
> It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
TIL brits don't go outdoors. :-)
> I wrote quite a lot of C# code for somebody who doesn't "know" C# yet.
> Obviously it was all exercises. And they were really more interested in my
> problem-solving approach (and social skills) than the actual code produced
> (which was obviously trivial).
Congrats. This sounds like a great job to land.
> that after all this I can actually DO the job! O_O
Of course you can. C# is actually a pretty straight-forward imperative
language unless you start getting into very weird-ass stuff like generating
code on the fly or something like that. It's a pretty big language, most of
which makes sense.
> PS. My quip about Mordor seems tame compared to some of the jokes I heard
> offered in the office. Indeed, that quip may even by why they invited me
> back in the first place... (But that's just speculation on my part.)
I wouldn't be surprised.
Again, congrats!
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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On 10/8/2012 14:00, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> something called LINQ, which seems to be of very dubious usefulness. (Unless
> you're actually writing database applications, anyway...)
FWIW, LINQ is list comprehensions, except with a vaguely SQL-like syntax.
Now you're good to go. :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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On 20/10/2012 6:15 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 10/7/2012 3:33, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
>
> TIL brits don't go outdoors. :-)
Strange! And here's me thinking that it was Americans who had forgotten
how to walk. I've heard that you only go outdoors in an automobile.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On Sat, 20 Oct 2012 18:28:22 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> On 20/10/2012 6:15 PM, Darren New wrote:
>> On 10/7/2012 3:33, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>>> It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
>>
>> TIL brits don't go outdoors. :-)
>
> Strange! And here's me thinking that it was Americans who had forgotten
> how to walk. I've heard that you only go outdoors in an automobile.
There are places that can be true, particularly in the colder climes. I
remember days growing up where it was -70F outside (with the wind chill)
- you wouldn't WANT to go outdoors in that if you could avoid it. ;)
Jim
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On 10/20/2012 10:28, Stephen wrote:
> On 20/10/2012 6:15 PM, Darren New wrote:
>> On 10/7/2012 3:33, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>>> It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
>>
>> TIL brits don't go outdoors. :-)
>
> Strange! And here's me thinking that it was Americans who had forgotten how
> to walk. I've heard that you only go outdoors in an automobile.
That's just Los Angelos. San Diego walks everywhere. The rest of the country
walks or rides depending how fat they are. :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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On 20/10/2012 06:19 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 10/8/2012 14:00, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> something called LINQ, which seems to be of very dubious usefulness.
>> (Unless
>> you're actually writing database applications, anyway...)
>
> FWIW, LINQ is list comprehensions, except with a vaguely SQL-like
> syntax. Now you're good to go. :-)
I'm also not a fan of list comprehensions. Everything they can do can
also be done using monads. And in fact, in the latest GHC releases,
"list" comprehensions can be used for any monad. So really, it's just
different syntax for stuff you can already do. So why bother?
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On 10/20/2012 11:14, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> So really, it's just different
> syntax for stuff you can already do. So why bother?
Every programming language is just different syntax for stuff you can do
already in assembler. So?
Once you work with a language that does *not* have monads or list
comprehension, get back to me on whether it's useful to bother with. :-)
And you know what? What do you think LINQ is simplified syntax for? Look at
the underlying routines it translates into, and tell me if it's equivalent
to monads. I'm honestly curious.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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On 10/20/2012 10:53, Darren New wrote:
> On 10/20/2012 10:28, Stephen wrote:
>> On 20/10/2012 6:15 PM, Darren New wrote:
>>> On 10/7/2012 3:33, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>
>>>> It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
>>>
>>> TIL brits don't go outdoors. :-)
>>
>> Strange! And here's me thinking that it was Americans who had forgotten how
>> to walk. I've heard that you only go outdoors in an automobile.
>
> That's just Los Angelos. San Diego walks everywhere. The rest of the country
> walks or rides depending how fat they are. :-)
More exactly, Americans drive more, and more probably own cars, but that's
because Paris to Berlin is like a short commute by car for Americans. People
who live in cities usually don't take cars anywhere.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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On 20/10/2012 6:47 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Oct 2012 18:28:22 +0100, Stephen wrote:
>
>>
>> Strange! And here's me thinking that it was Americans who had forgotten
>> how to walk. I've heard that you only go outdoors in an automobile.
>
> There are places that can be true, particularly in the colder climes. I
> remember days growing up where it was -70F outside (with the wind chill)
> - you wouldn't WANT to go outdoors in that if you could avoid it. ;)
>
Too true.
--
Regards
Stephen
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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> There are places that can be true, particularly in the colder climes. I
> remember days growing up where it was -70F outside (with the wind chill)
> - you wouldn't WANT to go outdoors in that if you could avoid it. ;)
-70F sounds refreshing.
--
- Warp
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On 20/10/2012 8:33 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 10/20/2012 10:53, Darren New wrote:
>> On 10/20/2012 10:28, Stephen wrote:
>>> On 20/10/2012 6:15 PM, Darren New wrote:
>>>> On 10/7/2012 3:33, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>>
>>>>> It's almost close enough to /walk/ to work.
>>>>
>>>> TIL brits don't go outdoors. :-)
>>>
>>> Strange! And here's me thinking that it was Americans who had
>>> forgotten how
>>> to walk. I've heard that you only go outdoors in an automobile.
>>
>> That's just Los Angelos. San Diego walks everywhere.
And I thought that Saint James rode a white horse, all the better to
drive certain peoples out of Spain. ;-)
>
> More exactly, Americans drive more, and more probably own cars, but
> that's because Paris to Berlin is like a short commute by car for
> Americans.
I think that is a slight exaggeration, 650 miles.
But I know what you mean. Distances in America are large.
> People who live in cities usually don't take cars anywhere.
>
It depends what you call a city, doesn’t it?
Last year I was staying in the city of Hobbs NM and commuting to Eunice
every day.
Hobbs has no public transport. No buses, except school buses, no taxis,
except a stretch limo driven by an Elvis impersonator, to take people to
and from the casino. So understandably people have cars and drive
everywhere.
But how did you learn that Brits don’t go outdoors?
--
Regards
Stephen
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Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:
> Strange! And here's me thinking that it was Americans who had forgotten
> how to walk. I've heard that you only go outdoors in an automobile.
A friend told me that he was once amused because he was visiting some
acquaintances/family in the US, and they looked at him like some kind
of weirdo when he wanted to go to the grocery store by foot. (The store
was at something like half a km away.)
I have heard rumors that there are neighborhoods in the US where there
are no sidewalks at all, only streets. You are *supposed* to *always*
drive a car there and, in fact, if you were to walk there, people would
look at you suspiciously (because they would think you might be some kind
of thief scouting the premises or something.) I don't know if this is true.
(Sounds rather impractical to me.)
--
- Warp
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On 21/10/2012 9:14 AM, Warp wrote:
> I have heard rumors that there are neighborhoods in the US where there
> are no sidewalks at all, only streets. You are*supposed* to*always*
> drive a car there and, in fact, if you were to walk there, people would
> look at you suspiciously (because they would think you might be some kind
> of thief scouting the premises or something.) I don't know if this is true.
> (Sounds rather impractical to me.)
I have heard that too, once from a friend who was stopped by the police
in Houston or Dallas because he was walking not driving.
In Hobbs, I wanted to go from a local Walmart to a Radioshack which are
next door to each other (200 meters). I had to drive as they were fenced
off from each other and the half mile walk in about 40 °C was not worth
the trouble.
--
Regards
Stephen
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Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:
> In Hobbs, I wanted to go from a local Walmart to a Radioshack which are
> next door to each other (200 meters). I had to drive as they were fenced
> off from each other and the half mile walk in about 40 °C was not worth
> the trouble.
I have heard that there are many shops there where the parking space in
front of them is actually owned by the shops, and it's forbidden to have
your car parked in front of a shop while you are visiting a different one.
If you want to go to one shop and then to another, you have to actually
move your car, even if it's just by one parking space (to get to the
other shop's parking space.)
(Again, a "or that's what I heard anyway" disclaimer.)
--
- Warp
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On 21/10/2012 10:22 AM, Warp wrote:
> I have heard that there are many shops there where the parking space in
> front of them is actually owned by the shops, and it's forbidden to have
> your car parked in front of a shop while you are visiting a different one.
> If you want to go to one shop and then to another, you have to actually
> move your car, even if it's just by one parking space (to get to the
> other shop's parking space.)
>
> (Again, a "or that's what I heard anyway" disclaimer.)
I can't say that I have heard of that and it doesn't tie in with my
experience of Americans. Who on the whole seem friendly and obliging.
Surely if it is true it must be an isolated incident.
--
Regards
Stephen
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Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:
> Who on the whole seem friendly and obliging.
Except if you are an atheist, that is. ;)
Atheism, the new communism (which in itself is the new witchcraft.)
--
- Warp
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On 21/10/2012 11:12 AM, Warp wrote:
> Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:
>> Who on the whole seem friendly and obliging.
>
> Except if you are an atheist, that is. ;)
>
> Atheism, the new communism (which in itself is the new witchcraft.)
>
I am just lost for words.
--
Regards
Stephen
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Warp wrote:
> (Again, a "or that's what I heard anyway" disclaimer.)
All of the obervations so far have been true, and in some places, these
situations continue to this day.
For example, the street I live on, five miles (8 km) from downtown San Antonio,
TX (population >1M), did not have sidewalks until about a year ago, after the
city installed some hefty storm drains. Most local or state governments will
generally update streets to current standards after major construction.
Good books on this subject include "Asphalt Nation" by Katie Alvord, and
"Divorce Your Car!" by Jane Holtz Kay.
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On 10/21/2012 1:10, Stephen wrote:
> But how did you learn that Brits don’t go outdoors?
It was a joke because Andrew commented that the place two blocks away was
almost close enough to walk.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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On 10/21/2012 1:14, Warp wrote:
> of weirdo when he wanted to go to the grocery store by foot.
I've done that. The problem is not so much the walking as the fact that
you're lugging groceries back. Buy a gallon of milk, and you won't be
lifting your elbow above your shoulder for several days.
> I have heard rumors that there are neighborhoods in the US where there
> are no sidewalks at all, only streets.
Well, yes. Things like Beverly Hills, perhaps. Neighborhoods composed
entirely of houses that have an acre of land around them and the houses cost
ten million dollars and up.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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On 10/21/2012 2:22, Warp wrote:
> I have heard that there are many shops there where the parking space in
> front of them is actually owned by the shops, and it's forbidden to have
> your car parked in front of a shop while you are visiting a different one.
Sort of.
> If you want to go to one shop and then to another, you have to actually
> move your car, even if it's just by one parking space (to get to the
> other shop's parking space.)
Not really. What's much more common is that there are 500 parking spaces,
and the 20 in front of the restaurant are reserved for the restaurant's
customers. If you're going somewhere other than the restaurant, you park in
one of the other spots.
Unless you're really obvious about it, like parking in front of the
restaurant for the entire day, or actually being an employee of the
restaurant and parking in front of the door, nobody is going to bother you
about it. They have no idea whose car it is or whether they're in the
restaurant, after all.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."
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> I have heard rumors that there are neighborhoods in the US where there
> are no sidewalks at all, only streets. You are *supposed* to *always*
> drive a car there and, in fact, if you were to walk there, people would
> look at you suspiciously (because they would think you might be some kind
> of thief scouting the premises or something.) I don't know if this is true.
> (Sounds rather impractical to me.)
When visiting some suburb of Detroit (don't remember the name, near to
the Ford place) it was exactly like this. I could see a shopping mall
from my hotel window, but to walk there was a nightmare, involving
walking along the road (no footpath leading up to the hotel), climbing
over a barrier and crossing 4 lanes of traffic (although it wasn't that
busy). The same thing happened when I tried to walk home from the office
to my hotel, and I also noticed signs forbidding cycling on various
roads near to the shops (such signs I would expect to cause an uproar
amongst cyclists in any European country).
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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> On 10/21/2012 1:14, Warp wrote:
> > of weirdo when he wanted to go to the grocery store by foot.
> I've done that. The problem is not so much the walking as the fact that
> you're lugging groceries back. Buy a gallon of milk, and you won't be
> lifting your elbow above your shoulder for several days.
I really think you need more exercise... :P
(Personally, I always use a backpack.)
--
- Warp
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Le 2012-10-21 06:12, Warp a écrit :
> Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:
>> Who on the whole seem friendly and obliging.
>
> Except if you are an atheist, that is. ;)
>
> Atheism, the new communism (which in itself is the new witchcraft.)
>
It depends where, in Raleigh, North Carolina, being the "wrong" kind of
Christian is sometimes enough.
Neighbor: Hi, welcome to the neighborhood. Where are all y'alls from?
Cousin: Ottawa, Canada.
Neighbor: Ah. Have you found a church, yet?
Cousin: No, we've only been here 2 days. We saw St-Something-Or-Other
nearby, is there another one closer?
Neighbor: Oh! You're Catholics... You know you'll burn in Hell!
(Neighbor left in huff and never spoke to them again for the 3 years
they were there)
Disclaimer: I realise not every North Carolinian is a Southern Baptist,
and not all Southern Baptist is as closeminded as my cousin's neighbor.
--
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/* flabreque */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/* @ */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/* gmail.com */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }
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