Thread: Non NCL thoughts

Hi, Dan! Have not seen you around for a while. How is it going?

Originally Posted by nealberk

Hi, Dan! Have not seen you around for a while. How is it going?

(take away the sad face, just warning others no need to read unless they want too)

Hey Neal! Yeah sorry been swamped but good news is I am back on track. The past six months I have been setting up the home, which is coming along nicely (not where we want to be but whatever). Also going to school and helping situate my mom from moving to NY back from San Diego. Work has also been insane since the new manager they hired for us was a real piece of work. My job requires 24/7 and he was tossed into the rotation as well, I guess not fair for him, but none the less, he was a jerk. He is gone now and we are doing a 24/7 with three men unless a vacation comes up, then two...They have decided to give us a forth man for rotation and have us report to a manager already in the department...It will be better this way I think.

The good news is I have finished SUNY Rockland Community College receiving an AS in Computer Information Systems and am transferring to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. I'll be studying BS in Computer Science and setting myself up for the Masters Program in Software Development. However, I am finally going to a Monday - Friday 7-3 type of shift, so that will make taking some of the computer courses difficult; I will cross that bridge when I get there. I think my backup plan will be to switch majors to the BA in Mathematics, it has free electives where I can take the computer courses required to lead me to take that MS is Software Development. There are plenty of math courses in the evening, weekends and online.

How have you been?

Nice to hear you are doing well (No need to post an off topic message, my posts are never on topic).

Let's see. I left Southwest Airlines after I saw that all I would be getting would be more and more follow on contract work. I took a job at BankOfAmerica (actually one of their subsidiaries that they are spinning off) Bad news is that it is all the way in Ft. Worth so we are considering moving to be a bit closer. Deb is starting a new job tomorrow. It too, is closer to Ft. Worth so we are going to be doing a lot of driving (at least we can carpool much of the time and I can work from home a few days a week)

Son got married, Daughter is now living in Argentina with her boyfriend/fiancee.

Not much else. Not doing that much photography right now although I do help out at the Cub Scouts activities taking pictures.

That is awesome about your son! Congratulations! I know you are always off-topic, actually everyone around here slips off topic which makes for nice atmosphere.

I have a bit of a commute myself, about 40 miles, so I understand how it is rough. It is really tough to let go of a house in this economy, but not to buy one - a pickle you are in... Good Luck with your decision. We almost went with BoA for our home mortgage but found Wells Fargo to be a better fit... Boy oh boy how we want to strangle them... Always screwing up the escrow account, but guess that is why you need to monitor it right?

Glad you and your wife did find jobs in this crazy economy... I would love to find a job in the tech field, but that will be a while I assume.

Also nothing with photography other then before and after photos of home projects... Have yet to processes them. I just built a new computer and have no real photo editing software on it (thinking gimp ?) - I do still have photoshop on my laptop of course. The PC I built is pretty sweet - dual monitors, i7 second generation, 8i gig ram, 120gb ssd, 750 gb regular hd, 256 bit 1 gb ram graphics, blu ray and dvd burner and a few other things that do not effect performance. I like it, best PC i've built in a while. I also upgraded my pc used as a "filesever" to a 8TB raid 5 array.. minus one for the raid gives me 6TB minus the usual overhead / improper reporting of storage, I am seeing about 5.4 TB... I bet that will take a while to fill up!

I am doing my best to stick around for a bit

Nice system, I am jealous. Actually, I am not really using my system for real serious processing these days so it does not really matter. I do have a fair amount of storage, though. I have 4.6 GB of storage which is about 1/2 full with varied and sundry stuff (Gilligan's Island pilot, 76 different versions of "Ghost Riders in the Sky", and similar)

My commute right now is 47 miles each way!

I have no real need for it either, always wanted to build a powerful machine ready for graphics, video (watching and editing), games whatever. I did buy Grand Theft Auto IV for it. Not sure if you are into video games or not, but from a programmers perspective the game has an amazing graphics engine with awesome detail and unbelievable collision detection. Also when something happens say damage to a vehicle or you are drunk, the game counter acts for it making it seem real... Very well done.

I am still deciding between photoshop and gimp. I am leaning towards gimp because it is free and will suit all of my needs. If I do get a copy of photoshop for this computer it will most likely be elements through the school got to love college discounts... This version of 64bit 7 I got for free through school... Computer Studies Students at my old school get access to a MSDN library of software, and I grabbed anything worth my time to download

PS - unlike most younger computer guys like myself and more like older school computer guys, I am very picky about what gets installed and what runs in the background.

Originally Posted by sk8erguy1978

I have no real need for it either, always wanted to build a powerful machine ready for graphics, video (watching and editing), games whatever. I did buy Grand Theft Auto IV for it. Not sure if you are into video games or not, but from a programmers perspective the game has an amazing graphics engine with awesome detail and unbelievable collision detection. Also when something happens say damage to a vehicle or you are drunk, the game counter acts for it making it seem real... Very well done.

I am still deciding between photoshop and gimp. I am leaning towards gimp because it is free and will suit all of my needs. If I do get a copy of photoshop for this computer it will most likely be elements through the school got to love college discounts... This version of 64bit 7 I got for free through school... Computer Studies Students at my old school get access to a MSDN library of software, and I grabbed anything worth my time to download

PS - unlike most younger computer guys like myself and more like older school computer guys, I am very picky about what gets installed and what runs in the background.

You should be. What runs in the background now is what turns your computer into molasses later.

You might also consider Corel's Paint Shop. It's a little less expensive than Photoshop Elements, although not free (or maybe it is through school, who knows?) I'm still experimenting with GIMP, but I'm not very happy with the selection tools right now. Elements 9 has the best selection tools I've seen yet, so I'm really leaning toward upgrading to it. I don't need the full treatment of general Photoshop. We don't get it for free (that I know of), but we do have a nice discount on Adobe products. I forgot about MSDN - I got Visual Studio last year for free.

Are you leaning computer science or MIS? I'm MIS, but had a hard time deciding between them.

Originally Posted by gesualdo

You should be. What runs in the background now is what turns your computer into molasses later.

You might also consider Corel's Paint Shop. It's a little less expensive than Photoshop Elements, although not free (or maybe it is through school, who knows?) I'm still experimenting with GIMP, but I'm not very happy with the selection tools right now. Elements 9 has the best selection tools I've seen yet, so I'm really leaning toward upgrading to it. I don't need the full treatment of general Photoshop. We don't get it for free (that I know of), but we do have a nice discount on Adobe products. I forgot about MSDN - I got Visual Studio last year for free.

Are you leaning computer science or MIS? I'm MIS, but had a hard time deciding between them.

The two degrees are really hard, do you want business or do you want techie. For me the choice was simple, I wanted to program... However, I will admit, I might not do programming - still want to be more technical side though... Database geek, server admin, or maybe I'll be a programmer for the right gig.

Anyway, I just graduated a community college with an A.S in Computer Information Systems. Even though it was information systems the degree was a blend of tech/business. Honestly seemed more techie... ? Do not tell them that - the degree is NOT computer science according to them...

So, I have transferred to Marist College to study Computer Science and take as electives fifth year courses that will get me on track for a M.S in Software Development. The work load at Marist College is challenging but it will be worth it.

Thanks for the tip about GIMP. Any one or two deciding factors that made you lean towards the business side of things?

Another vote for Paint Shop pro. But get on Corel's mailing list before you buy it- they offer a free 30 day trial and then offers the program to you at about 1/2 price. Not a bad deal. I am using it right now and I am impressed. They took most of the Micrografx code and incorporated it so the program is chocked full of features and fast.

Oh, by the way, congrats on getting where you are so far. Now it will really start getting exciting!