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Author Topic: Long time lurker, first time caller...  (Read 3830 times)

Cornan

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Long time lurker, first time caller...
« on: 30 Aug 2011, 14:42 »

Been reading QC since Strip 164 and lurking the forums since some time around Strip 757 or so. I'm pretty much here for the WCDT or whatever it's been called now.

Now for the "about me":

Lettered in Tennis and Knowledge Bowl in High School (yes, seriously)
BS in Philosophy with a minor in Comp Sci
Worked in customer service or tech support my entire life.
Read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

That covers the general points I guess.

Hello!
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Carl-E

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #1 on: 30 Aug 2011, 19:41 »

Welcome! 

What took you so long? 
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When people try to speak a gut reaction, they end up talking out their ass.

Cornan

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #2 on: 01 Sep 2011, 16:17 »

Partially the fact that I'm hesitant to speak up in online communities in general (my sense of humor doesn't always translate well to text) and also partly the "READ THIS IF YOU'RE NEW" post that emphasized waiting before posting.

Also, I generally saw my viewpoint expressed well enough by someone else that I didn't feel a need to hop in and give my two cents. In general I guess you could call it a combination of laziness and caution.

I made an account because I've been lurking for so damned long now that I realized I have opinions of people and thumb-nail sketches of who they are in my brain because I've read their words but I haven't put mine out there so those sketches are semi-authentic at best and maybe I should put my text where my brain is and participate.

So here I am.
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pwhodges

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #3 on: 01 Sep 2011, 16:32 »

the "READ THIS IF YOU'RE NEW" post that emphasized waiting before posting.

That is perhaps good practice in any case, but it should not put you off starting sometime - and the specific reason that text was written there is no longer applicable which is why I recently somewhat de-emphasised it.  I have not removed it yet, because I should perhaps first get the agreement of the mod who wrote it, though he is no longer significantly active in this forum; however, I do have plans to recast the welcome threads.
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Cornan

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #4 on: 02 Sep 2011, 00:07 »

I actually noticed the de-emphasis when I came to sign up finally which made me chuckle. However, when I was first lurking here those notices were still relevant (like I said, I lurked a lot) and so I heeded them.

As I said, I'm normally slow to speak up in general. The posts just gave me a nice multiplier on my usual hesitancy.

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HiFranc

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #5 on: 02 Sep 2011, 08:27 »

Welcome, Cornan!
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Francisco

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #6 on: 10 Sep 2011, 11:10 »

BS in philosophy. How appropriate.  :-P I kid. Anyway, Philosohpy/Comp Sci, what kind of a job market is there for that? Sounds interesting anyway.

Welcome to the forums!
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Carl-E

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #7 on: 11 Sep 2011, 04:56 »

...Philosohpy/Comp Sci, what kind of a job market is there for that?

Quite possibly none, but it's perfect for the "Can Robots Love?" thread!


It's also clearly a major chosen for love and a minor for marketability... and maybe love, too.  One of the earliy Philosophy classes you usually take is Logic, and that can naturally lead to programming!
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Cornan

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #8 on: 16 Sep 2011, 18:27 »

I actually missed that people had posted in here so let me answer some questions!

I originally went to college intending to major in Computer Science. About halfway through my Sophomore year I learned that you could double major and tacked on Philosophy since I'd loved reading philosophical works since junior high when I read Plato's "Republic" and the collected works of Nietzsche. About a quarter of the way through my Senior year it became apparent that I would have to pick one or the other to be able to graduate before the Federal loans ran out. I made the conscious decision to finish my degree in something that I truly loved and so ended up with a Philosophy degree. During my time in Comp Sci I learned that while I'm a serviceable programer it's not something that I really enjoyed doing in and of itself so I decided to get a degree in something I loved trusting my decade of IT job experience and my minor to get me a job.

As far as job market goes there isn't one.  :|  After being let go from the job I got right after school I've been unemployed for almost two months now and haven't had much luck finding anything. Everyone thinks I'm either overqualified (office positions, customer service rep, etc) or under qualified (help-desk work, network IT, etc). I've got IT job experience out the wazoo but so do a lot of guys who got laid off in the 2008-2010 IT crisis so I'm competing with them and losing. Not a good scene.

I keep hoping to get a staff job at the University in the town where I live now (which my girlfriend will be graduating from at the end of Fall Term) so I can get a tuition discount and finish up my CS degree as an Information Systems degree instead but so far no dice.

In the far off future I'd love to be a college professor of Philosophy but you have to have the money to go back to school for your Doctorate first so right now I'm just treading water and hoping something comes along.

***EDIT***

Oh yeah! Meant to mention it but I usually avoid threads like the "Can Robots Love?" thread because the amount of facepalming and headdesking that I end up doing just causes me more pain than it's worth. People have some really odd ideas about both humans and AI/Robots and when you combine the two you end up with a whooooooole lot of Wargharble usually. That said, I haven't actually read that thread here so maybe it's better than most and worth a look-see. ;)
« Last Edit: 16 Sep 2011, 18:33 by Cornan »
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Carl-E

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Re: Long time lurker, first time caller...
« Reply #9 on: 17 Sep 2011, 21:32 »

Well, some of it's good.  There's a fair bit of dick-measuring going on over who does and doesn't really understand some of the more popular techno-babble terms, but most of it is predicated on the QCverse's brand of artificial intelligence. 

A good bit of it is actually philisophical...
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When people try to speak a gut reaction, they end up talking out their ass.
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