• (cs) in reply to Jeff Jason
    Jeff Jason:
    Hey there,

    A guy I work with just alerted me to this post because I am a software developer with a CDL and CS degree!

    I went to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and we have a bus system with approx 120 student drivers. We trained each one of them to get their CDLs and, like any organization with 150+ employees, we have an IT/MIS department. With the decently cheap student workforce of educated people we realized that we could produce a lot of our own in-house software for a relatively low price. So over time that MIS department has turned into a little php/ruby bus driver/programmer production factory.

    I am one of at least 5 developers with a CDL that have come out of there in the last 5 years.

    :-)

    Ah, UMass Transit. (Booster blower? I hardly even know her!)

    Like Jeff here, I went to UMass for Computer Science and drove buses. Unlike Jeff, I'm one of the few people to escape from the organization without marrying another bus driver...

  • (cs) in reply to jvanderb
    jvanderb:
    anon:
    jvanderb:
    TRWTF is that the bounce message has someone's resume on it!

    Just because the agency mentions a resume it doesn't mean one was attached. Have you never dealt with with a recruiter?

    Duh...it's called sarcasm!

    Duh, it's text! I can't hear your sarcasm!

  • Bus Spotter (unregistered)
  • Synchronos (unregistered) in reply to Jeff Jason
    Jeff Jason:
    So over time that MIS department has turned into a little php/ruby bus driver/programmer production factory.

    So it's Ruby on Wheels, then? Better start taking tram-driving lessons, too, to get grasp of the Rails part.

  • Aaron (unregistered) in reply to Unknown User

    Definitely not far-fetched at all. On my campus, I'm currently training to be one of the 120+ student drivers and my major is IT.

  • The version I wanted to see (unregistered) in reply to Aaron
    Aaron:
    Errr, I believe that the "ride share" concept is for people who all have cars. You find two (or more) people who live and work relatively close together and set up a sort of carpool.

    Because $DEITY knows a person who owns a car wouldn't prefer to ride a bus (or subway or light rail). And if you're lucky, you might get 30 minutes of decent conversation with more than 1 person, instead of road rage.

    The only advantage that a car-pool system has over the bus is that on the bus you may encounter "those people" (fill in any group of folks you are uncomfortable around for "those people").

  • Yalpe Nismou (unregistered)

    Who's Denny ?

  • Tanuki (unregistered)

    As the Route Master obviously didn't have any passengers while it was moved, couldn't it have been re-instpect as lorry?

    I exactly don't know the American system, but at least in EU it's much easier to gain drivers license for a lorry with no trailer -something like three weeks and 500€

  • Drone (unregistered)

    Clearly, the solution here is to carpool in the mobile lab.

  • Aaron Griffith (unregistered) in reply to Graham Asher
    Graham Asher:
    I've sent this to my friend Frank, who is both an excellent network administrator and a qualified bus driver. He is also a magician and accomplished children's entertainer, holds a flying license, teaches yachting, organises firework displays, and has been a scoutmaster. But that's another story.

    I'm not entirely certain that you're not joking here, but nonetheless... I've found that all scoutmasters do at least 5 other interesting but completely unrelated things. It's like a job requirement.

  • Ajonos (unregistered) in reply to Grovesy
    Grovesy:
    bjolling:
    Vollhorst:
    Grovesy:
    galgorah:
    Rodnas:
    Yeah, i know. Our company is looking for a programmer/assasin. The assasin skills are needed to get rid of those pesky customers who are complaining that the software is full of bugs.

    !fist

    I am quite well versed in both professions. We will never meet. All fund will be direct deposited into a swiss bank acount. Upon reciept of money I will fix the bug and "Dispose()" of the target.

    Only if you can Guarantee ~Target()

    /groan

    Calling the destructor of an object does not delete it...

    /yawn

    Destructor? I thought he was talking about a C++\CLI finalizer.

    ~~ Third try ~~

    Yes, I was talking about .net Finalization, being that IDisposable.Dispose(); is a .net interface...

    And yes, I think everyone knows that a Finalizer in .net with MS's runtime does not actually 'destroy' the object, release memory or anything else but simply allow you a final chance to clean up any unmanaged resource before the GC does its job.

    So he's an assassin that leaves the target in a slow but "sure" deathtrap then?

  • (cs)

    When I was 16 I met a guy for an interview at a local Del Taco. He had a website selling ringtones and voicemail messages, and he wanted me to write software to splice together a robot voice speaking any sentence the user desires! (And yes, he wanted a robot voice, not a human voice.)

    I put together a basic design for the software over the next few days, and sent an e-mail to him with the idea. He never replied, and he stopped posting on his website's forum about the same time. Sometimes I wonder if he died or something...

    I still have the design, a decade later, and it's remarkably concise (for something a 16-year-old could write). There isn't much I would change if I were doing it today. (On occasion I think about writing it just for kicks.)

  • Ubuntu Geek (unregistered) in reply to Heron

    [quote user="Heron"]When I was 16 I met a guy for an interview at a local Del Taco. He had a website selling ringtones and voicemail messages, and he wanted me to write software to splice together a robot voice speaking any sentence the user desires! (And yes, he wanted a robot voice, not a human voice.)[/user]

    There is a package in Ubuntu that will let you play around with speech synthesis:

    Speech Synthesis on Ubuntu

    I still remember "SAM the software mouth for your Commodore 64 computer" WAY back in the day. Good times.

  • (cs)

    How many people with inheritances really acknowledge that buses exist? I'd bet that anyone who can say they have enough inheritance to start a business probably already thought that the poor people use these giant vehicles as rideshares, and more than a few wonder how they can get a piece of that business.

  • Charles400 (unregistered)

    I see jobs for Java developers with garbage collection experience. :)

  • Laughing Jack (unregistered) in reply to Bus Spotter
  • mypalmike (unregistered)

    "in the mid-to-late 80's"

    Just say 1987 if you mean 1987.

  • Johnno (unregistered)

    I'm guessing (given it was miles) that the bus stuff is in another corner of the world, and that said university no longer needs such a service, but....

    I drove commercial (public transport) buses for two years after finishing Uni, and there were many other qualified professionals (especially from IT) working there at the time, so I'm not sure that that exact combination qualifications would be all that difficult to find. I guess it may have been different in the '80s, but if anything, gaining an appropriate license (at least in this neck of the woods) is easier today....

  • Johnno (unregistered) in reply to Johnno
    Johnno:
    I'm guessing (given it was miles) that the bus stuff is in another corner of the world, and that said university no longer needs such a service, but....

    I drove commercial (public transport) buses for two years after finishing Uni, and there were many other qualified professionals (especially from IT) working there at the time, so I'm not sure that that exact combination qualifications would be all that difficult to find. I guess it may have been different in the '80s, but if anything, gaining an appropriate license (at least in this neck of the woods) is easier today....

    OOPS...I meant was easier then...

  • Tom the Brat (unregistered)

    I once had a potential client ask me to send them the source code for a project where I had used thousand of SQL stored procedures. I didn't pursue that one.

  • lesle (unregistered) in reply to Anonymously Yours

    [Nitpick nitpick time: Using an apostrophe to indicate a decade is a style choice in grammar and it's acceptable to write 80s or 80's. It has nothing to do with showing possession or indicating omitted letters in this case. http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/a.html[/quote]

    More NitPick: Properly, the 80s was a decennary; 1971-1980 and 1981-1990 were decades.

    While I'm at it, 1991-2000 was the last decade of the twentieth century; the first year of the third millennium, the 21st century, and the 201st decade was 2001.

    And as Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, it's twenty-hundred, not (ugh!) two-thousand.

  • Grovesy (unregistered) in reply to JamesQMurphy
    JamesQMurphy:
    Grovesy:

    And yes, I think everyone knows that a Finalizer in .net with MS's runtime does not actually 'destroy' the object, release memory or anything else but simply allow you a final chance to clean up any unmanaged resource before the GC does its job.

    Everyone here, maybe. Certainly not the general pool of .NET candidates. Don't believe me? Conduct some interviews. You'll see.

    Actually, I do want a Mister-Burns=esque 'release the hounds' / 'trap-pit' style button under the meeting-room table when I get the 'to free up memory' answer to the 'explain dispose and finalization in .net' interview question... ok it might be a recent c++ or Java guy who has moved over,so I don't mind as much (even then), but when their CV says '5 years C#' I do wonder

    I'm always suprised at the combination of wrong answers to both dispose and finalize for some reason.

  • dna (unregistered)

    topper : in my local 'ANPE' (national work agency in france) there was an opportunity for some IT tech with Helicopter 'driving' license

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Aaron Griffith
    Aaron Griffith:
    Graham Asher:
    I've sent this to my friend Frank, who is both an excellent network administrator and a qualified bus driver. He is also a magician and accomplished children's entertainer, holds a flying license, teaches yachting, organises firework displays, and has been a scoutmaster. But that's another story.

    I'm not entirely certain that you're not joking here, but nonetheless... I've found that all scoutmasters do at least 5 other interesting but completely unrelated things. It's like a job requirement.

    This is absolutely true. Some of the most common activities include:

    • Rock climbing;
    • Hiking;
    • Paedophilia;
    • Community work;
    • Canine interference;
  • Mr.Googler (unregistered) in reply to Rodnas

    !fist ?

    You're not fist? But you are fist?

    My head hurts :-(

  • (cs) in reply to Will
    Will:
    I thought for sure that the bus driver/programmer story was going to end with him driving away with the fire hose data cable still attached.
    if so why would he submit the story?
  • Thg (unregistered) in reply to NoAstronomer
    NoAstronomer:
    Wolfan:
    Why not just pay the Network Engineer to go get his CDL?

    Because that would like, you know, cost money and stuff. Besides once they were trained they'd probably quit and go work as a bus-driver.

    Well ... it's a career that can't be out-sourced off-shore

  • Rain Coat Man (unregistered) in reply to John
    John:
    Oddly enough, I am a computer programmer with commercial bus driving experience. The busses at my college were all driven by students. It was a great part time job.
    Minibus or double deckers? Minibus I believe you just need a few years xp of driving a car to use. Double deckers you need to take an extra test. (At least in the UK (given it was a London Routemaster I will assume the story is based in the UK))
  • Rain Coat Man (unregistered) in reply to anon
    anon:
    major layoffs ... unfortunate few

    Anyone else find the first sentence a WTF?

    It you have a team of three, and "a few" (2) people are let go it is a major layoff.

    An error occurred: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

  • Blue Collar (unregistered) in reply to evilspoons
    evilspoons:
    iToad:
    NoAstronomer:
    Wolfan:
    Why not just pay the Network Engineer to go get his CDL?

    Because that would like, you know, cost money and stuff. Besides once they were trained they'd probably quit and go work as a bus-driver.

    With better pay, better hours, and no emergency phone calls in the middle of the night.

    And if it's anything like the transit system in my city (my dad was a bus driver for 35 years) - retarded management that doesn't allow bus drivers to properly enforce management's rules (fare collection? HA!), the overwhelming impression from the public that you're an asshole before you've done anything good or bad, and the constant threat of the passengers themselves. My dad retired early - another driver who started the same time as him recently made national news because he was beat within an inch of his life by an arrogant, drunk prick of a passenger.

    Nitpick time: it is not "80's", unless the number 80 is possessing something ("robot 80's terrible decision led him to the brink of sanity").

    And I'll let Bob the Angry Flower carry us out: http://angryflower.com/aposter.html

    I remember hearing about that, wasn't it in calgary!?

  • Chris (unregistered) in reply to John

    Same at my school. An electrical engineer I knew had his CDL paid for by the university.

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to iToad
    iToad:
    NoAstronomer:
    Wolfan:
    Why not just pay the Network Engineer to go get his CDL?

    Because that would like, you know, cost money and stuff. Besides once they were trained they'd probably quit and go work as a bus-driver.

    With better pay, better hours, and no emergency phone calls in the middle of the night.

    And more realistic deadlines. I have yet to hear of a bus driver who was required to get to a bus stop 300 miles away in 6 minutes.

  • Jay (unregistered)

    I don't get the one about the rideshare plan. Surely it's quite plausible that there could be many people who would prefer to ride in a car than on a bus for reasons of comfort and security -- especially given that this guy is doing background checks. Taxis cost way more than buses, but that fax doesn't seem to have put taxis out of business. Ridesharing generally assumes that the people are going to close destinations, so the trip would be much shorter than having to ride a bus around a pre-arranged set of stops. Etc.

    I don't know if the operation would really be viable, but it doesn't strike me as absurd.

  • (cs)

    Ridesharing works quite ok in Europe, but it's interesting mostly for long, occasional rides.

    Daily commute? Not that much. I know people who do it, but they work at the same location.

  • Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to Kiss me I'm Polish
    Kiss me I'm Polish:
    Ridesharing works quite ok in Europe, but it's interesting mostly for long, occasional rides.

    Daily commute? Not that much. I know people who do it, but they work at the same location.

    works fine around DC (in the US) - there's a thing called a slug line where people line up. Drivers will then pull up and say where they're going and how many (to get HOV driving). It works largely due to the high density office buildings.

  • Matt.C (unregistered)

    Bus-ted!

  • BDan (unregistered)

    That's similar to the setup my elementary school had, actually: they filled a school bus full of Apple ][es, and drove it around to the four elementary schools in the city. I don't think the computer teacher had a CDL, though: it wasn't necessary for all the schools to have computer units at the same time, so they only moved it every couple of months, and presumably just got someone else to drive it on those occasions.

  • Pastor Bentonit (unregistered)

    I am, arguably, a sloppy assassin. As a programmer, I dunno. HALP!

  • Mike (unregistered)

    I want job #3. I have 15 years of computer science and 12 years as a truck driver. I wish this was a joke.

  • Mike (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    iToad:
    NoAstronomer:
    Wolfan:
    Why not just pay the Network Engineer to go get his CDL?

    Because that would like, you know, cost money and stuff. Besides once they were trained they'd probably quit and go work as a bus-driver.

    With better pay, better hours, and no emergency phone calls in the middle of the night.

    And more realistic deadlines. I have yet to hear of a bus driver who was required to get to a bus stop 300 miles away in 6 minutes.

    Truck drivers deal with unrealistic dispatchers all the time. With only 11 hours driving allowed per day, some loads just require the driver to break the law to reach their destination on time. Interestingly enough, most government loads fall into this category..

    CAPTCHA: eros - too easy

  • (cs) in reply to NoAstronomer
    NoAstronomer:
    Wolfan:
    Why not just pay the Network Engineer to go get his CDL?

    Because that would like, you know, cost money and stuff. Besides once they were trained they'd probably quit and go work as a bus-driver.

    How much would a bus driver get anyway?

    One of my friends got a job which is similar to "drive the bus, help the students". They paid for his MR license. (You can Wiki that, as I had to for "CDL")

  • JohnB (unregistered) in reply to Bus Spotter
    Bus Spotter:
    Oh, yeah, the Franz Josef ... we took the West Coast Express (or some name similar to that) bus ride up the southern Island. Wonderful, fun, low budget trip. If you climb the Franz Josef then you will start by walking through temperate rain forest before coming to the glacier -- it's possible to stand with one foot on the glacier and one foot in a temperate rain forest.

    If you haven't visited NZ then put a visit on your bucket list. And take your time. You couldn't do Massachusetts in two weeks; you'll only hit the highlights of NZ in two months.

  • db (unregistered) in reply to Aaron Griffith
    Aaron Griffith:
    Graham Asher:
    I've sent this to my friend Frank, who is both an excellent network administrator and a qualified bus driver. He is also a magician and accomplished children's entertainer, holds a flying license, teaches yachting, organises firework displays, and has been a scoutmaster. But that's another story.

    I'm not entirely certain that you're not joking here, but nonetheless... I've found that all scoutmasters do at least 5 other interesting but completely unrelated things. It's like a job requirement.

    Actually my scoutmaster as a kid was a busdriver. He could get more money that way than infrequent work on medical electronics, which I suppose is only few months reading away from network engineering in the early 1980s. I don't think he would have gone all the way back to England for that job though.

    Odd how things connect.

  • (cs) in reply to Altair
    Altair:
    Rodnas:
    Yeah, i know. Our company is looking for a programmer/assasin. The assasin skills are needed to get rid of those pesky customers who are complaining that the software is full of bugs.

    !fist

    What's your HR email address, I think I'd be perfect for that position.

    My assassination skills are a bit rusty, but I'm working on it.

    Captcha: Similis, sounds painful

    Don't even bother - I'm applying, and I'm a Microsoft-Certified Assassin Programmer (MCAP).

  • veniam (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Aaron Griffith:
    Graham Asher:
    I've sent this to my friend Frank, who is both an excellent network administrator and a qualified bus driver. He is also a magician and accomplished children's entertainer, holds a flying license, teaches yachting, organises firework displays, and has been a scoutmaster. But that's another story.

    I'm not entirely certain that you're not joking here, but nonetheless... I've found that all scoutmasters do at least 5 other interesting but completely unrelated things. It's like a job requirement.

    This is absolutely true. Some of the most common activities include:

    • Rock climbing;
    • Hiking;
    • Paedophilia;
    • Community work;
    • Canine interference;

    Those aren't separate activities for a scoutmaster...

  • (cs)

    Ha! I drove a bus part time while getting my masters in Computer Science! I haven't had much need for the driving experience since, however.

  • Peter Smith (unregistered)

    it's nice to chat with you here, we can solve our problems here. hope everybody can get his answer.

  • Stevie D (unregistered)

    Funny you should mention that, but we have someone doing almost exactly that job in York (UK), driving a bus full of computer kit between schools and colleges, and then helping to deliver lessons and plan the work. And I know a school where at least a couple of teachers, including one head of department, had previously been bus or coach drivers.

  • dgghua (unregistered)

    Thank You for the post. I love to read interesting post that has knowledge to impart. I hope to read more articles from you and in return I will post also my articles in the forum so that others can benefit from it

  • Andrew (unregistered)

    Could this be the completed project... https://www.pacerideshare.com/en-US/

Leave a comment on “The Automated Interview, The Denny's Interview, & Missing CDL TLA”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article