Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

One more year on the shelf Siftbot. Man - they pass by like sands through the hour glass.

Actually... no. You probably didn't realize the small air holes that are already in the plastiglass for humidity issues. It is simply there to a) keep your grubby hands off the REAL glass protecting you from the outside elements, and b) smoothes out the internal lining because otherwise there would be a large cavity between the inner wall and outer glass. Leaving a shelf next to the social public leads to a lot of garbage being left on it to clean up later.

Pretty much everything @ChaosEngine said, and as pointed out in the Humans Need Not Apply video. There are far more factors going into this than the economists are willing to look at.

Shelf checkouts might result in slightly higher theft rates, and each person might be at the register than they would be with a properly trained cashier, but you now have one minimum wage employee watching 6 or 12 registers, rather than 6 or 12 people... that is a huge savings. That's 5 to 11 jobs lost, and at the low end, where people can least afford to lose job opportunities. It's just a matter of time until McDonald's, Wendy's and the like all add app-based ordering, or ordering at a kiosk, and that saves a couple employees there (Chick-fil-a already has that in their app, order, notify when you are there, they process the order)... and it wouldn't be too difficult to automate the McDonald's cooking line either... the burgers aren't flipped, the grill cooks both sides at the same time, drop them in place, grill down, cook, up, then put them in the stream tray, easy for a cheap bot to do. Portion control would be far easier with a bot too... there are huge incentives for them to move to automate...

The only real incentive not to automate as fully as everyone can is the fact it would cause a huge disruption to the economy if a Universal Basic Income isn't in place. I'd expect the biggest push for a UBI to eventually come from the various industries that want to automate, who'd gladly pay an automation tax to help pay the UBI in order to greatly increase their bottom lines, because we are very close to where a UBI, even based on an automation tax, is still cheaper than employing people.

I certainly see the artistic sensibility there. It's cool and unique, but in the end it left me feeling disturbed. Modifications to public infrastructure should be strictly discouraged.

Yes, I understand that a handful of 3" lag bolts to hold up your shelf and table are unlikely to affect the structural integrity of the bridge, but bridges and supports span the gamut from earthquake-ready to collapsing under their own poor construction.

This guy's modifications are unlikely to cause a serious problem, but what about the next guy who decides to make more serious alterations? The potential risk for serious cost and injury aren't worth the coolness factor.

First piece of advice. "Clever" code is usually bad code. If I saw that line of code in a code review, I would have to have words with the programmer.

More seriously, it depends where you are. There area lot of jobs right now. If by no professional experience you mean no internship experience, that can make things harder but isn't a huge obstacle at all (the experience itself doesn't often count for much, it's really more of a "why didn't you get an internship?" sort of thing). A good way to start in that case is to look for contract-to-hire positions, possibly through a recruiting/placement agency (look for ones that specialize in engineers). They generally know what they are doing, and will work hard to find a good place for you and they are genuinely on your side. We like to use these where I work because you can hire someone on a three month or whatever contract, and if it doesn't work out, it's a relatively painless separation for everyone (ie, you weren't "fired" you just finished the term of your contract). It's easier to get your foot in the door through a CTH, and then you just have to diligently and prove yourself.

As for preparing for real work (the actual coding part), that's harder. Since you really don't know what you'll be doing, it's not easy to prepare for it. You really have to learn software engineering on the job, and companies hiring entry level talent know that. That said, if you have a particular field in mind, looking for *good* open source projects along the lines of what you want to do and studying the source is good idea. Exposure to real-world, non-academic code is very useful. Getting involved and maybe becoming a contributor is a great idea (and looks good on a resume and gives you something to talk about in an interview). Working on personal hobby projects is a good thing too (though not as good as working on larger projects with other people), which again, gives you something to talk about in an interview. Keep your hand in. Have something to talk about at your interviews.

There are some good books. "The Pragmatic Programmer" by Hunt/Thomas is an excellent general-purpose programming practices book (more about mindset and approach and good patterns than technical details), and I can't recommend it enough. There are some others, but they escape me at the moment. Google is probably your friend here. If you can find a second hand set of Knuth for a reasonable price, buy it up. It's not even remotely worth actually reading, but it looks good on a shelf.

Good luck and don't sweat it. You have a degree that makes you very employable. You'll find something that you like without a doubt. If you're lucky it will be your first job, if not, no big deal--move on to the next thing.

*promote

I remember talking to my cousin, when I was very young, and I said I didn't know who U2 was. He went to his shelf, grabbed Boy, War, and The Unforgettable Fire, and said "Listen to these, and don't bother talking to me until you do."

A defining moment for me, growing up.

I dunno, the concept is plausible. Model jet engines can give up to 25 kg of thrust (off the shelf, more for custom built). He has six of them, so that's plenty of thrust.

I have over ten years of experience in computer animation and his movements are exactly what I'd expect. The engine effects are perfect, everything is just as I'd expect even things at a good distance disturbed by the wind. If this is fake it's the highest level of fakery and the concept is very plausible.

IMO this is probably real.

I thought Colbert probably just forgot him on the shelf of his old show.

I assume they still employ security guards to watch for people who walk in without a phone or amazon account, jump the turnstile, and start casually taking items off the shelf...

And try to fit this bullshit onto a store shelf where everything else has normal packaging.

I'm not sure why you'd move for the chocolate oranges, you can find them on pretty much any store shelf in the US. And to me at least they always tasted like milk chocolate oranges. Actually, now I kinda want one dammit.

Annnnnnd, I know what Blu-ray I am pulling off my shelf tonight and watching.

Based on a book by Neil Gaiman. I read it years ago, but remember very little beyond a few of the characters involved and the fact that I enjoyed it. Think it's time to take that back off the shelf.