Southwest Coffee Talk - Page 75

combusean · #**1481** Posted **Feb 7, 2020, 6:56 AM**

I just got a job with NASA in Mountain View, California at the Ames Research Center. It is an unreal victory in my hellacious job market and field.

But I cannot forget my professional upbringing in Tempe and Phoenix that led me to this day starting from over 25 years ago when I was a junior-high school student learning to run a Linux server with a 90 MHz Pentium with 64 MB RAM in my ASU mentorship.

I look forward to the new generations the Valley of the Sun will produce.

PHX31 · #**1482** Posted **Feb 7, 2020, 2:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

I just got a job with NASA in Mountain View, California at the Ames Research Center. It is an unreal victory in my hellacious job market and field.

But I cannot forget my professional upbringing in Tempe and Phoenix that led me to this day starting from over 25 years ago when I was a junior-high school student learning to run a Linux server with a 90 MHz Pentium with 64 MB RAM in my ASU mentorship.

I look forward to the new generations the Valley of the Sun will produce.

Congrats!

My 4 year old son seems interested in rockets and space (like a lot of youngsters). What would you say is the best course he could take to someday work at NASA? Now, I'm not even coming close to trying to chart a path for him at all, but I'm just trying to understand how people in general eventually get in a position like you working for a place like NASA or JPL or the like.

Do they need to go to elite charter schools and prep schools then elite colleges? Or could he make it there via public schools by simply having a focused interest, work hard on after school activities/clubs, and maybe just be uber smart?

DesertRay · #**1483** Posted **Feb 7, 2020, 2:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

I just got a job with NASA in Mountain View, California at the Ames Research Center. It is an unreal victory in my hellacious job market and field.

But I cannot forget my professional upbringing in Tempe and Phoenix that led me to this day starting from over 25 years ago when I was a junior-high school student learning to run a Linux server with a 90 MHz Pentium with 64 MB RAM in my ASU mentorship.

I look forward to the new generations the Valley of the Sun will produce.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Nice, nice job staying the course and getting the prize. Do you mind sharing more of your journey there, so that lurkers can benefit from how the heck you got to where you are going?

muertecaza · #**1484** Posted **Feb 7, 2020, 4:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

I just got a job with NASA in Mountain View, California at the Ames Research Center. It is an unreal victory in my hellacious job market and field.

But I cannot forget my professional upbringing in Tempe and Phoenix that led me to this day starting from over 25 years ago when I was a junior-high school student learning to run a Linux server with a 90 MHz Pentium with 64 MB RAM in my ASU mentorship.

I look forward to the new generations the Valley of the Sun will produce.

Congratulations--one small step for an Arizonian, one giant leap for Arizona-kind.

azliam · #**1485** Posted **Feb 7, 2020, 4:36 PM**

Congratulations Sean!

Classical in Phoenix · #**1486** Posted **Feb 7, 2020, 6:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

I just got a job with NASA in Mountain View, California at the Ames Research Center. It is an unreal victory in my hellacious job market and field.

But I cannot forget my professional upbringing in Tempe and Phoenix that led me to this day starting from over 25 years ago when I was a junior-high school student learning to run a Linux server with a 90 MHz Pentium with 64 MB RAM in my ASU mentorship.

I look forward to the new generations the Valley of the Sun will produce.

Congratulations! Best of luck to you.

biggus diggus · #**1487** Posted **Feb 7, 2020, 6:30 PM**

What is your field?

Congratulations on your new position.

combusean · #**1488** Posted **Feb 8, 2020, 1:32 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PHX31

Congrats!

My 4 year old son seems interested in rockets and space (like a lot of youngsters). What would you say is the best course he could take to someday work at NASA? Now, I'm not even coming close to trying to chart a path for him at all, but I'm just trying to understand how people in general eventually get in a position like you working for a place like NASA or JPL or the like.

Do they need to go to elite charter schools and prep schools then elite colleges? Or could he make it there via public schools by simply having a focused interest, work hard on after school activities/clubs, and maybe just be uber smart?

So what surprised me about this is that NASA as I understand it is effectively split into two directions: the missions themselves and the data that they gather. I am going to work on the latter at the cloud computing center because NASA is one of AWS’s biggest customers.

There were a few things that won me the job: 13 years of industry experience but most importantly the soft skills. They didn’t interview me on the technical side which is probably why I got it. Being friendly, knowing my field, and knowing how to solve customer problems was essential to me landing this job.

Technical people tend to be difficult at best to work with so while you can grow up your kid in a highly intelligent environment, they need to know how to work with others.

combusean · #**1489** Posted **Feb 8, 2020, 1:45 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DesertRay

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Nice, nice job staying the course and getting the prize. Do you mind sharing more of your journey there, so that lurkers can benefit from how the heck you got to where you are going?

I had the experience of a mentorship that no longer exists at Arizona State University because they no longer allow individual servers on the network. My father was a professor there and the College of Education at ASU needed some tech help many years ago.

Somewhere around 1995 when I was in junior high I was granted “root” at a Linux box at that college of education which pretty much accelerated my tech knowledge.

From there it became an operations and system administrator field to web programming and that’s what kept my career going until pretty much 2012 when I had to leave Phoenix for better pastures when there were no jobs available.

I continued my Web app experience until 2014 when I fell into this field known as “Devops” where development and operations are fused together so I’m supposed to be two people in one.

I got fucked over and laid off a bunch of times doing this because this field is notoriously pickyand unstable but whatever. I’m working for NASA!

ASU Diablo · #**1490** Posted **Dec 10, 2020, 11:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrestedSaguaro

It was reported sometime ago (late 2019 I think) that plans were in the works to redevelop the theaters into dine-in seating with about half the units. I image COVID probably put a good delay on that since theaters were impacted so heavily from closures and Hollywood filming delays. Hopefully once all this settles, they will still be interested in redeveloping the theaters.

With Warner Bros' recent announcement of also releasing theatrical releases straight to HBO Max on the same day, I wonder how this impacts theatres going forward. As more and more studios move to same-day theatrical/streaming releases, this may mean the end of theatres as we know them today. Sure they will still exist but this pandemic has really altered how the public consumes entertainment...

combusean · #**1491** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 12:46 AM**

"The end of theatres as we know it" is really chicken little. They're releasing them to their own streaming service to recover untold millions in sunk costs and promote those services. Streaming services will never have the reach of your average theater.

I just wish they demolished Arizona Center and replatted it rather than what we got--I'd take an extended Taylor St rather than the AC hotel there. I have a feeling that will be its future--it just doesn't have any anchors or the square feet to compete with the Biltmore, and a 1000 beds or so if they ever build Palm Court isn't going to turn that block around.

biggus diggus · #**1492** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 1:16 AM**

People still want to go to the movies. Not everyone is a homebody, I've heard plenty of people complaining about how they miss the experience.

ASU Diablo · #**1493** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 1:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

Streaming services will never have the reach of your average theater.

You mean to tell me a physical theater, miles away from households, have a larger reach than tens of millions, possibly hundreds, of streaming connected devices globally, right in their living rooms? Don’t be dramatic with your reply, never said it would happen overnight or that movie theatres would completely die off. Of course, there will still be a demand.

One of the key players to watch is Disney over the next couple of months and what they do. Let’s see, top 5 grossing movies in 2019 where all Marvel/Disney. What do you think would happen if Disney, said for example, let’s only release to Disney Plus?

But hey that’s just my opinion. What do I know? I’m sure drive-in movie owners once said the same thing about their business model.

combusean · #**1494** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 1:53 AM**

Not everyone has streaming, wants to pay for it, has a decent device to watch it on (i'll pass watching a movie on my phone I paid money for), or the bandwidth to get it.

Almost anyone not confined to a nursing home has access to a movie theatre, especially the poor and old. Can't say that for streaming.

PHXFlyer11 · #**1495** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 2:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

Not everyone has streaming, wants to pay for it, has a decent device to watch it on (i'll pass watching a movie on my phone I paid money for), or the bandwidth to get it.

Almost anyone not confined to a nursing home has access to a movie theatre, especially the poor and old. Can't say that for streaming.

What? You are definitely in a very slim minority here. Almost anyone is willing to pay $13/month for Netflix or other services. And many choose to do so instead of paying cable so it's actually cheaper, not more expensive for them.

You don't have a TV? I'm really confused. If you don't have a TV then you are in the 2% of American households that do not. Most TVs purchased in the last 5 years have built in support for several streaming services. My TV is probably 10 years old now, but I bought a Firestick for $20 that allows me to access any streaming subscription i purchase.

combusean · #**1496** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 2:10 AM**

https://www.zdnet.com/article/micros...adband-access/

Quote:

Rather than 25 million people without broadband, Microsoft's research indicates "162.8 million people are not using the internet at broadband speeds".

Your smart TV doesn't do you any good if you don't have home Internet to connect it to.

PHXFlyer11 · #**1497** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 2:16 AM**

I do think movie theatres will still exist, but they will be fewer, they will include more amenities and will cost more. You're no longer paying to go watch a new movie, you're paying for an experience that must trump your experience of watching at home, and you must be willing to pay more than ever before to do so.

I could see Amazon buying a major theatre chain after they go bankrupt. Then you could buy say a $10/month Prime Theatre pass to watch unlimited new movies in the theater -- or the alternative is you pay to "rent" them via PrimeTV. I think it's a model that could work.

You sell it as an add-on to Prime. AMC did $5.4B in revenue last year and lost $149M. Amazon could sell this service which amounts to $120/year per subscriber. If they get 20M people to subscribe (and BTW you would still have to pay for Prime) then that's $2.4B, add on concessions (but better -- and of course more expensive -- think Whole Foods type quality and prices) then you could easily make money doing this and more important it drives more revenue for all of their other products and subscriptions.