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Oh yeah, Windbg is great, saved me a few times from tearing my hair out  I've never done kernel dev though so I can't comment on your last point.
Low level development is an entirely different beast than what I've been doing for the last 10 years. I loved doing that kind of work back in the day, but besides some embedded C++ stuff for MQX RTOS, it just isn't the kind of work my clientele is looking for.
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Mike Marynowski wrote: Windbg is great, saved me a few times from tearing my hair out
Yeah, its great for user mode too, an awesome debugger, its the only Microsoft I like and respect. 
I like the lov level stuff, I guess being an ex mech-aero engineer I like the fact its more like real engineering, nuts and bolts stuff.
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Went from SQL Server to Oracle. Screams of agony ensued.
Went from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice and later LibreOffice. That didn't go so well.
Went from Visual Studio to Notepad. Actually that worked a lot faster 
Visual Studio is a great tool, but sometimes it does too much and my computer is a few years old.
I'm starting up VS now so I can get to work in five minutes 
The minimum install used to be 6GB, 'nuff said 
If Microsoft does something right it's development tools
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Visual Studio is a bit bloated, but that's part of its beauty in a way. Everything is just there and easy to find. The only other tools I need to do 99% of my dev work are Resharper and XAML Styler.
I'll gladly spend a few hundred bucks on system upgrades to run a more productive environment where everything is just there and easily accessible when I need it, but I can definitely see why that's a turn off for a lot of people.
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Bloated, definitely.
When you have dual quad processors and SSDs and tons of RAM you sort of expect things to go fast.
VS seems to stand for Very Slow.
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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I don't know what to say, that hasn't been my experience with it :/ What part of it is slow specifically? Could it be related to a plugin?
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Possibly. There are so many unused items installed by default that this is possibly the reason. For instance I recently installed Xamarin and was appalled at how much junk it brought with it. That must slow things down.
I also find that team server definitely has an impact on speed. I yearn for VS2008 which I believe was the last version not to include all the bloat.
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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Have you guys ever heard of a company doing a contract to hire, and them making the employee (once hired) take a severe pay-cut? I never heard of this practice until moving to California, but considering the whole reason contract to hire is to make easier on the employer to get rid of people they don't like (try before you buy) I've never seen a company try to short change a person's take home pay simply because they now want to hire him/her and give them benefits.
Anyone else?
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: Anyone else?
Yes I have seen that quite often actually. Usually perpetrated by companies that think that unemployment is high and you can't find another job elsewhere so they think they have you over a barrel.
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Yeah, I don't see how any company can keep quality talent like this. Something just doesn't seem right about it.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: can keep quality talent like
The reality is, is they don't. The people take the jobs to solve their short term unemployment problem and then immediately start looking for a job that pays them market or better. I was in that exact situation a long time ago. I was making a major life change at the time so I took the job hoping that they would sweeten the deal after some time. When I gave notice that I got another offer for 33% more, it was only right then that they discovered that, miraculously, they suddenly had that in the budget if I would stay.
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You are correct to do so sir. And oddly enough, as a company they're doing pretty well here. So, it's not really about money.
Jeremy Falcon
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It's managers being short sighted is all.
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I can buy that. Trying to look good, at the expense of others, but not seeing the big picture. You've obviously have been around the block.
Jeremy Falcon
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I've been seeing that lately. This was in Southern California and the contract rate was a very competitive. However, the salary they stated was way below market. This seems to be massively more common on the coastal states.
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Go figure. I'm in SoCal right now, and that's exactly what's going on. Can't say I'm entirely thrilled about it either.
Jeremy Falcon
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Can you continue on contract?
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Maybe. Guess I'll find out soon enough.
Jeremy Falcon
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FTEs are almost always paid lower than a contractor would, but it's made up somewhat by other benefits like PTO, 401K, medical insurance, ESOP, etc. That said, depending on what you meant by severe, I'd guess it's time to look for another job/contract.
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That's just what it is though, the outrageous fees they pay for a contracting company (that I was hired through) is much much much more expensive than the normal overhead associated with employees. They could keep my rate the same and still pay less as a FTE. So, it's not really about saving money.
Jeremy Falcon
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Now you know why I have been contract with the same company for 12 years, perm package is just not attractive enough and they really want my services so they keep me on despite "company policy". There have been a number of attempts to force me to perm, my offer is to move on every time.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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I think so too. They keep on spouting 401K like it's a God send, but to anyone who knows anything about investing, they know it's a joke. I can think of better uses of my money than a 401K. So that doesn't justify a huge drop in pay.
Jeremy Falcon
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Its expensive to employ ( UK ) people on PAYE employers have to pay national insurance , sick pay and holidays and bank holidays. Contractors typically don't get these benefits but they get higher pay.
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Sure, I get that, but some companies pay even more when going through a contracting agency. The extra fees and percent increase on the wage is a lot more costly than what they can save. A direct corp-to-corp contract would be one thing I suppose. I could get that.
Jeremy Falcon
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I don't think it's even legal in the Netherlands.
Employees have rights here, weird as that may sound to Americans 
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