Our Principals
2) The difference between a winner and a loser is that the winner tried one more time. 3) K.I.S.M.I.F. 4) Y.C.D.B.S.O.Y.A. Our Web Page:
http://www.venturingbsa.com
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E-Mail Us!Our CreedExploring: Enthusiasm, Energy, & Excellence Venturing Crew 369Venturing Crew 369 was chartered on December 31, 1994 to the Reformation Luthern Church. Venturing Crew 369 specializes in UNIX for Programmers while emphasizing a deep theme of Engineering Computer Information & Science; Membership in Venturing Crew 369 is open to young men and women between the ages of 14 [and in high school] and not yet 20. Annual Membership fees are $25.00. |
Calendar of Events:
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The Technology Job Market!James D. Corder Adult How has the hard times of the dot.com world effect the technology job market? As little as a year ago, in the Columbus Dispatch one would find several pages of job offerings for Systems. However, today Sales, Systems, and Engineers share one page. Like wise, a year ago, Yahoo, Dice, Monster, and other job boards would have several pages of job offers when one searched for Solaris and 614. Two years ago, it was an employee market. Simply put, there were more jobs than employees. People flocked to the technology world. However, the first half of 2001 the market place took a 180. It became an employers' market, with more people looking than there were jobs. With many people leaving the technology field, the market is coming back to a sought after equilibrium.A college grad, during the dot.com buzz, could have expected to receive $50 - $75,000 right out of collage. But today, they are looking at $35 - $50,000. Like wise, the individual with 5 to 10 years experience could have easily made six figure. However, today $50 - $80,000 is a good offer. The crazy thing about this mix up is that companies are realizing that you get what you pay for. As the prices for those entering the field and those with less than five years of experience drops dramatically, the Senior technical staffs' rates have increased. Companies are opting for one or two highly skilled individuals to lead their lower paid staff. Some Executive Consultants are bringing in salaries and incentives that would make many Vice Presidents envious. |
I stumbled across your wonderful web pages this morning. I had never heard of the Venturing program before -- I read it is for young men and women who are 14 -20.
Are older girl scouts welcome? My 13 year old daughters girl scout troop has really slowed down as they reached middle school. Would that troop of 4 young women be welcomed into the Venturing program next year as they finish 8th grade?
Any suggestions???
Thanks in advance. The web pages, values, and venturing program are all very impressive.
Thank you for visiting our web site. There are two different ways to answer your questions: Our Program and Venturing Programs in general. 369 is truly coeducational and would welcome members of Girl Scouts. In fact most Crews are coeducational. However, some Churches require youth programs to divided by gender. Venturing is for 14 year old in High School to 20 years of age. Therefore, if a teenager finishing 8th grade (this year) and entering 9th grade (next year) they should be welcome into the program the summer before high school, if they were 14. I think BSA made this rule due to insurance reasons.
One of the key points in Venturing is picking the right Crew. Unlike Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Venturing Crews tend to focus on one topic. In fact Venturing is divided up into Five areas:
369 is a hybrid, we skate between three of the areas Arts and Hobbies (UNIX Computers), Outdoors (Camping), and Youth Ministries (Leadership). All Venturing Programs are to incorporate six key areas into their program.
Young ladies are even welcome to work on the Ranger Award highest Rank in Venturing (Yes even higher than Eagle Scout).
Since Sun Microsystems began offering Solaris(TM) 8 operating system free of charge in March of 2000 more than 1,000,000 systems have been requested. Moreover Solaris was declared the Best Server Operating Environment by Network Computing as well as the Number 1 raking UNIX(R) Operating System by DH Brown Associates as the system best designed to deliver the most complete requirements for data centers and Internet-focused enterprises.
According to Netcraft Web Server Survey the majority of the Top 50 websites (as ranked by Media Metrix) are running Solaris. 40% of these sites are now running Solaris Operating Systems vs. 26 Percent for the closed competitor. This makes Solaris the industry-leading platform for InterNet Solutions. IDC's 2000 year-end report on the server market (which includes systems based on UNIX, Microsoft Windows NT, MVS mainframe, and all other operating systems) Sun posted 70 percent year over year growth in shipments and 42 percent growth year over year in revenue, outpacing HP, IBM, Compaq, and Del in both categories.
One of the key factors for Solaris' growth is while other UNIX vendors adopted Windows NT and changed their focus on the low end PC platform and/or migrating NT to their servers Sun kept its focus on UNIX and the SPARC(TM) processors. SPARC went 64 bit years ago while Intel has yet to achieve this ability. Moreover, Solaris implemented on SPARC can run simultaneously in 32 bit and/or 64 bit mode allowing the user to maintain their current software library. Moreover, SPARC reached the 1Ghz CPU almost a year before Intel. Moreover, the 64 bit 500Mhz SPARC is still faster than tan the 32 Bit 1Ghz Intel. Not to mention that the Sun-SPARC has a T-processor allowing it to handle 3 times as many simultaneous system calls as its Intel counterpart.:
Ok, I will agree that this is not a true CPU measurement. However, it is a great explanation for our non-techie readers and shows that Mhz measurements across platforms is meaningless. Moreover, should we raise this by the number of maximum CPUs? Intel-8 Solaris 200+ Who would win?
I have recently come across an old flag with 48 stars. It is clean and in good repair, however is not appropriate to display. Should a flag like this be retired via cremation as one does a word or badly soiled flag?
I'd appreciate your input. I have been researching a variety of flag retirement ceremonies, and am looking forward to including this in one of our events.
James D. Corder Adult
Such a flag may no longer represent the union. However, it does represent our history. It would be wrong to use it in a flag ceremony. However, it would be a great teaching tool.
Cremation is the correct way to retire a flag. But one would not would not depose a flag with only 13 stars. Its value is to high. Therefore, if you want to keep it for historical and/or sentimental reasons feel free so to do. But to fly it is a slap in the face of Alaska and Hawaii.
Microsoft Corporation announced that there is an "extremely serious" flaw in Windows 2000 that could allow a cracker to gain control over any system running Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0. IIS is shipped with the operating system. Earlier versions are not effected.
Scott Culp, program manager at Microsoft Security Response Center said: "Upgrade the patch before you read the bulletin (www.micorsoft.fom/securiyt)" Culp went on to say: an unchecked buffer in the services that support Internet Printing capabilities causes the vulnerability. He also stated: that users who turn off the printing services are not vulnerable. "There is virtually nothing a malicious hacker couldn't do to an exploited system"
Microsoft informed "certain customers" before they released a patch May 1st. It was eEye Digital Security that notified Microsoft of the vulnerability 10 days earlier.
I have always been amazed of the difference between the PC and UNIX world. When Sun Microsystems found a flaw in their SPARC 20 processors, they notified EVERYONE that had one. As the new chips became available everyone received one free of charge. Sun then found a way to make the existing stock of CPUs work at slower clock speeds and sold them as the SPARC-10. Intel found an bug with their floating point in their chip set and decided not to tell anyone. Since, few home owners would ever need to calculate out that far. Opps, the people using the chips that need that detailed of a decimal point were those building bridges, sky scrapers, and space shuttles.
UNIX has been concerned with security since Milnet and Arpanet became the InterNet. Ok, UNIX out of the box was originally shipped with all of the security turned off. But, the Administrator always had the option to tighten up the servers. In fact UNIX has been shipped with security / auditing / accounting software as long as I can remember. On the other hand, at the April RSA Security show in San Francisco, Microsoft officials outlined a series of internal company programs and products initiatives tat are designed to buff up their bad reputation in the security community. These programs include internal education program meant to help software engineers to keep security in mind during the programming phase. It is said that they need to do this at all and says a lot about their operating system.
Rules for display The Flag of the United States
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| If the flag is displayed from a staff projecting from a building the union should be at the peak, unless flow at half mast. When flown from a halyard over the sidewalk from a building pole, the flag should be hoisted union first from the building. |
My name is Dena, I live in Bronx, Ny and have recently been elected "President" of the Venturing Crew associated with troop 240. I was wondering if you have any insights as to trip ideas or way I can get these guys involved?
Congratulations on becoming your unit's President!
In the Venturing Leader's book there is an interest survey. Start by copying it and giving it out to the youth. This will give you an idea of what your fellow Crew members want to do.
Always Remember K.I.S.M.I.F. Keep It Simple Make It Fun!
Start small, two to four hours on a Saturday or Sunday. Go put-put or bowling have a simple picnic maybe a G or PG movie. No Rs!!! MAKE IT FUN!!! Keep it Cheep! Once you have a core group of people coming on a regular basis go a big longer. Take a day trip. Go to a museum, go on a bike hike. go to an amusement park or zoo. Brown Bag it so lunch doesn't cost much!
Ok, now you have a good group of people going, try camping. Call you local Boy Scout Office and see what Camps they have and when they are available. If your unit is new and youth that don't have camping skills, rent a cabin. If your group is older Scouts, and your troop will let you use their tents, go tenting. Camp outs are just for fun. Since you have older youth than in a Troop they don't have to be as controlled!
Since you are an out growth of a Troop, remember the ranks above Eagle Scout. The Ranger and Quartermaster are the highest ranks in Scouting. Ok, Eagle is the high rank in "Boy" Scouting. Make Ranger part of your program. Remember that most youth want to be entertained. They are looking for something fun to do without much input. If you have enough willing to work, then those not willing to pull their weight will be fun to as well as fun for them. But you have to work your buns off to find those that are willing to work. It might be necessary to go out and recruit workers! It's your Crew are you willing to do what is necessary to make it the best?
Remember, that none of this is not your Advisors' jobs!!!
Come up with about 20 ideas. Sort them by weather. Go to the Advisor with your plans. GOOD PLANS... Menus, travel arrangements, costs,... Sit down with your Advisor and pick one event a month. Go by the ADIVORS' calendar!!! If the Advisor can't go, chances are the unit will not go. There is an old saying in Scouting, if you tick off a youth that youth will not come back, if you tick off the adult leader the unit will not come back.
It is up to the youth to plan the meetings. Your Advisors will take care of the core program. But the youth are to add all of the frills. You are the president! The quality and size of your unit is up to you! Remember, in leadership, those that follow you will do everything you do wrong and half of what you do right. The speed of the group is half the speed of the youth leader.
Like in all politics, you will be measured by the President that follows you. Did you leave the new President with money in the treasury (youth vs. unit)? Did you leave the new President with more youth than you came in with? Did you leave the new President with at least one year's program and better yet two? Did you make sure the Advisors are having fun. Don't forget them! Did you thank your Advisor, Committee, Sponsor? Did you go out of your way to put them up for awards? Silver Beaver, District Award of Merit,... I recently had two Advisors quit. One was a twit and one said the youth do not respect him... The President's job is about one to two hours a day of work. The Advisors' is two to three. Don't think about your program only on the nights of your meetings. Are you doing a little EVERY day?
You will feel like you are the only one doing any work. In the beginning you are right! A month after you give up is when someone was willing to help. So don't give up.
Good luck, I hope that this helped a little. If you have any other questions feel free to e-mail...
If you've done any video gaming in the last past five years, you have definitely heard of or played Sid Meier's Civilization. In fact, you've probably lost many a nights to this just-one-more-turn game, not to mention at least fifty dollars. I can't bring back lost time, but read on to save some green-backs.
Freeciv (http://www.freeciv.org) is an open source project to deliver the Civilization game you love so much at a reasonable price (Free!) In addition to the existing features in Civ 1/2, it adds a lot more like: multi-player support, waypoints in gotos (goto Washington, but stop in Seattle first), unit queues, changeable tile sets, and change all city production to X. Freeciv is available for most operating systems, but looks best in X windows.
Right now, it lacks sound, but downloading a couple free sample-Celtic .mp3's puts you in the right mood. If you really need to, just throw some pans against the wall every time your units enter battle. (Not responsible for the destruction of Mom's good pans or for lost security deposits due to this sound-effect method.)
CVS (http://cvshome.org) is a free open source software with clients available on most operating systems. It allows developers to check out code, without inhibiting the availability to other users. The programmer makes his changes on the code, and checks it back in. Get this... If multiple developers check out the code, edit it, and then check it in, CVS automatically merges the files. (Sometimes it is necessary to manually merge the files, like when two developers change the same lines of code.) This helps in the situation where Jeff Smoker seems to always be editing the file, making others cautious to edit it. It also cures the problem where Gaylord is overwriting everyone else's changes.
CVS also keeps a history of previous versions. So if Jack Joker breaks the code with his checking, previous versions are still operable. This is a good safety net for when Jack Joker fat fingers a command or two and erases the current work. Finally, if you produce code that is not compatible with X, pervious versions are still available. You are not locked into a development path, no matter how long ago you deviated from the original. CVS has a client / server model.
Popular open source projects, such as Mozilla, the GIMP, XEmacs, KDE, GNOME, and my favorite, FreeCiv use CVS for there distributed coding efforts. http://Sourceforge.net Puses CVS as one of its services to aid in open source development. I highly recommend reading more about CVS at their web page (http://cvshome.org) and considering it for any collaborative coding project.
Azgard Venturer Unit (Melborne Australia) took out the first District Bowling Championships held at the Narre Warren Bowling Centre tonight (29th May 2001). This is Azgard VU's first win since adopting their new Unit name and identity. Commiserations to the other teams that came so close (2 points) 1st Casey and Gabberra. Better luck next year. Presentation of the `Hubcap Trophy' too place at the Bowling Alley. A careful check of the carpark found the trophy to be genuine. It was also pleasing to see so many Venturers in their Units' casual uniforms. Only one or two were in casual clothes but checks found that those not in casual uniform were either new to the Units and/or hadn't received theirs yet.
The most interesting feature of FreeCiv is it is open source. If you ever wished Civ had feature X, but had to live without it, suffer no longer. Freeciv provides a great opportunity to contribute to an open source project. You can cooperate with the FreeCiv community to develop the code, or make the changes on your own computer, and compile.
If you have a few weeks to spare and feel daylight is over-rated any way, download a copy. After all, its free.
So, you've developed a really cool program to notify your boss every time Joe Customer looks at widgets on your web page. Your boss asks you to expand the program to track and mine all traffic to your corporate web page, and you hire on 3 new whiz-kid programmers to help on the task. You set up an application directory, and split it into prod and dev.
Jack Joker is not that good of a programmer, and he keeps braking everyone else's code, sometimes taking hours to find the mistake. Jeff Smoker keeps leaving all the source files open, keeping other people from editing them... And Gaylord Smith is always copying the files to his home directory to edit, so Jack and Jeff don't interfere with his work. When he copies them back to the application directory, he erases everyone else's changes. It is time to implement a version control software, such as CVS (Concurrent Versions System).
While mopping this evening at the meat counter of my grocery store, a coworker asked me where I learned to mop so well, without their training. I answered, "From my Venturing Crew". I didn't think about it much at the time, as I guess I thought everyone knew how to mop. I had the experience of cleaning up our church floors after a munchie evening. But that was just the beginning of what this group has given me. They also want people to be there on time, which the group has emphasized as an important character for an individual. Helping out at church dinners, court-of-honors, garage sales, and Muirfield planting have all helped me learn how to make a person feel welcome and at home. A little "yes sir" and "no sir" never hurt, and this has been emphasized as curtesy in our unit. So I feel it once again necessary to stop and thank our group. They are an inspiration to me and I am proud to be part of the group.
Microsoft Security Flaw