Difference Engine Go!

[The Great Nevareh]

I'm being vaguely different than usual! Here is how:

First, I'm going to be AROUND over the summer. If any of you find yourselves in the DC area and don't already live here and/or find the idea of meeting me terribly repugnant, now's your chance!

Second: I'm going to ask people who have experience in the working world: I'm getting a job. Here are my current two courses of action!

Working in a bookstore full of college paraphernalia!
Working at a Starbuck's within walking distance of the college paraphernalia!

I haven't been given either of these jobs, yet, but since I'm going to be working as an SAT teacher over the summer very, very part-time (At 27 bucks an hour, I doubt they'll be using us for very long) and I really don't have much to do, I'd like people who have some experience in working at either a non-Border's-esque-yet-still-corporate bookstore OR at a trendy coffee shop to give me some advice and maybe an anecdote or two about your experiences, please.

And avoid ranting, please. I want to hear about your job, but please, please, please avoid turning this into a gripe thread. Thanks in advance! <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[pd Rydia]

I worked briefly at a Panera, which serves coffee (amongst other things). And, erm. I'd personally shoot for the bookstore. Trendy Coffeeâ„¢ takes a while to make up, and while people should know this, it still pisses them off. It's messy, people get absolutely ridiculously indignant if you run out of vital stock (like sprinkles to put atop their whipped creme!). Also, more repeat customers at a food/coffee shop--and more repeat bitchy customers. I don't know how many repeat customers a bookstore has, but guessing from the average time I spend at the register at a bookstore, at least the average employee doesn't have to deal with them much (unless you're a free-floating "I'm restocking the shelves but surely this means you can ask me to run around and help you find anything inside the store!"

Or, if the bookstore is one of those big ones, go there, and you can work in their cafe which also serves coffee! <p>

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<div style="text-align:center">"Pants are bad!!! We should wear pants only on our head you conformist bastard!!! Pants are the devils work!! Run freee!! And pantless!!!" -- Vulture</div></p>

[Clone of FD]

Working in a bookstore is awesome and also sexy. From my experiences, which granted are local and non-corporate, it's a low-stress environment, and you get discounts on books. Which I suppose might not be a big deal to some, but you know...books.

[Zemyla]

First: This thread fails because of lack of Charles Babbage.

Second: Congratulations! <p>-----
Do not taunt Happy Fun Zemyla.

<span style="font-size:xx-small;">I think boobs are the lesser of two evils. - Inverse (Pervy)
Dammit, Dan, I'm not dating a damn NPC! - OOC Will (Will Baseton)
Of course! Anything worth doing is worth doing completely wrong! - Travis English
Ultimately, wizards and clerics don't say, "Gee, I want to become a lich because weapons hurt less and I don't have to worry about being backstabbed; that whole 'eternal life' thing is just a fringe benefit."-Darklion
But this one time I killed a walrus with my bare hands, and I suddenly understood spherical coordinates. - KnightsofSquare
Also, when you've worked a 36-hour shift as an intern you too just might pour yourself a catful of coffee and sit down to cuddle with your travel mug. -eirehound
</span>

Adventurers! | RPG World World | The Phantom Lord's OT Board mkII | Indie Madnesse | Brotherhood of Elitist Bastards</p>

[PriamNevhausten]

I thought it was Pascal that made the difference engine? Or maybe I'm misremembering the name of the first IF-THEN logic device. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

[Uncle Pervy]

Charles Babbage designed the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine.

Pascal came up with Pascal's Wager, which is the closest I could come up to If/then logic as it relates to the subject. The Interweb is unhelpful without more effort than I like :(

I want to see the Difference Engine they made some years ago. <p>---------------------------

ReakoSomner: regardless, I was poor, and in need of diamonds</p>

[PriamNevhausten]

Alternately, I possibly did not retain any of the facts garnered from that junior-year high school history report at all! <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

[Zemyla]

Pascal came up with the first mechanical calculator, that could add and subtract. It did not have decision logic.

I knew this even before I checked Wikipedia.

EDIT: Wikipedia says that I am wrong, and he invented the second mechanical calculator! Wilhelm Schickard invented the first. <p>-----
Do not taunt Happy Fun Zemyla.

<span style="font-size:xx-small;">I think boobs are the lesser of two evils. - Inverse (Pervy)
Dammit, Dan, I'm not dating a damn NPC! - OOC Will (Will Baseton)
Of course! Anything worth doing is worth doing completely wrong! - Travis English
Ultimately, wizards and clerics don't say, "Gee, I want to become a lich because weapons hurt less and I don't have to worry about being backstabbed; that whole 'eternal life' thing is just a fringe benefit."-Darklion
But this one time I killed a walrus with my bare hands, and I suddenly understood spherical coordinates. - KnightsofSquare
Also, when you've worked a 36-hour shift as an intern you too just might pour yourself a catful of coffee and sit down to cuddle with your travel mug. -eirehound
</span>

Adventurers! | RPG World World | The Phantom Lord's OT Board mkII | Indie Madnesse | Brotherhood of Elitist Bastards</p>Edited by: Zemyla&nbsp; at: 6/14/05 10:45

[The Great Nevareh]

I think Ada Byron, Lady of Lovelace is responsible for logic on that machine, but I could easily be mistaken.

Anyway, it was Babbage who made the Difference.

If ANYONE gets this reference, you win a cookie. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[PriamNevhausten]

How could we not get the reference? In THIS thread? *steals all your cookies* <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

[EKDS5k]

As quiet as a bookstore may be, I'm betting they won't offer you benefits. Starbucks provides medical insurance even to part time workers, so if you're not otherwise covered, it's something to take into consideration. And it's good coverage, too. I went to the dentist twice (once for a checkup, and once for a $350 wisdom tooth removal) and I paid something like $20. Also, their list of approved medication is pretty vast, and the most you'll ever pay for it is around $5.

And if you like coffee, they give you a free pound of the stuff every week, just for working there. You take the bag off the shelf, say 'I want this one,' and they say 'Okay.' Then you go home. If you don't like coffee you can get a free box of tea, but the value isn't as much. It's expensive coffee, too. Then there's the whole "every drink on the menu is free starting from a half hour before your shift until a half hour after your shift" thing. And the 30% off anything you buy from any Starbucks in the country at any time during your employment is nice, too. It works on clearance and sale items, too.

As for discounts on books, if it's attached to a bookstore, just befriend one of the employees there and use their discount.

I recommend Starbucks to the point where when I go back to Canada I'm going to try to get my old job back.

*All the numbers in this post are what they were for me, working in Canada. Your mileage may vary somewhat.

[The Great Nevareh]

The thread has nothing to do with the reference. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>