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Does the 'Hacker Ethic' Harm Today's Developers?
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions whether the 'hacker ethic' synonymous with computer programing in American society is enough for developers to succeed in today's economy. To be sure, self-taught 'cowboy coders' — the hallmark of today's programming generation in America — are technically proficient, McAllister writes, 'but their code is less likely to be maintainable in the long term, and they're less likely to conform to organizational development processes and coding standards.' And though HTC's Vineet Nayar's proclamation that American programmers are 'unemployable' is overblown, there may be wisdom in offering a new kind of computer engineering degree targeted toward the student who is more interested in succeeding in industry than exploring computing theory. 'American software development managers often complain that Indian programmers are too literal-minded,' McAllister writes, but perhaps Americans have swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. In other words, are we 'too in love with the hacker ideal of the 1980s to produce programmers who are truly prepared for today's real-life business environment?'"
How can that possibly be flamebait when the frigging posting is asking about how hackers are damaging the software industry!!!! The POSTING ITSELF IS FLAMEBAIT YOU FOOLS!!!
Hacker:
* someone who plays golf poorly.
* a programmer who breaks into computer systems in order to steal or change or destroy information as a form of cyber-terrorism.
* a person who hacks a tree down with an axe.
* a person with too much time on their hands.
* someone who can't design software.
Hacker's don't have ethics. I say this expecting to be taken with a grain of salt. As an example, is there such a thing as "burglar ethics?" One might be quick to point out a TV show with a pair of felons that break into your house to prove a point that your security sucks, but I think that's about as far as they could go.
To break into someone's something, is a violation of that someone's privacy. Whether or not you steal, or steal and extort, is moot.
Now, on the other hand, I think what the author may be confused on, is actually what I would call "Reverse Engineering/Engineering Ethics." A good programmer isn't so much a "hacker" as he is an "engineer." Of course, with our (USA) Federal government what it is (in league with foreign socialists) it is a lot easier to convey a negative connotation to the term "reverse engineer" by using the term "hacker." Please don't misunderstand me. I'm simply trying to state that "hackers" don't really have ethics, and that the author is really talking about "reverse engineers" who actually do have ethics.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
damn, cut my nuts off why don't ya?
I made $60K living outside the DC in NoVA suburbs and I got along just fine.
So did I. In 2000, when you could get a house for under 200k. Good luck with that now.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"