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The New-ish Technologies That Will Alter Your Career

Posted by samzenpus on from the job-of-the-future dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes Over at Dice, there's a discussion of the technologies that could actually alter how you work (and what you work on) over the next few years, including 3D printing, embedded systems, and evolving Web APIs. Granted, predicting the future with any accuracy is a nigh-impossible feat, and a lot of nascent technologies come with an accompanying amount of hype. But given how these listed technologies have actually been around in one form or another for years, and don't seem to be fading away, it seems likely that they'll prove an increasing factor in how we live and work over the next decade and beyond. For those who have no interest in mastering aspects of the so-called "Internet of Things," or other tech on this list, never fear: if the past two decades have taught us anything, it's that lots of old hardware and software never truly goes away, either (hi, mainframes!).

66 comments

  1. Shilling for dice. by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And, here we go again, gratuitously shilling for dice.com.

    No thanks.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Shilling for dice. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      And, here we go again, gratuitously shilling for dice.com.

      Well, who else should/would they gratuitously shill for? Besides, it gives us insight into what the buzzwords that PHBs will be throwing around next week, the topic of the next Gartner "study", and some new words for "bullsh*t bingo".

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Shilling for dice. by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, who else should/would they gratuitously shill for?

      Bah, in all likelihood it's to an article on Dice.com which is just a summary of a well written article elsewhere.

      I don't expect anything from Dice.com to give me first-hand insights on anything, just whatever their advertisers and executives want to hawk this week.

      Sorry, but Slashdot has gone downhill since Dice.com, and many of us will point that out at every chance we get.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Shilling for dice. by halivar · · Score: 2

      "Over and Dice" are the only words I dread more on Slashdot than "Frequent contributor Bennet Haselton writes". Dear lord, I miss the Slashdot of 1999, even with all its problems.

    4. Re:Shilling for dice. by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

      What on earth could a PHB possibly think to do with a 3d printer inside a white collar organization?

      That particular one won't even make it to IT buzzword.

      Embedded systems, on the other hand, I can see infesting places they don't belong as a result.

      "Why don't we deploy our lightweight Web API to an embedded server to decrease energy costs?" on the other hand is the kinda phrase you can just cringe at.

    5. Re:Shilling for dice. by turp182 · · Score: 1

      I'm waiting for the concepts to merge : Over on Dice, contributor Bennet Haselton writes....

      --
      BlameBillCosby.com
    6. Re:Shilling for dice. by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      It's hardly shilling if it's stated openly. I only clicked on the article for the amusing comments, otherwise I would have easily known to avoid it.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    7. Re:Shilling for dice. by Anrego · · Score: 1

      Identifying in the summary that dice owns slashdot would be apt. They used to do that back in the geeknet days when they'd post something that was even related to sourceforge or anything else they owned.

      The tech "articles" posted on dice are generally shit. There is basically no reason for them to appear here except dice owns the place.

    8. Re:Shilling for dice. by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

      Over on Dice, contributor Bennet Haselton writes....

      On news tonight - an informational black hole formed at Dice headquarters in New York today. John Smallberries, NIST Underdirector for Strategic Initiatives said, "It appears that a company, Dice Holdings, tried to post their normal daily Bennet Haselton article. When they did that, they neglected to measure the amount of negative information that this article contained and failed to isolate it properly. The amount of negative information was so great that it started absorbing any intelligence that was close to it and the process now seems to have formed a closed loop. We know that, if not stopped, the resulting absorption of intelligence from the rapidly expanding stupid horizon around what we are now calling a "Haselton-type neginfo black hole" could potentially destroy civilization. We continue to search for an answer. The only positive news that we have to offer is that the black hole seems to be growing relatively slowly, as the investment banking community in New York has already driven away most of the intelligence that could feed the hole. We've attempted to send volunteer scientists across the threshold in an attempt to find a way to shut this phenomenon down. None of them have returned. We extend our sincerest condolences to theses brave scientist's families and continue to look for a solution to this dire emergency. I have no further comment at this time."

      --
      That is all.
  2. Oh goodie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Dice clickbait!

    Can you say "recursion"?

  3. I liked the original title better by netsavior · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "5 Meaningless buzzwords not worth your time"

    Yeah yeah these things exist... and have existed for decades.

    1. Re:I liked the original title better by vtcodger · · Score: 2

      Pretty much :

      Internet of Things: The strange idea that my internet connected refrigerator is going to engage in long philosophical discussions with a laundromat in Tashkent and that I will somehow benefit from the discourse. (And that my fridge will not be defrosted by a sociopathic twelve year old in Capetown). Certainly some factory applications will work out. But life changing? My bet is not. (And if I have my way, my ap[pliances aren't going to have an internet connection anyway.)

      Parallel Programming: I dunno about the rest of you folks, but I HATE debugging race conditions. There are some applications where parallel programming is a great idea. But mostly, as was pointed out decades ago by I forget who, any advantage gained from multiple CPUs is likely to be lost in expanded interprocess communication and waiting for locks to clear.

      3D printing: Seems like it HAS to be good for something. But other than prototyping and maybe some appliance repair where shape is more important than material characteristics, it's hard to see what.

      Web APIs: Yechhh. With the best of intentions we've created a monster by allowing everyone to do pretty much whatever they damn well please. Your basic tower of Babel. Yes, there will be careers based on trying to work with this stuff. But I think cleaning septic tanks might be more fun.

      Embedded Systems: Fun as a hobby. Will probably be the basis of some really mind-boggling science fair projects. I expect a few folks will somehow create genuinely useful devices and may even profit thereby. But mostly I suspect we're going to end up with uncounted digital nutcrakers and similar pointless stuff.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    2. Re:I liked the original title better by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      3D printing: Seems like it HAS to be good for something. But other than prototyping and maybe some appliance repair where shape is more important than material characteristics, it's hard to see what.

      A lot of parts from a lot of products are made from ABS plastic. Having a 3D printer at home, in the shop or being able to order parts as a service in a local store decreases the wait time for ordering a new part. Even if you use a printed part as a temporary replacement until the injection-molded part arrives, it can be extremely useful.

      But given that some commercial 3D printing companies are now selling and leasing 3D printers for small-run manufacturing, I'd say that 3D printing is already here to stay, it's exactly the same as when 8-bit computers with 64KB of RAM were introduced, people were scratching their head wondering why people were buying these expensive, useless things that would never amount to anything useful.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    3. Re:I liked the original title better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey i have a 3D printer facility downstairs, i work for a uni. Quite literaly of no use beyond prototypes even the 10,000$ printer is crap compared to the cnc mill and lathe. Sure it will change. But see they research what the meterial properties for the 3d printer is because NOBODY, and i mean NOBODY. Has published measurements on the printers and the materials they use.

      So you cant even design the parts for industrial purposes yet. This is how early days it is. Yes it will change. Just remember 3d printers gave existed about 10 years less than desktop computers. And they still are not up to scratch (except laser sintering), so expect another decade or 2.

    4. Re:I liked the original title better by rasmusbr · · Score: 1

      Internet of Things: Yeah, but the industrial applications will be huge. Imagine a factory where each machine, or every subsystem in every machine, has a health status that updates in real time, based on sensor input (I imagine this is already in place in many factories). With a sufficiently advanced setup a lot of workers could probably be laid off.

      Parallel Programming: Already in use by most of those who benefit from it.

      3D printing: Already in use, but could have a lot of niche applications.

      Web APIs: Massively in use already.

      Embedded systems: Massively in use already. Whole classes of consumer-oriented embedded systems have come and gone, including mp3 players and feature phones.

    5. Re:I liked the original title better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3D printing: Seems like it HAS to be good for something. But other than prototyping and maybe some appliance repair where shape is more important than material characteristics, it's hard to see what.

      A lot of parts from a lot of products are made from ABS plastic. Having a 3D printer at home, in the shop or being able to order parts as a service in a local store decreases the wait time for ordering a new part. Even if you use a printed part as a temporary replacement until the injection-molded part arrives, it can be extremely useful.

      But given that some commercial 3D printing companies are now selling and leasing 3D printers for small-run manufacturing, I'd say that 3D printing is already here to stay, it's exactly the same as when 8-bit computers with 64KB of RAM were introduced, people were scratching their head wondering why people were buying these expensive, useless things that would never amount to anything useful.

      Excellent points. However, how is this going to "alter my career?" Not one bit. Another /. fail.

    6. Re:I liked the original title better by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I totally know parallel computing is the future, because I read Parallel Processing: The Transputer and Its Applications back in the 90s.

      Web APIs are new? What?

      Embedded systems... what? I'll give everybody a hint... when major appliances were replacing incandescent lamps with LEDs in the 70s and 80s, that is when embedded systems were no longer new and were only new-ish.

    7. Re:I liked the original title better by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Internet of Things: Yeah, but the industrial applications will be huge. Imagine a factory where each machine, or every subsystem in every machine, has a health status that updates in real time, based on sensor input (I imagine this is already in place in many factories). With a sufficiently advanced setup a lot of workers could probably be laid off.

      No. That is the intranet of things, not the internet of things. Also, that is just networked industrial sensors, that isn't what the "internet of things" is. The word "things" there means "things that would not otherwise be networked," like the common examples of the refrigerator and coffee maker. For example, the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0) https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc23... isn't even clearly a joke anymore.

    8. Re:I liked the original title better by flopsquad · · Score: 2

      "5 Meaningless buzzwords not worth your time"

      No, no, no, you'll never be a true Dice webditor with a headline like that. Try something like, "Which 5 Meaningless Buzzwords Are Least Worth Your Time??" or "5 Words That Give Kim Kardashian a Meaningless Buzz!"

      Bonus points for correctly identifying embedded systems as a "weird old tip."

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
  4. Re:What other stuff like picking the best jail / p by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    jail / prison may be the only place to get healthcare. + free room and board on the side.

    ... you forgot "all the sex you NEVER wanted."

    The sad part is that there are already people who are breaking windows and stuff just to get a jail cell to sleep in.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  5. Some technologies I worry about... by mlts · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In IT, there isn't really much that is new. Cloud systems evolved from offsite data centers. However, there are a few things which are important:

    1: IoT. Securing these is like trying to use bandaids after someone stood in front of a 3000 rpm gunship weapon. However, if it does take off, one will have to factor in every doodad that might require Wi-Fi, or might have a 3G card so it can phone home and the black hats can hack into it.

    2: Separation of the Internet into sub-networks. It is only a matter of time before this happens. With the state-sponsored armies of blackhats, you can't win a war of defense. The only real way to keep your stuff secure (as a business) is to separate out functions with physically different networks (SIPRNet, NIPRnet are examples), so the Internet is not the only means of communication. This involves real leased lines, additional fiber laid, and additional network fabric, perhaps virtual circuits, so only machines that are configured to communicate with each other can.

    3: Bit rot, CAS systems, and ensuring files archived are still readable in a media-agnostic way. That way, if finance needs a document from 2005, it doesn't matter if it is on tape or disk, they can obtain it with minimal operator intervention.

    1. Re:Some technologies I worry about... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Separation of the Internet into sub-networks. It is only a matter of time before this happens.

      The Great Firewall of China, Putin ordering a Russian Wikipedia uncontaminated by anti-Putin rhetoric, etc. It's happening as we watch.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Some technologies I worry about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      2: Separation of the Internet into sub-networks. It is only a matter of time before this happens. With the state-sponsored armies of blackhats, you can't win a war of defense. The only real way to keep your stuff secure (as a business) is to separate out functions with physically different networks (SIPRNet, NIPRnet are examples), so the Internet is not the only means of communication. This involves real leased lines, additional fiber laid, and additional network fabric, perhaps virtual circuits, so only machines that are configured to communicate with each other can.

      I used to work for a provider who sold such a service about 15 years back, they called it RPN for "Real Private Network" with the idea that unlike a VPN your traffic stayed within the carriers network. I never really took off back then, few companies had such need (or concern) for the extra security it claimed to provide over VPN.

    3. Re:Some technologies I worry about... by mlts · · Score: 1

      It likely will come back. As of now, a company has to use the Internet for all transactions, which means every ingress and egress avenue is vulnerable. It only is a matter of time before carriers will move to dedicated lines and creating their own WANs which are not connected to the Internet for specific tasks (B2B communication, payment processing, etc.)

      As stated above, non-interconnected networks are coming, be it China, Russia, Brazil, or others. North Korea has their own "public" WAN, not connected to anyone else. It is about doing this job right that is going to change things fundamentally. Select the wrong trunk on the ESXi cluster, and it can cause a catastrophe.

      Ironically, this might be the thing which might help IPv4 address space.

    4. Re:Some technologies I worry about... by LessThanObvious · · Score: 1

      SDN - (Software Defined Networking) makes my list. Huge potential, but also huge potential to get it wrong or to insist on automated systems to replace humans that are perfectly capable of managing environments. I fear how complex and vendor software dependent the industry may become.

      I agree with you about the risk of internet segmentation. Logically it makes a lot of sense, but there in lies the rub. Humans cannot be trusted with power, so even if segmenting the internet makes a degree of sense both technically and in terms of security, once segmented, it will never again enjoy real freedom.

      Segmented in this case meaning anything from firewall choke points to separate physical networks to some global VLAN/MPLS scheme.

    5. Re:Some technologies I worry about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2: Separation of the Internet into sub-networks. It is only a matter of time before this happens. With the state-sponsored armies of blackhats, you can't win a war of defense. The only real way to keep your stuff secure (as a business) is to separate out functions with physically different networks (SIPRNet, NIPRnet are examples), so the Internet is not the only means of communication. This involves real leased lines, additional fiber laid, and additional network fabric, perhaps virtual circuits, so only machines that are configured to communicate with each other can.

      I used to work for a provider who sold such a service about 15 years back, they called it RPN for "Real Private Network" with the idea that unlike a VPN your traffic stayed within the carriers network. I never really took off back then, few companies had such need (or concern) for the extra security it claimed to provide over VPN.

      This is already pretty big. Using a single provider to connect all your corporate sites across their network, without passing the traffic through multiple providers. This allows for security (at least as far as you can trust the provider), real QoS across the enterprise and no issues with congested peering points.

      A sweet deal, if you can afford it.

    6. Re:Some technologies I worry about... by mlts · · Score: 1

      SDN as a concept is sort of evolution. Things like OpenFlow just make sense, and was only a matter of time before we would see L2 and L3 packet manipulation merged into one device just like we saw hubs and switches merge. Cisco's Nexus series is an example of this.

      The big hurdle is combining network fabric with storage fabric. FCoE does this, but the big leap will be FC, so a switch can function either as a FC switch, or use FC just for media and be an Ethernet device. This way, one can deploy network devices, and it doesn't really matter if part of the device is zoned for logical devices and part of it is for IP addresses.

      Of course, there is the issue of redundancy... you don't want a DDoS on core fabric taking out your SAN. However, as time goes on, we will see two devices that would combine with LAGGs or MPIO (depending on the storage technology) to provide redundancy both for storage and network. You will see smarter devices that can separate getting hammered due to network traffic without that interfering with I/O for disks. It might be that even drive controller functionality winds up part of the core fabric, with features like caching, deduplication, encryption, snapshots, WORM functionality (where once files are written, they stay in place until they expire), and other features normally handled by the SAN.

    7. Re:Some technologies I worry about... by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      "Cloud" deployment isn't new because the technology is new, it is new because the billing systems are relatively new. The fine-grained billing allows the technology to be utilized much more broadly than before, and to much greater effect. Also the almost guaranteed instant availability of additional compute units is a big difference compared to the old offsite data center, where you had to lease greater-than-expected-peak capacity. With "the cloud" if you have variable traffic during different parts of the day, it is often cheaper than hosting your own hardware, even if you have latent admin capacity and only pay for the hardware, power, and connectivity. Even just the peak+ connectivity could cost more than the whole cloud hosting, depending on traffic pattern. It also brings a new level of scaling capability to small business that was just not feasible before without hiring multiple 6-figure IT guys full time.

  6. So Wait by Anrego · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a two person operation?

    Nerval's Lobster works for slashdot, and from his comment history, his entire job is to submit dice.com stories (this is not an exaggeration, as was pointed out to me, go look, it's literally nothing but dice.com posts).

    However, he can't actually directly post the articles? So he is literally paid to _submit_ articles to slashdot, but can't directly post them himself? Isn't that a little silly?

    1. Re:So Wait by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      See, any legitimate news organization would have to give a disclaimer about the relationship.

      So, one of two things is happening:

      Either Nerval's Lobster is purely created to make it look like someone is posting stuff. We'll call that astroturfing.

      Or, option B, whatever this poor sod submits, some asshat changes to point to a dice.com clone of the article. We'll call that shilling.

      And, yes, I can't see a single story posted by Nerval's Lobster which doesn't point to dice.

      So I'm afraid we have to go with astroturfing and blatant shilling.

      Thanks for pointing that out, now I can ignore crap from this poster as well the shit from Bennett fuck-me-in-the-ass Haselton.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:So Wait by worf_mo · · Score: 1

      Nerval's Lobster works for slashdot [...] However, he can't actually directly post the articles? So he is literally paid to _submit_ articles to slashdot, but can't directly post them himself? Isn't that a little silly?

      Not silly at all. Any user could filter his articles if he posted them from his own editor account. That could very well mean a few eyeballs less for the ads. By having a regular editor post the submitted articles users can't filter this specific "source".

  7. 2 Comments by Ashenkase · · Score: 3, Informative

    Over at Dice, there's a discussion

    No, there is a cheesy article with 2 comments. 2 comments does not a "discussion" make.

    1. Re:2 Comments by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      No, even with 2 people it would take 3 comments to make a discussion.

  8. Quantum Computing by RockGrumbler · · Score: 2

    Quantum computing is the only thing I could imagine altering software development drastically.

    1. Re:Quantum Computing by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      How about a piece of software that does for current coding what the compiler did for assembler and the assembler did for machine code? (Thereby pushing most programming up the stack an abstraction level)

    2. Re:Quantum Computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Truly, computer science has been waiting for your great insight for forty years! Why didn't Knuth ever think of that!?

    3. Re:Quantum Computing by Megol · · Score: 1

      Then you have a wild imagination. Quantum computers are still finite state machines, a subset of the general computer model A.K.A. Turing machine. General programming languages targets that general model and so quantum computers will still use standard development tools and techniques.

    4. Re:Quantum Computing by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Awesome idea! We can call it Perl, and then throw it away when somebody thinks of Ruby and Python.

  9. Dice by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Over at Dice, there's a discussion

    Hell, that's s reason for us not to follow the discussion. Seriously.

    Dice-related posts are like diversity hires. They may be good, but people are assuming that they weren't picked for their quality.

  10. IoT Devices...could alter your career...by leaking by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 0

    When I read the headline I thought, "IoT Devices...could alter your career...by leaking all kinds of stuff about you to accidentally connected Facebook, Google+ and other social accounts."

    I don't even think people know what they're getting into out there - here's a guy who's at least trying to get his head around what people are thinking about on
    IoT consumer privacy.

  11. Re:What other stuff like picking the best jail / p by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The sad part is that there are already people who are breaking windows and stuff just to get a jail cell to sleep in.

    There are two sad bits about this actually.. that you think this is new, and that people are still doing it. Its been going on for a long time.

  12. Brilliant strategy.. by Junta · · Score: 2

    It's like predicting how these 'automobiles' will be a big part of our lives (news is 100 years too late, but at least accurate). Predicting the future by simply stating the present, brilliant!

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  13. transhumanism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the fusion generators come online in 2017
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/10/15/1327230/lockheed-claims-breakthrough-on-fusion-energy-project
    and
    the diamonoid nanothreads are being constructed for the space elevator
    http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/11/17/0249218/scientists-discover-diamond-nanothreads
    now all we really need is for the crowd over at miri
    http://intelligence.org/
    to get the ai's online and we'll be heading out!

  14. Re:What other stuff like picking the best jail / p by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    How about trying to break in into the prison? If they don't catch you, you're in prison. If they do catch you, they throw you in prison.

    It's win-win!

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  15. Buzzwords != Career-long Skills by ErichTheRed · · Score: 1

    Once in a great while, something comes along that fundamentally alters the way the overall practice of computing operates. Everything else is a rehash of the old stuff, with improvements that have been made since its introduction. Cloud computing is just hosted data centers with more flexibility and APIs to control the difficult tasks of resource and application provisioning. When you've been in IT long enough, you see patterns repeat. It's cool when something that barely worked before comes back around with new improvements. But, the buzzword itself is not what you build a career on -- it's the fundamentals that are only learned by dealing with lots of different problems over time. This is why older workers in IT get discriminated against -- younger people seize on the buzzword and deride the older folks for patiently explaining that it's all been done before.

    The one thing on that list that did irk me a little is "Web APIs" being listed as a fundamental change to the way we work. It's a change, but not a good one. Admittedly we shouldn't be hand-coding assembler for most tasks, but the introduction of monster "service" APIs and web frameworks gets developers so divorced from the underlying complexity that the "how it works" part is lost. I would say that's the big change...developers can code up something horribly inefficient that works, but they'll never know how to track down the "why" behind the bad performance. And since hardware is virtually free, developers who don't pay the AWS bill directly will just keep consuming the free resource.

    1. Re:Buzzwords != Career-long Skills by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      This is why older workers in IT get discriminated against -- younger people seize on the buzzword and deride the older folks for patiently explaining that it's all been done before.

      If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. To catch up on all the latest buzzword speaking patterns, just buy a copy of Learn Parallel Embedded 3D Internet of Things with HTML5 and XML for Head First Dummies Unleashed in 7 Days....by Dice.com ;-)

      If that doesn't work, just paste the title on your resume (minus the "Dummy" stuff) after they boot you for being old.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  16. Parallel Programming Hype by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'm becoming a "Get off my linear lawn!" curmudgeon, but I've yet to see sufficiently common "cubicle programmer" scenarios that show the net benefits of parallel programming (PP).

    PP is fairly hard to test and get right such that the human labor is often more than the machine labor savings. And common PP needs tend to eventually get folded into declarative or semi-declarative API's or interfaces, such as RDBMS and browsers/renderers based off of SQL and markup. The database and the browser manage the PP under the hood so that custom application developers don't have to. Maybe the cutting edge or the high-end can always take advantage of such, but most developers don't fall into that. (I don't dispute PP having solid niches, but they are still niches.)

    I've asked for realistic examples on various forums, and so far they were pretty weak justifications, rare situations, or a niche need.

    Sometimes I get the "Ayn Rand" argument: If you don't squeeze every ounce of speed out of the machine, then you will be replaced by those who can". But typically companies don't want code that is difficult to understand or manage unless the speed advantage really matters. Slow machines are an annoyance, but confused staff developers can result in apps not working at all. It's usually cheaper to buy a new, faster server than fire your developers and retrain a new set on all your shop's stuff.

    And often the bottlenecks are fixable by tuning existing linear processes, or farming large-volume processing to a RDBMS (which can use parallelism under the hood. Those building systems software tools like RDBMS will need to know PP well, but that's usually been the case for decades.)

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re: Parallel Programming Hype by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just constrain yourself to use only message passing when doing stuff in parallel; no shared memory etc. Less performance gain in some situations, true, but not having to worry about race conditions, deadlocks, etc, is more often more important. Memory sharing can then be done later as an optimization if you want.

    2. Re:Parallel Programming Hype by DavidCBillen · · Score: 1

      It's been fairly day-to-day in embedded development if you count SIMD, but as to the future I'd agree it's more on the way out for common development than the way in.

    3. Re: Parallel Programming Hype by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      What's the difference between "function or method call" and "message passing"?

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  17. Old-ish tech still supreme by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HTML and CGI -- still the web tech that the smartest people use, now with (ideally minimal) CSS. Sites that are client-executable clean are always the best from any number of standpoints. Sites can, and generally do, work on almost* any browser, almost any operating system, *any* device with even the most basic web browser. Plus you don't get amazingly unfriendly behaviors like menus that drop down without the user asking for them.

    C -- still the fastest language other than pure assembler, plus it's reasonably portable and can be *very* portable as you develop the required platform support for GUI, etc.

    Python -- changed the face of server side CGI for people who were paying attention, and otherwise, Perl still works fine (even if you have no idea what you wrote an hour later.) Both provide extensive libraries that can give you a great headstart on all manner of projects.

    PostgreSQL and sqlite, still on top of the database heap.

    Everything else... just noise. It may be entertaining noise, it may even be *fascinating* noise, but still, there's no gain on productivity to be had, and in fact, all the time you waste learning, or forcing your employees to learn, the "latest and greatest" java-infected horseshit, the more you degrade your actual productivity. That, of course, assumes competence was present in the first place. Not a given.

    * [versions of Safari won't render CGI buttons as specified.]

  18. Thank you for your attention. by fyngyrz · · Score: 2

    What on earth could a PHB possibly think to do with a 3d printer inside a white collar organization?

    [background music] "I'd like to extend a surmise for instantiation of surface-approximate prototypical hands-on pass-arounds in order to provide in-house guidance, as well as a vector for social media sharing utilizing a cloud-resident archival basis. [slide] Moving forward, this will provide seamless integration, representing a pro-active new paradigm that is win-win at the end of the day. [slide] I believe it’s time to synchronize the tactility scale. [slide] As a marketing manager, how do you resolve 110% of rendered graphics material with exertion levels of 130% developed by actual instantiation? [4k resolution animation of hotties fondling 3-D printed prototype suggestively] Unquestionably, pre-OOBE hands-on for our gurus and rock-stars will provide the synergy required for seamlessly moving from concept to actuation. [slide] [credits] Thank you. [corporate logo] [music fade]"

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Thank you for your attention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This guy for President!

  19. Re:What other stuff like picking the best jail / p by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    except for the suggestion about healthcare. the very idea that you would get timely or otherwise adequate healthcare in the US prison system is outright absurd. you do NOT want to find this out firsthand.

  20. Knuth and Abstraction by fyngyrz · · Score: 2

    Why didn't Knuth ever think of that!?

    Perhaps he was too busy inflicting TeX on us?

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  21. Bambi clams up by fyngyrz · · Score: 0

    Warms the cockles of me hart

    Deer have mollusks?

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Bambi clams up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I learned two new words today!

    2. Re:Bambi clams up by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      lol... now that's straight-up punitive moderation. :)

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  22. Really? by drolli · · Score: 1

    * including 3D printing,
    Nope. wont change my life or work. For the things I am involved in it is either too expensive, or already relevant.

    * embedded systems
    Nope. changed my life already. I saw how the analog chips which we used in the end of the 90s for signal processing became obsolete and unavailable/expensive (-> Burr Brown being bough by TI) Not a new tech at all.

    * and evolving Web APIs
    Oh yeah, because that going to mache such a big difference

  23. Suggested new internet 'law' by Kittenman · · Score: 1

    Anything that has a number in title will be garbage (or otherwise redundant). LinkedIn is full of "The six ways that you can succeed at your next interview", "The Top Ten techs of the 2010s". "The Seven Programming Techniques you must know"


    Kittenman's law is fine. Pat pending.

    --
    "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
  24. Embedded Systems - new?!?! by Smerta · · Score: 1

    It's good to know embedded systems are new-ish technology!

    Really makes me feel good about the implantable cardiac defibrillators, hard disk drives, engine control units, CNC machines, remote weather stations, mobile phones (baseband), insulin pumps, etc. that I've worked on for the last 20+ years.

    A home might have 3-5 desktop/laptop processors in it, while that car on the driveway probably has at least 20, maybe 50, processors in it.

    Embedded systems, and the engineers who design the hardware, software, firmware, etc. are kind of like air - all around you, and you don't really notice them, but you sure would if they disappeared.

    Now if you'll excuse me, I have a soapbox to step down from, and a lawn in need of protection from young whipper-snappers.

  25. Many others there by Champaklal · · Score: 2
    Many other things which would change how we'd be living, not mentioned in article:
    • 1. Machine Learning: machines now learn to do magic tricks, phones would soon learn what you read and adjust according to it. Spy bots, which would work on ant colony optimizations. unmanned war machines.
    • 2. Extraterrestrial habitats - on mars and other planets
    • 3. Habitats on water - cities floating on oceans
    • 4. materials which can change shape on their own - without mechanical devices - because of their own crystal lattice structures
    • 5. Collective Intelligence - ask questions, get answers in almost / actual realtime with information of humanity collected in a huge corpus.
    • 6. Solar energy - next thing which would render the powerhouses useless

    I think the article was a sensationalist clickbait.

  26. Old tech applied in new ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cloud - virtualization on commodity hardware. 1st it was google/facebook/hadoop/specialized, now it's OpenStack

    Software instead of hardware - instead of custom boxes, everything in software in a virtual layer - docker even

    Tiny custom commodity hardware for low power - small arm/x86 systems for low power apps where an expensive system used to be used - RasPi as web server, Ardurino, Atom, smart tvs.

    Networking things that were not & better communication - see TVs, thermostats, clocks, lightbulbs