Interesting read and I can't agree more (speaking as a mid-40's year old former software engineer then manager)
Gee, same here, including the manager gig. No wonder it all sounded so familiar, eh?
After the bust, I ended up working for a small educational publisher, doing development *and* IT. I'm the only developer, though the other guy shines at support (and wants my job dearly, and backstabs constantly). I average 55 hours/week. Family, what family? No, I'm not bitter.
Not having read any of the other comments, and I hope that I'm not sounding too cynical here, but I think that you have outlived your usefulness and you need to leave the profession.
I believe that most companies think that they can hire any codemonkey out of college to do what you can do (but their's will need massive rework/refactoring) in 10x the time, even though they're only 1/2 to 1/3 the cost. Plus the older you get, the more time you're going to want to spend with your family (you did manange to pick up one of those along the way, didn't you?), and then there's other outside interests, like neighborhood associations and other civic and church (or Cthulhu) functions. Oh yeah, the older you get, the more time you're going to need for medical visits, and there's a health club in your future where you'll injure yourself once or twice a year.
And do you really want to continue working in software? Especially with the hours and working conditions? You have to face it, one cannot easily estimate how long software takes to get done (and I'll address that later), and since developers are some of the most optimistic people in the world, you'll invariably end up staying late about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time, especially if a PHB takes everybody's estimates and cuts them by a third, 'cuz he knows you can do it!
Unless you can find yourself one of the few jobs open at a big software shop like IBM where they have people that hopefully do a good job at estimating effort (and I had a buddy there that they didn't, and he had to essentially work 1 year of 60-hour weeks), you'll end up working at a small coding shop where they'll have to make optimistic projections to get the contract, and hence you're working late... again! And if you work at a place where software isn't the main product, you'll have clueless PHBs that are unable to figure out that software indeed *does* take that long to do, and why aren't you coding yet??!?
The folks that I know that are older and are making it in software have made names for themselves, have written one or more books, attend OOPSLA where they're presenters or panelists, or are otherwise looked upon as gurus. The rest of them are scraping along, waiting for the axe to fall... again. The true failures I know are those that don't want to update their skill set, or have truly vertical knowledge and are unable/unwilling to move to where their market is.
Unless a young person I know has true passion for software, and is willing to do the Software Engineering thing, which they used to not emphasize enough in undergrad, I tell them to find something else to do since unless they trip on the pot o' gold (and I know a guy that's been doing MS Access programming from home on a government contract for the past 10+ years that has been pulling in six figures the entire time), they're not going to make it on less-than-passion.
Now, where do you go from here? Hmmm... that's a really good question. As soon as I know, I'll let you in on it.
The vast majority of Slashdotters use Windows. That's the dirty secret around here. Nobody wants to admit they're all using windows.
Well, I have to admit that after using Linux as my desktop for three years (and using Win4Lin), I had to switch back to Windows so that I could use Quicken, Palm Desktop, see all the multimedia that's out there on the web, and, yes, play games. But I use Linux on my home servers, and I'll bring up Linux apps using Cygwin's X server.
So I feel a little bit dirty, but not horribly dirty.
I mean, he's had to reverse course and say he was wrong so many times that when we writes about something, doing the exact opposite of what he recommends is almost a sure bet.
I guess that means that you'll just have to buy his retractions (and his retractions of his retractions, etc.). Sounds like a positive cash flow for Ed Yourdon to me!
Otherwise what will stop another small company from taking the code, do some quick search & replace and release the product as their own closed source?
That's what I think that the big disadvantage of closed-source is. Some yahoo gets ahold of your open source code, removes the names and copyrights, compiles it themselves, and releases it as their own, charging $$$. And who is going to ask to see their code? I guess that they'd have to add a lot of value for someone to buy theirs instead of getting it for free from the original source.
But I would suspect, not that I am accusing or anything, but I would suspect that some open source code, probably BSD but could be others, has made it into Microsoft products. Which, if you think about it, would not be that bad of an idea since then perhaps it wouldn't crash as much. Even I would like that!
I'm a relatively lazy person (e.g., I'd rather run for exercise since that's max calorie expenditure per time), so when an opportunity to lie comes up, I try not to since that means that I have to support the lie ad infinitum. That's way too much work for me, thank you.
Instead, I sometimes just don't answer the question, or essentially answer another question such that there was no lie, technically, or at least there was no untruth spoken that now needs scaffolding and its own support system to maintain it. And it's easy to say that I thought they asked something else.
Of course, when backed up against the wall, I 'fess up, or I'll say to the person, depending upon the situation, that perhaps they'd rather not know. Or I'll say what a wonderful day it is.
Actually Windows (XP) doesn't nag if i just yank my USB thumb drive out without doing the "Safely remove hardware" thing.
One thing that I do like, though, is that I can click on the icon in the system tray and do the, "mother may I" so that I can give the OS the benefit of the doubt in case it would prefer that I clean up somewhere else before yanking the USB thumb drive.
I've only been impatient once when it wouldn't give permission, and the only thing I was doing was a file copy to the drive, but enough time had passed, in my opinion, for it to be done.
Oh, you put it in e-mail? All POs must be in writing and put in the blue inbox bin. Oh, you put it in the blue bin? We are putting all POs in the red inbox bin.
Reminds me of the time that I had a manager that wanted us to follow The Process, and then when things got bogged down, he said to "tailor" The Process.
Later when we didn't put out a quality product and were late because of some defects, at the project review he told the higher ups that my group didn't follow The Process.
Immediate loss of respect for That Manager. Just like I have no respect for Evil Empire(tm) since they do Whatever They Want because it's Innovating.
'President Bush strongly opposes any treaty or policy that would cause the loss of a single American job,...'
Hmmm... he allowed the loss of the software jobs. Oh, but that's right... we're supposed to go back to community college to bone up. At least the community college jobs will be safe. Are they affected by Kyoto?
Oh, wait... perhaps he meant the the loss of a single American CEO job. I get it now.
I hit a Saturday early afternoon screening (I think I was the only one without a grade school kid), and all the previews were "safe for children" pap. Go during the adult hours, and your chances of hitting the ROTS trailer are hopefully more non-negligible.
I switched to Linux precisely to get away from having to pirate software
Ah, but Steve Ballmer would say that by using Linux, you are pirating someone's IP, including Microsoft's 'cuz they have an innovative patent or two in there that you're using when you're running Linux. Double-trouble if you're using an iPod, too, since by his definition you're pirating music.
9/10 people I met didn't know what they were doing, but they were too good at political maneuvering for it to matter.
Gee, sounds like Dell. Most of the business cards people there had that I ever saw during my short stint at Dell were from fellow Dell employees. I think they traded them like baseball cards. I would have gotten promoted there before I left, but I didn't have enough Dell business cards.
Seriously, tho, not enough people that mattered knew me. At least I got out before the first layoffs came.
As long as we have Diebold electronic voting machines, we'll have voting irregularities. And that's even without considering that its CEO promised to deliver all the votes to Dubya.
I think that what a lot of people are missing, which the Groklaw article points out, is that software patents are only good for the companies with deep pockets and that can mount and/or sustain a prolonged legal battle. If Joe Programmer managed to get a patent on an original technology, a lot of luck they'd have going after Microsoft, who would probably manage to prove prior art with enough $$$ paid to the appropriate people.
Um, I wonder if eBay has a section for people bidding for jobs? I wouldn't think that it would take much for them to get into this biz, though it would be that the lowest bidder gets the job, not the other way around.
I've done the mix-numbers-and-letters routine, and it works rather well. I get no spam on the account that I primarily use for e-commerce, of all things. On my regular easy-to-spell email account, unfortunately, I put it on a buddy's publically-viewable guest log, and someone else entered it on a dubious website to have it email me a funny Flash file that they liked, so now I get about 30 spams a day on it.
Unfortunately you can't put the numbers-and-letters email address on resumes, 'cuz then you look like a luser, according to an HR type I interviewed with.
Cristiano writes "Microsoft employee Raymond Chen has saved every spam message and virus-laden e-mail he's received at work since 1997 and graphed the spams and viruses to create a cool visual representation of one man's malicious traffic."
I'd like to have saved every BSOD that I've received since 1997 and make a cool visual representation, too, but the system crashes each time I get one... so much for data retention.
It does show a BSOD. It does also have a countdown to reboot. I've seen it. It's definitely not fast enough that someone would miss it or blame it on glitchy power. (at least 30 seconds)
Then you must have a lame machine. Mine gives me one second. Before I learned the uncheck-the-auto-restart-checkbox trick, I had to go through about a dozen stops before I got everything written down. Course, you have to get your machine to the point where you can uncheck that box. Go figure.
Now I like BSOD jokes as much as the next person but seriously I think that's one area we can atleast applaud Microsoft at. It's really quite a rare date (or an indication of hardware failure) to see a BSOD in Windows XP. Now those damned security issues on the other hand...
Sorry, dude, but I'm on my fourth reinstall of XP since I get so far installing drivers, etc., and then I get an unrecoverable stop (just try to get past a REGISTRY_ERROR stop that doesn't even allow you to run the rescue). The last stop was right after installing SP2. When I installed Fedora Core to do a sanity check, it ran fine. Too bad I have to go back to XP for the games.
It really depends upon how much time you and/or your company want to take to get you up to speed. If you can take your own sweet time, hey, do it online at your own pace, learn while you're doing something else, and give it time to soak in.
Now if you have to get up and running within the space of a couple weeks or thereabouts, I would suggest taking a formal course away from your office. This keeps you focused, around an admitted expert, and usually with a good network setup.
I took a course from the friendly Red Hat folks, and although it was a good chunk of change, they did get a lot of knowledge stuffed into my head, and the trainers were great. Approx. 7 hours per day where I did nothing but learn and do labs.
The only downside: it was a certification course, and while I was successful, it was like sipping from the firehose to get all that knowledge crammed in there to where I could pass the RHCE. I pretty much had to say goodbye to family and friends during that time so that I could get everything down. And, if you're a cert freak, they teach you everything you need to pass the course.
Of course, the sysadmin jobs dry up as soon as I get the cert. Oh well.
Right about the time that this story first came out, our little telephony group at TI was being sold to DSC Communications. Our future DSC owners blessed us with a visit for a Q&A session before the actual acquisition to show us all was well, and someone had the, um, bravery to ask about the Brown case and how it would affect us. Well, it got quiet all of a sudden, and our DSC overlords mumbled something about protecting their IP.
Well, they had the last laugh as it were. Soon after our sale, Alcatel came and bought DSC and shut the Austin site down.
And then there was the Alcatel stock scandal shortly after that, but that's a story for another day.
No matter which country makes what laws, the lowest common denominator for all of them is you and I, the consumer. We are the people that hand over money for these products and if we don't hand over the money, the products don't sell and marketing people start dying from coronaries.
No, silly rabbit, that's not what happens.
What really happens is that the RIAA starts screaming that their sales are down because of those bad hackers copying using CD blanks, so then they'll impose a fee on each blank CD. Then on each MP3 player. Then on each USB drive. Then on each hard drive. Then for your internet connection. More fees will come until their profits go back up, dammit.
Welcome to the U.S. economy! Hope you freakin' enjoy it. Play by American rules, or no Britney Spears for you!
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Gee, same here, including the manager gig. No wonder it all sounded so familiar, eh?
After the bust, I ended up working for a small educational publisher, doing development *and* IT. I'm the only developer, though the other guy shines at support (and wants my job dearly, and backstabs constantly). I average 55 hours/week. Family, what family? No, I'm not bitter.
DT
I believe that most companies think that they can hire any codemonkey out of college to do what you can do (but their's will need massive rework/refactoring) in 10x the time, even though they're only 1/2 to 1/3 the cost. Plus the older you get, the more time you're going to want to spend with your family (you did manange to pick up one of those along the way, didn't you?), and then there's other outside interests, like neighborhood associations and other civic and church (or Cthulhu) functions. Oh yeah, the older you get, the more time you're going to need for medical visits, and there's a health club in your future where you'll injure yourself once or twice a year.
And do you really want to continue working in software? Especially with the hours and working conditions? You have to face it, one cannot easily estimate how long software takes to get done (and I'll address that later), and since developers are some of the most optimistic people in the world, you'll invariably end up staying late about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time, especially if a PHB takes everybody's estimates and cuts them by a third, 'cuz he knows you can do it!
Unless you can find yourself one of the few jobs open at a big software shop like IBM where they have people that hopefully do a good job at estimating effort (and I had a buddy there that they didn't, and he had to essentially work 1 year of 60-hour weeks), you'll end up working at a small coding shop where they'll have to make optimistic projections to get the contract, and hence you're working late... again! And if you work at a place where software isn't the main product, you'll have clueless PHBs that are unable to figure out that software indeed *does* take that long to do, and why aren't you coding yet??!?
The folks that I know that are older and are making it in software have made names for themselves, have written one or more books, attend OOPSLA where they're presenters or panelists, or are otherwise looked upon as gurus. The rest of them are scraping along, waiting for the axe to fall... again. The true failures I know are those that don't want to update their skill set, or have truly vertical knowledge and are unable/unwilling to move to where their market is.
Unless a young person I know has true passion for software, and is willing to do the Software Engineering thing, which they used to not emphasize enough in undergrad, I tell them to find something else to do since unless they trip on the pot o' gold (and I know a guy that's been doing MS Access programming from home on a government contract for the past 10+ years that has been pulling in six figures the entire time), they're not going to make it on less-than-passion.
Now, where do you go from here? Hmmm... that's a really good question. As soon as I know, I'll let you in on it.
DT
Geez, I read it as, "...justification for attacking foreign oil".
I guess you can tell where my mind is.
DT
Well, I have to admit that after using Linux as my desktop for three years (and using Win4Lin), I had to switch back to Windows so that I could use Quicken, Palm Desktop, see all the multimedia that's out there on the web, and, yes, play games. But I use Linux on my home servers, and I'll bring up Linux apps using Cygwin's X server.
So I feel a little bit dirty, but not horribly dirty.
DT
I guess that means that you'll just have to buy his retractions (and his retractions of his retractions, etc.). Sounds like a positive cash flow for Ed Yourdon to me!
DT
Everything's for sale. Duh.
DT
That's what I think that the big disadvantage of closed-source is. Some yahoo gets ahold of your open source code, removes the names and copyrights, compiles it themselves, and releases it as their own, charging $$$. And who is going to ask to see their code? I guess that they'd have to add a lot of value for someone to buy theirs instead of getting it for free from the original source.
But I would suspect, not that I am accusing or anything, but I would suspect that some open source code, probably BSD but could be others, has made it into Microsoft products. Which, if you think about it, would not be that bad of an idea since then perhaps it wouldn't crash as much. Even I would like that!
DT
Instead, I sometimes just don't answer the question, or essentially answer another question such that there was no lie, technically, or at least there was no untruth spoken that now needs scaffolding and its own support system to maintain it. And it's easy to say that I thought they asked something else.
Of course, when backed up against the wall, I 'fess up, or I'll say to the person, depending upon the situation, that perhaps they'd rather not know. Or I'll say what a wonderful day it is.
DT
One thing that I do like, though, is that I can click on the icon in the system tray and do the, "mother may I" so that I can give the OS the benefit of the doubt in case it would prefer that I clean up somewhere else before yanking the USB thumb drive.
I've only been impatient once when it wouldn't give permission, and the only thing I was doing was a file copy to the drive, but enough time had passed, in my opinion, for it to be done.
DT
Oh, you put it in the blue bin? We are putting all POs in the red inbox bin.
Reminds me of the time that I had a manager that wanted us to follow The Process, and then when things got bogged down, he said to "tailor" The Process.
Later when we didn't put out a quality product and were late because of some defects, at the project review he told the higher ups that my group didn't follow The Process.
Immediate loss of respect for That Manager. Just like I have no respect for Evil Empire(tm) since they do Whatever They Want because it's Innovating.
DT
Hmmm... he allowed the loss of the software jobs. Oh, but that's right... we're supposed to go back to community college to bone up. At least the community college jobs will be safe. Are they affected by Kyoto?
Oh, wait... perhaps he meant the the loss of a single American CEO job. I get it now.
I'm feeling like I've been boned.
DT
DT
Ah, but Steve Ballmer would say that by using Linux, you are pirating someone's IP, including Microsoft's 'cuz they have an innovative patent or two in there that you're using when you're running Linux. Double-trouble if you're using an iPod, too, since by his definition you're pirating music.
DT
Gee, sounds like Dell. Most of the business cards people there had that I ever saw during my short stint at Dell were from fellow Dell employees. I think they traded them like baseball cards. I would have gotten promoted there before I left, but I didn't have enough Dell business cards.
Seriously, tho, not enough people that mattered knew me. At least I got out before the first layoffs came.
DT
DT
It's a sick, sick system.
(...so why can't I get in on it?)
DT
Would one indication be if they all of a sudden stopped providing updates to the Linux version of the SDK, perhaps? A sure sign of the Apocalypse!
DT
Or did I just give away a patentable idea? Dang.
DT
Unfortunately you can't put the numbers-and-letters email address on resumes, 'cuz then you look like a luser, according to an HR type I interviewed with.
DT
I'd like to have saved every BSOD that I've received since 1997 and make a cool visual representation, too, but the system crashes each time I get one... so much for data retention.
DT
Then you must have a lame machine. Mine gives me one second. Before I learned the uncheck-the-auto-restart-checkbox trick, I had to go through about a dozen stops before I got everything written down. Course, you have to get your machine to the point where you can uncheck that box. Go figure.
DT
Sorry, dude, but I'm on my fourth reinstall of XP since I get so far installing drivers, etc., and then I get an unrecoverable stop (just try to get past a REGISTRY_ERROR stop that doesn't even allow you to run the rescue). The last stop was right after installing SP2. When I installed Fedora Core to do a sanity check, it ran fine. Too bad I have to go back to XP for the games.
DT
Now if you have to get up and running within the space of a couple weeks or thereabouts, I would suggest taking a formal course away from your office. This keeps you focused, around an admitted expert, and usually with a good network setup.
I took a course from the friendly Red Hat folks, and although it was a good chunk of change, they did get a lot of knowledge stuffed into my head, and the trainers were great. Approx. 7 hours per day where I did nothing but learn and do labs.
The only downside: it was a certification course, and while I was successful, it was like sipping from the firehose to get all that knowledge crammed in there to where I could pass the RHCE. I pretty much had to say goodbye to family and friends during that time so that I could get everything down. And, if you're a cert freak, they teach you everything you need to pass the course.
Of course, the sysadmin jobs dry up as soon as I get the cert. Oh well.
DT
Well, they had the last laugh as it were. Soon after our sale, Alcatel came and bought DSC and shut the Austin site down.
And then there was the Alcatel stock scandal shortly after that, but that's a story for another day.
DT
No, silly rabbit, that's not what happens.
What really happens is that the RIAA starts screaming that their sales are down because of those bad hackers copying using CD blanks, so then they'll impose a fee on each blank CD. Then on each MP3 player. Then on each USB drive. Then on each hard drive. Then for your internet connection. More fees will come until their profits go back up, dammit.
Welcome to the U.S. economy! Hope you freakin' enjoy it. Play by American rules, or no Britney Spears for you!
DT