You're dead wrong about IT not requiring a comparable level of skill and knowledge as the legal profession or medicine. I agree with the original poster and with you that we should excercise a comparable level of professionalism as doctors or lawyers but our professions have a lot more in common than you think - particularly software development or hardware engineering.
For example the acronym-of-the-week hamster wheel never stops turning and like lawyers and docs we have to maintain a constant state of continually learning about the latest developments in technology - except here our job is harder - since doctors have JAMA and lawyers have law review - all of which are heavily peer reviewed - whereas the technology press has no editorial standards at all. We have to apply a pretty good BS filter while still staying current.
And by the right set of rationalizations medicine and law are also support fields.
I think this is all because a few nights ago on CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer ripped Yahoo to shreds over the hubris/incompetence of the senior management.
Oracle's all about marketing these days and they are becoming yet another company so deluded that they don't see the ever increasing impedence mismatch between management will and technical reality. They're not focused on quality. They don't take pride in their work and I certainly wouldn't work at Oracle for any amount of money.
From a pure business perspective, I think this is a mistake for Oracle. Linux is typically the operating system of choice for the more technically savvy customers and Oracle's distribution will take some time to build up street cred with true geeks like you and me.
But if you read up on Larry, the bigger picture emerges. Larry doesn't see Oracle as a company indefinitely limited to database software or business apps. He's jealous of Microsoft even though the only MS products that really compete with Oracle are SQL Server and Microsoft Dynamics. He's jealous of Steve Jobs even though there are no Apple products that compete with his products. Larry is threatened by anybody who impinges on his desire to be the richest guy in the world and making Oracle the largest software company in the world.
I know it sounds dramatic, but I really think that despite all the business related pros and cons, Larry just thinks it's his god given right to own the operating system market, too. He's probably thinking about pushing Unbreakable Linux on the business desktop in order to cut into Microsoft's virtual desktop monopoly. While that might be good for Linux, I'd much rather that someone like Bill Gates have the money and power that he has than hand it over to Larry.
For those unschooled about the megomaniacal bad boy of Redwood Shores, you might check this out.
I think this is a great move for Oracle and a win win for customers. There's a large installed base of Red Hat customers who would rather give their support contracts to Oracle where they could be sure that at least 10% of their annual support payments would go up the nose of their sales rep's favorite stripper.
There's still another target market that's not content to recieve technical support from a mere Indian dude. They prefer to get their support from an extremely arrogant and disinterested Indian dude.
Actually, I think Oracle is very confused about how to handle open source. They're betting the farm on Oracle Fusion and I think this linux thing is probably just intended to be something else they can bundle with it when and if Fusion ever ships.
IMHO this is yet another sign that Oracle's having an identity crisis. They'll flail around for a few years and slowly implode - like Sun.
This is another desperate attempt by M$ to compete with Linux.
My Linux box has been up for 3 years without a reboot while my Windows box has to be restarted all the time.
Also, C++ is better than Java.
(Generated by the Standard Slashdot Flaimbait Comment Automaton)
I feel bad for the Chinese government. I mean with all the free trade and stuff they're barely even communist anymore. You may call stunts like this "repression". I call it China staying in touch with it's roots.
Remember the chairman.
(A single tear falls)
This is a shameless attempt on the part of Mozilla to stave off the crushing mindshare defeat that Microsoft is about to hand out with Internet Explorer 7. With improved support for stuff and things, IE7 promposes to make Firefox 2 obsolete by nightfall on it's release date.
IE7 will ship with the patented Cure For Cancer toolbar and embedded network optimization that makes tastefully photographed adult literature download 50% percent faster than with the dinosaur browser.
And that's not all. MS didn't forget about you developers. IE7's javascript debugger provides error messages that are 83% more ambiguous than with Firefox.
It's a well known fact that FireFox's only real market growth is in the UK where people hate fire, but like foxes. Therefore, Firefox can only achieve 50% marketshare in the UK maximum. Elsewhere in the world where fire and foxes are both despised, the Firefox market is limited to people who like dinosaurs which is just 10 year old boys named Kyle.
You're a little touchy, Tiger.
I don't think you're clueless. Far from it. From your sig you've obviously heard of VI and for that I owe you my eternal allegiance and will invite you to take an honored position in my WoW guild.
I just think you're being a little pedantic about all this. Ajax is good stuff and it's going to get better. What should we be using? Flex? Applets? ActiveX controls God forbid?
Let's keep a positive attitude and we'll defeat the terrorists one absolute positioned div tag at a time.
Most of the anti-Ajax FUD comes from people who've never really tried to use it - people for whom the light bulb hasn't turned on yet. First of all, it's really not as hard to make things work on multiple platforms as the naysayers claim. I have complicated AJAX interfaces that work just fine in IE, Firefox, and Safari. It's the same basic cross browser testing we've had to deal with for years. You just have to take the time to actually do proper testing and after a you gain some experience you learn which techniques work on all browsers and which ones don't - so you write a function to abstract the browser quirks into their own black box. All in all, the more you do it, the more productive you get.
I'd say that AJAX is probably a risky move for public facing apps unless it's just to dress things up, but for intranet/business apps it is very real right now.
I'll grant you that throwing around words like Ultimate might be a bit much, but it is possible to make web apps behave more like desktop apps than ever before. I don't see Ajax replacing Word, but I do see it replacing Peoplesoft and SAP.
If you're maxing out CPU, you have problems bigger than the use of ajax. Ajax usually results in using the same bandwidth differently. You make more server requests than a traditional app, but the requests exchange smaller amounts of data. It's possible to misuse any technology and blame the technology for your own incompetence. Sounds like you've achieved the latter.
Slashdot Mirror
You're dead wrong about IT not requiring a comparable level of skill and knowledge as the legal profession or medicine. I agree with the original poster and with you that we should excercise a comparable level of professionalism as doctors or lawyers but our professions have a lot more in common than you think - particularly software development or hardware engineering. For example the acronym-of-the-week hamster wheel never stops turning and like lawyers and docs we have to maintain a constant state of continually learning about the latest developments in technology - except here our job is harder - since doctors have JAMA and lawyers have law review - all of which are heavily peer reviewed - whereas the technology press has no editorial standards at all. We have to apply a pretty good BS filter while still staying current. And by the right set of rationalizations medicine and law are also support fields.
We DO make as much as lawyers and doctors - especially doctors. You sound like a desktop support tech confusing himself with an IT professional.
I think this is all because a few nights ago on CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer ripped Yahoo to shreds over the hubris/incompetence of the senior management.
How's the Oracle Fusion project going?
Oracle's all about marketing these days and they are becoming yet another company so deluded that they don't see the ever increasing impedence mismatch between management will and technical reality. They're not focused on quality. They don't take pride in their work and I certainly wouldn't work at Oracle for any amount of money.
[X] I am willing to help test Microsoft's New Operating System.
From a pure business perspective, I think this is a mistake for Oracle. Linux is typically the operating system of choice for the more technically savvy customers and Oracle's distribution will take some time to build up street cred with true geeks like you and me.
But if you read up on Larry, the bigger picture emerges. Larry doesn't see Oracle as a company indefinitely limited to database software or business apps. He's jealous of Microsoft even though the only MS products that really compete with Oracle are SQL Server and Microsoft Dynamics. He's jealous of Steve Jobs even though there are no Apple products that compete with his products. Larry is threatened by anybody who impinges on his desire to be the richest guy in the world and making Oracle the largest software company in the world.
I know it sounds dramatic, but I really think that despite all the business related pros and cons, Larry just thinks it's his god given right to own the operating system market, too. He's probably thinking about pushing Unbreakable Linux on the business desktop in order to cut into Microsoft's virtual desktop monopoly. While that might be good for Linux, I'd much rather that someone like Bill Gates have the money and power that he has than hand it over to Larry.
For those unschooled about the megomaniacal bad boy of Redwood Shores, you might check this out.
I think this is a great move for Oracle and a win win for customers. There's a large installed base of Red Hat customers who would rather give their support contracts to Oracle where they could be sure that at least 10% of their annual support payments would go up the nose of their sales rep's favorite stripper.
There's still another target market that's not content to recieve technical support from a mere Indian dude. They prefer to get their support from an extremely arrogant and disinterested Indian dude.
Actually, I think Oracle is very confused about how to handle open source. They're betting the farm on Oracle Fusion and I think this linux thing is probably just intended to be something else they can bundle with it when and if Fusion ever ships.
IMHO this is yet another sign that Oracle's having an identity crisis. They'll flail around for a few years and slowly implode - like Sun.
This is another desperate attempt by M$ to compete with Linux. My Linux box has been up for 3 years without a reboot while my Windows box has to be restarted all the time. Also, C++ is better than Java. (Generated by the Standard Slashdot Flaimbait Comment Automaton)
I feel bad for the Chinese government. I mean with all the free trade and stuff they're barely even communist anymore. You may call stunts like this "repression". I call it China staying in touch with it's roots. Remember the chairman. (A single tear falls)
This is a shameless attempt on the part of Mozilla to stave off the crushing mindshare defeat that Microsoft is about to hand out with Internet Explorer 7. With improved support for stuff and things, IE7 promposes to make Firefox 2 obsolete by nightfall on it's release date.
IE7 will ship with the patented Cure For Cancer toolbar and embedded network optimization that makes tastefully photographed adult literature download 50% percent faster than with the dinosaur browser.
And that's not all. MS didn't forget about you developers. IE7's javascript debugger provides error messages that are 83% more ambiguous than with Firefox.
It's a well known fact that FireFox's only real market growth is in the UK where people hate fire, but like foxes. Therefore, Firefox can only achieve 50% marketshare in the UK maximum. Elsewhere in the world where fire and foxes are both despised, the Firefox market is limited to people who like dinosaurs which is just 10 year old boys named Kyle.
Just kidding.
Firefox Rules.
You're a little touchy, Tiger. I don't think you're clueless. Far from it. From your sig you've obviously heard of VI and for that I owe you my eternal allegiance and will invite you to take an honored position in my WoW guild.
I just think you're being a little pedantic about all this. Ajax is good stuff and it's going to get better. What should we be using? Flex? Applets? ActiveX controls God forbid?
Let's keep a positive attitude and we'll defeat the terrorists one absolute positioned div tag at a time.
Most of the anti-Ajax FUD comes from people who've never really tried to use it - people for whom the light bulb hasn't turned on yet. First of all, it's really not as hard to make things work on multiple platforms as the naysayers claim. I have complicated AJAX interfaces that work just fine in IE, Firefox, and Safari. It's the same basic cross browser testing we've had to deal with for years. You just have to take the time to actually do proper testing and after a you gain some experience you learn which techniques work on all browsers and which ones don't - so you write a function to abstract the browser quirks into their own black box. All in all, the more you do it, the more productive you get.
I'd say that AJAX is probably a risky move for public facing apps unless it's just to dress things up, but for intranet/business apps it is very real right now.
I'll grant you that throwing around words like Ultimate might be a bit much, but it is possible to make web apps behave more like desktop apps than ever before. I don't see Ajax replacing Word, but I do see it replacing Peoplesoft and SAP.
If you're maxing out CPU, you have problems bigger than the use of ajax. Ajax usually results in using the same bandwidth differently. You make more server requests than a traditional app, but the requests exchange smaller amounts of data. It's possible to misuse any technology and blame the technology for your own incompetence. Sounds like you've achieved the latter.