I'm pushing 40 this year. Been programming most of my life. Never completed my CS degree. Worked on some fairly high profile projects in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco. I would say tho, at this point in my life, I'm definitely at the Sr. level and if I was to apply for a 'real' job it would be a Director or VP/CTO position - probably in a small startup.
I know of friends consulting companies that have guys in their 20's-40's. Other friends work for big software companies and have similar age groups. In the end, if you're a good programmer and not over 50;) then you shouldn't have a problem. But at some point, you're going to probably start your own company or be at a level above 'straight out of schoole 20-something coder'.
I agree with the premise "don't". I've spent a lot of years on a lot of projects on Java, including a major airline site and a mobile app for a worldwide bank. I've seen the industry change. I've probably used every major app server and framework/library out there. I've definitely used every big Java IDE. Deployed on every major J2EE server. Done all the best practices, used all the 'right' patterns.
But now, I won't touch it. The Java ecosystem is a mess, a jungle, a chaotic soup. Frameworks/libs/whatever like Spring, Hibernate, Struts, Tapestry (omg..), etc are so over engineered it's ridiculous. And the fact that everyone configures everything with xml is just plain gross to me.
Java, like any successful endeavor, is a victim of itself - or actually, its community. I would still consider standalone servers via J2SE as those are still fairly 'fun' to do, but anything that touches an 'app server' via some crappy, convoluted framework, is something I have no desire to work on. Frankly, I'd rather do a C++ app or even, an a obj-C app.
Java is now the 'old dudes' language. Seriously. It's now the stable choice. Hence, tons of jobs. Most of my developer friends though, are ditching it for something 'funner'.
And those languages are Python and Ruby - right now. You'll find much more exciting opportunities learning Django or Rails than you will the old dudes server language. And not only that, you'll be working with dynamic languages, so no compile and 5 min deploy of your app to some 'enterprise server'.
Over the next few years, Python and Ruby will become much more popular - there is already a shortage for them for Internet apps. Plus, you're not going to get caught in the morass of Sun/Java 'best practices'. Gazillions of patterns you should use 'just because'. Here, there is no answer to the why, no answer for the reason...
I would say don't even waste your time on Java, especially if you know C++. Go straight to Ruby or Python. You'll be much more productive and will find much more exciting opportunities in the development world.
Re:Good old RubyOnRails
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Advanced Rails
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Funny, I know plenty of people paying the bills. In fact, I just got done consulting on a Rails project charging an equivalent rate to what I bill on Java projects.
Also, a friend's company now has more Rails projects coming through the door than Java ones.
Here's a nice post from a company doing more than just paying the bills.
For real and not only that, I wonder how this impacts smaller ISPs like the one I have that 'have to lease' the AT&T 'owned' copper to provide service? I've avoided the big guys because of their shite like this. This is not only hurting innovation in the US but totally f-ing up access of the last true democratic medium the world has seen.
First off, I've owned a shitload of Apple hardware over the years. I'm not a fanboy, definitely an early adopter and I appreciate their industrial design, which is why I don't buy vanilla boxes anymore.
However, I'm pretty pissed with Leopard. Two things that unbelievably piss me off on my $3k+ MacBook Pro:
1. The fucking wireless STILL cannot find my Airport Express after waking from sleep. This is shit I'd expect from Linux circa 2003 (which did used to happen to me). Word on the street is that the wireless driver crashes and in order to find my base station, which is usually no more than 8' away from me, I have to turn off Airport and then back on again. Totally lame and unacceptable.
2. My keyboard freezes. The only way to unfreeze it is either to reboot or close the lid and sleep. This is beyond lame and total bullshit. Makes me wanna throw my laptop out the window.
Oh and I hate Spaces. Complete garbage and of course it doesn't conform to how I WANT to work, I have to conform to it - lame. I'm trying to compile/fix DesktopManager to no avail. Sigh. In my opinion, this is where X ruled.
Oh and when I upgraded my Mini media comp, the upgrade crashed, wouldn't allow me to re-install (it kept the little spinner going forever) and the only way I could get back on track was to pull the hard drive and then reboot form the cd. My friends MBP (used to be my 1st gen MBP) crashes on him almost every day after Leopard updating.
I was an avid Linux user for over 10 years and WindowMaker was my deal. But I hate Gnome and its cartoon-like interface (and the fact that it's being invaded by C# turns me off even more). I hate compiling my kernel, apps, etc like I used to with Gentoo. I do miss REAL window activation follows mouse. I do use Linux on all my servers tho cuz 'it just works' and f-ing works well. Every year I try the Linux desktop again and every year I delete that VM.
Windows, never. Besides cartoon-ish interface, everything is backwards and forces me to work in ways worse than OS X. Their command prompt sux (even Vista) and I spend a good portion of my day with terms open.
So, yay, I have a full 64-bit OS without having to buy the explicitly named 64-bit version. And some nice eye candy which I do appreciate. But I call bullshit on Apple (even after being a user for 6+ years now). If the Airport issue and the keyboard thing weren't there, then I wouldn't have much to complain about - besides Spaces. These may seem 'minor' offenses, but they're definitely a chink in Apple's armor as far as I'm concerned. Apple will probably fix these things faster than M$ would, but they're gonna heap a ton of denial and arrogance on the whole process as well.
Good points, but why is it $10/person? When you consider economies of scale the price goes down the more people are involved. Of course, the more people the more bandwidth, but that's besides the point.
Sure this stuff costs money, but if I'm paying $70/mo for a 6/768 dsl line (yah, not the most ideal price), then for a million people why should it cost $20mil? I mean, we could get roughly 285k dsl lines for $20mil at my price. That doesn't make sense. Most of it, and I'm sure you'd agree, would go into WAPs.
I dunno, like I said in another post, these things are all over-engineered, just like most Java projects.;) Start limited, start small, grow out. See what works, what doesn't. The telcos/providers need to be cut outta this equation. They'll never feel like they're getting a good deal short of anything that is a total rip-off to the tax base. Screw those guys. Just use whoever the city already uses as a provider (which might already include discounts, etc) and then just start plugging in the WAPs.
It doesn't have to be too complicated and there's always money to be found somewhere. Maybe it's not in new taxes, maybe some other way no one else has thought much about. But I feel whenever you first involve the corporate interest then it's a recipe for getting 100% screwed. Not saying the govt is the most efficient either, but they just don't seem to be as money hungry as the corporate execs are.
Internet should be right up there with power, water, transportation, etc. It's already a given that it's a key component of growth and future development. We need to start treating it more like that instead of a big giveaway to the monopolies that we're broken up in the 80's (at&t). So much for deregulation.
Big telcos/cable companies have shown over the past decade that they're not interested in anything that benefits the customer nor anything that progresses technology. Hence we have multiple examples from other countries where they have 100mb net access or statements from AT&T's CEO where he said "no one want's $10 internet access". They are only interested in maintaining the status quo. The dream of supply siders that the market will decide has definitely died on this one because the market is stagnant, highly profitable for the monopolies, and essentially dead.
I live in San Francisco and it's a little disheartening to see the wifi thing going nowhere. I would say it's more typical of the corporate mindset nowadays in that they want to not just own everything or every angle, but they want to control it forever. The fact that SF can't get its shit together with Google and Earthlink is beyond me - this has been going on for a long time!
I feel the only difference with SF and Chicago on this on is Chicago knew when to call bullshit. Is it too difficult to create some new office of the city for digital initiatives or something and then just have them do it? I mean, start small, start in an area where there's a lot of tourists or businesses and just start putting up mesh routers. The city owns the goddamn light poles, so attach them to that. Then they could get a crappy 6/768 DSL line and see if it ever get's maxed out. If so, great, incentive to expand. If not, ok, well at least we know.
This reminds me of some software projects where everything is planned out to the max and meetings go on forever and there has to be some broad consensus on everything. I say screw that. Get a small team together in the city, give them some money, and let them do something with it. Start small, go big.
I feel these big negotiations with the telcos is a waste of time. They're quite content with the U.S. being, like 30th or something in rankings of broadband penetration because they're still making loads of cash. They have no interest outside the buck. So remove that faulty part of the equation - permanently - and let the next generation of thinkers and doers take over and actually do something.
Man, I've been programming Java since 1.x (yah, yah, I know). Is it me or does it just seem like the versions are getting a little whacky. I don't do much Java programming anymore, but it always seems like a jump in major number was a big issue if you have to maintain apps. Shit, how many people out there in the 'real' working world use 1.6? Prob no one. Last project I did (for a major bank) required 1.4.2 and it was deployed at the beginning of this year.
I feel like it's great (again, even tho I'm not using it this year) that Sun is on top of stuff and 'looking ahead'. But I really wish they would do meaningful SMALL dot increments and quit shoving out a now major release every year or so. I know 1.5 was out a while ago. But why not keep making 1.5 REALLY super stable and optimized and make 1.6 ONLY the one with the new uber-Swing and whatever else.
It's sorta like Microsoft coming out with Vista even tho no one want's to use it cuz all the 'new stuff' (which seems to have been cut at the last minute) isn't stable. Continuously having big releases makes people feel like they have to abandon the older releases so they can focus on re-learning all the new features that haven't made it out yet. I've seen this on teams I've worked with.
I just think more stable, optimized, smaller point releases are the way to go. And Sun being an 'enterprise' company should know this.
You said it! The founding fathers have been rolling in their grave for the last decade or so, no doubt about it. These guys in power are simply the worst in history, the f*cking worst! So blatantly corrupt, so ideological, so twisted insofar as calling the bill of rights 'quaint'.
Ben Franklin said: Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Sad but true. If people really think that this is gonna just be used for the big, bad, terrorists (who seem to lurk around every corner) then they are deluding themselves. Like the poster said, there is no oversight, so a foreign suspect can be anyone according to the pResident and ag. And when the judiciary is stacked with conservative appointees, then who's going to rule these clearly unconstitutional laws illegal?! That's the problem, absolute power which is absolutely what these guys are after. I really hope people wake up and impeach these guys because if ANYONE'S deserved it, it's them.
Oh and after that glorious day, let's get a third party in there too because the democrats and republicans are two sides of the same coin: government by the wealthy, for the wealthy.
Actually, I remember when the Airport first came out and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a big market for it back then and NO ONE I knew had one. His quote is not saying the Airport is the biggest now it's that Apple popularized it then. No other big company - Microsoft, Dell, Gateway, Compaq, Cisco, etc - was pushing the tech and product like Apple was.
And not only that, but the Airport was much easier to configure than any of the competition that might have existed. Still is.
I think this is spot on. If you look how Verizon 'locks' all their phones, then I'm sure they wanted some ridiculous disabling of the iPhone. Yah, Verizon is absolutely the worst.
While I agree the EDGE 2.5 sux, I'll also guarantee that you'd not only pay more at Verizon, but the iPhone would probably not have the WiFi enabled. Every Verizon phone I've seen has been locked down so you can't transfer mp3s or pics or anything in and out w/out going thru some sort of extra service, which will cost ya.
While Verizon's data network is better, their policies and disdain for their customers is the worst of all the mobile carriers. I'm glad the deal with Apple didn't work out.
When you're dealing with the mobile carriers, it's always the lesser of all evils.
Apple are restricting everything to the browser (and if we're lucky, they may support flash in the browser).
Goddamn, I almost laughed at this. First off, mobiles are garbage now and I will never touch a mobile with M$ anything installed on it - ya think people woulda learned their lesson by now. Second, please Apple, DON'T include a Flash player (which I don't think they will). Flash will soon be going the way of the dinosaurs as well Silverlight, JavaFX (jesus...), Air, and whatever else PROPRIETARY lock-in yuk is foisted on us next. Standards exist for a reason.
Anyway, back to the comment. So in other words, instead of (possibly)updating your existing web app to work with the iPhone outta the box, you'd rather have some fucked up version of JavaME (which is different across ALL handset OSes) or some.NET pile of crap, or some complicated ass C/C++ sdk?!?! Jesus christ, please stay working on the Windows mobile platform.
EVERYTHING is connected now and THAT'S the future of software development. The iPhone has WiFi and (albeit not the greatest)EDGE support. Some interesting things have happened in the last few years - thanks to web standards and not to M$ hijacking - to web apps. Things that blow away development 10 years ago. Why would I not want to build an app that's developed to standards and not only runs on my desktop/laptop, but also runs predictably on my mobile device? In fact, I wish my latest app did just that.
People whining about developing for the browser today just don't get it as far as I'm concerned. As Microsoft and Sun have show in excess, complicated, 'do everything' frameworks and environments are not necessarily a good thing. If you develop an app for the iPhone or browser (and when I say develop I use that lightly cuz a buisness without an existing web site might not as well be in business today) you're usually developing something simpler and more pared down than some 'enterprise' app that would come out of the doors of M$ and Sun. People have learned (and 'enterprises' are being dragged kicking and screaming) that complexity sux and there are simple and efficient ways to get to your information not only in a timely manner, but from anywhere. Development is not going to go backwards and focus on the desktop, but move forwards to ubiquitous devices. And these devices won't need 4 gigs of ram to run and 200 gigs of hard drive space to store shit.
The iPhone's not 'the answer' to all this stuff but instead a piece of the larger opportunity. An opportunity that the do nothing's from Redmond could never lead. The rest of us who are sick of the past 10 years of over-engineered and complex 'enterprise' web garbage development will fully embrace simpler connected apps that just work and are developed to standards. I'm not worried about enterprise adoption because I know how those environments work and there's always a way..
There's no question in my mind that the iPhone will be a success just like the iPod was/is. Whether or not the enterprise accepts it matters about as much as whether or not the enterprise 'accepted' the Razr or any other mobile.
Yah, wtf? That is one of the stupidest Ballmer quotes I've ever heard. I'm sure the last thing his 85 year old uncle is thinking about is buying an mp3 player. Moron. He's probably more worried about funeral arrangements.
As for everyone whining about the $500 price, I dunno, people will pay for it and it will eventually drop. When the RAZR first came out, it was $499. Moto is obviously a different company than Apple and Apple usually tends to keep their prices 'high', so there will probably have to be some subsidy on the Cingular side.
Oh yah, and another thing I've heard Ballmer bitch about is no physical keypad on the iPhone. This guy never quits. Yah, like I'd rather have a smaller screen so I can have some keypad that a gnome could only type on.
The iPhone will raise the bar and M$ is just pissed that they didn't get to it first. The Zune and its DRM (which is horrendous) is garbage. M$ builds third rate products and they're successful because most people are fine with that. So sure, they'll keep making loads of cash, but their 'innovative' days are long gone (if they were ever there in the first place)..
First off, I don't disagree, necessarily. However, Soderberg made an adaptation and didn't stay true to the book/russian film on purpose. Solaris the original movie was cool, but it's definitely dated. The current adaptation is much more modern and has a much more focused human element to it. The original, while good, took too long to say what it needed to say. I mean, it's a long watch for sure.
I think Solaris the modern version was crazy great, but it's definitely not for the masses. It's very dense in a short time and when you watch it again and again, you pick up more and more; sure this can be said about the original also. In an era of box office sure things and non-stop action, Solaris is cerebral sci-fi for sure and I love it.
I'm not knocking the book or the original, but there's nothing wrong with making something different and not staying 100% completely on track with the original idea. That's what great artists have always done: interpretation.
Why is this creating such a commotion, or better yet, why are people arguing against Jobs? I'm no apologist, but his stance made 100% perfect sense to me.
DRM:
Look, if you are required by some companies to use DRM, what are you going to do? 1., use it or 2., don't and don't sell their music. I think DRM is a sham, but it's pretty clear what the companies want that own the music they license out to iTunes.
iPod:
Again, I agree with Jobs here. The iPod plays MP3 and AAC, which can both be considered 'standards'. The only thing missing, of course, is Ogg. But this is pretty good. I don't see anyone bitching much about the Zune which has THE WORST DRM imaginable on a player. Not only is your DRM-free songs wrapped in DRM, but when you share (or squirt - jesus..) these with the social - this is ANY track mind you - it's wrapped in DRM and the receiver can only listen to it 3 times and/or it expires automagically in something like three days. I can't begin to say how unbelievably lame this is for the consumer, but makes perfect sense to the record companies. Where's the uproar against the worlds largest software company regarding that?
iTS:
Yes, it does not sell all indie labels (some tho) and yes, Apple probably could roll in something to allow non-DRM stuff to work perfectly with DRM stuff. But again, without having priviledged access to the project/source, who's to say how that could be done. I'm sure it could be though. I still think Apple does a pretty good job with the iTS. I mean how many other music stores out there fight with the record cartel to keep prices low? If it was Bill G or Ballmer or whoever else, you know they wouldn't give a shit about $.99 price and kowtow to the labels every wish. This is a FACT.
Licensing FairPlay:
I'm with Jobs on this one. M$ tried it with the 'Plays For Sure' and look where they are now, copying iTS/iPod. For a company providing a product, NOT a socially beneficial service, it makes sense to keep it small and in control. Doesn't mean I support FairPlay, but from a practical product standpoint, Jobs is right and the real goal is to get RID of FairPlay, not expand it to more vendors.
In the end, again, I don't know what all the fuss is about. Of course the Microsoft club is gonna slam everything Jobs does - cuz they're not #1 in that area, so they'll naturally hate everything else. But the Econ calling the article 'self serving'? I dunno, I guess, but how is taking the labels to task so self serving? When did Ballmer last call for the labels to drop DRM? Or any other big computer/electronics exec? I think Gates went as far as mentioning at one point that DRM "won't work" but, that falls very short compared to Jobs speech.
I also don't look at the iPod as some big monopolistic, lock in mechanism. I can play all the formats I use on it except, again, Ogg. And for indie artists, there's always eMusic or CDs. The Econ article, and many others, cite lock-in as a argument the EU is using, but seriously, why would someone jump ship to a player from M$ or Sony? Plus, what does Jobs really have to lose if the EU rules iTS/iPod illegal? Fine, worst case, don't sell to them. And then what DRM will the EU run to? M$? Sony? Or will they spend years and years coming up with some 'standard' that then fades away when the labels finally cave in to unprotected tracks, but only because consumers demanded it from them? The EU may sue or whatever, but Apple dropping FairPlay is not going to happen and again, music players are not computers, so the 'lock-in' will fade.
I think, if anything, more people should be backing Jobs. What other high profile hardware maker is saying the same? M$? Sony? Creative? Sandisk? His stance on having the EU look at EMI and Universal is dead on. I've been in the music industry and they ARE the culprit in this case. 100%. If anyone opened up an online music store tomorrow and wanted major label music, it w
Yah, Unicode support is a biggie in Ruby. It's there, but still a pain. Rails has added support for it in 1.2 in ActiveSupport::Multibyte. So there's stuff like this now:
Even tho this isn't totally like Java's i18n support, it's getting there..
As for Ajax support, yah, it's a first class citizen in Rails. While a lot of people are sick of the term, I think it's for real and here to stay. It is the next step in web applications. While most of the examples in the world so far have been for 'social'.com apps, the fact that Ajax is now allowing (or putting a face on things that already existed but not termed in a way the masses could digest) for rich net apps that regular web pages couldn't deliver. Coupled with the various tool kits like Yahoo UI or GWT, the net and browser really are becoming the operating system. And Rails was the first framework who really made the whole Ajax thing easy to use. They're going to be ahead of everyone else in this category for some time.
So, I'm glad that Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and all the other religions keep the latent thieves, murderers, rapists, and frauds that are members of those religions at bay through fear. It makes my life safer and more pleasant, up to the point where those religious nuts go crusading or are trying to impose irrational and unfounded extensions of their religions on others.
Yah, this only works until one of them turns their eye or gun or tank or God's word or faith-based community or government or _fill_in_the_blank_ on you. Then what?
Absolutely! Welcome to the world of indoctrination! People are taught from a very young age their various religious beliefs and morals.
It's funny tho, the whole 'morals from God ' thing. Any Christian I talk to (including relatives) all believe not only in words written on pages thousands of years ago (written by dudes named John and Paul, which are very Jewish names, and also hand-picked by the Catholic church in later years) but also usually support whatever bloodhsed in any part of the world as long as it's in God's name (the 'extremist' and uneducated Muslims love this too). Whether it's the (re-)invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever their morality points them, they all belive in and break the concepts 'written' down thousands of years ago. How hypocritical, yet, it's God's morals they're following. And they know it.
I was indoctrinated into Christianity from a young age. Was told all the scary stories of judgement and this and that and in my late teens/early twenties realized that it was all bullshit. All about control, judgement - all negative. I've never met anyone who is Christ-like in the western world. And I've come to realize that Judeo-based/Christian morals are the last thing I'd ever impart on my kids (if I ever have any). They're, in my opinion, totally backwards and have nothing to do with modern living and have nothing to do with living a decent, educated, fair, and compassionate life.
The best thing that could happen to the future of the world is the advent of a more universal, worldly, consciousness and an ascendency of non-theism. After all, there'd definitely be less or no wars (no God to justify them, no virgins in Heaven), less suffering (no wars plus no religious barriers to medical research), better integration (no separation of the righteous and 'wicked'), and hopefully more compassion (less Godly judgement), and definitely more time spent on learning about science and the natural universe and less about the supernatural, religious texts.
While I say each to his own, it's clear to me that the Judeo-based religions are fundamentally flawed and have little place in the future of humanity. Some day, they will be realized (hopefully) as the primitive thinking they are just like the Greek and Roman and even Sumerian or Egyptian gods (which we dismiss as ridiculous nowadays). Of course, I won't live to see it, but it will probably happen. It has to, otherwise humanity will destroy itself. You have only to glimpse any religious leader/figure around the world to be sure of that.
Sure, social networks can mine users data and habits, that's a big deal. But I'm sure Yahoo gets that. But don't underestimate having an army of users doing your work for you. I've worked for companies that would have killed to have users doing their work for them in this way. In fact, it's almost a sure thing to say that future 'content providers' will employ more of this along with AI and not have many companies employees - if any - touching any of the input data. As a programmer, sounds good to me..
I was just looking at the api and this has applications outside games. Think graphics programs; of course, nothing like Photoshop, but enough to allow doing images in a browser. Why use Dia as a standalone app when you can have a collaborative version in a browser?
This is true. I've lived in NYC & Chi and their subways are much better in terms of coverage and, I think, value. Besides, BART is not really the subway like it is in NYC/Chi. That's the domain of MUNI here and there is MUCH to be desired. But you know, we don't have the population that NYC or Chi has, so naturally, there's not the same infrastructure or transit needs. However, SF is expanding downtown which means more transit requirements and they will have a new MUNI underground line going in to connect parts of the city north to south. So dunno about BART as I don't really take it that much, but I'd love to see MUNI bring more stuff underground and get rid of some of the bus lines. One can dream...
You're right on one thing, it won't last forever - nothing does. However what does Steve's greed have anything to do with this issue? Also, I seriously doubt the iPod is just a cool trend. Sure, some kids definitely have them for that, but I also know a lot of over-30 folks who have them in the car, home, pocket, etc - I don't see that as a trend.
Personally, I think the iPod software is great. Both Creative and Sony had players out before the iPod and they were crap. Their interfaces sucked and Apple was able to marry the scroll wheel with easily navigation. So far, neither Creative or Sony has showed anything interesting, nor will they probably in the near future.
As for the iTunes store and Steve pissing off the owners of the music, I think you referring to the music and media cartels, right? Hmmm... And making some missteps, that must be, what...? 1 mil videos in 20 days? Or is it over 1/2 billion songs? Or some other nook that's not been reported on yet.
Look, I love 'open source' just as much as the next guy and my livelihood actually depends on it. But just because some group of people sprinkle the magic dust on [insert app or device here] doesn't mean it's gonna rule the streets. It's so obvious sometimes that the OS and even M$ communities are so focused on their one way (M$ dominating everything and playing w/nothing and OS re-doing everything M$ does for free) of the world that to them, it's impossible that something 'not invented (or copied) here' can be great.
Honestly, I don't care much for Jobs, but I tip my hat to Apple pretty much every time I use one of their products. They understand design and implementation almost better than any tech company out there. Sure, they're not perfect, but their stuff just makes sense. This is coming from someone who took a long time to give up Windowmaker and whatever the latest and greatest Intel/Amd box of the day was. I hope some OS player will see some success, but it won't happen soon, just look at Windows vs. GNU/Linux/Gnome. You're assuming the mass of people give a shit about OS and the Windows monopoly just shows they don't. So, you can pretty much apply the same rule to the iPod for the foreseeable future.
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I'm pushing 40 this year. Been programming most of my life. Never completed my CS degree. Worked on some fairly high profile projects in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco. I would say tho, at this point in my life, I'm definitely at the Sr. level and if I was to apply for a 'real' job it would be a Director or VP/CTO position - probably in a small startup.
I know of friends consulting companies that have guys in their 20's-40's. Other friends work for big software companies and have similar age groups. In the end, if you're a good programmer and not over 50 ;) then you shouldn't have a problem. But at some point, you're going to probably start your own company or be at a level above 'straight out of schoole 20-something coder'.
I wouldn't worry about the ageism thing at 35.
I agree with the premise "don't". I've spent a lot of years on a lot of projects on Java, including a major airline site and a mobile app for a worldwide bank. I've seen the industry change. I've probably used every major app server and framework/library out there. I've definitely used every big Java IDE. Deployed on every major J2EE server. Done all the best practices, used all the 'right' patterns.
But now, I won't touch it. The Java ecosystem is a mess, a jungle, a chaotic soup. Frameworks/libs/whatever like Spring, Hibernate, Struts, Tapestry (omg..), etc are so over engineered it's ridiculous. And the fact that everyone configures everything with xml is just plain gross to me.
Java, like any successful endeavor, is a victim of itself - or actually, its community. I would still consider standalone servers via J2SE as those are still fairly 'fun' to do, but anything that touches an 'app server' via some crappy, convoluted framework, is something I have no desire to work on. Frankly, I'd rather do a C++ app or even, an a obj-C app.
Java is now the 'old dudes' language. Seriously. It's now the stable choice. Hence, tons of jobs. Most of my developer friends though, are ditching it for something 'funner'.
And those languages are Python and Ruby - right now. You'll find much more exciting opportunities learning Django or Rails than you will the old dudes server language. And not only that, you'll be working with dynamic languages, so no compile and 5 min deploy of your app to some 'enterprise server'.
Over the next few years, Python and Ruby will become much more popular - there is already a shortage for them for Internet apps. Plus, you're not going to get caught in the morass of Sun/Java 'best practices'. Gazillions of patterns you should use 'just because'. Here, there is no answer to the why, no answer for the reason...
I would say don't even waste your time on Java, especially if you know C++. Go straight to Ruby or Python. You'll be much more productive and will find much more exciting opportunities in the development world.
Funny, I know plenty of people paying the bills. In fact, I just got done consulting on a Rails project charging an equivalent rate to what I bill on Java projects.
Also, a friend's company now has more Rails projects coming through the door than Java ones.
Here's a nice post from a company doing more than just paying the bills.
For real and not only that, I wonder how this impacts smaller ISPs like the one I have that 'have to lease' the AT&T 'owned' copper to provide service? I've avoided the big guys because of their shite like this. This is not only hurting innovation in the US but totally f-ing up access of the last true democratic medium the world has seen.
First off, I've owned a shitload of Apple hardware over the years. I'm not a fanboy, definitely an early adopter and I appreciate their industrial design, which is why I don't buy vanilla boxes anymore.
However, I'm pretty pissed with Leopard. Two things that unbelievably piss me off on my $3k+ MacBook Pro:
1. The fucking wireless STILL cannot find my Airport Express after waking from sleep. This is shit I'd expect from Linux circa 2003 (which did used to happen to me). Word on the street is that the wireless driver crashes and in order to find my base station, which is usually no more than 8' away from me, I have to turn off Airport and then back on again. Totally lame and unacceptable.
2. My keyboard freezes. The only way to unfreeze it is either to reboot or close the lid and sleep. This is beyond lame and total bullshit. Makes me wanna throw my laptop out the window.
Oh and I hate Spaces. Complete garbage and of course it doesn't conform to how I WANT to work, I have to conform to it - lame. I'm trying to compile/fix DesktopManager to no avail. Sigh. In my opinion, this is where X ruled.
Oh and when I upgraded my Mini media comp, the upgrade crashed, wouldn't allow me to re-install (it kept the little spinner going forever) and the only way I could get back on track was to pull the hard drive and then reboot form the cd. My friends MBP (used to be my 1st gen MBP) crashes on him almost every day after Leopard updating.
I was an avid Linux user for over 10 years and WindowMaker was my deal. But I hate Gnome and its cartoon-like interface (and the fact that it's being invaded by C# turns me off even more). I hate compiling my kernel, apps, etc like I used to with Gentoo. I do miss REAL window activation follows mouse. I do use Linux on all my servers tho cuz 'it just works' and f-ing works well. Every year I try the Linux desktop again and every year I delete that VM.
Windows, never. Besides cartoon-ish interface, everything is backwards and forces me to work in ways worse than OS X. Their command prompt sux (even Vista) and I spend a good portion of my day with terms open.
So, yay, I have a full 64-bit OS without having to buy the explicitly named 64-bit version. And some nice eye candy which I do appreciate. But I call bullshit on Apple (even after being a user for 6+ years now). If the Airport issue and the keyboard thing weren't there, then I wouldn't have much to complain about - besides Spaces. These may seem 'minor' offenses, but they're definitely a chink in Apple's armor as far as I'm concerned. Apple will probably fix these things faster than M$ would, but they're gonna heap a ton of denial and arrogance on the whole process as well.
Good points, but why is it $10/person? When you consider economies of scale the price goes down the more people are involved. Of course, the more people the more bandwidth, but that's besides the point.
;) Start limited, start small, grow out. See what works, what doesn't. The telcos/providers need to be cut outta this equation. They'll never feel like they're getting a good deal short of anything that is a total rip-off to the tax base. Screw those guys. Just use whoever the city already uses as a provider (which might already include discounts, etc) and then just start plugging in the WAPs.
Sure this stuff costs money, but if I'm paying $70/mo for a 6/768 dsl line (yah, not the most ideal price), then for a million people why should it cost $20mil? I mean, we could get roughly 285k dsl lines for $20mil at my price. That doesn't make sense. Most of it, and I'm sure you'd agree, would go into WAPs.
I dunno, like I said in another post, these things are all over-engineered, just like most Java projects.
It doesn't have to be too complicated and there's always money to be found somewhere. Maybe it's not in new taxes, maybe some other way no one else has thought much about. But I feel whenever you first involve the corporate interest then it's a recipe for getting 100% screwed. Not saying the govt is the most efficient either, but they just don't seem to be as money hungry as the corporate execs are.
Internet should be right up there with power, water, transportation, etc. It's already a given that it's a key component of growth and future development. We need to start treating it more like that instead of a big giveaway to the monopolies that we're broken up in the 80's (at&t). So much for deregulation.
Big telcos/cable companies have shown over the past decade that they're not interested in anything that benefits the customer nor anything that progresses technology. Hence we have multiple examples from other countries where they have 100mb net access or statements from AT&T's CEO where he said "no one want's $10 internet access". They are only interested in maintaining the status quo. The dream of supply siders that the market will decide has definitely died on this one because the market is stagnant, highly profitable for the monopolies, and essentially dead.
I live in San Francisco and it's a little disheartening to see the wifi thing going nowhere. I would say it's more typical of the corporate mindset nowadays in that they want to not just own everything or every angle, but they want to control it forever. The fact that SF can't get its shit together with Google and Earthlink is beyond me - this has been going on for a long time!
I feel the only difference with SF and Chicago on this on is Chicago knew when to call bullshit. Is it too difficult to create some new office of the city for digital initiatives or something and then just have them do it? I mean, start small, start in an area where there's a lot of tourists or businesses and just start putting up mesh routers. The city owns the goddamn light poles, so attach them to that. Then they could get a crappy 6/768 DSL line and see if it ever get's maxed out. If so, great, incentive to expand. If not, ok, well at least we know.
This reminds me of some software projects where everything is planned out to the max and meetings go on forever and there has to be some broad consensus on everything. I say screw that. Get a small team together in the city, give them some money, and let them do something with it. Start small, go big.
I feel these big negotiations with the telcos is a waste of time. They're quite content with the U.S. being, like 30th or something in rankings of broadband penetration because they're still making loads of cash. They have no interest outside the buck. So remove that faulty part of the equation - permanently - and let the next generation of thinkers and doers take over and actually do something.
Man, I've been programming Java since 1.x (yah, yah, I know). Is it me or does it just seem like the versions are getting a little whacky. I don't do much Java programming anymore, but it always seems like a jump in major number was a big issue if you have to maintain apps. Shit, how many people out there in the 'real' working world use 1.6? Prob no one. Last project I did (for a major bank) required 1.4.2 and it was deployed at the beginning of this year.
I feel like it's great (again, even tho I'm not using it this year) that Sun is on top of stuff and 'looking ahead'. But I really wish they would do meaningful SMALL dot increments and quit shoving out a now major release every year or so. I know 1.5 was out a while ago. But why not keep making 1.5 REALLY super stable and optimized and make 1.6 ONLY the one with the new uber-Swing and whatever else.
It's sorta like Microsoft coming out with Vista even tho no one want's to use it cuz all the 'new stuff' (which seems to have been cut at the last minute) isn't stable. Continuously having big releases makes people feel like they have to abandon the older releases so they can focus on re-learning all the new features that haven't made it out yet. I've seen this on teams I've worked with.
I just think more stable, optimized, smaller point releases are the way to go. And Sun being an 'enterprise' company should know this.
You said it! The founding fathers have been rolling in their grave for the last decade or so, no doubt about it. These guys in power are simply the worst in history, the f*cking worst! So blatantly corrupt, so ideological, so twisted insofar as calling the bill of rights 'quaint'.
Ben Franklin said:
Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Sad but true. If people really think that this is gonna just be used for the big, bad, terrorists (who seem to lurk around every corner) then they are deluding themselves. Like the poster said, there is no oversight, so a foreign suspect can be anyone according to the pResident and ag. And when the judiciary is stacked with conservative appointees, then who's going to rule these clearly unconstitutional laws illegal?! That's the problem, absolute power which is absolutely what these guys are after. I really hope people wake up and impeach these guys because if ANYONE'S deserved it, it's them.
Oh and after that glorious day, let's get a third party in there too because the democrats and republicans are two sides of the same coin: government by the wealthy, for the wealthy.
Actually, I remember when the Airport first came out and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a big market for it back then and NO ONE I knew had one. His quote is not saying the Airport is the biggest now it's that Apple popularized it then. No other big company - Microsoft, Dell, Gateway, Compaq, Cisco, etc - was pushing the tech and product like Apple was.
And not only that, but the Airport was much easier to configure than any of the competition that might have existed. Still is.
I think this is spot on. If you look how Verizon 'locks' all their phones, then I'm sure they wanted some ridiculous disabling of the iPhone. Yah, Verizon is absolutely the worst.
While I agree the EDGE 2.5 sux, I'll also guarantee that you'd not only pay more at Verizon, but the iPhone would probably not have the WiFi enabled. Every Verizon phone I've seen has been locked down so you can't transfer mp3s or pics or anything in and out w/out going thru some sort of extra service, which will cost ya.
While Verizon's data network is better, their policies and disdain for their customers is the worst of all the mobile carriers. I'm glad the deal with Apple didn't work out.
When you're dealing with the mobile carriers, it's always the lesser of all evils.
Apple are restricting everything to the browser (and if we're lucky, they may support flash in the browser).
.NET pile of crap, or some complicated ass C/C++ sdk?!?! Jesus christ, please stay working on the Windows mobile platform.
Goddamn, I almost laughed at this. First off, mobiles are garbage now and I will never touch a mobile with M$ anything installed on it - ya think people woulda learned their lesson by now. Second, please Apple, DON'T include a Flash player (which I don't think they will). Flash will soon be going the way of the dinosaurs as well Silverlight, JavaFX (jesus...), Air, and whatever else PROPRIETARY lock-in yuk is foisted on us next. Standards exist for a reason.
Anyway, back to the comment. So in other words, instead of (possibly)updating your existing web app to work with the iPhone outta the box, you'd rather have some fucked up version of JavaME (which is different across ALL handset OSes) or some
EVERYTHING is connected now and THAT'S the future of software development. The iPhone has WiFi and (albeit not the greatest)EDGE support. Some interesting things have happened in the last few years - thanks to web standards and not to M$ hijacking - to web apps. Things that blow away development 10 years ago. Why would I not want to build an app that's developed to standards and not only runs on my desktop/laptop, but also runs predictably on my mobile device? In fact, I wish my latest app did just that.
People whining about developing for the browser today just don't get it as far as I'm concerned. As Microsoft and Sun have show in excess, complicated, 'do everything' frameworks and environments are not necessarily a good thing. If you develop an app for the iPhone or browser (and when I say develop I use that lightly cuz a buisness without an existing web site might not as well be in business today) you're usually developing something simpler and more pared down than some 'enterprise' app that would come out of the doors of M$ and Sun. People have learned (and 'enterprises' are being dragged kicking and screaming) that complexity sux and there are simple and efficient ways to get to your information not only in a timely manner, but from anywhere. Development is not going to go backwards and focus on the desktop, but move forwards to ubiquitous devices. And these devices won't need 4 gigs of ram to run and 200 gigs of hard drive space to store shit.
The iPhone's not 'the answer' to all this stuff but instead a piece of the larger opportunity. An opportunity that the do nothing's from Redmond could never lead. The rest of us who are sick of the past 10 years of over-engineered and complex 'enterprise' web garbage development will fully embrace simpler connected apps that just work and are developed to standards. I'm not worried about enterprise adoption because I know how those environments work and there's always a way..
There's no question in my mind that the iPhone will be a success just like the iPod was/is. Whether or not the enterprise accepts it matters about as much as whether or not the enterprise 'accepted' the Razr or any other mobile.
Yah, wtf? That is one of the stupidest Ballmer quotes I've ever heard. I'm sure the last thing his 85 year old uncle is thinking about is buying an mp3 player. Moron. He's probably more worried about funeral arrangements.
As for everyone whining about the $500 price, I dunno, people will pay for it and it will eventually drop. When the RAZR first came out, it was $499. Moto is obviously a different company than Apple and Apple usually tends to keep their prices 'high', so there will probably have to be some subsidy on the Cingular side.
Oh yah, and another thing I've heard Ballmer bitch about is no physical keypad on the iPhone. This guy never quits. Yah, like I'd rather have a smaller screen so I can have some keypad that a gnome could only type on.
The iPhone will raise the bar and M$ is just pissed that they didn't get to it first. The Zune and its DRM (which is horrendous) is garbage. M$ builds third rate products and they're successful because most people are fine with that. So sure, they'll keep making loads of cash, but their 'innovative' days are long gone (if they were ever there in the first place)..
First off, I don't disagree, necessarily. However, Soderberg made an adaptation and didn't stay true to the book/russian film on purpose. Solaris the original movie was cool, but it's definitely dated. The current adaptation is much more modern and has a much more focused human element to it. The original, while good, took too long to say what it needed to say. I mean, it's a long watch for sure.
I think Solaris the modern version was crazy great, but it's definitely not for the masses. It's very dense in a short time and when you watch it again and again, you pick up more and more; sure this can be said about the original also. In an era of box office sure things and non-stop action, Solaris is cerebral sci-fi for sure and I love it.
I'm not knocking the book or the original, but there's nothing wrong with making something different and not staying 100% completely on track with the original idea. That's what great artists have always done: interpretation.
Why is this creating such a commotion, or better yet, why are people arguing against Jobs? I'm no apologist, but his stance made 100% perfect sense to me.
DRM:
Look, if you are required by some companies to use DRM, what are you going to do? 1., use it or 2., don't and don't sell their music. I think DRM is a sham, but it's pretty clear what the companies want that own the music they license out to iTunes.
iPod:
Again, I agree with Jobs here. The iPod plays MP3 and AAC, which can both be considered 'standards'. The only thing missing, of course, is Ogg. But this is pretty good. I don't see anyone bitching much about the Zune which has THE WORST DRM imaginable on a player. Not only is your DRM-free songs wrapped in DRM, but when you share (or squirt - jesus..) these with the social - this is ANY track mind you - it's wrapped in DRM and the receiver can only listen to it 3 times and/or it expires automagically in something like three days. I can't begin to say how unbelievably lame this is for the consumer, but makes perfect sense to the record companies. Where's the uproar against the worlds largest software company regarding that?
iTS:
Yes, it does not sell all indie labels (some tho) and yes, Apple probably could roll in something to allow non-DRM stuff to work perfectly with DRM stuff. But again, without having priviledged access to the project/source, who's to say how that could be done. I'm sure it could be though. I still think Apple does a pretty good job with the iTS. I mean how many other music stores out there fight with the record cartel to keep prices low? If it was Bill G or Ballmer or whoever else, you know they wouldn't give a shit about $.99 price and kowtow to the labels every wish. This is a FACT.
Licensing FairPlay:
I'm with Jobs on this one. M$ tried it with the 'Plays For Sure' and look where they are now, copying iTS/iPod. For a company providing a product, NOT a socially beneficial service, it makes sense to keep it small and in control. Doesn't mean I support FairPlay, but from a practical product standpoint, Jobs is right and the real goal is to get RID of FairPlay, not expand it to more vendors.
In the end, again, I don't know what all the fuss is about. Of course the Microsoft club is gonna slam everything Jobs does - cuz they're not #1 in that area, so they'll naturally hate everything else. But the Econ calling the article 'self serving'? I dunno, I guess, but how is taking the labels to task so self serving? When did Ballmer last call for the labels to drop DRM? Or any other big computer/electronics exec? I think Gates went as far as mentioning at one point that DRM "won't work" but, that falls very short compared to Jobs speech.
I also don't look at the iPod as some big monopolistic, lock in mechanism. I can play all the formats I use on it except, again, Ogg. And for indie artists, there's always eMusic or CDs. The Econ article, and many others, cite lock-in as a argument the EU is using, but seriously, why would someone jump ship to a player from M$ or Sony? Plus, what does Jobs really have to lose if the EU rules iTS/iPod illegal? Fine, worst case, don't sell to them. And then what DRM will the EU run to? M$? Sony? Or will they spend years and years coming up with some 'standard' that then fades away when the labels finally cave in to unprotected tracks, but only because consumers demanded it from them? The EU may sue or whatever, but Apple dropping FairPlay is not going to happen and again, music players are not computers, so the 'lock-in' will fade.
I think, if anything, more people should be backing Jobs. What other high profile hardware maker is saying the same? M$? Sony? Creative? Sandisk? His stance on having the EU look at EMI and Universal is dead on. I've been in the music industry and they ARE the culprit in this case. 100%. If anyone opened up an online music store tomorrow and wanted major label music, it w
'€2.99'.first # => '€'
truncate('2.99', 2) # => '€2'
Even tho this isn't totally like Java's i18n support, it's getting there..
As for Ajax support, yah, it's a first class citizen in Rails. While a lot of people are sick of the term, I think it's for real and here to stay. It is the next step in web applications. While most of the examples in the world so far have been for 'social' .com apps, the fact that Ajax is now allowing (or putting a face on things that already existed but not termed in a way the masses could digest) for rich net apps that regular web pages couldn't deliver. Coupled with the various tool kits like Yahoo UI or GWT, the net and browser really are becoming the operating system. And Rails was the first framework who really made the whole Ajax thing easy to use. They're going to be ahead of everyone else in this category for some time.
Anyway, I'm very excited about 1.2. :)
Yah, this only works until one of them turns their eye or gun or tank or God's word or faith-based community or government or _fill_in_the_blank_ on you. Then what?
Absolutely! Welcome to the world of indoctrination! People are taught from a very young age their various religious beliefs and morals.
It's funny tho, the whole 'morals from God ' thing. Any Christian I talk to (including relatives) all believe not only in words written on pages thousands of years ago (written by dudes named John and Paul, which are very Jewish names, and also hand-picked by the Catholic church in later years) but also usually support whatever bloodhsed in any part of the world as long as it's in God's name (the 'extremist' and uneducated Muslims love this too). Whether it's the (re-)invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever their morality points them, they all belive in and break the concepts 'written' down thousands of years ago. How hypocritical, yet, it's God's morals they're following. And they know it .
I was indoctrinated into Christianity from a young age. Was told all the scary stories of judgement and this and that and in my late teens/early twenties realized that it was all bullshit. All about control, judgement - all negative. I've never met anyone who is Christ-like in the western world. And I've come to realize that Judeo-based/Christian morals are the last thing I'd ever impart on my kids (if I ever have any). They're, in my opinion, totally backwards and have nothing to do with modern living and have nothing to do with living a decent, educated, fair, and compassionate life.
The best thing that could happen to the future of the world is the advent of a more universal, worldly, consciousness and an ascendency of non-theism. After all, there'd definitely be less or no wars (no God to justify them, no virgins in Heaven), less suffering (no wars plus no religious barriers to medical research), better integration (no separation of the righteous and 'wicked'), and hopefully more compassion (less Godly judgement), and definitely more time spent on learning about science and the natural universe and less about the supernatural, religious texts.
While I say each to his own, it's clear to me that the Judeo-based religions are fundamentally flawed and have little place in the future of humanity. Some day, they will be realized (hopefully) as the primitive thinking they are just like the Greek and Roman and even Sumerian or Egyptian gods (which we dismiss as ridiculous nowadays). Of course, I won't live to see it, but it will probably happen. It has to, otherwise humanity will destroy itself. You have only to glimpse any religious leader/figure around the world to be sure of that.
Uh, cuz maybe the constitution specifically says that there should be no "religious tests" for public office.
Imagine that...
Sure, social networks can mine users data and habits, that's a big deal. But I'm sure Yahoo gets that. But don't underestimate having an army of users doing your work for you. I've worked for companies that would have killed to have users doing their work for them in this way. In fact, it's almost a sure thing to say that future 'content providers' will employ more of this along with AI and not have many companies employees - if any - touching any of the input data. As a programmer, sounds good to me..
I was just looking at the api and this has applications outside games. Think graphics programs; of course, nothing like Photoshop, but enough to allow doing images in a browser. Why use Dia as a standalone app when you can have a collaborative version in a browser?
It's coming..
This is true. I've lived in NYC & Chi and their subways are much better in terms of coverage and, I think, value. Besides, BART is not really the subway like it is in NYC/Chi. That's the domain of MUNI here and there is MUCH to be desired. But you know, we don't have the population that NYC or Chi has, so naturally, there's not the same infrastructure or transit needs. However, SF is expanding downtown which means more transit requirements and they will have a new MUNI underground line going in to connect parts of the city north to south. So dunno about BART as I don't really take it that much, but I'd love to see MUNI bring more stuff underground and get rid of some of the bus lines. One can dream...
Ah jesus, here we go...
You're right on one thing, it won't last forever - nothing does. However what does Steve's greed have anything to do with this issue? Also, I seriously doubt the iPod is just a cool trend. Sure, some kids definitely have them for that, but I also know a lot of over-30 folks who have them in the car, home, pocket, etc - I don't see that as a trend.
Personally, I think the iPod software is great. Both Creative and Sony had players out before the iPod and they were crap. Their interfaces sucked and Apple was able to marry the scroll wheel with easily navigation. So far, neither Creative or Sony has showed anything interesting, nor will they probably in the near future.
As for the iTunes store and Steve pissing off the owners of the music, I think you referring to the music and media cartels, right? Hmmm...
And making some missteps, that must be, what...? 1 mil videos in 20 days? Or is it over 1/2 billion songs? Or some other nook that's not been reported on yet.
Look, I love 'open source' just as much as the next guy and my livelihood actually depends on it. But just because some group of people sprinkle the magic dust on [insert app or device here] doesn't mean it's gonna rule the streets. It's so obvious sometimes that the OS and even M$ communities are so focused on their one way (M$ dominating everything and playing w/nothing and OS re-doing everything M$ does for free) of the world that to them, it's impossible that something 'not invented (or copied) here' can be great.
Honestly, I don't care much for Jobs, but I tip my hat to Apple pretty much every time I use one of their products. They understand design and implementation almost better than any tech company out there. Sure, they're not perfect, but their stuff just makes sense. This is coming from someone who took a long time to give up Windowmaker and whatever the latest and greatest Intel/Amd box of the day was. I hope some OS player will see some success, but it won't happen soon, just look at Windows vs. GNU/Linux/Gnome. You're assuming the mass of people give a shit about OS and the Windows monopoly just shows they don't. So, you can pretty much apply the same rule to the iPod for the foreseeable future.
Now!? When I was 13, totally.
Commence nostalgia... NOW.