What company needs somebody who can and does do the work of 10 specialists?
Mine. Why the hell would I want to grow by 10 people when I could grow by 2 and get the same results.
What manager will put all his/her eggs in one basket?
I'm not understanding the point of your questions..... Answer: A manager who wants to keep his devel team small and flexible. One who wants people who can connect dots and make breakthroughs. One who wants people who can be trusted to choose the right tool(s) for the job.
What is that level of professional worth?
For us, it's worth a premium. Sadly, this just means that the industry's fucked. No wonder the US is getting its ass kicked.
I've been trying to hire recently, and I can say that it's hard to find good people....
I'm in the same boat, exactly. I need good thinkers, and I think they are around. Maybe.
My problem is that I want to hire generalists, and I'm having a lot of trouble finding people who haven't focused their careers into extremely narrow niches. I need WEARERS-OF-MANY-HATS, and I'm finding that this type of professional is rare.
I'd love to hire a couple of people are are equally comfortable (and experienced) with everything -- ranging from poking around with device drivers, to developing XML schema, to whipping out perl scripts, to unraveling assembly code, to system administration, to heavy-duty real-time programming (on VxWorks, for instance), to mod_perl, to rebuilding Linux kernels, to CVS expertise, to Makefile wrangling, to Java and Eclipse, to GUIs, to shell-scripting, to good C/C++ coding skills, to, well, everything.
I keep thinking to myself: "I know all this stuff. I can't be the only one out there who does."
I've been interviewing people, and I honestly can't find anyone. Everyone I've talked to has a lot of expertise just one or two things. Not useful. Where are the people with well-rounded computer careers? Where are the people posessing a broad range of expertise?
Here is a link to a nice summary of the famous discussion in comp.os.minix between Tanenbaum and Linus over Microkernel vs Monolithic System architectures.
So I can use Perl to implement a basic GUI with drop-down menus and buttons linked to dialog boxes and components that move and resize with the main window without actually writing a line of code? Because that's what I expect from a production-quality RAD environment.
I know I already pointed out Glade, but as I was hitting submit, I realized that I haven't RADed a GUI in about 5 years.
CLI, man. It's ALL about CLI. RADding a GUI is a waste of time, unless you like twiddling and tweaking endlessly. If you want to write something that actually does something, and you need to do it fast, then stick to CLI.
So I can use Perl to implement a basic GUI with drop-down menus and buttons linked to dialog boxes and components that move and resize with the main window without actually writing a line of code? Because that's what I expect from a production-quality RAD environment.
$a++; # now $a is both a string and a number. "6" and 6, respectively
my $b = $a + 1; # $b is a number
$b = "$b"; # now $b is both a string and a number
# these two statements produce the same output printf( "\$b is %s\n", $b ); printf( "\$b is %d\n", $b );
Strong typing sucks.
Re:Hibernate is good, but I am using Prevayler mor
on
Hibernate in Action
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Hibernate is a very solid Java object relational mapping tool (I have a section on Hibernate in my last book). When you need OO to relational database mappings, Hibernate is my recommended tool, for sure.
However, for my Java consulting business, Prevalyer is definitely my new "secret weapon". With a little care, it is easy to set up your POJO classes so that you can add class attributes without breaking your persistent Prevayler object store. Using Prevayler reduces development time. Good stuff.
Good Lord.
This post, while informative, just makes me want to go to sleep. Or quit my job. Or both.
Maybe I chose the wrong career.
Are Java class mappings to databases really all that exciting?
Do people see a strong demand for an item like this?
I'm blessed to live in Austin, where there is much great radio. I don't get a chance to listen to it as much as I want to. So, yeah, I'd get one of these things. I'd set the thing up to record Blue Monday, Left of the Dial, Eklektikos, and all the rest of the great radio shows that I miss every week.
If you have any stations with really great DJs, you'd want to record their shows just for posterity.
I dunno about the $70, though. I think $45 is a better price break.
Prefer to write code to the C/C++ standards rather than to a particular compiler's idiosyncracies, GCC included.
Nonsense. GCC has way too many extremely useful "idiosyncracies" to abandon. If you don't know what they are, then you aren't paying attention.
Better that other compiler makers mimic GCC's behavior. Better still is for the standards groups to adopt GCC as the reference standard for C and C++ compilers.
Disclaimer: I live in Austin, and I've seen both MST3K and Mr. Sinus.
Verdict: Mr. Sinus kicks MST3K to the curb. No contest.
Regarding the lawsuit, Mr. Sinus is a LIVE show, and MST3K was taped and rebroadcast. This is enough of a difference to throw out any "stealing the format" argument. When MST3K goes live (and goes live in your neighborhood movie theater), then there may be overlap issues. Until then, these shows have two very different formats.
..., but in a computing environment where processor speed doubles every 18 months,...
Oh, that old strawman again. "Yeah, Java runs kinda slow, but just upgrade the HW, and it'll be OK." Lame, lame, lame.
I don't know where you work, but we don't upgrade machines that often. In fact, some of our customers' platforms are more than 10 years old, and they ain't gonna change platforms no matter how much faster the newer ones are. (Aside: Can you even get Java for HP-UX 10.20?)
IOW, it's not a foreskin conclusion that upgradea are an options. Besides, why use a language/environment that forces you to upgrade?
This is where operating systems designed from the ground up with modularity in mind fit the bill. QNX, iTron, and VxWorks all get around this hacking problem by not providing the tools for hackers to change the system.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm sure:
When QNX, VxWorks, et. al., start supporting/bin/sh, python, and perl, then I (my company) will seriously start considering them.
We stay away from platforms that force us do every little thing in C (or worse, Java).
The extent to which jobs are being outsourced is a bit overstated.
Actually, it's probably understated.
Companies outsource for a number of reasons, and a big reason is to keep their activites secret. It's pretty common knowledge that companies do a lot outsourcing in secret so that their competitors don't know what they're up to.
Didn't Wired just do an article about this practice?
We looked at VxWorks for our first-ever embedded project. When we found out there was no Perl for VxWorks, nor any chance of ever, ever having Perl on VxWorks, we quickly abandonded VxWorks in favor of Linux.
We've have no problems whatsoever using Linux as an embedded OS. Plus, we get to write much of our code in Perl as well. This is as it should be.
Slashdot Mirror
I played with an OS X machine the other day. I found a terminal program which gave me a CLI. At that point, it became useful.
Mine. Why the hell would I want to grow by 10 people when I could grow by 2 and get the same results.
What manager will put all his/her eggs in one basket?
I'm not understanding the point of your questions..... Answer: A manager who wants to keep his devel team small and flexible. One who wants people who can connect dots and make breakthroughs. One who wants people who can be trusted to choose the right tool(s) for the job.
What is that level of professional worth?
For us, it's worth a premium . Sadly, this just means that the industry's fucked. No wonder the US is getting its ass kicked.
I'm in the same boat, exactly. I need good thinkers, and I think they are around. Maybe.
My problem is that I want to hire generalists , and I'm having a lot of trouble finding people who haven't focused their careers into extremely narrow niches. I need WEARERS-OF-MANY-HATS, and I'm finding that this type of professional is rare.
I'd love to hire a couple of people are are equally comfortable (and experienced) with everything -- ranging from poking around with device drivers, to developing XML schema, to whipping out perl scripts, to unraveling assembly code, to system administration, to heavy-duty real-time programming (on VxWorks, for instance), to mod_perl, to rebuilding Linux kernels, to CVS expertise, to Makefile wrangling, to Java and Eclipse, to GUIs, to shell-scripting, to good C/C++ coding skills, to, well, everything.
I keep thinking to myself: "I know all this stuff. I can't be the only one out there who does."
I've been interviewing people, and I honestly can't find anyone. Everyone I've talked to has a lot of expertise just one or two things. Not useful. Where are the people with well-rounded computer careers? Where are the people posessing a broad range of expertise?
WTF has happened to this industry?
Code maintanence is a business consideration, not one for computer scientists.
Here is a link to a nice summary of the famous discussion in comp.os.minix between Tanenbaum and Linus over Microkernel vs Monolithic System architectures.
I know I already pointed out Glade, but as I was hitting submit, I realized that I haven't RADed a GUI in about 5 years.
CLI, man. It's ALL about CLI. RADding a GUI is a waste of time, unless you like twiddling and tweaking endlessly. If you want to write something that actually does something, and you need to do it fast, then stick to CLI.
And for that, Perl excels.
Yup. http://glade.gnome.org
Never been frustrated. Perl's been around for a long time.
Strong typing sucks.
However, for my Java consulting business, Prevalyer is definitely my new "secret weapon". With a little care, it is easy to set up your POJO classes so that you can add class attributes without breaking your persistent Prevayler object store. Using Prevayler reduces development time. Good stuff.
Good Lord.
This post, while informative, just makes me want to go to sleep. Or quit my job. Or both.
Maybe I chose the wrong career.
Are Java class mappings to databases really all that exciting?
I'm blessed to live in Austin, where there is much great radio. I don't get a chance to listen to it as much as I want to. So, yeah, I'd get one of these things. I'd set the thing up to record Blue Monday, Left of the Dial, Eklektikos, and all the rest of the great radio shows that I miss every week.
If you have any stations with really great DJs, you'd want to record their shows just for posterity.
I dunno about the $70, though. I think $45 is a better price break.
Great, so they're already burnt out when they start their first job?
Prefer to write code to the C/C++ standards rather than to a particular compiler's idiosyncracies, GCC included.
Nonsense. GCC has way too many extremely useful "idiosyncracies" to abandon. If you don't know what they are, then you aren't paying attention.
Better that other compiler makers mimic GCC's behavior. Better still is for the standards groups to adopt GCC as the reference standard for C and C++ compilers.
So what? Who cares? Just give me my 100Mb/100Mb.
Verdict: Mr. Sinus kicks MST3K to the curb. No contest.
Regarding the lawsuit, Mr. Sinus is a LIVE show, and MST3K was taped and rebroadcast. This is enough of a difference to throw out any "stealing the format" argument. When MST3K goes live (and goes live in your neighborhood movie theater), then there may be overlap issues. Until then, these shows have two very different formats.
Oh, that old strawman again. "Yeah, Java runs kinda slow, but just upgrade the HW, and it'll be OK." Lame, lame, lame.
I don't know where you work, but we don't upgrade machines that often. In fact, some of our customers' platforms are more than 10 years old, and they ain't gonna change platforms no matter how much faster the newer ones are. (Aside: Can you even get Java for HP-UX 10.20?)
IOW, it's not a foreskin conclusion that upgradea are an options. Besides, why use a language/environment that forces you to upgrade?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm sure: When QNX, VxWorks, et. al., start supporting /bin/sh, python, and perl, then I (my company) will seriously start considering them.
We stay away from platforms that force us do every little thing in C (or worse, Java).
HOLY SHIT! And people complain about CLIs being obtuse. WTF does this even mean?
Whoops, it wasn't Wired, it was The New Yorker.
Actually, it's probably understated.
Companies outsource for a number of reasons, and a big reason is to keep their activites secret. It's pretty common knowledge that companies do a lot outsourcing in secret so that their competitors don't know what they're up to.
Didn't Wired just do an article about this practice?
This is getting dated now, but take it from someone who would know: Java Sucks. But Jamie at least points out good reaons why.
This was on AICN at least a week ago. Let's stay on top of things, guys.
We looked at VxWorks for our first-ever embedded project. When we found out there was no Perl for VxWorks, nor any chance of ever, ever having Perl on VxWorks, we quickly abandonded VxWorks in favor of Linux.
We've have no problems whatsoever using Linux as an embedded OS. Plus, we get to write much of our code in Perl as well. This is as it should be.
Hmm, wonder if you can use them to make phone calls.
How about a cell phone that just does telephony... what a concept! I'd buy that!
Nah, he's still trying to find perfect numbers.