When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
If you're a programmer, you naturally want to use programming to configure systems. But that's not always the best way to do it. There are other, better tools for general-purpose system setup.
If you have to configure lots of systems in exactly the same, or similar ways, DevOps might be good. But for systems that are one-offs (and there are a lot of them), not so much. The benefits of automation isn't worth the cost in these cases.
I'm guessing that this "death march" concept mostly applies in Silicon Valley. Never in my 30-year career have I felt pressured to work long overtime hours for extended periods of time. I've never even heard of anyone having to do this. And here in Houston, I run into older programmers regularly.
In one sense, you're right. Older, more experienced programmers do tend to have larger salaries, which makes them less desirable to some companies. But companies that have to actually run based on their income (as opposed to a speculative startup) often learn to appreciate the wisdom and skill that comes with experience.
Of course, most features of any methodology are optional. I do my homework and cite sources when necessary. Do you have a source that says Extreme programming does not involve pair programming? And even if I'm wrong, my point was that pair programming is (for the most part) a stupid idea. Instead of responding to the concept itself, you nit-picked definitions and disparaged the person. Those are characteristics of someone who does not have an actual argument.
You speak like a young person. Not much use after 55? Really?
Perhaps we should just practice euthanasia, to "clear" the old, infirm people out of the workforce.
I'm 51. I can still code circles around my younger peers, and my experience helps me avoid traps they regularly fall into. I don't think those abilities will suddenly disappear in four years.
Throughout history, people worked until they were physically unable to work.
The idea of retirement came about through FDR's "New Deal." Even then, the "retirement age" of 65 was considered very old, considering that life expectancy at the time was 61! Since then, life expectancy has risen by at least 10 years, but the "retirement age" has not risen with it.
Financial literacy is needed, yes. But is "retirement" at 65 a realistic goal for most people?
What is an "independent program"? A command line executable? Maybe that's how Linux developers think. But in the real world, "programs" are never independent. Can Javascript be used to create a command line program? Yes. Is that a misuse of the language? On what basis?
Javascript is, by far, the most popular language for building APIs. These are more commonly known as REST APIs. Is this a misuse of the language? Again, on what basis?
Performance used to be an issue for Javascript, until Google came along and amped up performance by orders of magnitude. By contrast, I've seen many Java applications with terrible performance. Overall, in my experience, performance in any language is most closely tied to the amount of work put into tuning.
To me, it seems your definitions are a bit outdated. The days of "independent programs" and hard lines between types of languages, are a thing of the past.
Does "programming language" mean a "compiled" language? If so, Java doesn't fit this description, unless you count byte-code, which is not native to the processor. The only modern compiled languages these days are C and C++.
Does "scripting language" mean one that is interpreted as it is executed? If so, Javascript isn't always interpreted at runtime. This depends on the environment. Web browsers these days are compiling Javascript to WebAssembly, which is as close to "compiled" as Java and C#.
What constitutes a "programming" language? Isn't it any language that can be used to program a computer? If so, all scripting languages fit into this category.
I've lived through the waterfall era. Now I work in a large corporation that uses what Ron Jeffries might call faux-agile. It's Scrum, "imposed" by management. It actually works, the team is happy, and gets a lot done. I'll take this faux-agile any day, rather than go back to waterfall!
Ron Jeffries thinks corporate versions of Agile miss the mark because they "impose" a process. He says that each team should be able to use whatever process they want.
That sounds nice, kind of like free love in the 60's. The problem is that both produce unwanted results. For example, Extreme Programming was, and still is, a stupid idea. Sorry, two people can't use a single keyboard efficiently. Given total process freedom, some teams might choose this approach anyway. Boundaries must be imposed.
The fact is, a good team will be successful regardless of the process. A bad team will be unsuccessful regardless of the process. IT'S NOT THE PROCESS! It's the PEOPLE!
Hire the right people, and they'll usually have no trouble convincing management to go along with their proposed process changes.
The original blog post, https://ronjeffries.com/articl..., doesn't actually suggest abandoning agile. Yes, those words are in the post. But hen Ron Jeffries goes on the explain that developers should instead...follow agile principles. I'm confused.
Google Fit, while not by any means an impressive fitness tracker, also has automatic workout detection. And it's "just" a free Android app that runs on most any phone!
Keynote speeches always were just candy to draw people in, to pay the entrance fee. They were never the substance of what goes on at a (good) tech conference.
Tech conferences provide two main functions: 1) Connect vendors with customers and vice versa (i.e., exhibit hall) 2) Provide education in the form of breakout sessions
Yes, quality varies greatly, but the lack of "big announcements" at "tech conferences" really has nothing to do with whether tech conferences are overrated.
If you're 21, nobody will be looking to hire you to manage their entire company. If your 51 like me, you shouldn't really be looking for entry-level jobs. There's a place for every age bracket.
I've had to find a new job 3 times in the last 10 years. My age has never been an issue, as far as I could tell. I'm well-paid, doing a job I like, staying technical.
Silicon Valley may be a different story. Maybe it's time to find work elsewhere!
If you think, as I do, that a headphone jack is important, you are clearly not the type of customer Apple is looking for. They want the kind of people who will pay $300 for one of their own Beats Bluetooth headsets. Personally, I'm fine with a $20 pair of wired headphones!
I loved my Nexus 7. Google support lasted only a couple of years. I still use SketchUp, which Google sold off several years ago. Google has a long history of creating interesting technology, and then dumping it.
The second thread suggests retaining a lawyer for legal protection, but at most, based on these threads, three-days' notice is sufficient, and changing the locks is within the parents' rights.
Slashdot Mirror
When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
If you're a programmer, you naturally want to use programming to configure systems. But that's not always the best way to do it. There are other, better tools for general-purpose system setup.
If you have to configure lots of systems in exactly the same, or similar ways, DevOps might be good. But for systems that are one-offs (and there are a lot of them), not so much. The benefits of automation isn't worth the cost in these cases.
The only reason you think it takes 1 experienced guy to keep tabs on 10 newbies, is because you've never seen what 11 experienced guys can do.
Perhaps this link is close to what you are looking for:
https://www.ssa.gov/history/li...
In 1940, less than 60% of 21-year-olds made it to 65.
Also, in 2000, there were 4 times more people age 65 and older, than in 1940.
No matter how you measure it, there were a lot fewer old people in 1930 than there are now.
I'm guessing that this "death march" concept mostly applies in Silicon Valley. Never in my 30-year career have I felt pressured to work long overtime hours for extended periods of time. I've never even heard of anyone having to do this. And here in Houston, I run into older programmers regularly.
In one sense, you're right. Older, more experienced programmers do tend to have larger salaries, which makes them less desirable to some companies. But companies that have to actually run based on their income (as opposed to a speculative startup) often learn to appreciate the wisdom and skill that comes with experience.
Perhaps the authors of the Wikipedia article on Extreme Programming used bad references, but they too believe it involves pair programming:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Of course, most features of any methodology are optional. I do my homework and cite sources when necessary. Do you have a source that says Extreme programming does not involve pair programming? And even if I'm wrong, my point was that pair programming is (for the most part) a stupid idea. Instead of responding to the concept itself, you nit-picked definitions and disparaged the person. Those are characteristics of someone who does not have an actual argument.
You speak like a young person. Not much use after 55? Really?
Perhaps we should just practice euthanasia, to "clear" the old, infirm people out of the workforce.
I'm 51. I can still code circles around my younger peers, and my experience helps me avoid traps they regularly fall into. I don't think those abilities will suddenly disappear in four years.
Throughout history, people worked until they were physically unable to work.
The idea of retirement came about through FDR's "New Deal." Even then, the "retirement age" of 65 was considered very old, considering that life expectancy at the time was 61! Since then, life expectancy has risen by at least 10 years, but the "retirement age" has not risen with it.
Financial literacy is needed, yes. But is "retirement" at 65 a realistic goal for most people?
Are you aware that the Linux operating system has been implemented in Javscript, and will run in your browser?
https://bellard.org/jslinux/
How can one NOT recognize this as real programming! Performance, as you can see, is not bad.
What is an "independent program"? A command line executable? Maybe that's how Linux developers think. But in the real world, "programs" are never independent. Can Javascript be used to create a command line program? Yes. Is that a misuse of the language? On what basis?
Javascript is, by far, the most popular language for building APIs. These are more commonly known as REST APIs. Is this a misuse of the language? Again, on what basis?
Performance used to be an issue for Javascript, until Google came along and amped up performance by orders of magnitude. By contrast, I've seen many Java applications with terrible performance. Overall, in my experience, performance in any language is most closely tied to the amount of work put into tuning.
To me, it seems your definitions are a bit outdated. The days of "independent programs" and hard lines between types of languages, are a thing of the past.
You are so right! I'd give you mod points if I could.
What, in reality, is the difference?
Does "programming language" mean a "compiled" language? If so, Java doesn't fit this description, unless you count byte-code, which is not native to the processor. The only modern compiled languages these days are C and C++.
Does "scripting language" mean one that is interpreted as it is executed? If so, Javascript isn't always interpreted at runtime. This depends on the environment. Web browsers these days are compiling Javascript to WebAssembly, which is as close to "compiled" as Java and C#.
What constitutes a "programming" language? Isn't it any language that can be used to program a computer? If so, all scripting languages fit into this category.
I've lived through the waterfall era. Now I work in a large corporation that uses what Ron Jeffries might call faux-agile. It's Scrum, "imposed" by management. It actually works, the team is happy, and gets a lot done. I'll take this faux-agile any day, rather than go back to waterfall!
Ron Jeffries thinks corporate versions of Agile miss the mark because they "impose" a process. He says that each team should be able to use whatever process they want.
That sounds nice, kind of like free love in the 60's. The problem is that both produce unwanted results. For example, Extreme Programming was, and still is, a stupid idea. Sorry, two people can't use a single keyboard efficiently. Given total process freedom, some teams might choose this approach anyway. Boundaries must be imposed.
The fact is, a good team will be successful regardless of the process. A bad team will be unsuccessful regardless of the process. IT'S NOT THE PROCESS! It's the PEOPLE!
Hire the right people, and they'll usually have no trouble convincing management to go along with their proposed process changes.
The original blog post, https://ronjeffries.com/articl..., doesn't actually suggest abandoning agile. Yes, those words are in the post. But hen Ron Jeffries goes on the explain that developers should instead...follow agile principles. I'm confused.
Google Fit, while not by any means an impressive fitness tracker, also has automatic workout detection. And it's "just" a free Android app that runs on most any phone!
Keynote speeches always were just candy to draw people in, to pay the entrance fee. They were never the substance of what goes on at a (good) tech conference.
Tech conferences provide two main functions:
1) Connect vendors with customers and vice versa (i.e., exhibit hall)
2) Provide education in the form of breakout sessions
Yes, quality varies greatly, but the lack of "big announcements" at "tech conferences" really has nothing to do with whether tech conferences are overrated.
You are SO right!
If you're 21, nobody will be looking to hire you to manage their entire company. If your 51 like me, you shouldn't really be looking for entry-level jobs. There's a place for every age bracket.
I've had to find a new job 3 times in the last 10 years. My age has never been an issue, as far as I could tell. I'm well-paid, doing a job I like, staying technical.
Silicon Valley may be a different story. Maybe it's time to find work elsewhere!
Once Microsoft bought it, Skype turned into the default business communication tool, but everybody else ran away.
If they buy GitHub, businesses will use it for their own development teams. But the rest of us will probably go to Bitbucket or elsewhere.
If you think, as I do, that a headphone jack is important, you are clearly not the type of customer Apple is looking for. They want the kind of people who will pay $300 for one of their own Beats Bluetooth headsets. Personally, I'm fine with a $20 pair of wired headphones!
I loved my Nexus 7. Google support lasted only a couple of years. I still use SketchUp, which Google sold off several years ago. Google has a long history of creating interesting technology, and then dumping it.
Here's a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Are you saying that a cloud-based Oracle instance is harder to audit than an on-premise Oracle instance?
Why? As a programmer with a lot of years dealing with databases, both cloud and on-prem, I see no difference.
From my original post:
OF COURSE parents should do this sort of thing with plenty of warning
Here's a reference: https://www.expertlaw.com/foru...
And another: https://www.avvo.com/legal-ans...
The second thread suggests retaining a lawyer for legal protection, but at most, based on these threads, three-days' notice is sufficient, and changing the locks is within the parents' rights.
Well said!