Woo hoo! One more year till I'm over the hill career wise. And I've yet to use any Java or RoR for production web apps! And I've just started using AJAX! I'm glad my feeble brain won't be able to keep up with the pace of change and learn new techniques. It was a bitch doing that this past 25 years!
No, skilled programmers go into something like physics or math or engineering, and develop the skills in software construction along the way. We all start off the same when it comes to programming: bad.
But even the craft of commercial programming gets old once you've learned most of the tricks. The really smart people won't be troubled by that, and they'll go off and do invent a new type of application for technology, like google maps.
But is there really an inversely proportional relationship between cheap and quality? In other words do people from, say, India have less talent than Americans because they're willing to work for less?
I believe the reason most Americans feel disgust or contempt for the quality of code that is developed off-shored is partially because of the fact that implies there are less positions for them. However, (and this is not from personal experience, I've never worked with off-shore shops, or even consultants for that matter) I believe some of the contempt is the same kind of contempt reserved for highly paid (yet stereotypically average or mediocre) consultants: Not invented here.
The "poor quality" often results of the organization's inability to properly specify what they want, coupled with a lack of involvement on their part in terms of managing the development. Off-shore shops are often treated like "Shake n' Bake" development shops. Give them a spec, a deadline, and a fraction of the cash it'd take to develop it in-house, and meet them at the finish line.
The complexities of software development and project management rear their ugly head, and whatever gets delivered (even if its best effort on the behalf of the off-shore firm and to-spec no less) probably does not meet customer expectations 100%, or a programmer find 'maintainability nightmares' (or just can't understand it, because he wasn't involved in writing it) as a result of the cost and corner cutting. All of these factors aren't even new to IT. Consulting firms have been delivering the same results for a higher price for years.
I work for a company as an administrator for a 2000+ Linux cluster. We hire a lot of people from India and Eastern Europe. Should we fire them because they're not American?
That depends on what you're doing. If you want a cohesive, centralized team to bring successful products to market, then maybe. I work in a field where security clearance is required, so there's not a lot of out-sourcing. On the other hand, for some tasks like sys admin or even fixing bugs (which, depending on the bug, can usually be assigned to one programmer to resolve) could be done in any time zone. By no means (IMHO) should a candidates location count against them. Do what's best for your team.
Agreed. I'm 25. I remember hearing about the Challenge explosion -- it was quiet at the dinner table that night. Then we all watched the footage on the news.
I think the problem is not that we're bored with space exploration, we just not thrilled to death by the concept of government funded space exploration.
The X-Prize has been won. Private companies are going to eventually not only be able to get astronauts into LEO, but develop a much more cost-effective way of getting satellites into orbit. When that happens, NASA can essentially just contract out manned missions to that company. Saves the government the responsibility/blame if there is a technical accident that leads to the loss of human life, saves the tax payers money. Everybody wins.
I know a lot of people who share this mindset. Private industry will develop and thrive where a government has failed. Its not the first time in history we've seen this pattern. I can't really speak to (or for) the whole "iPod Generation" thing, but most of my friends are socially liberal, but believe in a small, limited, fiscally sound government. (We also know we're dreaming...)
NASA since challenger hasn't had a vision. NASA hasn't been cost-effective. My generation would rather put 20,000 katrina refugees in apartments rather then send one white guy to the moon.
Yes. You may have heard of this republican mouthpiece called "Fox News". If a Democrat so much as gets photographed next to Muslim constituent, the lead story of the night will be "Senator Defeatocrat seen here with Bin Laden's Aide".
For Fsck's sake man, John Kerry mistold a joke, and they spent THREE WHOLE WEEKS on how, obviously, as a recipient of the purple heart three times John Kerry hates the military and thinks they're all stupid and deserve what they get.
So again, a better answer to your question would sound like "When would we STOP hearing about this in the MSM if he were a democrat?"
Also, I have a feeling the next Texas Christian University Alumni Newsletter is going to have an article on its 'super-advanced rot-26 decrypter'.
I can't believe people haven't started talking about how Terminator 4 will be a turd from future in something like 140 comments. Can anyone see this as a combination of trying to get blood from a stone while simulataneously trying to beat a dead horse?
Please no more Terminator sequels. The last one was bad enough.
Two other sites I've heard of (but haven't used -- they were recommended to me): ProgrammingBids.com Sologigs.com
Just thought I'd share. If someone has used these two sites, please let me know, as I'm considering working some freelance stuff (to help support my gf in grad school).
Just imagine, there's an action our lawmakers could take that would help curb obesity, diabetes, fuel prices, and pollution!
Yes, and at the same time, alienate healthcare lobbyists, energy/oil lobbyists, and the automotive industry. Do you think its an accident that we're unhealthy and drive the average lowest mpg cars in the world?
Who says they'll build it into the OS? Did they build Safari into the OS, or did they create a web-browser framework called WebKit?
Aside from the fact that these are only rumors at this point, with no confirmed feature set for OS 10.5 except a newer version of Boot Camp, what's to stop them from building a TorrentKit, that's usable to create torrent-enabled applications for 3rd party developers just like WebKit?
Not every, dare I say, most, of the features touted by Apple's OS upgrades are not built into the OS. iChat isn't AV was not -- its an application. Safari is also an application. You are right that there are instances of OS features, i.e. Spotlight, Dashboard, Rosetta, and Expose, but many features/bug fixes that come with their OS upgrades are also done at the application level (Front Row, PictureBooth).
You can share updates. I believe there's a "Download and Archive" feature that will download the software update and KEEP it (as oppose to the regular old download, run, install receipt, delete). Then you can transfer the file from one mac to another via FTP, AFS, or Web Sharing, or any other method you've set up on your network (SMB, perhaps?).
I'm the (once) proud owner of an Apple Blue and White G3. Released in 1999. It has since been upgraded to a 500MHz G4 and 1 Gig of PC 100 RAM. (I know, its so high tech, its slashdot!)
With the upgrades, I can still run the latest version of Mac OS X. I can still run the latest version of iLife. I can (just barely) play iTMS TV shows.
The computer is 7 years old. It predates AGP, DDR, and PCI-Express. Its USB 1.1 and Firewire for connectivity.
And it still works. Oh, and I haven't had to boot into classic since 2002, when Jaguar came out, and OS X was finally usable.
This one makes the most sense. I've heard my share of B.S. "videogames made me do it" stories over the years, but this one has the most legitimate basis of them all. It stands to reason that some frat boy who is majorly into his GTA, either tries to treat a prostitute or a dancer in a similar manner because it is seen and portrayed as a given that you smack a ho. It really does promote the behavior and I could see the point.
Yeah...it must be a stupid idea...so it'd have to take a special kind of idiot to treat a dancer like shit, right? Like a frat boy. (They are as they say, Rick James, bitch.)
Its too bad that most dancers bring a bodyguard (with a sidearm) with them for 'private parties'.
Its a little hard to abuse someone when they've got a goon and a pistol and all you've got is your whiteboy college attitude.
Nevermind the fact that most fraternities these days are split down the middle about bringing a stripper to their house. Some people don't participate in such events because they believed in those clauses of "treating women with deceny and respect" that supposedly make a fraternity man 'respectable'.
You do realize that most of the bugs in hardware can be worked around in software, right? That its cheaper/faster for Apple to just code "work-arounds" and run their unit tests then it to go back and re-fab some 65nm chips and hope that one of those bug fixes didn't break something else down the line...
WTF Try RTFA before commenting. The owners of the Iraqi domain were US Citizens. They were convicted as "aiding and abetting terrorists" for shipping computer parts to Syria and elsewhere. Apparently they no longer have property rights. And KazNIC, which WASN'T a government agency, wasn't censoring websites deemed offensive to the government. The Government agency which replaced them immediately started cracking down on sites critical of their culture or government.
So its not "How Dare they obey the laws of other countries!", its more of "How Dare the US actively work against personal property rights and undermine free speech and democracy."
You gotta admit, this "EasyPay" is a better system then their originally planned system. Apple was originally planning on just setting up a bouncer in the front of the stores, who'd ask for your name and AppleID. If it wasn't on the list, you'd have to stay in line outside the store while others who've already given their information to Apple get to go in buy up the last of the iPods.
They hoped that having all kinds of people just lined up outside at all hours of the day would encourage more people to try to get in and browse around, like the Apple store actually was something Hip and Cool and not just "The Gap Store, but for Computers and gadgets".
I just want to chime in here and agree with the parent poster: Source Control Integration with XCode needs to be easier.
The whole point of Apple's development environment is that you can *DO EVERYTHING* in XCode. Except set up a CVS or SubVersion repository (they could have a set up GUI) and importing your project into the repository via a bulk import (its problematic on XCode 1.5, had to upgrade to 2.1) .
I know I'm just nit picking (I'm not afraid of the commandline and that's how i set up CVS and imported my project) but its Integration with unix tools like CVS and SubVersion, frankly, SUCKS. I want them to make it easier so I spend less free time configuring my development tools to work properly and more time USING my tools.
And the precident is there for various conditions under which search warrants aren't necessary.
The precident is there for us to house and quarter troops, too, when this country was under British rule. But I don't think anyone rational is actually suggesting there is precident to subvert the very law of the land that so many patriots have shed blood for.
But while we're on the topic of Congress... (and yes, this is going to boil down to Bush, in front of reporters, saying "It depends on what your definition of 'all' is")... do you really think that Congress can authorize a president to issue potentially illegal (again, depending on the definition of 'all') methods to fight the terrorism boogeyman?
I guess it just comes down to that third branch...judicial oversight...to make sense of these executive orders. Or Tom Clany.
Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder if all of the new "domestic security measures" are actually any better than the pre-9/11 security measures. Those measures failed to prevent 9/11 (and I doubt that anything could have)
Um...have you ever heard of the phrase "bar the door"? You know, make it so someone can't just break down a door and gain access to the cockpit?
Its not like "Terror on the Airways" hasn't been around since commercial flying itself. Its just that we never bothered to evolve our "in air defense strageties" from the 1950s onward. You can thank the FAA for that.
Sealing the pilots in the cockpit with some kind of armored door might be uncomfortable for them, but it greatly eliminates the possibly of our own planes being used as a weapon against us.
That won't stop a shoe bomber, but decent ground security could.
ANWR might only have 16 months worth of useable oil. Drilling there won't save us anything at the pump.
It won't decrease our dependence on foreign oil. But then again, with nearly 91% of the energy industry's political contributions going to republicians, dependence isn't something our government wishes to eliminate.
You do know the ANWR oil is essentially useless, unless you want to increase vaseline, right? the ANWR oil can't be used for gasoline or diesel, or even engine lubrication.
We could get the save fuel economy savings if every bought better tires that added 1 MPG to their vehicle.
If you're going to require the law to be signed by the president and understood by people with at least a 3rd grade education, how can you be sure the president knows what he's signing?
This will probably get flamed as troll. Flame away. People who've known him claim to high heaven (literally) that he didn't talk that way when he was getting an MBA at Yale. But that was before he drank heavily for 15-20 odds years.
Thank the lord Jesus saved him before alcohalism took his eloquence.
Well, why stop assuming at just one creator? After all, who intelligently designed the intelligent designer? And who designed him? Or her?
Good science is minimal, stated assumption. If I'm assuming that mold grows on old bread because mold is sponetaneously created (as opposed to mold spores traveling through the air) then I've got to have some way of proving my assumption false.
Cardon dating instrument flaws aside, I'm wishing you luck on that one.
Slashdot Mirror
Woo hoo! One more year till I'm over the hill career wise. And I've yet to use any Java or RoR for production web apps! And I've just started using AJAX! I'm glad my feeble brain won't be able to keep up with the pace of change and learn new techniques. It was a bitch doing that this past 25 years!
No, skilled programmers go into something like physics or math or engineering, and develop the skills in software construction along the way. We all start off the same when it comes to programming: bad.
But even the craft of commercial programming gets old once you've learned most of the tricks. The really smart people won't be troubled by that, and they'll go off and do invent a new type of application for technology, like google maps.
I believe the reason most Americans feel disgust or contempt for the quality of code that is developed off-shored is partially because of the fact that implies there are less positions for them. However, (and this is not from personal experience, I've never worked with off-shore shops, or even consultants for that matter) I believe some of the contempt is the same kind of contempt reserved for highly paid (yet stereotypically average or mediocre) consultants: Not invented here.
The "poor quality" often results of the organization's inability to properly specify what they want, coupled with a lack of involvement on their part in terms of managing the development. Off-shore shops are often treated like "Shake n' Bake" development shops. Give them a spec, a deadline, and a fraction of the cash it'd take to develop it in-house, and meet them at the finish line.
The complexities of software development and project management rear their ugly head, and whatever gets delivered (even if its best effort on the behalf of the off-shore firm and to-spec no less) probably does not meet customer expectations 100%, or a programmer find 'maintainability nightmares' (or just can't understand it, because he wasn't involved in writing it) as a result of the cost and corner cutting. All of these factors aren't even new to IT. Consulting firms have been delivering the same results for a higher price for years.
I work for a company as an administrator for a 2000+ Linux cluster. We hire a lot of people from India and Eastern Europe. Should we fire them because they're not American?That depends on what you're doing. If you want a cohesive, centralized team to bring successful products to market, then maybe. I work in a field where security clearance is required, so there's not a lot of out-sourcing. On the other hand, for some tasks like sys admin or even fixing bugs (which, depending on the bug, can usually be assigned to one programmer to resolve) could be done in any time zone. By no means (IMHO) should a candidates location count against them. Do what's best for your team.
Agreed. I'm 25. I remember hearing about the Challenge explosion -- it was quiet at the dinner table that night. Then we all watched the footage on the news.
I think the problem is not that we're bored with space exploration, we just not thrilled to death by the concept of government funded space exploration.
The X-Prize has been won. Private companies are going to eventually not only be able to get astronauts into LEO, but develop a much more cost-effective way of getting satellites into orbit. When that happens, NASA can essentially just contract out manned missions to that company. Saves the government the responsibility/blame if there is a technical accident that leads to the loss of human life, saves the tax payers money. Everybody wins.
I know a lot of people who share this mindset. Private industry will develop and thrive where a government has failed. Its not the first time in history we've seen this pattern. I can't really speak to (or for) the whole "iPod Generation" thing, but most of my friends are socially liberal, but believe in a small, limited, fiscally sound government. (We also know we're dreaming...)
NASA since challenger hasn't had a vision. NASA hasn't been cost-effective. My generation would rather put 20,000 katrina refugees in apartments rather then send one white guy to the moon.
Yes. You may have heard of this republican mouthpiece called "Fox News". If a Democrat so much as gets photographed next to Muslim constituent, the lead story of the night will be "Senator Defeatocrat seen here with Bin Laden's Aide".
For Fsck's sake man, John Kerry mistold a joke, and they spent THREE WHOLE WEEKS on how, obviously, as a recipient of the purple heart three times John Kerry hates the military and thinks they're all stupid and deserve what they get.
So again, a better answer to your question would sound like "When would we STOP hearing about this in the MSM if he were a democrat?"
Also, I have a feeling the next Texas Christian University Alumni Newsletter is going to have an article on its 'super-advanced rot-26 decrypter'.
I can't believe people haven't started talking about how Terminator 4 will be a turd from future in something like 140 comments. Can anyone see this as a combination of trying to get blood from a stone while simulataneously trying to beat a dead horse?
Please no more Terminator sequels. The last one was bad enough.
So far in this thread people have mentioned:
Guru.com
TopCoder.com
RentACoder.com
Two other sites I've heard of (but haven't used -- they were recommended to me):
ProgrammingBids.com
Sologigs.com
Just thought I'd share. If someone has used these two sites, please let me know, as I'm considering working some freelance stuff (to help support my gf in grad school).
Yes, and at the same time, alienate healthcare lobbyists, energy/oil lobbyists, and the automotive industry. Do you think its an accident that we're unhealthy and drive the average lowest mpg cars in the world?
I'm not fat! I'm.....American.
Who says they'll build it into the OS? Did they build Safari into the OS, or did they create a web-browser framework called WebKit?
Aside from the fact that these are only rumors at this point, with no confirmed feature set for OS 10.5 except a newer version of Boot Camp, what's to stop them from building a TorrentKit, that's usable to create torrent-enabled applications for 3rd party developers just like WebKit?
Not every, dare I say, most, of the features touted by Apple's OS upgrades are not built into the OS. iChat isn't AV was not -- its an application. Safari is also an application. You are right that there are instances of OS features, i.e. Spotlight, Dashboard, Rosetta, and Expose, but many features/bug fixes that come with their OS upgrades are also done at the application level (Front Row, PictureBooth).
You can share updates. I believe there's a "Download and Archive" feature that will download the software update and KEEP it (as oppose to the regular old download, run, install receipt, delete).
Then you can transfer the file from one mac to another via FTP, AFS, or Web Sharing, or any other method you've set up on your network (SMB, perhaps?).
HTH,
Chris
I'm the (once) proud owner of an Apple Blue and White G3. Released in 1999.
It has since been upgraded to a 500MHz G4 and 1 Gig of PC 100 RAM. (I know, its so high tech, its slashdot!)
With the upgrades, I can still run the latest version of Mac OS X. I can still run the latest version of iLife. I can (just barely) play iTMS TV shows.
The computer is 7 years old. It predates AGP, DDR, and PCI-Express. Its USB 1.1 and Firewire for connectivity.
And it still works.
Oh, and I haven't had to boot into classic since 2002, when Jaguar came out, and OS X was finally usable.
The parent poster is right. Its all about Merchandising.
That's why you'll see "Vote for Pedro" on my shoes, socks, pants, shirt, face, and first born.
You guys should know the holy trinity by now:
Easy
Secure
Windows
Pick Any Two.
This one makes the most sense. I've heard my share of B.S. "videogames made me do it" stories over the years, but this one has the most legitimate basis of them all. It stands to reason that some frat boy who is majorly into his GTA, either tries to treat a prostitute or a dancer in a similar manner because it is seen and portrayed as a given that you smack a ho. It really does promote the behavior and I could see the point.
Yeah...it must be a stupid idea...so it'd have to take a special kind of idiot to treat a dancer like shit, right? Like a frat boy. (They are as they say, Rick James, bitch.)
Its too bad that most dancers bring a bodyguard (with a sidearm) with them for 'private parties'. Its a little hard to abuse someone when they've got a goon and a pistol and all you've got is your whiteboy college attitude.
Nevermind the fact that most fraternities these days are split down the middle about bringing a stripper to their house. Some people don't participate in such events because they believed in those clauses of "treating women with deceny and respect" that supposedly make a fraternity man 'respectable'.
But hey, we sure like Halo!
You do realize that most of the bugs in hardware can be worked around in software, right? That its cheaper/faster for Apple to just code "work-arounds" and run their unit tests then it to go back and re-fab some 65nm chips and hope that one of those bug fixes didn't break something else down the line...
WTF Try RTFA before commenting.
The owners of the Iraqi domain were US Citizens. They were convicted as "aiding and abetting terrorists" for shipping computer parts to Syria and elsewhere. Apparently they no longer have property rights.
And KazNIC, which WASN'T a government agency, wasn't censoring websites deemed offensive to the government. The Government agency which replaced them immediately started cracking down on sites critical of their culture or government.
So its not "How Dare they obey the laws of other countries!", its more of "How Dare the US actively work against personal property rights and undermine free speech and democracy."
You gotta admit, this "EasyPay" is a better system then their originally planned system.
Apple was originally planning on just setting up a bouncer in the front of the stores, who'd ask for your name and AppleID. If it wasn't on the list, you'd have to stay in line outside the store while others who've already given their information to Apple get to go in buy up the last of the iPods.
They hoped that having all kinds of people just lined up outside at all hours of the day would encourage more people to try to get in and browse around, like the Apple store actually was something Hip and Cool and not just "The Gap Store, but for Computers and gadgets".
Retail Different!
I just want to chime in here and agree with the parent poster: Source Control Integration with XCode needs to be easier.
The whole point of Apple's development environment is that you can *DO EVERYTHING* in XCode. Except set up a CVS or SubVersion repository (they could have a set up GUI) and importing your project into the repository via a bulk import (its problematic on XCode 1.5, had to upgrade to 2.1) .
I know I'm just nit picking (I'm not afraid of the commandline and that's how i set up CVS and imported my project) but its Integration with unix tools like CVS and SubVersion, frankly, SUCKS. I want them to make it easier so I spend less free time configuring my development tools to work properly and more time USING my tools.
The precident is there for us to house and quarter troops, too, when this country was under British rule. But I don't think anyone rational is actually suggesting there is precident to subvert the very law of the land that so many patriots have shed blood for.
But while we're on the topic of Congress... (and yes, this is going to boil down to Bush, in front of reporters, saying "It depends on what your definition of 'all' is") ... do you really think that Congress can authorize a president to issue potentially illegal (again, depending on the definition of 'all') methods to fight the terrorism boogeyman?
I guess it just comes down to that third branch...judicial oversight...to make sense of these executive orders. Or Tom Clany.
Um...have you ever heard of the phrase "bar the door"? You know, make it so someone can't just break down a door and gain access to the cockpit?
Its not like "Terror on the Airways" hasn't been around since commercial flying itself. Its just that we never bothered to evolve our "in air defense strageties" from the 1950s onward. You can thank the FAA for that.
Sealing the pilots in the cockpit with some kind of armored door might be uncomfortable for them, but it greatly eliminates the possibly of our own planes being used as a weapon against us.
That won't stop a shoe bomber, but decent ground security could.
ANWR might only have 16 months worth of useable oil.
Drilling there won't save us anything at the pump.
It won't decrease our dependence on foreign oil. But then again, with nearly 91% of the energy industry's political contributions going to republicians, dependence isn't something our government wishes to eliminate.
What reality are you from?
Here, wake up call: Google "Abuse of Patriot Act".
At this moment in time, google lists 2,930,0000 results.
So for those of you live a reality proof box, select an example and just go nuts.
You do know the ANWR oil is essentially useless, unless you want to increase vaseline, right?
the ANWR oil can't be used for gasoline or diesel, or even engine lubrication.
We could get the save fuel economy savings if every bought better tires that added 1 MPG to their vehicle.
--
teh more you know.
Dada21,
If you're going to require the law to be signed by the president and understood by people with at least a 3rd grade education, how can you be sure the president knows what he's signing?
This will probably get flamed as troll. Flame away. People who've known him claim to high heaven (literally) that he didn't talk that way when he was getting an MBA at Yale. But that was before he drank heavily for 15-20 odds years.
Thank the lord Jesus saved him before alcohalism took his eloquence.
Well, why stop assuming at just one creator?
After all, who intelligently designed the intelligent designer?
And who designed him? Or her?
Good science is minimal, stated assumption. If I'm assuming that mold grows on old bread because mold is sponetaneously created (as opposed to mold spores traveling through the air) then I've got to have some way of proving my assumption false.
Cardon dating instrument flaws aside, I'm wishing you luck on that one.