While working as a tech testing RADAR receivers for Westinghouse, I read this book. The machine in question was the 32 bit upgrade for 16 bit minicomputers sold by Data General at the time (1986?). I ended up working with the machine later as part of a test-only test set due to the fact that the differences between the machines were extreme enough that a floating-point processor was never developed. The development environment was of such poor quality that one young EE (after fighting with the software for months) quit in disgust. Because there was no floating point unit the 16 bit machines were able to test a module in 3/4 of the time required by the newer model. This and the availability of '486 class micro's killed the market for similar DG machines. While the older machines could be coded in Fortran and was capable of decent hardware floating point, the newer machine used a restrictive Pascal compiler of the day - not something you really want for scientific/engineering applications as all of the heavy lifting had already been done in the wrong programming language. Trying to rewrite the code to provide more than test capability - troubleshooting and options for test - required more than one guy at a console part-time and the company didn't replace the outbound engineer with a repacement. The test-set IIRC was owned by the Air Force anyhow.
My School runs Sun servers ONLY for programming courses. If you want to do a project in C++, Perl or Java then you have the choice of vi, pico or emacs and the code better work with CC or JDK 1.4 (the perl is a bit older). That's what's on the system. Floppies be damned. I do my projects from home on cli using ssh under Linux. You hardly need to be a Solaris guru to do this. We had a Blade 100 in our development lab at work for a single contract. After that portion of the contract ended the hardware was shipped to a warehouse. Too ugly for a desktop, too slow for normal UNIX apps. I do not miss it.
The problem with this is that the machines will have to be repalced at some point. The MTU (Master Timing Unit) designed by Westinghouse in the seventies was still being used as late as 1993. It was in need of a redesign then because the oscillator used was getting scarce. I have no idea if the thing is still being used but NASA better design a replacement very soon. Half of the parts used in the thing can't be had for love or money. Obsolete technology can be a danger on it's own if it's a critical item to be maintained.
"My advice for would be Computer Science majors would be to switch majors to one that compliments a market where there is a demand for workers. I have investigated what that is, but may be forced to very soon. With that said there are a bunch of people that are going into Computer Science because it is their passion and not as a career path. For those I say fine just don't take enthusiasm for a false sense of job security because it does not exist."
I looked at your "resume". You assume we all want to work on crap like that. There is plenty of room where I work for people with lots of experience in hardware/software development of embedded devices as well as test and instrument control. Stuff that can't be exported without DOD approval is not generally outsourced to India. A lot of stuff being developed can't. I don't work in the software industry. I write code for people to do their work with. Very proprietary to our shop. I code for the people I work with and for myself. I don't build fancy networks (other than the nice one in my house). This is where the future is. I have little regard for Stallman, but I do believe that people with good skills and knowledge will prosper and those without will not, be it a cottage industry or a large industrial one.
Sure. This is a distributed system much like the former propsed system the FAA was going ti use to replace the aging traffic control system that IBM was supposed to build. While the scale is more limited the concept is similar. Remember how well that one went?
"But what if M$ tries to get in the Linux market? Would you guys use it? I mean, is it about Linux to you guys or strictly OSS?"
Maybe. Corporate types are skittish when it comes to open source stuff. They have reason to be. Licensing can be a killer if the project can not say "We can sell this as part of our project" freely without providing source. The effort involved in some engineering projects drives the cost. Managing cost is what makes or breaks a project. AFAIK the only entity that can get away with using open source products in their projects without generating complaint is the government. Open source compilers and tools are a no-no for most governement contracts (at least where I work). It would be wonderful to use open source tools for our projects as a way to drive costs down. Linux in the lab would be sweet indeed. If it came from Microsoft the suits would trust it in a way they do not trust it now.
I met wife # 2 in a local Personals ad. If you are going to find something in common, you might as well take a look at some of them. Not all were stupid and probably got a decent response.
Step one was to answer an add and say something about myself. I got a call a few days later. We talked on the phone for a long time before meeting. We both got a chance to know each other first.
She's a looker too! She said whe did the ad on the dare of a co-worker and got some real scary replies. Try not to be scary, guys.
I use Linux every day for every day tasks. I don't use Windows because I don't want the headaches. I don't hate Microsoft as long as they leave me alone. Linux is for people who understand what Linux is capable of. Windows is for people who don't know and don't care. BSD is almost not worth the headache.
As far as the Licensing goes, I prefer the BSD style license in that code is open to all. Really it becomes freeware source. MS can use it, Linux hackers can use it. What's the big deal? GPL code is perfect for infrastructure peices that form a core of technologies. Most of us write "Applications". Do apps need this sort of protection? Isn't this where market forces are supposed to come into play?
Slashdot Mirror
While working as a tech testing RADAR receivers for Westinghouse, I read this book. The machine in question was the 32 bit upgrade for 16 bit minicomputers sold by Data General at the time (1986?). I ended up working with the machine later as part of a test-only test set due to the fact that the differences between the machines were extreme enough that a floating-point processor was never developed. The development environment was of such poor quality that one young EE (after fighting with the software for months) quit in disgust. Because there was no floating point unit the 16 bit machines were able to test a module in 3/4 of the time required by the newer model. This and the availability of '486 class micro's killed the market for similar DG machines. While the older machines could be coded in Fortran and was capable of decent hardware floating point, the newer machine used a restrictive Pascal compiler of the day - not something you really want for scientific/engineering applications as all of the heavy lifting had already been done in the wrong programming language. Trying to rewrite the code to provide more than test capability - troubleshooting and options for test - required more than one guy at a console part-time and the company didn't replace the outbound engineer with a repacement. The test-set IIRC was owned by the Air Force anyhow.
No sig in hell.
My School runs Sun servers ONLY for programming courses. If you want to do a project in C++, Perl or Java then you have the choice of vi, pico or emacs and the code better work with CC or JDK 1.4 (the perl is a bit older). That's what's on the system. Floppies be damned. I do my projects from home on cli using ssh under Linux. You hardly need to be a Solaris guru to do this.
We had a Blade 100 in our development lab at work for a single contract. After that portion of the contract ended the hardware was shipped to a warehouse. Too ugly for a desktop, too slow for normal UNIX apps. I do not miss it.
>
The problem with this is that the machines will have to be repalced at some point. The MTU (Master Timing Unit) designed by Westinghouse in the seventies was still being used as late as 1993. It was in need of a redesign then because the oscillator used was getting scarce. I have no idea if the thing is still being used but NASA better design a replacement very soon. Half of the parts used in the thing can't be had for love or money. Obsolete technology can be a danger on it's own if it's a critical item to be maintained.
"My advice for would be Computer Science majors would be to switch majors to one that compliments a market where there is a demand for workers. I have investigated what that is, but may be forced to very soon. With that said there are a bunch of people that are going into Computer Science because it is their passion and not as a career path. For those I say fine just don't take enthusiasm for a false sense of job security because it does not exist."
I looked at your "resume". You assume we all want to work on crap like that. There is plenty of room where I work for people with lots of experience in hardware/software development of embedded devices as well as test and instrument control. Stuff that can't be exported without DOD approval is not generally outsourced to India. A lot of stuff being developed can't. I don't work in the software industry. I write code for people to do their work with. Very proprietary to our shop. I code for the people I work with and for myself. I don't build fancy networks (other than the nice one in my house). This is where the future is. I have little regard for Stallman, but I do believe that people with good skills and knowledge will prosper and those without will not, be it a cottage industry or a large industrial one.
Office Depot has neither the knowledgeable staff of CompUSA, nor the low prices of BestBuy and Walmart.
Since when did CompUSA staff become "knowledgeable".
I don't do Sig's, I do cigs.
Sure. This is a distributed system much like the former propsed system the FAA was going ti use to replace the aging traffic control system that IBM was supposed to build. While the scale is more limited the concept is similar. Remember how well that one went?
"But what if M$ tries to get in the Linux market? Would you guys use it? I mean, is it about Linux to you guys or strictly OSS?"
Maybe. Corporate types are skittish when it comes to open source stuff. They have reason to be. Licensing can be a killer if the project can not say "We can sell this as part of our project" freely without providing source. The effort involved in some engineering projects drives the cost. Managing cost is what makes or breaks a project. AFAIK the only entity that can get away with using open source products in their projects without generating complaint is the government. Open source compilers and tools are a no-no for most governement contracts (at least where I work). It would be wonderful to use open source tools for our projects as a way to drive costs down.
Linux in the lab would be sweet indeed. If it came from Microsoft the suits would trust it in a way they do not trust it now.
I met wife # 2 in a local Personals ad. If you are going to find something in common, you might as well take a look at some of them. Not all were stupid and probably got a decent response.
Step one was to answer an add and say something about myself. I got a call a few days later. We talked on the phone for a long time before meeting. We both got a chance to know each other first.
She's a looker too! She said whe did the ad on the dare of a co-worker and got some real scary replies. Try not to be scary, guys.
I use Linux every day for every day tasks. I don't use Windows because I don't want the headaches. I don't hate Microsoft as long as they leave me alone. Linux is for people who understand what Linux is capable of. Windows is for people who don't know and don't care. BSD is almost not worth the headache.
As far as the Licensing goes, I prefer the BSD style license in that code is open to all. Really it becomes freeware source. MS can use it, Linux hackers can use it. What's the big deal? GPL code is perfect for infrastructure peices that form a core of technologies. Most of us write "Applications". Do apps need this sort of protection? Isn't this where market forces are supposed to come into play?