Isn't interesting that in 50 years we've gone from Grace Hopper "SUM INVOICE_AMOUNT INTO INVOICE_TOTAL" syntax to preferring code that looks to the untrained eye like complete gibberish? I am in no way suggesting a return to COBOL-74 but it seems that the inventors of all this stuff didn't have the massive ego's we have today, where we all are expected to pray at the altar of the guy who writes code no ordinary mortal can possibly read, let alone debug.
Grace used to bring a coil of wire to her lectures. She would point to it, and say "That's a millisecond. Every programmer who ever wasted a millisecond should be forced to wear this around their neck for a week"
Today, we start with a "framework" of 30,000+ little tiny files - and we use ten lines of them. But for the non developer, it makes the web site look damn complicated.
The same day this comes out, the UK Telegraph runs a story about how NOAA has gone back and destroyed the temperature records by adjusting the data to prove that the computer models are working.
LOL. Well, I do apologize, Internet and/. etiquette be damned it's the right thing to do. I get so tired of the comment boards that are basically You Suck, then You Suck More - repeated over and over in different forms.
We clean up other people's crap too. Most of it is mind blowingly awful. Some of it... well it's just pathetic, you feel sorry for anyone who could be so clueless to code it that way. SELECT DISTINCT * FROM Million_Row_Table_with 200_Columns comes to mind.
Some managers - many of them - practice what I have come to call MBB (Management by Bellowing) and MBS (Management by Squeezing). I assume that somewhere deep down in their black hearts they believe they are doing the right thing. It drives me absolutely insane.
Me: Our estimate to complete the project is 100 hours.
MBS: (Who has no clue what the project even is) I want it done in 90.
Me: It can't be done in 90
MBB: I'm so angry I can't even speak.
So the next project you tell the guy 110, And when he says "Get it done in 100, OR ELSE" you say "Yes Sir!". Having spent the majority of my career in development, I find this nonsense to be an impediment to absolutely everything, but I have come to realize that is happens because HUMANS are involved and the requisite egos must be stroked.
The Vendor/Client relationship is just as stupid. How about if I tell you, Mr. Vendor, what my budget is, and you tell me if you can get it done for that price? Oh nooooooooooooooo we can't operate like that! We have to do the stupid dance, wasting both my time and yours, and play the stupid game... Life... is not Pawn Stars.
I feel exactly the same way, but sadly many of the great successes (from a financial perspective) have been complete crap (from an engineering perspective).
Greenbird I am truly sorry I did not intend for this to be a TIRADE personally directed at YOU at all. I said "My Guess" - and my comment about sales was made with the best of intentions - and a little tongue in cheek. Development... is not a career for people who really, really, really want to be rich. It pays well, sure. A few get rich - I don't know why, probably luck. For the record - the guys that work for me get paid TOP DOLLAR and I give raises to the one's who perform. Because I spent most of my career as a developer when I went into management I was extremely determined NOT to become the clueless boss I always had, a.k.a. PHB, okay?
A while back I got tired of programming and worked as a headhunter for 2 months. I would get guys from one country - you guess - I would ask "So what are you looking for" and they would answer "X$ more"... I'd be like "There's more to work that just money, what kind of projects would interest you?" and they would say "X$ more". When the first question a prospective hire asks is the rate, they fail the interview.
And yes, there is nothing worse than the project built entirely by junior guys. Even worse is the client who believed the vendor who told him to fire all the good developers because he could get guys in some third world hell hole for $4/hour. And of course these "developers" took a 3 week programming class....
.
You are spot on - I would add that most software on the Internet is what I call "consumable software". It only has to just barely work, because it will be replaced in 8 to 12 months. It only has to be good enough to work. Elegant? Who cares?
If the software is complete crap - and it makes the company money.... it's a success. This is a bitter pill for developers to swallow, generally, but it is true.
Most companies want yes men slaves that do things without question.
You're working for the wrong company. Or you have penchant for beating a dead horse when your manager says "Look, dipshit, it's out of my hands I can't change the whole organization because you think "X" is a better idea"
Throwing money at the highly skilled personnel who will get the job done is exactly how to get the job done and make money.
As a tech hiring manager I can state with absolute experience and clarity that believe it or not, this is not the best answer. The guy (or gal) who is wooed away by a high salary will disappear just as fast when the next employer comes along and offers $1/Hour more. This approach will also increase outsourcing, as it reinforces the incorrect yet often quoted in management circles foolishness that programmers are like ditch diggers - interchangeable, easily swapped out, etc.
A whiney employee who tells you he isn't paid enough, given a raise, will go back to whining in a week.
My guess is you are unhappy with your salary and think you should make more. Maybe you should, but if money is all that motivates you, you made a very poor career choice and should consider going into sales.
Some of my very best developers - the one's who are passionate for the work, make an extra effort to deliver quality product, and don't complain when they have to work late on release day -- are paid far less than the senior level, nose in the air prim a-dona's who tell me all day how great they are, and how everything is always not their fault, it's bad requirements, junior developers dumb mistakes, or stupid stakeholders who dare question their glorious skills.
There is no age discrimination in tech that I know of. There is, however, age discrimination against developers over 40, because the prevailing wisdom is that nobody wants to be a programmer for life, and that the 40 something should be in management by then. It's wrong, but it is definitely there.
If you live in in any rural area (most of the country) public transport is not an option. Yes, there are many cities in the U.S. that would have benefited greatly from a public transportation system, but the citizens of those cities did not press for it - and would not appreciate it being rammed down their throats.
Taxes... never, ever go down. Politicians tell you that a decrease in the rate of increase is a "savings" and we all glibly accept this for truth.
Or the famous property tax swindle. They increase double the "value" of your property - meaning your taxes double - and campaign on "I did not raise your property taxes"
If you're a liberal, throwing money at problems... is the solution to EVERYTHING!!! Because much of that money... Republican or Democrat... goes right back into the party coffers.
In an ivory tower unicorn living world you are exactly right. In the real world, not so much.
The reality is that the problem with infrastructure is partly fabricated - We are spending more on infrastructure today in real dollars than we were spending during the Eisenhower Administration during the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Spending for Infrastructure really means more money for special interests - the teamsters, the construction companies, etc.
The second reality is that the problem with the gas tax is that greedy politicians rob the gas tax fund to pay for other projects. It's a big pile of money that is just too big not to be raided.
So before raising yet another tax to throw money at a problem only to discover a few years down the road that most of the money was wasted (See: Stimulus) here's a better idea:
1. Demand accountability and transparency on how these funds are used. Where, exactly does the money go? What firms were paid what amounts? What states are efficient in getting the biggest bang for the buck and which ones suck at it?
2. Stop acting like the public is too stupid to have a voice in what gets done
3. Dismantle the idiotic system where there are multiple overlapping conflicting rules of road ownership that ensure duplication, waste, and provide endless opportunities for corruption.
4. Stop pretending that large groups of people called corporations are evil, but the same large groups of people working in government are pure as the driven snow....
So the FCC, which is a political tool for the administration du-jour, should now be put in charge of REGULATING the Internet?
In other countries where there is no rush to regulate everything based on the crazy notion that large numbers of people in groups called corporations are pure evil, but large number of people in groups called government are the solution to all our problems... guess what? Their internet access is faster than ours, and costs much much less. Not because they leapfrogged the technology. Because they don't have massive complicated regulatory nightmares and hundreds of hidden taxes on everything to pay for the political class.
This is the same FCC that championed BPL long after it was shown to be a flawed technology, the same FCC that has created the spectrum allocation nightmare, the same FCC that takes months, and even years to deal with interference complaints... This is the same government that drew up a political enemies list, time and time again, and used the power of the government to go after people with "incorrect" thoughts and speech... and now wants us to believe that they "lost the emails" that would prove who was involved... It would be in all our best interest if they didn't pass any more bills or write any executive orders for the remainder of our lifetimes. Please, for a moment, step out of the ivory tower and into reality. The worst thing you can do is walk around saying "The guverment, well, they ought to DO something because _____________"
Quick to learn - sort of. The way Python does object oriented things drove me batty when I learned it. It pretends to be object oriented but it's not - at least to an old C++ guy like myself.
Portable, yes. One of the few languages that really is portable.
The biggest issue I had with Python was that when I looked at the code I had written two weeks later it was very hard to see what it did quickly, as the language is almost a little "too" compact.
I have found Django guys are almost impossible to find.
We've been having the "Why do we need the desktop" argument since Web 1.0. The last decent attempt at the web browser replacing the desktop I am aware of with enough detail to speak intelligently about was Microsoft's "Smart Client" concept, which in principle was pretty good, and worked inside the Enterprise, but never gained traction at the consumer level because it was completely dependent on MS's crappy browser.
Another language... wow does that argument go way back... to like, the seventies. We are overwhelmed with languages that all do exactly the same things. A while new operating system, with a whole new way of looking at everything has to come first.
So let's make an already emotionally charged subject even more charged, to see if we can get even more of the same people shouting the same opposing points at each other, and neither side bothering to listen to the other.
So first the story is that we are making a great leap forward by killing NASA and turning it all over to private enterprise. Now it's a crying shame that NASA's budget is only growing as much as what is already built into the budget plus two percent. Really, the current crop of idiots running things in this country couldn't keep their story straight on ANY SUBJECT if their lives depended on it.
You can't argue with the sacred narrative that decrees that one group of large numbers of people working in groups in a hierarchical command structure is pure as the driven snow, and the other is the most evil, horrible, terrible thing ever invented by man. You're wasting your time with these fanatical zealots. It's why I gave up discussing politics on slash dot.
The facts are "propoganda" and you are "brainwashed" for daring to confront the sacred tablets of the narrative. Either you agree with the entire narrative, all 100% of it, or you are a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, ignorant hayseed who is dangerous for America. But remember, folks, everyone else is a zealot, a fanatic, and a fundamentalist nut case.
It's so pathetic, and yet so emotionally real for so many people it's downright frightening.
Israeli start-up? check. Spearheaded by guys from software and telecom, with relevant-tech experts at 2nd tier? check. Outlandish claims about EVs? check. Managed to land some big ‘Blue Chip’ money and partnerships? check.
Other stories on the web, if you bother to Google aluminum air battery, make less aggressive claims. These articles seem to indicate you need to water the batteries every 200 miles, not every few weeks,
That being said it's good to see progress in batteries.
You must have a very smooth yard and a very mild winter. The starting battery in my gas lawn tractor (60" deck) lasts no more than two years, and yes, I keep the terminals clean, and check the electrolyte regularly. I bring the battery inside in the winter.
My yard is not smooth - here in the upper Midwest we have moles... The constant bouncing over the bumpy terrain kills batteries in short order.
The batteries in the fishing boat are good for no more than three years.
My question about J. Random user was meant to be rhetorical.
I agree that J. Random User is not tied to MS Software anymore, and that Laptops and Tablets and Phablets are just computers. When I bought my wife - who is not technical - a Samsung 10.1 tablet last month we spent some quality time at Best Buy and there were a few J. Random Users there. all of the activity was in the tablet area, not the notebook/desktop area. Personally I find the iPad Air is as big of a tablet form factor I want, but she loves the giant Samsung. Primary activity is Simpsons tapped out, and the browser. She found the Surface to be way overpriced for it's size relative to the Samsung, and I am sure plenty of J. Random Users agree with that.
I see lots of executive types sporting tablets with clamshell cases...
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't interesting that in 50 years we've gone from Grace Hopper "SUM INVOICE_AMOUNT INTO INVOICE_TOTAL" syntax to preferring code that looks to the untrained eye like complete gibberish? I am in no way suggesting a return to COBOL-74 but it seems that the inventors of all this stuff didn't have the massive ego's we have today, where we all are expected to pray at the altar of the guy who writes code no ordinary mortal can possibly read, let alone debug.
Grace used to bring a coil of wire to her lectures. She would point to it, and say "That's a millisecond. Every programmer who ever wasted a millisecond should be forced to wear this around their neck for a week"
Today, we start with a "framework" of 30,000+ little tiny files - and we use ten lines of them. But for the non developer, it makes the web site look damn complicated.
The same day this comes out, the UK Telegraph runs a story about how NOAA has gone back and destroyed the temperature records by adjusting the data to prove that the computer models are working.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ear...
So who ya gonna believe? My advice... don't believe any of them, they are all liars with ulterior motives.
LOL. Well, I do apologize, Internet and /. etiquette be damned it's the right thing to do. I get so tired of the comment boards that are basically You Suck, then You Suck More - repeated over and over in different forms.
We clean up other people's crap too. Most of it is mind blowingly awful. Some of it... well it's just pathetic, you feel sorry for anyone who could be so clueless to code it that way. SELECT DISTINCT * FROM Million_Row_Table_with 200_Columns comes to mind.
Some managers - many of them - practice what I have come to call MBB (Management by Bellowing) and MBS (Management by Squeezing). I assume that somewhere deep down in their black hearts they believe they are doing the right thing. It drives me absolutely insane.
Me: Our estimate to complete the project is 100 hours.
MBS: (Who has no clue what the project even is) I want it done in 90.
Me: It can't be done in 90
MBB: I'm so angry I can't even speak.
So the next project you tell the guy 110, And when he says "Get it done in 100, OR ELSE" you say "Yes Sir!". Having spent the majority of my career in development, I find this nonsense to be an impediment to absolutely everything, but I have come to realize that is happens because HUMANS are involved and the requisite egos must be stroked.
The Vendor/Client relationship is just as stupid. How about if I tell you, Mr. Vendor, what my budget is, and you tell me if you can get it done for that price? Oh nooooooooooooooo we can't operate like that! We have to do the stupid dance, wasting both my time and yours, and play the stupid game... Life... is not Pawn Stars.
I feel exactly the same way, but sadly many of the great successes (from a financial perspective) have been complete crap (from an engineering perspective).
Twiiter
Tumblr
Come to mind...
Greenbird I am truly sorry I did not intend for this to be a TIRADE personally directed at YOU at all. I said "My Guess" - and my comment about sales was made with the best of intentions - and a little tongue in cheek. Development... is not a career for people who really, really, really want to be rich. It pays well, sure. A few get rich - I don't know why, probably luck. For the record - the guys that work for me get paid TOP DOLLAR and I give raises to the one's who perform. Because I spent most of my career as a developer when I went into management I was extremely determined NOT to become the clueless boss I always had, a.k.a. PHB, okay?
A while back I got tired of programming and worked as a headhunter for 2 months. I would get guys from one country - you guess - I would ask "So what are you looking for" and they would answer "X$ more"... I'd be like "There's more to work that just money, what kind of projects would interest you?" and they would say "X$ more". When the first question a prospective hire asks is the rate, they fail the interview.
And yes, there is nothing worse than the project built entirely by junior guys. Even worse is the client who believed the vendor who told him to fire all the good developers because he could get guys in some third world hell hole for $4/hour. And of course these "developers" took a 3 week programming class.... .
Thanks Altus you are absolutely correct on all points - refreshing!!
You are spot on - I would add that most software on the Internet is what I call "consumable software". It only has to just barely work, because it will be replaced in 8 to 12 months. It only has to be good enough to work. Elegant? Who cares?
If the software is complete crap - and it makes the company money.... it's a success. This is a bitter pill for developers to swallow, generally, but it is true.
They pay you for 40 hours a week. If you're working over that amount, you're just fucking yourself over.
A great attitude if you work at McDonalds my friend. I'd keep this to myself if I were you.
Most companies want yes men slaves that do things without question.
You're working for the wrong company. Or you have penchant for beating a dead horse when your manager says "Look, dipshit, it's out of my hands I can't change the whole organization because you think "X" is a better idea"
Throwing money at the highly skilled personnel who will get the job done is exactly how to get the job done and make money.
As a tech hiring manager I can state with absolute experience and clarity that believe it or not, this is not the best answer. The guy (or gal) who is wooed away by a high salary will disappear just as fast when the next employer comes along and offers $1/Hour more. This approach will also increase outsourcing, as it reinforces the incorrect yet often quoted in management circles foolishness that programmers are like ditch diggers - interchangeable, easily swapped out, etc.
A whiney employee who tells you he isn't paid enough, given a raise, will go back to whining in a week.
My guess is you are unhappy with your salary and think you should make more. Maybe you should, but if money is all that motivates you, you made a very poor career choice and should consider going into sales.
Some of my very best developers - the one's who are passionate for the work, make an extra effort to deliver quality product, and don't complain when they have to work late on release day -- are paid far less than the senior level, nose in the air prim a-dona's who tell me all day how great they are, and how everything is always not their fault, it's bad requirements, junior developers dumb mistakes, or stupid stakeholders who dare question their glorious skills.
There is no age discrimination in tech that I know of. There is, however, age discrimination against developers over 40, because the prevailing wisdom is that nobody wants to be a programmer for life, and that the 40 something should be in management by then. It's wrong, but it is definitely there.
If you live in in any rural area (most of the country) public transport is not an option. Yes, there are many cities in the U.S. that would have benefited greatly from a public transportation system, but the citizens of those cities did not press for it - and would not appreciate it being rammed down their throats.
Taxes... never, ever go down. Politicians tell you that a decrease in the rate of increase is a "savings" and we all glibly accept this for truth.
Or the famous property tax swindle. They increase double the "value" of your property - meaning your taxes double - and campaign on "I did not raise your property taxes"
If you're a liberal, throwing money at problems... is the solution to EVERYTHING!!! Because much of that money... Republican or Democrat... goes right back into the party coffers.
In an ivory tower unicorn living world you are exactly right. In the real world, not so much.
The reality is that the problem with infrastructure is partly fabricated - We are spending more on infrastructure today in real dollars than we were spending during the Eisenhower Administration during the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Spending for Infrastructure really means more money for special interests - the teamsters, the construction companies, etc.
The second reality is that the problem with the gas tax is that greedy politicians rob the gas tax fund to pay for other projects. It's a big pile of money that is just too big not to be raided.
So before raising yet another tax to throw money at a problem only to discover a few years down the road that most of the money was wasted (See: Stimulus) here's a better idea:
1. Demand accountability and transparency on how these funds are used. Where, exactly does the money go? What firms were paid what amounts? What states are efficient in getting the biggest bang for the buck and which ones suck at it?
2. Stop acting like the public is too stupid to have a voice in what gets done
3. Dismantle the idiotic system where there are multiple overlapping conflicting rules of road ownership that ensure duplication, waste, and provide endless opportunities for corruption.
4. Stop pretending that large groups of people called corporations are evil, but the same large groups of people working in government are pure as the driven snow....
So the FCC, which is a political tool for the administration du-jour, should now be put in charge of REGULATING the Internet?
In other countries where there is no rush to regulate everything based on the crazy notion that large numbers of people in groups called corporations are pure evil, but large number of people in groups called government are the solution to all our problems... guess what? Their internet access is faster than ours, and costs much much less. Not because they leapfrogged the technology. Because they don't have massive complicated regulatory nightmares and hundreds of hidden taxes on everything to pay for the political class.
This is the same FCC that championed BPL long after it was shown to be a flawed technology, the same FCC that has created the spectrum allocation nightmare, the same FCC that takes months, and even years to deal with interference complaints... This is the same government that drew up a political enemies list, time and time again, and used the power of the government to go after people with "incorrect" thoughts and speech... and now wants us to believe that they "lost the emails" that would prove who was involved... It would be in all our best interest if they didn't pass any more bills or write any executive orders for the remainder of our lifetimes. Please, for a moment, step out of the ivory tower and into reality. The worst thing you can do is walk around saying "The guverment, well, they ought to DO something because _____________"
Quick to learn - sort of. The way Python does object oriented things drove me batty when I learned it. It pretends to be object oriented but it's not - at least to an old C++ guy like myself.
Portable, yes. One of the few languages that really is portable.
The biggest issue I had with Python was that when I looked at the code I had written two weeks later it was very hard to see what it did quickly, as the language is almost a little "too" compact.
I have found Django guys are almost impossible to find.
We've been having the "Why do we need the desktop" argument since Web 1.0. The last decent attempt at the web browser replacing the desktop I am aware of with enough detail to speak intelligently about was Microsoft's "Smart Client" concept, which in principle was pretty good, and worked inside the Enterprise, but never gained traction at the consumer level because it was completely dependent on MS's crappy browser.
Another language... wow does that argument go way back... to like, the seventies. We are overwhelmed with languages that all do exactly the same things. A while new operating system, with a whole new way of looking at everything has to come first.
So let's make an already emotionally charged subject even more charged, to see if we can get even more of the same people shouting the same opposing points at each other, and neither side bothering to listen to the other.
So first the story is that we are making a great leap forward by killing NASA and turning it all over to private enterprise. Now it's a crying shame that NASA's budget is only growing as much as what is already built into the budget plus two percent. Really, the current crop of idiots running things in this country couldn't keep their story straight on ANY SUBJECT if their lives depended on it.
You can't argue with the sacred narrative that decrees that one group of large numbers of people working in groups in a hierarchical command structure is pure as the driven snow, and the other is the most evil, horrible, terrible thing ever invented by man. You're wasting your time with these fanatical zealots. It's why I gave up discussing politics on slash dot.
The facts are "propoganda" and you are "brainwashed" for daring to confront the sacred tablets of the narrative. Either you agree with the entire narrative, all 100% of it, or you are a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, ignorant hayseed who is dangerous for America. But remember, folks, everyone else is a zealot, a fanatic, and a fundamentalist nut case.
It's so pathetic, and yet so emotionally real for so many people it's downright frightening.
Israeli start-up? check. Spearheaded by guys from software and telecom, with relevant-tech experts at 2nd tier? check. Outlandish claims about EVs? check. Managed to land some big ‘Blue Chip’ money and partnerships? check.
Gee I wonder where I’ve heard this before
I hope it's real I really do.
True, but the batteries release large amounts of CO2 during the discharge cycle.
Other stories on the web, if you bother to Google aluminum air battery, make less aggressive claims. These articles seem to indicate you need to water the batteries every 200 miles, not every few weeks,
That being said it's good to see progress in batteries.
You must have a very smooth yard and a very mild winter. The starting battery in my gas lawn tractor (60" deck) lasts no more than two years, and yes, I keep the terminals clean, and check the electrolyte regularly. I bring the battery inside in the winter.
My yard is not smooth - here in the upper Midwest we have moles... The constant bouncing over the bumpy terrain kills batteries in short order.
The batteries in the fishing boat are good for no more than three years.
My question about J. Random user was meant to be rhetorical.
I agree that J. Random User is not tied to MS Software anymore, and that Laptops and Tablets and Phablets are just computers. When I bought my wife - who is not technical - a Samsung 10.1 tablet last month we spent some quality time at Best Buy and there were a few J. Random Users there. all of the activity was in the tablet area, not the notebook/desktop area. Personally I find the iPad Air is as big of a tablet form factor I want, but she loves the giant Samsung. Primary activity is Simpsons tapped out, and the browser. She found the Surface to be way overpriced for it's size relative to the Samsung, and I am sure plenty of J. Random Users agree with that.
I see lots of executive types sporting tablets with clamshell cases...