The amount of money.. doled in out in grants to Universities.. by both business AND government is what is at stake. This is a MASSIVE amount of money upon which the entire Universities future ability to attract new clients, er, students is at stake. Add to that the extreme bias shown to studies for global cooling (1970's) global warming (1980's, 1990's) and now that we aren't really warming climate change... Why? Because you get rich claiming the sky is falling.
Do you have any idea how many billions Al Gore stands to make if we enact a Carbon tax?
The so called evil oil companies, on the other hand, have nothing to gain and nothing to lose. They will continue to make energy whether we have global warming or not. Their only crime is they don't pay the proper bribes to Democrats, and are, therefore, evil beyond evil.
Just like the Koch brothers (301 million in politics) are pure evil, and Soros (3.5 billion in politics) is not...
Furthermore, the idea that the market rewards "smart" more than "stupid" is terribly naive. If that were true, we would have no celebrities... or sports players.
Yes, because the glorious hockey stick graph, that the climate change people rallied around for years, turned out to be a LIE. So until this is peer-reviewed, and analyzed by other scientists, it has no more credibility than the hockey stick graph, and is questionable because any probability formula that claims to be 99% correct doesn't ring true either.
For those of you that aren't paying attention, once the FORTRAN source code for the hockey stick graph was released, it turned out that no matter what values you put in, it always drew a hockey stick/ Why? Because that assured that the scientists doing the work would continue to get funding, duh.
The comment about free email reminds me of my favorite Russian saying "Cheese in Mousetrap always free". You're spot on.
I don't think it's planned obsolescence at all. Software never really "wears out" nor does it even have wear and tear. Sure, all operating systems create endless log files and other crap that are difficult to keep clean, and Windows is burdened with a Registry Database that defies all logic, but it doesn't wear out, you can install it over and over.
Appliances now days have planned obsolescence - if you're old enough to remember the appliances of twenty years ago, or thirty years ago you can appreciate this. They die quite predictably a month after the warranty runs out, and the new one doesn't work as good as the one it replaced. That's... a crime committed against the consumer. But I digress...
For the record I'm no lover of MS. I run plenty of Linux servers, and Linux desktops and own both an iPhone and an iPad, love 'em.
Microsoft could care less about you, and me, and the guy buying five, ten, or even twenty licenses. They are all about their two biggest clients: The U.S. military, and the Fortune 100. Windows 7 had the features, drivers, and updated service stacks that those guys wanted, and paid for, we got the crumbs off the floor. My point is that it's a business, not a charity, and they do what their biggest customers ask for. Which is not us.
If you've ever worked in the Fortune 100, and had a platinum plated Microsoft support agreement (these things are probably written on human skin parchment or something), you'd discover a whole new Microsoft. They pick up the phone - instantly. They offer to put the guy who wrote the kernel on the line, if you ask, and offer to patch the O/S instantly with a hotfix for whatever you need. They once offered to put five core Windows developers on a corporate jet and fly them to our office, cross country, for a small issue we were having. I am sure they would have put two or three beautiful women on the plane to serve us coffee while we waited. That's the real Microsoft, and if one of those big customers says "We want a crappy interface that works on a phone, a tablet, and a desktop..." Microsoft says "Is this crappy enough, SIR? Are the colored tiles plain enough? Can we make them more dumbed down for you? Yes SIR, right away!!!"
In a development shop nobody and I mean nobody wants to work on old stuff. They want to work on new stuff. Try to find a developer who will work on Classic ASP, VB3, C++/MFC, or any of the old development systems that flourished during the pre.net era... Nobody wants to do it. Sure, there are a few guys who mastered one thing and refuse to learn anything new, but they are few and far between.
Not to mention it opposes Microsoft's business-model of planned obsolescence.
Wootery says with a hint of disdain. So how do you propose Microsoft earns money to pay for all those nice buildings and programmers?
Software should all be free, but as a programmer I want a huge salary. These are the same people who complain with their free email goes down for an hour LOL
No, par for the course for GM. Just because one auto company is horribly managed, does not imply that all companies act this way.
There was a REASON GM was going broke. But instead of letting them go broke - where there were companies ready to buy the assets and put people back to work within a few weeks - WE THE PEOPLE decided that the UAW Contracts were more important, so we propped a failing company up with a massive infusion of cash.
Well, big surprise, GM is on life support AGAIN and this latest development will probably require another bailout from WE THE PEOPLE.
You can look at their financials, or talk to people who work there, or you can choose to believe the propaganda about how Obama "Saved the Auto Industry", You can look at each of the car companies, and see how they are doing, what quality problems they have, etc. Or you can make a stereotypical statement about how all companies do this "par for the course" leading to more General, er, Government Motors happening.
I see your point... But I have a hard type accepting "Object Oriented" when all of the cells are of the same type, implement the same interface, and have to be queried to figure out what's in them. Where's the class hierarchy? Abstraction? Inheritance? Hence the similarity to VBA, or PHP, where there is but one variable type (Object, Variant, what have you) and the threaded interpreter spends most of its time querying the variable descriptor to figure out exactly what kind of data it holds, rather then actually doing work.
Excel is a brilliant piece of work, one of the best MS products ever (aside from their IDE's). As a side note I've wondered how Excel can be so great and Outlook can suck so badly, but that's another topic for another day.
The original spreadsheet, VisiCalc, didn't take all that long to write I suspect. Of course the tool at the time was assembler on a CPU with two registers (if I remember correctly) - Now that was a feat of skill!
Good points. My favorite is that sometimes they can communicate across the galaxy instantly, and other times messages take weeks to be received - depending on the nature of the plot at that moment.
And lets not forget a ship flying faster than light and shooting photon torpedoes.
The most interesting part of all? You never, ever see a bathroom of any sort.... not even a door to one.
Web sites are, more often than not, built in assembly line fashion, where a slicer/front end guy turns layered graphics files (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) into HTML/CSS/JS/JQ, then a different guy marries this to a framework (Yii, Zend, Code Igniter, PHP Storm, Word Press, Ruby, whatever), and then yet another guy runs Q/A. Most of this stuff gets written in horribly ancient non strongly typed threaded interpreters, essentially MS-DOS Basic made to look like C. In other words, the perfect environment to code in without any architectural/design skills at all.
It's a very efficient way of building "consumable software" - software with a three to twelve month life cycle, and it's perfect for cheap offshore labor. Get the creative done in South America, the slicing done in Romania, the coding done somewhere else...
So now management believes that large, complex systems can be built using this model, as they can't tell the difference between a facebook user generated content submission sweepstakes and a business intelligence analysis application.
Spend a few years in Digital Interactive, which is where most of the world's programmers live now a days, and you'll realize that the Internet is what has set programming back a decade, because it's all about QUANTITY not QUALITY. Something that's only going to live a year only has to be good enough to work and not one fraction better.
The previous PR campaign - making DIRE claims about how horribly terribly miserable we would all be if we didn't pay attention to this huge problem in an urgent/critical/ASAP way - along with end of the world predictions and scenarios -- failed miserably. Many of those dire predictions failed to come to pass, making the IPCC a laughingstock among many, and tarnishing the science of climatology for decades to come.
So what's the glorious new plan?
Make dire claims about how horribly terribly miserable we would all be if we didn't pay attention to this huge problem in an urgent/critical/ASAP way - along with end of the world predictions and scenarios...
Clearly, these people are utterly fucking clueless about how to advance their cause. Or they are so arrogant - that they believe everyone else is a complete idiot, and can be easily fooled with zero effort.
Meanwhile, climate science is less and less credible. People argue with more emotion. The naysayers have more ammunition. Less and less is accomplished.
Point taken, but the difference is that CEO's didn't setup a system by which they couldn't be fired, through years of cozying up with politicians, and getting legislation passed that gives them tenure, no matter how bad they behave.
I know some wealthy folks - who are in business. It may surprise you to know that these people work their asses off.
Instead of this class warfare against evil corporations bullshit, we should be celebrating the fact that we have a system where ordinary folks, with hard work, dedication, and skill can achieve a salary of this magnitude. Instead, we direct all this hate and anger towards them - and ignore all the other evil in the world, much of which is because of the political system that WE THE PEOPLE have allowed to occur. It is my position that the endless class warfare, designed to make people angry and therefore less able to think clearly, is solely designed to prevent the spotlight from shining on the politicians evil doings.
Screwing people over for money is wrong. Greed happens my friend and it cannot be regulated, or legislated out of existence. People are greedy and often act in their own self interest. An open exchange of ideas, and real journalism exposes the worst of the capitalist CEO's. Stealing from the public trust, in the form of corrupt government, however IS THE WORST CRIME OF ALL - Especially when you prance around and mouth platitudes about how you care about the little people, and are going to protect them from the evil capitalists.
Yes, but let's not leave out the CEO's of the big Political PAC's, the Union bosses (who essentially bribe politicians to ensure they have huge salaries), the public school system administrators (who make huge salaries while teachers have to buy school supplies out of their own pockets), and MOST OF ALL the politicians, who cut one deal after another to get campaign contributions, and then use the money to take lavish trips with the whole family. Let's not forget the Obama's, who spend the taxpayers money like water for their own personal pleasure.
And this is the whole problem with the CLASS WARFARE argument. The same people working overtime to whip up emotions about EVIL CORPORATIONS are just as EVIL, it not MORE SO. But we never hear about that, do we? Instead, they expertly whip up emotions about EVIL CORPORATIONS.
In Detroit, the difference between the Unions, the Government, and the Mafia is all but indistinguishable. Study it. It's the poster child for Democratic party corruption and the effect it has on the poor and the middle class. But alas, all we hear is about those evil Rethugnicans who are in bed with big business. Sure, plenty of them are corrupt to the bone too....
Selective class warfare... is propaganda. Let's apply this idea across the board. Start by limiting campaign contributions, give politicians free airtime during election years, and no more play to play. Right to Work in all 50 states - including the public sector. We own the government, we do not own corporations. The government we can fix. and until it's fixed, nothing is going to improve.
Then why were the scientists telling us in the 1970's that the jet stream destabilization (then, branded by that harbinger of SCIENCE, Time Magazine, named the POLAR VORTEX) - was absolute proof that the science was settled, the next ice was coming FOR SURE and the liberals of the time were making the same claims about anyone who disagreed with them was a backwards ignorant hayseed.
If you're going to act like a Prima-Donna it's acceptable - as long as 100% of your work is Prima-Donna quality, OK? One mistake, and if you don't start acting humble like everyone else around here, you'll never hear the end of it.
Works like a charm. I usually do this in front of the whole team.
I've been in this situation countless times. The advice I have is very simple, and very hard to do:
Be Patient
Every time this has happened... big drama in the team as everyone complains about "the new guy" - who is generally both an idiot, and dictatorial "my way or the highway" and on more than one occasion has threatened us, the development vendor, with his new found power that either we conform to his way or he will get rid of us, forever. And every time, after a few months... new guy is gone, and we are left standing.
So be nice to "new guy" - let hm hang himself. Don't create unnecessary drama - this is what drives managers crazy. Be honest about what's going on, don't exaggerate, don't appear to be emotional about it, hide your annoyance and frustration. And above all, just be patient, eventually the dimwitted ones figure out that new guy is an idiot too.
The competition for senior developers is so intense, that our strategy is to bring in junior developers, put them on teams with Senior guys, and bring them up to speed. If they like the culture, and the work is interesting, they stay for a very long time, The guys that leave you for a dollar an hour more you really don't want, they tend to sour the team with complaining.
Despite what people who have never managed anyone profess, it is not just all about the money. Money is a horrible reward, really - there's a great book by Daniel Pink called "Drive" that examines what motivates people, and big surprise, raises and bonuses have a very short term effect on productivity. Sure, you have to pay people a wage that covers basic necessities and gives them disposable income - but it is a myth that employees are only motivated by money.
My experience with people out of coding schools is that they have great book smarts, and zero coding smarts. I interviewed a very nice lady who answered every single technical question perfectly - I handed her a marker, put her in front a whiteboard, and asked "Given an array of 10 integers, how would you find the index of the largest one" - She couldn't do it. She had a MCAD.net certification. I asked plenty of other very simple programming questions, she failed them all.
Vocational education is good - if it exposes young minds to programming, who knows, they might find people who have a knack for it. This should happen in public school first of course.
The best programmers I have worked with - had zero formal education in Computer Science. They discovered coding, and they loved it. I am one of those guys, got a degree in Business Economics, first job out of college was a programmer (it was the only job I could find) - I took "Data Processing 101" in college and got a C. I manage programmers now - having coded for 25+ years before that. I'd finish my career as a programmer if it wasn't for tunnel metacarpal syndrome and failing eyesight brought on by 20 years in front of screen.
This is nonsense. Business isn't any more or less evil than anything else. Governments tend to be more evil, BTW.
If you are paying U.S. programmers $100K a year, and your competitors are paying offshore programmers $30K a year, what are you gonna do? Go offshore, or go out of business.
If you at what gets spent on Education in America - and the amount that actually ends up being spent on actual Education - it's a DISGRACE. A huge share of the funding goes into the Teacher's Unions, who have bought their seat at the table by bribing every politician who will listen. Union Bosses and Administrators make huge salaries - whereas the teachers don't get squat.
The Democrats have turned the Union/Party alliance in a huge cash machine.
Proof? Detroit. The Union, the Democratic Party, and the Mafia are indistinguishable from one another - and they ran the city into the ground, all while proclaiming their love of poor minorities.
I am not saying that all Democrats are bad, and that all Unions are the Mafia, but quite a few of them are...
The programmer shortage is REAL - and not just here, it's everywhere. Businesses aren't wanting low experience, low training wanna-bees, they are wanting people who can build products that sell.
You've got to be kidding me. The core of Marxism is the injustice caused by wealth accumulation. The Democratic parties current talking points are income inequality (an interesting position, given that it has gotten WORSE under their polices, but that's another story).
The left pushes the notion that "the rich", with their ill-gotten gains, lie around idly partying all the time, laughing at the horrible condition of the peasants. This is why we need a benevolent government to redistribute income. Tax the Rich has been the rallying cry of the socialist left forever. You're asking me to prove that the sky is blue. Try looking up.
The left believes that success, and the wealth that comes with it is not the result of hard work and taking risks. People aren't poor because they made bad decisions in life, or are lazy, etc. they are poor because the system is "rigged" by the evil rich and horrible corporations - both of which need to be regulated by a benevolent government.
The truth is that yes, there are a few rich people who inherited their wealth and act this way. Yes, there are a few celebrities who made millions of dollars and act like complete idiots. The majority of rich people work their assess off. What we should be teaching people is to emulate the rich not chastise them. Look at how many self made millionaires came from utter poverty. These are the true heros. Look at how generously the rich give to the poor -.vs. the rich Democrat Party politicians who hardly give anything.
I put it to you, Sir, that the failures of the American Left have caused far more social injustice than the evil rich. And that it is the politicians, not corporate CEO's, are the most greedy people in America. Not ALL of them - some politicians truly care for the common good and believe in this country. Not ALL CEO's are wonderful guys either. But the left's endless attack on "Evil Corporations" denies the other side of the coin - that politicians often show the same ugly greedy traits. FYI I live in Detroit - First hand experience.
You accuse me of quoting a "right wing asshole". So, if I don't agree with "The Narrative" then I am the enemy, and a horrible rethugnican asshole? I hope you're young, and that you'll mature soon and realize how utterly rude your statement is.
Which, I might add, was ripped off from VAX/VMS - With Dave Cutler's comments still in place!!! Dave Cutler, by the way, is the guy behind the VAX/VMS kernel, that Micosoft stole away from DEC (The two companies were across the street from each other)
The HAL concept - in VMS it was called "kernel mode" and "non kernel mode" was the big invention that made almost all of what you see possible...
Thank you for sharing this. It is true all across the ex-Soviet empire even today. Everyone who thinks communism is grand really needs to visit these places.
Absolutely agreed, but Public Funding wouldn't help. www.healthcare.gov - The government is increasingly incapable of building anything without putting the friends of the politicians who approve the funding first, and the desired outcome far, far behind.
It's ludicrous that people think the NSA is listening to every key click from a government who can't build healhcare.gov for the price they paid. That being said, the threat that you may be watched is enough of a deterrent for gullible people.
Slashdot Mirror
The amount of money.. doled in out in grants to Universities.. by both business AND government is what is at stake. This is a MASSIVE amount of money upon which the entire Universities future ability to attract new clients, er, students is at stake. Add to that the extreme bias shown to studies for global cooling (1970's) global warming (1980's, 1990's) and now that we aren't really warming climate change... Why? Because you get rich claiming the sky is falling.
Do you have any idea how many billions Al Gore stands to make if we enact a Carbon tax?
The so called evil oil companies, on the other hand, have nothing to gain and nothing to lose. They will continue to make energy whether we have global warming or not. Their only crime is they don't pay the proper bribes to Democrats, and are, therefore, evil beyond evil.
Just like the Koch brothers (301 million in politics) are pure evil, and Soros (3.5 billion in politics) is not...
Furthermore, the idea that the market rewards "smart" more than "stupid" is terribly naive. If that were true, we would have no celebrities... or sports players.
Should barely make a dent in our style of life
Go study what happened in Spain when they did what you are proposing.
Yes, because the glorious hockey stick graph, that the climate change people rallied around for years, turned out to be a LIE. So until this is peer-reviewed, and analyzed by other scientists, it has no more credibility than the hockey stick graph, and is questionable because any probability formula that claims to be 99% correct doesn't ring true either.
For those of you that aren't paying attention, once the FORTRAN source code for the hockey stick graph was released, it turned out that no matter what values you put in, it always drew a hockey stick/ Why? Because that assured that the scientists doing the work would continue to get funding, duh.
The comment about free email reminds me of my favorite Russian saying "Cheese in Mousetrap always free". You're spot on.
I don't think it's planned obsolescence at all. Software never really "wears out" nor does it even have wear and tear. Sure, all operating systems create endless log files and other crap that are difficult to keep clean, and Windows is burdened with a Registry Database that defies all logic, but it doesn't wear out, you can install it over and over.
Appliances now days have planned obsolescence - if you're old enough to remember the appliances of twenty years ago, or thirty years ago you can appreciate this. They die quite predictably a month after the warranty runs out, and the new one doesn't work as good as the one it replaced. That's... a crime committed against the consumer. But I digress...
For the record I'm no lover of MS. I run plenty of Linux servers, and Linux desktops and own both an iPhone and an iPad, love 'em.
Microsoft could care less about you, and me, and the guy buying five, ten, or even twenty licenses. They are all about their two biggest clients: The U.S. military, and the Fortune 100. Windows 7 had the features, drivers, and updated service stacks that those guys wanted, and paid for, we got the crumbs off the floor. My point is that it's a business, not a charity, and they do what their biggest customers ask for. Which is not us.
If you've ever worked in the Fortune 100, and had a platinum plated Microsoft support agreement (these things are probably written on human skin parchment or something), you'd discover a whole new Microsoft. They pick up the phone - instantly. They offer to put the guy who wrote the kernel on the line, if you ask, and offer to patch the O/S instantly with a hotfix for whatever you need. They once offered to put five core Windows developers on a corporate jet and fly them to our office, cross country, for a small issue we were having. I am sure they would have put two or three beautiful women on the plane to serve us coffee while we waited. That's the real Microsoft, and if one of those big customers says "We want a crappy interface that works on a phone, a tablet, and a desktop..." Microsoft says "Is this crappy enough, SIR? Are the colored tiles plain enough? Can we make them more dumbed down for you? Yes SIR, right away!!!"
You are spot on, and there's another factor:
.net era... Nobody wants to do it. Sure, there are a few guys who mastered one thing and refuse to learn anything new, but they are few and far between.
In a development shop nobody and I mean nobody wants to work on old stuff. They want to work on new stuff. Try to find a developer who will work on Classic ASP, VB3, C++/MFC, or any of the old development systems that flourished during the pre
This adds to the cost substantially....
Not to mention it opposes Microsoft's business-model of planned obsolescence.
Wootery says with a hint of disdain. So how do you propose Microsoft earns money to pay for all those nice buildings and programmers?
Software should all be free, but as a programmer I want a huge salary. These are the same people who complain with their free email goes down for an hour LOL
No, par for the course for GM. Just because one auto company is horribly managed, does not imply that all companies act this way.
There was a REASON GM was going broke. But instead of letting them go broke - where there were companies ready to buy the assets and put people back to work within a few weeks - WE THE PEOPLE decided that the UAW Contracts were more important, so we propped a failing company up with a massive infusion of cash.
Well, big surprise, GM is on life support AGAIN and this latest development will probably require another bailout from WE THE PEOPLE.
You can look at their financials, or talk to people who work there, or you can choose to believe the propaganda about how Obama "Saved the Auto Industry", You can look at each of the car companies, and see how they are doing, what quality problems they have, etc. Or you can make a stereotypical statement about how all companies do this "par for the course" leading to more General, er, Government Motors happening.
I see your point... But I have a hard type accepting "Object Oriented" when all of the cells are of the same type, implement the same interface, and have to be queried to figure out what's in them. Where's the class hierarchy? Abstraction? Inheritance? Hence the similarity to VBA, or PHP, where there is but one variable type (Object, Variant, what have you) and the threaded interpreter spends most of its time querying the variable descriptor to figure out exactly what kind of data it holds, rather then actually doing work.
Excel is a brilliant piece of work, one of the best MS products ever (aside from their IDE's). As a side note I've wondered how Excel can be so great and Outlook can suck so badly, but that's another topic for another day.
The original spreadsheet, VisiCalc, didn't take all that long to write I suspect. Of course the tool at the time was assembler on a CPU with two registers (if I remember correctly) - Now that was a feat of skill!
Good points. My favorite is that sometimes they can communicate across the galaxy instantly, and other times messages take weeks to be received - depending on the nature of the plot at that moment.
And lets not forget a ship flying faster than light and shooting photon torpedoes.
The most interesting part of all? You never, ever see a bathroom of any sort.... not even a door to one.
A spreadsheet is "object oriented"? Good grief. Excel VBA is less capable than the first language I learned - PDP-11 BASIC on RSTS/E....
The reason this happened is the Internet.
Web sites are, more often than not, built in assembly line fashion, where a slicer/front end guy turns layered graphics files (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) into HTML/CSS/JS/JQ, then a different guy marries this to a framework (Yii, Zend, Code Igniter, PHP Storm, Word Press, Ruby, whatever), and then yet another guy runs Q/A. Most of this stuff gets written in horribly ancient non strongly typed threaded interpreters, essentially MS-DOS Basic made to look like C. In other words, the perfect environment to code in without any architectural/design skills at all.
It's a very efficient way of building "consumable software" - software with a three to twelve month life cycle, and it's perfect for cheap offshore labor. Get the creative done in South America, the slicing done in Romania, the coding done somewhere else...
So now management believes that large, complex systems can be built using this model, as they can't tell the difference between a facebook user generated content submission sweepstakes and a business intelligence analysis application.
Spend a few years in Digital Interactive, which is where most of the world's programmers live now a days, and you'll realize that the Internet is what has set programming back a decade, because it's all about QUANTITY not QUALITY. Something that's only going to live a year only has to be good enough to work and not one fraction better.
The previous PR campaign - making DIRE claims about how horribly terribly miserable we would all be if we didn't pay attention to this huge problem in an urgent/critical/ASAP way - along with end of the world predictions and scenarios -- failed miserably. Many of those dire predictions failed to come to pass, making the IPCC a laughingstock among many, and tarnishing the science of climatology for decades to come.
So what's the glorious new plan?
Make dire claims about how horribly terribly miserable we would all be if we didn't pay attention to this huge problem in an urgent/critical/ASAP way - along with end of the world predictions and scenarios...
Clearly, these people are utterly fucking clueless about how to advance their cause. Or they are so arrogant - that they believe everyone else is a complete idiot, and can be easily fooled with zero effort.
Meanwhile, climate science is less and less credible. People argue with more emotion. The naysayers have more ammunition. Less and less is accomplished.
Point taken, but the difference is that CEO's didn't setup a system by which they couldn't be fired, through years of cozying up with politicians, and getting legislation passed that gives them tenure, no matter how bad they behave.
I know some wealthy folks - who are in business. It may surprise you to know that these people work their asses off.
Instead of this class warfare against evil corporations bullshit, we should be celebrating the fact that we have a system where ordinary folks, with hard work, dedication, and skill can achieve a salary of this magnitude. Instead, we direct all this hate and anger towards them - and ignore all the other evil in the world, much of which is because of the political system that WE THE PEOPLE have allowed to occur. It is my position that the endless class warfare, designed to make people angry and therefore less able to think clearly, is solely designed to prevent the spotlight from shining on the politicians evil doings.
Screwing people over for money is wrong. Greed happens my friend and it cannot be regulated, or legislated out of existence. People are greedy and often act in their own self interest. An open exchange of ideas, and real journalism exposes the worst of the capitalist CEO's. Stealing from the public trust, in the form of corrupt government, however IS THE WORST CRIME OF ALL - Especially when you prance around and mouth platitudes about how you care about the little people, and are going to protect them from the evil capitalists.
Yes, but let's not leave out the CEO's of the big Political PAC's, the Union bosses (who essentially bribe politicians to ensure they have huge salaries), the public school system administrators (who make huge salaries while teachers have to buy school supplies out of their own pockets), and MOST OF ALL the politicians, who cut one deal after another to get campaign contributions, and then use the money to take lavish trips with the whole family. Let's not forget the Obama's, who spend the taxpayers money like water for their own personal pleasure.
And this is the whole problem with the CLASS WARFARE argument. The same people working overtime to whip up emotions about EVIL CORPORATIONS are just as EVIL, it not MORE SO. But we never hear about that, do we? Instead, they expertly whip up emotions about EVIL CORPORATIONS.
In Detroit, the difference between the Unions, the Government, and the Mafia is all but indistinguishable. Study it. It's the poster child for Democratic party corruption and the effect it has on the poor and the middle class. But alas, all we hear is about those evil Rethugnicans who are in bed with big business. Sure, plenty of them are corrupt to the bone too....
Selective class warfare... is propaganda. Let's apply this idea across the board. Start by limiting campaign contributions, give politicians free airtime during election years, and no more play to play. Right to Work in all 50 states - including the public sector. We own the government, we do not own corporations. The government we can fix. and until it's fixed, nothing is going to improve.
Then why were the scientists telling us in the 1970's that the jet stream destabilization (then, branded by that harbinger of SCIENCE, Time Magazine, named the POLAR VORTEX) - was absolute proof that the science was settled, the next ice was coming FOR SURE and the liberals of the time were making the same claims about anyone who disagreed with them was a backwards ignorant hayseed.
Don't believe me? Ask an old person...
Here's what I tell these guys:
If you're going to act like a Prima-Donna it's acceptable - as long as 100% of your work is Prima-Donna quality, OK? One mistake, and if you don't start acting humble like everyone else around here, you'll never hear the end of it.
Works like a charm. I usually do this in front of the whole team.
I've been in this situation countless times. The advice I have is very simple, and very hard to do:
Be Patient
Every time this has happened... big drama in the team as everyone complains about "the new guy" - who is generally both an idiot, and dictatorial "my way or the highway" and on more than one occasion has threatened us, the development vendor, with his new found power that either we conform to his way or he will get rid of us, forever. And every time, after a few months... new guy is gone, and we are left standing.
So be nice to "new guy" - let hm hang himself. Don't create unnecessary drama - this is what drives managers crazy. Be honest about what's going on, don't exaggerate, don't appear to be emotional about it, hide your annoyance and frustration. And above all, just be patient, eventually the dimwitted ones figure out that new guy is an idiot too.
I agree with your essential point.
The competition for senior developers is so intense, that our strategy is to bring in junior developers, put them on teams with Senior guys, and bring them up to speed. If they like the culture, and the work is interesting, they stay for a very long time, The guys that leave you for a dollar an hour more you really don't want, they tend to sour the team with complaining.
Despite what people who have never managed anyone profess, it is not just all about the money. Money is a horrible reward, really - there's a great book by Daniel Pink called "Drive" that examines what motivates people, and big surprise, raises and bonuses have a very short term effect on productivity. Sure, you have to pay people a wage that covers basic necessities and gives them disposable income - but it is a myth that employees are only motivated by money.
My experience with people out of coding schools is that they have great book smarts, and zero coding smarts. I interviewed a very nice lady who answered every single technical question perfectly - I handed her a marker, put her in front a whiteboard, and asked "Given an array of 10 integers, how would you find the index of the largest one" - She couldn't do it. She had a MCAD.net certification. I asked plenty of other very simple programming questions, she failed them all.
Vocational education is good - if it exposes young minds to programming, who knows, they might find people who have a knack for it. This should happen in public school first of course.
The best programmers I have worked with - had zero formal education in Computer Science. They discovered coding, and they loved it. I am one of those guys, got a degree in Business Economics, first job out of college was a programmer (it was the only job I could find) - I took "Data Processing 101" in college and got a C. I manage programmers now - having coded for 25+ years before that. I'd finish my career as a programmer if it wasn't for tunnel metacarpal syndrome and failing eyesight brought on by 20 years in front of screen.
This is nonsense. Business isn't any more or less evil than anything else. Governments tend to be more evil, BTW.
If you are paying U.S. programmers $100K a year, and your competitors are paying offshore programmers $30K a year, what are you gonna do? Go offshore, or go out of business.
Excellent points, I'd like to add one:
If you at what gets spent on Education in America - and the amount that actually ends up being spent on actual Education - it's a DISGRACE. A huge share of the funding goes into the Teacher's Unions, who have bought their seat at the table by bribing every politician who will listen. Union Bosses and Administrators make huge salaries - whereas the teachers don't get squat.
The Democrats have turned the Union/Party alliance in a huge cash machine.
Proof? Detroit. The Union, the Democratic Party, and the Mafia are indistinguishable from one another - and they ran the city into the ground, all while proclaiming their love of poor minorities.
I am not saying that all Democrats are bad, and that all Unions are the Mafia, but quite a few of them are...
The programmer shortage is REAL - and not just here, it's everywhere. Businesses aren't wanting low experience, low training wanna-bees, they are wanting people who can build products that sell.
Thanks for the reply, and you get major points for being reasonable and not flaming every word I wrote - like some people here.
What every health insurance company does every day is what Healthcare.gov and the associated subsystems are designed to accomplish.
As to your second paragraph I am complete agreement.
You've got to be kidding me. The core of Marxism is the injustice caused by wealth accumulation. The Democratic parties current talking points are income inequality (an interesting position, given that it has gotten WORSE under their polices, but that's another story).
.vs. the rich Democrat Party politicians who hardly give anything.
The left pushes the notion that "the rich", with their ill-gotten gains, lie around idly partying all the time, laughing at the horrible condition of the peasants. This is why we need a benevolent government to redistribute income. Tax the Rich has been the rallying cry of the socialist left forever. You're asking me to prove that the sky is blue. Try looking up.
The left believes that success, and the wealth that comes with it is not the result of hard work and taking risks. People aren't poor because they made bad decisions in life, or are lazy, etc. they are poor because the system is "rigged" by the evil rich and horrible corporations - both of which need to be regulated by a benevolent government.
The truth is that yes, there are a few rich people who inherited their wealth and act this way. Yes, there are a few celebrities who made millions of dollars and act like complete idiots. The majority of rich people work their assess off. What we should be teaching people is to emulate the rich not chastise them. Look at how many self made millionaires came from utter poverty. These are the true heros. Look at how generously the rich give to the poor -
I put it to you, Sir, that the failures of the American Left have caused far more social injustice than the evil rich. And that it is the politicians, not corporate CEO's, are the most greedy people in America. Not ALL of them - some politicians truly care for the common good and believe in this country. Not ALL CEO's are wonderful guys either. But the left's endless attack on "Evil Corporations" denies the other side of the coin - that politicians often show the same ugly greedy traits. FYI I live in Detroit - First hand experience.
You accuse me of quoting a "right wing asshole". So, if I don't agree with "The Narrative" then I am the enemy, and a horrible rethugnican asshole? I hope you're young, and that you'll mature soon and realize how utterly rude your statement is.
Which, I might add, was ripped off from VAX/VMS - With Dave Cutler's comments still in place!!! Dave Cutler, by the way, is the guy behind the VAX/VMS kernel, that Micosoft stole away from DEC (The two companies were across the street from each other)
The HAL concept - in VMS it was called "kernel mode" and "non kernel mode" was the big invention that made almost all of what you see possible...
Thank you for sharing this. It is true all across the ex-Soviet empire even today. Everyone who thinks communism is grand really needs to visit these places.
Absolutely agreed, but Public Funding wouldn't help. www.healthcare.gov - The government is increasingly incapable of building anything without putting the friends of the politicians who approve the funding first, and the desired outcome far, far behind.
It's ludicrous that people think the NSA is listening to every key click from a government who can't build healhcare.gov for the price they paid. That being said, the threat that you may be watched is enough of a deterrent for gullible people.