Do yourself a favor and leave the electronics at home. What an opportunity this will be! You'll be in interesting places, meeting new people... why filter the experience through an assortment of electronic nonsense. You'll have plenty of time to carry that crap around during your entire career when you get home.
This might be your last opportunity to live relatively low-tech. Embrace it.
"...has cost businesses as much per year as the common cold."
The common cold has cost businesses a grand total of $0 every year. This is a classic boondoggle by industry. Companies only have a right to the time they've contracted with you to use. This automatically excludes time when you are sick. Therefore, the time you spend home sick wasn't theirs to begin with.
Games aren't meant to tell a story, or teach kids, or put you in a movie. They're meant to be games. As such, they are a worthwhile endeavor in and of themselves. When a child learns to play an instrument, we accept that as a valid pursuit in and of itself. Games should be treated the same way.
To try to shoehorn science and math and poetry and other subjects into gaming, by making that your and the game's PURPOSE, you'll succeed only in creating a miserable excuse for both a game and a learning tool. Drills are used because they WORK. What's 5 times 7? You know the answer because you were drilled. For simple items like this, games might actually help (i.e. MathBlaster), but you're not going to learn the history of late 19th-century labor relations from a game, at least, not in any depth.
I used to work on such a system, and I did a lot of the testing for it as well. We found quite a few bugs, but those were overwhelmed by the number of interface design flaws we encountered. There were literally hundreds of unnecessary mouse-clicks per user per day in the original interface, simply because the programmers never had to use their own software for days at a time.
So I guess my point is, make sure you don't simply rely on automated testing. A bot won't get sick of clicking unnecessary buttons, and won't develop RSI injuries. Humans will, and you'll get great feedback because of it. At my old company, the programmers were very nice about fixing these flaws once I brought them to their attention, and grateful for our input.
Unless you love this project to death, and can't imagine not sticking around for its completion, leave now. It is not worth it to stay. Your boss is an inconsiderate ogre. You'll be happier EVEN IF it takes you a while to find another job.
I know whereof I speak. I was laid off from a similar position earlier this year; the boss had no respect for employees, demanding ridiculous hours and 24/7 cell phone access (which she used frequently, for often trivial reasons). It wasn't worth it, but for some reason I thought it was, and I stuck around until I got laid off. NOT ONLY have I been deleriously happy since leaving that pit, I have more time to be with my wife, I make less money but feel better about it, AND with hindsight I can't believe I stuck around that place for as long as I did. I should have turned around and left the very first week I was there.
If we all respected ourselves enough to demand proper treatment from our employers, we'd all have better jobs for it. But, of course, not all of us can afford to quit bad jobs, and I understand that. I certainly thought I couldn't. But you might be able to afford more than you think. Sit down and draw up a budget: how much $$ do you spend simply because you work for a jerk? Dinners and lunches out, processed food, gas, increased shopping to make up for lassitude -- it adds up.
In answer to your primary question: Of course coding suffers from long work hours; how could it not? Do you honestly believe the Slashdot party line that caffeine is the answer? Caffiene is a crutch that will bite you in the ass sooner or later.
-Anaphilius one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. E Pluribus Unum.
Hmm. That's interesting! Can't find the site, though.
I think that, if this is true, this thing would be in orbit around the sun in a roughly earth-like orbit. It would take a lot more energy to escape the sun's gravitational pull, but then again, IANAA (I am not an astrophysicist).
Slashdot Mirror
Do yourself a favor and leave the electronics at home. What an opportunity this will be! You'll be in interesting places, meeting new people ... why filter the experience through an assortment of electronic nonsense. You'll have plenty of time to carry that crap around during your entire career when you get home.
This might be your last opportunity to live relatively low-tech. Embrace it.
"...has cost businesses as much per year as the common cold."
The common cold has cost businesses a grand total of $0 every year. This is a classic boondoggle by industry. Companies only have a right to the time they've contracted with you to use. This automatically excludes time when you are sick. Therefore, the time you spend home sick wasn't theirs to begin with.
You're right, of course, but drills are still useful. I should have said "Drills and Books are used because they work."
Games aren't meant to tell a story, or teach kids, or put you in a movie. They're meant to be games. As such, they are a worthwhile endeavor in and of themselves. When a child learns to play an instrument, we accept that as a valid pursuit in and of itself. Games should be treated the same way.
To try to shoehorn science and math and poetry and other subjects into gaming, by making that your and the game's PURPOSE, you'll succeed only in creating a miserable excuse for both a game and a learning tool. Drills are used because they WORK. What's 5 times 7? You know the answer because you were drilled. For simple items like this, games might actually help (i.e. MathBlaster), but you're not going to learn the history of late 19th-century labor relations from a game, at least, not in any depth.
YMMV.
I used to work on such a system, and I did a lot of the testing for it as well. We found quite a few bugs, but those were overwhelmed by the number of interface design flaws we encountered. There were literally hundreds of unnecessary mouse-clicks per user per day in the original interface, simply because the programmers never had to use their own software for days at a time.
So I guess my point is, make sure you don't simply rely on automated testing. A bot won't get sick of clicking unnecessary buttons, and won't develop RSI injuries. Humans will, and you'll get great feedback because of it. At my old company, the programmers were very nice about fixing these flaws once I brought them to their attention, and grateful for our input.
Cheers,
Anaphilius
Unless you love this project to death, and can't imagine not sticking around for its completion, leave now. It is not worth it to stay. Your boss is an inconsiderate ogre. You'll be happier EVEN IF it takes you a while to find another job.
I know whereof I speak. I was laid off from a similar position earlier this year; the boss had no respect for employees, demanding ridiculous hours and 24/7 cell phone access (which she used frequently, for often trivial reasons). It wasn't worth it, but for some reason I thought it was, and I stuck around until I got laid off. NOT ONLY have I been deleriously happy since leaving that pit, I have more time to be with my wife, I make less money but feel better about it, AND with hindsight I can't believe I stuck around that place for as long as I did. I should have turned around and left the very first week I was there.
If we all respected ourselves enough to demand proper treatment from our employers, we'd all have better jobs for it. But, of course, not all of us can afford to quit bad jobs, and I understand that. I certainly thought I couldn't. But you might be able to afford more than you think. Sit down and draw up a budget: how much $$ do you spend simply because you work for a jerk? Dinners and lunches out, processed food, gas, increased shopping to make up for lassitude -- it adds up.
In answer to your primary question: Of course coding suffers from long work hours; how could it not? Do you honestly believe the Slashdot party line that caffeine is the answer? Caffiene is a crutch that will bite you in the ass sooner or later.
-Anaphilius
one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. E Pluribus Unum.
Hmm. That's interesting! Can't find the site, though.
I think that, if this is true, this thing would be in orbit around the sun in a roughly earth-like orbit. It would take a lot more energy to escape the sun's gravitational pull, but then again, IANAA (I am not an astrophysicist).