Amen to that. I grew up in PA, and everyone there knows that. Why, you ask? Because of the "Pennsylvania Dutch". They are called that because others were confused by the use of the word "Deutschland". They are actually Pennsylvania German, as nearly everyone that has an education in PA area knows....
There are others who can do a far better job at it than myself...I have not been in an organization that uses it yet.
For a good argument about WHY it should be used, check out After the Goldrush by Steve McConnell. Also I think Fred Brooks mentions it in the anniversary edition of Mythical Man-Month. Probably ACM has a few articles on it, too....Here's SEI's home page
SEI = Software Engineering Institute CMM = Capability Maturity Model. Actually, I *do* try to distribute/share knowledge I have, and give pointers to sites/books to those that I work with and for, but I often find that those I work for are eager to dismiss *any* kind of rigorous software practice (at their eventual peril) as merely "academic". For a good (current)read, I suggest After the Goldrush, by Steve McConnell. He builds a very good case, IMHO, for having certification in the Software Engineering field - Texas and Canada already have such programs. I've actually considering moving to Texas so I could complete said program...I would like to see awareness and professionalism (and I don't mean wearing a tie) given a boost in this industry.
I'm not so sure I'm convinced by any argument in the AI realm, but I thought that Society of Mind made an interesting point; that is, we are always saying machines can't do what humans do - Minsky asks, how are we different than machines? That is, other than a different structure, what makes the brain NOT a machine? I found it a very interesting read. I also read Godel, Escher, Bach WAY back, before I was done w/ my CS degree (and therefore some blew over my head), and it has some interesting thought puzzles along the same line...
Regarding the "maturing" of the field, that goes for all of the Software Engineering, period. There are far, far, far too many people calling themselves Software Engineers who do not even have a Comp. Sci. degree (closest thing most schools offer right now) and not nearly enough people paying attention to SEI/CMM - same mistakes keep happening over, and over, and over, and over....people think it's all new, but nothing is rarely completely new, it's just old ideas rehashed. I find it very frustrating when potential employers focus more on languages and tools and buzzwords and years/months using them (example Java, CORBA, UML, EJB, RMI, COM/DCOM, C/C++) rather than trying to measure a person's critical thinking skills...I happen to have experience with some of the above tools/languages, but I don't think it's the whole of my worth as an employee - and the ideas in the above tools/languages are hardly new - yes, Java contains a whole bunch of good ideas and is very logically put together from the ground up - but it contains nothing that has not been done before. Don't believe me? Here's an example: http://www.threedee.com/jcm/psystem/ This industry (in general) has a hard time getting perspective on things.
I *still* get headhunters and the like trying to blow off my co-op and workstudy experiences...so even THAT does not count to some people. I have no pity for many in the industry who are whining about "shortages". I've been out of school for six years now, and still get treated by many as if I am "junior", based on age alone. Of course these same people know almost nothing about the business, either (as I gauge it, anyway) - some of these same people never even HEARD of Mythical Man-Month, or Ed Yourdon, or CMM, etc...
IMHO, companies often shoot themselves in the foot when they are looking for people because they look for very specific skillsets, like, for example, I've seen listings like this:
Java/Corba/Servlets/UML 1+ years in each.
Well, there aren't a whole lot of candidates that meet these requirements, but there are others that have maybe C++ background or Smalltalk or PowerBuilder or some other translatable skill that might be willing to learn Java. Of course, the company also want someone that meets these requirements to be in some predefined range like 40-60K. Good luck, I say.
Couple this kind of HR bungling with the loss of the social contract between employee and company, and you get a "shortage" of cheap people - everyone who's any good usually ends up independent consultant or body-shop consultant. There's not a shortage of people, there's a shortage of people who are adept at hiring the right people. The old are discriminated against, the Indians are taken advantage of, the recent grads are robbed of a lot of their early life, and the companies scream for more H1-B's. The hell with that - make do with the workforce you have, and stop treating people like disposable diapers.
Uh-oh. You mentioned the "E" word. I predict a horde of wacko creationists to come swarming down on this topic...:/ That aside, just heading off things like Down's syndrome, cerebal palsy, etc. would be nice, though, even if creating "superhumans" is not feasible in the near future. Or how about if we just end male pattern baldness?:)
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Amen to that. I grew up in PA, and everyone there knows that. Why, you ask? Because of the "Pennsylvania Dutch". They are called that because others were confused by the use of the word "Deutschland". They are actually Pennsylvania German, as nearly everyone that has an education in PA area knows....
There are others who can do a far better job at it than myself...I have not been in an organization that uses it yet.
For a good argument about WHY it should be used, check out After the Goldrush by Steve McConnell. Also I think Fred Brooks mentions it in the anniversary edition of Mythical Man-Month. Probably ACM has a few articles on it, too....Here's SEI's home page
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/
And Steve McConnell's companion page to the book:
http://www.construx.com/stevemcc/
Ed Yourdon's site:
http://www.yourdon.com
I'd like to point you to Steve McConnell's book, After the Goldrush, if you truly believe what you wrote.
Do you really think NASA does not write software?
SEI = Software Engineering Institute CMM = Capability Maturity Model. Actually, I *do* try to distribute/share knowledge I have, and give pointers to sites/books to those that I work with and for, but I often find that those I work for are eager to dismiss *any* kind of rigorous software practice (at their eventual peril) as merely "academic". For a good (current)read, I suggest After the Goldrush, by Steve McConnell. He builds a very good case, IMHO, for having certification in the Software Engineering field - Texas and Canada already have such programs. I've actually considering moving to Texas so I could complete said program...I would like to see awareness and professionalism (and I don't mean wearing a tie) given a boost in this industry.
I'm not so sure I'm convinced by any argument in the AI realm, but I thought that Society of Mind made an interesting point; that is, we are always saying machines can't do what humans do - Minsky asks, how are we different than machines? That is, other than a different structure, what makes the brain NOT a machine? I found it a very interesting read. I also read Godel, Escher, Bach WAY back, before I was done w/ my CS degree (and therefore some blew over my head), and it has some interesting thought puzzles along the same line...
Regarding the "maturing" of the field, that goes for all of the Software Engineering, period. There are far, far, far too many people calling themselves Software Engineers who do not even have a Comp. Sci. degree (closest thing most schools offer right now) and not nearly enough people paying attention to SEI/CMM - same mistakes keep happening over, and over, and over, and over....people think it's all new, but nothing is rarely completely new, it's just old ideas rehashed. I find it very frustrating when potential employers focus more on languages and tools and buzzwords and years/months using them (example Java, CORBA, UML, EJB, RMI, COM/DCOM, C/C++) rather than trying to measure a person's critical thinking skills...I happen to have experience with some of the above tools/languages, but I don't think it's the whole of my worth as an employee - and the ideas in the above tools/languages are hardly new - yes, Java contains a whole bunch of good ideas and is very logically put together from the ground up - but it contains nothing that has not been done before. Don't believe me? Here's an example: http://www.threedee.com/jcm/psystem/ This industry (in general) has a hard time getting perspective on things.
I *still* get headhunters and the like trying to blow off my co-op and workstudy experiences...so even THAT does not count to some people. I have no pity for many in the industry who are whining about "shortages". I've been out of school for six years now, and still get treated by many as if I am "junior", based on age alone. Of course these same people know almost nothing about the business, either (as I gauge it, anyway) - some of these same people never even HEARD of Mythical Man-Month, or Ed Yourdon, or CMM, etc...
IMHO, companies often shoot themselves in the foot when they are looking for people because they look for very specific skillsets, like, for example, I've seen listings like this:
Java/Corba/Servlets/UML 1+ years in each.
Well, there aren't a whole lot of candidates that meet these requirements, but there are others that have maybe C++ background or Smalltalk or PowerBuilder or some other translatable skill that might be willing to learn Java. Of course, the company also want someone that meets these requirements to be in some predefined range like 40-60K. Good luck, I say.
Couple this kind of HR bungling with the loss of the social contract between employee and company, and you get a "shortage" of cheap people - everyone who's any good usually ends up independent consultant or body-shop consultant. There's not a shortage of people, there's a shortage of people who are adept at hiring the right people. The old are discriminated against, the Indians are taken advantage of, the recent grads are robbed of a lot of their early life, and the companies scream for more H1-B's. The hell with that - make do with the workforce you have, and stop treating people like disposable diapers.
Uh-oh. You mentioned the "E" word. I predict a horde of wacko creationists to come swarming down on this topic... :/ :)
That aside, just heading off things like Down's syndrome, cerebal palsy, etc. would be nice, though, even if creating "superhumans" is not feasible in the near future. Or how about if we just end male pattern baldness?