"Is my new-born career a dead end"?
Absolutely not. If you want to do programming well into your 60s, then do it. Don't pay any attention to anyone who says you can't because they don't know what they're talking about. They may try to denigrate the "old farts", but those "old farts" know a lot of stuff that can't be taught in computer science class. And they write better code, too.
This is not a surprise. Simply by putting some information, thoughts or whatever in an email or chat message and sending that to someone else, you lose whatever privacy rights you would've had if you had not shared. In other words, if you want privacy, don't share it. Theoretically, even after the message reaches its destination, a copy of the email or message is likely sitting on a server somewhere and because of that, as far as the DOJ is concerned, it is public information and therefore no warrant is necessary. That's the argument they are using. I think the debate will boil down to what constitutes public information when the data is encoded on a medium that is not the personal property of the sender even if that information is not readily accessible to anyone without expert hacking skills.
I have been programming since 1975 beginning with IBM 360 Assembly Language, then FORTRAN, then Pascal, then C, followed by C++ and Java and lately been getting into Scala. The craftsmanship improves over time. Us "old guys" may take a little longer to put up code but we make a heck of lot fewer mistakes than the newbies. And yet, there is an unshakable sense that there is an age bias in this business./s/ Cary Scofield
http://www.linkedin.com/in/caryscofield
If people are consistently putting in 60+ hours a week, then one can argue they are either mismanaging their own time or they are being mismanaged or in some ways, being abused and exploited by their employer possibly all in the name of greed. Effective time management means you should be able to achieve what you need to do in 8 or 9 hours a day and have sufficient time to rest and recuperate for the next day. Furthermore, the above comment is just plain stupid. Where would the commenter (named Anonymous Coward, by the way) be without ever having a family? Where would they be if they were never born and raised in a family or nurtured through life and be educated enough to cope with modern life without a family?
While I sympathize with those forced to leave, I am one of those "experienced" software engineers who feel they have been "pushed out" of the I.T. job market due to the influx of foreign talent. We need to take care of our own first, but the American corporate culture persists in not following through with that for a variety of reasons (I am sure greed is among them). Before anyone jumps on me and accuses of me of being solely responsible for my situation by not keeping up technologically-speaking, have a gander at my LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/caryscofield . I'd be interested to know if anyone really thinks my perception of the overall situation (not just my own) is misguided and wrong, and, if so, why.
The end of telecommuting as we know it? Now if all these so-called brilliant CEOs can otherwise figure out how to eliminate these 1 or 2 hour commutes a good many of us have to go through to get to the damn office, I'm all for it.
Another reason why software patents should not be allowed. The obviousness of this "invention" is apparent. The USPTO is pathetic and Google is shameless.
Let me guess: the jobs that were just eliminated will be sent to India. Based on the CIO's surname, it wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what happens.
If what the article says is true, then why can't legions of 50-something, 60-something EXPERIENCED COBOL programmers find jobs? Oh, wait! I almost forgot: many of these jobs have been sent to India! If experienced U.S.-native COBOL programmers are either retired or soon-to-retire, it's because they're being forced to and the corporate heads and powers-that-be in D.C. give every appearance of not giving a damn.
Been down this path many times and all it does is cause endless self-grief and hopelessness, primarily due to lack of upper management support and resistance from peers.
I will tell you what has worked: get in on the ground floor of a project as the tech leader, establish and ENFORCE "good" quality and process standards. You may not become "best buds" with the others because of this, but they'll either toe the line or move to another project or company. Either way, the project will be better for it.
Much ado about nothing. If you can turn the wi-fi off, turn it off. If not, turn the phone off. This whole discussion about privacy violation, profiteering, etc. is a waste of bandwidth. Instead, do something worthwhile with your time. Like I'm doing right now.:-/
I have been saying for years that the problem with Microsoft is Steve Ballmer. Bill Gates and the rest of the MSFT board won't fire him for some reason. I personally would rather have seen incremental improvements to Windows 7 than see what appears to be a complete revamping.
I am in general agreement that most code out in the "wild" is terrible. However, this assessment may be due to the proposition that very programmer thinks that every other programmer's code is a piece of sh*t.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, right.
Shades of Richard M. Nixon.
"Is my new-born career a dead end"? Absolutely not. If you want to do programming well into your 60s, then do it. Don't pay any attention to anyone who says you can't because they don't know what they're talking about. They may try to denigrate the "old farts", but those "old farts" know a lot of stuff that can't be taught in computer science class. And they write better code, too.
This is not a surprise. Simply by putting some information, thoughts or whatever in an email or chat message and sending that to someone else, you lose whatever privacy rights you would've had if you had not shared. In other words, if you want privacy, don't share it. Theoretically, even after the message reaches its destination, a copy of the email or message is likely sitting on a server somewhere and because of that, as far as the DOJ is concerned, it is public information and therefore no warrant is necessary. That's the argument they are using. I think the debate will boil down to what constitutes public information when the data is encoded on a medium that is not the personal property of the sender even if that information is not readily accessible to anyone without expert hacking skills.
I have been programming since 1975 beginning with IBM 360 Assembly Language, then FORTRAN, then Pascal, then C, followed by C++ and Java and lately been getting into Scala. The craftsmanship improves over time. Us "old guys" may take a little longer to put up code but we make a heck of lot fewer mistakes than the newbies. And yet, there is an unshakable sense that there is an age bias in this business. /s/ Cary Scofield
http://www.linkedin.com/in/caryscofield
I made sure I got my Win7 laptop just before the retail outlets stopped selling them. Glad I did.
Ridiculous. Why does anyone care? I don't think even Richard Dawkins would touch this.
As the science gets better, the older the Universe gets. I would not make any bets that the Universe is ONLY 13.8 billion years old and no older.
Seriously?!!
If people are consistently putting in 60+ hours a week, then one can argue they are either mismanaging their own time or they are being mismanaged or in some ways, being abused and exploited by their employer possibly all in the name of greed. Effective time management means you should be able to achieve what you need to do in 8 or 9 hours a day and have sufficient time to rest and recuperate for the next day. Furthermore, the above comment is just plain stupid. Where would the commenter (named Anonymous Coward, by the way) be without ever having a family? Where would they be if they were never born and raised in a family or nurtured through life and be educated enough to cope with modern life without a family?
While I sympathize with those forced to leave, I am one of those "experienced" software engineers who feel they have been "pushed out" of the I.T. job market due to the influx of foreign talent. We need to take care of our own first, but the American corporate culture persists in not following through with that for a variety of reasons (I am sure greed is among them). Before anyone jumps on me and accuses of me of being solely responsible for my situation by not keeping up technologically-speaking, have a gander at my LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/caryscofield . I'd be interested to know if anyone really thinks my perception of the overall situation (not just my own) is misguided and wrong, and, if so, why.
The politician forgets he is adding to the CO2 with all his hot air.
The end of telecommuting as we know it? Now if all these so-called brilliant CEOs can otherwise figure out how to eliminate these 1 or 2 hour commutes a good many of us have to go through to get to the damn office, I'm all for it.
Another reason why software patents should not be allowed. The obviousness of this "invention" is apparent. The USPTO is pathetic and Google is shameless.
Let me guess: the jobs that were just eliminated will be sent to India. Based on the CIO's surname, it wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what happens.
If what the article says is true, then why can't legions of 50-something, 60-something EXPERIENCED COBOL programmers find jobs? Oh, wait! I almost forgot: many of these jobs have been sent to India! If experienced U.S.-native COBOL programmers are either retired or soon-to-retire, it's because they're being forced to and the corporate heads and powers-that-be in D.C. give every appearance of not giving a damn.
Been down this path many times and all it does is cause endless self-grief and hopelessness, primarily due to lack of upper management support and resistance from peers. I will tell you what has worked: get in on the ground floor of a project as the tech leader, establish and ENFORCE "good" quality and process standards. You may not become "best buds" with the others because of this, but they'll either toe the line or move to another project or company. Either way, the project will be better for it.
Much ado about nothing. If you can turn the wi-fi off, turn it off. If not, turn the phone off. This whole discussion about privacy violation, profiteering, etc. is a waste of bandwidth. Instead, do something worthwhile with your time. Like I'm doing right now. :-/
I smell a lawsuit. Ahmed shouldn't take this without a fight.
In 99.999% of the cases, every engineer thinks every other engineer's work is a piece of sh*t. So what else is new?
You know the old saying: "They gitcha comin' and they gitcha goin'".
I have been saying for years that the problem with Microsoft is Steve Ballmer. Bill Gates and the rest of the MSFT board won't fire him for some reason. I personally would rather have seen incremental improvements to Windows 7 than see what appears to be a complete revamping.
I am in general agreement that most code out in the "wild" is terrible. However, this assessment may be due to the proposition that very programmer thinks that every other programmer's code is a piece of sh*t.