Glory in software engineering??? Excuse me if I disagree, having been a software engineer, programmer, systems analyst, DBA, consultant and technical director in my career.
The glory of IT is not in IT, but in software engineering. IT is the dark, smelly, hairy underbelly of computing technology. Software engineering is the light, bright, wonderful topside, basking in sunshine and wonder.
Software engineers are given the challenge of a problem to solve, and the money and time to do it in. Good software engineering consists of designing the most elegant technical architecture to solve the problem.
--- Uhh actually software engineers usually are required to work extra hours because there is not enough time in the budget. Add onto that almost every client, whether inside the company or an external company "balks" that the time estimates are too long - so unrealistic estimates are usually put into the project. As for "most elegant technical architecture?" Only in the top software companies will you see that. In most places - whatever is good enough is used.
Software engineers regularly meet with executives in fancy boardrooms with glass tables. They are there to design quality solutions that will be used by thousands or millions. They are treated with accord, respect, and often, mild deference. Lunch is often provided by hired caterers at design meetings.
--- Uhh, actually most of the executives are scared to death of Software engineers and rarely talk to them. Usually, there are about 4-5 levels of team leads, project managers, directors, etc before you even get to the executive level. Catered lunch is only given to SAP consultants, and that was in the past. As for respect - actually we are typically screamed at when something goes into production that fails - even though it was the QA teams fault for not testing it enough.
There are never enough qualified software engineers - they are pretty much always in high demand and paid to match. When software engineers work in a field, they quickly acquire domain expertise that's almost impossible to replace.
--- Uhh, actually many of us made more money in the late nineties then we do now. Because rather than having good, high quality software, many firms choose to outsource the development - so we spend most of our time fixing bad code that was written overseas. As for domain expertise, some of that is true, but the language and platform "dejour" changes so fast that someone that is a irreplaceable expert today can be a nobody tomorrow. Did you ever hear of "PowerBuilder" for instance? I bet those guys are really in demand these days - NOT.
People who confuse IT and Software Engineering often wind up working in the wrong field. Put in the time to become a software engineer, and you won't ever regret it. Cram through your MCSE or CCNA, and become one of the faceless droids. (Yay! I know what an MSI file is! I can calculate a subnet!)
So instead of being an IT slave, I can be a Software Engineering indentured servant? Come on man didn't you ever watch "Office Space"??? Those guys were software engineers, not IT staff. In any case I sincerely hope you were being sarcastic about software engineering. Otherwise, either that was a really good joint you smoked before writing this or you have never actually been a software engineer in your life.
I am not so sure. You seem to forget that carrier fleets are as much a result of political posturing as necessity and are a direct outgrowth of US experiences in the WWII in the Pacific, which is to put it diplomatically a classic case of "fighting the last war". Also the US has never been truly tested on the seas against anyone but militarily 3rd-rate, impoverished countries. I seem to recall a saying the submariners are rather fond of, to the effect that in case of a serious modern naval conflict there would be only two classes of ships at seas: submarines and... "targets"!
Something else to ponder: the Soviet Union never invested in the massive carriers, focusing rather heavily on fast, long-range submarines instead. Presumably they also had "people thinking about fleet deployment for a living", don't you think? Or do you suppose they were all idiots, far beneath the American Super-Men, The Masters of the Universe?
Actually, the soviets had several large carriers planned and wanted to build more. But apparently the break up of the Soviet Union stopped a lot of that:
In addition, I think your missing the point. A carrier is not designed to function alone. It will have a lot of destroyers and other support ships to protect it from submarines. In addition, its aircraft have a long range and can attack other ships without aircraft before those ships get close enough to attack.
Anything attacking an aircraft carrier is going to have to get close enough and get through all the air patrols, anti-submarine air patrols and cover of the surrounding frigates and destroyers.
The aircraft carrier is more of a mobile air field than anything else. It has allowed the US ( for the right or wrong reason's, I won't get into politics here ) to bring air support right off of the coast of a nation as has been demonstrated in the Korea conflict, the Vietnam war, and both Iraqi wars to support troops directly, challenge the enemies air force, and bomb ground targets.
In addition, I would like to point out that the British decided to maintain a carrier force are going to build new, larger carriers based on their experience in the Falklands war.
I think carriers and air power at sea have pretty much shown their value from WWII onward. I don't think you can argue that they have not. I also don't think you can argue that carriers are not relevant anymore.
H1B is part of a secret plan to destroy India's culture....
In fact, many of the better H1B coders I know from India have become American citizens, are raising their kids in America, and have started to do things like listen to Heavy Metal, play video games, buy fast cars, drink "heinous" amounts of beer, eat meat every day and other "bad" habits that make Americans who they are.
Meanwhile, I don't see many American girls wearing Sair's or American kids watching Bollywood movies...
Muha-ha-ha!!!
India may take the IT market - but America is conquering India and winning in a cultural war.
Its only a matter of time before India will have a McDonalds on every corner and 50 WalMarts in Mumbai - and Hindi and Muslim kids everywhere in India will be listening to Metallica or Ministry on the weekends while they are eating a Big Mac and fries instead of going to temple or mosque.
The jokes on you guys!!! So what - maybe you take our jobs. You will send the money right back to us while you buy our food, music, movies, video games, and clothing...
HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
Placebo effect not limited to alternative medicine
on
Trick or Treatment
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· Score: 1
Did the book happen to mention that the convential medical system routinely prescribes medications that have no effect as well - to simply provide the patient with a "Placebo"?
I went to college a few years back, in the nineties, and I didn't get paid for an intern job. Neither did any of my classmates. Is that something companies do now?
Anyway, you are at the beginning of your career, so I wouldn't worry about the money for an intern. Intern with the most interesting job at the most interesting company, even if you have to do it for free. Then you will be off to a good start and learn something interesting.
As far as salaries, you can look at Dice.com, ComputerJobs.com, Monster.com, realrates.com etc and look to see "around" what people are paying.
But these are just ballpark figures. Its all in the negotiation and the what the company your working for is willing to pay ( and how bad they need your skills ). I've seen poor saps making less than 50K coding C++ with years of experience. And I've seen complete idiots pulling in 100 dollars an hour or more.
When you do look for that first job, negotiate good, interview a lot, be professional, and get as many offers as you can. Then you can pick and choose and have more leverage.
Yes, I fell for eHarmony. They are much worse. You know, us technical guys get so wrapped up in our work, we don't have time to meet any decent women.
Well, eHarmony will bug the heck out of you and "convince" you to sign up for a 7 day trail. During that 7 days you will get all kinds of "Matches" with interesting, and attractive women. Some will start communication with you.
You're thinking to yourself - this is great! I'm meeting more women then I've ever met in bars or anywhere else! Multiple matches keep showing up and your communicating with more of them. And you are thinking: "Wow - I'm going to be dating 3 or 4 woman!".
Then the 7 days passes. All the sudden, the matches slow down. A lot of the ones you were talking to suddenly stop communication with you. ( were they even real women in the first place? Or just employees of eHarmony.com masquerading as potential dates? ) Down to 3 or 4 matches a week. None very interesting. Not nearly as attractive as the matches in the first 7 days.
You email eHarmony and you call them ( finding the phone number takes a little work - they didn't have it on their website when I was trying to contact them ). A refund is not available after 7 days. You are out 165 dollars, if you paid for the 6 months.
They say you need to tweak your match "settings" to get more matches. Well, heck, I have every race and religion checked, plus I have from 23 to 38 in the age range, and I have 100 miles from my zip code checked. I live in a city with over 5 million people in the metro area as well.
After a few weeks, the matches are 1 or 2 a week. One a few ever respond. Most don't even communicate. After 3 months, the "trickle" of women is a steady 1 to 2 a week.
If you call eHarmony at this point, they either give you the "you have to be patient, it takes time to find the perfect match" line of BS. If you keep asking for a refund, they start getting annoyed with you.
Emails aren't responded to. I even wrote a snail mail certified letter to the CEO of eHarmony asking for a refund. Nothing. Not even a phone call or a letter. No response. It's like your emails and snail mails go to/dev/null.
Classmates.com? Just a minor annoyance. Someone needs to sue the heck out of eHarmony.com. They are the real scammers. I wish they would get sued big time. I would do it myself, but I didn't keep good records and this happened over a year ago.
Hmmm, sometimes you are learning in a game and you don't even know it...
I was playing Civ IV a lot, and they had some world leaders of some of the civilizations I had not heard of, as well as some world wonders and buildings.
There was some information in the civilpedia, which isn't perfect, but it made me think.
And the next thing you know, I'm taking a history course at a local college just for the heck of it.
Hmmm, C, C++ and Java maybe quicker for a simple and easy program - to do a simple task. But in the business world, the rules are different I think when you have hundreds of programs to deal with and lots of data.
Change in business systems often involve dozens if not hundreds of programs...
I've programmed in COBOL, C, C++, and Java - all extensively, and actually I'd have to say that C++ and even Java requires more time and thought than COBOL to code when you do it right and design and code reusable classes, especially on a big project.
Yeah, the code used in C++ and Java maybe shorter than COBOL in the raw total number of lines.
But I would argue if the interface of a method of a class has to change and its used by dozens of Java or C++ programs. Then you run into the same issues that you do with changing COBOL code... You have to track down every program using that class and modify it. Or if you add a database field, then you have to change every object that uses that field. Which requires tracking down and changing every program that needs to use that field.
Also I would argue, editing, compiling, and running COBOL is a piece of cake on the mainframe compared to building C/C++ and Java projects. Edit, submit to compile, bang, your done. Then you just run the program with a JCL job.
While I've worked on some C/C++ projects that had MAKE files with more code than a COBOL program!, with dozens of macros and 50 or more make targets. And after changes you have to rebuild your dll's or shared libraries and executables and redistribute them. And for Java you have recompile and then either distribute the new classes or a new JAR or WAR file. And sometimes it can take your entire lunch break to rebuild if you changed enough code...
And add that to the fun you encouter when you have to link in Oracle, RogueWave or CORBA libraries into you executables!
Or making sure you have all the header files included! And the pathes to those header files setup correctly!
And add it to the fact you don't have to deal with memory leaks in COBOL, although you can do stupid things in COBOL to cause core dumps ( called ABENDS on the mainframe ) in COBOL. Like trying to move the wrong datatype from one field to another, or dividing by zero - you get the picture...
So I actually think COBOL is much easier than C, C++ and Java to code in. The only time COBOL starts to get hard I think is when you start calling other COBOL programs from a COBOL program, or the COBOL program is a CICS COBOL program, or you do complex DB2 queries or VSAM file reads in your COBOL program.
I think the problem actually has more to do with the current lack of COBOL knowledge, lack of resources, and the general lack of documentation with a lot of the older COBOL systems because they were written 10 or more years ago. Heck, sometimes companies even lose the source code!!! So New people coming in have to analyze and figure out what the heck is going on. I think that's what takes the most time...
I even "visited" markets in both Taiwan and China where I saw pirated versions of almost every Microsoft and PC software package for sale for a fraction of what they are supposed to retail for. I saw CD's, Movies, everything for sale for a fraction of what the real product costs.
And before you suggest that the products were not pirated, may I add that the manuals with the software were cheesy xeroxed copies. And the CD's and DVD's didn't come in standard cases....
Any place like this would be busted in a few days in the US.
Granted, I haven't been to the mainland, but most of the products probably come from there....
These are facts... The only "people" hurt by denying them are the Chinese people, because as their products get a worse reputation, their economy will suffer.
Recognize also that due to the "firewall" the chinese government has on internet access, that few chinese are probably even aware of the criticism of the Chinese Government or the product recalls or the piracy...
Yeah, the US government kind of sucks. But at least I can read about it and talk about it, without my news or speech being "censured"...
And I can go to a coffee shop, get drunk on Caffine, or go to a bar, and get drunk on beer, and bitch about the US and living here without fear of being thrown in prison because I don't "agree" with my government...
Didn't they just recall the Shenzhou space craft from WalMart? Too much lead in the paint or something like that? Also I think the navigation software was pirated from Google Earth...
I guess the lead makes it too heavy to leave the Earth's gravity well. And also, you don't want your kids chewing on the outside of a space craft. They might get lead poisoning....
I still dispute the assumption that IT staff needs will diminish...
Why? Because the computer hardware and software is moving at an exponential rate compared to other technologies and information technology is much different than other technologies.
For instance, if you take a technology like the gasoline engine, it only has one basic purpose, moving cars and vehicles and doing work ( running a generator or pump ). Its improved over the years and become much more complex. Yet that complexity is still only a factor of what? 10 times better? Because its a "basic" machine that converts Oxygen and Fuel into Power. Like a "ship" is a basic machine that moves people and/or goods, or weapons over the water.
On the other hand computers are a programmable machine, that has more and more uses as more and more software is written. And arguably, every software program is a "machine" of some type. Each one with a specific purpose taking some input, doing work, and generating some output.
In fact, most the examples technology you cite as being "simplfied" and requiring less labor to operate are transportation technologies. And the reduction in labor IS due in a large part to computers. And someone had to write the software and put hardware into those technologies ( increasing the need for programmers, hardware, chip designers, etc ).
Also, computer technology is a completely different "beast" than transportation tech. If you "advanced" other technologies like transportation at the rate that computer hardware and software has advanced in the last 20 years, then you would have ships that could skim along the water at mach 3 while burning almost no fuel, Space ships travelling near the speed of light, elevators that use teleportation to get you to the top floor, etc. The change in computer hardware/software over the last 20 years has been nothing short of "phenomenal".
There are more IT workers now then ever before and MUCH more than there were when I graduated from college in the early 1990's. And the demand just keeps increasing and will continue to increase. An entire industry has been created in Eastern Europe, Ireland, India, China and other countries just to develop software. And yet there is still a shortage of IT workers in this country AND there thousands of workers all over in the US on H1B Visa's.
Add that to the fact that most IT departments 20 years ago only had to deal with DOS on some PC's, some software apps written in Cobol or C or RPG or Basic, and maybe a mainframe OR and AS/400 OR a UNIX box or 2. All these systems were running apps with "green screens" or CGA/EGA at best.
Now many IT departments have to deal with multiple networks and protocols, multiple host systems ( Mainframe, Unix, AS/400, Windows )talking to each other and exchanging data, Unix boxes in all flavors of Unix, Linux Boxes, Macs, PDA's, laptops, internet connectivity, databases ( multiple types ), Terrabytes of disk storage, ERP software and installing and integrating that, multiple programming languages and scripting languages, office productivity suites, email servers, automatated paging and calling for support, voice response systems. Heck, the computer rooms at many small businesses now have raised floor, controlled cooling and humidity control, and multiple rack servers, Voice over IP systems, routers, etc... And also consider that many parts of the world are just now getting online and computerized.
Trust me, the tip of the iceburg has just been reached. I think IT staff will continue to increase UNTIL AI is developed to the point that software starts writing software and replacing programmers. And at that point, we have a whole new "pandora's box" of issues...
And I'm not too worried either. Many IT people don't understand business and many business people don't understand IT.
I've been lucky to be on both sides, and understand both the business and the technical side.
I've met guys with Master's and PhD's in computer science that had the social skills of a creature from "Spore" and could write a compiler, but couldn't read a simple spec and write a program to generate a report or a program to do simple calculations and database updates. One guy's program ( this guy had a PhD in C.S. ), that I had to partially re-write, used foo, a, b, c, i and other obscure variable names in a real production program. I never really figured out if he just didn't care, didn't know any better, or he just didn't have the "mindset" to think that other people would have to maintain his program.
I've also met project managers and users that can't even install software or know how to scan their PC for a virus. I had to help one guy I worked for figure out how to hook his laptop up to an external monitor, from what I recall...
So I'm not too worried about finding work right now...
1. Computers aren't that new. The first ones appeared in the 1930's and 1940's. Argueably people like Babbage ( and Lovelace ) and Leonardo DaVinci could have "built" mechanical computers - if they had the resources. 2. Cars have been around for more than 100 years, and we still need mechanics. 3. Working parts has very little to do with it, outside of the fans and harddrives, computers don't have any moving parts. Most of the "headaches" I think are around designing, building, maintaining, and supporting software. 4. Having been in IT for 16 years, I would have to say that things are actually more complex now than ever. There are more software tools, programming lanugages, databases, report writers, operating systems, networking protocols, etc than ever before. And all these tools have a lot more features than they used to. Its getting increasely harder to know "some" of them well. Gone are the days when just knowing DOS, UNIX, MVS, VMS, and OS/400 would bascially give you knowledge of 90% of the hardware running. Or knowing just Assembly/C/Cobol/C++ would allow you to read and maintain most of the source code being used. So I would argue that the need for IT staff is going to continue to increase. 5. True Hackers are hard to find. Most people that consider themselves "Hackers" are just downloading and using the tools other people wrote to crack systems. I'm not a hacker, but I would say that a true "Hacker" would have intimate knowledge of the internals of the Unix kernal, Linux, Windows, be a "decent" C/C++ programmer, know script programming, understand Firewall rules and configuration, and have an in depth knowledge of TCP/IP networking protocols and routing, and the "social" skills necesssary to call and poke around to get information about logins and passwords. 80-90 percent of the people I know in IT don't even have these skills... Hacking is much harder than it used to be. It used to be you just called a "number" using your 1200/2400 baud modem and poked around. 6. Security is just a small sub-set of the big picture. Its important, but I would say that software engineeers, database admins, sys admins, and network engineers are all important and going to continue to be important...
I think you have missed this point. As the speed of microprocessors has increased ( per Moores law ), I think we have seen an increase in the complexity of operating systems and software. Which is requiring more and more IT knowledge and resources.
I think the "disconnect" between IT and Business has a lot more to do with the fact that business "knows" they depend on IT, but they are frustrated that IT can't seem to deliever what they want when they want it. On the other side, IT has to deal with more and more tools and IT staff has to learn more and more skills. And to increase frustration in IT, business users frequently don't deliever clear requirements or they "change" their mind in the middle of projects....
I think moving forward, the disconnect is just going to get worse, not better and the requirement for IT workers is going to continue to increase....
A few questions about experience or some revelant technical questions I have no problem with. However at times I've had to deal with:
1. Sitting at a table while a bunch of 2-3 year IT guys ask me questions like what does "cout" in C++ do. ( While I was thinking why are guys even asking me these questions? I just explained to them about my experience writing multi-threaded server processes in C++??? )...
2. Sit at a terminal and "code" a JSP page. ( Again, not a revelant test, because I had much more experience coding pure Java Servlets and I had told them this. And they were even looking for someone to code pure Java Servlets NOT JSP pages. )
3. Sit and listen to a guy ask me Java questions, and then get all arrogent because I didn't know how to use the Java IDE they used at that shop. ( Even though we had both worked for the same company previously, we knew some of the same people, and he KNEW that I knew my stuff ).
Needless to say, I didn't even follow up with getting the job after these 3 interviews. The types of tests told me enough. The first 2 situations, based on the types of tests told me the shops were "coding sweatshops" and they were technically weak in that they didn't understand my experience.
While the 3rd situation showed me that I wouldn't have wanted to work there because there was a bunch of "ego" from the guy that interviewed me and I would have had to work with this guy.
Just realize this when you take these tests. Like a lot of other people have already said, the tests show a lot about the company itself.
So based on the test, you can kind of determine what your in for.
Another thing to watch for. Multiple interviews also show me something. Usually, when there are more than 2 or 3 interviews, it shows that the company is full of red tape - and should be avoided, unless you really want to work there. It also shows a company where there is a "top-heavy" structure and everybody has to agree before anything is done...
So I guess the rule of thumb is if the tests and the interviews are reasonable, the company is probably reasonable. But if the testing or interview process raises some red flags - you are probably in for a bad experience if you take the job...
2. Is there some reason why Apple is not competing in the international market? Is Apple having their lunch eaten by companies that are "household names" in Asia, or is the product inferrior? What is Apple's penetration in those markets over the past year?
The iPhone was just released to most of the world recently. Before that it was only available in 6 countries:
Agreed... I had a Windows Mobile Device, an HTC 2125. I hated that thing. I killed one by running over it in my car.
Anyway, it was difficult to navigate though Windows Mobile using the keys and the keypad was a pain to use. I ended up for the most part just entering all my data in Outlook when I was on my PC and syncing it to the HTC 2125.
Even viewing pictures was a pain, you had to navigate through the folders using the keys to find pictures.
I never got the email working...
Anyway, the only thing I liked about that phone was the Solitare game that came with Windows.
My iPhone is so much better. Its hard to believe they were charging 400 bucks for the HTC 2125 just a few years back. The iPhone has really raised the bar...
I guess I expected more based on the all the "hype" the game was getting and the screen shots. I also expected more because although the "Sims" is weak, Sim City was more complex, and I even used to have "Sim Earth" back in the days... I expected I guess more of what "Sim Earth" had.
There are more complex games out there that are loads of fun. One example I can think of is Master Of Orion II, which to me has just enough complexty to make it interesting, while it moves at the right pace. Another game was Alpha Centari, a spin-off of Civilization that was one of the most addictive games I've ever played.
I guess I wasted 50 bucks on this one. Oh well, It will keep me entertained for about 2-3 weeks. I guess its cheaper than 3 trips to the movies with a popcorn and a drink....:)
Yeah, I know, I know... I've read about every novel, except for some of the books that Brian Herbert's son wrote... I even have a copy of the "Dune Encyclopedia"...
Anyway, I meant "Spice" as far as being used as a "resource" to harvest in a game. But even there I was wrong. There was a "DUNE" game that was released for the PC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(computer_game) that was the first game I ever encountered on the PC that referenced spice.
I was more complaining about the fact that they could have come up with something more original than harvesting a resource called "Spice".
They may have been paying "homage" to DUNE, but I saw it as a cop-out...
I'm an avid gamer. My first games were games like Zork II, Ultima I, II, II I played on my C-64 and 20 or 30 carts I had for my 2600. I've played most of the major Sims, Strategy Games, and RTS titles. Everything from Dune II to Warcraft III. From Sim City I to CIV IV. From MOO to the demo copy of Sins of a Solar Empire, which I'm about to try.
And let me say, Spore is an interesting game, but after playing it yesterday for the first time, I think it was a real let-down considering the type. I would say that its a GOOD game, and I actually had some fun during the creature stage "tweaking" my creature, but the cell stage was a boring arcade style game. And the tribal stage was a let down because basically all you do is collect food and either kill the other tribes or play "music" to impress them.
Not really an "in depth" game like I was expecting. I'm on the civilzation stage, and I was a little disappointed to find out that you have to "harvest spice". Come on, how original is that? That goes all the way back to Dune II and Dune 2000 from Westwood. At least they could have come up with something original like "Smithore" ( M.U.L.E. )...
So I think the negative reviews are probably just that. Negative reviews.
Although one cool thing was that I encountered one of the creatures I designed about a month ago with creature creator show up in the creature phase of the game in "EPIC" size! It proceeded to "eat" half my population...
Dude - Blu-Ray just killed HD-DVD. And in my area Target and Best Buy have both pretty much doubled the shelf space for Blu-Ray movies... And most of the TV's for sale are 1080P format now - and you know the sales guys are pushing Blu-Ray with the HD sets.
Walk into a Best Buy, a Fry's, or a Circuit City and see how many Blu-Ray players are for sale. I'm sorry, its already here to stay.
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Glory in software engineering??? Excuse me if I disagree, having been a software engineer, programmer, systems analyst, DBA, consultant and technical director in my career.
The glory of IT is not in IT, but in software engineering. IT is the dark, smelly, hairy underbelly of computing technology. Software engineering is the light, bright, wonderful topside, basking in sunshine and wonder.
Software engineers are given the challenge of a problem to solve, and the money and time to do it in. Good software engineering consists of designing the most elegant technical architecture to solve the problem.
--- Uhh actually software engineers usually are required to work extra hours because there is not enough time in the budget. Add onto that almost every client, whether inside the company or an external company "balks" that the time estimates are too long - so unrealistic estimates are usually put into the project. As for "most elegant technical architecture?" Only in the top software companies will you see that. In most places - whatever is good enough is used.
Software engineers regularly meet with executives in fancy boardrooms with glass tables. They are there to design quality solutions that will be used by thousands or millions. They are treated with accord, respect, and often, mild deference. Lunch is often provided by hired caterers at design meetings.
--- Uhh, actually most of the executives are scared to death of Software engineers and rarely talk to them. Usually, there are about 4-5 levels of team leads, project managers, directors, etc before you even get to the executive level. Catered lunch is only given to SAP consultants, and that was in the past. As for respect - actually we are typically screamed at when something goes into production that fails - even though it was the QA teams fault for not testing it enough.
There are never enough qualified software engineers - they are pretty much always in high demand and paid to match. When software engineers work in a field, they quickly acquire domain expertise that's almost impossible to replace.
--- Uhh, actually many of us made more money in the late nineties then we do now. Because rather than having good, high quality software, many firms choose to outsource the development - so we spend most of our time fixing bad code that was written overseas. As for domain expertise, some of that is true, but the language and platform "dejour" changes so fast that someone that is a irreplaceable expert today can be a nobody tomorrow. Did you ever hear of "PowerBuilder" for instance? I bet those guys are really in demand these days - NOT.
People who confuse IT and Software Engineering often wind up working in the wrong field. Put in the time to become a software engineer, and you won't ever regret it. Cram through your MCSE or CCNA, and become one of the faceless droids. (Yay! I know what an MSI file is! I can calculate a subnet!)
So instead of being an IT slave, I can be a Software Engineering indentured servant? Come on man didn't you ever watch "Office Space"??? Those guys were software engineers, not IT staff. In any case I sincerely hope you were being sarcastic about software engineering. Otherwise, either that was a really good joint you smoked before writing this or you have never actually been a software engineer in your life.
I am not so sure. You seem to forget that carrier fleets are as much a result of political posturing as necessity and are a direct outgrowth of US experiences in the WWII in the Pacific, which is to put it diplomatically a classic case of "fighting the last war". Also the US has never been truly tested on the seas against anyone but militarily 3rd-rate, impoverished countries. I seem to recall a saying the submariners are rather fond of, to the effect that in case of a serious modern naval conflict there would be only two classes of ships at seas: submarines and ... "targets"!
Something else to ponder: the Soviet Union never invested in the massive carriers, focusing rather heavily on fast, long-range submarines instead. Presumably they also had "people thinking about fleet deployment for a living", don't you think? Or do you suppose they were all idiots, far beneath the American Super-Men, The Masters of the Universe?
Actually, the soviets had several large carriers planned and wanted to build more. But apparently the break up of the Soviet Union stopped a lot of that:
http://128.121.102.226/rcar.html
In addition, I think your missing the point. A carrier is not designed to function alone. It will have a lot of destroyers and other support ships to protect it from submarines. In addition, its aircraft have a long range and can attack other ships without aircraft before those ships get close enough to attack.
Anything attacking an aircraft carrier is going to have to get close enough and get through all the air patrols, anti-submarine air patrols and cover of the surrounding frigates and destroyers.
The aircraft carrier is more of a mobile air field than anything else. It has allowed the US ( for the right or wrong reason's, I won't get into politics here ) to bring air support right off of the coast of a nation as has been demonstrated in the Korea conflict, the Vietnam war, and both Iraqi wars to support troops directly, challenge the enemies air force, and bomb ground targets.
In addition, I would like to point out that the British decided to maintain a carrier force are going to build new, larger carriers based on their experience in the Falklands war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_class_aircraft_carrier
I think carriers and air power at sea have pretty much shown their value from WWII onward. I don't think you can argue that they have not. I also don't think you can argue that carriers are not relevant anymore.
I'm sorry, the joke is on the Indians.
H1B is part of a secret plan to destroy India's culture....
In fact, many of the better H1B coders I know from India have become American citizens, are raising their kids in America, and have started to do things like listen to Heavy Metal, play video games, buy fast cars, drink "heinous" amounts of beer, eat meat every day and other "bad" habits that make Americans who they are.
Meanwhile, I don't see many American girls wearing Sair's or American kids watching Bollywood movies...
Muha-ha-ha!!!
India may take the IT market - but America is conquering India and winning in a cultural war.
Its only a matter of time before India will have a McDonalds on every corner and 50 WalMarts in Mumbai - and Hindi and Muslim kids everywhere in India will be listening to Metallica or Ministry on the weekends while they are eating a Big Mac and fries instead of going to temple or mosque.
The jokes on you guys!!! So what - maybe you take our jobs. You will send the money right back to us while you buy our food, music, movies, video games, and clothing...
HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
Did the book happen to mention that the convential medical system routinely prescribes medications that have no effect as well - to simply provide the patient with a "Placebo"?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/30/ep.doctors.prescribe.placebos/index.html
One clear example of this is all the doctors that prescribe anti-biotics for viral infections! What a waste of time and money that is...
Because most people that make money use PowerPoint, and if you use OpenOffice, you are saying that you don't make enough money to buy PowerPoint.
hehehe
Light sabers are boring...
I'd much rather have a variable sword from known space which consists of a ultra-thin wire in a stasis field:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/uv.htm/#U
Or a flashlight laser, which can be an awesome flash light, or can be narrowed into a cutting beam:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/f.htm/#F
I went to college a few years back, in the nineties, and I didn't get paid for an intern job. Neither did any of my classmates. Is that something companies do now?
Anyway, you are at the beginning of your career, so I wouldn't worry about the money for an intern. Intern with the most interesting job at the most interesting company, even if you have to do it for free. Then you will be off to a good start and learn something interesting.
As far as salaries, you can look at Dice.com, ComputerJobs.com, Monster.com, realrates.com etc and look to see "around" what people are paying.
But these are just ballpark figures. Its all in the negotiation and the what the company your working for is willing to pay ( and how bad they need your skills ). I've seen poor saps making less than 50K coding C++ with years of experience. And I've seen complete idiots pulling in 100 dollars an hour or more.
When you do look for that first job, negotiate good, interview a lot, be professional, and get as many offers as you can. Then you can pick and choose and have more leverage.
Yes, I fell for eHarmony. They are much worse. You know, us technical guys get so wrapped up in our work, we don't have time to meet any decent women.
Well, eHarmony will bug the heck out of you and "convince" you to sign up for a 7 day trail. During that 7 days you will get all kinds of "Matches" with interesting, and attractive women. Some will start communication with you.
You're thinking to yourself - this is great! I'm meeting more women then I've ever met in bars or anywhere else! Multiple matches keep showing up and your communicating with more of them. And you are thinking: "Wow - I'm going to be dating 3 or 4 woman!".
Then the 7 days passes. All the sudden, the matches slow down. A lot of the ones you were talking to suddenly stop communication with you. ( were they even real women in the first place? Or just employees of eHarmony.com masquerading as potential dates? ) Down to 3 or 4 matches a week. None very interesting. Not nearly as attractive as the matches in the first 7 days.
You email eHarmony and you call them ( finding the phone number takes a little work - they didn't have it on their website when I was trying to contact them ). A refund is not available after 7 days. You are out 165 dollars, if you paid for the 6 months.
They say you need to tweak your match "settings" to get more matches. Well, heck, I have every race and religion checked, plus I have from 23 to 38 in the age range, and I have 100 miles from my zip code checked. I live in a city with over 5 million people in the metro area as well.
After a few weeks, the matches are 1 or 2 a week. One a few ever respond. Most don't even communicate. After 3 months, the "trickle" of women is a steady 1 to 2 a week.
If you call eHarmony at this point, they either give you the "you have to be patient, it takes time to find the perfect match" line of BS. If you keep asking for a refund, they start getting annoyed with you.
Emails aren't responded to. I even wrote a snail mail certified letter to the CEO of eHarmony asking for a refund. Nothing. Not even a phone call or a letter. No response. It's like your emails and snail mails go to /dev/null.
Classmates.com? Just a minor annoyance. Someone needs to sue the heck out of eHarmony.com. They are the real scammers. I wish they would get sued big time. I would do it myself, but I didn't keep good records and this happened over a year ago.
Somebody please sue eHarmony??? Please!!!
Hmmm, sometimes you are learning in a game and you don't even know it...
I was playing Civ IV a lot, and they had some world leaders of some of the civilizations I had not heard of, as well as some world wonders and buildings.
There was some information in the civilpedia, which isn't perfect, but it made me think.
And the next thing you know, I'm taking a history course at a local college just for the heck of it.
Hmmm, C, C++ and Java maybe quicker for a simple and easy program - to do a simple task. But in the business world, the rules are different I think when you have hundreds of programs to deal with and lots of data.
Change in business systems often involve dozens if not hundreds of programs...
I've programmed in COBOL, C, C++, and Java - all extensively, and actually I'd have to say that C++ and even Java requires more time and thought than COBOL to code when you do it right and design and code reusable classes, especially on a big project.
Yeah, the code used in C++ and Java maybe shorter than COBOL in the raw total number of lines.
But I would argue if the interface of a method of a class has to change and its used by dozens of Java or C++ programs. Then you run into the same issues that you do with changing COBOL code... You have to track down every program using that class and modify it. Or if you add a database field, then you have to change every object that uses that field. Which requires tracking down and changing every program that needs to use that field.
Also I would argue, editing, compiling, and running COBOL is a piece of cake on the mainframe compared to building C/C++ and Java projects. Edit, submit to compile, bang, your done. Then you just run the program with a JCL job.
While I've worked on some C/C++ projects that had MAKE files with more code than a COBOL program!, with dozens of macros and 50 or more make targets. And after changes you have to rebuild your dll's or shared libraries and executables and redistribute them. And for Java you have recompile and then either distribute the new classes or a new JAR or WAR file. And sometimes it can take your entire lunch break to rebuild if you changed enough code...
And add that to the fun you encouter when you have to link in Oracle, RogueWave or CORBA libraries into you executables!
Or making sure you have all the header files included! And the pathes to those header files setup correctly!
And add it to the fact you don't have to deal with memory leaks in COBOL, although you can do stupid things in COBOL to cause core dumps ( called ABENDS on the mainframe ) in COBOL. Like trying to move the wrong datatype from one field to another, or dividing by zero - you get the picture...
So I actually think COBOL is much easier than C, C++ and Java to code in. The only time COBOL starts to get hard I think is when you start calling other COBOL programs from a COBOL program, or the COBOL program is a CICS COBOL program, or you do complex DB2 queries or VSAM file reads in your COBOL program.
I think the problem actually has more to do with the current lack of COBOL knowledge, lack of resources, and the general lack of documentation with a lot of the older COBOL systems because they were written 10 or more years ago. Heck, sometimes companies even lose the source code!!! So New people coming in have to analyze and figure out what the heck is going on. I think that's what takes the most time...
I was just trying to be funny. But if you want to debate, here it goes:
I don't blame the Chinese people - China has a rich history and culture - I blame the government. I have been to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
There are thousands if not millions of toys and products that have been recalled from Chinese Manufacturers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/business/02toy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_export_recalls
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSPEK15755920070813
Do a google on: china lead recall - only 337,000 hits are returned!
And China is considered one of the biggest havens for piracy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13617619/
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/07/71300
I even "visited" markets in both Taiwan and China where I saw pirated versions of almost every Microsoft and PC software package for sale for a fraction of what they are supposed to retail for. I saw CD's, Movies, everything for sale for a fraction of what the real product costs.
And before you suggest that the products were not pirated, may I add that the manuals with the software were cheesy xeroxed copies. And the CD's and DVD's didn't come in standard cases....
Any place like this would be busted in a few days in the US.
Granted, I haven't been to the mainland, but most of the products probably come from there....
These are facts... The only "people" hurt by denying them are the Chinese people, because as their products get a worse reputation, their economy will suffer.
Recognize also that due to the "firewall" the chinese government has on internet access, that few chinese are probably even aware of the criticism of the Chinese Government or the product recalls or the piracy...
Yeah, the US government kind of sucks. But at least I can read about it and talk about it, without my news or speech being "censured"...
And I can go to a coffee shop, get drunk on Caffine, or go to a bar, and get drunk on beer, and bitch about the US and living here without fear of being thrown in prison because I don't "agree" with my government...
Didn't they just recall the Shenzhou space craft from WalMart? Too much lead in the paint or something like that? Also I think the navigation software was pirated from Google Earth...
I guess the lead makes it too heavy to leave the Earth's gravity well. And also, you don't want your kids chewing on the outside of a space craft. They might get lead poisoning....
I still dispute the assumption that IT staff needs will diminish...
Why? Because the computer hardware and software is moving at an exponential rate compared to other technologies and information technology is much different than other technologies.
For instance, if you take a technology like the gasoline engine, it only has one basic purpose, moving cars and vehicles and doing work ( running a generator or pump ). Its improved over the years and become much more complex. Yet that complexity is still only a factor of what? 10 times better? Because its a "basic" machine that converts Oxygen and Fuel into Power. Like a "ship" is a basic machine that moves people and/or goods, or weapons over the water.
On the other hand computers are a programmable machine, that has more and more uses as more and more software is written. And arguably, every software program is a "machine" of some type. Each one with a specific purpose taking some input, doing work, and generating some output.
In fact, most the examples technology you cite as being "simplfied" and requiring less labor to operate are transportation technologies. And the reduction in labor IS due in a large part to computers. And someone had to write the software and put hardware into those technologies ( increasing the need for programmers, hardware, chip designers, etc ).
Also, computer technology is a completely different "beast" than transportation tech. If you "advanced" other technologies like transportation at the rate that computer hardware and software has advanced in the last 20 years, then you would have ships that could skim along the water at mach 3 while burning almost no fuel, Space ships travelling near the speed of light, elevators that use teleportation to get you to the top floor, etc. The change in computer hardware/software over the last 20 years has been nothing short of "phenomenal".
There are more IT workers now then ever before and MUCH more than there were when I graduated from college in the early 1990's. And the demand just keeps increasing and will continue to increase. An entire industry has been created in Eastern Europe, Ireland, India, China and other countries just to develop software. And yet there is still a shortage of IT workers in this country AND there thousands of workers all over in the US on H1B Visa's.
Add that to the fact that most IT departments 20 years ago only had to deal with DOS on some PC's, some software apps written in Cobol or C or RPG or Basic, and maybe a mainframe OR and AS/400 OR a UNIX box or 2. All these systems were running apps with "green screens" or CGA/EGA at best.
Now many IT departments have to deal with multiple networks and protocols, multiple host systems ( Mainframe, Unix, AS/400, Windows )talking to each other and exchanging data, Unix boxes in all flavors of Unix, Linux Boxes, Macs, PDA's, laptops, internet connectivity, databases ( multiple types ), Terrabytes of disk storage, ERP software and installing and integrating that, multiple programming languages and scripting languages, office productivity suites, email servers, automatated paging and calling for support, voice response systems. Heck, the computer rooms at many small businesses now have raised floor, controlled cooling and humidity control, and multiple rack servers, Voice over IP systems, routers, etc... And also consider that many parts of the world are just now getting online and computerized.
Trust me, the tip of the iceburg has just been reached. I think IT staff will continue to increase UNTIL AI is developed to the point that software starts writing software and replacing programmers. And at that point, we have a whole new "pandora's box" of issues...
And I'm not too worried either. Many IT people don't understand business and many business people don't understand IT.
I've been lucky to be on both sides, and understand both the business and the technical side.
I've met guys with Master's and PhD's in computer science that had the social skills of a creature from "Spore" and could write a compiler, but couldn't read a simple spec and write a program to generate a report or a program to do simple calculations and database updates. One guy's program ( this guy had a PhD in C.S. ), that I had to partially re-write, used foo, a, b, c, i and other obscure variable names in a real production program. I never really figured out if he just didn't care, didn't know any better, or he just didn't have the "mindset" to think that other people would have to maintain his program.
I've also met project managers and users that can't even install software or know how to scan their PC for a virus. I had to help one guy I worked for figure out how to hook his laptop up to an external monitor, from what I recall...
So I'm not too worried about finding work right now...
1. Computers aren't that new. The first ones appeared in the 1930's and 1940's. Argueably people like Babbage ( and Lovelace ) and Leonardo DaVinci could have "built" mechanical computers - if they had the resources.
2. Cars have been around for more than 100 years, and we still need mechanics.
3. Working parts has very little to do with it, outside of the fans and harddrives, computers don't have any moving parts. Most of the "headaches" I think are around designing, building, maintaining, and supporting software.
4. Having been in IT for 16 years, I would have to say that things are actually more complex now than ever. There are more software tools, programming lanugages, databases, report writers, operating systems, networking protocols, etc than ever before. And all these tools have a lot more features than they used to. Its getting increasely harder to know "some" of them well. Gone are the days when just knowing DOS, UNIX, MVS, VMS, and OS/400 would bascially give you knowledge of 90% of the hardware running. Or knowing just Assembly/C/Cobol/C++ would allow you to read and maintain most of the source code being used. So I would argue that the need for IT staff is going to continue to increase.
5. True Hackers are hard to find. Most people that consider themselves "Hackers" are just downloading and using the tools other people wrote to crack systems. I'm not a hacker, but I would say that a true "Hacker" would have intimate knowledge of the internals of the Unix kernal, Linux, Windows, be a "decent" C/C++ programmer, know script programming, understand Firewall rules and configuration, and have an in depth knowledge of TCP/IP networking protocols and routing, and the "social" skills necesssary to call and poke around to get information about logins and passwords. 80-90 percent of the people I know in IT don't even have these skills... Hacking is much harder than it used to be. It used to be you just called a "number" using your 1200/2400 baud modem and poked around.
6. Security is just a small sub-set of the big picture. Its important, but I would say that software engineeers, database admins, sys admins, and network engineers are all important and going to continue to be important...
I think you have missed this point. As the speed of microprocessors has increased ( per Moores law ), I think we have seen an increase in the complexity of operating systems and software. Which is requiring more and more IT knowledge and resources.
I think the "disconnect" between IT and Business has a lot more to do with the fact that business "knows" they depend on IT, but they are frustrated that IT can't seem to deliever what they want when they want it. On the other side, IT has to deal with more and more tools and IT staff has to learn more and more skills. And to increase frustration in IT, business users frequently don't deliever clear requirements or they "change" their mind in the middle of projects....
I think moving forward, the disconnect is just going to get worse, not better and the requirement for IT workers is going to continue to increase....
A few questions about experience or some revelant technical questions I have no problem with. However at times I've had to deal with:
1. Sitting at a table while a bunch of 2-3 year IT guys ask me questions like what does "cout" in C++ do. ( While I was thinking why are guys even asking me these questions? I just explained to them about my experience writing multi-threaded server processes in C++??? )...
2. Sit at a terminal and "code" a JSP page. ( Again, not a revelant test, because I had much more experience coding pure Java Servlets and I had told them this. And they were even looking for someone to code pure Java Servlets NOT JSP pages. )
3. Sit and listen to a guy ask me Java questions, and then get all arrogent because I didn't know how to use the Java IDE they used at that shop. ( Even though we had both worked for the same company previously, we knew some of the same people, and he KNEW that I knew my stuff ).
Needless to say, I didn't even follow up with getting the job after these 3 interviews. The types of tests told me enough. The first 2 situations, based on the types of tests told me the shops were "coding sweatshops" and they were technically weak in that they didn't understand my experience.
While the 3rd situation showed me that I wouldn't have wanted to work there because there was a bunch of "ego" from the guy that interviewed me and I would have had to work with this guy.
Just realize this when you take these tests. Like a lot of other people have already said, the tests show a lot about the company itself.
So based on the test, you can kind of determine what your in for.
Another thing to watch for. Multiple interviews also show me something. Usually, when there are more than 2 or 3 interviews, it shows that the company is full of red tape - and should be avoided, unless you really want to work there. It also shows a company where there is a "top-heavy" structure and everybody has to agree before anything is done...
So I guess the rule of thumb is if the tests and the interviews are reasonable, the company is probably reasonable. But if the testing or interview process raises some red flags - you are probably in for a bad experience if you take the job...
2. Is there some reason why Apple is not competing in the international market? Is Apple having their lunch eaten by companies that are "household names" in Asia, or is the product inferrior? What is Apple's penetration in those markets over the past year?
The iPhone was just released to most of the world recently. Before that it was only available in 6 countries:
http://www.physorg.com/news134889762.html
Agreed... I had a Windows Mobile Device, an HTC 2125. I hated that thing. I killed one by running over it in my car.
Anyway, it was difficult to navigate though Windows Mobile using the keys and the keypad was a pain to use. I ended up for the most part just entering all my data in Outlook when I was on my PC and syncing it to the HTC 2125.
Even viewing pictures was a pain, you had to navigate through the folders using the keys to find pictures.
I never got the email working...
Anyway, the only thing I liked about that phone was the Solitare game that came with Windows.
My iPhone is so much better. Its hard to believe they were charging 400 bucks for the HTC 2125 just a few years back. The iPhone has really raised the bar...
Its one of my favorites too. I'm waiting for StarCraft 2. Hopefully, it won't be a disappointment. But so far, it looks good...
I guess I expected more based on the all the "hype" the game was getting and the screen shots. I also expected more because although the "Sims" is weak, Sim City was more complex, and I even used to have "Sim Earth" back in the days... I expected I guess more of what "Sim Earth" had.
There are more complex games out there that are loads of fun. One example I can think of is Master Of Orion II, which to me has just enough complexty to make it interesting, while it moves at the right pace. Another game was Alpha Centari, a spin-off of Civilization that was one of the most addictive games I've ever played.
I guess I wasted 50 bucks on this one. Oh well, It will keep me entertained for about 2-3 weeks. I guess its cheaper than 3 trips to the movies with a popcorn and a drink.... :)
Yeah,
I know, I know... I've read about every novel, except for some of the books that Brian Herbert's son wrote... I even have a copy of the "Dune Encyclopedia"...
Anyway, I meant "Spice" as far as being used as a "resource" to harvest in a game. But even there I was wrong. There was a "DUNE" game that was released for the PC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(computer_game) that was the first game I ever encountered on the PC that referenced spice.
I was more complaining about the fact that they could have come up with something more original than harvesting a resource called "Spice".
They may have been paying "homage" to DUNE, but I saw it as a cop-out...
I respectfully disagree with you that PC gaming is almost dead. I think RTS, Strategy Games, and Simulations still are much better on the PC.
I think "Console" games are more for simple fun with arcade style games, sports games, and "Mario" type games and first person shooters.
But I can't imagine playing StarCraft, Civilization, Sim City 4 or any other game with a decent amount of keyboard input required on a console.
Unless you add a keyboard to the console, and then well.... You have a computer...
I'm an avid gamer. My first games were games like Zork II, Ultima I, II, II I played on my C-64 and 20 or 30 carts I had for my 2600. I've played most of the major Sims, Strategy Games, and RTS titles. Everything from Dune II to Warcraft III. From Sim City I to CIV IV. From MOO to the demo copy of Sins of a Solar Empire, which I'm about to try.
And let me say, Spore is an interesting game, but after playing it yesterday for the first time, I think it was a real let-down considering the type. I would say that its a GOOD game, and I actually had some fun during the creature stage "tweaking" my creature, but the cell stage was a boring arcade style game. And the tribal stage was a let down because basically all you do is collect food and either kill the other tribes or play "music" to impress them.
Not really an "in depth" game like I was expecting. I'm on the civilzation stage, and I was a little disappointed to find out that you have to "harvest spice". Come on, how original is that? That goes all the way back to Dune II and Dune 2000 from Westwood. At least they could have come up with something original like "Smithore" ( M.U.L.E. )...
So I think the negative reviews are probably just that. Negative reviews.
Although one cool thing was that I encountered one of the creatures I designed about a month ago with creature creator show up in the creature phase of the game in "EPIC" size! It proceeded to "eat" half my population...
Dude - Blu-Ray just killed HD-DVD. And in my area Target and Best Buy have both pretty much doubled the shelf space for Blu-Ray movies... And most of the TV's for sale are 1080P format now - and you know the sales guys are pushing Blu-Ray with the HD sets.
Walk into a Best Buy, a Fry's, or a Circuit City and see how many Blu-Ray players are for sale. I'm sorry, its already here to stay.
Real engineers watch Futurama.... South Park and the Simpsons is for programmers and QA testings....
Muhahahah