"One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are.
Look,
Sturgeon's Law applies to games writing as much as it does to Science Fiction. Perhaps even more so.
If you're interested in in raising the level of writing in games, then you'll need to find a company to work for that's interested in that too.
Just don't expect Sturgeon's Law to be violated any time soon.
It's a clash in perceptions of the world
on
Tech Vs. Business?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
People here have been using the term "culture clash", but IMHO it goes even deeper.
Here's the thing -- as techies, we have a great respect for facts. Facts are facts, and our opinion about them doesn't really matter. So we look to the world for objective information, and put that objective information on a pedestal.
For folks on the business side, almost everything is *subjective*, not *objective*. In the Sales world, for example, it's all about the customer's *perception* of the product, rather than the actual objective facts about the product.
Remember that the salesperson's entire goal in life is to overcome the objections of the customer and persuade them to sign the deal. For the salesperson, both by nature and by training, all statements are *subjective* -- they're personal *opinions* and are subject to change.
(As the old joke goes: when asked what is the sum of 2+2, the lawyer asks 'How much do you want it to be?'. I've seen this held up as a *positive* example by published business types.)
So when the techie says to the sales guy "it will take a year to implement"; the sales guy sees this as (a) a subjective statement; (b) a negotiating position; and (c) the *start* of the conversation, rather than the end of it.
It's pretty common in the corporate world for your boss to take credit for the work that you did. In this case, it's not even that far out of line, as what you did was an implementation of ideas and suggestions that your boss made.
I'm going to give advice to you based on you being a fresh graduate: I'd have different advice for someone who's been in the corporate world for a few years.
My suggestion to you is three-fold:
1) Wait a year and get a feel for the corporate culture before you do anything to get visibility and recognition further up the food chain.
2) If there are other people on your team that *do* manage to get credit for their work with the higher-ups, watch them closely and see how they do it.
3) If you are truly excellent, your work will stand out eventually anyway. Again: wait a year and see what your reputation is at that point before you start promoting yourself. You may end up having very little promoting to do.
Given the number of architectures that Linux has been ported to, and the number of architectures that Windows has been ported to, it's a fair bet that it will run Linux long before it runs Windows.
You seem to be under the impression that if you buy $1,000 worth of Red Hat stock (for instance) that the money somehow goes to Red Hat. This is not correct.
The issuing company got their money at the IPO. When you buy that $1000 worth of stock, your $1000 goes to the previous stockholder, and *none* of it - not a dime - goes to the issuing company.
The only benefit the issuing company has - and it's an indirect benefit - is that if you buy that $1000 worth of stock you create a slight upward pressure on the stock price, which, in turn, will increase the "market capitalization" value of the company.
Frankly, if you want to help Open Source financially, your best bet is to take a percentage of the profits and donate it to your favorite non-profit Open Source entity.
As many people have said, you are running a *major* risk if you approach the company directly. On the other hand, if you can come to an agreement with the company that includes their commitment to not press charges, then you have accomplished what you want to do.
So what do you do to get from point A to point B? Use an intermediary.
Lawyers do this kind of thing all the time. "On behalf of my client, who wishes to remain anonymous, I would like to propose.... "
A really *good* lawyer will be able to frame the situation in a way that your proposal is not construed as extortion. "My client is concerned about the well-publicised prosecutions of individuals who have performed disclosures of security-related information, and... "
Plus, attorney-client communication is privileged.
If you're in business, you should *already* have an attorney. The downside is that you'll probably have to pay for your lawyer's time. If you're feeling entreprenurial, you could see if your lawyer is willing to work on a contingency basis for a portion of the deal with the company...
You know... as much as I'd like to stay away from Turbo Tax to send Intuit a message... I used TaxCut last year, and it was a truly awful experience.
It's not that TaxCut was buggy, it's just that, unlike Turbo Tax, (where an ordinary human can understand the program's questions) the questions in the TaxCut "interview" were written *by* tax geeks *for* tax geeks.
While my tax situation isn't complex enough to require a paid tax preparer, it's still complex enough to be easy to screw up. There were lots of places in TaxCut where the designers clearly just transcribed the (confusing and difficult) Federal forms, instead of putting the work into simplifying the questions and making them understandable.
Using TaxCut, I had to look over a number of sections *very* *carefully* (read: 45 minutes to go through 3 screens) before I was sure I had entered the data correctly. As it turned out, it was a good thing I did this: I had, in fact initially entered the wrong data, solely due to the the poor design of the interview.
Let's be clear here. Larry Ellison is a Very Bright Guy [tm] but he's also a Businessman. And he's looking at the Software Industry as a business, and not as an art form.
So given his perspective, he's probably right. I don't think that there's going to be the kind of market (there's that word again) for software that there has been in the past.
As a consumer of software -- be it operating systems (Linux), Web servers (Apache), or programming languages (Perl, Python, gcc) -- I'm much better served by software that is not driven by a profit motive.
The software industry is dead -- long live the software!
On the other hand, this may not be a Bad Thing [tm] for software as a whole. We've all seen the corrupting influence of money on software. Those of us who have been in the business know that every decision in the software industry gets made on one basis, and one basis only -- can the company make money from the work that is being proposed.
"You need to double the amount of time the folks from #2 give you as an estimate".
IMHO, you need to double the amount of time and convert to the next-higher units. Because what you think is a "1 hour job" really will take you two days, and the "One week of coding" really will take you two months.
For an example of what might-have-been, but won't be, see if you can track down Harlan Ellison's script for I, Robot. It was published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine sometime in the 90's. Brilliant. Unfortunately, Harlan Ellison managed to piss off all of the studio executives that might have funded the idea, so all we're left with is the script.
Twenty years from now the core APIs may have grown and changed tremendously, but we'll still think of it as the `same' codebase and call it Linux:-).
This reminds me of the old chestnut about how we don't know what the features of the most commonly-used programming language of 2020 will be, but we do know that it will be called FORTRAN.
And on a (semi-)serious note: if the 2020 release of LINUX bears the same resemblence to 2.2 as Fortran 98 bears to Fortran III, you'll have nothing to complain about.
Slashdot Mirror
The classic text SCIP teaches multiple computing paradigms. A fluent computer scientist should know all of them.
"One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are.
Look, Sturgeon's Law applies to games writing as much as it does to Science Fiction. Perhaps even more so.
If you're interested in in raising the level of writing in games, then you'll need to find a company to work for that's interested in that too.
Just don't expect Sturgeon's Law to be violated any time soon.
People here have been using the term "culture clash", but IMHO it goes even deeper.
Here's the thing -- as techies, we have a great respect for facts. Facts are facts, and our opinion about them doesn't really matter. So we look to the world for objective information, and put that objective information on a pedestal.
For folks on the business side, almost everything is *subjective*, not *objective*. In the Sales world, for example, it's all about the customer's *perception* of the product, rather than the actual objective facts about the product.
Remember that the salesperson's entire goal in life is to overcome the objections of the customer and persuade them to sign the deal. For the salesperson, both by nature and by training, all statements are *subjective* -- they're personal *opinions* and are subject to change.
(As the old joke goes: when asked what is the sum of 2+2, the lawyer asks 'How much do you want it to be?'. I've seen this held up as a *positive* example by published business types.)
So when the techie says to the sales guy "it will take a year to implement"; the sales guy sees this as (a) a subjective statement; (b) a negotiating position; and (c) the *start* of the conversation, rather than the end of it.
Clashes are inevitable.
I'm Pamela!
(STR)
I see a distinct lack of forethought in your plan ...
Gotta be a troll. Here's the giveaway:
layer-2 protocol arises inappropriately with distinct, yet smelly malformed garbage as a payloadIt's pretty common in the corporate world for your boss to take credit for the work that you did. In this case, it's not even that far out of line, as what you did was an implementation of ideas and suggestions that your boss made.
I'm going to give advice to you based on you being a fresh graduate: I'd have different advice for someone who's been in the corporate world for a few years.
My suggestion to you is three-fold:
1) Wait a year and get a feel for the corporate culture before you do anything to get visibility and recognition further up the food chain.
2) If there are other people on your team that *do* manage to get credit for their work with the higher-ups, watch them closely and see how they do it.
3) If you are truly excellent, your work will stand out eventually anyway. Again: wait a year and see what your reputation is at that point before you start promoting yourself. You may end up having very little promoting to do.
Starship Troopers. Heinlein. 1959.
Given the number of architectures that Linux has been ported to, and the number of architectures that Windows has been ported to, it's a fair bet that it will run Linux long before it runs Windows.
You seem to be under the impression that if you buy $1,000 worth of Red Hat stock (for instance) that the money somehow goes to Red Hat. This is not correct.
The issuing company got their money at the IPO. When you buy that $1000 worth of stock, your $1000 goes to the previous stockholder, and *none* of it - not a dime - goes to the issuing company.
The only benefit the issuing company has - and it's an indirect benefit - is that if you buy that $1000 worth of stock you create a slight upward pressure on the stock price, which, in turn, will increase the "market capitalization" value of the company.
Frankly, if you want to help Open Source financially, your best bet is to take a percentage of the profits and donate it to your favorite non-profit Open Source entity.
-Maple Syrup
As many people have said, you are running a *major* risk if you approach the company directly. On the other hand, if you can come to an agreement with the company that includes their commitment to not press charges, then you have accomplished what you want to do.
.... "
... "
...
So what do you do to get from point A to point B? Use an intermediary.
Lawyers do this kind of thing all the time. "On behalf of my client, who wishes to remain anonymous, I would like to propose
A really *good* lawyer will be able to frame the situation in a way that your proposal is not construed as extortion. "My client is concerned about the well-publicised prosecutions of individuals who have performed disclosures of security-related information, and
Plus, attorney-client communication is privileged.
If you're in business, you should *already* have an attorney. The downside is that you'll probably have to pay for your lawyer's time. If you're feeling entreprenurial, you could see if your lawyer is willing to work on a contingency basis for a portion of the deal with the company
I suggest you take a look at "The Perfect Resume", by Tom Jackson. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/076 7916239/)
Among other things, he describes a "job creation" strategy, which will beat the heck out of any cold-calling plan you can come up with.
Highly recommended.
I know that I really really REALLY want to have my hosting company be one that fails under a slashdotting ...
[/sarcasm]
You know ... as much as I'd like to stay away from Turbo Tax to send Intuit a message ... I used TaxCut last year, and it was a truly awful experience.
It's not that TaxCut was buggy, it's just that, unlike Turbo Tax, (where an ordinary human can understand the program's questions) the questions in the TaxCut "interview" were written *by* tax geeks *for* tax geeks.
While my tax situation isn't complex enough to require a paid tax preparer, it's still complex enough to be easy to screw up. There were lots of places in TaxCut where the designers clearly just transcribed the (confusing and difficult) Federal forms, instead of putting the work into simplifying the questions and making them understandable.
Using TaxCut, I had to look over a number of sections *very* *carefully* (read: 45 minutes to go through 3 screens) before I was sure I had entered the data correctly. As it turned out, it was a good thing I did this: I had, in fact initially entered the wrong data, solely due to the the poor design of the interview.
In short: a classic example of poor useability.
Bottom line: this year I'm back with TurboTax.
So given his perspective, he's probably right. I don't think that there's going to be the kind of market (there's that word again) for software that there has been in the past.
As a consumer of software -- be it operating systems (Linux), Web servers (Apache), or programming languages (Perl, Python, gcc) -- I'm much better served by software that is not driven by a profit motive.
The software industry is dead -- long live the software!
On the other hand, this may not be a Bad Thing [tm] for software as a whole. We've all seen the corrupting influence of money on software. Those of us who have been in the business know that every decision in the software industry gets made on one basis, and one basis only -- can the company make money from the work that is being proposed.
Regarding #3:
IMHO, you need to double the amount of time and convert to the next-higher units. Because what you think is a "1 hour job" really will take you two days, and the "One week of coding" really will take you two months.
DAMHIK
What might have been ...
You might try using Bricolage. It's open source, based on mod_perl and Mason, and it seems like it would do most of what you're looking for.
This reminds me of the old chestnut about how we don't know what the features of the most commonly-used programming language of 2020 will be, but we do know that it will be called FORTRAN.
And on a (semi-)serious note: if the 2020 release of LINUX bears the same resemblence to 2.2 as Fortran 98 bears to Fortran III, you'll have nothing to complain about.
-maple(intheyear2525)syrup