I'll second the view of community college. I taught a comp sci course at my local college. On paper it sounded great: $40/hour. Except that they had no curriculum and no text. I had to create the curriculum and class notes myself. That $40/hour was only for in-class hours, so it ended up being $10 (or less) per hour, and minimum wage here is just over $10/hour.
It might have worked out if I had taught that course again, but once they had the curriculum (and in my contract it was clear that they owned everything I did related to the course) they didn't need me any more and could pass it on to one of the full-time drones. I wasn't too upset: 90% of the students were only there to get their piece of paper and find a job, and they complained bitterly to the administration because I wanted them to learn and actually do some (fairly trivial amounts of) work. Honestly, out of about 25 students, I would only have recommended 4 to employers. And the admins were only looking as far as their student retention stats; there was virtually no interest in actually developing skills and marketability.
Just a small correction: I'd say that programming is a craft, more than an art. I'd liken my skills to that of a master cabinetmaker or metalworker, except that I rarely get to create the same thing (or a similar one) more than once.
I think that modern hearing aids have a lot of very complex programming as well. My GF, who is an audiologist, just showed me how aids can be programmed to increase sensitivity in the direction from where human voices are coming -- so if you are driving a car, and someone in the back seat starts talking, the aids automatically increase the gain in that direction.
They are also very good at extracting human voices from background noise, and it's not just a simple frequency filter.
I think that was the point. Donaldson came to a convention in Ottawa many (25?) years ago and gave a keynote speech on the role of the hero in literature (or something like that). I think he wanted to create a fantasy epic that was more nuanced than the good guys wearing white and the bad guys wearing black.
I was just trying to get one of my friends to read it, today. It was very thought-provoking. I remember that another friend of mine, a Catholic priest, based one of his sermons on it.
I really liked the Covenant series, but found the Gap to be unrelentingly bleak and cynical. "People are bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling." Covenant conveyed an essential belief in the value of goodness, beauty and sacrifice. The Gap was kind of the opposite.
That was exactly my experience. My eyes were opened to an understanding of personal responsibility and morality that was certainly at odds with the world around me.
P.S. Donaldson responded to my letter(s?) and was very gracious, interesting and intelligent when I met him in person.
I was about 15 when I first came across them, and they challenged me more than almost any other books I've read. I've been reading since I was 4, and I think that I had a good vocabulary even then.
They (at least the first two trilogies) are very strongly based on the Bible (e.g. the first trilogy, all about recovering the Staff of Law, has many similarities to the Old Testament, all about the Mosaic Law; the second trilogy deals with sin and redemption and sacrifice on a personal level, like the New Testament; many of the terms like Elohim and Jehannum are biblical).
I happen to find these allegories deepen and improve the story. I've read the first two trilogies something like ten times over the past thirty years, and they still have new messages each time.
It's also worth noting that the Catholic school system in Ontario represent almost 1/3 of all the students. Students in other separate schools are much, much smaller numbers. Why do we get Christmas as a holiday instead of Naw-Ruz (Zoroastrianism)? Sometimes a large minority is treated differently from a small one.
In my city, a guy opened a Thai/Cambodian restaurant. After a few years, he sold it and opened another. This happened four times, and each of the restaurants (all except the last within a four-block radius) seem to be doing fine. Many of the customers followed Pat from restaurant to restaurant, but they all serve quite decent food, with extremely similar menus.
Probably point #2, where you suggest firing programmers who can't meet deadlines that you set. Sometimes things just bog down. There's a difficult bug; something that seemed simple at design time has proven to be complex; later developments have forced a rewrite of earlier code. And programmers are not machines: they are more productive sometimes, and less productive sometimes.
And, of course, sometimes the fault is due to circumstances beyond the programmer's control. Customers change their minds, or don't give complete specs. Co-workers become uncooperative, or sometimes even hostile and sabotage other people's projects.
Sometimes all the work gets done on time, but sometimes it doesn't. To lay the blame at the programmer's feet is unfair. Not to say that you shouldn't get rid of unproductive programmers (or any workers), but software development is notoriously difficult to find good metrics for.
Then again, one of my co-workers has had problems with recent Apple purchases: dead pixels on screens, dust on the inside of his new iMac screen (cleaning it himself would void the warranty, and the replacement had the same problem), and customer service reps that wanted him to go away rather than fix the problems.
The original post mentioned that commercial developer tools were "few and far between, remember Borland..." and I was pointing out that Borland's tools were still alive and well, and being updated.
I've used Delphi both professionally and personally for many years, and have yet to find an environment that balances power and speed of development as well. Not to mention an astonishing amount of backward compatibility.
There are open-source alternatives (e.g. Lazarus), but Delphi is far, far ahead. Enough that I still spend my own money on it (bought last year's version, haven't splashed for the new XE2 version yet).
Actually, Borland's tools (Delphi, C++ Builder, etc.) are still there and they have just released a new version that allows development for Windows (32- and 64-bit, finally), OSX, and iOS. Called Firemonkey, it looks pretty exciting. Android targetting is promised soon.
In my area, the initial consultation and hearing test are free, as are adjustments for a period (3 months?) after the aids are installed. One local place advertises free batteries for life (I'm told it's a scam, but I forget why). The Ontario government health plan also pays $500/ear every 3 years, if I remember correctly. Not enough to cover expensive aids, but much/most of the cost of cheaper ones.
Couldn't that be more because they want to "deal" (even if he does nothing) with a Japanese? I lived in Japan for many years and although it's not often malicious, racism is still very prevalent.
That would be nice. I have boxes of stuff from the '80s that, for the most part, haven't appreciated at all. Then again, I bought comics that I thought I would enjoy, not for their resale value.
That's interesting. I understood that the vast majority of Blu-Ray movies are not region-locked. Your friend must have wanted some specific ones that are. I haven't run into a locked Blu-Ray movie yet, though.
Just because advertising is currently unobtrusive doesn't mean that it always will be. When some manager realizes that his bonus is being threatened, it's amazing how obtrusive they are willing to get.
Of course, you could say that if it changes you would switch, and after a couple of years you might be looking for a new e-book reader anyway. Still, if Amazon is successful with an ad-supported Kindle you know that other manufacturers will follow suit and there will be few alternatives.
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I'll second the view of community college. I taught a comp sci course at my local college. On paper it sounded great: $40/hour. Except that they had no curriculum and no text. I had to create the curriculum and class notes myself. That $40/hour was only for in-class hours, so it ended up being $10 (or less) per hour, and minimum wage here is just over $10/hour.
It might have worked out if I had taught that course again, but once they had the curriculum (and in my contract it was clear that they owned everything I did related to the course) they didn't need me any more and could pass it on to one of the full-time drones. I wasn't too upset: 90% of the students were only there to get their piece of paper and find a job, and they complained bitterly to the administration because I wanted them to learn and actually do some (fairly trivial amounts of) work. Honestly, out of about 25 students, I would only have recommended 4 to employers. And the admins were only looking as far as their student retention stats; there was virtually no interest in actually developing skills and marketability.
Just a small correction: I'd say that programming is a craft, more than an art. I'd liken my skills to that of a master cabinetmaker or metalworker, except that I rarely get to create the same thing (or a similar one) more than once.
I think that modern hearing aids have a lot of very complex programming as well. My GF, who is an audiologist, just showed me how aids can be programmed to increase sensitivity in the direction from where human voices are coming -- so if you are driving a car, and someone in the back seat starts talking, the aids automatically increase the gain in that direction.
They are also very good at extracting human voices from background noise, and it's not just a simple frequency filter.
I thought that these questions had been conclusively settled, as chronicled in that fine documentary The Core
I think that was the point. Donaldson came to a convention in Ottawa many (25?) years ago and gave a keynote speech on the role of the hero in literature (or something like that). I think he wanted to create a fantasy epic that was more nuanced than the good guys wearing white and the bad guys wearing black.
I was just trying to get one of my friends to read it, today. It was very thought-provoking. I remember that another friend of mine, a Catholic priest, based one of his sermons on it.
I really liked the Covenant series, but found the Gap to be unrelentingly bleak and cynical. "People are bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling." Covenant conveyed an essential belief in the value of goodness, beauty and sacrifice. The Gap was kind of the opposite.
That was exactly my experience. My eyes were opened to an understanding of personal responsibility and morality that was certainly at odds with the world around me.
P.S. Donaldson responded to my letter(s?) and was very gracious, interesting and intelligent when I met him in person.
I was about 15 when I first came across them, and they challenged me more than almost any other books I've read. I've been reading since I was 4, and I think that I had a good vocabulary even then.
They (at least the first two trilogies) are very strongly based on the Bible (e.g. the first trilogy, all about recovering the Staff of Law, has many similarities to the Old Testament, all about the Mosaic Law; the second trilogy deals with sin and redemption and sacrifice on a personal level, like the New Testament; many of the terms like Elohim and Jehannum are biblical).
I happen to find these allegories deepen and improve the story. I've read the first two trilogies something like ten times over the past thirty years, and they still have new messages each time.
It's also worth noting that the Catholic school system in Ontario represent almost 1/3 of all the students. Students in other separate schools are much, much smaller numbers. Why do we get Christmas as a holiday instead of Naw-Ruz (Zoroastrianism)? Sometimes a large minority is treated differently from a small one.
In my city, a guy opened a Thai/Cambodian restaurant. After a few years, he sold it and opened another. This happened four times, and each of the restaurants (all except the last within a four-block radius) seem to be doing fine. Many of the customers followed Pat from restaurant to restaurant, but they all serve quite decent food, with extremely similar menus.
Probably point #2, where you suggest firing programmers who can't meet deadlines that you set. Sometimes things just bog down. There's a difficult bug; something that seemed simple at design time has proven to be complex; later developments have forced a rewrite of earlier code. And programmers are not machines: they are more productive sometimes, and less productive sometimes.
And, of course, sometimes the fault is due to circumstances beyond the programmer's control. Customers change their minds, or don't give complete specs. Co-workers become uncooperative, or sometimes even hostile and sabotage other people's projects.
Sometimes all the work gets done on time, but sometimes it doesn't. To lay the blame at the programmer's feet is unfair. Not to say that you shouldn't get rid of unproductive programmers (or any workers), but software development is notoriously difficult to find good metrics for.
Then again, one of my co-workers has had problems with recent Apple purchases: dead pixels on screens, dust on the inside of his new iMac screen (cleaning it himself would void the warranty, and the replacement had the same problem), and customer service reps that wanted him to go away rather than fix the problems.
The original post mentioned that commercial developer tools were "few and far between, remember Borland..." and I was pointing out that Borland's tools were still alive and well, and being updated.
I've used Delphi both professionally and personally for many years, and have yet to find an environment that balances power and speed of development as well. Not to mention an astonishing amount of backward compatibility.
There are open-source alternatives (e.g. Lazarus), but Delphi is far, far ahead. Enough that I still spend my own money on it (bought last year's version, haven't splashed for the new XE2 version yet).
Actually, Borland's tools (Delphi, C++ Builder, etc.) are still there and they have just released a new version that allows development for Windows (32- and 64-bit, finally), OSX, and iOS. Called Firemonkey, it looks pretty exciting. Android targetting is promised soon.
In my area, the initial consultation and hearing test are free, as are adjustments for a period (3 months?) after the aids are installed. One local place advertises free batteries for life (I'm told it's a scam, but I forget why). The Ontario government health plan also pays $500/ear every 3 years, if I remember correctly. Not enough to cover expensive aids, but much/most of the cost of cheaper ones.
Couldn't that be more because they want to "deal" (even if he does nothing) with a Japanese? I lived in Japan for many years and although it's not often malicious, racism is still very prevalent.
This posting is a nice segway
"segue". I blame Dean Kamen for corrupting our language.
My co-worker recently took 6 weeks off to be with his wife and their new baby; she took the standard 35 weeks or so off (Ontario).
In Japan, I got the day of my son's birth off (and that was considered rather suspect, even though I had been up all night).
That would be nice. I have boxes of stuff from the '80s that, for the most part, haven't appreciated at all. Then again, I bought comics that I thought I would enjoy, not for their resale value.
Ummm. $500 x 77 million users = $38.5 billion. Somehow I don't think we're going to see that.
Can a theist be a heretic, in the eyes of an atheist? If so, you are one.
You're not allowed to profess a faith in anything (except perhaps Ayn Rand) here. :D
That's interesting. I understood that the vast majority of Blu-Ray movies are not region-locked. Your friend must have wanted some specific ones that are. I haven't run into a locked Blu-Ray movie yet, though.
Just because advertising is currently unobtrusive doesn't mean that it always will be. When some manager realizes that his bonus is being threatened, it's amazing how obtrusive they are willing to get.
Of course, you could say that if it changes you would switch, and after a couple of years you might be looking for a new e-book reader anyway. Still, if Amazon is successful with an ad-supported Kindle you know that other manufacturers will follow suit and there will be few alternatives.
Remember when cable TV had no ads? I do.