I recently started working as tech support for a company (college dropout, needed money). Within three months, I started programming for them. Within 8 months, they were discussing having me doing *ALL* their programming.
The current programmer is a complete and utter idiot. All the passwords in the program? Plain text. Her idea of security? a simple character replacement string... "But she does it twice, so it's twice as secure".
I brought this up to the owners (very small company) and explained to them that the whole program, which they sell for $20,000 was currently being secured by secret decoder ring-type encryption.
And I got in trouble for breaking the "encrption"... Leaving alone the fact that it took a total of 35 minutes to do, and there weren't any technical support calls coming in, so I had a lot of time on my hands.
The programmer has made some other dumb decisions. She is a bad programmer that doesn't realize as much.
It seems part of the reason that this place is as it is, is the guy that has veto rights on anything that goes into the system no longer works in the company at all-- He's the original guy the program was written for, but th reason he had for using it has gone away, so he just kinda does a "No, because the program shouldn't work like that" whenever he doesn't like something... Meaning that just about all "innovation" gets shoved out.
I just got a promotion. I am now the "Programming Manager" at my office. That is because now she doesn't have to pay me overtime.
Some of my favorite quotes since I got my "promotion".
"Feel free to work as many hours as you want"......"Well, you said that it would be done, and we only doubled your work load, you should still be able to do it."......"You'll have it done on the 17th? That's unacceptable (it was the 13th, Thursday)"...
I really love the fact, though, that she hired someone (one of her friends) for TRIPLE what I am making now for the job she was paying me $9/hr for.
my step mother is a PT-- I stole some of her books and did some research... Apparently something similar is used for allowing some fine motor movement for people who lose limbs.
You can theoretically cheat it, because the electrical impulses travel down your arm, you could literally do it around the bicep (where it wouldn't bother most people, and it would literally be "you think and it does it" without moving a finger very far at all...
Of course a straight mind controlled interface is preferred, but that's a few years off...
no it doesn't. At least not how I envision it-- This still limits you where you can set it up, you can't randomly have one hand on your head typing and the other on your leg-- that's what I envision...
but I've had something rolling around in my head that I would just love to see, and it seems quite feasible in a couple different ways with modern technology...
I want a keyless keyboard-- I want something that I just position my hands on a flat (or not so flat space) and start typing.
I would prefer to have it using like gloves with some type of sensors (RFID's anyone?) in the fingers, and a couple sensors for tracking, or even the original idea, which was something that fit over your arms and tracked the muscles that you used to type something. It would be something totally for computer users that know how to touch type, and it could (optionally) sense how your fingers are positioned, and in a certain position, it could be used as a mouse. This would also be cool as a 3 dimensional "mouse", for those upcoming 3d desktops (yes, I know they already exist, there is no good way to interface them that I'm aware of.)
Over the years I've gone from a computer on the ground, to a computer on a desk with no room for KB/mouse, and at times a desk with no chair, forcing me to either sit on the ground or on my bed. Also, I've gone from periods of carpal tunnel so severe I couldn't look at a keyboard without my arms cramping up, and I believe if it allowed the amount of freedom I'm looking for, it would be great for treating that (your fingers would have to be in the same relative position to each other, and probably your wrist, but it would provide you with the ability to shift your position quite a bit and have still be able to type.
Just something that's been bouncing off my mind for the past couple years... I started developing something to this effect... Then I got depressed and started working on another project that was doomed to failure.../Ex
West cliff is where I kept getting run over by SUV Drivin' Soccer Moms... I tried to stay downtown where the police randomly set up barricades and beat on the hippies...
Which reminds me-- Apparently they tried to force the street performers on Pacific to register and get a permit. Unfortunately, I missed most of that battle, I left right before it started.
But someone came up to me in the dining halls at one point and said something to the effect of "Do you know what you're eating? You're eating *COW* (I was eating a cheeseburger)...
She pulled out some pictures of cows getting slaughtered...
I said "Yup" and started eating with my mouth open... She slapped me, and I still find the whole experience uproariously funny...
Because I need this phone number-- it's been my only contact at points, and there are people that I no longer talk to that do not have any other way to contact me.
I plan on changing providers because I'm tired of fighting my provider's bad coverage in my area. I used to not be able to get reception at my house or place of work-- meaning 90% of the day I was out of contact anyway.
Well, there's also the nokia 3360 which was an issue. I managed to destroy mine quite thoroughly, then brought it in to take advantage of my insurance and *GET A DECENT FUCKING PHONE*.
"No, we can't do that" Fine. I want my 6190 back. it wasn't supposed to be replaced in the first place. I can't use this phone, it makes my bloodpressure soar. "I'm sorry, they no longer make that" Fine, then give me something with the same number of buttons that actually locks and that the biggest fucking key on the phone isn't "dial/hangup". In fact, I demand separate dial/hangup keys. I'm willing to pay. "Well, if you sign up for a 3 year contract"... Fuck you and your contract, I want a goddamned phone now. I want a goddamned phone that doesn't cause me to go into violent outbreaks, and I intend to fucking dump you as soon as I can go to someone else, so I'm not gonna pay 500 dollars for a phone that you give away free with a 2 year contract.
I ended up getting a 3190 I think. I really like this phone. Nice, simple, does what I want it to do. Separate dial/end buttons, and... well, it just works. I even can get reception at home and work now... Now only if it worked at the place I'm moving to.../ex
Yeah, we do have a santa maria brewery... They make what appears to be Budweiser, but non-pasteurized (I have no freaking clue how they managed that)...
I love dark beers, and while guinness isn't the best of them (mmmmm... Blackwatch...), It was the best I was hoping for around here... *sigh*
Except where I live... Freaking bastards. there is *NO* guinness in Santa Maria, California, except one place-- Who sells so little of it, it tastes stale and awful...
Read my write-up of finding guinness in my new hometown here.
Except it doesn't work with anything. A friend was trying to get a bluetooth mouse and keyboard for his ibm ultra-small laptop (with bluetooth built in). He looked at the microsoft kb/m, and, well, basically you had to use a MS bluetooth dongle and disable your internal bluetooth. Just great. Really helpful MS.
Well, I've actually caused my PS2 to crash quite a bit, such as playing gauntlet with 4 players (tries to reference negative ram addresses or something like that... But in general, you're right. It's very difficult to recall a console game... However, it only has to run on one (few at least) set of hardware. It's the reason macs seem to never crash-- If they had to program for every piece of hardware out there, there'd be a lot of "crap" that happens, and things get messy...
If PCs were uber-standardized-- this proc. this amount of ram, this and that, then there would be no problem. I'm working tech support (for a *gag* foxpro program) and one in 100 customers gets extreme slowdown (like running a report can take 72 hours when it's supposed to only take 10ish minutes) all the time. We have been hunting for it for the past months, and it isn't the data... It seems possibly hardware related, but there's so much hardware out there, and so many different layouts for it (win9x v. me v. 2k vs. nt v. xp)
It's a nice belief that they try it on a bunch of systems, but chances are, if it's anything like the jobs I've run, you've got one guy that collects all the files, then at the end, he runs it around the office, and maybe to a "test room" with generic pcs of varying speeds and makeups, which he tests it on.
Did you ever look at sierra's help stuff? I never had a problem installing their stuff (microprose on the other hand, cost me six months allowance because it hard killed win31, and I had to bring it to the store to get it reinstalled (you know, when your parents didn't trust you to touch the damned thing, even though you can't do any more damage than you already did? Ahhh, memories...
Uh, that's all I have to add. Good points, just a bit more insight.../ex
I don't think there's anything to worry about. Noone will miss him in the future... Well, so much as us MST3k fan(atic)s will always pine over the MST-worthy crap that he puts out...
If anyone decides to do a MST4k, and does it well, I think you should look at http://us.imdb.com/Name?Shatner,+William for ideas on what to put in the premiere issues. Notice the "born in canada". I can see a whole season dealing with just his feces (maybe put it off a couple seasons, until you can take advantage of the cheap crap like netforce, "dude, where's my car" and anything with a pop musician in it./ex
Does that mean we can arrest him without a trial, then execute him in a few years? If so, I heartily agree with this. After that Iron Chef USA fiasco, he deserves to... Go elsewhere./ex
Wow. You do seem to know your way around foxpro, but I was hoping for something I could download that could get me excited about dealing with fox pro. Still, by your descriptions, it looks like I may have been harsh towards FP.
One thing that has been bugging me about the help files is the lack of useful quick reference material. Do you know of a good quick ref floating around? Preferably cheap or free because I'm learning this in my "spare time" according to the bosses.
Thanks/ex
btw: if you prefer to e-mail me, my address is mmintzii_AT_yahoo_DOT_com
This is the third FP program I've done support for. While this one is TEH SUCK much more than the other two, even the best of the group was worse than a hacked up php version I left them with...
You're right, it's probably the writer-- Can you recommend a *GOOD* system on FP? I don't care what it does, I just want to see what FP can do.
THis is the first job I've actually mucked around with the programming itself (usually, it's just rescuing the data that FP holds prisoner). Mostly what I see (with the visual foxpro at least, maybe there's another version I'm missing), is it fights the user interface every step of the way-- and from what I've seen, it's a problem with the trunk (language), not the branch(program).
Well, you seem to know more than I care to about FP-- maybe you can answer a question-- Is there a better way to make reports? I'm trying to fill out (printout) forms (think DMV), using FP reports-- and placing is a pain in the ass. Any suggestions?
I have written a lot of code, but I've never created anything complex enough to require an "engineer".
Think about it-- How many engineers are needed to build a bridge? Now how many "grunt workers"? Now scale it down to the normal size of a software project. It's probably 1 engineer to 100-1000 grunts.
the people I think deserve the title "software engineer" are the guys that actually figure out how things are supposed to go together, and then let the grunts worry about implementing it.
Note: this is not to say that every project has an engineer-- seriously, anything with less than five coders is the engineering equivalent of getting a few close friends to throw up a barn over the weekend. A lot of larger projects even, have very similar "barn raising" techniques in the design phase.
You can teach almost anyone to program-- just like you can teach almost anyone to swing a hammer or use a wrench. Programming is a bit more intensive, as it's a larger number of "movements" for a result, but it all boils down to the same thing-- You can't easily change engineers in mid-stream, but the grunts are interchangable.
Another thing is there is this horrible divide between good and bad "engineers" in the computer field right now. The bad ones make *EVERYONE* an engineer-- "We don't exactly know what your piece is supposed to accomplish, but you need to do something, so have at it, and we'll get around to telling you what to do sooner or later". This doesn't work. It makes everyone work harder, to no benefit.
It is like a building engineer telling people to "just start nailing boards together, and we'll see where they can fit in the final design". The grunts suddenly are required to have knowledge of proper building and must make sure everything lines up because there isn't a blueprint to follow. That is why you never see that.
The worst, of course, are those firms that use the marketing department as the engineers. I am currently of the opinion that software should be written to fix a problem-- not the Microsoft idea of "build it and market it to death, then come out with 2.0. Wash, rinse, repeat"
So, basically, there are engineers-- The guys that write up the blueprint. 90% of us are at most aspiring engineers. Now. Let the flaming commence./Ex
Slashdot Mirror
I recently started working as tech support for a company (college dropout, needed money). Within three months, I started programming for them. Within 8 months, they were discussing having me doing *ALL* their programming.
/ex
The current programmer is a complete and utter idiot. All the passwords in the program? Plain text. Her idea of security? a simple character replacement string... "But she does it twice, so it's twice as secure".
I brought this up to the owners (very small company) and explained to them that the whole program, which they sell for $20,000 was currently being secured by secret decoder ring-type encryption.
And I got in trouble for breaking the "encrption"... Leaving alone the fact that it took a total of 35 minutes to do, and there weren't any technical support calls coming in, so I had a lot of time on my hands.
The programmer has made some other dumb decisions. She is a bad programmer that doesn't realize as much.
It seems part of the reason that this place is as it is, is the guy that has veto rights on anything that goes into the system no longer works in the company at all-- He's the original guy the program was written for, but th reason he had for using it has gone away, so he just kinda does a "No, because the program shouldn't work like that" whenever he doesn't like something... Meaning that just about all "innovation" gets shoved out.
Speaking of which, I gotta get to work.
I just got a promotion.
..."Well, you said that it would be done, and we only doubled your work load, you should still be able to do it."... ..."You'll have it done on the 17th? That's unacceptable (it was the 13th, Thursday)"...
/Ex
I am now the "Programming Manager" at my office.
That is because now she doesn't have to pay me overtime.
Some of my favorite quotes since I got my "promotion".
"Feel free to work as many hours as you want"...
I really love the fact, though, that she hired someone (one of her friends) for TRIPLE what I am making now for the job she was paying me $9/hr for.
So, uh, anyone need a fox pro programmer?
my step mother is a PT-- I stole some of her books and did some research... Apparently something similar is used for allowing some fine motor movement for people who lose limbs.
You can theoretically cheat it, because the electrical impulses travel down your arm, you could literally do it around the bicep (where it wouldn't bother most people, and it would literally be "you think and it does it" without moving a finger very far at all...
Of course a straight mind controlled interface is preferred, but that's a few years off...
no it doesn't.
At least not how I envision it-- This still limits you where you can set it up, you can't randomly have one hand on your head typing and the other on your leg-- that's what I envision...
That's just a gimicky keyboard
but I've had something rolling around in my head that I would just love to see, and it seems quite feasible in a couple different ways with modern technology...
/Ex
I want a keyless keyboard-- I want something that I just position my hands on a flat (or not so flat space) and start typing.
I would prefer to have it using like gloves with some type of sensors (RFID's anyone?) in the fingers, and a couple sensors for tracking, or even the original idea, which was something that fit over your arms and tracked the muscles that you used to type something. It would be something totally for computer users that know how to touch type, and it could (optionally) sense how your fingers are positioned, and in a certain position, it could be used as a mouse. This would also be cool as a 3 dimensional "mouse", for those upcoming 3d desktops (yes, I know they already exist, there is no good way to interface them that I'm aware of.)
Over the years I've gone from a computer on the ground, to a computer on a desk with no room for KB/mouse, and at times a desk with no chair, forcing me to either sit on the ground or on my bed. Also, I've gone from periods of carpal tunnel so severe I couldn't look at a keyboard without my arms cramping up, and I believe if it allowed the amount of freedom I'm looking for, it would be great for treating that (your fingers would have to be in the same relative position to each other, and probably your wrist, but it would provide you with the ability to shift your position quite a bit and have still be able to type.
Just something that's been bouncing off my mind for the past couple years... I started developing something to this effect... Then I got depressed and started working on another project that was doomed to failure...
West cliff is where I kept getting run over by SUV Drivin' Soccer Moms... I tried to stay downtown where the police randomly set up barricades and beat on the hippies...
/ex
Which reminds me-- Apparently they tried to force the street performers on Pacific to register and get a permit. Unfortunately, I missed most of that battle, I left right before it started.
Ahhh, the memories...
I don't frown upon meat, unless it's rotten...
But someone came up to me in the dining halls at one point and said something to the effect of "Do you know what you're eating? You're eating *COW* (I was eating a cheeseburger)...
She pulled out some pictures of cows getting slaughtered...
I said "Yup" and started eating with my mouth open... She slapped me, and I still find the whole experience uproariously funny...
Damned dirty hippies!
that they've been overusing substances that even Santa Cruzers view as harsh and ill-advised.
/Ex
As a former Santa Cruzer, I object to people thinking that we view any substances as harsh and ill-advised.
We do, however, frown upon gasoline, meat, and people that don't smell of pachouli, so take that as you may...
oh, and "Have a nice day sir"...
Because I need this phone number-- it's been my only contact at points, and there are people that I no longer talk to that do not have any other way to contact me.
/ex
I plan on changing providers because I'm tired of fighting my provider's bad coverage in my area. I used to not be able to get reception at my house or place of work-- meaning 90% of the day I was out of contact anyway.
Well, there's also the nokia 3360 which was an issue. I managed to destroy mine quite thoroughly, then brought it in to take advantage of my insurance and *GET A DECENT FUCKING PHONE*.
"No, we can't do that" Fine. I want my 6190 back. it wasn't supposed to be replaced in the first place. I can't use this phone, it makes my bloodpressure soar. "I'm sorry, they no longer make that" Fine, then give me something with the same number of buttons that actually locks and that the biggest fucking key on the phone isn't "dial/hangup". In fact, I demand separate dial/hangup keys. I'm willing to pay. "Well, if you sign up for a 3 year contract"... Fuck you and your contract, I want a goddamned phone now. I want a goddamned phone that doesn't cause me to go into violent outbreaks, and I intend to fucking dump you as soon as I can go to someone else, so I'm not gonna pay 500 dollars for a phone that you give away free with a 2 year contract.
I ended up getting a 3190 I think. I really like this phone. Nice, simple, does what I want it to do. Separate dial/end buttons, and... well, it just works. I even can get reception at home and work now... Now only if it worked at the place I'm moving to...
Yeah, we do have a santa maria brewery...
They make what appears to be Budweiser, but non-pasteurized (I have no freaking clue how they managed that)...
I love dark beers, and while guinness isn't the best of them (mmmmm... Blackwatch...), It was the best I was hoping for around here... *sigh*
That is all, I'm going back to work...
Except where I live... Freaking bastards. there is *NO* guinness in Santa Maria, California, except one place-- Who sells so little of it, it tastes stale and awful...
Read my write-up of finding guinness in my new hometown here.
Hey, I like the right-clickability of solitaire and spider solitaire is great!
I use emeditor instead of notepad (it doesn't suck). but I've got calculator hot-keyed to "webcam" on my keyboard!
Interesting... Maybe it's just in windows-- Or maybe it was one of those "in order to get everything working" deals...
/Ex
Ugh, who knows.
Video games are calling me back...
yes. MS bluetooth is great.
/Ex
Except it doesn't work with anything. A friend was trying to get a bluetooth mouse and keyboard for his ibm ultra-small laptop (with bluetooth built in). He looked at the microsoft kb/m, and, well, basically you had to use a MS bluetooth dongle and disable your internal bluetooth.
Just great. Really helpful MS.
Asshats.
Just like the w2k bug (failed to) prove,
/ex
Did anyone else see this and wonder "which one?"
alternatively, did anyone see it and say "Ha! Stupid MS!"
Well, I've actually caused my PS2 to crash quite a bit, such as playing gauntlet with 4 players (tries to reference negative ram addresses or something like that...
/ex
But in general, you're right. It's very difficult to recall a console game...
However, it only has to run on one (few at least) set of hardware. It's the reason macs seem to never crash-- If they had to program for every piece of hardware out there, there'd be a lot of "crap" that happens, and things get messy...
If PCs were uber-standardized-- this proc. this amount of ram, this and that, then there would be no problem. I'm working tech support (for a *gag* foxpro program) and one in 100 customers gets extreme slowdown (like running a report can take 72 hours when it's supposed to only take 10ish minutes) all the time. We have been hunting for it for the past months, and it isn't the data... It seems possibly hardware related, but there's so much hardware out there, and so many different layouts for it (win9x v. me v. 2k vs. nt v. xp)
It's a nice belief that they try it on a bunch of systems, but chances are, if it's anything like the jobs I've run, you've got one guy that collects all the files, then at the end, he runs it around the office, and maybe to a "test room" with generic pcs of varying speeds and makeups, which he tests it on.
Did you ever look at sierra's help stuff? I never had a problem installing their stuff (microprose on the other hand, cost me six months allowance because it hard killed win31, and I had to bring it to the store to get it reinstalled (you know, when your parents didn't trust you to touch the damned thing, even though you can't do any more damage than you already did? Ahhh, memories...
Uh, that's all I have to add. Good points, just a bit more insight...
I don't think there's anything to worry about. Noone will miss him in the future... Well, so much as us MST3k fan(atic)s will always pine over the MST-worthy crap that he puts out...
/ex
If anyone decides to do a MST4k, and does it well, I think you should look at http://us.imdb.com/Name?Shatner,+William for ideas on what to put in the premiere issues. Notice the "born in canada". I can see a whole season dealing with just his feces (maybe put it off a couple seasons, until you can take advantage of the cheap crap like netforce, "dude, where's my car" and anything with a pop musician in it.
Does that mean we can arrest him without a trial, then execute him in a few years? If so, I heartily agree with this. After that Iron Chef USA fiasco, he deserves to... Go elsewhere. /ex
Wow. You do seem to know your way around foxpro, but I was hoping for something I could download that could get me excited about dealing with fox pro. Still, by your descriptions, it looks like I may have been harsh towards FP.
/ex
One thing that has been bugging me about the help files is the lack of useful quick reference material. Do you know of a good quick ref floating around? Preferably cheap or free because I'm learning this in my "spare time" according to the bosses.
Thanks
btw: if you prefer to e-mail me, my address is mmintzii_AT_yahoo_DOT_com
This is the third FP program I've done support for. While this one is TEH SUCK much more than the other two, even the best of the group was worse than a hacked up php version I left them with...
You're right, it's probably the writer-- Can you recommend a *GOOD* system on FP? I don't care what it does, I just want to see what FP can do.
THis is the first job I've actually mucked around with the programming itself (usually, it's just rescuing the data that FP holds prisoner). Mostly what I see (with the visual foxpro at least, maybe there's another version I'm missing), is it fights the user interface every step of the way-- and from what I've seen, it's a problem with the trunk (language), not the branch(program).
Well, you seem to know more than I care to about FP-- maybe you can answer a question-- Is there a better way to make reports? I'm trying to fill out (printout) forms (think DMV), using FP reports-- and placing is a pain in the ass.
Any suggestions?
I'm dealing with freaking fox pro right now, it blows goats!
PLEASE DON"T LET IT GO ON LINUX!!! I'LL HAVE TO START DIGGING DITCHES FOR A LIVING!!!
*head explodes*
Maybe I should read the article now.
we're right next to a big street, which is currently half torn up-- The whole building vibrates all day long due to the damn tractors...
Oh, well. At least they stopped bashing the sidewalk with the dozer's boom... *THAT* was annoying.
I have written a lot of code, but I've never created anything complex enough to require an "engineer".
/Ex
Think about it-- How many engineers are needed to build a bridge? Now how many "grunt workers"? Now scale it down to the normal size of a software project. It's probably 1 engineer to 100-1000 grunts.
the people I think deserve the title "software engineer" are the guys that actually figure out how things are supposed to go together, and then let the grunts worry about implementing it.
Note: this is not to say that every project has an engineer-- seriously, anything with less than five coders is the engineering equivalent of getting a few close friends to throw up a barn over the weekend. A lot of larger projects even, have very similar "barn raising" techniques in the design phase.
You can teach almost anyone to program-- just like you can teach almost anyone to swing a hammer or use a wrench. Programming is a bit more intensive, as it's a larger number of "movements" for a result, but it all boils down to the same thing-- You can't easily change engineers in mid-stream, but the grunts are interchangable.
Another thing is there is this horrible divide between good and bad "engineers" in the computer field right now. The bad ones make *EVERYONE* an engineer-- "We don't exactly know what your piece is supposed to accomplish, but you need to do something, so have at it, and we'll get around to telling you what to do sooner or later". This doesn't work. It makes everyone work harder, to no benefit.
It is like a building engineer telling people to "just start nailing boards together, and we'll see where they can fit in the final design". The grunts suddenly are required to have knowledge of proper building and must make sure everything lines up because there isn't a blueprint to follow. That is why you never see that.
The worst, of course, are those firms that use the marketing department as the engineers. I am currently of the opinion that software should be written to fix a problem-- not the Microsoft idea of "build it and market it to death, then come out with 2.0. Wash, rinse, repeat"
So, basically, there are engineers-- The guys that write up the blueprint. 90% of us are at most aspiring engineers. Now. Let the flaming commence.
Why yes I do-- ;-) /Bob /Ex
While not as active as in the past, I'm Microsoft_Bob
aka