Um, you could shine this spotlight on most of the "software industry" and be accurate... badly designed software, continuous "patches" for shit that never should have gone out the door, no real engineering or testing of stuff or so limited it misses even obvious high-school level coding errors in multi-million dollar projects...
Then you add in that "perfect" software never exists, because if a piece of software is written which is that good, there's nothing to sell the customer NEXT year.
It's increasingly obvious that the quality level of most "software engineering" is utter crap and yet customers are still willing to pay... for the time being.
Twelve Angry Men is a PLAY that was adapted to a movie, and then another modern re-make. The play is (like most things turned into movies) better than any movie.
Watch for it at a local (real) theater. Most good theaters put it on fairly regularly.
Ironic that someone doing work on the Ice would reply, since I was just in one of my moods to read blogs and things about the Ice and was poking around various websites. An acquaintance has been to both McMurdo and Palmer with one flight down to the Pole for some reason. Enjoy your stay down there... it sounds more romantic to most folks than it really is, I know.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that either. All the so-called Software "Engineers" could learn a lesson from these guys in building purpose-built things that are simple and work!
Same here. iPods dying at high altitude is horse-hockey.
My iPod has been numerous times above 10,000' MSL and at least once to 14,000+' MSL. I live in Colorado.
It's been to the top of Pikes Peak (14,100+' MSL), and to numerous radio equipment sites at 10,000' MSL or higher.
Conifer Mountain, just below 10,000' MSL and Squaw Mountain 11,440' MSL are commonly visited with it. It's also been up to Leadville, CO two or three times. Not to mention the somewhat lower but frequent trips up I-70 through the Eisenhower Tunnel, over Loveland, Vail, Kenosha and Berthoud Passes. Those are just normal highway drives around here... to get to mountain towns/ski areas.
I'm also a Private Pilot, and the iPod has been in the unpressurized cabin at 11,500' MSL a few times.
If you signed a document saying they own it, you simply can not put it out in the open without their written permission. END OF STORY.
Now many folks here will probably offer up ways that you could work through that, but if you put it out without their permission you make anyone who works on or speaks about the benefits of open source code, look like just another fool... because businesspeople don't take kindly to developers posting their property on the Internet for all to see/use/whatever.
If it's not yours, it's not yours to publish. Period. Go to the boss, who will go to the lawyers, and get permission FIRST. And realize that you're probably "wasting their time" in their eyes, so do it wisely. If they're not interested, drop it.
The only reasonable thing you may get out of the discourse is the same thing many people have done -- ask the lawyers to amend your contract to allow you to work on open source products in your free time. They'll probably want concessions that stipulate that none of this coding can be done on company time, and that none of the things you create off-hours compete in any way with your own company's products. I got such a clause written into one of my NDA contracts with a previous employer, and when handled correctly.
Example: "I need help. I am trying to contribute my time to a volunteer software writing project, but I am bound by the terms of my contract that all software I create is owned by the company. Can you help me? This project I'm working on in my free time as a hobby in no way competes with our products and services."
But in your case you've described, you didn't have that first, and the code sounds like it may be older but working code that directly competes with your current product. In that case, you'll probably never get permission to post it anywhere, and doing so could get you fired. Your call, but don't make the rest of us out to look like idiots who steal code and post it in public. We did our homework and already worked on changing our contracts. If you didn't, leave that code where it is, and talk to legal before working on open source projects. It's not hard.
Here's a politically incorrect thought for you: Some of us don't care. For whatever reasons.
Personally, if I had the money, I'd buy an original Hummer and paint a name on the back of it, "Carbon Footprint" and drive it across the street to the grocery store.
Why? Mostly because I'm tired of having "green" shit shoved down my throat. My employer has been sending internal e-mails for months about how "green" they are, and all their "green initiatives" while the HR department still has an official "no work from home" policy -- and tons of us DO work from home when we think we can get away with it, not to mention the after-hours on-call. They're full of shit and lots of other "greenies" are too. The same "greenie" who wrote the corporate policy that the company buying plastic water bottles is now banned, probably flew thousands of miles back and forth in gas-guzzling airliners to go to "face to face" meetings instead of using the corporate videoconferencing system, too. ONE flight, they ruined the ENTIRE "bottle" project.
If the greenies would go after things like corporations who don't have officially MANDATED work from home policies... for those workers who CAN work from home... I'd take their asses a lot more seriously.
Or maybe "Why do I want to be an IT manager?" Are you doing it for noble reasons, the money, the perks, or something altogether different.
'Cause having "been there, done that", I'll gladly stay put now in my senior staff role and let someone else sell their soul to become middle management.
So what? If the boss finds it inefficient maybe he'll learn to damn well send complex instructions in an e-mail! I've only had two bosses in my entire career I would say were really good leaders and communicators, and a couple that were good leaders but horrible communicators. What's the big freakin' deal? Inefficiency is pretty much status-quo in business, we are talking about humans here... humans that think "ticket tracking" systems help technicans fix things, for example.
You're overworked and thinking that there need to be more of us because you choose to be... your employer will ALWAYS demand more, that's the nature of business. Start saying "no".
As for the accountant story, accountants are tested and regulated by law. IT has fought this at every turn, and still has people who call themselves "Engineers". Real engineers have PE's and have to build to legally-mandated standards which are monitored by government inspectors.
When IT gets to that point, we'll be able to call these people "Engineers" -- until then, they're just code monkeys. Same thing with professional system administration. Most sysadmins do what I call "sysadmin by feel" and couldn't be bothered to write down the EXACT steps they're going to take on the machine and have them reviewed by peers and clients before doing them.
(In Telco, we do this. It's very rare in any other "IT"/sysadmin job. We do it because we have already MEASURED (Engineering) the amount of money each system makes and maximize it while also planning appropriately for heavy load conditions, which were also tested and measured before the production system ever hit the CO. And if we screw up a production system, I know the platform I work on will cost my customer a DIRECT hit of over $40,000 an hour if the cluster is down outside of a maintenance window. If the system you work on doesn't make or save your organization that kind of money, and/or you can't PROVE it to management... they aren't going to be hiring you any staff to help you any time soon.)
Exactly. Another article about a code monkey who thinks he's more than he really is. Delusions of grandeur abound in software writing (note not ENGINEERING) circles.
And those of us who have to use the systems consultants deployed "to spec - without any style" (to paraphrase your message) hate both the people who write the specs and also that the consultants don't speak up and ask if they can do more.
Why? Because systems built to spec usually don't do everything they should, and getting them changed or upgraded later becomes a huge chore because "the budget is already spent and we'll have to get a new budget for the updates NEXT year"... which never comes.
Our company ticketing system (Siebel) is an utter hunk of crap, and the data imports from various previous systems were riddled with errors... which those of us who tried to report them later on, found out that the contractors who knew how to work on the thing are long gone, and a handful of admins here who now run the thing don't have time for things like re-importing hundreds of thousands of items from previous databases where the import was done incorrectly (wrong fields, etc.).
I have a VERY unique last name, and when I found that I was both listed in the new system as an employee and also as a customer in Kansas City (I don't live there), I knew someone had screwed up royally...
But the system "meets spec" and the hourly contractors are long gone... and it's been two years since I noticed that AND reported it. No one cares because upper management touted the thing as a grand success, and moved on... the day the check was paid out to the contractors.
Does this mean the company has problems managing contractors? Sure. But ALL COMPANIES DO. So my view of contract help with no VESTED INTEREST in our business, is pretty damn low.
You guys move on, leaving destruction and steaming piles of crap in your wake, don't even know it most of the time, and as long as the special management team who wrote the spec (but has no idea what the people that actually use the system DO with it) is happy at the end outcome (they always are -- they have no idea what the system's really going to be used for), you're long gone.
Buh-bye... see ya. Have fun with that database mess we built for you. We're happy to come back at twice the price and work on it again later for you!
Doesn't most GPL software come with a non-liability "you are using software that doesn't claim to do ANYTHING" type of disclaimer anyway? (Even if such claims are useless in litigous countries like the U.S....)
Because the *rating* of the maximum power your power adapter can provide and what your machine actually *uses* at any particular point in time, are two completely unrelated measurements.
Slashdot Mirror
... to anything designed to secure ALWAYS makes it more secure, historically.
I think I'll wait for version 2, or 3... maybe 10.
Um, you could shine this spotlight on most of the "software industry" and be accurate... badly designed software, continuous "patches" for shit that never should have gone out the door, no real engineering or testing of stuff or so limited it misses even obvious high-school level coding errors in multi-million dollar projects...
Then you add in that "perfect" software never exists, because if a piece of software is written which is that good, there's nothing to sell the customer NEXT year.
It's increasingly obvious that the quality level of most "software engineering" is utter crap and yet customers are still willing to pay... for the time being.
Twelve Angry Men is a PLAY that was adapted to a movie, and then another modern re-make. The play is (like most things turned into movies) better than any movie.
Watch for it at a local (real) theater. Most good theaters put it on fairly regularly.
I'm surprised we haven't seen people buying/selling low Slash ID's on eBay... with all the amazing perks and what-not. Ha.
Ironic that someone doing work on the Ice would reply, since I was just in one of my moods to read blogs and things about the Ice and was poking around various websites. An acquaintance has been to both McMurdo and Palmer with one flight down to the Pole for some reason. Enjoy your stay down there... it sounds more romantic to most folks than it really is, I know.
"Limited in what in can do" = KISS principal.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that either. All the so-called Software "Engineers" could learn a lesson from these guys in building purpose-built things that are simple and work!
That would have been better as, "Um, Michael? Yeah... um, I'm going to need you to stop by PLATO on Saaaaturday, mmm-kay?"
Same here. iPods dying at high altitude is horse-hockey.
My iPod has been numerous times above 10,000' MSL and at least once to 14,000+' MSL. I live in Colorado.
It's been to the top of Pikes Peak (14,100+' MSL), and to numerous radio equipment sites at 10,000' MSL or higher.
Conifer Mountain, just below 10,000' MSL and Squaw Mountain 11,440' MSL are commonly visited with it. It's also been up to Leadville, CO two or three times. Not to mention the somewhat lower but frequent trips up I-70 through the Eisenhower Tunnel, over Loveland, Vail, Kenosha and Berthoud Passes. Those are just normal highway drives around here... to get to mountain towns/ski areas.
I'm also a Private Pilot, and the iPod has been in the unpressurized cabin at 11,500' MSL a few times.
Give me a break... iPods are fine at altitude.
Seems like if they have AV turned off, there's plenty of ways to lay traps for them to stumble over that would cause SERIOUS company-wide problems.
Not saying this is ethically all that great, but you're not being creative enough if you haven't though of ways to teach them the lesson the hard way.
Half-joking, half-serious... where's your BOFH *skills*, man?!
... Don't.
If you signed a document saying they own it, you simply can not put it out in the open without their written permission. END OF STORY.
Now many folks here will probably offer up ways that you could work through that, but if you put it out without their permission you make anyone who works on or speaks about the benefits of open source code, look like just another fool... because businesspeople don't take kindly to developers posting their property on the Internet for all to see/use/whatever.
If it's not yours, it's not yours to publish. Period. Go to the boss, who will go to the lawyers, and get permission FIRST. And realize that you're probably "wasting their time" in their eyes, so do it wisely. If they're not interested, drop it.
The only reasonable thing you may get out of the discourse is the same thing many people have done -- ask the lawyers to amend your contract to allow you to work on open source products in your free time. They'll probably want concessions that stipulate that none of this coding can be done on company time, and that none of the things you create off-hours compete in any way with your own company's products. I got such a clause written into one of my NDA contracts with a previous employer, and when handled correctly.
Example: "I need help. I am trying to contribute my time to a volunteer software writing project, but I am bound by the terms of my contract that all software I create is owned by the company. Can you help me? This project I'm working on in my free time as a hobby in no way competes with our products and services."
But in your case you've described, you didn't have that first, and the code sounds like it may be older but working code that directly competes with your current product. In that case, you'll probably never get permission to post it anywhere, and doing so could get you fired. Your call, but don't make the rest of us out to look like idiots who steal code and post it in public. We did our homework and already worked on changing our contracts. If you didn't, leave that code where it is, and talk to legal before working on open source projects. It's not hard.
You keep driving then, I'm pulling over to take a leak and stretch my legs.
Here's a politically incorrect thought for you: Some of us don't care. For whatever reasons.
Personally, if I had the money, I'd buy an original Hummer and paint a name on the back of it, "Carbon Footprint" and drive it across the street to the grocery store.
Why? Mostly because I'm tired of having "green" shit shoved down my throat. My employer has been sending internal e-mails for months about how "green" they are, and all their "green initiatives" while the HR department still has an official "no work from home" policy -- and tons of us DO work from home when we think we can get away with it, not to mention the after-hours on-call. They're full of shit and lots of other "greenies" are too. The same "greenie" who wrote the corporate policy that the company buying plastic water bottles is now banned, probably flew thousands of miles back and forth in gas-guzzling airliners to go to "face to face" meetings instead of using the corporate videoconferencing system, too. ONE flight, they ruined the ENTIRE "bottle" project.
If the greenies would go after things like corporations who don't have officially MANDATED work from home policies... for those workers who CAN work from home... I'd take their asses a lot more seriously.
Or maybe "Why do I want to be an IT manager?" Are you doing it for noble reasons, the money, the perks, or something altogether different.
'Cause having "been there, done that", I'll gladly stay put now in my senior staff role and let someone else sell their soul to become middle management.
Two quarters? Lucky bastard. Most of us are operating under people that are operating in SINGLE quarters. T
So what? If the boss finds it inefficient maybe he'll learn to damn well send complex instructions in an e-mail! I've only had two bosses in my entire career I would say were really good leaders and communicators, and a couple that were good leaders but horrible communicators. What's the big freakin' deal? Inefficiency is pretty much status-quo in business, we are talking about humans here... humans that think "ticket tracking" systems help technicans fix things, for example.
You're overworked and thinking that there need to be more of us because you choose to be... your employer will ALWAYS demand more, that's the nature of business. Start saying "no".
As for the accountant story, accountants are tested and regulated by law. IT has fought this at every turn, and still has people who call themselves "Engineers". Real engineers have PE's and have to build to legally-mandated standards which are monitored by government inspectors.
When IT gets to that point, we'll be able to call these people "Engineers" -- until then, they're just code monkeys. Same thing with professional system administration. Most sysadmins do what I call "sysadmin by feel" and couldn't be bothered to write down the EXACT steps they're going to take on the machine and have them reviewed by peers and clients before doing them.
(In Telco, we do this. It's very rare in any other "IT"/sysadmin job. We do it because we have already MEASURED (Engineering) the amount of money each system makes and maximize it while also planning appropriately for heavy load conditions, which were also tested and measured before the production system ever hit the CO. And if we screw up a production system, I know the platform I work on will cost my customer a DIRECT hit of over $40,000 an hour if the cluster is down outside of a maintenance window. If the system you work on doesn't make or save your organization that kind of money, and/or you can't PROVE it to management... they aren't going to be hiring you any staff to help you any time soon.)
They're supposed to be regulators, not a revenue generator for government.
Exactly. Another article about a code monkey who thinks he's more than he really is. Delusions of grandeur abound in software writing (note not ENGINEERING) circles.
And those of us who have to use the systems consultants deployed "to spec - without any style" (to paraphrase your message) hate both the people who write the specs and also that the consultants don't speak up and ask if they can do more.
Why? Because systems built to spec usually don't do everything they should, and getting them changed or upgraded later becomes a huge chore because "the budget is already spent and we'll have to get a new budget for the updates NEXT year"... which never comes.
Our company ticketing system (Siebel) is an utter hunk of crap, and the data imports from various previous systems were riddled with errors... which those of us who tried to report them later on, found out that the contractors who knew how to work on the thing are long gone, and a handful of admins here who now run the thing don't have time for things like re-importing hundreds of thousands of items from previous databases where the import was done incorrectly (wrong fields, etc.).
I have a VERY unique last name, and when I found that I was both listed in the new system as an employee and also as a customer in Kansas City (I don't live there), I knew someone had screwed up royally...
But the system "meets spec" and the hourly contractors are long gone... and it's been two years since I noticed that AND reported it. No one cares because upper management touted the thing as a grand success, and moved on... the day the check was paid out to the contractors.
Does this mean the company has problems managing contractors? Sure. But ALL COMPANIES DO. So my view of contract help with no VESTED INTEREST in our business, is pretty damn low.
You guys move on, leaving destruction and steaming piles of crap in your wake, don't even know it most of the time, and as long as the special management team who wrote the spec (but has no idea what the people that actually use the system DO with it) is happy at the end outcome (they always are -- they have no idea what the system's really going to be used for), you're long gone.
Buh-bye... see ya. Have fun with that database mess we built for you. We're happy to come back at twice the price and work on it again later for you!
Doesn't most GPL software come with a non-liability "you are using software that doesn't claim to do ANYTHING" type of disclaimer anyway? (Even if such claims are useless in litigous countries like the U.S. ...)
Sheesh, no one liked Judge Dredd. Did you HAVE to bring it up?
Dr. Strangelove -- what a wonderful satire.
You'd never get a movie with either that level of casting or that level of satire through Hollywood today -- perhaps never again.
Because the *rating* of the maximum power your power adapter can provide and what your machine actually *uses* at any particular point in time, are two completely unrelated measurements.
*plonk*
So, they want to ban... panic.
Nice. What'll they think of next?
Who says they aren't fighting now so they can track you and use the list of "offenders" as bait when they want something later from the government?
Paranoid? Sure.
Stop illegally copying things and you never have to worry about it.