...for one thing, the model of selling a product doesn't work in the software development industry.
What? You had better share that insight with all of the commercial software vendors out there quickly before they go out of business! Make sure to include Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, etc...!
Programmers are morally obligated to give the code to their users and allow their users to freely modify and redistribute the code.
Again... WHAT? I am not aware of any code of morals saying that developers have an obligation to give away their code. Can you explain to me, all GNU and FSF rhetoric aside, why my company should spend countless resources to create a product that we give the code away for and let people do as they wish with it? I personally don't get that logic.
Slightly offtopic (but not by much): I think that the ideal license is one that says something like: "By purchasing this software you get rights to the source code, to do with as you like *within* your organization. If you plan on offering your changed product outside of your organization, you must sign an approved Royalty agreement with the Publisher..."
Don't bite the hand that feeds and don't assume that you can make money by putting a product out as OSS and that someone will pay you to extend or support it.
I have to say that estimation of projects is still 100 lines per day per developer.
Hm... the average developer may *write* 100 lines of code in a day, but my empirical knowledge says that probably only 10% of those lines will make it into the end product. There are exceptions, of course... I worked with one developer who seemingly never made any errors in his code... but that is a rarity. On the flip side, I have worked with developers who even they may have written hundreds and thousands of lines, ended up with *none* of their code in the final product.
I am also not an accountant, but I don't think my accountant would be too pleased with me if I sold products/services for less than they cost me. And, I have serious doubts as to whether the IRS would look kindly at a loss that was created *on purpose*.
But not turning them into little Ron Jeremys.(That is my job for the time being).
Wait... are you saying that your job is to be a little Ron Jeremy? Or, were you referring to the previous sentence (which I decided to intentionally leave out to make this funny)?
If your company is an MS reseller, they should be able to get a fairly good break on MSSQL Server. If they can't afford the 1500 for an MSSQL license, perhaps they shouldn't be in business?
You see, it is going to cost them a hell of a lot more than that to rewrite all of their code to use a different environment.
Don't forget also that FreeBSD is the darling OSS OS (god, that looks retarded) of the commercial vendors... for many reasons, but the licensing being the top. Even Microsoft has released a reference implementation of (parts of) the.NET framework on FreeBSD. Plus, BSDers don't seem nearly as rabid about licensing issues and the like... much unlike our Linux brethren.
Alas, it's true. The country that is full of BSD hackers, Ruby developers, etc... is also very reliant on Microsoft. I think there is a primary reason for that, and one that will probably get me flamed, modded down, or maybe both. Japanese Windows works flawlessly (well, as flawlessly as Windows can work).
As for the IE issue, that bring back horrid memories of a project I worked on in Japan a few years ago for Tsutaya. We had to rewrite entire portions of the application because it didn't work for IE 3.0. As we all know, *nothing* works with IE3, at least not things that work for any other browser, including other versions of IE.
Anyway, this "must work for IE3" thing came up while we were doing the install in Osaka... suffice it to say that we hurriedly wrote a wealth of kludges to make the thing work across "all" browsers. I will never attempt to write a web app that works in all browsers again.;-)
For More Advanced...
on
SQL Fundamentals
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· Score: 5, Informative
For the more advanced, I *personally* would recommend Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties. Celko is a rather bizarre character, but there is no problem that he cannot solve using ANSI92 SQL. None.
If you want to make the developers/DBAs/bosses in your company think you are an absolute god, get a copy of Celko's SQL Puzzles and Answers.
The.NET framework includes more than this, but the classes are the important part for portability.
Didn't Intel create their own version of the.NET libs? I remember downloading it to test under Mono at some point and now can't find the link. For the record, I was probably doing something wrong, but never got Intel's libs to work with Mono.
And that in itself is not new... MS has had "Exchange Forms" for a very long time. Of course, the *only* time I ever had to use them was while contracting at MS, but still...;-)
I would bet that XForms is simply an extension of Exchange Forms and indeed is being built by MS to be a Notes slayer.
I've ran Obsd 3.1 on it, and even with 320 meg of ram, its still quite slow...
??????
What in the name of all that is holy are you running to make OpenBSD run "slowly" on a Sparc (even an old Sparc2 or even IPC) with 320MB? Although I prefer NetBSD over OpenBSD, they tend to both be *very* fast and lean.
Can you fill us in... I am very curious.
Forced Upgrades
on
Nosy Vendors?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Yesterday I tried to order a workstation from Dell for a client. During the course of talking to the Dell rep it came out that we would be installing Win2k Server on the workstation.
"Can't do that, " he said. "Would void the warranty."
Void the warranty? Apparently. So, he finally talked me into looking at their server line. Amazingly enough, we ended up with a "server" option that was $400 less than the workstation configuration.
I don't know about you, but there are many reasons to consider unions for techs:
While I am understanding and even sympathetic to your reasons, I hold that the reason that companies are utilizing H1B workers, overseas development shops, and laying off workers has everything to do with market demand. Since we have a free market for IT workers, we (collectively the IT industry) should have capped our rates ourselves, or at the very least made them reasonable. In other words... is it *really worth* 300/hr to pay someone to write code when the industry averages tell us that might only produce 6 lines of code? I don't think so. On the other end of the spectrum, we have people on places like eLance who are demeaning themselves by charging $3000 for a project that should cost $30,000.
So, what's the answer? Keep plugging away, I guess. Take a good long look at *your* value, and then take a long, hard look at what a client (or employer) is willing to pay, and somewhere in between is the rate you should be charging.
I am currently working on a project that will compete directly with offshore call centers, component manufacturing and the like. We have capped our rates to be more than fair to both our workers and our clients. The potential clients are tripping all over themselves to participate. Sure, it might cost a couple bucks an hour more per person than an Indian (or Russian, or whatever) shop, but American companies tend to prefer contributing directly to the American economy, given a prudent financial choice.
Someone needs to mod this up. He said it perfectly:
Thanks! I have expressed that opinion before, but being from Seattle and surrounded by Boeing, dock workers, etc... it is generally not very appreciated.;-)
don't know about the rest of you, but I have done very well in the tech sector on my own
To put this in perspective... I haven't worked more than 9 months out of the year for the last several years. I would take a 3 month or so contract, work like a dog and then take 3 or 4 months off to travel, and I would still bet that my average yearly take was larger than if I worked a full year in a "union tech job". Of course, doing things that way is truly risky (especially in this market!), but I like to roll the dice.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
What? You had better share that insight with all of the commercial software vendors out there quickly before they go out of business! Make sure to include Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, etc...!
Programmers are morally obligated to give the code to their users and allow their users to freely modify and redistribute the code. Again... WHAT? I am not aware of any code of morals saying that developers have an obligation to give away their code. Can you explain to me, all GNU and FSF rhetoric aside, why my company should spend countless resources to create a product that we give the code away for and let people do as they wish with it? I personally don't get that logic.
Slightly offtopic (but not by much): I think that the ideal license is one that says something like: "By purchasing this software you get rights to the source code, to do with as you like *within* your organization. If you plan on offering your changed product outside of your organization, you must sign an approved Royalty agreement with the Publisher..."
Don't bite the hand that feeds and don't assume that you can make money by putting a product out as OSS and that someone will pay you to extend or support it.
Hm... the average developer may *write* 100 lines of code in a day, but my empirical knowledge says that probably only 10% of those lines will make it into the end product. There are exceptions, of course... I worked with one developer who seemingly never made any errors in his code... but that is a rarity. On the flip side, I have worked with developers who even they may have written hundreds and thousands of lines, ended up with *none* of their code in the final product.
Unfortunately, given what happened today (Homeland Security Bill), it isn't all that funny.
Kmail has a "bounce" option. Why more email clients do not is beyond me.
I would be they are... lots and lots and lots of BSD developers in Japan.
Now that explains why Word is such a pig!
Ever.
Do..You... speaklikethis... offstage... aswell?
I am also not an accountant, but I don't think my accountant would be too pleased with me if I sold products/services for less than they cost me. And, I have serious doubts as to whether the IRS would look kindly at a loss that was created *on purpose*.
Wait... are you saying that your job is to be a little Ron Jeremy? Or, were you referring to the previous sentence (which I decided to intentionally leave out to make this funny)?
You see, it is going to cost them a hell of a lot more than that to rewrite all of their code to use a different environment.
It is certainly a good thing that they used mouse gestures instead of an emacs interface: C-x C-g C-t C-c ....
Don't forget also that FreeBSD is the darling OSS OS (god, that looks retarded) of the commercial vendors... for many reasons, but the licensing being the top. Even Microsoft has released a reference implementation of (parts of) the .NET framework on FreeBSD. Plus, BSDers don't seem nearly as rabid about licensing issues and the like... much unlike our Linux brethren.
As for the IE issue, that bring back horrid memories of a project I worked on in Japan a few years ago for Tsutaya. We had to rewrite entire portions of the application because it didn't work for IE 3.0. As we all know, *nothing* works with IE3, at least not things that work for any other browser, including other versions of IE.
Anyway, this "must work for IE3" thing came up while we were doing the install in Osaka... suffice it to say that we hurriedly wrote a wealth of kludges to make the thing work across "all" browsers. I will never attempt to write a web app that works in all browsers again. ;-)
If you want to make the developers/DBAs/bosses in your company think you are an absolute god, get a copy of Celko's SQL Puzzles and Answers.
Didn't Intel create their own version of the .NET libs? I remember downloading it to test under Mono at some point and now can't find the link. For the record, I was probably doing something wrong, but never got Intel's libs to work with Mono.
It is interesting to note that many of the files have a comment with a date of June, 1999.
You forgot one very import event: in 2008, the Gnu HURD will be in "beta".
I would bet that XForms is simply an extension of Exchange Forms and indeed is being built by MS to be a Notes slayer.
Um... the Internet connectivity has to come from somewhere.
The song is lucicrous enough, but the title given it on hackvan is fucking hysterical!
??????
What in the name of all that is holy are you running to make OpenBSD run "slowly" on a Sparc (even an old Sparc2 or even IPC) with 320MB? Although I prefer NetBSD over OpenBSD, they tend to both be *very* fast and lean.
Can you fill us in... I am very curious.
"Can't do that, " he said. "Would void the warranty."
Void the warranty? Apparently. So, he finally talked me into looking at their server line. Amazingly enough, we ended up with a "server" option that was $400 less than the workstation configuration.
While I am understanding and even sympathetic to your reasons, I hold that the reason that companies are utilizing H1B workers, overseas development shops, and laying off workers has everything to do with market demand. Since we have a free market for IT workers, we (collectively the IT industry) should have capped our rates ourselves, or at the very least made them reasonable. In other words... is it *really worth* 300/hr to pay someone to write code when the industry averages tell us that might only produce 6 lines of code? I don't think so. On the other end of the spectrum, we have people on places like eLance who are demeaning themselves by charging $3000 for a project that should cost $30,000.
So, what's the answer? Keep plugging away, I guess. Take a good long look at *your* value, and then take a long, hard look at what a client (or employer) is willing to pay, and somewhere in between is the rate you should be charging.
I am currently working on a project that will compete directly with offshore call centers, component manufacturing and the like. We have capped our rates to be more than fair to both our workers and our clients. The potential clients are tripping all over themselves to participate. Sure, it might cost a couple bucks an hour more per person than an Indian (or Russian, or whatever) shop, but American companies tend to prefer contributing directly to the American economy, given a prudent financial choice.
Thanks! I have expressed that opinion before, but being from Seattle and surrounded by Boeing, dock workers, etc... it is generally not very appreciated. ;-)
don't know about the rest of you, but I have done very well in the tech sector on my own
To put this in perspective... I haven't worked more than 9 months out of the year for the last several years. I would take a 3 month or so contract, work like a dog and then take 3 or 4 months off to travel, and I would still bet that my average yearly take was larger than if I worked a full year in a "union tech job". Of course, doing things that way is truly risky (especially in this market!), but I like to roll the dice. ;-)