I've worked for quite a few different companies as well, and found much the same problems. The really competent managers (from a business point of view) make life dull (take no risks), and the ones that let you try interesting stuff can drive the business bankrupt.
That seems to be why many professional programmers work on open source projects. You get to spread your technical wings without managers.
I've been waiting a long time to tell this story..
I went to some sort of festival in the town of Penguin, Tasmania (part of Australia) a couple of years ago. There were a lot of displays, and I went looking for someone with computers to hassle them about using Linux. The only display I found was a small christian (primary) school .
Guess what! They were using Linux! Had a nice chat with the guy, who said they were using it to save money, and it was working out well.
I don't remember who they were, but it wouldn't be tough to find out. (Tasmania has less than 500,000 people, and Penguin is small even by Tasmanian standards).
A British billion is a million million, not a thousand million, or so I'm told. $60 billion dollars isn't that much these days, $60 trillion sounds like a much more impressive figure for an impressive project.
Whatever language you use in high school won't be the one you use later anyway. Languages come and go. In the last 25 years or so I've programmed in at least 20 different languages, and they all become obsolete at some time. The longest lasting language I've used is C, and that certainly has changed since I learned it in '76. And I haven't used it in years now.
What's important is the knowledge of the concepts, which transfers nicely to any language you use (even COBOL). Also, it is important to learn a few languages, so you can be in a position to pick the right language for the job. I wouldn't dream of using C for a web site, nor would I use PERL for an operating system.
Here in Tasmania (also in Ireland, I'm told) we use the Hare-Clark system, which gives voters a chance to put their prefered candidate first, but if your candidate doesn't have chance, your vote goes to the next preference, etc. There are 5 winners in each electorate here, so minor parties have a chance of winning.
Election time is genuinely fun, and when the greens had the balance of power, I really looked forward to the News every day. Most people don't seem to understand the system, and it is complicated so you don't get instant results, but it is very well thought out.
People expect miracles from computers? People are used to miracles. For a few dollars I can get a magazine with Redhat 6.2 on a CD stuck to it. I get an O.S., lots of games and apps. What is a reasonable expectation from computers when we have these sorts of experiences?
Even if you are paying programmers to develop new software, their productivity varies by several orders of magnitude depending on their skills, tools, the quality of their specs, etc. Whose to say if a bid is unreasonable?
Expectations from technology is a little easier, although 20 years ago I would have believed 56k modems would have been theoretically impossible. A lot of the technology we use today would have sounded like a con a few years ago.
Having said that, anyone who invests in anything they don't understand should get it checked out by someone who does.
Ignoring the VB issue, rapid justice for straightforward cases is fairer and more effective. In psychology 101 we were told that negative reinforcement is only effective if it occurs immediately after the offense. A rapid judgement and punishment system will probably reduce the number of repeat offenders.
It seems obvious to me that the best way to prove the ineffectiveness of such a program would be to overload it. Turn in the football stars (foot ball playing is violent behavior, isn't it?), the cheerleaders, micky mouse, yourself, everyone! Make the signal to noise ratio so high it's useless.
Sounds good to me. An open source software censorware program should allow you to import black lists from other sites, so you could subscribe to the anti-porn, anti-racist, anti-sports, anti-republican, anti-microsoft and/or anti-government lists of your choice.
If the KKK and NAACP put up lists, take your pick. Or choose neither or both.
Maybe that way parents who don't want to take responsibility for supervising their children can at least take responsibility for choosing who they trust to take responsibility.
And maybe it will help the common folk realize that the open source community aren't just anarchists, but are really trying to help people get control of technology.
This Metcalfe guy should know better. I think he just loves stirring up slashdotters and attracting more people to his column. Controversy sells papers, who cares whether you are on the right side or not? His prediction of the internet stock market bubbl collapsing on Nov. 8, '99 proves he doesn't care about being right, only about attracting attention.
Slashdot Mirror
That seems to be why many professional programmers work on open source projects. You get to spread your technical wings without managers.
I went to some sort of festival in the town of Penguin, Tasmania (part of Australia) a couple of years ago. There were a lot of displays, and I went looking for someone with computers to hassle them about using Linux. The only display I found was a small christian (primary) school .
Guess what! They were using Linux! Had a nice chat with the guy, who said they were using it to save money, and it was working out well.
I don't remember who they were, but it wouldn't be tough to find out. (Tasmania has less than 500,000 people, and Penguin is small even by Tasmanian standards).
A British billion is a million million, not a thousand million, or so I'm told. $60 billion dollars isn't that much these days, $60 trillion sounds like a much more impressive figure for an impressive project.
What's important is the knowledge of the concepts, which transfers nicely to any language you use (even COBOL). Also, it is important to learn a few languages, so you can be in a position to pick the right language for the job. I wouldn't dream of using C for a web site, nor would I use PERL for an operating system.
Election time is genuinely fun, and when the greens had the balance of power, I really looked forward to the News every day. Most people don't seem to understand the system, and it is complicated so you don't get instant results, but it is very well thought out.
Here's some info
Even if you are paying programmers to develop new software, their productivity varies by several orders of magnitude depending on their skills, tools, the quality of their specs, etc. Whose to say if a bid is unreasonable?
Expectations from technology is a little easier, although 20 years ago I would have believed 56k modems would have been theoretically impossible. A lot of the technology we use today would have sounded like a con a few years ago.
Having said that, anyone who invests in anything they don't understand should get it checked out by someone who does.
Ignoring the VB issue, rapid justice for straightforward cases is fairer and more effective. In psychology 101 we were told that negative reinforcement is only effective if it occurs immediately after the offense. A rapid judgement and punishment system will probably reduce the number of repeat offenders.
It seems obvious to me that the best way to prove the ineffectiveness of such a program would be to overload it. Turn in the football stars (foot ball playing is violent behavior, isn't it?), the cheerleaders, micky mouse, yourself, everyone! Make the signal to noise ratio so high it's useless.
If the KKK and NAACP put up lists, take your pick. Or choose neither or both.
Maybe that way parents who don't want to take responsibility for supervising their children can at least take responsibility for choosing who they trust to take responsibility.
And maybe it will help the common folk realize that the open source community aren't just anarchists, but are really trying to help people get control of technology.
This Metcalfe guy should know better. I think he just loves stirring up slashdotters and attracting more people to his column. Controversy sells papers, who cares whether you are on the right side or not? His prediction of the internet stock market bubbl collapsing on Nov. 8, '99 proves he doesn't care about being right, only about attracting attention.