Re:The best tools stay out of the way...
on
Goodbye Cruel Word
·
· Score: 1
I have execs that demanded our applications have office Ribbon bars after they got to see a beta. Needless to say, their PA's have large breasts and I did some GDI programming (*shudder*). I do not like the organization of Office 2007, it looks pretty but to the average user it can be very complicated.
Not to mention all of science, turn off that computer, go live in a straw hut; your housing, your electricity all came from people questioning how things work in the universe. That is a major problem I have with ID, not the theory itself the self-righteous attitudes of some of our true believers. I've encountered the extremists that believe in this theory and they claim that science is evil, that science is abomination to God because science questions the universe and Gods creation, ironically, they have electricity in their homes, they drive cars, and they benefit from this evil known as science.
Whether God created the universe (the Christian God) or some geek wrote an artificial life simulator on some alien computer and created the universe in which we live becomes a never ending question of: Well, who created God? Who created that alien computer and that geek? So on and so forth, ad infinitum.
Is it possible that mGlu receptors can vary between the different areas of the brain? We have parts of the brain (enter proper phrase here, hey I am a CS major...) responsible for sight, hearing etc. What if the MGlu receptors are more efficient in these areas of the brain for top athletes? But for the rest of us, our hand eye coordination (not to mention reflexes etc.) suffer because of the MGlu receptors do not interact with the appropriate neurotransmitter as well? Or am I totally off base here?
I shared my office with 12 servers for about two years once, the office was always at a nice 60F (mmmm!). Eventually the machines kicked me out (bastards!) so I had to end up getting a proper office (which then got a false floor installed, new racks, cooling, insulation, electrical, fiber, more fiber and an industrial UPS). Shortly after that happened, the bloody machines kicked me out again. Out of a home, alone in the world I took my laptop and enjoyed the summer days outside using WiFi and my "office phone" forwarded to a local RT.
I think it was late summer and a shock thunderstorm (I was under cover) and all the conference rooms full before I decided to acquire another space to park my bones (damn I was going to miss the titties! Or was I? lol). Rest assured this being a college, I made sure I had a ground floor view of the young ladies sunning themselves studying on the grass in front of my tinted (read: they could not see me drooling) office windows.
I acquired an office mate (he was my best friend after all); with posted on the door "No servers allowed", had it locked and always had a DVD running while working (I wanted to post no servers allowed, unless you work at hooters - but my supervisorr frowned upon that, just like the bloody machines what a bastard!).
It is amazing what your brain will filter out; I had people in my office that could not understand what I was saying most of the time, yet I could make them out perfectly.
Ohhhhhhh you athiest! The Earth is only 6,000 years old! What the heck are you thinking? Don't make me grab a bible and thump you in the head! *satire*
It is not a ban on using PC parts persee' it is rather a ban on supercomputing. It stems back from coldwar days I believe, when we wanted to prevent the Russians from obtaining superfast computing, which would enable them to run nuclear strike and detonation simulations, thereby improving their bomb making and military nuke tactics.
However, in light of past Slashdot traditions, however so tiring and old... In Soviet Russia, supercomputers ban you!:-)
Well of course, you can't copy the music you purchased to your PC! Are you nuts?!? Just like, if you have a few friends around for a dinner party and play the music even from the original CD you're hosting a public performance of that music!!!(did you get permission to do that? No? Well tough!).
You people! How dare you eat into my money! How dare you think, even just for a moment that the music you purchased allows you to convert it to MP3 for use on your iPod and PC!!! Damn it, if you want MP3's pay for it again in MP3 format from iTunes! I have stock in Apple as well you pricks! I want MORE MONEY!
Oh and would some one please think of the artists! You are robbing them! Stealing from them! We already shaft them up the backside! They don't need a threeway going on! That is our job to fuck the artists! WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE ARTISTS HERE!?!?! CAUSE WE WON'T!!!
Fucking annoyed now because I can't buy my 12th house in Europe because you all copied music, not to even mention the penis enlargement surgery I had planned!
Do you tell management what you had found? Did you give the previous coder credit for their code being okay? I hope you did, not doing so just incase we piss off management is why clueless management types remain clueless.
My last boss used to question everything I did (she was not a programmer... NOT even close). One day in a meeting I had enough, she was feeling around for me to say something she could embarass me with, I got so annoyed I leaned back and basically said: Well there is one problem you could help me with . Her boss was in the room too:-) Her response: "Lets talk about this offline" (I didn't realize we were online in this physical meeting lol:P).
I said, "okay - but we'll need to set aside about 60 minutes to go over this issue." her boss ended up wanting to be there, lol. The meeting was so funny, I spent most of the time going, "Ummm no, the process does not work like that." or, "That is not how our accounting department handles that." - or having to explain basic programming concepts to her. Her boss was an old mainframe programmer, so he was able to chime in on some quirks I had noted on the big iron side of things. I ended the meeting thanking him for his input, shaking his hand. On my way out, I heard the comment from him: "Wow, a very impressive young man." I was able to also push some credit on to another fellow programmer who had tackled some other issues that I had to resolve in this project (and done a great job!) that she was also targetting. Sorry about being generic about this, but I am still under an NDA so can't be to specific on what I was doing:(
The way I interview is pretty much: I am an !PC guy, I am going to say things that probably should not leave my mouth (not sexist nor racial shit, just harsh comments when ppl are pushing at me). I tell my potential managers, "You embarass me, I am going to make you look like a fucking idiot and believe me, I know how to play the game... so lets agree not to play this game and just stick to work?" My last boss just did not get it, she is the only one that ever fucked with me and kept fucking with me even after I had shown her to be an idiot publically and that I could best her with very little effort.
I actually think she hated programmers or ppl that could do things should could not, we were the only two programmers on her team - the rest were desktop and server admins.
One has to ask also, is it the code that breaks or is it the underlaying system the code is written around? I left my last job in a hurry (was about to kill my boss... seriously, that bi-polar bitch just generally pissed me the hell off to the point I was about ready to come in with a tactical nuke... no really kaboom ya bitch!).
Anyhoo, the systems I was tying together were old mainframe systems with SAP and then my own SQL backend. So you'd get data that you had to match between legacy and SAP, then of course the code would not "break" but you'd need to add some logic to massage the data. Of course, I left and suddenly the data issues were caused because I could not code, it had nothing to do with an ever changing difference between a legacy system built 25 years ago and an SAP implementation that still does not work right.
My basic response to one critic I saw after I left was: "How come they got the data when I was there and now they can't get it because I am not?" Those that can do, do... those that can't just bitch and moan.
I got stuck supporting a very old delphi application in another job, it pulled in flat files from another system daily, often these files would not show up due to batch jobs failing. I had MQSeries setup to pull in the same legacy data this app needed for some other systems. The first thing I did was to populate the delphi application (I was not given the time to convert it to a full SQL backend/rewrite it:P) paradox tables from a SQL DTS package. My team members said the previous coder "sucked" because of the flatfile populating, they were in error - he did not suck! That mechanism for data updates was the ONLY method available to him in 1997. People judge way to quickly, I think it is a matter of ego stroking to make them feel better about themselves.
I did the old tape drive with the ZX Spectrum, lol - I remember the old game "Hunter Killer" - took like 20 - 30 minutes to load. That was a puppy you loaded between eating dinner because your parents made you come to the table for once.
My first ever computer hardware work was replacing that rubber keyboard after it died with some other keyboard. Okay, I was 12 years old, I don't remember what it was:) All I remember is that I had a whooping giant white keyboard with a little baby bottom zx spectrum computer under it.
Alas, them were the days! My first ever programming was on the ZX Spectrum, 64kb's of RAM... then the 128k version came out! OMG! OMG! OMG!
Next we will be told that lead paint is good for our kids and that our pets died because they had other health issues and it was not the poison in their food.
"Now serving customer 501 to be radiated, please step in to the nearest booth and insert your ID card. Thank you and have a nice half-life."
Hey it might get someone laid, you know they could flash out the changelog at a local bar and say to a chick: "I did that! I reduced the memory usage of Firefox!" And when that hot sexy blonde rolls her eyes, they'll probably end up with something that is a cross between a horse, an elephant and Dick Cheney.
Hey! The terrorist are stealing our bandwidth! We need to declare a state of emergency and keep George Bush in office for another decade or two! On top of that, Dick Cheney needs... oh wait never mind!
Um, in "At Will" states, as long as they do not fire you for discrimination, i.e. violation of Federal and State anti-discrimination laws or violation of any other established employment laws both at state and federal level, then you can be fired for anything, this assumes that the company has not made an open policy of problem resolution before termination. I.e. a personal improvement plan and review process before termination; if one exists and you can prove they failed to follow-through, or that they went through the process with another employee before termination (good luck on proving that!) and not you, then you might have a case.
I've been working in the IT field for about 11 years now - my current contract, I actually managed to pull some courage up from my genital region and scratch out parts of the contract I did not like, or ammend it as I saw fit. It took me long enough to realize, that you are being offered employment, because those you interviewed with saw a possible skillset they wanted on their team. The process is a two-way street! Most people fail to realize that a company has to give you a reason to want to work for them, not just because they are "there" and you a reason for them to offer you employment.
The point I am making is: a) Scratch out the parts of this new agreement you do not like, write in your own wording if you want. b) If you are okay with what they ask for, but you feel you need compensation for it, then write it in. c) Find out if signing this new contract is required for continual employment, get that writing - why writing? Very least, you can say you did not think the new contract was fair and if needs be, show a next potential employer (i.e. why you fired from the last job) - that you were let go, not because of incompetence, but because you did not agree with their contractual requirements.
If they do not make you sign it, keep your eyes open for obvious signs you are going to be let go. These are basic: a) Increased attention from your lead, asking you to document everything. b) Peer-training that never existed before etcetc.
None of those examples have anything to do with the question. What was faulty with their business model exactly and why was it working before?
Nothing was wrong with their business model, but like the RIAA they failed to adapt to changing markets. Sure, different markets and reasons, but their model did not keep up with the "Jack's small puddle jumper of the west" airlines that popped up.
Continual reduction in fees, continual raise in cost of fuel, plus all the other stuff of having to maintain ones fleet and replace aging aircraft caught up with them. Capitalism demands that competition evolve to survive, they did so for a long time by competing to lower prices, but one can only do that for so long. I also believe capitalism is the ultimate destruction of your competition (in the longer run). Unless the competition goes awry you are stuck competing with them at every attempt to beat you in to submission (read: out of business).
Now the new incentive to fork out more money to get your baggage a head of someone elses is something that as a business they are allowed to try; it is not immoral, nor is it unreasonable to expect more for express service (FedEx does the same, they charge differently to get your package to your destination in 24 hours as opposed to 3 days etc. Though I have to admit, they end up expending resources to make this happen). The problem I have is how do they make sure my baggage is not the last off the plane? For example, 125 passengers (total flight compliment) purchase this service, if I am lucky 125 I did not get the service I paid for, so like what the fuck? What do I do then? What are -THEY- going to do about that?
The next question is going to have to be how do they intend to counter-act lost luggage? (all those that have had stuff go missing raise your hands!). If this new "fee" implies that your luggage gets special attention, exactly what do they promise to Joe traveller that decides "Ohhh to hell with more fees!"?
Now, that may be the key! Why do you think they fear OSS so much? It renders the buy-out strategy useless.
MS isn't dumb; it'd be nothing for them to offer buy-out bonuses to the lead programmers/designers in the company. "Hey we're buying you, but here is $1m bonus, ohhh btw here is a non-competition agreement to sign that is valid for the next 5 years!"
1) A person that is willing to learn, work to improve their code.
2) A person that is capable of learning; i.e. their knowledge of the business they are working for increases as their time at said business increases. I.e. an "Expert" programmer may be able to walk into a business, understand all the code they put before him/her, but that does not mean they are going to be productive at said business until they understand the business processes of that business.
3) A person that is capable of learning from their mistakes, is able to determine what weaknesses they have in their field and a) improve their skills in that area b) prioritize their project, giving themselves a little more time on that specific area to get development done.
An expert that can tell you exactly what is going on in a compiler, or write obfuscated code in a particular language is useless if they cannot understand your business practices and cannot work with other more junior programmers. If you're an "expert" and my junior programmers can't learn from you, then you're out on your ass, I don't care about hiring elite programmers, I care about hiring a team that can help each other build and grow.
Any one can learn to use debugging tools, learn how to bench mark their code. There is unit testing applications that help improve the chances of writing bug-free code, that improve productivity and can help reduce testing time. If I were writing an application that controlled a rocket ship heading to Mars, or a nuclear reactor, yes I'll want an expert (I hate the world expert, lets call them a seasoned programmer or specialist) programmer to help write the software, but damn sure if they are a contractor or even internal, they will be training other programmers to maintain the code they have written and instruct them on why they wrote their code in a particular way etc.
Bottom line is, if you're writing business applications and you have a team environment, having a bunch of junior to mid level programmers with no "specialists" isn't bad. I bet your tophat, that each of those programmers has strengths that others maybe lacking, in a team environment they "help" each other to work through the project and learn from one another.
I started as a desktop guy, moved into server administration (IMHO, desktop analysts make some of the best sys admins); my education is programming, so a couple years ago I moved back into programming (was not my choice to head into desktop world right off the bat, just needed the cash). I've worked in fortune 500's at energy companies, worked in college environments and worked in manufacturing (where I am still are atm). The different industries has helped me a lot, but more so the different people I've worked with. It all comes down to experience, it all comes down to wanting to learn and improve your craft.
Slashdot Mirror
I just knew the Monolith was real! ;)
If the data in this file is so important, why was it not converted prior to the support being removed?
Cause Uranus is so big...
I have execs that demanded our applications have office Ribbon bars after they got to see a beta. Needless to say, their PA's have large breasts and I did some GDI programming (*shudder*). I do not like the organization of Office 2007, it looks pretty but to the average user it can be very complicated.
Tes
Not to mention all of science, turn off that computer, go live in a straw hut; your housing, your electricity all came from people questioning how things work in the universe. That is a major problem I have with ID, not the theory itself the self-righteous attitudes of some of our true believers. I've encountered the extremists that believe in this theory and they claim that science is evil, that science is abomination to God because science questions the universe and Gods creation, ironically, they have electricity in their homes, they drive cars, and they benefit from this evil known as science.
Whether God created the universe (the Christian God) or some geek wrote an artificial life simulator on some alien computer and created the universe in which we live becomes a never ending question of: Well, who created God? Who created
that alien computer and that geek? So on and so forth, ad infinitum.
Tes
Is it possible that mGlu receptors can vary between the different areas of the brain? We have parts of the brain (enter proper phrase here, hey I am a CS major...) responsible for sight, hearing etc. What if the MGlu receptors are more efficient in these areas of the brain for top athletes? But for the rest of us, our hand eye coordination (not to mention reflexes etc.) suffer because of the MGlu receptors do not interact with the appropriate neurotransmitter as well? Or am I totally off base here?
Tes
OMG! I've become like my uncle, trailing off down memory lane with no apparent point or direction. PLEASE SOMEONE SHOOT ME!
I shared my office with 12 servers for about two years once, the office was always at a nice 60F (mmmm!). Eventually the machines kicked me out (bastards!) so I had to end up getting a proper office (which then got a false floor installed, new racks, cooling, insulation, electrical, fiber, more fiber and an industrial UPS). Shortly after that happened, the bloody machines kicked me out again. Out of a home, alone in the world I took my laptop and enjoyed the summer days outside using WiFi and my "office phone" forwarded to a local RT.
I think it was late summer and a shock thunderstorm (I was under cover) and all the conference rooms full before I decided to acquire another space to park my bones (damn I was going to miss the titties! Or was I? lol). Rest assured this being a college, I made sure I had a ground floor view of the young ladies sunning themselves studying on the grass in front of my tinted (read: they could not see me drooling) office windows.
I acquired an office mate (he was my best friend after all); with posted on the door "No servers allowed", had it locked and always had a DVD running while working (I wanted to post no servers allowed, unless you work at hooters - but my supervisorr frowned upon that, just like the bloody machines what a bastard!).
It is amazing what your brain will filter out; I had people in my office that could not understand what I was saying most of the time, yet I could make them out perfectly.
Tes
Ohhhhhhh you athiest! The Earth is only 6,000 years old! What the heck are you thinking? Don't make me grab a bible and thump you in the head! *satire*
I should also say, it is US policy to ban possible supercomputing technogoloy to "enemy" states. Sorry, coffee wearing off... must kill the clown.
We just can't have Iran simulating attacking the United States or any of our "friends" (do we have any left?).
Tes
It is not a ban on using PC parts persee' it is rather a ban on supercomputing. It stems back from coldwar days I believe, when we wanted to prevent the Russians from obtaining superfast computing, which would enable them to run nuclear strike and detonation simulations, thereby improving their bomb making and military nuke tactics.
:-)
However, in light of past Slashdot traditions, however so tiring and old... In Soviet Russia, supercomputers ban you!
Tes
Well of course, you can't copy the music you purchased to your PC! Are you nuts?!? Just like, if you have a few friends around for a dinner party and play the music even from the original CD you're hosting a public performance of that music!!!(did you get permission to do that? No? Well tough!).
You people! How dare you eat into my money! How dare you think, even just for a moment that the music you purchased allows you to convert it to MP3 for use on your iPod and PC!!! Damn it, if you want MP3's pay for it again in MP3 format from iTunes! I have stock in Apple as well you pricks! I want MORE MONEY!
Oh and would some one please think of the artists! You are robbing them! Stealing from them! We already shaft them up the backside! They don't need a threeway going on! That is our job to fuck the artists! WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE ARTISTS HERE!?!?! CAUSE WE WON'T!!!
Fucking annoyed now because I can't buy my 12th house in Europe because you all copied music, not to even mention the penis enlargement surgery I had planned!
RIAA Executive zombie #666
Do you tell management what you had found? Did you give the previous coder credit for their code being okay? I hope you did, not doing so just incase we piss off management is why clueless management types remain clueless.
My last boss used to question everything I did (she was not a programmer... NOT even close). One day in a meeting I had enough, she was feeling around for me to say something she could embarass me with, I got so annoyed I leaned back and basically said: Well there is one problem you could help me with . Her boss was in the room too
I said, "okay - but we'll need to set aside about 60 minutes to go over this issue." her boss ended up wanting to be there, lol. The meeting was so funny, I spent most of the time going, "Ummm no, the process does not work like that." or, "That is not how our accounting department handles that." - or having to explain basic programming concepts to her. Her boss was an old mainframe programmer, so he was able to chime in on some quirks I had noted on the big iron side of things. I ended the meeting thanking him for his input, shaking his hand. On my way out, I heard the comment from him: "Wow, a very impressive young man." I was able to also push some credit on to another fellow programmer who had tackled some other issues that I had to resolve in this project (and done a great job!) that she was also targetting. Sorry about being generic about this, but I am still under an NDA so can't be to specific on what I was doing
The way I interview is pretty much: I am an !PC guy, I am going to say things that probably should not leave my mouth (not sexist nor racial shit, just harsh comments when ppl are pushing at me). I tell my potential managers, "You embarass me, I am going to make you look like a fucking idiot and believe me, I know how to play the game... so lets agree not to play this game and just stick to work?" My last boss just did not get it, she is the only one that ever fucked with me and kept fucking with me even after I had shown her to be an idiot publically and that I could best her with very little effort.
I actually think she hated programmers or ppl that could do things should could not, we were the only two programmers on her team - the rest were desktop and server admins.
Tes
Nope, it wasn't Acxiom, I hear a story here do tell :)
One has to ask also, is it the code that breaks or is it the underlaying system the code is written around? I left my last job in a hurry (was about to kill my boss... seriously, that bi-polar bitch just generally pissed me the hell off to the point I was about ready to come in with a tactical nuke... no really kaboom ya bitch!).
:P) paradox tables from a SQL DTS package. My team members said the previous coder "sucked" because of the flatfile populating, they were in error - he did not suck! That mechanism for data updates was the ONLY method available to him in 1997. People judge way to quickly, I think it is a matter of ego stroking to make them feel better about themselves.
Anyhoo, the systems I was tying together were old mainframe systems with SAP and then my own SQL backend. So you'd get data that you had to match between legacy and SAP, then of course the code would not "break" but you'd need to add some logic to massage the data. Of course, I left and suddenly the data issues were caused because I could not code, it had nothing to do with an ever changing difference between a legacy system built 25 years ago and an SAP implementation that still does not work right.
My basic response to one critic I saw after I left was: "How come they got the data when I was there and now they can't get it because I am not?" Those that can do, do... those that can't just bitch and moan.
I got stuck supporting a very old delphi application in another job, it pulled in flat files from another system daily, often these files would not show up due to batch jobs failing. I had MQSeries setup to pull in the same legacy data this app needed for some other systems. The first thing I did was to populate the delphi application (I was not given the time to convert it to a full SQL backend/rewrite it
Tes
I did the old tape drive with the ZX Spectrum, lol - I remember the old game "Hunter Killer" - took like 20 - 30 minutes to load. That was a puppy you loaded between eating dinner because your parents made you come to the table for once.
Tes
My first ever computer hardware work was replacing that rubber keyboard after it died with some other keyboard. Okay, I was 12 years old, I don't remember what it was :) All I remember is that I had a whooping giant white keyboard with a little baby bottom zx spectrum computer under it.
Alas, them were the days! My first ever programming was on the ZX Spectrum, 64kb's of RAM... then the 128k version came out! OMG! OMG! OMG!
Tes
Next we will be told that lead paint is good for our kids and that our pets died because they had other health issues and it was not the poison in their food.
"Now serving customer 501 to be radiated, please step in to the nearest booth and insert your ID card. Thank you and have a nice half-life."
Tes
Hey it might get someone laid, you know they could flash out the changelog at a local bar and say to a chick: "I did that! I reduced the memory usage of Firefox!" And when that hot sexy blonde rolls her eyes, they'll probably end up with something that is a cross between a horse, an elephant and Dick Cheney.
Tes
Hey! The terrorist are stealing our bandwidth! We need to declare a state of emergency and keep George Bush in office for another decade or two! On top of that, Dick Cheney needs... oh wait never mind!
Don't answer the phone?
Um, in "At Will" states, as long as they do not fire you for discrimination, i.e. violation of Federal and State anti-discrimination laws or violation of any other established employment laws both at state and federal level, then you can be fired for anything, this assumes that the company has not made an open policy of problem resolution before termination. I.e. a personal improvement plan and review process before termination; if one exists and you can prove they failed to follow-through, or that they went through the process with another employee before termination (good luck on proving that!) and not you, then you might have a case.
I've been working in the IT field for about 11 years now - my current contract, I actually managed to pull some courage up from my genital region and scratch out parts of the contract I did not like, or ammend it as I saw fit. It took me long enough to realize, that you are being offered employment, because those you interviewed with saw a possible skillset they wanted on their team. The process is a two-way street! Most people fail to realize that a company has to give you a reason to want to work for them, not just because they are "there" and you a reason for them to offer you employment.
The point I am making is: a) Scratch out the parts of this new agreement you do not like, write in your own wording if you want. b) If you are okay with what they ask for, but you feel you need compensation for it, then write it in. c) Find out if signing this new contract is required for continual employment, get that writing - why writing? Very least, you can say you did not think the new contract was fair and if needs be, show a next potential employer (i.e. why you fired from the last job) - that you were let go, not because of incompetence, but because you did not agree with their contractual requirements.
If they do not make you sign it, keep your eyes open for obvious signs you are going to be let go. These are basic: a) Increased attention from your lead, asking you to document everything. b) Peer-training that never existed before etcetc.
Tes
None of those examples have anything to do with the question. What was faulty with their business model exactly and why was it working before?
:P
Nothing was wrong with their business model, but like the RIAA they failed to adapt to changing markets. Sure, different markets and reasons, but their model did not keep up with the "Jack's small puddle jumper of the west" airlines that popped up.
Continual reduction in fees, continual raise in cost of fuel, plus all the other stuff of having to maintain ones fleet and replace aging aircraft caught up with them. Capitalism demands that competition evolve to survive, they did so for a long time by competing to lower prices, but one can only do that for so long. I also believe capitalism is the ultimate destruction of your competition (in the longer run). Unless the competition goes awry you are stuck competing with them at every attempt to beat you in to submission (read: out of business).
Now the new incentive to fork out more money to get your baggage a head of someone elses is something that as a business they are allowed to try; it is not immoral, nor is it unreasonable to expect more for express service (FedEx does the same, they charge differently to get your package to your destination in 24 hours as opposed to 3 days etc. Though I have to admit, they end up expending resources to make this happen). The problem I have is how do they make sure my baggage is not the last off the plane? For example, 125 passengers (total flight compliment) purchase this service, if I am lucky 125 I did not get the service I paid for, so like what the fuck? What do I do then? What are -THEY- going to do about that?
The next question is going to have to be how do they intend to counter-act lost luggage? (all those that have had stuff go missing raise your hands!). If this new "fee" implies that your luggage gets special attention, exactly what do they promise to Joe traveller that decides "Ohhh to hell with more fees!"?
Okay, I've had a few to many beers - be gentle
Tes
Now, that may be the key! Why do you think they fear OSS so much? It renders the buy-out strategy useless.
MS isn't dumb; it'd be nothing for them to offer buy-out bonuses to the lead programmers/designers in the company. "Hey we're buying you, but here is $1m bonus, ohhh btw here is a non-competition agreement to sign that is valid for the next 5 years!"
Tes
What is a good programmer?
1) A person that is willing to learn, work to improve their code.
2) A person that is capable of learning; i.e. their knowledge of the business they are working for increases as their time at said business increases. I.e. an "Expert" programmer may be able to walk into a business, understand all the code they put before him/her, but that does not mean they are going to be productive at said business until they understand the business processes of that business.
3) A person that is capable of learning from their mistakes, is able to determine what weaknesses they have in their field and a) improve their skills in that area b) prioritize their project, giving themselves a little more time on that specific area to get development done.
An expert that can tell you exactly what is going on in a compiler, or write obfuscated code in a particular language is useless if they cannot understand your business practices and cannot work with other more junior programmers. If you're an "expert" and my junior programmers can't learn from you, then you're out on your ass, I don't care about hiring elite programmers, I care about hiring a team that can help each other build and grow.
Any one can learn to use debugging tools, learn how to bench mark their code. There is unit testing applications that help improve the chances of writing bug-free code, that improve productivity and can help reduce testing time. If I were writing an application that controlled a rocket ship heading to Mars, or a nuclear reactor, yes I'll want an expert (I hate the world expert, lets call them a seasoned programmer or specialist) programmer to help write the software, but damn sure if they are a contractor or even internal, they will be training other programmers to maintain the code they have written and instruct them on why they wrote their code in a particular way etc.
Bottom line is, if you're writing business applications and you have a team environment, having a bunch of junior to mid level programmers with no "specialists" isn't bad. I bet your tophat, that each of those programmers has strengths that others maybe lacking, in a team environment they "help" each other to work through the project and learn from one another.
I started as a desktop guy, moved into server administration (IMHO, desktop analysts make some of the best sys admins); my education is programming, so a couple years ago I moved back into programming (was not my choice to head into desktop world right off the bat, just needed the cash). I've worked in fortune 500's at energy companies, worked in college environments and worked in manufacturing (where I am still are atm). The different industries has helped me a lot, but more so the different people I've worked with. It all comes down to experience, it all comes down to wanting to learn and improve your craft.
Tes