1) At the beginning of some new programming project desired by somebody on the business side, the programmer will frequently not have sufficient domain knowledge to assist in coming up with complete specifications. For example, I used to work for a company that maintained demographic and and circulation fullfillment databases for B2B pubs (everything from Information Week to Concrete Construction.) With the more complicated reports that business side people asked for, I couldn't foresee the ambiguities in the specifications until I began implementing them, since I had no particular prior experience in the domain. And the business side people didn't necessarily understand the notion of "precise specification."
2) Speed matters. Even a couple of weeks can make the difference between a rousing success and so-so release in some instances. This is certainly true in the trading industry, where I work now.
The US continues to be able to attract talent in industries where we're still in the lead. From my own experience, I can't help but think of people working for/applying at a certain NY investment bank I used to work for. Lots of high-end technical talent from all over, attracted not by land, but $$.
Speaking of stuff that'd be nice, it'd sure be convenient to have anonymous functions and anonymous classes. Boosts lambda library is really cool, but it shouldn't be needed !
Slashdot Mirror
For a couple of reasons:
1) At the beginning of some new programming project desired by somebody on the business side, the programmer will frequently not have sufficient domain knowledge to assist in coming up with complete specifications. For example, I used to work for a company that maintained demographic and and circulation fullfillment databases for B2B pubs (everything from Information Week to Concrete Construction.) With the more complicated reports that business side people asked for, I couldn't foresee the ambiguities in the specifications until I began implementing them, since I had no particular prior experience in the domain. And the business side people didn't necessarily understand the notion of "precise specification."
2) Speed matters. Even a couple of weeks can make the difference between a rousing success and so-so release in some instances. This is certainly true in the trading industry, where I work now.
Why fear of China ? The country is run by a communist dictatorship. The fear is rational, to a point.
Why anger at India? In a word: outsourcing. THis is anger driven by fear. (This fear is largely irrational, IMO.)
The US continues to be able to attract talent in industries where we're still in the lead. From my own experience, I can't help but think of people working for/applying at a certain NY investment bank I used to work for. Lots of high-end technical talent from all over, attracted not by land, but $$.
Nature doesn't waste resources
Ah, but many of the features of human intelligence (e.g., symbolic reasoning) are relatively new features, and haven't been fully optimized yet.
Speaking of stuff that'd be nice, it'd sure be convenient to have anonymous functions and anonymous classes. Boosts lambda library is really cool, but it shouldn't be needed !