Good article John - I thought it was well written, and evenhanded.
Some comments:
The quote from Neil Otte:... said that solving tough problems was what engineers did for a living. When they encounter a particularly difficult challenge, he said, their attitude is, "Hey, it's starting to get fun now, and we're earning our money."
To me, that's the real engineering attitude that makes stuff like that works. I agree with those who say that engineering difficulties are expected for a new system like this. There are always naysayers for any big project. As long as most of the engineers involved are thinking like this, I'm hopeful for the program. It's when they are all bailing and saying, "It can't be done" that we need to listen and shut the project down.
I think a big deal is the decision about keeping the shuttle fleet alive versus pushing on with the new system. It makes sense to me that we retire the shuttle if we have a viable alternative. If you have to keep the shuttle fleet going, that seems like we just delay the replacement that much longer. Better to bite the bullet now, and push on, in my view, the sooner to get the replacement in place.
Yeah, true enough, but there seems to be a pattern of this - I think of the defense budget as another place where this seems to happen a lot.
Think back a few years ago with the scandal with $600 toilet seats, etc.
I think your point about the monopolistic telecoms with the "large donations" is well taken, but other industries seem to behave the same way, and always with gov't money.
I'm just suspicious anytime the gov't announces another "big program that will do X". Too often, you read later about how big chunks of "program X" money went to line somebody's pocket, and didn't really accomplish the original goals of "program X".
I totally agree. I was born with severe hearing loss in both ears. I'm not deaf, and so consider myself fortunate. But it's still a struggle, and I think attitude matters a lot.
... "I wouldn't know. I've never tried it the other way."
That's a great quote. I'm going to remember that one for when I get that kind of question. Thanks - you made my day.
The rise of the amateurs may make much of dynamic programming irrelevant.
Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before....... But it has consistently failed to put real programmers out of work.
Yes, exactly. Some of the most dreaded words around: "We have an Access application that's not working right, can you fix it?".
As far as there are "scripting wars", I'm rooting for whatever to "win" that isn't brain damaged (not that any of the languages mentioned are), to allow a newbie to start something, but allow a dev to follow up and fix and extend things without gouging out his/her eyes.
True. And I have done just that.
It's more of a "tried and true" thing. Sometimes (many times) on any given topic, there's so much out there it's really hard to separate wheat from chaff.
I'd rather hear from a community I trust (I know - what am I, crazy? Trust slashdotters?) that has some experience in the area of whatever topic.
As for the grandparent post, where is the sense of community? The OP obviously does not know how to do this in-house by himself, so he turned to the community. Is that a bad thing? It's the old "apprenticeship" model except he was looking to learn from his online peers.
I agree. I'm not a network admin (I'm a dev), but I'm always looking to expand my understanding of network topics. I find questions (and especially the answers) interesting because I *am* trying to learn more.
... I know several people who wake up in the morning and the
first thing they do is connect via the VPN to get their instant
messaging client running so that their bosses and coworkers think
they are working diligently.
Boy, that's messed up...
I work best by batching tasks via email
messages... As a software engineer, I remain productive by having several hours of
uninterrupted time to focus on a particular task at hand...
Yeah, exactly. I work best in batch mode. I'll have down time waiting for stuff to build, etc., and that's when I'll check my emails. But I totally ignore email while coding.
It's the phone calls that get me - the simple act of the phone ringing is enough to cause me to dump my memory, and lose what I'm doing.
I've tried to educate our support dept. to email instead of calling for that reason. I'll usually get back with them within a reasonable time, just not instantaneously. Most of their questions take research anyway, and can't be answered immediately.
... I get annoyed
when I am trying to talk to my boss during a meeting and he stammers
right in the middle of an important discussion with, "Uh, wait, I just
got am IM, I, uh, need to, uh, just a second, let me think..."
I think IM is evil, myself, but then I'm looking at it from a perspective of it being an interruption. I have diligently fought to keep it off my PC.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's great that they're testing, but that isn't the issue, is it? Isn't the real problem in getting the production up to a practical level?
Some comments:
The quote from Neil Otte: ... said that solving tough problems was what engineers did for a living. When they encounter a particularly difficult challenge, he said, their attitude is, "Hey, it's starting to get fun now, and we're earning our money."
To me, that's the real engineering attitude that makes stuff like that works. I agree with those who say that engineering difficulties are expected for a new system like this. There are always naysayers for any big project. As long as most of the engineers involved are thinking like this, I'm hopeful for the program. It's when they are all bailing and saying, "It can't be done" that we need to listen and shut the project down.
I think a big deal is the decision about keeping the shuttle fleet alive versus pushing on with the new system. It makes sense to me that we retire the shuttle if we have a viable alternative. If you have to keep the shuttle fleet going, that seems like we just delay the replacement that much longer. Better to bite the bullet now, and push on, in my view, the sooner to get the replacement in place.
Yeah, true enough, but there seems to be a pattern of this - I think of the defense budget as another place where this seems to happen a lot. Think back a few years ago with the scandal with $600 toilet seats, etc. I think your point about the monopolistic telecoms with the "large donations" is well taken, but other industries seem to behave the same way, and always with gov't money. I'm just suspicious anytime the gov't announces another "big program that will do X". Too often, you read later about how big chunks of "program X" money went to line somebody's pocket, and didn't really accomplish the original goals of "program X".
Yeah, exactly. The last time, the telcos took the money and ran. That seems to be the usual with the big gov't programs.
Were those three letters I, B, and M?
That's absolutely the right way to go about it.
I totally agree. I was born with severe hearing loss in both ears. I'm not deaf, and so consider myself fortunate. But it's still a struggle, and I think attitude matters a lot.
... "I wouldn't know. I've never tried it the other way."
That's a great quote. I'm going to remember that one for when I get that kind of question. Thanks - you made my day.
The rise of the amateurs may make much of dynamic programming irrelevant.
Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before. ...... But it has consistently failed to put real programmers out of work.
Yes, exactly. Some of the most dreaded words around: "We have an Access application that's not working right, can you fix it?".
As far as there are "scripting wars", I'm rooting for whatever to "win" that isn't brain damaged (not that any of the languages mentioned are), to allow a newbie to start something, but allow a dev to follow up and fix and extend things without gouging out his/her eyes.
Excellent comments, BTW.
True. And I have done just that. It's more of a "tried and true" thing. Sometimes (many times) on any given topic, there's so much out there it's really hard to separate wheat from chaff. I'd rather hear from a community I trust (I know - what am I, crazy? Trust slashdotters?) that has some experience in the area of whatever topic.
As for the grandparent post, where is the sense of community? The OP obviously does not know how to do this in-house by himself, so he turned to the community. Is that a bad thing? It's the old "apprenticeship" model except he was looking to learn from his online peers.
I agree. I'm not a network admin (I'm a dev), but I'm always looking to expand my understanding of network topics. I find questions (and especially the answers) interesting because I *am* trying to learn more.
... I know several people who wake up in the morning and the first thing they do is connect via the VPN to get their instant messaging client running so that their bosses and coworkers think they are working diligently.
Boy, that's messed up ...
I work best by batching tasks via email messages ... As a software engineer, I remain productive by having several hours of
uninterrupted time to focus on a particular task at hand ...
Yeah, exactly. I work best in batch mode. I'll have down time waiting for stuff to build, etc., and that's when I'll check my emails. But I totally ignore email while coding. It's the phone calls that get me - the simple act of the phone ringing is enough to cause me to dump my memory, and lose what I'm doing. I've tried to educate our support dept. to email instead of calling for that reason. I'll usually get back with them within a reasonable time, just not instantaneously. Most of their questions take research anyway, and can't be answered immediately.
... I get annoyed when I am trying to talk to my boss during a meeting and he stammers right in the middle of an important discussion with, "Uh, wait, I just got am IM, I, uh, need to, uh, just a second, let me think..."
I think IM is evil, myself, but then I'm looking at it from a perspective of it being an interruption. I have diligently fought to keep it off my PC.