That seems to be the way of things. But generally, we don't expect doctors and lawyers to become managers, so why should we expect software developers to do so?
Yes, I do understand. I've been programming for years, but never did anything 'artistic'. A few years ago, I managed to write a small novel. And it struck me that writing fiction was really a similar activity to writing software. The main plot of a novel is like the overall design of a program; the subplots are like subroutines; and the classes are like the characters. Both activities take a good amount of planning, attention to detail, consistent style,... and lots of typing:-)
Exactly. What's needed is for someone with clout to define more types. Since Gimp is pretty much the standard open-source image app., they could take the lead and publish a set of data-type's and formats that they'll handle (and not change). Even better if the KDE and Gnome projects get in on it.
Then you could, say, drag an image from the Gimp onto your desktop and have the option of saving it as a file or setting it as your background.
What I think would help a lot is if there were more standard conventions for selections. This would make it possible to enable more drag-and-drop features across programs. And using drag-and-drop in, say, GTK, is really quite easy (easier, I believe, than in Windows).
For example, one piece of code I'm working on uses images and palettes; and it would be really nice if I could drag one of my palettes into the Gimp, or one of the Gimp's onto the palette window in my app. Same thing for individual colors and images.
Is there a group or project trying to set standards for selection at the application level? Perhaps this should be an extension to the X drag-n-drop spec.
Still one of my favorite games, and one I replay every couple years. It's great the way your 'alignment' affects the way the NPC's interract with you, so each replay can be almost completely different.
Also, the enemy AI seemed better than even the later Wing Commanders. If you took too much time concentrating on one opponent, the others would come up behind.
My experience: I applied for all sorts of jobs, even jobs AT Microsoft. Since there are gazillions of MS developers out there, why should a company look at an obvious Unix-head like me?
I did find a job after a few months. It's at a firm where most everyone uses Linux. Am I lucky??:-)
With the current HUGE surplus of tech. people, HR's can be as picky as they like, and place all sorts of arbitrary requirements on the few open positions they have.
Part of the reason this works well for you is that she's your girlfriend, not your wife. Each of you knows that if you get too obnoxious, the other can leave without too much trouble.
There was an Agatha Christy story in which everyone thought a certain couple was just living together. But the detective deduced that they were married after she walked in on them having a huge fight.
Great. You end up with employees who are good at solving logic puzzles. But can they design and write decent software? (Thinking of the 5 times Windows98 auto-rebooted on me the other day, I think I already know the answer.)
Yes! I spent 4 years working on a full-featured word-processor written entirely in Z80. We used to pass everything in registers and used the Carry flag to signify errors, leading to cool sequences like:
One other way someone can help and get his/her name in the credits: Write documentation for a project. I consider this at least as important as programming.
Yes. By the early 70's, it was obvious that most American cars were of far lower quality than the Japanese or Europeans. In addition, the American companies just didn't seem interested in creating decent, fuel-efficient small cars, even though though there were recurring gas shortages. Consumers didn't buy Japanese cars because they were cheaper, but because they were better.
The IT situation is entirely different. Is software produced overseas of a higher quality than that produced locally? And even though we know people work for less, is it really more efficient to outsource this work?
I'd be wary of any reports of IT shortages. If there's truly a shortage, then companies should offer to train people in the needed skills.
Who would want to pay for their own training in this specialized area, and then find that there's no job? You'd be wasting a year or more of your life and several thousand dollars.
The real reason? I think it's because open-source coders get 'credit' for what they do. In a corporate job, the typical software engineer gets paid, and that's all. If the product even gets to the outside world and is successful, it's the CEO of the company that will take the credit.
Since my MB and case are AT's, I have to replace the case as well. The one constant in all my upgrading is the floppy drive; it originally came with my 486.
To me, this is a solution to a problem that barely exists on true multi-user OS's. I generally have no problem finding my files on a Linux/Unix system because they're all organized as I like in my home directory. On a Windows PC, files are mixed with every other user's under one of the "My xxxx" directories, or stored somewhere in the application's area. And since there's no 'owner' of a file, it's difficult to tell whether a given file is mine.
Another myth is that the geek-guys always fail with women. Being a lifelong geek, my observation is that people like me are just late-bloomers. But in the end, I and all my nerdy friends ended up married by our mid to late twenties. And in all the high-tech places I've worked, most everybody past 30, both men and women, are married.
Well... real lawyers probably spend more time doing research than flirting, but nobody would want to watch someone using Westlaw for an hour.
Imagine a show about a game company where at least half the engineers are female, looking like Sandra Bullock with glasses. When they're not showing each other the cool demos they've developed, they're flirting with each other via email or playing practical jokes. Of course, nobody worries at all about 'sexual harrassment'.
Slashdot Mirror
That seems to be the way of things. But generally, we don't expect doctors and lawyers to become managers, so why should we expect software developers to do so?
Yes, I do understand. I've been programming for years, but never did anything 'artistic'. A few years ago, I managed to write a small novel. And it struck me that writing fiction was really a similar activity to writing software. The main plot of a novel is like the overall design of a program; the subplots are like subroutines; and the classes are like the characters. Both activities take a good amount of planning, attention to detail, consistent style,... and lots of typing:-)
Exactly. What's needed is for someone with clout to define more types. Since Gimp is pretty much the standard open-source image app., they could take the lead and publish a set of data-type's and formats that they'll handle (and not change). Even better if the KDE and Gnome projects get in on it.
Then you could, say, drag an image from the Gimp onto your desktop and have the option of saving it as a file or setting it as your background.
What I think would help a lot is if there were more standard conventions for selections. This would make it possible to enable more drag-and-drop features across programs. And using drag-and-drop in, say, GTK, is really quite easy (easier, I believe, than in Windows).
For example, one piece of code I'm working on uses images and palettes; and it would be really nice if I could drag one of my palettes into the Gimp, or one of the Gimp's onto the palette window in my app. Same thing for individual colors and images.
Is there a group or project trying to set standards for selection at the application level? Perhaps this should be an extension to the X drag-n-drop spec.
... they insist that you've used A version 3.915, B V 6.803, and C version 4.00001. Don't bother applying if you're off by a minor revision.
Still one of my favorite games, and one I replay every couple years. It's great the way your 'alignment' affects the way the NPC's interract with you, so each replay can be almost completely different.
Also, the enemy AI seemed better than even the later Wing Commanders. If you took too much time concentrating on one opponent, the others would come up behind.
Is he the same person who was the moderator of rec.humor.funny?
My experience: I applied for all sorts of jobs, even jobs AT Microsoft. Since there are gazillions of MS developers out there, why should a company look at an obvious Unix-head like me?
I did find a job after a few months. It's at a firm where most everyone uses Linux. Am I lucky??:-)
With the current HUGE surplus of tech. people, HR's can be as picky as they like, and place all sorts of arbitrary requirements on the few open positions they have.
Part of the reason this works well for you is that she's your girlfriend, not your wife. Each of you knows that if you get too obnoxious, the other can leave without too much trouble.
There was an Agatha Christy story in which everyone thought a certain couple was just living together. But the detective deduced that they were married after she walked in on them having a huge fight.
Great. You end up with employees who are good at solving logic puzzles. But can they design and write decent software? (Thinking of the 5 times Windows98 auto-rebooted on me the other day, I think I already know the answer.)
In the parallel universe, nearly all the people reading slashdot are women.
Yes! I spent 4 years working on a full-featured word-processor written entirely in Z80. We used to pass everything in registers and used the Carry flag to signify errors, leading to cool sequences like:
;; Error occurred above. ...
call GetThere
cnc Test1
cnc Test2
rc
True, but... a lot of programmers are unemployed.
Exellent post!
One other way someone can help and get his/her name in the credits: Write documentation for a project. I consider this at least as important as programming.
Yes. By the early 70's, it was obvious that most American cars were of far lower quality than the Japanese or Europeans. In addition, the American companies just didn't seem interested in creating decent, fuel-efficient small cars, even though though there were recurring gas shortages. Consumers didn't buy Japanese cars because they were cheaper, but because they were better.
The IT situation is entirely different. Is software produced overseas of a higher quality than that produced locally? And even though we know people work for less, is it really more efficient to outsource this work?
I'd be wary of any reports of IT shortages. If there's truly a shortage, then companies should offer to train people in the needed skills.
Who would want to pay for their own training in this specialized area, and then find that there's no job? You'd be wasting a year or more of your life and several thousand dollars.
The real reason? I think it's because open-source coders get 'credit' for what they do. In a corporate job, the typical software engineer gets paid, and that's all. If the product even gets to the outside world and is successful, it's the CEO of the company that will take the credit.
And you got a stack of them? Lucky! When I was looking, I generally heard nothing at all.
But I did eventually find a job. The market is terrible at the moment, but nobody knows what the future will bring.
My previous car, a 1985 VW Golf, was still going after 16 years and around 200,000 miles with no engine, transmission, or even clutch work.
Since my MB and case are AT's, I have to replace the case as well. The one constant in all my upgrading is the floppy drive; it originally came with my 486.
As I'm approaching 50, I'm totally flattered to be referred to as a 'college kid'.
To me, this is a solution to a problem that barely exists on true multi-user OS's. I generally have no problem finding my files on a Linux/Unix system because they're all organized as I like in my home directory. On a Windows PC, files are mixed with every other user's under one of the "My xxxx" directories, or stored somewhere in the application's area. And since there's no 'owner' of a file, it's difficult to tell whether a given file is mine.
Good points.
Another myth is that the geek-guys always fail with women. Being a lifelong geek, my observation is that people like me are just late-bloomers. But in the end, I and all my nerdy friends ended up married by our mid to late twenties. And in all the high-tech places I've worked, most everybody past 30, both men and women, are married.
Well... real lawyers probably spend more time doing research than flirting, but nobody would want to watch someone using Westlaw for an hour.
Imagine a show about a game company where at least half the engineers are female, looking like Sandra Bullock with glasses. When they're not showing each other the cool demos they've developed, they're flirting with each other via email or playing practical jokes. Of course, nobody worries at all about 'sexual harrassment'.