It could be that modern computer systems are simply too complex for such treatment. I recall having a complete memory map and assembly language tutorial in the manual that came with my Acorn Electron - such a thing would be preposterous for my MacBook Pro. Its inner workings described to the same level as that 1980s manual would probably occupy a shelf.
What is really called for is a programmable games machine. Put keyboards back on consoles, include a good BASIC interpreter and watch the whizz kids develop.
I used to worry that I was some kind of malcontent, but every time I post my complaints about the UK IT industry on any vaguely techy forum I get a chorus of agreement.
But if there is a supply of skilled IT graduates waiting for a decent employer why has no one jumped on the opportunity to run a business with top notch talent, and seemingly have very little competition for them?
I got my Comp Sci degree 98-02, graduating just in time to see the tech boom vanish over the horizon. I bounced between various jobs on the same salary level as people fresh out of school, then I decided to move on.
I'm now on a Physics course, using my IT skills purely to support me rather than as a career. I am so sick of playing the labour market game that I decided to go back into academia and may well stay here. That, or get some ridiculously specialised science morlock job in a neutrino detector or particle accelerator or the like.
The deeply ironic thing is I am currently at the best coding job I've ever had. Going back to university opened up opportunities for summer work in bioinformatics, which pays better than all my previous IT work. I still don't want to go back though.
Is your place of work a gaming company? I only ask because if as you imply you've filled up with competent, well paid programmers, why can't a UK games company do the same instead of begging the government to saturate the labour market for them?
Yup. You want to find the biggest benefit scroungers in the UK, they aren't the ones in the tracksuits drinking special brew - head to London and look for expensive suits.
The UK education system isn't the best in the world but it isn't far off, as much as we bitch. We produce plenty enough skills for our economy but the industry wants the government to saturate the labour market so they can top graduates for cockle-picking money. Essentially, they want the government to spend money on them. Signing on is at least honest about that.
I mean the universities are churning out a perfectly good number of coding whizzes, so there is no shortage at the source - however as soon as they come out of university they look at the opportunities available in the UK and promptly leave. So there is no skills shortage, just a continuous skills flight due to low pay which makes it look like a skills shortage.
That is the quality of programmer you saw because that is the quality of programmer the industry is willing to pay for.
As a British (ex-ish)coder I can't really convince you that I'm any good because the bioinformatics project I am currently temping on is not mine to show. However, I assure you once you get out of the world of coding for tuppence there are plenty of solid British coders - its just that most of them have enough sense to not work for British wages.
Programming a physics engine does not take creativity, it takes intellectual brute force. They are moaning about the lack of heavyweight brainboxes, not guys who sit around having cool ideas.
But as I said already, they have only themselves to blame. They don't want to pay the price such powernerds require to keep them from finding work elsewhere. Essentially, they are asking the government to train loads of people, flood the labour market and lower their outgoings for them. I say fuck them. They need to start paying decent wages.
The UK IT industry is notoriously tight fisted. They expect high standards from their employees but often pay barely above school-leaver wages for graduate positions.
There is no skills shortage in the UK. There is a shortage of decent employees, so all the skills are fucking off to the US and Canada where they can support themselves in the game industry without being a bartender in their spare time.
And here we have the decline of western liberal democracy personifie "If you don't like what the government does, move to China/Russia/Nazi Germany/The fucking moon"
Our society decrees there can be no change. We have the perfect system and therefore all other ideas are dangerous and foolish. Its broadcast by the media 24/7 and repeated by duckspeakers like the parent. It gives our society a free hand to do whatever it likes because it is, after all, the ultimate expression of freedom and human nature. It looks at all the turmoil and suffering that people experience in our societies and says it is inevitable, even good. Thus it drains away any hope.
Our creaking old system of unfettered greed is falling apart. On the one hand it requires a social bedrock in order to function, and on the other it aggressively sells the idea that to be an individual you must be utterly selfish and guided by your most base urges. The latter makes the former impossible.
But of course none of this matters to people like you. Nothing I say, no combination of words or ideas, will shift western society one way or another, because it has declared itself to be perfect. The reason I wouldn't be allowed to post this in China or Iran is because people there might be swayed by an argument. Thanks to people like you, western governments need not trouble themselves implementing traditional censorship.
People suffer in the United States, in ways that ought to be unimaginable in a rich country, just not slashdot people. Never forget that on the Internet, you are always talking to some level of privalege.
I'm not an American. And in case you hadn't noticed, Canada goes to about half the wars America does anyway. Like Britain, it isn't like you've a truly independent foreign policy.
"The average peasant is not normally willing to fight to his death for his national government. His national government may have been a succession of corrupt dictators and inefficient bureaucrats."
That sounds about right for us Americans.
Maybe someone who contributed was a John Lennon fan: "You think you're so clever and classless and free/But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see"
I mean, where are the true believers now? Does anyone seriously think that western governments have any kind of moral credibility?
We wag our fingers at China for their actions in Tibet, but by any measure what they have done there is far more humane than what we have done in Iraq. We lecture Russia about corruption and they simply retort with examples of western corruption.
Who actually believes that our governments have any reason to exist anymore beyond their existence itself?
Helping society? Contrary to popular belief there are worse things in the world then some people taking money of the middle class. They aren't taking food out of the mouths of the starving or water from the thirsty. Get some perspective.
Its Mad Max with pithy political slogans. What the hell is it about the United States that makes it citizens want to run each other off the road for having opposing political views?
The unelected house of lords appears to be contributing most of the good governance of the UK whilst the elected house of commons is contributing most of the crappy stuff.
If we can't fix our system of government (the main probably being we lack a proper head of state, leaving the head of government with excessive powers) then how can we convince younger generations that democracy is worth it?
Slashdot Mirror
It could be that modern computer systems are simply too complex for such treatment. I recall having a complete memory map and assembly language tutorial in the manual that came with my Acorn Electron - such a thing would be preposterous for my MacBook Pro. Its inner workings described to the same level as that 1980s manual would probably occupy a shelf.
What is really called for is a programmable games machine. Put keyboards back on consoles, include a good BASIC interpreter and watch the whizz kids develop.
I used to worry that I was some kind of malcontent, but every time I post my complaints about the UK IT industry on any vaguely techy forum I get a chorus of agreement.
But if there is a supply of skilled IT graduates waiting for a decent employer why has no one jumped on the opportunity to run a business with top notch talent, and seemingly have very little competition for them?
Well, I did.
I got my Comp Sci degree 98-02, graduating just in time to see the tech boom vanish over the horizon. I bounced between various jobs on the same salary level as people fresh out of school, then I decided to move on.
I'm now on a Physics course, using my IT skills purely to support me rather than as a career. I am so sick of playing the labour market game that I decided to go back into academia and may well stay here. That, or get some ridiculously specialised science morlock job in a neutrino detector or particle accelerator or the like.
The deeply ironic thing is I am currently at the best coding job I've ever had. Going back to university opened up opportunities for summer work in bioinformatics, which pays better than all my previous IT work. I still don't want to go back though.
I'm going to pretend I didn't read that. Failing car companies begging for handouts from foreigners are part of our national identity!
Is your place of work a gaming company? I only ask because if as you imply you've filled up with competent, well paid programmers, why can't a UK games company do the same instead of begging the government to saturate the labour market for them?
Yup. You want to find the biggest benefit scroungers in the UK, they aren't the ones in the tracksuits drinking special brew - head to London and look for expensive suits.
The UK education system isn't the best in the world but it isn't far off, as much as we bitch. We produce plenty enough skills for our economy but the industry wants the government to saturate the labour market so they can top graduates for cockle-picking money. Essentially, they want the government to spend money on them. Signing on is at least honest about that.
I mean the universities are churning out a perfectly good number of coding whizzes, so there is no shortage at the source - however as soon as they come out of university they look at the opportunities available in the UK and promptly leave. So there is no skills shortage, just a continuous skills flight due to low pay which makes it look like a skills shortage.
My dads pub makes more money than the UK car industry, on account of the fact is in the black.
That is the quality of programmer you saw because that is the quality of programmer the industry is willing to pay for.
As a British (ex-ish)coder I can't really convince you that I'm any good because the bioinformatics project I am currently temping on is not mine to show. However, I assure you once you get out of the world of coding for tuppence there are plenty of solid British coders - its just that most of them have enough sense to not work for British wages.
Perhaps its a ploy to recruit more teachers. Its actually looking like a decent graduate job these days.
Programming a physics engine does not take creativity, it takes intellectual brute force. They are moaning about the lack of heavyweight brainboxes, not guys who sit around having cool ideas.
But as I said already, they have only themselves to blame. They don't want to pay the price such powernerds require to keep them from finding work elsewhere. Essentially, they are asking the government to train loads of people, flood the labour market and lower their outgoings for them. I say fuck them. They need to start paying decent wages.
The UK IT industry is notoriously tight fisted. They expect high standards from their employees but often pay barely above school-leaver wages for graduate positions.
There is no skills shortage in the UK. There is a shortage of decent employees, so all the skills are fucking off to the US and Canada where they can support themselves in the game industry without being a bartender in their spare time.
And here we have the decline of western liberal democracy personifie "If you don't like what the government does, move to China/Russia/Nazi Germany/The fucking moon"
Our society decrees there can be no change. We have the perfect system and therefore all other ideas are dangerous and foolish. Its broadcast by the media 24/7 and repeated by duckspeakers like the parent. It gives our society a free hand to do whatever it likes because it is, after all, the ultimate expression of freedom and human nature. It looks at all the turmoil and suffering that people experience in our societies and says it is inevitable, even good. Thus it drains away any hope.
Our creaking old system of unfettered greed is falling apart. On the one hand it requires a social bedrock in order to function, and on the other it aggressively sells the idea that to be an individual you must be utterly selfish and guided by your most base urges. The latter makes the former impossible.
But of course none of this matters to people like you. Nothing I say, no combination of words or ideas, will shift western society one way or another, because it has declared itself to be perfect. The reason I wouldn't be allowed to post this in China or Iran is because people there might be swayed by an argument. Thanks to people like you, western governments need not trouble themselves implementing traditional censorship.
People suffer in the United States, in ways that ought to be unimaginable in a rich country, just not slashdot people. Never forget that on the Internet, you are always talking to some level of privalege.
That just gave me the best chuckle I've had all day
The one against the Native Americans would be the first example that springs to mind.
I'm not an American. And in case you hadn't noticed, Canada goes to about half the wars America does anyway. Like Britain, it isn't like you've a truly independent foreign policy.
Maybe someone who contributed was a John Lennon fan: "You think you're so clever and classless and free/But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see"
So you take a map, draw a line on it, and anyone on the wrong side of that line is fair game.
Given that thinking, it isn't hard to see why your nation has a history of aggressive war and genocide.
I mean, where are the true believers now? Does anyone seriously think that western governments have any kind of moral credibility?
We wag our fingers at China for their actions in Tibet, but by any measure what they have done there is far more humane than what we have done in Iraq. We lecture Russia about corruption and they simply retort with examples of western corruption.
Who actually believes that our governments have any reason to exist anymore beyond their existence itself?
Helping society? Contrary to popular belief there are worse things in the world then some people taking money of the middle class. They aren't taking food out of the mouths of the starving or water from the thirsty. Get some perspective.
Especially if you send money to random people who ask for it without checking who they are first.
Its Mad Max with pithy political slogans. What the hell is it about the United States that makes it citizens want to run each other off the road for having opposing political views?
Or rather, I wouldn't be surprised if one did.
The unelected house of lords appears to be contributing most of the good governance of the UK whilst the elected house of commons is contributing most of the crappy stuff.
If we can't fix our system of government (the main probably being we lack a proper head of state, leaving the head of government with excessive powers) then how can we convince younger generations that democracy is worth it?
Does this establish that the whole idea of it being a crime to provide a service that allows others to circumvent copyright is going to fall apart?
i.e. will they still be shutting down sites like tv-links.co.uk which was only linking to copyright infringing material, not providing it?