Rally2xs wrote:
> On Nov 2, 11:02 pm, Les Cargill <lcargil
...@comcast.net> wrote:
>> Rally2xs wrote:
>>> On Nov 1, 8:31 pm, Les Cargill <lcargil
...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>>> Rally2xs wrote:
>>>>> On Nov 1, 1:59 pm, Les Cargill <lcargil
...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>>> Rally2xs wrote:
>>>>>>> On Oct 31, 10:47 pm, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.
...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> Rally2xs wrote
>>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>>>>> Go to your Borders Bookstore or Barnes and Noble books.
>>>>>>>>> Find the computer section. Pitiful, isn't it?
>>>>>>>> Because we need fuck all in the way of new PC software
>>>>>>>> and real programmers dont need books from Borders
>>>>>>>> Bookstore or Barnes and Noble to write software.
>>>>>>> Wrong. I am a programmer, and that is exactly where I buy my books,
>>>>>>> if they have them. I now need to go to Amazon to get most of them,
>>>>>>> 'cuz Borders doesn't have most of what I'm after. Only reason I'm an
>>>>>>> American citizen who is a programmer is because the stuff I work with
>>>>>>> has "Secret" stamped all over it, so they CAN'T send it to India.
>>>>>> India is sucking exhaust right now. The Bangalore Bandit game
>>>>>> is not sustainable.
>>>>> Nevertheless, programming in the USA is doing very poorly. Have to
>>>>> watched the CNN Money website that lists the "best jobs"? In years
>>>>> past, "programmer" would be right up near the top. Now it doesn't
>>>>> even appear. When I got here (DC area) 13 years ago, the Washington
>>>>> Post had a whole section of job ads that was about 10 pages thick, and
>>>>> was all tech jobs. Now there is no such section. The programming
>>>>> jobs may or may not be in Bangalore, but the significant diference is
>>>>> that they are not _here._
>>>> I've been in programming for 24 years. The whole field got
>>>> oversold, about ... 13 or so years ago. But there's still
>>>> going to be demand for people. In addition to Bangalore
>>>> Bandits, other factors include increased webification,
>>>> a general sag in telecomms ( largely from rapacious abuse
>>>> by the investment community ) and free software.
>>> Yeah, that free software thing is especially nuts. Work for free on
>>> some piece of software? Er... why? Maybe it's just 'cuz I'm 62, but
>>> that idea just doesn't seem to have any wings.
>> But it's mostly won.
> I don't think so. There's still nothing like Photoshop. It's as good
> as it is because people with PHD behind their names figure out new and
> wonderous algorithms to manipulate graphical information with. Why?
> 'Cuz they get paid to.
Honestly? Filters used to be easier to find, but they're all over
the Web in source-code form. PS just has a serious head of steam
in the marketplace, and for good reason. My PS intensive eldest
evaluated The Gimp and found it wanting. But she said she
could make it work.
> Not happenin' with "free" software. Any games
> as good as the Quake and Doom and etc. series that are free?
I don't know much about games. For all I know, the games I
liked best were for DOS, and free software people put
together DOSBOX, and I can play Descent again.
But open source doesn't always mean purely free. It is a
mix. I know this much - for realtime embedded stuff, Linux
has won. vxWorks has rolled off dramatically.
> Don't
> think so. And, I don't have to wonder whether a commercial piece of
> software is any good if it's been around for any time at all. If it
> has, its only because people have been buying it.
People often also stick with what they know. For me, the value-added
of Windows, hands down, is the Multimedia Extensions, which enable me
to use a computer for pretty serious recording applications.
>>> As a user, I _know_ I hate it - there's nobody to call up for tech
>>> support most of the time, and the documentation so far on some of the
>>> stuff I've _tried_ to use always sucks.
>> I can't count the number of times I've called tech support on
>> one finger. If it don't work, over the side. Next.
> Can't necessarily deep-6 something that doesn't work, if it happens to
> be the tool your organization is using to produce something.
But since you're effectively working by the hour... yes, I
noticed that Those Companies pick the ugliest dog almost invariably.
Oh well...
> Get a
> dud of an open source program, have a problem, and you're up the creek
> unless someone there can fix it. Shouldn't have to divert valuable
> production time to fix your tools, y'know?
I can't tell you how many times a software vendor has provided me the
opportunity to go around them. Even within their own framework.
Nothing like a four-hour telecon with the lead and an ending like "yeah,
it's broken - dunno how long that'll take". Well, I can't exactly
schedule that, can I? Pot of coffee and four hours, I am good
to go.
>>> There's a Unix-based UML
>>> drawing program that supposedly creates diagrams from source code.
>>> Not on my computer it doesn't. It crashes. Documentation? Some guy
>>> wrote something about 4 revisions back, that doesn't reflect the state
>>> of the thing now at all, but who ya' gonna complain to? There's no
>>> one that's paid to give a d***, so that'd likely be futile anyway.
>> Nobody should be a programmer. I used to think it took five years, but
>> I was wrong - it takes ten years, and they won't leave the toolchain
>> under you long enough for that to happen.
> Too bad its such fun, satisfying work, eh? Oh, well, only the Indians
> and a few others can have that sort of fun any more.
I'm having a ball. :) No, there's a deeper social malaise with all
the instrumentation out there. Started with MacNamara, I think.
>>>> Also WRT to the WaPo - the jobs aren't listed there any more - they
>>>> are online. And increasingly, we're dependent on networking tools
>>>> and knowing good - emphasis *good* - recruiters.
>>> Everything's on Dice, eh?
>> Well.. used to be. Try Indeed now. It'll be different next week.
> Ha, how 'bout that. Didn't know it was there. Still doesn't have any
> SW Development jobs in Iraq or Afghanistan. Missed that one job a
> couple years ago that was offered where I work. Make a pile of mony
> in return for maybe getting shot at.
It's a fair trade, and if you're flexible enough ( read: single )
it's probably a good experience. I know I'll probably never see
The Pyramids.
> Finally got a tech writing job
> near Baghdad. Did get shot at. Did make a pile. Will retire earlier
> than I could have otherwise... Maybe something I did will save a (US,
> or even allied) soldier someday.... hoping...
Here's hoping.
>>>> Now - the *military* will see significant drop in demand, as
>>>> that whole thing slides off into the sunset. In the private
>>>> sector, there's a different problem - employers getting much,
>>>> much dumber.
>>> I wouldn't bet on that. Soon's somebody starts getting complacent,
>>> we'll get hit again, maybe lose more than 3,000 people to some WMD
>>> thing like Anthrax, and then there'll be a new region of the world
>>> that needs their a**'s kicked, and we'll be developing more Tomahawk
>>> software to do new and wonderous things...
>> Okay then....
>> Look... all the Visa and Mastercharge the Mujahadeen used
>> to finance all that... expired.
>> Sorry.
> Doesn't matter. They'll find a way, 1000's of Americans will die, our
> side will say in unison, "Told ya' so", and then we'll be off with
> another exeditionary force...
I really don't think so. but this is not the place or time...
<snip>
Programming really is testing. Trust me on this.
>> What is the point? Foam-finger "we're #1" rot? That gains us nothing.
> I'm not sure what it gains us, either, other than if it's referenced
> to gold, I think that due to our dollar devaluation binge, oil will go
> up faster in price. That would be a bad thing.
We'll see. The problem with that, a detail that even Niall
Ferguson misses, is that the Chinese currency is pegged to
the dollar. They've intentionally kept a weak currency to build
market share. They can control money volume internally - all
aspects of life within the Wall are severely subsized/centrally
planned (still).
if we drop, they drop. If they drop, the balance of trade shifts,
mainly to the US. We have improved velocity of money, it
stiffens the currency a little. We just have to be ready to actually
deliver.
All this works out to a self-regulating system whose stability will
be felt, so long as people just don't massively defect.
>>>> 2) At some point, China will develop a consumer class, and we'll be able
>>>> to trade, roughly, goods for goods.
>>> Not if we're not producing anything.
>> Well, I'm trying. me and a half dozen other guys.
> We need to be producing something that is valuable andt that millions
> of people want. Cars come to mind, but we have to do it profitably.
> The Fair Tax would make that possible, but I don't know another way to
> do it.
it's one theory.
>>>> Right now is a solution to the
>>>> problem the British ran against which led to the Boxer
>>>> Rebellion. How this will play out remains to be seen - it's quite
>>>> risky. But the cheapness of Chinese goods has made the quality of life
>>>> during this time of flat wages much more tolerable. In the end, it's
>>>> not really the number that matters, it's what that number will buy, and
>>>> that is actually pretty good, once you get outside of housing. And
>>>> housing is very sharply correcting as we speak...
>>>> 3) The income tax is not optimal, but it's not that far off. And the
>>>> problem is that "government load" in all directions is much lower here
>>>> than it is in China, India, Europe or Japan.
>>> Government load?
>> See also Kirchoff.
> Kirchoff made a law of electricity that I dimly remember from early
> training. Oh, I remember how the law works, I just don't remember
> which law was invented by which guy... <G>
:) Delta GDP is like unto V. Gummint load is like R in shunt. We
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