Posted on 03/14/2008 11:46:02 AM PDT by chordmaster
SAN JOSE, CA (TDR) - Hundreds of angry programmers took to the streets burning Indian flags, and chanting anti-Indian slogans after Wednesday morning production meetings. The protesters - mostly young males - have reached a boiling point after years of technological imperialism and failed Indian programming policies. Busy midday traffic came to a halt as this once proud high-tech mecca was transformed into raging, socially-challenged powder keg of humanity...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyredundancy.com ...
*That* I can agree with. I have both onshore and offshore employees. Amazingly, the offshore ones who speak Spanish as their primary language have a better command of English than those educated in the US public school system (FL). I see this regularly.
Cheers!
Well, Alamo...
Details, please?
Cheers!
That's interesting. I'm a pretty experienced developer myself (11 years) and under no circumstance has this ever been true for me. I doubt I could refer to it as a "command of English" really.
If you filter some buttermilk, you will get a solution of lactic acid and water. The lactic acid is what makes the milk sour.
I needed a very small amount of lactic acid to clarify microscopic organisms for study under my microscope.
So, I asked if the chemistry or biology departments of the school could spare 1 ml of this chemical. They could supervise their students using a pipette, as they introduced 0.3 ml of lactic acid into my prepared vials.
I got a lecture about illegal drugs and how they could never supply chemicals to anyone.
The difference between a programmer and a software engineer, is how you think.
She has earned my respect. Not for her software (although that was outstanding) but how she used her knowledge of software to change things.
Sounds like my kind of crowd...
Other than MVC as "Microsoft Visual C++" programmer, I have no clue what MVC would be.
MVC DDD(LL,B),DDD(B)
(IBM S/360 and above assembly language)
Old programmers never die, they just branch to a new address.
Engineer == "break the problem itself to smaller parts and decide the best approach and the best tool, *then* code it up"
Full Disclosure:
QA == "why don't you people ever finish before the deadline? Now *I've* got to stay up all night and still not finish testing it."
Manager == "That's *it* ? This doesn't look too hard. In fact, this could have been done in half the time by the offshore resources."
(Bangs head).
Cheers!
But MVC DDD(LL,B),DDD(B) has me rather stumped.
When prorammers invented a decent assembly language, we changed the world!
Six months later, my software is working and my company is making a profit.
Damn proud to be called a Software Engineer!
(Ever notice we didn't need as much QA before the advent of Microsoft and before outsourcing? Many more practitioners considered themselves "master craftsmen" instead of "script kiddies" -- that, and when you only have 8K of RAM, you *have* to be elegant.)
Cheers!
In some other cultures it's not unusual for people to take an "English name." I am not certain how "official" this is, but it's something they seem to do but once -- names are very important there.
A few years ago I advised a young Chinese mainlander woman I'd met over there (she was my translator) on her proposed choice of name -- her given name was Shanshan and she wondered if "Shannon" would be a good English name. When I told her about the beautiful region in Ireland, she was delighted and took it -- I even recorded my speaking it and e-mailed it so she could pronounce it like an American.
(Somebody in her family was "good at names" and she suggested enlisting this person's help in finding a good Chinese name for me... but then she got married and disappeared. Oh well.)
The other of my translators took a name that sounds English but isn't. I'm guessing she'd been a bit of rebel, but was now in the position of explaining her "English" name.
A slightly older (~30) Chinese colleague took the name Cyrus sometime between my visit to China and his visit to America. When I remarked on the greatness associated with the name of Cyrus (the Persian king), well, let's just say he scored high points with his (presumed) girlfriend who was here with him. This was a Biblical name of power, wisdom and kindness -- he must have done a lot of research. (Both the Jews and the Persians honor Cyrus.)
The upshot? In his culture your tech support type might very well be "Bobby" (or "Robert"). I wouldn't mock him.
That is why is runs so darn fast.
People are stunned when I email my boss a change of the software, when a customers needed something specialized.
A 128k program can do all that?
Obviously, I refuse to do the "bells and whistles" of today's software. I make it do what the customers wanted.
If I were interacting with a citizen of another country, *in* their own country, I'd be more inclined to look for your scenario playing out.
Except, here I was talking about tech support, where the "English" name is a pseudonym used in an attempt to fool me into thinking that I'm dealing with someone who
a) shares my culture
b) has a clue
c) gives a flying leap.
I have had tech support people tell me directly that I had called the wrong number for my question, but that they would (condescending, mock-gracious tone like John Kerry) would connect me to the right number. And that, after I read the instructions for dialing from the computer's own instruction sheet, fresh out of the packing box.
And the problem is, I didn't have any say in how my customer service was handled -- *all* the companies did this at the same time, lemming-like, so that the C-level execs could have more time and $$ to spend on their own Kristins.
Full Disclosure: Government workers suck, too. But at least there is no pretense in that case.
Cheers!
Storage is fetched one byte at a time from left to right. Knowing this, back when storage was at more of a premium than processor cycles, you could set 256 bytes of storage to blanks with two instructions:
MVI 0(R2),C' '
MVC 1(255,R2),0(R2)
Kind of grows on you, doesn't it? :-)
Every programmer that I have worked with from Russia, India or China has been a pleasure to work with. They know what they are doing.
However, there is something "spacial" about how U.S. software engineers think. Impossible to quantify, but there is a difference.
For a programmer from another country, they must do exactly as they are told.
People like me, give the boss the finger and make the software work!
MVC 1(255,R2),0(R2)
Now THAT I recognized!
92402000
D2FE20012000
Like riding a bicycle...
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