Posted on 11/29/2016 5:32:51 AM PST by spintreebob
Edited on 11/29/2016 5:48:35 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
I have worked in business for 15 years after retiring from the military, for 3 different companies. The CEO of one of the companies told the IT Dept. to build a program that would basically run the entire company, from HR to engineering and logistics. I believe the budget and timeline were realistic. The programmers came and sat beside the key dept. heads at their desks and asked what the managers wanted. Then they listened. And asked questions. And then, eventually, we had a system that almost became a profit center in itself. If there was a bug, the programmer would come to you, look at what you were doing, and make adjustments. It worked great. Then I worked for a company that used an off the shelf system that nobody really knew. Then you would put in a help desk request, wait a few hours or a couple of days for the tech to call you. After you spent 10 seconds trying to explain the problem, they would cut you off, say “OK, I’ll fix it”. Then you would put in another help desk to get the first one fixed because the tech did not listen to you. Eventually you would ask them to put it back the way it was because that was less worse than the fix they attempted.
The point here is, instead of having a prima donna attitude sometimes you can assume the person you’re talking to knows how to do their job and are simply asking you to do yours.
“If any of you programmers are proficient in VAX/VMS/DECForms/COBOL”
LOL. One more post for me before I force myself off FR for lunch. Our company has been wanting to retire the VAX since I’ve been here (12 yrs.) Seems like an old canker soar that we cannot make go away. I see why the need is so great. We have ONE guy left who can work with it competently. If he leaves, we are totally screwed.
I understand.
That's why I'm looking for someone to work remotely part time. Right now I'm the only guy they have. They wanna do a fairly big project but I just don't have the time to add it to my list.
Computer screen is hard on the eyes! I wear a pair of the
“blue light filtering glasses” that help filter out the
color lights that strain the eyes. Got ‘em cheap on ebay.
I got trapped into having to use the word processor way
back when husband got his own home office & I did all his
paperwork. He sort of retired a few years ago; so I got
to retire, too. When he finally decided to learn to use
his computer and do e-mail; that worked out good for me.
I just got dragged into the computer age against my will.
” VAX/VMS/DECForms/COBOL “
Are those venereal diseases?
Well, in a way, yes.
Outside of general help desk or phone systems, I see only men in IT (in my little world). Then again, I see the same in other areas when you get into positions that require a lot of hours; it seems women just aren’t interested (whether they have children or pets).
I don’t see her standards as “too high.” I see someone who didn’t want to look stupid, so she learned how to program, but realizes it’s not an area of true interest to her, as her heart is simply not in it.
The rest of her words are window dressing.
Best example is Bill Gates. He never had the best technology. But that son of a commie lawyer invented the best capitalist marketing system. He not only got to market. He was the market for enough years to make him the richest in the world.
Do we have a ping list for tech?
This person can’t think well enough to write a coherent sentence, let alone software.
“High RPM, zero torque.”
Succinct and to the point.
Efficiency is the hallmark of engineering.
““Teach me how to do this thing that you have never done”.”
I almost want to link my clients to this thread.
We should spare no expense til everyone is above average and everyone has above average education and income.
C was cryptic but versatile. I did a parallel and distributed processing grad class in 1/3 C and 2/3 Perl. Enjoyed that.
Huh?
Where she is coming from is that she chose the wrong field.
Not the end of the world.
She would probably be a better fit in computer repair rather then writing original code.
Problem solved.
No, things should be made correctly so the users...customers who paid for it...don’t have to screw around cause the product they bought was rushed to market or made improperly.
Or better put, we need to understand where tech is.
It looks to me like it can get itself into echo chambers where it worships itself.
I saw lots of this in Bell Laboratories, which is now a shadow of its mighty former self (Alcatel-Lucent).
When part of the goal was to design to high quality (”five nines” of reliability was a common goal in the telephone system) then things were tested obsessively. That’s the way I have usually viewed my software, which still was not without error at first, but what errors it had usually were not show stoppers, and were readily worked around until they truly were fixed. When glittery half-trash is okay, then we see what this lady beheld. Shortly before my career ended at a shrinking Bell Laboratories, I was told to program an interface in an environment which was both immature and ill-suited for the task. I dragged my feet in frustration, and when force reduction came, I didn’t make the cut. Afterwards, ironically, a co-worker of mine who stayed implemented the project in the way that I had originally envisioned in the first place. But “I told you so” doesn’t get a job back.
Where I currently am, many contracts and shorter term jobs later, I program for a railroad safety system that has to be of five nines reliability and high redundancy to boot. This stresses quality again, because it has to.
I think 50% of our coders here are women.
That’s a contradiction in terms — however a change in world view could lead to quality that really IS better than what we have now.
Quality control systems are, to my observation, famous for being reverenced, infamous for not being used nearly as much as they could be. Based on a zen (or as I would personally put it, a gospel) of continual improvement, with very little emphasis on “individual fault” issues, they have been very successful where the commitment to them exists. Quality control was invented in Japan and re-evangelized in postwar Japan by Deming. The relatively egoless Japanese’ products went from junk to marvelous.
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