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  • Is it wise for a programmer to move into management?

    - by Desolate Planet
    Many times, a developer has suggested that I become a team leader because I'm motivated, but during my career in the IT industry, I've seen so many people who are great at programming, move into management and they are miserable. I've also seen many managers return to programming stating "I'm a technical person, I like technical problems". If this is such a common thing, why do developers feel compelled to leave the technical domain and move into management? Sure you'll have more money and more control, but if you don't enjoy your work and take your problems out on your tream. Secondly, I've been asked in developer interviews, "Would you consider leading a team?" and I'm always tempted to cite the Peter Principle based on what I've seen. I am interested in furthering myself, but not in the way the company may want i.e "Vice President of department blah". To be honest, I've seen this more often in the corporate world than in small development houses and it's always put me off ever going back to a corporate environment. I just feel that this is becoming more and more the norm and it's impacting team morale and degrading the quality of the work. Question: Based on what I've said, Is it a smart move for a technical person to move into management?

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  • Sharing My Thoughts on Space Flight

    - by Grant Fritchey
    This went out in the DBA newsletter from Red Gate, but I enjoyed writing it so much, I thought I'd share it to a wider audience: I grew up watching the US space program. I watched men walk on the moon for the first time in 1969, when I was only six years old. From that moment on, I dreamed of going into space. I studied aeronautics and tried to get into the Air Force Academy, all in preparation for my long career as an astronaut. Clearly, that didn't quite work out for me. But it sure could for you. At Red Gate, we're running a new contest: DBA in Space. The prize is a sub-orbital flight. When I first got word of this contest, my immediate response was, "And you need me to go right away and do a test flight? Excellent!" No, no test flight needed, plus I was pretty low on the list of volunteers. "That's OK, I'll just enter." Then I was told that, as a Red Gate employee, I couldn't win. My next response was, "I quit".eventually, I was talked down off the ledge, and agreed to help make this special for some other DBA. Many (most?) of us are science fiction fans, either the soft science of Star Trek and Star Wars, or the hard science of Niven and Pournelle, or Allen Steele. We watched the Shuttles go up and land. We've been dreaming of our own trips into orbit and our vacation-home on the Moon for a long, long time. All that might not arrive on schedule, but you've got a shot at breaking clear of the atmosphere. The first stage is a video quiz, starring Brad McGehee, and it's live at www.DBAinSpace.com now. Go for it. Good luck and God speed!

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  • Learning good OOP design & unlearning some bad habits

    - by Nick
    I have been mostly a C programmer so far in my career with knowledge of C++. I rely on C++ mostly for the convenience STL provides and I hardly ever focus on good design practices. As I have started to look for a new job position, this bad habit of mine has come back to haunt me. During the interviews, I have been asked to design a problem (like chess, or some other scenario) using OOP and I doing really badly at that (I came to know this through feedback from one interview). I tried to google stuff and came up with so many opinions and related books that I don't know where to begin. I need a good through introduction to OOP design with which I can learn practical design, not just theory. Can you point me to any book which meets my requirements ? I prefer C++, but any other language is fine as long as I can pick-up good practices. Also, I know that books can only go so far. I would also appreciate any good practice project ideas that helped you learn and improve your OOP concepts. Thanks.

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  • How do I become a developer?

    - by ATester
    Since many of you are already there I figured this might be a great place to invite ideas and suggestion for becoming a software developer. My background I have some basic knowledge of programming in VB and C++ from a course I had pursued 8 years ago. My main drawback is a lack of experience in software since I was in a teaching career until a year ago. I am working as a QA tester and finally got a chance to write some automation tests scripts using C#. I didn't have any prior knowledge of C# but I was able to figure my way through it. Questions Given this context: Would anyone have any ideas as to what would be a good approach to learn enough to actually be able to work as a developer? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of learning path to adopt and which approaches speed up learning curve? Would pursuing university course be helpful in terms of knowledge gained? Are certification exams a way to go for a beginner? Are community college courses useful? What about courses offered by private institutes/centers? Any suggestion for some good books?

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  • You are or will be a laid off programmer - what do you do a year ago, right now, tomorrow, and next week?

    - by Adam Davis
    Many programmers, software engineers, and other technology professionals are out of work, facing layoffs, or are unprepared for layoffs though they feel secure right now. What should every programmer do right now (even if secure in their current job) to prepare them for layoffs down the road? If your boss came to your cubicle while you read this and laid you off: What would you do immediately after? What would you do tomorrow? What would you do next week? It obvious that one should always have an up to date resume, always get recommendations from people when they see you at your best (not when you're looking for a new job), etc. What are the things, step by step, that every programmer should do (or should consider doing) long before they are laid off, when they're laid off, and shortly after being laid off? This is a question with many possible facets. While I want to encourage discussion to center around programming career based answers, please reconsider before downvoting someone because they're thinking in terms of how they're going to prevent going into debt. Bonus catch-22 type question: You can study a new language or technology while out of work, but most places want you to have more than 1-2 months experience in a working environment, not just from a learning exercise. Is it worthwhile to place a priority on new (ideally in demand) skills, or should you instead hone existing skills?

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  • Moviebarcodes Showcases Entire Movies as Frame-based Barcodes

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If you’ve ever wanted a chance to look at at an entire movie in a single glance, here’s your chance. Moviebarcodes shares mock-barcodes generated by turning each frame of a movie into a thin stripe, offering a glimpse into the color choices and shot lengths in popular movies. The barcode seen above was generated from The Matrix; you can see where the green indicates scenes that were shot inside the matrix and thus given a subtle green tint. In the barcode below, generated from the movie Pleasantville you can see the transition in the movie between the color and black and white scenes. In the case of Pleasantville, elements of the black and white world turning to color represent pivotal moments in the plot development which are now neatly mapped out below: Check out the hundreds of barcodes at the link below; you can even order prints of your favorite movies. Find a great rendering in the mix? Share a link in the comments below. Moviebarcodes [via Cool Inforgraphics] How to Create an Easy Pixel Art Avatar in Photoshop or GIMPInternet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To KnowHTG Explains: How Does Email Work?

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  • Companies and Ships

    - by TechnicalWriting
    I have worked for small, medium, large, and extra large companies and they have something in common with ships. These metaphors have been used before, I know, but I will have a go at them.The small company is like a speed boat, exciting and fast, and can turn on a dime, literally. Captain and crew share a lot of the work. A speed boat has a short range and needs to refuel a lot. It has difficulty getting through bad weather. (Small companies often live quarter to quarter. By the way, if a larger company is living quarter to quarter, it is taking on water.)The medium company is is like a battleship. It can maneuver, has a longer range, and the crew is focused on its mission. Its main concern are the other battleships trying to blow it out of the water, but it can respond quickly. Bad weather can jostle it, but it can get through most storms.The large company is like an aircraft carrier; a floating city. It is well-provisioned and can carry a specialized load for a very long range. Because of its size and complexity, it has to be well-organized to be effective and most of its functions are specialized (with little to no functional cross-over). There are many divisions and layers between Captain and crew. It is not very maneuverable; it has to set its course well in advance and have a plan of action.The extra large company is like a cruise liner. It also has to be well-organized and changes in direction are often slow. Some of the people are hard at work behind the scenes to run the ship; others can be along for the ride. They sail the same routes over and over again (often happily) with the occasional cosmetic face-lift to the ship and entertainment. It should stay in warm, friendly waters and avoid risky speed through fields of ice bergs.I have enjoyed my career on the various Ships of Technical Writing, but I get the most of my juice from the battleship where I am closer to the campaign and my contributions have the greater impact on success.Mark Metcalfewww.linkedin.com/in/MarkMetcalfe

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  • How do you keep your basic skills from atrophy?

    - by kojiro
    I've been programming for about 10 years, and I've started to migrate to more of a project management position. I still do coding, but less often now. One of the things that I think is holding me back in my career is that I can't "let go". I think I fear letting hard-won programming skills atrophy while I sit in meetings and annotate requirements. (Not to mention I don't trust people to write requirements who don't understand the code.) I can't just read books and magazines about coding. I'm involved in some open source projects in my free time, and stackoverflow and friends help a bit, because I get the opportunity to help people solve their programming problems without micromanaging, but neither of these are terribly structured, so it's tempting to work first on the problems I can solve easily. I guess what I'd like to find is a structured set of exercises (don't care what language or environment) that… …I can do periodically …has some kind of time requirement so I can tell if I've been goofing off …has some kind of scoring so I can tell if I'm making mistakes Is there such a thing? What would you do to keep your skills fresh?

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  • How do you make slides for programming talks?

    - by Yuvi Masory
    I've given a few talks recently and I have not found a good way to make slides. Here are a few desirable characteristics for programming slides: They're slides. A standard emacs buffer won't do it. They have syntax highlighting for code. They support basic formatting, like font size and color and bullets. No fancy animations needed. The only animation I desire is one-by-one appearance of bullets. So far I have considered: Microsoft Office - out of the question for Linux users. OpenOffice.org - too much for my needs, code formatting/highlighting needs to be done externally and pasted in. On the plus side supports bullets, bullet-by-bullet animation, and font formatting. Emacs - Supports all the code formatting but I haven't found a slides mode that lets me transition from one chunk to another. HTML5 - I once made slides using html5rocks as a template. It supports everything, but is too hard and time-consuming the "throw together" a few slides before a minor talk. Also the html5-only features may not work on the podium computer's installed browser. Any suggestions for programs/techniques for making code-centric presentations?

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  • Being rocked...

    - by ZacHarlan
    After almost four and half years, I finally escaped from the world of telemarketing.     I'm now at a place that writes really good code, values testing, does routine code reviews, collaborates with each other so continuously and effectively somebody should make a documentary about it!   Today alone, I had two really smart and well respected developers go line by line through my code and show me how to make it better.  Seriously, people pay really good money for something like this and they don't get near the quality of feedback as I got!     +1 for me finally getting to a point in my career where i get to work with some of the best of the best in the software world!   I've been rocked by the fact that places like this actually exist.     I've been Rocked by the sheer size, complexity and simplicity of our website.     Most importantly I've been ROCKED by the fact that this many smart people check their egos at the door, gel together and look for ways to make software better than how they found it.  This is how to grow a business with tech... hire great people and watch them go!   Seriously, bravo.

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  • Lead Programmer definition clarification

    - by Junaid
    I am working on PHP and MySQL based web application for more than 5 years now. I started my career from Intern - Jr Developer - Software Developer - Sr. Software Engineer [Team Lead] that's what I am nowadays. I was looking at the link at Wikipedia regarding who is a lead programmer. The link states the following: A lead programmer is a software engineer in charge of one or more software projects. Alternative titles include Development Lead, Technical Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Software Design Engineer Lead (SDE Lead), Software Manager, or Senior Applications Developer. When primarily contributing in a high-level enterprise software design role, the title Software Architect (or similar) is often used. All of these titles can have different meanings depending on the context. My current job responsibilities are more or less like a Development Lead and to some extent near Software Architect because I usually design the core structure of new products and managing 2-3 project simultaneously and in the meantime involved in assisting other teams regarding the structural design of their projects, I am usually on call with clients along with project managers, I code most of the time when my team stuck somewhere / workload / integrating some third party API and etc. Primary reason of this writing is to know if I qualify for a Development Lead Title? in accordance with my above mentioned job descriptions?

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  • Read Oracle Certification Program's December 2012 E-Magazine now!

    - by Harold Green
    Hello Everyone, The big news in this edition of our Oracle Certification E-Magazine is related to a change in the way that exam results are provided at the end of the test (using our CertView tool). This significant process change for the Oracle program sets the stage for tighter integration of candidate information and exam/certifcation results. Additionally, it helps give every certification holder access to important tools available in CertView. The new process was implemented in November and so far it is going very well. Much of the success of this new initiative is due to you (following the new process)! We are continuing to work to expand the functionality of CertView to better help you use your certification as a tool to help improve your career. Also in this issue of the E-Magazine, we are announcing several new offerings. We have a new SQL Tuning certification as well as a new Exam Preparation Seminar. We have continued to release new Exam Preparation Seminars and Exam Preparation Seminar Value Packages and we are receiving good feedback. We hope that you will consider employing one of these seminars to help you prepare for your next certification exam. They are now even available on iPad! READ THE DECEMBER 2012 EDITION HERE Thank you and good luck! Paul Sorensen Sr. Director, Global Certification Programs

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  • Possible to draw a select portion of a render target? (in XNA)

    - by TheBroodian
    I'm going to try to do this in reverse fashion and skip straight to the punch line, and then give the back story afterward: Is it possible to, after drawing a scene to a RenderTarget2D, only draw a select portion of the RenderTarget2D, if I don't want the entire thing? I'm using xTile to manage world data in my game (it's a great piece of work, colinvella [xTile's author] has made an amazing product), and for the most part it works great. xTile supports parallax effects in its layers to add some wonderful depth to 2d scenes, which was great, until I implemented a dynamic split-screen system into my game. Wanted to make a co-op game that wouldn't require players to be in close proximity to each other, so I made it so that if the players separate too far apart, the singular full-screen viewport 'snaps-apart', and is replaced by two split-screen viewports, which then smoothly transition to their respective player targets. The effect is pretty smooth aside from the part where the parallax backgrounds become skewed once the viewports split, because xTile's ratio for handling parallax effects is dependent upon viewport size. This is unfortunate, because the effect would otherwise be really snazzy, but the backgrounds become pretty heavily affected when the game goes from single-viewport to multi-viewport. So, Colinvella suggests using rendertargets to record the scene at full viewport size, and then only drawing a portion of it. But as far as I can tell, that isn't even possible? That being said, I've never even used render targets before, so I'm still learning, hence the question here.

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  • Project Jigsaw: Late for the train: The Q&A

    - by Mark Reinhold
    I recently proposed, to the Java community in general and to the SE 8 (JSR 337) Expert Group in particular, to defer Project Jigsaw from Java 8 to Java 9. I also proposed to aim explicitly for a regular two-year release cycle going forward. Herewith a summary of the key questions I’ve seen in reaction to these proposals, along with answers. Making the decision Q Has the Java SE 8 Expert Group decided whether to defer the addition of a module system and the modularization of the Platform to Java SE 9? A No, it has not yet decided. Q By when do you expect the EG to make this decision? A In the next month or so. Q How can I make sure my voice is heard? A The EG will consider all relevant input from the wider community. If you have a prominent blog, column, or other communication channel then there’s a good chance that we’ve already seen your opinion. If not, you’re welcome to send it to the Java SE 8 Comments List, which is the EG’s official feedback channel. Q What’s the overall tone of the feedback you’ve received? A The feedback has been about evenly divided as to whether Java 8 should be delayed for Jigsaw, Jigsaw should be deferred to Java 9, or some other, usually less-realistic, option should be taken. Project Jigsaw Q Why is Project Jigsaw taking so long? A Project Jigsaw started at Sun, way back in August 2008. Like many efforts during the final years of Sun, it was not well staffed. Jigsaw initially ran on a shoestring, with just a handful of mostly part-time engineers, so progress was slow. During the integration of Sun into Oracle all work on Jigsaw was halted for a time, but it was eventually resumed after a thorough consideration of the alternatives. Project Jigsaw was really only fully staffed about a year ago, around the time that Java 7 shipped. We’ve added a few more engineers to the team since then, but that can’t make up for the inadequate initial staffing and the time lost during the transition. Q So it’s really just a matter of staffing limitations and corporate-integration distractions? A Aside from these difficulties, the other main factor in the duration of the project is the sheer technical difficulty of modularizing the JDK. Q Why is modularizing the JDK so hard? A There are two main reasons. The first is that the JDK code base is deeply interconnected at both the API and the implementation levels, having been built over many years primarily in the style of a monolithic software system. We’ve spent considerable effort eliminating or at least simplifying as many API and implementation dependences as possible, so that both the Platform and its implementations can be presented as a coherent set of interdependent modules, but some particularly thorny cases remain. Q What’s the second reason? A We want to maintain as much compatibility with prior releases as possible, most especially for existing classpath-based applications but also, to the extent feasible, for applications composed of modules. Q Is modularizing the JDK even necessary? Can’t you just put it in one big module? A Modularizing the JDK, and more specifically modularizing the Java SE Platform, will enable standard yet flexible Java runtime configurations scaling from large servers down to small embedded devices. In the long term it will enable the convergence of Java SE with the higher-end Java ME Platforms. Q Is Project Jigsaw just about modularizing the JDK? A As originally conceived, Project Jigsaw was indeed focused primarily upon modularizing the JDK. The growing demand for a truly standard module system for the Java Platform, which could be used not just for the Platform itself but also for libraries and applications built on top of it, later motivated expanding the scope of the effort. Q As a developer, why should I care about Project Jigsaw? A The introduction of a modular Java Platform will, in the long term, fundamentally change the way that Java implementations, libraries, frameworks, tools, and applications are designed, built, and deployed. Q How much progress has Project Jigsaw made? A We’ve actually made a lot of progress. Much of the core functionality of the module system has been prototyped and works at both compile time and run time. We’ve extended the Java programming language with module declarations, worked out a structure for modular source trees and corresponding compiled-class trees, and implemented these features in javac. We’ve defined an efficient module-file format, extended the JVM to bootstrap a modular JRE, and designed and implemented a preliminary API. We’ve used the module system to make a good first cut at dividing the JDK and the Java SE API into a coherent set of modules. Among other things, we’re currently working to retrofit the java.util.ServiceLoader API to support modular services. Q I want to help! How can I get involved? A Check out the project page, read the draft requirements and design overview documents, download the latest prototype build, and play with it. You can tell us what you think, and follow the rest of our work in real time, on the jigsaw-dev list. The Java Platform Module System JSR Q What’s the relationship between Project Jigsaw and the eventual Java Platform Module System JSR? A At a high level, Project Jigsaw has two phases. In the first phase we’re exploring an approach to modularity that’s markedly different from that of existing Java modularity solutions. We’ve assumed that we can change the Java programming language, the virtual machine, and the APIs. Doing so enables a design which can strongly enforce module boundaries in all program phases, from compilation to deployment to execution. That, in turn, leads to better usability, diagnosability, security, and performance. The ultimate goal of the first phase is produce a working prototype which can inform the work of the Module-System JSR EG. Q What will happen in the second phase of Project Jigsaw? A The second phase will produce the reference implementation of the specification created by the Module-System JSR EG. The EG might ultimately choose an entirely different approach than the one we’re exploring now. If and when that happens then Project Jigsaw will change course as necessary, but either way I think that the end result will be better for having been informed by our current work. Maven & OSGi Q Why not just use Maven? A Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. As such it can be seen as a kind of build-time module system but, by its nature, it does nothing to support modularity at run time. Q Why not just adopt OSGi? A OSGi is a rich dynamic component system which includes not just a module system but also a life-cycle model and a dynamic service registry. The latter two facilities are useful to some kinds of sophisticated applications, but I don’t think they’re of wide enough interest to be standardized as part of the Java SE Platform. Q Okay, then why not just adopt the module layer of OSGi? A The OSGi module layer is not operative at compile time; it only addresses modularity during packaging, deployment, and execution. As it stands, moreover, it’s useful for library and application modules but, since it’s built strictly on top of the Java SE Platform, it can’t be used to modularize the Platform itself. Q If Maven addresses modularity at build time, and the OSGi module layer addresses modularity during deployment and at run time, then why not just use the two together, as many developers already do? A The combination of Maven and OSGi is certainly very useful in practice today. These systems have, however, been built on top of the existing Java platform; they have not been able to change the platform itself. This means, among other things, that module boundaries are weakly enforced, if at all, which makes it difficult to diagnose configuration errors and impossible to run untrusted code securely. The prototype Jigsaw module system, by contrast, aims to define a platform-level solution which extends both the language and the JVM in order to enforce module boundaries strongly and uniformly in all program phases. Q If the EG chooses an approach like the one currently being taken in the Jigsaw prototype, will Maven and OSGi be made obsolete? A No, not at all! No matter what approach is taken, to ensure wide adoption it’s essential that the standard Java Platform Module System interact well with Maven. Applications that depend upon the sophisticated features of OSGi will no doubt continue to use OSGi, so it’s critical that implementations of OSGi be able to run on top of the Java module system and, if suitably modified, support OSGi bundles that depend upon Java modules. Ideas for how to do that are currently being explored in Project Penrose. Java 8 & Java 9 Q Without Jigsaw, won’t Java 8 be a pretty boring release? A No, far from it! It’s still slated to include the widely-anticipated Project Lambda (JSR 335), work on which has been going very well, along with the new Date/Time API (JSR 310), Type Annotations (JSR 308), and a set of smaller features already in progress. Q Won’t deferring Jigsaw to Java 9 delay the eventual convergence of the higher-end Java ME Platforms with Java SE? A It will slow that transition, but it will not stop it. To allow progress toward that convergence to be made with Java 8 I’ve suggested to the Java SE 8 EG that we consider specifying a small number of Profiles which would allow compact configurations of the SE Platform to be built and deployed. Q If Jigsaw is deferred to Java 9, would the Oracle engineers currently working on it be reassigned to other Java 8 features and then return to working on Jigsaw again after Java 8 ships? A No, these engineers would continue to work primarily on Jigsaw from now until Java 9 ships. Q Why not drop Lambda and finish Jigsaw instead? A Even if the engineers currently working on Lambda could instantly switch over to Jigsaw and immediately become productive—which of course they can’t—there are less than nine months remaining in the Java 8 schedule for work on major features. That’s just not enough time for the broad review, testing, and feedback which such a fundamental change to the Java Platform requires. Q Why not ship the module system in Java 8, and then modularize the platform in Java 9? A If we deliver a module system in one release but don’t use it to modularize the JDK until some later release then we run a big risk of getting something fundamentally wrong. If that happens then we’d have to fix it in the later release, and fixing fundamental design flaws after the fact almost always leads to a poor end result. Q Why not ship Jigsaw in an 8.5 release, less than two years after 8? Or why not just ship a new release every year, rather than every other year? A Many more developers work on the JDK today than a couple of years ago, both because Oracle has dramatically increased its own investment and because other organizations and individuals have joined the OpenJDK Community. Collectively we don’t, however, have the bandwidth required to ship and then provide long-term support for a big JDK release more frequently than about every other year. Q What’s the feedback been on the two-year release-cycle proposal? A For just about every comment that we should release more frequently, so that new features are available sooner, there’s been another asking for an even slower release cycle so that large teams of enterprise developers who ship mission-critical applications have a chance to migrate at a comfortable pace.

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  • I'm doing 90% maintenance and 10% development, is this normal?

    - by TiredProgrammer
    I have just recently started my career as a web developer for a medium sized company. As soon as I started I got the task of expanding an existing application (badly coded, developed by multiple programmers over the years, handles the same tasks in different ways, zero structure) So after I had successfully extended this application with the requested functionality, they gave me the task to fully maintain the application. This was of course not a problem, or so I thought. But then I got to hear I wasn't allowed to improve the existing code and to only focus on bug fixes when a bug gets reported. From then on I have had 3 more projects just like the above, that I now also have to maintain. And I got 4 projects where I was allowed to create the application from scratch, and I have to maintain those as well. At this moment I'm slightly beginning to get crazy from the daily mails of users (read managers) for each application I have to maintain. They expect me to handle these mails directly while also working on 2 other new projects (and there are already 5 more projects lined up after those). The sad thing is I have yet to receive a bug report on anything that I have coded myself, for that I have only received the occasional lets do things 180 degrees different change requests. Anyway, is this normal? In my opinion I'm doing the work equivalent of a whole team of developers. Was I an idiot when I initially expected things to be different? I guess this post has turned into a big rant, but please tell me that this is not the same for every developer. P.S. My salary is almost equal if not lower then that of a cashier at a supermarket.

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  • Business knowledge in a large financial org?

    - by Victor
    As a programmer working in the finance industry, I recently got a project that is a hedge fund adminsitrative application(used to calculate NAVs, allocate assets etc.) From a business point of view this is a good thing. When we think of our 'next' project, typically the impulse is to think in terms of technology. e.g: 'I want to work on a project that uses SOA/cloud etc etc.' I am interested to know if anyone while career planning also takes into account the business aspect of a future project. i.e. what the application does. So does anybody ever think like this : 'I wish to work on a trading system so I can understand capital markets better.' instead of 'I want to work on a project that uses SOA/cloud etc etc.' I say this because it appears to me in the finance domain, for senior position, good business knowledge pays well. So maybe a guy that knows more business but maybe not so much latest technologies is at an advantage? The rockstar programmer seems more suited for an aggressive startup. Particularly big old finance orgs rarely invest in tech just for the 'cool factor'. No?

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  • I have an MIS degree. How do I sell myself as a programmer?

    - by hydroparadise
    So, I graduated with a BSBA in Management Information Systems with honors almost 2 years ago which is more of a business degree. As of right now, I do have a job title of "Programmer", but it's more of a report writing position in an arbitrary, proprietary language called PowerOn with the occasional interesting project using more mainstream technologies like .Net and Java. I am also somewhat isoloated being the only programmer in the workplace, which I beleive is a detriment to my career path. The only people I have to bounce ideas against are those on the various SE sites. I don't regret going MIS, but over the past couple of years I have discovered my passion for coding, even though I have been doing some form of coding profesionally and as an enthusiast for years. I do want to persue my Masters in CS (at a later time), but I am not sure if I necessarily need a CS degree to get in with a team of programmers. In addition, I do have a number classes I have taken for different laguanges on the way (C++, Java, SQL, and VB.Net) I beleive my strength is in problem solving where code is just a tool to tackling to problem if needed. My question: How do I best sell myself as a programmer? Should I continue pounding out reports and wait till I have my masters in CS? Or am I viable to be a programmer as I stand?

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  • Whole continent simulation [on hold]

    - by user2309021
    Let's suppose I am planning to create a simulation of an entire continent at some point in the past (let's say, around 0 A.D). Is it feasible to spawn a hundred million actors that interact with each other and their environments? Having them reproduce, extract resources, etc? The fact is that I actually want to create a simulation that allows me to zoom in from a view of the entire continent up to a single village, and interact with it. (Think as if you could keep zooming in the campaign map of any Total War game and the transition to the battle map was seamless, not a change of the "game mode"). By the way, I have never made a game in my entire life (I have programmed normal desktop applications, though), so I am really having trouble wrapping my head around how to implement such a thing. Even while thinking about how to implement a simple population simulator, without a graphical interface, I think that the O(n) complexity of traversing an array and telling all people to get one year older each time the program ticks is kind of stupid. Any kind help would be greatly appreciated :) EDIT: After being put on hold, I shall specify a question. How would you implement a simulation of all basic human dynamics (reproduction, resource consumption) in an entire continent (with millions of people)?

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  • The Talent Behind Customer Experience

    - by Christina McKeon
    Earlier, I wrote about Powerful Data Lessons from the Presidential Election. A key component of the Obama team’s data analysis deserves its own discussion—the people. Recruiters are probably scrambling to find out who those Obama data crunchers are and lure them into corporations. For the Obama team, these data scientists became a secret ingredient that the competition didn’t have. This team of analysts knew how to hear the signal and ignore the noise, how to segment and target its base, and how to model scenarios and revise plans based on what the data told them. The talent was the difference. As you work to transform your organization to be more customer-centric, don’t forget that talent is a critical element. Journey mapping is a good start to understanding how your talent impacts your customer experiences. Part of journey mapping includes documenting the “on-stage” and “back-stage” systems and touchpoints. When mapping this part of your customers’ journey, include the roles and talent behind the employee actions—both customer facing and further upstream from that customer touchpoint. Know what each of these roles does, how well you are retaining people in these areas, and your plans to fill these open positions in the future. To use data scientists as an example, this job will be in high demand over the next 10 years. The workforce is shrinking, and higher education institutions may not be able to turn out trained data scientists as fast as you need them. You don’t want to be caught with a skills deficit, so consider how you can best plan for the future talent you will need. Have your existing employees make their career aspirations known to you now. You may find you already have employees willing to take on roles that drive better customer experiences. Then develop customer experience talent from within your organization through targeted learning programs. If you know that you will need to go outside the organization, build those candidate relationships now. Nurture the candidates you want to hire and partner with universities, colleges, and trade associations so you can increase the number of qualified candidates in your talent pool.

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  • Is it okay to showcase templates/layouts recreated in different codes in a portfolio?

    - by Souta
    I have several different templates/layouts, both simple and complex. I recreated these templates multiple times, just using different codes. (Say, a complex one was originally made in only HTML and CSS, I recreated it using HTML, Javascript, CSS, then again with a HTML and PHP concoction, and etc.) I wanted to showcase my work and skills by doing this, but I don't know if it would be okay for that all to go into a resumé/portfolio. This is why: Freelancing Does potential business really care about how their site is made, as long as it looks and functions to their liking? (As in, should I just only show the one example of each template/layout and not the multiple recreations?) Potential Hire However, if a potential employer were to stumble across my resumé/portfolio, would having the multiple recreations do any good for a career outlook? (As in, this potential employer is a company where I could be working on a team to create/develop sites and not be freelancing; would a lack of skill-shining turn this employer away because I didn't set myself apart and show that I'm not just like every other budding web designer?) Those two issues have me wondering if it is okay to have a resumé/portfolio combined for this specific reason. Or does something like this not matter to potential business (as a freelancer) because they wouldn't care either way as long as it looks and functions to their liking and therefore it is okay to showcase the recreations with the originals?

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  • How do I start working as a programmer - what do I need?

    - by giorgo
    Hello, i am currently learning Java and PHP as I have some projects from university, which require me to apply both languages. Specifically, a Java GUI application, connecting to a MySQL database and a web application that will be implemented in PHP/MySQL. I have started learning the MVC pattern, Struts, Spring and I am also learning PHP with zend. My first question is: How can I find employment as a programmer/software engineer? The reason I ask is because I have sent my CV into many companys, but all of them stated that I required work experience. I really need some guidance on how to improve my career opportunites. At present, I work on my own and haven't worked in collaboration with anyone on a particular project. I'm assuming most people create projects and submit them along with their CVs. My second question is: Everyone has to make a start from somewhere, but what if this somewhere doesn't come? What do I need to do to create the circumstances where I can easily progress forward? Thanks

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  • O'reilly certification in PHP worth it?

    - by editzombie
    I asked this question over on stack overflow but I didn't realise it wasn't really the place for not so technical questions. I've seen quite a few related threads on this forum so I thought I'd try and get some feedback here: This is my first time asking a question on this forum, though I´ve read it a lot. I apologise if this is repeating a thread. I´m interested in getting into web development. I am a video editor by trade but living in Spain the way things are at the moment its very difficult to find work. I have some very basic knowledge of HTML and CSS and a little bit of flash and have designed a few little personal websites myself. I also worked for a online marketing production company where I worked a little on blog design in Blogger amongst other social media. So thats my background, but I´m trying to expand my skills and get into web development as a career or in general part of my skill base, I was thinking particularly about PHP/MySQL. I have worked a little on some of the Lynda.com tutorials and have invested in a book (Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache). I´m still finding it very difficult to progress. I know I should really try some practice projects (any reccomendations would be welcome). But I was also thinking about doing one of the O´Reilly certification courses and was wondering whether it would be worthwhile for a noob like me. I hear that the courses are associated with an American University which I guess gives it more clout. Any other thoughts you guys have about how to make progress in learning web development would be fantasic. Thanks in advance.

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  • What's hot in Oracle Premier Support News for Solaris, Storage and Systems - How to Patch!

    - by user12244613
    Struggling with locating patches for Sun products? Can't find your Oracle System Drivers? This question has been raised many times by customers and was the source of a short video in the Oracle System Support Newsletter in February 2012. The transition between SunSolve and My Oracle Support is to change how you think about the type of patch your looking for. For example, in SunSolve you might have typed e1000g if looking for an Enternet Driver.. but entering e1000g will not find anything in My Oracle Support - Patches and Update Menu. As you need to use the Product (Advanced) search which is driven of the Product Name, therefore you need to type "Ethernet" and select the ethernet product you are looking for to locate the patches for this product. Just to recap that video: If you are looking for the e1000g Ethernet Driver - You need to use Advance Search and search for Enternet 1. Log into My Oracle Support - Select Patches and Updates - Select Product or Family (Advanced Search). 2. In the product line enter: Ethernet and select the product name from the menu. 3. Check remove supersede patches - that ensure you only get relevant current patches in the results. 4. Select Search and the results are displayed. Now you have more options to include the platform (Solaris,Linux etc.) if want to further narrow the search. Need more information? Log into My Oracle Support and what a short 90sec video I put together. View the 7 minute Video using Firefox/chrome – It shows searching for individual patches, Solaris, Firmware etc. If you are not receiving the Oracle System Support Newsletter: Option (a) Within My Oracle Support, make document id: 1363390.1 a favourite and revisit it on the 2nd of each month for the latest content. Option (b) By default the Newsletter  is sent to all customers who have logged a Service Request on an Oracle Systems Hardware Product during the last 12months, unless you have opted out to receiving Oracle Communications on your profile on http://oracle.com

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  • New Horizon

    - by alexismp
    I have resigned from Oracle and thus will soon leave the GlassFish group. I feel very proud looking back at what we've achieved as a team with GlassFish in the past few years, including those past two years at Oracle. If you know anything about the history of application servers at Sun, you'll recognize that building such a community around GlassFish and its amazing number of downloads is nothing short of a small miracle. The Java EE platform has also seen a strong resurgence, bringing it back to the forefront of effective enterprise Java development in many ways. Having been hired by Sun some 13 years ago to sell NetDynamics I certainly feel that I leave the company's application server in *much* better shape. Oracle has ambitious plans for GlassFish and has been in my opinion a good steward for this community. I see no reason for this to change and I do expect the community to keep on pushing Oracle to get even better with time. This ride has been intense and the people I've met and worked with, both inside and outside Sun/Oracle, have made the experience the best one of my career. My journey now continues here: alexismp.wordpress.com. See you there!

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  • Reformatting and version control

    - by l0b0
    Code formatting matters. Even indentation matters. And consistency is more important than minor improvements. But projects usually don't have a clear, complete, verifiable and enforced style guide from day 1, and major improvements may arrive any day. Maybe you find that SELECT id, name, address FROM persons JOIN addresses ON persons.id = addresses.person_id; could be better written as / is better written than SELECT persons.id, persons.name, addresses.address FROM persons JOIN addresses ON persons.id = addresses.person_id; while working on adding more columns to the query. Maybe this is the most complex of all four queries in your code, or a trivial query among thousands. No matter how difficult the transition, you decide it's worth it. But how do you track code changes across major formatting changes? You could just give up and say "this is the point where we start again", or you could reformat all queries in the entire repository history. If you're using a distributed version control system like Git you can revert to the first commit ever, and reformat your way from there to the current state. But it's a lot of work, and everyone else would have to pause work (or be prepared for the mother of all merges) while it's going on. Is there a better way to change history which gives the best of all results: Same style in all commits Minimal merge work ? To clarify, this is not about best practices when starting the project, but rather what should be done when a large refactoring has been deemed a Good Thing™ but you still want a traceable history? Never rewriting history is great if it's the only way to ensure that your versions always work the same, but what about the developer benefits of a clean rewrite? Especially if you have ways (tests, syntax definitions or an identical binary after compilation) to ensure that the rewritten version works exactly the same way as the original?

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