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Comment Exiting the desktop market (Score 1) 497

Microsoft is slowly exiting the desktop market. They are doing this by developing an app market and moving their business apps to the cloud and pushing them hard. There is a very strong rumor that Office 2013 is the last desktop Office (Office Web Apps Server works extremely well for most use cases and is the basis fro Office 365).

They are doing fantastic in the enterprise apps market (Dynamics, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync) and Server 2012 is a stunningly good server OS with Azure being a heck of a platform, too. They don't need nor want the desktop OS market; they want the desktop APPLICATION market... it's where the money is.

Comment It's called management (Score 1) 195

Management is it's own freaking science FFS... and large systems architecture is, too. Just because someone is a top tier programmer doesn't mean they can run a project to save their lives. I'm a LOUSY programmer... but I have managed hundreds of programmers on dozens of concurrent and many times linked projects and kept it together... because that's my skill set.

Blackberry

BBM Coming To iOS and Android 146

grub writes writes with news that BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has announced that BBM (BlackBerry Messenger, one of the favorite features of BlackBerry device-owners) will soon be coming to rival mobile operating systems. Devices running iOS 6 and Android ICS or later will be supported, pending approval with the App Store and Google Play. "BBM uses carrier data networks to pass secure messages back and forth through its servers to other BlackBerry users. The service recently gained the ability to make phone calls, conduct video chats and even share screen tops with other BBM users (requires BlackBerry 10). Normal chat and group chats will be the first features to hit the Android and iOS BBM apps, followed by the others (including voice and video) during the course of the year. BBM for Android and iOS will be free." The company also unveiled a new smartphone today: the Q5. It's a budget device intended for emerging markets.

Comment Agree on UML (Score 1) 509

UML was a management and inter-project requirement for coordinating code across hundreds (or even thousands) or projects within the multi-company infrastructure. We had upwards of 3000 developers working on various parts of the ERP at a time and it was a helpful tool to make sure programmers had a pretty good idea of where the project leads wanted them to go. They were never gospel, though, as we wanted creativity and flow first, standards second. Standards were my job along with spec'ing, SDLC, proper process control, HR related stuff, etc. We let programmers program and managers managed. Man, I miss that job...

Comment Re:perspective (Score 4, Interesting) 509

It's not that new if you came up in the HPC world working with something like Erlang, but I didn't see it until 15 years after my first CS class when I went back to school to learn C++ (When I started, it was C that I learned and then I ended up working in Eiffel later on). I have never seen nastier harder to track down bugs than when we shifted to a concurrent model while chasing lower latencies in GUI's... I will give it to the young guys who came in after me though; they seem to live and breath this stuff. I got out of the way and became management. I drove them crazy with forcing UML and unit tests and strong code review (they wanted to move FAST), but they are all much better coders than I ever was. I can still kick their butts designing algorithms, though. Different skills for different targets. I hope the fellow grey beard in the OP realizes the change like I did and find a different role where his skills make more sense. Good luck.

Comment In the Midwest we have GreenBean delivery (Score 1) 419

GreenBean http://www.greenbeandelivery.com/ is very affordable and allows consumers to connect with local farmers and to select organic produce. I actually spend LESS than my friends who shop at Kroger or Marsh.

Whole Foods is to food as Urban Outfitter is to clothes... to separate hipsters from mommy and daddy's money.

Comment Viewers are free... also Office Web Apps (Score 1) 113

The viewers for all Office components are free downloads. You could also set up Office Web Apps server (also free if you have a Software Assurance agreement) which will integrate itself into your Exchange 2013 environment to view all Office documents in Outlook's preview pane.

Or... you could get a few subscriptions to Office 365 for $8 a month per user if the usage is infrequent...

Software

It's Hard For Techies Over 40 To Stay Relevant, Says SAP Lab Director 441

New submitter NewYork writes with this chestnut from an article about the role of age in the high-tech workplace: 'The shelf life of a software engineer today is no more than that of a cricketer — about 15 years,' says V R Ferose, MD of German software major SAP's India R&D Labs that has over 4,500 employees . 'The 20-year-old guys provide me more value than the 35-year-olds do.'" The article features similar sentiments from Mukund Mohan, CEO of Microsoft's India-based startup initiative.

Comment Licensure not unions (Score 1) 761

Why IT doesn't have state licensure is bizarre to me. Engineers, nurses, doctors, architects, accountants, lawyers, actuaries, etc. all have licensing that gives some protections why don't we? I know my mom, aunt, and ex wife have all had instances (on a weekly basis) where they have been asked/demanded/bullied to risk patient lives in the name of cutting a few corners (they are all nurses) and the only thing they could fall back on was the law and the risk they would lose their license.

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