I have been developing software for the enterprise for nearly 40 years (back before we called it "the enterprise") and I can count on one hand the number of times we have been asked, required, or had the time to do ANY Big-O analysis of algorithms. In the early days we wrote a solution to the problem and then examined how it performed. For some of these solutions some pre-coding analysis would have been helpful but the demands of the data requirements in the old days were such that the only bottleneck was external access (database, network, storage, user).

Nowadays with the thousands, or even millions, of users hitting a resource concurrently, I think that pre-coding analysis of subsystems that can be identified as bottlenecks should be performed early and often.

The biggest problem I have seen over the past 20 years comes from large teams of "junior" programmers who learned how to do one thing in school (call it 'A') and have a very difficult time adapting to different problems (call them 'B') because these new issues lie outside their field of expertise, which is, admittedly, limited. I blame the paper mill universities of the world for turning out "software engineers" who can't get from A to B (and yes, DeVry is one of them). Basic problem-solving skills are a must for doing this job and analysis of future development is essential.

Code reuse is also not being done to the level that would help speed up both the development process and the performance characteristics. The key question from the above quoted post being "should we be writing this piece of code in the first place?" and not "should we optimize this piece of code to get Big-O levels of efficiency?"

I like to think that the "hackers" (whomever they really were) had an agenda to embarrass both the RNC and the DNC. With the DNC they were able to phish Podesta and publish embarrassing emails. With the RNC we had Trump ... so ... how bad could it have possibly been?

I have to second you on the choice of Ada. A most robust and controlled/secure development platform for general purpose use, I have been developing in Ada for as long as I have owned TAOCP (got my copy in the early 80's). Every one of the exercises were implementable in Ada.

As for reading the books ... I've read through them over a dozen times in the past 30+ years ... can't say I completely understand all of it but my comprehension grows every year. :D

Yes. Yes there is ... and obviously you, youngster, are not on it. ;P

I read something a while back that the NRA is removing the gender-specific categories for shooting competitions since the men and women were scoring so closely to each other that there was no discernible difference in performance by gender.

Not sure if they still are or what the current status is but it's a step in the right direction. For all those things where gender should be irrelevant ... it will be.

Yup. Missed that too. :D

Just an FYI ... it is bad form to call someone a "moron" and misspell the word "moron" ...

Hey now! I would LOVE to name my kid Golgarth! That sounds like an awesome name and it DOES sound Viking.

"This is my son, Golgarth. His sister's name is LaTanya"

That could work.

We use perl at my (US-based) work for many mission-critical systems. Contact me with your email address and I'll point you in the right direction (as we are always looking for Perl people)

Not quite. It's retarded admins that use password authentication on public facing SSH services. I have had a public facing SSH server for over 5 years now and it ONLY permits key-based authentication. I have NEVER had an unauthorized login. But them I'm an unpublished no-name IT guy who only follows those "best practices" that the so-called experts keep railing on about but don't seem to follow themselves.

I am certain you can also have a secure Windows server that has a public facing connection on the internet ... I've just never had the patience to try it.