From the article:

"The MoD insisted it is merely bringing up to date a disparate set of by-laws which were first introduced in 1892, and seeking to bring about a “layered” set of legislation which will increase public access to some military land."

Draconian? LOL! I can't believe they let people in there at all. Furthermore, most of the rules seem to come from the groundskeepers, not spies.

In the U.S. they put up fences and shoot people who go inside.

I agree with everything above. Furthermore, I found this thread through the RSS feed and read it because it is interesting. How many people at YOUR company have already read this? You provided enough information to identify you. All that needs to happen now is for a body-stacking coworker to go to your boss. Sorry to be negative, but been there, done that.

I understand exactly how you feel. If you are as competent as you sound, find a new job and then leave. Make sure the new place is more stable, so you can keep your conscience clear. BTW, +1 for having one.

Yes. Same for me. Agree completely.

Eclipse is the worst IDE there is, except for all the rest. Hopefully, Java will die soon, taking Eclipse with it. Then, everyone can rewrite all that awful business and data access logic in JS, and the world will be a better place.

I had the same reaction to the spelling and grammar. As much as a I despise the English language, spelling and grammar reflect on you. As far as meetings go, they have always been boring. Back in the day, people doodled. Non-technical people want to look at the people with whom they are communicating (they can actually read body language,) and lots of lackeys are a sign of power and prestige. Meetings will never go away, and the perception of people with power over your career is shaped by how you act when you are around them, that is, at meetings. Sorry. At least there are OSS projects for your personal time.

Exactly. Java works best for heavy-duty business systems, and there is a steep learning curve. But there are a LOT of heavy-duty business systems. Java won't go anywhere until a new development paradigm comes along (which I haven't seen any signs of yet.)

Having been in various leadership roles, I'll say that the thing I valued most as a leader was having good people who wanted to just work. No agenda to have a better role, etc., they just did their jobs well. As far as responsibility, the hardest thing I have found is giving someone a task and then having to leave them alone for a month because I don't have time to watch them. When I come back and they are done, in my eyes, they have demonstrated great responsibility.

I have also found that people who think everyone should be leaders generally aren't and don't understand leadership at all. Typically, they are egotistical and lord over others for their own gratification.

Remember, when you interview, you are also assessing a potential employer. If they ask you stupid questions or make demeaning remarks during an interview, that is your cue to move on.

I've been around for quite a while, but I have kept my skills up, with four kids, to boot. I feel your pain. Often, these programmers aren't able to go to the next level. At the same time, I've seldom seen Management do anything about them. Here's my advice. Stay away from these people. You do not want to be associated with or influenced by them. Focus on your own work and doing it as well as you can. Unless you are in charge (meaning you have hire/fire authority,) don't concern yourself with the overall situation. BTW, you'll start feeling much better once you've given up hope.

This reminds of the Scrum fad at many local development shops. Unfortunately, the only part of the Scrum actually implemented is the daily meeting. From where I sit, the problem is that Google, Scrum, etc. are predicated on the idea that an independent group of individuals will produce good results. This works when the group is made up of high-performing individuals who naturally fulfill different roles needed to accomplish the task at hand. In my experience, these individuals are the exception, and only elite organizations are able to recruit and retain them, and only for elite tasks. As much as I hate to admit it, the rest of us need some managing to get the more mundane (and abundant) projects done. Only only wish there were more more skilled managers.

"But still guys, it's pretty 80s"

Seriously? I've seen more creativity from the 1880's. B.C.

LOL! #3

Another LOL!

LOL!

"Einstein said "As simple as possible, but no simpler". Notice how there are two parts to that sentence. The Gnome 3 crew designed by the first part of it only."

You nailed it right there. Fortunately, with Ubuntu 12.04 and some stable extensions, I find it possible to get past that. But I cannot conceive of a reason to take away the ability to do basic configuration.

I've met a lot of egotistical developers in my time, but I've never seen any so insensitive to feedback. The forums have been flooded with feedback, a lot of it constructive, from the start. It's almost as if, in some sort of Dilbert world, the Gnome team decided they hated everyone who was using their work and wanted them all to go away.

M$ has relatively little at stake here because, in Corporate Land, Windows 7 is still in the adoption phase. There are still a lot of Win XP installations out there waiting to move to Windows 7. Many other companies have just moved to 7 and have no intention of an upgrade, as Windows 7 is more than good enough. M$ could (they won't) afford to simply drop Windows 8 if it is a bust, or they can split Windows into desktop and tablet. This is NOT their intention, but if Windows 8 catches on in the tablet world but proves to be a bust on the desktop, then it is certainly an option. So is dropping "Metro" from the desktop Windows 8a. Meanwhile, M$ will continue to sell new Windows 7 corporate licenses, and Joe Beer Guy, or whatever he is called this election cycle, will simply live with whatever M$ foists off on him, or Dell et. al. will install Windows 7. M$ already has huge credibility problems, and a gamble on Windows 8 could turn that around. On the other hand, it won't make things appreciably worse. In terms of Corporate Land, where M$ seems to get mosts of its revenue, Windows 8 will be non-factor.