LOAD “$”,8 - Now that was useful!

Have you ever worked on a health care project?

HIPPA regulations and the contracts between the government and the contractors would most certainly prevent anyone that is not directly involved in the project from touching the code.

Dude, this isn't open source, its a federal government project with all the rules and regs that apply.

Besides, I doubt they would listen even if suggestions came forth. Inside some of the larger corporations and consulting companies, I think the attitude that open source = Hackers/Anarchism still prevails.

Sweet.

Well, sometimes its cool to use tools and program on something that most people aren't coding on. I coded a text based 21 Blackjack game on a TRS-80 Model IV back in the day. I also coded a game using Simon's Basic on a C-64. Hardly anyone else did, but it was still cool and I learned a lot.

I don't think its so much for playing or coding the latest games as it is to learn about micro-controllers and low-level game programming AND not everyone is "doing" it. Like everyone that jumped on the Java bandwagon years ago for enterprise apps. Or the .net bandwagon for Microsoft apps. Or like everyone is currently jumping on the "Android" or 'iOS" bandwagon for mobile gaming. :)

And group "C' - citizens - are feed up with the bull.

Both sides won't compromise so its both party's fault. Meanwhile, there are the funds and staff to update various websites to say they are shutdown, close down parks, blockade monuments, etc. And the healthcare.gov website is dysfunctional for almost a week?

And we are supposed to feel "sorry" for the government and its employees because they are a victim of the incompetence in Washington and they depend mostly on the federal government for funds?

Those of us in the private sector working outside of government still have to pay taxes and make our payroll deductions, or the IRS will come after us with a vengeance. When our "companies" and "businesses" get shut down, we get laid off or lose our jobs or investments or even our homes, instead of just being "furloughed".

I would say the rest of us that aren't in government or directly working for government are the real victims here.

Yeap,
That's why they manufacture BMW's in South Carolina and BMW has expanded the plant and hired more workers over the years. Last time I took a tour of the facility, they were making all the X3's, X5's, and X6's for the world market, including the ones being sold in Asia.

Yeap, we can't compete with anyone.

Basic ain't that bad.

I worked at a very large retailer that used Business Basic running on Data General mini-computers in the early 1990's. Of course, they also had IBM iron running MVS with tons of CICS/COBOL programs. Its surprising how much "could" be done with Basic back in the day.

I also still remember the C-64 games, a lot of which were written in basic and would use a bunch of "pokes" to load assembly routines into memory.

And what about good old Access Basic and Visual Basic? The easiest way to code a windows GUI program back in the day. Much easier to use than that Visual Studio/MFC C++ junk back in the 1990's. :)

As an older guy - I have no problem helping younger guys out. I have had a lot of mentors over the years and I still learn from those more experienced then I am. I just get a little torqued up when someone young comes along and thinks they know all the answers and starts trying to "boss" everyone around. Usually these guys are the first ones laid off or forced out, as they are not team players.

Uh actually - I just turned 45. I was coding mostly C and some C++ when I was 30 and Java was just starting to get noticed.

Anyway, at 45 I probably get contacted by anywhere from 1 to 5 recruiters a week. I also haven't gone more than 2-3 weeks without work in the last 20 years without either a job offer or the next job lined up. In fact, at this point, I have to avoid recruiters just to get a little time off between contracts or jobs.

I don't consider myself the best or a genius. I'm probably in the top 20% of coders - but definitely not the top 5%. Yet I find myself arguing the same arguments and solving many of the same issues from company to company because so many folks fail to see the bigger picture. Yes, I have been let go a few times in my career, but its mostly because I wouldn't convert from contractor to a perm position or because of political reasons. I don't think I've ever been let go in a true lay-off, and most of the time I choose when I leave my job and move onto the next one.

As for the walker - thankfully not yet. I still manage to lift weights and hike/run/bike in my spare time..

I guess 45 is the new 29. :)

Yeah, this old fart knows Cobol, Assembly, C, C++, Java, a little C# and several other languages. I enjoy when you younger guys come to me for help because you can't read a log file, resolve a memory leak, write a test plan up, or optimize your SQL. :)

Mainframes aren't so "specialized". Maybe you are confusing Mainframes with Supercomputers which tend to be much more specialized and focused towards scientific and research usage.

I worked on IBM big iron back in the day and a "mainframe" can run Linux Partitions as well as other mainframe OS's. Unix boxes aren't so generic either. A unix box running Linux is different than a Unix box running HP-UX or Solaris and requires some different sys-admin skills. There are other issues with shared library linking being different, different compiler's, different shells, etc.

MVS is now z/OS and it supports multiple programming languages - its not just your grandfather's COBOL anymore:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/OS

The Crab people will rise up and take over the Earth. Time to buy a Prius. Oh, wait, the lithium ion batteries create more carbon from manufacturing them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV5wmDhzgY8

Doh!!

I'm not so sure about the reciprocity. In India, the Indian nationals were being treated as badly as I was. I mean, my god, why does a passport have to be checked 5 or 6 times when exiting India by every other armed guard? I have stood in immigration lines coming into the US and it was nothing like the process I saw in India. It seemed almost as difficult to get out of India as to get in.

Likewise, in the Philippines guys from the UK, Europe and other countries that I knew had to go through the same BS as us Americans.

Talent has nothing to do with it - until a company is burned and a bunch of unmaintainable code with variable names like "foo" and Class names like public UtilityClassThatDoesEverything, which is full of memory leaks is crashing the servers every day or 2.

Then they call in the people with real talent and pay decent salaries. Or they hire consultants and contractors to fix the mess.

Talent does matter. It just takes some companies a little time to learn that doing things correctly with talented people often is a lot better strategyin the long run than hiring based on the lowest prevailing wage.