I would argue that a Software Engineer's role encompasses that of a Developer, as they are generally can also be expected to handle design (high and low level), testing (functional, unit, system), along with the writing of code. A Developer tends to fit the image of the guy with the keyboard cranking out code - software engineering is so much more than that. In fact, it is estimated that a Software Engineer will only spend 20% of the time actually writing code - due to the other responsibilities.

My son and I (on my Windows partition) have been users of the free version of AVG since 2006. We are both currently running Windows XP, and am glad that AVG continues to support it along with newer flavors of Windows. Free AVG is the download site, and it also includes ad blocking and other features.

From a SciFi perspective, I' still love Larry Niven - almost everything he's written. Of course, Ringworld is still the ultimate.

Alan Dean Foster (who novelized the Animated Star Trek series), has a set of novels revolving around Philip Lynx (Flinx) and his minidrag - Pip. His lesser known series is more fantasy based - Spellsinger...

My employer also has such a policy. It even goes to covering things in business areas that they might get involved in.

One thing I have learned is that while they have the right of first refusal, if they choose not to pursue the idea, I can ask to have it reassigned back to me and pursue on my own. That might be your only option, assuming what you're pursuing doesn't compete with your current employer.

Wasn't this the premise for the last Transformers movie ( Transformers: Dark of the Moon ) due out on video soon (or already available)?? Sure sounds like a publicity stunt for the movie to me.

OK, I'm confused.

The FCC chose to re-implement rules that were already struck down by federal courts. By re-implementing something that the courts have viewed as outside the power of the FCC, it could be argued that this is a power grab. The proposed law, promised to be vetoed, is Congress' attempt to define the role that the FCC has - and codify what was already ruled upon by the courts.

Why should the FCC have the power?

Problem solving in the real world that is.

Problem: how to predict the water flow over different shaped nuclear fuel rods
Approach:

• a) build many differently shaped fuel rods; measure water flow
• b) use algorithms from Computational Fluid Dynamics to model/simulate

Solution: which approach gives the easiest way to tweek a shape?

Problem: Predicting weather
Approach:

• a) have multiple weather stations reporting data, manually predict based on previous experiences and limited algorithmic models
• b) use same data and have very complex mathematical algorithmic model(s) that represent weather where each of the inputs is a different variable, calculate results

Solution: refining the model used in b is easier as it is much more fine grain

Very few people work in pure Computer Science.

jerry

So for $89K you get an electric vehicle that doesn't go as far as the Chevy Volt (which costs $40K)? As a hybrid, it gets the equivalent of 20MPG? I thought the goal of the electric car was to do better than the gasoline powered vehicles. Tesla at least is all electric and has that wow factor. What was the business model that allowed the US Government to invest $500+M??

I find it interesting that Warren Buffet is more than willing to pay more - nothing has stopped him as there is a section on the tax form to voluntarily contribute more.

Maybe if he paid himself a salary commensurate with his income as opposed to the $100K annually he gets - he'd actually be impacted by what the president proposes. Instead, he collects his income from capital gains (taxed at 15%). Of course, if he paid himself a comparable salary, then he'd also have to pay SS+Medicare.

On the other hand, his company (Berkshire Hathaway), has been locked in a 10yr fight with the IRS as to how much money they should pay. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-suporter-warren-buffetts-co-hasnt-paid-some-taxes-since-2002/

I work in the HPC field where codes are constantly being ported from one OS/hw to another - it could be the same OS on different hw or a different OS on the same hw. Of course the weirdest port is when it's to a completely different OS and hw combination. Optimization in my case is efficient memory utilization along with fast performance - made even harder by hw constraints (32 bit v 64 bit) or the lack of Virtual Memory support in the OS - which constrains the application to the physical memory. Squeezing every "ounce" of performance is mission critical to the HPC application. Getting the right answer seconds/minutes/hours later than another platform makes slower platform non-competative. Hand optimization of certain codes may be able to get the "lost" performance back - but without understanding that compilers don't always generate the best code, and that scientists writing the code are generally not CompSci folks means that making an application run faster/better/more efficiently is generally possible, if the extra effort is applied.

As long as your target is current hw/sw, then being able to use 8-12 core machines as build engines is nice. Unfortunately, commercial customers don't upgrade as often as one would like, so supporting older versions of the OS is generally required. Depending on the OS, it may/may not run on recent hardware, which limits what kind of build machines you can actively support. Most hw/sw vendors provide backwards compatibility (something compiled on Solaris 8 runs on 9, 10, 11), but you should never count on forward compatibility (something compiled on Solaris 9 is all but guaranteed NOT to run on Solaris 8).

Obviously you've never been involved with Enterprise level software construction. Most folks refer to it as 'build', but I'm a fan of Steve McConnell's term - software construction. Large applications that support multiple platforms can take a long time to build - especially if you're doing binaries and not Java bytecode. Scratch builds (ie, directly from source) are the way to guarantee that the code in the repository is the code that produces the product, but it's not economically feasible to have product dedicated build machines - from a space/utilization perspective. That means that build machines are shared resources - and that makes scratch builds even slower. In industry, large projects/products are the norm - not the exception.

I have a BS/MS from brick-n-mortar schools, and a PhD from an on-line institution. This institution got caught up in the "diploma mill" congressional hearings several years ago, and has since gone belly up :-( I can tell you from personal experience that I worked *harder* getting my on-line degree than I did on either of the two earlier degrees. Granted, I was a working professional pursuing the degree this time around, rather than a single, straight from high school, student.

I wasn't saddled with heavy debt, but the fact that the institution I attended required you to pay for the entire degree in the first 10 months was there as an incentive to actually do the work required. They also had an additional fee for every month past their expectation that you didn't finish. The goal was to get you to complete. Unfortunately, since the degree is non-accredited, I cannot use it as proof to any local Universities if I want to be an Adjunct Faculty.

Having the additional degree did help me get my present position.

• BS Computer Science (Univ of South Carolina - 1983)
• MCS Computer Science (Texas A&M University - 1985)
• PhD Computer Science (Kennedy-Western University - 2002)

jerry