... if you are a touch typist you don't have to think about the typing - you can think about the programming instead.

Yeah, but the IBM / Microsoft collaboration on OS/2 worked out so well what could possibly go wrong with this?

Yeah, that will give the Android platform a good reputation.

They can make it work better with their hardware or network. The danger is changing it in ways that makes it incompatible with applications that run fine on other phones.

Modify access? Absolutely not. Read access? Yes.

Because who is management going to run to at 3:00 in the morning when something isn't working? Not the system administrator - the developer. Let them see the logs. Let them see what files/versions/timestamps were deployed. Let them see what else is running on the box. And let them do it without giving instructions over the phone to some admin who is sharing their console over GoToMeeting or something. Or this is going to take all freaking night.

As a side note, how many times has a developer been dragged in to troubleshoot why "their program quit working" only to find that the real problem was something like OS updates were applied without being tested, or a new virus scanner was installed, or system X was installed on the same box?

he leaves behind a next-generation iPad.

I'm 40 years old. It was obvious to me from the beginning (even before college) that being a programmer meant being on a treadmill of continous learning and "keeping up". That was actually part of the appeal - it was never going to get boring. Always something new to learn and figure out. I know people who do treat it as a "job". They've been COBOL programmers for who knows how many decades, working on the same accounting and payroll systems. Yuck.

I also understood early on that ANY salary position means you'll be expected to get the job done regardless of how many hours it takes - you don't punch a clock when you're salary. There is nothing about that peculiar to programming or IT. And unless you want to get into management, very few companies know how to create a decent career path for technical people of ANY kind. My brother is an electrician and is facing the same thing - he can either manage other electricians or continue to climb the electrical polls himself. He became an electrician because he enjoys doing the eletrical work, not because he was following a career path. Same for me and programming.

Please mark postings like this with SPOILER alerts!