Precise estimates in my opinion are a farce. I found myself ritually padding my estimates by 20% just to add in a bit of time should things not functions. In some cases, this bought me time I could use on my own projects are just checking out the scenery at the companies I worked with (I love women). Other times, it bought the time I needed to complete what I did and fix unexpected problems which arose.

In any case. For personal projects and 'the engine'' type projects - things like Operating System work - having no estimates works out perfectly, right? With no deliverable other than increase performance and make the thing 'more fun' for you and others to drive and/or work with, it works out well.

If I were running Microsoft, for instance, I would throw some developers and pay community members to support prior versions of the OS - by tweaking and playing with what they want to - the goal of 'having fun' and working with community members - and convert incremental updates into a monetized subscription based revenue stream based on 'best of' releases' and services that can be offered for it. And ANYTIME I saw a new area to shift into with a truly revolutionary OS model - Virtual Reality offers precisely this game changing model , that's when I would throw my development staff into developing a new OS, and work with the community to plan out an upgrade path. This evolution would most definitely require deliverable dates and estimations, for the simple reason the community may be committed to the change.

Outside of Operating Systems though - for a real tangible deliverable. Estimates don't have to be evil. But they do make it easier for others inside and outside the organization to 'play nice with developers' - particularly in team based environments where there's clear dependencies.. Not only that, when dealing with customers, it's especially nice to have a solid timeline established for alpha/beta and release versions so the PR people talking to the community don't find themselves backtracking because of poor time management decisions..

It's a clever balance, right? But in my opinion, as a homeless guy I can easily function without dates and times because - let's face it - no one depends on me nor does anyone seem to really care. Now I burned out of IT because of mismanagement - I blame mostly myself. I am actually working on my own development project - and have created my 'realistic' personal development estimate to 7 years for development completion.

Now if I was dependent on money, which I am not and don't care about it anymore, or if I had any external pressures - that time for production might actually shorten. but now that i have 'all the time in the world' and NO financial responsibilities nor desires to enter the madness of the corporate world again, I can develop this project on MY timeline.

But to be sure. I STILL have dates and times for my own deliverable. To function without personal dates and times is an exercise in insanity in my opinion.

Not everything the NSA does is negative. Have you considered the NSA may have acted in the way it has to reinforce the development of our culture? It is, after all, protecting our assets, which is FAR more than just a simple revenue stream, and absolutely must include our national identity, individuality and the relative age of our culture.

Maybe they're dropping the relationships to avoid further influencing the younger United States culture and brands any more than it already has. Or maybe their hand was forced by the actions of the NSA.

You never know. But to label every change as bad is not a great habit to be in.

On a secondary note. I kinda like the concept of the Borg Queen. Only not so ugly and mean. Seven of Nine I think would make a fantastic evolution of the Borg Queen. Provided she likes sex.

So what you're saying is - Skynet can be likened to the mind of one man, who may have been a misunderstood programmer who flat out didn't want to get any fatter than he already was, and you believe that the Borg - potentially cells within this man's very body - is a preferential for, of life based on 'democracy' and expansionism within that man ultimately consuming the host they're within.

AS for not imagining an alpha.

Let's draw you an analogy. The fire's burning and the fireman show up. Who takes the hose and directs it at the fire?

Or do you prefer just turning the hose on and banging around until it puts the fire out?

I can't get over how ignorant you can be sometimes.

That or you are Skynet, otherwise known as the collective mind of the Borg.

Speaking in defense of development staff.

I have about 30 years of IT experience, my last roles as Director and Senior Architect with about 20% of my time doing demo code and helping management understand the technology.

I will say this about developers: More often than not - no matter where I go and who I deal with around the world - whether you're an Indian developer, from Romania, Russia, a former hacker form the Ukraine, a corporate drone type in China, a former employee from Seattle and Microsoft, or a guy from Arkansas - my experience has been that about 10% of developers are truly bad at what they do - BUT I learned a massive lesson - THE INDUSTRY AND WORLD NEEDS THEM!

In my experience, THESE bad developers RARELY effect the end product, what truly effects the end production is simple mismanagement of the organization - which almost felt intentional at times.

I say felt because I have spent 3 years homeless, waiting for the Holodeck Programmer position to open up.

In any case. What makes an end product bad is a lack of awareness and consideration of the customer's needs.

Developers - working from bad requirements by analysts and project managers who work more to preserve their own jobs than they do actually being beneficial - do not seem to understand nor want to consider the various customers on a project and what they may need.

It's subjective, right? But developers are rarely treated 'as customers' - and it shows - because most people fail to take the time to 'get to know how a programmer thinks and works - and this leads directly to the poor implementation of the code.

The 'bad programmers' within a team make us laugh, smile, ease the work situation. Their lack of productivity or introduction makes us feel better about ourselves, they can frustrate us a developers, they can piss management off to no end with they way they work (or not). They are typically social clowns or the 'hot chick' programmer added because she wants to learn and male dominated programming teams need a woman in their midst.

What portion at like this? I'd say 10% maybe up to 20% if the unemployed and underemployed like myself weren't shooed at.

I am not the greatest developer in the world. I enjoy what I do. But I'm homeless because I care more about living life than I do perceived 'productivity'

I wasn't always this way. I had one consultant who we talked about for years after he left - for three months he took long lunches, hit on all the women at work, and quite literally changed code by adding 'spaces and tabs' throughout the code.

We laughed for years on that one.

And I took note on a more engaging and fun way of operating in life in general from that man. '

Disney wasn't lying. It truly is a small world. The Eagles weren't lying either. Some dance to remember.

I do wonder if those six people realize they are just one being who's actually suffering from multiple personality disorder.

In any case. it's easy enough blocking him(her/it/them? ((whatever)

No real conspiracy, here, just boredom on the receiving end, as I KNOW thy got better in them than this trash!

News "PROGRAMS" are either acting ignorant or are flat out ignorant.

I am reading "The Onion" as a news sources, because - let's be honest. It's more straight up and believable than the 'news' portrayed on the likes of cnn.com, bbc.com, foixnews.com and so on. Heck, I have even gone so far to change my 'hosts' file to point these news sites to 127.0.0.1, with an nginx server set up and a blank page coming up for these sites (as well as a slew of ad based sites, it's an easy way to ban 'em and speed up web sites).

In any case. As news 'programs', I have the distinct feeling that they do not understand reality is shaped by ideas, ideas which those embracing the ideas - as an individual or a collective - can - and in the case of this garbage - are rejecting.

The fact of the matter is - what these news sites are doing is providing these people free publicity. Whether or not you ascribe to the belief that there are multiple universes out there, as I do, and these glimpses of 'the world out there' is nothing more than a single slice of what's out there, the fact of the matter is - it's both irresponsible - and downright ignorant to think that this stuff needs to be promoted.

Now I also have to ask - WHERE is the real journalism? Every news story sounds like it's written by the same author. Every news story publicizes the same things. You cross reference site to site and it's the same stories. Over and over again.

This ain't news. It doesn't even remotely resemble it.

This is a feeble attempt to indoctrinate - to program the public - and nothing more.

I trust my data with me :-)

There you go again, you dastardly robots! Blaming it on pilot error when it was your technology which crashed it!

I get it. Push the blame elsewhere! My ex wife used to do the same thing! ... hmmmm... .now things are starting to make sense. If I had only known! I might have stuck it out.

That explains the spot on Fran Drescher impersonation....

I lived for 30 years in Phoenix, just moved away 2 years ago. Evap coolers are nonexistent. Makes the air too humid for most computing equipment, and doesn't lower the temperature sufficiently enough to maintain coolness when the doors are opened.

Nice try though, but you selling this as 'new technology' is like trying to sell cow dung to a dairy farmer.

Good thing ya aint a marketing person for this company. You'd have made absolutely no sales with this *cough* bullshit *cough*!

LOL!

My thoughts, EXACTLY!

Clearly nothing more than a 'respin' of old - and highly obsolete - technology known as "Evaporative Cooling", I wonder if these brain dead 'inventors' actually consider we have access to our past memories and the same databases they do ..

Secondly, it's kind of funny. Whether it's manufactured by hand or through a 3d printing apparatus, it's still (as you said) *cough* bullshit *cough*.

I'm giving you a BIG HUGE thumbs up for being the first to call it like it is, and I do hope you get scored higher because of it!

Loves this!

My advice is to wait til they are of age, then ask them to marry you..