They don't any more. At most startup companies they can't afford a typical bureaucratic IT department. Many use cloud hosting to avoid up-front cap-ex in terms of data centers and the people that work in them. Developers are typically managing their own servers, their own NOSQL cluster, they bring their own iPhones, gPhones, xPads, etc. People are becoming increasingly more comfortable with technology and old-school IT departments are no longer enablers, but barriers as their mindsets and their technology pale in comparison to the consumer sector.

This is sort of the problem with SETI. We will actually be checking if they had an advanced enough civilization that could broadcast into space... 600 years ago. We have only had electrical power generation for 130 years.

People like to pretend that CS grads are working on operating systems kernels and developing new algorithms, but the reality is that most people on a day-to-day basis are working on a typical line-of-business record keeping system with reports that used to be done in Excel.

I have a 7805 voltage regulator next to me right now that does a fine job of stepping 12V into 5V at up to 1A without a heat sink. And that was a very cheap component. I imagine that one can do a lot more with more money or volume.

If google operated under this kind of thinking, they would index 1/10000 of what they do today. This is why startups are choosing the cloud in favor of real data centers with real traditional IT people.

Actually not all. I'm using C++. While new() doesn't work, creating a static instance of a class and using references works awesome. It's amazing the level of complexity you shove into those atmel processors (I went with a teensy).

Did you catch today's lead story on the wall street journal? Apparently countries like China and India are commiting "economic espionage" and stealing our technology and ideas! I've never laughed so hard. It isn't stealing if you had them the keys!

I'll believe it when these functions quit working. The whole thing is still heavily based on the windows message pump and a HUGE legacy C API that does everything under the windows hood. On top of that there's a COM layer and on top of those there's now a .NET layer. But the foundation is still the same 9 gazillion C calls and WM_ messages.

Good call. Also outsourcing-proof and at least today the major H-1B & L-1 insourcing shops aren't targeting mechanics.

Finally, we'll have to quit making fun of the redhead cop every time he asks to zoom into a blurry license plate.

Complexity is required to make simplicity. In order to abstract out a complex problem into software, you need complex tools.

This is what happened to me once. I posted something negative about C vs C++ in the linux kernel and got modded down to terrible karma. Since all my posts are now -1 nobody reads them, so I never get modded up and can never leave terrible karma land. So I left for Digg. Great system we've got here.

Skip the database part altogether. Just focus on the domain model. Why do the work twice.