In the Philippines during the 80s, they used to do the same thing for TV. I lived in one of the 7106 islands and our TV is late for 1 week, since after each day, all the recording from Manila (the capital) are shipped and it arrives on or before 7 days. So we would offset 7 days when there are airing schedules of movies / shows.

Oracle's BPEL is exactly for this revolution, where in you can drag around existing services, translate different format, add user task user interfaces and more. The problem is, there is always a little change that is needed, that you end up creating a complex workaround that makes it not worth it.

It's funny because it's true.

I'm working on Java project for 10 years + and just now I had a project that requires some Excel VBA work, which I realized this is more important to business users than your JEE applications. Big enterprise application would requires $$$ for any small change that business user really need. Not to mention needing at least 3 people to accomplish (developer, tester and admin); and don't forget the manager. So if the only objective is to let people be productive with their basic coding skills and will be able to use it in their careers outside of Software Engineering, I would also recommend learning a bit of VBA.

So if I did that, then what next? Me suing them? That would cost money that I don't have.

Been hearing a lot of this story all the time, whether if it's the apple garage, or that guy getting declined by facebook and started a new company, or if it's this teenager who got bought out by yahoo... it's inspiring but is rarely really true. I confirmed it when one of my former boss went public and earned billions in one day. I read the news about it and it's the same pattern, it mentioned that this guy started working for a fastfood company and finally ended up earning billions in his tech IPO. But the true story is, this guy was already rich. His parents are already sits on the board of larger companies.Further, he started tens of startups that failed, and he then gets some funding again from his parents and siblings.

The bottom line, the key to success (I mean earning billions), is not working hard or have a great idea, the key is to have a rich family, because having rich friends is not enough. If you are poor but have a great idea, your rich "friends" will just steal it, they have money to spend on legal fees so they don't mind. Lastly, success is a lot like the lottery, you have to keep on trying till you hit the jackpot. And you have to have money to burn. Some of us win, most do not, but those who won, would not give credit to luck. They will tell that they had a system on betting, or they kept a number of years...

Lastly, I had a good (not great) idea before, and was invited by a TELCO company to demo it. After the demo, they simple ignored it and asked me if I had other ideas, and after some time, I saw an app just like mine in the appstore, with the screenshots showing the profile pic of the guy I demoed it to.

True Story

My experience with the software development industry outside of the googles and facebooks, is that only very few knows how to program. So usually, there will be a dedicated team to create frameworks and tools to be used by 90% of the team. Sure, it gives the 90% less exposure on the real engineering side of software development, but it's their choice really. For most of them, their goal is just to climb the ladder and finally become managers. Also, these guys are the ones running around talking shit and taking credit for all that little things they accomplish. Bottom line, it's the industry's fault, for only paying attention to the management, which again is composed of that 90% I mentioned.

Heisenberg knows meth than math.

I'm seeing a lot of people getting into startups, not only in the US but the rest of the world. My facebook feed is filled with my friends founding a startup. And some of my previous bosses are funding startups.

However, the problem I am seeing though, is most of these startups is not the next Tesla or doing something innovative, they are just trying to create a new social media app or some new game. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but my opinion is that startups should be about trying to solve a problem. Just like friendster, it got created because the guy just broke up with his girl and wants a way to easily find dates.

On a side note, given this flood of startups, why is it still hard to find a software development job that gives a decent pay? Can it be that these new startup trend is just another way to get people to write code real cheap?

I'm imagining this scenario.

Start Up Boss : Hey you want to join a startup that is like mashable but only better?
Guy : Yeah cool... <and starts coding some HTML5 stuff and JavaScript.> Here boss all done!
Start Up Boss : Wow cool. You know, it would be better if we can integrate this with some legacy code. Since, you are so awesome, can you write me some services to communicate with our mainframe application preferably using json.
Guy: Yeah I can do that... <starts keyboarding some codes>.. ALL DONE BOSS!!! Take note, I've done all this stuff and got time for 2 hours of sleep. I'm really awesome.
Start Up Boss : Cool! Here's your first month's paycheck for 2K. However, there's some new direction that our startup is taking and we need to let you go.

If your phone is new and probably made with Gorilla glass, it won't scratch it. I tried scratching my old Samsung Galaxy S2 with a key, screwdriver and a knife and found out I was duped into buying those screen protectors.

I have IT friends from various consulting firms that are still using COBOL or RPG, they seem to be like fan boys telling me that no new technology could ever replace the mainframe. They told me that some big credit card company before, tried to migrate their application to a Unix/JEE but failed. And they told me failed migration from mainframe is happening everywhere and all industries. My guess is the system that was migrated to is already very stable, and migration would introduce bugs that may cause manager to dismiss the migration. So my question is, if for example you start an new project, what instances where it is still best to use COBOL/RPG?

Good that they are actually intending to use the cure, instead of having to go through that whole "Sandman, Viper command...", "Viper command this is Sandman.." wind shear thing.

No more points, but very funny!

they still have DB2, Websphere etc. which I think is as widely used as Oracle products.

I was forced to use Windows 8 because it's packaged in my new laptop, and a change in OS means I need to spend more money. So I gave it a try but I never liked it. I think, I might get used to it, if all the PCs I use (home/office/remote) are all Windows 8. If MS wants everybody to like Windows 8, they should have killed all other versions that uses the START button. i.e. Windows Update that automatically disables the start menu for Windows XP to Windows 7. Then everybody will be forced to grow accustomed to it.