In short, Java was invented for a reason, and while it has become a victim of legacy cruft as well, the underlying concept of truly portable apps, with a minimum of fuss to jump from platform to platform, still ought to be the preferable path. The problem is that that true platform neutrality/ambiguity pretty much kills Microsoft in all but a few niches, like gaming, but only because hardware vendors put less effort into drivers for other operating systems.

Yes, Office is still king, although I think that crown is beginning to slip, and it may end up being Excel, with its large list of features, that may last the longest. But it isn't 1990, or even 2000 anymore. Developers have multiple ways of developing portable applications, and while MS may (for the nth time) update or swap out its toolchains, the real question is will developers really care?

Good to know.

Good to know

Are you sure they avoid dropping to normal human speech because you are there? Seriously dude, you're a pill.

Exactly who do you think is on those boards? It's not the guys in the stockroom. A meeting might have some Adimirals/Generals, Industry CEOs Educational directors, oftentimes a smattering of Division heads. Presentations, might be from Division heads, Engineers, accountants.

But that's not the point of "Boards and groups". The point is that all groups have grouptalk. Engineers and programmers have all manner of it, usually a lot of Acronyms and Initialisms. Accountants, Military, politicians. The same with the C-Suite. But you have to be able to drop to "normal" speech.

Perhaps my BODs and CEO positions are unique, along with every person on them. And it sounds like those you have sat on are dishonest, and probably doomed to failure. I've called out things before, from polite disagreement, maybe asking for clarification in English, to telling the person they are full of shit. Haven't been fired or removed just yet. Some spouting bullshit have.

We can and do drop to CEOspeak if you want to call it that, but that is only public facing.

Now if someone comes into a meeting and claims their product "is the action engine that goes beyond answers to execute tasks, automate workflows, and extend your human reach." They'll be asked to define what an action engine is, if their company is part of actionengine.com (might want to make certain you aren't infringing here Manus) What manner of questions does their product answer, what are the "tasks" it executes, what workflows it automates, and what does human reach mean. Is it physical, or metaphorical.

Point is someone who comes in like that will find out quickly they might as well explain themselves in plain English, or else be grilled to discomfort and understanding they were wasting valuable time.

Seems like your experience was rather limited compared to mine. For my part, as CEO of two successful corporations, Vice CEO of another, and sitting on five advisory boards and Boards of Directors, I've been around a bit. For my CEO work, People weren't allowed to spew bullshit like "Manus is the action engine that goes beyond answers to execute tasks, automate workflows, and extend your human reach." They would be stopped - usually kindly reminded that there were all manner of disciplines here, so simple English would be appreciated. They don't get upbraided unless they persist.

Engineers using acronyms and initialisms are asked to define them the first time, then they can drop to the terms for expediency (that should be done regardless, reference Engineering presentation 101) Anyhow, you do you, I'll do me. And as my boss once told someone who was trying to bullshit me "Probably not a good thing to do that - never bullshit a bullshitter"

This is so true, so true.

And it's not even US specific. In the wake of the Ukraine war, German parliament voted to give itself 100 billion of additional taxpayer money (i.e. debt) to spend on defense. Recently a report came out of all the money spent so far, 90% did not go towards the intended purpose.

Why any of the jokers in charge of our governments are still not in jail baffles me more and more every year. Oh yes, it's because they make the rules, sorry, my bad.

That's what campaign donations get you, if they are large enough.

This is why congress occasionally bullies the big tech companies. We all think they might want to have some regulation or to punish them. Oh sweetie... they're saying "nice company you have there... would be a shame if something happened to it..."

That really depends on the type of work one has to do. For me, for example, AI is quite helpful (if frustrating at times) because I have to be a jack of all trades and know a shitload of different systems, but that also makes me a master of none. So I am not able to keep all the details about all the different systems in my head, but I still know enough to either do the job reasonably well but slow without the AI, or do my work quickly with the help of an AI and still know when it screws up.

The best time to leave github was when the evil empire bought it. The second best time is now.

Seriously. Anyone who thought MS wouldn't fuck it up in the same way they fuck up everything they touch can't be helped. It's Microsoft for crying out loud.

If the reality does not fit with your narrative, just write what you wrote.

Beancounter think. Yes, you can increase profits for the quarter if you gut the place. We were taken over by the bean counters where I retired from.

What was once an accounting office with 3 people, ended up becoming the largest group in the place. They gutted overhead, sucking it all up to pay themselves. I was mandated to travel to conferences at least once every other year. I couldn't perform the mandate, because there was no more overhead money.

Crazy thing was, my mandate didn't go away. I asked how the bloody hell I was supposed to do that. Boss mumbled something about taking quizzes online.

I forced the issue be during the self analysis part of the yearly review, that I had not perform a mandated activity for three years, and should be terminated for refusing direct orders. Gosh did they have to do a tap-dance.

So the bean counters pretty much destroyed the place. new innovations were not implemented, and we were falling behind. Meanwhile, they embedded a bean counter within each group, and were still agitating for more. I made a joke that we were going to have a 6 figure accountant hired to keep track of 5000 dollars of pencils. And then....

At the same time I was personally performing our groups finances and credit cards.

so? this should never happen.
whatever the reasons this is Category 5 Grade A incompetence.
the goddam Pentagon has FAILED 8 audits in a row.
i guess we can blame all that on DEI and everything will be rosy now that the Whites are back in charge.

https://www.ibm.com/history/th...
"An ad hoc lecture [from 1915] from IBMâ(TM)s future CEO spawned a slogan to guide the company through a century and beyond"

https://humancenteredlearning....
"And we must study through reading, listening, discussing, observing and thinking. We must not neglect any one of those ways of study. The trouble with most of us is that we fall down on the latter -- thinking -- because it's hard work for people to think. And, as Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler said recently, 'all of the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think.' (Thomas Watson, IBM)"

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/...
"All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work. (Nicholas Murray Butler, often misattributed to Thomas J. Watson)"

So, yeah, echoing your point, make programmers do the hardest parts of their job all the time -- especially reviewing code from inconsistent-to-put-it-politely AI contributors -- and no wonder they feel "fried".

Does AI support for programming need to be this way? I might hope not, but we are also mainly hearing about AI used within a short-term-profit-maximizing hyper-competitive corporate social context. Like I say in my sig: "The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity."

Wanna know how badly Apple sucked? I had a Magic Mouse go dead. I got on the phone with Cupertino. After convincing them it was a legitimate defect,at 5 p.M, they had one at my doorstep at 9 the next morning - California to PA. Their only request was to send the old one back prepaid so they could do a postmortem.

I had a bluetooth problem with my headphones. I'm rather deaf. After posting on their support section, I got an unexpected phone call in 15 minutes. I dunno if text sent an alert, but one of their support people hopped on that, and we fixed it pronto.

They prepaid my trade in of an Intel iMac for a new M4 Mac, and I got several hundred dollars trade in.

I always like to contrast Apples worst in class support with me having a in warranty problem with my kid's laptop a few years ago. (forget the brand) The "service desk" handed me a Xerox copy for me to walk the whole way through it.

Sucks to own a Mac.

"Why the fuck would anyone buy a modern car?"
I hear you. I haven't owned a car in a very long time but have been thinking of getting one.
I used to tell myself it would be an EV or a hybrid but now i think i'll get something much older and if i want to go electric, i'll convert it myself

I hate to disagree, but there is a huge difference between conceptualization and marketing. But you realize you are saying that Apple would be where it is at today with a marketing person as CEO.

Marketing people might be able to sell refrigerators to inuits, but someone needs to come up with concept and direction. I've been involved with marketeers for a long time. They pitch products, not conceptualize, design or built them.

So much this.

While it doesn't fit the standard Slashdot meme of the CEO as worthless psychopath, there is a value, and an ability that goes with the work. Being a CEO in two organizations, and now interacting with them in my present position, I have to say I work my ass off to keep things running. I get called asshole at times, and sometimes people have to just trust me - it's my career on the line - but it isn't the fever dream people have about the position.

Also this. Wozniak was Wozniak. And Jobs was Jobs. They had an important synergy. But without Jobs, Woz would almost certainly be as you described.