Comment Will it influence work? (Score 1) 333

by ctrahey on Sunday November 11, 2012 @12:04AM (#41947455) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Developer Or Software Engineer? Can It Influence Your Work?

Thanks for all the feedback so far; I'm quite happy about the quality of this discussion. Avoiding for now the perhaps unavoidable consideration of legality, I'm interested in hearing about the influence the title decision might have on how the talent actually performs their work. To what degree does the choice influence the technical culture? How do the roles contrast when both are present on a team in cultural and technical terms where you work? If I'm being frank about the question, it goes like this: Will a young developer start to think about their work more robustly if I tell them that that we are grooming them for Software Engineering vs. Software Development?

Submission + - Developer or Software Engineer? Can it influence your work? (metaltoad.com)

Submitted by ctrahey on Friday November 09, 2012 @06:36PM

ctrahey writes: Many of us disregard the impact of our titles on various aspects of our lives, both professional and otherwise. Perhaps it's appropriate to ask two questions about the difference between a couple titles familiar to the ./ community: Developer vs Software Engineer.

What are the factors to consider in the appropriate use of the titles?
(more interesting to me), what influence might the use of these titles have on the written code?

Have you observed a difference in attitudes, priorities, or outlooks in talent as a corollary to their titles?

Can We Legislate Past the H.264 Debate? 310

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday May 09, 2010 @11:23AM from the presuming-a-lot-about-our-legislators dept.

Midnight Warrior writes "We could solve the H.264 debate if a country's legislature were to mandate that any patents that contribute to an industry-recognized standard were unenforceable in the application of that standard. Ideally, each standard would also be required to have a 'reference design' that could be used without further licensing. This could also solve problems with a ton of other deeply entrenched areas like hard drives, DRAM, etc. RAND tries to solve this strictly within industry, but both the presence of submarine patents and the low bar required to obtain a patent have made an obvious mess. Individual companies also use patent portfolios to set up mutually assured destruction. I'm not convinced that industry can solve this mess that government created. But I'm not stupid; this clearly has a broad ripple effect. Are there non-computer industries where this would be fatal? What if the patents were unenforceable only if the standard had a trademark and the implementer was compliant at the time of 'infringement'? Then, the patents could still be indirectly licensed, but it would force strict adherence to standards and would require the patent holders to fund the trademark group to defend it to the end. In the US model, of course."

Comment Re:Sure, if you go back far enough... (Score 1) 472

by ctrahey on Monday May 03, 2010 @09:54AM (#32071774) Attached to: IE Market Share Falls To Historic Low

It's just a freaking html viewer.

And your javascript compiler & runtime. And your layout engine.

Comment Re:or they could you know...spend less money? (Score 1) 305

by ctrahey on Friday March 26, 2010 @03:22PM (#31630902) Attached to: 10% Tax On Custom Software, $100M Tax Cut For Microsoft

first cut should always be to government offices furniture budgets, then look at the "perks" elected officials get and cut those

That's like saying that we can aide our energy problems by using less energy. Yeah, right.

Comment Re:I don't want to feed the trolls but... (Score 1) 353

by ctrahey on Tuesday October 13, 2009 @09:11AM (#29730839) Attached to: Major Snow Leopard Bug Said To Delete User Data

Since the Guest account obviously has access to the Admin account's home directory somehow, this does expose a deeper security flaw.

It's not *access* to the admin user directory. Perhaps the cause is that there is a bit setting somewhere that is marked when a guest logs in that says "Erase my Home DIrectory". If the bug happens only after a hard reboot back into the admin account, the system likely mistakes the setting as having been applied to the "current" account, and the setting persists the hard reboot (like in PRAM or something). This does not indicate that a guest has any access to anything he/she shouldn't.

Comment First comes "Embrace", Then comes... (Score 1) 769

by ctrahey on Saturday March 07, 2009 @01:33AM (#27102443) Attached to: GM Cornered Into Defending the Volt

I Call EEE

Comment Re:The Support and Training Issue (Score 1) 323

by ctrahey on Friday February 27, 2009 @06:00PM (#27017573) Attached to: Open Source In Public K-12 Schools?

After all, they cannot teach their students that which they themselves do not know.

You don't work in K-12, do you?

Comment Re:What is really wrong with trains? (Score 1) 299

by ctrahey on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @08:39PM (#26806767) Attached to: Two Big Tests For Personal Rapid Transportation

Yes, but count tonnage per passenger and I think you'll find the cars are a lot worse for efficiency, so the accelerating and stopping per passenger is a lot worse for the personal vehicles.

So, we should look for something that weighs about as much as a bicycle?

These are convenient only for places they go, as well.

So, we should look for something as nimble as a pedestrian?

the only thing they have going for them is being electric instead of fuel

The only thing better would be if it used some energy source that was already in use all around, maybe it could even tap into the extra calories Americans consume everyday and help us keep healthy? And, as long as we're dreaming, it should cost $0.00 for infrastructure. Damn, if only such a solution was realistic. Anyway, I gotta go, I've been looking forward to my bike ride home all day. Maybe on my way I can try to solve this dilemma.

Slashdot Top Deals