I wish I had mod points to downvote such a negative and bigoted post. From the viewpoint that you wrote, it sounds like you are not a programmer yourself but look from the outside in. I'm actually quite sorry that you've only run into the bad programmers out there (and the implication that you've never met a good one). More likely than not, I'm inclined to believe that you just weren't able to appreciate the good ones. There's a mix of good and bad out there. Different people have different strengths and making sure that the programmers with the right skills are doing the right job is usually not the responsibility of the programmers themselves but of HR and management. So, when you're mad that the programmer making the UI for something isn't a good UI designer, remember to place some of that blame on the party that hired them or the manager that isn't evaluating the strengths/weaknesses of his employees. Something to also remember since you seem to not be a programmer yourself is that what seems easy to you is often the most complicated stuff to implement. Programmers are not monkeys, but problem solvers. You give a programmer a problem to solve and they let you know what they see as the easiest/most scalable/best longterm (all depending on the goals that they are trying to accomplish) solution. If you have no respect for them, then go find someone that you do respect to solve your problem. It's difficult to work with people that you don't respect and if you're being difficult, then you can't blame the programmer then can you? You're going to have to at least share the blame for problems that occur when you contribute to the issues.

Most of the funding is provided by US tax payers in the form of grants to Universities. Drug companies perform a very small fraction of the R&D that goes into the drugs they hold patents on. Universities then sell the patents generated by their students to these drug companies for fractions of the R&D costs to us taxpayers. Drug companies spend most of their budgets on marketing...commercials...sending reps to Doctor Offices to give them samples/tell them about the drugs/push them to use the drug in lieu of other solutions (wife's personal experience).

AFAIK that's actually disputed evidence. I don't think we have a clear picture of what actually happened there. What IS clear, however, is that Mark took that concept and ran with it and created something that worked. AFTER it was successful, we have these accusers claiming that because they were in on the idea, that they should get to reap the profits of the EFFORT that Mark put in. A social networking site was NOT even close to an original idea. Even the individual features Facebook had were not original. Facebook worked hard to put together a complete package and market it better than their competitors. The end result is that Facebook became what it is because of work and adaptation, not an idea. Granted, ideas are important, but ideas themselves are only a piece of the puzzle.

Assuming the paying customers stick around. GP is stating that he may or may not have even had those customers without the free-loaders.

I'm actually considered the most stubborn of all the developers here. As the 2nd most senior and 2nd highest paid, i still am expected to take as much bullshit as my more senior counterpart (who is technically my boss, but since this is a small company, the CEO loves micromanaging). Thanks for the advice however lol. I am working on getting a job where I'm treated a little less like trash.

Oddly enough...I am :) My wife and I recently decided that it was just plain a good time to move on (after the review). I just recently started posting my resume and am looking. Thanks for the affirmation though. I was just posting my personal experience to supplement the parent comment.

I've been out of school for about 4 years now and already see that attitude. My company highly values the work I do (probably because I come very cheap compared to what it would cost to replace me) because I've adapted to the bullshit that has gone on here for four years. I'm already working an average of 50-60 hours a week, but my last review from my boss was "I need you to be available more". My jaw pretty much dropped to the floor. I'm salaried at way under my paygrade and have been a workhorse for the past few years just making the things that others break work and spending my evenings for the company. All the company has to say is "You're not doing enough". Damned companies.

claiming my comment

This...this will probably be the best way to determine whether or not these new implements confer an advantage. If athletes are willing to put their own bodies on the line to win because they feel that getting these blades will help, then we know what we're looking at. Right now, it's really hard to tell it seems...at least from the outside looking in.

I think the point might be that it would just cost more money in the end.

On the other hand, you would have an arms race - the companies would begin to pay more to outpace the regulatory body and the body would have to come up with more money as the whole thing spiraled...not sure it is a feasible solution...

There's also a question of who would be unable to afford the cost first - government or industry?

So what you're saying is, you think the early adopter stage is gone...whereas GP thinks the early adopter stage is currently going on...sounds like you're trolling him...his main point was not that we're in the early adopter stage, but that it's difficult to tell where exactly that middle ground is. While I agree with you that we're probably fast approaching that middle ground or there potentially, I think it's arrogant to argue that you can see that we're there already. Leave that for history to decide when we look back in 5-10 years with a slightly more clear picture. Regarding the IPv6 "bugs"...Unless he's referring to the general issue of lack of anonymity built into IPv6 (due to unique IP addresses), I myself would like to know what bugs he is referring to... Regardless, the general tone of your post I felt was extremely out of line and uncalled for, no matter my own personal standing on the matter. Maybe you felt affronted by the charges that he made of the IT guy trying to pad his resume or the Manager spiel, but I didn't really see those as intentional slaps - just exaggerations based off of his personal experiences intended to narrate (remember that high school English class where you learned about hyperbole?).

Agreed. I'm a Vocal music major. I've been working as a programmer for 3 years now and am now one of the senior programmers due to what I have done rather than my qualifications.

Queue theory...one of the oddest choices for a topic to cover in operating systems class in college, but the most intriguing and useful thing I ever got out of all of my classes - honestly probably the only thing that I use day to day that I learned in class and not from teaching myself. The concept of analyzing a process that can be described with a queue (such as a datacenter or the telephone operators) and then finding an efficient means of handling the queue, including managing desirable wait times and total time in queue is incredibly applicable in corporate environments. Personally, I think queue theory would probably be more useful to business people than most of the other things that they teach them.

Someone doesn't have a sense of humor...Parent should be modded funny, not troll. At worst it's at BP's expense and maybe less funny, but sounds to me like it was intended as a joke.

Someone already mentioned that this stream is broadcast with flash. There are actually some flash-based versions of multicast type technologies...I remember an octoshape(?) that was used to enable the broadcast of President Obama's swear-in over CNN if I remember correctly. There are also features built in to version 10+ of flash that basically make the above-mentioned structure possible. Needless to say, I will be happy to leave this coding house for a job where I don't have to code in the Flash world. Why did we ever as a society let marketing departments be in charge of ANYTHING??!!??!?