58965973
submission
msmoriarty writes:
According to a recent survey of 1,000 U.S.-based software developers, 56 percent expect to become millionaires in their lifetime. 66 percent also said they expect to get raises in the next year, despite the current state of the economy. Note that some of the other findings of the study (scroll to bulleted list) seem overly positive: 84 percent said they believe they are paid what they're worth, 95 percent report they feel they are "one of the most valued employees at their organization," and 80 percent said that "outsourcing has been a positive factor in the quality of work at their organization."
56315225
submission
msmoriarty writes:
Ten years ago this week IBM pledged to keep its hands off the recently open-sourced Eclipse IDE. And according to Eclipse Foundation Director Mike Milinkovich, that's a major reason Eclipse was able to thrive: " IBM....did an exemplary job of setting Eclipse free," he said in an interview posted today. "We became the first open source organization to show that real competitors could collaborate successfully within the community." He also talks about misconceptions about Eclipse, its current open-source success and what he sees for the future.
49212811
submission
msmoriarty writes:
Google's Don Dodge, GitHub's Tom Preston-Werner, New Relic'sLew Cirne and others recently got together in San Francisco on a panel called "The Developer is King: The Power Behind the Throne." According to coverage of the event, the panelists all agreed that programmers — both independent ones and those employed by companies — have more power, and thus opportunities, than ever. Even the marketing power of developers was acknowledged:
"The only way to convince a developer is by giving them a demo and showing them how its better," said Preston-Werner. "The beauty is, you plant these seeds around the world, and those people will evangelize it for you. Because another thing that developers are great at is telling other developers what works for them."
35219775
submission
msmoriarty writes:
We recently got a copy of a new Voke analyst report (for sale here) on Agile and the firm basically blasts the movement from top to bottom. Some highlights: "The Agile movement is designed to sell services," "Out of over 200 survey participants, we received only four detailed comments describing success with Agile," "Survey participants report that developers use the guise of Agile to avoid planning and to avoid creating documentation required for future maintenance," and " Be aware that the Agile movement might very well just be either a developer rebellion against unwanted tasks and schedules or just an opportunity to sell Agile services including certification and training." So did the analysts just talk to to the wrong 200 people?
28130556
submission
msmoriarty writes:
We knew Windows Server 8 was going to be a departure for Microsoft, including an "optional" GUI, but in a blog post made earlier this week, the Windows Server team said that working without the GUI will be the "recommended" method, and is telling developers not to assume a GUI will be present. According to Windows consultant and author Don Jones, this is a big hint to Windows admins that they better get used to not having a GUI in future releases. From the article: "I'm well aware that many Windows admins out there aren't looking forward to a GUI-less server operating system from Microsoft...I'm sure Microsoft has, too.They're proceeding anyway.We have two choices: adapt or die."
25477590
submission
msmoriarty writes:
Following up on its May announcement, IBM has now confirmed that by December 16 (if not earlier) it will support Microsoft Windows on zEnterprise via its zBX component
25227960
submission
msmoriarty writes:
10 years ago this month, IBM open sourced an internal project focused on creating a common component framework for developers: Eclipse. In an interview with ADTmag.com, Eclipse Foundation director Mike Milinkovich remarks on what was, back then, a revolutionary move: "You've got to give IBM a lot of credit...Ten years ago, the notion that open source might be the best way for software vendors to collaborate was really a novel idea... Eclipse demonstrated the advantages of collaboration in open source, even amongst fierce competitors." The Eclipse Foundation is celebrating the anniversary with a kickoff party at its EclipseCon Europe 2011 conference, and if you're an Eclipse community member, the Foundation is also inviting you to add yourself to the Eclipse 10th Birthday Timeline.
24438764
submission
msmoriarty writes:
According to this article, here's what Oracle has announced at this year's JavaOne so far: "the availability of an early access version of JDK 7 for the Mac OS, plans to 'bridge the gap' between Java ME and Java SE, an approach to modularizing Java SE 8 that will rely on the Jigsaw platform, a new project that aims to use HTML5 to bring Java to Apple's iOS platform, the availability of JavaFX 2.0, a pending proposal to open source that technology, gearing up Java EE for the cloud, and a delay in the release of Java 8."
24089746
submission
msmoriarty writes:
As several sites have reported, NASA is researching how to use lasers and/or microwave energy to "provide external power on demand for aerospace vehicles" as part of its "Game-Changing" technology development program.
24084742
submission
msmoriarty writes:
As you probably heard, on Friday the Obama administration passed the America Invents Act, which changed our system to "first to file." Support for the bill itself was split in the tech industry: Microsoft and IBM (among others) supported the act, Google and Apple opposed it. We asked a patent attorney to explain in detail the act/what impact he thinks it will have on the tech industry. According to him, there's still many open questions. From the article: " The Act has not accomplished [first to file] harmonization in a straightforward or unambiguous way. For example, it is not clear whether a prior use or offer for sale of an invention by an inventor or joint inventor within a year of the date of filing would be render the invention unpatentable. " He also said that the act clearly favors larger corporations, and he doubts it will speed up the patent process itself, which was one of its intended benefits.
22911622
submission
msmoriarty writes:
Three weeks after IT shops began complained loudly that the licensing changes with vSphere 5 would cost them significantly more, VMware has revised the requirements (although not as much as some users would like).
22907388
submission
msmoriarty writes:
The second-ever federal CIO (the first, Vivek Kundra, resigned in June) will be Steven VanRoekel, who worked with Microsoft for 15 years, running the company's Web Services and Platform Strategy and Windows Server Solutions groups. He went to the FCC in 2009, where he then advocated for open government and open platforms. VanRoekel's title on his twitter feed has already been changed to "United States Chief Information Officer."
22749592
submission
msmoriarty writes:
With the interest/discussion on our highest-paid programmers article, our reporter decided to do a follow-up looking into the languages and skills needed to work on high-frequency trading (HFT) systems. There's actually a pretty wide range of languages/tools used, but Linux is the "default" OS and, not surprisingly, the "ability to work under pressure when the traders are screaming at you" is a must-have skill.
22655430
submission
msmoriarty writes:
Bing is a still a money-loser for Microsoft, and the calls for the company to sell it off are growing. But according to long-time Microsoft watcher Mary-Joe Foley, dumping Bing is just not going to happen. From the article: "While the world sees Bing as a distant No. 2 search engine, Microsoft brass and bean counters see Bing as a reusable component and asset that will be built into more and more products. Those who think Microsoft will discard Bing or sell it to the highest bidder are dead wrong — that won't happen now or any time soon."
21340686
submission
msmoriarty writes:
Our reporter decided to try and document the high end of progammer salaries (at least in the U.S.). It seems that $300,000 to $400,000 and up is not unheard of in the financial industry, but the highest salary we could document was apx. $1.2 million, earned by Sergey Aleynikov, who was later convicted of stealing proprietary source code from a previous employer, Goldman Sachs.
