Bored with Tech [modified]
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Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
I would have to whole heartedly agree that much of what is "new" today is a re-hash of yesteryear. Allot of the business-centric tech is, well, boring. However, there really is some truly new stuff out there. Most of it is "incrementally new", not revolutionary. Take wireless networking and wireless communications. While the low-level ideas are not new, thanks to the continuous progress of hardware, things are getting smaller and more powerful which is opening new possibilities. Mobile technologies that were dreams 20 years ago are realities now. Touch capabilities while far from new, are much better today, so much so that new opportunities are emerging. General human input devices beyond keyboards, mice, touch screens and even speech are finally becoming realities. 3d presentation of information is finally starting to come around. (I think 3d has a very long way to go, but there's a technology I wouldn't mind riding along with.) Gaming technology and immersive environments that could not even be imagined 20 years ago are starting to become possible. Robotics, wow, robotics is moving ahead at a tremendous pace. That's just to name a few areas of software-related technology, there are many, many more exciting "new" technologies and opportunities out there. Some promises from the past like artificial intelligence have not developed as many would have hoped. I think we are coming around to the enormous difficulties and challenges with this concept. Even so, there are many bi-products of AI that are useful and mainstream today. Textual analysis used by search engines and other systems is a distant bi-product of AI research. Allot of the medical scanning systems incorporate bi-products of AI to accomplish the processing feats that they need to. For me, I find allot of doldrums in typical day-to-day business software. While the code is new, the ideas aren't and it is rarely exciting (except when given unreasonable deadlines). But, it pays the bills and enables me to do other things that interest me much more. I've more-or-less given up on main stream media, both general media like CNN/FoxNews/MSN/whatever and tech-centric news like wired, MSDN (what a joke), even long-trusted magazine sources. The quality of reporting has indeed declined, so much so as to render much of it useless. So, you asked what I do to get over the hump. For me, I have tried to take my passion for software development and turn it in directions that are new and interesting. In my spare time, I am developing a mobile
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Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
Hi Jim I think there are two major types of developers, those that are in love with the tech itself and those that are in love with the end results that can be obtained regardless of the tech. I started in the first category back in the day but over the decades I've firmly moved into the second camp and now I really enjoy crafting the end result and making it as perfect as possible for the end users. I suspect it's a natural progression for developers who do this long enough but I might be wrong. I can't imagine very seasoned developers really getting too excited about tech they've seen come and go so many times as I have. These days I really don't get excited about any new tech at all because as you say it's all a rehash and despite seemingly endless new offerings there really is nothing new under the sun. If you move your focus to the end users and the end result and consider the tech just a means to an end that might work for you. Otherwise, get the hell out of it, there's simply nothing to be gained for anyone pursuing something you don't absolutely love doing every day.
"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." — Blaise Pascal
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Jim Crafton wrote:
Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
I know exactly the feeling. Get into game programming man, or you can just always buy a canoe.
Jeremy Falcon
And I thought it's just me who always thinks of buying a canoe to row off to some remote island forever. It's a sad thought, but somehow relaxing. The thought particularly reigns the mind when the client/manager asks me to add "just this one button that will do [insert gibberish here] upon clicking".
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
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Jeremy Falcon wrote:
Get into game programming man, or you can just always buy a canoe.
Yeah, doing game programming on a canoe is the solution. ;)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳 wrote:
Yeah, doing game programming on a canoe is the solution.
:-D Can't knock it until you try it.
Jeremy Falcon
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Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
I am not bored with programming. True, the "new" technologies are really more of the same, but that's really nothing new (pun intended). In fact, I have re-discovered the beauty of simplicity and am trying to get to the basics as much as possible. That means less OOP, less frameworks, less design patterns, less fancy IDEs, and less abstraction in general. Just making simple functions and modules that are readable, well structured, robust and perform well is chalenging enough to keep me interested.
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Seems like when a new platform comes out all of the "apps" or development takes a step back 3 years. Back in the early 90's I was a cd rom developer. Mostly CBT (Authorware) and educational software for kids/schools (Director). Lots of animation and problems solving. Low level crap like print drivers and text to speech stuff. It was fun. Then there was the internet, cd rom dev dried up and everyone wanted a web page. So now I am a glorified text formatter a pasteup artist. :doh: Then Shockwave emerged and the Director stuff came back but with limitations due to the browser sandbox. So now I am redoing all of the crap I did for all of the school software as mini Schlockwave modules. Learning Perl so I can save data to a database on the web server. :omg: Then I get tasked to learn ColdFusion and I am now a text formatter again storing crap in databases (MS Access, SQL Server, Oracle). Then Flash came out and I am redoing the Schlockwave games but using CF to jam the data (high scores) into an Oracle database instead of using Perl to write it to a flat file. :wtf: I hate Flash so now I am a ColdFusion/Oracle developer writing document tracking software in an industrial facility (the Navy :^) ) and I have just been tasked to "learn" Sharepoint so it can track the damn spreadsheets instead of my CF app. X| I want to open a BBQ restaurant with a nice little stage for live hillbilly music! :suss:
Joe Simes wrote:
and I have just been tasked to "learn" Sharepoint so it can track the damn spreadsheets instead of my CF app
Wow using sharepoint is often a wonderful experience. Programming Sharepoint is a frigging nightmare. 2010 looks promising, but programming with the existing versions is god awful. I have to remote desktop to windows server OS just to code basic stuff. And there are so many limitations / gotchas that I can't stand it. My boss loves sharepoint and frankly I like it to. But I HATE programming it. Todd Bleeker who wrote the programming book and teaches the Mindsharp class (probably the only non trivial class available) is the only person in the world who actually enjoys that crap. Good luck...
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Hi Jim I think there are two major types of developers, those that are in love with the tech itself and those that are in love with the end results that can be obtained regardless of the tech. I started in the first category back in the day but over the decades I've firmly moved into the second camp and now I really enjoy crafting the end result and making it as perfect as possible for the end users. I suspect it's a natural progression for developers who do this long enough but I might be wrong. I can't imagine very seasoned developers really getting too excited about tech they've seen come and go so many times as I have. These days I really don't get excited about any new tech at all because as you say it's all a rehash and despite seemingly endless new offerings there really is nothing new under the sun. If you move your focus to the end users and the end result and consider the tech just a means to an end that might work for you. Otherwise, get the hell out of it, there's simply nothing to be gained for anyone pursuing something you don't absolutely love doing every day.
"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." — Blaise Pascal
John C wrote:
Otherwise, get the hell out of it, there's simply nothing to be gained for anyone pursuing something you don't absolutely love doing every day.
Are you kidding me... Most people don't like there jobs. But being a software developer is better than about 80% of jobs out there. You don't have to love job, especially in this job market. Most people would be happy with something that pays decent and is tolerable.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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Joe Simes wrote:
and I have just been tasked to "learn" Sharepoint so it can track the damn spreadsheets instead of my CF app
Wow using sharepoint is often a wonderful experience. Programming Sharepoint is a frigging nightmare. 2010 looks promising, but programming with the existing versions is god awful. I have to remote desktop to windows server OS just to code basic stuff. And there are so many limitations / gotchas that I can't stand it. My boss loves sharepoint and frankly I like it to. But I HATE programming it. Todd Bleeker who wrote the programming book and teaches the Mindsharp class (probably the only non trivial class available) is the only person in the world who actually enjoys that crap. Good luck...
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
:(( First meeting tomorrow with three pointy haired managers who think SharePoint is the cat's a$$. They don't even know what SharePoint is but they latched onto it 'cause someone said it was cool. I gave them an estimate of 6 months to fully develop the app they are looking for in ColdFusion/Oracle a platform I am familiar with. They took my estimate and sent it to the higher-ups but changed it to say we will develop it in SharePoint and it will only take 3 months instead of 6! :wtf: I am not a .NET/C# developer! You want pulled pork, ribs or brisket? :)
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Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
Are you really bored with the technology, or are you bored with the problem domain where you apply the technology? I tend to flip-flop between the two. When I'm bored with the technology, something's going on it my problem domain that's interesting. When I'm bored with the domain (which is the case as the moment), I'm using new technology (C#, .NET, and WPF).
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
Jim Crafton wrote:
it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff
Haven't you just learnt more, so you now recognize the fads?
Jim Crafton wrote:
and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology
In the nineties, the high goal were many-to-many relationships - plugging things and services together, swapping the single user desktop database for a multi-user server one without touching the app, etc. In the Naughties, w implemented that. Right now, we are either figuring out that this was a royally stupid idea, or we at least totally underestimated what it needs to make that work. In the Naughties, our toolchains got longer without getting much better. I am disillusioned with current developments, but not necessarily with the future. A few of the current technologies will mature and stick with us for the rest of our lives, the others will see the fate of DCOM and stuff - hysterically weird, but good improve-your-pension material for us old farts. Maybe we see some toolchain shrinkage: A single development environment that doesn't make me deal with the imperfections and error messages and broken tools of half a dozen technologies just to load and save some data. One where the components work out of the box, and cover 80% of the applications to be written. One that truly bridges the gap between the web and the desktop. One that doesn't make me write XML unless I feel that urge again.
Personally, I love the idea that Raymond spends his nights posting bad regexs to mailing lists under the pseudonym of Jane Smith. He'd be like a super hero, only more nerdy and less useful. [Trevel]
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | µLaunch - program launcher for server core and hyper-v server -
Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
Jim, do you think you're bored because you may have been working in the same areas/platforms for a long while? I find it arduous to maintain my MFC freeware apps and am in the process of porting (actually rewriting) them to .NET because of the gain in productivity and ease of implementation compared to C++/MFC. Fortunately (or unfortunately as the case may be), I continue to be wildly excited about building software. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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:(( First meeting tomorrow with three pointy haired managers who think SharePoint is the cat's a$$. They don't even know what SharePoint is but they latched onto it 'cause someone said it was cool. I gave them an estimate of 6 months to fully develop the app they are looking for in ColdFusion/Oracle a platform I am familiar with. They took my estimate and sent it to the higher-ups but changed it to say we will develop it in SharePoint and it will only take 3 months instead of 6! :wtf: I am not a .NET/C# developer! You want pulled pork, ribs or brisket? :)
I'll take the pulled pork.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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Hi Jim I think there are two major types of developers, those that are in love with the tech itself and those that are in love with the end results that can be obtained regardless of the tech. I started in the first category back in the day but over the decades I've firmly moved into the second camp and now I really enjoy crafting the end result and making it as perfect as possible for the end users. I suspect it's a natural progression for developers who do this long enough but I might be wrong. I can't imagine very seasoned developers really getting too excited about tech they've seen come and go so many times as I have. These days I really don't get excited about any new tech at all because as you say it's all a rehash and despite seemingly endless new offerings there really is nothing new under the sun. If you move your focus to the end users and the end result and consider the tech just a means to an end that might work for you. Otherwise, get the hell out of it, there's simply nothing to be gained for anyone pursuing something you don't absolutely love doing every day.
"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." — Blaise Pascal
John C wrote:
I suspect it's a natural progression for developers who do this long enough but I might be wrong.
I think you're probably right. I suppose to some extent this is an inevitable phase that everyone goes through.
John C wrote:
here's simply nothing to be gained for anyone pursuing something you don't absolutely love doing every day.
Sure there is - a paycheck! Plus, there's *much* worse things I could be doing, and I have the free time to do things I am more interested in, so it's not all bad :)
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
Programming is just the tool. Find a field of interest where the majority of your learning is related to the field and not the programming tech. Games, medical imaging, movie animation, robotics, astronomy, physics, etc. Jumping in to the latest Microsoft fad is a sure way to get frustrated and burned out.
Todd Smith
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Has anyone else gotten really disillusioned with programming recently? In the last year or so I've gotten really bored with it, it seems that much of what's considered "new" in the last 5-8 years is just rehashed stuff, and it's become really hard to work up much enthusiasm to spend extra time on it. When I started back in 1995, the industry, or at least the little that I was aware of, seemed much more dynamic. Now it just feels stagnant, and most of the things that I do find myself interested in seem like dead end technology. Many of the things that have become popular, like web "programming", just make me cringe. Part of this, I think, is that having gone through the process of learning multiple frameworks, multiple languages on multiple operating systems, using a variety of different toolchains, it all starts to become just "more of the same". So there's not that much "new" to learn in something like WPF, for example. It's just more of the same thing, with a few twists here and there, but it's not that much of a stretch anymore. Another issue is the way it's reported on in both the general media (say a magazine like Time) or even in tech specialist sites (excluding CP of course!). The willingness of any of these places to ask even the simplest of questions regarding "new" or "innovative" technology is nothing short of astonishing. Stuff I've seen reporting on is done in such an incredibly shallow, and frequently incorrect, manner that it's just depressing in the extreme. Has anyone else run into this? If so, what got you over the "hump", so to speak?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
modified on Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:58 AM
I think part of the problem is that new technologies are coming out quickly so that M$ (and other companies) can make Money. For example, I just got a new PC with 64-bit Windows 7, 8 gigs of ram and all around solid hardware. However, my company is not ready to update all our application servers so I have to code with a 3rd party tool that won't run on the 64bit Win 7. So even though I've been using Vista (on my old laptop) for the last two years, I created a Win XP SP3 Virtual PC. Developing on that Virtual PC is actually faster / better than developing on my regular Win7 machine. I'm not hating on Windows 7, it is pretty good. But in terms of productivity, I think XP is still better. It may not be as flashy and have all the new bells and whistles. But it is stable, fast and runs everything. My point is that companies have probably spent a mint upgrading development tools, operating systems, servers etc... But mostly all business apps running today could be made quickly with .net 1.1 and SQL Server 2000.
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Are you really bored with the technology, or are you bored with the problem domain where you apply the technology? I tend to flip-flop between the two. When I'm bored with the technology, something's going on it my problem domain that's interesting. When I'm bored with the domain (which is the case as the moment), I'm using new technology (C#, .NET, and WPF).
Software Zen:
delete this;I think I'm bored with the where the current, practically available software technology is going. For example, it would be kind of fun to write in Objective C, but there's no practical toolchain available for Windows, and the likelihood of that ever happening is pretty much zero. I too have started to migrate new app development at work C#. However that's not really that interesting or new, just a little less effort than MFC, plus some of the lack of features or bugs that you run into with WinForms just drives me up the wall.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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I would have to whole heartedly agree that much of what is "new" today is a re-hash of yesteryear. Allot of the business-centric tech is, well, boring. However, there really is some truly new stuff out there. Most of it is "incrementally new", not revolutionary. Take wireless networking and wireless communications. While the low-level ideas are not new, thanks to the continuous progress of hardware, things are getting smaller and more powerful which is opening new possibilities. Mobile technologies that were dreams 20 years ago are realities now. Touch capabilities while far from new, are much better today, so much so that new opportunities are emerging. General human input devices beyond keyboards, mice, touch screens and even speech are finally becoming realities. 3d presentation of information is finally starting to come around. (I think 3d has a very long way to go, but there's a technology I wouldn't mind riding along with.) Gaming technology and immersive environments that could not even be imagined 20 years ago are starting to become possible. Robotics, wow, robotics is moving ahead at a tremendous pace. That's just to name a few areas of software-related technology, there are many, many more exciting "new" technologies and opportunities out there. Some promises from the past like artificial intelligence have not developed as many would have hoped. I think we are coming around to the enormous difficulties and challenges with this concept. Even so, there are many bi-products of AI that are useful and mainstream today. Textual analysis used by search engines and other systems is a distant bi-product of AI research. Allot of the medical scanning systems incorporate bi-products of AI to accomplish the processing feats that they need to. For me, I find allot of doldrums in typical day-to-day business software. While the code is new, the ideas aren't and it is rarely exciting (except when given unreasonable deadlines). But, it pays the bills and enables me to do other things that interest me much more. I've more-or-less given up on main stream media, both general media like CNN/FoxNews/MSN/whatever and tech-centric news like wired, MSDN (what a joke), even long-trusted magazine sources. The quality of reporting has indeed declined, so much so as to render much of it useless. So, you asked what I do to get over the hump. For me, I have tried to take my passion for software development and turn it in directions that are new and interesting. In my spare time, I am developing a mobile
Those are good points. I guess I've been leaning towards a lot of 3D in my spare time (our apartment is so small there's no physical space to do real life projects like model building, circuitry, etc, so hobbies need to be kept virtual :) ). Maybe I'm just feeling a bit sad at the loss of interest in something that I used to find so fascinating.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Its hard to be bored with the Tech side.
That's where I'm struggling. It just doesn't seem like there's much of anything interesting happening. Can you point to some tech things that have struck your interest?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
- I am considering implementing a Javscript super computer (very interesting and scalable) 2) Lot's of AI research focusing on building a machine to solve the problem, try building one to ask the question. 3) Real-time data acquisition and reporting with data mining 4) * (ok this one is hush hush cause it would make me millions if I wasn't too lazy to implement: keywords HIPAA and low cost) I could go on but the interesting stuff you have to create ... not read about. My article on unsafe gray scale conversion was written primarily to support a motion recognition application I wrote which was kind of cool.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
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I think I'm bored with the where the current, practically available software technology is going. For example, it would be kind of fun to write in Objective C, but there's no practical toolchain available for Windows, and the likelihood of that ever happening is pretty much zero. I too have started to migrate new app development at work C#. However that's not really that interesting or new, just a little less effort than MFC, plus some of the lack of features or bugs that you run into with WinForms just drives me up the wall.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
Jim Crafton wrote:
the lack of features or bugs that you run into with WinForms just drives me up the wall
I get the impression that would make me crazy too. Fortunately, we skipped WinForms and went directly to WPF. There are a lot of things about WPF that I really like. There are a few things that make me want to stab every member of the development team in the face with a spoon.
Software Zen:
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John C wrote:
Otherwise, get the hell out of it, there's simply nothing to be gained for anyone pursuing something you don't absolutely love doing every day.
Are you kidding me... Most people don't like there jobs. But being a software developer is better than about 80% of jobs out there. You don't have to love job, especially in this job market. Most people would be happy with something that pays decent and is tolerable.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
But being a software developer is better than about 80% of jobs out there
Well it might be for you and me but no one ever does that well at a job they hate and quality of life is far more important than any particular job. There's nothing like doing what you love and nothing worse for you than doing what you hate day in and day out. If I truly thought I would be happier digging ditches I'd have my shovel out right now.
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
Most people would be happy with something that pays decent and is tolerable.
Most people can't do this job because they'd find it soul sucking and insanely boring and simply aren't capable of doing it. The industry has *far* too many people just putting in their hours as dead eyed corporate lackeys already. The less of those the better for us who truly love doing it.
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
You don't have to love job, especially in this job market
Market schmarket! Anyone can get a job in any economic situation if they try hard enough and they can certainly get a job they love when they approach it with enthusiasm and lot's of effort. And they can certainly make a lot of money at it if that's their goal and they truly love doing it. You're advocating much the same thing as telling someone in an abusive relationship to stick with it because they can't possibly do better.
"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." — Blaise Pascal
