Trouble Keeping Up?
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Yeah, I remember.. While i was sitting with my little 300 baud Hes Modem, I dooled over those other guys that had laid out the big bucks for their 9,000 baud modems. Thought that would be all the speed I would ever need :)
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: SQL Server Express Warnings & Tips Latest Tech Blog Post: Scratch: fun for all ages for free!
I remember buying a 40MB hard disk for my 8088 box and thinking, "there's no way I will ever run out of space." I never did, actually. It wasn't until I got a Pentium box running Windows that I started to have disk size issues.
Gary Kirkham Forever Forgiven and Alive in the Spirit He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Me blog, You read
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I hope that I'm not the only one otherwise I'm gonna start interviewing at the fast food chains. Does anyone else feel that software development is changing so fast that you can't keep up? I work 9 hours a day with an hour for lunch, a 45 minute commute each way. This doesn't leave much time for trying to keep up with Microsoft changing everything every couple of months! If asked, I couldn't even tell you what all the new technologies' acronyms mean! I miss the good ol' days when a dev environment was around a couple of years before they started changing it. "Would you like fries with that?"..."Would you like to large size for only 39 cents more?" Just practicing! :wtf:
JamminJimE Microsoft Certified Application Developer.NET
What changes? I'm still using MSVC 6!
Steve
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JamminJimE wrote:
Does anyone else feel that software development is changing so fast that you can't keep up?
Naw. Oh, sure, if i wanted to be up-to-date on every new MS "technology", i'd never sleep... but that's just madness. I don't care how amazing Biztalk is, it'll either die out in a couple of years, or someone will find a way to explain it in 100 short words. WPF may be the most amazing new technology ever created, but i doubt it. A decade ago, I was writing GUIs in DOS that had better layout engines than WinForms - if i ever really need to use some new MS GUI thing, i'm sure i'll be able to get the hang of it in an afternoon. Here's a link for you: Fire and Motion[^]
When I was an Israeli paratrooper a general stopped by to give us a little speech about strategy. In infantry battles, he told us, there is only one strategy: Fire and Motion. You move towards the enemy while firing your weapon. The firing forces him to keep his head down so he can't fire at you. [...] The companies who stumble are the ones who spend too much time reading tea leaves to figure out the future direction of Microsoft. People get worried about .NET and decide to rewrite their whole architecture for .NET because they think they have to. Microsoft is shooting at you, and it's just cover fire so that they can move forward and you can't, because this is how the game is played...
Shog9 wrote:
Fire and Motion[^]
There was also the thing with the mine field... (can't find the link, though...)
Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Velopers, Develprs, Developers!
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
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I hope that I'm not the only one otherwise I'm gonna start interviewing at the fast food chains. Does anyone else feel that software development is changing so fast that you can't keep up? I work 9 hours a day with an hour for lunch, a 45 minute commute each way. This doesn't leave much time for trying to keep up with Microsoft changing everything every couple of months! If asked, I couldn't even tell you what all the new technologies' acronyms mean! I miss the good ol' days when a dev environment was around a couple of years before they started changing it. "Would you like fries with that?"..."Would you like to large size for only 39 cents more?" Just practicing! :wtf:
JamminJimE Microsoft Certified Application Developer.NET
I long ago gave up staying on the bleeding edge. I'm more interested in practical solutions to problems, not using the latest whiz bang technology just for the sake of it. One advantage this has is that an extraordinary number of bleeding edge technologies fall by the wayside sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, there are a lot of technologies that don't, some of which bore me, and other's which are still crap, but somehow stick around. My goal isn't to resort to working fast food, but to retire and get out of this damn business once and for all. (And isn't it the running joke that you agree in meetings to use the new fangled stuff because your boss read about it in the trades, then you go back and just use the tried and true with enough gloss that he doesn't know the difference.)
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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I remember buying a 40MB hard disk for my 8088 box and thinking, "there's no way I will ever run out of space." I never did, actually. It wasn't until I got a Pentium box running Windows that I started to have disk size issues.
Gary Kirkham Forever Forgiven and Alive in the Spirit He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Me blog, You read
Yeah, I remember when I got me first IBM compatible PC which cost me $650 and came with the machine (no monitor, I had an CGA compatible monitor to use on it) with 1 full height 5 1/4 floppy drive and 512K RAM. I was happy when I could afford another floppy drive ($99) so I could keep my my compiler (Lattice C and Microsoft C) in one drive while my souce code could be on the other floppy :)
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: SQL Server Express Warnings & Tips Latest Tech Blog Post: Scratch: fun for all ages for free!
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Pete O`Hanlon wrote:
I now tend to steer clear of bleeding edge technologies
Pete, That's a good idea. However, like I said in one of the other replies, that's the kind of questions coming up in my recent interviews! They want a Programmer/DBA/Architect expert in C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, Classic ASP, VBScript, Oracle, SQL Server, Underwater Basket Weaving, Astronomy, etc. If you can't answer the questions, they'll find some 20something who can. My debtors don't like to hear "I'm betwen contracts." ;)
JamminJimE Microsoft Certified Application Developer.NET
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Finally, someone who agrees with me. I remember 2400 baud modems. Heck, I remember connecting to my first BBS (Bulletin Board System for the younger readers) with a 300 baud modem in a Commodore 64. I don't remember VB6 changing this stinkin' fast. It was pretty much the same environment for about 3 years. Then, you could actually get up to speed without getting fired or divorced! :laugh: Writing applications used to be so simple (compared to now). It was fun! Now, I'm getting some "snow on the ol' roof" and can't absorb it as fast as people in their early 20's. :~
JamminJimE Microsoft Certified Application Developer.NET
JamminJimE wrote:
Then, you could actually get up to speed without getting fired or divorced!
I sympathize with you, it seems just recently (over the past 5 years) technology has gone into overdrive. But lets not forget it's all about backing the 'right horse' not everything that Microsoft churn out will make mainstream and it's all about following the correct technology, I myself backed .net in 2000 and I know I've made the right move, the next move it's to follow WPF/WCF. In the coming months I will have to learn (yet again) another new technology, lets not forget that this is what our industry is about right?
We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them. Steve Jobs
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I hope that I'm not the only one otherwise I'm gonna start interviewing at the fast food chains. Does anyone else feel that software development is changing so fast that you can't keep up? I work 9 hours a day with an hour for lunch, a 45 minute commute each way. This doesn't leave much time for trying to keep up with Microsoft changing everything every couple of months! If asked, I couldn't even tell you what all the new technologies' acronyms mean! I miss the good ol' days when a dev environment was around a couple of years before they started changing it. "Would you like fries with that?"..."Would you like to large size for only 39 cents more?" Just practicing! :wtf:
JamminJimE Microsoft Certified Application Developer.NET
Just when I'm getting into .NET2.0 version 3.0 is just round the corner.
Blog Have I http:\\www.frankkerrigan.com
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Just when I'm getting into .NET2.0 version 3.0 is just round the corner.
Blog Have I http:\\www.frankkerrigan.com
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I hope that I'm not the only one otherwise I'm gonna start interviewing at the fast food chains. Does anyone else feel that software development is changing so fast that you can't keep up? I work 9 hours a day with an hour for lunch, a 45 minute commute each way. This doesn't leave much time for trying to keep up with Microsoft changing everything every couple of months! If asked, I couldn't even tell you what all the new technologies' acronyms mean! I miss the good ol' days when a dev environment was around a couple of years before they started changing it. "Would you like fries with that?"..."Would you like to large size for only 39 cents more?" Just practicing! :wtf:
JamminJimE Microsoft Certified Application Developer.NET
If you're not driving to/from work, use that time to read the latest books. I completely changed my career many years ago doing that exact thing!! Unfortunately, I drive these days, so that luxury is no longer there. So, I bring the books to work, and read a chapter when I get the chance.