you should post that on first world problems :)

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

The bank where i work is having a re-org, and I need to choose a title for myself :cool: My current title is "Senior IT support", where i get to handle tickets, either directly by development or by assigning tickets to vendors. My new responsibilities are the following: 1. Working exclusively on ongoing projects, no support. (Yay! :thumbsup:) 2. No internal development, all projects assigned to vendors, closed box with no source code. (Boo :thumbsdown:) 3. Handling all technical aspects of new and ongoing projects (technical review, deployment, testing, giving feedback to PMs, etc.) The following titles are initially rejected during brainstorming with my team members: 1. Software Developer (no development going on!) 2. IT Consultant (rejected since we are the on the client side (Que unfunny puns)) 3. The Man (i thought it was good) 4. IT Specialist (too broad) 5. IT Architect (invalid since the vendor will usually architect the system, we only review) 6. IT Analyst (implies you are doing analysis most of the time, while most of our work will be review, implementation and testing. So what do you call a software developer, that doesn't do any development, is involved in the technical aspect of projects and is on the receiving end of projects ?

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

After a wasted morning of trying to get started with dc.js (js charting library), i was frustrated and went to get some coffee. When i got back i did another google search, and came up with a code project article: link[^] By far it was the best tutorial i found online, and within an hour or so i was up and running. It's gems like this article that really make this site shine. I'm surprised that the author of the article didn't update his bio. Anyway, big thanks to him and all the other authors.

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

Classmates (i had a cs major) are definitely very helpful, I got a couple of jobs from their recommendations. Linkedin is very good, I landed a good job from it before. Local hackathons and meetups are also great for networking, and you get the added bonus of learning new skills and adding another project to your portfolio. Job websites are good, but no where near as good as the above in my experience.

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

What programming language does the earl of essex use ? erlang (get it? earl-lang ....ha ha ha.....ha ha .... ha ... awkward silence) I'm sorry, i'm just as bored as _Maxxx_. :|

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

Carpentering is a great physical and mental exercise. All you need is an empty room and some relatively inexpensive equipment.

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

Our experience in Egypt is that nationalized companies tend to be cesspools of corruption, indifference and colossal failure. There is simply no incentive for the employees or management to make the public company succeed, as they will get their salaries anyway. National companies that were privatized in the 1990's became much more successful, especially when it comes to quality and customer service. To address Rob's point about adding income to the treasury, the best approach would be a hybrid one. Ex: The Egyptian government owns a large chunk of Vodafone Egypt.

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

2010: Microsoft introduces windows phone with flat design and bold colours reviewers: blocky, childish, tasteless, etc... 2013: Apple introduces iOS 7 with flat design and bold colours reviewers: stylish, fresh, best thing since the invention of toast, etc... Sigh. (P.S. I own an iPhone, but the bias that people have these days is getting very annoying)

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

I'm a native arabic speaker and you are completely wrong. As pointed above, Din (pronounced deen) means religion in this context, not judgment. Din (pronounced dayn) means judgment, or debt. Nur (pronounced noor) means light. Nur el Din means the light of religion. Sayf el Din means the sword of religion.

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

I was very satisfied with joomla + virtuemart. Very powerful and short learning curve.

Amr Abdel Majeed Senior Software Developer

My experience with teeth is that pain is an indication that damage has already been done. Don't wait for the pain, go with option A. :)

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

Best answer i have seen to the (which anti virus ?) question in a long time. Although I only do steps 1, 2 and 4 because i'm lazy :) I like to add Microsoft Security Essentials to non-technical users (e.g. mum), to give them psychological comfort.

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

what does "Auntie" mean in this context?

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

I used to have a download manager called "Flash Get", which was very good and doubled as a torrent client. That was a couple of years ago, I'm not sure it's available anymore.

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

I noticed the code project frame which used to encapsulate the news is gone. I hated that thing, very happy it's gone. :-D

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

When i used to work at a software company, maybe 50-80 % of developers coded for fun or profit outside of their daily jobs, those were the good times. Now i work at a bank, making (a lot) more money, but there is no in-house development, we rely on vendors for everything. I code outside of work to keep my sanity, but apparently i'm the only one here who does that ... sigh :(

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

I couple of days (weeks?) ago on the insider news, there was a link to this really great guide on website optimization. It had lots of colorful art and was very fun to read and easy to implement. I forgot to bookmark the link :( , and I tried to google it for an hour or so without luck (OK maybe not an hour but it took some time :)). Does anyone here remember the website ? I think it was called super browser guide or something like that.

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

So if i get Windows 8 64-bit CD from a friend and do a clean install with my product key, it will work? As i understood from a couple of links, once i used my product key on 32-bit windows, i can't use it again on a 64-bit windows. It would be great if I'm wrong though, I wanted to upgrade to 8 GB RAM. :)

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

Thanks for the tip, but i develop Windows Apps as a hobby outside my Day job (Java Developer), paying a small fortune for VS 2012 is not an option for me!

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer

I used to be a happy windows phone 7 developer, developing them on VS 2010 on windows 7, which in my humble opinion was the most fun platform to develop for (although the least profitable). I decided to upgrade to Windows 8, and after i paid the 40 dollars, I discovered you can't upgrade 32-bit windows 7 to 64-bit windows 8 . (Really Microsoft?! It's 2013 and I can't upgrade to 64-bit windows!) Anyway, i swallowed it and moved on. I downloaded the installer for VS 2012 for Windows Phone 8 development, only to be greeted with this lovely message: This product can only be installed on Windows 8 64-bit!!! So now I'm stuck with my 32-bit Windows, and I can't develop for Windows Phone 8, or Windows 8. I wonder how the conversation went at Microsoft when they were discussing this requirement: "Let's not allow users to upgrade to 64-bit windows, while requiring VS 2012 to run on 64-bit windows!!!" One less developer for Windows Phone 8.

Amr Abdel Majeed Software Developer