I have DevOps questions. Where should they be posted?

A better analogy would be airline travel. The net neutrality supporters want everyone forced to fly coach. They don’t want anyone being allowed to upgrade to better service like business or first class. After all, travel is a public right...

From reviewing the replies here, I'll think having candidates that a test is going to become SOP. brainbench looks very promising. Thank you. I think I will require the candidate to take the test here, on site, with an observer. Probably me or someone in HR.

I'm looking for senior level personnel. Strengths/weaknesses: Probably half of the development done is only one developer. Others to do code review and testing. But, the candidate has to be able to specify requirements, design, code and deliver. "bring the potential candidates into the team" How do I do that? Only HR can hire. And they will only hire two people. I could pitch for using a temp agency and bring in more candidates for a couple of weeks, perhaps. But, is that long enough? Last time 60% were not worth talking to. I'd perfer to weed them out without bringing them in.

My team is going to try to hire two software engineers this year. We've made some very poor choices in the past. I’d like to avoid that in the future. Our process has been simple; we advertise the job on our company web site and the local newspapers. All applications and resumes go to HR. HR reviews the resume to make sure they are applying for the correct job. For a software engineer, HR expects to see a computer science education or software engineering experience. Then HR creates a copy of the resume with all personal information removed, such as name, age, sex, race, e-mail address and where the applicant lives. Then HR forwards the redacted copy of the resume to software management for review. Last time we interviewed all five candidates that made it to management review. Four men and one woman. Interviewing three of the applicants was a complete waste of time. One candidate simply lied on their resume in order to get the interview. I know that some managers give applicants a test that is relevant to the job being applied for. Is that appropriate, or too much pressure for an applicant? I want to make sure our process is not biased on the basis of sex or race. And I thought we had done that. But, I’ve been told that is not enough. I need to ensure the team and the interview process are gender diverse. But, how is that achieved without quotas? Which would be unfair. Interesting that there is no requirement that I make the process racially diverse. Just gender diverse.

A boys club in IT? I'd love to see the evidence for that. I've missed out on the meetings... My team is two women and three men. Quality of life is purely personal. People sacrifice pay to have a job they enjoy more, which results in a better quality of life, right? I don't know the numbers nation wide, but in CA, average teacher salary is $60K and caps out around $88K. Average nurse salary is $72K. Average starting pay for a software engineer just out of college is $66K. Network admin / PC support personnel make less. Teachers and nurses are in the top 20% of all wage earners in the nation. So, is it a girls club keeping men out of elementary school teaching and nursing jobs? Men are even more dominate in the auto mechanics profession. Gender disparity is not evidence of a problem.

Why should "equalize staffing numbers" be a desired goal? And how would it be achieved? Put a gun to womens heads and tell them they no longer have a choice? They have to be in IT? There is also a gender gap in elementary school teaching and nursing. What can men use as a "wedge in the door" to these professions? More importantly, why would you think this "gap" is anything other than freedom of choice?

Yes! I am correctly assigning blame to the programmer, not the tool. If you are not blaming VB, then why did you suggest that it be discontinued? Empirical evidence? My empirical evidence is that C# (and VB and PHP, etc.) programmers create poor programs. But, I don't conclude that those languages should be discontinued. It has nothing to do with the programming language.

And, which of the problems you detailed cannot be done in C#? You are blaming the tool? Because the craftsmen doen't know how to use it? Some of the C# programmers in my company have an aversion to using comments and error trapping/reporting. When I inherited a project from one C# programmer, I added comments and error trapping to all the procedures. Then I received an e-mail from the C# developer ridiculing me for modifying his code. He told me all that was unnecessary because the code worked.

Start with a software tool for automated review. They can check for lines of code per procedure (e.g. 30 max), complexity (e.g. simple, moderate or high), a sufficient number of comments, parameter validation and error handling. Each team member can use it to review their own code before passing it to another team member for review. Don't track bugs found in self-review. After a developer says they are done with some code and have checked it in, another developer should review it for compliance with pre-defined standards. Bugs found in these reviews should be tracked in your bug tracking system. You should have more senior developers reviewing less experienced developer’s code and a senior developer review other senior developer’s code. Inexperienced developers (new hires out of college) or poor developers don't do code reviews. They should review bug tracking logs for code reviews to help understand code reviews and standards. After the code review passes, the code goes to test. QA could be a developer on your team. Always track bugs found here in your bug tracking system. The test process doesn't look at code. They just validate functionality. This process can also be automated with software tools. In a software project, all of these activities are going on throughout the process.

I am always amused by these types of questions. Why would you invest time and money in the old technology? I'm sure 2005 is a viable option for most projects, or even the orignial Visual Studio.Net. Why are they running Windows 7 instead of XP (or MS-DOS). You should always buy and learn (invest in) the current version, not an old one. In 2010, C# supports optional parameters. That, by itself, is enough justification.

I have some college, but no degree. I was recently denied a promotion because I do not have a Bachelor’s degree. I am the acting software development manager. I mentor several people who have Bachelor’s degrees in computer science. The division director decided to formalize the current working relationship by promoting me. Once HR discovered that I don’t have a degree they fought the promotion. I lost. Get a degree! It is a criteria used by employers.

The files I read and write must be compatible with legacy programs (VB6, C++). The file is header information followed by a data array. For example; 'This is the current file header. Private Structure CvsImageStructure Friend FileID As Byte Friend Rows As Short Friend Columns As Short Friend Images As Short Friend StoredDataType As Byte Friend CompressionSlope As Single Friend CompressionIntercept As Single Friend SerialNumber As String Friend DefectDescriptions As String End Structure The next part of the file is a data array. It may be Byte, Int16 or Single. The StoredDataType element in the header tells me what the data type is. I can read the data one element at a time in a for next loop (i.e. BR.ReadSingle). However, this is painfully slow. In some cases there will be more than 1,000,000 elements in the array. Is there a way to quickly read the entire data array into a Single precision array (or Byte or Int16)? Some of these files were created in VB6 using the Put command i.e. Put #1, header Put #1, sImageData() The legacy program uses the VB6 Get command to read the files. It has to be able to read the files I create in VB.Net 2005. ----- When the DefectDescriptions element of the structure in the file is blank, the binaryreader returns 73 characters (BR.ReadString), reading into the data array. I have a work around for this, but would appreciate some help correcting this problem.