Years ago I implemented a message dispatch function name WhoCares(). It stuck around that way until a coworker added a popup dialog box to it that displayed a tracing message usually written to a log file. At some point that popup appeared and the customer service folks had kittens over it. Apparently they read it as "we don't care about this", when in reality the WhoCares() function was deciding which routine to pass the message on to, you know "who cares about processing this, I'll pass it on to them". Anyway, the customer service folks didn't have a sense of humor about it and I was forced to change it's name to the innocuous "EventProcessor". To this day I still refer to it as "WhoCares". :)

Sounds like you guys need to do all your development in VMs that are not joined to the domain. That way the IT folks don't have the ability to force policies that keep you from doing your jobs down your throats. I've been working that way for years and it's kept the IT Nazis at bay for the most part.

Andy Hoffmeyer wrote:

The simple fact is that, most of the time, the compiler is smarter than you, and understands your code on a level that you never could. Allowing the compiler to determine the type automatically, as often as possible, allows for optimizations that may not be possible if you coerce an explicit type.

So, by that logic if I was using an IDE with good intellisense and hovered over a variable declared initially with auto, which showed me what the omniscient compiler will decide the type should be, and then explicitly declared the variable to be that exact type it would somehow break the multi-dimensional optimization the compiler would perform. Are you seriously saying that or did I misread your comment??

Steve Naidamast wrote:

The second time I figured it would take as much time to simply do a re-install of the Windows OS.

This is why I resorted to running my dev environments in disposable VMs years ago. If I anticipate performing an action that will break the environment I make a copy of the VM, take the action and if it explodes I revert to the backup VM. Saved my bacon many times while configuring Windows XP and VS-2005 for Windows CE 6.0 kernel development. It's sad to have to operate this way but in reality has saved me tons of time I would've spent rebuilding development environments over the years.

I don't use one of those ergonomic models, not a touch typist so they REALLY slow me down, but I have one of those original IBM model M "clicky" keyboards that I've held onto for decades and absolutely love. I find the very positive feedback of the "click" (mechanical feel and sound) reduces the force I put into typing which saves a lot on the fatigue I feel at the end of a long day of writing code. If I could get one that was "ergonomic" I might give it a try but it would take me a while to get my typing speed back up to what it is with a conventional "straight" keyboard. The one downside I've recently encountered with it is the lack of a "Windows" key, but I was able to remap the left ALT to that function so it's not a huge issue. I tried a Microsoft "Natural" years ago when my wife purchased one, felt like I was typing on a sponge, I hated the thing.

I've lost and regained the passion for software development a couple times in my 30 year career, mostly due to the company I was working for at the time being too damn cheap to invest in the tools needed to move the product forward or provide the needed staffing or the manager(s) getting caught up in the latest buzz words and thinking they knew better than the developers how to create good software. The last time this happened I resorted to building auto-cross race cars in my off time to stimulate my creative needs. Resulted in me now owning 2 very fast "race" cars plus I learned to weld, spray paint, tune suspensions and rewire modern fuel injected engines. Exploring the engine control systems I came across a DIY fuel injection system (Mega-Squirt), built one and end up modifying the open-source firmware to provide capabilities I needed. Rekindled my passion for software and got me more involved in low level embedded work. So, there is hope in the tech related world if you get too jaded/burned out by all the BS involved in the day-to-day grind of corporate software development.

Ken W.

I'm at 40D/20U using CenturyLink DSL in Spokane WA. I could probably go faster if I wanted but the added expense isn't justifiable. The speed is enough, consistent and reliable. The downside with them is they block various TCP ports so it's a bit of a pain for me to run the servers I want on my internal network. Had to play some games to move my email server internal but finally got it working. At my old house in south eastern WA state I had Spectrum internet and got ~60D/30U and all TCP ports were wide open for me to do with as I pleased, plus in 3 years of using their service the IP address never changed. Guess I got a bit spoiled, unfortunately Spectrum doesn't offer service in Spokane. :(

Member 11971640 wrote:

We used stone knives and bear claws back then (to paraphrase Dr. McCoy).

Nope, It was stone knives and bear skins as quoted from Mr. Spock in the "City on the Edge of Forever". BTW: I feel equally old, I was learning C on my own while using Modula 2 on an IBM 4381 mainframe in the mid 80s. I hate Pascal, it's a fascist language if you ask me.

Foot firmly in the door of what? My experience with the Linux world has been that no-one wants to pay for anything. So I get to spend my precious off work time impressing a group of ex Windows guys with a GUI wrapper around an existing system function and have the snooty Linux CLI users completely ignore it. Not much incentive to build a tool like that, otherwise it would've already been done. On the topic of Microsoft and Windows dying soon, that prediction fits right up there with the annual "It's the year of the Linux desktop" statements we've all read for the the last decade or more. Replacing desktop systems with anything other than a Windows or maybe MAC PC will remain prohibitively expensive for long time due to as has been mentioned the cost of retooling different "office" type programs and retraining folks who are already using the MS Office products. I wouldn't be planning to sell my M$ stock anytime soon if I had any.

I upgraded 3 of my systems from Win 7 to 10, all 3 are 64-bit hardware but one had 32-bit Win 7 Pro installed. I've not experienced any serious issues but have noticed the boot and login times are longer on all three systems than under Win 7. The one thing I've encountered that I find exasperating is that programs which display a startup splash screen tend to remain hidden behind the window of the program that was active. Consequently I don't always know the program I just launched is already running so I try to start another instance. On a positive note some programs I thought would be an issue just work. One in particular is Fender Fuse which is a program that is used to configure a Fender guitar amp via a USB connection. I've had no problems with it even though it was a bit finicky under Win 7 and relies on Silverlight.

I've accepted the step up into middle management a couple of times in different companies and regretted it every time. The last time was a few years ago at my current employer, now I'm at the point of beginning to look for work again. I think I've finally learned my lesson, I'm a software engineer, not a manager. Give the choice now I'd not hesitate to turn it down.