Are developers programmers or engineers?

Posted on by

An interesting InfoWorld story on project management. Quotes:

…”The act of constructing software is, in fact, not an engineering process,” Cooper said. “Engineering to me is problem-solving, which is very different from solution implementations, which is what programmers [do].” Title inflation is endemic to the industry, he said. “Web designers are called programmers, programmers are called engineers, and engineers are called architects, and architects don’t seem to ever get called,” Cooper exclaimed.

…Software, said Cooper, is dominated by people who like to create things as opposed to those who like to serve other people.

via Dane Carlson.

Speaking of serving a need, MeanDean blogs about e-Sword free bible study software. Looks interesting.

A Chilly Response to ‘Patriot II’ and other fun stories

Posted on by

Read about the pre-emptive response growing at Wired News. Websites can make a difference… at least to those that read them. Will this get shared in media off the web I wonder?

In other related news… BBC News has posted the entire text of the latest so-called Bin Laden message.

The WashingtonPost, among others, attempts to scare the shit out of us.

While we are being told, how this time, to prepare for the worst.

I bet the Pres isn’t so happy now he kept Greenspan on considering what he had to say about the tax plan. Then again, a whole slew of economists agree with with him.

And thanks to kowgirl who shared a BusinessWeek link that confirms your worst fears about your career in information systems. That is, of course, if you live in the US. Hint.. your job is going the way of the factory jobs that went before them.

Of course, it could be worst. You could be held hostage by ferocious rabbits. Seriously!

Is Net Surfing A Dying Sport?

Posted on by

… “People are treating the Web like a library and going to the card catalog rather than searching through all the books,”

…”After a while you get tired of flipping through the channels and just turn to the programs you like,” he said.

Read the rest over at Yahoo!.

Semi-related: Clay Shirky’s Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality, Dave Winer’s and Shelley Powers’s. responses. Shelley’s post is home to a great conversation and I highly recommend it. Jason Kottke adds some good linkage as well.

Birds of a feather flock virtually together, that’s what I always say 🙂

In the end, I think Mark Pilgrim says it best, “All the friendships I?ve developed in the past 2 years?starting long before I was in the Technorati Top 10?grew out of connections I made through writing this weblog and reading others. This month I?ll get 1 million hits on my weblog, and have lunch with 10 friends I met through my weblog. Guess which I care about more.”

Well damn straight.

Chloe in a related BlogRoots thread says,

“What I wonder is why this is being treated as “news”…I’ve noticed this pattern in society from the time I started pre-school.”

Yep, she’s absolutely right. This isn’t news. It’s the same old news. In fact – I wrote a piece, some may recall, a long, long, long time ago, about the power of the link and how some weblogs actually wield more “power” then others. This is old news. If I posted about it – it must be old news!

Information technology usually doesn’t change what we do – just how we do it.

A question though – without idealists like Shelley and Dave (even if they are in the top 20) – would we end up with, instead of an 80/20 “power” (we need a better word) distribution, a 95/5? Think about it. And the play goes on…

Update: They are having a good debate at Slashdot on the Clay Shirky piece.

Young, Jobless, Hopeless

Posted on by

I remember feeling those those portrayed in this NYTimes article. I remember it all too well. Quote:

…Nationwide, according to a new study by a team from Northeastern University in Boston, the figure is a staggering 5.5 million and growing.

This army of undereducated, jobless young people, disconnected in most instances from society’s mainstream, is restless and unhappy, and poses a severe long-term threat to the nation’s well-being on many fronts.

…It’s an article of faith among politicians and members of the media that the recession we continue to experience is a mild one. But it has hit broad sections of the nation’s young people with a ferocity that has left many of them stunned.

…joblessness among out-of-school youths between 16 and 24 had surged by 12 percent since the year 2000. Washington’s mindless response to this burgeoning crisis has been to slash ? and in some cases eliminate ? the few struggling programs aimed at bolstering youth employment and training.

Education and career decisions made during the late teens and early 20’s are crucial to the lifetime employment and earnings prospects of an individual. Those who do not do well during this period seldom catch up to the rest of the population.

…Whether boys or girls, men or women, those who were interviewed seemed for the most part already defeated. They did not talk about finding the perfect job. They did not talk about being in love and eventually marrying and raising a family. They did not express a desire to someday own their own home.

There was, to tell the truth, a remarkable absence of positive comments and emotions of any kind. There was a widespread sense of frustration, and some anger. But mostly there was just sadness.

There are some good signs however.

A Nation of Voyeurs

Posted on by

What does how we use Google say about us?

Speaking of big shifts going on…

“The demographic trends do not favor one-size-fits-all news products,” said Peter Francese, founder of American Demographics magazine, which tracks population changes. “There isn’t one community to serve. It’s gone. … It’s now a matter of serving niches rather than trying to be all things to all people,” he said.

Read the rest in Why Won’t Johnny Read?.

OLGA’s in trouble (yet again!)

Posted on by

Mark shares that OLGA.net is being threatened by legal action (yet again). They’ve dodged many bullets in the past, but in this legal environment, this could be the end.

You’ve probably improved your guitar playing by using tablature from OLGA. Make a donation to help support their legality.

Speaking of Rock and activism: Salon has a story on Audioslave’s Tom Morello and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian and their thoughts about what’s going on.

Update: Mark corrects a couple of my misunderstandings in this postings comments. Nevertheless, it’s still a good idea to donate to assist Olga.