I work in a software development environment with many teams working on many projects. Over the next year I have set a goal of making those around me more passionate about the industry of software. I've started by increasing general awareness of industry news and events, encouraging team-mates to blog, hosting brown-bag (lunch'n'learn) s...
Do you have a prominent example of a startup person you follow? Like the Twitter, blog, video podcast of Kevin Rose from Digg. Or the writings of Joel Spolsky? Is it common for the startup people to share their thoughts on blogs? Or do you feel like there's not enough information about your favorite startup? (Personally, I love the stac...
In light of the current worldwide economic downturn, is now a good time to be looking elsewhere for a job? I'm currently in the process of interviewing with a few different companies, but I'm worried that I'm not doing the right thing. My main reason for looking for other employment is to gain the technical experience I don't feel I'm g...
Hi everyone, I'm a web developer/apps programmer who wants to break in the game industry. I used to code in C/C++/C# for desktop apps (mainly database-oriented enterprise apps) but nowadays I mainly do PHP/Ajax for websites. Recently, I try learning java and found it to be a very nice language to work with. I wrote a few simple games o...
What do you think the biggest problem is with software development? To me, when I think of the problems I face developing software, I think of a lack of precision. There's too much "Hey, let's try this out and maybe it'll work." Not all of you may work in a field that requires any kind of precision, but for me, I'm constantly battling ...
As a software developer, there are many aspects of our work that we find interesting. For your next project, what would you consider the most valuable to the advancement of your skills and career? A) using a new programming language B) using a new framework C) working in a different, exciting industry D) working in a well-known, well...
Have you ever been fired before, or one of your colleagues? What were the main reasons for him being fired? The objective of this question is to get a list/description of other peoples experiences too see if we can come up with a theme of why people are let go. For those that work for consulting companies, I would guess one of the mai...
Hi, I know this isn't programming related per-se but i really need some educated & experienced advice on this. I work for a UK based web development agency as a c# web developer, and have been working alongside a splicer for a little over three years (he's been there a few months more then me). We both started with little/similiar indu...
I just wanted to gauge how software industry is coping with the recession. Everyday we hear thousands being laid off( including Microsoft and Google recently). So, did the recession finally catchup to Software industry as well? Or is the Software industry immune to this recession? ...
I have had these questions for several years and haven't received a straight answer from anyone in the teaching profession. What are the most important things you have learned from higher level education as they apply to programming? What things were sorely lacking from your formal education? Was there anything you were taught that was...
Specifically, ineffective for addressing a particular problem, not in general. Relational database management systems are good for many things and object database management systems are good for many things. Real world: RDBMS 99%, Freak ODBMS 1% C/C#/Java/PHP 99%, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, Lisp 1% Windows 95%, Linux 5% Waterfall 90%, Ag...
Hello everyone, I am looking for some reference/samples about how to define good KPI for education industry. I want to define KPI from school/department management perspective to measure various school performance, students/faculty/others. Any advice, referneces or documents are appreciated -- more appreciated if with the context of SQ...
Different industries treat IT in different ways. Some pay well but treat their staff poorly while others view IT solely as a cost center. What industries have you worked in where IT is truly valued and treated with respect and as an equal partner in the business? ...
I sort of arbitrarily chose AI and Platforms as my concentrations for my bachelor's, but I definitely have interests in media. How difficult is it to move laterally in the CS industry - in my case from something like platforms to something like game design? Impossible without further schooling? Relatively easy? Something else? ...
In the years that I've been at my place of employment, I've noticed a distinct trend towards something that I consider an anti-pattern: Maintaining internal data as big strings of XML. I've seen this done a number of different ways, though the two worst offenders were quite similar. The Webservice The first application, a web service...
Edit What software practices are being used in mission-critical industries where safety is paramount? For example nuclear power plant. Update Originally this question was: How would you develop software for a nuclear plant? I have changed it to save good answers. I'm also making this question community wiki. Please help to word it bette...
I've read about a really beautiful langauge called "Ada", which seems very powerful to me, with a lot of what we call these days "safety features". What was wrong with Ada not to make it a first-class language in industry? I know that it has been used in mission-critical software. What I am asking about is what does not make it a good ...
As a new entrant into the job market, I've been looking through Authentic Jobs, SO Job Board, Craigslist, etc, and I've noticed that 75% of the postings are in San Francisco and New York. Now bear with me, this is a real question: What tangible benefits does a company receive by being in a certain "well known" city beyond "reputation by...
Hi everyone, I'm graduating in December with an undergrad degree in Applied Mathematics. I'll be venturing out and finding my first programming job soon, but I'm a bit intimidated by the job ads I read. I regularly browse the ads on Dice, Craigslist and Monster, and from what I can tell, I don't have the necessary skills. Most jobs ten...
I know how to create the basic controls in Swing, but coming to industry standard application development, I lack the skills to do them. I am designing a small Java Swing application. Instead of creating a JFrame for each purpose, I would like to create controls, display them, hide them (whenever necessary), everything in just one windo...