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Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

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Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#31

Post by technion »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #10

Pretty much all you need to know about working at Oracle: Making his point about the "creepiness," not only with Ellison but with Oracle's power structure, Gosling said he sparked a notion to try to improve morale amongst the Sun faithful who endured the Oracle acquisition. He said the company decided to rent out the Great America amusement park in Santa Clara, Calif., and allow the Sun folks to have a day of fun. Sc…

I really wouldn't underestimate the investment on the Oracle yacht. I've known several executives to speak highly Oracle based on being avid sailors.

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#32

Post by altotrees »

nappy-doo wrote: post #25
altotrees wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the point about his ego not being fed at Google: when he went there, I wondered what he would be working on and if being another name on a roster if insanely talented engineers and scientists(Norvig, Pike, on and on and on)would help him grow and create more great things, or prove a frustration in some way. What was he working on there, I haven't read many details, does anyone know?

I worked at Google while he was there. It was common knowledge that he did about nothing while there. He wrote a document detailing why Google's development practices were broken, and left in under a (if I remember) year. Again, if I remember, he filed no bugs, committed no code, and wrote no design documents.

Interesting, I know he has been at a few places since then, wonder if his output has picked up? Getting into Java was my first taste of programming and I loved it, thought really highly of Gosling and still do. I just had a friend tell me this morning "heh Java is so dying." I swear I hear this every few months, but I fail to see it going anywhere. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough?

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#33

Post by whack »

An anecdote from the article which really speaks volumes.

> Making his point about the "creepiness," not only with Ellison but with Oracle's power structure, Gosling said he sparked a notion to try to improve morale amongst the Sun faithful who endured the Oracle acquisition. He said the company decided to rent out the Great America amusement park in Santa Clara, Calif., and allow the Sun folks to have a day of fun. Scott McNealy and Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz signed off on the project that came in well under budget and all systems were go, Gosling said. Except a few days before the event was to occur, Oracle Co-President Safra Catz got wind of it and put the kibosh on the thing.

> "Safra found out and had a fit," Gosling said. "The word came down that Oracle does not do employee appreciation events. So she forced the thing to be cancelled. But they didn't save any money because the money had been spent - so we ended up giving the tickets to charities. We were forced to give it up because it wasn't the -Oracle Way.' On the other hand, Oracle sponsors this sailboat for about $200 million."

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#34

Post by 0xbear »

quuquuquu wrote: post #27
jessaustin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For posting the dirty laundry anonymously on HN?

>anonymously With enough effort, I'm certain someone could out me. I'm not protecting my connection or device ID in any way. >dirty laundry All of the things I've cited about Oracle are public knowledge. If an employee of Monsanto says that RoundUp causes cancer, is that dirty laundry, or stating a scientifically proven fact?

It's not a "scientifically proven fact".

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#35

Post by xenophonf »

0xbear wrote: post #34
quuquuquu wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>anonymously With enough effort, I'm certain someone could out me. I'm not protecting my connection or device ID in any way. >dirty laundry All of the things I've cited about Oracle are public knowledge. If an employee of Monsanto says that RoundUp causes cancer, is that dirty laundry, or stating a scientifically proven fact?

It's not a "scientifically proven fact".

0xbear, it helps to cite the relevant scientific research:

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/jmprsummary2016.pdf?ua=1

https://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVo...

The short version is that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in consumers or farm workers:

https://www.wired.com/2016/05/monsantos-roundup-herbicide-ca...

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#36

Post by junkculture »

bitL wrote: post #15
bitmapbrother wrote: post #10

Pretty much all you need to know about working at Oracle: Making his point about the "creepiness," not only with Ellison but with Oracle's power structure, Gosling said he sparked a notion to try to improve morale amongst the Sun faithful who endured the Oracle acquisition. He said the company decided to rent out the Great America amusement park in Santa Clara, Calif., and allow the Sun folks to have a day of fun. Sc…

Another interesting tidbit about Oracle - if you leave as a peon and return back after a few years, you are given exactly the same conditions as you had when you left, regardless of what you did in the years in-between. Oracle doesn't care if you progressed in the meantime.

Why would anyone go back?

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#37

Post by quuquuquu »

xenophonf wrote: post #35
0xbear wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a "scientifically proven fact".

0xbear, it helps to cite the relevant scientific research: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/jmprsummary2016.pdf?ua=1 https://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVo... The short version is that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in consumers or farm workers: https://www.wired.com/2016/05/monsantos-roundup-herbicide-ca...

Why is there a class action lawsuit on TV telling me that people who are exposed to it have higher rates of cancer?

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#38

Post by stephenbez »

I'm curious why the mods changed the title from "Java Creator James Gosling: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)" to "Why I Quit Oracle (2010)"

The fact that it is James Gosling saying this instead of a random employee seems important.

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#39

Post by dmoy »

quuquuquu wrote: post #37
xenophonf wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0xbear, it helps to cite the relevant scientific research: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/jmprsummary2016.pdf?ua=1 https://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVo... The short version is that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in consumers or farm workers: https://www.wired.com/2016/05/monsantos-roundup-herbicide-ca...

Why is there a class action lawsuit on TV telling me that people who are exposed to it have higher rates of cancer?

Because, like Oracle lawyers coincidentally enough, they're probably fishing for a settlement.

Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)

#40

Post by jaimex2 »

hota_mazi wrote: post #17
gleenn wrote: post #2

I got the chance to talk to Gosling at a discussion about adding closures to Java a while back. You could tell immediately that he was an amazing and incredibly friendly guy. I have a ton of respect for him. That being said, this is a really boring article. If there was anything meaty, he said he couldn't really say. The rest of it is that Oracle didn't pay him well and effectively demoted him. I feel like that is re…

While it's pretty clear that Oracle acquired Sun in the hope of suing Google, it's also obvious to anyone who's been following the industry that Oracle has been doing an excellent job with Java. When Oracle acquired Sun, Java had been stagnating without seeing any major version for five years. In the four years following the acquisition, Oracle released two major versions of Java, including some very long awaited (an…

Features which were in the pipeline already from Sun days.
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