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Worst of breed software

worstofbreed.net

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Re: Worst of breed software

#16
post #10

Just last week at my job we apparently converged on a Kubernetes deployment to host a static site, due to company security policies related to publicly exposing buckets to the internet... I died a little inside that day.

Thats honestly the reason why most stuff is a web app these days. For desktop software you need to deal with IT security losers who recoil in horror at the idea of computers running software, and god help you if you need a port opened. Far better to shove everything through port 443 and redownload the software over and over until the end of time.

> For desktop software you need to deal with IT security losers who recoil in horror at the idea of computers running software

Windows will invariably tell them your software is not secure and block it.

It doesn't matter what the software does, all that matters is that only your company runs it, so there isn't a million people out there with a copy.

Re: Worst of breed software

#17
post #10

Just last week at my job we apparently converged on a Kubernetes deployment to host a static site, due to company security policies related to publicly exposing buckets to the internet... I died a little inside that day.

Thats honestly the reason why most stuff is a web app these days. For desktop software you need to deal with IT security losers who recoil in horror at the idea of computers running software, and god help you if you need a port opened. Far better to shove everything through port 443 and redownload the software over and over until the end of time.

> you need to deal with IT security losers who recoil in horror at the idea of computers running software

Oh boy I have some bad news for thise IT security losers

Re: Worst of breed software

#19
Thank you. I've been doing distributed systems for years, when and to the degree appropriate, but this Worst Of Breed career guidance resource should help me position my skills, for current hiring priorities, to maximize my impact, towards enterprise objectives, going forward.

But seriously, it's not only cynical careerists who are pumping resume keywords like it's a game everyone is playing, and everyone keeps quiet about RDD, etc., because nobody wants to spoil it for everyone. It's also people who are really into one of the keywords, and think it's the most important thing, or the only important thing.

-- Past Case Study #1 --

Context: interview with systems research PhD brand-new founders, after my cold outreach pitch as a "startup generalist" (I think I said it in the headline) who would complement the scientists.

Me: (paraphrased) You're the experts in novel distributed systems research niche X, and I can't help you with that. What I can help with is all the other early startup work you'll need done, like bespoke infrastructure that works with X, Web consoles, mobile apps, some systems programming, product definition, project management, helping academic researchers and industry engineers work together, whatever needs to be done.

PhD founder: (this might be an exact quote) We need an expert, not a generalist.

-- Past Case Study #2 --

Context: interview with a mid-stage startup's CTO, who was hired for distributed systems expertise.

Me: I suspect that a Postgres server on a modest cloud server can handle the entire planet's activity of X. And (since the company's recruiting materials emphasized bias for action, and rapid iteration) we could very quickly build and validate that empirically with simulated transaction load. Of course, in production, we'd set up Postgres with distributed failover, etc.

CTO: I going to need a severalth one-on-one interview with you, an offer is imminent, but it's unclear whether you'll ever be allowed to talk with anyone else on the team, who you pointedly have still not yet met.

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