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Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

joelonsoftware.com

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Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#21

Post by burntoutfire »

Nursie wrote: post #20
chrisbennet wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite Joel article is: "Whaddaya Mean, You Can’t Find Programmers?" https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/06/15/whaddaya-mean-you-... "Now, let’s review some microeconomics. In a free market, it is almost axiomatic that the market always clears. That’s a technical term that means that when somebody tries to sell something, if they are willing to accept the market price, they will be able to sell it, and when some…

Yup, this is a massive trope in the UK. "We need to import more people from wherever, there's a real shortage of software people!" No, there's a shortage of software people who are firstly willing to work for the £30K you seem to think is reasonable and secondly (implied by the pay on offer) willing to put up with being treated as if they are a junior, unskilled office worker. Which is why those with any ambition bec…

> Yup, this is a massive trope in the UK. "We need to import more people from wherever, there's a real shortage of software people!"

Following that logic, there must be a massive shortage of CEOs and high-level executives (given their salaries) - let's import them from Romania and significantly lower the costs across the economy!

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#22

Post by spratzt »

Nursie wrote: post #20
chrisbennet wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite Joel article is: "Whaddaya Mean, You Can’t Find Programmers?" https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/06/15/whaddaya-mean-you-... "Now, let’s review some microeconomics. In a free market, it is almost axiomatic that the market always clears. That’s a technical term that means that when somebody tries to sell something, if they are willing to accept the market price, they will be able to sell it, and when some…

Yup, this is a massive trope in the UK. "We need to import more people from wherever, there's a real shortage of software people!" No, there's a shortage of software people who are firstly willing to work for the £30K you seem to think is reasonable and secondly (implied by the pay on offer) willing to put up with being treated as if they are a junior, unskilled office worker. Which is why those with any ambition bec…

When I graduated it was said that if your were good enough to get a decent degree then you were wasting yourself in IT.

It was true then and it remains true to-day.

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#23

Post by pg_is_a_butt »

jgrahamc wrote: post #18
fit2rule wrote: post #16

Hey Joel - check out the MagicShifter - it does everything you want to do, plus more .. like MIDI! Paint your own POV pics! http://magicshifter.net/ sources: https://github.com/magicshifter/MS3000 You can solder a long strip of LED's (we had up to 500) and address the whole thing over a handy Wifi interface .. the MS3000 provides its own web-based programming/config interface too. We added an Arpeggiator, and MIDI to…

This looks cool. But "Everything Joels' trying to do with LED's, we already did with the MagicShifter" can read very negatively. Don't underestimate the joy of doing something yourself and making it happen. Such as me making a version of "Simon" in an Altoids can: https://blog.jgc.org/2012/05/simonoids-its-simon-in-altoids-...

Telling someone that you personally read something as very negatively, and projecting that on the rest of the world can read very douchey.

Maybe when you spend 17 years on a prototype to get it to market, and some other semi-retired individual starts their journey down the same path, you'll be able to keep your little trap shut and not try to help them. Oh wait, you couldn't. But, congrats on your tiny 4 button 2-bit memory loop knockoff from early 70's tech.

You're such a positive person!

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#24

Post by linsomniac »

fit2rule wrote: post #16

Hey Joel - check out the MagicShifter - it does everything you want to do, plus more .. like MIDI! Paint your own POV pics! http://magicshifter.net/ sources: https://github.com/magicshifter/MS3000 You can solder a long strip of LED's (we had up to 500) and address the whole thing over a handy Wifi interface .. the MS3000 provides its own web-based programming/config interface too. We added an Arpeggiator, and MIDI to…

There's also the PixelBlaze 2 controller, which connects via WiFi and can control individually addressable LED strips. It's pretty nice, costs around $25. https://www.tindie.com/products/electromage/electromage-pixe...

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#25

Post by DavidWilkinson »

sgt101 wrote: post #13

The HASH write up sounds awful like multi-agent simulation. I've recently had to return to looking at these things and in a "oh my god I need to do some MAS work" type panic I was relieved and gratified to find the the GAMA platform - so far I'm impressed. https://github.com/gama-platform/gama/releases wonder what HASH will add to this kind of thing?

David from HASH here. I know that panic all too well...

GAMA is great -- and we're big fans of the team! They've done an awesome job raising the profile, and improving perceptions, of ABM/MAS-type modeling.

We're approaching things in a rather different manner, with a specific view to decreasing the time and complexity involved in building real-world (versus toy) models. We'll be drip-feeding invites (and more info) in the coming days.

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#26

Post by zabzonk »

Given the plug-hole that StackOverflow is currently spiralling down, I really think adult leadership from someone like Joel is sorely needed. But I can see why he would not want to bother with it.

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#27

Post by mason55 »

fit2rule wrote: post #16

Hey Joel - check out the MagicShifter - it does everything you want to do, plus more .. like MIDI! Paint your own POV pics! http://magicshifter.net/ sources: https://github.com/magicshifter/MS3000 You can solder a long strip of LED's (we had up to 500) and address the whole thing over a handy Wifi interface .. the MS3000 provides its own web-based programming/config interface too. We added an Arpeggiator, and MIDI to…

I don't think Joel is trying to do anything with POV. The antenna is stationary, it's just covered in a ton of LEDs. Plus, he's talking about 10x the number of LEDs that you mentioned.

FastLED + the OctoWS or YvesBazin's controllers make much more sense for his project.

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#28

Post by detaro »

fit2rule wrote: post #16

Hey Joel - check out the MagicShifter - it does everything you want to do, plus more .. like MIDI! Paint your own POV pics! http://magicshifter.net/ sources: https://github.com/magicshifter/MS3000 You can solder a long strip of LED's (we had up to 500) and address the whole thing over a handy Wifi interface .. the MS3000 provides its own web-based programming/config interface too. We added an Arpeggiator, and MIDI to…

FWIW, for the non-POV use cases your website and repos don't seem to answer much in the way of questions.

How does one program patterns for such cases? Does the Web UI help at all with that (if not, there's other projects that handle that way better)? … Quite possible it's a good choice, but the docs I found wouldn't tell me so.

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#29

Post by wildmusings »

monksy wrote: post #12
spydum wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree - it still cracks me up in my particular industry. “There’s a shortage of security engineers and architects” is a common trope. No there isn’t- you just aren’t paying more than SWE and other dev salaries. People would consider switching if the money was there.

Money isn't always the reason. In Chicago there are dev companies that are so toxic or imploding that they're well known.

Most people would work in a toxic company for the right price. For an extremely awful job it might be very high, but just about everyone has a number.

Re: Joel Spolsky is (semi-)retired

#30

Post by spydum »

wglb wrote: post #17
spydum wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree - it still cracks me up in my particular industry. “There’s a shortage of security engineers and architects” is a common trope. No there isn’t- you just aren’t paying more than SWE and other dev salaries. People would consider switching if the money was there.

I was successful in doing this. But I started out by finding software engineers that were interested in security and were willing to learn and turned them into higher-paid security folks.

absolutely this. most solid security people were devs with an interest who were given the opportunity to flip. the problem is employers want to pay below market prices, for someone who already has all of the skills they want. that just doesn't happen: those people command a lot more money. your approach is MUCH more practical (hire or transfer good interested devs internally, and train them up).
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