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NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

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Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#281

Post by CydeWeys »

fapjacks wrote: post #278
gaius wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good engineers will naturally gravitate towards good tools. Therefore away from bad ones. Node.js is not a good tool. Therefore the quality of engineers using it will be poor and get worse over time. The same is true of MongoDB.

Good engineers will naturally gravitate towards good tools. Therefore away from bad ones. A hammer is not a good tool. Therefore the quality of engineers using it will be poor and get worse over time. The same is true of shovels.

Your example isn't making sense to me. Hammers and shovels are excellent tools. There's a reason they're some of the most commonly possessed and used tools world-wide.

Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#282

Post by throwaway201707 »

Have any of the big Palantir critics on here actually used their software for anything? Because compared to the usual fare of craptastic trashware that passes for "software" at NYPD, I can assure you that Palantir is excellent. Even the old Java/Swing installation still being used there is a godsend (though Palantir has moved on to a more modern UI in their current versions). It is (or was, I suppose) the most flexible investigative platform in that place.

The real issue at hand is internal politics. Tech at NYPD is run by a lawyer with little law experience and no technology chops who attained the position due to nepotism (daddy is rich and a huge contributor to the NYC police foundation). Coupled with brass who have zero understanding of technology and an aggressive IBM sales team, you get the result outlined in this news article.

Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#284

Post by rnprince »

CydeWeys wrote: post #271
rnprince wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After working with MUMPS for some time, getting to use Node.js has been a religious experience for me. I feel as if an incredible weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

I know the feeling. Four years ago I got done working on some truly terrible tech stacks and got to use NodeJS for the first time and it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders too. Then I left that company and I'm doing Java now, and I realized that leaving NodeJS behind has also lifted a huge weight off my shoulders, but of a different kind.

What about Java makes you like it more, or about Node.js that made you particularly frustrated?

I wish JavaScript were statically typed, but I'm not convinced about switching to TypeScript yet. I can see other ways Node.js could be frustrating.

Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#285

Post by fapjacks »

CydeWeys wrote: post #281
fapjacks wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good engineers will naturally gravitate towards good tools. Therefore away from bad ones. A hammer is not a good tool. Therefore the quality of engineers using it will be poor and get worse over time. The same is true of shovels.

Your example isn't making sense to me. Hammers and shovels are excellent tools. There's a reason they're some of the most commonly possessed and used tools world-wide.

Your example isn't making sense to me. Nodejs and MongoDB are excellent tools. There's a reason they're some of the most commonly possessed and used tools world-wide.

Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#286

Post by fapjacks »

fapjacks wrote: post #285
CydeWeys wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your example isn't making sense to me. Hammers and shovels are excellent tools. There's a reason they're some of the most commonly possessed and used tools world-wide.

Your example isn't making sense to me. Nodejs and MongoDB are excellent tools. There's a reason they're some of the most commonly possessed and used tools world-wide.

We could continue this all day. I can tell you're very inexperienced in saying specifically that a tool is bad. You'll learn as you grow in experience that even if you don't like a tool, that it can be useful for lots of other people in lots of circumstances. It may seem unbelievable to you, but when you get some more notches on your belt, you'll understand what I'm saying. Good luck!

Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#288

Post by greenrd »

ethbro wrote: post #222
eddigo wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been a "salaried contractor" for my second job, I learned to avoid those positions like the plague. When customers stop buying the company's software, guess who's the first to get the ax? Also, you get to sit by and watch project managers agree to all sorts of outlandish features that you'll be stuck implementing.

Agreed. Avoid any software consulting job where someone technical isn't in the feature design phase. It will suck your soul out, crush it, and then the project will fail anyway.

Feature design phase? Sounds like waterfall. Avoid that too.

Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#289

Post by greenrd »

tripzilch wrote: post #266
SeeDave wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of truth to this and they use rather unique (bordering on gimmicky) job titles such as 'Forward Deployed Engineer' as opposed to 'Solutions Engineer' or 'Technical Consultant' to add an aura of spooky government mystery and mask exactly what they do.

"Solutions Engineer" is supposed to tell me more about their role than "Forward Deployed Engineer"? The first is vague bordering on meaningless and trivially true for any engineer, the second is simply nonsensical without context. It's bullshit in both cases but I'd be much more inclined to ask about the latter, what it even means to deploy an engineer "forwards"? I found that most forward deployed engineers are in p…

I think it means deployed on the customer site, for better communication with the customer. At least, that's what I'd do if I were Palantir.

Re: NYPD is canceling its Palantir contract

#290

Post by mikhailfranco »

CydeWeys wrote: post #174
SeeDave wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of truth to this and they use rather unique (bordering on gimmicky) job titles such as 'Forward Deployed Engineer' as opposed to 'Solutions Engineer' or 'Technical Consultant' to add an aura of spooky government mystery and mask exactly what they do.

I think I lost some points with them a long time ago during an interview when, while trying to determine exactly what the "Forward Deployed Engineer" role that I was interviewing for actually meant, realized that it was actually just that of SWE consultant, a job which I'd previously held. So I kept referring to my extremely relevant experience from previously being a consultant, calling it as such, and that rubbed t…

'Forward Deployed Engineer' (ab)uses tactical military terminology meaning an engineer at the customer site, who works with his team to do anything and everything to win the battle (make the customer happy), whatever the cost shall be. In some rare cases, these engineers really are deployed to combat zones (e.g. with US airborne or marines in Afghan). The problem is they end up with very smart people doing mundane tasks, such as installs and data cleansing, without any specialization and division of labor. Most FDEs are massively overqualified for the job they actually do.
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