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How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

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Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#361

Post by drunkpotato »

lukevp wrote: post #337
drunkpotato wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may be misreading them, but GP seems to be doing the re-write in the recommended way, small chunks at a time. I think the advice cautioning against wholesale replacement re-writes is sound, but piecemeal transition is much more achievable. I think it took about 5 years to transition Wayfair from asp to PHP one page/system/scheduled task at a time, but the result was a working system at all times that improved with…

Asp.net Core is fantastic. ASp.net is ok but not as good. Asp.net Core is cross platform, has a self hosted https server called Kestrel that is insanely fast, has a really sensible composition of middleware, built in DI, and a strong community. Hangfire is a great job runner, signalr is available with real-time push over web sockets, identity server 4 can handle all your Authn/Authz and Entity Framework Core + Linq i…

Cool, very good info thank you! I’ve heard great things about .net core but never had the pleasure of using it yet. I would love to play with F#!

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#362

Post by J-dawg »

TedShiller wrote: post #264

I'll share a disturbing anecdote about one of the largest and most influential software companies in the world, based in the Bay Area, and I'll leave it to you to guess which one. I know of several people who work there who are ranked very highly and are paid extremely well, who have told me personally that the work they do there is terrible for the users (i.e. it's exploitative) and terrible for the internet (it int…

I think the hypocrisy of this stands out in tech more than other industries, because people have got used to the idea of tech "making the world a better place" and being a force for good.

There are bright people making lots of money in other industries who would struggle to even pretend they are making the world a better place.

In fact, how many jobs are there where you can get reasonably high pay and status, and still feel like you are actually improving the world? Medicine springs to mind, the sustainable energy industry...some parts of the software industry...anything else?

Sadly it seems most of us need to sell at least a little bit of our soul to pay the rent.

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#363

Post by vbtemp »

worriedformyjob wrote: post #13

Obviously using a throwaway here. Our board members got it into their heads that successful companies must have an AI "play", so they instructed the CEO to invest about 10% of our development budget on AI. We are doing absolutely inane projects that have no hope of succeeding. We serve a niche industry where certified professionals have to do certain tasks personally, instead of being able to delegate to secretaries.…

> Interesting times, but at least we can now tell investors we are a keen company with an AI play up our sleeve!

To be fair, this is absolutely not unique to you but literally every (software) company in america right now.

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#364

Post by the_af »

ejolto wrote: post #322
Exmoor wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone offered me AI that drove me to work while I slept or watched movies, or AI that filled out my expense reports, I'd ask if the AI is able to scan the receipts by itself.

I'd ask the AI to go to work for me, then I'd go hiking in the mountains.

And possibly tell the AI to chat with my relatives and help them with their endless computer problems.

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#365

Post by J-dawg »

savrajsingh wrote: post #352
TedShiller wrote: post #264

I'll share a disturbing anecdote about one of the largest and most influential software companies in the world, based in the Bay Area, and I'll leave it to you to guess which one. I know of several people who work there who are ranked very highly and are paid extremely well, who have told me personally that the work they do there is terrible for the users (i.e. it's exploitative) and terrible for the internet (it int…

https://youtu.be/-DiBc1vkTig exact story covered by the onion

I often wonder how someone like Dan Abramov manages to square his obviously strong social conscience with working for Facebook.

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#366

Post by the_af »

beckingz wrote: post #351
the_af wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it happened like the OP described, they just got lucky, but it could have gone differently. A good (but less than honest) CEO would have colluded with the developer before talking to the customer, both agreeing to upsell an easily implemented feature. However, the mark of a PHB is that he/she will ask for random features while completely misjudging their feasibility -- sometimes you'll get lucky, sometimes you'll…

My new hobby is using "collusion" instead of "collaboration"

My rule of thumb is that if it's a plot to dishonestly deceive the customer, it's probably collusion. If instead it's an honest plan made with the understanding of the customer, it's a collaboration ;)

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#367

Post by ako »

ptx wrote: post #290
noizejoy wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This may be a stupid question, but what does "client/server" mean in this context? Not a stupid question at all, since terminology has been shifting over the decades. Back in the early 1990s, the original client/server generally meant all application code (logic and UI) on the client computer, and all the data on the server. So a very fat client. Database stored procedures (i.e. some logic on the server) only arriv…

Without any server-side logic, I suppose user permissions must have been handled entirely by the database, with clients connecting as different database users? Did row-level security already exist in some databases at that time? Otherwise this must have been quite limiting.

Row level security was usually handled through database views.

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#368

Post by snarf21 »

h0h0h0h0111 wrote: post #323

I currently work a "crypto" startup - we've developed our own language and platform for developing smart contracts. Our CEO constantly talks of "ecosystems" and "blockchain", when that's none of what we actually have (or have concrete requirements to build...). Our investors and customers have no real idea what they want or what to expect - most of the customers just want a basic enterprise system, but have been wooe…

I work in a similar place now and have in the past. I've taken the following approach as much as possible: 1) Use the opportunity to learn new technology and toolchains regardless of applicability. This can greatly increase your worth when looking for jobs in the future. 2) Try to find things outside of work to give your days meaning. Find a hobby or side project. I started designing board games. This lets you treat work much more as a 9-5 punch the clock task and lets you look forward to working on your real project later.

It is still entirely frustrating to feel like you spend your days digging holes and filling them back in but you have to fill your days with your own meaningful purpose.

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#369

Post by [deleted] »

transcriptase wrote: post #300

Did anyone here work on implementing Bing web search into the Windows 10 start menu? I'm curious to know the decisions that led to an operating system file search prompt ignoring exact file, directory and app names in favor of trying (and generally still failing) to show irrelevant web results.

[deleted]

Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?

#370

Post by gmfawcett »

noizejoy wrote: post #223
buu700 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be a stupid question, but what does "client/server" mean in this context? I would interpret it to mean any networked or Internet-based application that has both client- and server-side logic, which obviously isn't anything special in 2020, but it sounds like you're referring to something else that would now be considered outdated?

> This may be a stupid question, but what does "client/server" mean in this context? Not a stupid question at all, since terminology has been shifting over the decades. Back in the early 1990s, the original client/server generally meant all application code (logic and UI) on the client computer, and all the data on the server. So a very fat client. Database stored procedures (i.e. some logic on the server) only arriv…

There were alternatives to stored procedures for centralization. I remember RPC and CORBA being hot topics around that time. The tiered architecture was a thing before the Web.
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