15 Dec
2001
15 Dec
'01
1:22 a.m.
Glen Goodwin wrote:
I've een the same thing happen in broadcasting. Once upon a time when
the FCC had a backbone, the First Class Radiotelephone licence was
required for most engineering jobs. But by 1980 political pressure from
the NAB eliminated this requirement and now anyone with a good selling
job can do just about anything. . . . and usually they can't. Especially
around RF, high voltage and vacuum tubes . . .
When I got mine I was amazed how many people thought it was really
difficult, which it wasn't, if you understood the basics. The
aformentioned 'programmers' sure as h**l don't know the basics as
evidenced by their statements. And I bet none of them have ever hand
coded a computer to do anything productive. They rely on a good
software package to help them develop C code ad nauseum. Thanks, Bill.
Gary Hildebrand
ST. Joseph, MO
From: Christopher Smith <csmith(a)amdocs.com>
(To whit: I worked at one point with a guy who
was convinced that every
operating system in the world was derived in some manner from MS-DOS.
Yes,
that includes the Macintosh operating system too.
"CP/M? What's that?
Unix is based on MS-DOS, right?" The guy was a "programmer.")
(gag, puke)
Well, most of us (except for Tony) have areas that we are not expert in, or
even familiar with. The problem with the fellow you refer to is
1 -- The person who hired him. That person should be disposed of in the
most painful way possible.
2 -- The institution which granted him a degree (if any).
I've also had to work alongside people who managed to scrape their way into
a "programming" job without having "what it takes" to really write
code
*and* solve problems. Don't get me wrong -- I have no degree and don't
think one's required to be a competent analyst/programmer/whatever.
But . . .
Should programmers be licensed? Sure makes me wonder . . .
Glen
00