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If, like me, you find yourself getting older and still can’t resist the desire to keep coding and building things, then read on. "The fundamental things apply, as time goes by"
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I remember five things from Binary Digits 101 - does that count?
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Number Six: Remember that the younger the developer you're interacting with, the more likely they are driven by ego more so that idealism. This isn't a bad thing, rather part of the learning process, but one must talk differently when reviewing code or pointing out weaknesses in order to compensate for the ego barrier you've long since overcome. Something a forty year old peer would consider a good suggestion, a youngster might take as a challenge, a threat or an insult.
At least for me, I found life much easier after adopting this rule. I've been offered the management track many times, but I like tinkering with code, new code, strange code, any code, and as I age but young developers are still young developers, I've had to adapt by remembering the ego-maniac I used to be. 
modified 27-Oct-15 18:01pm.
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I struggle with the ego-maniac myself except not so young anymore.
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What I want to know is, how do you pronounce his last name?
Marc
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Great article - thanks for posting the link here.
This is a great line: "Today, software is more like an extreme sport."
Just imagine if everyone who took up programming also took up wingsuit flying.
Wait a second... That could actually solve a lot of problems.
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The EU has rejected legal amendments that would firmly protect the concept of net neutrality in Europe. I don't understand: Europe has always been so neutral in the past
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In other news...
The yes that is spoken affirmatively has resulted in the positive declination of negative statments which have a counter-positive value on the zero scale of affirmation.
In other words....
No one knows what net neutrality means or whether it's good to have it and bad to not have it.
But most likely it means that the Internet will be neutralized one way or the other.
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Brought to you by the people who are trying to rape Google for $8B for not being neutral in it's display of advertising (which is well known to be it's business model).
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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The claim is that Oracle, which took over Java when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010, has been a bad steward of the language and, with typical Ellisonian ruthlessness, is abandoning Java while it reinvents itself as a cloud computing business. Sigh. This is just par for the course for Oracle, whose developer relations have always been defined by something in between neglect and contempt. Long live Java!
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I started in C++, moved to C++ MFC for windows dev. Did a stint of writing VisualBasic 5.x, 6.x apps.
I've written ASP.NET C# and been a C# programmer for many years now.
I wrote a few scripts using Java at one point, but little else.
Anways, I'm now writing some real apps for android and I find Java to be a very likable language on the Android platform. Hope Oracle doesn't screw it up for android devs.
Well, I know they've already tried to with their litigation, but you know what I mean.
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The rise of contract and contingent work is shaking up the traditional IT career path. Here’s how to navigate for success. Because giving employees benefits "hurts the bottom line"
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Yes, they don't like to give benefits; no legacy costs -> that might harm the bottom line. I actually decided 11 years ago to take a government IT position for the job stability. As a consultant, I was already going home to study every night and knew that wasn't going to last. I believe in the long-term plan and saw too many people lose their careers in the early 2000's. I figured I'd make more working full-time, instead of working as a consultant until my early 50's and then finishing my career at the local hardware store or Walmart. I don't do the work I imagined, but Code Project does keep me abreast!
I could make probably 50% more per hour consulting, but I feel that the older you get, chasing technologies is like a hamster running on a wheel. And in the end you are nothing more than a ouroboros. As for the young, they should have fun while they can, but should not forget, technology will outrun them in the end.
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This article is too focused on the benefits for the employers. The downsides for the employees in contract work are totally masked. I never met anyone who would give up a full-time job for the "flexibility" of contract work, and it's understandable: A full-time job gives you much more social security, is usually better paid, etc. I mean, even if you are perfectly skilled, it's no guarantee that you get a new contract in time when the current one is finished, and it's getting harder and harder the older you become. So what does this "flexibility" actually mean? It's cutting wages, of course.
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FIorian Schneidereit wrote: . I never met anyone who would give up a full-time job for the "flexibility" of
contract work, and it's understandable:
Pick your poison. It's not the way I want to work either, but I'm almost certain @Marc-Clifton isn't the only regular member of the peanut gallery here who's taken a salaried job when work was slow but gleefully returned to contracting as soon as the opportunity appeared.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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FIorian Schneidereit wrote: This article is too focused on the benefits for the employers.
Yup, very one-sided.
It does also does not mention any obvious drawbacks. Too much flexibility means that some key-players may abandon you in the worst possible moment. It also means a workforce that is less loyal and less 'involved'.
It is an evangelist, not someone who is doing an analysis - it is obviously promoting an opinion, and not very succesfull at that either 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Experienced workers, who are able to jump into a project quickly, save a company valuable time and resources
BS. I've never seen a project that I can jump into quickly and be effective. The reason I'm hired is because the project is an elephanting mess, and being effective usually means spending a solid month or more just figuring out how all the crapware is glued together. And that doesn't even touch learning what bizarre tools a company uses, or even worse, setting up communication, version control, bug tracking, QA, testing, etc. because they're non-existent.
The funny thing is, the first few months of any major contract that I've ever had involve very little programming, and very much getting to know the politics (especially when two or more managers rank priorities completely differently) and getting everyone on board with tools and formal processes.
So yeah, I guess I am pretty much immediately effective, just not in the way the recruiter (or the company) expected.
Marc
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A rogue chunk of debris that orbited Earth far beyond the Moon is making a homecoming on November 13th, astronomers have concluded. Mental note: bring umbrella
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Hide in your cave those who suffers from friggatriskaidekaphobia.
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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If it's Lore, please don't reactivate him.
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No, it's a statue made of validium[^].
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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How can vendors expect to migrate reluctant users to more reliable and up-to-date operating systems like Windows 10 or El Capitan -- especially when upgrade notices and reminders break earlier versions? Well that's one solution to, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" (break it yourself)
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Looks like disabling winupdate is the solution after all 
Patrice
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein
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In the last 11 years, since I got the first WinXP and then Win7, the only things that broke my computer were updates.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
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So true
Patrice
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein
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