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Mainframe, Interrupted

logicmag.io

46 pointsehudla10 comments

"I'm kind of confused by everyone being called an engineer now. In my day, an engineer was somebody who had an engineering degree, like a civil or mechanical engineer. But programmers or systems analysts weren't that. Do software engineers have engineering degrees?"

- Joan Greenbaum

> Do software engineers have engineering degrees?

We do, on countries where only universities acknowledged by the Engineering Order are allowed to give such degrees, and one cannot sign project contracts under that title if he/she hasn't become a member after graduation.

On overnight "engineers": https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD11xx/E...

Well, in France (and in other countries probably) we do. The formation is quite different from a mechanical engineer ofc, but it ticks all the checks of the CTI (the "engineer title committee").

yay legalism!

did engineers exist before there was a title and a professional society?

>Clark Squire is now known as Sundiata Acoli. He’s still in prison, on a different charge.

That charge is for killing a state trooper for which he got a life sentence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assata_Shakur#New_Jersey_Turnp...

I don't get the article's subject's sympathy for him or the Panther 21 at all. It felt like a surprise turn in the article.

The Panther 21 were acquitted of the charges the CPP raised money to bail him out for in 1969 so if you believe in the justice system that means he was innocent. The shooting death that he is in jail for to took place in 1973 and so is unrelated to what CPP raised bail funds for. Just wanted to clarify because it wasn't clear when reading these comments.

Interesting how back then programming was a woman's job and the racial divide between programmers and operators.

I was discouraged from pursuing any sort of programming/computing-related degree in the early 2000s when I went to college because my parents (who are quite old and do not use computers for any meaningful work) saw it as a secretarial position.

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