bungie4

Just for a point of reference, I've been a Cabinet Maker, Welder, Powder Coater, Skid nailer, punch press operator and more. Believe me, I understand blue collar. I was in my 30's before I worked professionally as a programmer.

I currently live in a town that is resource based, mining and forestry. The epitome of blue-collar. Believe me, those guys make double what I do with bonuses and benefits. Even without, they make significantly more than I do. It isn't uncommon for a worker in this town to be able to retire by 45. They work until they are offered early retirement, or, have their pensions bought out. All this with very little education beyond 'common-core' in the mining sector. Ya, they bust their asses. But they're paid for it. So, ya, you raise valid points, but I'll stick with my first hand experience. Have you ever worked blue-collar or just second had info as you present.

I wouldn't. I'd learn a trade. Not to be facetious, I'm serious. I love programming. I never played video games, I spent my free time learning basic and then assembler in the late 80's. At the time, I was custom cabinet maker. I eventually become allergic to the 'smell' in oak, causing health problems. I had to give it up. I was busy 8 hours a day. I made decent money. Theirs a certain satisfaction at the end of the day and being able to point at something physical and say 'A good days work'. I began contract programming and eventually into full time employment.

Flash forward about 30 years. I'm still writing code professionally. I rarely write code for just enjoyment anymore. Those carpenters, cabinet makers, plumbers, electricians.. .trades people, make the same or more than I do. Their unionized. They can work practically anywhere and make the same amount of money. Not just in major cities. It doesn't see many radical shifts in technologies, unlike programming that is a life long learning because of advancing tech. Its VERY likely you will find your skill set obsolete without a real concerted effort of constantly upgrading. I wont even get into the culture which IMO is fostered by those writing the cheques and even your peers. Nor the moral issues that you will inevitably face - something few programmers ever talk about. It's a real kick in the happiness meter when something you write is designed solely to put many people out of work.

My opinion, my real opinion, is that if you find yourself writing code 'for fun' even if you don't know what your doing, pursue it. If your only in it for the career. Turn and run like hell. You'll be burnt out in 5 years and starting over.

I miss GFA to this day.

In North America and Europe, it's common for motorcyclists to quickly layout routes when touring using google maps. They (google) have made a UX that makes it ridiculously easy (as compared to something like Garmins Basecamp -which should be used as shiny example of how not to design an UX) The issue is that you cannot directly save the maps in GPX format to upload to your GPS. So thiers a world of work arounds, some easy, some not, to get a KML file into your GPS.

If it supported GPX natively, you would likely capture the entire North American and European touring market in one fell swoop. I'm guessing you (google) never asked which kind of goes against the entire point of this article

It was my undertanding that the Bedouin wore full body clothes to SLOW evaporation. In the desert, your sweat evaporates to fast (because of the near 0 ambient humidity) not giving it enough time to pull heat out of your body. Thus, making you even hotter.

I've experienced this very thing riding a motorcycle through Arizona. Man, it takes some real willpower, but gearing up is what is required when the temps go over about 85F. Just don't stop!

Tip. On a motorcycle, wet your shirt. Zip up your coat. Unzip your wrist cuffs. This slows down the airflow giving time for the water to evaporate and cool you, while providing an intake and exhaust. You will be amazed at how well this works. You can actually regulate the temperature (air flow) by opening or closing the zipper by your neck.

This will not work in areas with high humidity like the deep south.

First off, I stand up and applaud the Gates Foundation, and everybody, who work to improve the lives of everybody on the planet.

WRT: Extreme Poverty, a few years back, we had a political party who tackled the problem of poverty by redefining the measuring stick of what constitutes poverty. POOF much celebration and self-handshaking when they announced that during their term, their efforts dropped the number of people living in poverty by a very significant amount.

This has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since to never trust claims from politicians.

So I wonder, in the case of this article, how many of those people no longer living at the adjusted poverty line and now only marginally above it and no longer included. They're still their, but buy grace of a single digit, are now considered much better off.

Good timing. I'm currently working on an existing app that is targeted specifically at those with accessibility issues as part of a larger service offering. More so towards those with hearing issues.

This is a good first step, I have been using the WAVE accessibility plug in for Firefox to identify missed issues in my first run through of the app.

Luckily, we have an employee with a visual impairment that we can utilize for real world testing of the app.

This really is its own specialty.

Yup. But the issue is a financial one, not a technological one. All manner of things can be accomplished at the origin. But all the other links in the chain must have access to the companion technology (read money). This is just not available on a widespread basis. Then, you have issues of adoption, and, competing services and standards.

We are experiencing this very thing with regards to Fire dispatch, with all manner of fireman 'apps'. All of which are different with different protocols. So much so, that we now refuse to support any of them.

Exactly.

I work in 911, Telematics, alarm, PERS space. We are a PSAP (Public Safety Answer Point)

The device might send a Geocode, but reverse geo-coding (turning a long/lat into a human readable place) is a highly inaccurate thing. Secondly, most responders have no means of turning a long/lat into a point on the map, short of using their personal phone. Next, altitude is not factored in. Imagine being in a downtown office building. If nobody is downstairs to guide responders, or if the caller was unable to speak, they will have a really difficult time determining just which building/floor you are in.

Its all gotten much worse with the advent of mobile/VOIP and now, WIFI phone systems where your phone can move. Its a system ill equipped to handle it.

I learned to write on a blackboard with both arms at the same time (an ability which has had me labeled a freak!). In this case, it worked great so long as nobody saw you do it, and, the phrase wasn't two long.

First class comment.

I can't tell you how many times I point out the data model is flawed (even when it should be obvious) only to have the project turn it into something you don't want to step in.

The most recent one was clearing of multiple work orders with one invoice. Yes you can, but you shouldn't.

Ha! Self-gloating. I cancelled my Visa just yesterday. Part of my self-imposed program to return to a simpler life. But it's some sort of weird Schadenfreude justification that it hasn't happened to me directly.

I'm rolling my life back to the 1980's. :D

When my Nexus 5 dies, I plan on going back to my old Sony-Ericsson feature phone. Just before I retired it I put in a bigger battery. I can fit 3 of them in any pocket I care to choose. It ran 2 weeks on Standby before giving up the ghost. As for functionality. I'm old. Voice/Text/Camera. I've gone for years and years without having a data plan. I typically xfer about 10 texts a month and I might get 1 or two voice calls. Which leads to my next point; I even managed to get rid of my cell plan. I ported my number to my employers plan, he covers it all. I've got unlimited everything on the corporate account. So I save about $500/yr. Do you think I'm gonna invest double that in a new phone? Pfft.

Different strokes for different folks, but I wouldn't miss it at all.

You mean like Yahoo?

Every 2 weeks on payday, Google reminds me that my electronic pay receipt is due. Thanks! Glad your looking out for me. Dumbass.

Even more ridiculous, it doesn't remind me when my phone or credit cards are due when they notify me.

Nicotine is a stimulant, not a depressant.

Do you take Meth to 'even out'?

Me, I just quit smoking entirely 3 years ago.

Accept a job, NCA/NDA had a clause that gave them rights to any intellectual property I had developed in the PREVIOUS 20 years. I refused to sign. I was looking for work again after that pay period.

Sidenote: The company I now work for does business with the first company, I ended up inheriting the first companies code base written for my current company. It looks like they can't hire much beyond script kiddies.

According to the owner of this company, it takes at least 3 days for somebody with absolutely no computer skills to learn programming. Apparently its the career path of choice for telephone operators in a call center.

What is funny, after programming professionally for about 30 years, Is I want that job in the call center answering telephones. Even more ironic, it takes 1 month of intensive training to do that job.

The issue in my case is that the opportunities are limited based on location. Workers in this town should be making MORE than average owing to lack of benefits that a big city has.

Theirs a reason they pay as little as they do. The 'good' talent leaves for higher paying jobs elsewhere. It's a self perpetuating problem.

I read an article just the other day about a group of IT workers who attempted to form a union - that didn't go well. I'd be all in.

Cost of Living Adjustment.

Last month I was told I'd be docked a portion of my COLA because my time estimates were always longer than my actual work time. This was because management NEVER, EVER gives me anything close to a specification to estimate properly from. So, I tend over estimate.

Looked at another way, I was docked because I consistently outperform estimated time to delivery, which means the company actually makes more money off my work because we charge our customers for development work.

So, what do I think of performance appraisals at my work place? I'm actively looking for other work.

I also believe that performance appraisals, for anything but bottom rung employees, are currently done one way only. They should be done from both perspectives. The managed employees reporting to the managers boss. This way, ineffectual middle managers can be disposed of.

A) I wasn't referring to the methods in the article, instead, from the previous poster. B) The way I mentioned, is 100% legal, C) its also useful to mere mortals.

Yup, winnings under $10G are not reported to revenue Canada. Want to launder money? Go into a casino and have a good time for a few hours. Do not spend more than a couple of hundred.

Revenue Canada asks where the money came from? "I 'won' it at the casino". Rinse and Repeat.

Also, how to deal with down the road queries wrt; churn when you have deleted the data. I'm calling self inflicted technical debt because of shortsightedness or, dare I say it, lack of acumen. :D

I usually use a date as a soft delete. If it's non-null, its deleted, and, you get to record the actual date of deletion.

I've never found it to be a problem. In fact, I find it's more of a problem to physically delete. You just have to design that way from the get go. Not added on after you've realized ppl leave.

I was a Yahoo site of the day, equivalent to reddit/hn/sd/ph hug now. It was bonkers. No notification just BLAMMO!

In case you haven't noticed, 15 yr old, and 17 yr old girls don't walk anywhere. LOL.

Nor do they ride their bicycles.

In fact, anything other than 4 wheels (or dad on two) will have them mysteriously taking a sick day. +30C or -30C, no difference.

Living in a small northern Ontario town, I wish we had Lyft or Uber here. Instead, just taxi's (or family) and public transport.

Our public transport is based on a center hub topology with the hub being downtown. So if my kid wants to take the bus to work, about kilometer away, it takes 45 minutes half of which is in the wrong direction and involves at least one transfer. Oddly, it takes even longer to get home.

Our public transport is a joke.

My boss addresses this by buying staff a $1 store self-help book inscribed with "Push Yourself" in the front cover.

Did you know Indeed will send you unlimited alerts on a daily basis! Great site :D