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My first job out of college was for a manufacturing facility. We were tasked with moving a system from a PDP11 to a MicroVAX; both the old and new would be written in Fortran.
It wasn't particularly difficult; take the existing code and recreate it.. but with more flexibility in variable names, routine names, etc.
And, a naming convention for routines was established and agreed to.
From either the file name (9 characters - first 3 were the system name, next 6 the executable and routine) or the routine name, you could deduce its function.
For example, MCVDSWST1 - Mission Controller VAX, Double Switch, State 1
After successful implementation, I was put on another team to do the same type of rewrite for the automated warehouse.
The naming convention: file name (9 characters) must be the routine name, and routine names were cryptic. SRVCRNPSM - Storage Retrieval Vax Crane Primary State Machine.
Which is fine... but what if there were more than two states?
SRVCRNPSM, SRVCRNSSM (primary state machine, secondary state machine, etc.)
Since the PSM, SSM was the file AND routine name, I had to ask the developer what is stood for - because, of course, it wasn't actually documented anywhere....
And.. use non-standard Fortran features because they can be used, but don't actually leave comments as to what it is doing.
The Fortran manual, single copy, was in someone's office, so to look up a function, you had to invade personal space.
We've grown from there, and hopefully learned in the process.
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To paraphrase Daniel Webster (American Statesman, 1782-1852), “If all my developer skills were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of learning like a developer, for by it I would soon regain all the rest.” Gamma rays not needed
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Great quote... 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Boot camp grads lead college grads in practical programming skills, but lag in deeper understanding of systems and algorithms I don't know, but I've been told. I don't think I'm really sold.
On the idea that is. Didn't fit in the cadence.
I 3/4 expected to see at the end, "The author works at a boot camp." I'm surprised he doesn't.
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Well, based on your other recent news posts, boot camps will become irrelevant in the not too distant future as AI's start coming online to do the junior level programming. And one of the things an AI could probably be taught quite well how to do is basic algorithms and modular code. 
Marc
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I can't wait to see UIs designed by AIs.
I imagine they'll be even less user-friendly than the NI* UIs designed by ms, in recent history.
* Null Intelligence
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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The Boot campers seem to fit the mold of the classic Web Designer/Web Master. I'd think most of them would end up being freelancers or work for small companies; if they found jobs. The college grad seems to be more of the Application Developer type, that might end up working in a Fortune 500 company and working on large systems.
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Which means that both are not complete educations. Color me surprised there.
Now go take a look at the prices of those incomplete educations 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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The app routes requests through Google's servers to make it harder for governments to block them. "The street finds its own uses for things"
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Quote: The World’s Largest Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From its Employees’ Brains
"Bridgewater wants day-to-day management—hiring, firing, decision-making—to be guided by software that doles out instructions"
...
"At Bridgewater, most meetings are recorded, employees are expected to criticize one another continually, people are subject to frequent probes of their weaknesses, and personal performance is assessed on a host of data points, all under Mr. Dalio’s gaze.
Bridgewater’s new technology would enshrine his unorthodox management approach in a software system. It could dole out GPS-style directions for how staff members should spend every aspect of their days, down to whether an employee should make a particular phone call."
[^]
«There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you don’t want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.» Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
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wsj wrote: "Bridgewater wants day-to-day management—hiring, firing, decision-making—to be guided by software that doles out instructions"
"Managers fail about half the time when they make business decisions involving their organization, a new study suggests" (source[^]).
How much intelligence would be required? Enough to toss a coin perhaps?
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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This is going to crash and burn bad--as in bankrupt the company bad. (And I'll bet the engineers know it.)
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So they want an AI to govern robots.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Whether quantum computing promises to make current encryption methods obsolete. Start saving up your quantums for the day
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What to do to keep my cat more than half-alive ?
«There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you don’t want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.» Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
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BillWoodruff wrote: What to do to keep my cat more than half-alive
Just don't look at it, it will be fine.
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Quantum computers of today, are like ENIAC editions of modern day computers. It is just a big word, just like Java... Oh, sorry no, Java just happens to have a big bill. 
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan wrote: are like ENIAC editions of modern day computers
As far as they don't go BRAINIAC... I am happy 
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I've got a spare PS/2 port to plug it into my machine.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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This week, scientists and economic advisers to President Obama released a report on artificial intelligence, including the effects of automation on the US job market and economy. First they came for the search functionality on our computers, and I did nothing...
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Yes, technology tends to alter labour requirements rather than remove them but that tends to come with pretty disruptive consequences.
The problem we need to address is our adaptability to an increasing pace of change. We're living in an era that will almost certainly have an even more profound effect on our lives and our landscapes than the industrial revolution and no-one's really addressing the issue.
We continue to model our education system and our general expectations on a 20th century basis, working on the notion that people will do one thing for their entire working life. This really isn't going to apply to many kids growing up now.
Instead of teaching kids increasingly fleeting specialisations (don't get me started on teaching primary school children to "code"), this should serve as a call to make education much less specific and focus on more rounded and generalised skill-sets.
Slogans aren't solutions.
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Researchers at Tohoku University have, for the first time, successfully demonstrated the basic operation of spintronics-based artificial intelligence. "Right round like a record, baby"
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