Date   : Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:33:07 +0100
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: No wonder CompSci graduates are unemployed

On 03/11/2010 10:33, Mark Usher wrote:

> The problem is, cobbling together some of these workarounds isn't
> supportable in the long term and creates even more of a mess. 12months down
> the line, you have left, no one has a clue how the RISC PC / PDF bit works
> anymore, one of the cables on the veroboard has come loose and there isn't
> the skill in house to fix it. I always have to work on a minimum of 5 year,
> 100% supportability - but I also appreciate I have larger budgets to do it
> with.

That's why the website builder was specifically done on the PC. If you 
notice, the others were one-offs. I mean, how many times will a company 
want to migrate from a clunky old database to something newer?


> If only they'd done it right in the first place.

A very good point, but sometimes those in charge or those who want have 
totally unrealistic expectations. That's why I specifically mentioned 
the time constraint of the database. Not only was it a one-offy sort of 
thing, but the lack of time (and we're predating Google here...) means 
that it is simply unfeasible to take apart the database file and try 
working out how it stores information. They, the company, essentially 
want the data and they want it now.


> It seems a little too amateurish for the market place I work with.

And here, I think, you have rather lost the gist of the conversation, 
which isn't whether or not sure a hack is good or bad, but rather that 
the upcoming bunch of CompSci graduates would appear not to have the 
mental processing power to complete the task in the first place...


> Maybe I'm just getting older, but I do find I am tending to just want
> things that work and not have to faff about.

No, we've all seen half-assed firmware that makes a "cool" device barely 
usable. It is natural to expect things to work, and it is shocking to 
make claims on the box that:
   1. will be supported "in the next release"
   2. are blatantly untrue
   3. work, but in highly specific ways in highly specific circumstances
   4. are buggy as hell, and with no hope of open source will rely upon
      the whims of the developers, who were reassigned to <new toy>
      months ago

This is, of course, assuming you can start a dialogue with the company 
in the first place. Many just don't bother answering emails, beyond an 
autoresponder if you're lucky... or pass you to an expert who says 
helpful things like "you can't do <such-and-such>? have you tried 
rebooting?".


Given most support call centre staff follow a script written for 
numpties, and have zero abilities for diagnosing problems, I often find 
Google a better bet.


True story - for the hell of it, called up help centre for a well-known 
budget computer company, back in 2001.

[after a LONG queue]
Them: Hello, this is the <company> support line, my name is Tony, how
       can I be of service to you today?
Me  : Hi! I just got a new <model> and it looks great.
Them: Thank you.
Me  : However when I plugged it in, there was a little 'pop' and some
       smoke and now it doesn't work.
Them: So when you press the power button on the front, nothing happens?
Me  : Nothing at all.
Them: Can you please check it is plugged into the mains?

<click> Brrrrrr....


I really ought to find the tape I recorded it on.


> By the way, splitting a name on the first space is a very poor way of
> denormalising a name. Yes, it would save some time, but the resulting list
> would still need to be checked and probably amended manually.

True, and you'd need error handling for specific valid cases (Wookie, 
I'm looking at you ;-) ), however it is an acceptable solution to deal 
with the grunt work.

Let's face it. Secretary spends all afternoon doing this job.
JGH writes a program, runs it, and reads through checking the data (for 
I'm sure JGH would have the integrity to cast an eyeball over the 
result, only a really poor programmer would say "done it" without 
ensuring the output is correct) - we're looking at a half hour tops.

Now assume you are the boss. You want a list of names and surnames. And 
you ARE PAYING THEIR WAGE. Would you be happier with somebody who gives 
results quickly, or somebody who will "be busy all afternoon"? Given, as 
I said, the end product would be the same thing.


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...