Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder2.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lynn McGuire Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: Whoops! The Atlantic Makes Trump Look EPIC In Cover Intended as a Smear Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:44:55 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 97 Message-ID: References: <8ehfhj9jphf08ssafje6l45ugf8dd4gjub@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 00:44:56 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="b70eb76d41e3d509e143ba9a38098a37"; logging-data="2480686"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/GCP7H/N+A2/ttd8QWinmKwjIy/FTaG6Y=" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:gVaJ9d9mOTvckiShkic1MD2Sxb4= Content-Language: en-US In-Reply-To: Bytes: 5651 On 10/30/2024 5:29 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote: > On 10/30/24 14:12, Lynn McGuire wrote: >> On 10/30/2024 3:54 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote: >>> Lynn McGuire writes: >>>> On 10/30/2024 4:39 AM, D wrote: >>> >>>>> >>>>> This raises questions about the future job of programmers. Do you >>>>> believe that the field will be split into simple code-monkeys where >>>>> salaries with the help of AI, will decrease more and more over >>>>> time, and >>>>> the "elite" who actually are the ones who develop new algorithms, >>>>> tools >>>>> and AI that serve to reduce the salaries of the code-monkeys? >>>> >>>> I have no idea and I am in the business of writing and selling >>>> software. >>>>   Programming is an odd profession, very few programmers actually >>>> have a >>>> programming degree.  My degree is in Mechanical Engineering, one of my >>>> programmers has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, and my other programmer >>>> has a double degree in Chemistry and Physics. >>> >>> Pretty much every programmer I've worked with over the last forty >>> five years >>> has had a degree in computer science or computer engineering.  There >>> have been some without degrees that learned on the job (e.g. started >>> in product support and moved to programming, but those are the >>> exception, >>> not the rule). >>> >>> >>>> >>>> Many of the elite programmers never graduated from college.  Bill >>>> Gates, >>>> Mark Zuckerberg, etc. >>> >>> Calling either of them 'elite' programmers is inaccurate.  Good >>> businessmen, >>> perhaps.  Perhaps even good idea men. >>> >>> >>> Windows is, however, a steaming pile.  Popular by default, not by >>> design. >> >> And you just outed yourself as an elitist with that last comment. >> >> Lynn >> >     And what definition of elitist do you use, Lynn McGuire? > > Let me say that I used an Amiga computer from Commodore Business > machines. I have a long standing hostility toward Mircosoft > producte. I know that Windows is better than every before but > the interface is so obstuctive that I will not even run it in > a VirtualBox under Linux. When Commodore Business Machines > went out of business I hung around for a while but eventually > the hardware became too difficult to get repaired. > I moved to Linux in 2006 and I have used Window XP and helped > people understand Windows 3.1 and wiped out Windows 10 from > my computers repeatedly as I got other computers to replace > older and less well cared for machines. >     Now I do that on Social Security and I could not afford > licenses for the software that Windows or even MacIntosh uses. > I would prefer to be using an updated AmigaOS but the current > hardware is very expensive which is the rule with smaller companies > but I could run an emulator but those are directed toward gamers > rather than writers. I am old and sick unable to do all my own > shopping without a friends assitance with tranportation. >     So am I a member of an elite?  I have no formal eduation > aside from HS and a few course in the USN plus before I retired > classes to keep my nursing license. oh I am white so maybe I > am an elite.  But I am devotely anti-racist abd a survivor > of minor challenges to my health. >     But strangely enough my Opinion of Windoss is very > negative. > > bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2024.10-Linux 6.6.58-Plasma 5.27.11 You are an end user, do and say whatever you want. Scott is / was a professional programmer, to make a statement like that is incredibly unprofessional in my opinion. Scott probably knows but maybe does not, is that Bill Gates wrote the first Basic compiler/interpreter for Microsoft in 2,000 bytes of 8080 assembly language. It actually ran on the Altair 8800 with 4,000 bytes of ram. I would call Gates an elite programmer. Mark Zuckerberg was the only programmer for Facebook for several years. He got Facebook up and going by himself before hiring any employees. I would call Zuckerberg an elite programmer. I could name dozens of other elite programmers. Thompson, Ritchie, Kernighan, Carmack, etc. So could Scott. Lynn