"Geeks" and licensing

From: Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd_at_ccp.com>
Date: Sat Dec 15 01:22:17 2001

Glen Goodwin wrote:
>
> > From: Christopher Smith <csmith_at_amdocs.com>
>
> > (To whit: I worked at one point with a guy who was convinced that every
> > operating system in the world was derived in some manner from MS-DOS.
> Yes,
> > that includes the Macintosh operating system too. "CP/M? What's that?
> > Unix is based on MS-DOS, right?" The guy was a "programmer.")
>
> (gag, puke)
>
> Well, most of us (except for Tony) have areas that we are not expert in, or
> even familiar with. The problem with the fellow you refer to is
>
> 1 -- The person who hired him. That person should be disposed of in the
> most painful way possible.
>
> 2 -- The institution which granted him a degree (if any).
>
> I've also had to work alongside people who managed to scrape their way into
> a "programming" job without having "what it takes" to really write code
> *and* solve problems. Don't get me wrong -- I have no degree and don't
> think one's required to be a competent analyst/programmer/whatever.
>
> But . . .
>
> Should programmers be licensed? Sure makes me wonder . . .
>
> Glen
> 00

I've een the same thing happen in broadcasting. Once upon a time when
the FCC had a backbone, the First Class Radiotelephone licence was
required for most engineering jobs. But by 1980 political pressure from
the NAB eliminated this requirement and now anyone with a good selling
job can do just about anything. . . . and usually they can't. Especially
around RF, high voltage and vacuum tubes . . .

When I got mine I was amazed how many people thought it was really
difficult, which it wasn't, if you understood the basics. The
aformentioned 'programmers' sure as h**l don't know the basics as
evidenced by their statements. And I bet none of them have ever hand
coded a computer to do anything productive. They rely on a good
software package to help them develop C code ad nauseum. Thanks, Bill.

Gary Hildebrand
ST. Joseph, MO
Received on Sat Dec 15 2001 - 01:22:17 GMT