Recent submissions

Comment · 5 years ago
Don't forget that in ubertechland if you complain about sexual harassment or racism, you get punished! And your only recourse is to complain about it in social media. Or hire a lawyer and go bankrupt. Much better than unions!

Also, unionised workplaces do allow for terminating underperforming employees. It's just that companies need to try to actually help the employee first, and have clearly defined polices that lay out the process and allow the employee to appeal. The tech method of software deciding you get fired and no human can override is soooooooo much better.

I moved from one of Australia's largest software firms into a union role and got a 40% pay rise, and it's set in contracts exactly what I get paid and what increases I get. Which I much prefer than my pay rise depending on whether management would prefer to reward their friends.

Comment · 5 years ago
It says that Amazon had cameras pointed at the mailbox, so all Amazon has to do is hand over every single second of footage they took. I'm sure they have nothing to hide.
Comment · 5 years ago
How to does breaking existing compatibility with 3rd party products fit in to that?
Comment · 5 years ago
If anything Australia's success was in spite of the federal government. Quarantine is a federal responsibility, and they keep shirking it just so they can blame state governments when covid escapes quarantine.
Comment · 5 years ago
Politics
Comment · 5 years ago
Every highly paid software dev doesn't see the point of unions until they get screwed over by management.

USA has this really perverse view that unions are about dragging everyone down to the level of the worst employee, demanding money and gangsta standover men.

Most unions are about having someone in your corner when the big bad company decides to step on little old you. It's about having legal backing so some bro startup lord can't make your life a misery because you objected to him sexually harassing you.

I've worked at large dev companies, and had to put up with years of bullshit, team cuts, denied payrises because of other teams not getting their shit down, seeing teams lauded for breaking the rules then other teams threatened with firing for copying the favoured teams, teams gutted to make blackops groups for whatever stupid idea an exec currently likes then the originals teams getting no bonuses because they can't keep up. The vast majority of people in charge in software are selfish jerks, whether they are born again coders or mba suits brought in to increase profits. Unions are there so you are not alone

Now I work in one of the most unionised organisations in the country. Management might still be bastards, but I have thousands people on my side.

Comment · 5 years ago
Before the council cut down the gum tree, they used to deliberately drop branches on me when I was outside. Any they could bite through, up to maybe 1.5cm thick, they would wait until I walked around the car then drop them on my head, and scream their heads off. Crafty bastards
Comment · 5 years ago
But then we need something to interface with the db. Getting any programming language installed isn't going to happen in government.
Comment · 5 years ago
Impressive.

I worked at a financial software firm written in python that used Excel behind the scenes to run calculations and modelling.

Comment · 5 years ago
We use spreadsheets to manage data that would 1000% be better suited for storage in a database (and extracted the data would be sooooo much simpler than my monthly half day job of updating management reports).

Why? Because we don't have access to any databases. I dread to think of the requests and committees I would need to find and traverse to get a database set up for my team, let alone a system that I can write and run code on. Yet we can guarantee that every internal and external user has access to Excel.

Unless you are working for a software firm, or are part of a dedicated analytics team with access to suitable systems, large companies and government pretty much have no chance of being able to roll your own database.

Don't suggest Access. Never suggest Access.

Comment · 5 years ago
And there is no such thing as a guaranteed job, or job for life. My parents are boomer generation, and their friends insist that their kids are too lazy to work and should just march into a business and speak to the boss for work.

The world doesn't work like that for the vast majority. Hell, I worked in a software role for 10 years and it took me 2 years to find a non contract, full time role elsewhere. I applied for hundreds of jobs, with university education and experience, and got a handful of responses.

The economy is set up so a minority of people live in heaven while everyone else is treated like an expendable cost centre.

Comment · 5 years ago
It's probably because baby boomers were the generation most effected by lead poisoning. Their children don't have the associated brain damaged that causes the impulse control, lack of reasoning and irrational anger, and they see their parents as damaged goods and interacting with them has too many negatives to make it worth while.
Comment · 5 years ago
I wrote documentation for software that replaced set rules with a library that would determine the 'strength' of a password and only accept strong passwords. My feedback was 'this is bullshit, I've have 40 passwords rejected and I don't know why. How is the non-technical user supposed to pick a password when the rules and tests are secret and the doc person themselves can't use it?'
Comment · 5 years ago
It runs Linux, and they could have at least opened up the firmware for opensource updating. WDs response to Windows 10 blocking network access because the My Clouds use an old version of SMB is to buy a new one (and trash working equipment) or enable a not particularly secure SMB version in Windows.
Comment · 5 years ago
Your only justification for forcing people to come to your office is to suit your needs. If a role can be done successfully 100%, people like you need to think about others before you start supporting upsetting someone else's lifestyle to make yourself happier.

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