Cheap GPUs render strong passwords useless

[notyoueither]

Wonderful. An excellent idea that Joe User will have absolutely no problem with, ever. Why should I have to jump through hoops to make their system secure?

**** their system.

You're making yourself secure.

It is a good skill to learn, and teach.

[Ben Kenobi]

Software development is a craft

Hilarious. So software development is an art, like say writing? No wonder you hate actual scientists.

[Asher]

Hilarious. So software development is an art, like say writing? No wonder you hate actual scientists.

There is so many WTFs in this sentence I couldn't even decide where to begin, so I didn't.

[Asher]

Depending who you ask, software development is either an art, a craft, a science, or an engineering discipline. It's a mix of almost all of them, but I find craft is most apt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_craftsmanship

http://manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org/

[Ben Kenobi]

Depending who you ask, software development is either an art, a craft, a science, or an engineering discipline. It's a mix of almost all of them, but I find craft is most apt.

For someone who's criticized artsies incessantly I find your philosophical musings hilarious. Welcome to the club Asher. You are one of us now.

[Asher]

I criticize people who waste time and money on BA degrees. I appreciate art.

Look at you. You've got a glorious BA degree, and when you're not unemployed you're an illegal alien in Texas.

[Ben Kenobi]

I criticize people who waste time and money on BA degrees. I appreciate art.

Obviously not. You belittle those who are beneath you or engaged in occupations not your own. Yet, when push comes to shove, you follow the money and dive headlong into the world of art.

Look at you. You've got a glorious BA degree

Indeed. I worked hard and I earned the degree. Now I teach other kids and I quite enjoy my job. If I do nothing else my whole life I would be content.

Would I make the figures that you do? Unlikely. But I am doing something that I am good at and I enjoy greatly.

And I'm supposed to consider myself a failure and cry 'woe is me'?

[Koyaanisqatsi]

**** their system.

You're making yourself secure.

It is a good skill to learn, and teach.

And yet, completely irrelevant to whether or not it's a good practice for developers to follow.

[MikeH]

No, it's not absurd. Trust me.

I've worked at investment banks with PhDs in math writing code (like KH). Incredibly bright guys who wrote the worst software you would see in your life. Software development is a craft more than a field of math, they're not overly related. People who are strong in math tend not to be good at software development because they're largely relying on different strengths. A good software developer is imprecise and efficient, a mathy is anal and obsessive. A mathy will build an overly complicated solution with massive classes (or more realistically, procedural/functional programs existing inside a class...), while a good developer whips up a much simpler solution that solves the same problem in a cleaner design with less time.

I agree with all this. And have worked with mathsy people like you describe, maintaining their code is a nightmare. Often extremely clever code that is doing the wrong thing 'cause they didn't understand the customer requirement.

The only thing I would say is that IMO in the real world Software Development has very little to do with what I consider to be computer science, and that computer science is more mathsy.

What people outside the industry don't really understand is that the programming/writing code bit of the job is so easy it's almost trivial. As a developer I spend ~ 20% of my time coding. Understanding the business need, planning, optimising and looking at overall strategy is the interesting and challenging part of the job.

Which is why outsourcing coding is not always a great idea, unless your outsourced coders really understand the business need. Often it's quicker for me to code something self documenting than to write a detailed spec for someone else to follow.

And, of course, what Asher originally said was totally understandable to anyone, and a good enough description for a wide audience whether imprecise or not. Understanding business need and being able to communicate with end users in language they understand are key skills missing in many computer science graduates we've interviewed.

And GPU developments are significant and worth following.

[Dinner]

I criticize people who waste time and money on BA degrees. I appreciate art.

Look at you. You've got a glorious BA degree, and when you're not unemployed you're an illegal alien in Texas.

Please take him back. Texas already has enough dumb people.

[MikeH]

His move increased the average intelligence of Texas and Canada.

[Asher]

I agree with all this. And have worked with mathsy people like you describe, maintaining their code is a nightmare. Often extremely clever code that is doing the wrong thing 'cause they didn't understand the customer requirement.

The only thing I would say is that IMO in the real world Software Development has very little to do with what I consider to be computer science, and that computer science is more mathsy.

What people outside the industry don't really understand is that the programming/writing code bit of the job is so easy it's almost trivial. As a developer I spend ~ 20% of my time coding. Understanding the business need, planning, optimising and looking at overall strategy is the interesting and challenging part of the job.

Which is why outsourcing coding is not always a great idea, unless your outsourced coders really understand the business need. Often it's quicker for me to code something self documenting than to write a detailed spec for someone else to follow.

Exactly.

This is exactly why I'm pushing against outsourcing. The designs I need to do for the outsourced developers are so detailed I should just do them myself. I not only need to define all of the interfaces and outline all of the classes and their relationships, I need to come up with algorithms they can use in pseudo-code and draw pretty pictures. Then the language barrier -- they speak English, sure, but there's always misunderstandings and confusions, and the 11.5 hour timezone difference certainly doesn't help. Then once they finish the code (which usually takes too long), I need to review it and usually correct a lot of it or request refactorings. I find it to be an enormous waste of time.

And, of course, what Asher originally said was totally understandable to anyone, and a good enough description for a wide audience whether imprecise or not. Understanding business need and being able to communicate with end users in language they understand are key skills missing in many computer science graduates we've interviewed.

And GPU developments are significant and worth following.

[Asher]

Obviously not. You belittle those who are beneath you or engaged in occupations not your own. Yet, when push comes to shove, you follow the money and dive headlong into the world of art.

It's incredibly amusing that you describe my work environment as "the world of art". How little you understand of this world, Ben...

True, my code is so beautiful it can be considered works of art ( ), but that's about it.

And I don't belittle those in occupations "beneath me" unless they get uppity. Like Kuci. I belittle you because you stopped working on a real degree because it was too difficult for you. You got a BA degree and then couldn't get a relevant job with it. I belittle you for so many reasons that I can't even enumerate them all. I have nothing but the greatest respect for teachers -- but real teachers. I work with them every day as part of my job -- I design software used by about 5M teachers worldwide. I understand how difficult their job is, and I'm trying to make it easier for them.

But you -- you are not a teacher. You're not even a real tutor. You're a guy with a degree you can't use, financed by the Canadian taxpayers, "tutoring" kids illegally in Texas. And if your Poly posting is anything to go by, you are NOT helping them. What you're doing is actually hurting the kids.

[C0ckney]

you follow the money and dive headlong into the world of art.

classic.

[Krill]

Has Asher finished pwning people yet?