Re: [tlug] No video playback in Iceweasel

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On 5 December 2014 at 06:22, Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com> wrote:

> I've had "professional" programmers working on systems that are supposed
> to be quite reliable tell me that [they have no business getting paid to code].

Tell me about it.

All you have to do to be horrified at the state of your profession
(and, by extension, all other professions) is to include a programming
assignment and/or peer programming session in your interview process.
The majority of applicants will, even when given explicit instructions
to write production-quality code, turn out such a mess that you'd
think they were a 10 year old messing around with BASIC, rather than a
"professional" programmer.

And don't get me started on programmers who can't convert decimal to
binary to hexadecimal (not to mention octal, though I don't ask that
on my interviews). Even though you almost never do that in a language
such as Java, not knowing something that basic in your field is akin
to an accountant not knowing how to do long division by hand.

On the other hand, the truly excellent programmers out there are so
much more productive than the mediocre majority that our industry is
in remarkably good shape (think Amazon, Google, Netflix, and many
other top shops).

Cheers,
Josh