Professional Programmers?

**SilverSprite** · Oct 4th, 2002, 03:32 PM

Hi, are there any professional programmers here that have maybe 10 minutes to spare answering some question? It's for a school career studies project and i dont know anybody as a professional programmer.

**Zaei** · Oct 4th, 2002, 03:44 PM

We've got a couple floating around here =).

Z.

**SilverSprite** · Oct 4th, 2002, 03:51 PM

Alright well could a couple of them help me? I really need this grade.

**Zaei** · Oct 4th, 2002, 04:06 PM

They will be in at some point =).

Z.

**jim mcnamara** · Oct 4th, 2002, 04:29 PM

I'm one. Except I have a fancy title.

**Zaei** · Oct 4th, 2002, 04:35 PM

Something with the word "Engineer" in it, jim? =)

Z.

**jim mcnamara** · Oct 4th, 2002, 04:39 PM

No. Distinguished Senior Software Specialist. I'm at the highest tech grade here.

They had to make it up. Doesn't reflect anything I'm doing here, either. A fourth grader could fill in for me and they'd never notice.

zzzzzz.

**Zaei** · Oct 4th, 2002, 04:51 PM

Distinguished... sounds pretty important =).

Z.

**jim mcnamara** · Oct 4th, 2002, 05:03 PM

There are a bunch of letters after my name. I only program once in a while. Mostly I read email and go to meetings. Once, long ago, I actually did stuff. It was fun.

**SilverSprite** · Oct 4th, 2002, 06:04 PM

Lol well do you mind answering these questions?

1. What is your name?

2. What level of education have you achieved and what level of education is needed to be a computer programmer?

3. What 5 qualities do you feel are assets to you as a computer programmer?

4. Why have you selected this career?

5. Do you have any plans to seek another career?

6. What is the best and worst part of being a computer programmer?

7. What kind of projects do you undergoe as a computer programmer?

8. What is the average salary of a computer programmer?

9. Are there any restrictions, if any, with being a computer programmer?

10. If you could do anything else other than being a computer programmer, what would you do?

**parksie** · Oct 4th, 2002, 06:14 PM

Originally posted by SilverSprite
Lol well jim do you mind answering these questions?

1. What is your name?

2. What level of education have you achieved and what level of education is needed to be a computer programmer?

3. What 5 qualities do you feel are assets to you as a computer programmer?

4. Why have you selected this career?

5. Do you have any plans to seek another career?

6. What is the best and worst part of being a computer programmer?

7. What kind of projects do you undergoe as a computer programmer?

8. What is the average salary of a computer programmer?

9. Are there any restrictions, if any, with being a computer programmer?

10. If you could do anything else other than being a computer programmer, what would you do?

11. What.........is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

**SilverSprite** · Oct 4th, 2002, 06:19 PM

... I'm serious about this. It's due on monday.

**Zaei** · Oct 4th, 2002, 06:45 PM

12. How much wood could a rubber duck chuck if a rubber duck could chuck wood?

=)

Z.

**jim mcnamara** · Oct 4th, 2002, 07:41 PM

1. What is your name? Jim McNamara

2. What level of education have you achieved and what level of education is needed to be a computer programmer?
(US degrees) PhD. BS/BA to program. We hire only 4 year degree people.

3. What 5 qualities do you feel are assets to you as a computer programmer?
(Aside from answering inane questions you mean?)
Interpersonal communication
Analytic skills
Understanding fully the business sector I"m in - utilities.
Written/presentation skills
Teaching

Computer language skills are near the end of any list.
4. Why have you selected this career?
I didn't -- it selected me. I studied another field but used computers extensively and wound up running a university computer center. It was all downhill from there

5. Do you have any plans to seek another career?
No

6. What is the best and worst part of being a computer programmer?
Worst - fixing garbage code; maintenance coding in general
Best-Knowing enough to be able to play with computers.

7. What kind of projects do you undergo(? bad choice of words) as a computer programmer?

Full cycle system development
Operating system modifications (drivers)
Specialty gorp that the others folks can't do - like rendering GIF
on Xterms.

8. What is the average salary of a computer programmer?
Depends.
PA I- ~35K
PA II ~45K
Sr PA ~ 60K
Sr technical weenie 70-120K

9. Are there any restrictions, if any, with being a computer programmer?
Of course. You have to have the wherewithal to stick with problems and come up with viable alternative solutions. It ain't fun. I played DBA for years - I was on call 24-7 for about 8 years.
You don't leave town when you're on call. Since this was long ago, you also could not be far from a phone.

I am still on call for special projects periodically.

10. If you could do anything else other than being a computer programmer, what would you do?

Go back to teaching CIS - for a 60% cut in wages.

__________________

**SilverSprite** · Oct 4th, 2002, 08:05 PM

Thank you so much sir, you've been very helpful!

**SilverSprite** · Oct 4th, 2002, 08:07 PM

Uh one more question please. What is CIS exactly? I am guessing that you live in the states.

**Zaffir** · Oct 5th, 2002, 11:06 AM

I'm thinking CIS = Computer Information Systems?

**jim mcnamara** · Oct 6th, 2002, 09:19 AM

Yep. Zaffir got it.

**parksie** · Oct 6th, 2002, 09:38 AM

Is that related to MIS (Management Information Systems)?

Last I heard of those, they were usually aimed at people who think computers tell the truth even when they put junk data in :-/

**Zaei** · Oct 6th, 2002, 10:04 PM

Originally posted by jim mcnamara
What level of education have you achieved and what level of education is needed to be a computer programmer?
(US degrees) PhD. BS/BA to program. We hire only 4 year degree people.

Shall I call you Dr. Jim? =).

Z.

**Pc_Madness** · Oct 6th, 2002, 10:18 PM

What about questions 11 and 12??

**parksie** · Oct 7th, 2002, 06:05 AM

Originally posted by Zaei
Shall I call you Dr. Jim? =).

Z.

Damn, didn't notice that

I wondered why he seemed so good at it *grin*

**jim mcnamara** · Oct 7th, 2002, 09:10 AM

Z- no. just call me when dinner is ready...

**Zaei** · Oct 7th, 2002, 02:55 PM

=).

Z.

**Mushroom Realm** · Oct 7th, 2002, 06:24 PM

11. (return question) What is the wingspan of the swallow, and surrounding air temperature...

...is it african or european, and is it carrying a coconut?

**Zaei** · Oct 7th, 2002, 06:51 PM

He did say "Unladen"... But the correct answer is "What?! I dont know that?! AHHHHHHH!!!!"

Z.

**parksie** · Oct 7th, 2002, 07:06 PM

Code:

	Stop!  Whoever crosseth the bridge of Death, must answer first
these questions three, ere the other side he see!

	"What is your name?"
	"Sir Brian of Bell."
	"What is your quest?"
	"I seek the Holy Grail."
	"What are four lowercase letters that are not legal flag arguments
to the Berkeley UNIX version of `ls'?"
	"I, er.... AIIIEEEEEE!"

**Zaei** · Oct 7th, 2002, 07:10 PM

Ducky... get out more =P.

Z.

**parksie** · Oct 7th, 2002, 07:22 PM

Can't be bothered right now. Plus I'm avoiding spending money...

**Zaei** · Oct 7th, 2002, 07:37 PM

My uptime is beating your uptime... 95 days, sucka =P.

Z.

**Sastraxi** · Oct 7th, 2002, 08:17 PM

You're avoiding, I'm spending every cent I have on computer games! Actually right now I'm saving for a new computer... at this rate I'll have one by Christmas

**Zaei** · Oct 7th, 2002, 08:22 PM

Originally posted by Sastraxi
You're avoiding, I'm spending every cent I have on computer games! Actually right now I'm saving for a new computer... at this rate I'll have one by Christmas

Ah, so that is where the time is going =P.

Z.

**Sastraxi** · Oct 7th, 2002, 09:41 PM

Hehe

My busy lifestyle revealed..

But I seriously do way more, I'm involved in community projects a ton at the moment.

**parksie** · Oct 8th, 2002, 04:34 AM

Originally posted by Zaei
My uptime is beating your uptime... 95 days, sucka =P.

Z.

It was up for 25 days, then dad decided to unplug it

Worked for a month, then a power cut! Wow

69 days since then

Oh, and I can use it remotely, still (X is bloody slow, but it works...)

**Zaei** · Oct 8th, 2002, 10:41 AM

Need a UPS =P.

I still havent figured out how to set up the remote X thing... guess Im just not trying hard enough =).

Actually, that isnt true, I got xclock, and such running... had to type "xclock" in the console in my telnet session, and then place it over here in winders =).

Z.

**parksie** · Oct 8th, 2002, 11:21 AM

It shouldn't be difficult. All you do is run an X server on the terminal, then connect to the server, set the $DISPLAY variable to the correct host, and run an X program (KDE anyone?

)

For me, my terminal is inside a NAT gateway, so I use it tunnelled through SSH (the docs say how).

**Zaei** · Oct 8th, 2002, 11:32 AM

What server do you use?

Z.

**parksie** · Oct 8th, 2002, 11:36 AM

Server? It's the OpenSSH sshd server, running with X forwarding, protocol level 2, and compression.

I have XFree86 on this one (Mandrake GNU/Linux) and I use the OpenSSH ssh client.

**Zaei** · Oct 8th, 2002, 11:41 AM

I meant X Server =P. Need one of them things if I wanna use anything X on windows =).

Z.

**parksie** · Oct 8th, 2002, 11:43 AM

Oh right. There's XFree86 (from Cygwin), X-Win32, or Exceed (v. expensive...)

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