Yes, another Friday

Another week gone by.
Had an opportunity to chat with developers from the 'HQ'. They were pretty cynical about the state of software development in the company.
My impressions reflected their opinions. Minimal quality and no awareness of modern development paradigms.
This really disturbs me. We produce software that's used, for example, by hospital pharmacies, to manage the fullfillment of prescriptions. One badly implemented rule, and there are many in the pharmacy application product, could kill someone.
All the management seems to care about is the 'bottom line' - surprise, surprise, this is the US after all.
Actually, I suspect that their philosophy mirrors the health care industry. They have little interest in IT, most still are on green-screen applications. So, this is reflected in the Company.
Every move I make is regarded with disinterest. Apart from a suggestion I made to use log4j for logging (instead of System.out.println everywhere), and to use Subversion instead of CVS which were both adopted) nothing has been adopted. My next proposal is to develop code reviews and a new testing policy and procedure. After all, I might be hospitalized one day!

Friday Again

It's been quite a good week this week. Talked to a prospective employer yesterday and that was very positive. We seemed to have a good rapport. If I'm offered the position I have to decide if I can leave my current job and its very easy-going environment. Unfortunately, it's very stagnant and technically backward and that I do not like. So leaving might be an easier decision.
I noticed that George Shrub is comfortable, even pleased with progress in Iraq. So we can all feel happy about the $1 trillion+ that's been spent, the 4000+ soldiers killed, the almost 100,000 disabled vets who can't get the benefits they are entitled to, the millions of Iraqis who've fled to other countries, and the enemies we've made. Not to mention the increase in reasons for a terrorist to nuke us.
But as long as Mr or Mrs Typical American can continue to drive to work, go the grocery store, weed his yard, have sex and go to DisneyWorld, who cares.
BBC World Service just informed me that Mugabe has now refused to attend the summit meeting in South Africa convened to solve the election problems in Zimbabwe. What an idiot. Or maybe not. The old colonial men who are still ruling in African countries are making zillions at the expense of their countries. Not so different from the good ole USA.

Upcoming Election

Well, it's not surprising to me that America is so disliked around the World.  Americans have little interest in the lands beyond its shores, and that is reflected in our ignorance of other cultures and values.  Then we elect presidents and politicians in almost complete ignorance of their beliefs and positions because we are exposed only to superficial parochial news-nothing in depth about them.  So we get what we deserve.

I read today that children are far less likely to be 'thoughtful and informed' than those of previous generations so things probably will not improve.  In fact we set ourselves up for a totalitarian future.  Has that future already arrived?

Overall, America is due for a rude awakening as other countries economies gain strength and their energy consumption grows.  We are not going to be the pre-eminent nation for too much longer.

The Neanderthal Development Shop

It's hard to believe that in the 21st century there's a system development shop that provides 15 inch, 10 year-old monitors to its programmers. That's right 15 inch. Only one mind you, not 2 or 3 side-by-side. OTOH - they still code in RPG, so that kinda puts things in perspective. They hired me to develop some Java-based applications. That's good, but no JDK later than 1.4. Ah well, can't have everything.
Anyhow, anyone who wants a larger monitor has to buy it themselves. So I have a nice 22 inch flat-screen.
They asked me to tell my buddies about this place as a means of hiring more people. I'd be embarrassed to bring anyone in here.