Creative
One of the many reasons I hate the computer industry is it's obsession with change for change's sake.
This is so ingrained in the philosophy and practice of the people who design and make software, that they are actually willing to risk destroying products and services by driving customers away with unnecessary changes.
Why is this? Firstly, I believe it's because change in software is so easy to do, particularly cosmetic changes to the look and feel of an application, or essentially a new and different way of driving it, by changes to the user interface. In other forms of engineering, this just isn't the case. A change to a gear ratio in a gearbox for example, even a comparatively minor one, requires new drawings, stress tests, possibly a redesign of the case, and at least a reappraisal of the surrounding gears. It's a big job, and as a result engineers tend to design a transmission carefully, test it extensively and then leave it well alone.
Secondly and more seriously, I believe many people in the computer industry are mentally ill with forms of autism, specifically Asperger's Syndrome. People with Asperger's make wonderful software engineers but lousy human beings, especially when it comes to empathy and emotional understanding.
So what brought on this rant? An old university friend, Lian, has set up a blog and I thought I'd edit the template of this one and pop her into my Friends Blogs section. A simple task that would normally take a few minutes at most. So imagine my pleasure when I discover Blogger have changed their software, and now offer a template editor that only works with their new templates. So in order to add Lian's new blog, I have to upgrade the template to a new one, and oh, by the way, some of your settings and links may get lost in the process.
Sigh.
So anyway, Lian's blog is here:
http://lktrowers.com/
And I'll try and calm down and think about whether I want to upgrade to a new template and risk losing a load of info here. I HATE THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY!
This is so ingrained in the philosophy and practice of the people who design and make software, that they are actually willing to risk destroying products and services by driving customers away with unnecessary changes.
Why is this? Firstly, I believe it's because change in software is so easy to do, particularly cosmetic changes to the look and feel of an application, or essentially a new and different way of driving it, by changes to the user interface. In other forms of engineering, this just isn't the case. A change to a gear ratio in a gearbox for example, even a comparatively minor one, requires new drawings, stress tests, possibly a redesign of the case, and at least a reappraisal of the surrounding gears. It's a big job, and as a result engineers tend to design a transmission carefully, test it extensively and then leave it well alone.
Secondly and more seriously, I believe many people in the computer industry are mentally ill with forms of autism, specifically Asperger's Syndrome. People with Asperger's make wonderful software engineers but lousy human beings, especially when it comes to empathy and emotional understanding.
So what brought on this rant? An old university friend, Lian, has set up a blog and I thought I'd edit the template of this one and pop her into my Friends Blogs section. A simple task that would normally take a few minutes at most. So imagine my pleasure when I discover Blogger have changed their software, and now offer a template editor that only works with their new templates. So in order to add Lian's new blog, I have to upgrade the template to a new one, and oh, by the way, some of your settings and links may get lost in the process.
Sigh.
So anyway, Lian's blog is here:
http://lktrowers.com/
And I'll try and calm down and think about whether I want to upgrade to a new template and risk losing a load of info here. I HATE THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY!
posted by roGER at 8:57 pm
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