Random Software Developer Thoughts - Entry Number One

I have these thoughts that pop into my head related to software. I always say I need to write these downs. Here is my first entry, writing down these thoughts. They are amazingly random, in a list format. Sometimes I may need to elaborate. I write software for a living, if you don't work in software, maybe this will help you get into the mind of a software developer.
Note: a lot of the comments are geared towards J2EE java development.

Entry Number One

1. Software development can be very boring sometimes. Think about it, you sit in a cubicle/office eight hours a day, staring at a computer screen. For major portions of your life.
   
2. Software development can be very interesting sometimes. You write software that thousands or millions or no one uses regularly. The user normally doesn't have a clue how the software gets written and there are all kinds of fixes, hacks, and easter eggs left in code. You as a developer may have minutes or hours that can effect a major release. A change that can cost millions of dollars. It kind of sucks that developers don't get good coffee.
   
3. No one understands the importance of quiet. A noisy office is an unproductive office.
   
4. I don't understand how git is so much better than svn. I guess Linus says so, so it must be true. Hasn't svn been used in production environments? Will git make a project better? Shrug
   
5. Mac hardware is pretty nice. Mac software isn't so bad either, the software just runs
   
6. Microsoft Windows software is functional. There are definitely times when Microsoft Windows XP needs to be slapped around. Why did it take 15 minutes for my machine to boot. It booted in 2 minutes a couple of months ago? Why did my software just lockup?
   
7. I haven't ever seen the blue screen of death on a WindowsXP, Win2k machine.
   
8. I rarely saw the blue screen of death on a Win98 machine.
   
9. Linux is also functional. Distros like Ubuntu Linux could work on polishing some of the user interface, making things easier. Sure Ubuntu Linux is a lot easier than Redhat 5.0 back in the mid 90s. But is usability as easy as on Mac? Software evolves. Ubuntu Linux will get better over time. Right now, it is not amazingly great. Think about it. Is Ubuntu Linux 9.04 better than Redhat5? Yes. Will Ubuntu Linux version 20 work better than Ubuntu 9.04? Yes. Is Apple's Snow Leopard a better user experience than Ubuntu Linux 9.04? Maybe. For me it is.
   
10. Eclipse IDE can suck
    
11. Eclipse IDE sucks
    
12. Why does Eclipse IDE take 1.5 gigs of ram to run, according to the Windows Task Manager? There is only one project.
    
13. Java development can suck.
    
14. Companies pay money for Java developers to write code
    
15. There are a lot of companies looking for Java developers
    
16. Can Java developers program?
    
17. What about Python? Can they program? Are a lot of companies paying python programmers?
    
18. I hate the idea of contracting. Maybe I am too lazy to convince people to personally give me money.
    
19. Contractors make a lot of money
    
20. Most contractors I have met aren't worth a percent of a percent what they are paid
    
21. Especially Java Contractors
    
22. Why are programmers so egotistical and angry (this is based on my observations on Internet forums). "How do I read a file in Java?" "You suck, go read the Java API" "Get out of here". Never heard that in ##java.
    
23. I wondering if you asked "Where are the political books in a bookstore"? Would the salesperson tell you to RTFM? Would Gandhi?
    
24. Lisp
    
25. Common Lisp and Scheme are interesting syntactically
    
26. Scala, Haskell, Clojure are interesting languages.
    
27. ObjectiveC is pretty fast
    
28. There are a lot of women programmers. Everywhere I have worked, the percentage has been 40%/60% female/male or 30%/70%.
    
29. Yet another myth
    
30. I am male, I don't see any differences in the way that womem work? Why would there be?
    
31. Developers at startups are normally young.
    
32. Developers at startups are young, dress like hippies and hover around major California cities.
    
33. Startup developers always seem distracted and unprofessional
    
34. Developers are major companies are older
    
35. Is web application programming, building web systems really programming?
    
36. Is making a simple configuration change, calling a Java API programming?
    
37. Why does lunch for software developers always include Chinese food?
    
38. Software developers are diverse, where are all the American born programmers?
    
39. J2EE Application Servers are Slow.
    
40. J2EE Application Servers are slow and eat up a lot of memory. Maybe that is why they are slow? Too many garbage collections. Garbage collects are slow.
    
41. Public Internet service sites like google, yahoo are pretty fast. Must be heavy used of Memcache type systems.
    
42. Web development can suck
    
43. Java Server Pages are horrible templating systems. They allow a developer to break many fundamental programming paradigms. Do you use jsp:include? How do you structure your document? What about all of these taglibs that do the same thing? Scriptlets. We should sue Sun.
    
44. There are a lot of Java frameworks out there? But not that many. There are only a dozen or so popular ones. Hibernate, Spring, JSF, Struts.
    
45. Game Development with OpenGL is hard
    
46. But not that difficult.
    
47. I never did learn Perl but I did OK with scripting in Python
    
48. Ruby Language
    
49. I wonder what the software development world is like in Japan
    
50. Are most software developer atheist?
    
51. Isn't programming a lot easier now than 40 years ago?
    
52. Bill Gates helped work on Microsoft Basic
    
53. Am I done yet?
    

Those are today's thoughts.