Zombie Chan's Little Area

http://www.dzone.com/links/r/12_things_a_programmer_really_needs_to_know_2.html

1. Caffeine – You need to find your preferred caffeine delivery system. Mine is black coffee, early and often. Others may prefer diet soda throughout the day. There are always the classics as well, Mountain Dew and Jolt.
2. Logic – As a programmer, you deal with logic constantly. Your true mettle will be defined by how you deal with the insanity (real or perceived) of the customer. The customer could be your project manager, the business analyst or the users. For any given project, you can count on someone sounding completely insane.
3. Hours – Expect to be working a lot of them. Programming is one of those jobs that refuses to follow the 9 to 5 path. As you get closer to your deadline, the hours you work will increase quickly. Just hope that you can work from home sometimes. Also, weekends and time off are for management, and you need to be available at all times.
4. Corporate Leash –  You may not have any power to make decisions, but that does not mean the company cannot give you a leash. The ability of constant communication is too much for companies to pass on so you will likely get a crackberry, a pager (people still use them), or some other company provided cell phone. No, your leash will not be aniPhone, this is not meant for fun this is business.
5. Blame – As a programmer, you are the low man (or woman) on the totem poll. Just remember that shit rolls downhill, the buck stops with you and if there is a defect it is obviously the programmer’s fault.
6. Sleep – More importantly it is the lack of sleep that you need to be concerned with. As your hours increase, you will find there is less time to sleep. You will have to call into a conference call at 7AM with your offshore team, or support a 5AM deployment on Saturday.
7. Skills – Your skills typically do not matter in the corporate environment. There are plenty of programmers that do not have jobs and could fill your position. Your expertise in the business domain is not important because there are business analysts that are supposed to be the experts in the business. You are replaceable, you are just a part in the corporate machine.
8. Odors – As the hours get longer and management reads something about the productivity of team rooms, the odors start to get worse. We are not talking about someone heating up their lunch. We are talking about the stereotypical, unkempt programmer sitting in a room full of other unkempt programmers. After some time, the room starts to smell like a camel, and it is not pretty.
9. 24/7 support – Yes, you will be pulled into support at various times, even for something like a customer service site. The application may not be life threatening or revenue threatening, it is just job threatening. So, your corporate leash will ring at the worst possible moment and you will have to get on a conference call with 10 people who have no idea how to fix the problem but need to be involved from the management perspective and one other person that might be able to help you.
10. Stress – Project failure is never an option. You cannot miss the deadline even though it was not the deadline you proposed. No, you cannot remove features from the application in order to make the deadline either. You need to deliver the entire application by the deadline, or the entire team could be fired. Nothing like a little pressure with your morning coffee.
11. Non technical managers – These people are considered the bane of most programmer’s existence. They need to manage a group of programmers, but they do not understand what they do for a living besides “they write code”. They typically overpromise, underdeliver and treat their programmers like cattle or “resources”.
12. Political battles – This is one of those things that programmers are rarely directly involved in. However, your project and even the whole team could become the casualty of some political war. You have no power to prevent any of it, but you are definitely involved. Keep listening to the rumors so that you have some warning that something bad could happen.

• A new wallpaper (5th generation)
• A new BSOD (2nd generation) (back to blue with a smiley : ( )
• A new bootscreen (2nd generation) (betta fish is gone)
• A new installprep and WinPE look. (5th generation)
• Internet Explorer 10 Developer Preview (pre release version) (with Internet Explorer 10 splashscreen)
• A new colored “Windows” splashscreen during installprep loading file.
• Immersive Remote Desktop (old)
• Immersive Control Panel (old)
• WinStore (old)
• Windows 7 wallpaper deleted
• New WiFi/Ethernet icons (old)
• New Touch Keyboard icon
• New genuine center (old)
• Windows DVD Maker gone
• Windows Media Center gone
• New User avatar
• New Advanced Security Setting tab (old)

OLD = Present in 80xx build

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html

I like Open Source and love software freedom, but…

I can’t stand the Free Software Foundation

Every computer sucks

Every Web browser sucks

Every Operating System Sucks

Every Programming Language Sucks

When will the day come when I no longer need to program my computer in a programming language, and just be able to order it around with my native tongue.

Dear Linux and Open Source fan,

Thank you for telling us about your operating system and Open Source software. We are not interested in using it and would appreciate it if you refrained from attempting any further persuasion. 

We would also appreciate it if you would respect our decision not to use your operating system or any and all Open Source software if we so choose, for whatever reason. In making this decision we are not necessary inexperienced in computer usage, feeling betrayed or are agents for any proprietary software company.

You are free to promote your operating system and Open Source software if you so choose. However, coupled with the aforementioned respect of other people’s decisions, we would also thank you to be honest when you evangelise. This includes, but is not limited to, the following points:

* Do not tell us that Linux is for everyone. It is not.

* Do not tell us that Linux is unbreakable. It is not.

* Do not tell us that Linux is bug-free. It is not.

* Do not tell us that Linux runs any application. It does not.

* Do not tell us that Open Source software is a suitable replacement for any proprietary software. While there are exceptions, often it is not.

* Do not tell us that it works for you. That it might work for you does not mean that it works for everybody else.

* Do not tell us that we don’t need a certain application or feature. We are the judge of what we need, not you.

* Do not tell us that a fault will be fixed in an upcoming release. We judge Linux on what it is, not on what it will be, or could be, or might be.

Despite your objections, we do not feel it is wrong to pay for software or to sell software. We do not consider it wrong to use closed-source operating systems or applications. We prefer to judge software by its merit and usability and not by its license or source model.

We do not wish ill on Linux and Open Source users and developers. We simply desire that people explore and use operating systems and software which fits their needs and preferences, without coercion, misinformation and ideological baggage, either from proprietary or Open Source users and developers.

We are proud not to be Linux fans, and this is our manifesto.

Taken from an anonymous comentary @ Binary Playhouse.