IT/Software career thread: Invert binary trees for dollars.
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Noodleface
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Future proofing!
I posted this in the other thread but I guess it should go here.
We were talking about next-gen stuff and the question came up over who should own the BIOS. As just a single person rummaging through 22k+ source files, I'm constantly bogged down at work. Really we need 4-6 people on this. So we 're going to have someone else write the BIOS in the future. My job will be to look at the code, see what needs to be changed, but instead of changing it I will tell this company exactly what they should change, and when we get the binary back I'll confirm their changes.
Am I wrong in feeling like that's a bit different than what I was hired on as? I feel like I won't grow as a developer AT ALL.
The other side is I will be able to develop open source BIOS as my primary focus, but the scope of work is so large I don't know if a single person can do it.
I posted this in the other thread but I guess it should go here.
We were talking about next-gen stuff and the question came up over who should own the BIOS. As just a single person rummaging through 22k+ source files, I'm constantly bogged down at work. Really we need 4-6 people on this. So we 're going to have someone else write the BIOS in the future. My job will be to look at the code, see what needs to be changed, but instead of changing it I will tell this company exactly what they should change, and when we get the binary back I'll confirm their changes.
Am I wrong in feeling like that's a bit different than what I was hired on as? I feel like I won't grow as a developer AT ALL.
The other side is I will be able to develop open source BIOS as my primary focus, but the scope of work is so large I don't know if a single person can do it.
That sounds terrible and not interesting at all. I signed up to be a programmer to program not look at some other idiot's code, tell him whats wrong and then look at it again on two weeks. It sounds like you'd just permanently be doing code reviews.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Depending on whether you actually have any authority over the person/people doing the developing you can bill it as architecture experience, lead developer, etc. If you can identify the where and the how and validate that they did it the way you want, the only thing you're skipping is the grunt work. Thats fine, the hard and interesting part of developing is usually the how and why and determining direction anyway.
Noodleface
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I don't know if I'd call it authority. Without really getting into too many specifics and being hypothetical - let's say we hire Asus to make our motherboards (we don't). Asus has in-house BIOS/firmware engineers that are working on the same source code that I do (depending on processor, but same base source code). What we'd do is say "Ok Asus, we'll pay you this fee and you'll develop our BIOS." Meanwhile, I have access to the source code, so my job would be to look in the code and say "I think this knob needs to be changed" or whatever, send them an email, and have them do it. Because I have intimate knowledge of the source and how it operates, verifying is easy.
So it's not so much authority but just working with a 3rd party vendor. I'm sure I could spin it as architecture.
moontayle
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You jest but I swear this is half the bad code I run into.
I agree with Tenks here. It sounds like the company came to their senses but instead of giving you direct help, they're just handing off the work to someone else and asking you to play mall cop.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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I do agree with Tenks and Moontayle that this isn't really a positive thing, I'd see how it goes and spin it however you need to to make it look like supervisory/architecture experience and when it gets repetitive and boring, bail out and go somewhere else.
I think very few companies would see what he's doing as architecture. This would be great for him if he wanted to get into project management by facilitating 3rd party vendors but once he's asked what precisely he did they'll know immediately he didn't really guide the architecture nor grand design he just made sure all the options were set appropriately and babysat the code.
Noodleface
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The only really upside to this is I'll be developing an open source version myself. The downside is what the fuck am I doing
I guess if you're the lead author on a popular open source solution you could become a contractor / teacher for that software which is basically how anyone makes money off authoring open source
Noodleface
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Open source like we'd be forking an open source solution and porting it, I didn't mean from scratch (I may have said scratch)
Noodleface
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Vinen
God is dead
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Noodleface
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Its foolish man.
Let's put it in perspective though. Our bios is 22k source files. Core boot is a couple hundred?
What bios do you think is more secure and full featured?
Let's put it in perspective though. Our bios is 22k source files. Core boot is a couple hundred?
What bios do you think is more secure and full featured?
Noodleface
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