[dba-Tech] FYI: Microsoft's 128GB Surface Pro Sells Out At MS Online Store Just Hours After Launch

Hans-Christian Andersen hans.andersen at phulse.com
Wed Feb 13 21:07:58 CST 2013


Hi Jim

Looks like you and I are on the same page here. :)

I'd also like to add to your comment about "right tool for the job". These days, as you say, there are an overwhelming amount of tools that can be used to the same result. Where I see real competition between languages and frameworks these days is in ideas, style and convention.

Adopting a language/framework is less about if its "the right tool for the job" and more about whether you like the characteristics and philosophies of the language/framework.

Case in point: the Ruby on Rails phenomenon. Love it or not, there are a lot of good ideas and a lot of those ideas are being adopted by other languages/frameworks. Rails was a real push to change our way of looking at programming like it is a blank slate and you are handed a box of random tools, which includes a gun to shoot yourself in the foot with, as typically happens in a lot of software projects. Rails knows what it wants to be, but not only that but it also wants you to understand its philosophies and steer you in a certain direction. It's called convention over configuration and, like I said, a lot of other languages/frameworks are adopting these ideas, so it's not even Rails specific now - ie. look at Java Play.

So, its not necessarily what is the right tool for the job anymore but what is the right philosophy and approach as well.


- Hans


On 2013-02-13, at 1:25 PM, "Jim Lawrence" <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi Shamil:
> 
> What you have stated is very true. One tech can not be the best at all
> disciplines.
> 
> But I do feel that one tech should have a good understanding of the
> available options and solutions. There is never one solution to a problem
> but many and any number would produce adequate results. That Awareness is
> what is most important.
> 
> Like a carpenter, who can builds a house but must be aware of the
> requirements of the plumber, electrician, mason, roofer, etc... 
> 
> Modern companies when they hire a new tech are not so much concerned with
> what the tech knows but their ability to learn new technologies and apply
> them. Every company knows that within ten years everything that tech
> initially arrived with will be gone or changed to the point of being
> unrecognizable.
> 
> And this leads into another good point you brought up; "Standards". This is
> most important or the industry, or just the company that refuses to adapt,
> will be gone, in but a few years.
> 
> One comment that I do not fully agree with is the concept that there is,
> "the right tool for the right job". In this industry there are many tools,
> for every job and each can produce, in the right hands, the required
> results.    
> 
> As I have said before., "I know many more dead-languages than I know live
> ones."...and that list is getting longer every day. So forgive my lack of
> loyalty to any company or product; my only loyalty should be to the client.
> 
> Jim 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Salakhetdinov
> Shamil
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 12:16 PM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] FYI: Microsoft's 128GB Surface Pro Sells Out At MS
> Online Store Just Hours After Launch
> 
> Hi Jim --
> 
> <<<
> Mixing, matching and mashups is the new tech future.
> Agreed.
> 
> But one cannot be a good, even satisfactory, "jack of many (software
> development/tech.) trades".
> The tech. future IMO are standards, industrialization and specialization.
> Industrialization doesn't mean (here) that there will be no place for "one
> jack"/SMB software development/tech. companies - industrialization means
> that custom software development to be competitive will have to be driven by
> well educated in computer science and application development (process)
> engineers and managers, engineers and managers who will be taught to use
> "the right tool for the right job" and when for a certain project/task they
> will find they aren't skilled enough to apply the most suitable tool(s) they
> will effectively delegate that project/job to a third-party and
> acquire/integrate the results of their work via standard/custom (web) APIs.
> 
> -- Shamil
> 
> 
> Вторник, 12 февраля 2013, 11:38 -08:00 от "Jim Lawrence" <accessd at shaw.ca>:
>> Hi Shamil:
>> 
>> I would be far from anti-Microsoft especially as I have made a very good
> living from the OS. I must admit I would definitely like to change the
> direction in so many ways...ways that would open up more opportunities than
> less but my name is not Steve Ballmer. 
>> 
>> I doubt whether any company will gain control of ninety-five percent of the
> market, ever again but that is hardly a bad situation for techs...it is just
> that we have to be a jack of more trades now. 
>> 
>> Mixing, matching and mashups is the new tech future. 
>> 
>> Jim 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:  dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Salakhetdinov
> Shamil
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 9:06 AM
>> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
>> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] FYI: Microsoft's 128GB Surface Pro Sells Out At MS
> Online Store Just Hours After Launch
>> 
>>  Hi Jim and All --
>> 
>> I haven't seen before TechCrunch being "pro-Microsoft" so I have reposted
> the link on their article without checking it. I'll be more careful in the
> future.
>> 
>> Thank you.
>> 
>> -- Shamil
> <<< skipped >>>
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