Re: Hacker FAQ (please comment and help fix)

Article: 7662 of alt.hackers
From: hacker@ns.secis.com (Tommy Usher)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.hackers
Subject: Re: Hacker FAQ (please comment and help fix)
Date: 15 Apr 1995 00:12:16 GMT
Organization: SouthEast Information Sys
Lines: 68
Approved: For the 1,000th time YES!
Message-ID: 3mn310$9g1@news.cais.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: ns.secis.com
Status: RO

In article <3mlaq9$ikj@news1.halcyon.com>,
Nathan Waddoups <natew@coho.halcyon.com> wrote:
>
>It's been interesting to see the management<->hacker interactions
presented
>in the FAQ and the ensuing debate...
>
>As someone fortunate enough to work at a company that is full of hackers
>and very good hacker-managers, I'd like throw in some comments of my own...

And it is much appreciatd that you did so.

>hacker@ns.secis.com (Tommy Usher) writes:
>>In article <D6y5IL.EGK@world.std.com>,
>>Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
>>>In article <3lucq9$1b7@mangrove.Intran.Xerox.COM>, Peter
Seebach writes:

I agree with what Nathan has written, and see no reason to add to it, as
he has done an excellent job of adding to what I wrote, but I did want to
comment on one point he raises:

>>>} Section 2: Productivity.
>>>}
>>>} 2.0:	My hacker plays video games on company time.
>
>Personally, I think that's bad.  Plenty of people here have Descent
>installed on their hard drivers, but to my knowledge nobody would be lame
>enough to put 'played games' on their timesheet.  I'm running telnet from
>my development station, but I clocked out almost an hour ago...
>
>Using company hardware to blow of steam is one thing, but billing
>(stealing?) the company for that time is quite another.

You have a good point, and ne I missed.  Of course, ideally programmers,
and hackers in particular, should be paid a flat salary, with a minimum
number of hours expected.  And then they should have unlimited access to
their work area.  Shoot, most will put in far more productive hours than
they would if they are paid hourly.  I remember one particularly tough
bug.  I cam in on Saturday, planning to work for about an hour or two. After
about four, my boss (who was in an unusually good mood that day) insisted
on buying me lunch, which I insisted on eating at the computer.  About five
hours after that, he BEGGED me to leave, and finally pried me away after
agreeing that I could take the printout home.  (This was a MAJOR breach of
his normal policy.)  I reluctantly agreed, and within in about 30 seconds
of walking in the door, knew the answer, and was frantic until Monday morning
when I could get back to my computer.  I really wanted to call him and make
him come back in, but my wife wouldn't let me.	No, if the company won't
allow time for blowing off steam, then one certainly shouldn't steal time.

>2.3.1: My manager is constantly messing with my code.
>
>	a: did s/he fix any bugs?
>
>That's not for the manager to decide, period.
>
>	Yeah, right...

Actually, I did once threaten violence against a manager who was completely
clueless about programming.  (He once wrote an almost 300 line case statement
that could be replaced with 3 lines.  And no, there was no reason.  He just
didn't know about the ord function in Pascal.)	He tried to suggest that he
needed to "check my code and fix it."  I offered to fix him.


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| Tommy Usher  No Frills Software | Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology: |
| hacker@ns.secis.com		  | There's always one more bug.	     |
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