Re: A New Low for NASA? (was HELP!!!!!!)

["Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93" <condicma@PWFL.COM>]

"Sam Harbaugh, Palm Bay, Florida" <harbaugh@IU.NET> writes:
>>It would be nice if you had a formal education but not required. The
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Good God man!  NASA wants to avoid hitting space debris and a formal
>education would be *NICE*.  Has NASA really hit a new low?
>
>What contractor will put uneducated programmers on such a project.  I
>*really* want to know.  Please make it easy for me and post the answer. I
>want to get the info to my congressman Dave Weldon who is on the space
>committee I believe.
>
    Why so shocked? I've seen "Ada Consultants" who's whole experience
    of the language was pretty much that they had read the name
    somewhere in some magazine article - or maybe on a box of
    Coco-Puffs - they can't remember which. I've seen the code they
    produce and it's a wonder that it ever got past a compiler (often
    not), much less actually runs or even less likely, produces the
    desired result. I've seen "Ada Consultants" who could be
    outsmarted/outprogrammed by a small soap dish and who had an I.Q.
    only slightly lower than that of a bag of hammers.

    The answer? You get what you pay for. Often, the interest in
    consultants is A) "I need a warm body here to round out the body
    quota I've got for the contract & the "real" programmers can make
    up for the damage done by the warm body." B) "Current corporate
    wisdom is that we need to outsource X% of our work and this
    inexpensive "box of rocks" with a contractor badge counts for my
    outsource percentage without destroying my budget." C) "Engineers
    are a commodity that we buy by the pallet-load down at Costco and
    one's pretty much the same as any other." D) Some combination of
    all of the above.

    It makes me wonder just exactly how much money I could get given
    the quality of my resume if I were to lean up against a lamp post
    saying "Hello sailor. New in town?"

    MDC

Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer     ATT:        561.796.8997
Pratt & Whitney GESP, M/S 731-96, P.O.B. 109600  Fax:        561.796.4669
West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600                  Internet:   CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
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