I just got back from an hour or so at my regular coffee joint, where I read 4 or 5 IT magazines (how’s this for a set of numbers: according to an article on EMC/Symmetrix DMX (Direct Matrix Architecture) in InformationWeek 10FEB03, Information Resources Inc. (a market data analysis firm) “tracks 28 million items, stores around 150 attributes for each, processes 160 billion summarized transactions per week [yes, that really is “billion” with a “b”], and maintains a 40-terabyte data warehouse.” Ain’t those some numbers?!)
<rant>I’m seriously ticked … yet another smart young programmer crying the blues to me about how his customers bog his sites down with animated crud and then use him and the other programmers as glorified typists. What’s with his management team? Well, the fact is they see a more stable growth path in following a patronizing tactic where they don’t burden their customers with things like understanding, knowledge, autonomy, flexibility, or any of those other touchey-feely abstractions. They’re big fish in a little pond, and they’re filling their environment with greenish crud. Does no one any good, but their numbers look fine, sooooo . . . . It’s pathetic.</rant>