filePro programmers

[Bill Vermillion]

On or about Thu, Aug 05 20:14 , while attempting a Zarathustra 
emulation Fairlight thus spake: 

> >From inside the gravity well of a singularity, Bill Vermillion shouted:
> [Ken said]
> > > Businesses often feel better if the person is able to be
> > > on-site at least some of the time.

> I find that a pretty weak rationale. Unless you're doing
> something that involves needing physical access to switch media
> constantly or cycle power, etc., it's irrelevant, and it's an
> indication that someone really doesn't have much of a clue
> about telecommuting.

> I worked for one company as a contractor, and they had their
> systems colocated at a secure semi-government facility. The
> systems would go down, and they'd have to drive 2.5hrs across
> state to get to the machines, go through the facility and sit
> under armed guard the entire time.

Many colo locations have 'remote hands'.  The will change floppies,
turn switches on and off, push buttons.  They do only what you tell
them too.  Some have them on-site 24x7, other are on-call, but a
lot quicker than a 2.5 hour drive.   

...

> The point is, the person that -could- physically be there
> was useless for fixing the problem. The person that could
> actually fix it needed someone to be on the phone for 2 minutes
> total to insert and then remove a floppy. Hell, if the disk is
> labelled, they don't even have to be computer literate to give
> the on-site minimal on-site assist.

You don't want someone who is totally computer illiterate 
in a colo - even as a remote hand :-)

> There are times when i wished a few people had networked power
> strips, but other than that, I've had no real problems in nine
> years solo--domestic or abroad.

And ideally the networked power strips are the ones with serial
access too, so you can toggle the power on the system, and then go
from that device into the serial port on the system you just
rebooted.   

> So I just don't buy that rationale unless someone is doing heavy
> administration of the physical hardware and network.

And that should never happen at a remote facility.  And if you go
by George "Chairman" Morrow's dictum of many years ago, "Never
trust a programmer with a screwdriver".  That means the person
doing the SW doesn't touch the HW.

As I get older I find fewer and fewer of us that know both the HW
and the SW side.  At times I wish I didn't so I could say "It's not
hardware, it's software, call your SW support person" [or
vice-versa].   

> But for -coding-? No way in hell do I buy that argument. I
> chalk it up to either ignorance, entrenched behaviour, or the
> tendency to be a control freak.

> > Then there is the other side about have a cross-the-pond
> > programmer.  They are up and fresh when the local staff has gone to
> > be and what they do won't interupt any operations.

> Doesn't even need to be across the pond. I keep weird enough
> hours that I often end up being able to do that for people
> domestically. Of course the trade-off is that I can't be on
> everyone's time zone at once, so I'm not always 100% accessible
> during "banker's hours". But overall, I've run into relatively
> few problems, and no deal-breakers.

But it is convenient to be able to work on a system after the
business day has closed.  The system usually runs faster with no
load, and you can stop/start programs after making changes and not
worry about interupting someones work.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com