we are just an investment toy

In Silicon Valley, I hear that the biggies (like Apple, Google) have bidding wars for extreme talent, partly to keep the others from getting them.

We know a couple who met at google. One still works there and the other has jumped to Apple. They must make $300K each or so.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

Traditionally, references in programs are "linked" so that they execute as sequential instructions. E.g., a function is invoked in a single instruction which, to the CPU, looks no different than any other instruction/opcode.

DLLs defer the linkage to run-time but essentially use a similar mechanism (with a level of indirection interposed that is "filled in" by the loader before the program actually starts running.

As I compartmentalize to a very high degree, the "function" call is actually to a bit of code in another process container. So, the OS has to get involved to bridge the protection domains (with client and server -side stubs to marshal/unmarshal).

Because of this, there is an opportunity to interrupt this process, selectively. So, instead of directing the RMI to process #457 (which is the process that handled it a few instructions prior), it can now be redirected to process #962 -- which, by careful design, has exactly the same ABI as process #457.

So, to install an update, you start the updated process. Then, tell the OS to direct any NEW requests to *it* instead of the previous process -- which may still be running and handling some OTHER requests.

When the previous process has finished whatever work it was performing, you can terminate it and reclaim its resources -- the "new/updated" process taking over its previous functionality.

So, there is no real cost penalty beyond whatever cost difference there is in the new version of the process vs. the old version.

If I choose to migrate the process (or its replacement/update) to another node, then the client-side stub (for the updated process) forwards the request to that other node, over the wire. In this case, there is a higher invocation cost (in terms of time) but it gives you the flexibility of moving processes to nodes that have more resources available to provide those services.

When you contact a web site, you have no idea which physical machine will be handling your request *or* whether or not it has seen components updated in the interval from the previous request you issued seconds earlier. You don't care. As long as the interface to the site doesn't change...

"Components" can also be chunks of software. E.g., I can change the implementation of a particular function/module and the "user" need be none the wiser -- as long as I maintain the contract specified in the ABI.

Traditionally, software isn't designed with these sorts of mechanisms in place as they have higher invocation overheads. No free lunch.

But, the approach is considerably more scalable, robust and easier to develop (as well as deploy). (Most enterprises use a similar approach -- "microservices")

You have made suggestions, based on your local environment and your particular skill set, which might work for you, though you don't claim to have got any business out of them.

I live in Sydney, and while I am active in the local IEEE I haven't run into anything remotely similar to what you described.

I don't play pickeball, what ever that might be. I stopped playing field hockey when I turned 69.

You advice does seem to be more satirical than well-intentioned. It certainly doesn't strike me as being well-informed.

Bitrex snipped-for-privacy@example.net wrote: |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"[. . .] | |[. . .] higher education is too | |expensive now for most people to spend money on without receiving a GPA, | |class rank[. . .] | |[. . .]" | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Swedish degrees do not show GPAs. Swedish and Irish degrees do not show class ranks. (S.

Or they start gigabuck companies.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

Nor do US degrees (though various "honors" indications may be indicated -- /summa cum laude/ etc.).

GPA and rank are such relative terms that they have little practical meaning (one of my classmates was *12* when he entered school; do you think anyone even questioned his rank or GPA on graduation?)

The choice of school is usually more significant; not as an indication of YOUR preference but rather THEIR admissions criteria.

And, all of this fades pretty quickly once you have some job experience.

But, in many cases, Mommy & Daddy are footing the bill and want *some* indication of your progress.

Very few people start gigabuck companies. You may look like a drop-out when you are doing it, but the education process isn't focussed on imparting the skills required to do it - part because we don't really have a clear idea what they are, and partly because if you need the information now, you aren't going to wait around until the scheduled lectures impart it.

Makes sense. There are a finite number of gigabucks.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

John Larkin does like snipping the posts he is pretending to respond to until he's got something left to which he can produce a snappy - if irrelevant - response.

I snipped nothing in my reply just above. You snipped a lot.

And what's wrong with snappy?

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

You snipped most of what I'd had to say. I snipped only what had prompted you to say what you did.

When it is devoted to make you look clever - if only in your own eyes - and ignores the point I was making, it is a bit irritating.

My proposition was that somebody who drops out of college to start a mega-buck company is a very different (and much rarer) kind of individual than the individuals who drop out of college and sponge off their parents.

The one's whose hoped-for mega-buck company turns into a micro-buck company do tend to dig a hole to hide in for while, but they will only sponge off their parents until they come up with some new idea, which may be less ambitious but may be more practicable - failure is a lot more educational than gazing at a bedroom wall.