Cost of Programmer to automate

[johnpinochet]

Quote from Jerry030:

I know little about you, only your incorrect posts and primitive view of how software is developed in America, while I know a great deal about the flaws of the Soviet system. In America we have something called freedom of speech and lack the KGB so we can say as we please.

This was an interesting thread at one time.

I think any elementary school student would understand that he was asking you to insult him directly versus the entire country, and I don't think freedom of speech or the KGB had anything to do with his polite request.

Political posturing and propaganda is bad no matter which side of the fence it comes from.

 

[Jerry030]

Quote from johnpinochet:

This was an interesting thread at one time.

I think any elementary school student would understand that he was asking you to insult him directly versus the entire country, and I don't think freedom of speech or the KGB had anything to do with his polite request.

Political posturing and propaganda is bad no matter which side of the fence it comes from.

John,

My point was that he is a product of his political and social culture. If he wants to state how programmers operate in The Russian Federation that's fine. I could care less. But when he insists the software process is the same in America, it's just plain silly. So I'm attempting to explain to him why he can't see that...the social conditioning of his country, which was to manufacture illusion and insist that all members of society accept it. If wants to continue in that mode I don’t care except when he wants to foist the illusions on to me.

Jerry303

 

[RedRat]

Quote from Jerry030:

I know little about you, only your incorrect posts and primitive view of how software is developed in America, while I know a great deal about the flaws of the Soviet system. In America we have something called freedom of speech and lack the KGB so we can say as we please.

OK, what do you know about flaws of the Soviet system? Are you one of ex-USSR citizens who left Russia in 80th to move to USA?

 

[dcraig]

Quote from rosy2:

i think in 99% of cases classic software specifications delivered to a programmer to merely type up are for CYA purposes only. Then the programmer or program manager can say I followed the spec when something unexpected occurs (which always happens).

In the non-outsourced world "specs" are a fluid discussion between everyone using the software.

That really depends on the industry, application etc. For example if you are building software to run telecomms switching equipment, I am 100% confident that the process will be formal with design docs, formal test plans, code reviews and whatever.

I recall working on a contract for a Telco where you could just about stick a semi-colon on the end of the lines of the pseudo code and compile it. It was a horrible job and I declined their kind offer to renew my contract.

 

[epetrov]

Hello guys,
I'd like to tell you that the computers can do arbitrage on diffrent markets, but they are not very useful aside from this.
Don't lose your time and money.

 

[dcraig]

Quote from epetrov:

Hello guys,
I'd like to tell you that the computers can do arbitrage on diffrent markets, but they are not very useful aside from this.
Don't lose your time and money.

Thank you so much for your insightful contribution and the final word on the matter.

 

[hemlock]

Quote from maxpi:

I could use some expertise. I can't imagine having somebody else develope a system and code it though. I'm coding things in OpenQuant and basically I have to babysit the thing, watch it all day, debug it in realtime, debug it in backtesting, etc... how I could even direct somebody else in all this I don't know. I'm struggling with C# a lot though, is there a website or a good source to hook me up with somebody that could answer my coding problems a little piece at a time? I used to use Experts-Exchange but it seems to have degenerated. I can't get specific enough answers out of the OpenQuant forum, they direct everything at C# programmers with a high level of competency, I'll never be that, I can program but I don't have the C# "genes". I have code up and running but there are things I would like to do that so far I can't, not at my level of coding capability..... and I don't want to share the strat, I just want to ask some specific questions and get some specific answers, you would think some programmers would like that business model to earn a little spare cash....

maxpi,

Please PM me if you are still interested

 

[Jerry030]

Quote from dcraig:

Thank you so much for your insightful contribution and the final word on the matter.

Could you expand on that statement?

What is useful? In what context?

Mine acquires prices automatically - that beats calling up my broker.

It draws nice charts - that saves lots of time over manual charts.

It automatically creates trading strategies from the results of predictive models generates by neural networks that trade with a Profit Factors greater than 3.0 - that is both useful and profitable.

It automatically executes those trading strategies, monitors its performance and sends me text messages when it trades – that saves monitoring the markets like many chartists and indicator traders have to do, which is useful.

Beyond that what else would be useful?

Jerry030

 

[Jerry030]

Quote from dcraig:

That really depends on the industry, application etc. For example if you are building software to run telecomms switching equipment, I am 100% confident that the process will be formal with design docs, formal test plans, code reviews and whatever.

I recall working on a contract for a Telco where you could just about stick a semi-colon on the end of the lines of the pseudo code and compile it. It was a horrible job and I declined their kind offer to renew my contract.

Sure, if you are programming in an industry where a mistake could cause a disaster and the goal and all other elements are the product of many thousands of hours of engineering analysis then you have to program with precision. I suspect the same is true in the nuclear industry and the design of control systems for oil refineries and commercial airport traffic control systems.

However I can tell you that in many other industries where there is no constraint of a major disaster or established engineering design to be implemented the reverse is true.

The users are busy on many projects. They don't want to invest the time in writing or reading hundreds of pages of detailed specifications. They would much rather say this is what we want to happen, go write a program to do it and let us know when it's done. The programmer then has to define the details, select a method, implement and test it with very little detailed supervision or control form the users.

As an example I did a consulting project for a global company in the consumer products field a few years ago. I started out with a detailed project plan and the goal of a whole series of design meetings to create specifications...the whole formal systems design process. About an hour into the first meeting I was clear they weren't interested in that approach. They eventually gave me total control over a multi million dollar project and just told me to go do it. The only specification and design documents were those on my white board, as working notes in my computer at home or in my head.

 

[Jerry030]

Quote from RedRat:

OK, what do you know about flaws of the Soviet system? Are you one of ex-USSR citizens who left Russia in 80th to move to USA?

No I'm not a former USSR citizen. I'm a German American and have never been to the Russia.

I'm a student of history.

Flaws of the Soviet System:

1) Most countries have border controls to keep foreigners out without a passport and visa - the USSR had to shoot people at the borders to keep them in.

2) Most countries have some kind of rule of law that in most cases provides at least some constraint on the actions of the government - the USSR had none. Stalin could have hundreds of thousands of people executed on a whim. Millions were killed through forced starvation in the Ukraine in the 20's and 30's.

3) Most countries have some degree of permitted speech, assembly and freedom of religion - in the USSR speaking your mind or trying to organize an independent union or political party were crimes against the state.

4) The USSR collapsed not from external invasion, changing external conditions or natural disaster but from the defects in it's own design.

In essence the USSR was perhaps one of the largest and costliest failed experiments in government in the history of the planet.


Jerry030