Fog Creek?

"When developers go to a conference, do they fly first class? (I don’t care if that seems like a waste of money. Stars go first class. Get used to it.) "

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/07/a-field-guide-to-d...

I think he was talking about domestic first class. Tech was even more americentric back then.

What I learned from that article is that he helped kill a visual programming language project at Microsoft that could have revolutionized the way non-programmers interact with computers (the rest is interesting, of course).

Visual programming is an oxymoron

Programmers often get this idea that programming has to be "hard" to be "programming". Perl vs. C++, Visual Basic vs C++, Ruby vs. Java, etc.

Check out these:

- Pure Data (http://puredata.info/)

- Max (https://cycling74.com/products/max-features)

- My own (discontinued): http://www.nitrogenlogic.com/docs/palace/

My MO with technology is that easy things should be automated, and hard things should be made easier. Visual programming is one tool in the toolbox for leveling up technology and people's access to it.

It doesn’t but it is hard to do it right, see my comment here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19350721

https://scratch.mit.edu/ is visual programming (dragging puzzle pieces) and it really opens up programming to all kinds of young kids, girls who want to make animations, and so forth. I programmed a prototype of my first Android app with a version of this called MIT App Inventor.

GoAnywhere is mostly-visual programming that puts light ETL within reach of business analysts. https://i.imgur.com/ypH6IZC.png

Visual programming isn’t scallable or transferrable. Giving such powers to people to use in production is super risky. Ok to prototype, but letting people design enterprise systems with 0 knowledge about system design or source control is extremely risky.

Yes empowering people is great, but we live in age where software developement is about to get regulated, people routinely die from seemingly innocent systems.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Indeed. Although of course for a company like Exxon the top mgmt are probably flying private jets...

The rare times I fly first it's just upgrades due to frequent flyer status

I know people with global services who have never got a first class upgrade. Any secret on how to get first class? Any airline to pick?

I am Executive Platinum on American. I fly business class a lot, and have been able to get first class upgrades pretty easily. The first class product is very similar to business class - just slightly "fancier" food. I actually prefer the business class seat on AA's long haul flights (way more storage space for ipad, headphones, etc. - at the cost of a slightly narrower seat).

The trick to getting most upgrades from business to first is to request the upgrade as soon as you book the biz class flight. You're not likely to get it if you try to do it at the airport.

The real secret is to pick the right flight! There are certain flights that are always jam-packed in business, this gives you two opportunities. The first step is to check-in last minute at the desk. The next step depends on your situation:

1) You don't have any holidays coming up: Go to the dedicated desk for first/platinum, about 2h before departure. Just check in and if business is full your status will get you pushed up

2) You do plan on taking holidays: Same, but the first question you ask is "do you need volunteers for downgrade?". Trust me, on Emirates they make it worth your while :)

Edit: the protip is the weekday Emirates India-Dubai flights that leave in the small hours of the morning (e.g. 2am). I guarantee the business section will always be overbooked

It’s common in the entertainment business, like it’ll be in the contract for movie stars, top producers, people like that.

Are there companies that give first class for normal employees? I know a lot of companies have a private jet for their C suite.

Didn't SAG's contract renegotiation a few years back end that? I thought now it was business class only. That was the impetus for United killing first class on their LAX-NYC service.

It's also rumored that United lost a lot of entertainment business when they killed their LAX-JFK service and moved everything to Newark. AA still flies a 3-class plane on LAX/SFO-JFK with lie-flat seats in business and first.