Do you feel bad when your work computer is better than your home computer?

[Anubis]

I sincerely hope that the developers get a higher-res monitor than that.

I remember "overclocking" my 14" CRT in HS, just so that I could get the extra screen res to write code with, from 800x600 to 1024x768i. (Yes, interlaced.)

if they do its not much better, maybe a 22. most people just use dept/group money to buy a 24 or so that does at least 1080p

im pretty sure im one of 5 or so people that run a monitor that does 1200p

 

[Balt]

Do you feel bad when your work computer is better than your home computer?

At my job, that will never ever ever ever ever happen.

 

[sze5003]

I've worked at two different Fortune 500 companies and all the developers had multiple powerful computers. I now work for a small company and its the same thing. A $2-3k computer is nothing when you look at how much time it saves developers. It sounds like you have some bad management at your company. Have you made the argument for why you need a better computer?

Yeah plenty of times and all they say is well we can call support and have them re image it or get you a second one with just an ide for my development. It's that they are a low cost company so that's why the computers suck. They all run xp and are not optimized at all. Even my line manager complained about his laptop being slow and later it was broke and he said it took them almost 2 years to resolve that.

They are a low cost in-house investment firm so they won't do anything. We are suppose to get windows 7 machines but I'm not sure when or if I will get one. Lots of devs have complained and they won't order better stuff. Problem is the website and its apps run on old architecture Cobol and batch processes, and java on the middle and ui. Lots of legacy stuff in the background too so upgrading to all new recent marines plus windows 7 would conflict with the in-house software that they put on the pc's which is usually developed by the company too.

I dunno how we do so good when we use such ancient code and architecture clutter.

We get 2 19 inch monitors that run at 1024 resolution or maybe it's higher but not by much. Truly shit hardware and we have maybe more than 20k employees with probably 3-4k IT people and more in other campuses around the country.

 

[Engineer]

My home computer(s) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> work computer.

Not even close.

 

[Bateluer]

Even if my work machine was better, $50 says that they'll load it with so much bloatware that it'll be a piece of shit.

This, right here. 100% absolute certainty. You cannot trust John Smith Employee not to hose that work computer in every manner possible under Murphy's Law.

Also, shared workstations with Windows 7 Pro. Slow to a crawl when users don't log out at the end of the day and leave all their crap open. Security geniuses denied every one the rights to log off inactive users.

 

[RossMAN]

Hell to the no and that will never happen.

This about sums it up for me:

My home computer(s) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> work computer.

Not even close.

 

[Cerb]

They are a low cost in-house investment firm so they won't do anything. We are suppose to get windows 7 machines but I'm not sure when or if I will get one. Lots of devs have complained and they won't order better stuff. Problem is the website and its apps run on old architecture Cobol and batch processes, and java on the middle and ui. Lots of legacy stuff in the background too so upgrading to all new recent marines plus windows 7 would conflict with the in-house software that they put on the pc's which is usually developed by the company too.

That reads like a house of cards, man...just waiting for the right breeze. They could probably do very well if they would translate the COBOL stuff into Java (since a Java environment is already in place), and then start on a gradual path towards no legacy software.

I dunno how we do so good when we use such ancient code and architecture clutter.

Maintainers and admins that know what they're doing? Holding the 'front line' workers back is the real problem. As long as you have people that know the old software and what it runs on, you can get it talking to newer stuff just fine. The issues come in when you need non-tech workers to directly communicate with old terminal type systems, and it's hard to update that interface.

The last time I had a work computer better than my home computer, it was insane. They'd been stuck on real POSes for ages (P3 PCs w/ 256-512MB RAM, and P4s w/ SDR), so went overboard and got crazy overpowered workstations when they got the green light. Dual quad Xeons, $2k+ Quadros, SAS drives...the works.

 

[IronWing]

Back when I was doing groundwater modeling in the late 80s and early 90s my work computer blew the doors off anything I could afford at home. We kept the machines running the models at the bleeding edge of technology. In the modern world, groundwater models don't even tax mass market laptops.

 

[sze5003]

They will eventually, I think move to java on the host but that I think is going to be an issue among teams and training. There is still so much legacy crap that it will never be a smooth transition. I'd love to use just html and regular java rather than their custom jsp components, custom everything. Like you said its harder because people that are more modernized coders are not used to this type of integration.

 

[insect9]

My work laptop (Dell M6600) is quite a bit better than my personal laptop (Lenovo X200.) I don't mind at all if they want to spend money to get me decent equipment to work on.

 

[Cerb]

They will eventually, I think move to java on the host but that I think is going to be an issue among teams and training. There is still so much legacy crap that it will never be a smooth transition. I'd love to use just html and regular java rather than their custom jsp components, custom everything. Like you said its harder because people that are more modernized coders are not used to this type of integration.

Except for a few guru types, who probably are freelancers, practically nobody is, "used to," such integration (or, what should be going on, migration). It's just plain hard, even with good code, and good documentation. Learning how the old system(s) work(ed) is generally the easy part, and anyone working on the new stuff aught to have the mental plasticity for that. But, reverse-engineering specific behaviors of old code, especially when the behaviors cross system boundaries, can be a PITA. Generally, the only shortcut is to find a genius freelancer with a history of managing such transitions, and pay them big bucks.

 

[Chaotic42]

I'm pretty sure that the amount of red tape involved in getting a new computer at work ensures that will never happen.

 

[Broheim]

I'm pretty sure that the amount of red tape involved in getting a new computer at work ensures that will never happen.

We upgrade computers so often that people start to bitch every time I show up with a new one for them, they don't mind the new 27" monitors though.

 

[RossMAN]

We upgrade computers so often that people start to bitch every time I show up with a new one for them, they don't mind the new 27" monitors though.

Are they hiring? :thumbsup:

 

[Chaotic42]

We upgrade computers so often that people start to bitch every time I show up with a new one for them, they don't mind the new 27" monitors though.

When I started at my job they'd just give me the company credit card if I told them I needed a new machine/monitor/whatever. We've since been acquired and that ended rather abruptly.

My old computer at work (it's dormant since I'm on a new project) still has its four monitors though. It took me a while to get them for all of us. That was a fun fight.

 

[Fenixgoon]

ahhahahahahahahah

i work for the government. our computers are riddled with such shit that even a C2D is horrendously slow

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Not only is my work computer a dead slow Dell on a Government server, I share it with the bookkeeper.

 

[BUTCH1]

We have Dell E8400's/2Gb at work, not too bad, I use the same CPU@ home, just OC'ed to 3.6/4 gig and a 4850 card and SSD. 775 is on the old side nowadays but I don't have the need for anything faster nowadays, the few games I still play run fine on this rig..

 

[Broheim]

Are they hiring? :thumbsup:

if you do architecture, structural engineering or 3D rendering then they usually are, people come and go constantly so I've given up on remembering names on anybody but the oldtimers.

When I started at my job they'd just give me the company credit card if I told them I needed a new machine/monitor/whatever. We've since been acquired and that ended rather abruptly.

My old computer at work (it's dormant since I'm on a new project) still has its four monitors though. It took me a while to get them for all of us. That was a fun fight.

the credit card thing wouldn't work for us, I'd be knee deep in macs (not that I have anything against macs but AD and SCCM makes my life so ridiculously easy). Architects are generally speaking completely ignorant on the subject of computers, which isn't a bad thing because we can get away with all kinds of bullshit simply by using big words and we've convinced the partners that if they don't pump more money into the IT-budget the world will end.

we also buy in bulk with a sizable discount, the downside is the way we buy them we aren't told when the equipment is going to show up, just last week a guy dropped off a pallet of Z220's out of the blue.

 

[TallBill]

Don't have a computer at work or at home.