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Most IT professionals are drifting towards java technology, even when all indicators show that the technology has cooled or at best cooling down. Isn't it time one takes stock of his/her preferences. Is ones' reason for studying and getting certified in Java just to know the Language even if he/she can not get a job with it. Recent studies are showing that the hot technologies in the IT world today are security and storage - what ever that is. I am seriously considering diverting to these areas even when I do not know where to start. I encourage most people who are out there searching to look beyond Java and see what benefits there are in these areas of IT, but if you must float and sink with Java. I say Good Luck to you. Suggestions, comments are welcomed.
 
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I read somewhere that the US gov't might have tax incentives for IT firms that do not outsource (i don't know how they'll implement this in 2005 but could be interesting for the US worker). I have a feeling the savings from outsourcing of IT is not really that big when you contrast it with the total expense side of a conglomerate. So if you add a tax incentive, plus an already cheaper dollar - it can be compelling for a hiring manager to think twice before outsourcing.
 
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Hi Anselm !

Most IT professionals are drifting towards java technology, even when all indicators show that the technology has cooled or at best cooling down. Isn't it time one takes stock of his/her preferences. Is ones' reason for studying and getting certified in Java just to know the Language even if he/she can not get a job with it. Recent studies are showing that the hot technologies in the IT world today are security and storage - what ever that is. I am seriously considering diverting to these areas even when I do not know where to start. I encourage most people who are out there searching to look beyond Java and see what benefits there are in these areas of IT, but if you must float and sink with Java. I say Good Luck to you. Suggestions, comments are welcomed.

Sorry, but you are totally wrong, because you take a bad approach :

_ Java and .Net are clearly the hottest technologies for near future, but as Java has been there for a while and .Net is getting more mature Java slows down while .Net climbs, until they arrive to the same level for both are as valuable. So even if Java is cooling down there is no threat for it.

_ You focus on language, which is (sorry) totally stupid, there is an awful lot of computer languages existing (hundreds) and many are good, the matter is the level of technology they allow and their handling/learning complexity. Most used languaged is still Cobol, because all legacy applications (especially banks) still use it and it still works good enough.

_ Certification will help you in one single way for hiring : drifting your resume to stack pile top, nothing more. Certainly the people who know Java at best (as Jame Gosling himself probably) hold no Java certification because they don't need any to prove their worth. This is the case of my CTO who is a worldwide Java expert in JDO field, very good at Unix and Windows too and database expert, but holds no certification at all. Certification is a useful process for yourself mainly, to study a technology deeply in a coherent way and gain confidence, no more.

_ You are totally right saying hottest technologies in the IT world today are security and storage, but these are 2 IT fields among others. There are many other IT fields which will allow you to make a carrier : database, development, networks, embedded, ... What is more, every IT professionnal must now manage most of them a little at least for they are too complementary, you cannot develop and ignore databases and OS, you cannot make networking and ignore firewalls, and so on. The hottest and probably most complicated (and in demand) to come is certainly embedded, as you have to be good at development+OS+networking+architecture altogether. As every cell phone is a mini computer now, there will be a lasting and growing explosion of demand for such skills which will be hard to fullfill.

_ Don't focus on technology, focus on architecture. All IT technologies are used together now, so as to have a valuable job you will have to interface or assemble newest and oldest legacy technology using different and valuable possibilities (CORBA, Web Services, XML, ...). Languages will be a choice among others, but being a simple developper is not enough, go to architecture so as to have a bright future.

Best regards.
 
Anselm Paulinus
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Hi Eric:

This posting I presume was not in any way misplaced, neither was it intended to stir the hornets nest. Its intent was to sample peoples opinion in order to make informed decisions.

You could have made your points without the use of words like "You focus on language, which is (sorry) totally stupid". I think then your write-up would have made a better reading.

Well; I wish you luck.

Bye,
Anselm.
 
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Anselm, in that case even u shud refrain from using words such as "but if you must float and sink with Java. I say Good Luck to you."

Originally posted by Anselm Paulinus:
Hi Eric:

This posting I presume was not in any way misplaced, neither was it intended to stir the hornets nest. Its intent was to sample peoples opinion in order to make informed decisions.

You could have made your points without the use of words like "You focus on language, which is (sorry) totally stupid". I think then your write-up would have made a better reading.

Well; I wish you luck.

Bye,
Anselm.

 
Eric Lemaitre
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Hi Anselm !

Anselm, in that case even u shud refrain from using words such as "but if you must float and sink with Java. I say Good Luck to you."

As soniya remarks, this is exactly the way I took it, perhaps even a troll. You simply cannot say such things on a Java forum and expect avoiding some kind of backdraft flame in return.

This is typically the kind of posts Microsoft used to create artificial FUD on concurrent technologies so as to promote theirs. So as the general meaning of your message was clearly hostile for Java, I took is as such and answered in a much more unfriendly way as usual.

Facts to gather for you are simple : Java is an excellent technology to last, .Net probably too despite it is impossible to draw unbiased figures from their usual marketting boasts they use instead of technical benchmarks, but neutral IT people who tested it confirm it will be comparable to Java and practically as performant.

Best regards.
 
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Originally posted by Anselm Paulinus:
Recent studies are showing that the hot technologies in the IT world today are security and storage



What do those necessarily have to do with Java development?

I've worked with plenty of Oracle DBAs that make twice what I do. But that's not the point. I think you have an apples to oranges comparison going on there...
 
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While off topic, J2EE has a great security model.
 
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Focus on mastering basic technology paradigms, not specific implementations/tools.

(Copyright (c) 2005 Jacquie Barker -- All rights reserved)

In over 25 years as a software engineer, I've seen only a handful of new paradigms emerge to fundamentally impact how I do my job:

Modular ('goto-less') programming (early 70s)

Relational database management systems (early 80s)

The advent of personal computers and client-server computing (mid 80s)

Graphical user interfaces (late 80s)

Object-oriented programming (late 70s, but not really commercially popular until the early 90s)

The World Wide Web, and the move toward thin client computing (early 90s)

The use of XML to represent/exchange data (mid 90s)

During that same period of time, I've seen hundreds of tools, languages, and vendor products come and go.

It's the fundamental knowledge of relational database theory - but not the knowledge of how Sybase differs from Oracle, or how version 10g of Oracle differs from version 9i; the fundamental knowledge of object oriented programming - but not the knowledge of how C# differs from Java, or how release 5.0 of Java compares with 1.4; the fundamental knowledge of thin client computing - but not how Netscape's features contrast with those of Internet Explorer; that really matters in terms of being a proficient software engineer.

Best regards,

Jacquie Barker
Author, Taming the Technology Tidal Wave
http://techtidalwave.com
[ February 08, 2005: Message edited by: Jacquie Barker ]
 
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Jacquie, I'd consider the webbased application a throwback to the old days of mainframes and dumb terminals.
The new terminal is a browser window, the mainframe a web(application) server.
That server itself is typically a client in a client/server architecture between it and a database.
XML is just another form of EDI or RPC, 1970s technologies as well.

So really the entire "new" technologies that emerged in the mid to late 1990s and early 21st century so far are no more and no less than new implementations of 30+ year old principles.

OO itself is little more in principle than a veneer around best practices in procedural languages, which would have one create modular code in shared libraries.
 
Consider Paul's rocket mass heater.
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