And so it continues...

System i Network is down again. It says Operation failed on the data source
named "as400network"; maybe the old name is finally too out of date?

Seriously, though, I predicted this a while back: we're going to go through
a period of pain as larger and larger communities of people begin to count
on software that's being cobbled together by developers who just don't have
the skills to support it.

I'm not an elitist, really, but I do think that the current mindset of "plug
and play" software has combined with the emergence of the non-technical CIO
to create an environment where all development costs are seen as a cost
center, and in order to keep costs down production software is being
integrated (and that's being kind) by people who don't understand enough to
keep it stable. And that's because when it comes down to it, you have to be
able to write good software in order to integrate it. Software is NOT nuts
and bolts; it's complex, complicated logic that's becoming more complex at a
seemingly exponential rate.

That's not to say someone can't build systems from today's components; they
certainly can! But they have to have basic programming skills -- and darn
GOOD skills at that -- in order to be able to take disparate pieces and make
them work together.

The Open Source community is great, but if you don't pay anything for your
software and you don't know how it works and you plug the pieces together
and cross your fingers, you're asking for this sort of situation.

Joe