William Tay, aka Softwaremaker, who is a Regional Director in Singapore (as well as my WSE hand-holding pal) and now has moved solidly into the Indigo space, has written a great post on the academic debates over technology and the effects these debates can have on the programmers who write software for a living and need to get stuff done in a timely and cost-effective manner. I know I get caught up in this stuff too, not debating, but questioning my technology choices based on the interesting discussions that occur over architecture and best practices. Good examples are statements like "DataSets are a horrible invention and anyone who uses them is not a real programmer" or "objects are the way of the dinosaurs". Things like that can really make a person who is just doing the best job they can look at themselves in the mirror and say "egad, have I really been that stupid?"
Okay, so it's not as silly as the Ford/Chevy debate or the Campy/Shimano flamewars. I mean, okay, I guess Shimano parts can actually make a bike move down the road (but don't be puttin them on my italian road bike, ya hear?) And yes, we saw that Lance has, what my husband refers to as Shi*mano on his bike this year - so it's all good!