| Re: Work at RSI! [message #19630 is a reply to message #19533] |
Tue, 11 April 2000 00:00   |
Patrick Broos
Messages: 27
Registered: December 1996
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Junior Member |
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Research Systems wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>You've been using IDL for years and you like it!
You're the "go-to" person
<BR>for difficult IDL-related questions in your organization. Perhaps there
are
<BR>even some things about IDL that you wish were different or you think
could
<BR>be better. Here's your chance to do something about it.
<P>We're looking for people with one foot in science and the other foot
in
<BR>programming (and an understanding of both) to contribute to future
IDL
<BR>functionality.</BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>I find this opportunity at RSI to pose a moral dilemma.</PRE>
<PRE>I enjoy programming in IDL, I've wanted to work again in Colorado for</PRE>
<PRE>quite a while, and I happen to have experience relevant to RSI's need.</PRE>
<PRE>However over the years I've come to believe that the environment/culture</PRE>
<PRE>at RSI does not tend to place a high enough value on scientific integrity,</PRE>
<PRE>i.e. getting correct answers from IDL applications, or on their customers'</PRE>
<PRE>time. For example:</PRE>
<PRE>* To this day RSI has not done anything about the corrupt scientific results</PRE>
<PRE>its customers may produce using the multi-flawed random number routines.</PRE>
<PRE>(Just three weeks ago another person reported to this newsgroup that they</PRE>
<PRE>were burned by this.)</PRE>
<PRE>* RSI seems to make no effort to notify its customers of even routine and</PRE>
<PRE>straigtforward bugs that are known and fixed. They have twice now given</PRE>
<PRE>me a revised version of cw_form.pro when I pointed out a bug but made no</PRE>
<PRE>effort to make such improvements available to the rest of their customer base.</PRE>
<PRE></PRE>
<PRE>I'm sure the people at RSI are perfectly nice people. They would probably</PRE>
<PRE>explain that by not doing the things _I_ think they should be doing, they</PRE>
<PRE>are able to accomplish other important stuff. Fine ... everyone has to set</PRE>
<PRE>priorities.</PRE>
<PRE></PRE>
<PRE>So, when you disagree with a company's behavior, should you avoid working</PRE>
<PRE>there (as a protest, and for your own personal happiness), or should you</PRE>
<PRE>try to work there (making an effort improve the place)? This is an entirely</PRE>
<PRE>academic question, of course, designed to stimulate interesting newsgroup</PRE>
<PRE>discussion, since RSI would not likely hire me now anyway. :)</PRE>
<PRE></PRE>
<PRE>I like the IDL language generally, but just wish RSI would do some things</PRE>
<PRE>better. Perhaps you, gentle reader, just wish I would stop complaining.</PRE>
<PRE></PRE>
<PRE>Regards,</PRE>
<PRE>--
============================================================ ========
Patrick S. Broos, Systems Analyst/Programmer patb@astro.psu.edu
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics My office 814-863-5505
Penn State University
525 Davey Lab &nb sp; &nb sp; &nb sp; &nb sp; FAX &nb sp; 814-863-8686
University Park, PA 16802-6305
<A HREF="http://www.astro.psu.edu">http://www.astro.psu.edu</A> Group office 863-9550
============================================================ ======== </PRE>
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