Nothing like a variety of language wars to make for an interesting weekend. It seems that Microsoft programmers (as in the platform, not necessarily employees of the company), are regarded as at best, amatuerish clods

the problem with Microsoft programmers is they don't KNOW what is out there. Their whole world is Microsoft so they don't realize what "uptime" is or real security or what being able to develop your whole system on multiple platforms totally remotely.[Russell Beattie, via kev'scatalogue of this and that]

or at worst, agents of evil

You're either on the good side or the bad side. And we all know who the convicted felons are. Personally, I don't know how Microsoft programmers sleep at night. [Russell Beattie]

 (I sleep fine, thanks, especially since the baby's sleeping through the night now).On the other hand, C# and Java programmers are intellectually challenged:

Because Lisp is dead, I'll get better programmers for less money.  I'll be able to guarantee 50 more IQ points for the same pay. And my guys will be able to spend their time typing in value not book keeping overhead and typing in type descriptions because their guys are too stupid to know when they type + numbers are involved.[Richard Gabriel, via [It's Like DéjàVu All Over Again]

For my part, Richard has a good point.  I'm reminded of the guy who used to come onto the "free speech" area of campus and yell at all the passersby that they were going to hell.  Funny enough, the sermon in church today was about talking about God without being obnoxious or being a bad advocate.  I guess that applies to all spheres of life.

The management world has tried to develop software engineering processes that allow people to be plugged into them like interchangeablecomponents. The "interface specification" for these "components" usuallyinvolvesa list of tools in which an engineer has received "training." (I really detest the use of the word "training" in relation to professional activities. Training is what you do to dogs. What you should be doing with people is educating them, not training them. There is a big, big difference.)[Erann Gatt, via It's Like It's Like Déjà Vu All Over Again]

I've been feeling this way lately too.  In spite of what every CEO loves to tell their employees, I'm starting to feel more like engineers are regarded as an expense instead of an asset.