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I’d like to be able to tell you that you can have a lucrative career as a C# developer, but I can’t. I’m not saying that you CAN’T make it as a C# developer, but the sad fact of the matter is that technology jobs are beholden to factors beyond your control.
If you want to make money writing an app, you can go the Xamarin route. Even then, though, you’re at the mercy of the whims of a fickle population. Often an app is successful despite the fact that the app is a rehash of what can already be done (and better) elsewhere. Somehow the app became “cool”, though, and that’s all that counts.
As for writing serious software for business/personal productivity, you’re again at the mercy of strange factors. There is still a strong anti-Microsoft sentiment in the industry and that’s the primary reason why teams of developers undergo herculean efforts to get even the simplest application running in javascript. It doesn’t occur to these developers that if a customer purchases your software, then he has a vested interest in being able to install and run your software. There’s no need, then, to make it run in a browser! In almost every case, the browser is just going to be run on a PC, so why burden yourself with a junk language like javascript unless you’re just trying to stick it to Microsoft? Don’t get me wrong. Browser-based software has its purpose. When your customers are web users who aren’t directly purchasing your software, there’s less of a justification for installing software. Even then, though, I’d argue that the severe limitations of web-based development aren’t worth it. But then, I’ve been around long enough to remember when we used to laugh at the kinds of things that are acceptable practices today.
Let me finish, then, with advice contrary to what you’ve been hearing. Being a “polyglot” isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Being “jack of all trades, master of none” is why we have so much bad software out there. If job satisfaction matters to you, then it’s OK to be an expert at fewer things. Though it seems many people are happy with serviceable junk, there are still people out there who will pay for quality.
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Wow, it seems a little negative...
I am a polyglot, but not a C# person (I dabbled, that is about it).
The future is moving away from PCs. Moving towards carrying and accessing everything from your phone.
The best move I made was to Android and having my gmail account linked. But I do 90% of my email from my PC still. I do 99% of my surfing on my PC. But that phone is handy when I travel, etc.
People want the information when and where they want it.
Also, the fact that they invest so much in their phones makes them question getting a PC. Which drives PC sales down. Which removes the development efforts, which removes the reasons for a PC, which drives the sales down.
Steve Jobs envisioned a small ubiquitous computer that people hardly noticed... Like the telephone.
What he missed (until decades later) was what he said. A small computer like a telephone that everyone would have with them. Custom to them.
This is driving the changes we see. Also, the next killer app... Well, it is big data, and it is here, and it runs on the servers. So the next big thing is making everything cloud based, which is happening.
So, back to the question about C# programming. Find a job that needs what you have to offer, and keep doing it better and better. My biggest complaint with most programmers with 5 years of experience is that they have 1 year of experience 5 times in a row. They don't grow.
I liked the days we called them Programmer/Analysts. Because if you are not solving the right problem, who cares. And if you don't solve the problem right, who cares. So the Analyst portion is important. Then the programming. Regardless of language. That's me. I love to solve the problems.
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C# can target the web platform by the use of javascript transpilers. For years I've used "Saltarelle" (now Bridge.NET) with discrete success. It's not like writing in JavaScript directly, but if your are religious about C# it's a good compromise.
Also it's a good chance to get used to HTML/CSS from a language/IDE you already know. In time it will become natural to migrate to TypeScript.
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TheOnlyRealTodd wrote: Is C# something I can realistically make cutting-edge applications with at this point?
Yes, but learning how to to write desktop apps now doesn't help your career any. Given your web background, I'd extend that to more platforms -- yes, Xamarin if you want to do C#.
TheOnlyRealTodd wrote: Xamarin is out of the question for me right now because Im on Windows 7 and the emulator I can use is too slow
You have a little less than a month to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Do it and then learn Xamarin. I just did that myself last week for that exact reason.
TheOnlyRealTodd wrote: Are desktop apps dying or can I really still make some killer stuff with C#?
Yes. Why write something trapped to a specific platform when you can do it client/server and open up a whole host of potential or future functionality for the user? Even if you don't ship it client/server, architect it that way so you can break them apart later. You never know where you might want to take your desktop application in the future.
I'm a desktop C# guy whose starting to climb the learning curve on stack stuff. Don't head this direction, it leads to dinosaurs -- turn around and go back the way you came 
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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Check how he applied human intelligence on a wooden box...
Homepage | Dilbert by Scott Adams[^]
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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I took some pictures during vivid Sydney light festival. An armature photographer's clicks.
Vivid Sydney 2016 - Album on Imgur[^]
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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Wow! Nice work there. I was ready to leave a snarky comment furthering the Sydney/Melbourne rivalry thing for a laugh, when I saw the shots of the second location. Breathtaking. 
Thanks for sharing 'em.
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virang_21 wrote: An armature photographer's clicks.
I can't believe you're an armature - you get some dynamoic images!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Don't wind people up!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I just wanna watch the sparks fly!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Trawl through internet and setup my DSLR before going to event and did some adjustment while there. Picture quality is not as good as I expected but OK to share.
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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Wow the Opera House is such an impressive canvas, some of the aboriginal art on there looks amazing.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Aboriginal? Yeah, right! Just what the traveller's from the edge of Andromeda want you to think! 
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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So, you got a towel and lots of beers ready? Just in case?
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Of course. And when I've finally found a friend named after a downmarket car my escape plan will be complete!
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Very cool! Thanks for posting those.
Marc
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Dumb question... if you are a DBA and I came up to you and said "Here's a physical beastly box... 24 cores, ~140GB of RAM, plenty of flash storage... I need you to set up SQL 2016 on it and migrate this 10TB database from SQL 2008 R2" Assuming of course proper security and best practices, etc. Let's even "complicate" it and assume this 10TB database includes spatial data. How long would it take you? I have ZERO SQL admin experience other then slamming a few SQLs onto local machines or VMs and I think I could realistically get it setup and running in a day or two with plenty of breathing room. Yet, our supposedly experienced DBAs claim its going to take them 3 months!!! LOL... Unbelievable.
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In the corporate enterprise in which I now find myself, three months would be quick.
Our latest "expedited" build-out took six months.
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The last time our DBA group quoted us 3 months, it took them 9 months. I'm still "waiting" for them to complete tasks from like 3 yrs ago LOL. The team lead is horrible. So easily distracted. You basically ask him "how's it going" as a courtesy before jumping into work and you have to listen to his stories for like 30 minutes at least. Then somebody comes up to his desk and interrupts and he is distracted again for another 30 minutes. Rinse, repeat.
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SledgeHammer01 wrote: I think I could realistically get it setup and running in a day or two with plenty of breathing room
Ee, I needed a good laugh after a day of truly dire football. Thanks for that!
Hofstadter's Law
It always takes longer than you think even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Depends really. Other considerations are
How it is being used
Compatible issues.
Migration window
Integrations
Connectivity issues
How the data is being migrated
Testing migrations
Etc etc
Depending on the complexities it can take the amount of time suggested.
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Not a DBA, but the first question is whether this is for internal use or will be exposed externally. If the former, why not just do it yourself? If the latter, then it will take time, with the actual data import not taking much time at all, but security, configuration, etc. taking a while. Plus they are probably overloaded with work.
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We are a B2B data provider, so the database is behind a firewall and the web services access it. We devs aren't allowed to touch the databases anymore. The DB team lead locked them all down. I agree on that, you shouldn't have people randomly do stuff to production databases. Due to the slowness of the database and ETL groups, most of us devs just sit around all day. Nothing to do while we wait on those groups.
What's sad is that even with all this time we give them, the databases still suck. They go down all the time, have lots of timeouts, etc.
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Throwing hardware at the problem may speed things up, but rethinking how the data is organized is also a way to get a good boost. I still stay set it up on your own, show it works and then have it deployed into the data center.
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