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Has The "Technology Bounceback" Begun?
jg21 writes "Has the 'return of technology' begun, asks this article in the wake of all the coverage of CES both here on Slashdot and elsewhere. But just as it's difficult to gauge how many swallows make a summer, how do you measure a technology bounceback? JDJ's suggestions include indicators from 2004 such as the doubling of Google's share price in just 6 months, the mega-sucess of the iPod, and the success of the Blackberry." Decent article that asks a good question; you'll have to wade through the ads to get to the real text.
...for me, it's like a Crackberry
-Reggie Fils-Aime, vp marketing, Nintendo of America, Inc.
No
Anyone who believes so probably thought the dot com boom would last forever........
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
that the "bounceback" is begining. I know many individuals who have no intrest in buying new tech products. They are quite happy with the last generation and see no reason to upgrade yet. Just because there is a new product does not mean that people will buy it.
Ubiquitously - A Ubiquity Developer Community
Quick, let's set up a company where people can order dog-food online. We'll ask Fed-ex to take care of the shipping! IPO here I come!
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Is it really "technology bounceback" or a new term for "dotcom bubble reinflation" ??
Not that it would be a bad thing.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Nah... Not yet. We're just now getting some stuff that the Korean and Japaneese school kiddies have had for the past 5 years.
:)
Wait 1-3 more years for us to get them fully integrated into our lives.
I know some people are already there. But I think for the most part, even those of us with these gadgets, using them constantly to their capabilities is not yet within comonplace.
I mean, I actidenditly forgot my pda somewhere and lasted like 3 days without it. And that was just after a new year res to use the thing more.
I haven't synched it in like a monthe either.
-=fshalor
When the tech industry is starting to offer better products for more reasonable prices, I call that a bounceback.
By that standard, it's hard to say. The video card industry is looking really good right now, but so far there hasn't been all that much competition to IPod, so that just seems like an entrenchment of a single popular product (and experience suggests this leads to stagnation more than innovation). Plus, Google's stock doubling doesn't really seem to have all that much impact upon technology so much as the world of business. We get the benefits of their technology in their services, sure, but it's not like google is all of a sudden THAT much better than it's been for the past few years.
Frankly, when it comes to technology, I'd say that software is having the resurgence, not hardware. Open Source solutions are as strong and available as ever, meaning that Microsoft has had to pick up the pace in terms of the innovations it provides (or claims to, anyhow). And how spoiled are we that we can look at a game like Doom3 and be bored?
Try http://www.sys-con.com/story/print.cfm?storyid=477 40 as it might be easier to read for that one article.
If there is such a bouncback where are the jobs.
.NET.
.NET hadn't even existed for 5 Years).
;)
People want to pay a graduate wage to get a person with a good amount of experiance.
Some jobs demand a MCSE for things that are not even related to the qualification.
Others are just plain absurd. eg about 1.5 years ago I saw an add asking for CCNA, MCSE and 5+ years commercial experiance with
(The salary was £17-22k per year and
If there is a revolution howabout some jobs.. go on please
As far as NAZ stock prices, at least the companies going up in price nowadays (Google, Apple etc) are making solid PROFITS, not selling dog food online at a loss.
Rather than "must have gadgets", how about gaugeing a technology recovery by numbers of unemployed/underemployed technology workers?
TFA just says 'Is the dot-com boom back? We've published several technology stories this week, here are links to them'.
I might get into journalism, has to be easier than working for a living.
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." (attrib. Joseph Stalin)
The IT "bounceback" will be a real bounceback when hiring takes place in earnest...on our own shores.
And equating Google's share price with an IT "bounceback" leads me to believe that the bursting of the bubble taught some people nothing.
If .com is pronounced "dot com", is dot-com pronounced "dot dash com"? Why can't they just spell it "dot com"?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Yeah. I've been living in Asia for a few years, and everybody talks about how bad the economy is here. Most people seem to believe that the economy is in the tank seriously.
In reality, The economy grows steadily at 2-3%. This is reasonable and sustainable, but many want a return to the heyday of double digit growth. It won't happen and they'd better come to accept that.
Many (non-IT) folks I talk to also look back to that time when stock prices were through the roof, everyone's 401K was looking good, and politicians were talking about how to spend all the extra money. They, too, just need to get over it.
I hope that IT comes bak in a small way, but nothing like the 90s should ever happen again...
Dan
Put identity in the browser.
If people have money, they buy toys. Technology these days are mostly about toys. So, if the economy booms, people spend more, and companies sell more. What they sell goes in cycles. Currently, people have already bought a lot of computers, so this niche will rest for another year or two before there will be new, strong demand (caveat below). Cell phones are being switched more often, due to their lesser price and bundling with subscriptions, and also because there are more features coming out with new phones, 3G and camera phones being the latest. This is already a full-paced market.
Video cameras and digital cameras also enjoy a more constant demand, and the same goes for mp4 players. iPod will continue to sell well, and there are currently no competitors worth mentioning. As a side effect, there might be an increased demand for Apple branded computers, especially if they sell a basic cheapo-Mac with a small or no margin of profit. This _will_ cut into the Wintel monopoly, because of the iPod.
However, there are no other spin-offs due to the iPod. When the Web was unleashed, there was an ever increasing demand for content, and a whole array of side technologies arose. This market is now satisified, and can only grow at a moderate rate.
So, people will buy an iPod. They will love it. They will love the Mac with Mac OS X and the simplicity, usefulness and ease of use it has, saying bye-bye to Kansas (viruses, spy-ware, malfunction). They will discover iMovie and iPhoto, and they might consider buying digital cameras or video recorders. They will embrace the digital life-style offered by Apple, shunning the Microsoft version in progress. Vengeance is in progress.
This is bad news for Apple bashers, but good news for the rest of us.
Lewinsky jokes are just so last century.
According to my Cisco teacher the tech industry experiences and up and down pattern about every ten years. First there was PC, and then the Dot Com bubble each followed by a period of less investment but public confidence in the technology. I predict there will be another boom in high tech possibly in Free/Open software. Which will (like the PC and Web boom before them) create a public confidence in Open Source even if investment drops. So you will lose the battle but win the war.
Are you kidding? The store shelves are filled with them. Check out this link as well.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
isn't calling employees "resources" part of the problem that leads to the acceptability of the lack of loyalty to staff shown by many short-sighted companies?
I find the 'printer friendly' version to be far more readable. :)
Say hello to Mac Malware. If the Mac reaches critical mass and actually becomes popular, software writers (who have ignored it) will start making programs for it. This will include the bad developers with the good ones. Say "hello" to the ravages of "virii" and security-hole worms.
...But just as it's difficult to gauge how many swallows make a summer...
:)
Well, it depends, are we talking about African or European swallows?
Go to http://www.getfirefox.com and download the broswer you find there. Then go to http://adblock.mozdev.org/ and install adblock. Then go to http://www.geocities.com/pierceive/adblock/ and download the .txt file with the latest date as its filename. Import this into adblock.
Then quit pot-kettle-blacking about wading through ads. Ha ha, just kidding.
OR AM I?
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
Its funny how everyone talks of the dot-com crash as if the entire industry was almost wiped-out. It was just a correction, an economic cycle. I mean, I'm showing my age here, but I remember a time when I had to get online with a 300-baud modem, and only about 10 people besides myself had a computer at my entire high-school. And we all new each other. Technology never went away. Its so far ingrained into everyone's life now. The Dotcoms may have gone bust, but I can buy a 50 dollar DVD player now thats better than the 300 dollar one I got in 2000. The internet and telecom is not technology, just a subset of it. I wish people would remember that fact, and not base the entire tech sector on just a few areas.
My contract ended Dec 31 and I have been looking for a job ever since. I can say it looks better than it did last year this time.
Google relies on it's revenue based on someone clicking a sponsored link? So what's to stop Google from hiring a bunch of people to click those links, then jam the advertisers with the bill? Hell, you don't even need people, a good perl script with lib-www would do the trick.
Didn't RIM just lose their lawsuit and are now prevented from selling any more Blackberry products in the U.S.?
I have to say that more than ever, I see people sticking to their old computers and toys that just do what they need... (or upgrading to faster but used computers, or cheap electronics)
///<sig
So, in total for 2003 I had part of one month of employment. PART OF ONE MONTH.
So far it's looking better, I've worked 4 months in 2004, and this is my first month of 2005. I expect to find another slot, tho, megacorp lifestyle is not for me. Here's to sticking things out, and nose to the grindstone.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Technology never went away, even if there was a reduction in investment and a slowdown in markets. The reason is very simple: civilization is now so deep into technological dependency that it is quite impossible for the first world to function without its modern accoutrements. That makes any apparent breaks or slowdowns in the march of technology merely temporary and largely illusory anyway --- engineers and scientists continue doing their thing regardless of investor indifference. In adverse economic conditions, their efforts come to life in products later rather than sooner, that's all.
Technological progress has something equivalent to inertia, in that it resists any attempt to stop or even slow it down. In part this is because insight and innovation occurs more in the head than in the lab, and budget cutbacks never stopped anyone thinking. On top of that, science and technology is subject to positive feedback and exponential growth not just in scale but in number of dimensions as well, so it's no surprise that technology sees almost no slowdown regardless of the lack of helpful but non-critical investment.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
I'm an early adopter and I don't see anything I'm going to buy. My next computer purchase might be one of the $500 apples if they can get me one before I read a sucky review (like review of a cheap video chip in the new imacs). I don't need any more disk space. I'll buy a gig sd card when they are below $70 and not before since I've never used most of my current sd memory or my usb memory stick but having a gig of tiny memory would be cool for some stilly reason.
.55tb I can't use right now (thanks sun!). Maybe I'm getting to old for the toys but I haven't seen anything real impressive in a while.
I don't need another mp3 player. In fact I've given away at least two and the ones around the house never get used. (but I'm going to hack one for underwater use if I can get the oregon sci replacement headsets).
So Mr toy makers... impress me or you won't see my money. Get me a postscript color laser printer for $200 or get me a 7 inch LCD touch screen that will work in a midwest summer in a car. I don't need fancy software unless its real cool and I'm not into security snake oil. I would by security dongles if you provided open source source code to talk to the thing but I'm installing your binaries on my box. I don't need bigger hard drives since I've got nearly
No.
Unless you live in India, then the answer is Yes.
Software Wars
We're still far from "the top" and IT must grow. "The bubble" had to burst, it was just too fast. It was a spike on a slowly growing curve, and the spike's drop seems to have ended. Now is era of growth and flourishing, at slow, ballanced pace.
Of course it will end some day. In 30-50 years. Just like era of Steam got replaced by era of Electricity, which got replaced by era of Information. I predict the next era will be of biotechnology. But no worries - just as basic electric engines still get developed and steam still finds new uses, IT won't go away. It will just move out of focus.
Unless we nuke ourselves first that is.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Damn kids! Get off my lawn!
I remember when we had to schedule time to a terminal to a PDP in order to play Adventure... and we liked it!
I remember when a 5MB hard drive was the size of a washing machine... and we liked it!
I remember when a 486 was considered fast... and we liked it!
Feh.
I remember when geeks were rock stars and John Romero still had a Ferrari. And we liked it.
I guess we all get nostalgic, eh, old timer?
I'm not so sure that the "bounceback" is begining.
I'm not sure the question is even meaningful. Like all first-world countries, the US will continue to consume new technology at the maximum rate its consumers and corporations can afford, because it is no longer possible to even contemplate living without it.
The bigger question is whether the US will be creating much of it, rather than merely consuming what the rest of the world delivers. I think that there's every likelihood that it won't be creating anywhere near as much new technology as it used to, simply because in the last few years it has created for itself an utterly stiffling regulatory environment that benefits only lawyers and megacorps, and so breaks the widespread positive feedback that fuels innovation.
It doesn't look good to me, not for the US nor for the rapidly self-immolating Europe. This century seems to be tipping in favor of the far east.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Nah... Not yet. We're just now getting some stuff that the Korean and Japaneese school kiddies have had for the past 5 years.
Wait 1-3 more years for us to get them fully integrated into our lives.
[snip]
I mean, I actidenditly forgot my pda somewhere and lasted like 3 days without it. And that was just after a new year res to use the thing more.
I keep wanting to get an iPod, a PDA and fancy cell phone, but then I add up the cost, and think about how much I'd really use them, and the answer is: not much.
A Blackberry would be super useful, though.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I'm at the #1 company that provides precision A/C units for mainframes. In the mid 90's we made about 150 deluxe units a week. Sales climbed with the bubble over a period of years. We were making 550 units per week by the time the bubble burst. Sales dropped to a tenth of that when the bubble burst. The 'new' people on the shop floor have now been there for 7 years. We are now staffed for 150 again and waiting for the bounceback.
That's the most creative spelling of 'accidentally' I have ever seen. :-)
Let's assume, for a moment, that it has begun. This would mean more job opportunities on the market, more room to grow professionally, and (the possibility) of higher pay.
For individuals who have been out of work for an extended period of time, there would be a collective rejoice if this was, indeed true. They could stop contract gigs, if they want, and attempt to get back in to a FTE position.
For the individuals who were unhappy in their position during the market downturn (for whatever reason... poor treatment by the company, no base increase...) they can now look to find another position.
Assuming all of this is true, here is the big question: If you are an unhappy working, looking to find a new position with a new company is it worth the risk to switch? I understand that nothing is forever, but you have a stability right now - if there is a pending "boom" do you risk switching jobs for the potential of money knowing that the boom can turn into a bust really quickly.
While I do not expect anyone to think a job market recovery would reach that of the dot.com era, I do think a recovery is in place. It just took me 4 months to land a new job, with a base of 100K and 15% bonus every year.
If someone came to me and said "You have your masters, 12 years experience, we want you to be Director at this start-up and here is 120K" I don't think I would do it. Few years back, sure, but the last 4 years have shown me many things and stability is golden (in my book).
But, if the "boom" has not started, that means things are they way they currently are. In reality, in my view of the world (from a job hunting standpoint) it wasn't *that* bad.
Its the dot.com boom all over again here in Bangalore.
I don't generally consider my sex life to have anything to do with the start or end of seasons.
Ok, maybe the end...
Devil Ducky
MY peers would get out of jury duty.
Recently on a local (Boston) work search support email list there was a 'complaint' of only two responses to an SQL job posting. But that was probably due to a very restrictive set of criteria. I for one am still looking and would welcome new employment overlords. Anyone have an offer for an itinerant software dweeb?
GOOG is fueled by hype, and a GMail system that is STILL in beta. Institutional investors would rarely put GOOG as part of their list of stocks, even though GOOG's initial share price is indeed targetting thouse. The iPod is not exactly the same because it's more of a portable music device such as a walkman or discman. The Blackberry is more an ugly cell phone but with hormone-enhanced SMS. Returning of technology? THAT should be judged by technology spending at the corporate level, not a couple consumer gadgets plus a overhyped stock.
A bounceback would assume something was here, then it went away, so it can come back now.
Technology never went away.
After a dozen blowjobs, I call it a season. Wait...
Power to the Peaceful
We also knew how to spell and use grammar.
Claiming the bounceback of IT based on the success of a few gadgets and the stock price of Google seem a bit exagerated. What about spending in network infrastructure and large-scale ERP deployement ? That's what IT is as far as I am concerned.
:wq
JDJ's suggestions include indicators from 2004 such as the doubling of Google's share price in just
Was this guy in a cave during the dot bomb? I would see this a very scary flashback, not a sign of industry health.
I don't know about the past, but with exciting new technology like the Rune Radionics leading the way I'm QUITE sure the bounceback will be here soon.
My theory has been that a lot of busniness plans were based on a certain number of people "jumping on the bandwagon" and failed becuase there weren't that many people on line.
The number of people online has grown a lot, and now some of those business plans might profit, so I predict that there will be another boom and it might be as good for the kind of people who read slashdot as the last one.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
It was an act I didn't intend...
:)
And in my justification. I think I was actually thinking of another word there but the fingers half found that one instead.
That's what I get for typing on a keyboard I only use for RTCW.
-=fshalor
It's hard to see a single company's stock price validate a recovery of an entire economic sector; Google's a unique company and many people may see such a "brain trust" as valuable simply because there may be much that comes out of it.
As for iPods and Blackberry? iPods are consumer electronics and have little business relevance -- big-screen TVs have been doing well for over a year now (LCD RP, DLP, and more recently ED plasma) and no one thinks of that as an economic recovery checklist entry, just the portion of the economy that has done well buying toys (and perhaps those that haven't done well commiting credit suicide).
Blackberry isn't a terribly expensive complex technology to roll out until you get to multi-server enterprise levels and can be done with home ISPs. It's also a major upper management status toy, and since when has the technology downturn denied that particular economic segment anything?
I'll believe a technology turnaround when *hiring* becomes more common, *salaries* start to get a boost, and business start investing in large, long-term IT projects. Up 'till now it's been small projects and keep-your-head-above-water stuff to prevent total obsolecense, not big-spending projects.
I said, "A water shed? Like an outhouse?"
He said, "No. A Watershed is a geographic term. It's a high point. Something which defines the terrain and the river systems. The flow of water."
Ah. . . The flow of life energy. Gotcha. Powerful term. Didn't say that, though. He continued. .
"The Steam Engine was a watershed mark. So was the Printing Press. Telephones. You understand? The world is waiting for the next big one, and nobody knows what it will be."
"Any ideas," I asked.
He shook his head. "I don't know. I think it might have something to do with digital switching." (My pop worked at Nortel) "We've made some spectacular advances in the last few years. It's possible to do things now with the switches we make that you simply couldn't have imagined only a few years ago. None of that potential has been tapped yet. But I don't know. Telephones are old news."
We had this conversation before there was an internet. --We had modems and BBS's, but the internet hadn't breached the shell of public awareness. GUI web browsers and email were the big steps I think. They were the watershed. There would have been no tech bubble without email and GUI web browsers. Netscape and Eudora and similar were the tips of the iceberg. Tips of the rising watershed.
The bubble itself was then all about hype and over-excitement. --Justifiable over-excitement, (if that makes any sense). After all, the web did change the world, and it did make some people very, very wealthy. Amazon.com is finally the giant everybody suspected it would become. It didn't happen over-night, and people were anxious and stupid about it, but it certainly happened.
Watersheds only come about once in a long while, and not often in the same medium. Star Wars introduced high-tech production values never before seen. It re-defined the way movies were made. Spielberg understood this and tried to push the same kind of hype around Jurasic Park, using extensive CG animation and touting that as the next big step. His so-so film just happened to ride the coat tails, and he knew it. --Annoyingly enough, his plan sort of worked. CG animation certainly wasn't his invention, but he did bring it to the spotlight.
But in computer IT? What's the next big thing? What's going to make everybody go hoola-hoop rubic's-cabbage-patch again?
Well, first you need unformed power, like the advanced digital switches my father worked on at Nortel, which have massive potential but no application. Then you need somebody to come along and define that power.
So what's out there in tech land? Heck if I know. I'm not a technologist. This wireless bullshit is interesting, (and rather threatening, I think), but just a small step. People already understand that technology. It's not new. It's not unimaginable, like the simple graphic web page would have been twenty years ago. We've had walkie-talkies for ages now.
So what will it be?
-FL
That's not innovation, that's stapling random features onto existing products. Without basic R&D, which too many companies have abandoned in order to get improved stock prices, there can be no new products and technologies.
The economy will have to get much worse before companies have no choice but to invest in basic R&D. Those that do will recover first, and the stock market will start rewarding them for their "long term view".
Yes, we've been here before.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
It has taken the form of a super charged global IT based economy. It's *why* Open Source will be so important. Its *why* the next boom will be primarily about software. But, that's only its first form. There's more stuff coming from that area in the near future.
"The internet and telecom is not technology, just a subset of it. I wish people would remember that fact, and not base the entire tech sector on just a few areas."
Actually, you're wrong. We don't build any of the electronic gadgetry you see sitting on the shelves of Best Buy. We don't even design most of it anymore. This is all done in various parts of Asia. Software and telecom are all that's left in the USA. Therefore, software and telecom are what defined the tech bubble for us. If you want to say that "internet and telecom" are just a subset of our tech sector, feel free. However, that "subset" is the primary things that made our bubble.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
America's favorite corporate welfare queens are doing in again.
GOOG is a good example of things not changing. Just look at the money Brin is making off you suckers:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=GOOG
In a free market, companies wouldn't bribe the government to subsidize cheap labor throught H-1B.
Very funny...
petfooddirect.com
Gets tons of business.
You only wish.
I guess the F-117 Raptor was built by a telecom company? And the M-1 tank was built in the Philippines? And Intel didn't design any of its CPU's using American Engineers? Apple designed the Mac's in Thailand?
a ccelerator_list.html
Maybe most of it isn't "Assembled" here. But there are still a lot of things designed in the US.
A lot of pure research is still done in the US and Europe: http://www-elsa.physik.uni-bonn.de/Informationen/
That is. . , after the advent of industrial manufacturing, automatic weapons, air travel, all the big watersheds seem to have slipped into a higher frequency realm.
Even the Steam Engine was a form of communication, and so was the airplane. They simply operated on a lower vibrational frequency. They communicated energy in a denser form from Point A to Point B. Even industrial manufacturing was a way of converting dense energy into new forms. Re-describing matter in different ways.
After that, though, communication has been pushing the speed of light speed.
Star Wars used new ways to describe and communicate images and ideas. The Telephone was about communication, as is the internet. Same with Tesla's invention of the radio. --And speaking of Tesla, so was the advent of AC electricity. Tesla even thought of electricity in those terms. Communication. Moving energy from Point A to Point B in new ways.
So. .
If I might tentatively suggest that there is a real pattern here, then perhaps the next Big Deal will also revolve around the same scheme. The communication of energy from one place to another.
Hm. Another thought. . . I'm not convinced that technology will necessarily play a key role. The number of people I know who are budding telepaths keeps growing. Just today I was talking with another person who is coming to grips with her first experiences in that arena. Interesting times, indeed.
-FL
The JDJ page is mostly previous articles except for the CES coverage...we have even discussed some of it already here on /.
I for one would welcome our overdue rebound in the tech industries but I am going to have to hear of it from a source that doesn't make its money from ad revenue based on publishing technology news to a technical audience.
I will really see a rally when the VC's crack open their purses to pursue opportunities that they can see. A recuiter showed me a list of 6 startups that are hiring this month...that is not a flood but its been 2 years since I saw even a trickle.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Saying: "A Fool and his money are soon parted."
We just need to find the fools.
Now that Bush has won reelection, it's no longer worth the Democrats' time to spin everything as doom and gloom. Welcome to 2002, Dems.
Eventually the Mac will probably get Malware (although you think it would be appealing for potential buyers to have a computer with no Malware worries yet!).
However I think the number of worms on the Mac will always be small - the reason is that there simply is no good way for a worm to spread. There are no open ports by default, and even if you start up web sharing it's only as vulnerable as Apache is.
Also, I think the Mac software update is far more widley used than the windows one (because it mostly does not cause things to stop working) and thus Apple has a better chance of clensing some malware spread through the weekly software update. So even malware impact may be lessened.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I know it's theit corporate philosophy that they want to be in charge of everything that goes into a Mac (the OS, the software, the add-ins, upgrades, etc.) to maintain quality control over the whole process, but that philosophy doesn't work in our capitalist system.
I really don't see this as any different than the pair of Dell and Microsoft who decides what goes into a Dell. They seem healthy enough.
Yes Dell charges a bare-bones price while Apple tries to maintain margins. But that is also because Dell has competitors, while in a way Apple does not (no-one else selling Apple computers).
Then the question for a consumer becomes - do I wish to pay a $100 premium (or whatever the premium might be) to get an Apple over a Dell? Apple has slowly been positioning itself to make the answer to that question "Yes" to an ever larger number of people, and someday that may well be the majorty of computer users. Apple already has the mindshare (from the iPod) they just need the product.
Low cost providers do not always win. Sometimes they price themselves right out of business, and when a business with razar-thin margins starts going south they can run into a problem in a hurry!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/10/1 139209
Bounce back, Yeah whatever. Where I live at I can work for Dions Pizza at 8 dollars an hour or go to school get a associates degree and work for 8.50 an hour. This bounce back is limited to certain type of computer jobs in certain areas. The media needs to report some form of BS. And if there is a bounce back. Every employee should rape the companies for all they are worth. Work, Save, Bail. Don't forget the .com .broke days.
last millenia?
I'll believe a technology turnaround when *hiring* becomes more common, *salaries* start to get a boost, and business start investing in large, long-term IT projects.
That pretty much sums the situation up in a single sentence. Excellent.
And, this is really funny:
It's also a major upper management status toy, and since when has the technology downturn denied that particular economic segment anything?
That's how many swallows make a hummer. Totally different thing...
Didn't /. just post an article like a month ago about how the IT sector unemployment rate is actually higher than the national average? Aren't we in the middle of the biggest outsourcing orgy in history? Isn't there disaster brewing on both sides of the pond with the software patent quibbles?
Saying that Google's shareprice is the bellwether for the health of an entire economic sector is like a doctor saying you don't have cancer cuz your head's not warm.
- "...General Dynamics C4 Systems, the Scottsdale-based division of defense giant General Dynamics Corp., will hold a job fair Saturday to fill nearly 300 engineering and program manager jobs. A similar job fair in October drew hundreds of job seekers and resulted in 30 new hires. General Dynamics has won billions of dollars of new contracts in the past two years. It is seeking engineers experienced in communication, radio and spacecraft systems, along with lead software and project engineers. Salaries range from $60,000 to $150,000 a year. Applicants must hold or be qualified for a U.S. Defense Department security clearance...
...The Arizona Technology Council was getting so many requests from member companies looking to hire workers that it launched a job-matching service on its Web site in late November. The Career Center has 55 technology jobs posted from 23 local companies so far, and council staffers are eager to get more job candidates in the system...
...A net 13 percent of chief information officers in the Phoenix area said they plan to hire workers in the first quarter, according to a survey of 100 executives by Robert Half Technology. That is better than the national average, where just a net 9 percent of 1,400 CIOs surveyed have hiring plans...
We keep seeing articles like this in the paper here which seem to lend some credibility to the "bounceback"....Salaries also are going up, Gabrielson said, and some candidates are even getting multiple job offers. The firm is having to educate its client companies that they may need to make decisions more quickly than usual to get the candidate they want, he said..."
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
...like the UK, Germany, Japan and (gasp) Canada. Can't let them damn Germans steal our jobs, now can we!
Today I had an obviously "Information Weeky" sorta twit tell me that security was a 90s phenomenon. I wonder if he believes that we'll just leave the doors unlocked during the impending neocon driven implementation of Pax Americana/Democratica? Perhaps we will grow and ubiquitize broadband, cause massive reliance upon it for daily life, an then fail to safeguard it. That's the ticket.
The world is accelerating. It is becoming more competitive. Force, in combination with technology has always, historically (with a few minor interventions by "spirit" and "will") ruled the day. Dig up and ask the guy who invented the longbow if he thinks technology is important. Or Eli Whitney. Or the guy who invented gunpowder.
if you see superbowl commercials instructing you on how you can save on heartworm medication by buying online you know the bubble is back... for now i don't think we have to worry.
Get your torrents...
Bounce back to the insanity of the late'90s? Where any kid with a web-site could raise $600MM in venure capital? I doubt it.
Before the dot-com boom of 1994-2000; I.T. was sucking wind, so was the rest of the economy. Employment was down etc.
The wireless ISP market, which was supposed to be $5-10/year billion by now, is maybe half a billion. My favorite wireless company WaveRider (WAVC.OB), which went up to $16 during the last dotcom boom, is sitting at $0.19 today. Me = :-(
In the beginning of my geekdom I was all about shareware/freeware programs. If something had the hint of being cool, whether software or hardware, I would download/buy it ASAP. Now, not so much. Maybe I've gotten stubborn and cranky in my advanced age of 28 ;) I've lost my sense of adventure for all the newest things. I've even switched from PC to a MAC. Like the commerical, I want my computer to just work. I now only load the minimum software I need to get what I want to get done...done and keep my computer secure. Plus I only buy the hardware I need, the whole quality over quantity thing. I don't believe I'm the only one. I think of it as embracing minimalism in a maximalist market. If there is going to be a tech boom I could see it as more focused on creating a seamless user experience between work, home and all the in-betweens of our lives. They've been promising this for years but now I'm starting to see it actually happening and that creates all sorts of feelings of happiness. I don't believe it will be anything like the 90s but now tech companies have the experience points to understand that slower, even growth is better for everyone-- definitly the consumer.
verbum sapienti sat est
Yes, I think technology is starting to make a come back in small ways through hand held gadgets. What was a Dell home PC in 1999 is now an iPod or hand held in 2004/2005. However, I think the real problem (at least that I'm seeing) is that an evil trend has been forming over the past decade. Companies don't "better" the technology that exists now! These companies just keep creating more crap! Think about it.
.NET, SOAP, XML, LDAP, RMI, HTML, DHTML, VRML, COM, DCOM, COM+, Active X, etc. All mysterious technology which promises to deliver even more viagra ads to your 8 year old's screen.
- PCs still crash quite often.
- Relentless Adware
- Relentless Spam
- Web browsers that still can't render web pages correctly.
- Printer drivers with worthless sound and graphics effects (Thanx HP)
- Cell phones with satellite GPS tracking technology but still can't keep a call connected for more than 20 seconds.
- VOIP still doesn't work.
- Satellite radio that doesn't work when you go around a simple tree or hill.
I'm sure you can think of more. Yet, we keep paying for this half working crap! I think it all started with Microsoft. Now, I admit they have been very innovative. But I also truly believe Microsoft was the first company to make it's entire fortune off of products that "semi-work". The concept of "dazzle the user with bullsh*t" has become a sad but real trend in the IT world. Even the developers themselves (such as myself) have to wade through the garbage thats out there taking the form of thousands of annoying little acronyms for technologies that sound great but really have no purpose but to give some corporate CEO the feeling that he's beating out his competitors, when in reality he's simply poisoning the industry with more useless buzzwords and semi-useful technology!
Has Java really solved anything? What about beans, enterprise beans, J2EE,
So is technology coming back? Yes, it's coming back for the corporate CEO to make more $$$ by tricking the misguided user into thinking a blue screen, "system failure" or reboot is just a fact of life we all need to pay for in a monthly subscription. But hey, as long as my cell phone's ringer plays merengue thats all that counts.
This chart is actually very interesting:
Chart comparing GOOG and AAPL
It shows the Google and Apple stock, both doubling in the same timespan, following each other. Coincidence or striking the heart of the technology bounceback?
The F-117 Raptor and M1 tank aren't really high technology anymore. They've both been in service for more than 10 years, and the design work was all done in the early 1980. Also, if the only entity buying big-ticket American tech products is the US military, that's a sign there is a problem, not a sign of good economic health!
0 1 - just my two bits
Mixed metaphors?
Like Opus's, "You can lead a horse to a manger but you can't make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke."?
If I was mixing metaphors, I certainly didn't mean to do so, nor did I see where I did it. Care to explain your snotty remark?
If I wasn't the charitable sort, I'd suspect you had other, less than noble reasons for being hostile.
-FL
OMG I need venture capital!