The market hasn't been too kind to PC, communication, and InterNet companies lately. With 600,000 H-1Bs here already and an equal number to come the next three years, should be an interesting competative time for programmers in the USA.
Gives the Apple-Mac-NeXT lines personality and flair. Steve's rollouts are first class, while Wintel rollouts are like tired college parties.
My personal favorite was the rollout of the NeXT cube. Unlike the new Mac, he keep that secret and a surprise.
Why do people project more into technological innovation than may be there?
(1) $$$$$ Money attracts hype. People call themselves prophets. Not all that different than new age religion, health fanatics, etc.
(2) Generational rebelliousness: young guys understand tech and old farts don't. Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah.
(3) Religious instinct: people search for the ultimate beyond themselves. The old religions are dead. Technology has the answer.
Another distortion of the program now is that many organizations are supplementing the H-1B ceiling with the shorter, but unlimited J-1 educational visas. The J-1 people are supposedly in "intern training programs", but do the same work as H-1Bs. One justification is that new J-1 people are actually learning the ropes and are in a holding tanks for H-1B visas.
So you got a logjam of J-1s waiting for H-1Bs waiting for green cards. What a mess!
The first generation is coming to the end of their six year terms and have to "disappear" for a year until they can apply again. Its difficult and expensive to convert H-1B to permanent green card. So many companies, especially the ones too cheap to do the paperwork, are starting to get new H-1Bs to replace old ones. Some the old ones are going home, some to Canada if they are from Commonwealth (curry) countries, and many hiding out in the shadow economy, long used by day laborers.
What an immigration screw-up by all parties involved.
Sun is trying to retain the upper end market (8+ CPU servers) against other UNIX/Linux servers. and trying to move downstream to the personal/small business servers.
MicroSoft is trying to move into the large server market with NT products that work on 8 or more CPUs.
If customers are using Solaris, they aren't using NT.
Newspapers said in 1910 the era of wars was over.
Only skirmishes since Napoleon's defeat a century earlier.
Human nature, being ignorant, especially in "Jaywalking" America is doomed to repeat its mistakes.
Current techheads have tunnel vision and cant see past the last IPO.
Calling it a "computer" means it has been designed poorly. When made correctly, the computer disappears into the functionality of the appliance. Then we call it a notepad, refrigerator, car, communications-jacket, etc.
The Big Schools have InterNet II, courtesy of federal subsidies, that is not rattled by mp3 music files. InterNet II is about 30 times wider than what other broadband users can get. InterNet II is also closed to only a 130 big schools and governemnt labs.
Levy more accurate than PBS/Cringley
on
Hackers
·
· Score: 2
Both are good, but Levy captured the scene better, I having been at 2/3rds of the sites and times in his book.
Levy is computer sociology columnist for Newsweek, so you can continue to read his stuff. Stephens (Cringely) still has a weekly column at pbs.org.
What hasn't been fully addressed yet is the history of hacking after it spread from the ivory towers of university computer labs and early PC companies and became a mass phenomenom in every high high school. Katz's "Geeks" is anecdotal account of latter-day hacking.
As Tevre would say "both sides are right!".
In four millennia of written human heritage
many ideas recur repeatly.
And there is also true novelty.
Its the the mark of an educated person to
distinguish the difference (go to college techies!).
We see this dialectic in the microcosm of slashdot. Some people think everything they read is new and fantastic.
Then we see articles and postings that are essentially repeats of old ideas.
The war between corporations, individuals, and
the public good (government)has been going since
at least the 1870s, with various advances and
retreats along the way.
The H-1B (and more recently abused J-1) were not
meant to be immigration channels, although
both employers and employees are
using about 90% of them as such. This leads to
abuses of immigrants, employers, and competing
Americans all around. Recognize reality,
and treat it appropiately.
Slashdot Mirror
The top end medical/seismic systems are running
about 20 gigavoxels.
The market hasn't been too kind to PC, communication, and InterNet companies lately. With 600,000 H-1Bs here already and an equal number to come the next three years, should be an interesting competative time for programmers in the USA.
Gives the Apple-Mac-NeXT lines personality and flair. Steve's rollouts are first class, while Wintel rollouts are like tired college parties.
My personal favorite was the rollout of the NeXT cube. Unlike the new Mac, he keep that secret and a surprise.
Why do people project more into technological innovation than may be there?
(1) $$$$$ Money attracts hype. People call themselves prophets. Not all that different than new age religion, health fanatics, etc.
(2) Generational rebelliousness: young guys understand tech and old farts don't. Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah.
(3) Religious instinct: people search for the ultimate beyond themselves. The old religions are dead. Technology has the answer.
Another distortion of the program now is that many organizations are supplementing the H-1B ceiling with the shorter, but unlimited J-1 educational visas. The J-1 people are supposedly in "intern training programs", but do the same work as H-1Bs. One justification is that new J-1 people are actually learning the ropes and are in a holding tanks for H-1B visas.
So you got a logjam of J-1s waiting for H-1Bs waiting for green cards. What a mess!
The first generation is coming to the end of their six year terms and have to "disappear" for a year until they can apply again. Its difficult and expensive to convert H-1B to permanent green card. So many companies, especially the ones too cheap to do the paperwork, are starting to get new H-1Bs to replace old ones. Some the old ones are going home, some to Canada if they are from Commonwealth (curry) countries, and many hiding out in the shadow economy, long used by day laborers.
What an immigration screw-up by all parties involved.
Sun is trying to retain the upper end market (8+ CPU servers) against other UNIX/Linux servers. and trying to move downstream to the personal/small business servers.
MicroSoft is trying to move into the large server market with NT products that work on 8 or more CPUs.
If customers are using Solaris, they aren't using NT.
Newspapers said in 1910 the era of wars was over.
Only skirmishes since Napoleon's defeat a century earlier.
Human nature, being ignorant, especially in "Jaywalking" America is doomed to repeat its mistakes.
Current techheads have tunnel vision and cant see past the last IPO.
Calling it a "computer" means it has been designed poorly. When made correctly, the computer disappears into the functionality of the appliance. Then we call it a notepad, refrigerator, car, communications-jacket, etc.
"MicroSoft bloatware shall also double every 18 months to fill available cycles and storage!"
They had some bootleg stuff for a few hours last week, but it disappeared. I guess the Skywalker lawyers got to them quickly.
The Big Schools have InterNet II, courtesy of federal subsidies, that is not rattled by mp3 music files. InterNet II is about 30 times wider than what other broadband users can get. InterNet II is also closed to only a 130 big schools and governemnt labs.
2 3369/102-4030351-8478532> Frankenstein, Or, the Modern Prometheus </A>
Both are good, but Levy captured the scene better, I having been at 2/3rds of the sites and times in his book.
Levy is computer sociology columnist for Newsweek, so you can continue to read his stuff. Stephens (Cringely) still has a weekly column at pbs.org.
What hasn't been fully addressed yet is the history of hacking after it spread from the ivory towers of university computer labs and early PC companies and became a mass phenomenom in every high high school. Katz's "Geeks" is anecdotal account of latter-day hacking.
I'm technologically backwards. Just got a car a few years ago in my 30s, phone and TV too, but haven't decided on cable.
Yet I work with (and define) state-of-the-art scientific computing at my job.
I really mean "mass amrket". Almost everything
....
was custom for one site or a small range of
computers and cost Big Bucks.
Then came Apple, Visicalc, Atari
There is the annual ACM/IBM Programming Competition, Math Olympiad, and Physics Olympiad, aimed at students.
Fun and nerdy!
Gone from two something to almost six something
per MCF the past year.
The Oil COS win no matter what.
The author of Ecclesiastes cp 1 vs 9-10
complained about this 2600 years ago!
As Tevre would say "both sides are right!".
In four millennia of written human heritage
many ideas recur repeatly.
And there is also true novelty.
Its the the mark of an educated person to
distinguish the difference (go to college techies!).
We see this dialectic in the microcosm of slashdot. Some people think everything they read is new and fantastic.
Then we see articles and postings that are essentially repeats of old ideas.
The war between corporations, individuals, and
the public good (government)has been going since
at least the 1870s, with various advances and
retreats along the way.
This contest reminds me of the the Heinlein book
"Have spacesuit, will travel". The book does
have special twist however.
For grinding anything.
Fancy glitter material for expensive clothes and
houses?
New electronics substrate (Carbon has same valence
as Silicon).
Although there hasn't been one lately,
when the economy gets rough, non-degree people
are discriminated against.
The H-1B (and more recently abused J-1) were not
meant to be immigration channels, although
both employers and employees are
using about 90% of them as such. This leads to
abuses of immigrants, employers, and competing
Americans all around. Recognize reality,
and treat it appropiately.