Err...exactly what you see....
A few sites are blocked (they return an HTTP error), some sites are just excruciatingly slow (Google sites at present), most are exactly the same. And a VPN solves the first two issues.
Do bear in mind that the vast majority of Chinese citizens don't really speak much English, so if you want to see what the locals look at, it would be in Chinese! And the Chinese internet ecosystem is far more vibrant then most countries...taobao, wechat, line, qq, baidu etc etc.
Honestly - China is really not that different to anywhere else....in Shanghai (where I live), you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and any other large international cities (except that Shanghai has more Maseratis, Porsches, Ferraris, LV shops, high class shopping centers than anywhere else in the world I've been. As an expat, we are most definitely not the rich people.
Sorry - but this misses the point. Yes, I guess that some US business will end up being serviced by people from off-shore, but actually not much. The reality is that the business is moving off-shore. The US no longer warrants having the huge percentage of the IBM employee base that it has as it no longer has the business from the US that would justify it. Countries like Brazil, China, India, Russia are growing much faster. So I would more regard this as moving the people to where the business is....and yes, there are some functions that could be done anywhere (such as development) - and why shouldn't other countries be given the opportunity to develop products for the world as well as the US, especially as they can do it for less.
IBM is a true international company, with commitments all over the world. The US still has the vast majority of the employees.
Not true. There are a rapidly increasing number of IBM employees running Linux. There is an official, supported Linux implementation of the internal desktop running on Red Hat, and a fast-growing usage of an unofficial desktop based on Ubuntu.
I can't see it ever being made compulsory, especially as there is still some software used internally that required Windows, but it is really a very viable option now.
Firstly just to point out that this isn't actually the real comment, it's a copy of a comment that I made which you'll see further down...and I didn't do it anonymously...however, I'll answer your comments here.
You work for IBM.
So are you an IBMer, an LTS (Long-Term Supplemental), or contractor (the lowest of the low)? I would really like to know. I used to work at IBM. I am a full-time IBMer. Admittedly, I work in Europe and I don't work in services...oh, and I should add that I am a manager.
I actually do think that there's some crap stuff going on, esp in services and particularly in the US. We're lucky that in Europe our governments set a level playing field for companies to treat their employees with reasonable respect. From what I can see, in the US you can pretty well dump all over your employees - can't blame IBM for that, and I don't think that you can expect IBM to do anything differently than their competition.
They are NOT outsourcing to skilled offshore workers. Case in point, American operators require 2 years of experience plus degree, or four years experience plus. The Brazillion operators they are offshoring to (starting with the Nissan account, loved that project), the ONLY requirement they had: Speaking English.
That isn't uncommon when dealing with the fresh Indian Programmers. Many people billed as offshore "skilled" labor have less training than American staff. I spent many hours cleaning up others messes, still bitter. Maybe your experience, and mine in places. I have also had the pleasure of dealing with fantastic Eastern Europeans who have great skills and Indian employees (note...employees, not contractors - unlike many other companies) with better skills than us Europeans.
As for your misleading statement that "IBM will do its utmost to find [the outsourced] good jobs", I call pure bullshit on that. IBM freezes hiring months before layoffs, so that people can not change to different departments or jobs. LEAN is not working, and if you are one of the idiots that think it's helping IBM, you are obviously not one of the people doing the job 4 people did a year ago because of LEAN. As I said above, I don't work in services, so I'm not one of the "idiots". I think that there's a lot wrong with IBM, I've talked to frustrated customers and pissed-off employees- but you know, that is the exception not the rule. I enjoy working in a company with such amazing people - and that's what makes IBM.
I still have friends at IBM, and situations are not getting better..Sorry for the rant, but after seeing what's happening at IBM recently, I have nothing nice to say about them...Though they get nice PR at Slashdot, but working conditions for "real workers" are horrible. In some places, you are spot on...but for many, many people, IBM is a vibrant exciting place to work - sure there's too many people who believe our own marketing, far too much admin, but in general, people care.
...Didn't IBM steal their blade server technology from Tandem? Don't think so
Bitter? Twisted? Join the IBM bashing. Yes - there will be jobs outsourced to India, China, Eastern Europe, Africa...indeed anywhere where there are cheaper skilled workers to provide service. That's the way that services companies (all of them...not just IBM) win their business. How many American companies do you know that would choose to pay more for their services to keep the jobs at the supplier in the US?
But IBM is more than just a services company...it does have a social conscience (world community grid, OO.o, patents, support for Linux etc etc), it produces some fantastic technology (System z mainframes, some of the best Unix boxes, some amazing software)...it does real research, not just product development, but real, pure research into physics, computer science...it is actively promoting green computing.
Sure - it's not perfect, there are always bits of a large corporate that are going to be "evil"(TM), I for one am glad that IBM is not a M$, or a SCO etc.
And yes, I do work for IBM, so I am biased. I do feel for my colleagues who are being outsourced...but I know that IBM will do its utmost to find them good jobs.
PJ certainly responds to emails
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SCO Vs. Groklaw
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I can't confirm whether she exists or not, but when I sent her some information about some issues of free speech being surpressed in the UK, she certainly responded in a way that said that she's had at least a cursory glance at the issue. Whilst I agree that could have been an IBM lawyer, as an employee of Big Blue myself, I find it hard to believe that they would have even bothered responding.
Yes - but to get anything vaguely decent in the US, you need to get cable or satellite - how much a month does that cost? More than £10 I should think.
My £10 a month gets me 34 free to air TV channels, 9 of which are BBC and therefore advert-free. And it pays for 11 advert-free national BBC radio stations, plus numerous local ones. Plus the best news site on the web. Plus loads of educational stuff on the web. Sounds like goof value to me.
Don't exaggerate. It's a licence fee per household. And radios have not require a licence for a gazillion years. Less than £10 per month...for stuff you actually might want to watch with no adverts. It's worth it just for the CBeebies channel alone!
IBM cannot just open-source OS/2. There are technologies and copyrights in OS/2 that belong to third-parties (such as Microsoft).
OS/2 is still available and developed as eComStation http://www.ecomstation.com/. I have to say that I think that it is very expensive, on the other hand it is far from dead.
Rubbish!! The trafficmaster sensors do nothing of the sort. They serve two purposes: 1. They measure the average speed of the traffic passing that spot so they can build a map of congestion in the area. They do not read number plates. 2. They broadcast the local traffic conditions to any cars locally with a Trafficmaster unit installed.
Actually the latest version of the expense system works very nicely in Mozilla too...
UnitedLinux is dead, long live SLES
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As far as I was aware, UL was effectively SUSE Linux Enterprise Server made available to the other members of UL. UL might be dead, but SLES most certainly isn't - it's very alive and happily winning lots of business. So all those of you who were desperate for UnitedLinux, go install SLES and be happy.
Re:What will drive Linux adoption
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Linux already has this - admittedly it's not open source or free. Try Lotus Domino 6.5 with Domino Web Access for Linux. Not a Windows box in site...
How times have changed. Ten years ago we were hearing the same argument about why people were not buying AIX. All of the people coming out of University then had Solaris/SunOS skills - so why would they want IBM skills.
And now Sun seem to be in the same situation. Linux is well used in Universities - thus grads want to use it in their jobs.
Slashdot Mirror
Err...exactly what you see.... A few sites are blocked (they return an HTTP error), some sites are just excruciatingly slow (Google sites at present), most are exactly the same. And a VPN solves the first two issues. Do bear in mind that the vast majority of Chinese citizens don't really speak much English, so if you want to see what the locals look at, it would be in Chinese! And the Chinese internet ecosystem is far more vibrant then most countries...taobao, wechat, line, qq, baidu etc etc. Honestly - China is really not that different to anywhere else....in Shanghai (where I live), you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and any other large international cities (except that Shanghai has more Maseratis, Porsches, Ferraris, LV shops, high class shopping centers than anywhere else in the world I've been. As an expat, we are most definitely not the rich people.
Siemens Gigaset.....will allow you to copy phone book from handset to handset....supports bluetooth for headphones and syncing address book with PC
Sorry - but this misses the point. Yes, I guess that some US business will end up being serviced by people from off-shore, but actually not much. The reality is that the business is moving off-shore. The US no longer warrants having the huge percentage of the IBM employee base that it has as it no longer has the business from the US that would justify it. Countries like Brazil, China, India, Russia are growing much faster. So I would more regard this as moving the people to where the business is....and yes, there are some functions that could be done anywhere (such as development) - and why shouldn't other countries be given the opportunity to develop products for the world as well as the US, especially as they can do it for less.
IBM is a true international company, with commitments all over the world. The US still has the vast majority of the employees.
hmmm...thought it was 20% still. Anyway, the point still stands...profit for Lenovo = profit for IBM
Not true. There are a rapidly increasing number of IBM employees running Linux. There is an official, supported Linux implementation of the internal desktop running on Red Hat, and a fast-growing usage of an unofficial desktop based on Ubuntu.
I can't see it ever being made compulsory, especially as there is still some software used internally that required Windows, but it is really a very viable option now.
Err....wrong...IBM owns 20% of Lenovo
This is the real one - I didn't post it anonymously and my time stamp is earlier....how very strange!
Bitter? Twisted? Join the IBM bashing. Yes - there will be jobs outsourced to India, China, Eastern Europe, Africa...indeed anywhere where there are cheaper skilled workers to provide service. That's the way that services companies (all of them...not just IBM) win their business. How many American companies do you know that would choose to pay more for their services to keep the jobs at the supplier in the US?
But IBM is more than just a services company...it does have a social conscience (world community grid, OO.o, patents, support for Linux etc etc), it produces some fantastic technology (System z mainframes, some of the best Unix boxes, some amazing software)...it does real research, not just product development, but real, pure research into physics, computer science...it is actively promoting green computing.
Sure - it's not perfect, there are always bits of a large corporate that are going to be "evil"(TM), I for one am glad that IBM is not a M$, or a SCO etc.
And yes, I do work for IBM, so I am biased. I do feel for my colleagues who are being outsourced...but I know that IBM will do its utmost to find them good jobs.
I can't confirm whether she exists or not, but when I sent her some information about some issues of free speech being surpressed in the UK, she certainly responded in a way that said that she's had at least a cursory glance at the issue. Whilst I agree that could have been an IBM lawyer, as an employee of Big Blue myself, I find it hard to believe that they would have even bothered responding.
Yes - but to get anything vaguely decent in the US, you need to get cable or satellite - how much a month does that cost? More than £10 I should think.
My £10 a month gets me 34 free to air TV channels, 9 of which are BBC and therefore advert-free. And it pays for 11 advert-free national BBC radio stations, plus numerous local ones. Plus the best news site on the web. Plus loads of educational stuff on the web. Sounds like goof value to me.
Don't exaggerate. It's a licence fee per household. And radios have not require a licence for a gazillion years. Less than £10 per month...for stuff you actually might want to watch with no adverts. It's worth it just for the CBeebies channel alone!
I think that you mean Mosaic
Actually, being IBM code it was probably developed using IBM's JVM not Sun's.
IBM cannot just open-source OS/2. There are technologies and copyrights in OS/2 that belong to third-parties (such as Microsoft).
OS/2 is still available and developed as eComStation http://www.ecomstation.com/. I have to say that I think that it is very expensive, on the other hand it is far from dead.
I stand corrected - although I'm not sure enough data is retained to really act as surveillance cameras.
Rubbish!! The trafficmaster sensors do nothing of the sort. They serve two purposes:
1. They measure the average speed of the traffic passing that spot so they can build a map of congestion in the area. They do not read number plates.
2. They broadcast the local traffic conditions to any cars locally with a Trafficmaster unit installed.
Yes - but given the price of the Windows version (25 UK Pounds) I can't see it being an inhibitor.
Maybe in the US, but in the UK where the Bug is sold there's no such problem!
Actually the latest version of the expense system works very nicely in Mozilla too...
As far as I was aware, UL was effectively SUSE Linux Enterprise Server made available to the other members of UL. UL might be dead, but SLES most certainly isn't - it's very alive and happily winning lots of business. So all those of you who were desperate for UnitedLinux, go install SLES and be happy.
Linux already has this - admittedly it's not open source or free. Try Lotus Domino 6.5 with Domino Web Access for Linux. Not a Windows box in site...
Well can you see the title sequences here. I'm sure you could get the theme from them:
No - there is another way of avoiding ads. Yes - you could actually buy a copy.
How times have changed. Ten years ago we were hearing the same argument about why people were not buying AIX. All of the people coming out of University then had Solaris/SunOS skills - so why would they want IBM skills.
And now Sun seem to be in the same situation. Linux is well used in Universities - thus grads want to use it in their jobs.
Hey ho - how things go round!!