The things that can be outsourced are the commodity skills, as you say, not "leadership", etc. But, particularly in the software industry, why do we think that we will continue to need people to do basically mindless work? Don't we have design tools, management consoles, IDEs, etc. to do this?
Eventually people will recognize that outsourced work, largely, just doesn't need to be done by anyone, if IT organizations work smarter.
The skills that remain in demand are those same higher-level skills -- communication, leadership, design skill, etc.
And, as you say, any smart business will not outsource this kind of thing.
Therefore I wonder whether it's the outsourcing industry that is in trouble? Companies, in this environment, are flocking to low prices since it is a quick fix, but what happens in 5 years? In a better environment, will companies really want to continue to base their organization on the cheapest possible work? Or will small organizations that retain a few bright people be the winners?
Most people think that software development will go offshore and stay offshore, just as most textile manufacturing jobs did earlier in the century, and that it will be painful and inevitable.
Before you think that too, ask yourself -- how much do you think software engineering is like making a pair of pants?
I'd cite a different event, or non-event, in history -- the U.S. has yet to outsource (expensive!) jobs like doctors, lawyers, architects, executives, etc.
Is software development more like this? evolving into a new highly specialized, skilled profession? In that case a certain, large amount of dev work will never be outsourced.
Alternatively, think of it this way... if outsourced development is actually as useful as some people think, it will eventually become more expensive. As soon as it is anywhere near the cost of on-shore resources, it ceases to be useful.
Over time, the solution is not cheaper people but fewer, skilled people -- with smarter tools instead of an army of bodies to do grunt work. I think companies that think this way will ultimately do a lot better technology-wise and just overwhelm the outsourcers of the world in the end with superior products.
I have heard that digit-color synaesthesia is fairly common. I find I have such associations -- they're below. Out of curiosity, anybody else have digit-color associations? Are they similar?
0: while / no color 1: black 2: yellow 3: red 4: blue 5: green 6: brown 7: light green / light pink 8: dark blue / purple 9: orange / orange-yellow
0 through 5 are stronger than the others. It's on a digit level -- "32" is like 3 and 2, red and then yellow.
I don't see any particular rhyme or reason to it but the associations are definitely there.
If only DoubleClick could do half of what it seems people think they are doing... they'd be the most amazing and profitable company on the planet. It's really hard to live up to all that sneakiness.
I think 99% of the people blabbering about privacy catastrophes don't actually understand what DoubleClick and companies like it do. It's tremendously harmless.
Re:Assuming I have to pay $770 for this...
on
Beige Box Apple Clone?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
... and eBay certainly has more than a few late-model iMacs at less than this price point. They were going for $799 new from Apple until not so long ago. I don't see even $650 total as anything like a "deal"....
Agreed... the ISPs probably don't know or care about anybody's ssh-enabled-proxy-NAT-linux kingdom on the other end of a DSL line. It's really not as if this is what is keeping Evil Corporate Suits up at night.
Even if you believe this law could cover your home network, it's not as if it is going to force ISPs into spending lots of money to even think about prosecuting anyone over something they don't care about.
Presumably they are also selling this album on CD. Paradoxically, giving it away on MP3 may increase CD sales, I think.
Since this album would probably have otherwise not have gotten much attention at all, I don't think that giving it away eats into CD sales much. And now, some people may go out and buy the CD because they like the music and want to reward Anything Box, or just want it on CD for easy play in a car or portable CD player.
I think this approach is going to benefit small artists more than big ones. No one will be forced to give away music, I'm sure, but this may cause people to start asking whether Mariah Carey's latest pointless album is worth $18, while Anything Box is free...
Well deserved -- I'm not an anime fan (and I'm not young) but I loved this movie. It was more surreal and fantastical than I expected and that was a very welcome surprise.
Maybe I speak for myself, but I found this superior to the previous "most popular anime flick in the mainstream," Princess Mononoke. That movie was also great, but like other anime movies I've seen, the plot was thin, long and wandering, which I think are qualities that turn off most (western) audiences. For some reason I didn't think that Spirited Away suffered from the same problem.
Our company's engineering department runs an annual "coding contest" with a nice prize or two. Last time, teams of two had two days to build the fastest-running solution to a series of problems.
It sounds kind of gimmicky, but there's apparently nothing like a little competition and a prize to get the software engineers' blood pumping. It was really all the discussion about the problems before and after that was so great... it did a lot to get different groups of people talking like they never had before.
It worked brilliantly as a team-building exercise for engineers. Heh, and maybe it helped the management spot the engineers crazy enough to spend the time on the contest, and win.
Agreed. The "software engineer" has both technical responsibilities (actual programming) and people/communication responsibilities (team work, meeting clients, etc.).
But just as programming is getting more and more commoditizable, it's also becoming less important. Inevitably, better tools, software and technologies also spring up to solve common problems, lessening need for custom-developed solutions.
What is being sent overseas effectively is maintenance work, not really new development, since the former requires much less communication.
There will always be a need for local resources because of the importance of communication, management, etc.
U.S. can "throw U.N. in the dustbin?"
on
Strike on Iraq
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Those who charge the U.S. with "throwing the U.N. in the dustbin" implicitly admit that the U.N. comes to little or nothing without the U.S. -- its money and military force. The U.S. provides 25% of the U.N.'s budget, and over 30% of its peacekeeping force costs. Please remember this when you accuse the U.S. in this way.
I think it would be a mistake to assume that the U.N. represents perfect moral and international authority; it's better than nothing, but it is still just a forum where nations bicker and politic as usual.
Remember that the Security Council did not authorize force in the Balkans either (thanks, France and Russia). The U.N. also voted the U.S. off of its human rights commission, in favor of Sudan and Libya. This is the organization that declares what international justice is?
I only claim that America is no worse than other nations in pursuing its national interests while pursuing international interests as well. Tone done the rhetoric, eh? I find all this hyperbole about the evil U.S. hurtful and narrow-minded.
...and was, and is, behind Security Council resolution 1441 as well. I don't believe it's fair to blame America for France and Germany's curious opposal to action they voted for only months before. Their actions are dictated by national and political interests just as much any other nation's are.
I think Americans are generally tired of lectures from a few European nations on behalf of "The World" and "world opinion," regardless of their own views. It comes across as presumptuous and arrogant (which goes both ways I suppose).
Re:Not How its Supposed To Be
on
Strike on Iraq
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Anti-Americanism that I have observed in Europe is pretty well irrational and just plain human nature... no one likes to cheer for the big guy, do they? The U.S. is an easy scapegoat.
To be fair, this is easily as much the reason why the U.N. is in jeopardy, where its tempting for European nations to use their disproportionate leverage to frustrate the U.S. For Chirac and Schroeder, it's free political points... why wouldn't they oppose the U.S.?
Think about it in the longer term... if outsourcing to India is effective, there will be more demand for it, and the price of tech labor in India will naturally increase.
There will always be a demand for workers in the U.S. itself; companies always need wokers locally, and will be willing to pay more for them because of the convenience.
Slashdot Mirror
I very much agree, with one adjustment --
The things that can be outsourced are the commodity skills, as you say, not "leadership", etc. But, particularly in the software industry, why do we think that we will continue to need people to do basically mindless work? Don't we have design tools, management consoles, IDEs, etc. to do this?
Eventually people will recognize that outsourced work, largely, just doesn't need to be done by anyone, if IT organizations work smarter.
The skills that remain in demand are those same higher-level skills -- communication, leadership, design skill, etc.
And, as you say, any smart business will not outsource this kind of thing.
Therefore I wonder whether it's the outsourcing industry that is in trouble? Companies, in this environment, are flocking to low prices since it is a quick fix, but what happens in 5 years? In a better environment, will companies really want to continue to base their organization on the cheapest possible work? Or will small organizations that retain a few bright people be the winners?
Most people think that software development will go offshore and stay offshore, just as most textile manufacturing jobs did earlier in the century, and that it will be painful and inevitable.
Before you think that too, ask yourself -- how much do you think software engineering is like making a pair of pants?
I'd cite a different event, or non-event, in history -- the U.S. has yet to outsource (expensive!) jobs like doctors, lawyers, architects, executives, etc.
Is software development more like this? evolving into a new highly specialized, skilled profession?
In that case a certain, large amount of dev work will never be outsourced.
Alternatively, think of it this way... if outsourced development is actually as useful as some people think, it will eventually become more expensive. As soon as it is anywhere near the cost of on-shore resources, it ceases to be useful.
Over time, the solution is not cheaper people but fewer, skilled people -- with smarter tools instead of an army of bodies to do grunt work. I think companies that think this way will ultimately do a lot better technology-wise and just overwhelm the outsourcers of the world in the end with superior products.
You can use the SecurityManager (which is not enabled by default) to disallow this, but it is in fact possible.
If you don't allow this sort of access via the SecurityManager, then you can't get into SecurityManager, thankfully.
I have heard that digit-color synaesthesia is fairly common. I find I have such associations -- they're below. Out of curiosity, anybody else have digit-color associations? Are they similar?
0: while / no color
1: black
2: yellow
3: red
4: blue
5: green
6: brown
7: light green / light pink
8: dark blue / purple
9: orange / orange-yellow
0 through 5 are stronger than the others. It's on a digit level -- "32" is like 3 and 2, red and then yellow.
I don't see any particular rhyme or reason to it but the associations are definitely there.
It also happens for letters, but not a strongly.
If only DoubleClick could do half of what it seems people think they are doing... they'd be the most amazing and profitable company on the planet. It's really hard to live up to all that sneakiness.
I think 99% of the people blabbering about privacy catastrophes don't actually understand what DoubleClick and companies like it do. It's tremendously harmless.
... and eBay certainly has more than a few late-model iMacs at less than this price point. They were going for $799 new from Apple until not so long ago. I don't see even $650 total as anything like a "deal"....
Agreed... the ISPs probably don't know or care about anybody's ssh-enabled-proxy-NAT-linux kingdom on the other end of a DSL line. It's really not as if this is what is keeping Evil Corporate Suits up at night.
Even if you believe this law could cover your home network, it's not as if it is going to force ISPs into spending lots of money to even think about prosecuting anyone over something they don't care about.
Presumably they are also selling this album on CD. Paradoxically, giving it away on MP3 may increase CD sales, I think.
Since this album would probably have otherwise not have gotten much attention at all, I don't think that giving it away eats into CD sales much. And now, some people may go out and buy the CD because they like the music and want to reward Anything Box, or just want it on CD for easy play in a car or portable CD player.
I think this approach is going to benefit small artists more than big ones. No one will be forced to give away music, I'm sure, but this may cause people to start asking whether Mariah Carey's latest pointless album is worth $18, while Anything Box is free...
Well deserved -- I'm not an anime fan (and I'm not young) but I loved this movie. It was more surreal and fantastical than I expected and that was a very welcome surprise.
Maybe I speak for myself, but I found this superior to the previous "most popular anime flick in the mainstream," Princess Mononoke. That movie was also great, but like other anime movies I've seen, the plot was thin, long and wandering, which I think are qualities that turn off most (western) audiences. For some reason I didn't think that Spirited Away suffered from the same problem.
Our company's engineering department runs an annual "coding contest" with a nice prize or two. Last time, teams of two had two days to build the fastest-running solution to a series of problems.
It sounds kind of gimmicky, but there's apparently nothing like a little competition and a prize to get the software engineers' blood pumping. It was really all the discussion about the problems before and after that was so great... it did a lot to get different groups of people talking like they never had before.
It worked brilliantly as a team-building exercise for engineers. Heh, and maybe it helped the management spot the engineers crazy enough to spend the time on the contest, and win.
Agreed. The "software engineer" has both technical responsibilities (actual programming) and people/communication responsibilities (team work, meeting clients, etc.).
But just as programming is getting more and more commoditizable, it's also becoming less important. Inevitably, better tools, software and technologies also spring up to solve common problems, lessening need for custom-developed solutions.
What is being sent overseas effectively is maintenance work, not really new development, since the former requires much less communication.
There will always be a need for local resources because of the importance of communication, management, etc.
Those who charge the U.S. with "throwing the U.N. in the dustbin" implicitly admit that the U.N. comes to little or nothing without the U.S. -- its money and military force. The U.S. provides 25% of the U.N.'s budget, and over 30% of its peacekeeping force costs. Please remember this when you accuse the U.S. in this way.
I think it would be a mistake to assume that the U.N. represents perfect moral and international authority; it's better than nothing, but it is still just a forum where nations bicker and politic as usual.
Remember that the Security Council did not authorize force in the Balkans either (thanks, France and Russia). The U.N. also voted the U.S. off of its human rights commission, in favor of Sudan and Libya. This is the organization that declares what international justice is?
I only claim that America is no worse than other nations in pursuing its national interests while pursuing international interests as well. Tone done the rhetoric, eh? I find all this hyperbole about the evil U.S. hurtful and narrow-minded.
...and was, and is, behind Security Council resolution 1441 as well. I don't believe it's fair to blame America for France and Germany's curious opposal to action they voted for only months before. Their actions are dictated by national and political interests just as much any other nation's are.
I think Americans are generally tired of lectures from a few European nations on behalf of "The World" and "world opinion," regardless of their own views. It comes across as presumptuous and arrogant (which goes both ways I suppose).
Anti-Americanism that I have observed in Europe is pretty well irrational and just plain human nature... no one likes to cheer for the big guy, do they? The U.S. is an easy scapegoat.
To be fair, this is easily as much the reason why the U.N. is in jeopardy, where its tempting for European nations to use their disproportionate leverage to frustrate the U.S. For Chirac and Schroeder, it's free political points... why wouldn't they oppose the U.S.?
Oh... this is far off topic. Sorry slashdot.
Think about it in the longer term... if outsourcing to India is effective, there will be more demand for it, and the price of tech labor in India will naturally increase.
There will always be a demand for workers in the U.S. itself; companies always need wokers locally, and will be willing to pay more for them because of the convenience.