If a computer and its operating system is meant for the average consumer and it is more difficult than a VCR to use properly, then something is wrong with the computer and its operating system. Not the consumer.
Ten years ago, my team leader told me that jobs were moving to India. He showed me Yourdon's book: "The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer". It did not happen. Not in a large scale.
Then a few years later, something else happened. My project was moved to Dallas (from Toronto. Even at that time, projects were being moved around. When we travelled to Dallas to transfer technology to the new guys, management told us to tell the American Immigration that we were going for a visit. I did not listen, and I told INS I was going to Dallas to transfer knowledge. They let me through. I was losing my job soon, so I would not have minded if they did not let me through. I was not going to lie.), the new group did not like the fact that one part of the project was still in Montreal. It was just difficult to coordinate development with people scattered around. But they had no choice, the technology was in Montreal. Nobody could have done what they were doing in Montreal. It was basically the same for us, but they intended to move some of us over as well. Some did relocate.
It is different now. Most programs being written now are quite similar. If you want to develop a website, there are only a few ways to do it. And tools and technologies are very uniform now. We have J2EE and.NET. That is about it. It is not difficult to train people to program in J2EE and.NET, wherever they are. It is funny in a way: EJB is easy enough to program; and they are going to make it even easier.
Now, this is just inevitable. Jobs will simply go to places with lower labour cost. When was the last time you saw a memory chip manufactured in the U. S.? On balance, that was a good thing. If that did not happen, do you think you would be able to afford the computer you have, with the same capability and memory capacity?
But you know what, I think something else is going to happen soon. And I think it is scarier: a shift in programming paradigm will be upon us. And I think it is going to shed almost all programming jobs, here and elsewhere. I am betting my money that it will start happening in five years.
I am a programmer, so I am going to try and see whether I will be the one making the paradigm shift.
This is my attempt at a translation of the article. I translated it to fit its original style as much as possible. Not edited extensively.
To Investigate Microsoft, Fair-Trade Committee Will Go Overseas for Interviews
(Byline: Reporter Li Li Sing/Taipei Reporting)
The Fair-Trade Committee special taskforce investigating "the allegation of Microsoft monopolises Taiwan software market" has a major development; the target of investigation has shifted from Microsoft Taiwanese branch office to Microsoft Singapore Branch and Microsoft headquarters in the US. The direction of investigation focuses on whether Microsoft Singapore and Taiwanese customers' contracts are involved in the "restriction of competition". The issue of Microsoft's overly-high prices in Taiwan, after Fair-Trade committee interviewed the Singaporean company, will develop into an international case.
Last Friday, the Fair-Trade committee interviewed Microsoft Singapore representative(s) in Taipei; in the short term, it will visit Microsoft American Headquarters. The Fair-Trade committee will provide concrete investigation result earliest September or October.
According to our analysis, the Fair-Trade committee has from the beginning investigated Microsoft products mainly on their "paired sales" behaviour, their abuse of monopoly power (caused Taiwanese Microsoft product prices overly high), etc. So-called "restricted competition" points to fair trading law's notion about corporation using illegitimate restrictive behaviour on their trading partners, classified as a kind of "unfair competition".
As someone points out, the US Microsoft corporation has a rather complicated international organization structure; its trading method is also trans-national, layer-by-layer, indirect. Taiwanese "corporate users" (buying more than 250 PC Microsoft software) reveal that when they buy Microsoft products, they do not deal with Microsoft Taiwan, rather, they are arranged to sign contracts with Microsoft Singapore.
Corporate users say that, in the contracts, Microsoft Singapore limits Taiwanese corporate users from changing dealers without "permission", possibly involving the violation of the Fair-Trade Law's "Restriction of competition" provision. Because of that, the Fair-Trade committee changed its target of investigation, from the original Microsoft Taiwan, to Microsoft Singapore.
After a period of investigation, the Fair-Trade committee in large measure clarified Microsoft's related product sales streams (?Direct translation. I don't know much about marketing terms?). From our analysis, the contracts Microsoft Singapore signs with Taiwanese corporate users clearly specify that the corporate users, when they want to change their dealer, must get permission from the Singaporean company. In private, the corporate users complain that Microsoft has limited their buying rights.
About whether Microsoft is involved in "pair sales", according to the investigation of the Fair-Trade committee, Microsoft's "standard edition" includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, priced at $17,590 New Taiwanese Currency. But last June, a single copy of Word software was sold at $11,690, a single copy of Excel was sold at $17,590, a single copy of Powerpoint was sold at $10,590. This pricing method lets vast majority of customers to buy the full suite of the "standard edition", not any one single piece of software.
Some people from the legal profession say that from the investigation direction of the Fair-Trade committee, the monopolization of the Taiwanese software market probably violates Fair-Trade provision's articles 10.1, 10.2, 19, etc.
The Fair-Trade committee investigation of the case of "the involvement of Microsoft in the monopolization of the Taiwan software market" has its main impetus in this May's complaint from (a) legislative representative(s) to the Fair-Trade committee on the overly higher price of Taiwanese Microsoft products than other countries, injuring consumer's rights. The Fair-Trade committee received the complaint and immediately started the investigation; after four months, the Fair-Trade committee has mostly followed through related evidence, and has intensified the investigation activities.
Well, I was a foreign student. And I was a TA with a thick accent. The message above is more painful than anything. No, not about the stupid trick of teasing the TA, but the pain behind it.
Want to know what I had to go through? Well, 30% of the time, I was home sick. Everything was different. The people were mostly indifferent, sometimes hostile. Another 30% of the time, I was lonely like hell. Nobody to talk to. There were very nice people who would talk to me, but they had no clue what I was going through, and they did not understand a person from a different cultural background. The other 40%? Studying and learning like crazy to make sure I could survive in Canada.
I had no English when I came to Canada. But I was the exception. Most of us have very good English. Academic English. The language in the books, not the English you use day-in and day-out. In other words, text books? No problem. Conversations? Big problem. You know how painful that is? You think I did not want to speak fluent English? You think I did not agonize over the fact that my spoken English was not good enough? Can you imagine that every day that I had to TA, I had to psych myself up to handle a hostile class?
I know of many people resented the fact that they were resented simply because they were different. The next time you hear an anti-American or anti-Western person on TV speaking in good English with faintly American or British accent, you know how they got the resentment, and how they got the accent. Many of my friends went home right after graduation. After four years, they had enough. You know, not everybody wants to stay, if they have a decent country to go back to.
Me? I love Canada. I took the opportunity Canada gave me and ran. I have not looked back since.
Still, I remember the pain, the loneliness, the humiliation, the home-sickness. Autumn is my favourite season; but it is also the tough season for me. I came to Canada in the beginning of September, and I received the first letter from home in the middle of October. That wait was excruciating.
Sure, your friends' TA does not understand spoken English well. Maybe the guy is not qualified to be a TA. Still, I can't believe your friends are that cruel. And I can't believe the message is considered funny.
Slashdot Mirror
I bet many people don't even know "Chinaman" is a racist term for many Chinese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman
If a computer and its operating system is meant for the average consumer and it is more difficult than a VCR to use properly, then something is wrong with the computer and its operating system. Not the consumer.
Ten years ago, my team leader told me that jobs were moving to India. He showed me Yourdon's book: "The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer". It did not happen. Not in a large scale.
Then a few years later, something else happened. My project was moved to Dallas (from Toronto. Even at that time, projects were being moved around. When we travelled to Dallas to transfer technology to the new guys, management told us to tell the American Immigration that we were going for a visit. I did not listen, and I told INS I was going to Dallas to transfer knowledge. They let me through. I was losing my job soon, so I would not have minded if they did not let me through. I was not going to lie.), the new group did not like the fact that one part of the project was still in Montreal. It was just difficult to coordinate development with people scattered around. But they had no choice, the technology was in Montreal. Nobody could have done what they were doing in Montreal. It was basically the same for us, but they intended to move some of us over as well. Some did relocate.
It is different now. Most programs being written now are quite similar. If you want to develop a website, there are only a few ways to do it. And tools and technologies are very uniform now. We have J2EE and .NET. That is about it. It is not difficult to train people to program in J2EE and .NET, wherever they are. It is funny in a way: EJB is easy enough to program; and they are going to make it even easier.
Now, this is just inevitable. Jobs will simply go to places with lower labour cost. When was the last time you saw a memory chip manufactured in the U. S.? On balance, that was a good thing. If that did not happen, do you think you would be able to afford the computer you have, with the same capability and memory capacity?
But you know what, I think something else is going to happen soon. And I think it is scarier: a shift in programming paradigm will be upon us. And I think it is going to shed almost all programming jobs, here and elsewhere. I am betting my money that it will start happening in five years.
I am a programmer, so I am going to try and see whether I will be the one making the paradigm shift.
This is my attempt at a translation of the article. I translated it to fit its original style as much as possible. Not edited extensively.
To Investigate Microsoft, Fair-Trade Committee Will Go Overseas for Interviews
(Byline: Reporter Li Li Sing/Taipei Reporting)
The Fair-Trade Committee special taskforce investigating "the allegation of Microsoft monopolises Taiwan software market" has a major development; the target of investigation has shifted from Microsoft Taiwanese branch office to Microsoft Singapore Branch and Microsoft headquarters in the US. The direction of investigation focuses on whether Microsoft Singapore and Taiwanese customers' contracts are involved in the "restriction of competition". The issue of Microsoft's overly-high prices in Taiwan, after Fair-Trade committee interviewed the Singaporean company, will develop into an international case.
Last Friday, the Fair-Trade committee interviewed Microsoft Singapore representative(s) in Taipei; in the short term, it will visit Microsoft American Headquarters. The Fair-Trade committee will provide concrete investigation result earliest September or October.
According to our analysis, the Fair-Trade committee has from the beginning investigated Microsoft products mainly on their "paired sales" behaviour, their abuse of monopoly power (caused Taiwanese Microsoft product prices overly high), etc. So-called "restricted competition" points to fair trading law's notion about corporation using illegitimate restrictive behaviour on their trading partners, classified as a kind of "unfair competition".
As someone points out, the US Microsoft corporation has a rather complicated international organization structure; its trading method is also trans-national, layer-by-layer, indirect. Taiwanese "corporate users" (buying more than 250 PC Microsoft software) reveal that when they buy Microsoft products, they do not deal with Microsoft Taiwan, rather, they are arranged to sign contracts with Microsoft Singapore.
Corporate users say that, in the contracts, Microsoft Singapore limits Taiwanese corporate users from changing dealers without "permission", possibly involving the violation of the Fair-Trade Law's "Restriction of competition" provision. Because of that, the Fair-Trade committee changed its target of investigation, from the original Microsoft Taiwan, to Microsoft Singapore.
After a period of investigation, the Fair-Trade committee in large measure clarified Microsoft's related product sales streams (?Direct translation. I don't know much about marketing terms?). From our analysis, the contracts Microsoft Singapore signs with Taiwanese corporate users clearly specify that the corporate users, when they want to change their dealer, must get permission from the Singaporean company. In private, the corporate users complain that Microsoft has limited their buying rights.
About whether Microsoft is involved in "pair sales", according to the investigation of the Fair-Trade committee, Microsoft's "standard edition" includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, priced at $17,590 New Taiwanese Currency. But last June, a single copy of Word software was sold at $11,690, a single copy of Excel was sold at $17,590, a single copy of Powerpoint was sold at $10,590. This pricing method lets vast majority of customers to buy the full suite of the "standard edition", not any one single piece of software.
Some people from the legal profession say that from the investigation direction of the Fair-Trade committee, the monopolization of the Taiwanese software market probably violates Fair-Trade provision's articles 10.1, 10.2, 19, etc.
The Fair-Trade committee investigation of the case of "the involvement of Microsoft in the monopolization of the Taiwan software market" has its main impetus in this May's complaint from (a) legislative representative(s) to the Fair-Trade committee on the overly higher price of Taiwanese Microsoft products than other countries, injuring consumer's rights. The Fair-Trade committee received the complaint and immediately started the investigation; after four months, the Fair-Trade committee has mostly followed through related evidence, and has intensified the investigation activities.
[2002/08/20 United Newspaper]
Well, I was a foreign student. And I was a TA with a thick accent. The message above is more painful than anything. No, not about the stupid trick of teasing the TA, but the pain behind it.
Want to know what I had to go through? Well, 30% of the time, I was home sick. Everything was different. The people were mostly indifferent, sometimes hostile. Another 30% of the time, I was lonely like hell. Nobody to talk to. There were very nice people who would talk to me, but they had no clue what I was going through, and they did not understand a person from a different cultural background. The other 40%? Studying and learning like crazy to make sure I could survive in Canada.
I had no English when I came to Canada. But I was the exception. Most of us have very good English. Academic English. The language in the books, not the English you use day-in and day-out. In other words, text books? No problem. Conversations? Big problem. You know how painful that is? You think I did not want to speak fluent English? You think I did not agonize over the fact that my spoken English was not good enough? Can you imagine that every day that I had to TA, I had to psych myself up to handle a hostile class?
I know of many people resented the fact that they were resented simply because they were different. The next time you hear an anti-American or anti-Western person on TV speaking in good English with faintly American or British accent, you know how they got the resentment, and how they got the accent. Many of my friends went home right after graduation. After four years, they had enough. You know, not everybody wants to stay, if they have a decent country to go back to.
Me? I love Canada. I took the opportunity Canada gave me and ran. I have not looked back since.
Still, I remember the pain, the loneliness, the humiliation, the home-sickness. Autumn is my favourite season; but it is also the tough season for me. I came to Canada in the beginning of September, and I received the first letter from home in the middle of October. That wait was excruciating.
Sure, your friends' TA does not understand spoken English well. Maybe the guy is not qualified to be a TA. Still, I can't believe your friends are that cruel. And I can't believe the message is considered funny.