where do they get competent software architects from
You mean one of the 40 competent software architects from the whole world ?
Trust me, finding one is extremely rare. To a point where I don't consider the sample big enough for us to judge what makes them competent. It might have nothing to do with experience, although that is one of the more likely factors.
The main problem, IMO, is that a software architect would evolve naturally from a system analyst, and those are also extremely rare. A lot of people keep calling themselves "system analysts", and 99.99% of them simply aren't (competent or otherwise).
It is a little more than that. In a CEO's head (or anyone in upper management/board), anyone over 40 who is STILL in a tech position is incompetent, stupid or both. If they were good, they would have been promoted to management, and would be making a lot more money.
It is a sad reality, and even more sad that it is mostly true. Not the vast majority, but based on my professional experience (IBM, couple Japanese multinationals etc), I would say that is true for 60-70% of the cases. And for management/the board, 60% is more than enough reason.
The thing they fail to see, and most of us who either are still in tech positions, or were forced to migrate to management even if we really don't enjoy it, is that not everyone is cut for management, even if they can handle it. And even if (if you succeed) you will make more money, the money you made as a techie was more than enough for doing something you actually enjoy, instead of doing twice as much for a job you hate.
I'm heard that rumor before, but never saw any confirmation about it. I mean, I can see companies doing that for "marketing" reasons, but wouldn't be kind of be a problem for them ? Unless they get a mainframe backend + Intel frontend and call that a cloud, who knows. Do you have any more specific info on this ?
I really see this as clusters taking over a niche where there was no real competition. People would use either mainframes or some kind of distributed solution for that, but that was mostly because it was the best alternative. "If all you have is a hammer, you should treat everything as a nail" and all that.
Of course vendor will fight back, since it will cost them profits. But I simply can't see clusters taking over the real mainframe market.
IBM used to support Windows NT on their Risc/6000 stations (selected models only). It was a big disappointment, and IBM lost quite a lot of money with that stunt. (Including very high support costs).
Now they are at it again. Seriously ? Won't they ever learn ?
Because they are not spending most of their money on wars and war-related stuff. War on terror, war on druids, war on illegal immigrants, war on porn, war on whatever, air conditioning etc.
The economic crisis on EU is at least as bad as in the US, so that can't be it.
Filesystem level compression is something very dangerous. It is very easy to end up with corrupted files, not to mention the processing and memory cost of these operations. Because of that, you will also never have optimum compression, not to mention that if you store a compressed file inside a compressed filesystem, you might end up using more disk space than storing the raw (uncompressed file). And yes, the compression layer might be smart enough to not try compressing in those cases - another layer of complexity.
Several of these things are far from intuitive, causing plenty of grief for both the user and the support department.
Who cares ? At this point in time, after so many bad decisions on top of each other, Nokia is the new Caldera. Expect to see it start suing other companies left and right to try and keep afloat. It won't happen rightaway, cause they still make alot of money on non-smart phones, specially in 3rd world countries, but it will happen sometimes in the next 3 years or so.
Say what you will, but I refuse to use shared hosting.
All my stuff is hosted on dedicated (self-managed) servers.
When I see stuff that is made with the sole intent of "making things easier for the user", like Plex, CPanel etc, I raid an eyebrow. I can't criticize Plex directly, having very little knowledge of its internals. But from the little I've seen from CPanel, they use some very customized, less than fully patched versions that make me not willing to trust my sites to their product.
Also, shared hosting usually caters to the lower denominator, have lots of software installed that YOU don't need (because other people do or might) etc. It is a security nightmare.
No, thank you. I will pay more but will keep my servers secure. VPSs are better than shared, but still more dangerous than dedicated.
"Hey, how about I call you an idiot in public and you can convict me
for revealing state secrets."
-- Matthew Stoner (to Garibaldi), "Soul Mates" (Babylon 5)
No. If all skilled labor is already employed, then there is not enough for any more business THAT WANT TO PAY PEANUTS to move down here. If they offer competitive salaries, they will get all the employees they need.
You make 3 points on your post. Lemme address them one at a time.
#1 Not enough skilled labor
IBM, Ericsson, Motorola and others would disagree with you. However, there is a different between "not enough skilled labor" and "not enough unemployed skilled labor". If you mean the later, then you are write, but you should have expressed yourself better.
#2 Price on imported parts
Do your homework. There is the Manaus Free Trade Zone. There is where most of the companies that need to import parts put their factories. Exactly so they don't have to pay 50% tariff on them, and all that. The rules there are very, very different. Several companies keep their factory lines there, while keeping R&D on other parts of the country, where they can get labors more easily.
#3 Government and Customs
"the Brazilian government is screwing their people over" - Couldn't have said better myself.
- Tom Henderson makes, maybe, 6-7 digits. Larry makes at least 8-9. - In the past 5yrs, Oracle stocks have been going up (bluechip and all that), going from 17.74 to the current 28.86. Was 28.86 1yr ago
One of them if right about Oracle's business practices, the other is wrong.
And lets not forget:
tomhenderson wrote Oracle has a Sun spot: Oracle is pushing itself into a corner, a fantastic money-making corner, but a corner nonetheless.
So let me make my prediction. In the next 12 months, Larry will increase his income by a higher percentage than Tom Henderson.
Seriously now, what is it with analysts continuing saying that people who makes heaps of money, making more each passing year as their business continue to steadily grow and expand, are wrong ?
Larry can be an ahole and a weird, but he is right on the most important business indicator, as well the second and third: making money, stock prices and annual growth.
Slashdot Mirror
So, by your virus definition, Windows is a virus ?
Ok, now THAT is a real jewel, a piece of history. The rest is nice and all, but nowhere in the same league.
You mean one of the 40 competent software architects from the whole world ?
Trust me, finding one is extremely rare. To a point where I don't consider the sample big enough for us to judge what makes them competent. It might have nothing to do with experience, although that is one of the more likely factors.
The main problem, IMO, is that a software architect would evolve naturally from a system analyst, and those are also extremely rare. A lot of people keep calling themselves "system analysts", and 99.99% of them simply aren't (competent or otherwise).
It is a little more than that.
In a CEO's head (or anyone in upper management/board), anyone over 40 who is STILL in a tech position is incompetent, stupid or both. If they were good, they would have been promoted to management, and would be making a lot more money.
It is a sad reality, and even more sad that it is mostly true. Not the vast majority, but based on my professional experience (IBM, couple Japanese multinationals etc), I would say that is true for 60-70% of the cases. And for management/the board, 60% is more than enough reason.
The thing they fail to see, and most of us who either are still in tech positions, or were forced to migrate to management even if we really don't enjoy it, is that not everyone is cut for management, even if they can handle it. And even if (if you succeed) you will make more money, the money you made as a techie was more than enough for doing something you actually enjoy, instead of doing twice as much for a job you hate.
Yeah, my bad. As a typical /.er, I replied before reading the article.
This way, it actually makes sense for IBM to implement it.
I'm heard that rumor before, but never saw any confirmation about it.
I mean, I can see companies doing that for "marketing" reasons, but wouldn't be kind of be a problem for them ?
Unless they get a mainframe backend + Intel frontend and call that a cloud, who knows.
Do you have any more specific info on this ?
Dude, comparing POWER to PowerPC is like replacing Charles Sheen with Ashton Kutcher.
Errrrr ......
I really see this as clusters taking over a niche where there was no real competition. People would use either mainframes or some kind of distributed solution for that, but that was mostly because it was the best alternative. "If all you have is a hammer, you should treat everything as a nail" and all that.
Of course vendor will fight back, since it will cost them profits. But I simply can't see clusters taking over the real mainframe market.
Mainly because we mostly hear about stuff when they break down/don't work.
Mainframes are extremely reliable and, if you really need them, cost effective.
IBM used to support Windows NT on their Risc/6000 stations (selected models only). It was a big disappointment, and IBM lost quite a lot of money with that stunt. (Including very high support costs).
Now they are at it again. Seriously ? Won't they ever learn ?
Because they are not spending most of their money on wars and war-related stuff. War on terror, war on druids, war on illegal immigrants, war on porn, war on whatever, air conditioning etc.
The economic crisis on EU is at least as bad as in the US, so that can't be it.
Filesystem level compression is something very dangerous. It is very easy to end up with corrupted files, not to mention the processing and memory cost of these operations. Because of that, you will also never have optimum compression, not to mention that if you store a compressed file inside a compressed filesystem, you might end up using more disk space than storing the raw (uncompressed file). And yes, the compression layer might be smart enough to not try compressing in those cases - another layer of complexity.
Several of these things are far from intuitive, causing plenty of grief for both the user and the support department.
Every single source I've ever read rates nicotine as the most addictive.
The way they rate it is on how easy it is to get addicted, not how easy it is to quite. At least, on the 2 or 3 studies I read in full.
Who cares ? At this point in time, after so many bad decisions on top of each other, Nokia is the new Caldera.
Expect to see it start suing other companies left and right to try and keep afloat. It won't happen rightaway, cause they still make alot of money on non-smart phones, specially in 3rd world countries, but it will happen sometimes in the next 3 years or so.
Well, if you go by the book, a 3D "movie" could be called a 4D image ... (But yeah, never a 4D movie)
Mod: (-2) Common Sense
Sorry, this is slashdot. Please check your common sense at the door.
Did you really just link SG on Slashdot ?
Not on SG Army, are you ?
I'm also interested on an answer to that one.
Say what you will, but I refuse to use shared hosting.
All my stuff is hosted on dedicated (self-managed) servers.
When I see stuff that is made with the sole intent of "making things easier for the user", like Plex, CPanel etc, I raid an eyebrow. I can't criticize Plex directly, having very little knowledge of its internals. But from the little I've seen from CPanel, they use some very customized, less than fully patched versions that make me not willing to trust my sites to their product.
Also, shared hosting usually caters to the lower denominator, have lots of software installed that YOU don't need (because other people do or might) etc. It is a security nightmare.
No, thank you. I will pay more but will keep my servers secure. VPSs are better than shared, but still more dangerous than dedicated.
"Hey, how about I call you an idiot in public and you can convict me
for revealing state secrets."
-- Matthew Stoner (to Garibaldi), "Soul Mates" (Babylon 5)
No. If all skilled labor is already employed, then there is not enough for any more business THAT WANT TO PAY PEANUTS to move down here. If they offer competitive salaries, they will get all the employees they need.
You make 3 points on your post. Lemme address them one at a time.
#1 Not enough skilled labor
IBM, Ericsson, Motorola and others would disagree with you. However, there is a different between "not enough skilled labor" and "not enough unemployed skilled labor". If you mean the later, then you are write, but you should have expressed yourself better.
#2 Price on imported parts
Do your homework. There is the Manaus Free Trade Zone. There is where most of the companies that need to import parts put their factories. Exactly so they don't have to pay 50% tariff on them, and all that. The rules there are very, very different. Several companies keep their factory lines there, while keeping R&D on other parts of the country, where they can get labors more easily.
#3 Government and Customs
"the Brazilian government is screwing their people over" - Couldn't have said better myself.
I called this shot 4 days ago, here on Slashdot ...
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2446794&cid=37517716
Seriously, did anyone really believe this ? Look at the source. These guys (Mercadante et al) are 10x worse than your usual politician.
Did you read TFA ?
Analysts (like the one on TFA) are not talking about specific products. They are talking about company-wide strategic/business decisions.
- Tom Henderson makes, maybe, 6-7 digits. Larry makes at least 8-9.
- In the past 5yrs, Oracle stocks have been going up (bluechip and all that), going from 17.74 to the current 28.86. Was 28.86 1yr ago
One of them if right about Oracle's business practices, the other is wrong.
And lets not forget:
So let me make my prediction. In the next 12 months, Larry will increase his income by a higher percentage than Tom Henderson.
Seriously now, what is it with analysts continuing saying that people who makes heaps of money, making more each passing year as their business continue to steadily grow and expand, are wrong ?
Larry can be an ahole and a weird, but he is right on the most important business indicator, as well the second and third: making money, stock prices and annual growth.
He is more successful than you. Deal with it.