When I arrived to the United States in mid 90s, my view was exactly the same: American's could not do anything and no American was smart enough to do advanced stuff. Dear Americans, please accept my apologies. I was wrong and pumped by skewed views.
In high school, it seemed that a great fraction of kids were being dragged along in order to meet some sort of a requirement. I was puzzled becuase I went to one of the best schools in the U.S. at that time. What I did not know, was the fact that the school was required to try its best in order to educate the students. In my former country, Belarus, a great majority of those slackers would never see the 10th grade.
I remember how everybody told me that the U.S. had no science and no math. Unfortunately, this is partly true becuase there are no hard requirements: a student can get by several years of simple math and science without even getting into advanced stuff. It turned out that if you wanted to succeed, all you had to do is work harder and take the advanced courses yourself! Yes, that is right. Most of the kids in my AP classes were just as smart as my former peers. They wanted to study advanced stuff and they got it. If one covered all the courses offered by my high school, that person could go on and take courses at a local university. That totally busted my old opinions about this country. Granted, not every teenager is dreaming about yet another calc test. So what? As long as we have people who are willing to take on and progress, we'll be fine. In fact, I enjoyed that advanced clases were small because you had to qualify in order to get there!
The same thing applies to college. You can take easy courses and slack or you can take advanced courses and try to do your best. I opted for the latter. I worked really hard to get an A in a computer graphics class while my buddies were driking beers while creating a database driven website project for a lower level course. We ended up with the same grades, but I had to work my ass off. You get the point. In the end, everything is up to you. In many countries of the world students are simply required to study more whether they want it or not. This is subjective as well. Do students appreciate the material that their teachers force upon them? Does it make any sense to have the same math program for every student? Does it make sense to benchmark students at all?
I guess Johnny can program. The real issue is that Johnny wants to earn some money doing it. Competing with people who come from India or China is hopeless when you have a mortgage, kids, and educational loans. Had it not been for my monetary baggage in terms of ed loans and high rent payments, I'd work for ten dollars per hour. The question about visa workers and offshoring should not be discussed via one's skill level. It is the salary that counts. I know of several companies that had to bring their development and support back because the price of their offshored contractors went up.
FYI, I have seen some posts about bright foreign exchange students. That is all nice and cute. However, you have to remember that students who come here on visas are not your average kids! After my family moved here, a couple of my former classmates were chosen to represent my former country in a foreign student exchange program. These were the cream of the crop kids. Straight As, good behavior, good discipline. In order to qualify for the program, you had to jump through many hoops and truly show that you're the best from the best in terms of your brain power and language skills. These guys were pretty smart by default and they truly stood out regardless of the student body. Being a smart person and an immigrant makes you stand out. There you have it.
This is all about supply vs demand. We pay professional athletes and movie stars because there is a freaking demand for sports and movies. Without you and your buddies shelling out big bucks on those two things, the athletes and the movie stars would not be rich.
I agree with you about education. However, it is not in a free fall. You say that people do not value education. If that is correct, how would you explain private schools that are popping out everywhere? How do you explain people spending money on private education? How do you explain people going to colleges and getting student loans? Again, I do not mean to argue with you because I know what you mean; however, the situation is not that bleak. A great fraction of my family members are teachers and I hear this from them on a daily basis. Despite the fact that teachers get paid sub-standard wages, there are still qualified people willing to teach and students willing to learn. If you do not like your kid's math program at school, you can send your kid to a special math school or an after school program. If you dislike the idea of you kid majoring in Liberal Arts of Business -- and I think that there is nothing wrong with those majors -- you can talk to your kid. A lot of this stuff depends on parenting.
Just because Paris Hilton is a dumb blond bimbo , it does not mean that the rest of the society adores her. Sure enough, she has a show and a millions of family dollars. So what? This does not bother me at all. For some reason I knew that I had to go to school and do it right.
Visa workers willing to work for lower wages that are being recruited by multi-national corporations are not a U.S. only syndrome. Check the rest of the English speaking countries of the world. I work for a multi-national company and I deal with this on a daily basis. If you truly believe that visa workers are much better than the residents of a country, you are naive. The only thing that matters to any corporation is the botton line when it comes to money. If there is a person who can do work for cheaper, that person is going to be hired.
The corporate world does not care about who gets the job; the corporate world cares about who brings in the most savings. My job involves a lot of interaction with visa-bred developers who come to the U.S. on sub-standard contracts. Let me tell you, I feel for them as much as I feel for displaced American workers because ultimately the corporate world is making money on other people's misfortunes and situations.
You're right about one thing: the backlash. Currently, there is a good push back in terms of recruiting imported visa workers because the corporate world is slowly realizing that you can't win loyality by exploiting a person. And for some companies it does not make sense to hire outside the local base at all. The business model is changing as well. I can go on and on about it, but then again: this is/.
Recent headlines about our state of science and technology are backing up my theory that in the U.S. there are many people who are not intersted in progress. If it were up to them, then women would still not vote, school kids would recite the Bible every morning and our laws will be written by priests. Unfortunately, I am not dreaming.
Look, if you give up on science and technology, what are you going to use in order to progress? Sex with little boys? This sickens me because a good fraction of U.S. students are already getting a shaft when it comes to education. Why make it worse? If you ever travel through mid-Westerm or Southern states, do me a favor and visit rural schools. Heck, I suppose any rural school will do. How come some schools get to have 20 AP courses while others teach only AP English and AP History? What is going to become to average Americans when basic scientific theories will be taken away from them? If you don't want to teach evolution, how will you teach theories about parallel universes, strings and multiple dimensions.
I do not trust the Bible and I do not believe that the modern theory of big bang holds a complete answer either; however, I am going to stick with the latter. It is more promising than the old book of tales.
I remember the rage five years ago. I know what it is like when it comes to reading foreign documentation. Let me put it this way, everything I have been doing in the past two years was related to foreign development. Translating technical documentation, getting in touch with remote R&D and banging my head against the wall is still a part of my daily routine.
Please note, I did not mean to offend anybody by sayig "pathetic." I pity the people who are still trying to hang on onto their old skills and who do not want to explore future possibilities. I know plenty of folks who try to compete with third world workers on coding project and, guess what, they're losing big time.
The point of my post was that doing OSS stuff is not going to help you out in a long run. At least not everybody who does it will benefit directly from it. Do development because you like it, not because you want to look good in the eyes of your employer. Do you get it now? Outsourcing is never going to go away. Get used to it. Don't believe me? Take a look at what cars Americans are driving today. If you still think that creating yet another stupid fucking application that never works is going to benefit you, you're on a wrong track. The only way to stay in business is to contribute to the business cycle directly. Add value to a product and service and you'll be able to survive. Take it from somebody who works for a software shop where 80% of all development is done outside the U.S. My office employs business folks who customize the imported software to customer's business requirements. Knowing technology definitely helps, but we tend to like people who can put a money making spin on every deal, not nerds who make cool things because they can.
So, you are unemployed looking for a job. That is bad. Now you want to do something with OSS. You polish your skills, come up with something new while hoping that you'll get a job. What you don't understand that you're still nobody in a corporate world. You have better skills, but, guess what, the rest of the world will acquire those skills as well. If you're not willing to work for less, then you'll be replaced again. Go start working on another OSS project. Software engineers are quite common these days. Corporations will outsource and find workers willing to work for the lowest possible wage. As one CEO said, "...The problem with Asia is not the price, it's the fact that they [Indians, Chinese] can't work for free."
You can study and do whatever you want; however, as soon as there is somebody else who is willing to do the same for less money, you're out. Nobody gives a flying fuck if you are an OSS contributor or a genius if you don't fit the price tag. One of my friends is desperately looking for development gigs online. He found himself competing with Indians who are willing to work for less than $10/hr. Unless he lowers his price, he can't really work.
The sooner you realize your pathetic state, the better off you'll be. Instead of doing something that the rest of the world can do, try something new. Whatever you do, make sure that you have skills that are not related to IT. That will increase your chance of survival.
All this cute and dandy. I guess my biggest mistake was forgetting to metion that I have a Mac already. Otherwise, it looks like every retard with "I Love Apple" tattoed on the brain is trynig to fuck me in the ass.
What I wanted to say was: iMac is not such a great deal as you, fuckers, play it to be. If a pixel dies on your damn LCD, then you have a fuckedup monitor and a fucked up computer that you cannot separate. I bought my latest computer, PowerMac, 2 years ago. It was a sweet deal, considering the fact that I had a monitor already.
Are you 10? No? Then you have to be a fucking retard because this is the only explanation that I have for you post. Seriously, grow the fuck up and stop using your mom's skirt for wiping your tears.
Who says that I do not like Macs? FYI, I do have a Power Mac. I got a last year model for cheap and it works fairly well for what I need to do: digital photography, OpenGL development, checking e-mail, etc. You say that prices are unimpressive when you get to PowerMac and a monitor? Well, then your math is different than mine. If you have a monitor already, a PowerMac is a nice buy, especially if you can get a deal on a previous model or a used one. As for a computer being a fucking DVD player with a phone and a two-way rubber dildo at the same time, well then, you got me there buddy. I have a stero system for music and a TV for watching movies.
Finally, check your location. I do not know where you come from, but here in the United States people who express their opinions are free to do so. All I wanted to say that I did not think that a freaking iMac was that great. That is it. I guess my biggest mistake was omitting the fact that I was a Mac fan.
My problem with iMacs is the following: there is no separation between the monitor and the computer. Typically, my monitors are much better than the actual computers. My last monitor, a Sony, is on its 6th year and I am pleased with it so far. I spent a good chunk of money on the monitor itself. Good stuff lasts, so why not? Since I am picky about my graphics, I decided to go with a full blown monitor and get a computer with a moderate power only. My strategy paid off: I still have a kick ass monitor and I went through 3 computers so far.
Ultimately, I do not care about the speed of my CPU, because sitting in front of a computer is the last fucking thing I want to do after working 60 hour weeks. With iMacs, you seem to pay for both: a computer and a screen. Why bother? You can pick up a nice 20" LCD from Apple for $800 ($700 if you can get educational discount) and that is all I want. Having a computer that is hard to upgrade and that becomes outdated within a couple of years does not make any freaking sense. When I buy my next monitor, I would like it to last for about 7-8 years and I highly doubt that an iMac will be useful after 4 years.
I think that before you say anything about the recent bunkruptcy law shakedown, you should read some statstics about who files for what chapters and why.
According to many financial analyst and bankruptcy lawyers (don't have links, check stats on the web and financial magazines. I think Fortune had a good one on that), most of the people who filed for chapter 7 were forced to do that by circumstances beyond their control. Healthcare expenses and job losses were two primary factors. In particular, single mothers are going to be hit the hardest. The new laws do not differentiate between debt accumulated through healthcare or childcare costs and credit card debt that one racked up at Saks 5th Avenue. There are more caveats to the law that was basically written by the industry behind credit card companies.
Before you preach, do a little research next time. And yes, god forbid if credit card companies emerge with lower profits next year.
...by how a society is treating its criminals. Does not look good for us, does it?How about we aim our money and efforts on reducing the number of people who want to kill or commit sex crimes?
The tracking law does not look too bad for an average American; I am pretty sure that many people like to have convicts locked up somewhere far away. What is going to happen when an average American is a convict? Ever thought of that? How about tagging all the citizens in order to prove that one was innocent during the crime? Now, that's a thought! And if you're not tagged, then you should be guilty until proven otherwise just because nobody was aware of your location.
I never buy or try anything that is mentioned in somebody's blog. Hell, I don't even read blogs. There are better ways of wasting my time.
Whenever you read a blog, please consider the source. Every freaking blog that I've seen so far was a useless piece or garbage or somebody's opinion that could be questioned. People like one thing and dislike the next. Honestly, it does not take a genius to write something cute and then post it everywhere as if it were the truth. I can replace every freaking blogger with a small shell script, if you will.
Experience is what I am interested in. My experience, not yours. When Nissan 350Z came out, everybody was cuming all over their pants. Blogs of enthusiats were everywhere, forums raved about the car. Finally, I test drove it myself. It was a freaking nice ride, but my soul chose an underpowered RX8 for the car. Were bloggers right or wrong? I do not know. What I know is the fact that ultimately, a consumer will decide what is worth buying. Same will happen with Microsoft or any other entity that puts a lot of emphasis on blogs. Just look at what happened to Dean: he raised money, he was successful at the beginning, but then the country chose a different candiate. It is not where you begin, it is where you end up.
I predict a lot of fuzz about Longhorn. Everybody loves publicity: IBM brags about Linux, Apple tells nice stories about people who switch, Wal-Mart is helping our environment (apparently I am missing out on that one). However, the final decision will come after somebody who is goigng to use the product. In this case, let's talk about the OS a year after its release. Let's hear it from sys admins who spend 24/7 working on their servers. How about scientists that use big ass clusters to compute something? What about an average home user and her experience with malicious attacks? For now, bragging about an OS that nobody actually used is pretty low.
The office that my company rents is located in a nice building with a nice cafeteria that aims to please everybody from earth loving hippies to guys that eat meatballs for dessert. However, whenever I have a chance I either bring my own lunch and eat it at my desk OR go somewhere far away from the office.
I have one hour for lunch. My office is the LAST fucking place on earth where I would want to spend it. Okay, I can think of worse places, but you get the point. I work with a number of certain people every day. I meet the same faces and talk about the same old things. Why not get out? I tend to overpay for my lunch because I like a nice Japanese restaurant two blocks away from my office. So what? I get to relax and forget about the job. Hell, I'd argue that having lunch away from the office makes me more productive because I come back with a fresh state of mind.
Yeah, I have a laptop. This has nothing to do with my willing to keep the DSL. Take a look at my post and read it again. I said that if a deal like that existed in my town, I would subscribe AND keep my connection. AND is the keyword:)
If I had a deal like that in my hometown, I would subscribe; however, I would not shut my home connection down by any means.
Let's face it, I have it pretty good: a static IP, a connection that never goes down, an ISP that filters all my mail and good support. Why would I cancel that? Wireless is nice to have, but doing it old school does not have to conflict with that.
If you want to make a good and stable living, CS is definitely a wrong field to be in. Our inside sales guys make more money that seasoned developers. That's a fact. Therefore, shoot for something with business background or get your degree and then an MBA later on.
Hardware and software is a stupid debate, especially when it comes to money. When a hardware shop in my area went down, guys with hardware backgrounds were dime a dozen and nobody wanted them. When times were good, they were paid fairly well. Catching the market is hard. As somebody pointed out, if all of us knew what was going to happen, nobody would lose money on stocks. What you want to do is the following: learn something that you like and then tag a some other degree on top of that in order to be more marketable. Currently, I am looking at an MBA or a degree in economics. At least I will be able to do something on a business side if things flop with CS.
Also, whatever you do, make sure that you're close to your customers. Jobs that involve face-to-face customer interaction or high-end client support (not talking about "My Dell is broken!") will tend to be here as long as businesses exist. The unemployment rate for sales oriented professionals remains fairly low compared to fields such as engineering. Then it is all up to you.
I hear you on that one. I was born outside the United States and English is not my primary language. I got a shot a my first job after school just because I could communicate with developers who were somewhere far away from where we were located:)
That will solve a problem. Every marriage from now on should be a civil union where two partners are united in order to do whatever they want, however they want. If they pay their taxes and obey the law, they should be left alone. People who want to be married and united under a holy spirit, should go to church. We live in the 21st century with new standards and higher expectations in terms of our civilization. Let's prove the rest of the world that we are actually moving forward. If we make sure that every union is recognized under the law, we can save tons of money and go on with our lives.
Seriously, how much of our money should be wasted before we realize that everybody is equal? I really do not care if Bob and Dave live together, have a family, and share benefits. If you do not like that, do not invite them to your family dinners. If your church does not allow that, then expell them from our church. You may not like what they do in bed, but it should be none of your fucking business to begin with. Everybody should be equal in the eyes of the law and we should make sure that every united couple has access to the same benefits as straight couples. If Bob and Dave adopt a child, then their family should be treated just as any other. How are they different from the rest? I hear religious freaks say that being gay is not normal, but what is? Caring adults slipping cocks down young boys' throats? Give me a break. The standard of normality varies from person to person. What is sinful for you, sounds like a lot of fun to me:)
I just don't see it how a gay person is defferent from a straight person. All of us are in the same shit with only one life. Let's make the best out of it.
Thank you. I find that your reply is very well structured and you mention something that not a lot of people get. I am still trying to explain your line of thought -- how Adam Smith lived in a different time period -- to my business major friends; unfortunately they are not getting it...
There is another good point that you did not mention. In Adam Smith's world, customers chose what they wanted; thus, they influenced the economy with their decision. Nowadays, goods are not bought, they are sold; every good salesman knows that. Mass media and enterntainment industries brainwash our kids to the point where they're able to recognize and distinguish brands at an early age. People "buy" things before they even know it.
Overall, Smith's theory was pretty good; however, it is around 200 years old and it is time to adapt.
Defense was the last thing that I wanted to do in my life. I am dead serious about it. I do not want to work for a government or any contractor related to the government. This is based the history of my family; you won't understand. But after what had happened to my uncle, a missle engineer, I decided to avoid that field as much as possible. Long story; I'll tell it some other time.
On the contrary, I am pretty fucking creative and that is how I make money now. I only know of two of my friends who work for defense and I know that I am getting paid far more than they do. Life is mostly defined by two principles: who you know and how much do you want to succeed. I am willing to work hard for success and so far, I consider myself to be freaking lucky.
Look, I am not here to make excuses about what things happened and why. I just feel that a drop in CS enrollment is directly related to what is happening in the field right now. How can I tell kids to major in computer science if it is really hard to get a freaking job after school? I have met many bright kids who are wearing the shoes I wore several years ago. They have brains, they want to succeed, they want to do information technology because it is something they like and something that they think is going to bring a stable career. Not everybody is a rocket scientist. Not every freshman knows what he or she wants to do. Given a fact that a strong comp. sci. program requires many math and science courses, some people do think twice before sticking with it. Is it worth it? For me, it was a right choice and it paid off. However, I still believe that I was lucky.
Dude, you're on crack. Where did you get it, caz I would not mind being as fucked up as you're. Look buddy, mabbe saving whales and working for a greater good for $0/hr is a good way of life for you. However, I have bills to pay, parents to help and a whole life to live. There is only one you know.
What I chose to do in my life, is my fucking business and I just wanted to share my experience with you. You know why the enrollment is dropping? Because of people like me. People who tell high school seniors to read Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine and other financial publications that tell you where this country is and where it is going. If you want to be replaced by an Indian worker, go do Comp. Sci. I'll meet you in an unemployment office. Kids are smart, you know. They see, they listen and some of them decide to say "fuck that shit" to 4 years of comp. sci. without any benefits thereafter.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny, I had almost the same problem in Europe...
When I arrived to the United States in mid 90s, my view was exactly the same: American's could not do anything and no American was smart enough to do advanced stuff. Dear Americans, please accept my apologies. I was wrong and pumped by skewed views.
In high school, it seemed that a great fraction of kids were being dragged along in order to meet some sort of a requirement. I was puzzled becuase I went to one of the best schools in the U.S. at that time. What I did not know, was the fact that the school was required to try its best in order to educate the students. In my former country, Belarus, a great majority of those slackers would never see the 10th grade.
I remember how everybody told me that the U.S. had no science and no math. Unfortunately, this is partly true becuase there are no hard requirements: a student can get by several years of simple math and science without even getting into advanced stuff. It turned out that if you wanted to succeed, all you had to do is work harder and take the advanced courses yourself! Yes, that is right. Most of the kids in my AP classes were just as smart as my former peers. They wanted to study advanced stuff and they got it. If one covered all the courses offered by my high school, that person could go on and take courses at a local university. That totally busted my old opinions about this country. Granted, not every teenager is dreaming about yet another calc test. So what? As long as we have people who are willing to take on and progress, we'll be fine. In fact, I enjoyed that advanced clases were small because you had to qualify in order to get there!
The same thing applies to college. You can take easy courses and slack or you can take advanced courses and try to do your best. I opted for the latter. I worked really hard to get an A in a computer graphics class while my buddies were driking beers while creating a database driven website project for a lower level course. We ended up with the same grades, but I had to work my ass off. You get the point. In the end, everything is up to you. In many countries of the world students are simply required to study more whether they want it or not. This is subjective as well. Do students appreciate the material that their teachers force upon them? Does it make any sense to have the same math program for every student? Does it make sense to benchmark students at all?
I guess Johnny can program. The real issue is that Johnny wants to earn some money doing it. Competing with people who come from India or China is hopeless when you have a mortgage, kids, and educational loans. Had it not been for my monetary baggage in terms of ed loans and high rent payments, I'd work for ten dollars per hour. The question about visa workers and offshoring should not be discussed via one's skill level. It is the salary that counts. I know of several companies that had to bring their development and support back because the price of their offshored contractors went up.
FYI, I have seen some posts about bright foreign exchange students. That is all nice and cute. However, you have to remember that students who come here on visas are not your average kids! After my family moved here, a couple of my former classmates were chosen to represent my former country in a foreign student exchange program. These were the cream of the crop kids. Straight As, good behavior, good discipline. In order to qualify for the program, you had to jump through many hoops and truly show that you're the best from the best in terms of your brain power and language skills. These guys were pretty smart by default and they truly stood out regardless of the student body. Being a smart person and an immigrant makes you stand out. There you have it.
This is all about supply vs demand. We pay professional athletes and movie stars because there is a freaking demand for sports and movies. Without you and your buddies shelling out big bucks on those two things, the athletes and the movie stars would not be rich.
I agree with you about education. However, it is not in a free fall. You say that people do not value education. If that is correct, how would you explain private schools that are popping out everywhere? How do you explain people spending money on private education? How do you explain people going to colleges and getting student loans? Again, I do not mean to argue with you because I know what you mean; however, the situation is not that bleak. A great fraction of my family members are teachers and I hear this from them on a daily basis. Despite the fact that teachers get paid sub-standard wages, there are still qualified people willing to teach and students willing to learn. If you do not like your kid's math program at school, you can send your kid to a special math school or an after school program. If you dislike the idea of you kid majoring in Liberal Arts of Business -- and I think that there is nothing wrong with those majors -- you can talk to your kid. A lot of this stuff depends on parenting.
Just because Paris Hilton is a dumb blond bimbo , it does not mean that the rest of the society adores her. Sure enough, she has a show and a millions of family dollars. So what? This does not bother me at all. For some reason I knew that I had to go to school and do it right.
The tables are turning? Hardly.
Visa workers willing to work for lower wages that are being recruited by multi-national corporations are not a U.S. only syndrome. Check the rest of the English speaking countries of the world. I work for a multi-national company and I deal with this on a daily basis. If you truly believe that visa workers are much better than the residents of a country, you are naive. The only thing that matters to any corporation is the botton line when it comes to money. If there is a person who can do work for cheaper, that person is going to be hired.
The corporate world does not care about who gets the job; the corporate world cares about who brings in the most savings. My job involves a lot of interaction with visa-bred developers who come to the U.S. on sub-standard contracts. Let me tell you, I feel for them as much as I feel for displaced American workers because ultimately the corporate world is making money on other people's misfortunes and situations.
You're right about one thing: the backlash. Currently, there is a good push back in terms of recruiting imported visa workers because the corporate world is slowly realizing that you can't win loyality by exploiting a person. And for some companies it does not make sense to hire outside the local base at all. The business model is changing as well. I can go on and on about it, but then again: this is /.
Cheers~
Recent headlines about our state of science and technology are backing up my theory that in the U.S. there are many people who are not intersted in progress. If it were up to them, then women would still not vote, school kids would recite the Bible every morning and our laws will be written by priests. Unfortunately, I am not dreaming.
Look, if you give up on science and technology, what are you going to use in order to progress? Sex with little boys? This sickens me because a good fraction of U.S. students are already getting a shaft when it comes to education. Why make it worse? If you ever travel through mid-Westerm or Southern states, do me a favor and visit rural schools. Heck, I suppose any rural school will do. How come some schools get to have 20 AP courses while others teach only AP English and AP History? What is going to become to average Americans when basic scientific theories will be taken away from them? If you don't want to teach evolution, how will you teach theories about parallel universes, strings and multiple dimensions.
I do not trust the Bible and I do not believe that the modern theory of big bang holds a complete answer either; however, I am going to stick with the latter. It is more promising than the old book of tales.
I remember the rage five years ago. I know what it is like when it comes to reading foreign documentation. Let me put it this way, everything I have been doing in the past two years was related to foreign development. Translating technical documentation, getting in touch with remote R&D and banging my head against the wall is still a part of my daily routine.
Please note, I did not mean to offend anybody by sayig "pathetic." I pity the people who are still trying to hang on onto their old skills and who do not want to explore future possibilities. I know plenty of folks who try to compete with third world workers on coding project and, guess what, they're losing big time.
The point of my post was that doing OSS stuff is not going to help you out in a long run. At least not everybody who does it will benefit directly from it. Do development because you like it, not because you want to look good in the eyes of your employer. Do you get it now? Outsourcing is never going to go away. Get used to it. Don't believe me? Take a look at what cars Americans are driving today. If you still think that creating yet another stupid fucking application that never works is going to benefit you, you're on a wrong track. The only way to stay in business is to contribute to the business cycle directly. Add value to a product and service and you'll be able to survive. Take it from somebody who works for a software shop where 80% of all development is done outside the U.S. My office employs business folks who customize the imported software to customer's business requirements. Knowing technology definitely helps, but we tend to like people who can put a money making spin on every deal, not nerds who make cool things because they can.
In corporate America it is not going to help.
So, you are unemployed looking for a job. That is bad. Now you want to do something with OSS. You polish your skills, come up with something new while hoping that you'll get a job. What you don't understand that you're still nobody in a corporate world. You have better skills, but, guess what, the rest of the world will acquire those skills as well. If you're not willing to work for less, then you'll be replaced again. Go start working on another OSS project. Software engineers are quite common these days. Corporations will outsource and find workers willing to work for the lowest possible wage. As one CEO said, "...The problem with Asia is not the price, it's the fact that they [Indians, Chinese] can't work for free."
You can study and do whatever you want; however, as soon as there is somebody else who is willing to do the same for less money, you're out. Nobody gives a flying fuck if you are an OSS contributor or a genius if you don't fit the price tag. One of my friends is desperately looking for development gigs online. He found himself competing with Indians who are willing to work for less than $10/hr. Unless he lowers his price, he can't really work.
The sooner you realize your pathetic state, the better off you'll be. Instead of doing something that the rest of the world can do, try something new. Whatever you do, make sure that you have skills that are not related to IT. That will increase your chance of survival.
India is a developing country. A high GDP is not a surprise.
All this cute and dandy. I guess my biggest mistake was forgetting to metion that I have a Mac already. Otherwise, it looks like every retard with "I Love Apple" tattoed on the brain is trynig to fuck me in the ass.
What I wanted to say was: iMac is not such a great deal as you, fuckers, play it to be. If a pixel dies on your damn LCD, then you have a fuckedup monitor and a fucked up computer that you cannot separate. I bought my latest computer, PowerMac, 2 years ago. It was a sweet deal, considering the fact that I had a monitor already.
Are you 10? No? Then you have to be a fucking retard because this is the only explanation that I have for you post. Seriously, grow the fuck up and stop using your mom's skirt for wiping your tears.
Who says that I do not like Macs? FYI, I do have a Power Mac. I got a last year model for cheap and it works fairly well for what I need to do: digital photography, OpenGL development, checking e-mail, etc. You say that prices are unimpressive when you get to PowerMac and a monitor? Well, then your math is different than mine. If you have a monitor already, a PowerMac is a nice buy, especially if you can get a deal on a previous model or a used one. As for a computer being a fucking DVD player with a phone and a two-way rubber dildo at the same time, well then, you got me there buddy. I have a stero system for music and a TV for watching movies.
Finally, check your location. I do not know where you come from, but here in the United States people who express their opinions are free to do so. All I wanted to say that I did not think that a freaking iMac was that great. That is it. I guess my biggest mistake was omitting the fact that I was a Mac fan.
My problem with iMacs is the following: there is no separation between the monitor and the computer. Typically, my monitors are much better than the actual computers. My last monitor, a Sony, is on its 6th year and I am pleased with it so far. I spent a good chunk of money on the monitor itself. Good stuff lasts, so why not? Since I am picky about my graphics, I decided to go with a full blown monitor and get a computer with a moderate power only. My strategy paid off: I still have a kick ass monitor and I went through 3 computers so far.
Ultimately, I do not care about the speed of my CPU, because sitting in front of a computer is the last fucking thing I want to do after working 60 hour weeks. With iMacs, you seem to pay for both: a computer and a screen. Why bother? You can pick up a nice 20" LCD from Apple for $800 ($700 if you can get educational discount) and that is all I want. Having a computer that is hard to upgrade and that becomes outdated within a couple of years does not make any freaking sense. When I buy my next monitor, I would like it to last for about 7-8 years and I highly doubt that an iMac will be useful after 4 years.
Okay, I totally missed your point. My apologies.
I think that before you say anything about the recent bunkruptcy law shakedown, you should read some statstics about who files for what chapters and why.
According to many financial analyst and bankruptcy lawyers (don't have links, check stats on the web and financial magazines. I think Fortune had a good one on that), most of the people who filed for chapter 7 were forced to do that by circumstances beyond their control. Healthcare expenses and job losses were two primary factors. In particular, single mothers are going to be hit the hardest. The new laws do not differentiate between debt accumulated through healthcare or childcare costs and credit card debt that one racked up at Saks 5th Avenue. There are more caveats to the law that was basically written by the industry behind credit card companies.
Before you preach, do a little research next time. And yes, god forbid if credit card companies emerge with lower profits next year.
...by how a society is treating its criminals. Does not look good for us, does it?How about we aim our money and efforts on reducing the number of people who want to kill or commit sex crimes?
The tracking law does not look too bad for an average American; I am pretty sure that many people like to have convicts locked up somewhere far away. What is going to happen when an average American is a convict? Ever thought of that? How about tagging all the citizens in order to prove that one was innocent during the crime? Now, that's a thought! And if you're not tagged, then you should be guilty until proven otherwise just because nobody was aware of your location.
I never buy or try anything that is mentioned in somebody's blog. Hell, I don't even read blogs. There are better ways of wasting my time.
Whenever you read a blog, please consider the source. Every freaking blog that I've seen so far was a useless piece or garbage or somebody's opinion that could be questioned. People like one thing and dislike the next. Honestly, it does not take a genius to write something cute and then post it everywhere as if it were the truth. I can replace every freaking blogger with a small shell script, if you will.
Experience is what I am interested in. My experience, not yours. When Nissan 350Z came out, everybody was cuming all over their pants. Blogs of enthusiats were everywhere, forums raved about the car. Finally, I test drove it myself. It was a freaking nice ride, but my soul chose an underpowered RX8 for the car. Were bloggers right or wrong? I do not know. What I know is the fact that ultimately, a consumer will decide what is worth buying. Same will happen with Microsoft or any other entity that puts a lot of emphasis on blogs. Just look at what happened to Dean: he raised money, he was successful at the beginning, but then the country chose a different candiate. It is not where you begin, it is where you end up.
I predict a lot of fuzz about Longhorn. Everybody loves publicity: IBM brags about Linux, Apple tells nice stories about people who switch, Wal-Mart is helping our environment (apparently I am missing out on that one). However, the final decision will come after somebody who is goigng to use the product. In this case, let's talk about the OS a year after its release. Let's hear it from sys admins who spend 24/7 working on their servers. How about scientists that use big ass clusters to compute something? What about an average home user and her experience with malicious attacks? For now, bragging about an OS that nobody actually used is pretty low.
The office that my company rents is located in a nice building with a nice cafeteria that aims to please everybody from earth loving hippies to guys that eat meatballs for dessert. However, whenever I have a chance I either bring my own lunch and eat it at my desk OR go somewhere far away from the office.
I have one hour for lunch. My office is the LAST fucking place on earth where I would want to spend it. Okay, I can think of worse places, but you get the point. I work with a number of certain people every day. I meet the same faces and talk about the same old things. Why not get out? I tend to overpay for my lunch because I like a nice Japanese restaurant two blocks away from my office. So what? I get to relax and forget about the job. Hell, I'd argue that having lunch away from the office makes me more productive because I come back with a fresh state of mind.
Yeah, I have a laptop. This has nothing to do with my willing to keep the DSL. Take a look at my post and read it again. I said that if a deal like that existed in my town, I would subscribe AND keep my connection. AND is the keyword :)
If I had a deal like that in my hometown, I would subscribe; however, I would not shut my home connection down by any means.
Let's face it, I have it pretty good: a static IP, a connection that never goes down, an ISP that filters all my mail and good support. Why would I cancel that? Wireless is nice to have, but doing it old school does not have to conflict with that.
If you want to make a good and stable living, CS is definitely a wrong field to be in. Our inside sales guys make more money that seasoned developers. That's a fact. Therefore, shoot for something with business background or get your degree and then an MBA later on.
Hardware and software is a stupid debate, especially when it comes to money. When a hardware shop in my area went down, guys with hardware backgrounds were dime a dozen and nobody wanted them. When times were good, they were paid fairly well. Catching the market is hard. As somebody pointed out, if all of us knew what was going to happen, nobody would lose money on stocks. What you want to do is the following: learn something that you like and then tag a some other degree on top of that in order to be more marketable. Currently, I am looking at an MBA or a degree in economics. At least I will be able to do something on a business side if things flop with CS.
Also, whatever you do, make sure that you're close to your customers. Jobs that involve face-to-face customer interaction or high-end client support (not talking about "My Dell is broken!") will tend to be here as long as businesses exist. The unemployment rate for sales oriented professionals remains fairly low compared to fields such as engineering. Then it is all up to you.
This is probably the best advice ever. Listen to the dude and get with the program. Err. Get with the programs.
As a recent CS grad myself, I am thinking of getting an MBA. More jobs, better resumes, nicer pay. What else do you want?
I hear you on that one. I was born outside the United States and English is not my primary language. I got a shot a my first job after school just because I could communicate with developers who were somewhere far away from where we were located :)
That will solve a problem. Every marriage from now on should be a civil union where two partners are united in order to do whatever they want, however they want. If they pay their taxes and obey the law, they should be left alone. People who want to be married and united under a holy spirit, should go to church. We live in the 21st century with new standards and higher expectations in terms of our civilization. Let's prove the rest of the world that we are actually moving forward. If we make sure that every union is recognized under the law, we can save tons of money and go on with our lives.
Seriously, how much of our money should be wasted before we realize that everybody is equal? I really do not care if Bob and Dave live together, have a family, and share benefits. If you do not like that, do not invite them to your family dinners. If your church does not allow that, then expell them from our church. You may not like what they do in bed, but it should be none of your fucking business to begin with. Everybody should be equal in the eyes of the law and we should make sure that every united couple has access to the same benefits as straight couples. If Bob and Dave adopt a child, then their family should be treated just as any other. How are they different from the rest? I hear religious freaks say that being gay is not normal, but what is? Caring adults slipping cocks down young boys' throats? Give me a break. The standard of normality varies from person to person. What is sinful for you, sounds like a lot of fun to me :)
I just don't see it how a gay person is defferent from a straight person. All of us are in the same shit with only one life. Let's make the best out of it.
Thank you. I find that your reply is very well structured and you mention something that not a lot of people get. I am still trying to explain your line of thought -- how Adam Smith lived in a different time period -- to my business major friends; unfortunately they are not getting it...
There is another good point that you did not mention. In Adam Smith's world, customers chose what they wanted; thus, they influenced the economy with their decision. Nowadays, goods are not bought, they are sold; every good salesman knows that. Mass media and enterntainment industries brainwash our kids to the point where they're able to recognize and distinguish brands at an early age. People "buy" things before they even know it.
Overall, Smith's theory was pretty good; however, it is around 200 years old and it is time to adapt.
Defense was the last thing that I wanted to do in my life. I am dead serious about it. I do not want to work for a government or any contractor related to the government. This is based the history of my family; you won't understand. But after what had happened to my uncle, a missle engineer, I decided to avoid that field as much as possible. Long story; I'll tell it some other time.
On the contrary, I am pretty fucking creative and that is how I make money now. I only know of two of my friends who work for defense and I know that I am getting paid far more than they do. Life is mostly defined by two principles: who you know and how much do you want to succeed. I am willing to work hard for success and so far, I consider myself to be freaking lucky.
Look, I am not here to make excuses about what things happened and why. I just feel that a drop in CS enrollment is directly related to what is happening in the field right now. How can I tell kids to major in computer science if it is really hard to get a freaking job after school? I have met many bright kids who are wearing the shoes I wore several years ago. They have brains, they want to succeed, they want to do information technology because it is something they like and something that they think is going to bring a stable career. Not everybody is a rocket scientist. Not every freshman knows what he or she wants to do. Given a fact that a strong comp. sci. program requires many math and science courses, some people do think twice before sticking with it. Is it worth it? For me, it was a right choice and it paid off. However, I still believe that I was lucky.
Dude, you're on crack. Where did you get it, caz I would not mind being as fucked up as you're. Look buddy, mabbe saving whales and working for a greater good for $0/hr is a good way of life for you. However, I have bills to pay, parents to help and a whole life to live. There is only one you know.
What I chose to do in my life, is my fucking business and I just wanted to share my experience with you. You know why the enrollment is dropping? Because of people like me. People who tell high school seniors to read Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine and other financial publications that tell you where this country is and where it is going. If you want to be replaced by an Indian worker, go do Comp. Sci. I'll meet you in an unemployment office. Kids are smart, you know. They see, they listen and some of them decide to say "fuck that shit" to 4 years of comp. sci. without any benefits thereafter.