Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY down the road (I assume) from IBM, has an e-learning course on learning mainframe skills.
I'm currently enrolled in the beginner class and there is a crap load of information to go through. It's actually quite an amazing system.
For those that are interested you can find more information here.
http://www.academic.marist.edu/S390/
I am a UNIX guy, but worked with an old ES/9000 a bit in school and it was a quirky system and I didn't like it as much as the UNIX systems we had, but it was an interesting system.
Enjoy,
Chris
It seems that there has been comparisons made between textile manufacturing and steel manufacturing and the migration of jobs over seas.
There have been many good points made on how this ultimately is better for the US and better for developing nations and believe to improve the economy over all.
A few things that I felt needed to be pointed out regarding making comparisons between textile, steel and software development.
The workers in textile mills were never considered middle class or even upper middle class. Most of the workers in textile mills lived in the slums. They didn't make middle class wages and there buying power was very low.Textile workers didn't have college degrees either, most didn't even have a primary school education. Also despite all the textiles being produced over seas. The best textiles come from Western Europe, US and Japan. Third world nations produce crap.
Steel mill workers were paid better, but were by no means considered middle class. I have family members who worked in steel mills in the midwest and they didn't have the purchasing power of today's software developers in their day. Most steel workers may have a high school diploma and some have some technical training at a vocational school, but I would say most do not or ever had a college degree. And as for steel mills, most American steel mills went out of business, not because they moved the steel mills over seas, but rather Japanese steel mills could make better steel. And some of it cheaper, Japanese steel mill workers by the way make about the same as American Steel workers. Yet Japanese steel mills are still lit and pumping out steel. What happened to US steel ?
Maybe some development can go over to India, but the wholesale movement to outsource everything to India or over seas is a serious threat to the US's ability to stay competitive in computer technology. There will be very little incentive for people to go into computer science, information systems, especially since most jobs are being over seas.
Software development is being moved off-shore simply to fatten corporate executive's paychecks. After the accounting scandals and dot comedy insanity, I can't believe anyone trusts or believes that corporations will do the right thing. and pass the cost savings they make by off shoring development into R&D and advancement.
I'm not a software engineer, but rather a system administraotr, still it's depressing to see so many well educated, talented people out of work, being forced to train some kid from over seas to do their job.
I'm in an Oracle class and several people in the class are going through exactly that. It is so depressing.
H1Bs is such a crock, the entire H1B and L1 visa situation needs to be revised. My previous company, a few of the developers were H1B visa holders and all of them were payed below industry norm, and for them it was nearly enslavement. My previous company did alot to abuse the H1Bs and the H1B visa program. And I'm sure that they are not unique in this.
Unfortunately I don't have an answer... But something should be done, some protective measures should be made both for foriegn workers coming to the US and for US citizens/green card holders.
I would really like to point out that the US has fallen so far behind in broadband services compared to other countries.
I was looking at a Japanese magazine the other day and there was and ad for ADSL 12Megabit service to the home for around 1995 Yen per month, about 17 bucks!
A few people have commented about, who needs dark fiber besides telcos and realted companies? I can think of several companies related to the entertainment business. I used to work at Warner Brothers Studios and we had a few OC-3 and a few OC-12 circuits interconnecting various facilities. We shared files, and provided a host of services to other divisions. It was great.. it was a part of a grander scheme at the studio,but thanks to the merger with TBS. The project was canned.
This is just one example of how dark fiber can be used, granted that not everyone has the requirements of a motion picture studio. But you're only limited by your creativity. I am very frustrated that dark fiber isn't more readily available. I can think of so many uses and potential useful business that would make great use of dark fibre..But it's financialy not feasible..
Unfortunately, the telco monopolies are fat, lazy and their own financial problems, are a result of their own ineptness.
ARgh!
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Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY down the road (I assume) from IBM, has an e-learning course on learning mainframe skills. I'm currently enrolled in the beginner class and there is a crap load of information to go through. It's actually quite an amazing system. For those that are interested you can find more information here. http://www.academic.marist.edu/S390/ I am a UNIX guy, but worked with an old ES/9000 a bit in school and it was a quirky system and I didn't like it as much as the UNIX systems we had, but it was an interesting system. Enjoy, Chris
It seems that there has been comparisons made between textile manufacturing and steel manufacturing and the migration of jobs over seas.
There have been many good points made on how this ultimately is better for the US and better for developing nations and believe to improve the economy over all.
A few things that I felt needed to be pointed out regarding making comparisons between textile, steel and software development.
The workers in textile mills were never considered middle class or even upper middle class. Most of the workers in textile mills lived in the slums. They didn't make middle class wages and there buying power was very low.Textile workers didn't have college degrees either, most didn't even have a primary school education. Also despite all the textiles being produced over seas. The best textiles come from Western Europe, US and Japan. Third world nations produce crap.
Steel mill workers were paid better, but were by no means considered middle class. I have family members who worked in steel mills in the midwest and they didn't have the purchasing power of today's software developers in their day. Most steel workers may have a high school diploma and some have some technical training at a vocational school, but I would say most do not or ever had a college degree. And as for steel mills, most American steel mills went out of business, not because they moved the steel mills over seas, but rather Japanese steel mills could make better steel. And some of it cheaper, Japanese steel mill workers by the way make about the same as American Steel workers. Yet Japanese steel mills are still lit and pumping out steel. What happened to US steel ?
Maybe some development can go over to India, but the wholesale movement to outsource everything to India or over seas is a serious threat to the US's ability to stay competitive in computer technology. There will be very little incentive for people to go into computer science, information systems, especially since most jobs are being over seas.
Software development is being moved off-shore simply to fatten corporate executive's paychecks. After the accounting scandals and dot comedy insanity, I can't believe anyone trusts or believes that corporations will do the right thing. and pass the cost savings they make by off shoring development into R&D and advancement.
I'm not a software engineer, but rather a system administraotr, still it's depressing to see so many well educated, talented people out of work, being forced to train some kid from over seas to do their job.
I'm in an Oracle class and several people in the class are going through exactly that. It is so depressing.
H1Bs is such a crock, the entire H1B and L1 visa situation needs to be revised. My previous company, a few of the developers were H1B visa holders and all of them were payed below industry norm, and for them it was nearly enslavement. My previous company did alot to abuse the H1Bs and the H1B visa program. And I'm sure that they are not unique in this.
Unfortunately I don't have an answer... But something should be done, some protective measures should be made both for foriegn workers coming to the US and for US citizens/green card holders.
Things do not bode well...
I would really like to point out that the US has fallen so far behind in broadband services compared to other countries. I was looking at a Japanese magazine the other day and there was and ad for ADSL 12Megabit service to the home for around 1995 Yen per month, about 17 bucks! A few people have commented about, who needs dark fiber besides telcos and realted companies? I can think of several companies related to the entertainment business. I used to work at Warner Brothers Studios and we had a few OC-3 and a few OC-12 circuits interconnecting various facilities. We shared files, and provided a host of services to other divisions. It was great.. it was a part of a grander scheme at the studio,but thanks to the merger with TBS. The project was canned. This is just one example of how dark fiber can be used, granted that not everyone has the requirements of a motion picture studio. But you're only limited by your creativity. I am very frustrated that dark fiber isn't more readily available. I can think of so many uses and potential useful business that would make great use of dark fibre..But it's financialy not feasible.. Unfortunately, the telco monopolies are fat, lazy and their own financial problems, are a result of their own ineptness. ARgh!