TMDA is cool, but if you don't have control over your mail server, you're a55'd out. Try Active Spam Killer, which you can use like procmail, or even in conjunction with procmail.
In any population, you have good examples and bad examples, whether it's a crop of apples or programmers. There are good Indian programmers and there are shitty ones, just like there's good American programmers and shitty ones. The fundamental difference is almost all of the India programmers are dirt cheap. Don't argue with me in terms of ROI or quality - straight dollar-for-dollar, they're cheap. Management will use cheap Indian talent for the same reason most people buy crappy tools rather than pony up the big bucks for Snap-On or Mac tools. They still work.
Now foreach (accountant, administrator,customer-support) { s/programmer/$_/g; } and you'll see the larger problem - it's more than just IT stuff that's going over. HP recently moved an accounting group to India. Some companies moved their phone support ops over there years ago; they even go so far as to give the India workers American alter-egos so people stateside don't know the difference.
The 90's saw the importation of 1000's of H1's - they were cheaper, so it was worthwhile to import them, fsck the locals. But what you didn't know, is that HP, Oracle, M$, FedEx, etc were building up the infrastructure over *there*. A company I worked for in the 90's was working with BFL; BFL talked them into shipping 100+ sun workstations and servers, along with switches and routers, to their compound in Bangalore. Not only that, but I had to *train* them in how to run the stuff, and baby-sit them remotely. But now that they're equipped and trained, companies now don't have to expend the cost of a plane ticket and an immigration lawyer. I personally know H1's here that are losing their jobs because their projects are moving to India!
HP's upper management has made it *very* clear in the press that they're moving everything they can to India. Sun, Oracle, M$ and the rest are right there with 'em.
The "there's not enough educated Americans" was and is a smoke screen to justify the H1-B program. The H1's are still coming in at a phenomenal rate, while the unemployment rate for IT folx is in the solid double digits. If the tables were the other way around, and massive amounts of non-Americans were being thrown on the street, the ACLU would be on a murderous rampage.
Some apologists claim "a rising tide lifts all boats" and bringing India into the 1st world will benefit Americans. The only Americans it benefits are the Fiorinas', Gates', McNealy's and Ellison's. The claim is that the rising prosperity of these countries will allow them to buy more American goods. Riiiight - which American goods? The ones made in Taiwan/China/#include ? Furthermore, since we're exported all the know-how as well, there's nothing to keep them from setting up shop and making and selling their own crap to their own people, cutting the American companies out of the loop altogether.
So what does this mean to us in the IT world, or better yet, the country as a whole? In short, we're fsck'd. We ate our seed corn. Corporate America sold our intellectual and technological leverage, so a chosen few could reap tens of millions in salaries and bonuses. The shareholders, for whom it was all supposed to be for (like 'for the children') didn't even do that well in the end. All of the good jobs for middle America are gone. The only thing left that hasn't been hollowed out is the legal profession; even doctors and nurses are being imported by profit-hungry HMO CEO's
Honestly, we were better off when India was just something you thought of when you saw poor starving children on Sally Struthers' infomercials.
And to the head-in-the-sand apologists who say "you're not in any danger if you keep your skills current" - I counter that you're now competing on *price* with a low-cost one-trick pony. Not to mention the 4-figure mortgage.
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TMDA is cool, but if you don't have control over your mail server, you're a55'd out. Try Active Spam Killer, which you can use like procmail, or even in conjunction with procmail.
In any population, you have good examples and bad examples, whether it's a crop of apples or programmers. There are good Indian programmers and there are shitty ones, just like there's good American programmers and shitty ones. The fundamental difference is almost all of the India programmers are dirt cheap. Don't argue with me in terms of ROI or quality - straight dollar-for-dollar, they're cheap. Management will use cheap Indian talent for the same reason most people buy crappy tools rather than pony up the big bucks for Snap-On or Mac tools. They still work.
Now foreach (accountant, administrator,customer-support) { s/programmer/$_/g; } and you'll see the larger problem - it's more than just IT stuff that's going over. HP recently moved an accounting group to India. Some companies moved their phone support ops over there years ago; they even go so far as to give the India workers American alter-egos so people stateside don't know the difference.
The 90's saw the importation of 1000's of H1's - they were cheaper, so it was worthwhile to import them, fsck the locals. But what you didn't know, is that HP, Oracle, M$, FedEx, etc were building up the infrastructure over *there*. A company I worked for in the 90's was working with BFL; BFL talked them into shipping 100+ sun workstations and servers, along with switches and routers, to their compound in Bangalore. Not only that, but I had to *train* them in how to run the stuff, and baby-sit them remotely. But now that they're equipped and trained, companies now don't have to expend the cost of a plane ticket and an immigration lawyer. I personally know H1's here that are losing their jobs because their projects are moving to India!
HP's upper management has made it *very* clear in the press that they're moving everything they can to India. Sun, Oracle, M$ and the rest are right there with 'em.
The "there's not enough educated Americans" was and is a smoke screen to justify the H1-B program. The H1's are still coming in at a phenomenal rate, while the unemployment rate for IT folx is in the solid double digits. If the tables were the other way around, and massive amounts of non-Americans were being thrown on the street, the ACLU would be on a murderous rampage.
Some apologists claim "a rising tide lifts all boats" and bringing India into the 1st world will benefit Americans. The only Americans it benefits are the Fiorinas', Gates', McNealy's and Ellison's. The claim is that the rising prosperity of these countries will allow them to buy more American goods. Riiiight - which American goods? The ones made in Taiwan/China/#include ? Furthermore, since we're exported all the know-how as well, there's nothing to keep them from setting up shop and making and selling their own crap to their own people, cutting the American companies out of the loop altogether.
So what does this mean to us in the IT world, or better yet, the country as a whole? In short, we're fsck'd. We ate our seed corn. Corporate America sold our intellectual and technological leverage, so a chosen few could reap tens of millions in salaries and bonuses. The shareholders, for whom it was all supposed to be for (like 'for the children') didn't even do that well in the end. All of the good jobs for middle America are gone. The only thing left that hasn't been hollowed out is the legal profession; even doctors and nurses are being imported by profit-hungry HMO CEO's
Honestly, we were better off when India was just something you thought of when you saw poor starving children on Sally Struthers' infomercials.
And to the head-in-the-sand apologists who say "you're not in any danger if you keep your skills current" - I counter that you're now competing on *price* with a low-cost one-trick pony. Not to mention the 4-figure mortgage.