My cat, "Synge Delgato", gets offers all the time. One time she got an offer in the mail which came complete with a nickel glued to the letter. I gave the coin to her, but she gave me this look that said, "What am I going to do with a nickel, you *know* I don't have any pockets!" So I kept it.
Now, whenever she begs for bits of french fry, I say to her, "You know all those nickels you turned your nose up at? Well, you could've bought your own damn bag of french fries!"
Beatles: Hey Jude, I thought we agreed there's only room for one apple in this business! Apple: STFU, we're not IN your business. Beatles: I know it's been a hard day's night for you, but yeah, you are. Apple: STFU. Beatles: Right, we'll see you in the Court on Penny Lane.
(later)
Court: Beatles, STFU. Apple: We have triumphed yet again! Beatles: Waaaaaah! Twist and Shout! You never give me your money! We'll appeal and then you're going to lose that girl! All: STFU!
Best damn adventure book ever published: Murder in Irliss, published way way back in 1982. I used to spend hours with friends playing it. Can't find much info about it on the web, but if you like adventure books, find a copy!
"Programming" conjures up visions of some guy with pale complexion staring into his monitor, banging away at the keyboard, trying to fix yet another bug. Or, in a better light, maybe reading some API and/or design specification and banging away at the keyboard trying to implement it. A "programmer" can be thought of as a construction worker.
"Software Architect" is what you get when you take away the specific implementation: the programming language, the operating system, the specific database. What you're left with is the high-level big-picture design. You get to draw boxes, arrows, flowcharts, ping-pong diagrams... you get to be the guy up at the marker board smiling at the camera, pointing to a complex diagram, your vision for the product, that you don't have to spend nights implementing because that's what they pay the keyboard-bashers for. A "software architect" can be thought of as the high-paid and lauded building architect.
In a sense, software architecture is the creative side, while converting the design to code is the mechanical side.
I'm not even sure you want to talk about "going into IT". I thought IT was more like the maintenance guys of the building after it's built. Like in the UK's "The IT Crowd". It certainly wouldn't be as rewarding to me as programmer or software architect. In any case, even if all this does fall under the general heading "IT", you can at least narrow down what you want to do.
Anyway, what's this have to do with outsourcing? I think software architecture is what you want to get into, since I firmly believe that is what the US is not going to outsource -- or at least not to the extent that keyboard-bashing has.
That being said, it definitely doesn't hurt to know at least one major programming language -- either Java, or (shudder) even C#. That way you at least have some idea of the common idioms of the code, and then you don't have to specify every nut and bolt in your diagram.
Let's look at the statistics. In 2004, a total of 42,636 people died, and 2.8 million were injured on U.S. highways... I'll bet that many of the drivers who instigated the accidents that led to those 42,636 deaths and 2.8 million injuries in 2004 had the same thoughts: "I want to be in control of my car." "I'm a better driver than a computer."
In order to provide realistic, immersive, full 3D imaging, they first direct you to an imaging building specially equipped for the projection of realistic 3D images. In the building, you are assigned a seat. The seats are placed around the projection area in a rough oval, with seats closer to the projection being more expensive.
Prior to the show, the projection area is filled in with green, looking somewhat similar to a green screen.
Special projectors on the sides of the screen project the players entering the field, one by one, and finally the game commences.
During the game, the new "physical/virtual object interface" is turned on. This allows audience members to throw things like cups and popcorn into the projection screen, where they actually appear in the game! Likewise, occasionally the audience is thrilled when a virtual object such as a baseball is thrown out of the projection screen and into the audience. The lucky audience member catching the ball can either keep it, or throw it back, where it re-appears seamlessly in the game.
Due to the expense of these imaging buildings, there will generally be only a few built per major city, and it is expected that traffic during showings will increase in the general area.
This may come as a shock to middle class, but management doesn't care if people don't want to watch commercials. The supermarket is supposed to be a clogged toilet of happy-talk announcer voices, video screens, blaring signs, surveillance cameras, yadda yadda.
If they can get you to remember one brand name by shouting it at you, they've done their job.
Cultural, proximity and time-zone limitations do matter because they can affect customer service, customer trust and customer loyalty. Perhaps that's why Dell is expanding its call center in Oklahoma instead of New Delhi.
Oh? So where's the corresponding article about Oklahoma?
IMHO, the two biggest obstacles to users contributing to projects are lack of documentation, and the inherent complexity of programming.
I don't know how many times I've clicked on the "documentation" link in a project only to be greeted with "Coming Soon!". Never mind design documents.
I think we're going to need a much higher level of abstraction for code before we reach a tipping point where projects can survive and grow without their lead creator.
Using the Quick Time player on Windows XP it says required compressor not available (1st time I tried it also said not available on server)... what do I need?
A Mac?
(sounds of lunatic laughter receding into the distance)
They tried connecting the Mac Mini to an LCD, and it worked! Then they went on to connecting some USB tuner card to the Mini, and it worked as well! Surely, there's a lot of useful info in this article, and it's not bad for a weeks work, don't you agree?
That only accounts for 30 minutes. The rest of the week was taken up trying to get Windows to work with the hardware!
Me: Bob, put down that controller.
Bob: (advances menacingly)
Me: No, seriously, put it down.
Bob: (draw nearer)
Me: BOB! STOPPIT!
Bob: (impacts me over the head with a controller) WHACK!
Me: OW!
Yeah, we know that you can't present all the facts in four minutes. But guess what? CNN claims to do it in ONE minute!
Check it out. Guy from Boing Boing was invited onto CNN for this:
Xeni on CNN: Porn, your kids, your rights, and The Man
I'll join the hosts of CNN's Showbiz Tonight this evening for a segment examining what role the federal government should take in shielding kids from access to adult material online -- and concerns that free speech and privacy rights may be too easily trampled in the process.
And here's the transcript. Do a search for "boing". The entire segment could not have lasted more than a minute. In fact, just as it was getting interesting and into the heart of the matter, the host says, "quickly, answer this question in ten seconds."
If you ever manage to rent the documentary called "Jockeys" (it's on Netflix), this one famous horse jockey had had kidney failure due to the drive of horse owners to reduce jockeys' weights. Jockeys regularly starve and dehydrate themselves, and force themselves to upchuck in order to lose weight to race in order to win races. And they do this before every race. Some jockeys' teeth have been dissolved down to nubs from stomach acid because they upchuck so much. Anyway, CNN had a segment with this jockey's plea to increase the required jockey weight by only a few pounds. And sure enough, just as the jockey was getting into why weights had to be increased, the good ol' CNN host said, "Ooh, sorry, we have to cut you off, we ran out of time." And that was that. In the documentary, the jockey just sat there, with this unbelieving look on his face. Then he said, "I didn't get to tell them anything!"
And that pretty much summarizes news programs today. They don't get to tell you anything.
I don't think this is quite Godwin's Law-esque to bring this up, but I heard from a good friend who recently took a trip to Germany. The Germans are all jumping up and down, pointing to the US, and saying, "See? See? It's EASY to be suckered in, like WE were in the 30's!"
Generation 2, it meta overlays GPS data and is automatically stored as part of your 'diary'. You store it in an encrypted location so it can't be used against you unless you choose to release it, and you have a perfect alibi showing what you said and where you were.
The argument about a "documented life" revolves around trust of the encryption mechanism and keys, and trust of the authorities allowed to use those keys. But the latter is an oxymoron for most as long as those authorities are human.
That's why I say judges, politicians, and cops should all be robots! Otherwise we'll never be able to store information about ourselves!
Slashdot Mirror
If the penalty for getting it wrong is having my accounts drained and my identity stolen? Never.
--Rob
Now, whenever she begs for bits of french fry, I say to her, "You know all those nickels you turned your nose up at? Well, you could've bought your own damn bag of french fries!"
Dumb cat!
--Rob
Beatles: Hey Jude, I thought we agreed there's only room for one apple in this business!
Apple: STFU, we're not IN your business.
Beatles: I know it's been a hard day's night for you, but yeah, you are.
Apple: STFU.
Beatles: Right, we'll see you in the Court on Penny Lane.
(later)
Court: Beatles, STFU.
Apple: We have triumphed yet again!
Beatles: Waaaaaah! Twist and Shout! You never give me your money! We'll appeal and then you're going to lose that girl!
All: STFU!
--Rob
--Rob
"Programming" conjures up visions of some guy with pale complexion staring into his monitor, banging away at the keyboard, trying to fix yet another bug. Or, in a better light, maybe reading some API and/or design specification and banging away at the keyboard trying to implement it. A "programmer" can be thought of as a construction worker.
"Software Architect" is what you get when you take away the specific implementation: the programming language, the operating system, the specific database. What you're left with is the high-level big-picture design. You get to draw boxes, arrows, flowcharts, ping-pong diagrams... you get to be the guy up at the marker board smiling at the camera, pointing to a complex diagram, your vision for the product, that you don't have to spend nights implementing because that's what they pay the keyboard-bashers for. A "software architect" can be thought of as the high-paid and lauded building architect.
In a sense, software architecture is the creative side, while converting the design to code is the mechanical side.
I'm not even sure you want to talk about "going into IT". I thought IT was more like the maintenance guys of the building after it's built. Like in the UK's "The IT Crowd". It certainly wouldn't be as rewarding to me as programmer or software architect. In any case, even if all this does fall under the general heading "IT", you can at least narrow down what you want to do.
Anyway, what's this have to do with outsourcing? I think software architecture is what you want to get into, since I firmly believe that is what the US is not going to outsource -- or at least not to the extent that keyboard-bashing has.
That being said, it definitely doesn't hurt to know at least one major programming language -- either Java, or (shudder) even C#. That way you at least have some idea of the common idioms of the code, and then you don't have to specify every nut and bolt in your diagram.
--Rob
I asked why the hell they would buy Novell...
but they won't tell.
--Rob
Vroooooooom, Vrooooooom, screeeech! Hey! Watch out for that... pixel! Night Driver here I come!
--Rob
Apparently 39% of those who died were thinking, "I can drink and drive.". And 13% were minding their own business (pedestrians and bicyclists).
--Rob
--Rob
--Rob
--Rob
In order to provide realistic, immersive, full 3D imaging, they first direct you to an imaging building specially equipped for the projection of realistic 3D images. In the building, you are assigned a seat. The seats are placed around the projection area in a rough oval, with seats closer to the projection being more expensive.
Prior to the show, the projection area is filled in with green, looking somewhat similar to a green screen.
Special projectors on the sides of the screen project the players entering the field, one by one, and finally the game commences.
During the game, the new "physical/virtual object interface" is turned on. This allows audience members to throw things like cups and popcorn into the projection screen, where they actually appear in the game! Likewise, occasionally the audience is thrilled when a virtual object such as a baseball is thrown out of the projection screen and into the audience. The lucky audience member catching the ball can either keep it, or throw it back, where it re-appears seamlessly in the game.
Due to the expense of these imaging buildings, there will generally be only a few built per major city, and it is expected that traffic during showings will increase in the general area.
--Rob
This may come as a shock to middle class, but management doesn't care if people don't want to watch commercials. The supermarket is supposed to be a clogged toilet of happy-talk announcer voices, video screens, blaring signs, surveillance cameras, yadda yadda.
If they can get you to remember one brand name by shouting it at you, they've done their job.
--Rob
Oh? So where's the corresponding article about Oklahoma?
--Rob
I don't know how many times I've clicked on the "documentation" link in a project only to be greeted with "Coming Soon!". Never mind design documents.
I think we're going to need a much higher level of abstraction for code before we reach a tipping point where projects can survive and grow without their lead creator.
--Rob
Grab a copy of Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near and find out where we are, and where we're headed. It's a great read!
--Rob
A Mac?
(sounds of lunatic laughter receding into the distance)
--Rob
That only accounts for 30 minutes. The rest of the week was taken up trying to get Windows to work with the hardware!
--Rob
Bob: (advances menacingly)
Me: No, seriously, put it down.
Bob: (draw nearer) Me: BOB! STOPPIT!
Bob: (impacts me over the head with a controller) WHACK!
Me: OW!
--Rob
Check it out. Guy from Boing Boing was invited onto CNN for this:
And here's the transcript. Do a search for "boing". The entire segment could not have lasted more than a minute. In fact, just as it was getting interesting and into the heart of the matter, the host says, "quickly, answer this question in ten seconds."
If you ever manage to rent the documentary called "Jockeys" (it's on Netflix), this one famous horse jockey had had kidney failure due to the drive of horse owners to reduce jockeys' weights. Jockeys regularly starve and dehydrate themselves, and force themselves to upchuck in order to lose weight to race in order to win races. And they do this before every race. Some jockeys' teeth have been dissolved down to nubs from stomach acid because they upchuck so much. Anyway, CNN had a segment with this jockey's plea to increase the required jockey weight by only a few pounds. And sure enough, just as the jockey was getting into why weights had to be increased, the good ol' CNN host said, "Ooh, sorry, we have to cut you off, we ran out of time." And that was that. In the documentary, the jockey just sat there, with this unbelieving look on his face. Then he said, "I didn't get to tell them anything!"
And that pretty much summarizes news programs today. They don't get to tell you anything.
--Rob
--Rob
The argument about a "documented life" revolves around trust of the encryption mechanism and keys, and trust of the authorities allowed to use those keys. But the latter is an oxymoron for most as long as those authorities are human.
That's why I say judges, politicians, and cops should all be robots! Otherwise we'll never be able to store information about ourselves!
--Rob
Digikey -- www.digikey.com.
Mouser -- www.mouser.com.
Thickest damn catalogs you've ever seen.
--Rob
You must be new here. I just read the Slashdot comments for the article content.
--Rob