Umm... no, that wouldn't be true. A long time ago I worked for a defense contractor. The government offered any of us who would volunteer to go double-pay plus bonuses to do so.
Some people asked what would happen if we were captured. They said we wouldn't ever be in the hands of the enemy, even if the enemy found us. No one volunteered.
Honestly though, with the state of the field nowdays, the military would be better off doing what I had seen. The military offers much better health, retirement and survivor benefits than many programming companies nowdays.
Heck - a commercial company I worked for ordered a girl with relatives in the PLO, who had been born in Syria, to travel to Israel with a rushed passport, with equipment that she couldn't let leave her sight... Fortunately her coworkers convinced the company that that was a good way to lose their equipment... just to put this all into perspective.
...and yet another way to give your brain a workout - try to teach something that you know to an absolute beginner. It is the only way to expose the holes in your knowledge. Just be prepared to learn how little you really know...
Learn a new field, and apply it to a field you already know. This will allow you to look at the field you know from a different viewpoint, and will allow you to realise what you don't know, which enables you to learn the subject better. Here is an example of a few fields that have that synergy:
Carpentry -> Cake Decorating
Musical Composition -> Database Design
City Planning/Architecture -> Software Engineering (In case you didn't know, this is where Design Patterns came from)
Don't think about the cost of the Microsoft OS - think about how it drives hardware obsolescence - the average user only buys a new machine because they need a new version of Microsoft Office, which needs a new version of the latest Microsoft OS, which needs a faster CPU, and more memory. (Or, more recently, getting the latest Microsoft OS because they can't keep up with the patches).
This drives computer sales - versus what would happen with Linux - users would still buy better peripherals, but Intel wouldn't be where it is now - because the peripherals would use embedded processors, and Intel doesn't rule there. Memory wouldn't sell as much, because without OS bloat, we wouldn't need as much memory. So in summary, I'd say that Microsoft does serve a purpose - marketing of new computers.
When I lived in Camden, New Jersey, we had problems with toxic waste. Dogs and cats were most susceptible - all of the animals we raised died of cancer. There were mutations amongst most of the wild animals, and birth defects amongst the people. It has died down by now - most of the dumping of waste stopped in the early 80's, when the dumpers got too scared of travelling into the ghetto to dump their waste.
When my family got out of there about 5 years ago, the incidents of tumors and cancer had gone down significantly. I have my suspicions that some of the waste was dispersed by the birds that ate the contaminated animals and scattered their shit outside of the area - which is probably slowly happening over there too.
I've written commercial web sites and training tools, and it is funny how much people forget.
I remember having to code for IE4, Netscape 4 and Netscape 6. IE matched the HTML and CSS standards a whole lot better than Netscape 4. Netscape 6 came along, and it was even better at CSS... but then they changed the Javascript engine, forcing try... catch blocks, and Netscape 4 forced that Javascript had no try... catch blocks. I had to write self-modifying code to get anything to run on them. Opera and Konquerer may be better, but as of the last time I tried them, they didn't have much better scripting capabilities. And unless you are going to suck up bandwidth, that is the only way to do input validation (or you could allow me to run this harmless Java or executable program on your machine... what? Don't you trust me?). The only real option ends up being Macromedia Flash - yup, that is even farther from "open source".
Netscape started the same thing you are accusing Microsoft of with it's physical formatting codes - that was the first corruption of HTML. And that is why I didn't cry for poor Netscape when Microsoft did the same FU manuevoir to them that they did to other browser makers. The real problem with Microsoft was that they were too stupid to live - sending memos out about illegal acts... geez. Now Japan has raided their offices, and counting Microsoft's arrogance in America, I wouldn't be surprised if they found more illegal activities than they were looking for.
If you have another major (which is likely considering that you are reading this), try IP law - there are many firms in the DC area that hire IP lawyers. Of course, you have to be at the toward the head of your class to be hired, but that is true in any field.
My sister-in-law's ex-lawyer took a job with an Insurance firm - there is good (not great) paying work there.
Alternatively, consider working in the court systems in a place like Camden, NJ where I come from. The pay isn't great, but a house only costs $15,000.
Just say that you completed the job. That is exactly what you did - you worked until the project was finished, it just wasn't shipped. If they check with your company, and you were laid off, then that is exactly what they will say - since, technically, you completed the job.
If you studied anything in the meantime, I would suggest that you say that you were increasing your job skills, and state what skills you were trying to increase.
Above all, be confident and focused. One thing that helps is to use the male "I'm interested and listening" pose - head forward, pointed at the person speaking, making eye contact. It helps if you enter the interview with the attitude that the interviewer is partnered with you in the effort to get you hired - that way you'll ask the right questions like "What do I need to show you so that you will know that I am the right candidate for the job" and "Here is how my previous experience and knowledge applies to the position you will be hiring me for".
If you find that there is no way that you can fulfill the job, ask for the interviewer's card if you know of someone who could fill it. This will give you good will with the company, and with the person you recommend. It will also give you at least one inside contact, and allow the interviewer to know that you are professional and you won't attempt to dent their car in the parking lot. (Don't laugh - I've worked next to some people who carried loaded weapons and threatened to kill their co-workers).
Agreed - but for the sake of the readers who have no experience with other Human languages, I will offer the following:
If you know an object-oriented language like C++ or Java, try learning Prolog. Then see if you don't suddenly find yourself writing programs differently, and integrating pattern-matching concepts differently in your programs.
It all translates (eventually) to Assembly, so there should be nothing Prolog can do that C++ can't do. And you still contain the same brain, and the same knowledge of Computer Science, and you don't think only in C++, so there shouldn't be a difference there either. But there is.
When I worked at LCC, southern and northern Indians found it easier to communicate in English. When English is used, it is a way around the language tyranny of ruling groups, and allows the preservation of local languages, since everyone can agree that their local language is superior to English, but English is better than "that other language" supported by the powers-that-be.
Geeks being frowned upon seems to be a white thing - I have had long conversations with my friend who came from Taiwan as to why people in America find physical ability more important than intellectual activity. And when I lived in the ghetto, my "geekiness" was not as much of a problem as when I moved into suburbia.
Oddly enough, most of the white woman who were interested in me were already married - as you can guess, my wife is not white.
Oddly enough, even though I disagree with this, it leads to a point in favor of open source:
An accountant isn't hired to learn software. An accountant doesn't get a bonus for learning software. An accountant only gets a bonus for doing their job. The same goes for secretaries, architects, documentation specialists, admin assistants, etc...
Given that scenario, you only want to change the workflow when it is necessary. Newer versions of Microsoft tools usually change workflow, because the way that you get to features changes as features become more complicated. And if a change becomes mandatory because the OS changes or is a security risk, the cost can be astronomical (imagine delay in an SEC filing, or before calculating corporate taxes).
With open source, the version of the program they are using can be recompiled or fixed to work with new OS versions. Instead of causing a panic across all departments in the company, the panic happens in IT, where they are used to it.
And that means that the other departments can do what they are paid to do - maintain and increase the revenue stream, while the IT department does what it is paid to do - support their efforts.
Actually, it has some very good uses in secure government contractor environments, if you only use it for classified documents.
One of the biggest hassles in that environment is making sure that the documents have been stored properly at the end of the day (locked in special cabinets), and disposed of properly. Add scanners at the copier and trash areas, and you have an effective way of detecting an attempt to improperly dispose of documents.
Line the secure document repository with a blocking material, and you only need to have someone walk down the aisle of cubicles with a scanner at the end of the day, or wherever uncleared personnel are present (especially if you can code the document paper to the dozens of clearance types)
Inventory parts used for specific projects, add scanners, and this could reduce the cost of implementing a SCIF by thousands.
Actually, my outsourced Japanese car was made in America, and ends up supporting more American jobs than my previous "American" cars
I don't think that the problem with "American" software is the cost of American Programmers. It is the incompetence of some American companies. Outsourcing work doesn't make a better product cheaper - it allows the company to make more mistakes, allowing management to survive a little longer, which is the same thing that "outsourcing" labor for making, say, a Ford Escort does. Seen from that light, your job is no safer than mine, in fact it is less safe - once the products start to fail, you will be blamed, because your good will is irrelevant - as long as you have less disposable EU or Dollars than I do, you aren't going to matter economically as much as I do, because they can't make as much profit from you.
Oh, and "protectionism" is what forced Toyota to open American plants. And I don't see that much of an increase in cost from them manufacturing in America - they cost as much as an American car manufactured abroad. The cheapness of your programming hasn't reduced the cost of any of the items I buy. It has reduced my salary - but that would have been reduced once the "Internet" bubble burst anyways.
Actually, it is more like this: "there is no aspect of life that some group doesn't desire to have controlled". Governments only follow the desires of the special interest groups.
Parenting is a scary job. In general, I have found that parents who accept their mortality try to teach their children to survive in the world. Parents who don't accept their mortality try to make the world safe for their children.
Those who seek to modify government are usually the latter - the former concentrate on making their children stronger.
You don't always get a choice as a developer. Sometimes upper management forces you to have one GUI for all machines.
The rational for this is that most training and user manuals contain pictures of the UI. If you have five different interface looks, then you have five different pictures for each UI feature illustrated. It eventually gets to five different manuals, and QA on five manuals - which drives small companies out of the market of cross-platform compatibility. Yes, you can argue that manuals should just reference the User Manual for the OS, but then you also have to keep up with the latest OS stupidity. The company I work for has one documentation specialist, and she is also QA, and she is also assigned to use the product for testing at remote sites (she decided to stop being a developer to do the testing). Everyone one our project does at least three jobs, so no one can take over her job. The result is we show pictures for Windows 2000 (XP potentially has a different look-and-feel), and tell users that the actual product may look different on other machines. Would it really make you feel better that we don't even provide a customized manual for your OS? Or would it make you feel better that we don't customize for the OS?
Oh, go on, we know you want to say something about really "personal" appliances...:-)
And with Bluetooth, you aren't just limited to one place.... you can finally have rhythm...
Now, think of a more responsive prosthetic penile implant, or prosthetic breasts....
And there is the problem. I have worked with many skilled immigrants. America is great because we attract the most ambitious and skilled people from all over the world. And they make jobs for us, the children of immigrants, or the displaced children of natives.
And if those people decide to go back home, they take our culture with them, making the world more like ours, in what they don't wish to live without that they learned here.
But they won't learn that if the job is outsourced. They won't come here to learn to love America. They won't see a human face to our international machinations. They will think of us as not able to compete with them, and their culture.
This will promote terrorism, not destroy it. Because you don't learn to love America by hearing how we have intervened to protect our interests. You learn to love America by knowing that we are human too. That we do care about other people. That even if we are crude, we give our hearts openly and fully. Do you really think that "we hired you because you're cheaper" warms the heart of those workers in India? Many in the article acknowledge that they will be screwed by us next. That doesn't seem like promoting international love. It sounds more like promoting distrust.
Actually, many consumers in America do care - and some of the trade acknowledges it. Internet Textile trade brokerages have their suppliers answer surveys with questions like "are your workers free to leave the facility at any time"?
If we didn't care about these things, no one would ask. But there are trade-offs - it is easy for me to be moral, the cost is low. I can afford enough food that I diet. When you have to choose between shoes and eating for a day (and yes, the poor in Areas like Camden NJ do have to choose that), what will you choose? Will you starve for it? Will you starve your child for it?
And as for poverty traps, I lived in one - programming offered a way out. So did engineering, for some of my friends. The rest choose the military - because "getting out" also involves passing for middle class, and that involves a safe place to learn those skills. Programming was safe because my ignorance of customs could be passed off for "geekiness", not because I didn't know what clothes to wear, or that you were expected to relax at night instead of taking turns watching for the burglars that would come at night to take whatever little you had.
If you care so much about those areas, are you in one? Are you a teacher of the poor? Do you send money to your family so they may survive? If so, good. But you sound like one of those "do gooders" that dissappear the first time you see rats running through the streets, or your car gets its window busted, or you enter a house where the temperature can only get barely above freezing. Because that is only bad in America - it is worse elsewhere.
I remember being in a bid creation meeting discussing pricing on a service contract for a very big company, and I told him that the product was scalable - then I showed him what it meant.
It was very interesting to see him say "Wow! so that is what it means when I tell the customer that (name of product withheld) is scalable!".
By the way - don't confuse the goals of the military with the goals of the politicians. Most military people I have worked with are not warmongers. Nor are they in any way like the typical paranoid fears given in popular media.
On the other hand, I did work for a commercial web development company that encouraged weapons in the workplace, and had death threats between employees. And had an ex-partner call in a bomb-threat in a fit of anger (he didn't mean it though).
I am glad that the military is in charge instead of them. And oddly enough, none of the bad ones at that company ever were in the military.
Hmm... the typical comment is that everything that we create for constructive purposes will ve used for destructive purposes... This actually seems a worthy goal too...
The community I am moving into (in Manassas VA, USA) is including 144KBPS in the Home Owner's fee. (For those of you who don't have these, think of a local, sanctioned government with powers not limited by the constitution, no oversight of votes, no appeal of decisions, and the rights to freeze your bank accounts for not paying a fine for not cutting your grass) For $99 a month, I will get trash removal twice a week, cable TV with ~40 channels, snow removal and 144 KBPS connection. For $5 more, I get 1 static IP. For $39.99 more, I get 1MBPS.
In my current area, Sterling, VA, USA, I pay $118 a month, get 144KBPS (no options for higher bandwidth), and 3 static IPs. Oh, and I still have to pay $69.00 a month HOA, for trash removal, parking lot repair biyearly, and a community pool that is rarely open.
Around here, new developments either offer broadband or the ability to use a golf course once a month with their fees. To contrast, the smallest home you can get costs $240,000.00, and, to provide a measure of comparison with another reader, the average teacher makes $3334.00 a month (~$40,000 a year)
There is also this: if it doesn't have a line-item in the accounting books, it doesn't exist. So if the costs aren't listed in the accounting, they don't exist.
As an example: I worked at a company that had such horrendous conditions that workers left after 3 months. The interview process cost the hourly wages of a manager and three senior engineers for 4 hours a week, continuously. But since those costs weren't tracked, there was no associated cost for the conditions.
I'd guess the same thing is true in outsourcing: there are no accounting buckets for the telecommunications costs, the costs of getting around local laws in other countries, etc...
And yes, this was the same as the dot coms - with no raw material costs, there was no trackable "per-piece" cost, so the cost of designing the software was assumed as a one-time cost, and after that there would be pure profit, for ever and ever.
Actually, you should have added that excessive use of energy requires oil - if you are in the United States, which has a real problem with the concept of nuclear energy. And the Internet has increased that a whole lot, since most consumers of the services now have a computer and monitor.
Heck, my cousin and aunt now use the internet all the time, and they were technophobes before the mid 90's...
Slashdot Mirror
Umm... no, that wouldn't be true. A long time ago I worked for a defense contractor. The government offered any of us who would volunteer to go double-pay plus bonuses to do so.
Some people asked what would happen if we were captured. They said we wouldn't ever be in the hands of the enemy, even if the enemy found us. No one volunteered.
Honestly though, with the state of the field nowdays, the military would be better off doing what I had seen. The military offers much better health, retirement and survivor benefits than many programming companies nowdays.
Heck - a commercial company I worked for ordered a girl with relatives in the PLO, who had been born in Syria, to travel to Israel with a rushed passport, with equipment that she couldn't let leave her sight... Fortunately her coworkers convinced the company that that was a good way to lose their equipment... just to put this all into perspective.
...and yet another way to give your brain a workout - try to teach something that you know to an absolute beginner. It is the only way to expose the holes in your knowledge. Just be prepared to learn how little you really know...
Learn a new field, and apply it to a field you already know. This will allow you to look at the field you know from a different viewpoint, and will allow you to realise what you don't know, which enables you to learn the subject better. Here is an example of a few fields that have that synergy:
Carpentry -> Cake Decorating
Musical Composition -> Database Design
City Planning/Architecture -> Software Engineering (In case you didn't know, this is where Design Patterns came from)
There are many others waiting to be discovered.
Don't think about the cost of the Microsoft OS - think about how it drives hardware obsolescence - the average user only buys a new machine because they need a new version of Microsoft Office, which needs a new version of the latest Microsoft OS, which needs a faster CPU, and more memory. (Or, more recently, getting the latest Microsoft OS because they can't keep up with the patches).
This drives computer sales - versus what would happen with Linux - users would still buy better peripherals, but Intel wouldn't be where it is now - because the peripherals would use embedded processors, and Intel doesn't rule there. Memory wouldn't sell as much, because without OS bloat, we wouldn't need as much memory. So in summary, I'd say that Microsoft does serve a purpose - marketing of new computers.
When I lived in Camden, New Jersey, we had problems with toxic waste. Dogs and cats were most susceptible - all of the animals we raised died of cancer. There were mutations amongst most of the wild animals, and birth defects amongst the people. It has died down by now - most of the dumping of waste stopped in the early 80's, when the dumpers got too scared of travelling into the ghetto to dump their waste.
When my family got out of there about 5 years ago, the incidents of tumors and cancer had gone down significantly. I have my suspicions that some of the waste was dispersed by the birds that ate the contaminated animals and scattered their shit outside of the area - which is probably slowly happening over there too.
I've written commercial web sites and training tools, and it is funny how much people forget.
I remember having to code for IE4, Netscape 4 and Netscape 6. IE matched the HTML and CSS standards a whole lot better than Netscape 4. Netscape 6 came along, and it was even better at CSS... but then they changed the Javascript engine, forcing try... catch blocks, and Netscape 4 forced that Javascript had no try... catch blocks. I had to write self-modifying code to get anything to run on them. Opera and Konquerer may be better, but as of the last time I tried them, they didn't have much better scripting capabilities. And unless you are going to suck up bandwidth, that is the only way to do input validation (or you could allow me to run this harmless Java or executable program on your machine... what? Don't you trust me?). The only real option ends up being Macromedia Flash - yup, that is even farther from "open source".
Netscape started the same thing you are accusing Microsoft of with it's physical formatting codes - that was the first corruption of HTML. And that is why I didn't cry for poor Netscape when Microsoft did the same FU manuevoir to them that they did to other browser makers. The real problem with Microsoft was that they were too stupid to live - sending memos out about illegal acts... geez. Now Japan has raided their offices, and counting Microsoft's arrogance in America, I wouldn't be surprised if they found more illegal activities than they were looking for.
If you have another major (which is likely considering that you are reading this), try IP law - there are many firms in the DC area that hire IP lawyers. Of course, you have to be at the toward the head of your class to be hired, but that is true in any field.
My sister-in-law's ex-lawyer took a job with an Insurance firm - there is good (not great) paying work there.
Alternatively, consider working in the court systems in a place like Camden, NJ where I come from. The pay isn't great, but a house only costs $15,000.
Just say that you completed the job. That is exactly what you did - you worked until the project was finished, it just wasn't shipped. If they check with your company, and you were laid off, then that is exactly what they will say - since, technically, you completed the job.
If you studied anything in the meantime, I would suggest that you say that you were increasing your job skills, and state what skills you were trying to increase.
Above all, be confident and focused. One thing that helps is to use the male "I'm interested and listening" pose - head forward, pointed at the person speaking, making eye contact. It helps if you enter the interview with the attitude that the interviewer is partnered with you in the effort to get you hired - that way you'll ask the right questions like "What do I need to show you so that you will know that I am the right candidate for the job" and "Here is how my previous experience and knowledge applies to the position you will be hiring me for".
If you find that there is no way that you can fulfill the job, ask for the interviewer's card if you know of someone who could fill it. This will give you good will with the company, and with the person you recommend. It will also give you at least one inside contact, and allow the interviewer to know that you are professional and you won't attempt to dent their car in the parking lot. (Don't laugh - I've worked next to some people who carried loaded weapons and threatened to kill their co-workers).
Agreed - but for the sake of the readers who have no experience with other Human languages, I will offer the following:
If you know an object-oriented language like C++ or Java, try learning Prolog. Then see if you don't suddenly find yourself writing programs differently, and integrating pattern-matching concepts differently in your programs.
It all translates (eventually) to Assembly, so there should be nothing Prolog can do that C++ can't do. And you still contain the same brain, and the same knowledge of Computer Science, and you don't think only in C++, so there shouldn't be a difference there either. But there is.
When I worked at LCC, southern and northern Indians found it easier to communicate in English. When English is used, it is a way around the language tyranny of ruling groups, and allows the preservation of local languages, since everyone can agree that their local language is superior to English, but English is better than "that other language" supported by the powers-that-be.
Geeks being frowned upon seems to be a white thing - I have had long conversations with my friend who came from Taiwan as to why people in America find physical ability more important than intellectual activity. And when I lived in the ghetto, my "geekiness" was not as much of a problem as when I moved into suburbia.
Oddly enough, most of the white woman who were interested in me were already married - as you can guess, my wife is not white.
Oddly enough, even though I disagree with this, it leads to a point in favor of open source:
An accountant isn't hired to learn software. An accountant doesn't get a bonus for learning software. An accountant only gets a bonus for doing their job. The same goes for secretaries, architects, documentation specialists, admin assistants, etc...
Given that scenario, you only want to change the workflow when it is necessary. Newer versions of Microsoft tools usually change workflow, because the way that you get to features changes as features become more complicated. And if a change becomes mandatory because the OS changes or is a security risk, the cost can be astronomical (imagine delay in an SEC filing, or before calculating corporate taxes).
With open source, the version of the program they are using can be recompiled or fixed to work with new OS versions. Instead of causing a panic across all departments in the company, the panic happens in IT, where they are used to it.
And that means that the other departments can do what they are paid to do - maintain and increase the revenue stream, while the IT department does what it is paid to do - support their efforts.
Actually, it has some very good uses in secure government contractor environments, if you only use it for classified documents.
One of the biggest hassles in that environment is making sure that the documents have been stored properly at the end of the day (locked in special cabinets), and disposed of properly. Add scanners at the copier and trash areas, and you have an effective way of detecting an attempt to improperly dispose of documents.
Line the secure document repository with a blocking material, and you only need to have someone walk down the aisle of cubicles with a scanner at the end of the day, or wherever uncleared personnel are present (especially if you can code the document paper to the dozens of clearance types)
Inventory parts used for specific projects, add scanners, and this could reduce the cost of implementing a SCIF by thousands.
Actually, my outsourced Japanese car was made in America, and ends up supporting more American jobs than my previous "American" cars
I don't think that the problem with "American" software is the cost of American Programmers. It is the incompetence of some American companies. Outsourcing work doesn't make a better product cheaper - it allows the company to make more mistakes, allowing management to survive a little longer, which is the same thing that "outsourcing" labor for making, say, a Ford Escort does. Seen from that light, your job is no safer than mine, in fact it is less safe - once the products start to fail, you will be blamed, because your good will is irrelevant - as long as you have less disposable EU or Dollars than I do, you aren't going to matter economically as much as I do, because they can't make as much profit from you.
Oh, and "protectionism" is what forced Toyota to open American plants. And I don't see that much of an increase in cost from them manufacturing in America - they cost as much as an American car manufactured abroad. The cheapness of your programming hasn't reduced the cost of any of the items I buy. It has reduced my salary - but that would have been reduced once the "Internet" bubble burst anyways.
Actually, it is more like this: "there is no aspect of life that some group doesn't desire to have controlled". Governments only follow the desires of the special interest groups.
Parenting is a scary job. In general, I have found that parents who accept their mortality try to teach their children to survive in the world. Parents who don't accept their mortality try to make the world safe for their children.
Those who seek to modify government are usually the latter - the former concentrate on making their children stronger.
You don't always get a choice as a developer. Sometimes upper management forces you to have one GUI for all machines.
The rational for this is that most training and user manuals contain pictures of the UI. If you have five different interface looks, then you have five different pictures for each UI feature illustrated. It eventually gets to five different manuals, and QA on five manuals - which drives small companies out of the market of cross-platform compatibility. Yes, you can argue that manuals should just reference the User Manual for the OS, but then you also have to keep up with the latest OS stupidity. The company I work for has one documentation specialist, and she is also QA, and she is also assigned to use the product for testing at remote sites (she decided to stop being a developer to do the testing). Everyone one our project does at least three jobs, so no one can take over her job. The result is we show pictures for Windows 2000 (XP potentially has a different look-and-feel), and tell users that the actual product may look different on other machines. Would it really make you feel better that we don't even provide a customized manual for your OS? Or would it make you feel better that we don't customize for the OS?
Oh, go on, we know you want to say something about really "personal" appliances... :-)
And with Bluetooth, you aren't just limited to one place.... you can finally have rhythm...
Now, think of a more responsive prosthetic penile implant, or prosthetic breasts....
And there is the problem. I have worked with many skilled immigrants. America is great because we attract the most ambitious and skilled people from all over the world. And they make jobs for us, the children of immigrants, or the displaced children of natives.
And if those people decide to go back home, they take our culture with them, making the world more like ours, in what they don't wish to live without that they learned here.
But they won't learn that if the job is outsourced. They won't come here to learn to love America. They won't see a human face to our international machinations. They will think of us as not able to compete with them, and their culture.
This will promote terrorism, not destroy it. Because you don't learn to love America by hearing how we have intervened to protect our interests. You learn to love America by knowing that we are human too. That we do care about other people. That even if we are crude, we give our hearts openly and fully. Do you really think that "we hired you because you're cheaper" warms the heart of those workers in India? Many in the article acknowledge that they will be screwed by us next. That doesn't seem like promoting international love. It sounds more like promoting distrust.
Actually, many consumers in America do care - and some of the trade acknowledges it. Internet Textile trade brokerages have their suppliers answer surveys with questions like "are your workers free to leave the facility at any time"?
If we didn't care about these things, no one would ask. But there are trade-offs - it is easy for me to be moral, the cost is low. I can afford enough food that I diet. When you have to choose between shoes and eating for a day (and yes, the poor in Areas like Camden NJ do have to choose that), what will you choose? Will you starve for it? Will you starve your child for it?
And as for poverty traps, I lived in one - programming offered a way out. So did engineering, for some of my friends. The rest choose the military - because "getting out" also involves passing for middle class, and that involves a safe place to learn those skills. Programming was safe because my ignorance of customs could be passed off for "geekiness", not because I didn't know what clothes to wear, or that you were expected to relax at night instead of taking turns watching for the burglars that would come at night to take whatever little you had.
If you care so much about those areas, are you in one? Are you a teacher of the poor? Do you send money to your family so they may survive? If so, good. But you sound like one of those "do gooders" that dissappear the first time you see rats running through the streets, or your car gets its window busted, or you enter a house where the temperature can only get barely above freezing. Because that is only bad in America - it is worse elsewhere.
I remember being in a bid creation meeting discussing pricing on a service contract for a very big company, and I told him that the product was scalable - then I showed him what it meant.
It was very interesting to see him say "Wow! so that is what it means when I tell the customer that (name of product withheld) is scalable!".
By the way - don't confuse the goals of the military with the goals of the politicians. Most military people I have worked with are not warmongers. Nor are they in any way like the typical paranoid fears given in popular media.
On the other hand, I did work for a commercial web development company that encouraged weapons in the workplace, and had death threats between employees. And had an ex-partner call in a bomb-threat in a fit of anger (he didn't mean it though).
I am glad that the military is in charge instead of them. And oddly enough, none of the bad ones at that company ever were in the military.
Hmm... the typical comment is that everything that we create for constructive purposes will ve used for destructive purposes... This actually seems a worthy goal too...
The community I am moving into (in Manassas VA, USA) is including 144KBPS in the Home Owner's fee. (For those of you who don't have these, think of a local, sanctioned government with powers not limited by the constitution, no oversight of votes, no appeal of decisions, and the rights to freeze your bank accounts for not paying a fine for not cutting your grass) For $99 a month, I will get trash removal twice a week, cable TV with ~40 channels, snow removal and 144 KBPS connection. For $5 more, I get 1 static IP. For $39.99 more, I get 1MBPS.
In my current area, Sterling, VA, USA, I pay $118 a month, get 144KBPS (no options for higher bandwidth), and 3 static IPs.
Oh, and I still have to pay $69.00 a month HOA, for trash removal, parking lot repair biyearly, and a community pool that is rarely open.
Around here, new developments either offer broadband or the ability to use a golf course once a month with their fees. To contrast, the smallest home you can get costs $240,000.00, and, to provide a measure of comparison with another reader, the average teacher makes $3334.00 a month (~$40,000 a year)
There is also this: if it doesn't have a line-item in the accounting books, it doesn't exist. So if the costs aren't listed in the accounting, they don't exist.
As an example: I worked at a company that had such horrendous conditions that workers left after 3 months. The interview process cost the hourly wages of a manager and three senior engineers for 4 hours a week, continuously. But since those costs weren't tracked, there was no associated cost for the conditions.
I'd guess the same thing is true in outsourcing: there are no accounting buckets for the telecommunications costs, the costs of getting around local laws in other countries, etc...
And yes, this was the same as the dot coms - with no raw material costs, there was no trackable "per-piece" cost, so the cost of designing the software was assumed as a one-time cost, and after that there would be pure profit, for ever and ever.
Actually, you should have added that excessive use of energy requires oil - if you are in the United States, which has a real problem with the concept of nuclear energy. And the Internet has increased that a whole lot, since most consumers of the services now have a computer and monitor.
Heck, my cousin and aunt now use the internet all the time, and they were technophobes before the mid 90's...