I think it's a great idea for GWB to give NASA's manned program a serious goal once again. The fly in the ointment is that nobody believes he's serious. Reagan talked about advancing in space, GHB talked about going to Mars, but it was all hot air. Clinton didn't bother to go through the motions.
Why was JFK serious? It wasn't just bragging rights. Up through Ike's time, most US college grads had a degree from which department? Liberal Arts. The USSR had gotten over Stalin, it was energetic, and it was pumping out more math, hard science, and engineering grads than we were. We were coasting on wartime technical advances. Kennedy needed something that would get Americans off their soft asses and get more than the 3 Rs and attorneys out of their education system.
Going to the moon was a means to an end, and boy did it work
So, what is GWB's goal? Take out the trash overseas? Nope, he was less active on terrorism than Clinton 'til events forced themselves on him. The errosion of our technical or manufacturing base. Nope, he hasn't lifted a finger while jobs and plants continue to shift overseas at a gallop. Education, social programs? Only the Medicare drug bill, which the AARP wanted, and if our senior citizens do nothing else, it's go to the polls.
The only thing GWB cared about was tax cuts aimed at the upper 1%. Estate taxes, capital gains taxes, all gone, and whatever chump change you saved wasn't the goal. George got what he really wanted, and if it hadn't been for 9/11 happening on his watch, he'd be completely out of ideas, just like his old man.
The fact is, the ISS and Shuttle fleet has sucked up almost every dollar from a budget that Congress has been chopping for 20 years. NASA was throwing water balloons at Mars for years because there was no money to do it right. The current landers and orbiters are working because NASA chopped or delayed virtually every other planetary probe project to come up with the cash to do it half way right, and then they prayed.
As much as I'd like to think that NASA will get a budget to match it's current mission, plus the extra to do the spadework to go to the Moon and Mars years hence, I don't think George is going to call in any chits to do it, and no one else does, either.
500,000 Toman = 5,000,000 rials? It's been a while since I last went dickering at the Isfahan bazaar (120r = US$1, that long ago) so I'm a little rusty on the monetary jargon. This is a job for.... Freenet! However, I have no idea what the cost or availability of 802.11b equipment is out your way... or if it's so heavily regulated, it's besides the point.
Quite a few older PCI Powermacs can be coaxed to run OS X 10.1.x using XPostFacto and some patience. Won't support XGrid for now, but the other free suspects will work.
It is better in the long term as well to hire the best workers for the job. Where will it take us? No where but a situation in which the best workers have the jobs they are best suited for. Nothing wrong with that.
Fine brother, you win. Get back to us with an update after it's your ass that's been gored.
In response to my question as to why US employers are screwing American workers by shipping even high value-added work overseas, you said:
Foreign workers are better at some jobs, that is all there is to it.
I'd say it's because the employers are cheap screws, typically all to willing to jump at percived short term gain and without a clue or care where it takes us. Well, it's a hard fact of life that neither Adam Smith nor Karl Marx are the last word on anything, as long as US citizens still hold the right to piss, moan, and vote.
I don't think American workers are lousy, but in essence their employers do... why else do they slip their workers the weenie? You seem to be missing my point. Those jobs that can be exported are being exported, low and high end. The ones that aren't are by and large require face-to-face customer interaction or hands-on delivery of service. The added joy there is that many of these have been getting filled by undocumented alien migrants. Will the work force adjust? Probably, but there's no crystal ball to tell how or when.
In the meantime, if all of this is driven to maximize shareholder value, why stop at the shop floor or office cubes? Is - say - Carly Fiorina adding so much value vis-a-vis her compensation that the shareholders wouldn't see some extra dividends by shucking her for a German - or hell, Indian - executive paid at their typical rates?
Re: the unemployment figures. Sorry, the stats don't back you up. Peaks and valleys of US unemployment since '61: 1961 - 6.5% 1969 - 3.5% 1971 - 5.9% 1973 - 5.0% 1975 - 8.5% 1979 - 5.5% 1982 - 9.5% 1989 - 5.2% 1992 - 7.0% 2000 - 3.9% now - 5.9%
Your view of economics is level 101. True, it's not a zero sum game. Increased movement of money has benefits. At issue are the edge conditions during radical labor market shifts. For now, wages are moving overseas for certain high value added specialties much faster than the US labor force can adjust for it. Unlike the previous shifts in textiles, automobiles, and electronics manufacturing, there's no new "next thing" ready to move on to. Previously, it was pretty obvious that IT was the next thing. There probably will be a next thing, but it's not on the horizon.
The high value added work leaves the US labor force doing what? Selling real estate, imported goods, or luxury services fewer people will be able to afford. It's the classic macro conundrum. Every employer wants someone else to pay the salaries that can afford their product or service. Capital is now flying around so rapidly, it's difficult to settle into a new macro (or micro) equilibrium.
Well, there aren't many hacks available for services running on MacOS 9, I don't think even a "Ping Of Death" DoS attack. There's a theoretical posibility of sniffing passwords from AppleTalk over IP, FTP, HTTP, or POP (but you're not running a mail server), so that someone could get some files or relay a little spam.
However, this is small potatoes, easily fixed. About the worst anyone can do is fill your file system and/or hang the machine. Since there's no root to root, it would take a very sophisticated exploit to bash a stack and really own it, and obviously no one rose to the challenge.
US Never Had Social Democrat Govt.
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Exporting Myself?
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· Score: 1
The basic assumption in the US is that people are naturally lazy. Hence, you're looked on as a loser and a social leech while on the dole, and social welfare benefits are minimal. In fact, what had been available before was considered too generous by many, so that now there is a lifetime limit of 4 years on aid for unemployed parents with children. Unions provide pension plans and limited unemployment assistance, but union members are only about 10% of the US work force, and unions have never had the sort of legal status they do in Sweden or Germany, for instance.
I think your impression is largely correct. Take a look at the US tax man's view of taxable income (and note typical attitudes from the site hosting the figures). The top 50% can maintain a comfortable lifestyle, especially if they live in an area where housing is cheap, a major consideration. The top 25% are very comfortable in all but the most expensive cities, and the top 10% are the envy of the world. The top 25% usually enjoy private health benefits that a socialized system can't afford to match.
If you're in the bottom 50%, the Portugese start to look pretty lavish, but the poorest of these people are out in the vast rural hinderlands, or the racial ghettos of large cities, and so out of sight to everyone else.
If you wonder how Americans stand for this situation, it's a perception issue: When polled, most Americans have (or are giving) the mistaken impression that they personally are in the top 25%. Those that know they aren't assume they soon will be. That runs through all but the most beaten down, the idea that someday they're going to "make it". As a result, efforts to make them comfortable where they are seen as taking away their shot at the big time. Ergo, the Swedish model is distained by many.
I realise the original poster isn't asking about India specifically, and in fact would probably prefer a job in western Europe, Japan, or Australia, all of which are possible and desirable with a bit of preparation. But hell, lets go for the challenge, since virtually no one saw this post the first time I tried it.
Let's say you've decided to follow the jobs, and want to seek out a software development position in India. As it turns out, there are a number of resources [monsterindia.com] on line to assist you in your quest. A slashdot poster has provided links regarding visas [slashdot.org] , and a little searching on Google can turn up info [google.com] for the low down on the cities you might want to work in.
The upshot: theoretically, it's possible. Now for some reality.
Visas: The Indian government slots visitors in order of preference: persons of Indian hertitage, other persons, Pakistanis and Afghans.
If your ancestry traces back to India, there is a special visa program for you. It's assumed that you've picked up some skills out in the world, and India wants to encourage you to bring 'em home to develop the nation.
If you are of other nationalities, a work visa is available. When applying, you must present documentation from an employer that they will be responsible for you. Good luck on that. If you're bringing a lot of capital and a business plan, well, that's another matter. Your visa must be renewed every year and a half or so.
If you are Pakistani or Afghan, you're due for a lot more scrutiny, and you'll have to submit considerable additional documentation.
Work Environment: Universities in India are pumping out a lot of tech grads, and there aren't yet enough jobs for all of them, although regional labor shortages do occur. Ergo, there's a lot of competition for jobs, so unless you were lead architect on the NT or Linux kernels in your last position (and if you are, you aren't getting outsourced, yet), don't think you're a shoo in. In fact, for an employer [rekha.com] to even go to the bother of hiring you, you'll need to show a truly sterling CV. After all, it's a major business risk and pain in the ass for them to bring you in country in the first place. As an aside, there seems to be opportunity for Japanese speakers now that firms are seeking to tap the demand for outsourcing from Japan. You'll working in a 1.5m square three sided cube, if you're lucky. Some up and coming companies [eximsoft.com] claim to respect that employees might have a life beyond the office, which should tell you what the norm is. When a contract is finished, you may find your ass back out on the street very quickly, just like in the States, and the social safety net assumes you've got family to lean on. You do not want to go broke in India.
Pay Packet: Ranging from INR130000 (US$2900) for a web developer with 2 years experience, to INR1400000 (US$30000) for a senior project manager with an MS. Yes, the scales are down a bit from the OECD, but pretty good for India, so with the addition of your current nest egg, you shouldn't have too much problem maintaining an Indian "middle class" lifestyle. Just keep in mind that Indian middle class priorities aren't always what you're used to. In addition, you aren't getting much credit for Social Security (USA only), and your ability to stash cash for retirement back in the OECD may suck, particularly if you're American.
Renting: As a foreigner, you can't buy property. There is a wide variety of rental properties, ranging from mansions and modern high rise c
You make some good points that computers are still hard to use by their current nature. However, you're confusing the previous poster with phone support. S/he was working a sales floor, dealing with new users coming in without their computer, and unable to either retain the detailed troubleshooting methods given until they got back to the home/office, or use care when diving into the guts of an OS. The poster TRIED to help, and got his ass FRIED for it by finger pointing customers. The subsequent simplification of the poster's tech support wasn't lazy, it was protecting his job.
This. The two robovac-sized Deep Space probes piggybacked on the Mars Polar Explorer, and rode their aeroshells all the way down to 400mph (640kph) landings near the south pole, as intended. A small spike probe was supposed to continue another foot or so into the surface for soil sampling.
A neat concept. Unfortunately, I think the design team was visualizing the hard pack on a ski slope, or sand dunes in the Mojave, rather than the -100C, ice impregnated, rock hard soil the probes actual hit... basically a sandy glacier. The JPL post-mortem report (http://sunnyday.mit.edu/accidents/mpl_report_1.pd f - 400KB) ripped the project up one side and down the other for poor planning and testing, and virtually non-existant program management. Hell, if the project lead had so much as pitched a prototype off the roof onto the sidewalk at JPL, she would have had a pretty good approximation of what they were in for, IMO.
The upshot was that the project was doomed to failure on the shoestring budget.
Let's say you've decided to follow the jobs, and want to seek out a software development position in India. As it turns out, there are a number of resources on line to assist you in your quest. A slashdot poster has provided links regarding visas, and a little searching on Google can turn up info for the low down on the cities you might want to work in.
The upshot: theoretically, it's possible. Now for some reality.
Visas: The Indian government slots visitors in order of preference: persons of Indian hertitage, other persons, Pakistanis and Afghans.
If your ancestry traces back to India, there is a special visa program for you. It's assumed that you've picked up some skills out in the world, and India wants to encourage you to bring 'em home to develop the nation.
If you are of other nationalities, a work visa is available. When applying, you must present documentation from an employer that they will be responsible for you. Good luck on that. If you're bringing a lot of capital and a business plan, well, that's another matter. Your visa must be renewed every year and a half or so.
If you are Pakistani or Afghan, it's obvious they don't trust you, and you'll have to submit considerable additional documentation.
Work Environment: Universities in India are pumping out a lot of tech grads, and there aren't yet enough jobs for all of them, although regional labor shortages do occur. Ergo, there's a lot of competition for jobs, so unless you were lead architect on the NT or Linux kernels in your last position (and if you are, you aren't getting outsourced, yet), don't think you're a shoo in. In fact, for an employer to even go to the bother of hiring you, you'll need to show a truly sterling CV. After all, it's a major business risk and pain in the ass for them to bring you in country in the first place. As an aside, there seems to be opportunity for Japanese speakers now that firms are seeking to tap the demand for outsourcing from Japan. You'll working in a 1.5m square three sided cube, if you're lucky. Some up and coming companies claim to respect that employees might have a life beyond the office, which should tell you what the norm is. When a contract is finished, you may find your ass back out on the street very quickly, just like in the States, and the social safety net assumes you've got family to lean on. You do not want to go broke in India.
Renting: As a foreigner, you can't buy property. There is a wide variety of rental properties, ranging from mansions and modern high rise condos you couldn't afford on a San Jose salary, to the very pits. You really need to do your homework on this. Even though you may be working on an Indian pay scale, land lords will assume you're loaded, so it would be a major plus to bring an Indian friend to help you negotiate.
Getting On Line: The Indian government has only started moving to open up the infrastructure. In the meantime, brother, welcome back to dialup, and it ain't pretty. Getting regular phone service enabled can require several trips to the telecom office, with a side trip to the switching station to introduce yourself to the technicians. Getting dialup on that same line means more money, and more delays. Count on the link being noisy and unreliable. ISDN is available in some areas, but usually isn't linked to a TCP trunk(!). Switched 56k and up is available in some locations, but even 56k is well over US$1000/month. This might be an ideal environment to start an 802.11b freenet, but the equipment
The Slimp3 Squeezebox is functionally identical, except for the lack of an FM tuner and built-in amp/speakers. Since the Squeezebox is intended to be a component of a home stereo system, and such a tiny amp/speaker system is going to sound like shit, I don't think this is a problem for the Squeezebox.
The Slimp3 server is Perl- rather than Java-based, and has a couple of years of development behind it, as well as a community of 3rd party add-ons and hacks.
On an ergonomic note, when plugged into a stereo system, the Squeezebox' ports face backwards, making easy to hide the wires. The HomePod's ports face sideways, so that the cables are going to tend to hang out for all to see.
I'm hoping the Slimp3 guys have enough margin built into their pricing that they can afford to meet the delta if their sales start to plumet. I don't really buy into some Slashdot poster claiming they'll wait until the HomePod comes out on the basis of $50. Too much like all of the people waiting for OS X to run on their eMachine box from Walmart. Look at it this way: pay $50 more for a mature product, or "save" $50 to beta test a $250 toy.
Prehaps biological science hasn't advanced to the point where it can detect race. That's fine, because sociologists and anthropologists can certainly recognize it.
Granted, so lets not treat "race" with any more weight than it's due. Sociology and Anthopology are "softer" sciences because their theses are more difficult to analyze by experiment. It may be because we're currently too stupid to come up with the right tests, but let's not assume we already know what the results will be.
Really ? So phenotype has nothing to do with genotype ? Offspring of Africans are white then, I take it ? Their genes don't cause them to be black ? Wow ! I learnt something new today !
It's a fact, "race" is a cultural label without scientific basis. As you have so astutely noted, people pass on physical attributes thru their genes. While Celts and Hottentots have superficial differences in appearance, there isn't a test or series of tests you can run to conclusively tell that a DNA sample is from one or the other. There are some familial mitochondrial DNAs, tendencies for sickle cell, dairy intollerance, or Vitimin D deficiencies that can hint at an ancestrial homeland, but nothing you can count on.
After all of that, I'm still pissed off at offshoring to low wage locations. But for consistency, let's have stockholders offshore some high cost executives or board members.
Nobody complained about outsourcing to Ireland in the 80's & 90's because there wasn't enough to notice. If they don't complain about Russia or Israel now, it's 'cause they don't KNOW about it yet.
Tangent: Based on a subcontractor's recomendation, I purchased a copy of NoMagic's UML tool, Magic Draw Pro. Only after the fact did I learn that their Denver office is merely a sales and executive site. All the value added work is in Lithuania and Thailand.
Out Of Warranty, So Crack The Case
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"iPod's Dirty Secret"
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· Score: 2, Insightful
As you failed to note, the iPod in question was already out of warranty. Ergo, if the customer wasn't a rube and an asshole to boot, he'd crack the case and spend $50 on a replacement battery.
As a rule, consumer electronics factory repair prices have been at or near replacement cost for all but high end gear (ie. >$2000US) for years. Consumers with enough brains to program their VCR who want to flog their gear a little longer have long been buying DIY books. As others have pointed out, Google is the friend of modern man.
Verily, brother. 600+ posts, yet it seems you and I were the only ones who noticed. I guess the rest of them are too busy rolling on the floor over MONAD...
Granted, a large institution like the Army is necessary to fight the major wars, since the Marines are intended to be a smaller light infantary force. However, in places where the Marines have been employed to do the Army's job, they've done a better job of it.
eastern flank in Korean War,
I Corps in Vietnam,
Afghanistan,
southern Iraq.
I think there are a couple of reasons for this. For one, the Army brass is focused on strategies based on heavy armored columns. They do this well, and it needs to be done, but as a result, their unit level tatics don't exercise the kind of flexibility that is core to Marine unit doctrine.
Two, the Army has to rely on the Air Force for close air support. The AF doesn't like to do CAS, figuring that's artillery's job. Marine aviation's reason to exist is CAS. The pilots trade off stints as forward air controllers on the front line.
Technologically, the USMC tends to hold off on the sexy hardware unless it provides a blindingly obvious force multiplier for the buck. Ergo, they stick with Cobra gunships instead of Apaches, but were all over Harriers from the get go. They're not going to commit to something like Land Warrior until hauling around all of that extra shit provides the kind of advantage that body armor does.
It's not too far a stretch to imagine they shit a brick after reading Tom Clancy's The Bear & The Dragon, in which the US reads the Politburo's mail by hacking their Windows laptops.
Ok, I'm giving Tom a little too much credit. I'm sure it didn't take the Chinese long to figure out for themselves that dependence on foreign suppliers for strategic goods like an OS was a Bad Thing. Too bad.;-)
And, correct me if I'm wrong, the same place where a father thinks nothing of continuing his son's allowance money when the young man decides on a field trip to Yemen, and points east.
Oldest hardware still in use are a couple of RAM upgrade modules I picked up for my Mac SE/30 back in '90. Eventually, staying up 24/7 while I played with NetBSD fried the power supply, so the memory went into...
My dad's old Mac ][ci is our firewall/mailserver. The old man originally picked it up at the end of the production run in '93, and handed it down to my wife in '95 (he's on a G4 now). After many years of churning out papers and newsletters, we put it in front of the DSL line loaded with various Sustworks products to protect our metastasizing home network against the likes of you all. Still runs OS 7.6.
Initially, the ci hosted our web server too. But, a PPC 6100 fell in my lap for $5, so I loaded that with Debian, and since then the html cranks out much more reliably.
Slashdot Mirror
Why was JFK serious? It wasn't just bragging rights. Up through Ike's time, most US college grads had a degree from which department? Liberal Arts. The USSR had gotten over Stalin, it was energetic, and it was pumping out more math, hard science, and engineering grads than we were. We were coasting on wartime technical advances. Kennedy needed something that would get Americans off their soft asses and get more than the 3 Rs and attorneys out of their education system.
Going to the moon was a means to an end, and boy did it work
So, what is GWB's goal? Take out the trash overseas? Nope, he was less active on terrorism than Clinton 'til events forced themselves on him. The errosion of our technical or manufacturing base. Nope, he hasn't lifted a finger while jobs and plants continue to shift overseas at a gallop. Education, social programs? Only the Medicare drug bill, which the AARP wanted, and if our senior citizens do nothing else, it's go to the polls.
The only thing GWB cared about was tax cuts aimed at the upper 1%. Estate taxes, capital gains taxes, all gone, and whatever chump change you saved wasn't the goal. George got what he really wanted, and if it hadn't been for 9/11 happening on his watch, he'd be completely out of ideas, just like his old man.
The fact is, the ISS and Shuttle fleet has sucked up almost every dollar from a budget that Congress has been chopping for 20 years. NASA was throwing water balloons at Mars for years because there was no money to do it right. The current landers and orbiters are working because NASA chopped or delayed virtually every other planetary probe project to come up with the cash to do it half way right, and then they prayed.
As much as I'd like to think that NASA will get a budget to match it's current mission, plus the extra to do the spadework to go to the Moon and Mars years hence, I don't think George is going to call in any chits to do it, and no one else does, either.
500,000 Toman = 5,000,000 rials? It's been a while since I last went dickering at the Isfahan bazaar (120r = US$1, that long ago) so I'm a little rusty on the monetary jargon. This is a job for .... Freenet! However, I have no idea what the cost or availability of 802.11b equipment is out your way... or if it's so heavily regulated, it's besides the point.
I'd be curious to hear your explanation of this comment. She's widely viewed as a feminist author, especially in light of The Handmaid's Tale.
Curious, but only for amusments sake, since the poster was obviously too much of a knee-jerk misogynist to look up "misandrist".
Ok, original post shoulda been modded funny or troll, but there are cluster solutions for old Macs, so here goes:
NetBSD/68k, supports 68k cpus and various free cluster architectures.
Appleseed, supports OS 8.6 - 9.x on PPC.
Quite a few older PCI Powermacs can be coaxed to run OS X 10.1.x using XPostFacto and some patience. Won't support XGrid for now, but the other free suspects will work.
Fine brother, you win. Get back to us with an update after it's your ass that's been gored.
Foreign workers are better at some jobs, that is all there is to it.
I'd say it's because the employers are cheap screws, typically all to willing to jump at percived short term gain and without a clue or care where it takes us. Well, it's a hard fact of life that neither Adam Smith nor Karl Marx are the last word on anything, as long as US citizens still hold the right to piss, moan, and vote.
In the meantime, if all of this is driven to maximize shareholder value, why stop at the shop floor or office cubes? Is - say - Carly Fiorina adding so much value vis-a-vis her compensation that the shareholders wouldn't see some extra dividends by shucking her for a German - or hell, Indian - executive paid at their typical rates?
Re: the unemployment figures. Sorry, the stats don't back you up. Peaks and valleys of US unemployment since '61:
1961 - 6.5%
1969 - 3.5%
1971 - 5.9%
1973 - 5.0%
1975 - 8.5%
1979 - 5.5%
1982 - 9.5%
1989 - 5.2%
1992 - 7.0%
2000 - 3.9%
now - 5.9%
The high value added work leaves the US labor force doing what? Selling real estate, imported goods, or luxury services fewer people will be able to afford. It's the classic macro conundrum. Every employer wants someone else to pay the salaries that can afford their product or service. Capital is now flying around so rapidly, it's difficult to settle into a new macro (or micro) equilibrium.
However, this is small potatoes, easily fixed. About the worst anyone can do is fill your file system and/or hang the machine. Since there's no root to root, it would take a very sophisticated exploit to bash a stack and really own it, and obviously no one rose to the challenge.
I think your impression is largely correct. Take a look at the US tax man's view of taxable income (and note typical attitudes from the site hosting the figures). The top 50% can maintain a comfortable lifestyle, especially if they live in an area where housing is cheap, a major consideration. The top 25% are very comfortable in all but the most expensive cities, and the top 10% are the envy of the world. The top 25% usually enjoy private health benefits that a socialized system can't afford to match.
If you're in the bottom 50%, the Portugese start to look pretty lavish, but the poorest of these people are out in the vast rural hinderlands, or the racial ghettos of large cities, and so out of sight to everyone else.
If you wonder how Americans stand for this situation, it's a perception issue: When polled, most Americans have (or are giving) the mistaken impression that they personally are in the top 25%. Those that know they aren't assume they soon will be. That runs through all but the most beaten down, the idea that someday they're going to "make it". As a result, efforts to make them comfortable where they are seen as taking away their shot at the big time. Ergo, the Swedish model is distained by many.
Let's say you've decided to follow the jobs, and want to seek out a software development position in India. As it turns out, there are a number of resources [monsterindia.com] on line to assist you in your quest. A slashdot poster has provided links regarding visas [slashdot.org] , and a little searching on Google can turn up info [google.com] for the low down on the cities you might want to work in.
The upshot: theoretically, it's possible. Now for some reality.
Visas: The Indian government slots visitors in order of preference: persons of Indian hertitage, other persons, Pakistanis and Afghans.
If your ancestry traces back to India, there is a special visa program for you. It's assumed that you've picked up some skills out in the world, and India wants to encourage you to bring 'em home to develop the nation.
If you are of other nationalities, a work visa is available. When applying, you must present documentation from an employer that they will be responsible for you. Good luck on that. If you're bringing a lot of capital and a business plan, well, that's another matter. Your visa must be renewed every year and a half or so.
If you are Pakistani or Afghan, you're due for a lot more scrutiny, and you'll have to submit considerable additional documentation.
Work Environment: Universities in India are pumping out a lot of tech grads, and there aren't yet enough jobs for all of them, although regional labor shortages do occur. Ergo, there's a lot of competition for jobs, so unless you were lead architect on the NT or Linux kernels in your last position (and if you are, you aren't getting outsourced, yet), don't think you're a shoo in. In fact, for an employer [rekha.com] to even go to the bother of hiring you, you'll need to show a truly sterling CV. After all, it's a major business risk and pain in the ass for them to bring you in country in the first place. As an aside, there seems to be opportunity for Japanese speakers now that firms are seeking to tap the demand for outsourcing from Japan. You'll working in a 1.5m square three sided cube, if you're lucky. Some up and coming companies [eximsoft.com] claim to respect that employees might have a life beyond the office, which should tell you what the norm is. When a contract is finished, you may find your ass back out on the street very quickly, just like in the States, and the social safety net assumes you've got family to lean on. You do not want to go broke in India.
Pay Packet: Ranging from INR130000 (US$2900) for a web developer with 2 years experience, to INR1400000 (US$30000) for a senior project manager with an MS. Yes, the scales are down a bit from the OECD, but pretty good for India, so with the addition of your current nest egg, you shouldn't have too much problem maintaining an Indian "middle class" lifestyle. Just keep in mind that Indian middle class priorities aren't always what you're used to. In addition, you aren't getting much credit for Social Security (USA only), and your ability to stash cash for retirement back in the OECD may suck, particularly if you're American.
Renting: As a foreigner, you can't buy property. There is a wide variety of rental properties, ranging from mansions and modern high rise c
You make some good points that computers are still hard to use by their current nature. However, you're confusing the previous poster with phone support. S/he was working a sales floor, dealing with new users coming in without their computer, and unable to either retain the detailed troubleshooting methods given until they got back to the home/office, or use care when diving into the guts of an OS. The poster TRIED to help, and got his ass FRIED for it by finger pointing customers. The subsequent simplification of the poster's tech support wasn't lazy, it was protecting his job.
A neat concept. Unfortunately, I think the design team was visualizing the hard pack on a ski slope, or sand dunes in the Mojave, rather than the -100C, ice impregnated, rock hard soil the probes actual hit... basically a sandy glacier. The JPL post-mortem report (http://sunnyday.mit.edu/accidents/mpl_report_1.pd f - 400KB) ripped the project up one side and down the other for poor planning and testing, and virtually non-existant program management. Hell, if the project lead had so much as pitched a prototype off the roof onto the sidewalk at JPL, she would have had a pretty good approximation of what they were in for, IMO.
The upshot was that the project was doomed to failure on the shoestring budget.
The upshot: theoretically, it's possible. Now for some reality.
Visas: The Indian government slots visitors in order of preference: persons of Indian hertitage, other persons, Pakistanis and Afghans.
If your ancestry traces back to India, there is a special visa program for you. It's assumed that you've picked up some skills out in the world, and India wants to encourage you to bring 'em home to develop the nation.
If you are of other nationalities, a work visa is available. When applying, you must present documentation from an employer that they will be responsible for you. Good luck on that. If you're bringing a lot of capital and a business plan, well, that's another matter. Your visa must be renewed every year and a half or so.
If you are Pakistani or Afghan, it's obvious they don't trust you, and you'll have to submit considerable additional documentation.
Work Environment: Universities in India are pumping out a lot of tech grads, and there aren't yet enough jobs for all of them, although regional labor shortages do occur. Ergo, there's a lot of competition for jobs, so unless you were lead architect on the NT or Linux kernels in your last position (and if you are, you aren't getting outsourced, yet), don't think you're a shoo in. In fact, for an employer to even go to the bother of hiring you, you'll need to show a truly sterling CV. After all, it's a major business risk and pain in the ass for them to bring you in country in the first place. As an aside, there seems to be opportunity for Japanese speakers now that firms are seeking to tap the demand for outsourcing from Japan. You'll working in a 1.5m square three sided cube, if you're lucky. Some up and coming companies claim to respect that employees might have a life beyond the office, which should tell you what the norm is. When a contract is finished, you may find your ass back out on the street very quickly, just like in the States, and the social safety net assumes you've got family to lean on. You do not want to go broke in India.
Renting: As a foreigner, you can't buy property. There is a wide variety of rental properties, ranging from mansions and modern high rise condos you couldn't afford on a San Jose salary, to the very pits. You really need to do your homework on this. Even though you may be working on an Indian pay scale, land lords will assume you're loaded, so it would be a major plus to bring an Indian friend to help you negotiate.
Getting On Line: The Indian government has only started moving to open up the infrastructure. In the meantime, brother, welcome back to dialup, and it ain't pretty. Getting regular phone service enabled can require several trips to the telecom office, with a side trip to the switching station to introduce yourself to the technicians. Getting dialup on that same line means more money, and more delays. Count on the link being noisy and unreliable. ISDN is available in some areas, but usually isn't linked to a TCP trunk(!). Switched 56k and up is available in some locations, but even 56k is well over US$1000/month. This might be an ideal environment to start an 802.11b freenet, but the equipment
The Slimp3 server is Perl- rather than Java-based, and has a couple of years of development behind it, as well as a community of 3rd party add-ons and hacks.
On an ergonomic note, when plugged into a stereo system, the Squeezebox' ports face backwards, making easy to hide the wires. The HomePod's ports face sideways, so that the cables are going to tend to hang out for all to see.
I'm hoping the Slimp3 guys have enough margin built into their pricing that they can afford to meet the delta if their sales start to plumet. I don't really buy into some Slashdot poster claiming they'll wait until the HomePod comes out on the basis of $50. Too much like all of the people waiting for OS X to run on their eMachine box from Walmart. Look at it this way: pay $50 more for a mature product, or "save" $50 to beta test a $250 toy.
Prehaps biological science hasn't advanced to the point where it can detect race. That's fine, because sociologists and anthropologists can certainly recognize it.
Granted, so lets not treat "race" with any more weight than it's due. Sociology and Anthopology are "softer" sciences because their theses are more difficult to analyze by experiment. It may be because we're currently too stupid to come up with the right tests, but let's not assume we already know what the results will be.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, to wit:
Really ? So phenotype has nothing to do with
genotype ? Offspring of Africans are white then, I take it ? Their genes don't cause them to be black ? Wow ! I learnt something new today !
It's a fact, "race" is a cultural label without scientific basis. As you have so astutely noted, people pass on physical attributes thru their genes. While Celts and Hottentots have superficial differences in appearance, there isn't a test or series of tests you can run to conclusively tell that a DNA sample is from one or the other. There are some familial mitochondrial DNAs, tendencies for sickle cell, dairy intollerance, or Vitimin D deficiencies that can hint at an ancestrial homeland, but nothing you can count on.
After all of that, I'm still pissed off at offshoring to low wage locations. But for consistency, let's have stockholders offshore some high cost executives or board members.
Nobody complained about outsourcing to Ireland in the 80's & 90's because there wasn't enough to notice. If they don't complain about Russia or Israel now, it's 'cause they don't KNOW about it yet.
Tangent: Based on a subcontractor's recomendation, I purchased a copy of NoMagic's UML tool, Magic Draw Pro. Only after the fact did I learn that their Denver office is merely a sales and executive site. All the value added work is in Lithuania and Thailand.
As a rule, consumer electronics factory repair prices have been at or near replacement cost for all but high end gear (ie. >$2000US) for years. Consumers with enough brains to program their VCR who want to flog their gear a little longer have long been buying DIY books. As others have pointed out, Google is the friend of modern man.
I live in Hawaii and won't be able to see a thing, you insensitive clod.
Verily, brother. 600+ posts, yet it seems you and I were the only ones who noticed. I guess the rest of them are too busy rolling on the floor over MONAD...
eastern flank in Korean War,
I Corps in Vietnam,
Afghanistan,
southern Iraq.
I think there are a couple of reasons for this. For one, the Army brass is focused on strategies based on heavy armored columns. They do this well, and it needs to be done, but as a result, their unit level tatics don't exercise the kind of flexibility that is core to Marine unit doctrine.
Two, the Army has to rely on the Air Force for close air support. The AF doesn't like to do CAS, figuring that's artillery's job. Marine aviation's reason to exist is CAS. The pilots trade off stints as forward air controllers on the front line.
Technologically, the USMC tends to hold off on the sexy hardware unless it provides a blindingly obvious force multiplier for the buck. Ergo, they stick with Cobra gunships instead of Apaches, but were all over Harriers from the get go. They're not going to commit to something like Land Warrior until hauling around all of that extra shit provides the kind of advantage that body armor does.
Ok, I'm giving Tom a little too much credit. I'm sure it didn't take the Chinese long to figure out for themselves that dependence on foreign suppliers for strategic goods like an OS was a Bad Thing. Too bad. ;-)
And, correct me if I'm wrong, the same place where a father thinks nothing of continuing his son's allowance money when the young man decides on a field trip to Yemen, and points east.
My dad's old Mac ][ci is our firewall/mailserver. The old man originally picked it up at the end of the production run in '93, and handed it down to my wife in '95 (he's on a G4 now). After many years of churning out papers and newsletters, we put it in front of the DSL line loaded with various Sustworks products to protect our metastasizing home network against the likes of you all. Still runs OS 7.6.
Initially, the ci hosted our web server too. But, a PPC 6100 fell in my lap for $5, so I loaded that with Debian, and since then the html cranks out much more reliably.