In the scheme of industries which have suffered, you folks in IT have little to complain about. Ask an engineer from the 1970's what life was like after the Apollo missions ceased.
I would think that someone who lost their job from a particular situation woudl have sympathy for people going through a similar cycle.
Your post confirms other comments that these articles are about companies really being short on smart people who are clueless enough to work for cheap without asking for much in return, in other words new CS graduates.
In these threads someone always trys to perpetuate the snow job that the poor starving CEOs and stockholders have to make "hard choices" to stay competitive when it is really about squeezing every last penny out.
Your post proves that literally to be true.
They are firing people, destroying an industry, and screwing up lives for 4 cents a share.
"'The slope shows an unbelievable decline in computer science majors,' Astrachan said. 'There are smart people no longer even signing up to take our introductory courses. We need to fix it, or there's not going to be a U.S. work force in computer sciences.'"
TRANSLATION:
Students smart enough to be computer science majors are smart enough to see that the most interesting programming & I.T. jobs are going out of the country.
This sucks for us, the academics as it threatens the justification for our position as educators.
This also sucks for us, the American I.T. corporations who decided to send those jobs overseas. We can't send them all and we still need some Americans to do our shit work and do it cheaply, like fresh young graduates would. Maybe by promoting articles like this we can instill a sense of promise/panic about the future of American I.T. careers
Let us hope that American students who are smart enough to be potential computer science majors are not smart enough to see this. Please don't tell them.
Does trash talking really help CEOs of major companies? It sounds like a WWE soap opera almost.
Google has already proven that its not a one hit wonder. They've had hit upon hit upon hit.
Does Google talk trash?
The people currently on top don't need to talk trash.
Come on google release an operating system to really get things interesting
The rumor mill is saying that they are working on their own browser.
Google has been verbed, it isn't easy killing something that has been verbed. When you search for something you 'Google' for it, MSNing for something just seems wrong.
Years ago I had a boss who was an ex-microsoft employee and he used Internet Explorer exclusively. However, he still saved his "bookmarks" rather than adding his "favorites".
Something like this used to sound cool to me several years ago... okay, maybe just "okay" but with some utility.
Now, with what I have seen from my government and the way things are going, as well as recent movie releases it just makes me feel like I am living in Star Wars and the emperor is planning to build the death star to zap anyone who disagress with george bush.
I can't help but be reminded of those ankle bracelets prisoners on parole have to wear.
I think it is horrible to treat a child like this by putting such a device on them. What does it teach the kid?
If a child is fat it is the fault of the parents.
If parents don't want fat children they should practice good nutrition and do active recreational activities as a family...not treat their kids like criminals or animals.
Another alternative is to deemphasize t.v. for the whole family. Get a smaller, simpler model and put it in a spot where it is not the center of attention.
Then make it a family thing to do active things for recreation, even if it is only taking a long walk after dinner or playing a game of catch.
Everybody will get healthier and the family will be strengthened by doing recreational things together.
Chances are a fat kid has parents who are also out of balance and doing things like this will help the whole family
I read an interesting story in the book FATLAND ( explores how North America became so fat ).
A gym teacher at a poor school was very frustrated by the poor health of his students. He also noticed them playing a lot of video games.
He got the school to turn over the use of an equipment shed to him, which he emptied out. Then he solicited donations. He got a number of old exercise bikes and used television sets from yard sales. Some people who donated their time wired it all up such that if you pedaled an exercise bike you could play a video game.
Surprisingly it was very popular with the kids.
It got into the papers and the gym teacher received more donations from the community.
Even better, it worked. The gym teacher was able to measure weight loss and improved health among a number of children.
Instead of Red Hat, MSFT would be better off buying Sun- they both sell propriatary systems, both dislike linux (not Sun so much, but they do) and it would be an extension of many of the deals they have struck recently. I don't see where RH makes sense, but I can see a better story with Sun given the slump in their stock, etc....
Why buy out Sun when it is already struggling to survive ?
hat if the new show is crap( more likely with the sci-fi channel ), someone downloads it, and tells a friend who is thinking of paying for the sci-fi channel not to bother?
A seamless alternative to Exchange is needed to open the corporate market.
I think seamless interoperability with M$ Word cannot be underestimated. Every anecdotal account I hear of pioneers trying linux and going back almost always involves a story of end user complaints about trying to open MS Word files.
There was an article on slashdot a few years back how another company got around with their contractual obligation to M$ to not sell a computer without an OS.
They shipped their computers with Free DOS installed.
Whenever open source and Java come up in a thread someone will always make the point that keeping Java under Sun's control prevents it from being bastardized.
The example of C starting out as a multiplatform language always comes up.
This reasoning may be correct, or it may not be.
I know python implementations are not exactly the same across platforms. There are some things I can do on linux with python that I can't do on windows.
Are there any examples of multiplatform, open source languages out there, running, that do not require the program to learn about platform specific issues?
Slashdot Mirror
Instead you are telling people to stop whining.
Your post confirms other comments that these articles are about companies really being short on smart people who are clueless enough to work for cheap without asking for much in return, in other words new CS graduates.
Thank you for posting this.
In these threads someone always trys to perpetuate the snow job that the poor starving CEOs and stockholders have to make "hard choices" to stay competitive when it is really about squeezing every last penny out.
Your post proves that literally to be true.
They are firing people, destroying an industry, and screwing up lives for 4 cents a share.
Students smart enough to be computer science majors are smart enough to see that the most interesting programming & I.T. jobs are going out of the country.
This sucks for us, the academics as it threatens the justification for our position as educators.
This also sucks for us, the American I.T. corporations who decided to send those jobs overseas. We can't send them all and we still need some Americans to do our shit work and do it cheaply, like fresh young graduates would. Maybe by promoting articles like this we can instill a sense of promise/panic about the future of American I.T. careers
Let us hope that American students who are smart enough to be potential computer science majors are not smart enough to see this. Please don't tell them.
"Bookmarks" was Netscape's term.
It has become part of the language as well.
We have all seen where Netscape has gone.
I don't know. Steve Ballmer is not a young man anymore. It doesn't look like he takes care of his health much either.
In 5 years he might not be around either.
Something like this used to sound cool to me several years ago... okay, maybe just "okay" but with some utility.
Now, with what I have seen from my government and the way things are going, as well as recent movie releases it just makes me feel like I am living in Star Wars and the emperor is planning to build the death star to zap anyone who disagress with george bush.
I can't help but be reminded of those ankle bracelets prisoners on parole have to wear.
I think it is horrible to treat a child like this by putting such a device on them. What does it teach the kid?
If a child is fat it is the fault of the parents.
If parents don't want fat children they should practice good nutrition and do active recreational activities as a family...not treat their kids like criminals or animals.
Another alternative is to deemphasize t.v. for the whole family. Get a smaller, simpler model and put it in a spot where it is not the center of attention.
Then make it a family thing to do active things for recreation, even if it is only taking a long walk after dinner or playing a game of catch.
Everybody will get healthier and the family will be strengthened by doing recreational things together.
Chances are a fat kid has parents who are also out of balance and doing things like this will help the whole family
I read an interesting story in the book FATLAND ( explores how North America became so fat ).
A gym teacher at a poor school was very frustrated by the poor health of his students. He also noticed them playing a lot of video games.
He got the school to turn over the use of an equipment shed to him, which he emptied out. Then he solicited donations. He got a number of old exercise bikes and used television sets from yard sales. Some people who donated their time wired it all up such that if you pedaled an exercise bike you could play a video game.
Surprisingly it was very popular with the kids.
It got into the papers and the gym teacher received more donations from the community.
Even better, it worked. The gym teacher was able to measure weight loss and improved health among a number of children.
What about the reverse situation? W
hat if the new show is crap( more likely with the sci-fi channel ), someone downloads it, and tells a friend who is thinking of paying for the sci-fi channel not to bother?
Extracting energy from blood is not new.
Americans have been doing it for years in Iraq.
A bombed, burned child or a lead filled marine in every SUV tank full.
I am talking about the shell version of those apps and the hacked versios of "menus", at least in emacs, do not count
DOS applications, despite being shell driven have long had friendly "drop down" style menus.
The new *nix shell editor ne has such menus:
http://ne.dsi.unimi.it/
I think such menus in emacs, vi, and other shell apps would make those apps a lot more friendly.
I agree with you.
A seamless alternative to Exchange is needed to open the corporate market.
I think seamless interoperability with M$ Word cannot be underestimated. Every anecdotal account I hear of pioneers trying linux and going back almost always involves a story of end user complaints about trying to open MS Word files.
There was an article on slashdot a few years back how another company got around with their contractual obligation to M$ to not sell a computer without an OS.
They shipped their computers with Free DOS installed.
No motivation. QT is already partially under a GPL
"sneaky" ?
I really hate to defend Sun,...really, I do, but they are the ones who spent a ton of money and work developing Java.
They make it available for free of charge.
what jerks
Whenever open source and Java come up in a thread someone will always make the point that keeping Java under Sun's control prevents it from being bastardized.
The example of C starting out as a multiplatform language always comes up.
This reasoning may be correct, or it may not be.
I know python implementations are not exactly the same across platforms. There are some things I can do on linux with python that I can't do on windows.
Are there any examples of multiplatform, open source languages out there, running, that do not require the program to learn about platform specific issues?
Sun has been making noise now and then about open sourcing Java.
Why not push them toward putting their money where their mouth is?
Ask them ( or better yet, ask IBM ) to release the java implementations they already have built under an apache license.
If that is still too liberal for them offer to help in writing a new OS license that will give SUN the control they want.
No insult to you MoogMan, but my reaction is always "WTF?" when gnu/linux people mention downloading and setting up Java as a problem.
These are often the same people who download entire operating systems and install them by compiling untarred coded.
I find setting up Java to be one of the more straight forward tasks to do when I set up a new gnu/linux box.
I think the gnu/linux people have complaints to make, but I don't think it is about ease of setup issues with Java
I'm rooting for them, but that is a huge project.
There is no shortage of half finished FOSS implementations of Java.
I'll believe it when I see it, and I will be grateful to Apache for making it happen.
I would like us all to recall that line from the original Star Wars movie where Obiwan Kenobi tells Darth Vader:
"If you cut me down you will only make me stronger".
PCs, the web have not cut down post-it notes, only made them stronger or transformed them.
I still see a few computers in every office with post-it notes plastered around the monitor with fresh pads of them in every supply closet.
Every desktop I have seen has an electronic analog of post-it notes. Even gnu/linux with the KDE ( I don't know abut Gnome ).