Although something rings true in this about many USA citizens not having a 'global' view (World Series Baseball, World Wide Wrestling....erm, I don't think these are worldwide sports actually!), many of the points in this article would not be known without some pretty thorough investigation of political/geographical interests.
"The English hate the French."
Now there's a generalisation if ever I've heard one.
As an Englishman, I'm quite offended by this. All of our countries have a chequered history. Sometimes our leaders (be them monarchy or polititions) have made bad decisions, sometimes good ones.
I think France is a wonderful place, full of culture and friendly people. If you come and get to know real English people, you might think differently of us.
I work with North Americans, most of them from Utah. It is amusing how little some of them know about anything outside of their own country, but they laugh along and are happy to learn. In the meantime, use English get a new perspective of living in the USA.
Wouldn't it be great if we could all just get along?
I've noticed that one thing never changes, and that is women always want to buy stuff.
When my job gets outsourced here in the UK, I'm going to start selling stuff to women....they can't get enough of it!
As an aside, two call centres have just been relocated back to the UK from India due to poor performance. It swings both ways I guess.
Our European owned Bonds company has just been bought by an American bank. Mr Important Boss comes over, speaks to everyone in the office except IT. He then stands and gives a speech about how wonderful it is to be trading electronically, and how our systems put us at the forefront of blah blah...
He says 'Are there any questions?'
I ask 'Why is noone in your bank talking to us about our planned systems migration?'
He says 'Who are you?'
I say 'I'm one of the guys who makes this amazing electronic trading possible'
He says 'From a management perspective, I can't say what will happen over the next 3 months with you guys'
I say 'In that case, we cannot guarantee that your systems will be working in 3 months...that's not a threat, it's something we said to you 2 months ago in a report we wrote'
He says 'Next question....'
Basically, they don't give a shit.
Most are so old school or elitist that IT is nothing to them....how can we understand their business as well as they do? We're an overhead after all...a cost centre.
Having contracted at other City firms, I can say that it's the same for many IT departments.
It's not just the jobs going abroad, it's the whole outsourcing model that's a problem.
While it's obvious that alot of companies have too many employees in IT since the Y2K blitz, many seem to think that somehow companies like IBM, EDS, BT, etc. etc. can save them money. My friend works for one of these companies, and they have been given the task of designing/running systems for a global bank. Now, the bank uses a different outsourcing company to run its networks. That company is annoyed because it didn't win the systems contract, so they are un-cooperative which leads to inefficiencies. His company managers have read the contract with rose-tinted specs...they don't realise that an outage in one system impacts more systems and so the amount of money they have to pay back in outage time is higher than they first thought....
Basically, they have now decided that they have to do things 'on the cheap', and hope that their systems are reliable...
I'm not even going into the flaws in the design made by their 'architects'.....
Never mind....the bank may loose out with less reliable systems and staff who are not loyal to them. No doubt the outsourcers will continue to persuade gullible companies that theirs is the way forward...
Slashdot Mirror
For the connaisseur....you may get some ideas here:- http://www.laughatrice.com/
Although something rings true in this about many USA citizens not having a 'global' view (World Series Baseball, World Wide Wrestling....erm, I don't think these are worldwide sports actually!), many of the points in this article would not be known without some pretty thorough investigation of political/geographical interests.
http://www.b3ta.com/spidermanwillmakeyougay/ However, I think this proves that he is not hetrosexual....
"The English hate the French." Now there's a generalisation if ever I've heard one. As an Englishman, I'm quite offended by this. All of our countries have a chequered history. Sometimes our leaders (be them monarchy or polititions) have made bad decisions, sometimes good ones. I think France is a wonderful place, full of culture and friendly people. If you come and get to know real English people, you might think differently of us. I work with North Americans, most of them from Utah. It is amusing how little some of them know about anything outside of their own country, but they laugh along and are happy to learn. In the meantime, use English get a new perspective of living in the USA. Wouldn't it be great if we could all just get along?
Just when I finally decided to get certified in 9.....at least the upgrades aren't as prolific as with MS!
I've noticed that one thing never changes, and that is women always want to buy stuff. When my job gets outsourced here in the UK, I'm going to start selling stuff to women....they can't get enough of it! As an aside, two call centres have just been relocated back to the UK from India due to poor performance. It swings both ways I guess.
Our European owned Bonds company has just been bought by an American bank. Mr Important Boss comes over, speaks to everyone in the office except IT. He then stands and gives a speech about how wonderful it is to be trading electronically, and how our systems put us at the forefront of blah blah... He says 'Are there any questions?' I ask 'Why is noone in your bank talking to us about our planned systems migration?' He says 'Who are you?' I say 'I'm one of the guys who makes this amazing electronic trading possible' He says 'From a management perspective, I can't say what will happen over the next 3 months with you guys' I say 'In that case, we cannot guarantee that your systems will be working in 3 months...that's not a threat, it's something we said to you 2 months ago in a report we wrote' He says 'Next question....' Basically, they don't give a shit. Most are so old school or elitist that IT is nothing to them....how can we understand their business as well as they do? We're an overhead after all...a cost centre. Having contracted at other City firms, I can say that it's the same for many IT departments.
It's not just the jobs going abroad, it's the whole outsourcing model that's a problem. While it's obvious that alot of companies have too many employees in IT since the Y2K blitz, many seem to think that somehow companies like IBM, EDS, BT, etc. etc. can save them money. My friend works for one of these companies, and they have been given the task of designing/running systems for a global bank. Now, the bank uses a different outsourcing company to run its networks. That company is annoyed because it didn't win the systems contract, so they are un-cooperative which leads to inefficiencies. His company managers have read the contract with rose-tinted specs...they don't realise that an outage in one system impacts more systems and so the amount of money they have to pay back in outage time is higher than they first thought.... Basically, they have now decided that they have to do things 'on the cheap', and hope that their systems are reliable... I'm not even going into the flaws in the design made by their 'architects'..... Never mind....the bank may loose out with less reliable systems and staff who are not loyal to them. No doubt the outsourcers will continue to persuade gullible companies that theirs is the way forward...