Tales from IT

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Vrede too
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Re: Tales from IT

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'Keeping American Jobs Act' introduced to prevent replacement of US tech workers by H-1Bs. Will it work?
While the passage of this Bill will come as welcome relief to American tech workers, some say that the effort may be an exercise in futility.


... The comparative advantage of companies and countries -- a theory postulated by classical economist David Ricardo, who, along with Adam Smith and James Mill, formed the bulwark of modern capitalism -- stated that if a country is not able to produce certain goods as cheaply as another one, then it should shift production to a good in which it has a comparative advantage and leave the production of the one in which it is disadvantaged to those who can do it cheaper. Isn't this after all why our phones and washing machines -- in fact pretty much any consumer good we use -- are made in China and not in North America and why they are at the price points that they sell at?

Of course, many argue when talking about H-1Bs that there is a quality quotient that is ignored when shipping in foreign workers, and that many of these H-1B jobs deliberately under-pay and overwork the foreigner, producing sub-standard work (as I was wondering, we don't know what the workload of the "lazy Indian" is) while ignoring scores of well-qualified American techies who are unemployed and both need and deserve those positions (these are all generalisations, of course, with some truth to them). Others suggest that the economics of the job are simply not in their favour.

The problem is that in a globalized world -- one whose architecture was primarily shaped by the US -- this legislation may prove largely ineffective. Or so thinks Stephan Manning, associate professor of management at the University of Massachusetts (Boston) who studies outsourcing, whom I previously referenced.

"Whether Disney tech staff is replaced by H-1B workers onshore or by Indian workers offshore does not really matter in the end," Manning said. "In other words, trying to protect higher paid, yet generic tech jobs on US soil is futile. US salaries for such jobs will soon adjust to global competitive standards." Here, by and large, the lowest bidder will invariably win. Whatever managerial oversight needed for a project can be handled by a few employees onsite.

UNITED AGAINST THE BOTS

Very soon, even these H-1Bs will no longer exist. Ironically, both American and Indian techies will be fighting the same scourge -- automation technologies such as machine learning and robotics.

HfS Research said that by 2021, the global IT industry will see a 9 percent -- or 1.4 million -- net decrease in jobs. India itself will shed 640,000 low-end jobs to automation....
Not my field so I'm just guessing, but I wonder how much of the anti-foreigner sentiment is manufactured as a distraction from the real worker-fatcat boss struggle. We've seen it before - blacks, Irish, Chinese, Mexicans, etc.

Sorry, JTA, but there's always fashion consulting and IHOP.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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bannination
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Re: Tales from IT

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Sasquatch pimp could be a thing.

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Vrede too
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Re: Tales from IT

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With a back so hairy that it needs shaving and a sasquatch girlfriend, JTA could be both pimp and hooker. Careful though, banni, it might be difficult to tell the gender of the hairy nipples you're licking. You wouldn't want to be weird.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Boatrocker
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Re: Tales from IT

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Vrede too wrote:With a back so hairy that it needs shaving and a sasquatch girlfriend, JTA could be both pimp and hooker. Careful though, banni, it might be difficult to tell the gender of the hairy nipples you're licking. You wouldn't want to be weird.
Well, thanks all to hell for a visual I'll spend the rest of the day trying to get out of my head.
(Prob'ly gets B & homofool all hot & bothered, tho)
I will not lie down.
I will not go quietly.

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Vrede too
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Re: Tales from IT

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Boatrocker wrote:Well, thanks all to hell for a visual I'll spend the rest of the day trying to get out of my head.
(Prob'ly gets B & homofool all hot & bothered, tho)
I'd love to take the Superstar Cultmaster credit, but the visuals mostly came from JTA and banni.
http://www.blueridgedebate.com/viewtopi ... &start=220
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Vrede too
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Re: Tales from IT

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Boatrocker wrote:Well, thanks all to hell for a visual I'll spend the rest of the day trying to get out of my head....
Here's another one: "Kellyanne Conway on President Trump". :D
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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When we created our accounting system in the 1990s, we used a lot of the same data layout as the accounting system we were importing our old data from. Which ran on an ICL System Ten. Previously known as a Singer System Ten until ICL bought their Business Division. The System Ten was introduced in 1970, and the accounting system soon after.

I've just spent the weekend finally fixing a bad design decision made at Singer - yes, the sewing machine company - in the early 1970s.

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Vrede too
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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:
Sun May 13, 2018 8:25 pm
When we created our accounting system in the 1990s, we used a lot of the same data layout as the accounting system we were importing our old data from. Which ran on an ICL System Ten. Previously known as a Singer System Ten until ICL bought their Business Division. The System Ten was introduced in 1970, and the accounting system soon after.

I've just spent the weekend finally fixing a bad design decision made at Singer - yes, the sewing machine company - in the early 1970s.
You're John Connor. Good luck.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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bannination
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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:
Sun May 13, 2018 8:25 pm
When we created our accounting system in the 1990s, we used a lot of the same data layout as the accounting system we were importing our old data from. Which ran on an ICL System Ten. Previously known as a Singer System Ten until ICL bought their Business Division. The System Ten was introduced in 1970, and the accounting system soon after.

I've just spent the weekend finally fixing a bad design decision made at Singer - yes, the sewing machine company - in the early 1970s.
The system was called “The System Ten” because it performed all of its computations in decimal, as opposed to its counterparts which operated in binary.
Now that's fascinating!

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