IT "skills shortage"

There is much moaning about the "failure" of schools to produce IT professionals in sufficient quantity and quality for industry needs in North America.            
 
In fact, schools have never been the source of these desired skills. I have been an IT professional for more than three decades. It has always been the case that the most valuable skills are acquired on the job.    
 
I graduated with a BSc in Computer Science and started working for IBM in the eighties supporting mainframe operating systems. When I joined I was given a booklet claiming that IBM had never laid anyone off even during "the great depression" and that I was embarking on a lifetime career. The people I worked with certainly believed that and were totally committed to the wellbeing of the company and its clients. We were proud to work 'round the clock, if needed. We were a team.        
   
The team looked like this: There were a few senior hands who mentored the rest, recommended training and rescued us when we got in over our heads. The bulk of the team consisted of smart, well trained, dedicated professionals. We could stretch ourselves and be creative in our diagnostic techniques and solutions because we knew we were working with a net. Then there were always newbies coming along; They got stuck with the tedious work that was, nonetheless, good training.       
     
So the conveyor belt was always full. Ever more skilled workers were continuously moving into positions of greater responsibility. The system worked for everyone. Then, in the early nineties, management at our company and at our major clients decided that they wouldn't pay for a team or training or learning of any kind. The expensive senior staff were 'packaged out'. Then the juniors with their lower skills. Then the ones in the middle were 'outsourced' and only brought in on contract for specific, limited tasks.  
   
After two decades of this those of us who were originally in that middle group have become senior in our skills and earning capacity. We pay for our own upgrades and work mostly as independant contractors. For two decades the money that companies should have put back into developing IT staff has instead been paid out in bonuses to greedy, foolish managers. Now they wonder why there is a shortage of technical skill needed for their business.
  
They stopped watering the garden then wonder why it turned into a desert.     
  
I gnash my teeth in their general direction.

Reading

How-to read in bed

       

Not that I don’t love my Kindle, I really do, but I can’t read it in bed without having a light on and, well, I love my husband more.
 
So now I have a Blackberry Playbook running the most excellent app, BookReader by Untangleddev.
 
All you have to do is strip the DRM out of the Kindle mobi files and covert them to epub format, both of which you can do using Calibre, download them to the playbook et viola! reading heaven.
 
Bookreader has a configurable presentation so you can get it *just* right for your own eyes but best of all– you can click-to the in-text web references (those dotted underlines in Kindle are links!!).

American Empire

Republican candidate Rick Santorum is keen to expand the "American Empire".
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0117/How-Rick-Santorum-and-America-can-be-exceptional-Avoid-empire

Like the English centuries ago, he feels it is his nation's destiny to bring Christianity to the heathen and, for their own good, to dominate the 95% of humanity outside of the homeland.

He seems unaware that the United States was founded in opposition to that very concept, declaring their own independence and freedom as fundamental rights. Why does he think the people of the rest of the world want anything less for themselves?
  

All things not equal

Why taxes are good value for the money
  

Reason 1:  Justice … Effort is necessary but not sufficient for success.

All other things being equal, the person making the greatest effort will, over time, have the greatest success. All other things, however, are not equal.

Society has an interest in leveling the playing field and making sure that everyone plays by the same rules. We all suffer, even the rich (eventually) if barriers to entry cause ecconomic stagnation

Reason 2:  Efficiency … Public frameworks make business possible.

“Plug-and-play” environments minimize barriers to entry 

Reason 3: Safety … It is A LOT easier to prevent a disaster than it is to clean up after one

Regulation prevents those gambling on safety from gaining a cost advantage over more responsible players

What Cain means by Empower the States

Last Sunday, November 27, 2011 CNN's Candy Crowley interviewed Republican candidate Herman Cain. Ms. Crowley was understandably confused about his position on illegal immigration, a hot topic in the Republican candidate debates. Herman Cain said he would "empower the States" to deal with illegal immigration.
  

Normally when Republicans say "empower the States" they mean to devolve Federal powers of legislation to the State level. That was how Ms. Crowley understood his statements, but Mr. Cain, who aims to bring "strength through clarity" to the Presidency, responded with a vigorous but somewhat muddied "explanation" that, after many viewings, I think I understand.

      
It seems that Herman Cain was trying to say was that he would enable states to "enforce" federal law, not that he would "empower" states to choose their own policies on immigration. Perhaps he mixed up the word "enforce" with the word "empower"?
  
At any rate, it does seem he uses "empower" to mean "deputize". This use of empower is opposite from the normal Republican meaning. Herman Cain means to impose the resposability and expense of enforcing federal law onto states without expanding their right to shape those laws in any way.  
  
I posted something like this at the "comments" section for the CNN piece, but it is still "awaiting moderation". Since no other posting have shown up either, it seems that the layoff last week of more than fourty reporters and editors at CNN is taking its toll.
 
CNN was already noticably short of investigation. Their claim to be an international news organization has long ago yeilded to content amounting to little more than "cat up a tree somewhere in the lower 48", except for the Sunday morning line up. If even Candy, Fareed and Howie have had institutional support removed then they should move together to another network. I would not have to subscribe to the rediculous CNN anymore.
 

Domestic Surge

Response to the 'American Jobs Act' speech by US President Obama two days ago seems to be missing  obvious parallels with military 'surge' successes.

If earlier QE spending has not acheived better results, maybe it was
-> not enough and
-> not correctly targeted.

Republicans argue that it is instead less government, even eliminating government altogether, that would turn the American economy into a jobs-creating machine.

Right. Because anarchy works so well to create jobs in Haiti and Somalia ?

Strong economies in Germany and China do not actually seem to be correlated with less regulation nor do earlier, happier times in the US economy.

At issue here is the kind of regulation. Is a particular piece of legislation designed to protect and strengthen citizens in general or is it aimed at promoting the interests of a specific lobby? This kind of legislative gerrymandering to promote specific businesses is just as corrosive to the economy as redrawing voting districts to protect incumbents is to democracy.

Eliminating these special interest exceptions and directions in law would eliminate fingers on the scales of the economy AND clarify regulations so that they are easier (and cheaper) to follow and enforce.

At the same time, a positive role exists for government action to enable its citizens to better compete in the world:

-> Funding research institutions; Money for student loans, bursaries and scholarships.

-> Improved transportation, electrical and communication infrastructures.

-> Protection from random disasters like flood or cancer (Why do Americans understand the need to share burdens of weather disasters but not of medical disasters ?)
  
 

Post Vacation Post

Surprising lingering benefits of a Caribbean vacation

I don't think I'd ever had a resting vacation before my visit to the Dominican Republic in May. It was lovely while it was happening but the amazing part has been the healthy perspective I have been able to maintain since returning to regular life; The persistence of distance, I suppose.

Do it if you can.