[Charlug] WTF??

[Tim Jowers]

  I think the drawdown in American pay and pricing is a positive force
for Linux. How can a company justify spending $800K for Oracle BEA
WebLogic, $70K for an AIX or SunOS server, or even $10K-$50K for a
Microsoft suite of proprietary lock-in ware? It sickened me when I
worked with the 12th largest company in the USA to see them laying off
staff in America only to blow money on stuff like this. I emailed the
VP and she had a study done. I talked to the Oracle guru about his
study: he referenced a 4 year old study comparing MySQL and Oracle and
never even installed MySQL! I talked to the engineer who did the
WebLogic versus JBoss study and he was the sysadm and basically just
wanted to keep the status quo regardless of the net mal-investment of
millions across the corporation. Saved him a week or two of learning!
In the case of WebLogic it was especially sickening since we already
were using JBoss in tandem in the network at numerous sites and we
were not using any of the proprietary WebLogic lock-in technologies so
could have migrated to JBoss in a week. Heck, RHAT even has a
migration kit which we could have used! (Another group wrote their own
migration guide.)

  As a professional programmer, I'm constantly frustrated with
Winblows. I do all of my development on Linux (Fedora or Ubuntu, don't
care which) unless I am forced to slow down and use the jalopy. As the
economy continues to tighten, this waste of $300 for 'blows and
orifice or whatever and the bigger waste of time will start to stand
out I think.

Andy,

You are correct. Doctors and Lawyers have used licensing and laws to
prevent competition on the world scene. As professionals with
comparable training and workload, we are frustrated with YoY industry
average pay declines. Without protectionist measures such as those
employed by doctors, lawyers, and other engineers, we will continue
the asymptotic landing of the Iron Law of Wages.

Of course we can specialize in certain technologies and certain
company needs. Longer term, however, for our children, we have to
realize the Aluminum Law of Pricing is a direct offspring of the Iron
Law of Wages. My guess is the USA is at the precipice of pricing. No
matter how hard Congress tries to increase credit, pay is falling and
this is a natural outcome of globalization like you said. Most people
think Congress will start printing physical currency but the in real
value terms pay will continue to obey the Iron Law of Wages (that's
why it's a Law). Pricing will adjust accordingly (The Aluminum Law of
Pricing). This is what GM fails to accept. They are competing with Kia
and Hyundai -- well, should be but instead choose to not sell cars and
to let their business collapse while Hyundai's sales are actually
increasing. People who are making less money have to buy lower priced
autos.

As to the H1B and L1 visas, I worked at one place where a person had
been on an L1 visa for 7 years. He was afraid to even ask HCL for an
H1 as he thought they'd make him leave the USA! I tried to get him to
switch to another bodyshop but HCL had him on a tight leash. The H1B
and L1 visa programs have zero enforcement on the federal
requirements. We know in everything the government does there is
corruption; so, why would the visa programs be any different? I
strongly suspect companies who have employed the H1/L1 training
program to later offshore their staff will see an enormous legal and
otherwise backlash because I know of several stellar engineers with 16
to 25 years of experience who have gotten the axe in the last two
months. An incredible misuse of ability. A waste for the whole world.
IME, companies who think they will succeed by laying off their
brightest and most experience employees are really already in a death
spiral. Get out while you still can!

Most everyone I know in tech has taken a pay cut or job cut in the
last few months. For most people, it is just higher insurance
premiums, no more bonuses, etc. Continued pay declines will be the
norm. In a severe recession it is not about getting rich but staying
afloat. As Linux and Open Source gurus, we offer to save our clients'
precious capital in this time of recession.

My $.02,
TimJowers
P.S> How do you like Norway?


On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 7:15 AM, Andy Nichols <nezticle at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This should not be taken as a call to arms, but rather a wake up call to
> those failing to adapt to our new situation.  We live in a world without
> borders now thanks to our use technology.  Those who still live with those
> artificial boundaries in mind are the ones who will fall behind. You are no
> longer a citizen of America, but a citizen of the world.  These companies
> have the right idea, these H1-B visa workers have the right idea, but those
> of you who are rejecting this surely must know that this battle is futile.
>
> I have since moved from Charlotte to Oslo, Norway for this very reason.  You
> go where the work is and you can't afford not to adapt in a world of change.
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 2:28 AM, Jason Edgecombe <jason at rampaginggeek.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Peter Senft wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I really thought about this mail. And I am still not sure if it is good
>>> to answer because I am still too emotionally affected by it.
>>>
>>> I feel *again* reminded of a time when an Austrian guy ruled Germany and
>>> some dark mindset was planted in the brains of people. Everybody wanted
>>> "Deutschland den Deutschen!" (translates: Germany for the Germans!). We
>>> all know what happened then... What I hear from that senator sounds very
>>> pretty much the same. And *nobody* in politics criticizes him! THIS IS
>>> SCARY!
>>>
>>> In addition this senator should think about his request first and do his
>>> homework. Visa holders by law shall be treated equally to a US citizen.
>>> So there is no visa holders first possible until somebody changes the
>>> laws! But hey, every politician lies more or less all the time and it
>>> seems that it is so common for them to break laws that they suggest it
>>> for everybody else.
>>>
>>> People get real. You try to work on some symptoms and not on the cause.
>>> You live in a capitalistic country where greed is considered good. These
>>> companies are greedy and they give a shit about people. All they care
>>> about is money. But hey, let them lay off all the foreign workers. I
>>> want to see the US workers that is willing to do these job for the
>>> salary that the H-1B's got! These people are needed to hold the economy
>>> up and running! But with all this pressure these companies think now
>>> more about outsourcing. *That* will help laying off all the visa holders
>>> *and* the US citizens and still the company wins.
>>
>> There is another downside to sending the H1-B's home. We're sending
>> well-trained professionals out of the US and they will be competing against
>> instead of helping us.
>>
>> I think the whole H1-B program is unfair to the visa holders. I say scrap
>> the program and roll all of the visas into a permanent visa and raise the
>> cap of permanent visas to accomodate the H1-B's. If companies want to
>> recruit people from abroad, let them stay permanently and switch companies
>> if desired. Let the immigrants bring over their families so that they will
>> stay and increase the brain pool and work pool.
>>
>> Jason
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