I would be less surprised to see the opposite effect.

From my own experience, people will use proprietary software even when an adequate, or even better, free software alternative exists, simply because they don't know enough or don't care enough about technology to be aware of the difference. Proprietary software comes with massive marketing, which is what makes people aware of those products. It wasn't until I started to learn how to program that I was even introduced to the concept of open source or free software, because suddenly I was exposed to communities and ideas that were previously unknown to me.

I don't think public education will start churning out many good programmers who would otherwise have never started programming, but it might expose enough young people to the ideas of how software is created that more people will learn about free software and why it's important.

Thanks for commenting. I had no idea what Sad Puppies was prior to reading the summary, and after visiting the website, their stated goals seem genuine to me.

Can we please stop this tired, old, bullshit line about all of our tech jobs being outsourced?

http://money.usnews.com/career...

If someone can't find work as a software developer in the US, here's the reality: that person is bad at their job.

Meh, I'm not worried. All of the information, tutorials, examples, etc., that you could possibly want to help you learn how to program is already easily available for free on the internet. I wouldn't bet on the public school system being able to magically generate millions of good software developers when even top universities haven't been able to figure out how to make successful programmers. To do anything more interesting than the plainest of web or app development still requires a significant time investment to learn languages, platforms, computer architecture, etc. The biggest impact I could see this having is fewer "menial" software jobs being outsourced.

Could be $56 per month, including an equipment plan. Otherwise, yes, $56 should be way too much for 2GB. I think my service plan with T-Mobile is about $100 per month for unlimited 4G for 2 lines.

A cursory glance through Zillow suggests that rent is about half of what you would expect for a comparable apartment in the Bay Area.

Good god, you're dumb. Are you unable to recognize tenses? GP clearly stated that he used to live in the US, which means he no longer lives there.

I live in California, but I'd definitely give Vancouver a shot if I got an interesting enough job offer. Great city and very comfortable weather.

This thread just sounds like a bunch of grumpy old men. Lots of software tends to suck these days; that much I'll agree with you on. But to suggest it's solely the fault of "those darn hipsters" is ludicrous.

Jonathan Ive gets some of the blame at Apple, and he's nearly 50. And at every software company I've been with, executives in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are still the ones calling the shots and bankrolling everything. You're suggesting that they are blameless because some designers and engineers in their 20s don't have the years of experience it requires to really understand good software development?

If it's an issue of ageism that's keeping experienced and qualified people out of the positions in which they can keep software rolling in a productive way, then once again that sounds like the responsibility of the executives who are leading the company. These might be other young guys in new startups, but I not Mozilla or Apple.

I've never _once_ intentionally clicked on an ad, so advertisers shouldn't give a fuck about me anyways, unless they think that flooding me with their junk frequently enough will subliminally trick me into buying their stuff. People who install ad-blockers typically are not the people who click on or pay attention to ads.

East Palo Alto seems to have gotten more expensive due to its proximity to Facebook. BART's also only useful if you work in SF or the North Bay. I work in Redwood, and from my research there's really nothing cheap short of a 2 hour commute from there. But I'm not the problem demographic; I'm an engineer, so my salary is heavily based on the cost of living. I'm more concerned about the people who aren't working cushy tech jobs.

It makes me wonder: how long until the Bay Area implodes due to the near-impossibility of service workers affording a life here? I'm living in Milpitas, which is supposedly a cheaper part of the bay, and a 2 bedroom apartment is still nearly $3k per month here. More cities are implementing rent control policies (to keep rent from jumping $500 or more per year, which is what has been happening), but it feels like it's too late for that to be effective. Once rent is $1k too much per month, it had might as well be $10k too much.

Well duhhh. To be any older than that, it would have been around before the Earth existed.

I believe it's called a lobotomy.

I hope you eventually stopped to look up the definition of "irony."