I CAN'T GET TO LOLGOATS!

Wow - in my position (US based consultant) we are the ones who have to take 11 PM - 1 AM status calls twice a week. We're the ones who have no accomodation from the Indian side because everyone needs to leave precisely at 5:33 PM IST to catch their bus to go home. We're the ones who have to lead changes during maintenance windows (overnight) because there are no suitable offshore counterparts who can execute on a playbook. In a separate comment I mentioned that the rockstars offshore quickly move on, so when we do find a great resource they're often not around for long, leaving us to dip back in the pool of talent. If India is going to accept its new worldwide role of being the frontline tech sector frontrunner, it should probably start moving away from the "assimilation" type of education it's traditionally been doing and move more towards a more western "application of concepts" approach that you mentioned. There should be no reason at all someone, whether they be an onshore new hire or an offshore new hire, in a tech role at a really large IT company, should stop everything they're doing when confronted with a "Click Finish to Complete Installation" dialog box with an "OK" and "Cancel" button on it just because it wasn't detailed in the install doc. Click OK! Spread those wings and fly, baby bird! Learn on your own! Maybe I'm the weird one who would like it more if someone said "I tried X, Y, and Z. They didn't work. Ideas?" as opposed to "I ran into this at 12 PM my time, tried nothing, and now it's 18 hours later and you have finally told me to click OK. Until I run into another dialog box that says "You sure?" with another OK button and we waste a complete day back and forth again."

I'd love to see an objective measurement of IBM's quality of service from 2002 to now, mapped against the shift to a majorly offshore work model. I work for a subsidy of a very large consulting competitor of IBM's, and are witnessing the same phenomenon - more and more offshore workers tacked on to project teams that just drag everything down. The more offshore we're shackled with (and I really mean that - we're given no choice by service line leadership) the worse we are able to deliver on our projects. The biggest issue for me is that once we've been able to identify the offshore rockstars - the fabled guys you can actually work well with, trust, and receive good quality work product from, they either get instapromoted to management or realize they can get more than just the 17k/year salary or whatever it is they're getting and GTFO. Either way you don't get to work with them for long. Then you get whoever's free in the pool when you're building a project team - no calling "dibs" on the right guys for the job. Quite often you just get a warm body who isn't familiar with the tech you're working with, the processes of project delivery, or will refuse to perform any work unless you have mapped it out to the click.

They found it when they were actually searching for the nearest Burger King in Gary, Indiana.

I insist we only use organic insulin for all of the newly diabetic cows! It's sustainable... or something.

If you get a DUI under 21, you lose your license for 6 months. If you get caught (and it's your first offense) and you're 21 or over, it amounts to losing it for about 2 weeks. Least that's the way it is in the state of Minnesota. I don't see why they don't just make it so you lose your license for 6 months regardless of your age. It's crippling in most US cities. Our public transportation sucks.

I'd also like to see the stats on HFCS/sugar ratio in sodas from the 1960's to now graphed right alongside the BPA situation. Have the sodas themselves changed over time? I'd think that would have much more of an impact, along with sitting in a chair all day and eating whoppers.

It was announced today that almost everyone has a risk of cancer! But not everyone will be affected by cancer. Film at 11.

Make sure to check for squirrels first too.

If they don't cast The Rock as Raven I will be very disappointed. And still see it opening night.

Um... Yeah, and this far out in the PS3 dev cycle we thought we'd be stuck with those horrible boomerang controllers too. So I'll take it with a grain of anti-Sony-bias salt. Not that I'd put it past them, just that it's too early to start shitting myself with worry.

It was SVU - and I swear I thought this story was a parody recap of that. Right down to it being an anti-malaria drug.

Take that, NOD!

"Yeah, boss? I can't come into work today. My Ford Focus just BSOD'd in my driveway."

Mind explaining how they do that? Now you've got me worried about my own TvTorrents credit situation :)