Building software is like building other stuff. Its engineering dude - whether its "accredited" as engineering or not...

smile++

"yet fails to slam the US for its practice of applying the 'engineer' label to sanitation workers, building janitors, boiler operators, FaceSpace coders, MSCEs and DeVry graduates."

I went to DeVry a while back and it was no cake-walk. To earn my CIS degree, the was a while back, but we had courses covering programming, databases, online systems, systems analysis.

I was a CIS graduate.

We wrote a ton of programs and we used 6 programming languages that I remember and wrote mainframe as well as Unix and MS-DOS programs.

So I'm not an "Engineer" because I graduated from DeVry with a CIS degree, but I've held the software engineering title several times in my career and I've had to mentor and supervise ( and fix bad code written by ) grads with CS and EE degrees ( even one 2 guys with CS doctorates ) from universities?

Come on, they could make it here if they wanted to. BMW makes cars/SUV's in South Carolina. Boeing makes jumbo jets in Washington state. I'm sure if Amazon shopped around they could find someone the US that could make it and import the parts that could not be manufactured here.

It might be more expensive, yes. but it could be made here.

I would keep learning. I've been in the Industry about 20 years. I started with Cobol, then RPG, then C, then C++, then Java, and now I'm doing some Groovy and Ruby and lots of SQL. Also, Its funny, I still work a lot with C and there is still a lot of C code out there.

In my humble opinion, you would probably get the best results learning Java, Groovy, and Ruby. And of course keep your SQL skills strong.

I would also stay away from PM work. I have done some Project Management and some Business Analysis. I hardly ever get recruiters asking me about PM jobs or Business Analyst jobs.

On the other hand, regardless of what anyone tells me about outsourcing, etc, recruiters still call me and email me about coding jobs all the time. I'm a US Citizen, 40 something years old, and I haven't been out of work more than 2 weeks in 20 years by staying technical and coding.

Good luck...

Mostly men and software geeks:

http://mashable.com/2011/07/14/google-plus-male/

Wow - that's fun and diverse. Its just like Slashdot...

Empty Threats? Do you have any statistics to back that statement up?

I for one am a Netflix subscriber that used to be 5 DVD a month - when they had that plan. But I have downgraded 3 times. First when they started throttling movies and I wasn't get my DVD's in a reasonable time. Then I was at 3 a month. I dropped to 2 a month when they pulled the Blu-Ray "bait and switch" and started charging more for Blu-Rays.

Now this. So I dropped them to streaming only and I am considering canceling.

I don't think its empty threats. A lot of us have been with Netflix for a while and we have long memories. Each time the Netflix Management pulls one of these stunts, some of us cancel and some of us downgrade.

I came very close to canceling this time.

And its not about the money, its about being treated like a "customer" and not a "moran".

I think they really f'd it up this time and I think a lot of those threats of cancellation were not idle.

"The reviews I've seen have tried (and failed) to cast C.L.U. as a clueless (pun intended) bad guy. But he wasn't a bad guy, he was Flynn's idealism wrapped up in a program. The movie is more about idealism and the folly of trying to attain perfection than it is about any sort of struggle between good and evil."

Exactly. Its more about unobtainable perfection and order verse chaos, rather then simple good verse evil.

I would also add that in my opinion Clu represents "Yang" - Order through force, while Flynn in his old age had become the more "Yin" and passive.

Didn't any of you notice the "Black" and "White" of every program/user in the Grid, as opposed to the "colors" in the old tron?

I think that represented the system had "split" into imbalance between Order and Perfection ( Clu ) and Chaos and Acceptance of imperfectness ( Older Flynn ). Balance was restored at the end destroying both Clu and the older Flynn.

"They are rational, calculating, and smarter than naive Westerners."

Huh??? If they are "rational, calculating, and smarter than naive Westerners", why are they building a huge hotel when:
1. nobody wants to even visit North Korea.
2. even if you want to visit they probably won't let you in anyway?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel

You are correct that they are a troll and great at playing the Cold War game and I'm sure the average North Korean is as intelligent as anyone else. But I would have to say that the leadership in North Korea is neither intelligent or rational or calculating. they tend to behave "childishly" ( hey, look at me, my people are starving, but I got nukes! I got nukes! ) and they are just trying to maintain power using the old cold war games in a different world.

But its not 1960, 1970 or 1980 anymore. I doubt the Chinese or any of the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union would help them out if it came to war. In addition, I doubt their military would fair well at all against the more modern South Korean forces, especially with help from the US and other allies. Its not a "1950's" world anymore. A large army doesn't always win wars. For example, the Iraqis had a large amount of troops and the republican guard, but moral doesn't hold up very well when your solders are attacked by much more modern equipment.

The North Korean leadership is just another relic of the cold war. A "pseudo-communist" fascist dictatorship that used to be propped up by the former Soviet Union and China that is becoming less and less relevant. T

China: "We made the fastest super-computer!!!"

Intel and NVidia: "Uh - no you didn't, We are own all your processors!!!"

Hey,
I got news for you. I've got border line depression sometimes too. And I have to force myself to do everything - exercise, eating right, not drinking too much, going out and meeting people, etc. Its life. In fact, if you read a lot you will find that many great and successful people also have to "force" themselves to do what they do.

Abe Lincoln is an example of a great man that fought depression.

In fact, I think people that are never depressed aren't normal. I've met people like this, and I actually pity them because they don't have the ability to "relish" and "savor" the good times. Because only if you have been through the "bad" times and had some depression - can you really, really see the light when life is good.

So don't let it hold you back. I know there are days where I lay in bed for an hour, not even wanting to get up. But I beat it most of the time.

Just my 2 cents.