Maybe now some of our American Citizen IT people can actually get a decent job. So many are under-employed because India does it cheaper. I have been replaced by someone in India twice now out of my last 3 jobs. For the year 2015, 262,925 H1B visas were approved for the Computer Systems Design and Related Services industry. That is just one industry.

Another language that is similar to, but not quite resembling, an existing language. Honestly I am finding it difficult to keep up with all the different frameworks and languages and such. Bootcamps churning out web developers who learn how to make pretty pages but have no foundation to build upon, like data structures and algorithms. A seamstress goes to a web developer bootcamp and now all of a sudden she thinks she is a rockstar software developer. She may be awesome with her HTML, killer using CSS, but does she know how to get data from a database? Then you have the marketing guys who will want to use this new language. First it was the cloud, everything was about the cloud. Then it was Big Data, yes lets do that, lets do big data. They jump on every new trendy hip thing out there. Then the IS directors and HR managers try to hire someone with experience in the new language that just came out. How are you going to find someone with 1-2 years experience in it unless it is the person who wrote it? What we really need is for the existing languages to enforce good programming practices. Not to be picking on anyone, however, have you ever looked at some of the code out there? So many of these so-called programmers can't seem to use a newline character, or an indent. And adding comments in their code is like giving away information to the enemy. I would like to see more standardization and less new baubles and shiny bits.

Teach your kids to drive manual transmissions, this will give them a better understanding of what is going on in their engine. Then they can drive nearly any car on the market and they will have more respect for their machines. Teach a programmer a compiled language like C, a scripting language like Perl and something with objects, C++ or Java come to mind. Then they can handle most languages except the really low ones, Assembly language. All they need to do is learn the syntax and apply what they have learned. C is still relevant and so is Perl even though I have been hearing for years that Perl is dying. The programmers graduating now lack much of the fundamental knowledge. They rely on their environment to do most of the syntax for them. They are not as good at debugging unless it is obvious and their tools spoon feed it to them. Many have never used a command line.

I have adult children and I am a computer programmer AND I still want to be a princess. We could pontificate for days, weeks, years....many people have already, about is it nature or nurture? I believe that every child is unique. If they are given guidance in things like "don't kill shit", "Wear clean clothes", etc. and given the freedom to choose their own path, they will choose what makes them happy. But we don't allow them that freedom so we? The author himself influences the child as well. Parents today spend far too much time making sure that Jill knows she can be like Jack, but not really like him, only kinda like him that they themselves actually cause much of the gender anxiety kids feel. FYI, I have a boy who played with dolls also with trucks and a girl who played with trucks also with dolls. They both have chosen their paths based on their interests which changed many times throughout childhood. Now where did I put that wand???

Legally, if you are continuously working for the same company as a contractor for longer than 2 years then you are considered a regular employee, with all the rights and privileges that go along with that. Washington State may say 18 months, who knows, or Microsoft is being cautious. At any rate. It is more of a legal move than a jerk move. I agree they hire too many H1B visa employees. I also agree that companies such as Microsoft who lay off huge numbers from their workforce only to turn them into contract workers should be illegal. They do it for economic reasons. When a company is run by a bunch of MBA's, this is what you get. Everyone is a number and has an assigned value. You are just a cell on a spreadsheet.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of the ads say, must be able to play video games.... blah blah blah, or we have a fully stocked beer refrigerator..... you get the idea. OK the two questions? They asked me if I knew how to write PERL and PHP fluently, yes I do They asked if I was familiar with working in a Linux shell, yes I am. I worked at Hewlett Packard engineering where we used UNIX, Then they said they had quite a few other candidates to get through and they would let me know. Do a search for Jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area and see why it is that maybe, just maybe, women in IT are not getting hired. I had one job that said, extra points if you can write, "Application for Engineering Job" in Klingon in the email subject. I am serious. Unfortunately, there is not a word for Engineer in Klingon so I can't even remember what I put as a substitute. They actually asked me to come in for an interview. And to the asshole who mentioned my shortcomings and grammar... Seriously? When I am being interviewed by w\someone who calls me dude? Get over yourself already.

There are plenty of women, incredibly qualified women to fill the IT jobs. However, the "not a good culture fit" applies here too. Even though I could probably kick ass in Call of Duty like any of the guys, these companies are still like grade school. No one wants to play with the "girls". I have an ambiguous name. I get phone interviews. they ask for me. I say this is her. They ask two questions then hang up. Tell me this is not discrimination!

I agree. Freedom of speech does not mean you have that freedom only if you agree with me.

Remember, people testified using their avatar names for Second Life and some of them were made fun of right here on Slashdot? Privacy and anonymity is an illusion anyway.

Google knows everything about you, they insist you use your birth name that no one freaking knows you by on the internet and NOW they want access to my credit cards? No thank you. Google is the company who said they would never be evil, and now they are being much more evil and big brother-ish than any other company. Sigh.... but there are people who would sell their souls for $10. I have more principles than that.

People love to think their email address is @ my domain. I reported one guy to facebook and he kept signing up. I got tired of dealing with it and I get invites to all kinds of stuff all written in italian. One guy signed up on cupid.com, now that has been interesting :P It's annoying and has been for years. Now I usually just delete them. Sometimes I will reply depending on the email. But yeah it would be cool if there was a way to stamp it "return to sender, no one by that name at this address" like you do snail mail.

Assembly is not taught as a requirement at our local college. Regular BASIC isn't either. Real Programmers know more than one language and can fairly easily move from one to the other. They also are able to pick up new languages since they understand the basics of programming. Today, someone will throw a PHP web page together and call themselves a programmer. To truly be good at programming you not only need to know the language and it's syntax, but also what that syntax is actually doing in the machine. A mechanic woudl not be a mechanic if all he did was pump your gas and changed your oil, right? He/She needs to understand why you change the oil and what happens to it within the engine.

Southwest doesn't have a first class section. From Oakland to Burbank, the route he was taking, is an hour flight. It's like a commuter flight, like taking a bus. He was just in town for the day.

He always buys two tickets so he doesn't have to sit next to someone, not because of his size. He was able to put both armrests down and buckle his seatbelt without an extender. If you listen to his podcast (named Smodcast), you will get the entire story. He was seated and buckling in when they removed him. He had been recognized by several people around him. There was a guy fatter than him a few rows back that they did not remove. Then when he got on the next flight, an overweight woman sat in the aisle seat of his row. He had bought two tickets so he was near the window. They took this woman aside and told her that next time she should consider buying two tickets. That was just rude and unnecessary. Unless they have a clear guideline, "you must be able to fit between these two bars while seated", and they implement it consistently, he has every right to complain. He isn't that big. Yeah he says he is fat. That's his self-image, and he is willing to own that and be responsible for it. The way the situation was handled was more of the issue. Some people really are not in control of their weight. Many diseases can cause you to gain body mass. Also many medications will do that as well. My mother was on steroids for her lung disease and that made her balloon out. Once she went off the steroids she went back to her normal size. I try not to judge people or label them. This world would be a much better place if people were less judgmental and more compassionate.

The only thing that makes them our "employees" is that they get paid by our tax money. Many things that are illegal in this country was not decided upon by the general public. The majority doesn't even vote. A good example of this is Tylenol with Codeine (300/30) commonly known as 3s, these are 300 mg of tylenol (acetaminophen) to 30 mg of codeine. Now Codiene is classified as an opiate though unlike true opiates, it does not pass the blood/brain barrier. it is metabolized in the body. In the small dosage of 30mg, the buzz you may get is similar to that of Nyquil or a shot of alcohol, both perfectly legal. In the United States this so-called drug is classified as a Schedule III narcotic and heavily regulated. My doctor is not allowed to set it to have refills, I have to get approval from her each time to have it refilled. But I can go to Canada or Mexico and this same drug is sold over the counter. Australia and New Zealand too. In the UK it is also available over the counter. Here in the United States they now regulate the active ingredient in Sudafed since it has been used to cut methamphetamine with. I have to ask for it from the pharmacist and show my driver's license. It is then recorded in a book that I have purchased it. I would prefer to not have to feel like some kind of drug addict because I have a stuffy nose and sudafed is all that works. Or because I have menstrual cramps and codeine is the only thing that will bring me relief.