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Comment Re:So let's flame on... (Score 1) 385

by kevinbrock (#24720239) Attached to: Ratio of IT Department Workers To Overall Employees?

....it's the nature of hierarchical systems like corporates that the _WORST_ companies, employing the WORST methods employ the most people because they are so inefficient that they need to get the job done.

Of course, sometimes company A employs 10 times the people of company B because it's *more* efficient, and doing 20 times the business. Got to look at the context.

Feed Science Daily: United States Continues To Have Highest Level Of Health Spending (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Researchers report that the United States continues to spend the most on health care when compared to other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Health care prices and higher per capita incomes are major factors for higher U.S. spending, according to a new study. Compared to the average OECD country in 2004, the United States has fewer health resources—physicians, nurses and hospital beds—and lower utilization of these resources.

Feed Science Daily: Education Linked To Risk Of Cancer Death (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
A new American Cancer Society study finds having at least some education beyond high school is strongly associated with a decreased risk of cancer death. For all cancer sites combined, death rates among white and black men with the lowest (0-8 years) level of education were about three times higher than those with the highest (17+ years) level of education.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Should I believe the Occ. Outlook Handbook?

Submitted by
concerned00
concerned00 writes: "In their latest Occupational Outlook Handbook, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that employment of software engineers and system analysts is expected to increase "much faster than the average" through 2014. (here, and here). In contrast, employment of programmers is expected to increase "more slowly than the average", with outsourcing given as one of the major reasons why. (here)

The difference between a "software engineer" and a "programmer" seems somewhat dubious to me, although from the Web pages in question apparently the software engineer is involved in requirements gathering, analysis, and design, whereas the programmer usually is not. According to the Web page for programmers, "[t]he consolidation and centralization of systems and applications, developments in packaged software, advances in programming languages and tools, and the growing ability of users to design, write, and implement more of their own programs mean that more of the programming functions can be transferred from programmers to other types of information workers, such as computer software engineers." (?)

The page for software engineers says: "Computer software engineers are projected to be one of the fastest-growing occupations from 2004 to 2014". Reasons given: the increasing complexity of computer systems, the need to "adopt and integrate new technologies", "the expanding integration of Internet technologies and the explosive growth in electronic commerce", the increasing reliance on "hand-held computers and wireless networks", and concerns about security. Yet: "As with other information technology jobs, employment growth of computer software engineers may be tempered somewhat as more software development is contracted out abroad. Firms may look to cut costs by shifting operations to lower wage foreign countries with highly educated workers who have strong technical skills. At the same time, jobs in software engineering are less prone to being sent abroad compared with jobs in other computer specialties, because the occupation requires innovation and intense research and development." (?)

On the other hand, to hear the personal anecdotes of many (American) programmers on the Internet, the profession is lost and anyone in college majoring in computer science or software engineering must be either be naive or insane. According to them, you have to be a genius programmer if you expect to compete successfully for the slim pickings that are left, there is no job security at all, and the best most can realistically hope for these days is a job at Home Depot. Furthermore, even if you could get work, you wouldn't want it: the deadlines are impossible, the bosses are naive, petty-minded, and perversely self-serving, and the technology changes so fast that if you allow yourself to slip behind you might as well kiss your career good-bye.

Is the government wrong, or lying, then, when it implies that software engineers and system analysts can expect to have a good future? As an American, am I a fool if I decide to undertake this for a living?"
Censorship

Submission + - EU Commissioner Calls For Censorship Of Web Search (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to the Reuters, "Internet searches for bomb-making instructions should be blocked across the European Union, the bloc's top security official said on Monday". Franco Frattini, the EU Justice and Security commissioner, "intend[s] to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism ..." So, how long before the tech companies in USA are being investigated for assisting the evil EU to curb free speech of their citizens? And what chances there are for the Europeans among us to kick Mr. Frattini out of his office before it's too late to even talk about it in the Internets?
Security

Tor Used To Collect Embassy Email Passwords 99

Posted by kdawson from the getting-their-attention dept.
Several readers wrote in to inform us that Swedish security researcher Dan Egerstad has revealed how he collected 100 passwords from embassies and governments worldwide, without hacking into anything: he sniffed Tor exit routers. Both Ars and heise have writeups on Egerstad's blog post, but neither adds much to the original. It's not news that unencrypted traffic exits the Tor network unencrypted, but Egerstad correctly perceived, and called attention to, the lack of appreciation for this fact in organizations worldwide.
NASA

Submission + - NASA building massively heat-resistant chips (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "NASA researchers have designed and built a new circuit chip that can take the heat of a blast furnace and keep on performing. Silicon Carbide (SiC) chips can operate in 600 degrees Celsius or 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit where conventional silicon-based electronics — limited to about 350 C — would fail. The new silicon carbide differential amplifier integrated circuit chip may provide benefits to anything requiring long-lasting electronic circuits in very hot environments such as jets, spacecraft and industrial machinery.In particular, NASA said SiC applications will include energy storage, renewable energy, nuclear power, electrical drives. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19316"

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