[Tfug] Sick!

Wed Mar 19 10:44:02 2003

Hi Leo.... I should have known you'd jump on this one
:-)

I'm afraid it's not the outsourcing that gets my
goat.... maybe I'm just a little naive in the software
world, but here's what stuns me:

25 people on site in New Mexico at $2000/month living
expenses + wages and another 80 in India...... my
word!!!!! What on earth could you need 100+ people to
do to put together "an online unemployment-claims
system".

Solo -- as in just me -- I designed, implemented and
maintain 2 online registration systems for traffic
school here and in Santa Ana California. Those systems
maintain about 1/2 million student records each in
MySQL databases and they allow around 15 operators to
process new registrations, completions, and changes
through a PHP based web interface to the tune of 500+
calls per day. They also allow students to
self-register at a website and courts to view records
through yet another web interface.... not to drag on,
the point being that it was all created from an
original Access 97 database with about 1200
work-hours.

Now, granted, my system may be a bit less complex than
the system in question..... but hundreds of times less
complex? 

I'm amazed by the industry tendency to spend hundreds
of times more money on systems simply because they
carry some seemingly anointed, and in my opinion
false, superiority. It seems to me to be the single
greatest obstacle for the Open Source movement to
overcome.

So to your question of alternative outsourcing
solutions -> In my opinion, we obviously need
something other than Carnegie Mellon University to
provide testing and validation of software quality. I
wonder what the SEI rating for Microsoft is
considering that I ejected a zip disc from a Win2k
Small Business Server last night and inserted another
to find that the "uncrashable" did not crash.... it
simply froze.... I think it was because I didn't log
in before making the switch.

Anyway....

I'll check into the topcoder site. I've seen it
before... but have been too busy trying to make money
to participate -- after all, I have to admit that's
why I code.... it pays the bills. :-)

Any other feelings, criticism, suggestions, insights,
etc. as always cheerfully and open-mindedly accepted.

Greg  

--- Leo Przybylski <leo@leosandbox.org> wrote:
> Well, I (and I'm sure a lot of others) have seen
> this happening since 
> before the dot bomb. Though the news of overseas
> outsourcing progression 
> is news, that it has been happening for the last few
> years and has had a 
> large impact on our economy and the recession isn't
> really.
> 
> I had no idea that even the government was in
> support of outsourcing 
> like that. At the U of A, isn't it common practice
> to support internal 
> resources before outsourcing? Even if the internal
> resources are pricy, 
> I've never known any department here to be
> unreasonable to the point 
> where you couldn't haggle a little. It's true what
> they said in New 
> Mexico that government is expected to be run like a
> business, but that 
> includes politics. It's inescapable. Corporate and
> educational 
> institutions alike have their own politics. I think
> it's pretty dumb to 
> use the "business model" as an excuse for "selling
> out".
> 
> I was wondering what people think of alternative
> outsourcing practices 
> like topcoder.com. Anyone think that they have the
> proper strategy for 
> advancing on companies with advantages of TCS?
> 
> -Leo Przybylski
> 
> Gregory Gray wrote:
> > AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
> > 
> > I mean
> AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> > 
> > $6 million for what I bet is a one page form that
> > populates a flat file style database sometime
> between
> > now and next Christmas because it's written in
> JAVA.
> > 
> > AND.... the New Mexico Unemployment Department
> doesn't
> > even own the rights -> Tata is reselling to other
> > agencies for increased profit!
> > 
> > AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
> > 
> > I want to say more, but
> > AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
> > --- klsmith <ksmith@dakotacom.net> wrote:
> > 
> >>Anyone look at this?
> >>
> > 
> >
>
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030316S0003
> > 
> >
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> >>Keith Smith
> >>(520) 358-2138
> >>http://www.TucsonCarSales.com/
> >>
> > 
> >
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
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> > 
> > 
> > =====
> > 
> > Greg Gray   greg@getnetez.com    www.getnetez.com 
> > 
> > ---------------------------------
> > 
> > Get Net Ez, Tucson AZ, provides network
> consultation and design services. We specialize in
> database driven website design using PHP and MySQL.
> Other services include Starband satellite internet
> service, Linux networking, and CISCO configuration. 
> > 
> > ---------------------------------
> > 
> > 
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