[Tfug] Sick!

Mon Mar 24 21:34:01 2003

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregory Gray" <usulix@yahoo.com>
To: <tfug@tfug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Tfug] Sick!

> 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.
>

URL's please.  I'd like to look at such a system.

Thanks,
Keith

> 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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