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By nathan (Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 12:00:55 PM EST) (all tags)
Have you considered outsourcing it pre-emptively?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/16/developer_oursources_job_china/

If you want some ideas on how, just call up "Bob" and make yourself the victim of a bad inception.
< I think you might do something better with the time | C: no longer just your grade in the course >
Concerned about your job? | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 hidden)
I have considered this by jimgon (4.00 / 1) #1 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 12:04:18 PM EST
In the end I decided not to because ultimately I would still have to answer questions.




---------------
Technician - "We can't even get decent physical health care. Mental health is like witchcraft here."
lol, china. by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #2 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 12:55:03 PM EST
it's amazingly cheap outsourcing to china. a senior programmer in china makes something like 6000-8000 rmb a month. and that's if they live in beijing. it's probably not hard to go lower than that. that's something like 900-1200 usd. it's amazing that publicly traded companies are even allowed to employ american programmers anymore. do managers just like the feeling of being directly in charge of someone? 

I agree by nathan (4.00 / 1) #3 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 02:35:14 PM EST
Is there any American that's actually worth the cost of his labor? I doubt it -- time to automate everything and offshore whatever's left over.

[ Parent ]
indeed. by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #4 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 04:47:22 PM EST
unfortunately, such automation will only leave us with an aging human population living in shanty towns on the edges of formerly urban areas, now full of burnt out lots, as the owners of this new army of robotic servants push aggressively for reduced social services and freedom from innovation-killing taxes.

[ Parent ]
it sounds like... by gzt (4.00 / 1) #5 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 04:54:09 PM EST
...you've been to the south side of Chicago. well, except for the robots.

[ Parent ]
would robots lead to a reduction in gun crime? by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #7 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 05:03:47 PM EST
i mean, you can't rob a robot's bodega at gun point, you know? on the other hand, poor people would still be the way to go for black market drug sales staffing.

maybe the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy who can't be hurt by conventional weapons.

[ Parent ]
'you can't rob a robot's bodega at gun point' by nathan (4.00 / 1) #10 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 06:07:39 PM EST

I'll take that bet. Third law of robotics requires that a robot bodega clerk cooperate with robbers (unless allowing one's self to be robbed counts as "allowing humans to come to harm," but even so it's probably a lesser harm than losing the value of the robot would entail.)



[ Parent ]
simple by gzt (4.00 / 1) #12 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 06:35:04 PM EST
hold a gun to your own head and take yourself hostage. the robot will be forced to cooperate to save your life. cf. Blazing Saddles

[ Parent ]
it's murkier than you think. by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #16 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 07:00:40 PM EST
allowing the robbery to proceed would bring harm to robodega corporation and its shareholders. i don't think the third law would come into it. not only is the robotic cashier made of bulletproof materials, he'd be seated behind bulletproof glass. 

on the other hand, if the cashier took matters into his own hands and vaporized his assailant, would he really be doing any more harm than he and his employers already are by creating an urban environment devoid of quality produce?


[ Parent ]
the answer is obviously by nathan (4.00 / 1) #18 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 08:17:55 PM EST
Socialized robot bodegas like the ones in Canada and France.

[ Parent ]
disagree, in the future our problem will be by nathan (4.00 / 1) #11 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 06:16:41 PM EST
Figuring out what to do with all the free time that we're going to have. Once we socialize robot ownership, everyone will share the benefits of robot production and we'll therefore achieve a post-scarcity society. (Even the few resources that retain scarcity, such as oil and rubidium, will be required mostly for robot manufacturing and as such will be of no concern to humans).

[ Parent ]
hm, interesting perspective. by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #15 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 06:46:02 PM EST
it never occurred to me that what will happen in the next thirty years will be exactly the opposite of what's happened in the last thirty years. it's the pendulum theory of history! 

[ Parent ]
singularity, bro by nathan (4.00 / 1) #17 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 08:16:39 PM EST
At worst, since Moore's law still holds, at some point it's mathematically inevitable that we'll be able to upload our minds into a simulation in which everyone enjoys infinite wealth and freedom. But it's more likely that we'll simply discover an unlimited source of free energy.

Against the standard objection that exponential increases in energy expenditures per human are unsustainable since the surface of the earth would eventually become hotter than the sun, I offer the obvious rebuttal that we can install space elevators serving as a planetary heat sink.

[ Parent ]
aren't there already plans along these lines? by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #19 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 09:15:24 PM EST
it was my understanding that enterprising scientists are working out how to bring asteroids close to the earth and tether them into geosynchronous orbit to facilitate mining. that's kind of like a heat sink, what with solar wind and all that. 

[ Parent ]
re: singularity by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #20 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 09:18:12 PM EST
doesn't it seem much more likely that the owners of the simulation will force the masses into mental subjugation, doing menial arithmetic and data manipulation tasks for the amusement of their social betters? 

[ Parent ]
no sir, nor that hillary clinton isn't a lizard. by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #22 Thu Jan 17, 2013 at 05:30:45 AM EST
you can't prove a negative! 

[ Parent ]
bankers and congressmen. by gzt (4.00 / 1) #6 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 04:56:41 PM EST
and anybody involved with domestic energy production: we're a mercantilist society now, we have to be energy independent. look at what it's done for canada, after all.

[ Parent ]
interesting thing about canada: by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #8 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 05:14:21 PM EST
about the same time canada reaches energy independence through judicious exploitation of its natural resources, the encroachment of sharia law and the sonoran desert will have made it remarkably similar to saudi arabia. 

[ Parent ]
saudi arabia... by gzt (4.00 / 1) #9 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 05:56:39 PM EST
...just appointed 30 women to its 150-person shura council. that matches the proportion of women in the US Senate. just sayin'.

[ Parent ]
by then there will be no senate, by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #13 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 06:40:21 PM EST
just a massive statue of mitt romney pointing out over the wastes and ruins, with a plaque reading "my lands are where my dead are buried." 

[ Parent ]
damn you google autocomplete... by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #14 Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 06:42:41 PM EST
lie buried. 

[ Parent ]
Fishy by Herring (2.00 / 0) #23 Thu Jan 17, 2013 at 10:46:41 AM EST
Unnamed company - OK, fair enough but "logins to the company's main server". "Main server"? They do their development directly on the main production environment?

Reckon it's a made-up attempt at viral marketing stunt by Verizon.

You can't inspire people with facts
- Small Gods

Concerned about your job? | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 hidden)
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