[thelist] re: the Third World devel thread

Every tech field is going international -- to include third-world 
competitors.  Computer fields are primary because they don't require 
locally housing the employee.  This isn't just happening because 
people in India buy computers.  Americans already can't fill the 
USA's tech worker needs And those needs are growing fast. 

It wasn't an issue until now except in diverse metro cities where 
corporations knew immigrants tended to be better employees who worked 
for less. This is becoming a WORLD market. The fact that a zillion 
people in India have higher education, decent intelligence, read 
English and now have a computer is going to matter to us.

I did business mgmt and troubleshooting for over 10 years and the 
appalling lack of quality education in the US was pretty apparent.

Several eons ago a US political initiative was begun to require a 
test prior to handing someone a high school diploma.  The test would 
have been simple enough a 6th grader should have passed it.  They 
just wanted to be sure people could read, write and do simple math.  
I believe it was the NAACP that killed that bill, suggesting that 
fewer blacks would pass it and therefore wouldn't get diplomas and 
therefore wouldn't get jobs and therefore it would be a form of 
racial discrimination.  I don't want to get into that discussion here 
(please!! -- some of my family is black and they were SO irate about 
it), I'm just stating this is what happened. The concept of education 
having any meaning at all got lost in that shuffle and hasn't been 
heard from since.

My former husband taught Jr. High in Czech, eons ago (when it was 
Czechoslovakia, now Czech republic).  Russian, Czech, Latin, Physics, 
Art, Music, World History, Czech History, Geography, and many other 
topics were the common things everybody had to learn, and at that 
point had been learning for awhile.  Can you imagine expecting the 
average American 8th-grader to speak three languages, read music and 
actually KNOW more history and geography than almost any college 
graduate in the USA who didn't actually major in the topic would 
know?  It's amazing to me.

Add to all this the issue of exchange rate and foreign economies, 
where making even $15/hr US in many countries translates to far more 
money than their doctors make, and you've got a whole world of people 
with real incentive to become good at something so they can compete 
in the same "world" market.

One of my consultants is a Brit/Canadian (in my mind, hardly 
different from a USA kid, but don't tell him that ;-)).  The exchange 
rate makes his work for me and my clients a fabulous trade for both 
of us. Is that fair to some US guy who could have done that work?  I 
don't know.  What I know is that the job doesn't require the employee 
be local, he's qualified, he's positive and communicative, and for a 
good price I can get good work, so I'm not going to argue about it.

There's a potential job market for Americans as trainers, project 
managers, and other "connective" options between buyers and 
programmers (anywhere, but including in other countries).  You don't 
even have to learn another language in most cases, as most people 
speak (or at least read/write) English.  A small comfort, I know. ;-)

I see the world market as inescapable. It WILL have a direct impact 
on jobs and payscale for Americans in the computer industry -- no 
doubt.  (There are international issues pushing for equal pay for 
people worldwide, but it'll be a long time and a world gov't before 
that happens I bet.)  I'm trying to think of what's so good about it, 
but can only come up with some larger-picture concepts.  It is 
painful for Americans.  Hopefully the competition will eventually 
bring us the positive results that competition has always brought.  
Americans might make lousy slaves but they do tend to be innovative 
when in need. :-)

PJ

A few tips because I DO go on sometimes...

<tip type="sw">If I had it all to learn over again, I would start and 
end with the affordable TextPad program and skip wysiwyg editors 
except in desperate need.  I can even do forms far faster in TP using 
macros than I can do in any of the four wysiwyg editors I sometimes 
use (GoLive, DreamWeaver, FrontPage, Netscape).</tip>

<tip type="editingcode">If you make macros in TextPad, avoid the 
normal "record this typing" bit and instead, make a directory on your 
drive in a similar relationship to all your web site directories, and 
create files (text-based, but you can name them as you wish) with 
code that you want to use and put them there.  Then in TextPad, 
record a macro, say 'insert files' and choose the file to insert.  
Then you can easily edit or change the macro just by changing the 
file. You can generate an entire library of commonly used mini-
scripts, including their standard code (e.g., html table code they 
are within) to speed up drudge work.</tip>

<tip type="graphic">In Photoshop 5.5: To best select a layer, instead 
of using the magic wand or even select color (if it's solid), press 
Ctrl key while clicking on the layer (either in the layers list or on 
the actual image) and the layer will be automatically selected.  
<subtip>This works great when you want to do a 'border' color 
different than a font color for example, which Illustrator does but 
PS doesn't; just select the text layer, make a new layer, and on the 
new layer choose Edit > Stroke and there's an outline.</subtip></tip>

<tip type="graphic">Photoshop 5.5: To get a quick flat snapshot of 
your layered image without duplicating the image and flattening it, 
create a new layer and select it, and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E and 
viola, it will create the composite image as displayed as one layer.  
(For both of these, on Mac: Ctrl=Apple)</tip>


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Palyne Gaenir
ScienceHorizon Web Media
http://www.sciencehorizon.com
palyne@sciencehorizon.com
Toll-Free 877-316-0763