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Thursday, December 1, 2016

Developing Countries Software Developers - on Their Way to Rule the World?



The pacific is small compared to the ocean of debate that has been held during the last decade concerning the possible evaporation of software development jobs out of western economies in favor of technologically developing economies (mainly India).

The main argument feeding that state of mind says that hiring developers in India (and other developing countries) in much less expensive than hiring personnel in developed economies. Let's have a look at the average annual hiring costs of software engineers in several countries:

Australia: $180,000

Canada: $155,000

Denmark: $146,000

United Kingdom: $145,000

United States: $130,000

Spain: $95,000

Poland: $50,000

India: $50,000

China: $36,000

Fine,now we all know that basically it's much more economical to close down your office in the the Silicon-Valley, Toronto, London (let alone Sydney) and move to the golden mines of Bangalore, Kiev or simply Beijing.

So why do you: Jeff, Philip. Francois, Jorgen and Kylie still employed? I guess that the decision-makers in high-tech firms also take into account the following arguments:

1. The hiring costs in developing countries rise constantly and quite sharply: about 10% annually. This means that by 2020 (if the trend continues), the hiring costs in India should be around $130,000. I assume that this trend deters mass transition of western firms to developing countries.

2. Mental gaps between continents may be excruciating: the mainstream cultures in the US, in W. Europe or in Australia are almost upside-down compared to those in most Asian nations, and those nearly reversed cultures should work together on a daily basis. Many decision-makers wouldn't take the risk.

3. Telecommuting is a fantastic idea, but most decision-makers just can't bear the possibility of not controlling face-to-face their employees, especially those involved in the core development of products. Let alone when the employees are located across the ocean.

4. Local patriotic concerns - many decision-makers can't come to terms with the idea of firing local employees in favor of foreigners, and do their utmost effort to avoid such steps. They know that they might meet the employee they fire at the local mall.

5. Disrespect for personnel in developing countries - Many decision-makers don't actually believe in the professional abilities of Programmers in developing countries, and tend to believe that the gap in the costs should materialize in gap of quality.

Conclusion - There are some decisive constraints on the move of software development to developing economies (primarily India). In my opinion, the large majority of software development is about to stay where it is today.

We should bear in mind that cultural changes (including organizational changes) take generally generations to take root. Think of how many services we can acquire on the web but still use the services of a professional: travel agents, matchmakers, newspapers, libraries and many more.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office





Ladies & gentlemen, my dear readers!

Today I'm going to talk a beat about the new born baby - Apple's iPad. Who really needs this toy and what can it really do?

1. Reading articles or books - iPad's screen is large and clear enough to let you read web articles, e-books or PDF/Word documents. You'll not have to ruin your eyes or suffer in any other way.

2. Games - There's a reasonably wide variety of games for iPad and it can be a substitute to game consoles (like Nintendo) for light-gamers. However, it's early to relate to iPad as a substitute to the desktop PC.

3. TV & movies - you can watch TV or videos in a reasonable quality. I wouldn't bet on it replacing your 50 inch plasma TV, but as a little TV it can do great.

4. Presenting presentations - if you need to present Powerpoint presentations outside your office or something similar, the iPad can replace a laptop and make it easier for you.

5. Basic web usage - it can replace a laptop in basic web functions, like: email, Facebook and more. It doesn't suffer from special communication troubles that may harass the web usage, and the screen is large enough not to cause you much misery.

6. Long usage without battery charging - iPad can reach 10 hours of active usage without charging, which is much longer than an average laptop.
The downsides of iPad must be taken into account:

1. iPad's screen isn't successfully suitable for usage outdoors, and you may suffer from using it at the beach or at a picnic.

2. iPad was created by nerds and it's itself a nerd: smart,skinny and fragile. Daily usage by young kids or messing otherwise with it should make its days shorter & shorter.

3. iPad isn't widely perceived as an attractive instrument, and its functionality is much better than its looks. So it might not be the ultimate purchase for making you cool.

4. iPad (as an Apple product) doesn't support Flash, which may be a nuisance for some users.

5. Above all - iPad isn't a PC: which means that you shouldn't expect it to be more than it's meant to be: a partial substitute to a laptop.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Your Lapotop's Battery - Welcome to Your Headache

Your Laptop's Battery - a Few Important Points to Remember Your battery is low again, ah?? Here's a pack of small details you probably don't know yet, and might be helpful for you:

1. What's better : keeping the laptop plugged in to the power socket or letting it get empty and recharging it ? most of you might jump and say "sure, keeping it plugged in". Wrong! the battery is like a muscle, if it gets some training, it preserves its potency. If it's always fully charged, it gets older very fast.

2. If you think that after some 6 months with the laptop, the battery holds for less hours than when it was brand new, you're absolutely right! To know exactly how much capacity the battery has lost, you may use the following software: http://download.cnet.com/BatteryBar/3000-2094_4-10866804.html

3. Along the laptop's life, the power meter (this little meter that tells you how fully charged is the battery at the moment) gets less & less accurate. This may cause you problems like: sudden shutting down of the laptop while doing something important. You can fix this issue by "recalibrating" the battery.

How to recalibrate:

a. Charge your battery completely. Then,wait 2 hours with the laptop plugged in.

b. Drain the battery completely (till the laptop turns off). Then. wait 5 hours.

c. Charge again the battery. Now, the power meter should be more accurate.

4. When is the appropriate time to dump your battery and purchase a new one? Experts claim that it's recommended to keep the battery while it's at least 25% of its original strength. Below this point, the battery can't give you a reasonable service.

Summary - the battery is the laptop's #1 headache, but using the points I've mentioned, might prevent this pain from becoming a migraine..

Friday, May 13, 2016

Webmaster - The Master of the Web

Ladies and gentlemen, this week I'm going to write a bit about some sort of a guy. We know him as a "Webmaster", think he's a fat lifeless geek who does something with our website or websites we try (in vain) to work with. So I'm going to elaborate a bit about this newly created profession. I'm going to refer to a few questions:

1. What is actually a "Webmaster" and what's his daily routine?

2. What are the qualifications for being a webmaster.

3. What are the advantages of this job.

 4. What are the disadvantages of this job?

 5. Summary - who should consider this career path seriously? What is actually a "Webmaster" and what's his daily routine? A "Webmaster" in its basic meaning is a person managing a website.

 As simple as that. But if we wish to elaborate a bit, we could say that the webmaster's job consists of:

 1. Build websites, including picking up the technology for them and entering contents to them. Nowadays most of the websites are built on site "baking" platforms (such as: Joomla, Wordpress, Blogspot) and the webmaster should be familiar with working with them.

 2. SEO - search engine optimization i.e. promoting the website to appear as high as possible on Google and other search results, as this is the main source of traffic for the website.

 3. Serving customer support both to the owner of the website and its visitors, in order to improve its quality and answer questions regarding its use.

 4. Security - forming a security policy for the website ensuring its survival and smooth running. Preventing hackers and viruses harm the website. What are the qualifications for being a webmaster?

 There are 2 main approaches for this question:

 1. Study a BSc degree in Computer Science or in Information Systems for 3-4 years and then start working as a junior webmaster or a junior web developer. The advantage: improved learning capabilities and work discipline.

 2. Study a short Webmaster course (3-4 month) and find an employer willing to hire you as an apprentice.

 The advantage: a short training track. The disadvantage: limited learning capabilities and not mentally prepared for this kind of work. "Learning capabilities" - in computing, a professional is demanded to keep learning new material almost on a daily basis, as the computing field is infinite in size and challenges always pop up. Thus improved learning capabilities are an asset for long time work in the field. "Mentally prepared" - Computing work require sharp capabilities like: long time concentration, perseverance in solving problems, working in teams or well organized work abilities. What are the advantages of this job?

 1. Playing your computer and your Internet for 45 hours a week on duty - bookkeeping? sales job? teaching? Playing! This is a job in which you live online: get new content every day, look at other sites in order to improve your sites, watch Youtube video for getting ideas for your sites.

 2. Young atmosphere - in this job you always feels young, whether it's because the majority of people are young (till 30 years old) or whether it's because the creative nature of this position.

 3. Combining technical and visual skills - in this position you are both a programmer (a technical occupation) and a designer (a visual occupation), which is a rare combination between 2 almost opposite field.

 4. Money money money - this is definitely a rewarding job, as in most countries the wages are about 50% higher than the average, which is a tempting figure to people suitable for such career. What are the disadvantages of this job?

 1. Not everyone is a geek - you know, there are people in this world, unnecessarily stupid or lazy, who would climb the walls if needed to work 45 hours a week in front of a laptop. Computing work still isn't appealing to most of the population thus such a career wouldn't be as popular as a law or finance career.

 2. Age bias - this filed is relatively a young one, as the internet began its evolution in the mid 90's, so the average employee age is about 33-35 which means that 40+ year old employees might be a little old right now for this field.

 3. Always learning - keep learning new ideas and notions is absolutely fabulous but not for everyone. Most people would put up perfectly with a routine job with no novelty and no new ideas every now and then. Thus most people would find it hard to deal with the rapid evolution of the internet world. Summary - who should consider this career path seriously?

 As in every case - this career path would be great for people who are attracted to its advantages and not discouraged by its disadvantages. Anyway, I can recommend that you take a career counselling in order to check your tendencies and capabilities thoroughly and not choose a career based on the decisions of your peers.

Friday, April 8, 2016

Your Laptop Battery - Things You Should Know

Your Laptop's Battery - a Few Important Points to Remember Your battery is low again, ah?? Here's a pack of small details you probably don't know yet, and might be helpful for you:


1. What's better : keeping the laptop plugged in to the power socket or letting it get empty and recharging it ? most of you might jump and say "sure, keeping it plugged in". Wrong! the battery is like a muscle, if it gets some training, it preserves its potency. If it's always fully charged, it gets older very fast.


2. If you think that after some 6 months with the laptop, the battery holds for less hours than when it was brand new, you're absolutely right! To know exactly how much capacity the battery has lost, you may use the following software: http://download.cnet.com/BatteryBar/3000-2094_4-10866804.html


3. Along the laptop's life, the power meter (this little meter that tells you how fully charged is the battery at the moment) gets less & less accurate. This may cause you problems like: sudden shutting down of the laptop while doing something important. You can fix this issue by "recalibrating" the battery.

How to recalibrate:

a. Charge your battery completely. Then,wait 2 hours with the laptop plugged in.

b. Drain the battery completely (till the laptop turns off). Then. wait 5 hours.

c. Charge again the battery. Now, the power meter should be more accurate.


4. When is the appropriate time to dump your battery and purchase a new one? Experts claim that it's recommended to keep the battery while it's at least 25% of its original strength. Below this point, the battery can't give you a reasonable service.


Summary - the battery is the laptop's #1 headache, but using the points I've mentioned, might prevent this pain from becoming a migraine..

Saturday, February 27, 2016

How Computer Geeks Become Such?..

This morning, while still half-asleep, I was wondering - how do geeks become programmers, you know - those pale people who lean on their monitors and make the computer (and the smart phone) work.



So I browsed the web and collected some prevalent reasons.  If one of you knows of another good reason to become a coder,  this is the place  to share:




First, many programmers start their practice while being teenage computer freaks. They start somehow reading some basic  programming books  and start creating codes, and oops.. get hooked and enslaved for good.


Second, some programmers like the idea that what they create may be relevant to almost every aspect of life: technology, media,art,sports,social life,politics, finance and many more.  It's the only technical field which deals with people in depth and not superficially.



Third, many software developers switch their occupation from another engineering field (especially Electronics), due to employment constraints or natural advancement.   Those professionals are trained to other engineering/scientific fields, work for several years in the mentioned occupation, and 'cross the road'  to software development.


Fourth, undergraduates in many countries are drawn to this field because it allows them a higher living standard than most other occupation in those places.  This is especially relevant to countries in Eastern-Europe and Latin-America, where the job market prospects are relatively limited so programming may be very attractive to people with high technological abilities.



Saturday, January 9, 2016

IPad - What Do You Need It For?

Ladies & gentlemen, my dear readers! Today I'm going to talk a beat about the new born baby - Apple's iPad. Who really needs this toy and what can it really do?

 1. Reading articles or books - iPad's screen is large and clear enough to let you read web articles, e-books or PDF/Word documents. You'll not have to ruin your eyes or suffer in any other way.

 2. Games - There's a reasonably wide variety of games for iPad and it can be a substitute to game consoles (like Nintendo) for light-gamers. However, it's early to relate to iPad as a substitute to the desktop PC.

3. TV & movies - you can watch TV or videos in a reasonable quality. I wouldn't bet on it replacing your 50 inch plasma TV, but as a little TV it can do great.

4. Presenting presentations - if you need to present Powerpoint presentations outside your office or something similar, the iPad can replace a laptop and make it easier for you.

 5. Basic web usage - it can replace a laptop in basic web functions, like: email, Facebook and more. It doesn't suffer from special communication troubles that may harass the web usage, and the screen is large enough not to cause you much misery.

 6. Long usage without battery charging - iPad can reach 10 hours of active usage without charging, which is much longer than an average laptop.

 The downsides of iPad must be taken into account:

 1. iPad's screen isn't successfully suitable for usage outdoors, and you may suffer from using it at the beach or at a picnic.

 2. iPad was created by nerds and it's itself a nerd: smart,skinny and fragile. Daily usage by young kids or messing otherwise with it should make its days shorter & shorter.

3. iPad isn't widely perceived as an attractive instrument, and its functionality is much better than its looks. So it might not be the ultimate purchase for making you cool.

4. iPad (as an Apple product) doesn't support Flash, which may be a nuisance for some users.

5. Above all - iPad isn't a PC: which means that you shouldn't expect it to be more than it's meant to be: a partial substitute to a laptop.