Writing thesis / Opportunities / Practice helps / On IT-outsourcing / Nice weather /…

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public. Noam Chomsky

Writing thesis

Writing thesis is quite fun and interesting most of the time. I have just found that I cannot really write or otherwise work on my thesis for more than 6 hours per day. Thus it takes longer to complete than I was expecting. The moral of this is: always have several projects going on, or otherwise the one and only will get fat. And fat projects are much worse than lean ones. I thought I knew better, but I clearly did not.

Opportunities

Funny, now that I more or less have decided which job I will take (more about that once all details are clear agreed on), I have started receiving calls from recruiters and start-ups, asking whether I would be interested in certain systems architect positions - all of them in wireless telecom industry. What to do? By the way, this recruiting companydoes not look too bad.

Practice helps

I used to think that OPM is a bad method for designing and that Powerpoint simply sucks, but now that I have tried both for a while, I have to say that OPM has a point and it is quite possible to draw things with Powerpoint. I know that OmniGraffle (or something of similar name) is much better, but right now I am willing to take the pain of using Powerpoint. What a spineless, un-pricipled wimpy I have become.

On IT-outsourcing

I heard, that most of Intel's new patents are from their R&D-centers in India. I also heard that Google, Microsoft and others are investing billions in India and setting up huge centers. This is very good for India, but I am really surprised why the protectionist wing of the Congress is so quiet. It is one thing to lose manufacturing bras and thongs to China, and quite another, and much more serious, to lose IT-engineering to India. And once one remembers, that it is very hard for Indians to get visas and green cards in USA, the trend is going to get more speed: the Indians have less incentive to come to USA. Imagine then gradual, and fast, movement of IT-jobs from USA to India. It means that there fewer well-paid such jobs in California, which means that the amount of money coming into economy is smaller. Put this together with the demise of the US car industry, the irreversible loss of manufacturing to China, and I think the US government should wake up and try to figure how to run the economy without these jobs. The right answer is not to cut taxes of the very wealthy, nor setting up custom barriers (and how does one put customs barriers against SW??). If the Bush administration would really care about the economic well-being of Americans, they should focus their attention to real problems and challenges ahead and cut military spending by 80%.

Nice weather

Today's weather is really nice. It is sunny, almost clear skies, -9C, not too windy. Bright sunshine is good for me - I am less moody and cloomy. I do not mind cold that much, for I am well insulated.

Failing American infrastucture

The American Society of Civil Engineers have published its evaluation of American infrastucture. The grades, even allowing for some grade deflation, are dismall. For example, as everyone sees and feels daily, roads get only a D. Wastewater gets a D-. Furthermore:

America faces a shortfall of $11 billion annually to replace aging facilities and comply with safe drinking water regulations. Federal funding for drinking water in 2005 remained level at $850 million, less than 10% of the total national requirement. The Bush administration has proposed the same level of funding for FY06.

BY the way, $11 billion is about two months of killing in Iraq.
USA has some challenges ahead: infrastructure is failing, deficits are soaring, jobs (both manufacturing and R&D) are leaving to China and India leaving less and less money distributed to non-filthy-rich portion of Americans, car companies are going under. It is hard to understand that there is no bigger feeling of urgency, and the administration continues shoveling money away from the needs of US-citizens.
For some reason, the ASCE-site returns an error when trying to access the card. I got it at 9am EST, but at 9.30am EST it was not there anymore. Very strange. I have a printed copy, though. And Google has fortunately cached a copy of the card. (I got the link to the card via Technopolis.)

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs December 2005".