Posted on 07/11/2015 9:17:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The apps and games you use every day don't exist in a vacuum — someone, somewhere, wrote the code.
That also goes for the underlying platforms and hardware that those apps run on. And the web. And the entire Internet itself.
Even the programming languages that people use to build this stuff first had to be written by somebody else.
So who's at the top of the programming pyramid?
1) Linus Torvalds created Linux, a free operating system, in his dorm room at the University of Helsinki. Today, Linux is the operating system of choice for data centers, supercomputers, and server farms everywhere — as well as a dedicated cadre of enthusiasts.
Torvalds is also well known for his sharp tongue — when an audience member at a recent talk asked Torvalds if he thought his manner was turning off members of the Linux community, he replied "I don't care about you."
2) Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the only entrant on this list to earn a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. He invented the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), the technology on which the entire World Wide Web is built.
These days, Berners-Lee is leading the Alliance for Affordable Internet, a non-profit backed by the likes of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, that's trying to make broadband Internet access more affordable for everybody in the world.
3) Donald Knuth's academic work in computer science has earned him the title of the "father of the analysis of algorithms." Everything from the Facebook news feed algorithm to Amazon suggestions owes something to his work.
At 77 years old, Knuth is still writing his multi-volume work "The Art of Computer Programming," with the most recent installment coming out in 2011. He's also a professor emeritus at Stanford University.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
KMA. I’ve been lad off and had to train my Pakistani replacement .
So what is your chosen field? Maybe we can flood it with hundreds of thousands of scabs to take yo livelihood.. But I doubt a moron like you is a field that even pays enough to have a scab visa replacement. Your type of work is going to uneducated Mexicans.
Funny how all the free marketeers want supply and demand to work things out except when it comes to high tech workers, then they want the government to intervene on the Corporations behalf. Hypocrites all.
I made that comment sarcastically but some of the butt munching pillow biters on this thread took it seriously. But is all seriousness H-1B scares off our best and brightest form many fields and we end up with the mediocre or the ones that steal the tech and go back home. H-1b need to die.
Something in the water? :)
Free Republic used to be the realm of folks got all the facts before coming to a conclusion. Freepers also generally have civilized, polite discourse. I assume by "scab", you mean non-union labor. Is that a correct assumption? Or are you applying it to anyone who is willing to do a job for less than the salary/wage you require? Is the defining point membership in an approved "club" or is it that someone submits a lower bid for the job than you do?
As to my chosen field - In the 50 years since I graduated from high school, I've worked in a number of fields. It is surprising how many jobs are open to " a moron like you" (that is, "me"). I've flown $6.5 million helicopters (current replacement cost is $25+ million.) I've had discussions a foreign head of state. Once I even worked inside the containment dome of a nuclear power plant. But, hey, if Homer Simpson can do it, any moron can do it, right?
One very large, American based global high tech company even hired me as a "software programmer" in their engineering department. Probably an "affirmative action" hire since I was a 50+ year old white guy at the time. They even sent me to the "Land of the H1B Scabs" to find a company that could help keep the doors open on our software project after a local manager had poured $2.7 million down a US based consultant hole.
The company had originally wanted to transfer the jobs for our entire office to Mexico. When my boss pointed out that by the time we paid tech-savvy, educated Mexicans to do these jobs, the savings would be minimal. So we leveraged our US workforce by augmenting them with a team from "The Land of the H1B Scabs" and were able to do far more work, keep our US employees and learn a few things from our overseas partners. And yes, at times I did feel like a moron working around the overseas team. I doubt I was skilled enough to be hired by that company.
If you do not like competition in employment, do you feel the same way about the goods & services which you purchase? Do you "Look for the Union Label" in all your purchases, or do you buy the best product at a competitive price? If you buy your cars from GM (Government Motors, Union-Made) do you go to the dealer with the highest price, or do you shop around?
I'll stop. I've gotten dangerously close to engaging in a "watermelon seed spitting contest" (there is another, more widely used term used to describe pointless, ego satisfying arguments, but this is a family-friendly website)
Have a nice evening. By the way, are you a better man than those "hundreds of thousands of scabs to take yo livelihood"? Then do a better job than they do!
GloBULList POS bump.
They do - by my observation, 19 out of every 20 people who have been in a position to evaluate the work of H-1Bs report that they are script-driven drones. In theory we could simply let the next-quarterly-report driven corporations reap the eventual consequences of valuing cheap over truly qualified - the problem is that they'll gut the American middle class in the meantime.
That is a problem which is not unique to H1B visa holders. It is a problem with Boards of Directors, get rich quick players in the stock market and prestigious schools of management.
There is a converse to your truthful statement: Corporations believing high-priced senior management is always better.
A Brigadier General (One Star) has a maximum monthly base salary of $12,471.09
A full General (Four Star) has a maximum monthly base salary of $19,960.59
The abilities required to "manage" a Division or an Air Wing are different but in many ways more complex than those needed to run a corporation. The "CEOs" in the military are not exactly rolling in the big bucks.
I don’t have much to add other than “been there done that, A-MEN!”
What these insulting humps don’t realize is the foreign nationals value hiring their countrymen more than hiring competency. So not only do they tear down American careers, they tear down American companies while they’re at it.
One problem with that - the guest worker programs are not about competition. They’re about obtaining the least free individual.
???
Explain, please.
H1B is “based” on the idea that there are NOT enough employees to fill the positions. Not that they cost too much.
In reality, there are many, many qualified US employees who would compete, but not for below minimum wage and violating wage laws in the US.
So, companies complain they don’t have anyone to fill positions, put too many qualifications on a role, and then bring in slave H1B labor.
It has nothing to do with competition, it is corporate welfare.
The legal system makes them indentured servants in all but name.
Compared to regular citizens:
1. They have no effective freedom to quit without finding another sponsor. Citizens have the freedom to pursue employment as they wish.
2. Should they wish to pursue a green card, they start over with each sponsor. Citizens (by birth or naturalized) do not have this issue.
3. A greater incentive exists to prioritize manageability over competence. A competent guest worker would look for other opportunities, while a minimally competent (or incompetent) guest worker can be controlled more easily.
4. The prior qualities, combined with unchecked fraud, suggest that they are a market distortion caused by government regulation.
Remove the guest worker programs, repeal the 1965 Immigration Act, and observe a restoration of a market based on actual competition.
Billion dollar marxists who lobby Congress to let them get more low wage tech engineers. ‘Non-profit’ my butt.
Nothing they do is without a profit motive.
Until this year, the NFL operated as a ‘non-profit’ too.
Tell me about these wonderful H1B workers again. Maybe the NEA could get some school budgets under control going that route.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.