Automation is making unions irrelevant
The problem with unions is they can’t protect jobs. They can’t stop a company from moving jobs overseas, closing offices, or replacing workers with automation.
I grew up in Connecticut, a heavily unionized state. In the post-war...
Election may force Congress to act on tech immigration
President Barack Obama believes this election will usher in immigration reform, which will include action on tech visa issues.
There is enough support in the Senate and House to increase work visas, temporary and permanent. But...
Was saving this data center worth the risk?
The effort to keep a data center running in a flood damaged building at 75 Broad St. in lower Manhattan is certainly inspiring. The basement was flooded, disabling a fuel pumping system that supplied a generator on the...
Sandy's IT and climate change benefit
Hurricane Sandy is forcing a lot of people to work at home today, and that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as our dependence on foreign oil. Just imagine if people kept telecommuting once Sandy leaves.
Aside from...
Threats and technology from Iran
Everyone in tech goes to trade shows and conferences, if only to mingle. Iran has them as well, and the country just wrapped up its security trade show.
This show drew users who appeared to have serious buying power. You can tell...
Are data centers toxic?
The New York Times is getting criticism over its data center series. Beginning the series with a 2006 anecdote about a near server meltdown at Facebook, three processor generations ago, was not an auspicious beginning.
Dan Woods...
Tech industry bets on Republicans and loses
The tech industry is way more popular than Congress. You can test this hypothesis with one simple question.
What would you rather own, the iPhone 5 or a member of Congress?
The answer is, obviously, an iPhone 5.
A member of...
Offshore outsourcing, visas and the Obama speech
You may have noticed that there’s been a lot of talk by politicians about offshore outsourcing. But when you get to it there isn’t one political leader – Democrat or Republican – who has done a thing about it except Ted...
If Apple makes robots, will robots have rights?
Let’s face the reality that robots will gain cognitive skills. This is not self-awareness. But it is an ability to interact in ways that prompt human emotional attachment.
People do get emotionally attached to things. We all know...
Innovation is the most abused word in tech
Photo: Postcard, circa, 1908. The postcard is an early iteration of what later became Twitter.
The iPad is about as innovative as the toaster. You can still read books without an iPad, and you can still toast bread without a...
The tension in the Palmer case
The American notion of self-reliance is often used as a launching pad for mayhem and moral ambiguity in movies. In real life, we rely on our laws and our courts and own moral anchors to keep chaos out of the picture. When those...
Pussy Riot and tech revolutionaries
Let’s talk about Pussy Riot.
One of its three members has an IT background. From an AP profile:
Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, studied computers at Moscow Energy University and soon got a good job at a top research center. She...
Outsourcing on trial next week before U.S. jury
Next week, I’ll be in Montgomery, Alabama to cover the Jay Palmer versus Infosys trial in federal court. It’s a trip worth making because there’s never been a case quite like this.
Jay Palmer, an Infosys employee, claims he was...
Outsourcing: What Romney and Obama don't discuss
No one wants a real discussion on offshore outsourcing. Not President Barack Obama, not Mitt Romney and not the Brookings Institution.
It’s really not clear just what the Brookings Institution report this week on the geography of...
Will Stockton's IT department survive bankruptcy?
Before bankruptcy, Stockton, Calif.’s IT department had its share of problems. Now that the city is officially insolvent, does it have a chance of fixing them?
Stockton is the largest city in the U.S. to declare bankruptcy, but...
Here is real data on outsourcing
A few years ago, Indian giant Tata Consultancy Services employed more Ecuadorians than U.S. workers. (Compare the chart above with the one below). That's changed.
TCS has increased the overall percentage of U.S. workers, but...
The H-1B cap impedes innovation, report argues
In 2000, there was a tremendous push by the IT industry to increase the H-1B visa cap. The dot.com bubble had yet to burst and IT employment was on the rise, so Congress acted. If you remember what happened then what’s going on...
Symantec revises panicky crash notice
Symantec put out a report June 15 that caused a double-take.
Here’s what it originally said before it was revised:
“KNOWN ISSUE: Altiris Agent service is crashing on a high percentage of computers after upgrading from Symantec...
Microsoft donations favor Obama by landslide
Microsoft employees are backing President Barack Obama, via their campaign donations, over his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, by a wide margin.
Obama has raised $351,416 via Microsoft, while Romney, $77,190, according to Open...
Blasting Obama as a way to get H-1B visas
There is a group spending millions of dollars on TV advertisements blaming President Barack Obama for adding “$4 billion in new debt every day.” These shrill ads do not mention GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, they’re just...
![Microsoft > Outlook [Office 365]](https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2019/02/cw_microsoft_office_365_outlook-100787154-small.3x2.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70)
