California has a problem. Seems the governor and the legislature can’t agree on a budget. (That’s news?)

So Governator Schwarzenegger opted for an approach to try to force the issue. He decided to cut payroll.

He issued an order to temporarily reduce employee salaries to the federal minimum wage level. As Bill Snyder wrote, he tried to “cut (albeit temporarily) state employee salaries to the level of fry cooks at McDonald’s”. But wait. Seems that is impossible because state Controller John Chiang, (the Controller issues the checks) believe that all the COBOL programmers have died and that it is just impossible.

In 2003 my office tried to see if we could reconfigure our system to do such a task,” he told a State Senate committee on Monday. “And after 12 months, we stopped without a feasible solution.

Well, at least Bill Snyder knows a fairy tale when he hears one.

The story has been interpreted by the media (including the New York Times on Wednesday) to make it seem like COBOL is similar to ancient Egyptian, carved on stone walls and only read by priests in loin cloths or cloistered academics. In particular, the writer quoted some bozo at Carnegie Mellon University who likened COBOL to “a television with vacuum tubes,” and then said: “There are no COBOL programmers around anymore. They retired centuries ago.” Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Well, I don’t know about California, but this COBOL programmer is alive.

But Why in the world would you change the programs anyway?

Just write a quick and dirty file update to store the current payroll file, then update all the records with a new pay rate.

After the crisis, write a quick and dirty program to change it back to the stored value.

You don’t even need to know anything about COBOL.

Article:
weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2008/08/calling_all_cob.html

In the New York Times there is an article about Jay Harman. It is a good article and I enjoyed it.

But what caught my eye (courtesy of a colleague on a list) were these paragraphs about how long progress takes.

Even in fields such as the computer industry, which celebrates innovation, systemic change can be glacial.

Consider that Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse in 1964. It was obvious to many people that it was a better way to control a computer, yet it took two decades even to begin reaching a mass audience. Or consider the hyperlink, invented independently by Mr. Engelbart and the computing evangelist Ted Nelson in the mid-1960s. It took roughly three decades to reach the public in the form of the World Wide Web.

This summer will mark the 40th anniversary of the day when Alan Kay, the father of the modern personal computer, had his “aha” moment. Seeing a plasma display engineered for the Plato educational computing project, he realized that a portable computer with a flat panel display was possible. Yet computers that came close to matching his original “Dynabook” idea — which included a wireless connection to a global digital library — weren’t widely available for another three decades.

Are you tired of being broke? Are you tired of email spam asking if you are tired of being broke? Are you tired of everyone trying to make money by trying to sell you a way to make money?

Then check out this parody.

(Depending on your browser security settings, may need to click twice to start the video. If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPsUmhqncAg)

I’d barely finished my post about my favorite computer store (MicroCenter, www.myephemerae.com/my-regular-computer-store). I’d explained why it’s my favorite: the staff knows their stuff.

Then, I discover this InformationWeek article titled Clueless Circuit City Scrooges Itself Out Of Christmas Sales (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2008/01/clueless_circui_1.html).

In summary, last March, Circuit City decided to fire 3,400 people who worked there and knew what they were doing and replace them with cheaper, and much less knowledgable, sales clerks.

Sorry, but when you are trying to make a wazillion dollars selling stuff that consumers don’t really understand, like PCs, cameras, and televisions, you need staff that knows their stuff.

What happened? Well, their 3rd quarter and Christmas sales tanked.

In contrast, their competitor, BestBuy, trained its staff on their high tech products so they could actually help customers and what do you know … BestBuy’s 3rd quarter profit went up 54%.

Seems I’m not the only one who values staff who know their stuff.

Having posted about a New Computer Store (www.myephemerae.com/a-new-computer-store) it only seemed appropriate to mention my regular store as well.

I live less than one mile from the Dallas location of MicroCenter (www.MicroCenter.com).

I love this store for one huge reason … the sales staff know their stuff. Not only do they know where stuff is (which is a huge accomplishment in many retail stores today), they understand me when I don’t use the right words, and know what I should have asked for when I make a mistake.

(My personal computer is a PowerSpec (their house brand) and I’ve been very pleased.)

While visiting the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog (www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog) I visited the Blogads blog (weblog.blogads.com) where I saw this recent post …

After seeing a $25 price-tag for a simple USB cable at Staples, I went around the corner to Intrex and bought a longer cable for $4. Hope I’m sufficiently scarred to never again buy anything wired from Staples.

That intrigued me enough to visit Intrex and check it out. I’m impressed.

valleywag.com/tech/online-video/here-comes-another-takedown-332666.php

It was put up on YouTube. It was quickly taken down by a DMCA request claiming copyright violation. But you can still see it here. At least you can as I write this.

Separate from the DMCA question, I think it is a good parody.

A recent edition of Roy William’s Monday Morning Memo discusses the ads for the Mac. You know the one. It features the Mac and the PC in a conversation.

The article links to a clever picture of what that ad would have looked like 11 years ago.

(Note that if you are clicking on my blog, depending on your browser security you may need to click twice to start the video. If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU )

For years and years, those of us in Corporate IT have known that there is not a shortage of skilled, capable technology workers, despite the lamentations of the business lobby. The claims of a shortage is a sham designed to allow more H-1B visas.

The business lobby has countered that there are “rules” designed to protect the American worker and that H-1B visas are only granted with an American worker cannot be found.

About 2 months ago I found the website of Professor Norm Matloff. Long a critic of the H-1B system, Dr. Matloff has documented the system abuses at some length. His lengthy report (entitled On the Need for Reform of the H-1B Non-Immigrant Work Visa in Computer-Related Occupations and written at the request of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform) provides extensive documentation of the lack of a shortage and the abuses of the system to just hire cheap labor and discriminate against older American workers.  

[If you or someone in your family is directly affected by this, I strongly encourage you to at least skim the report and check out his website. It is an eye-opener. In my view, Dr. Matloff's data shows that contrary to claims, it isn't America's decline in technology which requires us to use these visas. Rather, it is the prevalent use of these visas which is, in part, responsible for the decline!]

His various reports and documents have confirmed what I have known for some time.

Now, a YouTube video has done even more. This video provides excerpts from a law firm’s seminar in which a panel explains how to technically comply with the law all the while skirting the intention of the law. In particular, they explain how to advertise for Americans but ensure that they will never find one.

Take the 5-minutes to watch this to learn how the system really works.

As you listen to the debate on immigration reform, and as you listen to the business lobby cry in their soup about the lack of qualified Americans, remember this video. There are plenty of qualified Americans. Business just doesn’t want to hire them and is scamming the system, the government and the American public.

How does the arrow cursor on your computer monitor work when we move the mouse? Haven’t you ever wondered how it works?Now, through the miracle of high technology, we can see how it is done.With the aid of a screen magnifying lens, the mechanism becomes apparent.