[Info-vax] IBM Layoffs (quite a bit off topic)

[David Froble]

JF Mezei wrote:
> Re: need for education
> 
> There are many reports of deacreasing software quality at Apple.
> In recent year, they have grown R&D by something like 40 or 45% if I
> recall correctly.
> 
> If the education system cranked out experienced programmers with proper
> skills and knowledge of quality assurance etc, perhaps Apple could have
> grown it programmer pool so significantly without having to bear the
> brunt of customers complaining about bugs.
> 
> (an example: recently released 10.10.2 may provide many fixes, but
> apparanetly also causes language to always revert to US-Englsh and not
> telerate other variants of english available).
> 
> Consider when VMS was moved to a new group of people which resulted is
> some inexperienced guy changing the DIRECTORY command (for what reason
> ?) before he knew that having a .DIR extension did not make a file a
> directory, there was a bit in the header for it.
> 
> The VMS case is perhaps understandable because HP was winding it down
> and had no interest in it. But for Apple, it brings up an interesting
> issue:
> 
> should (and can) schools crank up people ready for work ?

No and no.

Do we really want to turn out robots with a narrow focus?  Isn't that 
how so many problems happen?  People without the ability to evaluate 
things properly?

General education about the world we live in isn't related very well to 
jobs.  But I feel it's very important.

> must employers assume a large part of training costs when they hire
> employees (which means unable to grow R&D very fast)

Since many times what they're doing is rather specific, yes, employees 
need specific training.

This leads back to something I've heard too many times.  "Many people 
know windows (not really) and so if software was windows based employers 
would not need to do any training."  The list of problems with this kind 
of "greedy" thinking is long and glorious.

> or should employers be in greater contact with education system to guide
> teachers into teaching the right skills  that are needed ASAP ?
> 
> 
> Here is a problem for universities;
> 
> year 1: Teacher develops new course
> year 2: teacher pitches it to university
> year 3: first student enrols in class.
> year 5: first student to graduate who took that class.
> 
> Those skills are not of great use by the time the guy/gal is on the job
> market, unless the education is either updated at faster rate, of the
> skill set is more generic (such as how to test programs etc) and still
> of value because it is less time sensitive.

Perhaps it is a course that should not have been selected?

> (consider the ephemeray scripting languages such as perl, php, python,
> ruby on rails etc which are "soupe du jour" and change rapidly. It is
> worth teaching those to first year uni students ?

Just teach VAX Basic, what else could ever be needed?  :-)

When I was young, lo these many years ago, what a college degree told a 
potential employer was that "here is someone capable of learning".  Sort 
of similar to "Bear" Bryant's claim that "luck follows speed".