The Fiction Behind the IT Shortage

It turns out that tomorrow will be the real D-Day: my project release. I didn't realize until today that I'll actually be putting my code on a tool and watch it work live. Now I'm pretty scared that it'll not work, but I guess I should have more faith in my own testing, of which I'm mostly done save one simulator. Oh, and I was thrilled that I actually wrote my own code to fix a problem I discovered in the code of someone above me! Anyway, what I'm really here to talk about is a rather provocative editorial about how the IT shortage is caused by the companies rather than a lacking labor supply. She actually makes some pretty good points: the job postings I looked at last year through our school's eRecruiting portal seemed to really be targeted at all these specialties, and it's frustrating because I can't learn 20 different languages and be proficient at all of them just so that these employers will look at me. For example, I was questioned about my SQL knowledge, and I said I could get my way around it but I never used it because I haven't had to and have instead had to do a lot of other stuff. They probably weren't pleased with that response, but what can I do? It's unfair to gauge someone based on how many languages they're gurus in rather than how naturally adept they are at key concepts. Cutting benefits isn't a good idea either *cough*Microsoft*cough* if you want to attract workers you previously laid off, especially when competing with the stellar benefits packages offered by companies like Google and TI. Now this doesn't encompass all companies, but there are just a lot out there that are this way, and I hope that they'll change soon enough.

What you see here to the left is, deliciously enough, Verizon's Chocolate phone, which bears an undeniable resemblance to the iPod. Details on the phone seem to be scarce, but it's likely to have some musical capabilities, probably for playing mp3s, and is a slider with a camera at the back. I just think it looks neat. Have you ever wanted to just scribble on your Google Maps outputs because of inaccuracies or to point out things to friends? Well, Quikmaps allows you to do just that and I'm sure that I'll become very close to it very soon because it really is extremely intuitive and fun. Intel has decided to sell off its cell phone processors to Novell, which I'm sure will make Novell an important company in semiconductors very soon, or at least to TI it will. I just thought it was a noteworthy thing since I think Novell has lost power in recent years. Microsoft has made its Office beta available online so that you don't have to download the large file and install it and such if you just want to see how it feels. Besides the long time it took for me to get anything started, I think it's a pretty good idea. It ran really slow for me, but I hope that's just because of my Internet connection because my computer is pretty well equipped. Otherwise though, I liked what I saw. Microsoft is also launching a code sharing site very soon where it can foster collaboration among some of its source code under the Shared Source license. I'm guessing that this is their dabbling into what open source is all about without taking a huge plunge, which I don't think is a bad idea at all. Meanwhile, we have received official confirmation from Apple that Steve Jobs will indeed be personally showing off Mac OS X Leopard at WWDC on August 7, which means that it'll be lots of fun to see so I'll look forward to it. Lastly, web developers will love this site from which they can test out their sites on different OSes and browsers for compatibility. Its server was being hammered when I tried it, but I'm sure it works quite well.

Before you keep reading you really need to watch the Spider-man 3 teaser trailer because it's incredible and knocked my socks off. I see watching that trailer repeatedly in my near future. What's currently more exciting is the release of Superman Returns, and some of the key players have even expressed that they'd be interested in doing a sequel should the powers that be greenlight one and Singer be involved. Just a heads-up for anyone who sees it this weekend (starting tomorrow) and loves it. We actually have a couple of other trailers today as well, but they're not as important. One is for The Guardian, which I'm not too interested in but at least it has Ashton Kutcher in a role that doesn't make really stupid jokes as a sad cry for attention. The other is for Marie Antoinette, which I'd love to check out if my Internet connection didn't blow so hard here because I think it could be a pretty decent movie and Kirsten Dunst looks real good in it, in my opinion. Oh, and Pirates of the Caribbean fans can go here for a behind-the-scenes featurette for Dead Man's Chest over at Apple. Speaking of Apple, I wonder if they're bothered that Warner Brothers has struck a deal with video sharing site Guba to try distributing some of their movies there. I'm surprised that they think Guba can handle things better than Apple. AICN got an exclusive look at the poster for The Illusionist, which is that movie I mentioned a long time ago with Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti about a magician spinning tricks for romance. I think the acting will be better than the storyline. Lastly, Comedy Central is now promising that it'll be showing the episodes that Dave Chappelle shot of Chappelle's Show before he left on July 7, which I won't believe until I see because they've been pushing this back for several months now.

And now, I'm going to take a stab at the Ten on Tuesday meme:

10 Fun Games to Play at a Party
10. Truth or Dare
9. White Elephant Gift Exchange
8. Water Balloon Fight
7. Karaoke Revolution
6. Guitar Hero
5. Halo 1/2
4. Pictionary
3. Spoons
2. Cranium
1. Charades