What's the future of programmers, developers, and software engineers in America?

Until recently Universities across America and abroad are reporting drops in enrollment for Computer Science majors. The US has struggled with improving K-12 Math and Science programs, and generating interest in youth.

For years parents have been telling their children to change their majors and stay away from computer science and related fields.

To top it all off, company's are churning and changing by the affects of off-shoring programming, development, and engineering jobs (among others). Veteran engineers and developers are losing their jobs right here, right now, in this great country! I know, I'm very close to it... in fact, right in the middle of it.

For me the following news is very welcoming and instills hope and excitement. It seems TCS, one of the largest Indian consulting companies in the world is made Ohio the home of its largest campus yet.

In summary one of the largest Off shoring sources in the world, is building a campus in Ohio and plans to hire 1,000 local professionals, in a state where not only manufacturing jobs are struggling, but software development jobs are fleeing.

These two articles explain it better than I could...

TCS comes to Ohio article I
TCS comes to Ohio article II






There are now reports of increased enrollment in comp-sci like programs in some Universities. I'm seeing the positive affects of the academic community, non-profit organizations and some private businesses who are fighting to keep high tech jobs here and improve education in their neighborhoods. TCS coming to Ohio (my home state) is great news to me.


Is this a sign of better times to come?

What can engineers and developers do to help keep hope alive? Is there anything we can do at all?

Whats your take?

Are they ready for Linux?

What if.... you were laid off and all you had was a pentium II computer with 300 mg of ram, and you needed a system with Internet access and word processing capabilities? Would you be able to function with Ubuntu Linux as your primary and only system?

Following is a real live story of mine that happened just a couple of weeks ago.

The first week of April I received a phone call from a perspective customer regarding a PC problem. She (late 30's early 40's) had been layed off from GM and could not afford to replace her PII Windows 98 machine. She required a secure system that they could do online banking, some business tasks, and school work; all of which the Internet was required for.

Well, since we were having this candid conversation I took the opportunity to mention what I would do if I was in that situation... which is to install Ubuntu Linux. After a few minutes I was able to sell the idea and I scheduled an appointment to go pick up the system.


INSTALLATION
Installation was a snap... although somewhat time consuming on this 7+ year old system, but I had plenty of other work to do during the install. When that was complete I installed Firestarter which is a GUI application to enable and configure Ubuntu's built in firewall; this was important since the computer was directly connected to the Internet via Cable connection. I also ran through a simple list of the top 10 things to do after you install Ubuntu. I picked a 1/2 dozen items to complete and that was it.

DELIVERY-SETUP
Fast forwarding a few days.... I showed up to the next scheduled appointment ready to setup the system. I then realized that I not done any research on the printer, or any other external devices. But I was pleasantly surprised that I had absolutely no issues at all.

I plugged in the printer (some HP brand).... and immediately printed out a beautiful colored test page. The user's flash drive just worked. I setup Evolution with the POP email account. I quickly ran through creating, editing and opening documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files, with a focus on Microsoft Office files using the already bundled application OpenOffice. I browsed some websites using Firefox, showed the user how to setup the IM client with AIM, GTalk, Yahoo, MSN Mess etc.

SATISFIED CUSTOMER
Forty minutes later... (majority of time used for basic training)... after reiterating for the 3rd time, "this is NOT Microsoft Windows"... the customer was so happy they gave me a tip, and I was on my way. I'll give them a few weeks and follow up on their progress.

QUESTIONS?
Is the residential user ready for Linux?
Is Linux ready for the residential user?


Well, it just so happens that a local computer club in my community is launching a project to begin to answer those questions.

Coincidently, I had been typing up this blog post when I received a monthly update to the agenda for the upcoming NASAC Computer Club meeting. Jim Mann from the Xenia library and members from the NASAC group are hosting an experiment by giving away 5 complete computer systems, with one stipulation, for 90 days they can only run Ubuntu Linux. During the process the 5 users must keep a journal regarding their experiences with the switch to Linux.

There are plans to setup a wiki or blog to monitor progress, so if anyone is interested leave a comment and I will try and get that information. I can't wait to see the results!

So, what do you think?

• Is there a market to offer Linux support and services to small businesses?
• What about the small business owner? Are they ready for Linux.. and is Linux ready for them?

Introduction...

There are so many technical topics that are ongoing in my life its tough to pick the first topic to write about. So I suppose it makes sense to post an overview of where I’ve been recently in regards to technology.

I’ve spent the last 8+ years of my career working in test automation, writing scripts, creating internal database tools for tracking and reporting. I’ve used languages such as Ruby (WATIR), Java (httpunit, and junit), MS SQL, VBA and more. It has really been an interesting track, which falls into the role of a programmer analyst.

In 2007, after being loaned out to another department to do some front-end web development work for about 6 months, I made the jump to a Software Engineering role.

Now I’m in the trenches!

Today I work in Java, locally in Eclipse on the Windows environment, build and deploy to both Solaris (cert environment) and the Mainframe (dev and prod). Since I have less than 1 year in this environment everyday is an adventure and learning experience for me. So far I love it!

Outside of work my technical life revolves around the Mac. I have been a Mac user for about 1 year, but I’m on my 3^rd Mac already! Last spring I bought my first Macbook, in November I bought an iMac, and finally in March of 2008 I stepped up to a 15” Macbook Pro with 4 gigs of memory. In the process I sold my Macbook to a friend and also first time Mac owner. Needless to say I love the Mac!

From a development perspective I have been working with Eclipse, MySQL, PHP, Java, and Groovy. All on the Mac platform!

I just finished an Advanced Topics in Software Development course in my Master’s program, and successfully designed and built a Groovy and MySQL application using Test Driven Development (TDD). I am also working with an associate of mine, on a PHP MySQL web application for a client of a business that I own.

So as it seems, I’m neck deep in learning new technologies, and there is lot to write about. The problem of course, is time.

With that…its time I get home to the fam!