Re: [ossig] (Fwd) STI News: Firm discovers good IT help hard to find

[slater0@mymaxis.com.my]

I personally appreciate the comments made by the Genting VP. At least, he points out where we stand.  In fact, our top university UM, is ranked 47th in Asia, behind universities from China, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand .... So, not just use the words "low cost" when refering to india programmers. The India U occupy 5 places in the top 10 Asia U. Not tend to be a demoralizer but this is the fact that we can’t ignore. But I’m sure we certainly can do something better than this. We have the brightest ppl from Malaysia scoring straight A’s in SPM and STPM or so in the local university. Are they merely having a good memory? I don’t think so. If u hv taken those exam before. You will know they are just not testing your memory but also your understanding and analysis skill. Do they have the wrong attitudes? I don’t think so either. Scoring straight A’s is not easy, it require lot of hard works, diligent, determination and consistency. A person attitude won’t change in sudden after admitting to university. Are our people not smart enough? er.. isn't it the STPM standard equal if not higher then A level. Then, what’s wrong here??? 

>>Mr Searcy said: 'The job of a programmer only requires skills that 
>>Are borderline sophisticated in nature. We are not rocket >>scientists.'
He’s right too. I’m a programmer and I appreciate very much on a programmer job. Most of programmer jobs here in Malaysia do not require an advance level of scientific knowledge. We don’t have to invent anything, publish paper or patent. Most of the time, we will get the spec and turn the spec into a workable system according to a proper software process. That’s it. If problem encountered, fix it (if u have more experience on the system/programming language, u have a better change to solve it). Bear in mind, we’re still not inventing any technology here. We r either fixing our own bugs or other ppl bugs.

If we can’t do well as a programmer, how can we make our country a true cyber”jaya”. IMHO, having more experts in Assembly language, linux, gcc or unix won’t help us very much to be a developed country. By then, we will hv more ppl supporting the MNC data center here or helping up in building the software. I think to be success, we need to have ppl with innovative idea. We need some home grown companies like the Singapore’s Creative and Taiwan’s Acer if not another Microsoft … So, can we hv some ppl here to invent things like GUI, palm like the Xerox PARC guys? 

Nothings come easy. Look at the people behind Microsoft. http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/labs/. Most of them are the leading researcher in their respective research area. 
 
Being a qualified programmer is just the first step towards a greater vision.

Just my 2 cents.

slater

Re: [ossig] (Fwd) STI News: Firm discovers good IT help hard to find

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To: <ossig@mncc.com.my> 
Subject: Re: [ossig] (Fwd) STI News: Firm discovers good IT help hard to find 
From: "Lee Hanxue" <hanxue@myrealbox.com> 
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 01:41:50 +0800 
References: <3DEBAF18.6271.58DABC@localhost> 
Reply-to: ossig@mncc.com.my 
Sender: owner-ossig@mncc.com.my 

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I agree with most part of what you wrote, Meng. Perhaps this should be
published in In Tech or something =)

So let me get to the part where I disagree first (kinda rude and untactful,
but I prefer to get over the "unpleasant" facts first).

I know that those from the "old school" are very familiar with the ins and
outs of the PC, right down to machine language. That is of course very
useful. Heck, even the BSOD in windoze will show the stack trace and
register values. But the thing is we cannot just build complex software
using assembly or other low level languages, hence, the need for higher
level abstractions.

According to Frederick Brooks (did I get the name correct? He wrote The
Mythical Man Month, more on that later) and also some DoD guys, software is
inherently complex. More so in this environment where we depend heavily on
computers to run daily tasks. Therefore, there is a need for those higher
level languages and prototyping environment. To quote Isaac Newton, " If I
have seen further than other men, it is by standing on shoulder of giants "

Before I close on this, I must emphasize that I am NOT a fan of Visual
Basic, and neither am I a supporter of Microsoft. I am just generally
referring to the differences in terms of computer science syllabus. I am not
really anti-Microsoft either. In fact, I am using Outlook Express now. Most
of the time I seek to get the job done in the least time, least cost, both
long term and short term.

Let me start with a rant. This Jonathan Searcy, I read an article about him
before the competition and at least that article sounded decent. He must
think he is some smart aleck just because he come from Down Under. No wonder
he is not working with IBM Global Services, Andersen Consulting or even
Schlumberger.

You are right on with your statement that attitude is the most important
criteria. I have heard from those in seniour management that there is no
point getting a super salesperson or a whizzkid if they are also doing
"funny things", if you know what I mean. In fact, the most common remark I
heard about IT people (from senior management) is they are an arrogant bunch
who think they know everything, which is actually very true. At least my
ignorance can prove to that :)

I agree that most institution are teaching things that are really the
surface. I mean, why should we learn up so many programming languages and
the "hottest" technology when it might be something else in 3-5 years' time?
Some colleges are actually teaching HTML, ASP, etc. Some people say IT is
only a new way of saying computer science. I beg to differ. IT is so
shallow. I mean, they don't touch about mathematical proving and some
physics stuff. It is all just e-commerce, design and all that.

About the quality of lecturers, I could not agree more. Do you know that in
the top private IT college in Malaysia, the lecturers sometimes don't even
know what they are teaching? For example, OOP lecturer is not even familiar
with Java and just blabber incoherently about Rose Unified Process. They
don't even do their homework! I believe that if those lecturers are forced
to take the examination for the subjects that they teach, they are not going
to do well.

As for people knowing Knuth, I am as disappointed as you, even though I am
from the "new school". Some time ago, when Nygaard passed away and I
mentioned it to my friends, they just say "Who they hell is him?" and
hinting that knowing about all those people is not going to make them the
next Bill Gates. Do they know that Wozniak is the technical whizzkid behind
Apple? And also Avie Tevanian, Ray Ozzie and gang? Heck, they don't even
know who Djikstra is. How pathetic.

And yes, people should just read those classics such as "The Mythical Man
Month". It is really a timeless book. Just read, understand and apply and it
will surely help out a lot in improving software quality and software
project management issues.

Yup, that is true, programmers are more or less trampled down upon. If I
want to start this dot com, I just advertise on The Star, looking for a few
ASP and perhaps VB programmers. On the other hand, I think good programmers
will always survive =) Its just that there are so many bad programmers
(final year student, do NOT know how to use msgbox in VB) around that
overall the status of programmers are dragged down.


Yours truly,
Hanxue





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