What's Happening As The University of California Tries To Outsource IT Jobs To India (pressreader.com) 483
Long-time Slashdot reader Nova Express shares an epic column by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik. It details what's happening now as the University of California tries to outsources dozens of IT jobs -- about 20% of their IT workforce -- by February 28th. Some of the highlights:
- The CEO of UCSF's Medical Center says he expects their security to be at least as good as it is now, but acknowledges "there are no guarantees."
- Nine workers have filed a complaint with the state's Department of Fair Employment and Housing arguing they're facing discrimination.
- California Senator Feinstein is already complaining that the university is tapping $8.5 billion in federal funding "to replace Californian IT workers with foreign workers or labor performed abroad."
- Representative Zoe Lofgren (from a district in Silicon Valley) is arguing that the university "is training software engineers at the same time they're outsourcing their own software engineers. What message are they sending their own students?"
- 57-year-old sys-admin Kurt Ho says his replacement spent just two days with him, then "told me he would go back to India and train his team, and would be sending me emails with questions."
- The university's actions will ultimately lower their annual $5.83 billion budget by just 0.1%.
This is a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
Universities have never been more than a bottom-line for-profit business that uses cult-like recruiting tactics and has absolutely no shame or loyalty to anything or anyone but themselves.
I hope this is becoming a bit clearer to everyone now, as in the past I've been ridiculed for blasting universities as money-driven cults.
They provide very little value in the modern world and should be used sparingly.
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Universities have never been more than a bottom-line for-profit business that uses cult-like recruiting tactics and has absolutely no shame or loyalty to anything or anyone but themselves.
Just like the folks in Washington, representing this government funded university. Read this article to see how Feinstein responded to pleas for help from affected workers [computerworld.com].
A University of California IT employee whose job is being outsourced to India recently wrote Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for help. Feinstein's office sent back a letter ... and offered the worker no assistance.
Re:This is a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
A University of California IT employee whose job is being outsourced to India recently wrote Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for help. Feinstein's office sent back a letter ... and offered the worker no assistance.
If you send a letter to the Washington, D.C., office, you will get back a form letter. If you send a letter to the local or state office, you will get personal response (most of the time). If you want to be effective in politics, it starts at the grassroots.
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The university's actions will ultimately lower their annual $5.83 billion budget by just 0.1%.
But the bonuses and profits of the outsourcing operation and the key stakeholders in the universities will enjoy their kickbacks and high end dinners.
Re:This is a surprise? (Score:4, Interesting)
...and the key stakeholders in the universities will enjoy their kickbacks and high end dinners.
With corruption the return of invested capital is humongous. Corrupt idiots selling out for a diner and the feeling of being privileged.
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"...but I was dashed if I could see why he couldn't do it with a bright and cheerful smile."
(Nice to encounter another Bertie Wooster fan!)
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Bahahahaha, they thought Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) [wikipedia.org], was going to effectively intercede with Janet Napolitano [wikipedia.org] to help rich American white guys keep their jobs, from being outsourced to poor brown guys, due to financial realities of the reduced care reimbursements to providers under Obamacare and increased demand from illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities!
Those IT guys should get the buttercup award for being a special kind of snowflake!
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Re:This is a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't be as... caustic in my critique of universities as the OP, but I can definitely understand the sentiment.
I think the problem is that many people think that universities should all act like non-profit educational institutions. In reality, the "best" universities act like (for-profit) partnerships performing professional research services, and they are very, very good at this. Certainly, this is where the majority of UC funding comes from.
If you paid for an undergrad degree at a research institution, and didn't understand that you should have been working in some famous professor's lab to actually get your education, you're going to be pretty upset when you get out.
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Is UC a state university, though? State universities absolutely should act like non-profit educational institutions. Otherwise what is the public interest in being involved?
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A-Fucking-Men.
These universities are ultimately under the control of the Legislature. The CA Government is swarming with Democrats, yet none of them seem to give a fuck about good jobs being sent out of the country. Why is that?
Seriously...it wasn't all that long ago they'd be all over this like bees on an open soda can.
Re:This is a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you paid for an undergrad degree at a research institution, and didn't understand that you should have been working in some famous professor's lab to actually get your education, you're going to be pretty upset when you get out.
And didn't understand... because someone should have taught you that when you were 14, so this basically blames the schools for not properly educating kids about the ways of the world. Fair enough.
I'd suggest it goes a little further though. The left has a bias or belief that problems are the fault of society, whereas the right tends to bias to the belief that problems are the fault of the individual. Now, the problem is that, the left tends to be more associated with education (because if society and its institutions are the problem, then those are the institutions which need to be improved, and education needs to be improved). So the left is more idealistic about the role of education. See it is implicit. But what you're saying is, from more of a right wing point of view, hey nobody should be an idiot, or ignorant, to the fact that the world is competitive and selfish place, and that individuals have to learn to handle this, mostly via self control and character building and smarts (so don't come crying when you become a victim).
And that, I think, is fair enough, as there is no real difference between the "individual" and "society", as ideological categories, because we are always both, we are all individuals and we all live in society and are part of social institutions. Individuals have agency. Groups have communion. And we always act and function in both. So the problems are often found in both places. (A way forward for politics is to become both left and right wing).
So I would just add that, I agree in the sense that, our society needs to spend more time acclimatising kids to "how the world works", as by nature, humans are both competitive and cooperative. And we need to be educated to understand when and where each one is the dominant driver. So I do agree, it is right to tell people that they need to wise up about American universities. But I wouldn't blame kids for not knowing that already, if they haven't been taught.
Fair enough. Though not necessarily fault, overcom (Score:3)
> The left has a bias or belief that problems are the fault of society, whereas the right tends to bias to the belief that problems are the fault of the individual.
That's reasonably fair and I realize this is a bit of a tangent to your main point, but I don't know that "fault" is necessarily the right word. I believe that my daughter, who is black and of course female, can become a supreme court justice, president, or chairwoman of the joint chiefs DESPITE whatever is wrong with society, and that it'
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This is likely the dumbest thing I will read today.
I have read something dumber: TFA. The headline and the very first sentence contradict each other. The headline says the jobs are going TO India. The first sentence says they are going to immigrants FROM India. Which is it? TFA is obviously biased smear journalism, but geez, at least the basic facts should be clearly stated.
Re:This is a surprise? (Score:4, Interesting)
This is going to be a disaster. You can't learn a system in two days. Even with perfect documentation, you need way more time. This isn't some coding project. The sys admin mention probably manages dozens of undocumented systems. Stuff will work for a while, but after the first power outage, time change, etc...someone4 is going to be calling these guys up constantly getting information from them for the rest of their lives.
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"The first sentence says they are going to immigrants FROM India."
The headline does not contradict the article. These people are not immigrants in the conventional sense, who come to the US to acculturate and become a part of our society. H-1B is a special peonage deal for chintzy employers, by which the worker gets a temporary visa, good only for a specific employer, and then must return home. India gets a trained IT worker while California's own workers, immigrant and otherwise, get unemployment.
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Universities have never been more than a bottom-line for-profit business that uses cult-like recruiting tactics and has absolutely no shame or loyalty to anything or anyone but themselves.
I hope this is becoming a bit clearer to everyone now, as in the past I've been ridiculed for blasting universities as money-driven cults.
They provide very little value in the modern world and should be used sparingly.
In your above comment I agree and frankly I'm a bit shocked that you did not suggest finding the ass-hat that gets a bonus for this grand money making scheme. Since, as the illustrious Senator pointed out, there are federal tax dollars involved, it would be nice to know if a company of foreign origin has imparted any finders fee, gift, promise of future employment, etc. to an ass-hat currently working for the Great State of California, or a contractor thereof...
Sorry we pile on so often, but you must admit
Re:This is a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
Universities have never been more than a bottom-line for-profit business that uses cult-like recruiting tactics and has absolutely no shame or loyalty to anything or anyone but themselves.
Not all. I take courses at an urban community college and these classes are inexpensive and high quality. The college offers 2-year associate degrees to many people who would otherwise find it difficult to get any degree, as well as offering numerous certificates and types of training, not to mention cultural and artistic enrichment which are also very important.
They are always struggling financially but they serve a vital function in the community.
Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Bravo, nitwits.
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They are just doing the needful on priority and at the earliest. They will revert when complete.
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
What happens when Indian IT people in the US get scam computer virus calls from India? Does it create some kind of singularity that causes both of them to move to another dimension?
Or is it more like:
"I am calling from the Microsoft support center and I wish to tell you your computer has a virus"
"Nilesh? What are you doing? I thought you were going to work in the civil service section your family controls."
"Premal, since Modi has withdrawn the large rupee notes my uncle can no longer give me a job in the civil service and I must work at the call center and to tell you your computer has a virus."
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Scams were not invented in India. In fact scam calling is just another form of outsourcing where US based criminals use low paid foreign workers to do the grunt work. So if no singularity happened when Americans were scamming Americans none will happen when Indians scam Indians.
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why go to that when you have students with unlimited loans you get for that and more.
Re: Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Automatic. (Score:5, Interesting)
Shouldn't be any discussion about this. If a UNIVERSITY is outsourcing. They should instantly lose all federal and state funding.
Wanna behave like a private company? Get treated like one. No taxpayer soup for you.
Re:Automatic. (Score:5, Insightful)
More than that- this is a state university. Not a private one like Harvard. Its basically owned by the government. So its the government outsourcing these jobs.
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Can you explain to me why they shouldn't they move the jobs abroad?
Because you come back with fucking shit like you just posted.
Re:Automatic. (Score:5, Insightful)
As you can see from the responses you have gotten, most people can't explain it. Even if it is "obvious" to them, they should be adult enough to realize that there might be many visitors to this site that seriously have your question even if they believe you don't. They could have used this as an opportunity to explain their side, but instead did such a huge disservice by their replies.
Anyway, I personally don't have anything against hiring the most cost effective solution. Although I doubt it will be as good or ok as the business case suggests. In the end, the university will survive and move on.
What I DO have a problem with is the abuse of the H1-B system. A system that was designed to allow our companies to hire abroad when they can't find the talent locally. It isn't a system designed to drive costs down. I have rarely seen H1-B positions that I felt didn't have local talent. Probably 1/5. In this case, clearly, if the current employees have to train their replacements, then there is no question that there is a more suitable local talent than foreign.
If I had it my way, I wouldn't tie the H1-B visa to the company. 2 years in, the H1-B should belong to the employee to go where ever he feels his talent is most appreciated. If the company fires him after 11 months, the visa still belongs to them. The US could still limit the number of visas issued, and actively maintained. The employee would still need to maintain their visa by having employment 6 out of the last 12 months. I also don't think the permanent residency process be tied to the company. Companies shouldn't be allowed to petition that. Only the individual with backing from a US citizen should be able to.
Fix the H1-B system and we can talk about a fair playing field. Thou, I doubt many companies would be as enthusiastic about it.
Re:Automatic. (Score:5, Insightful)
From a capitalist perspective, they are selling a product ("an education") in which the very promise is vocational advancement. Yet their own actions demonstrate they are selling a product which doesn't actually do what it claims.
State Universities also exist outside the realm of profit and loss and were established to accomplish a specific social goal -- advancing the practical arts and sciences outside the realm of the traditional liberal arts education. By pushing their own jobs overseas they seem to be undermining that as well.
If they need to save money to meet their operating costs and income, then why not cut costs elsewhere? So many have huge investments in athletics which kind of appear to be paid for by a handful of top tier revenue sports, but at my local University the athletics facilities (a block-sized tennis facility) seem to exceed what could be considered reasonable spending associated with those sports and also fails to take into account for most state Universities' ability to use their quasi-government status for bonding to obtain money for athletic facilities average students will never use.
Plus you can't tell me that any state University in the US couldn't cut a whole laundry list of internal "programs" that mostly exist to create internal empires. And that's without even asking many political questions as to which of these programs are really advocacy programs designed to push ideological agendas.
Re:Automatic. (Score:5, Informative)
Professor here. Universities also create those internal empires for business reasons: there surely is a lot of ideology in universities, but never underestimate the almighty dollar's ability to trump ideology. The biggest internal empires, and not coincidentally some of the biggest money-makers, are the housing and food domains. These are areas that most governments tend not to tread, but universities often require students to buy food and shelter from them for at least one year: the university, like a totalitarian state, creeps into every aspect of a student's life. The revenue from housing and food (both are now often outsourced to private dorm and catering companies) supposedly pays into the university's general funds. They also provide employment to students (RAs, cashiers, etc), as do many of the other internal empires (secretary in the office of multicultural baskwetweaving, etc), which satisfies a requirement that students work in order to receive tuition reduction. Hospitals are another major internal empire for big schools, and they are ginormous money-makers whose budget offices have, between the cushions of their waiting room couches, multiples of the funds available to the academic wing of the university. Finally, you have empires that exist to employ former students who got their PhDs and never got real jobs in academia or outside: here you have the Diversity Officers and Campus Liaison Officers and other vague titles that cover up how worthless some degrees are, because a bunch of unemployed basketweavers would look bad and reduce applications, which might hurt revenue. Law schools are getting famous for this - it's hard to make it in the world with a law degree nowadays, so some schools are hiring their graduates to avoid having to admit how few of them get real jobs. In the end, somewhere in all that, there are a few professors still, although mostly replaced by non-tenured, lower-paid adjuncts who make less money than an elementary school teacher despite being far more qualified and often teaching more students. The most obvious cost-cutting measure in place is the elimination of actual professorships by attrition - a retiring professor will be replaced by an adjunct with no hope of ever achieving the same pay rate. It's all about the money.
What about globalism? (Score:5, Interesting)
Shouldn't be any discussion about this. If a UNIVERSITY is outsourcing. They should instantly lose all federal and state funding.
Wanna behave like a private company? Get treated like one. No taxpayer soup for you.
It's a fine position, but how about the rest of the debate?
California was four-square against the recent election outcome, which was in large part *against* globalism. Lots and lots of supporters here and in the MSM were arguing the benefits of this sort of thing from every viewpoint. Some people lose their jobs, but the economy prospers overall. Those jobs are never coming back. We'll be losing all of them to AI anyway.
California is so much against the populist uprising that they are implementing sanctuary cities (and sanctuary universities), giving illegal immigrants drivers licenses and the ability to vote, and generally planning to oppose any new federal mandates and changes (such as deportation of illegals).
And yes, it's the California cities which are [politically] deep blue, while the rest is generally red.
So how does this position fit into the rest of the debate? How can one show outrage over this situation and still support the [generally accepted as] liberal Californian viewpoint which embraces globalism?
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Just like the old days when your grandpa came over, only he wouldn't have been called illegal unless he was Chinese.
California can't stop them and the Feds are not even trying so why not accept reality instead of fucking about. Those cut-price illegal workers the Republicans love to have babysitting their kids need to drive to do their below minimum wage work so they are allowed licences no matter who is Governor of the state. Decades of go
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plus California used to be part of Mexico FFS so what the fuck is the problem?
This part of your rant is irrelevant. People don't get to automatically become citizens just because their home nation used to own some land, centuries ago, that is now owned by some other nation. I'm pretty sure citizens of Belgium do not get to automatically become citizens of the Netherlands if they wish it, just because Belgium used to be part of the Netherlands centuries ago. Citizens of Italy sure as hell don't get to aut
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So ignore it. It's a throwaway line about things changing over time and nothing more.
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Just like the old days when your grandpa came over, only he wouldn't have been called illegal unless he was Chinese.
California can't stop them and the Feds are not even trying so why not accept reality instead of fucking about. Those cut-price illegal workers the Republicans love to have babysitting their kids need to drive to do their below minimum wage work so they are allowed licences no matter who is Governor of the state. Decades of government constipation on the issue has just resulted in millions of quasi-citizens who have neither been turned back or made citizens. It's been going on for so long that they are citizens in all but name, plus California used to be part of Mexico FFS so what the fuck is the problem?
It's really amazing just how much talking out your ass in this thread are you going to do ? First I see you making crap up about a fmr sec def's academics now I just see you pulling crap out of your ass completely. But lets look at it, if you came here in the 1800s and were Irish you got your citizenship more likely than not by fighting in the Civil War. If you came here in the early 20th century you had to go through naturalization.
In either case you didn't get welfare benefits or the right to vote without
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http://www.breitbart.com/tech/... [breitbart.com]
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Maybe it's time to start learning Mandarin.
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A wrestling scholarship - you lose. -DBIII
Sorry he won, and you lost before you even started playing the game
Rumsfeld attended Baker Demonstration School,[11] and later graduated[12] from New Trier High School. He attended Princeton University on academic and NROTC partial scholarships*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
And from his book
https://books.google.com/books... [google.com]
Why is it every time I run into you on this site you're making stuff up ?
*NROTC = is the naval reserve officer program not national wRestling something or other
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So I was wrong about the wrestling,
the AC said Rumsfeld was better than all of us here academically.
vs
Fuck - a United States where people who push shit like that are running the place. It makes Rumsfeld look like an intellectual in comparison.
Maybe it's time to start learning Mandarin..
Yeah he's the guy who brought Rumsfeld up and didn't know what he was talking about not you.
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http://www.breitbart.com/tech/... [breitbart.com]
That has to be a pisstake article! God I hope so.
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"You pedantic twit!"
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Us Alt-Right nut faces don't generally insult the other side of the debate.
Who else would use the word "libtard" in political comments?
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Us Alt-Right nut faces don't generally insult the other side of the debate.
Who else would use the word "libtard" in political comments?
Anyone with experience of the extreme left ?
Re:Automatic. (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to be an H1B, and this is indeed inexcusable. It's not even just about jobs lost, but what happened to matters such as national pride and the associated symbolism? If the universities of the country - the institutions that educate and train workers for its industries - are refusing to hire those very workers to perform jobs that the universities need, that says a lot about either the usefulness of the degrees that they teach, or the quality of their education. If they're claiming that Indian workers (with Indian degrees) are really "good enough", why even bother with expensive American education? And make no mistake, it's not just a message for the citizens; people abroad will notice as well.
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So you want public money to be used to overpay govt employees instead of getting the best value for the money by using the lower cost private sector provider. No wonder taxes are so high in California.
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You mean do I want American tax payer dollars recycled back into the US economy and not send to India?
Yes.
Re:Automatic. (Score:4, Insightful)
So you want public money to be used to overpay govt employees instead of getting the best value for the money by using the lower cost private sector provider. No wonder taxes are so high in California.
That's also why California has beautiful national parks, expansive and well maintained roads, and is the center of no less than three major industries. Oklahoma has low taxes, and that's about all it has. What good is cheap if it's absolutely worthless?
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well maintained roads
What the hell have you been smoking?
Re:Automatic. (Score:5, Interesting)
well maintained roads
What the hell have you been smoking?
If you think California's roads are bad, I advise you to try New Hampshire's sometime. So granite is the state that we still use gravel and dirt roads, and when there's any asphalt to be seen, it's 35 years old and has fissures the size of the Grand Canyon. And yes, I've lived in both of these states. I think it's fair to say that California has a well maintained road network for its size, and if we're talking about a low tax state like New Hampshire or Indiana, you'd realize the difference almost immediately.
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The roads are maintained by prison labor in California.
I doubt NH has any sort of sizable prison population to make such an endeavor possible.
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I think it's fair to say that California has a well maintained road network for its size,
The interstates are generally well maintained. The freeways in and around the LA/OC area are a fucking travesty. Potholes everywhere. Some roads are crumbling and coming apart in chunks. They only fix the worst of the worst, and it takes them several years to get to it. I work in the north SFV area, and I've only seen them repave 4 streets in the ~5 miles around my office in the last decade, and only just recently. Meanwhile, the freeways are constantly "under construction" but you rarely see them working o
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"expansive and well maintained roads"
Non-Californian detected!
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"expansive and well maintained roads"
Non-Californian detected!
I assure you, I have lived in Cali for several continuous years, and I have the Soup Plantation receipts to prove it. California's road system is pretty decent, and when you look at its size, it's impressive. Even on the death hills by my house, there are railguards at the edges, no cracks in the roads, and they actually repair roads from wear and tear. Trying to navigate a mountain in New Hampshire is a nightmare, as is trying to get almost anywhere else; Californians are a lucky people (well, admittedly m
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But that, of course, is the debate. Is it really "the best value for the money"? I call your homily with a truism "you get what you pay for".
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What do you think republican tax cuts are all about? Giving tax payer money to businesses.
This is so hilariously bass-ackwards I have to wonder if this was satire.
The government not confiscating under threat of deadly force wealth it did not earn, in the form of taxes, from those who created said wealth is *not* giving that wealth away to anyone as it was never government's wealth in the first place. A tax cut is not a 'subsidy' as so many seem to want to (deliberately) misconstrue it. A mugger that lets you keep some of your money is not subsidizing you by the amount he left you.
Strat
surprise surprise (Score:2)
Senator Feinstein (Score:2, Insightful)
Senator Feinstein heal thyself! H1-B increase after H1-B increase.
"lower their annual ... budget by just 0.1%" (Score:4, Funny)
Working in IT, I'm not too thrilled by this, but that one statement shows a complete lack of thought.
To paraphrase not-Everett Dirksen, "A tenth of a percent here, a tenth of a percent there, pretty soon you're talking real savings."
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Working in IT, I'm not too thrilled by this, but that one statement shows a complete lack of thought.
That's nothing. I worked for a Fortune 500 company that demanded that the help desk providers provide twice the performance for half the cost. When a provider couldn't deliver, they gave the contract to a different provider. Each time the help desk staff got smaller and smaller. When I checked several years ago, they still haven't achieved twice the performance for half the cost after turning over providers three or four times.
Re:"lower their annual ... budget by just 0.1%" (Score:5, Informative)
Until you realize that 0.1% on $5.83 billion is $58.3 million. That's not chump change.
0.1% of $5.83 Billion is actually $5.83 Million. Closer to chump change in a nearly-$6 Billion budget.
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0.1% of $5.83 Billion is actually $5.83 Million. Closer to chump change in a nearly-$6 Billion budget.
It's barely even a rounding error, but look at how many American workers will bite the dust for this shameless bullshit. It's an epic fuck-up by the university on every level.
Re:"lower their annual ... budget by just 0.1%" (Score:5, Interesting)
Most times outsourcing is not done for saving costs (that just the excuse). its done because the current team has become too set in its ways and pissed off one too many administrator.
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That's typically the bullshit excuse used to implement a fad read about in Forbes and outsource to a bunch feeding off that fad.
If it really is the case that the management thinks the current team is too set in its ways then either whoever leads or manages the team is given instructions to change or is replaced by someone who will implement changes.
A radical move just because "one too many administrat
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Resource exploration including coal - something that requires a shitload of computing power.
Why the fuck are you following me around? What is your problem and why and you using me as your scratching post today?
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It's barely a rounding error in the nearly-$6bn budget, but individual departments don't care about the nearly-$6bn budget. They care about their own little budget.
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"All other things being equal enough". Who gets to decide?
Will lower their budget? Nope (Score:5, Insightful)
The university's actions will ultimately lower their annual $5.83 billion budget by just 0.1%.
It doesn't take a fortune teller to see how this will end. Anyone with experience with low-cost offshore replacements knows that after the painful transition and a slow degradation of IT performance (with all the slowness, bugs, and embarrassing security breaches that come with it), the fallout of the university's decision will ultimately cost a hell of a lot more to fix than what is saved up front.
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you left out the best part, where identity information from the University systems are sold to scammers, spammers, etc.
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In our department - fortunately somewhat north of California - the vast majority of the total salary expenses (95% when I last checked a couple years ago) go towards faculty salaries. But those are basically sacrosanct... so trying to save even a small percentage of the overall salary budget requires significant cuts to staff levels.
No way security is as good (Score:5, Insightful)
How can they say with a straight face that security will be "as good as it is now" when they have just introduced a massive attack vector into the system?
Along with the factor of "Oh network traffic from India is just fine, let that all pass right on through".
Glad I"m not on their payroll or enrolled as a student (to be more specific glad they don't have my SSN).
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I'll qft you here: "How can they say with a straight face that security will be "as good as it is now" when they have just introduced a massive attack vector into the system?"
Re:No way security is as good (Score:5, Interesting)
Did you hear about the Australian online census failure?
One of the long string of fuckups as a consequence of going for a bargain basement IBM service was that the computer was administered from China and logs were sent to the US for performance analysis. Of course they didn't tell their customer this.
The system crumbled under the load of millions of people logging in at once (due to the advertising of "census night" instead of any time over a few weeks, which is how estimated load had been calculated), IBM were not answering the calls at night so the spooks were called in to see if that site hired by the government was being hacked. The spooks found a bit of traffic from China (the system administrators at work on other virtual machines on the same host - discount plan remember) and a continuous stream of data going to the USA (performance logging). GeoIP blocking was put in place which locked the sysadmins out, the thing fell over completely under the load and the final consequence was the site being down for well over a week. Officials went on TV saying it was hacked by Chinese and US hackers but that was bullshit, they had just fucked up and didn't put a system in place that could cope with the load.
The point? Currently the situation is network traffic from China, from people working from home, is seen to be fine in a lot of cases let alone traffic from India.
Those massive attack vectors are already there and that's part of the reason we are neck deep in a malware swamp.
Adding to it is of course as stupid as you suggest.
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Please reputable sources or it didn't happen.
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Why the fuck are you posting irrelevant shit on all my recent posts on different topics?
the spooks found a bit of traffic from China
Shit you're posting tinfoil hat crap without anything to back it and you call the question irrelevant.
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http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/hacking/who-is-the-mysterious-signals-directorate-tasked-with-investigating-the-census-fail/news-story/4d9def0f4ab2eac4269aae196c464f36
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LOL that doesn't say what you think it does. More tinfoil.
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How is the an intelligence agency not an intelligence agency?
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What it doesn't say is none of this
, IBM were not answering the calls at night so the spooks were called in to see if that site hired by the government was being hacked. The spooks found a bit of traffic from China (the system administrators at work on other virtual machines on the same host - discount plan remember) and a continuous stream of data going to the USA (performance logging). GeoIP blocking was put in place which locked the sysadmins out, the thing fell over completely under the load and the final consequence was the site being down for well over a week. Officials went on TV saying it was hacked by Chinese and US hackers but that was bullshit, they had just fucked up and didn't put a system in place that could cope with the load.
What it does say is the Signals directorate looked into it thought it was one thing, then said it was another.
So who is it you're out to smear here ? The signals directorate, IBM, or both ?
Napolitano is the UC President? (Score:4, Informative)
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For the same reason they backed Hillary, who also had a history of failures.
(Tokenism)
Schools are corporations too... (Score:4, Insightful)
Representative Zoe Lofgren (from a district in Silicon Valley) is arguing that the university "is training software engineers at the same time they're outsourcing their own software engineers. What message are they sending their own students?"
Same message as the law schools: "We're happy to take your money. If you can't find a job after you graduate, tough shit. You should have thought carefully about your major's future potential before taking on $100K in student loans."
OT - Re:Schools are corporations too... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's over. Mr. Trump is someone else's POTUS. But not mine.
Sorry to inform you, if you're a citizen of the US, then he's gong to be your president unless something extraordinary happens. Period, full stop, the end. You might not have voted for him, you might hate his guts and politics and wish him ill, and until he takes to oath of office he ISN'T your president -- but once he does, he is.
*I* didn't vote for Obama and didn't like a lot of things that he did (and didn't do.) But looks like his hopey changie thing is finally working itself out.
Then again, if you really don't want him to be your president, you can always renounce your U.S. citizenship and pick exactly who you'd like. Once, anyway. I suggest you move to Canada [google.com] like these people AREN'T. Or you could join Cher [bizpacreview.com], I'm sure she's going to be lonely on (in?) Jupiter.
And by the way, I'm curious: are you on either coast? I'm in flyover country. (Well actually not, I'm not even that close to the aerial lanes.)
So much Wrong with This (Score:4, Informative)
Why is their budget bigger than most countries?
They will save 60 million dollars by outsourced 20% of the workforce? I have worked in IT in one of the highest internationally acclaimed universities, it was just 2 full time guys with 2 student helpers for 1/5th of the university. I really doubt that the total yearly salaries exceeded 200K.
Keeping a few thousand computers and a few server rooms running is really not that big of a job.
UCSF != UC (Score:3)
The headline makes it look like the entire University of California is outsourcing their IT to India. Everyone - San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Riverside, Irvine, San Diego, Davis, LA, et al
Is that really the case? I was under the impression that the only people doing that was UCSF. It also brings to mind one question - why can't UCSF outsource that job to UCB, which is just across the Bay Bridge? Let the descendants of the BSD inventors manage their IT
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Except that UCSF is indeed just the start:
"According to notes from an Aug. 5 meeting of UC's IT Architecture Committee, chief information officers at other campuses are happy to let UCSF act as a guinea pig and will "wait for a year before jumping in with HCL" in order to gauge UCSF's experience.
https://www.pressreader.com/
Change of wording (Score:2)
Instead of the old standby "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" IT support can now come back with "Have you tried reincarnating the OS instance?"
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"Unfortunately sir, your O.S. seems to have come back as Windows Vista. You must have done something especially bad with your laptop last night.".
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Pot Outsource Kettle (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot on IT jobs being sent offshore: "This Is An Outrage!!!!!"
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Indeed - the "libertarian" mindset of "I've got mine - fuck you" is strong here.
Maybe I'd be one of those fucked up people too if I didn't work in manufacturing before IT.
You have to come back chief to explain how a government run university paid for with tax dollars and guaranteed loans exporting jobs has anything to do with libertarians ? Or is just more of you making things up ?
I do have to thank you I thought this thread wasn't going to be interesting but fisking is always enjoyable.
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What I wrote obviously had nothing at all to do with "a government run university paid for with tax dollars and guaranteed loans exporting jobs" but only to do with the post I replied to.
The #1 reason I think this is a dumb move: (Score:4, Insightful)
Outsourcing IT jobs is going to reduce opportunities for financial aid and job training for the students; undermining the basic mission of universities. Dumb move UC.
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And where will all the engineers and researchers come from if there aren't people going into higher education? Guys like Thiel and Trump may be able to amass large amounts of capital, but without the academic, science and technical expertise working for them, they'd be nothing.
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And where will all the engineers and researchers come from if there aren't people going into higher education?
Those are the workers who aren't smart enough to own the corporate ladder. They're happy to climb the corporate ladder, pay the highest tax rates and make someone else rich.
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Most UC campuses have decentralized, highly inefficient IT, some supporting administrative staff, some supporting faculty, and some supporting research.
Stanford University has a central IT department to set the university-wide standard, but each school has a dedicated IT team. I did four or five interviews at different schools a few years ago. A very different experience than interviewing at a Fortune 500 company.
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For California? A blue state? The Donald has a well-known penchant for vengeance. I expect that any benefits for Cal. will be a side-effect of policies benefiting one of his or his crony's businesses.