Brian Krebs of the WashingtonPost.com wrote this blog entry which is an overview of how some scammers operate. I hadn't realized how sophisticated these operations had become. It's really an arms race.
And if it is an arms race, perhaps statistical analytics is the Predator drone. I found this article today on eWeek's web site about Guardian Analytics which is a software tool that use statistical techniques to help prevent identify theft in what sounds like a similar fashion to the way that credit card companies already do. To me, this seems like the wave of the future and something that will certainly complicate the lives of scammers and frauders the world over.
I certainly have a new perspective on spam now. I had thought that the intent of most spam was to sell useless products to bored people. I now think that most spam is intended to infect victims with trojans so that scammers can maintain and expand the network of stolen/compromised computers that are the tool of their trade.
Two forums that I follow regularly are the dice dicussions on tech market conditions and the the Business of Software forum. There's a lot of carping about outsourcing to be found on Dice, less so on Business of Software (BOS) but I did find an interesting point on BOS the other day. 300 million people in the US. One billion people in India. The top 30% of India is more than the entire population of the US. We can't ignore, or control India, or China, or the rest of the world. We can adapt, market to and try to find a profitable place for ourselves in the world that is evolving around us. The days of US hegemony are gone.
With that in mind, how can a software engineer survive in tomorrow's world? My take on that is:
And if it is an arms race, perhaps statistical analytics is the Predator drone. I found this article today on eWeek's web site about Guardian Analytics which is a software tool that use statistical techniques to help prevent identify theft in what sounds like a similar fashion to the way that credit card companies already do. To me, this seems like the wave of the future and something that will certainly complicate the lives of scammers and frauders the world over.
I certainly have a new perspective on spam now. I had thought that the intent of most spam was to sell useless products to bored people. I now think that most spam is intended to infect victims with trojans so that scammers can maintain and expand the network of stolen/compromised computers that are the tool of their trade.
Two forums that I follow regularly are the dice dicussions on tech market conditions and the the Business of Software forum. There's a lot of carping about outsourcing to be found on Dice, less so on Business of Software (BOS) but I did find an interesting point on BOS the other day. 300 million people in the US. One billion people in India. The top 30% of India is more than the entire population of the US. We can't ignore, or control India, or China, or the rest of the world. We can adapt, market to and try to find a profitable place for ourselves in the world that is evolving around us. The days of US hegemony are gone.
With that in mind, how can a software engineer survive in tomorrow's world? My take on that is:
- Stay close to the business. Being able to help form requirements is a strong asset that is difficult to outsource. I do not need to be a rock-star programmer What I do need is to have a feel for what is possible, how difficult it is to do something and to be able to communicate this to others.
- Pick a platform. I've got a lot of experience with windows and various windows-based development platforms. I need to use that experience as a strategic asset as much as possible. While a smart kid in India might have memorized the entire common language runtime API, he may not have the real-world experience to know when and why to choose certain approaches. When I'm competing with him, this is my trump card. However, with LAMP I don't have as much experience so my book-smart competitor from India and I are more evenly matched, and I'm more expensive.
- Use your time wisely. In tomorrow's world, every individual is an enterprise. Proctor & Gamble sells soap, I sell my time. They spend money on R&D in an attempt to improve their soap and keep up with the competition and I need to do the same. Ask yourself each day, "what new did I learn today?"