Preaching for pennies.

I recently bought and built an entire new computer just to play D3 while I’m living in Japan. It took a long time to get to this point, but I have been able to play D3 for the first time. My expectations are high but having heard about the ups and downs of the game from forums and my brother, I think I had much more tame expectations going into the game. That is, I hope it is fun enough to keep me interested for a long time (e.g., a year or two). So here are my initial D3 impressions after 5-6 hrs of gameplay on a solo monk.

1. Very fun from the start because it doesn’t seem impossible to mow down enemies. Of course, D2 wasn’t that hard either but most of the early game was about whacking enemies with a weapon as very few classes had skills that could be “spammed”. Exceptions are those that don’t need to spam skills to be fun (barb, summoner necro, were druid, ma assassin). With D3, you get to spam a primary skill endlessly which is awesome.

2. I don’t notice leveling. Part of it is that I am a bit more immersed in the gameplay BUT a larger part of it is that it takes so long to get something new when leveling up (the level breaks for skills/runes), that I don’t bother watching my exp bar. Unlike D2, when I level up in D3, I don’t think “Yay! New level!”. Having no stat or skill allocation has ruined the entire leveling experience in this game. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing yet. I need to play more to see how I feel about this change.

3. While I no longer have to think about allocating stats/skills (which is a nice change), it also sucks that it takes so long to “up” a skill. One of the best parts of D2 was hitting 30 and being able to up any skill I want. With levels in D3, I don’t feel like I get any stronger except when I unlock a new skill/rune. Leveling feels pointless and stupid, which I guess means no ladder races.

4. Some of the skills and runes feel underwhelming. So far, there have been no hard choices on which skills to pick and use. I literally cannot see how someone can play a monk at my current level in a more effective manner.

5. Skill spamming your primary at no cost is very fun. But it gets a bit boring fast. All the secondary skills for the monk also seem so boring that I rarely use them. The only times I’m forced to use a secondary skill is when I am fighting an elite or boss pack and need some effect from the skill that I cannot get from my primary. I liken this to Magicka. Magicka is super fun because you can spam skills endlessly but the fun never gets boring because there are hundreds of combinations you can use. Also, with different enemies, some skills are not effective. So you actually have to think of what skill to use or new skill combo to try. This is endless skill spamming done right. D3 feels like it lies between D2 and Magicka and lands in a “fun but gets boring quick” type situation. Perhaps I need to unlock all my skills before this gets fun but… like I said, level progression is not fun in D3 whereas in D2 you actually got joy out of each new level. This is a poor combination for gameplay in my opinion.

6. Side quests feel boring but for an OCD person who wants to get all of the achievements, I am forced to do it. Since there are random journals everywhere, I feel forced to make sure I search the entire area/dungeon which can take a LONG ass time (just like D2). If I find the right path at first (by seeing the circle thingy on my minimap), I usually think “fuck!” instead of “yay, lucky!” This makes the game much longer and I don’t feel like the reward matches the time investment. Of course, I could always ignore getting all the achievements but then I also miss out on potential story too (because in some cases, the journals directly explain the storyline). So this leaves me feeling like I have zero choice in how I want to play the game (to get the most out of the plot). This forced searching also kills off a type of gameplay in D2 – exploration. Since exploring is no longer optional for completests, those players lose an entire type of gameplay. Worse yet, if all you want to do is play single player and like exploring to reveal the entire map, then tough luck. The map is reset in D3 when you leave and resume a game.

7. Lag is annoying. I’ve rubberbanded a few times (maybe once every hour) which isn’t too bad, except for the one time it got me killed. What bothers me is that I wasn’t even running. I thought I was attacking a group of enemies from the outside of the pack but then I rubberbanded and noticed that I was in the middle. Before I could skill spam or use a potion, I was dead. Not fun Blizzard! It has been how many weeks since launch? How can this still be an issue?

8. Lastly (SPOILERS), not enough cut scenes. I feel like 5-6 hours of gameplay is enough time for me to have see another cool cut scene as a reward for say… killing King Leoric. Or when Leah does her power explosion trying to save Cain. Hell, Cain dying is such a huge deal that I feel like that whole scene should have been a legit cut scene because enough cool stuff happens that it would make for a really cool and memorable cut scene. Especially since Cain was alive for such a short time in D3 (seriously, they offed him so damn fast in this game).

Overall, the game is still fun but my verdict on how fun is put on hold until I beat hell. I’ll see if the endgame is really worth playing with my own eyes since I fear that there is very little for me to accomplish at that point – leveling is not fun, going back to reveal entire maps is not doable, and so far, I don’t see any variation in skill builds. I’ll hope for the best but will also keep my stash of unfinished games on the side in case D3 doesn’t pan out.

The Linux Mint team in conjunction with CompuLab has released a new SFF PC named the mintBox. It has a small (nettop sized) SFF design centered around an all metal case that allows for the PC to be cooled without fans. This near silent (hard drive is not SSD but can be replaced with one on your own) design puts this PC ahead of many other Linux computers simply because it goes one step further than what you can get with off the shelf parts. The premium you are paying for hardware is no longer the cost of labor – it is the cost of pushing unique Linux PCs to the market.

Of course, this sounds great but everyone is going to want to know the price. Is the markup too high? Well this post’s aim is to give you a comparison between the mintBox, similar nettops, the Mac Mini, and DIY solutions. Hopefully, it will give you enough information for you to make your own decision about whether or not the mintBox is priced correctly.

The mintBox Basic and Pro

Here’s the price and spec breakdown of the two versions being offered (all of this is straight from the Linux Mint blog post linked above):

Note: Differentiating features are in bold.

Looking at these specs isn’t all too helpful though. We need to be able to compare this to similar PCs so let’s go shopping!

Barebones Nettop Kit

Doing a quick search on Newegg, we can easily find barebone nettop kits with similar CPU/GPU specs. Foxconn is the cheapest (pricewise) of these. Asus and Acer also offer similar components for slightly more (though usually not barebones). For now, I’ll use Foxconn as a baseline comparison as that is the cheapest you can go. This will give us a good minimum baseline to compare prices.

These two nettops are the closest to the specs of the mintBox Pro and run about $160 on average:

• Foxconn nt-A3700-0H0WBANA
• Foxconn NTA350-0H0W-B-A-NA

Since I’ll be using the Foxconn nt-A3700-0H0WBANA in the comparison build, let’s list this as $150.

Next, we can look for some RAM and a hard drive. Currently, RAM is fairly cheap but hard drives are still higher than pre-flood prices. Looking at our options, this seems to be a fair choice of components to compare with:

• G.SKILL 1x4GB – ~$22
• Western Digital 250GB HDD – ~$65

Grand Total: $237

SFF DIY Solution

We aren’t done yet! Next, we will want to look at a custom DIY solution to make a similar SFF PC. Ideally, a quiet solution similar to the mintBox and see what kind of components we can get. There are several sites with great information on helping to build such systems, often for HTPC use, such as SilentPCReview, [H]ard|Forum, and AVS Forum. For the comparison build, I will base my parts list off of this Habey HTPC build. However, I will swap the case with a slim version and remove the slim DVD drive used in the build. Fudging some of the parts for closer comparison to a Mac Mini (pretty sure these parts will still work together) gives us a parts list of:

• *Habey EMC-600S w/ **60W PSU – ~$72 after shipping
• ***ASUS P8H67-I DELUXE (REV 3.0) – ~$148
• ****Intel Core i3-2105 w/ HD 3000 Graphics – ~$135
• G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) – ~$35
• Western Digital 250GB HDD – ~$65

* Another case option is the Viako cases but I’m not sure about their availability and am too lazy to look up builds using these cases. They do look very spiffy though!
** 120W version is only $4 more – I’m not building this thing so I’m allowing myself some fudge numbers.
*** I’m aware this is no longer sold at Newegg but I did use this in a build a year ago so I know the previous price. I also picked this over the better Intel motherboard because it has built in wifi (Intel one would require a USB wifi dongle).
**** It is also possible that you may need a better CPU heatsink and fan (low profile one that is quieter), but I’m leaving that out since this is just a theory build. I assume the default CPU heatsink and fan included with the i3 is a low profile one.

Grand Total: $455

Comparing

Finally we can compare! From the Mac Mini lineup, I will be using the default $599 configuration (cheapest price) as upgrades will quickly shoot up the price. Also, before we compare, I’d like to point out that 10% of the mintBox price is a donation to Linux Mint. So the actual prices break down like this:

• mintBox Basic – $428.40 + shipping, duty & VAT + $47.60 donation
• mintBox Pro – $494.10 + shipping, duty & VAT + $54.90 donation

Now let’s put everything in that giant table and compare!

Note: I’ve bolded the standout features of each system in comparison to each other. Obviously based on my own opinion.

Drawing Conclusions

So what do we learn from this gigantic table? I have no idea.. yet. I would like to make a comparison between the Foxconn build and the mintBox Pro as that paints a clearer picture of what extras you are paying for.

First off, the markup is about $257. Now let’s see what is missing from the barebones setup that you get in a mintBox Pro:

1. extra mPCI-e slot (2 instead of 1, just remember in both systems that 1 of these is the wifi card – or at least I assume the mintBox to be using one of these for wifi)
2. Bluetooth
3. mSATA
4. 2 eSATA ports
5. 2 extra USB2 ports
6. Display Port
7. Dual wifi attennas
8. extra RAM slot and an extra 4GB of RAM
9. Fanless case design (I have an older Atom Foxconn and it is loud!)

Note: You do lose out on a card reader.

Now in that list, I’d say 1-7 aren’t worth more than $40. The RAM (extra slot and 4GB) is a good extra and I can see demand pushing this to be worth ~$30. Then you have the biggest differentiator: the case design. It is fanless, sturdy (metal, not plastic), and looks sleek. Knowing the prices of good SFF cases, I’d say the difference between a low quality and high quality case can be at least $40-50. This cuts the markup to about $147 so let’s says $150.

So what is in this $150 markup? Well there’s CompuLab’s R&D, labor costs, and profit share, but is that really worth $150? Probably not as I’d say a more reasonable markup would be $75 or $100, though I can’t really blame a small company wanting more money for taking a risk and pushing a new type of Linux PC – well designed, custom, and branded – usually Linux PC makers don’t have custom designed cases. We are usually just paying for labor and testing.

Verdict: Price is a tad bit high but that’s a fair price to pay for trying to break into a market. Also, if you are an early adopter, it should be expected that you will be paying more than those who decide to purchase a couple months later. This is just my opinion though; what’s yours?

So I saw a post on Reddit the other day asking about standout software on Linux and it got me thinking about what could be improved and what is already good on Linux. I’m going to take my response and clean it up a bit for a post here as I feel like discussing the areas in which Linux lags behind Windows & OS X. First off, a breakdown list:

Polish Me Up!

Linux has some great software but much of it needs polishing to make it attractive to the non-technical user. These are all cross platform so the software is not exclusive to Linux. However, some of these problems are exclusive to Linux. In the cases where they are not, these are the best pieces of software for Linux whereas on Windows & OS X, you have potential alternatives. Examples:

• Firefox should find a way to disable the title bar by default. Not have the user poke to do it via various methods (more choice here is worse because it makes it a nightmare for people to troubleshoot if they want to undo the change).
• VLC needs to make their interface pretty. Release 2.0 did this for OS X but Linux and Windows still look like crap.
• Skype. I hate it and I actually prefer the simple Linux interface, BUT to attract new users, the UI has to look pretty. Not something that is a throwback to the 1990s.
• Zim. Best desktop wiki but needs to look prettier and be a bit less buggy with the text formatting.

Please Make Me Better

Then there is the software that isn’t good enough yet (my opinion, these just don’t feel as polished or as smooth/easy to use as their Windows counterparts). I’m only mentioning software that is actually released as stable here; example, the Calligra Suite is very promising but is still in beta.

• Office suite (Libre Office) – documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. All aren’t as good as their MS Office counterparts.
• Other office programs like Visio and an email client (on Linux this would be stuff like Dia and Thunderbird) – Again, not as good yet.
• Simple paint programs to replace MS Paint. For the normal user, MS Paint is as simple and easy to use as it gets. While Pinta is something I’ve been meaning to test out as a Linux replacement, I haven’t heard many people including it by default in distros which makes me wonder if something is wrong with it. Right now, I just don’t do much image editing so I haven’t had a chance to test the program myself yet.
• Photoshop replacement – GIMP is still not good enough yet. Other mentioned programs like the ones on KDE are good but still lag behind in features. Remember, this is about being as good or better than the Windows & OS X counterparts.
• Games. Really just games in general aren’t supported much on Linux despite what Wine can do. Using Wine just won’t feel that good to the non-technical user. Especially if you have to explain how it works to them.

It’s Tied!

Things in Linux that are about equal to Windows & OS X (or are just cross platform):

• Meld is awesome, but from my co-workers, I’ve heard that Beyond Compare is also awesome.
• Notepad++ can be replaced by Sublime Text 2 (though this costs money and is cross platform) or Kate (good unless you are not running KDE in which case you run into the problem of getting it to feel like it is part of your DE). Outside of these, there isn’t a single easy to use, high powered GUI text editor for Linux that is on par with Notepad++. As much as I like vim (and respect emacs), those are programs that “advanced” non-technical users would never use.
• Music Players – Foobar, Songbird, etc. can be replaced by Clementine (cross platform), MPD, Nightingale, etc. There are tons of great music players on all platforms.
• IRC – XChat is great but is cross platform, hence we don’t standout here except perhaps in choice as there are a ton of other great IRC clients on Linux. But IRC is IRC so what works here works. We don’t really “win” out here.
• Chat programs – Pidgin. Empathy+Telepathy isn’t feature comparable yet to Pidgin but if it does get there and then goes beyond, we could potentially standout here.
• PDF readers – Foxit on Windows is good enough and comparable to all the great PDF readers Linux has. We have more choices but again, reading PDFs is pretty basic. No real “win” here.
• File Transfer – WinSCP vs Filezilla (again cross platform). For just straight up file transfers, all OSes have good programs to use.
• And a bunch of cross platform stuff like: KeePassX, other browsers, Comic Readers (MComix is my current favorite), emulators, VirtualBox, etc.

We Rock!

Now we are talking. Things that Linux wins over Windows & OS X (not cross platform):

• TortoiseSVN < RabbitVCS, TortoiseHG, etc. However! The big problem for Linux is that none of these has universal support for all popular file managers (Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar, PCManFM) so improvement is still needed.
• Version control tools – SVN, Git, HG. We got ‘em all!
• Terminals. Anything beats cmd.exe and Powershell is nice but slow to load. OS X has a good terminal too. However, Linux just rocks when it comes to the number and feature set of our terminals.
• File managers. None are perfect but they are all better than Windows in my opinion. OS X I’m not sure since I haven’t used it in a loooong time.
• Archive manager. Ours handles a lot more formats once you install all of them. Installing stuff like p7zip on Windows just doesn’t feel as nice as when using it on Linux. We also got tar and more compression types. Again, haven’t used OS X in such a long time that I don’t remember what this was like either.
• Partition manager – GParted handles so many filesystem types, can do so much, and is so straightforward to use that it is pretty damn hard to beat.
• Docks – we got lots of them. OS X of course would be a tie here since they too have a good Dock.
• Kupfer, Docky, etc. So many to choose with so many features.
• Wealth of command line tools. We have more than everyone.

Hmm, I don’t know…

Things I don’t know about because I don’t really use them:

• Audio, video editing.
• Webcam usage outside of Skype.
• Screen capture/recording programs.
• PDF creation.
• Backup programs – Acronis, Paragon (I’ve used this and it’s dead simple but for Linux I just use rsync and scripts), Crashplan, Time Machine (For OS X. I’ve heard great things about this.) etc. vs Duplicity, Bacula, etc.
• Calendar/scheduling programs.
• High end math or scientific programs.

So What’s the Problem?

Overall, if you look over what software Linux has available in comparison to Windows or OS X, you will find that we lack polish or just lose out in very important areas to non-technical users (the first two lists). Software that my mom and dad would use. We also have so much choice, which when combined with our various DEs and WMs, that it becomes clear that there is no good single stack that can be presented to users that will cover all the basic essentials. This is important because while you can run a KDE application on GNOME, the added bloat in terms of dependencies and RAM　usage makes it so Windows and OS X end up being a better computing experience.

So why not fix it? Well… I’d be amazed if any of the stuff I mentioned in the first two lists ever get fixed because doing simple Google searches will show that many users have already mentioned this stuff years ago. None of them ever got fixed, though you get annoying workarounds. So chances of any of it suddenly being made a top priority fix is slim to none.

Also notice that the two following lists that we win out on due to being better or having more choices don’t concern basic users much except for a few things. Instead they cater to power users which is why Linux is often seen as awesome by more advanced users. Sure non-technical users will think Linux can be great to use as well but they only see it as an alternative to Windows. It doesn’t give them the same POP that us advanced users get when using Linux.

Sure non-technical users will think Linux can be great to use as well but they only see it as an alternative to Windows or OS X. It doesn’t give them the same POP that us advanced users get when using Linux.

Time to quote myself for emphasis. This is why prevents Linux adoption. No matter how hard you try to put together a coherent distro, you will inevitably fall short because we aren’t better in the areas that matter. In fact, overall we are worse. All the hubbub of no viruses, freedom, free software, and whatnot means nothing if we cannot win in these areas. A tie isn’t good enough. We need to blow away users for all of the basic tasks. I’ll admit that games can’t be changed by us but that will come if everything else gets improved on first.

Admirable Efforts

An interesting aside is looking at distros that are attempting to fix this problem and at least come into a tie with Windows and OS X. For example, while I’m probably never going to use it, elementary OS has a goal of trying to unify the computing experience on Linux. It’s attempting to handpick and modify a software set so you can have a single integrated GNOME 3 desktop that feels like it all fits together – looks, usability, everything. Of course the downside is that if the software they pick doesn’t fit all your needs, you will suddenly break the illusion of unity they’ve built and you will be back to square one. Additionally, they are limited to the same software restrictions we have above so at best they can just fall short of tying Windows or OS X. Perhaps if they get to this point, they can start working on improving the software they’ve chosen to try and eventually make Linux better.

Ubuntu with their move to Unity is another attempt at unifying the computing experience on Linux. They are pouring a lot of money into getting all their software to work with the global menu and to fit into their new DE. While the initial release sucked (I tried it on first release along with GNOME 3 as part of an experiment to pick a DE for my first ever Arch Linux build), it does show promise and could eventually be good enough to attract new users. However, they too will eventually run into the same limitations. Hopefully with their resources, they can make a good contribution to fixing up those pieces of software.

Chakra Linux with their focus on KDE is another interesting project I’ve kept tabs on. The way they try to get GKT integration into KDE is very interesting but still needs some work. Since they made the choice of going all KDE, they get to rely on the KDE community. This is pretty interesting the entire community is focused on the KDE suite of software so they have a better chance of catching up to and surpassing Windows & OS X. Everyone else has to deal with potential forks (Open vs Libre Office) to major projects. The downside is that non-KDE users won’t be interested in helping to their speed of development may not be fast enough to ever surpass Windows or OS X.

Lastly, I’ll mention my own experiences making a unified XFCE environment on Arch Linux to complete the list of major DEs. I attempted to build an environment with minimal dependencies – no GNOME or KDE, is only XFCE and thus GTK, and runs fast. For the most part, I got it working but it took a long time to get there and it still isn’t perfect. I had to give up on some great pieces of software (ex, Kate) in favor of reduced dependencies. I also wouldn’t say the environment as a whole is worlds better than Windows or OS X for a normal user. In fact, it falls short because of what I mentioned above. But as an advanced user, I find it a joy to use compared to Windows.

Final Words

So Linux community, I hope someone takes note of what I’ve written and attempts to contribute to the future of Linux by sprucing up the state of software in Linux – for the stuff that is important to non-technical users. Our track record keeps me skeptical since we tend to focus our efforts on cool geeky pieces of software (and thank you for that!). If we really want to win the “desktop war” (aka: convert users), these things are of utmost importance.

Signed,
A 7 year Linux user

P.S. As an aside, due to continuing the discussion Reddit, I bet that people are going to just ignore what I wrote and attack my post from random positions that have nothing to do with what I said. It seems to be the stance that Linux apologists take up when they can’t find a fault with your actual arguments. Just remember, looks matter (you wouldn’t want to look bad in a first impression right?) and that non-technical users are the majority. Linux isn’t perfect and we should be willing to listen to critique and fix our flaws.

And bam! Like I said, China and India will be two of the emerging world powers when it comes to technological innovation. I had read an earlier article many moons ago that discussed Professor Vivek Wadwha’s findings with regards to his students’ desires to return to their homelands. At the time, the push against illegal immigrants were already under way and, as mentioned, many companies found this appalling. It wasn’t too hard to connect the dots and realize that we would be massively screwing ourselves in the global market. Sadly, there isn’t much one (or a few) people can do to get Senators to care about the well being of the US over their desire to get votes for reelection. Now we see the affects of our Government’s shortsightedness – China and India are indeed two of the fastest growing markets for tech and with a greater influx of bright minds from US universities, it won’t be much longer before we see their reliance on US “innovation” fade away. Perhaps that will be the wakeup call that slaps some sense into US Government and gets them to listen to engineers instead of self-serving lobbyists.

Then there is the epic student debt problem that haunts our youth. So not only are we driving away the best and brightest foreigners, but we are also fucking over our own best and brightest newcomers. Good job America! President Obama is trying to find a way to alleviate the pains of the recession on new grads by pushing for a bill to help with student loan debt. Now the big question is: will this be enough to push new grads into starting their own businesses? I personally believe that this is too little, too late and, combined with the influence huge corporations have over the government, will be one of the contributing reasons we will lose our dominance as technological innovators. And do the numbers back me up?

Just looking at past census data (2008), we know that a gigantic chunk of employment is by small businesses. Using even 500 employees as a cutoff instead of actual dominance and ignoring the fact that huge companies tend to have a higher percentage of non-US based workers, we still end up with about 40% of the population being employed by small businesses. That is a shitfuckton of people and doesn’t even account for unregistered entrepreneurs (i.e., the new grads coming out of college). Oh, and then there are the freelancers too. Can’t forget them. Using this as our basis for small business importance, it becomes strikingly clear that pushing for small businesses and fostering startup growth is crucial to keeping our economy alive. Entrepreneurs, in particular, are some of our best innovators and provide quite the buffer setting us apart from other countries. As our buffer slowly dies, it becomes much easier for large companies in other countries to compete with the US as those companies will have the resources to match our own local R&D departments (i.e., they are on even grounds for hiring the best US workers for R&D and have the additional benefit of being much more attractive to the best and brightest foreigners – those that got educated in the US and left to go home). Once this happens, the US is going to be in deep economic shit.

So what can we do about this? For one, getting the government to realize that idiotic laws like E-PARASITE (formerly known as PROTECT IP) and the ridiculous software patent laws will only serve to hasten our decline. Perhaps getting the government to follow through on some of the We The People is a non-superfluous way would be a good start. For example, this is the response from the many marijuana petitions. The arguments and justifications put forth are idiotic (and rather than usurp my own post, I will refrain from going through them in detail) and just out of morbid curiosity (cause I don’t even agree with the petition), I’ve signed this petition just to see what inane response they send out that won’t contradict what they just wrote (or I can just sign this one). Remember Us Government, when you try and use illogical arguments against the entire US populous, you will get some sarcastic assholes who will tear your argument apart with a counterexample. Or perhaps the government can listen to the 99% and stop shacking up and fucking with corporations (Occupy Wall Street anyone?). There is a lot wrong with our government and the combination of media explosion (YouTube, Twitter, etc.) and the recession has made it much more transparent that we are declining as a nation of innovators.

So a recent article on Ars discusses the increased demand in IT workers. For those of us in the industry, it comes as no surprise that demand for internal staff would eventually bounce back up, BUT there is a downside to the increased demand of which we are all well aware. Once companies start hiring locally, the blame for any screw-up will be put on the newly hired team of insourced IT. Any grand successes will be awarded to the CEO/CTO/Management Team for their “brilliance” in choosing to move away from outsourcing.

That leaves us IT workers (sys admins, developers, designers, etc.) in a precarious position. Our next job may leave a black mark on our resume, bonuses are not guaranteed, and raises will be minimal. Is it then a wonder that the hiring trends (in terms of employee requirements) have shifted to:

• Full-time work rather than contract work.
• Fewer interviews rather than putting up with being grilled (Hey, company X! You aren’t the prom queen!).
• Higher salaries. We aren’t idiots. We know demand is up because of the increased amount of hiring spam we get from recruiters (mine personally has more than tripled in the past year).

You see, IT workers are not idiots and, like most people, are not looking to be burned more than once; especially in this crap economy. A comfortable job, good pay, and long term safety are priorities for those that choose to work in corporate IT. If we wanted exciting highs! Awesome new tech! A chance to become rich! We sure as hell would not be looking to work for established businesses and networking with recruiters. Instead, we’d take our talents to startups and network with VCs.

For the businesses that finally understand that majority outsourcing DOES NOT WORK (some outsourcing is ok, but if you hit majority outsourcing for IT, you are fucked), you better realize that the fallout from betraying former insourced employees has created a enormous expectation gap. It is up to the CEOs, CTOs, Management Team, and HR to find a way to appease those that have been once (or for the unlucky, twice, thrice, etc.) burned. You are also negotiating with people who do critical thinking for their jobs. We know, nay expect, that you will be putting the blame on hiring insourced IT for any management fuck-ups that lead to a worse fiscal year. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that if a company’s revenue doesn’t increase after a two or three years of “investing” in insourced IT, management will draw the incorrect conclusion that insourced IT == outsourced IT. Guess what? Anyone who thinks that is stupid. If your fiscal reports just flatline, that means insourced IT stopped your falling bottom line. We bucked the trend and are in fact contributing greatly to the business. Any expectations for insourced IT to be saviors are unrealistic. Only in startups, innovative companies, and firms that invest heavily in research can IT actually make that type of impact. In most other places, we have no power to decide the direction of a company, the products, or in some cases, the technology we get to use! Doing better requires better decision making up top and for that, who should be blamed? Hmm…