(no subject)

Dubya --- the movie

This made me laugh out loud. Especially if you like Don Knotts.

Outsourcing continued

This LJ entry sure got a lot of replies from various people on the issue of IT outsourcing.

For those that say “outsourcing can work”, sure, so can cutting off fingers in an effort to reduce a kid’s masturbation habit. However, I think there are better ways. Yes, I agree that outsourcing works for a specific, well-defined task such as “helpdesk” or managing a large “WAN”, anti-spam processing, and so on.

Someone said, “If you aren’t in the business of processing information, why outsource?” to which I replied:

Would you classify a cement company as being not a “information processing” company?

I ask that because Cemex (the big Mexican cement company) changed the industry by innovating in IT to better schedule their deliveries. The found they could increase their price if they could provide delivery practically “on demand”. Construction sites often find week-long delays because the cement delivery was scheduled months ago and plans have since changed.

It rocked the construction industry. Soon everyone wanted to pay more money for cement because of the net savings of having the site working without a pause. It took years for the rest of the industry to catch up.

The truth is that all (non-trivial) companies are information processing companies. The ones that don’t think they are go out of business once they grow to any useful size.

The most telling story on the topic of outsourcing is mixed into two articles by Cringley. First this and then this one. At the conclusion he happens upon the opinion from mega-turbo-capitalist-engine Wal-Mart:

[The article is about a botched outsource contract that the Navy did. The author wonders...] Would Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company and one of the world’s largest consumers of Information Technology even consider a deal like NMCI, which ostensibly would make all IT costs and performance predictable on a multi-year basis?

The comparison is an apt one, though Wal-Mart is actually about three times the size of the U.S. Navy. Obviously the Navy has more firepower, though in a protracted conflict I think I’d put my money on Wal-Mart’s supply lines. But what about this IT question? To find my answer I began calling people in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart has its intergalactic HQ and where my Mom lives next door to the former CEO and head of Wal-Mart’s Executive Committee. I have my sources you see.

And those sources were clear: there is no way Wal-Mart would entrust its IT services to an outside contractor or even to several outside contractors. Doing so would threaten the entire organization. If costs are out of control and services are inconsistent, that’s something to be dealt with internally, not by hoping some outside organization is smarter or more disciplined. “We have suppliers, sure, but the ultimate responsibility always remains here in Bentonville,” said my Ozark IT guy. “We centralize it, we control it, we know what we are buying and what we are doing with it. Anything less is just too much of a risk.”

Maybe part of the Wal-Mart strategy is to get their competition to make the mistake of outsourcing IT. Maybe Wal-Mart and Cisco and Microsoft all conspire to get authors to write “business advice” books that encourage outsourcing IT and then secretly seed copies of the books all over their competitor’s offices. Wouldn’t that just be delicious?

MC Plus+

My favorite rapper is MC Plus+. Today I got his (cafepress) CD called AlgoRhythms. Best $10.99 I ever spent.

“I got mad hoes, and I got mad bitches
I code in C and I branch with switches”

Word to yo compiler.

(Thought MC:NP is mad non-polynomial, bitch.)

ACTION ALERT: The final push begins! Tell Trenton to vote YES for A3678/S2437! Expand our rights in

[ NOTE: These links are only useful if your zipcode is in New Jersey. ]

Super-duper lazy activism! In 90 seconds you can change the world! Click here and send a message to Trenton:

http://capwiz.com/njlgc/issues/alert/?alertid=8272341&type=ML
or
http://tinyurl.com/c65th

The bill, A3678/S2437, adds “gender identity or expression” to the protected categories in the state’s Law Against Discrimination. It is going to the state Assembly Judiciary Committee for a hearing at the State House on Thursday, December 8th. Between now and Dec 8th we need every representative in Trenton to hear it loud and clear! Support A3678/S2437!

NJLGC endorses this bill and encourages all members, all member groups, and everyone in New Jersey to send a message to Trenton via our web site. Tell your friends!

State-by-state GOP ethics violations

Lock ‘em all up!

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/gopscorecard.htm

Ooh, and my congresscritter is on the list. New Jersey Rep. Mike Ferguson: Recipient of contributions from Abramoff, may have laundered money from DeLay through his “MIKEPAC” to GOP candidates in Texas and other states.

(Thanks to coslinks)