Stuff–7/25/13

Udacity – Design 101, The Design of Everyday Things will be starting this fall. 

Based off the book “The Design of Everyday Things”,  I have read that the design guides at both Apple and Google are highly influenced by this book.  (BTW one of the instructors looks like Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde)

Shneier on Security – Michael Hayden on Edward Snowden

My reading – not a big fan.

Bloomberg via Slashdot – Study Questions H1B Policies

India will export as much as $87 billion of information technology services in the year ending March 2014…

…The backbone of that trade is the H-1B, a non-immigrant pass that lets companies in the U.S. temporarily hire workers in specialist fields…

…U.S.-registered units of Indian companies apply for the visas and then often locate the recipient at a client’s company…

In other words it’s piecemeal contract work where American employers (Microsoft, Google, Facebook) don’t actually have to hire a worker.  They have an India based company do it, and then place the worker at their site.  Supposedly at comparable rates to what American workers at paid, but I have seen this in action and what happens is the H1B comes in at a lower rate and then they use that to drive down pay for all other workers.  It also erodes benefits.  If you are a contractor you have to pay to get federal holidays off, usually a dollar an hour.  If you want Health Insurance not only do you pay the premiums but that knocks another dollar an hour off your paycheck.  Vacations or Sick Leave, usually non-existent.  At one place I worked the contracting agency didn’t explain to H1B workers that the were eligible for overtime after 40 hrs /wk.  Not to worry though Zuckerberg and FWD.us will throw a couple billion around and all will be right with the H1B program and the status quo will continue.

The Verge – Why is Stuff Being Made in America Again?

1. People are willing to pay for it .

2.  The politicians love it.

a recent survey by the Boston Consulting Group found that 80 percent of 5,000 consumers were willing to pay more for products made in America, including electronics. The same study found Chinese consumers were also willing to pay more for American-made products. "You can certainly move a product off the shelf with that kind of advertising," Paul said. "You can also generate more support from politicians, because if you are building products and hiring workers in communities in the US, the public officials in those areas will be more invested in your outcome as well."

3.   Wages and manufacturing costs are evening out

Two other trends in the US are also making it into a more attractive electronics manufacturing hub: a depressed labor market and faltering worker wages.

…

if current trends continue, by 2015, manufacturing costs in China will be on par with the US, according to one forecast by AlixPartners, a global business advisory firm.