A New Hope - unless you're H1-B - Cinco de Fire-O.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O":

Laid off Microsoft workers - Big news and hope...

H-1B workers outnumber unemployed techies

See Computerworld 5/26/2009 for details

As unemployment among tech workers increases with the recession, the U.S. government is raising broad questions as part of a federal case over H1Bs about the connection of visa fraud to the unemployment of IT workers.

The U.S. is "prepared to demonstrate to the court the manner in which the defendant's schemes, along with similar schemes by similar companies have substantially deprived U.S. citizens of employment."

(…only here because this stuff has proven to be as explosive as a slight against thin-skinned Apple fans)

F-Bomb Bronze Star - New comment on Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O":

Didnt someone have the intution to announce only when it is really available for search, since people who read news will want to try it.Holy shit, you may be right. I'll bet you the dozens and hundreds of fucking people spending the last six months planning for this fucking Bing rollout shit will read your comment and think, "Holy shit! How did we miss that? This brilliant genius anonymous person just found the gap in our plan. Fuck me! Never occurred to us. Thank goodness he constructively notified us of the raging gap in our plan via an anonymous posting on the fucking Mini Microsoft blog. God, I wish we knew who the fuck this brilliant genius is so we could just hand the roll out over to them. Fuck me, we really blew it. I'm done. Wow. Huh. Wait for go live to kick off the roll out plan. How did we miss that?"

I'm sure the Bing team will spend time today brainstorming their next move in the roll out. Because they certainly have not thought this through already. They must be flying by the seat of their pants, making it up as they go. There is no way they are following a plan here.

(bing on the f-bombs!)

Once we have that PowerPoint compiler, we'll never need Devs - New comment on Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O":

Microsoft needs more PMs. You know what, PM gives vision. Look at Win7, what a product PMs did. Looks at IE. Looks at Office. All PMs. Dev is overhyped. Volt can do that work.

(I can hear Yahoo!s CEO swearing all the way from California.)

Marketplace - looking to chat with those in the 5,000

Not a typical Cutting Room Floor post - just a quick way to pass on a request from the American Public Media program Marketplace to get in contact with folks who have been through a Microsoft layoff:

The public radio show Marketplace is looking for people who can give us insight into what happens after a layoff. Use this link to talk to the show: http://tinyurl.com/d2nzqd

Getting laid off can be an isolating experience in which work-based connections and relationships break down. But some companies, like IBM, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft, are making efforts to stay in touch with laid-off employees through online social networks and other means.

If you've been laid off, have you kept up relationships with your former employer, or your coworkers? Did you burn bridges, or leave on good terms? And if you are staying in touch via a "corporate alumni community," what's that like? Do you feel it's for your benefit...or the employer's, so they can find you when it's time to start rehiring?

How have you maintained work connections post-layoff? Talk to Marketplace: http://tinyurl.com/d2nzqd

Thank you,

Joellen Easton

Analyst, Public Insight Journalism

Blogger, The Trading Floor (http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/tradingfloor/)

Marketplace | American Public Media

jeaston@marketplace.org

Yer all a bunch of kitties - New comment on Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O":

"Actually, a lot of people that are left are so wrapped up in their jobs that they're living inside a vacumn. They think about it and then get along with what they were doing. That's the problem. If they really cared, there would be an uprising. I heard some mention that they would have taken a pay cut if given the chance. But nobody has organized any efforts to do that. It's just human nature, sadly."

It is definitely human nature to be scared, but I have never seen a bigger bunch of pussies than software engineers, foreign (especially the foreign ones who think they are so courageous to have come here but are infact running away from something that plagued them at home, in their home country), or domestic.

Unionizing software engineers can and ought to happen, but since the whole lot of them do not have the cojones to organize and act as a united front, it will not happen until the situation is a lot more dire than what it is now.

What they'd rather do is play foosball, get drunk, and be reactivists instead of activists...

That's what is at the heart of a software engineer.

(Kitties!)

Out of control greed - New comment on Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O":

As an American born, white male over 40, who was laid off 1/22 I believe the layoffs are an excuse to get rid of 1) Americans and 2) Older employees.

Ya, ya, I know they laid off younger people and minorities because I saw them when I was in the DBM training classes. But you have to realize some people got to keep their card key and some didn't. Those who kept their card key in order to access the careers website were collateral damage just for Microsoft to cover their arse against lawsuits.

So I went contract... and got laid off again. Microsoft is deflating the contractor levels IN ADDITION to cutting the hourly pay rates.

It's "out of control greed", the same out of control greed that caused this economic depression in the first place: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

what ever you do, don't drop the soap at Microsoft... because if you do your spokes won't be straight any longer.

Light fuse - New comment on Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O":

Fellow laid off Microsoft workers over 50 - thought this might be helpful.

The Supposed Immigrant Talent
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/ProgrammersGuild/files/ Supposed- immigrant-talent.txt

We keep seeing several articles, by people like Vivek Wadhwa, talking about the innovative qualities of immigrants or guest workers coming here from other countries and pointing to YAHOO and GOOGLE as the perfect examples. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this is a fallacy.

Yahoo was started by David Filo born in Wisconsin, educated at Stanford and Jerry Yang, born in Taipei, raised in San Jose since age 8, educated in the USA at Stanford.

Google was started by Larry Page, born in Michigan, educated at Stanford and Sergey Brin, born in Moscow, raised in the USA since age 6, post graduate work at Stanford.

So what we see is that they were not educated at some diploma factory in India, China or Russia, instead they received their education here in the United States; since elementary school even. They studied Computer Science or Math or Electrical Engineering in US colleges and Stanford is the common factor...

Do we see a pattern here? All these technology companies were founded by persons born and educated or raised and educated here in the United States; not India, not mainland China, not Russia.

Just because they hired a bunch of kids from India in order to replace their aging work force and suppress wages in the late 90's and early in this decade, doesn't mean squat....

Now India pumps out Engineers ...as fast as India's unsustainable population explosion but does that make them more innovative, more intelligent, more motivated? Hardly, just more populous.

As for actual studies, one was reported in 1996 that shows that of 250 randomly sampled patents registered between 1988 and 1994, 48 were issued to foreign born inventors; however these inventors were educated in the United States. Of the sample shown, most immigrated from Europe and the Far East (China, Korea); 3 from India.
To Vivek:

Let's see now Mr. Wadhwa, who are the most innovative of this planet's population?

Yes, immigrants can be or are highly motivated innovators, but so are citizens of the United States.

This country created the technology wave and people like yourselves with your charged rhetoric have simply been riding it.

When is the last time you heard of a citizen of the United States stealing industrial secrets from China or India? NEVER! Yet there are many instances of this occurring here in the US by foreign nationals.

Your paper on immigrant entrepreneurs failed to ask several other pertinent questions:

In what country were you raised the majority of your life? In what country did you get the majority of your education?In what country did you get your advance degree?

These are relevant questions and the absence of them in your paper is indicative of a seriously flawed and biased study meant to skew our perception rather than enlighten it.

I agree on the need for this country to make room for the best and the brightest, but I also believe that the rest of the world needs them as well and if we are to create and perpetuate economic, social and political equality around the world you can't be creating inequality here in the most free and equal of countries on the planet, the United States.

Allowing international corporate and industrial conglomerates to shift working populations and economic disparity around the world for the purpose of profit without consideration of the consequence is unreasonable, unhealthy and irresponsible.

Using racist rhetoric, such as you have in the past, to make your skewed point is just as irresponsible. Are you a mouth-piece for opportunity or for corporate imperialism?
...

What I am is a fifty(50) year old software engineer with twenty-five( 25) years progressive experience in the science of Information Technology that has been ejected from American labor force by cheap, under-educated, youthful labor; brought here solely for the purpose of breaking the economic back of middle class Americans.

The non-immigrant guest worker program in this country is seriously flawed and needs to be fixed; period.

(…and step back)

It is the internets - New comment on Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft Layoffs - Cinco de Fire-O":

This blog is a complete waste of time. I keep expecting it to be a constructive place, but I'm always disappointed in its real role as a rallying point for the ignorant and over opinionated.

(Oy.)

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Layoff Confirmed - New comment on Microsoft FY09Q3 Results.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft FY09Q3 Results":

So it has been confirmed...Ballmer sending an email Tuesday, May 5th, at 6:00am about new round of layoffs and further restructuring...Good luck everyone!

(Come on. Confirmed how?)

Start Making Sense - New comment on Microsoft FY09Q3 Results.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft FY09Q3 Results":

"After the quarter closed Microsoft leadership issued guidance to all organizations for Q4 spend to remain flat to Q3. For MSIT this would have meant reducing our plans by $36.3m, as we had forecast to increase spend from $292.3m in Q3 to $328.6m in Q4. Ultimately SMSG funded an exception for MSIT allowing us to increase spend by $22.2m to $314.5m in Q4. All organizations have received new Q4 targets and we are working together to adjust our plans for Q4.

No updates after this 4/24 mail from Tony Scott on Head cuts,etc who believes greatly on greatly on transparency except story mails.

But we've started our big time lay off without any tranparency cuts this time during start of Q4 itself."No wonder these Indians are getting laid off -- none of them make an ounce of fucking sense.

If you make software the way you try to explain your business... god help you.