Marcel Popescu writes:

From: "Trei, Peter" <ptrei@rsasecurity.com>

...

Imagine if the software business were like this - that the programmers of the late 40's had formed an American Programmers Association, and it was unlawful for anyone without APA certification to write code for money.

Some people are trying to do this. See for example http://www.colosseumbuilders.com/american.htm [I especially find the "no foreign competition" (aka "no H1-B") disgusting. Tim May notwithstanding, we DO compete with the americans - and a lot of us are better.]

What a hoot! Thanks for the pointer. I don't know who these bozos are, but their web site reads like the product of a bunch of high school dropouts. Guilds are of course dangerous and a bad idea, for a long list of reasons that we've been over on this list dozens of times. Fortunately, no one is likely to take these "programmers" seriously. As a long-time software designer and implementer, I can confidently say that anyone who believes there is no shortage of programmers either isn't a programmer himself or has let his skill set get way out of date. And no, I don't live or work anywhere near Silicon Valley either. (Apparently, these folks believe that it is the responsibility of their employers to train them - they really need to take charge of their own careers.) They, as well as the academics whose works they have links to, apparently believe that all those job postings in the papers and on web sites are a vast right wing conspiracy designed to allow the Evil Big Corporations to hire foreign programmers for peanuts thru the H-1B program. Mark, don't worry, the real programmers among us aren't afraid to compete (actually, right now, there's plenty of work for everyone who is competent so there's little need for real competetition). Fortunately, these losers are unlikely to be successful in their organizational and lobbying efforts. - GH _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.