The following was inspired by “Washington clichés, fake news and ‘poiticianese’ by Jim Heffernan.
Oops! That old newspaper guy let a typo get through! At least he did better than many newspapers do: he used a diacritical mark in the right place.
Politicians of all stripes appeal to all Americans as “hard-working”. How do they know that all that they appeal to are really hard-working? Some have jobs that are almost fun. Some have jobs that the only hard-working part is boredom. Some have jobs that seem to be one crisis after another. Some have jobs that not only are hard but dangerous (and interestingly some of these politicians think reducing the danger is “over-regulation”.
I think I’ve had jobs that have had one or more of these features: programmer, consultant, presenter, Santa Claus, line painter, grocery bagger, stocker, and cashier, and many others.
I’ll mention one that had many of these features: bus driver.
I had the stress of being on time. I had the stress of unruly students. I had the stress of non-working buses. And I had the joy of attending events on the clock. I had the joy of napping while my riders toured their site. I had the joy of reading a book while waiting. I met lots of really nice people and a few that weren’t so nice. In short, it was a job that I was glad I did that I am glad that I’m not doing now.
Showing posts with label programmer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label programmer. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Monday, January 11, 2016
Why do we have to know more about computers than cars?
Just after I posted “Erratic cellular settings” I thought about cars and problem solving.
Long ago I learned a little story about car problems that may have been older than me.
A car dealer gave his wife a new car. She was delighted with it, but she complained that it ran erratically. A mechanic checked it out and could find nothing wrong. She brought it in again with the same result. Finally, the head mechanic went out with her.
She started the car, pulled out the choke, and hung her purse from the choke.
Sometimes, you have to just be there to solve a user’s problem. I found this out when a user couldn’t access a document because his computer terms didn’t the same meanings as others did. I had to go to his house to understand the problem. I found out the cause of an error in my own software when I saw a user print a document on his on printer. I had assumed a negative number for a printer line would not get printed. It worked fine on my Apple printer, but it didn’t work on his third party printer.
The problem with computers is that the designers expect their users to be expert car mechanics, masters of intricate analysis of problems. But all the average user wants to do is touch a few buttons or type a few words to get his or her work done. If their cars sputters when it should purr, they take it to a mechanic who often can diagnose the problem within an hour. But if their devices sputter when they should purr, they are expected to put in hours trying to get enough information to get somebody to finally make a correction to the software (or tell them not to hang their purses on the menu bar).
My plaint about all this complexity is whatever happened to the “Computer for the Rest of Us” (The 1984 Apple Macintosh)?
Long ago I learned a little story about car problems that may have been older than me.
A car dealer gave his wife a new car. She was delighted with it, but she complained that it ran erratically. A mechanic checked it out and could find nothing wrong. She brought it in again with the same result. Finally, the head mechanic went out with her.
She started the car, pulled out the choke, and hung her purse from the choke.
Sometimes, you have to just be there to solve a user’s problem. I found this out when a user couldn’t access a document because his computer terms didn’t the same meanings as others did. I had to go to his house to understand the problem. I found out the cause of an error in my own software when I saw a user print a document on his on printer. I had assumed a negative number for a printer line would not get printed. It worked fine on my Apple printer, but it didn’t work on his third party printer.
The problem with computers is that the designers expect their users to be expert car mechanics, masters of intricate analysis of problems. But all the average user wants to do is touch a few buttons or type a few words to get his or her work done. If their cars sputters when it should purr, they take it to a mechanic who often can diagnose the problem within an hour. But if their devices sputter when they should purr, they are expected to put in hours trying to get enough information to get somebody to finally make a correction to the software (or tell them not to hang their purses on the menu bar).
My plaint about all this complexity is whatever happened to the “Computer for the Rest of Us” (The 1984 Apple Macintosh)?
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Minimum wage, inflation, and personal experience
My first wage job that I remember was at Saywell Drug in Cleveland, Ohio. I probably started in the summer of 1951 after I quit my paper route. I started at fifty cents an hour. This was a low-skill entry job. I was a soda jerk, stocker, and small-item cashier.
Using the US Inflation Calculator, anything I bought for fifty cents would now cost $4.50.
Note: these figures were requested on March 16, 2014. A week later, many were a few cents higher.
I had a couple other jobs in that range. Then in late fall 1954 I started at Kroger’s as a stock clerk and bagger. My starting union-negotiated salary was $1.05. A dinner at a small diner then would cost $9.13 now.
When I flunked out of Case Institute of Technology in January 1958, I was earning $1.75 at the same Kroger’s store. Anything I bought with an hour’s wage then would cost $14.16 now. I was also a relief cashier on weekends.
No Kroger store had any full-time openings then. I eventually was hired as “third man” at a new Pic’n’Pay. Third man was sort of meaningless. I was after the assistant manager in groceries only. Produce and meat were separately run departments under the manager. I was only a glorified stocker and bagger. They wouldn’t let me be a cashier because I wasn’t bonded. They also did their best to make sure I never worked close to 40 hours per week. They would have to give me more benefits. My wage, in a union store? $1.54! I had to get the help of a union business agent I knew to get my $1.75. That $1.54 is now $12.46. Don’t you think a fast-food manager has a harder job with more responsibilities than a grocery clerk?
When I went to Ohio Wesleyan in the fall of 1958, I worked my first year at a local Kroger store. My wage was $1.54!!! I made the mistake of not putting that in writing to the union steward. He was sort of in the pocket of the manager and never really acted on my behalf. When I called the union office in Columbus they pointed out that I had waited too long without filing a written claim.
In June 1960 we were married and I started graduate school back at Case. I also had a graduate assistantship that paid $75 per week. Our upstairs apartment cost $65 per month and $75 when we moved downstairs. That $75 per week would be $592.69 in 2014 dollars. If I supposedly worked 20 hours per week, that would be almost $30/hour. I checked current graduate assistant salaries; the average is about $20,000/year or about $384/week. I was treated like a king! I was allowed nine credits per semester, I had use of the gym and library, and I had free parking in the lower lot.
I didn’t go on to a PhD program and opted for a full time job. My interviews were with Sikorsky in Framingham MA, GE in Syracuse NY, and Univac in St. Paul. I don’t remember the exact offers from each, but it was something like $8,400, $7,900, and $8,100. All things considered, I took the job nearest the Boundary Waters starting on Feb 3, 1963. The things I could buy then with that money would cost $61,918.94 today. Ah, a bright spot! A computer software engineer with a master’s degree can start around $85,500! But, the complexity of the work is far, far greater than when I started on mainframes that were giant toys compared to my iPhone. No wonder the computer industry wants to increase the number of H-1B visas for programmers.
When personal computers came along I saw no future in mainframes and started my own one-person company. I never implemented my grand visions and after over ten years tried getting a computer job. Ha! The checklist for “skills” was far longer than just a Masters in Mathematics. I eventually wound up driving a school bus in the Twin Cities and then moved up to transit buses, aka city bus. I started at $8.50/hour in 1995 and wound up with over $12/hour in 1999. These translate into 2014 dollars as $13.05 and $18.42 or $27,144 and $38,314 per year. According to salary.com, twenty-five percent of school bus drivers in Duluth earn over $35,623 per year. I assume that those have to get a lot of charter work.
My last job was as a ski instructor. I think my final pay in 2007 was around $8.00 per hour. That would be $9.03 in 2014 dollars. But the work was spotty depending on the weather and the people who show up. I don’t think I ever got more than 30 hours per week. I don’t know what the current pay is, but I did get nominally priced season passes for my wife and myself, a nifty jacket at a good price, and discounts at Ski Hut.
Other than the ski instructor, which often is a fun job, a computer programmer, which takes far more specialized learning than I had, and some school bus drivers, I think too many workers are worse off than I was way back then.
I think Adam Smith is being shown right again, it is lawful for the masters to organize to keep wages down, but it unlawful for the workers to organize to raise wages.
- Mel
You can find more of my thoughts at
http://magree.blogspot.com
Using the US Inflation Calculator, anything I bought for fifty cents would now cost $4.50.
Note: these figures were requested on March 16, 2014. A week later, many were a few cents higher.
I had a couple other jobs in that range. Then in late fall 1954 I started at Kroger’s as a stock clerk and bagger. My starting union-negotiated salary was $1.05. A dinner at a small diner then would cost $9.13 now.
When I flunked out of Case Institute of Technology in January 1958, I was earning $1.75 at the same Kroger’s store. Anything I bought with an hour’s wage then would cost $14.16 now. I was also a relief cashier on weekends.
No Kroger store had any full-time openings then. I eventually was hired as “third man” at a new Pic’n’Pay. Third man was sort of meaningless. I was after the assistant manager in groceries only. Produce and meat were separately run departments under the manager. I was only a glorified stocker and bagger. They wouldn’t let me be a cashier because I wasn’t bonded. They also did their best to make sure I never worked close to 40 hours per week. They would have to give me more benefits. My wage, in a union store? $1.54! I had to get the help of a union business agent I knew to get my $1.75. That $1.54 is now $12.46. Don’t you think a fast-food manager has a harder job with more responsibilities than a grocery clerk?
When I went to Ohio Wesleyan in the fall of 1958, I worked my first year at a local Kroger store. My wage was $1.54!!! I made the mistake of not putting that in writing to the union steward. He was sort of in the pocket of the manager and never really acted on my behalf. When I called the union office in Columbus they pointed out that I had waited too long without filing a written claim.
In June 1960 we were married and I started graduate school back at Case. I also had a graduate assistantship that paid $75 per week. Our upstairs apartment cost $65 per month and $75 when we moved downstairs. That $75 per week would be $592.69 in 2014 dollars. If I supposedly worked 20 hours per week, that would be almost $30/hour. I checked current graduate assistant salaries; the average is about $20,000/year or about $384/week. I was treated like a king! I was allowed nine credits per semester, I had use of the gym and library, and I had free parking in the lower lot.
I didn’t go on to a PhD program and opted for a full time job. My interviews were with Sikorsky in Framingham MA, GE in Syracuse NY, and Univac in St. Paul. I don’t remember the exact offers from each, but it was something like $8,400, $7,900, and $8,100. All things considered, I took the job nearest the Boundary Waters starting on Feb 3, 1963. The things I could buy then with that money would cost $61,918.94 today. Ah, a bright spot! A computer software engineer with a master’s degree can start around $85,500! But, the complexity of the work is far, far greater than when I started on mainframes that were giant toys compared to my iPhone. No wonder the computer industry wants to increase the number of H-1B visas for programmers.
When personal computers came along I saw no future in mainframes and started my own one-person company. I never implemented my grand visions and after over ten years tried getting a computer job. Ha! The checklist for “skills” was far longer than just a Masters in Mathematics. I eventually wound up driving a school bus in the Twin Cities and then moved up to transit buses, aka city bus. I started at $8.50/hour in 1995 and wound up with over $12/hour in 1999. These translate into 2014 dollars as $13.05 and $18.42 or $27,144 and $38,314 per year. According to salary.com, twenty-five percent of school bus drivers in Duluth earn over $35,623 per year. I assume that those have to get a lot of charter work.
My last job was as a ski instructor. I think my final pay in 2007 was around $8.00 per hour. That would be $9.03 in 2014 dollars. But the work was spotty depending on the weather and the people who show up. I don’t think I ever got more than 30 hours per week. I don’t know what the current pay is, but I did get nominally priced season passes for my wife and myself, a nifty jacket at a good price, and discounts at Ski Hut.
Other than the ski instructor, which often is a fun job, a computer programmer, which takes far more specialized learning than I had, and some school bus drivers, I think too many workers are worse off than I was way back then.
I think Adam Smith is being shown right again, it is lawful for the masters to organize to keep wages down, but it unlawful for the workers to organize to raise wages.
- Mel
You can find more of my thoughts at
http://magree.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)