Interesting Links for 11-03-2013

[andrewducker]

• George R R Martin recommends some books to read while you wait for his next one.
  (tags: books GeorgeRRMartin recommendation )
• Why Comic Sans was created
  (tags: fonts )
• Oh noes! My working-class girlfriend is against gay marriage!
  (tags: debate class marriage relationships lgbt )
• The new ettiquette: If you go to hospital to get a sex toy removed,

Comments

[gonzo21]

I didn't know they were out for the lawyers too. That is genuinely worrying, removing the normal persons ability to access quality legal representation is pretty serious.

[major_clanger]

That's just the criminal representation side. The MoJ is also shortly to remove legal aid for most family law disputes. If your ex-partner is refusing to let you see your children, tough - you will now have to either go to court in person and navigate the Children Act 1989 yourself, or privately pay a lawyer to do it for you.

[gonzo21]

So very soon the only people who will be able to have recourse to the law will be the very rich? Or those prepared to utilise Wonga-Law companies.

I fear this is going to result in a great many unemployable lawyers, because hasn't the UK been generally over-producing lawyers these last years, in much the same way we've over-produced computer programmers?

[major_clanger]

That's already the situation in civil litigation (i.e. X suing Y). Almost all my clients are businesses; private citizens rarely go to court any more unless they are very well-off.

The legal training system has major problems: in terms of the bar, we produce about three times as many potential barristers as there are places available. This results in a brutal scramble for pupillages (the final on-the-job training element of qualifying)l if you don't get one, then you either abandon law or become a paralegal stuck on £25k at best.

What I am seeing is that barristers who until now have specialised in criminal work are diversifying into other areas, in the hope that they can build enough of a practice to survive when criminal work gets even lower-paid.

[hirez]

Over-produced programmers? We have? Where do they all live?

[gonzo21]

Friend of mine was a senior person at a major UK games company, he left because the company in question were trying to make all of the programmers sign draconian employment contracts, and he didn't want anything to do with it. But the company had so many programmers applying for every job that they easily found people prepared to sign away all of their employment rights in exchange for a job.

Of course, the other problem was amongst the deluge of programmers very few of the applicants actually knew how to program, and most of his job had turned into having to teach newly graduated programmers how to actually program, because they'd come from some of the newer institutions of learning, where the courses were dumbed down to the point where people were graduating with degrees who couldn't do the job.

But that's a whole other issue.

[hirez]

...very few of the applicants actually knew how to program...

Yes. That has been my experience and was mostly what I was getting at.

[del_c]

There is never an oversupply of Good employees, because Good is a moving target based on the number of available candidates. It's analogous to the Eternal Servant Problem (never can get the staff).

[gonzo21]

I often find myself sincerely hoping that standards are being maintained in Doctoring and Nursing.

Although I hear horror stories from final year nursing colleges where they have some students who are still functionally illiterate.

[andrewducker]

Part of the issue there is the "games company" bit.

Games companies are notoriously bad, because lots of people think that working with games is more exciting than other kinds of programming, and will thus work longer hours, for less.

[gonzo21]

Plus they've developed an ultimate deterrent in the last 3 or 4 years - 'Behave and accept draconian working conditions or we ship 90% of your jobs to India and fire you all.'

[andrewducker]

Games companies generally aren't big enough to handle the overheads of that.

And also I suspect they'd realise near-instantly that it's a really stupid idea.

[gonzo21]

Some of the more recent gaming disasters have happened because of exactly this. Gearbox contracted out a huge chunk of Aliens: Colonial Marines to an Indian software company.

And a bunch of guys recently left Codemasters because Codies have started shipping graphics work out to India.

[andrewducker]

Aaah, yes. Contracting out the whole thing to another company is doable.

But hopefully they realise that that doesn't work well.

(Well, until you get some good Indian game developers.)

I more meant outsourcing bits and pieces of work while keeping the design and lead work onshore, which is how a lot of places do it.