From: n052fx@tamuts.tamu.edu (Yiu Wan)
Subject: COBOL, SQL Re: Electronics/videogame stores in Hong Kong. (SUMMARY)
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 18:39:37 GMT

> In article <1992Jul25.002241.41114@enlil.premenos.sf.ca.us> cho@enlil.premenos.sf.ca.us (Cho-Ming Tai) writes:
> >
> >	sold at Golden Plaza (in Kowloon) disappointing.
> >	They were all PC stuff.  It's hard even to find any high-end Macs,
> >	not mentioning Sun, Next, DEC stuff.  
> 
> 	That's also what I think.  To me, Hong Kongers are IBM-PC die-hards.
> 	Many of my friends are engineers from TI, and they joke "Who need Mac?"
> 
>         I think the most stupid of all is the excessive hype about Chinese 
                           ^^^^^^
>         System software and i386/i486.  They think Chinese software are very
>         very high-tech (ACK!) a

          What's wrong of thinking Chinese software are very high-tech!?
C
> 	May be they should look at what a SunSPARC, IBM RISC 6000 and a Silicon
> 	Graphics can do!

>------[deleted]
>
 
> 	Well, HK people are very short-sighted.  Most of them do not care about
> 	the long-term benefits and only strive for short-term profits.  That's
> 	why there is no software firm in Hong Kong.  Why bother to make one?
> 	You can just go to Sham Shui Po and get a pirate copy of your favourite
> 	software at a cost so low that you think you're in heaven.  These
> 	software are great and cheap, so making one on your own is stupid.
> 
> 	And of course, let me remind you a golden rule of software engineering.
> 	If you are formally trained in CS and want to make big money, do not
> 	even think about opening a software company because software engineer
> 	do not make big money!  If your software is bad, no one will buy.  If
> 	your software is good, a few will buy it and then copy it all over 
> 	the places.  (The stupid and useless copyright laws in HK just
> 	encourage people doing that)
>

	Strongly agree. In fact, I think HK has a big pool of talent in software
   engineering.  If HK government can take some serious actions about the 
  copyright laws, it may attrack some investments in that area.  Right now,
  most people just scare out of shit about the copyright situations and
  ain't willing to invest in this field.  I think some American firms such
  as Borland, microsoft may be interested in developing some customized
 stuff for the Asia Markets, if the situations in SE ASIA is not that bad.

       though i may not be able to copy Xenix or 80x86 stuff from
golden again, i will be glad if there are some dev'mt in that area in
hk.

 
> 	Thus, all remaining CS opportunities are just stupid and 
> 	straight-forward COBOL and SQL programming, which even a stupid 
                        ^^^^^     ^^^
        Well!  Cobol may be stupid but SQL ..?
        BTW, software is developed for getting a required job done!
        Cobol & SQL do get the things done. We don't need any fancy thing
        to print out an invoice...  that 's the way it is.
        even in u.s., not all cs go to do high-end stuff. some friends of
        mine are working 'natural' , sql stuff here...
>a
 	high-schooler may excel in 2 weeks.  So even you get an univ. degree,
> 	you don't deserve high pay in these jobs.
>i
          agree... but it is better if u didn't say highschool kids are
          stupid.  8-)
 	
> 

 yeah.. a few more words: I ain't no cs but "stupid" mis.  many cs guys
& gals think mis is only highschool stuff.. But they miss the point that
we are not doin sof' eng'ing but looking for the bottom line..
We just have diff pt. of views. Like the situ' in HK, I disagree with u
that HKers are stupid & shortsighted when they use IBM type PC stuff. 
Sparc workstation & IBM clone just serve diff ends.a

have fun.. 
(i just wonder I can have a consulting firm in HK one day!!)
8-) 

steve
Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong