Interesting Facts and Information!
|
The Richest AmericansInformation from www.forbes.com
1 |
Gates, William Henry III |
51,000 |
49 |
Medina, WA |
Microsoft |
2 |
Buffett, Warren Edward |
40,000 |
75 |
Omaha, NE |
Berkshire Hathaway |
3 |
Allen, Paul Gardner |
22,500 |
52 |
Seattle, WA |
Microsoft, investments |
4 |
Dell, Michael |
18,000 |
40 |
Austin, TX |
Dell |
5 |
Ellison, Lawrence Joseph |
17,000 |
61 |
Silicon Valley, CA |
Oracle |
6 |
Walton, Christy |
15,700 |
50 |
Jackson, WY |
Wal-Mart inheritance |
6 |
Walton, Jim C |
15,700 |
57 |
Bentonville, AR |
Wal-Mart |
8 |
Walton, S Robson |
15,600 |
61 |
Bentonville, AR |
Wal-Mart |
9 |
Walton, Alice L |
15,500 |
56 |
Fort Worth, TX |
Wal-Mart |
10 |
Walton, Helen R |
15,400 |
86 |
Bentonville, AR |
Wal-Mart |
11 |
Ballmer, Steven Anthony |
14,000 |
49 |
Redmond, WA |
Microsoft |
12 |
Anthony, Barbara Cox |
12,500 |
82 |
Honolulu, HI |
Cox Enterprises |
12 |
Chambers, Anne Cox |
12,500 |
85 |
Atlanta, GA |
Cox Enterprises |
12 |
Johnson, Abigail |
12,500 |
43 |
Boston, MA |
Fidelity |
15 |
Adelson, Sheldon |
11,500 |
72 |
Las Vegas, NV |
Casinos, hotels |
16 |
Brin, Sergey |
11,000 |
32 |
San Francisco, CA |
Google |
16 |
Page, Larry E |
11,000 |
32 |
San Francisco, CA |
Google |
18 |
Omidyar, Pierre M |
10,200 |
38 |
Henderson, NV |
Ebay |
19 |
Kerkorian, Kirk |
10,000 |
88 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Investments, casinos |
19 |
Mars, Forrest Edward Jr |
10,000 |
74 |
McLean, VA |
Candy |
19 |
Mars, Jacqueline |
10,000 |
66 |
Bedminster, NJ |
Candy |
19 |
Mars, John Franklyn |
10,000 |
69 |
Arlington, VA |
Candy |
23 |
Kluge, John Werner |
9,000 |
91 |
Palm Beach, FL |
Metromedia |
24 |
Icahn, Carl |
8,500 |
69 |
New York, NY |
Leveraged buyouts |
25 |
Redstone, Sumner M |
8,400 |
82 |
Beverly Hills, CA |
Viacom |
26 |
Newhouse, Donald Edward |
7,500 |
75 |
Somerset County, NJ |
Publishing |
26 |
Newhouse, Samuel Irving Jr |
7,500 |
77 |
New York, NY |
Publishing |
28 |
Anschutz, Philip F |
7,200 |
65 |
Denver, CO |
Investments |
28 |
Soros, George |
7,200 |
75 |
New York, NY |
Hedge funds |
30 |
Ergen, Charles |
7,100 |
52 |
Denver, CO |
EchoStar |
31 |
Knight, Philip H |
6,900 |
67 |
Beaverton, OR |
Nike |
32 |
Murdoch, Keith Rupert |
6,700 |
74 |
New York, NY |
News Corp |
33 |
Johnson, Edward Crosby III |
6,500 |
75 |
Boston, MA |
Fidelity |
34 |
Duncan, Dan L |
6,000 |
72 |
Houston, TX |
Energy |
34 |
Perelman, Ronald Owen |
6,000 |
62 |
New York, NY |
Leveraged buyouts |
34 |
Taylor, Jack Crawford |
6,000 |
83 |
St Louis, MO |
Enterprise Rent-A-Car |
37 |
Arison, Micky |
5,800 |
56 |
Bal Harbour, FL |
Carnival Cruises |
38 |
Bren, Donald L |
5,700 |
73 |
Newport Beach, CA |
Real estate |
39 |
Broad, Eli |
5,500 |
72 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Investments |
40 |
Bloomberg, Michael Rubens |
5,100 |
63 |
New York, NY |
Bloomberg L.P. |
41 |
Menard, John R Jr |
5,000 |
65 |
Eau Claire, WI |
Home improvement stores |
42 |
Bezos, Jeffrey P |
4,800 |
41 |
Seattle, WA |
Amazon |
42 |
Rowling, Robert |
4,800 |
52 |
Dallas, TX |
Oil & gas, hotels, investments |
44 |
Moore, Gordon Earle |
4,600 |
76 |
Woodside, CA |
Intel |
45 |
Geffen, David |
4,500 |
62 |
Malibu, CA |
DreamWorks |
45 |
Kaiser, George B |
4,500 |
63 |
Tulsa, OK |
Oil & gas, banking, real estate |
45 |
Koch, Charles De Ganahl |
4,500 |
69 |
Wichita, KS |
Oil, commodities |
45 |
Koch, David Hamilton |
4,500 |
65 |
Wichita, KS |
Oil, commodities |
49 |
Warner, H Ty |
4,400 |
61 |
Chicago, IL |
Beanie Babies |
50 |
Perot, Henry Ross |
4,200 |
75 |
Dallas, TX |
Computer services, real estate |
51 |
Goodnight, James |
4,100 |
62 |
Cary, NC |
SAS Institute |
52 |
Crown, Lester & family |
4,000 |
80 |
Wilmette, IL |
Investments |
52 |
Davis, Barbara & family |
4,000 |
75 |
Beverly Hills, CA |
Inheritance, oil |
52 |
Murdock, David Howard |
4,000 |
82 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Investments |
52 |
Schmidt, Eric |
4,000 |
50 |
Atherton, CA |
Google |
56 |
Sorenson, James L |
3,900 |
84 |
Salt Lake City, UT |
Medical devices, real estate |
56 |
Tisch, Preston Robert |
3,900 |
79 |
New York, NY |
Loews |
58 |
Schwab, Charles R |
3,800 |
68 |
Atherton, CA |
Discount stock brokerage |
59 |
Johnson, Charles Bartlett |
3,700 |
72 |
San Mateo, CA |
Franklin Resources |
59 |
Schulze, Richard M |
3,700 |
64 |
Edina, MN |
Best Buy |
61 |
Blavatnik, Leonard |
3,500 |
48 |
New York, NY |
Access Industries |
61 |
Davidson, William Morse |
3,500 |
82 |
Bloomfield Hills, MI |
Glass |
61 |
Lampert, Edward S |
3,500 |
43 |
Greenwich, CT |
Investments |
61 |
Lucas, George |
3,500 |
61 |
Marin County, CA |
Star Wars |
65 |
DeVos, Richard M |
3,400 |
79 |
Ada, MI |
Alticor |
65 |
Wrigley, William Jr |
3,400 |
41 |
Lake Forest, IL |
Chewing gum |
67 |
Abele, John E |
3,300 |
68 |
Boston, MA |
Boston Scientific |
67 |
Jobs, Steven Paul |
3,300 |
50 |
Palo Alto, CA |
Apple Computer, Pixar |
67 |
Lauren, Ralph |
3,300 |
65 |
New York, NY |
Fashion |
70 |
Cook, William Alfred |
3,200 |
74 |
Bloomington, IN |
Medical devices |
70 |
Hughes, Bradley Wayne |
3,200 |
72 |
Malibu, CA |
Public Storage |
72 |
Johnson, Rupert Harris Jr |
3,100 |
64 |
San Mateo, CA |
Franklin Resources |
73 |
Arnall, Roland |
3,000 |
66 |
Holmby Hills, CA |
Mortgage banking |
73 |
Bass, Robert Muse |
3,000 |
57 |
Fort Worth, TX |
Oil, investments |
73 |
Bronfman, Edgar M Sr |
3,000 |
76 |
New York, NY |
Liquor |
73 |
Filo, David |
3,000 |
39 |
Mountain View, CA |
Yahoo |
73 |
Lauder, Leonard Alan |
3,000 |
72 |
New York, NY |
Estee Lauder |
78 |
Greenberg, Maurice Raymond |
2,800 |
80 |
New York, NY |
American International Group |
78 |
Johnson, Barbara Piasecka |
2,800 |
68 |
Monte Carlo, Monaco |
Inheritance |
78 |
Nicholas, Peter M |
2,800 |
64 |
Boston, MA |
Boston Scientific |
78 |
Pohlad, Carl |
2,800 |
90 |
Minneapolis, MN |
Banking |
78 |
Saban, Haim |
2,800 |
60 |
Beverly Hills, CA |
Television |
83 |
Hillman, Henry Lea |
2,700 |
86 |
Pittsburgh, PA |
Industrialist, venture capitalist |
83 |
Lauder, Ronald Steven |
2,700 |
61 |
New York, NY |
Estee Lauder |
83 |
Simons, James H |
2,700 |
67 |
East Setauket, NY |
Hedge funds |
83 |
Spielberg, Steven Allen |
2,700 |
58 |
Pacific Palisades, CA |
Movies |
83 |
Stern, Leonard Norman |
2,700 |
67 |
New York, NY |
Real estate |
83 |
Trump, Donald John |
2,700 |
59 |
New York, NY |
Real estate |
89 |
Ingram, Martha R & family |
2,600 |
70 |
Nashville, TN |
Ingram Industries |
89 |
Kroenke, Ann Walton |
2,600 |
55 |
Columbia, MO |
Wal-Mart |
89 |
Perenchio, A Jerrold |
2,600 |
74 |
Bel Air, CA |
Univision |
89 |
Wexner, Leslie Herbert |
2,600 |
70 |
Columbus, OH |
Limited Brands |
93 |
Cohen, Steven A |
2,500 |
49 |
Greenwich, CT |
Hedge funds |
93 |
Hunt, Ray Lee |
2,500 |
62 |
Dallas, TX |
Inheritance, oil, real estate |
93 |
Kinder, Richard |
2,500 |
61 |
Houston, TX |
Pipelines |
93 |
Kovner, Bruce |
2,500 |
60 |
New York, NY |
Hedge funds |
93 |
Kravis, Henry R |
2,500 |
61 |
New York, NY |
Leveraged buyouts |
93 |
Mitchell, George Phydias |
2,500 |
86 |
The Woodlands, TX |
Mitchell Energy |
93 |
Rich, Robert Edward Sr |
2,500 |
92 |
Palm Beach, FL |
Nondairy creamer |
93 |
Ricketts, J Joseph & family |
2,500 |
64 |
Omaha, NE |
Ameritrade |
93 |
Roberts, George R |
2,500 |
61 |
San Francisco, CA |
Leveraged buyouts |
93 |
Rockefeller, David Sr |
2,500 |
90 |
New York, NY |
Standard Oil, banking |
93 |
Schwarzman, Stephen A |
2,500 |
58 |
New York, NY |
Investments |
93 |
Simmons, Harold Clark |
2,500 |
74 |
Dallas, TX |
Investments |
93 |
Simon, Melvin |
2,500 |
78 |
Indianapolis, IN |
Real estate |
93 |
Simplot, John Richard & family |
2,500 |
96 |
Boise, ID |
Potatoes, microchips |
93 |
Washington, Dennis |
2,500 |
71 |
Missoula, MT |
Construction, mining, transportation |
93 |
Yang, Jerry |
2,500 |
36 |
Los Altos, CA |
Yahoo |
109 |
Bechtel, Riley P |
2,400 |
53 |
San Francisco, CA |
Engineering, construction |
109 |
Bechtel, Stephen Davison Jr |
2,400 |
80 |
San Francisco, CA |
Engineering, construction |
109 |
Bucksbaum, Matthew & family |
2,400 |
79 |
Chicago, IL |
Real estate |
112 |
Burkle, Ronald |
2,300 |
52 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Supermarkets, investments |
112 |
Hostetter, Amos Barr Jr |
2,300 |
68 |
Boston, MA |
Cable television |
112 |
Rainwater, Richard Edward |
2,300 |
61 |
Fort Worth, TX |
Real estate, energy, insurance |
112 |
Zell, Samuel |
2,300 |
64 |
Chicago, IL |
Real estate |
116 |
Butt, Charles C |
2,200 |
67 |
San Antonio, TX |
Supermarkets |
116 |
Getty, Gordon Peter |
2,200 |
72 |
San Francisco, CA |
Inheritance, oil |
116 |
Helmsley, Leona Mindy Rosenthal |
2,200 |
85 |
New York, NY |
Real estate |
116 |
Kellogg, Peter R |
2,200 |
63 |
Short Hills, NJ |
Investments |
116 |
Laurie, Nancy Walton |
2,200 |
54 |
Columbia, MO |
Wal-Mart |
116 |
Marcus, Bernard |
2,200 |
76 |
Atlanta, GA |
Home Depot |
116 |
Soon-Shiong, Patrick |
2,200 |
53 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Generic drugs |
116 |
Spangler, Clemmie Dixon Jr |
2,200 |
73 |
Charlotte, NC |
Investments |
116 |
Stryker, Ronda E |
2,200 |
51 |
Kalamazoo, MI |
Stryker Corp. |
125 |
Calamos, John P |
2,100 |
65 |
Naperville, IL |
Mutual funds |
125 |
Dolan, Charles Francis |
2,100 |
78 |
Oyster Bay, NY |
Cablevision Systems |
125 |
Kohler, Herbert & family |
2,100 |
66 |
Kohler, WI |
Plumbing fixtures |
125 |
Mann, Alfred |
2,100 |
79 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Inventor, entrepreneur |
125 |
McCaw, Craig O |
2,100 |
56 |
Seattle, WA |
McCaw Cellular |
125 |
Rales, Mitchell P |
2,100 |
49 |
Washington, DC |
Danaher Corp |
125 |
Taylor, Glen |
2,100 |
64 |
Mankato, MN |
Printing |
125 |
Udvar-Hazy, Steven |
2,100 |
59 |
Beverly Hills, CA |
International Lease Finance |
133 |
Allen, Herbert Anthony Jr |
2,000 |
65 |
New York, NY |
Investment banking |
133 |
Annenberg, Leonore |
2,000 |
87 |
Wynnewood, PA |
Inheritance |
133 |
Bass, Lee Marshall |
2,000 |
49 |
Fort Worth, TX |
Oil, investments |
133 |
Bass, Sid Richardson |
2,000 |
62 |
Fort Worth, TX |
Oil, investments |
133 |
Brandes, Charles H |
2,000 |
62 |
San Diego, CA |
Money management |
133 |
Green, David |
2,000 |
63 |
Oklahoma City, OK |
Hobby Lobby |
133 |
Hearst, William Randolph III |
2,000 |
56 |
San Francisco, CA |
Hearst Corp |
133 |
Huizenga, H Wayne |
2,000 |
67 |
Fort Lauderdale, FL |
Investments |
133 |
Jones, Paul Tudor II |
2,000 |
51 |
Greenwich, CT |
Hedge funds |
133 |
Lindner, Carl Henry Jr & family |
2,000 |
86 |
Cincinnati, OH |
Investments |
133 |
Magerko, Margaret Hardy |
2,000 |
39 |
Upper Saint Clair, PA |
84 Lumber |
133 |
McGovern, Patrick Joseph |
2,000 |
68 |
Hollis, NH |
IDG |
133 |
Milken, Michael Robert |
2,000 |
59 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Investments |
133 |
Nicholas, Henry Thompson III |
2,000 |
46 |
Laguna Hills, CA |
Broadcom |
133 |
Penske, Roger S |
2,000 |
68 |
Birmingham, MI |
Cars |
133 |
Rales, Steven M |
2,000 |
54 |
Washington, DC |
Danaher Corp |
133 |
Sall, John |
2,000 |
56 |
Cary, NC |
SAS Institute |
133 |
Sobrato, John Albert |
2,000 |
66 |
Atherton, CA |
Real estate |
133 |
Stryker, Jon Lloyd |
2,000 |
47 |
Kalamazoo, MI |
Stryker Corp. |
133 |
Turner, Robert E "Ted" |
2,000 |
66 |
Lamont, FL |
Cable television |
153 |
Cooke, Phoebe Hearst |
1,900 |
78 |
San Francisco, CA |
Hearst Corp |
153 |
Hearst, Austin |
1,900 |
53 |
New York, NY |
Hearst Corp |
153 |
Hearst, David Whitmire Jr |
1,900 |
60 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Hearst Corp |
153 |
Hearst, George Randolph Jr |
1,900 |
78 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Hearst Corp |
153 |
Lewis, Peter Benjamin |
1,900 |
71 |
Coconut Grove, FL |
Progressive Corp |
153 |
Malone, John C |
1,900 |
64 |
Parker, CO |
Cable television |
153 |
Mathile, Clayton Lee |
1,900 |
64 |
Dayton, OH |
Iams |
153 |
Pritzker, Thomas J |
1,900 |
55 |
Chicago, IL |
Hotels, investments |
153 |
Rady, Ernest S |
1,900 |
68 |
San Diego, CA |
Banking, insurance |
153 |
Sperling, John G |
1,900 |
84 |
Phoenix, AZ |
Apollo Group |
153 |
Zuckerman, Mortimer Benjamin |
1,900 |
68 |
New York, NY |
Media, real estate |
164 |
Abraham, S Daniel |
1,800 |
81 |
Palm Beach, FL |
Slim-Fast |
164 |
Cargill, James R |
1,800 |
81 |
Minneapolis, MN |
Inheritance |
164 |
Cargill, Margaret Anne |
1,800 |
85 |
La Jolla, CA |
Inheritance |
164 |
Cuban, Mark |
1,800 |
47 |
Dallas, TX |
Broadcast.com |
164 |
DeLeon, J Russell |
1,800 |
39 |
Gibraltar |
Online gaming |
164 |
Druckenmiller, Stanley |
1,800 |
53 |
New York, NY |
Hedge funds |
164 |
Frank, Sidney |
1,800 |
86 |
New Rochelle, NY |
Liquor |
164 |
Hall, Donald Joyce |
1,800 |
77 |
Mission Hills, KS |
Hallmark |
164 |
Jackson, Jess Stonestreet |
1,800 |
75 |
Healdsburg, CA |
Kendall-Jackson |
164 |
Kroenke, E Stanley |
1,800 |
58 |
Columbia, MO |
Sports, real estate |
164 |
Parasol, Ruth |
1,800 |
38 |
Gibraltar |
Online gaming |
164 |
Pritzker, Penny |
1,800 |
46 |
Chicago, IL |
Hotels, investments | |
Want to know the truth about college life?
Classes Go to all your classes during your first month of school? Hey, great for you, now let me let you in on a little secret. This isn’t high school, you’re professors don’t care about you. Show up, don’t show up, pass, fail, live, die, they’re getting a paycheck no matter what. Always keep that little fact of life in mind when you’re deciding if you really need to go to your 8 am class when you’re so hung over you can’t even breath without it hurting.
Your Dorm Hard not to notice the smell that hit you in the face when you first entered your dorm room, wasn’t it? Bet you thought it was just a temporary thing. Jokes on you, ‘cause that stink will be a resident in your building far longer than you will. Your only option is to breathe it in, get used to it, and learn to love it. No amount of showering or cleaning will ever get rid of it.
Your Roommate During the beginning of school, your roommate most likely went to great lengths to prove that he would be your best friend, someone who always watches your back, and is always willing to pick up the tab at the bar. Be prepared for an abrupt change as Your roommate will most likely sleep away most of the day, shame you into drinking grain alcohol before class, and generally drag you down to the depths of humanity along with him. Don’t fight it. Look on the bright side of things; while your roommate may be a slob and a drunk, at least he’s not a shape shifter who will try to eat your soul while you’re passed out. Or maybe he is. Sleep with your eyes open just in case.
Meals You’re already missing home cooking, aren’t you? Despite the fact that your parents have spend an obscene amount of money on meals for you, you’re diet will consist mainly of pizza, Roman noodles, and juice packs. New to your diet, however, may be coffee. Much like its more destructive cousin, beer, you will most likely hate the taste of coffee at first. Learn to love it, as it is a handy hangover tool and you will look forward to seeing it in the morning more so than any loved one. Think of it this way; if beer is the guy who goes nuts and gets thrown in jail on Spring Break, coffee is the one who bails him out.
Money I’m sure you’ve already realized money is hard to come by. For some, it will come from a job on campus. For most, it will come from your parents. Don’t ever be afraid to ask your parents for money. Look at it this way, if they’re crazy enough to think that your being studious and responsible while at school, then they’re crazy enough to believe that you need money for “books” three-quarters into the semester. Like my dad used to say when I used to ask him for money, “I’m not your real father and I never loved you.”
By: Matt Hulten on October 06, 2005
Corporate Lesson #1
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you to drop that towel." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.
When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?"
"It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies.
"Great!" the husband says, "Did he say anything about the he owes me?"
Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.
Corporate Lesson 2
A priest offered a lift to a Nun. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest apologized "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."
Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.
Corporate Lesson 3
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out.
The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish."
"Me first! Me first!" says the admin. clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world." Poof! She's gone.
"Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life." Poof! He's gone.
"OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."
Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.
Corporate Lesson 4
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered: Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.
Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up.
Corporate Lesson 5
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, but I haven't got the energy."
"Well, why don't you nibble on my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.
Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.
Oldies 500 HOTLIST |
|
SONG TITLE |
ARTIST |
409 |
Beach Boys |
1/2/03 |
Len Barry |
(Crazy Little Mama) At My Front Door |
El Dorados |
(Don't Fear) The Reaper |
Blue Oyster Cult |
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction |
Rolling Stones |
(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone |
Monkees |
(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet |
Reflections |
(Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay |
Otis Redding |
(You're My) Soul & Inspiration |
Righteous Brothers |
25 or 6 to 4 |
Chicago |
ABC's of Love |
Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers |
Ain't Too Proud to Beg |
Temptations |
All Along the Watchtower |
Jimi Hendrix |
All My Loving |
Beatles |
All Right Now |
Free |
Alone Again (Naturally) |
Gilbert O'Sullivan |
Along Comes Mary |
Association |
American Pie |
Don McLean |
American Woman |
Guess Who |
Angel of the Morning |
Merrilee Rush & the Turnabouts |
Annie's Song |
John Denver |
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In |
Fifth Dimension |
Are You Lonesome To-night |
Elvis Presley |
At the Hop |
Danny & the Juniors |
Baby I'm Yours |
Barbara Lewis |
Baby Love |
Supremes |
Baker Street |
Gerry Rafferty |
Barbara Ann |
Regents |
Battle of New Orleans |
Johnny Horton |
Be My Baby |
Ronettes |
Beautiful Morning |
Rascals |
Because |
Dave Clark 5 |
Beep Beep |
Playmates |
Behind Blue Eyes |
Who |
Bennie & the Jets |
Elton John |
Billy, Don't Be a Hero |
Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods |
Bits & Pieces |
Dave Clark 5 |
Black Water |
Doobie Brothers |
Blue Bayou |
Roy Orbison |
Blue Moon |
Marcels |
Blue Suede Shoes |
Elvis Presley |
Blue Suede Shoes |
Carl Perkins |
Bluebird |
Buffalo Springfield |
Born to Be Alive |
Patrick Hernandez |
Breaking Up is Hard to Do |
Neil Sedaka |
Bridge Over Troubled Water |
Simon & Garfunkel |
Bring it On Home to Me |
Animals |
Brown Eyed Girl |
Van Morrison |
Build Me Up Buttercup |
Foundations |
Burning Love |
Elvis Presley |
Bus Stop |
Hollies |
But It's Alright |
J.J. Jackson |
Bye Bye Love |
Everly Brothers |
California Dreamin' |
Mamas & the Papas |
California Girls |
Beach Boys |
California Sun |
Rivieras |
Can't Buy Me Love |
Beatles |
Can't Help Falling in Love |
Elvis Presley |
Cara Mia |
Jay & the Americans |
Chantilly Lace |
Big Bopper |
Charlie Brown |
Coasters |
Cherish |
Association |
Cherry Pie |
Skip & Flip |
China Grove |
Doobie Brothers |
Close to You |
Carpenters |
Come a Little Bit Closer |
Jay & the Americans |
Come Go With Me |
Dell-Vikings |
Come Sail Away |
Styx |
Count Me In |
Gary Lewis & the Playboys |
Cracklin' Rosie |
Neil Diamond |
Crazy on You |
Heart |
Creeque Alley |
Mamas & the Papas |
Crocodile Rock |
Elton John |
Cross Fire! |
Orlons |
Crying |
Roy Orbison |
Crystal Blue Persuasion |
Tommy James & the Shondells |
Darling Be Home Soon |
Lovin' Spoonful |
Day Tripper |
Beatles |
Daydream Believer |
Monkees |
Dedicated to the One I Love |
Shirelles |
Dedicated to the One I Love |
Mamas & the Papas |
Deserie |
Charts |
Desperado |
Eagles |
Devil or Angel |
Bobby Vee |
Devil Went Down to Georgia |
Charlie Daniels Band |
Devil With a Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly |
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels |
Diana |
Paul Anka |
Do Wah Diddy Diddy |
Manfred Mann |
Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is |
Chicago |
Don't Be Cruel |
Elvis Presley |
Don't Bring Me Down |
Electric Light Orchestra |
Don't Let Go |
Roy Hamilton |
Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying |
Gerry & the Pacemakers |
Don't Pull Your Love |
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds |
Don't Worry Baby |
Beach Boys |
Down on the Corner |
Creedence Clearwater Revival |
Down the Aisle of Love |
Quin-Tones |
Downtown |
Petula Clark |
Dreadlock Holiday |
10cc |
Dream Lover |
Bobby Darin |
Dream On |
Aerosmith |
Dream Weaver |
Gary Wright |
Drift Away |
Dobie Gray |
Duke of Earl |
Gene Chandler |
Earth Angel |
Penguins |
Easy Come, Easy Go |
Bobby Sherman |
Ebony Eyes |
Everly Brothers |
Eight Days a Week |
Beatles |
Eleanor Rigby |
Beatles |
Eloise |
Barry Ryan |
Enchanted |
Platters |
End of the World |
Skeeter Davis |
Everyone's Gone to the Moon |
Jonathan King |
Evil Woman |
Electric Light Orchestra |
Fallin' in Love |
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds |
Fool in Love |
Ike & Tina Turner |
Forever |
Marvelettes |
Fortunate Son |
Creedence Clearwater Revival |
Freebird |
Lynyrd Skynyrd |
Friday On My Mind |
Easybeats |
Fun, Fun, Fun |
Beach Boys |
Gee Whiz |
Carla Thomas |
Georgia on My Mind |
Ray Charles |
Get Back |
Beatles |
Gimme Some Lovin' |
Spencer Davis Group |
Give a Damn |
Spanky & Our Gang |
Glad All Over |
Dave Clark 5 |
Glory Bound |
Grass Roots |
Glory of Love |
Roommates |
Go All the Way |
Raspberries |
God Only Knows |
Beach Boys |
Gone |
Ferlin Husky |
Good Golly Miss Molly |
Little Richard |
Good Vibrations |
Beach Boys |
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road |
Elton John |
Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite |
Spaniels |
Got to Get You Into My Life |
Beatles |
Great Balls of Fire |
Jerry Lee Lewis |
Great Pretender |
Platters |
Green River |
Creedence Clearwater Revival |
Groovin' |
Young Rascals |
Hang on Sloopy |
McCoys |
Happy Together |
Turtles |
Hard Day's Night |
Beatles |
Harvest For the World |
Isley Brothers |
Hello Goodbye |
Beatles |
Hello Mary Lou |
Ricky Nelson |
Help Me Rhonda |
Beach Boys |
Help! |
Beatles |
Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again |
Fortunes |
He's a Rebel |
Crystals |
He's Sure the Boy I Love |
Crystals |
Hey Jude |
Beatles |
Hey Paula |
Paul & Paula |
High on a Hill |
Scott English |
Higher & Higher |
Jackie Wilson |
Him or Me - What's it Gonna Be |
Paul Revere & the Raiders |
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me |
Mel Carter |
Honey |
Bobby Goldsboro |
Honky Tonk Women |
Rolling Stones |
Hot Rod Lincoln |
Commander Cody |
Hotel California |
Eagles |
Hound Dog |
Elvis Presley |
House of the Rising Sun |
Animals |
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart |
Bee Gees |
Hungry |
Paul Revere & the Raiders |
I Am Woman |
Helen Reddy |
I Can't Help Myself |
Four Tops |
I Don't Want to Cry |
Chuck Jackson |
I Fall to Pieces |
Patsy Cline |
I Feel Fine |
Beatles |
I Fought the Law |
Bobby Fuller 4 |
I Get Around |
Beach Boys |
I Go to Pieces |
Peter & Gordon |
I Got You Babe |
Sonny & Cher |
I Hear You Knocking |
Dave Edmunds |
I Heard it Through the Grapevine |
Marvin Gaye |
I Just Want to Be Your Everything |
Andy Gibb |
I Only Have Eyes For You |
Flamingos |
I Put a Spell on You |
"Screaming" Jay Hawkins |
I Saw Her Standing There |
Beatles |
I Want to Hold Your Hand |
Beatles |
I Want You |
Bob Dylan |
I Will Survive |
Gloria Gaynor |
I Wish It Would Rain |
Temptations |
I Wonder Why |
Dion & the Belmonts |
I'd Love to Change the World |
Ten Years After |
If I Fell |
Beatles |
If You Don't Know Me By Now |
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes |
If You Wanna Be Happy |
Jimmy Soul |
I'll Take You There |
Staple Singers |
I'm a Believer |
Monkees |
I'm Into Something Good |
Herman's Hermits |
I'm Leaving it Up to You |
Dale & Grace |
I'm Not in Love |
10cc |
I'm on Fire |
Dwight Twilley Band |
Imagine |
John Lennon |
In Dreams |
Roy Orbison |
In My Room |
Beach Boys |
In the Ghetto |
Elvis Presley |
In the Still of the Night |
5 Satins |
In the Summertime |
Mungo Jerry |
In the Year 2525 |
Zager & Evans |
Indian Reservation |
Raiders |
It Could Be We're in Love |
Cryan' Shames |
It's All Over Now |
Rolling Stones |
It's My Party |
Lesley Gore |
It's Not Unusual |
Tom Jones |
It's Only Make Believe |
Conway Twitty |
It's Too Late |
Carole King |
Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini |
Brian Hyland |
I've Gotta Get a Message to You |
Bee Gees |
Jailhouse Rock |
Elvis Presley |
Jessica |
Allman Brothers Band |
Johnny Angel |
Shelley Fabares |
Johnny B. Goode |
Chuck Berry |
Joker |
Steve Miller Band |
Joy to the World |
Three Dog Night |
Jump Into the Fire |
Nilsson |
Jumpin' Jack Flash |
Rolling Stones |
Jungle Boogie |
Kool & the Gang |
Just to Be With You |
Passions |
Kansas City |
Wilbert Harrison |
Kicks |
Paul Revere & the Raiders |
Kind of a Drag |
Buckinghams |
Kung Fu Fighting |
Carl Douglas |
Lady Willpower |
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap |
Last Kiss |
J. Frank Wilson & the Cavaliers |
Last Song |
Edward Bear |
Last Train to Clarksville |
Monkees |
Laugh Laugh |
Beau Brummels |
Layla |
Derek & the Dominos |
Let it Be |
Beatles |
Let it Be Me |
Everly Brothers |
Let Your Love Flow |
Bellamy Brothers |
Let's Hang On |
Four Seasons |
Letter |
Box Tops |
Liar Liar |
Castaways |
Lido Shuffle |
Boz Scaggs |
Light My Fire |
Doors |
Lightning Strikes |
Lou Christie |
Like a Rolling Stone |
Bob Dylan |
Lion Sleeps Tonight |
Tokens |
Lipstick on Your Collar |
Connie Francis |
Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You |
Monkees |
Little Darlin' |
Diamonds |
Little Deuce Coupe |
Beach Boys |
Little Girl of Mine |
Cleftones |
Little Old Lady (From Pasadena) |
Jan & Dean |
Little Star |
Elegants |
Lola |
Kinks |
Love is Blue |
Paul Mauriat |
Love Me Tender |
Elvis Presley |
Love Will Keep Us Together |
Captain & Tennille |
Lover's Concerto |
Toys |
MacArthur Park |
Richard Harris |
Macho Man |
Village People |
Mack the Knife |
Bobby Darin |
Maggie May |
Rod Stewart |
Magic Carpet Ride |
Steppenwolf |
Mama Told Me Not to Come |
Three Dog Night |
Maybe I Know |
Lesley Gore |
Memphis |
Chuck Berry |
Mercy Mercy Me |
Marvin Gaye |
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy |
Buckinghams |
Midnight Confessions |
Grass Roots |
Midnight Train to Georgia |
Gladys Knight & the Pips |
Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo) |
Manfred Mann |
Monday, Monday |
Mamas & the Papas |
Monkey Time |
Major Lance |
Mony Mony |
Tommy James & the Shondells |
More Than a Feeling |
Boston |
Mr. Tambourine Man |
Byrds |
Mrs. Bluebird |
Eternity's Children |
My Baby Loves Lovin' |
White Plains |
My Girl |
Temptations |
My Love |
Paul McCartney |
My Love |
Petula Clark |
My Prayer |
Platters |
My Summer Love |
Ruby & the Romantics |
My Sweet Lord |
George Harrison |
Nadia's Theme |
DeVorzon & Botkin |
Navy Blue |
Diane Renay |
Never My Love |
Association |
New York Mining Disaster 1941 |
Bee Gees |
New York's a Lonely Town |
Tradewinds |
Next Door to An Angel |
Neil Sedaka |
Night Moves |
Bob Seger |
Nights in White Satin |
Moody Blues |
No Matter What |
Badfinger |
No One Knows |
Dion & the Belmonts |
No, Not Much |
Four Lads |
Nobody But Me |
Human Beinz |
Nowhere Man |
Beatles |
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da |
Beatles |
Oh Girl |
Chi-Lites |
Oh My Angel |
Bertha Tillman |
Oh What a Night |
Dells |
Oh, Pretty Woman |
Roy Orbison |
Once in a While |
Chimes |
One Night |
Elvis Presley |
Only the Good Die Young |
Billy Joel |
Only the Lonely |
Roy Orbison |
Our Day Will Come |
Ruby & the Romantics |
Over the Mountain; Across the Sea |
Johnnie & Joe |
Over You |
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap |
P.S. I Love You |
Beatles |
Paint it, Black |
Rolling Stones |
Palisades Park |
Freddy Cannon |
Paperback Writer |
Beatles |
Paradise By the Dashboard Lights |
Meat Loaf |
Part of the Plan |
Dan Fogelberg |
Party Lights |
Claudine Clark |
Patches |
Dickey Lee |
Peace of Mind |
Boston |
Peggy Sue |
Buddy Holly |
People Are Strange |
Doors |
People Got to Be Free |
Rascals |
Pipeline |
Chantays |
Play That Funky Music |
Wild Cherry |
Pleasant Valley Sunday |
Monkees |
Please Love Me Forever |
Cathy Jean & the Roommates |
Please Mr. Postman |
Marvelettes |
Please Please Me |
Beatles |
Poetry in Motion |
Johnny Tillotson |
Poor Side of Town |
Johnny Rivers |
Pretty Ballerina |
Left Banke |
Proud Mary |
Creedence Clearwater Revival |
Psychotic Reaction |
Count Five |
Purple People Eater |
Sheb Wooley |
Put a Little Love in Your Heart |
Jackie DeShannon |
Put Your Head on My Shoulder |
Paul Anka |
Rag Doll |
Four Seasons |
Rainbow |
Russ Hamilton |
Raindrops |
Dee Clark |
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head |
B.J. Thomas |
Raw-Hide |
Link Wray & his Ray Men |
Reach Out in the Darkness |
Friend & Lover |
Reach Out, I'll Be There |
Four Tops |
Red River Rock |
Johnny & the Hurricanes |
Red Rubber Ball |
Cyrkle |
Reet Petite |
Jackie Wilson |
Remember Then |
Earls |
Respect |
Aretha Franklin |
Return to Sender |
Elvis Presley |
Rings |
Cymarron |
River Deep, Mountain High |
Ike & Tina Turner |
Rock & Roll All Night |
Kiss |
Rock Around the Clock |
Bill Haley & his Comets |
Rock Me Gently |
Andy Kim |
Rocket 88 |
Jackie Brenston |
Roll Over Beethoven |
Beatles |
Roundabout |
Yes |
Rumble |
Link Wray & his Ray Men |
Runaround Sue |
Dion |
Runaway |
Del Shannon |
Running Bear |
Johnny Preston |
Searchin' (We'll Follow the Sun) |
Del Shannon |
Seasons in the Sun |
Terry Jacks |
See You in September |
Happenings |
Shake, Rattle & Roll |
"Big" Joe Turner |
She Loves You |
Beatles |
Sherry |
Four Seasons |
She's a Woman |
Beatles |
She's About a Mover |
Sir Douglas Quintet |
She's Not There |
Zombies |
Show Me the Way |
Peter Frampton |
Shut Down |
Beach Boys |
Silence is Golden |
Tremeloes |
Since I Don't Have You |
Skyliners |
Sky High |
Jigsaw |
Sloop John B |
Beach Boys |
Slow Ride |
Foghat |
So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad) |
Everly Brothers |
Soldier Boy |
Shirelles |
Some Kind of Wonderful |
Grand Funk |
Somebody to Love |
Jefferson Airplane |
Something |
Beatles |
Something Stupid |
Frank & Nancy Sinatra |
Sooner or Later |
Grass Roots |
Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home) |
Impalas |
Soul Man |
Sam & Dave |
Spill the Wine |
Eric Burdon & War |
Spirit in the Sky |
Norman Greenbaum |
Stairway to Heaven |
Neil Sedaka |
Stand By Me |
Ben E. King |
Stay |
Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs |
Stood Up |
Ricky Nelson |
Strawberry Fields Forever |
Beatles |
Streak |
Ray Stevens |
Sugar Shack |
Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs |
Sugar, Sugar |
Archies |
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes |
Crosby, Stills & Nash |
Summer in the City |
Lovin' Spoonful |
Summertime |
Billy Stewart |
Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore |
Walker Brothers |
Sunny Afternoon |
Kinks |
Surf City |
Jan & Dean |
Surfer Girl |
Beach Boys |
Surfin' Hootenanny |
Al Casey |
Surfin' Safari |
Beach Boys |
Surfin' U.S.A. |
Beach Boys |
Surrender |
Elvis Presley |
Suspicious Minds |
Elvis Presley |
Sweet Caroline |
Neil Diamond |
Sweet Emotion |
Aerosmith |
Sweet Home Alabama |
Lynyrd Skynyrd |
Sweet Little 16 |
Chuck Berry |
Take Good Care of My Baby |
Bobby Vee |
Take it to the Limit |
Eagles |
Take Me Home, Country Roads |
John Denver |
Tall Cool One |
Wailers |
Tall Paul |
Annette |
Taxi |
Harry Chapin |
Teddy Bear |
Elvis Presley |
Teenager in Love |
Dion & the Belmonts |
Tell it Like it Is |
Aaron Neville |
Telstar |
Tornadoes |
Temptation Eyes |
Grass Roots |
That'll Be the Day |
Crickets |
Theme from 'A Summer Place' |
Percy Faith |
Then He Kissed Me |
Crystals |
These Eyes |
Guess Who |
They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha Haaaa |
Napoleon XIV |
Things I'd Like to Say |
New Colony 6 |
Think |
Aretha Franklin |
This Diamond Ring |
Gary Lewis & the Playboys |
Three Stars Will Shine Tonight |
Richard Chamberlain |
Thunder Island |
Jay Ferguson |
Time is Tight |
Booker T & the MG's |
Time Won't Let Me |
Outsiders |
To Know Him is to Love Him |
Teddy Bears |
To Love Somebody |
Bee Gees |
To the Aisle |
5 Satins |
Toast & Marmalade for Tea |
Tin Tin |
Tonite Tonite |
Mello-Kings |
Touch Me |
Doors |
Traces |
Classics IV |
Trains & Boats & Planes |
Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas |
Travelin' Man |
Ricky Nelson |
Traveling Band |
Creedence Clearwater Revival |
Tuesday Afternoon |
Moody Blues |
Turn Around, Look at Me |
Vogues |
Turn, Turn, Turn |
Byrds |
Tweedle Dee |
LaVern Baker |
Twelfth of Never |
Johnny Mathis |
Twelve Thirty |
Mamas & the Papas |
Twilight Time |
Platters |
Twist & Shout |
Beatles |
Unchained Melody |
Righteous Brothers |
Unchained Melody |
Vito & the Salutations |
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey |
Paul & Linda McCartney |
Under the Boardwalk |
Drifters |
Up on the Roof |
Drifters |
Valleri |
Monkees |
Vehicle |
Ides of March |
Venus |
Frankie Avalon |
Walk Away Renee |
Left Banke |
Walk Like a Man |
Four Seasons |
Walk, Don't Run |
Ventures |
Wanderer |
Dion |
Way You Do the Things You Do |
Temptations |
Way You Look Tonight |
Jaguars |
What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted |
Jimmy Ruffin |
What Does it Take |
Jr. Walker & the All-Stars |
What's Going On |
Marvin Gaye |
When a Man Loves a Woman |
Percy Sledge |
When Liking Turns to Loving |
Ronnie Dove |
Where the Boys Are |
Connie Francis |
Where Were You When I Needed You |
Grass Roots |
Whiter Shade of Pale |
Procol Harum |
Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On |
Jerry Lee Lewis |
Wild Horses |
Rolling Stones |
Wild Thing |
Troggs |
Will You Love Me Tomorrow |
Shirelles |
Wipeout |
Surfaris |
Without You |
Nilsson |
Woman |
Peter & Gordon |
Woman Woman |
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap |
Wonder of You |
Elvis Presley |
Wonderful Summer |
Robin Ward |
Working in a Coal Mine |
Lee Dorsey |
Worst That Could Happen |
Brooklyn Bridge |
Wouldn't it Be Nice |
Beach Boys |
YMCA |
Village People |
You Beat Me to the Punch |
Mary Wells |
You Belong to Me |
Duprees |
You Can Have Her |
Roy Hamilton |
You Can't Always Get What You Want |
Rolling Stones |
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me |
Dusty Springfield |
You Don't Know Me |
Ray Charles |
You Don't Own Me |
Lesley Gore |
You Send Me |
Sam Cooke |
Young Blood |
Coasters |
Young Girl |
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap |
Your Heart Belongs to Me |
Supremes |
Your Song |
Elton John |
You're So Vain |
Carly Simon |
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' |
Righteous Brothers |
You've Really Got a Hold On Me |
Miracles |
|
Outsourcing Computer Programming Jobs?
Software Programming jobs are heading overseas by the thousands. Is there a way for the U.S. to stay on top?
Stephen Haberman was one of a handful of folks in all of Chase County, Neb., who knew how to program a computer. In the spring of 1999, at the height of the Internet boom, the 17-year-old whiz wanted to strut his stuff outside of his windswept patch of prairie. He was too young for a nationwide programming competition sponsored by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ), so an older friend registered for him. Haberman wowed the judges with a flashy Web page design and finished second in the country. Emboldened, Stephen came up with a radical idea: Maybe he would skip college altogether and mine a quick fortune in dot-com gold. His mother, Cindy, put the kibosh on his plan. She steered him to a full scholarship at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Half a world away, in the western Indian city of Nagpur, a 19-year-old named Deepa Paranjpe was having an argument with her father. Sure, computer science was heating up, he told her. Western companies were frantically hiring Indians to scour millions of software programs and eradicate the much-feared millennium bug. But this craze would pass. The former railroad employee urged his daughter to pursue traditional engineering, a much safer course. Deepa had always respected her father's opinions. When he demanded perfection at school, she delivered nothing less. But she turned a deaf ear to his career advice and plunged into software. After all, this was the industry poised to change the world.
As Stephen and Deepa emerge this summer from graduate school -- one in Pittsburgh, the other in Bombay -- they'll find that their decisions of a half-decade ago placed their dreams on a collision course. The Internet links that were being pieced together at the turn of the century now provide broadband connections between multinational companies and brainy programmers the world over. For Deepa and tens of thousands of other Indian students, the globalization of technology offers the promise of power and riches in a blossoming local tech industry. But for Stephen and his classmates in the U.S., the sudden need to compete with workers across the world ushers in an era of uncertainty. Will good jobs be waiting for them when they graduate? "I might have been better served getting an MBA," Stephen says.
U.S. software programmers' career prospects, once dazzling, are now in doubt. Just look at global giants, from IBM (IBM ) and Electronic Data Systems (EDS ) to Lehman Brothers (LEH ) and Merrill Lynch (MER ). They're rushing to hire tech workers offshore while liquidating thousands of jobs in America. In the past three years, offshore programming jobs have nearly tripled, from 27,000 to an estimated 80,000, according to Forrester Research Inc. (FORR ). And Gartner Inc. figures that by yearend, 1 of every 10 jobs in U.S. tech companies will move to emerging markets. In other words, recruiters who look at Stephen will also consider someone like Deepa -- who's willing to do the same job for one-fifth the pay. U.S. software developers "are competing with everyone else in the world who has a PC," says Robert R. Bishop, chief executive of computer maker Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI ).
For many of America's 3 million software programmers, it's paradise lost. Just a few years back, they held the keys to the Information Age. Their profession not only lavished many with stock options and six-figure salaries but also gave them the means to start companies that could change the world -- the next Microsoft, Netscape (AOL ), or Google. Now, these veterans of Silicon Valley and Boston's Route 128 exchange heart-rending job-loss stories on Web sites such as yourjobisgoingtoindia.com. Suddenly, the programmers share the fate of millions of industrial workers, in textiles, autos, and steel, whose jobs have marched to Mexico and China.
"Leap of Faith" This exodus throws the future of America's tech economy into question. For decades, the U.S. has been the world's technology leader -- thanks in large part to its dominance of software, now a billion-a-year U.S. industry. Sure, foreigners have made their share of the machines. But the U.S. has held on to control of much of the innovative brainwork and reaped rich dividends, from Microsoft to the entrepreneurial hotbed of Silicon Valley. The question now is whether the U.S. can continue to lead the industry as programming spreads around the globe from India to Bulgaria. Politicians are jumping on the issue in the election season. And it will probably rage on for years, affecting everything from global trade to elementary-school math and science curriculums.
Countering the doomsayers, optimists from San Jose, Calif., to Bangalore see the offshore wave as a godsend, the latest productivity miracle of the Internet. Companies that manage it well -- no easy task -- can build virtual workforces spread around the world, not only soaking up low-cost talent but also tapping the biggest brains on earth to collaborate on complex projects. Marc Andreessen, Netscape Communications Corp.'s co-founder and now chairman of Opsware Inc. (OPSW ), a Sunnyvale (Calif.) startup, sees this reshuffling of brainpower leading to bold new applications and sparking growth in other industries, from bioengineering to energy. This could mean a wealth of good new jobs, even more than U.S. companies could fill. "It requires a leap of faith," Andreessen admits. But "in 500 years of Western history, there has always been something new. Always always always always always."
This time, though, there's no guarantee that the next earth-shaking innovations will pop up in America. Deepa, for example, has high-speed Internet, a world-class university, and a venture-capital industry that's starting to take shape in Bombay. What's more, her home country is luring back entrepreneurs and technologists who lived in Silicon Valley during the bubble years. Many came home to India after the crash and now are sowing the seeds of California's startup culture throughout the subcontinent. What's to stop Deepa from mixing the same magic that Andreessen conjured a decade ago when he co-founded Netscape? It's clear that in a networked world, U.S. leadership in innovation will find itself under siege.
The fallout from this painful process could be toxic. One danger is that high-tech horror stories -- the pink slips and falling wages -- will scare the coming generation of American math whizzes away from software careers, starving the tech economy of brainpower. While the number of students in computer-science programs is holding steady -- for now -- the elite schools have seen applications fall by as much as 30% in two years. If that trend continues, the U.S. will be relying more than ever on foreign-born graduates for software innovation. And as more foreigners decide to start careers and companies back in their home countries, the U.S. could find itself lacking a vital resource. Microsoft CEO Steven A. Ballmer says the shortfall of U.S. tech students worries him more than any other issue. "The U.S. is No. 3 now in the world and falling behind quickly No. 1 [India] and No. 2 [China] in terms of computer-science graduates," he said in late 2003 at a forum in New York.
Fear in the industry is palpable. Some of it recalls the scares of years past: OPEC buying up the world in the '70s and Japan Inc. taking charge a decade later. The lesson from those episodes is to resist quick fixes and trust in the long-term adaptability of the U.S. economy. Job-protection laws, for example, may be tempting. But they could hobble American companies in the global marketplace. Flexibility is precisely what has allowed the U.S. tech industry to adapt to competition from overseas. In 1985, under pressure from Japanese rivals, Intel Corp. exited the memory-chip business to concentrate all its resources in microprocessors. The result: Intel stands unrivaled in the business today.
While the departure of programming jobs is a major concern, it's not a national crisis yet. Unemployment in the industry is 7%. So far, the less-creative software jobs are the ones being moved offshore: bug-fixing, updating antiquated code, and routine programming tasks that require many hands. And some software companies are demonstrating that they can compete against lower-cost rivals with improved programming methods, more automation, and innovative business models.
For the rest of the decade, the U.S. will probably maintain a strong hold on its software leadership, even as competition grows. The vast U.S. economy remains the richest market for software and the best laboratory for new ideas. The country's universities are packed with global all-stars. And the U. S. capital markets remain second to none. But time is running short for Americans to address this looming challenge. John Parkinson, chief technologist at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, estimates that U.S. companies, students, and universities have five years to come up with responses to global shifts. "Scenarios start to look wild and wacky after 2010," he says. And within a decade, "the new consumer base in India and China will be moving the world."
People Skills To thrive in that wacky world, programmers like Stephen must undergo the career equivalent of an extreme makeover. Traditionally, the profession has attracted brainy introverts who are content to code away in isolation. With so much of that work going overseas, though, the most successful American programmers will be those who master people skills. The industry is hungry for liaisons between customers and basic programmers and for managers who can run teams of programmers scattered around the world. While pay for basic application development has plummeted 17.5% in the past two years, according to Foote Partners, a consultant in New Canaan, Conn., U.S. project managers have seen their pay rise an average of 14.3% since 2002.
Finding those high-status jobs won't be easy. Last summer, 34-year-old Hal Reed was so hungry for a programming job that he answered an ad in the Boston Globe for contract work at cMarket, a Cambridge (Mass.) startup. The pay was ,000 -- barely more than an outsourcing company charges for Indian labor. But he took it. Fortunately for him, he was able to convince his new boss quickly that he was much more than a programmer. He could lead a team. Within weeks, his boss nearly doubled Reed's pay and made him the chief software architect. "He had great strategic thinking skills," says Jon Carson, cMarket' chief executive. "You can't outsource that."
To prepare students for the hot jobs, universities may need to revamp their computer-science programs. Carnegie Mellon University, where Stephen now studies, has already begun that process. His one-year master's program focuses on giving students the skills needed to manage teams and to play the role of software architect. Such workers are the visionaries who design massive projects or products that hundreds or even thousands of programmers flesh out.
The key players in the drama, including these two master's students, Stephen and Deepa, don't have the luxury to wait and see how it turns out. Their time is now. Deepa graduates in May from the Bombay campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, a top university nestled between two lakes. Stephen emerges three months later from the Pittsburgh campus of CMU.
The options they're eyeing illustrate the unfolding map of an industry in full mutation. A software career is no refuge for the faint of heart. Deepa, for example, could suffer if the U.S. government moves to block offshore development or if rocky experiences in foreign lands spark an industry backlash. And Stephen, if he misplays his hand, could find himself competing with lowballing Filipinos or Uruguayans.
For now, their stories reflect the moods in their two countries -- one with lots to lose, the other with a world to win. Deepa is brimming with optimism about the future, convinced that her opportunities are limited by nothing more than her imagination. She is thinking not only about the next job but about the startup that she'll found after that. Stephen, by contrast, is cautious. Even at 22, he's attuned to the risks of a global market for software talent. While confident he'll make a good living, he's plotting out a career that sacrifices opportunities for a measure of safety. Self-protection, an afterthought five years ago, is a pillar of his strategy.
Seeking a Niche It's midday in the windowless basement labs at CMU's Wean Hall. Stephen, tall and lanky, wearing a white T-shirt tucked into jeans, leans back in his chair and ponders his future. He signed up for the master's program at CMU on the advice of a professor in Omaha who told him that graduates with an MS could land more interesting jobs and make more money. But now the big recruiters coming onto the snowy Pittsburgh campus -- companies such as Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN ) -- are hiring cheaper undergrads, he says, and barely giving the masters a look. Sure, other recruiters come knocking. Banks, he says with a grimace. Insurance companies. But the idea of working in a finance-industry tech shop leaves him cold. "I'm not even interviewing," he says.
The 17-year-old hotshot who was ready to skip college and make a mint has undergone quite a change. He's married, has witnessed the bumps in the world of software, and plans to establish "an upper-middle-class lifestyle, and maybe more" as a businessman. His plan is to carve out a niche for himself back in Omaha. He'll gather three or four colleagues and produce custom software for businesses in town, from hospitals and steakhouses to law firms. Omaha is plenty big, he says, for a good business, but it's remote enough to insulate his startup from offshore competition -- and even from the bigger competitors in Chicago.
Stephen understands the threat posed by smart and hungry programmers in distant lands. He was once such a programmer himself. From his senior year in high school all the way through college, he worked as a freelancer for a New York software-development company, Beachead Technologies Inc. Geoff Brookins, Beachead's young founder, spotted Stephen's prize-winning entry in the 1999 Microsoft Web-site design contest. He called Nebraska, sent Stephen some work, and was blown away. "He did two months of work in three days," he recalls. Brookins quickly signed him on at an hour, ultimately paying him an hour. Like the Indians, Stephen provided a low-cost alternative to big-city programmers -- but he had an advantage because he spoke American English and was only one time zone away from New York.
The job let Stephen work on projects that normally would have been far beyond the reach of a student. One was to create IBM's (IBM ) Web page for its Linux operating-system technology -- a crucial arm of Big Blue's business. "Stephen was lead engineer on that project," Brookins says. The student also got to spend much of the summer of 2001 working at Beachead's office in New York City. It was a fun contrast to Nebraska, he recalls. But he stopped working for Beachead after he moved to Pittsburgh last summer.
It was there that Stephen got a strong signal that the prospects were dimming for programmers. When his wife, Amy, a fellow computer-science student from Nebraska, began looking for programming work, she came back to their suburban apartment disheartened. The only available jobs, she says, "would have paid me interns' rates." She ditched the profession and is now writing a Christian-themed novel.
Then, Stephen's old boss hammered home the dangers of coding for a living in a wired world. Beachead's competitors were finding cheaper labor offshore, and Brookins, to win contracts, had to match them. Last fall, he logged on to a Web site, RentACoder, a matchmaking service between employers and some 30,000 programmers around the world. There, Brookins found a 27-year-old Romanian named Florentin Badea, a star from Bucharest's Polytechnic University and the 11th-ranked programmer on the whole site. Badea was willing to charge just for a project that would have cost ,000, Brookins estimates, if Stephen had done it.
Those same global forces, Stephen admits, could eventually hollow out his business in Omaha. Already, Indian tech-services outfits such as Infosys and Wipro are competing head-to-head with U.S. companies in this country. But Stephen is betting that by working closely with customers, he can whip bigger firms on quality and service. He says he'll give the venture six months to a year and then see what happens.
Ultrafast Track Deepa sees a reverse image of Stephen's worldview. Where the prospects for U.S. tech grads seem to narrow as they peer into the future, she's looking down an eight-lane highway. Yet she faces her own set of challenges, she acknowledges, while sipping tea with her classmates in a breezy open-air cafeteria on the Indian Institute of Technology's Bombay campus. They don't want to be cogs in a software-programming factory -- India's role to date. Instead, they want India to be a tech powerhouse in its own right. "Good Indian engineers can do good design work, but we need a venture industry" so Indians can start their own companies, says Deepa. Her pals nod in agreement.
Deepa is positioned on India's ultrafast track. The country pins high hopes on the 3,000 students in the six Institutes of Technology. Their alumni are stars locally and worldwide -- including Yogen Dalal, a top venture capitalist at Mayfield, and Desh Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks and Cascade Communications. Within this elite, Deepa and her friends are a rarified breed. They aced the grueling national exams, ranking in the top 0.2% and winning places in the school of computer science. They're known as "toppers." The challenge for Deepa's small crowd is to move beyond the achievements of Dalal and Deshpande, who notched their successes for U.S. companies, and to make their mark with new Indian companies.
That means bypassing the bread-and-butter service giants, such as Tata, Infosys, and Wipro, that dominate the Indian stage. The jobs they offer, says Deepa, sound boring. To get their hands on exciting research and more creative programming, she and her friends are banking mostly on U.S. companies in India, including Intel, Texas Instruments, and Veritas. This summer, when Deepa graduates, she'll be a software engineer at the Pune operations of Veritas Software Corp. (VRTS ), a Silicon Valley storage-software maker. Her pay will start at ,620 a year -- plenty for a comfortable middle-class life in India. "I'm living my dream," she says.
And thrilling her family. Her father, Arun Paranjpe, who grew up in Mhow, a tiny army-base town in central India, could afford only a bachelor's degree, which prepared him for work as an officer in India's railways. He regretted not advancing further and along with Deepa's homemaker mother, he pushed his two daughters toward advanced professional degrees. So while she studied Indian classical vocal music for nine years and escaped, when she could, to the cricket field, Deepa always finished at the top of her class in mathematics. That helped her land a plum spot in the computer-science program at Nagpur University.
Now Deepa is ITT-Bombay's star in search technology -- and she's hoping that this specialty will be her ticket to a rip-roaring career. She routinely works till 3 a.m. in the department's new 20-pod computer lab, doing research on search engines. She admits the work at Veritas, at least initially, will involve more routine database tasks than the cutting-edge work she's hoping for. But if Veritas disappoints, a topper like Deepa will have plenty of other options. Both the search giant Google Inc. and the Web portal Yahoo! are setting up research and development centers in India this year. Deepa hopes to manage a research lab some day, and ultimately, she says, "I'd like to be an entrepreneur."
But she's an entrepreneurial revolutionary and family traditionalist at the same time. It's part of her balancing act. Consider her eventual marriage. As an attractive, professional woman, she'll make a prize catch in India's conservative marriage market. Deepa expects she will have an arranged marriage: Her parents will chose a suitable husband for her from within her own caste. But she is firm: Her husband would have to be an entrepreneur, or a tech whiz, and preferably in the same field, "so we can have a common platform and he can understand my work," she says.
Maybe one day the couple will be able to raise venture money together. While venture-capital investing didn't exist in India until a few years ago, the industry is starting to take root. In 2003, India's 85 venture-capital firms invested about million in tech companies, according to estimates from the India trade group National Association of Software & Services Cos. That's up from zero in 1998. Still, it's miles short of the financial support available to Stephen and his classmates. The 700 U.S. venture firms poured .2 billion into tech startups last year, according to market researcher VentureOne.
Multicultural Edge Diversity is another advantage the U.S. has over India. Take a stroll with Deepa through the leafy ITT campus, and practically everyone is Indian. Stephen's scene at CMU, by contrast, feels like the U.N. Classmates joke in Asian and European languages, and a strong smell of microwaved curry floats in the air. This atmosphere extends to American tech companies. With their diverse workforces, American companies can field teams that speak Mandarin, Hindi, French, Russian -- you name it. As global software projects take shape, with development ceaselessly following the path of daylight around the globe, multicultural teams have a big edge. Who better than U.S.-based workers to stitch together these projects and manage them? "These people can act as bridges to the global economy," says Amar Gupta, a technology professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.
The question is whether the technology industry can respond quickly enough to a revolution that's racing ahead on Internet time. Stephen's former boss, Brookins, frets that the pace could overwhelm the coming generation of U.S. programmers, including his former Nebraska star. "He's a genius. He's the future of the country. [But] if the question is whether there's going to be a happy ending for Stephen, there's a big question mark there," Brookins says. Stephen is betting that quality and customer service will offset the cost advantage of having computer programmers 10 time zones away. He still sees software in the U. S. as a path to wealth -- "though I won't really know until I get out there," he says.
While Stephen is busy mounting his defenses, Deepa is setting out on the hard climb to build Silicon India. Much like their two countries, the leader is looking cautiously over his shoulder while the challenger is chugging single-mindedly ahead. No matter which way they may zig or zag, both of them are prepared to encounter rough competition from every corner of the globe. There's no such thing as a safe distance in software anymore.
By Stephen Baker and Manjeet Kripalani With Robert D. Hof and Jim Kerstetter in San Mateo, Calif.
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- Necrophilia: The uncontrollable urge to crack open a cold one.
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