Nickeled & Dimed to Death x 100

Two months ago, Bank One quietly shortened the grace period on my credit card by 7 days (although the customer service guy swears it was only 5). So, suddenly I'm hit with two $35 late charges in a row, plus extra finance charges. Sneaky, sneaky. I think that they are also deliberately sending the bills out late. The one I got today is due on the 2nd, which means I only have a week to get a check in the mail if I want to allow 5 days for it to get there. What if I was away on a business trip?

A few days ago I read an article on SlashDot about T-Mobile charging their customers a "Regulatory Programs Fee" which sounds like a government tax but is just a way for them to stick it to the customer without changing the prices they advertise. Sneaky, sneaky. I think they took their cue from the practice of hotels hitting you with a "resort fee" that's on top of the advertised rate and never mentioned until you arrive to check in. Sneaky, sneaky. (BTW, I was considering switching to T-Mobile once until I realized that the contract they wanted me to sign bound me to terms that appeared only on some arbitration company website that wouldn't come up in any browser. Talk about buying a pig in a poke!) Anyway, you can bet I'll be watching out for when my cell phone company follows T-Mobile's example.

And, of course, today my cable bill went up another $2.50 for the second year in a row.

It used to be that you had to watch out for being nickeled and dimed to death. Now, it's $2.50'd and $35.00'd to death.

Two Books on Being a Software Professional

I just read a blog entry on productmarketing.com that mentioned a book called Coder to Developer by Mike Gunderloy. (The blog is addressed at marketing professionals and recommended the book as a way for them to become familiar with how software is, or ought to be, created). This book reminds me of another one called Code Complete by Steve McConnell that is due out with a second edition next month. I highly recommend Code Complete to anyone interested in software craftsmanship, and it sounds like this other one might be worth a look, too. The biggest difference appears to be that Gunderloy's book is thick with .NET stuff, while McConnell's book is agnostic.

The productmarketing blog points out that Gunderloy's book is "generous with references to other works," and that his index of all web-accessible references is online. Be sure to check it out, whether or not you read the book. At a quick glance, I recognize many sites that I know and love, and I'm sure I'll have fun exploring the rest.

Tech Jobs on the Rise

The Extreme Programming SoCal group meets informally over lunch every other Wednesday (in addition to occasional formal programs), in two locations: Pasadena and Tustin. The Tustin contingent was 7 strong this week with some rarely seen faces, three of whom were all just laid off together, which is why they were available. They swear that it was because their group was doing XP and the old guard managers simply reverted to what they considered "tried and true," without questioning the true part. They didn't seem worried about their prospects, though. Vladimir (another Vladimir, not my partner) said that one mailing list he subscribes to recently increased from 2 or 3 help wanted ads per month to 50+. So, it sounds like the economy really is picking up, even if some companies are still feeling the pain.