Where is the urgency to check someones else mail account in the classroom? They can easily wait till after class and go down to the computer room in your university (and I bet you have one).
If someone do some Flash whatever as homework, then he should also care for the machines he needs to display -- or hand-in the flash via E-Mail to your professor, if he accepts.
And if somebody really really needs a notebook -- there are lots of netbooks for $200 and sometimes even below. If they can afford to have a mobile phone (which they don't need for school!) they could easily afford a netbook in exchange. Of course, one can't phone with such a netbook, but there are priorities.
To cut it short: Having no notebook is their problem, not yours. Stop trying to solve problems of other people who're not willing to solve it theirselves. If it would be a real, hard problem, they would do.
Think twice. If you request a vendor modifying his product, and it's easy enough he can do it right away -- how do you think you can ensure he won't run his product line to make more devices than you have requested?
By contract perhaps? Go and sue a chinese vendor in China, then...
First, build a prototype yourself so you know it will work. Or find someone at your location with the appropriate knowledge. Short distances speed up development. The one will then very probably be able to design a custom PCB out of the prototype. And the appropriate software (e.g. Eagle) isn't expensive.
But if you shouldn't know how to build the prototype yourself, I wonder how you know your invention will work at all...
... hmmm, just a lucky guess: Has the name "Herkules" any let's say "relation" to your company? If so, we're very probably talking of the same person;-)
But back to topic:
A friend of mine was just hired out of another contract and works now as sysadmin for a large software development company.
He has no certificates at all, not even did he finish secondary school. And he has also no job training. So to say, he's totally uneducated.
But he tought everything himself about IT and administration. For years. He has no IT certificates not because he wouldn't pass the test, but because it's not important from his point of view (I'm talking to him like maniac that he's wrong in this point).
University grades are _not_ meaningless. Especially not if it comes to your monthly payment. Ungraduated will earn less, noticable less.
Without a grade, you won't be able to get certain jobs. E.g. becoming sysadmin in a bank or public office, or at government. There you just won't pass the entry level -- regardless if you're capable of actually doing the job or not.
So, without a grade you first and absolutely need a _perfect_ letter of application. You have only one or two pages to tell the HR people that you're the right person regardless of your education or grades.
You shouldn't tell them streigt "I did not finish school at all, school sucks", but distract them by tactical ommissions. E.g. summing up your education and your carreer very short and using only the starting years instead of start and end. When you write "1992: Secondary school; 1996 web programmer at XYZ", they might not notice that your secondary school time was a bit too short to finish.
To cut it short: Becoming a sysadmin in a medium size or bigger company is possible, even for "uneducated". But it's hard, and nothing I would advise. You'll have to compete with people having the right papers allthough they can't do the job at all -- and it's usually the entry level which is the hardest. If you've managed to get to an interview, you can demonstrate your qualifications.
Tech vs. Business/Management: That's quite common.
on
Tech Vs. Business?
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· Score: 4, Interesting
From my point of view, there's only a small number of companies where the Techs have a good relationship to the Business People or even Managers.
The main reasons are, in my oppinion, management, and respect.
As many others pointed out, the Tech doing his job best is the one you'll never see working because there are no problems with the IT infrastructure at all.
The problem is: In most companies I know or worked for, the IT departement is managed by a business man -- not by a tech. This is a fundamental (management) mistake.
Just do make it clear to everyone: Would you as business man like to discuss your great business plan with a non-business Tech, who then decides which way to go? No, of course not -- he'll hardly understand what your point is at all.
So, why do they force the Techs to discuss new hardware, network expansions and other, highly tech-related stuff with a business man? He won't understand why, won't see the connections, the big picture in the background.
The business people often tell the Techs that's part of the Tech's job to explain it in a way so the manager understands. Would you like (or even able) to explain your business plan to somebody knowing nothing about marketing and management at all? Giving him a crash course in Management/Marketing? And every time from the roots up, because next time he doesn't remember what you did talk about last time.
No, you won't. So, don't force the Techs to do it the other way around. It's useless -- you'll perhaps get a little window where you can see a part of the big picture behind, but you won't be able to see it in total.
By managing IT departements in this way, with a business man doing the decissions who has not the Tech background, you'll make a lot of false decissions. And the Techs are the ones having to deal with. No wonder they get fretted.
If you want a smooth, productive IT departement, look for a Tech with some business/management skills and help him to tighten them. Ensure that the head of the IT departement is a Tech. Because he's accepted, he has the background, and he knows what he's talking about when he talks about your IT. And give him financial responsibility. He must be the one deciding which hardware to buy.
I know a company here in Germany where the CTO and member of the board of directors at first a Tech and then business man. In the early days, he was one of the upper sysadmins. It's a big internet provider/hoster over here.
I whish this would be the common situation in most companies.
The author of the Patch for the Windows URI Hole, KJK::Hyperion, found a big bug in his patch for the Windows URI hole. "I just found a gruesome memory leak in it. A silly bug, brown paperbag-grade shame."
According to the article on heise security he did already publish a bugfix version of his patch -- hoping the best it's not buggy again.
Slashdot Mirror
Where is the urgency to check someones else mail account in the classroom? They can easily wait till after class and go down to the computer room in your university (and I bet you have one).
If someone do some Flash whatever as homework, then he should also care for the machines he needs to display -- or hand-in the flash via E-Mail to your professor, if he accepts.
And if somebody really really needs a notebook -- there are lots of netbooks for $200 and sometimes even below. If they can afford to have a mobile phone (which they don't need for school!) they could easily afford a netbook in exchange. Of course, one can't phone with such a netbook, but there are priorities.
To cut it short: Having no notebook is their problem, not yours. Stop trying to solve problems of other people who're not willing to solve it theirselves. If it would be a real, hard problem, they would do.
Think twice. If you request a vendor modifying his product, and it's easy enough he can do it right away -- how do you think you can ensure he won't run his product line to make more devices than you have requested?
By contract perhaps? Go and sue a chinese vendor in China, then...
First, build a prototype yourself so you know it will work. Or find someone at your location with the appropriate knowledge. Short distances speed up development. The one will then very probably be able to design a custom PCB out of the prototype. And the appropriate software (e.g. Eagle) isn't expensive.
But if you shouldn't know how to build the prototype yourself, I wonder how you know your invention will work at all...
However, good luck.
... hmmm, just a lucky guess: Has the name "Herkules" any let's say "relation" to your company? If so, we're very probably talking of the same person ;-)
But back to topic:
A friend of mine was just hired out of another contract and works now as sysadmin for a large software development company.
He has no certificates at all, not even did he finish secondary school. And he has also no job training. So to say, he's totally uneducated.
But he tought everything himself about IT and administration. For years. He has no IT certificates not because he wouldn't pass the test, but because it's not important from his point of view (I'm talking to him like maniac that he's wrong in this point).
University grades are _not_ meaningless. Especially not if it comes to your monthly payment. Ungraduated will earn less, noticable less.
Without a grade, you won't be able to get certain jobs. E.g. becoming sysadmin in a bank or public office, or at government. There you just won't pass the entry level -- regardless if you're capable of actually doing the job or not.
So, without a grade you first and absolutely need a _perfect_ letter of application. You have only one or two pages to tell the HR people that you're the right person regardless of your education or grades.
You shouldn't tell them streigt "I did not finish school at all, school sucks", but distract them by tactical ommissions. E.g. summing up your education and your carreer very short and using only the starting years instead of start and end. When you write "1992: Secondary school; 1996 web programmer at XYZ", they might not notice that your secondary school time was a bit too short to finish.
To cut it short: Becoming a sysadmin in a medium size or bigger company is possible, even for "uneducated". But it's hard, and nothing I would advise. You'll have to compete with people having the right papers allthough they can't do the job at all -- and it's usually the entry level which is the hardest. If you've managed to get to an interview, you can demonstrate your qualifications.
From my point of view, there's only a small number of companies where the Techs have a good relationship to the Business People or even Managers.
The main reasons are, in my oppinion, management, and respect.
As many others pointed out, the Tech doing his job best is the one you'll never see working because there are no problems with the IT infrastructure at all.
The problem is: In most companies I know or worked for, the IT departement is managed by a business man -- not by a tech. This is a fundamental (management) mistake.
Just do make it clear to everyone: Would you as business man like to discuss your great business plan with a non-business Tech, who then decides which way to go? No, of course not -- he'll hardly understand what your point is at all.
So, why do they force the Techs to discuss new hardware, network expansions and other, highly tech-related stuff with a business man? He won't understand why, won't see the connections, the big picture in the background.
The business people often tell the Techs that's part of the Tech's job to explain it in a way so the manager understands. Would you like (or even able) to explain your business plan to somebody knowing nothing about marketing and management at all? Giving him a crash course in Management/Marketing? And every time from the roots up, because next time he doesn't remember what you did talk about last time.
No, you won't. So, don't force the Techs to do it the other way around. It's useless -- you'll perhaps get a little window where you can see a part of the big picture behind, but you won't be able to see it in total.
By managing IT departements in this way, with a business man doing the decissions who has not the Tech background, you'll make a lot of false decissions. And the Techs are the ones having to deal with. No wonder they get fretted.
If you want a smooth, productive IT departement, look for a Tech with some business/management skills and help him to tighten them. Ensure that the head of the IT departement is a Tech. Because he's accepted, he has the background, and he knows what he's talking about when he talks about your IT. And give him financial responsibility. He must be the one deciding which hardware to buy.
I know a company here in Germany where the CTO and member of the board of directors at first a Tech and then business man. In the early days, he was one of the upper sysadmins. It's a big internet provider/hoster over here.
I whish this would be the common situation in most companies.
The author of the Patch for the Windows URI Hole, KJK::Hyperion, found a big bug in his patch for the Windows URI hole. "I just found a gruesome memory leak in it. A silly bug, brown paperbag-grade shame."
According to the article on heise security he did already publish a bugfix version of his patch -- hoping the best it's not buggy again.