I am a sysad. I administrer, by myself (with one 14-hour weekly student helper), 2 netware servers, 2 linux servers, and 150 Windoze clients. I spend most of my time doing the FORMAT C:/U gig. The machines are used in the running of a campus physical plant and tend to be very different configurations, which tends to limit the usefullness of Ghost. I like to think that the reason I am able to do this is because I use personally use linux on the desktop. The understanding of what goes on in linux helps me be much more productive in other environments.
Interestingly, I wonder what I could do for my users if our workstations were running linux, in terms of making their computing experience more productive and more pleasant.
Why pay for this when you can grab Gentoo linux and build a better system for free? Yeah it might take alittle longer but who cares, Its a hobbie isnt it?
Hey, I put Gentoo on my home box and liked it so well I put it on my work machine. It only takes longer to do the initial install. After that, updates are a piece of cake. I find Gentoo to be the easiest distro to administer that I've ever used. I even think it's nicer than FreeBSD.
Hey, I've got a couple of Netware servers used by 200 users that come down for a 10-minute reboot once every 3 months. I've also got Veritas backup which allows open file backup. This is on Dell Poweredge servers. Five nines is what, 2 hours downtime every three months?
Mayhaps if the U$ were not so interested in supplying money and arms to any twit who gives lip service to supporting U$ aims-- making the world one vast McDonalds-- this discussion wouldn't be occuring (no, this is not a troll).
My alma mater made Java the cornerstone language for their CS program. They also eliminated assembly language programming as a graduation requirement. These are both *bad ideas*.
It is *much* easier to learn other languages when you have a background in C++ than in Java. Knowledge of C++ will get you more jobs (and better) than knowledge of Java (however, knowing both is a good thing, too). And, truthfully, dealing with the additional programming issues that C++ introduces will teach you to be an all-around better programmer.
As for ending the assembly language requirement, I'd have to say that, while I don't really program in it anymore, learning assembler was one of the most important things I learned. It taught me to understand how the processor views data.
When I need to set up a new desktop client, it typically takes 3-4 days, using Windows 2000
When I set up a new desktop client, it takes 3-4 minutes, using Ghost. If I have to do it all by hand, it takes 3-6 hours, depending on what software I need to install, transferring data, etc., with Windoze. Takes about the same with Linux, but I don't have to reinstall it later or get called up about blue screens. It might take me 3-4 days to set up a Netware server from scratch (login scripts, accounts, nds, etc.
If it takes you 3-4 days to set up a Windoze box, you maybe oughtta look for a job elsewhere that in IT. Truthfully, though, if you're that slow, you won't make it at Burger King....
I'm a Union IT Professional
on
IT Unions?
·
· Score: 5
I'm a union member, and no, I'm not lazy and don't sit around doing nothing all day. I do replace lots of Mickeysoft stuff with linux and BSD, however:) . I am a public sector employee, so I don't make as much money as in the private sector; however, I get better benefits.
But here are the important things, things that get even more important as you young geeks grow into middle-aged geeks and have families. 1) As I mentioned-- medical, dental, pension. 2) Overtime for working beyond 40 hours. 3) My pager stays on my desk when I go home at night; i.e., I can have a Real Life(tm) with my family (and my compilers). 4) I'm not an at-will employee-- I can't be fired just because the boss can hire someone for less money. 5) I can't be fired for my continual, unabashedly militant leftist political and union organizing activities. 6) I don't have to kiss suits' asses.
All you anti-union dittoheads need to pull your heads away from your monitors for awhile (yeah, I know 2.4 is out, but...) and read some labor history. If it wasn't for unions we'd all be working 80-hour weeks and be at the bosses' beck and call 24-hours a day-- oh, wait, this is IT, that's the way it is....
Get the connection? And you know what the really sad thing is? You know why you've got your 80-hr/wk, no overtime job? Are you ready? It's because the boss is too fscking stoopid to do your job!!!
I run a network for a govt agency. Lots of what M$ is doing with the various XPs is going to cost the taxpayer lots of $$$. So we're looking *very* seriously at migrating to StarOffice 6.x for our Office users. Access databases --> MySQL + PHP. Luckily, most of the supervisor types are WordPerfect users, so we don't have this idiotic blind allegience to Microsoft.
We recently spent about $250K for an enterprise-level job costing/asset management, etc., etc., system. At my insistence, we had written into the RFP that a) if the company goes out of business they hand over the source gratis, and b) if the company is sold, we have the option of purchasing the code for a pre-agreed upon price.
As I told my boss, we invested a lot of money in this system. If one of their competitors should buy them out with the idea of discontinuing the product so that we would be forced to purchase (and implement) another system of this sort, or we aren't getting the quality of support we require, we need to protect ourselves.
This is just business as usual for the organizations that the RIAA represents. They've been ripping off musicians and lyricists for years. Unfortunately, up until the advent of things like streaming media, the only way that artists could get well-marketed outside their home base was to play ball with these parasites.
Streaming media conceivably can allow musicians to market their product without RIAA member involvement. This is what really scares them.
You want to help fight the RIAA? Set up streaming servers and use them to help your local musicians market their work.
I'd like to know how much virii and similar attacks cost governments. Something that I pay for.
As a network administrator for a government agency, here's my take. I support 125 computers. I make a point to check my mail and the net several times daily to make sure the latest virus is (or isn't) out there. I have to spend time educating and re-educating 230 users about opening attachments. When we get hit by a virus (typically from a private-sector vendor-- we don't use Outlook...), I spend a day of my time running around dealing with panicked users. The 40-odd other admins where I work end up doing the same. Unfortunately, due to politics, the staff where I work get mail off an OpenVMS box, so there's no sendmail rules to kill it. The sparcs the other departments use have to have an admin modify rulesets. Plus, there's that $30K yearly site license we pay to Symantec....
Personally, I don't have this problem-- my desktop runs linux.
Re:Good, The New Workers need to unionise.
on
The Jungle
·
· Score: 2
You know, I'm a union geek, and, at least where I work, this is so much horse shit. My supervisor, the safety officer, and myself all ask that any moving of hardware be done by me. This is more to keep stuff from getting broken than anything else. I plug the plugs into the walls-- our electricians are too busy doing real work to even consider being pulled off the job to put a plug in an outlet.
I work in a major state university, and no, I don't fuck off-- I'm at least as busy and harried as any sysadmin in the private sector, and, at least from what I see around, I'm quite a bit more competent than most. What being in a union means to me is, that I get paid overtime for working more than 40 hours a week, and that my pager stays on my desk when I go home at night. As I'm 44, and have a family, this is quite a benefit in itself. I get fair benefits and pension. And I can't be fired because my boss has suddenly decided that he can hire some kid fresh out of school for half of what I make.
Most of you./ers are fairly young, and don't understand a lot of these issues. But just wait until you have a family or the job market becomes saturated with geeks (which, while being possible, isn't probable, as geekliness isn't a product of training).
Before I started geeking full-time, I did lots of history-- that's what my first degree is in. You folks who work for wages would do good to take some time out of your busy schedule (that is, if you're not working 70-hour weeks) to read a bit of labor history, to find out what the work world was like before unions. I think you would find it quite informative.
The customers are stupid. If you weren't there, they'd be doing something even worse with their money and time. Your only responsibility as a consultant is to make them just happy enough that they want you to come back, and hopefully keep them from going out of business so they can purchase your services in the future.
As someone who is paid to evaluate and implement technology purchased from pinheads such as yourself, I am forced to continually tell my supervisor the same thing, that you aren't there to provide solutions, but to make money. Therefore, you can't be trusted. IMNSHO, you folks rank right down there with used-car salespeople, lawyers, and the slimes that hand out "payday" and "title" loans. Sure, lots of people are ignorant of and scared of technology. Fortunately, my mother raised me better than to use ignorance and fear as a way to rip people off. You are true scum.
The way it is now, IE 5.5 is *so* far ahead of 4.x that there's no way anyone except those with a serious anti MS handicap and those without a choice would use the Netscape browser for surfing.
My main workstation runs Linux, so there's no question of using IE. As I'm a network administrator, I sometimes log into to other machines with permissions much greater than normal users. I don't use IE here either, as I'm scared of what new security hole might pop up. Also, when Netscape crashes on Win(whatever), it just tends to crash. IE tends to blow up the OS, too. Features aren't everything!
They do this at my kid's school, first, I'll find out what software they're using. Then, in the privacy of my home network, I'll sit down with my 12-year-old and we'll figure out how to break it.
Let's assume *nix isn't an OS, in accordance with the article. We'll also assume the various flavors of Windoze and Mac OS are. What are the commonalities of these OSes? An ugly, underpowered, and not very usuable user interface and the fact that they both CRASH ALL THE TIME.
I think I'll happily keep with not using an operating system;)
SuSE and TurboLinux, which has a number of ex-SuSE employees, are the fastest growing Linux distributions. I wiped my Red Crap box at SuSE 5.3 and haven't looked back. I have been using Open and FreeBSD lately, though. I put SuSE 7.0 on 2 servers at work today, and I must say, they've outdone themselves again.
I would agree with this. I have DSL from U$ Worst and it took me about 10 minutes to set it up with Win 95 (static IP and a 24/7 connection), to make sure it worked. But I think most end users might have some trouble fiddling with the router. BTW, it works great with 'doze, Linux, and OpenBSD, but then, I don't use US West (Worst) as my ISP, and that makes all the difference.
I would have to say that the true innovation of linux (and all the other freenixes) is that they have made computing *fun* again. But then I'm odd-- I *like* mucking about in config files with vi.
Why would anyone want to use Motif when there are GTK and QT around? Using Motif is kinda like making your desktop look like a (stable) Mac or 'doze machine.
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I am a sysad. I administrer, by myself (with one 14-hour weekly student helper), 2 netware servers, 2 linux servers, and 150 Windoze clients. I spend most of my time doing the FORMAT C: /U gig. The machines are used in the running of a campus physical plant and tend to be very different configurations, which tends to limit the usefullness of Ghost. I like to think that the reason I am able to do this is because I use personally use linux on the desktop. The understanding of what goes on in linux helps me be much more productive in other environments.
Interestingly, I wonder what I could do for my users if our workstations were running linux, in terms of making their computing experience more productive and more pleasant.
Why pay for this when you can grab Gentoo linux and build a better system for free? Yeah it might take alittle longer but who cares, Its a hobbie isnt it?
Hey, I put Gentoo on my home box and liked it so well I put it on my work machine. It only takes longer to do the initial install. After that, updates are a piece of cake. I find Gentoo to be the easiest distro to administer that I've ever used. I even think it's nicer than FreeBSD.
Hey, I've got a couple of Netware servers used by 200 users that come down for a 10-minute reboot once every 3 months. I've also got Veritas backup which allows open file backup. This is on Dell Poweredge servers. Five nines is what, 2 hours downtime every three months?
Mayhaps if the U$ were not so interested in supplying money and arms to any twit who gives lip service to supporting U$ aims-- making the world one vast McDonalds-- this discussion wouldn't be occuring (no, this is not a troll).
Would you like fries with that....
My alma mater made Java the cornerstone language for their CS program. They also eliminated assembly language programming as a graduation requirement. These are both *bad ideas*.
It is *much* easier to learn other languages when you have a background in C++ than in Java. Knowledge of C++ will get you more jobs (and better) than knowledge of Java (however, knowing both is a good thing, too). And, truthfully, dealing with the additional programming issues that C++ introduces will teach you to be an all-around better programmer.
As for ending the assembly language requirement, I'd have to say that, while I don't really program in it anymore, learning assembler was one of the most important things I learned. It taught me to understand how the processor views data.
When I need to set up a new desktop client, it typically takes 3-4 days, using Windows 2000
When I set up a new desktop client, it takes 3-4 minutes, using Ghost. If I have to do it all by hand, it takes 3-6 hours, depending on what software I need to install, transferring data, etc., with Windoze. Takes about the same with Linux, but I don't have to reinstall it later or get called up about blue screens. It might take me 3-4 days to set up a Netware server from scratch (login scripts, accounts, nds, etc.
If it takes you 3-4 days to set up a Windoze box, you maybe oughtta look for a job elsewhere that in IT. Truthfully, though, if you're that slow, you won't make it at Burger King....
I'm a union member, and no, I'm not lazy and don't sit around doing nothing all day. I do replace lots of Mickeysoft stuff with linux and BSD, however :) . I am a public sector employee, so I don't make as much money as in the private sector; however, I get better benefits.
But here are the important things, things that get even more important as you young geeks grow into middle-aged geeks and have families. 1) As I mentioned-- medical, dental, pension. 2) Overtime for working beyond 40 hours. 3) My pager stays on my desk when I go home at night; i.e., I can have a Real Life(tm) with my family (and my compilers). 4) I'm not an at-will employee-- I can't be fired just because the boss can hire someone for less money. 5) I can't be fired for my continual, unabashedly militant leftist political and union organizing activities. 6) I don't have to kiss suits' asses.
All you anti-union dittoheads need to pull your heads away from your monitors for awhile (yeah, I know 2.4 is out, but...) and read some labor history. If it wasn't for unions we'd all be working 80-hour weeks and be at the bosses' beck and call 24-hours a day-- oh, wait, this is IT, that's the way it is....
Get the connection? And you know what the really sad thing is? You know why you've got your 80-hr/wk, no overtime job? Are you ready? It's because the boss is too fscking stoopid to do your job!!!
I run a network for a govt agency. Lots of what M$ is doing with the various XPs is going to cost the taxpayer lots of $$$. So we're looking *very* seriously at migrating to StarOffice 6.x for our Office users. Access databases --> MySQL + PHP. Luckily, most of the supervisor types are WordPerfect users, so we don't have this idiotic blind allegience to Microsoft.
We recently spent about $250K for an enterprise-level job costing/asset management, etc., etc., system. At my insistence, we had written into the RFP that a) if the company goes out of business they hand over the source gratis, and b) if the company is sold, we have the option of purchasing the code for a pre-agreed upon price.
As I told my boss, we invested a lot of money in this system. If one of their competitors should buy them out with the idea of discontinuing the product so that we would be forced to purchase (and implement) another system of this sort, or we aren't getting the quality of support we require, we need to protect ourselves.
This is just business as usual for the organizations that the RIAA represents. They've been ripping off musicians and lyricists for years. Unfortunately, up until the advent of things like streaming media, the only way that artists could get well-marketed outside their home base was to play ball with these parasites.
Streaming media conceivably can allow musicians to market their product without RIAA member involvement. This is what really scares them.
You want to help fight the RIAA? Set up streaming servers and use them to help your local musicians market their work.
So, what did Mickey$uck do to the BSD stack to break it so bad?
I'd like to know how much virii and similar attacks cost governments. Something that I pay for.
As a network administrator for a government agency, here's my take. I support 125 computers. I make a point to check my mail and the net several times daily to make sure the latest virus is (or isn't) out there. I have to spend time educating and re-educating 230 users about opening attachments. When we get hit by a virus (typically from a private-sector vendor-- we don't use Outlook...), I spend a day of my time running around dealing with panicked users. The 40-odd other admins where I work end up doing the same. Unfortunately, due to politics, the staff where I work get mail off an OpenVMS box, so there's no sendmail rules to kill it. The sparcs the other departments use have to have an admin modify rulesets. Plus, there's that $30K yearly site license we pay to Symantec....
Personally, I don't have this problem-- my desktop runs linux.
You know, I'm a union geek, and, at least where I work, this is so much horse shit. My supervisor, the safety officer, and myself all ask that any moving of hardware be done by me. This is more to keep stuff from getting broken than anything else. I plug the plugs into the walls-- our electricians are too busy doing real work to even consider being pulled off the job to put a plug in an outlet.
I work in a major state university, and no, I don't fuck off-- I'm at least as busy and harried as any sysadmin in the private sector, and, at least from what I see around, I'm quite a bit more competent than most. What being in a union means to me is, that I get paid overtime for working more than 40 hours a week, and that my pager stays on my desk when I go home at night. As I'm 44, and have a family, this is quite a benefit in itself. I get fair benefits and pension. And I can't be fired because my boss has suddenly decided that he can hire some kid fresh out of school for half of what I make.
Most of you ./ers are fairly young, and don't understand a lot of these issues. But just wait until you have a family or the job market becomes saturated with geeks (which, while being possible, isn't probable, as geekliness isn't a product of training).
Before I started geeking full-time, I did lots of history-- that's what my first degree is in. You folks who work for wages would do good to take some time out of your busy schedule (that is, if you're not working 70-hour weeks) to read a bit of labor history, to find out what the work world was like before unions. I think you would find it quite informative.
The customers are stupid. If you weren't there, they'd be doing something even worse with their money and time. Your only responsibility as a consultant is to make them just happy enough that they want you to come back, and hopefully keep them from going out of business so they can purchase your services in the future.
As someone who is paid to evaluate and implement technology purchased from pinheads such as yourself, I am forced to continually tell my supervisor the same thing, that you aren't there to provide solutions, but to make money. Therefore, you can't be trusted. IMNSHO, you folks rank right down there with used-car salespeople, lawyers, and the slimes that hand out "payday" and "title" loans. Sure, lots of people are ignorant of and scared of technology. Fortunately, my mother raised me better than to use ignorance and fear as a way to rip people off. You are true scum.
Yes, but you have to realize George W. would come in a distant second in a cluetrain race with Homer Simpson.
I believe Time Warner even has a "we can enter your premises even if you aren't here" item in their TOS. What if my 100-lb. doggy disagrees?
The way it is now, IE 5.5 is *so* far ahead of 4.x that there's no way anyone except those with a serious anti MS handicap and those without a choice would use the Netscape browser for surfing.
My main workstation runs Linux, so there's no question of using IE. As I'm a network administrator, I sometimes log into to other machines with permissions much greater than normal users. I don't use IE here either, as I'm scared of what new security hole might pop up. Also, when Netscape crashes on Win(whatever), it just tends to crash. IE tends to blow up the OS, too. Features aren't everything!
> The guys who made "My Network Places" have their >award every time they drive to work But what if I prefer to drive a BMW, rather than a Yugo?
They do this at my kid's school, first, I'll find out what software they're using. Then, in the privacy of my home network, I'll sit down with my 12-year-old and we'll figure out how to break it.
Let's assume *nix isn't an OS, in accordance with the article. We'll also assume the various flavors of Windoze and Mac OS are. What are the commonalities of these OSes? An ugly, underpowered, and not very usuable user interface and the fact that they both CRASH ALL THE TIME. I think I'll happily keep with not using an operating system ;)
SuSE and TurboLinux, which has a number of ex-SuSE employees, are the fastest growing Linux distributions. I wiped my Red Crap box at SuSE 5.3 and haven't looked back. I have been using Open and FreeBSD lately, though. I put SuSE 7.0 on 2 servers at work today, and I must say, they've outdone themselves again.
I would agree with this. I have DSL from U$ Worst and it took me about 10 minutes to set it up with Win 95 (static IP and a 24/7 connection), to make sure it worked. But I think most end users might have some trouble fiddling with the router. BTW, it works great with 'doze, Linux, and OpenBSD, but then, I don't use US West (Worst) as my ISP, and that makes all the difference.
If it's fast, secure, and doesn't bluescreen, yes....
I would have to say that the true innovation of linux (and all the other freenixes) is that they have made computing *fun* again. But then I'm odd-- I *like* mucking about in config files with vi.
Why would anyone want to use Motif when there are GTK and QT around? Using Motif is kinda like making your desktop look like a (stable) Mac or 'doze machine.