I jumped ship on a temporary basis and it's articles like this that make me glad I'm in Switzerland and not oz.
Pros: - Great wads of legal cash at obscenely low tax rates - No Alston, Howard the Coward and team. - 1.5 hours flight to Amsterdam - Good quality, high potency nearly-legal mull - No Eddie McGuire - Unlimited-download (but speed capped) ASDL
Cons: - Howard the Coward doing his best to ruin Australia's reputation - No MCG, PoW, Espy, ABC cricket broadcasts - 7 Franks (~$Au 7.5) for a can of VB.
It's pornography and gaming (gambling and games) that have driven the use of the Web and the uptake of broadband. Email, USENET, ftp and even various chat protocols have been side attractions.
Alston is single-handedly driving away any hope of Australia being a content provider (and earning $$$) instead of being a content consumer (and watching the $$$ flow overseas).
Get a clue Alston, being a consumer of technology does not earn you any real $$$, not does it drive innovation. Anyone can be a consumer. Time has not only stood still under your stewardship, but gone backwards.
My fiance couldn't get any broadband in a middle sized city (for Australia), Ballarat. This was 3 years ago. She recently moved back there for our son's schooling and guess what.... she still can't get ASDL. No cable either. Not even cable TV. Cable duopoly that has limited reach in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which has stalled to a crawl?
Here's a policy you can use for free: Local cable cooperatives with content providers paying for access. Oh... News LTD won't get all the $$$, so forget it. You are a disgrace Alston, Howard the Coward and the whole damn Liberal party. Wankers.
OK, I wandered off-topic for a while. But this guy wouldn't have a clue about the internet if it walked up to him, whacked him on the head with a clue-by-four, presented a business card and said: "Hi, I'm a clue". (Clue number 2: Free (as in speach) internet, increased parental supervision to stop nasty porn sites for youngsters) Of course, making people do hard work, actually raising their own kids, will never win votes.
The buggiest and poorest design of any MS product is it's kernel. It has been poorly designed from day 1. It has made vast steps, but still fundamentaly wrong.
Win 9.x/ME/3.x all had a fundamental design flaw: co-operative multi-tasking and non-protected memory. That's asking for trouble.
NT was better, 2000 good-ish. Protected virtual memory spaces. But too many drivers got access to too much kernel memory. Still possible for a buggy driver to bring down your system. Recovery console? If the memory management was better, the system could still run, albeit, with a reduced level of functionality.
However, your point (a) is not applicable. Outdated drivers should work fine. Buggy drivers could take down the system. This is poor architecture. Outdated != unusable.
Likewise, point (b) shouldn't matter if better memory management techniques were used. With sufficient hardware resources, there should be no problem having 20+ taskbar items. Remember: taskbar items are just programs too.
It not MS's fault or problem if a user installs this many programs. They should run fine, perhaps slowing the system to near unusable levels. However, if one crashes... the system should kill that program ONLY and not lose any stability. The latter MS has failed to do properly. (Like I said: NT/2K were better)
(c) Lack of knowledge should never be a users problem. If it was buggy that's still MS's fault. "Working as specified" but killed something is a user issue. (Like rm -rf / as root. That's not rm's fault).
A Bug is a bug is a bug. A poor architecture is still a bug. Far too many times installing one program hoses a dependency needed for another program. Service packs and hotfixes too.
It is not necessary to produce "Original Certificates" nor "Original CDs". In most cases some sort of proof of payment is all that is necessary.
Under British style common law, a contract is a contract whether verbal or written. There are very few specific examples of contracts that must be evidenced in writing. This does not necessarily mean it has to be in writing, just that there is some documentation (like real estate or mine claim transactions).
If there is any sort of record keeping then your organisation should have cheque stubs, Credit Card statements, etc. If items such as these are good enough for your taxes, they should stand up in any civil action (and hopefully stop it getting that far). However, if you've paid in cash you could be in trouble without receipts.
However, I am not a lawyer, you are probably subject to US law, not British style common law (however similar). I could have missed the point, and this is slashdot.
Sad fact is, shooting people makes good headlines for TV stations. Lots of gory pictures, stoney faced reporters queueing for next years media awards, etc, etc.
Applying "slight of hand", also known as fraud, doesn't make headlines. Unless it's a little grey haired old lady and it's otherwise a slow news day.
Politicians love to be able to say "I fixed things" when an issue's in the headlines.
You need to work in a "war on terror" angle before it will attract policiticans interest.
We'll... as a former University Student Newspaper editor in Australia, I can tell you that there (were) two types of defamation. Normal civil "I'll sue yer arse" and crimial "you'll do time" defamation. One was civil and one was "by the crown".
IANAL and out of the publishing loop, so I don't know what the situation is now days.
I'm actually surprised Diamond Joe sued in Victoria. NSW courts are the traditional battleground of anyone seeking a large payout. Again, I was advised by the printer of the paper... if you must say something libellous, just don't send a copy to anyone in Sydney.
My spelling sucks... there's no need to point it out.
Yeah, but to get around this, they have this neato invention... TRAINING. Put a group of people in a room, someone who occasionally knows what they're talking about, and let the knowledge flow.
Sometimes this is part of the training with the job and sometimes it stands alone.
I would shudder to think what would happen if you let users run amok on line of business applications. Actually I can and I'm shuddering, our own line-of-business web apps.
Shit, most of the users where I work don't even know about using a TAB key to move between fields in WinNT/2K. Users that have been here five years still hunt and seek with the mouse to the next text field. (Man I wish I had time to run some classes!). (Dilbert rant of the day: 1 Hour of classes on how to power-use the GUI would pay off in a month or two, but I can't convince the boss of this. Can't get my time or theirs and MOTD are largely ignored!).
As for GUI and mainframes, not a problem. AS/400's have been doing this for years (well the AS/400's a Midrange, not mainframe, but sample principal (?sp) applies). Even green screen apps can be gui or web-ified with a middleware layer. Client Access has been doing this for at least the three years I've dealth with it
If we delve back in to history I think you'll find that the IBM-MS joint venture of OS/2 is largely responsible for Windows. However, as unstable as Windows was, it's obvious that the theoretical framework was used for Windows, but the product was rushed out the door with whatever they could get from OS/2 (and other sources).
NT, was, MS's real "successor" to OS/2.
It's been done before ...
on
Halloween VII
·
· Score: 1
And I quoteth:
#
While respondents cited OSS's 'low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)' as one of the best reasons to support OSS, an 'alternative to Microsoft' did not lag far behind. A plurality (40%) of all respondents felt that a low TCO was the best reason to support OSS. One-third of all respondents cited 'an alternative to Microsoft' as one of the best reasons to support OSS. #
Older, wiser, once-bitten, heads will remember the bad old days of IBM. ISTR that the entire OSI comms model was a way to force IBM to stick to a standard. Otherwise, it could have broken the standards (and any competing products) for connecting different systems, by simply changing it's own proprietory standards.
It seems that not everyone wants all their eggs in one MS-basket. If they do have some OSS, they'll at least have something running when MS pulls the pin (or has the pin pulled on them).
Programmers (generally) see security as a hinderance and not something requried.
I've come in to plenty of sites and seen programmers logged in as Administrator/root/(QSECOFR or ALLOBJ)... just because they can. It's even worse when just because they know about a computer, they have been given the task of administering the system by various management.
Likewise, these programs produced utterly fail to run if not in the same Administrator/root/QSECOFR context.
Never assume "programmer" == "knowledge of security". (Of course, the reverse is also true, there are many who do understand security).
I gather that there was only a Court-based order, which prevents further Court action.
This wasn't a lawsuit in the American sence, but more like a "cease and decist" order.
It would be unlikely that the plaintiff would have had to pay costs.
In a defamation (sp?) action a few years ago, one of the lower courts held that there was an "Implied right of free speach" in the Australian constitution. I can't recall if this was upheld in the Supreme Court. (Free speach regarding complaints against a federal politician). I think that the arguments about reporting spam would fall under this category and there would be a right to report spam to a 3rd part.
I am not a Lawyer (don't it show!), I don't even play one of TV.
OK, this is getting a little of topic, but here's a few points worth noting if you're the backup bunny:
(1) Get whatever responsabilities you have written in to your job description. Responsabilities AND powers.
(2) You can never have enough backups.
(3) Verify confirms your bits are on the Tape. This does not ensure that you can recover all or any of those bits. No backup system works until you can recover box "X" OR an individual file from the tapes. Plan and run a disaster recovery "periodially". Periodially = whatever time period management are willing to sweat on. Rent identically configured hardware as your servers, down to the last RAID controller AND your backup device. Recover data to last nights backup standard. Lather, rinse, repeat. Having name brand standard hardware here helps as it makes it easy to get an identical config. Ensure server boots and a workstation (or 10) can log on and work as if nothing happened (except a small time shift).
(4) Offsite storage of backups. Make sure those tapes are rotated and expired. Offsite backup storage helps as you don't end up with tens or hundereds of tapes around and just re-use one at random. You'll need offsite backup storage. Just takes one little fire to wipe out that office and everything in it.
(5) Clean and maintain the damn hardware. Have new hardware and materials in the budget (Ha!).
(6) There is no rule 6.
(7) DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. Keep invoices (or copies) from whowever supplied the backup media. Document what should (and what does) happen every night, every week, month and year. Document how to recover a file for a user. Document everything you need to recover a server. Baby steps. Document in excruciating detail the config of the server. Memory chips, disk manufacturer, serial numbers, everything.
(8) Laptops and travelling staff are a pain. In a small office, periodically go up to them and ask "Have you made a backup of your data?" A batch file on the desktop is handy. Find some stats on how often laptops develop legs and find there way to the nearest pawn shop.
(9) If your office is big enough to worry about server (and user) backups, then you need your own IT. Even if it's a visiting contractor once or twice a week to check everything is running smoothly and to sooth the nerves of the backup bunny.
(10) Users will do whatever is easiest for them to do. Make sure your needs and theirs co-incide.
This ongoing 'war on spam' will only really be dealt with when two things happen:
1 Sysadmins living in a 'clue fee zone' must be wised up. This means, amoung other things, more education for sysadmins, better products and documentation, better or more translations of documentation, etc. It should be easy to obtain documentation in your local language. Every HOWTO has to have an accurate, up to date translation readily available. As should documentation for proprietory products.
I don't like viruses nor encourage illegal break-and-enter of another person's computer, but a 'whitehat' virus that shuts down the relay component of an email server would be damn handy.
2 The economics of SPAM must be altered, literally turned on their head. It costs to receive bandwidth, but (generally) little, or none at all. (The obvious exception is when you have a bandwidth intensive site that requires nice fat outward pipes). It costs so little to send, just electricity, enough money for a bulk sender (off the shelf or home brewed) and a net connection. Pay the real cost of outgoing mail and watch the volume of spam decrease to an approximation of zero.
Don't know how this last one will be achieved except via a totally new version of 'the net' (or at least a new set of RFC's).
Most management I've come up against has a basic problem. They are trained in management. They are trained to manage a problem exactly one (1) way. It could be a scientific research project, economics research problem, programming project, network infrustructure installation, etc. There is just one way to do it.
Engineers (construction and other allied fields) seem to do it right. You can be management, but you have to be a engineer first.
My best bosses have always been those that are technically qualified (either formally or University of Life, School or Hard Knocks or Kindergarten of getting the shit kicked out of you: Thanks Blackadder) AND Management qualified. Then they know (a) what you're talking about and (b) will generally accept sound technical advice. They will also talk to you before saying yes to their PHB.
Three weeks at a project management couse does not make a manager. Nor does an MBA. I'll have something in between thanks. The 3 weeks is never enough and an MBA obviously sucks whatever you've learnt in real life out you and fill you full of shit.
Doing what you like is great. But management can make it or break it for you. I've had shit jobs propped up by good management and a great team and great, cushy jobs f'dup by total turkeys.
In summary: Consider every job interview a two way street. They're interviewing you. You also sus out everything you can about your potential boss. They (generally) give you the opportunity to ask questions. Find out what experience they have also. If it's only management and accounting qualifications forget it (unless it's an accounting job, DUH!).
During my Uni years I worked w/end nights at a servo (gas station) in Australia. Public holidays were easy money, drunks left about 2 ~ 3 am, then dead quiet until 8am changover. Xmax was even quieter... but funnier.
About 4am onwards parents would start turning up with thier kids bikes wanting to use the (free) air pump to pressurise the tyres (remember it's 30 degrees celcius at this time of year). You've never seen someone swear so much as when an over-inflated tyre goes 'pop' on Xmas morning at 4.30am. It took me about 15 minutes to stop laughing, and about the same time for 'Dad' to stop swearing too. Caught it all on video.
Also funny was watching parents turn up at 5.30am, badly in need of sleep or coffee, kid in one hand, kid hanging on to new present with the other, asking for batteries. You can just tell that is the last time junior is ever going to get a present that can't be plugged in to the wall socket.
Of couse, working Xmas nights meant that I would have the perfect opportunity to skip meeting the reletives. I never saw them for the rest of the year, and Xmas would only to remind me WHY I never saw them. (Eg, myself and father only gainfully employed member of entire clan, we support the rest with our taxes). Missed every drunken Xmas brawl from 92 to 97.
Now I work at my company's European Data Center (Switzerland), 1 public holiday worked = 2 comp days, that I can spend making a long weekend in Europe or adding on to annual leave back home. Holidays NOW mean I can either catchup on maintenance work or surf for pr0n at high speed. Bonus that I saw my first ever "White Christmas" this year.
Slashdot Mirror
I jumped ship on a temporary basis and it's articles like this that make me glad I'm in Switzerland and not oz.
.... she still can't get ASDL. No cable either. Not even cable TV. Cable duopoly that has limited reach in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which has stalled to a crawl?
... News LTD won't get all the $$$, so forget it. You are a disgrace Alston, Howard the Coward and the whole damn Liberal party. Wankers.
Pros:
- Great wads of legal cash at obscenely low tax rates
- No Alston, Howard the Coward and team.
- 1.5 hours flight to Amsterdam
- Good quality, high potency nearly-legal mull
- No Eddie McGuire
- Unlimited-download (but speed capped) ASDL
Cons:
- Howard the Coward doing his best to ruin Australia's reputation
- No MCG, PoW, Espy, ABC cricket broadcasts
- 7 Franks (~$Au 7.5) for a can of VB.
It's pornography and gaming (gambling and games) that have driven the use of the Web and the uptake of broadband. Email, USENET, ftp and even various chat protocols have been side attractions.
Alston is single-handedly driving away any hope of Australia being a content provider (and earning $$$) instead of being a content consumer (and watching the $$$ flow overseas).
Get a clue Alston, being a consumer of technology does not earn you any real $$$, not does it drive innovation. Anyone can be a consumer. Time has not only stood still under your stewardship, but gone backwards.
My fiance couldn't get any broadband in a middle sized city (for Australia), Ballarat. This was 3 years ago. She recently moved back there for our son's schooling and guess what
Here's a policy you can use for free: Local cable cooperatives with content providers paying for access. Oh
OK, I wandered off-topic for a while. But this guy wouldn't have a clue about the internet if it walked up to him, whacked him on the head with a clue-by-four, presented a business card and said: "Hi, I'm a clue". (Clue number 2: Free (as in speach) internet, increased parental supervision to stop nasty porn sites for youngsters) Of course, making people do hard work, actually raising their own kids, will never win votes.
The buggiest and poorest design of any MS product is it's kernel. It has been poorly designed from day 1. It has made vast steps, but still fundamentaly wrong.
... the system should kill that program ONLY and not lose any stability. The latter MS has failed to do properly. (Like I said: NT/2K were better)
Win 9.x/ME/3.x all had a fundamental design flaw: co-operative multi-tasking and non-protected memory. That's asking for trouble.
NT was better, 2000 good-ish. Protected virtual memory spaces. But too many drivers got access to too much kernel memory. Still possible for a buggy driver to bring down your system. Recovery console? If the memory management was better, the system could still run, albeit, with a reduced level of functionality.
However, your point (a) is not applicable. Outdated drivers should work fine. Buggy drivers could take down the system. This is poor architecture. Outdated != unusable.
Likewise, point (b) shouldn't matter if better memory management techniques were used. With sufficient hardware resources, there should be no problem having 20+ taskbar items. Remember: taskbar items are just programs too.
It not MS's fault or problem if a user installs this many programs. They should run fine, perhaps slowing the system to near unusable levels. However, if one crashes
(c) Lack of knowledge should never be a users problem. If it was buggy that's still MS's fault. "Working as specified" but killed something is a user issue. (Like rm -rf / as root. That's not rm's fault).
A Bug is a bug is a bug. A poor architecture is still a bug. Far too many times installing one program hoses a dependency needed for another program. Service packs and hotfixes too.
Nice spin doctoring. Blame your users.
It is not necessary to produce "Original Certificates" nor "Original CDs". In most cases some sort of proof of payment is all that is necessary.
Under British style common law, a contract is a contract whether verbal or written. There are very few specific examples of contracts that must be evidenced in writing. This does not necessarily mean it has to be in writing, just that there is some documentation (like real estate or mine claim transactions).
If there is any sort of record keeping then your organisation should have cheque stubs, Credit Card statements, etc. If items such as these are good enough for your taxes, they should stand up in any civil action (and hopefully stop it getting that far). However, if you've paid in cash you could be in trouble without receipts.
However, I am not a lawyer, you are probably subject to US law, not British style common law (however similar). I could have missed the point, and this is slashdot.
Sad fact is, shooting people makes good headlines for TV stations. Lots of gory pictures, stoney faced reporters queueing for next years media awards, etc, etc.
Applying "slight of hand", also known as fraud, doesn't make headlines. Unless it's a little grey haired old lady and it's otherwise a slow news day.
Politicians love to be able to say "I fixed things" when an issue's in the headlines.
You need to work in a "war on terror" angle before it will attract policiticans interest.
We'll ... as a former University Student Newspaper editor in Australia, I can tell you that there (were) two types of defamation. Normal civil "I'll sue yer arse" and crimial "you'll do time" defamation. One was civil and one was "by the crown".
... if you must say something libellous, just don't send a copy to anyone in Sydney.
... there's no need to point it out.
IANAL and out of the publishing loop, so I don't know what the situation is now days.
I'm actually surprised Diamond Joe sued in Victoria. NSW courts are the traditional battleground of anyone seeking a large payout. Again, I was advised by the printer of the paper
My spelling sucks
Yeah, but to get around this, they have this neato invention ... TRAINING. Put a group of people in a room, someone who occasionally knows what they're talking about, and let the knowledge flow.
Sometimes this is part of the training with the job and sometimes it stands alone.
I would shudder to think what would happen if you let users run amok on line of business applications. Actually I can and I'm shuddering, our own line-of-business web apps.
Shit, most of the users where I work don't even know about using a TAB key to move between fields in WinNT/2K. Users that have been here five years still hunt and seek with the mouse to the next text field. (Man I wish I had time to run some classes!). (Dilbert rant of the day: 1 Hour of classes on how to power-use the GUI would pay off in a month or two, but I can't convince the boss of this. Can't get my time or theirs and MOTD are largely ignored!).
As for GUI and mainframes, not a problem. AS/400's have been doing this for years (well the AS/400's a Midrange, not mainframe, but sample principal (?sp) applies). Even green screen apps can be gui or web-ified with a middleware layer. Client Access has been doing this for at least the three years I've dealth with it
If we delve back in to history I think you'll find that the IBM-MS joint venture of OS/2 is largely responsible for Windows. However, as unstable as Windows was, it's obvious that the theoretical framework was used for Windows, but the product was rushed out the door with whatever they could get from OS/2 (and other sources).
NT, was, MS's real "successor" to OS/2.
And I quoteth:
#
While respondents cited OSS's 'low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)' as one of the best reasons to support OSS, an 'alternative to Microsoft' did not lag far behind. A plurality (40%) of all respondents felt that a low TCO was the best reason to support OSS. One-third of all respondents cited 'an alternative to Microsoft' as one of the best reasons to support OSS.
#
Older, wiser, once-bitten, heads will remember the bad old days of IBM. ISTR that the entire OSI comms model was a way to force IBM to stick to a standard. Otherwise, it could have broken the standards (and any competing products) for connecting different systems, by simply changing it's own proprietory standards.
It seems that not everyone wants all their eggs in one MS-basket. If they do have some OSS, they'll at least have something running when MS pulls the pin (or has the pin pulled on them).
Programmers (generally) see security as a hinderance and not something requried.
... just because they can. It's even worse when just because they know about a computer, they have been given the task of administering the system by various management.
I've come in to plenty of sites and seen programmers logged in as Administrator/root/(QSECOFR or ALLOBJ)
Likewise, these programs produced utterly fail to run if not in the same Administrator/root/QSECOFR context.
Never assume "programmer" == "knowledge of security". (Of course, the reverse is also true, there are many who do understand security).
I gather that there was only a Court-based order, which prevents further Court action.
This wasn't a lawsuit in the American sence, but more like a "cease and decist" order.
It would be unlikely that the plaintiff would have had to pay costs.
In a defamation (sp?) action a few years ago, one of the lower courts held that there was an "Implied right of free speach" in the Australian constitution. I can't recall if this was upheld in the Supreme Court. (Free speach regarding complaints against a federal politician). I think that the arguments about reporting spam would fall under this category and there would be a right to report spam to a 3rd part.
I am not a Lawyer (don't it show!), I don't even play one of TV.
Doh! ... You left out Corporal Punishment and of course, General Electric. And what about the worst of the lot ... Kernel Panic?
OK, this is getting a little of topic, but here's a few points worth noting if you're the backup bunny:
(1) Get whatever responsabilities you have written in to your job description. Responsabilities AND powers.
(2) You can never have enough backups.
(3) Verify confirms your bits are on the Tape. This does not ensure that you can recover all or any of those bits. No backup system works until you can recover box "X" OR an individual file from the tapes. Plan and run a disaster recovery "periodially". Periodially = whatever time period management are willing to sweat on. Rent identically configured hardware as your servers, down to the last RAID controller AND your backup device. Recover data to last nights backup standard. Lather, rinse, repeat. Having name brand standard hardware here helps as it makes it easy to get an identical config. Ensure server boots and a workstation (or 10) can log on and work as if nothing happened (except a small time shift).
(4) Offsite storage of backups. Make sure those tapes are rotated and expired. Offsite backup storage helps as you don't end up with tens or hundereds of tapes around and just re-use one at random. You'll need offsite backup storage. Just takes one little fire to wipe out that office and everything in it.
(5) Clean and maintain the damn hardware. Have new hardware and materials in the budget (Ha!).
(6) There is no rule 6.
(7) DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. Keep invoices (or copies) from whowever supplied the backup media. Document what should (and what does) happen every night, every week, month and year. Document how to recover a file for a user. Document everything you need to recover a server. Baby steps. Document in excruciating detail the config of the server. Memory chips, disk manufacturer, serial numbers, everything.
(8) Laptops and travelling staff are a pain. In a small office, periodically go up to them and ask "Have you made a backup of your data?" A batch file on the desktop is handy. Find some stats on how often laptops develop legs and find there way to the nearest pawn shop.
(9) If your office is big enough to worry about server (and user) backups, then you need your own IT. Even if it's a visiting contractor once or twice a week to check everything is running smoothly and to sooth the nerves of the backup bunny.
(10) Users will do whatever is easiest for them to do. Make sure your needs and theirs co-incide.
I've always found that the nine iron became the natural enemy of the Cane Toad back home when I was a lad.
... splat.
"Fore!!!"
Occasionally the bastards would move but a nicely timed show would send them in to backyards several properties away.
Have you ever asked Liv's Dad if he can remember the 70's? Now there was a guy who liked to Party.
Made certain members of Rolling Stone look like catholic schoolgirls.
May it be that I age as well as they have.
This ongoing 'war on spam' will only really be dealt with when two things happen:
1 Sysadmins living in a 'clue fee zone' must be wised up. This means, amoung other things, more education for sysadmins, better products and documentation, better or more translations of documentation, etc. It should be easy to obtain documentation in your local language. Every HOWTO has to have an accurate, up to date translation readily available. As should documentation for proprietory products.
I don't like viruses nor encourage illegal break-and-enter of another person's computer, but a 'whitehat' virus that shuts down the relay component of an email server would be damn handy.
2 The economics of SPAM must be altered, literally turned on their head. It costs to receive bandwidth, but (generally) little, or none at all. (The obvious exception is when you have a bandwidth intensive site that requires nice fat outward pipes). It costs so little to send, just electricity, enough money for a bulk sender (off the shelf or home brewed) and a net connection. Pay the real cost of outgoing mail and watch the volume of spam decrease to an approximation of zero.
Don't know how this last one will be achieved except via a totally new version of 'the net' (or at least a new set of RFC's).
Most management I've come up against has a basic problem. They are trained in management. They are trained to manage a problem exactly one (1) way. It could be a scientific research project, economics research problem, programming project, network infrustructure installation, etc. There is just one way to do it.
Engineers (construction and other allied fields) seem to do it right. You can be management, but you have to be a engineer first.
My best bosses have always been those that are technically qualified (either formally or University of Life, School or Hard Knocks or Kindergarten of getting the shit kicked out of you: Thanks Blackadder) AND Management qualified. Then they know (a) what you're talking about and (b) will generally accept sound technical advice. They will also talk to you before saying yes to their PHB.
Three weeks at a project management couse does not make a manager. Nor does an MBA. I'll have something in between thanks. The 3 weeks is never enough and an MBA obviously sucks whatever you've learnt in real life out you and fill you full of shit.
Doing what you like is great. But management can make it or break it for you. I've had shit jobs propped up by good management and a great team and great, cushy jobs f'dup by total turkeys.
In summary: Consider every job interview a two way street. They're interviewing you. You also sus out everything you can about your potential boss. They (generally) give you the opportunity to ask questions. Find out what experience they have also. If it's only management and accounting qualifications forget it (unless it's an accounting job, DUH!).
I think we need a few more programs like IEEradicator. Microsoft have already produced enough of thier own versions to spare.
Let's just think of the various MS programs and what they hoped to achieve:
DOS = CP/M Eradicator
W3.x = DOS App Eradicator
W95 = OS/2 Eradicator
W98 (with IE) = Netscape Eradicator
NT4 = Novell Eradicator
Office DLL/kernel integration = Wordperfect/Quattro Pro/Dbase Eradicator
Visual Studio = Borland Eradicator
W2K Server = Samba Eradicator (not while I'm alive!)
Media Player = RealPlayer Eradicator
XP = Privacy and "Fair use" Eradicator
During my Uni years I worked w/end nights at a servo (gas station) in Australia. Public holidays were easy money, drunks left about 2 ~ 3 am, then dead quiet until 8am changover. Xmax was even quieter ... but funnier.
About 4am onwards parents would start turning up with thier kids bikes wanting to use the (free) air pump to pressurise the tyres (remember it's 30 degrees celcius at this time of year). You've never seen someone swear so much as when an over-inflated tyre goes 'pop' on Xmas morning at 4.30am. It took me about 15 minutes to stop laughing, and about the same time for 'Dad' to stop swearing too. Caught it all on video.
Also funny was watching parents turn up at 5.30am, badly in need of sleep or coffee, kid in one hand, kid hanging on to new present with the other, asking for batteries. You can just tell that is the last time junior is ever going to get a present that can't be plugged in to the wall socket.
Of couse, working Xmas nights meant that I would have the perfect opportunity to skip meeting the reletives. I never saw them for the rest of the year, and Xmas would only to remind me WHY I never saw them. (Eg, myself and father only gainfully employed member of entire clan, we support the rest with our taxes). Missed every drunken Xmas brawl from 92 to 97.
Now I work at my company's European Data Center (Switzerland), 1 public holiday worked = 2 comp days, that I can spend making a long weekend in Europe or adding on to annual leave back home. Holidays NOW mean I can either catchup on maintenance work or surf for pr0n at high speed. Bonus that I saw my first ever "White Christmas" this year.
Family x,000's kilometers away = bliss.
Girlfriend x,000's kilometers away = blisters.
Nosfucious.