For every project manager, there are probably 10 software developers; and for every software developer, there are probably 3 support personell
Agreed, but support personell are A) outsourceable to foreign countries, and B) similar to the cabbage picking job in that few people actually WANT to do it.
Don't get me wrong here, the money isn't terrible, and if you live in the right area, you can probably survive off of it by yourself, but the job is intrinsicly undesireable because it is repetitive at its best, and at its worst places you in the position of the receiving end of tirades from disgruntled (l)users who are fed up with everything from SPAM to having to pay for technical support.
Maybe if I were making half again what my hourly wage at the place was, I would be worried about the tech support jobs being outsourced overseas, but the converse of what I said; that you CAN NOT support yourself (just yourself mind you) in an area where these jobs are most prevalent (cities) is true. Making minimum wage for a repetitive task where I usually listen to people complain about things that I can't fix and then get reprimanded for not keeping in step with the metrics (even though I would get fired for hanging up on them) is not exactly something that you jump at the chance for. Add in the fact that you generally wind up sitting down for 3.5-4 hour stretches and the job just becomes that much less desireable. Tech support is cabbage picking for IT. I will admit that it was nice for caffeine money, and the hours were generally flexible for part time, so its not bad for high school/college students/those in between college/other jobs, but definitely NOT something you want to make a career out of. At least you get some excercise working in a retil outfit.
This is something that can be overcome, and I expect it to be overcome. I'm sure people will concentrate more on their language skills once more support jobs become available. There isn't a reason why some dude in China, India, or Eastern Europe shouldn't be able to speak proper English.
Right, like I said, I read that article over at NYT, however the intrinsic problem here is that they are speaking English properly, but their native accents color the language in such a way that American English speakers can have a hard time understanding them (in much the same way that sometimes it can be difficult for American English speakers to understand British English speakers, or even for someone from Maine to understand someone from Texas). A favorite English teacher of mine had a saying: no one speaks language, they speak dialect. Even in countries where English is NOT the national language but just about everyone speaks it (most of Europe, I would imagine), the native language that people were raised on will color their speech patterns. Shifting ones patterns in such a way as to eliminate the more recognizeable parts of the accent strikes me as somehting that owuld take time measureable in years to accomplish, thus we're creating another specialized skill set that somewhat limits the availability of the jobs. insurmountable? no, but now instead of paying your employees $.05 an hour, you might have to start paying them $.08, but that's still a hell of a lot cheaper than here.
Ultimately though, I think that we will see some sort of political response to this when the time comes. The potential for economic crisis in the US is just too great for the government to not get involved at some point in the future; maybe government subsidized tech support (I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at that idea).
Still, you do bring up a very good point; these jobs are typically seen as "professionbal" and "white colar," but they are at their core blue color, and mostly unskilled. The ability of a Union to shut down a plant is a double edged sword that may actually contribute to keeping some jobs here, but IT people tend not to union
Maybe, but one of the things that sticks in my mind was how many people who called in said they were relieved to be speaking with someone who speaks English (read: someone without a thick foreign accent). The place was a call center for a few ISPs, and I honestly think that one of the things the folks in marketing pushed was the fact that foreign outsourced technical support people can be hard to understand at times.
I don't think that we're going to start seeing any advertisements for American technical support anytime soon, that wouldn't be very politcally correct, but when someone calls tech support, and can't understand the tech, their next call would most likely be to the billing office, where they proceed to complain that they couldn't understand support. Although I would grant that is a bit of conjecture on my part.
Still, I do recall seeing an interesting piece in the NY Times some months back about foreign outsourcing of call centers (sorry, wouldn't be able to give a link), and one of the things they mentioned was that they spend a decent amount of time getting their techs to pronounce English with a generic American accent.
So I suppose, yeah, probably the amount of US phone support jobs will shrink, but vanish? Probably not. The other thing you need to bear in mind is that phone tech support is slightly better than working at the local fast food joint, but still not quite as rewarding as working in the local hardware store (where you learn a whole bunch about tools, carpentry, plumbing, all the nifties). It's not exactly something that someone who really WANTS to work in IT plans on doing for very long, so the bulk of these jobs going over seas is every bit as much of a tragedy as the cabbage picking jobs being taken by illegal immigrant migrant workers.
Basically, I was just trying to address the whole win2k/XP minimizing the need for tech support. I have a feeling that the best answer I can give from my own experience would be that to some extent it has, but not significantly so to the point where the phone tech is going to go the way of the dinosaurs anytime in the near future.
3) The improved stability of Win2K and WinXP really has reduced the need for IT helpdesk staffing at many companies. Hard as it may be for the Slashdot crowd to believe, that's true. So if asking the Dilbert in building 19 "Have you tried rebooting?" was your job, well, probably not anymore.
Never underestimate the ability of computer users to ignore the obvious. Having worked in technical support, I heard from plenty of people who have had problems with win2k/XP; verything ranging from "how do I get my computer connected to the internet" to "It says windows performed an illegal operation, am I going to prison?"
Besides, with buisiness man trying to get to their IPsec VPNs at broadband enabled hotels, trying to send email through the wireless connection at a truckstop on the interstate, and grandma trying to send all of her friends 20 or 30 pictures of her new grand baby through email, I don't think that technical support is going anywhere any time soon. Unskilled tech support is another matter, but for the folks out there who are willing to learn some stuff, even if it is for a niche market, there will probably always be jobs.
An H1-B is a type of visa that allows non-citizens to be brought in to work certain jobs when there is a lack of qualified individuals in the local employee pool. The system tends to unfortunately be abused by manager$ who know they can pay them less, and demand more of them than they could of a US citizen employee.
I couldn't wait until I was 20 to be able to afford to buy games whenever the hell I felt like it. Been in my 20s for a few years, and been enjoying the GBA most of that time. And in my late 20s, I'll get the newest gameboy incarnation, all the while thinking about failed gaming systems like gamegear, neogeo pocket, and this nokia crap. And I still won't have the slightest hesitation about playing the thing wheerever/whenever I want without any shame.
I never thought of it that way; the destruction of Dune in the end of the 5th book always seemed to me to be a better fulfillment of Leto's plan: Humanity is now beyond prophecy because the origin of prophecy has been reduced to a molten rock. But I can definitely see your point about Chapterhouse.
Still, Chapterhouse feels almost as if it is grasping at threads the entire time, and the ending does seem like it wants to be a new beginning, and it might have worked better with a 7th book, but I guess I can't fault the man for dying.
So in an imperfect world I need to choose between thinking of book 5 of 6 as the end, or book 6, which feels more like the first part of an unfinished sequel to the series. But then again, some time back I think Tim O'Reilly made a good point; the last three books basically build off of and restate the lessons that we as readers, and Paul as character should have learned from the first, so maybe after Children of Dune they're all unnecessary.
By easy and fast I mean a minimal effort. Again, I am not talking about myself or suggesting that this is a good practice, I am simply trying to communicate that this is what enables shops to employ low cost labor and help maximize their profits.
Let me try to clarify yet again...
Thesis: Certification will not improve anything because certification is not a guarantee against RR practices.
1st Defence: Using the auto mechanic comparison presented in the original article, certification does not stop auto mechanics from performing unscrupulous practices, therefore similar mandated computer certification would not prevent similar practices in computing.
2nd Defense: Most of the shops I have in my area hire high school kids and pay minimum wage. RRRing the machine is what the kids know (and I suspect what they are taught)n as the best catch all. The benefits of unskilled labor should be clear in this case.
3rd Defense: People don't care how their computer is fixed, as long as they get it back post haste. While I myself do not view RRRing the machine as the best solution, when I judged that it may have been pertainent and suggested it, I am often told "that sounds best to me".
Perhaps I am remiss in my eplanations of this, that is beyond my power to say. You've got me feeling like my back is up against the wall here, so maybe I'll track down a few of those individuals and find out if they remember what I told them.
Now, the whole validity/invalidity of RRRing aside, do you have anything to say about the thesis of my comment?
When best effort isn't even made, it gives other technicians a bad name.
And when did I ever say that I wasn't making things perfectly clear? How often are you 100% sure that you have removed every trace of a virus? How about every nasty little line in the registry? What about every single character in a config file?
Let me turn this around; You give technicians like ME a bad name. Your approach leads people to think that techs like to sit on their hands for days while nothing happens, and then when other problems creep up, we obviously didn't do our jobs right.
When you tell these people that they will just have to grin and bear through re-installing all of their applications and re-configuring the settings it took them months to learn they could change in the first place - many of them will believe you. Why? Because they have no choice.
This is laughably stupid. I have never told anyone they would have to "grin and bear it." And I resent the implication that I would ever leave anyone in such a position. I don't know what kind of unscrupulous character you may have, but when I do RRR someone's machine, I make damned sure that it is working normally. Why? For the simple reason that if they could do this on their own, they wouldn't bring it to me in the first place.
As for their options, I describe to them in plain terms exactly whats wrong, and present them with their options. Again, I cannot say what sort of people you are dealing with, or if you have any communication skills whatsoever, but I let my customers know what is wrong with their machines in a language they can understand.
It's your duty to give them the choice; to service their computer properly and professionally, or at the very least to inform them that they have a choice
Maybe if you had actually read a thing I had said up to this point, you would see that this is exactly what I am saying. Good Lord, man, at what point did I say this was a valid first option? At what point did I ever say I never gave them a choice? When did I ever say "RRR is the way to go every time, no matter what the problem."? When did I ever suggest that I did anything else?
Takes deep breath
Okay, let me try this one more time. RRR should not, would not, and could not be the first solution in the hands of any competent tech. Absolutely, I agree with you 100%. Customers have a right to all of the facts before they make a decision. Again, I think we're on the same ground here, right? Okay, let me address what I think is the source of miscommunication here... (pardon me for quoting myself).
Lets face it, on the common place windows system, 9 times out of 10 the simplest solution is the 3 "r's"; Re-partition, re-format, re-install.
I stand by this. Do I agree that it is the BEST solution 9 times out of ten? A resounding HELL NO is in order. BUT you cannot deny the fact that there are a lot of shops that DO this. And worse.
By simplest, I just mean that a lot of the shops in my area have a tendency to take a quick look at the machine, if they can't fix in 15 minutes, they proceed to reformat. Why? It is simple for them. It takes them less time, and it gives them the opportunity to make more money ("No, sorry, windows works, it'll be another 30$ to reload drivers."). That's all I'm saying.
And maybe you're right. Maybe the masses have ben so brainwashed that they take for granted that reformating is best. Maybe they equate quick with best. I don't know, that's a bit beyond me... but all I was trying to get at is:
1) How many auto mechanics do the same thing?
2) How has requiring certification prevented mechanics from doing this.
There will always be people that prey upon the uninformed. Pick up the Illiad, Gilgamesh, Roshimon, The Holy Bible, whatever story form whatever ancient civilization that you want, and I think you will find that people have been doing this for ages.
Certification will not, can not stop this. All that certification does is show that someone, somewhere, says that youb have the necessary skills required to fix <Fill in the blank here>. It in no way promises that individual has a moral fibre that will hold their baser instincts in check, and prevent them from taking advantage of you.
Another thing, does Joe User know what A+ certified means? Do they care? At the end of the day, I can have every certification in the book, decide that I'm too lazy to work, RRR everything that comes my way, and what penalty? Certification doesn't make the bad people go away. That's all I was trying to say, thank you much.
Pretty please, with sugar on top, if you feel the need to respond, please read my original post again. I think you might then discover that we do not stand on such an uncommon ground after all.
I clean up after my own messes thank you. Why RRR? It's quicker and gets the computer back to the customer faster. Do I make sure it works afterwards? Yeah sure you bet ya. Most of the time people just want it back fast. It is extremely unusual for the common folk to care THAT much about savin data. Basically when push comes to shove, if they don't have a back up already, they would rather just lose everything and re-install then have to wait a day to get email again.
As I said above, this is a matter of ethics and responsibility. I'm sorry you have had such foul experiences, but it you are truly competent you would give your customers what they want instead of satisfying your own testosterone trip. Otherwise people will take their buisiness elsewhere.
Please keep in mind I'm not talking about techs who serve corporate customers, I'm talking mostly about those who consider every problem on their computer to be an "internet" problem. If your customers actually ould prefer you track down a problem and are willing to wait, kudos for being in such a position. But keeping with the comparison with auto mechanics, I was talking about Joe user who simply knows that their car/computer is broken, and they want it back ASAP.
I'm sorry if I was unclear about anything I said before. For myself, I do not dein to question your competance. After all, the opinion of a man who has never had to re-install an OS for any reason does carry with it a certain weight. As does the opinion of a man who is tenacious enough to do it the hard way. I know I can no way compare with your many accomplishments, but I myself have never had any complaints, and I have had many repeat customers. Perhaps my methods are less noble than yours, but they certainly serve my customers and myself well enough
Actually, I meant when you had isolated that there was in fact a problem. Keep in mind we're not talking about some server that has to stay up 24/7, we're talking about mom and pop's new desktop. Believe me, I am well aware of how to solve 90% of problems on windows. For the other 10%, it's usually not worth the hassle.
You hit the nail on the head. In most cases, we're not talking about competancy at ALL. It's purely a matter of honesty and responsibility. Lets face it, on the common place windows system, 9 times out of 10 the simplest solution is the 3 "r's"; Re-partition, re-format, re-install. Any shop that doesn't tell you up front to back up your data ahead of time because they may need to RRR your machine is being irresponsible. At best they should give you a phone call before they do so. This is something that certification would not help guarantee.
Along similar lines, certification will not keep irresponsible or immoral techs from using your computer as if it were there own. I know a lot of people who get their computers back loaded with other email accounts, dial up services, and in some cases even heafty software packages. I think the coup de gras was the tale of a friend of mine; he went to pick up his computer aftr having a new harddrive and ethernet card installed, and the guy at the place couldn't find it. After searcging for 1/2 hour, the clerk found it under a tech's desk, complete with dirt foot print on case. I can't say whether or not they were A+ certified, but everyone who thinks that being so imbues an individual with a sense of scrupulousness or responsibility raise your hand?
I see certification as a way of making more of these problems. Requiring certification would cut down on the number of shops, but that in no way promises that all of them will be the bad ones. If you're really that worried; make a back up, and make sure thatthe shop is insured. And as always, whether it's your car, your computer, or even your physical body, whenever a major operation is suggested, get a second opinion.
Cerufication is by no means an effect substitute to heading to sound advice: caveat emptor.
The Cert advisory says that MS doesn't ship any drivers with this vulnerability. This is a lot different from saying that MS systems are completely uneffected. We're going to have all double check against the actual driver being used by the system (when this list is complete of course) to find out if we are particularly affected by this.
This is hardly the situation presented in "Right to Read." RMS's tale is about people who actually OWN the books not having the right to lend them to other people. This is a public collection being made available on the internet (and not just a single computer, as in "Right to Read").
I actually think this is a good idea, and if this model persists, then I think we'll all be in good shape. Think about it, in real life, when you borrow a book from your local library, you have to bring it back. This is for the simple reason that other people can read it too. If you don't bring it back, you have to buy a copy for the library to replace it. Of course we don't have the same problem here, but without getting into the debate about who gets more money, the authors or the publishers, books are a commodity that need to be paid for to support the authors who write them.
yes, there will be casesof authors releasing their works into public domain, and these individuals should be hailed for their contributions. And works that already ARE in the public domain should be made available online for free, but consider the ramifications of a newly published book by an autho suddenly made available for download without any restrictions. Anyway you slice it, the author is not going to make as much money as from a sale of the book. I grant you, there will always be people (like myself) who prefer the paper version for casual reading, but I do believe that the creator of a piece of art, literature, music, etc., is entitled to decide whether they should be compensated for possessing their work.
Yes the publishing companies are a bit tyranical in their price fixing, copy protection schemes etc., but just as we look forward to the day when people can download a song off of the internet, paying a fair price for doing so, and compensate the artist directly, I think we should also look forward to the day when the same can be done with books. But to support "full time" artists, there must be a system of compensation.
Simply allowing anyone anywhere to get and keep the book is just not a valid option. Yes, I know, these will be posted all over the net by their first check out. The debate of 2003 will become online book sharing, and the coalition of publishers will get together to crush programs like this. But really, it is a GOOD idea. You have the ability to keep the bhook on your computer for weeks without having to pay for it. If you don't finish reading it, you can just check it out again.
Honestly, I think we should be so lucky to have most major libraries doing this by the end of the decade. This, ladies and gentlemen, expands your rights online; make no mistake about that.
I'll second that. I must admit it sounded a little presumptuous when they said that squids would take to the land to fill the void. I also have a hard time buying that in 200 Million + some odd hundred thousand years smart calamari will be running the show.
Of course when you boil it right down, I think it's pretty presumptuous to think you can predict what the future will be like. If we can't even predict what the short term effects of global warming are going to be, how can we determine that squids will become super muscular, grow lungs, and swing through the trees basically acting like modern day monkeys? Some of those beasties would make a nice addition to a Dungeons and Dragons world, but I really don't see how we can even venture a remote guess as to what life will look like in 200 Million years and expect it to be at all accurate.
Besdies the natural events that could occur that we can't even predict, none of this really takes into account the human factor. I am one of those "the planet's not going any where, we are" people, but we DO have the ability to drastically (some might say "traumatically") alter the environment in a very short amount of time.
Plus the idea of whats left of my mortal remains being sucked out of the ground to fill the gas tank of some land squids car is just something I would rather not think about:)
This from the New York Times: "The card is designed so that even if you know everything about it, you still can't hack it," said Marc Zwillinger, the lead lawyer for DirecTV's anti-piracy efforts.
Am I mistaken, or isn't that a little like saying "I Tripple dog dare you"? Can the DirectTV people seriously believe that this is possible? And furthermore, who's more foolish, the guy for stealing info that is irrelevant (whether it truly is unhackable, or it is hackable and thus would be hacked anyway), or the company for believing that they have done anything but get a whole bunch of new people working on the DirectTV hacking project. Or maybe it's slashdot... YRO? Give me a break, the last thing we need to do is turn people who are blatant criminals into populist heroes. If I rob a music store at gunpoint and get sent away on an armed robbery charge, are my rights on line being infringed upon by the evil machinations of the RIAA?
Associating something like this with YRO makes those who fight the good fight look bad. Don't think you can elevate this blatant theft into some grand crusade, all you can do is make the crusaders look like thugs.
The only way Linux and its free software friends will ever die is if laws like the SSSCA are passed to make it illegal.
That law is way too extreme, the only way it could possibly pass is if we had a corporation bought president whose party has complete control of congress, and whose congressional leaders are on good friendly terms with him.
Oh wait...
Well in any case, the only way it wouldn't get struck down is if we had a judiciary filled with ultra-conservatives who promote corporate interests at every turn, and THAT won't happen unless...
I don't think it's fair to say it becomes less useful, the more secure system just requires that a user adopt a new set of operating rules that correspond with that system. If your system requires a password of at least 8 chars, chances are that the average user will pick some easy to remember word with some special significance to them, or something which they believe is pretty random but really isn't. If the password has to have a combination of upper case, lower case, numeric, and symbol chars (i.e. %), then it makes your user think of a way of remembering the password. Just because this means writing it down doesn't mean it's that bad to write down new passwords, it's just when you start writing them down all over the place that this becomes a problem.
Now the task becomes mandatory user education that not only tells them the rules of the new password, but also explains WHY to them, and advises them to only write it down once and keep it someplace on their person (like their wallet). The rules are more complicated, but after the user has been educated properly, they will learn these rules and thus be able to use the system more securely.
The convenience of security precautions isn't the issue here, IMHO, the convenience of educating new users properly, and giving them timely reminders, is what makes security such a gordian knot. But it is do-able, and anyone who works anywhere with a Sexual harassment policy knows this: You are given extensive eduaction when you start, and then get annual reminders of the policy. If people treated security of their infrastructure as the human problem that it actually is, and not as the technologgical one that they want it to be, then I would be willing to bet you would see huge increases in the quality of computer security in the work place.
This will of course never happen because it is inconvenient. As long as managers continue to think of security as a tech problem, then the problem will never get solved. The time has come for managers to stop thinking of the construction of a secure network as a tech issue solvable by automation and expensive software, and start thinking of it as a human issue that requires education and practical training. In this way you will be better able to build a network that is both secure and usable.
Note that I said the game play, and not the games themselves were what was tops at the time, and in my mind remains untouched today. Ever since we started to be able to create "realistic" 3d environs, games seem to be overly focused on creating these environments. It just seems to me that at that time, developers were trying to craft a better game, and it was really cool when they could milk their hardware for all it was worth. IMHO, those days were the golden age of gameing and game development.
Then again, thatwas when I was a kid with almost unlimited amounts of disposeable time, and I'm sure my father thinks the same thing about pinball and early arcade machines:)
games with the quality lesser than that of a 1990 era NES
If you can say that with any degree of seriousness my guess is the answer is no. The graphics are most definitely comparable to a mid-1990s SNES, the 16 bit one, not the NES (the 8 bit).
Besides, I think you're missing the point entirely; far too many modern games suck because they over-emphasize the importance of graphics. I'll take the old Final Fantasy games for the SNES over the newer ones any day for the simple reason that they were more fun. The graphics were usually pretty simple, but the story and game play were always unbeatable, and GBA has done a bit to bring that sort of game play back
Return the CD because it's defective and won't play in your CD player.
Honestly, I'm thinking this is the correct approach to the problem, not to copy the CDs, mind you, becausen that's wrong and stuff (legal disclaimer); but I can't help but think if we buy the CDs and return them because they are broken, then the record companies will lose money. Maybe if they get enough "playable" CDs returned because they are in fact not playable on the devices that their consumers wish to use they'll get the message.
Will microsoft open source windows? Never. But will they perhaps give away a "basic" version in the hopes that you're going to buy their apps? Perhaps. I can see a future where there is a stripped down version of Windows that Microsoft gives away for free. It comes without any really useful applications, it requires internet activation, is suseptible to automatic updates, and the whole DRM nightmare. In return, you get a free OS for your computer that is capable of running the fine line of Microsoft Home products.
This in no way interfears with the sale of more complete versions for buisiness, developers, and enterprise environments, and allows MS to keep tabs on its user base in a way that is a little more than creepy. Now, you can of course by a personal edition without the rights restrictions, but the free version is what comes pre-installed, so everyone gets used to it. Perhaps the free version even includes some crippled features that only allow applications developed (or approaved) by microsoft to run on it... this really wouldn't be a big anti-trust thing because the OS is, after all, given away, and nothing stops you from spending a few hundred on a version that will let you run other applications.
All those ad wizards have to do is some up with a sugar sweet enough to coat this poison, and this could very well become a dangerous reality. Then again, based on recent history, their ad wizards seem more like bumbling magi, so even if they make the decision, it'll probably be a few years until they can sell it to the masses. But this thought actually scares me; they could maintain an absolute monopoly by just giving away Windows, and even if we get a legitimate DoJ someday, there wouldn't be thing one that they could do to prevent it.
But note well that the article also talks about using gag orders. They're not keeping you from confrnoting your accuser, they're just keeping it out of the papers, so no, this doesn't violate our fine legal system.
This sort of technique is actually used a lot, but usually to protect the identities of minors who are prosecuted as such for high-profile crimes. Personally, I think there is a great deal of sense to it. Sometimes the identities of the victims OR the perpetrators of crimes do need to be protected, but I think that in most cases of this type doing so is unfair to investors, shareholders, and clients.
I fully realize that there is no such thing as perfect security, nor will there ever be. But investors, shareholders, and clients of a given company have the right to know how their money/data was comprimised, and what the company is doing to correct the problem, and ensure it never happens again. But then again, it's also important to realize that when there IS a security compromise (as there inevitably will be) that the company is going to go to the appropriate authorities. I read someone else's comment comparing this to robbing a bank. I sure as hell want the bank president to call the sherrif when a whole bunch of money gets taken.
This is definitely going into some stick ground. But then again, most legal matters ARE very sticky buisiness.
Neither outstanding or terrible, it ranks as a decent, average book on programming on the linux system. Although I would recommend Beginning Linux Programming by Wrox over this one, based solely on the fact that it covers so much more material in roughly the same amount of detail. Still, Linux Programming By Example costs a little bit less (at least when I got it), and while the Wrox book covers more, LPbE does cover a few things that the Wroc book doesn't.
On the whole I would say it really deserves a 6.5 or a 7. It's worth getting if you're looking to learn about programming on a POSIX system, but if you already have a book on the topic, you might want to save your money.
Re:Perl was ruled out WHY???
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Yahoo Moving to PHP
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Amen, I've had a professor who would churn out C code for the example projects that would curl your hair, and refused to even consider Perl as a programming language because he thought it was an awful mess.
Perl lets you make messy code, and relies on the programmer to actually be responsible in churning out something that anyone who knows the language can pick up and read. Sure, making one liners on the fly to get something done is a neat ability, but IMHO, a good programmer will ADD the extra few lines of code for the sake of readability when readability is an issue.
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Agreed, but support personell are A) outsourceable to foreign countries, and B) similar to the cabbage picking job in that few people actually WANT to do it.
Don't get me wrong here, the money isn't terrible, and if you live in the right area, you can probably survive off of it by yourself, but the job is intrinsicly undesireable because it is repetitive at its best, and at its worst places you in the position of the receiving end of tirades from disgruntled (l)users who are fed up with everything from SPAM to having to pay for technical support.
Maybe if I were making half again what my hourly wage at the place was, I would be worried about the tech support jobs being outsourced overseas, but the converse of what I said; that you CAN NOT support yourself (just yourself mind you) in an area where these jobs are most prevalent (cities) is true. Making minimum wage for a repetitive task where I usually listen to people complain about things that I can't fix and then get reprimanded for not keeping in step with the metrics (even though I would get fired for hanging up on them) is not exactly something that you jump at the chance for. Add in the fact that you generally wind up sitting down for 3.5-4 hour stretches and the job just becomes that much less desireable. Tech support is cabbage picking for IT. I will admit that it was nice for caffeine money, and the hours were generally flexible for part time, so its not bad for high school/college students/those in between college/other jobs, but definitely NOT something you want to make a career out of. At least you get some excercise working in a retil outfit.
Right, like I said, I read that article over at NYT, however the intrinsic problem here is that they are speaking English properly, but their native accents color the language in such a way that American English speakers can have a hard time understanding them (in much the same way that sometimes it can be difficult for American English speakers to understand British English speakers, or even for someone from Maine to understand someone from Texas). A favorite English teacher of mine had a saying: no one speaks language, they speak dialect. Even in countries where English is NOT the national language but just about everyone speaks it (most of Europe, I would imagine), the native language that people were raised on will color their speech patterns. Shifting ones patterns in such a way as to eliminate the more recognizeable parts of the accent strikes me as somehting that owuld take time measureable in years to accomplish, thus we're creating another specialized skill set that somewhat limits the availability of the jobs. insurmountable? no, but now instead of paying your employees $.05 an hour, you might have to start paying them $.08, but that's still a hell of a lot cheaper than here.
Ultimately though, I think that we will see some sort of political response to this when the time comes. The potential for economic crisis in the US is just too great for the government to not get involved at some point in the future; maybe government subsidized tech support (I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at that idea).
Still, you do bring up a very good point; these jobs are typically seen as "professionbal" and "white colar," but they are at their core blue color, and mostly unskilled. The ability of a Union to shut down a plant is a double edged sword that may actually contribute to keeping some jobs here, but IT people tend not to union
Maybe, but one of the things that sticks in my mind was how many people who called in said they were relieved to be speaking with someone who speaks English (read: someone without a thick foreign accent). The place was a call center for a few ISPs, and I honestly think that one of the things the folks in marketing pushed was the fact that foreign outsourced technical support people can be hard to understand at times.
I don't think that we're going to start seeing any advertisements for American technical support anytime soon, that wouldn't be very politcally correct, but when someone calls tech support, and can't understand the tech, their next call would most likely be to the billing office, where they proceed to complain that they couldn't understand support. Although I would grant that is a bit of conjecture on my part.
Still, I do recall seeing an interesting piece in the NY Times some months back about foreign outsourcing of call centers (sorry, wouldn't be able to give a link), and one of the things they mentioned was that they spend a decent amount of time getting their techs to pronounce English with a generic American accent.
So I suppose, yeah, probably the amount of US phone support jobs will shrink, but vanish? Probably not. The other thing you need to bear in mind is that phone tech support is slightly better than working at the local fast food joint, but still not quite as rewarding as working in the local hardware store (where you learn a whole bunch about tools, carpentry, plumbing, all the nifties). It's not exactly something that someone who really WANTS to work in IT plans on doing for very long, so the bulk of these jobs going over seas is every bit as much of a tragedy as the cabbage picking jobs being taken by illegal immigrant migrant workers.
Basically, I was just trying to address the whole win2k/XP minimizing the need for tech support. I have a feeling that the best answer I can give from my own experience would be that to some extent it has, but not significantly so to the point where the phone tech is going to go the way of the dinosaurs anytime in the near future.
Never underestimate the ability of computer users to ignore the obvious. Having worked in technical support, I heard from plenty of people who have had problems with win2k/XP; verything ranging from "how do I get my computer connected to the internet" to "It says windows performed an illegal operation, am I going to prison?"
Besides, with buisiness man trying to get to their IPsec VPNs at broadband enabled hotels, trying to send email through the wireless connection at a truckstop on the interstate, and grandma trying to send all of her friends 20 or 30 pictures of her new grand baby through email, I don't think that technical support is going anywhere any time soon. Unskilled tech support is another matter, but for the folks out there who are willing to learn some stuff, even if it is for a niche market, there will probably always be jobs.
An H1-B is a type of visa that allows non-citizens to be brought in to work certain jobs when there is a lack of qualified individuals in the local employee pool. The system tends to unfortunately be abused by manager$ who know they can pay them less, and demand more of them than they could of a US citizen employee.
I couldn't wait until I was 20 to be able to afford to buy games whenever the hell I felt like it. Been in my 20s for a few years, and been enjoying the GBA most of that time. And in my late 20s, I'll get the newest gameboy incarnation, all the while thinking about failed gaming systems like gamegear, neogeo pocket, and this nokia crap. And I still won't have the slightest hesitation about playing the thing wheerever/whenever I want without any shame.
Then again, I am pretty shameless as it is.
I never thought of it that way; the destruction of Dune in the end of the 5th book always seemed to me to be a better fulfillment of Leto's plan: Humanity is now beyond prophecy because the origin of prophecy has been reduced to a molten rock. But I can definitely see your point about Chapterhouse.
:)
Still, Chapterhouse feels almost as if it is grasping at threads the entire time, and the ending does seem like it wants to be a new beginning, and it might have worked better with a 7th book, but I guess I can't fault the man for dying.
So in an imperfect world I need to choose between thinking of book 5 of 6 as the end, or book 6, which feels more like the first part of an unfinished sequel to the series. But then again, some time back I think Tim O'Reilly made a good point; the last three books basically build off of and restate the lessons that we as readers, and Paul as character should have learned from the first, so maybe after Children of Dune they're all unnecessary.
But personally God Emperor is my favorite
Can't you also use shred to blank individual files?
By easy and fast I mean a minimal effort. Again, I am not talking about myself or suggesting that this is a good practice, I am simply trying to communicate that this is what enables shops to employ low cost labor and help maximize their profits.
Let me try to clarify yet again...
Thesis: Certification will not improve anything because certification is not a guarantee against RR practices.
1st Defence: Using the auto mechanic comparison presented in the original article, certification does not stop auto mechanics from performing unscrupulous practices, therefore similar mandated computer certification would not prevent similar practices in computing.
2nd Defense: Most of the shops I have in my area hire high school kids and pay minimum wage. RRRing the machine is what the kids know (and I suspect what they are taught)n as the best catch all. The benefits of unskilled labor should be clear in this case.
3rd Defense: People don't care how their computer is fixed, as long as they get it back post haste. While I myself do not view RRRing the machine as the best solution, when I judged that it may have been pertainent and suggested it, I am often told "that sounds best to me".
Perhaps I am remiss in my eplanations of this, that is beyond my power to say. You've got me feeling like my back is up against the wall here, so maybe I'll track down a few of those individuals and find out if they remember what I told them.
Now, the whole validity/invalidity of RRRing aside, do you have anything to say about the thesis of my comment?
When best effort isn't even made, it gives other technicians a bad name.
And when did I ever say that I wasn't making things perfectly clear? How often are you 100% sure that you have removed every trace of a virus? How about every nasty little line in the registry? What about every single character in a config file?
Let me turn this around; You give technicians like ME a bad name. Your approach leads people to think that techs like to sit on their hands for days while nothing happens, and then when other problems creep up, we obviously didn't do our jobs right.
When you tell these people that they will just have to grin and bear through re-installing all of their applications and re-configuring the settings it took them months to learn they could change in the first place - many of them will believe you. Why? Because they have no choice.
This is laughably stupid. I have never told anyone they would have to "grin and bear it." And I resent the implication that I would ever leave anyone in such a position. I don't know what kind of unscrupulous character you may have, but when I do RRR someone's machine, I make damned sure that it is working normally. Why? For the simple reason that if they could do this on their own, they wouldn't bring it to me in the first place.
As for their options, I describe to them in plain terms exactly whats wrong, and present them with their options. Again, I cannot say what sort of people you are dealing with, or if you have any communication skills whatsoever, but I let my customers know what is wrong with their machines in a language they can understand.
It's your duty to give them the choice; to service their computer properly and professionally, or at the very least to inform them that they have a choice
Maybe if you had actually read a thing I had said up to this point, you would see that this is exactly what I am saying. Good Lord, man, at what point did I say this was a valid first option? At what point did I ever say I never gave them a choice? When did I ever say "RRR is the way to go every time, no matter what the problem."? When did I ever suggest that I did anything else?
Takes deep breath
Okay, let me try this one more time. RRR should not, would not, and could not be the first solution in the hands of any competent tech. Absolutely, I agree with you 100%. Customers have a right to all of the facts before they make a decision. Again, I think we're on the same ground here, right? Okay, let me address what I think is the source of miscommunication here... (pardon me for quoting myself).
Lets face it, on the common place windows system, 9 times out of 10 the simplest solution is the 3 "r's"; Re-partition, re-format, re-install.
I stand by this. Do I agree that it is the BEST solution 9 times out of ten? A resounding HELL NO is in order. BUT you cannot deny the fact that there are a lot of shops that DO this. And worse.
By simplest, I just mean that a lot of the shops in my area have a tendency to take a quick look at the machine, if they can't fix in 15 minutes, they proceed to reformat. Why? It is simple for them. It takes them less time, and it gives them the opportunity to make more money ("No, sorry, windows works, it'll be another 30$ to reload drivers."). That's all I'm saying.
And maybe you're right. Maybe the masses have ben so brainwashed that they take for granted that reformating is best. Maybe they equate quick with best. I don't know, that's a bit beyond me... but all I was trying to get at is:
1) How many auto mechanics do the same thing?
2) How has requiring certification prevented mechanics from doing this.
There will always be people that prey upon the uninformed. Pick up the Illiad, Gilgamesh, Roshimon, The Holy Bible, whatever story form whatever ancient civilization that you want, and I think you will find that people have been doing this for ages.
Certification will not, can not stop this. All that certification does is show that someone, somewhere, says that youb have the necessary skills required to fix <Fill in the blank here>. It in no way promises that individual has a moral fibre that will hold their baser instincts in check, and prevent them from taking advantage of you.
Another thing, does Joe User know what A+ certified means? Do they care? At the end of the day, I can have every certification in the book, decide that I'm too lazy to work, RRR everything that comes my way, and what penalty? Certification doesn't make the bad people go away. That's all I was trying to say, thank you much.
Pretty please, with sugar on top, if you feel the need to respond, please read my original post again. I think you might then discover that we do not stand on such an uncommon ground after all.
I clean up after my own messes thank you. Why RRR? It's quicker and gets the computer back to the customer faster. Do I make sure it works afterwards? Yeah sure you bet ya. Most of the time people just want it back fast. It is extremely unusual for the common folk to care THAT much about savin data. Basically when push comes to shove, if they don't have a back up already, they would rather just lose everything and re-install then have to wait a day to get email again.
As I said above, this is a matter of ethics and responsibility. I'm sorry you have had such foul experiences, but it you are truly competent you would give your customers what they want instead of satisfying your own testosterone trip. Otherwise people will take their buisiness elsewhere.
Please keep in mind I'm not talking about techs who serve corporate customers, I'm talking mostly about those who consider every problem on their computer to be an "internet" problem. If your customers actually ould prefer you track down a problem and are willing to wait, kudos for being in such a position. But keeping with the comparison with auto mechanics, I was talking about Joe user who simply knows that their car/computer is broken, and they want it back ASAP.
I'm sorry if I was unclear about anything I said before. For myself, I do not dein to question your competance. After all, the opinion of a man who has never had to re-install an OS for any reason does carry with it a certain weight. As does the opinion of a man who is tenacious enough to do it the hard way. I know I can no way compare with your many accomplishments, but I myself have never had any complaints, and I have had many repeat customers. Perhaps my methods are less noble than yours, but they certainly serve my customers and myself well enough
Actually, I meant when you had isolated that there was in fact a problem. Keep in mind we're not talking about some server that has to stay up 24/7, we're talking about mom and pop's new desktop. Believe me, I am well aware of how to solve 90% of problems on windows. For the other 10%, it's usually not worth the hassle.
You hit the nail on the head. In most cases, we're not talking about competancy at ALL. It's purely a matter of honesty and responsibility. Lets face it, on the common place windows system, 9 times out of 10 the simplest solution is the 3 "r's"; Re-partition, re-format, re-install. Any shop that doesn't tell you up front to back up your data ahead of time because they may need to RRR your machine is being irresponsible. At best they should give you a phone call before they do so. This is something that certification would not help guarantee.
Along similar lines, certification will not keep irresponsible or immoral techs from using your computer as if it were there own. I know a lot of people who get their computers back loaded with other email accounts, dial up services, and in some cases even heafty software packages. I think the coup de gras was the tale of a friend of mine; he went to pick up his computer aftr having a new harddrive and ethernet card installed, and the guy at the place couldn't find it. After searcging for 1/2 hour, the clerk found it under a tech's desk, complete with dirt foot print on case. I can't say whether or not they were A+ certified, but everyone who thinks that being so imbues an individual with a sense of scrupulousness or responsibility raise your hand?
I see certification as a way of making more of these problems. Requiring certification would cut down on the number of shops, but that in no way promises that all of them will be the bad ones. If you're really that worried; make a back up, and make sure thatthe shop is insured. And as always, whether it's your car, your computer, or even your physical body, whenever a major operation is suggested, get a second opinion.
Cerufication is by no means an effect substitute to heading to sound advice: caveat emptor.
The Cert advisory says that MS doesn't ship any drivers with this vulnerability. This is a lot different from saying that MS systems are completely uneffected. We're going to have all double check against the actual driver being used by the system (when this list is complete of course) to find out if we are particularly affected by this.
This is hardly the situation presented in "Right to Read." RMS's tale is about people who actually OWN the books not having the right to lend them to other people. This is a public collection being made available on the internet (and not just a single computer, as in "Right to Read").
I actually think this is a good idea, and if this model persists, then I think we'll all be in good shape. Think about it, in real life, when you borrow a book from your local library, you have to bring it back. This is for the simple reason that other people can read it too. If you don't bring it back, you have to buy a copy for the library to replace it. Of course we don't have the same problem here, but without getting into the debate about who gets more money, the authors or the publishers, books are a commodity that need to be paid for to support the authors who write them.
yes, there will be casesof authors releasing their works into public domain, and these individuals should be hailed for their contributions. And works that already ARE in the public domain should be made available online for free, but consider the ramifications of a newly published book by an autho suddenly made available for download without any restrictions. Anyway you slice it, the author is not going to make as much money as from a sale of the book. I grant you, there will always be people (like myself) who prefer the paper version for casual reading, but I do believe that the creator of a piece of art, literature, music, etc., is entitled to decide whether they should be compensated for possessing their work.
Yes the publishing companies are a bit tyranical in their price fixing, copy protection schemes etc., but just as we look forward to the day when people can download a song off of the internet, paying a fair price for doing so, and compensate the artist directly, I think we should also look forward to the day when the same can be done with books. But to support "full time" artists, there must be a system of compensation.
Simply allowing anyone anywhere to get and keep the book is just not a valid option. Yes, I know, these will be posted all over the net by their first check out. The debate of 2003 will become online book sharing, and the coalition of publishers will get together to crush programs like this. But really, it is a GOOD idea. You have the ability to keep the bhook on your computer for weeks without having to pay for it. If you don't finish reading it, you can just check it out again.
Honestly, I think we should be so lucky to have most major libraries doing this by the end of the decade. This, ladies and gentlemen, expands your rights online; make no mistake about that.
I'll second that. I must admit it sounded a little presumptuous when they said that squids would take to the land to fill the void. I also have a hard time buying that in 200 Million + some odd hundred thousand years smart calamari will be running the show.
:)
Of course when you boil it right down, I think it's pretty presumptuous to think you can predict what the future will be like. If we can't even predict what the short term effects of global warming are going to be, how can we determine that squids will become super muscular, grow lungs, and swing through the trees basically acting like modern day monkeys? Some of those beasties would make a nice addition to a Dungeons and Dragons world, but I really don't see how we can even venture a remote guess as to what life will look like in 200 Million years and expect it to be at all accurate.
Besdies the natural events that could occur that we can't even predict, none of this really takes into account the human factor. I am one of those "the planet's not going any where, we are" people, but we DO have the ability to drastically (some might say "traumatically") alter the environment in a very short amount of time.
Plus the idea of whats left of my mortal remains being sucked out of the ground to fill the gas tank of some land squids car is just something I would rather not think about
This from the New York Times: "The card is designed so that even if you know everything about it, you still can't hack it," said Marc Zwillinger, the lead lawyer for DirecTV's anti-piracy efforts.
Am I mistaken, or isn't that a little like saying "I Tripple dog dare you"? Can the DirectTV people seriously believe that this is possible? And furthermore, who's more foolish, the guy for stealing info that is irrelevant (whether it truly is unhackable, or it is hackable and thus would be hacked anyway), or the company for believing that they have done anything but get a whole bunch of new people working on the DirectTV hacking project. Or maybe it's slashdot... YRO? Give me a break, the last thing we need to do is turn people who are blatant criminals into populist heroes. If I rob a music store at gunpoint and get sent away on an armed robbery charge, are my rights on line being infringed upon by the evil machinations of the RIAA?
Associating something like this with YRO makes those who fight the good fight look bad. Don't think you can elevate this blatant theft into some grand crusade, all you can do is make the crusaders look like thugs.
The only way Linux and its free software friends will ever die is if laws like the SSSCA are passed to make it illegal.
That law is way too extreme, the only way it could possibly pass is if we had a corporation bought president whose party has complete control of congress, and whose congressional leaders are on good friendly terms with him.
Oh wait...
Well in any case, the only way it wouldn't get struck down is if we had a judiciary filled with ultra-conservatives who promote corporate interests at every turn, and THAT won't happen unless...
Oh crap.
I don't think it's fair to say it becomes less useful, the more secure system just requires that a user adopt a new set of operating rules that correspond with that system. If your system requires a password of at least 8 chars, chances are that the average user will pick some easy to remember word with some special significance to them, or something which they believe is pretty random but really isn't. If the password has to have a combination of upper case, lower case, numeric, and symbol chars (i.e. %), then it makes your user think of a way of remembering the password. Just because this means writing it down doesn't mean it's that bad to write down new passwords, it's just when you start writing them down all over the place that this becomes a problem.
Now the task becomes mandatory user education that not only tells them the rules of the new password, but also explains WHY to them, and advises them to only write it down once and keep it someplace on their person (like their wallet). The rules are more complicated, but after the user has been educated properly, they will learn these rules and thus be able to use the system more securely.
The convenience of security precautions isn't the issue here, IMHO, the convenience of educating new users properly, and giving them timely reminders, is what makes security such a gordian knot. But it is do-able, and anyone who works anywhere with a Sexual harassment policy knows this: You are given extensive eduaction when you start, and then get annual reminders of the policy. If people treated security of their infrastructure as the human problem that it actually is, and not as the technologgical one that they want it to be, then I would be willing to bet you would see huge increases in the quality of computer security in the work place.
This will of course never happen because it is inconvenient. As long as managers continue to think of security as a tech problem, then the problem will never get solved. The time has come for managers to stop thinking of the construction of a secure network as a tech issue solvable by automation and expensive software, and start thinking of it as a human issue that requires education and practical training. In this way you will be better able to build a network that is both secure and usable.
Only because you sucked ;-)
:)
Note that I said the game play, and not the games themselves were what was tops at the time, and in my mind remains untouched today. Ever since we started to be able to create "realistic" 3d environs, games seem to be overly focused on creating these environments. It just seems to me that at that time, developers were trying to craft a better game, and it was really cool when they could milk their hardware for all it was worth. IMHO, those days were the golden age of gameing and game development.
Then again, thatwas when I was a kid with almost unlimited amounts of disposeable time, and I'm sure my father thinks the same thing about pinball and early arcade machines
games with the quality lesser than that of a 1990 era NES
If you can say that with any degree of seriousness my guess is the answer is no. The graphics are most definitely comparable to a mid-1990s SNES, the 16 bit one, not the NES (the 8 bit).
Besides, I think you're missing the point entirely; far too many modern games suck because they over-emphasize the importance of graphics. I'll take the old Final Fantasy games for the SNES over the newer ones any day for the simple reason that they were more fun. The graphics were usually pretty simple, but the story and game play were always unbeatable, and GBA has done a bit to bring that sort of game play back
Return the CD because it's defective and won't play in your CD player.
Honestly, I'm thinking this is the correct approach to the problem, not to copy the CDs, mind you, becausen that's wrong and stuff (legal disclaimer); but I can't help but think if we buy the CDs and return them because they are broken, then the record companies will lose money. Maybe if they get enough "playable" CDs returned because they are in fact not playable on the devices that their consumers wish to use they'll get the message.
Has anyone else out there tried this?
Will microsoft open source windows? Never. But will they perhaps give away a "basic" version in the hopes that you're going to buy their apps? Perhaps. I can see a future where there is a stripped down version of Windows that Microsoft gives away for free. It comes without any really useful applications, it requires internet activation, is suseptible to automatic updates, and the whole DRM nightmare. In return, you get a free OS for your computer that is capable of running the fine line of Microsoft Home products.
This in no way interfears with the sale of more complete versions for buisiness, developers, and enterprise environments, and allows MS to keep tabs on its user base in a way that is a little more than creepy. Now, you can of course by a personal edition without the rights restrictions, but the free version is what comes pre-installed, so everyone gets used to it. Perhaps the free version even includes some crippled features that only allow applications developed (or approaved) by microsoft to run on it... this really wouldn't be a big anti-trust thing because the OS is, after all, given away, and nothing stops you from spending a few hundred on a version that will let you run other applications.
All those ad wizards have to do is some up with a sugar sweet enough to coat this poison, and this could very well become a dangerous reality. Then again, based on recent history, their ad wizards seem more like bumbling magi, so even if they make the decision, it'll probably be a few years until they can sell it to the masses. But this thought actually scares me; they could maintain an absolute monopoly by just giving away Windows, and even if we get a legitimate DoJ someday, there wouldn't be thing one that they could do to prevent it.
But note well that the article also talks about using gag orders. They're not keeping you from confrnoting your accuser, they're just keeping it out of the papers, so no, this doesn't violate our fine legal system.
This sort of technique is actually used a lot, but usually to protect the identities of minors who are prosecuted as such for high-profile crimes. Personally, I think there is a great deal of sense to it. Sometimes the identities of the victims OR the perpetrators of crimes do need to be protected, but I think that in most cases of this type doing so is unfair to investors, shareholders, and clients.
I fully realize that there is no such thing as perfect security, nor will there ever be. But investors, shareholders, and clients of a given company have the right to know how their money/data was comprimised, and what the company is doing to correct the problem, and ensure it never happens again. But then again, it's also important to realize that when there IS a security compromise (as there inevitably will be) that the company is going to go to the appropriate authorities. I read someone else's comment comparing this to robbing a bank. I sure as hell want the bank president to call the sherrif when a whole bunch of money gets taken.
This is definitely going into some stick ground. But then again, most legal matters ARE very sticky buisiness.
Neither outstanding or terrible, it ranks as a decent, average book on programming on the linux system. Although I would recommend Beginning Linux Programming by Wrox over this one, based solely on the fact that it covers so much more material in roughly the same amount of detail. Still, Linux Programming By Example costs a little bit less (at least when I got it), and while the Wrox book covers more, LPbE does cover a few things that the Wroc book doesn't.
On the whole I would say it really deserves a 6.5 or a 7. It's worth getting if you're looking to learn about programming on a POSIX system, but if you already have a book on the topic, you might want to save your money.
Amen, I've had a professor who would churn out C code for the example projects that would curl your hair, and refused to even consider Perl as a programming language because he thought it was an awful mess.
Perl lets you make messy code, and relies on the programmer to actually be responsible in churning out something that anyone who knows the language can pick up and read. Sure, making one liners on the fly to get something done is a neat ability, but IMHO, a good programmer will ADD the extra few lines of code for the sake of readability when readability is an issue.