No matter what you believe, this is a Good Thing for science education. Science is the systematic determination of facts by rigorously testing theories.
Intelligent design may or may not be right, but it really doesn't belong in the teaching of science, especially at levels where students are easily moldable. I would be more than willing to accept intelligent design when facts emerge. This will happen in my eyes when the magical nonexistent being comes down from the sky and tells us why he started the whole ball rolling. Until then, I'm comfortable with pure science, thanks.
I'm not sure what kind of FDA-equivalent the Indian government has, but there's definitely an advantage to conducting your human trials in places where people aren't breathing down your neck.
I'll bet that India and the rest of the "developing" world will be the next scientific powers given their highly educated and motivated workforce, and the fact that they're a little less backward when it comes to science. Example: South Korea is taking on a cloning project while we're still fighting over teaching evolution in school, abortion and stem cell research.
Sometimes it makes me wish we'd let the South win the civil war. They could live in backward redneck-land and the rest of the country could get on with evolving the species.
Web designers should design their pages to accomodate whatever font the user requires. I often use Firefox's Increase and Decrease Font Size features to make text more readable for me, especially if it's latw at night and I'm looking at a web page filled with financial data, etc. Well-designed sites seem to work well with the feature; others that use boundaries, tables, etc. to "force" text into certain areas of the page don't scale well at all. Also, the user should be able to switch between sans serif and serif fonts depending on whether they're scanning for data (sans-serif) or doing long-term reading (serif.)
Someone should tell the design community that every user can't read every point size or font face well on their computer. This becomes increasingly important now that LCDs have such tiny native resolutions. Large ones can came native at 1400x1050 now, making default font sizes incredibly small for those of us not blessed with perfect vision. For those who don't need magnifying software on their computer but also don't want to run a high-end LCD at a lousy resolution, this is the best idea.
The Chinese have a lot of advantages. The first is sheer numbers...a higher number of people can be educated and work in the technology field. All other offshoring destinations (India, etc.) have this same advantage. The second is control; the Chinese government can still crack down and force people to do things that may otherwise be unpopular. The Soviet Union was famous for this when they forced the industrialization of Russia in a very short period of time. The third is an educational advantage. The only way to get ahead in Chinese society is education, and it seems from the numbers that parents drum this into their kids' heads right from the start.
I think that one of the things we could do to reverse the trend is to find a way to graduate more students in math/science/engineering. They're being scared off because they think that the only jobs left in this country will be in management. I can't say I blame them either.
Tulane's a special case, of course, but I could definitely see some schools deciding to cut back on the science and engineering programs given what's happening. Unfortunately it's a vicious cycle.
1. Students see all the technical jobs either becoming quite low-paying compared to business/management positions, or they see them moving completely overseas. (Example: When all the tech support reps are over in other countries, how is the entry-level IT guy going to get a career started? 2. Student decides that management is a safer bet, no matter how much they might enjoy tech and engineering. 3. Student enrolls in/switches major to business. 4. Engineering and science enrollment drops. 5. School can't justify spending more money to keep a program that no one wants to pursue.
I don't know what it will take to get people interested in science and technology again. I'm thinking it would have to be some grand project like the Apollo program in the 60s...something everyone could get behind.
Got any project ideas??:-) I'd propose an alternative fuels project...just watch those engineering dollars flow in after that!! We could fix our entire middle east problem in one shot.
...and the reason you're leaving. I actually just started a new job; had to leave my previous employer of 5+ years because they decided to move HQ out of state. When I gave my notice, I simply told them why and said I'd do whatever is needed to get my projects transitioned. I kept my accounts for the whole two weeks, and I had access to incredibly sensitive stuff that could affect way more than the company I was working for at the time.
I think it has something to do with professionalism. Most places who hire good IT folks and trust them expect them to adhere to an (albeit unwritten) code of ethics that compels them to not destroy anything or steal data.
If you've managed to keep a professional relationship with everyone AND your company isn't totally paranoid AND your boss trusts you, then you'll have full access. That said, I do know of places where you immediately get kicked out of the building and lose access to everything at the instant you turn in your resignation.
At least they're paying you...take a vacation and/or learn something new with all this wonderful free time you have!!:-)
I know if I was a kid, the most coveted games for me would be rated "AO" or "M", just because I technically couldn't buy them. As a kid, even if my parents were religious freaks, I would have just gone down the street to my friend's house, whose parents choose to expose their kids to everything instead of locking them up in a bubble.
I think the game manufacturers are probably quite happy with the ESRN simply because it adds an extra incentive to buy that title for kids who "can't". It's kind of like slapping those "explicit lyrics" stickers on CDs...doesn't do a thing.
I'll bet you won't find anything for free, but believe it or not, Microsoft bases its Operations Fraework (MOF) loosely on ITIL. Here's the overview: Microsoft Operations Framework.
It's not the end-all of systems management, but it's a whole lot better than no guidance at all. I'm still surprised at the skill level of some Windows system administrators...I thought the whole dotcom thing was shaking out most of them.
I'm far from a "grizzled old veteran", but I've been expsed to IT since the early 80s and have studied and worked on systems that are much older. Large-installation machines like the VAX/VMS and mainframe world revolved around procedures, which is one of the reasons uptime is so high compared to the commodity server world. ITIL tries to frame up those procedures into a usable model, and it mostly does a good job. The big problem, as mentioned by others in this thread, is that one of these things tend to happen: (1) No one buys into the "new order" and circumvents everything, making the whole ITIL thing a useless layer of paperwork, (2) One of the consulting companies gets their paws on your CIO. Your company then spends 7 figures on EDS/IBM/Accenture/ "consultants" who are "IT operations experts" that just graduated from college. (Have I seen this before? Naah.:-))
Actually, that's a pretty cynical view. Just be careful about screening anyone or any company/tool you bring in to help you out.
This project has a few things working for it and against it at the same time. One thing against it is the sheer size of Canada. Admittedly, I'm sure they're not going for all the middle-of-nowhere places way up in the north, but it's still a huge landmass. One thing for it is that "the phone company" is behind it. This means they can use existing lines, poles, towers, central offices, etc. to deploy infrastructure. I'm pretty sure telcos are deregulated in Canada too, but I also know that something like this could never happen with the telcos in the US simply because they'd be stepping all over each other. Remember how impossible it was to get DSL when it first came out? We've got cable modem service, but last I heard it was still not the easiest thing in the world.
I think it's mostly due to laziness. (I'm typing this while waiting for a server build to finish.) I don't think the traditional work ethic exists for most people anymore...even getting people to do the absolute minimum work required is like pulling teeth.
I think the Europeans have it right...they work like crazy (especially Germans) but have a ton of vacation to make up for it. We're lucky if we get two weeks, and even luckier if we get to use it during the year. I routinely hear from people in Europe things like, "Oh, summer was great...we went to Italy for six weeks."
Companies offshore all the time. The big significance of this is that Microsoft is one of those places where much of the R&D is still being done in the US. They probably perceive that they're not getting the same quality of new talent from the education system. Like it or not, the assertions that education overseas takes a much higher priority in people's lives is absolutely true. If the US doesn't want to become a nation of low-skilled workers and managers, we need to think about this.
Research and development will continue to move to countries where the workforce is better educated. If you don't want this to happen, and you have kids, you'd better beat it into them that the only way they'll be able to compete with millions of Chinese or Indians is through brainpower.
I don't know about the rest of the IT world, but I approach my job from an engineering perspective. I test, document, and research things very carefully. Consequently, stuff I build or design doesn't break often, and it's simpler to fix when it does.
I don't see this kind of approach followed by a lot of people in IT. There's a lot of "hack on it until it works" going on. Granted, sometimes that's the only way to solve truly wierd problems in a timely manner, but at least document your hacks!!
I don't get all the fuzz about problem-solving. What's so special about it? Why has it suddenly become so important?
Lack of problem solving and critical thinking skills is a major problem these days in companies and in general. Do you work in the corporate world? There is a big lack of ability to do big-picture, innovative thinking anymore. People are very good about following set procedures, but those jobs are going overseas. Think about it...how much creative skill does it take to tell someone their credit card balance over the phone, or reboot a server when it's hung? This is exactly why white-collar outsourcing is happening, and people who aren't armed with a good head for larger-scale tasks are in for a lot of trouble.
I did technical support in large companies...it's mind-boggling how many people can't understand basic cause-and-effect reasoning.
It is very true that most Windows deployments have more admins than Unix or Linux ones. I think there are two reasons:
1. Unix/Linux systems are generally more locked down. More of the "guts" of any application generally lives on the server side, and users have very specific ways of interacting with their computers. This way, the geeks in the server room run most of the show...Windows installations are very desktop support-intensive. Even in places where people are given control over their desktops, there are fewer things to break. In contrast, Windows systems are very open...even fully managed systems still give the feel of full control. Often, Windows admins are faced with applications that may (or may not, and they just don't know it) require broad rights on the user's system, and they just give them the access.
2. Until very recently, tasks on Windows systems were not very easy to automate. Even now, the scripting capabilities could be much more intuitive if tweaked. A lot of Windows admins are of the mindset that scripting is code, and they don't touch code. That's an atttitude that has to change. In my opinion, Microsoft was smart to build all their sample script code around Visual Basic...it's at least readable by a novice admin. I couldn't imagine teaching some Windows admins Perl...they'd give up in a day and go back to manually visiting all their systems!!
Now that Windows systems have automation capabilities that can actually be trusted, the playing field might change.
I agree school should be harder, but I think it should be more grounded in science and reason than philosophy and other intangibles.
If there were more science education, this creation debate wouldn't even come up. People would understand the scientific method, cause and effect, and be able to separate fact from what isn't proven to be fact.
The side benefit is that we'd actually end up with a society of smart people to compete with those being turned out overseas right now. The attitude in other countries towards school is night and day compared to us. Elsewhere, it's a shameful thing to fail at something or be stupid. Here, it doesn't matter as long as you had a good time.
Bush is lucky...all sorts of different things are coming together to give the religious nuts control of the country for quite some time to come: 1. He gets to appoint at least one, if not two, Supreme Court justices. 2. All the religious conservatives are in an uproar over Islam and terrorism, so they'll go along with anything that they think will help wipe them out. Listen to some of the nuts on talk radio if you don't believe me. There's more of them than you think! 3. The congressional majorities will ensure the most of his policies will be put through without much of a fight.
I wouldn't be surprised if he started tying federal education aid to a requirement for school prayer and teaching of creationism.
Why is it that every religious person wants to live in the Dark Ages?? I guess it eliminates the need for scientific research...after all, God causes cancer and other bad things to happen to evil people he doesn't like, right?
Maybe we shouldn't ban religion altogether, but I think we should consider limiting public support for it. If everyone devoted the same amount of fervor and energy to science and learning, we'd be a much happier species. And we wouldn't be building shrines to nonexistent beings either.:)
I come from a multi-platform world (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Unix, etc.) and was wondering what Microsoft's long-term interoperability plans are. When Windows NT 4.0 first came out, File & Print Services for NetWare and Services for Macintosh were very useful tools for getting NT servers into the building. These tools still exist, but I just want to know if Microsoft plans to open up even more given that there's even more interconnections between systems now than there was in 1996. Windows Server 2003 may be a great OS, but it's not the only one in use for most places.
Basically, what can we expect in the way of Unix/Linux integration tools for the future?
Don't be surprised to see floppies sticking around for a little more time. Think of all the countless small companies whose "computer guys" still run around with DOS boot floppies to kick off a Windows installation. Just because MS stopped supporting it doesn't mean it's not still around. I can't imagine why people would want to fuss with LAN Manager config files in 2005 and wait 2 minutes for a system to boot though.
What might happen is a huge jump in the price of media and drives. OKI is getting nearly $500 for a cheapo dot-matrix printer simply because they know people's business processes are tied to multi-part forms and/or parallel text-only printers.
These are actually a great idea in highly managed environments. You can keep storage centralized, you don't have to worry about putting PCs on every new hire's desk, etc. Plus, the virus-of-the-week can be dealt with more effectively if all the PCs are stored in a central location.
The problem I see with blade anything these days is a lack of industry standards. If your vendor decides to stop making a particular blade design, well, you're out of luck if you want to use your old chassis. If manufacturers can agree on blade specs that everyone will follow (kind of like the motherboard standards,) then these will really catch on in "paranoid" environments.
It's amazing how much things come back around in IT-land. Thin client desktops are kind of like dumb terminals. "On-demand" computing brings back the idea of time-shared computer equipment, process accounting, etc.
Dell would probably have to change their entire production philosophy first. If I order a PC from them, even if I order a server from them, I get whatever random components they have in the bin that meet the specs. It makes it very hard to standardize an IT department on Dell equipment. People buy HPs and IBMs simply because they know they can get the same machine for the next few months rather than play around with yet another brand of component.
The reason why Mac OS works so well currently is because Apple can do QA on a small set of hardware they know the composition of. They know what components go into an iMac G5 versus a 17" PowerBook G4. Can the same be said for the Dell Dimension Build of the Week?
I think people are forgetting what a change Windows 2000 was compared to Windows NT 4.0. The amount of effort required to migrate a large, established NT 4 domain set to Active Directory is huge. 2000 to 2003 isn't as big a migration...mostly broken apps are the main concern, not seamlessly moving 50,000 users and workstations from one authentication method to another without changing their passwords or access rights!!
Because of this, a lot of large organizations still have lots of Win2K and even NT in them. Very large and very small companies tend to hold off on upgrades as long as possible. Coming from a place with lots of NT, I can tell you that we're only migrating off NT because hardware that supports it simply isn't available anymore.
The other factor is the length of some migration projects and contracts. Corporate timescales just don't natch the release schedules Microsoft and other companies are pushing for now.
VHS tapes are still around because it's still the default format for recording video without DVD equipment or Tivo. THere's a huge infrastructure built up...TV stations still use VHS tapes.
Look at 3.5" floppy drives and disks. There's no technical reason for them to be around anymore, with USB sticks out there at giveaway prices. However, some older PC BIOSs don't support booting from a USB stick, and certain peripherals don't allow firmware updates from anything other than floppies.
Tapes will be aorund until the whole videotape infrastructure has been replaced. Now that floppies are going away, the drives aren't included by default. In fact, the retail price of them has increased!
Booms are good. Insane run-ups like the dot-com boom in 1998-2000 are not. I graduated right into it, and ended up working in IT for decidedly non-dotcom companies the entire time. My reasoning: I was learning, so I might as well start with an established company. Turns out that was the right decision, even though it really bothered me watching people I knew changing jobs every 6 months for 30-40% pay increases!
If you want another example of a bad boom, just look at the housing market lately. I read a statistic the other day that said interest-only mortgages have reached 40% of all loans made in some housing markets. Just wait until interest rates go back up and the interest-only period ends. People will be paying way too much on houses that aren't worth nearly what they bought them for. I see this going on in my area, and I just wonder when the market is going to tank.
One thing I've found is that, like it or not, a degree is a required entry ticket for many jobs now. You may say to yourself, "All the technical jobs are going overseas and we're all going to wind up salesmen and managers anyway." That may be true, but can it hurt to give yourself an edge in whatever economy comes up?
One problem with this requirement is that it steers *everyone* into higher education. Some people, shocking as it may be, don't belong there. People are forgetting that humans have a range of abilities. Some are higher-functioning than others!
Jobs was right to mention that new grads shouldn't think they're better than everyone else. One of the common things I've found working in IT is that the big consulting companies tend to foster this attitude. They hire people directly from school, who've never worked in their lives before, and think they're all that. They're often surprised when they find out they're just as fallable as the rest of us.
The outsourcing countries have major advantages that we would require significant adjustment to overcome:
1. They've got a huge workforce of people who are overjoyed to work. If your choice was between call center/coding/offshored clerical work and whatever job you could get back in your village, what would you choose? I'm actually working on a partially outsourced project now...a couple of our developers went over to India to work, and they report that people are more than happy to work 15-16 hour days. 2. The standard of living is much lower. Everyone doesn't need the newest car, latest clothes or an expensive house. In the US, a lot of the salary inflation is because keeping up in the consumer universe is so expensive. 3. Education is considered important. Those stories you hear of immigrant students doing much better in school are true. It's considered shameful to fail in most other countries. True, we may not be graduating as many scientists and engineers because the employment prospects are so dismal, but I think it's mainly because parents don't push their kids to do well as much as they do in other countries. If/when I have kids, they will be education robots...nothing but study until they're finished with school. That's the only way we can compete.
So in comparison, we have an expensive, undereducated country with a poor work ethic. No wonder we're losing this battle!
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No matter what you believe, this is a Good Thing for science education. Science is the systematic determination of facts by rigorously testing theories.
Intelligent design may or may not be right, but it really doesn't belong in the teaching of science, especially at levels where students are easily moldable. I would be more than willing to accept intelligent design when facts emerge. This will happen in my eyes when the magical nonexistent being comes down from the sky and tells us why he started the whole ball rolling. Until then, I'm comfortable with pure science, thanks.
I'm not sure what kind of FDA-equivalent the Indian government has, but there's definitely an advantage to conducting your human trials in places where people aren't breathing down your neck.
I'll bet that India and the rest of the "developing" world will be the next scientific powers given their highly educated and motivated workforce, and the fact that they're a little less backward when it comes to science. Example: South Korea is taking on a cloning project while we're still fighting over teaching evolution in school, abortion and stem cell research.
Sometimes it makes me wish we'd let the South win the civil war. They could live in backward redneck-land and the rest of the country could get on with evolving the species.
Web designers should design their pages to accomodate whatever font the user requires. I often use Firefox's Increase and Decrease Font Size features to make text more readable for me, especially if it's latw at night and I'm looking at a web page filled with financial data, etc. Well-designed sites seem to work well with the feature; others that use boundaries, tables, etc. to "force" text into certain areas of the page don't scale well at all. Also, the user should be able to switch between sans serif and serif fonts depending on whether they're scanning for data (sans-serif) or doing long-term reading (serif.)
Someone should tell the design community that every user can't read every point size or font face well on their computer. This becomes increasingly important now that LCDs have such tiny native resolutions. Large ones can came native at 1400x1050 now, making default font sizes incredibly small for those of us not blessed with perfect vision. For those who don't need magnifying software on their computer but also don't want to run a high-end LCD at a lousy resolution, this is the best idea.
The Chinese have a lot of advantages. The first is sheer numbers...a higher number of people can be educated and work in the technology field. All other offshoring destinations (India, etc.) have this same advantage. The second is control; the Chinese government can still crack down and force people to do things that may otherwise be unpopular. The Soviet Union was famous for this when they forced the industrialization of Russia in a very short period of time. The third is an educational advantage. The only way to get ahead in Chinese society is education, and it seems from the numbers that parents drum this into their kids' heads right from the start.
I think that one of the things we could do to reverse the trend is to find a way to graduate more students in math/science/engineering. They're being scared off because they think that the only jobs left in this country will be in management. I can't say I blame them either.
Tulane's a special case, of course, but I could definitely see some schools deciding to cut back on the science and engineering programs given what's happening. Unfortunately it's a vicious cycle.
:-) I'd propose an alternative fuels project...just watch those engineering dollars flow in after that!! We could fix our entire middle east problem in one shot.
1. Students see all the technical jobs either becoming quite low-paying compared to business/management positions, or they see them moving completely overseas. (Example: When all the tech support reps are over in other countries, how is the entry-level IT guy going to get a career started?
2. Student decides that management is a safer bet, no matter how much they might enjoy tech and engineering.
3. Student enrolls in/switches major to business.
4. Engineering and science enrollment drops.
5. School can't justify spending more money to keep a program that no one wants to pursue.
I don't know what it will take to get people interested in science and technology again. I'm thinking it would have to be some grand project like the Apollo program in the 60s...something everyone could get behind.
Got any project ideas??
...and the reason you're leaving. I actually just started a new job; had to leave my previous employer of 5+ years because they decided to move HQ out of state. When I gave my notice, I simply told them why and said I'd do whatever is needed to get my projects transitioned. I kept my accounts for the whole two weeks, and I had access to incredibly sensitive stuff that could affect way more than the company I was working for at the time.
:-)
I think it has something to do with professionalism. Most places who hire good IT folks and trust them expect them to adhere to an (albeit unwritten) code of ethics that compels them to not destroy anything or steal data.
If you've managed to keep a professional relationship with everyone AND your company isn't totally paranoid AND your boss trusts you, then you'll have full access. That said, I do know of places where you immediately get kicked out of the building and lose access to everything at the instant you turn in your resignation.
At least they're paying you...take a vacation and/or learn something new with all this wonderful free time you have!!
I know if I was a kid, the most coveted games for me would be rated "AO" or "M", just because I technically couldn't buy them. As a kid, even if my parents were religious freaks, I would have just gone down the street to my friend's house, whose parents choose to expose their kids to everything instead of locking them up in a bubble.
I think the game manufacturers are probably quite happy with the ESRN simply because it adds an extra incentive to buy that title for kids who "can't". It's kind of like slapping those "explicit lyrics" stickers on CDs...doesn't do a thing.
So help me, if I have one more vendor ask me "are you considering server consolidation," I will lose my ever-loving mind.
:)
Give it a few more years. Everything's cyclical.
Virtual machines on mainframes -> loosely-coupled PCs -> virtual machines on "mainframe-class" servers with thin clients
Locked-down IBM/DEC vendor procedures -> no procedures -> ITIL.
I can't wait to see what the next cycle brings.
I'll bet you won't find anything for free, but believe it or not, Microsoft bases its Operations Fraework (MOF) loosely on ITIL. Here's the overview: Microsoft Operations Framework.
It's not the end-all of systems management, but it's a whole lot better than no guidance at all. I'm still surprised at the skill level of some Windows system administrators...I thought the whole dotcom thing was shaking out most of them.
I'm far from a "grizzled old veteran", but I've been expsed to IT since the early 80s and have studied and worked on systems that are much older. Large-installation machines like the VAX/VMS and mainframe world revolved around procedures, which is one of the reasons uptime is so high compared to the commodity server world. ITIL tries to frame up those procedures into a usable model, and it mostly does a good job. The big problem, as mentioned by others in this thread, is that one of these things tend to happen: (1) No one buys into the "new order" and circumvents everything, making the whole ITIL thing a useless layer of paperwork, (2) One of the consulting companies gets their paws on your CIO. Your company then spends 7 figures on EDS/IBM/Accenture/ "consultants" who are "IT operations experts" that just graduated from college. (Have I seen this before? Naah. :-))
Actually, that's a pretty cynical view. Just be careful about screening anyone or any company/tool you bring in to help you out.
This project has a few things working for it and against it at the same time. One thing against it is the sheer size of Canada. Admittedly, I'm sure they're not going for all the middle-of-nowhere places way up in the north, but it's still a huge landmass. One thing for it is that "the phone company" is behind it. This means they can use existing lines, poles, towers, central offices, etc. to deploy infrastructure. I'm pretty sure telcos are deregulated in Canada too, but I also know that something like this could never happen with the telcos in the US simply because they'd be stepping all over each other. Remember how impossible it was to get DSL when it first came out? We've got cable modem service, but last I heard it was still not the easiest thing in the world.
I think it's mostly due to laziness. (I'm typing this while waiting for a server build to finish.) I don't think the traditional work ethic exists for most people anymore...even getting people to do the absolute minimum work required is like pulling teeth.
I think the Europeans have it right...they work like crazy (especially Germans) but have a ton of vacation to make up for it. We're lucky if we get two weeks, and even luckier if we get to use it during the year. I routinely hear from people in Europe things like, "Oh, summer was great...we went to Italy for six weeks."
Companies offshore all the time. The big significance of this is that Microsoft is one of those places where much of the R&D is still being done in the US. They probably perceive that they're not getting the same quality of new talent from the education system. Like it or not, the assertions that education overseas takes a much higher priority in people's lives is absolutely true. If the US doesn't want to become a nation of low-skilled workers and managers, we need to think about this.
Research and development will continue to move to countries where the workforce is better educated. If you don't want this to happen, and you have kids, you'd better beat it into them that the only way they'll be able to compete with millions of Chinese or Indians is through brainpower.
I don't know about the rest of the IT world, but I approach my job from an engineering perspective. I test, document, and research things very carefully. Consequently, stuff I build or design doesn't break often, and it's simpler to fix when it does.
I don't see this kind of approach followed by a lot of people in IT. There's a lot of "hack on it until it works" going on. Granted, sometimes that's the only way to solve truly wierd problems in a timely manner, but at least document your hacks!!
I don't get all the fuzz about problem-solving. What's so special about it? Why has it suddenly become so important?
Lack of problem solving and critical thinking skills is a major problem these days in companies and in general. Do you work in the corporate world? There is a big lack of ability to do big-picture, innovative thinking anymore. People are very good about following set procedures, but those jobs are going overseas. Think about it...how much creative skill does it take to tell someone their credit card balance over the phone, or reboot a server when it's hung? This is exactly why white-collar outsourcing is happening, and people who aren't armed with a good head for larger-scale tasks are in for a lot of trouble.
I did technical support in large companies...it's mind-boggling how many people can't understand basic cause-and-effect reasoning.
Disclaimer: I work on both sides of the fence.
It is very true that most Windows deployments have more admins than Unix or Linux ones. I think there are two reasons:
1. Unix/Linux systems are generally more locked down. More of the "guts" of any application generally lives on the server side, and users have very specific ways of interacting with their computers. This way, the geeks in the server room run most of the show...Windows installations are very desktop support-intensive. Even in places where people are given control over their desktops, there are fewer things to break. In contrast, Windows systems are very open...even fully managed systems still give the feel of full control. Often, Windows admins are faced with applications that may (or may not, and they just don't know it) require broad rights on the user's system, and they just give them the access.
2. Until very recently, tasks on Windows systems were not very easy to automate. Even now, the scripting capabilities could be much more intuitive if tweaked. A lot of Windows admins are of the mindset that scripting is code, and they don't touch code. That's an atttitude that has to change. In my opinion, Microsoft was smart to build all their sample script code around Visual Basic...it's at least readable by a novice admin. I couldn't imagine teaching some Windows admins Perl...they'd give up in a day and go back to manually visiting all their systems!!
Now that Windows systems have automation capabilities that can actually be trusted, the playing field might change.
I agree school should be harder, but I think it should be more grounded in science and reason than philosophy and other intangibles.
If there were more science education, this creation debate wouldn't even come up. People would understand the scientific method, cause and effect, and be able to separate fact from what isn't proven to be fact.
The side benefit is that we'd actually end up with a society of smart people to compete with those being turned out overseas right now. The attitude in other countries towards school is night and day compared to us. Elsewhere, it's a shameful thing to fail at something or be stupid. Here, it doesn't matter as long as you had a good time.
Bush is lucky...all sorts of different things are coming together to give the religious nuts control of the country for quite some time to come:
:)
1. He gets to appoint at least one, if not two, Supreme Court justices.
2. All the religious conservatives are in an uproar over Islam and terrorism, so they'll go along with anything that they think will help wipe them out. Listen to some of the nuts on talk radio if you don't believe me. There's more of them than you think!
3. The congressional majorities will ensure the most of his policies will be put through without much of a fight.
I wouldn't be surprised if he started tying federal education aid to a requirement for school prayer and teaching of creationism.
Why is it that every religious person wants to live in the Dark Ages?? I guess it eliminates the need for scientific research...after all, God causes cancer and other bad things to happen to evil people he doesn't like, right?
Maybe we shouldn't ban religion altogether, but I think we should consider limiting public support for it. If everyone devoted the same amount of fervor and energy to science and learning, we'd be a much happier species. And we wouldn't be building shrines to nonexistent beings either.
I come from a multi-platform world (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Unix, etc.) and was wondering what Microsoft's long-term interoperability plans are. When Windows NT 4.0 first came out, File & Print Services for NetWare and Services for Macintosh were very useful tools for getting NT servers into the building. These tools still exist, but I just want to know if Microsoft plans to open up even more given that there's even more interconnections between systems now than there was in 1996. Windows Server 2003 may be a great OS, but it's not the only one in use for most places.
Basically, what can we expect in the way of Unix/Linux integration tools for the future?
Don't be surprised to see floppies sticking around for a little more time. Think of all the countless small companies whose "computer guys" still run around with DOS boot floppies to kick off a Windows installation. Just because MS stopped supporting it doesn't mean it's not still around. I can't imagine why people would want to fuss with LAN Manager config files in 2005 and wait 2 minutes for a system to boot though.
What might happen is a huge jump in the price of media and drives. OKI is getting nearly $500 for a cheapo dot-matrix printer simply because they know people's business processes are tied to multi-part forms and/or parallel text-only printers.
...the more they stay the same.
3270 -> PC -> 3270 with a PC look and feel.
These are actually a great idea in highly managed environments. You can keep storage centralized, you don't have to worry about putting PCs on every new hire's desk, etc. Plus, the virus-of-the-week can be dealt with more effectively if all the PCs are stored in a central location.
The problem I see with blade anything these days is a lack of industry standards. If your vendor decides to stop making a particular blade design, well, you're out of luck if you want to use your old chassis. If manufacturers can agree on blade specs that everyone will follow (kind of like the motherboard standards,) then these will really catch on in "paranoid" environments.
It's amazing how much things come back around in IT-land. Thin client desktops are kind of like dumb terminals. "On-demand" computing brings back the idea of time-shared computer equipment, process accounting, etc.
Dell would probably have to change their entire production philosophy first. If I order a PC from them, even if I order a server from them, I get whatever random components they have in the bin that meet the specs. It makes it very hard to standardize an IT department on Dell equipment. People buy HPs and IBMs simply because they know they can get the same machine for the next few months rather than play around with yet another brand of component.
The reason why Mac OS works so well currently is because Apple can do QA on a small set of hardware they know the composition of. They know what components go into an iMac G5 versus a 17" PowerBook G4. Can the same be said for the Dell Dimension Build of the Week?
I think people are forgetting what a change Windows 2000 was compared to Windows NT 4.0. The amount of effort required to migrate a large, established NT 4 domain set to Active Directory is huge. 2000 to 2003 isn't as big a migration...mostly broken apps are the main concern, not seamlessly moving 50,000 users and workstations from one authentication method to another without changing their passwords or access rights!!
Because of this, a lot of large organizations still have lots of Win2K and even NT in them. Very large and very small companies tend to hold off on upgrades as long as possible. Coming from a place with lots of NT, I can tell you that we're only migrating off NT because hardware that supports it simply isn't available anymore.
The other factor is the length of some migration projects and contracts. Corporate timescales just don't natch the release schedules Microsoft and other companies are pushing for now.
VHS tapes are still around because it's still the default format for recording video without DVD equipment or Tivo. THere's a huge infrastructure built up...TV stations still use VHS tapes.
Look at 3.5" floppy drives and disks. There's no technical reason for them to be around anymore, with USB sticks out there at giveaway prices. However, some older PC BIOSs don't support booting from a USB stick, and certain peripherals don't allow firmware updates from anything other than floppies.
Tapes will be aorund until the whole videotape infrastructure has been replaced. Now that floppies are going away, the drives aren't included by default. In fact, the retail price of them has increased!
Booms are good. Insane run-ups like the dot-com boom in 1998-2000 are not. I graduated right into it, and ended up working in IT for decidedly non-dotcom companies the entire time. My reasoning: I was learning, so I might as well start with an established company. Turns out that was the right decision, even though it really bothered me watching people I knew changing jobs every 6 months for 30-40% pay increases!
If you want another example of a bad boom, just look at the housing market lately. I read a statistic the other day that said interest-only mortgages have reached 40% of all loans made in some housing markets. Just wait until interest rates go back up and the interest-only period ends. People will be paying way too much on houses that aren't worth nearly what they bought them for. I see this going on in my area, and I just wonder when the market is going to tank.
One thing I've found is that, like it or not, a degree is a required entry ticket for many jobs now. You may say to yourself, "All the technical jobs are going overseas and we're all going to wind up salesmen and managers anyway." That may be true, but can it hurt to give yourself an edge in whatever economy comes up?
One problem with this requirement is that it steers *everyone* into higher education. Some people, shocking as it may be, don't belong there. People are forgetting that humans have a range of abilities. Some are higher-functioning than others!
Jobs was right to mention that new grads shouldn't think they're better than everyone else. One of the common things I've found working in IT is that the big consulting companies tend to foster this attitude. They hire people directly from school, who've never worked in their lives before, and think they're all that. They're often surprised when they find out they're just as fallable as the rest of us.
The outsourcing countries have major advantages that we would require significant adjustment to overcome:
1. They've got a huge workforce of people who are overjoyed to work. If your choice was between call center/coding/offshored clerical work and whatever job you could get back in your village, what would you choose? I'm actually working on a partially outsourced project now...a couple of our developers went over to India to work, and they report that people are more than happy to work 15-16 hour days.
2. The standard of living is much lower. Everyone doesn't need the newest car, latest clothes or an expensive house. In the US, a lot of the salary inflation is because keeping up in the consumer universe is so expensive.
3. Education is considered important. Those stories you hear of immigrant students doing much better in school are true. It's considered shameful to fail in most other countries. True, we may not be graduating as many scientists and engineers because the employment prospects are so dismal, but I think it's mainly because parents don't push their kids to do well as much as they do in other countries. If/when I have kids, they will be education robots...nothing but study until they're finished with school. That's the only way we can compete.
So in comparison, we have an expensive, undereducated country with a poor work ethic. No wonder we're losing this battle!