i'm so tired of everyone casting a good light on GWB and his stupid, idiotic war to raise profits for the oil companies and destabilize the globe, bringing even greater profits for arms dealers. a lot more people are getting messed up in this iraq conflict, so we need to be vigilant and make sure we recognize that a lot more people than ever before are coming back wounded and traumatized for life all for a big freakin' WMD lie.
bullshit. I've been working as a paid (professional) network admin for 15 years and am having a helluva time getting a job after spending the years post-9/11 out of work. just finished working for a company for 6 months doing a massive amount of work because they were a small biz that had never hired a full-time IT person -- for 126 years of business. certainly most folks have retired win98 by now...which I just completed in May. Danged budget shortfalls...
in any case, I'm hoping that more people will get on the bandwagon and give some cred to those of us who've worked hard to study up on emerging technologies and implement and maintain helpful technology in our companies (the newest tech isn't always necessary). often we walk the hamster wheel of progress, latching onto new technologies that are more the result of marketing & make-a-buck (microsoft) than of true necessity.
powerpoint files can be saved as acrobat files if you own adobe acrobat. just last night i ran into the same problem, and the acrobat version is only 20% the size of the powerpoint file.
QUOTE: >3 things that management and I currently don't see eye to eye on:
>1) The main job of IS is connectivity. No, the main role of IS is to help the business use technology effectively. Yes, you must provide connectivity but certainly once connectivity is in place, you can move on to other more interesting tasks
>2) IS involvement in other divisions isn't necessary Baloney. IS should be involved in ALL the divisions of a company. After all, you have the ability to help each area of the company select the most appropriate technology; and doing so will make your workload much easier than just having other people's decisions thrust upon you. Maybe you feel overloaded, but don't twist the objectives of IS to fit your whims.
>3)I'm too overloaded. With 93 permanent users and 110 workstations Yes, that's obvious. I ran a 7-location real estate agency with 85 employees and 500+ real estate agents, so I know how difficult it can be supporting multiple users with only *1* member of the IT staff. However, it _can_ be done, although I'd make a strong push for them to bring in a younger guy, say 20-25, who can be your assistant. Over 100 users, and you might need 2 assistants, depending upon how much web development and product recommendations you have to do in addition to day to day maintenance and troubleshooting.
**
The very first thing you must do to survive this job is outline your responsibilities. This may take some time, especially if you keep getting dragged in different directions. But if you cannot outline your job, there's no way you can set goals and assess your performance -- which of course could lead to making a case for a) hiring additional help and b) getting greater pay and benefits (like perhaps a day off now and then -- wherein you'll need an assistant to man the fort).
Second, list out current crises and next, a list of objectives you'd like to obtain in the coming year. Then plan what it will take to bring the company out of its current firefighting mode so that you can be proactive. Management might then be convinced of your need to bring onboard at least some temporary help so that you can make headway towards meeting other departmental objectives that require the input of the IS department.
Nobody likes to fight fires. It took $40k worth of equipment and software and 3 months, but I was able to turn around my previous employer from a reactive IS environment to a proactive one. This made my job more interesting and less stressful. Plus it endeared me not only to management, but also to the users, who were then able to cut me some slack because they knew that I had busted my back to make their computers run better.
I've always believed that if companies charged fair prices for their products, most people would be willing to buy software and not steal it. Heck, I jumped at the chance to get Windows XP Pro & Office Pro XP for a lousy $30 and not $800. Same too when we bought Office for OSX for $30, not $500. If Microsoft didn't force people to crappy upgrades, and charged lower prices across the board (and not just to educational customers), much piracy would vanish. Me, I pirated software in college (when they didn't have many educational discounts), only to buy them a few years later when I knew how to use them and could get them at discount because I worked for a retailer ($600 pagemaker, just $50)
Note too that CD prices have QUADRUPLED in the past 20 years, while the disposable income of MOST Americans has DECREASED. That's a big factor in why we should knowingly screw the RIAA. As a musician myself, I don't for an instant buy the RIAA's argument that musicians will stop making music because people snag their tunes on napster/kazaa/gnutella.
usb2 is not a standard interface type on any commercial pc.
firewire, by the way, has been an apple standard interface for 3 years and on sony (as "iwire") for 2 years.
firewire cards cost about the same as USB2 cards, but until you have a large user base out there who already have the damn ports on their computers, don't expect to see a lot of USB2 devices. hell, if it weren't for the iMac, there still might not be many USB1 devices;-)
for the record, i stopped buying commercial cd's a couple of years ago. I'm a musician and am mostly interested in my own damned songs. I was very opposed to the Home Taping Tax (royalty, tax, they still come out of your pocket), as every single tape I stuck in my four track put a couple of bucks in Sony's/Michael Jackson's pocket.
As was worded on the back of the Catholic Girls lp, "HOME MUSIC IS KILLING TAPING".
I checked with Sprint & they said $40/month if you sign up for their long distance ($50 BYOLongD), $200/month for businesses. $200 equipment fee unless you sign a 2 year contract, then it's $100. downloads to 1megabit/second for residential, or up to 4mb/s for commercial. They're coming tomorrow at 7AM -- less than a 6 day turnaround, as opposed to the 4 month wait i had with Amerishit.
why go with sprint? northpoint & flashcom left me high and dry, and ameritech dsl BLOWS no support for macs or multiple cpus (how else to test my webserver?). downside -- there's no hosted firewalls, so feel free to hack away at my IP (just kidding)
anyway, ameritech losers have cut my company's T1 service 10 times in the past 3 months, so we're giving them the big HEAVE HO as soon as I feel that Sprint is a tested & true alternative. NOPE, it's not DSL -- it's MICROWAVE
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i'm so tired of everyone casting a good light on GWB and his stupid, idiotic war to raise profits for the oil companies and destabilize the globe, bringing even greater profits for arms dealers. a lot more people are getting messed up in this iraq conflict, so we need to be vigilant and make sure we recognize that a lot more people than ever before are coming back wounded and traumatized for life all for a big freakin' WMD lie.
bullshit. I've been working as a paid (professional) network admin for 15 years and am having a helluva time getting a job after spending the years post-9/11 out of work. just finished working for a company for 6 months doing a massive amount of work because they were a small biz that had never hired a full-time IT person -- for 126 years of business. certainly most folks have retired win98 by now...which I just completed in May. Danged budget shortfalls...
in any case, I'm hoping that more people will get on the bandwagon and give some cred to those of us who've worked hard to study up on emerging technologies and implement and maintain helpful technology in our companies (the newest tech isn't always necessary). often we walk the hamster wheel of progress, latching onto new technologies that are more the result of marketing & make-a-buck (microsoft) than of true necessity.
powerpoint files can be saved as acrobat files if you own adobe acrobat.
just last night i ran into the same problem, and the acrobat version is only 20% the size of the powerpoint file.
QUOTE:
>3 things that management and I currently don't see eye to eye on:
>1) The main job of IS is connectivity.
No, the main role of IS is to help the business use technology effectively. Yes, you must provide connectivity but certainly once connectivity is in place, you can move on to other more interesting tasks
>2) IS involvement in other divisions isn't necessary
Baloney. IS should be involved in ALL the divisions of a company. After all, you have the ability to help each area of the company select the most appropriate technology; and doing so will make your workload much easier than just having other people's decisions thrust upon you. Maybe you feel overloaded, but don't twist the objectives of IS to fit your whims.
>3)I'm too overloaded. With 93 permanent users and 110 workstations
Yes, that's obvious. I ran a 7-location real estate agency with 85 employees and 500+ real estate agents, so I know how difficult it can be supporting multiple users with only *1* member of the IT staff. However, it _can_ be done, although I'd make a strong push for them to bring in a younger guy, say 20-25, who can be your assistant. Over 100 users, and you might need 2 assistants, depending upon how much web development and product recommendations you have to do in addition to day to day maintenance and troubleshooting.
**
The very first thing you must do to survive this job is outline your responsibilities. This may take some time, especially if you keep getting dragged in different directions. But if you cannot outline your job, there's no way you can set goals and assess your performance -- which of course could lead to making a case for a) hiring additional help and b) getting greater pay and benefits (like perhaps a day off now and then -- wherein you'll need an assistant to man the fort).
Second, list out current crises and next, a list of objectives you'd like to obtain in the coming year. Then plan what it will take to bring the company out of its current firefighting mode so that you can be proactive. Management might then be convinced of your need to bring onboard at least some temporary help so that you can make headway towards meeting other departmental objectives that require the input of the IS department.
Nobody likes to fight fires. It took $40k worth of equipment and software and 3 months, but I was able to turn around my previous employer from a reactive IS environment to a proactive one. This made my job more interesting and less stressful. Plus it endeared me not only to management, but also to the users, who were then able to cut me some slack because they knew that I had busted my back to make their computers run better.
i'd pay $35 a month to send his lousy ass into space.
I've always believed that if companies charged fair prices for their products, most people would be willing to buy software and not steal it. Heck, I jumped at the chance to get Windows XP Pro & Office Pro XP for a lousy $30 and not $800. Same too when we bought Office for OSX for $30, not $500. If Microsoft didn't force people to crappy upgrades, and charged lower prices across the board (and not just to educational customers), much piracy would vanish. Me, I pirated software in college (when they didn't have many educational discounts), only to buy them a few years later when I knew how to use them and could get them at discount because I worked for a retailer ($600 pagemaker, just $50)
Note too that CD prices have QUADRUPLED in the past 20 years, while the disposable income of MOST Americans has DECREASED. That's a big factor in why we should knowingly screw the RIAA. As a musician myself, I don't for an instant buy the RIAA's argument that musicians will stop making music because people snag their tunes on napster/kazaa/gnutella.
maybe this is a dumb question, but i just had to ask
usb2 is indeed faster than usb1.
;-)
but the rio riot uses USB1
usb2 is not a standard interface type on any commercial pc.
firewire, by the way, has been an apple standard interface for 3 years and on sony (as "iwire") for 2 years.
firewire cards cost about the same as USB2 cards, but until you have a large user base out there who already have the damn ports on their computers, don't expect to see a lot of USB2 devices. hell, if it weren't for the iMac, there still might not be many USB1 devices
then maybe more people would buy cd's.
for the record, i stopped buying commercial cd's a couple of years ago. I'm a musician and am mostly interested in my own damned songs. I was very opposed to the Home Taping Tax (royalty, tax, they still come out of your pocket), as every single tape I stuck in my four track put a couple of bucks in Sony's/Michael Jackson's pocket.
As was worded on the back of the Catholic Girls lp, "HOME MUSIC IS KILLING TAPING".
I mean, that would clear things up.
I checked with Sprint & they said $40/month if you sign up for their long distance ($50 BYOLongD), $200/month for businesses. $200 equipment fee unless you sign a 2 year contract, then it's $100. downloads to 1megabit/second for residential, or up to 4mb/s for commercial. They're coming tomorrow at 7AM -- less than a 6 day turnaround, as opposed to the 4 month wait i had with Amerishit. why go with sprint? northpoint & flashcom left me high and dry, and ameritech dsl BLOWS no support for macs or multiple cpus (how else to test my webserver?). downside -- there's no hosted firewalls, so feel free to hack away at my IP (just kidding) anyway, ameritech losers have cut my company's T1 service 10 times in the past 3 months, so we're giving them the big HEAVE HO as soon as I feel that Sprint is a tested & true alternative. NOPE, it's not DSL -- it's MICROWAVE