My '71 Pinto was the hot rod of my youth. Don't laugh it off so fast. Header and some carb tuning, it was quick. I could stay neck and neck with camaros & firebirds (yes, lower case) until around 60. The V8's would then start to pull away. You had less than a pony car with a V8? Eat my dust. Oh, Roadrunners could outrun me too.
Did it have problems? Yeah. Timing belt would break on a regular basis. Got to the point I could change it w/o tools. Line everything up, slip the new belt on. Being a Ford there was all sorts of stuff that weren't up to snuff but that thing was a runner.
I'm in the middle of two startups, as if one wasn't enough. One is converting software that I wrote back in the mid 80's and putting a web face on it. To start with, PHP/MySQL and cheap web hosting sites. Trying to be an ASP.
It keeps looking better and better.
The other is a straight consulting company what was started with and continues to prosper with $1k a piece from four partners. We'll do around.5 mil this year, our first full year. Not much profit in a half a million. You'd be surprised. Working full time means contracting out the jobs that you can't do. Cuts into profits. But hey, it's still growing and I got a 19" LCD out of it so far.
Anyway, one is cheap and will make money as soon as the first customer is signed up. And the other is just making sure that our sweat goes back into the company.
If it's an idea that *reallY* takes money to get it started, you're going to have to find a sugar daddy or lose part of the company. Losing part of the company is probably smart thing if it's the right partner/VC. They'll have smarts in areas that you don't. No one knows it all.
Certainly I haven't read the book but it looks as if Kirk is offering
examples of how to write scripts to handle everyday gruntwork.
Good idea.
But I say to those that call themselves sys.admins, Learn how to script!!!
I work at a large bankrupt telcom:) and it's amazing the amount of
admins that don't have the slightest idea how to write the simplest
loop. Or use ksh, bash, or csh's cmd history. Or vi.
Maybe this is just a corporate thing. They were raised, in a
sense, in a setting where all they had to do was add users and replace
disks. Maybe they never learned how to do anything else.
Back in '83 I took manuals home and poured over every page, every
weekend for months. That didn't make me a good admin but it gave
me a good foundation. From there I had to just halfway use my
head (imagination?) and start writing scripts. Ugly?
Sure. Did they get better? Of course!
Now I play admin on 110+ machines, and I stay bored. Why?
Because I've written a response engine in Expect that handles most of
my everyday problems. I call it AGE, Automated Gruntwork
Eliminator.
There's no way I could have done this if I had just sat back and
floated, not put in a bit of effort to learn new things.
Under AIX, yes. I have to *assume* this is true for Linux as well.
Re:...Somebody who has never worked as a contracto
on
Microsoft Caste System
·
· Score: 1
I worked as a contractor and now an employee of Worldcom (I'm not afriad to say it).
Most everything described in the article takes, or took place, daily.
Different badges (red for contractors. I refered to it as the Red Badge of Courage), different cube arrangements, different phones. No perks such as special team shirts, etc.
So what. I made boatload more $$ than the blue badgers:)
Every home schooled person I've come across (warning! sample size
of one!) has had problems interacting with people.
That's the voice of experience talking.
I've home schooled my oldest since he was in fifth grade. My middle
kid since 1st grade. Why? I had kids at both extremes.
One was bright enough that he was bored and started causing problems around
February of each year. The other wasn't learning to read and the
school thought that was OK.
There are certainly parents that keep their kids holed up and then are
amazed to find that the kids can barely walk and chew gum. But if
you think that is the mainstream then you hang around with some weird folks.
Try visiting some home school support groups or enrichment classes.
(you'll find then around churches most of the time. ACK!! Katz will
be up in arms!!) You'll find a bunch of kids that can deal with kids
of all ages and can actually converse with an adult. They'll even
look you in the eye while talking with you!
According to some SAT coaches I've talked with home schooled kids are
the number 1 targeted (no pun intended) recruit for the big east colleges.
For these reasons:
they know how to study and do work on their own. (don't have to be
baby sitted.)
they know don't have a problem talking with adults
they don't have a problem with drugs or alcohol
they're killing public school students on the SAT
But with the problem at hand I'd get hold of Channel 8 and the Dallas Morning News. I'd bet they'd do a much better job than the stinking aclu.
Slashdot Mirror
My '71 Pinto was the hot rod of my youth. Don't laugh it off so fast. Header and some carb tuning, it was quick. I could stay neck and neck with camaros & firebirds (yes, lower case) until around 60. The V8's would then start to pull away. You had less than a pony car with a V8? Eat my dust. Oh, Roadrunners could outrun me too.
Did it have problems? Yeah. Timing belt would break on a regular basis. Got to the point I could change it w/o tools. Line everything up, slip the new belt on. Being a Ford there was all sorts of stuff that weren't up to snuff but that thing was a runner.
They pitched in so well that I'm still getting these scams with MSN email addresses, just finished deleting one from jones_legalfirm@msn.com.
Don't buy it for a minute.
T.
The first? After all he was writing it for his 10yr old.
It keeps looking better and better.
The other is a straight consulting company what was started with and continues to prosper with $1k a piece from four partners. We'll do around
Anyway, one is cheap and will make money as soon as the first customer is signed up. And the other is just making sure that our sweat goes back into the company.
If it's an idea that *reallY* takes money to get it started, you're going to have to find a sugar daddy or lose part of the company. Losing part of the company is probably smart thing if it's the right partner/VC. They'll have smarts in areas that you don't. No one knows it all.
I need a AS/400 person for a day or two. Email me
Certainly I haven't read the book but it looks as if Kirk is offering examples of how to write scripts to handle everyday gruntwork. Good idea.
:) and it's amazing the amount of
admins that don't have the slightest idea how to write the simplest
loop. Or use ksh, bash, or csh's cmd history. Or vi.
But I say to those that call themselves sys.admins, Learn how to script!!!
I work at a large bankrupt telcom
Maybe this is just a corporate thing. They were raised, in a sense, in a setting where all they had to do was add users and replace disks. Maybe they never learned how to do anything else.
Back in '83 I took manuals home and poured over every page, every weekend for months. That didn't make me a good admin but it gave me a good foundation. From there I had to just halfway use my head (imagination?) and start writing scripts. Ugly? Sure. Did they get better? Of course!
Now I play admin on 110+ machines, and I stay bored. Why? Because I've written a response engine in Expect that handles most of my everyday problems. I call it AGE, Automated Gruntwork Eliminator.
There's no way I could have done this if I had just sat back and floated, not put in a bit of effort to learn new things.
T.
Under AIX, yes. I have to *assume* this is true for Linux as well.
I worked as a contractor and now an employee of Worldcom (I'm not afriad to say it).
Most everything described in the article takes, or took place, daily.
Different badges (red for contractors. I refered to it as the Red Badge of Courage), different cube arrangements, different phones. No perks such as special team shirts, etc.
So what. I made boatload more $$ than the blue badgers :)
You want the gig, you deal with the crap
That's the voice of experience talking.
I've home schooled my oldest since he was in fifth grade. My middle kid since 1st grade. Why? I had kids at both extremes. One was bright enough that he was bored and started causing problems around February of each year. The other wasn't learning to read and the school thought that was OK.
There are certainly parents that keep their kids holed up and then are amazed to find that the kids can barely walk and chew gum. But if you think that is the mainstream then you hang around with some weird folks.
Try visiting some home school support groups or enrichment classes. (you'll find then around churches most of the time. ACK!! Katz will be up in arms!!) You'll find a bunch of kids that can deal with kids of all ages and can actually converse with an adult. They'll even look you in the eye while talking with you!
According to some SAT coaches I've talked with home schooled kids are the number 1 targeted (no pun intended) recruit for the big east colleges. For these reasons:
-
they know how to study and do work on their own. (don't have to be
baby sitted.)
-
they know don't have a problem talking with adults
-
they don't have a problem with drugs or alcohol
-
they're killing public school students on the SAT
But with the problem at hand I'd get hold of Channel 8 and the Dallas Morning News. I'd bet they'd do a much better job than the stinking aclu.