Sure they exist. But in general, they are an even bigger PITA to deal with than the so called normal ones.
Uh, yeah. Geek girls exist. Cute, slim geek girls exist. Just because you've not found one, doesn't mean that they don't exist.
Oddly enough, I *am* a geek girl, and I would say that I'm less of a pain in the ass than my non-geek counterparts. I'm low-maintenance, and don't ask the stupid "What are you thinking?", "Would you still love me if I had no arms?" questions.
Want to go out?
Sure. *throws on Jeans and a T-shirt* versus 1/2 hour choosing clothes, putting on makeup, styling hair, and whatever else girly-girls do.
Want to see [action movie]?
Sure. Let's go! versus negotiating about how many chick flicks/visits with my mother/Lifetime movie of the week/etc. are required to offset it, plus the aforementioned pain in the ass of waiting for the primping.
My husband never has to explain why he wants to upgrade [piece of hardware|OS] or why he wants [software|game|hardware|whatever]. I never have to explain why I want to do X instead of Y, or what I do for a living. Both of us drool over the latest hardware. It's nicer than dating a non-geek. It's super-easy to get along with someone who's got many of the same interests. [In our case, computers, crafts, and action, drama, and sci-fi movies, along with some anime.]
I have a friend who works in loss/fraud prevention who would love to hear your story. If you let them know that you're losing quite a number of your movies, there will be investigation.
He has some great stories about DVD loss, and fraud. My favorite was the hotel that had three or four netflix accounts so they could 'rent' movies to their customers (which, if you've read the FBI warning at the beginning of any DVD lately, you'd know that's not allowed). There are also stories of postal workers stealing the discs and selling them at pawn shops, stories of raids of postal workers' houses with several hundred discs without cases lying about...
For his reaction to this story when I told him about this article (and the slash coverage), read my journal.
They may not have this kind of access, but if Sue and Bill are part of a medium-to-large sized company, their IT person/people probably take care of their SPAM filtering for them, using SPAMAssassin, or something similar.
Especially if Bill has gotten one too many of those penis size SPAMs.
Another word, with some history in computer practice, is operator. The role this word referred to several years ago...
*ahem* In a sufficiently large 24x7 shop that has systems that still need babysitting (ie. manual procedures), you can still find operators. A few years ago, I worked in Operations as a Unix Admin, and helped automate some of the processes, but the Operators were key to doing some of the typical tape-swapping, [Y]es, I want to print payroll, decollate and burst it (and later, print and bring to the folder-sealer), gathering and sorting printed reports duties. Oh, and our operators took over as helpdesk 1/2 the time (7p-7a).
I wish I had just one ops person to swap tapes and take care of that kind of overhead stuff to backups. Someone to trust with power-user privelages, who knew enough to be dangerous, but also enough to not screw up too much.
Yeah, but the Secretaries -- excuse me, Administrative Assistants -- have beaten us to the 'Admin' short-form, which used to work fairly well for techies. I'm sorry, you can change the name all you want, an "Administrative Assistant" is still a Secretary, "Technical Services" is still the Helpdesk, and a "Support Technician" is still a PC guy/gal.
Then again, I'm probably just grumpy because people ask if I like doing filing, scheduling, etc. when I tell them I'm an 'admin'.
I've got a friend whose official title is "Data Czar".
Me, technically, my title is "Network Engineer", but I'm not an engineer, nor am I what most people think of when they think of Network Admin. What I *am* is a sysadmin, or more correctly, Unix and Backup Administrator.
I've said before, though, you can call me "Hey, you" or "Unix Wench" as long as I can work with the Unix boxes and make a decent (living) wage. [Personally, I'd like to see anyone call me "Unix Wench"... I'd think it hilarious.]
What title encompasses everything sysadmins do? It depends. Sysadmin is the general term, as far as I'm concerned. E-mail Admin, Router Specialist, etc. are all subsets of sysadmin. Because "systems" don't mean just computers or routers. <Management Speak>Everything we, as administrators, do to support the business is systems based. We support the business systems, the mechanisms that make the company money.</Management Speak>
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions is can whizz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is. So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth, And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
Reminds me of one user I had (actually an entire group), at a place where users created their own root password for their desktop.
Me: What's your root password? User: what. Me: The password for the root user, the superuser. User: what. Me: Look, I can't get into your desktop to fix [problem] without the root password. User: No, no, it's w-h-a-t.
My favorite was the applications person, who after being lectured for having a crackable password (daisy1) showed up the next time around with... daisy2. *grr* This was someone who had full control to a rather important application's internals. Sigh.
Users don't just hate the programmers; they hate everyone in the chain who brought in this stupid program in the first place.
For the fifth time in my career here, everyone at the paper has been summoned to hour upon hour of classes on yet another new computer system that's supposed to boost productivity and improve life on our planet.
Fifth time in how many years? According to a biography I google'd up, "Fisher, 37, has worked at The Post since 1987." So, once every three years or so, he has to change software systems. I know of people who change cars more often. That's not too bad, especially if you consider that users don't usually have more than a small piece of the puzzle. Most users don't get/have to use or know each part of the whole system to do their jobs. Also, he didn't mention if this was the fifth system change for whatever duty this software is for, or fifth system change in all of the software on his desktop.
It's not entirely the user's fault. It's not entirely the programmer's fault. The onus lies more on everyone in between who hammers out features, layout of the window and menus, and demands changes be made without figuring how this would affect current users.
Computer training has become the living hell of the American workplace, a loathsome ritual that highlights the mounting battle between the computer cognoscenti and us mere mortals.
How often does the average user go to training? Once when they're hired, and once, maybe twice when a new system is introduced. User training is always less complex than administrator training, and administrators are lucky if they get any formal training, from my experience.
To the tens of millions of Americans whose lot it is to stare into video terminals for most of our waking hours, each new system is more confounding than the last, and each new product strips away many of the advantages of the previous system.
Designing an application's look and feel is not a trivial task, and much has been done to try to simplify menus, taskbars, and the like in the last 16 years. Should we roll back the clock, so that everyone has to use green-screen terminals connected to the mainframe to do their work? Should we un-write the history of Microsoft? Apple? Linux? Should we remove the internet? Block all port 80's so that these newfangled things can't confuse you?
Of course not. But work-flow analysis needs to be done for major systems (and I don't refer just to the software/hardware/computer systems when I say systems). Incremental upgrades should keep some backwards compatabilities --and in the case of the MS OS + Office Suite, it has happened to some extent. Many people get caught up in how 'different' the new version of Windows/Office/etc. is, without looking at how similar it is to the last version they used.
Only 5 upgrades in 16 years? DOS, 3.1, 95, NT, ME, 2k, XP. That's 7, just in Windows versions, and off the top of my head. Most propeller-heads are also fluent in other OS's... Linux, *BSD, Solaris, HP-UX, IRIX, SCO, Mac OS, etc. How many changes in those have we seen in the last 5 years, much less the laast 16? How many employed IT people have only 5 business systems in their heads?
It takes a lot more brainpower for the IT group to support the complaining users than it does for the users to learn a new system. Users do not understand what goes into implementing a new computer system. Maybe if the users knew more about the hours that it takes to implement a new system, and how their management (not IT, in most cases) pushed for this newfangled thing, they'd think twice before getting on their soapboxes.[*]
Users take IT for granted, like most people take dialtone for granted. The only time IT gets any attention is when something breaks. We're a service industry, and we serve the customers, but it's hard to work your 40, 50, 60 hours a week supporting customers, when all you hear is whiners like this guy. "I don't like this, that changes too much. I have to learn something new?"
Yeah, Joe User, and so does your IT group. They have to learn that system inside out and upside down, so that they can support you. They have to figure out how to get the data from your old system into the new one. How to back up and restore the new system. How the new system will work with your other software, on the desktop, and on the network. If there are conflicts, IT has to resolve them. It's not as easy as "plug it in and it goes", like your phone, or your cable box.
IT people work damn hard to make your job easier. Every now and again, you have to learn something new. We try to make it as painless as possible, but you have to remember this: IT doesn't drive the business. IT is driven by the business. IT projects that are user-impacting are driven by users, managers, directors, VP's, and CEO's. These are the people who make the decisions on the new computer system. These are the people you should complain about.
[*] I know, people will complain about anything, but it's a nice dream, isn't it?
I have more rant, but I get easily tired of screaming into the storm. Getting off the soapbox....
Not a flame, just an observation... You remind me of the kid who came by to try to sell us a $2k vacuum, who was fascinated with our $30 Wavebird controllers, but was going to finance a $2k vacuum with his first paycheck.
Now that I have a PS2, I don't want to buy an XBox or a GameCube. I already have a great console, why should I have to buy 2 more so that I can play all of the games that are out?
As another poster has pointed out, you buy the console for the games. The only reason I bought an N64 was for Ocarina of time. Currently, I own 2 of the 3 "new" consoles. I won't buy an XBOX until their controllers make sense and are designed for human hands.... and until there's a game on that console that I *really* want to play.
Seriously though, I think I would be more likely to pay more for a console that could play games from 2 of the big 3 than buying two consoles. If there was a PS2 that was licensed and able to also play GameCube games, or XBox games, at least it would help with my space issue. As it is, I have to consider the extra cost of another console, new controllers and other accessories, and then find a place to stick it.
I'll skip the obvious joke of where to stick another console, and just point out that many fine furniture manufacturers build these interesting things called "Entertainment centers" that have shelves and sometimes doors. The one I have now holds the TV, the SNES, the N64, the PS2 and the GameCube, as well as the audio reciever, the DVD player, and the VCR. It's a matter of finding something designed to do the job at hand, or finding someone who can build a decent piece of furniture that will do the job and fit in the space alotted.
The odds of finding someone to license the console "kernels" and building a system to support the kernels to the standards of the three companies are slim to none, and Slim's on a bus leaving town. The best way to keep control over a platform is to have control over the hardware as well as the software (see Apple, see SUN, see HP). The money's in the software licensing, granted, but being able to have full control over every piece of the puzzle is what makes the consoles as 'powerful' as they are, and the dev kits as easy or hard to code for. That's what made Nintendo and Sony's game division the 800-lb gorillas they are.
Slightly OT, since it wasn't on a hard drive, but in a user's email account they were "having trouble with"... back in the day, I worked for a mom-n-pop ISP. This was 96, before everyone and their cousin had any clue about what the internet was, how to use it, or that a dial-up connection was not the best way to surf.
User calls up, "I can't get my mail, Netscape just times out." I ask for the username, do a password lookup, and configure Netscape to get this user's mail. 200+ messages. All porn. I told him the number of messages, and calculated the time it would take to download them all over 28.8... yes, Netscape probably would time out, especially since this was POP. I asked him if he ever downloaded and kept the email, he said "No, I wanted to get the email at work and at home." He named the business he worked for and what he did there.
Now, I don't care what you do at home, in private, with any number of consenting adults, but... work is where you, um, WORK. And if I were someone who took my computer in for someone else to work on, the last thing I'd want them to have is sticky fingers.
I have noticed over the range of Compaqs we have bought at work in the last year that they are getting quieter each round.
That's because they're saving all that noise for the servers... a Proliant DL380 (G3) sounds like a fscking jet takeing off until the OS is installed, and the power saving drivers kick the (up to 8)fans down. It's enough to give me a headache building them. And since I live in cubeville, no one in the 'cluster' can talk on the phone for ~2hrs because of the noise.
Of course, that's nothing like the Fujitsu systems I got to play with a couple years ago; one of their 3u servers had 21 fans, but didn't make nearly as much noise.
Oddly enough, I never played Excitebike until I bought Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing, while being a very strange game in itself, contains both a NES emulator and 8 (I think just 8) NES games. But they're hard as hell to get a hold of in the game.
mature topics doesn't have to contain gore, violence or sex
Someone please tell the gaming industry this!:P
Just because something is titillating doesn't mean that it's interesting. It just means that it's taboo.
I like the kid-type games personally, because I'm just a grown-up kid myself. I like stories with a little more depth than the kiddie stuff, too, but any game that's interesting, that has plot and character development (or at least cute characters and attainable goals) will keep me entertained. (In this vein, I loved Xenogears (PS)until I couldn't play it anymore -- jumping across pits isn't one of my best skills.)
<rant>Oh, and mature-themed doesn't mean a palette so dark that I can't see what's going on when I play in the daytime! Use some more colors, darnit!</rant>
Sadly, we're both right, and until something comes along that expands across all kernels, with consistency, that can also work for the average user, linux is not ready for prime time, morning drive, etc. It's a hobby OS. Until a cohesive group of coders can make huge strides to create a truly user-friendly GUI, Linux will not gain much ground on the desktop.
Joe and Jane user don't really care (to an extent) what the OS is on their new computer. They care about the price point, and how shiny and easy-to-use it seems. Since most desktops in the business arena are Windows, users consider familiarity as easy-to-use. If there were a viable alternative that will allow home users to surf the web, send/recieve email, and perform some small word processing/spreadsheet tasks without having to call their local geek to set it all up for them, they'd consider it. Especially if the pricepoint were considerably less. Enter "Lindows". Maybe.
it becomes apparent that the more accurate model is that of many kernels and many GUIs, a sort of "choose one from column A and one from column B" paradigm. the user gets to mix-and-match to suit his own tastes and needs, and that, to my mind, is REAL freedom.
That would be fine if the issue were choice. The issue is usability. For the common user. For Joe and Jane Average. The book I've been reading on UI says that you should respect your userbase and have little respect for them at the same time.
As a newbie programmer, and a long-time computer user/sysadmin, I try to pick up books that cover subjects like usability to keep from making mistakes with the stuff I write. I don't want to create the next app people love to hate (ie. MS Bob).
The point that's run through this thread (and the others on this page) is that Linux is not ready for the average user's desktop. Not because you don't have enough choices, but because there are too many, none of them quite adequate.
I'm not trying to incite a riot, just to point out that people in general aren't ready to embrace Linux because there isn't an interface that's easy enough to set up and use for the common user.
Macs do too have bombs. Just look when you crash an app on older one!
Just because I crashed several (and I mean several) Macs in my day doesn't mean I'm anti-mac. At least, not now that they're shiny Unix boxen. I guess every generation needs their SGI.:P
Would you care to tell us, how computer game character should be choosen so as not to be sexist.
it is easy: write a good game, or at least a game that is not clearly another bad copy of a previous success, and I won't care if the main character is a woman, a man or a three-breasted Whore of Eroticon Six.
Personally, I prefer games with plot, some character development, etc. Something with an objective that's more than "Shoot the bad guys". I play a lot of games (for a girl), and have played tons of games in my history. I've tried most genres (I refuse to try MMORPG's because I was a MUD-addict), and find that I don't like pure puzzle games (Myst, etc.) or FPS's (not because of the violence, but because they make me dizzy to play). Since most of my friends are guys, I can't say that my female friends agree/disagree with me. Everyone's different.
I'm currently taking classes to write games. I don't want to make football/fps/"boy-type" aggressive games, though. I'd love to help make games that bring girls into the world of console and PC gaming, because I enjoyed (wasted) my youth playing these games, and it's so much fun. But I know that you can't take an aggressive fps, paint it pink, and call it a girl's game.
My latest theory is to start with interactive story-books and build from there. That would at least solve the plot aspect.
Oh, and most of my comments about breasts in film and video games is "That's gotta hurt" - when watching braless women run and "How does she stand upright?" when watching HUGE rendered breasts.
I'd like to throw a me-too into the pot. With an exception. Keaton was the best Bruce Wayne. He was an okay Bats, but that's secondary. A lot of what made it a good (not great) film was the darkness and the image that Keaton and Burton gave to the Bruce Wayne persona. Bruce Wayne looked uncomfortable in his own skin, and very comfortable as his alter-ego, which is part of the 'psychosis' that is Batman.
As background, let me say that I gave away all of my comics years ago, with one exception: The Killing Joke. I was a big bat-fan during high school and early college days.
As for Keanu playing Superman, Ick. Someone who fits the part better, whether known or unknown, needs to be found. Superman isn't as damaged as bats, and could be played by someone reasonably dark-haired/light-eyed/slightly eloquent. Keanu doesn't fit the last requirement for me. I put Keanu in the GWB category. Big words aren't part of his vocabulary, and from what I remember, Supes' alter ego is a *JOURNALIST*, with a grasp of the English Language.
Not quite the same, as I'm a peon, and don't "run a company", but to answer your question...
How do you juggle the two without hampering either due to lack of the right amount of attention?
You go slowly, you do what you can. Going to school at night is the only way for me to get back into school, as I work 40+ hours a week. I'm taking two classes this semester, and I go home tired after work to study and do the homework.
Of course, my motivation isn't a degree; it's just to learn, and to try on new hats. I'm not happy unless I'm learning something, whether it's in the computer field or not. I was working so many hours, and so long, and doing such mind-numbing work that I didn't have the time or energy to study like I did when I was a contractor. Just the act of going to school brings structure to it.
screw the glass NOC walls, that desk cost a pretty penny. Everyone seems to be going for the fishbowl look... one of my former employers did that to the computer room. The glass, and the desk, although we had a smaller middle part and a LARGE "monitor" which displayed our OpenView installation.
First, the horribly offtopic reply to this IT person.
For example, in six months I have reorganized the wire closets in all locations...
And recorded how these things are organized and how one goes about making new connections, etc?
mapped the LAN from every NIC to every jump across fiber etc to the router
And put them into a handy, easily accessible database for you and your techs to keep up?
disabled file and printer sharing on all but two PCs (whose apps require it)
And you can still access these machines remotely without having to go back and touch the box?
have begun installing and updating antivirus software
By hand, or automagically? How do you check to make sure that the antivirus stuff is up to date, working, and not user-disabled? Do you have to touch every machine on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
am in the process of cleaning up logins so that more staff uses generic 'group' logins for easier management
Woah, woah, woah. I did not just see you say that you have group logins. Shared logins are the bane of IT existance. What you sacrifice for the sake of simplicity is something called "accountability". It's rather important that you're able to keep tabs on who did what to which server. It's exceptionally important to know exactly who it was, with certainty, especially if it was something that caused downtime, corruption of files, etc.
have installed simple software that prevents patrons from breaking Windows on our public PCs
Someone who wants to break Windows on your PCs will do it. With or without 'simple software'.
What I see when people take over in an IT department is that things change. Change is good, yes, but you can't just rewire a closet once. There are always adds, moves, and changes. There is always someone being hired or fired. There's always equipment breaking, being fixed, etc. What there isn't 'always' is the expertise to do the job at hand. If you hire someone new, they have to learn your way of doing things. Without documentation, it's rather difficult. If you move a computer from one building to another, your NIC mappings will change. Do you have a way of tracking those changes? If not, your system will fall to the entropy of daily business.
What I'm saying is that automation is your friend. Remote monitoring tools are your friend. Well-thought-out databases/spreadsheets will get you far. After you're done cleaning up, how easy is it for someone to keep it clean? That's something that usually falls through the cracks when people come in and 'clean up' an IT department. In short, So many people are so focused on today, that they don't look forward to tomorrow.
Back on topic, I have a friend who used to work for a university. He moved out west during the tech boom, and pines for his days at the university, but works for the 'greedy corporations' because they pay well, and he likes the California sunshine in comparison to the Ohio snow.
If you can swing it, IT at a community college can also be rewarding. You get to work with all sorts of different equipment, get involved in campus life, and take classes for free. The pay is terrible, though, so don't expect to be eating like a king.
If you're looking for something rewarding, try being IT at a hospital. They get the coolest technology, and get to integrate everything from computers to patient monitoring equipment. Just a suggestion...
Slashdot Mirror
Sure they exist. But in general, they are an even bigger PITA to deal with than the so called normal ones.
Uh, yeah. Geek girls exist. Cute, slim geek girls exist. Just because you've not found one, doesn't mean that they don't exist.
Oddly enough, I *am* a geek girl, and I would say that I'm less of a pain in the ass than my non-geek counterparts. I'm low-maintenance, and don't ask the stupid "What are you thinking?", "Would you still love me if I had no arms?" questions.
My husband never has to explain why he wants to upgrade [piece of hardware|OS] or why he wants [software|game|hardware|whatever]. I never have to explain why I want to do X instead of Y, or what I do for a living. Both of us drool over the latest hardware. It's nicer than dating a non-geek. It's super-easy to get along with someone who's got many of the same interests. [In our case, computers, crafts, and action, drama, and sci-fi movies, along with some anime.]
I have a friend who works in loss/fraud prevention who would love to hear your story. If you let them know that you're losing quite a number of your movies, there will be investigation.
He has some great stories about DVD loss, and fraud. My favorite was the hotel that had three or four netflix accounts so they could 'rent' movies to their customers (which, if you've read the FBI warning at the beginning of any DVD lately, you'd know that's not allowed). There are also stories of postal workers stealing the discs and selling them at pawn shops, stories of raids of postal workers' houses with several hundred discs without cases lying about...
For his reaction to this story when I told him about this article (and the slash coverage), read my journal.
They may not have this kind of access, but if Sue and Bill are part of a medium-to-large sized company, their IT person/people probably take care of their SPAM filtering for them, using SPAMAssassin, or something similar.
Especially if Bill has gotten one too many of those penis size SPAMs.
*ahem* In a sufficiently large 24x7 shop that has systems that still need babysitting (ie. manual procedures), you can still find operators. A few years ago, I worked in Operations as a Unix Admin, and helped automate some of the processes, but the Operators were key to doing some of the typical tape-swapping, [Y]es, I want to print payroll, decollate and burst it (and later, print and bring to the folder-sealer), gathering and sorting printed reports duties. Oh, and our operators took over as helpdesk 1/2 the time (7p-7a).
I wish I had just one ops person to swap tapes and take care of that kind of overhead stuff to backups. Someone to trust with power-user privelages, who knew enough to be dangerous, but also enough to not screw up too much.
Yeah, but the Secretaries -- excuse me, Administrative Assistants -- have beaten us to the 'Admin' short-form, which used to work fairly well for techies. I'm sorry, you can change the name all you want, an "Administrative Assistant" is still a Secretary, "Technical Services" is still the Helpdesk, and a "Support Technician" is still a PC guy/gal.
Then again, I'm probably just grumpy because people ask if I like doing filing, scheduling, etc. when I tell them I'm an 'admin'.
I've got a friend whose official title is "Data Czar".
Me, technically, my title is "Network Engineer", but I'm not an engineer, nor am I what most people think of when they think of Network Admin. What I *am* is a sysadmin, or more correctly, Unix and Backup Administrator.
I've said before, though, you can call me "Hey, you" or "Unix Wench" as long as I can work with the Unix boxes and make a decent (living) wage. [Personally, I'd like to see anyone call me "Unix Wench"... I'd think it hilarious.]
What title encompasses everything sysadmins do? It depends. Sysadmin is the general term, as far as I'm concerned. E-mail Admin, Router Specialist, etc. are all subsets of sysadmin. Because "systems" don't mean just computers or routers. <Management Speak>Everything we, as administrators, do to support the business is systems based. We support the business systems, the mechanisms that make the company money.</Management Speak>
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions is can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
--Monty Python, "Galaxy Song"
Reminds me of one user I had (actually an entire group), at a place where users created their own root password for their desktop.
Me: What's your root password?
User: what.
Me: The password for the root user, the superuser.
User: what.
Me: Look, I can't get into your desktop to fix [problem] without the root password.
User: No, no, it's w-h-a-t.
My favorite was the applications person, who after being lectured for having a crackable password (daisy1) showed up the next time around with... daisy2. *grr* This was someone who had full control to a rather important application's internals. Sigh.
Users don't just hate the programmers; they hate everyone in the chain who brought in this stupid program in the first place.
Fifth time in how many years? According to a biography I google'd up, "Fisher, 37, has worked at The Post since 1987." So, once every three years or so, he has to change software systems. I know of people who change cars more often. That's not too bad, especially if you consider that users don't usually have more than a small piece of the puzzle. Most users don't get/have to use or know each part of the whole system to do their jobs. Also, he didn't mention if this was the fifth system change for whatever duty this software is for, or fifth system change in all of the software on his desktop.
It's not entirely the user's fault. It's not entirely the programmer's fault. The onus lies more on everyone in between who hammers out features, layout of the window and menus, and demands changes be made without figuring how this would affect current users.
How often does the average user go to training? Once when they're hired, and once, maybe twice when a new system is introduced. User training is always less complex than administrator training, and administrators are lucky if they get any formal training, from my experience.
Designing an application's look and feel is not a trivial task, and much has been done to try to simplify menus, taskbars, and the like in the last 16 years. Should we roll back the clock, so that everyone has to use green-screen terminals connected to the mainframe to do their work? Should we un-write the history of Microsoft? Apple? Linux? Should we remove the internet? Block all port 80's so that these newfangled things can't confuse you?
Of course not. But work-flow analysis needs to be done for major systems (and I don't refer just to the software/hardware/computer systems when I say systems). Incremental upgrades should keep some backwards compatabilities --and in the case of the MS OS + Office Suite, it has happened to some extent. Many people get caught up in how 'different' the new version of Windows/Office/etc. is, without looking at how similar it is to the last version they used.
Only 5 upgrades in 16 years? DOS, 3.1, 95, NT, ME, 2k, XP. That's 7, just in Windows versions, and off the top of my head. Most propeller-heads are also fluent in other OS's... Linux, *BSD, Solaris, HP-UX, IRIX, SCO, Mac OS, etc. How many changes in those have we seen in the last 5 years, much less the laast 16? How many employed IT people have only 5 business systems in their heads?
It takes a lot more brainpower for the IT group to support the complaining users than it does for the users to learn a new system. Users do not understand what goes into implementing a new computer system. Maybe if the users knew more about the hours that it takes to implement a new system, and how their management (not IT, in most cases) pushed for this newfangled thing, they'd think twice before getting on their soapboxes.[*]
Users take IT for granted, like most people take dialtone for granted. The only time IT gets any attention is when something breaks. We're a service industry, and we serve the customers, but it's hard to work your 40, 50, 60 hours a week supporting customers, when all you hear is whiners like this guy. "I don't like this, that changes too much. I have to learn something new?"
Yeah, Joe User, and so does your IT group. They have to learn that system inside out and upside down, so that they can support you. They have to figure out how to get the data from your old system into the new one. How to back up and restore the new system. How the new system will work with your other software, on the desktop, and on the network. If there are conflicts, IT has to resolve them. It's not as easy as "plug it in and it goes", like your phone, or your cable box.
IT people work damn hard to make your job easier. Every now and again, you have to learn something new. We try to make it as painless as possible, but you have to remember this: IT doesn't drive the business. IT is driven by the business. IT projects that are user-impacting are driven by users, managers, directors, VP's, and CEO's. These are the people who make the decisions on the new computer system. These are the people you should complain about.
[*] I know, people will complain about anything, but it's a nice dream, isn't it?
I have more rant, but I get easily tired of screaming into the storm. Getting off the soapbox....
I've tried the S; I still can't hit the top buttons without smacking my thumb into the right analog stick.
Not a flame, just an observation... You remind me of the kid who came by to try to sell us a $2k vacuum, who was fascinated with our $30 Wavebird controllers, but was going to finance a $2k vacuum with his first paycheck.
As another poster has pointed out, you buy the console for the games. The only reason I bought an N64 was for Ocarina of time. Currently, I own 2 of the 3 "new" consoles. I won't buy an XBOX until their controllers make sense and are designed for human hands.... and until there's a game on that console that I *really* want to play.
I'll skip the obvious joke of where to stick another console, and just point out that many fine furniture manufacturers build these interesting things called "Entertainment centers" that have shelves and sometimes doors. The one I have now holds the TV, the SNES, the N64, the PS2 and the GameCube, as well as the audio reciever, the DVD player, and the VCR. It's a matter of finding something designed to do the job at hand, or finding someone who can build a decent piece of furniture that will do the job and fit in the space alotted.
The odds of finding someone to license the console "kernels" and building a system to support the kernels to the standards of the three companies are slim to none, and Slim's on a bus leaving town. The best way to keep control over a platform is to have control over the hardware as well as the software (see Apple, see SUN, see HP). The money's in the software licensing, granted, but being able to have full control over every piece of the puzzle is what makes the consoles as 'powerful' as they are, and the dev kits as easy or hard to code for. That's what made Nintendo and Sony's game division the 800-lb gorillas they are.
Except that in my experience, the s/n and MAC address were identical. So much for your security plan...
Slightly OT, since it wasn't on a hard drive, but in a user's email account they were "having trouble with"... back in the day, I worked for a mom-n-pop ISP. This was 96, before everyone and their cousin had any clue about what the internet was, how to use it, or that a dial-up connection was not the best way to surf.
User calls up, "I can't get my mail, Netscape just times out." I ask for the username, do a password lookup, and configure Netscape to get this user's mail. 200+ messages. All porn. I told him the number of messages, and calculated the time it would take to download them all over 28.8 ... yes, Netscape probably would time out, especially since this was POP. I asked him if he ever downloaded and kept the email, he said "No, I wanted to get the email at work and at home." He named the business he worked for and what he did there.
Now, I don't care what you do at home, in private, with any number of consenting adults, but ... work is where you, um, WORK. And if I were someone who took my computer in for someone else to work on, the last thing I'd want them to have is sticky fingers.
That's because they're saving all that noise for the servers... a Proliant DL380 (G3) sounds like a fscking jet takeing off until the OS is installed, and the power saving drivers kick the (up to 8)fans down. It's enough to give me a headache building them. And since I live in cubeville, no one in the 'cluster' can talk on the phone for ~2hrs because of the noise.
Of course, that's nothing like the Fujitsu systems I got to play with a couple years ago; one of their 3u servers had 21 fans, but didn't make nearly as much noise.
Oddly enough, I never played Excitebike until I bought Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing, while being a very strange game in itself, contains both a NES emulator and 8 (I think just 8) NES games. But they're hard as hell to get a hold of in the game.
Someone please tell the gaming industry this! :P
Just because something is titillating doesn't mean that it's interesting. It just means that it's taboo.
I like the kid-type games personally, because I'm just a grown-up kid myself. I like stories with a little more depth than the kiddie stuff, too, but any game that's interesting, that has plot and character development (or at least cute characters and attainable goals) will keep me entertained. (In this vein, I loved Xenogears (PS)until I couldn't play it anymore -- jumping across pits isn't one of my best skills.)
<rant>Oh, and mature-themed doesn't mean a palette so dark that I can't see what's going on when I play in the daytime! Use some more colors, darnit!</rant>
Sadly, we're both right, and until something comes along that expands across all kernels, with consistency, that can also work for the average user, linux is not ready for prime time, morning drive, etc. It's a hobby OS. Until a cohesive group of coders can make huge strides to create a truly user-friendly GUI, Linux will not gain much ground on the desktop.
Joe and Jane user don't really care (to an extent) what the OS is on their new computer. They care about the price point, and how shiny and easy-to-use it seems. Since most desktops in the business arena are Windows, users consider familiarity as easy-to-use. If there were a viable alternative that will allow home users to surf the web, send/recieve email, and perform some small word processing/spreadsheet tasks without having to call their local geek to set it all up for them, they'd consider it. Especially if the pricepoint were considerably less. Enter "Lindows". Maybe.
That would be fine if the issue were choice. The issue is usability. For the common user. For Joe and Jane Average. The book I've been reading on UI says that you should respect your userbase and have little respect for them at the same time.
As a newbie programmer, and a long-time computer user/sysadmin, I try to pick up books that cover subjects like usability to keep from making mistakes with the stuff I write. I don't want to create the next app people love to hate (ie. MS Bob).
The point that's run through this thread (and the others on this page) is that Linux is not ready for the average user's desktop. Not because you don't have enough choices, but because there are too many, none of them quite adequate.
I'm not trying to incite a riot, just to point out that people in general aren't ready to embrace Linux because there isn't an interface that's easy enough to set up and use for the common user.
Macs do too have bombs. Just look when you crash an app on older one!
Just because I crashed several (and I mean several) Macs in my day doesn't mean I'm anti-mac. At least, not now that they're shiny Unix boxen. I guess every generation needs their SGI. :P
Personally, I prefer games with plot, some character development, etc. Something with an objective that's more than "Shoot the bad guys". I play a lot of games (for a girl), and have played tons of games in my history. I've tried most genres (I refuse to try MMORPG's because I was a MUD-addict), and find that I don't like pure puzzle games (Myst, etc.) or FPS's (not because of the violence, but because they make me dizzy to play). Since most of my friends are guys, I can't say that my female friends agree/disagree with me. Everyone's different.
I'm currently taking classes to write games. I don't want to make football/fps/"boy-type" aggressive games, though. I'd love to help make games that bring girls into the world of console and PC gaming, because I enjoyed (wasted) my youth playing these games, and it's so much fun. But I know that you can't take an aggressive fps, paint it pink, and call it a girl's game.
My latest theory is to start with interactive story-books and build from there. That would at least solve the plot aspect.
Oh, and most of my comments about breasts in film and video games is "That's gotta hurt" - when watching braless women run and "How does she stand upright?" when watching HUGE rendered breasts.
I'd like to throw a me-too into the pot. With an exception. Keaton was the best Bruce Wayne. He was an okay Bats, but that's secondary. A lot of what made it a good (not great) film was the darkness and the image that Keaton and Burton gave to the Bruce Wayne persona. Bruce Wayne looked uncomfortable in his own skin, and very comfortable as his alter-ego, which is part of the 'psychosis' that is Batman.
As background, let me say that I gave away all of my comics years ago, with one exception: The Killing Joke. I was a big bat-fan during high school and early college days.
As for Keanu playing Superman, Ick. Someone who fits the part better, whether known or unknown, needs to be found. Superman isn't as damaged as bats, and could be played by someone reasonably dark-haired/light-eyed/slightly eloquent. Keanu doesn't fit the last requirement for me. I put Keanu in the GWB category. Big words aren't part of his vocabulary, and from what I remember, Supes' alter ego is a *JOURNALIST*, with a grasp of the English Language.
The last HP class I took, the instructor referred to problems at the 8th OSI layer. The eating, drinking, politics layer.
Not quite the same, as I'm a peon, and don't "run a company", but to answer your question ...
You go slowly, you do what you can. Going to school at night is the only way for me to get back into school, as I work 40+ hours a week. I'm taking two classes this semester, and I go home tired after work to study and do the homework.
Of course, my motivation isn't a degree; it's just to learn, and to try on new hats. I'm not happy unless I'm learning something, whether it's in the computer field or not. I was working so many hours, and so long, and doing such mind-numbing work that I didn't have the time or energy to study like I did when I was a contractor. Just the act of going to school brings structure to it.
screw the glass NOC walls, that desk cost a pretty penny. Everyone seems to be going for the fishbowl look... one of my former employers did that to the computer room. The glass, and the desk, although we had a smaller middle part and a LARGE "monitor" which displayed our OpenView installation.
First, the horribly offtopic reply to this IT person.
And recorded how these things are organized and how one goes about making new connections, etc?
And put them into a handy, easily accessible database for you and your techs to keep up?
And you can still access these machines remotely without having to go back and touch the box?
By hand, or automagically? How do you check to make sure that the antivirus stuff is up to date, working, and not user-disabled? Do you have to touch every machine on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
Woah, woah, woah. I did not just see you say that you have group logins. Shared logins are the bane of IT existance. What you sacrifice for the sake of simplicity is something called "accountability". It's rather important that you're able to keep tabs on who did what to which server. It's exceptionally important to know exactly who it was, with certainty, especially if it was something that caused downtime, corruption of files, etc.
Someone who wants to break Windows on your PCs will do it. With or without 'simple software'.
What I see when people take over in an IT department is that things change. Change is good, yes, but you can't just rewire a closet once. There are always adds, moves, and changes. There is always someone being hired or fired. There's always equipment breaking, being fixed, etc. What there isn't 'always' is the expertise to do the job at hand. If you hire someone new, they have to learn your way of doing things. Without documentation, it's rather difficult. If you move a computer from one building to another, your NIC mappings will change. Do you have a way of tracking those changes? If not, your system will fall to the entropy of daily business.
What I'm saying is that automation is your friend. Remote monitoring tools are your friend. Well-thought-out databases/spreadsheets will get you far. After you're done cleaning up, how easy is it for someone to keep it clean? That's something that usually falls through the cracks when people come in and 'clean up' an IT department. In short, So many people are so focused on today, that they don't look forward to tomorrow.
Back on topic, I have a friend who used to work for a university. He moved out west during the tech boom, and pines for his days at the university, but works for the 'greedy corporations' because they pay well, and he likes the California sunshine in comparison to the Ohio snow.
If you can swing it, IT at a community college can also be rewarding. You get to work with all sorts of different equipment, get involved in campus life, and take classes for free. The pay is terrible, though, so don't expect to be eating like a king.
If you're looking for something rewarding, try being IT at a hospital. They get the coolest technology, and get to integrate everything from computers to patient monitoring equipment. Just a suggestion...