I spent five years of my life trying to find a career outside of IT because I was sure that there would be no market for a programmer. I listened to bad advice and didn't have the experience to realize it was bad.
Then I got a job in the industry and even through the dot com bust and the bull-dozing of my former work place, I've never had any trouble finding work in a field I love.
I'm certainly not a brilliant programmer (yet) but I should never have abandoned this career path. Thank goodness there is someone like Mr. Matloff out there who has the expertise to debunk some of the hype and clearly identify the problems.
Still, I'll disagree on one point with him, even though my view is not a popular one. As honest as I am about my limitations as a programmer, I do not hold it against anyone who wants my job regardless of where they come from. I try to do what I do well enough that I need not fear competition. If my company imports technical expertise cheaper, it will make the company stronger. If I were overpaid or less competent, I would fear for my job security, but since I am underpaid and competent, what makes the company stronger makes my job more secure.
If they fire me, it will not be because they can get better or cheaper. I'll give them a much better reason than that.
Has anybody paid for the full results? I'm curious to know exactly how much information the study really includes.
I run a 1 Windows box and 2 Linux boxes at home after finally getting frustrated with FreeBSD myself. I want to believe that my primary Linux box is secure (since I know how insecure my Windows box and second Linux box are.) I used to use FreeBSD but became frustrated trying to get software that wasn't ported to work.
I'm no security guru though I make the attempt to make sure my own box is not too terribly tempting. What worries me is that potentially sophisticated attacks could make mincemeat of my machine and I wouldn't know enough to prevent it.
Numbers are valuable, context is invaluable. I have numbers, give me context.
Babies need their hand held. Okay, so an ISP should do a tiny bit of hand holding but if you want software you should get it yourself. People who receive something for "free" have a tendency to believe that the entity the received it from is responsibile for making it work.
Okay that said:
I expect a configuration guide and settings list. I also appreciate it if they give shortcuts to trouble-shooting pages for major clients and download links for popular programs. If my ISP does all that for me I'm thrilled.
(basically I agree with rikki_t)
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I spent five years of my life trying to find a career outside of IT because I was sure that there would be no market for a programmer. I listened to bad advice and didn't have the experience to realize it was bad.
Then I got a job in the industry and even through the dot com bust and the bull-dozing of my former work place, I've never had any trouble finding work in a field I love.
I'm certainly not a brilliant programmer (yet) but I should never have abandoned this career path. Thank goodness there is someone like Mr. Matloff out there who has the expertise to debunk some of the hype and clearly identify the problems.
Still, I'll disagree on one point with him, even though my view is not a popular one. As honest as I am about my limitations as a programmer, I do not hold it against anyone who wants my job regardless of where they come from. I try to do what I do well enough that I need not fear competition. If my company imports technical expertise cheaper, it will make the company stronger. If I were overpaid or less competent, I would fear for my job security, but since I am underpaid and competent, what makes the company stronger makes my job more secure.
If they fire me, it will not be because they can get better or cheaper. I'll give them a much better reason than that.
Has anybody paid for the full results? I'm curious to know exactly how much information the study really includes.
I run a 1 Windows box and 2 Linux boxes at home after finally getting frustrated with FreeBSD myself. I want to believe that my primary Linux box is secure (since I know how insecure my Windows box and second Linux box are.) I used to use FreeBSD but became frustrated trying to get software that wasn't ported to work.
I'm no security guru though I make the attempt to make sure my own box is not too terribly tempting. What worries me is that potentially sophisticated attacks could make mincemeat of my machine and I wouldn't know enough to prevent it.
Numbers are valuable, context is invaluable. I have numbers, give me context.
Babies need their hand held. Okay, so an ISP should do a tiny bit of hand holding but if you want software you should get it yourself. People who receive something for "free" have a tendency to believe that the entity the received it from is responsibile for making it work. Okay that said: I expect a configuration guide and settings list. I also appreciate it if they give shortcuts to trouble-shooting pages for major clients and download links for popular programs. If my ISP does all that for me I'm thrilled. (basically I agree with rikki_t)