I agree totatly that you have to have people skills in order to be an IT guy. The last IT related job we had open for our company was a glorified helpdesk person. We had all kinds of people applying just because it was an IT job. Some guy w/ only experience on Macs was applying for a Microsoft shop. Go figure. We had an applicant come in who was the picture perfect computer person. Wearing the only suit he owned and looked like he crawled out of his mother's basement. Everyone here could tell he was there for the "IT job". He didn't have the people skills needed for the job.
THe best advice I ever received was "When you are talking on the phone, try to listen to yourself. If you can't understand what you are saying, chances are they can't." This advice has served me well, I have had an IT job since graduating from college and have increased my skills and responsibility.
IF you don't want to loose your job to some dude in India, then work on your people skills and find some place they can't offshore, or don't want to.
This attitude is a huge pain trying to be an IT person. I have often heard from new employees how thankful they are that I am not a BOFH or someone who considers them nothing more then SpongeBob idiots. The whole "Nick Burns" from Saturday Night LIve mentality works against so many people.
As to spending hours cleaning Spyware/AdAware/Crap off people's systems, seems like you have some people doing things they shouldn't be. I recently ran SpyWare/AdAware against my home Win2k box and I didn't have a single piece of SpyWare/AdAware on it. After a complete update of the detection files and rules, after all the last time I checked was August of '04, nothing was found. Makes you wonder what people are doing and where they are going on the web. Oh and my wife uses the computer 90% of the time browsing her chat boards.
I remember reading my copy right around Christmas time. Talk about old coverage of "news". Maybe we can get more up to date news. I don't understand why Wired stories make Slashdot.
You don't understand how magazines like Wired release things. I have never clicked on a link from Wired about this hot new article on thier website because I read it when subscribed copy showed up.
In continuing it's coverage of "Old News" I first heard about the Bill Gates computer issues at his presentation on a radio station. I thought maybe Slashdot might have it first considering the topic and the person, but once again yawn, old news.
I agree, but also didn't the stewardess/stewards(?) and bagage handlers for Delta, which ComAir is a part of go on strike the same day as well? I think I read that somewhere
This is the best point stated. If you all switch to Evolution with the Exchange connector you are still paying for Exchange CAL no matte what you use. Thus you are still paying for Microsoft's product but replacing the client.
I have used Evolution and am still doing so when I have opportunity to use my Linux side of my laptop. But as we integrate VoIP and Cisco's AVVID solution we are back to being forced to use Outlook for Unified Messaging (Voicemail) and thier UMO, Unified Message for OUTLOOK, plugin. So if we wanted to replace Outlook, voicemail through Exchange/Email integration would be semi-pointless.
There are so many other products tied into Exchange these days that replacing Outlook will be no simple task. Especially if you have some portal built that integrates with the Outlook Today/Dashboard features.
This is exactly my view of things. There are some things here at work that I must use windows for and have not found a replacement for. However there is a lot that I have switched.
I thought the arguement in free and open source software is to have CHOICE and the BEST software available. If that is not the reason for OSS, then what really is the point. Is OSS just about software that runs on *nix instead of being able to choose what OS you would like or in some places forced to use. If I am forced to run windows for some apps, then I want to use Firefox for browsing the web then.
I agree totally with the parent. My degree is in high school education (Social Studies Major - Spanish Minor) who never recieved a full time teaching job.
I did work through college in the IT dept. and earned some certifications, basic ones like A+, Windows 2000 Pro, nothing fancy.
It is through the time working in college, that I received my first job, which lead to more certifications and more expericence. Now I am a network admin for a private bank, starting to work towards a master's degree in IT.
The last job I interviewed for paused when he noticed I didn't have a CS/IS degree, but through the process determined I knew my stuff.
I asked him at the end of the interview if my degree mattered, he said "No, you knew your stuff and how to solve the problems I threw at you" And he hired me.
Hmm, the "Windows Admins" have not checked out Software Updates Services, from Microsoft, HFNETCheckPro, or Altiris or any of the other products that are out there. Doesn't sound like "good" admins to me if they don't know of all of the tools that are available for them to update things. I work for a company with under 100 employees, the IT area is 2 people and we run perfectly with SUS and a PHP/MySQL application verifing what patches are being downloaded and installed.
Thanks for the friendly reminder. The shares of the bank that I own are just that part of my portifolio along with several mutual funds, my 401(k) and other investments. The extra money that it represents will allow us to sell some of when we use our savings for the down payment. The extra stuff that you always need when moving, if we need it.
I work for a personal bank, privately held where the employees can purchase stock in the company. Most if not all of the employees avail themselves to this option. Its funny when they brought on a new board member there was no non-employee stock for them to give to this board member.
Its a great thing working for a place where the list to get stock is longer then the list of employees and anytime an employee sells any part of his or hers, its a large increaces in the price compared to the actual price/share. It will help pay for a house some day for me
I'm looking forward to the white board and all the chicken-scratch on it at 2am as they still try to figure out who is going to win.
There is a discussion on a local talk show about how a lot of people are voting for who they hate the least.
In MI the poles have changed a lot, it used to be a strong Kerry state, but now its a "weak Kerry" state according to the website. The whole problem in MI is that Detriot area controls politics in the state, one area that is hugely Democratic will control/override the votes of the rest of the state. God bless the UAW and all of the union members.
I agree with this... When I left Cornerstone University, a small private Christian college, all freshman were required to have a laptop. In the IT department we deployed 400 laptops per year. Yet they are not on the list. Does the survey require you to fill out the information to get included on it?
If it does, then it is really the most connected campuses that filled out thier survey and sent it back int.
I know that my alma matter has wireless, provides laptops for every student, uses a port per bed in the room scheme and has a better ratio then any of them. Each student has thier own laptop, there are PCs in the library and still a couple of computer labs.
My wife has a previous condition, she has Chron's Disease and will always have it. The important part in dealing with a previous conidition is did she have medical insurance and did it laspe for any reason? Since it did not, we were able to get insurance once she left her parents insurance.
Well it depends on what you are using for anti-virus protection software. We use Trend Micro, the Office Scan product. As I didn't pay for it, I can't tell you that. We are working on deploying Cisco's Security Agent and I think 100 of them are $3,000 don't remember off the top of my head right now, but that should be close to retail. The CSA works as a host based intrusion prevention system that reports to a centralized server. Had good sucess w/ that so far. Intrusion Prevention and Detection are done at the entrance to the network from the internet and w/ CSA installed on the hosts we have it on the network as well.
Currently none of those windows boxes, all 100 in my organization are connected directly through the firewall. With anti-virus, intrusion dectection and intrusion prevention, and a desktop intrusion prevention device there is no big panic in a new patch. All 100 of those PCs will check into the SUS server, grab and install the updates.
If I had 1,000 PCs setup a more powerful software management system, off the top of my head Altiris would do a great job.
Ah, the beauty of Software Update Services... Sync'd w/ windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Test systems checked in first and had no problems. The joy of coming in and seeing the patchs installed when people turn on thier computers in the morning.
Yawn, another MS patch done, that was like what 15 minutes of work?
My degree is in Social Studies, Secondary Education. I am trained to be a teacher. I am currently a network admin. I found that I didn't enjoy the politics and stress of teaching, so after working through college as a member of the college IT department I started as a helpdesk tech, got some certifications and presto I am a network admin. At my last interview, the person hiring said that my certifications and experience made up for the lack of a computer related degree.
First to admit I am a linux newbie, I also am the first to admit that I am not using the latest and greatest PC to try and learn it. But there is no frustration like not being able to use gnome or kde on any of the my "spare" machines to try and learn or even test out how these look. I can run Windows on these boxes, a bit slow, but only Command Line in linux. I know most say its the only way to learn linux in the first place, but I would love to be able to use Gnome or KDE on an older box.
Basic Civics 101:
The Supreme Court can only deal with issues that affect the Constiution of the United States, or where it involves an ambassador, or the Distric of Columbia, or someone sues the government.
Also one can only argue court cases based on precedent in the SC. You do not have witness and juries or expert testimony. It is the history of the law and other cases that set precedent for your decision.
In George W. Bush et all vs. Albert Gore Jr. et all there are numerous cases sited in the decision. Let me dig out some of them for you.
McPherson v. Blacker
Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections
Reynolds v. Sims
Gray v. Sanders
Moore v. Olgivie
And the list goes on in that case.
So the SC looks at previous court cases and interpets the law based on that. Now I know that some are more conservative then others and some are more liberal then others. However they look at the previous set of laws to figure out what is going on.
Everyone remember how the election of 2000 was so important because the winner was going to have the change to put a new supreme court justice in. Still waiting on that...
Right on Lippy, at the small bank I work for (under $250 million in deposits) we are using the new "FedWeb" for ACH, Returns, our incoming cash letter, and ordering savings bonds. We still initiate wire transfers over the Fedline system and its DOS based dial in.
The new system is faster and easier to deal with then old "clunky" FEDLINE system. Much easier to maintain and train others on. Its about time this happened
Agreed. We use Citrix here at the bank I work at and it works wonders. The local libary, Kent County Library system, don't remember its official name, but they use Citrix across the board. Boots into a webpage, kiosk mode, that requires a valid library card to "sign in". Never had a problem with them the times I've been there.
Ummm just use group policy and Software Update Services instead... Much cleaner and easier. You can manage it and "approve" which patches and installs you deploy to your end users. Works like a charm
Who wants to be a part of an IT union. I spent my time in college as a lovely member of my local Teamsters, who always claimed that I was never caught up on dues, always had to pay, my money only went to people I disagreed with politically and they strongly encouraged me in the direction I should use my vote.
I will not be a part of a union.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree totatly that you have to have people skills in order to be an IT guy. The last IT related job we had open for our company was a glorified helpdesk person. We had all kinds of people applying just because it was an IT job. Some guy w/ only experience on Macs was applying for a Microsoft shop. Go figure. We had an applicant come in who was the picture perfect computer person. Wearing the only suit he owned and looked like he crawled out of his mother's basement. Everyone here could tell he was there for the "IT job". He didn't have the people skills needed for the job.
THe best advice I ever received was "When you are talking on the phone, try to listen to yourself. If you can't understand what you are saying, chances are they can't." This advice has served me well, I have had an IT job since graduating from college and have increased my skills and responsibility.
IF you don't want to loose your job to some dude in India, then work on your people skills and find some place they can't offshore, or don't want to.
As to spending hours cleaning Spyware/AdAware/Crap off people's systems, seems like you have some people doing things they shouldn't be. I recently ran SpyWare/AdAware against my home Win2k box and I didn't have a single piece of SpyWare/AdAware on it. After a complete update of the detection files and rules, after all the last time I checked was August of '04, nothing was found. Makes you wonder what people are doing and where they are going on the web. Oh and my wife uses the computer 90% of the time browsing her chat boards.
I remember reading my copy right around Christmas time. Talk about old coverage of "news". Maybe we can get more up to date news. I don't understand why Wired stories make Slashdot.
In continuing it's coverage of "Old News" I first heard about the Bill Gates computer issues at his presentation on a radio station. I thought maybe Slashdot might have it first considering the topic and the person, but once again yawn, old news.
I agree, but also didn't the stewardess/stewards(?) and bagage handlers for Delta, which ComAir is a part of go on strike the same day as well? I think I read that somewhere
I have used Evolution and am still doing so when I have opportunity to use my Linux side of my laptop. But as we integrate VoIP and Cisco's AVVID solution we are back to being forced to use Outlook for Unified Messaging (Voicemail) and thier UMO, Unified Message for OUTLOOK, plugin. So if we wanted to replace Outlook, voicemail through Exchange/Email integration would be semi-pointless.
There are so many other products tied into Exchange these days that replacing Outlook will be no simple task. Especially if you have some portal built that integrates with the Outlook Today/Dashboard features.
I thought the arguement in free and open source software is to have CHOICE and the BEST software available. If that is not the reason for OSS, then what really is the point. Is OSS just about software that runs on *nix instead of being able to choose what OS you would like or in some places forced to use. If I am forced to run windows for some apps, then I want to use Firefox for browsing the web then.
I did work through college in the IT dept. and earned some certifications, basic ones like A+, Windows 2000 Pro, nothing fancy.
It is through the time working in college, that I received my first job, which lead to more certifications and more expericence. Now I am a network admin for a private bank, starting to work towards a master's degree in IT.
The last job I interviewed for paused when he noticed I didn't have a CS/IS degree, but through the process determined I knew my stuff.
I asked him at the end of the interview if my degree mattered, he said "No, you knew your stuff and how to solve the problems I threw at you" And he hired me.
Hmm, the "Windows Admins" have not checked out Software Updates Services, from Microsoft, HFNETCheckPro, or Altiris or any of the other products that are out there. Doesn't sound like "good" admins to me if they don't know of all of the tools that are available for them to update things. I work for a company with under 100 employees, the IT area is 2 people and we run perfectly with SUS and a PHP/MySQL application verifing what patches are being downloaded and installed.
Thanks for the friendly reminder. The shares of the bank that I own are just that part of my portifolio along with several mutual funds, my 401(k) and other investments. The extra money that it represents will allow us to sell some of when we use our savings for the down payment. The extra stuff that you always need when moving, if we need it.
I work for a personal bank, privately held where the employees can purchase stock in the company. Most if not all of the employees avail themselves to this option. Its funny when they brought on a new board member there was no non-employee stock for them to give to this board member. Its a great thing working for a place where the list to get stock is longer then the list of employees and anytime an employee sells any part of his or hers, its a large increaces in the price compared to the actual price/share. It will help pay for a house some day for me
I'm looking forward to the white board and all the chicken-scratch on it at 2am as they still try to figure out who is going to win. There is a discussion on a local talk show about how a lot of people are voting for who they hate the least. In MI the poles have changed a lot, it used to be a strong Kerry state, but now its a "weak Kerry" state according to the website. The whole problem in MI is that Detriot area controls politics in the state, one area that is hugely Democratic will control/override the votes of the rest of the state. God bless the UAW and all of the union members.
I agree with this... When I left Cornerstone University, a small private Christian college, all freshman were required to have a laptop. In the IT department we deployed 400 laptops per year. Yet they are not on the list. Does the survey require you to fill out the information to get included on it? If it does, then it is really the most connected campuses that filled out thier survey and sent it back int. I know that my alma matter has wireless, provides laptops for every student, uses a port per bed in the room scheme and has a better ratio then any of them. Each student has thier own laptop, there are PCs in the library and still a couple of computer labs.
My wife has a previous condition, she has Chron's Disease and will always have it. The important part in dealing with a previous conidition is did she have medical insurance and did it laspe for any reason? Since it did not, we were able to get insurance once she left her parents insurance.
I can't parse that either :)
Well it depends on what you are using for anti-virus protection software. We use Trend Micro, the Office Scan product. As I didn't pay for it, I can't tell you that.
We are working on deploying Cisco's Security Agent and I think 100 of them are $3,000 don't remember off the top of my head right now, but that should be close to retail. The CSA works as a host based intrusion prevention system that reports to a centralized server. Had good sucess w/ that so far.
Intrusion Prevention and Detection are done at the entrance to the network from the internet and w/ CSA installed on the hosts we have it on the network as well.
Currently none of those windows boxes, all 100 in my organization are connected directly through the firewall. With anti-virus, intrusion dectection and intrusion prevention, and a desktop intrusion prevention device there is no big panic in a new patch. All 100 of those PCs will check into the SUS server, grab and install the updates. If I had 1,000 PCs setup a more powerful software management system, off the top of my head Altiris would do a great job.
Ah, the beauty of Software Update Services... Sync'd w/ windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Test systems checked in first and had no problems. The joy of coming in and seeing the patchs installed when people turn on thier computers in the morning. Yawn, another MS patch done, that was like what 15 minutes of work?
My degree is in Social Studies, Secondary Education. I am trained to be a teacher. I am currently a network admin. I found that I didn't enjoy the politics and stress of teaching, so after working through college as a member of the college IT department I started as a helpdesk tech, got some certifications and presto I am a network admin.
At my last interview, the person hiring said that my certifications and experience made up for the lack of a computer related degree.
First to admit I am a linux newbie, I also am the first to admit that I am not using the latest and greatest PC to try and learn it. But there is no frustration like not being able to use gnome or kde on any of the my "spare" machines to try and learn or even test out how these look. I can run Windows on these boxes, a bit slow, but only Command Line in linux. I know most say its the only way to learn linux in the first place, but I would love to be able to use Gnome or KDE on an older box.
Basic Civics 101: The Supreme Court can only deal with issues that affect the Constiution of the United States, or where it involves an ambassador, or the Distric of Columbia, or someone sues the government. Also one can only argue court cases based on precedent in the SC. You do not have witness and juries or expert testimony. It is the history of the law and other cases that set precedent for your decision. In George W. Bush et all vs. Albert Gore Jr. et all there are numerous cases sited in the decision. Let me dig out some of them for you. McPherson v. Blacker Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections Reynolds v. Sims Gray v. Sanders Moore v. Olgivie And the list goes on in that case. So the SC looks at previous court cases and interpets the law based on that. Now I know that some are more conservative then others and some are more liberal then others. However they look at the previous set of laws to figure out what is going on. Everyone remember how the election of 2000 was so important because the winner was going to have the change to put a new supreme court justice in. Still waiting on that...
Right on Lippy, at the small bank I work for (under $250 million in deposits) we are using the new "FedWeb" for ACH, Returns, our incoming cash letter, and ordering savings bonds. We still initiate wire transfers over the Fedline system and its DOS based dial in. The new system is faster and easier to deal with then old "clunky" FEDLINE system. Much easier to maintain and train others on. Its about time this happened
Agreed. We use Citrix here at the bank I work at and it works wonders. The local libary, Kent County Library system, don't remember its official name, but they use Citrix across the board. Boots into a webpage, kiosk mode, that requires a valid library card to "sign in". Never had a problem with them the times I've been there.
Ummm just use group policy and Software Update Services instead... Much cleaner and easier. You can manage it and "approve" which patches and installs you deploy to your end users. Works like a charm
Who wants to be a part of an IT union. I spent my time in college as a lovely member of my local Teamsters, who always claimed that I was never caught up on dues, always had to pay, my money only went to people I disagreed with politically and they strongly encouraged me in the direction I should use my vote. I will not be a part of a union.
BTW thanks for the info, I will have to google it during a slow period at work.