Sadly there are very few people left who know what a Lemming was or were ever familiar with the game. It seems like everyone around now starts at Minecraft or WoW.
Aside from their trade-in racket where people "sell" games to them, they're just another victim of the B&M vs Online bloodbath. Running a B&M costs money, employing staff costs money (useless or not), and without some kind of magic *thing* to draw people in and pay full retail, it seems like it would be almost impossible to compete with Amazon on just about anything but groceries.
You'll always have that outlier that insists on shopping local or B&M because they can't/won't use a credit card or other payment service online, but I think those numbers are always shrinking, so you're left with the impulse shopper, and that is pretty much it.
If the taxing authorities go after the big tech companies hard enough, they will ultimately just abandon the markets trying to profit from their success. Think how great it'll be in France were Amazon/Google/Apple to abandon them--they would have to rely in China for tech and ultimately end up like N. Korea and Cuba with 20 year old technology and a thriving market for second- and third-hand smart phones.
When the taxes to do business in a market climb to a certain point, it's no longer profitable or worth the effort to service said market. And it's not like there are a lot of viable options besides Google (and technology partners) or Apple for mobile devices. Paying taxes is one thing, but what France and the EU are trying is more like pay-to-play or straight-up graft.
I've seen several people come into my organization from a similar background - mom and pop shops that had one or two everything IT guys.
The two newest additions had good timing, the right mindset, or both. One was as green as could be, but enthusiastic, and he plugged right into our entry level spot, immediately earned his A+, then came up with a plan for his next couple of years to get a 4-year degree. The other joined our network group, earned his CCNA, and has moved to our #2 position in our network group in just over a year.
I guess the takeaway is maybe look in a different direction - if you've been shopping bigger businesses, check out government jobs, or education. I know in my area,while there are a lot of options out there, the county, municipal, and education markets offer as many IT positions as the private sector, and usually have a much more relaxed attitude about prior experience, formal education, and your paper accomplishments (certs). It might not pay as much as a corporate job, but the benefits package usually makes up at least some of it.
Now I teach internationally and I am very happy with my current position..
I think this really is the most important part a lot of people miss. I got my start in IT for a school district, then moved on to regional law enforcement IT, then back to local government. None of them are going to make me an instant millionaire, but if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't stay.
The right question is why are you still doing user support after 30 years? Most of us might start there, but that's the foot-in-the-door role, and depending on opportunities and drive, end up moving on in 3-5 years.
From the brief history you provided, it sounds like you never had a higher goal - systems engineering, network design, infrastructure support - all the many IT career paths that move you away from end-user support. It sounds, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, like you wanted to be the best customer support specialist you could be. And here you are, 30 years later, marveling at the fact your user base never gained any IQ points and realizing that you're not interested enough anymore to keep it up.
You mention Macs, so I suspect.edu or journalism is probably the market segment you work in, and that, professionally, is soul-sucking all on it's own unless you love it and live the lifestyle.
Because we'll never actually agree on how we should live our lives, run the world, or care for the planet. The only way we would completely mix is through conflict and most likely in a very violent, artificial manner.
Every time another one of these "studies" comes out, I wonder how long it will be before an actual scientific study uncovers something of consequence. Cure for cancer, third arm, vaccine for the common cold?
I'm surprised there haven't been some new studies showing that marijuana causes a relaxed mood, reduces stress, and helps people with high blood pressure.
I've typically always seen PR folks using Apple products if left to their own devices, as that seems to be the platform of choice for the personality type that makes you want to be a PR person.
I abandoned Firefox after using it almost the entire time of it's existence when they decided to start adding 3rd party widgets (Pocket; Hello). Look at Chrome/Opera/Safari, whatever floats your boat. Chrome has made some decisions lately that, while good for the "world" are somewhat hostile to the individual/business trying to use Chrome to deliver antiquated, craptastic enterprise software, but was still my choice at the end.
First, please try not to call it "coding". "Coding" is what the people who watch lynda.com and instructables to learn PHP/Python/Java call the what they do.
Let's call it "computer science" or "programming" instead.
Then lay out a lesson plan that tries to keep it simple, starting with the basics--discuss a problem (or goal), plan (write out steps to achieve goal), then teach the programming involved in accomplishing each step.
Think, plan, do, as it were.
Anyone I've ever heard refer to themselves as a coder is generally a very poor programmer. Their biggest challenge is identifying and describing the problem. They somehow missed that actually writing a functional program/script/site is really pretty easy after you get through the problem determination and planning stages. They just start banging on the keyboard and eventually come out with something that kinda works.
As another poster earlier said, teach them logic, critical thinking, and basic math, then everything else is easy.
Toyota uses separate ECUs for just about every major feature. Sounds like the guy was a victim of the "hard sell" when he was calling some shady locksmiths to cut and program a new set of keys. New transponder ECU with a new matching set of key blanks and he would've been good to go. Significantly lighter in the pocket book, but nowhere near "your car might explode".
Do people really "upgrade" processors? I mean, I've been building computers for almost 20 years now and I think I got over the whole idea of upgrading the processor after the first time, circa 1997.
Outside of the gimmicky super-shredder-killer-fps-man-slayer motherboards, it's not like they have been the most expensive part of a computer build for a long time. Introducing a new video card incompatibility like the transition from PCI -> AGP -> PCI Express would be a whole different story.
And don't forget all the people deciding to go "off-grid" of their own volition. No electricity? No AC?
So many people seem to choose to ignore the fact that residential air conditioning didn't exist until the 1920s, and probably then, only for wealthy people in the world. What about the big chunks of the world that see 120 deg F daily?
In my mind, the bigger problem is rising ocean levels. Humans can deal with heat, but you can only swim so long. And if we lose livable land area, it will force more people into a smaller space, which is probably far more dangerous than a few degrees' increase in average daily temperature.
I wish there were more intelligent, capable women interested in tech-sector careers, programmers or otherwise. In my experience (18 years now) I've encountered maybe 3-4 women that considered their job in tech to be a career. The rest? Just a job to pay the bills.
But how long can Germany prop up the lesser countries in the EU that have no viable economic future? Tourism just does not seem to be doing it these days.
Either the EU will have to be granted much more authority over the member states, or it will all come tumbling down in a heaping pile of bad debt.
All Google really needs to do is to wait it out. As soon as the UK and Germany finish their respective departures from the EU, the remaining countries will either follow suit or slip into bankruptcy and the rest of the world will cease recognizing it as any sort of official body of legitimate government .
While I'm sure that somewhere in the country there are postal employees that take their jobs seriously, the two post office locations that service the city in which I live & work isn't them. They've lost my packages, lied about having them at the post office, decided that my *business* address would spontaneously be rural and not worth their time to deliver to and lied to the regional postal inspectors when their behavior was reported.
They would much rather park out by the Circle K and smoke a few joints for an hour or two than do their job correctly or on time.
How do you make Unchartered 4 "accessible"? A blind person is never going to able to play an 3rd person shooter (or any shooter), no matter what you do to it, any more than he could play tennis.
They'll add a "snowflake" mode, where nobody is actually trying to kill you and you're really just an urban explorer who's only real concern is falling down a collapsed flight of stairs or getting caught by a surprisingly friendly security guard who is only concerned for your safety.
So AWS is going to start crashing from running out of memory, spawning too many processes, or trying to run native, platform optimized binaries that only work on a specific antiquated version of the platform. Talk about progress!
I'm guessing as a security researcher, he's never had any real world experience.
Allowing a software vendor to automatically apply updates and patches might sound like a good idea "in theory" but it requires a level of trust--something which Microsoft has never achieved in my organization over the past 17 years.
As others stated, the *only* way for a business to manage updates properly requires building a test environment and funding knowledgeable staff to test updates against their system and software configurations. Turning on Windows Update without any oversight almost guarantees you eventually having a Really Bad Day at the office when you come in and MS has decided to update something having to do with the login authentication and none of your users can log in.
Fast forward to Windows 10 and you have the "installing, failing, rolling back, rebooting" cycle and if you think calling Microsoft is going to get you a 5-minute fix, you're probably going to find yourself needing a new job.
Newsflash: Groups of humans making decisions generally fail to make said decisions based on logic, common sense, or scientific evidence.
Every time I hear someone at the workplace talk of forming a building a committee to solve a "problem" it's generally a sign that a) whatever the outcome, it won't be the quantifiable as the "best" or "most effective" solution or b) The problem wasn't really so much of a problem, but an "idea" that one of those "idea" people came up with, but without a way to actually accomplish or implement it.
Ever been to Houston? The Sam Houston Parkway (aka Beltway 8 Toll Road) allows you to get on for free, then the tolls go up at each exit until you get off...
Slashdot Mirror
Sadly there are very few people left who know what a Lemming was or were ever familiar with the game. It seems like everyone around now starts at Minecraft or WoW.
Aside from their trade-in racket where people "sell" games to them, they're just another victim of the B&M vs Online bloodbath. Running a B&M costs money, employing staff costs money (useless or not), and without some kind of magic *thing* to draw people in and pay full retail, it seems like it would be almost impossible to compete with Amazon on just about anything but groceries.
You'll always have that outlier that insists on shopping local or B&M because they can't/won't use a credit card or other payment service online, but I think those numbers are always shrinking, so you're left with the impulse shopper, and that is pretty much it.
Because turning it into water pollution is better?
If the taxing authorities go after the big tech companies hard enough, they will ultimately just abandon the markets trying to profit from their success. Think how great it'll be in France were Amazon/Google/Apple to abandon them--they would have to rely in China for tech and ultimately end up like N. Korea and Cuba with 20 year old technology and a thriving market for second- and third-hand smart phones.
When the taxes to do business in a market climb to a certain point, it's no longer profitable or worth the effort to service said market. And it's not like there are a lot of viable options besides Google (and technology partners) or Apple for mobile devices. Paying taxes is one thing, but what France and the EU are trying is more like pay-to-play or straight-up graft.
I've seen several people come into my organization from a similar background - mom and pop shops that had one or two everything IT guys.
The two newest additions had good timing, the right mindset, or both. One was as green as could be, but enthusiastic, and he plugged right into our entry level spot, immediately earned his A+, then came up with a plan for his next couple of years to get a 4-year degree. The other joined our network group, earned his CCNA, and has moved to our #2 position in our network group in just over a year.
I guess the takeaway is maybe look in a different direction - if you've been shopping bigger businesses, check out government jobs, or education. I know in my area,while there are a lot of options out there, the county, municipal, and education markets offer as many IT positions as the private sector, and usually have a much more relaxed attitude about prior experience, formal education, and your paper accomplishments (certs). It might not pay as much as a corporate job, but the benefits package usually makes up at least some of it.
Now I teach internationally and I am very happy with my current position..
I think this really is the most important part a lot of people miss. I got my start in IT for a school district, then moved on to regional law enforcement IT, then back to local government. None of them are going to make me an instant millionaire, but if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't stay.
The right question is why are you still doing user support after 30 years? Most of us might start there, but that's the foot-in-the-door role, and depending on opportunities and drive, end up moving on in 3-5 years.
From the brief history you provided, it sounds like you never had a higher goal - systems engineering, network design, infrastructure support - all the many IT career paths that move you away from end-user support. It sounds, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, like you wanted to be the best customer support specialist you could be. And here you are, 30 years later, marveling at the fact your user base never gained any IQ points and realizing that you're not interested enough anymore to keep it up.
You mention Macs, so I suspect .edu or journalism is probably the market segment you work in, and that, professionally, is soul-sucking all on it's own unless you love it and live the lifestyle.
Because we'll never actually agree on how we should live our lives, run the world, or care for the planet. The only way we would completely mix is through conflict and most likely in a very violent, artificial manner.
It's like when Enron investigated itself...
Every time another one of these "studies" comes out, I wonder how long it will be before an actual scientific study uncovers something of consequence. Cure for cancer, third arm, vaccine for the common cold?
I'm surprised there haven't been some new studies showing that marijuana causes a relaxed mood, reduces stress, and helps people with high blood pressure.
I've typically always seen PR folks using Apple products if left to their own devices, as that seems to be the platform of choice for the personality type that makes you want to be a PR person.
I abandoned Firefox after using it almost the entire time of it's existence when they decided to start adding 3rd party widgets (Pocket; Hello). Look at Chrome/Opera/Safari, whatever floats your boat. Chrome has made some decisions lately that, while good for the "world" are somewhat hostile to the individual/business trying to use Chrome to deliver antiquated, craptastic enterprise software, but was still my choice at the end.
First, please try not to call it "coding". "Coding" is what the people who watch lynda.com and instructables to learn PHP/Python/Java call the what they do.
Let's call it "computer science" or "programming" instead.
Then lay out a lesson plan that tries to keep it simple, starting with the basics--discuss a problem (or goal), plan (write out steps to achieve goal), then teach the programming involved in accomplishing each step.
Think, plan, do, as it were.
Anyone I've ever heard refer to themselves as a coder is generally a very poor programmer. Their biggest challenge is identifying and describing the problem. They somehow missed that actually writing a functional program/script/site is really pretty easy after you get through the problem determination and planning stages. They just start banging on the keyboard and eventually come out with something that kinda works.
As another poster earlier said, teach them logic, critical thinking, and basic math, then everything else is easy.
Toyota uses separate ECUs for just about every major feature. Sounds like the guy was a victim of the "hard sell" when he was calling some shady locksmiths to cut and program a new set of keys. New transponder ECU with a new matching set of key blanks and he would've been good to go. Significantly lighter in the pocket book, but nowhere near "your car might explode".
Outside of the gimmicky super-shredder-killer-fps-man-slayer motherboards, it's not like they have been the most expensive part of a computer build for a long time. Introducing a new video card incompatibility like the transition from PCI -> AGP -> PCI Express would be a whole different story.
And don't forget all the people deciding to go "off-grid" of their own volition. No electricity? No AC?
So many people seem to choose to ignore the fact that residential air conditioning didn't exist until the 1920s, and probably then, only for wealthy people in the world. What about the big chunks of the world that see 120 deg F daily?
In my mind, the bigger problem is rising ocean levels. Humans can deal with heat, but you can only swim so long. And if we lose livable land area, it will force more people into a smaller space, which is probably far more dangerous than a few degrees' increase in average daily temperature.
I wish there were more intelligent, capable women interested in tech-sector careers, programmers or otherwise. In my experience (18 years now) I've encountered maybe 3-4 women that considered their job in tech to be a career. The rest? Just a job to pay the bills.
But how long can Germany prop up the lesser countries in the EU that have no viable economic future? Tourism just does not seem to be doing it these days.
Either the EU will have to be granted much more authority over the member states, or it will all come tumbling down in a heaping pile of bad debt.
All Google really needs to do is to wait it out. As soon as the UK and Germany finish their respective departures from the EU, the remaining countries will either follow suit or slip into bankruptcy and the rest of the world will cease recognizing it as any sort of official body of legitimate government .
While I'm sure that somewhere in the country there are postal employees that take their jobs seriously, the two post office locations that service the city in which I live & work isn't them. They've lost my packages, lied about having them at the post office, decided that my *business* address would spontaneously be rural and not worth their time to deliver to and lied to the regional postal inspectors when their behavior was reported.
They would much rather park out by the Circle K and smoke a few joints for an hour or two than do their job correctly or on time.
How do you make Unchartered 4 "accessible"? A blind person is never going to able to play an 3rd person shooter (or any shooter), no matter what you do to it, any more than he could play tennis.
They'll add a "snowflake" mode, where nobody is actually trying to kill you and you're really just an urban explorer who's only real concern is falling down a collapsed flight of stairs or getting caught by a surprisingly friendly security guard who is only concerned for your safety.
So AWS is going to start crashing from running out of memory, spawning too many processes, or trying to run native, platform optimized binaries that only work on a specific antiquated version of the platform. Talk about progress!
I'm guessing as a security researcher, he's never had any real world experience.
Allowing a software vendor to automatically apply updates and patches might sound like a good idea "in theory" but it requires a level of trust--something which Microsoft has never achieved in my organization over the past 17 years.
As others stated, the *only* way for a business to manage updates properly requires building a test environment and funding knowledgeable staff to test updates against their system and software configurations. Turning on Windows Update without any oversight almost guarantees you eventually having a Really Bad Day at the office when you come in and MS has decided to update something having to do with the login authentication and none of your users can log in.
Fast forward to Windows 10 and you have the "installing, failing, rolling back, rebooting" cycle and if you think calling Microsoft is going to get you a 5-minute fix, you're probably going to find yourself needing a new job.
Newsflash: Groups of humans making decisions generally fail to make said decisions based on logic, common sense, or scientific evidence. Every time I hear someone at the workplace talk of forming a building a committee to solve a "problem" it's generally a sign that a) whatever the outcome, it won't be the quantifiable as the "best" or "most effective" solution or b) The problem wasn't really so much of a problem, but an "idea" that one of those "idea" people came up with, but without a way to actually accomplish or implement it.
Ever been to Houston? The Sam Houston Parkway (aka Beltway 8 Toll Road) allows you to get on for free, then the tolls go up at each exit until you get off...