..."and its not obvious at first site"
The problem with this line of thinking is that everyone has a different definition of "obvious". (whats obvious to you, may not be obvious to others, and vice-versa)
I'm not saying code should be commented until its longer than "War and Peace".. but descriptively succinct comments can go a long way to helping others understand 1.) your code segments overall goal, 2.) the basic logic, 3.) the expected output and 4.) what it means (and what you might do) if you dont get the "expected output"./grain of salt - I'm not a programmer (but trying to be one), and hate, hate, hate unnecessarily obfusticated code. Its OK to write great code. Its not OK to act elitist and expect others to automatically understand it.
FWIW..I spent the last 3 years working as the (only full time) IT admin/tech for a K-12 school district. (approx 5 schools,.. total when I left of about 700 workstations.)
What they did right (in the article) was (seemingly) they had good management who understood what they were doing and put an organized effort into re-training the staff and valuing the "soft" side of the equation (human factors) as much as the technical side. (Although I would also like to see specifications on exactly how many systems they migrated, and what distros they used)
From my experience, having spent the last 3 years in a K-12 IT position.. I'm of the opinion that success stories like this are (and will continue to be) few and far between. School districts are full of politics and "resistance" and very little money.
(as shown by the fact that this "project" took them 10 years to implement) In all the school districts I've been in (and worked in) the employees, staff and students didnt care whether it was FOSS or Windows or Mac or whatever. All they cared about was that it worked reliably. If you took the time to care about their issues, AND you were skilled enough to make it work.. then you were a hero. I'm an advocate for having as much variety as possible ( In the high school library lab I built, I wanted to include several Ubuntu machines and some Macs.. but the school had standardized on HP/Compaq and XP... so it didnt happen.
"In the end, IT is little different from accounting or any other administrative function: it's not about self-actualization, independence or creativity, it's about performing a business function reliably, predictably, and efficiently. It's about implementing what management, sales, and designers tell you to implement."
You couldnt be more wrong. If all you want is your IT people to be drones and say: "Yes, SIR!".. and "NO, SIR"... then you need to be in the military.
Having independence, resourcefulness and creativity are the HALLMARKS of IT. What if your project is not going to meet the deadline, do you want management to just blindly throw more bodies at the problem, or if one of your IT people had a creative idea that would save a months work, you'd take it wouldnt you?... What if the IT team figured independently figured out how to re-arrange the office to get more work done and be happier and more productive ?... What if your IT people go home and night and spend hours reading up on various tech websites (which I can bet you $$$ that most of them do) and bring some of those ideas into your organization?... What if one of your IT people has a hobby of drawing and uses his lunch hour to screw around drawing mockups of a new product?...
yeah,,.your right.. that all sounds like a waste of time... Lets just keep doing things the same way we've always done them. Its best that way.. (tongue firmly in cheek)
Alot can be said about the quality (or lack thereof) of people who enter the IT field and how that effects the industry.
However.. after reading the book "Peopleware" , I have to agree with the view that the 2 biggest factors are bad management and bad enviroment.
If the concerted combination of those two influences stifles creativity and creates and atmosphere that is dull and boring and full of "documentation" and "following the rules to a T"... you are going to get burnout, plain and simple.
I worked the last 10 or so years for a company doing IT consulting and it resulted (last summer) in my wanting to put a gun barrel in my mouth. Now i'm on my own (barely making ends meet) but infinitely happier.
I cant believe no one has mentioned Fischer SpacePen's. Underwater, in the rain, freezing, cooking---They...Wont...Ever...Give up.....
http://www.spacepen.com/
Slashdot Mirror
http://royal.pingdom.com/?p=304
..."and its not obvious at first site" The problem with this line of thinking is that everyone has a different definition of "obvious". (whats obvious to you, may not be obvious to others, and vice-versa) I'm not saying code should be commented until its longer than "War and Peace".. but descriptively succinct comments can go a long way to helping others understand 1.) your code segments overall goal, 2.) the basic logic, 3.) the expected output and 4.) what it means (and what you might do) if you dont get the "expected output" ./grain of salt - I'm not a programmer (but trying to be one), and hate, hate, hate unnecessarily obfusticated code. Its OK to write great code. Its not OK to act elitist and expect others to automatically understand it.
FWIW..I spent the last 3 years working as the (only full time) IT admin/tech for a K-12 school district. (approx 5 schools,.. total when I left of about 700 workstations.) What they did right (in the article) was (seemingly) they had good management who understood what they were doing and put an organized effort into re-training the staff and valuing the "soft" side of the equation (human factors) as much as the technical side. (Although I would also like to see specifications on exactly how many systems they migrated, and what distros they used) From my experience, having spent the last 3 years in a K-12 IT position.. I'm of the opinion that success stories like this are (and will continue to be) few and far between. School districts are full of politics and "resistance" and very little money. (as shown by the fact that this "project" took them 10 years to implement) In all the school districts I've been in (and worked in) the employees, staff and students didnt care whether it was FOSS or Windows or Mac or whatever. All they cared about was that it worked reliably. If you took the time to care about their issues, AND you were skilled enough to make it work.. then you were a hero. I'm an advocate for having as much variety as possible ( In the high school library lab I built, I wanted to include several Ubuntu machines and some Macs.. but the school had standardized on HP/Compaq and XP... so it didnt happen.
EXACTLY!!!...
"In the end, IT is little different from accounting or any other administrative function: it's not about self-actualization, independence or creativity, it's about performing a business function reliably, predictably, and efficiently. It's about implementing what management, sales, and designers tell you to implement." You couldnt be more wrong. If all you want is your IT people to be drones and say: "Yes, SIR!".. and "NO, SIR"... then you need to be in the military. Having independence, resourcefulness and creativity are the HALLMARKS of IT. What if your project is not going to meet the deadline, do you want management to just blindly throw more bodies at the problem, or if one of your IT people had a creative idea that would save a months work, you'd take it wouldnt you?... What if the IT team figured independently figured out how to re-arrange the office to get more work done and be happier and more productive ?... What if your IT people go home and night and spend hours reading up on various tech websites (which I can bet you $$$ that most of them do) and bring some of those ideas into your organization?... What if one of your IT people has a hobby of drawing and uses his lunch hour to screw around drawing mockups of a new product?... yeah,,.your right.. that all sounds like a waste of time ... Lets just keep doing things the same way we've always done them. Its best that way.. (tongue firmly in cheek)
Alot can be said about the quality (or lack thereof) of people who enter the IT field and how that effects the industry. However.. after reading the book "Peopleware" , I have to agree with the view that the 2 biggest factors are bad management and bad enviroment. If the concerted combination of those two influences stifles creativity and creates and atmosphere that is dull and boring and full of "documentation" and "following the rules to a T"... you are going to get burnout, plain and simple. I worked the last 10 or so years for a company doing IT consulting and it resulted (last summer) in my wanting to put a gun barrel in my mouth. Now i'm on my own (barely making ends meet) but infinitely happier.
I cant believe no one has mentioned Fischer SpacePen's. Underwater, in the rain, freezing, cooking---They...Wont...Ever...Give up..... http://www.spacepen.com/
Where are the "WNU" t-shirts..... Damn...that'd be sweet...