I don't use anti-static straps either. They are constraining mainly, but like otherwise stated, completely pointless if you're in the habit of touching metal BEFORE touching electronics - and of course avoiding moving afterwards.
Fifteen years doing this, never used a strap, still haven't blown anything.
As I am a tech at a local shop, one thing (or, in my case, the 2 things) I cannot do without are my dedicated testing machines. Here are the specs of the main machine:
P4 2.4GHz
512 DDR
250GB HDD (IDE)
Promise SATA Controller
Adaptec SCSI-UW Controller
Dual Layer DVD-Burner
Windows XP Pro
AVG Anti-Virus
Ad-Aware, Spybot and SpywareBlaster
Easy Recovery Pro 6
Partition Magic 8.0
Some other software for the occassional need
Audio is turned off, no modem - just video, LAN and the controllers.
Shop-vac it about once every 3 months to keep it clean. Wipe and reload XP about every 6 months (it gets a bit messed up after cleaning a few hundred virus-ridden hard drives)
In an ideal world, everyone with a certification or degree would demonstrate that they have the knowledge conveyed by their respective paperwork. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
For example, my father has a degree in CIS. I don't, nor do I have any certifications. However, where he knows one particular aspect of computer systems and IT, I'm much more broad in my experience. Don't even ask him to build or repair a PC.
I'm not saying that anyone with a degree or certification has less knowledge than someone with only hands-on experience, or that people with only hands-on are better qualified. There are many of either camp that definitely shoot that to hell. Rather, all I'm trying to say is that too much emphasis on expensive pieces is pointless.
Who would you rather have design security software, an 18 year old kid in high school who's able to hack into servers or wrote a major virus, or a multi-degreed, certified professional who's still trying to figure out how the kid did it?
I too delete cookies after every browsing session, and even set IE and Firefox to delete automatically. No company has a right to know know what I view or what I do. It's the electronic equivalent of chaining a company representative to every man, woman and child on the planet, who is taking notes on what everybody does during the course of the day. It's an invasion of privacy.
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I don't use anti-static straps either. They are constraining mainly, but like otherwise stated, completely pointless if you're in the habit of touching metal BEFORE touching electronics - and of course avoiding moving afterwards. Fifteen years doing this, never used a strap, still haven't blown anything.
As I am a tech at a local shop, one thing (or, in my case, the 2 things) I cannot do without are my dedicated testing machines. Here are the specs of the main machine:
Audio is turned off, no modem - just video, LAN and the controllers.
Shop-vac it about once every 3 months to keep it clean. Wipe and reload XP about every 6 months (it gets a bit messed up after cleaning a few hundred virus-ridden hard drives)
In an ideal world, everyone with a certification or degree would demonstrate that they have the knowledge conveyed by their respective paperwork. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. For example, my father has a degree in CIS. I don't, nor do I have any certifications. However, where he knows one particular aspect of computer systems and IT, I'm much more broad in my experience. Don't even ask him to build or repair a PC. I'm not saying that anyone with a degree or certification has less knowledge than someone with only hands-on experience, or that people with only hands-on are better qualified. There are many of either camp that definitely shoot that to hell. Rather, all I'm trying to say is that too much emphasis on expensive pieces is pointless. Who would you rather have design security software, an 18 year old kid in high school who's able to hack into servers or wrote a major virus, or a multi-degreed, certified professional who's still trying to figure out how the kid did it?
Hmmm... Seems this has happened before... I'm thinking... Windows?
I too delete cookies after every browsing session, and even set IE and Firefox to delete automatically. No company has a right to know know what I view or what I do. It's the electronic equivalent of chaining a company representative to every man, woman and child on the planet, who is taking notes on what everybody does during the course of the day. It's an invasion of privacy.