As an assistant admin, I can really appreciate the effort Matt (our primary geek) puts into things around here. I've sent the slashdot link to our management staff, and suggested that they bring something nice for him, or at least say thanks. Perhaps in a couple years when Matt moves along to greener pastures, and I've taken over, there'll be an established habit of recognizing and rewarding the hard work and intelligence of the men and women who make our Systems Room hum.
Thanks to all the admins and just plain nerds out there who make everything we all use run so smoothly.
90 hours 3 times a month? yeah, 25k is about right.... *chuckle* my pay goes up every time the company spends 5 or 10 grand to send me to some cert training crap. anyway... home calls.
i'm 'systems support engineer' for a huge call center at one of the largest online travel booking companies... and i swear, i spend 6 out of 9 hours every day refreshing slashdot and drudge report. oh and irc'ing. sure beats working, not that i have any work to do in the first place. not til they send me for training for the phone switches and all that jazz.
speaking of beating working... it's time to go home. an hour early, since there's nothing to do and i'm hungry. i love taking a 90 hour paycheck for 10-15 hours of work.
I used to be a linux fan. never really stopped, but life didn't let me pursue it for a while. now i'm admin of a linux-based phone switch (eOn's equeue) and these alerts suddenly concern me. fact is, i don't even have root. it's menu-based, you can get a shell but su doesn't work. the eOn techs are the ones responsible for root tasks, and i'm not sure they're going to handle this promptly.
in addition, it's making me have some slight apprehension regarding my plan to put a couple linux machines in the systems room at work. be a bit embarrassing if the new guy's machines got owned.
microsoft has this problem, see. too much hard cash laying around, not enough to do with it. so they invent ways to blow it. except they don't invent at all - they merely copy what everyone else is doing, only throw a huge budget at it the first and often the 2nd generation, just to play catch-up with the originators.
this poses the problem of market saturation - too many devices from too many companies. consumer dollars are spread too thin, and even the originators have a tough time justifying throwing money at surprising and untried ideas. result of course is a slower rate of innovation. the technology improves, but the application of it doesn't keep pace. i'm sure there are a wealth of new devices or integrated multifunctions that could come about if companies felt less concern that they would simply be copied and the market flooded, vastly reducing the returns on the creator's original product.
then again, isn't that the point of capitalism? to balance the economic power of companies by discouraging monopoly, and fostering competition? and in the process, building a social meritocracy, where the most deserving and useful members of society are aptly rewarded. as a firm capitalist, i find it almost amusing that microsoft was prosecuted for monopoly abuse, but is a company which most firmly represents the capitalist ideal of active competitiveness, and proper incentive provided to the employee.
i must qualify the above statements by saying that i work in an all-windows noc with a vpn that spans north america, india, and soon asia and north africa. and surprisingly, most things work decently. we do have 9 sun machines and the 5 linux phone switches (eOns n such), but am not personally a microsoft user.
Slashdot Mirror
As an assistant admin, I can really appreciate the effort Matt (our primary geek) puts into things around here. I've sent the slashdot link to our management staff, and suggested that they bring something nice for him, or at least say thanks. Perhaps in a couple years when Matt moves along to greener pastures, and I've taken over, there'll be an established habit of recognizing and rewarding the hard work and intelligence of the men and women who make our Systems Room hum.
Thanks to all the admins and just plain nerds out there who make everything we all use run so smoothly.
90 hours 3 times a month? yeah, 25k is about right.... *chuckle* my pay goes up every time the company spends 5 or 10 grand to send me to some cert training crap. anyway... home calls.
i'm 'systems support engineer' for a huge call center at one of the largest online travel booking companies... and i swear, i spend 6 out of 9 hours every day refreshing slashdot and drudge report. oh and irc'ing. sure beats working, not that i have any work to do in the first place. not til they send me for training for the phone switches and all that jazz.
speaking of beating working... it's time to go home. an hour early, since there's nothing to do and i'm hungry. i love taking a 90 hour paycheck for 10-15 hours of work.
I used to be a linux fan. never really stopped, but life didn't let me pursue it for a while. now i'm admin of a linux-based phone switch (eOn's equeue) and these alerts suddenly concern me. fact is, i don't even have root. it's menu-based, you can get a shell but su doesn't work. the eOn techs are the ones responsible for root tasks, and i'm not sure they're going to handle this promptly.
in addition, it's making me have some slight apprehension regarding my plan to put a couple linux machines in the systems room at work. be a bit embarrassing if the new guy's machines got owned.
microsoft has this problem, see. too much hard cash laying around, not enough to do with it. so they invent ways to blow it. except they don't invent at all - they merely copy what everyone else is doing, only throw a huge budget at it the first and often the 2nd generation, just to play catch-up with the originators.
this poses the problem of market saturation - too many devices from too many companies. consumer dollars are spread too thin, and even the originators have a tough time justifying throwing money at surprising and untried ideas. result of course is a slower rate of innovation. the technology improves, but the application of it doesn't keep pace. i'm sure there are a wealth of new devices or integrated multifunctions that could come about if companies felt less concern that they would simply be copied and the market flooded, vastly reducing the returns on the creator's original product.
then again, isn't that the point of capitalism? to balance the economic power of companies by discouraging monopoly, and fostering competition? and in the process, building a social meritocracy, where the most deserving and useful members of society are aptly rewarded. as a firm capitalist, i find it almost amusing that microsoft was prosecuted for monopoly abuse, but is a company which most firmly represents the capitalist ideal of active competitiveness, and proper incentive provided to the employee.
i must qualify the above statements by saying that i work in an all-windows noc with a vpn that spans north america, india, and soon asia and north africa. and surprisingly, most things work decently. we do have 9 sun machines and the 5 linux phone switches (eOns n such), but am not personally a microsoft user.