First, thank you for a very enlightening rant - the best I've seen since I joined the list.
*reaches for toilet paper to blow nose* On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 2:27 AM, Brian Shackelford <bshackelf...@dns-net.com> wrote: [snip] > You know it is interesting - having been in this industry for over 16 > years - to see the attitudes of so many "professionals" in the IT > industry. I make my living by fixing all the problems many of these > so-called professionals cause when the work on things. It is so very > troubling to get phone calls from people that have been laid off from > their "IT" job in some of the large corporations where they commanded > huge salaries and now they have opened their own business and are > calling us for support because they don't have a clue about what it > takes to actually do the "work". > > The industry is filled with clueless Master degree holders and DIY HTML gurus alike. The ones in the middle earned their experience through getting their hands dirty and many have pieces of paper to show for it. I haven't been in the industry for very long (I graduated university last year) but I have seen my fair share of know-it-alls cause large amounts of damage as a result of their cluelessness. One guy I saw building a computer couldn't get a memory chip in (it was in backwards) so he went to his toolkit and reached for a hammer. I promptly took the hammer off of him and showed him how to do it - it was all I could do to stop me from hitting him with that bloody hammer. > > I almost believe that the perception in this industry is if you can > pronounce "server", "workstation", "network", "switch", "hard drive", > and a few other "highly technical" (btw - the "" should be read with > sarcasm for you Microsoft folks out there) terms, that it is acceptable > to call yourself an IT professional. Fact of the matter is that I have > become convinced that those that know how to actually TROUBLESHOOT > problems are in the very small minority in this industry. > QFT. It is a rather rare skill and a difficult one to get across in an interview. You're fighting against people who talk buzzwords when you know that the buzzwords aren't real knowledge. > > > Don't get me wrong - I am by no means complaining - for it is how I get > paid. I am just sick of so-called professionals with Master's Degrees > in IT telling me that they are right and I am wrong because they think > pushing a few buttons and having a degree makes them smarter than some > of us that earned our experience. > I remember the glory days of DOS - if you wanted to run something, you had to find it yourself and run the correct command. If you didn't want to go and find it, write a batch file. These days GUIs make everything push-button and obscure the details. While some GUIs allow you to get the job done quicker (there are things like web browsing for which a GUI is almost essential, even if it's *curses based), they dumb things down and often make specialised operations impossible. > > > Old School Unix = People that KNOW what they are doing. I work with > Macs, PC's, Windows, Novell, Mac OS, Linux, Unix, Windows, DOS (Yes some > customers still use this), THEOS (anyone else heard of that one???). I > have the certifications to prove my knowledge - but none of that means > bupkiss if I can't fix a problem I have never seen before. The strength > of Old-School Unix folks is their resourcefulness in fixing the problems > they are faced with - whether they have seen that specific problem or > not - without having to whine to everyone that it just doesn't work. If > there is a problem -they fix it - sometimes that means writing code or > hacking together a solution. I can't begin to tell you how many times a > client has a call into Microsoft and we fix the problem hours (if not > days) before Microsoft calls back simply by actually troubleshooting and > researching the problem. Sometimes this means we actually (gasp) edit > the registry..... > Oh yes, M$ were very much against that, even when it was the only solution and the one suggested in their knowledge base! This is good reading that goes through the horrors of such things, as well as their training slash indoctrination: http://www.kmfms.com/unmaintainable.txt > > > Now to bring this to the place of why this relates to OpenBSD. I love > OpenBSD, we have some installs that have been in place for several years > and I never even think about them. I lose sleep every night I go home > when I think about all the Windows systems we manage, but I never even > think about the OpenBSD boxes we have put in place. Performance - well > three years running with no patches and never a problem and never been > compromised. Let me see ANY other OS make that claim. Microsoft Server > - connect to internet - compromised within minutes (actually happened to > a customer of ours...) > I remember the first time I installed OpenBSD - I was amazed at how intuititve the installer was. Previous installs of Linux were pretty good, but nothing compared to the experience I had with OpenBSD. Awhile back I got into binpatches and was amazed at how simple it was to add them - I could set a script to check the update server for fresh updates, download them and install them - all I would have to do is compile the updated source, test them, and upload a patch to the server, then reboot the system to apply the latest patches. I have yet to see any OS match that. As for security, a computer magazine in Australia did a test with a Windows XP machine, no service packs, no patches... within 2 minutes of dialling in the Blaster worm shut the system down. That's pretty sad. > > > Sorry for the long-winded post. I am simply tired of reading whiny > people complain about stuff they know nothing about. If you don't like > it, don't use it. If you don't understand it, then don't use it - OR - > (this might be earth shattering) take the time to LEARN to use it. > There are lots of people here that will help when asked questions that > show you have done your LEARNING BEFORE you ask. And how much did it > cost you......? > I find people are rather allergic to manuals. Goodness knows why, it makes life so much easier. Mind you, I still find myself composing an email for the misc@ list or jumping onto an IRC channel, then realising "Hey, maybe I should Google it first before I ask..." but at least I think of it - most wouldn't even go that far. > > > That is my $1.87 worth - flame me - stone me - whatever if you must - > but again it is just one man's opinion..... > > > > Placing my Order today for the new set - that should take the US to at > least 11 copies......:) > > Will place an order when I next get paid - that would bring the total orders for Australia to at least 4 or 5... -- Aaron Mason - Programmer, open source addict - Oh, why does everything I whip leave me?
