You guys remember...

[retro77]

It took me 15 years to see the cycle but I see it clear as day now:

1.) IT is humming along, we are all good at what we do
2.) Buzz word A comes out and now we all gotta learn all about buzz word A and why its so awesome. Not all learn about buzz word A. IT knowledge is fractured.
3.) IT is humming along, we are all good at what we do
4.) Buzz word B comes out and its way better than buzz word A ever was so now we all rush out to learn all about buzz word B. I still remember buzz word A too, I might run across that again.
5.) IT departments all over the world are humming along nicely


Little did I know that on the other side of the fence, this is what is really going on:
1.) Companies are making profits and cruising in yachts and sipping martinis on the beach. Well all that costs a great deal of money. So when funds run low, or maybe some mismanagement led to loss of funds in crappy investments.
2.) Here's an idea, lets sell this new buzz word A thing we just dreamed up in the back room and make some cash flow again.
3.) So now execs are back to cruising yachts and remodeling their dog houses with travertine floors so their pure breads can have a nice surface in their dog houses.
4.) Well all this costs a great deal of money, so we need to come up with buzz word B to sell...

It perpetuates over and over and over, costing companies tons of money because guess what, they don't even make drivers for the new stuff that will work on your old OS [Windows 7 in this example]. So we need new hardware. Its like that in every aspect of IT, OS's, desktop hardware, server hardware, security etc.

Oh hey these hackers over here are getting in your networks real easy because we thought everyone operated on the honor system when we designed this stuff. So anyone wanting to keep those guys out, go get these certifications and training [which cost money, time and energy to obtain]. So you're like, "Yes! I want that challenge!" then you get to the real world and realize that most companies have little to no security policies or practices. Teh existing IT knows and or cares nothing about security and can't understand why you want to take domain admin away from the president of the company. They won't invest in security because they can't see that it will save them money in lost contracts and information that just walks right out the door to their competition.

I'm not bitter one bit and I love IT. But I'm just tired of it all and want something different. The ultimate would be to work on cars or involved in the process someway. I'm digging that right now.

[chinaguy]

The real question is, who remembers the true floppies, the 5.25" ones? Especially the low density 360k disks?

I have a 8 inch floppy I like to show to my students

[shoota]

I have a 8 inch floppy I like to show to my students

You'd go to jail for that here in the U.S.

[D_A]

Or become president, one or the other.

[chinaguy]

You'd go to jail for that here in the U.S.

For the special students I allow them to look at my Puch Card collection that I keep in a shoe box.

[Moo]

You guys are killing me

[shoota]

lollolol

[Snow Crash]

If you want to ready some seriously funny stuff BOFH is classic :-)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/
I know he started writing BOFH long before this set ... anyone else remember them ... the good old days when you could do just about anything because IT was almost synonymous with god ???

[jspace]

It took me 15 years to see the cycle but I see it clear as day now:

1.) IT is humming along, we are all good at what we do
2.) Buzz word A comes out and now we all gotta learn all about buzz word A and why its so awesome. Not all learn about buzz word A. IT knowledge is fractured.
3.) IT is humming along, we are all good at what we do
4.) Buzz word B comes out and its way better than buzz word A ever was so now we all rush out to learn all about buzz word B. I still remember buzz word A too, I might run across that again.
5.) IT departments all over the world are humming along nicely


Little did I know that on the other side of the fence, this is what is really going on:
1.) Companies are making profits and cruising in yachts and sipping martinis on the beach. Well all that costs a great deal of money. So when funds run low, or maybe some mismanagement led to loss of funds in crappy investments.
2.) Here's an idea, lets sell this new buzz word A thing we just dreamed up in the back room and make some cash flow again.
3.) So now execs are back to cruising yachts and remodeling their dog houses with travertine floors so their pure breads can have a nice surface in their dog houses.
4.) Well all this costs a great deal of money, so we need to come up with buzz word B to sell...

It perpetuates over and over and over, costing companies tons of money because guess what, they don't even make drivers for the new stuff that will work on your old OS [Windows 7 in this example]. So we need new hardware. Its like that in every aspect of IT, OS's, desktop hardware, server hardware, security etc.

Oh hey these hackers over here are getting in your networks real easy because we thought everyone operated on the honor system when we designed this stuff. So anyone wanting to keep those guys out, go get these certifications and training [which cost money, time and energy to obtain]. So you're like, "Yes! I want that challenge!" then you get to the real world and realize that most companies have little to no security policies or practices. Teh existing IT knows and or cares nothing about security and can't understand why you want to take domain admin away from the president of the company. They won't invest in security because they can't see that it will save them money in lost contracts and information that just walks right out the door to their competition.

I'm not bitter one bit and I love IT. But I'm just tired of it all and want something different. The ultimate would be to work on cars or involved in the process someway. I'm digging that right now.

I hear ya. Everyone is used to being able to do whatever the F they want on their computer. Fortunately you can grant people admin access to only select machines
I've never really bothered with certs. I've taken classes for Windows Server & Vista, but I don't have any MS certs. The problem is once you finish the class, MS comes up with a new test with even more ridiculous answers. Every organization needs 3 Exchange servers and a separate domain controller (that does nothing else)

[chinaguy]

Well I have a computer graveyard in the back of my server room, just in case! There is a P3 800mhz E running Windows 95 and Office97, a P4 2.4Ghz running Windows 98 and Office 2000. Both with 3.5 floppies of different vintage, 720KB and 1.44MB, SD, HD.

The number of times someone comes in with a box of floppies wanting a file from 1997.

Its great that USB works on all these old PCs in one way or the other for memory sticks.

I think I have DOS 6 and Windows 2.1 Floppies in a storage box, might be my next challange to get installed for my Computer Club.

[Johnmark]

What a bunch of OLD Farts ah shoota lol