OK, so we squabble, and disagree, but it is my belief that this
community has in its membership many of the giants who built a
technological marvel that underpins our society today, or at least
would do so if
management could be induced to extend its event-horizon beyond the
current fiscal year, and to start counting real costs. Most of us have
plied our trade in an environment where an unplanned outage or
functional failure were simply not to be allowed. Because we built
systems to perform well and reliably, we were invisible, except when
we made mistakes. I'm sure I'm not alone in experiencing the almost-
every-day complaint from a clerk in a store that 'the computer isn't
working right today'.
I believe that we should be getting the word out that computers don't
have to act this way, and that we know how to build systems that
behave properly. We certainly face an uphill battle against the mind-set
among management that leads them to set unreasonable requirements for
job descriptions and set the salary schedules far below current going
rates. It really gets my goat that they use these machinations to
spread the lies that they cannot get skilled IT personnel. See http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204422404576596630897409182-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwNDEyNDQyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email
.
I retired when I could no longer put up with the asininity of company
politics, but if I wanted to continue in my chosen career, I would
certainly undertake to build my skills in database, communications,
and UNIX, however distasteful that might be. I could go on for hours
about the poor design features of UNIX and current email and internet
protocols, but if I needed a job, I would swallow my pride and start
hitting the books.
Of course, with the current political climate regarding Social
Security and Medicare, I might have to go back to work. Perhaps I
should have made larger private investments, but then maybe I would
have invested in Enron, AIG, Lehman Brothers, or Bernie Madoff.
Dale Miller
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