Sunday, October 02, 2016
Saturday, October 01, 2016
Signs you arent cut or IT
1: Thick skin
Let's face it. Workers in the IT industry get hit hard, from every direction. If you're not getting your chops busted by someone insisting you get a job done yesterday, you're getting torn apart because the client's QuickBooks data file can't be recovered. It doesn't seem to matter how much skill you have. If you can't take the biting comments and accusations of clients, you won't make it. Thick skin also helps you get through those periods when you, or your boss, doubts those skills you have. You don't want to have to leave at the end of the day thinking you have failed at every job you've done, just because someone had it in for you that day.2: Persistence
The IT industry is an ever-changing landscape, and every day a new problem makes itself known. In some cases, those problems don't ever seem to want to go away. Without the ability to grapple with an issue for extended periods of time, you might find this industry more of a challenge than you care to take on. Viruses will always be an issue. Updates that tank systems will happen with more consistency than you want to deal with. End users will never really understand how computers work. If you don't have the persistent, stubborn nature necessary to meet these challenges, get out now or you will be beat down daily.3: Youth
Although I like to think IT is a field not affected by age discrimination, it really is best suited for the younger professionals. There are numerous reasons for this. First, there are the hours. IT often requires far more hours than the usual 9-t0-5 job. When a company goes down, the administrator must respond — and this could easily mean any time of day, night, or week. Those hours add up and (generally speaking) only the younger workers can keep those types of hours up week after week. Add to that the energy required to keep systems and networks up, and it should be obvious the best IT workers tend to fall into that 25 to 45 age range. The good news? Even if you start at the age of 25, there's a 20-year career waiting for you.4: Patience
Users and clients are endlessly frustrating. If you have little or no patience, those people will quickly drive you out of the field. And if they don't completely drive you away, they will at least drive away your joy for the human race. Without patience, you won't stand a chance in the IT field. But it's not only because of the people. Systems will test your patience as well. We've all seen the video of the IT admin going ballistic on a PC. It happens. A persistent problem arises and it makes you want to ram your fist down the throat of the PC you're working on. With enough patience, you will save both your knuckles and your sanity.5: Skills
This one should go without saying — but I must mention it. Too many times, you see people hop into the field because they managed to get through the MSCE training. But those certified workers quickly realize their classes only prepared them how to walk through a GUI. In the real world, problems arise that require numerous skills to resolve. The skills necessary to work in the IT field don't end with the ability to properly configure a domain or Exchange server, they tend to be all inclusive. You never know what you're going to be required to do on a given day. Think about it this way. When you are seen as an IT administrator, you are not only a specialist in DB administration, you are also a walking help desk who will be asked any and all questions related to work and home computers. And if you don't have the answers for the right person (at the right time), you might find yourself at the back of the line watching someone else with the answers.6: The ability to improvise
I mean this on many levels. Not only do you need to know how to improvise a conversation. Admit it — there will be times when you'll have to convince someone that you know exactly what you are doing, even when you don't. But you will also run into situations where you have to improvise a solution. I have witnessed (and experienced) situations where the prescribed solution simply did not work. When that happens, the only way out is to come up with a solution on your own.7: A good sense of PR
If you're a consultant, you have to be your own marketing firm. Most solo consultants do not have the budget to hire out their PR work, so they wind up doing it all on their own. This means social networking, building a Web site, writing and submitting advertisements, old-school networking, and much more. If you can't do this, your business will flounder. When you go into business for yourself, you must know the best routes for marketing in your area. Whether this is TV, radio, social networks, or flyers, you have to have the motivation and skills to handle that aspect of the business. Although word of mouth is the best PR you can get, it still has to begin somewhere.8: Connections
This might seem a bit strange, but as a member of the IT field (especially if you're a solo consultant), you have to have connections in many related and nonrelated industries. For example, you will have customers who need rooms cabled, so you might need someone who can do drywall finishing. You might need to have an electrician in your back pocket. If you don't have specific skills, you need to know those in the industry who do. The last thing you want to tell a client is that you can't do something. Instead, you can tell them you will get it done and then subcontract that job. So long as the job gets done and the customer is happy, you will still look good. But if you can't job something out, and you have to tell the client no, the possibility of that client returning to you grows slimmer and slimmer.9: The desire to learn
As I mentioned earlier, IT is an ever-changing industry. The minute a technology is released, it is out of date. So anyone wanting to tackle a career in IT must have a strong desire to learn. You will be challenged on a daily basis to learn something new. If you don't like learning (be it on your own, with another person, or in a classroom), you should forget about IT. Without the desire to learn, you will quickly fall behind the competition. And believe me, it's a competitive world out there, especially so with the economy still attempting to recover.10: Passion
Passion for IT is an intrinsic need for every IT worker. If you don't love technology and solving problems, IT is not the right field for you. That passion is the intangible thing that will often get you through the day when everything else on this list fails. And a strong passion for IT will also drive most of the other points here far beyond what sheer intelligence and business savvy can manage. After years of working in the field, passion will also help you get up every morning excited for the workday ahead. Without passion, the IT field can quickly become an empty, soulless place.When it's right
I've been pretty hard on the IT industry over the past few months. But ultimately, it is an exciting field to work in. Where else can you play with technology all day, solve problems, and make sure businesses continue to exchange product for currency on a daily basis? But just because you know how to resolve Problem A with Solution X doesn't mean you are suited for the IT industry. It requires much more than what your local computer science program will teach you. On top of all those Windows, Linux, and Mac skills, you need life, business, and marketing skills (with the added benefit of youth). With all those qualities intact, you are sure to enjoy a long, successful career in the IT field.10 reasons for quitting IT
Raise your hand if you've nearly quit your job on at least a few
occasions. Go on. You don't have to be shy. We all know that IT is one
of the more stressful careers you can choose. And unfortunately,
universities don't teach you coping mechanisms for getting through the
days/weeks/months that can turn into long years. Let's take a look at a
few reasons you might decide to leave that beloved career in IT.
1: Stress
Don't let anyone ever tell you that a career in IT is easy going. It's a rare occasion that someone will have a job in the IT field where there isn't stress. Remember, IT is disaster management. When a client or user calls you, it's almost always an emergency that must be taken care of immediately. And when you are working on those jobs, you had better get everything right, as failure could cost you a contract or a job. What makes this worse is that the stress rarely lets up. Every minute of the day, you are working and working harder than you might expect.2: Hours
If you want a Monday through Friday, 9-to-5 job, look elsewhere — IT seems to be a job you carry around with you 24/7. Not only do you put in more hours in the office (or the field) than your average professional, you also have to work outside the office to keep your skills up and make sure you're better than the guy standing next to you. And the people who aren't your clients or users (friends and family, for example) will want to take advantage of your knowledge and keep their computers running smoothly for free.3: Getting paid
If you are an independent contractor, one of the most stressful issues you face is getting paid. I can't tell you how many consultants I know who have had to make threats or use an attorney to get paid. And when you're freelancing, if they don't pay you, you don't eat. That is some serious stress there. You don't have the advantage of having that regular check coming in weekly or biweekly. Honing your interpersonal skills is key to keeping those relationships as good as possible. Good relationships (even with not-so-good people) will go a long way to make sure you do eventually get paid.4: People (in general)
This one I hate to mention. A long time ago, I was a positive, upbeat, people-loving kind of person. But after being in the consulting business, I've found myself getting taken advantage of, used, abused, unpaid, underpaid, unappreciated, and more. It's a constant fight to resist wanting to retreat to the woods and off the grid. That is not to say that people, in general, are bad. It's just that when you have your IT hat on, people seem to look at you in a different light. You are both savior and sinner in one stressed-out package.5: The chain of command
Let's face it. Not many higher-ups understand your job. They think you should be able to get everything done on a shoestring budget, with no help, and you should treat end users as if they were better humans than yourself. And to make matters worse, the higher-ups want you to magically make those PCs last for more than a decade. This misunderstanding of both duty and technology does one thing: It makes your job impossible. When the powers-that-be begin to micromanage your department for you, every single bad element is exacerbated. You know your job and you know you know your job. Management does not know your job, but they don't know they don't know your job. It's all a vicious Mobius strip of stress.6: Technology
Have you ever had one of those days when it seems like the whole of technology has rebelled against you and it looks like the singularity might very well be on the horizon? Those days will have you wishing you were walking out of the building with your belongings in a cardboard box. This has been one of the issues I have had to deal with since working with a consultancy that deals primarily with Windows clients. It seems that entropy has a strong hold on the Windows operating system, and every day is a battle to keep PCs and systems working. Some days you win that battle, some days you lose it. The days you win are always lost in the pile of days you lose.7: Competition
One thing you can count on — there will always be someone better than you. But in the IT industry, it isn't a 1:1 ratio. Instead, it seems that for every one of you there are one hundred IT pros who are smarter, faster, and better equipped. That ratio is quickly realized in dollar signs. Remember, the IT landscape is constantly changing, and if you can't keep up, you may not be hired or remain employed. The longer I am in this business, the more I realize it's a young person's game. Being as agile as necessary, being able to work the necessary hours... it all adds up. I'm not saying us older folks can't run with the pack. We can. But every day we work is another day even more competition is added to the field, and the competition is fierce.8: The cloud
Every time I hear an actor on TV speak the phrase "to the cloud" I want to pull out my hair and kick in the television. The cloud has been one of those aspects of IT whose definition has been, and probably always will be, in flux. What exactly is the cloud? Should I be using it? Is the cloud safe? How much does the cloud cost? I get hit with these questions all the time. Generally, I just answer by asking the clients if they've used Google Docs before. If they say "yes," I tell them they are already using the cloud. But that is never satisfying. Clients and end users want the cloud to be some magical experience that will make all their work easier, better, and faster. If only they knew the truth.9: Lack of standards
Our lives would be infinitely better if some sort of standards could be applied, across the board, in IT. Many open source projects have done everything they can to achieve a set of standards, only to be knocked down by proprietary software. Those proprietary software vendors want to keep their code closed and not compliant with standards so they can keep their bottom line as padded as possible. I get that, I really do. But while they are refusing to conform to any sort of standard, they are causing end users and IT pros any number of horrendous headaches on a daily basis. There is no reason why standards can't be followed without preventing proprietary software vendors from making a killing.10: Respect
The general public has a bad taste in its mouth for IT professionals. Why? There are many reasons. They've been burned before. They've been ripped off before. They've had consultants who only seemed to want to sell them bigger and better things. So long has this gone on, and so jaded has the public become, that IT pros have a hard time earning respect. Oh sure, when they see you walk in the door you are their best friend... for the moment. But the minute you get that one "impending doom" issue resolved, it's time to go off on you or insist you do more than they hired you to do (or more than you have time to do).Friday, September 30, 2016
States Sue Obama Administration in Last-Ditch Effort to Stop US From Giving Up Control of Internet
“Trusting authoritarian regimes to ensure the continued freedom of the internet is lunacy,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The president does not have the authority to simply give away America’s pioneering role in ensuring that the internet remains a place where free expression can flourish.”
The AGs … asked a judge late Wednesday to step in and stop the transition to an international oversight body, after GOP lawmakers failed to stall the move as part of a short-term spending bill.The lawsuit argues that if the transfer takes place, as it’s scheduled to on Oct. 1, people will “lose the predictability, certainty, and protections that currently flow from federal stewardship of the Internet and instead be subjected to ICANN’s unchecked control.”
Paxton was among the four Republican AGs who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division.
The U.S. government has been in charge of domain names for more than three decades, thanks to a Commerce Department agency's oversight of an obscure, but powerful, Los Angeles-based nonprofit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The suit argues the looming transfer violates the property clause in the U.S. Constitution which prohibits handing over government property without Congress’ approval. The suit also claims the handoff would violate First Amendment rights and says ICANN, the nonprofit owners in control, would be unchecked and could start to censor speech. […]FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai warned Americans on the “Sean Hannity Show” Wednesday that giving up control to ICANN should be worrisome for anyone who values “free expression and free speech rights generally.”
Republicans in Congress, though, have long-objected to the transfer, which they called a “giveaway” to the rest of the world. They argue that handing over control to a non-government entity would give countries like Russia and China the ability to control online speech – something supporters categorically deny.
The new lawsuit also claims ICANN “has a documented history of ignoring or operating outside of its governing bylaws.”
“Nothing protects the Plaintiffs from additional occurrences of ICANN oversight failures,” the suit says.
HUGE Cigar shaped UFO was captured on camera
Last month a HUGE Cigar shaped UFO was captured on camera next to the moon it appears. This UFO in size ‘could be’ up to at least a 100 miles in length – something which as been confirmed by some key Ufologists from around the world who have (like U.I.P) analysed this capture in fine detail.
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