Is IT getting too hard? - Contractor UK Bulletin Board

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Mich the Tester

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#31

20 May 2009, 11:51

Originally posted by expat View Post

The agent/keyword model is broken.

What you say about SAP applies to me about Siebel. I don't know every Foreign Key on the S_ASSET table, but I know that there are lots, and I know where to find them (in fact I know where to find them without Siebel Tools, but try bragging of that to an agent).

How many IT managers have heard of an Entity Relationship Diagram or a Data Structure diagram, never mind agents?

How many IT managers know the difference between an entity and a table?

Where do you start explaining to these numpties that if you show me a data model I'll spot the foreign keys in a matter of seconds?

Do they even know what a foreign key is?

And what exactly is wrong with an "ad hominem" argument? Dodgy Agent, 16-5-2014
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NotAllThere

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#32

20 May 2009, 11:56

Originally posted by TimberWolf View Post

Is IT getting too hard?

The wife hasn't complained so far.

Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!
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Moscow Mule

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#33

20 May 2009, 11:59

Originally posted by snaw View Post

I'm pretty sure networks, firewalls, datacentres etc are gonna be around for as long as I'm interested in making money off of them ...

They'll be run by robots in the next 5 years...

‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."
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CheeseSlice

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#34

20 May 2009, 12:12

Originally posted by snaw View Post

I'm pretty sure networks, firewalls, datacentres etc are gonna be around for as long as I'm interested in making money off of them ...

They are but cloud computing is looming...

I beta tested a new cloud service provider last month.
Drag and drop a few virtual switches, servers and routers here and there,
configure some parameters (comp name, IP, etc),
hit build,
then sit back and drink coffee until its done.

Am sure its not as good as the real thing, but its getting there.
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snaw

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#35

20 May 2009, 12:15

Originally posted by CheeseSlice View Post

They are but cloud computing is looming...

I beta tested a new cloud service provider last month.
Drag and drop a few virtual switches, servers and routers here and there,
configure some parameters (comp name, IP, etc),
hit build,
then sit back and drink coffee until its done.

Am sure its not as good as the real thing, but its getting there.

Doesn't phase me. It's never that simple - you can do all that now via a gui, but that's no guarantee it'll do what you want it too.

Virtualisation is good in my sphere, cisco are creaming themselves over it.

Hang on - there is actually a place called Cheddar?? - cailin maith

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zara_backdog

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#36

20 May 2009, 13:52

Originally posted by Mich the Tester View Post

How many IT managers have heard of an Entity Relationship Diagram or a Data Structure diagram, never mind agents?

How many IT managers know the difference between an entity and a table?

Where do you start explaining to these numpties that if you show me a data model I'll spot the foreign keys in a matter of seconds?

Do they even know what a foreign key is?

That's why I have never got anywhere as a manager! Thanks for pointing that out - pass me the bleach someone!

Just call me Matron - Too many handbags
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lukemg

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#37

20 May 2009, 14:24

It will get easier and cheaper because there is a demand for it to do so. In the future they will laugh at the efforts needed to support, maintain and change systems now, just as punch cards are a joke to us.
Look at support, box-shifting monkey work now as the kit has got cheaper and more reliable.
Coding is even easier to outsource than manufacturing, when they started doing that, the quality was rubbish, there were concerns over language and culture differences, people thought it was more trouble than it was worth. The cost difference ensured all this was ironed out and so it will go in IT because the people making the decisions do so with a financial imperative at the front of their minds.
Earn while you can but start looking for a sustainable Plan B (not the latest gravy bubble) because sooner or later you will find most of what you know has dropped off a cliff value-wise.
We are not in a 'mature' profession like law, medicine or even accountancy, where experience builds on a foundation that adds value.
Evolve or die...
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expat

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#38

20 May 2009, 14:47

Originally posted by lukemg View Post

...
Earn while you can but start looking for a sustainable Plan B (not the latest gravy bubble) because sooner or later you will find most of what you know has dropped off a cliff value-wise.
We are not in a 'mature' profession like law, medicine or even accountancy, where experience builds on a foundation that adds value.
Evolve or die...

Actually quite a bit of our knowledge is mature, stable, persistent, and platform-independent: as Dijkstra said, knowing a programming language does not make you a programmer, knowing how to think does that. Change language and you are still a programmer, you don't start as a rookie again. Change the nature of your detailed function in IT, and you do not change your overall function: to make computers do what people want. And everything you have learned, even coding in a dead language, is part of what that takes.

So your current IT knowledge - not the superficial technical tools that you currently use, but the knowledge behind them - should be a useful asset in the future even when IT looks quite different. The trouble is that neither clients nor agents, nor in most cases ourselves, appreciate that, so our real value will be thrown away.
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oracleslave

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#39

20 May 2009, 15:25

Originally posted by expat View Post

So your current IT knowledge - not the superficial technical tools that you currently use, but the knowledge behind them - should be a useful asset in the future even when IT looks quite different. The trouble is that neither clients nor agents, nor in most cases ourselves, appreciate that, so our real value will be thrown away.

So if you can't or have no desire to evolve then you're doomed?
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snaw

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#40

20 May 2009, 15:26

Originally posted by CheeseSlice View Post

They are but cloud computing is looming...

I beta tested a new cloud service provider last month.
Drag and drop a few virtual switches, servers and routers here and there,
configure some parameters (comp name, IP, etc),
hit build,
then sit back and drink coffee until its done.

Am sure its not as good as the real thing, but its getting there.

Originally posted by oracleslave View Post

So if you can't or have no desire to evolve then you're doomed?

In IT. Yes.

Deservedly so.

Hang on - there is actually a place called Cheddar?? - cailin maith

Any forum is a collection of assorted weirdos, cranks and pervs - Board Game Geek

That will be a simply fab time to catch up for a beer. - Tay

Have you ever seen somebody lick the chutney spoon in an Indian Restaurant and put it back ? - Cyberghoul
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