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Answer» Here's a short article from Time Magazine on the rapid changing computer technology.. Physics for example, is more stable in the sense that what ever you learn about, is something that you can carry with you and use for the rest of your life.Physicists have yet to reconcile the contradictory theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. If someone does figure out how to do this you may have to forget everything that you learned about physics.Quote from: JJ 3000 on August 16, 2009, 10:59:58 PM Evolution has exponential timing. This may be true, but you I think you're missing the point... Maybe I should have used something other than physics as an example....There are more careers and things in the world that are based on relatively absolute principles, especially when compared to COMPUTING technology... Essentially what I'm asking is...If computer maintenance/repair is your thing, as a career, is the money worth it, considering that what ever you learn becomes virtually obsolete, in 5-10 years, if not sooner? Personally, the thought of putting so much time into learning something that's destined for scrap so soon, leaves me with an empty feeling... As I implied, others may see it differently because making money is more of a priority to them, which is not a bad thing, but learning about things that are relatively absolute seems to be more up my alley...If you are truly interested in computer technology then you will keep up with the new trends and innovations. I am constantly reading magazine and internet articles about the changing field of computers. I work on a wood veneer factory, by the way. If you want a more concrete, stable field to study then become a carpenter or a mason or an undertaker or a politician. The one constant of science, and our understanding of it, is that it is constantly changing. I think that's why I like it so much. Is the money worth it? Well that depends. How much money are you talking about? Do you enjoy doing your job? There are so many people who hate their jobs and do it just to pay the bills (but that's okay if it's a shitload of money). If you truly enjoy your job, then the money you make shouldn't be important. Quote from: JJ 3000 on August 16, 2009, 11:56:11 PM
well, i think there are more than just those let's see here... you could be a historian, archeologist, CSI, news reporter, film editor, store manager, a delivery guy, military career/s, artist (painter, song writer, book writer, singer, instruments) .......of course in some of these, you'd have to be GOOD if you wan to make it... You strike a point on how much money we're actually talking about...For instance, my cousin is an IT administrator at Harvard Medical School and makes $140 K/ year But even if I were him, I don't think I'd be content. He got a degree in Computer Science and probably some other Certs., but with respect to the technology he studied years ago in college, where is all that technology now?I think he was in college in the early 90s.. He probably doesn't implement any Operating Systems or networking technology that he learned while in college...programming maybe, assuming that's one of the things he learned while in college.. Somehow, putting all my eggs in the IT basket doesn't sit well with me....As you said, perhaps it's only for the "truly interested" people...Or people only interested in the money...your doubly missing the point blockhead. with respect the programming- the first "wave" was structured programming, or a "modular" apprroach. now it's Object oriented. does that throw away everything about the "modular" approach? No, it builds upon it. The very same QuickSort routine developed in 1972 is still the established standard for sorting. "changes fast" obviously doesn't apply here. Additionally there really isn't a whole lot to keep up with, IMO. I started with a 286 in 2002 or thereabouts, and I knew nothing about PCs at the time. I learned about that- the Processor, coprocessor, memory, etc, ISA bus... And then I was given a 386, which allowed me to run windows 3.1. I only had it running for about a year, but in that time span I had moved from simple batch scripts, to QBASIC, to Visual Basic 2.0 on windows, and I had learned the ins and outs of the windows 3.1 driver architecture. And then I was given a Pentium, which was CAPABLE of running windows 95- did that "throw out" or make "obsolete" any of the knowledge I gained from the 386 or the 286 before it? No, there were some caveats, to be sure, but for the most part I was just adding the new stuff- (namely PCI) to my re portiere. And this continued through windows 98, and then I made the move to XP,which flipped most of what I knew on it's head and yet at the same time put it on a pedestal. A prime example being installing drivers- MS-DOS was generally a line or two in config.sys and autoexec.bat, and often took a lot of troubleshooting if IRQs or DMA was involved. Windows 3.1 was a little better, with the use of OEMSETUP on driver disks to facilitate installations. for some hardware, such as sound cards, however, IRQ and DMA was simply unavoidable. because of the underlying ISA architecture. Windows 95 embraced the up and coming PCI (which had usurped it's rival, VL-Bus) technology, which involved somewhat functional "plug and play" which in that case was just that the OS would SAY, "HEY, you added something. tell me what it is", additionally certain ISA cards could tap into the PnP table and make themselves somewhat plug and play, as well. Windows 98 and 98SE extended this and added USB and better PCMCIA card support. NT... namely with the consumer oriented XP- of course flipped most people knowledge that they had learned with windows 9x "on it's head" or so they claim. They forget, that they didn't have to, for example, relearn the control panel, using the mouse, etc, these are transferable skills that for all practical purposes are applicable regardless of the technology, all that changed was some underlying code- obviously there was no longer MS-DOS, so the MS-DOS based tweaks people had been doing (but shouldn't of) could no longer work, and many things were moved around... but at the same time people complained of the advances, there were major strides- disk management, for example, as opposed to booting from a floppy disk and running fdisk- services... a better task manager. Vista obviously changed this even more- but at the same time added support for - much in the same way as windows 95 did for PCI - SATA controllers. Much like 3.1 and the PCI bus, XP and even 2000 can be made to recognize SATA as well via drivers. Throughout, we have had basics. CPU, RAM, hard drive, motherboard. only the underlying technologies connecting these together have changed. People say things have "changed so much" and yet, when you look at it, things haven't much changed at all.hmmm, well you've got some interesting points there BC....... but if my life revolved around keeping up with the changing technology, which techs. must do, it would be quite an annoyance to spend time mastering it when when eventually it goes bye bye. As a hobbyist you can spend time implementing older technologies until you are green in the face, but in corporate environments and most homes, older technologies are virtually obsolete. The basic question is...What is it worth to you, if you did it for a living?Quote As a hobbyist you can spend time implementing older technologies until you are green in the face, but in corporate environments and most homes, older technologies are virtually obsolete. Not true. Many corporate environments are still using DOS based solutions- why? Because they work.With the exception of DOS of course... I realize DOS has it's uses.. Quote from: blockHEAD on August 17, 2009, 01:39:54 AM With the exception of DOS of course... I realize DOS has it's uses..the same applies to other companies even with 9x... corporate implementations are the least likely to upgrade to a new tech ASAP, since their current one works.Lol gees, BC It's fairly certain that IT technology changes rapidly and computers are tied up in all of it. What would it be worth to you as a technician having to disregard certain technologies after spending so much time learning them? Like I was saying before, it depends on the individual... It may not bother some people as much as it does me. I've simply decided that I'd rather do computing on the side and have a primary career that's relatively absolute in it's principles (not changing as fast)... there is no "disregarding" in fact I dispute that entire argument. the only things I can think of is say, if a technician learned about ISA in 85, dear me, they would have had to forget it sometime last year. geez, that's only over 20 years. better to have not learned it in the first place, right? EDIT: Also since I have no problem whatsoever keeping up as a hobby I doubt I'd mind getting paid to do the very same.Quote from: BC_Programmer on August 17, 2009, 02:22:49 AM there is no "disregarding" in fact I dispute that entire argument. the only things I can think of is say, if a technician learned about ISA in 85, dear me, they would have had to forget it sometime last year.geez, that's only over 20 years. better to have not learned it in the first place, right? Unless you're a hobbyist, you would disregard it...What would you do in your company with an ISA card if the company upgraded to PCI? That's all I'm trying to say... and I'm not saying it's useless to learn in the first place, it depends on what it's worth to the tech., knowing that there will be other upgrades, ultimately spending your life learning stuff in which when you retire, will be virtually useless...If you're a hobbyist, more power to you.. I myself got into this gig with the intention of becoming a tech. thinking it would be a good way to make some money, but later realized that I'm not nearly as passionate about it as others..So with that said, I think it would be more up my alley to do something else, as a primary career, keeping computing on the side... Quote from: BC_Programmer on August 17, 2009, 02:22:49 AM Also since I have no problem whatsoever keeping up as a hobby I doubt I'd mind getting paid to do the very same. thank you!!! |
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