Confessions of a SysAdmin 385
Mr.Fork writes "Scott Merrill from CrunchGear has a confession. He really, really hates computers. He writes: 'No, really, I hate them. I love the communications they facilitate, I love the conveniences they provide to my life, and I love the escapism they sometimes afford; but I actually hate the computers themselves. Computers are fragile, unintuitive things — a hodge-podge of brittle hardware and opaque, restrictive software.' Does his editorial speak to all of us in similar IT-related fields? Do we all silently hate the complexities and idiosyncrasies computers have, like error messages and UI designs that make no sense to the common user, which make our tech professions miserable?"
Which make our tech professions miserable? (Score:5, Insightful)
Which make our tech professions possible.
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meaning one where left to handle the servers and the networks, rather then deal with tech support issue all day.
problem is, a smooth running server room and network may be seen by pointy haired boss to save a bit on salaries...
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Which still has no bearing on whether I like it. I'm with Mr Merrill on this one. Playing with computers sure was fun in the beginning. It's 2010 now, and I'm still dealing with retarded ideas or retarded implementations of otherwise good ideas. I'm not suggesting the computer should ever stop evolving, but as I look around, I see a lot of stuff that should just simply be "good enough", not in beta, not difficult to integrate, not a placeholder until the next
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At one point I would have been in the same camp as you guys - then I gained enlightenment and learned that the job of being a sysadmin was more than just playing around with computers. It's also about managing corporate expectations, resources, budgets, and all kinds of stuff.... and if you do it right, it's still just as fun as it used to be.
If you've been doing sysadmin for 10 years and you are still fixing people's workstations then of course you hate it - you aren't moving up in the world - you're doi
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Hence...no real motivation to improve things too much?
Why hate your tools? (Score:3, Insightful)
Especially when your ability to use them results in a decent paycheck?
I would much rather have the people who hate computers just stay the hell away from them, while "me and mine" take advantage of their prejudice and earn a living.
Macs? (Score:2, Funny)
a hodge-podge of brittle hardware and opaque, restrictive software
Sounds like Steve Jobs can claim another victim.
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Sounds like Steve Jobs can claim another victim.
The real shame is that the poster will probably never experience the computing environment that is provided by the Macintosh. Wincrap spoils a lot of people's attitudes concerning computers and they don't try anything else.
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Well on the Linux I use (Debian) I type a single command to install most any software package. Sometimes I have to type a couple commands to uninstall, but I generally don't uninstall programs.
I remember the days when installing something on Linux was hard. Those days are gone unless you're holding onto the wrong distro.
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and where do you find which command? how do you know the package name? where is that information. how do you know what's in each package? what happens when your distro doesn't have the package you want?
The linux command line is only useful if you happen to have memorized the hundreds of commands and their modifiers. If you don't know what you need to get started with however it is very very difficult to learn.
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I'll grant you that. There is a lot to learn to get started and it can be frustrating. Likewise, getting all those muscles working right to walk can be hard, and all those RULES for driving are a pain. But I love walking and I love driving because I know how and find them fun. If some idiot cuts me off and drives 5 mph under the speed limit, I don't hate DRIVING. I hate THAT GUY. Likewise, if some idiot makes a crappy program or whatnot, I don't hate my computer for it. I get mad at him and move on.
Re:Macs? (Score:4, Informative)
and where do you find which command? how do you know the package name? where is that information. how do you know what's in each package? what happens when your distro doesn't have the package you want?
No need to worry: install Ubuntu.
Since Ubuntu is based on Debian, it has a huge package collection thus chances are it has everything you need.
And use its graphic package manager.
What else do you need?
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Of course, failing that I can see your point - I've never been able to work out how to compile from source code (mainly because I've never had the need to sit down and
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The linux command line is god damn useful if you only know three commands. The more you know, the more useful it is.
To bitch about how hard it is to install stuff on linux shows real ignorance. 5-10 years ago, yes, it was a bitch. I will fully give you that. In 2001-2003 or so when I was playing around with linux, it was terrible. Currently, it blows windows out of the water. My mom
Oh really? (Score:4, Interesting)
Computers are fragile, unintuitive things...a hodge-podge of brittle hardware
Sounds like Steve Jobs can claim another victim.
Sounds more to me like he's about to get another customer [youtube.com].
Re:Oh really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Computers are fragile, unintuitive things...a hodge-podge of brittle hardware
Sounds like Steve Jobs can claim another victim.
Sounds more to me like he's about to get another customer [youtube.com].
And that (the video you linked to) is why the iPad is doing better than us Techno-geeks expected. Indeed, it is why the iPhone and the iMac are doing well.
Computers are mostly brittle - I had my main PC crash last night because of something to do with the graphics card - I still don't know what.
But this little old lady in that video with the iPad? Brilliant. She can get to use it right away - she does not need to understand drivers, or compatibility or any of the other crap that we deal with on a regular basis. As long as it does email, web, IM and facebook, that is all most people would ever want.
It is when we go beyond those basics that computers start to suck. Like my dealing with a pissy PBX, or a switch that I can't log into from some subnets...
The ipad gets rid of most of those problems (to a very large degree). I remember an old man coming up to me years ago when I worked at Staples selling computers (that was an awful job, but it was a start). He grabbed the mouse, and immediately picked it up in the air, and began waving it about to try to get the cursor to move on the screen. We don't think of it like this, but just using the mouse is a different skill. Using the ipad generally involves using skills that we already have gained outside computing - as can be demonstrated by this lady's use of the ipad.
Hopefully, computers begin to suck less - like the ipad. (Just without the DRM BS behind the scenes).
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How long before she gets an email from a Nigerian prince and falls for it?
I'm not trying to be funny or cruel.
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I'm not trying to be funny or cruel.
Yet you nailed them both.
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Yeah it's wonderful. Until it breaks. And it will. For no reason at all.
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You absolutely nailed it!
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Dear Apple fanboy,
Please take your tablet computer and go spam another topic about it, preferably one about your precious consumer product. Really, can't you just go away?
Fanboi?
Well, yes, I am typing this on an iMac. I have a custom-built windows XP gaming machine to my right. I have a Mythbuntu Linux box in the corner, and 2 other Linux machines in my shelving.
Fanboi? No. Realist? Yes.
I am not a mac fan, I ended up with my current one that I am typing this on, a 17" intel iMac because I bought it for my Mom who was having too many troubles with her PC. My tech support calls just went away after I got her this - apart from 2 calls that I would have had to make myself to get
Re:Macs? (Score:4, Insightful)
I know you were aiming for a "funny" mod but in my experience macs tend to be some of the most stable consumer computers (short of custom-built machines where the person who built it spent a lot of time researching the parts and then testing that everything worked satisfactory before beginning to actually use the machine). Compared to the average whitebox OEM Wintel machine (or even Dell, HP and similar desktops) I've had much less trouble with macs, sure there are still problems but when we bought 40+ Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens machines (various models) at work our helpdesk guys ended up having to return almost half of the machines in the first couple of months due to overheating issues, glitchy NICs and other stuff that should "just work". That's what you get when you consistently go with the cheapest possible parts (sometimes a few cents difference on a chip that costs ~$1 can make a big difference) and you're always hopping between different models and manufacturers to always get the lowest possible hardware cost.
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I don't hate computers (Score:5, Insightful)
Ditto! (Score:3, Insightful)
From TFA
Well for one, copper pipe v3.5 is still backward compatible with copper pipe v2.1 and will be
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Plumbers probably get sick of having to pull Ken's head out of the toilet for the 900th time though. Sure, you get paid for it, but sometimes you wish you'd rather never have to pull a plastic doll's body part out of a drain ever again and to spluh with the financial loss.
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Plumbers probably get sick of having to pull Ken's head out of the toilet for the 900th time though. Sure, you get paid for it, but sometimes you wish you'd rather never have to pull a plastic doll's body part out of a drain ever again and to spluh with the financial loss.
True, but the end users are likely to understand why they are paying the plumber's bill.
Not so much on the computer side of the house. "Yeah, I deleted that, but I had NO IDEA it would BREAK anything. Computers are CRAZY things..."
Re:I don't hate computers (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like he doesn't hate computers nearly as much as the bad design of the software that runs on them.
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[blockquote]Yeah. The computer hardware is mostly fine. Mostly it's the software that sucks - and I say this speaking as a software developer. Some software sucks less than others though (we're sick of O/S and tools flamewars so please don't start). Some software still has crappy short-sighted design after twenty years...[/blockquote]
I hate that this software is able to exist after so long because it's not forced out of he marketplace for being crappy. It seems the primary reason is purchasing decisions for
Re:I don't hate computers (Score:5, Interesting)
There's some bullshit in modern computer hardware design too though. Consider X86. It's inferior to man architectures, but it still exists because the install base for it is so huge it can't be stopped. BIOS seriously sucks, they are all different, love to use arcane terms, often vary wildly even in models form the same vendor in the same product line, and the process to upgrade them is often fraught with danger. Printers need drivers, that are generally platform specific, even on basic models. Hard drives can fail (and fail often) in ways that silently corrupt data with no indication to the user or the OS. ECC has existed for decades yet consumer machines never have it, leading to memory problems causing seemingly random, unrelated issues, that only an in depth low level memory analysis can solve ( requiring you to know the problem before you know the cause). Hardware RAID is often arcane, and a simple mistake can destroy your entire array. Manufacturers save pennies on parts like capacitors by using parts with ratings lower then the design required, resulting in expensive repairs. OEM's release equipment using draft or early revisions of specs that cause weird, hard to diagnose compatibility problems. SSD's could be the single largest performance increase for your average office user in 5-10 years, but they are severely limited because we do not have a good technology to interface with them, and shoehorn them into the tech used for mechanical drives for compatibility reasons. If you were to design the PC platform from scratch today, there's a lot of arcane, outdated cruft you could remove that's only there for backwards compatibility reasons.
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So much of that is cost.
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But how do you find out about this stuff, unless you find someone who has already done it? Is there any Apple manual that documents this feature?
In Linux, many easy things may not be easy, but hard things are not hidden. They usually have a nice man page (well, not in every case, but most of Debi
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That's your fault for being on the shit-receiving end. You should have gotten your comp sci degree and become a (proper, non-Web) developer. That way, you could have been on the shit-dispensing end, a much better place to be, trust me.
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Well there you go then, you are in a shit-dispensing part of the food chain. Well done!
If you think you have it bad, go and visit one of your admins some time or, even worse, someone in tech support *shudder*
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Re:I don't hate computers (Score:5, Informative)
I am in hearty agreement. It's the software that's just awful awful awful. Notice every complaint in the article is actually a software complaint.
And most disheartening of all is that we can't write better software, outside of the FOSS world. Just try to write good software. And I mean really good, intuitive software, with useful errors and help messages that actually tell a user what he can do about the problem. Software that behaves well and doesn't act like it owns the computer and doesn't step on all the other software. I've been trying to do it for twenty years, and it's clear no company is interested in paying for that kind of development. Welcome to the world of low-quality everything.
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And most disheartening of all is that we can't write better software, outside of the FOSS world.
As much as I agree with your sentiment, you are not going to find any better quality on average in the FOSS world. Which I have never understood because there is no excuse for it in the FOSS world where there are no deadlines and no PHBs.
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I am in hearty agreement. It's the software that's just awful awful awful. Notice every complaint in the article is actually a software complaint.
I think you give way too much credit to hardware designers. When the hardware design is botched or just monumentally stupid its the driver writer that has to come up with some kind of hackneyed work-around to at least make the hardware somewhat workable. For example, a card that generates spurious interrupts - it just may not be possible to accurately determine which interrupts to discard and which ones to process without totally blowing performance. So what gets blamed when the card runs too slow? The
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The ones I hate are the developers who write the shitty bug-ridden code that gets loaded onto computers that I have to support.
As a Software Engineer I want to say that I agree with you, but your anger is slightly misdirected. There are shitty developers, no doubt, but you should really be angry about the stupid Executives that ultimately hire shitty developers, or out source to shitty developers, or, as is all to common, won't let the good developers actually do their job.
The problem consumers run into is that they would rather buy software that is buggy, but out sooner, than solid software that takes a lot longer to make. When
Re:I don't hate computers (Score:5, Interesting)
I love computers. I wouldn't have gotten into the field if I didn't love them.
Yeah, so did I. But that was thirty years ago. I've seen the industry take so many wrong turns since then I'm alternately astonished, appalled, and amused now. That's why I'm a manager now... well, that and the money. I try all the time to get the guys who work for me to understand that, for most users, simpler = better.
I get pissed off every time some stupid OS vendor (Microsoft, Apple, or Linux distro) changes its API for no apparent benefit to the customer or because some jack-off OS developer wants a new flavor of the day. I get saddened every time some poor user gets run into their individual brick walls because some crappy hardware vendor decided to save a nickel on a mobo component. So all of you wankers who are bitching about the "walled garden" model, all I can say is that you brought it on yourselves. You made your systems so crappy and hard to use that no one wants to deal with the crappiness anymore. They'll sacrifice their "freedoms" (which they didn't really want in the first place) for simplicity. And, in the end, you'll be the ones screwed, with no interesting APIs and nothing new and shiny to play with. And all because you couldn't see past your own need for complexity to keep you mentally entertained while you cranked out yet another for loop (and didn't develop the languages that had the for loops internalized so you could map functions onto collections without a bunch of hideous repetitive syntax, anyhow).
I didn't understand this ten years ago when I told an industry luminary that I wanted to make things simpler for the programmer. He looked at me and said "Don't talk to me about programmers. I don't give a shit about how hard it is for the programmers. I want things simple for the users." He was so right.
Of course, maybe I'm cranky because it's late on Friday and I have a cold. Yeah... that's it...
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Yeah, me too (Score:2)
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So, I replied before actually reading TFA, but I went back to read it and - the guy's right. 100% correct. And I had an epiphany. The iPad is actually something cool, not a fanboy money-grabbing POS. Well, maybe it's that too. But, from my understanding, it is this one piece deal, not a bunch of wires connecting monitor, keyboard and mouse, not something you open up and install new shit in when the old shit runs 10 milliseconds slower now. Just "Here, this does cool stuff, and no, you can't really dick with
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Do you really need XP? Is it such an improvement over 2000 or even NT4.0?
I dislike this arbitrary line drawn in the sand. Its like you're my grandpa saying something like "and thats how we liked it." I would easily argue that the UAC, improved UI, and dozen or so needed features make Win7 a larger jump from XP than XP ever was from 2000.
Where's all this XP love even coming from? Its a mess of an OS that got by on dumb luck and MS finally getting the second service pack right. Admin by default, fisher price
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Make your own Mythbusters style show, put it on a video sharing site that gives you some of the ad profit, and go that way. You can do it part-time at first.
It is called "a love/hate relationship" (Score:3, Interesting)
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You're nothing but a thing that can think of themselves.
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To be honest, they are "things", not people. Should we really consider loving "things"?
Some Otaku would disagree with you [cnet.com]!
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if there ever was a time for a car analogy...
Help and Sympathy Available (Score:2, Informative)
at the scary devil monastery. [faqs.org]
Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate a lot of modern software (open source, closed source, whatever) because of the enormous, and often pointless complexities. I miss the joys of being a kid in front of my first 16k home computer, it was an adventure. I miss my first few years with *nix, when the operating system was populated with fine-tuned tools focused on accomplishing a single job and doing it well.
It's true that software and hardware often seems more like a balancing act. You try to find an equilibrium where you don't need cron jobs to stop the daemon that spontaneously combusts, or where the Windows roaming profile will properly synchronize with the server copy and not barf in a dozen different ways, and hope beyond hope that the patches you're getting won't cause more problems than they solve.
I think the reason, at least for me, is that there's little sense that I have control over how the systems work. Anything non-trivial involves so many separate processes, functions, modules and reliance on everything tying together that sometimes when I get something working, I'm more amazed than pleased.
But that's the job. You control what you can and try to mitigate what you can't.
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I agree with you on some points, but disagree on others.
I agree that most of the problem is crappy software. It does, however, make me appreciate the truly good software even more.
I agree that there is something to be said for understanding how everything works to a fine degree. However, I think that ability to mentally "chunk" systems you don't care about, and just think of them on a high level, is absolutely crucial to progress. I also think that kids today will find the same kind of joys writing XNA game
when it's a hobby first (Score:5, Insightful)
Now I come home and I don't want to look at a computer or I just play some games. Kinda sad
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Re:when it's a hobby first (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, I'm full of regret too with my career choice of Ob-Gyn.
It's users I hate (Score:5, Funny)
Everything would work perfectly fine if we just got rid of all the damn users.
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Re:It's users I hate (Score:4, Insightful)
Toasters (Score:3, Insightful)
Computers are the Toasters of the '00s'. Our users expect them to toast. If they don't toast, they call us.
I spend my day doing many many different computer tasks. I help users, I do some light coding, I work on web pages, email servers, file servers, domain servers, track minor issues with printer drivers or email clients, and whatever else. I can really relate to the article.
The issue is that a computer as an appliance isn't a reality in the everyday world, except to users. They want them to do exactly what they expect them to do, every time, without having a 'burnt part and an uncooked part'. For those of us that spend all day dealing with computers, we come to know that it doesn't work that way. Our problem is that we live in two different realities, and they are not yet compatible.
Of course, once they really do work like a refrigerator or a toaster or a coffee maker, I'll be out of a job. Most days I'm not sure that's a bad thing.
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Ironically, before your '00s, back in the 80s, computers WERE appliances that did exactly what was expected of them. You turned them on, performed your task and got predictable results 100% of the time. In fact, they replaced typewriters as they were more efficient. Some of the systems in the '90s as well, but sadly other computer systems displaced those.
It's amazed me, that a system based on a completely digital structure, has evolved into such a mess. We used to have an expression represented by the "
Absolutely not (Score:4, Insightful)
I Agree (Score:3, Insightful)
Self-inflictied injury (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems this guy's issues are ultimately mostly Windows-specific rather than anything specific to computers in general. He even takes time out to say how good OSX and Linux's package management is compared to Windows, yet he clearly still uses Windows as his primary OS.
Basically this guys problems are mostly self-inflicted, as he clearly knows about the alternatives yet still forces himself to keep going with the crappiest option.
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Careful what you say! (Score:3, Insightful)
But seriously, it is scary how often my wife will complain to me "this doesn't work!" as she is clicking away on a web form, but when I go over and calmly click the submit button, it works perfectly. I honestly have no idea what she is doing wrong.
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I've noticed this, too. I can often just pop in and inquire about a problem and it goes away on its own.
Even more scary, though - computers are getting lazy!
If you're not watching the timer-bar click towards the right, the computer slacks off and doesn't finish. The moment you go back to watching it, it gets back to making progress on it. Triply-true on VMWare boxes.
Switch to *NIX (Score:2)
Can't say I blame him. If I had to deal with Wintel all day I would hate computers too. Switch to *NIX, more control, more sense, more power!
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Bah. I'm a Linux sysadmin, but it still sucks the life out of you to maintain them. Someone can still royally fuck up the infrastructure and make maintenance a living hell. But it is more of a joy to work with *nix systems than Windows systems, I'll give you that.
crap computers (Score:2)
I seem to recall that way back when, the multics was designed to never be shut down. I guess one ran continuously for 14 years. More recently, I recall tandem, but do not know much about them, and i wonder if they are even still around. I have not hard of them this millenium.
We are so proud of our computers, but they have been so shoddy forever. I suppose you could argue it is not a mature industry, but you really really want to use say the auto industry as your shining example for the future of compute
No. (Score:2)
After reading all the above comments, Im kind of surprised that I am in the minority in that I do admin work, and dont hate computers really in any way.
In my work life, its heavily sysadmin type of stuff. I dont hate any of our servers, or the software that runs on them. This is what happens when you make good choices.
In my personal life, I have a house-wide LAN with a mix of linux and Windows machines, depending on the purpose of them.Some are mostly used for viewing DVD's, some are for work-related prio
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After reading all the above comments, Im kind of surprised that I am in the minority in that I do admin work, and dont hate computers really in any way. In my work life, its heavily sysadmin type of stuff. I dont hate any of our servers, or the software that runs on them. This is what happens when you make good choices.
I usually reserve my hate for the people who make bad choices for me (the sysadmin) against my protests. Of course, this gets expressed as hatred of specific POS machines they mandated because hatred of the people is less socially acceptable. For the most part, I love computers, and my work and free time revolve around them. My work often feels like free time, especially when I'm surfing /.
My opinion (Score:2)
I love computers, but I hate the "opaque, restrictive software" that everyone, except for FOSS projects (for the most part), seems to make.
But when you actually find that perfect software, it is a beautiful thing.
I'm that way with telephones (Score:2)
Computers are unintuitive... (Score:2)
... So are lots of things like physics, higher level mathematics (and even lower level for much of the population).
I agree much could be done to make computers more intuitive but this means offloading even control to tools that compile and make software that are many years (decades) away from being completed.
There are many research projects that aim to make software more modifiable and easy to use for end users but they are not beyond the research stage.
I've always thought the opposite! (Score:2, Interesting)
Computers are great, the endless possibilities and beautiful complexity built into a simple box.
At the same time I hate the things we do with them. All the brilliance just created so we can send pointless 140 character messages saying how we enjoyed our
porkchops for dinner (with nice apple sauce too!).
It's the worst of both worlds (Score:2)
25 years of sysadmin work - love/hate relationship (Score:4, Interesting)
Open vs Closed (Score:2)
I told you so! (Score:2)
Every time I told some luser not to put too much faith in computers, the response was almost always one of dismay and the usual comeback was always the same "how can someone in your field say that?", easy, I replied, as long as people expect far too much from these things and will not learn to plan for disasters I will have a job!
Re:I told you so! (Score:4, Funny)
"Computers don't make mistakes!"
"Then why is there a multi-billion dollar a year industry to fix them?"
I hate computers, but love customers (Score:5, Interesting)
So, ever since family and friends found out I could help with arcane errors and problems with their Apple ][+ computers (did I mention I'm old? That was back in the early 80s) I've been standing between computers and users and trying to reconcile both to each other.
Eventually, this turned in to a great opportunity for me to help people with their use of current technology. Are computers and software packages irritating? You bet! But being in the middle position between the user and CPU has been something I've enjoyed for more than a decade.
Sure, I've been a developer and struggled directly with computers on one hand and produced software that unintentionally frustrated users on the other. But it's standing in the gap between the technology and humanity that I find myself the most valuable.
As long as computers and software suck there will be a need for people like me. And, as it turns out, people prefer to turn their problems over to other people -- not wizards, FAQs, etc. -- for assistance.
The trick is not considering users as the problem but oneself as a key to the solution.
Dijkstra said it (Score:2)
His lament falls on deaf ears... (Score:2)
As he's obviously never had to repair a Saab. Probably hasn't worked on any car older than 1996, either.
The 1994-89 Saab 900 requires you to take out about a dozen screws to drop the front shield and SEE the lower radiator hose. With great effort, you can now replace it. Replacing the alternator requires removing the front passenger tire and the inner fender, that thing that keeps crap from blowing into the engine compartment around the wheel. Replacing the serpentine belt requires this also. Let's not
Hate (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Yes. (Score:5, Funny)
You and every other person who has to deal with problems with computers feel exactly the same way. It's like... a wife that nags too much. You love her at first... but she keeps nagging... and nagging... and nagging. Eventually you cut the bitch and bury her in the backyard.
Re:Yes. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do you think I buried windows and got a mac? if I am going to have a nagging wife she had at least better look sexy even if she isn't any more functional.
Re:Yes. (Score:5, Insightful)
That is why I use Linux.
The bitch is ugly, but she has big boobs and gets the job done.
Also, none of my friends want to "use" her.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I use Ubuntu because she's a negro.
Re:Yes. (Score:5, Insightful)
I always saw Linux as the smart bookish chick who dresses frumpy, doesn't put too much effort into how she looks and seems kind of plain at first, and she busts your balls a bit when you try to initiate a relationship, but then when you get to know her she lets her hair out and unbuttons her shirt a bit and DOOOINNNGGG! Keeper. And none of your friends know how hot she really is.
Of course she's very sarcastic, it's up to you whether you see that as a good thing or a bad thing.
Re:Yes. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I do not "feel exactly the same way" any more than I hate my piano because it's hard to play and took me twenty years to play well.
Absolutely not. If I wanted something I could just turn on and have work, I'd still own a television. I bought a Commodore 64 and an Apple II and Macintosh and then a string of PCs of various brands and flavors because of their "complexities and idiosyncrasies" not despite them. And yes, I worked for several years while going through grad school, fixing computers and supporting end users. It might have altered my view of the intelligence of the average person, but it didn't change my delight with complex, idiosyncratic computers that I could install the software I want and configure it the way I want and use it for the purposes I want. Which, by the way, is the main reason I've lost a great deal of respect for Apple (and Sony).
The beauty of the personal computer was that I could wipe the hard drive and put it together the way I wanted. I could put a different operating system on it, or a newer (or older) version of my current operating system. I could open the box and mess with the noodles. I could download sketchy warez and pay the price if I wanted. I could learn about busses and mac addresses and baud rates and overclocking. I could haunt the back aisles of computer shops buying parts and I could make it MINE in a way that is only seen in ham radio, amateur electronics and certain segments of the automotive culture. Personal computers represented everything that homogenized consumer culture was not.
And, of course, that attitude, that ethic, that weltanschauung is why I started coming to Slashdot. That, and the opportunity to occasionally be shocked with a photo of a man wrenching open his poop-chute. But mainly the first stuff.
"Hate computers"? Not a chance. But I find it sad that the sysadmin in TFA has found himself in a life he hates. I hope he figures out that time is short, and it's best to do stuff you love.
No. (Score:2)
I don't.
None of the computers I deal with cause problems for me.
The Contractor who decides to reboot a server without informing us does. The user who deletes a file they needed. The Field tech who dropped his laptop in the mud. When the marketting team needs to send out 500 emails at once and the firewall stops it. Or when the seasonal temp sets up bitTorrent to download movies.
99% of the issues I've had to solve in the last year have not been because of computers themselves, but some of the ridiculous thin
Re: (Score:2)
99% of the issues I've had to solve in the last year have not been because of computers themselves, but some of the ridiculous things people think they can just get away with. Albeit, it's not all their fault, (like marketting or the field tech), but that doesn't make it the computer's either.
Well, in the fullest view, the computer didn't build itself, didn't install its own software, etc. Humans were involved in that stuff as well. So I guess by your estimation, 100% of the problems are not the computer's 'fault'.
Re:Yes. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No. (Score:4, Insightful)
No. At some point any sufficiently complex piece of deterministic logic becomes indistinguishable from randomness, and PCs are past that point for me. The beauty of the underlying logical machine is totally obscured by the apparent randomness of errors that go away after rebooting (or sometimes just issuing the same command again). Some days my map prints perfectly, some days it comes out with extraneous pink lines all over Florida, some days it crashes the plotter so badly it needs a hard reset. Logically, I know the problem isn't "luck" or satanic printer gremlins, and that it must be some subtle, deterministic interaction between the source data, the GIS software, Windows, HP's print driver, and their plotter firmware, but damned if I have the time or the skill or the source code to track it down. It's easier to just mumble obscenities about wasting ink and paper and try again (faster, and more likely to result in a correct print, too).