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.
I don't hate computers (Score:5, Insightful)
No. (Score:1, Insightful)
"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?"
No. In fact, some of those things that he 'silently hates' are some of the main motivations I use to drive the software I develop. If I didn't genuinely love this stuff, I would NOT be in IT.
Re:It is called "a love/hate relationship" (Score:2, Insightful)
You're nothing but a thing that can think of themselves.
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
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 forward compatible with copper pipe v5.0 and beyond.
You know how it will fail and how it will age up to the point that it fails.
With computers, you simply do not know. Systems could fail tonight because of some date/time error. Patches next month can break your test machines. But if you don't install the patches, drive by banner ads infections will go up as crackers exploit the buffer overrun. And a million other possibilities.
Re:Macs? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
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.
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.
Ha (Score:1, Insightful)
Scott Merrill sounds more "fragile and unintuitive" than my computer by far.
Absolutely not (Score:4, Insightful)
I Agree (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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.
Re:when it's a hobby first (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Which make our tech professions miserable? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:2, Insightful)
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 games, or iPhone apps, or fooling around and making "cool stuff" in just about any language.
I also think that it's possible to constuct a useful conceptual framework of the underlying layers without needing to know what's going on down the nth degree. Depending on how you look at it, that 16k program that you think you grok completely, depends on the interplay of concepts all the way down to the subatomic level. With respect to understanding how your program works, do you really need to know the specifics?
Likewise, if I'm programming in a language, interpreted by a VM, memory managed, providing frameworks to do things like render graphics, play sound, interpret input, etc, do I really need to understand how an ALU works to fully understand my program? I don't think so.
(Playing devil's advocate a bit, as I'm quite obsessive about understanding things from the bottom up. But I understand that this is a personal quirk, and that it's not necessary, given reliable substrates and effective models)
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)
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.
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).
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).
Re:Yeah, me too (Score:3, Insightful)
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 it." Now, I got no notion about the software, so that probably sucks, but the idea of the hardware is cool.
I know too much about the internal structure of my PC. And I'm still running XP, because it's good enough for my purposes. Did we really need Vista? Is Windows 7 that much of an improvement? Or did MS just want to make another few billion dollars? I suspect most problems with computers is the latter. "Sure, you've got 10 pixels _now_. But wouldn't you like to have _11_ pixels?" No, no I would not.
So wait, how much would 11 cost me?
Re:Macs? (Score:3, Insightful)
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:I don't hate computers (Score:3, Insightful)
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*
Re:It's users I hate (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't hate computers (Score:3, Insightful)
[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 large companies made by people who don't personally have to use the product. The software company comes in an dazzles them with their marketing team and afterwards it's the rank and file employees who get stuck with it.
Hate (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I don't hate computers (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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.
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:I don't hate computers (Score:3, Insightful)
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 driver. What gets blamed when the driver is changed to run fast but now it isn't 100% stable? The driver.
Sure there are a lot of poorly written apps out there, but there is bad hardware too, it just isn't as obvious to regular users that the root cause is crappy hardware.
Re:Which make our tech professions miserable? (Score:3, Insightful)
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 doing a job that someone fresh out of school should be doing.
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:2, Insightful)
Ubuntu
lol you may be a geek compared to most, but you still have to learn a lot before calling yourself a geek on tech forum.
Re:Oh really? (Score:3, Insightful)
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 appropriate passwords to make things work.
Why do I have this iMac now? because she liked it so much she upgraded to a newer 22" iMac, that is why.
Apple Fanboi I am not.
I use Linux, Windows, Solaris, Mac, *ANYTHING* that gets the job done.
My computers are tools. I use them like tools to do a job. Fanboi status is for idiots. That old lady in the video? She is not a faboi, she is a woman that wants to communicate with friends and relatives. The ipad is a great tool for her for that purpose.
As soon as you lose sight of the fact that a computer is just a tool, they begin to suck even more than they do already.
Re:It's users I hate (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I don't hate computers (Score:3, Insightful)
So much of that is cost.
I've been through so much in my years of using PCs that could be avoided with a few more $ in part design. Selling computers with name brand SoundBlaster cards instead of saving $3 on a no-name "compatible". Easy to break connectors and cables (because an extra $0.25 per $150 motherboard to make the thing usable would be too much).
That's one thing you can give Apple credit for. They'll toss stuff out. "You probably don't need ExpressCard, so there isn't one". They were the ones to toss serial ports and actually commit to USB. They were the ones to drop SCSI and commit to FireWire. If it's outdated or possibly unnecessary, Steven will drop if it he thinks it's a good idea. May be hard on some users, like when FireWire disappeared off the MacBook.
Re:Careful what you say! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I don't hate computers (Score:3, Insightful)
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 Debian packaged apps do)