[geeks] SGI Sadness

[wa2egp at att.net]

> > How many of us actually influence buying decisions at work?
> 
> *me raises hand*

Good thing I didn't say nobody...

> $ork tends to buy the hardware I tell them they need, and we typically
> get great milage out of it; the few times they didn't, they ended up
> doing so after all.  Now, if they'd just start to trust me on software
> so that they don't repeat the mistake of blowing a couple hundred
> kilobucks on a suit-friendly[0] bloated piece of text-transformation
> software rather than hiring a Perl programmer.

Ah, they can be taught!

> Said bloated software will probably result in a rather large check going
> to IBM, as a POWER3-II system just isn't fast enough for it.
> 
> Because, OF COURSE, you need a > 1GHz POWER4+ processor to convert CSV
> files to XML and to do EBCDIC<->ASCII transformation prior to stuffing
> things into Orrible.  Apparently, with this sfotware, you do, as well as
> more than 2GB of memory.  Bah!
> 
> /me grumbles.

/rant on

Suits can't admit they made a mistake.  When we moved into our "new" building
they bought about 300 Compaq  ES4148 (never on the consumer market, ES stands for
"extra s**tty")used them for five years, auctioned them off to the public for about
$1 each and bought 300 HP Evo's (even worse)which failed left and right (best story is about the squirrel that shorted out the power line and took about 100 monitors with him).  My students would rather use graph paper and pencil than Excel to do
Physics labs, it's faster.  Imagine a network where you can sign on as a machine, a person or a "non-thing" (you're on, everything works but there is no way of identifying you).  Security holes that you can drive a fleet of WalMart semis through and administrators pounding the desk, demanding that we used the computers since they work, a tech person that knows less than me (and that's damn little)and parades around the building carrying cables (same cables all year).  Next year, we are supposed to have our lesson plans "on-line" and homework on a website so the students can access them.  Oh boy, is this gonna be fun!  Oh, I forgot the quarter million SAFARI system where media played in the library can be sent anywhere in the school (which doesn't work), students can do power point presentations in the classroom (in 50 pitch because the resolution is so bad), and we can communicate with other schools (no one out there).  And the only thing I can say to those of you in the IT w
 orld......

at least it's hard for me to lose my job. :-> (My wife just lost her AT&T job after 23 years) :-<

/end rant

Boy, did that feel good......

Bob