I couldn't argue with any of that. Again, there are exceptions on either side. -Hammer- "I was a normal American nerd" -Jack Herer On 2/17/2012 2:40 PM, Ray Soucy wrote:
Maybe ;-)
I don't think it's an age thing, though.
The number of people who have a real interest in technology, and how things work "under the hood" hasn't changed much. I know people 10 years younger than me who can keep up with the best of us, and people 10 years older who are complete failures at technology. People like us have always been a fairly small number.
What has changed, though, is that there are a lot more young people who think they have technology skills; perhaps as a side effect of growing up in a world where the Internet has always been there. Naturally, we have a lot of people filling IT spots that aren't qualified and lack the basic knowledge of how complex systems are built. To troubleshoot effectively, you need to be able to break down systems into their components and isolate the problem; and a lot of people just don't have the background to be able to do that because they never cared to do so. It's just a paycheck to them.
Those of us in my age group were lucky enough to be around for the transition from dial-up BBS, to dial-up Internet, to broadband. As a networking geek I don't think I could ask for a better year to be born, really. It's always been exciting.
These days I'm playing with DWDM and a state wide R&E network in a state that established dark fiber as a public utility; doesn't get much better than that.
I'd say the future is pretty bright. ;-)
On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 3:26 PM, -Hammer-<bhmccie@gmail.com> wrote:
Still buzzing over that cheap auto insurance eh? :) Wait till people stop carding you.....
-Hammer-
"I was a normal American nerd" -Jack Herer
On 2/17/2012 1:42 PM, Ray Soucy wrote:
As someone who was born in 1984 I respectfully disagree. ;-)
On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 9:52 AM, -Hammer-<bhmccie@gmail.com> wrote:
Let me simplify that. If you are over 35 you know how to troubleshoot.
Yes, I'm going to get flamed. Yes, there are exceptions in both directions.
-Hammer-
"I was a normal American nerd" -Jack Herer
On 2/17/2012 8:29 AM, Leo Bicknell wrote:
In a message written on Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 08:50:11PM -1000, Paul Graydon wrote:
At the same time, it's shocking how many network people I come across with no real grasp of even what OSI means by each layer, even if it's only in theory. Just having a grasp of that makes all the world of difference when it comes to troubleshooting. Start at layer 1 and work upwards (unless you're able to make appropriate intuitive leaps.) Is it physically connected? Are the link lights flashing? Can traffic route to it, etc. etc. I wouldn't call it a "misconception", but I want to echo Paul's comment. I would venture over 90% of the engineers I work with have no idea how to troubleshoot properly. Thinking back to my own education, I don't recall anyone in highschool or college attempting to teach troubleshooting skills. Most classes teach you how to build things, not deal with them when they are broken.
The basic skills are probably obvious to someone who might design course material if they sat down and thought about how to teach troubleshooting. However, there is one area that may not be obvious. There's also a group management problem. Many times troubleshooting is done with multiple folks on the phone (say, customer, ISP and vendor). Not only do you have to know how to troubleshoot, but how to get everyone on the same page so every possible cause isn't tested 3 times.
I think all college level courses should include a "break/fix" exercise/module after learning how to build something, and much of that should be done in a group enviornment.