IT/Computer freaks

[jrandom]

I have looked into it... look elsewhere instead of IT... cops in Australia... HT license there and do the road trip thing... Dive Instructor

All excellent careers, and potentially rewarding. Don't discount them.

Ok. I suppose I havent really sat down with anyone in the IT industry and had a chat to them about it. I have just heard and read good things, so I was going for them.

Thank goodness you've realised that. I've probably met dozens of people who went on what they heard and read about the glitzy 'IT industry' and the bajillions of dollars that they could somehow magically make in it with no effort. Inevitable outcome: disillusionment. Guess what? The majority of 'IT' jobs just make you unhappy without making you rich.

We should have a pint and a chat next time I'm down in Chch, probably end of March. Shoot the shit and figure out whether you really want to be an IT gimp.

[Sniper]

We should have a pint and a chat next time I'm down in Chch, probably end of March. Shoot the shit and figure out whether you really want to be an IT gimp.

That would be bloody brilliant, I owe you a few pints from memory too.

[imdying]

Yep, majority of IT jobs suck. Stay away from support, admin, techie type jobs. They get paid bugger all (top admin don't, but that take a good while to get there), they work same old shitty hours as regular people, and have to deal with retard customers. Do programming, hours are good, pay is good, perks are good. Even the biggest noobs start on 35k, and those that aren't morons get scaled up nice n quick. Work less than 40 hours a week, life insurance, medical insurance, income protection insurance, travel, a phone, the list goes on. Plus things like an hour for lunch are typical, you can come and go as you please, you get interesting things to fiddle with etc etc. Best of all, the amount of time with customers is generally limited, and even then you don't end up talking to retail retards. Don't like to write code or databases, then you will have no love for IT.

Long story short, the great IT jobs around now are the same as the ones you've heard about... i.e. Not all of the ghey but necessary positions that've cropped up as a result of the IT boom, the menial tasks, the IT equivalent of being a checkout chick, support, admin, techie type jobs. Stick with the specialists tasks like Business to Business infrastructures, web services, databases, and other such programming type tasks and you'll still live a reasonable lifestyle. imho

[mooks]

fdisk /mbr doesn't APPEAR to do anything. All it does is copy the backup copy of the MBR on top of the active MBR - ie it refreshes the MBR. Granted it might be nice if it came up with a little message saying "Done, dude" or some such.

it may not 'appear' to do anything but your mbr will be all nice and new and shiny ...... honest
if you have a messed up mbr then fdisking does have sigificant impact - well - at least I have found that in the past
not much you do at the command prompt gives you any feedback I have found .... good ol' DOS ......

[phaedrus]

I had a look at that, but before I can download it, I need the HDD model number. Might try make one up, or use the example

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ has the ibm/Hitachi software and some other useful bits, including a ram tester

[imdying]

The UBCD is very good, recommended AA+++.

[Lias]

1. UBCD is good
2. Low Level Formatting is BAD, and generally isnt done outside of the manufacturers factory / repair depot, cept by stubborn old coots who think they know best because thats what they used to do to their MFM/RLL Boat anchors.
3. The XP install CD should give you an option to nuke the partition(s) as one of the first install options.
4. Bog standard XP install cd's dont have an asus folder on them that I recall :-) Sure its not a manufacturer specific disc?

[scracha]

Do programming, hours are good, pay is good, perks are good. Even the biggest noobs start on 35k, and those that aren't morons

Then you work a few years, realise that for all the knowledge you've gained you're still working for @#$ckwits who don't understand anything about code, testing, continuity, etc, and regard you as glorified bricklayers. At least the "admin" jobs can't easily be outsourced to eastern Europe or SE Asia as they're hands on.

I wouldn't tell anyone in a first world country to get into coding. Hell, it's my first love but the opporunities in it seem to get worse every year.

[NordieBoy]

It's simple really....ditch your PC (or if you can't bear to part with it, keep it for games) and buy yourself a Mac!
Elegant, intuitive, simple to use, stable and virtually virus free.
Make the change like many PC users...once smitten you'll never go back!

Not when you've mortgaged the house to get it you won't.

Any $800 Macs with 17" LCD's out there?

[NordieBoy]

I liken a lot of PC users to Harley riders. They don't like the idea of something being better or even superior. So they blinker themselves to it and throw scorn from a position of ignorance. Hehe.

Mac users ride Vespa's

Linux users ride skinnable GXSR 1000's.

[imdying]

Then you work a few years, realise that for all the knowledge you've gained you're still working for @#$ckwits who don't understand anything about code, testing, continuity, etc, and regard you as glorified bricklayers.

Always remember that not everywhere is the same. For sure there are some shitty places to work for, but you can always move easily in this industry

[NordieBoy]

Apple are turning into nothing other than an alternative OS for x86 hardware. Hopefully they will go the way of BEOS.

Open source?

Cool.

[NordieBoy]

I run a business repairing windows pc's. I own a mac. Not only is it easier but also safer for me to run everything through my mac.

I connect the computers to my mac via my network and I can work remotely on them as well as backing up the customers data through my network onto a large external drive. If it was a windows network, I would be exposing my 'pc' to all sorts of nasties!

I run a business repairing computers. I own several PC's. Not only is it easier but also safer for me to run everything through my PC.

I connect the computers to my PC via my network and I can work remotely on them as well as backing up the customers data through my network onto a large external drive. If it was a windows network, I would be exposing my 'pc' to all sorts of nasties!

Power to the Penguin!

[jrandom]

I wouldn't tell anyone in a first world country to get into coding. Hell, it's my first love but the opporunities in it seem to get worse every year.

With all due respect, that's a ridiculous statement. Quite a lot of hardcore software development goes on in NZ.

Maybe you're just not quite as good at it as you'd like to think...

[Drunken Monkey]

2. Low Level Formatting is BAD, and generally isnt done outside of the manufacturers factory / repair depot, cept by stubborn old coots who think they know best because thats what they used to do to their MFM/RLL Boat anchors.

Oi, winkle! I'm not that old...

But yes, I agree with Fish's diagnosis on page 6, an LLF isn't required.

I would pull the HDD drive out, stick on a converter and load it as a slave in my test desktop. I could clean up the disk from the working O/S, restore an image or whatever (guess you need an image in the first place to restore from, but whatever...)

PS - Where's that anchor...?