Health practitioners learn anatomy; IT practitioners learn computer architecture

This was part of the opening line that my Computer Systems lecturer began with.

Too many times people don’t understand the problems they’re having, or experiencing. They may see the symptoms, but can’t actually work out what is the cause of them.

Back when I worked in a Helpdesk & Support role, I’d often get phone calls saying “I can’t connect to the internet – is it down?”. On occasion, it was accurate that the fault lay with the proxy server, or the internet connection itself; however, up to a quarter of the time it was simply because the wireless switch that was on the front of the notebooks being used by the staff, had been switched off.

It is possible to understand – and even expect – that the average end user does not know how their wireless works, or how to increase the systems virtual memory (For those playing in the Windows world).
The bare minimum one would hope is that they know that there is a switch that turns the wireless on and off – just like a car has a switch to turn the lights on and off.

Many geeks out there have a fascination with Science Fiction writings, television shows, and films. This isn’t a ‘given’, but it’s a natural part of being interested with computers, science and technology. These artistic representations talk about and deal with elements that appeal to these individuals.

In a discussion with a fellow systems administrator once, he noted that as time goes on, the things that are once taught at the higher academic levels, becomes more ‘common knowledge’, so that the learning becomes more and more complex.

This would appear to be true – to a point.
In the case of my course, we went back to the very basic level of computer architecture; looking at how computers developed from simple counting machines, through to the theorising of ‘logic’, which resulted in boolean algebra – and with the transistor, allowed for the creation of logic gates for circuit design and construction…
And all this is very important, because you need to know and understand where you’ve come from, to know where you currently are, and where you are heading – or may end up.
It appears not everyone in society feels this way.

There’s no denying that people have it easy these days – speaking of course for the ‘Westernised’ world here. As a result of that ease, they no longer thing or struggle with certain concepts. They live their lives day-to-day, getting by, doing their work, and then go home, do whatever, and then get up and continue the cycle. There doesn’t appear to be that ‘thirst for knowledge’ or wanting to understand how or why things are done. People seem to just accept it.

A large part of this would defintely be a personality trait; and it would be what makes people like us (the writers on this blog, and various others in the computer field) the way we are. It’s knowing that through learning and understanding we can increase our ‘usefullness’, putting us in better positions to help others – which is often an intrinsic part of our makeup – and ultimately, slowly allowing the change in society to happen.

If only there was a way to get others interested – but perhaps they wont, because they have no need. “The path of least resistance” is too often the one that is chosen.

Truely a testament to how lazy our society has become!

See, my wife, myself, my brother and his girlfriend recently made an (almost) 3000km trek across the country to visit my parents in Adelaide.

Now, my car is just a normal car. A normal 3.8L V6, a normal manual gearbox, and most importantly, a normal stereo. On the way down the stereo played a collection of CDs, and on the way back it was tuned to JJJ (gotta love JJJ – 1400km each way and only about 20 minutes where we couldn’t get their signal).

When you get about 100km from a town called Hay on the Wimmera Highway, two things happen. 1) The road ups itself to 110kph and 2) the land plains out. It’s flat. Incredibly flat.

Now, most families these days, in their Ford Territories and their Audi’s and their Statesmans would probably have popped on a DVD for the kids as soon as they hit the M5 out of Sydney and just kept the DVDs flowing until they made their stop for the day. It goes without saying that back when I was a kid this would have been a distant dream – but even more so, when our PARENTS were kids, that trip would have been slow, uncomfortable (no aircon, smaller cars), harsh (leafspring suspension and 13″ wheels), and exceptionally dangerous (back then, no lines on the roads, and often no sealed surface).

Oh how technology has changed the way we travel. Today even bothering to drive 3000km rather than catch a 90 minute plane ride would (and has) boggle the minds of many people. Rather than cross-ply rubber we have steel belted radials. Rather than a AM radio (if you were lucky) we have CD Players, iPods, and DVD players. We’ve got synchromesh gearboxes (actually, most people have automatic transmissions), cruise control, and (when it gets hairy) ABS and traction control.

And all of this is fantastic. Except for one thing. The DVD players. Take a moment to look at these pictures (I don’t have any better ones right now, I stole these from my wife’s facebook page – trust me, there’s better ones):

There are so many beautiful places to see in the flat desert that is the Wimmera. The Hume highway is pretty boring, but when you turn off after Gundagai it’s beautiful. The salt pans, the dust storms, the harvesting. The arid landscape, the ochre colours, and the pounding white lines down the middle of the black tarmac. Putting your foot down in 3rd gear when you’re already doing 120 to get past a road train (a big truck with either two over-length trailers or at least three normal trailers – think of a B-Double and then make it a longer).

That’s what this great country is all about. And when you go and chuck a DVD player in the back seat, your kids will miss it. All of it. Sure, it shuts them up for a few hours, but when I was a kid we would do drives like that all the time, three of us jammed in the back seat. Sure, there’s moments when our parents probably wanted to leave us on the side of the road (and it sure as hell was too expensive to fly back then). But it left an unmistakable impression on me, and now as a young adult, I really appreciate all those days spent in the back of Dads falcons driving to exotic-sounding places (like The Daintree, Cairns, Flinders Ranges, etc). I know my wife (who has never driven anywhere like this before, let alone flown there) is really appreciating it.

Please, don’t pack your kids into the car with a DVD when there’s so many beautiful scenes to be watched out the window.

In my current line of work, I do a lot of tech-support, and trouble-shooting/repair of infected and non-working systems. This means having to install programs from my USB Memory Stick on occassion, which means this little stick does get into some dangerous territory.

I’m not one that usually has protection (AntiVirus or Firewall) on my desktop at home – since I stay away from the types of sites you might get your computer sick from.

Alas, I have learnt my lesson. It took 2 mins. 2 mins of innocence, where I plugged the stick into my system, and the deed was done. 98 Infections – well, trojans and various ‘messy’ malware; all found using MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. I backed up the critical documents, and then wiped the drive.

It may have been safe, but I just dont trust these critters these days. They’re smart, and hide deep. Nothing beats a full wipe.

No matter how geeky, technical, or Boffin-like you are: It seems no one is safe anymore.

We were discussing how stupid it was, the main reason being that the Mac’s are actually four or five times more expensive (depending on what model you get) than a standard PC varient.
I can testify to how silly it is, because a few years ago I actually took out a personal loan to purchase a powerbook (back when they used PPC processors).

One could argue you get what you pay for; However, in my personal experience, that is definatly not the case with a Mac.  Their smallest, and cheapest notebook starts at $1500.

I recently purchased an Asus for $786. This came with 2gb’s RAM, 160gb HDD, Vista Home Premium, Webcam, and 2 years manufacturers warranty, and I purchased an additional 2 years warranty (for a total of 4 years) for $189. Subtotal: $975

If I went with the cheapest option for the Macbook, the base system is $1,499. Add an additional 1 gb memory ($150), bring the hard drive up to 160gb ($80), Additional 2 years (for a total of 3 years) warranty $419. You’re now looking at $2148.

There’s only two key arguments to try justify this cost.
1. It’s a stylish unit. Yes, it is. Some *may* call it ‘sexy’ – I wouldn’t.
2. The system is responsive and flies. This is true. I’ve seen it. It’s scary. It’s even more embarrassing for Microsoft when Vista runs the best on a Mac. Battery life is also apparently up to 6 hours on these units. Mine does close to 4.5 these days.
3. They seem to use a 2.1 ghz Intel Core 2 duo, as opposed to the Asus 1.7 ghz.
They both use the same graphics card though (which I was a bit surprised at); Seems the macbookPro’s are the ones with the dedicated high-end cards (Nvidia GeForce 8600). Of course, these notebooks start at $2,699.

The reality is, Apple can’t really justify the cost of their products. Once upon a time, during the megahertz wars – they may have been able to. Unfortunately, it appears the fools and their money is parted all too easily these days- since people are still prepared to pay that price for the Apple products; many are under the illusion that they’re either ‘easier to use’ or ‘better’. Whenever I ask the people to explain “What exactly is ‘better’ about it?”, they stare blank-faced.

I give full credit to the marketeers at Apple for this. They’ve managed to create the perception that there’s a product that is ‘worth’ spending that much money on. I’ll let my own personal experience speak for itself.

At anyrate- if you buy a mac, at least try use the operating system / software that comes with it, and get your head out of the ‘windows’ mindset. It’s really not as cool as it was in 1995. I’m serious. Otherwise it’s like buying a Ferarri and replacing the enging with one from a Datsun 120Y.

When working in education, it scared me how much paper was used. And that was just one organisation. Multiply that by the many businesses and organisations we have in our own city – and then look at it from a global scale. That’s scary!

As a result, I’ve always liked the “Paperless Office” theory, which apparently can be dated back to the 1970′s sometime. Implementing it is another hurdle in itself. Shortly before I left my place of employment, they had decided to change the fortnightly newsletter to be available online, and emailed to those who wanted it. No more paper copies. That was cool.
However, sometimes its just not so feasible; Or, should I say, it’s a lot harder to implement than one would  imagine – based on the fact that it requires a dramatic shift in thinking and how things are done.

In order to prove that it can be done and work well, I’m attempting to NOT print off lecture notes, questions, etc. This is partly because I was always telling people that this should be the way we head – and also to see whether or not it can actually be done.