Re: Programming languages (Was Grade Conversions)

[Michael Kurkowski <mk@netstra.com.au>]

Hi,

Les Brown said in message <381b7f6d.3278638@news.ocean.com.au>, I therefore 
quote:

>As one who is in the middle of his MCSE course, I find your comments a
>tad amusing. Yes, I am in it for the money, only because after 24
>years of repairing selling and renting computers I have realised at
>last that there is no money in it any more. I find it very difficult
>competing with Joe Bloggs down the road with little experience, little
>knowledge and little overhead charging a quarter of what I do. Once
>upon a time fixing computers required a bit of brain and training to
>repair to component level - but how can I do that these days? What's
>component level? What's TTL? What's resistor colour-coding? Who knows?
>Who cares? It's not helped by the fact that computers are more
>reliable than ever and are so damn cheap..

Unfortunately thats the way things are these days :( I still take my stuff to 
somewhere who knows what theyre doing, or rather, I know, knows what theyre 
doing. It may cost a bit more, but at least the job gets done properly.

Unfortunately at this day in age, people *only* consider money, without 
considering quality, or so I have found with many things. Then again, I guess 
thats how we have all our Kerry Packers, and Lloyd Williams' and so fourth.

The situation you mention above is not helped by the fact that most internal 
electronics of TV's VCR's computers and mostly throwaway parts. If something 
goes, it's gone. Throw it and replace it.

Computers reliable? Depends where you buy them from. Buy from a retailer and 
you have no problems. Buy from a swap meet, and in my experience there is 
nothing but problems. Oh well, I may end up spending over double on my next 
computer, but at least I know it's going to work.

I had a monitor give up last night, about a month old, bought from a swap meet. 
It's a repairable problem, but who knows how far I will get with the "12 month 
warranty" claimed on the day. On second thoughts, I might buy a G4, speed and 
reliability in the one package :-)

>Oh yeh, and I used to drive taxis too.

Really scary how that analogy suddenly came with the relisation that there 
really are MCSE's who were taxi drivers. Having said that, Not all MCSE's are 
stupid obviously, but you see people who come out of the street not knowing the 
basic beginning or ending of a computer, who churn out MCSE's you really have 
to wonder what you learn. Maybe I should find out for myself :-)

Regards
Michael


-- 
Michael Kurkowski
Email: mk@netstra.com.au
Website: http://www.netstra.com.au/~mk
ICQ: 1459118
Telephone: 0416-044-124

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