Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Fri Dec 11 14:34:06 CST 2009
You have struck a pet peeve of mine... but with your acknowledgement allow me to prattle on off-topic from your OT. ;-) I feel that a certifications and/or degrees are an acknowledgement of diligence, in the pursuit of knowledge, in a discipline of study and a demonstration of excitement, in a particular field of interest. Some individuals rank people, not by their character, intelligence or accomplishments by rather by the paper they have garnered. My mother was a bright individual, who was attending university at sixteen, with a full scholarship but had to leave in her second year as her father, a gardener by profession, died. She then had to go to work as a stenographer to support her mother and younger siblings and did so for the next 15 years...until she was married and had children of her own. A story she related was of one of her bosses, of elevated rank due to his education credentials, knowing little of her life story, chastised her for being uneducated and of a common background. She responded with; "The greatest man that ever walked the earth was the son of a carpenter." (This response probably struck home with far greater impact then, some 70 years ago, than it would now.) Some of the most educated people can be some of most the embarrassingly ignorant. Jim -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Bartow Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 7:40 AM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Outlook question Some people who consider themselves "techies" never let go of old procedures and can't be convinced that they should. A very arrogant fellow I know (on university staff) I know still reformats and reinstalls windows every year because that was considered by some to be a good practice back in Windows 95 days. I doubt he will ever stop doing this. I optimize and rejuvenate PCs all the time and in ten years have probably had to reformat and reinstall a dozen times. That's generally caused by a bad infection that someone else tried and failed to remediate, not because windows needs it. He doesn't care because some "expert" recommended that he do what he does and I'm certainly not as much of an expert because I don't have my PhD.