TECH'S KNOW IT ALL

I don't think it is tech's per se, but online forums. Look at non-tech forums and you'll see the same thing. With postings being anonymous, with no repercussions for spouting lies, people will say anything. Especially if they think they might get a rise out of someone.

Many of them suffer from egotistical megalomania with delusions of grandure so severe that they've had a psychotic break from reality.

Seriously, look at the typical replies around here in response to anyone who has difficulty finding a tech job in this tight market; where the IT unemployment rate is outpacing the general overall unemployment rate. All the employed techs swarm in with snide remarks of self congratulatory glee and prejudicial ignorance by blaming the person for their own difficulties and stating outright that the person must be dumb or a "paper professional", something less than they are.

I've never seen such a collection of deluded self absorbed Wile E Coyote fools in my life. They put Scrooge to shame with their "that's what poorhouses and sweatshops are for" attitudes.

.
This particular "tech" isn't afraid to say "I don't know", when I really don't know, but I usually follow it up with a "however" something or other to indicate my planned course of action.

When it comes to technical advice/discussions, no one knows everything about everything, so the occasional (or frequent) "I don't know" is almost a given.

Concerning "non-technical" issues, I'm always right, and anyone who disagrees with me is always wrong -- end of story.

I lied

Maybe we are all have the right answer, just some of us didn't understand the question.

Over the years, I have learned that it is very important to let others be wrong. This is what true freedom is. To think or feel any way you wish without having to answer to anyone unless you choose to act on them.

Maybe it is just over compensating for years of getting wet-willies by the school yard bully.

Remember the most famous misquote of all is "and the GEEK shall inherit the earth".

I don't really consider myself a tech, I am a Netware engineer, but this doesn't make me a tech. Neither does an MCSE etc. These are simply areas of expertise, it doesn't make people technicians really. Some people feel that if they have ONE cert then they understand all issues related to computing.

As for the JOB market, you may be dwelling on what people offer as opinions from personal experience as being globally binding.

For example, I have no sympathy for people who complain about no work. There is a LOT of work in North America, whether or nto in YOUR CHOSEN field is irrelevant, you can't complain about being unemployed when you are able bodied and even partially sane.

I have often got into bouts with people over employment but in every case, I speak clearly from MY regional market and MY experience in finding work and with teaching others how to successfully find work. It is a full time job and I find that 99.999% of the people who are unemployed and complaining are either not WORKING to find work (recruiters, online ads, newspapers etc are NOT working to find work)or else just expect people to walk up and hand them a job because they have paperwork (which seems to be more and more irrlevant as time passes).

This is based on my proven life experiences and the fact that I can teach almost anyone how to find work in two-three weeks, I have a 98% success rate, a few went back to school to study for a new career.

Then again, if people want to feel that it is the job market's fault, they will rarely believe otherwise until proven wrong.

Lastly, if I couldn't find work, and it was PROVEN that it was due to the market and not my own lack of job hunting skills, then I would simply move. Family? Move them too, won't they be better off too by having an employed parent?

Sell your house or whatever it takes, instead of complaining and pining for a market to change.

So yes I am quite hard and unsympathetic to people with skills that complain about being jobless, find something else to do if you NEED to earn a living, if not, quit complaining and just wait for the handout.

First of all this is a discussion forum, not the Technical Q&A forum. People posting here are asking for opinions, whether personal or professional, regarding a certain topic of discussion. These responses cannot be expected to simply candy coat the issues with lollipops and rainbows.

If someone asks for opinions, you should be prepared to recieve opinions, not simply facts based on the job market in YOUR area etc. Your state should offer those facts for you. YOu should expect opinions from other people who have been in the same boat or managed to get out of a rut, or even knew someone else who did.

It seems that what you are looking for is simply agreement and some heavy petting, sorry, mom's not here.

I certainly hope you are NOT referring to me. I am not employed, I just work for money/trade wherever it may be hiding. I am not on the payroll or under contract with an employer. I am also not complaining about the job market screwing me over though, I think it's wondefrul to have so many different opportunities available.

This is North America, be all you can be and all that.

There you go again with the choice of words. It was not quite as funny as how you describe your keyboarding skills.

It gave me a bad visual too. LOL :)

so leave it to me to pick it up and run with it.

So does this cross over to the Grammar post now?

Rock on.

It really explains how people get the wrong impression when reading posts though, many seem to be reading like a search engine algorhythm, they just scan keywords. :D

i think my problemis that I type as I would speak, it leaves it all up to punctuation and sentence structure here though. No voice inflection or facial expression to help assist in pauses, exclamation etc.

Now you should go back and read the original post again! You have been offensive and rude, you are not making me happy and not candy coating your replies.

I am deeply hurt and offended that I can't offer my opinion and have everyone accept it as is. [i]sniff sniff[/i]

WHATEVER !!! LOL! FU2! :D

I was okay until I read about throwing the toys out of the pram, then I simply lost it!

My brother used to say that to me ALL the time when we were growing up.

Absolutely freakin' hilarious! Very well done, squire!
:D

Hugs and kisses.
Who loves ya baby? (name that quote)

Been hanging around just long enough to see you can handle good natured ribbings, and I have a good respect of many of your posts.

Spent a lot of time in Toronto getting my Unix certs, and found Canadians (Canuks?) to be some of the nicest people I have met. (until they get behind the wheel of a car that is)

There are many stories surrounding the origin Canuck, some say it refers to Western Canadian only, some say it refers to central Canadians only but i found this link to a really cool description that I think fits well.

http://www.comnet.ca/~dmarchak/candef.htm

Note: Many Americans are offended at being called redkneck, as I soon found out here lol, but I don't know one solitary Canadian who is offended by being called a Canuck?

Ahhh, the laid back life of reality, where you honestly and wholly don't give a sh*t what people think or say! Maybe why we aren't always at war, nobody gives a damn.

Sense of haha, well in the places and industries I have worked you develop a VERY thick skin but a warm heart. I can dish it out as well as I can take it, perhaps why many less 'exposed'(for lack of a better word, AGAIN!) people find me so abrasive or unfeeling.

My grandfather came to America from Eastern Europe at the turn of the century, in the great immigration wave of that era. He arrived at Ellis Island at the age of 15 with literally no money, no command of the English language, no friends, no family, no prospects, a complete stranger in a strange land. He did what he needed to do to survive, and within fifteen more years had transformed himself into a fairly prosperous (for that time) business person.

This is not an unusual story. Millions of other people did the same thing. Because they had to, in order to survive.

Survival is a pretty powerful motivator, mostly because the alternative is rather intolerable. There are, however, generational differences in the definition of survival.

In my grandfather's day it was literal...have enough money at the end of the day to feed the family, or die. In our modern era of conspicuous consumption survival means something else entirely.

It depends upon your baseline. If my grandfather was unable...or unwilling...to do what was needed to secure work, he and his family would die. Today, if someone is unable or unwilling to secure work they won't be able to maintain a certain standard of living. To many people, living at a certain minimum level of standard is, in fact, actual survival. Below that level, they cannot survive. They'd actually rather die.

You and I are alike in that neither of us subscribe to that way of thinking. Like you, I would do, and have done, anything necessary to work. At present I'm in the process of relocating my life from Connecticut to Washington DC, as an example.

Where I differ with you is that I'd recommend you think about being just a bit more tolerant of people who are somewhat less resilient than we are. It's not up to us to judge them. People do what they do for all kinds of reasons, and it's a harsh judgement to make the blanket statement that one should be "willing to do whatever it takes to eke out a living". For many people, "eking" is not equivalent to "living".

In this area, as in all other areas in life, it's not black and white. There are always shades of gray. I suggest your position puts you at the extremes while there's a lot more room in the middle.

Don't mind this rednecked yankee, I'm pretty much harmless. Canuck never seemed to be a bad thing to me and the only time people don't like redneck these days is if it is preceded by "dumb".

I did find it interesting how intense the feelings of gun ownership and hunters rights are "up there".

Before I would go there, the Canadian image in America has always been the tree hugging anti-gunners. Shocked I was to find out that not all of the tree huggers are anti-gunners. (hee hee)

I think in the US, GREENIES, TREE HUGGERS, ANTI GUNNRES and DEMOCRATS are all seen as one and the same. "You are either with us or against us" (OOOOH!) :D .

In Canada, people are a LOT more individual and don't jump on the bandwagon to appease thier peers. The issue with tree hugging is VERY different than the others, people don't want their livlihoods lost to American capitalization on one of our largest and most valued resources, but money talks.

There are more gun owners per capita in Canada than the US but less homocides by guns.

People here don't care about owning a gun, unless for hunting for FOOD, collecting or show. In the US it is a right to bear arms and one that must be protected, even if that defensive right means owning an AK47 to protect your home?!? With the government tromping on your civil rights daily, it is not too hard to see why people are so defensive about the founding ideals of your country.
I think most are taking it out of hand a bit, yes you should be able to protect yourself I guess, I have never felt the need to protect myself with a gun up here though, shoot a robber and YOU go to jail, not him.

People here don't see guns as a security blanket, yet lumber, forestry and untouched wilderness IS Canada.

Our protestors seem to have a goal in mind, it is alos VERY often noticed and taken into account by the government, other than them just being seen as antidisestablishmentarian noise makers that are just unpatriotic.

I remember a period where I probably worked for 24 companies in 5 years!

I would just get bored and go do something completely different.

I even got a book at a library one winter and learned how to sweep chimneys because my landlord said the chimney wasn't safe for wood fires(no, not with Mary Poppins). After doing my own chimney and for the people who lived upstairs, I bought a selection of brushes, weights and lines from a local hardware store (less than $80 for all)and started knocking doors. I was simply SHOCKED at the amount of jobs I picked up on my first day. After a few weeks, I had to call it quits, just too much work and I didn't want to start a NEW profession sweeping chimney's but just to make a few bucks for Christmas.

Kinda like X-Files with a twist, "The WORK is out there"

antidisestablishmentarian, I admit I had to look it up and was suprised that it was me. wow.

I even had to laugh when I looked it up, here is the second thing said about it.
"2. Commonly used as example of a very long word"

Happy New Year to everyone at TR!

I am out of here for the year. (sounds good to say that)

What's the ettiqette in miscellaneous? your ability to insult and be insulted by most of the English-speaking world has been noted.

I can do "toffee-nosed" but as my Da was a Welsh miner it doesn't come naturally. We get so much US television that US slang is not a problem - quite the reverse as I'd like not to have to use it. Aussie insults tend to strike me as a bit forced but are - at least - original. Canadian? Hmmm, never been insulted in Canadian. Or Kiwi for that matter - at least so I'd noticed.

So far on this forum I've just been insulted by MrMiami and that is just like being savaged by a dead sheep.

Thenk you for your participation, my good man. :-)

Neil

Sorry I was watching some Fawlty Towers episodes I was given for Christmas.

Actually the comment was humor not insult. As far as pushing it, the guildelines are pretty much outlined on the main discussions entry page.

Basically, thye don't want PERSONAL attacks, the backbone of TR discussions when people run out of ideas. They don't want racist slurs, or foul language.

What I was getting at is how sensitive SOME members are compared to others, it seems the sensitivity issues come from south of the border.

I referred to the Aussies and Canadians as people who seem a little more apt to laugh at a good slam than become offended. I think the Americans with the toughest skins are a few of the resident female techs we have here, I guess they have developed that from entering what is seen as a male dominated field, al the power to them!

The more 'intellectual wannabe' people are usually the ones who take offense at the slightest thing and will get all huffy and defensive. A little too righteous for my liking but I have developed some patience with them.

I think that unless you start using profanity (usually asterisked out by TR) or slamming people's race or color (I got lambasted for using the term BLACK even when not in a negative way)you should be okay,. If not, people will start to bitch and whine and tell you all about how politically incorrect you are and how unacceptable it is, while they defend going and blowing up Iraq of course.

They don't like the term black to describe a black man's skin, because it is predjuduced. Instead they would rather tag ALL Americans of a different color with a hyphenated version of being American, regardles of where they were born, perhaps just to keep them in line.

They are not black they are Afro-American, whether they have ever stepped foot in Africa or not. To me THAT is predjudiced. TO them it is not segregation it is being PC.

Man, what a long winded post! Sorry about that, it just pees me off to bear witness to such blind righteousness.

I have been on Pink Floyd Animals kick for a few weeks again lately (helps me unwind after shows) so I must comment on sheep!

A Scottish man is walking the hectares of fields on his sheep farm with his grandson when they see a sheep with it's head stuck in the wire fence. BAAA! BAAA!, the sheep was crying and needed help! So the grandson says, "Grandpa, what can we do?"

The old Scotsman grins as he walks behind the sheep and lifts his kilt, much to the poor sheeps horror.

After a few minutes 'conducting business' he stops and looks at the young boy, "Now it's your turn to become a man lad!"

So the little boy sticks his head in the fence and says BAAA!! BAAA!!

Happy New Year!!!!

I wasn't offended with your previous post at all though I was a bit puzzled as I wasn't watching the vids with you... :-)

I can think of nothing that anyone could say that would offend me on this forum. I'm English and we don't do patriotism. I'm not even white - actually I'm a Celt and my skin is a pale blue. Two weeks in Florida gets me to white!

Thanks very much for the etiquette dissertation. It sounds like I may have over-insulted MrMiami but - What the He11, it's Christmas so he can have it for free.

As for the asterisks - you can't even mention the name of the male lead in Mary Poppins! How absurd is that?

Is this OK? "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

Neil

Note from "The Kiwi Bumper Book on the Erogenous zones of Sheep".

Always take the animal and face it towards the edge of a cliff. They push back much more vigorously.

Happy New Year

Neil

You English bed wetting types!

I wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy second-hand electric donkey bottom wipers!

I burst my pimples at you, you timy-brained wipers of other people's bottoms!

So yes, depart, depart a lot this time and cut the approaching anymore or we will fire arrows at the tops of your heads and make castinettes out of your testicles already!

Remain gone, illegitimate bugger-faced folk! And if you think you got a taunting THIS time, you aint heard nothing yet...dappy Englishman!

Have a great new year!

You were so close to the longest word in the English language.

Re: Guns... I love 'em, but security is not the issue here in Canada... we hunt... but I also like bats, swords, axes, brass knuckles, steeltoed boots, etc?!?!?!

Nothing like a kick in the eye with a pair of Daytons in the morning!

I thinkit was how I grew up, you didn't bring a knife unless the other guy had one. You didn't use ANYTHING other than your hands and feet unless the other guy was going to.

Kids that brought knives were laughed at and called puussies, a gun would just be the most cowardly and weak-assed thing you could have had.

Sure you won a few and lost a few, that was fair and all was cool. Usually sucking down a few beers with your former opponent shortly afterwards.

The funny thing is that kids actually think they are really tough these days. I often get people staring me down when at a show etc. but they usually don't stand up when you stare them back or confront them with it.

It's all look and image nowdays, not street smarts or ability to hold your own.

A fair fight is 6 on 1 now.

fight with weapons like that.

Image is a big issue with these people nowadays. Why can't anyone scrap like goood ol' boys. Any fight that I've ever been in, has always lead to a couple of beers after. No hard feelings - just getting rid of some negative energy. :)

A wise man is simply a foolish man who keeps his mouth closed!

In answer to your question though, some people give you the five minute, and five dollar solution, some give the five minute thousand dollar solution, some give the five year solution, etc....

In many cases, many different solutions exist, and you have to take each case individually to determine which is the best solution to the problem being presented.

Also, with such a variety of backgrounds, people will present solutions with technologies they know (or think they know ;) ) so a MS tech will say Exchange, while an IBM/Lotus guy will say Notes, while a Linux person will give you several other options.

Each person can be right, without necessarily making the other people wrong.

I was commenting on that a while back, two women will despise each other for life and will never get over the most trivial ssues as they brew bigger and bigger.

Two guys will just have a spat and a good ole punch up, then go for beers and be best friends for life.

I'd buy you a beer any day without the scrap though. :)

It's been a really long time since I resorted to throwing hands. I'd probably break my wrist in the process. I try not to put myself into those situations anymore.

It was Telly! not of the Tubbie variety though.

I used to work as a security foreman for the Colliseum so I have had my share of it, now th eonly problems I have are during shows where you need to oust people or people try and get up on stage with the band.

Thankfully I now hire OTHER security staf and just have to look and nod once in a while. I'm too old and creaky for that now, but I'd still hold my own if pushed to it.

I'd much rather skip the preliminary feather fanning and just suck down a beer over a game of darts!

I've never said all the people here are examples of the intolerance, narrowmindedness, callousness, and inhumanity that I'm talking about. But Oz is a proud example of the type of people that I was describing and there are quite a few of them here... but not all employed IT people are like that, never said they were.

I think a lot of Techs, or really, people in general think they know it all, but that certainly doesn't make them a genius. I really don't think the majority of Tecnical people are geniuses, they have a learned skill, much the same as people in other professions. Maybe the problem is, too many technical type people need validation.

Another targeted title, how clever.

I just don't see why you are so upset that someone thinks differently than you do. I suppose you are also one of those who support killing what you don't understand.

You are wrong in all of your assumptions of me and my work history. You have been proven wrong as you are only offering unqualified assumptions and yet you still attempt to assert yourself as someone who knows or understands me.

The funny part is you keep referring righteously to the title of the post and how I fit it. You are not seeing how much you echo the theme here yourself though.

First of all, the post is titled "Tech's know it all", then you make a comment such as "Oz does't count.... he is a total goof and not indicative of the employed tech that wander TR forums"

Thus you are emphasizing that as an 'unemployed tech', I don't know what I am talking about.

This is too funny really. All you have tried to prove here is that OTHER people think they know it all and unless thay are a tech they are wrong. Or in simpler terms, TECH'S KNOW IT ALL! LOL :D What a maroon!

Now whether YOU see it or not, others can.

An unemployed tech? I am self-employed, not unemployed but I don't consider myself 'employed' because I am not on the standard F?T employee/payroll system where I do the 9-5 in an office. You are one confused little man and you continue to prove it to all.

But if you want me to fall into suit with your own comments when you run out of logic, then I can always resort to calling you a complete goof too, it's not very clever but whatever.

You made a blanket character generalization that I disagreed with. You then INSINUATED, to me anyway, that I fit that generalization.

I wanted to be clear that I am generally NOT that way at all, but have no sympathy for those who just want to complain as opposed to welcoming solutions or new things to try.

You are now saying that it is the same thing.

Therefore, anyone with any answer you don'tlike fits your blanket character generalization. The old saying is not acurate at all 'if it walks like a duck...' A goose can appear to be a duck when it wants to.

If you had been here for a while and actually knew how I usually help people with positive job hunting advice, then I would accept your comments. When you just drop in and make absurd observations basedon a few lines of text, it is purely unqualified and unacceptable opinion.

Now to give you some credit, you haven't been here long but you have shown some really positive activity in helping out in Q&A and adding comments in discussions, this is more than most that just want to be loud.

You didn't 'describe a trait' though, you made a character generalization based on a few comments, this doesn't display a 'trait' of any sort and your quick, assumptive conclusion is out of whack.

"All fish swim, therefore all that lives underwater is a fish" this is of course, complete Bullsh*t!

I would guess that this linear thought process is WHY you are a tech. All people with a narrow thought process usually become techs from their ability to memorize reams of linear instructions. They also don't make the best techs as they require someone else with a 3 dimensional thought process to help them resolve daunting issues. The two mindsets feed on each other.

There's a nice character generalization for you.

Happy New Year ! :D

Where I come from, that word is not to be taken lightly. In fact, that word is the ultimate insult in my world. I'm not sure you fully understand what you are saying there.

well, if you live in disneyland - "goof" is a high compliment.

so put on your purple shades and look on the bright side of things - just as out little friend Oz does.

:-)

SL

I find it hard to credit the statistic, but apparently the number of women working in IT in the UK has dropped by 50% since 1997. There's no agreed answer as to why this is so, but the macho atitudes you're singling out here are surely a good part of it?

The same problem exists on all discussion boards. The newsnet boards have become war zones.

Ask for help with fixing a flat tire on your Chevy, and you'll likely be ridiculed for driving such & for being so stupid as not to know that the solution is to spend mega-bucks on the purchase of a new car (brand prescribed by respondent.)

Civility & quiet, well reasoned discourse have given way to the strident, emotional rants of the ill informed. The tyranny of the masses runs amok.

"Tis better to remain silent, and be thought the fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

Mark Twain

opinions matter anytime and formed as a result of about anyything.

If someone has an opinion thay are expressing how they feel about something,not neccessarily what is factual about it.

i believe that opinions are generally formed based on a persons 'id' and a result of the persons ability to conceptualize higher focused or post conventional morality as opposed to the conventional morality that we develop as children.
PCM is something children do not develop until many years into puberty.

It also applies to the lower ability of adults to understand new concepts or technology development s(You know the famous, "You kids and your fancy toys, how do you figure it all out?").

With IT being a reasonably new and exciting field of expertise, this higher morailty/PCM is not fully understood by the people in the industry and such childlike behaviour is inevitable.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

If two men (people) continue to post witty quips I think I will puke." - OM

I prefer the more individualistic approach though;
[i]"History will be kind to me, I intend to write it" - .W. Churchill [/i]

or the more selfish, "Why stand united when you can soar alone?"

I almost wet myself when I read those first comments, I got all excited and my fingertips got all tingly and itching to spew but I had to bite my tongue and refrain from lashing out, I knew 'someone' would have her say all in due time.

Well done!

And c'mon, we all know you are a sweetheart...for a bitch.
Just as I am a nice guy...for an a**hole. ;-)

How opinions are formed is not relevant to my post.

And, the universe is neither aware of nor responsive to feelings.

You made a post stating why people offer such opinions. I explained the psychological reasoning behind it, the two are related in every way and in no way irrelevant.

[i]"when premises are offered, all too often they have been carefully selected so as not to acknowledge those which do not support the foregone conclusion."[/i]

All I am saying is that this is less of a concious decision as it is a result of personal 'id' and morality. As I explained above, morailty changes as we mature. This is due to experience and MANY other contributing factors. When we have not developed into a post concentional morality we end up acting on conventional morality much as a young child does.

In other words we LEARN to act more maturely about issues once we have developed many years of 'comfort' working with them.

With the ever changing world of technology it can't be expected for ANYONE to remain subconciously comfortable and act conciously mature (demonstrating post conventional morality) in all responses and opinions toward it.

This is a valid explanation WHY you see what seems to be nothing but 'tautoligy' or what is more commonly referred to as a pis*ing contest.

This same subconcious development, or lack thereof, is why people walk down the steet and stare people down or bump in to them instead of smiling and stepping aside.

You said [i]The tyranny of the masses runs amok.[/i]

After reading the post, such a comment appeared to be like saying 'the sky is falling'.

Therefore, "Quick, close the shutters and lock the windows!" in armageddon fashion.

or neither 1), 2) or 3)

Sentiment is reflective of feelings; opinion, of facts.

You seem to be failing to make the distinction.