* Posts by jmk89

33 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Jun 2013

Job for IT generalist ...

jmk89

Great Question

I'm in a similar situation to yourself, in that I can hit the ground running in basically any aspect of IT, and every job available seems to be for only one skill.

I think there is something really interesting happening at the moment in IT.

If you go back even a decade, a typical web development company would have say a team of dedicated HTML/CSS developers, a team of dedicated Javascript developers, a dedicated team writing the server side code, and an IT department who looked after the servers/network etc.

Recently there have been all sorts of really cool frameworks released which quite simply make everything easier. Where it would previously have taken a team of HTML/CSS developers to make a nice looking website, this can now be done as part of one persons job with Twitter Bootstrap. Same goes for the Javascript using something like jQuery/Angular, and the server side code with a framework like Ruby on Rails or ASP.Net MVC.

As for the server stuff, if you are using a cloud service like AWS or Azure, you really don't need a team of people to maintain all of that, again it can now be done as part of one persons job (that person being the IT generalist).

I think there are a lot of companies out there that still have that old structure, but are using the new frameworks + the cloud. They have a lot of employees who have been there for years, and they can't just fire them so they try to find a role for everyone. When you apply for a job there, they try to fit you into that structure also, in a way that others don't feel as though their jobs are threatened.

Because you are only hired to only do one thing, you only get paid for one thing. The solution seems to be startups, who welcome the fact that you can wear many hats, but then startups don't tend to have the cash flow of a larger company, so you may make more or less the same as you would in a larger company doing one job, but at least the work will be more interesting. I would definitely choose this over a single skilled job at a larger company, mainly to keep my skills sharp and up to date in all areas.

I don't really have any answers, just thought I would spill my thoughts on the situation into a textbox and see what others say.

Next Windows obsolescence panic is 450 days from … NOW!

jmk89

Re: Reasons NOT to upgrade?

I've been using IOS on routers for decades...

jmk89

Re: Reasons NOT to upgrade?

Server 2012 very much has TIFKAM/Metro/Modern, just pointing that out

I QUIT: Mozilla's anti-gay-marriage Brendan Eich leaps out of door

jmk89

RE: Being against gay marriage does not equate to being anti-gay

Exactly.

It seems as though the gay community want to be able to get married to get access to the same benefits/tax breaks etc as heterosexual couples.

The issue I have with that is that those benefits are designed and geared towards making it easier to start a family, which is something that gay couples can't do because of er...science. Then there is a whole separate argument about the impact on children growing up with no male/female role model in the household, and then going out into a world filled with both men/women and having only experience with one gender.

So the gay community are essentially demanding something which wasn't designed for them. I am fully aware that heterosexual couples who don't have kids can do this too, but that's more of a bug in the system.

I'm not religious and don't object to homosexuality in any way, but gay people getting married is like deaf people buying iPods.

I guess my point is that there is a legitimate debate to be had about gay marriage which has nothing to do with homosexuality, which any reasonable person would agree is completely fine.

The gay community try to side-step this debate by portraying anybody who tries to start it as bigoted/homophobic etc, and persecuting them until they shut up.

Here's what YOU WON'T be able to do with your PlayStation 4

jmk89

Re: ***I Know It's Long But Just Give It A Read

I'm not reading all of that, can you tl;dr it?

Lumia 2520: Our Vulture gets his claws on Nokia's first Windows RT slab

jmk89

Is it just me that thinks that if they just provided a way to write desktop applications for RT (I dont mean run existing ones, I mean write new ones) RT would be a winner?

Im guessing Intel wont let them, which means WinRT is forever crippled, which means no sale!

FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS: Microsoft faces prising XP from Big Biz

jmk89

From my cold, dead hands is appropriate in my situation

I work for a pretty big bank, which is currently in the process of upgrading everybody's PC's, from Windows XP to.....Windows XP.

They are literally getting computers with Windows 7 on them, removing 7 and installing XP! in 2013!

To quote Frank Grimes, "it boggles the mind".

Windows XP is going to be around for a while.

Tough luck, bumpkins! Blighty broadband speed gap misery worsens

jmk89

Northern Ireland is the opposite

Belfast (NI's capital city) has fibre optic broadband precisely nowhere, and the average speed of the standard broadband is ~8Mb.

Head out into the countryside/small towns/villages and you will find fibre galore, around 40Mb is the norm, and I know one guy with 100Mb at his house! Go figure!

How did Microsoft get to be a $1.2bn phone player? Hint: NOT Windows Phone

jmk89
Thumb Up

Re: Couldn't help it...

"We can't figure out what...if anything...an-droid actually does, so rather than risk competing with you, we've decided simply to buy you out"

Microsoft Surface sales numbers revealed as SHOCKINGLY HIDEOUS

jmk89

I will take a free surface

You can show me ads and make money of that, deal Microsoft?

Apple KILLER decloaked? Google lovingly unboxes Nexus 7 Android 4.3 slablette

jmk89
Pint

Re: Note to laptop manufacturers...

This!

1920x1200 is just nicer than 1920x1080, and is so hard to find laptops that do it, and the desktop monitors that do are twice the price of 1080p

Only 1 in 5 Americans believe in pure evolution – and that's an upswing

jmk89
Pint

Re: There is an answer.

More or less!

PHWOAR! Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, Prime Minister

jmk89
Thumb Down

The problem is...

The problem is that ISP's do indeed use various methods to block sites containing the likes of indecent images of children, these methods make it easy to spot people attempting to access these websites, as they have to go to great lengths to do so, and stick out like a sore thumb.

Once you start applying these methods to other things which aren't illegal but which various groups may dislike for various reasons (such as Youporn, the Pirate Bay etc) then it muddies the waters, and makes it more difficult to spot those accessing the really illegal stuff, as everyone is taking the long way around for much more benign reasons.

WAR ON PORN: UK flicks switch on 'I am a pervert' web filters

jmk89

It will be like that time they blocked the Pirate Bay

And ended piracy forever

Surface RT: A plan worthy of the South Park Underpants Gnomes

jmk89
Thumb Down

No desktop apps

There was no official way to run any desktop apps on the Surface RT, I'm not even talking about existing ones, new ones as well.

The thing had a desktop mode, and absolutely no way to run any existing desktop applications, or even create new ones with Visual Studio. Adding the option to Visual Studio to create an RT desktop app, using the same .Net framework running the Metro apps, would have made all the difference, as companies around the planet could port application x from .Net framework main => .net Framework RT and save a lot of cash on hardware, but nope!

Microsoft biz heads slash makes Ballmer look like dead STEVE JOBS

jmk89

Risky Stretegy

Abandon the things that you know make you money, in pursuit of things which might make you money, and you might break even.

Good luck Ballmer!

Snowden: US and Israel did create Stuxnet attack code

jmk89
Thumb Up

Completely agree. It's the same with WikiLeaks. If they were just concerned with freedom of information etc, they would just release everything at once, but instead they release small bits of into at a time, because they enjoy the drama of the whole thing and the attention more than they care about FOI!

jmk89

Snowden: Bear sh**s in woods

Will be tomorrows headline

What it was like to grow up around the world's first digital computers

jmk89
Pint

Re: Didn't Steve Jobs...

Me fail English? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iSD9lPVY6Q

Dell explores wearable computing as PC base crumbles

jmk89
Alert

Re: really? Nobody saw the iPad coming? Netbooks HELLO!

Wasn't it the netbook vendors who turned to Microsoft so they could load up the netbooks with adware/crapware to offset the cost and keep it sub £200?

AMD joins LibreOffice, adds GPU grunt to free software suite

jmk89
Pint

Re: Another nail in the MS Office Coffin...

MS Access is handy as hell for when you need to temporarily treat data like a database, but whenever somebody has built an entire application with it...badly...and it's being used to run a company and you have to maintain it's...er...not so great!

jmk89
Pint

Still looks atrocious though

You have to admit, MS-Office looks a hell of a lot nicer than any of the open source clones out there. Fix the appearance, and you've got a deal!

Win 8 man Sinofsky's 'retirement' deal: $14m shares, oath of silence

jmk89
Trollface

Changed direction?

By adding a single button?

Gone

jmk89
Thumb Up

Re: V-Tec

VTEC's are safe enough until you go over 5200RPM

jmk89
Pint

Re: The one built by a competent admin

What happened to that Eadon dude? I notice all of his posts have been deleted by the admin!

Dubya: I introduced PRISM and I think it's pretty swell

jmk89
WTF?

Re: erm

It was discussed quite openly over a year ago by former NSA employees at last year's defcon, so no I'm not surprised! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqIz-RNUL1g

jmk89

Go on Ireland

If you make it to Ireland Snowden, we'll go out for pints!

YES, Xbox One DOES need internet, DOES restrict game trading

jmk89
Pint

Long live the 360

The XBOX 360 has a massive user base, is cheap as chips to to produce, is powerful enough and developers know it inside out. Gonna stick with it for the forseeable future!

Microsoft parades Windows 8.1, the version you may actually want

jmk89
Thumb Down

This is just a mean spirited prank

Average User: "Oh thank heavens the start-menu is back, such a relief, I'll just open a progr...aww"

Former Microsoft Windows chief: I was right to kill the Start button

jmk89
Happy

Re: When you look at it it's actually pretty stupid...

"Of course the new Metro-based monochrome styles of Visual Studio 2012 makes life as a Windows developer far harder than it needs to be, so it turns out that they are actively making it more difficult to develop for the new Windows UI."

Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 has an extra theme, which restores the appearance of 2010, makes my life slightly easier!