What Skills Would You Like To Acquire? 1

[BJCooperIT]

In thread656-1196884 you were asked "Where Are You Now?". What I would like to know is a bit more hypothetical. What skills would you like to acquire? I know answers will vary based on your role in the industry, but perhaps responses posted here will help give direction to those who are a bit lost. Sometimes we all flounder a bit after being entrenched in our jobs. You may be so busy that you do not recognize the proverbial "handwriting on the wall" that signals the end of an era.

Did I recognize the end of COBOL as a marketable skill in my area in the 80's? No. I was so busy coding that I was unaware of where the industry was headed.

When I was buried in OS2 and Windows 3.1 did I even look up from my monitor to say "What next"? No, because four teenagers and 50 hour work weeks left me too exhausted.

For many years now, my specialty has been custom Oracle forms. In my part of the country, the demand is more for developers who can code forms and reports to help maintain Oracle's applications. Since the clients that I have, develop their own applications, there is a declining need for custom developers. In the next two years I would like to:
1. Gain exposure to Oracle Applications
2. Learn JAVA and C++
3. Learn more about Oracle Application Servers

So, look around and ask yourself? Where do I want to go from here and what will it take to get there?

[sup]Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.[/sup][sup] ~George Bernard Shaw[/sup]
Consultant Developer/Analyst Oracle, Forms, Reports & PL/SQL (Windows)
My website: Emu Products Plus

 

[jsteph]

KHZ,
You're right...pSeries 690. As for the HACMP (I'm not an IBM guy so all the acronyms are not as familiar to me), the failover never worked.

We spent many thousands $$ on consultants from IBM to set it up, and in the first test, the failover never happened. Second test, disaster. It had to be manually done. I'm not sure the exact mechanics of it but I was not impressed. Much, much more trouble than it was ever worth.

The NIC's I spoke of were actually HBA's connecting to our SAN. We've had two failures. If the SAN isn't accessible, the system's down as far as every user/customer is concerned. We have 32 gig memory, and have had to replace 2 modules to my knowledge. Very expensive, and again, more downtime. The high-dollar IBM people recommened a pair of A/C units, each of which has failed at least once, I think one of them's failed twice. Again--the system is set to shut down if the room temp gets over a certain point--which it did on each of these failures.

So maybe we got a lemon, who knows. My point was more to the effect that, sure, you can say a particular model processor is rock solid, or an OS is rock solid, but if, by design, they depend on all these peripheral devices like A/C unit's, the HBA's, etc, then those are all part of the chain--if the weakest link breaks, then the chain breaks.
--Jim

 

[kHz]

The p690 is no longer available as of end of 2005. It was a great platform to work on at the time and was IBM first foray into LPARS for AIX at the time on the pSeries servers. Unfortunately I do Solaris now and it isn't anywhere near the completeness of AIX.

The system would appear down to customers if the SAN wasn't available, that's true. They should have had multiple adapters and multiple paths to the data. SPoF! It'll get ya every time!

IBM is working on the AIX version 6.x to have separate regions for drivers, memory, etc., so if one has an error it won't bring down the entire server. They are incoporating more and more Mainframe technology into AIX to improve uptime for both hardware and software. According to IBM, with separate regions, that will eliminate 85% of the causes of system crashes that currently occur.

I would still take a Unix RISC server over Wintel any day. But then I use Unix and have every day for over 11 years. At a place I used to work, they studied moving Notes from Wintel to AIX (on SP2 nodes). They were running like 150 or 200 servers for Notes and would have been able to reduce it to 5 servers on AIX. They never went through with the change, though I don't know why. Notes on Windows on 150 servers or Notes on AIX on 5 servers. No question where I would move Notes.

 

[jsteph]

Yes, I'd rather have only 5 machines to maintain than 150, no question. Wintel isn't near the capacity/stability to compete with that class machine, and may never be. I'd agree that most unix server os's are more stable than windows--the problems I noted with our aix box were all hardware related, and peripheral at that.

Anyway the gap certainly has closed on the midrange, where the 400 ruled. Once the 64-bit chips, OS's, and apps, become ironed out, I think that a small wintel farm will be a threat some mainframes, though.
--Jim

 

[BocaBurger]

Depends on what you are doing. I read on a Ziff-Davis site a few years ago, where they were testing high speed web servers. The absolute fastest systems were on a mainframe running Linux. It was a used machine and they figured in the cost per. The mainframe was set up to load balance and was expandable. No other solution would give the performance per dollar that this did. A new mainframe was too expensive, but this test was so one sided. None of the other tested systems (Sun clusters, Wintel clusters or Linux clusters) could match the I/O the mainframe was able to maintain.



BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[jshurst]

I'd like to learn C# and begin migrating to VS2005. I also want to get my master's degree. And if I have enough time learn how to move things with my mind ;-)

 

[lionelhill]

Skittle,
I have to agree about the new versions problem. I'm currently trying to teach myself .NET C++ using Framework 2.0 VS express, but a Framework 1.x textbook borrowed from the library. Not one of the examples in the book that I've typed in so far has compiled without a lot of modification and shuffling around finding out why syntax has changed and where objects have moved to.

It's a great learning experience, but it does raise questions about how long my learning will remain useful. Incidentally (and off-topic), any advice on whether I ought to be learning .NET at all would be much appreciated. My needs are for custom data handling involving graphical display and a reasonable dose of real-time number crunching, and the target platform is the typical winXP PC (i.e. I'm trying to write tools to do the number crunching that will be used by others, not merely a one-off crunch where I'd probably use a maths package or even just a spreadsheet). Perhaps I should be in native win applications and not messing about with managed code? In any case, it really goes against the grain to have a pointer pointing to something and not to free the memory when I'm finished with it ... it simply hurts!

 

[Spirit]

I'd like to learn how to be one of those socialite type that never have to work. get paid millions for their autobiography that they don't even right and get paid to turn up to parties......

Now THATS skill.

 

[adrstan1]

Dig intro the linux kernel sources ...

 

[grande]

I'd like to get more web design experience. AJAX, ASP.Net, that kind of thing.

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Call me barely Impressive Captain.

 

[jshurst]

You should probably try to aquire skills with a bow-staff, or better yet magic. Girls like guys with skills ;-)

grande, asp.net is cool. Keep an eye out for Atlas (microsoft's AJAX implementation). Also when you get a little experience check out Anthem.NET (it is a class library that implements AJAX). All of the code is already written so you use it just like regular .NET controls, except without any postbacks.

But definitely aquire staff skills...

 

[NetworkGhost]

Bowstaff is sweeeet. Those are definitly essential skills, especially because chicks dig it.

They also dig guys who have their CCSPs. So thats what Im going for. Security Market is great right now. I moved from Systems Admin to Security Engineer and missed it about -1 times.

 

[gbaughma]

I trained with a bowstaff. Definately my favorite weapon, and handled properly, quite formidable.

OK, as long as we're being silly, a skill I'd like to acquire is Telekinesis.



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[bwtc]

I have been working on the AS/400 for the past 13 years, and it is a rock-solid machine.

I often read that the AS/400 is a "dinosaur" and that it is no good, because it is a "proprietary" system.

I can remember working with only one AS/400 that has ever gone down unexpectidly -- and that was over 10 years ago!

I read the following response in this thread: "most of these windows boxes, when used strictly as a sql-server box, had very impressive uptime performance."

Microsoft has always blamed most of the windows "instability" issues on the hardware that it is running on. The above mentioned quote not only disproves that, but is a feather in IBM's cap, for not only producing a rock-solid piece of hardware, but also the most rock-solid O/S avaiable.

IBM has done a tremendous job at keeping the AS/400 on the cutting edge. But shame on IBM for not properly marketing the machine.

 

[gbaughma]

Yup. The AS/400 is a workhorse. No doubt.

If I had to be on a computer-based life support system, I'd much rather have it be an AS/400 than *ANY* windows box you could build, and I don't care WHICH one.

It'd give a whole new meaning to the "Blue Screen of Death".

I always thought it would be perfect justice if something happened to Bill Gates, and he was put on a life support system that required Windows ME.

Financial institutions use the AS/400's. And personally, I feel "safer" knowing that my money is being tracked by that system.



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[BocaBurger]

bow-staff? Do you mean "bo" the Okinawan or Japanese staff?

Most of the people I see using a bo are doing it wrong.





BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[jshurst]

I meant whatever Napolean Dynamite meant when he said it...

 

[Grenage]

I imagine so, Bocaburger. As far as I know, a bowstaff is a piece of wood yet to be turned into a bow and "bo" is Japanese for "Staff".


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[AndrewTait]

Well here's my list:

1. Linux/Unix skills - I know enough to get by, but not enough to be comfortable

2. MSCE & Cisco Certifications

3. Masters degree

4. Management skills/experience

5. Resurect my programming skills and learn latest languages

6. Private Pilots License

Not exhaustive, and certainly not all attainable, but I can dream eh?

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So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key

Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum
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[BocaBurger]

AFAIK, "bo" means wood or tree.

there are various staff lengths in Japanese MAs, from the yawara, hanbo, jo, bo etc.



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[johnherman]

What I have:
1. Oracle
2. SQL Server
3. Data Warehouse
4. OLAP
5. Unix
6. SQL, COBOL, VB, Fortran, C, Pascal

What I want:
1. UML
2. PMP certification
3. SAS
4. CQE certification (Certified Quality Engineer)
5. Apache
6. Java

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright