Proffession - what's yours'?

[josephbt]

@Zherog

Oracle?? Damn, i used it while i college, it gave me pains beyond belief. How do you manage?

[Crissa]

People use Oracle because...

...There isn't a large database that is as ... Well, it doesn't die when you do bad things to it, unlike cheaper (and oftimes cleaner) solutions.

-Crissa

[Surgo]

I keep hopping back and forth between physics and computer science here in college. I really wish my school offered some electrical engineering, but alas. Maybe I could do a master's program in that, but I really don't want to do any graduate school.

[tzor]

1192370557[/unixtime]]People use Oracle because...

Because they don't know any better? It reminds me of an old IBM joke ... from the 1980's. There was a saying about IBM from various managers ... "You can buy better but IBM is the 'best.'"

The argument for the saying was that you could buy a system and it would crash. If you did not buy from IBM the level of management above you would ask you, "Why didn't you buy IBM?" If you did buy from IBM you would be telling the level above you, "But I bought from IBM ... I bought the 'best.'" IBM was a wonderful CYA for moddle management.

Oracle is in many ways like that. You might find better things out there. In some cases even Microsoft is better, and MySQL is growing by so many leaps and bounds that it might just pwn the internet at this point. But it's not the "best." It doesn't have the CYA ability for managers to hide behind. It doesn't have the ability for a team of data base administrators to have a virtually secure role in their company. (Neither does Oracle ... but managers only learn that it does when it is too late, the DBAs are all "redundant" and the systems are crashing big time because they are not being tuned on a periodic basis.)

Now if you are a large company not only you are using Oracle but you are so slow you are using yesterday's Oracle. I can give you an example. Oracle developed stream replication technology in 2004 (oracle9i release 2) and I swear it will probably be late 2008 or early 2009 before we migrate from a house built replication system because the previous Oracle system did not allow triggers on the replicated database. It's easy to upgrade; it's hard to implement all the new bells and whistles even when you really want to use all the new bells and whistles.

---

Hopping from physics and computer science? Man I know that feeling - love and the pay check. I finally had to go to grad school because my BS in physics was literally that ... BS! I took comp sci for my grad school and I've been doing that ever since.

[Zherog]

1192319925[/unixtime]]@Zherog

Oracle?? Damn, i used it while i college, it gave me pains beyond belief. How do you manage?

Manage? I love Oracle applications and Oracle databases. They're the best thing that ever happened to my career.

[Crissa]

Microsoft and MySQL die long before an Oracle database will be at its knees. Because MySQL is open source we even know where this point is.

The most rock solid database query so far is 'tcp-ip/http' ...but then again, it doesn't care if any one part fails, as it just waits for something else to kick in. It's kinda funny in that making the web, we really did make the most bulletproof storage network up to this point in time.

Of course, none of that helps you store the data itself, it just asks the place where you said it was...

-Crissa

[cthulhu]

Bugger that. MS has *exactly the same* "well it is an industry standard" going on behind it because it's god damn Microsoft.

The reason it is popular is people already have oodles of often legacy code built on Oracle backends, often in Oracle PL/SQL, and with not particular reason to stop, the incremental cost of doing a new project with Oracle is often the lowest by a long way. This is why people are willing to pay top dollar for COBOL/COOL:GEN developers because it is STILL cheaper than starting again with something new.

Also, the days of "You cannot be fired for hiring IBM" are long gone because senior managers are getting to grips with what IT service providers can (and cannot!) do and IBM/Bearing Point/CSC/EDS persist in cocking it up often disgracefully.

My local market (which is fabulously risk adverse) is seeing a big shift from large scale outsourcing -> smaller project based work and in house operational teams because of the complete cockups created by EDS and IBM in particular, and the inflexibility of outsourcing arrangement.

[tzor]

1192504656[/unixtime]]Also, the days of "You cannot be fired for hiring IBM" are long gone because senior managers are getting to grips with what IT service providers can (and cannot!) do and IBM/Bearing Point/CSC/EDS persist in cocking it up often disgracefully.

This is true, but I still see variations on the theme, the London facility where I work only wants to use Solaris boxes even though we can get Intel based boxes with CPUs that are far faster and can run Oracle under the same OS.

The product I'm working on is a file service which means I get to see the sorry state of sortware development of many of our "customers." Not only is most systems massively old they haven't been supported by a development team in years. They are physically unable to adapt to any change from the status quo.

[cthulhu]

Yeah, but thats a woeful underappreciation of what IT means for your business.

I actually understand the one type only thing, it means there is only one vendor and ohe support contract (unless there would still be only one support contract in which case the argument gets tenious but you know what I mean)

as for software development, yeah, I recently did a bit for a client who had more than a 1/5th of their organization engaged in software development, but no organizational standards or approaches to software development. So when you looked under some of the rocks it wasn't very pretty.

[Surgo]

I figured I'd bump this to talk about changing plans.

Turned out I applied to graduate school after all. Two schools in computer science, one in electrical engineering, one in biomedical engineering.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I changed my plans a bit. The plan now is to get my masters in Forestry and hopefully become a park ranger. That would be tits.

[cthulhu]

I became a management consultant by accident.

I'm enjoying it.

[JonSetanta]

I currently work fast food to pay bills, insurance(s), and gas for school, training for lab medical part time.

Was hired by one manager, gave them my schedule, management changed.
They put me down to work on every class day for the next month.
Rude surprise coming for them! hurrrr
After a kid manager called me lazy during a 3-hour dinner rush (I paused for a minute. literally.), I'm either ready to walk out or kill people. Or both.


I wanted to be the following in the last decade as each option closed out in order:
• an electronic musician
• sound technician
• visual designer
• graphic designer
• anything to do with this fucking design degree in the nearest 500 miles. anything? no? Buehler?
• computer repairs
• deskjobs
• construction
• anything
• anything.. please
• fuck you, America, goddamnit fuckshit Bush and this failing economy
• medical

So it looks like a friend and I have been right so far; if you live in Maryland/DC area you aren't going anywhere if you don't aim for medical, law, or accounting.

I still want to be a musician but there's no money in that.
Wait. Fuck that. I am a musician, just can't make money from it.

[Maxus]

Geology.

Well, geology student right now, but prospects are looking decent--not exactly good, but there are prospects. It turns out that the university I attend has a small, but extremely skilled, geology faculty, and there's a good list of companies who make it a point to extend offers to graduates.

And, to be honest, I prefer that there's only four professors in the department. I know each one of them pretty well, and they all like me.

My only complaint is that it's a tough degree; the department has actually refused recommendations that they tone down a bit. For example, the Stratigraphy class requires students to do three stratigraphic columns (showing the different formations along a series of points) and a fence diagram (a raised, 3D, interconnected fence diagram), where, according to her, most college-level stratigraphy classes only require one strat column.

[Sir Neil]

I'm still an M.P. machine gunner, but I quit my private security job and became a city policeman back in February. The pay is better, and I can carry the finest pistol ever produced in Croatia, chambered in God's favorite caliber.

Wait. Fuck that. I am a musician, just can't make money from it.

That's the spirit!

[Tshern]

I'm still an M.P. machine gunner, but I quit my private security job and became a city policeman back in February. The pay is better, and I can carry the finest pistol ever produced in Croatia, chambered in God's favorite caliber.

Army. I love it. So salute me, Second Lieutenant Tshern from the brave Finnish Army, the division of Combat engineers.

Anyway, moving my studies to Scotland next autumn. International politics and economics are my cup of tea.

[JonSetanta]

That's the spirit!

Hell yeah!

While we're on that note (!) of high testosterone noise-making, with guns and music you see, how often do you shoot people and how often do said people get hit?
As in are there any warning shots or is it pretty much just the fun kind of shooting at people (wherein you are trying to hit them)?

[Sir Neil]

Tshern

My brother-in-law was a U.S. Marine combat engineer. He was good at E.O.D. -- he can still count to twenty on his fingers and toes.

Sigma: Not often enough for me. I've only been overseas once, and the host nation insisted on providing security, so we didn't fire a shot. If things change with our next deployment, I'll let you know.

As a small-town cop, I've drawn my gun lots of times, but only as a precaution (like when we're executing search warrants or looking for burglars.) To give you an idea of how dull it is, the department only tazed two suspects in 2008 -- everyone else came quietly.

But that's okay, I'm more patient than a cartoon owl. For instance, I know how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop. (170)

[JonSetanta]

As a small-town cop, I've drawn my gun lots of times, but only as a precaution (like when we're executing search warrants or looking for burglars.) To give you an idea of how dull it is, the department only tazed two suspects in 2008 -- everyone else came quietly.

That's... oddly disappointing. My fantastical perception of small town cops must be contaminated by Baltimore (police state thug) cops.

Still, that's very Mayberry of you. A good career.

[Cynic]

As a small-town cop, I've drawn my gun lots of times, but only as a precaution (like when we're executing search warrants or looking for burglars.) To give you an idea of how dull it is, the department only tazed two suspects in 2008 -- everyone else came quietly.

That's... oddly disappointing. My fantastical perception of small town cops must be contaminated by Baltimore (police state thug) cops.

Still, that's very Mayberry of you. A good career.

baltimore = NOT small town. :-P

Neil: 250 licks!

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Technically, using any other word other than "pisshole" to describe Baltimore isn't accurate either.

[Sir Neil]

Neil: 250 licks!

The world must know!

[JonSetanta]

baltimore = NOT small town.

I live near Baltimore* (not by my own choice..), was born there, work there.
So.. yeah.


*pisshole

[josephbt]

Allrighty, I changed carriers since the last time. Used to work in a dairy plant. Now i work in meat industry. I have no clue whats the name of my position, it's been changed 3 times and i stopped caring. So this is what i do.

Say you have some cattle you want slaughtered, so you call me, i draft a sample contract, we agree on terms and eventually the slaughter can begin. We're talking some 2000 pigs weekly. Or you have some meat and you want it processed into something more sellable. Again, contract, tems, processing.

It's dull job and you get to see a lot of meat. Also, if there's a pig heaven, i'll be there at some point facing a pig judge for crimes commited against pigs.

[Orion]

I'm a U of Chicago student.