RE: Is big brother in your address book? (21 Aug. 2001)
Here we go again. Poor management by inadequate managers results in across-the-board practices that undermine workers. Good managers set performance targets with their employees, support employee success, provide coaching where needed, and manage inadequate performance properly. They have no need of email police to figure out if Fred or Joanne are surfing or wasting time, because their RESULTS are acceptable.
Of course company secrets must be protected. But how many dollars (that would otherwise go into salaries or performance bonuses) will be spent sniffing out whether I write my sister with a company computer?
IT should not be gulled into doing management’s jobs for them.
David Sigetich
Director for Canada, Motorola University
RE: Athlon back at the starting gate (15 Aug. 2001)
I think you are VERY VERY wrong on this one. You should read up on the actual technology AMD is using and you will see that the Mhz do not count.
Intel has focused its processor on a specific problem which currently is not a problem for users. (Maybe in 10 years from now, but not now). You should read up on this issue and then give a second opinion…it may sway a bit in AMD’s favor.
G Bujold
VP Technical Research
Accra Group
RE: ITI’s hard lesson (17 Aug. 2001)
Having gone through such a tech school myself (CDI), one really wishes they would lay off the ads that there is an IT shortage, implying that freshly trained, uncertified, inexperienced people are what they are looking for. The IT industry is not that desperate as I learned. It took me 10 months to land a job and the pay is a long way off from owning a beach house. Especially with the costs involved and the student loans one gains.
Most IT training schools do incredibly little to secure real work term opportunities which is were the real training and opportunities exist. They would do better by offering a MCSE course and a minimum four-month paid internship.
There is such a disconnection between what is offered and what the industry really needs. The education industry needs to face up to the facts that they offer very little in real world practical application. Sure I can install a server, but what do I do when I need to set it up behind a firewall, a router, etc.? This is where IT training schools fail. It would almost be better if one could get experience and then get training, but since that will never happen there needs to be more communication between the industry and tech schools.
Dave
