How close are you to IT?

Thanks, I take it as a compliment :blush:
I mentioned Swiss cheese as an example of something with big holes in :wink::sweat_smile:

1 Like

And what are those particular holes?

1 Like

I know enough to install my laptops, pc’s and smartphones myself. Programming I can not, for that is probably too late now :smiley:
In the early 2000s I had a Microsoft Professional and Server training. At some point I went completely to linux. Since a year, or two, I use exclusively EOS.
Since I got sick and get a disability pension I have enough time to take care of EOS. But I am far from calling myself an expert.

2 Likes

Based on what I have read I may be the oldest person to respond so far.

I was in 11th grade when formally introduced to computer systems. My Algebra/Trigonometry math teacher took us on a field trip to see real computer systems in a corporate data center. We were fortunate to visit a research laboratory.

After that the county in which I lived had a minicomputer system available via dial up acoustic couplers which connected a telephone headset to a computer by converting analog sounds into digital signals representing numbers and letters.

Our system was the DTSS, Dartmouth Time Sharing System developed at the Dartmouth University in New Hampshire.

I later learned how to use a couple of different mainframe computer systems until personal computer systems were invented years later.

4 Likes

I grow grass. Very little of my life truly requires a computer.

It’s fun though, and so different it made me have to stop thinking about work so much. Hobby it is for me.

3 Likes

Ive never really been in IT but ive hung around a lot of professional IT people. I got my start in linux with Red Hat in the early 2000s due to knowing a sys admin that worked with linux/oracle databases for a decently large company.

My personal background is largely hobbyist though i did go to school for game development so most of my knowledge is there. Everything else is either lots of experience or lots of google fu. Im mostly into hardware these days and like to tinker a lot with it.

1 Like

I work in IT. I mostly do software development, but also everything else that is needed.

1 Like

Do I understand correctly that you grow marijuana?

It also has to be a hobby. Using EndeavorOS is partly a fun project for me, and of course I learn a lot.

1 Like

I remember when we had to solve a Schrƶdinger equation and feed it into the memory of a Texas Instruments scientific calculator at a physics teacher training course sometime in the early eighties. It was maybe ninety-nine steps, and the calculator display didn’t yet display the steps interactively. :slight_smile:

Goodness no. I run a golf course. My sprayers have their own gps computers. My pumphouse has it’s own OS, my irrigation system must run on windows, and for the bit of budgeting, emails and presentations I just use the windows issued laptop. Office comes with it I save really relevant stuff like my ag program and pesticide licensing/cpr/trauma training/etc on my personal work email/one drive so that can follow me no matter which golf course I go to since we have a very short lifespan.

I could grow it though I’m sure. Although I’ve never tried. I have some almost 200 acres of grass, plants, trees, flowers, ponds and an herb garden to look over. I can’t imagine marijuana would be that difficult, I’ve just never tried.

I’m really sorry, but the first thing that jumped out from the grass was not the golf course, but the marijuana. By the way, it’s not easy to maintain such a track, to control it by computer, I don’t envy you.

1 Like

I appreciate that. It’s very well documented at this point that it’s a very rough life I chose. I 50-80+ hour work weeks are normal. It’s a365 day a year operation. Grass doesn’t take days off. Statically on average, a superintendent is at a club on average 7 years, so you move a lot. Either fired because someone else can do the job better or cheaper, or they at least think they can. I don’t and won’t have kids because I refuse to not be there for them, and can’t imagine that with the hours (I had over 320 hours in August this year for instance) Divorce rate is something near 80%, and most events, seminars, and publications do and talk a lot about mental health. The industry show every year has free psychiatric services.

The only upside is I bring my dog to work everyday. Without him, I’d be lost.

Hell, it’s 2am here and I’m awake here on the forum because I don’t feel awesome and looking at the weather, wondering how long my frost delay will be, and I’m busy spraying this week because I had another ag tech move on to an assistant position, so I need to add 25-30 hours of that into my week logistically somehow. I got a huge chunk done yesterday, but I lost Monday to rain. . .

Anyways if you’re interested:

2 Likes

This reminds me of Cooper from the movie Interstellar who automates his tractors to manage his corn fields.

I’m very :clown_face: to it!

honka_animated-128px-46

Is life on a golf course that dangerous?

I mean that in a professional life span. Average tenure at a location is about 7 years. Not literally death, although my old boss from a few years ago just had a stroke.

Generally speaking, plan on moving about they 7 years. Either your club thinks you make too much and will fire you for someone cheaper, or your club is too cheap to pay you to keep up with inflation and you go somewhere that pays better. Or something happens and you lose grass and you get fired. We had a sprayer malfunction about 10 years ago. Thru no fault of my boss whatsoever (other than having no money to replace the equipment and it’s eventual failure), it was still seen as his fault and fired. Grass is alive in a very unnatural way. Too much stress and it’s dead. Too conservative and you have slow soft garbage playing surface. Either one isn’t good. And it’s completely affected by a lot of things you have zero control over - example - the weather.

Oh, I thought the golf balls were flying so low there … :rofl:

I am somewhere between a user and a hobbyist. Definitely not a prefessional.

2 Likes

I’ve been in IT since the late 90s. Pretty much took a summer job at IBM which gave me the opportunity to play with OS/2 Redhat 2 and Slackware and never really looked back. Like many people here, I just like knowing how things work. So I dabble with all kinds of devices (I like working on cars and growing legal plants) :). I have worked all over IT from support, operations and also in Development as a Project Lead and Tester. I like to think I have gained a balance of technical skills and yet the push for innovation. Supporting Open Source project throught testing\playing kind of keeps me sharp. So perhaps why I get along with many of the people in the Endeavour Community. I don’t think IT is my life. Just pays for the things I want to really do outside my career. So perhaps playing it forward, presenting and teaching. Trying to do more social things in person to develop relationships is where it is at for me.

1 Like

What distinguishes a user from a hobbyist? Maybe it’s that he has a little more knowledge than someone who only sees it as a hobby?