Rodney Fletcher’s Blog

For those of you who are not aware, Gartner Research offer reviews and advice on the IT market and industry, specifically targetted towards management (perhaps you might even say “upper management”). They really make an interesting read. I was just lookng at the headlines the other day in this months release and there’s some really insightful and useful knowledge to be gleaned from them.

For example, here’s a headline: “Solaris Users Will Appreicate New Sun Servers”.
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NO SHIT! You think? Here’s another one for you – “Mac Lovers Like New Macintoshes”. How about “Starving People Like Food”. If you’re not familiar with Solaris or Sun boxes, this is somewhat like saying a computer nerd will like a new computer… It’s not “reasearch”, it’s “common sense”.

As we read on we find more gems, along the lines of “Certification Not the Last Step in Securing Windows”. Really? I though once Windows was certified secure all problems on all machines instantly vanished. Thanks, Gartner, for setting me straight on that one.

My favourite one, however, is the article on how to protect your network from an outbreak of Bird Flu. No, I’m not kidding. Bird Flu. The human disease, not some new “computer virus”. This is pandering to managements love of “the-thing-of-the-moment” at its worst. Seriously, they have advice in there along the lines of “ensure that your have a redundant network, that isn’t reliant on voice lines that may become clogged with emergency calls”. Let me get this straight: they’re suggesting that if your company 100% relies on data transmissions, there’s a chance so many people will get sick from a non-existent disease that they’ll all call 000 (911 in the US) at once and clog the phone network, thus damaging your company.

Where to start? Firstly, if that many people are sick, you’re going to notice something of a market downturn in any case. Secondly, if data is so important to you, why the hell are you relying on modem lines to keep you alive?

Finally and most importantly, what kind of shit house IT manager waits for something like this before he decides that it’s time to robust up the network? I can see it now, the guy’s sitting at his desk with Gartner in his hand, his feet on the table, his $6,000 laptop still in it’s bag (while the tech’s are all using Pentium IIs held together with craft glue) and a copy of the “Fin Review” laid out where people will notice it and maybe think he’s got business savvy. He’ll read across to this article and think “Good Lord! I was going to network the office up with 4 & a half thousand twisty ties, held together with sticky tape but due to the microscopic potential that a nonexistent disease might suddenly exist, I am going to buy redundant Ciscos!” Actually he’d think “that flashy-light-network-thingos, from that company that gives me free golf days” but we know what he means.

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Here’s a link to an article about people who play too many computer games.

So why don’t we see stories about people who die in front of the TV? Probably because the media and others take no notice when it happens, I suppose. Perhaps it’s because people don’t lock themselves down in front of the TV for 20 days straight, living on 2 minute noodles? I find it incredible that someone could actually die like this, let alone many people.

The arguement that comes out of this is really “is it his fault or the games”? I mean, do we say the game is not responsible because he has to be held accountable for his own actions or is the game coniditioning him, like we do with lab rats, who push buttons for food? It’s the same arguement I guess as “do violent games make people kill each other”, etc. Personally, I lean towards, “people must take responsibility for their own actions”. I mean, the game doesn’t hypnotise people into staying put (I presume), so I guess an ounce of will power maybe was required to get up and go for a nap.

When I played KOTOR 2, I seriously wanted to stay up and keep playing (tempting) or skip work (very tempting) but I forced myself to go to bed and even go to work (which is a daily problem of mine ). I’ve played Quake1-3, Doom1-3, UT2004 and even Postal 2, yet I harldy ever deciced to go on a shooting rampage. To be fair, though, I am not a big player of any game, so maybe I need a few more hours of running around virtual dungeons to know for sure if this will make me a psychotic killing machine. I might go check it out now, just to see…

I’m not going to write much more about it other than copy in what someone else said on the topic: “I really hope it was a lack of sleep that killed him, and not the instant noodles, because if it was twenty days of noodles that did it, then I’ve only got a couple of days left to live.” – Anonymous Coward, Slashdot.

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