Re: Joy of this, Joy of that

On Thu, 12 Dec 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

On 12/10/24 4:06 PM, D wrote:

  On Tue, 10 Dec 2024, rbowman wrote:
 

On Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:07:36 +0100, D wrote:
 

Ahh... I lost a business deal with the government yesterday, and this
old trick was specifically the reason. The IT-department was very
pro-windows,

>
 Then not worth suffering for ....

This is the truth. If their PoC fails miserably I will be very happy. They said we're the first choice if that happens, but I doubt they will stress test their crappy system enough to experience any problems. The windows guys will make sure of that, so they don't risk getting "dirty linux" on their hands. ;)

and with my solution, they had to manage linux and the hardware, but not
the solution on top. With the competitor, they promised them that they'd
take care of everything and that they would never have to see a
terminal, and there was much rejoicing among the windows people.

 We had two sites that used Linux on the servers although the workstations
were Windows. In both cases the administrator was a Linux fan. When they
left or moved up the ladder the servers were moved to Windows.

 Yep... a story that is sadly waaaaay too common! And todays story... some of the students a colleague of mine is currently teaching networking thought the exam was too difficult, so they told the school they will refuse taking it, until it is made easier. ;)

>
 Then FAIL them all ... no mercy.

Oh, I wish! Sadly, as per the below, the economics of the school system won't allow me to do that. I am hoping that we can at least fail 4-8 of the worst students, so that they quit. THe wonderful irony is, that if that happens, yes, the school will be angry due to lost revenue, but the ratings of me and my teacher colleagues will sky rocket, since the complainers are gone! =)
An old customer of mine once told me this...
It is so strange. Your program fails the most nr of people, and has the most nr of people leave the program. This is bad. However... when we look at if the students get jobs after their education, your program has a 100% job ratio, and all of your students get salaries above the average for their age group. This is so strange!
They could seriously not connect the dots between motivated, passionate students who _learn_ and the attractiveness of employing them!
Today the battle continues...
There are 3 participants in the current battle. Me and my teacher, the administrator and the manager.
The administrator ordered us to lower the requirements of the exam, since the goal is to have everyone pass (obviously the goal is not to have them learn something). My teacher refused, and anger was boiling.
So we had a meeting with the manager, the administrator, and us, and I manage to persuade them that there shall be no lowering of the standards, but they will get (for free) a few hours of extra teaching time.
We agreed and the school was going to communicate it to the students.
What do you think the school communicated? Hold on to your socks...
The administrator told the class:
Hello class, I really tried, but sadly your teacher refused. I'm so sorry and I tried hard, but you know how they are.
It is wonderful to be a teacher when the school has your back! ;)

The key here is that each students brings the school a nice profit of 8000 EUR per year, so the threat of a student dropping out very often softens the heart of the school, to the great frustration of the teachers. =/

>
>
 Ah ... Gen-X/A2 ... it it ain't easy/zero-IQ then it's
 not worth attempting  :-)
>
 Look up the US term "DEI" .....

You made me throw up on my keyboard!

 The SCHOOL - well - the the profit per-student likely
 dictates its sympathies .....

This is the truth! I'm as much of a capitalis as the next guy, but this unholy public/private partnership where they get paid per student, regardless of knowledge is just absurd!
Next year, the government is changing the rules. Schools will be penalized for students quitting a program, and will be rewarded the more students who pass.
I think we can wave good bye to exams in the future. ;)
It is sad though, because people who should not be there, will be there and they will waste 2 years of their lives. =(

 Somewhere, at least for now, there WILL be some who
 actually want to learn/practice the Black Arts of
 Linux/Unix and do-it-yourself programming. HIRE THEM !

A business partner of mine never hires vocational school students due to my horror stories. He only hires them _if_ he has been the teacher. Then you can handpick the students who are passionate and actually enjoy IT.

 Kinda worried about BEYOND Now .....
>
 As some point the "AI" will be called upon to do
 it all. Then, for people, it's all MAGIC afterwards.
 NO comprehension of what/why/how.

I see it every day when students instead of learning just take tasks and projects and iterate them through an AI. It's very embarassing when we do code reviews.

 I speak as an oracle here ... just watch ......
>
 SOON NOW - the "AI" will be giving advice/code on
 how to improve the "AI". Humans won't Get It - and
 will just sign-off on the upgrades in hope of
 more $$$. THAT ought to be interesting  :-)
>
 A little bit of advice ... while you can ... get
 a fairly good general-purpose PC and install one
 of the BSDs. OpenIndiana/Solaris is maybe an
 offbeat alt (it's OK) and even the odd Plan-9
 can be useful (though intended for distributed
 systems). This will give you fair access while
 kinda circumventing the "AI"s and spy apps and
 such for awhile.
>