Posts tagged Operating Systems
Geeky Information Technology (IT) Places to Visit – Microsoft Headquarters
0This series of posts reflects my inner geek. It chronicles a number of information technology (IT) related “tourist attractions” that I would love to visit before I die. Some of them are simply far away locations that I dream of making it to and others will be locations that I would need some assistance obtaining access to. Please feel free to add your own via the comments block below.
Today’s destination is the mother ship for all PC-Heads: The Microsoft Company Headquarters! It is in Redmond, Washington! It is a sprawling campus that is also one of the top employers in the SEATAC Area (For Seattle – Tacoma). It is accessed by landing at the SEATAC Airport and driving over the SEATAC bridge.
Wikipedia does great justice to this topic. It reports that:
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEX: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.[8] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.
Obviously, Microsoft is the 50 Trillion Pound Gorilla of the modern software business. Their Windows Operating System and Office Suite are synonymous with Enterprise Business. You could not escape their products if you tried as an Information Technology Professional. I am sure that, no matter what niche of the IT business you work in, you have a secret desire to run wild over the Microsoft campus, peer into their inner workings, and talk to their top people!
Please give the the Wikipedia site a read. It really does describe Microsoft very well.
So where do you want to visit that is related to your interest in The Information Age and Information Technology? Do you want to see where people worked, like this article, or where objects are? Together we could make a terrific list. Please add below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 19, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin
Photo credit: www.pcpro.co.uk and Wikipedia
What are the best IT Certifications to get?
0Today, I am posing a question to the field: What Information Technology Certifications do you think are the best to get today? There are simply so many of them, it is very hard to decide what to counsel young IT Professionals to pursue.
Personally, I am torn on the subject. I routinely recommend that people go for the CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional), but now I am starting to question that. As the years have gone by the cost of obtaining and renewing that cert have continued to go up. Many people recommend the millions of Microsoft ones that are out there, but again it is very hard in the field to tell the difference between a Microsoft Certified Professional and a Microsoft Certified Software Engineer.
What I dislike most is that some people have these laundry lists of certs in one field – Microsoft, Oracle, CISCO – but know absolutely zero about Apple or LINUX or UNIX products. How many of you actually work in a homogeneous environment that has only one operating system? What cert tells you that the person is an IT Ninja and not just a poser? That is what I want to know.
Anyhow, here are some links on the subject to get you thinking:
- DICE.com – IT Certifications: Proof or spoof?
- eWeek – Top IT Certs Will Be Less Microsoft-Centric
- Tech Republic – IT certs: Be-all-and-end-all or ticket to ride?
Please share your thoughts on IT certs with us. I wonder if the group thinks as little of them as I do….Thanks.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 16, 2009 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credits: bp.blogspot.com
News Commentary: I want my Desktop Operating System!
0On Sundays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest stories during the week.
This week’s story is from PCWorld.com and covers Google’s release of their beta operating system! Check it out here:
PC World.com – Does Chrome OS Spell the End of Desktop PCs?
My commentary is just this: Here we go again with predictions of the death of the desktop operating system. How many times have we heard this one? Off of the top of my head we heard this same tune about thin clients, client/servers, netbooks, mobile phones, HTML 2, 3, 4, and now 5, not to mention LINUX, cloud computing, and live CD Operating Systems. If you think about the most disruptive force in information technology today – the smart phone – then you can clearly see that the operating system remains the dominant factor in computing today. Seriously, for every story on Google News about the Chrome OS, there were two about whether Google Android is better than Apple’s iPhone OS. I think that the machine Operating System is alive and well. Don’t count it out!
Regardless, since there is now a ton of buzz associated with this topic, all Information Professionals should read up on this and form their own opinion. Hopefully, this can get you started.
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 22, 2009 by Scott Coughlin.