WARNING!!! (MCSE)

[Roderick A Gammon]

First of all, this was composed in Outlook and I'm not ashamed.  But I also
sell web-appliances based on GPL apps, some written by myself (<plug>
www.aeg-inc.net </plug>).  So, excusing my own contorted pragmatism, let me
continue.

It infurates me to no end that customers think so highly of MCSE or other
'certifications'.  Maybe I'm elitest, but I'm po'd that my formal education,
publishing record, and field experience are constantly greeted with "But
what certifications do you have?".  This is why I gave up field consulting.

Most certifications are just glorified sales partnerships posing as a
technical credential. Fraudulent, misleading, conflicted interest, whatever
you call it; is it any suprise the MCSE guy reccomends MS products when he
just happens to sell them?  Or when she happens to get a steep discount from
MS on resale inventory?  Or when he happens to have no appreciable
scientific skill?  (And that don't mean a degree is required either, plenty
scientists cut chops in the basement.)

Most business people know enough not to trust stock advisors who sell stock
they have interest in.  And they get second opinions from doctors.  But when
it comes to securing their own finances in the most basic way, by taking
care of their business, they trust unproven "techincal gurus" with purchased
"certificates".  This is more than being scared of "free stuff". And IMO,
RHCE does nothing to solve the problem, it just gives MCSE further cachet by
appearing to imitate it.

I perceive the problem as the computer industry getting away with taking
advantage of uneducated consumers to a degree unacceptable elsewhere.

Ford is unable to explain away recurring tire blowouts with "Well, cars are
too complicated for you to understand so just buy this upgrade and be
happy."  The IT industry gets away with an awful lot that bakers, insurance
people, appliance manufacturers and most everone else can't get away with.
Or rather, the IT marketing/management industry gets away with a lot, like
vaporware, fraudulent business plans, permanent temp employees, and on and
on.

This is why the magazines bust NC and tout .NET -- advertising revenue.
Remember in the '80s when Ziff-Davis was declaimed for lack of independent
editing (e.g. they supported whoever advert'd in them).  ZD is still around
strong as ever, and people still buy MS stuff.

And freakishly, our community gets branded as geeks and un-capitalist
because we care to get the details right. (Hmm, "details matter" as an F/O
source pitch?) I support GPL in my dissertation, but if you want me to come
lecture your org. on nlp you better pay me.

Free, open, whatever, the point is that this forum here _could_ be a
wellspring for an ethical IT.

Although, not all free/open advocates are ethical, like web providers that
take free software, doll it up for their storefront, and never release it
because they don't sell code!  I doubt most online sales houses could have
started if they had to purchase all those copies of Apache of MySql or
whatevers.

I apologize for those offended by the suspension of aloha in this diatribe,
but it is a community disservice to tolerate charlatans posing as experts.
We should run them into the water at silicon wafer-point.  Or at least
mass-mail the DBEDT and decry their fraudulence.

And Dusty's HI land-lease analogy is exactly accurate, but an important
point was missed.  Leasing land is supposed to allow inexpensive homes
right?  Then how come decent Oahu homes start at a 1/4 million?  MCSE is
supposed to help the client right?  Then how come MS server systems are like
the cost of equivalent 2-3 VA Linux systems? Because, like most IT
marketing/management, the land lease deal should be filed under "fleecing
those without time to learn the details".

Now, as a bonus for you who read all this- someone here joked about MS
becoming a government.  Well today CNN aired Gates giving $100-million to a
UN AIDs fund.  So maybe it wasn't a joke- MS enjoys a monopoly, has a modern
propaganda machine, will mint currency via .NET, and is a primary UN
supporter.  All they need is a military (or is that too industrial era?)

aloha-
Rod Gammon
____________________________________________

President, AEG, Inc.     | PhD. Candidate
711 7th Avenue           | Chinese Computational Linguistics
Honolulu, HI 96816-2127  | University of HI @ Manoa
http://www.aeg-inc.net   | http://www.aeg-inc.net/cuttingEdge