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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:34:44 PM EDT
[#1]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Damn youngsters with their 5 1/2 mini disks We had a S/36 with 8" multi disk backups 
When we retired it with a AS/400 we pulled the cover off and the 10 mb harddrive you couldn't wrap your arms around the wide part of it. Punch cards, too. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:38:33 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted: cromemco s100 bus x25 trs80 sna smalltalk fortran pascal cobol lu6.2 tandem nonstop windows 1.0 3780 foxpro borland c petzold win32 windows for workgroups dial up internet gopher irc newsgroups 300 baud modems 110 baud modems geac computers (i wonder if anyone will recognize that) clickly keyboards mapics as400 rpg3 
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:38:54 PM EDT
[#3]
Almost 20 years in the industry myself. 5 years ago I made a change from the engineer/admin side to IT Operations management.
Best thing I ever did. I was getting burned out doing the technical stuff all the time. Now I get to be on the vision side of decisions and lead the teams. I enjoy it much more. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:40:54 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
MS-DOS was still the main small business and home micro OS back then, with lots still using Apple DOS. I started in the Apple ][ era on those and other 8-bits of the time. Started professionally after college in 1988, only made it 28 years before retiring a couple years ago. So many changes, but damn it paid good. ETA: @DigDug, I got a functional Sinclair ZX-81 in a closet somewhere, if I could still find a TV to hook it up to. And a box of Apple ][ floppies from my first programming classes in high school ca. 1982. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:41:13 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Not that many years ago a customer had a network drive mapped and was using it for something but no one knew where the server was. Turns out it was a Netware 3.12 server that had been running for over 7 years stuck in a wiring closet.  . Found the server ABOVE the ceiling tiles in a schools hallway This Spring.
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:41:45 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Lotus notes.  |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:41:55 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
30 years goes back to 1988, which means you remember: Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Worked for Resellers for close to 30 years. Done the certification bullshit for 30 years. Never worked for an end customer. Seen lots of technologies come and go. Thinking it might be time to do something else. No idea what though. The job is getting old. Really old. Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? 
I loved IT, just hated being stuck in a building. .cfm, sql, xml, html, all sorts of stuff. Truckin- IT-Trucking- now a "field engineer" in IT, working with trucking. Been in this shit for......well...since 1986ish. Yeah, best of both of my favorite ways to make money. Only difference is, now, I teach people workarounds for the coder geeks screw ups  Some wrench monkey how to install it (worse part), and the guy, with a flip phone, is the head of the dept I need to teach.......not kidding. I should drink on the job.
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:42:32 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
. Found the server ABOVE the ceiling tiles in a schools hallway This Spring.Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: Not that many years ago a customer had a network drive mapped and was using it for something but no one knew where the server was. Turns out it was a Netware 3.12 server that had been running for over 7 years stuck in a wiring closet. . Found the server ABOVE the ceiling tiles in a schools hallway This Spring. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:42:34 PM EDT
[#9]
Same here, I became a stripper instead.
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:42:56 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
30 years goes back to 1988, which means you remember: Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:45:17 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Schools do that all the time. Servers, switches, hubs. It’s easier than running wire I guess. 
Oh, yeah: One school got Fiber Optic cable, too. Open ceiling tile, go up, praying that nothing falls on head (happened to Boss), secure a J-Hook, go down and replace tile, count the next 5 tiles, repeat for 100 yards. I’ll skip the part where we install the FO Cable.
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:46:52 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Unplug the Linksys router. Now plug it back in. Being on call every month and a half for a week is getting old too. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
That’s a long time to tell people to turn it off and on again. Being on call every month and a half for a week is getting old too. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:49:51 PM EDT
[#13]
7 years in. Programmer analyst,systems, engineering. It all sucks donkey dick. I'll let the Indians take IT. Get me out...
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:50:17 PM EDT
[#14]
25 years into infosec, and still like it a lot. It's like a hobby I do all day, but someone else buys my supplies and gives me money. Sometimes I have to do a little crummy stuff, but not that often.
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:52:12 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
You should own your own business and be on call 24/7/365 for decades Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
That’s a long time to tell people to turn it off and on again. Being on call every month and a half for a week is getting old too. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:55:47 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Same here, I became a stripper instead. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:57:04 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Damn youngsters with their 5 1/2 mini disks We had a S/36 with 8" multi disk backups
When we retired it with a AS/400 we pulled the cover off and the 10 mb harddrive you couldn't wrap your arms around the wide part of it. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:57:08 PM EDT
[#18]
What task would you choose for your personal robot?
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Posted: 11/12/2018 10:57:12 PM EDT
[#19]
I have almost 40 years in networking. Can't imagine doing anything else. I have worked for a large integrated oil for most of it. The network is always evolving.
Get into networking. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:00:09 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
30 years goes back to 1988, which means you remember: Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:01:45 PM EDT
[#21]
I've been wanting to get my foot in the door in IT... I currently work as an Armed Security Guard.
I applied at a lot of places, but don't yet have any certifications. A company recently called me for an interview, to work as a Printer repair tech. Yeah, I know all the ARFcom jokes about that particular job... but I figure it is a step in that career direction. Not sure what the job pays though, or what to expect. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:02:27 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
30 years goes back to 1988, which means you remember: Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:02:42 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I have almost 40 years in networking. Can't imagine doing anything else. I have worked for a large integrated oil for most of it. The network is always evolving. Get into networking. But this is for a reseller the whole time. Completely different than working for an end customer. I don’t get to manage a network. I get to design, install and troubleshoot them. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:03:12 PM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Lotus notes. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Worked for Resellers for close to 30 years. Done the certification bullshit for 30 years. Never worked for an end customer. Seen lots of technologies come and go. Thinking it might be time to do something else. No idea what though. The job is getting old. Really old. Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing?
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:03:52 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I started with 8 Inch floppies and 4 different tape dives (each with a different speed). Oh, the joys of trimming the tape ends and attaching a new tiny reflector about 10 up. Changing the OS via a removable Hard disk about 18 inches diameter. Punch cards, too. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: Damn youngsters with their 5 1/2 mini disks We had a S/36 with 8" multi disk backups
When we retired it with a AS/400 we pulled the cover off and the 10 mb harddrive you couldn't wrap your arms around the wide part of it. Punch cards, too. we were bought by a company that had ibm mainframes and that company had a whole floor of a office building dedicated to those mainframes. the drives (and there were a bunch) were the size of refrigerators. about the time things started getting smaller, we were interviewing folks for a new position. never forget, one guy had spent his whole career doing statistical analysis of data on hard drives so that the most commonly fetched data was on the quickest part of the hard drive and data that more commonly accessed was placed close to each other. they guy was a math wiz making boo-coo bucks in and industry that was on the way out as drives got smaller and cheaper. i dont think any other industry in the history of the world moves as fast as IT. communication technology runs a close second. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:06:44 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Frame relay. 56k DDS BRIs Bay Networks Rapid City OS/2 Compaq ... ETA: just remembered that Bay was the result of a merger between Wellfleet and Synoptics. Wellfleet had IP routing, and Synoptics had the modular chassis. The other thing that is weird to remember is that TCP/IP was just one of many commonplace networking protocols, and back in 1988 wasn't even the most popular. Banyan Vines, Netware, even a commercial version of OSI, many others I can't even remember now, were all competing for layers 3-4 back then. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:07:53 PM EDT
[#27]
After 28 years 11 months and 2days i called it quits. Was really having a negative effect on my health. Best decision I ever made.
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:08:34 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Proteon routers! Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
30 years goes back to 1988, which means you remember: Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? Jumpers RLL drives Defect map low level format MFM IDE 40 pin 40 conductor IDE 40 pin 80 conductor PS/2 mini din SCSI With terminates WORM drives DLT drives Multi tech modems Digi bords six pack plus Hard cards CGA 
OP change job location you will feel better 30 years of wisdom only comes with time served |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:11:10 PM EDT
[#29]
Quoted:
Worked for Resellers for close to 30 years. Done the certification bullshit for 30 years. Never worked for an end customer. Seen lots of technologies come and go. Thinking it might be time to do something else. No idea what though. The job is getting old. Really old. Life could be worse. Trying to get a startup going and getting round A. If i could find something that paid close to IT work, i would consider it. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:11:12 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Good ones. Before Bay Networks, there was Synoptics. First modular ethernet hub. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: Frame relay. 56k DDS BRIs Bay Networks Rapid City OS/2 Compaq ... |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:20:51 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Is that really better though? <---Programmer and IT/Networking guy (now...wasn't before) Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I'm done with IT as of next week. Just took a software engineer position. <---Programmer and IT/Networking guy (now...wasn't before) Significantly better career opportunity. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:21:54 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
cromemco s100 bus x25 trs80 sna smalltalk fortran pascal cobol lu6.2 tandem nonstop windows 1.0 3780 foxpro borland c petzold win32 windows for workgroups dial up internet gopher irc newsgroups 300 baud modems 110 baud modems geac computers (i wonder if anyone will recognize that) clickly keyboards mapics as400 rpg3 Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Worked for Resellers for close to 30 years. Done the certification bullshit for 30 years. Never worked for an end customer. Seen lots of technologies come and go. Thinking it might be time to do something else. No idea what though. The job is getting old. Really old. Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? 56k DDS BRIs Bay Networks Rapid City OS/2 Compaq ... s100 bus x25 trs80 sna smalltalk fortran pascal cobol lu6.2 tandem nonstop windows 1.0 3780 foxpro borland c petzold win32 windows for workgroups dial up internet gopher irc newsgroups 300 baud modems 110 baud modems geac computers (i wonder if anyone will recognize that) clickly keyboards mapics as400 rpg3  Attached File |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:22:28 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
30 years goes back to 1988, which means you remember: Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers Token Ring FDDI Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards NetBeui Banyan Vines Novell Netware 5 1/4" floppy drives tape backup Sun Sparc stations DECnet VAX/VMS ATM 3745 front end controllers 3270 terminals MS/DOS What else am I missing? GEM LanTastic Amstrad |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:23:25 PM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
The first computer system I worked with in the Air Force was hooked up to a large external hard drive. Thing had 60 megabytes of storage capacity with removable platters and the size of a large washing machine. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: Damn youngsters with their 5 1/2 mini disks We had a S/36 with 8" multi disk backups
When we retired it with a AS/400 we pulled the cover off and the 10 mb harddrive you couldn't wrap your arms around the wide part of it. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:29:09 PM EDT
[#35]
OP I was in your same position few years ago and switched into a new field that needed IT knowledge.
Look around outside of your field a little and you can use your same skill set and build on it to do something new. I currently work from home, manage myself, set my own schedule and appointments. I only go to the clients site when I must actually touch a piece of gear or need to inspect it. The best part is I feel like I'm actually doing something worthwhile with my life. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:33:43 PM EDT
[#36]
Any job is going to suck if you have to work for bosses. Becoming a consultant has a lot of risks and a period of "paying your due" but if you are good you will make more money and your customers will treat you like a god instead of your boss treating you like his bitch. I have zero certifications and nobody cares.
IT skills are worth a lot of money. Why start over when maybe you just need to reposition yourself? |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:34:41 PM EDT
[#37]
Quoted:
Worked for Resellers for close to 30 years. Done the certification bullshit for 30 years. Never worked for an end customer. Seen lots of technologies come and go. Thinking it might be time to do something else. No idea what though. The job is getting old. Really old. There is always openings for car salesman |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:34:47 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I've been wanting to get my foot in the door in IT... I currently work as an Armed Security Guard. I applied at a lot of places, but don't yet have any certifications. A company recently called me for an interview, to work as a Printer repair tech. Yeah, I know all the ARFcom jokes about that particular job... but I figure it is a step in that career direction. Not sure what the job pays though, or what to expect. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:36:43 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted: har! was a pharmacist, hated HATED! standing behind the counter. got a grad degree in IT and never looked back. it is a constantly changing environment and you gotta keep up. its that constantly changing environment that makes it for me. when i got out of pharmacy, i was fascinated by computers so it was an area that sort of drew me in. not sure how you make a big career change without having some feeling about what you'd like to do. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:40:09 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Lotus notes. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:43:04 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
110 baud modems geac computers (i wonder if anyone will recognize that) |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:46:31 PM EDT
[#42]
Winsock catalogue reset
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:47:05 PM EDT
[#43]
Coming up on 20, but I had a 9 year career in the military.
I have promised myself no more than 4.5 more years if I can last that long. That coincides with the ETA of my son's BS. IT Software Engineer. It was fun for a while and some challenges still excite me. It's the level of stupid crap that has increased to make most days not fun anymore. Also, they fired or laid off most of my friends over the years. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:47:53 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Just curious. What did you hate about pharmacy? That is a lot of schooling to throw out. I have a nephew that is the head pharmacist in a hospital, and he loves it, plus is making damn good money. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: har! was a pharmacist, hated HATED! standing behind the counter. got a grad degree in IT and never looked back. it is a constantly changing environment and you gotta keep up. its that constantly changing environment that makes it for me. when i got out of pharmacy, i was fascinated by computers so it was an area that sort of drew me in. not sure how you make a big career change without having some feeling about what you'd like to do. pharmacy is a great career if you are cut out for it. pays very well. in retrospect, if i had gone into pharmacy with any pre-thought, it would have been in some sort of research position. i simply found standing behind the counter, counting pills and dealing with sick folks boring. your relative works in a hospital, that is a bit better, but back when i was a pharmacist, there were very few opportunities locally and i was not willing to move regardless of the opportunities. notice i live in ga, what i should have done was go to tech and get some sort of engineering degree but i went with all my buds to uga because it was the easiest thing to do and when i was 18 i just wanted to sail through life with no worries. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:47:56 PM EDT
[#45]
29 years??? Were you tech support for Oregon Trail?...
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:49:45 PM EDT
[#46]
Been there. And I liked those plasma screens back in the day compared to other crappy LCD's. I started in IT started back in '88 coding in Clipper Autumn 86. Several languages, roles, and things sysadmin'ed later, I was about spent. After doing an ~8 year stent on an SRE team for a dotcom I had the opportunity to switch to infosec full-time at the same company... The hacker/infosec community in D/FW is awesome. I feel centered again. I've gone back to school at night and revitalized the home-lab to keep learning. I just can't learn all the things I want to learn fast enough...
Anyway, sometimes you just need to change up your role or focus a little to refresh your outlook on the job... |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:51:28 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Damn youngsters with their 5 1/2 mini disks We had a S/36 with 8" multi disk backups
When we retired it with a AS/400 we pulled the cover off and the 10 mb harddrive you couldn't wrap your arms around the wide part of it. |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:52:31 PM EDT
[#48]
What’s so bad about IT? I see a fairly steady stream of people hating on it in GD
I know a few people who are in it and they all friggin love it, most of them “work” maybe 20 hours a week and they are all paid extremely well for it. My ex FIL worked from home and was making $150k, crazy amounts of vacation time too, kept telling me to do cyber security |
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:52:44 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I got burnt out on the development side of things in short order. You lasted longer than me. I'm done as well. 
I'm tired of our teams being raped and pillaged for resources rather than hiring people. We care more about saving a dime and running our people into the ground. Hell, my latest team was built 100% from raping other teams. I didn't have any role in that since I was named the manager after the resources were picked. We weren't a month into the project and one of the guys was taken from me for another project. 
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Posted: 11/12/2018 11:53:48 PM EDT
[#50]
Bro,
Just unplug your router... wait 10 seconds, and plug it back in. You'll be G2G. |
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