Conference 7.286::digital

    Re:
    
>    If I understand correctly, and lately I haven't, Digital's vision is of
>    Silicon/Software/Services.  
    
    I think another couple of PCUs have managed to get snuck into the
    "vision". Last I heard it was:
    
    Silicon/Software/Services/Networking/Storage
    
    I believe this 5some was put out at the Annual meeting.
    
    Dave
    

    re .0, skills for the 90s
    
    Here's what I'm studying:
    
    o	NT -- not a sure bet, but Microsoft is currently hot.  I 
    	bought myself a PC and got the Beta release CDROM, also the
    	book _Inside_NT_, which I recommend as being clear and 
    	very readable.
    
    o	DCE -- It's an OSF standard which DEC has an implementation
    	of.  NT includes a DCE-like set of functions (they re-wrote
    	from specifications so as not to have to pay a royalty).
    	Luckily I get to do this as part of my job.  DCE supports
    	distributed computing, including client-server as well as
    	other forms.
    
    o	Object Oriented -- I suspect this is less likely to be a
    	big winner, but again I get to do it as part of my job, so
    	why not?
    
    But this reflects my own interests and background as a compiler
    person for whom the system "guts" are interesting.  People more
    focused on the human end might look at visual programming, OLE
    and DDE and virtual reality.
    
    		-John Bishop

    I agree with your view re: NT.  I also am buying a DECpc, 433dx LP
    from the EPP.  
    
    I come from a hardware background, where software, seemed to be
    something nebulous, poorly documented definitions to command strings,
    that weren't intuitive enough for me.
    
    So, DOS commands are relatively foreign, as DCL (unless it is a
    clearly written recipe), but I understand software concepts, in a large
    picture sense.  getting down to the level of implementaion, coding, I
    get mentally lost inside loops, and waste gobs of time.
    
    Although, I have found that left long enough on my own I have mastered
    OS/8 , LOTUS 123, STRIDE (KAO home grown reporting data base), VTX, Notes
    (sorta), WPS/8, WPS/Plus, ALL-IN-1, 
    
    
    I had a windows terminal for about 6 months, and I tell you,
    productivity plus !!!
    
    Now the Challenge of the 90's !!
    
    Hardware Platforms are no longer as restrictive as to applications.  eg
    the same look and feel to LOTUS 123 on my RAINBOW, as on VMS, as on
    PC,
    
    Although a Graphical User Interface (GUI) will aid me in my big picture
    software inexpertise.  ie: I hope to be able to do things that
    computers were always able to do, and that is
    create/edit/store/compute/print files. BUT A LOT EASIER ! for guys like
    me who waste my time learning the intracacies of a software product and
    all I wanted to do was to compute/print.
    
    My first real experience with a computer was in the early 70's, when my
    high school visited a University, and had a PDP 8, that had a Chess
    game.  Talk about teenage impressions!
    
    We at DEC talk about NAS, being able to access the Mainframe and the
    PC, and the server, and merge documents, graphs, reports from various
    vendors on the network, and print it on the big Laser printer down the
    hall.  
    
    I have found that within DEC to do this with any bit of ease, you have
    to have a degree in VMS, DOS, and DECnet protocols.
    
    I tried to teach a secretary how to copy files from 1 VAX to another,
    simple enough if you know the DCL command string, but look at the whole
    picture, it should be as easy as point, click, point, etc.,
    
    We are still an engineering company creating hardware, software
    products that are not "user friendly" to non Engineers.
    
    
    Enough DEC bashing, ,I am really interested in skill sets for the 90's. 
    What if I got the "TAP" today, next week I was out looking for a job.
    
    What skills should I be looking to acquire?  Is it a matter of asking
    myself, what am I interested in, then going to school, and picking out
    the courses then job hunting?
    
    What skills will be marketable in the 90's ? for a hardware background
    boy, I can fix, sell, manage DEC products, but that would last me 
    about 6-12 months out on the street in the 3rd  party, distributor,
    consultant business.  What then?
    
    any ideas ??
                                                
    
    Regards,
    
    Gary

    > I agree with your view re: NT.  I also am buying a DECpc, 433dx LP
    > from the EPP.  
    >
    
    So far, the only DECpc LP systems available on EPP have been the
    333sxLP.  Do you know something we don't ?

    New EPP for Canada, just announced 2 weeks or so ago...

    .3

    >What skills should I be looking to acquire?  Is it a matter of asking
    >myself, what am I interested in, then going to school, and picking out
    >the courses then job hunting?

    i really dont pay too much attention to this skills thing, what you
    should do, is find what YOU really like to work on, what field is
    really your are interested in, and learn every thing you can about
    it and master it.   that is all.  you might end up in a filed that
    do not pay much because what you happened to like to do is not
    on the top-seller-list of this month edition, but if you dont care too
    much about that, you'll be better off .

    that is like my 2 cents on this .

    buy,
    /nasser

    
    It all depends ....
    
    In all seriousness, it depends greatly on whether you just want
    something you enjoy (effectively as pocket money), or whether you
    desperately need income to stay solvent.
    
    Very difficult (but not impossible) to walk straight into a role that
    gives both advantages. Some folk have the great fortune to have both --
    the majority of the world's workers do not.
    
    If you need income, the first task is to find out what people want to
    buy using skills that you have, or can aquire. "People" may be
    employers, or buyers.
    
    If you need to stay occupied, but are less concerned about money, then
    just identify what turns you on, with whatever is your personal mix of
    people contact, income, personal stretch, work location etc.	
    
    Colin