I.T. Erudio

Category: technology history

  • memoirs of an adjunct instructor or What do you mean “full stack developer?”

    During the “great recession” of 2008 I kind of backed into “teaching.” The small company where I was the “network technician” for 9+ years wasn’t dying so much as “winding down.” I had ample notice that I was becoming “redundant” – in fact the owner PROBABLY should have “let me go” sooner than he did.…

  • Gifs, dial-up, and Libraries

    I went down the rabbit hole this morning on how to pronounce “gif” We always “recognize” more words than we actively use – and if you “learn” a word by reading, then the “correct” pronunciation might seem odd English/”American” is particularly bad – because we readily absorb words from other languages. e.g. is the “e”…

  • random thoughts on “Acres of Diamonds”

    Russel Conwell (February 15, 1843 – December 6, 1925) (from wikipedia) “was an American Baptist minister, orator, philanthropist, author, lawyer, and writer. He is best remembered as the founder and first president of Temple University in Philadelphia, as the Pastor of The Baptist Temple, and for his inspirational lecture, ‘Acres of Diamonds’.” A link to the full text of Mr.…

  • To REALLY mess things up …

    SO, I tried to change “permalinks” in WordPress and ALL the links broke. I’ve been using WordPress for years – but to be honest I’ve never tried to do anything “complicated” (i.e. beyond the “content management” for which WordPress is designed). Of course this “blog” thing isn’t making me an $$ so I don’t put…

  • authentication, least privilege, and zero trust

    When we are discussing “network security” phrases like “authentication”, “least privilege”, and “zero trust” tend to come up. The three terms are related, and can be easily confused. I’ve been in “I.T.” for a while (the late 1980’s) – I’ve gone from an “in the field professional” to “network technician” to “the computer guy” and…

  • Brand value, Free Speech, and Twitter

    As a thought experiment – imagine you are in charge of a popular, world wide, “messaging” service – something like Twitter but don’t get distracted by a specific service name. Now assume that your goal is to provide ordinary folks with tools to communicate in the purest form of “free speech.” Of course if you…

  • Random Thoughts about Technology in General and Linux distros in Particular

    A little history … In the 30+ years I’ve been a working “computers industry professional” I’ve done a lot of jobs, used a lot of software, and spent time teaching other folks how to be “computer professionals.” I’m also an “amateur historian” – i.e. I enjoy learning about “history” in general. I’ve had real “history…

  • Modern “basics” of I.T.

    Come my friends, let us reason together … (feel free to disagree, none of this is dogma) There are a couple of “truisms” that APPEAR to conflict – Truism 1: The more things change the more they stay the same. … and then … Truism 2: The only constant is change. Truism 1 seems to…

  • Industry Changing Events and “the cloud”

    Merriam-Webster tells me that etymology is the “the history of a linguistic form (such as a word)” (the official definition goes on a little longer – click on the link if interested …) The last couple weeks I’ve run into a couple of “industry professionals” that are very skilled in a particular subset of “information technology/assurance/security/whatever” but…

  • buzzword bingo, pedantic-ism, and the internet

    just ranting One of the identifying characteristics of “expert knowledge” is understanding how everything “fits” together. True “mastery” of any field with a substantial “body of knowledge” takes time and effort. Which means there are always more people that “know enough to be dangerous” than there are “real experts.” Which is really just recognition of…