Am tired of AMD and Intel's games

**katurner** · August 8th, 2004, 06:08 PM

Hello
I have thus far counted, aside from the four or five legacy processors on the market, TWENTY FIVE code names for AMD and Intel cpus. Combine that with the different MHZ's or pseudonyms and you get over 100 different processors available or forthcoming that you have to remember to be a tech everyone is proud of.

This is asinine and I am personally damn tired of it. I work as a shop tech and have to keep up with this crap and deal with issues of emerging operating systems, networking machines together, making the existing OS's and platforms work, viruses, spyware, emerging DDR types and existing ram types, and storage ("how come ah cain't bu'n no dvd fum a movie?")

I also have to deal with customers and SFB's on the telephone (last word in SFB is brains). So do my other brother tech people. This is at a wage of 9.25 an hour whereas the Geek Squads probably earn 7 bucks an hour per head.

Intel and AMD need to simply their marketing down to two or three categories each for consumers and techies (except for the ones who do nothing but look on web sites to memorize this info while they collect body odor). Or I propose this; arrange a nationwide boycott of all computer items containing these processors, or the processors themselves, until they say "Uncle".

It may be I am not cut out for this business as I find myself not able to stay on top of the latest and greatest, move up into the I. T world, and have a damn life. Even the white trash grease monkey at my store is able to remember more of this stuff than I do. But it is time we saw some response to consumer needs. The only thing worse than the antics of AMD and Intel is the recover partition on HP's, Compaqs, and some Sonys (you can get a disk for 10$ up but it is by mail). In the case of the recovery partitions I say a class-action lawsuit is in order.

Thanks
Kturner
Macon, GA
Welfare State of the South

**clauded** · August 8th, 2004, 06:14 PM

yes i understand how you feel,it is pretty time consuming learning all these names plus all the tricks and do of getting all this to work,i guess some peoples work all day and then roam the internet all nite to keep up,but the only advice i can give you is do the best you can and f**k the rest

**NooNoo** · August 9th, 2004, 03:40 AM

You need a vacation.

**thirdfey** · August 9th, 2004, 11:02 AM

It could be worse. You could be an intern at a hospital somewhere making 30k working 70-120 hour weeks and have to know the name of every tiny part on someone's body and know what each thing does and how the body reacts when that part is acting up and be able to make a decision that could affect the rest of someone's life.

Knowing a couple processors is pretty easy compared to that. It's who you know and what you know that get's you the big pay check.

**Radical Dreamer** · August 9th, 2004, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by thirdfey

It could be worse. You could be an intern at a hospital somewhere making 30k working 70-120 hour weeks and have to know the name of every tiny part on someone's body and know what each thing does and how the body reacts when that part is acting up and be able to make a decision that could affect the rest of someone's life.

Knowing a couple processors is pretty easy compared to that. It's who you know and what you know that get's you the big pay check.

Very true, why do you think network admins and other IT people make more than the poor schmoe at McD's? Its because they have training and they also have knowledge about all these parts that the average Joe doesnt have and doesnt want to have. You get paid to learn the stuff other people dont want to or cant

**TechZ** · August 9th, 2004, 03:12 PM

You get paid to learn the stuff other people dont want to or cant

Thats a good IT Tech, now think of the bad ones!

**Shalafi** · August 10th, 2004, 08:06 AM

I do agree somewhat with what he is saying though, and its a bit different than the medical analogy. The human body doesnt release new anatomical parts to stay 1 step ahead of 'evolution' (competition) every couple of weeks, though I do realize there are new drugs/medicines to learn about all the time if youre a pharmacist. I dont think most Doctors and nurses do this very much though from my own medical experiences.

I got out of the bench tech world about 6 years ago and am now a net admin/programmer. While theres still ALOT of changes I keep up with at this job, Im glad that I dont have to keep up with every trivial little change that AMD and Intel releases. Ya I read the little blurbs they publish, and unless theres something noteworthy that I feel is worth remembering, Ill just click on another link and go on with life. Now Im more concerned with new networking technologies, and the ever-changing codescape (J2EE, IBMs lineup of Domino/Notes, Websphere, etc..). Learning to balance youre 'geekness' with your family and just LIFE is just one more of those challenges we must all deal with in this 'fart in a whirlwind' we call our lives...

Shal

**thirdfey** · August 10th, 2004, 10:16 AM

Yes there is no pefect analogy to the computer field but I don't think you are looking at the full scope of the analogy. The human body may not be changing daily but the procedures to work on the body are. Plus, there really isn't a reboot of the human body, yes we can "bring someone back" from death but we can't just go and say, "that's a known issue with the heart, we just have to kill you and revive." Although in some surgeries we do stop the heart and bring the body temperature down significantly.....

Our field is getting bigger and bigger everyday and yes it is getting to be too much for a single person at an office to handle which is another reason why I used the medical analogy. We may start to specialize in what field we practice. Heck, it's already here, security specialists, LAN specialists, WAN, SAN, Server Admin, workstation admins, mail server, database admins, web server admin, active directory, linux, unix, and on and on until we have the general practitioner of the computer, the computer tech who must have a general understanding of all things computer related but is not particularly exceptional in any of the fields. Choose who you want to be

**Radical Dreamer** · August 10th, 2004, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by thirdfey

Yes there is no pefect analogy to the computer field but I don't think you are looking at the full scope of the analogy. The human body may not be changing daily but the procedures to work on the body are. Plus, there really isn't a reboot of the human body, yes we can "bring someone back" from death but we can't just go and say, "that's a known issue with the heart, we just have to kill you and revive." Although in some surgeries we do stop the heart and bring the body temperature down significantly.....

Our field is getting bigger and bigger everyday and yes it is getting to be too much for a single person at an office to handle which is another reason why I used the medical analogy. We may start to specialize in what field we practice. Heck, it's already here, security specialists, LAN specialists, WAN, SAN, Server Admin, workstation admins, mail server, database admins, web server admin, active directory, linux, unix, and on and on until we have the general practitioner of the computer, the computer tech who must have a general understanding of all things computer related but is not particularly exceptional in any of the fields. Choose who you want to be

Must be nice to have specialities, here I have to know, windows, unix, linux, and Mac as well as the software and hardware for each

**TechZ** · August 10th, 2004, 03:13 PM

Software writing itself:
http://intentsoft.com/

**NetScum** · August 10th, 2004, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by Radical Dreamer

You get paid to learn the stuff other people dont want to or cant.

Now I'm not bagging on the techs here but what you say is very accurate. Venting is one thing but to treat all those who can barely turn a computer on as total idiots is wrong... and no I'm not singling anyone out here!

My point is that if you are not happy with your job and can’t do it professionally and respectfully why are you doing it? When you are sick you go to the doctor right? How about your car or taxes? So give the person who doesn’t know what they are doing with a computer a break, they come to you because you are the problem fixer!

Of course I’m immune because I know everything there is to know in the world and let me tell you, being so smrt is no easy feet!

**TechZ** · August 11th, 2004, 03:25 PM

I agree. with NS

Take ones parents for example, for some of us who have parents who know absolutely nothing about pc's, it is frustrating to make them understand this stuff, but what to do, they dont know it and you do, so its you who's got to help them out, same with a job, you get paid to do it, if you dont like it then dont do it, simple. Imagine how a car mechanic feels when he got to explain to an accountant that somethings wrong with the car, same situation, same frutration.

**jimmm33** · August 11th, 2004, 04:22 PM

There really is not many things that are more important than enjoying your work.

CPU specs are confusing. So are other componants. I'm ok with that. I'm glad most people can't understand (or really just don't want to). It keeps me in business.

I often stay up late just reading hardware sites and forums. I never get bored with my job. I really love it. I'm a nerd.

We are all specialists. You are selling yourself short if you are specializing in something you don't like to do.

**arch0nmyc0n** · August 12th, 2004, 05:47 PM

Welcome to the world of computers... I've been saying for some years now there should be model years for computer parts... or maybe model quarters at least... not trying to be rude or anything but maybe you should look into Macs...

**Radical Dreamer** · August 13th, 2004, 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by NetScum

Now I'm not bagging on the techs here but what you say is very accurate. Venting is one thing but to treat all those who can barely turn a computer on as total idiots is wrong... and no I'm not singling anyone out here!

My point is that if you are not happy with your job and can’t do it professionally and respectfully why are you doing it? When you are sick you go to the doctor right? How about your car or taxes? So give the person who doesn’t know what they are doing with a computer a break, they come to you because you are the problem fixer!

Of course I’m immune because I know everything there is to know in the world and let me tell you, being so smrt is no easy feet!

Isn't that pretty much what I said?