SABME - Slashdot User

Submission + - Aging telecommunications network

Submitted by Jake Platt on Monday September 17, 2007 @04:26PM

Jake Platt writes: I am a network consultant working on Long Island, NY and help support about a dozen small to mid-size companies mainly located in a huge industrial park originally built in the 1950's. In the past 60 days, the Verizon data and voice networks have experienced huge spikes in failures, as many as, 2 — 3 local loop/central office equipment and line failures per week for each of my clients!!! Verizon has been taking 2-3 days to respond, effectively leaving these companies in the dark (no internet, no email, no voice). I've never seen anything like this. Privately, the Verizon tech support guys have told me that the copper lines in the ground are so old that they are letting the system go into decline and do not want to spend any $$$ to improve it until they have no choice. Are parts of the US telecommunications network reaching its age limit? Jake Platt Long Island, NY

Submission + - Best "Plan B" career - IT, programming, or

Submitted by on Friday March 02, 2007 @11:44AM

An anonymous reader writes: What would be the best field (and sub field) for a 38 year old to start studying (both self-study and a few classes) in his spare time as a back-up plan in case of a forced or voluntary career change? Which of these types of employment opportunities would have the least problems with hiring a 40-year-old "entry level" candidate. Which has the best starting salaries, and which have the higher salary caps?

Now that I have children, I'm more concerned about long-term job security as well as the size of my salary. I just recently made a push and finished up a bachelor's degree in physics. I went with physics because that was what I started with 20 years ago and would be the quickest to complete, and a science degree is good to have in my current career in the environmental testing lab industry. I kind of got stuck in the testing lab industry when I dropped out of college for financial reasons, but I never intended to make it into a career. I just kept getting pulled back in.

In my current career my salary is probably pretty well capped at $60K, even as a supervisor and technical expert, and the number of positions available dwindle every year. I hear about people in IT and software development getting starting salaries of $50K right out of college, and there always seems to be jobs available. I do have an aptitude for computers and programming, but most of my knowledge and experience is pretty basic and out of date (I haven't done much object oriented programming, for example).

Submission + - Protecting your eyesight in tech

Submitted by

trainsnpep

on Friday March 02, 2007 @11:33AM

trainsnpep writes: "I'm a sophomore undergrad CS major. I'm also lucky enough to have better-than-average eyesight. Now how do I keep the two? I've heard from various anecdotal sources that staring at a monitor too long is bad for your eyes, but I don't recall ever seeing an actual scientific study on it. How long is it safe to work before I should take an eye break, and how long should the break be? Do you know of any way to ease the supposed strain on my sight? Is it even an issue?"

Submission + - Microsoft Exchange, meet your replacement.

Submitted by

IGnatius T Foobar

on Friday March 02, 2007 @11:23AM

IGnatius T Foobar writes: "In this article, Linux Journal discovers the Citadel groupware server, and boldly declares that this is the one — though not as widely known as some other solutions, Citadel is the ideal open source replacement for Microsoft Exchange."

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