Call Sign June 2001

COMPUTER CHINCHAT

Recently I've been writing about the best technologies to learn that could possibly provide a quick route into an IT profession. The IT industry is an extremely fast moving industry; the recent redundancies have proved that with reports of 120,000 IT redundancies in the past three months alone! Some high-ranking directors have estimated that this dip in business could last at least another six months, or could possibly turn into a real recession, uh, oh...
   I remember vividly the last recession that hit the taxi trade. I also remember the policy of some of our well-known finance companies; repossessions were the norm. My own experience proved that external finance companies supplied a much better service and treated drivers like customers.
   I just hope and pray that we're not diving into another recession because it certainly looks like it from within the IT industry.

Knowledge Site Closes
- GPRS Opens
Those who read my monthly column will know that I've got quite a few web sites, some related to the taxi trade and some not. Well, I decided that I'm now going to close my knowledge site, http://www.ontheknowledge.co.uk as there was little interest. I'm afraid I was wasting my time, effort and money developing the site as knowledge students are just too busy riding their bikes or going to physical knowledge schools. Well, at least I tried...
   Blimey, so far my article this month is all doom and gloom. Well I'll lighten it up a little and introduce a new technology that I feel could be very interesting; General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).

This is another mobile technology similar to GSM, but three times as fast and always connected, and
yes, I did say always connected!
This service is new and limited in functionality and cost. Currently you can only access the metered GPRS service using one Motorola model or PocketPC, but as we know in technology that will certainly change especially with the likes of Microsoft getting involved. Presently the functionality consists of browsing the web using WAP, email sending and retrieval, but very soon we'll be having video conversations to anyone, anywhere, checking our taxi credit account, viewing a map of a location, all via a small mobile device. Frightening, isn't it, but exciting...

Back to School
Having just moved, my youngest son, Oliver was talking to his new teacher and he mentioned that I know a bit about computers. His teacher asked me if I'd go into school and give a talk to a class of 8 year olds. I said I'd think about it, but wouldn't want to send the class asleep. Anyway, I'll let you know if I do it and how I handled it. It could be quite a laugh.
The other week I made an error when ordering some RAM, I thought I'd take advantage of the cheap price and buy 256Mb. I eagerly awaited the delivery and installed the RAM only to realise that I hadn't specifically asked for the older 66Mhz versions, so I received a nice shiny 256Mb, 133MHz RAM chip that crashed my older Pentium II 350 MHz PC. Luckily I had a newer machine that now boasts 512Mb RAM. Errors are certainly expensive in this IT game, especially when you think you're actually getting a bargain, so be warned....

C Ya in August...
Vince Chin