Re: tlug: It's STORY time

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> I can't speak to what it's like in Tokyo, but in western Japan in the
> universities it's a horror show.

There, too ? Hmmm, somehow suspected that.

> Like the time a university sys-admin told a group of English teachers that
> students couldn't get an email address because sendmail only 'sends' mail. (The
> students did find out about hotmail ;)

At least the students were some good.....

> Or the time I was giving a presentation in Hiroshima and one respected
> professor commented that, "at OUR school, only the teachers can use the computer
> room." At the same presentation, a teacher asked, oh so seriously, "but what
> do you do if the computer breaks?"

Buy a new one :-).

> At the two universities where I teach, the computer labs are *locked* unless a
> teacher is in the room. At one of them the lead sys-admin wouldn't talk to me
> for weeks because I had the temerity to suggest that bash was a better shell
> than c.

No problem. Why do you want to talk with such an idiot anyway ?
It's waste of time.

> It's not all bad, though. I do know of a couple of university sys-admins (at a
> university where I used to teach) that are on the ball, and what's even better,
> one of them even admits that he doesn't know everything and willingly takes
> advice!

Yes, that happens. I once met Prof. Nakano who's in charge of
the networking of the media center of Osaka City University.
This guy in fact knows what he's talking about. However, he is
very pessimistic about sysadmins in Japan. Personally he is
happy to scrape together two technically skilled guys to help
him. He however told me that maybe only every tenth university
has at least ONE sysadmin that deserves the name....

> Now, if you want to start talking about the students.... The word 'newbie'
> doesn't even begin to describe the general student population. My 4 year old
> knows more about computers than the average 1st semester freshman.

To cite my friend Iztok Saje: "Nintendo trained user"....

> The problem is there is almost no PC instruction in the jr. and sr. high
> schools (let alone UN*X) and the penetration of PCs into the household is only
> now showing some life. 

How should that work ? Those in charge don't have even the
foggiest ideas, so they can't train other people who can't train
other people and so forth.

There are lots of technical fields in Japan where a sound know
how base is totally lacking. The only way to get that fixed
would be to hire foreign experts with some REAL know how ( NOT
academics ! ) and leave them lots of freedom to do what they
consider necessary. That would eventually fix things up.
However, at the moment they are a far cry from that. However, if
they wait too long and finally decide on this course it might
happen that the economy has deteriorated so much that they can't
afford such specialists any more.

If Japan wants to tackle the 21st century with such
inappropriate prerequisites, the term "serious trouble" sure is
a gross understatement for what's really gonna happen....

================================================================
"It was hell. They knew it.          Karl-Max Wagner
  But they called it                 karlmax@example.com
    W-I-N-D-O-Z-E"
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