[TriLUG] Outline for proposed Linux for Business presentation.

[A M Thomas]

Thanks for the info, Andrew and Chris, and for taking the time to
respond to the issues I raised.  I feel I should clarify, however -- I
wasn't asking about certification/find-an-expert for my own use
(although someday I'd love to be able to pay all my friends to do their
dream jobs), but rather suggesting including information in that vein in
the presentation you seem to be putting together.

I know, for example, the abundance of Windows-trained sysadmins is one
reason some companies give for saying that they'd "never" switch.

Re: certifications - also not a big issue for me personally, but
whatever your take on it, it might be relevant, too.  Maybe it doesn't
"fit" with the rest of the presentation, but consider the point of view
of the hapless, clueless hiring manager - how can he tell how much real
knowledge/experience is represented by a resume?  I'm not arguing one
way or the other, just suggesting that a well-considered answer to that
question could be immensely helpful.  The whole certification thing is
just one way to help those poor guys feel better.

One other thing: if you're into it, why not do a short post-presentation
feedback questionnaire?  See if the attendees still have
questions/issues, if the presentation had an effect, what areas they
feel still need to be addressed (both in future presentations and in
Linux technology).

I was/am personally interested in the SQL tool.  There actually is a
sourceforge section for "hyperSQL" - maybe it's the predecessor of hsql,
which Mr. Oliver just sent me to?  Neither does, after all, sound like
exactly what I needed - though I'm sure they're very nice - I'm just
making some Perl CGI front ends to some MySQL databases, am about to
start adding relational features, looking for a generalized solution to
save some time, and found some helpful stuff on the net - just not
anything really "complete" and free.

I just wanted to be sure I wasn't wasting my time writing something that
a) had already been written, and b) was sitting out there waiting for me
to pick it up.  I'm pretty sure this isn't the best venue to ask around
for suggestions here, so if anyone reading this is thinking "you have to
try my favorite Perl/SQL tool" (I've already checked CPAN and the CGI
resource index), please e-mail me directly - I'd love to hear about it.
Otherwise, maybe someday when I'm done I'll have a cool tool that I'll
share with you all.  Or maybe an unmaintainable, overgeneralized mess of
Perl code that won't be fit for soup (or maybe not :).

OK, now back to lurking.  This list is getting enough traffic.

- Ann Marie
-- 
Virtue of the Small
http://virtueofthesmall.com
am at virtueofthesmall.com