Monday, August 07, 2006

History

Cleanup of obsolete material continues.

I'm holding a boxed set of Oracle 7.3.4 Server software. It's still shrink-wrapped.

Can I really throw this out? 7.3.4 is where I started, after all. Then again, if I keep it, am I like the people who imagine that their comic book "investments" will pay off one day?

I love working in IT... yet it can be horrifying, realizing just how ephemeral our constructions are. If you're a mason, your work may outlive you by millenia. If you're a geek and you want your work to outlive you, you'd better get very sick or take up some dangerous hobbies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cathy:
All your "obsolete" books are dramatic indications of the rapid changes in technology, all is accelerated and most people "must" run behind" it or die.
The bad news is that if we only follow the dreams of others and/or delay in reaching others,we will be obsolete, as books.
The good thing is that IT science orbits around the same concepts: input, process, output. "The world does not advance, it only rotates".
What do you think about doing input->process->output with, every time less energy? How about to do our work only once and good? How about to have a vision to anticipate the things and then, be able to say: I will buy this book because, according to my vision, it will help me for years and the price I will pay for it is highly justified?
Am I silly, telling you all this unordered things?
By the way, may you share your dreams?
Eduardo.

Anonymous said...

Wow-- I got sick and had dangerous hobbies but never realized they were subconsciously motivated by my egomaniacal quest for a legacy. *laugh* Amusing post, and all too familiar... I can't bear to throw out my old Turbo C 2.0 manual from 1991!