IT Insights Blog

2:45 A.M. is early. Real early. Especially when you’ve had a hard time sleeping because you know that you’re going to be on live TV in a few hours. Getting some decent shut-eye is difficult when you are constantly considering just how bad things could go. Will my mind go blank? Will my statements be coherent? Should I invest in a yurt out in the remote wilderness in case I royally mess things up and want to completely disappear from society? Such was my state of mind earlier this week.

“I can’t deny the fact that you like me; right now you like me!” That's a tiny snippet of what movie star Sally Field had to say in 1984 after winning the Best Actress Oscar for Norma Rae. And it's characteristic of the need almost all of have to be valued and affirmed. Famous actors may be a little more prone to crave the admiration and approval of their peers, but who doesn't appreciate being recognized for a job well done?

From its intimidating preponderance of acronyms to the ever-expanding terminology of memory capacity — gigabyte, terabyte, exabyte, petabyte — information technology has numerous amusing quirks of language. For example, PC hardware is one of the few realms where it's still acceptable to mingle the terms "master" and "slave" in describing the relationship between separate and unequal components of a system.

There’s a lot that I like about my job. My coworkers, working environment, and my commute (less than a mile) are real plusses. (I'm also a longtime Golden State Warriors fan. Life is good!) One thing that really excites me, however, is seeing how our training courseware solves problems for individuals and companies around the world. A recent instance of solving problems began innocently enough with a TestOut customer who was using LabSim to earn an IT degree. He was so impressed that he showed it to his wife, Jeni Fray, who just happens to be a learning specialist with IBM in Boulder, Colo.

Is professional success based solely on your level of college education? Here is a list of people who surely would answer with an emphatic, "No." (Well, maybe one of them wouldn't. More about that in a second.) See if you recognize a couple of the names: