Life Has 3 Guarantees - Death, Taxes And Change In The Tech World

I have been in this business since 1990 and have seen many changes. Among the most well known were the advent of Windows 95 and the dawn of the internet age. There have also been some other changes that have impacted on my business. Here I will highlight a few of them.




Perhaps the greatest change in my business has been having access to the vast amount of advice on the internet. It has been absolutely instrumental in helping me successfully resolve many, many troubleshooting engagements in recent years. In fact, it is doubtful that I would have been able to fix many of these problems without it. As rich as the internet is with all its resources, I still have to be a very tenacious researcher to hunt down solutions that will actually solve troubleshooting issues. Much of the information I have found was useless, but there were also good resources that helped me fix problems and make customers happy. I would venture to say that all the vast information online has helped to strengthen my reputation in my local area and subsequently lead to more referrals from satisfied customers.



I have also noticed a more subtle change in the last decade. Traditionally, troubleshooting was just that - troubleshooting. The other side of my business, never really entered that realm. I have a number of customers who are still using old MS-DOS programs believe it or not. Periodically, something will go wrong with one of them. Then I get the call to come in and troubleshoot the problem - corrupted data table and/or index on that table or something along those lines. It's usually that, because the programming hasn't changed in years. I end up using my coding background from the "MS-DOS ice age" (yes, that's how old I am), to effect a solution to the snafu. Because technology has become such a fixture throughout everyday life, the line between the troubleshooting and programming worlds has started to become blurred. I suppose it's one of those evolutionary things.



Another change I have noticed is that software development compilers for the C, C++ and C# platforms have become less costly over the last 2 decades. I remember my first compiler - Borland Turbo C 2.01 was 250USD + sales tax in 1990. By the time I bought my first Microsoft C#.NET compiler in 2003 from a distributor in the U.K., it was about 95USD. Today you can download the Microsoft Visual Studio Express C# development environment for desktop applications and the one for Windows Phone at no charge all you have to do is register it with Microsoft. How's that for positive financial change?



When I began my programming career in 1990, all I wanted to do was code. I wanted nothing to do with networking computers together. I didn't understand it anyway. Back then, Microsoft Windows was just beginning to make a foot print on the technological landscape. In those days Microsoft Windows wasn't really the "go to software for networking". It was Novell Netware. It ran on a server with a monochrome screen divided into as many as 6 squares for each workstation on an office network. You could see files opening and closing within each square. If you had told me back then that one day I would be networking computers, I would have laughed at you. Today it is one of the most common tasks I perform for customers.



Change in the tech world is a reality you can absolutely count on. It is a catalyst that propels us upward to ever greater efficiency and productivity. Technological change has been blamed for many, many lost jobs. While this is true in many cases, it has also produced a lot of everyday conveniences we take for granted like smart phones, GPS and many other innovations that have made life better for so many. Love it or hate it, technological change is as dependable as sunrise and sunset.
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