Published Works,  Technology Column

Tech 17

TECH #17

8/28/97

Today is the first day of school for Steve Johnson of Virginia Beach. In a few weeks Steve will be able to call himself an MSCE. That’s one of those crazy tech acronyms. It stands for Microsoft System Certified Engineer. What it means is, after eight weeks of attending eight-hour-a-day classes five days-a-week, Steve will have him self one very saleable title.

The new Steve will be a bone fide expert in Microsoft operating systems like Windows 95, NT, NT Server, and Microsoft Exchange. Pretty heady stuff. “I really like the idea of the degree.” Steve explained. “I like working for myself, I’m excited about going to school.” I wondered if he would still talk shop with the likes of the computer common man, represented by yours truly. “Sure. This stuff’s not hard. I enjoy passing on solutions I’ve picked up along the way.”

What advise does this future guru wish to pass on? “Don’t be afraid of looking inside the box. I hate to see people pay so much for something simple like plugging in a RAM chip.” So where, exactly, is the RAM chip holder thing? “Come on. Open the book. I know it’s boring, but it’s all in there.” How hard is it to upgrade your system yourself? “Well I can’t say go ahead and blindly poke around in there, but use common sense. Most anything you can do is just a simple case of plugging a piece into the right socket.” With a little twinkle in his eye Steve added, “The only way to learn it, is to do it.”